The goal of the thesis is to analyze the contemporary form of ideology through the work of Slavoj Žižek. It aims to answer the question - resulting from the widespread notion of the end of ideology - what do people believe in nowadays. In other words, what do we follow or what do we respect if it is said that we do not believe in anything? The collapse of the communist project in the Eastern bloc brought a period of distrust towards grand narratives and utopian projects. In addition, the widespread form of ideology, which currently has been liberal democracy, allows each individual to choose their own way of life and among a wide range of parties with different political orientations. The answers to the critical analysis of this assumption and the current form of ideology are found in the work of Slavoj Žižek, who has been dealing with these questions since the end of the Cold War. The first part of the thesis presents the Marxist tradition of critique of ideology - its forms and observations it brought into this area. The second part deals with Žižek's contribution to the topics while clarifying the concepts of the Symbolic and the Big Other, representing the current forms of the unconscious and practiced collective activity. The influence of the dominant form of ideology on the population and...

In the past, the main audiences of TV serials in Taiwan are housewives, but less TV serials set youngsters as target audiences. Recently, the appearance of ¡§Taiwan idol dramas¡¨ that plots are close to youngsters¡¦ life styles gives the youngsters a different choice and becomes a popular TV serial type among youngsters. ¡§Love¡¨ is an important element in Taiwan idol drama. For attracting audiences¡¦ attention, the producers will focus on the plots about love and make the contents that fit to the audiences¡¦ favor. The producers and screenwriters pay much attention on the plot-setting, but they ignore how they affect audiences¡¦ values and expectance for love of the society. For finding the relationship between Taiwan idol dramas and female audiences, the research combines cultivation and Use & Gratification, two different ways of audience research. By content analysis, the research defines the love world in Taiwan idol dramas. By questionnaire survey, the research understands the impressions and opinions for Taiwan idol dramas of female audiences with different viewing motives, viewing behaviors, and love experiences. Results show the particular love concept in Taiwan idol dramas will influence love concept of female audiences, and the love concept will be strengthened when they are heavy viewers. With much more motives like entertainment and information-learning, the particular love concept of audiences will be strengthened by the particular love concept in Taiwan idol dramas, but with much more motive like ritual viewing, the particular love concept of audiences will be weakened by the particular love concept in Taiwan idol dramas. No matter the audiences lack love experiences or have blessed love experiences, the love concept in Taiwan idol dramas will not influence love concept of audiences.

This dissertation analyses and critically evaluates an aspect of Karl Barth's thought, the understanding of which is important to a broader understanding of Barth, his relationship to other (especially iconoclastic) thinkers, and his relevance for contemporary theology: his understanding and critique of idolatry and the idol. Chapter 2 argues that it was revelation which both drove Barth's idolatry-critique and determined his concepts of idolatry and the idol. It analyses Bath's idolatry-critique as it was levelled against natural theology, and offers an evaluation of the picture of Barth's thought which emerges. Chapter 3 analyses Barth's idolatry-critique in relation to the doctrine of God. Directives which, for Barth, had to be adhered to within the development of the doctrine of God for the avoidance of idolatry, are discussed. Finally, an evaluation and critique of Barth's critique of idolatry within the doctrine of God, and of his own adherence to these directives, is offered. Chapter 4 analyses the relationship of Barth's idolatry-critique to his discussion of religion. It is shown that Barth, in his mature thought, criticised both the essence of religion and certain theological uses of the concept of religion as idolatry. Barth's critique of religion as idolatry is itself subjected to critique, and the question of what bearing his critique of religion as idolatry ought to have for Christian, theological engagement with adherents of other world religions is taken up. Chapter 5 summarises and discusses further some of the findings and implications of this study. It is suggested that Barth's thoroughly christological critique of idolatry (which is not without its own problems), in that it stands in contrast to the less particularistic forms of idolatry-critique set forth by several other modern scholars, raises the question of whether an idolatry-critique like his own might be called for within contemporary theology.

The aim of this qualitative study is to investigate the criticism female and male Idol participants receive from the Idol jury in the program Swedish Idol 2018, from a gender perspective. The study also investigates possible differences in the type criticism, depending on the Idol participants' sex. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) as both theory and method, underlying messages in the Idol jury's criticism are revealed. The selection consisted of eight Idol participants: four female, two from Stockholm and two from Gothenburg and four male, two from Stockholm and two from Gothenburg. The jury´s criticism that the Idol participants received was analyzed based on the concepts stereotypes, sexualisation and naming.   The result shows that both male and female Idol participants are being sexualised and stereotyped in the Idol jury's criticism. However, the female Idol participants are expected to maintain a stereotypical feminine role, while the male Idol participants do not have to maintain a stereotypical masculine role. The Idol jury's namings show that female Idol participants are being categorised more than the male Idol participants. The Idol jury's criticism to the female participants has a great focus on the body as an object and sexual satisfaction, while the criticism to the male participants focuses more on detailed bodily characteristics.

