Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / During apartheid, the infrastructure in South Africa was built by the government and was designed to keep Blacks away from White areas. This infrastructure comprised inter alia the public railway system which was intended to benefit mainly the White minority population, as it momentarily allowed Blacks to provide the cheap labour needed in White areas and businesses. While Whites predominantly resided within the suburbs adjacent to the railways, Blacks were relegated to the outskirts of the cities to areas which became known as townships and homelands. Racial segregation was rigorously enforced and consequently, the signs displayed in trains and on railway infrastructure primarily served to demarcate spaces and places that were designated for use by either Whites or Blacks, respectively. Against this backdrop, the main aim of this research was to present an ethnographic, multisemiotic study of the linguistic landscape (LL) of the public railways in post-apartheid South Africa across space and time. The study focussed on the languages used on signs displayed in the individual research sites. A mixed-methods research design was employed which entailed consideration of both quantitative and qualitative data. Thus, data was collected during ethnographic fieldwork over a six month period and was analysed using a multimodal/multisemiotic approach. The results reveal insights into the social structuring of languages and the mobility of linguistic and semiotic resources across regional and national boundaries in space and time since the end of apartheid.

This thesis is about partnerships involving congenitally deafblind people journeying towards language. The focus will be on the first steps of that journey: how partnerships make initial moves away from the here-and-now. In order to understand how this happens in the tactile medium, this thesis will draw on Reddy’s model (2003 and 2008) of the expanding awareness of the objects of the other’s attention to analyse how both partners are able to share attention to self, what self does, what self perceives and finally what self remembers. Demonstrating that both partners can operate at each of these four stages in the tactile medium then allows me to focus particularly on the final stage, what self remembers, and ask: what happens within partnerships if either partner brings movements, gestures or signs that refer to people, objects, places or events not present? Do both partners come to comprehend and produce such referential movements, gestures and signs in forms perceivable by both? Such questions will be considered against the backdrop of the dialogical framework, since in any exploration of human interaction it makes no sense simply to consider it from one perspective. At all times throughout this thesis, the focus will be on partnership. This thesis raises a number of practical recommendations about approaches and attitudes to be adopted by non-deafblind partners if language is going to be an outcome for their partnerships with congenitally deafblind people. But it will also conclude with a number of theoretical questions about how we define language in the first place.

Magister Artium - MA / This thesis seeks to understand the visual representation of female masculinity in Marvel and DC comic books, and further contribute to the fields of linguistics and gender studies. The subject matter discussed issues around gender identity, masculinity, and visual representation. Currently, there is a lack of literature available on the subject matter of female masculinity in comic books, therefore creating a gap in knowledge about how women are being represented in comic books. The goal of this thesis was to contribute to this knowledge, and in doing so, further adding more knowledge about the subject matter for future researchers in the field. The theoretical framework included a diverse approach of social theories and perspectives, namely: Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Intertextuality, Dialogicality, and Queer Theory. The goals of this thesis were to understand the various modes used in the representation of female masculinity that have evolved over time, and how these modes contribute to developing characters who challenge the traditional gender norms and rules. The data that was used for this thesis was collected from comic books in which female characters are in leading roles, namely Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) and Wonder Woman. / 2022

Esta pesquisa analisa situações de diálogo e interação pelo computador e web motivados por temas, autores e conceitos da disciplina Sociologia. Investiga as potencialidades dialógicas de construção do conhecimento em situações de diálogos virtuais entre alunos e o professor da disciplina - em uma modalidade de ensino apoiado por recursos da web que ocorrem fora do espaço-tempo da aula tradicional. Tem como hipóteses verificar se o compartilhamento de informações através da rede e a mediação tecnológica são demandas incorporadas pela escola e se a comunicação em ambientes virtuais amplia a perspectiva dialógica de construção do conhecimento escolar, na qual o professor enquanto provocador cognitivo (PICONEZ) possa (re)avaliar as relações ensino-aprendizagem na disciplina Sociologia. Sob a perspectiva da pesquisa-ação, foi estruturada na observação e participação direta e análise qualitativa de situações concretas de diálogos educacionais em ambiência virtual envolvendo as seguintes ferramentas tecnológicas: correio eletrônico (e-mail), pesquisa pela internet, análise a partir da exibição de filmes em DVD, interações através de um BLOG publicado pela professora e reuniões através do MSN. A proposta dos temas e a análise dos diálogos dão-se a partir da perspectiva de uma rede sinérgica, isto