No description available.

This thesis examines Western rationality, contextualizing that subject in British colonialism and Western modernity. Using Scott Lash's description of academic characterizations of modernity, I explore the “high" modernity of the social sciences represented in the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. I then explore the cultural studies critique of that characterization of modernity in the book Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe. Using the theory of Jean Francois Lyotard, Martin Heidegger, and Theodor Adorno, I look at Western rationality through its manifestation in British colonialism. I argue that colonialism is a site where rationality's negative legacy is manifest, and that the paradoxical representations of rationality in the books by Carroll and Doyle indicate a problem with the assumption that Western rationality was a universal epistemology. Contrary to the British's own ideas of their rationality, I find that Western rationality is ultimately a culturally-grounded discourse. Using Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God, I examine the intersection between Western rationality and other forms of cultural knowledge, an intersection that occurred through British colonialism. Achebe argues against the universal model of Western rationality and posits instead a relative valuing of each culture's methods of arriving at truth. I use his novel to illustrate the limits of Western rationality and its claim to universality.

The character of the detective in Victorian literature and entertainment seems to be a paradox: tasked with surveillance but enacting it via disguise and other performative and even theatrical hallmarks. Scholars have often read the detective as an extension of the panoptic state, as a policing figure whose investigative work is undertaken through surveillance. How, then, are we to explain why Victorian detectives are so performative, which seems hardly compatible with surveillance? In this dissertation, I look beyond surveillance as the detective’s main function, towards the process of detection overall—which I demonstrate is completed through the detective’s use of performance and involves the manipulation of spectacle and evaluation of audience expectations. In redefining detection as a performative practice, I look at four different cases in which Victorian fictional detectives rely on a specific performance practice, style, or tradition to complete their detective work. The first two chapters establish the embeddedness of performance within the practice of detection, focusing on feats of non-theatrical performance by detectives who rely on and cultivate spectacle around them. In Chapter One, I analyze Dickens’s detectives, Mr. Nadgett of Martin Chuzzlewit and Inspector Bucket of Bleak House: conjuror figures who rely on controlled concealment, illusionistic demonstrations, and enthralling revelations to crime-solve, in a way that will win the favor of the Victorian public. In Chapter Two, I detail how Sherlock Holmes borrows the spectacular conventions of Victorian scientific performance to legitimize his own “Science of Deduction” as a discipline. The third and fourth chapters examine cases in which the feats of performance undertaken by detectives demonstrate the ways that detection is essential to the practice of performance—and that performance itself is not only a logical act, but also an interactively educational one. In Chapter Three, I analyze the practices of “lady detective” characters who have had prior careers as professional actresses and use the acting skills they cultivated on the stage to un-spectacularize themselves, achieving a level of invisibility that allows them mobility, access, and information. In Chapter Four, I look at two stage detective characters who are themselves performing roles: Hawkshaw in Tom Taylor’s The Ticket-of-Leave Man and Gripper in W.S. Gilbert’s A Sensation Novel. I analyze how these plays showcase the detective’s acting to refocus the ways that the actor is doing detection—that is, the ways in which, through performance, the theater is able to disseminate news and critique institutions of power, like the police itself.

The study examines cognitive rationality as to()l for problemsolving within the context of a movement from determinism and monolithic universal Reason towards indeterminism and plurality. It is contended that theories of literature do not provide an adequate conceptual framework, and therefore, extensive use is made of pluralist fallibilism (Popper, Helmut Spinner) and chaos theory. The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is viewed as a decisive influence in the shift towards plurality and scepticism. In chapter 2, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, a novel by Agatha Christie and Gaston Leroux's Le mystere de Ia chambre jaune are discussed as examples of optimistic rationalism. Chapter 3 indicates that Eco's II nome della rosa emphasizes the conjectural nature of truth and objective knowledge, underpinned by a 'soft' rationalism which amounts to monopolistic pluralism. Chapter 4 analyses the defeat of cognitive rationality by the complex interaction of a multiplicity of independent causal series. The detectives' relationship with the feminine exemplifies the interpenetration of rationality and the instinctual, while the mystery of the feminine is a metaphor for impenetrable complexity. Chapter 5 shows that hypotheses concerning random complex systems remain inconclusive. However, as the trajectory of a complex system can be regulated, so reason can be viewed as the underlying regulative pattern (strange attractorl for an infinite proliferation of hypotheses. Thus, despite .shifting conceptions of rationality and order, all the detectives in the study accept objective truth as regulative principle and are involved in a search for objective knowledge / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / D.Litt. et Phil. (Theory of literature)

