The way Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted simultaneously conforms to its late-20th-century American standards and rebels against its Cinderella origins is analyzed in this thesis. As an analysis of a piece of literature written for children, the thesis works to defend the notion that playful literature produces a serious dialogue with its readers, and that young female readers are a particularly apropos group for the dialogue about hegemony that Ella Enchanted allows.

Martina Haag’s method of self-mockery used in her chronicles is characterized by her wish to live up to various ideals. This essay brings out the subversive power of self-deprecatory hu-mor expressed in her book Hemma hos Martina. The author’s strategies and kinds of humor are being studied, leading up to what this humor accomplishes. General theories on humor, by Mary Ann Rishel, Maria Ohlsson, Henri Bergson, Joannne R. Gilbert and Simon Critchley are being applied to find the essence of her craftsmanship in writing comedy. The analysis also goes more closely into the style and language, to give a deeper understanding of how she creates jokes, and also how she relates to her ideals through language. The main thrust of the analysis, though, builds on theories on self-deprecatory humor. Haag is included into Joanne R. Gilbert’s theory on self-deprecation and The Whiner within the field of stand-up comedy. Some American feminist critics have rejected self-deprecatory humor as being anti-feminist, stating that women applying this particular kind of humor merely reinforce stereoty-pes, and put themselves down. This paper objects to those critics, leaning on Haag’s book. I wish to show that Haag is not demeaning towards herself, but towards the cultural norms and expectations in our present society. In this context, I show how Haag manages to demystify and criticize ideal representations of women, by lampooning them and revolting against them. In this way, her book turns into a satirical critique of cultural values. My essay illustrates how Haag objectifies herself, making regular use of stereotypes. This is necessary, since these two elements are essential to most humor. Haag confirms stereotypes to make people laugh. This laughter brings about awareness in the reader, making Haag’s work a social critique of current values and norms concerning women.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:38:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5983.pdf: 3986392 bytes, checksum: 247e5a54af7325ba9d51ec6633cf13b4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-11 / Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos / In 1939, Carmen Miranda was a consecrated singer in Brazil, in her career on the radio broadcasting as well as theatres and casinos. As a national idol she went to the United States under a contract for a revue on Broadway. Her new career in the United States was seen by Brazilians as a diplomatic mission and she was required to represent her nation and introduce the national rhythm samba to the North-American audiences. At that time, she performed the national identity which was remodeled through the mass culture national dynamics, integrating popular and afro-Brazilian elements, but also filtering them in order to produce an image based on whiteness. In this way, the white artist, remembered for her remarkable green eyes and attuned to the Hollywoodian fashion, featured the Baiana character, a Brazilian national type which referred to a black woman. In her international career, however, she became the new representation of Latin America in the midst of the Good Neighbor Policy period. Carrying her stylized Baianas dressings, Miranda evoked a happy, cheerful, sensual, exuberantly representation of Latin America, offering the opportunity to escapism during the World War II. From the radio broadcasting to the Hollywood cinema, and also participating in some TV shows, Carmen Miranda was part of a process in which the Brazilian national identity came to be produced through the mass culture involving national and international creations. Through the concept of performativity, this thesis explores how Carmen Miranda created new symbolical senses about the national identity and Latin American representations in a form of complicity, with consolidated meanings based on coloniality , considering both national and international dimensions. Because of her path (closely related to the Brazilian popular culture), Carmen reproduced the cultural meanings involved in her representations through three constitutive elements: humor, exaggeration and caricature. These characteristics, alongside with self-parody and irony, enabled some kinds of audiences to read her performances as subversive in a sense that she was destabilizing the comprehension of identity as essence, and, at the same time, challenging social