This thesis is an infiltration into the world of craft, woodworking and joinery. The destruction of presupposed form and tectonics, and a rebuilding through the mind's eye and an obscured lens. / Master of Architecture

“An Eco-Alchemical Vision: Hermetic Writing in Twentieth-Century British Literature” examines the intersection of alchemical thinking with contemporary green discourses. This project focuses on four writers from the last century: W. B. Yeats, Charles Williams, Lindsay Clarke, and Patrick Harpur. It considers a wide selection of their writing across literary genres, including the novel, the short story, the essay and poetry. While each of the texts under consideration figures the relationship between the human and the nonhuman world in different ways, reading them alongside one another reveals a shared preoccupation with the status of the material world. For these writers, the alchemical tradition offers a way of both speaking and thinking about physical phenomena that affirms our complex entanglement with materiality. Like the medieval and Renaissance alchemists, all four writers seek to disrupt the rigidity of the boundaries often erected between what dominant modes of thinking in the Western philosophic tradition have categorized as organic and inorganic. My analysis of each writer will draw out how the material is represented in their literary work, and what we might gain from reading their work ecocritically. There are thus three converging lines of inquiry that will frame this project: first, how does this minor current of what I am describing as “eco-alchemical” fiction and poetry fit within larger movements in twentieth-century British literature; second, how do these four figures recuperate alchemical thinking for twentieth-century and contemporary audiences; and third, what does this contribute to the current field of ecocriticism.

Thesis advisor: Catherine Cornille / While no dogmatic declarations have been made on the definition of the body, creeds, councils, and constitutions have affirmed its resurrection. The present work of comparative theology explores the body and divinization in Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) and Daoist Xiao Yingsou (fl. Song Dynasty 960-1278). Early in his writing, Teilhard loses interest in discovering the theological significance of the human body in favor of addressing the fulfillment of the Cosmic Body of Christ. Accordingly, studies of Teilhard easily overlook the individual's body. This work derives a theory of the body and its role in divinization from Teilhard by introducing an anthropological category not present in traditional theological language. Shen, the experiencing body, is the word Xiao uses to describe the Daoist in the process of divinization. Shen challenges conventional notions of body, physicality, and their importance to Christian spiritual life. The experiencing body is a living community of souls in relationship to an essential soul, who receives bonding power from Christ. On their own, humans cannot maintain the relationships within themselves, but must surrender them to perfection in Christ. Biblically, Christian anthropology departed from a monistic to a tripartite view with Paul. In the early Church, Irenaeus and Augustine defended a unity of body and soul against the gnostics heresies. Later, Thomas Aquinas formulated a theory of the body as largely defined by the soul. The bodies did not give positive contributions to people's life in God. Teilhard inherited this view of the human, but was unsatisfied with it. At the same time, he read contemporary French philosophers who provided the spark he needed to develop his ideas on creation and divinization. Early in his writing, he considers the body in light of Christology and biology. He drops the question in favor of strengthening an argument for the divinization of the entire cosmos in the Cosmic Body of Christ. Nonetheless, in the pursuit of this answer, his writings imply the individual body. Human bodies most clearly appear in his mysticism of action, which he explains in The Divine Milieu. Teilhard cannot articulate the individual body because he lacks a cosmology that does not choose between non-subsistent matter and selfsubsistent spirit. Xiao Yingsou's commentary on Daoism's Scripture of Salvation provides such a cosmology. Xiao utilizes both word and image to describe a divinizing cosmic body using three terms: dong, ti, and shen. The individual's body in a process of perfection is shen. This body is not a static collection of interworking parts, but a movement of transformation that generates salvific energy for the entire cosmos. Shen highlights in Teilhard's work a body understood as a community interacting with other beings to perfect relationships in Christ. Therefore, the body is physical, but with Teilhard's expanded notion which exceeds the limitations of time and space. This view yields a body that is not an obstacle to divinization, but absolutely necessary for it. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Le travail présente une analyse systématique des témoignages et des fragments concernant les philosophes atomistes, «élèves» de Leucippe et Démocrite de Abdère. L'objectif poursuivi dans cette thèse est de fournir une définition adaptée et dans la mesure du possible cohérente de ce qu'on entend par «Democritéens» ou «atomiste antique» après Démocrite, mais également de montrer que une définition pareille ne peut pas être séparée de l'analyse de la diffusion de l'atomisme dans la Grèce orientale et les territoires de la Syrie, de l'Égypte et probablement de la Phénicie. Séparée du milieu thrace originaire que, à part Leucippe et Démocrite, inclut vraisemblablement également Métrodore de Chio, la « phase » historique de l'atomisme du IV-Ill siècle av. J.-C. présente des caractères inédits pour la spéculation de Leucippe et Democrite. Il n'est pas seulement nécessaire d'examiner la vie et la pensée de ces atomistes à la lumière de la position aux cours d'Alexandre et de ses épigones dans le IV siècle av. J.-C., mais aussi par rapport à la culture égyptienne de matrice alchimique qui «reçoit» l'atomisme de Democrite. Par rapport aux « plusieurs voix » qui la théorie de l'ancien atomisme prendra dans un cadre bien transformé, il est nécessaire de garder la définition de «atomisme» et «Democritéens» en contrepartie d'une exigence méthodologique et historico-philosophique. L'analyse de la pensée de ces philosophes présente, en effet, des caractères compréhensibles à la lumière du lien existant chez Démocrite entre éthique et physique. Encore : la théorie de la connaissance de type «obscure» (σκοτίη) est un concept qui se révèle essentiel pour le chercheur qui veuille comprendre certains passages de la spéculation de ces atomistes postérieurs. / The work is a systematic analysis of the testimonies and the fragments about the ancient atomists, “pupils” of Leucippus and Democritus. The aim of the thesis is to propose an appropriate meaning of the “democriteans” or “ancient atomist” after Democritus, also considering that these terms cannot be separated by the diffusion of this philosophy in the areas of Eastern Greece, Syria, Egypt and, probably, Fenicia. In the 4th-3rd c. BC the historical phase of the atomism is different from the original Thracian context, that includes Leucippus, Democritus and also Metrodorus of Chios, and it shows unprecedented aspects for the leucippean and democritean speculation. The study of these atomists’ life and theory has to consider their role within the court of Alexander and his Epigeons in the 4th c. BC, and the alchemic Egyptian culture “receiving” the atomism. In this new and mutated context the leucippean-democritean theory will have "many voices", otherwise the terms 'atomism' and “democritean” still need to be used according to methodological, hystorical and philosophical demands. The theory of these philosophers, in fact, can be understood only in the light of the democritean connection between physics and ethics. Furthermore the epistemological theory of Democritus concerning the obscure knowledge (σκοτίη) represents a fundamental concept for the scholars to understand many aspects of the speculation of these later ancient atomists.

