This diploma thesis deals with intertextuality in Game of Thrones series from the academic perspective. The thesis presents a comprehensive summary of selected intertexts including their classification according to the different types of semantic connection. The theoretical frame is based on the theoretical approaches of leading intertextuality theorists in literature and culture in general. In addition, it reflects the position of Game of Thrones series in the cultural mainstream, both in regards of its popularity and dissapointment of viewers over the final series. Based on national and international critical reviews, this diploma thesis analyzes the genre changes in Game of Thrones and focuses especially on the shared features with the soap opera genre. The fantasy genre specifics and its possible influence on reality is also briefly described. The methodological part summarizes the analytical tools and formulates research questions. According to the different types of semantic connection, the analysis is divided into three parts: the referential intertextulity (the connection to history), the intertextuality between texts (the connection to other works of culture) and the inner intertextuality (the connection to other elements inside the series). The first part of the analysis describes...

Bakground: Performance management has, for a long time, been a part of the public administration in Sweden. Arguments such as more transparency and efficiency has guided the implementation of this model, particularly at the beginning of the 21st century. One particular part of the performance management-model is the production of annual performance reports from government agencies. The framework stipulating the rules for producing such reports is broadly defined and vague with the purpose to promote local adaption for each agency. The theory of organizational translation stipulates that no idea can move from one context to another without adapting in some way to the new context.  Aim: With guidance from translation theory this master thesis aims to explore why government agencies’ annual reports differ from one another and why performance is disclosed in different ways. Both translation theory and boundary objects-theory where used to explore the difference in producing annual reports.  Method: This thesis uses semi-structured interviews with public officials in four different agencies and annual reports for 2019 from the same agencies to gather empirical material for the study. The empirical material where analyzed by using a narrative analysis to break down the annual reports as stories told by the government agencies.  Conclusion: This study shows how result as a concept has been institutionalized in the writing of annual reports but been given different meaning in comparison between the selected agencies. Further, the study identified two examples of how result as a concept can be re-contextualized to a local context of particular agencies. This study also found that key actors in the production of annual reports, the process managers, act as institutional translators for the organizations, as in translating the institutional requirements and expectations. Finally, the concept of results also can be given different meanings between public organization as well as within such organizations.

The purpose of this study is to examine Russia's foreign and security policy towards Sweden, as bordering practices, in the state-controlled media's international news reporting on gender equality. To achieve this goal the following two questions were formulated: 1) which narratives about gender equality can be read from English-language news articles about Sweden from the Russian state-controlled news company Sputnik News? and 2) in what ways do these narratives function as bordering practices? Utilizing critical border theory and both narrative analysis and strategic narrative analysis this study's results confirm previous research in several ways. The identified narratives have a predominant majority of negative angles to Sweden's disadvantage and there is use of ridiculing language with the intent to diminish Sweden's international position. I have been able to distinguish four main narratives that all touches upon gender equality in some way. These narratives,1) a polarized Sweden, a country in free fall, 2) extreme gender equality /feminism, 3) gender equality as a mirage, and 4) an elite that pursues an extreme agenda, are created by Sputnik by "harvesting" domestic media and then translating and repackaging the content to portray a negative image of Sweden. These narrative themes function in a normative way by highlighting the unusual and that which stands out, and through performative repetition, these foreign policy motivated narratives acts as bordering practices that constantly produce and reproduce the nations' borders, identity and sovereignty. This study concludes that the strategic narratives on gender equality in the Russian state-controlled media identified in this study function as a weapon in Russia's political war towards Sweden. / <p>2021-06-02</p>

In recent years various factors have contributed to the dissolution of the traditional family and the subsequent emergence of alternative family systems like the single parent family. Single parent families have become a reality in our society, a fact reflected by statistics which indicate an increase in the occurrence of single parent families over the last couple of years. However, the single parent family is still mostly perceived as consisting of the mother and her children, rather than the father and his children. Research narratives seem to support the single-parenthood-equals-single-motherhood plot in that there is an abundance of single parent accounts in the literature that mostly tell the stories of single mothers. Thus, fathers who find themselves in the position of single father seem to be marginalised in society and stories regarding their experiences are few and far between. The aim of this project was to explore and describe how single fathers in South Africa experience fatherhood by focussing on their personal narratives. Therefore the research inquiry for this project took the form of a narrative inquiry which provides a way to understand people’s experiences by privileging their stories. The researcher conducted unstructured interviews with participants to produce languaged data which were analysed using a narrative analysis strategy. A narrative analysis aims to investigate not merely the content of the story, but rather the story itself and the way in which it is told within a specific cultural and historical context. Hopefully, in the telling, listening and retelling of their stories these fathers’ voices will become more pronounced in the research narratives and thus contribute to the body of knowledge pertaining to single fatherhood. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / Unrestricted

