No description available.

No description available.

The metaphor of politics-as-performance is commonly found in the political vernacular, from political ‘actors’ on the world ‘stage’ to the phenomenon of actors-turned-politicians. This interdisciplinary thesis comprises an extended exploration of the metaphor of politics-as-performance to generate a thick description of how political actors are represented in the visible public sphere. Performance theory has a strong heritage in other disciplines within social science, notably sociology (Goffman) and social anthropology (Turner), but has had more limited application in political science. Taking this limitation as a starting point, the thesis will argue that the metaphor of politics-as-performance is more than a banal turn of phrase. It can be a powerful analytical and theoretical tool in exploring the role, form and content of political information in a deliberative democracy. The thesis sets up and draws upon four UK-based case studies: the 2007 Blair-Brown premiership handover; the Scottish National Party’s 2007 election campaign; the Faslane 365 nuclear blockade in 2006-2007; and the London ‘7/7’ terrorist attack in 2005. These cases generate a thick description of the metaphor by combining ethnographic participant-observation and document analysis with the analytical tools and concepts of performance analysis such as staging, scripting and body work analysis. The analysis of the empirical research highlights the complexity of the practice of political representation in an increasingly mediatised public sphere, as well as providing an experiential account of lived deliberation. In the case of the Blair-Brown handover, the thesis shows how the scripted characterisation and iterative rituals of national identity reinforce each political actor’s representative authority. This is contrasted with the more playful, ludic performance of the Scottish National Party’s election campaign based on the ‘presence’ of key actors. The thesis also shows how unconventional political actors used more visceral and embodied performance techniques to gain visibility in the public sphere. The Faslane protestors, as well as incorporating devices such as humour and music into their performance, focus on transformations of their performing bodies and use themselves as representations of resistance. This theme of representing resistance is developed in the London terror attack case where the performance enforces violent transformations not only of the political actors’ bodies and symbolically-resonant spaces but of the audience as well. The empirical cases thus provide a richly textured account of the techniques that both conventional and unconventional political actors use to insert themselves into the public sphere. In conclusion, the thesis offers a descriptive construction of the metaphor of politics-as-performance. This demonstrates its applicability to the political sphere and highlights the performative aspects of deliberation.

Thesis (D.Th.)--University of South Africa, 2001.

Children achieve increasingly complex language milestones initially in gesture before they do so in speech. In this study, we ask whether gesture continues to be part of the language-learning process as children develop more abstract language skills, namely metaphors. More specifically, we focus on spatial metaphors for time and ask whether developmental changes in children’s production of such metaphors in speech also become evident in gesture and what cognitive and linguistic factors contribute to these changes. To answer these questions, we analyzed the speech and gestures produced by three groups of children (ages 3-4, 5-6, and 7-8)—all learning English as first language—as they talked about past and future events, along with adult native speakers of English. Here we asked how early we see change in the orientation (sagittal vs. lateral), directionality (left-to-right, right-to-left, backward, or forward) and congruency with speech (lateral gestures with Time-RP language and sagittal gestures with Ego-RP language). Further, we asked how comprehension of metaphors for time and literacy level would influence these changes. We found developmental changes in the orientation, directionality, and congruency of children’s gestures about time. We found that children’s gestures about time change in orientation (sagittal vs. lateral), in that children increase their use of lateral gestures with age and that this increase is influenced by their literacy level. Further, the directionality (left-to-right, right-to-left, forward, backward) of children’s gestures changes with age. For sagittal gestures we found that children that understood metaphor for time were more likely to produce sagittal gestures that placed the past behind and the future ahead. For lateral gestures, we found that children with higher levels of literacy were more likely to use lateral gestures that place the past to the left and the future to the right. Finally the congruency of children’s gesture with their speech changed. The older children were more likely to pair lateral gestures with Time-RP language than Ego-RP language.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1986 W54 / Master of Science / Educational Leadership

D.Litt. et Phil.

