Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1943. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-234).

Thesis (MA (English))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABTRACT: In recent years, original and exciting developments have been taking place in Nigerian literature. This new body of literature, collectively referred to as the ―third generation‖, has lately received international acclaim. In this emergent literature, the negotiation of a new, contemporary identity has become a central focus. At the same time, recent Nigerian literary texts are articulating responses to various developments in the Nigerian nation: Nigeria‘s current political and socio-economic situation, diverse forms of cultural hybridisation, as well as an increasing trans-national consciousness, to mention only a few. Three 21st-century novels – Chimamanda Nogzi Adichie‘s Purple Hibiscus (2004), Sefi Atta‘s Everything Good Will Come (2004) and Chris Abani‘s GraceLand (2005) – reveal how new avenues of identity-negotiation and formation are being explored in various contemporary Nigerian situations. This study tracks the ways in which the Bildungsroman, the novel of self-development, serves as a vehicle through which this new identity is articulated. Concurrently, this study also grapples with the ways in which the articulation and negotiation of this new identity reshapes the conventions of the classical Bildungsroman genre, thereby establishing a unique and contemporary Nigerian Bildungsroman for the 21st century. The identity that is being negotiated by the third generation is multi-layered and inclusive, as opposed to the exclusive and unitary identities which are observable in Nigerian novels of the previous two generations. Such inclusivity, as well as the hybrid environments in which this identity is being negotiated, results in a form of ―identity layering‖. Thus, the individual comes into being at the point of intersection, overlap and collision of various modes of self-making. Such ―layering‖ allows the individual, albeit not without challenge, to perform a self-styled identity, which does not necessarily conform to the dictates of society. At the same time, the identity is negotiated by means of an engagement, in the form of intertextual dialoguing, with Nigeria‘s preceding literary generations. The most prominent arenas in which this new identity is negotiated include silenced domestic spaces, religo-cultural traditions, constructs of gender and nation, as well as in multicultural and hybrid communities. The investigation conducted in this thesis will, consequently, also focus on such areas of Nigerian life, as they are portrayed in the focal texts. Various theories of literary analysis (some of which specifically focus on Nigeria), Bildungsroman theory, theories of allegory, (imaginative) nation formation, feminism, gender and performativity, as well as theories of cultural identity and cultural exchanges, will form the critical and theoretical framework within which this investigation will be executed. Chapter One explores how Purple Hibiscus‘s protagonist, Kambili Achike, negotiates her gender identity and voice in order to constitute herself as an independent, self-authoring individual. Chapter Two, which focuses on Everything Good Will Come, investigates the dialectic relationship between Enitan Taiwo‘s national and personal identity, which inevitably leads to her quest to reconceive her gender identity, since national identity, as she finds out, is always an engendered construct. In its analysis of GraceLand, Chapter Three turns to the difficulties that Elvis Oke faces when he attempts to negotiate an alternative masculine identity within a rigid patriarchal system and between the cracks of a fraudulent African modernity. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In die afgelope paar jaar was daar opwindende, oorspronklike ontwikkelinge in Nigeriese literatuur. Hierdie nuwe literatuurkorpus, wat gesamentlik bekend staan as die ―derde generasie, het onlangs internasionale erkenning ontvang. In hierdie opkomende literatuur, kry die soeke na 'n nuwe, kontemporêre identiteit ‘n sentrale fokus. Terselfdertyd reageer onlangse Nigeriese literêre werke met verskeie ontwikkelinge in die Negeriese nasie: Nigerië se huidige politieke en sosio-ekonomiese situasie, diverse vorme van kultuurverbastering asook 'n toenemende trans-nasionale bewustheid, om maar ‘n paar te noem. Drie 21ste eeuse romans – Chimamanda Nogzi Adichie se Purple Hibiscus (2004), Sefi Atta se Everything Good Will Come (2004) en Chris Abani se GraceLand (2005) – onthul hoe nuwe kanale van identiteidsonderhandeling en –vorming in verskeie kontemporêre Nigeriese situasies ondersoek word. Hierdie studie ondersoek die maniere waarop die Bildungsroman, die roman van selfontwikkeling, as ‗n medium dien waardeur hierdie nuwe identiteit geartikuleer word. Terselfdertyd sal hierdie studie ook worstel met die maniere waarin die artikulasie en soeke na hierdie nuwe identiteit die konvensies van die klassieke Bildungsroman genre hervorm, en daardeur 'n unieke en kontemporêre Nigeriese Bildungsroman vir die 21ste eeu vestig. Die identiteit wat ontwikkel deur die derde generasie is veelvlakkig en inklusief en staan teenoor die eksklusiewe, eenvormige identiteite wat in Nigeriese romans van die vorige twee generasies opgemerk word. Hierdie inklusiwiteit, sowel as die hibriede omgewings waarin hierdie identeite ontwikkel word, lei tot die vorming van identiteitslae. Die individu kom dus tot stand by die kruising, oorvleueling en botsing van verskillende metodes van selfvorming. Hierdie vorming van lae laat die individu toe, alhoewel nie sonder uitdagings nie, om 'n selfgevormde identiteit te hê wat nie noodwndig aan die eise van die gemeenskap voldoen nie. Terselfdertyd word hierdie identiteit onderhandel deur ‗n skakeling met Nigerië se voorafgaande literêre generasies in die vorm van intertekstuele dialoog. Die mees prominente omgewings waar hierdie nuwe identiteit onderhandel word, sluit stilgemaakte huishoudelike spasies, religieus-kulturele tradisies, konstrukte van gender en nasie, sowel as multi-kulturele en hibriede gemeenskappe in. Die ondersoek wat in hierdie tesis uitgevoer sal word, sal daarom ook fokus op hierdie areas van Nigeriese lewe, soos deur die fokale tekste voorgestel. Verskeie teorieë van literêre analise (sommige wat spesifiek op Nigerië fokus), Bildungsromanteorie, teorieë van allegorie, (denkbeeldige) nasievorming, feminisme, gender en performatiwiteit, sowel as teorieë van kultuuridentiteit en -uitruiling, vorm die kritiese en teoretiese raamwerk waarbinne hierdie ondersoek uitgevoer sal word. Hoofstuk een ondersoek hoe Purple Hibiscus se protagonist, Kambili Achike, haar genderidentiteit onderhandel en uitdrukking gee om haarself as onafhanklike, self-skeppende individu te vorm. Hoofstuk twee, wat fokus op Everything Good Will Come, ondersoek die dialektiese verhouding tussen Enitan Taiwo se nasionale en persoonlike identiteit, wat onvermydelik lei tot die herbedenking van haar genderidentiteit, aangesien nasionale identiteit, soos sy uitvind, altyd 'n gekweekte konstruk is. In sy analise van GraceLand, draai Hoofstuk drie om die moeilikhede wat Elvis Oke in die gesig staar wanneer hy probeer om ‘n alternatiewe manlike identiteit te onderhandel in 'n rigiede patriargale sisteem tussen krake van 'n bedrieglike Afrika-moderniteit.

