Student Number : 0210516V - MA research report - School of Literature and Language Studies - Faculty of Humanities / This study represents a case study of translation in the popular media, with reference to two South African magazines, You and Huisgenoot. The aim is to investigate the translation processes and policies in the growing area of translation in the popular media in South Africa. As such it aims to examine: What is translated? Why it is translated? How is it translated? and Who translates it?, as well as whether the two readerships have common interests. The study contextualises the research in terms of the history of Huisgenoot and You and examines the translation practices in relation to theoretical issues associated with the popular media and translation. It was concluded that only material that is culturally relevant to the readerships of both magazines is translated in order for the subject matter of each magazine to be of interest to their respective audiences; translation is informed by instinct rather than formal translator training or theory; currently the bulk of translation is handled by Huisgenoot as the majority source of material is generated in English and the majority of translated material has South African-based content. The research report concludes with a discussion of how the translator’s ethical persuasions affect the translation process.

Although music has seemingly always formed an integral part of human culture, technological advances in contemporary society have increased both its accessibility and portability, allowing for unprecedented production and consumption of a medium that allows individuals to enact and display various social identities during day-to-day life. Furthermore, recent research has demonstrated that youth consume more music that any other age group. Thus music may be considered as a primary cultural influence in the lives of youth. While the bulk of the research conducted in understanding the form and function of this influence has been located in the disciplines of sociology and musicology, Psychologists in Europe and America have become increasingly interested in understanding the role of music in constructing and maintaining identity during this critical period of development. As a contribution to this field of application outside of these contexts and located within a qualitative framework, this study explored the role of Rap/Hip Hop music, as one of the most popular global and local genres of music, in the meaning and maintenance of identity in a cohort of South African youth. The resultant thematic framework illustrated the complex tensions negotiated by youth through assuming Hip Hop culture membership in South Africa. Importantly, the study showed that the nature of Hip Hop culture; its emphasis on self-expression, individuation and critical social awareness dovetails with many of the traditional psychological developmental theories of youth identity. Hip Hop consumption also implied appropriating identity markers from a wide range of social influences, posing challenges to the application of traditional social identity theory in accounting for in and out groupings. This was most pronounced in the way that ‘remixing’, as a governing musical principle in Hip Hop seems to resonate as key mode of identity and identification amongst its South African consumers. Thus, it seems fitting that South African youth currently in the midst of cultural, economic and political transitions would embrace an eclectic rather than rigidly bounded genre of music with such enthusiasm. In some ways then Hip Hop in South Africa, appears to provide youth with the means to remix past and present, old and new, global and local, self and other.

Thesis advisor: John Michalczyk / Despite a long affiliation with film dating back to the French New Wave, existentialism has remained a fascination reserved for art film producers and intellectual viewers for decades. In the early twenty-first century, director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy marked the first time existentialism bubbled over from niche art films into the most blatant form of popular culture: the summer blockbuster. This analysis explores Batman Begins and The Dark Knight as up-to-date pictures of modern existentialism, embodied by Bruce Wayne’s journey through fear, chaos and rebirth, mirroring the existentialist advancement through uncertainty to freedom and self-creation. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Uma manifestação da cultura popular Brasileira é a razão de interesse em nossa pesquisa: o Bumba Meu Boi da cidade de São Paulo. Tal folguedo existe no Brasil desde aproximadamente o século XVII, surgindo primeiramente nas regiões do nordeste brasileiro. Hoje é uma das manifestações culturais mais populares entre as existentes em nosso país. Dentre todas as regiões onde o Boi é tematizado, o foco de nosso estudo é o Boi do Grupo Cupuaçu, Boi do Morro do Querosene, localizado na cidade de São Paulo, bairro do Butantã. Região esta que apresenta e comemora o folguedo inspirado no Bumba Meu Boi do Maranhão. Os festejos acerca do Boi que acontecem no Morro do Querosene envolvem não só os brincantes que são integrantes do Boi, como toda a comunidade ali presente: moradores, comerciantes e também o público que participa prestigiando os eventos. Nossa pesquisa teve como objetivo geral compreender a encenação do folguedo do Bumba Meu Boi realizado pelo Grupo Cupuaçu na cidade de São Paulo, como forma de identidade dos brincantes com sua terra natal de onde tal manifestação é oriunda; e como objetivos específicos procuramos a- delimitar a compreensão sobre identidade cultural na ótica dos Estudos Culturais, entendendo que ela não é permanente, e é reconstruída a partir das vivências dos sujeitos em determinado contexto sócio-histórico; b- identificar o processo constituinte do Bumba Meu Boi enquanto manifestação presente no período festivo do ciclo junino no Brasil, atrelado à um conjunto de influencias da miscigenação do povo brasileiro (indígena, africana e portuguesa), e do catolicismo jesuítico. Enquanto metodologia, trata-se de uma pesquisa do tipo qualitativa, num caráter exploratório. Serão utilizados os enfoques bibliográfico e de campo. Para a pesquisa de campo optou-se pela aplicação do estudo de caso, utilizando como instrumento de pesquisa a observação em equipe. Conclui-se que os folguedos do Bumba Meu Boi encenados pelo Grupo Cupuaçu sofrem mudanças em sua concepção, devido ao contexto urbano da cidade de São Paulo, exercendo influência direta em sua produção / One manifestation of Brazilian popular culture is the reason for interest in our research: Bumba Meu Boi in São Paulo. Such merriment exists in Brazil since about the seventeenth century, first appearing in the regions of northeast Brazil. Today is one of the most popular cultural events between existing in our country. Among all regions where the Ox is thematized, the focus of our study is the Ox Cupuacu Group, Ox of Morro do Querosene, located in São Paulo, district of Butantã. This region that displays and celebrates the merriment inspired by the Bumba Meu Boi about Maranhão. The festival happening in the Morro do Querosene involving not only the revelers who are members of the Ox, as the entire community present there: residents, traders and also the public participating prestige events. Our research goal is to understand the general merriment of the staging of Bumba Meu Boi conducted by Cupuacu Group in São Paulo, as a form of identity of revelers with their homeland where such expression is derived; and specific: a- to delimit the understanding of cultural identity in the perspective of Cultural Studies, understanding that it is not permanent, and is reconstructed from the experiences of the subjects in a particular socio-historical context goals; b- to identify the constituent process of the Bumba Meu Boi while in this festive period junino cycle in Brazil manifestation linked to a set of influences from the miscegenation of the Brazilian people (indigenous, African and Portuguese), and Jesuit Catholicism. As a methodology, it is a qualitative study, an exploratory character. The bibliographic and field approaches will be used. For the field research was chosen application case study, using as a research tool in the observation. We conclude that the mirth of the Bumba Meu Boi staged by Cupuacu Group undergo changes in its design due to the urban context of the city of São Paulo, direct influence on their production

