Literary love making in Nicholas Sparks novels: Finding the balance between the writer’s life and the writer’s work in bestselling Romantic Literature

For almost a decade now Nicholas Sparks has been writing love stories. Not only has he been publishing his stories, but they have received high acclaim in each of their installments. Several of his novels have been made into major motion pictures and increased his popularity quite significantly. His status as a successful romantic fiction writer is undeniable, but the question is, why? What is it about Nicholas Sparks that makes his novels so engaging, and personally, what do I need to do as an aspiring novelist to try and acquire the same literary status? Sparks’s novels reach readers at a number of different levels, thus giving them appeal no matter the intellectual intent of the reader. Theoretically, Sparks engages reader response techniques as well as formalist processes such as “habitualization” and “defamiliarization,” while also developing engaging plot lines that represent many of the experiences from his own life. His writing is not only academically redeemable, but it is also creatively stimulating; between the two, Sparks represents the thunder and lightning combination all writers strive for while trying to achieve literary success. This project also offers a creative element in which I attempt to exemplify many of the traits discussed in the analytical sections of this document, by recreating them in a creative, fictitious fashion. Themes such as: motion versus stasis, life versus death, and the ordinary versus the extraordinary all exist within the narrative structure of my short story “Trip to Fall.” Besides these thematic elements, the creative section strives to represent the balance Sparks achieves between the experiences of his own life and the fictitious world he creates. Overall, this project delves into the life of Nicholas Sparks to better understand the inspiration for his writing at the level of form as well as content, while also paying tribute to Sparks’s style through a representation of his work in my own words.

A review of the literature exploring the occupation of contemporary pilgrimage

Contemporary pilgrimage is a multi-dimensional, diverse and evolving occupation, not limited to overtly religious intentions or practices, which has not been explored in the occupational science literature. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the scholarly discourse as an important initial step toward understanding the occupation of pilgrimage and its impact on well-being. The discovery process within the literature was strategically refined yielding occupational science's first view of this expanding field of enquiry. This paper introduces the scope of the topic, defines key terms and explores the range of participation in contemporary pilgrimage. International evidence of increased popular interest and participation in pilgrimage is discussed, and the interdisciplinary evidence of the benefits to health and well-being experienced by pilgrims is summarised. This paper argues that occupational science could take a leading role in investigating the relationship between participation in pilgrimage and the experience of well-being for a range of people and populations.

On the effectiveness of supplemental instruction: a systematic review of supplemental instruction and peer-assisted study sessions literature between 2001 and 2010

Supplemental instruction (SI)—variously known as peer-assisted learning, peer-assisted study sessions, and other names—is a type of academic support intervention popular in higher education. In SI sessions, a senior student facilitates peer learning between undergraduates studying a high-risk course. This article presents a systematic review of the literature between 2001 and 2010 regarding the effectiveness of SI. Twenty-nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Due to methodological heterogeneity and lack of consistency defining the SI treatment, qualitative synthesis methods were applied. For seven included studies, however, an effect size of SI participation on final grades was calculated, ranging from d = 0.29 to d = 0.60. The findings of the review are consistent with claims validated by the U.S. Department of Education in the 1990s that participation in SI is correlated with higher mean grades, lower failure and withdrawal rates, and higher retention and graduation rates.

Transforming narratives of colonial danger: imagining the environments of New Zealand and Australia in children's literature, 1862–1899

Nineteenth-century British children’s literature set in Australia and New Zealand fixates on the dangers of colonial environments. This chapter examines four British novels of the period, observing the ways in which they manifest elements of ecological imperialism and environmental racism in order to depict successful settlement. It compares these novels with fantasy fictions by Australian and New Zealand children’s authors that constitute more complicated attempts both to understand and co-exist with the natural environment. The chapter proposes that by the 1890s earlier British anxieties had dissipated in popular Australian and New Zealand fiction, in which child protagonists were newly charged with the ability to interpret and control nature.

