This thesis accompanies the digital edition of the 'Crónica particular de San Fernando', and includes a rationale for and an explanation of many of the implications of the decisions taken in the preparation of this edition. The edition is used as a case study for the digital editing of medieval prose in Castilian at the present time. To this end, there is an in-depth examination of the history, context and current situation of the digital editing of medieval texts, focussing specifically on prose, and in particular prose in Castilian. The text and contact of the Crónica particular de San Fernando are also studied, to inform the preparation of its digital edition. My central thesis is that the decisions made when preparing a digital edition should take into account the perceived needs of edition users, including both contemporary users and, as far as possible, future users. These decisions should be informed by the nature of the text itself, its context, and transmission, as these will affect how and by whom the edition is used. They should also be informed by an understanding of how digital editions differ from their print counterparts, in both preparation and usage.

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The objective of this thesis is the formulation of a set of guidelines, criteria, which will serve as a bench mark for those who wish to attempt the translation of non-oral spoken discourse. This will be achieved by the examination of three modern Spanish texts and their translated equivalents in English. The Introduction sets the study in context and attempts to study the notion of translation in a general context before moving on to a closer examination of the translation of spoken discourse, and the problems which this form of language engenders. Chapter 2 examines the novel El Jarama and its translation in the light of a wide range of the published translation theories of Peter Newmark, and attempts to apply these systematically, in order to evaluate the effectiveness, or otherwise, of these theories. Chapter 3 examines Tiempo de silencio and its English language version, paying particular attention to the forms of discourse employed in the original, notably internal monologue, and the way that these formats affect the impact of the Spanish text, before moving on to examine how these issues have been dealt with in translation. Other elements which may be of relevance to the translator, such as layout and symbolism, and their effect on spoken discourse, are investigated. Chapter 4 deals with a play, Las cartas boca abajo, and its translation for the radio. This study looks at the problems associated with this medium in the context of spoken discourse, as well as examining a number of problems associated with the text, including culture and expansion. The conclusion attempts to set all the points raised in context and address the problem of drawing up a definitive list of criteria for the effective translation of spoken discourse.

This thesis investigates the second language (L2) acquisition of aspect. Aspect is considered to be a universal property of language (Chung and Timberlake, 1985; Comrie, 1976; Klein, 1994, 1995; Smith, 1991, 1997). Therefore, all natural languages are thought to be able to convey the same aspectual meanings. However, languages do not always convey these meanings in the same ways. For example, although French and English are able to convey viewpoint aspect by tense, they differ from each other in the particular aspectual meanings they map to individual tenses. In other words, English and French differ in how they pair form with meaning for viewpoint aspect. In German, viewpoint cannot be conveyed by tense alone and semantics and pragmatics are required for viewpoint interpretation (Bohnemeyer and Swift, 2004). So whilst languages are able to convey the same meanings, there are differences in how they go about doing this. This raises the question of the role of learners‘ L1 in the L2 development of aspect (e.g. Domínguez, Arche and Myles, 2011; Gabriele, 2005, 2009; Montrul and Slabakova, 2002, 2003; Slabakova, 2000, 2002, 2008). In other words, do differences in how aspect is expressed in the L1 affect how it develops in the L2? The role of prototypes in the L2 development of aspect has been widely documented as an influencing factor (e.g. Andersen and Shirai, 1994, 1996; Bardovi-Harlig and Bergström, 1996; Bardovi-Harlig, 2000; Labeau, 2005; Salaberry, 1998, 2000). The Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen and Shirai, 1994, 1996) indicates that learners are sensitive to prototypes: L2 development is characterized by initially pairing prototypes of viewpoint with situation type. These form-meaning relationships then become less restricted as L2 proficiency increases. Central to this thesis is the effect to which L1 form-meaning pairings and prototypes affect the L2 development of aspect. This study‘s research questions are as follows: How do learners express perfective and imperfective viewpoint aspect? What role do L1 form-meaning pairings have in the L2 development of viewpoint aspect?  What role do semantic prototypes have in the L2 development of viewpoint aspect? What are the theoretical implications of the role of L1 background and semantic prototypes on L2 development more generally? Participants are English- and German-speaking university learners of French L2 (n=75) and a control group of French native speakers (n=6). C-test results established two significantly different learner groups: a low group and an advanced group. Learners were further divided into groups based on L1 background, resulting in: English low group (n=19), German low group (n=19), English advanced group (n=19), German advanced group (n=18). Participants undertook three tasks: two picture-based spoken narratives and a Sentence Interpretation task. Results show significant differences between learners in production and interpretation. Differences are attributable to both proficiency level and L1 background. English low group learners are significantly different to German low group learners for viewpoint marking, especially in imperfective contexts, whereas English and German advanced group learners are not significantly different from each other. Furthermore, tense selection is subject to a semantic prototype influence, with advanced group learners influenced more than low group learners. It is argued that L1 form-meaning pairings for viewpoint aspect significantly influence L2 development at the early stages of L2 development. However, as L2 proficiency increases L1 influence begins to recede and learners develop L2 form-meaning pairings. At the more advanced stages of L2 development, semantic prototypes significantly affect tense use. Furthermore, prototypical effects appear to increase with proficiency, contrary to the Aspect Hypothesis.