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa is a land of stunning beauty and scenic wonder, with contrasts ranging from arid semi-desert areas to lush green forests; from flat plains to towering mountains. Socially and economically it is likewise a country of extreme contrasts (MacDonald 2002: 13). The South African Constitution, as adopted on 8 May 1996, grants every citizen basic, inalienable human rights. Under certain circumstances, however, some of these rights can come to stand in direct opposition to one another leaving us with a dilemma to choose between two compelling actions. In this context, the right to a secure, ecologically sustainable environment and the right to food and water is in conflict. The greatest challenge to face South Africa is to eradicate poverty and develop its people while ensuring that the natural environment is not destroyed in the process. There must be development for this generation, but not at the price of destroying the natural environment for the next generation. We have ample examples from the apartheid era of damage done both to people and to the environment through the "homeland policy". Millions of people were forced to eke out an existence on land that could not carry the number of people consigned to these remote areas. Erosion, deforestation and poverty are the heritage. There are increasing demands for development, but these demands are infinite while the resources of the world are finite. The question now arises whether the right to a safe environment or the right to sufficient food and water, both enshrined in the Constitution should be given preference. I aim to show that Holmes Rolston III's article "Feeding People versus Saving Nature?" and the points made in Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" fail to satisfy public norms and therefore fall short to help us in solving this dilemma. l propose the bioregional management approach that focuses upon the political means to promote restoration and maintenance of the natural systems that ultimately support the people and nature in each area. I believe that this strategy could succeed in solving the impasse that the South African society has reached in solving this very complex dilemma. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid-Afrika is 'n land van ongelooflike skoonheid met kontraste wat wissel van droe semi-woestyne tot geil groen woude; van gelyk vlaktes tot hoe berge. Sosiaal en ekonomies is dit tegelyk 'n land van ekstreme kontraste (MacDonald 2002: 13). Die Suid-Afrikaanse Konstitusie, soos aanvaar op 8 Mei 1996, verseker elke burger van basiese, onvervreembare regte. Onder sekere omstandighede, egter, kan sommige van hierdie regte met mekaar in direkte konflik wees, en die dilemma bring mee dat ons tussen twee belangrike maar konflikterende optredes moet kies. In hierdie konteks is die reg op 'n veilige, ekologies volhoubare omgewing, en die reg tot voedsel en water, in konflik met mekaar. Die grootste uitdaging waardeur Suid-Afrika in die gesig gestaar word, is die gelyktydige uitwissing van armoede en die ontwikkeling van sy mense, terwyl verseker word dat die natuurlike omgewing nie in die proses vernietig word nie. Daar moet ontwikkeling wees vir die huidige generasie, maar nie teen die prys van die vernietiging van die natuurlike omgewing vir die volgende generasie nie. Ons het talle voorbeelde uit die apartheid-era van die skade wat aangerig is aan mense en hul omgewing deur die tuisland-beleid. Miljoene mense is geforseer om 'n bestaan te maak in gebiede wat nie die groot getalle wat na hierdie verafgelee areas gedwing is, kon akkomodeer nie. Die nalatenskap hiervan is erosie, ontbossing en armoede. Daar is toenemende eise vir ontwikkeling, maar hierdie eise is oneindig terwyl die bronne van die wereld eindig is. Die vraag wat nou ontstaan, is of daar voorkeur gegee moet word aan die reg tot 'n veilige omgewing of die reg op voldoende voedsel en water, soos wat beide hiervan beklemtoon word in die Konstitusie. Ek poog om aan te toon dat Holmes Rolston III se artikel "Feeding People versus Saving Nature?" en die punte gemaak in Hardin se "Tragedy of the Commons" nie daarin slaag om openbare norme te bevredig nie en dus nie daarin slaag om die dilemma te oorkom nie. Ek stel voor dat die dilemma benader moet word vanuit 'n bio-regionale perspektief waarin daar gefokus word op die politieke middele om die restorasie en voortbestaan van natuurlike sisteme te bevorder waardeur die mense en natuur in elke area uiteindelik ondersteun word. Ek glo dat hierdie strategie daarin sal slaag om die impasse op te hef waarin die Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing verval het in hul poging om hierdie komplekse probleem op te los.

