Univ., Habil.-Schr.--Tübingen, 2002. / Literaturverz. S. 195 - 203.

Thèse--Uppsala. / "Je ne publie maintenant que la première partie concernant le franc̜ais."--Avant--propos. "Bibliographie" : p. [155]-167.

Thesis--Bern. / Vita. Includes index. Bibliography: p. 67-68.

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This thesis presents a list and analysis of the prophecies in the Commedia of Dante Alighieri. The prophecies are then broadly considered under two headings, ante eventum and post eventum, although these elements are frequently mixed together. They are used by Dante for various purposes, including the reinterpretation of the meaning of his own exile, and different programmes of moral and political critique. The foresight shown by the inhabitants of the three parts of the after-life is also examined, and philosophical and literary explanations found. The prophetic ability of the souls in the Inferno especially is found to have an antecedent in classical literature, and in particular in Lucan’s Pharsalia.  The role of the post eventum and ante eventum prophecies in the truth claims of the Commedia is considered, and the meaning of Dante Poeta’s silence on them is examined.

The main study of the thesis seeks to gain insights into the reading behaviour of 27 adolescent learners of French, who were recorded while completing four reading tasks, 2 individually and 2 in small groups. The transcripts are analysed from four perspectives. Firstly (as a baseline for the other perspectives) a quantitative approach examines factors surrounding relative success in the tasks. Secondly a coding system (Pressley and Afflerbach, 1995) is used to analyse strategy use by a selection of subjects in both individual and group contexts. Thirdly, the nature and quality of the talk of four of the groups is explored using Mercer's (1995) three categories of talk and aspects of Almasi's (1995) work on sociocognitive conflict. Finally the problem-solving discourse of the transcripts is analysed in two ways- using a concordancing program and by investigating the roles in decision-making of key individuals in four different groups through discourse analysis techniques. A discussion chapter seeks to draw together the findings from these four perspectives. The processes used for the study are also discussed through chapters on relevant literature, on methodology and by a report of an earlier preparatory study.

Aragonese is a minority endangered language used in the Alto Aragon area. Ayerbe is a town found in the Plana de Uesca in Alto Aragon, and therefore it is considered to belong to a geographical area where the use of the Aragonese language finds itself in a significant state of decline compared to the use of Castilian Spanish. This study examines the extent to which this is true. The objective was to conduct a questionnaire amongst residents in Ayerbe in order to explore their language use, their perceptions of the language, their linguistic awareness and their affinity to the concept of Aragonese identity. The results suggest that the Aragonese language in Ayerbe is more widely read and understood than was previously thought. This investigation also considers the processes of normalisation and normativisation that will be necessary for the revitalisation of the language.

The investigation into the relationship between Greek and Babylonian systems of learning has overwhelmingly focused on determining the elements that the former borrowed from the latter, while the fundamental questions relating to the process of transmission of these elements are still largely ignored. This thesis, therefore, offers a preliminary theoretical framework within which the movement of ideas should be analysed. The framework is based on the understanding that all ideas from one culture, when they are to enter another thought and belief system, must be ’translated’ into the concepts and terminology prevalent in their new context. An approach is developed which exploits the concept of ’cultural translation’ as put forward within various modern disciplines. The thesis examines how the ’translatability’ of the material from the perspective of the receiving culture influences its inclusion into the new ’home repertoire’ and determines the changes it undergoes as part of this process. A number of case studies in astronomy, astrology and mathematics are presented to help explain what parts of ’Chaldean knowledge’ were utilised by Greek and Hellenistic scholars, how these were interpreted according to the existing Greek intellectual network into which the new material was inserted and how it was influenced by the ’cultural grid’, a construct reflecting patterns of expectation about a foreign culture.

This thesis has two interlinked objectives. One is to explore some of the meanings projected onto ideas of Italy in the UK in relation to Italian mobility patterns. The second is to argue for the development of the study of material culture and ethnographic approaches in contemporary Modern Languages research and teaching. Taking into account a range of ‘Italian stuff’; public spaces such as cafés and bars, narrative texts and recipe books, a celebrity figure, and drawing on personal narratives as recounted in interview, the thesis critically engages with the contemporary value of images of traditional Italy from a Modern Languages perspective. The aim is to practically demonstrate how ethnography and the study of material culture can be used to complement the conventional disciplinary emphasis of Modern Languages on critical analysis of written and visual texts and on linguistic competence. Drawing on the work of a variety of ethnographic theorists of the significance of the everyday and the unexpected, of the interplay between power and selfhood, and of class and the inscription of value, the thesis explores the ideals read into notions of Italy’s authenticity across different sites in terms of the tensions between the desirability of a grounded, local identity and the simultaneous need to be able to distance oneself from it, generational class difference and its enduring memory, the diversity of rural and urban experience, and self-understanding and expression. Via case-studies of different sites and an investigation into the pertinence of an ethnographic reflexivity in the context of language learning, it places relevant contemporary anthropological, linguistic and sociological theory in dialogue with existing calls for renewal from within Modern Languages to practice an ethnographic approach to the study of language and culture.

This thesis aims to study the ways in which literary canonisation occurs and how the academic institution is an integral part of the canonisation process. It takes as its focus the work of the Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo, who has been publishing since the 1950s and is universally considered an important figure in contemporary Hispanic literature. After contextualising recent debate concerning the literary canon, I discuss the influences and paradigm shifts that have conditioned reception of Goytisolo’s work, bringing him to prominence both inside and outside Spain. The study then addresses the strategies that the author himself uses in his novels to encourage debate and criticism by the institution. Whilst the second and third chapters analyse the distance between reader and novel, focusing on the difficulty of understanding both form and content in Makbara, the following two chapters study Goytisolo’s desire to situate his work in the canon through autobiographical and intertextual references. Analysis is both metacritical, in its examination of critics’ assumptions, and also textual, through its focus on Goytisolo’s novels. To conclude, the thesis demonstrates the symbiotic relationship of the academic institution and the writer, with the literary canon as the key that unlocks their common history.