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This thesis, drawing from the Gothic paradigm, attempts to complicate and supplement the revisionist reading of Patrick McCabe¡¦s The Butcher Boy (1992). The novel tells the murder story of Francie Brady, a troubled Irish boy who slaughters his Anglicized neighbor like a pig. Critics have aligned the novel with the revisionist attempt to debunk nationalist meta-narrative. They have also associated the sensational plotline and grotesque imageries in the novel with the Gothic tradition. Revisionism and Gothicism, therefore, are two established reading strategies to The Butcher Boy. Both ideas, however, are used by critics with certain unease, for both terms are under much critical debate. Moreover, in the end of the novel, McCabe astutely eschews moral judgment on Francie¡¦s horrific deed. Francie¡¦s first-person narrative also allows the reader to sympathize with the young murderer. In this regard, McCabe keeps a sympathetic undertone in the murder story, which a simplistic revisionist reading cannot fully account for. This thesis, bringing the two critical paradigms together, argues that McCabe¡¦s use of Gothicism is crucial to understanding his complicated re-visioning of Ireland in the 1960s. Through historicizing the Gothic fiction, the thesis underlines the idea of ¡§antiquarianism¡¨ to explicate the historical background of the novel¡XIreland at the turn of the 1960s when the Republic underwent a transformation of national ethos, from conservative nationalism to modernization. I contend that while the novel is critical of the waning nationalism, it is also suspicious of Ireland¡¦s relentless modernizing project. From a cultural dimension of the Gothic, the thesis foregrounds the relation between Gothic imagination and racial discourse. In this light, I intend to demonstrate that the recurrent image of ¡§pig¡¨ in the novel is a Gothicized racial stereotype of the Irish people. Through Francie¡¦s struggle with the pig image, the thesis examines Irish people¡¦s negotiation with their often derogatory racial stereotype. Finally, resorting to the Gothic device of ¡§double bind,¡¨ I attempt to expound McCabe¡¦s underlying sympathy for the homicidal and suicidal boy, who is depicted as both victim and murderer, both pig and butcher.

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This paper puts forth the thesis that free will skeptics should be motivated to develop revisionisteliminativist accounts of free will. As a starting point for this argument, it discusses and expands upon Shaun Nichols (2007) modeling of our reactive attitudes in narrow and widepsychological profiles. Utilizing this descriptive and prescriptive thesis, the paper then puts forthtwo main claims: 1. that revisionism is likely to produce our best descriptive accounts of free willbeliefs, and 2. that it is plausible that eliminativist revisionist is likely to produce our best prescriptive account of free will, as it is can capture some of the value in our “narrowpsychological profile” in ways its conventional counterpart is unable to. It is then argued that these two claims, in combination with the normative influence of free will beliefs, should provide sufficient motivations to develop eliminativist revisionist accounts of free will.

The last three decades have produced a number of publications devoted to the revision of Athanasius of Alexandria's "Arian Controversy". The fruits of this re-evaluation highlight the complexities of post-Nicene theology long ignored in the shadow of Athanasius' crude "Arian" versus "orthodox" binary. It is now widely accepted in patristic studies that "Arian" was not a self-designation nor was the presbyter who lent his name to the heresy all that crucial a figure. A handful of scholars have moved beyond these helpful developments to revise the "Arian Controversy" out of existence. For some, "Arianism" was a rhetorical construct of a power hungry and abusive bishop who indiscriminately branded his personal opponents. Likewise, this revisionist thesis dismisses the activity of any "Eusebians", opting for the complete rejection of conflicting "parties". What remains is not alternate theologies and a genuine dispute, but a phantasmal "Athanasian Arianism". This dissertation analyzes this re-shaping of the post-Nicene years and offers a modest remonstrance to the most extreme aspects of the "Arian Controversy" revision. The study does not want to return to a place of Athanasian hagiography, but rather argue that "Arian" served as a useful polemical heuristic to identify a distinct theology that the bishop (and others) found unacceptable. After outlining the erosion of the "Arian Controversy", the thesis marshals evidence supporting a substantive theological dispute over which divergent networks clashed. In this vein, the work wants to recapture a genuine historical theology in that not everything is reducible to politics. The thesis argues that there is a responsible way of reading Athanasius' charged polemic.

According to the annual report of the BIS from 2017, Czech republic is a target of Russian hybrid strategy. Alternative and disinformation media can be one part of this strategy, because of their spreading of propaganda and disinformation, which jeopardize strategic interests of the Czech republic. This diploma thesis has two main aims in this framework. The first aim is a description of the czech alternative and disinformation media scene in the context of Russian hybrid strategy. The second aim is to recognize motivations, which lead to this kind of revisionist activities. The first aim is based on the analysis of particular disinformation media in the context of information about Russian hybrid strategy and Russian strategic interests. The second aim is based on semi-structured interwievs with representatives of alternative media.

