There is limited research concerning the sharing of writing associated with times of personal difficulty. This study aimed to explore the experience and significance of this process with a focus on the interpersonal factors involved and how the potential benefits could be conceptualised. Eight participants were recruited through purposive sampling and interviewed regarding their experiences. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the transcripts. Four superordinate themes of ‘Putting the self into the world’; ‘Taking ownership of the process’; ‘Making connections with others’; and ‘Moving beyond surviving to thriving’ were interpreted from the data. Interpersonal factors were of great significance and were discussed in connection with a range of theorists including those from fields of psychoanalysis, phenomenology and humanism. The overall findings were conceptualised through identified links with Ryff’s (1989) multidimensional model of well-being. The findings suggest that the sharing of creative writing associated with times of personal difficulty may be a valuable activity in promoting well-being in both clinical and non-clinical populations. It may be particularly helpful for people who have experienced, or are at risk of social isolation given the experiences that first led the participants to creative writing, and the centrality of ‘connection within others’ within their accounts.

If Shakespeare contributed the additions to the 1602 edition of Thomas Kyd's The Spanish tragedy, he did so at the time he was writing Hamlet. The additions were written anonymously, but contemporary references to playwrights and their works, publication records, and documented theatrical transactions have provoked the authorship controversy for centuries. Recent studies have attempted "fingerprinting” and "DNA" analysis of verbal structures to solve the case once and for all, but this study moves beyond the (impossible) task of trying to "prove" that Shakespeare wrote the additions and instead seeks to recreate a hypothetical scenario to show why and how Shakespeare may have written them. Using the loose structure of a modern recreation of a cold-case crime, this study contextualizes the additions and the authorship controversy they have inspired, situating the case in its earlier manifestations and in present-day criticism. It will be shown why Shakespeare would have been the ideal candidate to revise The Spanish tragedy: he was familiar with Kyd's work, was known for revitalizing older works, knew the players, and was a writer for hire. It will be argued that the publisher of the additions, Thomas Pavier, followed Shakespeare throughout his career and saw a marketing opportunity to capitalize on three trends: title pages that advertised newness, nostalgia for old texts, and a market for Shakespearean language. This essay will trace the hypothetical steps to see how Shakespeare's additions might have been written, dispersed, rehearsed, acted, and printed. Ultimately, the additions will be situated as a hypothetical middle step between Kyd’s Ur-Hamlet, The Spanish tragedy, and Shakespeare's Hamlet. / text

My project examines eighteenth-century struggles over literary property and its part in England’s control over its colonies. Debates over literary property set in the context of the larger colonial struggles over ownership help us to understand the relationship between authority and authorship: in the colonies, booksellers and authors worked together to make authority and authorship local, to separate it from England, English constructions of authorship, and the book trade system in London. The figures I analyze––Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, and Mathew Carey––brought new models of print capitalism to the colonies, dispersing an understanding of copyright that was an assertion of local affiliations. In the case of Ireland, these affiliations manifested themselves in a nationalist movement, and in Scotland, in an assertion of equality under the union of Great Britain. In the newly formed United States, the affiliations were among those still struggling for legal recognition after the American Revolution. Using book history in the service of literary analysis, my study is the first devoted to reading the way that liminal figures such as George Faulkner, Alexander Donaldson, Absalom Jones, and Richard Allen have influenced the work of these largely canonical authors, and thus local politics, through their literary production practices. / text

