The nature of life after death is only tentatively sketched out in the canonical writings of the Christian Church, yet it represents one of the most prominent literary subjects in medieval Europe. The so-called Visiones represent a genre that enjoyed a particularly broad dissemination between the fourth and thirteenth centuries. This study aims to assess the impact of this Latin tradition on Norse-Icelandic authors and processes of cultural appropriation evident in medieval vernacular adaptations of the genre. The first chapter outlines the historical and theological conditions surrounding the genre’s dissemination in Western Scandinavia and identifies the primary corpus of vernacular adaptations of the genre to be analysed in this study. Chapter II considers the literary contexts in which Visio-conventions have been integrated, highlighting the distinctive generic and creative diversity exhibited in the primary corpus. Chapters III and IV are concerned with the literary motif of the journey to the otherworld and its importance in Old Norse literary traditions across the period of Christianisation. The former examines signs of continuity on a conceptual level between traditional native and Christian narratives about the otherworld, suggesting that the journey motif represented a sustained source of literary creativity in pre- and post-conversion societies. The latter examines this notion of continuity with reference to two significant literary symbols, the otherworld shoe and the otherworld bridge, and their pregnant resonances in Norse Icelandic records of myth, law, and religious ritual; it will here be shown how certain symbols found in vernacular accounts of the afterlife produce a rich set of connotations meaningful within their particular cultural setting. The final Chapter analyses the social mentality encoded in portrayals of the idealised hereafter, and it will be argued that portrayals of eschatological justice and the topography of heaven reflect attitudes characteristic of the societies from which these visions emerge. The thesis as a whole thereby calls attention to the broad and deep nature of the Visio genre’s impact on Western Scandinavian literary culture, suggesting that this particular genre-oriented study may serve as a case study of the reception of Christian literary traditions in medieval Iceland and Norway more generally.

A transformation of our current transport system and individual mobility behaviour is an essential pre-requisite for attaining a desirable future that enables a life within environmental boundaries ("safe operating space") and higher well-being at the same time. Accordingly, this paper focuses on the potentials of a resource-saving, sustainable transport system with reduced, but still satisfactory, mobility. To achieve the vision of resource-efficiency in Europe, a new understanding of mobility is needed: "the mode of travel is the reward of the journey", meaning that it is not about travelling fastest and frequently, but unhurried (easy-going), infrequently and sustainably. We describe a socially inclusive and innovative transport system that could achieve this vision and discuss the kinds of policy measures that would be required to implement it. Changes are required in many areas including values, preferences, infrastructure, technology, governance and the economy. (authors' abstract)

