"How is a Woman Like a Watermelon" examines two of Richard Brautigan's novels, In Watermelon Sugar and An Unfortunate Woman, as they relate to each other in ways that offer a better understanding of each. This paper enriches an understanding of Brautigan's work by exploring the historical context of his writings, studying his style and presenting diverse interpretations in a mutually inclusive way that complements the multifaceted qualities of his writing. By studying Brautigan's novels in a comparative manner, the essential and distinctive principles that drive Brautigan's work—his manipulation of genre, use of memory and a complex first person narrator as an author persona—are better understood. Because of Brautigan's use of the first person, this study advocates an analytical psychological analysis aimed at discerning underlying emotion within apparent personal detachment, the use of projection as a defense mechanism, and the psychological associative value of words, images and memories. An inclusive and comparative study that foregrounds these psychological elements will ultimately allow for a more complete and subtle analysis of Brautigan's work. / Master of Arts

Syftet med studien har varit att se vilka funktioner intertextualiteten i Lemony Snickets serie A series of unfortunate events har och vad författaren uppnår med den. Studien studerar seriens intertextualitet på olika nivåer som bär olika funktioner. Med hjälp av Pierre Bourdieus teori om kulturellt kapital, Aleida Assmanns teori om kulturellt minne och Harold Blooms tankar kring den västerländska kanon diskuteras intertextualitetens nivåer och dess betydelser. Av dessa intertexter kan kulturellt kapital läsas samt en tro om den goda litteraturen och den goda läsningen. Studien lyfter fram Snickets verk som en serie som förhåller sig till barnlitterära traditioner i sin form men använder sig av vuxenlitteraturens referenser för att förhöja statusen av serien såväl som barnboken.

This thesis explores the themes of hope, empowerment, and belonging in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Using three different frameworks, I analyze the portrayal of interconnected senses of hope, empowerment, and belonging in the texts through the Baudelaire orphans, and their promotion of the same in the child reader. C.R. Snyder’s psychological hope theory is used to analyze how hope is created in the child protagonists and encouraged in the child reader, through finding pathways to their goals and the will to utilize them. Eliza T. Dresang’s Radical Change theory provides a framework for exploring how child empowerment functions in the texts, which is largely connected to the pursuit of knowledge and autodidacticism. Lastly, I use the role of literary orphanhood, changing concepts of family, and sociological frameworks for belonging to address how the Baudelaire orphans, and the child reader, find home and belonging outside of the idealized nuclear family—namely through shared social locations, social solidarities, and a symbolic reunification of the Baudelaire family. Moreover, I analyze the role of the Gothic and what MariaNikolajeva calls aetonormativity—adult normativity that Others children—in creating the hopeless and disempowering conditions that paradoxically make way for the development of hope, empowerment, and belonging.

