This dissertation examines the coming of sound film in Sweden during the years 1928–1932, and the reception of mechanically recorded sounds both in the trade press and among audiences. The novelty of sound film opened up for a negotiation of the perception of sound and image, as it made visible the film medium’s technological construction, before this visibility was once more absorbed by the cinematic discourse. The conversion to sound film is considered from three perspectives -- technology, reception and practice -- as well as through the concept of intermediality, focussing how the audio-visual expression changed during this period. Chapter 1 “Image, Sound, Audience I: ‘Constructed’ sounds - the visibility of technology” deals with these issues prior to the conversion to sound, and the following intermediate years, until sound film had reached a certain equilibrium. Chapter 2 “Production – The Companies” deals with the production and the major Swedish sound companies. Particular attention is given to how formative music in their films transforms itself into a consistent use of non-diegetic music two years before this happened in Hollywood. Chapter 3 “Reception – The Cinemas” addresses the topic of the reception of the first sound films in Sweden during 1929. The argument is that the audience’s re-awakened awareness of the technology described in Chapter 1 was an active part in this process, and that their reactions led back into the advertising campaigns, making them participants in the cinematic event. Chapter 4 “Practice – The Musicians” continues this debate from a musician’s point of view. This chapter turns the focus upside down and looks at the arrival of sound film from a grass-roots perspective. While chapter 4 diverts somewhat in dwelling on issues that do not strictly deal with the conversion to sound, it serves to contextualise a technological invention that changed not only film production and reception, but also had very concrete social repercussions for those that created the sounds of music. Chapter 5 “Image, Sound, Audience II: ‘Authentic’ sounds - the disappearance of technology” dovetails with Chapter 1, addressing similar phenomena at a time when these had become fully integrated and the technology once more became invisible.

The setting for this study is Swedish film culture of the 1920s, which has been studied with a focus on representations of masculinity and gender relations according to four themes: 1) children and youth 2) fatherhood and love 3) sexuality and popularity 4) ethnicity and racial stereotyping.       The rise of new consumer culture in the first decades of the 20th century created turmoil between traditional and modern values, not least when it came to conceptions of gender. Studies on masculinity have often directed its efforts towards writing a history of ideals, bound by the concept of hegemonic masculinity; a concept that exclude women as insignificant for the social construction of masculinity. One ambition with this thesis has been to counter the long-lasting concept of hegemonic masculinity, and in the process, try to build a bridge between men and women studies.         One other ambition has been question the canonisation of the “Golden Age” of Swedish silent filmmaking by introducing the concept of “the pluralism of film”, and by using a vast material including: Swedish feature films, reviews, articles from fan magazines and trade paper, screen plays, censorship cards, official reports, etc; thereby circumventing the concept of film as “art” in order to focus on film as representation in a more reliably way.       One conclusion is the revelation of the diversity that surrounds social constructions of masculinity and gender relations in both film culture and society. In addition, Swedish film of the 20s hardly contained any male characters that upheld the hegemonic ideal, giving way to a more prominent presence of strong female characters, often in the shape of the New Woman. Women did as well have a great influence on the formation of masculinity. However, a notion of a Swedish normative masculinity became visible when contrasted with numerous racial stereotypes, such as malicious representations of Black people and Travellers. The emphasis on gender relations, rather than on ideals, has also contributed to a wider understanding of gender, where criteria such as generation, class, ethnicity and sexuality ought to be included.          When it comes to the canonisation of the “Golden Age”, a strong notion exists about the integrated use of nature in film narratives as being a Swedish national trait, when in fact this could be linked only to a few films. If one would point out a trait that permeates Swedish film of the 1920s, it would not be the use of nature, but instead the flagrant racism and xenophobia.

