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Immersion and narration opportunities, whether linear or not, provided by the medium of interactive digital games offer a wide variety of ways to immerse players in the world in front of them on the screen and to engage users’ interaction with information presented. This thesis documents a new interactive digital narrative game and presents an analysis of its genre and narrative mythological frames. The introduction paragraph opens on the importance of the chosen topic and its relevance to the wider media and general public. I review theoretical and fictional works - studied for this thesis and explain the importance of every source, as well as main theories and ideas that have served as current fundamentals of this thesis’ end project - a video game, such as to why it is specifically important to not only showcase historical aspects in media, but also folk, mythological, and ethnic traditions to properly represent the culture, backing it up with established theoretical guidelines of designing a proper interactive digital narrative. The methodology section presents an explanation for the time frames chosen and research methods applied and discussed over with the thesis chair. The proposal concludes with possible application of the video game in different areas outside of entertainment purposes, such as educational or cultural research areas, for example.

This project explores the nature and extent of the relationship between Blake and Whitman. I examine their works to find affinities in tone, style and themes and seek to understand the origin of these affinities. The resultant discoveries, however, lead to the conclusion that, because of Whitman’s lack of exposure to Blake’s work, these affinities must be accounted for through a coterie of indirect influences on Whitman. Over the course of the introductory chapter, I establish the critical proclivity of connecting William Blake and Walt Whitman, providing examples of such critical interpretation; in addition, I provide an introduction to the key figures, terms, and works with which this thesis engages. The work of the second chapter of this project is to uncover in Whitman’s work, before he could have read Blake, those elements that are read as points of contact between them. Through close readings, I show that those aspects of Whitman’s work which are read as points of contact between Blake and Whitman predate Whitman’s exposure to Blake’s work, and so necessitate an engagement with influences shared by Blake and Whitman. The third chapter articulates the notion that a variety of influences affected Whitman’s composition of Leaves of Grass, and these various influences serve as an explanation for those apparent similarities between Blake and Whitman discussed in chapter two. The final element this chapter engages with is that of nineteenth-century periodical culture; this aspect of the influences articulated in this chapter provides a secondary explanation for the similarities discussed in the second chapter. The fourth and fifth chapters focus on the 1860 and 1867 iterations of Leaves of Grass and the 1867 and 1871–72 versions of Leaves of Grass, respectively, both with special emphasis on the poem that would become “Song of Myself.” The changes seen throughout these iterations will be used to understand Whitman’s evolving prosody as well as his changing public persona. These chapters also engage with the work of Swinburne, in chapter five, and of Gilchrist, in chapter four, as integral elements of this mediated influence of Blake on Whitman. In the final chapter of this work, I summarize my findings, suggest possible avenues for further inquiry, and discuss the implications of this research. There is a trend in Anglo-American literary criticism to see the relationship between America and England as adversarial rather than generative. The concluding chapter of this work will explore the idea of the Anglo-American literary tradition as a continuum—a complex of acceptance, extension, transformation, and refusal—and place the relationship of Whitman to Blake accurately on this continuum.