Pop-management: a literatura popular de gestão no Brasil

Nesta pesquisa, investiga-se e analisa-se o fenômeno da literatura de pop-management, propondo-se uma reflexão sobre seu papel na divulgação e legitimação de novas idéias e práticas de gestão empresarial. A literatura de pop-management compreende livros e revistas de consumo rápido, produzida pela mídia de negócios. A mídia de negócios faz parte da industria do management, junto com as empresas de consultoria, os gurus empresariais e as escolas de negócios. A pesquisa compreende três trilhas de trabalho: (1) uma investigação sobre o tema junto a publicações acadêmicas, (2) entrevistas com chefes de redação e editores e (3) análise de conteúdo de algumas publicações locais e internacionais. Conclui-se com uma reflexão acerca das características da literatura popular de gestão e seus impactos sobre as organizações e o indivíduo.

Apoio e resistência popular à realização de megaeventos: algumas lições para o Brasil

Este artigo analisa os principais fatores que influenciam a percepção da população local em relação a megaeventos internacionais, buscando identificar possíveis ações que o Poder Público pode promover para aumentar o apoio e minimizar a resistência à realização desse tipo de evento. Com base no estudo de literatura teórica e empírica sobre o tema, avalia a experiência brasileira na preparação para a Copa do Mundo de 2014 e os Jogos Olímpicos de 2016, e busca retirar algumas lições para futuros megaeventos que venham a ocorrer no País, inclusive a Exposição Universal de 2020.

Participação social no processo legislativo federal : um estudo da Comissão de Legislação Participativa (CLP), da Comissão de Direitos Humanos e Legislação Participativa (CDH) e da iniciativa popular de lei

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo verificar se as Comissões de Legislação Participativa da Câmara dos Deputados e do Senado Federal facilitaram a participação social no processo legislativo frente ao tradicional instituto da Iniciativa Popular de lei. Essa investigação será pautada pelo estudo dogmático do processo legislativo federal; pela investigação de como a participação social está prescrita na Constituição Federal e nos Regimentos Internos das Casas do Legislativo, visando constatar como a participação política se implementa no processo de produção legislativa; ademais do estudo sobre a relação entre representação e participação. Para tanto, foi utilizada revisão bibliográfica, análise documental, levantamento de dados, estudo de caso e entrevistas. A pesquisa realizada permite afirmar que as Comissões facilitaram a participação social na produção legislativa no que se refere à eliminação de parte dos requisitos formais que a obstaculizavam via Iniciativa Popular; além de ampliar o rol dos tipos de proposições legislativas que a sociedade pode apresentar. Entretanto, esses novos mecanismos reproduziram limitações que a Iniciativa Popular apresenta, ademais de desconsiderar na sua estruturação elementos essenciais à consecução de um processo legislativo efetivamente participativo, os quais são contemplados pelo instituto tradicional, permitindo, então, afirmar que as Comissões são inovações institucionais limitadas frente ao instituto da Iniciativa Popular.

Política cultural no RN: uma avaliação das casas de cultura popular (2003/2010)

The issue of public policy for the culture area has experienced a significant increase of interest of academic researchers. The research "Cultural Policy in infants: an evaluation of the home culture (2003/2010)" aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of cultural policy in Rio Grande do Norte in the period 2003/2010. When was the program created and deployed the houses of popular culture. Specifically, he sought: a) mapping the major elements of cultural policy in the RN during the chronological period mentioned b) hold up in more detail in the description of the implementation process of the houses of popular culture, c) investigate cultural actions implemented by the houses of popular culture and its effectiveness. The methodological process consisted of a review of the literature on culture, cultural policy, public policy and public policy evaluation for the construction of the theoretical-analytical, documentary research in public and private institutions related cultural production; interview with managers and cultural producers in visits field research conducted in seven major houses of popular culture, taken as a sample of the total d 29 outlets installed during the chronological period mentioned. The survey found that the program houses RN popular culture in general was effective in meeting its objectives, among which the decentralization of cultural inclusion in the artist market cultural production, the promotion of folk traditions in the region , respect and support for new artists, respect and support for popular memory

