This thesis explores the development of Virginia Woolf’s late cultural criticism. While contemporary scholars commonly observe that Woolf shifted her intellectual focus from modernist fiction to cultural criticism in the 1930s, there has been little sustained examination of why and how Woolf’s late cultural criticism evolved during 1930-1941. This thesis aims to contribute just such an investigation to field. My approach here fuses a feminist-historicist approach with the methodology of genetic criticism (critique génétique), a French school of textual studies that traces the evolution of literary works through their compositional histories. Reading across published and unpublished texts in Woolf’s oeuvre, my genetic, feminist-historicist analysis of Woolf emphasises that her late cultural criticism developed from her early feminist politics and dissident aesthetic stance as well as in response to the tempestuous historical circumstances of 1930-1941. As a prelude to my investigation of Woolf’s late output, Chapter 1 traces the genesis of Woolf’s cultural criticism in her early biographical writings. Chapter 2 then scrutinises Woolf’s late turn to cultural criticism through six essays she produced for Good Housekeeping in 1931. Chapter 3 surveys the evolution of Woolf’s critique of patriarchy in Three Guineas (1938) through the voluminous pre-publication documents that link this innovative feminist-pacifist pamphlet to The Years (1937). Finally, Chapter 4 outlines how Woolf’s last novel, Between the Acts (1941), fuses fiction with cultural criticism to debate art’s social role in times of national crisis. The close relationship between formal and political radicalism in Woolf’s late cultural criticism, I conclude, undermines the integrity of viewing Woolf’s oeuvre in two distinct phases –the modernist 1920s and the socially-engaged 1930s – and suggests the danger of using such labels in wider narratives of interwar literature. Woolf’s late cultural criticism, this thesis argues, developed from rather than rejected her earlier experimentalism.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka de narratologiska drivkrafterna i de två postapokalyptiska verken The Stand av Stephen King och Girlfriend In a Coma av Douglas Coupland. Med frågor som: Vad är den narratologiska drivkraften? Med kulturkritisk infallsvinkel: vad för karaktärerna med sig in i den nya tiden? Genom närläsning kommer en undersökning ske, där de narratologiska drivkrafterna lyfts fram. Resultatet visar att författarna har använt sig av två olika tekniker. The Stand använder sig av motsatspar enligt A.J. Greimas aktantmodell medan Girlfriend In a Coma använder skiftande fokalisering och berättarröst som narratologisk drivkraft. Båda verken har en katastrof som gemensam faktor. Denna katastrof är den grundläggande narratologiska drivkraften i båda verken. Läsaren vet från början att det är två verk i genren postapokalyptisk skräck, därför läses verken med vetskapen om att vad som helst kan hända, när som helst. / The purpose of this project is to find out what makes the story unfold after the end of the world has taken place in Stephen King’s The Stand and Douglas Coupland’s Girlfriend In a Coma. The project has a cultural critical standpoint. After the apocalypse; what do the characters bring into the new world? The investigation is performed by using close reading. Elements essential to the narratological force are then lifted and presented. The result shows that the authors to the two works have used different techniques. The Stand uses opposites according to A.J. Greima’s actant model, whereas the narratological driving force in Girlfriend In a Coma is the use of shifting focalization. Both works have the same beneficial narratological driving force as back bone: the apocalypse. The reader knows what to expect from this genre, the post-apocalyptic horror genre. These works are read bearing in mind that anything can happen, at any time.

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Com a chegada dos \"filmes falados\" nos anos finais da década de 20, o cinema brasileiro, que como outros ao redor do mundo vivia então um momento de grande vigor criativo, é obrigado a se reinventar, a praticamente recomeçar. Para os mais puristas, esse recomeço implicou numa recaída do cinema na velha arte teatral; para os mais otimistas, representou a consagração do dispositivo cinematográfico como o modo mais moderno e efetivo de dramatização. O cinema narrativo, com o acréscimo do som sincronizado, ao contrário das previsões iniciais, atinge rapidamente um novo estágio de popularidade. Esta pesquisa estuda de que modo nas duas décadas que se seguiram a novidade do \'cinema falado\', a dramaturgia do filme e a dramaturgia teatral dialogaram entre si para a construção de modelos dramáticos que pudessem atender as expectativas de um novo tipo de público, mais urbano e cosmopolita, num país que rapidamente buscava superar seu passado rural e as estruturas sociais e mentais a ele associadas. / With the arrival of \"talkies\" in the final years of the 1920s, Brazilian cinema, which like others around the world was living in a moment of great creative vigor, is forced to reinvent itself, practically starting again. To the more purists, this new beginning implied a relapse of the cinema into the old theatrical art; for the most optimistic, represented the consecration of the cinematographic \'dispositif\' as the most modern and effective mode of dramatization. Narrative cinema, with the addition of synchronized sound, unlike initial predictions, quickly reaches a new stage of popularity. This research studies how, in the two decades that followed the novelty of sound film, the dramaturgy of the film and theatrical dramaturgy interacted with each other to construct dramatic models that could meet the expectations of a new type of audience, more urban and cosmopolitan, in a country that quickly sought to overcome its rural past and the social and mental structures associated with it.