The French film critic Stéphane Delorme, in Les Cahiers du Cinéma, writes that “horror is the unexpected answer to the question: how to create myths nowadays?” (2008: 11). This quotation is the starting-point for this thesis which aims to discuss and analyse the implications of his statement that cinema is a vehicle for myths, and most specifically, for those associated with what he calls “horror”, which we have interpreted as “cruelty”. The implications of this change will be discussed in the thesis. The thesis will set out the implications of the concepts both of “cruelty” and of “myth” in a context of representation. One theoretical starting point for this research is necessarily the writings of Antonin Artaud, fundamental for analysing cruelty in a context of spectacle (theatre or film). The introduction of this thesis will explore Artaud’s writings and their relevance to cinema. This thesis is about cinema; nevertheless, to speak about cinema and cruelty, we will first study Artaud’s writings to which cruelty is the heart of a theatre that he calls “Théâtre de la Cruauté”. Artaud elaborates his ideas from theatre, and the theatre, like cinema, can be a vehicle for myths. The importance of Artaud’s theories of spectacle should explain why we will research connections between cruelty, myths and cinema initially in the light of theatre. In fact, our analysis will show that cruelty in cinema, as we will define it here, is always linked to theatricality in the way in which it creates a relation between the audience, the film and the moviemaker. We will explore its lineaments through its development in a number of key films of the 1990s/2000s. As regards myths, our objective is, firstly, to understand how cinema can give rise to modern myths, and how they form and transform themselves. We will establish not only what a myth is, but also what “the myth of cruelty” may represent nowadays, and how this contemporary myth has been represented by the moviemakers. We consider that cinema, and not specifically horror cinema, may be one specific sort of collective myth. Then, however, we will consider how cinema, surprisingly for a vehicle for myths, questions its own myths and fights them. The main part of this thesis will focus on a corpus of films which will serve to show the evidence of definable myths of cruelty in the cinema. These films are: Trouble Every Day (2001) by Claire Denis Dans Ma Peau (2002) by Marina de Van Funny Games (1997), La Pianiste (2001), Caché (2005) by Michael Haneke Medea (1988) and Dogville (2003) by Lars von Trier The concept of cruelty, and its myths, will be discussed through an analysis of physical cruelty (Trouble Every Day and Dans Ma Peau), psychological cruelty (Funny Games and La Pianiste), social cruelty (Medea, Dogville and Caché), and myths and repetitions in the cinema of cruelty. The theoretical corpus of this thesis will include, apart from Artaud, the haptic vision theorised by Laura U. Marks and its relation to cruelty, Julia Kristeva’s work on abjection, Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Blanchot on sadomasochism, but also the work of Michel Serres, Mireille Rosello and Artaud’s theory of “humour-destruction”. The most important findings of this research concern films as a possible replacement for the function of sacrifice (mythic and cruel), the dangers of overestimating this (both because the actors are not fully engaged, and because a myth of cruelty is itself dangerous) but most of all, the possibility of the films to undermine their own mythic status (a process in itself cruel, since myths are consoling) and the possible effect of substituting a state of melancholia. Obviously, the destruction of myths may imply for the audience its replacement by the counter-myth of melancolia, as much cruel. Melancholia appears to be a principle of cruelty, seen by the moviemakers, which acts on the conception of modern spectators. Lucid cruelty takes part in the construction of committed spectators; producing what we may call heroism of conscience.

The aim of this thesis is to show the importance of memory in Giacomo Leopardi’s Canti and Zibaldone, not only as a theme for his poems and a source of theoretical speculation, but as a modelling structure of his writing. Following the first chapter on Leopardi and the philosophy of memory from Locke to the first half of the nineteenth century, chapter II investigates the self-referential perspective implicit in the recurrence of certain images in the Canti, and its consequences for the structure of the book, both in the Piatti and the Starita editions. Chapter III, focusing on the concept of clarity, demonstrates the importance and effect of Leopardi’s reading and re-reading of the Zibaldone, and shows the constant presence of a habit memory which acts through repetition, binds together demonstrative thoughts, and is responsible for their expansion. The second part of this chapter highlights Leopardi’s search for perfect images and their mnemonic power, as well as their general influence on the text. Leopardi’s knowledge of the phenomenology of memory is reflected in the text and offers an insight into the strong links in his works between thinking and writing as a whole.

This thesis analyses Spanish nation-building from a social-constructionist perspective assuming that nations are historically evolving social constructs and that nationhood is a largely modern phenomenon with pre-modern antecedents. A theoretical model for studying nationhood is proposed based on a critique of nationalism theories, Giddens’s social structuration model (Giddens 1984) refined by Sewell (2005); modernisation theories and discourse analytical approaches. A discourse-oriented methodology is proposed: Spanish nation-building, conceptualised as semiotically-mediated social action situated across time-space, is analysed nomothetically and ideographically, both in its broad historical context and in connection with recent narratives extracted from a large purpose-built corpus of newspaper articles. Several factors behind Spain’s problematic nation-building are identified in the socio-historical analysis: an unyielding geography inhibiting communications, a long history of political and cultural fragmentation, a late and uneven modernisation and the lack of hegemonic national narratives in the context of a long history of confrontation between different identities. The corpus-based discourse analytical approach employed in the latter part of the analysis illustrates the potential offered by corpus-assisted discourse studies in social research, revealing that a widely-accepted Spanish identity discourse from the centre’s perspective has not yet emerged.