This study analyzes figurations of masculine pregnancy in early modern texts. Because no systematic methodology for conducting such an analysis yet exists, I have synthesized scholarship from anthropology, medicine, and psychoanalysis to construct an appropriate paradigm. Specifically, I bring together the anthropologist's "couvade," the physician's "couvade syndrome," and the psychoanalyst's gender-inflected model of the unconscious. Informed by this interdisciplinary scholarship, I offer a composite theory of couvade desire. I then apply that theoretical model to early modern figurations of masculine pregnancy. I find that the pervasive use of such figurations during the period results from ahistorical bodily disparities and historically-specific epistemological circumstances. The so-called "literary couvade" thus modulates: it directly challenges essentialist claims on the one hand, while simultaneously acknowledging the inexorable link between masculinity and a bodily incapability to give birth. Masculinity, in this model, appears disabled.Mitigating the disability, however, is a cultural imaginary unfettered by modern anatomical knowledge. Key aspects of human reproduction were still seductively obscure in the early modern period. Women birthed babies, that much was plain; but, perhaps men had a compensatory system of reproduction. Perhaps, some speculated, that system was superior to the messy, merely material capability exclusive to women. Masculinity could, in this regard, rival maternity for social significance without disclosing any act of appropriation from maternity. Such a dynamic resembles closely Rene Girard's paradigm of "mimetic desire." Crucial to mimetic desire is an indifference to the ostensible object on the part of both rival subjects. Relating this to the early modern "literary couvade," I conclude that figurations of masculine pregnancy emerge from a compensatory desire: the desire to mollify an apparent lack with the reduction in significance of the rival's manifest capability.

A discrepancy appears to exist between the value placed on reflective journal writing by the writers of journals and the value seen by educators of that same journal writing. In this study, I explored the journal writing of six tutors working in a learning centre at a two-year community college in western Canada. I examined: (1) tutors' perspectives on the journal writing task; (2) the content and reflectivity of tutors' journals; and, (3) the accuracy of the journals in representing tutor thinking initiated by the journal writing task. The initial data collection for the study included observation of weekly in-service training sessions and examination of tutor journal entries. Tutors were interviewed about their perceptions of journal writing and their thinking around issues they wrote about in their journals. The tutor trainer was interviewed about his expectations of tutor journal writing, his reactions to tutors' journals and his perceptions of the journal writing task. After the initial data collection, the participants were given summaries of data collected in the initial phase. Tutors read the summaries and as a group discussed issues raised by the data. I interviewed the trainer about insights he had gained from the summaries. Content choices and levels of reflectivity in the tutors' journals varied widely. Factors affecting the content and levels of reflection in the tutors' journals were affected by tutors’ understanding of the journal writing task, their motivation for journal writing, their feelings of vunerability, their personal histories, their tutoring experience, their preference for writing as a mode of learning, and their purposes for writing journals. Most tutors perceived their journals as useful to them, but the tutor trainer regarded the journals as less useful. This difference in perception of the benefits of journal writing can be attributed, at least in part, to the differing levels of access of the trainer and the tutors to the benefits of journal writing. The trainer based his understanding of the benefits of journal writing on the journals themselves whereas the tutors were aware of benefits that were not apparent from studying the journals. Interviews with the tutors showed that tutors reflected more as a result of the journal writing task than was evident from their journals. The trainer’s view of the reflection initiated by the journal writing task was obscured in tutors’ journals due to the fact, that tutors reported prior reflection, provided incomplete representation of their reflective thinking, made rhetorical choices which masked their levels of reflection, and continued to reflect after completion of journal entries. Implications of the study for educators include the importance of a process approach to journal writing, the risks of assuming that journals provide an accurate picture of the reflection the task initiates, and factors for consideration in the construction of the prompt for journal writing. Implications for researchers focus on the risks of assuming that journals provide an accurate measure of the benefits of the journal writing task. Collaboration with journal writers is seen as essential for any such measure to be achieved.

