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Le présent travail tente de retracer le parcours de la signifiance éthique. Bien que le trait structurel décisif du mouvement de signifiance éthique soit le « pour l’autre », nous montrons qu’en suivant la double méthode phénoménologique de la concrétisation-et-emphase, Levinas accomplit ce mouvement par d’autres traits structurels: « à sens unique », « à partir de soi », « malgré soi », « autre dans le même », « je est un autre », « pour rien » et « par l’autre ». Le chapitre II apporte un trait signifiant limite « l’un pour tous les autres », articulant l’éthique avec la justice. Néanmoins, la liste établie n’est pas exhaustive, mais simplement indicative. Ce travail n’est qu’une digression dans le mouvement de la signifiance éthique, mouvement infini, qui précède diachroniquement toute tentative d’en rendre compte et qui interrompt le sens que l’auteur de ces lignes croît mettre dans les mots. Les différentes recherches constituant le présent travail peuvent dès lors être interprétées comme différentes modalités de ce Dédire du Dit qu’est la mise en évidence de l’exception du tiers exclu – notre seul accès au Dire. Dans cette perspective, le chapitre I cherche à dépasser la dichotomie signification vécue / signification thématisée, le chapitre II la dichotomie langue / parole, le chapitre III la distinction entre sens et non-sens. L’alternance du sens détermine le statut des trois premiers chapitres: thématiser l’avant de la signifiance éthique est impossible sans thématiser l’après de la signifiance ontologique, qui, elle, est toujours déjà interrompue par l’après de l’après de l’alternance du sens, et ainsi de suite. / The paper here presented attempts to retrace the course of the ethical signifying. Although the main characteristic feature of this movement of signifying is the « for-the-other », we show that following the double phenomenological method called concretisation-and-emphasis, Levinas accomplishes this movement by means of other features: « unique sense », « starting from the self », « despite oneself », « the other in the same », « I am an other », « for nothing » and « by the other ». The chapter II brings a borderline feature « one-for-all-the others » which articulates ethics with justice. Eventhough, this list is not exhaustive, but simply indicative. This paper is not anything more than a digression in the movement of ethical signifying, an infinite movement, which precedes diachronically every attempt to give an account of it and interrupts the sense that the author believes putting in words. Then the investigations here presented can be interpreted as different modalities of the Un-saying (Dédire in french) of the Said which consists in putting in evidence the exception of the excluded third – our only acces to the Saying. In this perspective, chapter I tries to exceed the dichotomy lived significance / thematised significance, chapter II the dichotomy langue / parole, chapter III the distinction between sense and non-sense. The alternance of sense defines the status of the first three chapters: to thematise the « before » of the ethical signifying is impossible without thematising the « after » of the ontological signifying, which is always already interrupted by the « after the after » of the alternance of sense, and so on.

Esta dissertação investiga o processo de formação da identidade, através do trabalho artístico/musical da banda de hip-hop norte-americano: Black Eyed Peas, formada na década de 80, nos Estados Unidos da América. Essa investigação diz respeito às questões de identidades discutidas pela temática do hip-hop, bem como a releitura que esta banda apresenta de elementos tidos como essenciais no gênero em questão. Ainda, visa uma maior compreensão da problemática envolvida na obra artística popular e racial e sua relação com a teoria de massa, para à partir daí, analisar seu potencial de resistência, de criatividade e de protesto. / This research ivestigates the process of meaning meaking/ signifyin(g) in the musical work of a North-american hip-hop band: Black Eyed Peas, founded in the decade of 1980, in the United States of America. This investigation is based on the identity questions discussed by the hip-hop themes, as well as the reelaboration/revisionism that this specific band shows about elements considered essences in the gender studied. Yet, this research intends a better understanding of the matters involved in the popular and racial artistic creation and its relation with the mass theories, in order to analyse its potencial of political resistance, criativity and protest.

