O presente trabalho procura investigar a recorrência da imagem do suicídio presente na obra poética do escritor português Mário de Sá-Carneiro e como a temática da morte norteou sua produção sempre dialogando com os momentos de crises psicológicas vividos pelo poeta que, fatalmente, culminaram em seu suicídio. / The current paper attempts to investigate the recurrence of the suicide image present in the poetry works of Portuguese writer Mário de Sá-Carneiro and how the motif of death steered his production forever intercommunicating with the moments of psychological crisis the author went through that, inevitably, led to his suicide.

The question of identity in music composition is interrelated with the condition of musical material and form and the qualities which make musical ideas traceable. The mechanisms for creating musical identity during much of the modern period were based on the elements of pitch, rhythm, harmony and form. Until the twentieth century musical identities were regulated according to traditional systems. The advent of modernism in music was marked by the new solid identities, timbre and texture to the foreground as significant identity-bearing musical elements, and at the same time saw blurring of the traditional concepts of identity. The avant-garde movements of the post-World-War-II period in particular challenged the established identity concepts by liquefying the very essence of the musical work. The modern conceptual tools need to be replaced with new ones in order to address the current state of precariousness of musical material and form. In my original composition for sinfonietta entitled rh, I propose liquid identity as a new concept of musical identity. Liquid identity is based on a new image of musical sound which embodies the internal difference of sound in a self-existing conceptual model. In a state of liquidity all hierarchies flatten and the concept of development is rendered obsolete. The composer then writes constantly “in the middle” and compositional decisions are taken here and now. Consequently, the process of composition becomes a creative anarchic praxis without an end goal.

This thesis explores how domestic factions and authoritarian regimes in Japan and Korea in the period from the 1850s to 1970s appropriated the concept of “modernity” to gain normative superiority over their competitors. The appropriating entity revised the concept of modernity to suit its own worldview. Across the case studies, the propaganda of modernity created a hierarchy that privileged those who are “more modern,” encouraged martial masculinity, and attached itself to existing domestic norms, such as ethno- nationalism. Under authoritarian regimes, modernity helped justify the mobilization of capital, manpower, and other critical resources in the name of nation-building or defense. Many factions and demagogues may have initially used the concept of modernity for domestic gains, but using this narrative later devolved into foreign conquests and imperialist expansion, for otherwise, their call for modernization would have become an empty promise in the eyes of the masses. This paper examines five cases along these dimensions, namely the rise of reformist samurais in feudal-era Japan, the failure of Joseon Korea’s ruling regime to adopt modernity in a timely manner, Imperial Japan’s colonial practices in Korea and Manchuria, the ideological divergences among factions in Colonial Korea, and a South Korean dictator’s attempts to gain legitimacy following a coup d’etat. Each case follows how domestic factions or individuals were motivated by an inferiority complex and how they produced their own version of modernity that favored their ascendance.

Armed conflicts have heavily impacted Latin American societies for centuries. Yet the numerous studies that have examined these armed conflicts have devoted little attention to the primary instrument of this violence: the firearm. This dissertation fills this gap by providing the first in-depth study of representations of weaponry in songs and literary texts from various armed conflicts, including the Mexican Revolution, the Sandinista Revolution, and postwar Central America. It examines the function of firearms in songs, photos and texts about revolutionaries, guerrilla fighters and demobilized soldiers. Taking the firearm as an artifact and trope, this dissertation analyzes the relationship between direct violence, politics and different projects of modernity. The first chapter examines corridos and literary texts about the Mexican Revolution such as El águila y la serpiente by Martín Luis Guzmán and Cartucho by Nellie Campobello. The second chapter analyzes a key but understudied expression of the Sandinista Revolution: the music of Carlos and Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy, in particular the albums Guitarra Armada, Amando en tiempos de guerra and Canto épico al FSLN. The last chapter deals with the figure of the demobilized combatant in Central American postwar literature: in the novel El arma en el hombre by Horacio Castellanos Moya and the short stories “La noche de los escritores asesinos” by Jacinta Escudos and De fronteras by Claudia Hernández. Incorporating theories about modernity, weapons technology, object-subject relations, affect, militarization and gender, this research shows that: 1) intellectuals are drawn to violence but try to position themselves outside of it; 2) often a female element is used to legitimize armed struggle and to soften its implications; 3) the use of a firearm can be deeply democratic in nature but lead to a profound militarization and traumatization of politics and society; and 4) precariousness lies at the core of many insurgent acts, since it is often precarité that leads to rising up in arms, which is itself a precarious political gesture. This examination of the relation between war technology and society testifies to the deep interconnectedness of modernity and violence and to the need for a more radical democracy