Theoretical part of the thesis, regarding the purpose of practical output (haptic aid), deals in its first sections with special pedagogy ophthalmopedies and typhlography. The second section of the thesis theoretical part analyses the theme of St. Christopher, which appears in the form of wall painting in the monastery temple of the Sacrifice of the Virgin Mary in České Budějovice. In connection with the place of occurrence, the history of the monastery is outlined. Practical part of the thesis is intended for various solutions of creating a specific haptic aid for the blind. That one is used to "view the image" through a relief which thanks to its plastic properties provides a visual impression of a flat surface.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:55:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Douglas Machado.pdf: 1128189 bytes, checksum: 2749c41ecd8769a7b9ae1e25a54f99f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-15 / The present research aims to produce a comparative reading of Columbia (1892), written by John Musick, Los perros del Paraíso (1989), by the Argentinean Abel Posse and A Caravela dos insensatos: uma viagem pela renascença (2006), by the Brazilian Paulo Novaes to expose the characterization of Christopher Columbus' figure in American Literature as a hero on the discovery of America, as well as its deconstruction and its subsequent reconfiguration. The novels in which this comparison was carried out are part of the fictional hybrid genre called historical novel. The first one, written in North America, is a traditional historical novel and it reveals Columbus as a mythical hero of the New World. The second one, written inside the Spanish American context, is a new Latin American historical novel that presents processes of deconstruction of the existing historical speech and gives visibility to the Latin American people so that they are able to make a new reading on their own past. However, the third one, written more recently in our country, brings back the traditional historical novel model and reconfigures Christopher Columbus' traditional heroic-mythical image. Therefore, this novel ignores the voice of the Latin American people and all the critical and deconstructionist production of the Spanish American Literature done along the 20th century, which was based upon deconstructionist resources like parody, carnivalization, intertextuality, anachronies, irony, multiperspectivism and much more. These writings are constantly questioning power relations, control of truth and also deconstruct speeches that had been shaping Latin American s identity. Thus, our research aims to explain the relationship between American and the old European metropolis: colonization, decolonization and maintenance of certain aspects from the colonizatory dependence of America. These processes are reinforced by literary creations; whether they are critical as the new historical novel or traditional, still appealing to the permanence of colonizatory processes that occur by rescuing ethnocentric models of historical and literary references. To do so, we will use a bibliography which enables us to follow the course of the historical novel genre from its European origins until it became the high critical hybrid genre that currently is written in Latin America / A presente pesquisa apresenta uma leitura comparada entre Columbia (1892), do estadunidenese John Musick; Los perros del paraíso (1989), do argentino Abel Posse e A Caravela dos Insensatos: uma viagem pela renascença (2006), do brasileiro Paulo Novaes para evidenciar a caracterização da figura de Cristóvão Colombo na literatura americana sob as configurações do herói do descobrimento, a desconstrução dessa imagem heroico/mítica e a sua posterior reconfiguração. As obras nas quais essa comparação se efetiva são integrantes do gênero ficcional híbrido denominado romance histórico. A primeira delas, escrita em solo norte-americano, situa-se na modalidade do romance histórico tradicional, que revela a figura de Colombo como um herói mítico do Novo Mundo . A segunda, escrita no contexto hispano-americano, é exemplar da modalidade do novo romance histórico latino-americano que apresenta processos de desconstrução do discurso histórico vigente ao dar voz ao sujeito da América Latina para que este seja capaz de efetuar outras leituras sobre o próprio passado. Já a terceira, escrita mais recentemente em nosso país, resgata as tendências da modalidade do romance histórico tradicional e reconfigura a imagem heroico/mítica de Cristóvão Colombo. Com isso essa produção romanesca mais atual ignora a voz do sujeito crítico latino-americano e toda a produção crítica e desconstrucionista hispano-americana do século XX, a qual produziu uma literatura com o emprego de recursos escriturais bastante desconstrucionistas como a paródia, a carnavalização, as intertextualidades, as anacronias, a ironia, o multiperspectivismos e outras mais. Essas escritas constantemente questionam as relações de poder, o controle da verdade e desconstroem enunciados que moldaram a construção identitária dos sujeitos latino-americanos. As análises feitas objetivam, portanto, explicitar a tríplice relação entre a América e as metrópoles europeias: a colonização, a descolonização e a manutenção de certos aspectos da dependência colonizadora da América. Tais processos são reforçados pelas criações literárias, sejam elas as críticas do novo romance histórico ou as tradicionais que ainda apelam à permanência dos processos colonizadores que ocorrem com o resgate dos modelos etnocêntricos de referenciais históricos e literários. Para tanto, utilizaremos um referencial teórico-metodológico que nos oportunize acompanhar a trajetória do gênero romance histórico desde suas origens europeias primeiras até a constituição das modalidades que transformaram essa escrita híbrida em uma das formas mais relevantes da produção literária latino-americana

