Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry, 2010. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-235)

In organisation studies there has been an increasing interest in ‘identity work' – that is, the processes through which people's identities become constructed. The role that others play, along with the self, in identity work has, with varying degrees of emphasis, been a recurrent theme both in the contemporary literature and in its classical antecedents. Extant research leaves scope for further investigation of how others are present within identity working processes and this thesis is primarily concerned with the elaboration and understanding of the centrality of others to the working of identities. An interest in this area stemmed from my professional occupation and its context in a performing arts organisation. My observation of the constructions of the identities of my colleagues and myself was forming prior to my engagement in a formal research role. I adopted an interpretivist perspective, an ethnographic and autoethnographic method and an abductive analytical approach. The data collection was achieved through: field note collection; autoethnographic reflection; semi structured and interactive interviewing; and a reflexive diary. The thesis seeks to augment the identity work literature by applying and elaborating previously under-used theories, in particular, reflexive imagination in Cooley's ‘Looking Glass Self' (1902/1983) and ‘social ghosts' (Gergen, 2001). These ideas are synthesised to produce an understanding of the significance of others to identity working and the processes through which they impact on identity construction. A detailed explication of the qualities of social ghosts and the ways in which actors use them in interaction (identity work moves) leads to more profound understandings of how people work identities in relation to others. This reveals that identity emerges in an interactive process that is other-multiple, tentative and reactive, and which is underpinned by imagining the self in relation to others.

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This thesis examines the role of readerly engagement in the allegorical poetry of Edmund Spenser and William Blake. An analysis of their poetry reveals important affinities between the two poets. Not only was Blake aware of Spenser’s work, he can be seen to incorporate and build upon Spenser’s self-conscious poetic style in order to engage readers in the active process of interpretation. Meaning in their poetry can be shown to unfold gradually by way of complex interactions between the reader and the text, interactions fostered by the reader’s imagination and the (differently) visual quality of the two poets’ works. Blake promotes this way of seeing as being “four-fold,” the ability to perceive on several dimensions. The first chapter of this thesis looks at the definitions and attitudes towards allegory from the early sixteenth century onwards, showing how the mode has been constantly redefined. Chapter two investigates the self-conscious nature of allegory through an analysis of the placement of words, metaphors, unconventional language, and the way the poems may be read by readers. Both poets encourage a heightened awareness of the process of reading which may be termed allegorical. Blake owned his own printing press allowing him greater control over the words and design of his text. This enabled him to be more forceful in his communication of images and ideas than Spenser. Chapter three focuses upon the multiple (and contradictory) ways in which the text may be interpreted by the reader. Allegory is a means of communicating and simultaneously disguising criticism. Both poets can be seen to use it to voice resistance to forms of authority, even as they encourage readers to recognise these meanings within their texts. Spenser and Blake had to combat different forms of censorship with differing strategies. Whereas Spenser felt compelled to uphold the status quo, Blake sought to deconstruct rigid social conventions. Chapter four explores the relation between allegory and the imagination. Spenser uses allegory to inspire the imagination, whereas for Blake the imagination encourages allegory. The imagination is a means of pushing readers towards further learning and a deeper appreciation of allegorical meaning. Chapter five analyses Spenser and Blake’s verbal and imagistic visuality in relation to allegory. Blake’s illustrations promote further reader engagement, while Spenser’s illuminations are a part of his metaphorical and allegorical text. Both poets use the visual to trigger imaginative readerly interaction and to promote new ways of perceiving and relating to their poems.

Thesis advisor: Richard Lennan / This dissertation in Christian eschatology affirms the cosmic implications of the notion of the parousia, and proposes the latter as a suitable symbol for a renewed eschatological narrative of God’s transforming encounter with the whole of creation. Over the last several decades, eschatological reflection has ceased to refer simply to future events, and has become an interpretative key for the entire theological enterprise. The cornerstone of any contemporary eschatological reflection is God as end and goal of the whole of creation. In addition, two other elements arise in the work of most contemporary theologians, namely the anthropological interpretation of eschatology, and an apparent sobriety in the use of images for depicting the future of creation. This dissertation will explore the complementary counterpoints of these perspectives. On the one hand, this work argues for an all-embracing eschatology that broadens those theologies that either restrict God’s eschatological fulfillment only to what will happen to human beings and earth, or give to human beings a role that, seen in a broader, cosmic perspective, seems to be disproportionate. On the other hand, this dissertation maintains the necessary renewal of an eschatological narrative from a Christological, cosmic perspective in a context where the loss of figurative language for eschatology negatively affects our ability to conceive the future of the whole of creation and to be really inspired by it in the present time. The main thesis of this dissertation is that the theological notion of the parousia grounds all eschatological statements in Jesus Christ, broadens the interpretation of God’s fulfillment to a fully transformed creation, offers an illustrative image of this cosmic process, and can empower believers to recognize and embrace their eschatological role within the framework of God’s action upon all things. This seems especially urgent in the contemporary theological context, where an all-embracing narrative about future fulfillment is either challenged or has almost disappeared. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Strawberry Hill, the Gothic villa and associated landscape, seat of Horace Walpole (1717-97), is without doubt mandatory in any assessment of eighteenth-century British architecture, yet the reasons for its creation have never been adequately explained or fully understood. This thesis asserts, for the first time, that Walpole’s ideas which informed Strawberry Hill are inspired by theories that stimulate ‘The Pleasures of the Imagination’ as articulated in essays by Joseph Addison (1672-1719) published in the Spectator (1712). The thesis argues that Walpole’s reasons for choosing Gothic have been misunderstood and that he valued this ‘true’ style of British architecture for its associative and imaginative connotations and as a means of expressing historical interpretation through material objects. It affirms that Strawberry Hill expressed the idea that it was based on monastic foundations using architectural quotations from Gothic tombs, representing visual links to historical figures and events. The thesis, moreover, develops an argument as to how Walpole’s theories expressed in Anecdotes of Painting (1762-71) and The History of the Modern Taste in Gardening (1780) became manifest at Strawberry Hill. Avoiding the straightforward architectural description of previous texts, the thesis demonstrates Strawberry Hill to be a sequence of theatrical spaces playing with scale, colour and atmosphere, specifically designed to create surprise and wonder in order to stimulate the imagination. A series of sensory effects and moods, based on contemporary landscape theory, create a background to Walpole’s collection of cultural and historical artefacts – each ‘singular,’ ‘unique,’ or ‘rare’ - artfully displayed to produce their own narrative. Unlike previous studies, the villa and landscape are evaluated as an entity, a structured essay in associative, imaginative thought. Finally, the dissertation reconstructs Strawberry Hill as it existed in Horace Walpole’s time, leading the reader on an integrative virtual tour of buildings, gardens, emblematic models and associative inspirations.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

