Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Fiction Focus'

This thesis reports on a study which developed a profile of the reviewers of children's books in Australia. It then compared the profile with one which was developed by Kathleen Craver in 1984 of children's book reviewers in the United States. Five research questions were addressed by this study relating to reviewers and their opinions regarding review aspects, reviewer roles and review practices within the framework of their personal and professional background. Craver surveyed the reviewers from School Library journal because as a group, they provided the greatest potential for statistical significance of all the reviewing journals in the United States. As no Australian journal enjoys either the number of reviewers or the circulation of School Library journal, reviewers from eight journals which are most used by teacher and children's librarians were selected to form the population for this research. These journals are Fiction Focus, LINES, Magpies, Reading Time, Reviewpoin t, Review Bulletin, Scan and Tasmanian Resources Review. The reviewer profile which emerged from this study was very similar to Craver's in that it was not one which could be entirely defined in terms of group characteristics. Selected cross tabulations either with the particular journals, demographic details, or other variables, particularly those relating to reviewer experience failed to produce predictable behaviourial correlations. However, reviewers were united on certain issues which can be attributed to their own professional background.

I denna uppsats undersöks hur deltagarkulturen ser ut på gräsrotsnivå, hos de som skriver och läser fan fiction. Utifrån två fan fic-berättelser undersöks interaktionen mellan författare och läsare. Eftersom forskningen inom fan fiction och deltagarkulturer belyser möjligheten till lärande undersöks hur och om konsumenternas produktion på denna nivå främjar lärandet i skapandet av fan fiction. En intressant aspekt när det gäller deltagarkulturen är hur gränsen mellan producent och konsument blir diffus. Kan man, utifrån undersökningen utläsa om gränsen mellan dessa, producent och konsument – författare och läsare – upplöses? Frågeställningar för undersökningen är: Hur interagerar läsarna och författarna med varandra? På vilka sätt engagerar sig läsarna i berättelsen och dess utveckling? Hur förhåller de sig till författarens tolkning och hur ser de/använder de sin roll som läsare? På vilka/vilket sätt uppmanar och/eller uppmuntrar författarna kommentarer och respons från sina läsare? Hur hanterar de kommentarerna? I vilken utsträckning framträder en informell lärmiljö på communityt? Hur ser den ut och kännetecknas den av deltagarkulturen?

The aim of this study is to find out what education in literature is like from a student perspective; what kind of literature the students read and how well they understand literature, and the methods and didactics used during the literature lessons. The questions at issue are:

1) What kind of literature do the students read?

2) How well do the students understand literary texts?

3) What do the students think about their literature education?

To be able to answer the questions, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in the study. The inquiry was accomplished on 29 students, 17 boys and 12 girls in the upper secondary school. The result showed, despite the limited amount of students, interesting facts. Firstly there were some differences between males and females and what kind of fiction girls and boys read. Both girls and boys read magazines and periodicals. The girls read more fiction about love than boys did. The boys rather liked to read books that are exciting and adventurous. The students also differ from one another in how much they liked to read. There were more girls than boys that liked to read a lot. The students, who didn’t like to read, stated that they had other interests or activities. They found it boring to read or had difficulties to find books that were interesting enough. Regardless sex, the students spent approximately 1 hour per week reading outside school, most of them at home before they go to sleep.

The school library plays an important role to stimulate the students to read and to find interesting books. The reading test showed that the students reading ability were good. The results have been analyzed in the light of different theories of reading and research studies. It pays attention to the importance of having focus on the student. It is not a talent to be able to read and write. It is something you can practise and develop doing your whole life. The results of the study also raised questions of importance regarding the cultural capital and canon.

