This study examines how the American comic book industry’s output is addressing the issue of Islam and in which manner the portrayal of Islam in the great American comic book universes have changed since 2001. The comic books are examined from the postcolonial perspective as formulated by Chandra Mohanty and the power and resistance-perspective as formulated by Michel Foucault. Examination of the comic books reveals far greater focus on universal values, orthopraxy and inclusive perspectives than it does on dogmatic teachings, orthodoxy and sectarianism while at the same time partly relying on generalizations and archetypes concerning Islam. To change the power balance requires what I call intervention from the objective, that is to say that ambiguity regarding Muslim characters has to be eliminated by the narrative. This reveals the prominence of the so-called white assistance fantasy in superhero fiction. / Den här studien granskar hur den amerikanska serieindustrins produktion bemöter ämnet islam och hur porträtteringen av islam i de stora amerikanska serieuniversumen förändrats sedan år 2001. Serietidningarna granskas genom det postkoloniala perspektivet formulerat av Chandra Mohanty och makt- och motståndsperspektivet av Michel Foucault. Granskning av serierna avslöjar långt större fokus på universella värden, ortopraxi och inkluderande perspektiv än dogmatiska läror, ortodoxi och sekterism samtidigt som man delvis förlitar sig på generaliseringar och arketyper rörande islam. För att ändra på maktbalansen behövs det ofta vad jag kallar intervention från det objektiva, det vill säga att tvetydighet om muslimska protagonister måste raderas av narrativet. Detta avslöjar den framträdande företeelsen av så kallade vit assistans-fantasier inom superhjältefiktion.

This thesis aims at explaining the forms and styles in which the phenomenon of alienation found expression in Turkish novels, particularly in the 1970s. For this purpose, three novels of the decade are chosen for in-depth analysis since they are considered to be most representative examples. It was important to question how these three novels have ascribed significance to the existing conditions of alienation. Therefore, the specific discussion of this thesis dwells on whether these novels offer any alternative approach or whether there is any possibility of such an alternative. Thus, the analyses of the characters in the novels are based on their designation as they experience the adverse consequences of the phenomenon of alienation. In spite of the fact that the novels differ among themselves in their particular approach to alienation, there is a general attempt to designate a sense of consciousness that is not totally effective in overcoming negative consequences of this phenomenon.

Through its depiction of heroines, romance fiction has the capacity to reflect the attitudes and concerns women face in society. However, the depiction of heroines in romance novels is bound by the constraints publishers place upon them. A vibrant, passionate mid-life heroine gets pushed into a subgenre where romance no longer exists as an option, while a mid-life reader in search of a romance heroine to identify with is relegated to novels where romance is a marginal issue, rather than the main impetus that leads the story. This study, and the novel A Basic Renovation, addresses a neglected demographic of reader and heroine who are marginalised within the romance genre. As well, it gives reasons why heroines need not be characterised in particular roles or situations as they age, and a rationale for why their underrepresentation as romance heroines should end.

