Ever since the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, Cuba has witnessed an unprecedented productive boom in the genres of science fiction and the fantastic. A large number of the literary and cinematic works that have surfaced during the last half-century attempt to replace and ultimately reify motifs and scenarios appropriated from the various science fiction and fantastic narratives in world literature and have generated alternative or imagined settings that challenge extant sociopolitical realities and certainties of the island. My dissertation, “Cuba i+Real: singularidades de lo fantástico y la ciencia ficción en la Cuba contemporánea”, examines these literary texts in a Post-Soviet context, analyzing the ways they reimagine the themes, plot devices, and scenarios traditional to the different genres. My argument is that, in most cases, the narratives are carefully and intentionally transformed, adapting them to the strenuous political and economic circumstances of the island and to the tense social conditions of the post-Soviet era. My thesis both decentralizes and expands contemporary debates about fantastic and science fiction theories by recognizing—and including—Cuban science fiction and fantastic production within broader conversations about the relationship between science fiction, the fantastic, and politics. My dissertation builds and expands upon the contemporary currents in literature, exploring how Cuban science fiction and fantastic texts provide a new, imaginative space and frontier to interrupt and contest the Cuban Revolution's hegemonic and monolithic discursive arcs, while allowing for a unique transnational corpus formation which not only crosses many generic and formal boundaries, but also evades and goes beyond existing theoretical and thematic paradigms.

Ao buscar histórias ligadas à mitologia brasileira em algumas comunidades no Norte do Brasil, a presente pesquisa realizou uma escuta que permite relacioná-las a aspectos de modos de vida, criando um paralelo entre o contexto da experiência de campo e o contexto de vida contemporânea na cidade de São Paulo, no qual a pesquisadora se insere. Como suporte teórico, utiliza a abordagem da psicologia analítica, que contribui tanto para a compreensão e análise simbólica dos mitos e de sua relevância em cada contexto, como para a elaboração da experiência de campo. Outro ponto importante da pesquisa foi retomar aspectos da história do Brasil que originaram o povo brasileiro. O encontro inicial entre portugueses e índios foi determinante para que histórias que fazem parte deste trabalho, como a da Curupira, da Yara e da Cobra Grande se constituíssem. Autores da psicologia analítica, em que se destaca Roberto Gambini, permitiram tal retomada, ao desenvolverem trabalhos que se inserem de modo mais amplo dentro do tema pesquisado. Por fim, é apresentada uma contribuição que se insere no âmbito da psicologia analítica ao considerar dimensões da cultura brasileira que podem ser aproveitados para refletir sobre aspectos simbólicos do coletivo e da cultura, e estabelecendo algumas relações com outras áreas do conhecimento / In searching of stories related to brazilian mythology in some communities in north of Brazil, the present research accomplishes to gather narratives that allows them to be related with ways of life and creates a parallel between the context of the field experience and São Paulos contemporary life context, which is the researcher is immersed. The Analytical psychology is taken as the theoretical background which contributes both to comprehension and symbolic analysis of the myths and your relevance in each context, as well as to the elaboration of the field experience. Another relevant aspect of the reasearch is to capture views/features of the brasilian history in which the brazilian people was originated. The initial encounter between Portuguese an Indians was decisive for the existence of stories that form part of this work, such as curupira, yara and the big snake. Analytical psychologys authors, in which Roberto Gambini stands out, allowed this point, by developing a line of work which partake in this reasearchs theme in a wider sense. Finally, this research hopes to have contributed, within the field of analytical psychology, in considering dimensions of Brazilian culture that can be taken into consideration to reflect on symbolic aspects of the collective and the culture, and establishing some relations with other areas of knowledge

<p>The aim is to study representation of order and otherness in the late 1930's Swedish press. That is, who are envisioned as "us" and who are the "Others"? The theoretical frame is based on Foucault’s concepts of pastoral power, the reason of state and biopolitics. The Good Shepherd is an excellent metaphor for the Nordic-style welfare state and the Foucauldian approach fits well with the social Darwinist and race biological metaphors of the time. Furthermore, news, myths and law articulate public morality and belong to disciplining, naturalizing and normalizing discourses. The symbolic boundaries between “We” and “Them” are outlined and modes of thinking, acceptable ways of behavior, and possible solutions for existing problems are provided.</p><p>The material examined consists of four Stockholm-based newspapers Dagens Nyheter, Stockholms-Tidningen, Svenska Dagbladet and Social-Demokraten. The years studied are 1935 and 1938. The quantitative content analysis is based on a selection of four months from each year. The articles are coded according to a theme and the characteristics of the actors. Gripsrud’s version of Propp’s actant model is used to examine the narrative structure of the stories. Linguistic tools, such as ideational and interpersonal functions, are used to analyze the individual texts.</p><p>The groups depicted as deviant include religious sects, ethnic minorities, foreigners, criminals and political activists on the extreme right and extreme left. A number of articles discuss various social problems in more general terms. Quantitatively more than eighty percent of the material consists of crime news. Approximately five percent of the articles are about ethnic minorities and foreigners. Religious sects and political extremists constitute about one percent each and roughly ten percent of the material is about social problems.</p>

