This thesis explores representations of British youth culture and adolescent identity formation in the ‘first generation’ (seasons 1-2) of the British television teen drama Skins (2007-8). Like its peers in the Teen TV genre, Skins focuses on normative teenage angst and rebellion that results in ‘naughty behavior’: sex, drug and alcohol use, and conflict with and alienation from parents. Skins sets itself apart from genre standards by heightening and glamorizing the way these behaviors are visually depicted. Furthermore, the characters experience very few substantial consequences or repercussions from parents or other authority figures, but rather repercussions come from within their own close-knit group. The primary source of tension in the series occurs during the moments when the group of friends challenge the cultural, biological and ideological constraints under which they find themselves when their preoccupied, self-involved, neglectful, and otherwise overbearing parents directly contribute to the conditions that fuel their excessive ‘naughtiness.’ The series creators, writers, producers and actors promote Skins as an authentic representation of teenage experience and this thesis ultimately seeks to explore the implications of this representation in order to gain a better understanding of British youth culture in the new millennium.

This thesis is concerned with the lives and works of three translators who made Russian literature available for the British public. It is an attempt to account for the role these translators played in arousing interest in the classics of Russia. The translations of Constance Garnett, Aylmer Maude and S. S. Koteliansky were responsible for making Russian literature feature in the intellectual life of the British culture during the first decades of this century. The relation of my work to these initiatives is described in the Introduction. Chapter One deals with England's discovery of the Russian novel through translations and its consequences that led to the spread of the "Russian cult. " This took place during the first two decades of the twentieth century which witnessed great interest in Russian literature. The British public was introduced to the major treasures of the Russian classics, and what is more, to a handful of the new generation of Russian authors. In registering the response of the literary figures of the day on reading these translations and a survey of serious periodicals, evidence is established for the cult status of Russian writing. Chapter Two throws light on the life and work of one of the most eminent of translators, Constance Garnett. The chapter surveys the wide range of Russian authors she presented, with particular emphasis on her translation of Chekhov, and the impact of her translations in the establishment of the writer's reputation in England. Chapter Three focuses on Maude's career as a translator and accounts for his greatest achievement, the accomplishment of the Centenary Edition of Tolstoy's works. Other aspects of Maude's activities are drawn upon, particularly, the fact that he was a disciple of Tolstoy. Attention is also paid to his status as an authority on Tolstoy. Chapter Four is devoted to S. S. Koteliansky and his achievements. Koteliansky's prestigious position in the English literary life, in addition to his being a supplier of new material in the field of Russian translations are stressed. The collaboration of a handful of the literary figures in the production of his translations is looked upon as further proof to the presence of the Russian cult. The thesis concludes with an account of archive materials relevant to its field.

Thesis advisor: Judith Wilt / This project argues that the concept of haunting pervaded Victorian society, imagination, and thought and reflected anxieties regarding destabilized conceptions of the self and the world. It spans the nineteenth century from Mary Shelley to Henry James in order to claim that the living can invite and employ haunting in ways useful to self discovery or recovery. Rather than view haunting as a primarily one-directional relationship in which the haunter imposes itself on the haunted, I suggest that haunting can be invoked by the haunted in order to integrate new perspectives, conceptions, information, and situations vital to advancing self-perception and understandings of the surrounding world. Consequently, this study introduces a term I call "hauntedness," which amounts to the state of feeling or being haunted. Through this word, I hope to confer greater agency to the notion of being haunted than the more passive, acted-upon "to be haunted" can sometimes convey. Haunted Mind and Matter employs concepts from Jacques Derrida's Specters of Marx and "Différance" to complicate the question of haunting and enter the critical debate about Victorian haunting in particular. The works of Derrida and critics like Julian Wolfreys, following Sigmund Freud, reveal haunting as not restricted to bonds with spectral ghosts; it exists in every person and discourse. Using the term "haunt" in a multifaceted, flexible manner can challenge notions of the self and what is human through biological, social, and other constructs. The introduction examines Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in my view an inverted ghost story, to exemplify this text's employment of the term "hauntedness." The project then explores uses of terms related to haunting in texts in which mental, historical, and social haunting are infused with strong gothic and Romantic imagery: Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847), Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), George Eliot's Middlemarch (1871), and Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (1898). I claim that these works both reveal the powerful presence of haunting in Victorian thought and society and show characters generating productive, reverberating uses for the haunting they experience in order to progress into the future. Haunted Mind and Matter demonstrates what the lens of haunting can reveal about character and social context in fiction. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.

