The analysis of co-citations, which occurs when two publications or authors are mentioned together in the same text, has long been established as a practice within scientometrics, particularly in the field of “science mapping”. However, historiography has shown less openness to utilizing co-citation analysis for distant reading purposes. To address this gap, this article presents a comprehensive methodology for applying co-citation analysis to extensive collections of historical documents, specifically 17th-century letters indexed in the ePistolarium database. In science mapping, co-citation serves as an indicator for tracking the development of scientific fields. Similarly, I employ co-citation to map the Dutch socio-intellectual landscape during the Scientific Revolution period (1623–87) and evaluate the strengths and limitations of this approach.
{"title":"Networks as interpretative frameworks: using co-citation analysis to explore large corpora of early modern letters","authors":"Paolo Rossini","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad086","url":null,"abstract":"The analysis of co-citations, which occurs when two publications or authors are mentioned together in the same text, has long been established as a practice within scientometrics, particularly in the field of “science mapping”. However, historiography has shown less openness to utilizing co-citation analysis for distant reading purposes. To address this gap, this article presents a comprehensive methodology for applying co-citation analysis to extensive collections of historical documents, specifically 17th-century letters indexed in the ePistolarium database. In science mapping, co-citation serves as an indicator for tracking the development of scientific fields. Similarly, I employ co-citation to map the Dutch socio-intellectual landscape during the Scientific Revolution period (1623–87) and evaluate the strengths and limitations of this approach.","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139373552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital Humanities and Modern Chinese Literature (Shuzi Renwen yu Zhonguo Xiandai Wenxue). He Wang","authors":"Chulin Shih, Hsin Ch'ien","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad101","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"26 22","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139388811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bayesian phylogenetic methods offer various models that would be especially suitable in the reconstruction of textual traditions, but text-critical applications of phylogenetics to date have generally not taken advantage of these features. In this article, we offer a way forward for text-critical phylogenetics. On the side of theory, we highlight multiple Bayesian phylogenetic models and discuss their relevance to textual criticism. More practically, we show how TEI XML collations of textual traditions can be encoded to facilitate robust analyses using these models in BEAST 2, with the teiphy Python package mediating the conversion from TEI XML to BEAST XML. Finally, we give a proof of concept for this approach, showing that the results of BEAST 2 analyses of a sample collation of the Epistle to the Ephesians under different clock models cohere with established findings on the textual tradition of this work.
贝叶斯系统发生学方法提供了各种特别适用于重建文本传统的模型,但迄今为止,系统发生学在文本批判方面的应用一般都没有利用这些特点。在本文中,我们将为文本批判系统发生学的发展指明方向。在理论方面,我们强调了多种贝叶斯系统发生学模型,并讨论了它们与文本批评的相关性。更实际的是,我们展示了如何对文本传统的 TEI XML 整理进行编码,以便在 BEAST 2 中使用这些模型进行稳健的分析,并通过 teiphy Python 软件包实现从 TEI XML 到 BEAST XML 的转换。最后,我们给出了这一方法的概念验证,表明 BEAST 2 在不同时钟模型下对《以弗所书》样本校勘的分析结果与该作品文本传统的既定结论是一致的。
{"title":"Using Bayesian phylogenetics to infer manuscript transmission history","authors":"Joey McCollum, Robert Turnbull","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad089","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad089","url":null,"abstract":"Bayesian phylogenetic methods offer various models that would be especially suitable in the reconstruction of textual traditions, but text-critical applications of phylogenetics to date have generally not taken advantage of these features. In this article, we offer a way forward for text-critical phylogenetics. On the side of theory, we highlight multiple Bayesian phylogenetic models and discuss their relevance to textual criticism. More practically, we show how TEI XML collations of textual traditions can be encoded to facilitate robust analyses using these models in BEAST 2, with the teiphy Python package mediating the conversion from TEI XML to BEAST XML. Finally, we give a proof of concept for this approach, showing that the results of BEAST 2 analyses of a sample collation of the Epistle to the Ephesians under different clock models cohere with established findings on the textual tradition of this work.","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138743735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ontology plays a vital role in linking and publishing heritage data. However, the main difficulties of building ontology faced by heritage institutions are how the cultural heritage information is integrated into a fine-grained ontology. Therefore, following the ISO principles of Terminology (ISO 1087 and 704), this article proposed a term-concept-characteristic methodology that is user-friendly for cultural heritage experts to build a fine-grained ontology. This article aims to provide a method to integrate the fine-grained knowledge of cultural heritage into an ontology, especially when it is necessary to build a fine-grained ontology for particular purposes, such as knowledge-based terminological resources.
