Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Helmut Groschwitz
(Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities)
Petr Janeček (Charles University)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Narratives
- Location:
- D51
- Sessions:
- Friday 9 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Prague
Short Abstract:
Ambiguity and tolerance of ambiguity develop a specific potential in situations of uncertainty, e.g. by reacting to ambiguous situations linguistically and performatively, by thinking and addressing possible meanings, or by making visible the indeterminate polyvalence of things and narratives.
Long Abstract:
In rhetoric, ambiguity refers to linguistic vagueness and openness, but it can also be used for museum exhibits, performative arts or painting. While in classical rhetoric ambiguity was still considered something to be avoided, it can also be used as a strategy and stylistic device, is relevant in poetry, the language of diplomacy, telling about the unspeakable, in hermeneutics etc. In film, stylistic devices such as the open ending or ambiguous characters allow - or require - recipients to choose from the possible meanings. In psychology, tolerance of ambiguity is considered one of the central character traits and here names the ability and willingness to be able to orient oneself in culturally ambiguous situations. The Counterparts are strategies of disambiguation, which attempt to tame ambiguity and eliminate competing meanings. These include the search for an unambiguous version of a text, the reduction of meaning in explanatory tables, and the unambiguous explanation of social situations and developments. Ambiguity and tolerance of ambiguity develop a specific potential in situations of uncertainty, e.g. by reacting to ambiguous situations linguistically and performatively, by thinking and addressing possible meanings, or by making visible the indeterminate polyvalence of things and narratives.
The panel is looking for research that deals with ambiguity as a cultural practice with focus on Narratives. This may include work on ambiguous narratives, strategies of ambiguous storytelling or disambiguation, types of ambiguities and means of disambiguation in academic narratives, the treatment of ambiguous objects in exhibitions and their narrative framing, etc.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 9 June, 2023, -Iwona Rzepnikowska (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń)
Paper short abstract:
The speech will be an attempt to answer the questions how the narrator of the Polish and East Slavic folk magic tale defines the ambiguous status of its hero, called fool, and what are the textual and non-textual possibilities of interpreting his position.
Paper long abstract:
The speech will be an attempt to answer the questions how the narrator of folk magical fairy tales defines the ambiguous status of their hero, called fool, and what are the textual and non-textual possibilities of interpreting his position. The stories contain numerous examples of him being treated with contempt by his closest relatives and their failure to meet his basic life needs. Apparently, the fool provides reasons for such treatment. He is lazy and lethargic, does not observe hygiene, performs work inappropriate for his age and physical aptitude. In the context of the functioning of a rural family, the hero is thus an unproductive individual, a "parasite", and his marginalization is the result of his failure to meet rural socio-cultural standards. Nevertheless, the hero's constant contact with the stove and the abundance of time he spends there are intriguing. In fact, it does not help to keep the body clean nor lead an active lifestyle. However, the practical functions of the appliance are not important, but its magical-symbolic properties. After all, the attributes of the fool are ash and soot, used in traditional culture as ritual props in situations where participants are led through the phase of ritual death. Considering the dangers, to which the hero is exposed in the decisive stage of the development of the tale's action, his uncertain status can be read as a precondition for his qualitatively different existence. However, do the marriage and coronation give his life an unambiguous dimension? This provokes further research.
Lubomir Suva (University of Göttingen, Germany)
Paper short abstract:
Fairy-tale poetics is being defined by the Brothers Grimm as strictly non-ambiguous, as a clear fight between good and bad. Yet, the classical fairy-tales collections from the 19th century still produce the most ambiguous interpretations. Why? How do they do that?
Paper long abstract:
“Everything beautiful is golden and strewn with pearls; there are even golden people living there; misfortune, by contrast, is a dark power [...] and [...] something terrible, black, and wholly alien that you cannot even approach; the punishment of evil is equally terrifying: snakes and poisonous reptiles devour their victims, or the evil person dances to death in red-hot iron shoes.” With these words in the preface to the first volume of their Nursery and household tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen; 1812) the Brothers Grimm are defining and demonstrate the principles of their fairy-tale poetics: The fight between “good” and “bad” and the black-and-white opposition, which shape the characters of their tales, where the “good” and “bad” ones never mingle, but instead of that are being strictly separated from each other. Such poetological frame doesn´t seem to give much space for any ambiguity; yet, the Grimms´ tales and other fairy-tale collections of the 19th century keep attracting attention of the most various interpretations with the most various results for more than 200 years already. The question is, why, and how it is possible, that these at the first sight most possible non-ambiguous structures still happen to endorse so much ambiguity in reading and understanding. With the help of examples from the Grimms´ and other fairy-tales collections we will discuss narrative techniques in fairy-tale writings and possible interpretative approaches to the genre.
