Universiẗat, Magisterarbeit, 2006--Freiburg (Breisgau).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Mathematical Sciences, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is an exploration of some of the defining characteristics of performance art, and an investigation of how such characteristics relate to ritual. It highlights some key notions, such as that of the “Real” and the live, which are introduced in the first chapter. This chapter explores the theories of Peggy Phelan, Julia Kristeva and Jacques Lacan in its attempts to conceptualize the Real. It assesses how performance art as ritual attempts to revise traditional apparatuses of representation. It argues that, through a transgression of representation, performance art has the potential to challenge and revise established discourses on identity, culture and violence. The second chapter of this study is an attempt to provide a history and subsequent conceptualization of performance art, based on its exposition of the live. I have taken into consideration certain strategies that performance artists employ to evoke the live, referring specifically to the manipulation of the body. It is through abject encounters with the unsymbolizable “Real” that the performance artist reaches the borders of his/her subjective constitution, and performs a transformation of his/her identity that transcends the mechanisms of representation. The third chapter of this study attempts to find the connections that exist between performance art and sacrificial ritual. I will refer specifically to the theories of Rene Girard. Girard‟s notion of the “violent sacred” and its significance within sacrifice as an antidote to community crises will be explored in relation to collective transformation within the performance event. I choose to focus specifically on the role of the performer as surrogate victim/pharmakon, and the spectators/witnesses as part of the community. The fourth chapter explores how two South African performance artists, Steven Cohen (1961) and Peter van Heerden (1973), perform the abject body as the monster. Kristeva‟s notion of the abject will be examined in terms of the transformation of the individual performer as subject within performance art, and how, through the assumption of an “othered,” monstrous identity, the performer becomes the surrogate victim. The fifth chapter will entail an examination of Peter van Heerden‟s 6 Minutes. I will attempt to draw parallels between performance art and ritual through using this performance piece as a case study. I will focus on the strategies that Van Heerden implements to resist theatrical representation. 6 Minutes will be observed in terms of its link to sacrificial ritual, and it presentation of the live, and the Real. In light of these discoveries, I aim to locate performance art within politically-driven modes of art-making, and how such an endeavour relates to South African modes of theatre and performance.

This thesis aims to expand our knowledge about Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) in strategic decision-making. A case study of the Cuban missile crisis has been conducted. The purpose of the case study is to enhance knowledge about how NDM can be performed on a strategic level. The thesis aims to answer the questions how the crisis can be explained from a NDM-perspective, which decisions is likely to be made in a NDM-manner. In what way decision-makers can be said to be experts or experienced decision-makers and what we can learn from the Cuban missile crisis in respect to NDM. No earlier research has been identified that has performed this kind of case study. The main theory in this thesis is NDM and mainly the part of NDM that is called Recognition Primed Decision (RPD) by Klein. As a complement the so called STEP-procedure (Story, Test, Evaluate, Plan) by Cohen is used as an indicator alongside RPD. The result of the case study shows that many decisions during the Cuban missile crisis may have been performed in a naturalistic manner. This shows that decisions on the strategic level may be performed in a naturalistic manner with good results and indicates the importance of utilizing more than rational decision making in order to achieve fast and satisfying results. It is the author beliefs that decision making will be much improved by applying more NDM.

The central argument of this thesis asserts that in the process of challenging dominant subject positions, such as whiteness, performance creates the possibilities for new or alternative arrangements of desire. It examines how the creative process of desire is forestalled (reified) by habitual representations of whiteness as a privileged position, and proposes that performance can be a valid form of resistance to static conceptions of race and subjectivity. The discussion takes into account how the privilege of whiteness finds representation through forms of neo-liberalism and neo-colonialism in the post apartheid context. The analysis focuses on the work of white South African artists whose work offers a critique from within the privileged “centre” of whiteness. The research is situated within the inter-disciplinary field of performance studies entailing a reading and application of critical texts to the analysis. Alongside this qualitative methodology surfaces a subjective dialogue with the information presented on whiteness. Part Two includes an analysis of Steven Cohen’s The Cradle of Humankind (2011), Brett Bailey’s Exhibit A (2011) and Michael MacGarry’s LHR-JNB (2010). Each section examines the way in which the respective works engage in a questioning of whiteness through performance. Part Three investigates South African rap-rave duo, Die Antwoord and how their appropriation of Zef interrogates desires for an essential authenticity. Part Four focuses on my own performance practice and the proposed value of engaging with a form of practice-led research. This is particularly relevant in relation to critical race studies that require a level of self-reflexivity from the researcher. It presents an analysis of the work entitled Villain (2012) as a disturbance of theatrical desire through a process of ‘becoming’. This notion of meaning and identity as ‘becoming’ is argued as a strategy to challenge prevailing modes of perception which can possibly restore the production of desire to the viewer. The thesis concludes with the notion that performance can offer a mode of immanent ethics which is significant in creating both vulnerable and critical forms of whiteness.