Polarity-reversing affirmative particles are a phenomenon that has largely been overlooked in previous research. A polarity-reversing affirmative particle is used to express disagreement with the polarity of a preceding negative statement. It is a typical answer strategy in Swedish, German, Dutch as well as in French. In fact, findings from previous cross-linguistic studies suggest, though without further detail, that polarity-reversing affirmative particles are a phenomenon predominantly found in European and more specifically in Germanic languages (Da Milano 2004; Roelofsen & Farkas 2015; Moser 2018). The aim of this study is to examine the hypotheses presented in Moser (2018). The goals are to investigate the distribution of polarity-reversing affirmative particles in Europe on the one hand, and to examine the phenomenon in Swedish, German, Dutch and French from a diachronic perspective on the other hand. On the basis of these endeavors, this study is embedded in the framework of areal typology. This study brings forth highly interesting findings in view of the discussion of Standard Average European and the Charlemagne Sprachbund. / Polarity-reversing affirmative particles (sv. polaritetsomvändande affirmativa partiklar) är ett fenomen som har förbisetts i tidigare forskning. En polarity-reversing affirmative particle används för att uttrycka oenighet med ett negativt påstående. Det är en vanlig strategi i svenska, tyska, nederländska samt franska. Tidigare resultat från tvärspråkliga studier visar att polarity-reversing affirmative particles oftast förekommer i europeiska, mer specifikt germanska språk (Da Milano 2004; Roelofsen & Farkas 2015; Moser 2018). Denna studie ämnar undersöka resultaten från de ovannämnda studierna. Målet är således att undersöka distributionen av polarity-reversing affirmative particles i Europa samt att undersöka fenomenet i svenska, tyska, nederländska och franska från ett diakroniskt perspektiv. Denna studie anknyter till ett arealtypologiskt perspektiv. Resultaten påvisar intressanta rön med direkt relevans för Standard Average European och i den så kallade Charlemagne-arean.

La chanson d'Yde et Olive, an early fourteenth-century epic poem from the Picard region, exemplifies the medieval custom of text renewal that seeks to adapt pagan materials to fit Christian doctrine. Largely based on the plot of the Ovidian fable Iphis and Ianthe from The Metamorphoses, its main character Yde undergoes a metaphorical transformation from a woman into a man. Moreover, much like the Ovide moralisé, a Christianized adaptation of the Latin original, Yde et Olive's message can be understood as a Christian parable for the purging of the sinful soul. To set up the poem's didactic message, the poet carefully infuses the story with contemporary social concerns, such as the theme of incest and gender disruption, both potentially offensive forces to the medieval social structure. In the backdrop of these threats to society, the heroine's overcoming of her struggles becomes all the more meaningful, leading to a clear moral message to the reader. While being a hybrid in genre and structure, the poem shows many borrowings from Christian hagiography, especially from the later, more romance-influenced versions of the Vitae of female transvestite saints. In these narratives, the heroine's spiritual development is typically portrayed in terms of "becoming male," which can also be understood as an erasure of sexual difference to approach God in a Neoplatonic sense. Moreover, the development of Yde's own hybrid state leading to the climax of revealing her new sex exemplifies medieval literary criticism, elaborating on the central theme of uncovering truth by exposing the hidden gem beneath the rough surface.

Identified by European research as an aging crisis, vulnerabilities in the rural Bulgarian elderly population such as intergenerational caregiver loss, are sociohistorical consequences and barriers to successful aging. This transcultural study investigated the aging crisis in rural Bulgaria to create a contextual definition of successful aging and to address successful aging and the identification of challenges and barriers faced by social workers and elders to support successful aging. Guided by continuity theory in aging and contextualized by overarching ecological systems theory, the research questions examined Bulgarian social workers' perceptions and expectations of successful aging and barriers to it. A collaborative action research design was commissioned with a purposeful sample of an 8-member participant group drawn from multileveled Bulgarian social workers affiliated with the rural elderly population. Data were distilled by a thematic analysis into perceptions, expectations, and barriers of successful aging, which were validated by triangulation through translation and repetitive member checking processes. The findings revealed no universal threshold of successful aging achievement, but because expectations were unmet due to systemic barriers successful aging is not occurring in Bulgaria. The study results might bring about positive change by unifying Bulgarian multilevel social work practice to restore successful aging opportunity for the rural Bulgarian population by actions that systemically respond to the identified barriers.