Family life plays an integral part in our society. In the South African context we live in a society where there seems to be a break down in society. This is prevalent in our schools where we see so many children come from single parent homes. The father figure is absent. It is only when we encounter a personal relationship with Christ that we discover how the family unit is stabilized. In the light of this, the whole research is based on the metaphor of the family in the Fourth Gospel, and how it is employed at micro-, meso- or macro-level in the gospel. JG van der Watt's book, Family of the king. Dynamics of metaphor in the Gospel according to John (2000) forms the basis of this research. He points out that the metaphor of the family is the most essential imagery in the gospel. The footwashing pericope in John 13:1-20 fits into the family metaphor as Jesus calls those closest to him, namely his disciples in a warm friendly environment to inform them of his impending hour and what impact it will have on them. Chapter 1 centers around the research premise. Elements featuring in this chapter are: the introduction, problem statement, aim of research, methodology and further development of the study. The significance of why Jesus washed the feet of the disciples and the setting he uses in drawing his disciples aside. Furthermore, in the light of the metaphor of the family he draws their attention to the hour at hand. Various interpretations are then employed on micro-, meso- and macro-level from a narratological point of view. In Chapter 2 the function of the family in Jewish and Graeco-Roman cultures are discussed. Aspects such as the patron-client relationship and how this filters through to the family are taken in consideration. Family responsibility and how each member of the family has a role to play in ensuring the cohesion of the family life. The hierarchy of this function and this responsibility stems from the father right down to the slaves. This is important in the footwashing pericope, because Jesus breaks with conventional norms to take the place of a slave in washing the feet of the disciples. Purposes for footwashing are discussed and why it is significant in John 13. Chapter 3 contains the discussion of the meaning and function of the metaphors in general and specific in the Gospel of John. In this chapter the following are considered: theoretical considerations of a metaphor, definitions and nature of a metaphor, types of metaphors and how they function as well as the imagery of the family metaphor. John emphasizes in this gospel the divinity of Jesus and his relationship with God. He used household entities centered around a meal to portray, not only Jesus' relationship on a personal level with his disciples, but also on a divine level or spiritual level in their identification with Christ, in him washing the feet of the disciples. Furthermore, the chapter focuses on the aspects of family members' responsibility in the household as well as the care and love the members show towards each other. Chapter 4 is the focal point of the research and contains a detailed exegesis of John 13:1-20 to explain the function of the family on macro- and meso-level. The metaphor that links with the metaphor of the family, such as the metaphor of water and the significance of water in the Fourth Gospel as well as the metaphor of bread, life and the hour, are also discussed. In the final chapter of my research the focus is on the implications the text has for our society. In the footwashing pericope, the example Jesus sets in washing his disciples feet, is one of service. By identifying with Jesus Christ on a personal level we are called upon to be in his service and to serve one another. More importantly is our acceptance of Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. We are also called upon to exercise the love of God in our hearts to those around us. / Dr. S.J. Nortjie-Meyer

Thesis advisor: Richard Kearney / This dissertation presents a systematic reading of the four discourses Kierkegaard wrote on Matthew 6:24-34, which I am calling the Lily Discourses (“What We Learn from the Lily in the Field and the Bird of the Air” (1847); “The Cares of the Pagans” (1848); “The Lily in the Field and the Bird of the Air” (1849); “Christ as Archi-Image” (1851)). Matthew instructs the reader to “consider the lilies,” and in reading this passage Kierkegaard presents the lilies as authoritative, rather than merely “figural” or “metaphoric”. The aim of this dissertation is to describe what Kierkegaard means by the authority of the lily and the bird. Since Kierkegaard engages with and in “figural” language in his pseudonymous as well as his signed texts, what he says about the lily and the bird in these four Discourses is significant for all of Kierkegaard’s work. In the first and the third Discourses Kierkegaard writes lyrically of the beauty of nature, but concludes with a brutal picture of nature’s death and decay. It is not nature, this dissertation argues, but the trace nature leaves in language, that Kierkegaard is investigating. Kierkegaard ends the first Discourse by invoking the positing power of language: he says, “Let the lily wither”. As if in response to the death at the end of the first Discourse, the second is written in praise “on the day all goes black.” If the first two Discourses describe the authority of the lily and the bird in terms of the performative – of positing and praise – the third Discourse describes this authority in terms of receptivity. The lily and the bird are obedient, Kierkegaard says there. He develops an account of obedience that is, on the one hand, required for reading the lily and the bird (for granting authority), and on the other, is the lesson taught by the lily and the bird. In the fourth Discourse Kierkegaard presents the archi-image (Forbillede, previously translated in English as “pattern” or “prototype”) and what corresponds to it: “imitation.” Only when we imitate, rather than ape mimetically or endlessly interpret, can the image (Billede) that we are responding to be the archi-image (Forbillede). The lily and the bird, the dissertation argues, have the authority of the archi-image only if we can read them in a certain way, that is, if our reading is non-mimetic imitation. For Kierkegaard imitation is an act, made by an individual person at a concrete time and place in history; it therefore commits the reader, in her full responsibility (including “social” or “political”) in the risk of reading. The dissertation has four chapters, each devoted to one of Kierkegaard’s Lily Discourses. Accordingly, Chapter One describes Kierkegaard’s account of the authority of the lily and the bird as positing, Chapter Two as praise, Chapter Three as obedience and Chapter Four as imitation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of English