Auganti intelektinės nuosavybės svarba šiandienos visuomenėje skatina valstybes imtis įvairių teisinių priemonių, sukuriant intelektinės nuosavybės teisinės apsaugos mechanizmą. Nors Lietuvoje galioja daug tarptautinių, Europos Sąjungos bei nacionalinių teisės aktų intelektinės nuosavybės apsaugos srityje, tenka pastebėti, kad teismams santykinai retai tenka nagrinėti bylas, kuriose asmenys kaltinami BK 191 straipsnyje numatytos veikos padarymu. Kartu didesnio dėmesio šiai nusikalstamai veikai pasigendama ir akademinėje visuomenėje, todėl galima teigti, kad ši nusikalstama veika yra mažai nagrinėta tiek doktrininiu, tiek praktiniu lygiu. Tačiau viešoje erdvėje pasirodanti vis nauja informacija apie autorystės pasisavinimo atvejus patvirtina, kad autorystės teisės apsauga išlieka aktuali. Tokia situacija labiau rodo šios nusikalstamos veikos latentiškumą, nei retumą, o vykstantys socialiniai procesai duoda pagrindo tikėtis, kad netolimoje ateityje Lietuvos visuomenės pakantumas bei abejingumas intelektinės nuosavybės pažeidimams mažės, kartu skatindamas vis daugiau asmenų kreiptis dėl savo pažeistų intelektinės nuosavybės teisių gynimo baudžiamojo proceso tvarka. Šio darbo tikslas – įvertinti baudžiamosios atsakomybės už autorystės pasisavinimą teisinį reglamentavimą Lietuvos Respublikoje doktrininiu bei teisminiu praktiniu aspektais. Darbe apžvelgiama autorystės apsauga Lietuvoje nacionaliniu ir tarptautiniu lygiu, analizuojama autorystės pasisavinimo veika doktrininiu bei... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / -. / Die wachsende Bedeutung des geistigen Eigentums in der heutigen Gesellchaft fördert die Staaten an verschiedene gesetzliche Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um ein Mechanismus für den Rechtschutz des geistigen Eigentums zu schaffen. Obwohl in Litauen viele internationale, europäische und nationale Rechtsvorschriften für den Schutz des geistigen Eigentums gültig sind, muß man feststellen, daß im Gericht relativ selten solche Sachen, in denen die Personen wegen der in dem SGB Artikel 191 vorgesehenen Tat beschuldigt sind, verfahren werden. Man vermißt auch grössere Aufmerksamkeit von der Seite der akademischen Gesellschaft für diese Straftat, darum kann man behaupten, dass diese Straftaten sehr wenig in der dogmatischen als auch in der praktischen Ebene behandelt sind. Aber die in der Öffentlichkeit immer wieder erscheinenden Informationen über die Fälle der Aneignung der Urheberschaft bestätigen, dass Schutz des Urheberrechts aktuell bleibt. Solche Situation zeigt mehr auf die Latenz solcher Straftat als auf die Seltenheit, und die laufenden sozialen Prozesse lassen vermuten, dass in der nahen Zukunft Toleranz und Gleichgültigkeit der Gesellschaft Litauens wegen der Verletzung des Rechts des geistigen Eigentums sich vermindern wird und dadurch werden sich mehrere Personen wegen der Verteidigung ihrer verletzten Rechte des geistigen Eigentums zum Gericht wenden. Das Ziehl dieser Arbeit ist Beurteilung der gesetzlichen Regelung der strafrechtlichen Verantwortlichkeit wegen der Aneignung... [der volle Text, siehe weiter]

