Positing subjectivity as a structural formation arising dialectically at the cultural intersection of physical bodies and material conditions, Bodies of Capital: Spatial Subjectivity in Twentieth-Century U.S. Fiction identifies textual dynamics as revelatory of the intrinsic relationship between subjective experience and spatial practice. To advance this formulation, Bodies of Capital critically examines a series of U.S. fictional narrative texts from the late nineteenth-century to the present by placing them in dialogue with comparative articulations of U.S. ‘regimes of accumulation’ (spatial formations enacting particular capital organization and conditions) as they developed during this same historical period. Such an approach allows critical analysis to be devoted to material and empirical developments, such as geographical (e.g., urban and suburban growth), institutional (e.g., corporations and markets), and societal (e.g., types of labor) formations, but at all times places primary focus, through its recognition of subjectivity as a spatial and ideological formation, on the practices and dynamics of signification to which these developments critically contribute. Bodies of Capital’s spatio-textual formulation thereby advances the critical enterprise by illuminating the ways in which fictional narrative texts inherently both speak and are spoken by cultural ideologies spatially active at a given time and place. Bodies of Capital allows one, as well, to draw connections otherwise by-andlarge occluded between fictional works appearing at distinctly different times and places across a broad historical expanse, an expanse reflected in the selection of works the dissertation comparatively examines, including William Dean Howells’s The Rise of Silas Lapham, Jack London’s Martin Eden, Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, Sam Mendes’s American Beauty, Don DeLillo’s White Noise, and Richard Powers’s Gain.

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This thesis explores Postmodern architecture and narrative representations of the city as an emblem for the presence of the past in a contemporary environment. The architectural theory of Aldo Rossi is a model for this perception of the city as a locus of memory. Berlin, London and Paris are the places I will consider. Part I presents examples of architectural practice of the 1980s. A project for a museum of German history in Berlin, the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London and the Place de Stalingrad in Paris re-work urban historical traces. Chapter 4 outlines the theories behind each project and how they develop notions of memory within the city. Part II pursues this thread by focusing on examples of narrative representations of cities. In relation to Germany and Berlin, Wim Wenders' film Per Himmel über Berlin, Walter Abish's novel How German Is It. Christa Wolf's Kindheitsmuster and Hugo Hamilton's Surrogate City are my main sources. I discuss London through Peter Ackroyd's novel Hawksmoor and Paris through examples of Patrick Modiano's writing. A fourth and more theoretical chapter outlines how Postmodern narrative represents history and problematises memory. Two images direct this discussion: the detective and the palimpsest. My sources rely on the model of urban inquests and portray the city as a space shaped by a lamination of traces from superimposed eras. Part III connects architecture and narrative through examples of recent developments in Postmodern museology, mainly the Holocaust Museum. They construe historical narratives by endowing building and contents with a communicative function. As a conclusion, I establish that Postmodern concerns with history focus on the importance of bearing witness to the past, however problematic its representation has become. As the city houses memory, it is a priviledged location for historical traces which define contemporary identity.

This study explores the history of tattoos in the United States along with the role and significance of tattos today. The study's primary research question seeks to discover whether tattoos anchor an individual's personal narrative and help to solidify an individual's sense of self. The study considers both modernist and postmodernist concepts of identity, but ultimately supports a perspective which argues that identity is the result of an individual's ability to keep a consistent narrative going over time. This exploratory study uses a qualitatative approach to discern the meanings behind individuals' tattoos through their own words and conceptions. Eight individuals ranging in age, race and gender were interviewed in order to collect data for the study. The findings suggest that individuals frame the importance of their tattoos in a variety of ways from tattoos that commemorate aspects of one's past to tattoos that are highly symbolic of an individual's sense of self.

Thesis (M.M. (Strategic Marketing))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014. / The world as we know it is rapidly transforming into what is frequently referred to by many scholars as the era of „postmodernism‟. The postmodern consumer is more flexible, instinctive, more individualistic in preference and needs, and builds an identity through the products he/she consumes. Postmodern consumers are exposed to increased levels of advertising clutter and are becoming difficult to reach via traditional media. As a result, marketers have found alternative methods to get their message across and have looked at innovative ways to engage postmodern consumers and have turned their attention towards non-conventional advertising practices such as product placement within mass media entertainment. Reality television has emerged as a prominent genre in South Africa among young adults (Generation Y) and the incidence of product placements within these shows has grown substantially over the past few years. With marketing spend allocated to traditional television advertising (when marketing to Generation Y), the research aims to explore if traditional television advertising is effective compared to product placement in reality television in creating brand awareness and brand identity. It also aims to identify if product placement in reality television can be integrated as an element in IMC strategies.

