Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ethnography; Romans'

This thesis explores the prominence of romance and romantic love in the relationship cultures of a cohort of children aged between 10 and 12. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork that took place at three primary schools and one high school over the period of a year, it examines the various ways that the children invested in and understand romance and romantic love during the significant rite-of-passage of the transfer between primary and secondary educational phases. Using qualitative and ethnographic methods - including participant observation, group interviews, story and diary writing - rich forms of spoken, written and pictorial data were gathered. These are discussed and analysed with reference to sociological theories of sexuality, friendship and social solidarity. Although the research was situated in schools, it is important to highlight that this was a cultural, rather than an educational study. It shows that romance was a key part of the children's negotiations of their own and others identities and relationships, and that this was shaped in powerful ways by discourses of gender, sexuality and social class. Key points of discussion include: the development of the concept of Tietero-sociality' as a way of discussing how heterosexual practices shape children's everyday lives the differences between girls' and boys' articulations of and investments in romance how romance shapes friendship practices, particularly *best' friendships how understandings of and investments in romantic love are classed and gendered the importance of gendered sexuality during the transfer between primary and secondary schooling and in children's conceptions of the life-course and, the use of the adult researcher's 'ethnographic self as a tool for investigating the personal relationships, friendship cultures and solidarities of children and young people.

Tout en se présentant comme la relecture d’un fait divers de l’histoire italienne récente, Romanzo Criminale est un récit qui se déploie par le biais de différents médias : un livre, un film, une série télévisée, ainsi qu’un certain nombre de produits dérivés. On trouve également, dans les espaces en ligne Internet, des déclinaisons de ces produits générées par les utilisateurs eux-mêmes. Les pratiques de transformation ou de remix mises en œuvre par ces derniers, les hommages et autres parodies dilatent l’univers de départ en proposant des lectures alternatives au sein de communautés différentes. La présente étude explore les modalités qui s’offrent au chercheur pour une analyse de ce phénomène : si, dans un premier temps, la notion d’intertextualité peut être employée comme outil heuristique, la présence de véritables usages requiert le dépassement de la perspective narratologique et la construction d’une méthodologie de recherche adaptée au contexte contemporain. Afin de rendre compte de la multitude des pratiques existantes une enquête ethnographique dans les espaces en ligne (blogs, sites de partage de vidéos, réseaux sociaux) s’impose, assortie d’une approche critique de la notion de transmédialité. Enfin, l’une des caractéristiques les plus typiquement contemporaines du phénomène observé, celle qui consiste à faire advenir un univers fictionnel dilatable à souhait par les spectateurs, sera comparée à la mise en œuvre d’un "travail épique"
Presented as a new interpretation of a momentous event in recent Italian history, Romanzo Criminale is a story spread through different types of media; it is a book, a film, a TV series, as well as a number of extra materials. Spin-offs of these products created by users can be found on the Internet as well. Users pay homage to or parody the original media by transforming or remixing its content, thus expanding the story’s universe by putting forward alternative interpretations throughout various communities both on and offline. In this study, we explore the methods available to researchers for analyzing this phenomenon. If, in the first section of the study, the notion of intertextuality can be used as a heuristic tool, in the second, the presence of actual uses requires the researcher to go beyond the narratological perspective and construct a methodology that is adapted to the contemporary context of convergence. In order to understand the multitude of existing practices, it is imperative to carry out an ethnographic investigation of online spaces (blogs, video sharing sites, social networks), and accompany it with a critical examination of the notion of transmediality. In the last section, we examine one of the most typical contemporary features of the studied phenomenon, the one which produces an everexpanding fictional universe created by spectators that will be compared to an "epic work"

This thesis has two interlinked objectives. One is to explore some of the meanings projected onto ideas of Italy in the UK in relation to Italian mobility patterns. The second is to argue for the development of the study of material culture and ethnographic approaches in contemporary Modern Languages research and teaching. Taking into account a range of ‘Italian stuff’; public spaces such as cafés and bars, narrative texts and recipe books, a celebrity figure, and drawing on personal narratives as recounted in interview, the thesis critically engages with the contemporary value of images of traditional Italy from a Modern Languages perspective. The aim is to practically demonstrate how ethnography and the study of material culture can be used to complement the conventional disciplinary emphasis of Modern Languages on critical analysis of written and visual texts and on linguistic competence. Drawing on the work of a variety of ethnographic theorists of the significance of the everyday and the unexpected, of the interplay between power and selfhood, and of class and the inscription of value, the thesis explores the ideals read into notions of Italy’s authenticity across different sites in terms of the tensions between the desirability of a grounded, local identity and the simultaneous need to be able to distance oneself from it, generational class difference and its enduring memory, the diversity of rural and urban experience, and self-understanding and expression. Via case-studies of different sites and an investigation into the pertinence of an ethnographic reflexivity in the context of language learning, it places relevant contemporary anthropological, linguistic and sociological theory in dialogue with existing calls for renewal from within Modern Languages to practice an ethnographic approach to the study of language and culture.

