L'oggetto principale di questa tesi è il concetto di fine negli universi seriali. Spesso si intende il “The End” in un romanzo o in un film come un momento climatico, e che i finali sono collegati ad una teleologia che guida il testo nel suo insieme. Come risultato di questo modo di approcciare i finale, una delle opinioni più comuni è simile a quella di Henry James [1884] che diceva: “distribution at the last of prizes, pensions, husbands, wives, babies, millions, appended paragraph, and cheerful remarks”. Ma è molto difficile applicare la posizione di James a un romanzo modernista o a un film postmoderno e ancor ameno ai cosiddetti universi narrativi seriali, in cui la storia si sviluppa lungo decenni. Nel nostro contemporaneo panorama mediale, il testo non è più concepito come un'opera, ma deve essere costruito e concepito come un network, un ecosistema in cui nuove connessioni economiche e nuove relazioni bottom-up modellano una struttura inedita. Questa nuova struttura può riconfigurare il senso del finale e della fine, ma anche per le vast narratives spesso si dice che “Il finale non corrispondeva alla spirito della storia”, “il finale era deludente”. Potremmo sostenere che il concetto di finale sia ancora importante, nonostante sia stato superato dal punto di vista teorico. Per analizzare se il finale è costruito in un maniera non-lineare ma percepito come teleologico, la tesi è strutturata in due parti e di quattro capitoli. Prima parte “Storia” [1. Letteratura; 2. Cinema], seconda “Forme/strutture” [3. Transmedia; 4. Remix] / The main topic of this doctoral dissertation is the concept of ending in fictional universe. It is often said that “The End” in a novel, or in a movie, represents a climatic moment, and that endings are linked to a teleological attitude that drives the text as a whole. As a result of this way to approach endings, the most common opinion is very similar to that of Henry James [1884], that is: “distribution at the last of prizes, pensions, husbands, wives, babies, millions, appended paragraph, and cheerful remarks”. It is, indeed, very difficult to apply James’ position to modernist novels or in postmodernist movies or, even more difficult, in serialized fictional universes - in which the story unfolds for many years and it is no longer contained in a single and unique text. In our contemporary mediascape, the text is no longer conceived as an œuvre, and it has to be perceived as a network, in which new connections and bottom-up relations shape a different structure. This new structure could have changed the approaches on endings - above all the viewers' ones - but it is often said, even for the vast narratives, that “The end doesn’t fulfill the purpose of the story” or “The end was disappointing”. We may say, though, that the end is still important, but from a theoretical point of view we had overcome it. One question arises from this magmatic and conflicting scenario: is the end in these fictional universes conceived in a non-linear way but still perceived in a teleological mode? This thesis, composed of two parts and four chapters: first part History [1. Literature; 2. Cinema] second part Forms/Structure [3. Transmedia; 4. Remix]), tries to answer this question approaching the main topic from different points of view (especially narratological and economics).

<p> The text presented here is a study of the editing and appropriation techniques of three constructivist films and their affect on narrative: Artavazd Peleshian's <i>Our Century,</i> Johan Grimonprez's <i>dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y</i> and Adam Curtis' <i>It Felt Like a Kiss.</i> An analysis of these techniques is done through the lens of the Russian Formalists, Victor Shklovsky and Mikhail Bakhtin and their respective concepts of defamiliarization and familiarization. Attention is paid to formal analysis in relation to historical context.</p>

<p> There are a growing number of mainstream films and television shows which include gay characters or same-sex families as central figures: <i>A Single Man, The Kids Are Alright, Will &amp; Grace, Mad Men, Two and a Half Men,</i> and <i>Modern Family.</i> This thesis sets out to determine if the film <i>Interview with the Vampire,</i> which preceded the above named films and television shows by more than five years, is a cite of queer cinema that focuses on gay themes while proposing a same-sex family. In coupling Seymour Chatman's rhetorical theory of narrative in fiction-literature and film with Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin's theory of Queer Cinema, the study focuses on locating and citing specific instances where gay themes of identity and identification along with the theme of the same-sex family emerge. The study utilizes the novel <i>Interview with the Vampire</i> by Ann Rice as a critical touchstone and draws from Roland Barthes' concept of "Rhetoric of the Image" to evaluate the strength of the themes found within the adapted film <i>Interview with the Vampire.</i> The research finds several examples of the re-presentation of individual gay lives and uncovers evidence of a cinematic representation of a same-sex family. The researcher concludes that while the film <i>Interview with the Vampire </i> is certainly an example of queer cinema, it also presents a same-sex family unit that may be the first of its kind.</p>