The central idea of this study is an examination of the transformation of the image of the poet in different generations. My thesis problem is that the poet is dynamic, reflecting both the self-image and reception of society at different times. I collected data from many different sources- the primary sources were memoirs, poetry, short stories, novels and original documents from the Canadian Jewish Congress Archives and by speaking with historians about A.M. Klein, Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen. The secondary sources used were scholarly books about the poets articles from the Canadian Jewish press and documentaries. I used literary analysis for the poetry and I took a social-historical approach in the examination of the poets' relationship to the community and biography. The social historical approach and the literary approach were both used in this study to analyze the succession of Canadian Jewish poets. As an original contribution to the field, this study categorizes the three poets in a succession: Klein is the Jewish poet, Layton is the Canadian Jewish poet and Cohen is the spiritual guru, all reflecting the changing situation for Canadian Jews. I examine the first generation poet in this succession of gifted Canadian Jewish poets, A.M. Klein, the second generation, Irving Layton and the third generation poet, Leonard Cohen. Specifically, I argue that the roles and the reception to these poets have changed in the Jewish press as a result of changing times. As the years progress and the situation for worldwide Jewry becomes more stable with greater tolerance in a multicultural society, the poet moves away from the identification as a Jewish poet. In Klein's generation he is labeled as a Jewish poet. Layton fights the label of a Jewish poet and through controversy and celebrity he is recognized as a Canadian Jewish poet. Leonard Cohen re-defines the category of a Canadian Jewish poet in favor of a spiritual guru. This study provides an overview of the times and the issues that each poet faced in their generation. The first part of each chapter is devoted to a brief biography and an exploration of the way the Jewish community responded to the poets in terms of roles that they wanted them to undertake and the own reception to the poets in the local Jewish press. It is interesting that each poet served a different function in different generations as a response to the needs of the community. The second section of each chapter is an examination of the poets' self-image as depicted in their writing. All of the poets viewed themselves in the same manner, as spokesmen, controversial figures and as modern poets similar to ancient biblical figures. This section includes the ways the poets viewed their relationship with the community and their relationship to Judaism as a way of shaping their self-perception. / Arts, Faculty of / Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of / Graduate

