Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel of Mark is someone who would resonate with readers of Harry Potter because of his words and acts of resistance and justice. However, for many of them there are obstacles to even reading the Markan Gospel. Some of them are unfavourable perceptions of Christianity and the Bible. Others are merely uninterested or are unfamiliar with what the Markan story really is. The purpose of this study is to explore how Mark can be read using a popular culture reading lens, like the Harry Potter literature, to expand the horizons of the Harry Potter audience. An examination of the social and historical background will provide a first-century context of resistance to oppression. Using the Harry Potter lens, I will juxtapose that text with the Gospel of Mark as a whole to show that there is a pattern of resistance enacted by Jesus throughout. I will then carry out an exegetical analysis of Mark 10:32 45, again juxtaposing it with the Harry Potter text. The intertextual connections drawn from this analysis will be considered in terms of how they can impact the Harry Potter audience and provide them with new horizons. This project will therefore be given a reading strategy to help them read Mark 10:32 45 through the lens of the Harry Potter novels. This lens allows the reader to both transform and be transformed by the Markan text and will highlight how Jesus acts to resist and subvert the role of tyrannical rule in the lives of his followers, much like the resistance and subversion seen in the story of Harry Potter.

This study travels into the magical world of Harry Potter as both story and book series to explore its reception in Iran. The purpose of this study is to discover how the magical world of Harry Potter has broken down cultural boundaries and reinforced others, and has attracted many children and adults as readers in Iran, where it is read mostly through translated versions and where certain aspects of the story are censored or adapted for an Iranian audience. I will discuss how the Harry Potter series is read and received differently in Iran and North America by comparing critical responses, for example, to religion, magic, and technology in the series. By using the text-oriented branch of reader-response theory, which is supported by theorists such as Wolfgang Iser and Georges Poulet, I will explain how readers of the Harry Potter series leave their own world and engage in the world of the novel. Also, by applying the reader-centered school of reception theory, as argued by scholars such as Stanley Fish, I will discuss the role of the reader's personal life experiences and cultural background in the reading process. In order to better explore the influence of cultural communities on both readers and writers, this study will explain intercultural theories and the importance of cultural similarities and differences in both producing and interpreting a text. This study will also consider the cross-cultural factors that may affect the writing and reading processes. These factors include religious, social, literary, and historical issues which vary for readers from different countries. To discuss the intercultural reception of the series in Iran, I will analyze the Persian translations of the series as well as the important role of cultural norms and the issue of censorship in the process of translation in Iran. I am very interested in the intercultural aspects of the reception of the book series as someone who grew up in Iran and first read Harry Potter in translation there, before moving to Canada where I undertook graduate studies in comparative literature and continued to follow the series and its critical reception in English. The reception of the novel in Canada is similar to that of most Western countries and there are not enough cultural specificities to warrant a study of Canadian reception alone, except for its French translations as part of the reception in Quebec. However, as I will study further, the translations for French Canada are done in France, so I will compare translation strategies of French and Iranian translators. Contrary to Quebec, where there are currently no Quebecois translations of the Harry Potter series and where readers read translations by a French translator from Europe, in Iran readers have several translations of each volume to choose from. As a result of the issue of censorship in Iran, Persian translators of Harry Potter have to find the best possible method in order to transfer the Western series into Persian for an Islamic culture. This thesis discusses the specific challenges of translating from English to Persian, but I will also refer to celebrated theorists such as Jeremy Munday, Lawrence Venuti, Antoine Berman, and Friedrich Schleiermacher, who discuss different methods of translation, which enable French and Persian translators of the series to transfer both cultural and literal contexts in the most faithful way possible. I will compare the reception of the Harry Potter novels in the context of North American societies and Islamic Iranian society by discussing which aspects of the series are more closely studied by Western and Iranian critics and how these choices reflect different cultural norms, values, beliefs, and taboos concerning childhood and children's literature, especially in terms of gender relations and religion. As I will explain, the series has been condemned by extremist Christians in the West for prompting the dark arts and the occult. These negative critics claim that the series presents magic as fun and harmless, thus promoting sorcery and convincing children that they can use magic in order to reach their goals. Since magic is more a part of Iranian everyday culture, the series is not criticised for presenting magic in Iran, but it is marginally accused of being a Zionist plot aimed at destroying the morality of children. On the other hand, positive critics in both the West and Iran argue that the series promotes modern values and teaches morality by presenting the notions of love, sacrifice, friendship, family, and self discovery."--Résumé abrégé par UMI.