“Mindfulness gets thrown around all the time, but what does it actually mean in practice?” I interpreted this question posed by a nurse in this inquiry, as a statement of curiosity and concern. As conceptualizations, practices, and programs of mindfulness continue to diversify, there is a call to understand mindfulness as a socially and culturally embedded practice. Some critiques suggest mindfulness is moving too far from its ethical orientation and becoming instrumentalized as a tool. Therefore, the pervasive presence of ‘mindfulness’ across work and educational settings renders the question what does mindfulness actually mean in practice? an important one for nursing as a discipline, and within palliative care nursing practice. Mindfulness is proposed broadly here as an approach to meet therapeutic and relational aims for nurses within palliative care practice. What it means to be mindfully present and compassionate in the midst of suffering, strong emotion and profound uncertainty is rarely discussed. Grounded in conversations with nine palliative care nurses (their words italicized), I explored how mindfulness shapes relationally engaged ways of being while caring for people with terminal disease and existential distress. Using a contemplative dialogical narrative approach, I analyzed nurses’ stories as units of data to explore multilayered narratives with personal, social, and cultural storylines. Using an emergent and iterative design, I dialogued across various aspects of the research process enacting an integrative approach. Metaphorically, this dissertation is structured as a contemplative walk within a classical seven-circuit labyrinth; readers are invited to walk a circuitous path while following along as stories take the lead. Seven turns in the labyrinth outline a path conveying key recursive narratives of mindfulness. Turning in various directions three guiding story threads are woven together to create the path: 1) palliative care nursing as mindfulness is an embodied ethic creating space(s) for creativity and ‘connection’ through the ‘big stuff’; 2) such ‘space’ can be generated and accessed through somatic practices of ‘self-awareness’ and ‘self-care’; and 3) spaces of caring are continuously transforming within the communities in which they are practiced. Nurses’ stories foreground ways organizational and educational systems support or constrain how mindfulness as an embodied ethic of care can be enacted. This study adds to the ongoing conversation of mindfulness and its value when practiced/understood as palliative care nursing. As the historical Buddha was quoted to have said “of all mindfulness meditation, that on death is supreme.”

Until the 1980s, the People’s Republic of China was principally opposed to United Nations peacekeeping, understanding the institution to be a thinly veiled excuse for powerful states to intervene in the sovereign affairs of others. However, the meaning the country attributes to peacekeeping has changed drastically since then. China has adopted a more pragmatic attitude and has gradually become more supportive and involved in United Nations peacekeeping. Today the country stands as a major contributor to peacekeeping, not least in terms of the number of peacekeepers it contributes to missions. However, how does China make sense of its current behaviour? This paper seeks to understand how the participation of Chinese military personnel and police in peacekeeping operations is made coherent with Chinese self-identity. The paper employs a narrative analysis that focuses on how narratives draw on master narratives about Chinese collective memory to construct participation in peacekeeping as a natural conclusion to already accepted notions about what it means to be Chinese. On the one hand, this paper confirms the findings of previous scholarship on Chinese identity and the country’s attitude on peacekeeping. Like these, this paper finds that China’s self-identity as a part of the Global South and as a great power plays a role in how China conceptualizes peacekeeping. However, on the other hand, the paper also finds dissonance in how the narrative relates peacekeeping to China’s identity as a part of the Global South. Additionally, this paper also demonstrates that the narrative draws on several master narratives that have not previously been identified as important to how China makes meaning of peacekeeping. Specifically, these are the collective memories of ‘Asian values’, China’s experiences from the Second World War, and the revolutionary history of the CPC.

