Films of every era reflect the concerns and fears of Western society. The acceleration of technology, the loss of a concrete world, the uneasy relationship with humans and ever increasing complex machines are inducing a fear of losing the ability to discern reality. The reality of ideas from science and the world around are woven into the narratives that we use to explain life.The films we watch reflect our hopes and fears and as the fears increase so do films with a shared theme of alternative realities. To know reality and search for the true Self is the job of the hero and the protagonist in recent alternative reality films.

Abstract: The science fiction films which feature the angel Gabriel (The Prophecy (1995), Van Helsing (2004), Constantine (2005), Gabriel (2007), and Legion (2010)) represent a trend in exploring specific socio-cultural issues of America. All of these films explore fears over the loss of faith in American culture in a post 9/11 society. They are comparable to the ways in which science fiction films of the 1950’s addressed fears of the Cold War. By utilizing the alien invasion plot structure from the 50’s, contemporary plots have a pre-defined structure and film language in which to explore the themes of a crisis of faith. The fallen angels featured in all these films have their textual basis in the apocalyptic Jewish text of 1 Enoch, which presents an alternate origin of evil tale to the one found in the Christian Bible, which attributes to wicked fallen angels and provides the religious archetypal themes, moral basis and story ark for the fallen angels of the films. Furthermore, the films evoke an “uncanny Other” through the use of the angel Gabriel, who is a familiar Christian figure but who is uncanny in his modern portrayals, allowing frightening fears of the loss of faith and Christian identity to be explored through a familiar figure. Finally, the fears of encountering a “Muslim Other” in a post 9/11 world, and the millennial fears of uncertainty, are the cultural factors that lead to this crisis of faith present in all of these films.

Cette production s'intéresse à la bande dessinée interactive. Le projet fut réalisé afin de répondre aux exigences de la maîtrise en communication, concentration multiméclia interactif. Le titre de l'oeuvre est « Mayapolis 2317 : les clones transgéniques ». L'idée de départ était de construire une bande dessinée interactive diffusée sur le Web. C'est en cours de production qu'a germé toute la réflexion autour de l'utilisabilité. Le principal défi de ce projet consistait à offrir une bande dessinée interactive structurée et conviviale malgré la complexité de la production. De plus, l'utilisation des médias interactifs devait enrichir le genre « bande dessinée » en offrant à l'utilisateur des stratégies visuelles, sonores et interactives intéressantes. Cette production donne une place importante à l'utilisateur. Afin d'améliorer l'utilisabilité, un système de recensement a été programmé en arrière-plan. Trois stratégies se sont avérées pertinentes pour la récolte des données: le compteur de temps, le compteur de clics et le compteur de survols de zones sensibles Des données précises sont recueillies dans une base de données située sur un serveur. Ce recensement prédéterminé permet de répondre à plusieurs questions concernant l'utilisabilité. En jumelant ces résultats avec ceux récoltés à l'aide de groupes témoins, on obtient des corrélations signifiantes. Des modifications et des améliorations sont ensuite apportées au projet en fonction de l'analyse des données. Le récit de cette bande dessinée interactive s'inspire de l'actualité. C'est pourquoi l'éthique scientifique a été choisi comme thème central. Deux sous-thèmes ont été privilégiés: l'humanité et la santé humaine. Ce premier tome propose une prospective apocalyptique. Il s'agit d'une mise en contexte pour les tomes à venir. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Utilisabilité, Interactivité, Média interactif, Science-fiction, Bande dessinée, Interface.

Uppsatsen behandlar hur en läsares genrekunskap påverkar dennes tolkning av en serie. Som projektarbete har jag producerat en kortare episod på fyra sidor, ur en längre serie som jag själv skapat, inom genrerna science-fiction och action. I bakgrunden går jag igenom Scott McClouds syn på serier, Bordwell och Thompssons syn på genrer, samt viss bakgrund och förutsättningar för min series mytologi, berättande och estetiska uttryck. Jag har genomfört en kvalitativ studie där jag låtit fokusgrupper med olika förutsättningar vad gäller förkunskaper och bakgrundsinformation läsa och diskutera serien. För att skapa serie-episoden har jag studerat andra seriers layout, tecknarstil och berättande. Serien bygger på ett tydligt symbolspråk med förankring i verkligheten. De slutsatser jag kunnat dra av undersökningen är att mycket bakgrundsinformation hämmar nyfikenhet och spekulationsvilja och att en hög kunnighet kring de berörda genrerna leder till en modernare syn på könsroller.

