Drawing from tourism studies, travel literature, and cultural studies, this dissertation uses textual analysis to explore the implicit ideological agendas of international development in a selection of popular narratives written to describe efforts of Spanish individuals to combat poverty in “developing” countries: Pura vida (1998) by José María Mendiluce, Una maestra en Katmandú (2002) by Victoria Subirana, Sonrisas de Bombay (2007) by Jaume Sanllorente, and Los colores de un sueño (2013) by Alba de Toro. This study provides a sociological framework for understanding the politics of production, distribution, and reception of such narratives and examines the discourse of individual altruism by juxtaposing the fields of mass tourism, international development and contemporary popular literature. Although development-themed narratives present themselves as depictions of charity work, they are also stories of touristic exploits. This dissertation explores how the colonial myth of the explorer is refurbished in narratives of altruistic development within the postmodern mood of “global consciousness”, which is triggered by globalization, commodification and a sense of uncertainty—factors that produce a relentless drive to “save the world”. Despite the postmodern gloss, however, these narratives exoticize “non-modern” scenarios in which the narrators (adventure development tourists) represent themselves as intrepid white saviors in the style of explorers, missionaries and survivors of the past. In this sense, these narratives depend on traditional travel literature tropes. The deliberate status of these popular narratives as commodities is highlighted, exposing their utility as marketing tools for NGOs. To this end, this dissertation connects the idea of “a good story” to a publishing objective. Reception is approached by exploring the role of interpellation: the subliminal ways in which readers become financial supporters within the context of “global consciousness” wherein altruistic impulses are commodified and incorporated into lifestyles. In this sense, literature plays a key role in formulating and naturalizing the discourse of development. This dissertation exposes the double mechanism at work in development-themed narratives: the pursuit of progressive development used to veil complicity with exploitation.

This is a systematic study of tropes of the Holy Qur`an, divided into four chapters… The first chapter is entitled: “An historical review of rhetoric and stylistics” and it consists of two sections; the first section is entitled: “Western rhetoric and stylistics” where as the second section deals with “Arabic rhetoric and stylistics”. The second chapter is entitled: “Tropes and their components” and it consists of two sections; the first section is entitled: “the definition of tropes”. This section deals with the definition of “literal expressions” and “figurative expressions”, and the required condition for figurative expressions; that is the syntactical and semantic coherence and relationships. The second section is entitled: “Components of tropes” which deals with different components of tropes. The third chapter is entitled: “Linguistic tropes of the Holy Qur`an” and it consists of two sections; the first section is entitled: “The spread of linguistic tropes in the Holy Qur`an”. The second section is entitled: “Relationship of linguistic tropes in the Holy Qur`an”. This section quotes each and every relationship of linguistic tropes in the Holy Qur`an. The fourth chapter is entitled: “mental tropes in the Holy Qur`an”, and it consists of three sections; the first section is entitled: “Mental tropes in the Holy Qur`an, from part 1 to part 10”. The second section is entitled: “Mental tropes in the Holy Qur`an, from part 11 to part 20”, and the third section is entitled: “Mental tropes in the Holy Qur`an, from part 21 to part 30”. These sections quote verses of the Holy Qur`an which contain mental tropes. / Religious Studies and Arabic / Psychology

Vi försöker med detta kandidatarbete analysera skapandet av Hjältar inom spel, vi undersöker vilka sorts troper som etsat sig fast i industrins hjältar, problematiserar dem och tar reda på om dem fortfarande har en plats, d.v.s. en anledning att fortfarande anammas i skapandeprocessen. Med hjälp av Diffraktion & Critical Design gör vi vår egen tolkning av en skapandeprocess där vi utmanar det en spelare hade kunnat förvänta sig av en hjälte inom spelvärlden för att veta om det faktiskt finns konkreta anledningar till dessa troper eller om man lika gärna hade kunnat klara sig utan dem.Genom denna designprocess får vi en djupare förståelse för skapandet av karaktärer men också vetande om hur man utmanar och vad som behöver utmanas när det gäller stereotyper, normer, troper inom spelvärlden. En förståelse för hur man tilltalar sina spelare och uppmanar saker som inklusivitet och medvetenhet i allmänhet.. / With this Bachelor thesis we’re trying to analyse the creation of heroes within video games, we’re researching what kind of tropes etched themselves into our industries heroes, problematize them and find out if they still have a place, a reason to still be applied in the creative process.With the help of Diffraction & Critical Design we attempt our own interpretation of the creative process where we challenge what expectations a player may have from a hero within the gaming world to understand if there is a solid reason for these tropes to exist or if you might as well set them aside.Through this designprocess we get a deeper understanding for the creation of characters but also knowledge of how to challenge and what needs challenging when it comes to stereotypes, norms, tropes within the gaming world. An understanding on how to connect with your players and encourage things like inklusion and awareness in general.

