Genesis, evolution and revolution of bullfighting images in Spanish films : a cultural history of 'cine taurino'

Transgression is a complex construction which varies in definitions, meanings and
techniques. It is a social and cultural expression, usually related to violation and
deviation, presented nearly in all genres of ancient and present literature. Although
the study of transgression is now vast and emerging, literature of transgression
remains a blind spot and only a little concern is given to its dimensions of identity
formation and resistance. Moreover, Martin Amis, as a postmodern English writer,
is widely recognized as transgressive in his writings. His works are widely labeled
with ‘sexuality’ and ‘pornography’ in the past researches. Thus, the present study
examines the social transgression in Martin Amis' selected novels in terms of Michel
Foucault's theory of Transgression. Accordingly, the first objective is to examine the
aspects of transgression in Amis’ selected novels by explaining the acts of crossing
and going beyond Limits in order to liberate his discourse from labels of ‘sexuality’
and ‘pornography’. The second objective is to explore the role of transgression in the
creation of counter-discourses via examining the characters’ Problematization of the
common discourses that helps the characters to seek new definitions. The third
objective is to explore the function of transgression as a mode of resistance in light
of Discontinuity in the selected novels. The study is significant in the sense that it
introduces a new perspective of reading social transgression in Amis' selected novels
in an attempt to extend the definition and function of transgression in these novels.
The contribution of the study lies in examining the non-traditional aspects of
transgression which are essential in resisting common discourses and reconstituting
subjectivity. Moreover, the study provides a valuable insight into how transgressive
characters of the selected novels constitute themselves as resistant subjects out of the
deeply- established norms of the society. Such trial may bridge the gap of the
resistant dimension of transgression to provide a new perspective to transgressive
literature in general and the selected novels in particular. The study conducted a
detailed textual analysis of Amis' novels; Money (1984), London Fields (1989),
Time's Arrow (1991), and The Pregnant Widow (2010). It concludes that social transgression in Amis' novels is not a simple violation of rules but rather an intended
strategy of resisting the common discourses for the sake of circulating new ones of
identity reconstitution. It liberates Amis' characters from restraining definitions of
the self and transforms them from 'alienated', 'lost-identity', subjugated' and 'silenced'
into 'empowered', 'self-defined', 'liberated' and 'voiced' subjects. Finally, the study
contributes to the understanding of Amis' transgressive style via clearing up the
labels of 'sexuality' and 'pornography' from his creative writings. It also contributes
to the understanding of the role of transgression as a mode of resistance to common
discourses of the society.

Foucauldian transgression as a mode of resistance in selected novels by Martin Amis

http://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/18793/etd20084.pdf

Creating space for authentic voice in Canada's screen industry: A case study of 'Women In the Director's Chair (WIDC)'

The crisis of traditional images of manhood in Western cultures, the disruption of nation-state primacy, and the revival of self-determination movements in the aftermath of globalization and the rise of neoliberal policies have caused a rupture in the stability of such concepts as nation and masculinity. This dissertation investigates the impact of these ruptures on the representation of gendered subjects in the subnational cinemas of Flanders, Scotland, and Quebec—that is film industries and imaginaries located in geopolitical contexts that lack nation-state recognition, but operate along the lines of national-belonging principles. Combining the methodologies of production history, film, and cultural analysis, this work looks at subnational cinemas from the interconnected standpoints of their institutional and representational developments. One the one hand, it maps how film production and funding infrastructures emerged in recent subnational contexts at the convergence of national and transnational interests. On the other hand, it considers how performances of gender and national identity are renegotiated in such complex geopolitical and cinematic scenarios. It is the central contention of this dissertation that subnational contexts, by virtue of their cultural and geopolitical hybridity, offer a significant set of possibilities for revisiting monolithic paradigms of national cinemas, identities, and gender power structures in the globalized era.

