Au début du vingtième siècle, un nouveau média à la mesure de l’Amérique voit le jour : le cinéma. Forme d’expression visuelle nouvelle, divertissement populaire égalitaire, véhicule privilégié du modèle américain dans le pays et à l’étranger, le cinéma s’affirme, dès ses premières années d’existence, comme un acteur majeur de l’américanisation du monde. Un de ses thèmes de prédilections est l’espace américain, et par extension ses paysages, qui ravit et fascine les spectateurs d’un bout à l’autre de la planète. Les mises en scène du territoire national et de sa géographie spécifique sont complexes car elles intègrent des éléments réalistes et une dimension imaginaire. Cette représentation polymorphe des États-Unis permet de promouvoir les valeurs américaines dans une société internationale moderne, transformée par l’essor de l’urbanisation et de l’industrialisation. L’Amérique filmique, élaborée par l’industrie cinématographique des premières décennies, offre des repères à un spectateur quelque peu perdu dans le nouvel ordre du monde se dessinant alors. / At the dawn of the twentieth century, a new media, in tune with American goals, was born: the motion pictures. It was a new kind of visual expression, an egalitarian form of popular entertainment and the best vehicle to convey the American way of life in the US and abroad. Therefore, cinema became, from its inception, a key participant in the Americanization of the world. One of its favorite topics was American space and its landscapes, which pleased and amazed movie-goers around the world. The way in which national territory and its specific geography were staged in films was complex because it intertwined realistic elements and a mythical dimension. That kaleidoscopic representation of the United States enabled the promotion of American values in a modern international society, transformed by the rise of urbanization and industrialization. Cinematic America, as it was created by the early motion pictures industry, offered landmarks to the spectator, somewhat lost in the emerging new world order.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Nelson Mandela stands as one of the most powerful symbolic figures of the past century, embodying notions of freedom, peace, racial reconciliation and the struggle against tyranny. As largely uncontested as this image is today, its constitution has by no means been uncomplicated. Before he was incarcerated on Robben Island, Mandela was viewed as a young, militant firebrand within the ANC-led liberation movement, an image which was counterpointed by his patrician lineage, education and professional success as a lawyer. His highly visible embodiment of this complex identity served to elevate him not only to the top of the black Johannesburg social hierarchy, but to the forefront of the liberation struggle. The state-sanctioned view of him was, by contrast, as a terrorist, agitating for the destruction of the state. During his imprisonment on Robben Island, the government sought to entirely expunge his words and likeness from active circulation, which ironically facilitated the process of myth-making around him. After his release from prison, Mandela largely succeeded in claiming agency over his image – the one which still persists in the international public imagination – facilitated in large part by the publication of his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and the numerous acts of reconciliation and diplomacy which he undertook. In writing this thesis, I have sought to trace the process of mythmaking around Mandela, questioning how the disparate, and often contradictory, ideas around him have been narrativised and incorporated into the mythical figure we are familiar with today, both by him and others. I have divided the narrative construction of Mandela into two broad epochs: the ―dominant‖ narrative, which developed from his entry into politics until his release from prison in 1990, and the ―official‖ narrative, which developed from his release