Nesta pesquisa procuramos investigar a animação japonesa como uma máquina para compreendermos como a copresença evolucionária de outros seres — técnicos e animais — potencializa outras compreensões sobre o humano. Com esse posicionamento, procuramos demonstrar como o humanismo, além de se constituir como um modelo filosófico, científico e civilizacional, também propôs uma visão estética sobre o humano. Para realizar uma abertura dessa herança, procuramos traçar uma genealogia do humano e dos objetos técnicos em correlação. A compreensão do anime como uma máquina parte da teoria de Thomas Lamarre, em conjunto com as teorizações de Gilbert Simondon, Félix Guattari e Gilles Deleuze. O viés da análise tem o pressuposto de que, se a construção da animação se dá por layers, ou camadas que misturam diferentes técnicas e perspectivas visuais, poderíamos dizer que elas revelam a suis generis de pensamento em ação na animação. O humano também é pensado como uma construção, assim a relação de explosão do humanismo e da implosão do antropocentrismo visa desterritorializar o humano nos seus componentes teóricos e poéticos. O surgimento da teoria pós-humanista foi inicialmente pavimentado graças à desterritorialização posta sobre o humano no pós-estruturalismo. Para aprofundar esse argumento partimos da herança em Nietzsche e Derrida até autores pós-humanistas como Donna Haraway, Cary Wolfe, Rosi Braidotti e Stefan Herbrechter. Após estabelecermos um panorama da animação de ficção científica no Japão, iremos nos debruçar na análise das animações Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo (2012) dirigida por Hideaki Anno e Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (2004) dirigida por Mamoru Oshii. De uma maneira geral a pesquisa foi dividida em três seções: pós-humanismo e techno-poética, máquina anímica e visões explosivas do humano. Na primeira, procuramos evidenciar uma genealogia do humano com atenção à sua coevolução e historicidade com os objetos técnicos, estabelecendo relações entre regimes de pensamento e estese. A segunda seção diz respeito às configurações da máquina anímica, suas relações com a tradição estética japonesa e com elementos da estética humanista, tal qual a perspectiva cartesiana. Procuramos demonstrar a existência de outros modelos visuais como uma abertura da heterogênese da máquina. A terceira seção é na qual iremos analisar as visões explosivas do humano na animação japonesa através das categorias analíticas propostas por Lamarre. Nossa hipótese é demonstrar como a máquina anímica poderia permitir uma heterogênese pós-humana através da dobra comunicacional do intervalo anímico. / In this research, we seek to investigate Japanese animation as a machine to understand how the evolutionary coo presence of other beings — technical and animal — enhances new understandings about the human. With this position, we try to demonstrate how humanism, besides constituting itself as a philosophical, scientific and civilizational model, also proposed an aesthetic vision about the human. To open this inheritance, we traced the genealogy of human and technical objects in correlation. The understanding of anime as a machine starts with the theory of Thomas Lamarre, together with the theorizations of Gilbert Simondon, Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze. Our analysis approach has the assumption that if the construction of the animation is made of layers that mix different techniques and visual perspectives, we could say that they reveal the suis generis of thought in action in the animation. We affirm that the human is a construction, so the relation of humanism explosion and the implosion of anthropocentrism aims to deterritorialize the human in its theoretical and techno-poetic components. The emergence of post-humanist theory has a debt to the deterritorialization put on the human in the post-structuralist theory. To deepen this argument we start from the inheritance in Nietzsche and Derrida to posthumanist authors like Donna Haraway, Cary Wolfe, Rosi Braidotti and Stefan Herbrechter. After we stablished an overview of science fiction animation in Japan, we will focus our analyses with the animations Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo (2012) directed by Hideaki Anno and Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (2004) directed by Mamoru Oshii. In general, the research was divided into three sections: posthumanism and techno-poetics, the animetic machine and explosive visions of the human. In the first, we try to show a genealogy of the human with attention to its coevolution and historicity with the technical objects, establishing relations between regimes of thought and aesthetic. The second section concerns the configurations of the animetic machine, its relations with the Japanese aesthetic tradition, and elements of humanistic aesthetics, such as the Cartesian perspective. We try to demonstrate the existence of other visual models as an opening of the heterogenesis of the animetic machine. The third section is where we will analyze the explosive visions of the human in Japanese animation through the analytical categories proposed by Lamarre. Our hypothesis is to demonstrate how the animetic machine could allow a post-human heterogenesis through the communication fold of the animetic interval.

This study springs from my experience of what I term ‘narrative fracture', a life-hiatus or crisis that derails one's current life pattern and self-identity. It examines the nature of this phenomenon and its possible roots in early infancy and childhood. Three therapeutic modalities: dreams, psychotherapy and autobiographical writing, which were instrumental towards resolution of that narrative fracture for me, are then explored. The study uses first person heuristic methodology because my own experience, and ongoing process towards resolution, lies at the heart of the research. It also, as part of that methodology, draws on the experience of three ‘textual co-researchers' as recorded in their autobiographical writings. Each of the segments of the study, narrative fracture, roots of narrative fracture, and modalities towards resolution, are interrogated from three directions: my autobiographical narrative relating to that segment, and extracts from the other authors' texts of theirs, then examination of these in light of the relevant theory, and finally a reflexive review made of the findings, following thus a pattern, identified by Michelle Davies, of a narrative ‘voice', an interpretive ‘voice' and an unconscious ‘voice'. Most traumatic for me at narrative fracture was loss of self-identity and erupting internal chaos. Psychoanalyst/interpersonal theorist Karen Horney's theories around the formation of a ‘false self' and the related palliative measures of addiction and controlling are my foremost source of understanding here. To discover how self-identity is formed and can potentially be impeded, the mother-baby relationship, the issue of attachment, and the crucial involvement of the body in the infant developmental matrix are explored, principally through the works of Donald Winnicott and John Bowlby; and the related development of ‘affect-regulation' and ‘mentalization' through Peter Fonagy's breakthrough work. Ulric Neisser and Jerome Bruner's theories bring further understanding of development of the self and the socially constructed elements of self-identity. In the process towards ‘reconstruction' Donald Kalsched's theory of the crucial necessity of ‘re-traumatization' is foregrounded, and the study holds this in mind during exploration of the three therapeutic modalities. Neuroscience and brain research also inform this exploration, and a common denominator is found between the three therapeutic modalities via Ernest Hartmann's notion of a ‘continuum' of modes of mental functioning. It is established that the REM programming and reprogramming state, and input from unconscious mental processing are increasingly at work as we operate at the ‘creative'/'dreaming' end of this continuum, and that here psychotherapy, autobiographical writing and dreaming are all shown to be located. Four key points emerge in understanding the impact of these three modalities on healing narrative fracture: the centrality of the relational; the emotions as ‘linchpin'; the power of pattern, metaphor and image; and the potency of the sleeping brain. With its personal accounts, and the new syntheses made between aspects of the different academic fields it mines, this study offers a new perspective on the nature, and lifelong consequences, of early childhood development. It is envisaged that this will provide valuable insight to the burgeoning numbers of quantitative researchers now recognising the need for first person input to their third person research, and to those who are professionally involved in the care of others, as well as to related policy-makers.

