John Brown Gordon was committed to the mission of national reconciliation. He knew that the South would have to embrace the North to repair the devastation of the Civil War. Driven by dedication to public service after the war, he worked through his positions in governmental offices to help the South. As his public life slowed he began work on a lecture aimed at making him a peacemaker, a missionary for reconciliation. His purpose was to provide a broad, nationalistic perspective which created a common vantage point that would allow both Northerners and Southerners to derive pride and honor from their participation in the Civil War. The lecture, "The Last Days of the Confederacy," became very popular in a short period of time, and made Gordon one of the most requested speakers of the Southern Lyceum Program and Slayton Lyceum Program. The purpose of this critical interpretation of Gordon's lecture is to account for the effectiveness of the rhetorical elements and strategies in the work. The analysis will be based on Walter Fisher's narrative paradigm. Narratives dominate the content and structure of speech; narratives provide a way of ordering and presenting a view of the world through descriptions of a situation - -the act of storytellingthe format Gordon chose in creating the lecture. After drawing conclusions from application of the narrative paradigm I will focus on identifying and evaluating Gordon's rhetorical vision, which is based in Ernest Bormann's fantasy-theme theory. Finally, due to the synecdochal nature of the narratives I will use Kenneth Burke's four master tropes literature to fully interpret the various aspects of the narrative, which complements the initial mission of narrative criticism. In "The Last Days of the Confederacy," Gordon masterfully uses anecdotes from his experiences in the Civil War to create narrative sequences, which construct a strategy of transformative discourse. A typical sequence would start with an ingratiary tactic in which Gordon, in his eloquent manner, would describe a Northern character, scene, or theme and juxtapose it to another story from the South. The purpose of this sequence is to generate irony, creating a dialectic between the two stories, which, at the surface, seem to be opposed. His third step, then, was to use that dialectic to point to the commonalities between the North and the South. This he would do by illustrating an American trait, skill, or value. The result would be a major theme demonstrating a national value or belief to add strength to his existing compendium of themes, such as unity, fraternity, and brotherhood - -all tools to salve the process of reconciliation of conflict with face-saving for both. / Graduation date: 1994

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to compile the major eschatological prophecies and teachings found in the scriptures and in the discourses and writings of Latter-day Saint General Authorities; to include sufficient explanatory material to interrelate and clarify the events which are expected to transpire; and to establish, in so far as is possible, the order of these eschatological events.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:23:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5081.pdf: 5248422 bytes, checksum: dcbec39bdc1f1a1766bcfd2c71f4c065 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-29 / This research is an analysis of Gus Van Sant s Last Days (2005) soundtrack. From the concept of mis-en-bande, that emphasizes the interactions between the different sounds of the film narrative, we propose to consider the details of the Last Days s sound organization and its crucial contribution to the proposed narrative discourse. / Esta pesquisa consiste em uma análise da banda sonora do filme Last Days (2005), de Gus Van Sant. A partir do conceito de mis-en-bande, noção que valoriza as interações entre os diversos sons que compõem a narrativa cinematográfica, propomos pensar as nuances da organização sonora do filme e sua decisiva contribuição para os discursos narrativos propostos.

This thesis gauges the contemporary landscape of political theatre at a time in which everything, and consequently nothing, is political. That is, almost all theatres today proclaim a politics, and yet there is widespread resignation regarding the inevitability of capitalism. This thesis proposes a theory of political action via the theatre: radical theatre today must employ a strategy of "moving targets". Theatrical actions must be adaptable and mobile to seek out the moving targets of capital and track down target audiences as they move through public space. In addition, political theatre must become a moving target to avoid amalgamation into the capitalist system of exchange. I approached this topic through four case studies. Two of the case studies, Reverend Billy's Church of Stop Shopping and the Critical Art Ensemble, are based in the United States. I studied their work via materials - books, essays, videos, websites, interviews, and more - but not in person. The other two case studies are lifted from my own experience with the Christchurch Free Theatre: an original production of Christmas Shopping and a devised production of Karl Kraus' play The Last Days of Mankind. These latter two case studies served as laboratory experiments through which I was able to test ideas and problematics of political theatre that arose through my research. These case studies led to the determination that creating aesthetic experiences and actions - as opposed to having explicitly political content - can be a strategy or foundation for a radical political theatre that resists, undermines, and at times transcends the seeming inevitability of consumer capitalism. In an age in which any political intervention is seen as senseless disruption, a form of pointless violence, this theatre has adopted the strategies of terrorist actions to have a disruptive effect without positing a specific alternative social structure.

