Esta dissertação busca investigar os materiais sócio-históricos dos anos 60 norte-americanos materializados no romance de ficção científica Do androids dream of electric sheep? de Philip K. Dick por meio da análise do foco narrativo, especialmente. Embora não seja considerado um dos mais refinados romances de Dick, a obra apresenta um diagnóstico bastante apurado dos limites de experiência disponíveis da década. / This dissertation aims to investigate the socio-historical materials of the North American 60s materialized in the Philip K. Dicks science fiction novel Do androids dream of electric sheep? by analyzing its point of view, mostly. Although it is not considered one of Dicks finest novels, the work presents a very refined diagnosis of the limits of the available experiences of the decade.

The concept of home has often been recognized as a foundational concept in popular science-fiction (SF) as the point of departure or place of return in the space odyssey, timetravel mission, or heroic quest. Most SF narratives evidently centre on notions of homelessness, homecomings, threats to home or journeys from it. However, independent of the film’s narrative, home is also considered within SF as the place of the audience member, spatially and temporally, the distinction of which is critical for establishing the alien encounter with the putative future world. As a critical genre, SF continues to offer insights into the contemporary milieu that have significant implications for all areas of cultural research and, more specifically, architecture. While architectural literature and practice has confirmed a sustained interest in SF, representations of home are often overlooked in favour of the various innovations and special effects on-screen. It is the intention of the research to elevate the discussion of home in SF from its often abstract engagement by architectural texts, and more specifically question how notions of home are expressed in SF film through the various narratives and designed environments. Thus, the research posits the notion of home as providing the essential link between SF and architecture by establishing a theoretical framework and detailed analyses of four films adapted from the prolific American SF author, Philip K. Dick: Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall (1990), Stephen Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002), and Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly (2006). The research examines science, method, and truth, in relation to the foundations of the SF genre and its various representations of home. Furthermore, by comparing and contrasting modern and postmodern approaches to design, similarities are drawn between the cultural mechanisms of SF imagery and architecture. The research draws from SF theorists such as Darko Suvin, Scott Bukatman, and Vivian Sobchack, as well as authors focussed on notions of home such as Witold Rybczynski, Mary Douglas, Juhanni Pallasmaa, and David Morley. Topics related to contemporary identity construction, gender roles, domestic environments, global mobility and connectivity, spectacle, surveillance, tourism, and technology, are scattered throughout the chapters offering a broad survey of the notion of home as represented in contemporary SF with the intent of generating further architectural discussion.

Pequod - is an exploration of the translation problem. And an idea to examine the myth of"why the book is always better than the movie."The work began by choosing a character to interpret. My choice was the characteristicCaptain Ahab and his mono manic quest for revenge. The character is taken from HermanMenvilles classic novel "Moby Dick" or "The White wale" from 1851.In order to interpret the character differently, I picked out passages from the novel thatdirectly describes the first sight of the character. And also a paragraph describing thecharacter's inner thoughts and ideas about their environment.I did a survey of the descriptions with leading questions about the character's outfit,garments, materials, colours and accessories. I handle out the survey to 15 creative personsand asked them to interpret the character for me, but also make a quick sketch of him.The participants was totally unaware of witch character it was all about. / Program: Modedesignutbildningen

The tendency within science fiction to satirise and expose dominant political and social structures works in harmony with Agamben's paradigmatic, philosophical system, which seeks to similarly expose the functioning of biopolitical structures in the West. Agamben is known for his controversial statement that the concentration camp has become the paradigm of modern western government. A key aspect or biproduct of this process is the situation of bare life - a state of being excluded from the polis that emerges as a result of the suspended nature of the paradigm of western government. This state is one of political denudation, such that governments may sanction the abuse and even killing of certain groups: a chief historical example is the murder of Jews during the Nazi holocaust. Sf novels, particularly the work of Philip K. Dick offer unique insights into the process that produces bare life, partly by exhibiting its own specific examples: positing the inhuman or post-human, androids and even women as instances of such. This thesis argues that Womankind is perhaps the central and most pervasive case of bare life, given her long-standing historical oppression. Furthermore, the representation of women in sf often exposes and in some cases critiques the patriarchal power structures that have allowed women to inhabit this political state. The philosophy of Deleuze offers the much needed potential to break away from this never-ending system of female oppression that the current paradigm of biopolitics facilitates. His and Guattari's system of becoming and immanence provides a framework for discussing the position of women as, rather than hopeless victims of a stagnant system, one of potential that they term becoming-woman; this process can be manipulated in certain emancipatory directions, freeing women from patriarchal, political practices. The sf figure of the gynoid in particular acts as a zone of indeterminate becoming whose presence in sf popular culture, literature and also in sf video games (e.g. the Mass Effect and Deus Ex series) is a conduit for exploring and imagining alternatives to current modes of being that are not necessarily gendered. I call this process becoming-gynoid, which offers new avenues for exploration in terms of gender and feminist theory both in sf fiction and sf video games.