Nous voulons démontrer l’importance du moment biographique et formatif d’Amelia Rosselli qui précède son écriture et le rôle de ses premiers écrits plurilingues qui représentent la préhistoire de sa trilogie italienne et d’autres œuvres de sa maturité littéraire. Pour ce faire, cette thèse étudie, dans ses deux premières parties, l’exil de la famille Rosselli, victime de la persécution politique pendant le ventennio fasciste et la proto-formation culturelle, franco-anglo-américaine, de la poétesse, entre musique, littérature et politique. Nous dressons une synthèse de l’influence du néoréalisme du poète Rocco Scotellaro et de l’ethnologue Ernesto de Martino. Dans la troisième partie, cette étude analyse, dans une perspective intertextuelle, les Primi Scritti de 1952 à 1963 et décrit l’idiome de la poétesse, caractérisé par l’alternance et le mélange, parfois dans le même texte, de l’italien, de l’anglais et du français. Parallèlement nous montrons comme le plurilinguisme d’Amelia Rosselli ne se limite pas à une simple triglossie. Son plurilinguisme englobe d’autres langues : le latin, l’italien et le français du moyen âge, l’anglais élisabéthain, la langue des analphabètes de la Basilicate, les formes populaires du Sud de l’Italie et de Rome. Nous soutenons l’importance des études anthropologiques et ethnomusicologiques qu’elle a suivies de 1952 à 1953 et nous montrons en quoi le livre-enquête Contadini del Sud du lucanien Rocco Scotellaro a été déterminant pour Amelia Rosselli, ainsi que d’autres textes, afin de décrire la richesse de sa préhistoire littéraire. Pendant l’analyse des textes des origines, nous dégageons la naissance de trois poétiques d’Amelia Rosselli, de l’espace, de l’éclipse du moi poétique et de la blessure qui se montrent interdépendantes, s’entrelacent et se développent au cours des années 60 et 70
We would like to show the importance of Amelia Rosselli’s formative and biographical moment that precedes her writing as well as the role of her first multilingual works that represent the prehistory of her Italian trilogy and of other works of her literary maturity. To do so, this thesis studies, in its first two sections, the exile of the Rosselli family, victim of political persecution throughout the fascist ventennio, as well as the poet’s Franco-English-American proto-formation, amongst music, literature and politics. We will draw up a synthesis of the neorealist influence of the poet Rocco Scotellaro and of the ethnologist Ernesto de Martino. In the third section, this study will analyse, in an inter-textual perspective, the Primi Scritti (1952-1963) and will describe the poet’s idiom, characterized by alternation and mixture, of Italian, French, and English, sometimes in the same text. In parallel we will show how Amelia Rosselli’s multilingualism is not limited to a simple triglossie. Her multilingualism includes other languages: Latin, Italian and French from the Middle Ages, Elizabethan English, the spoken language of the illiterate from Basilicata, plus popular forms of speech from the south of Italy and from Rome. We uphold the importance of the anthropological and ethno-musicological studies carried out by Amelia Rosselli from 1952 to 1953. We will also show how the book of investigation Contadini del Sud by the Lucanian Rocco Scotellero was determining for her, as well as other texts, to be able to describe the treasures of her literary prehistory. Throughout the analysis of the texts of the origins we will uncover the birth of Amelia Rosselli’s three poetics: that of space, of the eclipse of oneself, and that of the wound, together to be seen as interdependent, entwined, and that will further develop themselves during the 60’s and the 70’s

