1,344 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
Public worship and practical theology in the work of Benjamin Keach (1640-1704)
No full textThe late seventeenth century was a critical and fruitful period
for the Particular Baptists of England. Severely persecuted following
the Restoration, toleration in 1689 brought its own perils.
Particular Baptists were fortunate in having several strong leaders,
especially the London trio of Hanserd Knollys, William Kiffin, and
Benjamin Keach. Such a small and severely persecuted group as the
Baptists could afford little time for academic pursuits, thus of
necessity most of their theology was practical in nature.
Benjamin Keach (1640-1704) was the most outstanding practical
theologian among the English Particular Baptists of the late
seventeenth century. This dissertation is a study of Keach, in
particular his writings on public worship and practical theology.
Although Keach was a prolific author, he has been almost completely
neglected by scholars.
After a biographical sketch of Keach, this study considers his
writings on public worship and practical theology. In the area of
worship, Keach made two outstanding contributions: First, he was the
most vocal apologist for Baptist views on Baptism of his period.
Secondly, and more importantly, his hymn writing and defense of hymn
singing broke new ground, not just for Baptists, but for English
Protestantism, in general. In addition to his contributions in these
areas, he also dealt with the laying on of hands and the sabbath day
worship controversy.
Keach's contributions to practical theology fall into two main
groups: his writings that concern religious education and those that
deal with polity. In addition to these, Keach's vigorous advocacy of
a high Calvinist soteriology are also considered under the rubric of
practical theology. Keach's most important (although not his most
positive) contribution in this area were his soteriological writings.
Although well within the bounds of orthodoxy, some of the tendencies
in Keach's soteriology were taken up by the following generation of
Baptist leaders and developed into a stultifying hyper-Calvinism that
handicapped Baptist evangelism and missions.
In the conclusion, Keach's contributions to a theory of practical
theology are considered
Traumatic identity and aura in David Lodge's "Author, author"
No full textEste artículo analiza la novela Author, Author (2004) de David Lodge como ejemplo de bioficción neo-victoriana centrada en una celebridad, en este caso concreto, Henry James. El género forma parte del renacimiento Victoriano actual que afecta a los estudios culturales en su conjunto. Mi argumento central es que la novela de Lodge constituye una respuesta a las ansiedades culturales actuales, en particular a las que se refieren a la crisis identitaria y autoría literaria, así como a la pérdida del aura artística de Walter Benjamin, sublimándolas a través de los traumas de finales del siglo XIX. La elección de James, como demuestra el artículo, no es casual. Es el último representante de un mundo perdido en el que el aura aún tenía un espacio; el ser humano en crisis y traumatizado porque no encaja en un status quo nuevo.This paper delves into David Lodge’s Author, Author (2004) as an example of neo-Victorian celebrity biofiction, more concretely on Henry James. The genre belongs to the wave of Victorian revival in current literature which also affects cultural studies in general. My main contention is that Lodge’s novel responds to current cultural anxieties, particularly the crisis of identity and authorship and the end of Walter Benjamin’s concept of aura, by sublimating them into late-nineteenth-century traumata. The choice of James is, the article argues, not casual. He represents the redeeming figure of a lost auratic world; the human in crisis, traumatized because he does not fit in the new status quo
TRAUMATIC IDENTITY AND AURA IN DAVID LODGE’S AUTHOR, AUTHOR
