Master Evil plans to rule the earth and set up his evil empire so that all may worship and adore him. However, six teenagers discover six crosses that have powers that will help them defeat the evil that will soon cross their path. Each cross possesses a quality of God that each of these teenagers must develop in order to stop Master Evil: faith, peace, salvation, truth, righteousness, and the Spirit. These six teenagers pose as a threat to Master Evil's plans, and he'll stop at nothing to defeat them and rule the world. It is the ultimate battle between good and evil. These six young people must have faith themselves and each other, but most importantly, they must have faith in God in order to defeat the ultimate evil.

This study explores the construction of the Gothic female body in three films by the director Tim Burton, specifically Batman Returns (1992), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Dark Shadows (2012). Through a deployment of Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, the intention is to indicate the degree to which Burton crafts his leading female characters as abject Others and embodiments of Barbara Creed’s ‘monstrous-feminine’. In this Gothic portrayal, the director consistently draws on the essentialised stereotypes of Woman as either ‘virgin’ or ‘whore’ as he shapes his Gothic heroines and femmes fatales. While a gendered duality is established, this is destabilised to an extent, as Burton permits his female characters varying degrees of agency as they acquire monstrous traits. This construction of Woman as monster, this study will show, is founded on a certain fear of femaleness, so reinstating the ideology of Woman as Other. / English Studies / M.A. (English Studies)

In this study, I analyze the significance of Shakespearean intertextuality in the major works of Thomas Wolfe featuring protagonist Eugene Gant: Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River. Specifically, I explore Gant's habits and preferences as a reader by examining the narrative arising from the protagonist's perspectives of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and King Lear. I examine the significance of parallel reading habits of Wolfe the author and Gant the character. I also scrutinize the plurality of Gant's methods of cognition as a reader who interprets texts, communicates his connections with texts, and wars with texts. Further, I assess the cumulative effect of Wolfe's having blurred the boundaries between fiction and reality, between the novel and drama. I assert, then, that Wolfe, by incorporating a Shakespearean intertext, reveals aspects indicative of postmodernism.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Esta investigación parte de una base teórica que profundiza en la didáctica de la literatura en clases avanzadas de nivel universitario y en los contenidos literarios de “La chica de abajo” que pertenece a la colección de cuentos El balneario (1955) de la escritora española Carmen Martín Gaite. Para ello, se realiza una revisión de su vida y obra, así como de diferentes enfoques de aproximación al texto literario per se. La propuesta didáctica consiste en una unidad didáctica y un proyecto para estudiantes de honores que tienen como objetivo un acercamiento del alumnado a la sociedad franquista española de la década de los 50.

初期ユダヤ教の分派の一つとして誕生した原始キリスト教団は、霊・天使概念等に見られる聖書解釈、敬虔さの追及と内面化の傾向、文学的技法等の点で、初期ユダヤ教の特徴を継承していることが窺われる。その一方で、パウロとルカが行なった聖書の受容は、双方が結果的に「異邦人も神の言葉を受ける対象に含まれる」との解釈に至っていることを示しており、この点がキリスト教がユダヤ教から分岐するに至る「転換点」であったことが考えられる。 / It can be inferred that early Christianity, which began as a sect of early Judaism, inherited characteristics of early Judaism, such as Scriptural interpretations of concepts such as spirits and angels, the pursuit of piety, a tendency towards internalization, and literary techniques. However, receptions of Scripture by Paul and Luke shows that each concluded that Gentiles were included in those who can receive God’s word, and that this belief was the “turning point” at which Christianity began to diverge from Judaism. / 博士(神学) / Doctor of Theology / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University

