This study focuses on how minorities are stigmatized in the French media. It limits itself to the case of the proposal of the denaturalization law and the consequent discourse about it. The subject is introduced through a short background on the law and its relevance to the possible racist nature of the debate, followed by some background on racism in France, an overview of the theory on new racism and how it can explain stigmatizating discourses. Critical Discourse Analysis is used as the method to uncover said discourses as it is a method related to the in-depth analysis of implicit dominant ideologies and power-structures. The study analyzes twenty articles from two French newspapers in order to determine how stigmatizing discourses are expressed. The results in the discussion show recurrent racist narratives that systematically denigrate and stereotype Muslims and immigrants. They also show a pattern of the dominant culture negating space to minorities.

Without seeking to reify a category of 'political romances', this study explores the participation of five Middle English poems (Havelok, The Tale of Gamelyn, Sir Orfeo, Sir Gowther, Robert of cisyle), normally classed among the romances, in the cultural process of constructing and regulating contemporary understandings of good kingship, tyranny, and community. In their participation in this discourse these romances cross generic boundaries, interacting with textual traditions (including historiography, hagiography, folk tale, and the literature of complaint), inscribing ideologies contesting romance's world-view. This study attempts to trace the ideological impact of these generic interactions on romance models of rule, investigating whether these romances cross generic boundaries in search of an idiom in which to critique dominant models of power relations, or whether, in attempting to appropriate the discourse of other genres, they seek to bolster dominant ideology by containing the subversive energies of its textual opponents. If these romances are identified as cultural products of a dominant ideology striving to perpetuate its own ascendancy, then it is a dominant ideology in the process of adapting itself in response to changing pressures, the nature of which I attempt to recover by attending to these texts' constructions and reconstructions of the hero's identity. I approach these romances not so much as the expression of the ideology of the dominant stratum, but part of the production of that ideology, called forth in a continuing dynamic response to contending discourses. I conclude that the energies of the genres with which these romances interact refuse appropriation, challenging the monologism of romance and continuing in their new narrative environment to propose their own political solutions. The resulting dialogization of romance indicates romance's diminishing ability to provide convincing resolutions to the contradictions of a changing society and to address the aspirations of a changing audience, In the ideological adjustments made by these romances in the process of interacting with other genres can be glimpsed the end of romance's insistence on heroic, and hence kingly, autonomy, and the replacement of heroic autonomy by community as the subject of romance.

Submitted by LUCILA ALMEIDA (lucila.almeida@gvmail.br) on 2011-08-30T16:01:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Lucila.pdf: 1896351 bytes, checksum: e7e8e38be3a236b80c79fdd9cfca8ff3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-08-30T18:27:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Lucila.pdf: 1896351 bytes, checksum: e7e8e38be3a236b80c79fdd9cfca8ff3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-08-30T18:30:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação - Lucila.pdf: 1896351 bytes, checksum: e7e8e38be3a236b80c79fdd9cfca8ff3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-05 / This dissertation will analyze the dynamic performance of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras – within the Brazilian institutional arrangement. Its objective is to identify if this public owned company’s performance was accompanied by changes in its macro and micro legal structures, which resulted in the adaptation of Petrobras to changes in the relationship between the state and market, promoted by institutional reforms. The main premise of this study establishes that in the recent history of Brazil, four main ideologies influenced legal reforms that altered the relationship between the state and the market within four different periods: (i) from the Era Vargas to the government of President Juscelino Kubitschek; (ii) from the military coup to the redemocratization process; (iii) from the government of President Fernando Collor to the end of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s term; and (iv) from the beginning of President Lula’s term until the time this research was conducted. The first chapter explains the direct interventions of the state in the productive sector, their characteristics, and how they affected the relationship of the state with the market during these four periods. The subsequent chapters aim at analyzing Petrobras’ configuration in the micro legal field – corporate organization – and macro legal – link between the public owned company and other public and private agents – in each of the four periods. The second chapter describes Petrobras through a legal viewpoint during its first ten years. The third chapter identifies the legal changes that affected Petrobras during the military regime. The fourth chapter analyzes the legal changes undergone by Petrobras during the State Reform. Finally, the fifth chapter discusses the most recent legal alterations suffered by Petrobras as a consequence of a vast oil reserve discovery, also known as Pré-Sal. / A presente dissertação analisará a persistente dinâmica da Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras – no arranjo institucional brasileiro. O objetivo é identificar se essa permanência foi acompanhada de mudanças na estrutura macro e microjurídica da empresa estatal que promoveram a sua adaptação às alterações da relação Estado e mercado promovidas por reformas institucionais. O trabalho parte do pressuposto de que, na recente evolução histórica brasileira, quatro correlações de forças promoveram reformas jurídicas que alteraram a relação Estado e mercado em quatro diferentes períodos: (i) da Era Vargas ao governo Juscelino Kubitschek; (ii) do golpe militar ao processo de redemocratização; (iii) do governo Fernando Collor ao término do governo Fernando Henrique Cardoso; e (iv) do início do governo Lula até o momento da elaboração deste trabalho. Para desenvolver esse precedente, o primeiro capítulo analisará o modo e a intensidade da intervenção direta do Estado no setor produtivo para identificar as características da relação Estado e mercado nos períodos. Os capítulos subsequentes se deterão à análise da estrutura da Petrobras na esfera microjurídica – organização societária – e macrojurídica – articulação da empresa estatal com outros agentes públicos e privados – em cada um dos quatro períodos delimitados no capítulo anterior. O segundo capítulo descreverá institucionalmente a Petrobras durante seus primeiros dez anos. O terceiro capítulo identificará as mudanças institucionais promovidas na empresa estatal durante o regime militar. O quarto capítulo disporá sobre as alterações jurídicas na Petrobras promovidas pela Reforma do Estado. Por fim, o quinto capítulo tratará das mais recentes mudanças institucionais da empresa estatal decorrente da descoberta da vasta reserva de petróleo denominada pré-sal.