[From Introduction]: ‘Work’ is not a topic that much concerns contemporary novelists or fires the creative imagination. Today, writing about work is primarily done by investigative reporters like Elizabeth Wynhausen, whose Dirt Cheap: Life at the Wrong End of the Job Market (2005) is a striking – if rare – under-cover exposé of what ‘economic reform’ really means for menial Australian workers. There is certainly no literary equivalent now of the British and Australian novels, appearing in the 1950s and 1960s, preoccupied with the relationship between changing patterns of work and working-class experience: the lived transformations of traditional class and family ties; the impact of new consuming habits and popular cultural pursuits; the political situation of ordinary working people, and shifts in their attitudes and values. These British and Australian novels generally assumed that reorganisations of the working coal face or factory floor extended into the private sphere, informing or producing the stressful personal dramas played out in communities and at the kitchen sink.This thesis argues that these novels were elements of a broader dialogue in the 50s and 60s: one in which work and working-class life were significant subjects, articulated in a range of complementary discourses that were interlocutory – economic and political analysis, sociology, nascent cultural theory, popular newspaper commentary and literature. Consequently, a main objective of this thesis is to reveal how these representational forms or disciplines converged in the period 1950–1965: to examine their common themes and interests, and their collectiveresponses to questions concerning working-class life. The thesis argues that all these forms or disciplines shared the view that the condition of the working classes, in both Britain and Australia, crucially mattered to the overall social architecture of the time. It also argues that they all regarded the presence of America, the era’s pre-eminent global force, as central to such questions; and that America was complexly understood as an idealised political concept, a power-house of popular cultural production, and a very real engine of socio-economic change.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Interdisciplinary Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-167). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=4&did=1240690011&SrchMode=1&sid=7&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1194986884&clientId=5220

This dissertation is an intervention into the ongoing revisions of Gerard Genette’s concept of paratexts. Increasingly used in discussions of artifacts other than the literary novels that were Genette’s object of attention, the concept of paratexts has given rise to intense debates regarding the nature and functions of paratextual elements across media. One area of contestation is the relation of paratext to narrative. While Genette’s original paradigm complicates the possibility of a narrative paratext, I show that the liminal zones usually occupied by paratexts—what I call paratextual space—are commonly used for narrative purposes, particularly as popular narratives extend across media. In this dissertation, I analyze the different embodiments of Watchmen with a focus on such a use of paratextual spaces. I argue that studies of narratives presented in these spaces—what I refer to as paratextual narratives—will not only shed light on these narrative strategies, but also give new insights into how popular narratives extend across new media platforms. My first analytical chapter concerns the material that frames the Watchmen graphic narrative, and its roots in the media specific history and paratextual phenomenon known as lettercols. I show how this paratextual space was repurposed in the creation of Watchmen to present narrative material that worked to establish and augment the history of the storyworld and the characters presented in the graphic narrative of the Watchmen comics. I argue that the functions of these materials are influenced by the tradition established by the lettercols and the paratextual spaces in which they are situated. In my second analytical chapter I turn to the Watchmen adaptation, focusing in particular on the digital narratives framing the cinematic premiere of the film. I show how the paratextual nature of these materials occluded their narrative functions, causing them to be excluded from what is regarded the adaptation of Watchmen. I argue that the materials framing the Watchmen film are paratextual narratives that should be seen as integral parts of the Watchmen adaptation. In my conclusion I address the Watchmen prequel-series Before Watchmen and raise questions regarding how paratextual narratives function for media franchising.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The insertion of an established writer as the Uruguayan short story writer Horacio Quiroga in the gender of serial novels, through six narratives published in illustrated magazines such as Caras y Caretas and Fray Mocho between the years 1908 and 1913 shows the writer s inclination to adapt, through the work with a genre which he previously had no affinity with, to a modern scenery in which the very concept of literary work began to undergo questioning and transformation. But the complexity of these six short novels goes far beyond their aesthetic and their particular narrative matrix, raising questions concerning the social and ideological problems encountered in the first decades of a Buenos Aires in transformation. Products of the cultural industry, these novels cannot be understood as mere impoverished imitations of the canonical literature, but neither they represented the expression of a popular culture that resisted and opposed to the dominant culture. They are best seen as belonging to an area of dispute, to a field of cultural struggle. The recognition of these novels, their circulation and their consumption, is what does not allow us to deny the existence of a huge readership that did not match the expectations of the literate elite. Here is precisely where their value lies: they are witnesses of the Apocalypse that occurs when literature ceases to be a realm reserved for those higher spirits who understand it, and begins to suffer an irrevocable closeness to the public. / A inserção de um escritor consagrado como o contista uruguaio Horacio Quiroga no gênero folhetinesco, através de seis novelas de folhetim publicadas nas revistas ilustradas Caras y Caretas e Fray Mocho entre os anos de 1908 e 1913 nos mostra a disposição do escritor em se adaptar, no trabalho com um gênero com o qual não possuía nenhuma afinidade anteriormente, a um panorama moderno no qual a própria concepção de obra literária começava a passar por questionamentos e transformações. Porém a complexidade das seis novelas folhetinescas vai muito além de sua estética e de sua matriz narrativa particular, levantando questões que dizem respeito a problemáticas sociais e ideológicas encontradas nas primeiras décadas de uma Buenos Aires em transformação. Produtos da indústria cultural, estas novelas não podem ser compreendidas como meras imitações empobrecidas da literatura da tradição, porém tampouco representavam a expressão de uma cultura popular que resistia e se opunha à cultura dominante. São mais bem vistas como pertencentes a um território de contestação, a um campo de embates culturais. O reconhecimento destas novelas, de sua circulação e de seu consumo, é o que não nos permite negar a existência de um imenso público leitor que não correspondia às expectativas da elite letrada. Aqui justamente reside seu valor: são testemunhas do apocalipse que ocorre quando a literatura deixa de ser um reino reservado para os espíritos superiores que a compreendam e começa a sofrer uma irrevogável aproximação com o público.

