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Autobiographies and documentaries usually aim to elicit a discussion about social issues by shocking and horrifying readers and viewers, often through graphic imagery. This study's ambition is to examine how literary documentary borrows from the gothic tradition to depict real societal issues. My aim is to show how the gothic style transcends the borders of the genre and that literary documentary about self-harm tends to work through the same thematic and narrative structures as the literary gothic. With a focus on contemporary depictions of self-harm and mental illness in young women and girls in Sweden, this analysis explore how the function of sexuality, gender and self-harm in gothic horror can be applied on these texts. At the same time this study explores how selfharming women tend to use gothic imagery to portray the horrors of their own reality that is saturated with extreme and negative emotions. For comparison, two famous depictions of girls going through puberty from the literary horror genre; Carrie and The Exorcist, are examined to further anchor the connection between femininity, blood and puberty in the gothic theoretical field.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:59:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marta Maria Coelho Barbosa.pdf: 731755 bytes, checksum: b6f9794d5181a5d41daa797f02e7c869 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-06 / The core of approach of the writer Osman Lins s lies in a restoration of the process of reconstructing the connection between the modern man to cosmos, applied to the called narratives abject, term of Walter Benjamin. That is because, when Middle Age allegory was rescued, Osman Lins constructs an interpretative way of this process that has as epicenter images of insects and animals, bases of the figurative metaphorical work of novels in analysis: Engagement, the Transparent Bird and Pentagon of Hahn and other narratives of Nine, Novena. In these, the sense of meaning emerges from the corrosion of relations between things that transform the living creatures into ruin, whose great effect is the loss of stability due to accumulation of information, in favor of the mutation dissection. The work of displacement of the language to the verbal communication makes Osman Lins s literary creation a way of domain the analogous words to the ones of the poetry, however in prose liberated by the allegory image. When making animals and insects a door of entrance to a world of mystery and fancy, also makes a constant investigation in histories of novels, established for the resignation to any mode of technology or totalitarian ideology applied to them. Tropo is a figure in libertarian use which occurs a transformation of allegory in image of contaminated novel Nine, Novena. The narratives in study are resultant of an attitude of rejection of the writer to stereotypes given to common-place in literary exercise, however dislocated by improvisation in a way to tell that it shows deformation and contamination under other affinities equivalents to the narrative statement: the objective is to return the identity to the language. The narrative representative work in Nine, Novena shows the man facing conflicts of modernity laid in cause of exploration to the meaning of abject, when stirring a reader up, by this means, to the reflection on automation, alienation and solitude, and, consequently, inaugurating a new time in Brazilian society in the second half of century XX: the word-animal making slit , new lives production in body-words.. The first chapter, Correlations of fragmentary narrative and the novel type, deals with the conceptual work of transformation and displacement of literal form of medieval allegory for a renowned and transfigured modality of Osman Lins s novel, in parallel to the illustration of Braque: Roofs of Céret. Second chapter, Allegorical confrontations: conceptual and artistic, it displays the visual descriptive and ornamental exercise in comparison to the illustration La Dame à La the Licorne, placing the medieval wonderful element in the motivation of the animal characters, personages in novels. The third chapter, Forms of ingenious concept: allegorical and metaphors, made possible the analysis of novels under the contamination of other visual symbols, pointing the distinguishing marks given by fragment and discursive contamination, for the poetical principles of analogy, comparison, irony, metaphorical and mosaic image plastic exhibitions methodologies and procedures of reading and interpretation. The conceptual recital if abided by the theoreticians: Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes. Hansen, T. E. Hulme, Octávio Paz, Jaime Alazraki, Umberto Eco and readers Brazilian contemporaries of the workmanship of Osman Lins in preferential reference / O núcleo de abordagem das novelas do escritor Osman Lins instaura-se no processo de reconstrução da ligação do homem moderno ao cosmo, aplicado às narrativas denominadas abjetas, termo de Walter Benjamin. Isso porque, ao recuperar a alegoria da Idade Média, Osman Lins edifica uma via interpretativa desse processo que tem como epicentro imagens de insetos e animais, bases do trabalho metafórico figurativo das novelas em análise: Noivado, O Pássaro Transparente e Pentágono de Hahn e outras narrativas de Nove, Novena. Nestas, o sentido da significação emerge da corrosão das relações entre as coisas que transformam os seres vivos em ruínas, cujo grande efeito é a perda da estabilidade dada pela acumulação de informação, em favor da fragmentação e da mutação. O trabalho de deslocamento da língua para a linguagem faz da criação literária de Osman Lins um modo de domar as palavras análogas às da poesia, todavia em prosa liberada pela imagem alegórica. Ao fazer dos animais e insetos uma porta de entrada a um mundo de mistério e fantasia, também faz uma indagação constante nas histórias das novelas, instalada pela renúncia a qualquer modalidade de tecnologia ou ideologia totalitária a elas aplicada. O tropo é a figura em uso libertário pelo qual ocorre a transformação da alegoria em imagem na novela contaminada Nove, Novena. As narrativas em estudo são resultantes de uma atitude de rejeição do escritor aos estereótipos dados pelos lugares-comuns no exercício literário, porém deslocados pela improvisação de um modo de narrar que mostra deformação e contaminação sob outras afinidades equivalentes ao enunciado narrativo: o objetivo é devolver a identidade à linguagem. O trabalho representacional narrativo em Nove, Novena exibe o homem diante dos conflitos da modernidade posto em causa pela exploração da acepção do abjeto, ao incitar, por essa via, o leitor à reflexão sobre a automatização, a alienação e a solidão, e, conseqüentemente, inaugurando uma nova época na sociedade brasileira na segunda metade do século XX: o bicho-palavra produzindo fissuras , produção de novos objetos vivos em palavras-corpo. O primeiro capítulo, Correlações da narrativa fragmentária e do gênero novela, trata do trabalho conceitual da transformação e deslocamento da forma literal da alegoria medieval para uma modalidade renomada e transfigurada da novela de Osman Lins, em paralelo à ilustração de Braque: Telhados de Céret. O segundo capítulo, Confrontos alegóricos: conceitual e artístico, expõe o exercício ornamental visual e descritivo em comparação à ilustração La Dame à la Licorne, alocando o elemento maravilhoso medieval na motivação das personagens animais, personagens nas novelas. O terceiro capítulo, Formas de conceptismo engenhoso: alegorismos e metáforas, concretiza a análise das novelas sob a contaminação de outros símbolos da visualidade, apontando as marcas diferenciais dadas pela fragmentação e contaminação discursiva, pelos princípios poéticos da analogia, da comparação, da ironia, da metaforização e do espetáculo plástico da imagem em mosaico, metodologias e procedimentos de leitura e interpretação. A fundamentação conceitual se ateve aos teóricos: Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, A. Hansen, T. E. Hulme, Octávio Paz, Jaime Alazraki, Umberto Eco e leitores contemporâneos brasileiros da obra de Osman Lins em referência preferencial

