Actitudes hacia la variedad caló y sus hablantes : Un estudio sociolingüístico de las opiniones de adolescentes andaluces

Caló is a language/variety spoken by the Spanish Calé (i.e. the Roma). The variety belongs to a group oflanguages referred to as “Para-Romani”, characterized by Romani vocabulary, but largely non-Romani morphology, phonology and syntax, in the case of Caló deriving from Spanish. Much research has been carried out regarding the vocabulary and the grammar of this variety.The conclusions drawn in those studies indicate that Caló is on its way to extinction. However, thereis an expressed interest in reintroducing the variety, in a form called “Romanó-Caló”. Language attitudes play a decisive role for the destiny of endangered languages. In order for arevitalization project to be successful, the attitudes towards the variety being reintroduced have to bepositive. The aim of this study is to measure the attitudes that both Calé and non-Calé have towards Calóand Caló speakers, a type of study never carried out in the past. The methods applied are both direct andindirect. In part one, 231 informants listened to different recordings of voices acting as either a “Spanishspeaking person” or a “Caló speaking person”, a technique referred to as ‘matched guise’. Firstly,the informants were asked to write down their first three impressions of the speakers. Secondly, nineshort questions related to the voices were asked, to which the subjects expressed their answers on attitudescales. They were also asked to match the voices with photos of people. Furthermore, theinformants have answered questions regarding what variety is spoken at home, as well as if he or she hasany knowledge of, or contact with, any language/variety, apart from Spanish. 182 informants continuedwith part two of the questionnaire, which consisted of 20 items – positive and negative statementstowards Caló and Caló speakers. The informants have rated their agreement or disagreement to thesestatements on a Likert scale. Another exercise measured the willingness of the informants to use Calówords for naming various objects. In addition, the subjects were tested on their knowledge of some Calówords, as well as asked whether they thought it was “useful” to know how to speak Caló. Variousstatistical methods have been used in order to establish whether or not the results are statisticallysignificant. The results of the analysis indicate that the attitudes differ towards Caló and Calóspeakers, depending on the informant’s (a) ethnicity (b) contact with Caló as well as with Calóspeakers, and (c) gender. It is those who – in their own opinion – belong to the ethnic group Calé, as wellas those who claim that they have some contact with the variety and its speakers, who show positiveattitudes in both parts of the study. The women also show more positive attitudes than the men. It is alsopossible to note positive attitudes towards the variety and its speakers among the subjects with a highlevel of knowledge of Caló words, as well as among those with the highest willingness to use Caló. These observations suggest that a revitalization project of the variety Caló has a clear chance ofbeing successful.

"Pegar primero: he ahí la ley" : Estereotipos de género en una obra de Oscar Castro

En el siguiente estudio se analiza la novela La vida simplemente del escritor chileno Oscar Castro publicada póstumamente en 1951. El fin de nuestra investigación es estudiar la existencia de estereotipos de género en la obra y cómo estos se reproducen o bien son desafiados en la novela. La interpretación hecha se basa principalmente en la teoría de las dicotomías (Hirdman, 2001), la cual pone énfasis en las cualidades que, históricamente, se le han atribuido a los respectivos géneros. Aplicamos un análisis crítico de texto para identificar cómo el lenguaje usado por el escritor contribuye a reproducirlos o los desafía. Para limitar nuestro trabajo hemos decidido concentrarnos en tres personajes de la obra: Berta, Roberto y la madre de Roberto. El resultado muestra que la obra de Castro tiende a contribuir a la reproducción y el mantenimiento de los estereotipos de género típicos de las dicotomías de las cuales problematiza Hirdman a excepción del personaje femenino representado por la madre de Roberto que los desafía en cierta forma.

La Reina de las Nieves. La moral y el inconsciente : Leonardo Villalba según Sigmund Freud y Carl Jung

Esta tesina trata sobre la moral y el inconsciente a partir del análisis del personaje Leonardo Villalba de la novela La Reina de las Nieves, escrita por Carmen Martín Gaite. El estudio se hace a partir de las siguientes teorías: inconsciente de Sigmund Freud; ello, yo y superyó de Sigmund Freud; inconsciente de Carl Jung. La información almacenada en el inconsciente de una persona es algo que ésta no puede contar ya que ella misma no sabe que tiene tal información. Así, al ser Leonardo narrador-protagonista en gran parte de la obra, se supone que éste sólo puede transmitir la información de la que él mismo es consciente. No obstante, Martín Gaite consigue que Leonardo transmita información que él parece desconocer, a través de su inconsciente reflejado en sueños y reflexiones que explican ideas abstractas. Esto será demostrado en el apartado de análisis. La complejidad del personaje hace que la novela no sea una simple narración de hechos, sino que parte importante de ella sean sueños, la imaginación de Leonardo, preguntas existenciales que él mismo se hace, o recuerdos de su infancia o adolescencia que son de una importancia trascendental. La Reina de las Nieves es en gran parte una reflexión sobre la moral que, unida al inconsciente, son las bases de la novela.

