Thesis (B.S.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2009. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. Thesis supervisor: David Shapiro. Graduated Fall 2009, not Spring 2009.

Thesis : Martin-Luther-Univ., Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Deutschland, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

This is a rhetorical criticism of the science fiction short story, "Profession," by Isaac Asimov. Primary focus is on Asimov's persuasive use of this message to influence potentially creative young people to consider technological careers. A brief synopsis of the story is given, along with a statement of the functional role of science fiction in accustoming individuals to societal changes resulting from technological advancements.Methodology is based upon Kenneth Burke's dramatism which views human action in terms of a drama. Burke's concepts of identification and occupational psychosis are used in discovering the rhetor's use of persuasive strategies. Burke's pentad is used for analysis of significant ratios. The dominance of the act-scene ratio is demonstrated by the supremacy of action over motion.Asimov's work shows the influence of a philosophy of realism, identifiable by the featuring of the pentadic term "act." Asimov's primary motives are identified as a desire to share his belief in the benefits of technology and his own need for creative self-expression. / Department of Speech Communication

Zugl.: Halle, University, Staatsexamensarbeit, 2007.

Zugl.: Halle, University, Staatsexamensarbeit, 2007.

L'acquisition, la gestion et la préservation de nouveaux savoirs apparaissent comme une obsession universelle et intemporelle des sociétés évoluées. Les façons d'y parvenir sont nombreuses et les projets ponctuent la grande histoire de la connaissance. De la célèbre Bibliothèque d'Alexandrie, détruite par les flammes, à l'Encyclopédie de Diderot et d'Alembert, symbole de l'idéal rationaliste des Lumières, l'ambition et la démesure de ces entreprises enflamment l'imagination du publIc et des créateurs. A l'origine de l'encyclopédisme se trouvent la pulsion de conservation et la crainte de la perte qui motivent un désir de complétude, de totalité: le savoir absolu. Mais la totalité peut également être terrifiante: comment s'y retrouver? Ces questions ont inspiré de nombreux auteurs de tous les pays, de tous les genres littéraires, de tous les statuts institutionnels et les ont poussés à s'interroger davantage sur la place du savoir dans la société et dans l'imaginaire. Si l'encyclopédie tente de refléter le monde, les encyclopédies imaginaires en promettent d'autres. Dans le cadre de ce mémoire, certaines oeuvres d'auteurs très différents sont analysées dans cette perspective encyclopédique de totalisation des savoirs (concept qui inclut celui de bibliothèque totale). Il s'agit de deux nouvelles de l'auteur argentin Jorge Luis Borges, «Tlön Uqbar Orbis Tertius» et «La Bibliothèque de Babel »; le roman Foundation de l'auteur américain d'origine russe Isaac Asimov; et finalement, Les Fourmis, écrit par l'auteur français contemporain Bernard Werber. Différentes approches théoriques sont utilisées selon les fonctions du discours encyclopédique dans la fiction littéraire: thématique, narrative, discursive, sémiotique. Pour ce faire, les théories épistémocritiques telles que développées notamment par Michel Pierssens (Le savoir à l'oeuvre) et Jean-Francois Chassay (Imaginer la science) servent à l'analyse des savoirs et de leur effet sur les textes. Les théories sémiotiques de la lecture d'Umberto Eco concernant l'encyclopédie de référence du Lecteur modèle (Lector in fabula), ainsi que celles développées par Richard Saint-Gelais à propos du concept de xénoencyclopédie (L'Empire du pseudo) qui permet la lisibilité des textes de science-fiction, sont également essentielles à l'analyse de l'encyclopédie imaginaire en tant que stratégies discursives didactiques. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Encyclopédie imaginaire, Encyclopédisme, Xénoencyclopédie, Bibliothèque totale, Gestion des savoirs, Epistémocritique, Jorge Luis Borges, Isaac Asimov, Bernard Werber, Science-fiction, Sémiotique de la lecture.