{"title":"A methodology for building domain ontology of cultural heritage","authors":"Tong Wei, Yuqi Chen","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad045","url":null,"abstract":"Ontology plays a vital role in linking and publishing heritage data. However, the main difficulties of building ontology faced by heritage institutions are how the cultural heritage information is integrated into a fine-grained ontology. Therefore, following the ISO principles of Terminology (ISO 1087 and 704), this article proposed a term-concept-characteristic methodology that is user-friendly for cultural heritage experts to build a fine-grained ontology. This article aims to provide a method to integrate the fine-grained knowledge of cultural heritage into an ontology, especially when it is necessary to build a fine-grained ontology for particular purposes, such as knowledge-based terminological resources.","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"37 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138502988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The dialogue of a large number of American feature films of the last 30 years is analysed with the stylometric tools contained in the R-stylo package. Various interesting results showing the capabilities and restrictions of this statistical package emerge.
{"title":"Film dialogue and R-stylo","authors":"Barry Salt","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad062","url":null,"abstract":"The dialogue of a large number of American feature films of the last 30 years is analysed with the stylometric tools contained in the R-stylo package. Various interesting results showing the capabilities and restrictions of this statistical package emerge.","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"37 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138502986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Principal components analysis (PCA) has been one of the staple methods used in stylometry. In a 2021 article, Pervez Rizvi casts doubt on this method and argues that some widely cited results based on it should be set aside. In the current article, I show that none of Rizvi’s theoretical claims or experimental results stand up to examination. Rizvi argues that discarding the principal components beyond the first two makes the method unreliable, but permutation testing of PCAs shows that the top components in these trials are significant and robust, and the results across many experiments show the combination of the first and second component to be effective in classification. Rizvi argues that PCA components must be treated separately, and much of his critique of the PCA method is based on this standpoint, but this is not the practice in the work presented in the publications he cites or in the wider literature. Rizvi is unable to replicate a chart in an article by Craig, but his replication, unlike the original, does not account for the widely varying sizes of samples in his data. The current article shows that Rizvi’s claims are misguided and that using PCA in the Burrows tradition to find and formalize authorial discriminations in text samples from plays of the Shakespearean era is efficacious and robust.
