This paper explores the relation between the popular “Tintin” comics by the Belgian artist Hergé and Steven Spielberg’s successful film adaptation “The Adventures of Tintin” (2011) from a linguistic perspective. It explores how language use in the scriptovisual medium of the comic (which combines still images and printed text) is rendered in the audiovisual medium of film (which combines moving images and spoken language). After discussing general linguistic similarities between comics and films and the use of language in each of the two media, the paper compares the representation of voice, accent, thoughts, talking animals, sounds and written language in Spielberg’s screen adaptation to the original printed comic books. It analyses to what extent the language from comic books can be directly transferred to the filmic medium and investigates possible causes underlying any modifications in the above-mentioned domains.

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[pt] Vivemos em um mundo inundado por imagens, que se multiplicam ainda mais na era digital. A presente dissertação de mestrado tem como ponto de partida a premissa de que imagens assim como os textos verbais podem ser lidas, pois são representações visuais. A linguagem das imagens é estudada há décadas por historiadores, comunicólogos e semiologistas. Proponho levá-la para a sala de aula, discutí-la e ainda criar um espaço em meio digital para relacioná-la à história vivida, fora do ambiente escolar. O tipo de imagem escolhida para dar materialização a este trabalho foram as tiras de quadrinhos sobre a temática da Guerra Fria. O local de difusão destas é um blog, tipo de diário digital que possibilita a troca de saberes entre professor e aluno. / [en] We live in a world flooded by images, which multiply even more in the digital age. The present Master s thesis has as its starting point the premise that images as well as verbal texts can be read, since they are visual representations. The language of images has been studied for decades by historians, communicologists and semiologists. I propose to take it to the classroom, to discuss it and to create a space in digital medium to relate it to the lived history, outside the school environment. The type of image chosen to give materialization to this work were comic strips on the theme of the Cold War. The place of diffusion of these is a blog, type of digital diary that allows the exchange of knowledge between teacher and student.

Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies, Theatre, and Dance / Timothy R. Steffensmeier / The 2008 presidential campaign controversy surrounding Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons had the potential to derail Barack Obama’s candidacy. At the heart of the controversy was race, specifically Whiteness. Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union” is perhaps one of the most significant political speeches addressing race to date, and warrants analysis. However, Barry Brummett’s book Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture (1991) argues the critic should not be limited to discrete traditional texts, rather should be able to break outside such traditional speaker-focused boundaries. Brummett’s mosaic model allows an exploration of the intersection between popular and political rhetoric of Obama and The Daily Show. I will argue from the intersection we see the emergence of the comic frame as a homology that links the disparate texts of Obama and TDS. I will argue the reason the comic frame emerges from the texts is because there is a societal mandate for the comic frame. Thus, I will ultimately argue the mandate for the comic frame can be better understood as a social movement. However, it is a movement comprised of numerous individual movements, and warrants a new term: meta-movement. Obama and TDS are not leaders of this meta-movement, but instead should be seen as contributors. Brummett urges the critic to consider “the political or ideological interests served by ordering a rhetorical transaction in a certain way” (1991, p. 98). I will argue constructing the rhetoric of Obama and TDS with the comic frame serves the ideological interests of those who are fighting for social justice and working to subvert Whiteness. Thus, I have named the meta-movement to which Obama and TDS contribute a critical optimist movement, because the comic frame provides the tools to be critical of hegemony while ultimately reinforcing the optimistic assumption of the comic frame: all humans are ultimately both flawed and good.

This thesis examines the contribution of Jewish artists to American popular culture in the mid-twentieth century and argues that the Jewish imagination contains a peculiar ability to simultaneous articulate the concerns of a specifically ethnic identity and a more universal American character. The thesis posits that by exploring how the Jewish community negotiated the space between ethnic identity and an American paradigm, Jewish artists were able to explore the middle ground between individuality and conformity, selfhood and consensus, liberalism and conservatism, tradition and change, and heritage and progress that held a wider pertinence for a more general American audience. The thesis argues that the diversity of the Jewish American imagination at this time can be united by a leitmotif that can be best described as the ambivalence of transition. By examining aesthetically dissimilar texts from a variety of artistic fields, in particular comic books, theatre, cinema, television, and literature, the thesis argues that despite the cultural evolutions that occurred throughout the thirties, forties and fifties, the Jewish voice articulated a continuing concern regarding the relationship between ethnic identity, masculine identity, the individual and mass culture. This last point hints at another preoccupation of this thesis; the texts analysed here all share a narrative focus that explores and represents notions of masculine identity and ideality. In this way, the thesis necessarily focuses upon debates about masculinity within the Jewish imagination and American culture, charting the evolution of the Jewish and American male and their relationship towards notions of performed, consensus, individual and paradigm masculinity. Although there has not necessarily been a desire to fully deny the notion of a continuing thematic preoccupation within the Jewish imaginary, previous scholarship has shown a tendency towards accentuating the eclectic nature of Jewish American culture. Whilst scholars like Paul Buhle and Stephen J. Whitfield recognise the importance of popular culture as an arena in which Jewish artists sought to articulate issues at the heart of Jewish identity and community in the US, their studies focus upon the kaleidoscopic eclecticism of Jewish American culture. The intention of this thesis is to harness the diversity inherent in Jewish cultural expression via the prevailing leitmotif of the ambivalence of transition. In this way the thesis will use the multifarious and textured fabric of mid-century Jewish culture, as well as the simultaneous articulation of both ethnic and more general concerns, to illuminate the understanding of both Jewish identity and American culture throughout the mid-century. Thus, the thesis builds upon work by the likes of Julian Levinson and Hana Wirth-Nesher that revisits ideas of assimilation and attempts to complicate the inexorable movement away from Jewish distinctiveness and identity. Similarly, the thesis builds upon studies by the likes of Pamela Robertson Wojcik and Will Brooker that attempt to accentuate the reductive understanding of the mid-century based upon boundless suburbia and unthinking conformity.

