Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mistresses – Social aspects – Fiction'

L'obiettivo che qui ci si propone, è quello di cercare di delineare le caratteristiche essenziali di un genere letterario nuovo, il romanzo sociale, attraverso l'analisi particolareggiata di alcuni scrittori 'impegnati' della prima metà dell'Ottocento. II presente lavoro esaminerà, quindi, l'evolversi complesso e, a volte, contraddittorio, di questo prodotto letterario che, nonostante i suoi limiti artistici, si inserì - sulle orme del romanzo storico - nella vicenda culturale del momento, ne assorbì comuni caratteristiche sociali, didascaliche e ideologiche, fino a diventarne un fatto a sè, identificabile e isolabile di notevole interesse. In un clima storico-politico così particolare, quale quello dell'Italia romantica pre-unitaria, la vicenda culturale e letteraria del romanzo sociale rappresentò, infatti, per gli scrittori borghesi del periodo, il mezzo espressivo ideale, attraverso cui poter manifestare le proprie opinioni politiche ed artistiche nei confronti di un pubblico nuovo, di volta in volta da 'educare' o da controllare, da 'guidare' o da reprimere. All1internò della polemica romantica si cercherà di definire, appunto, questo rapporto complesso e difficile tra scrittore e destinatario del prodotto artistico, attraverso l'analisi di espressioni diverse dello stesso filone di questa letteratura 'impegnata': il romanzo sociale di G. Carcano e A. Ranieri, il romanzo rusticale di C. Percoto e C. Ravizza, il romanzo filantropico di G. Longoni e F. Dall'Ongaro. Nella parte conclusiva di questo saggio si tenterà di collocare il romanzo 'impegnato' all'interno di un preciso contesto socio-politico-culturale e letterario, per cercare di determinare, infine, le prospettive di sviluppo di questo genere e le sue eventuali responsabilità nella formazione delle basi essenziali di quelle che sarebbero state, poi, le successive istanze veriste.
Arts, Faculty of
French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of
Graduate

This thesis examines the effects of television and entertainment culture on American fiction. Focusing primarily on the novels of Don DeLillo and David Foster Wallace, with a secondary focus on the films of American film director David Lynch, the thesis proposes that post-postmodern fiction, fiction in which the familiarizing trends of postmodern fiction are reversed, is a response to the powerful influence of television and other forms of electronic media on American culture.

This trio of stories explores the cost of our increasingly commercialized, globalized society in a fictional future setting. They contain some dystopian science fiction elements in the tradition of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. The antagonist and central focus of all three stories is Hobbes Sylvan, an entitled white southerner whose gradual transformation into activist, criminal, and finally cyberterrorist is chronicled through the successive stories. The titular "Programmer," Hobbes Sylvan is both manipulator and product of the fictional future world she inhabits. Through the ethical dilemmas she faces the reader is asked to examine questions of morality in our own society. The stories are self-contained but connected, with different protagonists and conflicts but similar thematic material. They are told in first person, in epistolary (email) format, and in third person respectively, and set in chronological order.
Revisiting ADP -- A crime of passion -- A power like God.
Department of English

After failing his Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting Mangaliso Zolo takes an office job at a large insurance company in Cape Town. Anonymous and overlooked in a vast bureaucracy but with a pay check promising happiness and security, he slides into a series of personal crises that test his grip on what he believes in. When at his lowest ebb he leaves his job, grabs his bible and hits the streets his world closes in on him and he is eventually confined to a psychiatric hospital. Penumbra is a novel that explores the liminal area between faith and avarice, sanity and madness, modernity and tradition, friendship and enmity. It is set in contemporary South Africa, a society defined by alienation and excess.

This thesis comprises three sections. Section One is a novel Silhouettes of Alice, divided into four parts. Parts I and II are set in the fifties and sixties, and Part IV is set in the twenty-first century. The novel highlights the formative years of a girl's life from the age of five to twelve years, leaving home at twenty, and later, at mid-life, getting divorced and starting over. Section Two is a collection of twenty poems that form part of the creative writing component, a new work entitled Country Girl. Section Three is an essay on Views from the Veranda: Visual Maps of Place, Culture and Identity. This area of research highlights the veranda as a significant cultural contribution to the Australian way of life, place and identity. The veranda is featured in both manuscripts, and is integral to themes of love, home, friendship and familial guardianship. In the essay, by utilizing several authors' works, I discuss how the veranda acts as a caesura, a pause on the edge of the house, a reflective space where families interact, educate, communicate, and socialize. The research into the veranda, especially Philip Drew's work Veranda: Embracing Place, has facilitated my inquiry into the social, physical and cultural significance of the veranda. The essay also utilizes Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space, primarily for theoretical insights into spatial environments, and his philosophical and metaphysical theories on intimate places where the mind rests, evoking the imagination, memories and daydreams - the writer's essential tools .

From the polluted canals of turn-of-the-century Birmingham, England, William Moxley is an ineffectual captain of industry burning for a Music Hall life. With his unlikely bride Elvina in tow, he journeys to the west coast of the United States, only to shipwreck against his lifelong dream--a vaudeville hall called "The Sunshine." In "Dear Clara," a depression-era love story, Warren Wilkerson has been a Sunshine fixture since the age of six; suddenly forced out by the theatre's back-stabbing, bootlegging "owner," Warren must resort to desperate measures in order to pay for his dying wife's insulin. Freewheeling philosopher Holly Jo is a Seattleite sausage cart owner with a bun in the oven. Having recently lost her parents, she forges a new family from the fringes of 1974 arthouse--it's "The Labor of Holly Jo Daffodil." In "Chapter Eleven," foul-mouthed Red--the Helios's manager--learns that his boss is selling out to evil Emerald Cinemas; the news triggers a long-overdue heart attack, which turns out to be the least of his worries. Beginning with the birth of the feature length and ending at the onset of the digital age, Cinerati is a comic salute to the celluloid era--a grand era spanning over a century. Featuring an eccentric ensemble where a bit player in one decade can take a lead role in the next, Cinerati celebrates the venues in which cinema was meant to be seen, and the strange families that pop up wherever the projectors flicker.

