Renato Zero rappresenta un mito contemporaneo in quanto nell'artista, molte persone vivono un'esperienza di senso, di comunità e di sacro. Il mito è una dimensione sacrale, con una forte valenza sia religiosa, sia sociale. L'arte musicale di Renato Zero offre l'accesso ad un mondo di speranza e di valori (amore, amicizia, solidarietà, coraggio, fede), un mondo che reincanta e unisce chi si stringe intorno a lui: i suoi fan, detti sorcini o zerofolli. Il fandom zerofolle costituisce una comunità reale e on line, in quanto il web appare centrale nella costruzione di un'identità sorcina; una comunità nella quale si condivide una cultura zeroista. Il legame tra Zero e i sorcini è interpretato alla luce della teoria del carisma di Weber. Infine, il punto d'appoggio per una concezione laica di sacro, in cui sacro consiste in un'esperienza di senso, è fornito dalla sociologia della religione di Durkheim. / In the actual society there are different shapes of sacred, and the myth is one of this forms. Myth has more means, and celebrity is a part of this means. Especially, the religion of celebrity is an important social phenomenon, and d our analysis?object is a star: the singer Renato Zero. Around the star there is a fandom, interesting social movement, in which people of fan build sense of belonging and identity. The fan club represents a form of fandom and is a passion community, with her order, space, communication, rite or ceremony, and mythology. The name of Zero?s fandom is sorcini o zerofolli; they are a sort of charismatic aristocracy around own prophet; in fact, the weberian theory of charisma represents a principal interpretation of this fandom (perhaps of fandom generally). Sorcini has worths and a collective conscience: in this case we found our interpretation on Émile Durkheim sociology and, in particular, on theory of rite as celebration on community. Sorcini has a liturgy and sacred in the myth of Renato Zero, in fact, sorcini are different to simple fan, because sorcini mean an identity and sense of group or membership.

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In a heteronormative society where hegemonic masculinity prevails, beauty is often synonymous with, and presented as, feminine. For example, pictures of tall, thin women with perfect teeth and perfect skin gloss the covers of magazines and other forms of media as representative of some beauty ideal. This “ideal” is the barometer by which, on many levels, all women are judged. While some women may choose to ignore these messages, few women can always escape comparison. Our society constantly informs us that appearance matters. More specifically for women, a feminine physical appearance is often considered “ideal.” But what exactly does this construct, feminine, signify? Fundamentally, femininity is not static. To speak of it as a logical, simple construct is problematic for it means different things and is expressed in different ways in different environments. Furthermore, to assert one definition by which all others will be measured is difficult in that it presumes a homogenous population and/or idealizes one specific representation. In this research project I conducted in-depth interviews with 43 non-heterosexual women to discern how they constructed “femininity.” What did it look like? What meanings did it connote? When was it important and how was it negotiated? Applying a cognitive sociological lens and using grounded theory methods, I describe what femininity, or arguably femininities, look(s) like within this subpopulation. This project contributes to and extends the literature on gender, sexuality, and appearance. It does this by demonstrating the importance of analyzing non-heterosexual women’s experiences and understandings of femininity within a patriarchal society that valorizes hegemonic masculinity. Most literature contemplating appearance and related misogynistic messages emphasizes a heteronormative perspective. However, feminine and femininity uniquely impact non-heteronormative women. Non-heterosexual women must negotiate both misogynistic and heterosexist messages concurrently. By simultaneously addressing this “double” subordination or marginalization, this research endeavors to provide a more comprehensive overview of meanings and ramifications of appearance choices.

Most books written about American drama concern definitions of masculinity, the American dream, and the family in a society that encourages people to surpass their competences and limits. American playwrights of the twentieth century reveal the anxiety and insecurity of men who do not rise up to the standards of the American dream. In concentrating on these themes, most critics have analyzed the main characters and plots but have left aside hints about other myths. This study aims to analyse the extended use of the cowboy, of salesman, and of pirate in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The recurrence of these three myths touches on the core of American drama that playwrights and critics have tried to define endlessly: the definition of the male in the American society.

