Butoh and Surrealism share some common features, three of which are: duality, symbolism and the manipulation of time. This project is an examination of the intersection of these elements and the development of a movement practice using these three, shared focusing lenses of Butoh and Surrealism, culminating in a performance. The methodology of this study sought to generate movement through improvisation and studio exercises based upon a melded Butoh/Surrealist universe developed through applied research in the convergent elements of duality, symbolism and the manipulation of time. The elements that I distilled ultimately informed movement choices shaping a movement offering; a generated example of what could happen when this choreographic process is applied.

The Glass Catamount is concerned with one James Frederick Curling, a young, up-and-coming senator from Delaware. As Curling moves up through his political party, suspicion of infidelity begins to rise to the surface as a woman from his past appears and claims to know intimate details about the senator. Her intentions are unknown, but as the senator's old friend and aide, Robertson Peters, finds himself drawn in by her stories, unsure if they are truth or fabrication, the longevity of the career of the senator, and possibly even his life, come into question. Themes of truth versus reality are dealt with throughout, and the act of sexual exploration and discovery is broken down and analyzed in the context of the senator's past and what he constructs as truth, whether it was always the way he claims or not. The glass catamount of the title is a symbol of the fragility and rarity of an understood self, appearing only briefly as it passes through the trees on its climb back up the mountain. / by Robert Slattery. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011.

In Rotten Oranges the characters explore the ramifications of relocation and various trapping of psychology. Each of the short stories presents pain piggybacking off of humor, in order to go spelunking in a field of study that does not deal with absolutes. The characters themselves try to illustrate the dangers of misdiagnosis and stereotypes. As a whole, the collection exhibits this sense of exaggerated realism, which focuses on spectacle and theatricality. A few of the stories access some magical qualities to deal with certain aspects of trauma. All of the pieces take place in Florida and utilize this setting's natural level of diversity and tropical allure. Florida's unshakeable connection to the twilight years, flamboyant tourism, and the possibility of a new life through immigration works perfectly in conjunction with the layers of pain and humor stacked throughout the collection. These characters live to inhabit the space between tears and laughter. / by Christina Ginfrida. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. / Content restricted to abstract and citation at the authors request

anekdota is an exploration of the form of short short fiction. The exploration contains original works of fiction as short as five words and as long as twelve-hundred words. The exploration seeks new forms for fiction by frustrating and manipulating our traditional sense of story structure. At times, the exploration also investigates a form of conceptual art known as "found language" whereby original material is created by transforming, reframing, and collaging previously published material. anekdota translates from the Greek as "unpublished things." / by Scott Wood. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011.

This collection of poems engages narratives of geographical and emotional displacement on a journey toward a place from which to begin writing. The inciting narrative is one of travel - Brazil, to England, and to adulthood. A second narrative emerges as a gradual realization that these first displacements will never be truly resolved and that this lack of resolution is the only occasion from which to write. As the collection continues, the speaker of these poems is less and less comfortable with pronouncement and more and more comfortable with action. The act of doing something - moving, driving, walking, escaping, returning, floating down a river of ice - is what creates the silence needed to proceed. Through the body, deafening directives can be temporarily suspended. / by Elizabeth Rodrigues. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis advisor: Susan Michalczyk / This thesis explores crow and wolf symbolism within the mythology of Western Tradition, focusing on the Bible, Greek and Roman mythology, Native American folklore, Shakespeare, and Aesop's fables. Much of the animal imagery in literature is negative and does not truthfully represent the animals symbolized. This thesis investigates why these negative associations are formed, how they relate to the biological lives of wolves and crows, and explores their ambiguity in relation to the positive symbolism that exists. Negative symbols acquire strength as cultures grow further away from the land they live on and focus on industry and humanity instead of the world around them. The behavior of both wolves and crows is secretive, causing people to create stories to explain their actions. Furthermore, humans use these animals as a "shadow" to themselves, bestowing characteristics upon them which are found in human nature but are generally considered unacceptable. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Trapped in the hurricane of a changing cultural landscape, the young women of Kakawangwa, Florida must choose to clutch tradition or side with the times. Pearl and Jasmine are two sisters who come of age after being raised by a single mother in a religious household. Whitney, born a hermaphrodite, must determine her gender and sexuality, despite being married to her husband, Joe. Celeste, a college dropout, returns home to Kakawangwa in disgrace. Blackie, who lives life without inhibition, must cope with the consequences of the choices she makes. Filled with language that is pithy, abrupt, direct, and melodious, The History of Kakawangwa is a narrative that reveals these women as they reconcile the world to themselves. / by Kristen McNair. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