Based on a framework of linking intercultural rhetoric research to genre theories, the present study investigated Taiwanese EFL novice students’ construction of generic structures and rhetorical features in writing in L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English). Quantitative and qualitative research methods were combined in the present study, including textual analysis of students’ genre writing, a student questionnaire and interviews with students. The textual analysis focused on the construction of genre-rhetoric conventions in intercultural letters of job application and argumentative writing, respectively. The student questionnaire explored writers’ reported writing instructional experiences in L1 and L2. The results of interviews suggested that writers’ decisions on the genre-rhetoric construction were affected by a wider range of small culture factors, for example, familiarity with writing topics, L2 language proficiency, transferability of writing experiences, and contextual factors, together with writers’ large cultural influence. The overall findings suggest that the way writers approach genre writing is significantly influenced and shaped by the context of situation. More importantly, writers’ agency has to be highlighted as it triggers and mediates social processes of multidimensional negotiation between text, writer and context in L2 writing. It is therefore suggested that context of situation where writing is produced and writers’ agency are two influential factors for shaping Taiwanese novice EFL students’ intercultural genre writing.

In this dissertation I explore how the representation of space and self is articulated in the autofictional writing of the Colombian author Fernando Vallejo (Medellín, 1942), focusing on four texts: Los días azules (1985), El fuego secreto (1987), La Virgen de los sicarios (1994) and El desbarrancadero (2001). I particularly examine what textual strategies are used to convey this articulation, and what perceptions of space and self, as well as what conceptions of the city and the intellectual, inform these texts. Drawing on theory and criticism on autobiography and autofiction, I propose to read in Fernando Vallejo's writing a return of the author-subject -a return of the ‘real’- though that return is taken as an opportunity to explore, in a playful and ironic mode, the fictionality of the notions of subject and identity in the autobiographical text, and to examine the privileged role played by space in that exploration. On one hand, based on theoretical studies of the poetics of space, I seek to demonstrate that, since space is always relative to a point of view, to a certain position -physical, biographical and ideological-, its representation conveys more than just spatial meanings. I argue that as a product of the gaze of this fragmented subject, of this author who returns, -though not as a guarantor of the truth of what he writes-, space is not only signified, represented, but also functions as a signifying element, condensing cultural, aesthetic and ideological meanings; in sum, a world vision. On the other hand, I show that it is mainly in reference to past and present spaces that images of self, both ambiguous and multiple, are created in the texts. And these images, these self-figurations, which constitute individual creations as much as cultural and social products, reveal in Vallejo’s writing, not just a fictionalizing reconstruction of his personal past, but a critical reading of Colombia’s history, and what Vallejo sees as its disastrous present. In this sense, my contention is that, beyond referring to existing places outside the texts, through the use of proper names and with diverse degrees of mimetism, and thus creating the illusion of reality, or beyond acting as mere background, narrative space functions as a key element in the production of meaning in the texts by Fernando Vallejo examined here.

This thesis investigates the reception and creation of post-1960 Franco-Belgian bande dessinée, through an examination of the key BD journals of the period, namely, Pilote (1959-1989), L'Echo des savanes (1972-present) and (A Suivre) (1978-1997). The BDs considered as representative of these magazines are not only contextualised socio-historically as cultural artefacts of the period, but are also analysed as texts. This thesis also considers the historical processes of the institutionalisation and intellectualisation of the BD in France and Belgium in a bid to understand the current cultural status and popularity of Franco-Belgian BD. In terms of reception, I focus mainly on the critical reception of BD. In terms of creation I focus particularly on the work of three authors, Claire Bretécher, Christian Binet and Benoît Peeters, concentrating on a personal aesthetic appreciation rather than a general public appreciation of their work. After a structural introduction to the thesis, I discuss certain significant aspects of pre-1960 BD history. In particular, I highlight the political suspicion in which children's illustrés were held in the immediate post-war period. I then suggest specific cultural and historical reasons, which explain BD's transition from frowned-upon illustrated children's material in the 1950s to its welcomed reception as a medium capable of meaningful adult commentary in the 1970s. This introductory chapter concludes with a summary of the key events marking BD's cultural institutionalisation in France and Belgium. This summary particularly emphasises the State intervention of the 1980s, which definitively recognised post-1960 BD as a national asset. In chapter one, I discuss the field of BD criticism, and investigate, in three sub-sections, the contents and context of the main critical trends such as they developed in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s-1990s. I argue that the decisive process of BD's intellectualisation was inaugurated with the establishment of the CBD (Club des Amis de la bande dessinée) in 1962.