Thesis (M.A.)--Lehigh University, 2009. / Advisers: James S. Saeger; John Savage.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb. 8, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-05, Section: A, page: 1756. Adviser: Arlene Diaz.

Irony serves a fundamental function in the discursive structure of the novels of the Peruvian writer Julio Ramon Ribeyro (1929-1994). We find its use through different literary devices at work in his novels. Here we analyze the three Ribeyrian novels within an analytical framework that focuses on rhetoric. That is to say, we use an approach that brings together the works by Peter Roster on the various kinds of irony (verbal irony, dramatic irony, character irony, fate irony, and metaphisical irony), and the works of Lauro Zavala, which analyze the different levels of ennunciation (narrative voice, language, and reader). In his first novel, Cronica de San Gabriel (1960), we analyze dramatic irony. This kind of irony is evident in the narrative voice, which in this case is that of the character of Lucho, an adolescent man who finds himself alone in the world. The reason behind his eventual fall lies in his being witness to the disappearance of the latifundia and a series of tragic events that befall other characters. In his second novel, Los geniecillos dominicales (1965), we study primarily fate irony. This kind of irony occurs when the outcome of an event signals a rupture from that which is hoped or expected. In this particular case, Ludo Totem, the anti-heroic protagonist, endures a number of tragic events which contradict his previous hopes. And it is this Ludo who personifies the deterioration and fall of a fragmented society. In his last novel, Cambio de guardia (1975), we examine metaphysical irony, which concerns itself with the irrevocable contradictions of human existence. This form of irony appears when an action ends in death, and is the result of forces that are beyond human control. In this novel we find different stories that are woven together through fateful encounters, each of which ends in chaos. Ambiguity and the game between appearances and reality are also characteristic of these novels, novels in which the reader plays an active role as he or she decodifies the true message intended by the author.

The purpose of this dissertation is to characterize and explain the different forms and views of Mexican Fantastic narrative, which is portrayed specially during the Romantic and Naturalistic periods. Our task goes further than just mentioning and describing the specific corpus of Fantastic texts. Its orientation towards the critical apprehension of this narrative form is a part of the general literary process. Our procedure consists of determining the ideological function the Fantastic text plays during the periods mentioned. Also, we pay close attention to the deconstruction of the verbal procedures that frequently appear throughout the ideological function. In respect to the methodological and theoretical aspect, we apply a conception of the Fantastic, supported in a Pragmatical theory. Its purpose is to overcome the Formalistic essentialism in which an important part of the critique fails.

This study investigates those 1,046 men who applied to work for the Portuguese Inquisition in the Captaincy-General of Pernambuco, one of Portugal's oldest, wealthiest, and most densely populated colonies in Brazil, between 1613 and 1821. It challenges the "myth" of the Inquisition that continues to obscure our understanding of the Inquisition, the men who ran it, and the society that upheld it. The Inquisition's procedures of selection, the privileges it offered, the rich symbolic repertoire it utilized, and the institutions it organized, such as the militia company of familiares and the brotherhood of St. Peter Martyr, all contributed to the construction of inquisitional prestige, honor, power, and status. I show that the Inquisition became one of several institutions that supplied the necessary "proofs" of purity and status that many families and individuals needed to legitimize and maintain their social standing. The criteria the Inquisition used to select its officials resonated with Pernambucan cultural values and had very real applicability in the colony. Inquisitional appointments came to be used in local power struggles to discredit rivals and inquisitional authority was abused by those who sought personal gain or advantage in personal rivalries. But by the end of the eighteenth century, a complex combination of forces, including the restriction of inquisitional privileges, the ideas of the Enlightenment, and the elimination of legalized discrimination, coalesced to force open the ranks of the Inquisition contributing to a decline in inquisitional power and prestige and an accompanying decline in the prestige value of inquisitional appointments and the Inquisition's ability to produce and maintain the honor, prestige, status and power it once supplied.

<p> La poes&iacute;a de la escritora Rebeca Uribe (1911-1949) pertenece a un corpus literario que requiere ser atendido por la cr&iacute;tica. La presente investigaci&oacute;n tiene como objetivos dar a conocer las composiciones er&oacute;ticas de esta autora mediante el an&aacute;lisis cr&iacute;tico y metodol&oacute;gico, as&iacute; como brindar un primer acercamiento que fomente estudios posteriores. En esta investigaci&oacute;n se propone que los poemas er&oacute;ticos de Rebeca Uribe presentan una voz l&iacute;rica que se entrega totalmente al ser amado con la finalidad de ser correspondida con la misma intensidad, y practica una sexualidad liberada que se manifiesta en la experimentaci&oacute;n de relaciones er&oacute;tico-amorosas de tipo bisexual. Por estas razones, las composiciones sensuales de esta autora se revelan como transgresoras de un discurso patriarcal que en la primera mitad del siglo XX mexicano dictaba c&oacute;mo deb&iacute;a experimentarse la sexualidad femenina y restring&iacute;a su representaci&oacute;n en las obras literarias. </p>

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During the 1930s, Mexico was in the middle of a healing process after three decades of revolutionary turmoil and reform. The outbreak of revolution in 1910 had created friction between various interest groups such as the Church, the labor movement, peasants, industrialists, and politicians. In the following decades, divisions among those groups intensified as the country struggled to resolve revolutionary conflict and, in the process, looked for someone to blame. As World War II approached, divisive domestic conditions prompted Mexican government officials to develop their own internal wartime agenda. World War II became a major turning point in the legacy of the Mexican Revolution. It gave the country an opportunity, for the first time since the revolution, to unite against a common external enemy, and to militarize as a united nation against that enemy. The government-sponsored propaganda campaign became an important tool for reuniting Mexicans. The government took advantage of the unity achieved during World War II to promote a modernization and industrialization program during and after the war. A close examination of wartime propaganda reveals aggressive calls to unity mixed with a subtle promotion of modernity and industrialization. In contrast to outside propaganda produced primarily by the United States, the Mexican government's wartime messages used nationalist rhetoric and symbols to defend the country's internal interests during and after the war. U.S. propaganda promoted the idea of the "American Way of Life," a concept which glorified a middle-class consumer lifestyle, led by the United States. While U.S. wartime messages frequently provoked resentment among Mexicans, they also largely succeeded in creating a demand for the consumer goods advertised in the propaganda campaign. Avila Camacho used that demand to solidify popular support for his industrialization agenda. By the end of the war, divisive revolutionary factions that had dominated in the 1930s found themselves significantly weakened by the government's wartime measures. Through a combination of policy and propaganda, President Manuel Avila Camacho put together a wartime program that allowed him to unite the country against a common, external enemy and to pursue an aggressive industrialization program. Most importantly, World War II allowed him to justify his industrialization program as a new direction for the Mexican Revolution.