No full textThis paper delves into David Lodge’s Author, Author (2004) as an example of neo-Victorian celebrity biofiction, more concretely on Henry James. The genre belongs to the wave of Victorian revival in current literature which also affects cultural studies in general. My main contention is that Lodge’s novel responds to current cultural anxieties, particularly the crisis of identity and authorship and the end of Walter Benjamin’s concept of aura, by sublimating them into late-nineteenth-century traumata. The choice of James is, the article argues, not casual. He represents the redeeming figure of a lost auratic world; the human in crisis, traumatized because he does not fit in the new status quo.Este artículo analiza la novela Author, Author (2004) de David Lodge como ejemplo de bioficción neo-victoriana centrada en una celebridad, en este caso concreto, Henry James. El género forma parte del renacimiento victoriano actual que afecta a los estudios culturales en su conjunto. Mi argumento central es que la novela de Lodge constituye una respuesta a las ansiedades culturales actuales, en particular a las que se refieren a la crisis identitaria y autoría literaria, así como a la pérdida del aura artística de Walter Benjamin, sublimándolas a través de los traumas de finales del siglo XIX. La elección de James, como demuestra el artículo, no es casual. Es el último representante de un mundo perdido en el que el aura aún tenía un espacio; el ser humano en crisis y traumatizado porque no encaja en un status quo nuevo
Program Note: Benjamin Britten, War Requiem
No full textThis is a program note to Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, performed by the Boston University Symphony Orchestra & Chorus (David Hoose & Scott Allen Jarrett, conducting) at Symphony Hall, Boston University on November 24, 2014. This program note appears in OpenBU courtesy of its author
The visceral screen: Between the cinemas of John Cassavetes and David Cronenberg, a Barthesian perspective
No full textThe thesis discusses two directors who are never considered together in academic discourse. Cassavetes’ perceived focus on events led by the dynamics of performance and his looseness of technique opposes the calculated compositions of the Cronenberg film, with its aesthetic of horrific images and its gallery of emotionally detached protagonists. Yet it is between such opposing methods of cinematic expression that the ineffable qualities of film aesthetics can be discovered. Cassavetes’ cinema achieves this by revelling in a surplus of activity that exceeds narrative, while the indescribable characteristics of the Cronenberg oeuvre is achieved through a systematic emptying of the image’s meaning through a simultaneous commitment to paring back emotion and portraying of images that are controversial and inconceivable. Taken together, the thesis identifies these aspects of film as ‘the visceral,’ a facet of the moving image that most certainly exists, but is resolutely, and disturbingly resistant to interpretation.
Roland Barthes’ writings are integral to a theory of the visceral. His re-evaluation of Saussurean semiology as a method of analyzing and undoing ideologically-imposed meanings informs readings of sequences from Cassavetes and Cronenberg’s films. Following Barthes, the thesis suggests that the existence of the visceral is realized as a resistance to ideological interpretations of the image, and so cannot be described. Ultimately, the inability of semiology to fully grasp certain aspects of the filmed image is put forward as a rejoinder to theories of the fiction film as principally a narrative medium
Henry David Thoreau and His View of Slavery
No full textThis BA thesis is concerned with Henry David Thoreau's opinions on slavery. The first part of the thesis focuses on the development of the abolitionist movement in the first half of the nineteenth century and of antislavery tendencies and organizations. The most important figures of the abolitionist movement, such as Benjamin Lundy, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Dwight Weld, David Walker or Frederick Douglass, as well as the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1865 adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, are paid attention to. Thoreau's essays Civil Disobedience, Slavery in Massachusetts and A Plea for Captain John Brown are analyzed in the thesis. In his Civil Disobedience, the author criticizes the government for abusing, rather than protecting, American citizens, who have elected it and enabled its functioning. Thoreau scorns the government for supporting slavery and for waging the Mexican-American War. He believes that every man has an inalienable right to be free and since the government takes this right away from people, he responds to it with civil disobedience. One comes across Thoreau's critique of his fellow citizens and of their lack of interest in enslaved people in his Slavery in Massachusetts. The writer is disappointed with the fact that law,..
