TEOLOGIA E TRADIÇÃO NO CONTEXTO DAS RELIGIÕES DE UMBANDA: UMA ANÁLISE DO CONFLITO ENTRE CULTURA ACADÊMICA E POPULAR

A religião de Umbanda ocupa grande espaço na vida e no imaginário religioso brasileiro, e adota as lendas, mitos e folclore da cultura popular brasileira. Desprovida de texto sagrado, a Umbanda rejeita a ideia do entendimento de uma literatura sagrada como pressuposto para uma ligação com o divino, sendo mais preocupada com a experiência religiosa e do sagrado, como ponte entre a dimensão humana e divina. Embora de comum acordo sobre a importância da prática na religião de Umbanda, existe um forte debate teológico na questão do valor principal para as práticas e vida religiosa do filho de santo. De um lado, temos a Doutrina Esotérica que aposta na produção textual e teórica e, de outro, temos a Umbanda de popular, que aposta na experiência pessoal do filho de santo com a tradição oral e as práticas religiosas. De sua fundação até a presente data, a Umbanda Esotérica tem apostado na formação acadêmica como base principal para a instrumentalização do filho de santo para a prática no terreiro, assim como publicação de textos, livros, artigos, oferecimento de cursos e a criação da primeira instituição especializada de ensino, a Faculdade de Teologia Umbandista. Se por um lado, para alguns, isso possa parecer uma abertura para a modernização e melhor aceitação das práticas de origem africanas, para outros, representa uma limitação na prática e na experiência do filho de santo devido à racionalidade do espaço acadêmico. Desse modo, pretendo investigar esse conflito no discurso e nas suas especificidades, estudando literatura especializada e orgânica, tendo como eixo de investigação a seguinte questão: O que é mais importante para as práticas religiosas em Umbanda, a formação prática ou a acadêmica?

BROMANCE : les paradoxes des stratégies homosociales.

Depuis les années 2000, l’apparition du terme Bromance marque la culture populaire américaine. Cette notion est apparue pour définir les amitiés entre hommes au cinéma, à la télévision et sur Internet. Les films de Bromance, caractérisés par une multitude de scènes de déclaration d’amour entre hommes, traduisent bien cette nouvelle façon d’aborder l’amitié au masculin. À travers les définitions de la masculinité dans ces films, l’enjeu de l’hétérosexualité demeure omniprésent. Malgré la fragilisation de certains stéréotypes traditionnels liés au masculin, il n’en demeure pas moins que la notion de «vraie» masculinité persiste et demeure systématiquement liée à l’hétérosexualité des hommes qui partagent cette amitié particulière qu’on appelle Bromance. Dans cette optique, plusieurs stratégies se manifestent pour prouver la masculinité et donc l’hétérosexualité des protagonistes, mais l’une d’entre elles semble être au cœur de ces films. Cette stratégie s’incarne sous la forme d’une compétition entre hommes qui mise sur la capacité à performer un acte conventionnellement associé à l’homosexualité. Sur Internet, des vidéos qui prennent le nom « Gay Chicken » présentent des hommes qui s’embrassent et qui se touchent sans être dérangés ou ébranlés. C’est la capacité à être calme et en contrôle en restant insensible au corps d’un autre homme qui démontrerait le côté inébranlable de son hétérosexualité et donc de sa masculinité. C’est cet esprit du « Gay Chicken » qui se retrouve un peu partout dans l’univers des films de Bromance. Paradoxalement, ces nouveaux «modèles» d’homme doivent pouvoir à la fois incarner une masculinité plus flexible, plus ouverte et sensible, mais doivent également prouver leur virilité. Cette « masculinité contemporaine » brouille les cartes entre ce qui est viril et ce qui ne l’est pas, entre ce qui est féminin et ce qui ne l’est pas et entre ce qui est homosexuel et ce qui ne l’est pas. Les relations homosociales dans le cadre de Bromances présentent alors des opportunités indispensables pour prouver à tous la force de son hétérosexualité. Ce travail de recherche se penchera donc plus précisément sur les paradoxes d’une « masculinité contemporaine » intimement liée à l’orientation hétérosexuelle, par l’entremise de certains films issus de la culture populaire américaine associée à la Bromance. L’objectif est de montrer comment ces films sont des manifestations significatives d’une nouvelle forme d’affirmation identitaire masculine qui passe par des relations homosociales où les tensions et sous-textes homosexuels se multiplient et doivent être réprimés ou invalidés continuellement.