from prison. I seek to illustrate the processes by which the dominant narrative was constituted, and how this narrative construct gained increasing ideological currency during his imprisonment on Robben Island. I then seek to illustrate how the numerous, often-conflicting elements of the dominant narrative were ultimately consolidated and largely supplanted by the official narrative, as represented by Long Walk to Freedom, focusing specifically on its theme of progress and maturation. In my conclusion, I argue that many of the ideological elements which fed the mythical construction of Mandela in the dominant narrative, as a youthful, masculinised liberation fighter, persist today. The promise which the Mandela of the official narrative embodied, of South Africa as a ‗miracle‘ nation destined to move beyond the vestiges of Apartheid – including racism, unemployment and poverty – has largely failed to materialise, allowing these elements to gain an ideological currency once more. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Nelson Mandela word beskou as een van die belangrikste simboliese figure van die afgelope eeu, en hy verteenwoordig begrippe soos vryheid, vrede, rasse-versoening en die stryd teen tirannie. Alhoewel hierdie beeld grootliks onbetwis is, was die vestiging hiervan geensins ongekompliseer nie.Voordat hy op Robbeneiland aangehou was, was die jong Mandela as a ‗n militante vuurvreter in die ANC-bevrydingsbeweging gesien; hierdie beeld is teengestaan deur sy aristokratiese afkoms, opvoeding en professionele sukses as ‗n prokureur. Sy hoogs sigbare vergestalting van ‘n komplekse identitiet het nie net gehelp om hom te verhoog tot die bo-punt van die swart Johannesburgse sosiale hiёrargie nie, maar ook tot die voorpunt van die bevrydingstryd. In teenstelling het die staat hom beskou as ‘n terroris wat die staat will vernietig. Terwyl hy sy tronkstraf op Robbeneiland uitgevoer het, het die regering aktief probeer om sy woorde en foto‘s uit sirkulasie te verkry; dit het egter, ironies genoeg, die proses van Mandela se mitifisering vergemaklik. Na sy vrylating uit die tronk, het Mandela grootliks daarin geslaag om sy publieke beeld terug te neem en te herskep, grootliks deur middel van sy outobiografie Long Walk to Freedom en deur talle versoenings- en diplomatieke dade te onderneem. Dit is hierdie beeld wat steeds in die internasional publiek se geheue voortduur. In hierdie tesis, beoog ek om Mandela se mitifiseringsproses na te spoor, om te bevraagteken hoe die uiteenlopende en dikwels teenstrydige idees, beide deur hom en ander, rondom hom genarrativiseer is en opgeneem is in die mitiese figuur met wie ons vandag vertroud is. Ek het die narratiewe konstruksie van Mandela verdeel in twee breё periodes: Die ―dominante― verhaal, wat ontwikkel het vanaf sy toetrede tot die politiek tot met sy vrylating uit die tronk in 1990, en die „amptelike― verhaal, wat ontwikkel het vanaf en na sy vrylating uit die tronk. Ek beoog om te prosesse waardeur die dominante narratief/verhaal geskep is, te illustreer, en om te wys hoe hierdie narratiewe samestelling toenemend ideologiese waarde gekry het tydens sy tronkstraf op Robbeneiland. Daarna beoog ek om te illustreer hoe die dikwels teenstrydige elemente van die dominante verhaal/narratief uiteindelik gekonsolideer en vervang is deur die amptelike verhaal, soos verteenwoordig deur Long Walk to Freedom, deur spesifiek te fokus op diè werk se tema van vooruitgang en volwassewording. In my gevolgtrekking, argumenteer ek dat baie van die ideologiese elemente wat die mitiese konstruksie van Mandela in die dominante verhaal ondersteun het, as jeugdige, manlike vryheidsvegter, vandag voortduur. Die belofte wat die Mandela van die amptelike verhaal gesimboliseer het, dat Suid-Afrika, as ‘n ―wonderwerk―-nasie, bestem is om die oorblyfsels van Apartheid – insluitend rassisme, werkloosheid en armoede – te oorkom, het grootendeels misluk om te verwewenlik, wat hierdie elemete weereens ‘n ideologiese waarde laat verkry het.

