In my thesis, I focused on the challenges of the American Dream and its damaging demands. I compared these aspects to The Glass Menagerie, All My Sons, and Death of the Salesman, plays by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, two playwrights concerned with similar issues in the 1940s and 1950s. Each chapter was introduced by Robert Frost's poem related to its topic. This element was added as a chapters' introduction to express the universality of the depicted issues and to tight the sections together under one pattern. In the theoretical part of the thesis, I concentrated on the 40s and 50s America and its features and the historical development of the American Dream. This section's main influences were works by Rodney P. Carlisle, Richard A. Schwartz, Stephanie Coontz, and Jim Cullen. With their books about America and its historical background, Carlisle, Schwartz, and Coontz provided a base for the factual context of this thesis. Cullen's work on the American Dream was used as the primary source for understanding the reasons behind the Dream and its historical development. The whole thesis was supported by arguments from Lauren Berlant, John W. Thoburn and Thomas L. Sexton, and Piotr Sztompka. Berlant's work on cruel optimism provided a possible explanation of particular behavior that accompanied...

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur kvinnorna i BBCs serie ”Sherlock” representeras och förhåller sig till traditionella könsroller. Då serien är en nytolkande version som utspelar sig på 2000-talet till skillnad från originalen som utspelar sig drygt 100 år tidigare blir det intressant att undersöka hur mycket som förändras från originalen av Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Karaktärerna har genomgått stor förändring genom denna nytolkning, och även nya karaktärer har skapats för serien. I analysen kommer bland annat Connells teorier om genus att användas för att definiera genus och fastställa hur en man och kvinna bör vara enligt samhällets normer, detta kompletteras med D.H Meehans definierade stereotyper. Två avsnitt av serien kommer att användas i analysen, med fokus på tre kvinnliga karaktärer: En som återfinns i originalen, samt två nya. Dessa karaktärer kommer att analyseras genom att undersöka utvalda scener där de samspelar med Sherlock Holmes. Analysen sker genom en semiotisk analys, samt kvalitativ textanalys. Jag använder mig av Roland Barthes begrepp denotation och konnotation vid scenanalysen, detta för att undersöka vad som utmärker kvinnorna i serien. Egenskaperna dessa kvinnor besitter kommer sedan att ställas mot mina valda teorier, detta för att fastställa hur väl karaktärernas genusmönster överensstämmer med stereotypiska tolkningar, slutligen kommer de valda avsnitten att analyseras och jämföras bredvid originalen av Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. En kvalitativ textanalys kommer att göras av två utvalda texter om serien i fråga, en som anser att serien är sexistisk och mansdominerad och en som talar mot detta. Textanalysen görs för att undersöka publikens tolkningar och för att förstå varför serien väckt debatt. I mitt resultat har jag funnit vissa egenskaper för karaktärerna som stämmer överens med den teoretiska ramen, även om alla egenskaper inte kunde appliceras på karaktärerna i fråga. Kvinnorna framställs ofta som känslosamma, emotionellt splittrade och även beroende av männen omkring dem. De nya karaktärerna identifieras ofta som känslosamma och genom sitt förhållande till männen, medan Irene Adler som uppgraderats från originalen portträtteras som en emotionell och känslostyrd kvinna som behöver mannens beskydd. Jag har funnit gränsöverskridande i vissa karaktärer, där manliga och kvinnliga egenskaper blandats. Slutsatsen blir att det finns mönster för hur genus porträtteras i serien som återfinns i mediestereotyper. Även textanalysen bidrog till att stärka denna teori, då det varit viktigt att förstå vilka frågor serien väckt och varför. Nyckelord: BBC Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Semiotisk analys, textanalys

Observing the movement in recent Christian theology, I examine the change in depth metaphors and theological works, as they move from tendencies of solidity and proposition-forming, to more fluid imaginations in their substance and style. I conduct an indirect comparison between John A.T. Robinson and Catherine Keller, engaging Buber, Tillich and Virginia Mollenkott, specifically focusing on themes of depth and working through a filter of social and ecological justice.Throughout the essay I acknowledge the importance of the continuing re-articulation of theology, the necessity of exploring the roots of Christianity, and I affirm the need for new language for the task of articulating an appropriate image of divinity and humanity. I contend that while Keller is well able to continue Robinson's theological project for the next generation, his work is still valuable in contributing Christology and New Testament studies, both of these being somewhat absent from Keller's work.