O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar como a contradição presente na narração do romance The Great Gatsby de F. Scott Fitzgerald expõe as tensões sociais e históricas dos Estados Unidos dos anos 1920. Tal contradição, revelada na linguagem e no conteúdo da obra, exige uma leitura atenta do descompasso entre o ponto de vista do narrador memorialista e os valores morais que ele apresenta no início do romance. Exploraremos de que forma o movimento reflexivo da narração de Nick Carraway demonstra a tentativa de construção de entendimento dos fatos por meio da reconstrução das memórias, e como essa reflexão leva o narrador a desvelar a alienação e compreender os meandros da sociedade norte-americana no período pós-Primeira Guerra Mundial. / The aim of this dissertation is the analysis of the contradiction present in the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and how it exposes the social and historical tensions of the United States of America during the 1920s. Such contradiction, which is revealed in the language and content of the novel, demands a thorough reading of the mismatch between the point of view of the memoirist narrator and the moral values he presents in the beginning of the text. We explore how the reflexive movement of Nick Carraways narration shows his attempt to build understanding of the facts by the reconstruction of his memories, and how this reflection leads the narrator to unveil alienation and understand the intricacies of post-World War I American society.

[pt] Mistérios do Rio foi uma série de crônicas, de autoria de Benjamim Costallat, divulgada durante o mês de maio de 1924 pelo Jornal do Brasil. As narrativas abordaram diferentes temáticas de apelo social que versaram sobre o submundo do crime, prostituição, malandragens, vícios, miséria e injustiças sociais existentes no Rio de Janeiro. A investigação focou-se na repercussão da obra e do autor na imprensa nacional dos anos 1920, assim como nas estratégias da relação de Benjamim Costallat construídas com o seu público no Jornal. / [en] Mysteries of Rio was a series of chronicles, authored by Benjamim Costallat, released during the month of may 1924 by Jornal do Brasil. The narratives addressed different themes of social appeal that dealt with the underworld of crime, prostitution, vagrancy, addictions, misery and social inequalities in Rio de janeiro. The research focused on the repercussion of the work and of the author in the national press in 1920 s, as well as on the strategies of Benjamim Costallat relationship built with his public in the newspaper.

The thesis examines the role of women in the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1920s. The author seeks to analyze the following aspects: the main goal is to prove that the foundation and the very existence of the women's auxiliary (WKKK) points to inner tensions within the movement. The WKKK, therefore, can be used as a model or a case study in order to highlight all the issues the Klan had to face, from financial struggles and various allegations to transient and unstable membership. Secondly, the author sets out to verify whether and to what degree WKKK members legitimized the Klan, be it from the outside (public opinion) or from the inside. The author also places emphasis on the fact that the Klan should not be primarily viewed as a violent racist organization, but as a group of members who felt threatened by the outside world from which they needed to shelter themselves. Social life of the Klan and what role Klanswomen had, charity work, or interventions in local affairs play a vital role in this thesis as a result. Last but not least, proper understanding of primary sources is essential. They are obviously highly subjective and serve as a prime example of how reality differed from what was stated. (W)KKK pamphlets and writings were colored by fear of the so-called "other". Most texts written by...

The present work undertakes a comprehensive evaluation of Prague's interwar architecture made by German-speaking architects. It works with a methodological framework built on three overlapping and intertwining layers. The first layer introduces the socio-political- historical-cultural conditions of the origin of architecture in Prague. It presents Prague as the main centre of the Czechoslovak Republic, specifies the role of the Prague City Hall, approaches the Jewish question, discusses Prague bilingualism and details the main platforms for German-speaking architects. The second layer divides the heterogeneous group of German-speaking architects according to their cultural circles and demonstrates the specifics of each cultural circle based on several case studies. Architects Rudolf Hildebrand, Adolf Foehr and Fritz Lehmann were chosen for the German cultural circle. In the circuit on the borderline between the Czech and German cultural environments, the architects are always presented in pairs: Erwin Katona - Berthold Schwarz, Ernst Mühlstein / Viktor Fürth - Otto and Karl Kohn and Rudolf Wels - Martin Reiner. The third layer of the work discusses Prague's German architecture in a broader perspective and places it within the European framework of German architecture. This framework is based on the...

