Any text which criticizes, undermines and/or transforms the encyclopaedic ideal of ordering and textualizing the world in a closed, linear fashion can be defined as a post-encyclopaedic text. This thesis explores both theoretical and artistic texts which inhabit the realm of post-encyclopaedism. In the past, critical speculation on encyclopaedism in literature has been concerned with the ways in which artistic texts attempt to live up to the encyclopaedic ideal. In some cases, this effort to establish an identity between the artistic text and the encyclopaedia has led to an ignorance of the disruptive or even deconstructive effects of so-called fictional encyclopaedias. Once we recognize the existence of such effects, we must begin to examine the techniques and possibilities of post-encyclopaedism. Hence we can see post-encyclopaedic qualities in the condensed meta-encyclopaedism of Jorge Luis Borges' "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", the disrupted quests for encyclopaedic revelation in Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, and the principle of textualized world as fugue in Louis Zukofsky's "A"-12. In addition, we can create a theoretical space for the post-encyclopaedic text by weaving together Mikhail Bakhtin'sideas on the novel as opposed to the epic, Michel Foucault's notion of restructuring the closed circle of the text through mirrored writing, Jurij Lotman's theory of internal and external recoding in texts, and Umberto Eco's concept of the open text. By combining an investigation of theoretical and artistic texts which lend themselves to post-encyclopaedism, we can create a generic distinction between texts which attempt to be encyclopaedic in themselves: and texts which disrupt and/or transform the encyclopaedic ideal / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This Master’s thesis focuses on calculation of power and temperature distribution in fuel assemblies of VVER-440 reactor at Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant. Theoretical section contains a brief description of VVER-440 technology, fuel and its development at Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, basics of heat generation in nuclear reactors as well as an overview and categorization of computer codes, used for core calculations. Of these codes, the MOBY-DICK computer code is then described in depth, including its input and output files. The MOBY-DICK code is later on used for pinwise calculating power distribution of selected fuel cycles of defined units at Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant, with vizualization of output values for characteristic fuel assemblies. Results of this computation are then used for analysis, whether uneven power distribution in the core and heat generation gradient within fuel assemblies have any influence on measuring channel output temperatures, which is the pivotal part of this thesis.

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This thesis explores Herman Melville’s relationship to sceptical philosophy. By reading Melville’s fictions of the 1840s and 1850s alongside the writings of Descartes, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant, I seek to show that they manifest by turns expression, rebuttal, and mitigated acceptance of philosophical doubt. Melville was an attentive reader of philosophical texts, and he refers specifically to concepts such as Berkeleyan immaterialism and the Kantian “noumenon”. But Melville does not simply dramatise pre-existing theories; rather, in works such as Mardi, Moby-Dick, and Pierre he enacts sceptical and anti-sceptical ideas through his literary strategies, demonstrating their relevance in particular regions of human experience. In so doing he makes a substantive contribution to a philosophical discourse that has often been criticised – by commentators including Samuel Johnson and Jonathan Swift – for its tendency to abstraction. Melville’s interest in scepticism might be read as part of a wider cultural response to a period of unprecedented social and political change in antebellum America, and with this in mind I compare and contrast his work with that of Dickinson, Douglass, Emerson, and Thoreau. But in many respects Melville’s distinctive and original treatment of scepticism sets him apart from his contemporaries, and in order to fully make sense of it one must range more widely through the canons of philosophy and literature. His exploration of the ethical consequences of doubt in The Piazza Tales, for example, can be seen to anticipate with remarkable precision the theories of twentieth-century thinkers such as Emmanuel Levinas and Stanley Cavell. I work chronologically though selected prose from the period 1849-1857, paying close attention to the textual effects and philosophical allusions in each work. In so doing I hope to offer fresh ways of looking at Melville’s handling of literary form and the wider shape of his career. I conclude with reflections on how Melville’s normative emphasis on the acknowledgement of epistemological limitation might inform the practice of literary criticism.

