Tales of Old Grandmother, Op. 31 by Prokofiev is based on a fairy tale theme. It can be considered as both a most valuable pedagogical piece for young students and as a piece for the concert repertoire. However, this piece was under-appreciated by most piano performers and piano pedagogues for many years, even though it was praised by several well-known composers and was often played by other pianists and Prokofiev himself. The main aim of this study is to promote the Tales so that they will be performed and taught more often. All of the complex harmonic language, unique unforgettable lyricism and Prokofiev's typical compositional elements are presented in this score, allowing it to serve as a great concert repertoire choice. At the same time, the simple format setting, less demanding technique and the fairy tale theme can easily catch and hold a children's interest. Therefore, Tales of Old Grandmother contains both performance value and pedagogical value. This premise is achieved through a discussion of Prokofiev's unfailing interest in fairy tales and comparisons between Tales of Old Grandmother with Prokofiev's advanced piano works and with his Music for Children, Op. 65. Lastly, a performance guide is given suggesting different performance interpretations, various practice strategies and several efficient teaching methods regarding the Tales of Old Grandmother, Op. 31.

This thesis gives an interpretation of the image of Viktorka, a female character in Bozena Nemcova's Babicka ('The Grandmother'), as an autonomous thematic antagonism able to communicate with the reader, by means of text, with a similar power to that of the traditionally prioritised image of the grandmother. The reason why the topic of Viktorka was neglected lay in the fact that for a long time the professional acceptance of this work tended much more towards the idyllic, or idyll-making, approach. This, however, is only one of the interpretational approaches or, more exactly, only one side. The other side, relatively overlooked until recently, is the space the author gave to the character of Viktorka. The narrative and semantic structure of this work shows the topical duality of human love which actually rather separates the text of Babicka, and emphasises the antagonisms of these two female characters rather than softening their contours. This thematic emphasis, in the opinion of the author of this thesis, is supported primarily by the contextual relationship of space and time which for the reader transpose into the present babicka's "happiness" as well as Viktorka's "misfortune". The interpretation presented in this thesis consists of four parts. The first and second relate to the book by Bozena Nemcova,...

The purpose of this study is to explore the processes of family resilience within a grandmother-headed household, caring for orphaned grandchildren, in a low socio-economic South African community. To do so, the researcher posed questions relating to the existing family processes, resources and how those are utilised to grow from adverse situations. A qualitative methodological design was followed to allow the accounts of the sample to emerge. A single grandmother-headed household was chosen to take part in a focus group. The transcriptions from the focus group was analysed using an in-depth inductive thematic analyses in order to induce themes that emerged from their experiences. These themes were then analysed in relation to the current literature on family resilience in grandmother-headed households. This study forms part of a larger longitudinal project headed by Dr R. Mampane, namely: Building resilience in families: The role of care workers in mitigating family risk factors. The themes that emerged as a result of the inductive thematic analysis were: spirituality; family resilience processes (communication, problem solving, roles and role reversal, emotional attachment, involvement, managing behaviour, and knowledge and respect of the individual); resources (inter-familial resources and external resources); the family’s perceptions (definition of the family and definition of adversity); and finally adversities (males, physical impairments, and inter- and intra-familial conflict, amongst others less pronounced). These findings answered questions regarding the process and support structures utilised by a grandmother-headed household to overcome and grow from their adversities. A conceptual model for family resilience was suggested. A better understanding of how a grandmother-headed household engages in resilient processes could assist various professionals and community healthcare workers identify processes of strength and the lack thereof in grandmotherheaded household who look after their orphaned grandchildren. / Mini-dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

The subject of this diploma thesis is gender analysis of the main female characters in Bozena Nemcova's The Grandmother. The Grandmother, as a literary work that occupies an important place in Czech literary canon, was not examined from a gender perspective in Czech literature until this time. In this thesis I focused on the main female characters who play very important role and to whom is given wide space in the story. During analyzing the literary characters I worked with the selected feminist theories that I introduce in detail in theoretical and methodological part. This part is also dedicated to theoretical and methodological resources that I use in this thesis, particularly to women's reading and archetypal theories. This thesis is being examined from receptionist reader's view. I focus here primarily on presence of gender stereotypes, reproduction of values and norms of patriarchal system, and I also focus on presence of feminine archetypes that can be read from description of female characters. The object of this diploma thesis is evaluate the extent to which the book reproduce and further strengthen gender stereotypes, to what extent the main female characters internalize with gender structure of society or whether they act subversively and undermine the system. Keywords: The Grandmother,...

The dissertation deals with contemporary reflection of the role of grandmother and the changes of this role since the second half of the 20th century. The topic of the grandparenthood has been dealt mainly in the present perspective in the Czech sociology so far. The aim of the dissertation is to bring a deeper insight into the role of grandmother and to better understand the relationships stemming from the role. The historical-sociological approach which understands the role of grandmother as space-time conditioned is chosen to achieve the goal of the dissertation. The dissertation is specific by less usual view of the role of grandmother from the viewpoint of the grandchild. Individuals from three different family generations are put in this viewpoint. It allows to observe the image of the role of grandmother and its changes in the observed period of time. The goal of the dissertation is to answer three research questions: How has the role of grandmother changed on the basis of narrations of three family generations? What idea of the contemporary role of grandmother have three family generations? Which factors shape the performance of the role of grandmother in the view of the older generations? The dissertation is based on the research using semi-structured interviews and the issue is presented...

