Nanomedicine is a promising and revolutionary field to improve medical diagnoses and therapies leading to a higher quality of life for everybody. Huge benefits are expected from nanomedicine applications such as in diagnostic and therapeutic field. However, nanomedicine poses several issues on risks to the human health. This thesis aims to defense a perspective of risk governance that sustains scientific knowledge process by developing guidelines and providing the minimum safety standards acceptable to protect the human health. Although nanomedicine is in an early stage of its discovery, some cautious measures are required to provide regulatory mechanisms able to response to the unique set of challenges associated to nanomedicine. Nanotechnology offers an unique opportunity to intensify a major interplay between different disciplines such as science and law. This multidisciplinary approach can positively contributes to find reliable regulatory choices and responsive normative tools in dealing with challenges of novel technologies.

The Exchange is a fiction novel Xavier "Savvy" Kowalski, one of the most promising American chess prodigies and rumored up-and-comer for the international fame as a potential challenger for the world chess crown. After he loses the junior world chess championship in Venice, Italy, he retires to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he hopes to start his life over. Savvy's father and the chess world at large conspire against him and he finds himself returning to competitive chess again after three years away. He assembles a new team to train him for a return to the world championship, and he also falls in love with a young prodigy he met during his retirement. Together they travel the United States and Europe as Savvy attempts to win back his reputation as America's premier chess player while encountering various rivals, including his own father. The story culminates with Savvy's final championship game, and with his dad.

My research demonstrates how Othering practices affect the cultural status of the comics form. Comics frequently rely upon Othering practices such as stereotype when representing minority characters. This tendency contributes to the low cultural status of comics throughout the better part of the last century. In recent years, however, comics artists have cultivated revisioning techniques that challenge the use of Othering practices in comics. These efforts represent an important step in the push toward what is now known as the comics-as-literature movement, which Scott McCloud believes will allow the next generation of comics readers and artists to accept the idea that “comics can yield a body of work worthy of study and meaningfully represent the life, times and world-view of its author” (Reinventing 10). Even as Othering practices in comics create negative perceptions, these same practices, ironically, provide comics artists with the necessary mechanisms to undermine or revise these negative perceptions and to move comics into the literary arena. The primary mechanism that I focus on in this project is the denotation/connotation relationship. In “Rhetoric of the Image,” Roland Barthes -- speaking about advertising images -- suggests that “the denoted image naturalizes the symbolic message, it innocents the semantic artifice of connotation” (“Rhetoric” 45). Building on Barthes’ work, I demonstrate how the comics image uses the denotative component in visual representations of minorities to naturalize symbolic messages (connotations) that project inferiority. This is how comics create and perpetuate Otherness. At the same time, by interrogating the denotation/connotation relationship, contemporary comics artists have been able to undermine this naturalization process and expose the misconceptions that are inherent within representations of the Other in comics. When comics commonly adopt Othering practices, they create what Charles Hatfield refers to as “encrusted connotations” (4), where the reader’s experience of a comics work is deeply affected by the social perceptions that surround comics in general. When the treatment of minorities in comics is based upon outdated stereotypes, for example, readers may assume that comics are a popular art form without literary aspirations, and the readers then treat these comics accordingly. Conversely, when comics artists challenge the encrusted connotations of the form, they undermine these connotations and open the comics readers’ eyes to the possibility that comics can indeed yield a body of work worthy of study. As I demonstrate, this revisioning work of contemporary comics artists is an important component of the comics-as-literature movement. In order to prove this, my work isolates three distinct forms of Othering that comics speak to in a prominent way. By studying the manner in which comics represent women, racial minorities and geeks, I develop the pattern by which Othering practices contribute to the cultural status of comics art. Each chapter isolates touchstone texts with regard to minority representation (Wonder Woman as gender representation, Happy Hooligan and Luke Cage as racial representation, Clark Kent as geek representation, etc.) in order to establish the formation of encrusted connotations that can then be seen across the medium as a whole. I then show how some of the most prominent and critically acclaimed comics literature of the past twenty years (Maus, Jimmy Corrigan, Persepolis, etc.) enters into a self-reflexive dialogue with these encrusted connotations in order to move beyond them and to help transition the form toward a higher cultural status.