constructed hierarchies. These features allowed her to be appropriated as a camp icon, in the United States, and in a carnivalesque way, in Brazil. / Em 1939, Carmen Miranda já estava consagrada profissionalmente no Brasil, embarcando para os Estados Unidos com um contrato para uma revista na Broadway, tomando sua viagem, aos olhos do público brasileiro, contornos de uma missão diplomática: representar o país no exterior e difundir o samba. A artista brasileira levava ao novo contexto, uma nova forma de representar o país que se redimensionava pela cultura de massas. Por esse meio, as expressões culturais populares e afro-brasileiras passavam a fazer parte da construção simbólica da nação, muito embora a partir de um filtro moral e racial que incorporava tais elementos caracterizando-os a partir da branquitude. Deste modo, Carmen Miranda interpretou com sua pele clara, olhos verdes chamativos e adequação à moda cosmopolita, a personagem negra da baiana que passava a ser ícone nacional. Ao migrar aos Estados Unidos, em pouco tempo chegou a ser a artista mais bem paga do cinema norte-americano, transformando-se em uma encarnação de uma nova imagem da América Latina, produzida em meio à Política de Boa Vizinhança. Levando consigo suas baianas , constituiu um espetáculo em cores, propiciado pelo cinema Technicolor, em uma representação una e fantasística de alegria e tropicalidade feminina da América Latina, dentro de um clima de amizade panamericana no sombrio período da Segunda Guerra Mundial. No novo contexto, o estereótipo da latino-americana de longa história no cinema hollywoodiano, se sobrepunha à figura da baiana, guardando conotações similares a ela, como a sensualidade. Passando do rádio ao cinema e tendo ainda atuado em programas na emergente televisão, a artista participou como protagonista do processo no qual a identidade nacional se redefinia por meio da cultura de massas e em uma dinâmica envolvendo representações nacionais e internacionais. Por meio do conceito de performatividade, esta tese explora como a artista criou novos sentidos simbólicos sobre a nação e a América Latina, imbricando representações de gênero, raça e sexualidade, em cumplicidade com significados já consolidados e embasados na colonialidade , tanto em uma dimensão nacional como internacional. Embebida de sua trajetória na cultura popular, o humor, o exagero e a caricatura eram elementos constitutivos da forma como Carmen performatizava os sentidos simbólicos envoltos em suas representações. Foram estas características, juntamente com suas interpretações autoparodísticas e sua ironia, que permitiram que a carreira de Carmen fosse compreendida como desestabilizadora das identidades enquanto essências e questionadora das hierarquias socialmente instituídas, abrindo assim espaço para recepções divergentes e subalternas das quais se destacam a sua apropriação camp, nos Estados Unidos, e carnavalizadora, no Brasil.

O recente desenvolvimento de uma teoria crítica dos sistemas, de Gunther Teubner a Andreas Fischer-Lescano, abriu novos horizontes teóricos para aqueles que se propõe a estudar a sociedade e o sistema jurídico. A construção de uma teoria crítica sob condições sistêmicas possibilitou o uso conjunto de temas e conceitos teóricos provenientes da teoria crítica da primeira geração da Escola de Frankfurt (crítica imanente, antagonismos sociais, reificação, dialética do esclarecimento) e da teoria dos sistemas (paradoxo, sistema, sociedade mundial). Partindo disso, o sistema jurídico foi analisado nas dimensões da justiça (como fórmula contingente e transcendente) e de sua crítica imanente como atitude transcendente, especialmente em face de sua tendência em se autorreproduzir como ordem social reificada que gera injustiça pelos excessos de justiça. Para alcançar essas conclusões, este trabalho se propôs a analisar o cenário da sociedade moderna no qual nasce a teoria crítica dos sistemas (Parte 1), lançando bases para os aspectos estruturais e semânticos sobre os quais ela se apoia. Seguidamente, foram estabelecidos os pressupostos teóricos básicos da teoria crítica da Escola de Frankfurt e da teoria dos sistemas de Luhmann (Parte 2) com o fim específico de colher os elementos essenciais à construção de uma teoria crítica dos sistemas voltada para o estudo do sistema jurídico. Logrado esse ponto, focou-se a análise do sistema jurídico e de sua evolução até alcançar sua atual condição na forma de um direito global na sociedade fragmentada (Parte 3). A partir disso a justiça autossubversiva e a crítica imanente do direito foram abordadas em seus aspectos essenciais e possibilitadores de uma autotranscendência sistêmica, capaz de tornar o direito mais responsivo com relação ao seu ambiente, limitando a irracionalidade racional inerente a uma ordem social reificada. A presente dissertação propõe dar mais um passo no sentido do