The Boy in the Tunnel is a domestic coming-of-age novel told from three alternating perspectives. It is about two white teenage girls who cover up the accidental death of their black friend in Atlanta during the summer of 1994. The novel explored the insidious nature of racial prejudice and the many ways in which Americans deny responsibility for wrongdoing—both contemporary and historical. It also explores the intense nature of female teenage friendships and the harsh realities of the adult world in comparison with the relative simplicity of childhood.

Au Congo Brazzaville s'est développé, depuis les Trois Glorieuses (13, 14 et 15 août 1963), un espace littéraire très créatif. La plupart de ses écrivains, et particulièrement les romanciers, sont (ont été) engagés, à des titres et à des niveaux divers, dans la vie politique effective de leur pays. Une approche sociocritique des romans congolais à partir des microlectures, dans une perspective intertextuelle, fait émerger la politique comme un moule structurateur de la plupart des fictions. L'analyse du contexte du roman congolais à thématique politique en révèle des particularités (1ère partie). Cette contextualisation permet de comprendre pourquoi le référent politique est si envahissant dans la fiction romanesque congolaise. La thématisation de la politique (2ème partie) comme sujet, motif ou topos permet une meilleure appréhension des univers imaginaires. La représentation des indépendances, des révolutions et de la vie sociale éclaire les complexes rapports entre le scribe et le prince. Les personnages des fictions se positionnent par rapport aux pouvoirs institués comme des révoltés, des révolutionnaires ou des collaborateurs. En général, ils dénoncent le vécu quotidien dans la dissidence et le refus du statu quo. Toute une rhétorique du politique ressort du traitement que les auteurs font de ce dernier (3èmepartie), et met en évidence une politique de l'écriture, à savoir des stratégies d'expression des univers politiques. Sont ainsi utilisés: le masquage par l'anthroponymie et la toponymie, le surgissement d'univers étranges (magique, merveilleux, carnavalesque, onirique, etc.) dans la trame narrative, ainsi que le recours à un langage crypté. Les postures pour dire le politique varient selon les écrivains. Qu'ils participent au pouvoir ou non, et du fait de leurs appartenance à la phratrie, tous se retrouvent en Congolie, contrée imaginaire libérée, et déclarent leurs « rêves du changement », ou leur aspirations à un mieux vivre ensemble, rendu de façon originale par Henri Djombo dans Lumières des temps perdus. Les fictions s'interrogent sur le politique, mais aussi et surtout sur l'acte d'écrire et sa finalité. Les textes posent ainsi une large problématique : la rencontre des champs politique et littéraire, la difficulté de l'écrivain à dire la politique en pays de dictature, ou le statut des valeurs. / In Congo Brazzaville, beginning from the Three Glorious 13th, 14th and 15th August 1963, there developed a very creative literary space. Most of its writers, especially as concerns the novelists, are (have been) committed, by titles and diverse levels, to the political life of their country. From a socio-critical perspective of Congolese novels using micro-lectures, from an intertextual perspective, brings out politics as a structuring mould for most fiction. An analysis of the context of the Congolese novel, with politics as a thematic concern reveals a number of particularities (Part 1). Putting things to context in this manner allows for understanding why the political referent permeates romanistic Congolese fiction. Thematizing politics (Part 2), as subject, motive or topos allows for a better understanding of imaginary universes. The representation of independences, of revolutions and of social life brings light to the complex relationships between the scribe and the prince. Characters in fictions position themselves in revolt to institutionalized powers, as revolutionaries or as collaborators. Generally, they denounce the day to day experience in dissidence and reject the status quo. An entire political rhetoric springs forth from the treatment which the authors give to the latter (Part 3) and establishes a writing policy, namely, strategies of political expression. Here employed are: masking by anthroponomy and toponymy, the cropping up of strange universes, (magic, the sublime, carnival, imaginary, etc) in the plot as well as making use of crypt language. Postures of political expression differ with writers. Whether they participate in power or not, and from the fact of their belonging to the phratry, all find themselves in Congolie, the imaginary liberated territory and declare their « Dream for Change » or their aspirations to a better communal life, rendered in an original manner by Henri Djombo in Lumières des temps perdus. The fictions dwell on politics, but also, and especially on the act of writing and its finality. In this wise, the texts pose a large statement of the problem: the meeting of political and literary spheres, the difficulty of the writer to express political issues in a dictator nation or the statutes of values.

