The thesis is intending to answer the question: Do tools and objects have the ability to support capacities for imagining alternative ways of living the present and through that also the future? How do we imagine our future? What is necessary for us and how do we want to live our everyday? It is important to rest for a moment and have a conversation about this questions in order to adapt old concepts of the world towards drastically changing conditions. Most of us, mainly in the modern western society, know that we can no longer maintain this lifestyle in the future. We know that we have to react as soon as possible and find alternative ways of living together. Yet it seems that we are paralysed to initiate action towards new ways of thinking. Where does this inactivity come from? It is hard to find new ways of thinking, especially when conventional norms, rules and structures of the current system do not provide any room for new forms of development. Is it possible that we are trapped in this system and the web of stories that hold it together? Is it possible that we are so used to the structures of the everyday, that we see them as set truths and do not question them anymore? The work investigates where these conditions come from and how non-human stakeholders in form of our everyday objects impact human culture and core beliefs. Through designing a disobedient tool that supports the capacity for alternative thinking towards more playful, imaginative presents and futures I want to try to questioning established systems embedded in our everyday tools, tools which embody our relations to each other and to the living and non-living inhabitants of our surroundings.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:38:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cristina Accioly Nunes.pdf: 3313401 bytes, checksum: 8a2799c4bf101e1d9ebf46cb4ea7d0e0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-15 / The purpose of this dissertation is to understand and analyze the engravings of the series called Los Caprichos, created by Spanish painter and engraver Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, we have as hypothesis that it seems to represent aspects of the collective shadow of the Spanish society in the XVIII century. The theoretical support was based on the emerging concept of cultural complexes and the junguian premises that Art can compensate the collective conscious attitude of a particular society, in a particular moment of history. To the analysis we have picked categories, which have been obtained crossing the categories described in the specific literature of the Los Caprichos with articles available in the data bases of Scholar Google, SciELO, PePSIC e LILACS, narrowing down to four main collective shadow aspects: misogyny, the apathy of the Spanish aristocracy, the ignorance of the people and the power abuse of the clergy, which were subdivided into ten subcategories. To each subcategory, we have chosen one image of the series and analyzed through the symbolic amplification method. The results of the research suggest that, through caricature and satire, Goya has depicted many aspects of the Spanish collective shadow, of the XVIII century / O objetivo da dissertação foi compreender e analisar as gravuras da série Los Caprichos, do pintor e gravador espanhol Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, levantando como hipótese que elas parecem representar aspectos da sombra coletiva espanhola no século XVIII. Empregamos, como suporte teórico, o conceito emergente de complexo cultural e o pressuposto junguiano de que a arte de uma época pode atuar de forma compensatória à atitude dominante de uma sociedade. Para a análise, foram selecionadas categorias, as quais foram obtidas cruzando as categorias descritas na literatura específica sobre Los Caprichos com buscas nas bases de dados Google Acadêmico, SciELO, PePSIC e LILACS. Foram selecionados quatro aspectos da sombra coletiva: a misoginia, a apatia da nobreza, a ignorância do povo e o abuso do poder do clero, que foram divididos em dez subcategorias. Para cada subcategoria, escolhemos uma gravura da série e a analisamos segundo o método de amplificação simbólica. Os resultados da pesquisa sugerem que, nas dobras das caricaturas e das sátiras, Goya representou diversos aspectos da sombra coletiva espanhola no século XVIII

The purpose of this thesis has been to explore in what ways Franz Kafka’s ”The Metamorphosis” can be read as a story of gender. By bringing together Judith Butler’s theory of materialization and Lennard J. Davis’s crip theory I have spoken of Dismodernity as the domain of abject bodies that have been repudiated by (post)modern societies as untintelligible and dysfunctional. From this vantage point ”The Metamorphosis” can be seen as an allegory of Dismodernity and the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, can be seen as a political figure of Dismodernity. Therefore, I have tried to draw a feminist insect politics out of his metamorphosis from (hu)man into insect. By doing a close reading, through the theoretical lenses of Judith Butler, Lennard J. Davis and Donna Haraway, Gregor Samsa can be read as an abject non-masculinity which is both produced and made impossible by a heterosexual matrix’s need of intelligible genders and a capitalist system’s need of functional workers. As an abject non-masculinity Gregor Samsa works as a queer (unintelligible) and dismodern (dysfunctional) trickster that both disturbs and makes visible the established gendered norms of (un)intelligibility and (dis)ability through a blurring of the boundaries between human/animal, public/private and masculinity/femininity. As an involuntary trickster he also challenges gender studies and its seeking for ultimate representations for oppositional consciousness pure in their radical potential.