Christian Liliequist (Umeå University)
Paper short abstract:
Humor often relies on ambiguities that, for example, can be created by word plays, layers of irony and/or sarcasm. By playing on ambiguities comedians can play with stereotypes and express opinions which aren’t their own, but also express their own opinions in a way that sounds like a joke.
Paper long abstract:
Humor often relies on ambiguities. For example, the pun is a form of word play that exploits ambiguous meanings of a certain word. This can be illustrated by the following example: “Two antennas got married last Saturday. The reception was fantastic”. In this pun, the word “reception” can be interpreted in two different ways, which creates a comical effect. But the ambiguity of a joke can also be created by layers of irony and sarcasm. By playing on ambiguities comedians can express opinions which aren’t their own, but they can also express their own opinions in a way that sounds like a joke.
This paper will focus on the ambiguity of humor and how jokes can be interpreted in different ways. Debates about humor often center around comedians who have been criticized for telling jokes that are perceived as offensive to some individuals or groups in society. While the defenders of the comedians and the comedians themselves often emphasize the irony and sarcasm of their jokes and claim that they are “just joking”, the criticizers often emphasize the consequences and potential harm the jokes can have for some individuals or groups in society. Since humor relies on ambiguities, it can be challenging for researchers to analyze what the underlying purpose of a joke is and whether it for example reproduces or plays with (or maybe both at the same time) stereotypes and prejudices.
Katarzyna Łatała (University of Warsaw, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich)
Paper short abstract:
I am going to explore a method of staying with the ambiguity of an analysed narrative in order to understand its meaning in the context of an on-going fieldwork. Based on my research, I am going to make use of the ambiguity to conceptualise the hybrids of the past-present and the bottom-up/top-down.
Paper long abstract:
In the proposed paper, I am going to explore a research method of staying with the ambiguity of an analysed narrative in order to understand its meaning in the course and context of an on-going fieldwork, without rushing to interpretations. I am going to present narratives from my research where the past and the present, as well as the top-down and the bottom-up are entangled. I am going to compare material related to them but different in form – interviews, archival documents but also thick descriptions and photographs. I am going to make sense of the narratives within a meshwork of the discursive, affective, bodily and material. I am going to try to make use of the ambiguity to conceptualise the hybrids of the past-present and the bottom-up/top-down, instead of trying to separate one from the other.
I am going to base this paper on my on-going fieldwork in the allotment gardens in Nowa Huta, Kraków. The district was built as a model industrial, working-class town in the post-war Poland. Under state socialism, local workplaces founded 30 allotment gardens there. The gardens were administered by a board elected by the gardeners from among themselves. Within the framework of my research, I interview, work, rest, socialise with and learn from the original, eldest gardeners, as well as analyse the chronicles and archival reports of the boards of the gardens. I am researching socialism from the perspective of, and in conjunction with, postsocialism.
Marina Jaciuk (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)
Paper short abstract:
Life uncertainties lead many people to seek advice from "experts of the unknown": fortune tellers, tarot readers, or astrologers. The ambiguities of Tarot readings narratives are able to create certainty for the querent and methodological and epistemological uncertainties for the researcher.
Paper long abstract:
Have they been faithful to me or not? Should I change my job or stay where I am? Will my health improve? Uncertainties like these lead many people (whether they admit it or not) to seek answers, advice, and relief from "experts of the unknown": fortune tellers, tarot readers, coffee readers, or astrologers. How do fortune tellers handle this uncertainty, however? In my presentation, I want to share the experience of the autoethnographic work with a Spanish colleague, in which we analyzed the ambiguities in Tarot readings narratives that can create certainties for the querent. By "spreading" the cards, the tarot reader interacts with them, "channeling" a sphere of knowledge about the querent's past, present, and future. That sphere is, in most cases, imperceptible to the sensory and cognitive experience of the researcher. This confronts us then with methodological and epistemological uncertainties. How could the researcher do ethnographical work regarding the unknown? How does it influence our vulnerabilities, especially when presenting this approach within an academic environment? Which ethical and professional struggles does the researcher face in submitting results? I suggest a new approach with a different logic can help address these questions.
