acase@tulane.edu

As a worthy writer Benjam(')in Jarnes has not received the recog-nition he deserves. His being a participant in a controversial and turbulent period in Spanish history (1888-1949) has unjustly cast a negative shadow over his work, particularly his novels. Literary criticism has, until recently, conferred upon Jarnes a minor position as a novelist and disregarded his works. His novels, therefore, are either out of print or scattered throughout Spanish America and Spain Lately, however, noted critics have viewed Jarnes's writings in a more positive light. Nevertheless, no researcher has yet developed a comprehensive study of his poetics. This dissertation undertakes such a study concentrating on the following Jarnesian novels: El convidado de papel, Lo rojo y lo azul, Teor(')ia del zumbel, La novia del viento, Locura y muerte de nadie, El profesor inutil, and Orlando el pac(')ifico Using current studies concerning structuralist poetics, this disser-tation finds that by examining Jarnes's novels outside their historical context a new understanding can be achieved, one that places his work ahead of its time. The non-representational aspects of reality in Jarnes's novels serve to exemplify his departure from tradition and his quest for new forms of expression. His vision of a multi-facted reality and his interpretation of the Jungian archetype, together with other devices, contribute to give form to the new reality he seeks This new vision finds expression in a spatial narrative that, in many instances, is disassociated from conventions. Language in his novels surpasses literalness through the use of poetic techniques, particu-larly metaphor, with which he presents an aesthetic view of the world. To reinforce his tendency to de-novelize, he incorporates intertextu-ality, dehumanization, and animation as integral components of the total language framework of the novel This study also examines the author's view of the function of the novelist in society. According to him, literature should not be subordinated to socio-political considerations. The conclusion proposes that the concept of harmony, which along with a pervasive intellectualism, serves as a leitmotif in Jarnes's work, provides the normative principles and guiding forces in his novels / acase@tulane.edu

This study examines Miguel Hernandez' interpretation of the world throughout key stages and salient themes in his poetry. We trace the manner in which the poet 'orders' a cosmos and renders a concept of the universe that reflects his individual creative genius A brief compendium is first presented of the historical and artistic background in which the young poet develops, noting the principal technical and ideological influences upon his work and the role that they play in shaping Hernandez' vision of the cosmos. We then see how this vision develops by tracing the trajectory of its evolution in the predominant themes of nature, death, and love In studying his perception of nature, we note that in his early poetry Hernandez renders primarily a descriptive and essentially objective vision of the natural world. As he acquires mastery of the language and style of neobaroque poetry, the young poet employs them in an effort to capture what he perceives as the surging, dynamic energy of a natural world in a state of constant becoming. The poetic voice gradually places itself more 'subjectively' within the natural environment attempting to establish a type of communion with nature Miguel Hernandez' vision of death predominately encompasses a primal sense of the earth together with a cyclical concept of the life and death processes as part of a cosmic design. The idea of transcendence appears frequently in Hernandez' work, based initially upon a type of 'agricultural rebirth' as part of the cyclical process of reintegration to the vital flow in nature In his final poetic production Hernandez achieves a harmonic expression of internal and external reality as he perceives himself participating totally in the vital rhythms through love. The poet's ultimate vision incorporates his lyrical rendering of a cosmos based upon family love, with a specific concentration upon his wife's womb as the origin of the creative process. The womb becomes the main source of light and order in the poet's vision. Hernandez offers the birth of a world which, in cosmic terms, represents the return to the beginning of all creation / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

Evolutionary Algorithms is a school of algorithms inspired by biological evolutionary progress. Darwin's Principle of Evolution, Over many generations, random variation and nature selection shape the behaviors of individuals and species to fit the demands of their surroundings, is the intrinsic concept of Evolutionary Algorithms design. Despite of their practical success, more theoretical questions for better understanding on their mechanism are needed to be answered. For example, the convergence rate of EAs, the population sizing and genetic operator selection, are questions remaining open Population size is usually an empirical parameter when adjusting Evolutionary Algorithms. In this investigation, we study the population sizing problem from two new aspects: fitness landscapes' ruggedness and the Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) learning. The population size is therefore also referred to as sample complexity using the language of statistical learning. We characterize the population sizing as a learning process of the search space so that the Evolutionary Algorithms has high probability to globally optimize the fitness function. We define granularity, a ruggedness measure for fitness functions. We also derive a sampling theorem based on the epsilon-cover and the PAC learning theory, which theoretically determines a population size towards effective convergence for global optimization and multimodal optimization tasks / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu