Global ETD Search

241	Trauma in the Syntax: Trauma Writing in David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest Alyssa Caroline Fernandez (11181666) 26 July 2021 (has links) <p>This project presents a case study of postmodern trauma, working at the boundaries of the humanities and computer science to produce an in-depth examination of trauma writing in David Foster Wallace’s novel <i>Infinite Jest</i>. The goal of this project is to examine the intricacies of syntax and language in postmodern trauma writing through an iterative process I refer to as <i>broken reading</i>, which combines traditional humanities methodologies (close reading) and distant, computational methodologies (Natural Language Processing). Broken reading begins with close reading, then ventures into the distant reading processes of sentiment analysis and entity analysis, and then returns again to close reading when the data must be analyzed and the broken computational elements must be corrected. While examining the syntactical structure of traumatic and non-traumatic passages through this broken reading methodology, I found that Wallace represents trauma as gendered. The male characters in the novel, when recollecting past traumata or undergoing traumatic events, maintain their subject status, recognize those around them as subjects, and are able to engage actively with the world around them. On the other hand, the female characters in the novel are depicted as lacking the same capacities for subjectivity and action. Through computational text analysis, it becomes clear that Wallace writes female trauma in a way that reflects their lack of agency and subjectivity while he writes male trauma in a way that maintains their agency and subjectivity. Through close reading, I was able to discover qualitative differences in Wallace’s representations of trauma and form initial observations about syntactical and linguistic patterns; through distant reading, I was able to quantify the differences I uncovered through close reading by conducting part of speech tagging, entity analysis, semantic analysis, and sentiment analysis. Distant reading led me to discover elements of the text that I had not noticed previously, despite the occasional flaw in computation. The analyses I produced through this broken reading process grew richer because of failure—when I failed as an interpreter, and when computational analysis failed, these failures gave me further insight into the trauma writing within the novel. Ultimately, there are marked syntactical and linguistic differences between the way that Wallace represents male and female trauma, which points toward the larger question of whether other white male postmodern authors gender trauma in their writings, too. This study has generated a prototype model for the <i>broken reading </i>methodology, which can be used to further examine postmodern trauma writing.</p> Literature Digital Humanities Linguistics Natural Language Processing Postmodernism (Literature) Postmodern Trauma Theory Trauma Close Reading Distant Reading Computational Analysis Natural Language Processing NLP Syntax Syntax Analysis Sentiment Analysis David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest Hal Incandenza Kate Gompert Katherine Ann Gompert Dominick LaCapra Cathy Caruth American Literature Contemporary Literature Contemporary American Literature Literature Digital Humanities DH
242	Ethical Wondering in Contemporary African American and Asian American Women's Magical Realism Na Rim Kim (16501845) 07 July 2023 (has links) <p>The term magical realism traces back to the German art critic Franz Roh, who in the early twentieth century applied it to (visual) art expressing the wondrousness of life. However, this definition has been eclipsed over time. Reorienting critical attention back to magical realism as the art of portraying wonder and wondering, I explore the magical realist novels of contemporary African American and Asian American women writers. Specifically, I examine Toni Morrison’s <em>Paradise</em> (1997), Jesmyn Ward’s <em>Sing, Unburied, Sing</em> (2017), Karen Tei Yamashita’s <em>Through the Arc of the Rain Forest</em> (1990), and Ruth Ozeki’s <em>A Tale for the Time Being</em> (2013). In wonder, all frames of reference at hand suddenly become inadequate. Simultaneously, the subject’s interest is heightened. As such, the act/experience of wondering may lead to humility and respect, the two attitudes at the base of any ethically flourishing life—a life that flourishes <em>with</em> others. For this reason, the Asian American woman writer and peace activist Maxine Hong Kingston espoused wondering. Affiliated with groups marginalized within the US, like Kingston my writers also promote wonder. I examine how these writers, through compelling use of both content and form, guide their readers toward a particular kind of wondering: wondering with an awareness of how the act/experience might lead to ethical flourishing.