This study looks at how professional male athletes—particularly undersized athletes—are represented throughout televised sport. Based on the assumption that televised sport is a gendered and predominantly masculine genre, the focus of this analysis is to demonstrate whether or not professional male athletes are evaluated differently based on physical stature, and whether or not such representations reinforce a dominant—mythic—male ideology. Grounded mainly in Gramscian hegemony and Peircean semiotics, the subsequent analysis compares broadcast commentary and visuals taken from the 2010 men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament and the 2010 men’s FIFA World Cup. In both events, it was generally found that taller athletes were praised more positively than smaller athletes. These findings appear to support common sports-related stereotypes, such as, the apparent media-reinforced expectation that professional male athletes be almost inhuman, mythical representations of ordinary men, i.e., the best athletes should be large, intimidating, aggressive, and hyper-masculine symbols.

Recent trends in scholarship on Plato’s philosophy have shifted emphasis from an almost exclusive focus on inductive and deductive logical techniques, and even ethics, to the treatment of image, myth and the literary dimension, above all in the work of scholars such as Kahn, Rowe and Gonzalez. In keeping with this trend, recent scholars, like Gill, Notomi and Collobert, have postulated the need for a philosophical image on the basis of a reading of the Sophist and Statesman. This thesis examines the unique significance given to the term ‘paradigm’ in Plato’s Sophist and Statesman. Paradigm is Plato’s term for image. A close reading of these dialogues shows, however, that such an image is “philosophical” or dialectical only insofar as it leads to a proportionate grasp of higher, invisible, ethical realities. This is the connection the specialist work on image in the Sophist and Statesman bears to wider scholarship on the literary dimension of Plato. Plato provides, in the Sophist and Statesman, three ways of making use of paradigms: (1) the use of an analogy, like the city and the soul and the weaving analogy, which is functionally equivalent to the analogy of the city and the soul, (2) an inductively defined universal essence, for example, the universal essence of a human being, like Socrates, and (3) an ethical character, like the Socrates Plato presents in his dramatic composition, or other characters presented in myth. The distancing effect Plato uses in the Sophist and Statesman suggests that Plato, himself, is the philosophical artist or image-maker. This is an important topic for one unifying reason. The question of a philosophical image in Plato remains unanswered or inadequately answered. Although the Sophist and Statesman treat this question, the exceeding technicality of these dialogues has lead commentators, unanimously, to treat the exploration of image and essence in these Eleatic dialogues, as a kind of island, separated from Plato’s work. My study, by leading readers of Plato to a greater awareness of the importance of these works for Plato on image and Plato as artist, turns this island into a peninsula.

La thèse rend compte d’une tentative de penser le rapport entre les mythes bibliques et l’œuvre d’Albert Cohen. Pour cela, la première partie de la thèse s’emploie à mettre en lumière la façon dont les mythes de la Genèse deviennent des palimpsestes sur lesquels se greffe l’existence simultanée d’interprétations superposées et souvent contradictoires. Langage codé par excellence, le mythe dévoile le mystère des commencements en même temps qu’il peut renforcer sa profonde opacité. L’hypothèse est que sous le couvert d’une dialectique entre la création et la chute, les mythes dissimulent une complexité générique : il s’agit de l’articulation problématique de l’origine et de sa résistance à toute tentative d’élucidation. Tout s’articule autour du savoir que les mythes véhiculent sur les genres biologiques (animal / humain), les genres grammaticaux (masculin / féminin) et les genres du discours religieux (religieux ou philosophique/ littéraire). Dans une deuxième partie, la thèse examine les enjeux religieux et philosophiques des mythes et des figures messianiques, en tant que modèles de joie, d’espérance et de rédemption. Le messianisme, en tant que phénomène d’espérance réactualise la quête de la plénitude, qui vient cependant se heurter à l’insatisfaction ontologique de l’homme. Dans une troisième partie, une analyse de l’œuvre sous les feux croisés des mythes de la révolte (Babel, Satan, Job) vient éclairer la dimension ambivalente d’un Dieu qui se dérobe à toute tentative de compréhension. Cette étude est sous-tendue par deux axes de lecture qui mettent en évidence la glorification d’une révolte humaine et la nécessité d’arriver à une compréhension de l’humain, qui serait affranchie de toute scorie mythique. / This thesis is an attempt to understand the relationship between biblical myths and the works of Albert Cohen. The first part of the thesis examines how the myths of Genesis form the main platform on which multiple, and often contradictory meanings tend to manifest themselves. Being mainly a coded language, the myth is profoundly ambivalent as it is the privileged receptacle of different interpretations. Under an apparently ordered story about the creation of man and his downfall, caused by the original sin, the myth hides a generic complexity: the problematic articulation between species (human / animal), genders (male / female) and genres (religious or philosophical / literary). In the second part, the thesis highlights the religious and philosophical aspects of the messianic figures and myths. Messianic attempts at regaining a sense of completeness often coincide with the ontological feeling of dissatisfaction, experienced by mankind. The third part of the thesis deals with myths of revolt and disobedience (Babel, Satan, Job) which highlight the ambivalent nature of the biblical God. This study underlines the glorification of human revolt and the need to ascertain a humanistic view of mankind, free from mythical underlyings.

