Tesis Doctorals - Departament - Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos

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The Role of L2 Speaking Anxiety in L2 Speaking Fluency, Pronunciation Accuracy and Comprehensibility in Instructed English
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2025-09-10) Sosa López, Gisela; Mora Bonilla, Joan Carles; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] Socio-psychological factors such as Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) are an important source of individual differences in foreign language acquisition of (Horwitz et al., 1986). FLA is known to hinder language achievement by impairing learners’ ability to perform in a FL class successfully (Baran-Łucarz, 2022; Horwitz et al., 1986; MacIntyre, 2017; Teimouri et al., 2019), and negatively interacting with cognitive processes underlying speaking, such as attention control (Kormos, 2015). Despite extensive previous research on FLA, L2 speaking anxiety (defined as the feeling of nervousness when speaking the target FL) and the reason for its fluctuations have been under-researched, even in instructed FL classrooms where learners report speaking-oriented activities, especially oral presentations, to be highly anxiety-evoking (Tóth, 2017; Price, 1991; Young, 1990). Furthermore, few studies have examined the effects of task type and context, and the role of L2 speaking anxiety on L2 speaking fluency (e.g., Mora et al., 2023), comprehensibility, accentedness, and lexical and structural complexity. Moreover, proficiency and cognitive factors such as working memory and attention also contribute to individual differences in foreign language acquisition (Mora, 2022). However, it remains an under-researched empirical question whether higher proficiency, high working memory capacity and more efficient attention control provide an advantage to anxious learners when performing speaking tasks, resulting in more fluent speaking performance. FLA has traditionally been studied as a static construct and has been assessed subjectively through questionnaires. However, it varies in intensity and duration and fluctuates over time. Consequently, more recent research includes new subjective tools (e.g., the idiodynamic task; MacInyre, 2012) and physiological measures of emotional arousal (e.g., heart rate). Nonetheless, the relationship between subjective and physiological measures of speaking anxiety is still not well understood. Similarly, studies investigating whether self-reported anxiety and others’ perceptions align or the specific non-verbal cues used to detect nervousness are scarce. The present study employs a mixed-methods approach to investigate five key areas related to L2 speaking anxiety: (1) the effects of task type, context and language; (2) the alignment between self-reported anxiety and others’ perceptions, and the most prominent non-verbal anxiety cues; (3) the alignment between subjective and physiological measures; (4) anxiety effects on L2 speech; and (5) L2 speaking anxiety sources. 86 EFL learners performed eight oral presentations, in counterbalanced order, under two presentation contexts (one-to-one vs. group, N = 7) and two task types (descriptive vs. argumentative). Four of these presentations were performed in their L2 (English) and the remaining four in their L1. In the descriptive tasks, learners had to explain past experiences (e.g., a tough challenge), while the argumentative tasks consisted of discussing three different pictures in relation to a topic (e.g., three modes of transportation within the city). After each presentation, audience members perceptually assessed the level of nervousness in the speakers, while speakers self-assessed their distress using questionnaires and the idiodynamic task. In the latter, learners had to watch videos of their oral presentations and self-assess their moment-to-moment distress levels. Additionally, stimulated recalls were also conducted for the L2 oral presentations, allowing participants to reflect on anxiety episodes in their speeches. To capture multiple perspectives of L2 speaking anxiety, self-reports were accompanied with physiological measures, including heart rate and electrodermal activity (Boucsein, 1992). Apart from computing objective L2 speech measures (e.g., breakdown fluency), accentedness and comprehensibility were assessed through native speakers’ ratings. In addition, individual differences controlled for included L2 proficiency (elicited Imitation; Wu et al., 2021), vocabulary size (yes/no vocabulary size test; Meara & Miralpeix, 2017), attention (trail making test; Reitan, 1958) and working memory (forward and backward digit span task; Woods et al., 2011). Results indicated that physiological measures were largely unaffected by task type, context, and language, while subjective measures revealed significant main effects across all three speaking conditions. Anxiety was higher in argumentative tasks, particularly in group settings in the L2. Discrepancies were found between self-reported anxiety and external evaluations, especially during descriptive tasks. Additionally, the audience members, particularly the helper, perceived participants as more anxious than participants reported. While the audience identified many non-verbal cues of L2 speaking anxiety, the lack of eye contact with them was the most frequently reported sign. Regarding subjective and physiological measures of L2 anxiety, weak significant correlations were found between self-assessments and physiological measures of anxiety, suggesting a certain relationship between the measures. In this study negative relationships were found between anxiety and L2 speech. Hence, anxiety had a detrimental effect on fluency, comprehensibility, accentedness, accuracy, and lexical variety. However, proficiency emerged as the strongest predictor of speaking performance. After controlling for L2 proficiency and cognitive factors (working memory and attention), pause frequency measures were detrimentally affected by FLA. Lastly, cognitive-related concerns emerged as the main sources of L2 speaking anxiety, with high-anxiety learners focusing on cognitive challenges, while low-anxiety learners emphasizing linguistic issues, such as pronunciation. Globally, the present study suggests an influence of L2 speaking anxiety on task performance and speech quality and paves the way for further research in L2 speaking anxiety to promote pedagogical practices aimed at reducing anxiety and its effects within foreign language classrooms.
Towards a Semantics of Narrative Emotions: The Case of Extreme Empathy
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2025-10-08) Baila Bigué, Sara; Alsina, Cristina; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] Despite rising attention to affect and empathy in recent literary studies, the formal construction and narrative function of emotions remains underexplored. Motivated by the lack of narratological and semantic analyses of fictional emotionality, this dissertation undertakes their examination of narrative emotions through “extreme empathy”: the emotional engagement with morally compromised characters. The central objective of this thesis is to demonstrate that narrative emotions are central to fictional semantics, constructed and promoted through literary devices and, therefore, potentially analyzed through narratology. Specifically, it explores how extreme empathy functions both as a textual strategy and a phenomenological experience facilitated by fictional worlds, which I conceptualize as parasocial worlds—worlds whose fictionality enables an extension of the reader’s emotional and moral capacities. To mirror the three stages of the literary process—its configuration, narrativization, and reception—the thesis is structured into three interrelated Blocks, each followed by an Interlude that bridges transitions. Block I lays the theoretical groundwork of the project by introducing key concepts from affect theory and empathy studies. This section critically repositions the concept of empathy and formulates the notion of “extreme empathy”, derived from “negative empathy” (Lipps, Ercolino & Fusillo). The Block concludes with a conceptual framework that situates extreme empathy as a complex and underexplored phenomenon, ideally suited for the investigation of narrative emotions. Following an examination of the metaphysical status of fictional emotions and the epistemological relationship between empathy and reading, Block II forms the theoretical core of the dissertation, as it articulates a tentative semantics of narrative emotions. Drawing on possible-worlds theory and Lubomír Doležel’s fictional semantics, I redefine narrative emotions as “elementary building blocks” of fictional worlds. The section enlarges Doležel’s semantics to propose a semantic taxonomy of narrative emotions that seeks to enable their analysis. Finally, this block theorizes parasocial engagement in fiction, wherein readers experience fictional emotions within a morally safe narrative space. Block III constitutes the practical component of the project, as it applies the previously established theoretical model. Through the empathy-oriented narratological analyses of two contemporary novels, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966) and Les Bienveillantes by Jonathan Littell (2006), I identify the literary devices— empathy builders—in the narratological categories of voice, mood, and tense (Genette) that may contribute to the emergence of extreme empathy in these case studies. The concept of tone—an aesthetic notion introduced by T.W. Adorno and scarcely developed in academic discourse—is also examined in relation to both novels. A comparative analysis of the two empathy-oriented readings seeks to draw broader conclusions about the construction of extreme empathy. To complete the literary pathway of fictional emotions and particularly of extreme empathy, this thesis closes with a reflection on the paradoxical impossibility of both theorizing the reception of fictional emotions and overlooking the weight of hermeneutics in their study. The goal of establishing complete fictional semantics of narrative emotions has led this dissertation to adopt a highly interdisciplinary methodology. Hence, this research draws on various domains within literary studies, including affect theory, semantics, phenomenological hermeneutics, aesthetics, narratology, and political philosophy, thus establishing a dialogue between academic sub-fields that are seldom brought together. In conclusion, this dissertation aims to propose a viable semantics of fictional emotions—one that treats them not as ineffable experiences but as essential elements of narrative worlds, enabled by the unique parasocial conditions of fiction and transmitted through formal narrative structures. The empathy-centered formal and thematical analysis of In Cold Blood and Les bienveillantes advances understanding of an aspect of novels celebrated by readers but often overlooked by scholars: their emotionality.
