Nature is everywhere. Every day we have contact with it. Still, many of us do not realize how important it is for our survival. Descriptions of nature have always been present in novels. However, recently the aspect of nature in literature, as well as in other disciplines, has been dealt with in a slightly different way. As a result, an ecocritical approach to literature has been favoured. This essay shows nature's impact on the characters in Jane Urquhart's The Stone Carvers. Using this novel as an example, I start by studying how the concept of nature is often constructed through opposition. I then move on to show how stereotypical boundaries between nature and human beings may be challenged. Finally I study how nature function as a healing agent in The Stone Carvers. In my studies I combine the theories of ecocriticism with a psychoanalytical perspective through the concept of abjection.

Thesis--University of Washington. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 187-190).

The runic alphabet in the Viking Age (ca. 800-1100) only consisted of 16 characters. These did not cover the Rune-Swedish phoneme system. One of the runes, the so-called os-rune, was used for at least 8 different phonemes. By tradition it has been used to date Viking Age runic inscriptions in the Scandinavian countries. The present work investigates the phonetic and phonemic value of the os-rune in Rune-Swedish inscriptions on stone, altogether 1,745 instances in 961 inscriptions. On the basis of the analysis, the accepted view of the chronological value of the os-rune is assessed, and is found to be non-valid. The regional variations in the use of the os-rune are also studied, particularly in the context of individual rune-carvers, but also to see if any dialectal variation is discernable. It is found that there is a marked consistency in the use of the os-rune for either rounded or unrounded vowels. Inscriptions, where both uses occur, are concentrated to one small geographical area. There are also areas, where the use of the os-rune for rounded vowels is the rule. / <p>Digitaliserad utgåva 2016, kompletterad med en lista över viktigare rättelser</p> / De vikingatida runinskrifternas kronologi

De vikingatida runinskrifternas kronologi

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this study is to determine what can be known about the people who were able to write runes during the Viking Age. The investigation is based on the runecarvers’ own statements about themselves and their work, which is normally found in the signature or the carver formula of the inscriptions. The material comprises all carver formulas known from primarily Scandinavian Viking-age runic inscriptions, but since most of the inscriptions are found on rune-stones, there is a focus on runecarvers who worked in this material. In the study the form and content of these carver formulas are closely analyzed in different ways. It can for example be shown that the choice of verbs in a carver formula is primarily determined by chronology, which is also reflected in the geographical distribution of different verbs in the material. The study also shows that the carver formula is normally positioned finally in the text, and that the examples of other positions might be determined by the content of the rest of the inscription. In some cases the runic monument is signed by more than one name, which has been interpreted as indicating the existence of workshops. Even if this is true for parts of the material, many of the co-signed stones seem to be the products of carvers who only worked occasionally. An investigation of the personal names and the use of attributes such as patronymic, titles or bynames, shows no difference from the normal Viking-age population, which indicates that the rune-carvers were not members of a special social class. The latter part of the study deals with the relationships between the rune-carver and the sponsor of the runic monument. Special attention is paid to some local carvers in the Mälar Valley in order to determine their social status and the extent of their production of rune-stones. The study shows that some of these carvers belonged to a wealthy group of land-owners with contacts abroad, and many of them have executed about ten rune-stones, often in the vicinity of their own dwellingplace. In conjunction with this, there is also an attempt to see to what extent the writing habits of these local carvers are influenced by more productive and presumably professional carvers. This investigation leads to a re-evaluation of one of the most famous carvers in the district, Åsmund Kåresson, which also has some implications for the picture of how the rune-stone custom was introduced into central Sweden at the beginning of the 11th century.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Fine Art (Sculpture), Durban Institute of Technology, 2003. / This dissertation examines the influences and interventions affecting five selected woodcarvers working in the Northern Province over a period of fifteen years. Chapter Orneis divided into three sections. The first section explores the emergence of the woodcarving tradition through the watershed exhibition of Tributaries (1985), which claimed the 'discovery' of the master woodcarvers from the region. Shortly following on from this was the Neglected TradihmD exhibition (1988) whose role defined a turning point in the exhibiting and documentation of black artists within a changing art historical perspective. / M

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Ancient Maya inscription carvers at the city of Palenque in what is now Chiapas, Mexico worked in teams to complete large and complex stone tablets. Like artists everywhere, they each had developed idiosyncratic habits which the modern connoisseur can learn to discern, in order to identify which parts of a particular monument were sculpted by one or another artist. The author scrutinized several eighth-century CE inscriptions, panels in stucco and limestone, analyzing how many artists worked on each, to wit: the Temple XVIII Stuccos, the Temple XIX Platform, the Temple XIX Stuccos, the Temple XIX Panel, the Panel of the 96 Glyphs, the Lápida de la Creación and associated fragments, the Palace Tablet and its associated fragmentary panels, and the Tablet of the Slaves. The ensemble whose main components are the Panel of the 96 Glyphs and the Lápida de la Creación are all by one hand, and the Tablet of the Slaves was the work of four carvers, but the Temple XIX Platform surprisingly employed fourteen carvers, and the Palace Tablet over a score. Their territories were not divided textually, and display idiosyncratic spellings of glyph compounds as well as carving habits. The conclusion discusses possible reasons for these findings, relating them to the unusual Maya practice of never correcting mistakes in monumental inscriptions. A likely reason seems to be that the ancient Maya considered these texts not merely as a permanent record, but as ongoing, living repetitions of the ritual in question, and had to be completed in a very short time. / text

À la croisée de l’histoire sociale, culturelle et des techniques, ma thèse porte sur la fonction de l’écuyer tranchant, un office majeur de l’hôtel royal à qui incombait la tâche délicate de découper et servir les mets à la table du seigneur. Exercé au départ par les grands du royaume, l’office se professionnalise à la fin du Moyen Âge et au début de la Renaissance, comme l’atteste la multiplication des traités de découpe en Espagne et en Italie durant cette période. Le présent travail permet de mesurer, d'une part, les interférences textuelles entre les traités de découpe ibériques et italiens et de s'interroger, d'autre part, sur la correspondance entre les normes et la pratique. A la fin de comprendre la place occupée par l'écuyer tranchant au sein de l'hötel royal, et le rôle qu'il a pu jouer dans l'entourage du roi, un travail prosopographique a été mené durant les règnes des rois aragonais Ferdinand Ier et Alphonse le Magnanime / My thesis is at the crossroads of social, cultural and technical history. It deals with the duties of the Carver who was entrusted with a major assignment at the Royal Court: he was given the delicate task of carving the food and serving up the dishes for his Lord. This office, first performed by the royal officers, became a profession at the end of the middle ages and at the beginning of the renaissance period, as may be attested by the multiplication of treaties on carving in Spain and Italy issued at that time. The antiquity of the "arte Cisaria" (1423) led me to wonder about its influence on the Catalan and Italian treaties on carving which were the established later on. I also wondered afterwards to what extent these treaties complied with the established norms. Finally, in order to understand the place occupied by the Carver within the Royal Court, I focused my prosopographic research on the reigns of the Aragonese kings Ferdinand I, and his son Alphonse V