La littérature fantastique au XXe siècle semble est issue d'un triple conflit qui est aussi celui de l'homme contemporain : rupture avec la réalité, crise identitaire et perte de sens de l'univers caractéristiques à l'époque postmoderne, profanisation graduelle de l'espace urbain. Dans ce contexte difficile troublé encore plus par des prévisions alarmistes de l'avenir proche, l'homme contemporain exorcise ses peurs à travers les œuvres fantastiques, il s'invente des monstres pour arriver à supporter le quotidien. Pourtant, l'intrusion de la Surnature ou de l'étrange dans l'espace urbain moderne se rapproche du besoin que les sociétés traditionnelles avaient pour la présence du sacré dans leurs univers. A travers l'œuvre de trois écrivains, Mircea Eliade, Jean Ray et H.P. Lovecraft, l'espace urbain profane devient paradoxalement l'espace fantastique par excellence et le désenchantement du monde moderne se trouve confronté aux anciennes et nouvelles croyances simultanément. Ainsi, l'effet de fantastique urbain revalorise les aspects du sacré et permet des incursions analytiques interdisciplinaires, oscillant entre la littérature et l'histoire des religions.

This collection of short stories is about being a twenty-something in the 90s, trying to get by, have a little fun and make somewhat of a mark in the process. It’s about the process of growing up, and the seemingly desperate need to hold onto all those youthful pursuits. It’s about finding out that life as an adult tries to suck the life out of you, rather than allowing you to suck the life out of it. That constant struggle, the battle of wills between attending to your needs or just satisfying your wants. This is a time for you when your needs and wants are siblings, bickering in the back of the car on a long drive up the coast. The characters in these stories are having their good time while it lasts. Avoiding the inevitable: maturity, responsibility, adulthood. And so they should. After all, these aren’t called ‘the best years of our lives’ for nothing. The stories celebrate your life as a twenty-something.

Esta tese consiste em uma análise dialógica das construções discursivas sobre o universo do trabalho e da tecnologia no romance Usina, de José Lins do Rego, publicado em 1936. Para conduzir a análise proposta, esta pesquisa parte dos pressupostos teóricos de Mikhail Bakhtin e do círculo, estudiosos da linguagem, para quem o romance é um grande enunciado que nasce de um espaço sócio-interativo. Nessa mesma perspectiva dialógica, em relação ao universo do trabalho e da tecnologia, este estudo busca reflexões de importantes pensadores, a saber: Marx, Engels, Lafargue, Lukács, Sennett e Heidegger. A composição do discurso que se apresenta neste estudo se estrutura a partir da seleção desses autores e de outros, presentes, em sua maioria, nas ementas das disciplinas do Programa de Pós- Graduação em Tecnologia (PPGTE), mais especificamente, no Projeto de Pesquisa “A formalização discursiva do universo do trabalho e da tecnologia em textos literários brasileiros”, a que se vincula esta tese. As construções discursivas sobre trabalho e tecnologia são investigadas a partir de um circuito de vozes presente no romance. Esse circuito de vozes fortalece a ideia-chave, síntese crítica do autor, sua reflexão sobre a vida laboral nos engenhos e nas usinas, a de que no tempo de engenho havia relações mais humanizadas entre os homens e destes com a natureza, apontando para um trabalho como fator de maior socialização, portanto. A arquitetônica do romance se constitui por um enunciado que se estabelece pela repetição dessa tese, garantida pelo circuito de vozes. Essa multiplicidade de vozes, representada pelas personagens e pelo narrador, é organizada pelo autor de forma que o tom da narrativa evidencie a antropomorfização da usina. Em resistência a esse discurso de determinismo tecnológico, no campo simbólico, o autor se vale de outros discursos, como o da tradição cristã, na voz das personagens, D. Dondon, esposa do usineiro, agregados e trabalhadores do eito do tempo de engenho, para fazer imperar essa sua tese. Para tanto, o autor organiza os eventos narrativos de modo que no plano enunciativo fique evidente para o leitor dois momentos: o de ascensão e o de decadência da maquinaria moderna na usina Bom Jesus. No primeiro, com a modernização dos maquinários da usina que simboliza a ascensão desse sistema, ou seja, com o trabalho sob os preceitos do capitalismo, a natureza vai se esfacelando e as relações humanas e do homem com a natureza vão se tornando menos humanizadas em um sentido de trabalho estranhado. No segundo, com a falência dos negócios na usina Bom Jesus, o autor sinaliza para um processo de humanização, no qual, sobretudo, a natureza se apresenta de modo personificado, como resposta punitiva à ambição humana.
This thesis consists of a dialogical analysis of the discursive constructions regarding the labor and technology universe in the novel "Sugar Mill" by José Lins do Rego, published in 1936. To conduct the proposed analysis, this research is based on the theoretical assumptions of Mikhail Bakhtin and the circle, language scholars, for whom the novel is a great statement which is born from a social-interactive space. On this same dialogical perspective, in relation to the labor and technology universe, this study seeks reflections of important thinkers, such as: Marx, Engels, Lafargue, Lukács, Sennett and Heidegger. The composition of the discourse presented in this study is structured from the selection of these authors and others, present, mostly in the syllabus of the disciplines of the Postgraduate in Technology Program (PPGTE), more specifically, in the Research Project "The discursive formalization of work and technology universe in Brazilian literary texts" that binds this thesis. The discursive constructions about work and technology are investigated from a circuit of voices present in the novel. This circuit of voices strengthens the key idea, critical synthesis of the author, his reflection on the working life on the plantations and the sugar mills, which in the ingenuity years there were more humane relations between people and between them and nature, pointing to a work as greater socialization factor, thus. The architectural of the novel is constituted by a statement which is established by the repetition of this thesis, guaranteed by the circuit of voices. This multiplicity of voices, represented by the characters and the narrator, is organized by the author so that the tone of the narrative evidences the anthropomorphization of the sugar mill. In resistance to this discourse of technological determinism, in the symbolic field, the author makes use of other discourses, such as the Christian tradition, the voice of the characters, D. Dondon, the sugar mill owner's wife, aggregates and workers from the ingenuity years, to make his thesis prevail. For this reason, the author organizes the narrative events so that the enunciation plan is evident to the reader in two moments: the rise and the decline of modern machinery at the Bom Jesus mill. In the first moment, with the modernization of the machinery of the mill which symbolizes the rise of this system, that is, working under the precepts of capitalism, the nature starts to crumble and human relations and of man with nature become less humanized in a sense of estranged labor. In the second, with business failure at the Bom Jesus sugar mill, the author signals for a humanization process in which, above all, the nature presents in a personified way, as a punitive response to human ambition.

