A collection of stories submitted by Heather Fowler for receipt of an MFA degree in Summer 2015.

Neste trabalho, apresentamos os resultados de uma pesquisa que aproxima a teoria semiótica e a literatura. Tal estudo consistiu na análise de um texto literário: o conto Menina a caminho, de autoria do escritor brasileiro contemporâneo Raduan Nassar. Para compreendermos o processo de construção de sentidos engendrado no referido texto, ancoramo-nos na teoria semiótica de linha francesa, ou greimasiana. Por meio do instrumental oferecido por essa teoria, pudemos compreender os mecanismos e efeitos de sentido articulados pelo enunciador do conto que, dentre outros fatores, são os responsáveis pela elevada qualidade estético-literária de seu texto. / In this dissertation, we present the results of a research that approaches the semiotic theory and literature. The study chooses as its subject the short-story Menina a caminho, from the Brazilian contemporary author Raduan Nassar. In order to make explicit the building of the text meaning, we have as approach the French semiotic theory. Through the tools offered by this theory, we can understand the means and meaning effects produced by the short-story enunciator that are responsible for the high aesthetic and literary quality of his text.

Le récit d'enfance émerge dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle. C'est au XXe siècle qu'il s'affirme et s’impose comme genre littéraire autonome. Cette consécration est le résultat de nombreux récits publiés dans différentes maisons d’édition et pays. S’il ne fait pas de doute qu’il se soit imposé dans les pays d’Europe, on est en droit de s’interroger sur sa présence et sa spécificité dans les espaces francophones. Notre choix d’étude s’est porté sur la littérature antillaise francophone (Martinique-Gaudeloupe) dans le plus vaste espace caribéen. Les récits d’enfance publiés permettent aux écrivains de revenir sur leur passé d’enfance mais aussi d'aborder des questions inhérentes à leur société. Est-il, pour eux, prétexte ou nécessité ? Patrick Chamoiseau illustre dans son récit, Antan d’enfance (1990), premier volet d’une trilogie, les racines mêmes de l'oralité antillaise mise en crise par le développement de la ville. Maryse Condé donne à lire avec Le cœur à rire et à pleurer(1999), la société coloniale de son enfance dans la bourgeoisie antillaise marquée au sceau de l'assimilation de ses parents. Daniel Maximin, lui, dans Tu c’est l’enfance (2004), donne à lire une société antillaise riche d’une histoire et d’une géographie dévastée par les catastrophes naturelles et qui, néanmoins, se relève et vit. Il montre une population qui résiste dans un univers où la vie et l'espérance sont possibles malgré tous ces cataclysmes. Il semble que le récit d'enfance, plus qu’un autre genre, est un miroir que les écrivains tendent aux lecteurs pour comprendre leur société dans son évolution historique, en constituant un reflet parmi d’autres de la société antillaise. Il permet d'aborder les questions de colonisation, d'esclavage, d'identité, de langue. Dans une société comme la société antillaise où la question d'identité est centrale à cause d’une histoire marquée par un lourd passé, le récit d'enfance, en privilégiant le regard naïf de l’enfant permet de dire plus qu’un autre genre littéraire et de faire accepter des interrogations dérangeantes.Mots-clefs : Autobiographie - récit - enfance – esclavage - créole. / Childhood as a theme in literature emerges in the second half of the 19th century and asserts itself as an autonomous literary genre in the following century. This achievement is the fruit of numerous stories having been published by various publishers around the world. If there is no doubt in the fact that the latter is now one of the major genres in European countries, one might wonder about its place and its specificity in French-speaking communities. The aim of our study is to focus on Caribbean Literature in particular from the Antilles (Martinique-Guadeloupe). Childhood stories enable writers to reflect on their past and furthermore to approach and tackle issues of their society. Is it for them a pretext or a need? Patrick Chamoiseau points out, in Antan d’enfance (1990), the first part of a trilogy, the origins of West-Indian’s (Caribbean-Antilles) orality which is in a state of crisis due to the development of the city. In Le coeur à rire ou à pleurer, Maryse Condé describes her childhood in the Caribbean bourgeoisie, marked with the assimilation of her parents, rooted in a colonial society. For his part, Daniel Maximin, in Tu c’est l’enfance (2004), deals with a Caribbean society with a rich historical background, which in spite of having been geographically devastated by natural calamities, recover and forge ahead. We get to see a society which resist in a world where life is possible and hope is still alive despite of all these calamities. It seems that childhood stories, more than other genres, act like a mirror that the writers tend towards the readers for them to understand the society of the former, and its historical evolution, thus reflecting one among other images of the Caribbean’s (Antilles) society. Furthermore, this enables questions relative to colonization, slavery, the identity, the language. In a society like the Caribbean one, where the question of identity is a key one due to its historical baggage, childhood stories, by adopting the naïve point of view of a child, allow to say much more than other literary genres can, and thus tackle and secure acceptance of usually upsetting questions and subject matters.Key words : Autobiographie - story - childhood – slavery - creole

Neste trabalho, apresentamos os resultados de uma pesquisa que aproxima a teoria semiótica e a literatura. Tal estudo consistiu na análise de um texto literário: o conto Menina a caminho, de autoria do escritor brasileiro contemporâneo Raduan Nassar. Para compreendermos o processo de construção de sentidos engendrado no referido texto, ancoramo-nos na teoria semiótica de linha francesa, ou greimasiana. Por meio do instrumental oferecido por essa teoria, pudemos compreender os mecanismos e efeitos de sentido articulados pelo enunciador do conto que, dentre outros fatores, são os responsáveis pela elevada qualidade estético-literária de seu texto. / In this dissertation, we present the results of a research that approaches the semiotic theory and literature. The study chooses as its subject the short-story Menina a caminho, from the Brazilian contemporary author Raduan Nassar. In order to make explicit the building of the text meaning, we have as approach the French semiotic theory. Through the tools offered by this theory, we can understand the means and meaning effects produced by the short-story enunciator that are responsible for the high aesthetic and literary quality of his text.

