This essay discusses rape and silence in J.M. Coetzee’s novel Disgrace, with focus on how and why the characters Melanie and Lucy are silenced after being raped. Paying special attention to gender and race, as well as the novel’s South African context, an attempt is made to consider how rape is represented in Disgrace, and how this representation is related to the silence of Melanie and Lucy. The discussion’s theoretical framework is based on feminist theories on sexual violence and rape, as well as theory on cultural scripts, sexual scripts, and rape myths. This essay finds that the rapes in J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace are representations of South Africa’s inverted racial power structures, and its traditional gender structures; structures that contribute to silencing Melanie and Lucy. This essay argues that Coetzee has deliberately activated South African cultural scripts in the text in an attempt to expose problematic viewpoints regarding gender and race in society, as well as in the reader.

<p>During the last two decades the citizens’ trust in the European Union (EU) has decreased. It has been established that the Union suffer from a democratic deficit which has caused it to impose so called “identity-policies”. There is a need for the citizens to identify with the Union as a foundation of its legitimacy. But there is a problem since there is no clear idea of who constitutes “the people” in the European case.</p><p>Democratic theory presupposes a demos and a polity. The problem of the EU is that there are difficulties defining the ‘demos’ – there are difficulties identifying ‘the people’. The fact that the EU is in a situation where it has to deal with ‘peoples’ instead of a ‘people’ (demoi instead of demos) makes it more difficult since demos is closely related to the ‘nation’. Only nations may have states, thus the EU may not have a state. Hence it is difficult for the EU to conceptualize a demos, and without a demos there cannot be democracy. By arguing in this way the great need to create a ‘peoples’ Europe’ is understandable.</p><p>The thesis will concentrate on why there is a lack of a demos, or a “We-feeling”, within the Union, why this is a source of anxiety, and what possibly could unite the Union.</p><p>Attempts have been made to create a ‘European’ identity through constitution-making (however, a new constitution was recently rejected) and citizenship rights. The Union has also adopted a number of symbols to facilitate the citizens in identifying with the Union. Most of these symbols have been similar to those of the memberstates, thus, the Union has tried to use the methods of nation-building to overcome the legitimacy problem. Still, there is a lack of uniqueness of the Union. This may be for various reasons. Institution-building and constitution-making cannot alone provide democratic legitimacy; social practice and contestation must be included. This should take place in a public sphere but, in order to ‘have’ a public sphere, there must be a certain degree of collective identification.</p><p>It has also been claimed that there is a ‘European’ culture stemming from three ancient treasure houses (the ancient Near East, the ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire). Since culture is based on norms, i.e. customs, attitudes, beliefs, and values of a society, it is of importance to the Union when this is what politics are based on.</p><p>The study of this topic is relevant since the EU has an increased impact on the lives of its citizens, yet troubles to reach them. There is a lack of communication between the Union and its citizens and the democratic deficit becomes more and more obvious. The methods used by the Union do not seem successful and the issue of a European identity has become a source of anxiety.</p>