瘋狂是人類文明的產物，一直被視為另類、邊緣，與理性對立，因而受到排斥。然而，文學上的「瘋狂」卻有其寶貴的價值，往往是反思與批判固有價值與主流意見的工具，據此發出異議聲音。本文關注這種書寫策略在當代台灣文學場域中的出現方式、文學價值與文化意義，因此以分析小說作品與文學脈絡來說明「瘋狂」的文學脈絡，闡釋當代台灣文學的現象與特色。
解嚴(1987 年)是台灣近三十年來的重大事件，亦是近年來台灣文化與本土論述的焦點所在。其影響不獨改變了政治與社會生態，亦為台灣的藝術文化帶來巨大衝擊。戒嚴成為台灣民眾不能磨滅的歷史記憶，各種異議的思想與言論遭受壓抑，直至解嚴才出現新局面，自九十年代開展多元文化思潮。當時，不少作家藉著「瘋狂」書寫另闢膜徑，重新構想歷史，揭藥文化霸權下的種種不安。台灣文學己藉由不同形式搖動一元論述的霸權，加上西方後現代、後殖民思潮的引入，學院的主動引介和翻譯，民間白發的社會運動等，皆為解嚴後的文化現象埋下種種伏線。從文學史脈絡而言，台灣的文學生產的確迅速回應了政治解禁，並以獨特的方式透露社會文化上的騷動。
為了掌握上述的歷史脈絡，本文以解嚴為時間標竿閱讀當代台灣小說，藉此分析解嚴與文學現象的互動關係，指出文學如何展示解嚴前後的歷史想像。因此，本文以「瘋狂」為切入點，分析以瘋狂為題材的書寫如何與解嚴前後己解放的議題對話，包括性別認同、身分與族群認同，挑戰政治霸權以及後工業經濟環境下的都市文化等，目的在於驗證「瘋狂」對後解嚴文學所起的作用和價值。
本文共分為七章。首章為緒論交代研究動機及方法;第二章為文獻回顧與述評，點出當前的研究成果;第三章旨在交代後解嚴時期小說場域狀況的概述，並界定「瘋狂」的文學意義，藉此論證台灣當代文學與文化的互動關係。第四章題為「國族瘋言與都市病」，借助張大春、李渝與黃凡的作品，切入認同政治與都市化問題對文學書寫的影響。第五章為「虛幻實景與不存在之存在」，旨在察看兩位小說家賀景演與紀大偉，如何藉書寫科幻來展示對未來世界與歷史景觀的想像，以展望當下發展中的文化議題。第六章為「神聖瘋狂與不可能之可能」， 旨在檢視兩位將「瘋狂」書寫演繹得淋漓盡致的作家駱以軍與舞鶴，如何在作品中借助敘述肉體與心靈的瘋狂，探討在多元文化認同觀的氣氛下重思自我主體的問題。末章結論，以總結全文與展望將來的研究方向。
本文認為，後解嚴時期小說每以「瘋狂」的視角重新認知變動的世惰。這些作品透過創造各種怪誕場景與行為，呈現個體與權力之間的角力，反省語言與書寫策略的局限，以及批判自我主體的意識，因而為台灣當代文學場域帶來豐富的收獲。
Madness has its own history among civilizations. From time to time, madness is not only simply a kind of pathological disorder, but also takes a significant cultural role to represent the voiceless, the minorities. As in contemporary Taiwan literature,madness gradually becomes a medium to express different opinions to the society. It inquires from margin to centre which is empowered by the political establishment. It is not only a common topic to be discussed, but also an important writing strategy forwriters to proclaim their historical imagination about the past, present and future.
In 1987, a significant political issue, the Martial Law, was put to an end in Taiwan. After that, due to the liberation of freedom of speech, a booming trend of multiculturalism appeared and brought out great influences to all parts of the society, especially the field ofliterature. Many writers started to change their narration style and inclined their focus on minorities. In order to have a good grasp of this forming trend, hence, this study aims to trace back to the development of Taiwan literature after 1987, and examine how novel writers make use of the narratives of madness to state their own opinion on several topics, including the relationship between the subjectivity of one-self and the identity of the communities.
There are seven chapters in this paper. The introduction states the framework and methodology of the study. In chapter two, a literature review gives an insight into the direction in current research and discussion on the post-Martial Law era, in addition to the narrative of madness. Chapter three investigates the field of Taiwan literature after 1987 in order to discuss the interaction of culture and literature. In the fourth chapter, it studies on the fictions written by Li Yu (李渝, 1941- ), Chang Ta-chuen (張大春, 1957- ) and Huang Fan (黃凡, 1950- ), related to the issue on national identity and their ironic practices. In chapter five, it discusses the science fiction by He Jing-bing (賀景濱, 1958- ) and Chi Ta-wei (紀大偉, 1972-), to find out the projection about future based on the up coming and shifting cultural trend. The sixth chapter focuses on how the writers such as Wu He (舞雀, 1951- ) and Luo Yi-jun (路以軍, 1967- ) contributes to sanctification and internalization of madness, as well as enhance its value for a reflexive purpose. The last chapter concludes the overall findings and projects further research directions of the relevant topics.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
鄺梓桓.
Sumitted date: 2011年11月.
Sumitted date: 2011 nian 11 yue.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-222)
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts in Chinese and English.
Kuang Zihuan.
Chapter 第一章 --- 緒論 --- p.1
Chapter 第一節 --- 研究動機與目的 --- p.1
Chapter 第二節 --- 研究範團與方法 --- p.6
Chapter 第三節 --- 篇章概述 --- p.15
Chapter 第二章 --- 文獻回顧及評述 --- p.18
Chapter 第一節 --- 前行研究述評 --- p.18
Chapter 第二節 --- 相關文獻述評 --- p.25
Chapter 第三章 --- 世紀末的瘋狂-解嚴後台灣小說場域的狀況 --- p.37
Chapter 第一節 --- 何謂瘋狂 --- p.37
Chapter 第二節 --- 解嚴後台灣小說場城的狀況 --- p.42
Chapter 第四章 --- 國族瘋言與都市病 --- p.48
Chapter 第一節 --- 張大春論:國族瘋言與譜妄 --- p.50
Chapter 第二節 --- 李渝論:都市病 --- p.71
Chapter 第三節 --- 黃凡論:政治躁鬱症 --- p.87
Chapter 第四節 --- 小結 --- p.93
Chapter 第五章 --- 虛幻實景與不存在之存在 --- p.94
Chapter 第一節 --- 後解嚴時期的科幻小說 --- p.94
Chapter 第二節 --- <李伯夢三部曲>的敘事實驗 --- p.101
Chapter 第三節 --- <膜> 的性別與生命辯證 --- p.116
Chapter 第四節 --- <去年在阿魯吧>的虛擬實境 --- p.128
Chapter 第五節 --- 小結 --- p.138
Chapter 第六章 --- 神聖瘋狂與不可能之可能 --- p.141
Chapter 第一節 --- 駱以軍論:回歸自我之不可能 --- p.141
Chapter 第二節 --- 舞鶴論:走在不可能的邊緣之上 --- p.167
Chapter 第三節 --- 小結 --- p.196
Chapter 第七章 --- 結論 --- p.197
Chapter 第一節 --- 總結:讓瘋狂說話 --- p.197
Chapter 第二節 --- 研究反思與前瞻 --- p.199
參考書目 --- p.203

