This thesis explores the works of Oscar Wilde as they articulate and model an aesthetic of play. I show that Wilde distinguishes between true and false forms--or what I call models and anti-models--of play in a number of areas: art, criticism, and society, language, thought, and culture, self and other. My introduction establishes a context for the cultural value of play in the nineteenth century. I survey the ideas of Friedrich Schiller, who treats play in the aesthetic realm; Matthew Arnold, who discusses Criticism as a free play of the mind; Herbert Spencer, who explores play in the context of evolution; and Johan Huizinga, who analyses play in its social context. In my three chapters on Wilde's critical essays, I draw upon their ideas to describe Wilde's philosophy of play and examine how the form of Wilde's critical essays illuminates his aesthetic. My first chapter explores models and anti-models of play in Art, as they are described by Vivian in "The Decay of Lying." By exploring the role of "lying" in its aesthetic rather ethical context, Vivian demonstrates the value of the play-spirit for the development of culture. My second chapter discusses models and anti-models of play in Criticism as they are described by Gilbert in "The Critic as Artist." By refashioning the traditions of nineteenth-century criticism, Gilbert presents his own model of criticism as an aesthetic activity and demonstrates the role of the play-spirit in the development of the individual and the race. My third chapter relates models and anti-models of play in art, criticism, and social life to the modes of self-realization described by Wilde in "The Soul of Man Under Socialism." I take up Wilde's well-known paradox, that Socialism is a means of realizing Individualism, by showing how Wilde plays with these terms in an aesthetic rather than a political context. In the remaining chapters I read Wilde's fictional and dramatic texts in light of his aesthetics and treat the characters as models and anti-models of the play-spirit. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, I take the measure of play, not morality, as a guide for interpretation. In this reading Lord Henry Wotton is the novel's critic as artist, while Dorian Gray, with his literal-mindedness, his imitative instinct, and his ruthless narcissism, fails to achieve the aesthetic disinterestedness that characterizes true play. My sixth chapter traces themes related to play—game, ceremony, and performance—in Wilde's Society Comedies to demonstrate how these plays both reflect and critique the spectacle of Society and the conventions of nineteenth-century melodrama. My thesis concludes with The Importance of Being Earnest as it presents a culmination of Wilde's play-spirit and his playful linguistic strategies. I show how both the form and content of Earnest model the paradoxical ideal of play itself—that through play we may realize the experience of being at one with ourselves and on good terms with the world. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Making extensive use of oral interviews with the surviving children, this thesis is an biography of Oscar and Emma Swett and their children, who lived on a homestead in Greendale, Utah, (near Flaming Gorge Reservoir) from 1909 to 1970. The family is representative of a group of families who moved to Greendale and engaged in small-scale cattle ranching. The introduction of new technology changed their lifestyles and homestead economics, while simultaneously Greendale evolved from a rural agricultural environment to become part of a National Recreation Area.

Delivery of palliative care to patients in a patient’s home, where they live with their family or in a retirement or nursing home, is an improved, shared-care team approach of providing quality healthcare services at the end of a patient’s life to reduce pain and stress. The palliative care shared-care teams in the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant (HNHB also called LHIN4) manage patient health care through documents and trackers created and retained by providers within the circle of care, using several different systems and communication tools. These systems are not currently integrated and are unable to connect in a way that enables the preview, transfer, and receipt of data between these systems to support the needs of palliative care users. The primary objective of this thesis is to provide a proposal to improve the user experience of palliative care users through enhancement and integration of some of the systems currently in use. These include OSCAR EMR (Open Source Clinical Application Resource Electronic Medical Record) Hospice – InfoAnywhere, CHRIS (Client Health Related Information System) and Clinical Connect. Integration of these systems will address other limitations the shared-care teams are facing, such as communication, system or organizational policies and privacy and information security concerns that stem from the sharing of patient information across the systems, to support a shared-care team’s ability to provide patient care. During this study, an extensive requirements gathering and analysis was carried out: in-person interviews and teleconference meetings, brain storming sessions on the current systems and review of the secondary data with key stakeholders in the palliative care community. The local hospice sites were visited and extensive input was received from hands-on palliative shared-care teams and hospices across the HNHB LHIN, to ensure that the project team implemented their expressed needs into the integrated solution. The used case and prototyping approach of gathering the requirements is then used on the initial requirements gathered by sending out an initial draft to the users and stakeholders for their review, changes and additional requirements, hence fostering communication between the business and the development teams each time the brain storming session is held to review the refined requirements, resulting in the development of a high-quality Business Requirement Document (BRD). The project manager, lead developer, software architect, and users/testers were all utilized throughout the entire delivery process to ensure they were all in sync with the documented requirements. This lays the foundation for programmers to implement a quality end product with a technical solution that will enhance and integrate the systems to improve the user’s experience at the point of care. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

