In this dissertation I propose an ethical framework for "meeting mosses." At first glance, mosses are a tiny type of plants that have been uncritically understood as "primitive plants," to the extent that they are defined by negation as "non-vascular plants." Hence, mosses have been considered as "primitive" relatives of "true" vascular plants. This distortion is linked to the fact that mosses have been overlooked and represented as a radical otherness in Western civilization. To critically examine this distortion of, and injustice toward mosses, I use the methodology of field environmental philosophy within the conceptual framework of biocultural ethics developed by Ricardo Rozzi. I complement these concepts with foundational philosophical work by continental philosophers Martin Buber and Immanuel Levinas, and ethnobotanist and indigenous writer Robin Wall Kimmerer, with emphasis on their discourses of meeting, "face-to-face," otherness, heterogeneity, and alterity. Collectively thinking with these philosophers, I address the possibility of genuinely "meeting mosses," valuing them as such and not merely as a primitive "relative" or "ancestor" of vascular plants. Drawing on several botanists' accounts of plant language and plant wisdom has sharpened my reading of human-moss interactions and enriched my engagement with the heterogeneity and alterity of the Western philosophical tradition. In his book Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition, Humanist scholar Robert Pogue Harrison argues that care (for plants and life) is the human vocation. Harrison's discussion of the diversity of "gardens" helped me to clarify multi-dimensional human-moss interactions. In terms of content and structure, I organize my analysis based on two central dimensions of human-plant interactions stated in Rozzi's biocultural ethics: biophysical and cultural, particularly, symbolic-linguistic dimensions. I explore the biophysical dimension of biocultural conservation focusing on mosses in a region where they represent the most diverse and abundant type of plants, southwestern South America. In this region, I conducted fieldwork at three reserves in Chile, Senda Darwin Biological Reserve on Chiloe Island, Magallanes National Reserve, and Omora Ethnobotanical Park in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, south of Tierra del Fuego. I investigate the linguistic-cultural dimension, through the scientific binomial nomenclature as well as through the traditional naming by indigenous cultures, particularly in China. Additionally, I examine the arts as an important cultural expression of interacting with mosses that inspires biocultural conservation. I examine the role that the arts play in the education and conservation programs at the Omora Ethnobotanical Park in Chile and Shenzhen Fairy Lake Botanical Garden in China, as a way to invite students and others to have direct encounters with mosses which lead to hands-on (tactile and place-based) moss conservation. I begin this study with a deliberation of the multiple injustices embedded in contemporary social-ecological-cultural dimensions of global change, and I suggest pathways towards caring for plants and the diversity of life. Caring for mosses is not a one-way human-plant-directed process. By nourishing our physical and cultural lives, we can metaphorically say that mosses "take care" of humans. Once we integrate both "caring for mosses" and being sensitive to the "mosses caring for us," then biocultural conservation moves towards a more reciprocal conviviality. In addition to collectively thinking with other humans, metaphorically I aim to think and feel with the mosses, and therefore I am transformed by them. This is the ultimate meaning of "meeting mosses."

This dissertation is mainly on Wole Soyinka as a dramatist. It aims to show that Soyinka, far from being an irrelevant artist as some of his fiercest critics have alleged, is a deeply committed writer whose works are characterised by a strong sense of concern with basic human values of right and wrong, good and evil. Furthermore, the dissertation shows that although Soyinka is not an admirer of Marxist aesthetics, he is certainly not in the art-for-art's-sake camp either, I because he is fully aware of the utilitarian value of literature. Soyinka's works are much influenced by his social and historical background, and the dissertation shows that Soyinka's socio-political awareness pervades all these works, although it will be seen that in the later plays there is a sharpened political awareness. Although largely concerned with his own country's issues, Soyinka also emerges as a keen observer of humanity universally / English Studies / M.A. (English)

This dissertation is mainly on Wole Soyinka as a dramatist. It aims to show that Soyinka, far from being an irrelevant artist as some of his fiercest critics have alleged, is a deeply committed writer whose works are characterised by a strong sense of concern with basic human values of right and wrong, good and evil. Furthermore, the dissertation shows that although Soyinka is not an admirer of Marxist aesthetics, he is certainly not in the art-for-art's-sake camp either, I because he is fully aware of the utilitarian value of literature. Soyinka's works are much influenced by his social and historical background, and the dissertation shows that Soyinka's socio-political awareness pervades all these works, although it will be seen that in the later plays there is a sharpened political awareness. Although largely concerned with his own country's issues, Soyinka also emerges as a keen observer of humanity universally / English Studies / M.A. (English)

In comparison with the art production at Nurnberg or at the cities of the so-called Danube School at the end of 15th century stands the simultaneous painting at Munich in the background. Therefore is sometimes forgotten, that there, in this period, a painter Jan Polack with his workshop was active. To his important customers/patrons belonged the dukes Sigmund and Albrecht of Wittelsbach and the Bavarian monasteries (Weihenstephan near Feising), for which he made few altars or portraits. A most of these altars were after that removed from the original sacral areas and today they are presented in the Bavarian National-museum at Munich or in other galleries. Only a few altars, for example three altars for the chapel in Blutenburg near Munich, have been staying on the original place in this small chapel. These Master thesis would like to compare his most representative pictures in the context with the others paintings, which were created in the middle or at the end of the 15th century in Bavaria (circle of Hans Pleydenwurff, Wolfgang Katzheimer etc.). This comparison can help to find the sources of the Polacks artistic expression. A special attention should be devoted his cooperation with Mair of Landshut, because few pictures of Polacks altar from the church of St. Peter in Munich have just been to Mair inscribed. It is also important to point to same compositional connections between the altar-pictures of Jan Polack and the graphics (Master E. S., Martin Schongauer) One highly-valued contribution of this thesis could be a capitol about the possible inspiration of the Polacks artistic expression for the artists, who came from Bohemia and who have been working here for a long times, but who could gain their training in the Bavaria (Munich). At the literature (Jaroslav Pešina) was one opinion expressed, that an altar in a church in Chudenitz concludes the formal features, which reveal a connection to the art at Munich in the middle of the 15th century. However, other authors (Roman Lavička) think that the painted boards of an original altar of Doudleby were inspired by Polacks artistic expression, although any concrete related features were not in the literature mentioned. It is appropriate too, point to the several compositional connections between the pictures of Jan Polack und a so-called Master of an altar from Litoměřice. This anonymous Bohemian painter, who is knowed only according to his most important commission, would be supposed to study in the Bavaria (an artistic circle of Rueland Frueauf at Passau) at the end of the 15th century. It is possible, that he could visit Munich und he could be inspired by the Polacks paintings.

This study aims to discern and assess Theodor Adorno’s theories on music as an ‘art’ and how it impacts both the political and social landscape of society; more broadly, the purposes of this paper is to identify, and determine the significance of, the relationship between music and politics – that is, whether or not, and how, music can emancipate society from capitalist enslavement. In juxtaposing Adorno’s theories, the opinions of Herbert Marcuse will be discussed as well. As both theorists are considered integral to the creation and development of critical theory of the Frankfurt School, it is only logical to examine their theories and ideologies in detail to determine the role of music as an ‘art’ in the overarching scheme of political scaffolding within which society resides. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)