Thesis (MA (Afrikaans and Dutch))—University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / During an interview, the author Rudolf Herter in Harry Mulisch’s novel Siegfried states that Hitler would only be comprehended if an imaginative experiment is conducted by capturing him in a net of fiction. This is indeed what Mulisch does in this novel. The combination of historical and fictional data resulting from this strategy is typical of the conventional historical novel, while Siegfried also manifests modernist characteristics. In this study, however, special attention is paid to aspects such as metafictionality, selfreflexivity, subjectivity and an emphasis on ideology which Siegfried shares with other postmodern historical novels, with specific reference to Linda Hutcheon’s view on historiographic metafiction and Lies Wesseling’s definition of uchronian fiction. The focus in this study lies, inter alia, on the ways in which Mulisch utilizes open spaces in history and fits the fictitious data like pieces into the puzzle of the history of the Second World War in general and specific events surrounding Hitler in particular. Mulisch’s play with autobiographical data in the novel further diminishes the boundaries between fact and fiction. Of particular importance is the metafictional statements about the nature of history which Mulisch delivers in the process. Not only the political side of history, but also its subjective and one-sided nature is emphasised. Finally a question is posed about Mulisch’s intentions and aspirations in writing another novel about Hitler, who as a character in this novel awakens sympathy on the one hand and on the other is demonized as inhuman with superhuman qualities. This demonstrates the problems involved in gaining insight into the real Hitler. My opinion is that, in the final instance, Mulisch intentionally magnifies the enigma surrounding Hitler in his characterization of the man who can be regarded as one of the most destructive people of the 20th century.

Thesis (MPhil (Afrikaans and Dutch))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is the latest popular addition to translated Afrikaans children’s literature. Although these books have a double readership, the Afrikaans translations are primarily aimed at young Afrikaans children who either can’t speak English, or whose English is too poor to understand the original text on their own. Translating for children makes specific demands on the translator. One such demand involves the choices the translator is forced to make during the translation process by taking into account the child reader’s limited cultural experience and world knowledge. This implies that the translator cannot translate automatically by merely transferring synonyms from one language to another, but should take on the role of a cultural mediator who bridges the gaps between the source and the target cultures and takes responsibility for successful intercultural communication. This study investigates the culturally mediating role of the Afrikaans translators, Janie Oosthuysen and Kobus Geldenhuys, in a comparative study of the target texts, Harry Potter en die beker vol vuur and Harry Potter en die halfbloed prins. The proposed translation method is a functionalist approach with loyalty. According to this apporach, the translator should have a thorough background knowledge of both the source and target cultures and the functions these texts perform in their respective cultures, as well as the range of available translation strategies for a specific translation situation. Care should also be taken not to mislead the target reader. A descriptive methodology is followed, pointing out the absence of consistent translation norms and a well-planned translation strategy in both target texts, thus increasing the cultural divide between the source and the target cultures which could confuse the young Afrikaans reader.

This thesis investigates how the mapping of Africa by British institutions between c.1880 and c.1915 was more complex and variable than is traditionally recognised. The study takes three ‘cuts’ into this topic, presented as journal papers, which examine: the Bartholomew map-publishing firm, the cartographic coverage of the Second Boer War, and the maps associated with Sir Harry H. Johnston. Each case-study focuses on what was produced – both quantitative output and the content of representations – and why. Informed by theories from the history of cartography, book history and the history of science, particular attention is paid to the concerns and processes embodied in the maps and map-making that are irreducible to simply ‘imperial’ discourse; these variously include editorial processes and questions of authorship, concerns for credibility and intended audiences, and the circulation and ‘life-cycles’ of maps. These findings are also explored in relation to the institutional geography of cartography in Britain: the studies illustrate the institutional contingency of such factors and how this gave rise to highly variable representations of Africa. These three empirical papers represent the first sustained studies of each of the topics. By connecting their findings, the thesis also offers broader reconceptualisations of the British mapping of Africa between c.1880 and c.1915: with respect to cartographic representations, maps as objects, and the institutions producing them. Maps did not simply reflect ‘imperial’ discourse; they were highly variable manifestations of multifaceted and institutionally contingent factors and were mobile and mutable objects that were re-used and re-produced in different ways across different settings. Mapmaking institutions were discrete but interconnected sites that not only produced different representations, but played different roles in the mapping of Africa. By illuminating the institutional provenance, ‘life-cycles’ and content of the maps studied, this thesis extends current knowledge of British mapping of Africa during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and raises questions for further research incorporating its lessons, sources and theories.

