Summary: The focus of the thesis with the topic The comparation of women's characters in fairy tales and proses of Božena Němcová is compared female characters in selected Czech and Slovak fairy tales and proses of Božena Němcová. The emphasis is on description of the relationship between the two genres in terms mythic-archetypal and also in terms of narrative methods. The work focuses on a comparison of some key themes in the life of the female character, such as the theme of motherhood, marriage or family togetherness. Methodologically the work embodied in narratology, the theory of gender and psychoanalysis. This theoretical bases allow to define the differences between the heroines of fairy tales and prose works and point out the blending of the two genres on the plane of the women's characters.

In this dissertation it is argued that the European witch trials that took place between 1450 and 1700 have resulted in a legacy of stereotypical themes in Australian children's literature. Those accused of witchcraft were almost always women who were old, without protection, and physically ugly. They were accused of consorting with the devil, making harmful spells, flying through the night on a magic staff and exhibiting malevolent intent towards others. An analysis of this period forms the contextual framework for identifying themes that appear in contemporary Australian children's literature. A survey of twenty-three books, identified as stories about witches, was conducted to ascertain whether the stereotypical witch from the European witch-hunts continues to be characterised in Australian children's literature. The findings suggest that the witch figure in Australian children's literature mirrors the historical evidence from the European witch trials, but has evolved into a more powerful and proactive character than that identified in the historical literature. The characterisation of the witch in the books for older readers is powerful and evil, compared to the witch as a trivial and diminished figure in the books for younger readers. Gender is also a major influence in the characterisation of the witch, with all readers exposed to themes that may influence their expectations regarding the behaviour and role of women. The representation of the witch in the books reinforces the misogyny of the witchcraft era, and weaves patterns of meaning in the texts that construct undesirable female images. Readers of all ages can link these images to the social world beyond the text.

This comparative project investigates different representations of the sandman between the 19th century and the 20th century. My discussion focuses on Romantic texts, in particular E.T.A. Hoffmann's 1816 literary tale "Der Sandmann." While the traditional scholarship on Hoffmann uses both psychoanalytical and feminist approaches, I show how Friedrich Schlegel's concept of chaos and Jean-François Lyotard's concept of the postmodern sublime help us to understand Hoffmann's complex narrative structure. I argue that in Hoffmann's tale there is no unified sandman figure. However, different storytellers in the tale shape the sandman's various depictions. In a way, the sandman figure becomes a fluid character whose enigma the narrative's structure sustains. Paul Berry's 1991 stop-motion animation "The Sandman" visualizes Hoffmann's narrative. However, the film also reintroduces a unified sandman figure that is characterized by uncanny strangeness. My analyses both of Hoffmann's literary and Berry's cinematographic narrative show that their complex structures allow for ceaseless interpretations. This leads me to conclude that fantastic narratives lend themselves to insightful and critical ponderings.

In this paper I will discuss the personal process of making a film, specifically as it relates to my thesis Galatea. I will do this be examining the individual aspects of filmmaking, including but not limited to: writing, directing, production design, cinematography, editing, and visual effects.

This article focuses on the dialogues within and between Disney's The Princess and The Frog and a 1930s animated series about a young Black boy-Little Ol' Bosko. Both films feature Black characters who navigate a fairy tale world set in the swamps of southern Jim Crow era America in which they grapple with fears about reductive and demeaning black film stereotypes. Although they are in some ways trapped within the white gaze of the film's meaning, I argue that in their fantasies, both Bosko and Tiana outmaneuver the regime of representation that underlies racial stereotyping, opening a space for trans-coding and revision of its meanings. In addition, a comparison of the films demonstrates a clear improvement from the 1930s in terms of an increased differentiation in the representation of Black Americans, acknowledging, if not embodying, the fact that "Black America" is a diverse and complex reality.

Roald Dahl does not easily fit into a category as a writer, contributing fiction and nonfiction to both children and adult audiences. Faced with this ambiguity, the literary community has mostly ignored his contributions since he is mainly viewed as a children‘s author. Late in life, Dahl created two autobiographies, Boy: Tales of Childhood (1984), and Going Solo (1986), as venues for sharing his many embellished, personal stories. This thesis focuses on Going Solo, the second of these two books which explores Dahl‘s three-year departure from England, including his enlistment in the Royal Air Force during World War II. During this same time period, he wrote 126 personal letters and telegrams to his family. He had experienced much change in his life during the nearly fifty-year gap from when the letters were written to when he crafted Going Solo for a more general audience. By comparing this personal correspondence to Going Solo, it is possible to see how memory and self-selection permitted the author to craft a personal narrative interested as much in reconstructing his public persona as recounting true events from his past. This thesis asserts that Dahl does not rely exclusively on his letters when reconstructing the narrative and instead inserts himself into a larger historical narrative. Dahl used Going Solo to point to the locations where his personal narrative collides with history and emotions. This is particularly true in the last half of the book where he comes to rely on historical touchstones. It is full of places and people which evoke memories and strong feelings for him. Dahl also relied on techniques and motifs found in folktales, features that make his work of particular interest to folklorists. The final chapter offers an examination of these techniques used in The BFG, Dahl‘s most autobiographical work of children‘s literature, written only four years prior to Going Solo. By paying closer attention to his methodology, we gain a clearer understanding of how folklore functions in the development of literary personal narrative.