Bereavement is painful at any time of life. For young children experiencing bereavement, grandmothers are often the first line of defense. Grandmothers are frequently called upon when their family members experience an out-of-order death, and while they are willing to provide care, grandmothers don't always know the best way forward. This qualitative study sought to learn more about the grief experiences of 22 grandmothers who had lost a family member prematurely through semi-structured interviews and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Findings suggest (a) grandmothers experience layered grief in that they grieve the loss of the family member, experience the pain of the surviving family members, and their own pain; (b) grandmothers experience invisible grief as their feelings are not often revealed to or recognized by their family members; (c) grandmothers experience confusion in knowing how to help and attend to their family members who are bereaved. These difficulties seem related to the family relationships, the connection to the person who died (their own child or an in-law child or grandchild), what they are grieving, and their ability to develop new roles and relationships during the bereavement period.

Menopause, the cessation of female reproduction well before death, is a puzzling phenomenon, because evolutionary theory suggests there should be no selection for survival when reproduction has ended. Nevertheless, menopause does exist in a limited number of species, and besides humans it has predominately evolved among toothed whales (Odontoceti). The aim of this thesis is to review both adaptive and non-adaptive theories. Of the latter, the most prominent proposes that menopause is a product of a physiological trade-offs between reproductive benefits early in life and negative late-life reproduction. Among the adaptive theories the grandmother hypothesis is the most acknowledged. This theory is based on inclusive fitness benefits gained from increasing the reproductive success of kin at an advanced age, when prospects of successfully raising additional offspring is reduced. Alternatively, the mother hypothesis suggests that increased investment in already produced offspring at late life explains menopause. There are support for both the care of mothers and grandmothers, but whether this is enough to compensate for repressed reproduction is debated. The reproductive conflict hypothesis provides a complementary explanation, and suggests that inter-generational conflict between either in-laws or kin selects the older female to shift investment into the younger female’s offspring due to asymmetries in how older and younger females are related to one another’s offspring. The evolution of menopause is a complex issue, containing many factors, kinship dynamics among the most important. Theories apply unequally to various species and populations, meaning an integrated approach is necessary for decrypting the evolution of menopause.

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Parent-infant psychotherapy is a small but growing field in South Africa. Its potential to contribute to mental health services in South Africa is, by contrast, vast. This thesis contributes towards much-needed research on the state of the field in the country and its potential applications across different sectors. Drawing on Daniel Stern’s concept of ports of entry, it is argued that an expansion of ports of entry offers an important integrating tool through which different aspects of parent-infant psychotherapy can be examined and adapted to the South African context. A history of parent-infant psychotherapy in South Africa is offered, together with an analysis of the experiences of current practitioners in the field. These aspects of the thesis draw on interviews with key stakeholders. The dominant context of private practice is then explored through two case study based papers. The first explores the meaning of symptoms in parent-infant psychotherapy. The second introduces the ‘grandmaternal transference’ as an important but under developed port of entry. These different aspects of parent-infant psychotherapy in South Africa are then considered through the prism of ports of entry in order to argue for a flexing of the psychoanalytic frame. Implications for the growth of the parent-infant psychotherapy field in South Africa are considered.

This dissertation studies poverty and the economics of child-headed and grandmother-headed households in Sebokeng. The study takes interest in five main areas, namely, poverty, unemployment, child and grandmother-headed households, the state of poverty and unemployment in Sebokeng as well as the living conditions of child and grandmother-headed households in Sebokeng. The approach in this dissertation was to define and measure poverty and unemployment and to determine the poor population of Sebokeng. This was done by making use of household level indicators. Poverty was measured by employing the following indicators: the Household Subsistence level (HSL) as poverty line, the head count index, the poverty gap and the dependency ratio. A comparison was done between Sebokeng and Bophelong. Sebokeng has a higher level of poverty (85%) than that of Bophelong (67%) while the unemployment rates (27%) is lower than that of Bophelong (31%). Most indicators (level of education, income, expenditure) prove that Bophelong is better off compared to Sebokeng. This dissertation takes further interest in comparing child and grandmother-headed households to “normal” households in Sebokeng. The study found that the main source of income for child-headed households is foster and child support grants (54%) while pension grants serve as the main source of income for both grandmother-headed households and “normal” households (65%).The study therefore proves that child-headed households are worse off financially and otherwise in comparison to grandmother-headed and “normal” households. If more social worker assistance was available to these orphans in the form of assistance with the application for identity documents and birth certificates at the Department of Home Affairs, these orphans would not be as worse-off as was found in this study. The dissertation concludes that the depth of poverty in child-headed households is thus greater than that of grandmother-headed and “normal” households, and it recommends that government should take further steps to reduce the unemployment rate by paying attention to the preferred skills of the population of Poverty and the economics of child and grandmother-headed households in Sebokeng. Sebokeng by offering training to enhance those skills. Food gardening projects should be organised so that the poor can sustain themselves and earn an income in the process. The dissertation also recommends that government should take more interest in improving the lives of these orphans by encouraging them to go to school and in obtaining identity documents. This can be possible through the assistance of social workers as these two elements can open many doors to a better life for these orphans. / Thesis (M.Com. (Economics))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011