La Documentación de Fuentes Electrónicas Tomadas de Internet

Con el fin de responder a las necesidades de escritores, profesores, estudiantes y especialistas que utilizan el estilo de documentación del MLA, varias organizaciones profesionales se encuentran en el proceso de establecer convenciones que demuestren ser eficientes y eviten la ambigüedad a la hora de citar referencias de fuentes que provienen de INTERNET.Las guías y modelos que se presentan en este artículo están basadas en la obra de Janice Walker "MLA International Bibliography of Books Languages and Literature Style Citations of Electronic Sources", aprobada por la Alliance for Computers and Writing, revisada y recomendada por Andrew Harnack y Gene Kleppinger en "Beyond the MLA Handbook: Documenting Sources on the INTERNET".

Building genre knowledge: a case study of efl student perceptions of the argument essay

Dissertação de mest. em Didáctica das Línguas e Culturas Modernas Especialização Inglês, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Univ. do Algarve, 2003

A catástrofe pós-colonial: ler António Lobo Antunes «à rebours»

Le roman As Naus (Le retour des Caravelles) d’António Lobo Antunes propose une révision du passé historique portugais, en offrant une relecture de la Révolution du 25 avril 1974 comme événement traumatique et catastrophique. En effet, sur fond de guerre et de décolonisation africaine, l’auteur nous transmet une vision dysphorique du contexte révolutionnaire portugais, ceci en adoptant le point de vue des « retornados », ex-colons fuyant l’Afrique, revenant vers la mère Patrie : le Portugal. Nous assistons ainsi à une « navigation à contre-courant », celle où les « héros de jadis », relégués aux marges de la société portugaise, se transforment en personnages nomadiques et « border-line ». Dans ces conditions, l’espace des marges représente « l’envers du décor » de la société portugaise, un monde sens dessus dessous, où règnent la sauvagerie et l’abjection. C’est à travers ces motifs apocalyptiques que l’auteur touche à l’un des fondements de l’identité portugaise, à savoir, celle d’une grande Nation au centre d’un Empire.

Text as Resistance in Holocaust Literature: Struggles for Personhood in Wiesel, Levi, and Delbo

This thesis is an examination of the memoirs of three core Holocaust writers, Elie Wiesel (Night and Day), Primo Levi (If This is A Man), and Charlotte Delbo (Auschwitz and After), exploring the ways in which each of the three authors uses his or her memoir to simultaneously document and resist the dehumanizing influence of the concentration camp experience.

Children's Literature, Ideology, and Cultural Identity Before and After the Cuban Revolution

Mediante de un acercamiento cronológico, esta disertación analiza la función de la ideología como herramienta poderosa para construir la nación y moldear al futuro ciudadano en la narrativa infantil cubana pre y pos-revolucionaria. Aunque una tradición y un proceso de formación de identidad nacional anteceden la literatura infantil publicada antes del triunfo de la Revolución, en los períodos posteriores existe una estrecha relación entre el contexto social de los textos y su función ideológica. Partiendo de “La Edad de Oro” (1889) de José Martí, este estudio se enfoca en los cambios socio-culturales que influyen en el desarrollo de una narrativa infantil nacional que transita del didacticismo más férreo a una variada exploración temática. Por encontrarse entre la Colonia y la etapa revolucionaria, el período republicano ha recibido poca atención crítica, marginado a veces de la herencia literaria de la nación. Sin embargo, el análisis de varios textos representativos en este período permite apreciar la integración de un pensamiento cubano desde búsquedas y posiciones muy diferentes a las del período siguiente, de 1959 a 1989. A partir de 1990 una diversificación temática fomenta objetivos muy distantes del enunciado didáctico. Este estudio concluye que en contraste con los pertenecientes a generaciones anteriores, en los escritores formados dentro de la Revolución, especialmente a partir de la década del ochenta, existe un interés especial por abordar temáticas inexploradas en la literatura infantil tradicional. El divorcio, la muerte, los conflictos generacionales y las diferencias raciales son sólo algunos de los temas que matizan la narrativa infantil posrevolucionaria, cuyos presupuestos ideo-estéticos, se encuentran intrínsecamente relacionados al contexto sociocultural.

