Despite many important advances since the “Bretton Woods” agreement, the state of Third World development remains extremely unsatisfactory. About a billion people live in extreme poverty and more than 800 million do not get adequate nutrition. Third World Debt looms large on the horizons of most underdeveloped nations and development continues to benefit the Third World elites, the developed nations, and their multinational corporations. The North-South divide continues to widen with very little “tricking down” to the poor majority in many nations. It is strongly believed that one-third of the world’s poor are getting poorer. The conventional approach to development theory and practice, focusing on economic growth, investment, trade and free markets continues to benefit developed nations. Even in nations where free trade and markets have spurred growth, the net results of globalization have not reached the majority. Globalization defined as the “economic, social, political and environmental integration of nations” creates some major imbalances in a world system increasingly based on liberal market economies. Ultimately, the IMF-WTO corporate globalization model has failed to deliver for developing countries, severely punishing those least capable of protecting themselves – the billions living on $ 400 million annually. Market access is only useful to countries at a stage of development that allows for their engagement in world markets, in a manner that promotes improved standards of living for their populations. The promise of market access is a distraction that has served to create a myth of prosperity. This research seeks to raise issues regarding the impact of globalization on North-South imbalances highlighting the crucial gaps in the globalization process. Initially, the research outlines the parameters and theories surrounding the globalization process and then progresses on to demonstrate the imbalances of the global system, highlighting the key areas of impact that adversely affect the development of Southern nations. Using India’s economic liberalization as a case in point, this thesis attempts to unveil the growing myth of prosperity that is being propagated in relation to the issues of globalization and the South. Finally, the thesis attempts to draw pertinent theoretical lessons that would contribute towards a better understanding of the effects of globalization on the South. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1311650 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2008

This study examined Americans' perceptions of immigrants as threats and their implications on immigration policy views as well as immigrants' actual involvement in crime. Images of immigrant groups result from the perceived threats they pose to the crime rate, economy, political power, and nativism (Blumer 1958). I argued that these perceptions result in opposition to immigrants and support for stronger measures to exclude undocumented immigrants. Of special interest for this study was the "criminal immigrant" stereotype. Previous studies demonstrate that immigrants are not highly crime-involved even when they experience additional stressors during their adaptation processes. Yet, according to Agnew's (1992) general strain theory, immigrants may be prone to criminality due to additional strains they experience while adjusting to the new country. However, many immigrants, through transnational activities maintain ties with family and friends overseas, thereby making the immigration experience less stressful. I argued in this study that immigrants' underinvolvement in crime is partly due to their transnational ties, which may serve a protective role as social support and thus condition the effects of strains. To examine the implications for policy views of perceptions of immigrants and immigrants' actual crime involvement, the 2004 General Social Survey (GSS) and the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey (CILS) were used. The hypotheses were tested by conducting univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses. Overall, perceived immigrant threat affects opposition to immigrants and support for stronger measures to exclude undocumented immigrants. Among the various groups examined, the levels of opposition to immigrants differ from that of support for stronger measures to exclude undocumented immigrants. In terms of immigrants and crime, immigrants were not disproportionately involved in crime, as is widely believed by the American public. Contrary to hypotheses, however, immigrants' strains were not significant predictors of crime, and transnational ties did not condition the effects of strains on crime. It is recommended that future research be designed using more comprehensive data set(s) that represent and reflect the growing immigration population in the United States. Particularly, research should include measurements of micro-level social dynamics specific to immigrants such as additional measures of transnational ties and resilience.

This work is an attempt to answer one simple question: What is Hamlet? Based on the material of Hamlet translations into Russian, the dissertation scrutinizes the problems of literary canon formation, translation and textuality proceeding in two parallel directions: the historical analysis of canon formation in translation and the conceptualization of Hamlet’s textuality. The methodological framework is defined in the context of Jurij Lotman’s semiotics of culture, which is invaluable for an understanding of the mechanisms of literary evolution, the theory of translation and literary canon formation. The study examines the history of Hamlet in Russia from 1748 until the present with special attention to analysis of the canonical translations, theater productions of the Shakespearean classic and the phenomenon of Hamletism. The case study of the 1964 film by Grigorij Kozincev focuses on the problem of the cinematographic canon of Hamlet. Further, the work scrutinizes various types of representation of Hamlet in such semiotic systems as the theater, the cinema, and the pictorial arts, and also examines how Hamlet functions as a specific type of sign. The final section returns to the question of canon formation and textuality. The results of the research show that 1) the literary canon appears to be closely associated with the concepts of genre and myth, 2) in order to become canonical it is imperative for a literary text to function on the level of microcanon and to be represented in modes other than the written.

