This study investigates the challenges facing screenwriters in Australia who set out to represent the Japanese on screen. The study is presented in two parts; an exegesis and a creative practice component consisting of two full length feature film screenplays. The exegesis explores how certain screenwriting conventions have constrained recent screen images of the Japanese within the bounds of the cliched and stereotypical, and argues for a greater resistance to these conventions in the future. The two screenplays experiment with new ways of representing the Japanese in mainstream Australian film and aim to expand the repertoire of Asian images in the national film culture.

Many recent studies confirm that the fantasy genre is based on ancient myths. Contemporary authors of fiction create new versions of myths, often using ancient “natural” and cultural symbols. Neil Gaiman is one of these tellers of modern myth. His works offer multiple possibilities for interpretation of well-known stories, reworked in a new way and filled with new layers of significance. Using Jungian archetypes as a prism for the analysis, this essay focuses on the possibility to relate the motif of the Triple Goddess, a triad of magical or divine female figures, present in many of the Western Europe mythologies, to female characters from Neil Gaiman’s Snow, Glass, Apples and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Through a close reading of selected passages of the text, this essay exemplifies how Neil Gaiman uses archaic symbols and the motif of the Triple Goddess to connect his audience to the collective unconscious via manifestations of the anima archetype, one of many aspects of the collective unconscious. / Flera nutida studier slår fast att fantasigenren har sitt ursprung i gamla myter. Samtida författare i genren skapar nya myter och använder ofta symboler från gamla kulturer och naturfenomen. En av dessa författare är Neil Gaiman, en förmedlare av moderna myter. Välkända berättelser och historier får ett nytt liv genom hans kreativa stil och fantasi, fyllda med nya betydelser och tolkas ur många olika synvinklar. Genom användningen av Jungianska arketyper som en analytisk metod, fokuserar denna uppsatsen på att koppla den Tredelade gudinnan med kvinnliga karaktärer i Neil Gaimans Snow, Glass, Apples och The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Den Tredelade gudinnan är förknippad med en triad av magiska och gudomliga kvinnliga figurer, närvarande i flera västeuropeiska mytologier. Genom när läsning av särskilda avsnitt i texten, exemplifieras hur Gaiman använder arkaiska symboler för att koppla läsaren till det kollektiva omedvetna. Dessutom tydliggörs likheten mellan den Tredelade gudinnans personifikation och manifestationer av arketypen anima, som en av flera aspekter av det kollektiva omedvetna.

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Grâce à la présence et à l’instrumentalisation de la Mare de Déu, l’abbaye et le massif de Montserrat sont devenus, au fil des siècles, un symbole religieux et un bastion du christianisme, puis les gardiens des traditions, de la culture et de l’identité catalanes. Le mythe fondateur religieux, lié à la Vierge de Montserrat, est associé au mythe fondateur de la Catalogne, lié au comte de Barcelone Guifré le Velu, de sorte que religion et identité nationale sont étroitement imbriquées dès la fin du Moyen Âge. Beaucoup d’autres légendes sont élaborées à cette époque, mais la relation entre les Catalans et la Mare de Déu de Montserrat prend une orientation particulière et s’exerce dans un cadre à part.L’universalité de la pensée mythique permet une instrumentalisation politico-religieuse de l’image mariale tout au long de l'histoire de la Catalogne, jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Le XIXe siècle marque une étape majeure dans l’instrumentalisation de la Moreneta et sa liaison avec le sentiment identitaire. Le massif de Montserrat devient le symbole de la patrie catalane et la Vierge de Montserrat se transforme en Vierge de la Patrie. Le régime franquiste signifie une rupture profonde. La Moreneta, dans un premier temps, protège l’action de suppléance intellectuelle et culturelle accomplie par les Bénédictins de Montserrat, puis l’engagement politique devient total. Avec l’arrivée de la démocratie, la Catalogne se réapproprie son passé, et un nouveau rôle se dessine pour la Mare de Déu de Montserrat. / Thanks to the presence and implementation of the Mare de Déu, the abbey and the mountain of Montserrat became, in the course of the centuries, a religious symbol and a bastion of christianity, and, later on, the guardians of the catalan traditions, culture and identity. The religious founding myth, linked to Montserrat Virgin, is associated with Barcelona Count Guifré le Velu, so that religion and national identity have remained closely interlinked since the end of the Middle Ages. Numerous other legends were created at the same time, but the relationship between Catalan people and the Mare de Déu of Montserrat takes a special orientation and grows in a specific place.The universality of the myths enables a political and religious implementation of the marian image throughout the history of Catalonia, until nowadays. The XIXe century marks a major step in the implementation of the Moreneta and Her connection with the sense of identity. The Montserrat mountain becomes the symbol of the Catalan mother country and the Virgin of Montserrat is transformed into the Virgin of the mother country. The pro-Franco regime meant a deep change. At first, the Moreneta protectd the intellectual and cultural substitution carried out by the Montserrat Benedictines, then their political commitment became total. With the arrival of democracy, Catalonia has been recovering its past, and a new role has been emerging for the Mare de Déu of Montserrat.