Uppsatsen behandlar hur en läsares genrekunskap påverkar dennes tolkning av en serie. Som projektarbete har jag producerat en kortare episod på fyra sidor, ur en längre serie som jag själv skapat, inom genrerna science-fiction och action. I bakgrunden går jag igenom Scott McClouds syn på serier, Bordwell och Thompssons syn på genrer, samt viss bakgrund och förutsättningar för min series mytologi, berättande och estetiska uttryck. Jag har genomfört en kvalitativ studie där jag låtit fokusgrupper med olika förutsättningar vad gäller förkunskaper och bakgrundsinformation läsa och diskutera serien. För att skapa serie-episoden har jag studerat andra seriers layout, tecknarstil och berättande. Serien bygger på ett tydligt symbolspråk med förankring i verkligheten. De slutsatser jag kunnat dra av undersökningen är att mycket bakgrundsinformation hämmar nyfikenhet och spekulationsvilja och att en hög kunnighet kring de berörda genrerna leder till en modernare syn på könsroller.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur normalitet och avvikelse representeras i HBOs tv-serie True Blood. Fokus ligger på hur etnicitet och sexualitet representeras. Uppsatsen frågeställning är: Hur representeras normalitet och avvikelse, med fokus på etnicitet och sexualitet, i HBOs tv-serie True Blood?  Denna har operationaliserats genom ett egenkomponerat analysschema, innehållandes olika teman som utrönts genom författarens förkunskap om tv-serien och dess handling. Metoden består av ett analysschema som använts genom en semiologisk analys samt Stuart Halls representationsbegrepp. Analysens teoretiska ramverk är Michel Foucaults maktbegrepp och Gayle Rubins sexualitetscirkel. Uppsatsens utgångspunkt är inspirerad av Anna Höglunds tes om att vampyrberättelsen kan ses som ett tidsdokument om oss människor och hur vampyrberättelsen har använts för att skildra vår historia samt samtid. Uppsatsen har även ett sciencefictionperspektiv, vilket innebär i denna uppsats att vampyrkaraktären används för att porträttera samt synliggöra samhällsproblem. Då science fiction traditionellt brukar användas som samhällskritik lämpar sig detta perspektiv väl på vampyrberättelsen och True Blood.

The aim of this study is to examine homosexual men’s identities, and focus on how they form their identities in fiction when it comes to being both homosexual and religious. In order to be able to approach and study this phenomenon, three research questions are used: how is identity constructed discursively when it comes to the combination of homo- sexuality and religiosity, what affects the formation of homosexual men’s religious/non- religious identity and how do homosexuality and religiosity affect one another in identity formation? The theory used in this study is discourse theory which includes the following concepts that have been chosen and used to analyze the material: antagonism, hegemonic interven- tion, hegemony, interpellation, subject position and the chain of equivalence. Together with these concepts and with template analysis style, a qualitative discourse analysis is made to categorize and analyze the findings made in the material. The material in this study consists of Jonas Gardell’s novel Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar, 1. Kärleken and Tony Kushner’s play script Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. The material was chosen because of the themes homosexuality and religiosity are includ- ed, and thus were eligible to be used in this study. Three religious groups are being touched upon in this study, namely Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism and Judaism. This study showed that the relationship between the identities homosexual and religious is mostly antagonistic in the material used in this study, but there was an exception in once case where the combination of these two identities seemed to be possible. The an- tagonistic relationship between these identities lead to a hegemonic intervention where the individual had to choose the one or the other of the identities in order to reach hegem- ony. In most cases homosexual and religious were not included in the same chain of equivalence, and seemed to rule each other out.
Syftet i denna studie var att göra en kvalitativ diskursanalys av homosexuella mäns identiteter och fokusera på relationen mellan identiteterna homosexuell och religiös hos homosexuella män i skönlitteratur. För att kunna närma sig och analysera detta fenomen formulerades tre frågor: hur konstrueras identitet diskursivt när det gäller kombinationen av homosexualitet och religiositet, vad påverkar formandet av homosexuella mäns religiös/icke-religiös identitet och hur påverkar homosexualitet och religiositet varandra i formandet av identitet? Den teori som används i denna studie är diskursteori som innehåller de följande begrepp som har valts och använts för att kunna analysera materialet: antagonism, hegemonisk intervention, hegemoni, interpellation, subjektsposition och ekviva- lenskedja. Dessa begrepp tillsammans med template analysis style användes för att kategorisera och göra en kvalitativ diskursanalys av materialet. Materialet i denna studie består av Jonas Gardells roman Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar, 1. Kärleken och Tony Kushners pjäsmanus Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Materialet valdes på grund av de gemensamma teman, homosexualitet och religiositet, som förekommer i båda verken. De tre religiösa grupper som förekommer i dessa verk är Jehovas vittnen, mormonism och judendom. Resultatet visar att relationen mellan identiteterna homosexuell och religiös mestadels är antagonistisk i det material som använts i studien, men det fanns ett undantag där kombinationen av dessa två identiteter var möjlig. Den antagonist- iska relationen mellan dessa två identiteter ledde till en hegemonisk intervention där individen var tvungen att välja den ena eller den andra av de två identiteterna för att kunna uppnå hegemoni. I majoriteten av fallen var inte homosexuell och religiös inkluderade i samma ekvivalenskedja, utan de utesluter snarare varandra.