Interlanguage Pragmatics in Greek as a Foreign Language by Spanish/Catalan Bilinguals: An Analysis of Requests
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2025-07-11) Cañas Villarreal, Javier; Celaya Villanueva, Ma. Luz (María Luz), 1962-; Andria, María; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] The speech act of requests has been widely investigated in the field of Interlanguage Pragmatics (ILP) throughout the years (i.e., Alcón Soler et al., 2005, Barón, 2015; Cohen & Shively, 2007; Martínez-Flor, 2003; Taguchi, 2006), due to its highly face-threatening nature (Vilar & Martínez-Flor, 2008) and strong connection with politeness and cross-cultural differences (Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984; Blum-Kulka et al., 1989; Brown & Levinson, 1987; Ishihara & Cohen, 2021). Despite the growing body of research on L2 English requests by native speakers of Greek in recent years (i.e., Economidou-Kogetsidis, 2012; 2018; 2022), little attention has been given to the acquisition of requests in Greek as a Foreign Language (FL), with only a few studies existing to date (Bella 2012a, 2012b, 2014a). In order to fill this gap in the field, the present dissertation intends to analyze the acquisition of requests in L2 Greek by Spanish/Catalan bilinguals. First, it aims to analyze the role of proficiency in their use of requests across a variety of contexts. Second, it examines the use of requests by L2 Greek learners in informal and formal communicative situations, characterized by different social parameters (-/+social power and - /+social distance). Lastly, it explores pragmatic transfer from a learner's L1 to their L2 in requesting behavior regarding the use of address forms in Greek (informal versus formal form of ‘you’). Thus, the theoretical foundations of this dissertation revolve around ILP, the speech act of requests, requests in Greek, and pragmatic transfer. The participants of this study were 54 (n = 54) adult learners of Greek (NNS), enrolled in language courses at two schools in Barcelona, Spain, with proficiency levels ranging from A2 to C1, as per the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001). Additionally, a group of native speakers of Greek (NS) (n = 53) was included to provide a baseline for comparison. Data was gathered through role plays with varying degrees of social parameters (-/+social power and -/+social distance). A background questionnaire was administered to the NNS to obtain information about their language profile, time learning Greek, previous experience with the language, and motivations for learning Greek. Moreover, retrospective verbal reports were conducted to provide insights into their perceptions of familiarity, prior experience, and level of difficulty of each scenario presented in the role plays. The data were then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, adapting Bella’s (2012a, 2012b) categorizations of Greek requests and modifications. Results have revealed no statistically significant differences between the NS and NNS in the types of requests, although several differences were observed in the qualitative analysis in some scenarios. Conversely, statistically significant differences were obtained regarding the use of modifications across various scenarios. The aforementioned divergences appeared to stem from the varying social parameters inherent to each context, which seemed to influence the NNS’s choice of requests and mitigation devices. Proficiency appeared to affect the type and amount of modifiers, both external and internal, revealing notable differences among groups based on the specific context, with advanced learners performing more in line with native-speaker norms. Findings revealed that the NNS struggled more when using requests and mitigation devices in formal contexts, showing a lack of sociopragmatic competence. Additionally, statistically significant differences were also found between the NS and NNS in the use of address forms when making requests in three particular scenarios. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the pedagogical implications of these findings for teaching L2 learners to use requests in Greek appropriately across communicative situations, while adhering to Greek politeness standards. This study lays the groundwork for future research on cross-linguistic pragmatics within this underexplored combination of languages and promotes further investigation into request strategies across various linguistic contexts.
Content Support in Second Language Writing and Its Impact on Writing Performance and Writing Processes
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2024-06-20) Li, Yanmei; Gilabert Guerrero, Roger; Vasylets, Olena; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] The study of writing as a site for language learning has led to the exploration of learning affordance of task complexity in L2 writing, a task implementation feature that has received growing attention in task-based language learning and teaching (TBLT) literature. A key objective of this line of research is to investigate how the cognitive demands of tasks affect writing performance and language development of L2 writers based on the related hypothesis and the writing model (Kellogg, 1996; Robinson, 2001, 2011; Skehan, 1998). Given the complex, problem-solving nature of writing, one of the investigated task features is the provision of content support, which is expected to reduce the conceptual demands on the planning process and direct more attentional resources to the translation process. However, previous studies have offered little evidence of the effect of content support on L2 writing performance, and whether and how content support can affect the cognitive writing processes and learning is still an open question. The current research adds to empirical evidence in its attempt to explore the potential role of content support, manipulated as a resource-dispersing task complexity feature, in L2 written production and writing processes. In this study, participants were Chinese EFL learners in their first year in high school (N = 24, lower-intermediate level, Mage = 16). They were divided into two groups: one performed the writing task with content support (CS group), and the other wrote without content support (NCS group). Participants in each group completed four writing tasks, including two argumentative tasks and two article-writing tasks, over four weeks. Immediately after each writing task, they reported their cognitive processes regarding thinking about ideas generation, ideas elaboration and ideas organisation, easy structure, and language aspects. In addition, semi-structured interviews tapping into writing processes were conducted with the sub-group of the participants (N = 12). Lastly, writing samples were transcribed and analysed for linguistic and propositional complexity, accuracy, fluency, and overall text quality. Interview data were coded in terms of writing processes (i.e., planning, translation and monitoring) and other meta-comments. Our results reveal that content support elicited significantly higher lexical diversity and a tendency toward higher coordination, while the absence of content support showed a tendency toward more words generated. However, there were no significant differences between the groups in other performance measures. Regarding the within-group changes over time, the content support group produced longer, more meaningful and higher-quality texts at the expense of linguistic complexity. On the other hand, the absence of content support likely resulted in more stable writing performance over time. Regarding the cognitive processes of writing, L2 writers reported higher frequencies of engaging in the metacognitive processes under the condition when content support was absent. On the other hand, when content support was provided to reduce the conceptual demands in the planning process, L2 writers geared their attentional resources primarily to content planning rather than the lexico-grammatical concerns. Our findings suggest that content support offered favourable conditions for lower-intermediate-level learners to orchestrate cognitive processes to produce good writing in the longer term. These findings allow us to understand the cognitive complexity involved in the writing tasks, expand the effect of content support on L2 writing performance and writing cognition to language learners at a lower proficiency level and fill the gap in longitudinal task-based investigations on L2 writing. This study also offers implications for explaining the focus of attention of lower-intermediate L2 writers in the planning, translation, and monitoring process and understanding how they manage the cognitive resources and select information to complete the writing tasks. Pedagogically, our findings provide EFL teachers with guidance on delivering effective content planning strategies to learners and designing practical writing tasks that engage learners in focusing on both the communicative requirements and language aspects of the task.
