This dissertation will explore the way Philip treats puppets and masks as pseudo-sacred objects in order to maintain control in Angela Carter’s work The Magic Toyshop. To show the implications of the pseudo-sacred, I will use Violence and the Sacred by Rene Girard that examines the way primitive cultures are able to maintain order through particular religious beliefs and collective violence against a scapegoat. My critical reading of the text will look closely at how Philip uses the pseudo-sacred to build up the community. When the pseudo-sacred is finally called into question the community is threatened. Although Philip attempts to deflect blame onto the scapegoat Melanie, he fails as there is no social buy-in, leading to the destruction of the community. While the house is burned down destroying the puppets and masks, presumably along with Philip, the pseudo-sacred still has the chance of being perpetuated through Finn’s own obsession with power and control.

This work is a comparative study of the influence of the pan-Africanist discourse of ethnographers Dr. Jean Price-Mars of Haiti and Dr. Arthur Ramos of Brazil, and its impact on the respective literatures and cinemas of the two nations. Beginning in the first quarter of the 20th Century, and stemming from a developing auto-ethnography undertaken by the two scholars, a growing concern over defining cultural identity inspired a generation of writers to appropriate ethnographic methodology and apply it to their fictional works. The discourse of representation, which looked to popular sources for inspiration (Haitian Indigénisme and Brazilian Regionalismo, or which rebelled against literary conventions (modernists of both nations), gave rise to a contentious dispute over a State-sanctioned national identity versus a cultural identity spearheaded by the literati. In looking at the battle over signification, I examine the development of an ethnopoetics in the works of such writers as René Depestre, Jean-Baptiste Cinéas, Jacques Roumain, Jorge Amado, Rachel de Queiroz, Mário de Andrade and others, that is persistently used to subvert and oppose the official discourse of the State and its allies. Following the model provided by the Indigénistes, Regionalists and Modernists, and utilizing the framework of French filmmaker Jean Rouch's conceptualization of ethnofictions, the final chapter of the dissertation examines the blurring of the lines between narrative cinema and documentary as a counterdiscursive strategy in Haitian and Brazilian films.

The aircraft engine industry is constantly striving to increase the operating temperature and stresses in hot section engine components, a goal that can only be achieved by accurately modeling and predicting damage mechanisms of potential engine materials. The objective of this work is to develop physically-based models that are able to accurately predict the high temperature crack initiation behavior of Rene 88DT, a commonly used aircraft engine disk material, under low cycle fatigue (LCF) conditions. Two different microstructural conditions were produced by subjecting the material to two separate heat treatments; the heat treatments were selected so that grain size remains the same but the size distribution of the strengthening gamma prime precipitate is different between the two conditions. LCF experiments were performed on specimens from each condition at 650C and R = -1 under strain ranges of 0.66%, 0.75%, and 1.5%. A third microstructural condition with a similar grain size but different gamma prime size distribution was tested by another source at 650C and R = 0 under strain ranges of 0.66%, 0.79%, 0.94%, and 1.14%. The results indicate that there are two competing crack initiation mechanisms: initiation from a microstructural defect such as an inclusion and initiation from slip band cracking. A physically based model, in the form of a modified Fatemie-Socie parameter, is utilized to predict the crack initiation mechanism and approximate cycles to failure based on the microstructure of the material and applied strain. Long crack growth models are also developed to model crack growth from subsurface inclusions and surface semi-elliptical cracks. These models predict that long crack growth is a small portion of the total fatigue life in these conditions, which suggests that the majority of the fatigue life is spent initiating a dominant fatigue crack.

This thesis aims to discuss the heroic and the monstrous aspects of Beowulf. In the heroic part, I will discuss Beowulf as a culture hero and a mythological hero; in the monstrous part, I will discuss Beowulf as a monster-man and monsters as man-monsters. Beowulf is about a hero who intends to prove himself by killing malicious monsters. The victory over the villains further brings Beowulf the character to the Geatish throne, though Beowulf¡¦s obsession with glory finally results in the fall of his kingdom. Beowulf¡¦s rise represents the rise of the Geatish kingdom and meritocracy; and his fall also triggers the fall of the kingdom. Beowulf¡¦s journey to the Danish kingdom also resembles Joseph Campbell¡¦s theories of mythological heroes. Beowulf has been regarded as a hero for decades, but however heroic, Beowulf embodies some monstrous tendencies. His rationale to kill repugnant monsters and gain glory in return does not work on the combat with Grendel¡¦s mother and the fire dragon, since the ogress kills Aeschere in order to avenge her only son¡¦s death; and the dragon causes strife because of the theft. The monsters, on the other hand, are somewhat heroic since they know the ethics of vengeance.