A participação popular na elaboração de políticas públicas de desenvolvimento local: um estudo no Município de Serrinha/RN (1997-2004)

The question of participation has been debated in Brazil since the 1980 decade in search a better way to take care of poulation s demand. More specificaly after the democratic open (1985) begins to be thought ways to make population participates of decisions related to alocation of public resources. The characteristic of participates actualy doesn t exist, population to be carried through is, at top, consulted, and the fact population participates stays restrict to some technics interests at the projects, mainly of public politics of local development. Observe that this implementation happens through a process and that has its limits (pass) that could be surpassed through strategies made to that. This dissertation shows results of a research about participative practices in city of Serrinha between 1997 and 2004, showing through a study of the case of Serrinha what was the process used to carry through these pratices in a moment and local considered model of this application. The analyses were developed through a model of research elaborated by the author based on large literature respects the ideal process to implant a participative public politics. The present research had a qualitative boarding, being explorative and descritive nature. The researcher (author of this dissertation) carried through all the research phases, including the transcriptions of interviews that were recorded with a digital voice recorder. Before the analysis of these data was verified that despite the public manager (former-mayor) had had a real interest in implant a process of local development in city, he was not able to forsee the correct process to do it. Two high faults were made. The first was the intention to have as tool a development plan, what locked up to make this plan was the booster of supossed participative pratice and no the ideal model that would be a plan generate by popular initiative. The second one was absence of a critical education project for the population that should be the fisrt step to carry through a politc like that

Movimentos sociais e organização popular em Natal-RN: enquanto morar for privilégio...

To the extent that the expansion of cities is increasingly pushing and segregating the working class to outlying areas, devoid of services and infrastructure, the urban space is also important as a space in the class struggle, and in this direction, the this study aims to analyze the political organization of urban social movements and popular organizations existing in Natal-RN, nowadays, in their process of struggle for social rights, with emphasis on the right to the city. With this dimension, we appropriate the contributions of historical and dialectical materialism because we believe that this benchmark enables the understanding of the processes of collective organization and a critical perspective of totality, going beyond its immediate appearance. For production data conducted literature, documentary and field, through semi-structured interviews recorded with (the) mapped leaders of organizations in our survey, as well as advisory bodies to the movements studied. The results of the study allowed us to characterize the action of the political movements in urban Christmas struggle for recognition and guarantee of the right to the city and seize the advances and obstacles in the process of intervention of social movements and popular organizations existing in Natal, highlighting dilemmas and contradictions underlie the processes of organization and mobilization in the contemporary period. Thus, we conclude that the Natal territory, as in contemporary Brazil, the urban and political action movements that show the public scene and intertwine necessarily relate to historical trend that has been performing since the 1990s, when the country entered a period marked by a new bourgeois offensive

Espécies de uso medicinal popular nativas e introduzidas cultivadas em cinco municípios do estado do amazonas

The objective if this work was a survey of medicinal plants plus commonly cultivated in quintais in Amazon State, Brazil. The work was carried out in five counties at the Solimões/Amazonas and Negro Rivers, by questionnaires, interviews and collections of botanical materials, using the literature to define the geographic origins. It was showed 105 species of medicinal plants, with average of 13 per house. The Amazonian plants, in general wood plants, meaning 10,9 percent of the total of species that was survey, with predominance of the American continent plants out of Amazonian (38,2 per cent). The major group was herbaceous or shrubs exotic plants, aromatics. In general, the peoples unknown the origin of the species of medicinal plants that use day after day.