This study explores the ways in which story is used as a resource for learning and teaching in the primary school classroom. Definitions of story are explored and theoretical perspectives on narrative modes of cognitive processing, metaphor and analogy are discussed. Story is widely used in the primary school classroom in Scotland, particularly in the Early Years (primaries 1-3), and an attempt is made to ascertain how far this is systematised, drawing on the perspectives of teachers and pupils in Scottish primary schools. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is used to attain an understanding of the way that story is used and perceived in the classroom. The data that inform the study were collected in five parts – focus group interviews with storytellers and teachers; a local (Angus) teacher survey and student teachers’ observations; surveys undertaken with schoolchildren in a Dundee primary school; interviews with teachers and primary school pupils in Angus, and a national teacher survey. Results from the study show that systematic approaches to story are in use in Scotland, and that in addition to teachers, pupils also demonstrated a good deal of knowledge about the use of story in the classroom. Results from the national survey also indicated systematic approaches to story use. There is some discussion on the articulation of story-based approaches to learning and teaching with the Scottish national curricular guidelines (Curriculum for Excellence), and suggestions are made as to how story might be used in Initial Teacher Education programmes.

Le sujet de notre thèse concerne le récit de vie d'un Laotien au Laos de 1920, date de naissance de notre narrateur, à 1975, date de la prise du pouvoir par les communistes laotiens, avec une petite incursion ayant un rapport avec l’année 1978, date de départ de notre narrateur comme rapatrié sanitaire pour la France. Reposant sur un document audio de 14 cassettes sur lesquelles nous avons enregistré et transcrit fidèlement le récit de l’interviewé, nous avons alors opté pour une pratique méthodologique désormais courante en histoire contemporaine, qui consiste à faire appel à un ou plusieurs témoins. Cette pratique, issue de l'histoire orale américaine, popularisée par l'école de Chicago au début des années 1920 et fut plus connue grâce aux sociologues W. I. Thomas et Florian Znaniecki. Une fois notre corpus constitué, nous l'avons soumis à une analyse sémantique par ordinateur pour en dégager une lisibilité quantitative. Ensuite, nous avons rédigé des notes de bas de page concernant la linguistique, l'ethnographie, l'anthropologie, l'économie, la politique, l'histoire et la géographie, essayant de restituer de façon plus précise concernant le contenu du corpus ainsi constitué. Pour parvenir au but fixé, nous avons consulté en outre les ouvrages et articles concernant cette époque, mais aussi les archives du ministère des Affaires étrangères de la Courneuve concernant la période s’étendant de l’année 1955 à 1978 au Laos provenant de l’ambassade de France à Vientiane. / The subject of our doctoral thesis focuses on the life story of a Laotian in Laos from 1920-the birth date of our narrator-to 1975, the date of the taking up of power by Laotian communists, with a small incursion into 1978-when our narrator was repatriated to France for health reasons. Based on audio document of 14 tapes on which we recorded an faithfully transcribed the narrative of the interviewee, we then opted for a methodological practise now common in contemporary history, which consists in appealing to one or more witnesses. This practise, derived from American oral history, was popularised by the Chicago school at the beginning of the 1920s and was generalised by sociologie W.I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki.Once our corpus was constituted, we have subjected it to a semantic analysis by computer to obtain a quantitative readability. Then, we added footnotes in the fields of linguistics, ethnography, anthropology, economics, politics, history and geography, trying to give a more accurate view of the content of the corpus thus constituted. In order to attain this objective, we also consulted books and articles on this period, as well as the archives of Ministry of foreign Affairs at La Courneuve for the period extending from 1955 to 1978 in Laos, from the Embassy of France in Vientiane.

What is our relationship with nature? How do we represent nature in written text? The short stories that compose this book relate with how to address the interaction between mankind and the space it occupies on Earth. Cambió todo tanto offers different voices that tackle how human activity (precisely, industry) alter the physical realm. And how that alteration reciprocates in human behaviour and consciousness.

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The early years of childhood are characterize d by new ideas; experimentation; the building of relationships; fears, both real and imagined; and play, through which the child tries to assemble these experiences into a meaningful whole. The early years are an exciting, complex and vibrant time of learning while the child grows in his understanding of himself and the world around him.

This project is an exploration of the endless negotiation of the va, the relationships that consistently define and redefine themselves in the space between two cultures. The va consists of relationships between people and things, unspoken expectations and obligations: the inherent and changeable patterns, of obligations and expectations between people and their environment. The va space can be viewed as the stage upon which all patterns and motifs carry meaning. How the patterns and motifs change meanings are subject to other elements in the va. Meaning in my work will evoke the interweaving connections of past and present through oral history, genealogy, and fagogo¹ (story telling) memory and artist sentiment. As participant, the artist reflects through the remembrance of sifting through images, person, family, events, time, and space. An emphasis will be placed on the exploration of pattern and motif as a signifier of events and sign of respect, with a focus on notions of the va. The project explores notions of visual patterns and motifs to be utilized as a vehicle to signify in that all patterns and motifs carry meaning in that they signify an event, person, time, and space. Written from a Samorians² perspective of one who lives in the space between. ¹ See Sean Mallon (2002) for an explanation on fagogo in Samoan Art and Artists O Measina a Samoa p. 163). ² The term ‘Samorians’ refers to a play on words of Samoans and an American treat called ‘samores’ containing a marshmallow that is cooked in the microwave or roasted in the fire and then placed in between two chocolate biscuits. It can also refer to an afakasi (half-caste).