Juche ideology, created by founder Kim Il-Sung, governs all aspects of North Korean society. This thesis attempts to answer the questions of why and how Juche ideology and the cult of personality surrounding Kim Il-Sung were successfully implemented in North Korea. It is a historical analysis of the formation of the North Korean state that considers developments from the late 19th century to the late 20th century, with particular attention paid to the 1950s-1970s and to Kim’s own writings and speeches. The thesis argues that Juche was successfully implemented and institutionalized in North Korea due to several factors, including the rise of Korean nationalism, the personal history of Kim Il-Sung, the Korean War and resulting domestic strife, and the influence of the international socialist movement. It provides a historical explanation of Juche and its importance within North Korea, which in turn is necessary for understanding North Korea as a whole.

The purpose of this study is to locate spatial manifestations of power, and acts of agency, by conducting a subversive reading of the female immortal threats in Homer’s Odyssey. With an aim to question preconceived notions on sexuality, gender and power, I draw on the theoretical perspectives of gender theorists J. Butler and J. Halberstam in my reading of non-normative female displays of power. The material in question is the adventures in the Odyssey that present female immortals, functioning as antagonists in the epos’ narrative structure. Space and power make the foundation in the deconstruction of these adventures. I approach the subject using analytical tools from the spatial methodology of K. Knott. Starting with ‘location’ I apply analytical categories such as ‘physical space’, ‘social space’, ‘properties of space’ and ‘spatial aspects’ in order to critically analyze spatial manifestations of power in each adventure. By placing the female immortal in the subject position, this work shows how she utilizes her space in order to dominate the mortal man she encounters. This is conducted through non-normative acts such as isolation and restriction. The study highlights the problem of putting ‘sex’ as the only, or dominant, focus in the reading of these adventures. The female immortals that Odysseus encounters, can by spatial analysis be shown to act autonomously towards mortal intruders that enter their territory.  They present themselves as having the right to take a mortal man for a husband, as well as kill him or keep him as a prisoner. This suggests that their status as immortal exceeds Odysseus’ male gender, whilst still being restricted by the gender hierarchy of her immortal society. The spatial analysis show that the female immortal possesses the agency of the mortal female as well as of the mortal male within in their oikos. The female immortal displays power by sustaining her space, as well as by regulating the movements of the mortal man, in and out of, and sometimes beyond, her space.

Dissertation (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Since the late 1940s, South Africa and South Korea were ruled by authoritarian governments, which oppressed the people’s freedom and rights. The governments created the deeply divided societies that resulted in racism in South Africa and regionalism in South Korea. These similarities may have played a major role in allowing Nelson Mandela and Kim Dae-jung to develop strong emotional bonds with their followers and to articulate their visions for the future. The two leaders, Nelson Mandela and Kim Dae-jung, fought for freedom and human rights against the apartheid government in South Africa and military dictatorial government in South Korea. During these processes of democratisation, the two leaders displayed common transformational and social learning leadership styles and presented their visions of the end of the authoritarian regimes and the establishment of democracy; shared these visions with the people and encouraged and mobilised them in struggling together against authoritarian government. Subsequently, the two leaders’ transformational and social learning leadership styles provide a successful role model to countries in which there are conflicts between the constituents of the society, as in East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East; a desire for transformation towards democracy by the people, and where countries are confronted with new challenges. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Beide Suid-Afrika en Suid-Korea was sedert die laat 1940’s onder die bewind van outoritêre regerings met gepaardgaande onderdrukking van die mense se vryhede en regte. Dié regerings het diep-verdeelde gemeenskappe daar gestel wat in Suid-Afrika op rassisme en in Suid-Korea op regionalisme uitgeloop het. Hierdie ooreenkomste mag grootliks daartoe bygedra het dat beide Nelosn Mandela en Kim Dae-jung sterk emosionele verbintenisse met hul volgelinge kon ontwikkel en hul toekomsvisies kon artikuleer. Die twee leiers, Nelson Mandela en Kim Dae-jung, het onderskeidelik teen die apartheidsregering in Suid-Afrika en die militêre diktatuur in Suid-Korea geveg vir vryheid en menseregte. Gedurende hierdie demokratiseringsprosesse het die twee leiers gemeenskaplike transformasie en sosiale leer leierskapstyle openbaar, hulle visies oor die beëindiging van outoritêre regimes en die vestiging van demokrasie bekend gemaak en die mense aangemoedig tot en gemobiliseer vir strydvoering teen die outoritêre regerings. Gevolglik verskaf hierdie twee leiers se transformasie en sosiale leer leierskapstyle ‘n geslaagde rolmodel vir alle lande waar daar konflik binne gemeenskappe bestaan, soos in Oos-Asië, Suid-Sahara Afrika asook die Midde-Ooste; lande waar die mense smag na transformasie tot demokrasie en lande wat hulleself met nuwe uitdagings gekonfronteer vind.

From the mid 20th century into the 21st, artists and musicians manipulated, cracked and broke audio media technologies to produce novel, unique and indeterminate sounds and performances. Artists such as John Cage, Nam June Paik, Milian Kn��k, Christian Marclay, Yasunao Tone, Oval and Otomo Yoshihide pulled apart the technologies of music playback, both the playback devices � phonographs and CD players � and the recorded media � vinyl records and Compact Discs. Based in the sound expansion of the 20th century musical avant garde, this practice connects the interdisciplinary Fluxus movement with late 20th century sound art and experimental electronic music. Cracked and broken media techniques play a significant role in 20th century music and sound, and continue to be productive into the 21st. The primary contribution of this thesis is to provide a novel and detailed historical account of these practices. In addition it considers theoretical approaches to this work. After considering approaches through critiques of recording media, and concepts of noise, this thesis proposes novel theorisations focusing on materiality and the everyday. Ultimately it proposes that these practices can be read as precursors to contemporary new media, as music and sound art cracked open the fixed structures of �old media� technologies for their own creative purposes.