No description available.

In 1972, with the publication of Violence and the Sacred, René Girard makes the stunning assertion that violence is the foundation of culture. Humanity’s innate urges for competition and rivalry entrap us in cycles of violence, which left alone would find no resolution. Girard calls the cause of this rivalry “mimetic desire”, and the only way out of this deeply embedded vengeance is to create a scapegoat to take the blame, reconciling the conflicting parties. Girard asserts that the biblical texts uniquely reveal the mechanisms of mimetic rivalry and scapegoating, and even demystify sacrificial rituals as nothing more than sacrilized “good” violence to keep a fragile peace. This revelation, according to Girard, can finally allow us to remove violence from the sacred. Much scholarship has been devoted to Girard’s theory, in particular how it offers a viable alternative to the still-dominant sacrificial theology of the cross. But there is little scholarship on the connection between Girard and Judaism; and Girard’s own work leaves us with a picture of Judaism that is at best incomplete, and at worst unable to find an answer to disturbing violence permeating the scriptures. This dissertation brings the Hebrew Bible into dialogue with Girard’s ideas in a systematic fashion to assert, contra Girard, that the Jewish revelation is a full, effective and even practical expression of his theory. After an overview of Girard’s work in the first chapter, the dissertation examines three Jewish “vaccines” to the mimetic disease as follows: the Birkhat ha-Banim (“The Blessing of the Children”); the reading of the Book of Esther on Purim; and the reading of Jonah on Yom Kippur. The conclusion to the dissertation asserts, drawing on these three demonstrations, the following points: 1) Rene Girard gives an important and clarifying lens to aid us in finding a new way to talk about, understand, and unify Jewish scripture and ritual; 2) a Jewish perspective can help flesh out what a different “revelation” of Girard’s mimetic desire looks like—even providing prescriptions to curtail this desire; and 3) positive mimesis is possible, and there are Hebrew examples of it free of originary violence. The final chapter addresses certain challenges in reconciling Girard with Judaism, moving toward a sincere Jewish Girardianism that will harmonize with the central views of the tradition.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T17:27:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Joceval Andrade Bitencourt.pdf: 1579792 bytes, checksum: a602123443c5882e684536beb6b983df (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-14 / The present work attempts to show the possibilities and limits of the cartesian metaphysics. It has as its main aim, but not the only one, to investigate the possibility of assining to the philosophy of Descartes the posture through which the death of God is inaugurated in western culture. The final result, either in science or in cartesian metaphysics, is the assertion of man as the centre around which all knowledge has to gravitate, knowledge that has in natural reason s authonomy its original cause. The cogito affirming, through the fundaments of the method inspired by mathematical laws, the first truth, subordinates all the other truthes, either about God or about the world, to this first one. Descartes has excluded God from his science. This last one proceeds, notwithstanding any instances external to natural reason s order. If there is a God in cartesian metaohysics, it is not possible to identify him to the Christian God, transcedent 8 mistery, who reveals himself to man, who receives him in faith. The cartesian methaphysics God is only a logical principle, a rational fundament, required by the rules of the method, to which he is subordinated. Thus, the God whom Descartes presents to the world through his metaphysics, is already not the God of religion; he is, according to Pascal s expression, the God of the wise and of the philosophers. The death of God appears, them, as a direct consequence of man s affirmation; legitimating reference of all true konowledge, mainly that which claims to present it self as science. It would be in cartesian metaphysics, in ist own structuration, even if this was not Descartes own explicit intention, that, for the first time, the death of God happened in western philosophical thought / O presente trabalho buscou mostrar as possibilidades e os limites da metafísica cartesiana, tendo como alvo principal, mas não único, investigar se é possível creditar à filosofia de Descartes a postura através da qual se inaugura na cultura ocidental a "morte de Deus". O resultado final, seja da ciência, seja da metafísica cartesiana, é a afirmação do homem como centro em torno do qual deve gravitar todo conhecimento, que tem na autonomia da razão natural sua causa originária. O cogito ao afirmar, através dos fundamentos do método inspirado nas leis da matemática, a primeira verdade, subordina todas as outras, quer sobre Deus, quer sobre o mundo, a essa primeira verdade. Descartes excluiu Deus de sua ciência; essa se processa à revelia de qualquer instância exterior à ordem da razão natural. Se há um Deus na metafísica cartesiana, não é possível identificá-lo com o Deus cristão: mistério transcendente, que se revela e se dá a conhecer ao homem que o acolhe na fé. O Deus da metafísica cartesiana é tão somente um princípio lógico, um fundamento racional, requerido pelas normas do método, ao qual encontra-se subordinado. Assim, o Deus que Descartes apresenta ao mundo, através de sua metafísica, já não é o Deus da religião; é, segundo a expressão de Pascal, o Deus dos sábios e dos filósofos. A morte de Deus se apresenta então como uma conseqüência direta da afirmação do homem, referência legitimadora de todo conhecimento verdadeiro, principalmente daquele que busca apresentar-se 7 como ciência. Deste modo, a morte de Deus estaria diretamente vinculada à filosofia de Descartes. Teria sido na metafísica cartesiana, em sua própria estruturação, que, mesmo não sendo essa a intenção explícita de Descartes, a morte de Deus teve lugar pela primeira vez na história do pensamento filosófico ocidental

