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This dissertation is a study of spatial allegorical representations of inwardness in late medieval devotional texts of the fourteenth and fifteenth century, with a focus on the topos of the garden of the contemplation of the Passion as a landscape of the heart. These representations of the self do not follow the temporal logic of autobiography but are instead organized around matrix spaces: architectures or gardens of inwardness. Named by Beaujour in opposition to life-narratives, these miroirs d’encre or literary self-portraits rely on topoï to express the most intimate contours of the individual. The first part of this dissertation considers how identity is negotiated with respect to the devotional norm in two private devotional exercises penned by cultured aristocrats. The abject vision of the penitential self in Henry of Lancaster’s Livre des Seyntz Medicines is rooted in the requirement to describe a deep self ontologically opaque to consciousness, while in René d’Anjou’s Mortifiement de Vaine Plaisance, the sinfulness lodged in the heart is considered through the lens of an anthropology focused on affect. Because of their intertextual nature, locative tropes of interiority constitute an arena in which the individual constitutes himself in relation to foundational texts. Topical representations of the self borrow their form from the setting of a particular text or reference an entire textual tradition, inviting the question of the role of reading practices in self formation. The second part of this dissertation focuses on reading as a spiritual exercise, considering how the literary setting of the Roman de la Rose came to be associated to a devotional representation of the self in the late Middle Ages. In response to the debates on language and allegoresis unfurling in the Quarrel of the Rose, Pierre d’Ailly transforms its garden into an inner Jardin Amoureux de l’Ame Devote, subjecting the infamous secular text to a reading inspired by devotional meditative reading practices. Later on, Jehan Henri mobilizes the topography of the Rose to describe the collective identity of reformed nuns in a series of texts promoting the agenda of monastic reformation ( Le Livre de réformation utile et profitable pour toutes religieuses, Livre de la vie active and the Jardin de Contemplation). Finally, Molinet’s Roman de la Rose Moralisé proposes a spiritual reading of the Rose that testifies to a paradigm shift in the status of secular literature under the influence of devotional reading modes, and which, like Pierre d’Ailly, assimilates the setting of the Rose to an inner garden of the contemplation of the Passion. No longer an innocuous pastime, literature comes to carry high societal stakes because of being invested with a definite role in self-fashioning. The race for controlling the meaning of foundational texts leads to the proliferation of late medieval literary quarrels. An edition of Jehan Henri’s Jardin de Contemplation is provided in the appendix.

The rise of organised pan-Indianism in the early twentieth century has been well documented by scholars. However, this body of scholarship has been predominantly 'top down' occupied with the pan-Indian movement at a national level, and the Native Americans who were at the forefront of it. Conversely, this thesis takes a 'bottom up' approach through examination of grassroots Native Americans, and through a local lens in Oklahoma, and adds their voices to the dialogues about Indian identity in this period. A systematic examination of oral history sources held in the Doris Duke Collection reveals who these grassroots individuals were and how they expressed their identities. Moreover, it explores how they formed shared pan-Indian identities in this period. These sources underline the complex process of identity for indigenous individuals and ultimately show that identity was multi-layered for them. This layered identity was a reflection of the need indigenous people had to maintain and protect their indigenous identities. They did not respond to this period by merging the different facets of their identity to one synthesised identity. They did not want to fully assimilate into America and yet also did not fully reject America or White lifestyles. Instead, they used “survival strategies” to keep these different elements alive. This thesis demonstrates that Indian identities did emerge from Oklahoma in the early twentieth century amongst this grassroots group. They were influenced by the circumstances of Oklahoma and national pan-Indian ideas. The individuals who expressed such identities heard these influences in different ways and ultimately, constructed their own layered identities.

Deeply concerned with body politics, sexual slavery, identity, and technology, this work takes a serious and brutally honest route through the close perspectives of those living it moment by moment. With influences from science fiction, horror, weird, and literary fiction, the untitled novel blends genres for a disturbing account. This novel also plays with constraints in the spirit of many constraint-based writing movements, without the inclusion of names, few identifying markers, and in publication the removal of title, chapter numbers, page numbers, and author name.

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors which might influence the identity formation process in adopted adolescents. Specifically, this research looked at agency versus independent adoption placement as a choice reflecting the adoptive parents' preference for involvement with or distance from a possible adoptive family support network before and after placement. Subjects were also divided according to those whose family had belonged to an adoptive family support group and those who had not. The study involves a combination of descriptive and correlational research methods.