Figure obsédante de l’imaginaire collectif, le fou a longtemps été chargé de significations qui le dépassent ; le mythe de la folie fait recette sur la scène littéraire mais les malades n’en sont que des figurants. Alors que le fou réel est maintenu dans les marges de la littérature comme de la société, le fantasme culturel de la folie est nourri et modelé au XIXe siècle par la littérature romantique ou fantastique et exalté au début du siècle suivant par les avant-gardes historiques. Un certain nombre de textes de romanciers du XXe siècle, parmi lesquels Georges Duhamel, André Baillon, Julien Green, Henry de Montherlant ou encore Alexandre Vialatte, mettent au contraire en œuvre un décentrement du regard littéraire de la folie vers le fou – du mythe à l’individu. Ce sont les modalités et les logiques de cette émancipation de la figure du fou et de son affirmation comme sujet – au sens de thème comme de subjectivité – autonome dans l’espace romanesque que ce travail s’applique à éclairer. Ces récits fictionnels qui font de la conscience aliénée à la fois le foyer et l’objet principal de la narration mettent en scène une folie presque familière, où l’idéalisation cède le pas à la représentation de troubles intimes et ordinaires, qui atteignent un personnage banal menant une existence modeste. Par leurs affinités sémantiques, syntaxiques et pragmatiques, ils forment un « sous-genre » romanesque, celui des "histoires de fous". L’enjeu de cette thèse est de déterminer le répertoire générique de ces romans tout en examinant la manière dont la folie interroge les moyens et les pouvoirs de la fiction romanesque. Il s’agit également de mettre au jour ce que la littérature nous aide à comprendre de cet impensable, envers de l’expérience partagée de la raison, et d’observer comment les romanciers contribuent à refléter tout autant qu’à remodeler les formes de cet objet social et culturel
Haunting our collective imagination, the madman has always been laden with symbolic significance. The myth of madness is abundantly present in literature, however those characters with an actual mental illness are ultimately overshadowed. While mental patients are pushed to the margins of literature, just as they are pushed to the outskirts of society, this particular cultural legend of madness develops during the nineteenth century in Romantic and fantastic literature and stays in the spotlight at the beginning of the following century through the avant-garde artists. In contrast to the aforementioned representation of madness, a number of novelists of the twentieth century, including Georges Duhamel, André Baillon, Julien Green, Henry de Montherlant or Alexandre Vialatte, brought on a literary shift away from “madness” towards “the madman” – from the myth to the individual. The focus of this piece of work is on the modality and logic leading to the emancipation of the figure of the madman and its affirmation as an autonomous subject – in every sense of the world – in the literary field. These fictional stories, where the alienated consciousness is both the focus and the main subject of the narrative, present the reader with an almost familiar madness. They don’t idealize insanity but provide representations of almost ordinary disorders, which affect a banal character living a modest life. Through their semantic, syntactic and pragmatic preferences, these stories form a fictional “sub-genre”, called “histoires de fous”. This research aims at determining the generic features of these novels and at considering the way madness questions the means and powers of fiction. Another purpose is to shed light on how literature helps us understand this inconceivable experience, which represents the other side of the commonly shared human experience of reason and logic, and to study how novelists help to reveal as well as reshape the characterization of this social and cultural topic