My dissertation argues that comics’ unique formal properties are particularly suited toward exploring and representing the complex nature of identity. Just as the comics form is broadly defined by a peculiar tension between word and image, so identity can be conceived as a constant negotiation between abstract (“unrepresentable”) concepts that define identity and an individual’s attempts to represent that identity. Due to its formal negotiation of word and image, the comics form is thus uniquely suited to address the problems of identity and its representation. I begin this project by examining the relationship between word and image in comics. Some comics scholars have argued verbal and visual signification are hybridized, while others go so far as to claim the distinction between word and image is unsustainable. Still others reject these claims, arguing comics’ hybridity necessitates a strict separation of word from image. I argue that words and images in comics function on a spectrum in which the line between word and image must be able to be hybridized and distinct at the same time. This definition of the word/image relationship can describe the most straightforward, illustrative comics as well as the most experimental comics texts; it also provides the methodological framework for my project. In this dissertation, I examine the representation of gendered identity in Gilbert Hernandez's Love and Rockets stories and Junot Díaz's novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, arguing both authors’ injunction that the reader look at the mothers in their works is evidence of their demand that we understand the women as whole, ambivalent subjects. I explore the way the Gene Yang and Sonny Liew’s graphic novel The Shadow Hero addresses the repressive and racist history of superhero comics. In doing so, Yang and Liew’s text reveals the ways superhero texts constantly negotiate the genre’s conservative instinct to protect the status quo and its revolutionary vision for a better world. Finally, I contend Greg Rucka and J. H. Williams III's Batwoman: Elegy reveals at least one intrinsically progressive theme in superhero genre: its performative and inherently queer conception of identity.

Since the end of 20th century, Korean churches have awakened to the importance of culture, cultural products, and culture-making in discipling Christians and evangelizing non-Christians. In particular, popular culture has become very important for practicing evangelism in the context of Korean Christianity because pop culture is enjoyed by a large segment of the population and thus provides a natural bridge between Christians and non-Christians. This dissertation examines Korean churches’ pervasive mimetic use of popular cultural elements that Christians and non-Christians relish, such as movies, plays, and popular music styles. While Korean churches introduced these slightly modified materials from popular culture as “parodies,” I argue that they are instead pastiches, and I explore the extent to which these pastiches are able to play a role as significant, though problematic, evangelistic media in the context of Korean Christianity. Since this practice encompasses Christian evangelism, popular culture, and the relationship of those two by a particular artistic technique, I approach the study of evangelistic pastiches both theologically and aesthetically studying their practical, theological role within the church setting. The dissertation argues that pastiches are combinations of imitated images that do not contain any substantive messages. When it comes to utilizing pastiches in evangelistic practices, the interesting and entertaining, but ultimately hollow, messages distort faithful witness to the gospel by emptying it. I suggest that evangelistic pastiches are simulacra that only communicate a hyper-gospel. Parody, by contrast, is a creative production that makes of Christianity and popular culture a new, culturally hybrid form with the capacity for building a robust relationship between Christianity and popular culture. Parody can play a positive role in enriching Christian evangelism by providing a substantive means to witness to the kingdom of God by providing a Christian perspective on and critique of culture and its concerns. Parody creates a point of contact between Christians and non-Christians from which Christian evangelism can be initiated.