This work explores Junot Díaz’s incorporation of nerd culture into his novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and that move's larger impact on the genre of trauma narratives. By using allusions to nerd texts such as The Lord of the Rings to structure his depiction of the brutal reign of Dominican dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, Díaz effectively rewrites Dominican history, creating a retroactive continuity of fantasy. Retroactive continuity, or retcon, is a little-discussed interpretive strategy of the nerd community with striking parallels to Lacanian notions of fantasy. A reading of Díaz's retcon ultimately casts doubt on the silent victim's traditional role as the foundation of trauma narratives, suggesting instead that the ideological root of these stories is actually the hypothetical denier of trauma.

No description available.

Critics and audiences alike have neglected the idea of Wilde as a precursor to Beckett. But I contend that a closer look at each writer's aesthetic and philosophic tendencies-for instance, their interest in the fluid nature of self, their understanding of identity as a performance, and their belief in language as both a way in and a way out of stagnancy -will connect them in surprising and highly significant ways. This thesis will focus on the ways in which Wilde prefigures Beckett as a dramatist. Indeed, many of the themes that Beckett, free from the constraints of a censor and from the societal restrictions of Victorian England, unabashedly details in his drama are to be found residing obscurely in Wilde. Understanding Beckett's major dramatic themes and motifs therefore yields new strategies for reading Wilde.

Este estudo coloca em pauta o diálogo entre duas diferentes áreas do conhecimento que caminham paralelamente sobre campos limítrofes, permeáveis e por vezes entrelaçados: arquitetura e engenharia. Reflete sobre a relação entre estética e técnica ao longo do tempo e apresenta a contribuição mútua entre ambas as disciplinas para um fazer construtivo mais interessante e eficiente. Elege Oscar Niemeyer como representante de um fazer projetual fundamentalmente propositivo e que, por isso, quebra fronteiras e busca inovações que tensionem o binômio plástica e partido - sempre por meio do concreto como seu material de construção predileto. Traça um breve panorama - inclusive historiográfico - sobre a carreira desse arquiteto carioca entre as décadas de 1930 e 1960. Investiga também as influências que recebe e que reverberam na concepção de suas arquiteturas, alçando os mestres Lucio Costa (no Brasil) e Le Corbusier (na Europa) ao patamar de suas primeiras referências arquitetônicas de peso. Destaca os reflexos daí surgidos e presentes em sua obra, especialmente a partir do projeto do Ministério da Educação e Saúde (MES), no Rio de Janeiro, até a construção da nova Capital Federal - obedecendo, portanto, o recorte temporal escolhido para este estudo. Discute o desdobramento do ato projetual de Niemeyer pautado por momentos de profundas reflexões críticas pessoais e profissionais, a partir das quais novos posicionamentos arquitetônicos são definidos e paulatinamente exercitados no Brasil e no exterior. Analisa uma parte de seu repertório formal, na qual os projetos selecionados demandam a utilização de técnicas racionais e de tecnologias avançadas (ou não usuais) para que possam ser erigidos. Traz à tona episódios em que a engenharia é afastada de suas usuais zonas de conforto, o que faz dela uma área do conhecimento que não cansa de se reinventar, ao adaptar e readaptar conceitos e normas até então entendidos por ela mesma como estáveis e/ou imutáveis, fomentando um processo teórico-científico em contínua construção e que visa, em última instância, exaltar o fator plástico como imperativo mais importante. Questiona a existência de autonomia da forma diante da técnica e, consequentemente, dos arquitetos em relação aos engenheiros. Ressalta, por fim, a importância de um envolvimento profundo entre a estética da arquitetura e a estática da engenharia para que ambas caminhem em harmonia no mesmo compasso evolutivo. / This study brings forward the dialogue between two different areas of knowledge that walk in parallel on limitrophe, permeable and sometimes entangled fields: architecture and engineering. It reflects on the relationship between aesthetics and technique over time and presents the mutual contribution between both disciplines for a more interesting and efficient constructive act. It elects Oscar Niemeyer as an agent of a fundamentally propositional design who, therefore, breaks boundaries and seeks innovations that enforce the binomial plastic and design approach - always using concrete as his favorite building material. It presents a brief overview - including historiographic issues - about this Brazilian architect\'s career from the 1930s to 1960s. It investigates also the influences that he receives and that reverberate in the design of his architectures, taking the masters Lucio Costa (in Brazil) and Le Corbusier (in Europe) to the level of his early relevant architectural references. It highlights the arising consequences that appear in his works, especially from the Ministry of Education and Health project, in Rio de Janeiro, to the construction of the new Federal Capital - obeying, therefore, the study\'s time frame. It discusses the consecution of Niemeyer\'s design act, marked by moments of deep personal and professional critical reflections, from which new architectural attitudes are defined and gradually exercised in Brazil and abroad. It analyses part of his formal repertoire, in which selected projects require the use of rational techniques and advanced (or unusual) technologies so that they can be constructed. It brings out episodes in which engineering is far outside its usual comfort zones, making it an area of knowledge that does not become tired of reinventing itself, while adapting and readapting concepts, stated hitherto as stable and/or immutable, fostering a theoretical and scientific process in continuous construction and searching to exalt plastic factor as the most important imperative. It questions the existence of autonomy of shape in relation to technique and, consequently, of architects in relation to engineers. It demonstrates, finally, the importance of deep engagement between architectural aesthetics and engineering statics for both to walk in harmony and on the same evolutive compass.