é, de que o conhecimento é resultado da articulação de reflexões individuais. Estas reflexões são orientadas e motivadas pelos objetivos da disciplina Sociologia, explicitados nas Orientações Curriculares Nacionais (OCN), documento oficial do governo, elaborado por especialistas das Ciências Humanas e complementar aos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (PCN). Tais objetivos estão representados no processo da disciplina Sociologia e sua abordagem requer a presença de um professor que oriente sua prática pelos princípios dialógicos da construção do conhecimento a partir da reflexão de todos os envolvidos no ato educativo; pelo compromisso com a educação problematizadora (FREIRE), em seu papel transformador e emancipatório representada pela função social da escola. Os resultados apontam que o uso das tecnologias de comunicação amplia o espaço-tempo da aula presencial e permite que os objetos da disciplina se articulem ao cotidiano do aluno. Também apontam para a necessidade de inserção - pela escola - do uso dessas tecnologias e o reconhecimento de suas potencialidades pedagógicas. As Tecnologias de Informação e de Comunicação (TIC) ampliam a função social dos conteúdos da disciplina ao permitir que a reflexão sobre a própria realidade - pelo aluno - possa ser complementada sob perspectiva da interatividade como elemento constitutivo do novo modelo conversacional, descentrado e bidirecional. A mediação tecnológica, nos diálogos virtuais, proporciona terreno fértil de novos (outros) contornos à prática (mediação) pedagógica orientada pelos princípios da dialogicidade ao permitir, entre outros aspectos, que os alunos proponham novos temas para as aulas, realizem novas leituras e interpretações e tenham acesso permanente ao professor. Tal postura metodológica constata a presença de transformações na arquitetura de poder da sala de aula tradicional polarizada na figura do mestre. As TIC possibilitam pela cooperação e diálogo crítico-reflexiva, ampliação da rede sinérgica do conhecimento favorecendo a dialogicidade, interação e mediação pedagógica e tecnológica incrementando a qualidade da relação entre os atores do ato educativo abrindo novos caminhos para construção do conhecimento em Sociologia. / This research examines situations of dialogue and interaction through the computer and web motivated by subject, authors and concepts of the Sociology discipline. Investigates the potential of dialogical construction of knowledge in situations of virtual dialogues between students and teacher of the discipline - in a mode of teaching supported by web resources that occur outside the space-time of traditional classroom. It has as hypothesis to verify if the sharing of information through the network and the technological mediation demands are incorporated by the school and whether the communication in virtual environments broadens the dialogical perspective of scholar knowledges construction, in which the teacher as a provocative cognitive (PICONEZ) may (re)evaluate the relationships in the teaching-learning Sociology discipline. From the perspective of the action research, it was structured in the observation and direct participation and qualitative analysis of concrete situations of conversations involving virtual educational environment, the following technology tools: electronic mail (e-mail), researches on the internet, analysis from the exhibition of DVD movies, interactions through a blog published by the teacher and meetings through MSN. The proposal of the issues and analysis of the dialogues from the perspective are from a synergistic network, that is, that knowledge is the result of the articulation of individual thoughts. These thoughts are guided and motivated by the goals of the Sociology discipline, explained in the National Curriculum Guidelines (OCN), official government document, prepared by experts from the Social Sciences and complementary to the National Curriculum Parameters (PCN). Such goals are represented in the process of Sociology discipline and its approach requires the presence of a teacher to guide the practice through the dialogical principles of the construction of knowledge from the reflection of all those involved in the education act; the commitment to education problematizing (FREIRE), its role as a transformers and emancipator represented by the social function of the school. The results indicate that the use of communication technologies broadens the space-time of the presential class and allows the objects of discipline to articulate the student\'s daily life. They also point the need of integration for the school for the use of these technologies and the recognition of their educational potential. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) expand the social content of the discipline by allowing the discussion about the reality -by the student may be supplemented under the perspective of interactivity as a component of the new conversational model, off center and bidirectional. The technological mediation, in virtual dialogues, provides fertile ground for new (other) outlines to practice (mediation) guided by the principles of dialogicality when allowing, among other things, that the students propose new topics for classes, performing new interpretations and readings and have permanent access to the teacher. This methodological posture constates the presence of changes in the architecture power in the classroom in the traditional figure of the polarized master. The ICT allows by the cooperation and critical-reflexive dialogue, synergistic expansion of the network of knowledge favoring dialogicality, interaction and pedagogical and technological mediation increasing the quality of the relationship between the actors of the education action opening new avenues for the construction of knowledge in Sociology.