desenvolvimento de uma teoria crítica dos sistemas aplicada ao direito, diagnosticando os dilemas contemporâneos e ao mesmo tempo, apontando os desafios existentes numa sociedade mundial paradoxalmente marcada pela possibilidade de hipertrofia sistêmica das ordens sociais reificadas e pelos processos de constitucionalização que buscam limitar essas ordens. / The recent development of critical systems theory, from Gunther Teubner to Andreas Fischer-Lescano, opened new horizons for the theorists who propose to study the society and the legal system. The construction of a critical theory under systemic conditions allows the joint use of theoretical concepts and themes from the first generation of the Frankfurt School (immanent critique, social antagonisms, reification, Dialectic of Enlightenment) and systems theory (paradox, systems, global society). Starting from this, the legal system was analyzed in the dimensions of justice (as contingent and transcendent formula) and its immanent critique as transcendent attitude, especially against the tendency to self-reproduce as reified social order, which produces injustices because excess of the justice. To reach these conclusions, this study aims to analyze the condition of modern society in which the critical systems theory arises (Part 1), laying the foundation for structural and semantic aspects on which it stands. Subsequently was established the basic theoretical premises of critical theory of the Frankfurt School and the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann (Part 2) with the specific purpose of collecting the essential elements to build a critical systems theory facing the study of the legal system. Reached this point, focused on the analysis of the legal system and its evolution to reach its current status of a global law in a fragmented society (Part 3). Like this the self-subversive justice and the immanent critique of the law have focused on key aspects that enable a systemic self-transcendence, able to make the law more responsive regarding to its environment by limiting its rational irrationality, which implies a reified social order. This thesis proposes give a step further towards the development of a critical theory applied to the law systems, diagnosing contemporary dilemmas and at the same time, pointing out the challenges of a global society paradoxically marked by the possibility of systemic hypertrophy stemmed from reified social orders and the constitutionalization processes that seek to limit such orders.

Needlework has been practiced throughout history, across the nation of Sweden and the world, primarily by women within the home. In recent years a revival of the craft has been seen worldwide, the covid lockdown and an aging population being two factors contributing to this. Historically there’s been a duality to the practice of needlework. On one hand, it’s been a means of oppression, and on the other hand, it's been a weapon of resistance and a source of joy, creativity, and collectivity. It has, throughout history, proven to be a political, social and creative tool and, as argued in this thesis, a spatial tool. The practice of needlework allows for the artisan to travel between different spheres. This thesis sets out to explore the potential of moving between private and public, performing a public domesticity through, for example, knitting.  Needlework is, in its nature, slow. This slowness, the repetitive movements of the hands and the touching of tactile materials emphasizes the process of making and prompts reflections and emotions. This thesis argues that methods of needlework as, for example, layering, mending, joining, ripping, and patching, clearly connect to the architectural design process. These methods emphasize notions of care and maintenance. The thesis uses an interdisciplinary approach to investigate needlework as both the topic of research and the means of spatial exploration and representation, aiming to underpin the relevance of engaging with needlework in the architectural design process, as a way of maintaining the craft and learning new things. Rooms devoted to the practice of needlework haven't appeared in a building plan for many years. The design proposal, presented in the report, aims to explore the possibility of these spaces reappearing within the public sphere. The proposal is placed within the context of Sweden with no specific site intended. Proposing a space of appearance (term coined by Hannah Arendt in her theory of Plurality) actualized through the collective making of the syjunta (sewing circle). Creating a public syrum (sewing room)  where the practice of needlework and its practitioners can appear, connected to ideas of feminist architectural practice to make the everyday visible. The thesis project engages with needlework by seeing it as a collective act of taking and making space.