Questioning the merits and demerits of electronic communication in Social Work

This paper examines the social dynamics of electronic exchanges in the human services, particularly in social work. It focuses on the observable effects that email and texting have on the linguistic, relational and clinical rather than managerial aspects of the profession. It highlights how electronic communication is affecting professionals in their practice and learners as they become acculturated to social work. What are the gains and losses of the broad use of electronic devices in daily lay and professional, verbal and non-verbal communication? Will our current situation be seriously detrimental to the demeanor of future practitioners, their use of language, and their ability to establish close personal relationships? The paper analyzes social work linguistic and behavioral changes in light of the growth of electronic communication and offers a summary of merits and demerits viewed through a prism emerging from Baron’s (2000) analysis of human communication.

Estructura formal, textual y oral del discurso público

Estructura formal, textual y oral del discurso públicoExisten tres competencias comunicativas muy valoradas en la sociedad de la información. Primero, la búsqueda, selección y gestión de grandes cantidades de información. Segundo, la redacción de textos claros, concisos y rigurosos. Y en tercer lugar, la exposición y defensa oral de esta información en un discurso público. Tradicionalmente, los estudios de periodismo han abordado estas competencias de forma independiente. Pero actualmente, instituciones y empresas de ámbitos diferentes demandan un perfil profesional capaz de aplicarlas ante cualquier tipo de información y con objetivos diversos. Se propone un modelo integral en tres niveles estructurales basado en teorías, conceptos y estudios específicos de periodismo, oratoria, retórica… o comunicación, en los últimos años. Este modelo puede contribuir a encauzar las investigaciones de académicos y representa una herramienta de entrenamiento para profesionales.

Narratives Around Iberian Culture at Valencia Museums and Archaeological Sites: From Official Discourses to Social Perceptions

Museums and archaeological sites are considered the most authoritative places for talking about the past and the heritage from a scientific perspective. In fact, visitors assume their discourses as reliable and indisputable. In spite of that, professionals of archaeology must critically analyse the production of narratives at heritage sites, since they often reflect social, political and identity issues related to the present-day realities. The aim of this paper is to study official and popular discourses about the Iberian culture (Iron Age) collected in museums and archaeological sites from Valencia region.

The Collusion of Feminist and Postmodernist Impulses in E.L. Doctorow’s "Ragtime"

Many critics of Doctorow have classified him as a postmodernist writer, acknowledging that a wide number of thematic and stylistic features of his early fiction emanate from the postmodern context in which he took his first steps as a writer. Yet, these novels have an eminently social and ethical scope that may be best perceived in their intellectual engagement and support of feminist concerns. This is certainly the case of Doctorow’s fourth and most successful novel, Ragtime. The purpose of this paper will be two-fold. I will explore Ragtime’s indebtedness to postmodern aesthetics and themes, but also its feminist elements. Thus, on the one hand, I will focus on issues of uncertainty, indeterminacy of meaning, plurality and decentering of subjectivity; on the other hand, I will examine the novel’s attitude towards gender oppression, violence and objectification, its denunciation of hegemonic gender configurations and its voicing of certain feminist demands. This analysis will lead to an examination of the problematic collusion of the mostly white, male, patriarchal aesthetics of postmodernism and feminist politics in the novel. I will attempt to establish how these two traditionally conflicting modes coexist and interact in Ragtime.

On a first-name basis: Englishization and naming in Flanders

Following and contributing to the ongoing shift from more structuralist, system-oriented to more pragmatic, socio-cultural oriented anglicism research, this paper verifies to what extent the global spread of English affects naming patterns in Flanders. To this end, a diachronic database of first names is constructed, containing the top 75 most popular boy and girl names from 2005 until 2014. In a first step, the etymological background of these names is documented and the evolution in popularity of the English names in the database is tracked. Results reveal no notable surge in the preference for English names. This paper complements these database-driven results with an experimental study, aiming to show how associations through referents are in this case more telling than associations through phonological form (here based on etymology). Focusing on the socio-cultural background of first names in general and of Anglo-American pop culture in particular, the second part of the study specifically reports on results from a survey where participants are asked to name the first three celebrities that leap to mind when hearing a certain first name (e.g. Lana, triggering the response Del Rey). Very clear associations are found between certain first names and specific celebrities from Anglo-American pop culture. Linking back to marketing research and the social turn in onomastics, we will discuss how these celebrities might function as referees, and how social stereotypes surrounding these referees are metonymically attached to their first names. Similar to the country-of-origin-effect in marketing, these metonymical links could very well be the reason why parents select specific “celebrity names”. Although further attitudinal research is needed, this paper supports the importance of including socio-cultural parameters when conducting onomastic research.

