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This dissertation concerns a certain experienced (sub)reality, a reality which emerged from something “in between”, from a confluence of factors - the project Gender on Stage, a particular actor education programme and myself in the role of observer. The project Gender on Stage started as an interdisciplinary study between the National Academy of Mime and Acting in Stockholm and the Department of Theatre Studies and the Department of Nordic Languages at Stockholm University. It was supported by the Swedish Research Council, and its purpose was to investigate gender in actor education. Actor education is situated between traditional theatre history and trends about the future, between aesthetic ideals and a commercial market. In addition, as was described in the outline of the project, actor education must deal with a long history of male dominance. Actor education could be visualised as the epitome of a cultural production of gender, a site where one has to explicitly deal with discourses of body and language, male and female, self and other, memories and emotions, pleasure and desire. I have stressed gender in actor education as being deeply interrelated with the notion of cultural hegemony, historical discourses of acting as well as gender, myths, and unconscious themes. Beside theories of Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, Sue Ellen Case and Julia Kristeva, the study invokes post-structural notions of “present absence” as well as Freud’s ideas on repression in terms of “the uncanny”. Stanislavsky’s theories of fantasy emotion and the Brechtian concepts of Verfremdung and Gestus were likewise taken into consideration. To resolve problems of confidentiality and ethics, I discuss certain significant observations, considering them to be unique situations, but also representative and symbolic acts. In discussing the gender construction, I put myself into play in the role of observer as a certain persona – a kind of converse representative and a “faceted mirror of the invisible”.

After the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821) ending Spanish rule, Mexico formed a republic. By the 1880s there was ‘reformation’ in the Mexican church and the growth of ‘modernization’ in a caste based society governed by dictators. Amid all these changes, there was a growth of a nationalist ideology which sought to break free of Spanish roots in search of a new “Mexican” identity. As nationalism unfolded, there was a resurgence of some histories that became legends. I’ve noted a trend among legends with female protagonists, legends tend to portray women in a negative way. Two legends that have caught my attention emerge from the lives of two women from colonial Mexico. One is based on the life of Malinalli (Malintzin), a Nahuatl woman from sixteenth-century Mexico who at a young age was sold into slavery, but eventually became a talented interpreter, advisor and negotiator for Hernán Cortés during conquest. The other legend is about María Magdalena Dávalos y Orosco, a widowed woman from eighteenth-century Mexico who was able to gain control of her husband’s estate and manage many of his properties. More often than not, I’ve found that the legends that transpired from the retelling of an account of past events women’s lives, exclude their accomplishments and emphasize their “deviant” tendencies. Through the use of oral histories, scholarly articles and texts relevant to Malintzin and María Magdalena’s circumstances, I will explore their legends to argue that they have a lot of valuable information to offer.

This essay discusses the differences in depiction of vampires between Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (2005) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). By using examples from the novels, the essay exemplifies how genre, narration, and readership affect the description of vampires within the two novels. The essay bases its discussion on genre on the premise that the vampire genre is in fact a genre to itself, but one with a broad variation. Furthermore, the essay briefly discusses the shift within the vampire genre, where vampires during the last centuries have gone from dangerous and scary to appealing and romantic. A connection is made between the shift within the vampire genre and Anne Rice’s vampire fiction. The discussion on genre shows how the romance, fantasy, and horror genres affect the depiction of vampires. / Denna uppsats diskuterar hur vampyrer i verken Twilight (Meyer, 2005) och Dracula (Stoker, 1897) skildras på olika sätt. Skillnader i beskrivningarna illustreras med hjälp av exempel från de båda böckerna och berör genre, berättarperspektiv och läsarkrets. Diskussionen i uppsatsen baseras på att vampyrgenren är en egen genre med många olika beskrivningar av vampyren. Uppsatsen berör även förändringen i genren och lyfter kort hur vampyren från början tolkas som farlig och skrämmande för att sedan framstå som attraktiv och romantisk. En koppling görs också mellan förändringen i vampyrgenren och Anne Rices vampyrnoveller. Vidare i diskussionen kring genre berörs även hur genrerna romantik, fantasy och skräck påverkar skildringen av vampyrerna i de nämnda verken.

