acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation explores the ways in which the provocation of fear in the reader of the chanson de geste, conte folklorique, conte merveilleux, the gothic and the nineteenth-century conte fantastique contributes to the formation of individual and collective identity. I begin with an analysis of the epic, the folkloric and the marvellous. Through close readings of selected texts, I identify the mechanisms by which the provocation of fear encourages characters and readers to act according to the goals and ideals of the collective social group. I argue that in these genres the present-day notion of the individual is indistinguishable from the collective social group, and that the role of fear centres on the textual manipulation of emotion as benefits that collective. Turning to the fantastic, I challenge notions of the fantastic as a subversive genre. Considering the professionalization of medicine and science as well as the development of the concept of human rights, I look at how the French fantastic of the two primary 'waves' (1830s and 1880s) focuses on the interior, psychic development of the individual not at the expense of the collective, but as a unit of sociohistoric change. To reveal the therapeutic mechanisms at work in the conte fantastique and the ways in which it anticipates modern-day notions of individuality, I consider the presence of historical cultural trauma in nineteenth-century France. I examine instances of loss in the fantastic, and I demonstrate how fear ushers the main character into the bereavement process. I draw parallels between the fantastic narrative and the process of mourning work outlined by Freud and others as I argue for the fantastic text a potential forum for the mourning work of the nineteenth-century reading population. Through close readings of Gautier and Merimee's fantastic short stories, I show how fear in the first wave provokes what Freud terms 'reality-testing' in the form of libidinal cathexis to an object of desire. Ultimately, the narrator ceases his narcissistic identification with the lost object and assumes a traditional role in society. As a result, he purges his fears. In my analysis of the second wave of the French fantastic, I focus on Maupassant's short stories. I draw on Freud's definition of pathological mourning as well as additional bereavement theories that incorporate the persistence of trauma post-loss. I argue for Maupassant's fantastic narrative as a forerunner of the intake interview common in psychiatric sessions and as an act of what psychologist Robert A. Neimeyer terms 'meaning reconstruction,' or the integration of traumatic events into a personal narrative. I then demonstrate how fear provokes the reconstruction of the narrator's traumatically shattered selfhood while eliciting the crucial participation of the sympathetic reader-as-witness. In conclusion, I argue that not only does the French fantastic of the nineteenth century offer a historic parallel to the mourning process, but that it also anticipates notions of trauma theory, bereavement and the construction of selfhood as we know them today / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation describes the development of a finite element program for the analysis of conventional and reinforced embankments. The results of the program are verified with the field measurements of three full scale test sections constructed on soft soils. A parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of various components of a reinforced embankment on its behavior A finite element program was modified to include new finite elements and material models for soil, reinforcement, and interface. The program is now capable of modeling embankments under undrained, drained, and consolidation conditions. A creep inclusive elasto-plastic stress-strain model is used to represent the plastic behavior of soils and a hyperbolic stress-strain model is used to model the behavior of soils under nonlinear elastic conditions. The interface between the soil and the reinforcement is modeled by isoparametric joint elements with no thickness. The stress-strain model of the interface is also based on a hyperbolic stress-strain model. The reinforcement is modeled by isoparametric bar elements capable of transmitting axial forces through a linear stress-strain relationship The results of the finite element analyses agree with the field measurements of horizontal displacement, vertical displacement, forces, and pore pressure. The results of the parametric study indicate that the reinforcement strength has a major influence on reducing horizontal displacement, whereas the effect of the shear stiffness and the interface condition is relatively modest. The increase in the soil stiffness reduces the horizontal displacement significantly in both the foundation soil and the embankment. Accurate estimation of the coefficients of permeability is essential for predicting the horizontal displacement in the foundation soil and the tensile force in the reinforcement even for short term analysis. The bottom boundary of a finite element mesh of an earth embankment should be placed at a depth of twice the height of the embankment, whereas the lateral boundaries of the