Thesis advisor: Carlo Rotella / During the early to mid-1900s, an infatuation with the “gangster” grew in American popular culture. In response to historical events of the early twentieth century that polarized the United States class system, especially the Great Depression, those in the growing lower class became fascinated with actual and fictional figures that could demonstrate the ability to live “in-between;” that is, anyone who did not benefit from corporate capitalism but, rather, from standing on the dangerous middle ground between the classes, challenging economic, ethnic, and even legal boundaries. Both fictional and nonfictional figures of the “gangster” arose in American media in the form of a hyper-masculine character who could transform his humble origins into a luxurious life by committing brilliantly brutal crimes with bravado. As the gangster became more established over the course of the following decades and expanded in popularity beyond the original working-class audience, the gangster also became a nostalgic figure who offered a sense of tradition, which in part accounts for the gangster’s continuing popularity in modern media. As the first chapter explains, due to the association of southern Italian immigrants with crime and patriarchy in the United States, gangster and mafia fiction most largely concern southern Italians and Italian- Americans. Since its inception, the Italian-American gangster hero, or the “Mafioso,” has commanded a strong following among American audiences. Due to the saliency of the Mafioso figure and the widespread influence of the genre, both the figure and the narrative merit critical discussion and analysis. The first chapter of the following article outlines the ways in which traditional mafia fiction, epitomized by Puzo and Coppola’s sensational The Godfather, extrapolates from historical phenomena, like the hyphenate individual, with the tools of genre fiction in order to craft the classical Mafioso. The chapter considers the reliance of the Mafioso on such elements as bella figura and omertà, as well as socio-cultural norms assigned to Italian-Americans in the media, and considers the characteristics of the Mafioso by examining the character system present in The Godfather. In outlining the evolution of the Mafioso character, the first chapter explores what it means for the character of the gangster hero to perpetuate the values that once popularized it. In response, the second chapter provides a close reading of the work of parodist and multi-genre writer Giose Rimanelli, who takes bold and innovative steps in questioning the mafia narrative in his novel Benedetta in Guysterland. Rimanelli, a writer undoubtedly more focused on high-literary intertextuality than a genre writer, includes characters branded by the same traditional elements of The Godfather’s Mafioso but, instead of aggrandizing the Mafioso in the traditional fashion, utilizes these elements to question the foundation upon which classical mafia fiction relies. The chapter explicates Rimanelli’s clever use of referential language, unique narrative structure, and complex characters in order to analyze the ways in which Rimanelli demonstrates the potential for Italian-American literature to evolve. The chapter discusses Rimanelli’s recognition and distortion of mafia fiction tropes, scrutinizing key characters, and ultimately assays the potential for expansion in the mafia fiction genre. By providing a close reading of two texts, related in content but highly divergent in their method and objective, this article juxtaposes the historical Mafioso against his reexamined counterpart. Through an analysis of the history and canonical figuration of the gangster hero in The Godfather, and an examination of Rimanelli’s extensive reworking, the following two chapters call readers to recognize the historical context in which the Mafioso formed and rethink the literary outcomes of reinventing the tradition of both the character and the narrative. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: English.

No description available.

No description available.