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T14:16:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Celia da Costa Loreto.pdf: 1051326 bytes, checksum: 27ffeb2e1b536fb9521b8fbebf94e48e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2001-08-10 / This work analyses Descartes different criteria for geometrical acceptability and representation of curves, as they are found in his book La Géométrie, taking into account the historical and scientific contexts of the first half of the seventeenth century, when the work of Descartes was written. The main purpose is to find out what Descartes regarded as a sufficient representation of a curve; which ways of representing curves he used; and which curves were geometrically admissible or inadmissible, according to his selection criteria. This dissertation first discusses Descartes Jesuitic education and the influence of scholastic thinking over his thought. Next, it describes some important steps in the historical development of algebra and geometry, and the improvement of the algebraic notation from the late fifteenth century up to the appearance of Descartes Géométrie. The analysis of the Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii helped to elucidate the meaning of the constructive procedure of Cartesian geometry. It was found that Descartes classification of curves was a direct outcome from the general principles of the Cartesian analytic method, as it appears in the Regulae. Descartes did not explicitly characterize geometrical curves as those admitting algebraic equations. He used two criteria for geometrical acceptability of curves in the Géométrie, namely the algebraic criterion and the instrumental one, the latter being grounded on the use of instruments by which the curve could be traced. Nevertheless, Descartes was seemingly aware that the classification of curves according to the degree of their equations and the classification of geometrical problems according to the way they are built are not equivalent / Este estudo analisa os critérios de aceitabilidade geométrica e a representação de curvas, presentes no ensaio La Géométrie de René Descartes, considerando o contexto histórico e científico em que essa obra foi escrita, na primeira metade do século XVII. O objetivo principal é verificar o que Descartes considerava como sendo uma representação suficiente de uma curva; que tipos de representação de curvas ele usou e quais curvas deviam ou não ser aceitas em geometria, de acordo com os seus critérios de seleção. A dissertação discute primeiramente a educação jesuítica recebida por Descartes e a influência exercida pelo escolasticismo na sua formação intelectual. Depois descreve a simplificação da notação algébrica e alguns passos importantes do desenvolvimento histórico da álgebra e da geometria, desde o final do século XV até o surgimento de La Géométrie. O exame das Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii serviu ao objetivo de esclarecer o significado do processo construtivo da geometria cartesiana. Resulta que a classificação cartesiana das curvas é conseqüência direta dos princípios gerais do método analítico cartesiano, tal como foi exposto nas Regulae. Descartes não definiu explicitamente como geométricas apenas as curvas que admitissem equações algébricas. Em La Géométrie ele fez uso de dois critérios, o algébrico e o instrumental, sendo o último baseado no uso de instrumentos com os quais a curva pode ser traçada. No entanto, Descartes parece ter percebido que não há equivalência entre a classificação das curvas de acordo com o grau de suas equações e a classificação dos problemas geométricos segundo a facilidade de sua construção

