Recent conflicts in America concerning the environment (the harvesting of old growth timber in the Pacific Northwest, or the proposed opening of public lands in southern Utah to mining interests, for instance) have precipitated a personal examination of "historical others" (Jensen 64), individuals that possess very different sensibilities from a larger capitalist culture. Two such writers, Henry Thoreau and Gary Snyder, use the wilderness to enact alternative patterns of living that are designed to change cultures that have lost touch with the land, and have spiraled into a future where nature is a mere afterthought. In response to the growth of his society, Thoreau built a cabin at Walden pond as an experiment to determine if life could be lived simply and morally. His activities were an effort to "wake up" his "neighbors" who were just beginning to explore capitalism. "Moral reform," Thoreau believed, "is the effort to throw off sleep" (WAL 61). Thoreau's criticism of capitalism, agricultural reform, and slavery were generated to help his culture understand what it is to live morally, and "awake." Gary Snyder is the voice of Thoreau in the late 20th century, and his work addresses a world fully enveloped in capitalism. The exploitation of wild creatures and places by world governments and multi-national corporations is the problem of the modern age for Snyder, and place-based living is a way of dissenting from a consumption-oriented culture. Reform begins with the individual living close to the land, but also involves people living in communities and creating patterns of living that are ecologically stable. This paper is, in an immediate sense, a comparison of two "American" non-conformists, but it is also a response to cultural and environmental crises that both writers faced. Chapter I of this study introduces Thoreau and Snyder and establishes the parameters of this paper. Chapter II discusses Thoreau's views on capitalism, agricultural reform, and environmental degradation. Chapter III highlights Snyder's interest in place-based living and bioregionalism. Chapter VI brings Thoreau and Snyder together in a discussion of political and social reform. The final chapter of this study reflects how Thoreau and Snyder mesh as ecological philosophers. / Graduation date: 1997

Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur une méthode spécifique de direction créée et mise à l'épreuve auprès de chanteurs lyriques. Elle consiste en la création d'une «partition gestuelle» qui vise à nettoyer, styliser le geste de l'interprète ainsi qu'à évacuer tout mouvement superflu ou indésirable qui n'a pas été prévu, au préalable, par la mise en scène. Afin de vérifier la pertinence de cet outil, nous avons choisi quatre extraits de l'opéra de Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande, pour lesquels nous avons élaboré quatre partitions gestuelles, selon quatre esthétiques théâtrales différentes, soit le « néo-réalisme », le « constructivisme des émotions », le « formalisme » et le « néo-expressionnisme ». En plus de faire un retour sur cette expérience, en revenant sur nos aspirations et nos réalisations, mais sans taire les obstacles auxquels nous avons été confrontés et les solutions que nous avons dû imaginer pour les surmonter, nous axons la réflexion sur la mise en scène lyrique en nous basant, entre autres, sur quelques-unes des mises en scène de Pelléas et Mélisande, dont celles de Peter Stein, Graham Vick et Robert Wilson. Suite à l'expérience, il nous semble que l'utilisation d'une partition gestuelle, comme méthode de direction d'un chanteur lyrique, mène effectivement l'interprète à avoir une meilleure compréhension de son personnage et une plus grande maîtrise de ses gestes. Ces extraits ont été présentés devant public les 26 et 27 mai 2008 au Studio d'Essai Claude-Gauvreau à l'Université du Québec à Montréal en collaboration avec l'Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : mise en scène, opéra, théâtre, chanteur lyrique, gestuelle, musique, Pelléas et Mélisande, Peter Stein, Graham Vick, Robert Wilson.

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The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 resulted in the deaths of more than 500 Minnesota settlers, the expulsion of the Dakota people from their homeland, and the largest mass execution in U.S. history. For more than a century, white Minnesotans declared themselves innocent victims of Indian brutality and actively remembered this war by erecting monuments, preserving historic landscapes, publishing first-person narratives, and hosting anniversary celebrations. However, as the centennial anniversary approached, new awareness for the sufferings of the Dakota both before and after the war prompted retellings of the traditional story that gave the status of victimhood to the Dakota as well as the white settlers. Despite these changes, the descendents of white settlers persisted in their version of events and resented the implication that the Dakota were justified in starting the war. In 1987, the governor of Minnesota declared “A Year of Reconciliation” to bring cultural awareness of the Dakota, acknowledge their sufferings, and reconcile the continued tense relationship between the state and the Dakota people. These efforts, while successful in now telling the Dakota side of the war at official historic institutions, did not achieve a reconciliation between native and non-native residents of the state. This study of the commemorative history of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 illustrates the impact this single event exhibited for the state of Minnesota and examines the continued tense relations between its native and non-native inhabitants.

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Walden (1854), by the American author Henry David Thoreau (1817--1862), is explored as a work of literature with significant implications for environmental ethics in contemporary architectural practice. This reading challenges ethical models which depend for their legitimacy on determining a static representation of the world around us. Thoreau's literary discussion of the construction of his shelter and the subsequent revealing of a view of nature is offered as a more complete approach to finding a significant discourse concerning the relationship between humanity and the earth. The relevance of the poetic imagination is asserted through exploring the many aspects of the metaphors of verticality and flight in Walden . Thoreau's effort is extended into a brief discussion of Australian architect Glenn Murcutt (born 1936) and a consideration of the natural world in light of the phenomenon of a gift.

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