<p>Abstract</p><p>The mixed messages provided in The Buddha of Suburbia together with its prevalent use of humour are the focal point for this essay. The aim is to defend my thesis statement that humour provides a justifiable forum for the critique and presentation of society, enabling the facilitation of serious, effective and powerful perspectives. As critical standpoints a mixture of Postcolonial and Marxist theories are applied together with Bakhtin’s theory of carnevalesque. By comparing historic facts with the portrayed environment depicted in the novel, a message is delivered that a change of a different worldview is required. This message is displayed with various uses of humour, wit and satire, which provide an allegorical veil for its seriousness. This analysis shows that there are no seeming changes in the lives of the characters, but it highlights that a need for a change of views is important.</p>

Abstract The mixed messages provided in The Buddha of Suburbia together with its prevalent use of humour are the focal point for this essay. The aim is to defend my thesis statement that humour provides a justifiable forum for the critique and presentation of society, enabling the facilitation of serious, effective and powerful perspectives. As critical standpoints a mixture of Postcolonial and Marxist theories are applied together with Bakhtin’s theory of carnevalesque. By comparing historic facts with the portrayed environment depicted in the novel, a message is delivered that a change of a different worldview is required. This message is displayed with various uses of humour, wit and satire, which provide an allegorical veil for its seriousness. This analysis shows that there are no seeming changes in the lives of the characters, but it highlights that a need for a change of views is important.

[pt] O presente trabalho identifica e compara aspectos culturais e linguísticos inseridos em relacionamentos amorosos entre brasileiros e britânicos, a partir de duas categorias sugeridas pelo interculturalista Geert Hofstede: individualismo e masculinidade; e da categorização de Richard D. Lewis da cultura brasileira como multiativa e da cultura britânica como ativo-linear. O objetivo desse estudo é o de entender melhor como esses relacionamentos interculturais se dão, seus desafios, seus sucessos, investigando qual a influência da cultura e da língua nessas relações. Para nossa análise, utilizamos dados gerados por meio de entrevistas e questionários realizados com dez casais - todos formados por um/a brasileiro/a e um/a britânico/a envolvidos em um relacionamento amoroso. Entre os nossos resultados, identificamos os seguintes elementos que influenciam a relação desses casais: (i) o papel da mulher na relação; (ii) ciúmes, traição e dependência emocional; (iii) linguagem verbal, não verbal e estilística; e (iv) o lugar que o casal escolhe para viver. Portanto, esta pesquisa sinaliza os desafios encontrados pelos casais interculturais e apresenta sugestões, dadas pelos próprios informantes, para entendermos essas diferenças e tentarmos evitar que elas interfiram de maneira negativa nos relacionamentos de mesmo tipo. Por meio desse estudo, esperamos evidenciar a importância de se trabalhar esta temática em sala de aula, dando mais subsídios e embasamento teórico aos professores de PL2E, para que possam mostrar aos alunos de português a importância de se entender não só a língua como, principalmente, a cultura do outro, e contribuindo, assim, para o desenvolvimento das competências comunicativa e intercultural dos aprendizes. / [en] The present work identifies and compares cultural and linguistic aspects inserted in love relationships between Brazilians and Britons, from two categories suggested by the interculturalist Geert Hofstede: individualism and masculinity; and Richard D. Lewis s categorization of Brazilian culture as multiactive and British culture as active-linear. The objective of this study is to better understand how these intercultural relationships are given, their challenges, their successes, investigating the influence of culture and language on these relationships. For our analysis, we used data generated through interviews and questionnaires conducted with ten couples - all formed by a Brazilian and a British person involved in a loving relationship. Among our results, we identified the following elements that influence the relationship of these couples: (i) the role of women in the relationship; (ii) jealousy, betrayal and emotional dependence; (iii) verbal, nonverbal and stylistic language; and (iv) the place the couple chooses to live. Therefore, this research indicates the challenges encountered by intercultural couples and presents suggestions, given by the informants themselves, to understand these differences and try to avoid them interfering in a negative way in relationships of the same type. Through this study, we hope to highlight the importance of working this theme in the classroom, giving more subsidies and theoretical background to the teachers of PL2E, so that they can present to Portuguese students the importance of understanding not only the language but, mainly, one s culture, and thus contributing to the development of the communicative and intercultural competences of apprentices.

This thesis contends that the image of fire is a multivalent and theologically valuable image for application in British Christian communities. My research offers an original contribution by contextualising the image of fire for Christian practice in Britain, and combining critical observation of several contemporary fire rites with theological analysis. In addition, I conduct original case studies of three Scottish fire rituals: the Stonehaven Fireball Ceremony, the Beltane Fire Festival, and Up-Helly-Aa in Lerwick, Shetland. The potential contribution of fire imagery to Christian practice has been overlooked by modern theological scholarship, social anthropologists, and Christian practitioners. Since the multivalence of the image has not been fully recognised, fire imagery has often been reduced to a binary of ‘positive' and ‘negative' associations. Through my study of non-faith fire rituals and existing Christian fire practices, I explore the interplay between multivalence, multiplicity, and liminality in fire imagery. I demonstrate that deeper theological engagement with the image of fire can enhance participation, transformation, and reflection in transitional ritual experience. I argue that engaging with the multivalence of the image of fire could allow faith communities to move beyond dominant interpretive frameworks and apply the image within their own specific context. First, I orientate the discussion by examining the multivalence of biblical fire imagery and establishing the character of fire within the British social imagination. Second, I use critical observation of community fire practices in non-faith contexts to build a new contextual framework for the analysis of fire imagery. Finally, I apply my findings to a contextual analysis of existing Christian fire practices in Britain. Throughout, I argue that sensory and imaginative interaction with the image of fire provides a way to communicate and interact with theological ideas; experience personal and communal change; and mediate experience of the sacred.