Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Zürich, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [529]-546) and index.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document.

Thèse (M.E.L.) - Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 2005. / "Mémoire présenté à l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi comme exigence partielle de la maîtrise en études littéraires offerte à l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi en vertu d'un protocole d'entente avec l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières." Comprend des réf. bibliogr. : f. 109-115. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF.

Academics have for decades written on the need to interrogate the labels upon which the field of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies has been founded. At the centre of these discussions has been theorising around the 'integrity' and 'content' of the refugee label itself, with foundational texts expounding the need to take nothing about the meaning and purpose of this label for granted. This is evidently important in popular accounts, where the term's misuse fuels anti-immigrant sentiments and societal mistrust, as well as for the futures of these populations, as multiple interpretations of their status affect attempts to negotiate durable solutions to their plight. Without denying the importance of these theoretical accounts, or the incredibly rich literature that has emerged on account of them, this thesis suggests that much of the theorising on labelling to date has lacked a clear theoretical framework around which to structure otherwise critical observations vis-à-vis the performative and malleable characteristics of language. It therefore introduces semiotic theories and methodologies as an approach for making sense of these manifold interpretations and their relationships to each other, and to explore what impacts this has on negotiations over refugees' futures. Associated theories are used to explain the controversial negotiations that surrounded the invocation of the Cessation Clause for Eritrean refugees in Sudan in 2002, and the ongoing attempts to apply Cessation to Rwandan refugees in Uganda. Both processes were mired by controversy, and yet almost no literature exists detailing when, why and how they unfolded as they did. Disaggregating the refugee 'label' through the semiotic frameworks provided by Saussure and Barthes helps explain the conceptual and spatial dissonance that plagued attempts to conclude these protracted refugee situations. Through doing so, this thesis seeks to make three main contributions. First, it provides these extended accounts of how decisions to apply Cessation are arrived at, thereby filling an empirical gap in literature on this process. Second, it presents a heuristic framework rooted in linguistic theories to explain how certain words and objects - including the refugee label - can see their meanings transformed and bourgeon over time, the mechanisms through which this distortion occurs and is accommodated within discussions over the treatment of refugees, and the implications that the application of this theoretical framework has for how we understand particular incidents of decision-making within the refugee regime. Third, these theoretical approaches are shown to result in key challenges to how the role, content and function of the word refugee have been conceptualised to date.

A presente tese consta da criação de traços de sentido e de um grupo de peças composto para este trabalho. Os traços de sentido são utilizados na definição do sentido de materiais composicionais. Há três categorias principais nas quais os traços estão inseridos: traços sonoros, expressivos e estilísticos. Por meio de um conjunto de traços é possível definir questões de sonoridade, conteúdo expressivo e pressupostos estilísticos que estão associados a cada material composicional de cada peça. Este grupo de elementos sonoros, expressivos e estilísticos é o sentido que procuro definir neste trabalho. / This work presents the creation of sense features and a group of musical pieces composed to this work. The sense features have the purpose of defining the sense of compositional materials. There is three categories of sense features: sonorous features, expressive features and stylistic features. It’s possible to define matters of sound, expressive content and stylistic agenda associated to each compositional material in one piece. This group of sonic, expressive and stylistic elements are the sense that I intend to define in this work.

In the context of globalization, commercialization, and the increasing presence of Western images (Western models, Western languages, and Western settings) in Chinese society, this study examines how these images are constructed in Chinese magazine advertising. It utilizes quantitative content analysis, facilitated by semiotic analysis to approach issues of race, gender and power reflected in the images of the West. Methodologically, this study sees quantitative content analysis and semiotics as two complementary methods in the study of contemporary visually dominant print advertising. Theories in both social sciences and humanities were reviewed and brought into the analysis of data. Based on advertisements (N=2,882) from a stratified random sample of four months in 2009 in 19 Chinese consumer magazines (men's, women's and general interest), results of the study showed that images of the West are primarily represented by Western models, and White female models in particular. Focusing on advertisements for Chinese products and services, Western models in Chinese magazine advertising were found differently portrayed from their Chinese counterparts, in their frequency, the type of magazines they appear in, product/service categories they feature in, occupational status, the extent of nudity, and relation to product. When Western models were chosen for an ad, they served different roles than Chinese models. Close examination of individual advertisements from a semiotic perspective showed that Western female models were eroticized, while at the same time representing universal beauty; both Western male and female models were signs that signify quality, social status, luxury and enjoyment of good life; China's relation to the West is also complicated by the fact that China sees itself as a collaborator with the West in the economic domain, and at the same time, accepts the power of the West by romanticizing the colonial past. Overall, this study showed that images of the West in the Chinese context are multifaceted: they have different significations in different domains.

