This dissertation proposes a theoretical examination of the Latin American thriller through the framework of post-dictatorial Chile, with a concluding look at the post civil war Central American context. I define the thriller as a loose narrative structure reminiscent of the basic detective story, but that fuses the conventional investigation formula with more sensational elements such as political violence, institutional corruption and State terrorism. Unlike the classic form, in which crime traditionally occurs in the past, the thriller form engages violence as an event ongoing in the present or always lurking on the narrative horizon. The Chilean post-dictatorial and Central American postwar histories contain these precise thriller elements. Throughout the Chilean military dictatorship (1973-1990), the Central American civil wars (1960s-1990s) and the triumph of global capitalism, political violence emerges in diversified and oftentimes subtle ways, demanding new interpretational paradigms for explaining its manifestation in contemporary society. In Chile, however, despite a history ripe with the narrative elements of the thriller, a consistent thriller novelistic tradition remains underdeveloped. My research reveals that contemporary Chilean ? and by extension, Latin American ? fiction continues to be analyzed under the aegis of melancholy and the tragic legacy of dictatorship or revolutionary insurgency. Therefore, a theoretical examination of the post-dictatorial/postwar thriller answers the need to not only move beyond previously established literary and political paradigms toward a more nuanced engagement with the present, but to envision a form of thinking beyond national tragedy and trauma. This dissertation analyzes samples of the post-dictatorial detective narrative and testimonial account, which constitute the mirroring narrative components of the thriller. The detective texts and testimonial writings analyzed in this project demonstrate how the particular use of the detective story and testimonial account mirror one another at every fundamental level, articulating what I am theorizing as the thriller structure. Using the theoretical approximations of John Beverley, Brett Levinson, Alberto Moreiras, Jon Beasley-Murray, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Carl Schmitt and Carlo Galli, this project makes an original inquiry into why the thriller emerges as the most apt narrative framework for exploring the forms of violence in present-day Latin America.

Zugl.: Regensburg, Univ., Diss., 2006

The thesis aims to mesh narrative theory with theory of empathy in a study of two novels by Graham Greene, A Gun for Sale (1936) and Brighton Rock (1938), where the use of narrative building blocks from the crime thriller genre and the empathy that the characters may evoke are analysed. The second aim is to discuss how to implement the rather complex works of Graham Greene in the EFL classroom. The key analytical devices for this essay are narratology and empathy, particularly difficult empathy. Narrative scaffolding helps students to discern recurring themes, character types and functions different in narratives, thus enabling them to transfer reading experiences to other texts as well. This thesis argues that Greene’s A Gun for Sale and Brighton Rock are useable in the EFL classroom, not despite, but because their great complexity, as discussions of difficult empathy in villainous characters and moral dilemmas will help develop fundamental values such as empathy and understanding of others, thus widening students’ understanding of both different kinds of literature and the world in which they live.

Thriller är en favoritgenre för många och har funnits längre än de flesta tror. Ursprungligen som en litteraturgenre har den utvecklats till en av de mest eftertraktade genrerna inom film. Tidiga anmärkningsvärda verk som Alfred Hitchcocks filmer i mitten av 1900-talet har banat vägen för genren och utformat dess redigering och cinematografi till vad vi har idag. Trots sin ödmjuka början i mitten av 1900-talet lyckas teknikerna, även om dem är aningen repetitiva, fortfarande vara relevanta idag och har bara utvecklats med åren. I den här artikeln studerar vi grunderna inom thrillergenren, redigerings- och filmtekniker som används; kameraarbete, klippning, PoV och färgsättning. I denna studie är vårt huvudsakliga fokus att förstå varför dessa tekniker används. Utöver kommer vi också gå djupare in i thrillergenren i helhet och trots genrens repetitivitet, försöka förstå oss på varför den lyckas vara relevant idag och hur redigering och cinematografi spelar en stor roll för att förstärka känslorna i thrillers där dessa tendenser härrör från. / Thriller is a favourite genre to many and has been around for longer than most think. Originally starting as a genre of literature, it has evolved into one of the most sought after genres within film. Early notable works such as Alfred Hitchcock's films in the mid 1900s have paved the way for the genre and solidified it’s editing and cinematography into what we have today. Despite its humbling beginnings in the mid 1900s the techniques, although somewhat repetitive, still manage to stay relevant today and have only gotten more advanced with time. In this article, we study the fundamentals within the thriller genre, the editing and cinematography techniques that are utilized; camera framing, cutting, PoV and color. In this study our main focus we intend to work towards is understanding why these techniques are used and the tendencies in which they are facilitated. Although we also intend to go in depth into the thriller genre as a whole and despite the repetitiveness of the genre, why it manages to stay relevant today and how editing and cinematography plays a big part in amplifying the emotions and feelings associated within thrillers in which these tendencies stem from.

