Magister Artium - MA / The purpose of this study was two-fold: firstly, to do a multimodal analysis of the multilingual signage, advertisements and graffiti present on different surfaces in the main business hub of a multicultural community called Wesbank, situated in the Eastern Metropole of the city of Cape Town. Signage of this nature, taken together, constitute the „linguistic landscape‟ (Gorter, 2006) of a particular space. My analysis of the signage included interviews with a number of the producers of these signs which reveal why their signs are constructed in particular ways with particular languages. Secondly, I interviewed 20 mature women from the community in order to determine their level of understanding of these signs as well as whether the linguistic landscape of the township had an impact on their levels of literacy. The existing literacy levels of the women being surveyed as well as those of the producers of the signs were also taken into account. My main analytical tools were Multimodal Discourse Analysis (Kress, 2003), applied to the signage, and a Critical Discourse style of Analysis (Willig, 1999; Pienaar and Becker, 2007), applied to the focus group and individual analysis. Basic quantitative analysis was also applied to the quantifiable questionnaire data. The overriding motivation for the study was to determine the strategies used by the women to make sense of their linguistic landscape and to examine whether there was any transportation of literacy from the signage to these women so that they could function more effectively and agentively in their own environment. This study formed part of a larger NRF-funded research project entitled Township women’s discourses and literacy resources, led by my supervisor, Prof. C. Dyers. The study revealed the interesting finding that the majority of the vendors in Wesbank, especially in terms of house shops, hairdressers and fruit and vegetable stalls, are foreigners from other parts of Africa, who rely on English as a lingua franca to advertise their wares. The signage makers had clearly put some thought into the language skills of their multilingual target market in this township, and did their best to communicate with their potential customers through the complete visual image of their signs. The overall quality of the codes displayed on the signage also revealed much about the literacy levels in the township as well as language as a local practice (Pennycook 2010). While English predominated on the signs, at times one also found the addition of Afrikaans (especially in the case of religious signage) and isiXhosa (as in one very prominent advertisement by a dentist). The study further established that the female respondents in my study, as a result of their different literacy levels, made use of both images and codes on an item of signage to interpret the message conveyed successfully. Signage without accompanying images were often ignored, or interpreted with the help of others or by using one comprehensible word to work out the rest of the sign. As has been shown by another study in the larger research project, these women displayed creativity in making sense of their linguistic landscape. The study further revealed that, as a result of frequent exposure to some words and expressions in the linguistic landscape, some of the women had become familiar with these terms and had thereby expanded their degree of text literacy. In this way, the study has contributed to our understanding of the notion of portable literacy as explored by Dyers and Slemming (2011, forthcoming).

Magister Artium - MA / The purpose of this study was two-fold: firstly, to do a multimodal analysis of the multilingual signage, advertisements and graffiti present on different surfaces in the main business hub of a multicultural community called Wesbank, situated in the Eastern Metropole of the city of Cape Town. Signage of this nature, taken together, constitute the „linguistic landscape‟ (Gorter, 2006) of a particular space. My analysis of the signage included interviews with a number of the producers of these signs which reveal why their signs are constructed in particular ways with particular languages. Secondly, I interviewed 20 mature women from the community in order to determine their level of understanding of these signs as well as whether the linguistic landscape of the township had an impact on their levels of literacy. The existing literacy levels of the women being surveyed as well as those of the producers of the signs were also taken into account.My main analytical tools were Multimodal Discourse Analysis (Kress, 2003),applied to the signage, and a Critical Discourse style of Analysis (Willig, 1999;Pienaar and Becker, 2007), applied to the focus group and individual analysis.Basic quantitative analysis was also applied to the quantifiable questionnaire data.The overriding motivation for the study was to determine the strategies used by the women to make sense of their linguistic landscape and to examine whether there was any transportation of literacy from the signage to these women so that they could function more effectively and agentively in their own environment. This study formed part of a larger NRF-funded research project entitled Township women’s discourses and literacy resources, led by my supervisor, Prof. C. Dyers.The study revealed the interesting finding that the majority of the vendors in Wesbank, especially in terms of house shops, hairdressers and fruit and vegetable stalls, are foreigners from other parts of Africa, who rely on English as a lingua franca to advertise their wares. The signage makers had clearly put some thought into the language skills of their multilingual target market in this township, and did their best to communicate with their potential customers through the complete visual image of their signs. The overall quality of the codes displayed on the signage also revealed much about the literacy levels in the township as well as language as a local practice (Pennycook 2010). While English predominated on the signs, at times one also found the addition of Afrikaans (especially in the case of religious signage) and isiXhosa (as in one very prominent advertisement by a dentist).The study further established that the female respondents in my study, as a result of their different literacy levels, made use of both images and codes on an item of signage to interpret the message conveyed successfully. Signage without accompanying images were often ignored, or interpreted with the help of others or by using one comprehensible word to work out the rest of the sign. As has been shown by another study in the larger research project, these women displayed creativity in making sense of their linguistic landscape. The study further revealed that, as a result of frequent exposure to some words and expressions in the linguistic landscape, some of the women had become familiar with these terms and had thereby expanded their degree of text literacy. In this way, the study has contributed to our understanding of the notion of portable literacy as explored by Dyers and Slemming (2011, forthcoming).

