The story of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11: 1-9) has been interpreted in various ways down through the centuries. However, most commentators have ignored the genre of the text, and have not sought to interpret it within its mythological framework - therefore most interpretations are nothing short of babble. A working text is ascertained, and the complexity of the text investigated. The text is then identified as 'myth': within its mythological framework the tower is seen as a temple linking heaven and earth, ensuring the continuation of the royal dynasty (i e 'making a name'). When used by the Yahwist Levites during the Babylonian Exile, our story was inserted in the great Pre-History as polemic against the Babylonian concept of creation, temple, and dynasty; and served as both a warning and an encouragement to the Exiles. The post-exilic Priestly Writer re-interpreted our story as a warning to the returning exiles that their society, and their temple, should be reconstructed as YHWH determines. Interpreting the story as myth enables it, finally, to speak clearly into our context today, especially that of South Africa. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Th. (Old Testament)

Grâce à la présence et à l’instrumentalisation de la Mare de Déu, l’abbaye et le massif de Montserrat sont devenus, au fil des siècles, un symbole religieux et un bastion du christianisme, puis les gardiens des traditions, de la culture et de l’identité catalanes. Le mythe fondateur religieux, lié à la Vierge de Montserrat, est associé au mythe fondateur de la Catalogne, lié au comte de Barcelone Guifré le Velu, de sorte que religion et identité nationale sont étroitement imbriquées dès la fin du Moyen Âge. Beaucoup d’autres légendes sont élaborées à cette époque, mais la relation entre les Catalans et la Mare de Déu de Montserrat prend une orientation particulière et s’exerce dans un cadre à part.L’universalité de la pensée mythique permet une instrumentalisation politico-religieuse de l’image mariale tout au long de l'histoire de la Catalogne, jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Le XIXe siècle marque une étape majeure dans l’instrumentalisation de la Moreneta et sa liaison avec le sentiment identitaire. Le massif de Montserrat devient le symbole de la patrie catalane et la Vierge de Montserrat se transforme en Vierge de la Patrie. Le régime franquiste signifie une rupture profonde. La Moreneta, dans un premier temps, protège l’action de suppléance intellectuelle et culturelle accomplie par les Bénédictins de Montserrat, puis l’engagement politique devient total. Avec l’arrivée de la démocratie, la Catalogne se réapproprie son passé, et un nouveau rôle se dessine pour la Mare de Déu de Montserrat. / Thanks to the presence and implementation of the Mare de Déu, the abbey and the mountain of Montserrat became, in the course of the centuries, a religious symbol and a bastion of christianity, and, later on, the guardians of the catalan traditions, culture and identity. The religious founding myth, linked to Montserrat Virgin, is associated with Barcelona Count Guifré le Velu, so that religion and national identity have remained closely interlinked since the end of the Middle Ages. Numerous other legends were created at the same time, but the relationship between Catalan people and the Mare de Déu of Montserrat takes a special orientation and grows in a specific place.The universality of the myths enables a political and religious implementation of the marian image throughout the history of Catalonia, until nowadays. The XIXe century marks a major step in the implementation of the Moreneta and Her connection with the sense of identity. The Montserrat mountain becomes the symbol of the Catalan mother country and the Virgin of Montserrat is transformed into the Virgin of the mother country. The pro-Franco regime meant a deep change. At first, the Moreneta protectd the intellectual and cultural substitution carried out by the Montserrat Benedictines, then their political commitment became total. With the arrival of democracy, Catalonia has been recovering its past, and a new role has been emerging for the Mare de Déu of Montserrat.

