The college commencement address is traditionally regarded as the low point of an otherwise auspicious occasion. An ephemeral form of ceremonial oratory, the commencement speech is reviled for its conventional platitudes, its easy piety, and its abstractions on the well-lived life, the sunny future, and the ethics of adulthood. The South may differ, however, in its approach to the commencement speech genre, especially in the years between World War II and the millennium, when one of the South’s most significant assets became the southern writer. Throughout this dissertation, I have tried to situate eight commencement addresses given by such prominent and dissimilar writers as W.J. Cash, William Faulkner, Wendell Berry, Will D. Campbell, Lee Smith, Clyde Edgerton, Maya Angelou, and Fred Chappell, within the context of the times in which they were delivered and within the speakers' written works. Through my analysis of these graduation talks, I discovered that southern writers typically abandon those repetitious conventions that render the commencement address forgettable in favor of the innovative techniques that were already at work in their written works.

According to natural class trope nominalism, properties are natural classes of tropes, where the "naturalness" of natural classes is taken to be primitive and unanalyzable. In this thesis I defend natural class trope nominalism from two objections: i) that the naturalness of natural classes is analyzable, and ii) that natural class trope nominalism cannot account for certain modal facts (namely, that there could have been more or fewer tropes of any given type), an objection raised by Nicolas Wolterstorff. I defend natural class trope nominalism from (i) indirectly by presenting several putative analyses (namely, those of D. M. Armstrong, Keith Campbell, and Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereya) of natural classes and arguing that they are all deficient, thereby undermining the claim that natural classes are analyzable. Douglas Ehring has recently defended natural class trope nominalism from (ii) by developing a counterpart theory for types of tropes. However, counterpart theory is not universally accepted. So I present three non-counterpart-theoretic alternatives. The natural class trope nominalist can meet Wolterstorff's objection a) by positing existent, but uninstantiated, tropes, b) by accepting modal realism, and c) by accepting a thesis called 'transworld property exemplification'. / October 2005

La venue de l'Internet a modifié le statut du texte, notre approche, nos méthodes de lecture et nos modalités de compréhension. En devenant numérique, le texte s'est ouvert à de nouvelles possibilités: il est devenu malléable, interactif, hyperlié et fragmentaire. De fait, une autre approche de lecture est exigée, une lecture aléatoire, saccadée, non-chronologique et hypermédiatique. Le lecteur ne parcourt plus un texte stable, mais navigue dans les eaux mouvantes composées de mots et d'animations, de vidéos et de trames sonores. Afin de rendre compte de cette réalité, l'étude suivante propose l'analyse de trois oeuvres littéraires hypermédiatiques en vue de dégager les particularités de cette littérature, mais surtout dans l'optique de cibler la manière dont le lecteur expérimente l'oeuvre par une lecture que nous qualifions de « lecture en hypermédia ». Les oeuvres du corpus, soit Perte de temps, de Julie Potvin, Principes de gravité, de Sébastien Cliche, et Inside: A Journal of Dreams, d'Andy Campbell et Judi Alston, ont été choisies en fonction de la présence d'une figure de la perte émergente, tantôt symbolisée dans la reprise d'un poème de Baudelaire, tantôt représentée par la figure du livre à l'écran. Nous verrons qu'il se dégage un imaginaire de la fin annonçant la venue d'une nouvelle pratique, la lecture à l'écran, qui s'expérimente à travers un parcours labyrinthique dont la perte est incontournable et l'oubli nécessaire, afin de comprendre le sens qui se dégage des oeuvres. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Littérature hypermédiatique, Lecture, Remédiatisation, Figure, Perte.

