129 research outputs found
Cult: A Composite Novel
No full textCult (redacted)
The first component of the thesis is a composite novel called Cult which falls into two parts with seven narratives in each. Part 1 tracks the protagonist, Ellen, from her first involvement with the cult through to her eventually leaving it. Although fiction, the first half of the book answers the kinds of questions the author is asked when people discover that she was once a sannyasin (a follower of the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh). While the experiences of meditation, group therapy and communal living are all faithfully rendered within the stories, the need for strong characters, narrative drive and a lightness of touch takes precedence.
Part 2 picks up Ellen’s story some twenty or so years later and explores what becomes of her in middle age. It also looks at other groups in society, such as academia, the law and the internet dating community which each have their own jargon, hierarchies, rituals and rules but are not considered to be cults.
The book examines the question raised in the Epigraph, ‘how do we be together when we feel so alone’ with a focus on relationships other than the familial and the romantic.
Collisions, Chasms and Connections: a Performative Exploration of the Composite Novel Form
The second part of the thesis is both a critical and creative response to three contemporary American books: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout; A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan; and Legend of a Suicide by David Vann. The critical element comprises a close reading of the three books; a chronological reconstruction of their overarching storylines; and a consideration of what their authors have said about writing the books. It concludes that, in the composite novel, the simultaneous presentation of multiple views and storylines operate much like a 3D image to give the impression of depth to the characters and situations rendered. The creative element of the essay is a playful and personal response to the texts
Sign and Design: Script as Image in Cross-Cultural Perspective (300–1600 <scp>ce</scp>). Edited by Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak and Jeffrey F. Hamburger . Dumbarton Oaks Symposia and Colloquia. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2016. x + 294 pp. $75.00 cloth.
No full text
books piece featuring an interview in question-and-answer format with Jennifer
No full textbooks piece featuring an interview in question-and-answer format with Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferencei, a poet and philosophy professor at the University of Maine at Orono, and author of After the Palace Burns, a book of poetry published by Zoo Press
The c-Jun kinase signaling cascade promotes glial engulfment activity through activation of draper and phagocytic function
No full textCo-author Johnna Doherty is a student in the Neuroscience program in the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) at UMass Medical School, and Jennifer MacDonald is in the MD/PhD program.After neuronal injury or death glial cells become reactive, exhibiting dramatic changes in morphology and patterns of gene expression and ultimately engulfing neuronal debris. Rapid clearance of degenerating neuronal material is thought to be crucial for suppression of inflammation and promotion of functional recovery. Here we demonstrate that Drosophila c-Jun N-terminal kinase (dJNK) signaling is a critical in vivo mediator of glial engulfment activity. In response to axotomy, we find glial dJNK signals through a cascade involving the upstream mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinases Slipper and Tak1, the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase MKK4, and ultimately the Drosophila activator protein 1 (AP-1) transcriptional complex composed of Jra and Kayak to initiate glial phagocytosis of degenerating axons. Interestingly, loss of dJNK also blocked injury-induced upregulation of Draper levels in glia, and glial-specific overexpression of Draper was sufficient to rescue engulfment defects associated with loss of dJNK signaling. This work identifies that the dJNK pathway is a novel mediator of glial engulfment activity and a primary role for the glial Slipper/Tak1short right arrowMKK4short right arrowdJNKshort right arrowdAP-1 signaling cascade appears to be activation of draper expression after axon injury.Cell Death and Differentiation advance online publication, 26 April 2013; doi:10.1038/cdd.2013.30.MD/PhDNeuroscienc
The Reliquary Effect: Enshrining the Sacred Object. By Cynthia Hahn. London: Reaktion, 2017. 328 pp. £35.00 hardcover.
