The whole world shook : shifts in ethnic, national and heroic identities in children's fiction about 9/11

Like many other cataclysmic events September 11, a day now popularly believed to have 'changed the world', has become a topic taken up by children's writers. This thesis, titled The Whole World Shook: Ethnic, National and Heroic Identities in Children's Fiction About 9/11, examines how cultural identities are constructed within fictional texts for young people written about the attacks on the Twin Towers. It identifies three significant identity categories encoded in 9/11 books for children: ethnic identities, national identities, and heroic identities. The thesis argues that the identities formed within the selected children's texts are in flux, privileging performances of identities that are contingent on post-9/11 politics. This study is located within the field of children's literature criticism, which supports the understanding that children's books, like all texts, play a role in the production of identities. Children's literature is highly significant both in its pedagogical intent (to instruct and induct children into cultural practices and beliefs) and in its obscurity (in making the complex simple enough for children, and from sometimes intentionally shying away from difficult things). This literary criticism informed the study that the texts, if they were to be written at all, would be complex, varied and most likely as ambiguous and contradictory as the responses to the attacks on New York themselves. The theoretical framework for this thesis draws on a range of critical theories including literary theory, cultural studies, studies of performativity and postmodernism. This critical framework informs the approach by providing ways for: (i) understanding how political and ideological work is performed in children's literature; (ii) interrogating the constructed nature of cultural identities; (iii) developing a nuanced methodology for carrying out a close textual analysis. The textual analysis examines a representative sample of children's texts about 9/11, including picture books, young adult fiction, and a selection of DC Comics. Each chapter focuses on a different though related identity category. Chapter Four examines the performance of ethnic identities and race politics within a sample of picture books and young adult fiction; Chapter Five analyses the construction of collective, national identities in another set of texts; and Chapter Six does analytic work on a third set of texts, demonstrating the strategic performance of particular kinds of heroic identities. I argue that performances of cultural identities constructed in these texts draw on familiar versions of identities as well as contribute to new ones. These textual constructions can be seen as offering some certainties in increasingly uncertain times. The study finds, in its sample of books a co-mingling of xenophobia and tolerance; a binaried competition between good and evil and global harmony and national insularity; and a lauding of both the commonplace hero and the super-human. Being a recent corpus of texts about 9/11, these texts provide information on the kinds of 'selves' that appear to be privileged in the West since 2001. The thesis concludes that the shifting identities evident in texts that are being produced for children about 9/11 offer implicit and explicit accounts of what constitute good citizenship, loyalty to nation and community, and desirable attributes in a Western post-9/11 context. This thesis makes an original contribution to the field of children's literature by providing a focussed and sustained analysis of how texts for children about 9/11 contribute to formations of identity in these complex times of cultural unease and global unrest.

Grammar and disciplinary culture : a corpus-based study

The present study provides a usage-based account of how three grammatical structures, declarative content clauses, interrogative content clause and as-predicative constructions, are used in academic research articles. These structures may be used in both knowledge claims and citations, and they often express evaluative meanings. Using the methodology of quantitative corpus linguistics, I investigate how the culture of the academic discipline influences the way in which these constructions are used in research articles. The study compares the rates of occurrence of these grammatical structures and investigates their co-occurrence patterns in articles representing four different disciplines (medicine, physics, law, and literary criticism). The analysis is based on a purpose-built 2-million-word corpus, which has been part-of-speech tagged. The analysis demonstrates that the use of these grammatical structures varies between disciplines, and further shows that the differences observed in the corpus data are linked with differences in the nature of knowledge and the patterns of enquiry. The constructions in focus tend to be more frequently used in the soft disciplines, law and literary criticism, where their co-occurrence patterns are also more varied. This reflects both the greater variety of topics discussed in these disciplines, and the higher frequency of references to statements made by other researchers. Knowledge-building in the soft fields normally requires a careful contextualisation of the arguments, giving rise to statements reporting earlier research employing the constructions in focus. In contrast, knowledgebuilding in the hard fields is typically a cumulative process, based on agreed-upon methods of analysis. This characteristic is reflected in the structure and contents of research reports, which offer fewer opportunities for using these constructions.

