xv, 186 p. : ill. (some col.) / This dissertation analyzes issues of race, ethnicity, and identity in American comics and visual culture, and identifies important areas for alternative means to cultural authority located at the intersections of verbal and visual representation. The symbolic qualities that communicate ethnicity and give ethnicity meaning in American culture are illuminated in new ways when studied within the context of the highly symbolic medium of comics. Creators of comics are able to utilize iconic qualities, among other unique formal qualities of the medium, to construct new visual narratives around ethnicity and identity, which require new and multidisciplinary perspectives for comprehending their communicative complexity. This dissertation synthesizes cultural and critical analysis in combination with formal analysis in an effort to further advance the understanding of comics and their social implications in regard to race and ethnic identity. Much like film scholars in the 1960s, comics scholars in the United States currently are in the process of establishing a core of methodological and theoretical approaches, including Lacanian theories of the image, the comic mapping of symbolic order, the recognition of self in undetailed faces, comics closure, and the implications of the comics gutter. Drawing upon these ideas and additional perspectives offered by scholars of film and literary studies, such as the relationship between ethnicity and the symbolic, the scopophilic gaze, and filmic suture, I analyze the following visual texts: Henry Kiyama's The Four Immigrants Manga, Gene Yang's American Born Chinese, and Anna Deavere Smith's Twilight: Los Angeles. The dissertation also performs a multimedia analysis of the current ascendency of geek culture, its relationship to the comics medium, and the geek protagonist as an expression of simulated ethnicity. Ultimately, the unique insights offered by the study of comics concerning principles of ethnic iconicity and identity have far reaching implications for scholars of visual and verbal culture in other mediums as well. / Committee in charge: Daniel Wojcik, Chairperson; Dr. Priscilla P. Ovalle, Member; Dr. Benjamin D. Saunders, Member; Dr. Doug Blandy, Outside Member

Ce travail de recherche porte dans sa première partie, sur la situation linguistique du Liban, sur la volonté d’étudier la place que la langue française y occupe par rapport aux autres langues en présence, notamment par rapport à l’anglais. Au-delà du contexte, nous présentons aussi dans cette première le corpus suivi du cadre théorique et méthodologique. Pour ce faire, nous avons fait appel dans le cadre théorique aux procédés linguistiques tels que l’emprunt linguistique, l’alternance codique, le calque et l’interférence, ainsi qu’à des concepts sociolinguistiques essentiels, pour montrer comment l’auteur revendique sa langue source à travers la langue d’écriture, dont, entre autres, l’imaginaire linguistique/culturel et les représentations sociales. Dans la deuxième partie, on met en exergue le phénomène du contact des langues et leurs usages au sein de la société libanaise qui a engendré des parlers hybrides comme, entre autres, le franbanais. Par ailleurs, cette étude peut affirmer l’ancrage de la culture et de la langue française au Liban. Quant à la troisième partie de la thèse, elle est consacrée à l’étude socio-sémiotique des articles et des dessins, extraits du journal l’OLJ, dans le but de montrer comment les différentes langues et cultures se nouent de façon harmonieuse dans la presse libanaise et comment chaque langue possède ses particularités langagières liées aux représentations culturelles de la communauté linguistique qui en fait usage. Concrètement l’analyse porte sur les articles de la journaliste Azouri ainsi que les commentaires qui accompagnent les dessins de la dessinatrice Phares. Quant aux dessins, nous avons procédé par une étude sémiotique pour les analyser dans un rapport texte/image. Ainsi, nous avons convoqué les théories de Laurence Bardin, Martine Joly et Roland Barthes, qui prennent en considération l’aspect symbolique et polysémique de l’image visuelle ainsi que les dimensions idéologiques et culturelles du récepteur. Notre travail de recherche, qui se situe donc à la croisée de différentes disciplines, se propose de mettre l’accent sur les dimensions socioculturelles dans le décryptage d’un message donné. / This research concerns, in its first part, the linguistic situation in Lebanon and the