Ecocritical theology relates to American fiction as it connects nature and spirituality. In my development of the term “neo-pastoral” I begin with Virgil’s Eclogues to serve as examples for spiritual and nature related themes. Virgil’s characters in “The Dispossessed” represent people’s alienation from the land. Meliboeus must leave his homeland because the Roman government has reassigned it to their war veterans. As he leaves Meliboeus wonders why fate has rendered this judgment on him and yet has granted his friend Tityrus a reprieve. Typically, pastoral literature represents people’s longing to leave the city and return to the spiritual respite of the country. When Meliboeus begins his journey he does not travel toward a specific geographical location. Because the gods have forced him from his land and severed his spiritual connection to nature he travels into the unknown. This is the starting point from which I develop neo-pastoral threads in contemporary literature and discuss the alienation that people experience when they are no longer connected to a spirit of the land or genius loci. Neo-pastoralism relates Bakhtin’s idea of chronotope and the expansion of the narrative voice of the novel to include the time/space dialogic. Neo-pastoral fiction shows people in their quest to find spirituality in spite of damage from chemical catastrophic events and suggests they may turn to technology as an ideological base to replace religion. The (anti) heroes of this genre often feel no connection with Judeo-Christian canon yet they do not consider other models of spirituality. Through catastrophes related to the atomic bomb, nuclear waste accidents, and the realization of how chemical pollutants affect the atmosphere, neo-pastoral literature explores the idea of apocalypticism in the event of mass annihilation and the need for canonical reformation. The novels explored in this dissertation are John Updike’s Rabbit, Run; Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49; Bernard Malamud’s The Fixer; Don DeLillo’s White Noise; Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead; Toni Morrison’s Paradise; and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Nel presente lavoro vengono suggerite nuove strategie di lettura per un’opera che costituisce un unicum, non solo nella produzione narrativa di Italo Calvino, ma certamente anche nella storia letteraria del Novecento. Il castello dei destini incrociati (1973) viene interpretato in senso cartografico, come il tentativo di mappare un mondo labirintico, dai significati inesauribili e comunque destinato a farsi inghiottire dal gorgo della modernità. Pur conservando i tratti del romanzo enciclopedico, viene messo in luce come il Castello si sottragga al desiderio di rappresentare la totalità, scegliendo piuttosto la strada del potenziale e della metamorfosi, nel tentativo di individuare i fattori primi di ogni storia narrabile. Un po’ torre di Babele e un po’ arca dell’alleanza, emerge nel lavoro come il libro nasca dal bisogno di verificare le ragioni della letteratura e di rivisitare il ruolo dell’intellettuale: sul finire degli anni sessanta, Calvino allestisce in chiave allegorica e figurale un’allarmata riflessione sulla convivenza, profetizzando l’apocalisse di un mondo che è chiamato a recuperare l’antica fiducia nella progettazione e nell’utopia. / This work suggests new reading strategies for a novel that represents a singular event, not only in Italo Calvino’s narrative production, but also in the history of Nineteenth-Century literature. The Castle of Crossed Destinies (1973) is approached in a cartographical way, as an attempt to give the map of a labyrinthine world, complicated by inexhaustible meanings and, in any case, destined to be swallowed by Modernity’s wheel. Though conserving the features of the encyclopaedic novel, the Castle is shown as a book that tries to dodge the desire to represent the world as a whole, as a totality: on the contrary, it chooses to go through the paths of potentiality and metamorphosis, seeking the prime factors of every possible story. The Castle is a sort of Tower of Babel, an Ark of the Covenant: Savio’s thesis underlines that this novel grows out of the need to check the reasons of literature and to rethink the role of intellectuals: in the end of the Sixties, allegorically and figurally, Calvino sets up an alarmed reflection about the coexistence of mankind, foretelling the apocalypse of a world that is called to rescue its old faith in planning and utopia.

