Berlusconi’s Language in the British Press:Translation, Ideology and National Image in News Discourse across Italian/English Linguacultures

The thesis examines the representation of Silvio Berlusconi’s language in the British press through the reverberations of linguistic taboos when translated from Italian into English. The analysis is set within the overarching premise that ‘Linguistic relations are always relations of symbolic power’ (Bourdieu 1992: 142). In order to navigate through the analyses, the trajectory of Berlusconi and his language is first set against the Italian sociolinguistic and historico-political backdrop. Then, through a triangulation of methodological approaches, the study attempts to understand some of the underlying mechanisms that influence the ways in which news producers shape knowledge on cultural difference. Critical Discourse Analysis methods are used to reveal the implicit propositions and evaluative translational choices in three datasets of online news texts drawn from British quality and tabloid newspapers. The first dataset examines news narratives on Berlusconi’s sexist and taboo language and the translational decisions of these ‘critical points’ (Munday 2012). Textual framing and cultural stereotyping are the focus of the second dataset that analyse a meta-debate across Italian and British newspapers on national image. The third dataset examines ‘anti-gay’, ‘sexist’ ‘racist’ narratives on Italy, as portrayed in British news discourse. Semi-structured interviews with the journalists who were among the active agents in these framing practices provide data on the habitus of the ‘journalator’ (van Doorslaer 2012) and the role of the journalist/translator as cultural mediator. A tentative approach to sample the ways in which readers respond to the framed discourses was made in order to gauge the impact of these news narratives on the image of Italy in the eyes of the audiences

Filling the Silence --An Iserian Reading of Ilse Aichinger\u27s Work

The works of the Austrian writer Ilse Aichinger are often considered impenetrable and incomprehensible. Aichinger’s doubt about conventional language serves as the basis for her use of highly pictorial and complex linguistic constructions. Although many literary scholars have alluded to the impenetrability of Aichinger’s works, few attempts have been made to investigate the meaning of her texts. In his theory of aesthetic response, Wolfgang Iser explains that literary works contain vacancies in the system of the text that need to be filled by the reader’s imagination. They serve as an impetus for the reader, during the process of reading, to draw together apparently unrelated or conflicting textual aspects. Thus, the reader creates the meaning through interaction with the text. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the applicability of Iser’s theory to Aichinger’s works to determine whether they leave space for the reader to create meaning. I will analyze selected texts in an attempt to dissolve their impenetrability and show how the meaning comes to life through an Iserian reading

Machine Scoring of Student Essays: Truth and Consequences

The current trend toward machine-scoring of student work, Ericsson and Haswell argue, has created an emerging issue with implications for higher education across the disciplines, but with particular importance for those in English departments and in administration. The academic community has been silent on the issue—some would say excluded from it—while the commercial entities who develop essay-scoring software have been very active. Machine Scoring of Student Essays is the first volume to seriously consider the educational mechanisms and consequences of this trend, and it offers important discussions from some of the leading scholars in writing assessment.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1138/thumbnail.jp

Crawford v. Washington: Encouraging and Ensuring the Confrontation of Witnesses

In Crawford v. Washington (2004), the United States Supreme Court radically altered Confrontation Clause analysis for the admission of hearsay statements. It created a very firm rule of actual confrontation for a narrowed class of covered hearsay, termed “testimonial statements,” and created only a limited number of exceptions. This new regime differed dramatically from the trustworthiness/reliability mode of analysis of Ohio v. Roberts (1980), which provided very wide but incredibly shallow protection against the admission of hearsay offered by the prosecution against the defendant. This article analyzes the basic teachings and uncertainties left in the wake of Crawford, sifting through scores of early lower court opinions analyzing its meaning and impact. The article documents what we know, what we might prediction, and what we must only speculate about when it comes to the meaning of Crawford. It also argues that in developing the doctrine, the focus should be upon constructions that both encourage and ensuring confrontation rather than being preoccupied with either excluding evidence because of the denial of confrontation or ways to avoid confrontation, such as through an expansive interpretation of the forfeiture doctrine

Spying and Surveillance in Shakespeare’s Dramatic Courts

This thesis examines representations of spying and surveillance in Shakespearean drama in conjunction with historical practices of espionage in later sixteenth-century England. The introductory chapter outlines how spying operations were conducted in Elizabethan England, with specific attention to the complex attitudes and behaviour of individual agents working in the broader context of the religious wars, both hot and cold, taking place between Protestant England and the Catholic powers of continental Europe. It also provides some analysis of the organisational structures within which those agents worked and examines a wide range of particular cases to illustrate how surveillance operations might play out in practice. The memory of Sir Francis Walsingham, often described as the ‘spymaster’ of Elizabeth’s government and noted for his skill in intelligence work, would have loomed large for any dramatist thinking about espionage at the turn of the seventeenth century. Subsequent chapters each examine a specific play in light of the material presented in the introduction, comprising Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest, Measure for Measure, Henry V and Hamlet. Each chapter seeks to elucidate how Shakespeare draws upon the world of Elizabethan espionage to provide vital structural components in his dramatic plotting, especially as regards inter-personal relationships between courtiers, secretaries and agents on the ground. Real individuals and the spies depicted in Shakespeare’s plays all behave in a manner that is personally inflected to a profound degree, and it is this particular aspect of early-modern espionage that provides the single most important connection between history and drama. Periodically, this thesis also reflects upon the metatheatrical relationship between characters’ schemes and Shakespeare’s own plotting as a dramatist