The focus of this essay is a discussion of Libby Larsen's relationship with American vernacular musical expression in her piano chamber music works. This essay examines three works that are representative of the wide range of influences in her piano chamber music: Holy Roller for Alto Saxophone and Piano; Barn Dances for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano; and Trio for Piano and Strings for Violin, Cello, and Piano. They are inspired, respectively, by three different genres of American music: gospel, Western square dance, and jazz. In so doing, this essay discusses Larsen's use of musical quotations, idiomatic harmonic elements, and patterns of rhythm and melody drawn from these varied aspects of American culture. It is essential for musicians to understand how to play varying genres, and this essay offers suggestions on how to play the three different genres of gospel, Western square dance, and jazz within the context of Larsen's music. This essay will hopefully bring these works, and Larsen's larger body of works, to the greater attention of the musical community and introduce them to a wider audience.

L’objectif général de ce mémoire est de comprendre l‘impact du genre sur l’identité de travail des cowboys, dans leur milieu de travail et de vie dans un ranch du Canada. Cette étude vise à contribuer aux études sur le genre en utilisant des théories existantes pour les appliquer à un nouveau champ. Sur la base d’une approche théorique fondée dans le féminisme et les études sur la masculinité, en utilisant aussi l’histoire des cowboys de l’Ouest, cette étude se penche sur la question de l’importance du genre dans la division du travail dans le ranch, celle de l’identité de travail des cowboys et sur la façon dont le genre affecte cette identité. La collecte des données s’est faite par l’observation participante et des entrevues semi-structurées. En utilisant une analyse thématique des données, l’étude conclut que le genre est un principe important dans la division du travail dans le ranch et que l’identité de travail est d’une extrême importance pour les cowboys. En outre, l’étude démontre que le genre jour de différentes façons dans l’identité de travail, l’hétéronormativité et les idéaux du cowboy allant dans le même sens, alors que la féminité s’oppose à cet idéal. Les traditions sont encore importantes pour les cowboys contemporains, mais en même temps, ceux-ci mentionnent la réalité du travail éreintant et sans fin comme contrepoids à l’image romantique de la vie des cowboys. Enfin, il y a des similitudes entre les cowboys de cette étude et les adolescentes suédoises étudies par Ambjörnsonn (2004) dans la façon dont le groupe se crée une identité sur la base du genre. / English abstract: The overall aim of this thesis is to understand the implications of gender in the work identity of cowboys within the framework of working and living on a contemporary Canadian cattle ranch. The study seeks to contribute to gender studies by applying established theories to a new field. A theoretical framework drawing from, on the one hand, gender theory originating from feminism and masculinity studies, and on the other hand, the history of the cowboy of the west is applied to the study. This research investigates the importance of gender in the division of labour at the Ranch and the significance of work identity for cowboys, while looking at how gender plays a part in this work identity. To collect data, fieldwork including participant observation and semi-structured interviews has been conducted. Using a thematic analysis of the information gathered, the study found that gender was a guiding principle in the division of labour at the Ranch, and that the work identity had an enormous importance for research participants. Furthermore, it revealed that gender played an important part in their work identity in different ways because ideals revolving around a heteronormative masculinity and those related to being a cowboy went hand in hand, whereas the idea of the feminine gender was presented as being in conflict with the idea of the cowboy. Interestingly, old traditions of the cowboy trade are still important to contemporary cowboys, who seek to balance the romantic picture of the cowboy life painted in fiction with the reality of hard, never-ending work. Moreover, similarities are found between cowboys who participated in this study and Swedish teenage girls studied by Ambjörnsson (2004), in terms of how they create a group identity based on the construction of gender.

The working cowboy remains part of the contemporary culture of Texas. A visual record of him appeared early in the state's history, in daguerreotypes, followed by representations in contemporary black and white as well as color photographs, film and video. Although the way of life for the Texas cowboy has changed, it remains a thriving part of the Texas economy, society, and culture. Moreover, the image of the cowboy has permeated popular culture and fine art. This paper explores what late twentieth century popular culture and fine art images of the cowboy signify, emphasizing aspects of how they signify in relation to an existing tradition of photographic representations. Using Barthes' "Myth Today," it considers how the documentary aspect of early photographic representations of cowboys is transformed in contemporary popular culture and fine art to become mythology, for example, by the exaggeration of features of dress to connote ideals allegorically.

