World building is a key component to many young adult novels, but what is world building and what are some different styles and techniques that authors use when constructing fictional universes? In this thesis, Falling Down the Rabbit Hole: World Building Techniques in YA Literature, I will examine Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865), The Princess Bride by William Goldman (1973), and my own unpublished novel, The Sun Kingdom, to compare different techniques and styles of world building. These works will be explored through the aspect of world building, focusing specifically on the importance of the geography, language, and traditions and culture that were created for their respective worlds, how these elements were created, and what effect this has on the story.

自古中原農業民族與北亞游牧民族之間便是關係密切，本質是經濟性、文化性的，而非軍事性的。和親是一種典型的間接路線戰略。和親公主則是影響和親成敗的關鍵人物，可藉由對其政治角色的研究，進而探討彼此的互動模式、政治運作，以及對民族問提的省思。 　　本文的和親是指：中原朝廷與少數民族之間為了結盟、賄賂、賞賜、離間、……等目的，所行的一種非常態性的政治婚姻，開始在春秋戰國時代，被系統化成一種政策、戰略，是漢高祖時由劉敬提出。 　　本文範圍以漢到唐初為中心，主要的和親公主有王昭君、細君公主、解憂公主、馮嫽、千金公主、義成公主等人。研究方法以史學為基礎，著重政治學、軍事學、社會學、民族學的分析。內容分為六章十七節，以及緒論、結論，127頁，約廿萬餘字。 　　本文的主要限制在於缺乏北亞游牧民族自身的史料。未來的發展則可繼續研究其他和親公主的政治角色，以及歷代在歷史、政治環境變遷下，而封和親公主所產生的不同評價及傳說。最根本的仍是去了解中原農業民族與北亞游牧民族的彼此關係與相處模式。

In recent decades in Newfoundland, a sustained interest in Christian symbols, stories, and values has been paired with increasing criticism of Christian religious institutions and agents. Newfoundlands burgeoning tradition of professional humour has reflected this changing set of relationships to Christianity. This robust young humour tradition richly reflects the ongoing pluralization and secularization of Newfoundland culture, and abundantly exemplifies humours distinctive potential as a means of addressing potentially contentious or vexing issues. Yet, surprisingly, literary criticism has almost entirely avoided the prominent stream of Newfoundland humour that addresses the islands religious legacy.<p>This project aims to begin to correct this substantial critical omission, examining points of continuity among a number of works produced over the past four decades. It focuses on the works embrace of political and/or epistemological pluralism, typically married to religious skepticism and to misgivings about conventional arrangements of religious power. Chapter One provides an historical and critical context for the project, introduces subsequent chapters, and speculates on ramifications of the pluralistic current that runs through the works in the study. Chapter Two examines religious jokes in Newfoundland joke books. It emphasizes the jokes overall tendency toward (an often ambiguous) religious conservatism, as well as the books latent pluralism regarding interdenominational relations. Chapter Three focuses on journalist and playwright Ray Guys often fierce satire of Christian religious agents and institutions. It argues that Guys satire utterly rejects the legitimacy of religious authority in the civic realm, largely on the grounds that transcendent truthfulness is often invoked as a means of justifying otherwise objectionable power. Chapter Four explores the ecumenical religious humour of columnist and memoirist Ed Smith. It focuses on Smiths playful efforts to harmonize Christian faith and practice with a measure of religious uncertainty presented as a necessary foundation for humane coexistence. Chapter Five examines Ed Kavanaghs novel The Confessions of Nipper Mooney. Primarily, it explicates and examines the novels liberal favouring of the individual moral conscience, and the symbolic association of its religiously dissident and/or marginalized protagonists with elements of the Catholic tradition. Chapter Six discusses Berni Stapletons comic play The Pope and Princess Di. The chapter emphasizes the plays presentation of symbols constant subjection to alteration and hybridization, and its cautious regard for valuable symbols (religious or otherwise) that nonetheless become destructive when viewed as sacrosanct.<p>Chapter Seven concludes the study by considering the works participation in political, philosophical, and literary/dramatic movements that problematize long-established religious modes and support a secular-pluralist outlook. It reflects on the role of humour in movements for change and on didacticism and popular humour as features of publicly engaged literature; it discusses other works of Newfoundland humour that approach religious matters from similarly secular, though less overtly political, angles; and it speculates on some social implications of the ascendancy of liberal, pluralistic values, considering these Newfoundland works in a more general Canadian cultural context.

