Erik Butler’s predicates for vampirism apply in some degree to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s male protagonists who skulk in the margins of “The Birthmark,” The Scarlet Letter, and “The Minister’s Black Veil.” As metaphoric vampires who seek weak prey in order to manipulate power structures, these monomaniacal parasites assume paternalistic positions in order to control and manipulate their victims, and they disguise their exploitive and egotistic sides with idealistic and altruistic passions for science and religion. This thesis explores how Hawthorne’s protagonists’ corrupt and consuming spirits echo traditional vampiristic characteristics.

The submitted thesis introduces the so-called phenomenon of vampirism in popular literature of last two hundred years. With the help of more or less known pieces of vampire prose, theoretical and historical works the thesis presents the beginning, the development and transformations of a vampire character. The thesis also contains parts about relations between vampire and non-vampire mortal characters, who belong in particular fictional worlds.

Latin American literary criticism has traditionally underestimated the significance of the Gothic aesthetic, in spite of the rich Gothic literary tradition of Latin America. Specifically in the Southern Cone - the focus of my research - there is a particular recurrence and consumption of this genre, not only in literature but also in cinema, which has not been deeply analyzed. I argue that a close examination of the Gothic and Fantastic elements in these novels and films unveils anxieties, repressions and manifestations of social decay that underlie common codes of social decency and the conventions of maintaining an oppressive social tradition. My analysis of particular novels extends from the beginning of the twentieh-century through the Boom; my discussion then extends to film productions from the 1960s to the present. In the first chapter I explore the dissemination of Gothic figures and forms from their eighteenth-century origins to the present. In the second chapter I discuss how the Gothic aesthetic was used at the beginning of the twentieth-century to comment on the effects of modernization and scientific/psychological discoveries in the Southern Cone. I also analyze the Gothic as a powerful feminist discourse. Chapter three focuses on the way the Gothic aesthetic is employed as a mechanism to communicate social and moral decay in a typical Southern Cone family. I also explore how the Gothic is used to question a political-social repression or a dictatorship. In chapter four I focus on cinema in an aesthetically and technically diverse selection of filmes. All of them employ vampirism to comment on different sexual issues, such as repression, incest, homosexuality, fetishism, sadism, and other sexual-social taboos. Finally, the conclusion demonstrates that, while the Gothic aesthetic maintains certain constants throughout the twentieth-century, its underlying meaning shifts to reflect the dominant political-social themes of each era, thus ensuring its continued relevance to popular audiences.

