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I argue that virtual reality (VR) documentaries mandate that users employ a fictional attitude toward their presence in a virtual environment (VE) for the purpose of engaging with nonfictional content. The most salient feature of VR is that VR users typically feel as though their bodies were present in a VE. This paper explores presence in VR as a perceptual illusion facilitated by certain technological features. Drawing on Kendall Walton’s concept of fiction, I argue that the illusion of presence in VR also requires a fictional attitude that VR users employ when imagining themselves in a VE. In the case of VR documentaries, while users’ attitude in regards to the feeling of presence is best characterized as make-belief, they nevertheless employ an attitude of belief in regards to the content of the documentary and accept this content as nonfictional. Publisher PDF

This paper reports on some preliminary results from the project “To read or not to read: A study of reading practices in compulsory school” funded by the Swedish Research Council. The aim of the project is to develop knowledge of existing reading practices and to find out what kind of teaching that promotes such practices in a way that enables students to learn from reading. The decline in students’ reading literacy is something that concerns and worries many European and other Western countries. But surprisingly it is difficult to find large scale studies focusing on how much students read at school. To be a good reader one needs to practice (Kuhn & Stahl, 2003; Campell et al., 2001); it takes more than 5000 hours of reading to achieve a well-functioning reading capacity (Lundberg & Herrlin, 2005). To learn from text one needs to be able to read a longer text (Topping et al., 2007; Merisuo-Storm & Soininen, 2014). Prior research in the field further shows that it is important for students to read different types of texts (Kuhn & Stahl, 2003) and thus develop vocabulary and reading skills in many subjects (see, for example, Biemiller, 2001).The amount of reading, at school or at leisure, correlates positively with reading ability (Anderson et al., 1988; Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997; Taylor et al., 990). In our study we therefore are interested in the total amount of coherent and continuous text students read during an average school day in all their subjects, with a particular focus on reading habits in Swedish (L1), English (L2), Chemistry, and History. We also want to find out how the amount of reading correlates with the students’ self-assessed motivation for their school-initiated reading activities. In the first part of the project there is a predominantly quantitative focus in which we seek to find out the extent to which students read continuous prose texts – fictional as well as non-fictional – as part of their everyday school work, and how their reading is related to different types of motivation. The second part of the project has a predominantly qualitative focus where a limited number of groups will be selected for a series of closer classroom studies of teachers as well as students through observations, interviews and questionnaires in order to find out what characterizes the reading practices of these schools and classes. This paper will report on some preliminary results from the first part of the project where the following research questions are to be answered: To what extent do students in years 6 and 9 read continuous prose text—fiction as well as nonfiction— as part of their school work? What kind of motivation do students express for reading nonfiction and fiction texts in different school subjects? What is the nature of the relationship between students’ reading motivation and the extent of their reading in school? What differences in the interest of reading and in the reading habits among females and males, between school years 6 and 9, and between schools can be detected?

The global trend towards decentralization of discourse and the shifting focus from the centre to the periphery has revealed itself in the late XXth century Latin American literature in the form of testimonio, a hybrid genre which combines nonfiction documentary material with artistic recreation. The first book written in this genre was Biography of a Runaway Slave by a Cuban writer Miguel Barnet. Many more works appeared in the following decades (1970–80s) including some of the best-known examples of this genre such as Let Me Speak: Testimony of Domitila, A Woman of the Bolivian Mines by M. Viezzer, I, Rigoberta Menchu by E. Burgos as well as guerrilla chronicles by O. Cabezas and S. Ramirez. In the most general terms, testimonio can be defined as a nonfictional first-person account of oppression. Just like the writers of the Boom, the authors of testimonial literature have developed their own artistic method – nuevo verismo. This term was coined in 1978 by a prominent Columbian writer and critic Carlos Rincón. Nuevo verismo changes the way we view documentary in quite a dramatic way. With its factuality and truthfulness of the material, it becomes a powerful artistic device which defines the way in which this material is presented. The purpose of the paper is to examine this new method and highlight its characteristic features. A special attention is paid to the composition of the testimonio, its narrative structure and stylistic devices.