Lexical development in very young EFL learners: A longitudinal study on early multilingualism
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2024-03-20) Alexandrescu, Cristina; Miralpeix, Imma; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] Multilingualism is one of the many effects of globalisation. The need to be proficient in several languages has sprung from people’s need to expand their universe outside their countries of origin in search for a better life or a more successful career. As a result, more and more children are exposed to languages either from birth or later on, when they start attending kindergarten, and it is now quite common for a child to be acquainted with two or more languages from an early age (Muñoz & Singleton, 2019). English is one of the most highly valued languages across the globe and has the second highest number of speakers in the world. In countries such as Spain, parents encourage their children to learn this language and therefore send them to either private afterschool academies or, to a lesser extent, English immersion schools. In Catalonia, where Spanish and Catalan are spoken, English is learned as a Foreign Language (FL), and nowadays an early introduction to this language is common. This thesis deals with young Spanish-Catalan bilinguals who learn English in an immersion school. Because lexis is a crucial aspect of language acquisition, especially at very young ages, we measure the lexical development of a group of 51 children in all three languages over three years. Their performance was analysed longitudinally from ages 3 to 5. Their receptive and productive vocabularies in the three languages are compared to a control group consisting of children of the same ages but attending a regular school and following a regular school curriculum. The children’s performance at the end of the immersion school is also compared to that of a group of students in seventh grade (1ESO), at the beginning of secondary school in the regular curriculum. To assess lexical development in English, we used the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MBCDI; Fenson et al., 1983/2007). The Spanish version of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT; Dunn et al., 2010), together with its Catalan version, were used to assess Spanish and Catalan vocabularies, respectively. At the end of kindergarten (age 5), students also performed an oral storytelling task. Findings show that the immersion group made steady progress in terms of their receptive and productive vocabularies in English, which were significantly larger than those of the participants in the control group. With regard to Spanish and Catalan, results also showed significant gains over time. When comparing the immersion group to the control group in Spanish and Catalan, results indicate that both groups performed similarly in Spanish, but not in Catalan (in this latter language, participants in the control group scored significantly higher than those in the immersion group). Regarding the productive vocabulary assessed in the storytelling task, results were mixed: some measures show a trend favouring the immersion group, others are in favour of the regular school group and yet others are not significant. Therefore, the amount of exposure provided in immersion settings seems to quickly boost vocabulary learning in young children, whose performance is, in some aspects, still better than that of students in the regular group at the beginning of secondary school. While lexical competence in Spanish does not seem to be affected by intensive exposure to English (no significant differences were found between groups), the results for Catalan indicate that children in the immersion school lag behind their same-aged peers in the control group. Further analyses taking language dominance into account indicated that there were no significant differences in Spanish and Catalan PPVT scores between regular and immersion groups in Spanish-dominant participants. However, significant differences in favour of the regular curriculum group were found for Catalan-dominant children. It remains to be seen whether this is a temporary effect and whether it disappears in the short run as exposure to the L1/L2 accumulates. Results are discussed in the light of previous research and pedagogical implications are considered in relation to young learners’ early introduction to FL.
De conques i altres cavernes. Orificialitat i visió en ficcions del segle XXI
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2023-09-29) Isern Ordeig, Maria, 1994-; González Fernández, Helena, 1967-; Segarra, Marta; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[cat] Inscrita en el marc dels estudis de gènere i sexualitat i servint-se de les eines de la teoria literària i la literatura comparada, aquesta tesi explora la interrelació entre l’orificialitat i la visió en ficcions literàries, gràfiques i cinematogràfiques del s. XXI. L’objecte d’estudi es desplega a partir d’una primera problemàtica inicial, teòrica i metodològica: la relació entre cossos i textos, materialitat i textualitat. Basant-se en les perspectives dels nous materialismes, els estudis queer i les lectures feministes del postestructuralisme francès, en el primer capítol es planteja una possible articulació d’aquesta relació que recull la continuïtat entre els processos de materialització del cos i els de la seva textualització. De la proposta es desprèn i es justifica l’organització estructural de la tesi mateixa: tres capítols posteriors pensats com a zones liminars del cos humà, que examinen l’objecte d’estudi emplaçant-lo, respectivament, en l’ull, forat del rostre (capítol 2), els forats corporals associats a la sexualitat (capítol 3) i la pell, òrgan orificial (capítol 4). Un corpus primari de tres obres —literària, gràfica i cinematogràfica— travessa l’articulació analítica de tot el treball i un corpus d’obres secundàries l’amplia puntualment. Es parteix de la idea que en el context de les epistemologies fal·logocularcèntriques occidentals el cos ha estat concebut com a objecte metafísic apriorístic, i els seus orificis, ens ambigus al llindar de la visibilitat, reduïts a absència. A partir d’anàlisis comparatístiques i interdisciplinars es desplega la hipòtesi que els orificis corporals juguen un rol important en la construcció semàntica, simbòlica i social del cos sexuat, especialment des del punt de vista de la normativitat, i a la vegada, en tant que terreny corpotextual, que aquesta orificialitat resulta un espai de qüestionament i subversió constant de tals semàntiques. En les anàlisis es constata que aquesta doble dinàmica es dona conjuntament amb la mobilització d’una sèrie de poètiques de la visió que passen per la imbricació de l’ull, tradicionalment abstret de l’economia matèrica del cos, en el territori corporal, obrint la possibilitat d’imaginar, representar i escriure la materialitat altrament: propera a la fluïdesa, la transitorietat, la liminaritat i la porositat associada als orificis. Es conclou per constatar la productivitat de l’estudi de la interacció entre l’orificialitat i la visió per establir models de corporalitat dominants en el sistema sexe/gènere clàssic, sostingut en els binarismes natura/cultura i masculí/femení. A la vegada, es confirma el fort potencial d’aquesta teorització per ampliar el pensament de la diferència sexual i els seus imaginaris a expressions menys dicotòmiques, més plurals i queers.
Task-based pronunciation teaching and learning of L2 vowels in EFL learners: task complexity effects
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2023-06-06) Mora Plaza, Ingrid; Mora Bonilla, Joan Carles; Gilabert Guerrero, Roger; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] Second language (L2) pronunciation learning in foreign language instructional contexts is particularly challenging due to insufficient quantity and quality of L2 input. Decades of L2 speech acquisition research have demonstrated that L1 phonology exerts a strong influence in L2 phonological learning (Best & Tyler, 2007; Flege & Bohn, 2021). One way to mitigate the effects of L1 phonological interference may be to raise learners’ awareness of the relevant L2 pronunciation targets through tasks that encourage attention to pronunciation within meaning-based interaction. Although form-focused communicative approaches have been gaining interest in pronunciation teaching research (Darcy & Rocca, 2023), few investigations have applied task-based language teaching (TBLT) principles, which involve real-world processes of language use, to L2 pronunciation learning (Gurzynski-Weiss et al., 2017a). So far, none have assessed gains in L2 vowel perception, lexical encoding and production for the same participants after a pedagogical intervention. Furthermore, studies investigating whether the predictions of the Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson, 2011b) can extend to L2 phonology are relatively scarce. This doctoral dissertation seeks to contribute to task-based pronunciation teaching (TBPT) research by (1) examining the effectiveness of task design manipulation and (2) exploring the effects of increased task complexity on the pronunciation of two difficult English vowel contrasts (/iː-ɪ/, /æ-ʌ/); (3) assessing to what extent individual differences may mediate L2 vowel performance and gains; and (4) obtaining learners’ perceptions of TBPT and L2 vowel learning. A total of 92 bilingual Catalan/Spanish learners of English were divided into two experimental groups and a control group. Sixty-three experimental learners carried out 20 dyadic problem-solving tasks over 7 weeks. Participants were assigned to either simple (N=31) or complex (N=32) cognitive task complexity groups depending on the number of reasoning demands along resource-directing dimensions the tasks involved. Task completion required the distinction of the target minimal pairs (e.g., bean-bin, cat-cut), which learners were exposed to during the pre-task and consolidated in the post-task. Improvement in L2 vowel perception and lexical encoding was gauged through ABX discrimination and forced lexical choice and lexical decision tasks (accuracy and reaction time) respectively, and in production though delayed word and sentence repetition tasks (Mahalanobis distances between contrastive vowels and between non-native and native speakers’ productions). Additionally, we calculated the occurrence of pronunciation- focused language related episodes (P-LRE) and assessed learners’ individual differences in L2 experience, L2 proficiency, working memory and auditory selective attention. Results showed that the TBPT intervention enhanced the discrimination and lexical encoding of L2 vowel contrasts, and resulted in significantly more distinct and accurate vowel productions when they were elicited in words in isolation and sentences. Gains in vowel discrimination and vowel quality generalized to untaught lexical contexts and were retained 11 weeks after the intervention. Although simple and complex task groups improved L2 pronunciation after the TBPT intervention, performing cognitively demanding tasks led to greater long-term gains in the discrimination, lexical encoding and production of L2 vowels than performing simple tasks. However, increased task complexity did not have a significant impact on the frequency and duration of P-LRE. As for individual differences, working memory and selective attention explained larger inter- individual variation in L2 vowel performance than English experience, but learner factors were only weakly associated to L2 vowel gains. Last, learners expressed a general sense of enjoyment and learning after the TBPT intervention, but self-perceived L2 pronunciation improvement was especially evident in the complex group. Globally, the present study suggests that orienting learners’ attention to phonological form during oral communication is beneficial for L2 pronunciation development, and paves the way for further research in task design and manipulation so as to promote pedagogical practices for pronunciation learning in foreign language classrooms.
