130 research outputs found
Reading acts of narrative appropriation: four instances of fraudulent memoir
No full textPhDThis thesis examines acts of narrative appropriation, the telling of purportedly‘authentic’ life stories by those for whom the stories are not theirs to tell. This
misuse or subversion of genre - the discipline of historical writing and the category
of autobiography - becomes a means for cultural, social and political dissimulation,
and the analysis focuses both on the act: the event, trespass, or ‘theft’ of another’s
life story, and on the cultural meaning that this event reveals. These narrative acts
are approached theoretically through discussions of what it means to be an author, a
reader, and through the consideration of literary and social genre, category and form.
In exploring identities at particular risk of appropriation, this thesis shows how
fraudulent appropriated narratives affect our reading of the world, and in turn
influence our perception of already marginalized social groups. My primary
examples include prostitution ‘narratives’, Native North American ‘memoir,’ and
fraudulent Holocaust survivor ‘testimony,’ with each text providing decoded
evidence of ‘genre-bending’ exhibiting a social and political intent. These works
seek to be read as authentic personal narratives, as autobiography, and that is how
they have been presented to the reader. However, they are imposters – fictional tales
desiring the elevated status of historical authenticity and willing to bend the rules
and contracts of genre to achieve their end. Here the appearance of authenticity is
achieved through the use of cultural and social ‘myth,’ or perceptions of cultural
identity, and as such its fraudulent construction is first and foremost a social act,
with a social and economic motivation. As this thesis concludes, these texts are
most successful when their own political and social ideologies echo and confirm that
of the readership; when their subjects, the fraudulent ‘I’ at the center of the text is
also a performative elaboration of cultural belief
Narrative threads: ethnographic tourism, Romani tourist tales, and fiber art
No full textThis thesis examines the need for the ethnographer to process their own emotions and experiences as part of the ethnographic experience. Specifically, it argues for the credibility of artistic expression resulting from fieldwork.
Drawing on the author’s experience during the 2012 inaugural "Romani Music, Culture, and Human Rights" study abroad program at the University of Pittsburgh, this thesis offers an analysis of five works of fiber art. Originally perceived by the author as separate from the thesis writing process, they became an integral part of thesis once they were recognized as the non-verbal processing of the my emotional response to events abroad and, therefore, essential components of the research process.
I argue that emotional processing is an integral part of writing an ethnography, for as the ethnographer works through their experiences, their understanding of the events changes, and this in turn impacts the ways in which the ethnographic is perceived and analyzed
Gendered Structures of Mine Action
No full textTo examine the relevance of gender in the mine-action sector, the Swiss Campaign to Ban Landmines conducted a global survey and in-depth interviews. The author presents the findings of this research and its implications
The Role of Nutrition Therapy in the Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease
No full textabstract: In the United States, cardiovascular disease remains the number one cause of death. The most prevalent risk factor for cardiovascular disease is poor nutrition and thus, proper nutrition is often used as a preventative measure. With the expensive and often ineffective medications and procedures currently being used to treat cardiovascular disease, we need to find a better solution. One promising solution is nutrition therapy, which is the implementation of proper nutrition guidelines into the treatment plan of patients with cardiovascular disease. After close research and analysis of four popular diets, a vegan (plant-based) diet, vegetarian diet, and Mediterranean diet could offer improvement of cardiovascular disease risk factors and chances of cardiovascular disease mortality. Different ways to start implementing nutrition therapy in medicine include emphasizing nutrition education in medical school and/or including registered dietitians in the treatment process for cardiovascular disease patients
Music in the Classroom: A Look at Melodies and Phonics Retention
No full textabstract: The study compares the pretest and posttest results of three groups of second-grade students studying a phonics rule to determine the effect of using music as an instructional aid. For two groups in the study, the teachers used melodies to instruct students, while the third group was held to direct instruction with no music to use for assistance. The study groups were three second-grade classes at Ishikawa Elementary School, where I was serving as a student teacher. Parental consent was received for each of the students participating in the study. The duration of the study was one week. The first test group was given a familiar melody with new lyrics to reflect the content of the phonics rule "I before E except after C." The second test group was given a melody composed specifically to accompany the phonics rule and to reflect the appropriate phonics content. On the first day of the study, students were given a pretest; these scores were recorded and then compared to the posttest scores from the end of the week. The data that were collected compared groups as a whole through composite scores from pretest to posttest to determine most effective methodology. The groups that were instructed using music demonstrated greater growth and had higher posttest scores
The Impact of Victim Photographs On Mock Jurors’ Emotions and Verdicts