</p> Cultural theory Comparative and transnational literature Ecocriticism Literary theory North American literature Stylistics and textual analysis Epistemology Ethical theory Phenomenology Magical Realism Wonder Ethics African American Women's Literature Asian American Women's Literature Contemporary Literature Maxine Hong Kingston Toni Morrison Jesmyn Ward Karen Tei Yamashita Ruth Ozeki Paradise Sing, Unburied, Sing Through the Arc of the Rain Forest A Tale for the Time Being
243	"Psykosomatisk skrift. Psykosemantiskt sammanbrott." : En studie av litterära möjligheter och begränsningar i att skildra psykisk sjukdom utifrån begreppet gränserfarenhet / ”Psychosomatic writing. Psychosemantic breakdown.” : A study in literary possibilities and limitations in depicting mental illness in relation to the idea of the limit-experience Bjurbom, Helena January 2022 (has links) Studien undersöker, kartlägger och synliggör hur erfarenheter av psykisk sjukdom gestaltas och kommuniceras litterärt i tre samtida, nordiska verk: En dåre fri (2010) av Beate Grimsrud, Nonsensprinsessans dagbok: en sjukskriving (2018) av Isabella Nilsson och Jag är gråvit (2018) av Bjørn Rasmussen. Syftet är att synliggöra och fördjupa förståelsen för hur erfarenheter som tycks ifrågasätta språkets gränser kan formuleras och gestaltas litterärt. Med hjälp och mot bakgrund av Michel Foucaults begrepp gränserfarenhet diskuteras relationen mellan språk, gränser och sjukdom. Begreppet, som Foucault definierade som en intensiv erfarenhet som för individen till den yttersta gränsen av både liv och språk, lyfter flera perspektiv som är relevanta för uppsatsen. Utöver användandet av gränserfarenheten i uppsatsen aktualiseras flera teorier som sträcker sig utanför det litteraturvetenskapliga fältet och är anknutna till medicin, språk och sjukvård. Studien har identifierat ett antal litterära tekniker som visat både sjukdomens konsekvenser och begränsningar – samtidigt som de också blivit en metod att skriva sig ur och bort ifrån dessa. Teknikerna har också visat sig omförhandla flera gränser och därmed upplöst motsättningar mellan exempelvis det friska och sjuka, allvar och komik, styrka och skörhet samt verklighet och fiktion. Studien har visat hur exempelvis användandet av motsatspar, kroppslig metaforik, färgkodssystem, ironi och komik, genrebrott och omskrivningar av existerande uttryck utgör litterära strategier för att framställa och omförhandla tillståndet av psykisk sjukdom. Användandet av den medicinska journalen i en skönlitterär kontext har konstaterats fungera som en litterär teknik för att framställa tystnad och förnekande något som flera teoretiker inom området betonar vara avgörande i framställningen av vansinne. Även skönlitterärt och fiktivt skrivande, oavsett självupplevt eller inte, har visat sig vara ett viktigt tillvägagångssätt för att närma sig en formulering av gränserfarenheten. Begreppet gränserfarenhet har fungerat som ett vitalt begrepp för att närma sig dessa texter. Samtidigt har flera av de litterära tekniker som identifierats tillfört insikt till gränserfarenheten som begrepp då det präglas av paradoxala och mångsidiga aspekter. I synnerhet har det bidragit med att uppmärksamma hur ett ”både-och” tillåts samexistera i såväl litterär gestaltning som i sjukdomserfarenhet vilket i sin tur nyanserat bilden av sjukdomen som formulerbar och formbar. Limit-experience mental illness pathography madness medical humanities literature and medicine medical journal anamnesis limit body Beate Grimsrud Isabella Nilsson Bjørn Rasmussen Michel Foucault nordic contemporary literature literary strategies. Gränserfarenhet psykisk sjukdom patografier medicinsk humaniora litteratur och medicin gräns kropp samtida litteratur journal anamnes Beate Grimsrud Isabella Nilsson Bjørn Rasmussen Michel Foucault litterära strategier Humanities and the Arts Humaniora och konst Languages and Literature Språk och litteratur General Literature Studies Litteraturvetenskap