Double-Edged Imitation : Theories and Practices of Pastiche in Literature

This study concentrates on the contested concept of pastiche in literary studies. It offers the first detailed examination of the history of the concept from its origins in the seventeenth century to the present, showing how pastiche emerged as a critical concept in interaction with the emerging conception of authorial originality and the copyright laws protecting it. One of the key results of this investigation is the contextualisation of the postmodern debate on pastiche. Even though postmodern critics often emphasise the radical novelty of pastiche, they in fact resuscitate older positions and arguments without necessarily reflecting on their historical conditions. This historical background is then used to analyse the distinction between the primarily French conception of pastiche as the imitation of style and the postmodern notion of it as the compilation of different elements. The latter s vagueness and inclusiveness detracts from its value as a critical concept. The study thus concentrates on the notion of stylistic pastiche, challenging the widespread prejudice that it is merely an indication of lack of talent. Because it is multiply based on repetition, pastiche is in fact a highly ambiguous or double-edged practice that calls into question the distinction between repetition and original, thereby undermining the received notion of individual unique authorship as a fundamental aesthetic value. Pastiche does not, however, constitute a radical upheaval of the basic assumptions on which the present institution of literature relies, since, in order to mark its difference, pastiche always refers to a source outside itself against which its difference is measured. Finally, the theoretical analysis of pastiche is applied to literary works. The pastiches written by Marcel Proust demonstrate how it can become an integral part of a writer s poetics: imitation of style is shown to provide Proust with a way of exploring the role of style as a connecting point between inner vision and reality. The pastiches of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Michael Dibdin, Nicholas Meyer and the duo Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr illustrate the functions of pastiche within a genre detective fiction that is itself fundamentally repetitive. A.S. Byatt s Possession and D.M. Thomas s Charlotte use Victorian pastiches to investigate the conditions of literary creation in the age of postmodern suspicion of creativity and individuality. The study thus argues that the concept of pastiche has valuable insights to offer to literary criticism and theory, and that literary pastiches, though often dismissed in reviews and criticism, are a particularly interesting object of study precisely because of their characteristic ambiguity.

Imagination and diversity in the philosophy of Hobbes

This dissertation is a study of some aspects of theoretical philosophy of the early modern thinker Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). The focal point of the work is Hobbes s conception of imagination, which is discussed from both a systematic and a historical point of view, as well as in the light of contemporary scholarship. I argue that though there are significant similarities between the view of Hobbes and that of his predecessors, he gives a novel theory of imagination, which clarifies not only early modern discussions on human nature, knowledge, science, and literary criticism, but above all his own versatile philosophy. The prologue of the dissertation introduces methodological principles and gives critical remarks on the standard view of Hobbes. In Chapter II, I discuss the prominent theories of imagination before Hobbes and link them to his account. I argue that though Hobbes adopted the Aristotelian framework, his view is not reduced to it, as he borrows from various sources, for instance, from the Stoics and from Renaissance thought. Chapters III and IV form the psychological part of the work. In the Chapter III I argue that imagination, not sense, is central in the basic cognitive operations of the mind and that imagination has a decisive role in Hobbes s theory of motivation. The Chapter IV concentrates on various questions of Hobbes s philosophy of language. The chapter ends with a defence of a less naturalistic reading of Hobbes s theory of human nature. Chapters V and VI form the epistemological part of the work. I suggest, contrary to what has been recently claimed, that though Hobbes s ideas of good literary style do have a point of contact with his philosophy (e.g. the psychology of creative process), his ideas in the field are independent of his project of demonstrative political science. Instead I argue that the novelty of his major political work, Leviathan (1651), is based on a new theory of knowledge which he continued to develop in the post-Leviathan works. Chapter VII seeks to connect the more theoretical conclusions of Chapters V and VI to Hobbes's idea(l) of science as well as to his philosophical practice. On the basis of Hobbes s own writings as well as some historical examinations, I argue that method is not an apt way to conceptualise Hobbes s philosophical practice. Contemporary readings of Hobbes s theory of science are critically discussed and the chapter ends with an analysis of Hobbes s actual argumentation. In addition to the concluding remarks, the epilogue suggest three things: first, imagination is central when trying to understand Hobbes s versatile philosophy; second, that it is misleading to depict Hobbes as a simple materialist, mechanist, and empiricist; and, third, that in terms of imagination his influence on early modern thought has not been fully appreciated.