Uppsatsen är en litteraturvetenskaplig analys av Vladimir Majakovskijs Vägglusen (Клоп). Vägglusen är en humoristik pjäs som utspelar sig dels under den unga Sovjetunionens NEP-period och dels i ett framtida socialistiskt samhälle. Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka hur den komiska effekten i pjäsen uppstår samt att studera vilken roll som science fiction-miljön spelar för denna komik. Analysen har genomförts med hjälp av de generella humorteorier som presenterats av Olle Ferm och Paul Lewis samt teorier om science fiction och främmandegöring hämtade från verk av Viktor Šklovskij och Peter Stockwell. Avsnittet ”Tidigare forskning” innehåller en redogörelse för hur Vägglusen analyserats av slavister som Bengt Jangfeldt och Edward J. Brown. Till skillnad från dessa tolkningar utgår min undersökning i mindre utsträckning från ett biografiskt perspektiv vilket kastar nytt ljus på Majakovskijs verk. Uppsatsen är till stor del en exemplifiering av ovanstående teorier samt en klassificering av pjäsens stilistik och tematik. Utöver detta mynnar resultaten även ut i en reflektion kring de använda humorteorierna och hur de kan utvecklas.

Popular media, literature, and theory suggests that technology has induced a newly evolved, posthuman and postmodern (or "post-Enlightenment") cyborg consciousness. I suggest, as an alternative reading to the notion that we are evolving towards a disembodied posthuman state which will revolutionise what it means to be human, that the literature of cyborgs incorporates and reinscribes traditional narratives about human identity. This project analyses representative tropes of the cyborg in contemporary discourse from an explicitly historical perspective. Although dualisms such as mind/matter or soul/body are recognised in current theorising of the cyborg, little has been written about the historical relationship of mechanism and humanity in the ongoing discussion of cyborg mind/body ontology. The cyborg in much of our literature throughout a wide range of genres is represented by the exaggerated and horrifying effacement of human embodiment to embellish an underlying concern about the consequences to the human spirit when we can be reproduced by technological means. This thesis argues that much of the discourse about the novelty of the "postmodern" human-machine, however, is not unprecedented. Cyborg literature re-presents themes and concerns regarding the man-machine of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and continues to reflect a religious debate about the spirit within the material body. Beginning with current notions of the supposed obsolescence of the body, this thesis explores how the contemporary cyborg functions as a device to reflect traditional (frequently Christian) values. Drawing on eighteenth-century medical philosophy and the satirical literary responses to mechanist definitions of body and soul, I demonstrate literary connections between medical and literary metaphors of the Enlightenment man-machine and the postmodern cyborg in popular media, fiction, and theory. The debate surrounding eighteenth-century materialism, primarily metaphorical and analogical in its representation of the body's mechanisms, contributed directly to current notions of figurative disembodiment and the status of the human soul in contemporary literature. I conclude that the cyborg as a figure of literature does not indicate a revolutionary change in social consciousness but repeatedly is a device used to affirm traditional religious concepts of human reproduction, individual free will, spirit and body, and life after death.

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My thesis is a collection of my own original poetry and short fiction written as a kind of response to Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself." Instead of having Whitman continue to represent me through his poem, I wish to represent myself through my own poetry. I attempted to create a new kind of fiction and poetry from the perspective of a Hispanic who has less of a tie to Mexico or the homeland and more of the cultural influences of the United States. Instead of focusing on differences between myself and the dominant culture, I attempted to discuss in chapter II my philosophy concerning subjects such as; war, religion, time and space, and society. In chapter III, I tried to reconcile various cultural mythologies as the United States does not have a single shared mythology. And in chapter IV I gave my own predictions of the future based on personal observation. My twofold goal of this collection was to one, demonstrate that Hispanic writers are capable of more than lamenting their shared past. And two, to challenge the notion that anything besides a disenfranchisement narrative is "inauthentic" and renders me a poor writer of Hispanic literature. I believe it is up to the reader to decide whether I have accomplished these goals.

A Study of Hwang-Hai's Works Yi-jin Lin Abstract In the study, Hwang-hai's science fiction is researched with various definition by the east and western scholars. Ttracing back his life and writing experience results in the deep comprehension of his writing theme ¡X the reflection upon science and civilization. The research range includes Hwang-hai's writing art and skills of science fiction, such as fantastic time and space, characters and plots arrangements, and styles with the reference of western narrative theories, traditional literary theories, and science fiction theories. Hwang-hai's writing pioneering creativities are the fairy tales characteristics between the children literature and adult. That can be helpful to distinguish Hwang-hai from other science fiction writers in Taiwan with the viewpoints of education and literary sociology. The relative multi-pronged research can bring out not only the prospective future of science fiction in Taiwan but also the meaning of Hwang-hai's science fiction in our days, by the concepts of the literary artistic worth to social educational function from his works. Keywords: Hwang-hai, Science fiction, Children Literature, Black Comedy.

The science fiction cinema is often concerned about future, and presents to its audience possible alternatives for it. Each science fiction film about the future constructs a different idea in the audience&rsquo / s mind and supports a currently existing ideology at the same time. The science fiction genre extrapolates and speculates about future which results in a new world: Aliens, androids or clones become participants of this world, intergalactic federations regulate diplomatic relationships or natural disasters endanger the whole humankind. The indispensable factor in every case is that new objects surround the future. They are extrapolated or speculated as well from the objects of today in order to fit to and satisfy the needs of the future world of the science fiction film. The ideas about the future presented in the film are supported by the material existence of these future objects. This study demonstrates the ideas and ideologies in respect to future in the science fiction cinema and investigates how the future objects contribute to constructing them.