En premier lieu, cette étude relie les formes verbales du mythe aux formes littéraires. Par la suite, une analyse des structures mythiques des genres romanesques traditionnels est effectuée à l'aide d'un corpus représentatif de Vimaginaire québécois. Le premier chapitre développe une "dynamique structurale" du mythe, basée sur la "classification isotopique des images" de G. Durand et sur les mécanismes mimétique et victimaire de R. Girard. Le mythe raconte l'affrontement entre les deux bornes réversibles de la NATURE (instinctive, individuelle, nocturne) et de la CULTURE (rationnelle, collective, diurne) et l'établissement des "différences" (linguistiques, morales, sociales) à partir du sacrifice d'une victime personnifiant la violence indifférenciatrice. L'analyse des contes de La Chasse-galerie (1900) de H. Beaugrand, dans le deuxième chapitre, démontre que, malgré leur "incarnation historique", ces récits, qui relèvent de la tradition carnavalesque médiévale, sont relies par leurs structures et par leur rôle social au mythe originel. Cet événements primordial, en effet, structure paradigmatiquement et syntagmatiquement le récit romanesque, lequel dérive de l'épisode mythique suivant diverses étapes de transformation. Cette évolution, étudiée en fonction des théories de M. Bakhtine et de G. Durand dans le troisième chapitre, dépend d'une oscillation entre deux pôles identifiables aux "bornes antagonistes" du mythe: un mytho-romanesque unilingue au service de la collectivité et un néo-romanesque ouvert a l'Histoire et au désir humain. Le premier roman publie au Québec fut L'Influence d'un livre (1837), un roman d'aventures écrit par de Gaspé, fils. Le premier roman psycho-sentimental, unique pendant longtemps, fut Angeline de Montbrun (1884) de L. Conan. Un examen des structures de ces œuvres significatives, dans les deux chapitres suivants, manifeste une certaine distanciation avec le mythe. Par son ambiguïté et son incohérence, la première traduit la problématique de la Rébellion de 1837-38. La seconde, qui privilégie une dialectique "interpersonnelle", rend compte de l'avènement d'une "petite bourgeoisie" et d'un processus d'individualisation. Cependant, ces deux romans refusent ultimement d'accéder a l'Histoire et demeurent profondément attaches a Tordre traditionnel patriarcal. L'"aventure" d'un moi individualise au présent est supplantée par un élément démythifiant tourne vers un passe féodal édénique. Un clergé de plus en plus puissant force le romanesque a regresser en promouvant un roman historique fataliste, infériorisant, compensateur et un roman du terroir au service d'un ultramontanisme messianique. Les sixième et septième chapitres étudient ces genres mytho-romanesques en relation avec deux oeuvres "classiques" quebecoises, Les Anciens Canadiens (1863) de de Gaspé, père, et Un Homme et son pèche (1933) de C.-H. Grignon. Avec cette dernière œuvré, une ouverture sur le néo-romanesque plurilingue se fait sentir. De plus en plus réaliste, le roman va traduire dans ses structures la désintégration de l'univers mytho-traditionnel: la conscience psychologique démonte la fonction sociale du mythique. Toutefois, en raison du processus de remythification propre a toute idéologie, des structures de l'imaginaire et des mécanismes mimétiques inhérents a l'homme, il découle que le romanesque moderne n'échappe pas aux forces structurantes du mythe. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Submitted by Caroline Falcao (caroline.rfalcao@ufpe.br) on 2017-06-14T19:23:05Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) 2012-dissertacao-ThacioSantos.pdf: 2361333 bytes, checksum: 7c002da216d41c187b23a9eaafb786b3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-14T19:23:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) 2012-dissertacao-ThacioSantos.pdf: 2361333 bytes, checksum: 7c002da216d41c187b23a9eaafb786b3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Estudiosos de diversas áreas tem destacado o ‘retorno’, ou ‘re-valorização’ da astrologia no Ocidente. O fenômeno da difusão astrológica também não passou desapercebido pelos antropólogos brasileiros.A astrologia, enquanto vivência cotidiana, se difunde cada vez mais, em diferentes dimensões da cultura Brasileira. Considerando tal emergência, queremos com esta investigação nos debruçar sobre o tema. Estadissertação visa a analisedas dimensões simbólicas da astrologia manifestas nas relações interpessoais e na organização da vida cotidiana de indivíduos residentes no Recife. A construção desta investigação partiu de observações iniciadas em 2010, em colaboração com os pesquisadores do Núcleo interdisciplinar de pesquisas sobreImaginário e da Pós-Graduação em antropologia da UFPE. Nossa pesquisa baseou-se em entrevistas semiestruturadas, assim