Neoliberalism, class, subjectivity: a sociological perspective on post-recession british theatre
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2023-05-02) Mendez Panadés, Albert; Escoda, Clara; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] This PhD dissertation, entitled “Neoliberalism, Class, Subjectivity: A Sociological Perspective on Post-Recession British Theatre / Neoliberalisme, classe, subjectivitat: una mirada sociològica al teatre britànic post-crisi” aims to contribute to the field of theatre studies by offering an analysis of Beats (2012; published 2013), by Kieran Hurley, In the Republic of Happiness, by Martin Crimp (2012), and Mouthpiece (2018), also by Hurley, from the perspective of how these plays formally and rhetorically react to a context of post-recession crisis and austerity, in which neoliberal discourses overemphasising individual agency have prevailed. After a long disregard of class during the 1980s and 1990s, Siân Adiseshiah (2016) and Nadine Holdsworth (2019) have identified that there has been a return to class issues in 21st-century British drama. In line with this, this thesis intends to expand existing scholarly literature on the subject of class, by arguing that Beats, In the Republic of Happiness, and Mouthpiece are part of a broader cultural response to the 2008 financial crash and the capitalist management of crisis, in which dominant narratives of meritocracy or prosperity were questioned and discourses around class difference and inequality regained significance. The coming of the neoliberal paradigm, with flexible market and labour relationships, the erosion of traditional identities, the distrust of metanarratives and the transition from the industrial producer to the individual consumer, led some politicians and sociologists to deliberately discredit class as an old-fashioned term. Instead, they extolled the individualised middle-class self as the universal and normative ideal in post-industrial societies. Drawing on Beverley Skeggs (2004a) and Imogen Tyler’s (2013, 2020) sociological work, this thesis contends that neoliberalism propagates normative forms of personhood through othering and stigmatising discourses that render working-class individuals as abject, irresponsible, ungovernable and unable to accrue value to/for themselves. More specifically, it is claimed that the plays discussed have absorbed these class concerns since they identify, defamiliarise, challenge or satirise the dominant neoliberal form of subjectivity in a way that contributes to put class issues back on stage. In addition, and by reference to Paul Murphy’s analysis of class as performance (2012) and Tyler’s account of class as struggles against classification (2013), the thesis also explores how these plays understand class in a relational way, by considering othering discourses that culturally reinforce inequality in classed subjectivities. In line with this theoretical framework, the thesis argues that Beats reveals and resists the demonisation and devaluation of working-class young subjects by mobilising and interpellating spectators via affects of solidarity or a historical reading of communitarian forms of resistance that may disturb neoliberal forms of power. In the Republic of Happiness satirises and maximises the neoliberal subjectivity embodied by the character of Marlene, and warns us against neoliberal discourses of authenticity, security or wellbeing activated by the desire for happiness. Finally, Mouthpiece cautions against representations that essentialise working-class identities as valueless and abject, attaching them to narratives of decline. Last but not least, by exploring how the character of Declan revolts against this cultural stereotyping, the thesis confirms that a focus on how working-class subjects resist or disidentify themselves from dominant regimes of value is highly productive for a class-based analysis of theatre.
Representations of Memory in Contemporary South African Literature by Young, Black, Female Authors
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2023-04-21) Winstanley, Laura; Renes, Cornelis Martin; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] This thesis explores the representation and construction of collective memory published in South Africa since 2007 by young, black, female authors. Collective memory is what is remembered about the past in order to create a desired national or other social identity. The purpose of this thesis is to explore different facets of South African identity and the way in which collective memory both constitutes group identity and is, in turn, constituted by such groups. This thesis analyses the role of gender, generation and race in the development of collective memory. The research methods included analysis of texts, specifically literature through the theoretical lens of memory studies specifically the work of Aleida and Jan Assmann. Postcolonial theory and more recent discourses of decolonisation have also played an important role in the analysis of these contemporary texts. Primary sources include interviews with the authors of the key texts, conducted by me and others, as well as the texts themselves. The thesis concludes that contemporary South African authors are moving away from earlier postapartheid literature, with its preoccupation on apartheid, to focus on the issues facing South Africa today. Contemporary literature represents the survival of precolonial memory, and its recovery after the fall of apartheid. It explores the experience of black people in a country and a world which still favours whiteness over blackness. Black people remain economically disadvantaged, which leads to a lack of access, for the vast majority to political or social power. It illustrates the structural racism resulting in economic and social inequality as well as the potential of decolonisation to complement South Africa’s political independence. These authors create a sense of what it means to be a black woman in South Africa. Feminist rewritings and an insistence of women’s importance as creators and distributors of collective memory are a feature of all these texts. Finally, the role of generation in the construction of collective memory is demonstrated in these texts by their avoidance of the apartheid as a topic and focus on a variety of contemporary issues. The expectation and disappointment which characterises this generation pervades the literature they have produced. Contemporary authors attempt to shape the vision of South African memory in order to bring about social change. They view their work as a contribution to collective memory. They attempt to amplify what South African identity and memory means, and fill in the gaps left by national metanarratives which continue to dominate the postcolonial nation. These authors are multiply disadvantaged by race, gender and age. They view part of their role as readdressing the lack of literature published by people like them, and the lack of representation they find within canonised literature. This thesis explores the varied and innovate ways in which they are contributing to literature and to collective memory.
The Performance of Racial and Gender Terror in debbie tucker green’s ear for eye (2018) and Travis Alabanza’s Burgerz (2018)
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2023-05-26) Massana Vidal, Elisabeth; Monforte, Enric; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] This PhD thesis, entitled “The Performance of Racial and Gender Terror in debbie tucker green’s ear for eye (2018) and Travis Alabanza’s Burgerz (2018)” contributes to the field of theatre studies by analysing how debbie tucker green and Travis Alabanza’s plays engage with contemporary forms of racial and gender terror respectively. By applying a queer methodology to text-based theatre, the aim of the thesis is to offer non-hegemonic approaches to the analysis of terror in post-9/11 British drama by looking at two plays which do not traditionally find themselves within the theatre on terror corpus. Alongside the plays, it discusses material produced by the playwrights and which expands the scope of each particular project, both temporally and in terms of their aesthetics. This includes the filmed version of tucker green’s ear for eye (2021) and sound and video recordings of Alabanza’s Tranz Talkz, a series of conversations held in parallel to the creation of the play with various gender non-conforming people throughout the UK. The thesis is organized in two acts, each of which is followed by a short interval. Act One provides the theoretical and methodological frameworks of the thesis. Firstly, drawing on the work of Judith Butler, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Rustom Bharucha and Sara Ahmed, it looks at the effects and affects generated by the hegemonic epistemological framework of terror that emerged after 9/11, and it offers a brief overview of how studies on theatre and terror(ism) (Boll, 2013; de Waal, 2016; Hughes, 2007, 2011; Soncini, 2016; Spencer, 2018) have engaged with it, contributing, perhaps inadvertently, to the perpetuation of this frame. Secondly, drawing on the work of Hannah McCann, Jack Halberstam, José Esteban Muñoz and Sara Ahmed, amongst others, it drafts a scavenger queer methodology which is used to distort the aforementioned framework, slide into queer disorientation and propose a series of key methodological principles and keywords used in the analysis of the two plays, including queer temporalities, queer messiness, and a focus on aspects of livability and worldmaking. The first interval that follows provides a justification as to what are the benefits of approaching an analysis on contemporary forms of terror through a queer lens. Attending to their own particular contexts, Act Two analyses ear for eye through the lens of racial terror and locates how Burgerz discusses forms of gender terror, focusing on how, through its different aesthetic and dramaturgical devices, the plays engage with the principles and keywords previously identified. Some of the formal aspects analysed are elements of Afrodiasporic aesthetics in tucker green’s play and the use of the archive as an act of radical communal care in Alabanza. The final interval interrogates how the discomfort experienced by white and cisgender audience members watching these plays can be (messily) discussed in ways which are not complicit with the hegemonic frameworks that silence these forms of terror, and with forms of epistemic violence towards the racialized and gender non-conforming subjects the plays discuss. Overall the thesis contributes towards expanding the language used to discuss the representation of terror on stage, it proposes a queer methodology for text-based drama that can be applied to the analysis of other plays, and it offers the first available analysis of both the play and the filmed version of ear for eye, as well as the first discussion of Burgerz alongside the archived material of Tranz Talkz, some of which is transcribed and included in a final annex.