La distinction entre le port du hijab, généralement associé à la visibilité de l’islam, et l’obligation du port du hijab, entraînant l’invisibilité des femmes iraniennes, s’ancre dans la dualité entre le choix individuel lié à la pratique religieuse et l’impératif imposé par le régime politique depuis l’avènement de la République islamique d’Iran en 1979. Ce régime a établi des règles vestimentaires strictes contraignant toutes les femmes, indépendamment de leur origine nationale ou de leur confession religieuse, à revêtir un voile couvrant leur tête et leur cou, dissimulant ainsi leurs cheveux, entraînant d’importantes manifestations. Inspiré par l’acte de désobéissance civile de Vida Movahed en 2017 à Téhéran, qui a donné naissance au mouvement « Les Filles de la Rue de la Révolution », le caricaturiste iranien Mana Neyestani, exilé depuis 2007 et résidant en France depuis 2011 en raison de la répression politique en Iran, a renforcé son soutien. À travers la répétition symbolique de ce geste rébellion dans ses œuvres, Neyestani exprime sa solidarité envers les femmes iraniennes résistant aux contraintes vestimentaires imposées par le régime, amplifiant ainsi leur voix. Ce geste demeure un symbole de la résistance des femmes iraniennes, perdurant jusqu’aux soulèvements depuis le mouvement de 2022 accompagné du slogan « Femme, Vie, Liberté ». Ce mémoire a pour but d’étudier l’impact du geste de Movahed sur le travail de Neyestani, explorant les dimensions médiatiques, historiques, religieuses et politiques de cette interaction. En utilisant le concept foucaldien/butlerien de « subjectivation », l’étude démontre que Movahed, en tant que sujet, n’est pas simplement déterminée par les relations de pouvoir, mais plutôt qu’elle peut s'en affranchir grâce à ce processus. L’agentivité de Movahed face aux contraintes révèle la construction sociale, non seulement liée à la condition des femmes, mais également à l’organisation générale du pouvoir. Son geste fortement symbolique devient ainsi le symbole d’un militantisme performatif au cœur des dynamiques sociopolitiques, constituant une menace pour le système patriarcal en exposant ses mécanismes. Les répétitions de ce geste à plusieurs reprises, tant en Iran que dans le travail de Neyestani, représentent des actes de subversion qui contestent le système et, potentiellement, contribuent à son érosion. Ce mémoire aspire à fournir une réflexion sur la capacité de l’art, en particulier le dessin de presse, à façonner une vision positive du monde et à contribuer à sa réalisation. / The distinction between the wearing of the hijab, commonly associated with the visibility of Islam, and the compulsory wearing of the hijab, resulting in the invisibility of Iranian women, is rooted in the duality between individual choice linked to religious practice and the imperative imposed by the political regime since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979. This regime has instituted strict dress codes, compelling all women, regardless of their national origin or religious affiliation, to don a veil covering their head and neck, concealing their hair and prompting significant protests. Inspired by Vida Movahed’s act of civil disobedience in 2017 in Tehran, which gave rise to the “Girls of the Revolution Street” movement, Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani, living in exile since 2007 due to political repression in Iran, has consolidated his support. Through the symbolic repetition of this gesture in his works, Neyestani expresses solidarity with Iranian women resisting the regime’s dress constraints, thereby amplifying their voices. This gesture remains a symbol of Iranian women’s resistance, persisting through the uprisings taking place since the movement in 2022, accompanied by the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”. This master’s thesis aims to study the impact of Movahed’s gesture on Neyestani’s work, exploring its media, historical, religious, and political dimensions. Utilizing the Foucauldian/Butlerian concept of “subjectivation” the study demonstrates that Movahed, as a subject, is not solely determined by power relations but can emancipate herself through this process. Movahed’s agency in the face of constraints reveals the social construction, not only related to the condition of women but also to the overall organization of power. Her highly symbolic gesture becomes a symbol of performative activism at the heart of sociopolitical dynamics, posing a threat to the patriarchal system by exposing its mechanisms. The repeated performance of this gesture, both in Iran and in Neyestani’s work, represents acts of subversion challenging the system and potentially contributing to its erosion. This thesis aspires to provide a reflection on the ability of art, particularly editorial cartoons, to shape a positive vision of the world and contribute to its realization.