Диссертация посвящена теоретическому анализы мифотворческих аспектов в развитии экранной культуры (кино, ТВ, видео, компьютерные каналы и др.) как новой парадигмы коммуникации. В диссертационной работе, опираясь на отечественные и зарубежные источники, исследуется экранная культура как концепт информационной эпохи, устанавливается диалектика взаимосвязи в развитии культуры экрана и мифологизации реальности как динамической системы. Автором также доказано, что мифотворческие аспекты в экранной культуре являются важной формой конструирования новой виртуальной реальности, влияющей на общественное и индивидуальное сознание, на процесс социализации личности. В проектной части диссертации представлена научно-методическая разработка спецкурса для вуза «Мифологические аспекты современной экранной культуры» (онлайн-курс). / The dissertation is devoted to theoretical analyzes of myth-creating aspects in the development of on-screen culture (cinema, TV, video, computer channels, etc.) as a new communication paradigm. In the dissertation, relying on domestic and foreign sources, the screen culture is studied as a concept of the information era, the dialectics of the relationship in the development of the screen culture and the mythologization of reality as a dynamic system is established. The author also proved that the myth-creating aspects in the screen culture are an important form of constructing a new virtual reality that affects the social and individual consciousness, the process of personality socialization. In the design part of the dissertation presents the scientific and methodological development of a special course for the university "Mythological aspects of modern screen culture" (online course).

The thesis is organized as two sections of two chapters each: the first section establishes a theoretical framework of a broad and reinvigorated Christian sacramentality within which to situate the second—an investigation of the theories and practice of the mythopoeic art of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien in this sacramental light. The first chapter acknowledges the thoroughgoing disenchantment of modernity, an effect traced to the vanishing of a sacramental understanding of the world, and then explores the history of the sacramental concept that would seek to be reclaimed and reconceived as a possible means of the re-enchantment of Western culture such as in the recent work of David Brown. An appreciative critique of Brown's work is offered in chapter two before proposing an alternative understanding of a distinctly Christian and reinvigorated sacramentality anchored in the Incarnation and operating by Transposition. A notion of sacramental vision is developed from the perceptual basis in its classic definitions, and a sacramental understanding of story is considered from a theological perspective on the infinite generativity of meaning in texts, along with recent theories of affect and affordance. The second half of the thesis expounds the views of mythopoeia held by Lewis and Tolkien in order to show how they are not only compatible with but lead to a sacramental understanding of story as developed in part one, with mythopoeia affording the recovery of a potentially transformative vision of reality, awakening it into focus in distinctly Christian ways (chapter three). The final chapter demonstrates how their mythopoeic theories are exemplified in their art, examining specific ways Till We Have Faces and The Lord of the Rings afford the recovery of a potentially transformative vision of various themes central to them. In closing it is suggested that such a sacramental understanding of story may contribute to the re-enchantment of Western culture, not to mention the re-mythologization and re-envisaging of Christianity, whose significance in these regards has been hitherto mostly unrecognized.

Diploma thesis is trying to describe and analyse factors shaping current relations between China and Japan. My intention is to identify main factor, which shape and influence bilateral Sino-japan relations in long term view. I suggest that main factor is historical factor. Thesis explains the change in bilateral relations after Cold war. Also explains national myth-making, nationalism and current problems such as Yasukuni Shrine and text-book controversy. Last part is focused on territorial conflict between China and Japan, namely Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.

L'objectif de cette thèse est de montrer le déclin de la figure du superhéros dans les films américains après le 11 Septembre. Les films de superhéros n?ont jamais été si nombreux. Jamais le moral du superhéros n'a été si bas. Ce paradoxe trouve sa meilleure illustration dans l'image double de Batman relégué au ras du sol, alors que le symbole commercial de la chauve-souris brille au firmament de Gotham City. La marchandise culturelle transcenderait donc un superhéros considérablement amoindri. Ce travail se concentre sur trois domaines en particulier : la perte de masculinité du superhéros à la fin du siècle dernier, qui amène à une confrontation symbolique entre le quarterback et la majorette, ou entre Superman et un hypothétique Everyman, et la réémergence d'un monomythe réactionnaire après 2005 ; les errances d'un Surmoi freudien affaibli, et sa relation fluctuante avec un Ça très séduisant, incarné par le superméchant du vingt-et-unième siècle ; la toile de fond sociopolitique contemporaine hostile aux exploits du superhéros, pour qui l'isothymie fukuyamienne omniprésente constitue une injuste condamnation de son action salvatrice. Icône d'une démocratie libérale qui règne désormais sur notre planète, le superhéros postmoderne semble singulièrement désadapté à la culture qui l'a vu naître. / The main topic of this doctoral thesis is the study of the decline of the superhero icon in American films after 9/11. Superhero productions are at an all-time high, and yet, the superhero's morale is at an all-time low. This paradox is best illustrated with the dual image of Batman stuck at Ground Zero, staring up at the projection of his chevron looming large in the sky of Gotham City. The glowing merchandise transcends an otherwise sullied character. This dissertation focuses on three main realms: the superhero's loss of masculinity at the end of the twentieth century, leading to the formal opposition between the figures of the quarterback and the cheerleader, or between Superman and Everyman, and the reactionary, warpath revival which started in 2005; the travails of the flailing Superego and its shifting relationship to the almighty Id, represented by the twenty-first century glorified supervillain; and, finally, the inimical sociopolitical backdrop for the superhero's prowess, in which Fukuyama's prevalent isothymia eventually denies the superhero his just laurels. The postmodern superhero thus appears as a national misfit, also because this cultural commodity now reaches far beyond the traditional boundaries of the « American Way », to embrace an increasingly globalized market.

