Examines the character construction of the Hesiodic ‘farmer’ in the scholarship of Works and Days. Questions Hesiod’s intimacy of agricultural knowledge: was he a practical farmer or a non-farming poet? Using my farming experience I question the adequacy of the information in Works and Days for use as a farming manual. Lines 635-640 - Hesiod’s description of the climatic conditions of Ascra in respect to farming are set against soil properties (soil biochemistry as an evaluating tool) and agricultural responses (farming methods of other cultures) shows Hesiod to have little grasp of the farming methods each situation requires. Text comparatives: Fan Shêng-Chih Shu an ancient Chinese agricultural text detailed with attention to soil fertility. Supporting ancient texts: Cato on Agriculture, Columella on Agriculture, Theophrastus on Plants, Xenophon Oeconomics and Homer’s Odyssey for references to dung and soil fertility. The vague farming information suggests a non-personalized experience - the Hesiodic ‘farmer’ is probably not a practical farmer at all.

Examines the character construction of the Hesiodic ‘farmer’ in the scholarship of Works and Days. Questions Hesiod’s intimacy of agricultural knowledge: was he a practical farmer or a non-farming poet? Using my farming experience I question the adequacy of the information in Works and Days for use as a farming manual. Lines 635-640 - Hesiod’s description of the climatic conditions of Ascra in respect to farming are set against soil properties (soil biochemistry as an evaluating tool) and agricultural responses (farming methods of other cultures) shows Hesiod to have little grasp of the farming methods each situation requires. Text comparatives: Fan Shêng-Chih Shu an ancient Chinese agricultural text detailed with attention to soil fertility. Supporting ancient texts: Cato on Agriculture, Columella on Agriculture, Theophrastus on Plants, Xenophon Oeconomics and Homer’s Odyssey for references to dung and soil fertility. The vague farming information suggests a non-personalized experience - the Hesiodic ‘farmer’ is probably not a practical farmer at all.

The study sets to establish trends with regard to the role of the praise singer, the changes with regard to the traditional praise singer's rendition/performance and the material or content of his/her poetry. Thus the study highlights the distinction observed between the praise singer of the past and the present praise singer. The study also shows that the praise singer's performance, in terms of his/her role and content, is in the state of flux. The study also demonstrates that the singer of the past and the present praise singer have the same role and their chants or poetry or songs have the same effect. It also highlights situations where praises are chanted in modern times. These are graduation ceremonies, weddings, political gatherings and traditional ceremonies, for example, the annual rain making ceremonies. These events or occasions are inextricably linked to traditional praises. The study also highlights the fact that traditional praises present the history and heroic deeds of members of the clan to which the beneficiary belongs. They also express the deep feeling of royalty and loyalty. Like in the past they boost morale. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