This paper analyzes how vulnerability is represented in the Jack Reacher series, by drawing onwork by Bryan Turner and Judith Butler. The purpose of the research is to investigate the reasonReacher’s acts of vigilantism are needed. I look at examples of vulnerability and precarity foundin the books Killing Floor and Die Trying, and argue that state neglect is the cause of economicand social vulnerability in the towns Margrave and Yorke, leading to precarity expressed ascriminal money and community subjugation controlling the towns. I conclude that the solutionpresented, through vigilantism, is reassuring but insufficient, but that the series, in representing acomplex display of vulnerability and acknowledging the insufficiency of the solution, stressesthe difficulty of presenting a simple solution to the multifaceted nature of the issue ofvulnerability.

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This thesis investigates a corpus of films identifiable as Hollywood political thrillers during the Cold War spanning a period of seventeen years, between 1945 and 1962. It aims to dispel the assertion by critics and scholars that the political thriller originates with the release of The Manchurian Candidate (Frankenheimer, 1962). Moreover, it is my intent to engage an interdisciplinary approach given that the relationship between contemporary American cinema, ideology and propaganda has often been overlooked (see Shaw, 2007). Utilizing textual and contextual analysis, I shall argue that The Manchurian Candidate is a transitional film with respect to the political thriller. I shall also offer an explanation for the frequent mislabeling of Hollywood political thrillers as film noir, of which generic hybridity or overlap is a contributing factor. The first part of this thesis shall establish a political and historical context, which includes a discussion of Hollywood’s early entry into the Cold War, U.S. strategies of containment and the threat women posed to U.S. national security vis à vis Ethel Rosenberg. Given that the political thriller emerged as a distinct subgenre during the Cold War, the first part of this thesis shall include a chapter on technology and innovation (e.g. lighting, format, film stock) as a means of supporting prime generic theme of authenticity. Five exemplary mini-case studies shall be presented to demonstrate the way in which the Hollywood political thriller delivered distinct narrative and visual style that both projected and reflected Cold War discourses. Philip Wylie’s “momism” shall be considered within the context of the political thriller and Cold War discourses surrounding gender, U.S. national security and the atomic bomb. I shall expand upon current discussions of momism, approaching it through distinct representations evident within the political thriller. Given the pervasiveness of the nuclear threat during the Cold War, I shall discuss the thematic elements of fear and the unknowability of the atomic bomb in relation to the political thriller. In the second part of this thesis, I identify three distinct cycles of atomic political thrillers, in which issues of vulnerability of the physical locale, the nuclear family and the mind are addressed.

Fisher of Men tells the story of an ancient and secretive group of supernatural balance keepers. When God goes missing, it is up to them to locate him before the armies of Heaven and Hell lay siege to the earth, but they have their own problems. When knowledge of a secret weapon surfaces, they are tasked to find it and destroy it before it falls into the hands of either side. The secret weapon is Charitie Newman, a young woman from rural Indiana who moved to New Orleans with her sister. Charitie has special abilities that have no limits, and after her sister is brutally murdered, she agrees to join forces with the group in order to find God--and her sister's murderer.

The following report is an in depth, step-by-step analysis of the processes and experiments undertaken during the creation of the thesis film, "Lofty," written, directed, photographed, scored, and edited by Patrick William Smith. From inception to mastering the finished film, this report serves to highlight the filmmaker's rationale behind attempts at various experimental methods of pre-production, production, and post-production on the film. / text

L'entrée de Gianrico Carofiglio sur la scène littéraire, en 2002, a permis l'affirmation d'un genre qui, jusque-là, semblait l'apanage de la production américaine. Le roman de procédure italien, écrit par des juristes et offrant une représentation réaliste de l'univers judiciaire, est en plein essor en Italie et rencontre un lectorat important. Cette thèse tente d'en dégager les spécificités et d'en expliquer le succès au travers de l'analyse des cinq romans centrés sur le personnage de ''l'avvocato Guerrieri" . / The entry of Gianrico Carofiglio on the literary scene in 2002 allowed the affirmation of a genre that until then seemed the preserve of the American production. The ltalian legal thriller, written by jurists and offering a realistic representation of the judiciary, is growing in Italy and meets an important readershp. This thesis attempts to identify its specificities and explain its success through the analysis of the five novels centered on the character of the avvocato Guerrieri.