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The classic view of narrative since the time of Aristotle is that plot structure is prioritized over characters in defining the nature of stories. According to this view, plot is an abstract structure external to the protagonist, and the protagonist’s actions are determined by the thematic goals of the plot. The current analysis calls for a reversal in the prioritization of these elements in creating a story. We present an Embodied Plot model in which character not only drives plot, but embodies plot as well. According to this model, the dramatic arc of plots is attributable to psychological processes occurring in the protagonist’s mind. Plot structure is thus isomorphic with the psychological and problem-solving experience of the protagonist inside the storyworld. We apply this model to a number of fairy tales to demonstrate how the dramatic arc of these stories can be explained in each case by the protagonist’s experientiality. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Ce mémoire propose une analyse sémio-narrative d’un corpus de dix-neuf contes merveilleux recueillis auprès des conteurs canadiens-français et canadiens-hurons par l’anthropologue Charles-Marius Barbeau, au début du XXe siècle. Après avoir passé en revue les principales théories dans l’approche sémiotique du conte à partir de Vladimir Propp jusqu’à nos jours, nous avons procédé à une étude narrative du corpus selon la méthode du grand folkloriste russe : cela nous a permis d’en montrer la valeur exceptionnelle mais aussi les limites. Nous avons constaté ainsi que le travail sur un corpus inédit peut mener à l’identification de nouveaux éléments dans la structure du conte merveilleux. En poursuivant nos recherches sur les dix-neuf contes recueillis par Barbeau, nous sommes passée du schéma linéaire, syntagmatique de Propp aux modèles logiques de ses continuateurs, particulièrement celui élaboré par Guy Laflèche. Nos analyses ont mis en évidence non seulement le fait que la structure en miroir est un modèle valide auquel une partie des contes merveilleux se plie parfaitement (d’emblée l’exclusivité du schéma de Propp est mise en question, sinon infirmée), mais aussi que tout conte merveilleux est exceptionnellement organisé, structuré (ce qui confirme la théorie de Claude Bremond conformément à laquelle le récit narratif est une alternance de dégradations et d’améliorations). Enfin, la dernière partie du mémoire est une analyse sémio-discursive de notre corpus qui, au lieu d’être une simple accumulation de listes de mots, d’expressions et de figures, tente d’aborder la structure idéologique, grâce à une étude en parallèle d’un conte du corpus et de deux versions littéraires. / This memoir proposes a semio-narrative analysis of a nineteen-fairy tales corpus collected among French-Canadian and Huron-Canadian storytellers by the anthropologist Charles-Marius Barbeau at the beginning of the XXth century. Firstly, we present the major theories used in the semiotic approach of a fairy tale, starting with Vladimir Propp’s up to the present-day ones; then, by following the method of the great Russian folklorist, we carried out a narrative study of the corpus, which allows us to see both its exceptional value and its limits. Thus, the analysis of a different corpus may lead us to identify new elements in the structure of the fairy tale. Pursuing our research into the nineteen fairy tales of Barbeau’s corpus, we move from the linear, syntagmatic of Propp’s pattern to the logical models of his followers, especially the one developed by Guy Laflèche. Our analyses prove the validity of the mirror-image model that some fairy tales perfectly comply to; thus, the hegemony of Propp’s method is questioned, maybe even invalidated. Furthermore, they prove that every fairy tale is exceptionally well organized, structured (confirming Claude Bremond’s theory according to which a narrative is an alternation of deteriorations and improvements). Finally, the last part of the memoir is a semio-discursive analysis of our corpus that, instead of being a simple accumulation of lists of words, expressions and figures, it tries to tackle the ideological structure through a parallel study of an oral fairy tale and two literary versions.

Master thesis deals with changes of elements, that constitute a fairy tale of the Cinderella in different times, cultural and media contexts. Therefore, thesis analyzes and compares different literal and film renderings of the story based upon morfological composition of the fairy tale and motives and gender stereotypes present in it. Individual features of tales are then processed and divided on archetypal and changeable. Main character, the Cinderella , is also considered, and her common characteristic is documented within gender analysis for every version of the story. Thesis also deals with fairy tale in general, with its definition, characteristic and theory of origin. Fairy tale is then interpreted as a part of folklore creation and as a literary work.