{"title":"Introduction: Digital Realism","authors":"D. Wright, Shastra Deo, Chris Arnold","doi":"10.52086/001c.57738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.57738","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":92585,"journal":{"name":"The ... text REtrieval conference : TREC. Text REtrieval Conference","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84111617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“A story with many rooms”: Twine as a tool to expand life writing practice about place and space","authors":"Mia-Francesca Jones","doi":"10.52086/001c.57762","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.57762","url":null,"abstract":"This article will explore how hypertext technology in Twine might be used by writers to expand and augment creative nonfiction life writing about place and space. Twine is a digital storytelling platform for creating interactive, nonlinear choose-your-own-adventure type narratives. Using a case study of a personal essay on homesickness written by the author of this article using Twine, this paper argues that Twine’s functionalities can be employed to represent and explore associative networks of memories and multi-directional thought pathways. Drawing on place theory by Gaston Bachelard and Edward Casey, it responds to the questions: how might writers represent living and moving through the multi-directional and multi-temporal nature of place? And what new mediums could be employed to reflect the exploratory creative research process of life writing about place?","PeriodicalId":92585,"journal":{"name":"The ... text REtrieval conference : TREC. Text REtrieval Conference","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90576320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rubik, the Short Story Cycle, and the Digital Age","authors":"Emma Darragh","doi":"10.52086/001c.57760","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.57760","url":null,"abstract":"In the 21st century, the demands of digital presence and the distractions of the internet simultaneously challenge writers wishing to represent contemporary life and threaten the attention readers are willing to give to literature. In this paper I argue that the short story cycle is a literary form that is capable of representing digital life and does so in a way that extends and expands the way that we read. I take Elizabeth Tan’s 2017 book Rubik as my case study and my analysis focuses on the way Tan uses two key features of the short story cycle form to represent and simulate life in the digital age. I begin with a discussion of how Tan uses the multiplicity of the cycle form to demonstrate the polymediation of life in the developed world and that the use of discrete, separate stories in the cycle allows for switches in voice and style which not only simulates the polyphony of digital life but also encourages us to contrast the different ways individuals use mobile technology to manage their lives. Following this, I demonstrate how Tan uses the connectedness of the cycle form to create hyperreal nested narratives in Rubik, highlighting the blurring of the boundaries between online and offline, between reality and simulation, and in doing so encourages active participation from the reader.","PeriodicalId":92585,"journal":{"name":"The ... text REtrieval conference : TREC. Text REtrieval Conference","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82246599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dream logic and unreliability in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled","authors":"M. Hannan","doi":"10.52086/001c.57577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.57577","url":null,"abstract":"Narratologists remain divided over how and if narrative unreliability works in literary dream sequences. Many believe that Wayne C. Booth’s idea of unreliable narration as a “secret communion” of author and reader “behind the narrator’s back” does not extend to surrealistic prose styles, in which Booth claimed “the author and reader may meet, like Voltaire and God, but they do not speak”. While recent scholarship has challenged this notion, few studies have examined how traditional norms of unreliability might function within literary dream logic specifically. My paper aims to reconcile these approaches, using as a case study Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Unconsoled (1995), a text unique in pairing dream prose with a narrator whose self-deception exemplifies the ironic gap central to unreliable narration. Employing theories of unreliability, narrative processing, and dream interpretation, I analyse the relationship between dream logic and narrative structures in The Unconsoled. I argue these dream laws come to signify the narrator’s self-deception, rendering his account suspect as an alternative, ironic account emerges in its shadow. Examining these concepts together illuminates how unreliability might operate outside conventional realism while showcasing how dreams can function as literary devices within one of the most enduring frameworks in narratology.","PeriodicalId":92585,"journal":{"name":"The ... text REtrieval conference : TREC. Text REtrieval Conference","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91385801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ideasthetic imagining: Writing as dream-membering","authors":"J. Prendergast","doi":"10.52086/001c.57576","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.57576","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on