La partie création de ce mémoire se veut soutenue par une tension narrative reliée à la curiosité suscitée par le personnage principal, de prime abord énigmatique, qui se dévoile de façon capricieuse par un changement constant de focalisation et de temporalité. Nathan vit à une ère où l’humanité a frôlé l’extinction, et où tout est à repenser après l’annihilation du virus ramenant les morts à la vie. N’ayant pas été témoin de ces horreurs, ses plus grandes préoccupations concernent son cheminement vers l’authenticité. Saltimbanque de métier, il voyage de communauté en communauté, où chacune a fait ses choix pour recréer le monde. Sa volonté de prôner l’art dans un processus de reconstruction sociale et sa poursuite d’une image perdue le pousseront toujours plus loin dans ses pérégrinations; vers des réalités qui le conduiront à redéfinir son univers. La partie essai s’interroge sur les procédés formant la tension narrative des romans d’Émile Ajar, pseudonyme laissant deviner la plume expérimentée de Romain Gary qui se réinvente dans l’anonymat. L’attention est centrée sur les jeux de narration, le rôle actanciel des personnages et l’orchestration formelle des récits, à savoir s’ils sont assez similaires pour lier les opus et les constituer en une série unifiée. Cette réflexion à la recherche de l’essence de l’oeuvre ajarienne, touchante par ses antihéros souvent démunis dans leur quête existentielle, a été une inspiration pour la rédaction de Le jour où la Terre en avait vu d’autres. Les rêves de Nathan sont racontés à la première personne, rejoignant certaines modalités ajariennes où la psyché des protagonistes se révèle par une narration au “je”. Les questionnements sur la tension narrative ont été déclencheurs de cette première démarche d’écriture romanesque, même si elle est située dans un cadre complètement autre et use d’une plume bien différente de celle d’Ajar. / The creative part of this Master’s thesis is based on curiosity about the main character, at first enigmatic, who is to be revealed in an unpredictable way with continuous focal and temporal changes. Nathan lives in an era in which humanity came close to extinction, and where everything is to be rethought after the annihilation of the virus that brings the dead back to life. As a saltimbanco, he travels from community to community, in which each one has made choices to recreate the world. His will to advocate art in the social reconstruction and his pursuit of a lost image will always drag him further in his peregrinations, towards realities that will lead him to redefine his universe. The essay part examines the literary techniques that create the narrative tension of novels authored by Émile Ajar, pseudonym of the accomplished writer, Romain Gary, who reinvents himself anonymously. The attention is centered on the narration, actantial roles of the characters and formal organization of the story, to ascertain if they are similar enough to link them in a unified series. This reflection searches for the essence of Ajar’s work which, along with the moving existential quests of the characters, have been an inspiration for writing Le jour où la Terre en avait vu d’autres. Nathan’s dreams are related in a first person narration, in accordance with some of Ajar’s modalities where the characters’ psyches reveal themselves through that perspective. The ponderings on the narrative tension have been the trigger for this first fiction writing experience, even though it takes place in a completely different setting.

Egaré dans l’histoire, dans un devenir horizontal qui le condamne à s’autodétruire pour s’affirmer, l’homme de Cioran s’ouvre par moments à un devenir vertical, soit en s’élevant à travers l’extase qui le transfigure, soit en tombant à travers l’ennui qui le défigure. En envisageant la pensée de Cioran comme une « course thérapeutique en sens cosmique » ou comme une errance infinie issue d’une « théologie sentimentale où l’absolu se construit avec les éléments du désir », cette thèse, consacrée à la fois à l’œuvre française et à l’œuvre roumaine, s’attache à l’évolution de l’auteur de l’une à l’autre tout en dénonçant le mythe de la césure entre les deux. En posant le nihilisme à la fois comme un poison et comme un remède, comme l’horizon d’une fin ou d’un nouveau commencement, l’étude se propose d’analyser les processus et les expériences à travers lesquels le nihilisme est vaincu par lui-même. Le diagnostic du « héros de la rétractation » est interprété à partir de ses tentations et de ses inconséquences ; son exploration des impasses, son évasion dans le virtuel, ses hésitations entre une carrière métaphysique et un rôle historique, sa lutte avec le temps et ses expériences extatiques, sont analysées à partir d’une double tentation d’un même passage : « du néant vers le monde » et « du monde vers le néant ». / Going astray in History, in a horizontal becoming which condemns him to self-destruct to assert himself, Cioran’s man opens at times to a vertical becoming either in rising through the ecstasy that transfigures, either by falling through boredom which disfigures. Considering Cioran’s thought as a « therapeutic run in a cosmic sense » or as an endless wandering stemming from « a sentimental theology, in which the Absolute is built with the elements of desire », this study, devoted both to the French and Romanian works, focuses on the evolution of the author from one to the other by denouncing the myth of the caesura between the two works. Assuming both nihilism as a poison and as a remedy, as the horizon of an end or of a new beginning, the study aims to analyse the processes and experiences through which nihilism is defeated by itself. The diagnosis of the « hero of the withdrawal » is interpreted from his temptations and his inconsistencies ; his exploration of the impasses, his escape into the virtual, his hesitation between a metaphysical career and a historic role, his struggle with time and ecstatic experiences, are analyzed from a double temptation of a same passage : « from nothingness to the world » and « from the world towards nothingness ».

The Mystery of the Woman and the Beast Rhetorical-Narrative Analysis of Revelation 17:1-18 This diploma thesis called "The Mystery of the Woman and the Beast" seeks to unveil the mysterious message of Revelation 17:1-18 by applying the rhetorical-narrative analysis to the text. This analysis entails a specific methodology drawn from the synthesis of both rhetorical and narrative criticism with special regard to persuasive features. The conception of the thesis is based on understanding the message of the text in its own right communicated primarily to its own implicit audience distancing itself from premature theologizing often done especially when dealing with the book of Revelation. Due to the narrative focus of the thesis, considerable space is devoted to analyzing apocalyptic literary tradition and literary aspects of the book itself. Attention is paid to the origin of the apocalyptic tradition as well as the nature of its genre together with its specific motifs and function. The book of Revelation is seen as a part of long-developing apocalyptic tradition sharing some common traits while still being original in its own right. The unique qualities of Revelation are then fully explored in the following chapter. Of particular importance are the genre, imagery, intertextuality, and structure of the book....