Arvoja n��kyviss�� : Kaunokirjallisuuden etiikka Ludwig Wittgensteinin filosofian valossa

The goal of this dissertation was to study whether it is possible and meaningful to apply Ludwig Wittgenstein s distinction between saying (Sagen) and showing (Zeigen) to ethically oriented literary criticism. The following questions were used as the primary guidelines: 1. Is it possible, in the context of literary criticism, to put in practice Wittgenstein s ethical conceptions, which are quite theoretical and metaphysical by nature? 2. If so, what practical literary devices do authors use if they want to demonstrate their ethical values within the frame of a fictional work? 3. Does philosophy offer useful ethical consepts that open us new and interesting readings in fiction? The philosophical background of Wittgenstein s distinction is clarified in chapter I. This clarification is based on his main works, Tractatus logico-philosophicus and Philosophishe Untersuchungen, the published correspondence between Wittgenstein and Paul Engelmann, and selected Wittgenstein research and papers. Analyzing ethics and it s expression in Georg Trakl s poetry further elucidates Wittgenstein s concept of showing. The concept that a literary work is an act of an author was used as a starting point. The presumption was that analyzing this act of an author will reveal how ethical values can be demonstrated in literature. Categorizing an author s act at different levels of literary expression provides the structure of this study. In chapters IV - XIII literary devices useful for demonstrating ethics are examined and explained using examples from the works of Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Nikolay Leskov, Ludwig Uhland, Eino Leino, Pentti Haanp���� and Maria Jotuni. The concepts and views of researchers and writers such as Mihail Bahtin, Peter Juhl, E. D. Hirsch, Peter Lamarque and Stein Haugom Olsen are used. The concepts outlined in previous chapters are then applied in three case studies: Aeschylus s Oresteia trilogy, J-L. Runeberg s poem Sven Dufva and Sofi Oksanen s novel Puhdistus (Purge). On the whole, Wittgenstein s idea that ethical values can be demonstrated (shown) by means of literature is revealed as a fruitful point of departure for a more exact ethical reading, offering a new perspective on literary works.

Relatos de viajes medievales : una historia de taxonom��as literarias (1849-2007)

N��mero monogr��fico: El viaje y sus discursos

Reis de paus: Carlos Heitor Cony e Rubem Fonseca

Este trabalho investiga o que chamamos crimes da literatura, no livro de Carlos Heitor Cony, Pilatos (1974), em perspectiva comparada com o livro de contos Secre����es, excre����es e desatinos (2001), de Rubem Fonseca. Cony, famoso autor e jornalista, com hist��rico de pris��es pol��ticas na ��poca da ditadura, publicou Pilatos obra de linguagem considerada pornogr��fica ainda na vig��ncia da censura. Rubem Fonseca, perseguido pelos censores desde Feliz ano novo (1975), devido ��s suas narrativas tamb��m consideradas contr��rias �� moral e aos bons costumes, publicou Secre����es, excre����es e desatinos livre de censura. Este estudo, a partir das an��lises dos textos referidos, questiona o que �� o crime da literatura? E, se n��o h�� mais a conjun����o de censura pol��tica e repress��o moral, se est�� esgotado o embate entre argumentos moralistas e liberais, como podem ser lidos os novos c��digos de controle desse imagin��rio? O objetivo desta tese ��, sobretudo, discutir a possibilidade da perman��ncia ou n��o destes livros como transgressores em rela����o ao tratamento dado ao corpo no panorama contempor��neo. Para tanto, ser��o analisadas as diferentes formas de representa����o do corpo nesses livros, a partir de conceitos, como castra����o, pornografia e obscenidade, investigados em campos de estudo sobre as representa����es do corpo nas ��reas de psicologia, sociologia e da cr��tica liter��ria

