Grau en Estudis Anglesos
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- ItemOpen AccessPlus-Size Female Bodies on the Small Screen: A Perpetuation of Stigmas or a Step Forward Towards Inclusivity?(2022-05-02) Martín Sarroca, RosaFrom the Venus of Willendorf to Aphrodite of Knidos, in each period, the canonical representation of female bodies underwent a series of modifications. In the case of plus-size women, who had once been muses for countless of artists, nowadays they seem to be depicted in a visibly pessimistic and stigmatised light in entertainment products. Fat female characters in TV series appear to share several similar traits that have been perpetuated in past narratives. The repetition and overexploitation of those characteristics has resulted in the stereotyping of those characters, as well as the reinforcement of the social stigmatisation fat people are victims of on a daily basis. Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to study the representation of female plus-size characters and their agency in recent TV shows, and, additionally, how the previous could impact the social perception towards big bodies. In order to carry out this study, five characters have been selected from the TV series: Girls (2012), My Mad Fat Diary (2013), Insatiable (2018), Euphoria (2019), and Sweet Magnolias (2020). In that same line, the characters will be analysed according to a list of nine recurrent stereotypes perpetuated in the media. Moreover, the research paper will also examine the character’s role in the story, their evolution throughout the series and the character’s overall message.
- ItemOpen AccessLaberinto y Minotauro: pervivencia del mito en Labyrinth y El laberinto del fauno(2022) Escobosa Virgili, Gisel·laDesde el principio de los tiempos, las personas han intentado darle sentido al mundo. Una forma de hacerlo es mediante la creación de mitos, de los cuales la mitología griega es la más común en las culturas occidentales. Estos mitos se han utilizado para expresar los miedos y deseos del corazón humano, lo que los convierte en un interesante objeto de estudio de la psique humana. Los mitos se han transmitido de generación en generación y se han adaptado a la época correspondiente. Uno de ellos es el mito del Laberinto, que cuenta la historia de cómo Teseo entró en el Laberinto, derrotó al Minotauro y salvó Atenas en el proceso. Este estudio analiza las influencias de este mito en dos películas contemporáneas: Labyrinth (1986), en la que el laberinto es un lugar de transformación y rito de iniciación, y El laberinto del fauno (2006), en la que se convierte en un espacio de muerte y renacimiento.
- ItemOpen AccessBecoming Somebody: Identity and Coming of Age in Anne of Green Gables and The Graveyard Book(2022) Becerra Santamaria, AidaAdolescence is a critical life stage characterised by the transition from childhood to adulthood and the formation of an independent identity. Considered a period of challenges, changes and development, it has received growing attention in the past decades by the literary domain, which has sought to represent how adolescents navigate these transitional years. With the emergence of Young Adult Literature, portraits of adolescents struggling to become adults and develop a sense of self have become recurrent in most novels. This dissertation examines and compares the coming-of-age processes and the formations of identity in the protagonists of Anne of Green Gables (1908) by L.M. Montgomery and The Graveyard Book (2008) by Neil Gaiman, whose transitions to adulthood seem to follow an unconventional pattern. By using YAL theory as theoretical framework, this study identifies the elements of the characters’ childhoods that determine their complex processes of growing up, and considers what socio-cultural factors help both of them construct their adult identities.
- ItemOpen AccessLearning English as a Second Language: A Comparison between Spanish and Adopted Chinese Teenagers(2021) Vicente González, Maria EsmeraldaWith globalization, the flow of immigration and adoptions has increased over the years. In Spain, and particularly in Catalonia, a lot of children with different nationalities learn Spanish, Catalan, and English apart from their native language(s). In the cases of native Spanish and adopted Chinese, Spanish and Catalan tend to be their mother tongue because children have a high exposure to these languages in school and preschool from a very early age. In the case of English, however, children go through a second language acquisition learning process, which implies learning English when they have already acquired their first language. This paper compares the difficulties of learning English as a second language between teenagers born in Spain and teenagers adopted from China in a high school environment. Most research has shown difficulties when learning English as a Second Language focusing on Spanish students (Jiménez & O’shanahan, 2010) or Chinese learners of English in China (Gao, Zheng, Nichols, Zhang, Shang & Liu, 2019). This paper contributes with a comparison between these two groups in a different perspective. In order to identify the possible differences in English learning written surveys and activities will be used in active and passive English skills, together with the reasons for such obstacles when learning English which are likely to vary among both groups.
- ItemOpen AccessMigration-Related Heritatge Languages in the English Classroom: A Plurilingual Approach(2021) Teixidó Castro, EmmaThe place for the L1s (first languages) in the foreign language classroom has been a common object of discussion, perhaps even more so with today’s growing linguistic and cultural diversity, caused mainly by migration-related mobility. This final degree project looks at the most relevant studies regarding the use of L1s in the ESL classroom and discusses the plurilingual perspective proposed by García and Wei (2014). In Catalonia, some scholars have argued that the bilingualism already present in most students –with both Catalan and Spanish as mother tongues- can be positively used in the English classroom in different ways (González-Davies, 2017). However, there has been little research on the inclusion of other L1s, namely those related with migration backgrounds. This thesis intends to analyze the outcomes of adopting a plurilingual approach in which the ‘heritage languages’ of students, meaning those that are mainly spoken in their home environments (Hornberger, 2005), are included in the classroom activities. Through the planning and subsequent implementation of a plurilingual proposal in a primary school classroom, discursive evidence is taken to analyze how this approach can impact students’ motivation, self-confidence and language awareness. Additionally, an interview with the teacher carrying out the lesson plan provides a complementary perspective on the matter.