Zugl.: Frankfurt am Main, Univ., Diss., 2007.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This thesis is the result of an investigation that analyzed the instruction process directed to those that, previously neglected socio-economically, became useful for the urgent promotion of state economy. This study, thus, involves the period in which the Republic of Brazil comes to existence, in 1889 when the state of Minas Gerais faced an economic hardship, worsened by the lack of labor for the crops, mainstay of state finances. The study extends to 1909, when the State organized the Instituto João Pinheiro, with the mission of solving the demand for labor, prioritizing the marginalized, the neglected, the delinquent youngster and the son of proletarian, transforming them into workers. In this perspective, the ideas of instruction at and for work were understood in the light of the state legislation context at the time, characterized as the dawn of Brazilian Republic and of the State of Minas Gerais parliament tribune where we could apprehend that the voices echoed in favor of mandating the disgraced to become occupied and productive, meeting the expectations of the liberal capitalist State-Nation. Therefore, in the direction of political-economical intentions of Minas Gerais, which, in a certain way, mandated that the individual be instructed for and at work, is that the primary sources the Annaes of the State Congress - were listed. Besides this document scope, other sources relevant were relevant: newspapers, maps, reports, and other historic documents searched at the Public Archives of the State of Minas Gerais and other digital archives, besides the state and federal laws. The legal modes proposed by the State as a coercion mode from individual idleness, as well as the distinct instruction loci for the unfortunate ones are, in this study, apprehended as moving proposals that converge to trends and possibilities of forcing individuals, in some way, to maintain their status quo, since it preconized an inequality of opportunities. Beyond these concerns, it was observed that, with the decline of the Imperial Period, the State of Minas Gerais remained faithful and confident of its catholic convictions, closing rows of Catholicism and, defending this belief in a moment in which the State-Nation, officially, proclaimed itself a lay state favored the catholic socio-educational enterprises, bargaining with the Church state properties in exchange for Salesian Christian actions that left their mark on the instruction scenario for the miserable in the state. Understanding about the partnership with the Salesian on the formation of workers that were disciplined, clean and subservient, to put an end to the problem of the unfortunate ones and minimize the state demand for labor, was not an objective, a priori, but was revealed itself as important as the investigation advanced, also conferring uniqueness to this study, indicating that the Salesian mode of instructing the unfortunate for labor the organization of Instituto João Pinheiro. / A presente tese é resultado da investigação que analisou o processo de instrução destinado àqueles que, desvalidos socioeconomicamente, tornaram-se úteis à urgente promoção da economia estadual. Esta pesquisa incide, portanto, sobre o período em que desperta a República no Brasil, em 1889, quando Minas Gerais encontrava-se diante de uma difícil situação econômica que se agrava mediante a falta de mão de obra para as lavouras, sustentáculo das finanças estaduais. A pesquisa estende-se até 1909, quando o Estado organiza o Instituto João Pinheiro, cuja ambição era solucionar a situação da demanda de trabalhadores, norteando o marginalizado, o enjeitado, o jovem delinquente e o filho do proletário, transformando-os em trabalhadores. Nesse sentido, as ideias de instrução no e para o trabalho foram interpretadas à luz do contexto legislativo mineiro da época, caracterizado como o alvorecer da República brasileira e da tribuna do parlamento mineiro donde pudemos apreender que as vozes ecoavam a favor de se obrigar o desgraçado a se ocupar e produzir, atendendo às expectativas do Estado-Nação liberal capitalista. Assim, na direção das intenções político-econômicas de Minas Gerais, as quais, de certo modo, obrigaram o sujeito a se instruir para e no trabalho, é que as fontes primárias os Annaes do Congresso Mineiro foram arroladas. Além desse escopo documental, outras fontes foram relevantes: jornais, mapas, relatórios e outros documentos históricos esquadrinhados no Arquivo Público Mineiro e em outros acervos digitais, além da legislação em âmbito estadual e federal. Os modos legais propostos pelo Estado como forma de coerção da desocupação dos indivíduos, bem como os distintos loci de instrução para os desprotegidos da sorte são, nesta pesquisa, apreendidos como propostas em movimento que convergem para tendências e possibilidades de obrigar os indivíduos, de alguma forma, a manter seu status quo, uma vez que preconizavam a desigualdade de oportunidades. Para além dessas apreensões, averiguou-se que, com o declínio do Período Imperial, o Estado de Minas Gerais permaneceu fiel e confiante em suas convicções católicas, alinhando-se às fileiras do catolicismo e, na defesa dessa crença nesse momento em que o Estado-Nação, oficialmente, se proclamava laico , favoreceu as obras socioeducativas católicas, barganhando com a Igreja propriedades estaduais em troca das ações cristãs salesianas que deixaram sua marca no cenário mineiro de instrução para o miserável. O entendimento sobre a parceria com os Salesianos na produção de trabalhadores disciplinados, higiênicos e hierarquicamente submissos, para dar cobro à situação dos desamparados da sorte e minimizar a demanda estadual de operários, não foi objetivado, a priori, mas se revelou importante no avançar da investigação, conferindo, também, singularidade a esta pesquisa ao indicar que a maneira salesiana de instruir o miserável para o trabalho inspirou a organização do Instituto João Pinheiro. / Doutor em Educação

The thesis deals with the interpretation of Series of Unfortunate Events written by an American author Lemony Snicket and Joanne K. Rowling´s story about Harry Potter. The analysis is focused on the moral and ethical aspects of individual motifs and symbols, as well as on the importance of human values in the behaviour of main characters. Some of the main protagonist were analysed according to their ability to spread good or evil, and therefore their influence on the young reader. The most important aspect was the good will of characters according to the principles of Lévinas' ethics while the self-sacrifice of the heroes is considered the highest moral value.