[pt] A Tese intitulada Protestantismo e Identidade Negra sob enfoque narrativo: dilemas e relações possíveis buscou investigar, primeiramente, em que dimensão (ou se) a rede de crenças do sistema religioso em questão tem influenciado homens e mulheres – autodeclarados negros, evangélicos praticantes e que transitam em meio aos discursos que mais caracterizam a religião – na marcação de diferenças (operadas por meio de sistemas simbólicos de representação) que fabricam suas identidades raciais, consideradas aqui como um construção social, histórica, cultural e plural que implica a construção do olhar de um grupo étnico/racial sobre si mesmo, a partir da relação com o outro. Em segundo lugar, e de modo menos aprofundado, este trabalho teve como escopo refletir sobre algumas peculiaridades que teriam favorecido protestantes negros norte-americanos a fazer uso da esfera religiosa para um maior engajamento em questões sociopolíticas. Quanto à sua relevância, dados do último Censo Demográfico do IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) apontam que entre 2000 e 2010 o número de evangélicos cresceu cinco vezes mais que a população brasileira, correspondendo a um total de 42,3 milhões de pessoas com idade média de 28 anos; além disso, revelam que, desse total, 53,9 por cento se autodeclararam pretos ou pardos (2010). Considerando que a análise do modo e daquilo que as pessoas narram em entrevistas de pesquisa pode remeter a estruturas socioculturais mais amplas, a pesquisa que gerou esta tese procurou alinhar-se aos pressupostos teóricos da Análise de Narrativas – vertente transdisciplinar dos estudos discursivos abrigados na área de Linguística Aplicada que se apoia em áreas tais como Sociologia, Antropologia, Psicologia Social e Estudos da linguagem. Os principais entendimentos formulados após a conclusão deste trabalho, que podem se somar aos já disponíveis sobre a temática, são o de que o Sistema de Coerência religioso a que o cristão autodeclarado negro adere contribui para fabricar sua identidade racial; de que os rituais religiosos se constituem em um elemento-chave na construção de uma identidade racial politicamente marcada; de que a perspectiva teológica denominada Teologia Negra contribui para a construção de identidades sociais racialmente letradas; de que não só os discursos que circulam no ambiente eclesiástico, mas principalmente a subjetividade – que se consiste numa resposta positiva ou negativa às práticas que nos interpelam – colaboram para a construção ou desconstrução das identidades raciais nos homens e mulheres negras que integram essas comunidades religiosas. / [en] The thesis entitled Protestantism and Black Identity under a discursive approach: Dilemmas and Possible Connections sought to investigate, first, to what extent, or whether, the web of beliefs of the religious system under analysis has influenced These Black men and women, who regularly attend church – in the marking of differences (operated through symbolic systems of representation) that produce their racial identities, considered here as a social, historical, cultural and plural construction that implies the construction of an ethnic/racial group s view of itself, based on the relationship with the other groups. Secondly, and with no intention of in-depth reflections, this work aimed to reflect on some particularities that would have favored North American Black Protestants to make use of the religious sphere for greater engagement in sociopolitical issues. As for its relevance, data from the last IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) Demographic Census indicate that between 2000 and 2010 the number of evangelicals grew five times more than the Brazilian population, corresponding to a total of 42.3 million people twenty-eight years old on average; Furthermore, the data reveal that 53.9 percent of this total are Black people (2010). If we consider that when we analyze what people say in the stories that emerge in the interviews we can refer to broader sociocultural structures, the inquiry that generated this thesis is aligned with the theoretical assumptions of Narrative Analysis - an Applied Linguistics transdisciplinary discipline that draws on areas such as Sociology, Anthropology, social Psychology and Language Studies. The main understandings formulated after the conclusion of this work, which can be added to those already available on the topic, are: the religious Coherence System to which the Black people adheres contributes to the fabrication of his or her racial identity; the religious rituals constitute a key element for the construction of a politically marked racial identity; the theological perspective called Black Theology contributes to a better racial literacy, even giving to the concept of race a value closer to what it has in the black church context; and finally the understanding that mainly the subjectivity – which consists of a positive or negative response to the discursive practices that hail us – but not only the discourses that circulate in the ecclesiastical environment can build or deconstruct the racial identities of black men and women in these religious communities.

