349 research outputs found
Redemption in the work of Francis Stuart
Get PDFThe idea of redemption is central to an understanding of the work
of Francis Stuart. Through an examination of its development and
expression, it is possible to demonstrate the integrity of his work and
its distinctive qualities. Such a demonstration is necessary because
Stuart's writing has been subjected to comparatively little scholarly
inquiry, although reviews of his work, especially that produced since
1949, suggest that it is impressive and important.
First, a general background to Stuart's work, a discussion of the
special problems associated with reading it, and a summary of his corpus
is provided. This indicates that the idea of redemption is important to
his earliest writing. The state of redemption is shown to be a
necessary apotheosis for Stuart's outcast heroes; it involves spiritual
suffering through which may be found a sense of reintegration and a
higher reality. This is expressed through interrelated themes such as
those of gambler, artist and ordinary man; mystic and criminal; sacred
and profane love; and spirituality and the mundane. The nature of the
redemptive experience is further elaborated by distinctive, complex
motifs, especially the hare, the ark and the woman-Christ. Their
recurrence provides an important element in the unity of Stuart's work.
Because Stuart's idea of the outcast raises important biographical
questions, an examination of the relationship between Stuart's life and
his work is made. Finally, the way in which the idea of redemption
exists in the language structures of Stuart's novels is examined, with
especial reference to his most recent work, The High Consistory. The
thesis shows that the development of the these of redemption
demonstrates the integrity of Stuart's work
Music in words : the music of Anthony Burgess, and the role of music in his literature
No full textTheý principal focus of the thesis is Anthony Burgess, a prolific novelist whose first and
enduring creative passion was music in general and composition in particular. Burgess
criticism is limited and largely out-of-date, showing little recognition of the aural or musical
elements in his fiction, and virtually no specialist commentary on the music and its
relationships with the literature. The main aim of the thesis, therefore, is to demonstrate the
variety and strength of the widespread musical elements in Burgess's literature, including the
importance he attaches to the sonic basis of language, and to show that these are supported by
the musical sensibility and technical competence evident in his. compositions. It is suggested
that in the inevitable reassessmenot f his work following his death in 1993, the effects of his
musicianship on his literary work should play a greater part than hitherto, and the thesis makes
a contribution to this reassessmenbt oth through its original critical commentaries on his music
and through the music-orientated discussion of his literature.
After an introduction and literature review, the first chapter examines three examples of
Burgess's little-known music. All are associated with verbal texts, though the range is
otherwise wide, and through them it is possible to draw conclusions about the competence of
his handling of musical language and structure. The second and third chapters examine the
more familiar work of Burgess the acclaimed author, but from the unfamiliar viewpoint of its
musical content, including not only surface references but also hidden allusions and technical
puzzles aimed at the musician reader. Two instances of music serving as a structural template
for literature are analysed in detail, and attention is also drawn to Burgess's awareness of
musical elements in the content and language of the, work of some. of his predecessors. The
final core-chapter,e xamines the fusion of Burgess's literary and,m usical skills in the context of
his music and words for stage and radio.
What emerges is the clear intermeshing of his parallel careers;, and the production within his
distinctive literary output of work which, due to the radical extent of its musicalisation, has to
be viewed as musically-aware literature for specialised readers, at times evincing, it is
proposed, a logic which springs primarily from music
Beauty for the Present: Mill, Arnold, Ruskin and Aesthetic Education
Get PDFThe present thesis examines the idea of aesthetic education of three eminent Victorians: John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin. By focusing on the essence of what they meant with ‘the cultivation of the beautiful’ and, more importantly, the way their ideas of beauty informed their criticism of society, my study aims to contribute to our understanding of the idea of aesthetic education in the Victorian context and, further, to participate in a recent debate about the nature of beauty and aesthetic education.