Herman Sörgel devised a plan, beginning in 1927, to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for the whole of Europe. Atlantropa was his answer to the perceived threats that the European people faced from international competition, overpopulation, and lack of resources. The plan would have resulted in the lowering of the Mediterranean Sea and the ultimate creation of one continent comprised of the former Europe and Africa. Though the plan was never implemented, it poses a fascinating model through which historians may reconsider the time period between the end of the First and Second World Wars. This thesis examines some historical socio-political movements through the lens of Sörgel’s megaproject. Original publications from Herman Sörgel himself as well as those of two notable Atlantropa scholars, Alexander Gall and Wolfgang Voigt, explain in great detail the technical and sociological aspects of the plan. Additionally, theories from Jeffrey Herf, Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, and Dina Brandt aid in the understanding of the man who attempted to engineer Europe out of crisis. The following analysis reveals the difficulty in placing Herman Sörgel into any singular political or social movement in his time. Though he espoused some of the same rhetoric as that of the National Socialists and pan-European movements alike, he failed to conform to any particular group. The unwavering obsession with his project consumed all of Sörgel’s energies until his death in 1952. Though all-but-forgotten, the project offers an uncommon means by which to view a tumultuous time in Europe.

En 1985 Alemania Occidental, Bélgica, Francia, Luxemburgo, y los Países Bajos, establecieron el Acuerdo de Schengen sobre la cooperación en la abolición de fronteras interiores como respuesta al Acta Única Europea que creó el mercado común en la Unión Europea. Este acuerdo se evolucionaría a la Convención de Dublín en 1990, y los dos se convertirían en la base de la política de asilo en la Unión Europea, estableciendo un enfoque intergubermental en ella. Es la provisión del mercado común sobre la libre circulación de personas que inició estos acuerdos intergubermentales. La libre circulación de personas involucra a todo extranjero también, incluyendo a los refugiados. A lo largo de esta tesis, se explora las razones para el establecimiento de los acuerdos intergubermentales y que efecto tienen en la formación de la política de asilo en la Unión Europea. También explora el efecto para la obligación a los refugiados según la Convención sobre el estatuto de los refugiados de 1951. Con el precedente de los acuerdos intergubermentales como Schengen y Dublín y la desgana de renunciar a la soberanía nacional sobre el asilo, el enfoque intergubermental, o sea, la cooperación en asuntos fronterizos en vez de la armonización de las políticas nacionales, queda aun cuando se incorporaron Schengen y Dublín a la ley comunitaria durante la época del Tratado de Ámsterdam. Sólo con el Tratado de Lisboa entonces podemos ver un cambio en el régimen de asilo fuera del enfoque intergubermental, más hacia la armonización.

This article opens up an important but overlooked chapter in the political and diplomatic history of Florence, as well as that of fifteenth-century Franco-Italian relations more broadly. In late 1461, the city of Florence elected ambassadors to go to France to congratulate King Louis XI on his accession to the throne. Intended as a purely ceremonial mission, the Florentine diplomat Piero de' Pazzi ignored his commission and pursued policies that explicitly promoted French interests in Italy. By doing so, Piero sought to improve the standing of his own family, both domestically and abroad, at the expense of the Medici regime in Florence and the anti-French Italian League that the Medici supported. This article offers for the first time a full investigation of a surprisingly early example of tensions between the Medici and the Pazzi, tensions that famously erupted in the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478.

The humanist Biondo wrote three different narratives of the Fourth Crusade aimed at establishing the legitimacy of western claims to lands in the east. Biondo had played an integral part in the ephemeral reunification of the Greek and Latin Churches at the Council of Florence in July 1439. Biondo blamed the Greeks for the failure and thus did not mourn the loss of their empire to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. However, Biondo did urge several states in the Italian Peninsula to set out en mass to fight the Turks. He viewed the fall of Constantinople as an opportunity for the Latin West to reestablish its rightful empire in the east. He explicated this opinion in at least two different treatises dedicated to rulers shortly after the fall of the ancient city. To Alfonso of Aragon, Biondo argued that the King could establish a peaceful and prosperous extension of his maritime holdings to include a fallen empire with no legal ruler. To the Venetians, he presented the Fourth Crusade as a glorious victory that established their legal claim to rule the now-lost remnants of the Byzantine Empire. Biondo shaped his source material of the Fourth Crusade into an historical narrative that made this primary argument and urged powerful rulers in the Italian peninsula to take back what was rightfully theirs.