This study aimed to examine how swedish tabloid press covered the sex crimes at music festivals that occurred in Sweden during the summer of 2016. The aim was also to examine if and how the press reproduces or opposes stereotypes and myths about sexual crime. The question examined was: How does swedish tabloid press portray victims, perpetrators, the festivals and sex crime?   To approach this we made a critical discourse analysis on 13 articles from the swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen, written during the time of the events. We found that there were many different and contradictory discourses about the sex crimes in our case. The victim was presented as innocent and without blame but there was also a discourse telling that women have a responsibility in making sure not to become a victim of sexual assault, by behaving and dressing right. The perpetrator was described as deviant and evil men, but also as men driven by lust not knowing what they were doing. They were also distant and indistinct in the text, which shifted the blame to the organizers of the festivals and to the police. Sex crime was overall presented as a serious phenomena. It was also presented as a new phenomena, both on the festivals and in the society. The crimes were presented as a problem isolated to festivals but also as a broader social problem. The festivals were described as unsafe places but also as safe places that had been soiled by the sex crimes.

Notre étude du roman de Sony Labou Tansi aborde les notions de violence et des mythes dans leurs fonctions littéraire et sémiologique. Elle les envisage comme les sources fondatrices de l'écriture romanesque.C'est dans ce sens que la violence est assimilée à l'action des états postcoloniaux représentés par la fiction. Dans une interaction entre l'imaginaire et le réel, l'auteur évoque la confrontation des identités, des mémoires collectives et des territoires en résistance contre une autorité postcoloniale liberticide.Une autre forme de violence dite scriptuaire poursuit, avec audace, cet élan initié par les premières œuvres africaines de langue occidentale, elle s'exerce sur le langage littéraire déstructuré et dont les bases narratologiques sont éclatées. Le roman sonyen amène les mots à leur limite pour réinventer un langage néologique qui instaure, dans le roman, le domaine de « la tropicalité » sonyenne, une hétérogénéité littéraire et une hybridation du roman francophone.Notre étude du mythe exploite deux axes majeurs, en tant que parole et récit des origines, la mythologie structure une vision du monde basée sur l'ethno-religieux, dans sa fonction sémiologique, le mythe est lui-même signe et symbole, il appelle à l'analyse des langages littéraire, artistique et mythique démystifiés et débridés par un univers où l'humour et l'ironie participent d'une démythification du pouvoir et des traditions. / Our study of the novel of Sony Labou Tansi approaches the notions of violence and myths in their literary and semiological functions. It envisages them as the founder sources of the romantic writing.In this sense that violence is assimilated to the postcolon states action represented by the fiction. In a correlation between fiction and reality, the author recalls iditities conflicts, collectives memories and territories in resistance against the postcolon authority oppression.nother forms of said violence scriptuaire follow, with boldness, this impulse initiated by the first Africain writings of western language, it's on the literary language destruction and narratologiques foundations of which are burst.The sonyen novel brings words to their border to reinvent a neological language which institutes, in the novel, the domain of " the sonyenne tropicalité ", a literary heterogeneity and a hybridization of the French-speaking novel.Our study of the myth exploits two major axles, as word and tale of origins, mythology structures a vision of the world based on the ethno-monk, in its semiological function, the myth is itself sign and symbol, he calls to the analysis of literary, artistic languages and mythical dispelled the illusions and unbridled by a world where humour and irony participate in demythologization of power and traditions.

This study aims to examine how front cover models are visually depicted in the Friskispressen’ magazine, after the fact that members have pointed a normative non-diversity stereotype permeates the magazine’s images. From a diversity and gender perspective, the representations linked to women and men are studied. Reflections on gender-stereotyped myths and body ideals are also included in this study’s examination. Five cover images of the magazine are analysed, using with a qualitative semiotic method. The results show that stereotypical depictions are both maintained and challenged through various poses, objects, colours and their gaze. Previous research and theories confirm as well as challenge the issue or the influence of the media’s impact on how we interpret diversity and ideals. Furthermore, analysed material demonstrates that Friskispressen’ fails to depart from the received norm criticism about poor representation of diversity. Friskis&Svettis’ core value to include everybody has an impact in their magazine. However, the findings show that the magazine’s representations are still, problematic.