The role of women in society was an important socio?cultural discourse explored in the literature of the late 19th century. The Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler was a key contributor to this discourse. He was well known for the psychological portrayal of his characters and the sexualization of his literary types, especially of his female characters, and in his writings he dared to break societal taboos. Schnitzler created a wide array of social types, such as the "integrated woman," the "ageing spinster," the "woman of the world," the "prostitute" and the widely discussed type the "s????e M??del" ("sweet girl"). In this thesis, however, I will focus on one of the less examined female types in Schnitzler's work: the "widow. " I will examine two narratives by Schnitzler that concentrate on the widow "Frau Berta Garlan" (1901) and "Frau Beate und ihr Sohn" (1913), to investigate this type and to examine the modes of gendered identity?formation as portrayed in the literary texts. <br /><br /> To examine the gender?types that the protagonists reflect in the search for their identity, I will undertake an intratextual analysis of the text, based on the central premises of Michel Foucault's discourse analysis and Judith Butler's analysis of gender as construct. Within this constructivist paradigm of gender and identity, I will undertake a textual analysis of character representation to demonstrate how identity is formed within the constraints of hegemonic discourses, and how resistance against these preformed modes of identity is predicated by fixed notions of social norms. <br /><br /> The texts focus on the lives of the two female protagonists. Both are widowed and fail to break out of the constraints forced upon them by society. With the awakening of their sexual desire, they are caught in an identity crisis, their desires standing at odds with the asexual identity they must assume as widows. In their attempt to combine their sexual desires with their desire to remain respectable in the eyes of society, the widows eventually fail since normative discourses of gender identity do not allow for alternative identities. Although the texts demonstrate the impossibility of living identities that contravene the central tenets of social norm, that the individual is not free to fashion its own identity, Schnitzler's texts also debunk the myth of a natural gender identity and subvert its fatalistic message by demonstrating clearly the constructed character of gender almost a century before the advent of poststructuralist gender?theory.

Licenciado en artes mención en teoría e historia del arte / Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), indudablemente uno de los más importantes escritores occidentales, no sólo se caracteriza por publicar una serie de textos maestros -entre los cuales Madame Bovary es sino el más logrado, al menos el de mayor resonancia en nuestros días-, también se define por ceder ante las fantasías y placeres que prometiera Oriente, encaminando sus pasos hacia aquellas tierras exóticas, peligrosas y sensuales. Su móvil: el placer de ver con sus propios ojos aquello entrevisto desde su infancia en la gran cantidad de representaciones que por aquel entonces circulaban sobre el mundo oriental. Por otra parte, Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), poeta, vagabundo, desertor intratable, cumbre y modelo de un rabioso malditismo decimonónico, fija su itinerario sobre aquellas tierras donde la soberanía es ejercida por el sol y la brutalidad; es también Oriente su espejismo. Oriente con sus misterios y, sobretodo, una compleja maquinaria de subyugación colonial que resulta indisociable a la producción de las representaciones que pretendieron desvelarlo. Sin embargo, el móvil de Rimbaud es diferente: enriquecerse a toda costa. Dicho de otro modo, mientras el primero es movido por la promesa de una voluptuosidad mayor, el segundo persigue incansablemente el oro que pudiera arrebatar a los nativos de los territorios donde Occidente ha arribado con todo su poderío técnico. De tal manera que, en sus respetivos viajes, Flaubert resulte ser el turista, así como Rimbaud, el colonizador. Dos caras de la misma moneda, desentrañadas aquí con el objeto de reflexionar sobre el lugar del sujeto moderno, específicamente del hombre de letras, al momento de viajar en la búsqueda de lugares que -sembrados a partir de una representación- tal vez no están más que en la propia mente de aquellos que viajan.