ability to analyze the position of the French language in relation to the other existing languages, in particular English. Beyond the context, we will also present the corpus followed by the rhetorical framework and the methodology. For this purpose, we relied on linguistic processes like linguistic borrowing, code-switching, calque and interference as well as central socio-linguistic concepts, in order to show how the author claims his original language through written language, including among others, the linguistic/cultural imagination and social representations. The second part emphasizes the phenomena of language contact and its use in Lebanese society, which has generated hybrid languages like “franbanais”. Furthermore, this work could prove the anchoring of the French culture and language in Lebanon. The third part of this thesis is devoted to the socio-semiotic study of articles and pictures, extracted from the OLJ journal, in order to show how different languages and cultures connect harmoniously in Lebanese media and how every language possesses its linguistic particularities related to the cultural representations of the linguistic community speaking that language. This review is concretely about the articles written by the journalist Azouri as well as the commentaries accompanied by pictures drawn by Phares. Regarding the pictures, we proceeded by a semiotic study in order to analyze the rapport between the text and the picture. Then, we convened the theories of Laurence Basin, Martine Holy and Roland Barthes, who take into consideration the symbolic and the polysemic aspect of the picture as well as the ideologic and cultural dimension of the receiver. Our research, which crosses different disciplines, proposes to emphasize the socio-cultural dimensions in the decryption of a presented message.

In this Master thesis the key discussion is how to make dynamic informal conversations comprehensible to a computer system. The discussion is at large centered towards the distributed persistent real-time multi-player computer game Worlds. In this thesis we discuss the important aspects of communication and collaboration in computer games, and how these affect the the formalization of communicated information into computable data. The discussion of this thesis is based on several kinds of sources; empirical studies of games, discussions with players of multi-player computer games, meetings with a game designer and a game programmer and forum activities on a message board for independent game developers. Beside this the use of academic literature and the design of an actual computer game, are also brought together to create a platform for thought and discussion. This thesis is an attempt to bring reflection and analysis into the craft of computer game making, as well as to bring aspects of game design into the world of academics. The result of this thesis leads to a design suggestion of the communication and agreement creation system of the game Worlds. We find our discussion and our design, interesting and important, as an object for further analysis, discussions and thoughts. / for more info visit: www.enormousgames.com

The influence of new media on theatrical practice over the past fifty years has spurred a movement towards theatrical forms which are increasingly organized around the sensory elements of performance. This change is most noticeable in the visual approaches to theatre, and it has produced what I have labeled a theatre of visuality. This thesis argues that the tendencies for visualization found in visual media have extensively marked the performance strategies of contemporary theatre practice, resulting in a shift away from the logocentric dramatic text and towards theatre performance organized around the visual. Looking at four contemporary productions of Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck –Thomas Ostermeier’s Woyzeck (2005), Vesturport’s Woyzeck (2005), Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck (2000), and Josef Nadj’s Woyzeck ou l’Ébauche du Vertige (1994)– this thesis produces a preliminary typology of four distinct visualities/theatrical forms which make up the theatre of visuality: hyperrealism, synesthesia, superficiality, and visual narration. This thesis contributes to the conceptualization and understanding of postdramatic theatre by linking the theatre’s rejection of the text to the increased centrality of the visual in performance, and by tracing these shifts to the influence of visual media.