The problem statement mainly deals with the curtailment of the high function status of Afrikaans in South Africa since 1994 as this has a negative impact on the six million mother tongue speakers of Afrikaans as well as on non-mother tongue speakers for whom the language has an instrumental value. The question is raised as to whether myth making around Afrikaans can be held partly responsible for this loss in status. The term “myth” and the impact of myths are looked into. “Myth” is not used in this thesis as a “story without ground” (as in the dictionary definition), but, according to the work of Jung, Campbell, Leroux, Malan and others, as a story/narrative that gives voice to man’s search for meaning and significance. The main points of departure are: · The viewpoint of the well-known twentieth-century mythologist, Joseph Campbell, who states: “Myths are stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance (Campbell in Flowers 1988:5); and · The statement of Malan (1978:39) namely that myth has always been the way in which man has tried to explain the sense, significance and purpose of the cosmos by means of a simple narrative. Myth making within groups (Anderson 1991: “imagined communities”) is viewed and the role of of political myth making explicitly stated. In this regard the statement of Leonard Thompson is relevant. Thompson (1985:3) points to two kinds of myths, namely: 1) “conservative myths” (for example about the origins of a group); and 2) “radical myths” (that aim to discredit the regime of “the other”). In the discourse about myths around Afrikaans the point of departure is that the specific myth is regarded as positive or negative in terms of its impact on the status and position of Afrikaans in South Africa. The two “main” myths around Afrikaans are discussed by exemplification and by means of anecdotes and the impact of the said myths on Afrikaans is evaluated. The two myths are: · Afrikaans as mythical binding force in Afrikaner nationalism in (mainly) the first fifty years of the twentieth century; and · Afrikaans as metaphorical language of the oppressor, especially in the period of institutionalized apartheid. The impact of the above myths within various Afrikaans systems (among others the historiography and literature of Afrikaans and the school syllabi) is furthermore exemplified with the purpose of indicating how great this impact has been. Finally the question is asked: ”And now, Afrikaans?” (with acknowledgement to the title of a publication by Hans du Plessis, 1992: “En nou, Afrikaans?”). The conclusion is that the status of Afrikaans in the so-called high language functions is daily under more pressure as a result of the hegemony of English in the country. There should be rational and firm negotiations about this unconstitutional curtailment of the rights of Afrikaans. The speakers of Afrikaans can, however, help to preserve the language by: 1. Living with the myths around Afrikaans in the sense that they develop and demonstrate understanding and empathy for the myths of other groups; 2. Using Afrikaans daily for all functions, especially seeing that Afrikaans is indeed suitably developed to meet any need; and 3. Working towards new myth making around Afrikaans, by – among other things – pointing to the fact that Afrikaans, as a language of Africa, has a greater claim to national language status in South Africa than the international language, English. / Thesis (DLitt (Afrikaans))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Afrikaans / unrestricted