M.A. (English) / The main focus of study in this dissertation is the magic realism of Isabel Allende as it pertains to gender politics, specifically in the oppressive fascist regime of revolutionary Chile at the time at which her novels are set. Her narrative technique is identified and related to the environment of which she writes, with a view to associating it with the gender aspect of politics. The socio-political climate in Chile, certainly in the decades ot the 1960s and 1970s, incorporated elements of fascism, oppression and sexism: Allende successfully adapts most of her female characters to the revolution and its effects ...

Cette étude se propose de rendre compte du conflit qui opposa Plotin aux Gnostiques. Uneintroduction met en scène les protagonistes et décrit les circonstances de leur l’affrontement.Une première partie étudie la forme de cette polémique exceptionnelle dans les traités dePlotin, la rapproche de celle des hérésiologues chrétiens à l’encontre de ces mêmesGnostiques et fait l’hypothèse qu’elle ne fut pas ignorée de Plotin. Les parties suivantesprésentent la philosophie de Plotin pour l’opposer à la doctrine gnostique dans les domainescosmologique, théologique et anthropologique. Elles présentent et étudient, en chacun de cesdomaines, les critiques de fond que Plotin adresse aux thèses de l’adversaire, lui reprochant deméconnaître la nature des réalités dont il traite, de tenir des discours dépourvus de logique, dene proposer aucune méthode pour réaliser ses objectifs (le salut). Les critiques de Plotin àl’encontre des Gnostiques constituent une défense du platonisme et de la philosophie elle-même,ainsi que de toutes les valeurs sur lesquelles se fonde toute la pensée de Plotin. / This study accounts for the conflict between Plotinus and the Gnostics. The introductionportrays the protagonists, and describes the circumstances of their confrontation. The first partstudies the form of this exceptional controversy in the treaties of Plotinus, draws a parallelwith the controversy between the Christian Heresiologists and the Gnostics, and hypothesizesthat the later was not unknown to Plotinus. The subsequent parts explain the philosophy ofPlotinus and contrast it with the Gnostic doctrine in the cosmological, theological andanthropological domains. They present and analyse, in each of these areas, the fundamentalcritiques that Plotinus addresses to his opponents, accusing them of misunderstanding thenature of the realities that they deal with, of making speeches devoid of logic, and ofproposing no method to achieve their aims (salvation). The critiques of Plotinus against theGnostics constitute a defense of Platonism and of philosophy itself, and also of all the valuesthat underlie the thought of Plotinus.

VELES SLAVIC DEITY IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Bc. Michaela Šebetovská ABSTRACT The thesis deals with Slavic god Veles. The emphasis is put on primary textual sources about him. With regard to their fragmentary nature, there is a need to make use of comparative material. Informations about other Indo-European gods and beings from Slavic folklore similar to Veles are used as well. The purpose is not only to understand isolated functions, but also connections between them. This seems as the best way how to gain the idea of the whole character of Veles as the Slavs before Christianity could see it.

6 Abstract This essay's primary focus is on the phenomenon of "magic farce" within the works of Ferdinand Raimund and Johann Nepomuk Nestroy, its essence, main establishment conditions and its motifs on the background of the Viennese popular theater, the Biedermeier idyll and Vormärz. With respect to purpose of this essay, selected works of both authors are introduced and are afterwards the subject of analysis: Raimund's Der Barometermacher auf der Zauberinsel and Nestroys Der böse Geist Lumpazivagabundus oder das liederliche Kleeblatt, Freiheit in Krähwinkel and Höllenangst. The framework of the analysis is the historical and biographical context; notably the phenomenon of censorship and its impacts on artistic production of both Raimund and Nestroy. This essay also comprises important biographical aspects in relation to the transformation of the artistic approach of the authors in later years. Keywords Magic farce, farce, Besserungsstück, Viennese popular theater, Ferdinand Raimund, Johann Nepomuk Nestroy, Biedermeier and Viennese Vormärz