Exploring lifelong learning motivational ecologies through the narratives of senior language users
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2023-07-11) Darnault, Bérénice; Tragant Mestres, Elsa; Lasagabaster Herrarte, David; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] In the context of an ageing and increasingly more independent learning population, a narrative inquiry into the life stories of highly motivated senior language users remains a promising yet relatively unexplored area. The literature review shows there have been no attempts to understand language learning in third age and lifelong motivation in L2 all combined, let alone to theorise around them from an emic and narrative perspective. More particularly, the study of older learners’ life decisions, learning beliefs and motivational predispositions to successful language practice in light of their own timeline, remains an uncharted area. This doctoral dissertation approaches motivation in foreign language learning as a lifelong individual process that evolves along a narrative continuum, developing over the course of life, personal experiences, choices and events. As such, the study embraces a complexity approach to researching the history of self-constructs and motivational patterns across life. In this thesis, I aimed to investigate the motivational life trajectories of three highly motivated foreign language senior users through their personal self-accounts. This research reviewed the existing gap in the age-related and lifelong language learning research agenda, and the niche to explore third age language learning in light of the theories of Complex Dynamic Systems (CDST), L2 Motivational Self-System (L2MSS), and Directed Motivational Currents (DMC). As such, I proposed cross- disciplinary connections, locating third age L2 learning experience in the wider spectrum of L2 motivation, lifelong learning and geragogy. The study examined seniors’ L2 commitment across nested time scales and within self-defined intensity, reflected in the chronological investigation of attractor states, and more particularly DMCs and High Peaks of Motivation (HPMs). Not only did the study aim to assess what generated seniors’ motivation in a situated manner, i.e., in each self-assessed pivotal turning points, but also what sustained it all throughout their lives. A triangulated and multimodal approach was adopted in order to collect data by means of two semi-structured retrospective interviews with three French senior learners of English aged between 65 and 80 years old, who commonly participated in regular language conversation exchange during coffee meetings in Nice (France). Multiple instruments were used, including photos, email exchanges, phone text messages, books, letters, academic records, questionnaire, and drawings. Their lifelong stories with language learning were recorded in a chronological order, from childhood up to their current practice and learning experience. Results show that all three learners experienced several cued DMCs and HPMs in language learning across their lives, and through flows of self-integrated and autonomously generated energy and drive. Upon retirement, they incorporated language learning into their daily routine, making language practice as a default trait that was part of their broader sense of self. A hybrid L2 self emerged in later years, drawing from the combination of ought-to, ideal and anti-ought-to selves that prevailed with different degrees of intensity according to life periods. The accumulation of L2 motivational peaks and DMCs not only helped shape an evolutive motivational self system, but also grow a self-directed L2 learning ecology and motivational reservoir that today keep flourishing through the search for sustained wellbeing. The insights that were drawn from the present investigation could hopefully not only debunk folk wisdom related to age-related cognitive decline in additional language learning, but also help optimize foreign language education quality for senior learners through better appreciation and anticipation on the autonomous third age learning experience.
Language Learning from Subtitled TV Series in the Primary EFL Classroom
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2023-04-21) Casulleras Marquès, Montserrat; Miralpeix, Imma; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos; Foreign language teaching
[eng] Even if audiovisual materials have been shown to offer several advantages for L2 learning (Danan, 2004), in previous literature very little attention has been paid to L2 learning from multimodal input in young low-proficiency learners (d’Ydewalle & Van de Poel, 1999; Matielo et al., 2015; Alexiou, 2015). Furthermore, most of the studies conducted so far are one-off studies, while there is scarce longitudinal research on extensive viewing with young populations in instructional settings (Gesa, 2019; Avello, 2023). In this study, two groups of Spanish/Catalan students learning English as FL at primary school, watched one episode a week of the animated TV series Curious George with the audio in English but subtitles either in Spanish (L1S, N=47) or English (L2S, N=45) over a period of 5 months. After each episode, students were immediately tested on episode comprehension and L2 written word-form recognition. In order to explore the role of several variables on their scores, before the intervention learners answered a questionnaire enquiring about previous out-of-school exposure (OSE) to audiovisual materials. They were also tested on language aptitude, L1 / L2 Reading Speed (RS) and L2 receptive Vocabulary Size (VS). Finally, in order to examine possible changes in their viewing behaviour when they were repeatedly exposed to multimodal input over a long period of time, they answered the same video watching questionnaire before and after the intervention. Results showed that both groups were understanding the videos and learning vocabulary from them: although differences between the groups were not always significant, the L1S group consistently scored higher in comprehension, while the L2S group was better at L2 word-form recognition of known and new words appearing in the episodes. Linguistic aptitude was revealed to be closely related to episode comprehension in both groups, and to vocabulary scores especially in the L1S group. Regarding possible proficiency effects, L2 VS had a significant effect on L2 comprehension in both groups, whereas RS was only significantly related to the scores obtained by the L1S group. It was also observed that the L1S group required less time to read the subtitles than their L2S peers since the beginning of the study, as participants’ RS was better in the L1. No significant changes were observed in the viewing behaviour of the two groups, although the L2S group showed a significant shift in their lexical learning perception at the end of the intervention, as they perceived that they had learned more vocabulary. Findings also showed that those participants who had been previously exposed to multimodal input at home did not actually obtain significantly higher results in the tests than their peers who had not been. The outcomes from this dissertation suggest that exposure to multimodal input promotes L2 comprehension and vocabulary learning in young low-proficiency L2 learners. However, they also indicate that gains are not always evident and do not present a clear ascending order as amount of exposure accumulates. The findings also point towards the important role of language aptitude and L2 VS for L2 learning through audiovisual materials. The results of the study, which are discussed considering the previous research available on the topic, also offer new insights into extensive viewing with young learners for teachers and practitioners.
The effects of distribution, difficulty, and quantity of digital flashcard practice on language learning
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2023-01-20) Serfaty, Jonathan; Serrano Serrano, Raquel; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] According to research into second language (L2) practice, learners should repeatedly engage in output activities with feedback in order to develop accuracy. Digital flashcards can be used to prompt L2 output and deliver feedback when teacher instruction or peer interaction are not available. Traditionally used for vocabulary, this tool could also be used for grammar learning by providing exemplars of target structures. The difficulty, distribution, and quantity of practice have been shown to affect learning and retention in other domains, but little is known about how these variables affect productive L2 grammar practice. Research into these areas could deepen our understanding of L2 learning processes while providing useful guides for enhancing L2 practice. This thesis includes four papers. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the topic, covering the importance and theories of L2 practice, a primer on digital flashcards, and the research gaps to be addressed. Chapters 2-5 are research papers. The first paper, published in System as Serfaty and Serrano (2020), investigated how flashcards could be used for grammar learning in an environment where other forms of learning are unavailable. Simple structures were studied by 31 low-proficiency learners, aged 9-17, in a rural setting in Cambodia over two weeks. They were tested after one day, two weeks, and four months. Results showed that participants made large gains in their grammatical accuracy and maintained these gains over time. Scores were equivalent for trained and untrained items, showing that the exemplars used in training provided rules that were generalized to novel sentences. The second paper, published in Applied Psycholinguistics as Serfaty and Serrano (2022), investigated how this type of learning might be affected by the distribution of sessions. Two complex structures were studied at intervals of one day or one week, tested after one week or one month. Participants (N = 117) came from an international school in Phnom Penh, aged 10-18. The optimal lag was predicted by individual differences. Participants with slower times and lower proficiency obtained higher scores from the shorter lag, whereas faster and more proficient learners benefited from a longer lag. Neither lag was better overall. The third paper, currently in review in Language Learning and Technology, repeated this methodology, using the same intervals, tools, and setting, with vocabulary items. Of the 96 participants analyzed in this study, 77 were also in the grammar analysis. This allowed for a comparison between grammar and vocabulary lag effects. This paper also aimed to ascertain whether a lag effect is found outside of lab conditions with secondary school students, which has not been found previously, and to explore whether lag effects are different for productive (form-recall) and receptive (meaning-recall) knowledge of learned words. Results showed a small but consistent advantage to the longer lag at both testing times, in contrast to grammar. The longer lag was particularly effective for retaining receptive knowledge at the 28-day posttest. The final paper, currently resubmitted to Language Learning after revisions, aimed to find the optimal amount of practice for the long-term retention of grammar knowledge. An artificial language was learned and then practiced on either one, two, three, or four relearning sessions on consecutive days, with 30 participants per condition (N = 129), aged 18-30. At a two-week posttest, it was found that average scores were significantly higher after a third relearning session. Accuracy during training peaked after the second relearning session, leading to a hypothesis that a threshold of knowledge is crossed after performing two sessions without errors. When re-coding the participants accordingly, this threshold was a stronger predictor of high posttest scores than the total number of sessions. The final chapter summarizes the findings from these papers, details implications from these findings on future theory, research methods, and pedagogy, and ends with some suggested future directions.