Despite his own conservative values, D.H. Lawrence writes sexually liberated female characters. The most subversive female characters in Lawrence’s oeuvre are the Brangwens of The Rainbow. The Brangwens are prototypical models of a form of femininity that connects women to Nature while distancing them from society; his women are cast as monsters, but are strengthened from their link with Nature. They represent what I am calling the Lawrentian-Woman. The Lawrentian-Woman has proven influential for contemporary British authors. I examine the Lawrentian-Woman’s adoption by later writers and her evolution from modernist frame to postmodern appropriation. First, I look at the Brangwens. They establish the tropes of the Lawrentian-Woman and provide the base from which to compare the model’s subsequent mutations. Next, I examine modern British writers and their appropriation of the Lawrentian-Woman. The Lawrentian-Woman’s attributes remain intact, but are deconstructed in ways that explore women’s continued liminality in patriarchal society.

This research investigates the Neo-Baroque aesthetic of excess in contemporary South African art, and explores reasons for the emergence of this style. It investigates artists who use their bodies as a site of resistance, to contest or reconstruct the dominant social values which establish differences between bodies to place them within the marginal position of ‘Other’. This investigation relates to post-colonial concerns. The artists’ exploitation of the Neo-Baroque aesthetic of excess as a comment on social concerns reveals a sense of crisis within South African society, similar to the conditions from which the seventeenth century Baroque style evolved. Neo-Baroque aesthetics of excess manifest in a variety of ways, and are particularly evident when artists transgress social boundaries placed on the body through abject and erotic associations. Excess ultimately arises from complexity, as hybrid art forms are created from the combination of media and content found within the art work. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Visual Arts / unrestricted