Este estudo coloca em pauta o diálogo entre duas diferentes áreas do conhecimento que caminham paralelamente sobre campos limítrofes, permeáveis e por vezes entrelaçados: arquitetura e engenharia. Reflete sobre a relação entre estética e técnica ao longo do tempo e apresenta a contribuição mútua entre ambas as disciplinas para um fazer construtivo mais interessante e eficiente. Elege Oscar Niemeyer como representante de um fazer projetual fundamentalmente propositivo e que, por isso, quebra fronteiras e busca inovações que tensionem o binômio plástica e partido - sempre por meio do concreto como seu material de construção predileto. Traça um breve panorama - inclusive historiográfico - sobre a carreira desse arquiteto carioca entre as décadas de 1930 e 1960. Investiga também as influências que recebe e que reverberam na concepção de suas arquiteturas, alçando os mestres Lucio Costa (no Brasil) e Le Corbusier (na Europa) ao patamar de suas primeiras referências arquitetônicas de peso. Destaca os reflexos daí surgidos e presentes em sua obra, especialmente a partir do projeto do Ministério da Educação e Saúde (MES), no Rio de Janeiro, até a construção da nova Capital Federal - obedecendo, portanto, o recorte temporal escolhido para este estudo. Discute o desdobramento do ato projetual de Niemeyer pautado por momentos de profundas reflexões críticas pessoais e profissionais, a partir das quais novos posicionamentos arquitetônicos são definidos e paulatinamente exercitados no Brasil e no exterior. Analisa uma parte de seu repertório formal, na qual os projetos selecionados demandam a utilização de técnicas racionais e de tecnologias avançadas (ou não usuais) para que possam ser erigidos. Traz à tona episódios em que a engenharia é afastada de suas usuais zonas de conforto, o que faz dela uma área do conhecimento que não cansa de se reinventar, ao adaptar e readaptar conceitos e normas até então entendidos por ela mesma como estáveis e/ou imutáveis, fomentando um processo teórico-científico em contínua construção e que visa, em última instância, exaltar o fator plástico como imperativo mais importante. Questiona a existência de autonomia da forma diante da técnica e, consequentemente, dos arquitetos em relação aos engenheiros. Ressalta, por fim, a importância de um envolvimento profundo entre a estética da arquitetura e a estática da engenharia para que ambas caminhem em harmonia no mesmo compasso evolutivo. / This study brings forward the dialogue between two different areas of knowledge that walk in parallel on limitrophe, permeable and sometimes entangled fields: architecture and engineering. It reflects on the relationship between aesthetics and technique over time and presents the mutual contribution between both disciplines for a more interesting and efficient constructive act. It elects Oscar Niemeyer as an agent of a fundamentally propositional design who, therefore, breaks boundaries and seeks innovations that enforce the binomial plastic and design approach - always using concrete as his favorite building material. It presents a brief overview - including historiographic issues - about this Brazilian architect\'s career from the 1930s to 1960s. It investigates also the influences that he receives and that reverberate in the design of his architectures, taking the masters Lucio Costa (in Brazil) and Le Corbusier (in Europe) to the level of his early relevant architectural references. It highlights the arising consequences that appear in his works, especially from the Ministry of Education and Health project, in Rio de Janeiro, to the construction of the new Federal Capital - obeying, therefore, the study\'s time frame. It discusses the consecution of Niemeyer\'s design act, marked by moments of deep personal and professional critical reflections, from which new architectural attitudes are defined and gradually exercised in Brazil and abroad. It analyses part of his formal repertoire, in which selected projects require the use of rational techniques and advanced (or unusual) technologies so that they can be constructed. It brings out episodes in which engineering is far outside its usual comfort zones, making it an area of knowledge that does not become tired of reinventing itself, while adapting and readapting concepts, stated hitherto as stable and/or immutable, fostering a theoretical and scientific process in continuous construction and searching to exalt plastic factor as the most important imperative. It questions the existence of autonomy of shape in relation to technique and, consequently, of architects in relation to engineers. It demonstrates, finally, the importance of deep engagement between architectural aesthetics and engineering statics for both to walk in harmony and on the same evolutive compass.