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Architecture (Professional) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017
ABSTRACT The aim of this dissertation is to explore alternative ways of looking at architecture through the use of theory, the type of theory, alternative building programme development, representing architecture and how architecture is implemented. By doing so, an intervention is designed to expose various social truths, stimulating self reflection and adding value to the Alexandra-Sandton corridor context. This research project utilises the spirit of carnivals as subversive and radical events to change a community’s behaviour. This dissertation explores Bakhtin’s theory of the “carnivalesque”. This theory was used as the theoretical framework based on four characteristics. Throughout the research process these are used to analyse site context and create an intervention. The four carnivalesque characteristics are: - Usurping of hierarchies; - Pushing taboos; - Unusual connections; - Eccentric behaviour. The social inequalities along the Alexandra-Sandton corridor are broken down into every day activities and juxtaposed to amplify and expose hidden rules that we have come to accept in Johannesburg. The intervention acts as a commentary on the future connection of the two contrasting communities for spectacle and self reflection, transcending the everyday experience into a surreal playground through virtual reality and other means. Architecturally, Social Fiction has three main design strands 1. Theoretical exploration; 2. Architecture as emotional stimulus; 3. Virtual reality as fictional representation. Social Fiction is a project that bridges architecture, politics, socioeconomics and philosophy, using the medium of virtual reality and comic book fantasy as an open and accessible way, challenging the traditional plan, section elevation as a means of communication.
GR2017

by Wan, Rosa.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-127).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Abstract --- p.i
Table of Contents --- p.v
Acknowledgments --- p.vi
Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction: The Empire of the Serial Killers --- p.1
Chapter Chapter Two --- Stereotyping in Serial Killer Movies and Bestsellers --- p.26
Chapter Chapter Three --- Inter-serial-textuality --- p.68
Chapter Chapter Four --- Controversies --- p.103
Conclusion --- p.113
Works Cited --- p.118
Appendix --- p.128

