In this thesis project, the aim is to explore displacements beyond the familiar usage in migration studies associated with ’human’ by using a new materialist/s understanding ofontology and agency. This approach opens the possibility to move beyond the understanding of displacements as referring only to human agency. The fictionalised story, Parable of theSower, is used in the thesis as the real-world ontological world-building storytelling and the questions that flow from the aim of this thesis is used as a guiding navigator within the mainstory to see what other stories emerges; The Earthseed Story, The More-Than-Human Storiesand The Human Stories. Displacement(s) beyond human agency from a new materialist outlook show the complexity and challenges of being interconnected and codependent in a world containing multiple stories that move in and out of spacetime refuturing. This occursboth as dystopia and utopia, as agency is in-the-making and ongoing reshaping of territorialization and deterritorialization making all-the-flesh moving boundaries of being displaced and in-place in a belongings-non-belongings continuum. For future research,multispecies displacement(s) is discussed as ongoing processes of both; dystopian and utopian storytelling, and the possibilities for refuturing shared worlds.

In this essay, Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia E. Butler will be analyzed. The analysis investigates how the novel can enable discussions about empathy in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Empathy and its related notions are examined from an ecofeminist point of view in combination with research that investigates narrative empathy from a cognitive literary theory perspective. This essay does not advocate for specific ways of working with empathy but rather seeks to illustrate in what ways it could be discussed by students and to further encourage the development of their own thoughts on the matter. The findings show that the novel contains multiple aspects that can serve as a basis for discussions about empathy as well as working with climate change and gender perspectives in the EFL classroom.

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Claudia Araujo.pdf: 6735397 bytes, checksum: f76b77bdb53cf604135861dd13f0ad66 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / We investigate the ambiguity in the Parable of the Sower and the phenomenon of literariness, which comes from the Russian Formalism, since the evangelical discourse of Jesus is poetic and in this parable points to the polyphony to dialogism and intertextuality. We refer to the Hermeneutics of the Work of Art, Gadamer (2010), to rehabilitate the authority of tradition. In the case of the Catholic Church, only because it preserves an ancient exegesis. The corpus adopted in this research is the synoptic narrative of St. Mark (4, 1-20), St. Matthew (13, 1-23) and Luke (8, 4-15), which speaks to Saint John (21, 1 -14) and nuances of the Eternal Church of Apocalypse (21 e 22). The synoptic gospels are considered immanent, by tradition, and of St. John, transcendent. The four plots in the parable of the sowing point to the glory of the Eternal Church and its relationship with Christ, who is also the Sower, as this parable is centered in Christ, as well as its structure, reconstructed here under the support of methodologies of the theory literature. Indeed, Christ, Church, Word and Kingdom of Heaven turn to themselves in this parable - which gives it a jakobsoniana reading the poetic function of language, as well as metalinguistic. Indeed, this innovative interpretation culminates in a new exegetical method, the poetic-religious, specifically designed for reading the Parable of the Sower but that may be developed by traditional exegesis in future from new canonical guidelines and assumptions / Investigamos a ambiguidade na Parábola do Semeador e o fenômeno da literariedade, que advém do Formalismo Russo, uma vez que o discurso evangélico de Jesus é poético e, nesta parábola, aponta para a polifonia, a dialogia e a intertextualidade. Pautamo-nos ainda na Hermenêutica da Obra de Arte, de Gadamer (2010), para reabilitar a autoridade da tradição. No caso, a da Igreja Católica, exclusivamente pelo fato de ela preservar consigo uma exegese milenar. O corpus adotado nesta pesquisa é a narrativa sinótica de São Marcos (4, 1-20), São Mateus (13, 1-23) e São Lucas (8, 4-15); a qual dialoga com São João (21, 1-14) e com matizes da Igreja Eterna do Apocalipse (21 e 22). Os Evangelhos sinóticos são considerados imanentes, pela tradição, e o de São João, transcendente. Os quatro terrenos da semeadura da parábola apontam para a glória da Igreja Eterna e sua relação com o Cristo, que é também o Semeador, visto que esta parábola é cristocêntrica, bem como a sua estrutura, reconstruída aqui sob o respaldo de metodologias da Teoria da Literatura. Com efeito, Cristo, Igreja, Palavra e Reino dos Céus voltam-se para si mesmos, nesta parábola o que lhe confere uma leitura jakobsoniana da função poética da linguagem, bem como metalinguística. Com efeito, esta interpretação inovadora culmina em um novo método exegético, o poético-religioso, especificamente elaborado para a leitura da Parábola do Semeador mas que pode ser desenvolvido pela exegese tradicional, futuramente, a partir de novas diretrizes e pressupostos canônicos