Corpos indom��veis, sujeitos dionis��acos: experi��ncia, corpo e subjetividade na obra de Jo��o Gilberto Noll

O objetivo desta disserta����o �� propor uma vis��o afirmativa dos narradores-protagonistas dos romances do escritor Jo��o Gilberto Noll, oferecendo um contraponto �� cr��tica que, ao inserir esses narradores-protagonistas na tend��ncia niilista contempor��nea de apagamento diante do outro e do mundo, os classifica como fracos. A partir da an��lise dos romances Hotel Atl��ntico (1986), Harmada (1993), A c��u aberto (1996), Berkeley em Bellagio (2002), Lorde (2004) e Acenos e afagos (2008), caracterizaremos o sujeito nolliano como um sujeito forte, que chamaremos aqui de sujeito dionis��aco. Este sujeito prescinde de uma identidade fixa e bem delimitada e, portanto, dispensa quaisquer tipos de espelhos da consci��ncia, da identifica����o, da idealiza����o. Em vez de atribuir-se a si mesmo uma subjetividade ou um rosto, este sujeito se reconhece na sua exist��ncia mais primordial: o seu corpo indom��vel, que, diferente do corpo/imagem da l��gica do esteticismo generalizado, refor��a o car��ter m��ltiplo e inst��vel do sujeito, lembrando que ele �� regido n��o pela sua vontade pr��pria, mas sim pela din��mica da vontade de pot��ncia. Apesar de remeter sempre ao corpo, a literatura de Noll se revela um convite, tanto aos seus narradores-personagens quanto ao leitor, para uma experi��ncia metaf��sica

O quebra-nozes de Machado de Assis: cr��tica e nacionalismo

Esta tese visa a analisar tr��s perspectivas nacionalistas oferecidas pela obra cr��tica de Machado de Assis. Buscamos, inicialmente, a fei����o intelectual do jovem Machado no interior do projeto rom��ntico-nacionalista, com o qual estava alinhado e do qual se afastaria paulatinamente. Para tanto, foi cotejado, inicialmente, com dois militantes daquele nacionalismo defensivo: Santiago Nunes Ribeiro e Joaquim Norberto de Sousa Silva. Esse lugar de onde falava Machado ganha em defini����o num segundo momento, quando empreendemos a an��lise comparativa de seus textos com os de Macedo Soares e Jos�� de Alencar. Sobretudo entre 1859 e 1872, Machado de Assis construiria sua cr��tica teatral, tornando-se um paladino da com��dia realista francesa. A primeira face nacionalista de sua cr��tica afirma-se nesse profundo envolvimento de Machado com o projeto de um teatro brasileiro pautado no potencial pedag��gico da alta com��dia. A segunda perspectiva nacionalista define-se �� medida que se define o classicismo moderno de Machado, uma articula����o muito pessoal de sua vis��o universalista com a j�� instaurada modernidade liter��ria. Para a an��lise desse vi��s, usamos o corpus de sua cr��tica liter��ria constru��da como g��nero aut��nomo, oferecida convencionalmente ao p��blico, por via da qual escritores e leitores se habilitariam a intervir na sociedade, cumprindo, patrioticamente, a miss��o para a qual a literatura os preparara. A partir de 1883, depois de quase cinco anos afastado da cr��nica, Machado a retoma, usando-a para exercitar, mais franca e assiduamente, uma particular teoria da cultura brasileira e, paralelamente, uma esp��cie de busca de nosso car��ter nacional. Dessa forma, seu nacionalismo, numa terceira angula����o, orienta-se para a experi��ncia humana, que, entre incorporar o fundamento externo e resistir a ele, acaba por formar algo irremediavelmente brasileiro; essa cr��nica, portanto, carrega uma cr��tica de fei����o cultural, no sentido de Machado ter-se comprometido com significa����es e valores de nossa vida social. Ao examin��-lo como escritor que, inicialmente, se postou contra o colonialismo cultural; que, a seguir, se engajou num projeto civilizat��rio conduzido pelo teatro e pela literatura e que, por fim, investigou a sensibilidade coletiva brasileira a partir de suas representa����es culturais, esta tese faculta uma apreens��o mais criteriosa das interse����es entre os temas nacionalismo e Machado de Assis

