This project builds a theory of the presence and practice of grace in intimate interpersonal communication utilizing the writings of C.S. Lewis and his intellectual mentors. Lewis, who wrote extensively on the theory and practice of love, offers a compelling approach to understanding human relationships from a Christian philosophical perspective. <br>The first chapter begins with major questions and themes in the interpersonal literature concerning human discourse, relation, and action. Lewis frames human relationships in a robustly theoretical and practical manner, characterizing the conditions of our discursive relational selves as difficult yet joyful. He argues that the work of intimate interpersonal relationship building is in need of the presence and practice of grace. <br>The second chapter expands upon Lewis's response to his historical moment. Lewis's Christian theism lends him a compelling scholarly and pragmatic standpoint amongst the other critics of modernity. He is writing and living within the cusp of historical change. Accordingly, the chapter discusses key texts in which Lewis articulates the problematic trends within modernity concerning presuppositions of human discourse and relation. Together, these texts speak to the presence and practice of grace in intimate interpersonal communication. <br>Chapters Three, Four, and Five outline the major metaphors which build a theory of grace in intimate relationships: sentiment, will, and responsiveness. Lewis's work suggests that we as scholars and practitioners should consider intimate interpersonal communication as a matter of sentiment understood philosophically, will understood phenomenologically, and responsiveness understood ontologically. These metaphors frame intimacy as heartfelt choice, loving labor, and responsiveness to form. Each of these metaphors build upon the other, and each chapter concludes with specific implications for interpersonal communication theory and practice. <br>Chapter Six discusses current discursive and practical trends concerning intimacy development. The project argues that adolescents and young adults meet challenging moments of relational development with incongruent beliefs and practices, often rendering them ill-prepared for intimacy. In a culmination of the major metaphors of this project, the concluding sections discuss approaches to teaching young adults about how to feel, will, and respond in intimate contexts in a manner which leads to good and gracious love. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Communication and Rhetorical Studies / PhD / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2005. / Supervisor: Imre Szeman. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-214). Also available via World Wide Web.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how love relationship affects the identity and attitude towards school of study motivated girls in 17-18 years of age with the subsidiary purpose to get anidea of how the gender order is maintained in the relationship. The study is based on theories of gender theory and identity theory, which concerns gender as aresult of actions and how the gender order is maintained. The identity theory is based as a choice toconvey different roles. The study is founded on qualitative research interviews with six different girls, where the focus wasto learn about their own experiences of how the love relationship affects them. The results were interpreted through a hermeneutic analysis.The results show that the love relationship affect informants' identity on self-perception, what roles they convey and the attitude towards school. It turned out that the informants' attitude towards school was dependent on their boyfriend´s attitude towards school. The results also show that girls are highly involved in the process of maintaining the gender order in which they choose to manage their time according to their boyfriend's time, and has the role of the engaging and emotional in the relationship.

The purpose of the study was to study various factors which might influence the level of satisfaction in close relationships. The theories which have been covered are: The triangular theory of love, The Investment model, Bowlby´s and Ainsworth attachment theories, The Equity theory, and the reward theory of attraction. The variables which were studied were: intimacy, rewards, commitment and equity. The level of perceived superiority was also studied, as well as satisfaction level in comparison to duration in the current relationship. A multiple regression was employed to find out which one of the variables above would associate strongest with satisfaction. A questionnaire was used to collect the data and a reliability test was therefore carried out. 72 participants took part in the study, 44 females and 28 males. The result showed that commitment had the strongest association with satisfaction, followed by intimacy. The result also showed that there was a negative significant correlation between superiority and level of satisfaction. More over the result did not show any correlation between duration in the current relationship and satisfaction. Two regressions were also performed to see which one of the variables (intimacy, reward, commitment and equity) would associate strongest with satisfaction in two conditions. The results showed that commitment had the strongest association for the condition with the participants who had been in their relationship 1-6 years. Commitment also had the strongest association in the other condition followed by intimacy. In this condition the participants had been in their relationship for seven years or more. The main discussion points have been the current results in comparison to other’s research in the area as well as suggestions for future research.

These poems are lyrical narratives dealing primarily with the joys and sufferings of familial relationships in present and past generations, and how one is influenced and haunted by these interactions. There is a particular emphasis placed on the relationship between parent and child. Other poems deal with passion, both in the tangible and spiritual realms. The poems aim to use vivid figurative language to explore complex and sometimes distressing situations and emotions.