The story of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11: 1-9) has been interpreted in various ways down through the centuries. However, most commentators have ignored the genre of the text, and have not sought to interpret it within its mythological framework - therefore most interpretations are nothing short of babble. A working text is ascertained, and the complexity of the text investigated. The text is then identified as 'myth': within its mythological framework the tower is seen as a temple linking heaven and earth, ensuring the continuation of the royal dynasty (i e 'making a name'). When used by the Yahwist Levites during the Babylonian Exile, our story was inserted in the great Pre-History as polemic against the Babylonian concept of creation, temple, and dynasty; and served as both a warning and an encouragement to the Exiles. The post-exilic Priestly Writer re-interpreted our story as a warning to the returning exiles that their society, and their temple, should be reconstructed as YHWH determines. Interpreting the story as myth enables it, finally, to speak clearly into our context today, especially that of South Africa. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Th. (Old Testament)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:35:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoaoMP.pdf: 572426 bytes, checksum: 3eb2abb81c860d59d686cd34cb63726a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2004-08-06 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / The plot myth-techno-logic, contemporary, was developed starting from the dualism myth-reason. In this study, we deepened the alluded dualism taking as reference the historical contexts of the Renaissance and of the Enlightenment, emphasizing the discussion of the economical rationalization as conductive thread of the western development, in which we identified the game of the rational and of the irrational, for assure the superiority of the reason. In the context of that game, we analyzed the implications of the modernization, for the education, in function of the instrumental rationality, responsible for the environment of adaptation of the technological instruments to the scenery of the contemporary modernization. The new context is constituted by points of union and of ruptures among the technique, the science and the myth. Through our analysis, we noticed that the basic needs for the contemporary society were linked to the changes in the production means, for which the machine determine the rhythm of the work and the quality of the product. However, the changes in the productive processes promoted the appearance of the commercial marks that, as we see it, they represented the synthesis of the perfect harmony of the myth, of the technique, of the science and of the technology, in the conduction of the economical rationalization to the contemporary modernization. Thus, the contemporary modernization it arrives us for the economical rationalization, developed with the support of the technician-scientific knowledge and communicated by the articulations of the myth-techno-logical / A trama mito-tecno-l?gica, contempor?nea, foi desenvolvida a partir da dicotomia mito-raz?o. Neste estudo, aprofundamos a referida dicotomia tomando como refer?ncia os contextos hist?ricos do Renascimento e do Iluminismo, ressaltando a discuss?o da racionaliza??o econ?mica como fio condutor do desenvolvimento ocidental, no qual identificamos o jogo do racional e do irracional, para assegurar a superioridade da raz?o. No contexto desse jogo, analisamos as implica??es da moderniza??o, para a educa??o, em fun??o da racionalidade instrumental, respons?vel pelo ambiente de adequa??o dos instrumentos tecnol?gicos ao cen?rio da moderniza??o contempor?nea. O novo contexto ? constitu?do por pontos de intersec??o e ruptura entre a t?cnica, a ci?ncia e o mito. Atrav?s da nossa an?lise, percebemos que as necessidades b?sicas para o conjunto da contemporaneidade encontravam-se vinculadas ?s mudan?as nas formas de produ??o, para o qual a m?quina passou a determinar o ritmo do trabalho e a qualidade do produto. Por sua vez, as mudan?as nos processos produtivos promoveram o surgimento das marcas comerciais que, no nosso modo de ver, representaram a s?ntese da perfeita harmonia do mito, da t?cnica, da ci?ncia e da tecnologia, na condu??o da racionaliza??o econ?mica at? ? moderniza??o contempor?nea. Desse modo, a moderniza??o contempor?nea nos chega pela racionaliza??o econ?mica, desenvolvida com o respaldo dos conhecimentos t?cnico-cient?ficos, e comunicada pelas articula??es do mito-tecno-l?gico