como observações realizadas em cursos e palestras sobre a astrologia, além e conversas informais. No período de 2010 a 2011 foram realizadas entrevistas, com cinco astrólogos e dez estudantes e interessados em astrologia. Para a análise desse material utilizamos a metodologia formulada pelo antropólogo francês Gilbert Durand: a mitocrítica. Este método de crítica literária, de crítica do discurso, torna possível a compreensão do caráter mítico inerente à significação de todo e qualquer relato. Baseado em autores como Jung, Bachelard, Mircea Eliade, Gilbert Durand, Maffesoli, além do Dicionário de Símbolos de Chevalier e Gheerbrant, nos propomos a interpretar símbolos e mitemas levantados, pondo a descoberto seus significados e suas relações com a cultura. Acreditamos que o presente estudo não só tenha revelado o universo simbólico da vivência da astrologia no Recife,como também contribuído para uma maior compreensão da temática no contexto brasileiro. / Experts from different areas have highlighted the “return”, or “re-valorization" of astrology in the West. The diffusion of astrological phenomenon also did not go unnoticed by Brazilian anthropologists. The astrology, as a quotidian experience of life, diffuses more and more in various aspects of Brazilian culture. Given such an emergency, with this research, wewant to lean over on the theme. This dissertation aims to analyze the symbolic dimensions of astrology expressed in interpersonal relations and in organization of everyday life of individuals that living in Recife.The investigation was constructed from observations started in 2010 with the collaboration of researchers, members from Interdisciplinary Nucleus about Imaginary Research and from Anthropology Post-Graduate Program of UFPE.Our research was based on semi structured interviews, as well as observations of courses and lectures about astrology, and informal conversations. In the 2010-2011 period, interviews were conducted with five astrologers and ten students interested in astrology.In order to analyze this material was used the methodology formulated by the French anthropologist Gilbert Durand: the myth criticism. This method of literary criticism, criticism of the speech, makes it possible to understand the mythical character inherent in the meaning of any report.Based on authors such as Jung, Bachelard, Mircea Eliade, Gilbert Durand, Maffesoli, and the Dictionary of Symbols by Chevalier and Gheerbrant, we propose to interpret symbols and mythemes raised, revealing their meanings and their relationship with culture. We believe that this study has revealed not only the symbolic universe of the experience of astrology in Recife, but also contributed to greater understanding of the theme in the Brazilian context.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi interpretar posições de autoria, articuladas com a relação entre memória discursiva, mito e circulação das práticas letradas. Para isso, tomamos o efeito de separação entre Mito e verdade, para, de modo contrário, considerar como prática letrada a maneira pela qual as questões trazidas pelos Mitos se apresentam entre narrativas orais contadas por uma mulher não-alfabetizada. As bases teóricas são a Análise do Discurso francesa de Pêcheux (AD), a Psicanálise e as pesquisas sobre letramento, principalmente tal como conduzidas por Tfouni e colaboradores. Em relação à metodologia, seguimos o paradigma indiciário de análise proposto por Ginzburg. A partir desses referenciais, consideramos que há uma relação estreita entre a constituição mítica do dizer (a impossibilidade de nele marcar uma origem) e a função do recalque no interdiscurso (esquecimento número um, no sentido de Pêcheux) na estabilização e distribuição dos sentidos. Além disso, entendemos que as produções discursivas (orais e escritas) disponíveis numa sociedade letrada se interpenetram, mesmo que haja desníveis no seu poderio simbólico, por conta da heterogeneidade na distribuição dos sentidos sustentada pela interdição ideológica aos arquivos. A posição de autoria é uma das maneiras de se indiciar diversas alteridades presentes nessa distribuição do sentido que se articula em práticas letradas. Dentro dessa implicação estão formas de leitura do arquivo, que incluem produções de alfabetizados e não-alfabetizados. Concorde essa fundamentação teórica e pelo paradigma indiciário, foi analisado um corpus formado por trinta e quatro narrativas orais produzidas por uma mulher não-alfabetizada e moradora da periferia de Ribeirão Preto-SP, que foram gravadas e transcritas. Nelas, apontamos as marcas, indícios e gestos de interpretação utilizados pelo sujeito-narrador, considerando que o retorno ao já dito ocorre pela marcação de fronteiras com os discursos semanticamente estabilizados e que apontam