Abstract Roxana is Defoe¡¦s last novel and his only one that ends in tragedy. In the eighteenth century when the idea of realism prevailed, the novel was a reflection of social reality. Unlike a romance in which love and imaginary adventures are depicted, a novel depicts ordinary people and their ordinary life. Based on this idea of realism, Defoe¡¦s Roxana touches its readers. This novel is mainly about how the heroine Roxana, a deserted woman, struggles to make money and how her mental state changes. Yet reading through the story, what readers learn is not only Roxana¡¦s tragedy in fighting through her life, but also, beyond that, the relationship between a woman and the society she lives in. Under the control of patriarchy, a woman, whether reliant on a man or independent, is doomed to be a loser. In order to give as full as possible a perspective about the process of Roxana¡¦s making money, I put many issues in the thesis, including gender, capital, marriage, morality and psychology. This thesis falls into six parts. The introduction gives a general idea of the rise of the novel in the eighteenth century and of Defoe¡¦s life. The first chapter deals with Roxana¡¦s marriage, exploring the reasons for her refusal of marriage and the possible results she may have to face if she remains unmarried. In the second chapter, I will discuss Roxana¡¦s business of prostitution, focusing on how she succeeds in making money by her body and beauty. In Chapter Three, I attempt to analyze the two Roxanas¡Xthe public Roxana and the private Roxana¡Xto see how she takes advantage of disguise in presenting a public self but still possesses a guilty feeling when she is alone. Here, I would like to apply Bakhtin¡¦s two terms ¡§centrifugal¡¨ and ¡§centripetal¡¨ to Roxana¡¦s public self and private self respectively. In the last chapter, I intend to use Freud¡¦s psycho-analysis to explain the three characters¡XRoxana, Amy and Susan¡Xand conclude with the unbalanced mental state that brings about Roxana¡¦s psychological chaos.

The question asked by this thesis is twofold: first, what is the relevance and purpose of the generic prominence of the motif of παρθενία in the Greek novels of the first centuries A.D., and secondly, what is the broader significance of female virginity in ancient Greek literature. In order to answer this double question, the first part of the thesis examines in detail a number of literary texts from Early Greek Literature in which the theme of παρθενία is a central concern. Thus, a close reading of Homer’s Odyssey reveals the crucial role played by παρθενία in mapping imaginary spaces such as Scheria. A close reading of Sappho sheds light on the sense of continuation that exists between a girl’s premarital stage and her wedding and marriage, which will prompt a definition of Greek marriage as “the symbolic preservation of παρθενία.” In contrast, by focusing on unsuccessful, distorted weddings and marriages, Greek tragedy nonetheless upholds the necessity of a smooth, unbroken transition between virginity and the wedded state in order that a successful marriage be possible. The chapter on Aeschylus’ Suppliants focuses on the incomprehensibility of the concept of παρθενία from a non-Greek point of view, that of the pre-Greek daughters of Danaus and their suitors. The second half of the thesis moves forward five centuries and examines the generic relevance of παρθενία in the Greek novels. Most of these novels (including fragments) are interested in this theme, which appears to be associated with the double affiliation of the novels to fictional literature (generically in verse) and referential literature (generically in prose). Moreover, these novels stress the continuity between the premarital stage and marriage, as the discordant accounts of Lycaenion and the main narrator at the end of Longus’ novel about the effect of the wedding on the παρθένος imply. The final chapters devoted to Longus, Achilles Tatius, and Heliodorus highlight the complex connections between the virginity of the female protagonist, the descriptions of nature or created objects, the interest in the text as artifact and the auctorial distancing.

The question asked by this thesis is twofold: first, what is the relevance and purpose of the generic prominence of the motif of παρθενία in the Greek novels of the first centuries A.D., and secondly, what is the broader significance of female virginity in ancient Greek literature. In order to answer this double question, the first part of the thesis examines in detail a number of literary texts from Early Greek Literature in which the theme of παρθενία is a central concern. Thus, a close reading of Homer’s Odyssey reveals the crucial role played by παρθενία in mapping imaginary spaces such as Scheria. A close reading of Sappho sheds light on the sense of continuation that exists between a girl’s premarital stage and her wedding and marriage, which will prompt a definition of Greek marriage as “the symbolic preservation of παρθενία.” In contrast, by focusing on unsuccessful, distorted weddings and marriages, Greek tragedy nonetheless upholds the necessity of a smooth, unbroken transition between virginity and the wedded state in order that a successful marriage be possible. The chapter on Aeschylus’ Suppliants focuses on the incomprehensibility of the concept of παρθενία from a non-Greek point of view, that of the pre-Greek daughters of Danaus and their suitors. The second half of the thesis moves forward five centuries and examines the generic relevance of παρθενία in the Greek novels. Most of these novels (including fragments) are interested in this theme, which appears to be associated with the double affiliation of the novels to fictional literature (generically in verse) and referential literature (generically in prose). Moreover, these novels stress the continuity between the premarital stage and marriage, as the discordant accounts of Lycaenion and the main narrator at the end of Longus’ novel about the effect of the wedding on the παρθένος imply. The final chapters devoted to Longus, Achilles Tatius, and Heliodorus highlight the complex connections between the virginity of the female protagonist, the descriptions of nature or created objects, the interest in the text as artifact and the auctorial distancing.

