While scholarship on Walt Whitman has often dealt with "mysticism" as an important element of his writings and worldview, few critics have acknowledged the importance of Whitman's disciples in the development of the idea of secular comparative mysticism. While critics have often speculated about the religion Whitman attempted to inculcate, they have too often ignored the secularized spirituality that the poet's early readers developed in response to his poems. While critics have postulated that Whitman intended to revolutionize the consciousness of his readers, they have largely ignored the cases where this kind of response demonstrably occurred. "Hot Little Prophets" examines three of Walt Whitman's most enthusiastic early readers and disciples, Anne Gilchrist, Richard Maurice Bucke, and Edward Carpenter. This dissertation shows how these disciples responded to the unprecedented reader-engagement techniques employed in Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and how their readings of that book (and of Whitman himself) provided them with new models of identity, politics, and sexuality, new focuses of desire, and new ways in which to interpret their own lives and experiences. This historicized reader-response approach, informed by a contexualist understanding of mystical experience, provides an opportunity to study how meaning is created through the interaction of Whitman's poems and his readers' expectations, backgrounds, needs, and desires. It also shows how what has come to be called mystical experience occurs in a human context: how it is formed out of a complicated interaction of text and interpretation (sometimes misinterpretation), experience and desire, context and stimulus. The dissertation considers each disciple's education and upbringing, intellectual influences, habits of reading, and early religious attitudes as a foreground to the study of his or her initial reaction to Leaves of Grass. Separate chapters on the three figures investigate the crises of identity, vocation, faith, and sexuality that informed their reactions. Each chapter traces the development of the disciples' understanding of Whitman's poetry over a span of years, focusing especially on the complex role mystical experience played in their interpretation of Whitman and his works.

Texte remanié de: Dissertation Ph. D.--History--University College London. / Bibliogr. p. 253-262. Filmogr. p. 263-266.

While political praise and condemnation of Disney is commonplace in the literature, my research will focus instead on the origination of Disney's design plan for Disneyland and the theoretical and physical connections between key historical figures and the finished product. I will not consider what Disneyland means to the world today---that is a subject many others have covered, some even brilliantly; instead, I will consider what social concepts contributed to the initial design in an attempt to see the underlying values at work in this post-modern utopia. In this thesis, I intend to show that Walt Disney's initial design for Disneyland was influenced by Ebenezer Howard's Garden City concept. In addition to Howard's vision, Disney also incorporated concepts from Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture and Henry Ford's mass market manufacturing theories. I do not intend to claim that these are the only influences on Disney's initial plan for his amusement park, but I will show that the physical layout of the park reflects Howard's Garden City plan, the architecture considers some of Wright's designs, and the way the park is run incorporates some of the ideas of Henry Ford. I have purposely avoided any works that consider the corporate aspects of Disney and the current Disney Corporation. Instead, I have focused my research on the intentions surrounding Disney's initial design plan. My position is that Disney's parks are real, successful, and expanding internationally - not mere fantasy like earlier 19th social reformers whose actual accomplishments are relatively small and have not been not sustainable locally or internationally. Disney realized the importance of a TEMPORARY place rather than a PERMANENT residence. Disney understood the literal definition of utopia to mean "no where" and therefore did not create a utopia that was a real place. Both Howard and Disney sought to offer a utopia. Howard had hopes of revitalizing the social order with his new cities, and Disney hoped to offer the average family a place where they could have fun and enjoy one another in a safe and entertaining environment.

I argue that the procession is a deliberate, desirable, and destabilizing social formation. In scholarship of the American nineteenth century, the procession is lost among the clutter of other urban assemblies—crowds, parades, riots—and never fully articulated as a unique vehicle for collective expression. The procession is an attractive alternative to tyrannical majorities and unwise crowds because of its linearity, rationality, and encompassment. Central to the trope of the procession, however, is the wayside or the periphery, adjacent spaces which are often discarded or suppressed by the procession’s forward movement. I trace the variations of this American allegory—national progress and its exclusions—across different genres in the writing of Nathaniel Hawthorne (domestic-cosmic sketches), Walt Whitman (war-time poetic fantasies), Emily Dickinson (regal satires), and as an informing but repudiated element of Martin Delany’s novel Blake; or The Huts of America. These authors critique chaotic and gaudy groups, and instead propose gentle and haptic ones. Whitman, Dickinson, and Delany also have in common their oblique contemplations of the Civil War and President Lincoln’s assassination. Although Lincoln’s multi-state funeral procession is an overwrought spectacle, the procession is so often virtuous because it is the opposite of the state funeral: the authors I consider presuppose, in their sporadic ways, an austere nature to the procession, as fundamental as the dictums “We, the people” or E pluribus unum. Yet, the “grand difficulty,” in Hawthorne’s words, is that in reality and on the streets, the procession’s conceptual intuitiveness—as all-inclusive and leveling as a “procession of life”—recedes from view, deteriorates into chaos, and must be constantly rehabilitated. My tropological analysis of American literature grapples with a vision of democratic organization and process that is not conceived of as the result of collective self-articulation and -determination. What is startling about membership in a procession is how often it does not respect individual choice. It is coercive; you are participating. The procession’s “measured and beautiful motion,” in Whitman’s words, topples assertive modes of authorship, leadership, and ownership because ever-present waysides flatten the hierarchy of center over periphery. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-03 12:51:58.064