The Natural Hair Movement is changing how women of colour make sense of their hair and what they do with their hair. By encouraging women of colour to embrace the natural - afro, kinky or curly - texture of their hair, the Natural Hair Movement produces social representations of natural hair that reproduce, challenge and transform prevailing social representations of Black hair. Using the Natural Hair Movement as a starting point, this social psychological study draws on hair as a window through which to explore the bi-directional relationship between women of colour in England and Germany and their social world as the site of meaning making and identity construction. The theoretical framework underpinning this study is informed by social representations theory as well as Mead's work on the formation of the self and Honneth's theory of the struggle for recognition. However, as a study interested in women of colour in England and Germany, this project is also deeply grounded in the Black feminist thought literature. In researching social representations and identities, this study has taken a multi-method approach that involves photography, ethnographic observations at hair salons and hair events, as well as interviews with women, hair dressers, bloggers and other experts in England and Germany. Data collected in this way were triangulated and analysed according to the principle of thematic analysis as outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006). Moreover, a geospatial analysis of social media data was performed to study the spread and growth of the Natural Hair Movement on a global scale. As a whole, this thesis offers us a way to understand how representations are dialogically re/produced and signified by and on the body. Moreover, it demonstrates how women of colour's identities and sense of self are negotiated, expressed, embodied and performed in and through hair textures and styles. Taken together, these findings allow us to complicate and refine existing theories and provide new avenues for social psychological research to engage with the global challenges and social issues of today.

Esta pesquisa analisa situações de diálogo e interação pelo computador e web motivados por temas, autores e conceitos da disciplina Sociologia. Investiga as potencialidades dialógicas de construção do conhecimento em situações de diálogos virtuais entre alunos e o professor da disciplina - em uma modalidade de ensino apoiado por recursos da web que ocorrem fora do espaço-tempo da aula tradicional. Tem como hipóteses verificar se o compartilhamento de informações através da rede e a mediação tecnológica são demandas incorporadas pela escola e se a comunicação em ambientes virtuais amplia a perspectiva dialógica de construção do conhecimento escolar, na qual o professor enquanto provocador cognitivo (PICONEZ) possa (re)avaliar as relações ensino-aprendizagem na disciplina Sociologia. Sob a perspectiva da pesquisa-ação, foi estruturada na observação e participação direta e análise qualitativa de situações concretas de diálogos educacionais em ambiência virtual envolvendo as seguintes ferramentas tecnológicas: correio eletrônico (e-mail), pesquisa pela internet, análise a partir da exibição de filmes em DVD, interações através de um BLOG publicado pela professora e reuniões através do MSN. A proposta dos temas e a análise dos diálogos dão-se a partir da perspectiva de uma rede sinérgica, isto é, de que o conhecimento é resultado da articulação de reflexões individuais. Estas reflexões são orientadas e motivadas pelos objetivos da disciplina Sociologia, explicitados nas Orientações Curriculares Nacionais (OCN), documento oficial do governo, elaborado por especialistas das Ciências Humanas e complementar aos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (PCN). Tais objetivos estão representados no processo da disciplina Sociologia e sua abordagem requer a presença de um professor que oriente sua prática pelos princípios dialógicos da construção do conhecimento a partir da reflexão de todos os envolvidos no ato educativo; pelo compromisso com a educação problematizadora (FREIRE), em seu papel transformador e emancipatório representada pela função social da escola. Os resultados apontam que o uso das tecnologias de comunicação amplia o espaço-tempo da aula presencial e permite que os objetos da disciplina se articulem ao cotidiano do aluno. Também apontam para a necessidade de inserção - pela escola - do uso dessas tecnologias e o reconhecimento de suas potencialidades pedagógicas. As Tecnologias de Informação e de Comunicação (TIC) ampliam a função social dos conteúdos da