This research had as principal objective search for an understanding of the psychic mechanisms involved on the process of acting as a godfather of sheltered children. The practice of acting as a godfather is a voluntary service prevailing in some host institutions in Brazil. Although there is no legal definition for the term to act as a godfather , it can be described as a way to give children significant bonds, those which they should had with family members. It doesn t mean that works this way. It can be noticed that the practice of acting as a godfather has been used as a way to fill existential gaps on both sides. After a tour for the subjective constitution and for the movements of a contemporaneous person asked about happiness ideals, we analyzed a clinical case of a godson and four interviews with godmothers of sheltered children. The method used for the research and for the analysis was the psychoanalytic method. From analyzers listed in the clinical case and interviews, important data were constructed about the way of relationship fostered by the act of been godfather: the exaltation of volunteering practices, correlated with noble feelings like the goodness and the love for the other one; an exacerbated narcissism as an attempt to recover the omnipotence felt in the beginning of life; the seduction that permeates the relationship between the godfather and godson; the ambivalence of feelings aroused in this relationship; and similarities of the act of been a godfather with the adoption process, according to the search for the ideal son, that extends to the search of the ideal godfather and the ideal godson. / mecanismos psíquicos envolvidos nos modos de vinculação constituídos e constituintes do processo de apadrinhamento. O apadrinhamento é uma prática de voluntariado vigente em algumas instituições de acolhimento a crianças no Brasil. Apesar de não existir uma definição jurídica para o termo, o apadrinhamento pode ser descrito como uma forma de proporcionar às crianças institucionalizadas vínculos significativos, próximos aos que elas deveriam ter com os familiares. Isto não quer dizer que, na realidade, esta experiência ocorra dessa maneira. Percebe-se que o apadrinhamento tem sido usado como um dispositivo para preencher lacunas existenciais de ambos os lados, pela via da criança e do padrinho. No estudo realizado, depois de efetuarmos um percurso pela constituição subjetiva e pelos movimentos de um sujeito contemporâneo premido por ideais de felicidade, foram analisados o caso clínico de uma criança apadrinhada e quatro entrevistas com madrinhas de crianças institucionalizadas. O método empregado, tanto para a realização da pesquisa quanto para a análise dos resultados, foi o método psicanalítico. A partir de analisadores elencados por meio do caso clínico e das entrevistas, dados importantes foram construídos referentes à forma de se relacionar promovida pelo apadrinhamento: exaltação de práticas de voluntariado, correlacionadas a sentimentos nobres como a bondade e o amor ao próximo; um narcisismo exacerbado como tentativa de recuperar a onipotência sentida nos primórdios da existência; a sedução que perpassa o relacionamento entre padrinho e criança institucionalizada; a ambivalência de sentimentos despertados nesta relação; e semelhanças do apadrinhamento com o processo de adoção, no que diz respeito à busca pelo filho ideal, que se estende à procura pelo padrinho ideal e pelo afilhado ideal. / Mestre em Psicologia Aplicada

Absent Presence: Women in American Gangster Narrative investigates women characters in American gangster narratives through the principal roles accorded to them. It argues that women in these texts function as an “absent presence,” by which I mean that they are a convention of the patriarchal gangster landscape and often with little import while at the same time they cultivate resistant strategies from within this backgrounded positioning. Whereas previous scholarly work on gangster texts has identified how women are characterized as stereotypes, this dissertation argues that women characters frequently employ the marginal positions to which they are relegated for empowering effect. This dissertation begins by surveying existing gangster scholarship. There is a preoccupation with male characters in this work, as is the case in most gangster texts themselves. This preoccupation is a result of several factors, such as defining the genre upon criteria that exclude women, promoting a male-centred canon as a result, and making assumptions about audience composition and taste that overlook women’s (and some women characters’) interest in gangster texts. Consequently, although the past decade saw women scholars bringing attention to female characters, research on male characters continues to dominate the field. My project thus fills this gap by not only examining the methods by which women characters navigate the male-dominated underworld but also including female-centred gangster narratives. Subsequent chapters focus on women’s predominant roles as mothers, molls, and wives as well as their infrequent role as female gangsters. The mother chapter demonstrates how the gangster’s mother deploys her effacement as an idealized figure in order to disguise her transgressive machinations (White Heat, The Sopranos). The moll chapter examines how this character’s presence as a reforming influence for the male criminal is integral to the earliest narratives. However, a shift to male relationships in mid- to late-1920s gangster texts transforms the moll’s status to that of a moderator (Underworld, The Great Gatsby). On the other hand, subsequent non-canonical texts feature molls as protagonists and illustrate the potential appeal of the gangster figure to women spectators (Three on a Match). Subsequently, the wife chapter explores texts that show presence is manifested in the wife’s cultivation of a traditional family image, while absence is evident in her exposure of this image as a façade via her husband’s activities (The Godfather, Goodfellas). In the following female gangster chapter, I examine how gender functions to render this rare character a literal absent presence such that she is inconceivable as a subject (Lady Scarface, Lady Gangster). Expanding upon this examination of gender, a final chapter on the African-American female gangster (in Set It Off and The Wire) explores how sexuality, race, and female—as well as “gangsta”—masculinity intersect to create this character’s simultaneous hypervisibility and invisibility. By examining women’s roles that often are overlooked in a male-dominated textual type and academic field, this dissertation draws scholarly attention to the ways that peripheral status can offer a stealthy locus for self-assertion.