This study is an analysis of three English Canadian operas, Beatrice Chancy (composed by James Rolfe with a libretto by George Elliott Clarke), Elsewhereless (composed by Rodney Shaman with a libretto by Atom Egoyan), and Louis Riel (composed by Harry Somers with a libretto by Mavor Moore), that place Canadian history and Canadian historical fictions on the lyric stage. All three operas engage variously with race, gender, sexuality, power, and the political formation of the state. The central concern of this study is the representation through music of difference and race in Louis Riel, Elsewhereless, and Beatrice Chancy. The analysis considers music as a medium of representation and therefore an equal participant, with the libretto and the mise en scine, in creating subtle delineations of character, relationships, and complex interchanges with the world outside the work. In particular, through the analysis of music, narrative, and operatic performance, the study will consider how race is represented in these operas. Independent but affiliated studies on modern opera and the theoretical context of cultural musicology, and a longitudinal consideration of the representation of race and racism in historical operas, will form a theoretical and comparative historical background to the analysis of the operas. This study intends to contribute to the field of opera studies by focusing on contemporary Canadian operas.

No description available.

The magical fictional setting of the Harry Potter novels is not one separated from our own. It features the same nations and the same history as the real world. Its society is parallel to ours due to similar traditions and hierarchies, such as heteronormativity, ageism, racism, and fascism. Some of these are clearly problematised in the novels, others are not. While issues of racism and blood status are clearly at the forefront of the story of Harry Potter, there are layers to the conflict which reveal that there is more to the discriminatory dilemma than the issue of blood purity. This essay aims to investigate how teachers can use J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series to lead a discussion about othering and discrimination, focusing on the issue of ableism in particular. The goal when studying processes of othering in Harry Potter is not necessarily for the reader to identify with the protagonists. Instead, textual silences will be interpreted to investigate whether the othering of people like the readers themselves, an othering the reader partakes in when empathising with the protagonists, can be compared to ableism in the real world, and how teachers can use Harry Potter as means to introduce the idea of able-bodiedness as a social construct. By applying crip theory to the text, it can be stated that the division between the protagonist and his non-magical Other is based on ableist ideologies, which result in a positioning of the non-magical as disabled in the magical society. This position is maintained by naturalising the link between impairment and character flaws.

The purpose of this study was to determine Bonaro Wilkinson Overstreet's significance and development as a leader in adult education. This study provided information on her life, her individual and collaborative contributions with Harry Overstreet in adult education, and her interest in poetry. Data were collected using online database searching; review of published, unpublished, and informal documents of Bonaro Overstreet; and correspondence and interviews with professional colleagues, employers, and personal acquaintances. Interviews were conducted with current authorities in the field of adult education for informational purposes. Bonaro Overstreet did not influence or alter the course of adult education as a field of study. Her strength was in her role of practitioner and contributor to research, theory, and professional development of the adult education field. She broadened the depth of adult education as an advocate of knowing oneself and acting responsibly in the context of democratic responsibility.

Virginia's Pupil Placement Board was the most enduring vestige of the state's "massive resistance" movement in the 1950s. Following the example of other Southern states, the state's General Assembly passed the Pupil Placement Act in 1956 as part of a package of legislation designed to counteract the Supreme Court desegregation ruling. The Act, and the Pupil Placement Board that enforced it, lasted a decade, much longer than any of the other legislative initiatives born during that session, longer than the massive resistance movement itself.Whites, including many of Virginia's leaders, considered the Board to be ineffective at stemming the onslaught of integration, while African-Americans felt that the agency breeched their constitutional rights. From its inception to its dissolution in 1966, the Pupil Placement Board had to defend itself in a slew of desegregation cases all over Virginia, and the General Assembly changed the law several times to comply with court orders. Despite this adversity, the Board was consistently effective in stemming desegregation in Virginia throughout its tenure.