518 research outputs found

    The sense of a beginning : Bakhtinian dialogic criticism on 'the gospel' in Mark.

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    Contemporary literary approaches have caused paradigm shifts in Biblical Studies in the last two decades as it appears in a great deal of Markan studies using narrative, reader-response, deconstructive, feminist, and new historicist approaches. However, literary studies on the Gospel of Mark have not taken into account theoretical questions underlying those approaches. As a result biblical critics are driven by new trends without ever having a chance to examine the critical baggage of the approaches. Consequently, there is a gap of communication between the old and the new one. Therefore this thesis is an attempt to meet the need of enhancing the quality of critical endeavour in biblical studies. In the light of most recent competing critical theories of literature, the first contribution of this thesis is the methodological finding that Bakhtinian dialogic criticism contains the most profound philosophical and practical foundations for solving some crucial theoretical problems in contemporary literary theories. It is a critique to a Saussurian linguistic system of language which becomes the very foundation of modern and postmodern literary criticism. Bakhtinian literary theory shifts the foundation of literary criticism on linguistic signs into the creative activity of the socio-cultural production of human communication. The shift into socio-cultural reality of language communication makes the notion of 'genre' very important to unlock the problem of text and context in literary studies. Since the Gospel of Mark has fascinated most literary critics in Biblical Studies, the problem of 'genre' of this gospel is chosen as the focus of this study. Secondly, as no agreement is reached as to what 'genre' the Gospel of Mark belongs, this thesis makes its contribution to the discussion by locating the problem of 'genre' of Mark in the context of genre theories and argues that the Bakhtinian suggestion to find genre in the socio-cultural sphere by analysing artistic intercourse between narrative agents in Mark has freed the competing analysis from the unresolved problem between the kerygmatic (content oriented) approach and the analogical (form oriented) approach. To achieve finding 'genre' in the socio-cultural sphere, this thesis focuses on Bakhtinian analysis of the process of artistic intercourse between narrative agents. The narrative communicative interrelationships between narrative agents is constructed in this thesis as a 'stereophonic' Bakhtinian model of dialogic communication. This model is an original contribution of this thesis for revising the traditional two dimensional model of narrative communication. Based on this dialogical model of communication, a special role is given to the Bakhtinian 'author-creator' in the realization process of genre through the interaction of polyphonic voices. Through the interaction of voices of the author-artist and the hero we are led to discover a relatively stable type of portraying and controlling reality in Mark, known as the genre of Roman 'satire'. The closest literary affinity is Satyrica by Petronius. This narrative strategy of 'satire' in Mark has its root in the prophetic discourse of the Old Testament which is saturating the speech of the narrator, John the Immerser, the centurion, the people, and even Jesus. Finally, the whole search for Markan 'genre' culminates in the analysis of the realization of genre through the analysis of Bakhtinian chronotope. The reality of the genre of Mark is its social reality that is in its role as dpxrj/ 'beginning'. As the Gospel of Mark proclaims itself as 'a beginning', it defines its claim of socio-cultural 'authority' in early Christianity. It is this 'sense of beginning' which enables the narrating and the narrated world of Mark to interact dialogically

    The television work of Alfred Hitchcock

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    The thesis uses close textual analysis to study and evaluate the television work of Alfred Hitchcock. The corpus consists of the twenty shows personally directed by Hitchcock, including his appearances before and after those shows. In response to most previous writing, which tends to compare the programmes with Hitchcock’s films (often unfairly) the thesis emphasises them as products of television. Programmes are evaluated on the basis of their perceived success as television- if they harness conditions related to television production and integrate them with narrative themes or to create meaning. Hitchcock is considered to be the major creative force in each programme. Chapter One provides a variety of important contexts including a brief history of US television of the 1950s, key literature on Hitchcock and analyses of contemporaneous programmes not directed by Hitchcock. The textual analysis chapters (2-8) consider aesthetic or thematic programme aspects. Chapter Two studies the various roles played by Hitchcock’s appearances as series host. Chapter Three considers the impact of censorship on programmes frequently dealing with murder, violence and insanity. Chapter Four analyses Hitchcock’s implementation of varieties of voice-over narration, a common device in short dramatic forms. Chapter Five studies Hitchcock’s use of point-of-view shots, particularly in relation to their role in the delivery of the narrative twist. Chapter Six considers the key Hitchcock theme of detachment from the world. Chapter Seven looks at moments from the programmes which demonstrate how aesthetic is influenced by television production conditions. Hitchcock created a number of television masterpieces. His achievements in television are in many ways comparable in quality and consistency to his theatrical films. Even when considered in the context of other 1950s US anthology dramas, the Hitchcock-directed programmes are superior on many levels. Elements of his film style were highly suited to television production. Many of his greatest achievements embrace and harness television production conditions in their presentation strategies to create an integration of style and meaning

    Plants of saline environments

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    Mark A. Teste

    2010300093

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    PCT Number: PCT/AU2010/001256 WIPO Number: WO2011/035386Inventors: Tester, Mark Alfred; Kaiser, Brent; Carter, Scott Anthony William; Shearer, Monique; Plett, Darren Craig; Roy, Stuart John; Cotsaftis, Olivier; Tyerman, Stephan; Okamoto, Mamoru. Assignee: Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics Pty Ltd. Agents: Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatric

    Japonisme and gender in the works of Alfred Stevens and William Merritt Chase

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    Japonisme, a term coined by French critic Phillippe Burty in 1878, describes the Western fascination with Japanese art and culture manifested in the visual and decorative arts, architecture, music, literature, fashion, and graphic design. This thesis examines paintings of women by European artist Alfred Stevens and his friend American painter William Merritt Chase to determine what their representations of japonisme reveal about transatlantic conceptions of female gender and sexuality. I offer a comparative analysis of cultural and artistic norms in Europe and the United States by exploring ephemeral and malleable notions of ideal femininity, whose associations with japonisme include nature, fantasy, and objecthood. In a period characterized by the rise of imperialism, the increased systematic study of ethnography and physiognomy, and the frequency of World’s Fairs, Stevens and Chase maintained eclectic studio collections and rendered them in their paintings. Their pictures-within-pictures in the background of these studio scenes are a tool to assert their artistic alignments, for example, Chase’s inclusion of Stevens’s 1880 La Bête à Bon Dieu in the background of his 1892 In the Studio, Mrs. Chase. In Chase’s borrowing of Stevens’s Parisienne ideal, white, middle-class type, Chase transcribes his own realist tendencies in his images of Japanese-clad Western women. William Merritt Chase takes Alfred Stevens’s essentialized feminine forms clothed in associations of japonisme and transfers them to his uniquely American context, while retaining many of his constructions of femininity

    Depolarizing the GM debate

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    The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.co

    Landscape-painter as landscape-gardener : the case of Alfred Parsons R.A.

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    In 2 vols.Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN016830 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

    Incomprehension or resistance? : the Markan disciples and the narrative logic of Mark ‎‎4:1—8:30‎

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    The characterization of the Markan disciples has been and continues to be the object of ‎much scholarly reflection and speculation. For many, the Markan author’s presentation of ‎Jesus’ disciples holds a key, if not the key, to unlocking the purpose and function of the ‎gospel as a whole. Commentators differ as to whether the Markan disciples ultimately ‎serve a pedagogical or polemical function, yet they are generally agreed that the disciples ‎in Mark come off rather badly, especially when compared to their literary counterparts in ‎Matthew, Luke, and John. This narrative-critical study considers the characterization of the Markan disciples ‎within the Sea Crossing movement (Mark 4:1–8:30). While commentators have, on the ‎whole, interpreted the disciples’ negative characterization in this movement in terms of ‎lack of faith and/or incomprehension, neither of these, nor a combination of the two, fully ‎accounts for the severity of language leveled against the disciples by the narrator (6:52) ‎and Jesus (8:17–18). Taking as its starting point an argument by Jeffrey B. Gibson (1986) ‎that the harshness of Jesus’ rebuke in Mark 8:14–21 is occasioned not by the disciples’ ‎lack of faith or incomprehension but by their active resistance to his Gentile mission, this ‎investigation uncovers additional examples of the disciples’ resistance to Gentile mission, ‎offering a better account of their negative portrayal within the Sea Crossing movement ‎and helping explain many of their other failures. In short, this study argues that in Mark 4:1–8:26, the disciples are characterized as ‎resistant to Jesus’ Gentile mission and to their participation in that mission, the chief ‎consequence being that they are rendered incapable of recognizing Jesus’ vocational ‎identity as Israel’s Messiah (Thesis A). This leads to a secondary thesis, namely, that in ‎Mark 8:27–30, Peter’s recognition of Jesus’ messianic identity indicates that the disciples ‎have finally come to accept Jesus’ Gentile mission and their participation in it (Thesis B).‎ ‎“Chapter One: Introduction” offers a selective review of scholarly treatments of ‎the Markan disciples, which shows that few scholars attribute resistance, let alone ‎purposeful resistance, to the disciples. ‎“Chapter Two: The Rhetoric of Repetition” introduces the methodological tools, ‎concepts, and perspectives employed in the study. It includes a section on narrative ‎criticism, which focuses upon the story-as-discoursed and the implied author and reader, ‎and a section on Construction Grammar, a branch of cognitive linguistics founded by ‎Charles Fillmore and further developed by Paul Danove, which focuses upon semantic ‎and narrative frames and case frame analysis. ‎“Chapter Three: The Sea Crossing Movement, Mark 4:1–8:30” addresses the ‎question of Markan structure and argues that Mark 4:1–8:30 comprises a single, unified, ‎narrative movement, whose action and plot is oriented to the Sea of Galilee and whose ‎most distinctive feature is the network of sea crossings that transport Jesus and his ‎disciples back and forth between Jewish and Gentile geopolitical spaces. Following William Freedman, “Chapter Four: The Literary Motif” introduces two ‎criteria (frequency and avoidability) for determining objectively what constitutes a ‎literary motif and provides the methodological basis and starting point for the analyses ‎performed in chapters five and six. ‎“Chapter Five: The Sea Crossing Motif” establishes and then carries out a lengthy ‎narrative analysis of the Sea Crossing motif, which is oriented around Mark’s use of ‎θάλασσα (thalassa) and πλοῖον (ploion), and “Chapter Six: The Loaves Motif” does the same for The ‎Loaves motif, oriented around Mark’s use of ἄρτος (artos). Finally, “Chapter Seven: The Narrative Logic of the Disciples ‎‎(In)comprehension” draws together all narrative, linguistic, and exegetical insights of the ‎previous chapters and offers a single coherent reading of the Sea Crossing movement that ‎establishes Theses A and B.
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