The birth and the baptism of child were significant events in the life of people in all historical periods. This diploma thesis demonstrates meaning of the baptism rite and its reflection in the urban society in the Early Modern Age. In comparison to bachelor thesis was used more sources. The research of six families memoirs is supplied with analysis of parish register of Český Krumlov town from 1662 to 1666. Sources of religious area represents catholic, evangelical and Lutheral clerical works and especially polemics. Wider spectrum of sources made possible deeper sight at meaning of baptism and confrontation between religious order and everyday practice in baptism and godparenthood in towns in the 16. and 17. centuries.

The thesis "Zbraslavsko in sources of collective character 17.-19. century" treats informations from the register of births, marriages and deaths of the church St. James the Greater in Zbraslav in 1652-1800 years. The purpose of this thesis next to basic demographical data is the first name question - what (or who) had a bearing on this selection. Here are writing out all first names of this time together with the main factors, which have been able to decide on bearing the first name.

Absent Presence: Women in American Gangster Narrative investigates women characters in American gangster narratives through the principal roles accorded to them. It argues that women in these texts function as an “absent presence,” by which I mean that they are a convention of the patriarchal gangster landscape and often with little import while at the same time they cultivate resistant strategies from within this backgrounded positioning. Whereas previous scholarly work on gangster texts has identified how women are characterized as stereotypes, this dissertation argues that women characters frequently employ the marginal positions to which they are relegated for empowering effect. This dissertation begins by surveying existing gangster scholarship. There is a preoccupation with male characters in this work, as is the case in most gangster texts themselves. This preoccupation is a result of several factors, such as defining the genre upon criteria that exclude women, promoting a male-centred canon as a result, and making assumptions about audience composition and taste that overlook women’s (and some women characters’) interest in gangster texts. Consequently, although the past decade saw women scholars bringing attention to female characters, research on male characters continues to dominate the field. My project thus fills this gap by not only examining the methods by which women characters navigate the male-dominated underworld but also including female-centred gangster narratives. Subsequent chapters focus on women’s predominant roles as mothers, molls, and wives as well as their infrequent role as female gangsters. The mother chapter demonstrates how the gangster’s mother deploys her effacement as an idealized figure in order to disguise her transgressive machinations (White Heat, The Sopranos). The moll chapter examines how this character’s presence as a reforming influence for the male criminal is integral to the earliest narratives. However, a shift to male relationships in mid- to late-1920s gangster texts transforms the moll’s status to that of a moderator (Underworld, The Great Gatsby). On the other hand, subsequent non-canonical texts feature molls as protagonists and illustrate the potential appeal of the gangster figure to women spectators (Three on a Match). Subsequently, the wife chapter explores texts that show presence is manifested in the wife’s cultivation of a traditional family image, while absence is evident in her exposure of this image as a façade via her husband’s activities (The Godfather, Goodfellas). In the following female gangster chapter, I examine how gender functions to render this rare character a literal absent presence such that she is inconceivable as a subject (Lady Scarface, Lady Gangster). Expanding upon this examination of gender, a final chapter on the African-American female gangster (in Set It Off and The Wire) explores how sexuality, race, and female—as well as “gangsta”—masculinity intersect to create this character’s simultaneous hypervisibility and invisibility. By examining women’s roles that often are overlooked in a male-dominated textual type and academic field, this dissertation draws scholarly attention to the ways that peripheral status can offer a stealthy locus for self-assertion.