This study probes selected stories from Bessie Head's The Collector of Treasures (1977) in order to elicit instances of contiguity and disjuncture between orality and literacy, to establish Head's complex identity configurations which are often manifested in the interactions between aesthetic form and content, authorial consciousness, character delineation, and narrative voice. At the same time, the dissertation explores her portrayal of the proscribed condition of women, the subversive consciousness that undercuts women's subjugation by patriarchy, and her vision for the liberatory possibilities for women from the exigencies of patriarchal domination. I also examine Head's (re-)vision of culture within the framework of hybridity and creolity and determine how some of these perspectives are crystallized in discourses such as When Rain Clouds Gather (1968), Maru (1971) and A Question of Power (1973). I juxtapose my reading of Head with other African writers such as Bâ, Emecheta and Nwapa to draw references in instances where the context permits. The dominant critical approach adopted in this thesis is a contextual approach. I consider this approach useful for my purposes because of its flexibility, the attention it pays to the formal properties of literary texts and, its cognizance of the socio-historical genesis of texts and its demonstration of literature's timeless value. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

Cette thèse pose la question de la fortune remarquable du surréalisme en Belgique et porte particulièrement attention à la poétique de Christian Dotremont qui, après une période surréaliste, trace le premier logogramme en 1962. La partie initiale de notre recherche interroge ses rapports avec le groupe surréaliste bruxellois (Paul Nougé et René Magritte), préoccupé par le refus de l’œuvre. Cette démarche subversive se transforme dans l’art expérimental du groupe Cobra (communauté artistique fondée en 1948 par Dotremont). Nous nous intéressons à cette évolution d’une préoccupation logocentrique (où le mot compte pour le contenu qu’il véhicule : il s’agit de la poétique « primitive » de Nougé et des objets bouleversants de Magritte) vers l’exploration du mot comme trace, comme scription et, par là même, comme source de poésie. La deuxième partie de notre recherche traite de l’époque Cobra où se forge ce que nous appelons la poétique du visible chez Dotremont dont le résultat est la découverte du pouvoir créatif du mot en tant que matière, en tant que trace manuscrite. Ces expérimentations centrées sur la matérialité du langage préparent le cheminement artistique de Dotremont vers l’invention du logogramme (objet d’analyse de la troisième partie de la thèse). Dans l’idée d’une légitimation du logogramme en tant que nouveau genre poético-pictural, nous relevons ses invariants créateurs : sans pour autant se soumettre au modèle pictural, celui-ci n’est ni peinture des mots, ni mot-tableau, il exploite la matérialité de la lettre comme source poétique : genre transfrontalier qui ne cesse de mettre en question et d’inclure dans sa cinétique la métamorphose de sa réception. / The main focus of our research points out the noteworthy longevity of the Belgian surrealist group. Thus, we have chosen to analyze the poetic and artistic works of one of its most important representative, Christian Dotremont. His interartistic poetics (beginning with a surrealist phase and continuing until the invention of the logograms in 1962) is in fact symptomatic for the complete transformation of the Belgian movement. Consequently, the first part of our research examines Dotremont’s contacts and collaborations with the surrealist group (Paul Nougé and René Magritte), mainly interested by subversive creative works. Their negative technique is transformed by Dotremont into experimental art along with his own group founded in 1948, Cobra. The second part of this research would particularly like to draw attention to this evolution from a logocentric artistic point of view in which the word is important for its meaning (Nougé’s “primitive” poetry theory or Magritte’s praxis of “objets bouleversants”) toward Dotremont and Cobra’s discovery of the word as materiality, as scription, and as poetic source. This is the object of the second part of our thesis, where we explore Cobra “poetics of visible”: the pictorial and poetic importance of painted not written texts, words or letters. Cobra collective inventions investigate the aesthetic results of in-between artistic techniques and also emphasize Dotremont progression from a subversive surrealist literary point of view to the invention of logograms. This hybrid creation, the logogram, is examined in detail in the third and last part of our thesis.

