Thesis advisor: James Najarian / This investigation outlines and applies what I have termed Aesthetic Phenomenology – a method of interdisciplinary criticism founded on the intersections of Martin Heidegger’s existential phenomenology, Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics, and Wolfgang Iser’s literary anthropology. This study traces the articulation of Dasein’s fundamental ontological structures outlined in Heidegger’s philosophy. A concern with Dasein and the issue of its Being, specifically in relation to the aesthetic, are prominently foregrounded in many works of eighteenth-century and Romantic period English literature. Hence conceptions and investigations of the imagination become central during this period. Yet the idea of the imagination itself as a faculty is amended and supplemented when it is brought into play with what Iser terms “the imaginary,” which is conceived as the domain of possible worlds and modes of Being. In the first chapter, “Aesthetic Phenomenology: A Critical Encounter,” I outline how a phenomenologically grounded aesthetic must account for the interplay of the domains of the artist, artwork, and recipient in what I call an “aesthetic equation.” The second chapter, “Between Fundamental Ontology and the Imaginary: A Genealogy of Aesthetic Phenomenology,” traces the principle landmarks defining the topography of our investigation. “The Aesthetics of Insein” deals with how Being is projected and articulated in regards to Heidegger’s conceptions of “understanding,” “interpretation,” and “worlding,” as well as his distinction between the “real” and “reality.” “The Aesthetics of Attunement” is concerned with the opposition between everyday and authentic Being and the quality of aesthetic experience as both Erlebnis and Erfahrung. The aesthetic functions as an analogue to Heidegger’s conception of “conscience” as a “call” which leads to Being becoming “resolute” and taking up the path to its “authentic,” ownmost self and returning to its “there.” In “The Undiscovered Country and the Mortal Bourne: There Be Monsters,” I delve into the potentially negative side of the imaginary and discuss the implications of, and dangers inherent in, the transgressive qualities of the aesthetic. The writings of Samuel Johnson are explicitly guided by the ontological and moral issue of the choice of life. The first part of the chapter measures Johnson’s “ontological surveys,” which address Dasein’s range of possible attunements, specifically as conducted in the poems “London” (1738), “The Vanity of Human Wishes” (1749), and “On the Death of Doctor Robert Levet” (1782). In “The Temporality of Idleness: Aesthetic Ramblers, Adventurers, and Idlers and the Issue of Authenticity,” I consider both the negative and positive aspects of idleness as attunement, which recurs in Johnson’s periodical essays. The next section, “The Domain of the Aesthetic in Johnson’s Criticism,” posits that for Johnson the aesthetic provides a realm wherein a range of possible projections of Being are disclosed. The final section, “The Devouring Imaginary and the Struggle of Resolution,” investigates the obverse side of Johnson’s relationship to the imagination and the imaginary. As the leading philosopher of the imagination in England during this period, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poetry and prose is directly engaged with the issue of Dasein’s ontological projection and the disclosure of horizons of Being. “The Imagination vs. the Imaginary,” deals first with what I term the “voluntary imagination” as it is revealed in Coleridge’s so-called “conversation poems” as a form of Erlebnis. The obverse side of the voluntary imagination is the “compulsory imaginary,” which in a form of experience conceived as Erfahrung, the contours and consequences of which are drawn out through a readings of “Fears in Solitude” (1798), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798 / 1834), and “Kubla Khan” (1797-1799?). The awareness of the failure of the imagination to order experience and life becomes evident in Coleridge’s “Black Period” poems: Dejection: An Ode (1802), Constancy to an Ideal Object (1804-7), Ne Plus Ultra (1811), and Limbo (1811). Here the imagination as creator and site of joy is replaced by the abyss of the imaginary. Coleridge’s imaginative failure eventuates his pursuit of what I call the “Philosophic Imaginary” – a process initiated in the Biographia Literaria (1817). The Coleridge section concludes with a consideration of the philosophic imaginary’s legacy as revealed in essays about Coleridge by Algernon Charles Swinburne, Walter Pater, and Arthur Symons. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.