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<p>This study researches fictional representations of dead bodies in two television series in which representations of dead bodies are prominent features. The study introduces a brief history of the  human body as a societal metaphor. The narrower theme of the study, the dead body as a cultural surface and carrier of meaning and ritual potential, is discussed through specific popular cultural television productions.</p><p>The two television series discussed in this study, <em>CSI: Miami </em>and <em>Six Feet Under</em>, are researched both through film analyses and focus group discussions. The film analyses have aimed<em> </em>to show to what use dead bodies are put in the narratives of the programs. The focus group discussions have sought to shed light on the audiences understanding of the meaning of the dead body, and also how this feature of the programs influence the audience and their experience of the programs.</p><p>The study shows that both series introduce and underline dead bodies as floating in-between subject and object status. A dead person is often introduced as a subject and then stripped of his or her cultural identity and reintroduced as an object or as having an uncertain cultural status which lies somewhere between object and subject. This borderline status of the body serves as a threat in the series, and the subject status of the body is reinstated in every case possible. Order is a central concept for the study and both series strive to reassert and maintain order, either in relationships or on a societal level. The reinstatement of order is reflected on the physical body as a metaphor and narrative device in both series. The reestablishment of the subject status of a dead body is part of this strive for order. The audience research concludes that all focus group members agree that the representations of dead bodies in the programs are important for their experience of the programs. Some find them unpleasant while others think they are interesting. The audience also listed several other themes of the programs which they found important. The representations of dead bodies strike the audience members both as “real” and material, and as metaphors.</p>

This study researches fictional representations of dead bodies in two television series in which representations of dead bodies are prominent features. The study introduces a brief history of the  human body as a societal metaphor. The narrower theme of the study, the dead body as a cultural surface and carrier of meaning and ritual potential, is discussed through specific popular cultural television productions. The two television series discussed in this study, CSI: Miami and Six Feet Under, are researched both through film analyses and focus group discussions. The film analyses have aimed to show to what use dead bodies are put in the narratives of the programs. The focus group discussions have sought to shed light on the audiences understanding of the meaning of the dead body, and also how this feature of the programs influence the audience and their experience of the programs. The study shows that both series introduce and underline dead bodies as floating in-between subject and object status. A dead person is often introduced as a subject and then stripped of his or her cultural identity and reintroduced as an object or as having an uncertain cultural status which lies somewhere between object and subject. This borderline status of the body serves as a threat in the series, and the subject status of the body is reinstated in every case possible. Order is a central concept for the study and both series strive to reassert and maintain order, either in relationships or on a societal level. The reinstatement of order is reflected on the physical body as a metaphor and narrative device in both series. The reestablishment of the subject status of a dead body is part of this strive for order. The audience research concludes that all focus group members agree that the representations of dead bodies in the programs are important for their experience of the programs. Some find them unpleasant while others think they are interesting. The audience also listed several other themes of the programs which they found important. The representations of dead bodies strike the audience members both as “real” and material, and as metaphors.

Within the field of cinema studies, the question of visual representation is a fundamental pillar. An immense volume of theoretical work has been written on the subject, with various academic approaches such as feministic, postcolonial and gay/lesbian. Yet there is a large social group that seems to have been overlooked within the representational discourse: the elderly. This group of people appears to be a blind spot on the multicultural retina, too often neglected within the area of cultural studies. But as the baby boomer generation, who has always redefined the different stages of life (youth, adulthood, middle age), is entering old age, things are slowly changing. Utilizing a post-structural framework, this essay investigates the visual representation of elderly within the cinematic landscape of the western world. Since the subject is somewhat uncharted territory, a broad interdisciplinary approach is necessary where modern social gerontology meets the field of cinema studies. In a cultural context, social grouping based on age implies a distinct position versus the normative, compare to other types of minorities. Changes of sex, skin colour or sexual preference are uncommon, whereas changing age is the fate of every human being. The elderly as the “the Other” is thus every man’s future destiny. This rather unique position carries an immanent paradox since the only way to avoid the periphery in question is death. As a philosophical counterpoint to this rather dystopian outlook, Gilles Deleuze’s theory of becoming is brought into the discussion. The theoretical part of the essay ends with the ontology of age, a historical review of the field of gerontology and the concept of ageism. After a descriptive section, where contemporary examples of film and other media with old age as a main theme are identified, the analytical part of the essay ensues. With the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu as a theoretical frame of reference, a close reading of the films Avalon (Axel Petersén, 2011), About Schmidt (Alexander Payne, 2002) and RED (Robert Schwentke, 2010) are performed, emphasising aging identity and imposed age-normative behaviour. The semiotics of the aged body is discussed through Jacques Lacans mirror stage and Julia Kristevas abject theory, exemplified by the works of Donigan Cumming. The final part of the essay concerns the great eternal questions within film philosophy: life, death, time and memory, which for the elderly are not merely philosophical concerns but rather notable existential realities. Using Deleuze as a philosophical toolbox, these grand topics are illuminated with examples from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher, 2008), Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012) and Ingmar Bergmans classical works, such as Smultronstället (1957), Saraband (2003) and Gycklarnas afton (1953).