[pt] O Rio de Janeiro é o estado que conta com o maior número de mortos em incursões policiais nas favelas – geralmente, incursões relacionadas ao combate às drogas. Por exemplo, em 2019, 1.808 mortes (sendo a população negra, 70 porcento das vítimas) foram classificadas como homicídio decorrente de intervenção policial, classificação que caracteriza a ação do policial como legítima defesa e significa uma série de diligências que, geralmente, resultam no arquivamento do Inquérito Policial sem uma investigação mais profunda ou na absolvição dos oficiais envolvidos. Nesse cenário emerge o movimento de luta das mães de vítimas desse tipo de violência – mulheres que se engajam em movimentos sociais para lutar por justiça, para esclarecer as circunstâncias da morte dos filhos e exigir a punição dos envolvidos. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo investigar como se dá a transformação do luto em luta, isto é, examinar como as mães articulam sofrimento pessoal e ativismo político ao se engajarem em movimentos sociais, mais especificamente, na Rede de Comunidades e Movimentos contra a Violência. As narrativas enunciadas por elas nos protestos públicos se configuram como objeto privilegiado de análise. Trata-se de uma análise qualitativa-interpretativista, empreendida em perspectiva micro, conduzida pelos estudos que consideram o discurso narrativo como forma de construção da vida social e instrumento dos movimentos sociais para reivindicar suas demandas. A análise foi organizada segundo quatro esferas, partícipes do engajamento dos familiares na Rede, são elas: as narrativas, a resistência, a maternidade e o gerenciamento das emoções. A primeira análise focaliza a estrutura das histórias, chamadas aqui de narrativas de engajamento. Emprega elementos da teoria laboviana, em interface com os estudos que contemplam os aspectos socioculturais e interacionais que fundamentam a prática discursiva. A segunda trata dos mecanismos discursivos mobilizados pelos familiares na elaboração de emoções como a dor de perder um filho; se debruça sobre os sistemas de coerência acionados junto ao contexto macrossocial nas narrativas, isto é, sobre o modo como as relações de sequencialidade e causalidade construídas nessas histórias relacionam-se a outros discursos culturalmente consagrados. A terceira observa como a categoria mãe é acionada nas narrativas. A quarta e última análise se detém nos eventos catalizadores que impulsionam o engajamento e o ativismo sustentado dos familiares na Rede, investigando como o chamado choque moral é construído nas histórias. Em suma, o trabalho analítico sugere a existência de um padrão que organiza as narrativas de engajamento e identifica dois mecanismos discursivos entrelaçados: i) a dupla transição entre uma pessoalização x coletivização da dor de perder um filho e da experiência com a violência policial – de modo que o sofrimento individual de uma mãe se transforma no sofrimento do grupo e a caracterização do policial responsável pela morte se transforma em denúncias à atuação da corporação como um todo; ii) a racionalização dos eventos que levaram à morte do filho por meio de sistemas de coerência que operam com versões simplificadas do racismo e da teoria da Necropolítica. Nesse sentido, as narrativas se caracterizam como práticas de resistência e denúncias ao racismo que permeia diversas instituições do Estado; e práticas de reexistência na medida em que as mães, ao praticarem o luto público, humanizam as vítimas da violência policial e reenquadram as mortes nas favelas não como casos isolados de má conduta de policiais, mas sim como parte de uma lógica de atuação do Estado. / [en] Rio de Janeiro is the state with the highest number of homicides due to police brutality – often as a result of incursions related to the war on drugs. In 2019, for instance, 1.808 deaths were classified as homicide due to police intervention, a classification given when a police officer kills in self-defense. It also gives rise to a series of procedures which primarily result in the archiving of the cases without a proper investigation, or the police officers being absolved of murder, or any other crime for that matter. Such injustice leads the victims mothers to unite – engaging in social movements to fight for justice, seek clarification of the circumstances in which their children died, as well as to demand punishment of those involved. This study aims to investigate how grief is converted into political struggle as these mothers engage in social movements, more specifically in the Rede de Comunidades e Movimentos contra a Violência. Narratives enunciated by these mothers in public protests organized by the Rede are considered the privileged loci for analysis. Based on a micro-perspective, this analysis is guided by a qualitative-interpretative approach, and draws on studies which consider narrative discourse a way of constructing social life as well as a political tool used by social movements to demand justice. The macro-social context in which the deaths of Black people are placed also informs the analytical process which is organized around four spheres that are part of the mothers engagement in social movements: the narratives told at the protests, political resistance, the concept of maternity and the management of emotions. The first analysis describes the structure of the stories – referred to here as narratives of engagement –by employing elements from Labovian theory in tandem with theories which accentuate the interactional and sociocultural values underpinning narrative practice. The second analysis observes the discursive resources brought to bear on the narratives of the victims relatives in their process of managing emotions as pain. The analysis focuses on their systems of coherence, i.e., whether sequential ordering and causality relations constructed in these stories relate to culturally established discourses. The third analysis aims to understand how the categorization of “mother” is elaborated in the stories. The fourth and final analysis is focused on catalysing events that drive the engagement and sustained activism of these relatives in the Rede, investigating how moral shock is constructed in these narratives. In sum, the analytical work suggests the existence of a recurrent pattern that organizes narratives of engagement. Two discursive mechanisms interact with each other in the narratives: i) a double transition between personal experience with police brutality and the collective experience of those who have lost their children – this means that individual pain becomes collective pain, and the specific characterization of one police officer is transformed into grievances with respect to the corporation as a whole; ii) the rationalization of events leading to the death of their children by using coherence systems that operate with simplified versions of racism and the theory of Necropolitics. In a sense, these narratives of engagement are characterized as practices of resistance and work to denounce the racism that permeates several State s institutions. As well as practices of re-existence. By means of publicly mourning their children, these mothers humanize the victims of police brutality reframing these deaths not as isolated cases of police misconduct, but as part of a system.