244	La ville de Rebus : polarités urbaines dans les romans d'Ian Rankin (1987-2007) / Rebus's City : urban polarities in the novels of Ian Rankin (1987-2007) Dujarric, Florence 07 December 2013 (has links) La présente étude analyse les représentations de la ville dans la série policière d’Ian Rankin dont l’inspecteur John Rebus est le protagoniste. La polarité étant l’un des principes organisateurs de l’écriture rankinienne, notre analyse s’articule autour de plusieurs couples de notions antinomiques. Nous remettons d’abord en cause la légitimité de l’antinomie qui oppose la littérature à la « littérature de masse », dans laquelle est souvent classé le roman policier. Cela nous conduit à redéfinir le roman policier, et mettre en perspective la série dans le contexte du monde littéraire et artistique écossais contemporain. Puis nous étudions l’articulation entre topographie réelle et lieu imaginaire dans l’Edimbourg de Rankin. Toute une géographie urbaine se dessine dans les romans ; l’arpentage incessant de l’espace par le protagoniste fournit l’occasion de références très spécifiques à la topographie et à la toponymie, et la sérialité tisse peu à peu un dense réseau de points nodaux ainsi qu’une multiplicité de trajets potentiels que nous avons représentés par des cartes fournies en annexe. Mais dans d’autres cas, l’espace se fait générique, se réfère plus à des conventions cinématographiques qu’à la carte de la ville. Nous envisageons enfin la ville d’Edimbourg comme un personnage ambivalent dans la lignée des personnages du roman gothique. La filiation gothique est perceptible dans l’esthétique de la ville, et la surface de la carte est compartimentée suivant un ensemble d’axes polarisants. Toutefois, cette carte se déploie elle-même par-dessus un double souterrain et non cartographiable d’Edimbourg, à la fois mémoire et inconscient de la ville. / The aim of the present study is to analyse the representations of the city to be found in Ian Rankin’s crime fiction series of which Inspector Rebus is the protagonist. Polarization being one of the structuring principles of the author’s writing, our work focuses on several pairs of antagonist notions in turn.The first one is the opposition between “high” and “low” (or “popular”) literature, the latter category being often associated with crime fiction. New categorizations of contemporary Scottish crime fiction are thus put to the test so as to assess its role and place within the landscape of Scottish literary and artistic life.Next the way Rankin’s novels map Edinburgh as a topography both real and imaginary is explored. As John Rebus endlessly paces the streets of the city, a literary geography gradually emerges and takes shape from one novel to the next, thus determining a network of focal points and potential trajectories which are depicted in the maps to be found in the annexes. This does not preclude the use of a more urban-generic type of space, which seems to have been modelled on representations of the city deriving from movies.In time, Rebus’ Edinburgh can be seen as a character in its own right, one fraught with ambiguities stemming from the Gothic novel tradition. This Gothic filiation is visible in the aesthetic of the city, while the polarity between surface representations and subterranean depths, full of twists and turns, calls into question the very possibility of mapping the city as it gradually discloses its past and unconscious memories. Littérature écossaise contemporaine Roman policier Ian Rankin Etudes urbaines Géographie littéraire Tartan Noir Polarité Géocritique Espace fictionnel Doppelgänger Inspecteur Rebus Littérature populaire Edimbourg Série romanesque Cartographie Poétique de la ville Toponymie Détective Roman gothique Puritanisme Simulacre Hétérotopie Western Science-fiction Métafiction Dystopie Scottish contemporary literature Crime fiction Ian Rankin Urban studies Literary geography Tartan Noir Polarity Geocriticism Fictional space Doppelgänger Inspector Rebus Popular literature Edinburgh Novel series Cartography Poetics of the city Toponymy Detective Gothic novel Puritanism Simulacrum Heterotopy Western Science-fiction Metafiction Dystopia
