Submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 1997. / The primary aim of this thesis is to demonstrate that the women characters in Joseph Conrad's works function in the narratives to present a 'saving illusion' which is in contrast to masculine existential despair. The women characters are characterised by 'being' not 'becoming'. They are also frequently associated with that which is stable because it is fixed, and with notions of courage, faith and fidelity. These notions constitute the 'saving illusion' for male characters who are threatened with moral collapse when illusions fail. The representation of the women characters as 'saving illusion' arises from a mythology of 'woman' which inheres in masculine imagination. In the terms of myth theory, Conrad's women characters can be said to offer the male characters the life-affirming possibilities that traditional myth does. The representation of the women characters as myth functions as a competing discourse with that of authoritative masculine discourse. The women characters' discourse is thus centrifugal in that it resists the centripetal, unitary discourse of male characters, and demonstrates that narratives are essentially heteroglossic rather than monoglossic. Women's discourse can either comply with or resist the way they are defined by male characters. Depicted as silent, passive and iconic, the women characters are also frequently attributed with unwavering commitment and fidelity. However their discourse seeks to resist such constructions. Mythologising women renders them 'other', and the underlying suspicion and awe that leads to their mythologising renders them objects in the relationships of knowledge and power. Women characters have their existence in patriarchal structures which bear a resemblance to colonial structures. Mythologised women are similar to colonised 'other' in that both serve to demarcate the space of the coloniser. Like the colonised subject, women are frequently associated with 'chthonian' forces of nature which the coloniser regards as threatening, uncontrollable and in need of taming. As mythologised, colonised 'objects', the women characters are in a state of ontological arrest; hence they do not participate in an exchange of knowledge because they are symbolised by it. A study of the women characters in the novels will reveal that they play significant roles in the mythologies of male characters, providing a 'sustaining illusion' which counters masculine disillusionment.

Conventional literary representations of disability reflect and re-inscribe the fraudulent assumption that individuals with impairments are mysterious 'others,' subhuman betrayers of the divinely-sanctioned corporeal norm. When such normative 'myths' are internalized by a social body, the culturally-determined 'disabled' minority is subjected to various forms of oppression and degradation, stigmatizing efforts designed to strip the 'deviants' of agency and dignity. The object ofthis study is to isolate and, subsequently, demythologize the presuppositions ordering such conventional disability myths. This 'demythologizing' effort is patterned, in large part, on the theoretical tenets espoused by Roland Barthes in his influential text Mythologies. Barthes's text, in its emphasis on destabilizing culturally-fixed 'truths,' provides the theoretical framework necessary for gauging the socio-political load of disability myth. In an effort to illumine, moreover, the presence and workings of disability myth in nineteenth and twentieth century Western consciousness, I examine the specific portraits of disability that appear in Herman Melville'sMoby-Dick; Melville's canonized text lends itself particularly well to this type of investigation as its characters -Ahab and Pip, in particular - are representative of the spectrum of negative disability imagery. This critical exercise, in its emphasis on displacing and, thus, de-naturalizing mythic representations of 'normal' and 'abnormal' corporeality, resembles and reinforces the efforts of the Disability Movement and its attempts to restore power and dignity to the unjustly disenfranchised 'disabled' minority. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

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Published Article / Change in the world is reflected in almost every aspect of our lives – how we live, eat, communicate, etc. For reasons of authentication the mass media use real people in real life settings to convince real people to buy or use a product or service. For this reason it can be argued that the mass media (especially advertisements) offer a particular view of society. It is within such a specific system of belief that the mass media sell certain desires. Without a specific system of belief it is not possible to sell certain desires, for example: fitness (not sport shoes), beauty (not lipstick), etc. This view of the world offered by advertisements is unique to this genre and therefore the advertising genre can be identified, with its unique characteristics and conventions, within the bigger media world. Concepts such as morality, values and desire lead to the concept myth which forms the focus of this research. The focus of this research was to identify the meaningful denotative and connotative signs in print advertisements given the expected reaction of the target market; to identify the desires being sold in print advertising messages on the basis of the meaningful denotative and connotative signs and finally to identify the marketing myths forming the basis for selling the abovementioned desires.