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Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-04-23T18:16:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Sandra Cristina Porsche.pdf: 1320789 bytes, checksum: 9160b2f13a735e411a2c7705e5968c9c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-23T18:16:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sandra Cristina Porsche.pdf: 1320789 bytes, checksum: 9160b2f13a735e411a2c7705e5968c9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-07-23 / Milton Valente / O conceito saussuriano de arbitrariedade do signo já foi objeto de um extenso número de trabalhos. Saussure colocou o princípio na base de toda sua teorização, mas não tardou para surgirem grandes dificuldades em compreender como ele se enquadra no conjunto da teoria, apresentando-se como extremamente paradoxal e sendo submetido a escrutínio por uma série de intérpretes. A obra de Saussure é fundamentalmente cercada de controvérsias, em vista do Curso de Linguística Geral (CLG), obra que não foi escrita por ele, e em virtude de uma quantidade ímpar de manuscritos surgidos após os anos 50 e, mais recentemente, em 1996. Com as novas contribuições, hoje retoma-se a teoria para elucidar novos fatos. Assim, esta tese discute o conceito de arbitrariedade do signo, procurando encontrar o lugar que lhe cabe. Partimos do exame do CLG, do Escritos de Linguística Geral (ELG), com apoio nos cadernos de alunos, e de leituras de intérpretes saussurianos, para apresentar uma proposta sobre o lugar do conceito na teoria. Há quatro problemas principais para a compreensão do arbitrário: 1) um aparente paradoxo: Saussure combate a visão nomenclaturista, mas apresenta provas que fazem supor a existência de um significado existente a priori, universal, antes da conjugação do fato linguístico, o que contradiz a teoria. Surge, então, o problema de saber como, no conjunto da obra, Saussure responde à complexa questão da relação da língua com a realidade; 2) com a afirmação de que todo signo é motivado no sistema e com o conceito de arbitrário relativo, é difícil ver um lugar para o arbitrário absoluto na língua; 3) o conceito clássico de convencionalidade é reformulado por Saussure, sem que ele teorize suficientemente essa mudança, gerando o problema de saber em que consiste a diferença e 4) também não há teorização suficiente de Saussure sobre a relação entre semiologia e linguística. Concluimos, a partir do exame desses problemas, que o arbitrário é entre significante e materialidade da língua, o que nem sempre é visto com clareza. Entre eles a relação é arbitrária e, considerando o postulado da transmissão da língua, visto que ela se materializa na fala e por ela se transmite, o arbitrário é princípio semiológico de base, sempre presente na transmissão (diacrônico), causando efeitos no plano sincrônico. Pela reformulação do conceito de convencionalidade, Saussure se desloca para o plano da língua, tomada pela sua matéria sonora, deixando o plano do significado (sem significante) a outro campo de estudos. Concluimos que o arbitrário do signo na linguística refere-se à relação entre significante e materialidade da língua. / Saussure ́s arbitrariness of the sign concept has been the focus of great debate. For him, it was a key concept, but many difficulties in understanding its place in the theory have soon arisen. The concept was considered extremely paradoxical, leading to much scrutiny by many authors. Saussure ́s work is fundamentally involved in controversies due to the Course in General Linguistics (CLG), which was not written by himself, and also because of a great amount of his manuscripts which appeared after the 1950 ́s, and more recently, in 1996. Due to these additional contributions, there are current efforts to unveil new facts. Based on this panorama, this thesis discusses the arbitrariness of the sign with the intention of showing how the concept fits into the theory. This work is fundamentally based on the CLG and the Writings in General Linguistics (WGL), also taking some students ́ notebooks in order to present a plan about the place of the concept in the theory. There are four main problems for understanding the arbitrariness of the sign: 1) an apparent paradox: Saussure condemns a nomenclaturist view of language, but presents examples that make believe there is a universal, a priori meaning before any linguistic fact, which is in contradiction with his theory. Therefore, there is the problem of knowing how Saussure understands the relationship between language and reality in his work; 2) by saying that all signs are motivated in the system, and with the concept of relative arbitrariness, it is difficult to see a place for absolute arbitrariness; 3) the classical philosophical concept of conventionalism is redefined by Saussure, but without him sufficiently theorizing about it, which caused the problem of knowing where the difference lies, and 4) there is also insufficient theorization by Saussure about the relationship of semiology and linguistics. By examining these issues, the conclusion is that the arbitrariness of the sign was thought by Saussure considering the signifying in its relationship with language sound (its materiality), and this has not always been clearly seen. The relationship between them is arbitrary and, considering that language is materially transmitted through speech, the arbitrariness of the sign is a semiological principle underlying language, always present through transmission (diachronically), causing effects on the synchronic plan. By redefining the concept of conventionality, Saussure places himself on the language side, from the point of view of the sound, leaving the signified (without signifying) to another field of study. Our conclusion is that, in linguistics, the arbitrariness of the sign refers to the connection between the signifying and the materiality of language.