The study examines cognitive rationality as to()l for problemsolving within the context of a movement from determinism and monolithic universal Reason towards indeterminism and plurality. It is contended that theories of literature do not provide an adequate conceptual framework, and therefore, extensive use is made of pluralist fallibilism (Popper, Helmut Spinner) and chaos theory. The philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche is viewed as a decisive influence in the shift towards plurality and scepticism. In chapter 2, Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, a novel by Agatha Christie and Gaston Leroux's Le mystere de Ia chambre jaune are discussed as examples of optimistic rationalism. Chapter 3 indicates that Eco's II nome della rosa emphasizes the conjectural nature of truth and objective knowledge, underpinned by a 'soft' rationalism which amounts to monopolistic pluralism. Chapter 4 analyses the defeat of cognitive rationality by the complex interaction of a multiplicity of independent causal series. The detectives' relationship with the feminine exemplifies the interpenetration of rationality and the instinctual, while the mystery of the feminine is a metaphor for impenetrable complexity. Chapter 5 shows that hypotheses concerning random complex systems remain inconclusive. However, as the trajectory of a complex system can be regulated, so reason can be viewed as the underlying regulative pattern (strange attractorl for an infinite proliferation of hypotheses. Thus, despite .shifting conceptions of rationality and order, all the detectives in the study accept objective truth as regulative principle and are involved in a search for objective knowledge / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D.Litt. et Phil. (Theory of literature)

This dissertation examines how the trait of intelligence is portrayed in novels of twentieth-century Britain, and how this portrayal grapples with the quantitative revolution in the conception of intelligence, brought on by the invention of IQ testing in the 1900s. I trace the construction of characters’ intelligence across different genres, starting with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, through the modernist Bildungsromane of Henry James, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf, to Iris Murdoch’s realism, and finally to Lee Child’s late twentieth- century serial thrillers featuring Jack Reacher. I posit that the IQ model of intelligence as abstracted, quantified, and statistically measurable is profoundly at odds with the novelistic investment in the unique individual subject. This project traces the narratological strategies of characterization through which intelligence—or cleverness, or smartness, or brightness—are conveyed to the reader. Novels, generally speaking, do not provide the IQ scores of their characters; and though we might occasionally encounter an explicit narratorial characterization of some fictional being or other as “remarkably clever,” most often we must rely on perceptions of behavior, speech, and thought in order to assess characters’ intelligence, much as we do in real life. As the psychometric paradigm gained prominence in the psychological circles in the United States, England, and Europe, and as more people were exposed—and subjected—to intelligence testing, its values and assumptions gained more cultural traction. Attributes like mathematical facility, logical and systemic thinking, or a large vocabulary, are likely to yield a high score on an IQ test, as well as a favorable judgment in an informal, casual assessment, such as that of a date or a new acquaintance at a party. This dissertation, therefore, explores how this permeation of the psychometric paradigm into general culture affect the novelistic construction of smartness. Ultimately, I argue that against the IQ model, the novels I am reading construct a conception of intelligence as a coherent set of cognitive abilities, remarkably consistent across genres, which overlaps, yet reconfigures, the priorities and epistemological frameworks of psychometrics. This model centers on the notion of observation, i.e., a mix of sensory susceptibility to impressions and the cognitive skill of taking notice of the world and of other people. It is both anchored to the body by connoting a sensory experience, and divorced from it in conveying a more purely cognitive process, one of directing attention and processing information, thus renegotiating psychometric assumptions regarding embodiment and sensory experience—as well as the relationship between the individual’s intelligence, the world, and the minds of others.

No description available.

No description available.

When the meritless scrabble for the bauble of deity, they ironically set their human lives at the “pin’s fee” to which Shakespeare’s Hamlet refers. This thesis focuses on these undeserving individuals in premillennial and postmillennial fiction, who seek immortality at the expense of both their humanities, and their natural mortalities. I will analyse an array of popular modern characters, paying particular attention to the precursors of immortal personages. I will inaugurate these analyses with an examination of fan favourite series