Tim Burtons films are largely thought to be exercises in style over content, and film adaptations in general are largely thought to be lesser than their source works. In this project, I argue that Burtons film <i>Sleepy Hollow</i>, an adaptation of Washington Irvings Legend of Sleepy Hollow, expresses his artistic message, that imagination and the irrational are equally valuable lenses through which to view the world as scientific process and reason are, while simultaneously complicating the thematic concerns of the longstanding myth of the headless horseman, the supernatural versus the natural and the irrational versus the rational, and relating them to his personal anxieties about the parent child relationship. I do so by drawing parallels between the film and its immediate source as well as <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i>, another chapter in the headless horseman myth, and two horror films from the 1960s. I compare the narrative structure, character relationships, thematic concerns, and cultural anxieties expressed in both the film and <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i> to demonstrate that the film argues for a worldview allowing the natural and the supernatural and the rational and the irrational to coexist. I also point to the visual references Burton makes to scenes from Roger Cormans <i>The Pit and the Pendulum</i> and Mario Bavas <i>La Maschera del Demonio</i>, illustrating the manner in which they complicate the myths thematic concerns. My argument adds to Hand and McRoys assertion that horror film adaptations are a form of myth-making and to the growing sense that there is more to Burtons art than flashy visuals.

In this essay, I examine the ways in which new myths were made of Barack Obama in the months leading up to, and immediately following, the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election at three sites of cultural production: a UFO-based religious movement historically grounded in the black Israelite religious tradition, TIME magazine’s 2008 “Person of the Year” edition, and Sean Hannity’s “The Real Barack Obama” airing on the FOX News network. I argue that, while the content of these three Obama-myths varies considerable, the ways in which these myths are constructed, and function, are in fact rather similar.

Tim Burtons films are largely thought to be exercises in style over content, and film adaptations in general are largely thought to be lesser than their source works. In this project, I argue that Burtons film <i>Sleepy Hollow</i>, an adaptation of Washington Irvings Legend of Sleepy Hollow, expresses his artistic message, that imagination and the irrational are equally valuable lenses through which to view the world as scientific process and reason are, while simultaneously complicating the thematic concerns of the longstanding myth of the headless horseman, the supernatural versus the natural and the irrational versus the rational, and relating them to his personal anxieties about the parent child relationship. I do so by drawing parallels between the film and its immediate source as well as <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i>, another chapter in the headless horseman myth, and two horror films from the 1960s. I compare the narrative structure, character relationships, thematic concerns, and cultural anxieties expressed in both the film and <i>Sir Gawain and the Green Knight</i> to demonstrate that the film argues for a worldview allowing the natural and the supernatural and the rational and the irrational to coexist. I also point to the visual references Burton makes to scenes from Roger Cormans <i>The Pit and the Pendulum</i> and Mario Bavas <i>La Maschera del Demonio</i>, illustrating the manner in which they complicate the myths thematic concerns. My argument adds to Hand and McRoys assertion that horror film adaptations are a form of myth-making and to the growing sense that there is more to Burtons art than flashy visuals.

This essay is about the modern Swedish Nazi movement in relation to the German Nazi movement before and during the Second World War. The analysis is made using the Nazi Myth theory as described by French philosophers Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe &amp; Jean-Luc Nancy. Theory and method are aimed at analysing the Nazi movement as a religious one. In this essay I have identified five main Nazi Myth elements required to realize Nazi ideals and embraced by original German Nazis. Through text analysis I have studied how Swedish Nazis use and reproduce these elements.The result will show that the main elements are well represented in modern Swedish Nazi texts and must be considered as central and bearing in modern Swedish Nazism. However, modern Swedish Nazism is also different from original German Nazism in some ways, for example in view of race, land and art.

Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Bordeaux III, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [965]-985) and index.

