Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Also available on the Internet.

<p> Esta investigaci&oacute;n explora, a trav&eacute;s de la novela de El sue&ntilde;o del celta (2010) de Mario Vargas Llosa, una nueva postura sobre lo que implica ser un h&eacute;roe. El cuestionamiento que surge sobre el concepto heroico es lo que posibilita examinar la composici&oacute;n heroica del personaje principal de El sue&ntilde;o del celta, Roger Casement. Se conceptualiz&oacute; al personaje como un h&eacute;roe moderno, ya que el rasgo que lo identifica es su car&aacute;cter contradictorio. Para demostrar la caracterizaci&oacute;n de Casement como h&eacute;roe moderno se estudiaron diversas instancias narrativas que representaban tanto los rasgos heroicos como antiheroicos. Tambi&eacute;n se examin&oacute; la ambig&uuml;edad del personaje a trav&eacute;s de sus textos escritos y por medio de la construcci&oacute;n narrativa de la obra. </p><p> A trav&eacute;s de este estudio se lleg&oacute; a la conclusi&oacute;n de que Roger Casement, forma parte de la disgregaci&oacute;n &eacute;pica del h&eacute;roe que propuso Mija&iacute;l Bajt&iacute;n. Seg&uacute;n la teor&iacute;a de Bajt&iacute;n, Casement como h&eacute;roe novelesco se caracteriz&oacute; como un personaje inconcluso y con m&uacute;ltiples matices. Lo que permiti&oacute; demostrar que los g&eacute;neros literarios como la &eacute;pica y la novela pueden influenciar en c&oacute;mo se constituyen los personajes heroicos. En fin, en esta investigaci&oacute;n se cuestiona la conceptualizaci&oacute;n del h&eacute;roe tradicional trabajada por Hugo Francisco Bauz&aacute; en su libro El mito del h&eacute;roe: morfolog&iacute;a y sem&aacute;ntica de la figura heroica y por Joaqu&iacute;n M. Aguirre en su art&iacute;culo H&eacute;roe y sociedad: El tema del individuo superior en la literatura decimon&oacute;nica. Tanto Bauz&aacute; como Aguirre sostienen que el h&eacute;roe cl&aacute;sico manifiesta juicios elevados de valor, no son cobardes ni sienten miedo, sino m&aacute;s bien exteriorizan los rasgos heroicos m&aacute;s elevados. Entre ellos, el m&oacute;vil &eacute;tico de su acci&oacute;n, la transgresi&oacute;n, la ilusi&oacute;n, el sentido de mediaci&oacute;n, el valor, el deseo de vencer, el sentido de b&uacute;squeda, el valor que los dem&aacute;s le otorgan, entre otros. </p><p> No obstante, la nueva postura heroica que presenta El sue&ntilde;o del celta propone que el verdadero hero&iacute;smo no consiste en carecer de miedo, sino en superarlo. Ya que el verdadero h&eacute;roe es aquel que, a pesar de ser consciente de todas sus deficiencias, como el miedo y la debilidad, logra superar y enfrentar los problemas. Son estas caracter&iacute;sticas las que permiten presentar a Roger Casement como un h&eacute;roe en contraposici&oacute;n al h&eacute;roe tradicional al mostrar un car&aacute;cter contradictorio y aproximarse a la ambig&uuml;edad de la condici&oacute;n humana.</p><p>

The purpose of my research into Thomas Pynchon's use of ideas from science and philosophy is to show that this group of novels is not, as critics contend, nihilistic, but rather hopeful. In his first novel, V., Pynchon establishes the idea that truth--whether historical, political, scientific or personal--cannot be determined with absolute confidence. He extrapolates from Wittgenstein's claim (Tractalus Logico-Philosophicus) that "the world is all that is the case" to demonstrate that "the case" is different according to each observer. He makes this apparent in a variety of narrative devices which upset conventional novelistic expectations. In his second novel, The Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon explores the social implications of adherence to ideas of certainty based on bivalent models. The central metaphor of the novel is James Clerk Maxwell's thought experiment, in which a demon sits between two chambers in a closed thermodynamic system, sorting molecules of gas according to their ability to do thermodynamic work. The novel presents a variety of worlds which exist between the two values recognized by the sorting demon. In Gravity's Rainbow the emotional and intellectual uncertainties of the characters stand in marked contrast to the products of modern science, represented by the A4 rocket. By novel's end the rocket is about to fall on Los Angeles, but beneath the arc between the firing of the A4 in 1945 and its eventual fall on Los Angeles are possibilities for stopping its progress. Together the novels present a critique of European-American ideas and contemporary attempts at social reform through a web of scientific, historical, and philosophical allusions.