Critics and historians of science fiction widely recognize the genre's importance as a forum for political ideas during the 1950s. But the political role of science fiction diminished during the 1960s, overshadowing the ongoing involvement of sf writers in future-related debates. This paper employs biography, autobiography, memoir, archival papers, recordings, and secondary sources to demonstrate that sf writers continued to discuss the future and its potential problems after the 1950s. Judith Merril and Isaac Asimov, two giants in science fiction, form the core of this paper's focus. Merril and Asimov began to discuss the future in essays, interviews, and documentaries in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, Merril and Asimov were examining the then-emerging problems of overpopulation and planetary ecology in mainstream non-fiction. Merril and Asimov demonstrate that sf writers still addressed political and social issues in the 1960s and early 1970s - even if their involvement increasingly took place outside the boundaries of science fiction literature. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Esta pesquisa apresenta uma abordagem teórico-analítica da questão da representação da docência em textos de ficção científica de três autores norteamericanos do século XX: Isaac Asimov, autor do conto Como se divertiam, de 1951; Lloyd Biggle Jr, que escreveu Maneira doida de lecionar em 1966 e Connie Willis, cuja narrativa analisada tem o título Muito barulho por nada e data de 1990. Discutir as relações potencialmente passíveis de serem estabelecidas entre o imaginário retratado nessas obras e a visão neoliberal contemporânea do ato de ensinar como objeto de automatização e normatização estrita pode certificar o fato de que tais representações idealizadas tornaram-se, em grande medida, paradigmas advindos das práticas do capitalismo avançado (as quais têm como modelo primário a nação estadunidense) capazes de influenciar a forma como são entendidas, representadas e planejadas as relações entre a figura docente e as tecnologias em nosso país. Portanto, como objetivo primário, elencamos a tentativa de compreender como é realizada a construção discursiva da representação do trabalhador da educação (e das tecnologias imaginárias que cercam essa representação), inserindo-a nas dimensões culturais do imaginário norte-americano a fim de discutir sobre seus reflexos contemporâneos e seu conteúdo determinístico. Para isso, metodologicamente empregamos a recensão e análise bibliográfica de artigos científicos e textos literários nacionais e estrangeiros (que incluíram, mas não se limitaram, às obras designadas como objetos) e, entre as conclusões levantadas, apontamos a constatação de que a relação do corpus com a indústria cultural não permite um afastamento radical das teorias educacionais tradicionalistas familiares aos leitores que constituem o público-alvo dos autores, além de destacarmos vieses marcados pelo determinismo nos textos, embora seja, em alguns casos, apenas insinuado ou surja em contraste com produções posteriores do escritor. Como apontamento final, entretanto, é possível enxergar o conteúdo último dos textos do corpus como prioritariamente humanista: Asimov retrata o desejo de um ensino comunitário em lugar do isolamento do discente em nome da eficiência; Biggle Jr. discute, de forma subjacente, a desvalorização da figura do docente ante uma técnica voltada para a maximização de resultados econômicos e, por fim, Willis coloca em pauta as possibilidades e perigos de tentar se banir ideologias do ambiente escolar, dentro de um molde supostamente democrático que acaba servindo à aniquilação das possibilidades de aprendizado. / This research presents a theoretical-analytical approach to the question of representation of teaching in science fiction texts of American authors of the 20th century: Isaac Asimov, author of The fun they had! (1951); Lloyd Biggle Jr, who wrote And madly teach at 1966 and Connie Willis, whose analyzed narrative is called Ado and dates back to 1990. Discuss the relationships potentially liable to be established between the imaginary depicted in these works and the contemporary neoliberal vision of the act of teaching as the object of automation and strict standardization can certify the fact that such idealized representations have become, to a large extent, paradigms from the practices of advanced capitalism (which have as their primary model the American nation) capable of influencing how relationships between teachers and technologies in our country are understood, represented and planned. Therefore, as a primary objective, we attempt to understand how the discursive construction of the representation of the education worker (and the imaginary technologies surrounding this representation) is carried out, inserting it into the cultural dimensions of the North American imaginary in order to discuss its contemporary reflections and its deterministic content. In order to do this, we methodologically used the review and bibliographical analysis of scientific articles and national and foreign literary texts (which included, but were not limited to, works designated as objects), and, among the conclusions drawn, we pointed out that the relationship of the corpus with the cultural industry does not allow a radical departure from traditionalist educational theories familiar to the readers who constitute the target audience of the authors, in addition to highlighting perspectives marked by determinism in the texts, although in some cases, it is just insinuated or emerged in contrast to subsequent productions of the writer. As a final point, however, it is possible to see the ultimate content of the texts of the corpus as having a humanistic priority: Asimov portrays the desire for a communal education in place of the isolation of the student in the name of efficiency; Biggle Jr. discusses, in a subtle way, the devaluation of the teacher's figure before a technique focused at the maximization of economic results and, finally, Willis points out the possibilities and dangers of trying to ban all the ideology of the school environment, following a supposedly democratic mold that ends up serving the annihilation of the possibilities of learning.

