Treatise (D.M.A.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Treatise (D.M.A.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Techn. Univ., Diss.--Darmstadt, 2004.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of North Texas, 2002. / Accompanied by 4 recitals, recorded Nov. 2, 1992, Mar. 29, 1993, June 24, 1997, and Apr. 22, 2002. Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-94).

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. Vita. / Typescript. Description based on print version record. "Bibliographical essay" : leaves 350-363.

Missing page 305 / As the title of this thesis indicates, this work is a study of key psychoanalytic issues deemed to be central to a proper appreciation of the work of the contemporary American writer, Donald Barthelme. Much has been written about Barthelme's fiction in recent years (he has, for example, been the subject of four full-length studies in the last five years), but the approach taken by criticism in general to his work misinterprets what seems to me to be one of the most interesting and relevant issues raised by his work. Conventional wisdom assumes that Barthelme's short stories represent a uniquely successful challenge to the notion that fiction need embody meanings which originate in the author. It is asserted, in other words, that Barthelme's fiction has for all intents and purposes utterly subverted potential criticism which might attempt to establish a relationship between text and author. In the effective absence of an "author," Barthelme's prose is taken to represent a radically innovative form of discourse, a form of discourse which has influenced an entire generation of experimental writing. The context in which Barthelme's fiction is appreciated by criticism is informed by distinctively postmodern aesthetics. In particular, what critics identify as postmodernism's emphasis on "an aesthetic of process" (Hutcheon 1985, 2) has served to throw the entire concept of the artist or the author as the source of meaning in a text open to serious question. Postmodern fiction presents itself as a form of situation, a variety of experience in which author and reader are free to recreate meaning and recreate themselves in a dynamic gestalt through the process of text. What is most repugnant to postmodernism is the rule of definitions of the self that are anterior to the text, definitions that limit the existential freedom of the self to recreate itself in situation. Barthelme's fiction is widely proclaimed to be exemplary postmodern writing in the sense that it has created a form of discourse in which the author--a potentially limiting source of prefigured meanings--is effectively absent from the text, and can therefore be discounted as a factor in any interpretation of the meaning of the text. This study will show that the voice of the author in Barthelme's short fiction is neither absent nor as irrelevant as criticism would have us believe. Indeed, this study will show that Barthelme's fiction says essentially the opposite of what has hitherto been assumed with regard to the relevance of the authorial voice to the meaning of the fiction. This study is psychoanalytic in the sense that it will isolate the latent features of Barthelme's prose based on readings of patterns of association as they occur in the manifest content of the stories. To this point no criticism has considered the relevance of these patterns of association in Barthelme because it has been assumed that, in the absence of a legitimate authorial voice in his work, such patterns either do not exist, or if they do exist, they were deliberately woven into the fabric of the prose by an ironic author familiar with Freud. With a careful and comparative analysis of his earliest stories to serve as a reference point, this study proposes to demonstrate basically two things: first, that Barthelme's fictions have from the beginning implicitly affirmed the notion that an understanding of the psychoanalytic issues attached to the voice behind the fiction has been crucial to an appreciation of the full meaning of any given story; and second, that the psychoanalytic issues of concern to the authorial voice in Barthelme have not changed to any significant degree over the twenty years Barthelme has been publishing fiction. The implications of the latter point are especially worth noting: proof of the presence of a consistent authorial voice would require a radical readjustment to the popular view of the meaning of Barthelme's fiction. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation provides a biblical analysis of McGavran's harvest theology principle as it relates to the relationship between faithfulness in the evangelistic task and actual numerical church growth. Chapter 1 introduces the problem and outlines the research method. Chapter 2 contains a detailed explanation of harvest theology as presented by McGavran in his published works. The chapter outlines the concept of harvest theology in terms of the role of gospel messengers, the importance of strategy and effective methods, and numerical results. Chapter 3 examines the biblical text to discover the role assigned to gospel messengers. The key question for this chapter is as follows: What role, biblically, do human agents play in the evangelistic task? The role of gospel messengers is examined in the teaching and ministry of Jesus in the gospels, the book of Acts, and the Pauline epistles. Chapter 4, examines the biblical text as it pertains to the use of strategy and methods in the evangelistic task. The key question for this chapter is as follows: What, if any, strategy or method is employed in the New Testament and for what purpose? In addition, this chapter examines the concept of "receptivity" as a factor in determining evangelistic strategy. The use of strategy and methods is examined in the ministries of the Twelve and of Paul. Chapter 5, examines those biblical texts that deal with numerical results and their relationship to evangelistic activity. The key question for this chapter is as follows: What does the New Testament say concerning numerical results? This chapter examines both the records of actual numerical results as well as how the New Testament writers view numerical results. The existence and attitude toward numerical results is examined in the Gospels, Acts, and the Pauline epistles. Chapter 6 serves as the summary and conclusion of the dissertation. This chapter summarizes the findings of the previous chapters and offer an analysis of harvest theology based on those findings. Additionally, this chapter offers a theological understanding of the relationship between faithfulness and church growth. Finally, the chapter offers implications of the research for contemporary ministry. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.