This thesis explores the origin and expression of dialectical thought in the life and writings of the American modernist Laura Riding. Within a biographical framework, I trace the steps by which it became the defining characteristic of her poetic, literary and critical works. A few have noted Riding's dialectical manner; none have appreciated its centrality. This is the first detailed study. An introductory outline of the origin and definition of dialectic provides a working theoretical context for the study that follows. Riding was born Laura Reichenthal in New York City, 1901. Her father, a Jewish émigré, was a committed activist for the left and included Riding in his campaigning at a very young age, immersing and educating her in the political and philosophical radicalism thriving in New York's Jewish communities of the era. There she internalised the revolutionary dialectics that would inform her aesthetic practice. Breaking with her father in her teens, she abandoned politics for literature. As Laura Riding - the name she adopted in 1927 and with which her literary writings continue to be associated - she moved to London and began collaborating with Robert Graves, relocating with him to Majorca in 1929. Producing poetry, fiction, criticism and experimental philosophico-literary works, she became a formidable presence within European literary modernism. Many aspects of her work are dialectical. Paradox, inversion and negation are perennial textual features. Key events in her life were also experienced as dialectical. Her insistence upon 'death' as an inverted sigil of unmediated vitality points toward a negatively dialectical mode of thought. In this regard, the theories of Theodor W. Adorno prove invaluable. Adorno provides a unique lexicon of terms - 'constitutive subjectivity', 'administered world', 'true object' - with which to draw out Riding's dialectical subtleties. Reading them alongside Adorno's negatively dialectical theory of modernist art and aesthetic praxis, certain aspects of Riding's writings are illuminated and, in some respects, they correspond. After a suicide attempt in 1929, Riding's perspective changed. Before it, her point of view was positioned within institutionally determined 'reality', and 'truth' beyond it was adumbrated by dialectical means. Afterwards, she believed herself transfigured: the embodiment of immediate, consciously apprehended noumenal objectivity. But the written word remained recalcitrant toward her attempts to inscribe this newfound positive 'truth'. This frustration contributed to her abandonment of poetry at the end of the 1930s. Re-emerging in the 1960s as Laura (Riding) Jackson, her disavowal of poetry and exploration of 'truth-potential' in language utilised dialectical approaches derived from her earlier experiences and writings.

En este estudio comparamos dos novelas españolas del género fantástico – Aranmanoth de Ana María Matute y La Emperatriz de los etéreos de Laura Gallego García. Ambas obras tienen tramas parecidas pero están dirigidas a dos grupos diferentes de lectores – jóvenes y adultos. Aplicamos el método comparativo, es decir, identificamos y analizamos las similitudes y las diferencias en cuanto a los elementos fantásticos presentes en ambas novelas con el propósito de analizar las consecuencias en la literatura para estos dos grupos de lectores. Asimismo nos interesan las razones de las similitudes y las diferencias, las cuales buscamos sobre todo, en los antecedentes de las autoras, los diferentes grupos de lectores y la gran influencia de los cuentos de hadas en este género fantástico.   Los elementos fantásticos que analizamos se encuentran en las categorías del motivo, el entorno y los personajes. Algunos de los ejemplos más conocidos de estas categorías son el viaje de aventura, la presencia de la magia y el mundo de imaginación pero asimismo se presentan elementos menos esperados como la importancia de los cuentos y las apariencias de los personajes. Dado que el lenguaje es un elemento diferenciador muy evidente cuando se compara la literatura juvenil con la de adultos, lo excluimos de la investigación.   Concluimos que existe una concordancia clara entre muchos elementos fantásticos en las dos novelas. A pesar de esto, las historias no dan la impresión de ser iguales. En la novela para adultos, por ejemplo, el elemento mágico es más complejo debido en parte a la gran cantidad de símbolos utilizados lo cual hace más difícil su comprensión. Además las autoras tienen objetivos diferentes con respecto a lo fantástico y este hecho afecta en gran medida la narración de las historias. Por consiguiente, los jóvenes posiblemente no entiendan toda la magnitud del elemento mágico intrincado en el libro para adultos y los adultos por su parte encuentren los elementos mágicos un poco simples en el libro juvenil. Sin embargo, es probable que los dos grupos distintos de lectores, puedan disfrutar la lectura de ambas novelas siempre y cuando tengan interés por el género.

