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Communication campaigns by major organizations in the field of development have been heavily dependent on humanitarian photography to motivate and attract donors. This genre of photography serves its purpose by informing, surprising and attracting the attention of a broad audience. It captures real life and real problems people in need have to deal with in remote areas of the world. This paper delves into the use of visual semiotics in the context of humanitarian photography and for the purpose of fund-raising by case study research of recent communication campaigns as implemented by major players in the field such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Global Fund to Fights AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Doctors without Border, CARE and Save the Children. The purpose is to identify key issues which allow for the elicitation of a sign framework specific to the fund-raising genre and its idiosyncratic use of visual signs in photography based on a broad theoretical basis of semiotics. The analysis focuses on the content and methods of signification of photography in each case study. The effectiveness of humanitarian photography and important aspects of its function is discussed in the scope of its use as a communication medium for development.

Uppsatsen undersöker St. Sebastians ikonografiska koppling till homosexualitet. Syftet är att undersöka den ikonografiska förändring som sker när St. Sebastian går från att vara en kristen martyr i sakrala sammanhang, till att i sekulära sammanhang symbolisera den homosexuella identiteten. Francesco Vezzolis verk Selfie Sebastian analyseras därför för att se hur St. Sebastians homoerotiska arv kan spåras i en samtida kontext. Uppsatsen antar ett genealogiskt perspektiv och tillvägagångssätt, när uppsatsens frågor poserade i nuet försöker besvaras. För att med hjälp av kontextualisering försöka hitta och rama in sammanhang, relevanta för uppsatsens syfte och frågeställningar. På grund av syftets och frågeställningarnas natur involveras ikonografisk analys. Uppsatsens frågeställningar är: ”Vilka diskursiva, historiska och kulturella brytningar eller skiftningar kan identifieras i övergången av St. Sebastians ikonografiska bild från religiös martyr till symbol för homosexualitet?” och ”Vilka aspekter av St. Sebastians homoerotiska arv kan spåras i Francesco Vezzolis Selfie Sebastian?”. Frågor som uppsatsens tre analyskapitel försöker svara på. Det första analyserar St. Sebastians historia och ikonografiska utveckling. Det andra analyser St. Sebastians ikonografiska koppling till eroticism och homoeroticism. Martyrdomens symboliska och metaforiska koppling till feminiserad maskulinitet, homoerotiskt begär och sadomasochism. En fördjupad analys av pilens symboliska och metaforiska betydelse, och helgonets myts koppling till den homosexuella identiteten. Det tredje analyserar Vezzolis verk Selfie Sebastian i utställningen Musei delle Lacrime, och dess koppling till den homosexuella identiteten. Resultaten identifierar följande brytpunkter: Pilens intåg i St. Sebastians ikonografi, ett skifte till ett större fokus på helgonets martyrdom. Renässansens klassiserande, där ikonografin blir mer erotiskt laddad, ett skifte som tillåter symbolisk och metaforisk koppling till homosexualitet. 1800-talets sekelskifte, när martyren skiftar till att bli en subkulturell markör för icke-normativa begär och homosexualitet. Gällande Vezzolis Selfie Sebastian konstateras att verket framhäver och förstärker flera aspekter av St. Sebastians homoerotiska arv, och visar hur St. Sebastian kan ses som en symbol för den homosexuella identiteten och en gayikon idag. / The essay examines St. Sebastian's iconographic connection to homosexuality. The aim is to examine the iconographic change that occurs when St. Sebastian goes from being a Christian martyr in sacred contexts, to symbolizing a homosexual identity in secular contexts. Francesco Vezzoli's work Selfie Sebastian is therefore analyzed to see how St. Sebastian's homoerotic heritage can be traced in a contemporary context. To answer the essay's questions posed in the present, the essay adopts a genealogical perspective and approach. Combined with contextualization, the essay tries to find and frame contexts relevant to the purpose and questions of the essay. Due to the nature of the essays aim and questions, iconographic analysis is also being used to some degree. The essay's questions are: "What discursive, historical and cultural breaks or shifts can be identified in the transition of St. Sebastian's iconographic image from religious martyr to symbol of homosexuality?" and "What aspects of St. Sebastian's homoerotic heritage can be traced in Francesco Vezzoli's Selfie Sebastian?". The essay's three main analytical chapters tries to answer these questions. The first analyzes St. Sebastian's history and iconographic development. The second analyzes St. Sebastian's iconographic connection to eroticism and homoeroticism. The Martyrdom's symbolic and metaphorical connection to feminized masculinity, homoerotic desire and sadomasochism. An in-depth analysis of the symbolic and metaphorical meaning of the arrow, and the connection of the myth of the saint to the homosexual identity. The third analyzes Vezzoli's work Selfie Sebastian in the exhibition Musei delle Lacrime, and its connection to the homosexual identity. The results identify the following breaking points: the entry of the arrow into the iconography of St. Sebastian, a shift to a greater focus on the martyrdom of the saint. The classicism of the Renaissance, where the iconography becomes more erotically charged, a shift that allows a symbolic and metaphorical connection to homosexuality, and the turn of the 19th century, a shift where the martyr becomes a subcultural marker of non-normative desires and homosexuality. Regarding Vezzoli' s Selfie Sebastian, it is clear that the work highlights and reinforces several aspects of St. Sebastian's homoerotic heritage, and shows how St. Sebastian can be seen as a symbol of the homosexual identity and a gay icon today.

