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.

Before the “Comics:” On the Seriality of Graphic Narratives during the Nineteenth Century

While the connection between seriality and comics in the twentieth century has frequently been a subject of study, far less attention has been paid to the role of serialisation in the previous century, when the language of comics gradually developed in the illustrated and satirical press. This article discusses a heterogeneous group of graphic narratives published in various European countries between the 1830s and the 1880s, before a new generation of comic magazines influenced by American newspaper strips transformed this emerging field into the autonomous medium of comics. Serial works flourished during this period and included diverse modes, such as series of “graphic novels,” the use of recurring characters, the serialisation of picture stories in humour periodicals, and the use of graphic narratives as a regular feature in the illustrated news magazines. By providing a panoramic survey of various types of serial texts, the article suggests that the hybrid nature of these graphic narratives and the publishing strategies applied to them can be better understood if considered in relation to the larger context of nineteenth-century print culture, rather than in comparison with the future of the medium.

Doppelgänger

Catalogue and invitation card for Exhibition at Eagle Gallery, London. 16 June – 16 July 2016 “My paintings are like ghost schema, assemblages of images and surfaces that generate spectral encounters.” James Fisher’s paintings are carefully calibrated. They explore dualities and employ complex visual palimpsests to construct images that are rich with association. Abstract and figurative motifs are laid on different layers of their surfaces, covered over, and re-discovered through sanding back the paint. As a former British School at Rome Scholar, Fisher’s early work was influenced by the study of fresco painting and he retains an approach that allows for time and chance to enter the process of painting. Fabrication – in the sense both of making things and making things up – produces enigmatic and mysterious results. Many of Fisher’s recent paintings are titled after notable, now forgotten women, or after characters from folklore and comic books. The range of subject matter allows him to conflate biography with fiction, and to borrow from a wide range of visual sources for patterned elements that formally hold in place the more fugitive suggestions of the images. Fisher’s fourth solo exhibition at the Eagle Gallery coincides with the selection of two works in this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, and his inclusion in Towards Night – a forthcoming exhibition at the Towner, Eastbourne.

No palco, os quadrinhos: a influência do teatro judaico no desenvolvimento das histórias em quadrinhos modernas

This dissertation has its main goal on signing the modern Comic Books` narrative development aspects. It goes from its relationship with performing arts, specifically with the Yiddish (Jewish theatre). The research was done from the Will Eisner´s work analysis. He is a cartoonist and has a wide and influent in his area. Moreover he clearly reflects the similarities between Comic Books and Theatre. In this study was adopted the qualitative methodology on historic-comparative procedure through bibliography. The study indicates that, although their media and distinct principles, the Comic Books and Yiddish Theatre have close influence relationship considering their narrative solutions

Dise?o de un libro de comics para la ense?anza del movimiento uniforme y el movimiento naturalmente acelerado propuesto por Galileo

Se reconoce que el mecanicismo y la rigidez con la cual se est? ense?ando la f?sica en las escuelas, el cual deja un aprendizaje tan solo de f?rmulas y no de relaciones cualitativas. Para esto se considera el dise?o de un c?mic como material que brinda enormes posibilidades para la ense?anza y el aprendizaje de las ciencias y de la f?sica en particular. Se plantea dise?ar una propuesta para la ense?anza del movimiento uniforme y movimiento natural acelerado a trav?s de un comic y para esto se realizara la revisi?n de la tercera jornada del libro ?Dialogo Entre Dos Nuevas Ciencias? en donde se tratan los teoremas y axiomas del movimiento uniforme y el movimiento natural acelerado de una manera cualitativa y dialogada a trav?s de unos interlocutores.