This thesis looks to explore the musical Cabaret through a critical, historical and political lens, with particular focus on Sally Bowles, questioning the creation and agency of this character in contrast with the political and societal values of various productions. Using a socio-political analysis, this thesis discusses the important relationship between politics and theater, using the pro-choice abortion movements of the 1960's as a way to understand Sally Bowles as a complex device for political and social commentary.

Submitted by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2017-03-17T14:21:49Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Arthur F. Batista.pdf: 5010320 bytes, checksum: f4bde5ec1c693b1448050f66844e10ea (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2017-03-17T14:22:10Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Arthur F. Batista.pdf: 5010320 bytes, checksum: f4bde5ec1c693b1448050f66844e10ea (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2017-03-17T14:22:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Arthur F. Batista.pdf: 5010320 bytes, checksum: f4bde5ec1c693b1448050f66844e10ea (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-17T14:22:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Arthur F. Batista.pdf: 5010320 bytes, checksum: f4bde5ec1c693b1448050f66844e10ea (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-16 / Recommendation systems (SR) have been widely studied in recent decades. The growth of the Internet and the consolidation of Web 2.0 have contributed to the emergence of various services such as social networks, blogs, collaborative platforms, among others, resulting in increased volume of information. This scenario has fostered the development of new research on how to use such information to mitigate limitations of SRs and improve their quality. The recommendation of movies became one of the most discussed topics in the literature about SRs. The industry also contributed to its popularity with the growth of streaming services such as Amazon, Netflix, iTunes, and Google Play. In such scenario, different sources of information in Web have been exploited to extract features to describe movies. The most common approaches use features such as genre information, movie direction, cast, etc. Other approaches attempt to characterize the story itself by means of information about the content of movies, its story structure, elements of narrative and characters. Such content can be represented by Tropes. Tropes are the elements that make up a fictional story found in movies, books, comics and other contents. In this work, we present a systematic study of Tropes, investigating its relevance to the context of a story and how they can be incorporated in Movie Recommender Systems. The experiments performed in this research suggest that hybrid models based on the combination of tropes with the films genres can improve the precision of the predictions about 3% in comparison to traditional methods. / Sistemas de Recomendação (SR) têm sido amplamente estudados nas últimas décadas. O crescimento da Internet e a consolidação da Web 2.0 contribuíram para o surgimento de diversos serviços, como redes sociais, blogs, plataformas colaborativas, entre outros, resultando no aumento significativo do volume de informação. Este cenário fomentou o desenvolvimento de pesquisas com o intuito de utilizar tal informação para mitigar algumas limitações dos SRs e melhorar sua qualidade. A recomendação de filmes tornou-se um dos tópicos mais abordados na literatura no domínio de SRs junto com comércio eletrônico. Essa popularidade foi alavancada pela indústria com o crescimento dos serviços de streaming (Amazon, Netflix, iTunes, Google Play). Neste contexto, diferentes fontes de informação, tipicamente disponibilizadas por usuários em sítios da Web, vêm sendo exploradas para extração de características dos filmes. As fontes mais comuns proveem informações como gênero, direção, elenco, etc. Outras abordagens tentam extrair informações a respeito do conteúdo dos filmes, como estrutura da história, elementos da narrativa, personagens, de modo que se possa caracterizar a história em si. Tal conteúdo pode ser representado através de Tropes. Tropes são elementos que compõem uma história fictícia que pode ser contada através de filmes, livros, quadrinhos entre outros tipos de mídia. Neste trabalho, apresentamos um estudo sistemático sobre Tropes, investigando sua relevância para o contexto de uma história e como podem ser incorporados em Sistemas de Recomendação de Filmes. Os experimentos executados neste pesquisa sugerem que modelos híbridos baseados na combinação de tropes com os gêneros dos filmes, podem melhorar a precisão das previsões em quase 3% em comparação com o métodos tradicionais.

In modern pop-culture, the prevalence of tropes is eminent. Without a knowledge of common themes and overgeneralizations, an author’s work will fail to attract a sufficient audience. One of these encompassing tropes includes the pirate trope. Pirate tropes range from physical aspects, such as eyepatches and tricornes, to the psychological implications of greed and villainy. Understanding the origin of tropes helps eliminate the over usage and transformation of tropes. The current study, a textual analysis, examines the popularized pirate novel Treasure Island and compares its’ tropes to the first collection of pirate biographies, A General History of Pyrates. The researcher hopes to discover many, if not all, of the tropes found in Treasure Island originated, through explicit evidence or variances, from A General History of Pyrates. The study will also utilize the New Historicism approach. Through New Historicism, the researcher will examine what historical accounts, including political, cultural, and economic strife, led Treasure Island to emerge as the most well-known pirate novel, rather than its predecessors. Thus far, the research has indicated that Treasure Island emerged as the prime pirate novel due to several factors, including America’s proximity to piracy during the 18th century. These associations include, but are not limited to: America’s trade system with pirates, proximity to pirate dwellings in North America, Americans’ desire of freedom associated with pirates, and democracy based politics practiced among outlaw captains and crewmembers. Stevenson illustrated these points in Treasure Island, which ties the novel’s timeless tropes with today’s conceptions of piracy. In addition, Stevenson used tropes from other novels associated with pirates including: Sir Walter Scott’s The Pirate; Washington Irving’s Tales of a Traveller; Captain Frederick Marryat’s “The Pirate”; Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Gold-Bug”; and several works by Daniel Defoe. Stevenson combined these tropes in Treasure Island while also using A General History of Pirates as a guide to ensure creditability. These tropes, brought to attention by Stevenson, continue to flourish in modern depictions of 18th century pirates.

