This dissertation studies the cultural traces of the experience of fear in relation to the social and cultural legacies of the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship. By applying the theoretical and narratological insights afforded by the horror genre and through the figure of the monster, the research identifies and analyzes alternative memories of the traumatic past, exploring the experience of fear within film and literature to reveal and claim an unrecognized approach to the representation of the war, with key critical findings and implications regarding the shaping and interpretation of the Spanish social imaginary of this event in this most persistent of cultural debates. Chapter II, explores the maquis in Luna de lobos (1985) by Julio Llamazares, tracing the human involution of a group of men that seeking refuge from Francoist repression become monstrous shells of themselves. It pursues this degradation to rethink the locus of the monster, finding it in the monstrous policies of the regime, that demands the exorcism of the resistance movement—the ultimate Other—rendering it ghostly by community and family as the cornerstone foundational violence of a new society. Chapter III, delves into the cinematographic representation of monsters and monstrous elements in Pa negre (2010) by Agustí Villaronga. It studies the competing narratives in postwar Spain that turn a child of the defeated into a monstrous regime supporter, a process that suggests the origins of contemporary society as the monstrous traces of Francoist society. It analyzes the features that render its protagonist, first, a monster in the eyes of the new regime—along the lines of the classical monster—to later on, through disappointment, shame and betrayal, a monster to his family and social class—thus becoming a modern monster. Chapter IV tackles a cinematographic allegorical representation of the past in Balada triste de trompeta (2010) by Álex de la Iglesia, a tour de force that attempts to be a total narrative of the war, a collage of historical memory through the monstrous moments that define Francoism. The fusion of elements from “esperpento”, horror and melodramatic national romance render a unique postnational satire.

Feminist scholarship concerning fairy tales is too limited. While relationships between male and female characters have been explored extensively, this thesis focuses on masculinity as it is performed in interactions between male characters. It aims to bring more justices to traditional fairy tale gender binaries. Using Tony Coles’ Theory of Multiple Dominant Masculinities, this project examines four 17th-19th century animal/monster groom tales, studying male characters in order to understand how masculinity is constructed in selected tales and operates as a dynamic relationship between male characters. While the quest for dominance is often linked to violence, by employing the marvelous as an agent of change, these tales offer utopian perspectives in which shifts in male power occur without violence. The system of masculinity can be unfavorable and restrictive, presenting male characters with limited role options, but in fairy tales this system is also flexible, offering the possibility of change.

Our aim is to calculate some graphs associated with two of the larger sporadicsimple groups, Fi₂₄ and the Baby Monster. Firstly we calculate the point line collinearity graph for a maximal 2-local geometry of Fi₂₄. If T is such a geometry, then the point line collinearity graph G will be the graph whose vertices are the points in T, with any two vertices joined by an edge if and only if they are incident with a common line. We found that the graph has diameter 5 and we give its collapsed adjacency matrix. We also calculate part of the commuting involution graph, C, for the class 2C of the Baby Monster, whose vertex set is the conjugacy class 2C, with any two elements joined by an edge if and only if they commute. We have managed to place all vertices inside C whose product with a fixed vertex t does not have 2 power order, with all evidence pointing towards C having diameter 3.

Uppsatsens syfte är att genom undersökningar av relevanta verk som rör sig kring gammal nordisk folktro kring varelsen myling och jämförelser med den moderna ungdomsskräckromanen Jag väntar under mossan (2013) av Amanda Hellberg kunna utröna samband och skillnader mellan användandet av folktrons varelser i gamla berättelser kontra den moderna ungdomsromanen. För att fördjupa just bakgrunden till den bestämda moderna ungdomsskräckromanen har även ett antal verk som behandlar just skräck och/eller ungdomslitteratur valts ut som referensmaterial.  Under arbetets gång har det dels noterats att varelsen myling trots sin antagonistiska roll i folksagor, i utvald roman frångår mallen som antagonist, vilket är ett intressant och även i dag vanligt förekommande fenomen i ungdomsromanens behandling av gamla tiders monster och antagonister. Detta till trots har inte själva mytbildningen kring mylingen skrivits om, utan i stället utökats och fördjupats till ett mer personligt plan.

