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Scholars and storytellers alike have deemed George MacDonald a great mythopoeic writer, an exemplar of the art. Examination of this accolade by those who first applied it to him proves it profoundly theological: for them a mythopoeic tale was a relational medium through which transformation might occur, transcending boundaries of time and space. The implications challenge much contemporary critical study of MacDonald, for they demand that his literary life and his theological life cannot be divorced if either is to be adequately assessed. Yet they prove consistent with the critical methodology MacDonald himself models and promotes. Utilizing MacDonald’s relational methodology evinces his intentional facilitating of Mythopoesis. It also reveals how oversights have impeded critical readings both of MacDonald’s writing and of his character. It evokes a redressing of MacDonald’s relationship with his Scottish cultural, theological, and familial environment – of how his writing is a response that rises out of these, rather than, as has so often been asserted, a mere reaction against them. Consequently it becomes evident that key relationships, both literary and personal, have been neglected in MacDonald scholarship – relationships that confirm MacDonald’s convictions and inform his writing, and the examination of which restores his identity as a literature scholar. Of particular relational import in this reassessment is A.J. Scott, a Scottish visionary intentionally chosen by MacDonald to mentor him in a holistic Weltanschauung. Little has been written on Scott, yet not only was he MacDonald’s prime influence in adulthood, but he forged the literary vocation that became MacDonald’s own. Previously unexamined personal and textual engagement with John Ruskin enables entirely new readings of standard MacDonald texts, as does the textual engagement with Matthew Arnold and F.D. Maurice. These close readings, informed by the established context, demonstrate MacDonald’s emergence, practice, and intent as a mythopoeic writer.

L'objet de cette thèse concerne les propriétés du groupe symétrique à travers deux problèmes. Le premier consiste à étudier l'action du groupe symétrique sur la fraction (...). En appliquant certaines opérations sur les graphes et les cartes, nous donnons des algorithmes et des formules combinatoires pour déterminer complètement la fraction réduite suivante : (...). L'auteur C. Greene a introduit cette fraction rationnelle pour généraliser des identités liées a la règle de Murnaghan-Nakayama. Nous utilisons (...) pour établir un nouvel algorithme de décomposition en éléments simples à l'aide des graphes. Dans la seconde partie, nous cherchons a développer les puissances paires du Vandermonde au moyen de fonctions symétriques. En particulier, nous proposons une écriture hyperdéterminantale des coefficients du développement des puissances paires du Vandermonde dans la base des fonctions de Schur. Nous obtenons plusieurs identités reliant les puissances paires du Vandermonde et les polynômes de Jack. Puis nous introduisons une q-déformation des puissances paires du Vandermonde que nous exprimons grâce aux polynômes de Macdonald

This thesis consists of seven chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the infinite products. Here we provide a proof for representing sine function as an infinite product. This chapter also describes the notation used throughout the thesis as well as the method used to prove the identities. Each of the other chapters may be read independently, however some chapters assume familiarity with the Jacobi triple product identity. Chapter 2 is about the Jacobi triple product identity as well as several implications of this identity. In Chapter 3 the quintuple product identity and some of its special cases are derived. Even though there are many known proofs of this identity since 1916 when it was first discovered, the proof presented in this chapter is new. Some beautiful formulas in number theory are derived at the end of this chapter. The simplest two dimensional example of the Macdonald identity, A2, is investigated in full detail in Chapter 4. Ian Macdonald first outlined the proof for this identity in 1972 but omitted many of the details hence making his work hard to follow. In Chapters 5 and 6 we somewhat deviate from the method which uses the two specializations to evaluate the constant term and prove Winquist's identity and Macdonald's identity for G2. Some of the work involved in proving G2 identity is new. Finally in Chapter 7 we discuss the work presented with some concluding remarks as well as underlining the possibilities for the future research. Throughout the thesis we point to the relevant papers in this area which might provide different strategies for proving above identities.