Les narrateurs du Bel Inconnu de Renaut de Beaujeu, de Florimont, d’Aimon de Varennes et de Partonopeu de Blois se démarquent par leur statut ambigu. Ils posent leur voix dès le prologue et s’affirment à travers un dialogue avec les dédicataires dont la lecture ou l’écoute actualisent le processus narratif. Un transfert à la fois énonciatif et scriptural parachève cette élaboration, offrant la possibilité aux auteurs de se couler dans la fonction du narrateur, appréhendé dès lors comme l’unique médiateur du récit. Dans une perspective plus large, l’intrication des formes et des matières favorise la complexité et la richesse du « je » polymorphe à venir. Les narrateurs deviennent alors conteurs et maîtres d’une narration qu’ils organisent à leur guise. En adoptant des stratégies narratoriales diverses, ils demeurent la voix unique et font figure d’instance narrante surplombante dans une perspective exclusive, globale et cohérente. Mais surtout, ils combinent leur « je » conteur à leur « je » amoureux dont les interruptions au caractère plus intime permettent la réalisation. Le récit subsume ainsi le discours lyrique, le fait sien, l’espace romanesque devenant le lieu d’une mutation lors de laquelle les narrateurs se projettent dans les personnages eux-mêmes, conçus tels des outils au service du « je ». Nous assistons ainsi à une narration plus intériorisée et à la manifestation d’un narrateur-auteur qui, en tant que sujet empirique, se sert de la fiction comme d’un véritable espace d’expérimentation. Cette figure auctoriale se cristallise lorsque le « je » exhibe ses capacités d’écrivain ou lorsqu’il livre des considérations pseudo-autobiographiques semblant marquer le texte du point de vue d’une conscience. / The narrators in Le Bel Inconnu by Renaut de Beaujeu, Florimont, by Aimon de Varennes and Partonopeu of Blois stand out due to their ambiguous status. They establish their voice in the prologue and assert themselves through a dialogue with the dedicatees, whose reading or listening updates the narrative process. A transfer, which is at the same time enunciative and scriptural, completes this elaboration, offering the authors the possibility to sink into the function of the narrator, understood from then on as the sole mediator of the narrative. From a broader perspective, the entanglement of forms and materials fosters the complexity and richness of the future polymporph "I". The narrators then become storytellers and masters of a narrative that they organise as they see fit. By adopting diverse narratorial strategies, they remain the sole voice and act as an overriding narrative authority from an exclusive, comprehensive and coherent perspective. But above all, they combine their storyteller "I" with their romantic "I" whose interruptions to the more intimate style allow for their realisation. The narrative thus subsumes the lyrical discourse, adopting it as its own, the romantic space becoming the place of change in which the narrators project themselves into the characters themselves, conceived as tools in the service of "I". We are thus witnessing a more internalised narrative and the manifestation of a narrator-author who, as an empirical subject, uses fiction as a truly experimental space. This auctorial figure crystallises when the "I" exhibits his capacities as a writer or when he provides pseudo-autobiographical considerations seeming to mark the text from the point of view of a consciousness.

The thesis deals with life and particularly works of William Blake, one of the most prominent representatives of English poetry and art. His work stems from his dissatisfaction and resistance to religious and secular doctrines. He is known as an original poet, an engraver and a painter, a graphic artist and an illustrator, as well as a mystic and a visionary. In the midst of the birth of the modern world, during the War of Independence, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, he considered his talent for design and his predispositions of the Old Testament prophets a direct inspiration for him and his prophetic mission. He identified with all types of oppression and enslavement of humanity and tried to gibbet them in his works. He mainly criticised repressed sexuality, which according to him leads to wars, industrialism and perverted science. The apocalyptic character of many of his works is closely related to the time in which he lived and worked. These are mainly so-called prophetic books, which he also printed, and in which he used synthesis of artistic means. Most of his life he spent in poverty and solitude, misunderstood and despised. This reassured him of his real prophetic destiny. Blake?s work became an inspiration for following generations of artists; but only the 20th century fully discovered him and understood the importance of his prophetic vision. Blake sees a redemptive power of the real art, which helps cleanse people?s inner eyes, and gives them the opportunity to be freed from enslaving forces.