[EN] From the gesture to the matrix language. Study of the handwriting morphological drawing changes in the virtual space. Writing transformed in an indelible way the human history and changed the relations between the individual and the social memory. With writing the words are closed in a visual field and the knowledge acquisition does not occur through the memory but through the written text, which relativizes the role of the subject's memory. Digital media call into question the concept of book and allowed the creation of new textual characteristics. The linear structure of textual information gives place to a fragmented structure, expressed in the visual/ verbal dynamism of the various interfaces that interact with the individual, bringing to the forefront the relationship between speech and writing. Digital technologies have transformed the communicative practices and redefined the visual relationships established between thought and space, particularly in the world of printing and textual visualization. The use of hypertext and hypermedia for presentation of information, generated major changes in reading and writing and put the language - spoken, written and iconographic - in a context much richer and broader than in the printed text, enhancing the articulated significance (verbality), the pictorial sense (plasticity), the acoustic sense (sonority) and kinetic sense (movement) of the word. The new virtual media altered the writing morphology as well as the nature of the messages leading to a change in the written message nature and fostering the emergence of new typographic paradigms. In the context of this investigation, is approached the typographical form and its relationship with the support and the instrument that records it, analysing hand movement which formalizes a letter. Secondly, it analyses the shape of the letter in two-dimensional space, its organization and distribution, responsible for assigning meaning to the messages and ideas, promoting the entire text of the interaction field and typographical form with space. In the third phase, it deals with the simulation letterpress movement evolving in space and time, considered as an idea that lends identity and character to a world that is not already the printed plan. This sustained research in historical identification, formal and conceptual of typographic forms and analysis of cultural, social and technological factors that promoted morphological changes evidenced in typographic design, was based on theoretical reflections that helped analyse the resources and expressive strategies to limit the syntax and semantics of the typographic form in the digital context. >< / [ES] Del gesto al lenguaje matricial. Estudio de las alteraciones morfológicas del diseño de la letra en el espacio virtual La escritura transformó de forma indeleble la historia humana, y con ella, cambiaron las relaciones entre el individuo y la memoria social. Con la escritura, las palabras se encierran en un campo visual y la adquisición del conocimiento no se produce tanto por la intermediación de la memoria, sino por el texto escrito que relativiza el papel de la memoria del individuo. Los medios de comunicación digitales han cuestionado el concepto de libro y han permitido la creación de nuevas características textuales. La estructuración lineal de la información textual da lugar a una estructuración fragmentada, expresada en el dinamismo visual/ verbal de las diversas interfaces que interactúan con el individuo, poniendo en primer plano la relación entre el habla y la escritura. Las tecnologías digitales han transformado las prácticas comunicativas y han redefinido las relaciones visuales que se establecen entre el pensamiento y el espacio, particularmente en el universo de la impresión y de la visualización textual. El uso del hipertexto y del hipermedia para la presentación de la información ha generado grandes cambios en la lectura y en la escritura y ha colocado la lengua - hablada, escrita e iconográfica - en un contexto mucho más rico y amplio que en el texto impreso, potenciando la significación articulada (verbalización), el sentido pictórico (plasticidad), el sentido acústico (sonoridad) y el sentido cinético (movimiento) de la palabra. Los nuevos medios virtuales han modificado la morfología de la escritura así como la naturaleza de los mensajes, dando origen a un cambio en la naturaleza del mensaje escrito y promoviendo el surgimiento de nuevos paradigmas tipográficos. En el contexto de esta investigación, se aborda la forma tipográfica y su relación con el soporte y con el instrumento que la registra, analizando el movimiento de la mano que formaliza una letra. En