Orientador: Edna Maria Fernandes dos Santos Nascimento / Banca: Arnaldo Cortina / Banca: Maria Célia de Moraes Leonel / Banca: Maria Adélia Ferreira Mauro / Banca: Luiz Antonio Ferreira / Resumo: A obra literária de Hilda Hilst é diversa, compreendendo poesia, teatro e narrativa. Neste trabalho, porém, concentra-se a atenção na prosa da escritora paulista, com o objetivo de capturar-se o trágico por meio da práxis enunciativa do discurso. Para apreender-se essa práxis, parte-se do pressuposto de que Hilda Hilst simula um delírio, cuja predicação da instância da enunciação é delegada a um ator paranoico, num discurso situado entre lucidez e demência. A análise da significação discursiva, própria da semiótica do discurso, volta-se para a potencialidade do sistema subjacente do trágico e revela uma trajetória marcada pela tentativa de apreensão de todos os discursos existentes. Essa trajetória constitui uma escritura que, por ser delirante, apresenta-se caleidoscópica, labiríntica e em espiral, instaurando no discurso um caos aparente. No final dessa investigação, o trágico no discurso traduz a própria existência humana, no sentido de atribuir a ela um vazio que não se pode preencher. / Abstract: Hilda Hilst's literary work is varied, comprehending poetry, drama and narrative. This piece of work, however, focuses on the narrative of the Paulistana writer, with the intent to capture the tragic reality which passes through the enunciation praxis of discourse. In order to aprehend that praxis, we presupose Hilda Hilst simulates a delirium state, whose predication of the instance of enunciation is delegated to a paranoic actor inside a discourse which lays between lucidity and insanity. The analysis of the discoursive signification, common in the field of the semiotics of discourse, turns to the potentiality of the subjacent system of the tragic, and reveals a path underlined by the attempt of aprehending all the existing discourses. That path constitutes a particular writing which, by being delirious, shows up in a kaleidoscopic-labyrinthic-spiral style, creating in the discourse itself an apparent chaos. In the end of this investigation, the tragic in the discourse translates the human existence itself, in the sense of attributing to it an emptiness that may not be filled in. / Doutor

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2013-04-08T17:09:09Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Euriclésio 2.pdf: 4178784 bytes, checksum: 7338b5403e0b3f2e2c1be57df15066f9 (MD5) Euriclésio 1.pdf: 221494 bytes, checksum: e04aff29fe272c33a3733caff28a06e3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Lêda Costa(lmrcosta@ufba.br) on 2013-04-18T12:33:11Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Euriclésio 2.pdf: 4178784 bytes, checksum: 7338b5403e0b3f2e2c1be57df15066f9 (MD5) Euriclésio 1.pdf: 221494 bytes, checksum: e04aff29fe272c33a3733caff28a06e3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-04-18T12:33:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Euriclésio 2.pdf: 4178784 bytes, checksum: 7338b5403e0b3f2e2c1be57df15066f9 (MD5) Euriclésio 1.pdf: 221494 bytes, checksum: e04aff29fe272c33a3733caff28a06e3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-07-30 / Este estudo analisa a tradução poética do mito Exu fotografias do livro Laróyè de Mario Cravo Neto. Exu, enquanto o mais humano dos orixás do candomblé, que participa da dialética do sagrado e profano na construção de uma cultura baiana. Dessa forma investiga os aspectos formais da luz e sombra, cores, movimento de algumas imagens fotográficas, no sentido de aproximá-las de algumas aspectos do Exu como orixá mensageiro, isto é aquele que transmite as mensagens entre os orixás e as pessoas. É o orixá do movimento dos corpos e que tem aspectos ligados à sensualidade e fecundidade, é dele que dependem desenvolvimento e o transporte de todas as coisas do universo. Para tanto, utiliza-se uma metodologia de análise com base na semiótica e na teoria da imagem fotográfica, para o desvendar estudo da obra de Cravo Neto. / Salvador