In this paper, I study the bodies in Mare Kandre’s two novels Bestiarium (1999) and Xavier (2002), with the help of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of the grotesque. I examine the worldview that is portrayed in the novels – focusing on the attitude towards death – and seek answers to the following questions: how do the human bodies look and how do they relate to their surroundings? What does the way they are portrayed say about the world the novels portray? And what role does laughter play in the novels? I also examine the similarity between a grotesque body, and a gothic monster. As a result, I find that one body may exist both in life and death at the same time, that the bodies can merge together, and that the boundaries between body and world may be exceeded. I also find the grotesque abilities of the body not to be threatening, but filled with possibilities. Here, even monsters are not harmful. / I den här uppsatsen undersöker jag kropparna i Mare Kandres två romaner Bestiarium (1999) och Xavier (2002), med utgångspunkt i Michail Bachtins teorier om det groteska. Jag söker svar på hur hans begrepp kan öka förståelsen för den värld som målas upp i romanerna, med ett fokus på inställningen till döden. Jag ställer mig frågor om hur de mänskliga kropparna ser ut och hur de förhåller sig till resten av världen, vad sättet de gestaltas på säger om romanvärlden och vilken roll skrattet spelar i romanerna. Jag undersöker också likheten mellan groteska kroppar och gotiska monster. I min analys visar jag att kropparna i Mare Kandres romaner kan befinna sig både i livet och döden samtidigt, att de ständigt är i rörelse och kan uppgå i varandra. Dessutom kan gränsen mellan kropp och värld upplösas. Jag visar också på att den glädje som kännetecknade medeltidens grotesk bara kan förnimmas, men att de groteska kropparna trots det besitter positiva möjligheter. Inte ens monster måste här besegras, då de inte utgör något hot.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This study offers insights into the motif of monstrous corporality in a transmedia environment, through the vampire and zombie characters. Different narratives of corporeal transformation surround us constantly. On one hand, discourses of self-improvement in late modernity (Giddens 1991/2008) and ‘makeover culture’ (Johansson, 2006; 2012; Miller, 2008; Weber, 2009) demand a ‘creation of self’ through change and development, often in relation to physical appearance and bodily traits. On the other hand, numerous narratives of monstrosity and bodily change through destruction are also evident. This study takes on this double focus on corporality, against the backdrop of a late modern mediascape that has enabled people to imagine lives and possibilities different from their own through electronic mediation (Appadurai, 1996). As narratives now move between media platforms, new dimensions are brought to the imaginary, as different platforms interact differently with audiences. The aim of the study is to examine monstrous corporality in popular culture both in relation to media texts and audience practices through analyzes of representation, consumption and performance. The study examines medial and corporeal transformation through: concrete bodily change (the monstrous body), shifts between media platforms (transmedia) as well as the transmission of affect between media material and viewer (embodied spectatorship). These dimensions are explored in four empirical chapters, which examine two television series (True Blood and The Walking Dead) through textual analyses, the promotion of these series, audience participation (in online fora) and also participatory practices (Live action role play and zombie walks) through focus group interviews. The results indicate that the theme of monstrous corporeal change in TB and TWD reflects corporeal change in late modernity in several ways. Both transformations are focused on ‘before’ and ‘after’ and change of the monstrous body is connected to particular traits or parts of the body, which are also prominent in makeover culture narratives, such as skin, teeth and weight (appetite). The televisual narrative offers representations of bodily interiors and bodily harm that affect the viewers in a physical way, through an embodied spectatorship. The analyses of transmedia environments connected to the series indicate that the promotion of the programs use dimensions that emphasize the corporeal address, by bridging the gap between diegetic and actual reality. This is done through media environments (posters, websites and the like), and by introducing diegetic elements as actual, tangible objects in the actual reality of potential viewers. The analyses of posts on televisionwithoutpity.com show that participants use forum discussions as strategies to prolong and widen the media experience, and share it with others. Interviews with larpers and participants in zombie walks indicate that practices that stage the monstrous, also function as deepened embodied narrative experiences. Performances such as larps and zombie walks are interpreted as both conscious acts, and as strategies to handle unconscious performative (Butler, 1991/2006) dimensions of late modernity. Taken together, the zombie and vampire embody the pressures, risks and paradoxes connected to late modern makeover culture, and the mediated form they are presented through, tie them closer to those who engage in narratives about them.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Uppsatsens syfte är att analysera hur djävulsgestalten används som visuell metafor för depression i den animerade kortfilmen How Have You Been? (2020) skapad av Polly Nor och Adam Baker. Detta med målet att skapa bredare förståelse för hur visuella metaforer kan användas inom visuell kommunikation för att gestalta känslor. Studien utförs med hjälp av en semiotisk analys samt metaforanalys med teoretisk utgångspunkt i semiotik och metaforteori. Uppsatsen resulterade i kunskap kring hur den visuella metaforen förstärks genom personifiering av depression samt en stark relation mellan protagonist o antagonist. Även förvandling av djävulsgestalten har stor betydelse för hur den visuella metaforen tolkas. Ytterligare framkom det att filmskaparna använder symboler samt ickeverbal kommunikation för att förstärka den visuella metaforen. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the devil figure is used as a visual metaphor for depression in the animated short film How Have You Been? (2020) made by Polly Nor and Adam Baker. This with the goal to create a wider understanding about how visual metaphor can be used in the field of visual communication to portray emotions. The study is carried out with the help of a semiotic analysis as well as a metaphor analysis with a theoretical basis in semiotics and metaphor theory. The thesis resulted in knowledge about how the visual metaphor is enhanced through the personification of depression and a strong relationship between the protagonist and the antagonist. The transformation of the devil figure is also of great importance for how the visual metaphor is interpreted. Furthermore, it became clear that the filmmakers use symbols and non-verbal communication to enhance the visual metaphor.