This study undertakes two major issues concerning the authenticity of Nahj al-Balaghah, namely, the compilation and composition of the book. Shii scholars, with almost no exception, have credited the compilation of Nahj al-Balaghah to al-Sharif al-Radi In contrast, Sunni scholars and Orientalists hold different opinions about the matter. The early scholars among Sunnis and their western counterparts mostly credited Murtada with Nahj al-Balaghah, while later scholars generally vacillate between the two brothers. This study attempts to resolve misconceptions concerning the compilation of the book. It also suggests that in all probability Radi is the compiler while there is hardly any evidence to credit Murtada. / The problem of the composition of Nahj al-Balaghah, namely, the attribution of its contents to Ali ibn Abi Talib is more problematic. Unlike the Sunni scholars, the Shiis believe that the contents of the book represent Alis discourses. This thesis examines the most important arguments of both opponents and proponents of the authenticity of Nahj al-Balaghah and suggests that since a large portion of the book is present in the earlier sources, the generalization of some Sunni scholars in doubting the entire book cannot be sustained. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis comprises an original collection of short stories entitled Ice Core, plus a brief self-reflexive essay on the challenges, emphases and informing contexts which influenced the writing process. The stories in Ice Core were envisioned and subsequently arranged as a short story cycle. Because of my interest in the shifting mobilities of geography, history and identity which inform the collection, I deliberately wished to avoid a linear narrative progression, hoping instead to capitalise on the ability of the cycle structure to accrue flexible resonance, to accommodate shifts of foci and voice even while simultaneously consolidating to form a ‘core’ connected to regional place and community. The stories are set in the North Beach area of Durban, so it is no coincidence that water as a motif repeatedly permeates the collection. This is apt for my interest in this urban coastal space, and serves to complement the mobile nature of the short story when positioned within a cycle. In the subsidiary component of the thesis, namely, the brief critical essay, I discuss the short story form as a genre, and conceptual paradigms of the short story cycle, referring to work by critics such as Forrest Ingram (1971) and Sue Marais (1992). The essay goes on to discuss regionalism as a major characteristic establishing realism in a cycle, with reference especially to character identification and distinctive dialogue. I suggest that these elements can animate ‘place’, prompting setting to emerge as the central character of the collection. I also refer to Michel de Certeau’s piece, “Walking in the City” (1998), since Ice Core captures fragments of Durban from a street-level point of view which, according, to de Certeau, is important in understanding the ways in which a city is made meaningful through incessant transformations. The mobility of my stories, then, can be seen to emulate something of the associated mobility of the local urban area on which the stories focus. Through this essay I aim to show the short story genre as not merely the naïve fragmented expression of personal experience or ‘inspired’ imagination but one notable for disciplined and inventive practices. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

Research in psychological type theory – especially that done by Jensen and DiTiberio on type and composition – has offered writing teachers another way to understand the different writing processes of their students. One aspect of composition that has not been researched with regard to psychological type theory is the writing style of students. This study proposes a relationship between psychological type theory (specifically the sensing and intuition continuum) and the writing styles of First Year Composition students. Seventy-two students participated in the study, taking the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and submitting their diagnostic essays to be analyzed using Corbett's stylistic analysis. The results suggest a relationship between writing style and personality type that teachers can use to tailor lesson plans for students (in areas such as revision and audience awareness) to increase student growth. / Department of English

Twenty-five computer scientists representing thirteen language groups at a highly respected university in Japan were surveyed and interviewed to identify the English writing products and processes characteristic of their professional work. Twenty-two major genres were identified and grouped according to purpose. Fourteen significant contextual factors that affected writing production and, ultimately, success in the field of computer science were also identified. Several models were proposed to provide an overview of the writing practices and products potentially illustrative of writing in the computer science field.In the second research phase, two detailed case studies were conducted involving one native and one non-native speaker of English to identify how English language proficiency affected professional practice. Efficiency was a major concern for both subjects but employed different strategies to make their work as efficient and productive as possible.The native speaker, for example, employed skillful use of the computer to gather, create, and store data that could be efficiently "chunked" and assembled into papers, either for publication or for obtaining valuable feedback from other professionals. The subject also thought a great deal about the expectations of his readers as well as the referees and editors who judged the quality of his work. He also revised his work extensively and recruited other professionals locally and abroad to assist him in refining his texts.The non-native speaker employed many of the same computer strategies for gathering and managing information; however, the added difficulty of functioning professionally in English severely limited his work pace and left too little time before deadlines to revise or solicit the amount of feedback he desired from his peers. His most effective strategy was co-authoring papers with native speakers of English who could handle most of the final editing and revising.In the final chapter, results of the surveys, interviews, and case studies were illustrated graphically in an algorithmic flowchart of professional writing practice, and educational applications for writing instruction as well as recommendations for additional research were also suggested / Department of English