Syftet med den här undersökningen är att undersöka vilka värderingar och attityder till det svenska samhällets månkulturalitet som speglas i skönlitteraturen idag, hur det kan påverka läsaren, samt hur det överrensstämmer med de värderingar kring ämnet som vår skola vill förmedla och föra vidare till sina elever. Det görs genom en ideologikritisk analys av det valda materialet som i detta fall utgörs av fyra böcker ur bokserien "LasseMajas Detektivbyrå" skrivna av författaren Martin Widmark. Analysen fokuserar på hur karaktärer med utländsk bakgrund framställs i böckerna. Resultaten av analysen visar att de förekommande karaktärerna med utländs bakgrund framställs som stereotypa i materialets alla böcker. Dock dras slutsatsen att det inte vilar en negativ värdering kring att de framställs på detta sätt, eller vårt mångkulturella samhälle som de representerar. Snarare försöker författaren uppmärksamma samt lyfta olikheter och visa hur de berikar vårt samhälle. Genom att hans böcker har ett enkelt språk samt ger extra stöd med hjälp av illustrationerna blir de lättillgängliga för en stor läsarkrets, vilket gör att han sprider dessa positiva värderingar kring mångkulturen till ett stort antal barn och ungdomar. Värderingarna som böckerna förmedlar stämmer bra överrens med skolans värdegrund och kan därigenom anses vara goda exempel på skönlitteratur att lyfta in i skolans verksamhet idag.
The aim of this report is to find out what kind of values and attitudes towards today’s multiculturalism that is being reflected in modern fiction. It will also try to find out how those values can affect the reader, and how they conform with the values on the subject which our school is advocating. To answer these questions, I am going to do an ideologically critical analysis of the chosen material. In this case, it consists of 4 books from the series of “LasseMajas Detektivbyrå” written by the author Martin Widmark. The analysis is focusing on the characters with foreign ethnicity and how they are portrayed in the books.  The result of the analysis shows that those characters are portrayed in a stereotypically way in all the books. Although we reach the conclusion that it is not done on purpose with negative values. The author is rather trying to make us pay attention to the multiculturalism from a positive point of view, and show how it can enrich our society. Due to the simplicity of the language and the illustrations as an extra support, his books become easily accessible for many children. This also helps spreading the positive values on to a large group of readers. The values which these books are communicating goes well in agreement with our school. Therefore, the books can be considered as good examples of fiction that can be used in today’s classroom.

This essay has a focus on self description and alcoholism as a literary function in Alex Schulman’s Glöm mig. Similarities between the book Alcoholics Anonymous (Stora Boken) and the twelve step programme (Tolvstegsprogrammet) is based on how the narrative could be characterized by the authenticity of the disease portrayal. The connection between the narrative and Alcoholics Anonymous is compared with how the main characters are portrayed and how alcoholism functions in the book. The study reveals that the story could most likely be percieved as an accurate portrayal of alcoholism as a disease, due to certain cirumstances. The connection between the testimonies of alcoholism as a disease in Alcoholics Anonymous and the narrative is an important parallel as it can strengthen the story’s credibility. It’s possible to interpret the story as a testimony from someone in close relationship to an alcoholic. An authentic story like this occurs frequently in Swedish contemporary literature and could be one of the reasons behind the novel’s commercial breakthrough. The privileged position of the author should be considered as a contributing factor leading to the positive public reactions when the novel was published. It should also be considered as having an impact on the reader’s perception of the autobiographic novel’s credibility. It’s probable that, due to these circumstances, the line between a true story and a fictional one, could be dissolved for the reader. In connection with the circumstances with Schulman’s authorship, a number of factors that may impact the reading of the book, have been presented. These are explained in comparison to other authors with similar backgrounds, who have been publishing books about similiar topics.

