Feminist geographers argue that gendered bodies and power are deeply entwined (McDowell 1992; Rose 1993). However, few geographers have investigated how gender and power interact in relation to the politics of abortion access. This thesis seeks to fill this gap by conducting a feminist content analysis of six newspapers from Florida’s three largest metropolitan areas to determine how articles featuring abortion are framed. Analysis of the dataset concludes that the politicization of the abortion debate results in the erasure of women from the conversation, the identification of a pregnant women trope which homogenizes all women into one category, and Planned Parenthood’s classification as a health care provider being ignored subsumed under a recognition of its role in providing abortion services. Overall this study argues that patriarchal institutions regulate women into compulsory motherhood, thereby constraining their agency and ability to fully participate in society participate in political democracy.

The mahō shōjo or “magical girl”, genre of Japanese animation and manga has maintained a steady, prolific presence for nearly fifty years. Magical Girl series for the most part feature a female protagonist who is between the ages of nine and fourteen - not a little girl but not yet a woman. She is either born with or bestowed upon the ability to transform into a magical alter-ego and must save the world from a clear and present enemy. The magical girl must to work to balance her “normal life” – domestic obligations, educational obligations, and interpersonal relationships – with her duty to protect the world. I will argue that the "transformation" of an ordinary girl into a magical girl heroine is a mechanism of personal and spiritual growth within a liminal space that provides the heroine and the female fans who read these series with the tools needed to grow in a supportive community. I will build a framework using Joseph Campbell’s mythic narrative and Vladimir Propp’s folktale morphology to illustrate how the narrative pushes the heroine to grow and mature in a way that honors her individual self. Furthermore, I will illustrate how female fans disseminate these works as consumers, creators, and producers. Magical girl series, particularly ones marketed to school girl audiences, are published in manga magazines that encourage engagement between the readers and artists while initiating young readers into the world of manga. / Graduate

This dissertation concerns how activists preserve particular feminisms in everyday life, particularly in this postmodern moment as advances in technology create virtual spaces, as feminism experiences generational shifts, and as notions about gender and bodies influence the discursive and political construction of contemporary activism and communities. The particular feminists at the center of this study are self-described radical feminists. While original theories allowed members to question the essentialism of bodies (i.e., sex class), this study focuses on the movement trajectory in which members critique how people assigned male at birth learn masculinity as inextricably tied to the oppression of women (i.e., sex caste). Using data from a historical newsletter and two current micro-blogs, I provide a textual analysis to understand how public narratives of gender and essentialism circulate in and are challenged by feminist (cyber)spaces. The results of this project suggest four important findings. First, in print and online, people use imagined and essential understandings of bodies where actual bodies are not present in order to exclude. Second, when text reflects the personal, lived experiences of community members, logic and emotion are better connected in the everyday. On the other hand, when lived actuality is abstracted, storytellers rely almost exclusively on logic to make claims. Third, while lesbian newsletter-writers of the past constructed a sexual identity, they did not take on the radical-feminist mandate to talk about sexual desire. Online, only the radical identity of the movement’s predecessor’s has persisted, while any discussions of sexual identity or pleasure are missing. Lastly, while radical and trans-identified feminists often find themselves at odds, this study suggests that perhaps their consciousness-raising practices are more similar than can be seen from the everyday. Both groups use poetry and creative writing as a way to make sense of their coming-out and being-out experiences amid cis- and hetero-normativity.