Le corpus d’œuvres et la synthèse des études menées sur les images de dévotion à l’époque médiévale n’ont jamais approfondi, dans le contexte européen, la question des peintures mariales ayant fonction de porte-reliques. Le modèle de tableau-reliquaire : panneau unique, diptyque et triptyque comprenant le portrait de la Vierge à l’Enfant peint sur bois (plus rarement sur verre églomisé) enchâssé dans un large cadre incrusté de reliques (parfois de pierres précieuses) se répandit particulièrement sur le territoire de la Petite-Pologne à partir des environs de 1420. Les reliquaires polonais, connus jusqu’au début du XVIe siècle, doivent sans doute être considérés comme une adaptation des types iconiques et formels de provenance byzantine, lesquels furent réinterprétés dans la peinture du Trecento italien. Il s’agit notamment du modèle siennois de retable portatif marial popularisé dès les années 1330-1340. D’après l’étude comparative des œuvres, relative à leurs caractéristiques similaires et leur ancienneté, on envisage l’arrivée d’un tel concept formel en Pologne soit directement de l’Italie, soit par l’intermédiaire de la Bohême.L’expansion des tableaux-reliquaires, typiques de l’art toscan, s’inscrivit au XVe siècle en Europe centrale dans le mouvement général du renouveau de piété, qu’était la devotio moderna. De sorte qu’à côté des représentations singulières, spécialement vénérées au cours des offices liturgiques et paraliturgiques, on voit se répandre des reliquaires moins coûteux dans l’espace privé. Appréciés dans l’intimité des couvents – franciscains et dominicains –, ainsi que dans celle du quotidien des laïcs, ils étaient utilisés comme des autels domestiques ou bien comme des autels pliables de voyage. Ces images d’affection religieuse constituent un phénomène artistique du bas Moyen Âge. Et, quelques-uns des reliquaires semblables connus postérieurement n’assurent pas une véritable continuité de l’ancien modèle à l’époque moderne. / Scholarly investigation of devotional images from the medieval period has never explored, in a European context, the question of Marian paintings functioning as portable relics. The model of the « picture-reliquary » : a single, diptych, or triptych panel comprsing the por-trait of the Virgin and Child painted on wood (or, more rarely, on gilded glass, verre églomisé) set in a large framework encrusted with relics (occasionally with precious stones) was particularly widespread in the territory of Little Poland from c. 1420. Polish reliquaries, known until the beginning of the 16th century, should be considered as an adaptation of iconic types and forms of Byzantine provenance, which were reinterpreted in the painting of the Italian Trecento. Of particular note is the Siennese model of the portable Marian altar piece made popular from the 1330s-40s. From the comparative study of the works, concerning their similarities and their antiquity, one envisages the advent of such a formal concept in Poland either directly from Italy, or by the intermediary of Bohemia.The diffusion of picture-reliquaries, typical of Tuscan art, forms part of the general movement toward a renewal of piety in central Europe in the 15th century, the devotio moderna. As a result, alongside singular representations, especially venerated in the course of liturgical or paraliturgical offices, one sees less costly reliquaries spread in private space. Appreciated in the intimate setting of convents – Franciscan and Dominican – as well as that of the daily life of the laity, these relics were used as domestic altars or as folding altars for travel. These images of religious affection constitute an artistic phenomenon of the late Middle Ages. And, several similar reliquaries known later do not guarantee a veritable continuity of the ancient model to the modern era. / Die erhaltenen Überblicksdarstellungen und Spezialuntersuchungen zu den Frömmigkeitsbildern des Mittelalters haben sich niemals – im europäischen Kontext – mit der Frage derjenigen Mariendarstellungen auseinandergesetzt, die die Funktion von Tragereliquien inne hatten. Das Modell des Reliquien-Bildes – einfaches Tafel-bild, Diptychon oder Triptychon mit einer Darstellung der Jungfrau mit dem Kind, gemalt auf Holz (seltener auf Glas), umschlossen von einem breiten Rahmen, in den Reliquien (mitunter auch Edelsteine) eingefügt sind – verbreitet sich ca. ab 1420 ins-besondere auf dem Gebiet Kleinpolens. Diese polnischen Reliquiare, bekannt bis zum Beginn des 16. Jahrhunderts, können ohne Zweifel als Adaptation ikonischer und formaler Typen byzantinischer Provenienz angesehen werden, die in der Malerei des italienischen Trecento wiederinterpretiert wurden. Dabei handelt es sich vor allem um das Sieneser Model des marianischen Tragaltars, verbreitet seit den Jahren 1330-1340. Folgt man den vergleichenden Untersuchungen der erhaltenen Stücke mit Blick auf ihre übereinstimmenden Charakteristika und ihr Alter, wird das Auf-greifen eines solchen formalen Konzepts in Polen entweder direkt aus Italien oder indirekt über Böhmen wahrscheinlich.Die Ausbreitung dieser Tafel-Reliquiare, typisch für die toskanische Kunst, verbindet sich im 15. Jahrhundert in Mitteleuropa mit der umfassenden Bewegung einer Er-neuerung der Frömmigkeit, bekannt auch unter dem Namen devotio moderna. Dies führt dazu, daß neben einzelnen, vor allem im Rahmen liturgischer oder paraliturgi-scher Veranstaltungen verehrten Darstellungen, zunehmend weniger kostspielige Reliquiare auch in den privaten Raum vordringen. Gehütet sowohl in der Intimität der Klöster – franziskanisch und dominikanisch – als auch im täglichen Lebensraum der Laien, wurden sie als Hausaltäre oder auch als zusammenklappbare Reisealtäre verwendet. Diese Darstellungen religiösen Affekts stellen ein künstlerisches Phäno-men des Spätmittelalters dar. Einige der ähnlichen, allerdings später entstandenen Reliquiare garantieren allerdings keine überzeugende Kontinuität vom alten Modell hin zur Neuzeit.

This thesis publicly displays the veracity of witchcraft and superstitious fables, which, many people believe to be irrational in nature. In this analysis, semiotics has been paraded in various versions from chapter to chapter-in order to illustrate the miscellaneous interpretations. The backbone of the investigation focuses on the philosophy and psychology of evil, a theoretical belief that is laid down by practical paradigms at the edge of each chapter. The point of departure of this investigation emanates from the Shakespearean literary work, Macbeth, which is popularly known for its inclusion of the witches in its illustration of the Scottish kingship. Therefore this thesis has adopted the practices of the witches and from there came out with what is commonly practiced by the Vatsonga people. Scotland, England, Germany and France of the 15th and 16th centuries were the countries best known as the most uncouthed centres for witchcraft and superstitions. Therefore leading stories from these European countries have made this project feasible. The study has leaked many of the unfounded stories about witchcraft and superstitions that were thought of as extraordinarily great but made real in this work. It has gone as far as windswept the kingship rites, coronation, the powers of the divine bones upon the anointed king, ritual ceremonies, causes of prosperity and failure, tales about stars, ghosts, reptiles, zombies and those hideous deeds that are not socially acceptable such as digging up of children's graves, convulsions, calling for rain, punishment meted out for a witch, prevention of adultery, changing oneself to a crocodile, rat, snake and many more stories. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