{"title":"Principal components analysis in stylometry","authors":"Hugh Craig","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad083","url":null,"abstract":"Principal components analysis (PCA) has been one of the staple methods used in stylometry. In a 2021 article, Pervez Rizvi casts doubt on this method and argues that some widely cited results based on it should be set aside. In the current article, I show that none of Rizvi’s theoretical claims or experimental results stand up to examination. Rizvi argues that discarding the principal components beyond the first two makes the method unreliable, but permutation testing of PCAs shows that the top components in these trials are significant and robust, and the results across many experiments show the combination of the first and second component to be effective in classification. Rizvi argues that PCA components must be treated separately, and much of his critique of the PCA method is based on this standpoint, but this is not the practice in the work presented in the publications he cites or in the wider literature. Rizvi is unable to replicate a chart in an article by Craig, but his replication, unlike the original, does not account for the widely varying sizes of samples in his data. The current article shows that Rizvi’s claims are misguided and that using PCA in the Burrows tradition to find and formalize authorial discriminations in text samples from plays of the Shakespearean era is efficacious and robust.","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"37 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138502987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We introduce Hyperbard, a dataset of diverse relational data representations derived from Shakespeare’s plays. Our representations range from simple graphs capturing character co-occurrence in single scenes to hypergraphs encoding complex communication settings and character contributions as hyperedges with edge-specific node weights. By making multiple intuitive representations readily available for experimentation, we facilitate rigorous representation robustness checks in graph learning, graph mining, and network analysis, highlighting the advantages and drawbacks of specific representations. Leveraging the data released in Hyperbard, we demonstrate that many solutions to popular graph mining problems are highly dependent on the representation choice, thus calling current graph curation practices into question. As an homage to our data source, and asserting that science can also be art, we present our points in the form of a play.1
{"title":"All the world’s a (hyper)graph: A data drama","authors":"Corinna Coupette, Jilles Vreeken, Bastian Rieck","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad071","url":null,"abstract":"We introduce Hyperbard, a dataset of diverse relational data representations derived from Shakespeare’s plays. Our representations range from simple graphs capturing character co-occurrence in single scenes to hypergraphs encoding complex communication settings and character contributions as hyperedges with edge-specific node weights. By making multiple intuitive representations readily available for experimentation, we facilitate rigorous representation robustness checks in graph learning, graph mining, and network analysis, highlighting the advantages and drawbacks of specific representations. Leveraging the data released in Hyperbard, we demonstrate that many solutions to popular graph mining problems are highly dependent on the representation choice, thus calling current graph curation practices into question. As an homage to our data source, and asserting that science can also be art, we present our points in the form of a play.1","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"37 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138502985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Sustaining grant funded digital humanities websites has become a major challenge in the field. Three American universities with digital humanities centers kept eight of nine websites funded by the United States National Endowment for the Humanities (1996–2003) online to 2022. Center personnel made website preservation a part of everyday operations without additional funds devoted to the task. Web software developed rapidly in this period, however and center staff members’ efforts often did not succeed in providing necessary updates. Funded materials became increasingly obsolete. The extent of center personnel’s efforts, compared with their results, suggests that their approach itself will in many cases prove unsustainable. In one case, a university shifted responsibility for a popular website to its library. The library completely rebuilt it, only to find that the resource had again become obsolete less than 10 years later. Reconstruction should therefore be understood as an ongoing process, and its cost and complexity suggest that many online resources will not benefit from it. A new approach converting websites to a static state can facilitate sustainability at lower cost, but it also requires resources for implementation. Two American funding agencies have recently made grants available for website preservation and reconstruction. Similar organizations in other parts of the world have not followed suit and should consider doing so. In the absence of a comprehensive effort to identify and evaluate legacy websites for preservation, the competitive process of securing grant awards can begin to determine which legacy websites will survive.