À travers une lecture de Book of Mercy, le recueil de psaumes de Leonard Cohen, le présent mémoire examine le rapport que le poète entretient avec la tradition hébraïque. Ancrant sa production poétique dans l’histoire du psaume, qui remonte à la Bible hébraïque ou, pour les chrétiens, à l’Ancien Testament, Book of Mercy constitue effectivement un cadre à l’intérieur duquel se déploie une confrontation sans égale dans l’œuvre de Cohen. Dressant, dans un premier temps, le portrait de la tradition scripturale dont hérite le poète, nous nous pencherons, dans un deuxième temps, sur ce psaume qu’elle lui lègue, afin d’étudier, dans un troisième et dernier temps, la singularité du projet littéraire qui en échoit. De fil en aiguille, se profile avec ce rapport à la tradition hébraïque un poète qui éclaire de sa modernité les soubassements littéraires d’une poésie qu’il montre mue par l’expression prosaïque de l’humain. / Through a reading of Book of Mercy, Leonard Cohen’s collection of psalms, this study examines the poet’s relationship with the Hebrew tradition. Anchoring its poetic production in the history of the psalm, which dates back to the Hebrew Bible, or, for Christians, to the Old Testament, Book of Mercy constitutes indeed a framework within which unfolds a confrontation unequaled in Cohen’s work. Drawing the portrait of the scriptural tradition inherited by the poet, we will therefore delve into the psalm that tradition bequeathed to him, in order ultimately to study Cohen’s singular literary project. Against the backdrop of this evolving relationship to the Hebrew tradition, the poet reveals in his modernity the literary underpinnings of poetry moved by the prosaic expression of the human.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur pedagogers synsätt och deras arbete i samband med konflikthantering i förskolan kan skapa förutsättningar för barns utveckling och lärande. Genom att utföra semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex förskolepedagoger från två olika arbetslag har vi undersökt hur de ser på konflikter mellan barn och sin egen roll i samband med dessa, samt vilka kollegiala och enskilda konflikthanteringsstrategier som de uttrycker att de använder sig av. Studien utgår från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och fredsforskaren Richard Cohens konflikthanteringspyramid, som är en teoretisk modell indelad i fyra olika nivåer: förebygga, hantering, hjälpa och stoppa. Modellen används i studien för att synliggöra de olika arbetsområden som konflikthanteringsarbetet består av. Konflikter mellan barn är vanligt förekommande i förskolans vardag och trots att de kan vara komplexa för pedagogerna att hantera så spelar bemötandet i samband med dessa en stor roll för barnens kognitiva, sociala och emotionella utveckling. Tidigare forskning har visat att miljöns organisering och pedagogers agerande i samband med konflikter mellan barn har en stor inverkan på barnens egen konflikthanteringsförmåga. Att skapa förutsättningar för barnen att själva komma fram till en lösning anses vara mest produktivt för deras utveckling och lärande. En del pedagoger har dock en tendens att inta en auktoritär ledarroll trots att det ingår i förskolans uppdrag att föra vidare det svenska samhällets demokratiska värderingar, samtidigt visar forskning att pedagoger sällan diskuterar ledarstilar och konflikthanteringsstrategier med varandra. Resultatet visade att samtliga pedagoger ser på konflikter som potentiella lärandetillfällen, men att deras syn på konflikter som positiva eller negativa påverkas av hur de hanteras. Pedagogerna använder både kollegiala och enskilda konflikthanteringsstrategier och ett stort fokus läggs på det förebyggande arbetet. Resultatet tyder på att skillnaderna i arbetssätt och ledarstilar är som störst vid icke akuta konflikter, vilket kan bero på att de tolkar situationer och bedömer hur och när de ska gå in som tredje part i barns konflikter på olika sätt. Samtliga pedagoger förespråkar medling men resultatet tyder på att de i större utsträckning använder andra strategier vid konflikter mellan barn. Studiens slutsats är att pedagogerna med fördel kan arbeta vidare med kollegialt arbete gällande hur de kan stötta barnen när de går in i deras konflikter, för att skapa en gemensam grund. Det kan i förlängningen leda till att barnen lär sig använda fler konstruktiva konflikthanteringsstrategier.

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<p>The defining equations of Rees algebras provide a natural pathway to study these rings. However, information regarding these equations is often elusive and enigmatic. In this dissertation we study Rees algebras of particular classes of ideals and modules over hypersurface rings. We extend known results regarding Rees algebras of ideals and modules to this setting and explore the properties of these rings.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The majority of this thesis is spent studying Rees algebras of ideals in hypersurface rings, beginning with perfect ideals of grade two. After introducing certain constructions, we arrive in a setting similar to the one encountered by Boswell and Mukundan in [3]. We establish a similarity between Rees algebras of ideals with linear presentation in hypersurface rings and Rees algebras of ideals with <em>almost</em> linear presentation in polynomial rings. Hence we adapt the methods developed by Boswell and Mukundan in [3] to our setting and follow a path parallel to theirs. We introduce a recursive algorithm of <em>modified Jacobian dual iterations</em> which produces a minimal generating set for the defining ideal of the Rees algebra.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Once success has been achieved for perfect ideals of grade two, we consider perfect Gorenstein ideals of grade three in hypersurface rings and their Rees algebras. We follow a path similar to the one taken for the previous class of ideals. A recursive algorithm of <em>gcd-iterations</em> is introduced and it is shown that this method produces a minimal generating set of the defining ideal of the Rees algebra. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Lastly, we extend our techniques regarding Rees algebras of ideals to Rees algebras of modules. Using <em>generic Bourbaki ideals</em> we study Rees algebras of modules with projective dimension one over hypersurface rings. For such a module $E$, we show that there exists a generic Bourbaki ideal $I$, with respect to $E$, which is perfect of grade two in a hypersurface ring. We then adapt the techniques used by Costantini in [9] to our setting in order to relate the defining ideal of $\mathcal{R}(E)$ to the defining ideal of $\mathcal{R}(I)$, which is known from the earlier work mentioned above.</p> <p><br></p> <p>In all three situations above, once the defining equations have been determined, we investigate certain properties of the Rees algebra. The depth, Cohen-Macaulayness, relation type, and Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of these rings are explored.</p>