Research shows that social skills are a critical component of children’s development and related to children’s academic success. Conversely, problem behaviors are correlated to negative outcomes later in life for children such as lower academic achievement and juvenile and adult criminality. Certain parenting beliefs and behaviors have been found to relate to fewer problem behaviors in children, and an increase in social skills. However, existing research has focused mostly on the parenting behaviors and social outcomes in children using Anglo-American samples. Little is known about the relation of parenting behaviors and beliefs to the development of social skills in Hispanic families. Using the HOME (Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment), the Parental Modernity Scale, and the Bidimensional Acculturation Scale (BAS), measures of the relation and predictive ability of parenting behaviors, beliefs and acculturation to social skills in children as measured by the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) are calculated. Findings suggest that the progressive subscale scores from the parental modernity scale and the family companionship subscale from the HOME are predictive of higher scores on the SSRS socials skills scale in prekindergarten Hispanic children. Acculturation was not related to higher social skills scores or fewer problem behaviors in children. The results are discussed in light of previous research and existing knowledge on what the results mean for the parenting behaviors and beliefs of Hispanics. (75 pages)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In recent years there has been substantial research on Dominican migration and transnationalism, yet these studies have largely overlooked both the manner in which globalisation generates new localisations, and the continuing salience of the state as a mediator between the global and the local. Based upon fieldwork in La Ciénaga, a poor barrio of Santo Domingo, this thesis argues that emplacement, rather than transnationalism, is paradigmatic of the experiences of poor Dominicans and provides their primary source of unity. Race, ethnicity, and social class have long been promoted as structuring the experiences of Caribbean people, but my analysis suggests that these operate more as sources of differentiation than of identification in Santo Domingo’s barrios. I examine the strategies and practices residents deploy to create value in place, overcome their localisation, and achieve progreso (progress) within the bounds of the state. These include transforming the material environment and its symbolic meanings, elaborating certain social hierarchies and contesting others, and developing locality-based political organisations. In the Caribbean, it has been usual for studies of cultural oppositions or dualisms to effectively constitute a different genre to studies of class, race, and globalization. My ethnography indicates that this distinction is false. Residents of La Ciénaga deploy cultural oppositions and notion of difference to define a place in the social hierarchies of the barrio and city, while simultaneously recognising the moral value and identical structural position of those around them. Popular politics in Santo Domingo are characterised by this tension between social stratification and the elaboration of cultural value in place. This thesis develops a political and social economy of value that addresses both the bases of stratification in the sphere of production and the ways in which projects of self-creation, such as through consumption, allow for the elaboration of cultural value and meaning for individuals and social groups. Given the importance of locality to popular politics, I argue that this integrated approach is necessary to any assessment of the transformative potential of community organisations and other political movements in Santo Domingo.

The article starts with an overview of modernization theories, its history of ups and downs as well as its present status. This first part is followed by an analysis of basic social structure distributions and trends in human development in selected countries. One major focal point of the paper is the Non-Western world and the Arab countries, in particular. The author looks at modernization and modernity in that region and comes to the conclusion that the Western world can no longer expect to be able to simply export its own values and its way of life to the rest of the world.