{"title":"Great lengths: a review of website preservation activities at three American Universities with digital humanities centers","authors":"Drew VandeCreek","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad080","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Sustaining grant funded digital humanities websites has become a major challenge in the field. Three American universities with digital humanities centers kept eight of nine websites funded by the United States National Endowment for the Humanities (1996–2003) online to 2022. Center personnel made website preservation a part of everyday operations without additional funds devoted to the task. Web software developed rapidly in this period, however and center staff members’ efforts often did not succeed in providing necessary updates. Funded materials became increasingly obsolete. The extent of center personnel’s efforts, compared with their results, suggests that their approach itself will in many cases prove unsustainable. In one case, a university shifted responsibility for a popular website to its library. The library completely rebuilt it, only to find that the resource had again become obsolete less than 10 years later. Reconstruction should therefore be understood as an ongoing process, and its cost and complexity suggest that many online resources will not benefit from it. A new approach converting websites to a static state can facilitate sustainability at lower cost, but it also requires resources for implementation. Two American funding agencies have recently made grants available for website preservation and reconstruction. Similar organizations in other parts of the world have not followed suit and should consider doing so. In the absence of a comprehensive effort to identify and evaluate legacy websites for preservation, the competitive process of securing grant awards can begin to determine which legacy websites will survive.","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"28 10","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135086751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This study examines three popular e-dictionary platforms using a quantitative user survey coupled with a qualitative multimodal discourse analysis (MDA): Chinese Youdao, Cambridge English-Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (Cambridge), and the Free Dictionary (FD). The survey (N = 478) revealed that, despite its language flaws, Youdao was preferred by most Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners mainly due to its search functionality and personalization. In contrast, English majors and postgraduates preferred Cambridge for its reliability and multimodal resources. FD ranked the lowest in popularity mainly for perceived inconvenience of searching and less accessibility of personalized functions. Multinomial logistic regressions and structural equation modelling showed that dictionary selection by users was contingent upon their perception of its features and their use strategies. Furthermore, MDA revealed how each dictionary contributed to the construction of a cultural identity. Youdao seemed to be a toolbox for personal use, with raw texts of varying quality, but with a clear and practical vision, in addition to customization options. Cambridge portrayed itself as a welcoming language community through appealing imagery, interactive options, and diverse navigational styles. FD was comparable to a dynamic and cluttered library, archiving large blocks of hyperlinked texts and word lists accompanied by musical animations. In brief, multimodal and cultural factors partially explained Chinese EFL learners’ preferences for a specific dictionary, highlighting the importance of adaptation to the linguistic and cultural background of the user, including customization. A general cultural and semiotic framework is proposed to examine the representation of cultural identity in e-dictionaries.
摘要本研究采用定量用户调查结合定性多模态语篇分析(MDA)的方法,考察了三个流行的电子词典平台:中国有道、剑桥英汉词典(Cambridge English-Mandarin Chinese Dictionary, Cambridge)和自由词典(Free Dictionary, FD)。调查(N = 478)显示,尽管有道存在语言缺陷,但它的搜索功能和个性化仍然是大多数中国英语学习者的首选。相比之下,英语专业和研究生更喜欢剑桥大学,因为它的可靠性和多模式资源。FD在受欢迎程度上排名最低,主要是因为人们认为搜索不方便,个性化功能的可访问性较差。多项逻辑回归和结构方程模型表明,用户对词典的选择取决于他们对词典特征的感知和使用策略。此外,MDA揭示了每本词典如何有助于文化认同的构建。有道似乎是一个个人使用的工具箱,有不同质量的原始文本,但有一个清晰而实用的愿景,除了定制选项。剑桥通过吸引人的图像、互动选项和多样化的导航风格,将自己描绘成一个受欢迎的语言社区。FD相当于一个动态的、杂乱的库,存档大量的超链接文本和单词列表,并伴有音乐动画。总之,多模态和文化因素部分解释了中国英语学习者对特定词典的偏好,突出了适应用户语言和文化背景的重要性,包括定制。本文提出了一个通用的文化和符号学框架来研究电子词典中文化认同的表征。
{"title":"Cultural specificities of online dictionaries for English learners: Evidence from a user survey and a multimodal discourse analysis","authors":"Shuneng Zhong, Xiqin Liu","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad055","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study examines three popular e-dictionary platforms using a quantitative user survey coupled with a qualitative multimodal discourse analysis (MDA): Chinese Youdao, Cambridge English-Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (Cambridge), and the Free Dictionary (FD). The survey (N = 478) revealed that, despite its language flaws, Youdao was preferred by most Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners mainly due to its search functionality and personalization. In contrast, English majors and postgraduates preferred Cambridge for its reliability and multimodal resources. FD ranked the lowest in popularity mainly for perceived inconvenience