Computational Literary Biodiversity Studies (CoLiBiS) is a proposed field that engages in elucidating and understanding the relationship between humanity and non-human living beings as reflected in paradigms, such as the nature-culture-entanglement and nature’s contributions to people. One primary goal of this field is to provide extensive quantification to typically intangible concepts concerning the relationship between living nature and culture, thereby challenging the current anthropocentric world view with factual data. Synthesising methodology and concepts from the fields of computer sciences, literary studies and biodiversity studies, several experiments and concept studies demonstrate the feasibility of the CoLiBiS approach, determine noteworthy results with computational methods, show and explore numerous research avenues for research and showcase the potential of cross-study comprehension. The project is characterised by elaborate reflections on the limitations, perspectives, feasibility and (re-)interpretations of concepts, resources and observations. In the first experiment, animal and plant terms in literature, being the expression of the authors’ thoughts and thereby reflecting on their situational awareness and valuation, are determined over nearly three centuries. These results exhibit a peak after an initial rise during the 18th century, followed by the decline during and after the industrialisation, a particularly crucial phase in the development of human society. In my interpretation, the observations show strong correlations of biodiversity awareness to the detachment from nature as a result of the industrialisation, particularly manifested in the processes of land-use change and urbanisation. The second experiment explores the author- and work-related parameters that are most probable to be associated with the extent of biodiversity within literature, in order to facilitate our understanding of possible causes of the declining awareness for biodiversity during the industrialisation. The findings reveal a correlation of literary biodiversity with the parameters for gender, age, and region, show that authors from villages appear more sensitive towards living nature, and acknowledge a connection to the extent of the vocabulary used as well as genre and literature form of the work. The data and approaches created are employed further to exemplarily showcase the potential and feasibility of topic modelling, data presentation, and the reuse of resources, concepts and methods. Within this project two promising and comprehensive resources were produced, a comprehensive database for animal and plant terms and a database for work- and author-related parameters, and are openly available for future investigations. It demonstrates the possibility of promoting our comprehension of the nature-culture-entanglement with an interdisciplinary approach that aspires to encourage scholars from digital humanities, literary studies, environmental humanities, ecology, gender studies and other adjacent fields to join the research approach of CoLiBiS.:TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures 16 List of Tables 18 1. Introduction 19 1.1. The multiple perspectives on the environmental crisis 19 1.2. Ecological approaches towards the nature-culture-entanglement 21 1.3. Humanistic approaches towards the nature-culture-entanglement 24 1.4. Computational and Literary Biodiversity Studies (CoLiBiS) 26 1.5. Research agenda 32 2. Experiment 1: The rise and fall of Biodiversity in Literature (BiL) 39 2.1. Background and rationale 39 2.2. Methods 42 2.2.1. Corpus 42 2.2.2. Label database 46 2.2.3. Search method 47 2.2.4. Ecological methods transfer & analysis 49 2.3. Results 52 2.3.1. Occurrence statistics of taxon labels 52 2.3.2. Biodiversity measures 57 2.4. Interpreting the results – perspectives on the nature-culture-entanglement 61 2.4.1. BiL rising in the 18th century – the influences of the Enlightenment 61 2.4.2. BiL falling after 1830 – insights from a comprehensive approach 63 2.4.3. The relation of BiL to awareness for biodiversity 66 2.4.4. Further limitations and the future potential of this approach 67 2.5. Summary 70 3. Experiment 2: Using random forest regression to relate BiL with social and spatial situation of authors 71 3.1. Background and rationale 71 3.2. Methods 77 3.2.1. Sensitivity parameters 78 3.2.2. The random forest analysis 82 3.3. Results 84 3.3.1. Results for the complete corpus 84 3.3.2. Results for the subcorpora of the three phases 89 3.3.3. Correlation matrix based on predictor interaction 92 3.4. Interpreting the results – relating living situation to awareness for biodiversity 94 3.4.1. Limitations to interpreting the results 94 3.4.2. Sensitivity parameters 96 3.4.3. Relevance of the experiment 102 3.4.4. Methodological considerations in resource creation 102 3.5. Summary 104 4. Resource creation and improvement 105 4.1. Background and rationale 105 4.2. Constructing a dictionary of biological taxon labels 108 4.2.1. Methodology and rationale 108 4.2.2. Database structure and usage 114 4.2.3. Quality measures 117 4.2.4. Outlook and applicability 118 4.3. Constructing a metadata database for authors and their works 120 4.4. Résumé and future work 123 5. Exploring the CoLiBiS potential: Three Concept Studies 125 5.1. Biodiversity in academic journal articles 126 5.2. Correlating topics with incorporated BiL 131 5.2.1. Methods and results 131 5.2.2. Animal and plant profiles, and their implications 133 5.2.3. Further potential of topic modelling 135 5.3. The BiL Explorer – prototyping fast discovery of BiL 137 5.4. The feasibility of further CoLiBiS components 145 6. Reflection and conclusion 147 6.1. Summary of the overall contribution 147 6.2. Challenges and limitations 148 6.3. The significance of overarching and cross-study contributions 150 6.4. Outlook into future work 155 7. Data availability 159 8. References 161 Appendix 177 Blacklist compiled for the current extended taxon database 178 Topic modelling – most probable terms 180 Topic modelling – probability / coherence indicators 192 The Author 195