This thesis is a selective study of Postmodern literature, focusing on the work of Alasdair Gray and Salman Rushdie. Postmodern literature is an expression of and response to the profound uncertainty that characterises the late-twentieth century. The works of many diverse authors attempt to come to terms with the Postmodern situation, which Jürgen Habermas has described as `the legitimation crisis'. The Enlightenment metanarratives that legitimise Western, industrial societies, have been undermined by Capitalism and events. We no longer accept general metanarratives and this generates profound uncertainty. As Postmodern literature challenges the incomplete certainties of grandnarratives, such as religious and political ideologies, it adopts uncertain forms. Texts create series of debates because these dramatise our conflicting uncertainties and our reluctance to accept, set positions, and answers that erroneously claim to be universal and absolute. By presenting issues in conflict without offering a set conclusion, fiction is able to bring its readers actively into the arguments and find a role for itself within society. The uncertainty of the present has contributed to an impression that we have lost a sense of connection with the past and future and therefore continuous identity. Postmodern novels tend to concentrate upon the struggles of the present in order to free the future from both restrictive traditional visions and the paralysing present. The future finally emerges as the direct product of the past and present, but we can also begin to imagine it as something radically different. Postmodern literature does not create new metanarratives, it legitimises a tense and provisional relationship with society that helps peoples to live in an uncertain world while not surrendering to it.

Z výše napsaného vyplývá, že tato práce, týkající se víry a s ní spjatého tématu Boha, je psána z pozic nikoliv náboženskoteologických, ale filosofických. Z pozice náboženské jsem ji nemohl napsat, neboť nestojím na žádné náboženské pozici. Pod vlivem nezávislých filosofů a religionistů vnímám náboženství (myšleno v plurální formě) jako kulturně dějinné fenomény vzniklé v určitém čase, za zcela specifických kulturně-historických a politickogeografických podmínek.

In my thesis I argue that the return of the religious in contemporary culture has been in two forms the rise of so-called fundamentalisms in the established faiths-Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, even Buddhist-and the rise of a New Age style spirituality that draws from aspects of those faiths even as it produces something distinctively different. I argue that this shift both produces post-modern media culture, and is itself always-already mediated through the realm of the fictional. Secular and profane are always entangled within one another, a constant and pervasive media presence that modulates the way that contemporary subjects experience themselves and their relationship to the spiritual. I use popular culture as an entry point, an entry point that can presume neither belief nor unbelief in its audiences, showing that it is “unreal” texts such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Matrix and so on that we find religious symbols and ideas refracted through a postmodernist sensibility, with little regard for the demands of “real world” epistemology. I argue that it is in this interplay between traditional religions and New Age-ised spirituality in popular culture that the sacred truly finds itself in postmodernity.

The creative component of my project is a conteporary, confessional novel, Refrain. The narrator, Jake, has spent his youth chasing a life that matched his dreams - first as a would-be rock star and then by fleeing to India in search of exotic adventures with his girlfriend. Now he returns alone to the suburban backwater he'd tried so hard to escape, ready for stability and responsibility. However, his attempts to reinvent himself in this world of chronic unemployment and limited horizons are thrown into confusion by old friends, estranged fmaily members, an unresolved attachment, and by his musical successor - a volatile young woman with her own problems, who draws him back to things he'd rather forget and towards a future he isn't ready to face. Refain is a story of idealism and desire, fading hopes and unexpected opportunities, long-distance love and short-sightedness. The exegetical component of my project investigates the term 'portmodern confession' as an i ntersection of the confessional narrative mode and postmodernism, and its application to two recent texts: The sportswriter by Richard Ford, and The remains of teh day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Suniti Namjoshis short work St. Suniti and the Dragon, found in the authors fabulist collection of the same name, is a formally amorphous text that alternates among allusion and alteration of Western canonical myth. The story, in which the journey of the aspiring hero St. Suniti is detailed, alludes primarily to Beowulf and the legend of St. George and the Dragon in a manner similar to, but expansive upon, the feminist revisionist project of the last few decades. While Namjoshi navigates feminist politics, she also examines the postmodern impulse to consider identity as subjective experience. In so doing, she deconstructs notions of canonical character archetypes while suggesting that identity politics must involve a multiplicity of archetypes that is, the self is seldom archetypal in the singular, but rather an amorphous and discontinuous series of mythic archetypes. Thus, the form of Namjoshis text generically ambiguous and varied mimics the authors suggestion for the composition of identity. The result is a story that transgresses prescribed social conventions and archetypes while simultaneously invoking their mythic sources as means of argumentation.