No palco, os quadrinhos: a influência do teatro judaico no desenvolvimento das histórias em quadrinhos modernas

This dissertation has its main goal on signing the modern Comic Books` narrative development aspects. It goes from its relationship with performing arts, specifically with the Yiddish (Jewish theatre). The research was done from the Will Eisner´s work analysis. He is a cartoonist and has a wide and influent in his area. Moreover he clearly reflects the similarities between Comic Books and Theatre. In this study was adopted the qualitative methodology on historic-comparative procedure through bibliography. The study indicates that, although their media and distinct principles, the Comic Books and Yiddish Theatre have close influence relationship considering their narrative solutions

Antonio Salieri's La calamita de' cuori (1774): Sources, Form, Context

Antonio Salieri’s La calamita de’ cuori (1774) warrants musicological attention for what it can tell us about Salieri’s compositional craft and what it reveals about the development of form in Viennese Italian-language comic opera of the mid- and late-eighteenth century. In Part I of this dissertation, I explore the performance history of La calamita, present the first plot synopsis and English translation of the libretto, and describe the variants between Carlo Goldoni’s 1752 libretto and the revised version created for Salieri’s opera. I have collated Salieri’s holograph score, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Mus. Hs. 16.508, with four copies having different relationships to it, and I propose a stemma that represents the relationships between these five sources. The analyses in Part II contribute to our understanding of formal practices in eighteenth-century drammi giocosi. My study of Salieri’s La calamita reveals his reliance on a clearly defined binary structure, referred to in this dissertation as “operatic binary form,” in almost half of the arias, ensembles, and instrumental movements of this opera. Salieri’s consistent use of operatic binary form led me to explore its use in drammi giocosi by other prominent composers of this time, including Baldassare Galuppi’s La calamita de’ cuori (1752), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Il dissoluto punito, ossia Il Don Giovanni (1787), and selected arias by Pasquale Anfossi, Florian Leopold Gassmann, Giuseppe Gazzaniga, Franz Joseph Haydn, Giovanni Paisiello, and Niccolò Piccinni dating from 1760 to 1774. This study showed that Salieri and his peers adhered to a recognizable tonal plan and set of design elements in their operatic binary forms, and that their arias fall into three distinct categories defined by the tonality at the beginning of the second half of the binary structure. The analysis presented here adds to our present understanding of operatic form in mid- and late-century drammi giocosi and shows that in La calamita de’ cuori, Salieri was following the normative formal procedures of his time.

Comics as a literary-didactic method and their use for reducing gender differences in reading literacy at the primary level of education

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of the systematic use of comics as a literary-didactic method to reduce gender differences in reading literacy and reading motivation at the primary level of education. It was assumed that the use of comics would have a positive effect on pupils’ reading literacy and reading motivation, while also reducing the aforementioned differences between boys and girls. The dimensions of reading literacy and reading motivation were examined in experimental and control groups, before and after the intervention, by means of questionnaires and tests for pupils. The sample consisted of 143 pupils from second to fifth grade from two Slovenian primary schools in a rural environment, of which 73 pupils participated in the experimental group and 70 pupils represented the control group. Effects of the use of comics as a literary-didactic method were not found: using comics as a literary-didactic method did not have a statistically significant effect on pupils’ reading literacy and reading motivation. However, when the four-way structure of the research (taking into account the age and gender of the pupils) was considered, some subgroups showed a statistically significant increase in reading interest and attitude towards reading. No reduction of gender differences in reading literacy and reading motivation was found. Based on the results, guidelines for further research are established and suggestions are offered for teachers’ work. (DIPF/Orig.)

Tiras cômicas online: mediação e interações na linguagem das tiras

The study aims to analyze comic strips on the internet, from three different artists: Carlos Ruas, creator of "Um Sábado Qualquer", André Farias, of "Vida de Suporte," and William Leite, author of "Willtirando". The discussion covers the relationship between comics and technology by analyzing the comic strip and the construction of its meaning. The qualitative reflection is aggregated by quantitative data, through which the work shows possible outcomes for the language of the online comic strips, such as the expansion in the format; increased hybridization with various types of images; and the approach phenomenon between the spheres author/reader in digital format. Productions of a most unusual kind also were discussed: the digital comic strips, that incorporate animated effects on its narrative. At the end of the study, we present an online comic strip prototype from the most popular formats used by the authors, in order to reiterate the nature of the comic strips: a brief narrative whose outcome is unexpected and results in humor.