Esta pesquisa apresenta uma abordagem teórico-analítica da questão da representação da docência em textos de ficção científica de três autores norteamericanos do século XX: Isaac Asimov, autor do conto Como se divertiam, de 1951; Lloyd Biggle Jr, que escreveu Maneira doida de lecionar em 1966 e Connie Willis, cuja narrativa analisada tem o título Muito barulho por nada e data de 1990. Discutir as relações potencialmente passíveis de serem estabelecidas entre o imaginário retratado nessas obras e a visão neoliberal contemporânea do ato de ensinar como objeto de automatização e normatização estrita pode certificar o fato de que tais representações idealizadas tornaram-se, em grande medida, paradigmas advindos das práticas do capitalismo avançado (as quais têm como modelo primário a nação estadunidense) capazes de influenciar a forma como são entendidas, representadas e planejadas as relações entre a figura docente e as tecnologias em nosso país. Portanto, como objetivo primário, elencamos a tentativa de compreender como é realizada a construção discursiva da representação do trabalhador da educação (e das tecnologias imaginárias que cercam essa representação), inserindo-a nas dimensões culturais do imaginário norte-americano a fim de discutir sobre seus reflexos contemporâneos e seu conteúdo determinístico. Para isso, metodologicamente empregamos a recensão e análise bibliográfica de artigos científicos e textos literários nacionais e estrangeiros (que incluíram, mas não se limitaram, às obras designadas como objetos) e, entre as conclusões levantadas, apontamos a constatação de que a relação do corpus com a indústria cultural não permite um afastamento radical das teorias educacionais tradicionalistas familiares aos leitores que constituem o público-alvo dos autores, além de destacarmos vieses marcados pelo determinismo nos textos, embora seja, em alguns casos, apenas insinuado ou surja em contraste com produções posteriores do escritor. Como apontamento final, entretanto, é possível enxergar o conteúdo último dos textos do corpus como prioritariamente humanista: Asimov retrata o desejo de um ensino comunitário em lugar do isolamento do discente em nome da eficiência; Biggle Jr. discute, de forma subjacente, a desvalorização da figura do docente ante uma técnica voltada para a maximização de resultados econômicos e, por fim, Willis coloca em pauta as possibilidades e perigos de tentar se banir ideologias do ambiente escolar, dentro de um molde supostamente democrático que acaba servindo à aniquilação das possibilidades de aprendizado. / This research presents a theoretical-analytical approach to the question of representation of teaching in science fiction texts of American authors of the 20th century: Isaac Asimov, author of The fun they had! (1951); Lloyd Biggle Jr, who wrote And madly teach at 1966 and Connie Willis, whose analyzed narrative is called Ado and dates back to 1990. Discuss the relationships potentially liable to be established between the imaginary depicted in these works and the contemporary neoliberal vision of the act of teaching as the object of automation and strict standardization can certify the fact that such idealized representations have become, to a large extent, paradigms from the practices of advanced capitalism (which have as their primary model the American nation) capable of influencing how relationships between teachers and technologies in our country are understood, represented and planned. Therefore, as a primary objective, we attempt to understand how the discursive construction of the representation of the education worker (and the imaginary technologies surrounding this representation) is carried out, inserting it into the cultural dimensions of the North American imaginary in order to discuss its contemporary reflections and its deterministic content. In order to do this, we methodologically used the review and bibliographical analysis of scientific articles and national and foreign literary texts (which included, but were not limited to, works designated as objects), and, among the conclusions drawn, we pointed out that the relationship of the corpus with the cultural industry does not allow a radical departure from traditionalist educational theories familiar to the readers who constitute the target audience of the authors, in addition to highlighting perspectives marked by determinism in the texts, although in some cases, it is just insinuated or emerged in contrast to subsequent productions of the writer. As a final point, however, it is possible to see the ultimate content of the texts of the corpus as having a humanistic priority: Asimov portrays the desire for a communal education in place of the isolation of the student in the name of efficiency; Biggle Jr. discusses, in a subtle way, the devaluation of the teacher's figure before a technique focused at the maximization of economic results and, finally, Willis points out the possibilities and dangers of trying to ban all the ideology of the school environment, following a supposedly democratic mold that ends up serving the annihilation of the possibilities of learning.

This study explores the depictions of technology and scientists in the literature of five writers during the 1960s. Scientists and technology associated with nuclear, computer, and space science are examined, focusing on their respective treatments by the following writers: John Barth, Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke. Despite the close connections between the abovementioned sciences, space science is largely spared from negative critiques during the sixties. Through an analysis of Barth's Giles Goat-boy, Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, Asimov's short stories "Key Item," "The Last Question," "The Machine That Won the War," "My Son, the Physicist," and Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is argued that altruistic goals of space science during the 1960s protect it from the satirical treatments that surround the other sciences.