Tthis presented work is focused on a issue of atypical burials in medieval Bohemia. There are groups of people and the reasons which they led a community to such an action at that time. This work contains a summary of selected sites with the mentioned specific graves. Analysis and evaluation of character and significance of atypical burials in a medieval community is a part of this work.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T17:27:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Aparecida Gomes da Silva.pdf: 1381896 bytes, checksum: 88daf6ff4a6525d04f0ab8ee913773f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-02 / Secretaria da Educação do Estado de São Paulo / The present research deepens the current dilemma on the class conflict as elaborated in Marx: have the changes originated from the new technical-scientific phase of capitalism promoted the disappearing of class conflict in the current social organizations? At first, this dilemma is exposed in Kurz, Negri and Hardt, which despite being involved in the Marxist tradition, and willing to understand the transformations of modernity, do not consider the class conflict issue in the social relations of globalized capitalism. Therefore, the purpose of this demonstration was to analyze the class conflict in Das Kapital, and to reveal the fundamental bases of its logical-historic dimension as mentioned by Marx. For this analysis we took into account the ideas of Fausto and Benoit, who studied the work thoroughfully and highlighted the peculiar to the capital-work contradiction in the social configurations of capitalism. The violence of the uneven contract: third-party work appropriacy, without exchange, according to Marx s researchers, leaves classes in opposition. Thus, the experience of spoliation lived by the worker allows the existence of class conflicts. Marx exposes the secret of the value-form: the riches of capital lie in the extraction of more work. Class conflicts are recomposed as Marxist drafts as a real possibility of the end of capital, and the beginning of a new social order the denial of denial. The agitation of work of goods takes Marx to confide the transit of the system. From a human perspective, work is, to Marx, a requirement of active men, and the investigation also deals with the ontology of work from his viewpoint. Based on those reflections, this research establishes the debate with Kurz about the loss of centrality of work and the class conflict in the capitalist modernization. To fulfill the objectives of the research it was crucial to highlighten some aspects in the development of new textile technologies and the productive reorganization to compose a temporary chart of the social form of capital nowadays. The impact of the transformations in its productive molding indicates a repositioning of the ways of work exploration to the endless value change. Based on Marx, the text reassures that the capital does not exist without work, even in the reorganized productive forms in which there was the advance of technology and science. Capitalism is a contradiction in progress: on one side it puts in motion all the forces of nature to diminish work; and on the other side it keeps measuring wealth through work. In the end of the text, the debates with Negri, and Hardt are restarted, to whom the class conflicts was replaced in postmodern times by multitude. Finally, one of the accomplishments of Marx highlightens the remaining of a vital capitalism push the extraction of more work and the class conflict as an alternative to compose the horror and the scandal of the current frame in which capital is inserted / O presente manuscrito aprofunda o dilema atual sobre a categoria luta de classes, em Marx: as alterações oriundas da nova fase técnico-científica do capitalismo promoveram a desaparição da luta de classes nas formações sociais contemporâneas? Em princípio, esse dilema é exposto a partir dos teóricos Kurz, Negri e Hardt que, embora envoltos na tradição marxista e dispostos a compreender as transformações da modernidade, não consideram mais a relevância da luta de classes nas relações sociais do capital globalizado. A intenção desta exposição foi, portanto, fazer um exame da categoria luta de classes em O Capital e revelar as linhas fundamentais de sua dimensão lógico-histórica, então proferidas por Marx. Neste exame recorreu-se aos pensadores Fausto e Benoit, os quais debruçam-se sobre a obra e acentuam a inerência da contradição capital-trabalho nas configurações sociais do capitalismo. A violência do contrato desigual apropriação de trabalho alheio, sem troca segundo os intérpretes de Marx, coloca as classes em oposição. Assim, a experiência de espoliação vivida pelo trabalhador possibilita a existência da luta de classes. Marx expõe o segredo da forma-valor: a riqueza do capital é a extração de mais-trabalho. A luta de classes é recomposta nos esboços marxistas como possibilidade real de fim do capital e princípio de uma nova ordem social a negação da negação. A inquietude do trabalho contida nas mercadorias leva Marx a confidenciar a transitoriedade do sistema. Como em face do humano o trabalho é, para Marx, um pressuposto inalienável dos homens ativos, a investigação também resgata a ontologia do trabalho no seu pensamento. De posse dessas reflexões, este manuscrito estabelece o debate com Kurz sobre a perda de centralidade do trabalho e da luta de classes na modernização capitalista. Para os objetivos da pesquisa, foi importante delinear alguns aspectos do desenvolvimento das novas tecnologias na esfera fabril e da reestruturação produtiva a fim de compor um painel provisório da forma social do capital na atualidade. O impacto das transformações na sua moldura produtiva indica um redirecionamento das formas de exploração do trabalho para a incessante revalorização do valor. Com base na herança de Marx, o texto reitera que o capital não sobrevive sem o trabalho, mesmo nas formas produtivas reorganizadas em que houve o avanço da técnica e da ciência. O capitalismo é a contradição em processo: de um lado, põe em movimento todas as forças da natureza para diminuir trabalho; de outro, continua medindo a riqueza pelo trabalho. No término do texto, o debate reinstala-se com os autores Negri e Hardt, para os quais a luta de classes foi substituída, na era pós-moderna, pela multidão. Por fim, das aquisições de Marx, ressalta-se a permanência da pulsão vital do capitalismo extração de mais-trabalho e a luta de classes como possibilidade real de compor o horror e o escândalo da moldura atual do capital

The master's thesis deals with one of the specifics of the cultural history of the Czech lands in the Early Modern period - i. e. the general perception of the afterlife (approximately between 1500 and 1800) and revenant issues. A revenant is meant originally a human being, who, after his death, for various reasons returns to the light of the living world, with exhibits of material (revived corpses, zombies, vampires, fexts) and immaterial (spirits, white ladies, wild hunting). In this respect, the main source are Czech demonological legends. One part of the study is to evaluate the social, religious and cultural aspects that had effect on what was said above in the specific historical period. The main emphasis is placed on the individual cases of revenants in the Czech lands, preserved in historical sources, as well as comparison with the same case in other European countries. The study will also focus on the description of biographies of historical personalities, drawing conclusions about what may have caused the conviction of being revenant.