In recent decades in Newfoundland, a sustained interest in Christian symbols, stories, and values has been paired with increasing criticism of Christian religious institutions and agents. Newfoundlands burgeoning tradition of professional humour has reflected this changing set of relationships to Christianity. This robust young humour tradition richly reflects the ongoing pluralization and secularization of Newfoundland culture, and abundantly exemplifies humours distinctive potential as a means of addressing potentially contentious or vexing issues. Yet, surprisingly, literary criticism has almost entirely avoided the prominent stream of Newfoundland humour that addresses the islands religious legacy.<p>This project aims to begin to correct this substantial critical omission, examining points of continuity among a number of works produced over the past four decades. It focuses on the works embrace of political and/or epistemological pluralism, typically married to religious skepticism and to misgivings about conventional arrangements of religious power. Chapter One provides an historical and critical context for the project, introduces subsequent chapters, and speculates on ramifications of the pluralistic current that runs through the works in the study. Chapter Two examines religious jokes in Newfoundland joke books. It emphasizes the jokes overall tendency toward (an often ambiguous) religious conservatism, as well as the books latent pluralism regarding interdenominational relations. Chapter Three focuses on journalist and playwright Ray Guys often fierce satire of Christian religious agents and institutions. It argues that Guys satire utterly rejects the legitimacy of religious authority in the civic realm, largely on the grounds that transcendent truthfulness is often invoked as a means of justifying otherwise objectionable power. Chapter Four explores the ecumenical religious humour of columnist and memoirist Ed Smith. It focuses on Smiths playful efforts to harmonize Christian faith and practice with a measure of religious uncertainty presented as a necessary foundation for humane coexistence. Chapter Five examines Ed Kavanaghs novel The Confessions of Nipper Mooney. Primarily, it explicates and examines the novels liberal favouring of the individual moral conscience, and the symbolic association of its religiously dissident and/or marginalized protagonists with elements of the Catholic tradition. Chapter Six discusses Berni Stapletons comic play The Pope and Princess Di. The chapter emphasizes the plays presentation of symbols constant subjection to alteration and hybridization, and its cautious regard for valuable symbols (religious or otherwise) that nonetheless become destructive when viewed as sacrosanct.<p>Chapter Seven concludes the study by considering the works participation in political, philosophical, and literary/dramatic movements that problematize long-established religious modes and support a secular-pluralist outlook. It reflects on the role of humour in movements for change and on didacticism and popular humour as features of publicly engaged literature; it discusses other works of Newfoundland humour that approach religious matters from similarly secular, though less overtly political, angles; and it speculates on some social implications of the ascendancy of liberal, pluralistic values, considering these Newfoundland works in a more general Canadian cultural context.

Den här studien syftar till att undersöka hur och vad Disney kommunicerar till sin publik genom deras film Frost (2013). Eftersom Disney idag står för en dominerande part av filmunderhållningen för barn bär de också ett ansvar för de budskapen de förmedlar genom sina filmer, då barn kan komma att påverkas av dem. I den här studien har Frost (2013) studerats genom en kvalitativ textanalys med hjälp av Peter Dahlgrens metod för att analysera medietext, med fokus på textens uppbyggnad och den narrativa dynamiken i medietexten (filmen). Analysen har gjorts utifrån ett normkritiskt perspektiv. Analysen visade att Frost bryter sig loss från flera av Disneys tidigare mönster och strukturer och lyckas skapa en mindre förutsägbar saga. Analysen visade också framträdandet av en ny roll; den falska skurken, som användes just i syftet att skapa en mindre förutsägbar saga. Till skillnader från flera tidigare porträtteringar av Disney-prinsessor visar Frost två feminint starka och självständiga kvinnliga karaktärer, som agerar på eget bevåg. Frost ifrågasätter också Disneys tidigare attityd kring att kärlek kan uppstå vid första ögonkastet, samt att romantisk kärlek är det starkaste och mest värdefulla typen av kärlek. För första gången någonsin porträtterar Frost familjekärlek som starkare än romantisk kärlek. / This study aims to examine how and what Disney is communicating to its audience through its movie Frozen (2013). Since Disney currently is a dominant party of the movie entertainment for children they bear a great responsibility for the messages they convey through their movies, as children may be influenced by them. In this study, Frozen (2013) has been studied by a qualitative text analysis using Peter Dahlgren's approach for analyzing media text, with focus on the textual construction and the narrative dynamics of the media text (the movie). The analysis was made based on a norm-critical perspective. The analysis showed that Frozen breaks free from many of Disney's past patterns and structures and manages to create a less predictable tale. The analysis also showed the emergence of a new role; the fake villain, used precisely in order to create a less predictable tale. In differences from several earlier portrayals of the Disney Princess Frozen shows two feminine strong and independent female characters, who act on their own authority. Frozen also questions Disney's previous attitude concerning that love can arise at first sight, and that romantic love is the strongest and most valuable type of love. For the first time in forever in a Princess movie Frozen manages to portray love between family members as stronger than romantic love.

