This dissertation is the application of counterfactual criticism to Shakespearean tragedy—supposing we are to ask, for example, “what if” Hamlet had done the deed, or, “what if” we could somehow disinherit our knowledge of Lear’s madness before reading King Lear. Such readings, mirroring critical practices in history, will loosely be called “counterfactual” readings. The key question to ask is not why tragedies are no longer being written (by writers), but why tragedies are no longer being felt (by readers). Tragedy entails a certain urgency in wanting to imagine an outcome different from the one we are given. Since we cannot change events as they stand, we feel a critical helplessness in dealing with feelings of tragic loss; the critical imperative that follows usually accounts for how the tragedy unfolded. Fleshing out a cause is one way to deal with the trauma of tragedy. But such explanation, in a sense, merely explains tragedy away. The fact that everything turns out so poorly in tragedy suggests that the tragic protagonist was somehow doomed, that he (in the case of Shakespearean tragedy) was the victim of some “tragic flaw,” as though tragedy and necessity go hand in hand. Only by allowing ourselves to imagine other possibilities can we regain the tragic effect, which is to remind ourselves that other outcomes are indeed possible. Tragedy, then, is more readily understood, or felt, as the playing out of contingency. It takes some effort to convince others, even ourselves, that the tragic effect resonates best when accompanied by an understanding that the characters on the page are free individuals. No amount of foreknowledge, on our part or theirs, can save us (or them) from tragedy’s horror.