Ernest Lowell ("Dick") Romney chose athletics as a career, believing that it was worth-while for himself and for those with whom he would work and teach. He has devoted his entire life to this endeavor and through his many achievements has become one of the most prominent and respected men in his profession. He stands as an example of high ideals and his name is a legend in the Rocky Mountain area. Placed between Rockne and Roper, in the Football Hall of Fame at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is the name of Romney, E. L. "Dick". Other coaches so honored are Fielding H. Yost, Amos Alonzo Stagg, Fritz Crisler, and Frank Cavanaugh. Included in the roster of famous players are Harold ("Red") Grange, James Thorpe, George Gipp, Bronco Nagurski, Stanley Barnes, and Donald Hutson. The work of these men personifies the contributions of football in the American way of life. Their names and accomplishments serve as beacons for the young men of today. Nothing could be more fitting than for E. L. Romney to be honored along with all of the above mentioned people. It is a well deserved climax to an illustrious career. However, Dick has not retired from his chosen field. In 1949 he was appointed Commissioner of the Mountain States Athletic Conference. At present his wisdom is guiding the athletic destinies of eight universities in the states of Utah, Wyoming, Montana ,Colorado, and New Mexico.

This project relies on two main bodies of work: the text and reception history of Moby-Dick. I argue that the novel’s prophetic insights unfold in its failure and resurrection. The reception history consists of early reviewers, biographers, and critics both hailing and discounting Moby-Dick’s literary value. The first section, “Proto-Modernist Melville: Specific Difficulty in Moby-Dick,” explores the peculiar difficulty inherent in the text of Moby-Dick, namely its divergent, evasive, and hieroglyphic properties. Chapter 2, “Reception: Nineteenth-Century Failure and Modernist Success,” chronicles the novel’s reception history, focusing largely on the critics of twentieth-century modernism. In “Moby-Dick as Prophetic Anticipation and Fulfillment,” I examine the link between the inherent difficulty found within Moby-Dick and its reception history. I propose that Melville’s novel theorizes its prophetic anticipation of literary modernism as well as Melville’s own authorial failure and redemption narrative.

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In commencing the study of the style of Moby Dick, the student is confronted with several questions. Most important, perhaps, is the question of how much the style has contributed to the importance of the book, to the great adulation accorded it by many critics during the last quarter century. Did Melville’s peculiar ways of expressing his ideas have some particularly timely appeal to the post-WWI Generation? It is a highly mannered style, unique as that of Tristram Shandy. Yet while Sterne’s book was greatly enjoyed by the author’s contemporaries, Moby-Dick aroused very little contemporary interest. Was the style of the book a barrier to its appreciation by earlier readers? A great deal of Moby-Dick criticism is highly subjective. It is often difficult to find a basis for it in the text, which frequently seems merely to have afforded a spring-board for creative thinking on the part of the critic. The imagery and the symbolism are stretched to include concepts that appear remote from the author’s words. How much is the style responsible for this accretion of mystical thinking upon the text? Opinions are extreme as to the ultimate position of Moby-Dick among the landmarks of literature. Some critics rate it with Shakespeare and the Bible; some view it as a monstrosity. While this happens to some degree to most works which are finally accepted as literary masterpieces, how much is the divergence among Moby-Dick critics intensified because the style of the book has caused difficulties of interpretation? To answer such questions demands first a definition of style as it is to be applied to Moby-Dick. What is style? What constitutes “good” style? How far can an individual author be judged by such set canons? Based upon this there should follow an objective description of the style of the book, its form, its language, its imagery. How does Melville use words? How does he put together his sentences? What over-all design does he employ, and how does he relate the parts to the whole? Such an analysis can be better understood if the source of certain stylistic peculiarities is considered. Melville, like many English-speaking authors, owes a great debt to the Bible and to Shakespeare. How was his use of these sources peculiar to himself? What other important sources are apparent in his work? Finally, a review should be presented of various critical opinions of Melville’s style. Upon what are these evaluations based? How far is the critic interpreting Melville, and how far is he riding a hobby horse of his own?

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N/A / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)