O objetivo dessa dissertação é a análise do conceito heka nos textos funerários do Egito Faraônico. Heka é a palavra em egípcio antigo para o que significamos como magia, essa mesma palavra pode aparecer dentro da literatura funerária representando a divindade da magia. Será realizada uma análise dos textos compostos por fórmulas mágicas e narrativas míticas utilizados em contextos funerários egípcios. O objetivo da análise é identificar o significado da palavra egípcia no contexto das fontes, compreendendo a extensão semântica do conceito de heka através do seu relacionamento com os mitos cosmogônicos. Deste modo, reconhecendo-a enquanto conceito que assimila atributos personificados dentro das narrativas. Esse estudo pretende, portanto, alcançar interpretações significativas sobre essas fontes e contribuir com a compreensão dos elementos simbólicos e cognoscíveis das narrativas míticas e dos textos funerários do Antigo Egito. / The objective of this dissertation is the analysis of the heka concept in the funerary texts of Pharaonic Egypt. Heka is the ancient Egyptian word for what we mean as magic, this same word may appear within funerary literature representing the divinity of magic. An analysis of the texts composed by magical formulas and mythical narratives used in Egyptian funerary contexts will be done. The purpose of the analysis is to identify the meaning of the Egyptian word in the context of the sources, understanding the semantic extension of the heka concept through its relationship with the cosmogonic myths. In this way, recognizing the term as a concept that assimilates personified attributes within the narratives. This study therefore intends to reach meaningful interpretations of these sources and contribute to the understanding of the symbolic and knowable elements of the mythical narratives and funerary texts of Ancient Egypt.

En 1967, dans la revue Diogène, Roger Caillois écrivit un article sur le prestige et les problèmes du rêve. Il écrivit que, par le passé, dans un monde qui lui accordait un crédit démesuré, il y avait une correspondance entre le rêve et le sentiment quotidien que tout, même les choses les plus intimes, peut être éprouvé en commun. Mais l’intuition que plusieurs rêves se vérifient ou se contrôlent mutuellement était une manière de civiliser le rêve. Inversement, aujourd’hui, dans un monde où il n’est plus une source de pouvoir politique, où il ne constitue plus un témoignage authentique, considéré comme un phénomène étanche, rétif à tout partage, dont le rêveur seul peut se souvenir, le rêve porte cette nostalgie communautaire. La même année, Roger Bastide réfléchit à ce que serait une sociologie du rêve, une étude du rêve comme phénomène social. Il pensait que la sociologie ne s’intéressait qu’à l’homme éveillé, comme si l’homme endormi était un homme mort. Il se demandait si la sociologie pouvait ignorer cet homme couché et rêvant. Cette thèse se propose de penser le quotidien à partir de l’intuition de Roger Caillois, qui cherche moins à penser l’homme couché et rêvant que l’homme debout, dans son quotidien, son travail, sa famille, son rapport aux objets de tous les jours, empreinte à ce tiers de sa vie où il dort. Il ne s’agit cependant pas de faire l’interprétation de rêves, ou d’en tirer les contenus latents. Leur contenu n’est pas le terrain de cette thèse. Chaque fois, la visée est de savoir comment le rêve est-il vécu en tant que mythe, c’est-à-dire dans quelle mesure l’attention que le rêveur a prêtée à la structure étrange du rêve, ou à son contenu, a influencé sa relation à la communauté ; comment le phénomène du rêve est-il utilisé comme clef de lecture pour donner du sens à la quotidienneté de l’homme au sein de la société. En un mot : comment le rêve se déverse et contamine le réel. La magie et la métaphore seraient deux expressions de la manière dont le rêve se répand dans la vie quotidienne. La magie, comme lecture sociale des phénomènes dans lesquels la cause est sans relation apparente à la conséquence, cependant que les phénomènes étudiés ont une efficace propre : cette relation sans cause et qui pourtant rassemble deux termes distincts du paysage est l’un des fondements essentiels de la pensée symbolique. La métaphore, enfin, qui est l’expression littéraire et linguistique où deux symboles que rien de connecte cohabitent néanmoins harmonieusement, une stratégie de discours par laquelle le langage se dépouille de sa fonction de description directe pour accéder au niveau mythique. Cela est une proposition : alimenter une sociologie de l’homme éveillé, comme voulait l’appeler Bastide, qui ne rechigne pas à voir que « les états crépusculaires » et « la moitié obscure et sombre de l’homme prolongent le social », une sociologie qui ne peine pas à accepter que nombre des moteurs qui président aux comportement des sociétés humaines trouvent leur source dans les mêmes logiques saltatoires, ou acausales, en toutes les manières dénuées du lignage et des filiations déterministes, que l’on retrouve dans le rêve, dans la magie et dans la métaphore. Une sociologie qui s’autorise à penser que le lien social visible, quotidien, structurant des civilisations, puisse être atteint par une transformation profonde de la manière dont nous envisageons le lien en général. Une sociologie qui se propose de questionner l’inconséquence de l’invisible. / In 1967, in the review Diogène, Roger Caillois wrote an article on the prestige and the problems of dreams. He wrote that, in the past, in a world where dreams had excessive credit, there was a connection between the act of dreaming and the everyday feeling that all things, even intimate ones, could be experienced collectively. Yet, quite ironically, the intuition that dreams could cross-verify, or control one another, acted as a way to civilise them. Conversely, nowadays, in a world where they are no longer source of political power, where they can’t be taken as authentic testimonies, where they are considered impervious phenomena, reticent to be shared, dreams carry a sort of community nostalgia. On the same year, Roger Bastide gave a thought about what a sociology of dreams would be. A study of dreams as social phenomena. He thought that sociology had only interest for the awaken Man, as if the Man asleep were a dead man. He wondered how sociology could ignore this lying, dreaming man. The present thesis offers a framework to think the everyday life through this intuition of Roger Caillois. Consider Men in society not as occasional lying, dreaming bodies. But look at the structures of work, family, and the realm of objects throughout the ways this third of our life we spend sleeping affect them. The interpretation of dreams is not the subject of this thesis, nor is the “latent contents” they might hold. Our purpose is to find out how dreams are experienced and lived as myths. That is to wonder: to which extend the attention given by the dreamer to the weird structure of his dreams, or to its content, have positively influenced his relationship to the community. How does the phenomenon of dreaming can be used as a key to read and make sense out of the everyday life of Men in society. In a word: how dreams overflow and contaminate reality. Magic and the metaphors could be two expressions of this contamination. Magic as a social interpretation of phenomena in which causes remain in seemingly decorrelation with their consequences, whereas the studied phenomena have an effectiveness of their own. This relationship without determinism which yet connect two distinct terms is an essential core of symbolical thinking. The metaphor, finally, the literary and linguistic expression where two symbols that nothing links, nevertheless cohabit harmoniously. A strategy of discourse through which language strips of of its descriptive function, to reach a mythical aspect. This would be the thesis: contribute to a sociology of the awaken Man, as Bastide wanted to call it. A human science which wouldn’t turn its back to the fact that “twilight states of mind” and “an obscure, sombre, half of Man extends the social life”. A sociology that wouldn’t disregard the many drivers of humain societies relying on saltatory logics, indirect causality, and all the human ways escaping determinism, all of which could be found in dreams magic and the metaphor. A sociology which would consider that the invisible, everyday link that structures civilisations, could benefit from an inquiry on the very way we think of the social link in general. A sociology which would question the inconsequence of what is not visible.