One of the single biggest challenges for start-ups is to find the necessary funding to achieve growth. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies are no different and rely on seed stage investments to build and develop a service in order to acquire paying customers. Given the need of external investments, SaaS companies heavily depend on their valuation for each given investor. The purpose of this study was to investigate the main value determinants for seed stage SaaS company valuations. Hence, the research question at issue was “What are the main value determinants for seed stage SaaS company valuations?”. This study was delimited to seed stage SaaS companies with a business to business (B2B) service offering in Sweden. This qualitative research was carried out through semi-structured in-depth interviews with seed stage SaaS B2B founders and investors operating in Sweden. The primary results of the qualitative research show that the main value determinants can be divided into three main factors. Firstly, external factors, such as the region, industry, and market that the company is operating within. Secondly, company factors include team and founder characteristics, firm characteristics, SaaS metrics and financials, and partnership and alliances. Thirdly, investor factors, including investor type as well as reputation and value-add. Following the findings, similarities and differences with literature were discussed. Based on the results, a revised framework including the main value determinants for seed stage SaaS company valuation was developed. The conclusion of this study is that seed stage SaaS company valuations vary among investor types. The valuation tends to not be bound to a specific valuation method, but rather a process where an overall evaluation is made from a set of criteria, which leads up to the valuation process where the final valuation is set. / En av de största utmaningarna för nystartade företag är att genomföra extern kapitalanskaffning för att uppnå tillväxt. Det gäller även för SaaS-företag (Software-as-a-service) vilka är beroende av investeringar i seed stage (fröstadiet) för att bygga upp och utveckla tjänster för att erhålla betalande kunder. Givet behovet av externa investeringar är SaaS-företag starkt beroende av dess värdering från investerare. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka de viktigaste värdedeterminanterna för värdering av SaaS-bolag i seed stage. Forskningsfrågan var således "Vilka är de viktigaste värdedeterminanterna för värderingar av SaaS-företag i seed stage?". Studien avgränsades till SaaS-företag som erbjuder B2B-tjänster i Sverige. Denna kvalitativa studie genomfördes genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med seed stage SaaS B2B-grundare och investerare som är verksamma i Sverige. De övergripande resultaten visar att de viktigaste värdedeterminanterna kan delas in i tre huvudfaktorer: externa faktorer, företagsfaktorer, och investerarfaktorer. Externa faktorer avser region, bransch, och marknad inom vilka företaget är verksamt. Företagsfaktorer inkluderar teamet och grundarnas egenskaper, företagets egenskaper, SaaS-mått och finansiella data, samt partnerskap och allianser. Investerarfaktorer avser typen av investerare samt investerarens rykte och mervärde. Utfallet från intervjuerna jämfördes med resultat från tidigare litteratur. Baserat på intervjuresultaten utvecklades ett reviderat ramverk med de viktigaste värdedeterminanterna för värdering av SaaS-bolag i seed stage. Slutsatsen av denna studie är att värdering av SaaS-företag i seed stage varierar mellan olika investerartyper. Värderingen tenderar att inte vara bunden till en specifik värderingsmetod, utan en process där en övergripande utvärdering görs baserat på en uppsättning av kriterier, vilket resulterar i en slutgiltig värdering.

Background: This study investigates the role of gut feelings in early-stage venture investments, particularly in environments characterized by high uncertainty. By examining how both inexperienced and experienced investors utilize intuition, the research aims to uncover the cognitive and emotional foundations that influence investment decisions. Purpose: The research aims to understand how gut feelings impact investment decisions across different levels of investor experience. It compares the strategies of seasoned investors with those of novices, providing insights into how intuition and analytical reasoning are integrated. The objective is to offer practical guidance for investors on effectively combining gut feelings with analytical methods to navigate uncertain investment landscapes. Method: A multi-method qualitative approach was employed, combining semi-structured interviews and think-aloud protocols to capture real-time decision-making processes. Data were gathered from 11 investors, resulting in 14 hours of verbal protocols, which were subsequently analyzed using protocol analysis. A hypothetical investment scenario involving a fictional company, EcoPower Innovations, was used to elicit detailed responses from participants. Conclusion: The study finds significant differences in how gut feelings influence investment decisions based on the level of investor experience. Experienced investors skillfully blend intuition with data analysis, leveraging their expertise to manage uncertainty more effectively. In contrast, inexperienced investors tend to rely more on emotional impulses, demonstrating less integration of intuitive judgment with analytical reasoning. These findings highlight the importance of investor education in promoting the balanced use of gut feelings and analytical techniques, thereby improving decision-making in uncertain environments. Additionally, the research offers valuable insights for entrepreneurs on tailoring their approaches to potential investors based on their level of experience and expertise.