English: In this thesis I examine the concept of satirical silence as the compositional principle of Karl Kraus’s drama Die letzten Tage der Menschheit to demonstrate the ways in which the features of modern satire introduce the recipient to the construction of its critique. In Kraus’s drama, silence manifests itself twofold: as a reaction to the First World War and as the only remaining form of satire in the context of public war-euphoria and the widespread use of the press and war-coverage as propaganda tools. From the interruption of Kraus’s periodical Die Fackel at the beginning of the war to the satirical treatment of the homefront in his drama, Kraus’s silence represents a performance of imposed powerlessness. By approaching Kraus’s drama with Walter Benjamin’s concept of storytelling, I analyze satirical silence as an appropriate aesthetic response to the prevailing social conditions and thus to the changing character of the public sphere in modern society. Benjamin’s concept of storytelling and his description of incommunicability as a characteristic of post-war society are at the center of my analysis of modern satire as a reception-based literary practice. Given that satire is a social conversation practice between satirist and recipient, I argue that Kraus’s use of drama as a medium for reprocessing the First World War is built upon the ability of the dramatic form to show how silence emerges as the result of a break between the conversation partners of satire. German: In dieser Arbeit beschreibe ich das Konzept des satirischen Schweigens als Gestaltungsform von Karl Kraus’ Drama Die letzten Tage der Menschheit, um hierin die Züge der modernen Satire in der Hinwendung zum Rezipienten zur Formulierung der satirischen Kritik zu erweisen. Das Schweigen manifestiert sich in Kraus’ Drama sowohl als Reaktion gegenüber dem Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges, wie auch als die einzig verbleibende Gestaltungsform der Satire angesichts des Verlusts ihres Publikums an den Kriegsenthusiasmus und die propagandistisch gestimmte mediale Berichterstattung. Von der Unterbrechung der Publikation seiner Zeitschrift Die Fackel zu Beginn des Krieges hin zur Dokumentation der Heimatfront in seinem Drama bekundet das Schweigen des Satirikers eine Ausdruckskraft in der erzwungenen Ausdruckslosigkeit. Mit Walter Benjamins Konzept des Erzählens analysiere ich das satirische Schweigen als angemessene ästhetische Reaktion auf die gesellschaftlichen Gegebenheiten und somit veränderten Umstände der öffentlichen Rezeption in der modernen Gesellschaft. Benjamins Konzept des Erzählens sowie seine Beschreibung der Unmitteilbarkeit der Nachkriegsgesellschaft bilden die theoretische Fundierung meiner Analyse der modernen Satire als rezeptionsästhetische Kategorie. Ausgehend von dem Verständnis der Satire als ein soziales Gespräch zwischen Satiriker und Rezipient, sehe ich Kraus’ Zuwendung zum Drama als Medium der Aufarbeitung des Ersten Weltkrieges in dem dramatischen Vermögen begründet, das Schweigen als Bruch der Gesprächsteilnehmer, als Bruch der Beziehung von Satire und Öffentlichkeit zu dialogisieren. / Graduate / 2020-09-25

Not available / text

Throughout the seventeenth century, numerous Scots became convinced that the major political and religious upheavals of their age signified the fulfillment of, or further unfolding of, the vivid prophecies described in the Book of Revelation which foretell of the final consummation of all things. To date, however, an in-depth analysis of the evolution of Scottish apocalyptic belief during the seventeenth century has never been undertaken. This thesis utilizes a wide variety of source material to demonstrate the existence of a cohesive, persistent, and largely conservative tradition of apocalyptic thought in Scotland that spanned the years 1588 to 1688. Chapter One examines several influential commentaries on the Book of Revelation published by notable Scots during the decades either side of the Union of Crowns. These works reveal many of the principal characteristics that formed the basis of the Scottish apocalyptic tradition. The most important of these traits which became a consistent feature of the tradition was the rejection of millenarianism. In recent years, historians have exaggerated the influence of millenarian ideals in Scotland during the Covenanting movement which began in 1638. Chapter Two argues that Scottish Covenanters consistently denounced millenarianism as a dangerous, subversive doctrine that could lead to the religious radicalism espoused by sixteenth-century German Anabaptists. Chapter Three looks at political and religious factors which led to the general decline of apocalyptic expectancy in Scotland during the Interregnum. It also demonstrates how, despite this decline, Scottish apocalyptic thinkers continued to uphold the primary traits of the apocalyptic tradition which surfaced over the first half of the century. Lastly, Chapter Four explains how state-enforced religious persecution of Scottish Presbyterians during the Restoration period led to the radicalisation of the tradition and inspired the violent actions of Covenanter extremists who believed they had been chosen by God to act as instruments of his divine vengeance in the latter-days.