My research paper needs....a map!

Yes, I have decided that my research paper needs a map. Like the ones you see at the front of many fantasy novels. Though they aren't as easy as they look... for some inspiration and 'research' I pulled off a few title of the shelves

Nostalgia for Bluebell woods

I'm writing my research paper which is presented within a frame story. Part of that story includes a bluebell woods. I find myself sighing over bluebells and my lack of them, my lack of over 20 years. I do have very fond memories of the enchantment that is walking through English woods in springtime. Oh well. Is it coincidence then that I bought Jo Malone's Wild Bluebell perfume?

More reading for the RP

This burst of new material was brought about listening to Norma Cameron's TED talk 'Cultivating Narrative Intelligence' which I found through a site called Storytalk.


That led me to an article and clip 'Your story telling brain'
"Cognitive Neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga, a pioneer in the study of hemispheric (left vs. right brain) specialization describes "the Interpreter" - a left hemisphere function that organizes our memories into plausible stories" 
Gazzaniga, Michael. Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain 



Then to a whole host of articles via Culture Lab (New Scientist) on story telling
Storytelling 2.0: When new narratives meet old brainsMetamorphosis of the storybook by Amanda Gefter


and through one of the culture lab articles 
"E-literature may even change the way we see ourselves. Neuroscientist John Bickle explains how our brains create our sense of self through narrative (see opposite). As cognitive scientist George Lakoff puts it, "Narratives...are instantiated physically in our brains. We are not born with them, but we start growing them soon, and as we acquire the deep narratives, our synapses change and become fixed." Will new narratives lead to new selves?"
and a blog post on 'Red Riding Hood: Neurology, Narrative & Storytelling'
&
Rose, Frank. The Art of Immersion. (maybe)

The growing bibliography...

Home by Miler Lagos

Thanks to reading Virginia A. Walter's paper 'Metaphor and mantra: The function of stories in 'Number of stars'' I have come across Jerome Bruner and Robert Coles. 'Acts of meaning', 'Actual minds, possible worlds' and 'The Call of Stories: Teaching and the Moral Imagination' the titles of their books that I hope when I get to them will shed some light on stories, imagination and cognition.

And more papers from today's research are:

• Why fairy tales matter: The performative and the transformative / Maria Tatar. Western folklore 69:1 (Winter 2010) 55-64
• Learning about ourselves through fairy tales: Their psychological value / Meredith B. Mitchell. Psychological perspectives, 53: 264-279, 2010.
• Declolonizing fairy tales / Donald Hasse 

I read a few more that weren't after all that relevant or informative, and realise that I have got to a point that I have read enough to begin to find where my own opinions stand, I feel another map / diagram coming on!

Through one paper 'The Magic of Fairy Tales: Psychodynamic and Developmental Perspectives' by Martin J. Lubetskyi (which for me was too focused on child psychology to be pertinent) I found a reference to Julius Ernest Heusher (1918-) who wrote 'A psychiatric study of myths and fairy tales; their origin, meaning and usefulness' (1974) and 'Psychology, folklore, creativity and the human dilemma' (2003) I'm hoping they won't be too much like Bruno Bettleheim's 'The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales  (1976). Bettleheim for my literary palate proves everything far too neatly. Every fairy tale gets psychoanalysed for usefulness within an inch of it's life! The enchantment fades as reason and usefulness is hammered into every word, in every story.

Post it wall

The beginnings of a research essay

Chapter Headings and epigraphs

Honours Research Paper

The other day I had an idea about the way I am going to set out the Chapter headings. I am trying to find ways to get myself to enjoy some parts (at least) of the Research paper process.

So the idea is to write chapter headings like a novel, indicative but slightly mysterious with an accompanying epigraph. Popular I think in Victorian novels. I think it's a style that has fallen out of use except when an Author employs it to evoke an other/older world. I think it could add a sense of humour and wryness that could alleviate some of the 'seriousness' of a paper.

Thomas Malory uses the epigraph for his chapters in Le Morte d'Arthur, giving us a summary of the events in the chapter ahead, somewhat giving the game away. Given his antiquated prose one could be forgiven for reading only the epigraphs.
For example in Book X
Chapter 21: How King Arthur let do cry a jousts, and how Sir Lamorak came in, and overthrew Sir Gwain and many other

Though the best use of this style I have seen is in Neil Gaimen's Stardust, informative and compelling!

Chapter One: In Which We Learn of the Village of Wall, and of the Curious Thing That Occurs There Every Nine Years