In his encyclopaedic work On the Properties of Things, John Trevisa describes water as 'able'. Water is an element which has no determinate properties of its own but which takes up properties from its surroundings and, at the same time, enacts change on those surroundings. This thesis argues that the inherent flexibility or 'ableness' of water, which Trevisa and other encyclopaedic writers identify, is crucial to late-medieval understanding of the element and, in turn, informs its use in a variety of religious writings. The multivalent potential of water enables devotional writers to use references to the element to symbolise and articulate access to God whilst they simultaneously deploy it as a metaphorical limiting agent that can regulate this access. Although there has been some critical attention paid to certain kinds of water in late medieval devotional prose, this thesis contains the first holistic study of various manifestations of water. It considers the material and historical realities of water in the Middle Ages as well as representations of water in different literary genres and demonstrates the 'ableness' of water within them. These findings are then used to shed light on a specific genre: spiritual guides authored by men and addressed to women, from the late-fourteenth and early-fifteenth centuries. The thesis identifies a literary language of water in late medieval devotional prose - a complex and recurrent set of images that authors draw upon to explicate Christian doctrine and portray different aspects of religious life. These images provide the organisational structure of the thesis. Three significant tropes of water are considered in light of its 'ableness': the imagined and encouraged relationship between water and the body in spiritual guidance, the importance of laundering the soul in such works, and the relationship between blood and water in Passion meditations.

This dissertation presents an interdisciplinary research project studying Inka engagement with the heavily modified ritual landscape of the 3000 hectare Saqsawaman Archaeological Park, located just north of the former imperial capital of Cuzco. First, through a close reading of cosmogenesis narratives, and a careful application of ethnographic comparison, I examine the nature of actors and agency in Andean and Inka thought and practice. Specifically, I bring up five themes - vitality, communication, identity, complementarity, and positioning - that are prevalent in Andean cosmology and that were therefore capitalized on in the built landscapes of the Inka. While prior research has focused on Inka stonework, I argue that it is the combination of stone with other elements - most notably water and the subterranean - that allows the most symbolically powerful deployment of landscape in epistemology and cosmology. This argument is supported by an archaeological examination that uses survey and GIS techniques to map the Inka efforts at landscape manipulation in Saqsawaman. The results show that the Inka focused their efforts on areas where a combination of stone and water, along with subterranean access and viewsheds of sacred landscape, allowed for a more symbolically rich engagement with their universe. The ethnographic research and the survey together show that while stone was an important and enduring element in Andean belief systems, it is actually water which was the most important element of the ritual practice that sustained the cosmological universe. As a result, administrative focus on bounded stone sites has allowed elements such as water, as well as areas outside these boundaries, to be designated as unimportant - a process that has led to the loss of a great deal of knowledge and understanding grounded in a more comprehensive view of the larger landscape.

The first three recitals contained solely performances of piano music. The first of these consisted of a Fantasy and a set of variations by Mozart, the Fantaisie in F minor by Chopin, and the Sonata in C minor by Schubert. The second recital contained an English Suite by J. S. Bach, two Etudes-Tableaux and two Preludes by Rachmaninoff, and the Piano Sonata of Ernest Bloch. The third recital consisted of four Sonatas by Scarlatti, a Fantasia (Variations) by the American composer, Ben Weber, a Sonata by Beethoven, Chose en soi and Pensée by Prokofieff, and a Polonaise by Liszt. The fourth recital was a lecture on symbolism in the Davidsbündler Dances of Schumann, examining various types of symbolism appearing in the Dances: use of quotations from his own and others' works, use of a motive based on the letters of a name, use of "stage directions," use of tonality as a symbol, use of word painting, and use of sound effects. The lecture was followed by a performance of this work.