Project description
A new chapter about hidden biases in literary inaction
In literature, characters who can only engage in ‘negative action’ or inaction are often portrayed in ways that reinforce harmful stereotypes about race, gender, and social class. These representations have not been extensively studied as general topics. The issue lies in understanding how rhetorical strategies create and perpetuate these images of inaction and negative action. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the WARINA project tackles this gap in research by analysing fictional, autobiographical, and diaristic texts from the early 20th century. By integrating literary theory, social sciences, and cultural psychology, WARINA aims to uncover new insights into these politically charged portrayals, examining cognitive metaphors, emotions, and narrative construction.
Objective
The WARINA project will analyse some fictional, autobiographical, and diaristic texts that represent characters who are unable to act, or who can only act for the worse, that is, perform what in this project will be called “negative action”. The project poses a special focus on how “inaction” and “negative action” activate different stereotypes about social categories such as race, gender, and social class. Its driving belief is that the study of fiction and life writing (autobiographies and diaries) will provide new insights into politically charged representations of inaction or negative action, results that will be achieved by the application of an interdisciplinary theoretical grid, combining literary theory, the social sciences, and cultural psychology. The concepts of inaction/negative action have not been studied as general topics in literature: they tend to be connected to specific authorial poetics, or to great cultural narratives. What is missing is a study of the specific ways in which rhetorical strategies represent and thus create images of inaction and negative action. This study will be conducted in close dialogue with social sciencists and social psychologists' research on agency. In particular, research objects will focus on 1) the use of cognitive metaphors to define what “action” and “inaction” are, and the implementation of metaphors of place that connect a certain place with inaction; 2) the study of emotions from a constructivist point of view, that is, with the aim of understanding how the same emotion can be represented either as being conducive to action, or to inaction, even in the same text; 3) the close observation of the ways in which characters or authors build their life narratives by selecting salient events, relationships, and media products. The corpus’s texts stem from the first half of the Twentieth century, a period whose culture informs some of the terms related the agency that are still in use today.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
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35195 Vaxjo
Sweden
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