segundo lugar, se analiza la forma de la letra en el espacio bidimensional, su organización y distribución, responsable por dar sentido a los mensajes y a las ideas, promoviendo todo el campo de interacción del texto y de la forma tipográfica con el espacio. En tercer lugar, se trata la simulación del movimiento de la tipografía evolucionando en el espacio y en el tiempo, afrontada como idea que concede identidad y carácter a un mundo que ya no es, el del plano impreso. Esta investigación apoyada en la identificación histórica, formal y conceptual de las formas tipográficas y en el análisis de los factores culturales, sociales y tecnológicos a los que dieron lugar los cambios morfológicos evidenciados en el diseño tipográfico, se fundamentó en reflexiones teóricas que han permitido analizar los recursos y las estrategias expresivas para circunscribir la sintaxis y la semántica de la forma tipográfica en el contexto digital. >< / [CAT] Del gest al llenguatge matricial. Estudi de les alteracions morfològiques del disseny de la lletra en l'espai virtual. L'escriptura va transformar de forma indeleble la història humana, i amb ella, van canviar les relacions entre l'individu i la memòria social. Amb l'escriptura, les paraules es tanquen en un camp visual i l'adquisició del coneixement no es produeix tant per la intermediació de la memòria, sinó pel text escrit que relativitza el paper de la memòria de l'individu. Els mitjans de comunicació digitals han qüestionat el concepte de llibre i han permès la creació de noves característiques textuals. L'estructuració lineal de la informació textual dóna lloc a una estructuració fragmentada, expressada en el dinamisme visual/ verbal de les diverses interfícies que interactuen amb l'individu, posant en primer plànol la relació entre la parla i l'escriptura. Les tecnologies digitals han transformat les pràctiques comunicatives i han redefinit les relacions visuals que s'estableixen entre el pensament i l'espai, particularment en l'univers de la impressió i de la visualització textual. L'ús de l'hipertext i del 'hipermedia' per a la presentació de la informació ha generat grans canvis en la lectura i en l'escriptura i ha col·locat la llengua - parlada, escrita i iconogràfica - en un context molt més ric i ampli que en el text imprès, potenciant la significació articulada (verbalització), el sentit pictòric (plasticitat), el sentit acústic (sonoritat) i el sentit cinètic (moviment) de la paraula. Els nous mitjans virtuals han modificat la morfologia de l'escriptura així com la naturalesa dels missatges, donant origen a un canvi en la naturalesa del missatge escrit i promovent el sorgiment de nous paradigmes tipogràfics. En el context d'aquesta recerca, s'aborda la forma tipogràfica i la seua relació amb el suport i amb l'instrument que la registra, analitzant el moviment de la mà que formalitza una lletra. En segon lloc, s'analitza la forma de la lletra en l'espai bidimensional, la seua organització i distribució, responsable per donar sentit als missatges i a les idees, promovent tot el camp d'interacció del text i de la forma tipogràfica amb l'espai. En tercer lloc, es tracta la simulació del moviment de la tipografia evolucionant en l'espai i en el temps, afrontada com a idea que concedeix identitat i caràcter a un món que ja no és, el del plànol imprès. Aquesta recerca recolzada en la identificació històrica, formal i conceptual de les formes tipogràfiques i en l'anàlisi dels factors culturals, socials i tecnològics als quals van donar lloc els canvis morfològics evidenciats en el disseny tipogràfic, es va fonamentar en reflexions teòriques que han permès analitzar els recursos i les estratègies expressives per a circumscriure la sintaxi i la semàntica de la forma tipogràfica en el context digital. >< / De Magalhaes Lemos, JF. (2016). Do gesto à linguagem matricial. Estudo das alterações morfológicas do desenho da letra no espaço virtual [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/61480 / TESIS