graus de letramento de natureza vária. Dentre essas marcas, a análise das seqüências discursivas apresenta: 1- os processos de re-significação de narrativas já disponíveis na tradição oral; 2- a transmissão de saberes disponíveis na memória discursiva por meio de sua reformulação articulada às estratégias interpretativas em que o interdiscurso (arquivo) conflui para uma estabilidade do fio do discurso (intradiscurso); 3- as fronteiras discursivas marcadas pelas modalizações e por uma reflexão meta-discursiva que o sujeito-narrador sustenta ao longo do fio do discurso; 4- a articulação do efeito de fechamento de genéricos discursivos (máximas, provérbios, ditos populares) com o mito individual sustentado pelo recalque originário; e por fim, 5- a distribuição de sentidos por meio de formulações não marcadas pelo sujeito-narrador o que vai ao encontro de uma noção de escritura do sujeito (Derrida) e que rompe com a supremacia logocêntrica da escrita alfabética que monopoliza o conhecimento sobre a língua. Ao apostar na alteridade entre oralidade e escrita, portanto este trabalho se posiciona num esforço interpretativo de oposição à dicotomia entre as línguas de madeira e as práticas factuais de linguagem, dicotomia esta a que também se filia a cisão entre oralidade e escrita para enfrentar o monopólio do conhecimento cooptado pela escrita e possibilitar a circulação das práticas letradas (FAPESP). / The aim of this work is to interpret the positions of authorship articulated by the relation among discourse memory, myth and the circulation of literacy practices. We, therefore, take account of the effect of separation between myth and reality to, on the contrary, consider as literacy practice the way the questions brought up by myths occur in oral narratives told by an illiterate woman. The theoretical bases are the French Discourse Analysis by Pêcheux (AAD), Psychoanalysis and research on literacy, specially the works conducted by Tfouni and co-workers. With regard to methodology, we adopted the index paradigm of analysis proposed by Ginzburg. From these references on, we claim that there is a close connection between the mythic constitution of speech (the impossibility of finding its source) and the function of suppression in the interdiscourse (forgetfulness number one for Pêcheux) along the process of stabilization and distribution of meanings. Moreover, we understand that the discourse productions (oral and written) available in a literate society are intertwined, even though they present unlevelled symbolic empowerment due to their heterogeneity of semantic distribution sustained by ideological interdiction of files. The position of authorship is one of the ways to investigate the range of alterity of semantic distribution that takes place in literacy practices. Within this implication, there are the methods of reading the social files, all of which consist of productions from literate and illiterate subjects. Hence, according to such theoretical fundaments and the index paradigm, a corpus of thirty-four oral narratives produced by an illiterate woman, who lives in the outskirts of Ribeirão Preto, was recorded, translated and analysed. In these, we point out the marks, evidences and gestures of interpretation used by the subject-narrator, signalling that the return to the pre-constructs happens through her delimitation of boundaries towards speeches semantically crystallized from levels of literacy of different natures. By and large, the analysis of discourse sequences occurs as follows: 1 the processes of re-signification of narratives traditionally verified in oral context; 2 the transmission of knowledge present in the discourse memory through reformulation linked to interpretative strategies in which the interdiscourse converges to a certain stability of plot (intradiscourse); 3 the speech boundaries that are marked by stages of modalization and a reflection of meta-discourse, which is supported along the subjects speech; 4 the articulation of closure effect of discourse genres (axioms, proverbs, popular sayings) with the individual myth sustained by original suppression; to conclude, 5 the distribution of meanings through formulations not-marked by the subject-narrator that meets his notions of written register (Derrida) and yet dissipate the logocentric alphabetic writing supremacy that monopolises knowledge over language. Having bet on alterity between oral and written registers, thus this work proposes the interpretative effort of opposing to the dichotomy among wooden languages and factual language practices; dichotomy that also suggests the rupture between oral and written registers so as to face the knowledge monopoly formed by the written language allowing the circulation of literacy practices (FAPESP).