When portraying a character in a fictional world the actor is faced with many challenges. To circumvent these challenges, he must become congruent with the reality of the fictional world. In order to do so, the actor has to ‘believe’ in the circumstances of the unfolding scene and live ‘in the moment’. These external circumstances act as stimuli which the actor uses to create and consequently ‘believe’ in the environment that the character inhabits. However, the use of green screen technology in special effects limits or eliminates these stimuli and the external circumstances. Green screen is a technique used in film and television that allows the filmmaker to film an actor in combination with a green screen and then replace the ‘green’ with anything the filmmaker requires. This allows for compositing to occur and the filmed reality to be manipulated. However, this technology challenges the actor’s ‘belief’ and behaviour, thus affecting congruence with and the (photo)realism of the created fictional world. In a green screen environment the actor is challenged to imagine, experience and act in line with the circumstances of the fictional world that will replace the green screen, instead of the green environment in which he finds himself. One acting strategy that elicits imagination, action and feeling is Stanislavsky’s notion of the magic if. Accordingly, this dissertation proposes that this strategy can assist the actor in circumventing the challenges that arise when working with green screen technology. Stanislavsky developed his acting principles by observing human behaviour in an attempt to use the mind–body paradigm in circumnavigating the acting moment. The field of cognitive neuroscience has also investigated human behaviour and the mind–body paradigm and recent discoveries have increased understanding of the fields. These discoveries have validated the notion of the magic if and the components it incorporates. Yet, the discoveries surrounding the notion of the magic if and, subsequently, the increased understanding of the concept have not to date been applied to acting with green screen technology. It is therefore hypothesised that, by triangulating the challenges of ‘green screen acting’, the principles of the magic if and the knowledge gained from cognitive neuroscience, an acting strategy can be developed that will assist the actor in the green screen environment and thus create verisimilitude with the fictional world. This hypothesis has led to the theoretical development of explorations that will strengthen the skills the actor needs in order to apply the notion of the magic if; as well as an acting strategy to assist the actor when entering the green screen environment. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Drama / Unrestricted

This is a study of Cape Nguni diviners practising in the townships of Grahamstown where, during the 1970s, there was a large and active concentration of diviners treating clients from the locality, the rural areas and even the large urban centres further afield. The study situates local diviners in the socio-economic, cultural and religious context of contemporary township Iife during the 1970s (see chapter 1 and section 2.1). The personalities and socio-economic circumstances of diviners (and herbalists) are described as well as their case-loads, the various problems they treat, the relations between them and their clients, the economics of healing and the ethics pertaining to the profession (see chapter 2) . Chapter three focuses on the various problems and afflictions - which are largely of an interpersonal nature - suffered by those who are eventually inducted as diviners and the ritual therapy this necessarily entails. Here we see how the diviner, what Lewis (1971) terms a 'wounded healer', becomes an expert in interpersonal and social relations as a result of suffering problems - largely connected to the family but not necessarily limited to it - in interpersonal relations and that require a ritual, and thus social, prophylaxis. The main theoretical argument is that the diviner, qua healer, functions as a hybrid of Levi-Strauss' s bricoleur and Castaneda's 'man of knowledge' artfully combining the ability of the former to invert, mirror or utilise analogies from linguistics to make everything meaningful and the ability of the latter to creatively bend reality . The diviner's cosmology is described in terms of a 'handy', limited but extensive cultural code/repertoire of signs, symbols and metaphors that is utilised in getting the message across to others and in which animals bear the main symbolic load (see chapter 4). This leads logically to a reappraisal of Hammond-Tooke's (1975b) well-known model of Cape Nguni symbolic structure particularly in so far as it pertains to the way in which diviners classify animals, both wild and domestic (see section 4.6). A striking evocation and confirmation of the view argued here, namely of the diviner as bricoleur/'man of knowledge', is contained in chapter five dealing with an analysis of the diviner's 'river' myth and the context, form and content of the divinatory consultation itself. Finally, the conclusions, arising out of this study of contemporary Cape Nguni diviners in town, are evaluated in the ligrht of Lewis's (1966, 1971, 1986) deprivation hypothesis of spirit possession (see chapter 6)

