Health Humanities

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Newspaper Coverage and Reader Response to Covid-19 Reports

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Ibiere Cookey1 Michael O. Ukonu2 Emeka S. Orekye3 Olanrewaju Mgboji4

1Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Email: ibiere.cookey@unn.edu.ng

2 Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Email: michael.ukonu@unn.edu.ng

 3Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

4 (Corresponding Author) Department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Email: olanrewaju.mgboji@unn.edu.ng

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 1, April-May, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n1.08
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Abstract

Studies attest to the importance of official languages in health communication in multilingual societies. However, the challenge lies in using an official language in ways that enable both majority and minority language speakers to identify with their sociocultural orientations when using a lingua franca. With the emergence of Covid-19, this challenge has come to the forefront following surveys on citizen responses to health messages. The study examines the themes, narrative viewpoints, language modes of newspaper reports on Covid-19, and reader responses to these reports. We aim to determine the implications of reader response on the credibility, severity, and transmissibility of Covid-19. The contents of three Nigerian newspapers (The Guardian, Punch, and Premium Times) were analyzed using quantitative and discourse analysis. The results showed that the themes of newspaper reports focused on challenges, progress made, preparedness, and containment measures. The language mode was predominantly negative, using fear appeals. Audience responses followed the same themes as the newspapers but demonstrated a remarkable shift in narrative viewpoint and language mode, which in Nigerian style English indicated low source credibility, ethnic divisions, and the denial of the severity and transmissibility of Covid-19. Readers’ responses to newspaper coverage of Covid-19 reinforce the view among scholars that trust in information sources is linked to attitudes toward health risks.

Keywords: Covid-19, language, newspapers, reader response, health

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Formation of Emotional Security of Students during the Period of Training in Conditions of Military Conflict

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Oleksii Petrovich Orlov
PhD, Assistant of World literature Department, V. G. Korolenko Poltava National University, Ukraine. ORCID: 0000-0002-2338-118X. Email: olexsiyorlov@gmail.com

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.10 
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Abstract

Ukrainian teachers and students are now in an extreme situation of military conflict when the territory of the country is under constant air fire, and the line of hostilities stretches for 1500 kilometres. The purpose of the article is to analyze the extreme learning conditions of Ukrainian students and develop a strategy for optimal emotional relaxation by selecting fiction for reading and deepening artistic perception. Respondents’ data (120 students and 53 pupils) were collected, systematized, evaluated, and analyzed using systematic written surveys (Project Tuning methodology) and statistical analysis methods. Testing corresponded to three stages of conflict development: conflict deployment, escalation, and post-conflict phase. Pedagogical activity mirrors this parable but in the opposite direction. Fiction thematically and genre-wise at each stage plays the role of a protective shield, which draws the line between students’ own emotions and the feelings of literary heroes. Perception of artistic texts was aimed at 1) identifying visual, auditory, and tactile associations; 2) olfactory sensations; 3) the ability to build associative chains; 4) imagining literary heroes; 5) emotionally immersing yourself in the world of fiction. Comparison of one’s own emotional perceptions with those that caused anti-utopian works and fantasy literature prove the effectiveness of the chosen pedagogical hypothesis.

Keywords: extreme pedagogy, conflictology, an emotional parable of perception, artistic perception of literature, association.

Severe Acute Hepatitis in Children: An Analysis from Philosophy of Science Using the Concept of Reduction

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Miguel López-Astorga
Institute of Humanistic Studies, University of Talca, Talca Campus (Chile). Email: milopez@utalca.cl.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 2, April-June, 2022, Pages 1-9.  https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n2.30

First published: June 30, 2022 | Area: Scientific Philosophy | License: CC BY-NC 4.0

(This article is published under Volume 14, Number 2, 2022)
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Abstract

The present paper uses Carnap’s reduction concept to address the problem of new severe acute hepatitis in children. First, it tries to show how that concept can help understand why some previous hypotheses of causality on the new hepatitis in children should be rejected. Second, Carnap’s reduction concept is used to explain a complex hypothesis about the causes of that disease proposed in The Lancet in 2022. The latter hypothesis combines several factors: infection by SARS-CoV-2, a build-up of this virus in the bowel that comes in contact with blood circulation, and another infection by adenovirus. One of the points of the paper is to argue that a hypothesis can be described by means of a bilateral reduction sentence, which in turn would allow empirical comparison of the hypothesis in an easy way. Finally, the author considers a current cognitive framework, namely, the theory of mental models, to propose that bilateral reduction sentences should not be hard to handle for physicians or scientists.

