While the gothic in its various interpretations is well established in contemporary culture, the traditional form, rooted in its late eighteenth century literary conventions, would seem to have little relevance for theatre audiences today. A reappraisal of the convention's foundations, however, offers the playwright opportunities to explore new narratives in which the tradition can be re-inflected in the present. An analysis of the writing of my play Burn, which presents as a contemporary family drama, will demonstrate how the narrative can be structured with deliberate reference to the established tropes of the classic gothic mode. It will be shown that a re-engagement with the tradition in concert with new interpretations of the gothic can reinvigorate the form as a mode of playwriting practice.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-02-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:05:46Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 sobreira_rs_dr_sjrp.pdf: 1171082 bytes, checksum: 2a7f70bebe5c1bffdb71173cf053064a (MD5) / A presente tese consiste em um estudo de técnicas narrativas como a indeterminação (cf. ECO, 1969; HASSAN, 1987) e a fragmentação (cf. CURRIE, 1987; RUBENSTEIN, 1994; CALABRESE, 1999, p.84-90) em contos publicados nos livros Great Dream of Heaven (2002), do autor norte-americano Sam Shepard, e Mínimos, múltiplos, comuns (2003), do escritor brasileiro João Gilberto Noll. Com base em teorias associadas ao pós-modernismo (HASSAN, 1987; McHALE, 1987; JAMESON, 1991; VATTIMO, 2007), analisamos os procedimentos artístico-formais mobilizados pelos escritores como, por exemplo, usos criativos de processos paratáticos, indeterminações narrativas, desordens espaçotemporais e dissociações de imagens e ideias. As análises empreendidas orientam-se no sentido de demonstrar como as narrativas atípicas de Noll e Shepard instalam e subvertem expectativas e convenções do gênero conto. Além disso, esse estudo objetiva não apenas refletir sobre uma possível emergência do conto pós-moderno, mas também examinar como as estratégias narrativas mobilizadas pelos autores sugerem a fragmentação e a multiplicação de identidades (cf. HALL, 1987, 1992; BAUMAN, 2004) do sujeito ficcional no âmbito da contemporaneidade. / This dissertation presents a study of narrative techniques such as indeterminacy (cf. ECO, 1969; HASSAN, 1987) and fragmentation (cf. CURRIE, 1987; RUBENSTEIN, 1994; CALABRESE, 1999, p.84-90) in short stories published in the books Great Dream of Heaven (2002), by the American author Sam Shepard, and Mínimos, múltiplos, comuns (2003), by the Brazilian writer João Gilberto Noll. Based on theories on postmodernism (HASSAN, 1987; McHALE, 1987; JAMESON, 1991; VATTIMO, 2007), this work analyzes artistic and formal procedures employed by the authors such as, for instance, their creative use of paratatic processes, narrative indeterminacies, space-time disorders, and dissociations of images and ideas. These analyses aim at showing how the atypical narratives of Noll and Shepard both use and subvert expectancies and conventions of the short story as a genre. Besides, the objective of the present study is not only to reflect upon a possible emergence of postmodern short story, but also to examine how the narrative strategies deployed by the authors suggest fragmentation and multiplication of identities (cf. HALL, 1987, 1992; BAUMAN, 2004) of the fictional subject in the contemporary world.

Sam Shepard was a playwright who used a variety of stories and styles to explore and understand the country he called home, The United States of America. This thesis launches the process of understanding how Greek tragedy had influenced the work of Shepard in his explorations by looking at Shepard’s final play before his passing, A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations). Using the concept of miasma that has been established as important to Greek tragedy to analyze A Particle of Dread and its primary source work, Oedipus Rex, this thesis reveals the extent of the ancient tragic form’s presence in Shepard’s last play. To do so, I approach the work in a combination of theory and practice. I first use dramaturgical analysis of Oedipus Rex, to explain what tragic role miasma has in Sophocles’ play. This is followed by a mirrored dramaturgical analysis of A Particle of Dread to uncover and compare what place miasma (and therefore tragedy) has in Shepard’s play. Following this is the review and analysis of five performance workshops exploring scenes of Shepard’s play which used a combination of performance and lighting to physicalize that dramaturgical work so as to further it and hopefully reveal new aspects through their embodiment. This dramaturgical and practical work results in the discovery of how and to what end Shepard has chosen to use the Grecian content style to analyze and commentate on Western society. The work also offers the chance to compare how the engagement with pollution has changed from the characters of 5th Century BCE Greece to 2014 America, and what that might mean for 2020 onwards.