of searching and less accessibility of personalized functions. Multinomial logistic regressions and structural equation modelling showed that dictionary selection by users was contingent upon their perception of its features and their use strategies. Furthermore, MDA revealed how each dictionary contributed to the construction of a cultural identity. Youdao seemed to be a toolbox for personal use, with raw texts of varying quality, but with a clear and practical vision, in addition to customization options. Cambridge portrayed itself as a welcoming language community through appealing imagery, interactive options, and diverse navigational styles. FD was comparable to a dynamic and cluttered library, archiving large blocks of hyperlinked texts and word lists accompanied by musical animations. In brief, multimodal and cultural factors partially explained Chinese EFL learners’ preferences for a specific dictionary, highlighting the importance of adaptation to the linguistic and cultural background of the user, including customization. A general cultural and semiotic framework is proposed to examine the representation of cultural identity in e-dictionaries.","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"6 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135087254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Bringing together narrative elements, virtual affordances, and participants’ embodied interactions, virtual reality (VR) movies instantiate new narrative techniques by offering an immersive experience. This study examines virtual narrative beyond mere interactional engagement and extends the phenomenon to include worlding, metaleptic embodiment, and instantiated possible selves. It aims at exploring VR narrative as idiosyncratic cognitive processes, with a special focus on the notions of empathy and emotional involvement as significant elements contributing to this peculiar interactional and cognitive experience. A cognitive stylistic approach is adopted to explain the functional ability of VR technology in transporting participants to alternate worlds and in making them experience a kind of self-transformation. The immersively metaleptic discourse of Baba Yaga is examined as engaging participants in a quest of how to act as morally and socially empathetic and responsible citizens—global citizens. Baba Yaga narrative deploys the narrative discourses of flashbacks, facework, doubly deictic ‘you’, performatives, and imperatives along with material processes to situate participants in a virtual space of actions and doings and hence encourage them to configure their desired self(ves) across different immersive interactions. The global citizen is embodied in the interactive narrative of Baba Yaga, through invoking various storyworld possible selves (SPSs): the feeling self, the responsible self, and the moral self, which encompasses climate activist self and interculturally aware self who manages to get rid of its own cultural biases as the narrative proceeds. Embodied in these selves, participants transform the virtual world into possible worlds of their own passion, agency, choices, hopes, and desires.
{"title":"VR as a metaleptic possible world of global citizenship embodiment: a cognitive stylistic approach","authors":"Rania Magdi Fawzy","doi":"10.1093/llc/fqad078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqad078","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Bringing together narrative elements, virtual affordances, and participants’ embodied interactions, virtual reality (VR) movies instantiate new narrative techniques by offering an immersive experience. This study examines virtual narrative beyond mere interactional engagement and extends the phenomenon to include worlding, metaleptic embodiment, and instantiated possible selves. It aims at exploring VR narrative as idiosyncratic cognitive processes, with a special focus on the notions of empathy and emotional involvement as significant elements contributing to this peculiar interactional and cognitive experience. A cognitive stylistic approach is adopted to explain the functional ability of VR technology in transporting participants to alternate worlds and in making them experience a kind of self-transformation. The immersively metaleptic discourse of Baba Yaga is examined as engaging participants in a quest of how to act as morally and socially empathetic and responsible citizens—global citizens. Baba Yaga narrative deploys the narrative discourses of flashbacks, facework, doubly deictic ‘you’, performatives, and imperatives along with material processes to situate participants in a virtual space of actions and doings and hence encourage them to configure their desired self(ves) across different immersive interactions. The global citizen is embodied in the interactive narrative of Baba Yaga, through invoking various storyworld possible selves (SPSs): the feeling self, the responsible self, and the moral self, which encompasses climate activist self and interculturally aware self who manages to get rid of its own cultural biases as the narrative proceeds. Embodied in these selves, participants transform the virtual world into possible worlds of their own passion, agency, choices, hopes, and desires.","PeriodicalId":45315,"journal":{"name":"Digital Scholarship in the Humanities","volume":"54 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135775855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}