The anxiety provoked by acknowledgement of the imminent end of existence or death is probably the one which agitates a human being most deeply. The attempt of this paper is not to give an answer as to how to reach immortality, but to explore the author's assumption that for acknowledgement of the mystery of death it is necessary first to discover a being's authentic identity. That is to discover her/his real essence which is hidden under the 'artificial' identity, where this identity is considered the being's ego, an identity formed upon the relative truth of life. The truths of life are relative because they are established by the people, thus they are based upon the changeable and contradictory nature of human beings. The focus of the paper is on researching the establishment of a being's identity, which is formed through she/he having two contradictory relationships with other human beings. The first one is negation and the other one is of acknowledgement of the identity of the other. The examination deals with art works of several contemporary artists, where most of them have experienced war. The philosophical framework of this examination uses the texts of French philosopher Emmanual Levinas, amongst others / Master of Arts (Hons) (Visual Arts)

The purpose of this research is to explore the nature of adult remembrance of childhood experience of place. The research asks what it is like for adults to recall their childhood experiences of place, and what role childhood place experience plays in shaping adult identity. The study explores the lived experience of seven participants, five men and two women, as they remember the outdoor places of their childhood in semi-structured interviews. It undertakes a phenomenological investigation into the nature of these experiences, consisting of an individual description of each remembrance experience, phenomenological reduction, and identification of the qualities of the experience. The integration of several concepts in the light of participants’ experiences of childhood place remembrance can be considered to be an initial step towards establishing a development theory of place. / Master of Arts (Hons)

The current research focuses on the study of power and commitment within heterosexual relationships. The research reviews, compares and contrasts the theoretical perspectives of Nietzsche through the work of Kaufmann and Gordon and utilises a qualitative research method of Narrative Inquiry. These theoretical epistemological and methodological perspectives are used in conjunction with the method of semi-structured interviewing to identify thematic phenomenological descriptions of participants stories. The three discourses of Fear Discourse, Protective Discourse and Detached Discourse have been used in conjunction with the writings of Nietzsche concerning the Will to Power as thematic guidance discourses for this study. To reveal these discourses the research question- How does an individual’s styles or themes of commitment change within and between three of their previous heterosexual relationships - was examined. The research found that commitment is understood as another name for responsibility, males are most often understood as behaving with a lack of responsibility, females in overly responsible ways. The research concluded that the production of a balanced responsible sharing approach achieved through creativity is the most desirable to accomplish self-overcoming independence and freedom within all situations / Master of Arts (Hons) (Psychology)

The aim of this thesis was to examine the impact of an identity delusion on autobiographical memory and develop a model of deluded autobiographical memory to guide future research in this area. Given the difficulty of studying identity delusions in isolation from other clinical disorders, this thesis presents six experiments that used hypnosis as a laboratory model of identity delusions. Chapter 1 reviews literature from three distinct areas, including delusions, autobiographical memory, and hypnosis. Chapter 1 reviews a model of the self and autobiographical memory proposed by Conway (2005) and outlines the value of using hypnosis instrumentally to model delusions of self. Chapter 2 presents two experiments that established hypnosis as a suitable paradigm for investigating identity delusions. These experiments examined the parameters of the hypnotic delusion and tested the impact of the delusion on self and autobiographical memory. Chapter 3 presents two experiments that continued to examine the characteristics of autobiographical memory during a hypnotic identity delusion. These experiments indexed the specificity, source, perspective, and qualitative features of autobiographical memories elicited during a suggested identity delusion. Chapter 4 presents two experiments that investigated memory processing during a hypnotic identity delusion. These experiments illustrated the shifting accessibility of autobiographical memories during a hypnotic identity delusion. Finally, Chapter 5 draws the empirical findings together to discuss the value of hypnosis as a technique for modelling identity delusions and the ways in which a hypnotic identity delusion influences autobiographical memory. Importantly, Chapter 5 proposes a model of deluded autobiographical memory that integrates Conway???s (2005) self-memory system with relevant aspects of Langdon and Coltheart???s (2000) two-factor theory of delusions. Using this proposed model as a framework, Chapter 5 discusses the clinical and theoretical implications of the findings from this thesis and suggests future research directions.

Thesis (MA(Counselling Psychology)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-110).