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

With the introduction of the UK Government’s inclusive ideology in the late 20th century, increased pressure was put on schools serving adolescent psychiatric units to support their pupils to return to mainstream education. However, there is a perception that a factor that makes the transition process difficult is the attitude of mainstream pupils towards their peers with mental health problems. The purpose of this research was to explore mainstream pupils’ perceptions of mental health problems and the extent to which their understandings might lead to stigmatising attitudes. A theoretical perspective encompassing the ideas of social constructionism, interpretavism and symbolic interactionism, combined with a linguistic based approach, underpinned the development of an empathetic methodological approach to researching sensitive topics with adolescents. The research involved collecting data using a sequence of questionnaires, individual interviews and group interviews with pupils in three secondary schools within socially diverse communities. The questionnaire was presented in comic booklet form and included such techniques as cartoons, vignettes, and adapted familiarity and social distance scales. This dissertation reveals ways in which young people create their personal constructs around mental health and the complexities of the nature of stigma. It also highlights the implications that these findings have for staff and pupils involved in the transition process and for the development of practice in this field.

This study aims to explain the incentives and travel patterns for people who have consumed popculture tourism. Pop-culture refers to popular products such as video-games, comic-books, literature, film and t.v-shows. Pop-culture tourism refers to destinations and attractions based on popular culture products such as conventions, events, exhibitions, theme parks and destinations. This study takes on a qualitative approach in order to do so. The results were then analyzed through four different theories; Bourdieu’s theory on different capitals, his theory on habitus, his theory on fields and Lundberg & Lexhagen’s figure: Pop-culture Tourism: A Research Model. The results showed that the respondents social upbringing and (social) media consumption plays a central role in order for individuals to consume and partake in pop-culture tourism. Results did also show that cultural capital and social capitals was prominent for individuals who consume and partake in popculture tourism. / Denna studie har som syfte att belysa individers motiv och val att besöka pop-kultursrelaterade attraktioner och destinationer. Pop-kultur i denna uppsats syftar till populära produkter såsom tvspel, serietidningar, litteratur, film och tv-serier. Pop-kultursturism syftar till destinationer och attraktioner som är baserade på de sistnämnda vilket kan vara konventioner, event, utställningar, temaparker eller destinationer. Till denna studie har en kvalitativ ansats tillämpats för att besvara uppsatsens syfte och frågeställningar genom att utföra semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna analyserades sedan genom fyra olika teorier; Bourdieu’s teorier om kapital, fält och habitus samt Lundberg och Lexhagens modell “Pop-culture Tourism: A Research model”. Resultaten visade att exponering av pop-kultur i respondenternas uppväxt, sociala umgängen och (sociala) mediekonsumtion spelade en central roll i konsumtionen och deltagandet av pop-kultursturism. Resultaten visade även att kulturellt kapital (ett intresse av en viss pop-kulturell produkt) och socialt kapital (individens habitus) var betydande för individer som deltar i pop-kultursturism.

This master's thesis is a study of the comic strip and its tradition in the Czech Republic. It covers development of this format and its occurrence in Czech periodicals as well as the gradual use of comics' visual language and different views on the comic strip definition. Taking views from several different perspectives including artists, writers, magazine editors and publishers this thesis will show the principles of cooperation between the comic creator and the editors of the magazine in which it is published. This is supported by original research (see Appendix) and has the goal of showing the motivations, perceptions and approaches to the comic strip from the perspective of the creator as well as the magazine editor. The research uses case studies based on structured interviews with editors of cultural magazines in the Czech Republic and with the creators of the comic strips that they publish. The results of this research combined with the historical and contemporary context offer a close look into the current perception of the comic strip as a format for creative expression, but also the magazine editor's responsibility in publishing the comic strip.

Language and style of the plays written for Jára Cimrman Theatre This magister thesis deals with language analysis of the stage plays of Jára Cimrman Theatre. The opening chapter describes general information about the theatre and it's authors as well. The thesis is divided into two parts, the theoretical part and the practical part. The theoretical part is based on results of theoretical studies of different authors, especially Bohuslav Brouk, Henri Bergson, Ladislav Dvorský and Vladimír Borecký. The practical part contains the detailed language analysis of all 15 stage plays. This diploma work analyzes which types of language comic we can find there and how much are they extended. Linguistic performances are separated on the principle of linguistics on individual linguistic branches. This diploma work also discusses mystification as a common framework for realization of all comic means. Keywords Jára Cimrman, stage play, Zdeněk Svěrák, Ladislav Smoljak, language comic, intertextuality, mystification