This paper, then, purposes to examine these two characteristics of Styron's novel form--structure and point of view--as they are handled in his major works, the novels Lie Down in Darkness and Set This House on Fire, and the novella The Long March.

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This thesis aims to analyse the behaviour of an “analogue search engine”, created by the romance novel community. The existing commercial recommendation systems for romance novels are found lacking, as they fail to fill the requirements of the user group. The user group fills this need by creating separate communities, where they use their expertise in the genre to create a more accurate recommendation system.  Using ethnographic research over a long period of time allowed the behaviours and habits of the group to be catalogued. Using that framework and interaction design practises, several design proposals were created showing how the findings can be used to add nuance to recommendation system interfaces.

Univerzita Karlova Filozofická fakulta Ústav germánských studií Filologie-germánské jazyky a literatury REPRESENTATIE VAN MANNELIJKHEID ENVROUWELIJKHEID IN DEHAAGSE ROMANS VAN LOUIS COUPERUS REPREZENTACE MASKULINITY A FEMININITY VHAAGSKÝCH ROMÁNECH LOUISE COUPERUSE THEREPRESENTATION OF MASCULINITY ANDFEMININITY INTHE HAGUE NOVELS BY LOUIS COUPERUS Abstract in English Anna Phillips Vedoucí práce: doc. dr. Ellen J.Krol 2018 1 Abstract in English This dissertation examines masculinity and femininity in what are referred to as the 'Hague novels' of Louis Couperus: Eline Vere, The Books of the Small Souls (De boeken der kleine zielen), and Old People and the Things that Pass (Van oude menschen, de dingen, die voorbijgaan…). The following research questions were asked: 1) In what ways are masculinity and femininity represented in the Hague novels of Louis Couperus? 1) Are these representations of the masculine and the feminine diametrically op- posed, and if so, in what ways does the opposition manifest? 2) Do the representations of masculinity and femininity in the individual Hague novels differ? If so, how? The research method is theoretically grounded in views of masculinity and femininity common to the 'fin de siècle' period (1878-1914) in which the Hague novels were published, and which forms the setting of...

abstract: While the African American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s is one of the most famous and celebrated parts of American history, rhetoric scholars have illuminated the ways this subversive movement has been manipulated beyond recognition over time. These narrative constructions play a role in preserving what Maegan Parker Brooks calls the "conservative master narrative of civil rights history," a narrative that diminishes the work of activists while simultaneously promoting complacency to prevent any challenge to the white supremacist hegemony. This dissertation argues that the graphic memoir trilogy March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell challenges this conservative master narrative through visual rhetoric, in particular through the comics techniques "braiding" and "weaving." Braiding occurs when authors create "webs of interrelation" (Miodrag 134) by repeating a technique throughout the text, which can sometimes involve a secondary narrative (Groensteen). Braids are associations in the network of panels of the comic that go beyond the parameters of strictly linear storytelling as panels echo those the reader has encountered before. The braids in March compare the past and present through a direct juxtaposition of January 20, 2009—the inauguration day of Barack Obama—with John Lewis' activism from 1959 to 1965. While this juxtaposition risks reinforcing a progress narrative that suggests racism is in the past, in fact, the braided inauguration scenes help the reader connect the moments of the past with their present, calling to mind the ways white supremacy endures in contemporary America. Weaving refers to the reader’s action of moving back and forth in the comics narrative to create meaning, and artists use techniques that facilitate this behavior, such as leaving out or minimizing significant cues and creating a sense of ambiguity that leads the reader to become curious about the events in the sequence. Weaving can disrupt an easy linear narrative of depicted events—such as Fannie Lou Hamer's testimony at the Democratic National Convention—as artists present several opportunities for the reader to interpret these stories in ways that challenge a conservative master narrative of the events in the trilogy. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2019