Dogville é um filme que suscitou reações opostas e viscerais. Essa dissertação aborda dois aspectos desse fenômeno. Em primeiro lugar, uma leitura do filme especialmente no que diz respeito a seu princípio contraditório. Não se trata apenas de abrigar aspectos realistas da chamada linguagem clássica do cinema conjuntamente com aspectos antiilusionistas de inspiração assumidamente brechtiana. Trata-se de compreender como essa contradição é o coração do filme e produz seu sentido. Em seguida, uma leitura da crítica publicada nos veículos de comunicação de grande circulação procura identificar como esses textos encaram ou ignoram essa contradição, bem como as pré-concepções que permitem que eles assim o façam e que determinam as análises que produzem. / Dogville is a movie to which most people reacted passionately, whether in favor or against it. This dissertation approaches two aspects of this phenomenon. First, it provides a reading of the film that focuses on its contradictory principle. It is not only about the fact that some of it resorts to classic realism whereas some other aspects question this illusionism by deriving from a Brechtian inspiration. It is about understanding how this very contradiction is the heart and soul of the movie and how it is this that produces its content. Then, a reading of reviews published in wide circulation papers attempts to identify how these texts either address or ignore this contradiction, as well as the pre-conceptions that allow them to do so and that determine the analyses they produce.

Margaret Atwoods dystopiska roman Tjänarinnans berättelse (The Handmaid’s Tale) från år 1985 fick åter uppmärksamhet år 2017 när teveseriens första säsong, baserad på romanen, hade premiär. I berättelsen skildras tjänarinnan Offreds liv i republiken Gilead, före detta USA, där infertilitet är ett av de stora problemen. Det föds sällan barn i landet och av de som föds är endast tre av fyra barn friska. Kvinnor med låg social status, men med fungerande livmoder, utses till tjänarinnor och enligt republiken har de en ärofylld uppgift; att föda friska barn åt aristokratiska makar. Republiken legitimerar tjänarinnornas avsaknad av frihet genom att hänvisa till Bibelns texter, främst till Genesisberättelsen om Bilha, Rakel och Jakob. Bilhas uppdrag i hushållskonstellationen är att förse patriarken Jakob med avkommor och på liknande sätt fungerar Offreds roll i romanens handling. Denna uppsats undersöker den bibliska intertextualiteten i romanen. Det förekommer både uppenbara citat och mindre tydliga allusioner. Genom att tillämpa Lina Sjöbergs system om markör, sätt och effekt analyseras bibelreferenserna på tre nivåer. Den första nivån identifierar referensen som citat, refererat, allusion eller tema. Den andra nivån undersöker på vilket sätt intertextualiteten sker och den tredje nivån beskriver vilken effekt bibelreferensen får hos läsaren.  Bibeln har länge inspirerat olika kulturyttringar och sedan den senare halvan av 1900-talet har den allmänna populärkulturen studerats ur ett bibelvetenskapligt perspektiv. Trots sekulariseringsteorier går det inte att avfärda bibelberättelsers inflytande i moderna verk. Bibeln har länge varit en del av vår kultur och många känner till de klassiska gammaltestamentliga berättelserna om Adam och Eva, Noa och flodvågen, Abrahams söner, Jobs olycka och Jona i valfisken. Detta bibliotek av böcker, med spridda stilar, har på många olika sätt influerat modern skönlitteratur och Tjänarinnans berättelse är en av dessa.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:14:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Conrado Valle de Queiroz Padilha.pdf: 1248123 bytes, checksum: 435251b3c257bfddbc814a2c733b95cc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The cardinal purpose of this work is to present the Barthesian concept of myth as per its definition in Mythologies. It is also an attempt to follow how it unfolds in the work of Roland Barthes through a small set of selected texts: Writing Degree Zero, Mythologies, Elements of Semiology, L obvie et l obtus, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, and Camera Lucida. This research implies in handling the concept of connotation, through which Barthes defines the myth as an ultra-signification message. We here play with the hypothesis of the concept of studium, belatedly introduced in Camera Lucida, as a reformulation of the myth in the photography field, since Barthes himself sees in it the same characteristic effect of the connotative phenomenon. In such a manner, the corpus of this research is given by the author s mentioned texts; for its convenient aspect, it is also added of the repertoire of images offered by the researcher Jacqueline Guittard and her Mythologies illustrées, which recaptures and expands the edition known so far; the images of Camera Lucida are also added to it. The relevance of this research is tied to the possibility offered by Barthes oeuvre to criticize the mass communications in a historic and semiotic perspective, always paying attention to the work of the signifier / O trabalho tem por objetivo primordial apresentar o conceito barthesiano de mito , conforme definido em Mitologias. Trata-se também de acompanhar seus desdobramentos na obra de Roland Barthes por meio de um pequeno conjunto de textos selecionados: O grau zero da escritura, Mitologias, Elementos de semiologia, O óbvio e o obtuso, Roland Barthes por Roland Barthes e A câmara clara. Tal busca demanda trabalhar com o conceito de conotação, através do qual Barthes define o mito enquanto uma mensagem de ultrassignificação. Jogamos com a hipótese de que o conceito de studium, tardiamente introduzido em A câmara clara, é a reformulação do mito no campo da fotografia, já que Barthes vê aí o mesmo efeito característico do fenômeno conotativo. Assim, o corpus da pesquisa é dado pelos referidos textos do autor. Pelo caráter oportuno, este corpus é acrescido do repertório de imagens fornecido pela pesquisadora Jacqueline Guittard em seu Mitologias ilustrado, que retoma e aumenta a edição até aqui conhecida; a isto acrescentam-se ainda as imagens de A câmara clara. A relevância da pesquisa liga-se à possibilidade que a obra de Barthes nos oferece de voltar às comunicações de massa uma crítica ao mesmo tempo semiótica e histórica, sempre atenta ao trabalho do significante