This research examines the relationship between grand power strategies of revisionism and status quoism and behavior toward failed states in the Middle East. This research is driven by four interrelated questions: Do the grand strategies determine the behavior of regional powers (expansion or non-expansion) toward failed states? Do revisionist powers expand while status quo powers donot? Do status quo powers balance against revisionist powers when such expansion occurs? Do revisionist powers balance against each other over failed state(s)? Finally, do revisionist and status quo powers align together to balance against other revisionist power(s)? To examine these questions, this dissertation proposes four hypotheses. First, revisionist powers, not status quo powers, expand into failed states by taking advantage of the power vacuum created by state failure. Secondly, since this expansion by revisionist powers threatens the existing power distribution, status quo powers take balancing measures against the expanding power(s). Third, revisionist powers are also expected to balance against each other over failed states if they fail to agree on dividing the spoils. Fourth, when revisionist powers balance against each other, alliance is likely to develop between revisionist and status quo powers against the most threatening expanding power. This research examines the behavior of six regional powers of Egypt, Iran, Israel, Saudi, Syria (1970-2010), and Turkey toward four cases of state failure of Yemen 1962-1970, Lebanon 1975-1989, Yemen 2004-2020, and Syria 2011-2020).

WEAVING PAST INTO PRESENT revolves around contradictory feelings towards, on the one hand, the lure of a mythic past, and on the other hand its absurdity and potential danger. This is done by stating that craft and weaving is inherently conservative, closely connected to nostalgia and claimed as something more authentic and pristine. In continuation used in the creation of an idealized and romanticized past generating a separation between an “us and them”. These problems are created by the main quest and question of this work, to weave the past into present and then ask; which past is woven into the present presence of the tapestries? The paper then continues to describe the methods and considerations used and made in this time-translation. Looking at the sketch and the collage as ways of materializing and enmeshing the transient flow of time through cacophonies of ephemera and threads. Concluding that I, just as the ones creating mythic pasts, am not weaving a past at all. But merely weaving a sketch trying to highlight the feeling and fear of loss apparent today in encountering the accelerated present, the eerie future, and the desirable progressive changes towards equality / WEAVING PAST INTO PRESENT rör sig kring motsägelsefulla känslor gentemot å ena sidan, lockelsen i ett mytiskt förflutet, och å andra sidan dess absurditet och potentiella fara. Detta görs genom att påstå att konsthantverk och vävning i sig är konservativt, nära kopplat till nostalgi och ansett som något mer autentiskt och ursprungligt. Fortsättningsvis används det i skapandet av ett idealiserat och romantiserat förflutet som skapar en separation mellan ett “vi och dom”. Dessa problem har uppstått tillsammans med arbetets huvudsakliga mål och frågeställning, att väva det förflutna in i nuet och fråga sig; vilket förflutet är det som vävs till den nuvarande närvaron av bildvävarna?  Uppsatsen fortsätter sedan med att beskriva de metoder och överväganden som använts och gjorts i denna tidsöversättning. Genom att betrakta skissen och collaget som sätt att materialisera och sammanfoga tidens förgängliga flöde genom kakofonier av det efemära och trådar. Slutfattningsvis att jag, precis som de som skapar mytiska förflutna, inte alls väver ett förflutet. Utan bara väver en skiss som försöker belysa den känsla och rädsla för förlust som är uppenbar idag i mötet med det accelererande nuet, den kusliga framtiden och de önskvärda progressiva förändringarna mot jämlikhet.

Historians of the early space age have established a norm whereby President Eisenhower's actions are judged solely as a response to the launch of the Sputnik satellite, and are indicative of a passive, negative presidency. His low-key actions are seen merely as a prelude to the US triumph in space in the 1960s. This study presents an alternative view showing that Eisenhower’s space policy was not a reaction to the heavily-propagandised Soviet satellite launches, or even the effect they caused in the US political and military elites, but the continuation of a strategic track. In so doing, it also contributes to the reassessment of the wider Eisenhower presidency. Having assessed the development of three intersecting discourses: Eisenhower as president; the genesis of the US space programme; and developments in Cold War US reconnaissance, this thesis charts Eisenhower’s influence both on the ICBM and reconnaissance programmes and his support for a non-military approach to the International Geophysical Year. These actions provided the basis for his space policy for the remainder of his presidency. The following chapters show that Sputnik had no impact on the policies already in place and highlight Eisenhower’s pragmatic activism in enabling the implementation of these policies by a carefully-chosen group of expert ‘helping hands’. This study delivers a new interpretation of Eisenhower’s actions. It argues that he was operating on a parallel track that started with the Castle H-bomb tests; developed through the CIA's reconnaissance efforts and was distilled in the Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. This set a policy for US involvement in outer space that matched Eisenhower’s desire for a balanced budget and fundamental belief in maintaining peace. By challenging the orthodox view, this paper shows that President Eisenhower’s space policy actions were strategic steps that provided a logical next step for both civilian and military space programmes at the completion of the International Geophysical Year.