According to the dominant tradition in Christianity and many other religions, human beings are both knowers and actors: beings with conscious beliefs about the world who sometimes act intentionally guided by these beliefs. According to philosopher of mind Robert Cummins the “received view” among philosophers of mind is epiphenomenalism, according to which mental causation does not exist: neural events are the underlying causes of both behavior and belief which explains the correlation (not causation) between belief and behavior. Beliefs do not, in virtue of their semantic content, enter the causal chain leading to action, beliefs are always the endpoint of a causal chain. If that is true the theological anthropology of many religious traditions is false. JP Moreland draws attention to two different ways of doing metaphysics: serious metaphysics and shopping-list metaphysics. The difference is that the former involves not only the attempt to describe  the phenomena one encounter, it also involves the attempt of locating them, that is explaining how the phenomena is possible and came to be given the constraints of a certain worldview. For a physicalist these constraints include the atomic theory of matter and the theories of physical, chemical and biological evolution.   Mental properties are challenging phenomena to locate within a physicalist worldview, and some physicalists involved in “serious metaphysics” have therefore eliminated them from their worldview. Most however accept them, advocating “non-reductive physicalism” according to which mental properties supervene on physical processes. Even if one allow mental properties to supervene on physical processes, the problem of mental causation remains. If mental properties are irreducible to and therefore distinct from physical properties, as the non-reductive physicalists claim, they cannot exert causal powers if one accepts the causal closure of the physical domain – which one must, if one is a “serious physicalist” according to physicalist philosopher of mind Jaegwon Kim.   Alvin Plantinga, in his Evolutionary Argument against Naturalism, shows that if mental properties, such as the propositional content of beliefs, are causally inefficacious, then evolution has not been selecting cognitive faculties that are reliable, in the sense of being conducive to true beliefs. If the content of our beliefs does not affect our behavior, the content of our belief is irrelevant from an evolutionary standpoint, and so the content-producing part of our cognitive faculties are irrelevant from an evolutionary standpoint. The “reliability” – truth-conduciveness – of our cognitive faculties can therefore not be explained by evolution, and therefore not located within the physicalist worldview. The only way in which the reliability of our cognitive faculties can be located is if propositional content is relevant for behavior.   If we however eliminate or deny the reliability of our cognitive faculties, then we have abandoned any chance of making a rational case for our position, as that would presuppose the reliability that we are denying. But if propositional content is causally efficacious, then that either – if we are non-reductive physicalists and mental properties are taken to be irreducible to physical properties – implies that the causal closure of the physical domain is false or - if we are reductive physicalists and not eliminativists regarding mental properties - it shows that matter qua matter can govern itself by rational argumentation, in which we have a pan-/localpsychistic view of matter. Either way, we have essentially abandoned physicalism in the process of locating the reliability of our cognitive faculties within a physicalist worldview. We have also affirmed the theological anthropology of Christianity, in so far as the capacity for knowledge and rational action is concerned. Keywords: Philosophy of mind, mental causation, reductionism, physicalism, the evolutionary argument against naturalism, the myth of nonreductive materialism, Alvin Plantinga, Jaegwon Kim

Thesis (D.Min.-Ministry Focus Paper)--Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies, 2005. / This is a "Ministry Focus Paper" even though the approval sheet says "Dissertation." Author's name Rim, Hyŏng-sŏk on page 118. 880-02 Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-117).

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The aim of this paper is to analyze the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s personality and its influence on North Korea’s negotiating behavior regarding the nuclear issue. Through the theory of social identity shaping and personality disorder, this study has generated a hypothesis by the operationalization of the theoretical framework. By using these analytical methods the following conclusions have been drawn: Kim Jong-Il had experienced a sense of loss and damaged self-esteem in his childhood. He had tried to compensate for these feelings through the film industry (which served as an ideological tool) in order to regain his father’s affection, and he succeeded in becoming recognized for his political ability. However, he overcompensated for these feelings of low self-esteem by removing his potential political enemies. The experiences made him acquire an idiosyncratic character and personality disorder. This study has found that North Korea’s nuclear negotiations with the United States since 1993 have reflected Kim Jong-Il’s personality. The model of the study can be used as a basis for further academic studies in the practical exploration of the correlations between a country’s foreign policy and its leader’s personality.

This essay analyses the female hero in four urban fantasy novels, and evaluates several examples of the genre to find out whether or not the heroes can be found to be "sheroes" or traditionally male heroes. The study outlines the myth of the hero's journey and gives examples of the masculine as well as the feminine approach and how they apply to the four novels. The attributes of the hero are also reviewed and put into perspective within the studied material. It appears that while it is often argued that the urban fantasy genre has strong woman protagonists, the heroes therein are not "sheroes" since they behave like typically male heroes.

The thesis describes Korean Peninsula political development from 1998 to 2008, in the frame of historical context from 1948 when two independent states were oficially founded. Discussed decade was characterized by the policy of engagement or the sunshine policy of the Republic of Korea, respectively. This represented a concept of friendly relationship towards the DPRK, aiming at final unification. Detailed description of the political development year by year and its evaluation is the subject of this thesis.