This thesis examines the transgenerational aspects of trauma, focusing on both the phenomenon of anorexia and the discourse about it in the humanities. It seeks to determine the role of trauma in the disturbing a/effects, or affective and effective elements, that have been associated with first-hand accounts of anorexic experience, and to track the way that these same a/effects complicate those theories that reduce anorexia to culturalist frameworks. The dissertation Disgusting Woundedness: Anorexia and the transgenerational transmission of trauma argues that even when trauma is invoked in prominent discussions about anorexia in the humanities, the discourse fails to take proper account of it and also fails to notice, as it were, its own failure to do so, since an abjective, or compulsively dismissive, substitution of the traumatic material in the text is bound up with a teleological or goal-driven pursuit of the substituted object. This pattern of abjective substitution is also identifiable in the internal dynamics of anorexia, whose modes, furthermore, can be likened to key narrative features of the Gothic. Hence, against perspectives which maintain that the more disturbing textual features of a first-hand account of anorexic experience, such as its Gothic detail and narrative digression, threaten a vulnerable reader with anorexic “contagion”, this dissertation argues that these features are conduits, rather, of traumatic material that is yet to be brought to therapeutically representative language, and hence yet to be addressed. Therefore, any transmission of anorexia would require, in the first instance, a shared mode of response to the radical difficulty of putting words to trauma. Research findings from attachment theory are then used to form the proposition that the very same reflective, mentalising approach being advocated for eating disorders in the clinical context might be useful in moderating the abjective processes in our reading and writing of anorexia. A reflective approach has the capacity to do more than merely forestall our tendencies to abject traumatic material in a text which, otherwise, might prompt a potentially infinite series of teleological abjections. It also provides a means for this traumatic material to be articulated in the text and, as a result, for its distortive a/effects to be eased. The second part of this thesis – the novel, The Wall of Still Lives – complements the investigation by testing the extent to which a reflective use of digressive strategies has the capacity to access relevant traumatic material in a fictional account of anorexic experience, even when the anxious teleology of a narrative voice works to exclude it. Here, the relationship between teleological narrative processes and reflective disruptions to these processes is played out in full in a fictive realm.

This thesis examines the ways in which cyberpunk science fiction novels and short stories reflect our cultural relation with technology, a series of relationships predicated on the way that corporate control of knowledge industries increased during the 1980s. The document begins by locating the means of corporate control in the increasing de-skilling of knowledge workers, a de-skilling similar to that experienced by craftsworkers in the late 19th century. This process as undertaken by corporations leads to several responses by these workers, making their relationship with technology a complex and ambiguous one - they earn their living using it, but they also find themselves being squeezed out of the core programming tasks that defined the profession in its beginning. This thesis uses theoretical texts by Karl Marx, John Cawelti, and James Beniger to provide a basis for the discussion. This fear of corporate control and the ambiguous relationship with technology that high technology workers experience is reflected in cyberpunk science fiction. In texts by Bruce Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Greg Bear, the subcultural work of expressing these anxieties is done, with Artificial Intelligences becoming fictional characters who seek different means of finding freedom within this controlling environment. Gibson's Necromancer trilogy describes these cultural anxieties most clearly, as its heroes eventually escape to cyberspace with the help of a liberated Artificial Intelligence. Unfortunately, that cyberspace is physically located on the back of a robot that is endlessly tramping through the wastes of New Jersey, and it is dependent upon the life of the battery strapped to the robot's back. The thesis finishes with a discussion of Donna Haraway's review of the impact of this desire to escape into cyberspace. For Haraway, escape is a deadly fantasy, one that continues to relegate those unable to access cyberspace to the increasingly dystopic physical world. Her view is expressed in texts by several female cyberpunk writers, Gwyneth Jones, Melissa Scott, and Pat Cadigan. The cultural anxieties that these writers illustrate demonstrate our culture's increasingly complex relationship with technology, and also illuminate possible means of future subversion.
Graduation date: 2000

陳芃欣.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-133).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstract in Chinese and English.
Chen Pengxin.

Many Australian novelists since the late 1890s have written about dance in varied and interesting ways. Characters in many Australian novels are portrayed dancing on stage, dancing within the context of their everyday lives, watching corroborees, reminiscing about social dance events in distant homelands or gyrating under flashing lights at discos and raves. In other instances the word “dance” (or an associated term) is used metaphorically to convey actual or imagined movement such as the wind dancing in trees, or thoughts dancing in characters’ minds. Although representations of dance in Australian novels portray qualities such as vitality, beauty and transcendence, this thesis argues that they also elucidate a shadowland of pain and suffering and sometimes an uncertainty about Australian culture and identity. Indigenous dancers are scrutinised critically by non-Indigenous spectators. Despite the bright lights and glamour of their world, professional dancers are shown to struggle against the persistence of the cultural cringe. Unflattering notions of class and gender taint the excitement and romance of social dance occasions, migrant characters associate dance with painful memories of abandoned homelands and dancers performing professionally or privately risk being labelled mad, feminine or homosexual (or all three). The metaphorical use of the word dance does not always portray vital movement but often conveys heaviness, awkwardness and even imminent collapse. Descriptions of dance are minimalist to the point where the dance almost disappears from the reader’s view. As well as making dance in Australian novels visible, the investigation conducted in this thesis sharpens awareness of its negative or “shadow” side and challenges the widespread critical glorification of the presence of dance in literature more generally.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This collection of short stories is about being a twenty-something in the 90s, trying to get by, have a little fun and make somewhat of a mark in the process. It’s about the process of growing up, and the seemingly desperate need to hold onto all those youthful pursuits. It’s about finding out that life as an adult tries to suck the life out of you, rather than allowing you to suck the life out of it. That constant struggle, the battle of wills between attending to your needs or just satisfying your wants. This is a time for you when your needs and wants are siblings, bickering in the back of the car on a long drive up the coast. The characters in these stories are having their good time while it lasts. Avoiding the inevitable: maturity, responsibility, adulthood. And so they should. After all, these aren’t called ‘the best years of our lives’ for nothing. The stories celebrate your life as a twenty-something.
Master of Arts (Hons) Writing