No full textabstract: Several states within the United States have recently passed the Victim Life Photo Act, which allows prosecutors to present photographs of alleged murder victims when they were alive during the guilt phase of a trial. Critics argue that these photographs do not offer any relevant information about the crime or the defendant’s potential guilt and might bias jurors to vote guilty based on their sympathy for the victim—perhaps disproportionally so for high-status victims. Two mock trial experiments tested whether online participants who viewed alleged murder victim photographs would convict more because they increase anger, disgust, fear, sadness, and/or sympathy. Mock jurors who saw photographs of White (but not racial minority) victims while they were alive reported more sympathy for the victim relative to those who saw the same evidence without a photograph of the living victim—but the sympathy did not increase convictions (Study 1). Study 2 extended this study by testing whether the living victim photographs are more impactful in conjunction with seeing gruesome photographs of the victim after her death, creating a particularly disturbing contrast effect versus seeing the living photograph alone. Study 2 found that (a) living victim photographs on their own again had no effect on participants’ verdicts, (b) gruesome photographs on their own increased convictions through increased disgust, and (c) participants who saw both living and gruesome murder victim photographs (versus gruesome alone) were more conviction prone due to increased anger and sympathy. These studies inform current debates regarding the controversial Victim Life Photo Act: Admitting living victim photographs during the guilt phase—if presented along with gruesome photographs—can make jurors more sympathetic and angry, which can increase convictions.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Psychology 202
And the showmen cried, “Spirit!”: Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s search for the truth behind modern Spiritualism
No full textThis Master’s thesis is constructed around the Spiritualist lecture tours of Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The famed British author was an ardent Spiritualist who believed it was his personal mission to spread the religion and practices of Spiritualism in Europe, Australia, and America. Houdini, on the other hand, strove to expose deceitful mediums as con artists and fakes. In the early 1920s, both men embarked on lecture tours throughout the United States, spreading their views and attempting to sway the minds of curious Americans. The lectures were well attended, often before full houses, and were well publicized. This research makes use of Conan Doyle’s writings, newspaper coverage and the correspondence of Houdini to examine the lectures and the public reactions and what they conveyed about American’s attitudes toward Modern Spiritualism. Many historians have glanced at the tours and Spiritualism as part of a larger picture in the twentieth century, but this short-lived religious phenomena may help explain how and why Americans were intrigued about an odd, almost cult-like religion. Since there has not been an in depth look at the tours, this will fill a gap in the history of American’s response to organized religion in the early twentieth century
Faith, feeling and gender in the writing of Hartley, Wollstonecraft and Blake
No full textThis thesis examines David Hartley’s Observations on Man (1749) and elucidates how Hartley’s mechanical approach to mind, his conception of emotion, and the religious status he awards the body were newly relevant after 1791. In this way it identifies a ‘Hartlean culture’ within the Romantic period and seeks to explore how such an intellectual climate influenced the radical writers William Blake (1757–1827) and Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797). Blake and Wollstonecraft were acquainted with the famous bookseller Joseph Johnson, who republished Observations on Man in various forms and versions between 1775 and 1801. They also had an association with Johnson’s circle; the Hartlean concepts found throughout their work evidence Hartley’s latent popularity within intellectual culture, as well as the writers’ engagement with contemporary philosophical ideas. I propose that the renewed curiosity in Hartley during the 1790s reveals a specific religious and revolutionary culture wherein non-conformist views about Christianity and new ideas about the body, emotion and women flourished. Such a cultural moment renders Hartley a particularly important figure for debate since he integrated progressive values about equality and faith alongside advancing understanding of anatomy and mind. Hartley identified how God and happiness could be found physically within each person. He did this by combining a complex theory of vibrations and theory of association, where the body and mind functioned mechanically through a person’s feelings of pleasure and pain. These feelings manifested as physical vibrations and eventually led every person to desire goodness until finally, they can become ‘Godlike’ themselves. Hartley’s amalgamation of Christian and new theoretical concepts appealed to Blake and Wollstonecraft, and was much unlike the approach of Joseph Priestley who abridged Observations in 1775 to promote a wholly ‘scientific’ text. In this way, we can see resonances between Hartley, Blake and Wollstonecraft, even if they existed in different cultural contexts. In rethinking Blake and Wollstonecraft through Hartley, I offer new insights into their feminism. In particular I attend to how Hartlean culture enabled these writers to re-imagine gender and emotion: Wollstonecraft reinstates the female experience back into Hartlean concepts in order to promote women’s emotional potential and what she understands as the special power of the female-female bond. Blake responds to both Wollstonecraft and Hartley with his elevation of the feminine, one that envisions new potential for both sexes, emotionally and spiritually. In both cases, the writers share a fascination for the image of the female saviour, and they use terminology and concepts found in Hartley’s work to communicate their views. In being attentive to the shared vocabulary and ideas of these three writers’ works, this thesis highlights the importance of David Hartley and Hartlean culture for the field of Romantic Studies. It also illuminates Observations on Man as a vital contribution to the intellectual context of the 1790s
Redefining the Self: Life Writing, Fairy Tale and Fantasy Fiction in Amélie Nothomb's Métaphysique des tubes.