The dissertation presents and explores a mode of literary studies, which bypasses the question of literary value, and instead aims to assess how and where creative writing challenges hegemonic norms (that is, its political value). In so doing, it reflects on the practice of literary studies per se, and the mechanism(s) by which discourse can impact on subjecthood. The exploration entails the application of certain theoretical tools (concepts) in a reading of a literary work. The primary concepts employed are: performativity, subjectivity and gender. The dissertation seeks to read Muriel at Metropolitan (Tlali 1994) as a performative act, that is, a discursive event which re-enacts the practice of fictional writing and thereby extends (and possibly changes} the convention of crealive writing. If it is true that creative writing is performative, that it partake in the making of the individual, then it is important to study such writing in order to discover the consequences for the subject / English Studies / M.A. (English)

This thesis examines epic impressions between two disparate literary genres, the classical Homeric epic and the science fiction novel, Frank Herbert's Dune in particular. This is done by applying Jung's archetypes and his notion of the collective unconscious to both literary works. This thesis argues that, through intertextual dialogue, continuities can be seen to exist between the Homeric epic and Dune and other science fiction texts of a similar nature. Chapter one examines epic impressions through a study of the classical heroic superhuman. This superhuman, his birth, divine attributes and heroic adventures shall be isolated and applied to both the classical hero and the hero of Herbert's narrative. Chapter two will examine the relationship between prescience ("hyperawareness") and the divine oracle of the classical epic. Chapter three will examine the archetype of the "Terrible Mother" and the masculine fear of feminine powers that works to keep the feminine subordinate. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

This thesis deals with the problem of poetry understanding mainly in the school environment. The core theme is the tension between the rational literary studies analysis and the intimate experience of the poem, which is often shrouded in mystery. This work aims to explore this relationship and tries to find a possible connection between these two different approaches. The theoretical part presents possible approaches to the interpretation of poetry; the second part presents empirical data from classroom observation. Text is continuously compared with psychoanalytic theory. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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Quando nos debruçamos sobre as letras de samba e tango compostas entre 1917 e 1945, notamos a reiterada presença nos sambas do personagem chamado malandro e outros de seu universo. No caso do tango, testemunhamos a do denominado compadrito e outros relacionados a ele nos tangos. Essa presença se relaciona a uma contradição constitutiva, já que esses gêneros musicais, muitas vezes relacionados à representação do nacional, propagavam um modo de vida marginal, fora do apregoado como ideal de cidadão pelos respectivos Estados nacionais. É nosso objetivo nesta tese analisar como, nas composições nas quais aparece esse tipo de personagem, emergem embates, nas diferentes formas da heterogeneidade discursiva, entre vozes que identificamos, de um lado, como filiadas com a perspectiva marginal e, de outro, com posicionamentos relacionados às ações disciplinadoras dos Estados nacionais. Trabalharemos com composições elaboradas no período de 1917-1945, momento privilegiado de discussões de cunho nacionalista, quando o samba e o tango foram, por diferentes motivos e em distintas medidas, sendo associados a questões identitárias. Os referenciais teóricos que norteiam nossa pesquisa se relacionam especialmente aos estudos discursivos e enunciativos; porém, tendo em vista o caráter interdisciplinar de nosso trabalho, também lançaremos mão de conceitos relacionados aos estudos históricos, sociológicos, musicológicos e das ciências da comunicação. / When we dedicate our attention to the samba and tango lyrics produced between the years 1917 and 1945, we notice in them the persistent presence of the character known as malandro (smooth operator), and others belonging to his universe, as well as of the character known as compadrito, and others related to him in the tango songs. Such presences are related to a constitutive contradiction, for those musical genres which were constantly related to a national representation produced a propaganda of a marginal way of life, that is, the one of the outcast opposite to the ideal of citizen such as defended by national States. In this thesis, we take the compositions in which those characters are presented, and aim to analyze the way how clashes are established in the different manners of discursive heterogeneity. We identify voices sided with the marginal perspective, and we also identify other voices, on the other side, whose position stands for the one defended by the disciplining perspective of the national States. In such a frame, we work with lyrics composed in the period from 1917 to 1945, given that is a privileged moment for discussions from a nationalist perspective. Due to several reasons and different measures, that was the period when the samba and the tango were associated to identity matters. The theoretical references heading this research are mainly related to the enunciation and discourse studies; however, once we aim at maintaining the interdisciplinary aspect of our study, we also make use of conceptions related to the historical and sociological studies, as the ones belonging to the fields of musicology and communications