This thesis seeks to expand the self-critical resources of contemporary theological economic ethics by bringing the method of a pre-modern theologian and social commentator, Martin Luther (1483-1546), into interaction with that of a modern contribution to social ethics, the Swiss theologian Arthur Rich (1910-92). This thesis is the first substantial treatment in English of Rich’s magnum opus, Wirtschaftsethik. The demonstration of the thesis is undertaken by a close engagement with a selected publication of Luther (his 1519/20 Großer Sermon von dem Wucher) and of Rich (his masterwork, Wirtschaftsethik, published in two volumes in 1984 and 1990 respectively). The thesis does not simply describe Luther’s and Rich’s economic ethics, but demonstrates the way in which they operate, that is, their method. An introduction sets out the thesis, and defends its method. Chapter 1 introduces Luther’s sermon on usury, and situates it in its context. It then gives a commentary on Luther’s method, discussing its genre, the way in which Luther deploys Scripture and exploits doctrines with respect to ethics, and his concept of the twofold government of God. It analyses how Luther brings these theological motifs to bear on a particular economic question. Chapter 2 sketches Arthur Rich’s life and work, and presents Rich’s method as set out in Wirtschaftsethik. It discusses his understanding of ethics, his approach to Scripture, and his adoption of the thought of Max Weber and John Rawls. Chapter 3 brings our study of Luther to bear on Rich’s approach, noting strengths and weaknesses of Rich’s method. It questions some of Rich’s assumptions, and notes ways in which a more self-critical approach could have made his project more successful. A conclusion then summarises the argument, and makes tentative suggestions as to the wider applicability of the critical questions posed to Rich’s method by the analysis of Luther.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of ascertaining whether or not A. C. Pigou led to the development of a modern school of Welfare Economics. This study has a threefold purpose. The first is to examine the welfare criterion of the classical tradition. The second is to examine the welfare criterion of the neoclassical tradition. The third is to develop a synthesis of classical and neoclassical into a modern welfare criterion. This study concludes that A. C. Pigou has founded a modern school of Welfare Economics. Pigou accomplished this by synthesizing the welfare doctrines of the classical tradition with that of the neoclassical tradition.

The role of the director in the contemporary theatre is constantly evolving in relationship to the art form. This thesis explores the process of directing Arthur Miller's American Tragedy All My Sons . Produced on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in December 2006, the role of the director is explored as it relates to this university community. The examination focuses on challenges surrounding script selection, casting, rehearsal, and ultimately production. By exploring the process of directing this production of All My Sons, larger revelations are discovered about the changing role of leadership in academic theatre.

This study focuses on the relation between the picareque genre and the way in which guilt is processed in literature. André Brink’s Inteendeel (On the contrary) was used in this examination and also, for a wider perspective than merely the South African situation, Arthur Japin’s De zwarte met het witte hart (The two hearts of Aquasi Boachi). The possibilities offerd by the picaresque in order to investigate the manifestation of guilt in literary texts were explored with the theories of, inter alia, Wicks, Ricoeur and Todorov. Tracing the origins of the picaresque reveals that this type of text exhibits specific characteristics, e.g. an unethical attitude that is usually imposed on the individual by a society in crisis – “guilt” and a confessional tone are therefore intrinsically part of the picaresque. Using Wicks’s modal-generic approach, the two novels are examined with the purpose of determining their degree of “picaresqueness” to test the validity of the hypothesis, i.e. that the more a text displays picaresque characteristics, the more the issue of guilt would be a central theme to that text. In the two novels relevant to this study, colonial guilt is the main form of guilt examined. / Prof. W. Burger