Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, May, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this dissertation is to show that precisely in the indeterminacy of literature we can find the possibility of ethics and it will start with the examination of a work that clearly has a paradoxical nature. The work in question is Sreten Ugričić's Infinitive. The paradox of Infinitive consists in the fact that it is a monograph, but a monograph about a non-existent book. The examination of the paradox on which Infinitive is based will be associated with Maurice Blanchot's analysis of the (im)possibility of literature from his essays “Orpheus's Gaze” and “Encountering the Imaginary.” This dissertation will claim that two most important features of the (im)possibility of literature are: the passage from je to il and the temporal paradox of the time of time's absence. These two features are interconnected: a loss of personality (and the inability to subsume the work of art under terms of decision and intention) leads to a strange realm that is governed by the time of time's absence. This is the realm of imaginary or a place where, to paraphrase Blanchot, language becomes its own image. Through the analysis of specific literary works (Infinitive, Marbot: A Biography and The Lost Estate) this dissertation will try to describe the most important paradoxes of literature. In the final part of this dissertation, through a dialogue between Maurice Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas, two theses will be formulated: 1.) the passage from je to il will be associated with the impossibility of death. Close reading of Blanchot's reworking of Levinas's concepts will open a perspective according to which art is capable of offering the experience of fundamental alterity. 2.) the time of time's absence will be described as the temporality of artwork, but also as the temporality of the other.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Religion, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tennessee, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-233).

This essay argues that the Anglo-Saxon poet of Beowulf presents the reader with a series of paradoxes and attempts to find a balance within these paradoxes. At the forefront is the paradox of past and present, explored through the influence of the past on the characters in the poem as well as the poet. Additionally, the poem offers the paradox of light and dark, which ultimately suggests light and dark as symbols of Christianity and paganism. Finally, the land and the sea offer the third primary paradox, indicating the relationship that the characters and poet had with land and sea, while also reflecting the other paradoxes in the poem. The result is the desire to find balance within the paradoxes through the recognition of ongoing tension.

The content of this thesis is two-fold. The first part takes the form of an essay while the second part presents a theoretical project for an architectural installation. Using these two modes as different ways to address similar issues, the present work proposes to question the instrumentalisation of geometry in today's architectural practice. The work of Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson) and, more specifically, his masterpiece, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, will be approached and interpreted in order to observe the participation of geometry---of Euclidean geometry---in our understanding of the notions of space and time, and to reveal their paradoxical aspect. The aim is to explore how geometry, language and nonsense bear intimate connections to our perception of space and time. Once revealed, these connections will enable us to address the following question: can architecture be comprehended and experienced as an event?

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To be presented as the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Åbo Akademi University on Feb. 3, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [379]-396) and index.

To be presented as the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Åbo Akademi University on Feb. 3, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [379]-396) and index.