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This essay considers the interplay between character narrators, the implied author, and the authorial audience in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents. The aim of the study was to investigate how narrators, the implied author, and readers position themselves in relation to each other and in relation to the novel’s ethical dimensions. The theoretical framework is based on James Phelan’s theories on the rhetorical and ethical aspects of fiction. The essay argues that the implied author’s communication to the authorial audience is one of the reasons that the novel, like its prequel Parable of the Sower, often succeeds to function as warnings to the audience of dangers ahead. This is especially true regarding one of the implied author’s most consistent messages to the audience throughout the Parable novels: every choice has consequences, and those consequences need to be considered when we decide how to act and react in different circumstances, both as individuals and as a society.

The gated community motif occurs frequently within climate and environmental disaster fiction. This thesis investigates its occurrence across three media to establish how the gated community mode of living, as rendered in post-apocalyptic speculative fiction, responds to the threat and consequences of climate and environmental crisis. This thesis combines recent urban studies scholarship with ecocritical theory to analyse the gated communities present in Octavia E. Butler’s novels, The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents, Neil Blomkamp’s film, Elysium, and Naughty Dog’s video games, The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Part II. Comparative analysis of the motif in each primary narrative reveals how disaster exacerbates the security and segregation this mode of settlement makes possible, resulting in a pronounced Othering of outsiders to these communities. This essay concludes that the boundaries of these speculative gated communities come to symbolise the borders Global North, which rhetorically and physically exclude the migrant Other. As most of the gated communities in these narratives experience catastrophe and collapse at the hands of those they refuse to accept, the texts appear to warn us to expect similar results unless issues of climate justice are not addressed by the Global North today. / Grindsamhället (eng. gated community) är ett vanligt förekommande motiv i berättelser om klimat- och miljökatastrofer. Den här uppsatsen undersöker motivet i tre medietyper för att diskutera hur grindsamhället som samhällsform porträtteras i postapokalyptiskt spekulativ fiktion, och hur det ses svara på klimat- och miljö- krisernas hot och konsekvenser. Uppsatsen kombinerar ekokritisk teori med modern forskning inom urbana studier för att analysera grindsamhällen som förekommer i romanerna The Parable of the Sower och The Parable of the Talents av Octavia E. Butler, Neil Blomkamps film Elysium och Naughty Dogs datorspel The Last of Us och The Last of Us: Part II. Komparativ analys av motivet i de primära berättelserna ger vid handen hur katastrofer förvärrar den säkerhet och segregation som samhälls- formen möjliggör, vilket resulterar i en uttalad syn på personer utanför samhällena som Andra. Uppsatsen slår fast att gränserna för de spekulativa grindsamhällena sym- boliserar gränserna mellan det globala nord och syd, vilket retoriskt och fysiskt ute- stänger migranter från syd och konstruerar dem som Andra. Eftersom de flesta grindsamhällen i berättelserna drabbas av katastrof och kollaps på grund av de människor som man vägrar släppa in tycks texterna varna oss för att vi kan förvänta oss något liknande om den globala norden inte ser till att hantera frågor om klimaträttvisa idag.