This thesis seeks to explore the implications of a parenetic reading of the Book of Revelation as a whole, rather than merely of the seven messages in which this is more commonly regarded as the primary purpose of the text. It examines the validity of this approach in relation to the book�s claims about its purpose in the original communication event of which its text is a witness and its effectiveness in addressing hermeneutical issues in key passages of the book and argues that attention to the function of parenesis facilitates readings of Revelation which connect more directly with the intention of the book free from the need to decipher obscure coded references to past or future history. Drawing from the text of the Apocalypse a twofold hermeneutical strategy is developed and exemplified by application to key passages of the book. The first aspect of this reading strategy is focussed on the proposed parenetic nature of the book. In an examination of Revelation�s introductory and concluding passages it is argued that as a coherent unity they form a frame around the book. This frame serves to establish the perspective from which the whole book may be read. It does so by giving rise to the expectation that the whole book contains parenetic exhortation to faithfulness in light of the imminent parousia. Consequently this thesis proceeds to interpret the Book of Revelation by focussing primarily on how the various images in the book�s body (4:1-22:9) as well as the explicit parenesis in the seven messages serve to communicate this parenetic exhortation to the original addressees. The second aspect of interpretation seeks to facilitate scholarly analysis of the parenesis expected to be contained in Revelation�s body with systematic regard for the individual situation of each of the addressees of the book, as documented in the comparatively accessible seven messages. To this end an intra-textual hermeneutic is employed. It builds on an examination of the links between the various parts of Revelation which is part of the examination of both the book�s frame and the seven messages. This intra-textual reading utilizes the many links between the seven messages and Revelation�s body by allowing them to play a determinative role in the investigation of an image�s parenetic implications. In order to further explore the validity of a parentic reading, the intra-textual principle is applied to two central parts of Revelation�s body, the Babylon vision (Rev 17-19:3) and the seal, trumpet and bowl visions (Rev 6, 8, 9, 11:15-19, 15, 16). In this reading, the Babylon vision is read not as a general critique of the church�s pagan environment but as a divine commentary on the concrete threats and temptations with which the churches of the seven messages were confronted. In God�s judgment of Babylon those who suffer under her violence against Christians are promised vindication and are thus encouraged to maintain their faithful witness as citizens of the New Jerusalem. The citizens of Babylon however are exhorted to repent and leave her behind, becoming citizens of the New Jerusalem and thus escaping Babylon�s demise. The seal, trumpet and bowl visions are interpreted as illustrating the dividing line between what constitutes faithful witness to Christ on the one hand and heed to satanic deception on the other. Faithfulness even to the point of death is expected of the followers of the Lamb; the inhabitants of the earth are exhorted to repent from their affiliation with the beast and give glory to God. Thus such an intra-textual reading of Revelation as parenesis offers a strategy for reading the book in a way that is relevant for the Christian church beyond the limits of end-time phantasms on the one hand and mere historic interest on the other hand and so might facilitate the emergence of the message of the book from the obscurity in which it appears to be hidden to a significant proportion of its contemporary readers.

