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• 1. [Article] Insights into the Mental Imagery and Gestural Awareness of Representational Gestures Produced in Everyday Talk: An Exploratory Study of Using Participants' Comments as Data

  To better understand representational gestures used in everyday talk, this study explores the ways participants talk about their own mental imagery and gestural awareness, and how their comments affect ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Insights into the Mental Imagery and Gestural Awareness of Representational Gestures Produced in Everyday Talk: An Exploratory Study of Using Participants' Comments as Data Author: Wendel, Sue M. Year: 2015 To better understand representational gestures used in everyday talk, this study explores the ways participants talk about their own mental imagery and gestural awareness, and how their comments affect analysis. Literature pertaining to representational gestures, mental imagery, gestural awareness, and self-report data provide the theoretical framework for the study's design and implementation. Data is drawn from observations of two video recorded dyads engaged in everyday conversation, and four audio recorded interviews with each participant individually as they viewed and commented on selected video segments in which they had produced a representational gesture. Findings indicate that participants talked about mental imagery and gestural awareness in ways that were descriptive, explanatory, and self-reflective. They described their mental imagery in i) visual and motor terms, ii) as mental simulations, iii) as textural sensations, and iv) in linguistic metaphors. Participants talked about gestural awareness in terms of i) spontaneity, ii) intentionality, and iii) affective states. Taken altogether, participant comments suggest embodied cognition as a useful framework for analyzing and understanding representational gestures. Further, findings indicate that participant comments served to i) confirm, ii) clarify, and/or iii) expand my analysis, suggesting that participant comments can enhance understanding of mental imagery and gestural awareness in ways that could not be achieved by a researcher's observations and analysis alone. Title: Insights into the Mental Imagery and Gestural Awareness of Representational Gestures Produced in Everyday Talk: An Exploratory Study of Using Participants' Comments as Data Author: Wendel, Sue M. Year: 2015 To better understand representational gestures used in everyday talk, this study explores the ways participants talk about their own mental imagery and gestural awareness, and how their comments affect analysis. Literature pertaining to representational gestures, mental imagery, gestural awareness, and self-report data provide the theoretical framework for the study's design and implementation. Data is drawn from observations of two video recorded dyads engaged in everyday conversation, and four audio recorded interviews with each participant individually as they viewed and commented on selected video segments in which they had produced a representational gesture. Findings indicate that participants talked about mental imagery and gestural awareness in ways that were descriptive, explanatory, and self-reflective. They described their mental imagery in i) visual and motor terms, ii) as mental simulations, iii) as textural sensations, and iv) in linguistic metaphors. Participants talked about gestural awareness in terms of i) spontaneity, ii) intentionality, and iii) affective states. Taken altogether, participant comments suggest embodied cognition as a useful framework for analyzing and understanding representational gestures. Further, findings indicate that participant comments served to i) confirm, ii) clarify, and/or iii) expand my analysis, suggesting that participant comments can enhance understanding of mental imagery and gestural awareness in ways that could not be achieved by a researcher's observations and analysis alone. Close

• 2. [Article] Gritos en el Desierto: Denuncia y Resistencia en las Obras de las Escritoras Wayuu Estercilia Simanca Pushaina y Vicenta Marí­a Siosi Pino

  The way we read and interpret literature is frequently influenced by factors that operate beyond the scope of the average reader's awareness. In this thesis, selected works by two Wayuu writers, Estercilia ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Gritos en el Desierto: Denuncia y Resistencia en las Obras de las Escritoras Wayuu Estercilia Simanca Pushaina y Vicenta Marí­a Siosi Pino Author: Perwak, Lindsay H. Year: 2016 The way we read and interpret literature is frequently influenced by factors that operate beyond the scope of the average reader's awareness. In this thesis, selected works by two Wayuu writers, Estercilia Simanca Pushaina and Vicenta Maria Siosi Pino, are analyzed and interpreted in an attempt to unveil some of these behind-the-scenes agents and issues, as well as explore how the stories' classification in the children's literature genre reveals a deep-rooted colonial tendency to infantilize indigenous individuals in contemporary Colombia. Despite the fact that the two authors, both mestizo women who self-identify with the Wayuu indigenous group of northern Colombia, prefer to write short stories that highlight the child and adolescent experience, the implicit themes and the complexity of their texts reject the "children's story" label that has been imposed on their literature. Furthermore, this thesis discusses how the two authors utilize the colonial trope of the Indian-as-child to their advantage by capsizing the imagery, thus rejecting the original power of the symbol and claiming it as their own. The first section of this investigation provides certain contextual specifics related to the cultural and social environment of the Wayuu indigenous group, particularly regarding that experienced by women. The second chapter includes an explanation of the impact a book's genre and its "paratext" may have on the reception and interpretation of these texts, and additionally proposes that the colonial practice of infantilizing indigenous people appears in both the assignment of genre as well as in several extratextual elements surrounding the stories. Chapter three offers an in-depth analysis of five selected pieces of the Wayuu authors' writing and explores how the texts may be read on multiple levels. This close reading reveals several examples of overt criticism towards the hegemonic society as well as displays instances of a more subtle rebellion; both explicit and implicit messages effectively expose and protest the current conditions of abuse, oppression and injustice that continue to anguish the Wayuu people. Title: Gritos en el Desierto: Denuncia y Resistencia en las Obras de las Escritoras Wayuu Estercilia Simanca Pushaina y Vicenta Marí­a Siosi Pino Author: Perwak, Lindsay H. Year: 2016 The way we read and interpret literature is frequently influenced by factors that operate beyond the scope of the average reader's awareness. In this thesis, selected works by two Wayuu writers, Estercilia Simanca Pushaina and Vicenta Maria Siosi Pino, are analyzed and interpreted in an attempt to unveil some of these behind-the-scenes agents and issues, as well as explore how the stories' classification in the children's literature genre reveals a deep-rooted colonial tendency to infantilize indigenous individuals in contemporary Colombia. Despite the fact that the two authors, both mestizo women who self-identify with the Wayuu indigenous group of northern Colombia, prefer to write short stories that highlight the child and adolescent experience, the implicit themes and the complexity of their texts reject the "children's story" label that has been imposed on their literature. Furthermore, this thesis discusses how the two authors utilize the colonial trope of the Indian-as-child to their advantage by capsizing the imagery, thus rejecting the original power of the symbol and claiming it as their own. The first section of this investigation provides certain contextual specifics related to the cultural and social environment of the Wayuu indigenous group, particularly regarding that experienced by women. The second chapter includes an explanation of the impact a book's genre and its "paratext" may have on the reception and interpretation of these texts, and additionally proposes that the colonial practice of infantilizing indigenous people appears in both the assignment of genre as well as in several extratextual elements surrounding the stories. Chapter three offers an in-depth analysis of five selected pieces of the Wayuu authors' writing and explores how the texts may be read on multiple levels. This close reading reveals several examples of overt criticism towards the hegemonic society as well as displays instances of a more subtle rebellion; both explicit and implicit messages effectively expose and protest the current conditions of abuse, oppression and injustice that continue to anguish the Wayuu people. Close