This research explores the Snapchat and Instagram feature of “Stories” and aims to understand what users post in their “Stories” and how they make use of the feature to tell their story. The application of narrative theory theoretically informs the concept of digital storytelling, which is ultimately the practice of telling online stories. The methodology consists of a qualitative content analysis of Snapchat and Instagram “Stories”, observation of active ordinary users and in-depth semi-structured interviews to address the user’s perspective. The main results indicate that there are themed patterns following narrative structures in Snapchat and Instagram “Stories”. For that reason eight categories were created and divided between the four narrative elements according to Barthes (1977) and these were actions (demonstrating emotions, eating, interacting), happenings (updates), characters (people, self- portraits and animals) and setting (environment). In addition, another result is that Snapchat and Instagram storytellers make use of seven means to tell their stories and create a narrative. These means are images, texts, videos, emoji, doodles, instant information and filters. Human beings are natural storytellers according to the Narrative Paradigm by Fisher (1984), which explains the popularity of the “Stories” feature, as well as the discovered categories based on narrative elements and the use of semiotic resources to make more sense of the stories told by users.

The subject matter of my study is representations of Russia in Anglo-American and Russian spy novels, mysteries, and action thrillers of the 1990s. Especially suitable for representing the world split between good and evil, these genres played a prominent role in constructing the image of the other during the Cold War. Crime fiction then is an important source for grasping the changes in representing Russia after the Cold War. My hypothesis is that despite the changes in the political roles of Russia and the United States, the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union continued to have a significant impact on popular fiction about Russia in the 1990s. A comparative perspective on depictions of Russia in the 1990s is particularly suitable in regard to American and Russian popular cultures because during the Cold War, Soviet and American identities were formed in view of the other. A comparative approach to the study of Russian popular fiction is additionally justified by the role that the idea of the West had played in Russian cultural history starting from the early eighteenth century. Reflection on depictions of Russia in crime fiction by writers coming from the two formerly antagonistic cultures poses the problem of representation in its relationship to time, history, politics, popular culture, and genre. The methods used in this dissertation derive from the field of cultural studies, history, and structuralist poetics. A combination of structuralist readings and social theory allows me to uncover the ways in which popular detective genres changed in response to the sentiments of nostalgia and anxiety about repressed or lost identities, the sentiments that were typical of the 1990s. My study of Anglo-American and Russian spy novels, mysteries, and action thrillers contributes to our understanding of the ways American and Russian cultures invent and reinvent themselves after a significant historical rupture, how they mobilize the past for making sense of the present. Drawing on readings of literature and culture by such scholars as Mikhail Bakhtin, Tzvetan Todorov, Siegfried Kracauer, Andreas Huyssen, Fredric Jameson, and Svetlana Boym, I show that differences in Anglo-American and Russian representations of Russia are a result of cultural asymmetries and cultural chronotopes in the United States and in Russia. I argue that Russian and American crime fiction of the 1990s re-writes Russia in the light of cultural memory, nostalgia, and historical sensibilities after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. Memories of the Cold War and coming to terms with the end of the Cold War played a defining role in depicting Russia by Anglo-American detective authors of the 1990s; this role is clear from the genre changes in Anglo-American thrillers about Russia. Similarly, reconsideration of Russian history became an essential characteristic in the development of the new Russian detektiv. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

M.A. (Information Science) / A need exists for criteria with which to evaluate formalistic popular fiction in the public library. The love story is one of the types of formalistic fiction which is very popular and which is found in great numbers in the collections of public libraries, but which is not bought in a responsible, professional way. Meaningful criteria for evaluating the love story cannot be developed without knowledge of the nature and characteristics of this type of story. This study examines the characteristics of formula fiction in general and of the formalistic love story in particular. Formula fiction is fiction written according to the requirements of specific formulae. Formula fiction can be regarded as a genre because it contains certain characteristics with a specific aesthetic impact, in accordance with the requirements of a genre. A fiction formula is a narrative structure which is used in a great number of individual works and which leads to the genesis of a story type. The most well-known story types or sub-genres of formula fiction which have originated in this way are love stories, science fiction, Wild West stories, espionage- and detective stories and social melodramas. "The most important characteristic of formula fiction which has been identified is that it is standardized. This standardization causes certain stereotypes to appear in formula fiction, namely stereotyped characters, themes and background and language usage. Each of the sub-genres of formula fiction, including the love story, has its own specific stereotyped characters, themes and background and language usage. The stereotypes existing within the love story are described extensively. The stereotypes in formula fiction acquire aesthetic impact when the author succeeds in adding a new element which regenerates the stereotype. The most important criterion for evaluating the formulistic love story is therefore the way in which stereotypes are handled in these stories. The formalistic nature of the love story is therefore accepted, but the regenerative handling of the formula must be evaluated in order to distinguish the better love story from the weaker one. Three love stories are evaluated to demonstrate how this criterion, namely the establishing of the extent of regeneration of stereotypes, can be applied to assess the merits of a love story. This study points out that the successful love story is the one in which the regeneration of stereotypes is done successfully. The use of this criterion for establishing the quality of individual love stories offers the opportunity for public libraries to decide in principle to include the popular love story in their collections, but to establish a responsible point of interception according to which the weak love story will not be bought.

Seemingly overnight, the Internet has gone from an academic experiment to a worldwide information matrix. Along the way, computer scientists have come to realize that understanding the performance of the Internet is a remarkably challenging and subtle problem. This challenge is all the more important because of the increasingly significant role the Internet has come to play in society. To take stock of the field of Internet performance modeling, the authors organized a workshop at Schloß Dagstuhl. This paper summarizes the results of discussions, both plenary and in small groups, that took place during the four-day workshop. It identifies successes, points to areas where more work is needed, and poses “Grand Challenges” for the performance evaluation community with respect to the Internet.

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This is a diverse collection of narrative nonfiction, which includes personal essays, reportage, nature writing, and short columns. Its major themes include boxing and fly-fishing. Many of the pieces are set in and around the state of Oregon.

This is a collection of short stories linked by place and subject. I rely on concrete details, rhythm and tone to create the place and setting of the Tivoli Bay, which acts as a central force in the lives of the characters. The characters are drawn to the bay and to one another by the neediness of secrets.

Viktor Shklovsky writes that "the technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged." This collection of short fiction capitalizes on that aim, weaving together history and humor with an absurd, biographical style. "Himilco and Other Stories" includes several pieces of constrained fiction in the style of Oulipan authors, but produced with original rules and algorithms. "Zugzwang" results naturally from Donald Barthelme's form, whereas other stories capitalize on a more modern interpretation of the much-used zoomorphic narration. Most are written in the first-person perspective, though the scope and focus of each often speaks to a broad human philosophy. Stories range from the dark pine forests of Maine to ancient Tunisian deserts, and are often told by jaunty, untrustworthy narrators. Taken as a whole these stories lay bare a desperation born from absence and disrepair, fear and adolescence--eight stories that struggle to answer the question, how do we get better?

From the Oregon coast to the steppes of Mongolia, the seven short stories in this collection take the reader on a journey through the landscape of human experience. In the high desert of southeast Idaho, a mammalogist confronts his own predatory instincts. A sister laments the distance between herself and a brother studying climate change in Antarctica. A caregiver for an aging botanist learns the value of forgiveness. Love, loss and redemption--the relationships that define our lives--are here juxtaposed with the beauty and implacability of the natural world.

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