No description available.

Jakobs dagar is a cultural event that takes place in the city of Jakobstad in Finland. The aim of this paper is to see if the place identity that Jakobstad has matches the cultural event. The used method in this paper is focus groups with the locals from Jakobstad and an intervju with the organizer of the event, which is analyzed trough an thematic analysis. Jakobstads image is pitted against the image that Jakobs dagar depicts. The results are showing that the cutural image shown during the event fits the description of what the locals is regarding as Jakobstads cultural identity.

Following the first world exhibition, the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London, exhibitions became routine events across the West that merged both education and entertainment to forward political and economic goals. For the most part scholars have taken the frequency, popularity, and propagandistic efforts of exhibitions at face value, viewing them as successful reassertions of the imperial, industrial, and technological superiority of Western nation-states. Though offering valuable insights into the cultural technologies of imperial rule, these works miss the complexities of imperial projects within specific temporal and geographical contexts. This manuscript traces the historical dynamics of India at exhibitions held in London during and after imperial rule: the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition, the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition, the 1924-25 British Empire Exhibition, and the 1951 Festival of Britain. In historicizing the exhibitionary administration and display of India over time, this study argues for a more complex reading of exhibitions in which displays invoked a mélange of meanings that destabilized as well as projected imperial hierarchies. It also examines the ways in which Indians administered, evaluated, and contested imperial displays. Rather than seamlessly reinforcing imperial dominance, exhibitions, located within specific historical contexts, emerged as contested, multifaceted, and even ambiguous portrayals of empires.

As our world becomes increasingly globalized, the value of understanding cultural diversity is perhaps more relevant than ever. Furthermore, since English plays an important role in the encounters between members of different cultural contexts, analysis of EFL teaching materials is a matter of importance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how two Swedish EFL textbooks represent cultural diversity. To achieve this, it aims to answer the following research question: To what extent do the textbooks represent cultural diversity within the framework of English as an international language? To answer the research question, this study uses critical discourse analysis as a method for the evaluation. The results indicate that the textbooks show some tendencies of acknowledging the international status of English by including texts from different countries and cultural settings. However, both books still favor representations of Anglophonic countries. Finally, the results suggest that it is important for teachers who use these books to promote critical reflection of how cultures are portrayed.

No description available.

Since the introduction of film to Japan in the 1890s, Japanese cinema has been continually influenced by transnational processes of film production, distribution, promotion, and reception. This has led inevitably to questions about the inherent nationality of Japan's film culture, despite the fact that Japanese cinema has often been subjected to analyses of its fundamental ‘Japaneseness'. This study seeks to make an original contribution to the field of Japanese film studies by investigating the contradictory ways in which Japan has functioned as a global cinematic brand in the period 2000 to 2010, and how this is interrelated with modes of promotion and reception in the English-speaking markets of the UK and the USA. Through textual and empirical analyses of seven films from the selected period and the non-Japanese consumption of them, this thesis argues that contemporary film exports are culturally-decentred in regards to their industrial and, to some extent, aesthetic dimensions. This results from contradictory modes of ‘cultural erasure' and ‘cultural performance' in the production of certain films, whereby aesthetic traces of cultural specificity are concealed or emphasised in relation to external commercial interests. Despite strategies of cultural erasure, explicit cinematic representations of cultural specificity remain highly valued as export commodities. Moreover, in the case of contemporary Japanese film exports, there are significant issues of ‘cultural ownership' to be accounted for given the extent to which non-national industrial consortia (film producers, financers, DVD distributors, film festivals) have invested in the promotion and in some cases the production of Japanese films. Thus, both in relation to the aesthetic erasure of Japaneseness and their non-Japanese commercial identities, recent film exports can be viewed as non-national cultural products that have a commercial and cinematic identity connected to external influences as much as internal ones.