Thesis advisor: Robert Taggart / My dissertation is comprised of three chapters. The first chapter is motivated by many lowfrequency sources of systemic risk in the economy. We propose a two-stage learning procedure to construct a high-frequency (i.e., daily) systemic risk factor from a cross-section of low-frequency (i.e., monthly) risk sources. In the first stage, we use a Kalman-Filter approach to synthesize the information about systemic risk contained in 19 different proxies for systemic risk. The low frequency (i.e., monthly) Bayesian factor can predict the cross-section of stock returns out of sample. In particular, a strategy that goes long the quintile portfolio with the highest exposure to the Bayesian factor and short the quintile portfolio with the lowest exposure to the Bayesian factor yields a Fama–French–Carhart alpha of 1.7% per month (20.4% annualized). The second stage is to convert this low frequency Bayesian factor into a high-frequency factor. We use textual analysis Word2Vec that reads the headlines and abstracts of all daily articles from the business section of the New York Times from 1980 to 2016 to collect distributional information on a per word basis and store it in high-dimensional vectors. These vectors are then used in a LASSO model to predict the Bayesian factor. The result is a series of coefficients that can then be used to produce a high-frequency estimate of the Bayesian factor of systemic risk. This high-frequency indicator is validated in several ways including by showing how well it captures the 2008 crisis. We also find that the high frequency factor is priced in the cross-section of stock returns and able to predict large swings in the VIX using a quantile regression approach, which sheds some light on the puzzling relation between the macro-economy and stock market volatility. The second chapter of my dissertation provides a basic quantitative description of a compendium of macro economic variables based on their ability to predict bond returns and stock returns . We use three methods( asymptotic PCA, LASSO and Support Vector Machine) to construct factors out of 133 monthly time series of economic activity spanning a period from 1996:1 to 2015:12 and classify these factors into two groups: bond demand factors and bond supply factors. In PCA regression, we find both demand factors and supply factors are unspanned by bond yields and have stronger predictability power for future bond excess returns than CP factors. This predictability finding is confirmed and enhanced by machine learning technique LASSO and Support Vector Machine. More interestingly, LASSO can be used to identify 15 most important economic variables and give direct economic explanations of predictors for bond returns. Regarding to stock predictability, we find both demand and supply PC factors are priced by the cross-section of stock returns. In particular, portfolios with highest exposure to aggregate supply factor outperform portfolios with lowest exposure to aggregate supply factor 1.8% per month while portfolios with lowest exposure to aggregate demand factor outperform portfolios with highest exposure to aggregate demand factor 2.1% per month. The finding is consistent with ”fly to safety” explanation. Furthermore, variance decomposition from VAR shows that demand factors are much more important than supply factors in explaining asset returns. Finally, we incorporate demand factors and supply factors into macrofinance affine term structure (MTSMs) to estimate market price of risk of factors and find that demand factors affect level risk and supply factors affect slope risk. Moreover, MTSMs enable us to decompose bond yields into expectation component and yield risk premium component and we find MTSMs without macro factors under-estimate yield risk premium. The third chapter,coauthored with Dmitriy Muravyev and Aurelio Vasquez, is motived from the fact that a typical stock has hundreds of listed options. We use principal component analysis (PCA) to preserve their rich information content while reducing dimensionality. Applying PCA to implied volatility surfaces across all US stocks, we find that the first five components capture most of the variation. The aggregate PC factor that combines only the first three components predicts future stock returns up to six months with a monthly alpha of about 1%; results are similar out-of-sample. In joint regressions, the aggregate PC factor drives out all of the popular option-based predictors of stock returns. Perhaps, the aggregate factor better aggregates option price information. However, shorting costs in the underlying drive out the aggregate factor’s predictive ability. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that option prices predict future stock returns primarily because they reflect short sale constraints. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

In modern pop-culture, the prevalence of tropes is eminent. Without a knowledge of common themes and overgeneralizations, an author’s work will fail to attract a sufficient audience. One of these encompassing tropes includes the pirate trope. Pirate tropes range from physical aspects, such as eyepatches and tricornes, to the psychological implications of greed and villainy. Understanding the origin of tropes helps eliminate the over usage and transformation of tropes. The current study, a textual analysis, examines the popularized pirate novel Treasure Island and compares its’ tropes to the first collection of pirate biographies, A General History of Pyrates. The researcher hopes to discover many, if not all, of the tropes found in Treasure Island originated, through explicit evidence or variances, from A General History of Pyrates. The study will also utilize the New Historicism approach. Through New Historicism, the researcher will examine what historical accounts, including political, cultural, and economic strife, led Treasure Island to emerge as the most well-known pirate novel, rather than its predecessors. Thus far, the research has indicated that Treasure Island emerged as the prime pirate novel due to several factors, including America’s proximity to piracy during the 18th century. These associations include, but are not limited to: America’s trade system with pirates, proximity to pirate dwellings in North America, Americans’ desire of freedom associated with pirates, and democracy based politics practiced among outlaw captains and crewmembers. Stevenson illustrated these points in Treasure Island, which ties the novel’s timeless tropes with today’s conceptions of piracy. In addition, Stevenson used tropes from other novels associated with pirates including: Sir Walter Scott’s The Pirate; Washington Irving’s Tales of a Traveller; Captain Frederick Marryat’s “The Pirate”; Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Gold-Bug”; and several works by Daniel Defoe. Stevenson combined these tropes in Treasure Island while also using A General History of Pirates as a guide to ensure creditability. These tropes, brought to attention by Stevenson, continue to flourish in modern depictions of 18th century pirates.