Ovaj se završni rad bavi autobiografskim diskursom koji može biti ostvaren u trima različitim književnim podžanrovima: u formi dnevnika, memoara i pisma. Navedena je klasifikacija generalno ostvarena na temelju statusa autobiografskoga subjekta te suodnosa između privatne i javne domene. Glavna premisa počiva na činjenici prema kojoj je autobiografija narativ koji tematizira osobni život autora, u poveznici s njegovim uspomenama, važnim osobama i životnim trenutcima te iskustvima. Zbog toga navedeni tip diskursa često inkorporira reminiscencije o prošlim vremenima, onima iz djetinjstva i mladosti, prikazane iz perspektive autobiografskoga subjekta. Slijedeći iznesene premise, autobiografija se često definira kao narativ koji dovodi u suodnos fikciju i fakciju. Cilj rada jest analiza najvažnijih obilježja autobiografskoga diskursa na primjeru dnevnika Čarolija njenog srca i Zokica i Čorki s druge strane čarolije autorice Ive Miljak., This graduate thesis deals with the autobiographical discourse that is realized in three various literary subgenres: diaries, memoirs, and letters. This classification is generally determined by the position of the autobiographical subject and the relationship between personal and public areas. The basic thesis represents an autobiography as a narrative story about the author's personal life which includes a collection of personal memories related to specific persons, moments, and experiences. Because of that this type of discourse often involves reminiscences about the past times, childhood and youth, told from viewpoint of the autobiographical subject. According to those premises, autobiography is defined as a type of narrative that synthesizes fiction and nonfiction. The goal of this paper is to analyze the main features of the autobiographical genre within diaries Čarolija njenog srca (The magic of her heart) and Zokica i Čorki s druge strane čarolije (Zokica and Čorki from the other side of the magic) written by Iva Miljak.

This paper discuses an eco-apocalyptic non-fiction, which can be described as dark biology (referring to dark fantasy, dark science-fiction or noir crime fiction). The analysis is focused on Richard Preston’s, David Quamenn’s, Karl Taro Freenfeld’s and Nathan Wolfe’s medical/scientific nonfiction and heroic-exploratory narratives. The authors of dark narratives about viruses use the motives typical of crime, thriller, horror or sensation fiction. This analysis is set in a context of „dark ecology” — Timothy Morton’s eco-critical project.

Richard Dale Owen was born in 1810 in Scotland to a wealthy textile manufacturer and philanthropist. The youngest of eight children, Richard grew up at the family estate of Braxfield House, where he received his early education from private tutors. He would later go on to study chemistry, physics, and natural sciences, among other subjects, traveling between Scotland and Switzerland for his schooling. Owen arrived in the United States in 1828 to teach in New Haven, Indiana, where his father was running an experimental utopian community of happiness, enlightenment, and prosperity. He would later go on to be Indiana’s second state geologist before enlisting in the army during both the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War. Colonel Owen took command of 4,000 Confederate prisoners at Camp Morton in Indianapolis, where he established new daily routines and rules for supervision of the prisoners. Under Owen’s command, prisoners were allowed to read books and form glee clubs, theatrical groups, and sports teams. He also created a camp bakery staffed by prisoners that proved to be a substantial cost savings, allowing for above-average rations for the prisoners under his watch. After his military service came to an end, Owen continued to serve as a state geologist as well as becoming a professor at Indiana University, teaching chemistry, language, and natural philosophy. After failing to help secure IU as Indiana’s land-grant school, Owen was recruited to help establish Purdue University, west of Lafayette. The board of trustees selected him to serve as the University’s first president on August 13, 1872. However, Owen and the trustees disagreed on many early initiatives, including his focus on agriculture and push for more comfortable living arrangements for students. After less than two years serving as president, where he never drew a salary, Owen resigned his position and returned to teaching at Indiana University, until hearing problems caused him to retire in 1879. He spent his remaining years in New Harmony, where he conducted research and published several scientific papers until his tragic death caused by an accidental poisoning at the hand of a local pharmacist., https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks/1054/thumbnail.jpg