FundaÃÃo de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Cearà / A proposta desta dissertaÃÃo à compreender os aspectos psÃquicos que estÃo concernidos na dinÃmica de um fÃ-clube mediada por um objeto de idolatria, tomando como referÃncia o estudo psicanalÃtico freudiano. O amor por parte do fà pode parecer algo inexplicÃvel à primeira vista, porÃm à de profunda importÃncia para quem o experimenta, tanto que este fà opta por concentrar-se em grupos voltados para o culto de seu objeto de amor, mantendo uma identidade comum com os outros participantes. No caso a que se refere nossa questÃo de pesquisa, o que ocorre com o fÃ, à que ao se unir a outros pares que partilham o sentimento de admiraÃÃo comum, nÃo se observa a veiculaÃÃo de qualquer promessa ou possibilidade de melhoria de sua vida ou de seu engrandecimento. Essa questÃo à um dos nÃcleos centrais de nossa pesquisa, e, por isso mesmo, trataremos do prÃprio processo de construÃÃo dos grupos de fÃs e do modo de relaÃÃo existente entre os membros participantes dos mesmos, a partir da anÃlise do discurso de fÃs pertencentes a fÃ-clubes. Portanto, o entendimento desse sentimento do fÃ, tanto no sentido literal como no do universo psÃquico, evidencia, por um lado, um laÃo imaginÃrio que tem uma funÃÃo particular para o mimetismo e, por outro, uma condiÃÃo de admiraÃÃo que possibilita uma abertura para a alteridade e reconhecimento do outro simbolicamente. Outro parÃmetro de anÃlise dos fÃ-clubes sÃo os grupos artificiais analisados por Freud (1921), onde se constatou que o fÃ-clube pode ser identificado como um tipo massa que apresenta tanto diferenÃas como semelhanÃas em relaÃÃo a estes grupos. / The proposal of this dissertation is to understand the psychic aspects that are concerned in the dynamics of a fan club mediated by an idolatry object, taking as reference the Freudian psychoanalytic study. The love on the part of the fan can seem something inexplicable to the first view, however it is of deep importance for who tries it, so much that this fan opts to concentrate in groups returned for the cult of his/her love object, maintaining an identity common with the other participants. In the case the one that refers our research subject, what happens with the fan, it is that when joining the other ones equal that share the feeling of common admiration, is not observed of any promise or possibility of improvement of his/her life or of his/her enlargement. That subject is one of the central of our research, and, for that reason, we will treat of the own process of construction of the groups of fans and in the way of existent relationship among the participant members of the same ones, starting from the analysis of the speech of fans belonging to fan clubs. Therefore, the understanding of that feeling of the fan, so much in the literal sense as in the one of the psychic universe, it evidences, on one side, an imaginary bow that he/she has a private function for the mimicry and, for other, a condition of admiration that makes possible a recognition of the other simbolic. Another parameter of analysis of the fan clubs is the artificial groups analyzed by Freud (1921/1996), where it was verified that the fan club can be identified as a type mass that introduces as much differences as similarities in relation to these groups.

This dissertation examines the motif of idolatry in the work of two modernist authors, Oscar Wilde and Joseph Conrad, and one modernist filmmaker, Alfred Hitchcock. The idols in these texts serve a contradictory role, signifying both increasing commodification under capitalism and an attempt to formulate a new ethics of image-making in response to this global transition. Chapter 1 analyzes Wilde’s play Salomé. Attending to the original French and to biblical allusion, I demonstrate that the text’s key generative trope is idolatry, which occupies a position both sacred and profane. The play superimposes two moments of historical rupture, positing Salomé as the embodiment of a new artistic potential of idolatry under monopoly capitalism. Chapter 2 analyzes Conrad’s early fiction, particularly The Nigger of the “Narcissus,” “The Return,” “Karain,” and Nostromo. I track a three-stage development in Conrad’s representations of idols, whereby the idol is associated with utopian fantasy, false ideals, and the artistic process. I also identify a new image-making technique, “retroactive modification,” which attempts to destabilize the image and thus counter problems of narrative representation, particularly reification and historical inauthenticity. Chapter 3 analyzes Hitchcock’s Blackmail, Saboteur, and Shadow of a Doubt, and challenges the notion of Hitchcock as auteur. The first two films culminate in sequences featuring monumental and iconic statuary. In the earlier British film, this process signifies a reckoning with history; in the later American film, it signifies the threat of history’s erasure and the degradation of art. Shadow of a Doubt signals a shift to a post-modern global-capitalist paradigm and a focus on the celebrity idol. My methodology builds on the work of Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek to elucidate cultural fantasies underlying the texts and the ways in which the texts perform the psychical maneuver of disavowal, whereby a proposition is simultaneously asserted and denied. This double movement in Wilde, Conrad, and Hitchcock’s texts bespeaks a striving, through the motif of idolatry, to represent the image in motion. Though this desire is finally realized in the technology of film, the authenticity of that realization is undermined by the historical contradictions that enable its production. / 2020-12-11T00:00:00Z