This Master's Thesis analyzes various roles that First Ladies of the United States take upon when their spouses are elected President of the United States. Even though the role of First Ladies is undefined, the public still expects a certain level of manners and dedication to their selected causes. The influence of First Ladies is, on the one hand limited by the fact that they do not have any real policies to follow. On the other hand, the platform of First Ladyship offers a great deal to influence and ability to raise awareness to causes they care about. The main argument is that Mrs. Obama had a particular skill to promote her initiatives and to turn negative attention by the media to the rights directions. Additionally, she was able to get the attention of corporations and state officials to help her make a real impact on her initiatives. Her authenticity and fun engaging style helped her with engaging young people into her campaigns and her status of popular First Lady. Therefore, the goal of this thesis is to find out how the role of First Lady changed during Michelle Obama's term as First Lady and what kind of influence her initiatives brought. Finally, the analyses shows that Michelle Obama was a very active First Lady that pushed the role of the First Lady forward. Her well though...

The thesis deals with gender analysis in films studying metamorphoses of archetypes in film Bitter Moon directed by Roman Polanski. The methodical and theoretical sections of the thesis analyse the influence of archetype changes of film characters in gender roles. The thesis identifies and analyses mainly woman film characters appearing in some classical feminist texts, feminist film theoretical and critical articles, in some psychoanalytical works, in dramatheraphy and film science. The sources mentioned above became primary resource materials for our archetypal research. The analysis of each of the film character is focused on the most distinctive archetype with respect to its metamorphosy. Apart from the archetype research the thesis is marginaly concerned with problems linked to the female ideal and her sexuality usually portrayed in an unalterable way, and archetypal patterns are in such a way transmitted to audiences through femininity and masculinity in the context of gender roles. Keywords: archetype, Roman Polanski, Laura Mulvey, Annis Pratt, cinematic archetypal coherence, feminist film criticism, film narrative analysis, archetypal masculinity, archetypal femininity.

Studien undersöker hur kvinnliga karaktärer representeras i relation till skräcktematiken i tv-serien Penny Dreadful (2014-). Syftet har varit att studera huruvida det som är typiska kännetecken för skräck kan kopplas till kvinnlighet, femininitet och feminism (det senare då man kan uppfatta ett genuskritiskt samtal i serien). Med hjälp av psykoanalytiska teorier kring abjektion visar analysen hur det som är skrämmande med kvinnor, är skrämmande på andra sätt än vad som är skrämmande med män. Det som är abjekt med kvinnan definieras ofta utifrån hennes sexualitet och biologiska egenskaper, och skapar därmed en feminin monstrositet och således är helt olik den manliga. Detta har till stor del växt fram genom historiska myter, religioner och konst, som har bidragit till könsspecifika monster utifrån stereotyp femininitet, så som häxor, sirener eller Medusa. Genom att utforska tv-seriens karaktärer med hjälp av semiotiska och psykoanalytiska verktyg avslöjas möjliga tolkningar som visar hur nämnda feminina monster tycks grunda sig i manlig rädsla och kvinnan som hot. Kastrationskomplexet som bidragande faktor och den manliga blicken tycks därför kväsa uttryck för kvinnlig frigörelse i serien, genom att sexualisera, plåga och göra kvinnan abjekt och monstruös i direkt genmäle till dessa. Serien tycks därför trots sin genuskritiska diskurs kontrolleras av en manlig blick och ett skoptofiliskt seende, något som möjligtvis bidrar till att kvinnlighet och femininitet kodas som abjekt, och i värsta fall stigmatiserar den feministiska kvinnan. / <p>Reviderad upplaga</p>

In den Anfängen der Cultural Studies in der Birmingham School spielte Geschlecht eine eher untergeordnete Rolle. Bald wurden jedoch auch feministische Positionen herangezogen, um Ungleichheiten der Alltagspraxis zu erklären, die nicht klassentheoretisch zu fassen waren. In den Arbeiten von Rubin und Mulvey beispielsweise werden Geschlecht bzw. Geschlechtsunterscheidungen und -ungleichheiten durch makrosoziale Wissensstrukturen und kollektive Praktiken reproduziert.