In the context of globalization, the idea of place is reputed to be losing its footing. This thesis explores the implications of these developments with respect to the way that place is constructed in law by focusing on tensions between the concept of jurisdiction and the ways that the contexts of law overspill it, threatening to engulf comparative analysis. Central to the idea that jurisdiction is losing its familiar moorings is the implication that other forms of thinking about legal normativity are emerging as more commonsensical alternatives to the state-based idea of jurisdiction that emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The thesis explores this hypothesis by bringing elements of the discipline of comparative law (conventionally state based) into play with elements of the discipline of legal anthropology (conventionally culture based). The focus for this theoretical intrigue is an Gitano population in the South of Spain that served as the fieldwork locale for seven months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in 1995. Investigations are centered on the theme of family law. Familiar notions of state and culture, and the legal sensibilities associated with each, are examined through exploring the interplay between local expressions of Gitanitude in Jerez de la Frontera and regional, national, international, and global forces that structure legal sensibilities in the area. The first chapter explores the interplay by focusing on the context surrounding Spain's reforms to family law in the 1980s. The familiar frontiers of the state are prodded through this analysis. The second chapter then explores the frontiers of culture through an examination of a variety of expressions of Gitanitude in Spain. The third chapter brings modified versions of state and culture together in a reconceptualisation of family law. As a whole, the thesis suggests a new way of approaching the problematic relationship between context and the disciplines of comparative law an

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004.
Document formatted into pages. Includes bibliographical references. Abstract available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2007 Dec. 1.

This study explores the historic relationship between pop music divas and gay male fandom. It charts fan experiences from the early 60s with Judy Garland to contemporary times with pop diva Lady Gaga. This project also gives a description of the embodied experience of Brett Farmer's "queer sublimity of diva reception." Farmer (2005) argues that diva worship among gay men has become a queer sublimity, "the transcendence of a limiting heteronormative materiality and the sublime reconstruction, at least in fantasy, of a more capacious, kinder, queerer world" (p. 170). Using the methods of participant observation in drag performance and karaoke singing, performance ethnography, and autoethnography, I attempt to understand how a diva's performance can influence the lives of gay men and how it can inspire visions of a more perfect world for everyone.

This ethnographic study explores how 'Romanian Roma' migrants in the UK, without previous relationships to their place of arrival, negotiate their identity to make place in a diverse urban area. The thesis argues that state forms are (re)produced through embedded social relations. The restructuring of the UK welfare state, coupled with processes of labelling, means that the notion of public and private space is changing. Migrants' encounters with state actors in the home are increasingly important. I lived with three families between January 2013 and March 2014, during a period of shifting labour market regulations and the end of European Union transitional controls in January 2014. Through mapping families' relationships and connections, I identify encounters in the home with state actors regarding children as a defining feature of place-making. The thesis introduces the term 'home encounter' to trace the interplay of discourses and performances between state actors and those they identified as 'Romanian Roma'. Due to the restructuring of UK welfare, various roles assume different 'faces of the state'. These include education officers, health visitors, sub-contracted NGO workers, charismatic pastors and volunteers. The home encounter is presented as a public 'state act' (Bourdieu 2012) where negotiations of values take place in private space determining access to membership and welfare resources. In addition, blurring boundaries between welfare regulations and immigration control mean that these actors' seemingly small decisions have far-reaching consequences. The analysis raises questions of how to understand practices of government in diverse urban areas; the affect of labelling, place and performance on material power inequalities; and processes of discrimination and othering.

Ce travail porte sur les formes politiques des collectifs des Roms de Provence, dont les premières kumpanji sont arrivées en France à la fin du 19e siècle. Les kumpanji se composent, se segmentent et se reconfigurent fréquemment dans des lieux nouveaux : à chaque halte, un monde romanès se recrée avec des personnes différentes et une redistribution de l’agencement des caravanes. Les lieux, éléments à part entière des collectifs, sont le plus souvent des espaces qui sont des propriétés des gadjé, publics ou privés : aires d’accueil de gens du voyage, places, terrains privés ; ils déterminent pour une grande part l’encastrement des Roms de Provence. À travers l’analyse de la composition des kumpanji, de leurs membres (Partie I), de leurs lieux (Partie II) et de leurs rythmes (Partie III), cette thèse met en évidence la remarquable résistance par laquelle les Roms de Provence réinventent leurs collectifs depuis plus de cent-cinquante ans malgré des politiques étatiques continument discriminatoires, – et génocidaires pendant le temps de l’Occupation. Elle utilise deux outils méthodiques spécifiques : une reconstruction ethno-généalogique qui montre sur la longue durée que les relations de parenté sont loin de suffire à expliquer les formes des collectifs, et un point de vue ethnographique ancré dans les cercles des femmes qui donne un nouvel accès à la vitalité et à l’art politique des kumpanji
This thesis studies the ways the Roma of Provence, also known as « Hungarian » Roma, get organized by forming numerous and transient kumpanij. Since their arrival in France at the end of 19th century, kumpanij have been frequently composed, segmented and reconfigured in new places: at each stopover, a romani world is recreated with different people and a new distribution of the layout of the caravans. Places, which are fully-fledged elements of those « collectives », are most often spaces that are publicly or privately owned by gadje: dedicated caravan sites for travellers, illegal camp, private land; the type of space they are settling on largely determine the embedding of the Roma inside the territory of Provence. Through the analysis of the composition of the kumpanji, their members (Part I), their places (Part II) and their rhythms (Part III), this thesis highlights the remarkable resistance by which the Roma of Provence have been reinventing their ways of living together for more than one hundred and fifty years, despite continuous discriminatory policies – and, even, genocidal state policies during German Occupation of France. Two specific methodical tools are being used: an ethno-genealogical reconstruction that shows over time that kinship relationships are far from sufficient to explain the forms of the kumpanij, and an ethnographic perspective rooted in a shared life with Roma women that gives new access to the symbolic and political dimensions of the kumpanji