245	Ontophonie et pictopoésie dans l'oeuvre de Gherasim Luca. : etude de la "variation continue". / Pictopoésie and ontophonie : A study of the continuous variation in the complete works of Gherasim Luca Clonts, Charlène 07 July 2016 (has links) Cette thèse étudie le processus de variation continue comme une trame de fond de l’oeuvre complète de Gherasim Luca, afin de mettre en valeur ses aspects plastiques et phoniques, leur articulation ainsi que la façon dont la pictopoésie et l’ontophonie participent à l’autogénération textuelle. Considérant l’oeuvre à la croisée des arts, l’analyse souligne la structure des espaces textuel et iconique. Elle s’intéresse en outre aux figures (personae) émergeant d’une esthétique protéiforme et à l’espace figural du langage, mettant aussi à l’épreuve la théorie deleuzienne de la variation continue pour en montrer les ressorts et les dépassements. Enfin, la mise en oeuvre organique, phonique et linguistique del’ontophonie interroge les voix/voies nouvelles établies par la poésie orale et la médiopoétique, ménageant un accès vers l’analyse de la répétition et de la reformulation en tant que genèse infinie. / The aim of this PHD is to study the process of the continuous variation, as the guiding principle for the complete works of Gherasim Luca. The purpose is to highlight both its plastic and its phonic aspects, how they work together, and also the way pictopoésie and ontophonie help create a perpetual selfgenerated text. Since the works stand at the crossroads of several arts, this analysis underlines the structure of the iconic and textual spaces. One of the axis of research, that focuses on the persona, as it emerges from a protean aesthetics, and on the figurative space proper to language, calls thus intoquestion Deleuze’s theory of “continuous variation”, while showing its internal mechanism and its exceedance. Finally, the phonic, the linguistic and the physical performance, in staging the ontophonie, brings into question the voices and the media as a means, established by the oral poetry and the mediopoetics, granting access to an analysis based on endless repetition and reformulation. Gherasim Luca Pictopoésie Ontophonie Variation continue Répétition et variation Espace figural du langage Poésie plastique Cubomanie Livre de dialogue Médiation poétique Poésie orale Poésie sonore Poésie radiophonique Avant-‐garde roumaine Surréalisme roumain Littérature moderne et contemporaine Stylistique Gherasim Luca Pictopoetry Ontophonie Continuous variation Repetition and variation Figurative space of language Plastic poetry Cubomania Artist book Poetry and media Oral poetry Performing poetry Radio and poetry Romanian avant-‐garde Romanian surrealism Modern and contemporary literature Stylistics
246	Mitchell's mandalas : mapping David Mitchell's textual universe Harris-Birtill, Rosemary January 2017 (has links) This study uses the Tibetan mandala, a Buddhist meditation aid and sacred artform, as a secular critical model by which to analyse the complete fictions of author David Mitchell. Discussing his novels, short stories and libretti, this study maps the author's fictions as an interconnected world-system whose re-evaluation of secular belief in galvanising compassionate ethical action is revealed by a critical comparison with the mandala's methods of world-building. Using the mandala as an interpretive tool to critique the author's Buddhist influences, this thesis reads the mandala as a metaphysical map, a fitting medium for mapping the author's ethical worldview. The introduction evaluates critical structures already suggested to describe the author's worlds, and introduces the mandala as an alternative which more fully addresses Mitchell's fictional terrain. Chapter I investigates the mandala's cartographic properties, mapping Mitchell's short stories as integral islandic narratives within his fictional world which, combined, re-evaluate the role of secular belief in galvanising positive ethical action. Chapter II discusses the Tibetan sand mandala in diaspora as a form of performance when created for unfamiliar audiences, reading its cross-cultural deployment in parallel with the regenerative approaches to tragedy in the author's libretti Wake and Sunken Garden. Chapter III identifies Mitchell's use of reincarnation as a form of non-linear temporality that advocates future-facing ethical action in the face of humanitarian crises, reading the reincarnated Marinus as a form of secular bodhisattva. Chapter IV deconstructs the mandala to address its theoretical limitations, identifying the panopticon as its sinister counterpart, and analysing its effects in number9dream. Chapter V shifts this study's use of the mandala from interpretive tool to emerging category, identifying the transferrable traits that form the emerging category of mandalic literature within other post-secular contemporary fictions, discussing works by Michael Ondaatje, Ali Smith, Yann Martel, Will Self, and Margaret Atwood.