Esta dissertação tem como problema de pesquisa: quais são as representações de professores e de alunos sobre a Provinha Brasil? Objetiva: (1) identificar e problematizar as representações – significados, modos de operacionalização e usos – sobre a Provinha Brasil a partir das falas de professores de três turmas de 2º ano do Ensino Fundamental e (2) inventariar e analisar o que representa ser avaliado pela Provinha Brasil na perspectiva dos alunos. A Provinha Brasil é uma avaliação em larga escala com função diagnóstica, aplicada no início e no final do 2º ano do Ensino Fundamental, visando aferir os progressos no rendimento dos alunos (em leitura e matemática) e dar subsídio ao planejamento dos professores. A pesquisa foi realizada em três escolas públicas de âmbito federal, estadual e municipal. Se enquadra em uma abordagem de pesquisa qualitativa, utilizando as seguintes ferramentas metodológicas: entrevista semiestruturada, observação e “aula-conversa”, esta última ferramenta criada para produção dos dados junto aos alunos. Os conceitos-ferramentas utilizados na investigação foram: Representação cultural (HALL, 1997) e Governamento (FOUCAULT, 1982). As análises mostraram que: os significados que as professoras atribuem à Provinha Brasil envolvem enxergá-la como um parâmetro, a partir da legitimação dos conhecimentos e habilidades abordados pelo exame, por serem similares aos que trabalham em suas salas de aula, mas que não têm fortes impactos nas suas práticas, sendo um reforço ao que elas já vinham observando sobre seus alunos. Os modos de operacionalização mostram que as professoras tentam tornar o momento de aplicação tranquilo, para que os alunos consigam fazer a prova e para que esse jeito de conduzir o processo, motivando os alunos, tenha impacto nos desempenhos. As professoras se põem contrárias a focar suas aulas na preparação dos alunos para “irem bem” na avaliação, mas os preparam, fazendo questões de múltipla escolha esporadicamente, para dar conta dos rituais de exame. Quanto aos usos, as professoras tentam “fazer desse limão uma limonada”, usando a Provinha Brasil dentro de sua potência, que é dar uma visão geral do desempenho da turma. Elas também apontam que interpretam os resultados, às vezes categorizando os alunos nos níveis que a avaliação propõe, e pensam ações para dar conta das aprendizagens não consolidadas pelos alunos. Os alunos representaram a avaliação como uma novidade bem aceita e trouxeram à tona significações partilhadas culturalmente sobre “prova”. Mesmo em menor número, alguns alunos também representaram a avaliação como um lugar de desconforto, a partir da insegurança, do nervosismo e das dúvidas, fruto de uma relação recém iniciada com o instrumento “prova”. Também relacionaram a avaliação à autorresponsabilização, trazendo outro significado partilhado culturalmente, uma vez que produzem uma ligação entre desempenho e futuro. / This dissertation has as research problem: what are the representations from teachers and students about the Provinha Brasil? It aims to: (1) identify and problematize the representation – meanings, ways of operationalization and the uses – about the Provinha Brasil based on the talks of three teachers from 2nd grade of elementary school and (2) listing and analyze what represents being evaluated by the Provinha Brasil on the students’ perspective. The Provinha Brasil is a large-scale assessment with diagnostic function that is applied at the beginning and at the end of 2nd grade of elementary school, aiming to assess the progress in student achievement (in reading and mathematics) and to contribute to teachers’ lesson plan. The research was realized in three public schools from different spheres, federal, state and municipal. It is a qualitative research that uses as methodological resources: the semi structured interview, the observations and “class-talk”, this last one created to produce data with the students. The main concepts that were used in this investigation were Cultural Representation (HALL, 1997) and Government (FOUCALT, 1982). The analyses revealed that: the meanings that teachers attribute to the Provinha Brasil involve consider it as a parameter, based on the legitimation of knowledge and abilities that are approached by the exam, because they are similar to the ones worked in their classrooms, but they do not have a strong impact in their practices, being considered a reinforcement to the things they have already observed about their students. The ways of operationalizing shows that the teachers try to make it a calm moment, in order to the students can answer the text and so that, this way of conducting the process, motivating the students, may cause an impact on their performance. The teachers do not put the focus of their classes on the preparation of their students to “do it well” in the evaluation, but they prepare them, proposing questions of multiple choice, occasionally, so the ritual of the exam is practiced. Concerning the uses, the teachers try to “make a lemonade out of lemons”, using the Provinha Brasil in its force, that is to give a general view from the group performance. They also point out that they interpret the results, sometimes categorizing the students in the levels proposed by the evaluation and planning actions to work on these nonconsolidated learning aspects of the students. The students represent the evaluation as a novelty well accepted and bring out meanings culturally shared concerning the meaning of “test”. Even though being in a small number, some students also represent the evaluation as a uncomfortable place, due to the insecurity, the jitters and the doubts, that come from a relation that began recently with the“test” as an instrument of assessment. They also associate evaluation and self-responsability, bringing out another meaning culturally shared, since they produce a connection between performance and future.