dreaming and remembering as they relate to process, postulating creative writing as a form of dream-membering. I take an interest in what is going on in our brains, in creative practice, and have begun an exploratory pilot study that maps brain activity, in “real-time”, using Magnetoencephalography (MEG), while participants are engaged in a creative writing workshop (a partnership with Swinburne Neuroimaging). Reflecting upon my practice, across the development of a novel and a collection of short stories, I ponder the ramifications of deep, sensory imagining as it relates to stimulus-for and stimulus-in, in acts of narrative making – considering my engagement with the past, including pre-conscious memories and mental processes. I consider the neural conditions that are necessary for stimulus-induced activity, in my personal practice. Further, I give thought to the brain’s dreamlike capacity to trigger its own neuronal activity within the context of stimulus-induced creative acts. An analysis of processes of dream-membering involves an examination of experiential knowledge, as well as consideration of the relative realness of the narrative world. This leads to a dialogue about the theories of regression (in dreaming) and memory reconsolidation, as twin concepts that more fully explicate iterative processes in creative writing practice. My practice-led research focuses theories from neuropsychoanalysis, specifically the concept of ideasthesia or “sensing concepts” from neuroscience (Nikolić 2016, p. 2), as well as the “unthought known” from psychoanalysis (Bollas 2014, 2017). These theories underpin a process I call ideasthetic imagining. Reflecting upon the impact of my practice on my mind, and my mind’s eye on my practice, I extend previous discussion about ideasthetic imagining, deploying the concept of dream-membering – paying particular attention to the way I employ sensory imagining (informed by pre-conscious memories and mental processes).","PeriodicalId":92585,"journal":{"name":"The ... text REtrieval conference : TREC. Text REtrieval Conference","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83466856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When dreams turn archaeological: The poetic dreamscapes of Anna Jacobson","authors":"J. Frank","doi":"10.52086/001c.57574","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.57574","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the dream-inspired poetry and video poetry of award-winning Brisbane poet Anna Jacobson. Jacobson’s surreal poetic narratives draw on memory, dreams, desires and destiny, using simple language and vivid imagery to evoke strong emotional responses. Her manner of exploring dreams in a number of poetic and narrative forms allows whimsical, gentle but also vigorous creative work of personal resilience and understanding. Her work is framed also by explorations of her Jewish culture and family and driven by unbridled imagination. In particular, the paper investigates Jacobson’s process of interweaving visions and memories for the purpose of tracing personal histories lost through periods of mental illness, exploring how she mines dreams for the purpose of writing and healing. It questions how her poetic process allows her to reclaim agency through unpacking experiences she wants to recover or further understand. Distilled from a series of interviews with the poet, the paper explores Jacobson’s interest in working at the cusp of different media and how this blend of the word and the visual image is particularly apt for dream exploration.","PeriodicalId":92585,"journal":{"name":"The ... text REtrieval conference : TREC. Text REtrieval Conference","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89072246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Water and dreams","authors":"J. Webb, L. Webb","doi":"10.52086/001c.57572","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.57572","url":null,"abstract":"This essay explores dreams and dreaming with reference to Gaston Bachelard’s rather overlooked essay Water and Dreams (1941), where he defines two modes of imagination that are discrete but not disconnected. First is the formal mode that arises from emotions and sensations; next is the material mode, where images arise directly from matter: in this case, water. The phenomenological perspective he offers on water and its oneiric properties aligns very well with creative practice-led research – which, for us, comprises poetry (Jen Webb) and painting (Lorraine Webb). We explore Bachelard’s notion of dream, which departs from the conventional views to suggest a different way of understanding what dreaming might be for creative practitioners. This, the concept of waking dreams, provides one conceptual frame for the affordances of dream for creative practice. The second frame attends to the fragmentary, aleatory, and haphazard nature of living in the world, and this we draw from Bertrand Russell’s writing (1953), which incorporates both day and night dreams, and their poetic, allegorical qualities. We work through and around these two conceptual frames to reflect on the often confounding issue: how to be and to become, in a life that is both dream and concrete reality.","PeriodicalId":92585,"journal":{"name":"The ... text REtrieval conference : TREC. Text REtrieval Conference","volume":"78 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89046467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}