After scholars started conducting research on the medieval Sheela-na-gig carvings, a number of theories regarding the purpose and origin of the figure have been suggested. The question has been tackled through many different approaches, but still remains unfinished as there are no written records explaining what the Sheela-na-gig figure actually is. Scholars have divided into different areas, approaching the discussion from different disciplines: art history, medieval social history, and religious history (both Christian and pre-Christian) to name a few. As the figure is usually found on Christian buildings but is distinguished by very sexual imagery, it leaves the door open for many interpretations. This thesis looks at two common theories on what the Sheela-na-gig is; one which is viewing her as a Romanesque warning against lust and sin, and one which argues that the figure is a folk deity used as an amulet for childbirth, symbolising both life and death. By using discourse theory and a comparative method, this thesis compares the descriptions and arguments of the different theories, and studies the intention behind them. The thesis then shows how the theories choose to focus their search for evidence in order to support their own perspective, while also excluding information which does not serve their particular agenda.

This is a study on crowns, wreaths and diadems as role symbols in Peter Paul Rubens’s 24 paintings for Marie de’Medici in Paris, 1622 – 1625. In these paintings, historic facts are shown with the addition of mythological gods and their symbols giving allegorical scenes, where sometimes also Christian symbols or subjects can be traced. A reader of these painted motifs therefore can choose to see the symbols as regal, Christian or mythological. The crown and the wreaths rarely present a challenge in modern interpretations, but the magnificent diadem does. Rubens chooses this diadem for higher goddesses, and for the queen a couple of times too. For some reason, this symbol is mostly misread in analyses. At this point in history, the crowns and the wreaths have been collected from divine spheres and turned into physical objects on earth used by the high and mighty. The large diadem has not; it is still only a symbol on a goddess. If and when put on a human in a portrait, the symbol gives the lady the abilities and characters of a goddess. Rubens uses his own design when turning this symbol into a physical picture;it is a high, pointed diadem with pearls and coloured gems set in gold. He has used it on goddesses both before and after the Medici commission. Today, we have seen numerous spectacular headpieces like this from late 18th century an onwards, wherefore it is an easy mistake to believe that Rubens copied what he saw instead of, as he actually did, foreboding a coming fashion. In addition to confirming this, I also suggest that it is the highest goddess Juno queen Marie is personifying. Juno is mostly known today as a goddess for women and childbirth. But she had far more masculine tasks in earlier days: she was seen as the saviour of the country and a special counsellor of the state. These two important roles are exactly what Marie de’ Medici took on when acting as regent for her young son, Louis XIII,after the murder of her husband, the late Henry IV. By putting Juno’s diadem on Marie’s head, when sitting on a throne, the divine abilities are manifested according to how a historic period could be transferred to the allegorical language in a painting at the time.