The problem statement mainly deals with the curtailment of the high function status of Afrikaans in South Africa since 1994 as this has a negative impact on the six million mother tongue speakers of Afrikaans as well as on non-mother tongue speakers for whom the language has an instrumental value. The question is raised as to whether myth making around Afrikaans can be held partly responsible for this loss in status. The term “myth” and the impact of myths are looked into. “Myth” is not used in this thesis as a “story without ground” (as in the dictionary definition), but, according to the work of Jung, Campbell, Leroux, Malan and others, as a story/narrative that gives voice to man’s search for meaning and significance. The main points of departure are: · The viewpoint of the well-known twentieth-century mythologist, Joseph Campbell, who states: “Myths are stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance (Campbell in Flowers 1988:5); and · The statement of Malan (1978:39) namely that myth has always been the way in which man has tried to explain the sense, significance and purpose of the cosmos by means of a simple narrative. Myth making within groups (Anderson 1991: “imagined communities”) is viewed and the role of of political myth making explicitly stated. In this regard the statement of Leonard Thompson is relevant. Thompson (1985:3) points to two kinds of myths, namely: 1) “conservative myths” (for example about the origins of a group); and 2) “radical myths” (that aim to discredit the regime of “the other”). In the discourse about myths around Afrikaans the point of departure is that the specific myth is regarded as positive or negative in terms of its impact on the status and position of Afrikaans in South Africa. The two “main” myths around Afrikaans are discussed by exemplification and by means of anecdotes and the impact of the said myths on Afrikaans is evaluated. The two myths are: · Afrikaans as mythical binding force in Afrikaner nationalism in (mainly) the first fifty years of the twentieth century; and · Afrikaans as metaphorical language of the oppressor, especially in the period of institutionalized apartheid. The impact of the above myths within various Afrikaans systems (among others the historiography and literature of Afrikaans and the school syllabi) is furthermore exemplified with the purpose of indicating how great this impact has been. Finally the question is asked: ”And now, Afrikaans?” (with acknowledgement to the title of a publication by Hans du Plessis, 1992: “En nou, Afrikaans?”). The conclusion is that the status of Afrikaans in the so-called high language functions is daily under more pressure as a result of the hegemony of English in the country. There should be rational and firm negotiations about this unconstitutional curtailment of the rights of Afrikaans. The speakers of Afrikaans can, however, help to preserve the language by: 1. Living with the myths around Afrikaans in the sense that they develop and demonstrate understanding and empathy for the myths of other groups; 2. Using Afrikaans daily for all functions, especially seeing that Afrikaans is indeed suitably developed to meet any need; and 3. Working towards new myth making around Afrikaans, by – among other things – pointing to the fact that Afrikaans, as a language of Africa, has a greater claim to national language status in South Africa than the international language, English. / Thesis (DLitt (Afrikaans))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Afrikaans / unrestricted

`Resurrection' can be approached from several angles. The most common angle is what this study avoids: pressing for a `yes' or a `no' answer as to whether `Jesus really rose from the dead'. That is, demanding a definitive and final outcome from the discipline of historical-critical research. This study treats resurrection as a symbol. Symbols intrinsically generate multiple meanings. Historical, hermeneutical and gospel-critical parameters are the constraints within which reflection on the symbol of resurrection must take place, and the validity of perspectives be established. John Dominic Crossan's view of the resurrection is the focal point of discussion in this thesis, for two reasons. (1) He has clearly mapped out his method. (2) He occupies a middle position, by interpreting resurrection metaphorically and theologically. This sets him apart from those who interpret the resurrection literally and historically and those who accept the negative or uncertain outcome from the side of historical-critical inquiry as the death sentence for Christian faith. / New Testament / M.Th. (New Testament)

This dissertation concurs with the Jungian postulation that certain psychological archetypes are inclined to be reproduced by the collective unconscious. In turn, these psychological archetypes are revealed to emerge in literature as literary archetypes. It is consequently argued that science fiction has come to form a new mythology because the archetypal images are displaced in a modern, scientific guise. This signifies a shift in the collective world view of humanity, or a shift in its collective consciousness. It is consequently argued that humanity’s collective consciousness has evolved from mythic thought to scientific thought, courtesy of the numerous groundbreaking scientific discoveries of the past few centuries. This dissertation posits as a premise that Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s supposition of humanity’s collective consciousness evolving towards what he calls the Omega Point to hold true. The scientific displacement of the literary archetypes reveals humankind’s evolution towards the Omega Point and a cosmic consciousness. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

The purpose of this study was to examine how male and female celebrities are represented on the 24 covers of e+, a weekly entertainment magazine that was published by Dubai-based Al Nisr Publishing. This cross-sectional, exploratory study used a qualitative visual semiotic analysis and quantitative content analysis to examine how male and female celebrities are constructed and represented on covers published between October 2010 and September 2011. In addition, the study explored whether the myths and ideologies found on the covers made an impression on the perceptions and tastes of teenagers living in the UAE. A subsequent self-administered questionnaire was completed by 30 teenagers living in the UAE aged between 16 and 19 with the purpose of determining how teenagers experienced representations of celebrities. Furthermore, to gain a deeper understanding of how teenagers experienced celebrity culture, three focus-group interviews, each comprising of six participants, are conducted. The study found that both male and female celebrities were represented in gender stereotypical roles. Results showed that male celebrities were represented as active, strong, decisive and dominant. Male celebrities were associated with success, fast cars and dangerous weapons. On the other hand, female celebrities were predominantly represented as submissive. The representations of female celebrities focused on beauty and fashion. The survey and focus-group results revealed that celebrity culture does have an influence on teenagers. Participants reported that they bought products that they saw celebrities wearing or using, emulated the celebrities’ behaviour and copied hairstyles and make-up looks. However, the study found that, in addition to celebrity culture, teenagers’ perceptions are also shaped by their peers, parents and other people they interact with such as teachers. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)

