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Captain America and Iron Man are both iconic American heroes, representing different American values. Captain America was created during the Golden Age of comics and represents a longing for the past, while Iron Man was created at the height of the Cold War and looks forward to a new America. This paper will first establish the historical and cultural relationship between comic books and propaganda, beginning with the first appearance of Superman. It will pay special attention to the similarities and differences of Captain America and Iron Man, focusing on their representation of American values over time, and discuss how that aspect of the characters affects their ongoing titles today.

This is a research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Diversity Studies, in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. / Prior to and immediately following 1994, South African youth literature has largely focused on atypical groups, especially young people’s participation in political protest and violence (Marks 2001; Ntsebeza 1993; Seekings 1993; Straker 1992; Van Kessel 2000). The challenge for new research is to grapple more broadly with the question of how young people construct ordinary lives and identities amid the changing and transforming socio-cultural, economic and political landscape. As such, this study aimed to focus on the ordinary, quotidian narratives of youth in an extraordinary place of Marikana, where the massacre of striking mineworkers took place in 2012. Face-to-face, individual interviews were conducted with 8 participants (aged between 19 and 31 years) living in Marikana, including people who were born in or had migrated to Marikana. Both structural and thematic analyses were used to analyse the transcribed texts. The structural analysis was used to examine how poverty plays a role in the form of stories told. The thematic analysis focused on the content of the narratives, drawing linkages across participants’ stories to understand how they make meaning of events and experiences in their lives. The themes identified were organised as follows: Marikana (nostalgia about the place of Marikana, and belonging to the place of Marikana), childhood in Marikana and elsewhere (growing up in Marikana, and growing up elsewhere), families and their structure (single-parent headed and transnational families, (grand)mothers as pillars of family, and (inter)generational absence/presence of fathers), education (lack of funds for schooling), and possibilities for the future (dreams and futures deferred, and fantasies of escape). The findings indicate that the trauma and violence of the Marikana Massacre was remarkably marginal in their narratives. Instead, participants stressed poverty as a systemic problem that is far more pervasive in how they (re)produce(d) their stories. This core finding reveals poverty as a perpetual structural violence, a repeated state of trauma that is inflicted on their lives and reflected in their stories. Further findings show that many biological fathers are absent in the lives of their children, mostly due to migration or death. Consequently, sons follow in their fathers’ footsteps, leaving their new families behind (some becoming transnational parents). This produces a prevalent intergenerational absence of fathers in Marikana. As a result, mothers and grandmothers are the main breadwinners and emotional pillars of the family. / MT2017

<p>Uppsatsen behandlar översättningen av de fem första kapitlen i <em>Rapt à Bamako</em>, som är ett autentiskt översättningsuppdrag och som kommer att publiceras av Bokförlaget Trasten under hösten 2010. En översättningsprincip för det aktuella uppdraget har bestämts utifrån översättningens förutsättningar, bestående av teoretisk bakgrund, måltextens syfte och kontext, genomgång av referenstexter samt en stilstudie av källtexten. Det framkommer att den kontextuella och lexikala nivån var de som gav upphov till mest svårigheter under översättningsarbetet, men att en stor del av de problematiska översättningsfrågorna kunde lösas med hjälp av översättningsprincipen i fråga.</p> / <p>The study deals with the translation of the five first chapters of <em>Rapt à Bamako, </em>an authentic translation assignment which will be published by Bokförlaget Trasten during fall of 2010. Based on relevant theoretical considerations, the purpose and context of the source text, a survey of parallel texts and finally a style analysis, a translation strategy for the task was formulated. The contextual and lexical levels of the translation turned out to be the most problematic ones, but the solution to the problem could often be found in the translation strategy.</p>

Special Topics in Calamity Physics (2006) by Marisha Pessl and Das Blütenstaubzimmer (1997) by Zoё Jenny both feature strong female characters who go through difficult times because they experience genuine disillusionment with regard to their friends, the opposite sex, and, especially, their family. The focus of this thesis was to analyze if the authors depict their characters in such a way that one can see correlations between the emotional behavior of these characters and a phenomenon that is often referred to as adolescent angst. The theoretical foundation for defining adolescent angst and for understanding mechanisms that trigger adolescent angst was provided by Rapoport and Ismond’s internationally appraised DSM-IV Training Guide for Diagnosis of Childhood Disorders (1996) and Reinherz et al.’s ground-breaking study on „Depressive Disorders“ (2006). In my thesis, I was able to show that the depictions of difficult relationships between the protagonists and their parents and friends show characteristics of adolescent angst. Contrary to that, positive influences like reliable friends who are understanding and lend support, function as motivational forces which decrease the protagonists’ anxieties and frustration in both texts. The analysis of the final scenes showed that after all hardships, the protagonists do not give up hope and open themselves up to a once unimaginable future. Although Pessl and Jenny dismiss the concept of a clear didaxis in their texts, they nevertheless imply a motivational message; namely that adolescent angst can be conquered and overcome. I was able to demonstrate that the concept of adolescent angst serves as a catalyst for the development of the protagonists in both Special Topics in Calamity Physics and Das Blütenstaubzimmer . The bestseller status of both novels underlines that the authors’ decision to conclude these novels which are centered around adolescent angst with an open ending seems to cater to a modern young adult readership, especially within the context of pop culture.

