In the age of multi-literacies, contemporary theories and devices are required to decipher increasingly complicated challenges which are presented by the digital technological revolution. Some of the existing approaches and frameworks of could inspire us but are not well equipped to address the complexities and multi-perspectives of the eccentric challenges that scholars face on diverse issues. Therefore, I present the critical semiotic order theory (CSOT) as a new eclectic theory to analyze discourse and moving and still images critically, semiotically and using systematic orders simultaneously.The theory has four hypotheses: 1) the positive and negative order hypothesis; 2) the zero value order hypothesis; 3) the chaos order hypothesis; 4) the semiotic indices order hypothesis. The theory was applied to three movies, and was successful in unearthing numerous perceptions and some were microscopic semiotic communicative indices and related them to polycentric Occidental ideologies.Hollywood has made over a thousand movies negatively stereotyping (NS) Arab/Muslim identities and voices (AMIVs) and the images in the vast majority are demeaning (Shaheen, 2009: 2). This research sets to find out whether the misconstruction of Arab/Muslim identities and voices (AMIVs) in three Hollywood movies are ordered, patterned, systematic, and related to ideologies and agendas of polycentric Western individuals, agencies, institutions and governments.The three movies showcase dozens of discursive microscopic critical semiotic orders and patterns of NS of AMIVs in discourse and still and moving image such as being: angry, dangerous, dirty, primitive, uncivilized, dishonest, cowards, fanatics, slaves, extremists, savages, liars, sorceress, killers, terrorists, mad dogs, child terrorists, suicide bombers, etc. The racism touches Arab/Muslims' (A/Ms) characteristics, personalities, races, cultures, traditions, histories, stories, folklores, costumes, images, etc.The analysis showed that there was a systematic pattern and order of NS of AMIVs within and across the three movies, and the NS is related to ideologies and agendas of polycentric Western individuals, agencies, institutions and governments for socio-cultural, socio-economic and socio-political investments in a vast complex web that some of it can go to hundreds of years in making. Nowadays, NS of AMIVs is done by many Westerners for various ideological agendas and investments, and they have appointed themselves as judge, jury and prosecutor.

This dissertation evaluates the career and work of the underappreciated Austrian-Jewish-American novelist, dramatist, essayist and screen writer Gina Kaus (1894 - 1985). The dissertation's approach is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing from the fields of German, American, exile, literary, feminist, performance, global, cultural as well as film studies. The unusually diverse corpus of Kaus's work in both the literary and filmic medium makes such an interdisciplinary approach indispensable. The dissertation argues that Kaus's specific female and little visible exile experience was shaped and accompanied by a significant, social, cultural, political, linguistic and geographical change. It reconstructs and consciously reinserts Kaus' transatlantic accomplishments into the larger exile history. My dissertation offers close reading of Gina Kaus's second play Toni (1928) and positions her piece within the larger landscape of the Weimar Republic and Vienna during the 1920s. The analysis incorporates a feminist reading, which focuses on the performances of gender and the representation of femininity and illustrates the destabilization of gender and sexual identities during the Weimar period. The analysis of Die Überfahrt (1932), Kaus's second bestseller novel, discusses her novel as a Zeitroman (novel of the times). It contextualizes her book in terms of its readership and the literary market while examining it as a comment on the political, financial and social circumstances of 1920s Weimar culture. A thorough investigation of two films for which Kaus invented the story and collaborated on the screenplay, namely The Wife Takes a Flyer (directed by Richard Wallace, USA, 1942), an Anti-Nazi comedy, and Three Secrets (directed by Robert Wise, USA, 1950), a melodrama, challenges the persistent idea that Kaus's work for Hollywood was incapable to live up to her earlier literary and theatrical successes as an author of the Weimar period. My particular focus on the representation of femininity and female agency sheds light on how the émigrée Kaus, who had been known as an ardent feminist in Europe, successfully managed to subvert ideas of heteronormative gender and power discourses even within the restrictive limits of the Hollywood apparatus. The dissertation further investigates the understudied text form screenplay and the practice of screenwriting. It examines for the first time various unpublished film script versions of the The Wife Takes a Flyer and Three Secrets and thus promotes the film script as a textual form worthy of investigation and integration in both literary and film studies. The script analysis pays attention to the collaborative nature, considers the various versions and revisions the script underwent, offers a comparison to the movies and evaluates the script in its multi-functionality, style, and aesthetics. The scripts also give insight into the ways in which Kaus's exilic consciousness permeates her scriptwriting. My close analysis of Kaus's autobiography, which was published in 1979 and targeted at a German-speaking readership, uncovers the ways in which exile is reflected in the practice of autobiographical writing. The dissertation focuses foremost on the narrative strategies as well as omissions in Kaus's attempt to re-inscribe herself into the literary and artistic scene of Vienna and Berlin; and her effort to position herself among the prominent and predominantly male German-Jewish diaspora in Hollywood. I also shed light on her ability to adapt to the United States and her decision to remain and become a citizen. Her perception of exile as an opportunity, rather than as a limitation is an important new aspect in the existing exile research. Among the Jewish-German exile community in Hollywood, Gina Kaus had a truly transnational career and deserves more credit for her filmic works.