Title of this master thesis is “But what are you doing? Working with young people in difficult life situations focusing on the life stories.” Through practical knowledge theory, I will try to find ways to depict knowledge that cannot be fully explained in models or methods. I want to highlight what my career is about. I'm not a social worker, I'm not a therapist, a bit of an behaviourist, but without an exam. I do this by showing how I work with the individual's life stories, helping young people in vulnerable life situations to gain an understanding of their skills, abilities and interests. I have a narrative starting point in my work. By this I mean that through my conversations with young adults and their networks, are interested in how people use and relate to their life stories. I have also given some examples of how I use fictional stories like as a mask, to help the individual reflect on their own life situation. Through conversations with young adults and professional partners I have tried to show how I work for the individual to own his own process.
Genom praktisk kunskapsteori försöker jag finna vägar att gestalta den kunskap som inte fullständigt kan förklaras i modeller eller metoder. Jag vill belysa vad min yrkesroll går ut på. Jag är inte socionom, jag är inte terapeut, lite beteendevetare, men utan examen. Jag gör detta genom att visa hur jag arbetar med individens livsberättelser, hjälper unga i utsatta livssituationer att få syn på sina färdigheter, förmågor och intressen. Jag har i mitt arbete en narrativ utgångspunkt. Med det menar jag att genom mina samtal med unga och deras nätverk är intresserad av hur människor använder och förhåller sig till sina livsberättelser. Jag har också givit några exempel på hur jag använder fiktiva berättelser som mask, för att hjälpa individen att reflektera kring den egna livssituationen. Genom samtal med unga vuxna och professionella samverkansparter har jag försökt visa hur jag arbetar för att individen ska äga sin egen process.

I denna kandidatuppsats undersöks uppfattningen av översatta texter hos en grupp med italienska som förstaspråk i syfte att redovisa om ett preferensmönster finns gällande tilltal, idiomatiska uttryck, meningsbyggnad och meningslängd. Texter som är undersökningens material i denna studie översätts enligt Nidas principer om formell och dynamisk ekvivalens och definieras enligt Tourys teorier. Undersökningen genomförs genom ett antal öppna frågor som ställs till respondenterna under semistrukturerade intervjuer. Slutsatserna dras från diskussionen av respondenternas svar kopplad till teorin samt redovisning av resultat för preferensmönstret. Studien visar att kontext, forum och målgruppen är avgörande för valet av översättningsstrategin.Förslag på vidare forskning ges i det slutliga kapitlet med formulering av hypotes gällande behovet att bestämma översättningsstrategi och tillämpning av normer enligt texttyp och målgrupp.
This bachelor’s thesis is a study of perception of translated texts in a group of people with Italian as their first language. The aim of this work is to investigate whether a pattern in the preference of form of address, idiomatic expressions and syntax can be identified. The texts that are used in this study are translated according to Nida’s principles of formal and dynamic equivalence and are defined according to Toury’s theories.The study is conducted thanks to a set of open questions asked to the responders in semi-structured interviews. The conclusions are derived from the analysis of the responders’ answers in relation to the theories mentioned and the pattern of preferences revealed. The study shows that context, forum and target group are crucial for the choice of which translation strategy it will be used,Finally, we outline a proposal for further research to test the hypothesis that translation strategies and application of norms should be chosen according to the type of text and the target group.Nyckelord