Les théories de la culture de masse sont durant vingt ans un enjeu essentiel pour les intellectuels américains, qui cherchent à construire un modèle rendant compte des dangers esthétiques mais aussi sociaux des contenus culturels diffusés par les médias de masse. Influencés par les théories de l'Ecole de Francfort mais développant une pensée indépendante, les intellectuels américains et en particulier le groupe des New York intellectuals se livrent par revues interposées à un long dialogue, qui prend fin brusquement au début des années soixante. Cette recherche reconstitue l'histoire de cette pensée aux Etats-Unis, depuis sa formulation condensée par le journaliste Dwight Macdonald dés 1944, dans un article retentissant ("A Theory of Popular Culture"), jusqu'à sa disparition deux décennies plus tard, consacrée par la publication simultanée du Understanding Media de Marshall McLuhan et des "Notes on Camp" de Susan Sontag. Il s'agit également de tester le domaine de validité de ces théories en les confrontant à un objet culture supposé de masse, les comic books. Deux ambitions sous-tendent cette recherche : reconstituer le débat dans sa complexité en interrogeant les textes clés, mais aussi identifier les facteurs endogènes et exogènes ayant mené à la désaffection rapide pour cette idée. Une attention particulière est accordée à deux passerelles entre l'activité intellectuelle et le grand public, d'une part l'influent recueil Mass Culture, the Popular Arts in America, publié en 1957, et de l'autre son pendant Culture for the Millions?, publié quatre ans plus tard.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009. / Directed by Mary Ellis Gibson; submitted to the Dept. of English. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed May 5, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-207).

¿En qué medida la naturaleza metafísica de la ἀνάγκη (ananké, necesidad) y su respectiva causalidad permite identificarla como una causa productiva (tal como es calificado el demiurgo – inteligencia, νοῦς–)? La presente investigación demostrará que, al contrario del juicio general sobre la naturaleza metafísica ananké –aquella acuñada por el comentario de Francis M. Cornford–, hay suficientes indicios y argumentos a favor de una interpretación que destaque, por un lado, el rol y la participación de la ananké como una causa productiva en la generación del cosmos y, por otro lado, reconozca el estatuto ontológico de esta, en particular, que –en virtud de ser anterior al cosmos y poseer una relativa independencia de tanto de las Ideas y del Demiurgo– la ananké es un principio metafísico, necesario para poder elaborar el mythos logos expuesto por Timeo en el diálogo del mismo nombre. Así, en el primer capítulo se presentará un análisis y una crítica hacia los argumentos del comentarista Francis M. Cornford en torno a su comprensión de Platón de la ἀνάγκη y de las αἴτῐαι en el Timeo, según la cual la ananké es el producto del Alma irracional del Mundo. Una vez delimitadas las objeciones hacia la exégesis de Cornford, en el segundo capítulo se explicará cómo, con base en argumentos y en la evidencia textual en la obra del Timeo, esta última interpretación armoniza perfectamente con lo estipulado en el mismo diálogo. De esta manera se concluirá que no hay ningún problema en admitir la tesis defendida en este trabajo

The relationship between the Bible and literature is long-standing and has received increasing attention in recent years. This project investigates the interface between the Bible and literature by focusing on the genre of “parable”. The influence of the Bible on Western literature is considerable, and yet in the case of George MacDonald’s writing it is often overlooked. The “parabolic” is a helpful way to focus our discussion as it is an important genre both in Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God and more subtly in MacDonald’s fantasy and fairytale writing. It is remarkable that approximately a third of Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God comes in the form of parabolic speech. Rather than serving as a nice illustrative story to a theological point made elsewhere, the actual form of parabolic speech is crucial for the message it seeks to convey. Form and content work together in Jesus’ parables in a unique way to break open the reality depicted in parable. This thesis attempts to investigate a specifically biblical view of “parable” for understanding certain aspects of MacDonald’s fantasy literature. MacDonald developed a decidedly theological understanding of story as having the capacity to refresh the revelatory nature of Scripture. It is by the imagination that a poet is able to find new forms to recast and recover old and forgotten truths. By designating the poet as a finder rather than a maker, MacDonald resists Coleridge’s idealist inclinations to elevate the poet to a creator. His employment of story and more particularly the “parabolic” is then not only an aesthetic but also a theological choice. MacDonald’s last fantasy romance, Lilith, will serve as our test case to demonstrate this. Considering the “parabolic” in Lilith sheds significant light on the meaning of Lilith and offers up a decisive answer to the important question of whether MacDonald moves in his fantasy and fairytales from a decidedly Christian perspective to a more polyvalent view of reality. This argument shall be further substantiated by bringing to the light the important influence of Novalis on Lilith.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / By start of the 1920s, the United States had seen nearly forty years of vast accumulations of wealth by a small group of people, substantial financial speculation and a mass change in the economic base from agricultural to industrial. All of this ended in 1929 in a crushing depression that spread not only across the country, but also around the world. Hard-Boiled detective fiction first reached the reading public early in the decade initially as adventure stories, but quickly became a way for authors to express the stresses these changes were causing on people and society. The detective is the center of the story with the task of reestablishing a certain degree of order or redemption. An important character hallmark of this genre is that he is seldom able to do this, or that the cost is so high a terrible burden remains. His decisions and judgments in this attempt are formed by his relationship with the people or community around him. The goal of this thesis is to look at the issues raised in the context of how the detective relates to a person or community in the story. For analysis, six books were chosen arranged from least level of personal relationship by the detective to the most intimate. The books are Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett, The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler, The Galton Case, by Ross MacDonald, Cotton Comes to Harlem, by Chester Himes, Devil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley, and I, the Jury, by Mickey Spillane. In the study of these books, a wide range of topics are presented including political ideologies, corruption, racial discrimination and family strife. Each book provided a wealth of views on these and other subjects that are as relevant today as when they were written.

