This thesis explores the problems associated with an individual's interpretation of historical events; especially through a question such as "Where were you when you heard the news of the Challenger explosion?" Remembering an event in this manner implies that both a physical and temporal distance exists between an individual watching from afar and the event in question. This distance indicates that the event is never transparent nor is its meaning self-evident; it unfolds over time and is rendered almost incomprehensible through the proliferation of language and discourse surrounding the event, the fragmentary nature of its remnants, and the fallibility of both individual memory and the historical record. But instead of making the event meaningless, notions of 'distance' and 'incomprehensibility' provide a space where an event's meaning is most understandable for an individual. Beginning with Wittgenstein's Tractatus and ending with Barthes' A Lover's Discourse, I would like to show how little separates the philosopher attempting to understand the world, the historian interpreting the historical record, the amorous subject deciphering the signs and gestures of an absent or unattainable lover, and the individual remembering a historical event.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [213]-218).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2000. / Computer printout. "April 2000." "March 7, 2000"--Cover. Includes bibliographical references (p. 360-377).

Cenotaph is a work of fifteen minutes duration for solo tape realized on the Synclavier Digital Music System at the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia. All of the sound materials in the work consist of resynthesized timbres derived from the analysis of digital recordings of seven different human voices, each speaking the last name of one of the Challenger astronauts. The work's harmonic resources are derived in a unique way involving partitioning of the octave by powers of the Golden Section. The work is in a single movement divided into three sections which function as prologue, action, and epilogue, respectively. This formal structure is reinforced by differentiation of harmonicmaterials and texture. Although Cenotaph cannot be performed "live" and exists only as a recording, a graphic score is included to assist analysis and study.