Detta är en undersökning med syftet att ta reda på vad en groupie är, vad det är som driver unga kvinnor att bli groupies samt hur det har sett ut från 1960-talet fram till idag. Detta då groupies fått dåligt rykte som några som enbart är ute efter att ha sex med rockstjärnor.Jag har utifrån intervjuer och litteraturstudier av biografier samlat in empiri från Lexa Vonn, Nikki McWatters och Pamela des Barres till undersökningen. Detta material har jag sen kopplat ihop med teorier om fans och fanskap för att komma fram till en slutsats. Resultatet visar att groupies drivs av kärlek till musiken och rockkulturen samt att de känner en samhörighet med musikerna de beundrar. Deras egen definition av vad en groupie är stämmer väldigt bra överrens med Sandvoss definition av fans. Även om samhället har förändrats mycket sedan 1960-talet så ser informanternas tankar och synsätten rätt lika ut under de olika tidsperioderna. De skrikande beatlemaniafansens beteende lever vidare i de groupies som kom på 1960-talet och fortsätter i generationer framåt.

The aim of the study was to examine how Swedish tabloid journalism presented the contestants in the Swedish version of the reality show Idol 2009. We wanted to see which approaches tabloid news papers use when constructing the public identities of them. We have used text analysis to examine 37 articles and nine front pages with focus on the words, propositions, comparisons and parables that describe four of the contestants. In addition we have looked at myths and connotations shown in the pictures by using a semiotic analysis. The results show that the Swedish tabloids tend to describe the contestants in relation to their performances and personalities. They also compare them to stereotypes, music genres, celebrities and the other contestants. The pictures tend to enhance the propositions made by the articles.

This thesis examines the ways in which American Idol producers rely on the white, Christian, heterosexual, middle-class, Americanness of contestants’ bodies and identities to advance the show’s American Dream narrative. When contestants do not meet all four of the components of Americaness, producers highlight some aspects of the contestants’ identities while hiding other truths about who they are. Additionally, those contestants who are able to adhere simultaneously to their producer-constructed personas while also asserting their individuality tend to fair best in the competition. / text

迷研究自Fiske在1989提出迷是一種閱聽人以來，研究取向多以迷為主動閱聽人此概論為主探討其的主動性，再者在探討迷與偶像的關係時，多以「認同」、「愉悅」、「創作」以及「模仿」為主，此種樂觀的態度探討兩者的關係，忽略了迷是會有不再迷戀偶像的可能。 本研究以此研究途徑出發，探討迷從迷戀偶像到不再迷戀偶像過程中的變化。透過質化取徑的深度訪談法，訪談十二位曾經為w-inds.迷的閱聽人，希冀透過與十二位受訪者的訪談，了解閱聽人成為迷之後的原因與行為，以及不再迷戀偶像後的原因與行為。 在整理訪談資料後提出以下研究發現：首先，閱聽人會因為偶像的外型、作品，在大眾媒體的曝光以及周儕團體與家人的推薦之下迷戀偶像，透過消費偶像商品、創作文本、參與演唱會、加入迷社群的方式表達自己對於偶像的喜愛，迷戀的過程也會有較為隱私的內在心理反應。其次，因為偶像的緋聞與轉變、自己的個人因素以及與他人的衝突不再迷戀偶像。不再迷戀偶像後會減少消費偶像商品的次數，退出原先加入的迷社群，也會出現負面行為以諷刺的言語評斷原先迷戀的偶像；最後，本研究亦發現若是迷當初是因為偶像的作品而迷戀偶像的話，只要偶像的新作品能夠再一次吸引到迷，這時候是有可能再一次迷戀偶像的。 / Since the study by Fiske in 1989 that fans are a type of audience, research on fandom has mainly focused on the proactiveness of fans. Furthermore, when exploring the interactions between fans and their idols, it is usually in the form of “agreement,” “pleasure,” “creation,” and “imitation.” Studying the relationships between both parties with such optimistic attitudes neglects the possibility that fans might someday lose interest in their idols. Based on the research context above, this study investigates the changes during the process of how fans begin and cease worshipping their idols. Through in-depth interviews of 12 w-inds. audiences, who were once fans, hope to understand the reasons for audiences becoming fans and their subsequent behaviors, as well as the reasons that they stop worshipping their idols and their subsequent behaviors. The following was found after data collation: firstly, audience members become fans due to their idols’ appearance, creative works, mass media exposure, and recommendations from peer groups and family members. The fans express their devotion by purchasing products related to their idols, writing fan-fictions, attending concerts, and joining fan organizations. During the process of idolization they also have inner psychological reactions. Next, gossip and changes in the idols, personal factors related to fans, and conflicts with others could result in the termination of their idolization. This leads to reduced frequency of purchasing products related to their idols, leaving fan groups they had previously joined, and even the use of ironic language when judging idols they had previously worshipped. Lastly, if fans initially idolized an idol due to their work, and if the idol can present a new creative work that can again attract the fans, then the audience members might once again become fans of the idol.