Contested Narratives:The Poetics of Home in Susan Muaddi Darraj's The Inheritance of Exile and Angela Tehaan Leon's Swimming Towardthe Light

Home and its meanings and significance have received extensive examination within the disciplines of anthropology,psychology,sociology,philosophy,human geogra-phy,and history.Home,which contains various references to houses,countries,and states,can no longer be considered a homogenized experience for migrants,as it takes shapes as a result of interaction between the past and present,the local and global,and the diaspora and country of origin.Drawing on diaspora studies and its theorizations of home,this article examines the heterogeneous and pluralistic nego-tiations of home in Susan Muaddi Darraj's The Inheritance of Exile and Angela Tehaan Leon's Swimming Toward the Light,and argues that the conventional under-standing of home as a fixed location tied solely to one's country of origin is chal-lenged.The first generation of Arab migrant women,as depicted in the novels,finds a sense of belonging in the familiar spaces and customs of their native countries,hence viewing them as their true home.In contrast,the second generation views home in a more multifaceted way.They see it not only as a physical space but also as a source of spiritual comfort.The analysis confirms that home can no longer be said to apply simply to a geographic place,site,or even to a certain culture or set of practices as it is interpreted differently and incarnated in multitudinous forms.The diversified meanings of home render it pliable and confirm its controversial and debatable nature,especially for subjects in transit.

The Exploration of Teaching Historical Narratives Through Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence

Wharton’s novels serve as compelling cases for understanding the complexities of late 19th-century American society.The paper uses The Age of Innocence as an example to examine detailed depiction of the era’s social hierarchy,fashion,architecture,and the intricate social rituals that defined New York’s upper class.It explores the constraints and dilemmas women faced within a patriarchal society,highlighting Wharton’s personal experiences and her critical stance on the social norms of her time.The characters of Newland Archer,May Welland,and Ellen Olenska are analyzed to reveal the pressures of societal expectations and the struggles for individual desires within a rigid social structure.Additionally,the paper proposes various teaching methods,including contextual understanding,literary analysis with a historical focus,and historical research projects,to enhance students’comprehension of the cultural and historical context of the novel.These methods aim to immerse students in the narrative and promote their understanding of the Gilded Age’s social dynamics.

Stories of Coping with Sickness:Illness Narratives in Early Medieval Chinese Anecdotal Literature

As basic facts of life,illness and healing occur frequently and in a variety of patterns in Chinese non-medical literature,starting from the earliest sources inscribed on oracle bones and continuing throughout literary history up to the present day.This article looks at illness narratives in early medieval anecdotal literature(3rd to 6th century CE)to understand how the experience of being sick or of attending to the sick was reflected in these socio-literary environments and what rhetorical and ideological roles these narratives played in their larger narrative contexts.By focusing on the experiences of the sick and those around them,this article aims at“Honoring the Stories of Illness,”in Rita Charon’s words,that are hiding in plain sight in much of Chinese non-medical literature.

Illness Narratives in Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe occupies a unique position in the history of American literature.His gothic horror novels prove astounding on account of extraordinary rendering the atmosphere and in-depth psychological description.In his gothic novels,pestilence,tuberculosis and madness are common and the protagonists always suffer from foregoing diseases.Based on the investigation of the relation between Poe’s life and illness and the social and cultural background of Poe’s time,the thesis aims to discuss the emergence and embodiment of illness narratives in Poe’s tales in order to explore the aesthetic values and cultural connotations.

Reframing narratives and translators＇ invisibility： On translators＇ position

This paper takes refraining narratives and translators＇ invisibility as the theoretical base for discussing the translators＇ position. Translating is to reconstruct the original text, which leads to information changes. This change is attributed to translator＇s idiolect and thinking pattern as well as different languages. The translator＇s role is obvious in the text translation. How to be invisible？ Even if invisibility is possible, the invisibility is like a moon in water, flower in fog. That is vague but invisible.