My dissertation explores two critical points in understanding John Updike's recent career. First, I examine him from a perspective outside the heavily-studied Rabbit tetralogy. Focusing on Updike's novel Terrorist, I attempt to counter the misperception that he offers little beyond the chronicling of middle-class, suburban America. Instead, this work digs for a deeper understanding of Updike. Next, I consider Updike's role as an artist, professional writer, and celebrity to draw out a sense of the writer's life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Using him as a case study enables the analysis to include his changing role as a literary writer who also had major bestsellers, as well as his standing as a celebrity and public intellectual. Rather than dismiss these cultural influences, I explore how they intersect with audiences, readers, and critics. Piecing together his commentary regarding fame and celebrity creates a model of the public Updike for scholars to examine. The central task of this dissertation is a close examination of Terrorist, including the themes Updike addressed and literary techniques he employed to advance those ideas. From this textual analysis, Updike's vision of America and the world in the twenty first century emerges. By reassessing Updike's evolution as a writer, both in subject matter and literary technique, one realizes how his work reflects an increasing preoccupation with global issues, from American imperialism to terrorism. This study broadens the general conceptualization critics and scholars hold regarding Updike's work by exploring the themes and literary devices he used to portray the broader world. Focusing on Updike the writer and Terrorist, his final standalone novel, this dissertation helps Updike scholars and critics address a central point that may well define his historical reputation: Is there an Updike beyond the Rabbit novels and is there an Updike beyond suburban nostalgia? I argue that Terrorist reveals a great American writer at his full powers as the world around him undergoes a watershed moment.

This thesis delves into film music and how it can be used to shape and influence the viewer on different levels, as well as how the music in itself portrays a character. A qualitative textual analysis was used in order to get an answer to these questions. The object of study for this analysis was Studio Ghibli’s film Spirited Away, and the characters that were analyzed were Chihiro, No Face and Yubaba. Multimodality was one of the main theories used, since it was the most fitting for the subject of analyzing characters on a deeper level. It was used to make meaning of signs with personal and cultural references as a guide later on for the material that had been collected. Neoformalism was the main method for this analysis. Leitmotif or returning instruments are used to either indicate a character’s presence like No Face or Yubaba, or the character's emotion or motivation, like Chihiro’s leitmotif when she is reminded of the real world. The music was used to create a narrative with Chihiro and No Face, while the music for Yubaba was mostly to create a sense of emotion. The changes in Chihiro and No Face leitmotifs that can be heard throughout the movie, indicates character development. Yubaba’s music doesn’t change and is used more to settle an emotional impact when she’s shown. Silence was also heavily used, mostly in relation to Chihiro. Sudden changes from an abundance of music to silence to create an eerie feeling around elements that scare Chihiro is the most used, but also the loss of leitmotif for No Face to show change. The music is also used to highlight the difference between the real world and the spirit world, the real world has western influenced style of music while the spirit world has an eastern influenced style of music. This is also reflected in the characters, with No Face having Japanese bells to show he’s a spirit, while Chihiro and Yubaba having more western sounding music to show they do not belong there. / Detta examensarbete fördjupar sig i filmmusik och hur den kan användas för att forma och påverka tittaren på olika nivåer, samt hur musiken i sig porträtterar en karaktär. En kvalitativ textanalys användes för att få svar på dessa frågor. Studieobjektet för denna analys var Studio Ghiblis film Spirited Away, och karaktärerna som analyserades var Chihiro, No Face och Yubaba. Multimodalitet var en av de huvudsakliga teorierna som användes, eftersom det var den mest passande för ämnet att analysera karaktärer på en djupare nivå. Den användes för att skapa betydelse av signs med personliga och kulturella referenser som en vägledning senare för det material som hade samlats in. Neoformalism var huvudmetoden för denna analys. Leitmotiv eller återkommande instrument används för att antingen indikera en karaktärs närvaro som No Face eller Yubaba, eller karaktärens känslor eller motivation, som Chihiros ledmotiv när hon påminns om den verkliga världen. Musiken användes för att skapa ett narrativ med Chihiro och No Face, medan musiken till Yubaba mest var för att skapa en emotionell koppling till tittaren. Förändringarna i ledmotiven Chihiro och No Face som kan höras genom hela filmen, indikerar karaktärsutveckling. Yubabas musik förändras inte och används mer för att lösa en känslomässig påverkan när hon visas. Tystnad användes också flitigt, mest i förhållande till Chihiro. Plötsliga förändringar från ett överflöd av musik till tystnad för att skapa en kuslig känsla kring element som skrämmer Chihiro är den mest använda, men också förlusten av ledmotiv för No Face för att visa förändring. Musiken används också för att belysa skillnaden mellan den verkliga världen och andevärlden, den verkliga världen har västerländsk influerad musikstil medan andevärlden har en österländsk musikstil. Detta återspeglas också i karaktärerna, där No Face har japanska klockor för att visa att han är en ande, medan Chihiro och Yubaba har mer västerländskt klingande musik för att visa att de inte hör hemma där.