O discurso de natureza nas HQs do Chico Bento: provocações ao campo do saber da Educação Ambiental

O presente estudo refere-se a uma Dissertação de Mestrado em Educação Ambiental (EA) a qual teve como objetivo estabelecer um diálogo em torno do conceito de nature-za a partir da análise das formas desse discurso veiculadas nas histórias em quadrinhos (HQs) do personagem Chico Bento e suas relações com as concepções presentes no campo de saber da EA. Com a intenção de problematizar a forma como as HQs, através do discurso de natureza, vêm contribuindo para pensarmos sobre EA, selecionaram-se HQs do Chico Bento publicadas entre os anos de 2009 e 2013 e que fazem referência à natureza. Apoiado em autores como Michel Foucault, Isabel Carvalho, Leandro Belina-so Guimarães, Maria Lúcia Castagna Wortmann, Mônica Meyer, Keith Thomas, Ray-mond Williams, entre outros, a pesquisa analisou as enunciações de natureza que com-puseram o corpus de análise desta investigação. O caminho metodológico selecionado para operar com o material empírico trata especificamente de algumas ferramentas da Análise do Discurso, a partir de Michel Foucault. Na análise do material posto em sus-penso, a pesquisa apontou para dois enunciados potentes, os quais vêm auxiliando na constituição do discurso de natureza por meio das HQs: a natureza constituída nos des-locamentos operados pelas diferenças culturais entre as realidades rural e urbana e um ideal romântico de natureza produzido pela visibilidade e enunciabilidade das HQs do Chico Bento. Com isso, evidenciou-se que as HQs analisadas entram na ordem do dis-curso verdadeiro no campo da EA. Sendo assim, ressalta-se a importância de atentarmos para os gibis e suas histórias, como um artefato cultural potente que vem nos auxiliando a olhar para o dispositivo da EA. Tal dispositivo interpelando-nos a constituir modos de ser e de viver, diante de saberes e verdades produzidas na e pela cultura, pois, diante dos significados travados por meio da cultura, vamos engendrando nossos modos de vida, bem como estabelecendo relações com o mundo em que vivemos.

Expérience précaire du monde et représentation de la poésie dans La fissure de la fiction et Désâmé de Patrice Desbiens

Diverses œuvres de poésie moderne et contemporaine mettent en scène le rapport à l’écriture d’un sujet lyrique. Une telle problématique trouve une incarnation particulièrement intéressante dans l’œuvre de Patrice Desbiens, notamment dans certains de ses textes des années 1990 et 2000, où elle apparaît avec plus d’acuité. Pourtant, sa pratique auto-réflexive a fait l’objet de très peu de recherches. Afin d’éclairer le rapport qu’entretient Patrice Desbiens avec l’écriture et avec la poésie, ce mémoire s’intéresse à deux de ses textes, soit La fissure de la fiction (1997) et Désâmé, (2005) en accordant davantage d’espace au premier, que je considère comme un texte-charnière dans la production poétique de Desbiens. Dans un premier temps, mon travail présente ainsi la précarité qui caractérise le protagoniste de La fissure de la fiction et, sous un autre angle, le sujet lyrique de Désâmé. Dans cette optique, la figure du poète est étudiée dans La fissure de la fiction à la lumière de la reprise ironique du mythe de la malédiction littéraire et du sens que la réactualisation de ce mythe confère au personnage dans ce récit poétique. Dans un second temps, ce mémoire s’attache à montrer que la cohérence et la vraisemblance des univers mis en scène dans La fissure de la fiction et Désâmé sont minées. C’est à l’aune de ces analyses que peut ensuite être envisagé le rôle d’une poésie qui, en dernière instance, comporte malgré tout un caractère consolateur, en dépit ou en raison de l’esthétique du grotesque, tantôt comique, tantôt tragique, dans laquelle elle s’inscrit et que nous tâcherons de mettre en lumière.

