No description available.

<p> This project considers questions of religious othering in the contemporary United States through the lens of popular post-religious narratives. These narratives salaciously depict mistreated women in order to demarcate certain religions as deviant; authors and pundits then use these narratives in order to justify outside intervention in specific religious communities. By closely analyzing a selection of contemporary narratives written about women from Muslim and fundamentalist Mormon communities with special attention to both the feminist enactments and tropes of captivity which permeate these texts, this project challenges simplistic portrayals of religious Others. In doing so, the analysis draws the reader's attention to the uncanny imitations in many of these texts: in arguing that certain religions "capture" their female adherents, authors of contemporary captivity narratives silence the voices of women whose stories they seek to illuminate. The dissertation also explores the ambivalent content of many of these narratives. When read against the grain, captivity literature offers surprising opportunities for nuanced explorations of religion, gender and agency.</p>

<p> Shifts in social attitudes towards American Christianity have resulted in a changed representation of Christ figures, specifically in their representation on television. Traditional Christ figures, those who believed in unconditional love and self-sacrifice for the greater good, clung to the church view and were figures of virtue and innocence. Modern Christ figures have become what I call "Common Christs"&mdash;people who are less likely to be the image of sinless perfection and more often violent and profane saviors. These modern stand-ins are usually from blue-collar or lower class backgrounds; they are the Christs of the common man. Generally, these Common Christs are in opposition with the dogmatic authority of the Christian church. The storylines that have Common Christs as their heroes often depict the organized religion of the church as an enemy, a negative institution trying to prevent the salvation of the common man by the common man. The purpose of my dissertation is to examine Common Christs as they appear in cult television shows that embrace and make strong use of Christian mythology without being considered Christian television, specifically <i>The X-Files, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer,</i> and <i>Supernatural,</i> to show how this changed image works as evidence of what I call the development of a textual religion. Ultimately, I hope that my discussion of Common Christs and textual religion will lead into a larger discussion between the academic camps of religious studies, pop culture studies and literary criticism about the importance of cross-disciplinary focus.</p>

This diploma thesis occupies itself with non-systematic differences between British and American English. In its initial section, this thesis outlines the historical background, the origins of American English and its influence of British English. Subsequently, the systematic differences are defined, in order to distinguish them from the non-systematic ones. The comparison of two regional varieties is done on the basis of two respective pronunciation norms, i.e. Received Pronunciation for British English and General American for American English. The main part of the thesis is focused on the identification of isolated examples of dissimilarity which follow from the irregularities of both systems. An alphabetical list of transcribed words, personal or geographical names organized into segmental and suprasegmental areas is included in the Appendix.

This essay intends to determine how easy or difficult it may be for actors to learn to speak with a different accent than their own for movie roles. It also aims to discover whether there are any situations in which it may be difficult for actors to maintain their accents. The essay should be seen as a case study, as it focuses on the movie Blood Diamond (2006) and Leonardo DiCaprio’s attempt to change his General American accent to a Rhodesian English one. Firstly, the characteristics of Rhodesian English are described in order to know which features differ from General American. Secondly, the study works in detail with phonetic transcriptions and focuses on the phonemes that differ between these two varieties of English. The essay also attempts to establish whether there are any circumstances in which DiCaprio is more likely to lose his Rhodesian accent, such as his character’s state of mind or the person to whom he speaks.

<p>Within the last few hundred years, English has gone from being a rather small peripheral language to what it is today – a world language, spoken by millions of people worldwide. The best-known dialects to Swedish learners of English are British English (RP, Received Pronunciation) and American English (GA, General American). Traditionally, British English has been the variety taught in Swedish schools, but due to the recent and growing influence of American English, more and more pupils are using the American dialect. The purpose of this essay is to determine which of these dialects is more common among students in one Swedish school. I have also investigated if the teachers’ English pronunciation and their opinions of the different dialects, as well as the students’ own, have an impact on what variety the students choose to use.</p><p>The results of the study show that although all students mixed both dialects, American features were predominant. A small number of students spoke mainly British English. A majority of the students claimed to be influenced more by the media than by their teachers. When it comes to the students’ opinions of the two dialects it appeared that the students who used more features from one dialect proved to be more positive towards that dialect. Many students found British English to be snobbish. It was also seen as slightly more classy and beautiful than GA. American English was generally considered cool but cocky. It was not considered as intelligent-sounding as RP, but instead more friendly and reliable.</p>

Within the last few hundred years, English has gone from being a rather small peripheral language to what it is today – a world language, spoken by millions of people worldwide. The best-known dialects to Swedish learners of English are British English (RP, Received Pronunciation) and American English (GA, General American). Traditionally, British English has been the variety taught in Swedish schools, but due to the recent and growing influence of American English, more and more pupils are using the American dialect. The purpose of this essay is to determine which of these dialects is more common among students in one Swedish school. I have also investigated if the teachers’ English pronunciation and their opinions of the different dialects, as well as the students’ own, have an impact on what variety the students choose to use. The results of the study show that although all students mixed both dialects, American features were predominant. A small number of students spoke mainly British English. A majority of the students claimed to be influenced more by the media than by their teachers. When it comes to the students’ opinions of the two dialects it appeared that the students who used more features from one dialect proved to be more positive towards that dialect. Many students found British English to be snobbish. It was also seen as slightly more classy and beautiful than GA. American English was generally considered cool but cocky. It was not considered as intelligent-sounding as RP, but instead more friendly and reliable.

This study will explore to what extent familiarity with English accents can influence compulsory school students’ attitudes towards them. Data from questionnaires completed by 98 students were analysed. The results show that the degree of familiarity with the English accent seems to affect the attitude attributed to it. More specifically, the results indicate that a higher degree of familiarity influences the ability to express an attitude. A lower degree of familiarity leads to similar attitudes being given to the accents, which shows a lack of differentiation between them. The results also indicate a bias towards RP. While it is not necessarily harmful, teachers should be aware of this and how their own teaching may influence how different accents are perceived. It is argued that teachers need to intervene in the process of stereotyping which will help develop an awareness of students’ language attitudes. To summarize, it is difficult to draw any wide conclusions from these results due to the study’s scope. Furthermore, the target group is not representative of Swedish compulsory school students as students from the chosen school generally finish with an above-average final grade. Further research is necessary to determine more specifically how familiarity affects attitudes of English accents and if these findings recur in other areas of Sweden where the final grade average is lower.

Speech work, as it relates to actor training, has undergone many important changes since its formal introduction to the field over a century ago by Edith Skinner. Unfortunately, there are many who hold on to antiquated, misinformed and often harmful approaches to this kind of training. This thesis questioned the traditional models of speech pedagogy by creating a narrative for its development, questioning its efficacy, and exploring the alternatives that have developed over the years. I looked at the texts and approaches of Edith Skinner, Patricia Fletcher, Louis Coliaini, and Dudley Knight/Phil Thompson. I acknowledge that each practitioner has made a substantial contribution to the field. In this thesis I question what place each has in the future of speech pedagogy in America. I gathered opinions from both critics and proponents of each work in the hopes of creating a more cohesive understanding of how speech pedagogy should be handled in the future according to those who will be teaching it. This thesis includes considerable usage of phonetic symbols found on the International Phonetic Alphabet establish by the International Phonetic Association.

No description available.