Em 1921, o Conselho Nacional de Educação da Argentina aprovou a realização de um inquérito para compilar as tradições identificadas ao folclore nacional. A tarefa foi confiada a professores de milhares de escolas subordinadas ao órgão e localizadas, sobretudo, nas áreas rurais do país. Esse projeto relacionava-se às concepções de intelectuais identificados ao nacionalismo da chamada Geração do Centenário da Independência de 1910, preocupados em reafirmar a identidade nacional diante de um contexto de instabilidade social e de uma sociedade heterogênea, conformada por indígenas, imigrantes etc. Por meio da análise da documentação coletada no Território Nacional do Río Negro, antiga região de fronteira recém-incorporada como unidade político-administrativa do Estado, serão discutidos os alcances e limites desse projeto, tendo em vista os ideais nacionalistas, o contexto histórico nacional e local e as particularidades inerentes ao conceito de cultura popular, como as dinâmicas de circularidade. Desse modo, serão demonstradas as maneiras pelas quais os professores, enquanto intermediários culturais, atuaram nos espaços de negociação possíveis entre a proposta formal e a aplicação do inquérito, bem como a inserção da Encuesta na consolidação simbólica do Estado-nacional argentino. / In March 1921, the Argentinian National Education Council approved the realization of an enquiry that would collect national folklore traditions. That work was given to the teachers of the thousands schools under Council administration and located, substantially, at rural areas. The project was related to intellectuals conceptions aligned with so-called Independence Centenary Generation nationalism, dedicated to affirm national identity attributes in contrast to a context characterized by social instability and heterogeneous society, composed of native population, immigrants, etc. By means of analyzing documents collected on Río Negro National Territory, boundary region newly added as a federal unity, they will be discussed ranges and limits of the project, considering nationalistic ideals, national and regional historical contexts and particularities concerned to popular culture concept, like interrelationship dynamics for example. Thus it will be demonstrated how teachers, as passeurs culturels, acted on the negotiation margins between formal proposal and real enquiry application, as well as Encuesta insertion in symbolic consolidation of Argentinian nation state.

This work is comprised of altered, found familiar objects. They are stacked and are covered with Egyptian paste, then fired in a burn-out kiln. Through transformation by fire the objects become post-apocalyptic relics. Raised in an Irish Catholic alcoholic home by a raging perfectionist mother, the kitchen was a battlefield - the home, a place of great drama. After dish throwing and frying pan swinging, dinner was precisely laid out on a clean white tablecloth - order covering disorder. The failed domestic environment of my childhood informs this body of work and is inflected by recovering psychological states. Empowered through feminist critique and filtered through my study of Jungian psychology, these objects enact a precarious balance between the known and the estranged. Through the process of transmutation, a cathartic space is generated, giving space for viewers to potentially confront their memories of home. / by Judith Gehrmann. / Pagination goes from iv to 17. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Informed by my training in the physical sciences, my thesis show presents results of research on the elements of line and dramatic staging. My process is documented through the experimental grounds of my sketchbooks. Originating from observational drawings of organic forms, my fascination with line quality and my desire for theatrical settings propelled these drawings to acquire a three dimensional presence. Through constructed book formats, staged micro-scenes, and photographs, I test my extracted, abstract forms in varying intimate environments. I control these worlds through scale, space and lighting, and I observe and record how they behave. I gather data through a methodical process that is infused with the empirical instincts I developed as a scientist. I express the resulting distilled organic forms in the most theatrical way I can invent. / by Sofâia Matsi. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Triathlon status symbols allow community members to gain prestige. The accrual of paraphernalia, such as race apparel and bumper stickers, provide individuals with a means to display their accomplishments for non-participants, too. Ethnographic fieldwork, questionnaires and interviews provided insight into a variety of experiences. The individual nature of the sport is reflected by a participant's decision to display status markers. Car signs (e.g., bumper stickers and license plate frames) are displayed by a quarter of race participants. They come in a variety of forms allowing the car's driver to communicate with triathletes and non-triathletes while driving on the road. The most prestigious triathlon is the Ironman. The M Dot Ironman logo appears as a decal on vehicles and as a mark of permanence on the body. Tattoos act as a formal communication system in a similar manner to car signs. Triathletes display status symbols to garner respect from their peers and separate themselves from the larger society. / by Adam Slotnick. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.