From Vietnam rap groups in the 70s to the popularity of 12 step programs in the 90s, it has been established that telling one's story to a sympathetic audience can help bring about recovery. However, these groups are closed circles. People who have experienced trauma can communicate with one another because they have a common reference. In their memories are images and visceral experiences they can access to help them understand the experience of fellow survivors. But trauma survivors often feel paralyzed communicating to those who have not been initiated into violence. Because trauma is experienced and remembered differently from the non-traumatic, it must be communicated differently. This study involves one form of that communication: the soldier narrative. By using the combat stories of Ernest Hemingway and Tim O'Brien as an entree, I will explore how these authors created a particular narrative for trauma. Both authors use a style that borrows from the experience of dreaming. This seemingly illogical world of the dream parallels the mind and body's reaction to trauma. By understanding why these authors connected dream narrative to trauma narrative, we can better understand the unique ways combat violates narrative and psyche. Although my analysis will be based on literature, I will be using sociological and psychiatric studies of the military to understand how combat is experienced, particularly through the condition of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and the challenges inherent in communicating it. I will show how the dream in literature is not just a way to perform character analyses, but a viable alternative narrative for conveying the experience of trauma.

This dissertation explores the ways in which four post-modern American novelists continue to use their fiction to address questions regarding the nature and place of ethics and spirituality in contemporary America in spite of the supposed "death" of history, man, and God. The four novels examined represent different ethico-spiritual traditions, which this dissertation seeks to engage in an open and fruitful dialogue. The introduction (Chapter I) traces the trajectory of Modernity, beginning with the Enlightenment's rejection of traditional modes of thought and the devastating effects of that rejection for moral theory, for human beings, and for the world they inhabit. The Modern world that resulted from that rejection forms the backdrop against which play out the dramas of the four novels. Chapter II explores, by way of Walker Percy's The Last Gentleman , Western man's tendency to abstract and alienate himself from the world around him in an attempt to transcend the messiness and uncertainty of the post-modern lifeworld. Chapter III focuses on Toni Morrison's Paradise in order to examine the effects of Modernity's emphases on order, hierarchy, and mastery and its tendency to produce rigid social and religious institutions incapable of adapting and adjusting to the rapidly changing circumstances of the post-modern lifeworld. Chapter IV delves into the chaotic world of E. L. Doctorow's City of God, which acknowledges the chaos and confusion of our contemporary milieu but views post-modernity as an opportunity to establish a new kind of ethics and spirituality more open to the continuing revelation of God in the post-modern urban lifeworld. Chapter V explores Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, which joins the other texts in critiquing Modernity and offers an all-inclusive vision of what we must do if we are to renew our communities and heal our world. The conclusion (Chapter VI) integrates the critiques of the four novels with the recent insights of contemporary moral philosophers and theologians in order to pose a starting point for living more serious, fecund, and worthy ethical and spiritual lives in an effort to renew and heal ourselves and, eventually, the world around us.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Literatures in English." Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-248).

<p> Antipoetry, a form of poetry developed by the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra, instances a privileged example of a self-regulatory trait of the poetic genre which responds to poetry&rsquo;s need to destroy itself in order to renew itself. This need reveals a structural mechanism or a logic of autoimmunity, which informs the possibility of language and, moreover, of all living beings. </p><p> Antipoetry&rsquo;s departure from the Nerudean poetic tradition justifies the use of a colloquial language that also preserves and continues Neruda&rsquo;s interest in opening a space for the &ldquo;popular&rdquo; in poetry. Against Neruda, Antipoetry also consciously repels romantic and heroic aesthetic principles and ideas. </p><p> Parra&rsquo;s aesthetic principles, however, do not result solely from avoidance. Parra is a realist poet heavily influenced by physics. His poetry needs to mirror reality. The principles of relativity and indetermination play major roles in his poetic experimentations, and will come to the aid of Antipoetry&rsquo;s need to create in times of censorship. Parra&rsquo;s experiments with language are in large measure interpretations of the laws of physics. In this regard, his scientific realism is related to Gertrude Stein&rsquo;s work. The poetry and poetics of the latter provides a touchstone and a constant reference in <i>Autoimmunity in Antipoetry</i>. </p><p> Like all artistic expressions during the Chilean military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Antipoetry was forced to negotiate what could be said with what the poet wanted to say. The necessary negotiation that Parra&rsquo;s poetry needed to undergo gave rise to many experiments with language, including systematic ambiguity, contestation of the authority of the author, and of his own authorial control over his poetry. The use of masks, the multiplication of referents, and the systematic use of contradiction name some of Antipoetry&rsquo;s tools for obstructing the univocal determination of meaning. </p><p> Antipoetry&rsquo;s systematic explorations toward the creation of a poetry that attempts to fight all forms of dogmatism nevertheless reaches a limit in its figuration of gender. Antipoetry&rsquo;s gender politics makes concessions to a type of gender dogmatism (sexism and homophobia) that contradicts the antipoetic program and reveals an inherent fear of gender contamination that jeopardizes Antipoetry&rsquo;s most fortunate aspects.</p><p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 161-162.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Latin American Languages and Literatures, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.