Abstract Toni Morrison¡¦s Song of Solomon deals with the African Americans¡¦ history of fighting for self-independence, while exposing their difficulties in forming a viable cultural identity. Focusing on the politics of naming, the motif of flight, and the constitution of African American manhood, Toni Morrison in this novel aims to provide a different reading/writing of African American history whereupon her people can develop an alternative strategy of identification politics. In this thesis, I problematize the notion of democracy¡Vthe ordained rights of human beings to pursuit liberty, happiness and prosperity¡Vby articulating the idea of the American Dream with African Americans¡¦ experiences of self-realization in a so-called democratic society. The purpose is to discuss whether or not African Americans can reverse and utilize their marginalized position as a critical stance for self-articulation to undo the racists¡¦ misnaming on African American people. With a special emphasis on Milkman¡¦s improvisation of the meanings of his family name, Dead, I discuss how the African Americans¡¦ distinctive way of double-talk can facilitate them to negotiate the apparent dualism to inscribe their hybridized identity and how this kind of creativity can help them produce an alternative narrative of their traumatizing as well as truncated history. Also, I intend to analyze both the limitation and liability of conventional psychoanalytic paradigm which is blind to the specificity of African American manhood and the problems peculiar to African American family. Though it is an undeniable historical fact that the African Americans do suffer from the aftermath of plantation slavery, they should be able to empower themselves by re-imagining a collective ancestry as a strategy to formulate an applicable identification politics. While narrating an inspiring genealogy for her people, Toni Morrison wraps up this novel with an open ending. This arrangement suggests to her people that the significations of their cultural identities be opened to further contestation and re-definition.

The aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding in relation to the construction of a ‘Net Generation’. With regards to the idea of an information society, technologies and young people are given certain positions, which are not in any sense natural but are socially constructed. This thesis explores these socially given meanings and shows what types of meanings are prioritized and legitimized. The exploration is conducted by examining, both externally and internally, given meanings of a generation identity. The external (nominal identification) in this study is understood as the construction of an abstract user and is studied by means of academic texts concerning the ‘Net Generation’. The internal (virtual identification) involves young people’s construction of their generation identity and is studied by means of collage. The collages are used to understand how the young participants position themselves in contemporary society and how they, as concrete users, articulate their relationship with information technologies.   The findings show that the ‘type of behavior’ which is articulated in the signifying practice of the construction of the abstract user, ‘Net Generation’, reduces users and technology to a marketing / economical discourse. In addition the idea of the abstract user implies that all users have the same possibilities to achieve ‘success’ in the information society, by being active ‘prosumers’. The concrete users articulate that they feel stressed and pressured in relation to all the choices that they are expected to make. In this sense, the participants do not articulate the (economical) interests as assumed for the ‘Net Generation’, but, rather articulate interests to play, to have a hobby and be social when using information technologies.   What this thesis thus proposes, is to critically explore the ‘taken for granted’ notions of a technological order in society as pertaining to young people. Only if we understand how socially given meaning is constructed can we break loose from the temporarily prioritized values to which the position of technology and users are fixed.

