The question of fidelity, which has long been at the center of adaptation studies, pertains to the problem of authorship. Who can be an author and adapt a text and who cannot? In order to understand the problem of fidelity, this thesis asks larger questions about the problems of authorship, examining how authorship is changing in new media. Audiences are taking an ever-increasing role in the creation and interpretation of the texts they receive: a phenomenon this thesis refers to as participatory authorship, or the active participation of audience members in the creation, expansion, and adaptation of another's creative work. In order to understand how audiences are creating texts, first the place of the player within video games is addressed. Due to the nature of the medium, players must become active co-creators of a video game. Drawing a parallel between video game players and performance, it is argued that players must simultaneously perform and author a text, illustrating the complex and multilayered nature of authorship in video games. In the second chapter the role of the fan is examined within the context of the My Little Pony fandom, Bronies. Like players, fans take an active role in the creation of the text and destabilize the traditional notion of authorship by partially controlling of a text from the original author. By examining the place of the player and the fan the traditional notion of authorship is destabilized, and the more open and collaborative model of participatory authorship is proposed.

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<p>This thesis focuses on W.H. Auden's last four major volumes of poetry: About the House (1965), City Without Walls (1969), Epistle to a Godson (1972) and the posthumous Thank You, Fog (1974). The later poetry has not drawn much scholarly attention or praise, and my study should go part way to redressing the balance.</p> <p>My thesis is that Auden's Christianity profoundly affected every aspect of his later poetry, though most of it is not overtly religious. Many features peculiar to this poetry--the giving of praise for even the simplest things, the delight in words from the slangiest to the most esoteric, the love of challenging prosodic difficulties, and the comic and playful exuberance --are all influenced by (or are actually the result of) the practice of a form of Christianity known as the Affirmative Way. Two main elements of this Way are a concentration on the goodness of all creation and an attempt to see every aspect of existence in its relation to God. Auden manifests a counterbalancing asceticism in aesthetic matters, however, in his rejection of mellifluousness for its own sake, of the pleasures and self-indulgence of 11 Confessional 11 writings, of the excitements of hierophantic utterance, and of any idea or element of style he felt to be subversive of the truth.</p> <p>The attempt to find the dynamic and necessary link between an expansive vision of life and the guidance of a vigorous discipline is the keynote to Auden's career. It extends into all the antinomies around which his thought was organized, and for which he attempted to discover reconciliations --the "Spirit" of Christian love and the "Letter" of Mosaic law; freedom and necessity; history and nature; the subject ego and the predicate self within each person; soul and body; and, though hardly exhausting what could be a very long list, the words of man and the Logos, the Word of God. All this is reflected in Auden's love of writing within the restrictions of formal verse patterns, and Auden takes the idea of patterning one step further by organizing three of his later volumes into fairly complex, overall structures. These are all designed to frame a particular element of the Christian story, and again reveal the extent of Auden's desire to make his words bear witness to the Word. (</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis presents the array of evidence concerning three crucial aspects of Roman maternity: pregnancy, childbirth, and primary care-givers. I explore how these elements of maternity are represented in the ancient sources and observe how the evidence corresponds to and diverges from the established impressions of these facets of maternity. I consider several issues surrounding the critical, initial moments of the life-cycle and how they are informed by biological factors, social structures, and cultural projections. Motherhood and childhood at Rome have garnered a great deal of interest, but issues of conception, gestation, childbirth, and early infant care have received much less attention. In this thesis they are considered together and thus in light of one another. The first chapter of this study surveys the social context of Roman maternity through an examination of the purpose of an extensive reproductive period, its associated problems, and the impact that such a practice had on Roman attitudes towards pregnancy and childbirth. The second and third chapters of this study are dedicated to an examination of the social and cultural identity of the two slaves who provided crucial functions throughout the pregnancy, delivery, and post-natal care of the Roman mother and child: the obstetrix (midwife) and the nutrix (wet-nurse). The final chapter shifts the focus from couples who sought to create a Roman family of their own to those who chose to limit the size of their families through contraception, abortion, infanticide, or infant exposure. I examine the attitudes towards these methods of family limitation and the critical role that parental intent had in the formation of these perceptions. By drawing on a range of ancient material, chief among which are medical writers, jurists, and funerary inscriptions, I argue that social status and demographic realities, such as high maternal and infant mortality rates, played equally significant roles in these central aspects of Roman maternity, and indeed influenced one another. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis combines art historical analysis and creative writing in a collection of essays and short stories centered on the myths of Persephone and Medusa. Ancient art, text, and context is considered in the essays, while the stories approach these subjects on a more contemporary and personal level.