The aim of this study was to critically analyse the visual and verbal language used on printed adverts by some selected banks in Zimbabwe. A semiotic theory was used to analyse the printed adverts. The study revealed that all the banks use stereotyped language in communicating their messages to potential customers. Some audiences identified with this stereotyped languages, though others were also critical of stereotyped adverts. This paradox is dependent on the uneven levels of social consciousness of the audiences. The study argues that communication between banks and the potential customers is a product of negotiation of meaning at the point of reception of the printed adverts. The study then recommended the use of gender, race and class neutral language in order to enhance the effectiveness of advertisements. Future research into the study of the language of advertisement should focus on the problem of copyright infringement in advertising. / African Languages / M.A. (African languages)

This dissertation examines the reconfiguration of the limits of representation in reference to the intermediary function of angels. The Modernist engagement with the figure of the angel entailed, primarily, a reconsideration of the problem of representation as well as an attempt to trace the contours of a poetics that plays itself outside the mimetic understanding of representation. My contention is that this transformation of literary referentiality was not simply a disengagement of art from reality but, rather, from the truthfalsity, reality-fiction, subject-object dichotomies. The angel, defined as the figure of passage par excellence, but also as the agency that induces the transformation of the visible in the invisible and vice versa, appears both as a model/archetype and as a guide towards the illumination of this intermediary aesthetic. Working with the joined perspectives from angelology, contemporary phenomenology, and poetics, this dissertation is an extended overview of the notion of intermediary spaces, as well as an attempt to probe the relevance of this concept for the field of literary studies. In the first case, this dissertation offers a theoretical background to the concept of intermediality, seen in its theological, phenomenological, aesthetic and ethical significances. In the second case, it presents the reader with a heuristic apparatus for approaching this problematic in the field of literary interpretation and provides examples of ways in which such an analysis can become relevant. The primary texts discussed here are all examples of attempts to redefine the notion of representation away from the truth-falsity or subject-object oppositions, as well as to create an aesthetic space with its own particularities, at the limit between visibility and invisibility, excessive presence and absence. Nicholas of Cusa’s “Preface” to The Vision of God proposes an ethics of reading defined by admiratio (the consubstantiation of immediacy and distance) under the aegis of the all-seeing icon of God. Louis Marin’s reading of the episode of the Resurrection reveals that history and narrative arise from the conjunction of the excessive absence of the empty tomb of Jesus and the excessive presence announcing the resurrection of Christ. Sohravardî’s “Recital of the Crimson Angel” is a presentation of the space-between of revelation, between cognitio matutina and cognitio vespertina. Walter Benjamin’s “Agesilaus Santander” restores the connections between the exoteric and the esoteric under the patient gaze of “Angelus Novus”. Paul Valéry’s Eupalinos, ou l’Architecte explores the aesthetic of “real appearance” in the space-between the image and the perceiving eye. Poe and Malamud’s short stories reveal the affinities between poetic language and angelophany. Elie Wiesel’s Les portes de la forêt expands the apophatic itinerary from the self to the radically other in a hermeneutical gesture which has the angel as its initial and final guide. Finally, Rafael Alberti’s Sobre los ángeles shows that the aphaeretic function of poetic language is very similar to the apophatic treatment of the world as representation; in this last sense too, the angels are indispensible guides.