disciplina ao permitir que a reflexão sobre a própria realidade - pelo aluno - possa ser complementada sob perspectiva da interatividade como elemento constitutivo do novo modelo conversacional, descentrado e bidirecional. A mediação tecnológica, nos diálogos virtuais, proporciona terreno fértil de novos (outros) contornos à prática (mediação) pedagógica orientada pelos princípios da dialogicidade ao permitir, entre outros aspectos, que os alunos proponham novos temas para as aulas, realizem novas leituras e interpretações e tenham acesso permanente ao professor. Tal postura metodológica constata a presença de transformações na arquitetura de poder da sala de aula tradicional polarizada na figura do mestre. As TIC possibilitam pela cooperação e diálogo crítico-reflexiva, ampliação da rede sinérgica do conhecimento favorecendo a dialogicidade, interação e mediação pedagógica e tecnológica incrementando a qualidade da relação entre os atores do ato educativo abrindo novos caminhos para construção do conhecimento em Sociologia. / This research examines situations of dialogue and interaction through the computer and web motivated by subject, authors and concepts of the Sociology discipline. Investigates the potential of dialogical construction of knowledge in situations of virtual dialogues between students and teacher of the discipline - in a mode of teaching supported by web resources that occur outside the space-time of traditional classroom. It has as hypothesis to verify if the sharing of information through the network and the technological mediation demands are incorporated by the school and whether the communication in virtual environments broadens the dialogical perspective of scholar knowledges construction, in which the teacher as a provocative cognitive (PICONEZ) may (re)evaluate the relationships in the teaching-learning Sociology discipline. From the perspective of the action research, it was structured in the observation and direct participation and qualitative analysis of concrete situations of conversations involving virtual educational environment, the following technology tools: electronic mail (e-mail), researches on the internet, analysis from the exhibition of DVD movies, interactions through a blog published by the teacher and meetings through MSN. The proposal of the issues and analysis of the dialogues from the perspective are from a synergistic network, that is, that knowledge is the result of the articulation of individual thoughts. These thoughts are guided and motivated by the goals of the Sociology discipline, explained in the National Curriculum Guidelines (OCN), official government document, prepared by experts from the Social Sciences and complementary to the National Curriculum Parameters (PCN). Such goals are represented in the process of Sociology discipline and its approach requires the presence of a teacher to guide the practice through the dialogical principles of the construction of knowledge from the reflection of all those involved in the education act; the commitment to education problematizing (FREIRE), its role as a transformers and emancipator represented by the social function of the school. The results indicate that the use of communication technologies broadens the space-time of the presential class and allows the objects of discipline to articulate the student\'s daily life. They also point the need of integration for the school for the use of these technologies and the recognition of their educational potential. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) expand the social content of the discipline by allowing the discussion about the reality -by the student may be supplemented under the perspective of interactivity as a component of the new conversational model, off center and bidirectional. The technological mediation, in virtual dialogues, provides fertile ground for new (other) outlines to practice (mediation) guided by the principles of dialogicality when allowing, among other things, that the students propose new topics for classes, performing new interpretations and readings and have permanent access to the teacher. This methodological posture constates the presence of changes in the architecture power in the classroom in the traditional figure of the polarized master. The ICT allows by the cooperation and critical-reflexive dialogue, synergistic expansion of the network of knowledge favoring dialogicality, interaction and pedagogical and technological mediation increasing the quality of the relationship between the actors of the education action opening new avenues for the construction of knowledge in Sociology.

