Letters to the Self: The Cloistered Writer in Nonretrospective Fiction

PMLA ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Porter Abbott

My field consists of those works of diary or epistolary fiction in which the author has limited the narrative voice to one diarist or letter writer. The strategy allows the author to focus on a drama of self-perception involving two main participants: the diarist and the text. The outcome of the drama basically depends on how the diarists write and how they read what they write. In the first part of my essay, I treat the drama of successful self-discovery through representative works by Tennyson, Mauriac, Bernanos, Sartre, and Gide. In the second part, I treat Werther, Lermontov’s Pechorin, and Mariane of the Lettres portugaises as writers who use their literary mode in essentially the opposite way: to maintain an existing idea of themselves.

Author(s):  
Stefan Krause ◽  
Markus Appel

Abstract. Two experiments examined the influence of stories on recipients’ self-perceptions. Extending prior theory and research, our focus was on assimilation effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in line with a protagonist’s traits) as well as on contrast effects (i.e., changes in self-perception in contrast to a protagonist’s traits). In Experiment 1 ( N = 113), implicit and explicit conscientiousness were assessed after participants read a story about either a diligent or a negligent student. Moderation analyses showed that highly transported participants and participants with lower counterarguing scores assimilate the depicted traits of a story protagonist, as indicated by explicit, self-reported conscientiousness ratings. Participants, who were more critical toward a story (i.e., higher counterarguing) and with a lower degree of transportation, showed contrast effects. In Experiment 2 ( N = 103), we manipulated transportation and counterarguing, but we could not identify an effect on participants’ self-ascribed level of conscientiousness. A mini meta-analysis across both experiments revealed significant positive overall associations between transportation and counterarguing on the one hand and story-consistent self-reported conscientiousness on the other hand.


Author(s):  
Emanuela Dalmasso

In this chapter, Emanuela Dalmasso examines the self-discovery and challenges that Western women face when conducting interviews in the MENA region. She looks at three main processes. First, how to cope with only being recognized as a woman and not as a scholar. In practice how to reset, kindly but firmly, the boundaries of the interaction when research participants focus on gender identity instead of the professional one. Second, how to recognize respondents’ various misperceptions of researcher’s identity and how to react to them. Finally, how to understand respondents’ intersectionality by inquiring into practices, not just discourses.


Author(s):  
Kathryn L. Bollich-Ziegler

Despite the strong intuition that people know themselves well, much research in self-perception demonstrates the biases present when evaluating one’s own personality traits. What specifically are these blind spots in self-perceptions? Are self-perceptions always disconnected from reality? And under what circumstances might other people actually be more accurate about the self? The self–other knowledge asymmetry (SOKA) model suggests that because individuals and others differ in their susceptibility to biases or motivations and in the information they have access to, self- and other-knowledge will vary by trait. The present chapter outlines when and why other-perceptions are sometimes more accurate than self-perceptions, as well as when self-reports can be most trusted. Also discussed are next steps in the study of self- and other-knowledge, including practical, methodological, and interdisciplinary considerations and extensions. In sum, this chapter illustrates the importance of taking multiple perspectives in order to accurately understand a person.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
L F R Santos ◽  
E P Carvalho ◽  
S R A Oliveira ◽  
R S Moreira

Abstract Background The latest national oral health survey showed a high prevalence of the need for dental prostheses between the Brazilian elderly. To classify this need, normative (clinical) and subjective (self-reported) criteria must be considered since patients' self-perception takes into account social and functional issues that arise with oral health problems. Few studies investigate the agreement between these criteria, as well as its determinants. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the accuracy of the need for the use of total dental prosthesis and factors associated with the agreement between criteria. Methods Cross-sectional study, carried out in three municipalities in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, with a random sample of 816 elderly people from 65 to 74 years old. The dependent variable was the accuracy, calculated by the agreement between the self-reported and the normative need for a total dental prosthesis, and the independents were assembled in three blocks (socioeconomic/demographic, access to oral health services and self-perceived oral health). Hierarchical logistic models were conducted for total upper prosthesis (TUP) and total lower prosthesis (TLP). Results The self-perception of the need for prosthetic use presented an accuracy of 75.9% (95% CI = 72.8-78.7%) for TUP and 78.6% (95% CI = 75.6-81.3%) for TLP. In the multiple analysis, the accuracy for TUP and TLP needs holds an association with the variables: family income, age and time since the last dental appointment. Conclusions In conclusion, the self-perception of need for dental prosthesis demonstrates potential applicability for the elderly, presenting notable accuracy values. It suggests that studies based on patients' self-reports should be stimulated, aiming for the evaluation and validation of self-reported criteria in different contexts and cultures. Furthermore, the identification of accuracy associated factors can help to build more meaningful questions to be used in future surveys. Key messages The use of the self-reported need for total dental prosthesis may be feasible when considering lower cost, reduced time of execution and ease of use in population epidemiological surveys. Application of self-reporting as an epidemiological tool for planning and monitoring oral health services, incorporating it in the form of indicators for oral health surveillance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sorin Gog

AbstractMy paper focuses on the shift in religious values in post-socialist Romania and explores the emergence of alternative spiritual beliefs and practices among the younger generations socialized during the post-communist period. It analyses some of the changes that occurred in the wider traditional religious field and looks at the various spiritualized technologies of the self that produce a distinctive type of religious subjectivity and an immanent ethics of authenticity. By departing from the idea of an integrated religious community and from the relational understanding of religious transformation, the field of alternative spiritualities operates a radical break with traditional religion and emphasizes the possibility of spiritual self-realization and self-discovery. It is this process of the individualizing sacralization of the self that constitutes the object of various workshops, blogs, personal and spiritual development literature, courses, spiritual retreats and counselling services. My research looks at how innovative technologies of the self are developed within these spaces that emphasize creativity, wellbeing and a new understanding of subjective interiority that learns how to find in itself the resources it needs to live in a spiritualized ontology of the present.2


Author(s):  
Danielly Gama Lima Malheiros Farias ◽  
Maria Eduarda Wanderley Mota ◽  
Marília Cabral Pinheiro Carneiro ◽  
Bárbara Guedes Almeida ◽  
Natália Ramos Costa Pessoa ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Catarina Izidoro ◽  
João Botelho ◽  
Vanessa Machado ◽  
Luis Proença ◽  
Ricardo Alves ◽  
...  

Halitosis is an unpleasant breath odor that interferes with self-confidence and with people’s professional and social lives. The aim of this exploratory study was to evaluate the self-perception and awareness of oral malodor among patients with periodontitis.


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