This thesis establishes a phenomenology of desire in Anne Carson’s novel-in-verse Autobiography of Red. It examines how desire constructs the self in the text and how it positions it in relation to its surrounding world. The self’s status in the text is read through Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s understanding of desire and their concepts becoming and deterritorialisation as explicated in Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus. These concepts are used to map the transformative power of desire in Autobiography of Red and provide an approach through which to understand the tenuous nature of self in the text. It reveals desire not as located solely in the relation between the text’s protagonist Geryon and Herakles, but as a movement that animates and constructs the text. It reads the “red” of the title, the presence of the volcano, of lava, as essential to the text, mapping how the force of desire positions the self and undoes the notion of a phenomenal “background”. Deleuzian desire has linguistic implications and the thesis further extends the use of becoming and deterritorialisation to understand Carson’s poetics and the text as the site that gives rise to a phenomenology of desire. The text is deterritorialised and Carson articulates a way of relaying experience beyond the representative mode. The thesis offers a reading of Autobiography of Red with a Deleuzian theory of desire, which is a new approach in Carson scholarship. As such it hopes to open up both the poetic text and theoretic text to new understandings and create points of departure for further research.

Como um mesmo crítico, a partir de sua perspectiva, leu Graciliano Ramos e, depois, Guimarães Rosa? Essa foi a pergunta primordial que motivou todo o andamento da pesquisa. A ela se seguiram outras: quais dificuldades impunham o trânsito entre leituras dos dois escritores brasileiros que talvez sejam os mais complexos prosadores do século XX? Quais os procedimentos de leitura crítica adotados? Quais transformações são perceptíveis na sucessão do ofício da crítica literária? Quais diálogos (declarados, velados, acidentais), para concordância ou discordância de pontos de vista, foram estabelecidos entre as leituras de diferentes críticos? Englobando dificuldades, procedimentos, transformações e diálogos, essas indagações dizem respeito a dois problemas centrais que podemos especificar como tensão entre a escrita dos escritores e a leitura dos críticos e tensão metodológica entre os críticos. Sendo assim, partindo da crítica de rodapé nos anos 1940, selecionamos oito críticos para tratar de tais indagações e problemas: Sérgio Milliet, Alvaro Lins, Franklin de Oliveira, Wilson Martins, Antonio Candido, Alfredo Bosi, Luiz Costa Lima e Adélia Meneses. O estudo comparativo, com foco em oito críticos e dois escritores, permitiu desenvolver abordagens, capítulo a capítulo, com um triplo interesse, ou seja, investigar três problemas principais: condições de recepção, leituras da crítica, questões de método. / How did the same critic read first Graciliano Ramos and then Guimarães Rosa from the same perspective? It was the main question which motivated throughout the course this research. It was followed by others: what were the difficulties imposed by the transit among the readings of the two Brazilian authors who may be the most complex prose writers of the twentieth century? What were the critical reading procedures adopted? What changes are noticed in succession of the literary criticism\'s craft? What dialogues (declared, veiled, accidental), agreeing of conflicting points of view have been established among the readings of different critics? Encompassing difficulties, procedures, changes and dialogues, these questions relate to two central problems that we can specify as \"tension between the writings of the writers and the reading of the critics\" and \"methodological tension\" among critics. Thus, starting from the newspaper criticism of the 1940s, we have selected eight critics for researching these questions and problems: Sergio Milliet, Alvaro Lins, Oliveira Franklin, Wilson Martins, Antonio Candido, Alfredo Bosi, Luiz Costa Lima and Adelia Meneses. The comparative study, focusing on eight critics and two writers, allowed the development of approaches, chapter by chapter, with a triple interest, that is, investigate three main problems: conditions of reception, readings of the criticism, questions of method.

