This thesis examines shojo manga (Japanese comics for girls) as a site of the subversion of gender. The focus will be on stories about cross-dressing, as the crossdressed heroine poses from the outset questions about the nature of girls within shojo manga and the girls who are supposedly reading the texts. The analysis takes place at two levels: visual language and narrative. Over the course of five chapters, focusing on a couple of series in each, this thesis will show the various ways categories of gender and sex are undermined in five different subgenres. Yet gender norms are recuperated in the end. The manga always return to the figure of the shojo , the ambiguously gendered "not-quite-female" female that must expire at adulthood and the regulatory function heterosexuality plays in this inevitable demise. Nevertheless shojo manga readers need not necessarily share this end. The various ways that the reader is positioned both visually and narratively suggests that her gender and sexuality remains ambiguous and indefinable.

The academic study of comic books - especially superhero comic books - has predominantly focused on the analysis of these books as texts, as teaching and learning resources, or on children as comic book readers. Very little has been written about adult superhero comic fans and their responses to superhero comics. This thesis explores how adult comic book readers in New Zealand engage with superhero comics. Individual interviews and group conversations, both online and face-to-face, provide insights into their responses to the comics and the characters as well as the relationships among fans. Analysis of fans’ talk about superhero comics includes their reflections on how masculinities are represented in these comics and the complex ways in which they identify with superheroes, including their alter egos. The thesis examines how superhero comic book readers present themselves in their interactions with other readers. Comics ‘geekdom’, fans’ interactions with one another and their negotiation of gendered norms of masculinity are discussed. The contrast between the fan body and the superhero body is an important theme. Readers’ discursive constitution and management of superheroes’ bodies, and their engagement with representations of superheroes are related to analyses of multiplicity in individual identities and current theories of audience reception and identification.

This study examines the ideas and values of late nineteenth century American society through the popular art form of dime novel literature. The works of Prentiss Ingraham, one of the most prolific dime novel authors, with over 600 novels to his credit, and one of the most popular, with-at least one reprint of each title, served as the focus of this study. A reading and analysis of 75 of his novels provided insight into the social ideas of his time.The results of this study show nineteenth century America's perceptions of the ideal society and the romanticization of nineteenth century American beliefs. This ideal society was based on a democratic foundation and thrived on a balance between the ruggedness of the frontier and the refinement of Eastern civilization. Likewise, the ideal American hero possessed the same blending of these characteristics. / Department of History

In the nineteen-eighties a host of female detectives appeared in crime fiction authored by women. Ostensibly these detectives challenged hegemonic norms, but the consensus of opinion was that their appropriation of male values and adherence to conventional generic closures colluded with a gender system of male privilege. Academic interest in the work of female authors featuring male detectives was limited. Yet it can be argued that these texts could have the potential to disrupt the hegemonic order through the introduction, whether deliberately, or inadvertently, of a female counterpoint to the hegemony. The hypothesis I am advancing claims that the reconfiguration of male detectives in works authored by women avoids the visible contradictions of gender and genre that are characteristic of works featuring female detectives. However, through their use of disruptive performatives, these works allow scope for challenging normal gender practices—without damage to the genre. This hypothesis is tested by applying the performative theories of Judith Butler to a close reading of selected crime novels. Influenced by the theories of Austin, Lacan and Althusser, Butler’s concept of performativity claims that hegemonic notions of gender are a fiction. This discussion also uses Wayne Booth’s concept of the implied author as a means of distinguishing the performative agency of the text from that of the characters. Agatha Christie, P.D. James, and Donna Leon, each with their male detective heroes, come from different generations. A Butlerian reading illustrates their potential for disrupting gender norms. Of the three, however, only Donna Leon avoids the return to hegemonic control that is a feature of the genre. Christie’s women who have agency are inevitably eliminated, while conformist women are rewarded. James’s lead female character is never fully at ease in her professional role. When thrust into a leadership she proves herself to be competent, but not ready or desirous of the senior position. Instead her role is to mediate the transition of her junior, a male, to that position. Donna Leon is different. The moral and emotional content of her narratives suggests an implied author committed to ideological change. Her characters simultaneously renounce and collude with illusions of patriarchal authority, and could lay claim to be models for Butler’s notion of performative resistance.