Keywords: adenovirus; reduction; SARS-CoV-2; severe acute hepatitis in children; theory of mental models

Introduction

Several cases of a new ‘severe acute hepatitis in children were reported around the world in 2022 (e.g., Brodin & Arditi, 2022). Physicians and researchers tried to find, by all means, an explanation and the causes of those cases (see also, e.g., Cañelles, 2022). In the process, some hypotheses were ruled out. Some of them were, for example, to deem the new hepatitis as a disease equivalent to one of the five kinds of hepatitis already known, or an adenovirus (Brodin & Artidi, 2022; Cañelles, 2022).

After rejecting other hypotheses as well, one more hypothesis was proposed. This new hypothesis, in principle, seemed difficult to verify. It claimed that several elements acting at the same time cause the severe acute hepatitis in children. The new hepatitis would appear when there is a SARS-CoV-2 infection and, as a result, the virus accumulates in the intestine. Then, the virus would enter the blood and flow throughout the body. At once, the liver would be inflamed because of an adenovirus infection (Brodin & Artidi, 2022; Cañelles, 2022).

This hypothesis appears to be hard to contrast. However, the main goal of the present paper is to show otherwise. If the procedure Carnap (1936, 1937) offered to relate properties or predicates, that is, his reduction process is assumed, the task of empirical confirmation may not be so difficult. The literature reveals that, if it is accepted that the human mind follows, in its inferential processes, what the theory of mental models (e.g., Khemlani, Byrne, & Johnson-Laird, 2018) indicates, that procedure is not difficult at all (e.g., López-Astorga, 2021).

To achieve that goal, the present paper will have three sections. In the first section, some of the previous hypotheses about the causes of the new hepatitis in children will be taken as examples. The aim will be to explain how Carnap’s reduction processes can help reveal the reasons why those hypotheses are not admissible. The second section will describe the complex hypothesis pointed out above. It will be argued that, despite what may be thought, Carnap’s concept of reduction can lead to simple confirmations of that hypothesis. Based on the literature, the final section will show that to apply Carnap’s reduction procedure to that hypothesis is not hard for people, at least, if the theses of the theory of mental models are right… Full-Text PDF

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Silence, Satire and Empathy: Reading Appupen’s Topoi in His Wordless Graphic Narratives

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Kabita Mondal1, Joydeep Banerjee2

1Assistant Professor of English, Sarojini Naidu College for women, Kolkata 700028 & Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, 713209. Orcid Id: 0000-0001-9109-9891. E-mail: kabita.mondal@sncwgs.ac.in,

2Associate Professor of English, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, 713209. Orcid Id: 0000-0003-3319-4991. E-mail: joydeep.banerjee@hu.nitdgp.ac.in,

Volume 13, Number 4, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n4.32

Abstract:

The projection of the incongruities of contemporary times through the frame of satire is a powerful instrument in the genre of comics and graphic narratives and in Indian graphic literature as well. Mendiburo-Seguel and Heintz (2020) explain eight Comic Style Markers (CSM) in Latin-American cultures, and satire, a “darker style”, is one of them. The paper aims to conceptualise how Appupen’s wordless graphic narratives Moonward: Stories from Halahala (2009), Legends of Halahala (2013), Aspyrus: A Dream of Halahala (2014) and The Snake and the Lotus: A Halahala Adventure (2018) register black satire against society, politics, religion, industrialization, consumerism, advertisement and so on and how they prove to play the role of “corrective humour” (Ruch and Heintz, 2016). This paper attempts to explore how the “author-artist’s” (Aldama, 2010) fantastical and dystopic graphic narratives, excoriate social and political issues to create a unique aesthetic of thoughtful critical writing in graphic mode, thereby collectively contributing to the interdisciplinary studies of fantasy and dystopia and helping to proliferate the genre of Indian Comics and graphic narratives as well. Moreover, as “satire had a moral goodness that was lacking in sarcasm and cynicism” (Ruch, Heintz, Platt, Wagner, and Proyer, 2018), this essay argues what kind of empathic feeling, perspective sharing and cognitive overlap Appupen cultivates in these four narratives and develops their moral, aesthetic and humane tenacity. The article discusses Appupen’s satire as a vehicle by which he prudently moulds empathy with the reader to convey the intrinsic values of the texts.