À l’aube du XXIe siècle, la fiction britannique se trouve aux prises avec des représentations conflictuelles du voir. Inscrite dans le contexte du « tournant visuel », elle rend compte de la place prépondérante que les technologies et médias visuels occupent dans l’espace culturel. Dans le même temps, elle entre en dialogue avec un discours anxieux, qui met en avant l’idée d’une crise du visuel. Privilégié pendant des siècles comme le plus intellectuel et le plus noble des sens, le voir semble devenu l’un des lieux où s’orchestrent la manipulation et le contrôle des citoyens, surveillés et exposés au spectacle du capitalisme tardif. Faisant état de ces inquiétudes, la fiction élabore une poétique et un imaginaire de l’optique dans lesquels un sens trouve cependant à se construire. Contre l’exercice d’une autorité visuelle supposée absolue, elle produit des dispositifs dont le fonctionnement subvertit les processus d’assujettissement visuel, et invente de nouvelles pratiques de subjectivation. Ce travail implique un changement de paradigme dans notre appréhension du voir. À la confrontation dichotomique d’un sujet qui voit et d’un objet visible, notre corpus substitue des scènes de rencontre, dans lesquelles le regard se fait réciproque. L’imaginaire épistémologique qui associait la perception visuelle à une forme de connaissance, et la concevait ainsi comme un processus d’appropriation, laisse alors place à une conception politique et éthique du voir, selon laquelle le sujet émerge sous le regard de semblables dont il est, immédiatement, responsable. Ainsi voir c’est toujours s’offrir au regard de l’autre, et prendre le risque que l’échange prenne un tour inattendu, que la reconnaissance dérape. Cette appréhension de l’expérience visuelle, qui compose avec ses imperfections et envisage le lien réciproque par lequel le sujet et le sens émergent, nous engage à envisager une phénoménologie pragmatique de la lecture. / At the turn of the 21st century, British fiction finds itself negotiating conflicting perceptions of vision. In the context of the “visual turn,” it reflects the increasingly influential role that visual technologies and media play in today’s cultural landscape. At the same time, it addresses anxious accounts of what is often presented as a crisis of the visual. For centuries vision was celebrated as the most intellectual of the senses; today, however, it is more often presented as a key component in practices of manipulation and control. Far from standing as a master of the visible world, the seeing subject appears as subjugated, living as he does under constant surveillance, and among the simulacra of the late capitalist spectacle. While taking such concerns into account, contemporary fiction creates optical dispositives that subvert the mechanisms of visual subjectification, and pave the way for new practices of subjectivation. This calls for a shift in the paradigms used to delineate the workings of vision. The novels we analyse here leave behind optical models defined by the binary separation between seeing and seen, subject and object. What they create instead are visual encounters in which one pair of eyes necessarily meets another. The epistemological understanding of visual perception as a vehicle of knowledge is replaced by a political and ethical interpretation of vision: the seeing subject emerges under the gaze of others, whom he acknowledges as his responsibility. In seeing therefore we run the risk that the encounter might go awry, that recognition might turn into misrecognition. This conception of visual experience emphasises the reciprocal structures of discourse and perception within which subjects and meanings emerge, but also reckons with the imperfections inherent in any interactive exchange between seeing and speaking subjects. It suggests that we engage with the phenomenology of reading through the pragmatics of discourse.

The farm novels of southern Africa can be considered microcosms of gender stereotypes and racial attitudes. Reading these novels using post-colonial, Marxist, and feminist theory is especially useful in thinking about how these novels reflect female writers’ perspectives about the success of the imperialism in Africa and the lasting effects of colonialism on gender and race relations. In addition, these novels provide interesting insight into colonialism, allowing each author to comment on the effect of imperialism on both the colonized and those who take up the colonial project. This dissertation examines novels by three female African writers: The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner, The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing, and When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head. Written at different stages of colonial power, each novel represents agrarian life in southern African colonies that share similar cultural, historical, colonial, and racial attitudes. These novels can be interpreted as building on, challenging, and “writing back” to the concept of the plaasroman, a genre central to the South African colonial experience. In addition to discussing how these novels undermine traditional forms of pastoral literature in order to comment explicitly on those forms’ failure to account for the farm experience in southern Africa, this dissertation applies postcolonial, Marxist, and ecofeminist criticism to delve into issues of postcolonial identity, racism, and the role of the farm as both a microcosm and a catalyst for change.