Nineteenth-century literature often reflects the evolving social dynamics and aspirations of the era and in works with female protagonists and/or by women authors, themes of women’s struggles are often prevalent, albeit sometimes more covertly. This essay examines the themes of empowerment, disempowerment and agency in Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) and Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862). Through the exploration of their respective protagonists, Helen Graham and Lucy Audley, these works illuminate the multifaceted dimensions of agency, from subtle acts of defiance to bold assertions of independence. To illuminate the discussion, the two novels are read and discussed alongside a variety of nineteenth-, twentieth- and twenty-first-century critical works.  The thesis is divided into three parts, with the first part focussing on the social context in which real-life and fictional Victorian women lived. The second and third parts discuss disempowerment and empowerment, respectively, and discuss and highlight how social norms and inequalities for women in nineteenth-century Britain impacted the female characters in these novels. It also shows how they navigate these constraints to assert their agency or succumb to societal pressures.

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.

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse a été dépouillée de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal / La présente thèse étudie l’hypersexualisation des jeunes filles en tant que phénomène culturel contemporain. En mettant à profit une approche conceptuelle psychanalytique et féministe, la thèse tente de comprendre le rôle joué par le regard, le désir et le fantasme dans ce phénomène. S’éloignant volontairement des discours critiques existant sur le sujet, l’objectif est de voir comment le cinéma peut mener son spectateur à confronter les dimensions plus radicales (incestueuse, pédophile et œdipienne) de l’image d’une jeune fille hypersexualisée. Le parcours argumentaire se divise en trois parties. La première partie effectue un inventaire sommaire des études portant sur l’hypersexualisation des jeunes filles. Tout en constatant l’actuelle pornographisation du paysage médiatique contemporain, le lecteur est amené à prendre connaissance de la nature alarmiste et foncièrement iconophobe de ces discours critiques, qui accordent peu d’attention à la dimension fantasmatique du phénomène. Une rétrospective des réflexions féministes sur le regard et le désir vient ensuite orienter le parcours vers les enjeux liés à la représentation médiatique de la féminité, ainsi que son lien avec le regard et le désir cinématographiques. La deuxième partie s’attarde aux discours féministes portant sur la représentation de la Femme en tant que signe. Constatant les limites de la traditionnelle dichotomie ange/putain, un modèle permettant de penser la féminité médiatique en termes archétypaux est proposé. Après avoir démontré l’opérativité analytique de ce modèle à travers la lecture du film 3 Women (Altman 1977), une analyse approfondie du film The Virgin Suicides (Coppola 1999) permet d’isoler une mise en image des envers problématiques de la féminité fantasmée. La troisième partie de la thèse introduit le paradigme lacanien contemporain propre aux études cinématographiques, afin de mener le lecteur à considérer sous un autre jour les questions du regard, du désir et du fantasme. La jeune fille hypersexualisée est alors abordée comme une version contemporaine et inversée du fantasme originaire œdipien. Par les analyses des films American Beauty (Mendes 1999) et Exotica (Egoyan 1994), le cinéma se révèle comme un discours culturel possédant la capacité de mener son spectateur vers une traversée du fantasme de la jeune fille hypersexualisée. / This thesis studies the sexualization of young girls as a contemporary cultural phenomenon. Through a feminist and psychoanalytical approach, the thesis attempts to isolate the functioning of the gaze, desire and fantasy within this phenomenon. Through a voluntary dissociation from existing critical discourses dealing with this topic, the main objective is to understand how cinema can bring its spectator to confront the radical dimensions (incestuous, pedophiliac and Œdipal) associated with the image of a sexualized girlhood. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part one begins with a brief inventory of existing literature on the sexualization of girlhood. While ascertaining the pornographication of contemporary mediascapes, the reader is brought to grasp the alarmist and iconophobic nature of existing critical discourses dealing with this phenomenon. Indeed, it is shown how they pay very little attention to the fantasmatic nature of the sexualized young girl. A feminist retrospective on the topics of desire and the gaze then orients the discussion towards issues related to media representations of femininity. Part two begins by focusing on feminist studies of Woman as sign. Following the highlighting of the conceptual limits associated with the typical angel/whore dichotomy, an archetypal model aimed at rethinking media representations of femininity is proposed. After demonstrating the analytical operability of this model through the study of Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1977), an extensive analysis of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999) allows the exploration of cinema’s ability to represent the problematical undersides of the fantasy of femininity. Part three focuses on contemporary Lacanian film studies in order to bring the reader to consider a more radical approach to questions pertaining to the gaze, desire and fantasy. The sexualized young girl is then studied as a contemporary, inverted version of the primal Œdipal fantasy. Through the analyses of Sam Mendes’ American Beauty (1999) and Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (1994), the cinema is revealed as a cultural discourse that holds the ability to bring its viewer to traverse the fantasy of sexualized girlhood.