This dissertation aims to analyse the re-creation and transformation of animated films into theatrical spectacles, by examining two Walt Disney animations and productions as case studies: Beauty and the Beast (1991 & 1994) and The Lion King (1994 & 1997), designed by Stanley Meyer (Beauty and the Beast [1994]) and Julie Taymor (The Lion King [1997]), respectively. Through a semiotic analysis of the productions viewed in the Monte-Teatro in Johannesburg (Beauty and the Beast [2007]) and the Lyceum in London (The Lion King [2010]), the scenographic choices of the designers are examined to ascertain the ways in which the re-creation and transformation from animation to theatre occurs. A study of the different styles is conducted, as the case studies were visually different from each other, and from their animated counterparts. Each case study contributes to an understanding of the process whereby an animated film can be transformed and re-created for the theatre. An investigation into The Walt Disney Company, from its inception to its present day theatrical productions, is undertaken to illustrate how The Walt Disney Company has become an influential force in the international performance industry. Responses by reviewers are used to demonstrate how The Walt Disney Company was influenced to alter the conceptual approach for its subsequent theatrical production. To aid in the analysis of the scenographic designs, the theoretical writings of Martin Esslin (1987) and Keir Elam (1980) are consulted to develop an understanding of how designs are integral to the reception of any production. Developments of scenography are explored from Aristotle who states that theatre does not need any spectacle (design) to portray the poetry of the performance, to Sternfeld’s analysis of megamusicals which illustrates the spectacular designs that have become integral to the development of certain productions, and genres. Using Wickstrom’s article on The Lion King an examination of how the commodities produce meaning from the production is undertaken. This dissertation provides insight into the development of scenographic designs and the recreation and transformation of specific elements from animated film to theatrical spectacle through an appropriation of theories about transposing theatre into film (Egil Tornqvist, 2009). This, in conjunction with Guy Debord’s theories (1995) on the society of the spectacle, aids in the analysis of the spectacle/scenography. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

Art Spiegelman realitzà a Maus una biografia sobre les experiències del seu pare com a víctima de l’Holocaust. El que normalment hagués estat una altra narració de supervivència va constituir un abans i un després per tractar-se d’una novel·la gràfica, un suport molt poc habitual per temes de tanta gravetat. Spiegelman dibuixa a jueus i nazis mitjançant ratolins i gats, respectivament. Aquest plantejament representatiu és assumit de forma natural pel lector, però en realitat es tracta d’una inversió de caràcters entre els dos animals, que només es pot entendre si s’analitzen els precedents gràfics de l’autor. L’animalització dels jueus per part dels nazis, la propaganda bèl·lica feta des del món de l’animació de la mà de Disney i la càrrega visual dels dibuixos animats des del anys trenta convergeixen en l’imaginari de Spiegelman i en la correcta comprensió del seu text. / Art Spiegelman made in Maus a biography about his father's experiences as a victim of the Holocaust. What normally would have been another story of survival made a difference for its genre: the graphic novel, which is an unusual support for topics with such burden. Spiegelman draws the Jews and Nazis as mice and cats, respectively. This representational approach is naturally assumed by the reader, but actually it is a reversal of characters between the two animals, which can only be understood if we analyze the author's graphic background. The animalisation of Jews by Nazis, the war propaganda from Disney’s animation, and the visual influence of cartoons from the thirties, converge in Spiegelman’s imaginary and in the correct understanding of his text.

Thesis (M.M.) -- Florida State University, 2004. / For baritone voice with clarinet, violin, horn, piano and percussion (2 players). Words of songs printed as text on p. iv. Advisor: Ladislav Kubik, Florida State University, School of Music. Title and description from thesis home page (viewed 9-29-04). Document formatted into pages; contains 47 pages. Includes biographical sketch.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Document formatted into pages. Includes bibliographical references. Abstract available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2009 Aug. 18.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1963. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 294-303).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 589-609).