Image of religion in Bioshock: Infinite computer game Master's thesis - Bc.Jiří Kothera Few mainstream computer games have caused such controversy as Bioshock: Infinite (Irrational Games, 2013). The third installment of the Bioshock series is set in the fictional city of Columbia in an alternate history of early twentieth century, which at first glance appears to be a perfect social utopia. After a while, however, the narrative begins to uncover the multilayered problems of society oppressed by a fraction of the white elite and religious fanaticism embodied by the character of Z.H.Comstock, the charismatic leader of the whole community. The popularity of the game and its stable position at the top of the various popularity charts are not only due to the attractive audiovisual processing and complex game mechanics. It is primarily a story that uses (for a mass audience product) an unprecedented amount of religious symbolism - especially Christian, historical references, polysemic story elements and the story based on the concepts of Frontier myth and American exceptionalism. This work deals with the analysis of narrative and religious-social phenomena appearing in the game, especially those that are directly related to the religious and nationalistic topics in the United States.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:18:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Roberta Regalcce de Almeida.pdf: 33873531 bytes, checksum: da78f0244fd08f8bdcbea5868d109eee (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-05-11 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This dissertation aims to analyze two Japanese animation series for TV, Cowboy Bebop (1998) and Samurai Champloo (2004) by Shinichiro Watanabe. The both series are emblematic by using a remix of the traditional and the modern, the Japanese culture and the West, generating unusual metamorphoses and creating multiple interfaces between various contexts and media experience (television, movies, games, manga etc.). The research analyzes the strategies of remix, typical of so-called post-production, on the dynamics of selection and appropriation of media products and objects of consumption, and their reuse in other forms and contexts, redefining them, as a focus of epistemological critical analysis. The goal is to analyze if the author s remix can be considered in fact, one author. In support of discussion, the research selected authors who have dedicated themselves to track the origins, functions and uses of the remix, and the modulations of this process in pop culture throughout the twentieth century as Lev Manovich (2005), Eduardo Navas (2008), Nicolas Bourriaud (2009) and Lucia Santaella (2007). Moreover, the theory corpomídia (Greiner and Katz 2005) explains how to avoid the deterministic analysis that consider the work and the author as objects and subjects entered by the culture. The analitic methodology for the both series, while remixes of Japanese pop culture, focuses on observing and reporting different sources, indicating their mediation. As media products, the series will finally be recognized as maps or overlapping layers, as the researchers specializing in Japanese pop culture has been discussing in recent years (Looser 2009, Igarashi 2001, Greiner, 1998 and 2000 and Luyten, 2000). The expected result is a reflection that will not invoke the traditional dichotomies between East and West and it is focused on analyzing the media culture, with emphasis on representations of corpomídia that appears as a mark of natural experiments studied / A dissertação propõe analisar duas séries de animações japonesas para TV, Cowboy Bebop (1998) e Samurai Champloo (2004) de Shinichiro Watanabe. Trata-se de duas séries emblemáticas por remixar em um mesmo cenário o tradicional e o moderno, a cultura japonesa e a ocidental, engendrando metamorfoses inusitadas e criando múltiplas interfaces entre vários contextos e experiências midiáticas (TV, cinema, jogos eletrônicos, mangás etc). A pesquisa analisa as estratégias de remix, típica da chamada pós-produção, em sua dinâmica de seleção/apropriação de produtos midiáticos e/ou objetos de consumo, e em sua reutilização em outras formas e contextos, resignificando-os, como eixo epistemológico da análise crítica. O objetivo é analisar se o autor de remix pode ser considerado de fato, um autor. Para fundamentar a discussão, a pesquisa selecionou autores que se dedicaram a rastrear as origens, funções e usos do remix, bem como as modulações desse processo na cultura pop ao longo do século XX como Lev Manovich (2005), Eduardo Navas (2008), Nicolas Bourriaud (2009) e Lucia Santaella (2007). Além disso, a teoria corpomídia (Greiner e Katz 2005) esclarece como evitar as análises deterministas que consideram obra e autor como objetos e sujeitos inscritos pela cultura. A metodologia de análise dessas duas séries, enquanto remixagens da cultura pop japonesa, concentra-se em observar e apontar diferentes fontes, evidenciando as suas mediações. Enquanto produtos midiáticos, as séries acabaram por ser reconhecidas como mapas sobrepostos ou camadas (layers), como pesquisadores especializados na cultura pop japonesa vem discutindo nos últimos anos (Looser 2009, Igarashi 2001, Greiner, 1998 e 2000 e Luyten, 2000). O resultado esperado é uma reflexão que não se ampara nas tradicionais dicotomias entre oriente e ocidente e cujo foco está na análise das mídias, com ênfase nas representações do corpomídia que aparece como marca singular das experiências estudadas