The chemical master equation, formulated on the Markov assumption of underlying chemical kinetics, offers an accurate stochastic description of general chemical reaction systems on the mesoscopic scale. The chemical master equation is especially useful when formulating mathematical models of gene regulatory networks and protein-protein interaction networks, where the numbers of molecules of most species are around tens or hundreds. However, solving the master equation directly suffers from the so called "curse of dimensionality" issue. This thesis first tries to study the numerical properties of the master equation using existing numerical methods and parallel machines. Next, approximation algorithms, namely the adaptive aggregation method and the radial basis function collocation method, are proposed as new paths to resolve the "curse of dimensionality". Several numerical results are presented to illustrate the promises and potential problems of these new algorithms. Comparisons with other numerical methods like Monte Carlo methods are also included. Development and analysis of the linear Shepard algorithm and its variants, all of which could be used for high dimensional scattered data interpolation problems, are also included here, as a candidate to help solve the master equation by building surrogate models in high dimensions. / Ph. D.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In this study, Janis Edwards and Carol Winkler’s method, based on Michael McGee’s ideograph, is applied to non-discursive forms in order to understand the extent to which these images can be understood as a representative form functioning ideographically. Artifacts for analysis include the 2008 Shepard Fairey Obama “PROGRESS” and “HOPE” images, related campaign graphics, and parodies, political and non-political, humorous and serious. Literature on visual rhetoric, the ideograph, and extensions of McGee’s ideograph to visual forms was reviewed. When the method was applied to the artifacts, the Obama “HOPE” image was found to be an example of a representative form. Additionally, the representative form was demonstrated to function ideographically in the parodied examples analyzed in this thesis. Opportunities for further study on the visual ideograph and additional artifacts were proposed.

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The development of graffiti into an accepted art form, street art, is a cause of concern for South African property owners. The current position in South African property law regarding the original acquisition of ownership suggests that the creation of street art on movable property belonging to another could result in the transfer of ownership. Ownership of the movable may transfer via accessio to the street artist provided that the artwork changes the nature of the movable. This would occur even if the street artist does not act in good faith because bona fides is not a requirement for the original acquisition of ownership via accessio. This anomaly requires that the South African law on accession in the case of pictura be developed such that good faith be a requirement for the transfer of ownership in this format. With the development and growing popularity of the art form the likelihood of this legal anomaly is becoming a greater possibility. Indeed, the popularity of British street artist, Banksy, has provided numerous examples of contested ownership, albeit within English law. Banksy artworks are collectable and financially valuable. Consequently, not only are they desirable but many of his street artworks are considered to be examples of British cultural heritage and as such may be worthy of protection and preservation. These cases highlight the growing need in South Africa to clearly identify who South African street artworks belong to and, to identify any South African street art that warrants cultural heritage protection. The legislation regarding the protection of South African cultural heritage resources has not yet been extended to any street artworks. Yet there are examples of street art in South Africa that meet the requirements for cultural heritage status or which have the characteristics of cultural heritage resources. The extension of cultural heritage resource status to South African street artworks that are culturally significant could assist in the protection and preservation of these resources. However, the effectiveness of the cultural heritage legislation, in particular the National Heritage Resources Act 25 of 1999, is limited. There are several problematic aspects in this Act. This is of great concern as the issues effect all South Africa’s cultural heritage resources (not just street art which may qualify for such status). However, these issues could be responded to through amendments to the legislation. Significantly, the National Heritage Resources Act seeks to deprive private owners of their property as it seeks to regulate what owners can do with cultural heritage property which they own. However, as it stands there are far too many challengeable issues in this legislation to justifiably deprive this property in terms of s25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. This renders significant portions of the National Heritage Resources Act inoperable. Consequently, the amendment of this legislation is necessary to ensure the purpose of the legislation i.e. to ensure the protection and preservation of the South Africa’s cultural heritage resources through the deprivation of property rights or indeed, if necessary, through the expropriation of property. / College of Law / LL. D.