Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the textual and embodied resources readers use and reject when imagining and interpreting a character’s body. This paper explores how readers’ meaning making was influenced when reading prose versus comics. This paper adds to a corpus of scholarship about the relationships between young adult literature, comics, bodies and reader response theory.

At the time of the study, participants were enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwestern University, meeting monthly for a voluntary book club dedicated to reading and discussing young adult literature. To examine readers’ responses to comics and prose featuring fat-identified protagonists, the author used descriptive qualitative methodologies to conduct a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, written participant reflections and researcher memos. Analysis was grounded in theories of reader response, critical fat studies and multimodality.

Analyses indicated many readers reject textual clues indicating a character’s body size and weight were different from their own. Readers read their bodies into the stories, regarding them as self-help narratives instead of radical counternarratives. Some readers were not able to read against their assumptions of thinness (and whiteness) until prompted by the researcher and other participants.

Although many reader response scholars have demonstrated readers’ tendencies toward personal identification in the face of racial and class differences, there is less research regarding classroom practices around the entanglement of physical bodies, body image and texts. Analyzing reader’s responses to the constructions of fat bodies in prose versus comics may help English Language Arts (ELA) educators and students identify and deconstruct ideologies of thin-thinking and fatphobia. This study, which demonstrates thin readers’ tendencies to overidentify with protagonists, suggests ELA classrooms might encourage readers to engage in critical literacies that support them in reading both with and against their identities.

This study aims to explore the impact of architecture on digital communication mediums, focusing on how social media shapes the public perception and discussion of architectural spaces. It specifically examines the case of the Basilica Cistern/Istanbul, analysing social media interactions post-restoration.

Using newspaper archive scanning and survey technique, this study observed public content on Instagram focusing on the post-restoration period of the Basilica Cistern. 406 (283 valid) people who visited the Cistern and shared their experiences on Instagram between August 2022 and January 2023 participated in a survey. The analysis utilized Python for advanced correlation studies, enabling an in-depth exploration of the interplay between architectural features and social media sharing behaviours.

The analysis revealed that historical significance, lighting elements, role as a photographic backdrop significantly influenced sharing behaviours. Correlations were found between specific spatial features of the cistern and various sharing motivations, such as communication with people, personal gain, and popularity. The study highlights a diverse spectrum of motivations among users, emphasizing the relationship between these motivations and spatial features.

This study underscores the necessity for further inquiry into the intricate dynamics among digital communication, architectural spaces, and user motivations. Limitations include potential challenges in gathering data from social media due to concerns of cyber fraud and the misuse of hashtags.

This research offers novel insights into the interplay between digital communication and architecture. It underscores the potential of digital platforms as valuable data sources for architectural theorizing and practice, particularly in understanding how restorations and architectural changes are perceived and discussed in the digital space.