Student Number : 0500547G - PhD thesis - School of Psychology - Faculty of Humanities / This study is aimed at understanding the role of assault severity, personality traits and rape myths in predicting rape victims’ psychological responses and coping styles. Specifically, the study assessed the mediating role of victims’ attribution in predicting psychological impacts of rape victimization and the coping styles. On the basis of theory, it was postulated that the severity of assault (as determined by either the use of physical force and/or the presence of weapons); intrapersonal resources of hardiness; and the acceptance of rape myths would have a direct influence on survivors’ psychological impact and on coping. The thesis provides comprehensive coverage of the prevalence of rape victimization; the trauma and psychological impacts of rape victimization; coping with rape victimization; and the theory on the role of social cognition (appraisal and attribution) in explaining victims’ responses to rape. The theoretical conceptualisation underpinning the study offers a unique integration of this body of knowledge within the South African context. In investigating the research question, two hundred and fifty adult black (African) South African women who had experienced rape in the previous month were interviewed about the event and their subsequent responses. The interviewees were drawn from Xhosa, SePedi and Zulu speaking communities. The study was located within the quantitative research tradition. A structured interview questionnaire was developed. Descriptive statistics were calculated and the emphasis of the analysis was in the area of the Structural Equation Model. The model was successful in terms of explained variance in accounting for the two types of coping; approach and avoidance coping dimensions followed by the psychological impact and attribution. The results showed psychological impact as explained through the symptoms of Hyperarousal, Intrusion and Avoidance had the greatest influence on coping of rape survivors. As hypothesized, the results confirmed that an increase in rape assaults severity resulted into increased levels of psychological distress. The findings indicated that internal styles of self-blame attribution (behavioural and characterological attribution) were prevalent among victims of rape in the present study. Although hardiness (commitment and control) dimensions were not found to significantly influence coping, an orientation of control and commitment amongst survivors was found to significantly influence the attribution styles. Furthermore, the control dimension was found to have a significant influence on victims’ psychological distress. Interestingly, the results revealed that acceptance of rape myths among survivors resulted in a decrease in psychological distress. The findings demonstrate the strength of the current study in the development and testing of theoretically based models of processing rape victimization recovery among rape survivors. The implications of the data are explored.