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Thesis advisor: Scott Cummings / This thesis is a series of short essays centered around the Theatre Department's Workshop Production of Sarah Ruhl's "Eurydice" presented in February as a part of the 2016-2017 season. The essays -- based on the "micro essay" structure used by Sarah Ruhl in her book, "100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write" -- cover the directorial process from the beginning of dramaturgical research to the closing performance. Written over the course of a year, these essays come from different moments and mindsets to represent a short glimpse into a distinct moment in time, much like the structure of the play. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Arts and Sciences Honors Program. / Discipline: Theater.

Thesis advisor: Ali Banuazizi / This thesis explores the centrality of myth in the master narrative of Serbian ethno-nationalism that erupted in the late 1980s through the 1990s. By looking at Serbian folk epics depicting the battle of Kosovo, this thesis examines the role of myth as a part of Serbian identity and culture. The way the myth of the battle of Kosovo is remembered is a way of reconstructing the past through using themes in the myth to manipulate public memory and political consciousness. This thesis shows that while myth represents a key construction of a master national narrative, the narrative does not represent the stories of all members of the nation. The theoretical and official “history” of a nation is separate from the lived history of individuals. The last chapter uses gender as a lens to examine the master national stemming from the Kosovo myth, showing how the national master narrative connects to the “myth of the all pervasive patriarchy” in how history is understood. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: History.

Orientador: Fernando Brandão dos Santos / Banca: Edvanda Bonavina da Rosa / Banca: Christian Werner / Resumo: O presente trabalho apresenta uma reflexão acerca da dimensão performática dos epinícios de Píndaro, analisando a dinâmica estabelecida por mito e ritual no contexto da performance. A Olímpica I, dedicada a Hierão de Siracusa por sua vitória na corrida de cavalos em 476 A.E.C., constitui o foco do trabalho e, desse modo, apresenta-se a sua tradução e posterior análise com vistas ao delineamento da conjuntura mito-ritualística que lhe é própria, bem como das características e sentidos que a projeção de sua performance suscita. O trabalho está estruturado em diferentes etapas: em primeiro lugar, são apresentadas algumas considerações secundárias acerca do poeta tebano e de sua obra. Num segundo momento, efetua-se um percurso de cunho essencialmente teórico que visa definir o modo de atuação do mito performatizado e do canto ritualizado, bem como de sua interação com a perspectiva temporal da realidade humana e da sociedade em cujo seio a performance tem lugar. Em um terceiro momento, apresenta-se a tradução da Olímpica I, seguida da análise de suas características performáticas e da relação entre mito e ritual que a ode e seu contexto evidenciam / Resumen: El siguiente trabajo presenta una reflexión sobre la dimensión performativa de los epinicios de Píndaro, analizando las dinámicas establecidas por el mito y el ritual en el contexto de la performance. La Olímpica I, dedicada a Hierón de Siracusa por su victoria en las carreras de caballos en el año 476 A.E.C., es el tema central de este trabajo, por lo tanto se presenta su traducción y posterior análisis con el fin de delinear su escenario mito-ritual así como las características y los sentidos que la proyección de su performance plantea. El trabajo se divide en diferentes pasos: En primer lugar, se presentan algunas consideraciones secundarias acerca del poeta tebano y su obra. En segundo lugar, se hace un recorrido en carácter esencialmente teórico que busca definir el modo de acción del mito performatizado y la canción en el ritual, así como su interacción con la perspectiva temporal de la realidad humana y de la sociedad en la que la performance tiene lugar. En una tercera etapa, se presenta la traducción de la Olímpica I, seguido de un análisis de sus funciones y la realización de la relación entre el mito y el ritual que la oda y su contexto evidencian / Mestre