This study examined the concept of "wisdom" from the perspective of "sophiology"--a current in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Russian religious philosophy--particularly as it was used in the writings of Vladimir Solovyov, Pavel Florensky, and Sergius Bulgakov. The purpose of the study was to examine how the sophiological perspective as developed in these authors could inform an understanding of "wisdom" in the field of adult learning. The nature of "wisdom" has been one of the major themes in both Eastern and Western traditions of philosophical and theological thought for thousands of years. In the mid-nineteenth century, however, the epistemological tendency to approach the world exclusively from the standpoint of observation and experiment reduced "wisdom" to nothing more than technical knowledge verified by experience. The concept/construct of wisdom, however, has been experiencing resurgence in the social sciences, including the field of adult learning. My research did not, however, find an instance in which the sophiological perspective had informed the field's understanding of wisdom. For this reason, the perspective of sophiology and its potential contribution to adult learning offered a unique research opportunity. In this study, I sought to add another dimension to the already multi-faceted nature of wisdom in the field of adult learning. I also hoped to enhance the value of sophiological thought by demonstrating its application to a field with which it had not been previously associated. I sought to accomplish these objectives using the method of hermeneutics, an interpretive mode of inquiry with both reproductive and productive aspects. The reproductive aspect established the historical and philosophical context of the three thinkers and discussed how their sophiological texts aided an understanding of their thought as a whole, and vice versa. The productive aspect explored applications of sophiological thought to the field of adult learning. Since I was the "research instrument" for the study, I also introduced the reader to aspects of my own background and experience that prepared me for this interpretive inquiry. / Ph. D.

Winsor McCay drew delightful drawings about the dreams of a Welsh rarebit fiend, 'rare bits' inspired by an overindulgence in cheese. Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend was a Saturday cartoon that appeared in the New York Evening Telegram from 1904 to 1911, psychic twin to Little Nemo in Slumberland that appeared concurrently in the Sunday Funnies of the New York Herald from 1905-1911. 'Slumberland' was a Neo-classical fantasy that closely resembled the idealized White City of the Chicago World's Fair (1893), that inspired the architecture of Coney Island's Dreamland (1905-1911), which beckoned to McCay as he drew from his house just across Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. The capricious side of this Architecture emerged in McCay's cartoons. A self-taught illustrator, McCay began his career in Detroit working in dime museums, worlds of wonder—filled with monsters—dioramas and sideshow performers whose livelihood depended on their ability to amaze an audience. Just this sort of rare and gifted fellow, McCay parlayed his entertaining lampoonery of Slumberland into some of the world's first animations on vaudeville. As with the Rarebit Fiend, Little Nemo's dreams were brought on by overindulgence, in his case of too many donuts or Huckleberry Pie. But, this was merely a pretense for McCay's fantastical 'dream' mode of thinking, a potentially useful body of knowledge that was simultaneously explored by Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson and Marcel Proust, who linked the mechanisms employed by the unconscious in dreaming to those at play in wit. Architectural drawing—seen through McCay's cartoons and early animations—has a kind of 'gastronomical' alchemy that inadvertently became a treatise on the architectural imagination. Fiend and Little Nemo affected the psychic mood of early modern Architecture—its 'childhood' in the milieu of White Cities—that was both added to and commented on by Winsor McCay's pen. His cartoons portray the hidden 'flavors' of the buildings springing up a century ago. This 'other'—surreal—aspect of the White Cities, seasoned with whirling iron Ferris wheels and Flip-Flop rides, newly invented elevators and electric lights—and even fun house mirrors that made buildings suddenly seem very tall—were the ingredients that caused the fiend and Nemo to wake up, which ultimately became the culinary school of modern Architecture. McCay's 'fiendish' depictions show us that the right blend of humor and awe is a recipe for happiness. / Doctor of Philosophy / Winsor McCay made cartoons of the 'nightmares' of a Rarebit Fiend with a witty, unflinching eye for detail. Those illustrations became a psychic twin to the architectural fantasies of a little boy in the 'funnies' section of the New York newspapers from 1905-1911. Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend and Little Nemo in Slumberland continue to entertain and edify us, while inadvertently acting as a guide to how the imagination works. McCay's celebrity as a cartoonist also led him to become one of the world's first animators, amazing vaudeville audiences with depictions of Little Nemo that were suddenly larger than life, illuminated, and mobile. Dreams were rediscovered in the early twentieth century as useful bodies of knowledge for understanding the self, seen through the writings of Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson and Marcel Proust, who linked the mechanisms employed by the unconscious 'dreamer' to those at play in wit. That thinking was surrounded by the atmosphere in McCay's comedic sequential images, which in turn inspired the iconic dreamlike silent movies of Buster Keaton. A look at the birth of these art forms a hundred years ago provides insight into the psychic mood of early modern Architecture, but also to the imagining of today's world (both material and virtual) using the digital tools that are just being invented. Although McCay's cartoons are fiendish, they sustain the balance between dreaming and humor that is essential to imagining a happy modern life.