This thesis seeks to offer an explicitly political reading of E.M. Forster's fiction, focusing on three of his novels (A Room with a View, Howards End and Maurice) and two of his short stories ("The Life to Come" and "The Other Boat"). Throughout I have used a combination of close reading techniques and elements of critical theory to show how Forster's fiction is characterised by a prolonged and ongoing analysis of the political notion of the intersection of mainstream and marginal cultures. In this regard, I argue that the majority of Forster's novels and short stories are concerned with issues surrounding characters who are somehow marginalised from mainstream power structures and who then have to rebel against the cultural centre in their personal quests for political autonomy. It is this cultural issue, I argue, that gives Forster's novels and short stories their thematic unity and continuity. In probing this theme, I hope to move beyond restrictive (and often reductive) liberal humanist styles of criticism, which tend to downplay the political implications of Forster's fiction by fore grounding only the metaphysical questions posed by his writing. However, this thesis is also informed by certain deconstructive theoretical concepts, which I have loosely drawn upon in tracing the development of this theme. In particular, I argue throughout that the oppositional quality of the novels and short stories identified by the liberal humanist critics is only truly evident in the early novels, such as A Room with a View. In the later novels, I argue, it is evident that Forster had significantly re-evaluated his understanding of the relationship between the dominant culture and its dissident, subordinate subcultural strands, and that he had begun to conceive of the interaction between the two in a vastly more fluid and pluralistic manner than has been acknowledged by earlier critics. In particular, Forster seems to apprehend in the later works the manner in which a subject can be simultaneously both at the centre and the margins of hislher respective cultural system. It is for this reason that I stress that Forster sees the relationship between mainstream and marginal cultures as an intersection rather than an opposition. I also stress throughout this thesis the fact that the mainstream/marginal theme extends beyond issues raised in the novels and short stories and includes the author himself. As a male homosexual living in a sexually repressive society, Forster was himself a marginalised member of society, and this cultural positioning must therefore be seen to infonn the themes raised in his writings. However, as a middle-class male, Forster was himself also an empowered subject, and his writing thus also reflects his own complicity in the power structures he was seeking to subvert. This is particularly evident when one considers the recurrent misogyny his novels and short stories display. In addition, Forster's particular historical positioning as an early twentieth century writer means that his novels resonate with several of the non-literary discourses so prominent in the period, such as feminism and sexology. It is when one considers the manner in which the novels actively engage with these non-literary discourses that the considerable political invective of Forster's writing becomes apparent. In the light of the issues outlined above, I interpret Forster's novels as an attempt on the author's part to vocalise the feelings, hopes and aspirations of those groups somehow marginalised from the dominant culture.
Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
This dissertation analyzes the critique of charity and philanthropy implicit in Melville’s short fiction written for periodicals between 1853 and 1856. Melville utilized narrative and tone to conceal his opposition to prevailing ideologies and manipulated narrative structures to make the reader complicit in the problematic assumptions of a market economy. Integrating close readings with critical theory, I establish that Melville was challenging the new rhetoric of philanthropy that created a moral identity for wealthy men in industrial capitalist society. Through his short fiction, Melville exposed self-serving conduct and rationalizations when they masqueraded as civic-minded responses to the needs of the community. Melville was joining a public conversation about philanthropy and civic leadership in an American society that, in its pursuit of private wealth, he believed was losing touch with the democratic and civic ideals on which the nation had been founded. Melville’s objection was not with charitable giving; rather, he objected to its use as a diversion from honest reflection on one’s responsibilities to others.

"... Through the lenses of an original creative work, an historical detective novel titled 'Blood on their hands', and an accompanying theoretically informed critical reflection, this thesis refracts the changing representations of class, gender and some of the ethical questions occasioned by the act of murder within the pages of Australian crime fiction between 1830 and 1980. This thesis also explores key aspects of the craft of the detective novel including some of the issues associated with balancing an imagined plot line and characters with an historically accurate account of a well-known series of events and important historical figures. The results of this research demonstrate that historical crime fiction, in addition to providing entertainment, has the capacity to engage with serious social and moral issues and critically revisit historical events of continuing significance"--Abstract.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
In his novels Slaughterhouse-five and The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut explores issues of cultural identity in technologically-advanced societies post-World War II. With the rise of globalization and rapid technological advancements that occurred postwar, humans worldwide were mitigating the effects of information overload and instability in cultural identity. The influx of cultural influences that accompany a global society draws attention to the fluidity and inevitability of cultural change. A heightened awareness of cultural influences—past and present—creates anxiety for the generation living postwar and before the dawn of the Information Age. This generation suffers from “cultural schizophrenia”: a fracturing of the psyche characterized by anxiety over unstable cultural identities and agency. With the characters of Billy Pilgrim and Winston Niles Rumfoord, Vonnegut explores the different reactions to and consequences of cultural schizophrenia. His unique writing style is an effective hybrid of science fiction conventions and the complexities of human culture and society. Ultimately, Vonnegut explores the dangers of detachment and the complicated nature of agency with novels that are both innovative and accessible.

This thesis examines the role of children's picture books in constructing cultural ideologies. It aims to analyse the dominant cultural ideologies inscribed in Thai and Australian children's picture books, with specific emphasis on how such identities are constructed through verbal and visual language. The analysis focuses on the changes, if any, in the construction of cultural ideologies in Thai and Australian children's picture books that won national awards from 1987 to 2006, and how the changes correspond to the impact of social change. The corpus chosen for analysis consists of 60 children's books, comprising 30 from Thailand and 30 from Australia. The picture books have either won the Thai National Book Development Committee Award or the Picture Book of the Year Award given by Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA). The thesis is structured around three themes based on the ideological construction of power in the books, including the construction of age relations, gender relations and community relations. Despite the fact that Thai society has undergone enormous change over the last two decades, the analysis shows that award-winning Thai children's books have been written mainly from a conservative point of view. They work by providing the foundations for social harmony and respect of order in a patriarchal and hierarchical society where all members are expected to know their proper place and live their lives in ways that contribute to the benefit of the whole community. Some slight changes can be detected in the way perspectives on those cultural ideologies have shifted at certain periods. These include the way of giving more emphasis to a child's self discovery over adult authority, the attempt to create non sexist picture books, and changes in the meaning and implication of unity and cohesion. Yet the analysis reveals that an ethos of conservative discourse still informs the books. It highlights the use of representation to control the overall appearance of idealised discourse in Thai society. In contrast, there is much variety and range in the way cultural ideologies have been constructed in award winning Australian children's books. While an ethos of conservative discourse can still be detected in the corpus, a number of books show that such ways of seeing the world can be challenged, questioned and even proved to be inadequate. Unlike the Thai books, the representation of patriarchal and hierarchical society can be overturned by giving more prominence to children's sense of agency and imagination and by portraying male and female characters in a more symmetrical way. In contrast to the depiction of the smooth and harmonious relationship between people of the same cultural and community groups in the Thai books, some recent Australian picture books emphasise the conflicts and disputes between different social groups. These changes are analysed in the context of the impact of social change. Social and political topics, such as the emancipation of women through the feminist movement and issues relating to contemporary politics including refugees, border control and cultural difference are taken into account.

Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa
Herman Charles Bosman (1905–1951) remains a popular South African writer, despite the frequent occurrence of the offensive k-word for black people in his writings. Although the discipline of Translation Studies is presently dominated by ethical considerations, there are reasons to believe that ethical issues have been neglected in recent translations of Bosman’s English short stories into Afrikaans. His translators, Griebenow and De Lange, have conformed to a simplistic fidelity-driven perception of ethics, while more attention should have been paid to “sensitive” aspects of the original. The research problem is how this gap that exists in translation practice can be addressed, which in turn raises the question: How would one translate Bosman’s stories in an ethically responsible manner for the twenty-first century? This study not does deal with all of Bosman’s short stories but focuses on the Oom Schalk Lourens ones as these demonstrate the research problem best. Thus, the data consist of existing texts in printed form. The following stories have been selected for comparative analysis: “Makapan’s Caves”, “The Rooinek”, “The Gramophone”, “Mafeking Road”, “Splendours from Ramoutsa”, “Unto Dust”, and “Funeral Earth”. Since excerpts from the original and their corresponding translations are compared, translator style is inevitably included in the discussion. A committed approach, which considers translation as an activist and interventionist cultural activity (Brownlie 2011), forms the analytical framework of this study. The analyses indicate that Griebenow and De Lange have retained the offensive racial epithets of the source texts, rather than toning them down for modern target-text readers. Thus, the translators have been faithful to a dead author, instead of taking the socio-cultural and political context of reception into consideration. From a committed stance, I would strongly recommend that derogatory racial epithets, found in older texts, should be subdued in current translations. Otherwise, it may be better not to translate at all, as Pym (2012) suggests. Owing to translators’ responsibility for the effects of their translations on their readers, and South Africa’s political transformation to a democracy in which all people are deemed equal before the law, the use of racist language, is totally unwarranted.
Herman Charles Bosman (1905–1951) bly ʼn gewilde Suid-Afrikaanse skrywer, ten spyte van die gereelde voorkoms van die neerhalende k-woord vir swart mense in sy werk. Hoewel die dissipline, Vertaalkunde, tans deur etiese vraagstukke oorheers word, is daar rede om te vermoed dat etiese kwessies afgeskeep is in die onlangse vertalings van Bosman se Engelse kortverhale in Afrikaans. Die vertalers, Griebenow en De Lange, vereenselwig etiek met getrouheid aan die skrywer, in plaas daarvan om meer aandag te skenk aan “sensitiewe” aspekte van die oorspronklike. Die navorsingsprobleem is hoe om hierdie gaping in vertaalpraktyk aan te spreek: Hoe behoort Bosman se verhale op ʼn etiese, verantwoordelike wyse vertaal te word vir die een-en-twintigste eeu? Hierdie studie fokus op Bosman se oom Schalk Lourens-verhale wat die navorsingsprobleem die beste illustreer. Die data is derhalwe saamgestel uit bestaande tekste in gedrukte vorm. Die volgende verhale is vir vergelykende ontleding gekies: “Makapan’s Caves”, “The Rooinek”, “The Gramophone”, “Mafeking Road”, “Splendours from Ramoutsa”, “Unto Dust”, en “Funeral Earth”. Aangesien grepe uit die brontekste en die vertalings daarvan vergelyk word, is vertalerstyl noodwendig deel van die bespreking. ʼn Betrokke benadering waarvolgens vertaling as ʼn aktivistiese en intervensionistiese kulturele aktiwiteit beskou word (Brownlie 2011), vorm die ontledingsraamwerk van die studie. Die ontledings dui daarop dat Griebenow en De Lange die rassistiese skeldname van die oorspronklike behou het, in plaas daarvan om dit “sagter” uit te druk vir hedendaagse doeltaallesers. Die vertalers was getrou aan ʼn afgestorwe skrywer, eerder as om die sosiokulturele en -politiese konteks van resepsie in ag te neem. Vanuit ʼn betrokke standpunt sou ek sterk aanbeveel dat neerhalende, rassistiese benamings wat in ouer tekste voorkom, gedemp moet word in hedendaagse vertalings. Anders sou dit beter wees om hoegenaamd nie te vertaal nie, soos Pym (2012) voorstel. Vanweë vertalers se verantwoordelikheid vir die effek van hul vertalings op hul lesers, en Suid-Afrika se politiese transformasie in ʼn demokrasie waar alle mense gelyk geag word voor die wet, is die gebruik van rassistiese taal verregaande.
UHerman Charles Bosman (1905-1951) ngomnye wababhali abaphume izandla baseMzantsi Afrika, nangona iincwadi zakhe zizele ligama elingamkelekanga eliqala ngo-k elibhekiselele kubantu abantsundu. Nangona Izifundo Zoguqulo zikuthathela ingqalelo ukunanzwa kweenqobo ezisesikweni xa kuguqulelwa, kukho izizathu ezibangela ukuba kukholeleke ukuba imiba engeenqobo ezisesikweni iye yatyeshelwa xa bekuguqulelwa kwiAfrikaans amabali amafutshane kaBosman abhalwe ngesiNgesi. UGriebenow noDe Lange abangabaguquli bathande ukulandela uluvo olubonisa intembeko kumbhali, endaweni yokugxila kwimiba “enobuethe-ethe” ekwisicatshulwa sentsusa. Injongo yolu phando kukufumana indlela esinokuvalwa ngayo esi sikhewu kwimisebenzi yoguqulelo, nto leyo ebangela ukuba kubekho imibuzo ethi: Umntu angawaguqula njani amabali amafutshane kaBosman kwinkulungwane yamashumi amabini ananye apho umguquli azithathela ingqalelo iinqobo ezisesikweni. Olu phando aluwahlautyi onke amabali amafutshane kaBosman, koko lugxila kuphela kula ka-Oom Schalk Lourens kuba ingawo ayivelisa kakuhle le ngxaki/njongo yophando. Izicatshulwa ezihlalutywayo zezishicilelweyo kuphela. Amabali akhethelwe ukuthelekiswa nokuhlalutywa ngala: “Makapan’s Caves”, “The Rooinek”, “The Gramophone”, “Mafeking Road”, “Splendours from Ramoutsa”, “Unto Dust”, and “Funeral Earth”. Njengoko kuthelekiswa iziqendwana ezikula mabalana neenguqulelo zawo, isimbo sokubhala sabaguquli siyaqukwa kolu hlalutyo. Isakhelo sohlalutyo esisetyenzisiweyo kolu phando seso sisekelwe kwiingcamango zikaBrownlie (2011) ezihlela uguqulelo njengesenzo senkcubeko sokuphembelela nokungenelela. Uhlalutyo lubonisa ukuba uGriebenow noDe Lange bawagcinile amagama ocalucalulo ngokobuhlanga anyelisayo asetyenziswe kwizicatshulwa zentsusa, endaweni yokuwatshintsha ngelokulungiselela abafundi ekujoliswe kubo beli xesha. Abaguquli ke ngoko baye bathembeka kakhulu kumbhali owaswelekayo endaweni yokuthathela ingqalelo imeko yokwamkelekileyo ngokwezopolitiko nentlalo. Ndiphakamisa ukuba amagama anyelisayo ocalucalulo ngokobuhlanga asetyenziswe kwiimbalo zakudala athonyalaliswe okanye atshintshwe kwiinguqulelo zangoku. Kungenjalo, kungcono kungenziwa nguqulelo kwaphela njengoko ecebisa uPym (2012). Ngenxa yoxanduva olusemagxeni abaguquli ngeziphumo zeenguqulelo zabo kubafundi bazo, nokutshintsha kwemeko yezopolitiko yoMzantsi Afrika itshintshela kwidemokhrasi apho abantu balinganayo ngokomthetho, ukusetyenziswa kolwimi olucalulayo akwamkelekanga.
Linguistics and Modern Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics with specialisation in Translation Studies)