Contemporary American visual culture is saturated with animation, from websites and advertisements to adult and children's television programs. Animated films have dominated the American box office since Toy Story (1995) and show no signs of relenting, as demonstrated by Up (2009) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). Scholarly interest in animation has paralleled the steady rise of the popularity of the medium. Publications addressing animation have migrated from niche journals, such as such as Animation Journal and Wide Angle, to one of the most mainstream English-language publications, the Modern Language Association's Profession, which included Judith Halberstam's article "Animation" in 2009, in which she discusses the potential of animation to transcend outdated notions of disciplinary divides and to unify the sciences and humanities. However, the origins of the animated feature film remain obscured. My dissertation clarifies this obscurity by recovering Lotte Reiniger, the inventor of the multiplane camera and producer of the first animated feature film, The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). Because of the international and interdisciplinary qualities of animation, my project draws upon a wide array of disciplines including film theory, historiography, and criticism; European modernisms; animation studies; early German culture; folklore; and literary adaptation. In order to explore such diverse subject matter I utilize feminist, discourse, Marxist/cultural, and film theories. My first chapter demonstrates inconsistencies concerning the development of the animated film throughout animation scholarship despite the recent proliferation of publications. Most of the scholarship misattributes the innovations of Reiniger, including her invention of the multiplane camera and the animated feature film, to the Disney Company. The related scholarship reveals a suspicious omission, or passing mention, of Reiniger. The conflicting and sparse scholarship prompts my inquiry into the causes of her critical marginalization. In the second chapter I historically and culturally contextualize Reiniger by examining contemporaneous writers and artists, as well as the early German film industry. I argue that (German) national identity negatively impacted her and the film's discourse position. I contextualize Prince Achmed within Expressionism, Bauhaus, Constructivism, Dada, Surrealism, and the New Objectivity and measure it by contemporaneous critical standards represented by Kracauer, Balazs, and Arnheim. An analysis of the film as an adaptation of a popular literary text highlights its formal singularity: its status as an independent animated feature. Despite initial critical acclaim and use of elements from celebrated visual movements, the very elements that are unique to the film have historically contributed to its critical neglect. I posit that 1926, the year of Prince Achmed's Berlin and Parisian releases, was a particularly difficult time for the German film industry. The difficulties of this era were intensified for independent productions, such as Prince Achmed. Hollywood had established hegemony after targeting its only competition, the German film industry. Americanism dominated Weimar culture, resulting in domestic critical neglect of German film. Anti-German sentiment abounded internationally. The convergence of these events coincided with the release of Prince Achmed and further damaged its critical legacy. In chapter three I consider the influence of gender on the discourse positions of Reiniger and Prince Achmed. An overview of contemporaneous female artists and filmmakers elucidates the complicated relationships between women and film and women and modernity. Invoking Guyatri Chakravorty Spivak's interrelated concepts of the "politics of interpretation," "cultural marginalia," and "masculist centrality/feminist marginality," I posit Prince Achmed as a feminist celebration of handicraft and a critique of modern culture. Reiniger embraces her relegation to the private/domestic/feminine realm by revolutionizing silhouette cutting in the form of animated (feature) film. In Prince Achmed she critiques the contradiction between imagery of the New Woman and the actual plight of women in modernity. After situating animated film within the larger genre of film, in chapter four I reflect upon the scholarly tendency to relegate film to a status subordinate to traditional visual media, thereby further marginalizing animation. In this chapter I also define and debunk the Disney myth, which includes widespread misconceptions that Disney invented the multiplane camera and pioneered the animated feature film. I highlight contributing factors such as a noticeable lack of animation scholarship (Edera; Pilling) and a gap in interwar German history during which Prince Achmed was produced (Kracauer; Arnheim; Edera). The concept of "historical imaginary" developed by Elsaesser and Foucauldian "mechanisms of power" assist an understanding of the creation and nearly century-long perpetuation of the Disney myth, which has lost relevance to contemporary critical discourse. Having established primary and tertiary causes of the marginalization of Reiniger and Prince Achmed, I determine that this is a timely project since, according to Walter Benjamin, all images become intelligible only in later corresponding epochs. This "synchronicity" renders Prince Achmed comprehensible to critics in contemporary American animation-saturated culture. Because each chapter focuses on an element of otherness, my project illuminates the individual and culminating effects of national identity, gender, and genre on film history and discourse. By restoring Lotte Reiniger and Prince Achmed to their rightful discourse positions, my dissertation challenges existing understandings of the origins of animated film and development of the medium of film. Furthermore, my project encourages interdisciplinary scholarship, ongoing recovery of women and other historically overlooked groups, and interrogations of literary and other canonization.

The present study is an interpretation of the two myths copied in the Old Babylonian period in which the Sumerian mother goddess is one of the main actors. The first myth is commonly called “Enki and Ninḫursaĝa”, and the second “Enki and Ninmaḫ”. The theoretical point of departure is that myths have society as their referents, i.e. they are “talking about” society, and that this is done in an ideological way. This study aims at investigating on the one hand which contexts in the Mesopotamian society each section of the myths refers to, and on the other hand which ideological aspects that the myths express in terms of power relations. The myths are contextualized in relation to their historical and social setting. If the myth for example deals with working men, male work in the area during the relevant period is discussed. The same method of contextualization is used regarding marriage, geographical points of reference and so on. Also constellations of mythical ideas are contextualized, through comparison with similar constellations in other Mesopotamian myths. Besides the method of contextualization, the power relations in the myths are investigated. According to this latter method, the categories at issue, their ranking, as well as their changed ranking, are noted. The topics of the myths are issues important for the kingship and the country, such as irrigation, trade, health and healing, birth, collective work, artisanry and rivalry. All these aspects are used in order to express what the power relations between the goddess Ninḫursaĝa/Ninmaḫ and the god Enki look like. The relations are negotiated and recalibrated, which leads to the goddess getting a lowered status. Part of the negotiations and recalibrations is gender behavior, which is related to historical developments in society. The present work points to the function of these myths as tools of recalibrating not only deities, but also men and women in society.