Parliamentary talk, despite its central place in politics, has not been the focus of many qualitative studies. The present study investigates how parliamentary talk emerges in a dialogue between different arguments in the parliament. At the same time, this is a study of politics, of how human interaction gives birth to laws that regulate life in two contemporary democracies, Slovakia and Poland. It provides a close-reading of two political debates: on the state language in Slovakia and on gender parity in Poland. This study draws on hermeneutic and semiotic thinkers such as Gadamer, Bakhtin and Lotman to elaborate a dialogical understanding of language that can provide the basis for a method of textual analysis. The dialogical understanding of language emphasises that text and talk must be studied in the context of an interaction. The unit of analysis is a pair of utterances, a question and an answer. Until an utterance has been interpreted, it carries only the potential of meaning; its meaning is materialised by the responses it receives. The study further argues that conversation analysis and its tools can usefully be applied to the study of political debate. The method provides for the analysis of the dynamics between micro-scale interaction in the parliament and the macro-scale dynamics of culture. These dynamics assume two different forms that Lotman termed as “translation” and “explosion”. The study shows that parliamentary debate is characterised by a constantly evolving topic of discussion, namely that the meaning of the bill at the start of the debate and at the end of the debate are really two different bills. This is not because the content of the bill has undergone changes, but because in the course of the debate, the bill has generated new cultural connections. Casting a vote in support of the bill does not approve just the bill itself but a whole set of interconnected political, social and cultural values—what Lotman approached as the semiosphere. This study suggests Lotman’s cultural semiotics can provide for “imperfect hermeneutics” that is sensitive to the dynamic and contested nature of tradition in politics whilst acknowledging the inevitability of culture in mediating political talk.

This is an empirical study that aims to contribute to knowledge about the opportunities the career counselling conversation offers young migrants in shaping their future. Conversations play a central role in career counselling activities in Swedish schools; furthermore, the question of how the Swedish society promotes the inclusion of its immigrants has become an increasingly urgent issue. The study draws on a dialogical framework on interaction and meaning making and seeks to gain insight into how meaning about the future is formed in career counselling conversations. The following questions were formulated: How is the interaction between migrant students and their counsellors formed in counselling conversations? How can the interaction be understood in relation to the participants and their contexts? What seems to enable or constrain students’ meaning making about the future in these conversations? The study was conducted in an introductory course for newly arrived immigrants at the upper secondary level. Researcher followed a series of two career counselling conversations between five students and five counsellors, respectively. The empirical material comprises three parts: audio-recordings of conversations, observations of these conversations and audio-recorded interviews with counsellors and students. The students, three men and two women, have a non-European background and had been in Sweden between one and three years. All except one can be considered a refugee. The material was transcribed, and the conversations were analysed with the concepts of communicative projects and strategies. The conversations are the primary empirical material. The results show that the counsellors’ and the students’ communicative projects primarily are complementary. Both the counsellor and the conversations appear as crucial for students learning about Swedish opportunity structures and meaning making about the future. The analysis also elucidated interactional patterns and interplay that seem to constrain the students’ possibilities to shape a future with their own conditions within the conversations. The conversations focused on Swedish career opportunities and lacked a