Laura Linney has an extensive education and experience in performance, which has influenced her to create a well-defined methodology when she approaches new roles. She uses a dialectical approach to performance. This approach has two parts as she outlined in a personal interview: phase one is her research, education, understanding of the script, and previous experiences working together to create a character, while phase two is her release of control over the character and the opportunity for the text (film or otherwise) and role to take on their own distinct personalities. This means that Linney eventually gives up agency over her characters in order for them to be effective and successful in the whole of a film. In effect, her characters are created by numerous influences within and outside her range of control. My intentions in this article are to prove that this dialectical methodology is prominent within all aspects of Laura Linney?s performances. In fact, I suggest that her utilization of this technique is what makes her a dynamic, effective, and unique actress. The dialectical nature of her performance techniques can be observed most effectively in specific breakthrough moments within her films. These moments exist most prominently in Linney?s films that are rooted in close character analysis like You Can Count On Me, The Savages, and the HBO mini-series John Adams. Close textual analyses of these scenes show a dramatic hiatus from the standard performance that she has used to help build a character. They show distinct differences between characters, which reinforces my point that each role is not only mandated by Linney?s creative power over her acting, but also a complete release of this control. They highlight how Linney allows herself to be directed and molded to develop deep, complex characters that work organically within the greater text of the film.

Filmen Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) presenterar ett antal scener som är till synes orelaterade till filmens övergripande handling. Filmens titel antyder att dessa scener möjligen kan vara minnen ur titelkaraktärens tidigare liv, emellertid finns det ytters lite underlag för en sådan tolkning i själva filmen. Syftet blir därmed att närmare undersöka dessa scener, att söka tematiska kopplingar mellan dessa scener och filmen som helhet, samt att försöka komma fram till hur dessa scener kan ses arbeta med minnen.Laura U. Marks bok, The Skin of the Film (2000), har valts som underlag för den följande analysen i förhoppning att de tankar som läggs fram där skall kunna nyttjas för att tolka och diskutera de nämnda scenerna i filmen. I arbetet nyttjas därtill den metod som förespråkas av det hermeneutiska vetenskapsidealet för att erhålla kunskap.Arbetet visar på att filmen inte nödvändigtvis söker att gestalta minnen utan kan ses locka åskådaren till att minnas genom att presentera bilder som bäst förstås genom kroppslig inlevelse i bilden, kort sagt; filmen söker att aktivera åskådarens minne genom bilder med haptiska kvaliteter. Detta görs samtidigt som filmen ständigt återkommer till samma tema; resan till naturen. Åskådaren får alltså både bevittna filmens karaktärers resa och lockas till att själv uppleva detta utifrån sina egna minnen. Naturen är dock inte nödvändigtvis resans mål, filmen ses snarare försöka föra åskådaren till ett visst sinnestillstånd.

This thesis is concerned with several aspects of the life and work of the Canadian painter Laura Muntz (1860--1930). It examines in particular Muntz's images of women and children both within the cultural themes and ideologies of the period and from the perspective of contemporary twentieth-century theories of gender. The introduction and literature review outline the broad issues surrounding the artist in her time and present a summary of her critical fortunes in Canadian art historical literature. Chapter one provides a discussion of Muntz's life and artistic production between 1860 and 1898, the year in which she returned to Toronto after a decade of study and work in Europe. The following two chapters are conceived as case studies of single paintings, observed in the context of various discourses that surround them. Chapter two analyses Muntz's Madonna and Child in terms of hereditarian theories, eugenics, maternal feminism and the Canadian social purity movement and considers the broader, psychological implications of gender, specifically in the fin-de-siecle associations of femininity and death. Chapter three examines the imagery in Muntz's Protection with reference to North American Symbolist painters and their relationship to the constructs of the feminine ideal. As a whole, the thesis elucidates the complex layers of meaning that Muntz's images of women and children contributed to the popular conceptions of femininity and motherhood current in her time.

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