Theoretical part The medieval Icelandic saga can be divided into various categories, but the most widely known category is the Ãslendingasögur and it is on this that the focus of this study has fallen. It was committed to writing in mainly the thirteenth century and some scholars (for example Sigurðsson, 2004) allege that these writings are based on an oral tradition. Actions described in the Ãslendingasögur take place in the tenth- and early eleventh centuries and are based on the history of the Scandinavian world and Iceland, and more specifically they are based on those people who established a name for themselves in this period. The narrative style is simple and objective: the narrator tells the saga as it would be perceived by an outsider and therefore depicts characters without detailed character sketches or by relating their thoughts. Rather are the characters revealed by their actions and dialogue. The sagas are not moralizing in character and therefore they differ considerably from other medieval literatures. It was argued in this study that the majority of characteristics exhibited by the sagas are determined by the focus on character and the attempt at creating a realistic narration. This focus on character determines for example that detailed descriptions of scenery and moralizations are omitted: the narrator strives to depict his characters rather than embedding his text with lessons in morality. The attempt at creating a realistic narration is established by incorporating scenes from their everyday lives and by not omitting the peasants or even slaves. The Icelandic sagas also belong to the Germanic heroic literature and its characters are heroes of this heroic milieu. A further characteristic of the Ãslendingasögur is that poetry is also found which belongs mainly to the skaldic branch, and for this reason Old Norse poetical genres are briefly discussed in the theoretical discussion and its characteristics indicated. Skaldic poetry is the most complex of these and terms such as kenning are therefore explained and illustrated through suitable examples. Lastly the sagas offer a glimpse into the medieval world and especially the Viking Age and incorporate pre-Christian traditions and religious perceptions as well as everyday realities which aid the interpretation of archaeological finds, for example the descriptions of burials or ships. It is a genre which distinguishes itself within the context of medieval European literature for it exhibits little continental influence and thereby attains uniqueness. Creative part The theoretical part is followed by a creative application in the genre of the Ãslendingasögur. Valgarðr Gunnvaldsson is a member of the Norwegian nobility by ancestral right. The saga begins with his grandfather, Aldúlfr, and his involvement in tenth century politics. Valgarðr's family fight in most of the important battles in tenth century Scandinavia and goes on raiding expeditions in Europe, and the saga tells of three generations involved in such activities. A second family which features is the family of Ãorvaldr, who are mainly merchants not wanting to involve themselves in politics, but even they are offered no choice and eventually fight alongside Valgarðr and his companions. Valgarðr marries Ãorvaldr's daughter, Guðríðr, and she later bears him a daughter called Ãshildr. Gradually everyone around Valgarðr dies and he emigrates to Greenland along with the two Scottish widows (Kaðlin en Mýrún), from where they conduct a series of expeditions to America (Vínland). On these expeditions contact is established with the indigenous population, but eventually Valgarðr becomes ill and returns to Norway to be buried with his family. Throughout the saga a character named Ãagall is present, but no-one ever understands his true identity, involvement and motivation.

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Advertising communication has a unique character and different techniques are used to draw the consumer's attention. The way in which the message is communicated in the advertisement often contributes to the impact of the advertising message. In this study the focus was specifically on the ways in which advertising language communicates creatively. Furthermore, the manner in which visual signs echo the linguistic signs and contributes to the construction of the marketing message is also observed. Figurative language and semiotic signs are some of the mechanisms copywriters use to draw the consumer's attention. Literature that focuses on the linguistic and visual analysis of advertising communication is limited. A variety of definitions for figurative language exist in the literature, since different authors have different perspectives given a particular data set and time frame. In this study creative signs used in advertising (e.g. language play, rhetorical figures and semiotic signs) in order to increase the impact of the advertisement, are studied from a Cognitive Semantic and linguistic perspective A qualitative investigation was launched in order to describe the character of the manifestation of concepts in advertising communication. Based on the primary objective of the study, to give an overview of the manifestation of creative concepts in South African print advertising communication, the secondary objectives were identified. These objectives were to explain the definition and nature of terms such as language play (idiomatic expressions, personification, and wordplay), rhetorical figures of speech (comparisons, analogies and metaphor) and semiotic signs (indexes, icons and symbols). South African print advertisements were used as data set. A further objective was to obtain an overview of the gains and risks in the use of these attention drawing mechanisms in the interest of training linguistics and copywriting students. In this study two main categories were identified, namely figurative language and semiotic signs. Figurative language were divided into two categories, namely language play and rhetorical figures. The category, language play, focuses specifically on the artistic nature or rather âcreative decorationâ of advertisements. Idiomatic expressions (when the catâs away, the mice will play), personification (âYour pepper will be so jealousâ) and wordplay (the Afrikaans word âleerâ can refer to the ladder you climb, as well as the leather a shoe is made of) are identified as three forms in language play. Rhetorical figures were identified as second category within figurative language. Rhetorical figures of speech include: similes (he is as slow as a tortoise), analogies (an analogy between the organ, a kidney, and a coffee filter) and metaphors (metaphor between coffee and perfume's durability and aroma). The second main category distinguished in this study is semiotic signs. Semiotic signs were divided into indexes (smoke indicating a fire), icons (a passport full of stamps, indicating a real passport) and symbols (an apple as a symbol of seduction). Based on the literature study and the data set, it is clear that creative signs used in advertising communication contribute to keeping the reader's attention longer. Creative signs are often an intellectual game to be unravelled by the reader, in order to identify the intended marketing message. Furthermore, more than one message is often communicated through the use of creative language and visual signs, thus giving the copywriter the ability to say more with less (words and images). From this study, it is clear that the use of figurative language and semiotic signs should ideally focus on the brand name, marketing message or characteristic of the product to actually be relevant to the marketing message; otherwise it remains just a useless decoration in the advertisement.