The study centers around The Scandinavian Socialist Federation and its newspaper based in Chicago called Facklan. This newspaper and its association has not been thoroughly researched before in a qualitative manner and existed in a time when communism started to spread around the world which makes them both interesting to research. A qualitative text analysis will allow a study that aims to examine how the newspapers content built or strengthened a feeling of fellowship within the federation. This will be researched through three aspects – communist, swedish and as a federation. With a contextualizing chapter the study is set into a historical period. This enables the reader to understand the context around the federation and its newspaper. Furthermore the study uses Benedict Anderssons idea of imagined communities. The source that has been used to enable this study is a digital archive made by Minnesota historical society, in which Facklan is included. The results show that Facklan indeed did build or strengthen a feeling of fellowship amongst its readers. It did this primarily by connecting the Comintern´s ideas and values with the news around Sweden and the federation. It is difficult to point out how deeply this affected the federation but it most likely brought the divided federation closer together and possibly enabled the merging with another American-Scandinavian socialist federation.

Abstract This essay is an analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and it explores how identity and ideology always exist in a context of time. The American 1920s society was influenced by theories brought by Marxism, Albert Einstein and Freud. This era was highly influenced by cultural influencers, individuals such as Fitzgerald who became one of the greatest to mould and describe the era he lived in. When reviewing Fitzgerald’s text almost a century later, and at the verge of entering the 2020s, it becomes clear that some fundamental features of culture remain ever-present in the American culture. The multifaceted perspective presented to readers by Fitzgerald raises important questions regarding where the real is overruled and transformed by the ideal. The American 1920s was an era of contradictions which also is reflected in Fitzgerald’s ironic tone and in Gatsby’s smile. Fitzgerald offers an understanding which reaches as far as anyone would want to understand. Linchpins in this essay are the interaction between identity, ideology and social codes and the morality which drives actions and reactions and forms a link between the coexistence of contradictions. Social structures are part of history and the impact history possesses over culture, via nostalgia, is relevant for ideas today. Which clues do history and Fitzgerald’s text provide and store for us and can old ideas enlighten us to bring new solutions, or clarity, to apprehend anything about the future? There is a correspondence, a red thread, between eras such as the 1920s and the year of 2019 in the American society today, which explains why the ideas and ideals Fitzgerald portrayed as important parts of identity and culture a hundred years ago, also matter today.

No description available.

The 1920s represented a time of tension in America. Throughout the decade, marginalized groups created competing versions of a proper citizen. African-Americans sought to be included in the national fabric. Racism encouraged solidarity, but black Americans did not agree upon one method for coping with, and hopefully ending, antiblack racism. White women enjoyed new privileges and took on more roles in the public sphere. Reactionary groups like the Ku Klux Klan found these new voices unsettling and worrisome and celebrated a white, nativeborn, Protestant and male vision of the American citizen. Simultaneously, technological innovations allowed for advertising to flourish and spread homogenizing information regarding race, gender, values and consumption across the nation. These advertisements selectively represented these changes by channeling them into pre-existing prescriptive ideology. Mainstream ads, which were created by whites for white audiences, reinforced traditional ideas regarding black men and women and white women’s roles. Even if white women were featured using technology or wearing cosmetics, they were still featured in prescribed roles as housekeepers, wives and mothers who deferred to and relied on their husbands. Black women were featured in secondary roles, as servants or mammies, if at all. Concurrently, the black press created its own representations of women. Although these representations were complex and sometimes contradictory and had to reach multiple audiences, black-created ads featured women in a variety of roles, such as entertainers, mothers and business women, but never as mammies. Then, in a decade of increased tensions, white-created ads relied on traditional portrayals of women and African-Americans while black-designed ads offered more positive, although complicated, visions of womanhood.