This paper represents the final culmination of a theater senior project. The project consisted of an analytical research paper, performance in a mainstage department production, and supporting process documentation. I portrayed Myrrha, Hunger, Zeus, and others in a production of the play Metamorphoses. Through research on Mary Zimmerman’s 1998 play Metamorphoses, adapted from the works of Roman poet Ovid, this thesis grapples with the historical meaning of the myth of Myrrha. A polarizing figure, Myrrha was cursed to fall in lust with her father. By exploring of portrayals sexual assault onstage, I tackle themes of audience relationships to trauma and taboo subjects. I seek to understand the importance of her story in a modern context, specifically considering the #metoo movement and increasingly public discussions around sexual violence, rape culture, and systematic oppression. I stress our responsibility to understand how codifying stories on stage impacts audiences. This project also contains my conceptualization for the characters I portrayed in Metamorphoses, my rehearsal journal, and post-show reflections. In these sections, I detail the acting theory behind my characters as well as the steps we took to adapt Metamorphoses for our community.

Little did Hadrian know in 130 A.D. that when he deified his beloved departed Antinous, in order to provide a unifying symbol of worship for his diverse empire, that he was instead creating a lasting symbol of the antique world. This thesis examines the power of nostalgia and its successful use by two formidable men from different eras in Rome: The Emperor Hadrian and the extravagantly wealthy Renaissance merchant Agostino Chigi. Though separated by centuries, each man used the nostalgic allure of the beautiful youthful male figure of Antinous to gain power and influence in his own time and to leave a lasting impact on generations to come. Using the statue known as the Farnese Antinous I will show that these very different men were not so different after all: each understood the human tendency to romanticize the past, and each attempted to evoke a feeling of nostalgia for the past from those they sought to “conquer.” Hadrian used portraits of Antinous to unite an empire and cement his place in history; Agostino used one of those very same portraits in commissioned artworks by Raphael to earn his place among the nobility of his day, and to leave a lasting legacy for his descendants.

<p>This thesis has two primary aims: 1) to add weight to the minority opinion that Xenophon is not naively pro-Spartan and that while he appreciates and admires certain facets of the Spartan socio-political system, he recognises and criticises its inherent flaws, and 2) to show that Xenophon is consistent and even-handed in his treatment of Spartans throughout his works with no significant alteration over the period of his literary output. The focus is on those works in which Spartans figure most prominently: the Anabasis, Hellenica, and Respublica Lacedaemoniorum; the Agesilaus and Cyropaedia are dealt with insofar as they complement and illuminate matters under discussion.</p> <p>The first two chapters show that very little is known with certainty about Xenophon's life and the chronology of the relevant works. I argue that this lack of factual evidence has opened the way for scholars to make inaccurate and misleading speculations in support of the traditional view that Xenophon is uncritically pro-Spartan. In the next two chapters various Spartan leaders in the Anabasis and Hellenica are examined with respect to the qualities which Xenophon believed a good leader should possess. It is concluded that Xenophon shows no obvious bias toward Spartans in either work; praise and criticism are apportioned as due. The fifth chapter considers the Respublica Lacedaemoniorum with emphasis on those aspects of the Spartan lifestyle which bear most directly on the way Spartan leaders function. The standard view of the work as encomiastic is challenged and its purpose is reassessed. I argue that Xenophon simply presents an analysis of those Spartan laws and institutions which he believed allowed Sparta to rise to pre-eminence in the Greek world. A comparison with what he says elsewhere shows that he did not necessarily consider these laws to be ideal or worthy of imitation. A short conclusion draws attention to the consistency in Xenophon's attitude to Sparta in the works considered.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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