The theme of this thesis is the transformation of a trickster figure in the Russian children's folklore. The first part is devoted to an analysis of trickster tale and trickster heroes. This section is primarily based on classic works of prominent ethnologists, anthropologists and folklorists - they are mainly the works of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Vladimir Propp, Jeleazar Meletinskij and many others. This section is concerned mainly on the systematization and analysis of the classic characteristics of a hero trickster for subsequent analysis and comparison of the current hero of the sadistic poems - the little boy. The second part is an introduction to the themes of the sadistic poems - it is dedicated to the history of their origin; historical, cultural and social factors that had an impact on their development; systemization of the sadistic poems by topics and trends. This part is based on the works of Russian anthropologists, folklorists and psychologists. The third part of my work is dedicated to an independent comparative analysis of the nature of the protagonist of the sadistic poems - the boy as a trickster figure. The analysis is based on the classic ethnographic studies devoted to trickster tales and also on the works on the phenomenon of the sadistic poems. During this analysis, where I...

No single volume of mythological or philological research exists for Hades. In the one moment Hades appears in archaic Greek literature, speaking for only ten lines, Hermes stands nearby. Thus, to understand and journey to Hades is to reckon with Hermes’ close presence. As I synthesize research by writers from several different disciplines, may some light be brought into the depths. May we analyze Hades’ brief appearance in archaic Greek literature, examining how what I define as the “Hermetic” emits from his breath in the one moment he physically appears and speaks.

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La thèse propose une lecture postcoloniale des romans de Margaret Atwood s'articulant sur le thème du mensonge. A travers l'étude de six aspets communs aux romans (l'intertextualité, le mensonge, le réalisme magique, le "trickster", l'hybridité et la quête), la thèse démontre l'importance du motif du mensonge dans une lecture postcoloniale de l'auteur. The thesis produces a postcolonial reading of Margaret Atwood's novels, based on the concept of deception. Articulated on six major elements of analysis (intertextual parody, deception, magic realism, trickster figures, hybridity, and quest pattern, the thesis shows how Margaret Atwood's novels can be read from a postcolonial point of view, within which the motif of deception plays a central role.

Fairy tales are enchanting geographical stories, which affectively organize space-time in socially, politically, and ethically significant ways. Despite this, fairy tales have been neglected in the discipline of geography, and the inter-discipline of fairy tale studies has rarely interrogated the spatialities of tales, or of storytelling more widely. This thesis addresses this lacuna by theorizing the relationship between fairy tales, storytelling, and geography through the subversive folkloric figures of the trickster and crone. It posits, first, that we understand fairy tales as iterative stories that constitute mythic communities; and second, that trickster and crone figures are enchanting territorializing and deterritorializing refrains that subvert this mythic community. These two concerns are explored through Nolan’s (2008) Batman film The Dark Knight, and Maitland’s (2009) short story Moss Witch. An experimental research approach provides insight into these ‘worldly,’ enchanting, and symbolically rich stories, without sacrificing their liveliness or ‘systematizing’ them for ideological gain. The research begins with an interpretive textual analysis to address the symbolic traditions of the fairy tale refrains. Collage enables a ‘retelling’ of the stories as materially and visually expressive media. Genealogical analysis traces the material-discursive matterings of the geographical refrains within academic ‘storytelling.’ These combined approaches ‘story’ the trickster and crone as spatial patterns with affective force. Trickster refrains are animating forces of destruction and chaos. They shift between the centre and periphery of mythic community, violently overturn its seemingly ordered realities, and unfold insecure and profane in-between places, where (human) community can no longer be sustained. The crone refrain enacts a ‘wilding’ in fairy tales, entangling the civilized, storied human polis (or culture more generally) with the nonhuman ‘environment,’ and undermining both relational accounts of being and more romantic discourses of dwelling. Going forward, continued engagement with this nexus of geography, storytelling, and fairy tales promises to enrich our multidisciplinary endeavours, highlight our theoretical ‘matterings’ of fairy tales, and enable more responsible engagement with these endlessly enchanting stories.

