Traditional Chinese woodblock New Year pictures face the danger of being marginalized and disappearing in the context of industrialization and technological development. It is, therefore, imperative to conduct research on traditional New Year pictures to address this challenge. This thesis analyses the content of New Year pictures from four representative bases (Yangliuqing, Taohuawu, Wuqiang, and Mianzhu) in China. The semiotic perspective is selected as a theoretical framework. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of representative New Year pictures, this study identifies commonly used signs in New Year pictures and explores their meanings from the perspectives of connotation and myth. The study also examines the construction relationship between the signifier and the signified of the signs. These findings preliminarily construct the semiotic system for Chinese woodblock New Year pictures. Furthermore, the analytical framework provides an innovative quantitative research approach to the study of traditional New Year picture signs, contributing to the current research on the New Year pictures’ semiotic system. In previous studies, quantitative methods have never been applied to the study of New Year pictures, nor have they been widely used in other similar folk art forms. Distant reading methods from the field of digital humanities open new frontiers in the study of folk art. While visual art may be better suited for traditional close-up reading, computational methods can help capture the overall characteristics of art from a macroscopic perspective.

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More journalists are choosing to settle down and work in bigger cities, while the number of journalists in smaller towns decreases. This study aims to examine professional journalists' views on careers and job opportunities in a metropolitan centralized field of work. The focus is on career, salary, network, geographical proximity and myths that arise in the conversation around these focus points. Despite the fact that journalists are educated around the country and the population expects nationwide reporting, half of Sweden's journalists live in Stockholm today. Therefore it is interesting to see what consequences it has in the attitudes towards a working career and the journalistic force after a few years as an active journalist. To find out, a qualitative interview study was conducted with six professional journalists. The conversations resulted in five themes that are presented in the study's analysis. The theoretical frameworks on which the study is based are Pierre Bourdeius' field theory and Roland Barthe's theory of myths. The results show that the geographical choice of profession affects what a journalist can work with. For example, certain journalistic professions are not offered in the smaller towns. There is also a difference between the journalism that is conducted in smaller and larger places. Because of this, some journalists believe that a move to a larger city is required to be able to pursue a career in the industry. In the field of work, contacts are important, as networks are seen as the main path to new job opportunities. The perception of uncertainty in the industry means that a permanent job is seen as a sign of status as it generates recognition among other journalists. In conversations about journalists' careers, underlying and implicit meanings are expressed that can be linked to journalism. The answers in the interviews can be seen as myths. One of the most common descriptions of being educated as a journalist is that it is difficult to get a job after graduation. Furthermore, local journalism is expressed as a limited form, while national journalism is city-based and limited in reporting from smaller towns in the country.

Humorous and sarcastic on every page, the historical novel Los perros del paraíso (1983) by Abel Posse, presents itself as an iconoclast and subversive response to the historical account of the so-called discovery of the New World and the role played in it by Christopher Columbus. In this post-Boom narrative, linear time collapses and events conflate to depict a fantastic world where anachronism makes almost anything possible. Comic and grotesque in their attributes, characters appear performing a colonial play in which the absurd is apparently the sole stable rule. However, underneath this joyful surface, a colonial reason flows to confirm European Self and Indigenous Other in their classical division of ideological labor: master and slave, superior and inferior. A mystic Columbus, convinced he has finally found the Earthly Paradise and naïve Caribbeans, who believe conquerors are their returned gods reshape the myths of Latin American history not only as a total non-sense, but even worse, as an eternal condemnation of continuing its present condition of subordination. This process of mythification of history implies what I call its dehistorization, which means its epistemological cancellation as an explanatory discourse of human events. The ontological degradation of Columbus to an ape self-exiled from social life, and of indigenous as both cannibals and the perros del paraíso deprived from having a voice and having the will to rebell is the most eloquent proof that debasement of history is a consequence of the survival of a colonial point of view, which structures this novel as a whole.