Emma Nordin: Emilie Du Châtelets analys av lycka: Upplösning av polemiken mellan illusion och förnuft. Uppsala universitet: inst. för idé- och lärdomshistoria, C-uppsats, höstterminen, 2012.   The 18th century is a time period known for its battle with superstition, illusion and falseness. With the Torch of Reason the philosophers of the time were set on vanquishing everything untrue and lead mankind into what they themselves called the Enlightenment. Happiness had moved from Heaven to Earth in science, truth and pleasure. But is it that simple? This essay will analyze and discuss the French philosopher Emilie Du Châtelet’s concept “illusion”, something she did not encourage people to vanquish, but to nourish and cherish. Her ideas of illusion did not only contradict the ideas of many of her contemporaries and predecessors, but the associations the word has today as well. Unlike many others she did not consider illusion as falseness that eliminated reason, on the contrary, only with the two combined could one be truly happy. Du Châtelet argued for the apparent oxymoron: conscious illusion. She showed how this worked in happy occasions such as love, hopes of glory and something as simple as a visit to the theatre. She did not construct these definitions and reasoning in a vacuum, but in constant debate with predecessors such as Spinoza and Hobbes and her contemporaries such as La Mettrie and Rousseau. This essay will show that the relationship between reason and illusion during the Enlightenment was more complicated than one might think and that Du Châtelet argues for a fully functioning and necessary combination of illusion, happiness and reason. Illusion was not necessarily something the philosophers of the Enlightenment saw as something oppose to, or even threatening to, their flickering Torch.

This thesis is a qualitative interview study with the purpose of describing how women living with physical disabilities view their experiences and expectations connected to sexuality. It also aims to highlight how the surrounding society treats these women regarding their sexuality. Through semi-structured interviews; six single- and one group interview, the data was collected during a two month long Minor Field Study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. An interpreter, with a degree in Kiswahili/English translation at the University of Dar es Salaam was translating the interviews from Kiswahili to English. The results of this study show that the women living with physical disabilities view themselves as capable and strong sexual beings even if they at the same time face many challenges. The challenges they face are both on an individual and a structural level. These challenges are often connected to the men they have long or short relationships with and are closely linked to both how the men and the society view physical disability and the female sex. This thesis shows that when it comes to sexuality the women all hope for a radical change towards a society that can meet their needs better and the women’s stories clearly highlight the importance of seeing the society itself as the disabling mechanism instead of seeing themselves as disabled individuals.

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This essay is an analysis of Emily Brontë’s novel “Wuthering Heights” and revolves mainly around the love between the two main characters, Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how they express this love, either through words or through actions. Paradoxes concerning their love and paradoxes concerning the narration of the novel are of interest as well. The analysis employs Genette’s theories and terminology in the narrative analysis. The essay first discusses the effect of the narrative levels and paradoxes that can be found concerning these narratives and then investigates some events in “Wuthering Heights” that are linked to the two main characters’ love for one another. The events are analyzed in chronological order and discuss the paradoxes found in those events. The essay concludes by giving a short summary of the way Catherine and Heathcliff expresses their love for one another and the paradoxes found concerning this love. The narration is of importance since its complex structure allows for the entire novel to be read as one paradox. Disregarding the narration, the paradoxes found are many. The paradoxical love of Catherine and Heathcliff concern their love for one another in the sense that Catherine chooses to marry Edgar instead of Heathcliff and that she claims that Heathcliff killed her. They concern the way the act upon their love for one another in the sense that Catherine was double natured. The most prominent paradox, however, is the one concerning Catherine’s statement that she is Heathcliff. It is the most prominent because it is referred to throughout the novel in different ways.

Studien redogör för kommunikationsverktygen ICA använder i den externa kommunikationen av ICA I love eco-sortimentet. De studerade kommunikationskanalerna är reklamfilmer samt kundtidningen Buffé. Tidningar och reklamfilmer som innehöll information om ICA I love eco-sortimentet under perioden mars 2008 - oktober 2011 valdes ut för textanalys. I textanalysen utgick vi ifrån semiotiska och retoriska begrepp för att se meningen som texterna skapar. Resultat visar att ICA använder samhällsengagemang som ett kommunikationsverktyg och strategi. Resultat visar även att ICA använder fem olika dimensioner av nytta, positiv och negativ emotionell nytta, värde för pengarna, sociala livet samt funktionaliteten, i marknadsföringen av det ekologiska sortimentet.