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo principal o estudo das crônicas de memória de Helena Silveira contidas em sua obra Sombra Azul e Carneiro Branco. Publicada em 1960, trata-se de uma seleção de crônicas escolhidas em vida pela autora, que, inicialmente, foram publicadas na seção Paisagem e memória do jornal Folha da Manhã. A caracterização das crônicas tem como principal objetivo o reconhecimento de suas técnicas de composição, partindo da temática referente à morte. Esta análise permitirá discutir a relação entre os gêneros cronístico e memorialístico, resgatar a importância da produção literária de Helena Silveira e traçar um perfil de sua relação com a temática. Para isso, constará neste estudo um resgate histórico e conceitual sobre os gêneros cronístico e memorialístico, uma análise minuciosa de tais crônicas no tocante às técnicas de composição da autora, ao ponto de vista, à temática e à presença das crônicas no gênero memorialístico brasileiro.
This paper aims to present the study about Helena Silveiras memory chronicles in her book Sombra Azul e Carneiro Branco. Released in 1960, the book is an authors selection of chronicles, which was previously published in the Folha da Manhã newspaper, inside the section Paisagem da memória (Memorys landscape, in verbal translation). The chronicles characterization has, as main purpose, the recognition of composing techniques starting from the death theme. This analysis allows the discuss about and between the chronicle and the memory text styles, as a rescue of the influence of Helena Silveiras literary work; and also allows a profile trace of her relation with the mentioned theme. This paper is a study about the historical and conceptual redemption of chronicle and memory text styles; it is a particular analysis of the chronicles of Sombra Azul e Carneiro Branco book concerning the authors composition techniques, her point of view, the selected theme, and the Brazilian chronicles written with the memorial text style.

碩士
國立中興大學
台灣文學與跨國文化研究所
101
In the world of sinophone, Chiung–Yao is not only a writer, but a symbol of romantic fantasy. After more than fifty years, Taiwan society had changed a lot in several ways, but her works still retain on the condition that can not be ignored. There are some reviewers and scholars don’t welcome the Chiung–Yao''s popularity, or criticize her works all as the same and full of typical love pattern. Chiung–Yao has been, undeniable, named as the most influential popular romance writer. She is good at describing the love affairs, characters in her works are always other-worldly and full of fancy. The plots are complicated and combined with both emotions, hatred and madness. Love always can be praised in the books which builds up the kindom of Chiung–Yao''s Love World. However, in the perfect world of Chiung–Yao''s stories, “imperfect” characters are also can be found, these characters have physical or psychological weakness, it also refers to those characters who are different from most people identified as Chiung–Yao''s writing models, such as the leading role’s physical disabilities or mental illness, and therefore it makes the novel content being humble, compassionate, weird, and not perfect. Thus Chiung–Yao''s characters can easily under the self-dilemma of being proud and feeling inferior, normal and abnormal. The swinging personalities lead the stories toward different end. So we can say it’s being more necessary about the study of Chiung–Yao''s disability-writing behind the hidden meanings. This study focuses on the disability writing of Chiung-Yao''s novels from 60’s to 80’s. There are four chapters in the thesis. In the first chapter, motivation and purpose are discussed; the scope and methods of study, literature review and discussion are also probed. In chapter 2, the parts about disability writing in Chiung-Yao''s novels are explored, the main role of the physical handicap is discussed. In chapter 3, how Chiung-Yao described the mental illness and how these characters went to the end of stories. The last chapter is the conclusion. The researcher reviewed the previous chapters, and presented the discussion; suggestion for further studies were proposed as well.

碩士
國立臺南大學
國語文學系國語文教學碩士班
105
In this paper, a series of Wang Wen-Hua’s “The Historical Task of Possible Primary School" books and Mary Pope Osborne’s "Magic Tree House" books including " Day of the Dragon King ", " Monday with a Mad Genius ", " Dark Day in the Deep Sea ", " Stallion by Star Light " are all the objects of my study. I will make use of literary criticism theories such as Narratology and New historicism to hit the nail on the head of characters portrayed, narrative techniques and historical consciousness of these writers in my essay. I will show you that there are three features of historical narratives on young adult fiction through my analysis. First, they will strengthen the common people’s characters instead of weakening the heroes. Second, the historical atmosphere is fully created combing with plots and scenes. Third, they will investigate those historical events with modern viewpoints by tapping historical innovation. These two writers, Wang Wen-Hua and Mary Pope Osborne, translate and adapt a series of unique historical novels with New historicism by handling the three features from those fragmented and incomplete historical events.