Traditional advertising has decreased while product placement in, for example, movies has increased. This has led to a problem, which is that viewers can perceive product placement as something negative. Product placement enhances viewers’ ability to recognize brands and products after watching a movie, while the placements can be congruent or incongruent. This study examines how brand recognition is produced and how congruence of a placement can affect audience acceptance. In response to this, a case study was conducted with embedded units consisting of three focus groups where the authors proceeded from a semi-structured interview guide. The study’s result was that five factors; irritation, familiarity, lack of excitement, unnecessary and iconic can impact how brand recognition is generated, based on the results of the focus groups. The study also resulted in placements that are congruent to the audience are accepted, while non-accepting placements are incongruent. A placement’s congruence is affected by the factors; expectancy and relevancy, perceived fit and individual judgements, and plot connection. / Traditionell reklam har minskat medan produktplacering i exempelvis filmer har ökat. Detta har lett till ett problem, vilket är att tittarna kan uppfatta produktplaceringen som något negativt. Produktplacering kan leda till att tittarna känner igen märken och produkter efter att det har sett en film och deras placeringar kan vara passande eller opassande. Den här studien undersöker hur varumärkesigenkänning uppstår och hur en placerings överensstämmelse kan påverka tittarnas accepterande. För att svara på detta gjordes en fallstudie med inbäddade enheter som bestod av tre fokusgrupper där författarna utgick från en semistrukturerad intervjuguide. Studiens resultat var att fem faktorer; irritation, bekantskap, brist på spänning, onödighet och ikoniskt påverkade hur varumärkesigenkänning uppstår baserat på resultatet från fokusgrupperna. Studien resulterade även i att de placeringar tittarna fann passande till filmen är accepterade, medan placeringar som inte är accepterande är opassande. En placerings överensstämmelse påverkas av faktorerna; förväntning och relevans, uppfattad lämplighet och individuella bedömningar och huruvida en placering är kopplad till handlingen.

Syftet med detta arbete är att diskutera förhållandet mellan historisk spelfilm och historieundervisningen i den svenska skolan idag.Spelfilm har blivit en del av elevers vardag och historiker diskuterar i allt högre grad hur historia används i spelfilmer och hur detta påverkar vårt historiemedvetande. Möjligtvis är det så att detta bruk av historia leder till ett nytt historiemedvetande.Film kan ses som ett pedagogiskt redskap, en upplevelse som leder fram till intresse och kunskap. Vad detta arbete strävar mot är att undersöka om man kan lära sig något om det förflutna genom historisk spelfilm samt om historisk spelfilm kan utveckla elevers historiemedvetande.Arbetet tar sin utgångspunkt i ett projekt om historisk spelfilm genomfört med högstadie- och gymnasieelever på två skånska skolor. Med avstamp i visandet av två filmer om medeltiden; Robin Hood- Prince of Thieves och En riddares historia, diskuteras faktakunskap, förståelse och historiemedvetande. / The purpose of this work is to discuss historic Hollywood movies in relation to the teaching of history in Swedish Schools today.Hollywood movies are in today’s society a part of the student’s everyday life and historians have increasingly come to discuss how history is used in these movies and how this affects our historic consciousness.Movies can be seen as pedagogical tools, an experience that will lead to an interest and a search for knowledge. What this paper strives to examine is if you can learn anything about the past by watching historic Hollywood movies and in extent if it can serve to develop student’s historic consciousness.Taking its beginning in a project about two movies dealing with the Middle Ages, Robin Hood- Prince of Thieves and A Knight’s tale, this paper discusses basic knowledge, comprehension and historic consciousness.