Book•
Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film
31 May 1980-
About: The article was published on 1980-05-31 and is currently open access. It has received 1885 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Narrative structure & Narrative criticism.
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21 citations
Proceedings Article•
01 Jan 2015TL;DR: A game engine is described that utilizes a PCG pipeline to generate and control a range of gameplay experiences from an underlying IN experience management construct.
Abstract: An open area of research for AI in games is how to provide unique gameplay experiences that present specialized game content to users based on their preferences, in-game actions, or the system’s goals. The area of procedural content generation (PCG) focuses on creating or modifying game worlds, assets, and mechanics to generate tailored or personalized game experiences. Similarly, the area of interactive narrative (IN) focuses on creating or modifying story worlds, events, and domains to generate tailored or personalized story experiences. In this paper we describe a game engine that utilizes a PCG pipeline to generate and control a range of gameplay experiences from an underlying IN experience management construct.
21 citations
Cites background from "Story and Discourse: Narrative Stru..."
...The narrative theorist Chatman (1980) draws the distinction between the abstract events that take place in a narrative world, which are part of the story, and the way these events are arranged and presented to an audience, which is part of a discourse....
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Book•
20 Jul 2013
Abstract: This study attempts to offer an ecological interpretation of Genesis 1:1-2:4a in view of the question as to what extent this passage bears footprints of anthropocentrism, on the one hand, and/or ecological wisdom, on the other hand. Extant ecological readings of this text tend to either recover its ecofriendliness, or they criticise the text on the basis of its dominion and subdual language in Genesis 1:26-28 which seems to go against the grain of ecological sensibilities. In resonance with revisionist readings, this study shows that the only way to mollify the dominion language of Genesis 1:26-28 is to read this section as part of the whole Priestly creation account. Elements of the exilic context and many literary features of Genesis 1:1-2:4a present humans as a member of a world of interdependences. Hence, accusing Genesis 1:1-2:4a of lying at the root of modern indifference towards nature, is not the whole story.
20 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this paper, the author argues that social minds are possible because much of our thought is visible, which is why Oscar Wilde said that "it is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances" and that the true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
Abstract: It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. --Oscar Wilde In Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit, the villain, Blandois, arrives one evening at a French inn. As he walks in, the narrator remarks, "there had been that momentary interruption of the talk about the stove, and that temporary inattention to and distraction from one another, which is usually inseparable in such a company from the arrival of a stranger" (167-68). Later in the same novel, Mr. Meagles admits to Arthur Clennam, "we do, in families, magnify our troubles and make mountains of our molehills in a way that is calculated to be rather trying to people who look on--to mere outsiders" (370). Mr. Meagles also explains, "there is one of those odd impressions in my house, which do mysteriously get into houses sometimes, which nobody seems to have picked up in a distinct form from anybody, and yet which everybody seems to have got hold of loosely from somebody and let go again, that she [Miss Wade] lives, or was living [near Park Lane]" (373). These three statements are examples of the workings of social minds in the novel. They become visible through an externalist perspective on narrative fiction. Specifically, they describe intermental thought, which is joint, group, shared, or collective thought, as opposed to intramental, or private, individual thought. (Some theoretical background on these concepts is given in a later section of this essay.) The minds of the group of people in the inn share a sense of intrusion. And, as the narrator points out, this shared sense of discomfort at the arrival of a stranger is common in such situations. Mr. Meagles makes a general point about how families typically behave (making mountains out of molehills) that is also true of his family. Mr. Meagles, again, describes the intermental functioning of his family (a shared knowledge of Miss Wade's whereabouts but with no knowledge of how this information was acquired) and points out that this sort of thought is typical of families. In all three cases, minds are working in the same way, and the thought being described here is, to some extent, collective. There is one important difference between the remark about the French inn and the two statements about the Meagles family. The first is a description of a social mind by a heterodiegetic (or third-person) narrator. The other, a claim by an individual character, Mr. Meagles, about the group mind of which he is a part. The relationship between intra- and intermental activity, between social minds and individual minds, between the internalist and the externalist perspectives, is a complex and fascinating one. It is central to narrative fiction, and it is the subject of this essay. My purpose is to put statements such as those discussed above at the heart of narrative theory. Fictional social minds are not of marginal interest; they are central to our understanding of fictional storyworlds. This is because real social minds are central to our understanding of, and ability to operate in, the actual world. My thesis is that social minds are possible because much of our thought is visible, which is why Oscar Wilde said that "it is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances" and that "the true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible." It is a cliche of literary studies that, whereas novels can give us direct access to the minds of characters, by contrast, in reality, we can never really know what other people are thinking. This is the sort of thing that sounds true while it is being said within that context, but, in other contexts, can sound like complete nonsense. To believe it requires a considerable degree of cognitive dissonance in order to contradict the weight of evidence of our everyday experience. All of us, every day, know for a lot of the time what other people are thinking. This is especially true of our loved ones, close friends, family, and work colleagues. …
20 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: In this paper, an instructional approach to help Libyan EFL university students learn to read and respond to fiction (short stories) by drawing on their imagination was proposed. But the model was not applied to the design of a reading program which makes a transition from a teacher-centered and translation-centered approach to reading literature (Short stories) to an interactive approach.
Abstract: Reading and understanding texts in English is problematic for university EFL students in Libya, and processing English literature is even more so. Some of these difficulties are related to teacher-centered approaches that focus on form, accuracy, and translation rather than on students’ abilities to make meaning. The aim of this study is to determine an instructional approach to help Libyan EFL university students learn to read and respond to fiction (short stories) by drawing on their imagination. Therefore, this study set out to explore the role of the imagination in meaning making in education (Vygotsky, 1930; Dewey, 1938; Egan, 1992; Craft, 2005), the role that literature plays in Libyan culture (in both its oral and written forms), the role of education in Libya and the place of English therein, and the challenges of reading in a second language (English).
By analyzing the literature on the imagination and its role in learning, on reading processes in L1 and L2, on Reader-Response Theory, and on the process of meaning making in literature, I was able to answer the first research question, namely how the imagination could be stimulated and developed to extend Libyan EFL students’ abilities to read and respond to short stories. Then I synthesized that analysis into a conceptual model. Features of the imagination that have been conceptualized in the model for imaginative reading and meaning making include: schema (background knowledge and experience); the interactive theory of reading; the role of the imagination in learning (meaning making), which includes an intellectual faculty or ‘analytical thinking’ and an emotional faculty or what is called ‘intersubjectivity’; the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD); and possibility thinking.
The next stage was to demonstrate that this model could be applied to the design of a reading program which makes a transition from a teacher-centered and translation-centered approach to reading literature (short stories) to a student-centered and interactive approach. The study relates the model to the literature on syllabus design to set up a framework for selecting and grading texts into five levels. I drew on the literature for interactive task design and standard EFL approaches of teaching reading to design lesson plans for the five stages of the program.
The study concludes by suggesting that for the successful implementation of the model, there is a need for a shift in attitudes to more interactive approaches that facilitate meaning making. It also suggests conducting a series of workshops to introduce interactive teaching approaches and provide teachers with techniques for dealing with the challenges of shifting from teacher-centered to student-centered teaching. Finally, the thesis provides ideas on how to further the current research by evaluating the effectiveness of the program through empirical enquiry.
20 citations