What tools do performers use to provoke their audiences to change? What is the nature and potential extent of this change? ‘Provocative and Transformative Performance’ looks at the potential of performance to provoke attitudinal and behavioural change. Through a combination of theoretical and practical research, the project attempts to locate specific characteristics of performances that may be both provocative and transformative. Although previous research has interrogated the efficacy of performance, this project attempts to interrogate the nature of attitudinal and behavioural change through performance in a new way. The approach is triangulated, shifting perspective from performance maker to audience member to performance theorist. Bodily, a solo performance investigating body image issues, was created both as a response to this research and as a performative tool for generating research data. The Bodily data arises from a personal response to the performance and from focus groups conducted with audience members of the piece. The performance is integrated as a necessary part of this research, as it illuminates the process of a provocative performance maker. Alchemy permeates this thesis, weaving through the analysis as a metaphor for transformation. An alchemist undertakes the quest for philosophical gold through several complex processes. The alchemical moment of ‘projection’ is particularly significant; this is the climax, the final operation before gold is achieved. The thesis is written in a multi-vocal style, incorporating the analytical voice, the poetic alchemical metaphor, personal responses to performance and a performance development journal. The research project is a methodological and evaluative engagement with provocative and transformative performance, taking into account the intention of the performer, the instrumentation performers employ in order to provoke and transform their audiences, and the potential illumination of an issue for the audience through performance. Through this theoretical framework, the thesis aims to throw light on the ways in which performance can provoke transformation. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The Periscope and the Labyrinth is an investigation into cultural identity, consciousness and landscape rooted in the body’s experience of the city. The modern phenomenon of flânerie is used as a means of examining vari- ous sites of particular interest to queer mythology within New York and Rome via the device of personal ‘derives’ or drifts inspired by a legacy of city writing, whereby the particular relationship between identity, place and space becomes clear. The flâneur has been essential to previous writings on the topic of ‘queer space’ in that he is one who ‘relies on the ambiguities of the modern city, and the uncertainties that linger in the fleeting experi- ence of a backward glance.’ It is these very ambiguities that associate the flâneur as the quintessential ‘cruiser.’ Yet the potential of the flâneur lies in his ‘alchemical’ abilities. A contemporary interpretation of alchemy is used through out the thesis as both a psychological method for understand- ing the ‘union of opposites’, as well as a reading of the parallels between individual and collective identity as they relate to particular sites. These archetypal opposites are typified by the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus; the duality of their characteristics exemplified by the metaphor of the title in which the conscience of the ‘Apollonian eye’ of the flâneur within the labyrinth of the Dionysian underworld’ describing the alchemical teachings which underpin this work.

The Periscope and the Labyrinth is an investigation into cultural identity, consciousness and landscape rooted in the body’s experience of the city. The modern phenomenon of flânerie is used as a means of examining vari- ous sites of particular interest to queer mythology within New York and Rome via the device of personal ‘derives’ or drifts inspired by a legacy of city writing, whereby the particular relationship between identity, place and space becomes clear. The flâneur has been essential to previous writings on the topic of ‘queer space’ in that he is one who ‘relies on the ambiguities of the modern city, and the uncertainties that linger in the fleeting experi- ence of a backward glance.’ It is these very ambiguities that associate the flâneur as the quintessential ‘cruiser.’ Yet the potential of the flâneur lies in his ‘alchemical’ abilities. A contemporary interpretation of alchemy is used through out the thesis as both a psychological method for understand- ing the ‘union of opposites’, as well as a reading of the parallels between individual and collective identity as they relate to particular sites. These archetypal opposites are typified by the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus; the duality of their characteristics exemplified by the metaphor of the title in which the conscience of the ‘Apollonian eye’ of the flâneur within the labyrinth of the Dionysian underworld’ describing the alchemical teachings which underpin this work.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of London, 2002. / BLDSC reference no.: DX 225518.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Hamburg, 1994. / Scevastes or Sceuvastes is the pseudonym of Johann Lambach. Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-281) and indexes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, 1925. / Originally issued by the Commercial press, limited, without thesis note. This edition is identical except for the addition of the thesis t.p. Bibliography: p. [129]-143.