This dissertation is original in using the contrasting ideas of two leading 20th century philosophers of science, Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn, to provide a philosophical understanding, firstly, of the shift from traditional software methodologies to the so-called Agile methodologies, and, secondly, of the values, principles and practices underlying the most prominent of the Agile methodologies, Extreme Programming (XP). This dissertation will take a revisionist approach, following Fuller—the founder of social epistemology—in reading Popper against Kuhn's epistemological hegemony. The investigations in this dissertation relate to two main branches of philosophy— epistemology and ethics. The epistemological part of this dissertation compares both Kuhn and Popper's alternative ideas of the development of scientific knowledge to the Agile methodologists' ideas of the development of software, in order to assess the extent to which Agile software development resembles a scientific discipline. The investigations relating to ethics in this dissertation transfer concepts from social engineering—in particular, Popper's distinction between piecemeal and utopian social engineering—to software engineering, in order to assess both the democratic and authoritarian aspects of Agile software development and management. The use of Kuhn's ideas of scientific revolutions and paradigm shift by several leading figures of the Agile software methodologies—most notably, Kent Beck, the leader of the most prominent Agile software methodology, Extreme Programming (XP)—to predict a fundamental shift from traditional to Agile software methodologies, is critically assessed in this dissertation. A systematic investigation into whether Kuhn's theory as a whole, can provide an adequate account of the day-to-day practice of Agile software development is also provided. As an alternative to the use of Kuhn's ideas, the critical rationalist philosophy of Karl Popper is investigated. On the one hand, this dissertation assesses whether the epistemological aspects of Popper's philosophy—especially his notions of falsificationism, evolutionary epistemology, and three worlds metaphysics—provide a suitable framework for understanding the philosophical basis of everyday Agile software development. On the other hand, the aspects of Popper's philosophy relating to ethics, which provide an ideal for scientific practice in an open society, are investigated in order to determine whether they coincide with the avowedly democratic values of Agile software methodologies. The investigations in this dissertation led to the following conclusions. Firstly, Kuhn's ideas are useful in predicting the effects of the full-scale adoption of Agile methodologies, and they describe the way in which several leaders of the Agile methodologies promote their methodologies; they do not, however, account for the detailed methodological practice of Agile software development. Secondly, several aspects of Popper's philosophy, were found to be aligned with several aspects of Agile software development. In relation to epistemology, Popper's principle of falsificationism provides a criterion for understanding the rational and scientific basis of several Agile principles and practices, his evolutionary epistemology resembles the iterative-incremental design approach of Agile methodologies, and his three worlds metaphysical model provides an understanding of both the nature of software, and the approach advocated by the Agile methodologists' of creating and sharing knowledge. In relation to ethics, Popper's notion of an open society provides an understanding of the rational and ethical basis of the values underlying Agile software development and management, as well as the piecemeal adoption of Agile software methodologies. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Computer Science / unrestricted