Latina Super-heroines: Hot Tamales in Tights vs. Women Warriors, Wrestlers and Guerrilla Fighters of La Raza

The year 1977 saw the making of the first Latino superhero by a Latino artist. From the 1980s onwards it is also possible to find Latina super-heroines, whose number and complexity has kept increasing ever since. Yet, the representations of spandexed Latinas are still few. For that reason, the goal of this paper is, firstly, to gather a great number of Latina super-heroines and, secondly, to analyze the role that they have played in the history of American literature and art. More specifically, it aims at comparing the spandexed Latinas created by non-Latino/a artists and mainstream comic enterprises with the Latina super-heroines devised by Latino/a artists. The conclusion is that whereas the former tend to conceive heroines within the constraints of the logic of Girl Power, the latter choose to imbue their works with a more daring political content and to align their heroines with the ideologies of Feminism and Postcolonialism.

Le sous titrage en français des séries télévisées américaines : normes linguistiques et pratiques professionnelles

De nos jours, les séries télévisées américaines représentent une part incontournable de la culture populaire, à tel point que plusieurs traductions audiovisuelles coexistent au sein de la francophonie. Outre le doublage qui permet leur diffusion à la télévision, elles peuvent être sous titrées jusqu’à trois fois soit, en ordre chronologique : par des fans sur Internet; au Québec, pour la vente sur DVD en Amérique du Nord; et en France, pour la vente sur DVD en Europe. Pourtant, bien que ces trois sous titrages répondent aux mêmes contraintes linguistiques (celles de la langue française) et techniques (diffusion au petit écran), ils diffèrent dans leur traitement des dialogues originaux. Nous établissons dans un premier temps les pratiques à l’œuvre auprès des professionnels et des amateurs. Par la suite, l’analyse des traductions ainsi que le recours à un corpus comparable de séries télévisées françaises et québécoises permettent d’établir les normes linguistiques (notamment eu égard à la variété) et culturelles appliquées par les différents traducteurs et, subsidiairement, de définir ce que cache l’appellation « Canadian French ». Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre des études descriptives et sociologiques. Nous y décrivons la réalité professionnelle des traducteurs de l’audiovisuel et l’influence que les fansubbers exercent non seulement sur la pratique professionnelle, mais aussi sur de nouvelles méthodes de formation de la prochaine génération de traducteurs. Par ailleurs, en étudiant plusieurs traductions d’une même œuvre, nous démontrons que les variétés de français ne sauraient justifier, à elles seules, la multiplication de l’offre en sous titrage, vu le faible taux de différences purement linguistiques.

“Art Will Not Disappear Into Nothing; It Will Disappear Into Everything“: The Black Audio Film Collective and Latin America

The development of Latin American cinema in the 1960s was underwritten by a number of key texts that outlined the aesthetic and political direction of individual filmmakers and collectives (Solanas and Getino, 1969; Rocha, 1965; Espinosa, 1969). Although asserting the specificity of Latin American culture, the theoretical foundations of its New Wave influenced oppositional filmmaking way beyond its own regional boundaries. This chapter looks at how movements in British art cinema, especially the Black Audio Film Collective, were inspired and propelled by the theories behind New Latin American cinema. Facilitated by English translations in journals such as Jump Cut in the early ‘80s, Cuban and Argentine cinematic manifestoes provided a radical alternative to the traditional language of film theory available to filmmakers in Europe and works such as Signs of Empire (1983-4); Handsworth Songs (1986) and Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1993) grew out of this trans-continental exchange. The Black Audio Film Collective represented a merging of politics, popular culture, and art that was, at once, oppositional and melodic. Fusing postcolonial discourse with pop music, the avant-garde and re-imaginings of subalternity, the work of ‘The Collective’ provides us with a useful example of how British art cinema has drawn from theoretical foundations formed outside of Europe and the West. As this chapter will argue however, the Black Audio Film Collective’s work can also be read as a reaction to the specificity of British socio-politics of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Its engagement with the aesthetico-political strategies of Latin American cinema, then, undercut what was a solidly British project, rooted in (post)colonial history and emerging ideas of disaporic identity. If the propulsive thrust of The Black Audio Film Collective’s art was shaped by Third Cinema, its images and concerns were self-consciously British.