Chapter One focuses on John Stuart Mill’s concept of ‘feeling’ in a series of essays. I will demonstrate how Mill’s idea of ‘aesthetic education’ was an ‘education of feelings,’ and moreover, how this idea was integrated into his literary criticism, his later critique of democratisation, his description of an ideal liberal society and even his own style of writing. Chapter Two contains a comparative study of Matthew Arnold and Friedrich Schiller. Through a rereading of Arnold, I will argue that his idea of aesthetic education is essentially Schillerian and that their resemblance consists primarily in their stress on the importance of aesthetic unity for modern life, which was becoming increasingly fragmentary and multitudinous. Chapter Three examines John Ruskin’s idea of aesthetic education and concentrates particularly on the cultivation of perception. Perception, as I shall show, was pivotal in Ruskin’s idea of aesthetic education. Just as what happened in Mill and Arnold, the emphasis on the education of seeing continued from his early writings well into his art and social criticisms. It not only differentiated him from his fellow art critics; the conviction that people should perceive with a pure heart also enabled him to link observation of artistic details with moral criticism of contemporary society and, thereby, to turn the cultivation of the beautiful into a moral-aesthetic experience
MDMA Increases Cooperation and Recruitment of Social Brain Areas When Playing Trustworthy Players in an Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma
Get PDFSocial decision-making is fundamental for successful functioning, and can be affected in psychiatric illness and by serotoninergic modulation. The Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) is the archetypal paradigm to model cooperation and trust. However, the effect of serotonergic enhancement is poorly characterised, and its influence on the effect of variations in opponent behaviour unknown. To address this, we conducted a study investigating how the serotonergic enhancer MDMA modulates behaviour and its neural correlates during an iterated PD with both trustworthy and untrustworthy opponents.We administered 100mg MDMA or placebo to 20 male participants in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. While being scanned, participants played repeated rounds with opponents who differed in levels of cooperation. On each round participants chose to compete or cooperate and were asked to rate their trust in the other player. Cooperation with trustworthy, but not untrustworthy, opponents was enhanced following MDMA but not placebo (respectively: OR=2.01 95% CI 1.42–2.84, p<0.001; OR=1.37 95% CI 0.78–2.30 n.s.). Specifically, MDMA enhanced recovery from, but not the impact of, breaches in cooperation. During trial outcome, MDMA increased activation of four clusters incorporating precentral and supramarginal gyri, superior temporal cortex, central operculum/posterior insula, and supplementary motor area. There was a treatment-by-opponent interaction in right anterior insula and dorsal caudate. Trust ratings did not change across treatment sessions. MDMA increased cooperative behaviour when playing trustworthy opponents. Underlying this was a change in brain activity of regions linked to social cognition. Our findings highlight the context-specific nature of MDMA’s effect on social decision-making.© 2020, The Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper published in JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.</p
Receptor-Enriched Analysis of functional connectivity by targets (REACT): A novel, multimodal analytical approach informed by PET to study the pharmacodynamic response of the brain under MDMA
Get PDFOne of the main limitations of pharmacological fMRI is its inability to provide a molecular insight into the main effect of compounds, leaving an open question about the relationship between drug effects and haemodynamic response. The aim of this study is to investigate the acute effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) on functional connectivity (FC) using a novel multimodal method (Receptor-Enriched Analysis of functional Connectivity by Targets - REACT). This approach enriches the resting state (rs-)fMRI analysis with the molecular information about the distribution density of serotonin receptors in the brain, given the serotonergic action of MDMA. Twenty healthy subjects participated in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. A high-resolution in vivo atlas of four serotonin receptors (5-HT 1A , 5-HT 1B , 5-HT 2A , and 5-HT 4 ) and its transporter (5-HTT) was used as a template in a two-step multivariate regression analysis to estimate the spatial maps reflecting the whole-brain connectivity behaviour related to each target under placebo and MDMA. Results showed that the networks exhibiting significant changes after MDMA administration are the ones informed by the 5-HTT and 5-HT 1A distribution density maps, which are the main targets of this compound. Changes in the 5-HT 1A -enriched functional maps were also associated with the pharmacokinetic levels of MDMA and MDMA-induced FC changes in the 5-HT 2A -enriched maps correlated with the spiritual experience subscale of the Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire. By enriching the rs-fMRI analysis with molecular data of voxel-wise distribution of the serotonin receptors across the brain, we showed that MDMA effects on FC can be understood through the distribution of its main targets. This result supports the ability of this method to characterise the specificity of the functional response of the brain to MDMA binding to serotonergic receptors, paving the way to the definition of a new fingerprint in the characterization of new compounds and potentially to a further understanding to the response to treatment
Positive representation of Inns of Court lawyers in Jacobean city comedy
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis examines representations of lawyers and law in examples of Jacobean city comedy, taking into account certain contemporary developments in the legal profession and the law in England. The period covered is 1598-1616. The thesis questions the conventional interpretation of city comedy as hostile to the legal profession. It suggests the topic is more complex than has been assumed, arguing that city comedy makes direct and indirect positive representation of Inns of Court lawyers, who are to be distinguished from attorneys (newly segregated in the Inns of Chancery), amateur quasi-lawyers, and university-educated civil lawyers. It is proposed that city comedy represents Inns of Court lawyers positively in two ways. Firstly, by means of legal content: representations of developments in the profession and the law demonstrate a wish to connect with the young lawyers and students of the Inns of Court, and reflect a contemporary drive by them for increased organization and regulation. Secondly, by means of literary form: ostensibly pejorative representations need not be taken at face value; instead, they may be found to be ironic. The main proposed contributions to knowledge are: that Inns of Court lawyers were a favoured part of the target audience of the private playhouses, making it questionable that they would be represented negatively in city comedy; that lawyers as represented in city comedy are not a single or a simple category; that representation of lawyers is inflected by the various forms and impulses of city comedy; and that city comedy incorporates some reflection of the increasing professionalization of legal practice in the period
Water-Use Efficiency: Advances and Challenges in a Changing Climate
No full textThis eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contac
Water-Use Efficiency: Advances and Challenges in a Changing Climate
No full textThis eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contac
- …