This study attempts to define more clearly the concepts 'flat character' and 'round character' by examining instances of Sepedi literature. Definitions provided by theorists are in most cases vague and may lead to unsatisfactory interpretations. The best examples in this instance are the definitions provided by Forster - they create problems particularly with references to the concept 'round character'. Forster's definition creates the impression that the difference can be based on the manner of characterization. In this investigation, attention is thus paid to characterization, while it is pointed out that these concepts are not to be confused with the concepts 'antagonist', 'protagonist' and 'tritagonist', The latter types of characters are classified as structural elements while the former are thematically important. The Sepedi literary works chosen for the purposes of this stUdy represent the four most important prose genres in Sepedi. Tsebe's Noto-ya-Masogana (1954) is the representative of the category 'love story'; Kekana's Nnete Fela (1989) is a detective story; Rammala's Lukas Motšheletšhele (1963) and Mphahlele's Letsogo la Molao (1984) are tragic narratives, while Phatudi concentrates on and describes elements of pathos in his Tladi wa Dikgati (1971). The characters in Tsebe and Kekana's narratives are flat. Whereas Tsebe's Lesibana is portrayed as a multidimensional character, Ariel in Kekana's detective story is presented as one - dimensional. According to the definitions of Forster, Lesibana could be classified as a round character and Ariel as a flat character. The problem that surfaces in this instance also becomes manifest in the investigation into Rammala, Mphahlele and Phatudi's works. Rammala's Lukas Motsheletshele and Mphahlele's Faro are multidimensional characters as opposed to Phatudi's Tladi who is one¬dimensional, yet all of them are round characters. The distinction that can be drawn between the concepts 'flat character' and 'round character' has to do with humaneness. The reader's identification with the flat character is based on the reader's ability to distinguish between good and evil, while an understanding of and a feeling for fellow human beings determine identification with the round character. The author brings about this identification process by using a variety of literary devices. In this thesis, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the theme of each of the mentioned works and on how this theme determines the character types. The concept of 'identification' is a central issue in this study and has thus been explained in detail. The specific literary devices used by the author to bring about this identification have thus also been carefully investigated and discussed. It was discovered that characterization as such does not determine whether characters are flat or round; instead, this is determined thematically.
Thesis (DLitt (African Languages))--University of Pretoria, 2006.
African Languages
unrestricted

碩士
國立中興大學
台灣文學與跨國文化研究所
103
This research looks at Belinda Zhang’s Plague , a literary novel that focuses on the midlife crisis of Chinese Nationals residing in America. The first phase of the research discusses the practical implications of this cross cultural migration in America, which includes the reasons behind and impacts of the formation of the Ethnic Chinese community as a active force to balance New York’s societal pressure, and the reasons these new Chinese migrants were shunned by the society. A further distinction is analyzed by juxtaposing these new resilient and optimistic immigrants to traditional passive attitudes held by the Chinese. The second phase zooms in on the individual characters’ own crisis, which acts as a reminder to the reader to be positive when dealing with difficult issues in life. The final phase concludes the research by discussing and further analyzing Zhang’s writing techniques, use of symbolism, character development and plot design, as a means to seek the real meaning of her work.