Depuis l’introduction de la compétence Apprécier les œuvres littéraires (MEQ, 2001) parmi les prescriptions ministérielles en 2001, les enseignants du primaire se sentent souvent démunis pour offrir à leurs élèves un enseignement susceptible de soutenir leur apprentissage. C’est pour répondre à ce besoin que cette recherche doctorale développe un outil qui vise à produire une séquence d’activités qui instaurent une relation significative entre la lecture et l’écriture en ciblant la réponse (Rosenblatt, 1938, 1978). Cette entreprise est menée par l’exploitation du texte littéraire au troisième cycle du primaire grâce aux processus d’exploitation transposer et imiter. Ces processus d’exploitation de Montésinos-Gelet (2016) enrichissent le modèle de compréhension en lecture d’Irwin (1986, 2007). Un réseau littéraire portant sur l’œuvre de littérature jeunesse de Simon Boulerice soutient cette entreprise. L’objectif spécifique de cette recherche vise la création d’un tel outil. Sa validation s’est effectuée en deux temps. Tout d’abord, deux experts de la didactique du français commentent l’outil et un enseignant expert met à l’essai le prototype de l’outil. Puis, trois enseignants experts procèdent à une seconde mise à l’essai d’un prototype amélioré. En outre, la visée de cet objectif spécifique est de soutenir l’enseignement de la compétence Apprécier les œuvres littéraires (MEQ, 2001). La validation de cette visée est menée par les quatre enseignants experts en deux étapes : 1) avant d’utiliser l’outil et 2) après l’utilisation de l’outil, grâce à la grille d’analyse Comp.A.S. (Parmentier et Paquay, 2002). L’approche réflexive préside à la collecte des données. L’analyse de journaux de bord est conduite grâce à quatre des cinq composantes du modèle théorique du multi-agenda de Bucheton et Soulé (2009) à savoir, le pilotage des tâches, l’atmosphère, le tissage et l’étayage. L’analyse des grilles est intrinsèque au modèle de Parmentier et Paquay (2002), puisque conçu par les auteurs pour détailler les ingrédients de la construction de compétences. Les résultats mettent de l’avant 1) le peu de modifications à l’outil ; 2) la prédominance, dans le cadre de l’objectif spécifique, de la notion d’étayage sur celle de tissage ; 3) l’inverse pour la visée de l’objectif spécifique, à savoir la prédominance du tissage sur l’étayage. Une superposition des modèles d’analyse est alors envisagée, ce qui fait ressortir la primauté du tissage et la sous-représentation du processus transposer. Lors de la discussion, les relations constituantes de l’outil, à savoir les relations pédagogiques, de transmission et d’appropriation, sont étudiées et également approfondies grâce aux écrits scientifiques, à la lumière des concepts d’instrumentation, de légitimité, de pratiques déclarées et de croyances enseignantes. En guise de conclusion, la nécessité de poursuivre les pistes didactiques qu’offrent les processus d’exploitation (Montésinos-Gelet, 2016) est mise de l’avant, comme se pencher plus spécifiquement sur la formation professionnelle au regard du processus transposer. En outre, porter une attention particulière sur la notion de désétayage semble pertinent. Enfin, dans un contexte ultérieur, envisager de considérer l’analyse des productions des élèves contribuerait à établir les pistes dégagées dans cette recherche. / Since the introduction of Apprécier les œuvres littéraires (MEQ, 2001) competency among ministerial prescriptions in 2001, elementary school teachers often feel powerless to offer their students an education that can support their learning. It is to meet this need that this doctoral research develops a tool that aims to produce a sequence of activities that establish a significant relationship between reading and writing by targeting the response (Rosenblatt, 1938, 1978). This will be done through the exploitation of the literary text in the third cycle at elementary school, and this, thanks to the exploitation processes transpose and imitate. These processes of exploitation (Montésinos-Gelet, 2016) enrich the reading comprehension model of Irwin (1986, 2007). The work of children’s literature by Simon Boulerice as part of a literary network supports this company. The objective of this research is the creation of such a tool. Its validation was done in two stages. First, two experts in French didactic commented on the tool and an expert teacher tested a prototype of the tool. Next, three expert teachers conducted a second test of an improved prototype. This research also aims to support the teaching of the Apprécier les œuvres littéraires (MEQ, 2001) competency. The research was validated by the four expert teachers in two stages: 1) before using the tool and 2) after with the Comp. A.S. (Parmentier and Paquay, 2002). The reflective approach governs the collection of data. Two analytic approaches were undertaken: first, the analysis of logbooks was conducted through four of the five components of the theoretical model of the teacher multi-agenda (Bucheton and Soulé, 2009), namely, driving tasks, atmosphere, knitting and scaffolding. Next, grid analysis was conducted, which is intrinsic to the Parmentier and Paquay (2002) model, since it was designed by the authors to detail the ingredients of competencies construction. The results highlight 1) the few changes to the tool; (2) the predominance, in the context of the objective, of the notion of scaffolding over knitting; 3) the reverse for the purpose of the target of the objective, namely the predominance of knitting over scaffolding. A superposition of analysis models highlights the primacy of knitting and the under-representation of the process transpose. During the discussion, the constituent relations of the tool, namely the pedagogical, transmission and appropriation relations, and also deepened thanks to the scientific literature, drawing on concepts of instrumentation, legitimacy, declared practices and teaching beliefs. In conclusion, the need to continue the didactic path offered by the Montésinos-Gelet (2016) exploitation processes is recommended, such as looking more specifically at the professional development formation for the process transpose. In addition, paying attention to the notion of de-scaffolding seems relevant. Finally, in a future context, considering the analysis the productions of the students would contribute to pursuing the tracks revealed in this research.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Video games are increasingly recognized as powerful tools for learning in classrooms. However, they are widely neglected in the field of English, particularly as objects worthy of literary study. This project argues the place of video games as objects of literary study and criticism, combining the theories of Espen Aarseth, Ian Bogost, Henry Jenkins, and James Paul Gee. The author of this study presents an approach to literary criticism of video games that he names “player-generated narratives.” Through player-generated narratives, players as readers of video games create loci for interpretative strategies that lead to both decoding and critical inspection of game narratives. This project includes a case-study of the video game Undertale taught in multiple college literature classrooms over the course of a year. Results of the study show that a video game introduced as a work of literature to a classroom increases participation, actives disengaged students, and connects literary concepts across media through multimodal learning. The project concludes with a chapter discussing applications of video games as texts in literature classrooms, including addressing the practical concerns of migrating video games into an educational setting.