In this study, a semiotic point of view of selected literature written by ‘coloured’ writers is examined, using some of the semiotic theories of Jurij M. Lotman, one of the leading Soviet semioticians of the school of Tartu. Selected theories of Lotman are applied to ‘coloured’ literature. These include an examination of poetic language (based on Lotman’s theory of a primary and secondary modelling system), the iconicity of the text, the aesthetics of identity and opposition, the distinction between text and extra-text, and the relationship that exists between the extra-text, culture and code. The literary texts chosen for analysis are works by three contemporary ‘coloured’ writers, namely Adam Small, Peter Snyders and Robert Pearce, who have all contributed poetry, prose and drama to Afrikaans literature in general, and original Afrikaans literature in particular. The selected dramas are Joanie Galant-hulle (Small 1978), Political Joke (Snyders 1983) and Die Laaste Supper in Marabastad (Pearce 1988b)*. These writers’ works span approximately three consecutive decades and their work can be examined for commonality and differences. The three chosen dramas were written five years apart respectively; yet they reveal thematic similarities. The dramas also feature a common ‘deviant’ language code used by ‘coloured’ people and discussed in this study as original Afrikaans. This code, which is juxtaposed with standard Afrikaans, is one of the basic areas of interest that motivated the choice of subject for this study. The primary objective of this study is to examine the differentiation that Lotman makes between the various sign systems that operate in natural language (the primary modelling system) and poetic language (a secondary modelling system), and to determine whether these sign systems can be detected and are functional in ‘coloured’ literature. In addition, an investigation is made of the iconicity that operates in poetic language (which, according to Lotman, is the basis for differentiation), and to ascertain whether iconicity occurs in these examples of ‘coloured’ literature and to what extent it influences meaning. In the process, intratextual relations within the poetic text were scrutinised to establish whether the manipulation of language, devices and codes raises any particular expectation in the poetic text, and also to detect whether oppositionally constituted code-systems which set up their own patterns of expectation within the syntactic and lexical levels of the poetic text clash with and contradict prior expectations. In addition, an analysis has been made to determine whether a new understanding of the texts can be reached, based on Lotman’s aesthetics of identity and opposition, and to what extent the reader is forced to collaborate in the modelling process of the texts when the reader’s expectations are undermined by an aesthetics of opposition. The study has successfully corroborated and substantiated all the selected aspects of Lotman’s theory. The differentiation that Lotman makes between the primary and secondary language model is demonstrated especially by the iconicity that operates in poetic language. Examples are abundant in the selected literature and are conspicuous, especially through the manipulation of the language, devices and codes employed by the authors to defamiliarise objects so that they transcend their familiar characteristics and perceptions, and sometimes signify a totally new concept. In this way, readers’ expectations are subverted and they are invited to collaborate in the modelling process of the texts. These techniques are also an integral part of both the text and the extra-text, and their presence justifies Lotman’s claims that the meaning of a literary text cannot be understood outside its cultural or historical context. In retrospect, it can be argued that this research has opened up some additional avenues for an analysis of meaning in ‘coloured’ literature. / Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / English / unrestricted

Mluvčí typologicky odlišných jazyků volí různé strategie při popisu stejné události v závislosti na dostupných jazykově-specifických gramatických prostředcích. Tyto strategie se projevují např. různými způsoby konceptualizace událostních rámců bě- hem jazykového vyjádření, ale v nejazykové kognici. Jedním z jevů, které byly v této souvislosti zaznemány, jsou jazykově specifické způsoby gestikulace doprovázející mluvené popisy událostí, které reflektují (či manifestují) tělesně ukotvená konceptuál- ní schémata, na nichž naše vnímání událostí stojí. Tématem této práce je multimodální konstruování (construal) událostí v češtině a v angličtině. Konkrétně se práce zaměřuje na spojitosti mezi formálními rysy gest (způsob pohybu a jeho zakončení) a sémantické rysy, které konstituují tzv. aspektuální kontury událostí (konstruování časového a kvalitativního průběhu události). První část prezentovaného výzkumu tvoří analýza materiálu z českého a anglického multimodální korpusu. Oba použité korpusy obsahují nahrávky spontánních pro- jevů v interakcích zachycených během pracovních jednání v akademickém prostředí. Kvantitativní analýzy (metoda tzv. klasifikačních stromů a náhodných lesů) ukázala, že a) v angličtině je významným prediktorem výskytu gest s rysem ukončenosti aktion- sartová kategorie achievement...