This thesis is an ethnological study of the truck-driver profession and an examination of the prerequisites for sexual equality and diversity in the haulage branch. The aim is to: from a cultural perspective, with a special focus on gender and masculinity, study truck-drivers as an occupational group. A main question deals with male dominance within the haulage business. What supports this dominance and what possibilities exist for change? The cultural phenomena within the trucking business are analysed with a particular focus on class. The collective idea, that I found among truck-drivers and haulage firm owners, of a kind of self-imposed “underdog identity’* is important to my analyses. Within the group, however, disloyal competition is widespread. The employment process for drivers is built on responsibility. The driver must prove himself sufficiently reliable before the employer will hand over responsibility for truck, cargo and the assignment itself. Since those who lack the collectively accepted indicators of competence/responsibility have difficulty gaining employment, a kind of “catch 22” situation is created, which is reinforced by the truck-drivers’ “underdog identity”. Those who share the values and outer features with the majority receive considerable advantages in the employment process,which adds to what is already a widespread male dominance and strengthens the cultural homogeneity. The truck-drivers* relationship to freedom forms a “key symbol” in the analysis. The Swedish haulage branch is investigated using Yvonne Hirdman’s gender contract, which makes visible how perceptions of masculinity have been given normative status within the haulage business. Another theme in the analysis is the “masculine manuscript” — embodied by a wellbehaved and reliable, middle-aged, white (Swedish), heterosexual man with a working class upbringing. The manuscript functions as a kind of ideal with which drivers are compared. Those who fit the manuscript are afforded considerable advantages, above all in the recruitment process. In order to draw attention to different types of power within the haulage business, Robert W. Connels’ term hegemonic masculinity is used. With some reservations one can express the long-distance truck-driver as an ideal with hegemonic status within the context of haulage. This category of driver has considerable influence on the definition of how a “real” driver should be and on ideas of how transport work is best organised. This group of drivers is relatively small, but its symbolic influence is large. From a gender perspective, the aim is to “grapple” with the images of truck-drivers, both within and outside of the business. The attitude to the trucker myths is critical. The masculinity ideal of the trucker myth is about the right to seek personal freedom and to live exclusively in and for the truck. Possible explanations for the interest in truck-drivers are discussed with the help of the concept of “masculinity crisis” and George L. Mosses* figure of thought: “the male stereotype”. / <p>Diss. Umeå : Univ., 2003</p> / digitalisering@umu

Sexuellt våld förekommande i konfliktområden drabbar så väl kvinnor som män. Dock råder en situation då de drabbade männen faller i skuggorna i nyhetsrapporteringen och de drabbade kvinnornas röster ljuder starkare. Syftet med uppstasen är att undersöka nyhetsrapporteringen i sex olika internationella nyhetsmedier för att utreda hur det sexuella våldet mot män i Demokratiska Republiken Kongo framställs. Undersökningen har en teoretisk ansats i ett genusperspektiv kopplat till manlighet. Det analytiska ramverket som valts att användas är en kvalitativ  textanalys. / Sexual violence occurring in areas of conflict affects as well women as men. However, there is a situation where the affected men fall in the shadows and the affected women's voices sounds stronger threw the crowd. The purpose of the paper, is to investigate news reporting in six different international newsmedia to investigate how sexual violence against men in the Democratic Republic of Congo reflects abused men. The survey has a theoretical approach from a gender perspective linked to masculinity. The analytical framework chosen is a qualitative text analysis.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 171-186).

Au croisement des études culturelles, de la comparaison différentielle et des études genre et queer, cette thèse propose une analyse mythopoétique des (re)configurations discursives et genrées du mythe d’Hercule à la croisée des chemins dans les cultures européennes, de l’Antiquité aux débuts du XIXe siècle, dans les domaines allemand, anglais, français et italien. La thèse commence par une relecture critique des interprétations humanistes du mythe, qui font du héros hésitant entre le vice (ou le plaisir) et la vertu le paradigme universel et désincarné d’un sujet moral. Grâce aux apports des études sur les masculinités, la deuxième partie procède à une recontextualisation et à une historicisation genrées des réécritures du choix herculéen. Étudiant successivement les reconfigurations du mythe dans la pédagogie humaniste, ses réinvestissements dans des textes épiques sur la longue durée européenne, ses reprises dans des pièces et poèmes didactiques du XVIIIe siècle, puis sa réélaboration dans les romans de formation, qui émergent au tournant des XVIIIe-XIXe siècles européens comme formes privilégiées de mise en récit d’un devenir-masculin hégémonique, la présente étude avance que ce mythe constitue une puissante « technologie de genre » (Teresa de Lauretis), à travers laquelle s’est engendrée, selon des modalités (con)textuelles variées, la figure d’un sujet libéral, masculin, blanc et straight, érigé en mythe fondateur de la modernité européenne (et de sa raison discriminante). Une dernière partie propose dès lors une relecture queer du mythe, en explorant plusieurs réécritures qui troublent la binarité du choix à la croisée des chemins pour mieux désorienter son héros. / This PhD thesis proposes a mythopoetic analysis of the discursive and gendered (re-)configurations of the myth of Hercules at the crossroads, as it has taken shape in the realm of European cultures, from Antiquity until the beginning of the 19th century, in German, English, French, and Italian. Adopting an approach at the intersection of cultural studies, comparative studies, gender and queer studies, the thesis begins with a critical rereading of the humanist interpretations of the myth, where the hesitating hero, torn between vice (or pleasure) and virtue, is the universal paradigm of a moral subject. Based on masculinity studies, the second part of the thesis recontextualises and historicizes Hercules choices from a gendered perspective. The core of this thesis revisits historical reconfigurations of the myth by looking at humanist pedagogy and its resurgence of epic forms in the long European tradition—including 18th century didactic plays and poems and coming-of-age novels that emerge at the turn of the 18th to 19th century. These become the primary discursive forms for narrating a hegemonic idea of masculinity. The thesis demonstrates that the Hercules myth constitutes a powerful “gender technology” (Teresa de Lauretis), that has operated as a vector for engendering, in varying contextual modalities, the figure of the liberal, masculine, white and straight subject, erected as the founding myth of European modernity (and its discriminatory implications). Departing from this argument, the last part proposes a queer reading of the myth, by exploring several rewritings that trouble the binary choice of the crossroads in order to better disorient its hero.