Most books written about American drama concern definitions of masculinity, the American dream, and the family in a society that encourages people to surpass their competences and limits. American playwrights of the twentieth century reveal the anxiety and insecurity of men who do not rise up to the standards of the American dream. In concentrating on these themes, most critics have analyzed the main characters and plots but have left aside hints about other myths. This study aims to analyse the extended use of the cowboy, of salesman, and of pirate in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The recurrence of these three myths touches on the core of American drama that playwrights and critics have tried to define endlessly: the definition of the male in the American society.

This thesis presents a research of Swedes view on sex tourism in Thailand. This research is showing how Swedes sees sex tourism in Thailand and what kind of thoughts they have about it. This research also shows the Swedish view on sex tourism in Thailand and how it differs from the view of the Swedish media and their opinion about the subject. Furthermore, this research shows that the view of this subject differs depending on the respondents’ experience of travelling in Thailand. It becomes more important to study this subject with increasingly numbers of Swedes travelling to Thailand and more people find a partner in the country. This has led to a growing minority of Thai people in Sweden, which has to live with the prejudices of the Swedes. That is why it is so important to show what this prejudices are and why they exist. This topic is rather hard to study because of the sensitivity of the subject as well as people’s fixed opinions regarding this subject. It is easy to make politics of the subject because of these strong opinions, but we have tried to stay away from these already fixed opinions and instead tried to observe other peoples fixed opinions and how these fixed opinions effecting Thai women living in Sweden. It is important to understand how people’s prejudices affect the view of a country especially when it comes to tourism development.

Most books written about American drama concern definitions of masculinity, the American dream, and the family in a society that encourages people to surpass their competences and limits. American playwrights of the twentieth century reveal the anxiety and insecurity of men who do not rise up to the standards of the American dream. In concentrating on these themes, most critics have analyzed the main characters and plots but have left aside hints about other myths. This study aims to analyse the extended use of the cowboy, of salesman, and of pirate in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The recurrence of these three myths touches on the core of American drama that playwrights and critics have tried to define endlessly: the definition of the male in the American society.

Both the “crisis of masculinity” and “quality TV” have been popular discourses in academia in recent years. Many of these contemporary quality TV series feature male anti-heroes at the center of their narratives. This dissertation argues that the constructions of masculinity in series such as "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead" are informed by the Western hero. Furthermore, the dissertation links this recourse to an arguably outmoded model of masculinity to recent crisis tendencies in the USA, most notably the recent economic downturn and the aftermath of September 11 2001. Moreover, the return of the Western hero can be understood as a process of remasculinization in light of the crisis of masculinity.

Both the “crisis of masculinity” and “quality TV” have been popular discourses in academia in recent years. Many of these contemporary quality TV series feature male anti-heroes at the center of their narratives. This dissertation argues that the constructions of masculinity in series such as "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead" are informed by the Western hero. Furthermore, the dissertation links this recourse to an arguably outmoded model of masculinity to recent crisis tendencies in the USA, most notably the recent economic downturn and the aftermath of September 11 2001. Moreover, the return of the Western hero can be understood as a process of remasculinization in light of the crisis of masculinity.