The Master's thesis focuses on loading patterns of nuclear reactors VVER. It describes the whole process of fuel cycle, since production to storage or reprocessing. The author puts emphasise on the middle part of fuel cycle in Czech nuclear power plants - Dukovany and Temelín and he also explains which fuels are used in both power plants now and which were used in history. The thesis also contains a basic overview of approaches to loading patterns optimisation in foreign countries. The final part of the thesis discusses practical calculation of loading patterns in the Block III of Nuclear power plant Dukovany, by using optimisation programme Athena and Moby-Dick macrocode.

Lo studio ha riflettuto su alcune costanti della letteratura comparata che accomunano tale disciplina all’esilio, quando chi lo vive è in grado di contrastare i molti traumi che esso può comportare.L’emigrazione intellettuale avvenuta nel corso degli anni Trenta e Quaranta è l’evento storico a cui lo studio ha fatto riferimento. Costringendo molti intellettuali ad abbandonare i propri posti di lavoro e le proprie case, questa emigrazione ha contribuito a una notevole mobilitazione culturale soprattutto dall’Europa verso gli Stati Uniti d’America, dove ha cominciato a svilupparsi una nuova comparatistica sovranazionale e reazionaria. L’espressione “disciplina dell’esule” suggerisce un provocatorio inquadramento del modo di vedere e affrontare il testo come il mondo: crisi, apertura verso il nuovo e inclusività sono solo alcune parole chiave che, contraddistinguendo tanto la letteratura comparata quanto l’esilio, permettono di chiarire senso e prospettive di entrambe. Si è anche affermato che un tale atteggiamento ha come presupposto due processi culturali che sono caratterizzati da una spiccata dinamicità e disponibilità al cambiamento: la denazionalizzazione della scienza e l’ibridazione del sapere. Senza di essi non avrebbe potuto formalizzarsi una comparatistica “disciplina dell’esule”, da questo punto di vista intesa come un’utopica reazione a un percorso storico tendente sempre più al nazionalismo e all’esclusione. Lo studio ha infine individuato molte di queste idee e di questi valori nell’opera “americana” di Paolo Milano, intellettuale italiano esule negli Stati Uniti che lì si costruì una carriera come professore di letteratura comparata.