Na sala de espelhos a quest��o da identidade autoral a partir da figura do duplo em Budapeste e Vom Dorf

A problem��tica da autoria tem ganhado uma nova roupagem na contemporaneidade. N��o se pode mais reconhecer o poder e a influ��ncia que o autor outrora exercia sobre suas produ����es art��sticas, pois a sua identidade como tal se confunde com a da "pessoa real". Essa quest��o da identidade autoral ser�� discutida e problematizada atrav��s da figura do duplo. O tema do duplo, t��o caro �� hist��ria da literatura ser�� ent��o empregado como elemento desconstrutor da figura do autor. Esse deixar�� de ser aquele que carrega consigo uma s��rie de expectativas e ju��zos de valor com rela����o ao conjunto de suas produ����es, dando lugar ao um outro - o duplo -, estranho ao leitor. Assim, cabe a quest��o do que restar�� quando a marca do autor for esvaziada, quantas ser��o as vozes que abrir��o caminho ao discurso narrativo e o que ir�� caracterizar a figura do autor contempor��neo. S��o estas as quest��es que impulsionaram a reda����o da presente disserta����o. Neste trabalho ser�� analisada a quest��o da autoria e da identidade a partir da figura do duplo em dois romances contempor��neos, a saber: Budapeste de Chico Buarque de Hollanda e Vom Dorf de Antje R��vic Strubel. A escolha de um romance brasileiro e de outro alem��o visa explicitar que a problem��tica da autoria �� uma quest��o atual e que encontra express��o em diferentes contextos liter��rios, como o alem��o e o brasileiro. A quest��o �� complexa e encontra desdobramentos nas novas formas de comunica����o e tem rela����o direta com o processo de globaliza����o. Iremos fazer um recorte transversal abordando a hist��ria do desenvolvimento do duplo na literatura, suas origens, os romances nos quais se manifestam suas diferentes express��es. Em seguida adentraremos o terreno movedi��o da problem��tica da identidade sempre tendo como foco a vis��o diacr��nica da quest��o e em por fim apresentaremos a constitui����o hist��rica da figura do autor e suas implica����es para a cr��tica liter��ria. Num outro momento verificaremos como esses elementos s��o expressos nos romances em quest��o

A esfinge clara em prosa moderna: a contribui����o de Othon Moacyr Garcia aos estudos lingu��sticos, textuais e liter��rios

Esta tese tem por objetivo avaliar a contribui����o, a nosso ver pioneira, de Othon Moacyr Garcia para os estudos lingu��sticos, textuais e liter��rios no Brasil. A primeira parte de nosso estudo se concentrar�� nas principais contribui����es dadas pelo livro Comunica����o em prosa moderna, cuja primeira edi����o data de 1967; a segunda parte estudar�� sua contribui����o �� cr��tica liter��ria brasileira, por meio de seus ensaios estil��sticos; a terceira parte consistir�� num resumo de sua obra dispersa, e a quarta parte tamb��m ser�� um resumo das cartas que recebeu e enviou em sua correspond��ncia com escritores e estudiosos da l��ngua e da literatura

Retratos de Machado de Assis : sabedoria, genialidade e melancolia na cr��tica liter��ria fin de si��cle