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’établir une ethnographie des formes de la mémoire de l’interdiction de l’avortement dans le régime totalitaire de Ceausescu. Entre 1966 et 1989, le régime communiste roumain a imposé des politiques pronatalistes, au nom du : binele natiunii socialiste (« le bien de la nation socialiste »). Une construction de la maternité comme « tradition roumaine » a été ainsi développée, en parallèle d’une stricte interdiction de l’IVG, et de la mise à l’écart des moyens contraceptifs modernes. La remémoration sociale de ce passé difficile reste encore un tabou dans la société roumaine d’aujourd’hui. Il semblerait qu’en Roumanie actuelle cette remémoration-faible joue un rôle important dans la santé reproductive, et qu’elle est déterminée par des relations d’intersubjectivité entre les différentes formes de la mémoire du pronatalisme, c'est-à-dire la mémoire officielle, la mémoire culturelle (publique) et la mémoire sociale-partagée. L’analyse développée sur ces formes et leurs relations d’intersubjectivité a pour base un terrain anthropologique (2004-2009) sur la mémoire de l’avortement en Roumanie communiste, et fut réalisée dans le domaine interdisciplinaire des Études mémorielles
Taking the pronatalism of Ceausescu’s regime as a case study, this thesis is an an ethnography of the memory-formes of a recent delicat past, such as the banning of abortion in a totalitarist regime. From 1966 to 1989, the communist regime imposed extreme policies of controlled demography in Romania, as it was imputed, for ‘the good of the socialist nation’. A construction of maternity as ‘Romanian tradition’ was developed in parallel to the banning of abortion on request and the making of contraception almost inaccessible. The social remembering of such a difficult past is still a taboo in contemporary Romanian society. This law-remembering, which is maybe playing an important role in the current situation of Romania’s reproductive health, is influenced by the intersubjectivities devellopped between the different forms of pronatalist memory, i.e. its official memory, its cultural memory and its social memory. The analysis of those memory-formes and their intersubjectivities is based on an anthropological fieldwork (2004-2009) on the memory of abortion in Communist Romania, and is theoretically informed by the interdisciplinary field of Memory Studies

The present thesis addresses the relationship between the structure and social functions of language through the study of an Afro-Brazilian Portuguese speech community. The adopted methodological, analytical, and theoretical standpoints have their origin in linguistic anthropology, social psychology of language and discourse analysis. A set of data was collected during extensive fieldwork in Salvador (Brazil), and consists of recordings of informal conversations with and between followers of Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion. Focusing on the communicative process in a specific communicative setting, the linguistic analyses illustrate the relationship between language and identity by examining theway in which expressions of African origin function as identity markers. In order to connect such Africanisms used by Candomblé followers in their everyday speech with the linguistic attitudes and ideologies found in Brazilian society throughout history, an interdisciplinary approach was called for and factors that affect the speech community’s ethnolinguistic vitality were explored. Linguistic attitudes and ideologies that have influenced group vitality were analyzed in the socio-political context (or macro-context). At the same time, the purpose was to understand communication within the sacred space of Candomblé by examining issues such as changes in linguistic forms and functions in the communicative situation (or microcontext). Apart from revealing patterns of communication in Candomblé communities, the results of the analyses show how linguistic changes such as re-Africanization are triggered by changes of attitudes in society. These changes affect speakers’ identities and language use within speech communities.