This dissertation examines the reconfiguration of the limits of representation in reference to the intermediary function of angels. The Modernist engagement with the figure of the angel entailed, primarily, a reconsideration of the problem of representation as well as an attempt to trace the contours of a poetics that plays itself outside the mimetic understanding of representation. My contention is that this transformation of literary referentiality was not simply a disengagement of art from reality but, rather, from the truthfalsity, reality-fiction, subject-object dichotomies. The angel, defined as the figure of passage par excellence, but also as the agency that induces the transformation of the visible in the invisible and vice versa, appears both as a model/archetype and as a guide towards the illumination of this intermediary aesthetic. Working with the joined perspectives from angelology, contemporary phenomenology, and poetics, this dissertation is an extended overview of the notion of intermediary spaces, as well as an attempt to probe the relevance of this concept for the field of literary studies. In the first case, this dissertation offers a theoretical background to the concept of intermediality, seen in its theological, phenomenological, aesthetic and ethical significances. In the second case, it presents the reader with a heuristic apparatus for approaching this problematic in the field of literary interpretation and provides examples of ways in which such an analysis can become relevant. The primary texts discussed here are all examples of attempts to redefine the notion of representation away from the truth-falsity or subject-object oppositions, as well as to create an aesthetic space with its own particularities, at the limit between visibility and invisibility, excessive presence and absence. Nicholas of Cusa’s “Preface” to The Vision of God proposes an ethics of reading defined by admiratio (the consubstantiation of immediacy and distance) under the aegis of the all-seeing icon of God. Louis Marin’s reading of the episode of the Resurrection reveals that history and narrative arise from the conjunction of the excessive absence of the empty tomb of Jesus and the excessive presence announcing the resurrection of Christ. Sohravardî’s “Recital of the Crimson Angel” is a presentation of the space-between of revelation, between cognitio matutina and cognitio vespertina. Walter Benjamin’s “Agesilaus Santander” restores the connections between the exoteric and the esoteric under the patient gaze of “Angelus Novus”. Paul Valéry’s Eupalinos, ou l’Architecte explores the aesthetic of “real appearance” in the space-between the image and the perceiving eye. Poe and Malamud’s short stories reveal the affinities between poetic language and angelophany. Elie Wiesel’s Les portes de la forêt expands the apophatic itinerary from the self to the radically other in a hermeneutical gesture which has the angel as its initial and final guide. Finally, Rafael Alberti’s Sobre los ángeles shows that the aphaeretic function of poetic language is very similar to the apophatic treatment of the world as representation; in this last sense too, the angels are indispensible guides.

Este trabajo pretende establecer una teoría de la imagen en San Juan de la Cruz a partir de los textos del autor y de la interpretación del dibujo del Monte de perfección o Monte Carmelo (ca.1580). Nuestro estudio parte de la comprensión de los hechos vitales fundamentales que llevaron a este religioso a la creación literaria y de ésta, a la creación plástica. Se analizarán las características de dicha imagen, como diagrama espiritual vinculado a técnicas de memorización, como ejemplo de poesía visual, como plasmación del mundo interior e invisible y como icono que responde a lo que podríamos llamar una estética de la negatividad, antiidolátrica, abstracta. El estudio se basa en una recopilación iconográfica que muestra la evolución de la imagen original a través de distintas ediciones de las obras de San Juan. / This dissertation aims to establish a theory of image in Saint John of the Cross through his texts and an interpretation of the drawing of the Mount of Perfection or Mount Carmel (ca. 1580). Our investigation starts with an explanation of the facts that brought this religious man to the literary creation, and from it, up to the graphical creation. We carry out an analysis of the features of this image, understood as a spiritual diagram related to mnemonic techniques, as an example of visual poetry, as an expression of the inner and invisible world and as an icon in response to what we could call aesthetics of negativity, antiidolatry and abstraction. This work is based on an iconographical recopilation that shows the evolution of the primitive image through different editions of Saint John's works.

This thesis publicly displays the veracity of witchcraft and superstitious fables, which, many people believe to be irrational in nature. In this analysis, semiotics has been paraded in various versions from chapter to chapter-in order to illustrate the miscellaneous interpretations. The backbone of the investigation focuses on the philosophy and psychology of evil, a theoretical belief that is laid down by practical paradigms at the edge of each chapter. The point of departure of this investigation emanates from the Shakespearean literary work, Macbeth, which is popularly known for its inclusion of the witches in its illustration of the Scottish kingship. Therefore this thesis has adopted the practices of the witches and from there came out with what is commonly practiced by the Vatsonga people. Scotland, England, Germany and France of the 15th and 16th centuries were the countries best known as the most uncouthed centres for witchcraft and superstitions. Therefore leading stories from these European countries have made this project feasible. The study has leaked many of the unfounded stories about witchcraft and superstitions that were thought of as extraordinarily great but made real in this work. It has gone as far as windswept the kingship rites, coronation, the powers of the divine bones upon the anointed king, ritual ceremonies, causes of prosperity and failure, tales about stars, ghosts, reptiles, zombies and those hideous deeds that are not socially acceptable such as digging up of children's graves, convulsions, calling for rain, punishment meted out for a witch, prevention of adultery, changing oneself to a crocodile, rat, snake and many more stories. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)