The thesis consists of the novel The Fox and the Mirror and an accompanying exegesis. The novel is an historical fantasy set in a world based on early medieval (12-13th century) Japan. The main characters are a young female shaman, Hatsu, and a young warrior’s assistant, Sada, who is a Buddhist believer. When Hatsu’s village and shrine are destroyed by warriors and her summoning mirror is stolen, she is abandoned by her kami . To experience the kami’s presence again, she must follow the thief and retrieve the mirror before it can be used to resurrect an ancient evil. Sada must capture Hatsu and bring her back to his lord, or his family will suffer. Yet he is entranced by Hatsu and feels guilt at the destruction of her village. He must choose whether to abandon his former life and stay with Hatsu, or betray her. In the novel I have tried to invoke the feel of a place and time where the supernatural is as real as the physical world; I also try to imagine how a religion as alien to Japanese native beliefs as Buddhism became a part of that country’s spiritual culture. In the exegesis I reflect upon how I used various kinds of history, both written and unwritten, to build the world, characters and narratives of The Fox and the Mirror, and thereby explore some ways in which historical fantasy, as a sub-genre of historical fiction, is capable of presenting an ‘authentic’ view of the past, in spite of its non-realistic nature. I identify three main ways historical fantasy writers can provide an authentic view of the past: by using telling details from an historical era; by incorporating documented events and persons into the story; and by portraying the world as people in the past believed it to be. Historical fantasy is different from realistic historical fiction in that it can more easily incorporate elements belonging to shared cultural heritage, such as beliefs regarding the dead and the supernatural. This characteristic involves writers in research using material that involves other ways of knowing the past—in particular the expressions of belief such as religion, popular customs, folk tales, and oral history. With the broadening of our historiological perspectives in the postmodern climate, historical fantasy based on non-documentary forms of history may come to be seen as another way of knowing the past.

Representations of the Gypsies and their lifestyle were widespread in British culture in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This thesis analyzes the varying literary and artistic responses to the Gypsy figure in the period circa 1780-1870. Addressing not only well-known works by William Wordsworth, Jane Austen, Walter Scott, John Clare, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold and George Eliot, but also lesser-known or neglected works by Gilbert White, Hannah More, George Crabbe and Samuel Rogers, unpublished archival material from Princess Victoria's journals, and a range of articles from the periodical press, this thesis examines how the figure of the Gypsy was used to explore differing conceptions of the landscape, identity and freedom, as well as the authoritative discourses of law, religion and science. The influence of William Cowper's Gypsy episode in Book One of The Task is shown to be profound, and its effect on ensuing literary representations of the Gypsy is an example of my interpretation of Wim Willem's term ‘paper Gypsies': the idea that literary Gypsies are often textual (re)constructions of other writers' work, creating a shared literary, cultural and artistic heritage. A focus on the picturesque and the Gypsies' role within that genre is a strong theme throughout this thesis. The ambiguity of picturesque Gypsy representations challenges the authority of the leisured viewer, provoking complex responses that either seek to contain the Gypsy's disruptive potential or demonstrate the figure's refusal to be controlled. An examination of texts alongside contemporary paintings and sketches of Gypsies by Princess Victoria, George Morland, Thomas Gainsborough, J. M. W. Turner, John Constable and John Everett Millais, elucidates the significance of the Gypsies as ambiguous ciphers in both literature and art.

Ce mémoire propose d’analyser une série phénomène à travers le concept de série monde développé dans les études télévisuelles et cinématographiques. Notre objet d’analyse est Xena la guerrière (Syndication 1995-2001), une série des années 1990 connue à l’ère contemporaine pour son phénomène de fandom autour de la série et des personnages Xena et Gabrielle. Les séries de la fin des années 1990 s’inscrivent dans une ère de transition, où numérique et mutations narratives vont participer à la création d’objets denses et complexes. Nous tenterons d’établir un parallèle entre la structure d’une série télévisée et sa réception qui reposent toutes les deux sur une logique de densification, à observer sous différentes formes : l’extension, la continuité et la dérivation, ainsi que sur deux niveaux : le texte et le fandom. L’analyse diégétique de la série nous permettra d’établir une conception de la série comme une expérience dense et complexe qui invite et suggère une pluralité interprétative. Les spectateurs/fans investissent l’objet de différentes façons jusqu’à produire des lectures riches et variées. Définir un phénomène sériel reviendrait donc à s’intéresser à cette corrélation : producteurs, texte, fans et contextes, qui permet l’expansion de l’objet dans de multiples directions. L’analyse de Xena la guerrière autour d’une logique de densification nous permettrait de mieux comprendre certains phénomènes de fandom autour de séries contemporaines. / This dissertation proposes an analysis of a series phenomenon through the concept of world series developed in television and film. Our object of analysis is Xena: Warrior Princess (Syndication 1995-2001), a television series from the 1990s known in the contemporary era for the phenomenon of fandom created around the series and characters Xena and Gabrielle. The series of the late 1990s are part of an era of transition, where digital and narratives mutations come together in the creation of dense and complex objects. We will try to draw a parallel between the structure of a television series and its reception, both of which are based on a logic of densification, to be observed in different forms: extension, continuity, and derivation, as well as on two levels: the text of Xena and the fandom of Xena. The diegetic analysis of the series will allow us to establish the conception and origins of the series as something dense and complex that invites and suggests a plurality of interpretations. Spectators/fans invest time and effort in the show in a variety of ways to produce rich and varied interpretations and fandom content. Defining a serial phenomenon would therefore take us back to examining the correlation of: producer, text, fans, and context, which allows this expansion of the series in multiple directions. The analysis of Xena: Warrior Princess around a logic of densification will allow us to better understand certain phenomena of fandom around contemporary series.

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