The problem with which this thesis is concerned is the relationship between literature and politics. By means of a biographical and historical study two significant writers of the 1930s/40s I examine the ways in which the pressures of Depression, the threat of fascism and the onset of war influenced Australian writing. In particular, I ask whether the political issues of the period affected what these authors wrote and how they wrote it. My conclusion is that pressure of political concern caused significant personal, philosophical and political changes in Barnard and Davison, and that it affected both the genre in which they wrote and the content of their fiction. They turned from fiction to cultural commentary, historical writing, political pamphleteering and activism. They utilised short fiction as a means of discussing their worries about the state of the world and in order to promote values they felt threatened. When they returned to longer fiction their work bore, to differing degrees, in its ideas, arguments and imagery, the influence of their political engagement. More generally, I conclude that liberal humanism was the major animating philosophy of writers in the 1930s and that their concern with political issues grew from their conviction that western liberal democracy was the most fruitful soil for the production of art, a climate of freedom which they felt threatened by both fascism and war. This anxiety is the most important factor in both their politicisation and the work they did under the latter???s influence.

L'objectif de la thèse est d'étudier le rapport entre «Juif» et «nation» dans le roman italien du XXe siècle à partir d'un événement historique précis: la déclaration Balfour de 1917. Celle-ci donnait aux Juifs le droit de créer un «foyer national Juif» en Palestine et d'y devenir progressivement l'ethnie majoritaire. La création d'un État ne se fera que trente ans plus tard. Une sorte de renoncement au principe de la déclaration Balfour ne se produira que dans les années 90, avec les accords d'Oslo. L'État d'Israël acceptera alors l'idée que dans le territoire de la Palestine mandataire puisse naître un État arabe-palestinien après la tentative avortée de 1948-49. Le chapitre d'ouverture introduit le thème de la relation entre le Juif et la nation italienne dans une perspective historique. La chapitre deux raconte les écrivains et les ouvrages consacrés à «l'intégration nationale» entre les années vingt et trente du XXe siècle. L'oeuvre centrale c'est «Jom Hakippurim» par Giuseppe Morpurgo (1924). Le chapitre trois se concentre sur la littérature populaire anti-juive et anti-sémite des années trente et quarante (l'ère fasciste). Les racines des romans anti-juifs sont les feuilletons du XIXe siècle, où le Juif est le caractère négatif par excellence. Le chapitre quatre analyse l'avant-garde littéraire juive italienne du XXe siècle, c'est-à-dire les écrivains Juifs consacrés à la crise de la subjectivité contemporaine: Adriano Grego, Giorgio Bassani, Giorgio Voghera, Antonio Debenedetti et Roberto Vigevani. Le chapitre cinq met l'accent sur la persécution des Juifs et sur les diverses formes romanesques entre les années quarante et quatre-vingt du XXe siècle. Le valeur littéraire des ces oeuvres c'est ne pas élevé, sauf que les cases de «La Storia» par Elsa Morante (1974) et «Se non ora, quando?» par Primo Levi (1982). Le chapitre six analyse la figure du Juif fasciste à travers quatre romans publiés dans les années soixante et quatre-vingt. Tous les personnages ne sont pas destinés a survivre à la «mort de la patrie» du Risorgimento italien. Le chapitre sept examine la figure du Juif errant à travers ses formes diverses (exotique, levantin, cosmopolite). Cette ligne est proche à le «Juif anomique», perce qu'elle joue sur le stéréotype par excellence: l'errance historique et ontologique du Juif pour des motifs religieux. Le chapitre huit se concentre sur la représentation d'Israël comme lieu de culte et espace politique. Cette ligne «chrétienne» n'a été pas visitée par des écrivains Juifs, qui n'ont montré pas des intérêt particulier pour l'histoire ancienne d'Israël, ni pour les événements biographiques de Jésus de Nazareth, ni, enfin, pour le nouvel État d'Israël. Le chapitre neuf analyse les romans de sujet Juif par Alberto Lecco et son réalisme tragique. Lecco s'interroge sur le problème de la conscience juive à travers les grands écrivains russes du XIXe siècle et la diaspora juive nord-américaine contemporaine. Les conclusions cherchent à fournir des réponses exhaustives aux différentes relations entre le Juif et la nation dans les romans italiens du XXe siècle. En l'absence d'une «nation italienne», l'imaginaire romanesque n'a pas proposé une «nationalisation parallèle» ou un «désir sioniste»: le Juif italien est toujours un Juif diasporique, «condamné» à son état de minorité nationale. Les «différences» historiques, religieuses, économiques et culturelles ont connu une difficile coexistence aux côtés du mythomoteur national. Cette condition explique pourquoi les historiens ont insisté sur le problème de l'intégration-assimilation-acculturation nationale des Juifs italiens, tandis que l'imaginaire romanesque l'a considéré comme un problème après tout d'une importance secondaire. / The aim of the thesis is to study the relationship between «Jew» and «nation» in the Italian novel of the twentieth century, departing from a specific historical event: the 1917 Balfour Declaration. This gave the Jews the right to create a «Jewish national home» in Palestine and to gradually become the majority ethnic group. The creation of a State will take thirty years later. A kind of surrender to the principle of the Balfour Declaration will happen in the 1990s through the Oslo agreements. The State of Israel accepts the very idea that in the territory of Mandatory Palestine a Palestinian-Arab state can be establish after the 1948-49 aborted attempt. The opening chapter introduces the theme of the relationship between the Jew and the Italian nation in a historical perspective. Chapter two tells the writers and books on «national integration» between 1920s and 1930s. The central novel is «Jom Hakippurim» by Giuseppe Morpurgo (1924). Chapter three focuses on popular anti-Jewish anti-Semite literature of the 1930s and 1940s (the Fascist age). The roots of anti-Jewish novels are the 19th century feuilletons, where the Jew is the negative character par excellence. Chapter four analyzes the the XXth century Italian Jewish literary avant-garde, that is to say the Jewish writers devoted to the crisis of contemporary subjectivity: Adriano Grego, Giorgio Bassani, Giorgio Voghera, Roberto Antonio and Debenedetti Vigevani. Chapter five focuses on the persecution of Jews and the various forms of novels between the 1940s and 1980s. The literary value is not high, except the cases of «La Storia» by Elsa Morante (1974) and «Se non ora, quando?» by Primo Levi (1982). Chapter six analyzes the figure of the fascist Jew through four novels published in the 1960s and 1980s. All the characters are not intended to survive to the «death of the homeland» of Italian Risorgimento. Chapter Seven considers the figure of the Wandering Jew through its various forms (exotic, Levantine, cosmopolitan). This kind is close to the «anomic Jew», because it deals with the stereotype par excellence: the historical and ontological wandering Jew for religious reasons. Chapter eight focuses on the representation of Israel as a place of worship and policy. The «Christian» genre has not been visited by Jewish writers, who have shown particular interest neither in ancient history of Israel, nor in the life events of Jesus of Nazareth, nor in the new state of Israel. Chapter Nine analyzes the Jewish novels by Alberto Lecco and its tragic realism. Lecco examines the problem of Jewish consciousness through the 19th century great Russian writers and the contemporary Jewish diaspora in North America. The conclusions try to provide comprehensive answers to the various relationships between the Jew and the nation in the XXth century Italian novels. In the absence of an «Italian nation», the novelist imaginary did not propose a «parallel nationalization» or a «Zionist desire»: the Italian Jew is always a Diaspora Jew, «condemned» to his legal status of National minority. The historical, religious, economic and cultural «differences» experienced a difficult coexistence alongside the national mythomoteur. This condition explains why historians have emphasized the problem of national integration, assimilation, acculturation National by Italian Jews, while the novelist imagination was considered a problem of secondary importance.