The subject of this dissertation is the Finland-Swedish author Gunnar Björling (1887-1960) and his journey towards Modernism. The principle thesis of this dissertation, the idea that Björling’s distinctive language cannot be understood without an underlying modernistic current, is outlined in Chapter I. It also discusses the idea that Modernism cannot be reduced to a matter of style, but encompasses particular values, ideological stances and practical matters, such as the forming of alliances, writing manifestos and publishing journals. Chapter II examines how and why Björling came to be regarded as a modernist. A strongly contributing factor was Björling’s language, which from the very first violated prevailing ideas on acceptable forms of expression. The fact that he published his first book through the modernist publishing firm Daimon, and contributed to its journal Ultra, further confirmed his modernistic placing. Chapter III focuses on Björling’s unpublished juvenilia from the 1910’s. The young Björling wrote traditional rhyming verse but was also influenced by writings of a more symbolistic and modern character. The chapter concludes with a study of bizarrerierna, Björling’s dream notes, originally written during the 1910’s but first published in 1928. With their bold enjambments and highly compressed form, these notes came to influence the continued development of his lyrical imagery. Chapter IV deals with his debut Vilande dag (Resting day) (1922) and its symbolistically coloured language problematic. Björling struggled to find a language that would convey his experience of the limitlessness of being, a language striving to transcend words, leaving space for silence. This struggle for the right words continues in the later Korset och löftet (The cross and the promise) (1925) and Chapter V demonstrates how this is connected with the quest for God. In the wake of German Expressionism and Dadaism, Björling adopts a more disjointed syntax and a bolder and more dissonant lyrical imagery. There also occurs a thematic expansion, giving greater prominence to the daily life of the metropolis, a life transformed by media. In accordance with modernistic patterns, Björling chose to end his book with a theoretical epilogue, which is a distinctive collation of life philosophy, anti-clericalism, passionate religiousness, moral-philosophical discussions and aesthetic expositions.

The main objective of tbis dissertation is to study the media discourse on youth as it appeared in the Swedish region of Norrbotten during the postwar period. It discusses changes in ways of thinking and talking about youth against the background of modernization in the region. The data consists of artides from two locai newspapers. Norrbotten is geographically peripheral to the center of Sweden; it is also one of the few border regions of the country. The entire area — but particularly Tornedalen, which borders Finland - has a history of unemployment, problems related to infrastructure, and cultural conflicts. This study relates the discourse on youth to the tensions within such dichotomies as modem and traditional, urban and rural, and global and local. While the view of the media as constructors of social reality influences the theoretical perspective of the study, it is not meant to imply that the media create reality on their own. Rather, it is assumed that they are "co-producers" of reality and that journalistic texts serve as specific expressions of the predominant cultural codes in a culture and/or a given period of time. The dissertation presents case studies of four decades — the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s and 1980s — and focuses on the texts, as well as the contexts of the discourse surrounding Norrbotten youth. Following discussions of both the media messages and their sociohistorical contexts, it concludes that the debate about "today's youth" often serves as a forum in which society can express its hopes and concerns for the future. With theoretical concepts such as modernity and generation as a starting point, this dissertation further examines these results. In these discussions, modernity's duplicity stands out. On the one hand, youth are viewed as the bearers of what could be called romantic modernity and on the other, as provocateur in regard to the classical, rationalistic modernity's puritanical ideals and its moral entrepreneurs. The relationship between the generations is also symptomatic of modernity as a whole. With that, youth does not necessarily have to symbolize change in terms of rationality. In other words, provocation can spring from any deviation from the norms of change and progress established by the classic approach to modernization. Furthermore, the dual view of youth, that is, the prevailing tendency to describe them, simultaneously, as symbols of a belief in the future and degenerates, is typical for modernity. Consequently, the duality of the view of youth mirrors an ambivalent attitude to an ambivalent modernity. / digitalisering@umu

Max Weber以「暴力的壟斷」、「制度性的支配聯合體」（Herrschaftsverband）與「職業官僚」定義「現代國家」，即。這個定義背後似乎隱含了「凡是武力壟斷即現代」、「現代必武力壟斷」及「古代不是武力壟斷」。依此，「現代性」具有時序意涵。 本文從歷史上中國的財政與兵的關係類別，以「攤派模式」、「數目字管理」、「人身關係管制」及「非人身關係管制」四項，檢視「傳統／現代」之差異，說明中國古代也符合「現代性」的特色，現代性實際上是一種條件而非「時序」。Max Weber所定義的「現代國家」武力壟斷概念應與時序概念無涉。