Aim: The aim of this thesis is to examine how the homosexual character Isak Valtersen and muslim character Sana Bakkoush are represented and stereotyped in the popular norwegian webbseries Skam. This is to be interpreted based on Stuart Halls representation theory and stereotyping theory. The three research questions are as follows: (1) How is the main character Isak Valtersen portrayed in connection to his sexuality in the norwegian webb-serie Skam. (2) How is the main character Sana Bakkoush portrayed in connection to her Islamic faith in the norwegian webb-serie Skam. (3) How does the stereotyping in the representation of Isak Valtersen and Sana Bakkoush differ from one another. When analysing the webb-serie we identify the stereotyping by using observation points from Stuart Halls stereotyping theory. The four observation points are (1) Tropes, (2) Essentializing, (3) Reductionist, (4) Exclusion.  Method/Material: The method of this study is a narrative analysis through a holistic content reading. The narrative analysis is based on Seymour Chatmans model of narrative structure. The points researched in the narrative structure are characters, settings, actions and happenings. These are summarized as the form of content.  The material further consists of two seasons of the norwegian webb-series Skam, season three and four. Out of these seasons a selection of scenes are furthure analysed. The selection of scenes is based on the observation points (1) Tropes, (2) Essentializing, (3) Reductionist, (4) Exclusion.  Main results: The character Isak Valterssen is opposing the process of stereotyping almost completely according to Stuart Hall's theory of stereotyping. The character Sana Bakkoush on the other hand does fall into a few categories of stereotyping. Sana is stereotyped on a larger scale than Isak yet both characters are portrayed as multifaceted and therefore contribute to breaking stereotypes according to Stuart Hall.

Fanfiction provides the unique opportunity to explore disruptions of heteronormativity through tropes. By exploring different fanfictions in the Soulmate AU, ABO Dynamics, and Mpreg tropes, the disruptions indicate a desire to explore gender, identity, and sexuality through queered characters. Male slash fanfiction provides the chance to examine the disruption of the heteronormative through the queering of male characters and placing them into situations that may embrace the feminine or a female-gendered experience. The situating of heterosexual male characters into queered roles allows an examination of how this disrupts canonical ideas of gender, identity, and sexuality. By reviewing the male slash relationships in these tropes, the narratives may explain why the disruption of heteronormativity seems so appealing to fanfiction authors and readers. Heteronormativity restricts exploration of new dynamics and experiences that fanfiction authors and readers may crave to investigate. Disrupting that heteronormativity presents new opportunities for experiences in areas that may receive underrepresentation.

Using adaptation and queer theory, this essay discusses and analyzes how Henry James’ horror novella The Turn of the Screw has been adapted into a streaming show for Netflix. By showing how The Haunting of Bly Manor removes some of the ambiguity of the original text, this essay claims that the show does not fall victim to the “bury your gays” trope, as it has been accused of. Instead, this essay finds that while the show may not perpetuate this trope, it still maintains the idea that queer stories come with tragic backstories and trauma.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine nostalgic art through the usage of water tropes in Virginia Woolf’s 1915 novel The Voyage Out. Previous research on nostalgic aesthetics found that tropes play a crucial role in eliciting nostalgic emotions in the reader. These studies were primarily conducted using close reading approaches. Therefore, it is important to experiment with corpus methods to determine how they can aid this method in future analyses. Consequently, the purpose of this research is to present corpus techniques in nostalgic art as a new method for assisting in understanding authorial style. Moreover, this study employs The Voyage Out as a text file to study potential tropes via the corpus techniques. This thesis adds to the study of Woolf’s works by providing new insights intonature, notably water-related themes, in her style, as well as filling a gap in Woolf’s first debut that has been overlooked by previous academics. The findings of this study suggest that using corpus techniques such as frequencies and concordance lines as an assistant provided fresh insights into the novel by displaying frequent water elements that are used as tropes, as well as by locating examples swiftly and effortlessly.