1,005 research outputs found
Writing and the rights of reality: usurpation and potentiality in Derrida, Plato, Nietzsche, and Beckett
No full textThe thesis critically evaluates Jacques Derrida's conferral of the rights of reality on writing, focussing on his theory of an arche-text in light of the speculative nature of this theory. The theory is initially considered in the context of Derrida's elucidation of the usurpatory status of writing within the Platonic and Nietzschean texts. This consideration reveals an admission of writing's usurpatory status by both writers while at the same time demonstrating their awareness of the intrinsically speculative nature of this view, the significance of writing lying in its ability to exteriorise the radically indeterminate status of consciousness m relation to reality rather than its ability to displace consciousness or reality The analyses, therefore, not only bring the Derridean hypothesis of a repressive or phonocentric metaphysical episteme into question but also exhibit the historical and philosophical role of potentiality in relation to writing, writing's ultimate significance lying in its capacity to exteriorise our existence as a mode of potentiality. Accordingly, in the second half of the thesis the Derridean theory of writing is countered with a specifically Aristotelian theory of the text as it is exhibited in the prose of Samuel Beckett, an author whose significance lies in his close alignment with Derridean theory within contemporary criticism. It is demonstrated that this identification has obviated an awareness of the significance of potentiality within the Beckettian text, his work consequently being appraised in the previously neglected context of Aristotelian metaphysics
Reminiscences of the early anthracite-iron industry
No full textThis address given by Samuel Thomas, given before the American Institute of Mining Engineers at the California meeting in 1899, discusses the works and accomplishments of his father, David Thomas, in the anthracite-iron industry. Thomas also details the construction of furnaces that utilized anthracite in iron production built by the Lehigh Crane Iron Company. Edition note: Author\u27s ed. ; General note: "An address delivered before the American Institute of Mining Engineers, at the California meeting, September, 1899" ; General note: Published from advance sheets of Vol. XXIX, of the Transactions
Ohio impromptu, genre and Beckett on film
No full textSamuel Beckett’s choice of the title Ohio Impromptu to name the play first performed to an audience of academics and scholars at Columbus Ohio in 1981 is one manifestation of its author’s interest in the question of literary genre; more generally, in Beckett’s dramatic works one encounters a meticulous attention to the activity of categorisation, even if the energy is often directed toward the creation of phantom genres for spectral exemplars. This essay concerns itself with Ohio Impromptu in particular because by means of elements specific to this play (including the context in which it was first performed) it comments upon its own very failure to occupy its designated genre co-ordinates (these include its identity both as a play and as an ‘impromptu’). This play, which is so apt to incorporate other genres, however, is presided over by a stage direction which locates it firmly in the theatrical context. It is in its deliberate failure to attend to this stage direction that the Beckett on Film version of the play goes beyond the mere treacherous fidelity that is inevitably a feature of any adaptation. In arguing this, the essay analyses the foregrounding in the play of questions that can be said to pertain to genre (in several senses). Its more specific intention is to suggest that, via a combination of casting and special effects, the adaptation succeeds not only in cancelling the critical reflection on the ‘genre gesture’ that is lodged in Ohio Impromptu, but also in eradicating the very disjunction between Reader and Listener upon which the play depends
Acerca del relativismo de Thomas Samuel Kuhn
No full textThe impact of the work of Thomas Samuel Kuhn It is due, in large part, to the emphasis with which this author highlighted the relevance of factors external to scientific knowledge in the development of scientific practice. But also the relativistic and subjectivist consequences that emerge from many of the positions that he defended in his first publications contributed to the wide dissemination of his ideas. However, in his later writings, Kuhn seems to have qualified some of his more radical views. In this work, some critical observations about his work are formulated. It is also argued that the modifications subsequently introduced by this author only constitute partial alterations of the most extreme theses that characterize his work.El impacto de la obra de Thomas Samuel Kuhn se debe, en gran parte, al énfasis con que este autor destacó la relevancia de factores externos al conocimiento científico en el desarrollo de la práctica científica. Pero también las consecuencias relativistas y subjetivistas que se desprenden de muchas de las posiciones que defendió en sus primeras publicaciones contribuyeron con la amplia difusión de sus ideas. No obstante, en sus últimos escritos, Kuhn parece haber matizado algunas de sus concepciones más radicales. En este trabajo, se formulan algunas observaciones críticas sobre su obra. Se argumenta, además, que las modificaciones posteriormente introducidas por este autor sólo constituyen alteraciones parciales de las tesis más extremas que caracterizan su obra
Samuel Beckett and the Writers of Port-Royal
No full textIt has been observed that ‘the literary influences on Beckett have been far more important than has been acknowledged, and more important indeed, than the philosophical influences’ (Smith 2002: 3). The truth of this statement is evidenced by the description that scholars have given of Samuel Beckett’s relationship to seventeenth century French classicism. To date, critical interest has been limited for the most part to the figure of the philosopher René Descartes on the (fragile) grounds that Beckett was exclusively concerned with the Cartesian imperative of clarity and order, the fundamental dualism between body and mind, and Nominalism.