Bearing Witness to Atrocity: Racial Violence and the Limits of Representation in Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Works
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2022-11-21) Puyuelo Ureña, Eva; Andrés González, Rodrigo; Alsina, Cristina; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me (2015) is nowadays considered one of the most detailed registers of the different forms that racial violence takes—from direct manifestations of physical assaults, including arrests, beatings, maimings, and murders; to less conspicuous expressions of racism, such as racist stereotyping, legal disenfranchisement, or redlining (Goodman 2015; Nance 2015; Guerrero 2017). Between the World and Me is the letter that Coates writes to his son, Samori, who is about to enter adulthood and will head off to university soon. Coates knows that once his son leaves, he will no longer be able to protect him; and so he writes driven by the need to caution him against all the threats that may endanger his life just as they had endangered those of countless others before him. Coates’s concerns to protect his son are not unfounded. Trayvon Martin had been murdered in 2012 by a man who believed he looked suspicious; Michael Brown, in 2014, for trying to run away from a police officer. Both were teenagers and unarmed at the moment of their deaths. In between, thousands of others lost their lives to racial violence; and in the next years, the number of Black people murdered in the streets raised significantly. In 2015, when Coates published his memoir, the number reached a historical high—1,134 people of color were killed in the streets in the U.S. The memoir attracted a vast variety of different responses. Many critics celebrated Coates’s beautiful and sharp rhetoric and contended that the carefulness with which he approaches the contentious issues he deals with may in fact help a whole generation push forward (Bodenner 2015; Pollack 2015; Lewis 2016), but several others used Coates’s position to cast doubts on the legitimacy of his arguments and criticized both Coates’s pessimist stand and his understanding of racial brutality, which in his text is presented as a phenomenon that occurs almost only to cisgender heterosexual Black men (Alexander 2015; Bennett 2015; Chatterton Williams 2015; Hilton 2015; Kennedy 2015). Along these lines, this dissertation draws upon the works of Ta-Nehisi Coates to study the extent to which the representation of violence in general, and of racial violence in particular, can be considered a violent act in itself, and it centralizes three main questions. To what effects is racial violence represented, and what does the representation of racial violence entail? Is there an ethical way to narrate racial violence? How does one represent racial violence without creating more violence? In my attempt to provide an answer to these questions, I have divided my thesis into two different chapters that are framed as a chiasmus—it moves past the study of the representation of violence in the first chapter to focus on the violence of the representation of that violence in the second chapter. The first chapter is structured into three different sections. The first one provides a theoretical approach to racial violence with the intention of elucidating a concept that has traditionally been considered nebulous and complex; the second one addresses how racial violence has been explored in the literary tradition that informs Coates’s writings; and the third one consists of an analysis of Coates’s treatment and representation of racial violence in his own works in general, and in his memoir Between the World and Me in particular. Also divided into three different sections, the second chapter of the thesis addresses the question of whether it is possible to represent violence without perpetuating it. The first section explores the theoretical underpinnings of the relation between violence and the representation of violence and lays the groundwork for my subsequent analysis of Coates’s works. In particular, it addresses the centrality of photographic images in documenting racial violence in U.S. history; it pays attention to how the literary works that have inspired Ta-Nehisi Coates’s texts have negotiated the relationship between the representation of violence and violence; and it examines the extent to which Ta-Nehisi Coates’s work may be a form of “black witnessing”—a term that refers to the ways in which Black people have represented, recorded, talked about, testified against and, in all, denounced the racial atrocities they have been subject to (Richardson 2017). The remaining sections focus on the two main ways in which Coates’s work may be connected to violence—his pessimism and his biased approach to gender (Smith 2015, 2017). Whilst section two offers a critical reading of Coates’s hopelessness, which has also been called despair (Kennedy 2015; Rogers 2015) and even nihilism (Bodenner 2015; Lowry 2015), and which critics have considered to be disabling for Black people; section three explores the extent to which Coates’s memoir fails to account for the ways in which Black women are also victims of racist practices. Taking everything into consideration, I mean this dissertation to intervene in contemporary debates on the vexed interaction between the representation of racial violence and racial violence itself, and to think anew the ethical possibilities of both writing and reading literature. In fact, I contend that many valences are at play in any act of representation, and for it to be ethical in its approach to atrocity it needs not only the artist’s ethical engagement with that which is being represented, but also the reader’s— or the viewer’s, if representations are visual. In this thesis I explain that there are many ways for both writers and readers to develop forms of ethical witnessing—by reappropriating images of suffering, writers can in fact resist the normalization of pain and the threat of dehumanizing victims; and by viewing such images “with solemn reserve and careful circulation,” readers, and witnesses in general, can resignify these representations as potential chances to heal and to learn from a past suffused with violence (Richardson 2020a, n.p.). In all, Coates’s works are proof that, disturbing as it is, bearing witness to atrocity also is, in this way, critical and urgent—it both challenges and empowers us to think about new futures and about the limitless possibilities that exist not beyond, but rather regardless of, violence.
New Leaves: Fashionable Reading and Literary Celebrity in British Vogue (1918-1939)
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2022-09-01) Baró Gonzalez, Jana; González Fernández, Helena, 1967-; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] This thesis explores British Vogue’s self-appointed role as a guide to modern fashions and manners, that is, as a cultural intermediary, during the interwar period (1918-1939). Through a close reading of its essays, literary reviews, social chronicles and portraits of writers, and in the context of the Battle of the Brows, it argues that it always counted literary practices, such as reading, writing or displaying books, as expressions of taste. From the theoretical framework of Fashion and Gender Studies, and within the fields of Middlebrow and Modernist Periodical Studies, this thesis argues that, despite its changing priorities and its move near and then away from a highbrow position, Vogue continually valued sophistication and playfulness and can be approached as a middlebrow text. The first chapter introduces British Vogue, tracing its development as a society and fashion periodical across the Atlantic and its introduction to Great Britain during the First World War. It discusses its function as a guide to modern practices of consumption and taste and explores the interplay between those practices, individual identity and social affiliation. Vogue predicated that acquiring and displaying knowledge and cultural goods was a viable strategy for women to present themselves as modern subjects: those goods, of course, included books. Throughout the interwar period Vogue proposed “smartness” as the key to modernity, the approved expression of taste, and articulated it both on the page and behind the scenes. With Vogue as a seal of legitimacy, its editors and contributors could promote certain writers and approaches to literature as “fashionable”. Through practices that were both professional and personal, like hosting or introducing friends to dressmakers, they could build mutually beneficial relationships, but while they had a degree of freedom to choose which modes to support they were also expected to live according to the values of their managers. The second chapter explains how British Vogue became a modernist project during the editorship of Dorothy Todd (1923-1926), as well the transition periods that preceded and succeeded her. Todd developed a network of contributors that included the Bloomsbury group, the Sitwell siblings and other avant-garde artists, writers and critics. However, Vogue was above all a fashion magazine with an interest in society reports, which went against the modernist discursive ideals of art as free from commercial interest and the author as lone genius. Under Todd, literature took up more space than ever: reading and discussing books was a core aspect of that all-important quality, smartness. Vogue promoted literary figures as celebrities even beyond its extensive critical essays and reviews, supporting different visions of modern authorship by including portraits of writers or visiting their homes. Consequently, their bodies and sartorial tastes were interwoven with their artistic creation and reception. Finally, the third chapter locates the magazine in the “Battle of the Brows”, the debate over the value of different cultural practices that raged in the press during the less studied editorships of Alison Settle (1927-1936) and Elizabeth Penrose (1936-1939) and continued beyond the scope of this thesis, which ends with the start of the Second World War. The format of British Vogue changed, shaped by persistent tension with its management and widespread socioeconomic hardship, and its content shifted through its alliance with younger, glamourous writers, artists, and socialites, the Bright Young People. The space allotted to literature was reduced, and so was the attention granted to modernist texts and writers, though they did not completely disappear. Although there had always been a middlebrow aspect to its articulation of high culture for the uninitiated, Vogue’s editorial line now leant even more firmly towards middlebrow tastes, pushing a sensible sort of sophistication front and centre, making its tone even more arch, and enclosing sartorial eccentricity into the context of the costume party. Its vision of literary celebrity split into two models: middlebrow writers, chic and proper, and glamorous society figures that happened to be writers.