Guillaume Apollinaire est incontestablement l’un des poètes français les plus célèbres du XXe siècle. Celui qui a participé aux mouvements d’avant-garde et écrit des poèmes comme «Le Pont Mirabeau» et «La Chanson du Mal-Aimé», s’est pourtant livré à une autre activité littéraire moins connue du grand public. En effet, la «prose d’imagination»—contes et romans—de l’écrivain est conçue dans les règles de «l’esprit nouveau», et selon une poétique de « la surprise » qui caractérise aussi ses vers. Friand de curiosa et de bizarreries de toutes sortes, le prosateur Apollinaire manifeste une prédilection pour les hérétiques, les aventuriers, les maniaques, les poètes disgracieux et les artistes originaux. Il n’a pas peur d’aborder des sujets étonnants, voire hétérodoxes, à la recherche du renouvellement esthétique. Cette écriture très particulière peut s’inscrire dans une certaine lignée de la littérature, parmi les genres et les ouvrages des auteurs voués à ce qui est fantastique, mystérieux, anticlérical ou subversif. Comme la vie et l’œuvre sont inséparables dans le monde apollinarien, il est naturel que la curiosité et le goût du bizarre de l’écrivain laissent des empreintes dans sa bibliothèque personnelle, ses agendas et dans ses chroniques anecdotiques. Et c’est effectivement dans le domaine du journalisme que se trouvent maintes «authentiques faussetés» d’un Apollinaire conteur, qui excelle à mêler le réel et l’imaginaire. Une telle tendance fusionnelle se traduit aussi par le mélange des genres artistiques et littéraires dans sa fiction, laquelle témoigne d’une volonté d’inventer au-delà de certains «modèles», de créer une nouvelle esthétique libre de contraintes formelles, tout en restant fidèle aux principes défendus par le poète Guillaume Apollinaire. / Guillaume Apollinaire is undoubtedly one of the most famous French poets of the twentieth century. However, apart from being a key figure in the early avant-garde movements and the author of The Mirabeau Bridge (“Le Pont Mirabeau“) and The Song of the Ill-Beloved (“La Chanson du Mal-Aimé“), the poet played another literary role less known to the public today. In fact, the “imaginative prose” (“la prose d’imagination“)—short stories and novels—of Apollinaire was written in the spirit of “l’esprit nouveau“ and in accordance with a poetics of “surprise“ which also shaped his poetry. Being an avid reader of curiosa and other unusual texts, the prosateur Apollinaire had a predilection for heretics, rogues, maniacs, ungraceful poets and eccentric artists. He was not afraid to write about shocking or unconventional subjects while aiming for aesthetic renewal. This very distinctive fiction writing belongs probably to a certain tradition in literature, where Apollinaire and some of his works remain among the genres and the authors who devoted themselves to fantastic tales, mysteries, anticlerical stories or other subversive texts. Since worldly experience and literary enterprise are inseparable in Apollinaire’s world, it is natural to notice many signs of the writer’s curiosity and his taste for the bizarre in his private library, his journals and his magazine columns. In fact, a large number of the so-called “true falsities“ (“authentiques faussetés“)—a term invented by Apollinaire himself who, as a brilliant raconteur, excelled in mixing reality with fantasy—can actually be found in the writer’s journalistic writing. As for his work of fiction, a similar tendency for mixing also reveals itself in the fusion of different artistic and literary genres. The “imaginative prose“ shows the author’s will to invent out of some existing “frameworks“, to create a new aesthetic free of genre constraints, while remaining faithful to the principles defended by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire.

