The influence of new media on theatrical practice over the past fifty years has spurred a movement towards theatrical forms which are increasingly organized around the sensory elements of performance. This change is most noticeable in the visual approaches to theatre, and it has produced what I have labeled a theatre of visuality. This thesis argues that the tendencies for visualization found in visual media have extensively marked the performance strategies of contemporary theatre practice, resulting in a shift away from the logocentric dramatic text and towards theatre performance organized around the visual. Looking at four contemporary productions of Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck –Thomas Ostermeier’s Woyzeck (2005), Vesturport’s Woyzeck (2005), Robert Wilson’s Woyzeck (2000), and Josef Nadj’s Woyzeck ou l’Ébauche du Vertige (1994)– this thesis produces a preliminary typology of four distinct visualities/theatrical forms which make up the theatre of visuality: hyperrealism, synesthesia, superficiality, and visual narration. This thesis contributes to the conceptualization and understanding of postdramatic theatre by linking the theatre’s rejection of the text to the increased centrality of the visual in performance, and by tracing these shifts to the influence of visual media.

The primary goal of my study was to explore the possible ways in which postmodern career facilitation can be utilized to improve the achievement motivation of a traditionally disadvantaged adolescent. The study was conducted by means of a case study in which the achievement motivation of a traditionally disadvantaged adolescent was measured by the Achievement Motivation Profile test (Friedland, Mandel&Marcus, 1982) prior to, and on completion of the postmodern career facilitation process. The inquiry into the participant’s motivation to achieve was dependent on a qualitative integration of psychometric test results and information obtained from narrative techniques. The study was motivated by previous research indicating that traditional disadvantagement does not support the development of sufficient achievement motivation beliefs. Sufficient achievement behaviour appears to be preceded by both the will, and the skill, to achieve. / Dissertation (MEd(Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Educational Psychology / MEd / unrestricted

During the past ten years the changing sociopolitical context in South Africa challenged mental health services to re-position themselves in order to stay relevant to specific contextual demands. The field of psychology has also been introduced to the application of postmodern principles in counselling and training practices internationally and nationally, which promised exciting alternative avenues for many practitioners and clients. In reading the literature on the possible opportunities of applying postmodern principles to psychological and educational practices, it became clear that the relationship between counsellors/clients and trainers/students can be a collaborative co-construction of knowledge production. Existing literature on current training practices however reflects a fragmented picture, in which the orientation, content and pedagogy are not consistently aligned with an epistemology and practice. Postmodern literature on the notion of “identity/self” as the narration of a multilevelled construct is used to conceptualise training contexts as contexts that provide students with certain narratives with which they can construct their counsellor identities. The aim of the research is to story the construction of counsellor identity through the application of narrative therapy within a learning model. Text production was imbedded in a referential research context which is defined as a context of the following relational positionings: narrative counsellor, trainer, researcher, students and participants. The contribution of this context towards the construction of counsellor identity is explored through engaging in and narrative analysis of written conversations, journals and visual projects of students who engaged in a training context. Through the narrative analysis process, temporal dimension story grids were developed for the written conversations and training journals and the visual projects were analysed according to denotational and higher signification inventories. Narratives that were co-created in the training context include that of uncertainty, self-awareness, growth, change, hope and respect for individual life narratives, which also contributed to the process of the construction of counsellor identity. These are all familiar narratives that exist in the South African context as we live in a country that is in a continuous process of change and where certainty is an elusive concept. On the basis of the narrative themes that emerged, guidelines were developed for creating training contexts that could facilitate the construction of a counsellor identity that is of relevance within the changing South African context. These guidelines include a repositioning in the trainer/student relationship; using externalising language practices to facilitate the co-construction of knowledge through a critical engagement with the learning material and a conceptualisation of evaluation as a process based activity rather than an outcome based activity. / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Psychology / unrestricted

The text of the Bible projects for its readers a Biblical-textual world. Christians live within the seminal, normative contours of this symbolic Biblical world. In this regard, a Ricoeurian hermeneutics presents a helpful apparatus to the reader of the Biblical text. In his hermeneutical studies, Ricoeur organises his considerations around four poles that operate as guidelines for this study – distanciation, objectification, projecting of a world and appropriation. In this thesis each of these considerations is applied to Proverbs 10:1–15:33 to facilitate an exploration of the symbolic-textual world projected for the reader in this literature. It is the thesis of the study that the proposed reading strategy is, in terms of the threefold movement within postmodern thought – the movements beyond foundations, beyond totalities and towards the Other – a most productive effort. When this reading strategy is utilised for Proverbs 10:1–15:33, with specific reference to the fear of the Lord, the concept of the fear of the Lord is found to have a functional definition within this collection rather than an ontological or theoretical one. With this approach, the fear of Yahweh-proverbs in Proverbs 10:1–15:33 are understood not to be dogmatised, absolute, universal truths but finds, in line with the movement beyond totalities, its authority in the context within which it is applied. Instead of communicating propositional content, which is in line with the movement beyond foundations within postmodern thought, by their power to disclose a symbolic world, it confronts the reader with the Other, in line with the movement toward the Other, and consequently opens up new modes of being, orienting the reader’s practical actions. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2013 / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