Vorliegende Dissertation greift in zeitgenössische Debatten queerer und feministischer Politiken durch die Analyse von Gegenwartsliteratur ein. Hatte die zweiten Frauenbewegung vertreten, dass im Zentrum politischer Veränderungen stets persönliche Veränderungen stehen, nutzt die Arbeit mit diesem Ausgangspunkt ein scheinbar anachronistisches Paradigma, um solche Narrative zu kritisieren, die Queerness sowie queere Politik und Theorie im Präsens, lesbischen Feminismus dagegen in der Vergangenheit positionieren wollen. These ist dagegen, dass die utopischen Impulse des lesbischen Feminismus der zweiten Frauenbewegung sich mit aktueller queerer Politik überschneiden und dass beide auf zu differenzierende Art Praktiken und Konzepte von Intimität in den Vordergrund stellen, die auf soziale Transformationen in größerem Maßstab verweisen. Die Erkundung der komplexen Weisen, in denen Politik durch Intimität praktiziert wird, erfolgt hier am Beispiel der Figur der Lesbe in der zeitgenössischen Anglo-Amerikanischen Literatur, speziell in Auseinandersetzung mit der Literatur der kanadischen Schriftstellerin Ann-Marie MacDonald. Mit Figur oder Trope der Lesbe im Zentrum der Analyse ist ein spezifischer historischer und politischer Kontext signalisiert. Die Lesbe sowie lesbian existence als eine feministische Praxis bieten einen produktiven Ausgangspunkt, weil beide im Lauf der Zeit oft und teils simultan als das Abjekt oder das idealisierte Objekt von sexueller und Genderpolitik konstruiert worden sind. Darüber hinaus markiert lesbischer Feminismus einen bestimmten zeitlichen Ort sowie eine politische Funktion und besetzt einen bestimmten Platz im feministischen und queeren Imaginären. Aufgabe der Dissertation ist es, die Potentiale herauszuarbeiten, die heute noch immer von der Figur der Lesbe und vom lesbischem Feminismus ausgehen, ohne dabei deren teils unbequeme Beziehung zum beachtlichen Einfluss der Queer Theory aus den Augen zu verlieren. / This dissertation intervenes in contemporary debates in queer and feminist politics through an analysis of literary fiction. Taking as its point of departure the second-wave feminist claim that personal and intimate transformation are at the heart of political transformation, it uses a seemingly anachronistic paradigm to critique linear narratives that position queerness and queer politics and theory in the present and lesbian feminism in the past. It argues that the utopian impulses of second-wave lesbian feminism overlap with those of contemporary queer politics, and claims that both foreground practices and conceptions of intimacy that prefigure broader social change. Exploring the ways in which politics are enacted via intimacy, this dissertation takes as its object of study the figure of the lesbian in contemporary Anglo-American literature, specifically engaging with the fiction of Canadian writer Ann-Marie MacDonald. Situating the figure of the lesbian at the centre of this analysis signals a specific historical, political, and social context. The lesbian, as a figure or trope, or lesbian existence, as a way of doing feminism, offers a productive point of departure for such considerations because both have, over time, been variously and often simultaneously constructed as either the abject or idealized object of sexual and gender politics. Lesbian feminism signals a specific temporal location and political function and holds a particular space in the feminist and queer imaginary. While exploring both the influence of queer theory and politics in the political and theoretical structures of sexuality, and the unprecedented mainstreaming both of (certain versions of) non-heterosexuality and (certain versions of) feminism, this dissertation’s project is to consider the possibilities still generated by the figure of the lesbian and lesbian feminism, while considering its sometimes-uncomfortable relationship to the considerable influence of queer theory.