This research on the subject is one of a few written in the medium of isiZulu. Further, it is one of the few conducted on masikandi music in this depth. It identifies and analyzes strategies used by Zulu masikandis in their music. The researcher in this study demonstrated that Zulu masikandis comprise males and females and that at present male masikandis are dominating this genre. Besides that, the study also revealed two categories of Zulu masikandis: those who recorded their music and those who could not. The researcher demonstrated also that Zulu masikandis use different effective strategies for different purposes in their music. He demonstrated that Zulu masikandis use different strategies to introduce themselves to their followers and their counterparts, to brag about certain members of their groups, to coin and use nicknames, to reveal their themes, to reveal their emotions, to use various types of imagery and to use strategies which are the results of influences of factors like Christianity, riddles, folktales and praise-poems. Some of the challenges are that other masikandis find it very difficult to record their music owing to financial problems, other producers are corrupt, as masikandis are influential figures in public there is a danger that they can mislead the public by coining and spreading unstandardized Zulu expressions through their songs. Finally, it must be pointed out that the study of masikandi music, particularly strategies used by Zulu masikandis, makes a great contribution to the study of literature. The reason is that it introduces a new path, the different strategies used by Zulu masikandis in their music, categories of Zulu masikandis, nicknames for Zulu masikandis which are coined by themselves and sometimes by members of the public and different methods of collecting data to be used by other researchers. Therefore, it is worthy of publication.
African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Summaries in Afrikaans and English
In hierdie navorsingsverslag word die representasie van die reg en die verskynsel van die verhoor as romangegewe in enkele tekste van André P. Brink ondersoek. Die studie vind plaas binne die interdissiplinêre konteks van die reg en die letterkunde. Die studie: (i) fokus op die rol wat die reg in die literêre teks vervul; (ii) ondersoek uitbeeldings van die verhoor soos wat dit in Brink se romankuns aangetref word; en (iii) ondersoek die fiksionalisering van historiese en dokumentêre regsbronne met spesifieke verwysing na sekere eksemplariese Brink-­‐romans.
In this research report, representations of the law and of the trial, as embedded in certain novels by André P. Brink, are explored. The study is structured within the interdisciplinary field of law and literature. This study: (i) focuses on the role of law within the literary text; (ii) explores the legal delineation of a trial in novels by Brink; and (iii) explores the fictionalisation of historic and documentary judicatory resources with specific reference to exemplary texts by Brink.
Afrikaans & Theory of Literature
M.A. (Afrikaans)