When the national Democratic Party began to transform to progressive era politics because of the New Deal, conservative reactionaries turned against the social welfare programs and used red scare tactics to discredit liberal and progressive New Deal Democrat professors in higher education. This process continued during the Second World War, when the conservatives in Texas lumped fascism and communism in order to anchor support and fire and threaten professors and administrators for advocating or teaching “subversive doctrine.” In 1948 Texas joined other southern states and followed the Dixiecrat movement designed to return the Democratic Party to its original pro-business and segregationist philosophy. Conservatives who wanted to bolster their Cold Warrior status in Texas also played upon the fears of spreading communism during the Cold War, and passed several repressive laws intended to silence unruly students and entrap professors by claiming they advocated communist doctrine. The fight culminated during the Civil Rights movement, when conservatives in the state attributed subversive or communist behavior to civil rights organizations, and targeted higher education to protect segregated universities. In order to return the national Democratic Party to the pro-business, segregationist philosophy established at the early twentieth century, conservatives used redbaiting tactics to thwart the progressivism in the state’s higher education facilities.

Cette thèse pose la question de la fortune remarquable du surréalisme en Belgique et porte particulièrement attention à la poétique de Christian Dotremont qui, après une période surréaliste, trace le premier logogramme en 1962. La partie initiale de notre recherche interroge ses rapports avec le groupe surréaliste bruxellois (Paul Nougé et René Magritte), préoccupé par le refus de l’œuvre. Cette démarche subversive se transforme dans l’art expérimental du groupe Cobra (communauté artistique fondée en 1948 par Dotremont). Nous nous intéressons à cette évolution d’une préoccupation logocentrique (où le mot compte pour le contenu qu’il véhicule : il s’agit de la poétique « primitive » de Nougé et des objets bouleversants de Magritte) vers l’exploration du mot comme trace, comme scription et, par là même, comme source de poésie. La deuxième partie de notre recherche traite de l’époque Cobra où se forge ce que nous appelons la poétique du visible chez Dotremont dont le résultat est la découverte du pouvoir créatif du mot en tant que matière, en tant que trace manuscrite. Ces expérimentations centrées sur la matérialité du langage préparent le cheminement artistique de Dotremont vers l’invention du logogramme (objet d’analyse de la troisième partie de la thèse). Dans l’idée d’une légitimation du logogramme en tant que nouveau genre poético-pictural, nous relevons ses invariants créateurs : sans pour autant se soumettre au modèle pictural, celui-ci n’est ni peinture des mots, ni mot-tableau, il exploite la matérialité de la lettre comme source poétique : genre transfrontalier qui ne cesse de mettre en question et d’inclure dans sa cinétique la métamorphose de sa réception. / The main focus of our research points out the noteworthy longevity of the Belgian surrealist group. Thus, we have chosen to analyze the poetic and artistic works of one of its most important representative, Christian Dotremont. His interartistic poetics (beginning with a surrealist phase and continuing until the invention of the logograms in 1962) is in fact symptomatic for the complete transformation of the Belgian movement. Consequently, the first part of our research examines Dotremont’s contacts and collaborations with the surrealist group (Paul Nougé and René Magritte), mainly interested by subversive creative works. Their negative technique is transformed by Dotremont into experimental art along with his own group founded in 1948, Cobra. The second part of this research would particularly like to draw attention to this evolution from a logocentric artistic point of view in which the word is important for its meaning (Nougé’s “primitive” poetry theory or Magritte’s praxis of “objets bouleversants”) toward Dotremont and Cobra’s discovery of the word as materiality, as scription, and as poetic source. This is the object of the second part of our thesis, where we explore Cobra “poetics of visible”: the pictorial and poetic importance of painted not written texts, words or letters. Cobra collective inventions investigate the aesthetic results of in-between artistic techniques and also emphasize Dotremont progression from a subversive surrealist literary point of view to the invention of logograms. This hybrid creation, the logogram, is examined in detail in the third and last part of our thesis.