Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Literatures in English." Includes bibliographical references (p. 266-276).

Telling technology explores how modernist literature makes sense of technological change by means of narration. The dissertation consists of three case studies focusing on narrative texts by Robert Walser, Paul Scheerbart, and Joseph Roth. These authors write at a time when a crisis of ‘progress,’ understood as a basic concept of history, coincides with a crisis of narration in the form of anthropocentric, action-based storytelling. Through close readings of their technographic writing, the case studies investigate how the three authors develop alternative forms of narration so as to tackle the questions posed by the sweeping technological change in their day. Along with a deeper understanding of the individual literary texts, the dissertation establishes a theoretical framework to discuss questions of modern technology and agency through the lens of narrative theory.

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 93-102.

<p> This dissertation explores the ways to teach the literary works of William Clark Falkner and William Faulkner to ESL (English as a Second Language) students in today&rsquo;s digital environment. William Faulkner&rsquo;s great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner, wrote romantic literary works, and William Faulkner critically uses the motifs of his great-grandfather&rsquo;s works to establish his literary world. Applying Bakhtin&rsquo;s dialogical theory, this study explores how these two authors imagine the social formations of the American South differently in their literary works. The coined term, social combination&mdash;which is defined as the individuals&rsquo; mutual effort to have equal relationships for a certain time&mdash;is used as a key term to examine how these two authors depict the characters&rsquo; personal relationships. William Faulkner employs his characters&rsquo; social combination as a resistance against the American South&rsquo;s romantic illusions that are represented by William Clark Falkner&rsquo;s literary works. William Faulkner&rsquo;s historical perspective is beneficial for today&rsquo;s ESL students, who explore their new egalitarian formations in their digitally expanded world. The last part of this study outlines how an American literary teacher can connect the works of William Clark Falkner and William Faulkner when teaching ESL students by using today&rsquo;s digital environment. Using three digital platforms&mdash;Moodle, WordPress, and Google Drive&mdash;a teacher composes egalitarian relationships among class members and inspires students&rsquo; autonomous discussion on these two authors&rsquo; works. Through these activities, ESL students are expected to comprehend that the literature of the American South is not only the historical development of the foreign region, but the phenomenon that is connected to their own social formations.</p>

Within the latitude of a science-fictional elsewhere and elsewhen, women can establish their own social norms and accepted praxis. The modification encountered in alternate feminist spacetimes specifically incorporate many new ideologies concerning motherhood. Central to this discussion is the means by which feminist authors regard the influences of patriarchal institutions and the subsequent changes in society because of, or in spite of, these changes. The male-dominated fields of technological patriarchy (reproduction and fertility "specialists") and the military, for example, are areas upon which feminist authors speculate. Three feminist strategies for coping with a patriarchal social order, as seen in the works of science-fiction, are entrance into the male world and attempts to change it, competition in the patriarchal world on its own terms and total retreat from an oppressive society, accompanied by the creation of a feminist utopian otherworld. These feminist spacetimes share a number of convictions. Most important, conception is never an unwilled experience. The "maternal instinct", is redefined as a calling which, in some cases, extends to males and non-biological mothers. Traits that are salient in the childraisers are those which are mirrored by these alternate feminist spacetimes as a whole and which contribute to the definition of these societies as utopias. The treatment and/or possession of children as property is frowned upon in the novels. Some points of dissent amongst feminist SF authors include the existence of technology in an utopian or dystopian future for motherhood, and whether or not males are permitted and/or encouraged to participate in society as a whole and more precisely in the experience of mothering. The dystopia, for its part, can thus be regarded as a warning against the encroachment of rampant patriarchal enterprises through their representation of the extrapolation of male-centred value systems. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [198]-211).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 158-171) and index.

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"Ich werde ganz einfach telegraphieren" — Subjekte, Telegraphie, Autonomie und Fortschritt in Theodor Fontanes Gesellschaftsromanen Electronic media influence our thoughts and behaviours. Our present situation resembles that of the industrial world in the late nineteenth century, when electrical telegraphy, the precursor of today's media technologies, gained a dominant position in telecommunications. In our day, conditioning prevents us from reaching a deeper understanding of our relationship to technical media. Because electrical media were still new in the late nineteenth century, observers then were more readily able to analyse their effects and to recognize potentials of subjects in their accounts. In Germany the writer Theodor Fontane demonstrated through depictions in his late novels of society that, by reflecting on the nature of the self and its relation to telegraphy and concomitant ideologies, subjects have the capacity to become aware not only of factors that control them, but also of their autonomous potentials. This consciousness provides the basis for their self-empowerment in the use of telegraphy. However, because Fontane critically depicts Wilhelminian society, his protagonists only attain this level of Consciousness in isolated instances. Its realisation is continuously achieved through Fontane's narrative depiction and its reconstruction by the readers. The image of the subject and its potentials that emerges in this reconstruction provides valuable insights applicable also to evaluations of our present media involvement. Contrary to a wide-spread belief as to subjects'powerlessness and insignificance, our findings imply that the position of subjects in relation to media can be described more positively. Fontane's depiction is concentrated in three identifiable areas, in which the conjunction of telegraphy and ideology exerts a controlling influence on subjects. In accordance with this focus our study examines the views of nature and technology as fateful forces, the alteration of time- and space experiences, and the construction of German, foreign and technical cultures.