https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/21922 2026-04-26T03:34:49Z 2026-04-26T03:34:49Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/120486 2024-04-16T04:53:04Z 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: RÄUME SCHREIBEN : zwischen Verortung, Heimsuchung und Im(Mobilität) : raumkonstruktivistische analysen zu literarischen texten von Tanja Dückers, Jenny Erpenbeck und Judith Hermann Abstract: During the last decades, in the context of the so-called spatial turn in literary and cultural studies an increasing engagement with the spatial paradigm has developed, which is at the same time counteracted by a tendency towards spatial dissolution in times of globalisation (Bachmann-Medick 2009). Space is now considered as a product of and an influence on social processes and as the material expression of social power structures. The paradoxical process of turning away from traditional concepts of space with a simultaneous return to space, as well as the concept of space as a co-agent in everyday life, can be shown as central to the literary works of German women writers labelled as part of the so called ‘literary Fräuleinwunder’ (Volker Hage) in 1998. Taking a space constructivist approach drawing on space theories by Marc Augé, Gaston Bachelard, Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel de Certeau, Gilles Deleuze/Félix Guattari and Michel Foucault, this thesis explores how authors Tanja Dückers, Jenny Erpenbeck and Judith Hermann enact spatial settings employing a relational concept of space closely linked to the negotiation of gender roles, concepts of centre and periphery and memory. Their works are thus analysed, beyond the problematic ‘Fräuleinwunder’ label, as complex literary reflections of the topical – in both senses of the word – focus on the interconnection between space and social relations. In her volumes of short stories Sommerhaus, später (1998) and Nichts als Gespenster (2003), Judith Hermann evokes the repeated transgression of boundaries between binary spatial settings and their dichotomous symbolic implications. The non-place Berlin is counteracted by imaginary heterotopian spaces in which gender roles and gender specific forms of mobility are negotiated, ultimately representing non-realisable alternative life styles. In her novel Spielzone (1999), Tanja Dückers sketches two Berlin districts characterized by an atmosphere of departure around the turn of the millennium. The urban changes in the decade after the fall of the wall are reflected in the protagonists’ life styles; in analogy to the city space, the body becomes a construction site for the negotiation of gender and identity. Moreover, Dückers depicts the figure of a postmodern female flaneur who individualises the urban space by play fully experimenting with the city’s constructions in cultural memory, but at the same time – by turning non-places into individualised spaces – in a conflicting process, she (subtly) reverts to traditional concepts. In contrast to Hermann and Dückers, in her novel Heimsuchung (2008) Jenny Erpenbeck turns away from the city space by localising the strong desire for spatial rootedness in a seemingly remote parcel of land in the countryside. The author questions traditional concepts of centre and periphery and enacts the recurring transgression of boundaries in order to register the seemingly remote plot as a new site of crime in collective memory. By evoking small spaces, she challenges the metaphor of the house as a spatial conservation of positive memories. The analyses of the chosen texts thus show the oscillation between a dedication to and a turning away from (traditional) spatial concepts by representing attempts at self-localisation in times of globalisation. For this purpose, the authors evoke the constant transgression of boundaries in order to counterpose experimental zones and non-places to conventional settings closely linked to traditional gender roles and life styles, or in return show the process of unwriting the feeling of belonging connected to a confined space in order to transform individual as well as collective memory. Description: PH.D.