[pt] A pesquisa se propõe a analisar as narrativas, construídas em conjunto, de três jovens e sua mãe afetiva, que passaram pelo acolhimento institucional na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Busca-se compreender como os participantes constroem e narram suas estratégias de resistência, desenvolvidas para lidar com situações de violência e opressão pelas quais passaram. É observada a coconstrução narrativa articulada à presença de agência (Duranti, 2004; Ahrean, 2000) e de resistência na fala dos narradores (Castells 1999; Ewick e Silbey, 2003). A partir de uma visão qualitativa e interpretativa, a análise é conduzida com as perspectivas da Análise da Narrativa e a abordagem SocioInteracional. O estudo da história de vida (Linde, 1993) é feito considerando as contribuições da estrutura narrativa de Labov (1972) e a releitura de autores contemporâneos (Bastos, 2005; 2008; Bastos e Biar, 2015; Bamberg e Georgakopoulou, 2008). O conceito de estratégia de resistência é desenvolvido com base na existência de um poder dominante, no qual os atores, conscientes das desigualdades e das condições desfavoráveis, agem de forma a resistir e alterar a realidade em que vivem (Foucault, 1979; Castells 1999; Ewick e Silbey, 2003). Na análise, é possível perceber que os participantes constroem uma identidade agentiva por meio do discurso e das ações de resistência narradas. Para cada estratégia desenvolvida, é explicitada a sua organização, levando em consideração poder, agente e tomada de consciência. A resistência tem como objetivo a alteração do micro para o benefício dos irmãos, o que reforça e promove os laços familiares. / [en] This research aims at analyzing the narratives told by three young brothers who were once wards of the state at Rio de Janeiro, but received care and nurture from an affective mother. I seek to understand how these participants build and narrate their resistance strategies, which they had to develop throughout their lives in order to survive the violence and oppression scenarios they were inserted into. I scrutinize the articulation of such narratives with the narrators agency (Duranti, 2004; Ahrean, 2000) and resistance (Castells 1999; Ewick and Silbey, 2003). From a qualitative and interpretative point of view, the investigation is carried out using the Narrative Analysis and Interactional Sociolinguistics approaches. The participant s life stories (Linde, 1993) are studied with regard to the labovian model (1972) perspective and other contemporary authors contributions (Bastos, 2005; 2008; Bastos and Biar, 2015; Bamberg and Georgakopoulo, 2008). Based on the existence of a dominant power, responsible for creating all kinds of inequalities and unfavorable conditions, I develop the concept of resistance strategies, which depicts the act of resisting and fighting such power once the actor becomes aware of it (Foucalt, 1979; Castells, 1999; Ewick and Silbey, 2003). It is observable that the participants build an agentive identity in their narratives, for that each strategy developed by them in their lifetime is well organized in their speeches. Power, agency and awakening are central to these strategies. Resistance is a way of trying to change their micro environment to their benefit, strengthening family ties and connections.

Narrative inquiry provides an opportunity to humanize the human sciences, placing people, meaning, and personal identity at the center of research, inviting the development of reflexive, relational, dialogic, and interpretive methodologies, and drawing attention to the need to focus not only on the actual but also on the possible and the good. In this chapter, we focus on the intellectual, existential, empirical, and pragmatic development of the turn toward narrative. We trace the rise of narrative inquiry as it evolved in the aftermath of the crisis of representation in the social sciences. The chapter synthesizes the changing methodological orientations of qualitative researchers associated with narrative inquiry as well as their ethical commitments. In the second half of the chapter, our focus shifts to the divergent standpoints of small-story and big-story researchers; the differences between narrative analysis and narratives under analysis; and narrative practices that seek to help people form better relationships, overcome oppressive canonical identities, amplify or reclaim moral agency, and cope better with contingencies and difficulties experienced over the life course. We anticipate that narrative inquiry will continue to situate itself within an intermediate zone between art and science, healing and research, self and others, subjectivity and objectivity, and theories and stories.