This interdisciplinary study investigates how alienation manifests in American literature on the Vietnam War and Afrikaans literature on the war in Namibia/Angola (the so-called Border War). After an historical contextualisation, the sociological branch of alienation theory, which is based on the writings of Melvin Seeman, is discussed, and it is illustrated how the six aspects of alienation, as identified by Seeman, manifest in several texts on these wars. In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the thesis, insights from alienation theory are integrated with theories of historiography, trauma, masculinity, and counterinsurgencies, all in an attempt to come to a better understanding of the texts under consideration. Despite literary theoryâs insistence that alienation is a feature of modernist and postmodernist literature, and literature on these counterinsurgencies in particular, little has been written on what alienation actually is. Seemanâs variant was chosen because it is the most detailed and comprehensive treatment of alienation available, and although published in 1959, Seemanâs notion of alienation continues to be relevant within sociology. Seemanâs six aspects of alienation include powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, cultural estrangement, social isolation, and self-estrangement, and these are used to discuss the literature on these two counterinsurgencies, highlighting how these aspects of alienation manifest in a variety of literary texts. The line between history and fiction is of course also an important boundary challenged by literature on these wars, and therefore a section is included under meaninglessness that deals with the writing of history and the role historical fiction plays in representing the past. Under cultural estrangement, a section is also included on masculinity, because since the army was often seen as offering a rite of passage, alienation manifests in this sense as well by rejecting the cultural values of masculinity. A section is also included on the alienating effects of trauma, because trauma is of course an important facet of literature on these wars, and it is shown how alienation ties in with trauma through two texts in particular: Larry Heinemannâs Pacoâs Story and Anthony Feinsteinâs Kopwond (released in English as Battle Scarred). Lastly, the study discusses all six aspects of alienation in reference to two of the seminal texts on these wars: Tim OâBrienâs If I die in a combat zone and Alexander Strachanâs ân Wêreld sonder grense. In general, the thesis tries to come to terms with the complexities of these wars: history, alienation, and identity are complex issues in these conflicts, and the interpretation of literary texts can be done from an extensive variety of perspectives. It is shown how alienation theory provides a useful prism for looking at these texts that stem from two watershed conflicts that changed their societies irrevocably.

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In an oil exporting developing country the issue of how to stabilise the domestic economy from oil market volatilities has been a big concern for both scholars and policy makers during the last two decades. Modelling the behaviour of key arguments involved in the transmission mechanism of oil revenues into the domestic economy is a necessary introduction to dealing with this problem. On the specification point of view, previous empirical works in this area show little concern over a process that takes the variables back to their steady state positions. This leaves long run equilibrium values of the variables involved in this processes undefined. This thesis attempts to provide a careful analysis with empirical evidence of the issue of the macroeconomic effects of oil revenue fluctuations on key economic variables such as domestic and foreign prices, money demand equation, exchange rates and nonoil gdp growth set in a Dutch Disease framework for the Iranian economy during 1960-1990 period. The analysis, using annual data, employs modern econometric techniques (such as cointegration and error correction) to examine dynamics (short run) and static (long run) components of:these variables in connection with oil revenue fluctuations. Two modified versions of the Purchasing Power Parity and conventional money demand relationships are used to model black market exchange rate and monetary aspects of oil revenue changes, respectively. To model domestic price movements, we experiment with 2 long run equilibrium positions, inverted money demand function and reversed PPP relationship. PPP appears as a valid model of the long run black market exchange rate and domestic prices determination. We also find strong supportive evidence for conventional model of real money balances. The main conclusions are: increases in oil revenue (i) depress black market exchange rate asymmetrically; (ii) suppress domestic inflation directly and then pull it up indirectly through higher foreign inflation and a more depressed exchange rate; (iii) have a contractionary effect on non-oil real gdp growth; and (iv) change real money balances with a small elasticity.

Thesis--Utrecht. / "Stellingen" ([4] p.) laid in. Includes bibliographical references.

Inaug.-diss.--Giessen. / Lebenslauf. "Schrifttum": p. 110-112.