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This dissertation is a report on a study about autobiography as genre, focusing on the voice of the white, Afrikaans-speaking woman. The point of departure for this study was a survey of the number of autobiographies written in Afrikaans by these women. With the focus on the limited number of such autobiographies three autobiographies were studied, namely, Met die Boere in die veld (Sarah Raal), My beskeie deel (M.E.R.) and 'n Wonderlike geweld (Elsa Joubert). Within the framework of the complexity systems theory the role of the observer (author/reader) was studied to determine the possibility of demonstrating that when reading/writing an autobiography, some epistemological changes may occur, manifesting as conceptual changes in the mind of the observer. It could be demonstrated that because of women's sensitivity to interpersonal relationships they are capable of acting as unique registers of the complexity of individual existence, while remaining aware of the constant influence, effect and needs of the other. / AFRIKAANS & THEORY OF LIT / MA (AFRIKAANS)

It is arguably clear that the AIDS epidemic has infected and affected our world in radical ways. Although every sector, including Biblical Studies, has come to its ‘senses’, by realising the urgency to respond; there still appears to be inadequate contextual engagement with the biblical text to stimulate empowering and transformative readings of the Bible. This case study is aimed at contributing to scholarship by determining the extent to which the church, the academy and Persons with HIV have adhered to stigmatising interpretations. The theoretical framework used, was the reader response method as applied within the context of African theology because it is socially located. The data was collected through focus groups and personal interviews. The purposive sampling included 70 participants, who were divided into three key categories: academic theologians, university students and persons with HIV. All participants in the study re-read 2 Samuel 13:1-14:33 in order to ascertain if the characters therein could be relevant to the context of AIDS. The overall findings showed that characters from 2 Samuel 13:1-14:33 can provide an empowering message in the context of AIDS. Although this biblical text has often been misused to promote stigma, this study confirmed that it was nonetheless possible to use the same text to unearth redemptive and empowering interpretations. Therefore the study recommends that the move towards an HIV/AIDS Biblical Hermeneutics invites socially engaged scholars along with ordinary readers to read the text together for transformative purposes. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D. Div. (Old Testament)

Text in German / An drei Stellen im Römerbrief verweist Paulus auf die Vergangenheit Israels: auf Abraham in Röm 4,1–25, auf Abrahams Nachkommen, Mose und Pharao in Röm 9,6–18 und auf Elija in Röm 11,1–10. Gegenstand der Untersuchung ist die Bedeutung dieser Verweise auf die Vergangenheit Israels für die Argumentation des Römerbriefs. Nach der Analyse der rhetorischen Situation und der Einordnung der relevanten Stellen in die rhetorische Makrostruktur des Briefs werden alttestamentlicher Kontext und frühjüdische Rezeption der rezipierten Ereignisse untersucht. Auf diesem Hintergrund werden die drei Passagen detailliert betrachtet, indem der Argumentationsgang untersucht und die mögliche rhetorische Wirkung auf die Adressaten aus sechs unterschiedlichen Perspektiven analysiert wird: mit hoher Schriftkenntnis, mit geringer Schriftkenntnis, aus jüdischer, nichtjüdischer, christlicher und stadtrömischer Perspektive. Auf diese Weise können unterschiedliche Aspekte der leserseitigen Rezeption differenziert wahrgenommen werden, bevor sie zu einem Gesamtbild zusammengeführt werden. / New Testament