The purpose of this comparative study is to analyse La Quintrala’s myth as a symbolic discourse, thereby filling a gap in the previous studies about La Quintrala. The theoretical and methodological framework of this analysis consists of a hermeneutical approach based on the method of figurative structuralism: mythocriticism. This is a dual classification method of symbols: Diurnal and Nocturnal Orders that expose the symbolic structures formed by symbols and archetypes found in mythemes in a compilation of corpora. The first one is Gustavo Frías’ novels Tres Nombres para Catalina: Catrala (2008) and Tres nombres para Catalina: la doña de Campofrío (2008); the second is a historic essay (hypotext), Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna’s Los Lisperguer y la Quintrala (1944), and four novels: Magdalena Petit’s (2009) La Quintrala, Mercedes Valdivieso’s (1991) Maldita yo entre las Mujeres, Virginia Vidal’s (2002) Oro, veneno y puñal, and Gustavo Frías’ El Inquisidor (2008). Mythocriticism is employed in the analysis to show what the mythical structure of the hero’s journey (Separation, Initiation, Return) reveal. Such journey is combined structurally with the Mother archetype (White, Red and Black Goddess), the intrinsic archetype of La Quintrala’s myth. The heroic structure unveils its own mythemes, La Quintrala’s and the first corpus’s mytheme through the diachronic and synchronic flow of the hero’s journey. This method permits to identify and compare the progression of the symbolic structures. The analysis demonstrates a transformation of the symbolic structures between both corpora. This survey reveals that Vicuña Mackenna and Petit, and partially Vidal and El Inquisidor, exhibit an inclination to the diurnal symbols that strengthen, through a heterodiegetic narrator, the representations of the witch-femme fatale, counteractive attributes of the Red and Black Goddesses in the myth. Valdivieso, on the other hand, shows a propensity to the nocturnal symbols of inversion and intimacy that emphasize the Red Goddess’ features, though the novel also exposes La Quintrala as a witch-femme fatale. This exposure occurs through the use of both an autodiegetic narrator –La Quintrala– and a heterodiegetic one –the hypotext embodied in the popular voice– that appear to contrast each other. Finally, in Tres Nombres para Catalina, La Quintrala as the autodiegetic narrator dominates the whole story. She personifies the Great Goddess archetype who bestows her new positive attributes during the adventure. This novel assumes primordially the nocturnal symbolism incarnated by both the mystical and the synthetical structures and relegates the diurnal discourse of the hypotext to a secondary position in the narrative. Nonetheless, Tres Nombres para Catalina’s narrative still relies on the hypotext to reproduce and reconstruct all the mythemes in the myth of La Quintrala. Conclusively, the results of this analysis indicate that the identification of all the mythemes supports the hypothesis of a transformation in the symbolic structures which characterize La Quintrala in both corpora. This reveals the embodiment of Tres Nombres para Catalina’s own mytheme, consisting of a vindication and a recognition to her indigenous heritage, and the acceptance of her mestizaje. As a consequence, Tres nombres para Catalina, in comparison to the second corpus, diverges and expands the symbolic structures, but still shows a continuity of the myth.

The intention of this thesis is to identify and analyze the cat woman archetype as a contemporary extension of the transgressive witch archetype, which rampantly appears over the course of cinema history, working as a signifier of a patriarchal society's fear of autonomous and subversive women. The character of Catwoman is the ultimate representation for this archetype on grounds of her visibility, longevity, and ability to return again and again. More importantly, Catwoman and her sisterhood of cat women work against male creators as a means of female empowerment through trickery. Within this thesis, key films of varying genres are drawn from throughout cinema history and analyzed in order to demonstrate the intertextual network of characters that make up the cat woman archetype, and the importance of the Catwoman character in her many forms.