mesh should be at a distance of twice the depth of the foundation soil to eliminate the effect of the boundary conditions on the results of the analysis / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of the ability to align one object with another. Forty-eight children, in groups of 16 each at 18, 24, and 30 months, participated in this experiment. A group of eight adults was also used for comparison purposes. Subjects were required to reach for a stick located at one end of a table and to fit that stick into a groove located at the opposite end of the table. With the groove in the horizontal position, four orientations of the stick (horizontal, vertical, diagonal: 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock) were randomly presented. With the groove in the vertical position, the same four stick orientations were presented in another random ordering for a combined total of eight trials. Dependent variables included measures of success, speed, anticipatory adjustment of the stick, spatial efficiency, and motor patterns (hand transfer and the use of one or both hands). The results indicated that 18-month-olds were the least successful of all groups with success increasing respectively for 24-month-olds, 30-month-olds and adults. Eighteen-month-olds evidence little anticipatory adjustment and spatial efficiency. Twenty-four-month-olds begin to evidence anticipatory adjustment and spatial efficiency, while 30-month-olds are close to adult performance in these skills. There appears to be an adverse effect of vertical orientation in varying degrees on the performance of 18-, 24-, and 30-month olds. Adults perform equally well regardless of orientation and the stick and groove. With respect to speed, children differ from each other primarily in the time it takes to fit the stick into the groove rather than in the time that it takes them to move the stick to the groove. Twenty-four-month-olds require the longest time to fit the stick into the groove with time decreasing respectively for 30-month-olds and adults. Lastly, 18-month-olds solve this task bimanually and with more hand transfer. Adults and 30-month-olds efficiently use an underhand grasp to fit the 2 o'clock-oriented stick into the vertical groove. These findings add to existing normative data on motor development by describing how the ability to align and fit one object into another develops / acase@tulane.edu

In this dissertation I explore the Catholic theological and aesthetic influences on O'Connor. I contend that O'Connor thought of herself as a specifically Catholic author and that she tried to convey some of the tenets of her faith through her fiction. The first of these tenets is her belief that man and the material world are good in and of themselves because their being comes from the Creator. The second is that the Manichean temper she saw pervading the modern world is evil because it separates spirit and flesh. I show that the writings of Augustine and Aquinas, the basis of Catholic theology, strongly influenced O'Connor's beliefs. I trace these influences and that of writings by other Catholic theologians and aestheticians. These authors include Baron Frederick von Hugel, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jacques Maritain, Francois Mauriac, and John Lynch. I then explicate fourteen of O'Connor's short stories and her two novels by showing her attempts to convey the essential goodness of the material world in fiction. I also evaluate how successful she is in these attempts / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

The factors limiting bird populations remain poorly understood, but evidence suggests non-breeding season events are important. I investigated the non-breeding ecology of resident and migrant forest landbirds during the annual dry-season in low-quality scrub and high-quality shade-coffee plantation habitat in Jamaica. Over four years (2002-2005), I studied the behavior, physiology, and population dynamics of birds in response to variation in dry-season food supply. In this system, I conducted the first landscape-scale food manipulation for tropical resident and wintering migrant birds. Plot-level supplementation and reduction altered food supply to a biologically significant degree in each year. Precipitation and food supply decreased in successive years creating a natural experiment in parallel to manipulations. For resident birds, most species had higher abundance and several had higher persistence following food supplementation. Manipulations did not cause changes in resident bird body condition. For Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola), food supplementation resulted in higher proportion of individuals in breeding condition. For migrants, I focused on the Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla), a small monomorphic ground-forager. Multiple body condition indices responded to variation in food supply. However, food manipulation did not affect over-winter persistence or annual survival. Relative to birds in poor-habitat, Ovenbirds in high-quality habitat maintained optimum body condition, presumably to mitigate the tradeoff pressures of starvation and predation. In poor habitat, food constraints inhibited mass regulation and possibly