Show de Mamulengos de Heraldo Lins: construções e transformações de um espetáculo na cultura popular

The theater of puppets is one of the many expressions of popular culture which is marked by ongoing constructions and transformations in its symbolic representations as well as its characters and performances. In the city of Natal/RN, there is a manipulator called Heraldo Lins, an artist who operates such puppets, and has been performing his puppet since 1992. Lins has his own look at how he produces his performances and seeks to adjust his puppets to social and rentable contexts. Lins‟s performances are tailor-made in accordance with the request of his customers, as he makes up the passages and lines of his puppets according to his audience. This research aimed to study how the Heraldo Lins Mamulengos Show is built, especially its changes. We note that Lins chooses to dismantle the symbolic values of the tradition in the regular puppet theater once he adapts to modern patterns, placing himself between the traditional puppet theater and the cultural industry. The work in camp was made through a methodological focused in a participative observation and an audiovisual registry

Relationship marketing in Latin American context: Implications for small Finnish software companies in Latin American B2B partnerships

After a productivity decrease of established national export industries in Finland such as mobile and paper industries, innovative, smaller companies with the intentions to internationalize right from the start have been proliferating. For software companies early internationalization is an especially good opportunity, as Internet usage becomes increasingly homogeneous across borders and software products often do not need a physical distribution channel. Globalization also makes Finnish companies turn to unfamiliar export markets like Latin America, a very untraditional market for Finns. Relationships consisting of Finnish and Latin American business partners have therefore not been widely studied, especially from a new-age software company’s perspective. To study these partnerships, relationship marketing theory was taken into the core of the study, as its practice focuses mainly on establishing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders at a profit, so that the objectives of all parties are met, which is done by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises. The most important dimensions of relationship marketing were identified as trust, commitment and attraction, which were then focused on, as the study aims to understand the implications Latin American business culture has for the understanding, and hence, effective application of relationship marketing in the Latin American market. The question to be answered consecutively was how should the dimensions of trust, commitment and attraction be understood in business relationships in Latin America? The study was conducted by first joining insights given by Latin American business culture literature with overall theories on the three dimensions. Through pattern matching, these insights were compared to empirical evidence collected from business professionals of the Latin American market and from the experiences of Finnish software businesses that had recently expanded into the market. What was found was that previous literature on Latin American business culture had already named many implications for the relationship marketing dimensions that were relevant also for small Finnish software firms on the market. However, key findings also presented important new drivers for the three constructs. Local presence in the area where the Latin American partner is located was found to drive or enhance trust, commitment and attraction. High-frequency follow up procedures were in turn found to drive commitment and attraction. Both local presence and follow up were defined according to the respective evidence in the study. Also, in the context of Finnish software firms in relationships with Latin American partners, the national origins or the foreignness of the Finnish party was seen to enhance trust and attraction in the relationship

SPINNING NARRATIVES ACROSS POLITICAL DIVIDES: HARNESSING THE CULTURAL POWER OF A STORY WELL-TOLD

This dissertation explores how two American storytellers, considered by many in their to be exemplary in their craft, rely on narrative strategies to communicate to their audiences on divisive political topics in a way that both invokes feelings of pleasure and connection and transcends party identification and ideological divides. Anna Quindlen, through her political columns and op-eds, and Aaron Sorkin, through his television show The West Wing, have won over a politically diverse fan base in spite of the fact that their writing espouses liberal political viewpoints. By telling stories that entertain, first and foremost, Quindlen and Sorkin are able to have a material impact on their audiences on both dry and controversial topics, accomplishing that which 19th Century writer and activist Harriet Farley made her practice: writing in such a way to gain the access necessary to “do good by stealth.” This dissertation will argue that it is their skilled use of storytelling elements, which capitalize on the cultural relationship humans have with storytelling, that enables Quindlen and Sorkin to achieve this. The dissertation asks: How do stories shape the beliefs, perspectives, and cognitive functions of humans? How do stories construct culture and interact with cultural values? What is the media’s role in shaping society? What gives stories their power to unite as a medium? What is the significance of the experience of reading or hearing a well-told story, of how it feels? What are the effects of Quindlen’s and Sorkin’s writing on audience members and the political world at large? What is lost when a simplistic narrative structure is followed? Who is left out and what is overlooked? The literature that informs the answers to these questions will cross over and through several academic disciplines: American Studies, British Cultural Studies, Communication, Folklore, Journalism, Literature, Media Studies, Popular Culture, and Social Psychology. The chapters will also explore scholarship on the subjects of narratology and schema theory.