This paper presents the results of a critical discourse analysis of a selection of Canada’s security texts and argues that the country’s security discourses construct Muslims as dangerous and different from the normative Canadian. The research relies on a social constructionist understanding of discourse and the recognition that our state’s representatives and agents, operating from positions of discursive power, wield disproportionate influence in directing the national conversation and managing the signals that shape our social attitudes and imaginaries. By persistently qualifying terrorism with Islam, portraying the terrorist figure as a religiously and ideologically-motivated actor opposed to ‘Western values’ and by casting suspicion on the ordinary behaviour of Muslims, Canada’s security discourses produce a mental model in which Islam and its followers are associated with a propensity for terrorist violence. The discourses also naturalize the idea that Muslims are in need of surveillance, not only by the state’s agents, but by the public itself. When examined alongside a body of research illustrating Canada’s ‘visible minority’ population continues to be negatively affected by dominant group discrimination, the results of the study raise questions about the culpability of state representatives in the reproduction of ideas of difference which continue to inform the country’s social imaginary and hinder the equality and inclusivity of minority groups within the national collective.

As representations of queer and trans* youth become increasingly numerous and diverse in mainstream teen television, this thesis explores the social processes of normalization present in the elaboration of queer and trans* youth characters in the 2010-2011 seasons of Pretty Little Liars and Degrassi. The methodology involves a critical discourse analysis of racialized queer youth identities on Pretty Little Liars and white trans* youth identities on Degrassi, complemented by an analysis of their political economy of production and their circulation of discourse surrounding sexuality and gender identity in online youth communities. Drawing upon literature on homonormativity and emerging literature on transnormativity in mainstream media texts, this thesis illustrates that despite their amenability to dominant social power structures, contemporary televisual representations of queer and trans* youth identities achieve meaningful cultural work through the creation of new societal frameworks for youth to engage with non-normative sexualities and gender identities.

Ottawa’s Capital Slam poetry scene has transformed over the past decade, marking a shift in the identities, discourses and performance styles of local poets. This thesis investigates these changes and trends within the time periods of 2008-2010 and 2012- 2014. This thesis demonstrates the shift from male poets of colour in 2008-2010 to female voices in 2012-2014 at Capital Slam, through an examination of Ottawa’s history and a multimodal critical discourse analysis of online performances. In particular, the creation of local alternative poetry shows over the past five years has increased the representation of female poets and transformed the racial dynamics of the scene. During the period 2008-2010 and 2012-2014, poets used key historical elements of slam poetry such as storytelling and speaking through personal experiences to effectively demonstrate how marginalized individuals can speak counter-narratives to dominant culture. The use of storytelling allowed these poets to engage, connect and dialogue with the audience, as well as demonstrate their different identities, discourses and performance styles.