delayed migration. Annual variation in spring migration departure timing corresponded to patterns of climate (and thus food). Most birds were territorial with a small home range containing roosts. Floaters occupied relatively large areas and comprised 8-16% of the population. The two classes of space use responded differently to changes in food supply: Floaters were better able to respond to shifts in food availability and had better body condition in low food situations. Food reduction did not induce sedentary individuals to adopt floater behaviors. I found no evidence of sex-based dominance relations in Ovenbirds. This study helps explain mechanisms by which bird populations respond to resource availability, and suggests that food is a primary driver of non-breeding season population limitation in seasonal tropical forests, at least on the Caribbean islands / acase@tulane.edu

The predominantly Preclassic Maya site of Cerros on the shore of Corozal Bay in northern Belize yielded 15,355 vertebrate and crustacean faunal remains. These were analyzed with the following objectives: (1) to delineate the pattern of animal procurement and use at the site; (2) to explore how animals fit into the social and economic framework of the society; (3) to obtain environmental information; (4) to explore what evidence fauna can provide toward the interpretation of other aspects of archaeology; (5) to examine the utility of applying several quantification procedures The data were quantified by fragment counts, minimum numbers of individuals (MNI), and biomass estimates based on MNI and on bone weight. Inferred faunal exploitation patterns were compared with original and previously published ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and archaeological information In the Preclassic period at Cerros, certain individuals relied more on fishing and others more on terrestrial animals. These two patterns show a partial association with lower and higher status, respectively. Among both groups, terrestrial mammals contributed significantly to the diet. The dog and deer were most important, followed by peccaries and semiaquatic turtles. Trapping and netting were probably the most common procurement techniques. Documented uses for animals at Cerros include food, bone artifacts, and ceremonial offerings (notably of mammal skulls and mud turtle shells; marine animals lack strong ceremonial associations) Some changes in animal exploitation are indicated after the site's decline at the end of the Preclassic. The terrestrial component appears more broad-ranging, perhaps reflecting both a changed orientation among the people and an increase in certain game as the human population declined. Fishing, in contrast, seems to have become more narrowly-based, with a virtual abandonment of fishing grounds near the reef. This accords with other evidence that the site had relinquished its previous postulated role in coastal trade The fauna provide clues concerning a number of issues of general archaeological interest at Cerros. These include the characterization of the Preclassic environment, socioeconomic distinctions within the community, and seafaring The use of several quantification methods was found to be helpful in interpreting the faunal data / acase@tulane.edu

The first Fortune playhouse, far from being merely a rival to the Globe, housed a company that lay claim to a distinct theatrical tradition. Built in 1600 and situated in the northwest suburbs of Middlesex, the theatre represented the commercial and artistic aspirations of Phillip Henslowe and his son-in-law, the actor Edward Alleyn, who together brought the Lord Admiral's (later Prince Henry's) Men to the magnificent stage of the Fortune. There the players staged the best of their old repertory, notably the plays of Marlowe, and introduced new plays designed to please their predominantly middle-class audience, who had, in general, old-fashioned dramatic and conservative political tastes The tragedies were largely revivals, and the one extant new tragedy, Hoffman, continues the tradition of the Marlovian overreacher and the Kydian revenger. The history plays in the repertory reflect a distrust of Catholicism and an overt glorification of Prince Henry, the patron of the company, as the Protestant savior of England. The comedies, which reflect most clearly the tastes of the audience for which the bulk of the repertory was written, flatter the citizen-playgoers by romantically reconciling their apparently strict morality with their practical merchantilism. The repertory served the company well at least through the first decade of operation of the playhouse. Unfortunately, no new plays written for the company after 1611 survive. Events suggest, however, that the second decade would have been markedly less successful Overall, an examination of the repertory and history of the first Fortune reveals the distinctiveness of the company that, for too long, has been overshadowed by or incorporated into the critical evaluation of its more famous rival, the King's Men. By considering the Fortune in terms of its own strengths and weaknesses, we can gain a more accurate conception of the cultural milieu, which, in the drama at least, fostered various traditions / acase@tulane.edu