<p>Even though the goals of Swedish disability-politics are equality, full participation and autonomy, people with disabilities almost every day encounter discrimination and oppression. This thesis deals with the question of the public service-medias role in this discrepancy between political rhetoric and practices. The study of mass media’s role is interesting considering its cultural impact and the importance of cultural values in all kinds of communication situations. The focus of the study is on Swedish public service-television and the aim is to investigate the role of SVT in the implementation of the political goals of disability-politics. To what extent do SVT promote these goals and to what extent do they counteract them? The study’s ambition is both descriptive and analytical. Theoretically the study takes as its point of departure a social constructionist perspective. The only reality we thus can get in contact with is one that, via our language, has passed through our former knowledge and experiences. Language is therefore the main object of study. Another theoretical point of departure is a normative view on the role of mass media in society. This approach is characterized by the assumption that mass media has a certain usefulness for society as a whole, which in itself is a central purpose for public service-media.</p><p>The study is based on data consisting of programme descriptions and video copies of programmes from the start of SVT in 1956 until 2 000. Altogether it represents more than </p><p>2 000 TV-programmes and over 40 000 broadcasting hours. Furthermore, the data consist of official political documents regarding media and disability matters. The data are approached from a discourse-analytical perspective and investigated in three studies. One of the data clusters was used to carry out a quantitative outline of SVT’s representations of disability. Another was used in an analysis of the socio-historical context and its changes over time and yet another was an analysis of the contents and narratives of the programmes.</p><p>The main conclusions are that disabled persons and programmes that deals with disability issues are, and has been, rare in SVT, not more than 1-2 hours per 1 000 broadcast hours. The amount is the same today as it was in 1956. Another conclusion is that even though it seems like SVT is trying to promote the goals of disability-politics the consequences appears to be that SVT instead counteract them. One reason might be that the dominating representation in SVT has been of disability and disabled persons as normal. But because of journalistic practices, the outcome becomes portrays of deviance and The Other. This solution, however, is too simplistic. There is also a problem with the political rhetoric. As long as political goals, formulated in terms of ideals, which by definition are impossible to achieve, there will always be a discrepancy between political rhetoric and practices. The final conclusion therefore, is that reflections need to be done and consciousness needs to be raised in order to discover the discrepancy and from that point, try to create a change. </p>

Even though the goals of Swedish disability-politics are equality, full participation and autonomy, people with disabilities almost every day encounter discrimination and oppression. This thesis deals with the question of the public service-medias role in this discrepancy between political rhetoric and practices. The study of mass media’s role is interesting considering its cultural impact and the importance of cultural values in all kinds of communication situations. The focus of the study is on Swedish public service-television and the aim is to investigate the role of SVT in the implementation of the political goals of disability-politics. To what extent do SVT promote these goals and to what extent do they counteract them? The study’s ambition is both descriptive and analytical. Theoretically the study takes as its point of departure a social constructionist perspective. The only reality we thus can get in contact with is one that, via our language, has passed through our former knowledge and experiences. Language is therefore the main object of study. Another theoretical point of departure is a normative view on the role of mass media in society. This approach is characterized by the assumption that mass media has a certain usefulness for society as a whole, which in itself is a central purpose for public service-media. The study is based on data consisting of programme descriptions and video copies of programmes from the start of SVT in 1956 until 2 000. Altogether it represents more than 2 000 TV-programmes and over 40 000 broadcasting hours. Furthermore, the data consist of official political documents regarding media and disability matters. The data are approached from a discourse-analytical perspective and investigated in three studies. One of the data clusters was used to carry out a quantitative outline of SVT’s representations of disability. Another was used in an analysis of the socio-historical context and its changes over time and yet another was an analysis of the contents and narratives of the programmes. The main conclusions are that disabled persons and programmes that deals with disability issues are, and has been, rare in SVT, not more than 1-2 hours per 1 000 broadcast hours. The amount is the same today as it was in 1956. Another conclusion is that even though it seems like SVT is trying to promote the goals of disability-politics the consequences appears to be that SVT instead counteract them. One reason might be that the dominating representation in SVT has been of disability and disabled persons as normal. But because of journalistic practices, the outcome becomes portrays of deviance and The Other. This solution, however, is too simplistic. There is also a problem with the political rhetoric. As long as political goals, formulated in terms of ideals, which by definition are impossible to achieve, there will always be a discrepancy between political rhetoric and practices. The final conclusion therefore, is that reflections need to be done and consciousness needs to be raised in order to discover the discrepancy and from that point, try to create a change.