 

Keywords: silent, dystopic, graphic, fantasy, society, empathy, altruism.

 

The Beast in the Closet: Interrogating the Trauma of Sibling Incest in Emma Donoghue’s Neo-Victorian Novel The Wonder

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Poulomi Modak

Ph.D Scholar (JRF), Department of English, Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University, West Bengal.  ORCID id: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1204-7378. Email: poulomimodak1992@gmail.com

Volume 13, Number 4, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n4.31

 Abstract

Emma Donoghue’s neo-Victorian novel The Wonder (2016) is a remarkable exploration of the Victorian era’s indifference towards the issues of woman and child safety against the heinous crimes of sexual abuse. The horror of sibling incest, which eventually develops the sense of guilt within the protagonist and gradually isolates her from the entire extrinsic world, has been taken into consideration for the analysis of the unusual narratives of tremendous shock and trauma that the novel enterprises. The paper examines incest as a trope for inflicting everlasting trauma and seeks to locate if amelioration is at all achievable for the abused ‘body’. The intended study further interrogates the placid indifference of the contemporaneous behavioural patterns of the societal institutional bodies of family, religion, and law, while encountering the forever forbidden taboo of incest.

Keywords: dysfunctional family, fasting body, incest trauma, neo-Victorian fiction, sibling incest.

Postmodern/Post-mortem Human Body-Parts: Grotesque Subjects in The Melancholy of Anatomy

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Jharna Choudhury

PhD  Scholar, Tezpur University, Assam, India. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0916-373. Email: jharnachoudhury123@gmail.com

Volume 13, Number 4, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n4.30

Abstract

This paper critiques the literary representation of the human body as a “clean” slate, an organically wholesome subject by delving into the postmodern body-writing of Shelley Jackson’s short story collection The Melancholy of Anatomy (2002). Building upon the idea of “metabody” or grotesque body-part as subjects, the flesh-characters, namely Egg, Sperm, Foetus, Cancer, Nerve, Phlegm, Blood, Milk and Fat, breaks apart from their marginality, and evolves in a rhizomatic structure, pressing their possibilities of manifold existence in a fantastical world. Through the lens of body studies critics (Mikhail Bakhtin and Elisabeth Grosz) and recent postmodern scholarship, the paper studies the performance of flesh-characters, creating a post-mortem pathology in literature. Jackson’s deviant approach re-maps the anatomy of the human body and engages in psychophysiological parodies, thereby disclosing social phobias pertaining to the repulsive sides of the human and feminine body. Metabodies are self-reflexive, postmodern grotesque, with micro-narratives; and their innovative representations give agency and consciousness to the usually discarded body-parts and fluids, thereby making the human body a non-normative and discursive text and context.

Keywords: Postmodern; Shelley Jackson, Grotesque, Metabody, Human Body

Spaces of Care and Graphic Medicine

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Sathyaraj Venkatesan1 & Livine Ancy A2

1Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Trichy. Corresponding Author. Email: sathyaiitk@gmail.com

2Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Trichy. Email: livine2212@gmail.com

Volume 13, Number 4, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n4.29

 Abstract

While there are several studies that focus on care settings in relation to verbal narratives, only a few studies have paid attention to how comics in general, and graphic medicine in particular, engage critical care environments and settings. Drawing strengths from the underground and alternative comics and capitalizing on health humanities, graphic medicine, a recent development in the comics genre, concentrates on the issues related to health, illness, and care. Coined by Ian Williams in 2007, graphic medicine refers to the intersection of comics and concerns of healthcare. Graphic medicine has always engaged informal, formal, and biomedical caregiving settings. Against this backdrop, the present article, drawing on relevant theoretical debates on spatial studies and care, examines Stan Mack’s Janet& Me (2004), Joyce Farmer’s Special Exits (2014), and Sarah Leavitt’s Tangles (2012). In so doing, the article seeks to delineate care facilities (family, hospitals, among others) and their impact on patients.