Nous traitons des écrits dans le roman flaubertien, en nous intéressant en particulier aux trois romans de Gustave Flaubert : Madame Bovary, L’Éducation sentimentale et Bouvard et Pécuchet. Cela nous conduit à examiner différents types d’écrits circulant dans ces œuvres. Ceux-ci sont très variés et peuvent aller de la lettre à l’affiche, en passant par les journaux, les dictionnaires, et la littérature bien sûr, tout autant de supports qu’il existe de fonctions et d’enjeux. Au XIXe siècle, l’écrit occupe une place croissante dans la société et dans les œuvres littéraires, notamment dans le roman réaliste balzacien où les billets mondains circulent en transmettant des codes sociaux. Mais les lettres et les œuvres y sont aussi introduites abondamment et peuvent être lues de manière polysémique mais toujours signifiante. Ces choix vont de pair avec le développement de l’écrit au XIXe, par le biais notamment des journaux et de l’avènement du roman-feuilleton. Les écrits peuvent d’abord être distingués selon leur visée utilitaire ou esthétique, ils sont très nombreux dans le roman flaubertien et revêtent de multiples fonctions comme celle consistant à mettre en relief ce qui est visuel, faisant naître une forme de théâtre par la graphie. Puis, ils peuvent aussi transmettre la voix officielle, comme lors de faits juridiques à valeur à la fois référentielle et romanesque. Leur statut est parfois même historique, surtout dans L’Éducation sentimentale où résonnent les événements révolutionnaires de 1848 qui ont marqué l’époque, mais cette polyphonie présente le plus souvent un enjeu métatextuel en transmettant la voix du romancier dans une mise en abyme ; donner à voir ou à lire l’écrit serait sans doute pour lui aussi un moyen de se représenter en tant qu’auteur ou peut-être aussi, à l’opposé, de se distinguer de tous les écrits utilitaires qui caractérisent cette nouvelle société démocratique. / We are dealing with the writings in Flaubert’s novels, especially in the three following novels : Madame Bovary, L’Éducation sentimentale and Bouvard et Pécuchet. There are different types of writings in those works ; indeed they are varied and they can be a letter, a poster, a newspaper or even a dictionary, they are as varied as the numerous functions and issues that exist. In the nineteenth century, writing had an increasing part in society and literary works, especially in the realist novels by Balzac in which social notes were spread passing social codes. But letters and works were also abundantly introduced and could be read in different but always significant ways. Those choices went hand in hand with the development of writings in the nineteenth century thanks to newspaper and the advent of serials. Writings can be first distinguished according to their useful or aesthetic goal ; they are numerous in Flaubert’s novels and have several functions as the one which underlines what’s visual, making appear a kind of play thanks to the written form. Then they can also spread the official voice as in legal facts that have both a fictional and reference value. Their status is even sometimes historical, mainly in L’Éducation sentimentale in which the 1848 revolutionary events resonate ; but this polyphonic narrative often shows what’s at stake, delivering the novelist’s voice in a mise en abyme ; seeing or reading what is written could also be a mean to introduce himself as an author, but also maybe, on the contrary, to distinguish himself from the useful writing that characterized that new democratic society.