The aim of this Master thesis was to examine news journalism covering expressions of mourning related to violent or unexpected deaths. What rituals for mourning are brought out in media and do media present guidance to how mourners should behave?   The questions examined were: What characterised news events that leaded to texts on expressions of mourning? How was grief framed? Which narrative patterns were there in the texts? How was the deceased represented? How were the mourners represented?   165 texts, from Swedish daily newspapers, covering 93 different news events were analysed. The methods were mainly discourse analysis with focus on identities and relations, but also semiotic analysis with focus on staging and symbols and narrative analysis with focus on patterns for storytelling.   The result showed that a news story about ordinary people expressing their feelings of grief has elements of melodrama. The news story is based on the myth of the victim, and formed as a typical story where equilibrium is disturbed when the inconceivable happens and the mourners can by their actions restore equilibrium. The paradigms behind are the opposites life – death and good – evil.    The deceased is represented as a victim in a mythic sense. The most important qualities of a victim are youth, innocence and goodness. The victim is framed as a person we could sympathise and identify with. The mourners in the texts praise the victim and sanctify the place where the victim died with candles, roses and notes. The mourners are essential to the story; they create identification and an identity that include us as readers in a community and a discourse of mourning and mourners. The ordinary people who appear as mourners in the texts are relatives and close friends of the victim, but also mourning tourists, media chosen friends and anonymous women who are represented, in a stereotypical way, as the professional female mourner who weep over the deceased. In some texts celebrities appear as mourners of ordinary people, and they personalize how the distinction between public and private is erased in popular journalism. They also might give a kind of legitimacy to the way media frame the story about ordinary people mourning the innocent victim.   Some texts had a partly diverging story. If the victim, in some aspect, could not be framed as innocent the paradigm good – evil became problematic. When victims or mourners had foreign origin the contrast us – them was added.  In some texts the ethical code for Swedish journalists was disregarded, mainly by publishing information on ethnicity or by interviewing children and people in shock

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<p>Bakgrund: Inom investering förekommer ett flertal tumregler och myter. En myt som cirkulerat bland investerare är att framsidor i branschtidskrifter, benämnt Cover Stories, skulle utgöra en indikator för en contrarian strategi. Våren 2007 presenterade den första studie där det undersöktes om Cover Stories hade utgjort indikatorer för enskilda företag i USA. Vi kommer att undersöka om Cover Stories i Affärsvärlden och Veckans Affärer utgjort en indikator på den svenska marknaden under tidsperioden 1987 till 2006. Utfallen av våra resultat kan eventuellt bidra till att investerare inte fattar beslut utifrån en felaktig myt om samband inte kan påvisas. Finner vi ett samband kan vi fastställa att det funnits fog för myten.</p><p>Syfte: Vår studie syftar till att undersöka huruvida Cover Stories har kunnat användas som indikator i en contrarian eller momentum strategi under tidsperioden 1987 till 2006.</p><p>Genomförande: Vår studie har genomförts med den amerikanska studien som utgångspunkt. Affärsvärldens och Veckans Affärers framsidor har undersökts för tidsperioden 1987 till 2006. Under denna tidsperiod fann vi 298 företag som kunde kategoriseras beroende på om Cover Storyn var positiv eller negativ till företaget i fråga. Kategoriseringen som gjorts i ursprungsstudien ansåg vi vara för generell varför en metodutveckling gjordes. Därefter beräknades avkastningen kring publiceringsdagen för olika tidsintervall. Eventuell överavkastning beräknades genom att 1) justera för marknadens avkastning samt 2) justera för respektive bransch avkastning. Detta för att utreda huruvida trender kunde fastställas och om det var möjligt att använda Cover Stories som en indikator. De erhållna resultaten är testade för statistiskt signifikans.</p><p>Slutsats: Generellt har positiva Cover Stories utgjort en momentum indikator medan negativa Cover Stories utgjort contrarian indikator. Kategorispecifika resultat visar dock på värden som till största del saknar statistisk signifikans. Vidare är spridningen i hur företag avkastar stor. Sammantaget finner vi därför inget stöd för myten och rekommenderar inte en contrarian strategi med Cover Stories som indikator, vilket är i linje med ursprungsstudien.</p> / <p>Background: Myths and rules of thumb are widely spread within finance. One among many others is that Cover Stories of financial magazines are effective contrarian indicators. In spring of 2007 the first study was presented were it had been investigated if Cover Stories could have been used as indicators for companies in the U.S. We will examine whether Cover Stories in the Swedish financial magazines ‘Affärsvärlden’ and ‘Veckans Affärer’ constitute indicators for the Swedish market from 1987 to 2006. The outcome of our study can either prevent investors from making incorrect decisions based on a myth for which we have found no proof or strengthen the myth if we the magazines indeed could have been used as an indicator.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether Cover Stories could have been used as indicators for either a contrarian or momentum strategy in the period of 1987 to 2006.</p><p>Realization: The basis of our study has been the study made on the U.S.-market. The Cover Stories of ‘Affärsvärldens’ and ‘Veckans Affärer’ have been categorized for the period of 1987 to 2006, depending on the nature of the Cover Story, i.e. if it is depicting the company in a positive or negative manner. We considered the categorisation which hade been applied in the original study to be too general. Therefore we further developed the methodology regarding the categorisation. Subsequently the change of the stock price, for each company being the object of a cover story, before and after publication was compared. The return was then adjusted for the market return and the return of respective industry, again for each company. This enabled us to determine whether Cover Stories had been useful as an indicator. The results have been tested statistically.</p><p>Findings: Positive Cover Stories constituted a momentum indicator while negative Cover Stories represented contrarian indicators. The majority of the results in the specific categories lack statistic significance, furthermore are the discrepancy in the returns of the companies considerable. To sum up, our results do not support the myth and we would not recommend a contrarian strategy based solely on Cover Stories as an indicator.</p>