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-03-17Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:32:55Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 alselmi_al_me_arafcl.pdf: 284676 bytes, checksum: 9d9251477b103be2a6f980c465fffe58 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / René Char (1907-1988) deu início à sua vida literária no momento de uma estreita ligação com o movimento surrealista, no início da década de 30. No entanto, logo o poeta desligou-se do grupo liderado por Breton, engajou-se na Resistência Francesa e trilhou um caminho próprio que o levou a produzir uma poesia única, marcada pela associação de técnicas surrealistas a um certo rigor formal, dois elementos aparentemente opostos, mas cuja união produziu textos de intenso efeito poético. Char deixou uma vasta produção poética, ainda pouco estudada (sobretudo no Brasil), fato que se deve à difícil compreensão da obra do poeta, considerada muito hermética. Entretanto, ela tem despertado cada vez mais o interesse da crítica e, pouco a pouco, vem conquistando o espaço merecido: começa a transpor os limites territoriais e lingüísticos, fazendo-se conhecida e acolhida pelos espíritos agraciados pela receptividade e empenho na decifração de mensagens poéticas. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo o estudo da estética de René Char acompanhado da tradução comentada de Fenêtres dormantes et porte sur le toit e da análise das dificuldades encontradas durante a prática tradutória. A análise da obra centra-se no estudo de questões estilísticas, formais, bem como na herança surrealista presente na obra do poeta. A pesquisa desenvolveu-se em duas grandes frentes de estudo que deram os subsídios para o trabalho de tradução. A primeira delas centrou-se no estudo de textos sobre teoria da poesia, sobre história literária do século XX e sobre a obra de René Char. A segunda etapa centrou-se no estudo teórico da tradução, possibilitando um aprofundamento das principais questões envolvidas no ato de traduzir tanto no seu aspecto teórico quanto prático. / René Char (1907-1988) began his literary life at the time of close liaison with the surrealist movement at the beginning of the 30’s. However, once the poet is disconnected from the group led by Breton, engaged in the French Resistance and decided to work by his own, which made him produce a singular poetry, marked by the association of surrealistic techniques and formal traces – two opposite elements, whose mixture produced texts of intense poetic effect. Char left a huge poetic work, yet little studied (especially in Brazil) a fact which is due to the difficulty of understanding his work, considered very hermetic. Neverthless, his work has increasingly aroused the interest of the critical and, little by little, has been conquering the space deserved: it begins to cross the boundaries and language, making itself known and accepted by the spirits given by the receptiveness and commitment to the deciphering of the poetic messages. This research aims at studying the esthetics of René Char by the commented translation of Fenêtres dormantes et porte sur le toit and analysis of the difficulties faced during the translation work. The analysis of this book focuses on the study of the esthetic and formal issues and on the surreal legacy in the poet’s work. The survey was developed in two main fronts of study that allowed the translation work. The first one focused on the study of texts on the theory of poetry, literary history in the twentieth century and René Char’s work. The second one focused on the translation theory, what made possible a deeper knowledge about the main questions concerned with the translation act, both theoretical and practical. At the end of this work, we not only demonstrate the importance of Char as one of the most significant poets of the twentieth century, but also open the possibility of presenting to the Brazilian reader an author still little known and poorly translated.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-09-13Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:13:57Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 andrade_eb_me_mar.pdf: 681094 bytes, checksum: 49c93f89e5c6241300b80b9db5014037 (MD5) / L’objectif de cette étude est d’analyser le statut de la conscience et du corps chez Merleau- Ponty en prenant comme guide pour son interprétation de la pensée de Descartes. Nous comprenons surtout que l’étude des thèses merleaypontyenne, celles qui critiquent et problématisent les conceptions de la conscience soutenues par l’ontologie dualiste de Descartes, peut contribuer à une formulation d’une nouvelle approche de l’esprit qui ne reproduise pas les mêmes problèmes de cette ontologie, plus spécifiquement ceux qui ont du rapport avec l’interaction causale esprit/corps. L’intention est de montrer comment Merleau- Ponty construit sa lecture sur le dualisme cité et comment lui, il fait son opposition à ce fondement. Pour en faire nous nous arrêterons principalement sur les references à Descartes présentées dans la Phénoménologie de la perception et dans La structure du comportement en proposant, dans cette mesure, des subsides pour une possible lecture de l’oevre Le visible et l’invisible / O objetivo do presente trabalho é analisar o estatuto da consciência e do corpo no pensamento de Maurice Merleau-Ponty, tomando como fio condutor a sua interpretação do pensamento de Descartes. Em especial, entendemos que um estudo das teses merleau-pontianas, que criticam e problematizam as concepções de consciência alicerçadas sobre a ontologia dualista de Descartes, pode contribuir para a formulação de uma nova abordagem da mente que não reproduza os mesmos problemas desta ontologia, mais especificamente aqueles relacionados à interação causal mente/corpo. Desta forma, a intenção é mostrar como Merleau-Ponty constrói a leitura sobre o dualismo supracitado em sua obra, e como pretende objetar tal fundamento. Para tal, deter-nos-emos principalmente nas referências a Descartes presentes na Fenomenologia da percepção e também no apresentado em A estrutura do comportamento propondo, nesta medida, subsídios para uma possível leitura de O visível e o invisível