2017-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/76242 2021-05-25T12:34:10Z 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Tipología y evolución de los personajes en la comedia nueva : ‘Fuenteovejuna’ (Lope de Vega) y ‘La vida es sueño’ (Calderón de la Barca) Abstract: En esta disertación se estudiarán los tipos de personajes y su evolución en el género teatral de la comedia nueva a través del análisis comparado de dos obras maestras, Fuenteovejuna (1619) de Lope de Vega y La vida es sueño (1636) de Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Se verá cómo los tipos funcionales creados por Lope de Vega en su Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo (1609) se transformarán progresivamente en personajes agonistas más complejos y profundos, que condensan las preocupaciones del hombre barroco: el sentido de la vida y la incertidumbre de su existencia, y adquieren además una dimensión arquetípica universal. Partiendo de la semiótica teatral, se comprobará como ambas obras responden a los principios estéticos de la comedia nueva. Sin embargo, mientras que en Fuenteovejuna Lope opta por una trama basada en un hecho histórico, ligera, de corte costumbrista y enredo amoroso, cuyo tema principal será la defensa del honor y de la honra, en La vida es sueño de Calderón se reducirán las tramas secundarias en favor de una mayor profundidad conceptual con predominio de temas filosóficos y teológicos, y una tendencia progresiva al simbolismo. A través del estudio de la relación entre los personajes y la acción dramática, de sus características funcionales y recursos de caracterización, se apreciará una evolución en los personajes, desde el colectivo del pueblo de Fuenteovejuna al personaje agonista de la obra de Calderón, en la figura de Segismundo. Description: B.A.(HONS)SPANISH&LATIN AMERICAN STUD.

2017-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/76241 2021-05-25T12:30:24Z 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: El uso de la música, la pintura y la fotografía para transmitir sentimientos en las obras de Ángela Becerra : ‘El penúltimo sueño' y 'Lo que le falta al tiempo’ Abstract: Este trabajo pretende demostrar las relaciones que hay entre la música, la pintura y la fotografía insertadas en las novelas de Ángela Becerra como métodos de transmitir sentimientos en los personajes. El objetivo de esta memoria es de estudiar cómo la autora logra de representar los sentimientos a través del arte y además también se enfocará en las diferentes funciones que juegan los papeles de la música, de la pintura y de la fotografía en El penúltimo sueño y Lo que le falta al tiempo. Esta memoria empieza con el estudio de los datos biográficos de la autora. Como ella es una autora moderna, no se han escrito tantos artículos sobre ella como sobre otros autores. Por eso es interesante estudiar su vida, su interés en las artes y también sus intenciones al incluir la música, la pintura y la fotografía en sus novelas. Entonces, para cumplir con los objetivos, es fundamental partir de una lectura concienzuda y un análisis detallada de los diferentes papeles de las artes en estas dos novelas. Además, para obtener un estudio global, es necesario estudiar las funciones de la música, de la pintura y de la fotografía en la literatura en el mundo actual y también en otras obras literarias latinoamericanas. Para finalizar, el último capítulo se centrará en la comparación del uso de las artes en las dos novelas y también se enfocará en otras similitudes y contrastes. Description: B.A.(HONS)SPANISH&LATIN AMERICAN STUD.

2017-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/71338 2021-03-21T18:36:20Z 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: “Joined up or messed up?” : an inquiry on whether the peacebuilding systems theory would have been applicable in the Afghan context between 2002 and 2014 Abstract: Humanitarian aid organisations and the military have shared the battlefield over and over again in situations ranging from open conflict to peacekeeping situations. Despite sharing the same geographical space the relationship between the military and aid agencies could only be defined as dysfunctional especially during complex emergency situations. Following the military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq humanitarian-military relations were further strained due to the deployment of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in these two countries – leading to, in the majority of cases, either an arms-length or a co-existential approach towards cooperation between the two ‘worlds’. This philosophy has led to an inefficient and possibly ineffective response during these two complex emergencies. This study assesses whether the implementation of the Peacebuilding Systems Theory (PST) in Afghanistan, during the period in question, would have ameliorated the interaction between the PRTs and the aid organisations within the frame work of civil-military cooperation. From a methodological point of view this study implements the PST to an event that occurred in the past and therefore it asks a ‘what would have happened’ research question with the aim of assessing the applicability of this theory to the Afghan context – thereby creating a counterfactual argument. A number of interviews were conducted with military leaders who deployed to Afghanistan as part of PRTs as well as with aid workers who had direct contact with these civil-military elements. Through the analysis of the primary data collected it was shown that only elements of the PST could have been applied to this context. After the analytical process, a number of recommendations were put forward with the aim of improving cooperation between these two diverse ‘worlds’ during future complex emergency situations. Description: M.A.HUMANITARIAN ACTION

2017-01-01T00:00:00Z