"Saving White Face: Lynching and Counter Hegemonic Lynching Performances," examines American lynching as hegemonic performances constitutive of discursive and material practices that reinforce a cultural fiction, white supremacy. "Lynching studies" is identified as an interdisciplinary academic project that includes lynching history, analysis and (activist) cultural production. Among other approaches, "Saving White Face" uses psychoanalysis and ethnography to unmask lynching as a site where race- and gender-based identities originate. Lynching's "materialities," such as lynching photographs and souvenirs are examined as the bases of American consumer culture, especially as they relate to football and (the) O.J. Simpson (ordeal). This work also documents the production of my Chamber Theater adaptation of Bebe Moore Campbell's 1992 novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine (also entitled "Saving White Face"). I also contextualize this counter hegemonic performance as a lynching drama, as well as among radical black feminist activism and blues performance. As such, lynching is identified as an emergent performance practice which not only reinforces white identity, but lynched subjectivities, as well. / text

According to natural class trope nominalism, properties are natural classes of tropes, where the "naturalness" of natural classes is taken to be primitive and unanalyzable. In this thesis I defend natural class trope nominalism from two objections: i) that the naturalness of natural classes is analyzable, and ii) that natural class trope nominalism cannot account for certain modal facts (namely, that there could have been more or fewer tropes of any given type), an objection raised by Nicolas Wolterstorff. I defend natural class trope nominalism from (i) indirectly by presenting several putative analyses (namely, those of D. M. Armstrong, Keith Campbell, and Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereya) of natural classes and arguing that they are all deficient, thereby undermining the claim that natural classes are analyzable. Douglas Ehring has recently defended natural class trope nominalism from (ii) by developing a counterpart theory for types of tropes. However, counterpart theory is not universally accepted. So I present three non-counterpart-theoretic alternatives. The natural class trope nominalist can meet Wolterstorff's objection a) by positing existent, but uninstantiated, tropes, b) by accepting modal realism, and c) by accepting a thesis called 'transworld property exemplification'.

According to natural class trope nominalism, properties are natural classes of tropes, where the "naturalness" of natural classes is taken to be primitive and unanalyzable. In this thesis I defend natural class trope nominalism from two objections: i) that the naturalness of natural classes is analyzable, and ii) that natural class trope nominalism cannot account for certain modal facts (namely, that there could have been more or fewer tropes of any given type), an objection raised by Nicolas Wolterstorff. I defend natural class trope nominalism from (i) indirectly by presenting several putative analyses (namely, those of D. M. Armstrong, Keith Campbell, and Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereya) of natural classes and arguing that they are all deficient, thereby undermining the claim that natural classes are analyzable. Douglas Ehring has recently defended natural class trope nominalism from (ii) by developing a counterpart theory for types of tropes. However, counterpart theory is not universally accepted. So I present three non-counterpart-theoretic alternatives. The natural class trope nominalist can meet Wolterstorff's objection a) by positing existent, but uninstantiated, tropes, b) by accepting modal realism, and c) by accepting a thesis called 'transworld property exemplification'.

"A Master's paper submitted to the faculty of the School of Information and Library Science of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Library Science." / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 25, 2006). "May 2004." Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-47).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Thomas L. McHaney, Pearl A. McHaney, committee co-chairs; Matthew Roudane, committee member. Electronic text (170 p.) : digital, PDF file. Title from title screen. Description based on contents viewed July 3, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 158-169).