The aim is to study representation of order and otherness in the late 1930's Swedish press. That is, who are envisioned as "us" and who are the "Others"? The theoretical frame is based on Foucault’s concepts of pastoral power, the reason of state and biopolitics. The Good Shepherd is an excellent metaphor for the Nordic-style welfare state and the Foucauldian approach fits well with the social Darwinist and race biological metaphors of the time. Furthermore, news, myths and law articulate public morality and belong to disciplining, naturalizing and normalizing discourses. The symbolic boundaries between “We” and “Them” are outlined and modes of thinking, acceptable ways of behavior, and possible solutions for existing problems are provided. The material examined consists of four Stockholm-based newspapers Dagens Nyheter, Stockholms-Tidningen, Svenska Dagbladet and Social-Demokraten. The years studied are 1935 and 1938. The quantitative content analysis is based on a selection of four months from each year. The articles are coded according to a theme and the characteristics of the actors. Gripsrud’s version of Propp’s actant model is used to examine the narrative structure of the stories. Linguistic tools, such as ideational and interpersonal functions, are used to analyze the individual texts. The groups depicted as deviant include religious sects, ethnic minorities, foreigners, criminals and political activists on the extreme right and extreme left. A number of articles discuss various social problems in more general terms. Quantitatively more than eighty percent of the material consists of crime news. Approximately five percent of the articles are about ethnic minorities and foreigners. Religious sects and political extremists constitute about one percent each and roughly ten percent of the material is about social problems.

The thesis explores the ways in which Serbian ethnic media in Canada represent their own group and “Others”, specifically Croats, Slovenians and Catholics, Bosniaks, Albanians and Muslims, Montenegrins and the West. The research investigates the convergence of these representations with Canadian multiculturalism. The thesis epistemologically feeds from Jean Jacques Rousseau’s 18th century theories of recognition and patriotism, Stuart Hall’s (1997) theory of representation and identity and Edward Said’s (1978) theory of Orientalism, and is further guided by the theoretical frameworks of Charles Taylor’s (1994) politics of recognition, Benedict Anderson’s (1992) long-distance nationalism and Maria Todorova’s (1994) Balkanism. Qualitative content analysis through purposive and sequential sampling of Serbian ethnic broadcasting is conducted to gauge the programs’ representations of the “Self” and “Others”. Ethnic media provide a method to promote a minority group’s heritage, but also to facilitate communication between various cultural, ethnic, religious and racial groups. In the age of an increased critique of multiculturalism, the role of ethnic media rises in importance. The findings of the thesis show that Serbian ethnic media employ Canadian multiculturalism to promote Serbian heritage, but also to stereotype other groups. Applying the theoretical juxtaposition of multiculturalism, nationalism and “Othering”, this research argues that through negative identification of “Others”, Serbian ethnic media deviate from Canadian multiculturalism that calls for a positive recognition of all Canadian groups.

In this study we seek to understand how ordinary Chinese people perceive Westerners as the Other through examining their intercultural experiences. In contrast to the numerous studies of social elites’ Occidentalism, this study shifts the attention to ordinary people’s perceptions in a fast changing Chinese society. From an interpretive perspective, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 participants living in a coastal city in Mainland China. The key findings suggest that the Chinese public has its own way of perceiving and presenting the Western Other. Also, this Other, being defined in an on-going process of intercultural interaction, connotes a wider meaning – a unity of opposition and complementarity, exclusion and inclusion. Thus this study has deepened our understanding of the Chinese construction of the Western Other. The findings can be used in developing intercultural communication training programs to facilitate deeper contact and better dialogue between the Chinese and Westerners.