The present thesis addresses the relationship between the structure and social functions of language through the study of an Afro-Brazilian Portuguese speech community. The adopted methodological, analytical, and theoretical standpoints have their origin in linguistic anthropology, social psychology of language and discourse analysis. A set of data was collected during extensive fieldwork in Salvador (Brazil), and consists of recordings of informal conversations with and between followers of Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion.

Focusing on the communicative process in a specific communicative setting, the linguistic analyses illustrate the relationship between language and identity by examining theway in which expressions of African origin function as identity markers. In order to connect such Africanisms used by Candomblé followers in their everyday speech with the linguistic attitudes and ideologies found in Brazilian society throughout history, an interdisciplinary approach was called for and factors that affect the speech community’s ethnolinguistic vitality were explored. Linguistic attitudes and ideologies that have influenced group vitality were analyzed in the socio-political context (or macro-context). At the same time, the purpose was to understand communication within the sacred space of Candomblé by examining issues such as changes in linguistic forms and functions in the communicative situation (or microcontext).

Apart from revealing patterns of communication in Candomblé communities, the results of the analyses show how linguistic changes such as re-Africanization are triggered by changes of attitudes in society. These changes affect speakers’ identities and language use within speech communities.

This thesis analyses how romanies look upon schooling and how they reflect upon the possibility of getting an education. Many inquiries relating to romanies have been published in Sweden but very few are based on fieldwork among romanies. The aim of this thesis is therefore to through fieldwork focus on how romanies themselves look upon their educational situation.

The main questions for this study are: How is the image of romanies as a problem constructed in school? How are romanies separated from other students? How is the interplay between romanies and school representatives formed? How do romanies look upon the possibility of getting an education and does their perception differ from the usual official apprehension?

An important conclusion concerns how social workers and teachers continuously categorize romanies as different. The group is constantly differentiated from other ethnic groups and is often the target of integration projects. This leads to a constant stigmatization of the group but also to “weak power”. In certain situations where the ethnic identity may be an advantage the ethnic identity is over communicated while it is under communicated in an inferior situation.

The thesis considers the views and experiences of nurse leaders and policy-makers on the use of EU accession as a policy window to advance a professional agenda in Romania and Croatia. The research question and objectives are designed to identify the policy context prior EU accession, the processes and mechanisms employed to achieve compliance with Directive 2005/36/EC, the nursing policy agendas and achieved legislative and professional outcomes. They are analytically located within the process of Europeanisation, EU accession policy, leadership, engagement and advocacy literature. The comparative findings are interpreted within this theoretical framework. The study adopted a qualitative approach using an ethnographic multi-method design involving interviews and documentary analysis of key EU accession primary source reports. My own positional was written into the account in a reflexive manner. The findings indicate that the nursing leadership used EU accession as a policy window to advance a professional agenda but the extent to which this opportunity was exploited differed in the case studies. Findings indicate the importance of regime specific conditions creating a set of constraints which differed in both cases. The Croatian case shows what could have been achieved through the use of TAIEX capacity building engaging stakeholders in agenda-setting. The Romanian nurse leadership failed to take advantage of the policy window prior to EU accession but the continued advocacy hold the Romanian government post-EU accession to account for its policy decisions. Although the new generation of nurses in Romania and Croatia comply with Directive 2005/36/EC, the nursing workforce which graduated prior to EU accession does not benefit from mutual recognition. It is concluded that the EU mechanisms to process compliance – peer review and capacity building – are not robust enough to strengthen free movement based on mutual recognition. The research findings contribute towards our understanding of the role of nursing in policy-making and the dynamics that drive policies outcomes. The research adds new knowledge to our understanding of the researched area and helps to position nursing within a broader context of EU enlargement.