This dissertation presents a pumping system operation efficiency improvement solution that includes optimal selection and control of the water pump. This solution is formulated based on the performance, operation, equipment and technology (POET) framework. The focus is on the minimization of the operational energy cost. This efficiency improvement solution is divided into three stages in accordance with the operation category of the POET framework. The first stage is to select the optimal pump capacity by considering both energy efficiency and load shifting requirements. The second stage is to develop a flexible pump controlling strategy that combines and balances the contributions from energy efficiency and load shifting. The last stage is to improve the robustness of the control system using the closed-loop model predictive control approach. An optimal pump capacity selection model is formulated. In this model, additional capacity requirements for load shifting are considered along with the traditional energy efficiency requirements. By balancing the contributions from load shifting and energy efficiency, the operational energy cost can be reduced by up to 37%. An optimal pump control is formulated. The objective of this control model is to balance the energy efficiency and load shifting contributions during the operation and minimize the operational energy cost. This control model is tested under different operational conditions and it is compared to other existing control strategies. The simulation and comparison results show that the proposed control strategy achieves the lowest operational energy cost in comparison to other strategies. This optimal pump control model is further modified into the closed-loop model predictive control format to increase the robustness of the control system under operation uncertainties. A mixed integer particle swarm optimization algorithms is employed to solve the optimization problems in this research. AFRIKAANS : Hierdie verhandeling bied ’n verbeterde oplossing vir die operasionele doeltreffendheid van pompstelsels wat die optimale keuse en beheer van die waterpomp insluit. Hierdie oplossing is geformuleer op ’n raamwerk wat werkverrigting, bedryf, toerusting en tegnologie in ag neem. Die oplossing fokus op die vermindering van bedryfsenergie koste. Hierdie oplossing is onderverdeel in drie fases soos bepaal deur die bedryfskategorie gegrond op die bogenoemde raamwerk: Die eerste fase is die keuse van die optimale pompkapasiteit deur beide energiedoeltreffendheid en lasverskuiwing in ag te neem. Die tweede fase is om ’n buigbare pompbeheer strategie te ontwikkel wat ’n goeie balans handhaaf tussen die onderskeie bydraes van energiedoeltreffendheid en lasverskuiwing. Die derde fase is om die stabiliteit van die beheerstelsel te verbeter deur gebruik te maak van ’n geslote-lus beheermodel met voorspellende beheer (Predictive Control). ’n Model vir die keuse van optimale pompkapasiteit is geformuleer. In hierdie model word vereistes vir addisionele pompkapasiteit vir lasverskuiwing sowel as vereistes in terme tradisionele energiedoeltreffendheid in ag geneem. Deur die regte verhouding tussen die onderskeie bydraes van energiedoeltreffendheid en lasverskuiwing te vind kan ’n besparing van tot 37% op die energiekoste verkry word. Optimale pompbeheer is geformuleer. Die doel van die beheermodel is om die bydraes van energiedoeltreffendheid en lasverskuiwing te balanseer en om die bedryfsenergie koste te minimiseer. Hierdie beheermodel is getoets onder verskillende bedryfstoestande en dit is vergelyk met ander bestaande beheerstrategiee. Die simulasie en vergelyking van resultate toon dat die voorgestelde beheerstrategie die laagste bedryfsenergie koste behaal in vergelyking met ander strategiee. Hierdie optimale pomp beheermodel is verder aangepas in ’n geslote beheermodel met voorspellende beheerformaat om die stabiliteit van die beheerstelsel te verbeter onder onsekere bedryfstoestande. ’n Gemende heelgetal partikel swerm optimisasie (Mixed interger particle swarm optimization) algoritme is gebruik om die optimiseringsprobleme op te los tydens hierdie navorsingsoefening. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / Unrestricted