“Circulating Knowledges: Literature and the Idea of the Library in Renaissance England” pairs literary texts and libraries to illustrate how literary creation and library building in England from 1500 to 1700 were deeply invested in one another. The history of English Renaissance libraries has generally been analyzed from the viewpoints of religious history and historiography, seen by scholars as a story of Protestant librarians attempting to preserve (or invent) a history of Protestant England. Many literary critics —citing Thomas Bodley’s notorious distaste for “stage plaies”—have typically reduced institutional libraries to elitist boogeymen hostile to popular or vernacular literature. Revising these narratives, this dissertation brings together a large corpus, including works by Thomas More, John Lyly, Edmund Spenser, Robert Greene, Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, and Margaret Cavendish, to illustrate how literary depictions of England’s fledgling libraries shaped their creation and development, while the practices of these inchoate libraries in turn influenced literary texts. “Circulating Knowledges” advances its argument on several fronts. First, I show that developments (or a perceived lack of development) in library organization, access, and use appeared in literary texts, which often depicted literary libraries in response to these developments. Second, I home in on moments when literary texts that seem not at all interested in libraries become unexpectedly fruitful texts through which to develop literary thinking about libraries. In the process of excavating this literary interest in libraries, I demonstrate that Renaissance literature concerns itself not only with depicting, commenting on, or objecting to the developments in library creation happening during the period, but also in imagining alternative possibilities for how libraries might function, conceptions of a library that often outstripped what was materially possible in the period: these conceptions I term “the idea of the library.” In detailing literature’s preoccupation with developments in Renaissance library systems, I offer new perspectives on the period’s literary attitudes toward the creation, transmission, and protection of knowledge, all questions which the building—or imagining—of a library brings to the forefront.

This project is a response to the author's passion for sport and his curiosity about the architectural process that is necessary to understand and facilitate the inter-relation of body, mind and soul. The potential influence of physical exercise; its correlation with the metaphysical aspects of the individual and how its influence spills over into the larger context of society is investigated. This dissertation attempts to form an architectural response that is indigenous to the local population, the climate and the existing urban condition and ranges from a thorough understanding of the community to the effective contribution that architecture can offer, based on the concept of ‘Sport for Development’ programmes in South Africa. The primary objective of the architectural response is to amplify the potential of sport as a means to peace building and self-actualization within a society that suffers from the effects of crime and violence. Although popular culture believes in the positive potential of sport, Ramon Spaaij identifies factors and conditions that must be met if the positive value of sport is to be enjoyed. The dissertation incorporates these factors and conditions into a multipurpose 'Sport for Development' community complex. This complex aims to augment the existing sport for development programmes in South Africa and serve as a prototype for future sport for development centres that ultimately includes everyone in the process of reconciliation. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Architecture / unrestricted

Ce mémoire de recherche-création explore les différentes modalités de la représentation d’une théorie scientifique—la théorie de la relativité, développée par Albert Einstein au début du XXe siècle—et se concentre sur le voyage dans le temps. Le mémoire est divisé en deux parties : un texte de recherche et un projet de création. Dans le texte de recherche, le premier chapitre rappelle ce qu’est la théorie de la relativité et fait un bref historique des films sur le voyage dans le temps; le second chapitre est une analyse du film Interstellar réalisé par Christopher Nolan en collaboration avec le physicien américain, Kip Thorne. Dans ce film, la théorie de la relativité n’est pas un élément secondaire, mais le coeur même de l’histoire. Ma création, présentée ici dans un document de jeu (Concept narratif d’un jeu vidéo), est un projet de jeu vidéo se déroulant pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, dans lequel le joueur devra voyager dans le temps pour sauver l’humanité du pouvoir nazi. / This research-creation master’s thesis explores the different modalities of the representation of the Theory of Relativity, developed by Albert Einstein in the beginning of the 20th century and focuses on time travel. The dissertation is divided into two parts: a research essay and a creation project. The first chapter of the research explains the basis of the Theory of Relativity and gives a brief history of time-travel in cinema. The second chapter analyses the movie Interstellar, produced by Christopher Nolan in collaboration with the American physicist Kip Thorne. This motion picture is a prime example of the Theory of Relativity in modern cinema. The creation section, presented here in a Video game narrative concept, is a video game project set during the Second World War, in which the player will have to travel through time in order to save humanity from the Nazis.

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