Un rhinocéros Berserker, des hordes de Vanir déferlant sur la Cimmérie, le fils d’Ymir emprisonné... les références aux récits médiévaux scandinaves couramment désignés par les termes « mythes nordiques » sont nombreuses dans le jeu de rôle en ligne massivement multi-joueurs Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. Mais, comment des éléments issus de sources presque millénaires sont-ils devenus des composantes d’une production vidéoludique contemporaine ? À partir de ce cas d’étude, l’auteur de ce travail s’intéresse, de façon plus générale, aux phénomènes culturels et à leurs dynamiques à travers leurs processus de transmission, de manifestation et d’appropriation. Pour ce faire, il s’appuie sur une démarche qualitative et empirique à la croisée des Sciences de l’information et de la communication et des Études scandinaves afin de développer une approche anthropo-communicationnelle, fortement imprégnée par les travaux en Anthropologie. Celle-ci se fonde sur une méthodologie à la fois linguistique, socio-historique, d’observation participante sur le temps long et un suivi de veille sur le temps très long. Elle permet de constater que, des manuscrits médiévaux aux jeux vidéo en ligne, en passant par la littérature de fantasy américaine des années 1930, le sens donné aux références aux ressources culturelles du passé est sans cesse transformé et construit en fonction de la situation dans laquelle elles sont manifestées. Ces dynamiques culturelles s’inscrivent alors au cœur de la problématique du changement et de la permanence et mettent en lumière les constructions d’un imaginaire du commun tout en remettant au centre de la réflexion le travail des acteurs / A berserker rhinoceros, hordes of Vanir swarming upon Cimmeria, Ymir’s son imprisoned … references to the medieval scandinavian stories often designated as « Norse myths » are numerous in the massively multi-player online rôle playing game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. But, how could elements coming from sources which are almost a thousand years old become parts of a contemporary videogame ? From this case study, the author of this work takes a more general interest in cultural phenomenons and their dynamics through their transmission, manifestation and appropriation processes. In order to do this, he leans on a qualitative and empirical research which articulates communication studies with scandinavian studies in order to build an anthropo-communicational approach, which is strongly influenced by Anthropology. This approach is based on a multi-layered methodology which includes linguistics, socio-historical method, long term participant observation and very long term information monitoring. It allows to observe that, from the medieval manuscripts to online video games, through american fantasy literature from the 1930’s, the significations which people give to past cultural ressources are always transformed and built according to the situation in which they are expressed. Such cultural dynamics fall within the heart of research questions about change and permanence and highlight the ways by which an imaginary of the common is built at the same time as it puts the work of the social actors at the center of the reflection