De la muerte del autor al colapso de la industria. Prácticas y discursos en la música digital

La reciente aprobación de la ley Sinde en medio de un profundo y profuso debate público ha puesto de manifiesto que las ambiciones de las industrias de la cultura no están en sintonía con las de consumidores y ciudadanos. Se ha discutido la necesidad de reformular las leyes de propiedad intelectual, contraponiendo el derecho de los creadores a rentabilizar su trabajo con los derechos de los ciudadanos a la circulación de la cultura. Se hace necesario analizar los términos de este debate, además de los elementos ausentes en la discusión. La participación de los ciudadanos parece limitarse meramente a circular materiales culturales fuera de los cauces comerciales, pero no aparecen tematizadas las prácticas creativas, cada vez más comunes, que también infringen las leyes de propiedad intelectual. Los blogs mantenidos por fans sobre personajes de comic, las versiones dobladas de trailers de películas, el uso de samplers o mashups en la música popular, etc… Prácticas que implican la reelaboración creativa de textos preexistentes que cuestionan la centralidad del autor en su acepción clásica (la protegida por la legislación de derechos de autor). Proponemos contrastar los discursos en torno al derecho de los ciudadanos a la cultura que entienden este ejercicio como mero intercambio de archivos con las citadas prácticas intertextuales que suponen una forma de empoderamiento de las ciudadanos que discuten los límites de la creatividad y la originalidad. El análisis pretende dar algunas pistas para entender dos cuestiones: a) el alcance los derechos culturales de la ciudadanía democrática en la sociedad de la información y b) la necesidad de reelaborar las leyes de propiedad intelectual para dar cabida a las nuevas prácticas de la cultura digital.

The Cat Who Walks Through Years: Chris Claremont's X-Men as Kitty Pryde's bildungsroman

This dissertation examines the fictional character Kitty Pryde from the X-Men comic book series during the tenure of writer Chris Claremont. Claremont's work on the character primarily involves the years 1980-1990, though a return to writing the character in the 2000s is also discussed when relevant. The thesis question revolves around the definition of the bildungsroman genre and whether Claremont's narrative arc for Kitty Pryde's character fulfills that definition. Jerome Hamilton Buckley's 1974 book Season of Youth: The Bildungsroman from Dickens to Golding is used as the primary authority for the bildungsroman genre, and more specifically a list of nine criteria that Buckley deems particularly key to the definition of the genre. Each of the nine criteria is looked at in depth, demonstrating where and how they can be found in the narrative, if at all. However, because Buckley's perspective and criteria come from a time of less diversity, examination from a feminist and minority perspective is also added with ideas from Rita Felski and Stella Bolaki. Combining Buckley's initial list of nine criteria with more modern criticism, these ideas are then used to analyze Kitty Pryde's narrative arc and to determine whether it can be seen as a bildungsroman. The findings support reading Claremont's narrative arc of the Kitty Pryde character as a bildungsroman. Three of Buckley's nine key themes are identified as particularly prevalent in the narrative: the search for a vocation, ordeal by love, and the conflict of generations. Three more key themes are found to be less prevalent but still clearly present: the search for a working philosophy, the larger society, and alienation. Because Buckley's definition for the bildungsroman genre requires the presence of six of his nine key themes, the presence of the aforementioned six thus validate the reading of the narrative as a bildungsroman. The text also provides some suggestions for finding the three least applicable key themes within the narrative, but because their presence is not necessary to fulfill the definition of the bildungsroman, they are not rigorously examined. In addition to fulfilling Buckley's key themes, the paper also discusses the more modern minority-oriented views. It is shown how the narrative can be read in terms of a journey to diverge from norms, as per Felski's ideas of the unique qualities of the specifically female bildungsroman. As Kitty Pryde's narrative can be shown to conform to the bildungsroman ideas of both Buckley and Felski, the thesis question is thus answered positively: Chris Claremont's X-Men can indeed be read as Kitty Pryde's bildungsroman.

No palco, os quadrinhos: a influência do teatro judaico no desenvolvimento das histórias em quadrinhos modernas

This dissertation has its main goal on signing the modern Comic Books` narrative development aspects. It goes from its relationship with performing arts, specifically with the Yiddish (Jewish theatre). The research was done from the Will Eisner´s work analysis. He is a cartoonist and has a wide and influent in his area. Moreover he clearly reflects the similarities between Comic Books and Theatre. In this study was adopted the qualitative methodology on historic-comparative procedure through bibliography. The study indicates that, although their media and distinct principles, the Comic Books and Yiddish Theatre have close influence relationship considering their narrative solutions