赫爾曼．梅爾維爾(Herman Melville)的小說《白鯨記》(Moby-Dick, 1851)以其極富深度的思維吸引著讀者，並將捕鯨船上的生活百態萌發為哲學領域的思考。《白鯨記》富有多重意義的特徵使之不乏多面向的解讀，其中若以「海上旅行」作為分析的視角切入，《白鯨記》的成就將益加彰顯。《白鯨記》體現了旅行者如何因心態的不同影響其感知，在伊息默爾(Ishmael)所重述的故事中，以「遇見他者」(encounter the other)的論點觀之，能夠促進存在於伊息默爾與亞哈船長(Captain Ahab)之間相異處的瞭解。自兩者身為彼此殊異的旅行者的對比中，探討旅行者是否真實地「遇見他者」與經歷轉變的過程，本論文將伊息默爾視為能夠真實「遇見他者」的旅行者，亞哈則因其狹隘的復仇心態導致他無法獲得「遇見他者」的機會。 　　緊接著檢視不同旅行者的探討後，對於旅行者更深層的審視將以德勒茲(Gilles Deleuze)與葛塔力(Félix Guattari)的「游牧理論」(nomadology)進行推論，從游牧推衍的概念如：「戰爭機器」(war-machine)與「國家機器」(the State apparatus)，適以處理由伊息默爾、亞哈船長與莫比．迪克(Moby Dick)所構築的關係維度。以啟迪於游牧學的反抗思維進行分析，使得亞哈的捕鯨之旅不再僅是被動地受對莫比．迪克的仇恨牽引，更是蘊藏著亞哈本身具備的能動性。游牧理論能夠開展無法以偏執狂(monomaniac)化約亞哈的特質，讓對亞哈追逐莫比．迪克的解析更形豐富，亞哈不僅具備「國家機器」的控制作為，也擁有「戰爭機器」的抵抗能力。此外，本論文更援引德勒茲與葛塔力的「變成動物」(becoming-animal)理論藉以瞭解亞哈與莫比．迪克之間可能的（變成）關係，「變成」(becoming)理論的應用並非強調外在型體上的相似，而是闡述亞哈身處與莫比．迪克居中關係內所經歷的非形體轉變，亞哈透過「逃逸線」(lines of flight)的模式，使之身處「變成莫比迪克」(becoming-Moby Dick)的進程，藉以顯示其強烈欲望的能量流動。 　　總體上，本論文旨在將「游牧」與「變成」理論的特質帶入《白鯨記》的文本中，產生進一步的對話空間，能使讀者從僅視《白鯨記》為單純冒險式的捕鯨敘事中進入「游牧思想」體現的思辨過程。 / Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851) captivates readers with its exuberance and renders the experiences of shipboard life into a source of philosophy. Moby-Dick bears manifold characteristics worthy of exploration. Among the multiple entries into the literary research, Moby-Dick’s achievement becomes evident when being analyzed from the perspective of sea journey. Moby-Dick manifests how a traveler’s mind-set influences her/his perception along the way on the sea journey. In light of encounters with the other, Ishmael’s recounted narrative assists in the understanding of the distinction between him and Captain Ahab as different travelers. The contrast between Ishmael and Ahab concerns whether they really encounter the other and undergo transformation. This thesis considers Ishmael as a traveler who really encounters the other while Ahab keeps his one-track mind-set on his revenge, which halts the chance for his encounter with the other. Following the examination of different travelers, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s nomadology would be applied to further the reading of travelers. The triangular dimension among Ishmael, Ahab and Moby Dick is interpreted with the concepts derived from nomadology such as a war-machine and the State apparatus. Mainly focused on the power of resistance highlighted from nomadology, Ahab’s whale hunt deserves more attention to mobility rather than to the passiveness channeled by his revenge upon Moby Dick. More than what the monomaniac can show, the theory of nomadology would potentially enrich the analysis of Ahab’s pursuit of Moby Dick. Ahab plays both a role of the controlling force like the State apparatus and a role of the resisting power like the war-machine. Besides nomadology, Deleuze and Guattari also employ becoming-animal to suggest the possible inspirational resonance between Ahab and Moby Dick. Instead of an emphasis on the physical resemblance, “becoming” sheds light on the incorporeal transformation which Ahab undergoes within the in-between relationship with Moby Dick. Through his “lines of flight,” Ahab has been involved in becoming-Moby Dick to assert his energy flow out of the intense desire. Overall, this thesis aims at generating more dialogue by bringing nomadology and becoming in the context of Moby-Dick. This incorporation would allow readers to consider Moby-Dick as the manifestation of Deleuze and Guattari’s “nomad thought” rather than as a mere whale-hunting story of adventure.

America has adopted as its own the Eden myth, which has provided the mythology of the American dream. This New Garden of America, consequently, has been a masculine garden because of its dependence on the myth of the Fall. Implied in the American dream is the idea of a garden without Eve, or at least without Eve's sin, traditionally associated with sexuality. Our canonical literature has reflected these attitudes of devaluing feminine power or making it a negative force: The Scarlet Letter, Moby-Dick, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and The Sound and the Fury. To recreate the Garden myth, Americans have had to reimagine Eve as the idealized virgin, earth mother and life-giver, or as Adam's loyal helpmeet, the silent figurehead. But Eve resists her new roles: Hester Prynne embellishes her scarlet letter and does not leave Boston; the feminine forces in Moby-Dick defeat the monomaniacal masculinity of Ahab; Miss Watson, the Widow Douglas, and Aunt Sally's threat of civilization chase Huck off to the territory despite the beckoning of the feminine river; Daisy retreats unscathed into her "white palace" after Gatsby's death; and Caddy tours Europe on the arm of a Nazi officer long after Quentin's suicide, Benjy's betrayal, and Jason's condemnation. Each of these male writers--Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner--deals with the American dream differently; however, in each case the dream fails because Eve will not go away, refusing to be the Other, the scapegoat, or the muse to man's dreams. These works all deal in some way with the notion of the masculine American dream of perfection in the Garden at the expense of a fully realized feminine presence. This failure of the American dream accounts for the decidedly tragic tone of these culturally significant American novels.