Keywords: graphic Medicine, informal care, hospital Care, institutional care, spaces of care.

“The cripple walked! The cripple talked!”: Contextualising Sign Language and Audism in Memoirs of Deafness

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Bonjyotshna Saikia

Research Scholar, Department of English, Tezpur University, Assam, India.

ORCID id: 0000-0001-6253-9333. Email:bonjyotshnasaikia263@gmail.com

Volume 13, Number 4, 2021 I Full-Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n4.28

Abstract

The hegemony of speech has created notions of superiority among the hearing community propagating an audist attitude, which Tom Humphries defines as a form of discrimination towards the deaf in a hearing-dominant society. Deafness as a social phenomenon necessitates a reconsideration of the status of speech and sound. The huge chasm between the hearing and the deaf can be resolved only through the normalisation of every mode of communication. In a close reading of two memoirs of deafness: Henry Kisor’s What’s That Pig Outdoors? (1990) and Madan Vashishta’s Deaf in Delhi (2006), this article examines the similar experiences of the deaf from different linguistic, national and cultural backgrounds. Drawing theoretical insights from Leonard Davis, Neil Stephen Glickman, and Dirksen Bauman, among others, the article argues that these memoirs enable a non-essentialised perception of deafness and question the preconceived stance in relation to language. In so doing, the article also addresses the status of Sign Language as a means of communication in contemporary times.

Keywords: Audism, Deaf memoirs, Derrida, Deaf Identity, Sign Language, Phonocentrism

Pain, Partum and Prayer: The Dis-ease of Motherhood in Early Modern English Literature

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Namrata Chaturvedi

Associate Professor, Department of English, SRM University, Sikkim. Email: namratachaturvedi.v@srmus.edu.in

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.04

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This paper is a close study of early modern women’s poetry on childbirth and the imminent circumstances of maternal and foetal/infantile mortality in seventeenth century England. In tracing the development of women’s post-partum mental health from the medieval to the early modern period, this paper argues for a serious investment in literature composed as memoirs, poetry, diaries and funeral sermons as a means of understanding the trajectories and lacunae in women’s mental health in the early modern period. This study also argues for including the religious experience into any consideration of women’s post-partum health and therapeutic interventions. Lastly, it shows how affect studies have proved the recuperative potential in literature of consolation and mourning so that women’s writing begins to get recognized for its interventionist potential rather than a fossilized historical treatment as it has often received.

Keywords: Partum, Early Modern, Women, Mental Health, England

Critical Dialogue: Poetics, Self-Understanding and Health

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Richard Deming1, Justin Clemens2 & Valery Vino3

1Senior Lecturer, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

2Associate Professor, English and Theatre Studies, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

3Philosopher, Northern Rivers, Australia. Email: valery.arrows@gmail.com

 Volume 13, Number 2, 2021 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n2.11

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In the thick of the global plague, Richard, Justin and Valery agreed to hold a conversation on the topic of poetics, self-understanding, and health. An analysis and discussion of this trinity requires love of poetry and philosophy. Both supreme human practices take common root in mythology and religion, and also share a notorious categorical divide, that of reason against affect. Is this Platonic divide indeed categorical, given both practices rely on language and creativity to compose their meaning? Interestingly, the practice of poetics does not have the reputation for boosting one’s health, in the mainstream understanding of that concept. If anything, poetic practice gained notoriety for corrupting one’s mind and, possibly, life. Like philosophy? We touched on these and other classical aporia, on the political struggles in American and Australian poetry. Here is a written record of this encounter, countries and miles apart, three persons simply getting to know one another.

Key words: poetics, philosophy, conflict, self-understanding, health

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