This thesis explores ways in which the reality of Kantor’s existence at a key moment in occupied Kraków may be read as directly informing the genesis and development of his artistic strategies. It argues for a particular ontological understanding of human being that resonates strongly with that implied by Kantor in his work and writings. Most approaches to Kantor have either operated from within a native perspective that assumes familiarity with Polish culture and its influences, or, from an Anglo-American theatre-history perspective that has tended to focus on his larger-scale performance work. This has meant that contextual factors informing Kantor’s work as a whole, including his happenings, paintings, and writings, as well as his theatrical works, have remained under-explored. The thesis takes a Heideggerian-hermeneutic approach that foregrounds biographical, cultural and aesthetic contexts specific to Kantor, but seemingly alien to Anglo-American experience. Kantor’s work is approached from Heideggerian and post-Heideggerian perspectives that read the work as a world-forming response to these contexts. Read in this way, key writings, art and performance works by Kantor are revealed to be explorations of existence and human being. Traditional ontological distinctions between process and product, painting and performance, are problematised through the critique of representation that these works and working practices propose. Kantor is revealed as a metaphysical artist whose work stands as a testament to a Heideggerian view of human being as a ‘positive negative’: a ‘placeholder of nothing’, but a ‘nothing’ that yet ‘is’ …

ROCHA, Sérgio Lizias Costa de Oliveira. O jogo da compreensão de gênero na educação infantil: um diálogo hermenêutico do pesquisador com diversos horizontes de sentidos. 2009. 231f. Tese (Doutorado em Educação) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Faculdade de Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Brasileira Fortaleza-CE, 2009. / Submitted by Liliane oliveira (morena.liliane@hotmail.com) on 2012-07-26T13:04:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_TESE_SLCOROCHA.pdf: 4276803 bytes, checksum: 6c964c2301df79c461b73e948c45cb25 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2012-08-01T16:05:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_TESE_SLCOROCHA.pdf: 4276803 bytes, checksum: 6c964c2301df79c461b73e948c45cb25 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-08-01T16:05:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_TESE_SLCOROCHA.pdf: 4276803 bytes, checksum: 6c964c2301df79c461b73e948c45cb25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Nesta tese, utilizei como referencial teórico a hermenêutica filosófica de Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) para tratar do jogo da compreensão de gênero. A metodologia fenomenológico-hermenêutica foi aplicada em cinco horizontes de sentidos. O primeiro momento consistiu em analisar o meu Mundo-Vida como parte fundamental do horizonte de sentidos daquele que quer compreender. O segundo passo foi a descrição e hermenêutica do horizonte de sentidos de minha família. Para investigar os horizontes de sentidos seguintes – ou seja, da escola, dos pais e/ou responsáveis das crianças –, e das próprias crianças, realizei um trabalho de campo de cunho etnográfico, passando um semestre letivo numa escola de Educação Infantil no Município de Ilhéus-Ba como um aluno do Infantil IV. Escolhi a mesma escola onde estudei quando criança a fim pisar novamente no solo de minha tradição. O procedimento foi baseado na Sociologia da Infância e na Gestalt-Terapia. Para a análise dos dados fui auxiliado pela Psicologia da Gestalt para compor as seguintes categorias analíticas: “figuras de gênero”; “configurações de gênero” e “ajustamento criativo de gênero”. Na conclusão apresento as configurações e fusões das compreensões de gênero de cada horizonte de sentidos. No meu horizonte de sentido, descrevo a mudança de uma posição essencialista para uma posição existencialista sobre gênero; no horizonte de sentidos de minha família encontro uma compreensão de gênero fundada na fé, no horizonte de sentidos dos pais e/ou responsáveis pelas crianças, e na escola de Educação Infantil encontro a importância em respeitar a tradição com possibilidades remotas de transgressão; no horizonte de sentidos das crianças encontro uma compreensão de gênero lúdica e de auto- representação. A partir do diálogo com estes diversos horizontes de sentidos procedo com a aplicação do círculo hermenêutico, chegando à conclusão de que a compreensão de gênero ocorre de forma lúdica, isto é, num jogo de compreensões. Assim, termino trazendo várias reflexões sobre a importância dos educadores se incluírem no mundo fenomenológico das crianças, mostrando a multiplicidade de possibilidades de significados que podem emergir no jogo da compreensão de gênero a partir das diferentes tradições que ocorrem no cotidiano da educação infantil

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study is a hermeneutic phenomenology of transgenderism as it is valued and appreciated by adults who self-identify along the transgender spectrum. As a population-at-risk due to a social environment reliant on a dualistic notion of gender, transgender people are of particular concern to social workers, who are charged with identifying and building on client strengths. Yet the preponderance of the academic literature has reinforced a negative, problematic, or even pathological view of transgenderism. The literature also has tended to focus narrowly on transsexualism, leaving a gap in our knowledge of other forms of transgenderism. The present study—grounded primarily in the philosophy and methodology of Heideggerian phenomenology, but also drawing on Gadamerian hermeneutics—sought to understand the lived experience of transgenderism as it is appreciated by a range of transgender adults. A purposive sample of fifteen self-identified transgender adults who reported appreciating being transgender was recruited using snowball sampling across three Midwestern states. Each participated in an individual, open-ended interview designed to tap their lived experience with transgenderism as a valued aspect of life. Transcribed interview data were analyzed using Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenological processes as suggested by various researchers in nursing, social work, and other disciplines. The results of this study suggest that intimate connections (with one’s self, with others, and with a larger purpose) constitute the essence of the lived experience of appreciating one’s transgenderism. These findings help prepare social workers to recognize the strengths of the transgender population and to engage in culturally competent practice. In addition, this research offers new knowledge for improving social work curricular content on transgenderism and for justifying trans-inclusive social policies. The study also contributes to the overall research literature on transgenderism and qualitative methods.