During the mid-nineteenth century, the citizens of Texas were forced to keep their mentally disturbed family members at home which caused stress on the caregivers and the further debilitation of the afflicted. To remedy this situation, mental health experts and Texas politicians began to create a system of healing known as state asylums. The purpose of this study is to determine how Texas mental health care came into being, the research and theories behind the prevention and treatment programs that asylum physicians employed to overcome mental illness, in addition to the victories and shortcomings of the system. Through this work, it will be shown that during the 1850s until the 1920s institutions faced difficulty in achieving success from many adverse conditions including, but not limited to, overcrowding, large geographical conditions, poor health practices, faulty construction, insufficient funding, ineffective prevention and treatment methods, disorganization, cases of patient abuse, incompetent employees, prejudice, and legal improprieties. As a result, by 1930, these asylums were merely places to detain the mentally ill in order to rid them from society. This thesis will also confirm that while both Texas politicians and mental health experts desired to address and overcome mental illness in Texas, they were unable to do so due to arguments, selfishness, corruption, failures, and inaction on the part of both sides. However, this thesis will ultimately reveal it was lack of full support from Texas legislators, deriving from the idea that this system was not one of their top priorities among the state’s concerns, that led to the inability of the Texas mental health care system to properly assist their patients.

Steel frame construction with unreinforced masonry infill walls is a common system found in high-rise structures built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Recorded performance of this dual system during seismic events shows that the structures are able to resist a high level of lateral loads without collapse, primarily because a majority of damage is confined to the infill walls instead of the gravity carrying frame. To better understand expected performance of this structural system in different seismic risk regions, a prototypical building was analyzed using modal and nonlinear static procedures based on currently accepted evaluation guidelines. Nonlinear results from the computer model were compared with calculated target displacements for seventeen cities likely to have steel frame construction with unreinforced masonry infill in order to determine expected damage levels at varying levels of seismic risk. It was concluded that the structural system studied could experience damage in all seismic risk regions, including post-yield damage of the structure, although in low risk regions that damage is confined entirely to the infill walls. Practicing structural engineers should be aware that in all seismic risk zones existing steel frame buildings with unreinforced masonry infill, while able to resist a high magnitude of displacement without complete structural failure, will require additional lateral support under currently accepted rehabilitation guidelines.

This dissertation examines food tropes in Italian films of the Economic Miracle, investigating moments of continuity with prewar gastronomic traditions, as well as denoting drastic breaks with the familiar. The kitchen is a place of traditional culinary practices and ingredients, and from which sensations of hominess and conviviality are continually generated; yet, the kitchen is where the changes to the postwar foodscape are most visible. In my analysis of films released from 1954 to 1973, the kitchen is treated as a site of both recognizability and unrecognizability: the feeling that someone does not belong among the people, objects, and rituals part of that changing arena; alternatively, they might not be recognized themselves. In the readings that follow, these directors, actors, and writers grapple with such unrecognizability by way of the stomach: the organ with which to digest food and, moreover, to process the changes that that gastronomy represents. This dissertation is divided into four chapters, or, rather, two halves: first, continuity and desire, and later, rupture and violent rejection. These halves represent continuities and breaks, respectively, as this project follows the transformation of Italy’s “rosy” cinema into dark, nihilist auteurism. At the center of the first half are two stars: Totò (Chapter Two) and Sophia Loren (Chapter Three). In the work of Totò, the visceral hunger that he experiences matches that of the very recent past, and in particular, that of the South. When food became readily available, however, a new hunger emerged: a hunger for what was, as Totò upheld the dietary routines to which he was long accustomed. Meanwhile, Sophia Loren embodies the multivalence of hunger. As Cesira in La ciociara (1960), Loren portrayed a mother struggling against la carestia of occupied Italy; hunger is once again a physical sensation. But through later roles, as well as the authorship of her own cookbook, not only is the stomach satisfied, but there is now a sexual dimension to hunger. Loren softened both the hunger pangs and the blows of the changing sociopolitical arena, leaving her viewers to desire simultaneously her body and the food she prepares, ultimately inviting us to eat with her. Chapter Four, meanwhile, uses the cinema and narrative theories of Pier Paolo Pasolini to explore the connections between continuity, rupture, and “revolution.” Revolution is, in the Marxist sense, the proletariat contending with exploitative forces, as seen through Stracci in La ricotta (1963). It is also the turning of a wheel, emblematic of a progression in a cycle back to naturality and austerity. Despite violent eating and existential crises, the characters of Luna (Uccellacci e uccellini, 1966) and Emilia (Teorema, 1968) reveal a continued relationship with the earth, within which seeds – signs of new life – are planted. This project also suggests a turn towards the tenets of 1940s neorealism, particularly the notions of survival and rebirth. In Marco Ferreri’s La grande abbuffata (1973), the subject of Chapter Five, four wealthy protagonists gather for the ultimate “gastronomic seminar”: a weekend during which they are suicided by overconsumption, choosing to abandon a world so deeply unrecognizable from the traditions and virtues of decades past. Yet, in bequeathing the world to Andréa, there is a reawakening. Andréa is left to perpetuate not only the rich traditions and rituals of previous generations, but also a world of anxieties, unsure of what the future holds.