Resumo: O foco deste trabalho assenta-se no percurso da indianidade nas obras selecionadas a partir das afinidades com o universo natural, mítico e aculturado do indígena. Objetiva analisar as estratégias de figuração criadas no âmbito literário, em que o nativo é posto em interação com um elemento externo à sua cultura, seja ele o não-índio, o cristão ou o civilizado, responsável pela oposição índio versus brasileiro. No percurso de leitura estabelecido, as análises dos textos apontam como o homem americano foi visto frente às relações sócio-econômicas e culturais determinadas pelo encontro com o colonizador e as conseqüências derivadas dos conceitos contraditórios que emergiram do quadro de ocupação da terra brasileira. A seleção das obras significativas para este trabalho deu-se a partir da Carta de Achamento, de Pero Vaz de Caminha até a publicação de Maíra (1976), de Darcy Ribeiro. Considerou-se a presença do índio sob diferentes convenções ideológicas e de estilo, em obras representativas dos vários movimentos culturais, nas quais se revelam os matizes que promovem o diálogo entre o indianismo e o indigenismo literário brasileiros. Dessa maneira, o trabalho obedece a dois propósitos: o científico, por meio da interpretação das imagens da realidade nacional tecidas pelo aspecto literário; e o didático, pela composição em forma de um roteiro de leitura, estabelecendo ligação entre a análise e o excerto-referência, pelo qual se dá o contato direto do leitor com o fragmento da obra. / Abstract: The focus of this study is based on the course of Indian identity in the selected works, with particular regard to their affinity with the natural, mythical and accultured worlds of indigenous peoples. The objective is to analyse the strategies of representation created in the literary field, in which the native is placed in interaction with an element extraneous to his/her own culture, whether that element be the non-Indian, the Christian or the civilised, responsible for the opposition Indian versus Brazilian. In the course of the established reading, the analyses of the texts indicate how the Native American was seen against socio-economic and cultural relations determined by the encounter with the coloniser, and also the consequences of the contradictory concepts that emerged as a result of the pattern of occupation of Brazilian territory. The selection of works relevant to this study ranges from the Carta de Achamento, written by Pero Vaz de Caminha, to the publication of Maíra (1976), by Darcy Ribeiro. The presence of the Indian was considered according to various ideological and stylistic conventions, in works representing various cultural movements, which reveal the shades which give rise to the dialogue between Brazilian literature concerning Indians and literary studies of Indians. The study thus fulfils two purposes: the scientific, by means of the interpretation of literary images of Brazilian reality; and the didactic, by means of the composition of a programme of reading, establishing links between the analysis and the reference-excerpt, enabling the reader to have a direct contact with fragments of the selected works. / Orientador: Sérgio Vicente Motta / Coorientador: Sônia Helena de Oliveira Raymundo Piteri / Banca: Susanna Busato / Banca: Haydée Ribeiro Coelho / Banca: Antonio Manoel dos Santos Silva / Banca: Valentim Aparecido Facioli / Doutor

This thesis explores ways in which T. S. Eliot, when he wrote his most autobiographical poetic work<em> Four Quartets</em>, might have been influenced by Thoreaus famously autobiographical prose work <em>Walden</em>, written nearly a century earlier<em>.</em> Much evidence suggests that Eliot knew of the earlier writer and his work. Not only did Eliot assign <em>Walden</em> as suggested reading in a course he taught, but as time went on Eliot also admitted that he was influenced by the New England literary tradition. Reading <em>Four Quartets</em> in light of <em>Walden</em> and its context not only helps a reader understand the connections between the two works, it also gives a reader a better understanding of <em>Four Quartets</em>' fundamental meanings. Although Eliot in <em>Four Quartets</em> adds another layer of his spiritual goals beyond those expressed in <em>Walden</em>, he expresses his religio-philosophical quest for Incarnational "still point[s] of the turning world" (<em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) using autobiographical aspects and poetic tropes that are in many ways strikingly similar to the expressions also present in <em>Walden</em>. </p> <p>The chapters of this thesis unfold these concepts. My Introduction highlights some of the key connections. Chapter One sets the stage for the discussion of the Incarnation by explaining how <em>Four Quartets</em>' spiritual round-trip journey from England to America is grounded in real world places and experiences. This chapter also explains how this guardedly autobiographical re-collection of an almost-real journey includes a response to Eliots personal history and to his literary ancestors, including Thoreau<em>.</em> In Chapter Two, I unpack the similarities and differences between many of the religio-philosophical questions asked in the two works, focusing in on Eliots and Thoreau's complex handlings of such themes as simplicity versus complexity, Incarnation, stillness versus activity, and the difficulty of achieving spiritual goals. Finally, these religio-philosophical questions are incarnated in very similar poetic devices and tropes within both works; in Chapter Three, I describe the most important of these. The "still point of the turning world" (Eliot, <em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) and the "mathematical point" (Thoreau, <em>Walden</em> 1.100) are rich metaphors that form the heart of this chapter.</p>