Analyzes "The Italian" (1915), an early "immigrant" film, examining its problematic relation to questions of working-class and middle-class audience composition. Shows how this film reveals that the creation of narratives suitable for diverse audiences requires continuous readjustment of an adequate mode of address. (MM)

Identifies and describes the features of spoken discourse that native speakers of English consider to be indicative of level of intellectual functioning. Discourse criteria include detail, coherence, story construction, storytelling performance, and metacomments. (SR)

Twenty language-disordered and 20 nonimpaired children, aged 9-11, performed story generation and story retelling tasks. For both groups, retold narratives were longer and contained more story grammar components and complete episode structures. Clause length differentiated story generation from story retelling for the language-disordered children…

Responds to two papers, written by Bruce E. Gronbeck and Allan Megill, which appeared in the 1987 Alta proceedings on argumentation. Questions the heavy distinction between narrative and argument which informs their positions. (MS)

Tests Walter R. Fisher's claim that all forms of discourse can be viewed as types of narrative by applying the narrative paradigm to three works that cannot traditionally be considered stories. Finds that the narrative approach is of little use when applied to discourse that does not tell a story. (SR)

Uses de Beaugrande's concept analysis system to describe how 20 third graders employed narrative concepts at the local and global levels in written stories, and to assess the coherence of those stories. (SR)

Describes a graphic technique using concentric circles to increase student comprehension of narrative essays. Argues that the method will help students identify events, relationships, and the significance of narrative essays. (RS)

Examined parental influence as retrospectively constructed through narratives of young adults (n=50). Identified five narrative types: progressive narrative with dramatic turning point, progressive narrative within positive evaluation frame, progressive narrative with negatively evaluated stages, anticipated regressive narrative, and sad…

Explores how narratives reveal values, and describes a study of an organization's culture in which values were accessed through narratives. Illustrates how, through narratives, the expressed values enhanced understanding of points of harmony and conflict within an organization. (SR)

Seymour Chatman's kernel/satellite theory is used to analyze the plot of John Galsworthy's short story, "The Japanese Quince." The theory considers the distinction between major events (kernels) and the minor supplementary ones (satellites) in a narrative as an easily proven psychological reality. (six references) (LB)

Presents a comparative analysis of spontaneous story-telling from a bilingual (English and French) four year old without an audience and therefore free of any direct influence from another person. It is found that the French narratives contained a much larger percentage of modifiers and employed a greater variety of tenses. (28 references) (GLR)

Examines how journalists use three narrative strategies (synecdoche, omission, and personalization) to assert their authority in their retellings of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Finds that, by giving themselves a central position within the story, journalists make the assassination story as much about American journalists as about Kennedy's…

Elaborates a model to analyze how contemporary journalism "creates" society--how it "modifies" a person's perspective of the world, enabling individuals to "share" crucial meanings about reality. Bases the model on the analysis of different narrative voices to capture some of the order of the contemporary discourse of…

Used short narratives to study false memory in 6-, 8-, and 11-year olds and adults. The persistence effect and false-memory creation effect were greatest for statements that would be regarded as factually incorrect reports of events in sworn testimony; like suggestive questioning, interviews that involve nonsuggestive recognition questions may…

There is a great deal of narrative in play and also of play in narrative, especially in the narrative and play of young children. Part of the reason for this may be that they share an important pattern or structure in the way they work as mental instruments, "mimesis." Mimesis is a mode of representation in which the relation between the symbol…