This paper details the process of creating a workflow to extract, structure, and categorize the text of historic-period cookbooks for future analysis using visualization applications. This includes a consideration of bias in both data science and data analysis projects. After design of the initial database and workflow, the project went through three additional rounds of testing that showed the possible limitations of the initial schema and controlled vocabularies and led to specific changes in the database. The paper considers how the database can be used to ask questions of the data, and presents possible strategies for answering these research questions. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the possible future for textually based data science projects and cookbook analysis.

Thesis (Ph.D. (TshiVenda)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / This research study investigated the Vhuthu African philosophy in four selected Tshivenḓa novels, namely; A si Ene (Madima, 1954), Bulayo ḽo Ṱalifhaho (Magau, 1980), Thonga i Pfi Ndo Vhaḓa (Demana, 2015) and Ḽi a Kovhela (Mugwena, 2014) respectively. The Vhuthu philosophical principles formed the main part of the literature review in this study, which afforded the researcher the opportunity to read through, gain an understanding and develop a detailed analysis of the concept of Vhuthu as depicted in the aforementioned novels. Undergirded by the Afrocentricity Theory, this study foregrounds the depiction of African Vhuthu philosophy in the mentioned Tshivenḓa novels. The Afrocentric theoretical perspective centralises the agency of Africans and is geared towards drawing Africans from the margins to the centre in various spheres of society. This study illustrates how Vhuthu, as an essential tenet of African life and philosophy, is embraced by the Vhavenḓa. The study employed the qualitative approach, and used Textual Analysis in the analysis of data obtained from the four selected Tshivenḓa novels. In its investigation of the depiction of Vhuthu in the four selected Tshivenḓa novels, this study was framed within four main objectives of the study, namely: (i) to identify aspects that depict Vhuthu from the selected Tshivenḓa novels, (ii) to investigate the benefits of Vhuthu from the selected novels, (ii) to investigate the shortcomings of Vhuthu from the selected novels and, (iii) to establish the relevance of Vhuthu in present-day society. In the analysis of the selected novels, it was found that there were instances where the characters acted in accordance to the Vhuthu philosophical principles while in other instances, the characters somewhat contravened the Vhuthu philosophy. Overall, the study suggests that the Vhuthu philosophy must be included in the school curricula because, as the study argues, most people who act against the philosophy’s principles are largely the youth.

La transculturación narrativa es un fenómeno que implica la creación de nuevos productos debido a la incorporación de elementos culturales y lingüísticos a una cultura dominante y a la pérdida de los mismos en una cultura dominada. Estos elementos se manifiestan a través de la lengua, estructura literaria y cosmovisión. Dentro del proceso de traducción, los traductores toman decisiones para crear un texto meta que refleje el contexto cultural descrito en el texto original. Al traducir un texto transculturado, el proceso traslativo puede requerir de procedimientos particulares para la correcta reexpresión del mensaje original en el producto que, a su vez, busca la comprensión del público receptor. Por esto, la presente investigación se enfoca en analizar la traducción del fenómeno de la transculturación narrativa al inglés de Los ríos profundos de José María Arguedas traducida por Frances Barraclough. Asimismo, se busca identificar los elementos transculturados en la obra original a fin de reconocer las técnicas de traducción y analizar los paratextos empleados en cada caso. Para este estudio, se propone aplicar la técnica de análisis de contenido mediante la elaboración de un libro de códigos que permitirá identificar y analizar los elementos transculturales en la obra Los ríos profundos. Además, se aplicará la técnica de análisis textual contrastivo mediante fichas para comparar fragmentos, lexemas y sintagmas específicos tanto del texto meta como del texto fuente. De esta manera, se expondrán los procedimientos que Frances Horning Barraclough utilizó para la traducción de los elementos transculturales en Los ríos profundos. / Narrative transculturation is a phenomenon that entails creating new products due to the incorporation of cultural and linguistic elements to a dominant culture and their loss on the dominated one. These elements are expressed through language, literary structure and worldview. During the translation process, translators make different kind of decisions in order to create a target text that includes the same cultural equivalence that the original text already has. When a transcultural text is translated, specific procedures are needed to achieve the most accurate rewording of the source text on the final product which, at the same time, seeks for the understanding of the target audience. Therefore, the following research focuses on the analysis of the narrative transcultural translation phenomenon on Deep Rivers, written by José María Arguedas and translated by Frances Horning Barraclough. In addition, the aim of this investigation is to identify the transcultural elements in Los ríos profundos with the purpose of recognizing the translation techniques and analyze the use paratexts during the translation process. In this investigation, in order to identify and analyze transcultural elements in Los ríos profundos, content analysis technique will be use through the elaboration of the codification book. Furthermore, the contrastive textual analysis technique will be applied through index tabs to show fragments, lexemes and syntagmas of both the source and target text. As a result, the procedures that Frances Horning Barraclough used for the translation of the transcultural elements in Los ríos profundos will be presented. / Trabajo de investigación