South Africa: The Diseased Nation? An Analysis of HIV/AIDS Sufferers’ Critique of the Redemptive Discourse of Nation-Building and the (Dis)Closure of National Traumas in Post-Apartheid South African HIV/AIDS Life-Writing
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2022-03-18) Ortega Montero, Óscar; O'Connor, Maurice; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] This Ph.D. dissertation explores the transformative potential of the HIV/AIDS experience in post-apartheid South Africa during the age of denialism under Thabo Mbeki’s mandate (1999-2008). To that end, the selection of auto/biographies and memoirs has helped me to illustrate the process by which HIV/AIDS sufferers, with the support of narrative mediators, compose illness. In so doing, I pay particular attention to how HIV/AIDS sufferers reinterpret a series of past traumatic events associated with the disease in their bid to heal the wounds of stigma and discrimination in light of their personal experiences with the virus. Traditionally, the HIV/AIDS experience has been tackled from the perspective of the individuals infected with and affected by the virus. However, in this dissertation I approach the various HIV/AIDS experiences as stand-ins for national and collective trauma through the analysis of the therapeutic benefits of life writing. Thus, this Ph.D. dissertation places value on the construction of an accesible repository of knowledge to highlight the importance of the memorialization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Likewise, I also engage with the concept of disability in a way that promotes an ableist vision of HIV/AIDS sufferers, thus meeting the twofold objective of breaking the silence around the virus and empowering sufferers in their reinterpretation of the HIV/AIDS experience. HIV/AIDS continues to be a major problem, and South Africa is the country in the world hardest hit by the spread of the disease, affecting areas as sensitive for the protection and well-being of sufferers as are the fields of social health, socio-economics, social and affective interaction, and psycho-emotional health. HIV/AIDS testimonial writing, as an example of metanarrative, proves there exists a profound feeling of ‘otherness’, stigma, and discrimination from which arises the HIV/AIDS sufferers’ critique of South Africa’s nation-building policies in the post-apartheid era. This critique is fundamental to measure the real extent of the social, political, and cultural change promoted by the workings of the drafting of the country’s forward-looking Constitution and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, both in 1996. The emergence of strong social and civil movements around the issue of treatment and visibility of HIV/AIDS sufferers comes to confirm the long history of social struggles –and gains– in the fields of human rights and activism, thus confirming the strong commitment of South African society to progress and the consolidation of a long-lasting peaceful conviviality.
Heroínas del feminismo popular: autoría de mujeres en Hollywood
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2022-02-03) Cruz Pereira, Irina; Paszkiewicz, Katarzyna; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[spa] En 1990, Marjorie Ferguson expone su argumento sobre la «falacia del feminismo», negando que exista una correlación entre la creciente consciencia social feminista, la autoridad de las profesionales en los medios de comunicación y la representación de las mujeres en la cultura popular. La presente tesis se plantea si su argumento sigue vigente treinta años después, en un contexto marcado por la influencia del neoliberalismo sobre el movimiento feminista. Para responder estas preguntas, la tesis ofrece una reflexión en torno a las heroínas del cine hollywoodense que, de la mano de mujeres en posiciones autoriales determinantes, habitan espacios tradicionalmente percibidos como masculinos. El trabajo parte de la observación de que, en la segunda mitad de la década de 2010, personajes femeninos han ocupado roles centrales en sagas y franquicias emblemáticas de la industria hollywoodense que hasta entonces habían estado protagonizadas exclusivamente por hombres. Así, este estudio se centra en tres de estas protagonistas con el objetivo de analizar la representación de las heroínas en distintos marcos narrativos y estéticos: la protagonista de Wonder Woman (2017), Furiosa en Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) y Rey en la trilogía de secuelas de Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017) y The Rise of Skywalker (2019). En los tres casos se dan instancias autoriales de mujeres que desempeñan roles tradicionalmente asumidos por la industria de Hollywood como masculinos: la dirección (Patty Jenkins en Wonder Woman), el montaje (Margaret Sixel en Fury Road) y la producción (Kathleen Kennedy en Star Wars). La tesis explora las múltiples representaciones populares del feminismo, así como la reacción antifeminista y la misoginia popular, para comprender el contexto en el que las películas del corpus han sido producidas y su recepción crítica —siendo consideradas por parte de la crítica como obras feministas y, al mismo tiempo, repudiadas por las voces antifeministas. A partir del trabajo de Janet Staiger (2003) sobre la autoría fílmica como acto performativo a través del que un sujeto se concibe a sí misma como autora y se posiciona en una estructura discursiva que la reconoce como tal, la tesis propone una concepción de la autoría que considera Hollywood un mundo figurado en el que los individuos son situados en jerarquías de poder, por lo que su agentividad es siempre parcial y posicionada, siendo el género un eje clave en dicho posicionamiento. El primer estudio se centra en la película Wonder Woman (2017) y en la autoría de su directora, Patty Jenkins. El trabajo explora la histórica relación entre la heroína y el feminismo, y las condiciones específicas que permitieron su adaptación al cine en 2017. Se analiza la dirección de Patty Jenkins y la forma en la que negocia su posición como autora en una franquicia hasta entonces dominada por hombres tanto en la pantalla como en las posiciones autoriales. El estudio de Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) se centra en la narrativa distópica como espacio de resistencia feminista y elabora un análisis de la edición de Fury Road señalando que el estilo de la editora Margaret Sixel difiere de la mirada convencional masculina asociada con el género de acción. Por último, la tesis propone una reflexión en torno a la trilogía de secuelas de la franquicia Star Wars, en la que se introduce a una mujer, Rey, como protagonista. El análisis demuestra que la trilogía transgrede las convenciones narrativas de la propia saga al elegir a Rey como receptora de la «fuerza» y se centra en el caso de Kathleen Kennedy, productora de la franquicia desde 2012 y considerada la responsable de haber introducido en Star Wars una mayor diversidad de personajes y de protagonistas femeninas.
Ese aire de mágico aislamiento: Herman Melville y la construcción de Latinoamérica en el siglo XIX
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2021-07-26) Ramírez Paredes, Roberto Marcos; Andrés González, Rodrigo; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[spa] La tesis doctoral propone un recorrido por la prosa de ficción y de viaje de Herman Melville, en la que construye imaginarios regionales de identidad latinoamericana. La investigación inicia con el análisis de las ficciones Taipí y Omú, ambientadas en islas “no civilizadas”, para contrastarlas con los tres textos literarios que versan sobre o se desarrollan en América Latina: Las Encantadas, Benito Cereno y Moby Dick, además de otros textos más cortos de su acervo, como el cuento “La veranda”, que dialogan sobre todo de ámbitos peruanos y ecuatorianos. En las tres ficciones mencionadas se develan los motivos que Melville erige sobre Latinoamérica: se trata de una tierra que encarna el exotismo de los Cronistas de Indias, pero atravesada por las corrientes científicas y naturalistas de los siglos XVIII y XIX. La región buscaba afianzar su identidad tras la independencia del Imperio español, mientras era seguida de cerca, con intereses expansionistas, por otra potencia que se consolidaba en el mapa geopolítico decimonónico: Estados Unidos. Esto es claro sobre todo en el análisis de las Islas Galápagos creadas por Melville. Asimismo, se propone una reflexión sobre personajes latinoamericanos, que aparecen en las ficciones como una conexión globalizante del país del norte con las regiones del sur: la tapada limeña, la viuda chola, el ermitaño Oberlus, el criollo cubano, etc. En este sentido se propone también el estudio del uso de los términos de tratamiento en la región, el sistema de blanqueamiento, el uso del español en ámbitos anglófonos, entre otros aspectos. Por último, se estudia todo lo que implica la incursión de un doblón ecuatoriano de oro en el negocio ballenero: la historia real de dicha moneda y cómo esta une Moby Dick con Ecuador, Estados Unidos con la Vieja España y Latinoamérica, en la historia del siglo XIX.