This dissertation deals with three selected French novels written by Milan Kundera: La lenteur, L´identité, L´ignorance. The aim is to make an analysis of these works, which are known as "the French cycle". We focus especially on the process of the construction of a narrative world (by using the semantics of fictional worlds and narratological concepts), as well as on the thematic level of these works. At the center of our dialogue with the novels is the question of whether they could create a real cycle, and what are the aspects that could connect them to each another. We also pay attention to the position of these works in the context of Kundera´s other writings.

abstract: This dissertation explored the literacy practices that developed around comics when two secondary teachers (one AP Science and one AP English) used comics in their classroom instruction for the first time. It also explored the ways the teachers and their students positioned comics within their specific classroom contexts. Historically, comics are a marginalized medium in educational circles—widely considered non-academic despite the recognition by scholars for their sophistication as a multimodal medium. Scholars, librarians, teachers, and comics authors have made the case for the inclusion of comics in educational contexts citing their ability to support the literacy development of struggling readers, engage reluctant readers, promote lifelong reading, and convey information visually. However, the roles comics can play in educational contexts are still under researched, and many gaps exist in the literature including a lack of real world contexts and clearly reported instructional strategies. This study aimed to fill these gaps by reporting the literacy practices that students and teachers develop around comics, as well as contextualizing these practices in the classroom contexts and students’ and teachers’ experiences. Drawing from a social semiotic view of multimodality and the view of literacy as a social practice, I conducted a qualitative case study using ethnographic methods for data collection which I analyzed using an interpretive framework for qualitative data analysis and constant comparative analysis. I found three literacy practices developed around comics in these contexts—Q&A, writing about comics, and drawing comics. I also found that teachers and students positioned comics in four primary ways within these contexts—as a tool, as entertainment, as a medium, and as a traditional form of literature. Based on my findings, I developed three assertions: 1) there is a disconnect between teachers’ goals for using comics in their instruction and the literacy practice that developed around the comics they selected; 2) there is a disconnect between the ways in which teachers position comics and the ways in which students position comics; and 3) traditional views of literature and literacy continue to dominate classrooms when multimodal texts are selected and utilized during instruction. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Learning, Literacies and Technologies 2018

Esta pesquisa tem como enfoque as personagens femininas de Graciliano Ramos em suas obras Caetés, São Bernardo, Angústia, Vidas Secas e Infância. Partindo dos conceitos de Antonio Candido sobre estrutura e função, busca-se analisar como a construção literária se relaciona com os dados sociais e históricos da época em que os livros foram escritos e/ou publicados, a década de 1930. A partir das análises feitas, desenvolve-se a ideia da importância dessas personagens que, mesmo deixadas em segundo plano, são essenciais para a construção dos textos literários. / The following research focuses on the female characters of Graciliano Ramos in his works Caetés, São Bernardo, Angústia, Vidas Secas and Infância. Thinking about the concepts of Antonio Candido on structure and function, we analyze how the literary construction relates to the social and historical life in the moment that the books were written, the decade of 1930. From the analyzes made, we realized the importance of these female characters, even when left in the background.