The purpose of this research is to shed light on the formation of historical myths in Post-Soviet secondary school history classrooms from 1991 to 2010. Specifically, this thesis provides insight into how Russian high school teachers and textbook authors shaped historical interpretations of the perestroika era under the leadership of Mikhail S. Gorbachev and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This case study of the teaching of the historical time period of 1985 to 1991 illuminates the ways in which Russians reinterpreted the final years of communist rule, as well as the dominant factors influencing those assessments, including memory and the state. The historical narratives taught in post-Soviet Russian classrooms, serve as an indicator of the evolution of democratic processes, national identity and historical consciousness in Russia.<p> In addition to a survey of secondary source literature, my methodology includes the evaluation of interviews and surveys I conducted in 2009 and 2010 from over thirty secondary school history teachers in six Russian localities (in the Novosibirsk region, Moscow and St. Petersburg). I also assess the chapter contents of 15 widely-used high school history textbooks from the period of 1988 to 2009.<p> In the newly democratic Russian state, the government (including the Ministry of Education) played a central role in the reform agenda of schools. During these formative decades, the process took a revolutionary pattern, with a radical, more liberal, stage of reform occurring in the early 1990s and a more conservative, traditional retreat taking place from the mid-1990s onwards. In response to societys widespread discontent over the changes which took place in Russian schools in the 1990s, President Vladimir V. Putin took a more active role in education reform than his predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin, especially in the realm of history education. Putins more centralized approach resulted in stricter controls on curriculum and textbook publication. Accordingly, history education was employed as a tool of the state to shape patriotic citizens through the restricting of various historical interpretations.<p> Gorbachev as leader, perestroika and the end of the Soviet Union are controversial historical topics in Russia due to the social and economic upheaval that took place during and after these years. Textbook analysis of this period often reflected dominant political discourses in Russia. In the 1990s the interpretations were quite varied as Russians were unsure of how to assess such recent history. In the 2000s the textbook interpretations became more streamlined, and Gorbachev became a scapegoat for many subsequent state problems. In contrast, history teachers opinions about the Gorbachev era did not appear to change as markedly. Many factors weigh in on an individuals interpretation of this historical period, but memory plays an especially prominent role in the teaching of the topic. Nevertheless, history teachers and textbook authors, reflecting Russian society at large, used historical myths in the teaching of the Gorbachev era, and this thesis documents these myths and sheds light on which were most prevalent and which lost favour.

The purpose of this research is to shed light on the formation of historical myths in Post-Soviet secondary school history classrooms from 1991 to 2010. Specifically, this thesis provides insight into how Russian high school teachers and textbook authors shaped historical interpretations of the perestroika era under the leadership of Mikhail S. Gorbachev and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This case study of the teaching of the historical time period of 1985 to 1991 illuminates the ways in which Russians reinterpreted the final years of communist rule, as well as the dominant factors influencing those assessments, including memory and the state. The historical narratives taught in post-Soviet Russian classrooms, serve as an indicator of the evolution of democratic processes, national identity and historical consciousness in Russia.<p> In addition to a survey of secondary source literature, my methodology includes the evaluation of interviews and surveys I conducted in 2009 and 2010 from over thirty secondary school history teachers in six Russian localities (in the Novosibirsk region, Moscow and St. Petersburg). I also assess the chapter contents of 15 widely-used high school history textbooks from the period of 1988 to 2009.<p> In the newly democratic Russian state, the government (including the Ministry of Education) played a central role in the reform agenda of schools. During these formative decades, the process took a revolutionary pattern, with a radical, more liberal, stage of reform occurring in the early 1990s and a more conservative, traditional retreat taking place from the mid-1990s onwards. In response to societys widespread discontent over the changes which took place in Russian schools in the 1990s, President Vladimir V. Putin took a more active role in education reform than his predecessor, Boris N. Yeltsin, especially in the realm of history education. Putins more centralized approach resulted in stricter controls on curriculum and textbook publication. Accordingly, history education was employed as a tool of the state to shape patriotic citizens through the restricting of various historical interpretations.<p> Gorbachev as leader, perestroika and the end of the Soviet Union are controversial historical topics in Russia due to the social and economic upheaval that took place during and after these years. Textbook analysis of this period often reflected dominant political discourses in Russia. In the 1990s the interpretations were quite varied as Russians were unsure of how to assess such recent history. In the 2000s the textbook interpretations became more streamlined, and Gorbachev became a scapegoat for many subsequent state problems. In contrast, history teachers opinions about the Gorbachev era did not appear to change as markedly. Many factors weigh in on an individuals interpretation of this historical period, but memory plays an especially prominent role in the teaching of the topic. Nevertheless, history teachers and textbook authors, reflecting Russian society at large, used historical myths in the teaching of the Gorbachev era, and this thesis documents these myths and sheds light on which were most prevalent and which lost favour.