Mosaic Men: Critical Masculinities and National Identities in Contemporary Subnational Cinemas

��� Following Christopher Castiglia and Christopher Reed’s warning against the gradual disappearance of HIV/AIDS from cultural and political agendas, this essay directs its attention to two Canadian plays that are concerned with the formation of memories at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis: the late Gordon Armstrong’s Blue Dragons (1993) and Daniel MacIvor’s The Soldier Dreams (1997). Both plays feature dead characters that make unexpected appearances on stage as living ghosts and active participants in the respective plots. What is the dramaturgical effect of these embodied shadow characters, and what are the political implications of these dead queer bodies coming alive on stage? Using the concept of ghosting as a theoretical guideline, the essay analyzes how the strategy of granting the dead person with HIV/AIDS a queer embodied absence on stage marks a dramaturgical and historiographical paradigm shift for queer theatre in Canada.

Queer Embodied Absence: HIV/AIDS and the Creation of Cultural Memory in Gordon Armstrong's Blue Dragons and Daniel MacIvor's The Soldier Dreams

The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas

D Is for Daring: The Women Behind the Films of Studio D

Mordecai: The Life and Times

Blanche Howard and Allison Howard (eds), A Memoir of Friendship: The Letters Between Carol Shields and Blanche Howard (Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2007), 352pp.Cased. $35. ISBN 978-0-6700-6613-1. Paper. $19. ISBN 978-0-1430-5226-5. Eleanor Wachtel, Random Illuminations: Conversations with Carol Shields (New Brunswick: Gooselane, 2007), 180pp. Paper. $19.95. ISBN 978-0-86492-501-5. These two rewarding volumes constitute a valuable supplement to Carol Shields's literary legacy. The first collates Shields's correspondence with her friend and fellow author Blanche Howard, with whom Shields collaborated on the epistolary novel A Celibate Season. The second volume brings together Shields's interviews with Eleanor Wachtel conducted between 1988 and 2002. Edited by Howard and her daughter Allison, A Memoir of Friendship begins with Anne Giardini's Foreword, which reflects upon the dying art of letter writing and contextualises Shields's and Howard's relationship. Shields first met Howard in the early 1970s in Ottawa and formed a friendship that would endure until Shields's death in 2003. Howard was, at the time of their first meeting, the more established writer, having won the 1972 Canadian Booksellers' Award for her novel The Manipulator. 'I have an overwhelming wish just to talk to someone about the whole subject of writing', Shields states in an early letter (p. 4), as she was embarking on her own literary career. Books would remain a focal point of the women's correspondence over the next thirty years. The volume is particularly fascinating for the intimate insight that it gives into the writing life, both private and public. Howard read drafts of almost all of Shields's novels and offered advice and suggestions that were usually incorporated by Shields into her work. Unfortunately, excessive editing of some of these comments makes this aspect of the volume rather less revealing than it might have been, though the development of A Celibate Season is covered fairly comprehensively. Both authors are disarmingly frank about their own writing. 'Some days I'm astonished by my brilliance and others I feel lower than Danielle Steele', Howard confesses (p. 499), while Shields wonders whether 'writers ever get to the point of complete faith in their blatherings' (p. 510). Howard's increasing struggles with publication are juxtaposed with Shields's growing success and fame, and reflections upon literary prizes and the stresses of promotion are also enlightening. Another highlight of the volume is the discussions of the books Shields and Howard are reading and their sometimes acerbic, pleasingly unorthodox comments on fiction, Canadian and otherwise. The Double Hook is dismissed as 'dreadful imitation Faulkner' (p. 10), The God of Small Things as 'high trash' (p. 377), The English Patient as 'awfully studied, terribly solemn, taking itself incredibly seriously' (p. 274), and The Blind Assassin as 'a long, dull read, alas' (p. …

Alex Ramon

Papers

The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas

D Is for Daring: The Women Behind the Films of Studio D

Mordecai: The Life and Times

A Memoir of Friendship: The Letters between Carol Shields and Blanche Howard/Random Illuminations: Conversations with Carol Shields