奧塔維亞•巴特勒《撒種的比喻》與《才幹的比喻》描述一個末日的反烏托邦世界。這兩本小說截取當今社會問題，讓我們對可預期的未來有所警惕。它們不僅提升我們對於現在社會問題的意識，同時不斷地注入並維持希望，為社會改變提供不同的解決方案。 做為批評式反烏托邦的現代文類，《比喻》系列小說透過融合末日小說文類，論述希望、烏托邦主義與生存之間的辯證關係。《比喻》系列小說藉由地球之種（Earthseed）的信念及其核心思想「改變即是上帝」（“God is Change”） 強調生存的重要性，並將生存進一步分為兩個層次：即時生存（immediate survival）及永續生存（lasting survival），而即時生存與永續生存之間亦存在一種辨證關係。本論文目的為探討《比喻》系列小說中的希望、烏托邦主義與生存在《比喻》系列中的互動，及它們之間獨特的辨證關係如何反映當今社會的處境與現代烏托邦文學的趨勢。 本論文分為五個章節：第一章將烏托邦定義為以社會改變為目的的思想及文類；第二章闡述烏托邦文學領域的發展，並將《比喻》系列定位為批判式反烏托邦，以建構希望、烏托邦主義與生存之間的辯證關係；第三章與第四章透過《比喻》系列的文本例證研究希望、烏托邦主義與生存之間的辯證關係如何運作，第三章探討《撒種的比喻》與即時生存，而第四章則探討《才幹的比喻》與永續生存；最後，第五章總結《比喻》系列所反映的當今社會局勢，從文本中發現希望、烏托邦主義與生存之間的辯證關係，並藉由這三者之間關係的理解，避免人類文明社會可能面臨的災難。 / Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents depict a postapocalyptic dystopian world, extrapolated from the problems of present day society to provide us with a warning of our conceivable future. They raise awareness of current social problems, while maintaining a locus of hope and providing possible alternatives for social change. In the contemporary genre of “critical dystopias,” the Parable series merges together with the genre of postapocalyptic fiction to demonstrate a dialectical relationship between hope, utopianism and survival. The importance of survival is emphasized in the Parables through the belief system of Earthseed and its core idea of “God is Change,” and can be further distinguished into two levels—immediate survival and lasting survival, which also exist in a dialectical relationship with each other. The aim of this thesis is to discuss how the concepts of hope, utopianism and survival interact in the Parables, and what this unique dialectical relationship reflects about contemporary literary utopias and the present. This thesis is divided into five chapters: Chapter One defines utopia through the function of social change; Chapter Two provides a brief overview of the development of the literary utopian genre and establishes the Parables as critical dystopias, a form that enables and constitutes the dialectical relationship of hope, utopianism and survival; Chapter Three and Four contain the textual analysis of how the dialectical relationship between hope, utopianism and survival functions in the Parables, with Chapter Three focusing on Parable of the Sower and immediate survival, and Chapter Four focusing on Parable of the Talents and lasting survival; finally, Chapter Five concludes with how the Parables relate to our present social conditions, and how understanding the dialectical relationship between hope, utopianism and survival may assist humanity’s effort to avert a major crisis.

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This paper considers the role of the human body in Octavia E. Butler’s The Parable of theSower and the way it interacts with defined space to stage expressive forms of politicalopposition. Understanding the relationship between physical or metaphorical space and thecontradictions of the societies they encompass is crucial to deciphering Butler’s near-futuredystopia; a world where the problems of real-life Los Angeles and Southern California aredistorted into a gross carnivalesque of gender stereotypes, sociopolitical tensions, and vigilante warfare. This paper places a special emphasis on the areas of social and political stagnation found in Butler’s vision of near-future L.A., and analyses the dangers of clinging to archaic, patriarchal systems that no longer resonate with contemporary audiences. Focus is also placed on potential methods of resistance against oppressive social institutions, particularly exploring the limitations met by protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina, in her attempts to voice concerns in a society where language is so nuanced by “traditional” gendered qualities that the female voice carries no political value. This papers also questions theories which promote violent confrontation as a means to social reform, disregarding collateral damage and victims of war in favour of insurgency. By exploring the movement of the human body away from defined space, this paper supports Butler’s notion of alternative prosocial action which celebrates the margins of society, positing a nurturing, constructive means to resist political opposition.