This dissertation examines ethnographic writing in the Jesuit Relations, a set of annual reports from missionaries in New France to Society of Jesus authorities in France that were published and widely read from 1632 to 1673. Drawing on currents in cultural anthropological thought about the complex relationship between anthropologists, their subjects, and the texts they produce, I analyze how the Relations allowed Jesuit missionaries to define for French readers Amerindian cultures, European-Amerindian interactions, and the health and success of the colony and the mission for forty years, almost without competition, giving them extraordinary influence over perceptions of the Amerindian Other at the very moment that France's interest therein was being piqued by an increasing awareness of the world outside of Europe. The texts now are lauded as the première source of information on the Algonquian and Iroquoian groups with which the Jesuits were in contact in seventeenth century New France. In this dissertation, I examine the ways Jesuits conveyed information about Amerindian groups, focusing on the rhetorical aspects of their accounts that have been largely ignored by social scientists who have mined the texts for data. Instead of considering the Relations as a collection of facts recorded by diligent field workers, I seek to understand them as texts that reflect multiple points of view and the political, religious, and intellectual pressures acting on their French Catholic authors. Were Amerindians human? If so, were they created in Eden along with the ancestors of Europeans? How could one explain their presence in America, with little apparent knowledge of their origins? And if they were human and of the same stock as European Christians, how could one explain the fact that their beliefs and behavior were so different from those of their French Christian interlocutors? These questions, I argue, left an enduring mark on the Jesuits' descriptions of Amerindian cultures, making their texts less the work of proto-anthropologists than a form of intellectual colonization.

Dissertation

A study of the cultural and ideological effects of Roman citizenship on Greeks living in the first three centuries AD. The ramifications of the extension of citizenship to these Greeks illustrates that ideas such as 'culture' and 'identity' are not static terms, but constructions of a particular social milieu at any given point in time. Roman citizenship functioned as a kind of ideological apparatus that, when given to a non-Roman, questioned that individual's native identity. This thesis addresses, via an examination of four sources, all of whom were Greeks with Roman citizenship - Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, Ulpian, the minters of eastern civic coins - the extent to which one could remain 'Greek' while participating in one of the most Roman institutions of the Empire. Utilizing these sources with the aid of a number of theoretical bases (notably Louis Althusser and Pierre Bourdieu), this study attempts to come to a conclusion about the nature of 'Romanness' in the ancient world.

M.A (Audiovisual Communication)
In 2008 a film about a Gothic Romance between a teenage girl and a vampire became a pop culture phenomenon (Edwards, 2009:26). The ‘chick flick’ or ‘women’s film’ genre was suddenly in the spotlight at the box office as droves of female spectators of all ages were entranced by the neo-Gothic fantasy-Romance entitled Twilight (2008) (Em & Lo, 2009; Parekh, 2009:16; Puente, 2009:1; Ryan, 2008). More than 75% of the audience members were female with 55% being under 25 years (Ryan, 2008). Despite Twilight’s (2008) soaring status as a pop-culture phenomenon, much debate has ensued emphasizing the problematic representations and thematic elements that surround the gender roles and relations depicted in the film. As Lezra (2009:1) argues: “The cultural and social values…are so regressive that they would make people in Victorian London stand up and angrily defend the rights of women and minorities”. Twilight (2008) has been criticized for perpetuating traditional, oppressive, patriarchal values and glorifying a female character who has been termed “a feminist’s nightmare” (Czech, 2009) and “a 1950s-robot housewife” (Gassley, 2009). In 2009 the second instalment of the Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) was released which had far more success than Twilight (2008) at the box office, as well as attracting a slightly older demographic (Gray, 2009a:1; Gray 2009b:1; Puente, 2009:1; Seltzer, 2009:1). The thematic conventions surrounding heterosexual relationships depicted in New Moon (2009) make the film particularly interesting. The film shifts focus from the relationship between Bella and her vampire love-interest Edward, as seen in Twilight (2008), to the relationship between Bella and her best friend Jacob, a werewolf. This relationship has been praised as the ‘ideal’ heterosexual relationship and Jacob, the ‘ideal’ partner: “Edward is not the ideal boyfriend-lover. In fact, Jacob is…Edward will only lead to black eyes, rape, torture, and possibly even death” (Housel, 2009a:188). Thus the representation of heterosexual relationships and gender roles within those relationships is brought into question in New Moon (2009). What makes the situation more complex is that despite these criticisms, so many women of multiple age groups are fans of the films. While there are many elements of the film which may contribute to this mass interest, such as fascination with the ‘undead’, or film being a temporary escape for spectators in times of economic instability and uncertainty (Olson, 1995:16), the appeal of this neo-gothic romance for women in particular needs to be examined more closely: “What did it mean that millions iv of girls were fantasizing about men who could barely repress the desire to kill them? In 2008?” (Mann, 2009:132). By integrating genre analysis and audience ethnography, this study explores the representations of gender roles and heterosexual romance in the films Twilight (2008) and New Moon (2009) and the perception of these representations by selected, female South African viewers. It further aims to situate the films within the sociocultural context in which it emerged and thus uses postfeminism as a theoretical framework.