This thesis synthezises theories from intermedia studies, semiotics, Gestalt psychology, cognitive linguistics, cognitive psychology, cognitive poetics, reader response criticism, narratology and possible worlds-theories adjusted to literary studies. The aim is to provide a transdisciplinary explanatory model of the transaction between text and reader during the reading process resulting in the reader experiencing a mental, virtual world. Departing from Mitchells statement that all media are mixed media, this thesis points to Peirce’s tricotomies of different types of signs and to the relation between representamen (sign), object and interpretant, which states that the interpretant can be developed into a more complex sign, for example from a symbolic to an iconic sign. This is explained in cognitive science by the fact that our perceptions are multimodal. We can easily connect sounds and symbolic signs to images. Our brain is highly active in finding structures and patterns, matching them with structures already stored in memory. Cognitive semantics holds that such structures and schematic mental images form the basis for our understanding of concepts. In cognitive linguistics Lakoff and Johnsons theories of conceptual metaphors show that our bodily experiences are fundamental in thought and language, and that abstract thought is concretized by a metaphorical system grounded in our bodily, spatial experiences. Cognitive science has shown that we build situation models based on what the text describes. These mental models are simultaneously influenced by the reader’s personal world knowledge and earlier experiences. Reader response-theorists emphasize the number of gaps that a text leaves to the reader to fill in, using scripts. Eye tracking research reveals that people use mental imaging both when they are re-describing a previously seen picture and when their re-description is based purely on verbal information about a picture. Mental spaces are small conceptual packets constructed as we think and talk. A story is built up by a large number of such spaces and the viewpoint and focus changes constantly. There are numerous possible combinations and relations of mental spaces. For the reader it is important to separate them as well as to connect them. Mental spaces can also be blended. In their integration network model Fauconnier and Turner describe four types of blending, where the structures of the input spaces are blended in different ways. A similar act of separation and fusion is needed dealing with different diegetic levels and focalizations, the question of who tells and who sees in the text. Ryan uses possible worlds-theories from modal logic to describe fictional worlds as both possible and parallel worlds. While fictional worlds are comparable to possible worlds if seen as mental constructions created within our actual world, they must also be treated as parallel worlds, with their own actual, reference world from which their own logic stems. As readers we must recenter ourselves into this fictional world to be able to deal with states of affairs that are logically impossible in our own actual world. The principle of minimal departure states that during our recentering, we only make the adjustments necessary due to explicit statements in the text.

This dissertation is a report on a study about autobiography as genre, focusing on the voice of the white, Afrikaans-speaking woman. The point of departure for this study was a survey of the number of autobiographies written in Afrikaans by these women. With the focus on the limited number of such autobiographies three autobiographies were studied, namely, Met die Boere in die veld (Sarah Raal), My beskeie deel (M.E.R.) and 'n Wonderlike geweld (Elsa Joubert). Within the framework of the complexity systems theory the role of the observer (author/reader) was studied to determine the possibility of demonstrating that when reading/writing an autobiography, some epistemological changes may occur, manifesting as conceptual changes in the mind of the observer. It could be demonstrated that because of women's sensitivity to interpersonal relationships they are capable of acting as unique registers of the complexity of individual existence, while remaining aware of the constant influence, effect and needs of the other. / AFRIKAANS and THEORY OF LIT / MA (AFRIKAANS)

It is arguably clear that the AIDS epidemic has infected and affected our world in radical ways. Although every sector, including Biblical Studies, has come to its ‘senses’, by realising the urgency to respond; there still appears to be inadequate contextual engagement with the biblical text to stimulate empowering and transformative readings of the Bible. This case study is aimed at contributing to scholarship by determining the extent to which the church, the academy and Persons with HIV have adhered to stigmatising interpretations. The theoretical framework used, was the reader response method as applied within the context of African theology because it is socially located. The data was collected through focus groups and personal interviews. The purposive sampling included 70 participants, who were divided into three key categories: academic theologians, university students and persons with HIV. All participants in the study re-read 2 Samuel 13:1-14:33 in order to ascertain if the characters therein could be relevant to the context of AIDS. The overall findings showed that characters from 2 Samuel 13:1-14:33 can provide an empowering message in the context of AIDS. Although this biblical text has often been misused to promote stigma, this study confirmed that it was nonetheless possible to use the same text to unearth redemptive and empowering interpretations. Therefore the study recommends that the move towards an HIV/AIDS Biblical Hermeneutics invites socially engaged scholars along with ordinary readers to read the text together for transformative purposes. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D. Div. (Old Testament)