The 'postmodern challenge' is increasingly felt in the 'end of modernity' to which Gianni Vattimo refers. The West and the world has hitherto been dominated by what Andrew Gamble characterises as the Modern or Western Ideology. But the validity of that worldview and its associated ways of thinking, going back to the 'Enlightenment' and beyond, has come to be radically questioned. It is within this context that the work and thought of CS Lewis is examined. Although Lewis is generally recognised, and regarded himself, as conservative and even reactionary, there is a paradoxical quality to his conservatism, the elements of which coexist with features which might be regarded as liberal and as radically socialist respectively. Similarly, his commitment to the religious and cultural tradition of Western Europe co-exists with a vehement anticolonialism. A paradoxical association of postmodermism with 'premodernity' has been widely noted in Buddhism and, by Derrida, in Eastern Christian theology. This thesis seeks to demonstrate that a paradoxical postmodernism is evident in the thought of Lewis. One source suggested for this is his interest in Eastern Christianity. Another is identified as the influence on Lewis of the opposition of Romanticism to 'Enlightenment' modernity. But Lewis's own engagement with modernity is also shown to be significant. Two broad trends in postmodernism are discussed. The affinities of Lewis's thought with the nihilistic tradition of postmodernism, going back to Nietzsche, is traced with regard to issues such as rationalism, science, the autonomy of the subject, and authorship. But the ambivalent relationship of Lewis to spiritually-oriented, affirmative postmodernism, and particularly Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy, is also analysed. The crucial role of Scholasticism in the development of Western thought is investigated in a comparison of Steiner's views with the Christian position of Lewis. It is concluded that there are grounds to regard Lewis as. 'prophet of postmodernism', and he is compared with Nietzsche and Pope John-Paul II in this regard. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Church History)

This thesis will explore how writers of nineteenth-century Irish horror fiction, namely short stories and novels, used their works to express the social, cultural, and political events of the period. My thesis will employ a New Historicist approach to discuss the effects of colonialism on the writings, as well as archetypal criticism to analyse the mythic origins of the relevant metaphors. The structuralism of Tzvetan Todorov will be used to discuss the notion of the works' appeal as supernatural or possibly realistic works. The theory of Mikhail Bakhtin is used to discuss the writers' linguistic choices because such theory focuses on how language can lead to conflicts amongst social groups. The introduction is followed by Chapter One, "Ireland as England's Fantasy." This chapter discusses Ireland's literary stereotype as a fantasyland. The chapter also gives an overview of Ireland's history of occupation and then contrasts the bucolic, magical Ireland of fiction and the bleak social conditions of much of nineteenth-century Ireland. Chapter Two, "Mythic Origins", analyses the use of myth in nineteenth-century horror stories. The chapter discusses the merging of Christianity and Celtic myth; I then discuss the early Irish belief in evil spirits in myths that eventually inspired horror literature. Chapter Three, "Church versus Big House, Unionist versus Nationalist," analyses how the conflicts of Church/Irish Catholicism vs. Big House/Anglo-Irish landlordism, proBritish Unionist vs. pro-Irish Nationalist are manifested in the tales. In this chapter, I argue that many Anglo-Irish writers present stern anti-Catholic attitudes, while both Anglo-Irish and Catholic writers use the genre as political propaganda. Yet the authors tend to display Home Rule or anti-Home Rule attitudes rather than religious loyalties in their stories. The final chapter of the thesis, "A Heteroglossia of British and Irish Linguistic and Literary Forms," deals with the use of language and national literary styles in Irish literature of this period. I discuss Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia and its applications to the Irish novel; such a discussion because nineteenth-century Ireland was linguistically Balkanised, with Irish Gaelic, Hibemo-English, and British English all in use. This chapter is followed by a conclusion. / English / M. Lit. et Phil. (English)