In Canada, writers of long fiction have recently begun to employ representations of science and to use scientific theories to construct narratives that investigate issues of class, race, sexuality, faith, truth and the ontological understanding of human existence. This turn towards science in creative works of art suggests that scientific discourse in the early twenty-first century has become a space from which to respond to questions about the search for truth after the rise of poststructuralist theory and postmodern culture. My work investigates this recent turn towards science in contemporary Canadian literature as a way of reevaluating the idea that science is associated with a teleological movement towards human progress, and to analyze how scientific representations re-imagine faith and ethics from a secular perspective. The recent shift towards science in the literature of Canada in English suggests a questioning of social conditions which place the human within epistemological spectrums between truth and fiction, faith and reason, and the individual and the universal. In my dissertation questions related to belief and truth are bound up in a cross-textual study that looks at how Canadian literature reevaluates important debates among theology, art, and science in order to access a humanist interpretation of different possible realities. My dissertation investigates: The Bone Sharps (2007) by Tim Bowling; Curiosity: A Love Story (2010) by Joan Thomas; The Origin of Species (2008) by Nino Ricci; The Memory Artists (2004) by Jeffrey Moore; Player One: What is to Become of Us (2010) by Douglas Coupland; Atmospheric Disturbances (2008) by Rivka Galchen, and The Evolution of Inanimate Objects: The Life and Collected Works of Thomas Darwin (1857-1879) (2010) by Harry Karlinsky. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2012-01-26 11:50:12.999

The topic of this diploma thesis is ?Physiognomically we have still been passers - by. Travelling as an intercultural experience in the work of Christoph Ransmayr?. This thesis is divided into seven basic parts. The first four chapters describe theoretical background of the thesis which is the Postmodernism, the Philosophy of the Postmodernism, the Interculturality and the Theory of Essays. The next chapter reports about the poetics of the narration and the aim of the last two parts is to analyze the books "Geständnisse eines Touristen" and "Der Weg nach Surabaya". The ambition of this diploma thesis is to research the relationship of Christoph Ransmayr to travelling and search for the influences of the travelling poetics in his two concrete books.

Agriculture plays a major role in development, as it creates jobs, develops the economy and reduces poverty. An important drawback in agriculture in South Africa is access to agricultural land and other agricultural resources by African farmers. Many African farmers still own small units of land, which are still mostly used for subsistence farming. These racial inequalities in the agricultural sector date back to colonial and apartheid eras. During the apartheid era, government policies separated white farmers from black farmers resulting in an unequal spatial distribution of farming and development in the country. The post-apartheid government that came into power in 1994 was committed to the eradication of racial legislation and implemented new agricultural policies. Twenty years later many inequalities still exit within the agricultural sector. There is a need to investigate the social and spatial inequalities in the emerging farming section. Since the Limpopo province is one of the poorest provinces in South Africa, consisting of large areas of former homelands, the aim of this research is to investigate and describe the impact of the implementation of agricultural policies on the spatial distribution of the emerging farming sector in the Mopani District of the Limpopo province. This research was done within the framework of the post-modernism paradigm. The study used mostly qualitative data but some quantitative data and methods were also used. Primary data was collected from sampled emerging farmers in the Mopani district, some officials from the local municipality and one provincial official. Evidence from analysed data indicated that the uneven spatial distribution of farms still exists despite numerous policies and programmes implemented by government through its provinces, and local and district municipalities. Structurally there is a lack of proper coordination, inadequate provision of both human and material resources, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of policies and programmes are some contributory factors. It is recommended that policies be implemented that strategically target investment and infrastructural development to reduce poverty, unemployment and uneven spatial distribution of farms in the Mopani district municipalities in the Limpopo province. / Geography / 1 online resource (xvi, 128 leaves) : color maps / D. Phil. (Geography)