This thesis analyses the theme of power and ideology in the fiction of the Hungarian writer Tibor Déry. Through the techniques of textual interpretation and the New Historicism, it explores issues of class struggle, the conflict of ideologies in the twentieth century as well as aspects of the application of power and violence against individuals in Déry's novels at the thematic and motivational level of the plot. The author has been inspired by the ideas of Michel Foucault, Elias Canetti and Hannah Arendt in his analysis of the writer's texts. The interpretive part of the thesis traces the compositional and plot elements of Déry's novels The Unfinished Sentence and The Answer in particular, considering also other novels and novelistic texts. Keywords: Tibor Déry, power, ideology, Hungary, novel, communism, nationalism, twentieth century, violence

Předkládaná dizertační práce je rozdělena do dvou samostatných literárních celků, z nichž první představuje komparativní analýzu měst Latinské Ameriky a druhý se koncentruje na úspěšný případ plánování rozvoje města Curitiba. S ohledem na lepší pochopení problémů, se kterými se města Latinské Ameriky potýkají, a zejména porozumění specifikům města La Paz, které je hlavním předmětem této analýzy, je nutné na problematiku nahlížet v historickém kontextu současného urbanismu. Zde nalezneme některé odpovědi na otázky původu problémů městského plánování. Nahlížení v rámci historického kontextu také poskytne základní směrnice vývoje měst Latinské Ameriky. Z výše uvedených důvodů je pro potřeby dizertační práce klíčové zkoumat tyto aspekty historie urbanismu, neboť zde nalezneme původ současné podoby latinskoamerických měst a jejich městského plánování. V další části práce je kladen důraz na analýzu případu brazilského města Curitiba, na kterém lze úspěšně zkoumat případné uplatnění principů strategického plánování zaměřeného na udržitelnost města. Curitiba se, stejně jako další latinskoamerická města, potýkala od poloviny do konce 20. století s překotným růstem, dopravními zácpami a snižováním kvality života. Městu se nicméně podařilo tyto výzvy překonat kreativními řešeními v kontextu udržitelného rozvoje. Cílem předkládané práce je definovat principy řešení na základě úspěšné urbanistické zkušenosti města Curitiba a aplikovat je na další města Latinské Ameriky, konkrétně na La Paz. Abychom mohli v rámci práce prezentovat návrhy řešení reálným problémům, se kterými se v současnosti La Paz potýká, je potřeba nejprve důkladně porozumět procesům urbanismu, které z historického hlediska toto město utvářely a transformovaly, a následně předložit analýzu, zda myšlenky a zkušenosti případu města Curitiba lze úspěšně aplikovat na město La Paz.

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In 1923, the poet Kitahara Hakushū wrote an essay entitled “Dōyō shikan” 童謡私観 or “Philosophy of Dōyō.” In it, he described a perspective on children that valued their innately creative potential. Hakushū felt that this potential was something that every child had and that could be enriched and drawn out through dōyō 童謡 (children's songs.) Hakushū’s views in this sense challenged the prevailing attitudes in the Taishō period toward children and toward the function that children’s songs and poetry should serve. Despite Hakushū’s prominence as a poet, the “Dōyō shikan” has never been translated or closely analyzed in English. The analysis of the “Dōyō shikan” provides a lens through which to view Hakushū’s poetry for children. The principles that Hakushū described in this essay for writing dōyō can be seen both in Hakushū’s own work and the work of children who submitted poetry to Akai tori, a literary magazine for which Hakushū managed poetry. Those principles stressed the need for the poet to replicate the child’s voice, mind, and imagination for the purpose of writing dōyō that were creative, artistic, and meaningful to children.