Writers On Screen: Embodying The "Life-Text" In The Literary Biopic
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2021-03-19) Haiduc, Sonia Amalia; Aragay, Mireia; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] This thesis examines the sub-genre of the literary biopic and its intersections with literary texts and other film genres through the lens of the melodramatic mode. It explores the dramatization of the ‘life-text’, defined as the process by which events in the non-discursive space-time become discursive elements in written and film biography, by looking at the figure of the author in a selection of literary biopics from the classical Hollywood era to 2018. The number of studies on the biopic is reduced, but those that have been published so far have not examined the strategies of the melodramatic mode in biographically- inflected films. Since the body and presence of the actor is the cornerstone of the biopic genre, as well as the site for the spectator’s investment in the narrative, the embodied authorial figure in biopics becomes a locus of emotional authentication that allows us to identify and decode the forces that are part and parcel of the biopic’s and melodrama’s semantic force fields, and participate in the metamodernist oscillatory experience between irony and earnestness, belief and disbelief, as the body of the writer on screen both enacts and challenges prevailing theories of authorship. The thesis argues, in short, that film biography must be ‘melodramatic’ in order to be ‘true’ – ‘truth’ being a certain readable, coherently constructed sense of interiority that speaks to what we perceive as reality of the human condition, and which is encoded in the presence and the gestural performances of the actors’ bodies on screen, expressed through (melo)dramatic form. The protagonists of melodrama, and, by extension of biographical films, embody and enact socioethical values, showing the work of emotion and personality in social and political processes. The majority of the productions under scrutiny are English-speaking productions, but there are also a small number of international films that have been chosen on account of their relevance to particular sections of this study, for in a globalized cultural economy, individual films tend to build meaningful connections across national and cultural borders and address a variety of audiences. Given its interdisciplinary approach, the critical analysis of the case studies has taken into consideration a varying number of literary, filmic and cultural elements, such as biographical material, earlier or contemporary film adaptations, the director’s/scriptwriter’s previous work, intermedial elements around the question of stardom. It also examines the intersections of the literary biopic with other film genres, such as heritage or costume drama, as well as the functions of commercial and cultural discourses related to questions of authenticity, which is a central concern in biopics. The thesis is structured into five parts, which explore varying representations of the author. It begins with a series of theoretical and critical considerations of genre and literary biography, followed by a survey of the critical discourses surrounding the literary biopic. The body of the thesis consists of a series of case studies beginning in the 1930s; it continues with an examination of a number of feminist productions from the 1970s, to finally focus on the contemporary period, which has been seen the release of an ever-growing number of literary biopics. The study argues for the literary biopic as an increasingly sophisticated category that has engaged in complex ways with both the figure of the writer and our culture at large.
Figuras impropias. La violencia como expresión de la disidencia en la narrativa de Marta Sanz y Sara Mesa
(Universitat de Barcelona, 2020-12-18) Videira, Joana; Losada, Elena, 1958-; Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos
[eng] Esta tesis nace de la interrogación sobre las posibilidades críticas de la representación literaria de la violencia, más específicamente de la búsqueda de la representación de la violencia en los personajes femeninos escritos por autoras contemporáneas. A través de la profundización del estudio de la violencia en la narrativa contemporánea se ha llegado a una idea de violencia ampliada, más allá de la violencia entendida como sangre, herida o crimen. En la búsqueda de esta ampliación de la idea de violencia a los síntomas del cuerpo se ha llegado a la propuesta crítica de la disidencia y la impropiedad de la actuación de los personajes femeninos como forma de violencia hacia un sistema opresor que se nutre de la reglamentación normativa de los comportamientos. Para el análisis de estas figuras disidentes se leerán algunos personajes seleccionados de obras de dos autoras españolas contemporáneas: Marta Sanz y Sara Mesa. Las dos autoras comparten afinidades que son manifiestas tanto en su obra narrativa, nutrida de personajes femeninos disidentes, como en su presencia en el espacio público, donde se posicionan como autoras comprometidas. Así, esta tesis parte de una selección del corpus de ambas autoras, del que se extraen algunos de los personajes por ellas creados. Cada uno de los personajes sirve como ejemplo de una forma específica de disidencia hacia los comportamientos normativos, homogéneos y uniformizantes que se esperan de un cuerpo y de una existencia de mujer, de adolescente o de niña. Para organizar la lectura de las formas de disidencia que cada una de las figuras presenta en la narrativa, se hizo una división en dos grandes bloques temáticos. El primero, Cuadro I. Escenas del dolor: la potencia del sufrimiento incluye a tres grandes formulaciones del sufrimiento como forma desde la que los personajes actúan y se rebelan: sacrificio, agonía, angustia. En la segunda parte Cuadro II. Escenas del cuerpo. Episodios de la gestualidad se propone una lectura grupal en la que se analizan conjuntamente y de forma comparada dos grandes grupos de personajes: las niñas y las climatéricas. En estos dos extremos de edad se encuentran dos cuerpos infértiles, dos presentaciones de la materialidad femenina, cada una en un extremo de la curva reproductora. Para la lectura y análisis de cada uno de los personajes, tal como para su encuadre en las propuestas temáticas de cada capítulo, se ha partido de algunos fundamentos teóricos que sostienen el aparato crítico. En primer lugar, la narratología –y especialmente la narratología cognitiva, con su acento en los mecanismos de recepción y reformulación del sentido en la lectura– nutre la base estructural de este análisis y dota de sentido a las formulaciones de tipo materialista en las que se basa la idea de que, en efecto, estos personajes ficcionales pueden actuar –como praxis– en el mundo. Otro fundamento teórico esencial son los estudios de género, que permiten analizar la lectura de los personajes con una intención que nace y retorna a la vida material de las mujeres. Finalmente, el último de los aparatos críticos fundamentales son los affect studies que justifican y dan sentido a la fundamentación de las posibilidades actuantes y disidentes de los sentimientos y de los afectos. La intención de esta tesis no es rastrear las obras de Sanz y Mesa o la de abarcar la totalidad de sus figuras femeninas. Con este trabajo se ha querido leer algunas de las líneas de fuga presentes en las figuras femeninas ficcionales, iniciando un diálogo a muchas voces, unas voces que las obras de Sanz y Mesa contienen y que este trabajo intenta articular.

El CRAI romandrà tancat del 24 de desembre de 2025 al 6 de gener de 2026. La validació de documents es reprendrà a partir del 7 de gener de 2026.

El CRAI permanecerá cerrado del 24 de diciembre de 2025 al 6 de enero de 2026. La validación de documentos se reanudará a partir del 7 de enero de 2026.

From 2025-12-24 to 2026-01-06, the CRAI remain closed and the documents will be validated from 2026-01-07.

Tesis Doctorals - Departament - Llengües i Literatures Modernes i d'Estudis Anglesos

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El CRAI romandrà tancat del 24 de desembre de 2025 al 6 de gener de 2026. La validació de documents es reprendrà a partir del 7 de gener de 2026.

El CRAI permanecerá cerrado del 24 de diciembre de 2025 al 6 de enero de 2026. La validación de documentos se reanudará a partir del 7 de enero de 2026.

From 2025-12-24 to 2026-01-06, the CRAI remain closed and the documents will be validated from 2026-01-07.

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