Healing Is Believing： Yeon Gaesomun and Xue Rengui in the Making of Mid-Seventh-Century Tang-Goguryeo War Narratives

This paper examines how historical narratives and fictional narratives treat China＇s loss in Tang-Goguryeo War differently to heal China＇s damaged pride. Emperor Tang Taizong （599-649） invaded Goguryeo in 645 but failed to conquer her because of severe weather and strong resistance led by Yeon Gaesomun （603-666）. This paper argues that official histories including Jiu Tangshu （Old Book of Tang） and Xin Tangshu （New Book of Tang） focus on Emperor Tang Taizhong＇s legitimacy to invade Goguryeo because Yeon Gaesomun＇s coup d＇etat overthrew Yeongnyu-wang. These two histories also pay extra attention to Yeon Gaesomun＇s negative characters. Novels about Tang-Goguryeo War including Xue Rengui zheng Liao shi lue （薛仁贵徵辽事略）, Tang shu zhi zhuan tong su yan yi （唐书志传通俗演义）, and Shuo Tang hou zhuan （说唐后传） take a different approach to heal China＇s wounded pride. Instead of focusing on diplomatic and military legitimacy, these stories blur China＇s loss by creating a national hero Xue Rengui whose military skills, loyalty to Tang Dynasty, and dauntless rescue of Emperor Tang Taizong were constantly emphasized.

Gaming Narratives as Frameworks for Writing Self-assessments

The paper addresses the disconnected students experience between evaluating their own writing and traditional evaluation methods, despite effective discussion and analysis in the classroom, especially, wide when students＇ reading skills are limited. The paper considers the application of flipping students＇ intense interest and intimate comprehension of video gaming into a lens for evaluating their writing. The sophisticated storylines in some literacy-laden video games rivet students＇ attention in higher order applications while the intricate plots and characters mirror those literary elements taught in print media. Garner comprehension is demandingly complex; transferring literary elements from the game storyline to their writing provides the comprehension carry-over for effective self-evaluation. They can ＂see＂ as a metaphor, those parallel concepts from screen to print, from playing strengths to reading and writing, for them, literary qualities become more transparent, and thus more accessible.

On English Communications by Narratives and Computer Games

Computer video games,which are based on personal computers,game consoles,and portable devices,can be played solo or multiplayer,and over networks. Interaction,which is the basic characteristic of games,provides rich communication opportunities for audiences. Meanwhile,narrative is a far more diverse concept to be considered as a distinctly important way of communication. This essay will compare and contrast the communication opportunities provided by narratives and computer games.

Media Narratives and the Conceptualization of Tea： A Case Study of Teavana＇s Oprah Chai Tea

More than just a drink, tea embodies social, cultural, economic and political meanings through time and across cultures. There is an essential tie between media and this meaning-making process. Media often create and carry the visions of health, nature, tranquility, and prosperity offered by tea. This mediated imaginary seems to persist even in the face of vast human inequalities and suffering and irreversible negative environmental impacts through the current practice of tea production under global conglomerates. Through textual analysis of media narratives of Teavana, a well-known tea brand, this project explores how media＇s mythic narratives potentially naturalize and celebrate the current production practice and the conspicuous consumption of tea, and silence the human suffering and environmental destruction endured, in order to gratify the very practice and consumption promoted by media.

Disability, Gender and Narratives of Pain： The Caregivers＇ Perspectives

This paper analyzes how caregivers＇ narratives about pain and illness are constructed, and also what narrative identities are formed during the lengthy process of taking care of a woman with cerebral palsy, from the years of 1972 to 2014. Of particular interest is how these voices narrate feelings of struggle in order to cope with their own needs and the needs of a disabled woman. How this situation affected their way of living, their views about life through gender-sex, violent, discriminatory, psycho-social and cultural perspectives （Lamas, 2002）？ This study also draws from Hydrn＇s ideas regarding narratives about illness to identify diverse forms to represent reality by means of creating affective bonds, including aspects such as plot, metaphors and the construction or reconstruction of the Self （1995; 1997）, which can be related to the transformation of the narrative identity （Ricoeur, 1995; 1996） of each caregiver. This study aims to open other scenarios to establish public policies of support for caregivers and for the disabled, and to question the role that government and medical institutional have played in order to benefit the society as a whole.