Il est question dans cette recherche de lire les contributions de l’interlangue dans les romans de l’Afrique francophone subsaharienne. Cette notion linguistique et sociolinguistique voit sa première orientation de recherche avec Sélinker (1972). Chercheur américain attaché aux aspects linguistiques et psycholinguistiques de l’apprentissage d’une langue étrangère par les adultes avec l’élaboration du terme « interlanguage » (traduit interlangue en français) pour rendre compte des connaissances intermédiaires de l’apprenant en langue étrangère. Pour cet auteur tout comme pour d’autres chercheurs qui ont orienté les recherches sur la notion, l’interlangue est une « compétence transitoire » (Coder, 1967), « une « langue approximative » (Nemser, 1971) caractérisée par une véritable instabilité d’autant plus que les règles grammaticales de l’interlangue ne correspondent pas aux règles retrouvées dans la langue maternelle de l’apprenant ni celles observées dans la langue cible : en général, l’interlangue n’est pas destiné à évoluer vers une meilleure pratique de la langue.Or, l’observation de l’interlangue dans les textes des romanciers de l’Afrique subsaharienne d’expression française remet en cause cette définition des premiers chercheurs : dans les textes, l’nterlangue fait accroître le lexique du vocabulaire, elle réutilise les structures syntaxiques pour innover la syntaxe, en plus de cela, elle diversifie les figures de styles pour embellir la stylistique existante. Le rajeunissement lexical est visible à travers l’introduction des emprunts, alternances codiques, calques et néologies. Au niveau syntaxique, l'on y observe un emploi inhabituel des outils syntaxiques comme par exemple la détermination, les pronoms, la ponctuation et une insistance des traits morphosyntaxes. A ces structures s'ajoutent les maximes et les proverbes présentant de fait la stylistique comme un élément textuel diversifié.La sociocritique de Zima est l'approche autour de laquelle nous tenons ces informations. Elle se présente ici comme une perspective qui cerne le mieux la socialité du texte littéraire. Elle ouvre la voie à l'analyse de l'interlangue qu'elle a su identifier dans les oeuvres. Grâce à elle, l'on découvre que ce concept fait appel à la cohabitation culturelle des peuples aux microscopes différents. Il suscite la diversité des cultures et évoque le multilinguisme et l'interculturalité, deux poumons importants pour définir la Francophonie institutionnelle, linguistique et littéraire. Les principes auxquelles prône la notion de l'interlangue peuvent restructurer la relation France/Afrique / This research seeks to read the contributions of interlanguage in the novels of Francophone sub-Saharan Africa. This linguistic and sociolinguistic notion sees its first research orientation with Selinker (1972). American researcher attached to the linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of the learning of a foreign language by adults with the elaboration of the term "interlanguage" to account for the intermediate knowledge of the learner in a foreign language. For this author, as for other researchers who have oriented research on the notion, the interlanguage is a "transitional skill" (Coder, 1967), an "approximate language" (Nemser, 1971) characterized by real instability Especially since the grammatical rules of the interlanguage do not correspond to the rules found in the mother tongue of the learner or those observed in the target language: in general, the interlanguage is not intended to evolve towards a better Practice of the language.However, the observation of interlanguage in the texts of novelists in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa calls into question this definition of the first researchers: in the texts, the interlanguage increases the lexicon of vocabulary, reuses structures Syntactics to innovate the syntax, in addition to that, it diversifies the figures of styles to embellish the existing stylistics. The lexical rejuvenation is visible through the introduction of borrowings, codical alternations, layers and neologies. At the syntactic level, there is an unusual use of syntactic tools as well as determination, pronouns, punctuation and insistence of morphosyntax features. To these structures are added the maxims and proverbs presenting in fact stylistics as a diversified textual element.The sociocritic of Zima is the approach around which we hold this information. It presents itself here as a perspective that best identifies the sociality of the literary text. It opens the way to the analysis of the interlanguage which it has identified in works. Thanks to it, it is discovered that this concept calls for the cultural coexistence of peoples with different microscopes. It raises the diversity of cultures and evokes multilingualism and interculturality, two important lungs to define the institutional, linguistic and literary Francophonie. The principles advocated by the notion of interlanguage can restructure the France / Africa relationship.

