While studying narratives in the context of its own religious tradition may uncover that religious tradition's doctrines and priorities, this study assumes that a comparative model contributes to a clearer understanding of the uniqueness of each religion's ideas. By comparing religions rather than studying them in isolation, we may understand each with greater clarity. / The narratives compared and contrasted in this study are the birth narratives of Moses and the Buddha. These two figures may be identified as the respective heroes of the Jewish and Buddhist religions. This comparative study highlights and examines the similarities and differences presented in their birth narratives and seeks to determine the significance these narratives have from within the context of their respective doctrinal traditions. Although studying one tradition alone produces important results, it is only by comparing and contrasting religious traditions, and in this case the birth narratives of different religious traditions, that the uniqueness and qualities of each come into full view. / This study begins with an examination of Moses' birth narrative, first as it has been understood by modern scholarship, and then as it has been presented in the classical literature of early Judaism. In the second part, the Buddha's birth narrative is explored, first from the perspective of modern, Western scholarship, and then as it appears in the Pali and Sanskrit literature of early Buddhism. The third part of this study is committed to a comparative analysis of the two birth narratives.

Thesis (M. A. in Religion)--Vanderbilt University, May 2010. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Inaug.-Diss.--Munich. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur": p. 93-94.

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the importance of Go Down, Moses in the working out of Faulkner's moral vision. By and large, critics have considered this book to be a central or pivotal work in this process, seeing Ike McCaslin's renunciation as a meaningful response to the curses of slavery and miscegenation which have beset the South for so many generations. Furthermore, some of them point out that Ike's initiation into the primitive simplicity of the wilderness world of Sam Fathers represents a solution for modern man in his own troubled world: somehow to effect a reversion to a simpler world with its concomitant virtues of innocence, humility, and self-sufficiency. On the whole, these critics have concentrated mainly on "The Bear" section of Go Down, Moses, and to a lesser extent on "Delta Autumn" and "The Old People," the three stories in which Ike directly appears. Consequently, their conclusions about Faulkner's moral vision stem almost entirely from their interpretation of Ike's responses to his two legacies, the wilderness world and the plantation world, with relatively little attention being paid to the responses of the other inheritors of the McCaslin curse. Thus, Go Down, Moses as a thematically unified work has been largely neglected, and the experiences of Ike McCaslin have been emphasized at the expense of those of the other inhabitants of the plantation world. This thesis will pursue the argument that the above interpretation is misleading on several counts, and hence that it is necessary to see the centrality of Go Down, Moses in a different perspective. First of all, by examining the nature of the plantation world, we will see that what Ike really repudiated was not just a legal inheritance, but a very real world in which the constituents of a full and meaningful life were everywhere evident. Secondly, it becomes evident in the analysis of Ike’s renunciation that his decision meant in effect that he was abdicating his responsibility for developing sound moral and ethical relationships within the world he was born into, and that his obsession with the values of the wilderness world represented living in terms of ritual rather than of reality. In the third place, the responses of the other inhabitants of the plantation world reflect a far more meaningful grasp of both the past and the present than does Ike, and in the perspective of these people, he suffers a significantly reduced stature. It becomes clear, then, that Faulkner uses Ike's responses to illustrate the futility of the static idealist rather than the sacrifice of a dedicated and determined reformer. And finally, the evidence in such later novels as Intruder in the Dust, A Fable, and The Reivers, as well as in Faulkner's own public utterances in the Nobel Prize Speech, at the University of Virginia, and at Nagano, indicates clearly how far man must progress beyond the idealism of the Ike McCaslins of the world in order to make an effective contribution to the moral and ethical status of his society. This thesis does not dispute the fact that "The Bear" is the key work in Go Down, Moses, nor that Ike is a central figure, but it does maintain that their significance can be, determined only by a close examination of the work as a whole. Such an examination will clearly reveal Faulkner's larger concern: that man must respond to his world as he finds it, whether that world is the wilderness, the plantation, or the modern world, and that the decisions he makes must be based on the realities of the world he has inherited. Within this perspective, it is evident that the responses of the Edmondses, the Beauchamps, and the miscellaneous inhabitants of the McCaslin plantation world must be carefully analyzed, for only against the tangible exigencies of the day-to-day lives of these people can the actions of Ike be properly assessed. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, os estudos sobre a economia antiga foram transformados pela crítica sistemática do emprego de noções econômicas formais a sociedades que não formularam elas mesmas um conceito de economia. Os debates acadêmicos que então se travaram, nos termos dos próprios debatedores, tiveram em Moses Finley (1912-1986) um protagonista. A partir de uma análise das concepções de história econômica esposadas por Finley, dos mecanismos de validação de tais concepções e da trajetória desse historiador, esta tese procura iluminar algumas das condições sociais e epistemológicas que tornaram possível a reconfiguração das percepções acadêmicas modernas sobre a vida econômica antiga e estabelecer o papel por ele desempenhado nesse processo. / This thesis examines the role played by Moses I. Finley (1912-1986) in the academic controversies about ancient Greek and Roman economic history in the second half of the twentieth century. During the 1960s and 1970s, the studies on the ancient economy were transformed by systematic criticism of the use of formal economic notions in the analysis of societies which had not themselves forged a concept of economy. Among those who got involved in these debates, it is believed that Finley was its protagonist. Based on an analysis of the views on economic history held by Finley, of the mechanisms of validation of these views and of his trajectory, I try to elucidate some aspects of the social and epistemological conditions that made the reconfiguration of modern academic perception of ancient economic life possible.

Nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, os estudos sobre a economia antiga foram transformados pela crítica sistemática do emprego de noções econômicas formais a sociedades que não formularam elas mesmas um conceito de economia. Os debates acadêmicos que então se travaram, nos termos dos próprios debatedores, tiveram em Moses Finley (1912-1986) um protagonista. A partir de uma análise das concepções de história econômica esposadas por Finley, dos mecanismos de validação de tais concepções e da trajetória desse historiador, esta tese procura iluminar algumas das condições sociais e epistemológicas que tornaram possível a reconfiguração das percepções acadêmicas modernas sobre a vida econômica antiga e estabelecer o papel por ele desempenhado nesse processo. / This thesis examines the role played by Moses I. Finley (1912-1986) in the academic controversies about ancient Greek and Roman economic history in the second half of the twentieth century. During the 1960s and 1970s, the studies on the ancient economy were transformed by systematic criticism of the use of formal economic notions in the analysis of societies which had not themselves forged a concept of economy. Among those who got involved in these debates, it is believed that Finley was its protagonist. Based on an analysis of the views on economic history held by Finley, of the mechanisms of validation of these views and of his trajectory, I try to elucidate some aspects of the social and epistemological conditions that made the reconfiguration of modern academic perception of ancient economic life possible.

Zugl.: Heidelberg, Hochsch. für Jüdische Studien, Diss.

Note:

Arnold Schoenberg's development of twelve-tone serial ism in the early 20th Century had profound and far-reaching impact on the musical world. As Schoenberg himself grew and matured as a composer, so did the compositional technique of, and indeed his proficiency with, serialism. The opera Moses und Aron was composed in Schoenberg's third compositional period that lasted from 1923 through Schoenberg's death in 1951 and was characterized almost exclusively by this new technique of twelvetone serialism. Moses und Aron's first two Acts (as well as the libretto for the third) were written from 1930 to 1932 and based entirely on a single tone row. Though the opera itself was composed in the early 1930s, it had its beginnings as a religious play, similar to Schoenberg's earlier work, Oer Biblische Weg. Schoenberg left the opera as it was in 1932 and failed to return to score the libretto in Act III. Despite remaining unfinished, Moses und Aron is still widely regarded as one of Schoenberg's finest works and displays a composer working at the height of his skill. This project brings to light the brilliance of the tone row Schoenberg chose as his foundation for Moses und Aron through examining the various tone row transformations used throughout the opera as well as their specific setting and orchestration within the context of each scene. More than simply a musical background for the dramatic events of the Exodus narrative, the tone row becomes a character in-and-of itself, transforming and shifting to mirror dramatic events and becoming a driving force throughout the opera. In addition to informing dramatic content and context, the way in which Schoenberg scores the tone row also helps to illuminate the large scale musical form of each scene and is even essential to the dramatic tension and characterization within the narrative. In addition, this project endeavors to show that Moses und Aron displays Schoenberg's mastery of the compositional technique of twelve-tone serialism by examining in detail the significance of the functional orchestration as well as the divisions, or partitions, of Schoenberg's twelve-tone row. Inseparably connected with a discussion of the functional orchestration and partitioning of Schoenberg's tone row is a discussion of the different kinds of counterpoint that often occur as a result of such partitioning within the choral and instrumental orchestration of Moses und Aron. These concepts of functional orchestration, partitioning, and multiple forms of counterpoint are defined and unpacked in the upcoming chapters. As counterpoint functions as such an important aspect of the partitioning of the tone row, a brief discussion of counterpoint in serialism, specifically in Moses und Aron, accompanies the discussion of functional orchestration and the row partitioning. This understanding of the function of counterpoint in twelve-tone serial atonality is essential to this study. Much has been written, specifically by Michael Cherlin, about the formal and dramatic organization of Moses und Aron and how Schoenberg's permutations of his tone row both influence and are influenced by the formal and dramatic context. Cherlin has also given significant attention to defining links between tone row partitions and dramatic events or characters within Moses und Aron. An important part of my research, therefore, includes examining the analytical findings of Cherlin as well as those from other scholarly sources. This project also challenges or supports these findings based on my own analysis and discusses what I believe to be a new facet of the organization of Moses und Aron not previously revealed in other studies. In Chapter 5 of this project, I bring to light two specific partitions of the row that occur within the choral counterpoint of the opera and have not been mentioned in any study of Moses und Aron that I have discovered in my research.