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By telling and retelling their life stories in everyday social interaction, adult learners describe times of continuity and change in their lives, and give an account of their self-formation. A disjuncture between the learners' life stories and events experienced either in their social context or in their inner life invites their reflection on its significance. Transformative learning occurs when reflection on such experience leads to interpretations which change the learners' meaning perspectives and their social practice. These changes are incorporated into a new version of the life story. Adult education approaches to perspective transformation have generally emphasised the interpretive role of critical reflection and thinking. Autobiography, as a metaphor for transformative learning, proposes that transformative learning also has the quality of a narrative constructed with imagination. Through ongoing interpretation of events in their inner and outer experience, learners compose their lives and their life stories. The social context is a dynamic setting for autobiographical learning. Its structures and institutions concretise the learners' social and cultural tradition, which has been shaped by design and historical circumstance. Through the prejudgments of their tradition, learners perceive reality and construct corresponding lives and life stories. Theoretical approaches to interpreting life experience differ in their estimation of the value of the learners' tradition. In adult education theory and practice, Habermas' critical theory has been enlisted as a conceptual basis for perspective transformation. Little attention has been afforded to either Gadamer's hermeneutic consciousness, or Ricoeur's critical hermeneutics as ways to understand the interpretive activity which leads to the learners' self-formation and the re-invention of their life story. Six former Roman Catholic priests participated in a cooperative inquiry, telling their life stories of remarkable change in life choice. They sought deeper self-knowledge, as well as an understanding of the widespread social phenomenon of Catholic priests choosing to marry. Their autobiographical accounts indicate that, as they gradually composed new life narratives, these learners gained personal authority as the authors of their lives. The stories also indicate that, at one time or other, a state of stagnation developed in the authors' lives. Despite the learners' lengthy periods of consciously attempting to resolve the stalemate, it was an act of spontaneous imagination which illuminated a way through. The explanatory understanding of autobiographical or transformative learning proposed here claims that imagination, which bridges the domains of conscious and unconscious knowing in the author, is a partner with critical reflection in interpreting the life in its social context. Through transformative or hermeneutic conversation, adult educators may foster and promote the formation of autobiography and transformative learning. Further research, linking autobiography and transformative learning, would purposefully explore the role of other internal processes in transformative learning, such as feeling, and examine their relationship with imagination. It is likely that the acknowledgment of imagination as integral to transformative learning would lead to research which considers models of personhood other than those which emphasise ego as the conscious director of knowing and learning.

This thesis is about the teaching imagination. By this term I refer to three things. First, the teaching imagination is how teachers define and practice imagination in their classrooms. Second, it is the imagination that teachers themselves use as they teach. And thirdly, it is the imagination I am taught to identify and enact for doing social science research. / The thesis is based upon participant-observation research conducted in grade four (and some composite grade three/four) classrooms in primary schools in Melbourne, a city in the Australian state of Victoria. The research took me to five schools of different types: independent (or fee-paying); government (or state); Steiner (or Waldorf); special (for low IQ students); and Catholic. These five classrooms provide a range, not a sample: they suggest some ways of doing imagination. I do not claim a necessary link between school type and practices of imagination. In addition I conducted semi-structured interviews with each classroom’s teacher and asked that children do two tasks (to draw and to write about ‘a time you used your imagination’). / From this research I write a thesis in two sections. In the first I work to re-imagine certain concepts central to studies of education and imagination. These include curriculum, classrooms, and ways of theorizing and defining imagination. In this section I develop a key theoretical idea: that the most recent Victorian curriculum is, and social science should be, governed by what I call a logic of realization. Key to this idea is that knowers must always be understood as participants in, not only observers of, the world. / In the second section I write accounts of five case studies, each learning from a different classroom teacher about one way to understand and practice imagination. We meet imagination as creative transformation; imagination as thinking into other perspectives; imagination as representation; imagination as the ability to relate oneself to the people and materials one is surrounded by; and imagination as making connections and separations in thought. In each of these chapters I work to re-enact that imagination in my own writing. Using the concept of the ‘relational teacher’, one who flexibly responds to changing student needs and interests, I suggest that some of these imaginations are more suitable to a logic of realization than others.