On the Threshold of Paradise and Present: Memory in Contemporary Cuban – American Literature

The exile leaving his or her homeland for new and unknown territory travels with much more than just luggage and the clothes on his or her back. He or she carries a weighty collection of memories. Available for the exile in times when the harmony of the past is far removed from the difficult circumstances present during the process of cultural assimilation, these memories present an opportunity for the exile to fashion for him or herself an identity that mimics the realities of life in the home left behind. In this creative endeavor, I seek to examine the powerful potential of memory as it is exercised by a collection of Cubans and Cuban-Americans in different corners of the United States. Analyzing Achy Obejas’ Memory Mambo, Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban, Ana Menéndez’s In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, and Elías Miguel Muñoz’s Brand New Memory, I aim to trace the suggestive potential of memory as it is used by each of the characters in these works in an effort to reconcile their Cuban identities with the ones that are in the process of creation in the U.S. I will borrow from a collection of literature dealing with identity and exile, relevant graduate-level theses on Cuban-American literature, as well as theoretical perspectives on memory formation and nostalgia in order to trace the various ways in which memory is relied on in the process of cultural assimilation and emotional coping. Being presented in Miami, which hosts the largest concentration of Cuban immigrants, this thesis aims to present itself as a reflective tool for Cubans and Cuban-Americans who may find value in seeing their personal sentiments portrayed in literature, thus allowing for a potential reevaluation of identity. If the existing literature on my topic of analysis reveals anything, it is that the scope of my project is one that has not been inspected previously, thus making my analytical contribution a new one that will add a new interpretive set of lens through which readers of contemporary Cuban-American literature can examine the works.

On the Threshold of Paradise and Present: Memory in Contemporary Cuban‐American Literature

The exile leaving his or her homeland for new and unknown territory travels with much more than just luggage and the clothes on his or her back. He or she carries a weighty collection of memories. Available for the exile in times when the harmony of the past is far removed from the difficult circumstances present during the process of cultural assimilation, these memories present an opportunity for the exile to fashion for him or herself an identity that mimics the realities of life in the home left behind. In this creative endeavor, I seek to examine the powerful potential of memory as it is exercised by a collection of Cubans and Cuban-Americans in different corners of the United States. Analyzing Achy Obejas’ Memory Mambo, Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban, Ana Menéndez’s In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, and Elías Miguel Muñoz’s Brand New Memory, I aim to trace the suggestive potential of memory as it is used by each of the characters in these works in an effort to reconcile their Cuban identities with the ones that are in the process of creation in the U.S. I will borrow from a collection of literature dealing with identity and exile, relevant graduate-level theses on Cuban-American literature, as well as theoretical perspectives on memory formation and nostalgia in order to trace the various ways in which memory is relied on in the process of cultural assimilation and emotional coping. Being presented in Miami, which hosts the largest concentration of Cuban immigrants, this thesis aims to present itself as a reflective tool for Cubans and Cuban-Americans who may find value in seeing their personal sentiments portrayed in literature, thus allowing for a potential reevaluation of identity. If the existing literature on my topic of analysis reveals anything, it is that the scope of my project is one that has not been inspected previously, thus making my analytical contribution a new one that will add a new interpretive set of lens through which readers of contemporary Cuban-American literature can examine the works.

Classical horizontal inequity and reranking: an integrated approach

The last 20 years have seen a significant evolution in the literature on horizontal inequity (HI) and have generated two major and "rival" methodological strands, namely, classical HI and reranking. We propose in this paper a class of ethically flexible tools that integrate these two strands. This is achieved using a measure of inequality that merges the well-known Gini coefficient and Atkinson indices, and that allows a decomposition of the total redistributive effect of taxes and transfers in a vertical equity effect and a loss of redistribution due to either classical HI or reranking. An inequality-change approach and a money-metric cost-of-inequality approach are developed. The latter approach makes aggregate classical HI decomposable across groups. As in recent work, equals are identified through a nonparametric estimation of the joint density of gross and net incomes. An illustration using Canadian data from 1981 to 1994 shows a substantial, and increasing, robust erosion of redistribution attributable both to classical HI and to reranking, but does not reveal which of reranking or classical HI is more important since this requires a judgement that is fundamentally normative in nature.

Literature and Mythology in Tennessee Williams's "Suddenly Last Summer": Fighting against Venus and Oedipus

The aim of this article is to analyze accurately the role played by two classical references, Venus and Oedipus, in Tennessee Williams Suddenly Last Summer, in accordance with the usual nature of studies on Classical Tradition a Greek and Roman- and focusing in this case on the relationship between literature and mythology. It is thanks to Venus and Oedipus that the playwright succeeds in showing the magnitude of mens and womens tragedy, which from his point of view is simply that they have failed to see either kindness in the face of God or to feel his loving and fatherly providence.