Este ensaio de pensamento social brasileiro tem por objeto de an��lise as cr��ticas liter��rias sobre a obra de Machado de Assis, publicadas em jornais e revistas imediatamente ap��s o lan��amento de cada um de seus livros. Portanto, s��o publica����es de critica liter��rias escritas por contempor��neos do pr��prio Machado de Assis, e que, ao resenharem suas obras evidenciam o cen��rio e os modelos de intera����o vivenciados pelos artistas e intelectuais do per��odo. Assim como exp��em ainda as compreens��es de literatura e de artista que fazem parte de seus repert��rios anal��ticos. Este ensaio busca identificar, atrav��s das categorias mobilizadas para retratar Machado de Assis, as transforma����es ocorridas nestes modelos de intera����o social do per��odo, e como a sociabilidade intelectual e art��stica, inicialmente vinculada ao padr��o de gosto cortes��o estabelecido no Rio de Janeiro, foi cedendo espa��o para outros modelos de intera����o, e assim permitiu o desenvolvimento de diferentes compreens��es de literatura e do papel da cr��tica liter��ria, contribuindo diretamente para a altera����o nos discursos ret��ricos das resenhas liter��rias. Portanto, este ensaio tenta identificar e entender os modelos ret��ricos inscritos na cr��tica, e como estes discursos est��o correlacionados �� transforma����es de ordem mais profunda, principalmente com o processo de moderniza����o social e a constru����o da autonomia do universo intelectual e art��stico no fim do s��culo XIX e na primeira d��cada do s��culo XX

Noite fant��stica: um percurso pelos estudos cr��ticos e historiogr��ficos sobre a obra Noite na taverna, de ��lvares de Azevedo

Diversos cr��ticos enfatizaram a vertente de Noite na taverna, de ��lvares de Azevedo, obra que se consagrou, portanto, como uma narrativa pertencente ao g��nero fant��stico, apesar de n��o corresponder plenamente �� concep����o do g��nero desenvolvida por Tzvetan Todorov, em Introdu����o �� literatura fant��stica subs��dio fundamental para os estudos da fic����o ins��lita. "Fant��stica"!, "sobrenatural", "de horror", "t��trica", "sombria", "macabra", "monstruosa", "dantesca", "simbolista avant la lettre", "g��tica", "satanista", "byroniana" s��o alguns dos termos empregados pela cr��tica nos principais estudos publicados acerca da obra. Trata-se de uma multiplicidade de classifica����es que, no entanto, n��o a caracterizam adequadamente e s�� demonstram a dificuldade de definir-lhe o g��nero. Refletindo sobre tais aspectos e partindo dos principais estudos cr��ticos produzidos sobre a obra desde sua primeira edi����o, consideramos a pertin��ncia de a classificarmos como integrante do g��nero fant��stico. Procura-se ainda, ap��s minuciosa leitura destes estudos, identificar os momentos da hist��ria e da cr��tica liter��ria brasileira em que Noite na taverna foi classificada com termos que a associaram a uma forma de literatura incomum no Brasil nacionalista do s��culo XIX.

El pr��logo tr��gico y la cuesti��n de la "orthoepeia" en ��Ranas�� de Arist��fanes

[ES] Se trata de dar una interpretaci��n a la posible relaci��n entre la elecci��n del pr��logo como elemento representativo del arte tr��gico y ciertos aspectos bajo los que ��ste es criticado en �� Ranas�� (la "orthoepeia"). La autora sugiere que estamos ante un modo de llamar la atenci��n sobre el car��cter ficcional y anal��tico de la creaci��n tr��gica, puesto de manifiesto a trav��s de un elemento enmarcador de primer orden como era el pr��logo para Arist��fanes.

Jo��o Ant��nio entre le��es de ch��cara e dedos -duros

Esta disserta����o percorre as linhas b��sicas da narrativa de Jo��o Ant��nio, confrontando perspectivas cr��ticas e ao mesmo tempo propondo a valoriza����o do ponto de vista do narrador malandro como elemento fundamental da est��tica do autor. Busca analisar, tamb��m, no pano de fundo dos anos 60 e 70, no����es ligadas a um novo realismo a partir do confronto com a quest��o da identidade nacional, muito presente no per��odo em que produz o autor