Thesis (MComm (Industrial Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The choice of career path could create a stressful situation for many individuals. Researchers seem to agree that if a person is able to find fit between what they would like to do and what a job (work environment) involves then a person is likely to perform their chosen occupation well. Interest assessment is a method that assists in making personal and organisational career related decisions. The Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS, Campbell, Hyne & Nilsen, 1992) is a well-known interest assessment instrument that can be used for such decisions. Even though interest assessment can assist, these instruments have been criticised for being gender biased and typically forcing people into stereotypical gendered type occupations. Bias is indicated as nuisance factors that threaten the validity of cross-group (cultural) comparisons (Van de Vijver & Leung, 1997). These nuisance factors could be due to construct bias, method bias and/or item bias. Therefore, due to the importance of the decisions made, it would seem essential that the information provided by test results apply equally across different reference groups – this would imply equivalent measurement. Equivalence is achieved at three levels: Configural, metric and scalar (Vandenberg & Lance, 2000; Vandenberg, 2002). Full measurement invariance (achieved when scalar invariance is found) implies the ability to compare observed scores directly. By making use of confirmatory factor analytic techniques suggested by Vandenberg and Lance (2000), increasing constraints of equivalence were proposed for the CISS measurement model. While adequate model fit was found for the CISS Basic scales, the sample size did not afford independent gender sample confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and consequent measurement invariance tests to be conducted on the Basic scales. The CISS Orientation scales were then subjected to CFA on the combined gender sample and then were subjected to independent CFAs on the separate gender samples. Unfortunately poor model fit was found at this global level of measurement in the CISS. This prevented the researcher from completing the necessary measurement invariance tests on the Orientation scales for the CISS. The implications of the results are discussed, limitations are indicated and areas for further research are highlighted. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die maak van ‘n loopbaankeuse kan spanning veroorsaak in baie mense. Dit wil voorkom of navorsers saamstem dat indien ‘n person se werklike beroep ooreenstem met dit wat hy/sy graag sou wou doen – dan sal die persoon waarskynlik goed presteer in die gekose beroep. Die benutting van belangstellingsvraelyste kan individue help om effektiewe persoonlike en beroepsgerigte keuses te maak. Die “Campbell Interest and Skill Survey” (CISS, Campbell, Hyne & Nilsen, 1992) is ‘n bekende belangstellingsvraelys wat gebruik kan word om ondersteuning te bied om bogenoemde keuses te maak. Alhoewel belangstellingsvraelyste oor die algemeen waardevolle hulpbronne is in die maak van beroepskeuses, is hierdie vraelyste al gekritiseer dat hulle sydig kan wees op grond van geslag en as sulks mense kan lei om geslagsgetipeerde beroepskeuses te maak. “Sydigheid” in toetse kan beskryf word as “lastige” faktore wat die geldigheid van kruiskulturele vergelykings bedreig (Van de Vijver & Leung, 1997). Hierdie faktore kan veroorsaak word deur konstruksydigheid, metodesydigheid en/of itemsydigheid. Dit is dus noodsaaklik dat die informasie wat verskaf word deur die toetsresultate dieselfde betekenis moet hê oor al die verskillende verwysingsgroepe en dit noodsaak ekwivalente meting. Ekwivalensie kan bereik word op drie vlakke: konfiguraal, metries en skalêr (Vandenberg & Lance, 2000; Vandenberg, 2002). Volle invariansie van meting (wat bereik word wanneer skalêre invariansie bevind word) impliseer dat waargenome metings direk met mekaar vergelyk kan word. Deur gebruik te maak van bevestigende faktoranalitiese tegnieke voorgestel deur Vandenberg en Lance (2000), is toenemende ekwivalensiebeperkinge voorgestel vir die “CISS” metingsmodel. Alhoewel ’n bevredigende passing gevind is vir die “CISS Basic scales” model, het die grootte van die steekproef nie toegelaat dat die “CISS Basic scales” model onafhanklik op die twee geslagsgroepe gepas word nie en ook nie toegelaat dat die metingsinvariansie van die model oor die twee geslagsgroepe ondersoek word nie. Die “CISS Orientation scales” is toe blootgestel aan bevestigende faktorontleding op die gekombineerde geslagsteekproef en asook op die onderskeie geslagsgroepe. Op hierdie globale vlak kon daar egter nie bevredigende modelpassing gevind word nie. Die gebrekkige modelpassing het gevolglik die navorser verhoed om enige verdere metingsvariansie toetse op die “Orientation scales” te doen. Die implikasies van die resultate word bespreek, beperkinge word aangedui en verdere moonlike navorsingsgebiede word uitgelig.

We see the film like a reality because our perception of the film is like a reality around us. Movie as a dream and like a dream has unique tools how describe our soul and unconscious processes. This advantage is a crucial for my research, how can be useful for understanding how our unconscious works. C. G. Jung and Joseph Campbell and his work helps me with looking for the answer. How can film speak to us through the psychological layer instead of the narrative layer.