The Significance of Students＇ Personal Narratives in Teacher Training

Recognizing the importance of personal narratives in general and in the field of teacher training in particular this paper first presents a review of research in the field, offers several definitions and theories of analysis, and then provides readers with the personal narratives and the analyses of three fourth-year students in the Department of English at a College for Teacher Training. The goal is to find out, learn, and make use of the voices, attitudes, experiences, visions, successes, failures, hopes, and frustrations of students engaged in teacher education. The conclusion asserts the necessity of adopting a model of training which is based on students＇ personal narratives--one which encourages and strengthens partnership between students cooperating teachers, and academics

＂Historical Rewriting＂ and ＂Alternative Fairy Tales＂ in Contemporary Vietnamese Prose： Intertextuality or Incredulity Towards Grand Narratives

At the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century, Vietnamese literature witnessed unprecedented innovations in the aesthetic thinking of writers and the narrative structure of their works. One of the most interesting manifestations of this new movement was not merely the introduction of new aesthetic materials and factors, but the adoption and positive ＂reprocessing＂ of traditional factors---especially historical factors and folk narrative factors. Based on intertextual theory, we would like to address the strong penetration, reproduction, and transformation of some folk storytelling models and historical materials in Vietnamese literature since 1986. Two corresponding phenomena we examine are ＂historical rewriting＂ and ＂alternative fairy tales＂--as part of the whole process of incredulity towards grand narratives and postmodernism in the contemporary Vietnamese prose.

Life Narratives of the Lankan Other： An Exploratory Study of the Jaffna Community in “Project I Am”

Life narrative is a field which is currently drawing increasing academic interest in Sri Lanka, though life narratives are an integral part of the socio-political fabric of the nation. In the Sri Lankan, context biography and autobiography are commonly seen as two separate genres in life writing, but certain life narratives tend to blur those boundaries. From This Point Forward, a photography exhibition by Luka Alagiyawanna, My Mother’s Village, a documentary life narrative by Aaron Burton, and Project I Am by Kannan Arunasalam are some examples. The present study analyses life narratives from I Am Jaffna section in Project I Am1; a digital archive of life narratives of Sri Lankan elders. Based on the life narratives, memories, and experiences of Sri Lankan elders, the project strives to find out whether there was a time when people in Sri Lanka did not describe themselves as Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, or Burgher, or a time when ethnic identity was not the primary defining factor of an individual. The reviews and articles on the projects have looked at the project merely as a repository of stories that help Sri Lankans understand their differences and a project promoting reconciliation with hardly any focus on the project as a Sri Lankan life narrative, so that a gap bridged by the present study. The study also focuses on the concept and politics of “othering” with a view to exploring how these life narratives are constructed as Sri Lankan life narratives. For this purpose, the study focuses on the segment on people from Jaffna-I am Jaffa, since the Jaffna community has a long standing history of being “the other.” The inseparability of the concept and politics ofothering and the identity of Sri Lankans show that it is extremely challenging to dispose of the notion of the other as it has actually become an integral aspect of Sri Lankan identity and a social reality.

Beyond Individualism Perspective of Trauma: Evidence for Adopting Collective Narratives for Empowering Long-Term Rehabilitation for Children of the Ethnic Qiang People Who Have Been Affected by Disaster

Objective: Exploring how an ethnic culture-focused collective narrative strategy can be effectively used to promote resilience among the affected Qiang children for post-disaster psychological trauma at scale. Design: The study was conducted with a cohort of ethnic Qiang children through a pretest(n=1100) and post-three years test(n=957) to evaluate the effect of the intervention program from myth story-based collective narrative cultural practices. Results: Data from the study clearly indicate that children's resilience behaviour had been greatly improved by the myth story-based collective narrative activities with average scores on 11 items showing a significant increase from 2.08 at baseline to 4.12 at 3 years follow-up posttest(mean=2.04, 95% CI=0.97, 3.11, p <0.0001). No similar change occurred in the control groups(mean=0.74, 95% CI=-0.75, 2.23, n.s). Conclusion: The adoption of an ethnic culture-focused collectivism narrative approach for reduction of vulnerability was able to greatly promote the cultural variable to enhance coping for Qiang children affected by trauma at scale, which informed the urgency for developing an indigenous psych-cultural agenda for collectively responding to disaster trauma in ethnic minority contexts.

Nursing Activities at Health Surveys and Health Checkups during the Early Period of Operation of the Hiroshima ABCC—Oral History Study Based on Narratives of Three Japanese Nurses

Using an oral history approach, this study analyzed the narratives obtained from semi-structured interviews administered to three Japanese women who worked as nurses for the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC). The analysis of the data in the narratives showed details of the health surveys and health checkups conducted during the early period of operation of ABCC. During the early period of operation of ABCC some survivors showed negative behaviors toward the health surveys and health checkups at the ABCC. However, it can be inferred that dedicated nursing played an important role in alleviating the stress and emotional issues of survivors at the health surveys and health checkups. The findings of the study could be beneficial to research into nursing activities for patients exposed to radiation at the present day.