My research demonstrates how Othering practices affect the cultural status of the comics form. Comics frequently rely upon Othering practices such as stereotype when representing minority characters. This tendency contributes to the low cultural status of comics throughout the better part of the last century. In recent years, however, comics artists have cultivated revisioning techniques that challenge the use of Othering practices in comics. These efforts represent an important step in the push toward what is now known as the comics-as-literature movement, which Scott McCloud believes will allow the next generation of comics readers and artists to accept the idea that “comics can yield a body of work worthy of study and meaningfully represent the life, times and world-view of its author” (Reinventing 10). Even as Othering practices in comics create negative perceptions, these same practices, ironically, provide comics artists with the necessary mechanisms to undermine or revise these negative perceptions and to move comics into the literary arena. The primary mechanism that I focus on in this project is the denotation/connotation relationship. In “Rhetoric of the Image,” Roland Barthes -- speaking about advertising images -- suggests that “the denoted image naturalizes the symbolic message, it innocents the semantic artifice of connotation” (“Rhetoric” 45). Building on Barthes’ work, I demonstrate how the comics image uses the denotative component in visual representations of minorities to naturalize symbolic messages (connotations) that project inferiority. This is how comics create and perpetuate Otherness. At the same time, by interrogating the denotation/connotation relationship, contemporary comics artists have been able to undermine this naturalization process and expose the misconceptions that are inherent within representations of the Other in comics. When comics commonly adopt Othering practices, they create what Charles Hatfield refers to as “encrusted connotations” (4), where the reader’s experience of a comics work is deeply affected by the social perceptions that surround comics in general. When the treatment of minorities in comics is based upon outdated stereotypes, for example, readers may assume that comics are a popular art form without literary aspirations, and the readers then treat these comics accordingly. Conversely, when comics artists challenge the encrusted connotations of the form, they undermine these connotations and open the comics readers’ eyes to the possibility that comics can indeed yield a body of work worthy of study. As I demonstrate, this revisioning work of contemporary comics artists is an important component of the comics-as-literature movement. In order to prove this, my work isolates three distinct forms of Othering that comics speak to in a prominent way. By studying the manner in which comics represent women, racial minorities and geeks, I develop the pattern by which Othering practices contribute to the cultural status of comics art. Each chapter isolates touchstone texts with regard to minority representation (Wonder Woman as gender representation, Happy Hooligan and Luke Cage as racial representation, Clark Kent as geek representation, etc.) in order to establish the formation of encrusted connotations that can then be seen across the medium as a whole. I then show how some of the most prominent and critically acclaimed comics literature of the past twenty years (Maus, Jimmy Corrigan, Persepolis, etc.) enters into a self-reflexive dialogue with these encrusted connotations in order to move beyond them and to help transition the form toward a higher cultural status.

No description available.

Zugl.: Hamburg, Helmut-Schmidt-Univ., Diss., 2006

Orientador: Ana Maria Carlos / Banca: Altamir Botoso / Banca: Antonio Roberto Esteves / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta uma leitura do romance histórico Lealdade (1997), de Márcio Souza, que mostra a trajetória do protagonista Fernando Simões Correia em busca de sua identidade. O enredo relembra episódios do século XIX, na província do Grão-Pará e Rio Negro, quando a região combatia por sua independência. Assim, a luta pela identidade cultural que se estabelece na província dá-se paralelamente àquela do protagonista: ao lado do embate entre a identidade e a alteridade que vemos registrado na narrativa histórica da região, vemos o protagonista pender ora à identificação com o "outro", ora ao afastamento dele, encarando-o como inimigo. A chegada da Corte portuguesa ao Brasil (1808) e a invasão de Caiena pelo exército português (1809) são fatos históricos que alteram a identificação que o protagonista, nascido em Belém, tem com os portugueses ou com os paraenses. Os procedimentos intertextuais, como aquele estabelecido com a trilogia do escritor gaúcho Érico Veríssimo, por exemplo, são destacados nesta leitura. / Abstract: This essay presents an analysis of the historical novel Lealdade (1997), written by Marcio Souza, which shows the protagonist Fernando Simões Correia in search of his identity. The plot remembers episodes of the nineteenth century, in the province of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro, when the region was fighting for its independence. Thus, the fight for cultural identity that is established in the province occurs parallely to protagonist's fight: there is the fight between identity and otherness, recorded in the historical narrative of the region, and a pendulum with the protagonist that sometimes has a identification with the "other" and sometimes he gets away from him, facing him as an enemy. The arrival of the Portuguese Royal Family to Brazil (1808) and the invasion of the Portuguese Army in Caiena (1809) are historical facts that change the identity of the protagonist, born in Belém-PA, has with the Portuguese or the people who were born in Pará. Intertextual procedures, such as that established with the trilogy of the Brazilian writer Erico Verissimo, for example, are featured in this reading. / Mestre