Negli ultimi anni l’autore americano John Edward Williams (1922-1994) è stato riscoperto grazie all’incredibile successo del suo terzo romanzo, "Stoner" (1965), ripubblicato negli Stati Uniti nel 2006 e apparso in Europa tra il 2009 e il 2013. Per molto tempo Williams era stato uno scrittore poco considerato dal pubblico e dalla critica perché la sua prosa misurata ed elegante era in controtendenza rispetto alle forme dominanti nella letteratura americana della seconda metà del Novecento. Oggi egli è apprezzato soprattutto come maestro di stile, ma l’analisi dei suoi tre romanzi principali ("Butcher’s Crossing", "Stoner", "Augustus") rivela anche altri aspetti originali della sua opera. Innanzitutto, Williams sfida le rappresentazioni egemoniche dell’eroismo americano: i suoi protagonisti sono, infatti, caratterizzati dalla capacità di sopportazione, dalla pazienza e dal senso di responsabilità verso il loro lavoro. Inoltre, egli si distanzia dalle narrazioni trionfalistiche della storia statunitense: tracciando la parabola discente dell’impero americano dalla fine dell’Ottocento fino al secondo dopoguerra, i suoi romanzi mostrano come una nazione fondata sulla conquista, la distruzione e le disuguaglianze sociali sia destinata all’autodistruzione. Nel primo capitolo di questa tesi viene tratteggiata la carriera di Williams come romanziere, accademico, critico e poeta, esaminando le sue posizioni letterarie nel contesto culturale degli anni Sessanta e Settanta. I tre capitolo successivi sono invece dedicati a "Butcher’s Crossing" (1960), "Stoner" e "Augustus" (1972), analizzati in relazione ai loro sottogeneri (western, "academic novel" e romanzo storico) e ad alcuni temi che emergono nell’opera di Williams (la relazione tra l’uomo e la natura, l’eredità puritana, la raffigurazione dei personaggi femminili). / In recent years, the American author John Edward Williams (1922–1994) has been rediscovered, thanks to the incredible success of his third novel, "Stoner" (1965), which was republished in the United States in 2006 and appeared in Europe between 2009 and 2013. For a long time, Williams had been neglected as a writer because his restrained and elegant prose was antithetical to the dominant forms of late-twentieth-century American literature. Today he is considered a master of style, but an analysis of his three major novels ("Butcher’s Crossing", "Stoner", and "Augustus") reveals other original elements in his fiction. First, Williams challenges hegemonic representations of American heroism: his protagonists are characterized by endurance, patience, and a sense of responsibility to their jobs. Moreover, Williams distances himself from triumphalist narrations of American history: tracing the descending parable of the American empire from the end of the nineteenth century to the second half of the twentieth century, his novels show that a nation founded on violence, conquest, and social contradictions is bound to destroy itself. In the first chapter of this thesis, I trace Williams’s career as a novelist, academic, critic, and poet, examining his literary positions in the cultural context of the sixties and seventies. The study then proceeds by analyzing "Butcher’s Crossing" (1960), "Stoner", and "Augustus" (1972) in relation to their subgenres (Western, academic novel, and historical novel) and some themes that emerge in Williams’s writing (the relationship between man and nature, the American Puritan heritage, and the representation of female characters).

Gender roles are a tool used by society to set acceptable boundaries and ideals upon the sexes, and during the early part of the twentieth century in America those gender boundaries began to blur. As a result of the 19th Amendment, men must have felt their decreasing importance because women were no longer solely dependent upon them, and gender roles shifted as woman began to occupy territory that was traditionally held by men. The “New Woman" entered the workforce, and refused to accept traditional female gender conventions. In response to the “New Woman," Theodore Roosevelt and other leading males sought to reinforce the ideal of the male as the protector and provider. As woman took on characteristics commonly associated with men, men now had to grapple with a changing gender identity that often left them confused and frustrated. Willa Sibert Cather's life reflects the fluctuating gender conventions of early twentieth century America as she struggled to define her gender identity. In her youth, Cather chopped her hair and dressed like a boy. She also spent time dissecting frogs and called herself “William Cather, M.D." Cather's cross-dressing reveals her unconventional core and her desire to define herself regardless of societal expectations. Cather also had many close relationships with woman, and these close relationships have led many scholars to label her a lesbian. Cather, however, left us a mystery surrounding her gender preference because she never openly called herself a lesbian. Cather's supposed lesbianism is useful because it reveals the ambiguity of her personality. Cather is paradox because she sought for self-definition, but she also suffered from an identity crisis. By using the shifting nature of gender roles in the America during the early decades of the twentieth century and Cather's confused and unconventional life as a backdrop, I would argue that My Ántonia (1918), The Professor's House (1925), and “Neighbor Rosicky (1932)" reveal the consequences of gender roles. Cather's novels and short story should be analyzed for her interest in exploring male reaction to prescribed gender roles which, ultimately, reveals Cather's attitude towards the existence of gender conventions. Cather advocated for a more fluid and balance way of defining male and female roles. Cather's novel My Ántonia and The Professor's House reveal the consequences of gender roles because both Jim and Professor St. Peter are frustrated, fearful, unsatisfied, ambiguous, and unhappy with the roles that they have been playing. In sharp contrast to these two novels is Cather's delightful short story entitled “Neighbor Rosicky." In this short story Cather presents a protagonist who is whole and balanced. “Neighbor Rosicky" is Cather's statement regarding the importance and beauty of self-definition. Ultimately, her literature can be viewed as a rejection of both male and female gender qualities which demonstrates that Cather and her fiction cannot be reduced to an identity agenda.