Entre fronteiras: a escrita imigrante de Julia Alvarez em How the García girls lost their Accents

This master s thesis aims at investigating the way in which diasporic subjects in the novel How the García Girls Lost their Accents (1992) cope with the clash of two cultures the Caribbean one, from the Dominican Republic, and the North-American one, from the U.S., as well as the implications of such negotiations in the lives of immigrants, once it apparently depicts the plight of those who are torn between mother-lands and mother-tongues (IYER, 1993, 46). At the same time, the implications of such negotiations in the lives of immigrants are relevant issues in the writing of Julia Alvarez. For this, there is the analysis of the uses of family memories as one of the main strategies immigrant writers possess to recall their identities. Moreover, this thesis will also consider the language issue for the construction of the immigrant identity insofar as bilingualism is a key factor in the negotiation the García girls must effect between their Caribbean and their American halves in order to understand where they stand in the contemporary world. In order to build a theoretical framework that supports this master s thesis, we list the works of Homi K. Bhabha (1990, 1996, 2003, 2005), Stuart Hall (2001, 2003), Julia Kristeva (1994), Salman Rushdie (1990, 1994), Sonia Torres (2001, 2003) among other contributions that were crucial to the completion of this academic research

Praias urbanas e racionalidade ambiental: avaliação da gestão, das intervenções urbanísticas e dos usos na praia de ponta negra

This dissertation addresses issues considered essential for sustainable development of urban waterfronts and beaches. Many of these spaces, even though they are of public authorities, economic market and general population interests - due to its landscape, its importance for recreation purposes and as a basis of " Sun and beach Tourism " (Turismo de Sol e Praia), among other factors - have shown aesthetic, health and cultural degradation, entailing environmental, economic and social losses and conflicts. Based on this perception, the research aims to understand the main reasons for these negative results for beach spaces. To this end, it was chosen the case study of a typical urban beach, Ponta Negra Beach, located in Natal, RN. Ponta Negra is associated with the "postcard" of the city and it has been deserving of municipal urban planning legislation that legally recognizes the importance of its landscape. Also it has received constant investments by the Government through urban projects, arguing to leave the site attractive to its users. Nevertheless, in the last fifteen years, the beach has lived with the expansion of its problems, such as those related to bathing water, to coastal erosion, and to the mangling of its natural surroundings. Social conflicts have also been frequent in this time frame: conflicts between residents of the waterfront and traders who work on the beach, between the traders themselves, between the managers of space and fishermen, between managers and formal and informal traders. Many of these social and environmental conflicts have taken such grand proportions that became legal matters. Assuming that the problems identified are related to the issue of rationality - understood as a system of values, norms and actions that relate means and ends - and upholding the need for focused research on "environmental rationality" to understand and interpret the dynamics of social and environmental problems encountered on site, the research that guides the study relies on the Mexican economist Enrique Leff's theory on "environmental rationality" which, briefly, can be defined as a system of values, norms, actions and means and ends relations based on the principles of environmental management and sustainable development. Among other aspects, rationality encompasses cross-sectional planning of public administration, the participation of society in the management of environmental resources, interdisciplinary reorganization of knowledge, the clash of opposing interests and the conciliation of common goals of different social actors. The study evaluates the relationship between "environmental rationality", as proposed by Enrique Leff, with the management, urban interventions and uses observed in Ponta Negra Beach. For that, some benchmarks were established and considered in the research as related to sustainable development of the "beachy" atmosphere. Analytical instruments chosen were the urban transformations and the environmental and social problems that have been the target of lawsuits. Also part of the study, the problems that were the subject of civil investigations, which are investigation procedures carried out by the Prosecutor's Office.

Praias urbanas e racionalidade ambiental: avaliação da gestão, das intervenções urbanísticas e dos usos na praia de ponta negra

This dissertation addresses issues considered essential for sustainable development of urban waterfronts and beaches. Many of these spaces, even though they are of public authorities, economic market and general population interests - due to its landscape, its importance for recreation purposes and as a basis of " Sun and beach Tourism " (Turismo de Sol e Praia), among other factors - have shown aesthetic, health and cultural degradation, entailing environmental, economic and social losses and conflicts. Based on this perception, the research aims to understand the main reasons for these negative results for beach spaces. To this end, it was chosen the case study of a typical urban beach, Ponta Negra Beach, located in Natal, RN. Ponta Negra is associated with the "postcard" of the city and it has been deserving of municipal urban planning legislation that legally recognizes the importance of its landscape. Also it has received constant investments by the Government through urban projects, arguing to leave the site attractive to its users. Nevertheless, in the last fifteen years, the beach has lived with the expansion of its problems, such as those related to bathing water, to coastal erosion, and to the mangling of its natural surroundings. Social conflicts have also been frequent in this time frame: conflicts between residents of the waterfront and traders who work on the beach, between the traders themselves, between the managers of space and fishermen, between managers and formal and informal traders. Many of these social and environmental conflicts have taken such grand proportions that became legal matters. Assuming that the problems identified are related to the issue of rationality - understood as a system of values, norms and actions that relate means and ends - and upholding the need for focused research on "environmental rationality" to understand and interpret the dynamics of social and environmental problems encountered on site, the research that guides the study relies on the Mexican economist Enrique Leff's theory on "environmental rationality" which, briefly, can be defined as a system of values, norms, actions and means and ends relations based on the principles of environmental management and sustainable development. Among other aspects, rationality encompasses cross-sectional planning of public administration, the participation of society in the management of environmental resources, interdisciplinary reorganization of knowledge, the clash of opposing interests and the conciliation of common goals of different social actors. The study evaluates the relationship between "environmental rationality", as proposed by Enrique Leff, with the management, urban interventions and uses observed in Ponta Negra Beach. For that, some benchmarks were established and considered in the research as related to sustainable development of the "beachy" atmosphere. Analytical instruments chosen were the urban transformations and the environmental and social problems that have been the target of lawsuits. Also part of the study, the problems that were the subject of civil investigations, which are investigation procedures carried out by the Prosecutor's Office.