This thesis deals with widespread, chemically-themed misinformation. The the- oretical part describes psychological effects leading to myth spreading. It also descri- bes the debunking possibilities of such myths and the didactic reasons for misinformation- based work on the high school level. General practical part uses methods of content analysis upon random sample of School educational programmes to prove the usability of misinformation-based work in education. It also summarizes the organisations and resources useful for myth debunking. Specific practical part deals with analysis of chosen suspicious information, their credibility and the possibilities of educational work based on them. The chosen in- formation was the "medicinal" usage of chlorine dioxide solution. Rumors of alkaline diet and alleged harmfulness of aspartame, an artificial sweetener, were also chosen. The way they tend to be presented, none of these claims are backed. In all these cases, multiple unsubstantiated claims were found among proponents of these ideas.

Le but de ce travail est d'analyser les représentations des pirates dans la culture populaire anglophone, représentations qui s'inspirent en premier lieu d'un contexte historique et tendent à montrer les pirates comme des révoltés aux prétentions démocratisantes face aux puissances absolutistes, faisant de l'élection un principe maître qui fait écho à différentes visions de l'implication politique des XXe et XXIe siècles. En parallèle se développe la notion d'une attirance inévitable pour la piraterie due aux liens du sang, un héritage qui mène souvent à diverses formes d'hybridation en mettant sans cesse en question les contenus ainsi transmis. Enfin, que l'on parle d'élection ou d'héritage, ce qui est transmis doit être appris, et les modalités de cet apprentissage sont variables bien que s'inscrivant dans un schéma reconnaissable à travers les artefacts culturels examinés. / The purpose of this work is to analyze the representations of pirate in English-speaking popular culture, representations whose foremost source of inspiration for such works is a historical context, and they tend to show pirates as rebels with claims to forms of democracy facing absolutist powers, turning election into a major principle that echoes different visions of political involvement in 20th- and 21st-century America. Along this tendency, the notion of an irresistible attraction towards piracy, due to blood ties, is developed into a form of legacy often leading to diverse forms of hybridization endlessly questioning the contents thus transmitted. Finally, whether election or legacy be dealt with, what is transmitted must be learnt, and the modalities of such learning vary even though they are embedded in a pattern recognizable throughout the cultural artifacts under examination.

O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar contos selecionados e o romance Under the Feet of Jesus da escritora chicana Helena María Viramontes, enfocando a apropriação de mitos astecas e lendas mexicanas protagonizados por figuras femininas, históricas ou míticas, como La Manlinche, La Llorona e The Hungry Woman. Esta re-visão crítica do passado tem um papel vital para as chicanas, reais e ficcionais, ao enfrentarem o domínio patriarcal, colonial e neocolonial. Devido à complexidade gerada pela ausência de linearidade narrativa, tanto nos contos como no romance, tornou-se necessária uma breve análise das estratégias narrativas a fim de ilustrar como tais estratégias estão intrinsecamente ligadas à apresentação fragmentada da vida dos trabalhadores migrantes. Foi igualmente indispensável examinar as demais práticas narrativas da autora tais como focalização, desconstrução, simultaneidade e justaposição, assim como o elo, por ela proposto em Under the Feet of Jesus, entre leitura, identidade, e engajamento com o mundo para promover a transformação social / The aim of this dissertation is to analyze selected short stories and the novel Under the Feet of Jesus by Chicana writer Helena María Viramontes, focusing on her appropriation of Aztec myths and Mexican legends whose protagonists are feminine figures, whether of historical or mythical origin, such as La Malinche, La Llorona and The Hungry Woman. This critical re-view of the past plays a vital role for real and fictional Chicanas when facing patriarchal, colonial and neocolonial domination. Due to the complexity brought by the lack of linearity in the narrative, both in the short stories and in the novel, a brief analysis of the narrative strategies became necessary to show how these strategies are intertwined with the fragmented presentation of the migrant workers lives. It became equally indispensable to examine other narrative practices adopted by the author, namely, focalization, deconstruction, simultaneity and juxtaposition, as well as the link she establishes in Under the Feet of Jesus between reading, identity and effective human agency in order to achieve social changes