Die Dissertation untersucht die Architektur von Oscar Niemeyer in Brasilia als plakative Inszenierung der brasilianischen Moderne im Fortschrittsdiskurs von Präsident Kubitschek. Die Rezeption hat bisher in dieser Architektur das Scheitern einer idealisierten Moderne zu sehen, die durch ein oberflächliches Barock und ihre Betonung des Spektakulären nach kurzer Zeit museumsreif wurde: Brasília als eine gescheiterte Utopie, die -aus dem offiziell erzählten Mythos von Fortschritt und Zukunft -den wirtschaftlichen Erfolg und den Triumph der Avantgarde symbolisieren sollte. Eine tiefere Betrachtung der mediatischen Narrativen mit ihrer Mythologie der Hauptstadt-Neugründung und der starken Symbolik ihrer Architektur zeigt inwiefern die Notwendigkeit von politischer Selbstbehauptung und künstlerischer Anerkennung die Regierung dazu bewegte, eine poetische, monumental futuristische Moderne zu konstruieren und wirksam zu inszenieren. Brasília scheint sich auf ein ästhetisch gewolltes, architektonisch denotativ explizierendes Modell zu reduzieren. Diese im klassischen internationalen Stil verankerte Formensprache, die Oscar Niemeyer „architektonisches Schauspiel“ nennt, wird hier in Frage gestellt und tiefer untersucht: Gegenüber der kritischen Ansätze vieler Studien wird in dieser Forschung versucht, dagegen zu debattieren, inwiefern das Wesentliche, das Entscheidende von Niemeyers free-form-Strategie nicht unbedingt in den stilistisch-urbanen Qualitäten oder qualitativen Mängeln liegt, auch nicht in dem Anspruch, eine dauerhafte, solide Moderne erfolgreich triumphierend darzustellen, sondern gerade im Artifiziellen-Künstlichen, im leicht zu verstehenden Zeichensystem einer angestrebten, notwendigen Moderne. Aus einer utopischen „Hauptstadt der Hoffnung“ ausgehend, gelingt es eine solche denotativ-plakative Architektur durch Einhüllung von konventionellen Strukturen monumentaler Geometrie, den Betrachter-Zuschauer ästhetisch und emotional zu überwältigen. / For the critical reception of the last years Brasília would be basically a failed utopia, which - from the officially narrated myth of progress and the future - was essentially intended to symbolize the economic success and triumph of the avant-garde. A deeper examination in the light of the mediatic narratives with their mythology of the founding of the new capital and the concrete representation of their architecture shows to what extent the necessity of political self-assertion and artistic recognition led the government to construct a poetic, monumentally futuristic modernity. Basically, however, Brasília seems to be reduced to an aesthetically intended, architecturally denotatively explicative model. This superficial formal language, committed to modernity and yet anchored in the classical international style, had to be questioned and examined in the analysis of individual buildings of Niemeyer's architectural spectacle. In contrast to the critical approaches of many studies on Brasília, our research attempted to debate the extent to which the essential, the decisive aspect of Niemeyer's architecture in Brasília does not necessarily lie in the stylistic-urban qualities or qualitative deficiencies, nor in the successful or unsuccessful claim to successfully present a lasting, solid Modernism triumphantly, but rather precisely in the artificial-artistic, in the "easily understandable" sign of the Modern. From Lúcio Costa's rhetorically and utopically constructed design of a capital of hope, Oscar Niemeyer succeeded in aesthetically and emotionally overwhelming the viewer viewer for a fleeting moment by means of a denotatively placative wrapping of conventional structures - or monumental geometry.

Victorian society had strict written and unwritten laws about what was permissible in terms of personal relationships. Anglican patriarchal church values governed behaviour between the classes and enforced codes of conduct on gender related boundaries of private individuals. Society subscribed to the traditional family of man, woman and children in the context of marriage. Homosexuality amongst men was punishable by prison. Government and religion preached Christian morality, yet the number of prostitutes had never been greater. This dissertation explores the problems of a pro-homosexual and anti-establishment Victorian author writing about human relationships forbidden by society. It exposes the consequences suffered by Oscar Wilde due to his investigative insights into the `Other' in the context of individual rights of preference in regard to sexual orientation, as expressed in selected texts, and his resolution of conflict, in De Profundis. / English Studies / MA (English)