This thesis critically examines dominant conceptualizations of safety crimes – offences by corporations that seriously injure and kill workers – within the Alberta oil and gas industry. Using critical discourse analysis, and relying on and Foucaultian and Marxist literatures, the thesis critically examines the extent to which government fatality reports, workplace safety education campaigns and court decisions characterize safety crimes primarily as ‘accidents’ caused by ‘careless’ workers. Two main discourses were found: first, workers were responsibilized, effectively blamed for their own injury and death in the workplace while employers were characterized as largely good and law-abiding; second, serious injury and death was (re)conventionalized as the regrettable but largely unintentional and unavoidable side effect of capitalist production. In the process, the underlying causes of safety crimes, including weak and under-enforced laws and a socio-economic context that prioritizes profits over worker safety, remain untouched.

The purpose of this thesis is to create a grid to assist in analysing three works of migration literature selected from the anthology, Retrato de una nube: Primera antología del cuento hispano canadiense (Molina Lora & Torres-Recinos, 2008) that would be informative in carrying out their translation with greater depth and scope, including language, discourse and real-life experience. My choice for a model was a recasting of Octavio Paz’s diachronic sequence “translations of translations of translations” (1979, p. 14) into its synchronic equivalent. Translation of the surface text or my interlinguistic (microtextual) translation from Spanish into English is the starting point, and the other two levels then need to be defined in relation to this first one. The next structural level in the sequence is the level that is normally consulted by the translator when the microtext is not sufficient for a satisfactory translation, i.e. the level of the macrotext, where there are networks of elements: plot, characterization, dialogue along with power relations and other characteristics reflected in the dialogue as discovered using critical discourse analysis. These larger discursive structures make up a level, a subtext that “encloses” the previous one. Since the texts chosen are works of migration literature, this subtext deals with migration and with the corresponding characteristics. At this level the translation is that of the migrant from one nationality to another represented with the characters and elements of this migration. Level 3 (the anthropological) is the third translation that encloses the other two, that of the migrant author, who translates him/herself from one nationality to another and who shows diasporic and hybrid characteristics reflected through the (micro)textual and discursive layers. The resulting structure is that of three vertical levels of translations that are synchronic and vertical rather than diachronic and horizontal (as Paz seems to have imagined) that not only describe translations internally but that also translate between themselves externally and in both directions: the linguistic (microtextual) into the discursive, and inversely, and the discursive into the anthropological, and inversely. Résumé : L’objectif de cette thèse consiste en l’élaboration d’une nouvelle grille d’analyse de trois nouvelles de la littérature migrante hispano-canadienne sélectionnées de l’anthologie, Retrato de una nube: Primera antología del cuento hispano canadiense (Molina Lora & Torres-Recinos, 2008) pour entreprendre et justifier leur traduction avec un plus grand degré de profondeur et une portée plus large, à la fois linguistique, discursive et phénoménologique. En vue de développer cette grille, j’ai choisi de revisiter la séquence diachronique d’Octavio Paz, « traductions de traductions de traductions » et de la transposer en son équivalent synchronique. La traduction interlinguistique (microtextuelle) de l'espagnol vers l'anglais constitue le point de départ, les deux autres niveaux devant être définis par rapport à celui-ci. Le niveau structurel qui suit dans la séquence est le niveau normalement consulté par le traducteur ou la traductrice lorsque le microtexte ne suffit pas à la réalisation d’une traduction adéquate, à savoir le niveau du macrotexte, où il existe une série de réseaux de signifiants, que ce soit l'intrigue, la caractérisation des personnages, les dialogues où se révèlent les relations de pouvoir entre ces derniers, et d’autres caractéristiques relatives à la mise en œuvre de ces dialogues, tel qu’on les découvre en appliquant une analyse critique du discours. Ces grandes structures discursives constituent un sous-texte qui « renferme » le précédent. Puisque les textes choisis sont des œuvres de littérature migrante, ce sous-texte traite de la migration et de ses caractéristiques socio-discursives. À ce niveau, la traduction est celle du migrant qui « passe » d'une identité nationale à l'autre, avec tous les personnages et tous les éléments que ce passage suppose. Le troisième niveau, de type anthropologique, est la troisième traduction qui renferme les deux autres, celle de l'auteur-migrant qui traduit en quelque sorte sa nationalité en une autre, et qui présente des caractéristiques hybrides et diasporiques traversant les couches (micro) textuelle et discursive. La structure obtenue est celle de trois niveaux de traduction qui sont synchroniques et verticaux plutôt que diachroniques et horizontaux (comme Paz semble les avoir imaginés), formant ainsi non seulement des traductions internes à chaque niveau, mais qui se traduisent aussi entre eux et dans les deux sens: le linguistique (microtextuel) se traduit dans le discursif, et inversement, et le discursif dans l’anthropologique, et inversement.