When analyzing the role religion plays in contemporary American society, one is forced to address the notion of secularization. This is a term that broadly refers to the marginalization of religious influence in culture and society that began at the outset of the Enlightenment, sometime during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but, as Peter Berger argues, can actually be traced back to the times of the great Israelite prophets who emerged during the Axial Age (800-200 BCE). Throughout the available literature, proponents of the secularization thesis extend the marginalization of religious influence from the societal level to the level of individual consciousness; however, this thesis contends that these analyses appear to be inadequate in describing postmodern culture. This thesis affirms Lyotard's description of classifying postmodernity as a time exhibiting "incredulity towards the meta-narrative." Thus, this thesis will argue that postmodern culture is not best described as secular. By employing Jacques Ellul's understanding of the sacred and Vincent Pecora's "semantic resonance" of religion, this thesis will provide a more adequate theoretic platform to develop accounts for religion in postmodernity. Through analysis of various deployments of the secularization thesis in the context of Ellul's theory of the proliferating sacred, the adequacy of the available literature that examines secularization in contemporary society will be evaluated. On the basis of this evaluation, proposals for reconsideration of the secularization thesis will be offered. Furthermore, this thesis will locate renditions of the sacred in postmodern society through participation in traditional institutional religion and the proliferation of New Religious Movements by employing a substantive approach. By taking a functional approach, this thesis will analyze the religious dimensions of sports in contemporary American culture. It will become evident that whether one understands religion substantively or functionally, it is clear that the sacred in postmodernity appears to be thriving rather than eroding. This thesis will advocate a phenomenological functional understanding of religion and society and support the astute observation made by Graham Ward in his recent work Theology and Contemporary Critical Theory, that "Religion is once again haunting the imagination of the West."

The main topic is centered around videogame journalism and the way in which game reviewers look at videogames. The defining question is whether videogame journalists treat videogames as cultural or technical products thorough their work. The role and position of videogame journalism, games as art and aesthetics aspects of videogames are first studied in the theoretical section. These topics are further examined in practice using content analysis of chosen reviews which aims to investigate the means through which reviewers describe videogames in previously theoretically defined categories.

Dogville é um filme que suscitou reações opostas e viscerais. Essa dissertação aborda dois aspectos desse fenômeno. Em primeiro lugar, uma leitura do filme especialmente no que diz respeito a seu princípio contraditório. Não se trata apenas de abrigar aspectos realistas da chamada linguagem clássica do cinema conjuntamente com aspectos antiilusionistas de inspiração assumidamente brechtiana. Trata-se de compreender como essa contradição é o coração do filme e produz seu sentido. Em seguida, uma leitura da crítica publicada nos veículos de comunicação de grande circulação procura identificar como esses textos encaram ou ignoram essa contradição, bem como as pré-concepções que permitem que eles assim o façam e que determinam as análises que produzem. / Dogville is a movie to which most people reacted passionately, whether in favor or against it. This dissertation approaches two aspects of this phenomenon. First, it provides a reading of the film that focuses on its contradictory principle. It is not only about the fact that some of it resorts to classic realism whereas some other aspects question this illusionism by deriving from a Brechtian inspiration. It is about understanding how this very contradiction is the heart and soul of the movie and how it is this that produces its content. Then, a reading of reviews published in wide circulation papers attempts to identify how these texts either address or ignore this contradiction, as well as the pre-conceptions that allow them to do so and that determine the analyses they produce.