Teatro União e Olho Vivo: cultura tradicional e arte popular

Pós-graduação em Artes - IA

A relação entre a cultura popular e a cultura erudita na obra Sagarana, de Guimarães Rosa

Pós-graduação em Letras - IBILCE

A valorização do profissional da educação e a carreira docente: a experiência do Governo de Frente Popular em Belém do Pará

O Estatuto do Magistério de Belém, que regulamenta a carreira e, portanto, a vida funcional dos profissionais da educação é o tema desta pesquisa, que tem como objetivo analisar as políticas implementadas para a carreira docente e suas implicações para o desenvolvimento do trabalho do docente, em Belém (estado do Pará), nos anos de 1997 a 2004. Esse período é considerado relevante, na pesquisa, porque a prefeitura de Belém esteve sob o comando de um governo que se autodenominou governo do povo, que, para as finalidades deste estudo, chamamos governo de frente popular. Este apresentou, entre outros, um programa que apontava para a valorização dos profissionais da educação, com ênfase nas garantias do Estatuto do Magistério, ao mesmo tempo em que sofreu pressões por parte desses profissionais pelo cumprimento de direitos contidos no referido Estatuto. Para analisar as políticas sobre a carreira docente emanadas desse tipo de governo, no período de referência, buscamos compreender, de um lado, o macro contexto de uma realidade de crise do sistema capitalista, a inserção do Brasil nessa realidade, e a realização de contra-reformas no Estado brasileiro orientadas para auxiliar na superação dessas crises. De outro, compreender a concepção e o papel de um governo de frente popular, as influências das citadas contra-reformas em suas políticas, a localização política e econômica de tal gestão, construindo, assim, o entendimento dos efeitos da dinâmica desses fatores sobre o trabalho docente, em Belém. Assim, os objetivos específicos que definimos para a investigação foram: 1) identificar as conseqüências da crise sistêmica do capital e do papel do Estado no processo de trabalho docente; 2) analisar as contra-reformas do Estado brasileiro, a partir de 1990, e os seus efeitos sobre o trabalho docente; 3) identificar algumas características do governo de Frente Popular, em Belém, e suas perspectivas programáticas para a valorização dos profissionais da educação; 4) avaliar as políticas emanadas por tal governo e os efeitos de sua implementação para a carreira docente, em Belém. Partimos da análise histórica do fenômeno estudado, fundamentando-nos nas elaborações de Antunes (1995; 1999; 2004), Brzezinski (2007), Chesnais (1996), Engels (1977),Enguita (1991), Lênin (1986; 1986a), Marx (1980), Maués (2003; 2005; 2006), Moreno (2003; 2003a), Oliveira (2003), entre outros. Valemo-nos, ainda, de documentos jurídicos e governamentais, bem como de publicações do movimento docente, como os da Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores da Educação (CNTE) e do Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Educação Pública do Pará (SINTEPP), que nos permitiram compreender as categorias de análise carreira, remuneração, formação e condições físicas do trabalho no espaço educacional. Coletamos dados e informações documentais e empíricos, buscando algumas respostas que permitissem identificar, mesmo nas relações contraditórias apresentadas, as políticas que envolveram a carreira docente, o governo de frente popular e o movimento docente. Por isso, os sujeitos das entrevistas semiestruturadas foram selecionados em função de sua localização funcional e política. Funcional, no caso dos sete profissionais da educação e de um representante do governo que exercia função de coordenação, na Secretaria Municipal de Educação; e pela atuação política e sindical no movimento docente organizado no SINTEPP, em entrevista com dois de seus dirigentes. A partir do referencial bibliográfico e dos procedimentos metodológicos indicados, pudemos concluir que o cumprimento de direitos contidos no Estatuto do Magistério de Belém possibilitaria o desenvolvimento e a valorização da carreira docente, sobretudo quanto a salário e condições físicas de trabalho, ressaltando que o período analisado foi de efervescência sindical e política sobre as demandas dos profissionais da educação que buscaram assegurar seus direitos na realidade de um governo considerado progressista.

Entre a expressão e a técnica: a terminologia do professor de canto - um estudo de caso em pedagogia vocal de canto erudito e popular no eixo Rio-São Paulo

Pós-graduação em Música - IA