Search results for "Narrative history"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
The Marvelous History of the Dominican Republic in Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2013
Few things are as noticeable in Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) as its references to a wide variety of movies, TV series, comics, and most centrally to fantasy, the genre in which worlds are created that allow for the existence of magic, monsters, and other elements of the marvelous. Interweaving the story of the fictional Cabral family in the Dominican Republic and in the diaspora with the history of the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1930–1961), the novel offers a sweeping reinterpretation of Caribbean history in a way that is completely intelligible only if one understands the relevance of its primary fantasy intertext, The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), both for…
Educational discourse in Spain during the early Franco regime (1936–1943): toward a genealogy of doctrine and concepts
2015
In this article an analysis is undertaken of Spanish educational discourse during the early years of the Franco regime, from the Civil War (1936–1939) to the establishment of the Nuevo Estado or New State (1939–1943), employing Reinhart Koselleck’s principles of conceptual history. Without totally spurning the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the new regime, this educational discourse constructed an imagined community of Espana Nacional (Nationalist Spain) by means of a historical narrative that began with the uprising led by General Franco in July 1936. The discourse sought to recover the importance of the nation’s traditions so as to promote a conceptual and symbolic imaginary that mi…
Current Thoughts on the Neolithisation Process of the Western Mediterranean
2017
The analysis of the Neolithisation process constitutes a recurrent theme in the scientific literature given the fundamental change for human populations implied in the transition from a hunting-fishing-gathering economy to one based on domestication and food production. Nonetheless, the majority of the regional syntheses on a European scale published to date have dealt mainly with the historical narrative of the process, focusing on discussing the Neolithisation process from a demographic and/or cultural perspective. In this respect, the work of Ammerman and Cavalli Sforza (1984) without doubt constituted a turning point in a number of aspects relevant to the study of the Neolithisation of …
Narrative and Place
2017
The purpose of this chapter is to explore possible intersections between place and narrative, questioning an understanding that simply associates place with space and narrative with time and infers their separation from that. After introducing two directions from which the problem can be addressed, namely the role of place for the phenomena analyzed in terms of narrative, on the one hand, and the role of narrative for the understanding of place, on the other, the text pursues the first perspective and explores the relation between place and narrative with regard to the theory of the self, ethics, the theory of action and history. The concluding section briefly discusses the way narrative in…
Prokaryotic symbiotic consortia and the origin of nucleated cells: A critical review of Lynn Margulis hypothesis.
2021
The publication in the late 1960s of Lynn Margulis endosymbiotic proposal is a scientific milestone that brought to the fore of evolutionary discussions the issue of the origin of nucleated cells. Although it is true that the times were ripe, the timely publication of Lynn Margulis' original paper was the product of an intellectually bold 29-years old scientist, who based on the critical analysis of the available scientific information produced an all-encompassing, sophisticated narrative scheme on the origin of eukaryotic cells as a result of the evolution of prokaryotic consortia and, in bold intellectual stroke, put it all in the context of planetary evolution. A critical historical reas…
Social comparison processes, narrative mapping and their shaping of the cancer experience: a case study of an elite athlete.
2011
Drawing on data generated by life history interviews and fieldwork observations we illuminate the ways in which a young elite athlete named David (a pseudonym) gave meaning to his experiences of cancer that eventually led to his death. Central to this process were the ways in which David utilized both social comparisons and a narrative map provided by the published autobiography of Lance Armstrong (2000). Our analysis reveals the selective manner in which social comparison processes operated around the following key dimensions: mental attitude to treatment; the sporting body; the ageing body; and physical appearance. The manner in which different comparison targets were chosen, the ways in…
Spatial history: railways, uneven development and population change in France and Great Britain, 1850-1914
2011
International audience; A comparative spatial history combining historical narrative, geographical thinking, and spatial analysis of historical data offers new perspectives on railway expansion and its effects in France and Great Britain during the long nineteenth century. Accessible rail transport in the rural regions of both countries opened new economic opportunities in agriculture, extractive industries, and service trades, helping to revitalize rural communities and decrease their rates of out-migration. In France, long-standing economic disparities between the developed north and the less-productive south gradually reduced. These conclusions are based, in part, on the use of historica…
Neglecting the 19th century
2015
The present article examines the historical narrative proposed by modernization theory about the recent Spanish past. Its assumptions and consequences for historical research focused on the 19th century are described in order to understand the lack of intellectual exchange among historians and sociologists in the Spanish academic world. Modernization theory has justified the political consensus that allowed the Spanish transition to democracy and its academic authority has narrowed the scope of historical research about previous democratization processes. Although the paradigm of Spanish backwardness has been refuted by specialists on 19th-century Spain, sociologists, economists and histor…