This dissertation traces the rhetorical history of Virginia Tech's April 16th Memorial from its earliest appearance immediately following the April 16, 2007 shootings up to its present iteration as a permanent memorial on Virginia Tech's campus. Specifically, this study reveals how the April 16th Memorial is a public memory performance that has changed (and continues to change) in its form, function, and significance across time. Based on a data set that includes archival evidence, interview data, and fieldwork, I argue that over the course of its history, the April 16th Memorial has negotiated tensions and fusions between the epideictic and deliberative genres that exist within its bounds. In doing so, the memorial asks audiences to honor and remember the dead while also compelling audiences to deliberate over the social and political issues punctuated by the tragedy. Whereas the epideictic appeals in the memorial aim to reknit the community, the deliberative appeals invite audiences to imagine a better, safer world. By tracing the intersections between these two genres, this study demonstrates how complementary and competing forces in the memorial vie over not only constructions of public memory but also the lessons we are meant to gain from the April 16, 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. / Doctor of Philosophy / Public memory refers to the shared recollections of history among members of a specific community. Rather than individual memory, public memory is constituted by what communities choose to remember and forget and what gets retold to future generations. Specific artifacts help support the creation of public memory, including archives, museums, monuments, and memorials. Scholars tend to agree that what communities chose to monumentalize in stone often reflects a desire to shape public memory in strategic ways. This dissertation traces the history of the April 16th Memorial at Virginia Tech in order to capture how the commemorative site has influenced (and continues to influence) public memory of the shootings that occurred at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. Using archival evidence, interview data, and fieldnotes collected at the site, I argue that the April 16th Memorial asks visitors to honor and remember the dead while also compelling visitors to deliberate over the kinds of action that might prevent school shootings in the future. This study demonstrates how complementary and competing forces in the memorial vie over not only constructions of public memory but also the lessons we are meant to gain from the April 16, 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech.

<p>E-uppsatsen ventilerades i NT-högre seminariet.</p>

The city of Philippi was founded as a Roman military colony in 42 BC, directly following one of the largest battles of antiquity, the civil war battle of Philippi. This study shows that one hundred years later, at the time of writing of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the identity of the city was still deeply connected to its military history. The apostle Paul found in the historical and sociological ties of the Philippians with the military reasons for drafting his letter in a rhetorical arrangement similar to the historical reports of commander’s speeches to his assembled troops before battle. Not only does the vocabulary of Paul’s ethical commands parallel the general’s harangues, as has been previously pointed out by Biblical scholarship, but in Paul’s letter one also finds correspondences to the three largest motifs of the general’s speeches: the objective of the war, the confidence for victory and the rewards for courage and obedience. The major unified theme of Philippians is the mutual military-partnership for the advance of the gospel in a hostile context (Phil. 1:7-12; 1:20; 2:19-24; 2:25-30; 3:12-15; 4:3; 4:10-19). Paul in his letter to the Philippians uses consistently military imagery – and not once athletic imagery, as typically assumed by exegetical scholars – to demonstrate that the courageous sharing of the faith will always result in victory for the one who proclaims Christ. This victory is guaranteed through the unsurpassable abilities of the supreme general, Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross and whose resurrection is portrayed as a military victory and whose exaltation by God the Father acknowledges Christ as the victorious general in an universal extent (Phil. 2:8-11). The victory of the gospel campaign is further guaranteed by the LORD’s initiation of the war for the spread of the faith and by His presence with those who fight in His behalf for the spread of the good news (Phil. 1:5-7; 2:12-13; 2:14-15; 3:1; 4:4). Victory in the Philippian context means either the reception of the gospel by unbelievers or the death of the messenger on account of rejection of and opposition to the gospel; the suffering of the emissary of the gospel serves to glorify Christ and it is compensated by the superior enjoyment of Christ at the resurrection (Phil. 1:19-25). The reward, which God promises to the messenger of the gospel is several times stated in Philippians to be the exalted experience of fellowship with Christ at the resurrection (Phil. 1:21; 3:8-11; 3:20-21; 4:3). The reading of Philippians in light of the appropriation of military terminology confirms that Paul’s main purpose in writing Philippians is to encourage his partners to continue to take risks, to be unafraid of suffering and to make sacrifices in order to boldly testify about Christ and to continue to financially contribute to the mission of spreading the faith. The book of Philippians challenges the contemporary self-centred prosperity culture of the church to take risks and make sacrifices for the proclamation of Christ to unbelievers, sacrifices, which are supremely compensated by a life for the glory of Christ and the surpassing promise of the enjoyment of the glory of God in His Son Christ Jesus. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / New Testament Studies / unrestricted

No description available.

Au XVIe siècle, nous assistons à deux types de récits criminels : dans la presse, les faits divers, produits sous la forme de « canards », et dans la littérature, les histoires tragiques, forme narrative brève essentiellement véridique et à tonalité pathétique. Lorsque Pierre Boaistuau, appelé aussi Launay, publie Les Histoires tragiques, il sélectionne six récits parmi les Novelle de Matteo Bandello. Le travail de Boaistuau ne se limite pas à la traduction de ces textes mais également à la fondation d’un genre qu’est l’histoire tragique. François de Belleforest, son ami, en poursuit la traduction et en varie les sources ; il publie entre 1559 et 1582 sept volumes d’histoires tragiques. Notre étude porte sur la justice, un thème clé pour comprendre les textes de ces deux auteurs. En effet, leurs récits révèlent un intérêt particulier pour les différentes formes de justice (humaine, naturelle et divine), pour le procès judiciaire et ses protagonistes. Nous analysons tous ces points ainsi que le thème de la transgression à travers différents crimes, principalement les crimes de paillardise (« macquerellage », rapt, viol et adultère). Notre réflexion porte également sur le châtiment et ses fonctions ainsi que sur le comportement du condamné au moment de son exécution. Enfin, nous nous intéressons aux stratégies discursives déployées par nos auteurs notamment à la rhétorique judiciaire et à la rhétorique délibérative. Les enjeux soulevés à travers l’étude du discours rhétorique permettent d’explorer les liens entre le discours judiciaire et le discours politique et donc entre justice et politique. Somme toute, la dernière partie de notre travail permet de cerner les rapports entre rhétorique, justice et politique. / In the sixteenth century, two types of criminal narratives predominate: short news items in the press, printed separately as canards, and brief narrative literary forms that constitute the tragic story genre, combining truth with a tone of pathos. When Pierre Boaistuau, also called Launay, publishes Les Histoires tragiques, he selects six stories from Matteo Bandello’s Novelle. Boaistuau's work is not limited to the translation of these texts but also establishes the tragic story genre. His friend François de Belleforest continues the translation and varies the sources; between 1559 and 1582 he published seven volumes of tragic stories. My thesis focuses on justice, a key theme for understanding the texts of these two authors. Indeed, their stories reveal a particular interest in the different forms of justice (human, natural and divine), in the judicial process and in its protagonists. I analyze all these points as well as the theme of transgression through an examination of various crimes, mainly crimes of debauchery ("macquerellage" –sex trafficking–, abduction, rape and adultery). I also consider the different functions of punishment as well as the behavior of the convicted person at the time of execution. Finally, I am interested in the discursive strategies deployed by these authors, including judicial rhetoric and deliberative rhetoric. The issues raised through the study of rhetoric make it possible to explore the links between judicial discourse and political discourse and therefore between justice and politics. The summative, final part of our work further elucidates the relationships between rhetoric, justice and politics.