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Petr Hönig - Spectacular Society of the 21st Century This diploma thesis polemizes with the approach of a human to smart technologies in the context of postmodern society and it aims to formulate a conclusion about how the use of smart technologies, given their current form and the current state of affairs in general, with its side effects may affect the form and nature of the whole society. By analyzing fundamental aspects of postmodern society, specifically by reflecting on the processes of globalization, individualization, rationalization and relativization, and by analyzing the approach of a human to smart technologies, specifically by reflecting on the consequences of the use of selected technologies by lay users, this thesis relates to the form and nature of current society. Its aim is to demonstrate the spectacularness of society in the dichotomous perspective as well as to commence a general discussion of the approach of a human to smart technologies in level of questions connected to technological development and human nature in the 21st century.

(in English): The main aim of this thesis is to focuse on the two of C. E. Gadda's most famous novels in their comparative interpretations based on the perspective of the debate on subject and intersubjectivity by philosophers E. Husserl, M. Heidegger and L. Wittgenstein. After a short intoduction dedicated to life and work of the author, we analyse both novels in which we witness the shift of attention from the problem of the subject to the problem of the intersubjectivity seen as socially anchored truth that gives rise to antidetective novel. In conclusion we emphasise once again the epistemological level of meaning in Gadda's novels - their insights into the essence of truth and the character of human knowledge in general which emerge especially with the crime fiction against the background of questions regarding conscience and justice.

Conspiracy theories are an old-new phenomenon which has gained its importance and specific character over the last three centuries. Unofficially, they have become an alternative tradition of the interpretation of historical events connected with an alternative form of spirituality, known as conspirituality. This manner of the interpretation usually holds the power when the consensually accepted worldview loses its plausibility for the concrete person or group. Conspiracy theories are the verbalization of a certain way of thinking and action which depends on it. Most often, they are manifested in the form of myths. That is understood as one of the dominant structures, commonly connected with traditionally perceived religion. From this point of view and in terms of the function associated with conspiracy narratives, conspiracy theories are examined as functional and structural equivalents of religion. These functions are especially the defense of the order (nomos), differentiation of the outer reality or the explanation of the presence of Evil in the world. In addition, they can also become a medium or tool of social actors in power relations. This thesis represents the complementary overview of the contemporary approaches in the study of religion discourse, which deals with unconventional religiosity...

Arkitekturprojektet som förslag syftar till att synliggöra Kulturskolans verksamhet i det aktuella området: Älvsjö i Stockholm. Skolan som plats utgör en plattform för möten och kulturutövande. Byggnadens utformning tangerar äldre såväl som senare arkitektur och skapar en relation som speglar Älvsjös mångtydiga identiteter. Skolbyggnaden skapar en fantasifull sfär för lärande och lek som hävdar barnkulturens okränkbara rätt till utrymme i staden. / The architectural project aims to make the activity of the Communal Culture School visible in the Älvsjö area in Stockholm. The school as a place is a platform for meetings and cultural expression. The design of the building touches both old as well as later architecture and creates a relationship between them that reflects the ambiguous identity of Älvsjö. The school building creates an imaginative sphere for learning and for play, which claims child culture's inviolable right to space in the city.

Despite its chequered interpretational history, the book of Shîr ha-Shîrîm (Song of Songs) in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament has still not come to its fullest religious potential. The reason is that it has mainly served relatively closed religious traditions defined by the exclusion of those that have reacted against it. As the text of Song of Songs itself does not explicitly testify to any religiosity, these communities have understood it religiously by projecting their own predetermined needs and beliefs onto it. The text does, however, suggest several layers in the history of its formation, representing different levels of consciousness and stages of religiosity. In the postmodern globalising context where the importance of interfaith understanding is increasingly realised and the nature of human religiosity is constantly redefined in terms of ever-broadening horizons, the religiosity of the book has been stretched as wide as possible by also taking into consideration the ancient contextual influences which could have left their traces on the unconscious mind of its author(s) and redactor(s). To this end, the transpersonal psychological theory of Kenneth Wilber as interpreted by Michael Washburn has been used. Wilber’s inclusive view of religiosity respects all its forms as developmentally appropriate expressions of experiences of the divine which should all be taken seriously. The explicit “absence” of the divine in Song of Songs has been so conspicuous that it has ironically made it more present and led to a greater search for the Ineffable whose whispering and footprints are discernible in relation to the level of consciousness. Exploring the religiosity of Song of Songs in this way then becomes an exercise in being more sensitive to the presence of the divine in all other areas of life as well. Traditional polarities such as sexuality and religiosity are dissolved at the same time and proven to coincide as two aspects of the same experience. Not only does erotic love open one’s eyes to the divine in nature as the body of God, but one also encounters the divine in the body. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Th. (Old Testament)