No full textThis thesis primarily focuses on Amélie Nothomb’s Métaphysique des tubes (2000), an autobiographical rewriting of her earliest childhood in Japan. However, elements of other her novels are considered where relevant, in particular Le Sabotage amoureux (1993) and Biographie de la faim (2004). The work begins by analysing the literary genres of autobiography, ‘autofiction’ and the autobiographical novel, examining the blurred boundaries between these. I compare how various scholars, including but not limited to Laureline Amanieux, Mark Lee and Susan Bainbrigge, come to classify Nothomb’s Métaphysique des tubes as belonging to one of these above genres, before discussing why the novel evades a single definitive literary classification. Nothomb’s fractured sense of self, studied at length throughout this thesis, is mirrored into the foundational structure of the novel, as Nothomb combines fragments of each genre, mixing in fairy tale and fantasy fiction to secure her own idiosyncratic literary style. I proceed in the second chapter to compare Nothomb’s work with Beaumont’s version of La Belle et la Bête, highlighting echoes between characters in both tales and introducing the significant Nothombian themes of hyperbolic beauty, the presentation of the Beast in all its guised forms, as well as the central role of water. I also examine psychological devices of the fairy tale as explained by Bruno Bettelheim and Adam Phillips, how these aid childhood development, and potential reasons for their inclusion in Nothomb’s writing. In the third chapter I undertake a short comparative study of Métaphysique des tubes and Barrie’s Peter Pan to reveal that what appears to be an idyllic childhood is in fact tainted by loss and mourning. The lexis of adventure fuses with destruction as it becomes apparent that both Pan and Nothomb as protagonist have paradoxically lost their true childhood by attempting to remain eternally in it. In relation to this, I look at the salvational role of storytelling in both novels, and provide evidence to suggest that Nothomb as both author and protagonist come to find, understand and stabilise their identity through reading and writing literature. The conclusion begins by asking whether there are additional literary genres into which scholars have placed Nothomb’s autobiographical works, leading me to analyse briefly the possibility of postmodernist and feminist writing in relation to her work. Nothomb does not merely rediscover and redefine herself through literature, but she also questions modern society’s standards concerning physical appearance. Previously studied themes of hyperbolic beauty, ugliness and eating disorders come back into play when I re-examine these themes in connection with Nothomb’s challenging of the contemporary ideals of beauty. At this stage I consider similarities in Angela Carter’s postmodernist approach to literature and its significance to and similarities with Nothomb’s work. Furthermore, I provide additional examples of these themes relating to beauty by turning to Nothomb’s newer novel, Une forme de vie (2010), which grapples with obesity, depression and suicidal ideation, all of which appear, to varying degrees, in Métaphysique des tubes. My thesis intends to show that Nothomb intentionally writes Métaphysique des tubes so that it defies one clear-cut classification. Her work grows in richness and depth precisely through her playful de- and reconstruction of various literary genres, sub-genres and movements, as well as pastiching of fragments of fairy tales and fantasy fiction. Métaphysique des tubes becomes at once beautiful and beastly as she creatively redefines her own identity and successfully questions contemporary society and culture in a novel that all the while refuses to be tamed
Refashioning "knights and ladies gentle deeds" the intertextuality of Spenser's Faerie Queene and Malory's Morte Darthur
No full textRefashioning "Knights and Ladies Gentle Deeds" seeks to offer a more determinate sense than traditional source study of just how much Spenser's Faerie Queene owed to Malory's Morte Darthur. Once widespread, the assumption of Spenser's debt to Malory came under enough heavy fire in the first half of this century to render it shunned. Until now, the only book-length study on the topic was Prof. Marie Walther's nineteenth-century German inaugural dissertation, Malory's Einfluss auf Spenser's Faerie Queene, which has never been translated into English. Though the question has received renewed interest in several recent essays by A. Kent Hieatt, the disproportionately brief entry on Malory in the Spenser Encyclopedia demonstrates how much is yet to be learned about the relationship between these two dominant works of adjacent centuriesWhile not neglecting the question of direct borrowings, author Paul Rovang applies a theory of intertextuality to probe how the poet responded to the chivalric romance themes, conventions, materials, and structures which he encountered in the Morte Darthur. Both works are treated not as monoliths, but as links in a network of texts and other cultural phenomena relating to chivalry. In this way, a fuller sense is given not only of how vitally connected the two works are, but of how Spenser "refashioned" the transmitted ideals and symbols of Arthurian knighthood for his own ag
- …