This dissertation examines French and Francophone texts, contexts and thematic problems that comprise a genre I call "ethnographic fiction," whose development we can trace throughout the twentieth century in several geographic locations and in distinct historical moments. During the twentieth century in France, anthropology as an institutionalized discipline and "literature" (writ large) were in constant communication with one another. On the one hand, many French anthropologists produced stylized works demonstrating aesthetic sensibilities that were increasingly difficult to classify. On the other hand, though, poets, philosophers and other literary intellectuals read, absorbed, commented on and attacked texts from anthropology. This century-long conversation produced an interdisciplinary conceptual field allowing French anthropology to borrow from and adapt models from literature at the same time as literature asserted itself as more than just an artistic enterprise and, indeed, as one whose epistemological prerogative was to contribute to and enrich the understanding of humankind and its cultural processes. In this dissertation I argue that fiction can be seen to travel in multiple directions within France's twentieth-century conversation between literature and anthropology such that we can observe the formation of a new genre, one comprised of texts that either explicitly or more implicitly fuse fictional forms and contents together with the methodological and representational imperatives of anthropology and ethnographic fieldwork. Additionally, I argue that fiction moves geographically as well, notably from the metropole to Francophone West Africa which became an anthropological hotspot in the twentieth century once extended field research was legitimated in France and armchair anthropology was thoroughly discredited. By investigating ethnographies, novels, memoirs and films produced both in metropolitan France, Francophone West Africa, and the French Caribbean (including texts by Michel Leiris, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Jean Rouch, Jean-Claude Izzo and Raphaël Confiant), I aim to shed light on the kinds of work that elements of fiction perform in ethnographic texts and, by contrast, on how ethnographic concepts, strategies and fieldwork methods are implicitly or explicitly adopted and reformulated in more literarily oriented works of fiction. Ethnographic fiction as a genre, then, was born not only from the epistemological rapprochement of anthropology and literature in metropolitan France, but from complex and often fraught encounters with the very locations where anthropological praxis was carried out.

Dissertation

Cette recherche porte sur le changement social dans la période postsocialiste à Cluj-« Napoca », une ville transylvaine de Roumanie. En mobilisant une approche en termes de rapports sociaux à l’espace, l’étude explore les principes de différenciation tant spatialement que socialement. Les concepts d’« espace public » et de « lieu » ont permis une analyse aux multiples facettes menée selon quatre axes : matérialité et la visibilité des espaces, sphère publique-politique, vie sociale publique, investissements et appropriations individuelles. La thèse examine ainsi les activités qui se déroulent dans les places publiques centrales, les investissements spatiaux, les rituels quotidiens et les manifestations contestataires, les multiples attachements ethniques et religieux des habitants. L’ethnographie des places publiques centrales de Cluj-« Napoca » a mis en évidence une « faible classification des espaces » centraux de la ville, traduite par une grande diversité sociale. Les marques ethnicisantes parsemées à Cluj-« Napoca » renvoient aux groupes ethniques, mais aussi à d’autres enjeux qui relèvent du processus de restructuration du champ politique dans le postsocialisme. Dans le même registre, les stratégies de type ethnique sont mobilisées pour désigner de nouveaux critères de différenciation sociale et pour redéfinir d’anciennes catégories sociales. Oublis, silences et exigences d’esthétisation reflètent des demandes implicites des habitants pour redéfinir les cadres de la politique. Finalement, la thèse montre comment l’espace public à Cluj-« Napoca » pendant la période postsocialiste relève d’un processus continuel de diversification sociale et d’invention des Autres par d’incessantes mises à distance. L’espace public n’est pas la recherche de ce que pourrait constituer le vivre ensemble, mais la quête de ce qui nous menace et qu’il faut mettre à distance.
This research focuses on the social change in the Transylvanian city of Cluj-“Napoca” in post-socialist Romania. The study explores the principles of differentiation in both social and spatial terms. Drawing on the concepts of “public space” and “place”, a multi-dimensional analysis was conducted in four areas: materiality and visibility of space, public-political sphere, public social life, individual investment and appropriation. Thus, the thesis examines the activities that take place in the central public squares, the spatial investments, the everyday rituals and the protests, the inhabitants’ multiple ethnic and religious attachments. The ethnography of the central public spaces of Cluj-“Napoca” shows a “weak classification of spaces” in the center city, which reflects a wide social diversity. The marks of ethnic identification found throughout the population and public space of Cluj-“Napoca”, refer to ethnic groups but also to a number of issues related to the process of political restructuring in post-socialism. In the same vein, ethnically based strategies are put in place in order to identify new criteria of social differentiation and redefine old social categories. Omissions, silences and aesthetic requirements convey the way that the inhabitants’ implicit claims redefine the policy framework. In conclusion, the thesis shows how the public space in post-socialist Cluj-“Napoca” is an on-going process of social diversification and invention of Others by adopting a continuous stance of distancing. The public space is not the inquiry of what could be the “living together” (vivre ensemble), but the quest of what threat us and must be hold-off.