The zombie narrative has seen an increasing trend towards the emergence of a zombie sentience. The intention of this thesis is to examine the cultural framework that has informed the contemporary figure of the zombie, with specific attention directed towards the role of the thinking, conscious or sentient zombie. This examination will include an exploration of the zombie’s folkloric origin, prior to the naming of the figure in 1819, as well as the Haitian appropriation and reproduction of the figure as a representation of Haitian identity. The destructive nature of the zombie, this thesis argues, sees itself intrinsically linked to the notion of apocalypse; however, through a consideration of Frank Kermode’s A Sense of an Ending, the second chapter of this thesis will propose that the zombie need not represent an apocalypse that brings devastation upon humanity, but rather one that functions to alter perceptions of ‘humanity’ itself. The third chapter of this thesis explores the use of the term “braaaaiiinnss” as the epitomised zombie voice in the figure’s development as an effective threat within zombie-themed videogames. The use of an epitomised zombie voice, I argue, results in the potential for the embodiment of a zombie subject. Chapter Four explores the development of this embodied zombie subject through the introduction of the Zombie Memoire narrative and examines the figure as a representation of Agamben’s Homo Sacer or ‘bare life’: though often configured as a non-sacrificial object that can be annihilated without sacrifice and consequence, the zombie, I argue, is also paradoxically inscribed in a different, Girardian economy of death that renders it as the scapegoat to the construction of a sense of the ‘human’. The final chapter of this thesis argues that both the traditional zombie and the sentient zombie function within the realm of a posthuman potentiality, one that, to varying degrees of success, attempts to progress past the restrictive binaries constructed within the overruling discourse of humanism. In conclusion, this thesis argues that while the zombie, both traditional and sentient, attempts to propose a necessary move towards a posthuman universalism, this move can only be considered if the ‘us’ of humanism embraces the potential of its own alterity.

The thesis "Eschatological Discourse in Mark's Gospel and Possibilities of Its Interpretation" deals with traditions used by Mark, possible dating of pre-markan textual layer and the discourse itself, with historical context of its origination and also with the interpretation of individual verses. Also various authors' commentaries are presented and evaluated. In the last chapter, all the findings are summarized and appraised, on which basis a possible interpretation of the Eschatological discourse is proposed considering its historical context. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

During the 20th century, our planet and its population have faced a number of environmental challenges. The climate on earth is changing and it is most likely due to human activity and the destruction of the earth's resources, ecosystems and waterways. More recently a very active environmental movement is taking up more space in people's lives. In many ways, it can be considered that climate change, and the movement that accompanied it, created a generation of people who proclaim a doom as a result of human destruction of the planet. I have conducted qualitative online interviews with nine representatives from the Church of Sweden, mainly church pastors from southern Sweden, to see how they relate to climate change, their views on judgement day and how they respond to people in their office who have anxiety and are concerned about climate change and the possible destruction of the human race. The result shows that all respondents in the survey place a great focus on man's individual and collective responsibility in the care for the earth, that is, according to them, God's creation. Through Berger’s social-constructivist theories of secularization, the study shows that the climate movement itself sometimes lacks Christian values of optimism and Christian concepts, such as God's grace, forgiveness, and hope. It thus gives the impression that the movement in some ways has a secular character. In contrast to this, the representatives of the Swedish Church claim to have a hopeful attitude and mostly believe that climate change is not part of the eschatological prophecies described in the Bible. However, they often reason that one cannot know for certain what the future holds, but as they hope and long for Christ's return, they have no fear but instead put their faith in hope and in God. They believe there is a clearer optimism on their part in the form of forgiveness, grace and hope and are willing to lead by example by caring for people who fear and encourage them to hope and the trust in God.

English summary This dissertation focuses on the apocalyptic fiction of Thomas Pynchon and analyses various representations of the apocalypse as "revelation" or "unveiling of truth" in its various aspects and manifestations (i.e. paranoia, angels, etc.) in the novels V., The Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow. The theme of apocalypse as a revelation concerning the true nature of the world has a key role to play in the above mentioned novels as well as significance for Pynchon's protagonists. This is so despite the fact that such revelation is depicted as illusory and mostly unattainable, since these novels are all based on the premise that there is no ultimate truth, and therefore, there is nothing that can be revealed. Pynchon's characters get only a revelation of individual truth, and thus theirs is a private apocalypse. When analysing the role of the apocalypse in Western culture, it is also important to analyse the role of millenarian expectations as well as the supposed communication process between God and people, a process depicted as being mediated by angels. The interpretation of God's message can never be precise and perfect, since its meaning is distorted during the communication process. On the rhetorical level, this distortion is equal to metaphor, which in turn causes feelings of paranoia...

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