The study's purpose is to use qualitative methods to analyze the image FRIDA conveys of reality through textual and visual communication. The study is interested in the ideals that are produced, how femininity, masculinity and sexuality are presented as well as how the content is mediated. The theories used in the study are mainly regarding representation, stereotypes and gender. This study involves the methods critical discours analysis based on Faircloughs threedimensional model and a semiotic analysis using expressions like denotation, connotation and myth. In summary, the study has shown that the magazine FRIDA hasn´t followed the objective that’s being conveyed as goals for its content. That to oppose normative values in society and to strengthen their readers. Instead, the mediated message is consistently lined with hegemonic thoughts and values regarding gender as well as sexuality.

Inspired by the Kratochvíl, Cibulková and Beník´s model of actorness, the thesis explores the framing power of UNHCR. The critical discourse analysis introduced by Norman Fairclough is applied in order to analyze the textual, contextual and sociocultural dimension of the UNHCR framing power. The case of Turkey was chosen for this study due to the current situation and the fact that Turkey is one of the biggest hosting country in the refugees´ crisis. Through the critical discourse analysis, the thesis explores whether UNHCR is considered as a framing actor in the case of asylum seekers, refugees and stateless people in Turkey. The analysis shows that UNHCR is globally respected and takes important part in the issue. However, not all of the international organizations refer to UNHCR as the lawmaker and the initiator of debates in the issues mentioned above.

Educational restructuring is an international phenomenon, which emphasizes flexibility, local decision-making, self-regulation and innovation in contrast to previous bureaucratic governing and standardised teaching. Current reforms aim at a school adapted to the emerging information- and knowledge intensive society. The aim of the dissertation is to examine current curriculum reforms concerning the governing and organisation of time in compulsory school. In what ways is the temporal order of schools changing in a late modern post-industrial society? What new conditions for teaching are these changes implicating? What kinds of dilemmas emerge for different school actors in conducting these reforms? By using critical discourse analysis, educational reforms are studied as a dynamic discursive practice with different concurring imperatives formatted in tension fields of cultural, social and political changes. Four case studies are used to explore how a current Swedish curriculum reform, Without a National Timetable in Compulsory School, was conducted in an experiment period over five years. The local appropriation of the policy intentions was found to depend on: (i) the preparedness of reform within the particular school, (ii) the dominant school culture, (iii) the local decision-making processes, and (iv) variations in reform mobilisation (identified in the case studies as micro-political struggle, resistance by evasiveness, preservation of consensus and stratification). The results demonstrate that curriculum reform, the ongoing movement of educational restructuring, is not a linear unambiguous process of application. On the contrary, it is a discursive arena, which has a great impact as it involves discourses of efficiency and quality development, increased professionalism, economical cost-reduction, choice and devolution. These discourses involve concurring imperatives for school actors to handle time in the organisation of teaching dependent upon how they are positioned as (i) effective ‘goals makers’ (ii) problem-solvers, who remove obstacles for individual learning projects, (iii) strategists in a more competitive educational landscape, (iv) and moral agents, who in deliberation with others work towards a fair and equal school. It is concluded that for school actors, who work under the crossfire of educational restructuring, these imperatives pose a number of complex dilemmas.