This thesis is concerned with the work of business leaders. The interest lies in the holders of positions as Chairpersons, Boardmembers and Managing Directors. This study, however, goes beyond the position holder to consider the actions of actors, as they operate within networks with concurrent multiple business activities. The purpose is to generate knowledge and understanding of the activities and relations of multibusiness leaders involved in managing small and medium-sized companies. Major schools of thought on the manager's job are described. The review relates the scientific debate about different schools and emphasises the need for more inductive research. The call for processual and contextual analysis leads to an epistemological position grounded in understanding through interpretation. The method used in this study adopts such an approach, and thus aims to discover qualities of the studied phenomenon based on social constructivism. Empirical reality is approached by means of intensive studies of a few cases. Case descriptions of the work of multibusiness leaders in the National, Regional, Intermediary, Independent, and Developing Networks are undertaken, where the inter­action processes of the different actors are described according to the working life his­tory of the actor, and to the networking and work activities carried out. The analysis is based upon four themes (the actor's 'task legitimacy', 'economic legi­timacy', 'idea development' and 'network'). The first two themes have been given the generic term 'legitimacy concept', not only to reflect the interactive and changeable aspects of work, but also to illustrate how work in itself is intimately interwoven in an institutional context. The creation of 'task legitimacy' and 'economic legitimacy' of the leaders is analysed. The analysis of the actors' idea development results in a description of differing visions in the individual networks. This description takes up visions covering long-term industrial leadership, regional co-operative leadership, restructuring leadership, flexible market-adaptive leadership and network-based leadership. In a survey of the existing literature, the role of a leader is seen as one of many managerial roles, a view that is based upon the work of Mintzberg (1973). This study contrasts with the above picture, by discussing a reciprocal dependency between the leader's leadership role and his/her other roles. This reciprocity and concurrency is dealt with by introducing the concept of identity as a theoretical aid, thus reflecting in a more appropriate way the complex and interactive actor. The social identity concept (Tajfel, 1982) is used, in order to answer more profoundly the research questions. As leaders are reciprocally dependent on a network for their own existence, we must both look inward in order to be able to understand at a deeper level the actors' motives, and look outward to be able to look at identity creation in a wider industry context. What I have termed näringslivsledaridentitet (the Identity of Multibusiness Leaders), is a substantial part of this study's findings. The concept is used in order to be able to describe how the actors' inner and outer motives merge in identity creating processes. The actors' different patterns of interaction are absorbed into a composite whole. / digitalisering@umu

This thesis examines the influence of the abolition debates on two of William Blake’s early writings, “The Little Black Boy” and The Visions of the Daughters of Albion. It also considers Blake’s engravings for John Gabriel Stedman’s Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam as proof of his abolitionist interest. Chapter one provides an overview of current Romantic criticism which situates Blake and other Romantic writers within a historical context. Chapter two summarizes the abolition movement in the late eighteenth century. Chapters three, four and five specifically discuss Blake’s work as abolitionist in intent.

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2000. / Bibliography: leaves107-116.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 475-496).

Historians of antebellum America have focused on shifting social patterns caused by trends such as democratization and proto-industrialization to explain the rise of new religious communities. These studies, however, have overlooked the ways that the members of these new groups and their visionary leaders understood their goals--in particular their desire to develop new ethical systems from the religious experiences of their founders. My study combines more traditional historical understandings of community formation in antebellum American with methods employed by scholars of religion to provide a clearer picture of the development of unique groups during this era of increased religious diversity. In particular, I argue that scholars must employ both Ann Taves' and William James' methods to study visions and revelations to comprehend how communities addressed the problem of religious experiences' interiority through communal processes of evaluation. To that end, I investigate Elias Hicks, founder of Hicksite Quakerism, and Ellen G. White, the founder of Seventh-day Adventism. My work on Hicks and White focuses on the processes by which their visionary ethics were transmitted into and practiced by their communities over time. Taken together, their ministries demonstrate that the visions of founders typically spoke to ethical issues--broadly and narrowly construed. Both leaders addressed personal, interpersonal, and social ills, and they each presented themselves as the model of obedience to their own visions and revelations in their autobiographies. Yet they faced different issues in convincing people of the truth of their visions for their communities. All Quakers expected their ministers to receive revelations during worship, so Hicks only had to persuade them that following revelation over scripture represented true Quaker orthodoxy. Sabbatarian Adventists, however, came from a wide variety of denominational backgrounds, so White had to persuade some of them not only to accept her teachings, but the existence of visions in the first place. Ultimately, their different views of the trajectory of history influenced their lasting legacies to their communities: eventually Hicks' specific teachings fell out of favor among Hicksites who maintained only his commitment to continuing, progressive revelation. White's teachings, however, remain both influential and hotly contested, because her reputation as prophet is bound up in Adventists' belief in the end of days. / text