Together with the assumption that Beckett’s vision was essentially Cartesian, his literary filiation with Pascal was suggested by critics, but only in terms of Beckett’s formal approach to the theatre. In his short article on En attendant Godot in 1953, the playwright Jean Anouilh was among the first reviewers to suggest that Beckett’s drama synthesizes the encounter between ‘classicism’ and a ‘modern’ form of art. It is well known that Beckett retained a lifelong admiration for Pascal – indeed, Pascal was one of his ‘old chestnuts’ (Knowlson 1997: 653). Little attention has been paid, however, to the originality of Pascal’s thought, the specific nature of his prose, and the impact these might have had upon Beckett’s mature work, especially the trilogy and the subsequent short prose. Yet, in the literary and philosophical context of post-war France, Beckett’s filiation with Pascal, their corresponding preoccupations, were evident to his contemporaries, who identified Pascal as an underlying presence in his works
Florist's vade mecum [electronic resource] : being a choice collection of whatever worthy notice hath been extant, for the propagation, raising, planting, increasing and preserving the rarest flowers and plants, that our climate and skill (in mixing, making and meliorating apted soils to each species) will perswade to live with us : with several new experiments, for raising new varieties, for their most advantageous management, in a more particular method, than ever yet published : to which is added, The gardener's almanack, remembring and directing him what to do each month throughout the year, in both orchard and flower-garden /
No full textSpecial t.p. : The gardeners almanack for five years / by Samuel Gilbert. London : Printed for Thomas Simmons, 1682.Engraved frontispiece of author opposite t.p.Includes index.Advertisement: p. [19]-[22] at end.Pages 121-130 lacking; numerous errors in paging.Imperfect: tightly bound and stained, with some fading and loss of print.Reproduction of original in the British Library.WingElectronic reproduction
[Letter] 1780 May 11, Philadelphia [to] [Thomas Jefferson] the Governor of Virginia / Samuel Huntington.
No full textSee also Huntington\u27s biography and a guide to research collections of his papers (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000998), as well as Jefferson\u27s official White House biography (http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tj3.html), and a guide to research collections of his papers (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=J000069); search the collection for Jefferson\u27s additional correspondence.Huntington forwards an Act of Congress and a letter from P. Legras addressing the issues therein. At the time this letter was written, Huntington was serving as President of the Continental Congress (1779-1781, 1783) of which he was a Member in 1776, 1778-1781 and 1783. Active in the Early Republic, Huntington signed the Declaration of Independence, and served as Governor of Connecticut from 1786 to his death in 1796. The recipient of the letter, Thomas Jefferson, served as Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781. Before assuming these duties he had served in the Continental Congress (1775-76 and later 1783-84) and was recognized as the main author of the Declaration of Independence (1776). He went on to serve as Washington\u27s Secretary of State (1789-93), Adam\u27s Vice President (1797-1801), minister to France, and third President of the United States (1801-1809) for two terms. He later founded the University of Virginia
Richardson, Barbauld, and the construction of an early modern fan club
No full textMPhilMuch has been written about the life and long works of the eighteenth century epistolary novelist, Samuel Richardson, but the prospect of his position as the first celebrity novelist – responsible for courting his own fame as well as initiating his own fan club – has largely been ignored. The body of manuscripts housed at the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London provides the modern scholar with evidence of the skeletal beginnings of an early fan club. This thesis aims to show how these manuscripts were turned into a saleable commodity by the publisher and entrepreneur Richard Phillips, while under the guiding hand of another, slightly later, literary celebrity, Anna Laetitia Barbauld. In order to restore Richardson’s reputation amongst a new nineteenth century audience, Barbauld was required to construct her own idea of him as an eighteenth century celebrity author, and in doing so the insecurities of a self-professed, apparently diffident man, are revealed. Barbauld’s capacious, but heavily edited selection of letters is analyzed in this thesis, providing ample evidence that Richardson’s correspondents were more than just eager letter writers. By using Barbauld’s biography of Richardson this thesis aims to show how she manipulates the genre of life writing in her construction of him.
This thesis offers an alternative reading of how the Richardson manuscripts are viewed, redefining them as not simply a collection of letters, but as a collective entity, deliberately selected and archived as evidence of an early modern fan club, and its celebrity managing director
The sweat of the brain: representations of intellectual labour in the writings of Edmund Burke, William Cobbett, William Hazlitt and Thomas Carlyle
No full textThis thesis examines representations of intellectual work in the writings of Edmund Burke, William Cobbett, William Hazlitt, and Thomas Carlyle, focusing on their tendency to draw on an analogy between mental and manual labour when representing their own work to themselves and to their readers. It is my argument that while the assimilation of intellectual to physical labour can be seen as a symptom of political bad faith - suggesting, as it does, that thinking and writing are as painful or as difficult as digging and ploughing - the primary purposes of the analogy in the works of these four cultural commentators are, first, to forge rhetorical alliances with ordinary labourers, and, second, to attack other intellectuals engaged in what are alleged to be less arduous and less valuable forms of intellectual endeavour. By blaming the irresponsible activity of disaffected literary men for the political upheaval of the French Revolution, Burke set the terms for debate about the role of educated and literate men in society, a debate in which, for the first time, intellectuals competed for the allegiance of the labouring population. The analogy with manual labour was a key rhetorical site in the struggle to define an ideology for intellectuals, since it claims to ground the speaker or writer in the labouring community at large. For each author, I undertake close readings of several key texts to demonstrate the prevalence of the comparison with manual labour in the representation of intellectual activity. The political-ideological valence of the analogy is never straightforward, I contend, and it often occurs alongside an impulse to emphasise, as well as to elide, what are assumed to be the fundamental differences between mental and manual activity. We witness in the writings of Burke, Cobbett, Hazlitt, and Carlyle a recognisable mode of self-representation, for the desire to assimilate intellectual to material work has persisted
Miscellaneous and fugitive pieces. ... [electronic resource].
No full textEdited by Thomas Davies, and including works by Samuel Johnson."In 1773 he [Thomas Davies] audaciously published 'Miscellaneous and fugitive pieces' in two volumes, and advertised them as 'by the author of the Rambler.' Johnson's writings, which he had appropriated without authority, formed the bulk of this collection." - DNB.Vol.1, 2 are undated; vol.3 is dated 1774, and bears the imprint: "Printed for T. Davies; and Carnan and Newbery".Electronic reproduction.English Short Title Catalog,Reproduction of original from British Library
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