Alfredo Vieira de Freitas (AVF) é o autor sobre quem nos vamos debruçar neste relatório de estágio do Mestrado em Linguística: Sociedades e Culturas, devido ao interesse linguístico e sociocultural do seu espólio, abrindo caminho para um melhor conhecimento da sua obra e da sua vida dedicada às recolhas populares, orais e tradicionais, madeirenses. No relatório é feita uma abordagem à vida e obra de AVF, destacando a sua intervenção pedagógica como professor de Português, motivando os alunos a recolherem contos ou lendas, histórias e quadras populares, como redações a entregar ao professor, que constam do seu espólio, juntamente com outras recolhas manuscritas feitas por si. O principal objetivo do nosso trabalho de estágio foi inventariar, catalogar, separar, transcrever e sistematizar a grande quantidade e diversidade de manuscritos com recolhas populares do acervo de AVF. Depois, surgiu o desafio de propor uma classificação para os contos e lendas, romances tradicionais e quadras populares, publicados e inéditos, que constam do seu espólio. Finalmente, do confronto entre as versões recolhidas e as publicadas, podemos confirmar a tendência de AVF para a normalização da escrita, não conservando alguns dos traços da fala popular e regional madeirense, nas publicações das composições orais e tradicionais. Nas recolhas de AVF predominam as quadras populares, algumas das quais publicou em O Amorno folclore madeirense e O Humor no folclore madeirense (do povo e para o povo). Seguem-se os contos e lendas populares, alguns publicados em Era uma vez… na Madeira. Lendas, contos e tradições da nossa terra (1964) e em Continhos Populares Madeirenses (1988). De seguida, destacam-se os romances tradicionais, as adivinhas, as expressões populares, formas da linguagem popular, provérbios e alcunhas coletivas que AVF não publicou. Com este trabalho, pretendemos contribuir para o tratamento, estudo e divulgação das recolhas populares, orais e tradicionais, madeirenses do acervo de AVF, valorizandoas ao mostrar o seu interesse linguístico e sociocultural, enquanto património linguísticoetnográfico da Madeira e do Porto Santo.
Alfredo Vieira de Freitas (AVF) is the author we will focus on this internship report from the Master in Linguistics: Societies and Cultures, due to the linguistic and sociocultural interest of his holdings, paving the way for a better knowledge of his work and life dedicated to popular oral and traditional Madeiran collections. The report presents an approach to AVF's life and work, highlighting its pedagogical intervention as a Portuguese teacher, motivating students to collect tales or legends, stories and popular songs, such as essays to be given to the teacher, which are contained in his assets, along with other handwritten popular collections he made. The main objective of our internship work was to inventory, catalog, separate, transcribe and systematize the large number and diversity of popular collection manuscripts from the AVF holdings. Then came the great challenge of proposing a classification for the published and unpublished tales and legends, traditional novels, and popular songs in his assets. Finally, from the confrontation between the collected and published versions, we can confirm the option of AVF for the normalization of the writing, not always preserving the traces of popular and regional Madeiran speech, in the publications of the oral and traditional compositions. In AVF collections, the popular songs predominate, some of which he published in O Amor in Madeiran folklore and O Humor in Madeiran folklore (of the people and for the people). Following are the tales and legends, some of them published in Once upon a time… in Madeira, legends, tales and traditions of our land (1964), and Madeiran folk tales (1988). Then there are the traditional novels, riddles, popular sayings or expressions and proverbs that AVF didn’t publish. With this work, we intend to contribute to the treatment, study and dissemination of popular, oral and traditional collections made by AVF and his students, valuing them by showing their linguistic and sociocultural interest, as a linguistic-ethnographic heritage of Madeira and Porto Santo.