En partant de l’une des périodes les plus riches dans l’histoire de l’Islam en termes de créativité et de production poétiques, notre projet vise à mettre au jour les formes qu’a revêtues le rapport entre le poète et le Prince. Pour élucider ce rapport aussi complexe que protéiforme, nous ferons appel à un corpus riche et varié, et on tentera alors d’examiner la question de l’éloge et du blâme à travers trois prismes : la rhétorique, l’éthique et la politique. Le discours encomiastique mobilise la rhétorique afin d’emporter l’adhésion d’un auditoire sur une matière qui n’est pas encore établie. Mais l’effort déployé par l’orateur afin de convaincre l’auditoire ne peut se passer de la toile de fond éthique et du système commun de valeurs dont il procède pour arriver à la persuasion. Quant à la dimension politique, elle se reflète dans la fonction du poète comme « arme verbale » au service du Prince et instrument de légitimation de sa position politique contre ses adversaires réels ou potentiels. Par-delà la fonction de panégyriste officiel, la performativité du discours politique s’étend également à la parole, d’éducation, de réforme voire de critique ouverte qui pourrait évoquer la parrêsia antique. Grâce à un fonds sapiential, la poésie apporte sa contribution au processus de formation de l’homme politique et lui offre un excellent manuel de gouvernement. Quant à la veine contestataire, l’invective, la caricature et la mobilisation de la parole polémique constituent ses principaux ressorts. La veine contestataire traverse le regard que le poète jette sur l’univers de la cour, la politique du Prince ou le rapport entre gouvernants/gouvernés. Qu’il s’agisse de nominations, de projets politiques ou de l’ethos même de l’homme du pouvoir, le poète est toujours présent pour donner son avis. L’injustice d’une décision prise par un juge, le népotisme d’un gouverneur ou la dureté d’un général sont autant d’aspects qui témoignent de la vivacité de la critique du pouvoir par le poète, et du rôle que ce dernier endosse en tant que moralisateur de cette sphère. Le conseil se présente alors comme le moyen de rectifier les décisions ou les orientations générales du Prince et témoigne de l’existence d’une véritable rationalité poétique. Aussi, la rhétorique de l’éloge et du blâme témoigne-elle de l’existence d’une rationalité poétique qui arrive à maturité à l’époque abbasside et parvient à un degré d’efficience oratoire sans précédent en raison d’une conscience accrue du poète de la nécessité de s’impliquer dans la vie politique et de peser sur le cours de l’Histoire. / Based on one of the richest periods in the history of Islam in terms of poetic creativity and production, our project seeks to revise the forms that characterized the relationship between the poet and the prince. To elucidate this relationship as complex as it is protean, we will call on a rich and varied corpus, and then examine the question of praise and blame through three prisms: rhetoric, ethics and politics. The encomiastic discourse uses rhetoric to gain an audience’s support for a matter that is not yet established. But the effort required by the orator to convince the audience necessitates the ethical backdrop and common system of values, from which he proceeds to persuade. As for the political dimension, it is reflected in the poet’s function as the “verbal arm” serving the prince and as an instrument legitimizing his political position against real or potential opponents. Beyond the function of official panegyrist, the performativity of political discourse also extends to speech, education, reform, even open criticism that could evoke the antique parrêsia. By virtue of its sapiential substance, poetry contributes to the process forming the politician and offers him an excellent manual to government. As for the dissenting vein, invective, caricature and the mobilization of polemical speech constitute his main resources. The dissenting vein passes through the poet’s gaze on the universe of the court, the prince’s politics and the relationship between governor/governed. Whether it involves nominations, political projects or the very ethos of the man of power, the poet is always present to give his opinion. The injustice of a decision made by a judge, the nepotism of a governor or the harshness of a general are all aspects that demonstrate the poet’s vivacious criticism of power, and the role that the latter assumes as the moralizer of this sphere. The counsel is then presented as a means to rectify the prince’s general decisions or orientations and attests to the existence of a veritable poetic rationality. Furthermore, the rhetoric of praise and blame indicates the existence of a poetic rationality that reached maturity in the Abbasid period and attained an unprecedented degree of oratory efficiency, due to the poet’s growing consciousness of the necessity to be involved in political life and to influence the course of history.

Bočková, A.: Artificialism as a specific Czech inter-war style [Diploma thesis] Prague, 2016 - Charles University, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Education. 118 p. This diploma thesis has the character of comparative analysis, which deals with the Artificialism as specific Czech style in the period between two world wars. This work maps its position in the interwar art. It finds resource for a development of art and literary style similar to poetism or the Devetsil association. The poetism brings a new view of the world. The Artificialism is its visual equivalent that provides identification of the painter and poet, or poetry and image, or the topic of memories of memories. The thesis also presents the main and only two members of Artificialism - Styrsky and Toyen, and discusses their work, ideas, practices and theoretical works. I analyse the tensioned relationship between Artificialism and surrealism in the conclusion. The important finding is that artificialism is the original and most peculiar style of the interwar avant-garde, not only an intermediate step between Cubism and Surrealism, as it was presented in last years. On the base of theoretical part there was made the concept of practically proven didactic series, with reference to the Framework Education Programme and to the...

The submitted doctoral thesis examines the function and performance of the motive of a snake in four selected texts about artists of the German romantic period and perceives the snake as an attribute reflecting the problems of the artistic existence and a way to the artistic work, possibly of the artistic work at all. When interpreting the single motives of the snake, three-phase procedure as applied by Erwin Panofsky in description of the motives in the pictures has been chosen by analogy for literary texts. The interpretation is based on the structural position of the motive of the snake in the text and its performance in the text. Subsequently, the principal role is revelation of contexts which updates the given motive of the snake - in particular they are biblical snakes, mythical snakes and a serpentine line as a line of beauty which was the subject of the period aesthetic discourse. The meaning of the motive of the snake in the texts is given primarily by the mutual interaction of theme contexts which is in the single texts realized by various ways. The motive of the snake as formed in the single interpreted texts is a highly complex motive in all the cases. Thanks to the possibility of connotation with the snakes from the sphere of the Bible and mythology the literary motive of the snake becomes a...