transnational perspective. Furthermore, the students’ migrant background was not made relevant in the conversations; hence, the conversations risk contributing to students’ stigmatisation. The counsellors’ methods also seem at risk of individualising issues related to institutional preconditions and structural constraints. However, the analysis also displayed how the counsellor can counteract these constraining effects. The result implicates, in alignment with other studies, that the responsibility for the students’ career processes cannot be put on counselling conversations alone; more comprehensive and integrated activities for career learning in the schools are necessary to provide immigrant students with reasonable possibilities for shaping a future. Moreover, the conclusion is drawn that counsellor’s conversation skills are important for the students meaning making about the future but that counsellors also must have, among other things, the ability to comprehend migrants’ feelings and existential issues regarding the future and, not least, knowledge about the conditions of migrants and the ability to both comprehend and actively recognize injustices and different expressions of power. There are seldom others advocating for the rights of migrants. / Vägledning mellan erkännande, rättvisa och skillnadsskapande

The purpose of the present thesis is to study whether and how professionals from such different areas as medicine, preschool and school develop and reorganize, through inter-disciplinary focus group discussions, their competence regarding reading-and-writing difficulties/dyslexia. The theoretical framework is based on sociocultural theory of mediated action, focusing on notions such as alterity, intersubjectivity, dialogicality, mastery, appropriation, practical consciousness and discursive consciousness. The data consists of participant field observations, seven individual interviews and fifteen focus group interviews, as well as narratives and written documents concerning collaboration between pre-schools and schools. The method relates to ethnographic and action research. The data is collected over three years. The interviews are audio-recorded and transcribed as close to oral language as possible. The data is analysed with regard to alterity, intersubjectivity, dialogicality, mastery and appropriation, and with regard to professional languages, professional boundaries and domains of responsibility as well as competencies. The results from the individual interviews show that each participant’s conception of dyslexia is closely attached to her or his own field of pracitice. The focus group results show that, over time, the participants changed their conception of dyslexia, and their way of communicating about dyslexia. And, that they thereby deepened their competence on the issue. The written documents show a similar development during the focus group discussions. From hastily scrawled notes they developed into computerised, and well-structured plans of actions for supporting children of special needs. Both the spoken and written data show that inter-disciplinary co-operation leads to the development of inter-disciplinary competence, and a change in organising reading and writing for children of preschool and school.

香港作家董啟章的長篇小說《自然史三部曲》是一項規模龐大的寫作計畫。此計畫採取「自然史」的形式，旨在跨越文明史觀轉向一切事物的源頭追索。進而，這一系列創作主要是透過多聲部的對位和應答去營造，小說的時間與速度、情感與思考皆呈現出繁複而動態的效果。就內容言，自然史意在廣納物質與語言的創造、時空與情感的迸生、身體與性愛的顯露，以及人類作為物種的誕生與成長（Bildung）等包羅萬有的主題。藉此，自然史試圖重新思索一個人與自我、他人以至世界的複雜關係，並且在不返回基礎形上學的前提下再度探問人類的存有與行動之條件。 　　在方法上，本研究首先沿著董啟章的小說創作軌跡去勾勒自然史的孕生過程和主題結構，接著引發巴赫金（Mikhail Bakhtin）與董啟章在小說理論上的差異對話，從而針對三部曲的敘事形式和內容進行文本詮釋。我們重點強調巴赫金的時空體（chronotope）範疇與對話性（dialogicality）思想，以及他對歌德與杜斯妥也夫斯基的詮釋將會是董啟章與巴赫金之間的潛在理論戰場。此外，本論文亦將反身地探問董啟章的小說本體論，並提出「自然寫實主義」的概念來描述其小說風格。具體而言，自然寫實主義將從兩個面向鋪陳論證，亦即三部曲中的自然即是歷史性以及寫實主義超越客觀性的非傳統意涵。 　　首部曲《天工開物‧栩栩如真》展開作者與主角的美學倫理問題，繼而在自我意識的分裂對話中遭遇可能的想像他者。這部曲的原創之處在於重新納入自然的假設，凸顯自然與人為彼此延伸或開放的關鍵在於想像的再造，位處人之盡頭的嶄新思考（時間）和語言（生命）。第二部《時間繁史‧啞瓷之光》積極破除作者自我的迷障，回應生活中的具體他人。這部曲除了以時空體的迸生理解對話性的成長，更特別透過諸般藝術形象作為純粹符號，一方面證明自我與他人的對話總有超越語言溝通的可能，另方面暗指自然正是要透過準自然的文物揭櫫，在眾多主體性抵消的零和之處浮現。第三部《物種源始‧貝貝重生之學習年代》的人物返回觀點外在化、立場公共化的新古典精神。這部曲凸顯了作者自我的退隱同時也是多重作者再次進場的契機。發展至此，大寫作者的回歸已不再意涵辯證綜合的某個絕對精神，而比較是某種實證集合的自然人存有體。於是，人類透過書寫的行動與身體的經驗重新獲得了學習和成長的潛能。 　　最後，本研究將論證，董啟章的自然寫實主義創新地結合歌德的自然科學觀和杜斯妥也夫斯基穿透主體的寫實主義，意即在巴赫金的小說理論基礎上進行了雙重跨越。與此同時，董啟章的自然史三部曲激進地超越了片面的政治、經濟和社會史觀。他針對小說文類的創造性實驗冒險地催生出一種後歷史的人類科學，也許甚至是一部未來性的人類史詩。 / Hong Kong novelist Dung Kai-Cheung’s Natural History Trilogy is a writing project on the grand-scale. This project is presented in the form of “natural history”, a form of traversing the entire history of civilization to inquire into the source of all things. The series of fictional works mainly utilize a multi-vocal device of counterpoints or mutual responses to create an effect of moving labyrinths in the novel with regards to its narrative time and speed, affect and idea. In terms of content, natural history intends to accommodate a wide variety of themes such as the creation of materiality and language, the emergence of time-spaces and affects, the manifestation of the human body and sexuality, as well as the birth and growth (Bildung) of the human species. As such, natural history seeks to reconsider the complex relationships a single human being may enter with him/herself, with others, and with the world. As a result, natural history reexplores the conditions of being in the world and human action without lapsing into fundamental metaphysics. On the methodological level, this thesis first of all outlines the preparatory phases and thematic structures of natural history along the trajectory of Dung Kai-Cheung’s early writings, and thereafter initiates an alternative dialogue about the theory of the novel between Mikhail Bakhtin and Dung Kai-Cheung with and aim to conduct textual interpretations of the trilogy’s narrative forms and plot contents. We will foreground Bakhtin’s conception of chronotope and dialogicality as well as his interpretation of Goethe and Dostoevsky as the potential theoretical battlegrounds between Bakhtin and Dung. Additionally, this thesis will reflexively search after Dung Kai-Cheung’s ontology of the novel, thereby putting forward a notion called “natural realism” to describe the style of his trilogy. Specifically speaking, we will elaborate on the idea of natural realism in two respects, namely the unconventional implications of nature as historicity and realism as supra-objectivity. The first episode Works and Creations poses a question of aesthetic ethics regarding the author-hero relationship in which the possibility of encounters with fantastic others can be created through an internal dialogue of divided self-consciousnesses. The originality of this episode resides in staging a hypothetical return of nature for the sake of showcasing that the mutual openness and extension between natural and artificial facts depend on remaking of imagination, and resides in a new horizon of thought and language at the end of man. The second episode Histories of Time further engages in lifting the barrier of the authorial self, after which a living response to actual others may be recovered. This episode not only understands dialogical Bildung through the prism of chronotopic emergence but also envisages a variety of artistic figures as pure signs. This literary device is designed to demonstrate that dialogues between the self and others could always surpass the linguistic form of communication, and also intimate that nature is manifested through these cultural relics of quasi-nature and reemerged in the extermination of multiple subjectivities at the end of a zero-sum game. The third episode The Age of Learning brings the characters back to the neo-classical spirit in which each viewpoint gains a notable voice and all standpoints are rendered public. This episode lays emphasis on the retreat of the authorial self as a simultaneous chance for the return of multiple authorship. As of now, the return of the Author no longer implies the dialectical synthesis of some absolute spirit, but rather a certain positive assembly of natural human beings. Henceforth, the human species regains the potentialities of learning and growth through the action of writing and bodily experience. Eventually speaking, the thesis will argue that Dung Kai-Cheung’s natural realism is the fruitful result of an innovative integration of Goethe’s idea of natural science and Dostoevsky’s subject-penetrating realism, a result based upon striding across Bakhtin’s interpretations of both literary giants. In the meantime, Dung Kai-Cheung’s trilogy of natural history opens up a frontier radically transcend any one-sided view of history in favor of politics, economics and/or society. His creative experiment with the novel genre ventures to deliver a post-historical human science, perhaps even a future-oriented human epic.