<p> In this critical rhetorical analysis, I examine the contemporary avenging-woman narrative in popular television and film. As a rhetorical text, the avenging-woman narrative can be read as a representation of cultural constructions of female empowerment. In this project, I situate the contemporary avenging-woman narrative within the context of a contemporary third wave feminist culture, in order to articulate how the representations of female empowerment in the texts may be a negotiation of cultural tensions about feminism. The four primary texts chosen for inclusion within this study are made up of two television shows, <i> Revenge</i> (2011-present) and <i>Veronica Mars</i> (2003-2007), and two films, <i>The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</i> (2011) and <i> Colombiana</i> (2011). Each text features a woman depicted as transgressing social norms of traditional female behavior, usually through violence and with the purpose of exacting some form of revenge.</p><p> Throughout this dissertation, I argue that although the image of the avenging-woman can be read as representative of female empowerment, the narratives simultaneously portray her as a cautionary tale against subversion within the system. I critique the depiction of female empowerment at the intersection of violence, a lack of homo-social relationships, a representation of sexualized feminine strength, and the objectification of the female body via fetishized technology. An analysis of each theme shows the complications that arise with the linking of women and power in the avenging-woman narrative. The representation of female empowerment is thus ultimately hegemonic, serving to reinforce the system the protagonist is depicted in the narrative as attempting to subvert. Although offering a pleasurable tale of justice and revenge, the avenging-woman text is also an example of how a rhetoric of female empowerment is problematic when it does not support political changes within a patriarchal system.</p>

<p> Bruce Lee is a martial arts action star whose enduring screen image has lasted many decades beyond his death, and this is partially due to the numerous clones that came out after the star's premature death in 1973. These clones and various spin-offs of Lee's life's works resulted in the phenomenon dubbed "Bruceploitation." As time passed, the Bruceploitation phenomenon slowed down, but more recently there has been an interest in Bruce Lee's life with various films and television series that attempt to tell the life story of the actor, especially with his family's involvement. While earlier forms of Bruceploitation films strove to exploit Lee's image for financial profits, these more recent works do not seem to exploit Lee in the same way. In particular, Bruceploitation in more recent works aims to exploit the martial arts star's narrative to associate his persona with specific ideologies. I argue, however, that the more recent television series by China Central Television, <i>The Legend of Bruce Lee,</i> is in fact following in the legacy of Bruceploitation in that this category of texts is not only about making money without the consent of the star, but it is rooted in the act of exploitation, which redefined the image of Bruce Lee in a national Chinese context. Although the CCTV series may not look for financial profits as its main goal through the perpetuation of Lee's narrative, it is exploiting his image for ideological purposes. In particular, the series exploits Lee's image to assert national Chinese power in a global context, which can be seen through the production practices, circulation of the series, and the construction of specific scenes throughout the series. </p>

This dissertation investigates key similarities between l9th-century slave accounts and what I call "hip-hop captivity narratives." As a corrective to the negative attention accorded hip-hop, in general, my project identifies particular aspects of slave authors' literary strategies that urban hip-hop artists reinvent in their own music and filmmaking works. My primary goal is to position hip-hop texts as the most recent arrivals in a long-standing African American tradition of instructional, survivalist literature. Such a goal closes two gulfs: one, between "the literary academy" and "the street," and two, between hip-hop generationers' and their Black Civil Rights forbearers' perceptions of social and/or communal progress. The Introduction situates my work within African American Studies and argues a New Historicist approach for the study of hip-hop culture. Chapter One, "The Education of Hip-Hop," argues that more than a form of entertainment, hip-hop is an educational project. I delineate elements that contemporary rap music and film borrow from the slave narrative tradition. Chapter Two, "Sounds from the Underground: The Pedagogy of Survival in Rap Texts," argues that the music of underground and mainstream rappers publicly and privately demonstrates Black youth's cultural ties to one another and to their history, reinforcing the bonds of shared political objectives, such as unity and liberation. Examining Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) through the lens of DuBoisian double consciousness, Chapter Three, "Be a Man!, Get a Job! Stay Black: Dangerous Ghetto Manifestoes in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing," provides a novel reading of some challenges young men experience as they attempt to simultaneously actualize manhood, Blackness, and socio-economic mobility in a post-modern, post-Civil Rights era still fraught with vestiges of the period of slavery. Finally, Chapter Four, "We Ride Together; We Die Together: Thug Misses, Gangsta Bytches, and 'Ryde-or-Die Chicks'," discusses the lyrics and images of female rappers and reads Black female characters in the hip-hop filmic text, Set it Off (1996). Such an exercise highlights key ways young urban women publicly support the actuation of Black manhood within the boundaries of male-dominated popular cultural forms.