While the origin of the Arab Spring is well documented in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, the role of press photography in presenting these conflicts is not. Images taken during a conflict often follow a particular narrative that comes to define how we remember a conflict. Considering that Syria is composed of a heterogeneous, ethno-religious mix located at the center of intense regional and international rivalries, understanding the cause of the uprising and the trajectory of the conflict require a careful study of the socio-political history of Syria as well as her regional and international relations. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how photographs taken of the Syrian Civil War that earned critical acclaim from photographic institutions mythologize the war. Semiotics provides a template for the interpretation of images that may be related to the underlying cultural forces shaping the conflict. Myth provides the forms in the presentation of archetypes in the images that we are able to readily identify so rendering the images relevant and recognizable to the viewer. The mythologizing of images of war has been used since Frank Capa created an “aesthetic ideal” during the Spanish Civil War and been re-appropriated during subsequent conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries especially the Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003. This study uses a semiotic and mythological approach to analyze the winning photographs as selected by the National Press Photographers Association, World Press Photographers Association and Pulitzer Prize awarded during the course of the Syrian conflict. The myths of the “victim” and “underdog” were the two most commonly applied myths to the civilians and the Syrian rebels, who were portrayed as the “lovable losers” in the conflict. These narratives differ from previous depictions of the two previous Gulf Wars in their empathetic depiction of the civilian population and of the rebels. If maintaining the status quo is one of the enduring functions of myth then the underdog myth perpetuates voyeuristic participation in the conflict without requiring the discomfort of the removal of the Assad regime.

Using myth, media memory, and boundary work as the theoretical underpinnings, this research aims to understand how journalists manipulated meanings assigned to a single subject over a long period of time. The research explores how journalists shaped and reshaped former Penn State University football coach Joe Paterno, and how journalists imprinted evolving cultural values on Paterno. As “what matters” within a culture shifts, the journalistic narrative of authority figures and heroes shifts along with it to reflect new or emerging cultural values. The research also examined what happens to a profession when it faces severe structural unrest. In this case, disruption to the Paterno narrative was caused by new technologies that increased access to the profession. To accomplish these research goals, the researcher employed qualitative and historical research methods, including archival research, textual analysis of newspaper, magazine, and online articles, and a critical historical analysis that allowed for input from multiple paradigms. The examination of shifting, long-term journalistic narrative matters because it helps us understand how cultures respond and adapt to gradual changes in values or sudden moments of public trauma. This research also offers journalism professionals insights into how new technologies affect industrial structures.

The work deals with the issues of network coordinate systems. The first chapter is devoted to a brief analysis of this systems and requirements placed on them. Furthermore, it deals with features of Vivaldi algorithm and its three versions: a centralized algorithm, algorithm with constant and adaptive time step. Subsequently it describes the GNP system and eash step of Nelder-Mead method for nodes localization. Next to it a developed simulation library is presented with its own graphical user interface for testing of these algorithms, which is capable of handling RTT responses database amongst individual IP network members. Simulations performed on data from PlanetLab network are evaluated in the conclusion.

The aim of my work is to comment on the issue of narcissism, which is marked as an epidemic of our time. Narcissism is mostly psychological phenomenon and its generalization to society is difficult. In my preparatory studies on this topic within sociology, I could not find any solution, that would offer a change of position. In my attempt to achieve this, I went back to the original myth.