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This thesis applies a sociological framework to the North American celebrity career of Canadian pianist and broadcaster Glenn Gould (1932-1982) to account for Gould's iconic status as an artist in modern musical culture. Despite the persistent cultural fascination with Gould, as evidenced in the seemingly endless supply of biographies, films, novels, and fan texts which narrate and celebrate his life and work, modern Gould scholarship has consistently neglected issues relating to his artistic reception. This thesis proposes that the modern Gould phenomenon is productively analysed in terms of the contexts of its historical production in North America, where it first originated. Focusing on the circumstances of Gould's career during his lifetime, it identifies three areas of overlapping conceptual interest that provide the basis for an explanatory account of his modern mythology: i) Gould's relationship to the culture of his time, particularly in Canada; ii) Gould's relationship to the mass media; iii) Gould's relationship to his own artistic identity. This approach is refined through the application of Stuart Hall's 'Circuit of Culture' model, which yields an understanding of Gould's celebrity in terms of the processes of its representation, production, regulation, and consumption. Against this theoretical backdrop, and consistent with the premise of my thesis, I ask some key questions: what was Gould's relationship to Canadian cultural nationalism and, specifically, a nationalist discourse of public broadcasting? How did media institutions brand his image, and for what commercial purposes? How did Gould mobilise understandings of his genius and Canadian identity through his artistic discourse and experimental media self-representations as a 'Northerner' and a technologist? Based on this analysis, the thesis concludes that Gould continues to fascinate because of the unique ideological work performed by his cultural identities, and because of the highly mediated nature of his celebrity. The ubiquity of his image on video-sharing websites and social media platforms is a vindication of his radical belief in the validity of a musical career pursued primarily through the electronic media.

Le travail présenté dans cette thèse s’inscrit dans le champ de la géographie culturelle et veut participer à prouver qu’il existe un tournant spatial tel qu’il a été défini par Edward Soja en 1996, qui permet de porter un regard autre sur les sociétés en les analysant à partir des objets culturels qu’elles produisent. Les albums pour enfants, ces livres conçus pour le jeune public qui combinent images, supports et très souvent textes dans un rapport d’interdépendance, constituent les objets de ce travail de recherches. Envisagés comme des produits culturels géographiques, ils interrogent, disent, représentent et mettent en scène espaces et spatialités. S’intéressant à un corpus d’albums iconotextuels narratifs édités en France entre 1919 et 2012, ce travail s’emploie à démontrer qu’il existe une interdépendance entre trois instances narratives (textuelle, iconique et plastique) et que cette interdépendance génère et imagine non seulement de l’espace pour le lecteur mais également une intentionnalité spatiale, une transmission d’un habiter tel qu’il est pensé par l’auteur-illustrateur. La dernière partie de ce travail, plus exploratoire, propose de voir dans l’album pour enfants un lieu de communication dans lequel l’intentionnalité spatiale aiderait le lecteur-enfant à agir sur de l’espace. La réception, l’expérience esthétique, la lecture performative de l’album permettraient à l’enfant de se construire un capital culturel spatial dans lequel il pourrait puiser pour « faire avec » l’espace qu’il habite ou qu’il aura à habiter. / The work presented in this dissertation fits in the field of cultural geography and hopes to prove that there exists a spatial turning point as defined by Edward Soja in 1996, which will allow a further look into societies, analyzing them by means of the cultural objects that they produce.Children’s picture books, these books conceived for the young public which combine images, props, and very often text in a relationship of interdependence, constitute the objects of this research work. Considered as geographic cultural products, they question, state, represent, and stage spaces and spatialities.Drawing from a body of narrative, iconotextual picture books published in France between 1919 and 2012, this work intends to demonstrate that there exists an interdependence among three narrative instances (textual, iconic, and plastic) and that this interdependence generates and imagines not only space for the reader but also a spatial intentionality, a transmission of living such as envisioned by the author-illustrator.The last part of this work, more exploratory, proposes seeing in children’s books a place of communication in which the spatial intentionality would help the child-reader to act on the space. The reception, the esthetic experience, the performative reading of the picture book would allow the child to construct for himself a spatial cultural capital in which he could delve to “play with” the space in which he lives or that he will have to live.