Vietnam War literature frequently mentions the rape of Vietnamese women. Academic histories of the war and literary criticism largely refuse to address rape and sexual assault, however, and popular American narratives of the war seem to have forgotten this type of atrocity entirely. This dissertation argues that the erasure of Vietnamese women's rape from the Vietnam War story has been necessary for the rehabilitation of the Vietnam veteran as a victim and has largely occurred through film. Through an analysis of Vietnamese writing and testimony, American veterans' testimony, and literature by veterans, this dissertation demonstrates that war rape by American soldiers was a widespread phenomenon. This analysis also indicates reasons Vietnamese women were particularly subject to sexual violence; it makes manifest veterans' own interpretation of the causes of their aggressive acts. It suggests that American rape of Vietnamese women was ultimately the byproduct of the military's misogynist training techniques and the ideals of masculinity prized in and validated by Cold War American culture. Though veterans have long testified to such abuses, Hollywood productions of the war have altered or contained veteran narratives in such a way as to deny these atrocities occurred or to suggest that they were the acts of deviants rather than typical soldiers. Trauma studies has been an enabler of these narratives of victimhood, as it has conferred a blanket victim status to all Vietnam veterans. Such status denies that much of the trauma from which Vietnam veterans suffer stems from the aggressive acts they committed against the Vietnamese and is thus of a different nature than the trauma of Holocaust or incest survivors. This dissertation argues that American narratives of the war have used the "victimized veteran" to represent the U.S. itself as a victim in the Vietnam War rather than the aggressor. Ultimately, the dissertation suggests that true healing and acceptance of Vietnam veterans cannot occur until the truth of the acts committed in Vietnam are acknowledged and understood.

The personal history of individuals during the World War II and post-war period is looked at through the film texts "Deutschland, bleiche Mutter", "Europa, Europa", "Peppermint Frieden" and "The Ties That Bind". These film texts are considered for the way in which the filmmakers, in autobiographical accounts of their own lives or of the main characters, have explored and recreated history through individual memory. Memories of childhood in Nazi Germany are constructed from personal remembrance and experience to form a memory of the individual that is unaccounted for in the standard institutional history.

The incredible density and the ever-moving round-the clock public transport constitute the vibrant character of Hong Kong. In this totally consumptive city where the turnover rate is unbelievably fast, people have no time and no room to think. Compactness is no longer a function of lack of space but has become a system of its own. Static representation is no longer sufficient to document a city like HK in which every single parameter is animatable. Various computer animation techniques were explored to spatialize the raw footage of the city. These exercises sought to capture the ambiance rather than the physical constructs of the city. "Studios" generated in computer were stacked to form a tower in which the experiences and events of the city were encapsulated. The fixity and objectness of the tower (architecture) is effaced through visually animating the surfaces. Tower was also the metaphor of the compactness of the city.

L’objecte d’estudi d’aquesta investigació és el nou cinema documental que sorgeix a partir de la digitalització i, en particular, els factors que han influenciat en el desenvolupament i expansió del gènere a les últimes dècades. De la mateixa manera, el treball estudia les formes en les quals l’autor intervé dins l’obra i, més concretament, en les noves subjectivitats que sorgeixen a partir d’aquesta fenomenologia. La digitalització ha obert el camí a noves aproximacions i reflexions entre la imatge i el real. Les fronteres entre ficció, documental i experimental es dilueixen cada vegada més, i es barregen creant noves formes híbrides. La televisió, la institució museística i altres plataformes de difusió, com les derivades de la interactivitat o la hipertextualitat, beuen de la influencia del documental, arribant inclús a la creació i establiment de nous subgèneres. Finalment, aquest estudi aporta una classificació i analitza una mostra de les diferents formes d’intervenció de l’autor en el documental, que van des de la pròpia aparició física fins a les formes més assagístiques en les que el “jo” es manifesta dins l’obra. / El objeto de estudio de esta investigación es el nuevo cine documental que surge a partir de la digitalización y, en particular, los factores que han influido en el desarrollo y expansión del género en las últimas décadas. Del mismo modo, el trabajo estudia las formas en las que el autor interviene en la obra y, más concretamente, en las nuevas subjetividades que surgen a partir de esta fenomenología. La digitalización ha abierto camino a nuevas aproximaciones y reflexiones entre la imagen y lo real. Las fronteras entre ficción, documental y experimental se diluyen cada vez más y se entremezclan creando nuevas formas híbridas. La televisión, la institución museística y otras plataformas de difusión, como las derivadas de la interactividad o la hipertextualidad, beben de la influencia del documental, llegando incluso a la creación y establecimiento de nuevos subgéneros. Finalmente, este estudio aporta una clasificación y analiza una muestra de las diferentes formas de intervención del autor en el documental, que van desde la mera aparición física hasta las formas más ensayísticas en las que el “yo” se manifiesta en la obra. / The purpose of this research is the new documentary cinema that emerges from digitalization and, particularly, the factors that have influenced the development and expansion of the genre in recent decades. Moreover, the paper examines the ways in which the author intervenes in the film and, more specifically, the new subjectivities that emerge from this phenomenology. Digitalization has opened up new approaches and insights between image and reality. The boundaries between fiction, documentary and the experimental are becoming increasingly diluted and mixed creating new hybrid forms. Television, the museum institution and other distribution and exhibition platforms, such as those arising from interactivity or hypertext, are fed by the influence of the documentary, even creating and establishing new subgenres. Finally, this research project provides a classification and analysis of a sample of the different forms of intervention of the author in documentary, from the mere physical appearance to those essayistic forms in which the "I" is manifested within the film.