This thesis analyzes the process of women&rsquo / s mythmaking in the plays written by female playwrights. Through writing the lives of female writers and rewriting the literary characters, which have been created by male writers, the women playwrights assume the role of a mythmaker. A mythmaker possesses the power to use the &lsquo / word,&rsquo / thereby possesses the power to control &lsquo / reality.&rsquo / However, for centuries, women have been debarred from generating their own myths, naming their own experiences, and controlling their own &lsquo / realities.&rsquo / Male mythmakers prescribed the roles women were required to perform within the society. Feminist archetypal theorists believe that through a close study of related patterns in women&rsquo / s writing, common grounds, and experiences, the archetypes shared by women will be disclosed. Unveiling these archetypes will eventually lead to the establishment of new myths around these archetypes. As myths are regarded as the source of collective experiences, analyzing how women have rewritten, revised, devised, and originated myths would thus permit women to reclaim the power to name, and hence to influence the so-called reality established by the patriarchy. Hence, this study analyzes the constantly developing process of women&rsquo / s mythmaking/mythbreaking in Liz Lochhead&rsquo / s Blood and Ice, Rose Leiman Goldemberg&rsquo / s Letters Home, Bilgesu Erenus&rsquo / Halide, Timberlake Wertenbaker&rsquo / s The Love of the Nightingale, Bryony Lavery&rsquo / s Ophelia, and Zeynep Avci&rsquo / s Gilgamesh. These playwrights try to depose the stereotypical images attributed to women by male mythmakers.

This thesis aims to position Circe by Madeline Miller as an example of feminist revisionist mythmaking and investigate some of the novel’s revisionary practices. I thus begin by introducing the project of feminist revisionism, as conceptualized by several different feminist thinkers. I then move on to describe two methods by which Circe reimagines the stories of the Epic Cycle. I argue that the first method, in the analysis of which I primarily use the work of the formalist Caroline Levine on hierarchies, is to subvert gender and immortality – two world-organizing binaries of Greek myth. I then make the argument that Circe also revises myth on the level of narrative, which I support with Teresa de Lauretis’ work on narrative morphology. The study concludes that both these methods are being employed in Circe and are successful in reimagining myth from a feminist perspective. My thesis results in a better understanding of the ways in which Greek myth is being rewritten by contemporary feminists in popular literature.

This thesis offers a thematic analysis of Victor Pelevin’s Generation ”П” and Empire V. The objective is to determine which themes can be regarded as central when the novels are compared to one another, and how these themes function in the two novels. This analysis shows that in Generation ”П” and Empire V, Pelevin constructs two overarching, parallel myths – the myth of Babylon and the myth of the Word, building a narrative that is solidly anchored in contemporary discourse. The study concludes that these myths are not built to serve as narrative explanations of, or answers to, the issues explored in the novels. Instead, the myths serve as vehicles for an open-ended, exploratory process, which might never be finally concluded. In contrast to previous research, this study contends that the construction of these myths may be the novels’ primary purpose and that through these myths the novels present the reader with a fictional framework, through which to regard the real world.

The thesis deals with the message of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, which is crucial for Christianity and its relevant hermeneutical approach. In the first chapter we analyze the contemporary hermeneutical context of the message within the Hellenistic and Hebrew cultures. In the second chapter we present an analysis of pre-Pauline faith confessions, Paul's texts and synoptic Gospels focused on targeted formulating of the message for respective communities and their cultural background. The last chapter wants to present some contemporary relevant hermeneutical approaches to this message. One of them could be the so called mythmaking, which emphasizes the necessity of permanent updating of accepted opinions, messages and realities. We can observe the mythmaking process already with the New Testament authors and each and also our generation is expected to bring the message about the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth to future generations in a relevant way. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)