Cultural Influence on Text Structures──A Comparative Study of Chinese and German Routine Narratives

Culturalexchangesenablepeopletorecognizedifferencesbetweentextstructuresindifferentlanguages.Asearlyasthe60's,Kaplanalreadypointedouttheinfluencethatculturehadupontextstructures,butculturalfactorshavenotyetreceiveddueattentioninmanylinguisticwritings...

Viewpoint Arrangement and Mental Space Configuration: A Cognitive Analysis on Objectivity Construction in Journalistic Narratives

This paper presents an analysis on how objectivity is discursively constructed in journalistic narratives by drawing on the theories of viewpoint and mental space in Cognitive Linguistics. It is posited that at least three mental spaces are projected by a narrative discourse, i.e., a narrated event space, a narrating space, and a basic space, and the distance between the first two spaces determines the degree of objectivity in the narrative discourse. A schema which represents the configuration of the different spaces is proposed and applied in the analysis of journalistic narratives to explore the strategies of objectivity construction. The analysis reveals that what the different journalistic narratives have in common in the construction of objectivity is to distance the narrated event space and the narrating space with the former being foregrounded in the viewpoint arrangement.

Loving her into well-being one day at a time: Narratives of caring for daughters with eating disorders

When a child is diagnosed with an eating disorder, parents are expected to help the child recover. Yet, parents often feel under-prepared and alone, their experiences inadequately known to healthcare professionals. The research aim was to examine the meaning to parents of caring for a child with an eating disorder. Qualitative interviews with 29 parents were analyzed and the parents’ experiences were represented by a collective story of loving her into well-being one day at a time which consisted of two themes: Running on nerves and caring through transformational activism. Running on nerves included threads of feeling lost, traumatized, scarred, and disengaged that mitigated as parents engaged in transformational activism processes directed toward helping themselves, their child, and other parents and children. The findings illustrate the importance of hearing parents’ stories in order to create supportive healing environments and to build capacity within families and health care systems.

Heroin Narratives： Normalisation and Demonisation of Heroin Use at a Swedish Online Message Board

Heroin is considered potent and addictive and users are often stigmatised as the other. On the internet, however, hegemonic ideas about drugs can be resisted. This study elucidates how efforts to uormalise and demonise heroin meet at a Swedish online message board （Flashback Forum）. The study aims at analysing how heroin use is given meaning by discussants in a thread called ＂I will start with heroin＂. The data were perceived and structured as a collaborative, overarching narrative about when, why, and for whom heroin use can make sense. Discussants used stories about pleasure-seekers, miserable junkies, and self-medicating addicts to depict the activity as unproblematic and rational, problematic and irrational, or as problematic and rational. No stories about heroin use departed from the plot-lines of pleasure maximisation and pain minimisation. Results elucidate a discursive battle in which： （1） heroin use as minimisation of pain ＂wins＂ over heroin use as maximisation of pleasure; and （2） there is a general agreement that heroin use cannot be irrational and unproblematic at the same time. It is suggested that these features are central to contemporary drug discourse, and that they probably hinder public understanding of why people use heroin and therefore contribute to keep users stigmatised.

Intergroup Evaluation as an Indicator of Emotional Elaboration of Collective Traumas in National Historical Narratives

In a longitudinal content analytical study, the authors explored intergroup evaluation patterns in Hungarian history school-book narratives about the so-called ＂Trianon Peace Treaty＂ in 1920 which had approved the detachment of 2/3 of Hungary＇s territory by victorious countries of the First World War. The event has meant a major national trauma that has not been elaborated to date. The study aimed to find evaluation patterns in temporally changing narrative constructions which were diagnostic to the process of emotional elaboration of the trauma. School-books released between 1920 and 2000 were included in the study, by a 10-year sampling method. Analysis was performed by NARRCAT （Narrative Categorial Content Analytical Tool）, a computerized tool for narrative psychological content analysis, which is capable for identifying complex linguistic structures of psychological relevance in large databases of narratives. Four different evaluation patterns emerged in the narratives which roughly correspond to four different historical eras in Hungary. Results show that the aggressor-victim relation between the former Entente powers and Hungary has remained a part of the narrative representation of the treaty, reflecting the identity state of collective victimhood.