Henry David Thoreau a jeho pohled na otroctví
No full textTato bakalářská práce pojednává o názorech Henryho Davida Thoreaua na otroctví. Úvodní část je zaměřena na vývoj abolicionistického hnutí v první polovině devatenáctého století a na protiotrokářské tendence a organizace. Pozornost je věnována důležitým osobnostem abolicionistického hnutí, mezi které patří Benjamin Lundy, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Dwight Weld, David Walker nebo Frederick Douglass, všímá si Prohlášení o osvobození otroků z roku 1863 a třináctého dodatku Ústavy Spojených států amerických z roku 1865. Následuje analýza Thoreauových esejí Občanská neposlušnost, Otroctví v Massachusetts a Obrana kapitána Johna Browna. V Občanské neposlušnosti autor kritizuje vládu za to, že americké občany, kteří ji zvolili a umožnili tak její fungování, spíše zneužívá, než aby je chránila. Thoreau vládě dále vyčítá podporu otroctví a vedení války s Mexikem. Každý člověk má podle něj nezcizitelné právo na svobodu, a jelikož vláda lidem toto právo upírá, reaguje na to autor občanskou neposlušností. V eseji Otroctví v Massachusetts vytýká Thoreau svým spoluobčanům jejich nezájem o zotročené lidi. Je zklamán tím, že právo, místo aby lidi chránilo, je omezuje. Všímá si také nespolehlivosti tisku. V Obraně kapitána Johna Browna se spisovatel zabývá osobností Johna Browna. Ospravedlňuje Brownův čin a...This BA thesis is concerned with Henry David Thoreau's opinions on slavery. The first part of the thesis focuses on the development of the abolitionist movement in the first half of the nineteenth century and of antislavery tendencies and organizations. The most important figures of the abolitionist movement, such as Benjamin Lundy, William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Dwight Weld, David Walker or Frederick Douglass, as well as the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1865 adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, are paid attention to. Thoreau's essays Civil Disobedience, Slavery in Massachusetts and A Plea for Captain John Brown are analyzed in the thesis. In his Civil Disobedience, the author criticizes the government for abusing, rather than protecting, American citizens, who have elected it and enabled its functioning. Thoreau scorns the government for supporting slavery and for waging the Mexican-American War. He believes that every man has an inalienable right to be free and since the government takes this right away from people, he responds to it with civil disobedience. One comes across Thoreau's critique of his fellow citizens and of their lack of interest in enslaved people in his Slavery in Massachusetts. The writer is disappointed with the fact that law,...Department of Anglophone Literatures and CulturesÚstav anglofonních literatur a kulturFaculty of ArtsFilozofická fakult
Tagging of Biomedical Articles on CiteULike: A Comparison of User, Author and Professional Indexing
No full textThis paper examines the context of online indexing from the viewpoint of three different groups: users, authors, and professional indexers. User tags, author keywords and descriptors were collected from academic journal articles, which were both indexed in Pubmed and tagged on CiteULike, and analysed. Descriptive statistics, informetric measures, and thesaural term comparison shows that there are important differences in the use of keywords between the three groups in addition to similarities which can be used to enhance support for search and browse. While tags and author keywords were found that matched descriptors exactly, other terms which did not match but provided important expansion to the indexing lexicon were found. These additional terms could be used to enhance support for searching and browsing in article databases as well as to provide invaluable data for entry vocabulary and emergent terminology for regular updates to indexing systems. Additionally, the study suggests that tags support organisation by association to task, projects and subject while making important connections to traditional systems which classify into subject categories
Sea-Level change and subsidence in the Delaware Estuary during the last ~2200 years
No full textWe produced eight new sea-level index points that reconstruct a ~2.5 m relative sea-level (RSL) rise at Sea Breeze in the Delaware Bay from ~200 BCE to 1800 CE. The precision of our reconstruction improved upon existing data by using high-resolution surveying methods, AMS radiocarbon dating of in-situ plant macrofossils collected immediately above the basal contact between pre-Holocene sand and salt-marsh sediments, foraminifera as sea-level indicators, and by accounting for tidal range changes through time. Our new data were combined with a database of 65 sea-level index points available for the Delaware Bay to estimate the rate of RSL rise in the upper (1.26 ± 0.33 mm/yr) and lower bay (1.30 ± 0.36 mm/yr) using a spatial-temporal model. Correction for changes in tidal range through time removed the disparity in rate between the upper and lower Delaware Bay that had previously been postulated. After paleotidal correction, the rates of RSL rise estimated for the Delaware Bay (1.25 ± 0.27 mm/yr) correlate with the ~1.3 mm/yr rate reported for New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and confirm that the maximal ongoing forebulge collapse along the U.S. Atlantic coast is focused on the mid-Atlantic.Peer reviewe
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