La notion d’altérité circule avec insistance dans la conscience collective contemporaine, mais, à ma connaissance, il n’y a pas d’ouvrage critique qui aborde simultanément la spécificité de différentes sortes d’altérité dans la fiction pour en saisir les formes, la signification et les enjeux, surtout à partir de la perspective de l’Autre. Ce travail organise l’étude de la représentation de trois formes d’altérité dans six romans contemporains français, québécois et francophones dans lesquels l’Autre est le sujet du discours : 1. L’étranger : La dot de Sara (Agnant, 1995) et Un aller simple (van Cauwelaert, 1994) ; 2. La folie : Moha le fou Moha le sage (Ben Jelloun, 1978) et La chaise au fond de l’œil (Aude, [1979] 1997) ; 3. La pauvreté : L’exil aux portes du paradis (Dahan, 1993) et Conte d’asphalte (Calife, 2007). Mon objectif principal est de cerner la représentation textuelle de ces formes d’altérité ainsi que leur rôle et leur signification quand la diégèse adopte la perspective d’un personnage qui exprime lui-même sa dissemblance et son aliénation potentielle. Quand l’Autre prend la parole, son statut est entièrement bouleversé, car il ne s’agit plus d’une représentation « traduite » de son expérience ou d’une appréhension de ce personnage par un tiers. Mon travail révèle selon la perspective du marginalisé soit une transformation dans la signification de l’altérité soit un brouillage des frontières entre la marge et le centre qui remet en question, dans certains cas, l’existence même de l’altérité. Cette étude dégage également les caractéristiques discursives communes et distinctives des formes de l’altérité. En outre, elle met en lumière l’instabilité du statut Autre dans le texte romanesque : ce statut peut évoluer, se transformer et parfois même disparaître alors que, dans d’autres circonstances, il peut être un facteur identitaire incontournable et immuable. La multiplicité de ces variations illustre la complexité de chaque manifestation d’altérité et la flexibilité de la notion que le roman d’expression française utilise de façon centrale et critique. Cette thèse contribue ainsi à l’enrichissement de notre compréhension de l’exploitation littéraire des formes de l’altérité, phénomène qui marque de manière importante la littérature contemporaine.

La notion d’altérité circule avec insistance dans la conscience collective contemporaine, mais, à ma connaissance, il n’y a pas d’ouvrage critique qui aborde simultanément la spécificité de différentes sortes d’altérité dans la fiction pour en saisir les formes, la signification et les enjeux, surtout à partir de la perspective de l’Autre. Ce travail organise l’étude de la représentation de trois formes d’altérité dans six romans contemporains français, québécois et francophones dans lesquels l’Autre est le sujet du discours : 1. L’étranger : La dot de Sara (Agnant, 1995) et Un aller simple (van Cauwelaert, 1994) ; 2. La folie : Moha le fou Moha le sage (Ben Jelloun, 1978) et La chaise au fond de l’œil (Aude, [1979] 1997) ; 3. La pauvreté : L’exil aux portes du paradis (Dahan, 1993) et Conte d’asphalte (Calife, 2007). Mon objectif principal est de cerner la représentation textuelle de ces formes d’altérité ainsi que leur rôle et leur signification quand la diégèse adopte la perspective d’un personnage qui exprime lui-même sa dissemblance et son aliénation potentielle. Quand l’Autre prend la parole, son statut est entièrement bouleversé, car il ne s’agit plus d’une représentation « traduite » de son expérience ou d’une appréhension de ce personnage par un tiers. Mon travail révèle selon la perspective du marginalisé soit une transformation dans la signification de l’altérité soit un brouillage des frontières entre la marge et le centre qui remet en question, dans certains cas, l’existence même de l’altérité. Cette étude dégage également les caractéristiques discursives communes et distinctives des formes de l’altérité. En outre, elle met en lumière l’instabilité du statut Autre dans le texte romanesque : ce statut peut évoluer, se transformer et parfois même disparaître alors que, dans d’autres circonstances, il peut être un facteur identitaire incontournable et immuable. La multiplicité de ces variations illustre la complexité de chaque manifestation d’altérité et la flexibilité de la notion que le roman d’expression française utilise de façon centrale et critique. Cette thèse contribue ainsi à l’enrichissement de notre compréhension de l’exploitation littéraire des formes de l’altérité, phénomène qui marque de manière importante la littérature contemporaine.