No full textErasing God: Carolingians, Controversy, and the Ashburnham Pentateuch
No full textThe images and theologies of the Trinity during the transition from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages have remained largely unstudied as a phenomenon. In this regard, the Creation folio of the sixth-century Ashburnham Pentateuch (Paris, BnF, NAL 2334, f. 1v) provides a valuable case study; in its original state, the illustration presented an anthropomorphic Trinity at work in the first few days of Creation. The Father and Son were depicted standing side by side four times, while the Holy Spirit was depicted only once as a winged man hovering over the waters. In the early ninth century, by which time this possibly-Italian manuscript had traveled to Tours, the figures of three of the Sons, one of the Fathers, and the Holy Spirit were painted over. While the origins of the manuscript remain obscure, the modification to its Creation image demonstrates a desire for theological orthodoxy and iconographic consistency, as the image was made to conform to contemporaneous Carolingian depictions of a single Creator. This embodied response seems to have emerged from a context of political and theological instability; the manuscript’s redactor may have been countering debates over issues such as the filioque and adoptionism with an assertion of the absolute unity of the persons of the Trinity. Moreover, Carolingian image theory, most notably expressed in Theodulf of Orléans’ Opus Caroli Regis contra Synodum, revealed a pervasive belief in the hierarchy of word over image and the potential danger of the latter, which enabled and perhaps even necessitated the modification of the Ashburnham Pentateuch’s Creation image
Vasileios Marinis, Death and the Afterlife in Byzantium: The Fate of the Soul in Theology, Liturgy, and Art
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Problematización de la memoria histórica: intertextualidades y transiciones políticas en Insensatez de Horacio Castellanos Moya y La dimensión desconocida de Nona Fernández
No full textThis thesis proposes a new perspective and critical reflection on two contemporary Latin American novels, Insensatez (2004) by Honduran-Salvadorean author Horacio Castellanos Moya and La dimensión desconocida (2016) by Chilean author Nona Fernández. Situating each novel within its respective historical context of political transition following years of violent national conflict, the politics of memory and the concomitant concern for human rights directly informs the argument. The theoretical framework which directs the analysis of each work centers on the intertextual relationship between the narrative and the novel's foundational document. In Insensatez, the intertext of interest is the official report of the Recovery of Historical Memory Project (REMHI) titled Guatemala: Nunca Más (1998) and in La dimensión desconocida the intertext is the interview with the former Chilean intelligence agent, Andrés Valenzuela, published in the magazine Cauce (1985). This thesis first reveals how Castellanos Moya utilizes various literary strategies in combination with the libreta as a narrative element to question the privileged position of testimonio in the memory works that have proliferated in postwar Central America. This thesis also demonstrates how Nona Fernández constructs a complex intertextual dialogue with the testimony of the victimizer Valenzuela to interrogate the ethical binaries that have sustained Chilean literary production on historical memory since the dictatorship. The combined analyses of these two novels enable new perceptions of how contemporary Latin American fictions can creatively employ intertextuality as a narrative tool to problematize the cultural and literary representation of a traumatic past.Master of ArtsThis thesis proposes new critical perspectives on two contemporary Latin American novels, Insensatez (2004) by Honduran-Salvadorean author Horacio Castellanos Moya and La dimensión desconocida (2016) by Chilean author Nona Fernández. Situating each novel within its respective historical context of political transition following years of violent national conflict, the analysis centers on the textual relationship between the narrative and the novel's foundational document. In Insensatez, the document of interest is the official report of the Recovery of Historical Memory Project (REMHI) titled Guatemala: Nunca Más (1998) and in La dimensión desconocida the essential document is the interview with the former Chilean intelligence agent, Andrés Valenzuela, published in the magazine Cauce (1985). This thesis first reveals how Castellanos Moya utilizes various literary strategies in combination with the libreta as a narrative element to question the favored position of testimonio in the memory works that have proliferated in postwar Central America. This thesis then demonstrates how Nona Fernández constructs a complex dialogue with the confession of the victimizer Valenzuela to challenge the ethical oppositions that have sustained Chilean literary production on historical memory since the dictatorship. The combined analyses of these two novels enable new perceptions of how contemporary Latin American fictions can creatively use textual relationships as a tool to interrogate the cultural and literary representation of a traumatic past
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