Thesis (Honors)--Liberty University Honors Program, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-08-23Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:20:37Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 scaringi_vc_me_rcla.pdf: 515188 bytes, checksum: 7c0ffc7a9b0243e31fea5c68cc6fbcef (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O curso do imaginário vai para uma esfera coletiva, além do individual. É um dinamismo que surgiu desde a mitologia e que perpassa séculos, transformando-se em si mesmo e antecipando aquilo que ainda não foi vivido. Em um mundo de sonhos, fantasias, imagens, memórias de muitas cenas que fascinam, encantam, seduzem, (des)velam, surge Afrodite - a deusa das noites - de diversas faces e personagens dançantes de tempos (ir)reais que se fazem passado, presente e futuro. Muitos são os caminhos para encontrá-la e o rumo optado faz da experiência um lugar mágico que se mistura a um lugar comum. Falar de DEUSA DAS NOITES: Personagens (des)veladas significa adentrar em um mundo de desejos, (des)encantos e seduções, movido por personagens de um paradoxo: realidade e ficção. Como a dançarina de striptease, por meio da dança erótica, cria as suas personagens entre a realidade e a ficção, possibilitando a e/ou interferindo na produção de subjetividade? Nesta perspectiva, pode-se pensar a referida pesquisa como espaço de experiências, de modos de afetação e produção de sentidos nos/pelos sujeitos em um cenário onde as danças da vida e do imaginário se entrelaçam. Tomando como princípio que a dança, inclusive a erótica, invoca a presença da imaginação, constitui-se como objetivo deste estudo discutir relações presentes entre o real e o ficcional que permeiam a criação da personagem da dançarina de striptease como processo de subjetivação. Esta pesquisa foi sendo produzida a partir de sete encontros com uma jovem dançarina de striptease de 21 anos de idade. Portanto, não busca fechar uma definição sobre o trabalho com o striptease, mas busca aliar-se à dançarina com o intuito de apontar variações e relações construídas no caminho que se traça para além da busca por uma meta... / The course of the imaginary goes to a collective domain, beyond the individual. It's a dynamism that has emerged since the mythology and has been running through the centuries, transforming in itself and anticipating what has not been lived. In a world of dreams, fantasies, images, memories of many scenes that fascinate, enchant, seduce, (un)ensure, emerges Aphrodite - the goddess of the love - of many faces and dancing characters of (un)real times that make themselves past, present and future. There are many ways to find her and the chosen path makes the experience a magical place that blends with the commonplace. Speaking of GODDESS OF NIGHTS: Characters (un)veiled means entering a world of desires, (dis)enchantment, seduction and fantasy, driven by characters of a paradox: reality and fiction. How does a stripper, through erotic dance, create her characters between reality and fiction, allowing and/or interfering with the production of subjectivity? In this perspective, one might think of a specific research as a space of experiences, ways of affectation and meaning production in/by the subjects in a scenario where the dances of life and imagination intertwine. Taking the principle that the dance, including the erotic, invokes the presence of the imagination, constitute the aim of this study to discuss present relations between the real and fictional that underlie the creation of the character of the stripper as a process of subjectification. This research is being produced from seven encounters with a young, 21 year old stripper. Therefore, it does not seek for a definition about the work with the striptease, but seeks to ally itself with a dancer in order to point out variations and relationships built in the path that is traced beyond the search for a goal. It's like enjoy the details in a work of art, doubting what is said, building the path to walk, casting off the call ... Do you want to dance with me?

A few studies have demonstrated differences in various personality attributes and creative abilities in children with imaginary companions. This study examined how recalled childhood engagement with an imaginary companion correlates with adult personality and creativity measures. It was hypothesized that creation of childhood imaginary companions would be positively correlated with adult creativity, but that this relationship would be mediated by certain personality attributes such as openness to experiences and extraversion. Other details of the imaginary companion experiences were also investigated. Two hundred and forty-six participants were recruited online to answer questions related to their personality and creativity, as well as any remembered imaginary companion experiences. Results indicated that the presence of a childhood imaginary companion was related to an individual’s openness to experience, but that the roles an imaginary companion played for its creator related to adult personality attributes more. These results suggest that further analyses of different roles and types of imaginary companions can help further explore why certain types of imaginary companions are created, and how their presence may impact developmental processes that influence their creators’ personality and creativity in adulthood.