Cette thèse de doctorat est une étude interdisciplinaire portant sur la question de la représentation de la nudité dans la littérature, la médecine et les discours artistiques en France dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle. À partir du constat que le corps nu est indissociable du sens de la vue se développe l’idée selon laquelle l’élaboration d’un regard conditionne l’existence de représentations plurielles du corps dévêtu. À travers l’étude de textes de différentes natures, cette thèse propose un parcours démontrant le lien entre la construction du regard et la fabrique des « nudités » au siècle des Lumières. Des mots techniques dévoilant le détail anatomique aux demi-mots formant le langage « gazé », l’écriture et la lecture des nudités sont pensées comme une interaction de nature textuelle et visuelle (chapitre I. Lire, écrire & dévêtir). Le second chapitre (Révéler & Eveiller) est consacré aux effets attribués à la vision du nu au XVIIIe siècle et présente, à partir de l’étude des planches d’anatomie, la façon dont le regard porté sur le corps dénudé peut être construit. Les chapitres suivants examinent successivement les nudités selon l’élaboration de différents regards. Le voyeurisme (chapitre III. Dénuder & inciter) et l’observation (chapitre IV. Exposer & observer) favorisent la représentation du détail anatomique, la création de figures topiques et la mise en scène du corps nu. Les chapitres suivant montrent que le corps peut également être déshabillé du regard et le nu parcouru des yeux : étoffes et draperies, proportions et couleurs, participent de la construction d’une trajectoire permettant de voir, de toucher, de sentir et d’imaginer la nudité (chapitre V. Déshabiller & parcourir). Du costume à la peau, des muscles aux os, le corps apparaît comme un ensemble de couches superposées offrant la possibilité un regard pénétrant. Une fois l’habit et le tégument ôtés, la nudité est l’image d’une intériorité physique et morale explorée par les médecins et les écrivains (chapitre VI. Dévoiler & explorer). Le septième et dernier chapitre (Découvrir & réfléchir) montre que décentrer ou recentrer son regard permet de faire du corps dans son plus simple appareil un outil de réflexion renvoyant l’homme vêtu des Lumières à sa propre image. Les modes vestimentaires, l’exhibition des « sauvages » et l’auscultation sont également des situations dans lesquelles la figure du médecin se construit par rapport au corps féminin dénudé.Les représentations du corps dénudé au XVIIIe siècle se pensent notamment dans les rapports entre la vue et le toucher, entre l’ensemble et les parties du corps, entre le vêtu et le nu, entre la surface et la profondeur. Elles procèdent du morcellement, du grossissement, du dépouillement et de la réification du corps et de ses parties. Elles passent par la mise en œuvre de procédés textuels, par des phénomènes de contamination générique et disciplinaire, par la création de figures que sont entre autres les baigneuses, les athlètes, les hommes de lettres, les Vénus en tous genres, les allégories et les anatomies. Reposant sur la construction du regard et sur les interactions entre les arts, la littérature et la médecine, cette thèse invite à partir à la découverte des « nudités » du siècle des Lumières. / This doctoral thesis is an interdisciplinary study on the question of the representation of nudity in French literature, medicine and artistic discourse in the second half of the eighteenth century. Considering that the naked body is inseparable from the sense of sight, we reveal the idea that the elaboration of a gaze determine a plurality of representations of the undressed body. By the study of texts of different types, this thesis presents a process demonstrating the link between the looking and the nudities in the Enlightenment. From technical words revealing the anatomical detail to descriptions in veiled terms, the writing and the reading of the undressed body are such as a textual and visual interaction (Chapter I). The second chapter is devoted