Abstract Reading is a perennial educational hot topic - but now extends for beyond early literacy to the secondary level. Reading researchers are growing in our knowledge of how to reach and teach struggling adolescent readers yet too often success in literacy is measured solely by performance on standardized tests. Literacy is seen on one hand as a one-dimensional set of skills students need to possess to be successful in school and their future workplaces. A more expansive view of the importance of literacy and what it means to adolescent females' growth as individuals and members of communities is needed. This study focused on selected adolescent girls' perceptions of identity through reading, responding, and discussing literature featuring strong female protagonists. Semi-structured interviews conducted with each of the female participants at the beginning and end of the study, reader response journals in which participants composed weekly responses to their reading, transcripts of the weekly book discussions, field notes, and entries in a researcher reflective journal form the data for this study, emphasizing the focus on the meaning these individuals brought to the phenomena studied: identity exploration within literacy events. This study addressed questions of the how and why of a literary event, and involved a variety of data, thereby making a case study methodology an appropriate choice. Selected participants were the focus of individual case studies and the book club itself was the focus of an additional case study. Self-identity statements and background information gathered on each of the three case study participants helped shape portraits of these adolescent girls, whose perspectives on their own identities were both convergent and divergent. The same proved true when addressing the two exploratory questions: The participants appeared to hold identical perspectives on identity, yet stated unique, varied perspectives on environmental elements influencing their self-identity expression. All three case study participants viewed identity as a developing, evolving process highly influenced by societal standards and expectations - especially for females. The girls also saw the social environment as affecting identity in the frequent mismatch occurring between what the individual perceives as his or her self-identity being expressed and how others in the environment perceive the identity. Psychosocial theories of human development acknowledge that an individual's identity is both located within and without. The participants in the book club all shared this perception of identity as a sociocultural construct. However, the girls' diverse self-identity statements and range of perspectives indicate the need for a new model of female adolescent identity development. This new model needs to reflect girls and their sociocultural worlds of today. Finally, the experiences of the five girls in the book club study indicate the common misperceptions existing concerning the nature of adolescent identity. Again, unlike Erickson's concept of identity as undeveloped in adolescence and shifting with each storm and crisis, the girls in the study indicate the need for a different perspective. Classrooms are unfortunately often bereft of the type of space provided for the girls in the book club. Within this space the girls engaged in deep, thoughtful, critical responses to literature while expressing their self-identities and exploring other's identities. As adolescents, these five girls were provided space by and with a trusted adult to engage in what is acknowledged to be a critical element in human development: identity exploration. To meet the needs of all students, teachers should arrange discussions in both small group and whole class structures. However, successful discussions - those which offer students rich opportunities to engage with text, make connections, derive personal meaning, explore and express self-identity - these discussions will only occur when the teacher has considered not only the physical environment but also the attitudinal environment.

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This study examines the progress of young adult (YA) literature in the twenty-first century, as influenced by Web 2.0 social networking technology and sliding structural temporalities of age and maturity in these digital times. The context is Stephenie Meyer’s popular Twilight saga, a pioneering example of an author purposefully engaging with online social networking communities and there encouraging derivative creativity, including Twilight fan fiction. This successful integration of YA literature with Web 2.0 is considered by first appraising tensions between traditional theoretical notions of the genre (and its readers) and contemporary manifestations of the same. Second is an investigation of the genre’s evolving readership and textual practices using the Twilight series, focusing on literary activities of Digital Natives (young adults) in online social arenas. A concentration on the integration of national identity into Canadian Twilight fan fiction examines such evolving practices in reference to an American product (a threat of Americanization) being re-coded in a Canadian reader’s personal, public and online spaces.

Thesis (M.A.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "May 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-68). Also available online.

Zugl.: Osnabrück, Universiẗat, Diss., 2004.