One of the most heavily researched topics of cognitive development concerns children's growing understanding of people's behaviors as reflecting mental states such as beliefs, desires and intentions. Anthropomorphism is the overextension of this conceptual framework, referred to as "theory of mind", to nonhuman animals and inanimate objects. In this dissertation, I investigate the development and correlates of anthropomorphism building on and extending past research with children and adults. In Study 1, I investigated the relation between anthropomorphism, social understanding, and social behaviors that are known to correlate with theory of mind, such as empathy, and prosocial attitudes in a college sample (N = 919). Contrary to my predictions, results showed that anthropomorphism is only weakly related to the measures of social understanding. There was, however, some evidence for a link between anthropomorphism and imaginary companions; individuals who had a history of imaginary companions scored higher on anthropomorphism. In Study 2, I examined the link between theory of mind and anthropomorphism in preschool children. In addition, I investigated the developmental trajectory of anthropomorphism from age 4 to 6 and the relation between anthropomorphism and role play and social preferences. Seventy-four children (36 girls; Mage = 5 years, 5 months; SD = 9 months) took part in this study. In order to assess anthropomorphism in this age group, I used two methods: interview and movie narrative measures. Results revealed no age-related changes in anthropomorphism scores of the children. As in Study 1, I did not find a strong relationship between the theory of mind measures and anthropomorphism. There was, however, more evidence for a link between the interview measure of anthropomorphism and role play, and social preferences of children. Overall, in both studies, theory of mind, the most obvious candidate as a correlate of anthropomorphism, was, at best, not a strong predictor of the anthropomorphism, suggesting the need to rethink how developing knowledge about people is related to the overextension of this knowledge to nonhuman entities. It is possible that a rudimentary understanding of humans is necessary to be able to overextend it, but whether you overextend it might be linked to other factors.

Descriptions of the edges of the Roman world were shaped by social preoccupations and identity issues. Living in a newly unified Roman world, the popularizing geographers of the early Empire (Strabo, Mela, Pliny) used descriptions of fictional and remote people such as the utopian Hyperboreans, the cannibal Scythians and the monstrous Dog-Heads to present customs and behaviors that were utterly un-Roman. These rhetorical descriptions helped define Roman identity through antithetical exempla. In contrast to this, the fifth and sixth centuries, the anonymous authors of legends surrounding the figure of Saint Christopher witnessed a crisis of Roman identity fostered by a new 'barbarian' presence within the Empire and by the expansion of the Christian (i.e. Roman) faith outside of the Empire. Their response was to tear down the ginary barrier between the Roman world and fictional, remote people and to proclaim the forceful Christianization of distant lands.

The author's Habilitationsschrift. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 441-[460]) and index.

The author's Habilitationsschrift. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 441-[460]) and index.

No description available.

This dissertation analyzes moments in which presidents interact with transnational audiences, identifying and explaining their rhetorical strategies for developing a global imaginary. Specifically, I first consider how George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev negotiate geo-political and spatial metaphors leading up to their joint press conference, symbolically ending the Cold War. Second, I discuss how Bill Clinton and George W. Bush universalize the trope of “democracy” in their speeches before the United Nations General Assembly. Third, I explain how Barack Obama figures transnational citizens and himself as a global leader in his transnational town hall meetings. Together, these case studies show the ways contemporary presidents call forth particular understandings of “the global” through speech. Politically, this study is significant because it broadens our understanding of the institution of the presidency from the framework of a national institution to that of a global one. Rhetorically, this study illuminates the relationship between presidential speech, transnational audiences, and the rhetorical imaginary of the global sphere.