This dissertation explores how the concepts of ambivalence, horror, monsters and mise-en-scène can be used to interpret the ambivalent predator-monster/victim relationship of the characters Sonja Daneel, Adele and Maggie Joubert from the film Wolwedans in die Skemer (2012). In doing so, this dissertation investigates how Noël Carroll’s The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart (1990) and Jeffery Cohen's Monster Theory (1996) can be used as a theoretical foundation to analyse and interpret the characters Sonja, Adele and Maggie. This research argues that within the horror genre, viewers are presented with two classic characters, namely that of the monster (often male) and the victim (often female), each with their own set of characteristics and traits that set them apart. However, I postulate that in Wolwedans in die Skemer these characteristics and traits are often blurred into one character, giving rise to a monster-victim ambivalence. This study also investigates the connection that the characters Sonja, Adele and Maggie have in relation to werewolves and to the characters of the Little Girl and the Wolf from the Red Riding Hood tales. Jones (2012:140) proposes that the wolf is the projection of her own inner predator - this suggests that the Little Girl and the Wolf can be seen as one character, a combination of victim and predator. Red Riding Hood can possibly be interpreted as recognising her inner self as the Wolf or a werewolf. A werewolf is a person who has been transformed, by force of will and desire, from a human (victim) into a predatory and monstrous wolf-like state. When women are werewolves, the traditional coding of horror - monster as male, victim as female, no longer applies. The "female werewolves" of Wolwedans in die Skemer each become, in some way, Little Red Riding Hood, Wolf, and Woodcutter fused into one. By analysing the characters Sonja, Adele and Maggie through the lens of the monster and victim with regards to the concepts of ambivalence, horror, and miseen- scène, it becomes clear that the roles of the monster and the victim in Wolwedans in die Skemer dissolve into one body, creating an ambivalent fluctuation between the two. / MA (History of art), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015