In this essay I use Mikhail Bakhtins theory of the chronotope to come to a deeper understanding of the spatio-temporal relationships in Momo and the Time Thieves. I use it to investigate the chronotopic structure of childhood, how it relates to the idea of the idyll, threshold experiences and heterotopic and liminal chronotopes. There is also a discussion on the function of mythic and linear time in building the narrative, and how Ende reverses and subverts some of the given patterns of myth, folklore and fantasy to create a dialogue between chronotopes and genres. / <p>Slutgiltigt godkännandedatum: 2023-05-31</p>

In his work, the graduate reflects the literary and mythological aspect of the founding figure of the "Forefather Bohemus" in the Czech literary environment. In the theoretical part of the work, he will think about the processes of mythology of history that take place around this character, and based on a comparison of key works he will present his own approach. The practical part will consist of interpretive probes into selected canonical texts: the chronicles of canon Kosmas, the so-called Dalimil and Václav Hájek of Libočany on the one side, and modern fictional works by Žofie Podlipská and Rudolf R. Hofmeister on the other. Keywords Forefather Bohemus; folklore; myth; national epic; chronicle.

Transfigurations of the image of the Other in Czech travelogues of the long 19th Century Abstract of the dissertation thesis Mgr. et Mgr. Jan Heller The thesis focuses on constructions of the image of the Other in Czech travelogues of the 19th century. The travelogue is a peripheral literary genre, both an artistic text and a historical source, and thus enables the viewer to combine perspectives of literary criticism and historical anthropology. Special attention is paid to religious motifs owing mainly to the fact that this theme has been left out of focus in the present research thanks to the emphasis on the linguistic and historic character of the Czech national emancipation movement. The intention of the thesis is to describe literary techniques in the individual travelogues (direct representations, narrative strategies, topics, attributes of characters) and the function they serve in the building of the image of the Other and thus of the image of oneself at the same time. The goal ...

In the last twenty years, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has become very popular. Pratchett's success hinges in part on his use of allusion, in what Tolkien called the "Cauldron of Story," and what Pratchett refers to as "white knowledge." This paper explores the Discworld novels and illustrates Pratchett's use and success of storytelling through a few key directions: folk tales, fantasy literature, movies, and rock music. Pratchett has received limited critical review, mostly of a negative nature, while producing a strong literary series, one crafted with both obvious and subtle recognition of his genre's sources. While standing on the shoulders of giants, Pratchett both respects and scrutinizes the myths and stories that construct our reality. Critically, Pratchett's fiction deserves more respect and closer study; this paper attempts to give him his due.

The artist discusses the work in Mud and Ashes, his Master of Fine Arts exhibition held at Slocumb Galleries, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, from March 28 to April 1, 2005. The exhibition marks a turning point in the artist’s work, occupying a beginning place as he completes his graduate career. The work consists of fifteen paintings and one sculptural installation. The paintings are on paper and employ local materials such as red clay, pollen, and beeswax along with traditional artist’s materials such as oil and charcoal. Fire and a power sander have also been used as drawing tools. Each painting is 22 x 22 inches square and hangs directly on the wall, unmounted and unframed. Topics discussed include the artist’s development and work leading up to and including the exhibition works; the influences of Sung Dynasty Chinese landscape painting, Zen Buddhism, aboriginal art, nature, myth and ritual; the influences of artists Montien Boonma, Paul Cezanne, Jim Dine, Andy Goldsworthy, Morris Graves, Brice Marden, Georgio Morandi, Kiki Smith, Mark Tobey, and Cy Twombly; and the influences of composer John Cage and poet Gary Snyder. Included are images of the artist’s early work as well as a catalogue of the Mud and Ashes exhibition.

The Myth of the Lost Cause is an inaccurate account of the Civil War that remains prominent in American society. The myth alters key aspects of the war such as its cause, participants, and outcome. It is my hypothesis that one reason many Americans misunderstand the war is because they learned inaccurate information as children. Most children first learn of the war in school textbooks. I became curious as to the accuracy of Civil War information. As there is little research on this topic, this paper begins the process of bridging the gap between education curriculum and the Lost Cause. I examined textbooks used in Tennessee schools between 1889-2002. I discovered that the Lost Cause is most prominent in textbooks used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century but remains present in modern textbooks. I conclude that material will continue to correct itself as the twenty-first century continues.