As a historically racialized utterance, nigger has been a contested and despised word since the late 17th Century. Now, in the 21st Century, nigga is still considered one of the most impactful words in the English lexicon. This dissertation provides one situated and contingent analysis of nigga as a moment of excess in the Higher Education classroom. I wed Judith Butler’s theorizing of ex-citable speech via her analyses of J.L. Austin’s influential conceptualizations of speech acts and Louis Althusser’s interpellation to Henry Louis Gates’ theory of Signifyin(g) in order to interrogate the multitudinous articulations and appropriations of nigga as a Signifyin(g) performative. Through my theorizing of nigger-nigga as a Signifyin(g) performative, I interrogate the continuity and discontinuity of use specific to the English Composition and Literature classroom, as well as within multiple Higher Education classrooms and discussions. I interrogate use through the methodology of what I classify as Foucauldian-lite Discourse Analysis, in order to examine nigger and nigga as ex-citable speech. My intention is to interrogate how these utterances inflect and influence constructions of multiply conflicting and complimentary histories, identities, subjectivities and power relationships of professors and students in visible and invisible ways. The Untitled Supplemental Image is a metaphor for my methodology. The image is of my mother’s hands, which a woven throughout the dissertation, symbolically represents my memory of the first time I heard the utterance nigger.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Research on Harriet Jacobs' slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl exploded after 1981, when Professor Jean Fagin Yellin discovered textual evidence for refuting then-current claims that Lydia Maria Child was the author of this engrossing story. Child was indeed the book's editor, but Yellin discovered letters from Jacobs among the papers of abolitionist Amy Post that proved that the ex-slave was the author of her own narrative. Though the research this discovery engendered has been quite extensive, especially regarding the narrative's close adherence to the conventions of a sentimental novel, very few scholars have attempted to deal with a feature relatively unique to Jacobs" narrative: the use of African American English (AAE) in representing the speech of a number of her characters. Nor has any scholar exclusively focused on the authenticity of her representation of AAE. This paper, a first step in such an effort, demonstrates that Jacobs' use conforms to features found by linguists in their studies of contemporary AAE and Early Black English (EBE).

This study explores the notion of female cultural difference in the context of dominant patriarchal and other oppressive patriarchal structures. Essentially, its focus is on deconstructing stereotypical images of women, who are often perceived as homogenous. Throughout the study I argue that as much as their sensibilities are varied, African and African American women respond differently to the oppressive conditions they find themselves in. The following selected texts provided the opportunities for exploring and evaluating the genealogy of female cultural difference that is central to my research: Anthills of the Savannah (Chinua Achebe); Scarlet Song (Mariama Ba); The Joys of Motherhood and Kehinde (BuchiEmecheta); Their Eyes Were Watching God (Nora Zeale Hurston); Bitches Brew and Seven Steps to Heaven (Fred Khumalo). In the process of analyzing these texts, I demonstrated that the notion of cultural difference is often narrowly and erroneously construed. I discovered that the protagonists in these texts are not only conscious of their oppressed condition but often adopt strategic agency to contest male privileges that silence them. In pursuit of this critical perspective, I have proceeded to apply relevant theoretical frameworks constructed by Cornel West, Hudson-Weems, Bakhtin and a conflation of others whose philosophical tenets support the major theoretical frameworks. The aforementioned literary critics have enabled me to come up with a more comprehensive and richer analysis of the set texts. In my analysis I have advanced the argument that female visibility manifests itself variously and temporally through individual and sometimes sisterly attempts at empowerment, self- definition and esoteric discursive features. I noted that all this is evidence of the nascent creative potential in African women who refuse to be silenced. In my analysis of the Seven texts I have incorporated, modified and developed some of the insights from critical thinkers who engage in the ongoing debate about female cultural difference. This approach has enabled me to come up with new insights that ferret out veneers of African women’s rich cultural diversity, in light of the ever changing nature of women’s operational spaces. It is this transcendental vision that basically informs and resonates with my study. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)