Cette recherche se constitue comme un parcours généalogique dans la pensée naturelle et politique de Giordano Bruno autour de la notion de « vinculum » ‘lien’ ou ‘relation’, à travers la reconstruction de son origine et de son élaboration à partir des écrits magiques jusqu’aux dialogues italiens et aux premiers ouvrages latins. L’exigence est de retracer dans l’œuvre ainsi que dans l’expérience intellectuelle et biographique du Nolain, quelle est la relation entre philosophie naturelle et politique et comment elle se constitue. En d’autres termes, il s’agit de comprendre si l’analyse du politique pourrait être déliée ou réellement distinguée de l’étude de la nature ou si elle prendrait plutôt son point d’origine et se développerait au cœur de la connaissance de la physis : isoler et analyser quel que soit le rôle et la fonction que la notion de « vinculum » assume entre la réflexion métaphysique et anthropologique de Bruno. Ces questions constituent le problème de fond qui anime ce travail et auquel j’ai essayé de répondre dans ces pages, bien que conscient du caractère jamais définitif et ouvert de cette réponse comme pour chaque recherche. / This research is a genealogic study of the natural and political thought of Giordano Bruno, about the notion of «vinculum», ‘bond’ or ‘relation’, by the reconstruction of its origin and development from the magic writing to the Italians dialogues and the firsts Latins works The necessity of this work is to track down the Bruno’s opera and in his intellectual and biographic experience which is the relation between natural and political philosophy. In others words, the work lies in understanding if is possible to separate and distinguish the analysis of the politic from the nature; or the political thought is originate and it is inseparable from the reflection about the physis: isolating and analyzing which is the role and the function of the notion of «vinculum» between the metaphysical and anthropological reflection of Giordano Bruno. Those questions constitute the problem of this research and to which I try to respond in theses pages, even if conscious of the character never complete of this answer, as well as every research.

This thesis is an intensive, multi-layered analysis of an unpublished, English language, handwritten, mid-20th century manuscript. Originally undated, untitled and unsigned, it has now been positively identified as “Text A”, a Wiccan proto-Book of Shadows compiled by Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884-1964) in the last half of the 1940’s. Different methodologies were applied to the document: transcription using Leiden conventions, handwriting analysis to identify the author, archival research to uncover photographs of the manuscript in use, historical and bibliographical research to situate the manuscript and its author, and finally, an in-depth and exhaustive source analysis to uncover literary and documentary influences on the text. Subsequently, the manuscript was identified as handwritten by Gerald Gardner, from 1940 to 1949, and contains almost no original material other than a handful of pages for a speech or oral presentation. The rest of the document is comprised of extracts from published sources available to Gardner. These include books on Free Masonry, Templars, British Folklore, Kabbalah, Magic – ancient and ceremonial, and books by Aleister Crowley. The document also includes ritual passages and ceremonies, most of which also appear in Gardner’s published novel, High Magic’s Aid. Two theme-lines, “Magic – ancient and ceremonial” and “the writings of Aleiser Crowley”, comprising almost 40% of the total page count, were chosen for thorough analysis. Based on the information revealed by the various methodologies applied to this document, one can assert that Gardner’s claims to have been initiated into an ancient indigenous tradition, Wicca, and to be making available its long secret rituals are not supported by this document.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:12:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_lucas_farias.pdf: 811369 bytes, checksum: ee4a3e18668853cc83f4f4bd70b2c15d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-04-28 / This paper describes the rapid growth of neo-pentecostal movement, especially the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, in the current context of "disenchantment of the world." Paradoxically like imagine some time ago, religious movements have grown increasingly, and in the case of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, just as in any neo-pentecostalism, we believe that this increase is related to configuration of their rites. The use of magic rituals such religious denomination occurs consistently with the appropriation and reinterpretation of elements of Brazilian religiosity in the modern world´s context. Both the ballast cultural practice of magic between the company for over five centuries of history, as the dip in mysticism in search of meaning in the face of modern afflictions. And more. According Marcel Mauss, the magic is "by definition, an object of belief,"everybody whouses it believes in its effectiveness. The prosperity as spectrum underlying the rites, embodies consumption´s power and efficiency that only in magic, it is possible to mobilize energies that become hostage the sacred action. / Este trabalho versa sobre o rápido crescimento do movimento neopentecostal, especialmente a Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, no atual contexto de desencantamento do mundo . Paradoxalmente ao que se imaginaria há algum tempo atrás, os movimentos religiosos tem crescido cada vez mais, e, no caso da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus, assim como em todo o neopentecostalismo, consideramos que esse aumento está relacionado a configuração de seus ritos. A utilização da magia nos rituais de tal denominação religiosa ocorre de forma sistemática com a apropriação e ressignificação de elementos da religiosidade brasileira no contexto do mundo moderno. Tanto pelo lastro cultural da prática da magia entre a sociedade por mais cinco séculos de história, como pelo mergulho no misticismo em busca de sentido diante das aflições modernas. E mais. A magia é segundo Marcel Mauss, por definição, objeto de crença , todos os que a ela recorrem acreditam na sua eficácia. A prosperidade como espectro subjacente aos ritos, trás em si, poder de consumo e eficácia que só na magia, é possível a mobilização de energias que tornam refém a ação do sagrado.

No description available.