247	Reimagining Movements: Towards a Queer Ecology and Trans/Black Feminism Benavente, Gabriel 30 March 2017 (has links) This thesis seeks to bridge feminist and environmental justice movements through the literature of black women writers. These writers create an archive that contribute towards the liberation of queer, black, and transgender peoples. In the novel Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler constructs a world that highlights the pervasive effects of climate change. As climate change expedites poverty, Americans begin to blame others, such as queer people, for the destruction of their country. Butler depicts the dangers of fundamentalism as a response to climate change, highlighting an imperative for a movement that does not romanticize the environment as heteronormative, but a space where queers can flourish. Just as queer and environmental justice movements are codependent on one another, feminist movements cannot be separate from black and transgender liberation. This thesis will demonstrate how writers, such as Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, and Janet Mock, help establish a feminism that resists the erasure of black and transgender people. ecocriticism contemporary literature speculative fiction science fiction queer theory feminism english octavia butler janet mock toni morrison audre lorde climate change environmental justice african american activism transgender parable of the talents queer ecology African American Studies American Literature American Politics American Studies Arts and Humanities Continental Philosophy Ecology and Evolutionary Biology English Language and Literature Environmental Studies Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Feminist Philosophy Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Religion
248	Exceptional intercourse : sex, time and space in contemporary novels by male British and American writers Davies, Ben January 2011 (has links) This thesis provides a theory of exceptional sex through close readings of contemporary novels by male British and American writers. I take as my overriding methodological approach Giorgio Agamben’s theory of the state of exception, which is a juridico-political state in which the law has been suspended and the difference between rule and transgression is indistinguishable. Within this state, the spatiotemporal markers inside and outside also become indeterminable, making it impossible to tell whether one is inside or outside time and space. Using this framework, I work through narratives of sexual interaction – On Chesil Beach, Gertrude and Claudius, Sabbath’s Theater, and The Act of Love – to conceptualise categories of sexual exceptionality. My study is not a survey, and the texts have been chosen as they focus on different sexual behaviours, thereby opening up a variety of sexual exceptionalities. I concentrate on male writers and narratives of heterosexual sex as most work on sex, time and space is comprised of feminist readings of literature by women and queer work on gay, lesbian or trans writers and narratives. However, in the Coda I expand my argument by turning to Emma Donoghue’s Room, which, as the protagonist has been trapped for the first five years of his life, provides a tabula rasa’s perspective of exceptionality. Through my analysis of exceptionality, I provide spatiotemporal readings of the hymen, incest, adultery, sexual listening and the arranged affair. I also conceptualise textual exceptionalities – the incestuous prequel, auricular reading and the positionality of the narrator, the reader and literary characters. Exceptional sex challenges the assumption in recent queer theory that to be out of time is ‘queer’ and to be in time is ‘straight’. Furthermore, exceptionality complicates the concepts of perversion and transgression as the norm and its transgression become indistinct in the state of exception. In contrast, exceptionality offers a new, more determinate way to analyse narratives of sex. 820.90091

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