Orientador: Cristina Carneiro Rodrigues / Banca: Márcia do Amaral Peixoto Martins / Banca: Anna Flora Brunelli / Resumo: A tradução é uma prática lingüística que, se por um lado, é influenciada pelas orientações sociais, culturais e políticas do contexto em que é realizada, por outro também tem o poder de atuar sobre o contexto na qual é produzida e consumida. Uma das formas pelas quais a prática tradutória atua na cultura a que se destina a tradução é por meio da veiculação de representações culturais de um determinado país e seu povo. Tais representações culturais utilizam estratégias de significação e associações que auxiliam o direcionamento de interpretações a respeito da nação e do povo em questão e a reiteração de estereótipos nacionais, podendo contribuir para a continuidade das relações assimétricas entre determinadas línguas e culturas. O presente trabalho analisa essa situação enfocando como o jornal norte-americano The New York Times constrói em suas notícias representações culturais do Brasil e dos brasileiros e como essas representações são reconstruídas nas traduções das notícias para o português. As representações do Brasil estudadas são a da sensualidade, da violência, da cordialidade, do otimismo, da baixa auto-estima, do exotismo e da corrupção. Pretende-se evidenciar que as traduções dessas notícias, ao trabalharem com representações culturais do Brasil previamente construídas em inglês, por sua vez também elaboram em língua portuguesa representações desse país e dos brasileiros. Neste caso, uma vez que reconstroem e veiculam as representações para o mesmo público interpretado por elas, as traduções reiteram construções correntes no imaginário da sociedade brasileira e podem contribuir, assim, para a reconstrução, a amenização ou até mesmo o reforço dessas representações. / Abstract: Translation is a linguistic practice influenced by the social, cultural and political orientations of the context in which it occurs. It is also able to affect the culture in which it is produced and consumed. One way in which the practice of translation can have effects on the target culture is through the conveyance of cultural representations of a specific country and its people. Such representations usually employ signifying strategies and associations which both conduct the way in which a given country or people is understood and also reiterate national stereotypes, perpetuating unequal relations between languages and cultures. This dissertation analyses this issue by focusing on how The New York Times constructs cultural representations of Brazil and Brazilians and on how these representations are reconstructed in the news when translated into Portuguese. The representations of Brazil selected for this study are: sensuality, violence, cordiality, optimism, low self-esteem, exoticism and corruption. The research reveals that, in dealing with cultural representations of Brazil which had been previously constructed in English, the translated new items also reiterate these representations in Portuguese. In this case, since the representations produce and convey representations to those who are represented by them, they also serve to perpetuate prevalent images in the Brazilian imagination, and may contribute to reconstruct, soften, or even reinforce such representations. / Mestre

I denna uppsats ville vi undersöka hur den samiska kulturen representeras inom turism I Sverige. Vi utgick från fyra relevanta teman; dessa var autenticitet, identitet, makt och turism. Frågeställningarna var: Hur framställs den samiska kulturen i turismsammanhang i Sápmi? Hur påverkas den samiska identiteten av hur kulturen framställs inom turismnäringen? Hur mycket får samerna själva vara med och bestämma när det kommer till hur kulturen framställs inom turismnäringen?   Vi började med att se över den samiska befolkningens historia. Det är viktigt att förstå hur de har behandlats förr för att kunna förstå varför saker och ting är som de är idag. Teorierna som användes i denna studie hanterar frågor om kulturell representation inom turism, vad det gör med människors identitet samt vad som verkligen menad med autentisk representation. En del teorier är också knutna till maktrelationer, vilket uttrycks i ämnen som handlar om ”Vi” kontra ”Dem”. Dessa teorier utgör en lins som ger en djupare och bredare förståelse av de problem som lyfts och kontextualiseras i den empiriska delen av uppsatsen.   Vi samlade in vårt empiriska data genom intervjuer med människor involverade i turismindustrin. Vi gjorde även en kompletterande strukturerad observation genom att besöka några samiska utställningar och museum.   En viktig slutsats som vi kom fram till är att den samiska befolkningen vill och måste bli mer involverade i hur de representeras av turismindustrin. Samisk turism kan bli en stor inkomstkälla för samerna men de behöver mer statlig finansiering. Förståelsen för kulturen är idag relativt liten, delvis på grund av att industrier som turism ofta använder en stereotypisk bild när de framhäver samer. Mycket kan därför fortfarande göras när det kommer till kulturell representation.

In Toronto and Montreal, Brazilian popular music performances constitute a context for intercultural encounter. Performances offer Brazilians the opportunity to present their culture of origin while emphasising their identification with it. The issue of representation is quite complex, however, due to the involvement of a majority of non-Brazilian musicians, audience members, artistic directors, producers, promoters, and journalists. This dissertation focuses on music reception and cultural representation and how these may influence each other after music has been decontextualised and recontextualised. I look closely at local non-Brazilian audiences possessing different degrees of familiarity with Brazilian music, and I demonstrate how cultural stereotypes influence their conceptions and expectations of Brazilian music, culture, and people. I argue that a desire for cultural difference and the exotic, encouraged by discourses of cultural diversity, influences the reception of performances. I suggest that, through the privileged gaze of non-Brazilian attendees, performances may be adjusted to correspond to audience fantasies of Brazil. Some non-Brazilians would like to become knowledgeable of, and even intimate with Brazilian culture, which would satisfy their desire to be cosmopolitan. However, pleasure frequently matters more to them than a nuanced understanding of Brazilian culture; this explains, I contend, why some Torontonians and Montrealers have become comfortable with essentialist and stereotypical representations. I examine how some non-Brazilian musicians, promoters, and band agents reinforce mythologies of Brazil to meet audience demands and sometimes to satisfy their own fantasies. I analyse the reproduction of similarly problematic discourses on Brazil in the presentations of Brazilian artists as both a form of autoexoticism and a particular type of tactical or strategic essentialism. Rather than to represent and understand Brazilian culture, I argue that, through local music performances, Brazilians and non-Brazilians in Toronto and Montreal interpret Brazilianness.