Psychobiography can be viewed as the re-writing of an individual’s life story previously undetected. In general it consists of a combination of two central elements: biography and psychological theory that aim to explain the particular individual’s psychological development. This particular study serves to explore the extraordinary life of renowned singer, songwriter, artist and activist, John Winston Lennon (1940-1980). The basis for this investigation will take the form of notable biographical accounts of the subject’s life, together with Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler’s (1938) theory of Individual Psychology, which recognizes the importance of human society for the development of individual character and the orientation of every single action and emotion in the life of a human being. Adler’s theory further explores that the main motives of human thought and behaviour are an individual’s striving for superiority and power, partly in compensation for his feeling of inferiority. The psychobiographical data collection and analysis for this research thesis will be guided by Yin’s (1994) theory of ‘analytic generalisation’, which uses a theoretical framework in selecting relevant data which develops a matrix as a descriptive framework for organizing and integrating that data, and Alexander’s (1988) analytical model which focuses on lifting out themes through principal identifiers of salience was used and applied. John Winston Lennon expressed his personal experiences and ideals through his songs and became the spokesman for his generation on modern day issues such as feminism and world peace. It is however, unfortunate that Lennon throughout his life remained a boy who felt rejected and unloved by his parents and strove to be superior in all aspects of his rich life in an attempt to acquire the love and acceptance that was not bestowed on him as a child.

At one time, Providence, Utah, was well-known for its fruit production, especially on the north and south benches, but changes in population growth patterns, technology, and local economy have dramatically reduced reliance on agriculture and have completely eliminated fruit farming on the benches. In order to capture a slice of Providence history which is quickly disappearing from public memory, this thesis relies on a series of interviews I conducted with former workers on the fruit farms in the Providence bench area. Through their memories of their work and childhoods, I set out a folk history which focuses on family and worker relationships, gender roles, and work techniques. Throughout the entire body of work, I pull from a variety of genres and themes within the field of folklore to answer my research question of what fruit farming entailed and the importance it played in the lives of the farmers, their families, the workers, and the community. I begin with sections of historical ethnography in order to transport the reader into a time past and to convey the nature of these farmers’ and workers’ lives and occupations. The voices of my informants have a large role in shaping the history through their commentaries and personal narratives about this period. I continue with further textual analysis of the informants’ personal narratives about work and childhood, using theories of children’s folklore and oral narrative to discuss trickster tales and their role in my informants’ lives and their life histories. This analysis further focuses on power relationships and gender roles, while acting as a collection of occupational and children’s folklore as revealed through my informants’ interviews. I also draw on psychoanalytic interpretations of gender roles within work. I also discuss teenage relationships, flirting, and jokes about sexuality during this time period through this theoretical lens. My analysis concludes where it started: with the stories and their nostalgic themes, drawing the body of this thesis back to a discussion of life, land, and family and the nature of the stories told about these themes now. Throughout, this folk history relies on the present to understand the past, and by way of the nostalgic quality of all of the stories told by my informants, the past defines the present.

Made available in DSpace on 2009-05-14T21:06:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CPDOC2008MariaAngelicaAlmeidadeMeira.pdf: 5497009 bytes, checksum: 6ae6285e0ac395c856ef22edf711c9a5 (MD5) / Submitted by Suemi Higuchi (suemi.higuchi@fgv.br) on 2009-05-14T21:06:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CPDOC2008MariaAngelicaAlmeidadeMeira.pdf: 5497009 bytes, checksum: 6ae6285e0ac395c856ef22edf711c9a5 (MD5) / This work aims at studying the visual arts panorama in the State of Pará between the 1940’s and the 1980’s departing from local painter and ceramist Ruy Meira (1921-1995). Meira, a member of a distinguished family of politicians and intellectuals in Northern Brazil, played a pivotal role in the ripening of the artistic métier in Pará, having been fundamental to the establishment of many important artistic and intellectual sociability networks, and having synthesized, in his artistic trajectory, the history of the absorption of the main currents of modern art in Pará. In order to study Meira’s artistic and social personality, we searched for support in his personal archive, which contains some important material, most of it unpublished, ranging from active and passive correspondence to pictures and exhibitions catalogues. / Este trabalho busca estudar o panorama das artes plásticas no Estado do Pará entre as décadas de 1940 e 1980 a partir da figura de Ruy Meira (1921-1995), pintor e ceramista paraense. Meira, membro de uma destacada família de homens públicos e intelectuais nortistas, desempenhou papel central no amadurecimento das artes no Pará, seja por ter sido fundamental para o estabelecimento de importantes redes de sociabilidade artístico-intelectuais, seja por ter, em sua trajetória artística, sintetizado a história da absorção das principais vertentes da arte moderna no Pará. Para estudar a personalidade artístico-social de Meira, buscamos apoio no arquivo pessoal do artista, que contém importante material, em boa parte inédito, constituído de correspondência ativa e passiva, fotografias e catálogos de exposição.