A presente tese consta da criação de traços de sentido e de um grupo de peças composto para este trabalho. Os traços de sentido são utilizados na definição do sentido de materiais composicionais. Há três categorias principais nas quais os traços estão inseridos: traços sonoros, expressivos e estilísticos. Por meio de um conjunto de traços é possível definir questões de sonoridade, conteúdo expressivo e pressupostos estilísticos que estão associados a cada material composicional de cada peça. Este grupo de elementos sonoros, expressivos e estilísticos é o sentido que procuro definir neste trabalho. / This work presents the creation of sense features and a group of musical pieces composed to this work. The sense features have the purpose of defining the sense of compositional materials. There is three categories of sense features: sonorous features, expressive features and stylistic features. It’s possible to define matters of sound, expressive content and stylistic agenda associated to each compositional material in one piece. This group of sonic, expressive and stylistic elements are the sense that I intend to define in this work.

A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar a área que circunscreve os processos de significação no design, a fim de desenvolver uma proposta de intervenção pedagógica que possa ser adotada em disciplinas de Semiótica de cursos de graduação em design de instituições de ensino superior brasileiras - de modo a capacitar os discentes em suas habilidades e competências relacionadas aos processos de análise e construção de significação no design, em suas dimensões metodológicas e epistemológicas. Para tanto, realizou-se uma extensa e profunda revisão bibliográfica, que consiste em um levantamento organizado das duas principais teorias semióticas (Peirceana e Saussureana) que podem auxiliar a teoria do design, assim como um levantamento ordenado dos principais estudos já realizados na área do design em relação à dimensão semântica, em especial: três abordagens que foram desenvolvidas a partir das décadas de 1970 e 80: Offenbach - Linguagem do Produto, Semântica do Produto, e Semiótica do Design. Após o desenvolvimento da fundamentação teórica, este estudo também realizou e apresentou uma consistente pesquisa de campo (qualitativa e quantitativa). Assim como a investigação teórica, a pesquisa de campo também contribuiu como alicerce da proposta de intervenção. A integração da pesquisa qualitativa (realizada com 28 docentes que ministram disciplinas de Semiótica, Projeto ou Metodologia de Projeto de oito cursos de design de universidades brasileiras) com a pesquisa quantitativa (realizada com 90 discentes dessas oito universidades) demonstrou diferentes fenômenos e problemas que envolvem a qualificação de alunos de design quanto ao estudo dos processos de significação. Com base na fundamentação teórica e na pesquisa de campo, desenvolveu-se, a partir da metodologia ADDIE (normalmente aplicada ao design instrucional) e suas cinco fases – (1ª) análise, (2ª) design, (3ª) desenvolvimento, (4ª) implementação e (5ª) avaliação –, a proposta de intervenção para disciplinas de Semiótica de cursos de graduação em design de instituições de ensino superior brasileiras. Durante a fase analítica dos dados, buscou-se sintetizar os objetivos da intervenção em três: (1) desenvolver no aluno a habilidade de compreender os processos de significação no design, a partir do conceito de “ação de signos”; (2) desenvolver no aluno a habilidade de analisar signos; (3) desenvolver no aluno a habilidade de produzir signos. Para cada um dos três objetivos projetou-se uma atividade. Essas três atividades tiveram como principal fundamentação teórica o conceito semiótico de signo de Charles Sanders Peirce, a partir das contribuições de Charles Morris, e suas dimensões sintática, semântica e pragmática. As três atividades foram projetadas para sua realização em um semestre letivo, em disciplinas de Semiótica com aproximadamente 4 créditos semanais. Para todas elas desenvolveu-se materiais didáticos. Dentre esses materiais didáticos estão 3 apostilas, referentes a cada uma das 3 atividades, e nas quais estão apresentados de modo simples os principais fundamentos da semiótica que podem auxiliar designers no desenvolvimento de suas habilidades de analisar e produzir signos. Como a intervenção enfatiza a análise e a produção de signos, nas apostilas 2 e 3 apresenta-se também dois métodos, um de análise e outro de produção de signos integrados a diversos recursos oriundos da semiótica. O objetivo último em propor os dois métodos não foi somente metodológico, foi desenvolver no aluno, a partir da sua experiência prática metodológica, uma consciência crítica sobre o seu próprio processo de design em relação aos processos de significação, isto é, uma consciência epistemológica que amplia a sua capacidade de enxergar o projeto e de poder realimentá-lo constantemente. Depois de desenvolvida, a intervenção proposta foi implementada, durante o período de um semestre letivo, em dois cursos de graduação de design no Brasil. Por fim, após as duas implementações, avaliou-se criticamente a proposta de intervenção e realizou-se inferências acerca da pesquisa de modo integral. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the area encompassing the signification processes in design in order to propose a pedagogical intervention that can be adopted in Semiotics disciplines of undergraduate design courses in Brazilian higher education institutions so as to enable students to develop their skills and competences related to the processes of meaning analysis and building in design, in both methodological and epistemological aspects. To this end, an extensive and comprehensive literature review was carried out, consisting of an organized survey of the two main semiotic theories (Peircean and Saussurean) which can contribute to design theory, as well as an orderly survey of the main studies that have been carried out in the area of design regarding the semantic dimension, in particular: three approaches that were developed from the 1970s and 1980s: Offenbach - Product Language, Product Semantics, and Design Semiotics. Following the development of the theoretical framework, this study also performed and presented a consistent field research (qualitative and quantitative). Like the theoretical research, the field research also served as a foundation stone for the intervention proposal. Integrating qualitative research (carried out with 28 professors who teach Semiotics, Project or Project Methodology in eight design courses of Brazilian universities) and quantitative research (carried out with 90 students from these eight universities) showed different phenomena and problems involving the qualification of design students regarding the study of signification processes. Based on the theoretical framework and field research and following the ADDIE model (usually applied to instructional design) and its five phases – (1) Analysis, (2) Design, (3) Development, (4) Implementation and (5) Evaluation –, the intervention proposal was developed for Semiotics disciplines of undergraduate design courses in Brazilian higher education institutions. During the analytical phase of the data, we tried to encapsulate the objectives of the intervention in three goals: (1) have students develop the ability to understand the processes of signification in design based on the concept of "action of signs"; (2) have students develop the ability to analyze signs; (3) have students develop the ability to produce signs. A specific activity was designed for each of the three goals. These three activities were theoretically grounded on Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic concept of sign, with the contributions by Charles Morris and his syntactics, semantics and pragmatics dimensions. The three activities were designed to be carried out throughout a school semester, in semiotics disciplines of approximately 4 credits per week. Teaching material was developed for all three activities. It includes: 3 handouts, one for each activity, presenting in simple language the core fundamentals of semiotics that can help designers develop their skills to analyze and produce signs. As the intervention focuses on sign analysis and production, handouts two and three also describe two methods, one for sign analysis and another for sign production, integrated into several resources from semiotics. The ultimate goal in proposing these two methods was not only methodological, but also to have students develop, based on their practical and methodological experience, a critical awareness of their own design process in relation to the processes of signification, that is, an epistemological awareness that amplifies their ability to see the project and constantly feed it. After being developed, the proposed intervention was implemented, during the period of one school semester, in two undergraduate design courses in Brazil. Finally, after implementation, the intervention proposal was critically evaluated and inferences were made about the research as a whole.