A literatura é campo fértil para refletirmos sobre os mais variados aspectos da sociedade e a obra de Antonio Candido certamente é uma referência dessa perspectiva de leitura. Nesse sentido, analisamos comparativamente contos do escritor brasileiro Lima Barreto e do goês José da Silva Coelho, com foco nos comportamentos de seus protagonistas. Partindo da observação de semelhanças e diferenças nas formas de contornar as dificuldades, ou de conquistar uma melhor posição social, em espaços organizados a partir do colonialismo português, procuramos demonstrar que as atitudes imorais das personagens não eram apenas um recurso narrativo cômico, mas eram fruto de uma reflexão crítica dos autores sobre essas duas sociedades marcadas pela colonização ibérica. Tais comportamentos são representados por figuras repletas de espertezas, astúcias e malandragens, que nem sempre logram êxito nos seus golpes. Desse modo, discutimos a representação literária do caráter nacional brasileiro por personagens de Lima Barreto e a representação de traços semelhantes por personagens de Silva Coelho. Essas análises culminam na discussão sobre a possibilidade de que as semelhanças apontadas possam ser fruto da longa dominação portuguesa, tendo-se consolidado com a implementação das Repúblicas brasileira e portuguesa. / Literature is fertile ground to reflect on various aspects of society and the work of Antonio Candido is certainly a reference in this perspective of literature studies. In this sense, we compare short stories by the Brazilian writer Lima Barreto and by the Goan, José da Silva Coelho, focusing on the behavior of their protagonists. Starting from the observation of similarities and differences in ways to overcome the difficulties, or to gain a better social position in spaces organized from Portuguese colonialism, we sought to demonstrate that the immoral attitudes of their characters were not just a comic narrative feature but were the result of a critical reflection by those authors, about these two societies marked by Iberian colonization. Such behaviors are represented by figures full of cleverness, cunning and foibles, who manage not always successful in his punches. Thus, we discuss the literary representation of the \"Brazilian national identity\" by Lima Barretos characters and the representation of similar traits by characters of Silva Coelhos short stories. These analyzes culminate in the discussion on the possibility that the identified similarities can be the result of the long Portuguese rule, that has been consolidated with the implementation of the Brazilian and Portuguese Republics.

This thesis explores the figure of the trickster in the works of Elizabeth Bowen, Elizabeth Taylor, Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark. By looking at these writers’ treatment of elusive, illusive and allusive characters, the thesis argues that they each incorporated what can be read as “trickster” figures in their fiction as a means of addressing anxieties about art, society and the self. The trickster is a character-type found in narratives from a multitude of cultures and eras, and is typically characterised by his subversive presence, his boundary-crossing and his role as a healer of predicament. While the trickster is often perceived as a universal phenomenon arising from a collective unconscious, this thesis instead focusses on writers’ intentional inclusion of trickster characters in literature as a way of thinking through specific problems. Bowen, it will be shown, interpolated tricksy characters drawn from myth and fairy-tale into her fiction in order to expose a perceived rift between art and academia; Taylor used the trickster to think about the construction of identity in post-war Britain; Murdoch took models from Shakespeare to create tricksters that helped her explore the ethics of writing fiction; and Spark’s tricksters allowed her to conceptualise truth and lies, and good and evil. Concentrating on four mid-century writers whose works have been seen to vary in genre and style, this thesis demonstrates that a trickster paradigm emerged in mid-twentieth-century British fiction – a period not previously associated with the trickster. Influenced by converging strands of trickery and allusion in art through the early decades of the twentieth century, notable mid-century British writers used outsider characters to probe social and artistic shifts in a landscape fractured by war and to reach for a sense of healing. By identifying such characters as trickster figures, this thesis sheds new light on patterns of subversion, healing and character in mid-century fiction. It explores the particular affinity the trickster had with women’s writing, and illustrates how the trickster was important to twentieth-century concerns surrounding metafiction and the role of the reader.