L’intérêt porté aux filmographies de cinéastes russes aussi différents qu’Andreï Tarkovski, Andreï Zviaguintsev et Kira Mouratova aboutit à la découverte d’une quête esthétique commune propre aux trois réalisateurs : l’élaboration d’une image cinématographique modelée par le temps autant dans sa matérialité filmique que dans sa puissance métaphorique. Cette approche artistique semble cristallisée dans le terme "kinoobraz" théorisé par Andreï Tarkovski qui s’impose dès lors comme un médium entre la recherche théorique et le champ d’expérimentation analytique de ce travail. Le terme russe "kinoobraz" traduit en français par « image cinématographique » recèle autant de problèmes que de potentiel théorique et analytique. La nature de cette recherche consiste donc en une appropriation, une réinvention et une mise à l’épreuve d’une notion ("kinoobraz"), trois opérations menées simultanément dans un parcours multiple. D’abord, une étude à la fois historique et théorique des conceptions russo-soviétiques de l’"obraz" (théologie des icônes orthodoxes à travers les textes de Pavel Florensky, l’"obraz" selon Sergueï Eisenstein, le "kinoobraz" de Tarkovski) révèle toute une série de résonances conceptuelles avec les théories françaises du figural (à partir du texte "Discours, figure" (1971) de Jean-François Lyotard). Cette confrontation entre la généalogie russe du "kinoobraz" et les propriétés esthétiques du figural, alimentée par la pratique de l’analyse filmique comparée, permet la redéfinition du "kinoobraz" comme un outil opératoire d’analyse. Ainsi, la mise à l’épreuve du "kinoobraz" dans le champ d’expérimentations analytiques sur le corpus de référence composé des films d’Andreï Tarkovski, Andreï Zviaguinstev et Kira Mouratova explore la spécificité temporelle de la matière filmique et du dispositif cinématographique. / Focusing on the cinema of three Russian different filmmakers such as Andreï Tarkovski, Andreï Zviaguintsev and Kira Mouratova, we discover a common aesthetic thread: the development of a film image molded by time both in film's materiality and in its metaphorical power. This artistic approach is crystallized by the term kinoobraz theorized by Andreï Tarkovski, whose ideas and films serve as a link between the theoretical research and the analytic experimentation of the present work. The Russian word "kinoobraz" is usually translated into English as “film image” but this translation does not reveal its full theoretical and analytic potentials. Our research aims at giving this notion its proper place, its reinvention and its use as a tool, all three conducted simultaneously on parallel tracks. Our exploration of this notion includes both historical and theoretical study of the Russian and Soviet conceptions of "obraz" through the theology of orthodox icons found in Pavel Florensky’s texts, its definition by Sergueï Eisenstein, and Tarkovski’s refinement as "kinoobraz". This study reveals a series of conceptual resonances with the French theories of figural (starting with Jean-François Lyotard’s work "Discours, figure" (1971)). The juxtaposition of the Russian genealogy of "kinoobraz" and the aesthetic traits of figural, nurtured by comparative film analysis, allows us to redefine kinoobraz as an analytic tool. Using this tool in the analytic experimentation based on the reference corpus of the films of Andreï Tarkovski, Andreï Zviaguintsev and Kira Mouratova leads us to a deeper understanding of the time specificity of the film matter and the cinematic "dispositif".

This thesis explores ways in which the reality of Kantor’s existence at a key moment in occupied Kraków may be read as directly informing the genesis and development of his artistic strategies. It argues for a particular ontological understanding of human being that resonates strongly with that implied by Kantor in his work and writings. Most approaches to Kantor have either operated from within a native perspective that assumes familiarity with Polish culture and its influences, or, from an Anglo-American theatre-history perspective that has tended to focus on his larger-scale performance work. This has meant that contextual factors informing Kantor’s work as a whole, including his happenings, paintings, and writings, as well as his theatrical works, have remained under-explored. The thesis takes a Heideggerian-hermeneutic approach that foregrounds biographical, cultural and aesthetic contexts specific to Kantor, but seemingly alien to Anglo-American experience. Kantor’s work is approached from Heideggerian and post-Heideggerian perspectives that read the work as a world-forming response to these contexts. Read in this way, key writings, art and performance works by Kantor are revealed to be explorations of existence and human being. Traditional ontological distinctions between process and product, painting and performance, are problematised through the critique of representation that these works and working practices propose. Kantor is revealed as a metaphysical artist whose work stands as a testament to a Heideggerian view of human being as a ‘positive negative’: a ‘placeholder of nothing’, but a ‘nothing’ that yet ‘is’ …