to the effects attributed to the nude in the eighteenth century and presents, through the study of anatomical plates, how the gaze on the bare body can be constructed. The following chapters examine successively the nudities according to different ways of seeing. Voyeurism (Chapter III) and observation (Chapter IV) promote the representation of anatomical detail, the creation of topical figures and the staging of the naked body. The following chapters show that the body can also be mentally undressed. Clothes and draperies, proportions and colors guide a trajectory allowing to see, to touch, to feel and to imagine the nudity (Chapter V). From “costume” to skin, from muscles to bones, the body appears as a set of superimposed layers offering the possibility of a penetrating eye. Clothes and integument once removed, nakedness becomes the image of a physical and moral interiority explored by doctors and writers (Chapter VI). The seventh and final chapter shows that nudity is a way of thinking through decentered or focused gazes. The naked body reflects to the dressed man of the Enlightenment his own image. The fashions, the exhibition of "savages" and the auscultation are also situations in which the physician's figure is drawn in relation to the naked female body.The representations of the undressed body in the eighteenth century are created between sight and touch, between the whole body and its parts, between the clothed and the naked, between the surface and the depth. They proceed from the fragmentation, the magnification, the stripping and the reification of the body and its parts. They involve textual processes, generic and disciplinary contaminations, creations of figures such as bathers, athletes, men of letters, Venus of all kinds, allegories and anatomies. Based on the construction of the gaze and the interactions between arts, literature and medicine, this thesis invites us to discover the nudities of the Enlightenment.

Orientador: Heloisa Costa Milton / Banca: Lea Mara Vallese / Banca: Antônio Roberto Esteves / Banca: Adelaide Caramuru Cezar / Banca: Frederico Augusto Garcia Fernandes / Resumo: O universo da criação literária de Moacyr Scliar (1937 - ) funda-se na recriação paródica do insólito filtrado pela visão irônica do escritor, que emprega o recurso da mise-en-abyme para estruturar sua poética. Para comprovar essa afirmação, selecionamos três novelas: Mês de cães danados: uma aventura nos tempos de Brizola (1977), A mulher que escreveu a Bíblia (1999) e Os leopardos de Kafka (2000). Nas obras citadas, enfatizamos a ironia como princípio da carnavalização na relação paródica entre a ficção e a história do Brasil, a Bíblia e a Revolução Russa, respectivamente. A intensidade da ironia scliariana é característica de uma espécie de parábola contemporânea, que combina a fantasia com a tragicômica realidade. Quanto ao aspecto estrutural das novelas, trata-se da especularidade narrativa, configurada pela mise-en-abyme, como postula Dällenbach (1977), uma vez que tal processo constitui um dos sustentáculos de apropriação do insólito pela ironia da paródia. / Abstract: Moacyr Scliar's literature is based on the parody of the unusual filtered by the ironic author's view that uses the mise-en-abyme technique to organize his art of writing poems. In order to support this statement, three novels were analysed: Mês de cães danados: uma aventura nos tempos de Brizola (1977), A mulher que escreveu a Bíblia (1999) and Os leopardos de Kafka (2000). In these works, irony was concerned as principle of caranivalization in the relation between fiction and Brazilian history, the Bible and the Russian Revolution respectively. The intensity of the author's irony is the characteristic of a kind of contemporary parable that matches fantasy with the tragicomic reality. The organization of the novels is focused on the narrative refletion, formed by mise-en-abyme, as Dällenbach (1977) postulates, since such process is considered one of the supports of the unusual appropriateness by the irony of parody. / Doutor