English, Afrikaans and Zulu summaries / While there is increasing interest in the effect of landscape on ancient imagination, less attention has been paid to the impact of restless karst hydrology on ancient beliefs. By identifying shared themes, this study compares and contrasts the way Hittites and Aegean people in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages reshaped peripheral karst landscapes into physical and imagined transitional zones. Karst geology underpins much of the Aegean and Anatolian landscape, allowing subterranean zones to be visible and accessible above ground via caves, springs, sinking streams, sinkholes and other unusual natural formations. In both cultures, certain dynamic landscapes were considered to be sacred porous points where deities, daemons, heroes and mortals could transit between cosmic realms. Evidence suggests that Hittites and Aegean people interpreted dramatic karst landscapes as liminal thresholds and spaces situated between the world of humans and the world of deities. Part One investigates physical zones of transition via the karst ecosystems of rural sanctuaries. Part Two considers the creative interpretation in myth and iconography of karst phenomena into metaphysical zones of transition. The examples reveal the way in which Hittites and Aegean people built their concept of the sacred on the extraordinary characteristics of karst geology. Numinous karst landscapes provided validity and a familiar reference point for the creation of imagined worlds where mortal and divine could connect. / Vandag is daar toenemende belangstelling in die effek van die landskap op die verbeelding van die mensdom in die oudheid - maar minder aandag word bestee aan die impak van die rustelose karst landskap op die mens se gelowigheid in die oudheid. Deur die identifisering van sekere gemene temas, vergelyk hierdie verhandeling die manier waarop die Hetiete en die Egeïese volkere in die Laat Brons- en vroeë Ystertydperke die omliggende karstlandskap herskep het in fisiese en denkbeeldige oorgangszones. Die Egeïese en Anatoliese landskap bestaan grotendeels uit karst geologie, met tot gevolg dat ondergrondse zones bo die grond sigbaar en toeganklik is in die vorm van grotte, bronne, sinkgate en ander uitsonderlike natuurlike formasies. In beide bogenoemde kulture is sekere landskapstonele beskou as heilige en poreuse punte waar gode, demone, helde en sterwelinge tussen die kosmiese zones kon beweeg. Die getuienis van die tyd suggereer dat die Hetiete en die Egeïese volkere die dramatiese karst landskappe as grense of drempels tussen hulle wêreld en dié van die gode beskou het. Deel Een ondersoek die fisiese oorgangszones deur te kyk na die karst ecostelsels waarin plattelandse heiligdomme hulle bevind het. Deel Twee beskou die kreatiewe gebruik van karst verskynsels as voorstellings van metafisiese oorgangszones in die gekrewe bronne en ikonografie. Die geselekteerde voorbeelde dui aan die manier waarop die Hetiete en Egeïese volke hulle konsepte van heiligdom gebaseer het op die buitengewone verskynsels van karst geologie. Numineuse karst landskappe het hulle idees gestaaf en ‘n bekende verwysingspunt uitgemaak waar die menslike en die goddelike met mekaar in kontak kon kom. / Ngenkathi intshisekelo ekhulayo yethonya lokwakheka komhlaba emcabangweni wasendulo, kunakwe kancane umthelela we-karst hydrology engenazinkolelo ezinkolelweni zasendulo. Ngokukhomba izingqikithi okwabelwana ngazo, lo mqondo uqhathanisa futhi uqhathanise indlela amaHeti nabantu base-Aegean kweLate Bronze kanye ne-Early Iron Ages abuye abuye abumbe kabusha imigwaqo ye-karst yomngcele ibe yizingxenye zesikhashana zomzimba nezicatshangwe. I-Karst geology isekela kakhulu indawo yezwe i-Aegean ne-Anatolian evumela ukuthi izindawo ezingaphansi komhlaba zibonakale futhi zifinyeleleke ngaphezu komhlaba ngemigede, iziphethu, imifudlana ecwilayo, imigodi yokushona nokunye ukwakheka okungokwemvelo okungajwayelekile. Kuwo womabili amasiko izindawo ezithile eziguqukayo zazithathwa njengezindawo ezingcwele zokungena lapho onkulunkulu, amademoni, amaqhawe nabantu abafayo bengadlula phakathi kwezindawo zomhlaba. Ubufakazi bukhombisa ukuthi amaHeti nabantu base-Aegean bahumusha imidwebo emangazayo yekarst njengemikhawulo yemikhawulo nezikhala eziphakathi komhlaba wabantu nezwe lonkulunkulu. Ingxenye yokuqala iphenya izindawo eziguqukayo zomzimba ngokusebenzisa imvelo ye-karst yezindawo ezingcwele zasemakhaya. Ingxenye Yesibili ibheka ukutolikwa kokudala kunganekwane nakwizithonjana zezinto ze-karst kube izingxenye eziguqukayo zenguquko. Izibonelo ziveza indlela abantu abangamaHeti nabantu base- Aegean abawakha ngayo umqondo wabo ongcwele ngezimpawu ezingavamile ze-karst geology. Amathafa amahle we-karst ahlinzeka ngokusebenza kanye nephuzu elijwayelekile lesethenjwa lokwakhiwa kwamazwe acatshangelwe lapho abantu abafayo nabaphezulu bangaxhuma khona. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M. A. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)