De Mary Shelley à H. G. Wells, plusieurs auteurs du XIXe siècle furent les témoins privilégiés d'importantes métamorphoses que l'Occident subit sous l'impulsion d'une science en plein développement. Les craintes suscitées par certaines avancées spectaculaires - celles de Lyell en géologie ou de Darwin en biologie, par exemple - combinées à l'entêtement des positivistes à vouloir faire de la science la solution à tous les maux se cristallisèrent autour d'une figure littéraire : le savant fou. Au cœur de l'imaginaire scientifique, elle se construisit comme une « constellation de signes », qui s'organisèrent graduellement, au fil des textes : des fragments mythiques (Prométhée, Faust, le Minotaure), des intertextes (Gulliver's Travels, les alchimistes), des lieux (île, laboratoire, ville), des expériences (création de vies artificielles, de substances chimiques, transformations), des personnages (créatures hybrides, savant-témoin), etc. La convergence de ces signes permit ainsi à la fiction d'aborder la question cruciale de l'éthique de la science. Depuis Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) de Mary Shelley, jusqu'à The Island of Dr Moreau (1896) de H. G. Wells, en passant par The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) de Robert Louis Stevenson, le savant fou incarnait certaines peurs collectives vis-à-vis de la place que la science occupait désormais dans la société et dans la vie quotidienne, le pouvoir qu'elle conférait à des individus dont l'isolement et les pulsions épistémiques ne pouvaient que les rendre inquiétants. Encore bien présent dans la littérature de la première moitié du XXe siècle, s'inscrivant dans une certaine continuité, c'est à partir de 1945 que le savant fou subit d'importantes transformations. Celles-ci sont tributaires d'un changement radical dans l'imaginaire social autour de l'éthique du scientifique, qui n'est plus perçue de la même façon après les expériences des médecins nazis et la construction de la bombe nucléaire par des physiciens pacifistes. Désormais, les savants ne travaillent plus dans l'isolement, hors d'une communauté qui les aurait rejetés, mais participent plutôt à une institution scientifique qui s'organise en larges communautés déresponsabilisantes et idéologiques. Dans cette thèse sont donc mises en évidence les constances et variations de cette figure par l'analyse de romans publiés depuis 1948 grâce aux approches textuelles proposées par la sociocritique et l'épistémocritique. Ces romans – américains, anglais, français ou canadiens – ont la caractéristique commune de mettre en scène un personnage de savant fou central, mais surtout une réflexion éthique sur sa pratique. Ainsi, Boris Vian, dans Et on tuera tous les affreux (1948), crée un savant fou eugéniste et esthète, Markus Schutz, qui sévit sur les côtes californiennes et révèle, par le fait même, que cette pseudoscience idéologique a connu des heures de gloire bien au-delà des limites du IIIe Reich. Toutefois, ce dernier n'est évidemment pas en reste. En témoignent les nombreux romans qui fictionnalisent le personnage historique de Josef Mengele, le chirurgien tortionnaire d'Auschwitz : notamment, The Boys From Brazil (1976) d'Ira Levin, The Climate of Hell (1978) d'Herbert Lieberman et Pain Killers (2009) de Jerry Stahl, trois romans policiers américains qui se proposent d'imaginer le sort du célèbre médecin nazi après la guerre. Mais le séisme qui ébranle l'éthique scientifique en 1945 ne se limite pas à la science nazie, puisque, du côté des alliés, c'est à la première bombe nucléaire que les savants travaillent alors. Dans Cat's Cradle (1963), Kurt Vonnegut, à travers son personnage de Felix Hoenikker, un collaborateur au projet Manhattan et l'inventeur de la glace-neuf, s'interroge sur les dangers de l'innocence lorsqu'elle devient de l'inconscience et conduit à une réaction en chaîne apocalyptique. Puis, quelque vingt ans plus tard, l'imaginaire de la fin continue à alimenter les fictions de savants fous. Brian Aldiss, dans son roman transfictionnel Moreau's Other Island (1980), met en scène Mortimer Dart, un thalidomien qui s'inspire des animaux humanisés de Moreau pour fabriquer des posthumains appelés à remplacer l'homme en cas de guerre nucléaire. Finalement, Margaret Atwood inscrit également son roman Oryx and Crake (2003) dans un régime apocalyptique et posthumain, mais la guerre froide et ses menaces nucléaires ont cédé la place aux sectes écologistes radicales et néomalthusianistes, aux virus et aux OGM. Son personnage de Crake et l'institution scientifique dominée par des impératifs économiques dans laquelle il évolue reflètent à merveille les préoccupations contemporaines à l'égard d'une science dont les développements spectaculaires n'ont d'égal que les inquiétudes qu'elle suscite. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Savant fou, Figure littéraire, Imaginaire scientifique, Éthique des sciences, Littérature, Sociocritique, Épistémocritique.