Thèse doctorat : Department of English : Uppsala : 1993.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université Laval, 1999. / Comprend des réf. bibliogr.

This thesis examines the lived experience of economic migration of young and degree level educated migrants from Poland to Britain. The main aim is to explore how the participants of economic migration within the borders of the European Union experience migrating. The special feature of this migration is the fact that they leave a postcommunist country and come to a country with a well established capitalist economy and long-standing democracy. The particular questions are: how these migrants construct their experience of migrating, are they faced with any problems while doing it, and if so - how do they resolve them? The data comes from twenty-two semi-structured interviews with migrants educated to degree level who were residents and worked in one of the regions of England at a professional level or below their qualifications (manual or simple clerical work). The research utilises the critical discourse analysis perspective; the data is approached with analysis focused on linguistic choices (lexical and grammatical) evident in the respondents’ statements. This kind of analysis enables observation and in-depth interpretation of the way experiences of migrating are constructed. The migrants’ narratives were full of discursive struggle while constructing their experience of migrating. Firstly, the interviewees made an effort to present their migration as rational. Secondly, they were trying to rationalise their financial needs to refute accusations of greed for money. Thirdly, the underemployed migrants justified their employment choices by distancing themselves from work below that which they were qualified for. Fourthly, the interviewees were making an attempt to withdraw from a multicultural community by constructing the negative Other. Exploring lived experience of living and working abroad reveals competitive discourses and ways of coping with ambivalence. Understanding these discursive practices requires knowledge of their beliefs and values that underpin the discourses available in the Polish postcommunist society. Overall, the narratives overflowed with dilemmas that showed this migration as more complicated on an individual level than the official discourse of free movement of people in the EU suggests. This thesis captures the migrants’ lived experience within one year after the EU enlargement; it reflects on the narratives being shaped when migrants were given the opportunity to introduce the new discourses on migration or re-think the old ones as a result of new macro-processes in the European Union. This research complements other studies exploring migrants’ voices in search of insight into what their experiences were and how they made sense out of them. However, with the methodology used, it focuses more on uncovering the struggle over arguments available to build their stories. It offers explanation to their discursive practices by analysing them against the discourses as being products of postcommunism. The study’s results may shed more light on recent processes within this group of migrants and also inform institutional policy and practice about problems affecting members of this group, reported in this thesis.