BROMANCE : les paradoxes des stratégies homosociales

Depuis les années 2000, l’apparition du terme Bromance marque la culture populaire américaine. Cette notion est apparue pour définir les amitiés entre hommes au cinéma, à la télévision et sur Internet. Les films de Bromance, caractérisés par une multitude de scènes de déclaration d’amour entre hommes, traduisent bien cette nouvelle façon d’aborder l’amitié au masculin. À travers les définitions de la masculinité dans ces films, l’enjeu de l’hétérosexualité demeure omniprésent. Malgré la fragilisation de certains stéréotypes traditionnels liés au masculin, il n’en demeure pas moins que la notion de «vraie» masculinité persiste et demeure systématiquement liée à l’hétérosexualité des hommes qui partagent cette amitié particulière qu’on appelle Bromance. Dans cette optique, plusieurs stratégies se manifestent pour prouver la masculinité et donc l’hétérosexualité des protagonistes, mais l’une d’entre elles semble être au cœur de ces films. Cette stratégie s’incarne sous la forme d’une compétition entre hommes qui mise sur la capacité à performer un acte conventionnellement associé à l’homosexualité. Sur Internet, des vidéos qui prennent le nom « Gay Chicken » présentent des hommes qui s’embrassent et qui se touchent sans être dérangés ou ébranlés. C’est la capacité à être calme et en contrôle en restant insensible au corps d’un autre homme qui démontrerait le côté inébranlable de son hétérosexualité et donc de sa masculinité. C’est cet esprit du « Gay Chicken » qui se retrouve un peu partout dans l’univers des films de Bromance. Paradoxalement, ces nouveaux «modèles» d’homme doivent pouvoir à la fois incarner une masculinité plus flexible, plus ouverte et sensible, mais doivent également prouver leur virilité. Cette « masculinité contemporaine » brouille les cartes entre ce qui est viril et ce qui ne l’est pas, entre ce qui est féminin et ce qui ne l’est pas et entre ce qui est homosexuel et ce qui ne l’est pas. Les relations homosociales dans le cadre de Bromances présentent alors des opportunités indispensables pour prouver à tous la force de son hétérosexualité. Ce travail de recherche se penchera donc plus précisément sur les paradoxes d’une « masculinité contemporaine » intimement liée à l’orientation hétérosexuelle, par l’entremise de certains films issus de la culture populaire américaine associée à la Bromance. L’objectif est de montrer comment ces films sont des manifestations significatives d’une nouvelle forme d’affirmation identitaire masculine qui passe par des relations homosociales où les tensions et sous-textes homosexuels se multiplient et doivent être réprimés ou invalidés continuellement.

Le sous titrage en français des séries télévisées américaines : normes linguistiques et pratiques professionnelles

De nos jours, les séries télévisées américaines représentent une part incontournable de la culture populaire, à tel point que plusieurs traductions audiovisuelles coexistent au sein de la francophonie. Outre le doublage qui permet leur diffusion à la télévision, elles peuvent être sous titrées jusqu’à trois fois soit, en ordre chronologique : par des fans sur Internet; au Québec, pour la vente sur DVD en Amérique du Nord; et en France, pour la vente sur DVD en Europe. Pourtant, bien que ces trois sous titrages répondent aux mêmes contraintes linguistiques (celles de la langue française) et techniques (diffusion au petit écran), ils diffèrent dans leur traitement des dialogues originaux. Nous établissons dans un premier temps les pratiques à l’œuvre auprès des professionnels et des amateurs. Par la suite, l’analyse des traductions ainsi que le recours à un corpus comparable de séries télévisées françaises et québécoises permettent d’établir les normes linguistiques (notamment eu égard à la variété) et culturelles appliquées par les différents traducteurs et, subsidiairement, de définir ce que cache l’appellation « Canadian French ». Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre des études descriptives et sociologiques. Nous y décrivons la réalité professionnelle des traducteurs de l’audiovisuel et l’influence que les fansubbers exercent non seulement sur la pratique professionnelle, mais aussi sur de nouvelles méthodes de formation de la prochaine génération de traducteurs. Par ailleurs, en étudiant plusieurs traductions d’une même œuvre, nous démontrons que les variétés de français ne sauraient justifier, à elles seules, la multiplication de l’offre en sous titrage, vu le faible taux de différences purement linguistiques.