Sheila Bock (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
Paper short abstract:
Stories about transmission in the early months of COVID-19 aligned with and diverged from familiar “deliberate infector narratives.” This paper considers the relationship between narrative framings of moral ambiguity, invisible threats, and the destabilization of clear-cut categories of culpability.
Paper long abstract:
Deliberate infection is a recurring, well-documented motif in the narratives that circulate in the midst of disease outbreaks, ranging from the plague to HIV/AIDS, and now to COVID-19 (Bird 1996, Brunvand 1989, Goldstein 2004, Kitta 2019, Lee 2014, Mayor 1995, Smith 1990). In addition to giving voice to broader anxieties about contamination and one’s own susceptibility to infection in times of uncertainty, stories about the intentional weaponization of a deadly disease, as transmitted through the body (or bodily fluids) of infected individuals, work in powerful ways to unambiguously designate scapegoats, assign blame, and reinforce boundaries between self and other. They are morality tales that identify clear-cut distinctions between right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable behavior, offering insight into the moral structures of social worlds.
The sudden emergence of the COVID-19 crisis laid bare, and in fact intensified, ruptures in the broader social contexts within which stories about the transmission of the new virus circulated. This fraught social context set the stage for emergent narrative patterns in the early months of the pandemic that offered alternate constellations of intent, consequence, and blame. This presentation identifies how these emergent narrative patterns both aligned with and diverged from the familiar “deliberate infector narratives” documented during earlier outbreaks. In the process, it considers how these multiple narrative framings both allowing for and resisting moral ambiguity can deepen our understanding of social contexts shaped by invisible threats and the destabilization of clear-cut categories of culpability.
Anna Zalewska (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń)
Paper short abstract:
The subject of the presentation will be the ambiguity of the poverty motif in Polish and East Slavic folk fairy tales. Moreover, the unobvious ways to defeat demons will be mentioned, as well as the heterogeneous genre status of the analysed narratives.
Paper long abstract:
In Slavic traditional culture, the misfortune of a man was imagined as an evil spirit that brings different types of adversities. Those beliefs permeated into a folk magic fairy tale which mentions a state of deprivation and personification of an unfavourable fate. The character’s difficult material situation is sometimes understood as a process extended over time or a sudden event. The titular ambiguity also concerns the nomenclature of the above phenomenon, mainly caused by characters such as Beda, Nuzhda, Gore and Zlydnya.
In the magic tales the above personifications of misery play the role of antagonist. On the other hand, they appear as the victims of a man who resorts to unobvious ways to defeat them. Thus, the uncertainty of existence concerns the character’s living conditions and the fate of the trapped demons.
The paper will aim to present the detailed characteristics of the titular creatures to ask the question about the scope of the transformation of the mentioned beings under the influence of the genre rules of fictional texts.
As exemplary material, Polish and East Slavic magic tales will serve, i.e. realisations of the tale types T 331A „Bieda”, SUS 735A „Gore (Nuzhda)” and SUS –735H* „Chelovek i Beda”. The genological ambiguity of those narratives deserves attention. A reference to a criterion of the narrator’s intention will be necessary to determine its genre status. The recordings of beliefs and mythological tales devoted to the above characters will be used as interpretative context.
Katarzyna Herd (Lund University) Jakob Löfgren (Lund University)
Paper short abstract:
The aim of our paper is to show how office-employees in Sweden experience, negotiate and understand bad atmosphere and uncertainty in working life through the lens narrative positioning. We look at narratives that try to grasp a feeling that something is amiss, yet it is not openly confronted.
Paper long abstract:
Everyone have an experience of it, uncertain atmosphere at work, brewing conflict among in the office, or pussyfooting around avoiding conflict. Yet, it is not easy to narrate and filled with ambiguities. It is the moment before an open conflict would start, and even though nothing is said in plain words, everyone can feel that a storm is brewing. Efforts are being made in offices around Sweden on a daily bases to alleviate the curious feeling of “dålig stämning”. Bloggers, union and industry magazines are full of tips how to avoid office unease. Even the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs contemplate conflict avoidance in reports on the Swedish self-image. But how is this uncertain atmosphere narrated by office employees?
The aim of our paper is to show how office-employees in Sweden experience, negotiate and understand bad atmosphere and uncertainty in their working life. By analysing personal experience narratives, collected through a qualitative questionnaire, through the lens of narrative positioning (Hynninen 2017; Pöysä 2009; Bamberg 2003; Harré & van Lagenhove 1999), we aim to shed light on how specific levels of uncertainty are experienced and defined by narrating uneasy atmosphere at office workplace environment.