The dissertation explores traditions of expressing the body and sexuality in nineteenth-century Russia and how these traditions affect the literature of Russia’s Silver Age (1890-1921). The period's modernizing intellectuals had at their disposal two strategies: – a tradition of silence, which is used to avoid the very theme of sex and eroticism; – a tradition of representation associated with the burlesque, in which the author presents carnality and eroticism in a deliberately ludicrous, grotesque way. European literatures of the era were developing highly nuanced representations of sexuality, often in relation to social functions. Conversely, the Russian authors confront notable deficits as they revert to indigenous traditions of expression. How these authors move beyond these defi-cits is the core of the project. Chapter 1 explores three historical determinants for the “strategy of silence” and the “strategy of burlesque” marking the history of Russia's literary representation. The first is a set of profound differences between Western and Russian medical science, sexology and psychopathology. The second is a divide in perceptions of sexuality between Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox traditions. The third is embodied in some of the earliest canonical representations of sexuality in literary history, including the Archpriest Avvakum’s Life (1682). Chapter 2 begins by taking up Aleksandr Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol as exemplars for Russian approaches to sexuality – with Pushkin exemplifying pro-erotic expression, and Gogol the opposite. The chapter concludes with analyses from late-nineteenth-century texts by Leskov, Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoevsky. Chapter 3 is focused on the ways some of the most emblematic works of the Silver Age (e.g., Sanin by Mikhail Artsybashev) emerge as deconstructions of the term “literary pornography” and as attempts to find new social representations of sexuality. Chapters 4 and 5 take up some major post-Silver Age texts and then Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955). The Conclusion argues that during the Silver Age, Russian popular culture found itself in direct confrontation with the high cultures of the nation’s upper classes and intelligentsia. This Russian version of modernization is described as a full-blown Foucauldian “bio-history” of Russian culture: a history of indigenous representations of sexuality and the eroticized body. / text

Part one of the thesis. She's leaving. She's running away. Everything goes too fast. If she doesn't, the emptiness in her life will destroy her. There, in Africa, nothing happens. Nothing but sight, silence, space and time. There, she finds another way of living. There, everything happens. Everything that has anything to do with essence. Only then can Gisella, 30, come back. / Part two. How can one tell of silence with words? How can silence be what makes not only the style and themes of a fiction, but the whole fiction, resonate, vibrate? In the fiction of Marguerite Duras, more specifically in Aurelia Steiner (Melbourne) and L'amour, the obsession of silence is what modulates the representation of time and space, be it corporal, geographical or domestic, and what transforms reality in an attempt to open the heart of things, beings and time on the infinite, the invisible, the sacred.

Communication remains the most important matter trough all periods of life and all epoches. We communicate , reflect, exchange information since an infancy till an old age. The speech is the main form of communication. Therefore every human‘s look, step, moove, gesture are meaningful. Even every object breaks about it‘s existance. A poetic speech makes the meaning of object and classical picture to turn to tangible individual form. It „brings up the picture of what we see and makes to forget what appeared untill up to us“ (Cezanne). Our interest in out of the picture takes us to new limits of seeing and listening.

Ce mémoire en création littéraire comporte deux parties. La partie création présente une œuvre fictionnelle inspirée des travaux du physicien Hendrick Casimir démontrant que les fluctuations du vide quantique entraînent la création spontanée d'une forme d'énergie. La trame du récit oscille entre les confidences de quatre narrateurs reliés à l'explosion d'un laboratoire de physique fondamentale. Dans ce roman, chaque énonciateur se confie à un interlocuteur narrativement muet. La parole, ainsi livrée à elle-même et libre de toute attache, permet à chacun de revisiter les évènements passés et de trouver, au bout de son souffle, une réalité transcendée. La juxtaposition des quatre textes révèle cependant le caractère fallacieux des interprétations personnelles : si, au fur et à mesure de la lecture, une intrigue englobant les quatre récits prend forme, il n'en demeure pas moins que les divergences entre les témoignages constituent autant de failles par où le sens global continue de s'échapper. Le dossier d'accompagnement s'intitule L'écriture funambulesque : perspectives du vide dans une fiction contemporaine. L'enjeu de cet essai est d'explorer certaines formes que revêt le concept de vide dans une pratique littéraire et de questionner les liens paradoxaux qui le lient à la notion d'harmonique. Le premier chapitre s'ouvre sur un survol historique du début du XXe siècle. Au plan scientifique, cette époque charnière a vu émerger une nouvelle conception du vide, modifiant le cadre général de la physique. Ces modifications, qui auront des répercussions dans l'ensemble de la production culturelle, vont peu à peu avoir un effet sur la manière dont plusieurs artistes et écrivains conçoivent leurs pratiques. C'est pourquoi nous nous pencherons par la suite sur la manière dont le vide peut être exprimé dans les textes littéraires. Il sera tout d'abord question d'absence, de silence et d'oubli ; là où quelque chose manque, relève du non-dit ou encore d'une perte. Puis, nous étudierons les notions de rupture, de faille ; une façon plus insidieuse de créer le vide par fragmentation. Le deuxième chapitre se veut une réflexion sur la frontière ténue qui sépare les deux concepts à première vue antithétiques que sont le vide et l'harmonique. Le vide y est étudié telle une paramécie sous un microscope, apparaissant et disparaissant selon l'échelle de grossissement utilisée. Par le questionnement, nous tenterons d'éclairer le lien fragile qui unit vide et harmonique dans l'imaginaire littéraire. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : fiction, sciences, physique, vide, absence, silence, oubli, rupture, harmonique.

"Rumination" and "Silencing the Self" have both been theorised to explain women�s greater vulnerability to depression. Rumination (Nolen-Hoeksema, e.g., 1987, 1991) refers to a passive focus on mood and symptoms, while Silencing the Self (Jack, 1991) refers to the socially-based belief that, broadly speaking, one should actively suppress one�s negative emotions and thoughts within romantic relationships. This thesis proposes that frequent suppression of negative emotional material within romantic relationships (self-silencing) makes that material more likely to be a target for rumination, resulting in greater depressed mood and depressive symptoms. It seems paradoxical that the more one tries to suppress one�s thoughts, the more one thinks about them. Wenzlaff and Luxton (2003) have demonstrated that frequent suppression may make material more accessible and a more likely target of rumination. Study 1 was a pilot investigation. It was found that self-silencing (the broad construct) and thought suppression (a narrower construct) were related, and that both were positively correlated with rumination. Furthermore, thought suppression contributed to the relationship between self-silencing and rumination for women. It was hypothesised that the more women suppress their negative feelings in romantic relationships (what Jack, 1991, describes as "Silencing the Self"), the more they will ruminate about these feelings and experience symptoms of depression. In Studies 2 and 3, the correlations among rumination, self-silencing and depression in adults and high school students were investigated. There were positive correlations among all the measured variables for adults and teenage girls, supporting the hypotheses. Regression analyses showed that for female adults and teenagers, rumination and self-silencing made unique, additive contributions to the prediction of depressive symptoms. In Studies 4 and 5, the causal relationship among self-silencing, rumination and depressed mood was investigated. Participants were asked either to write about a sad event that had happened in their relationships, or a typical (neutral) event. In Study 4, participants were also instructed to write either factually about these events, or to write in a ruminative way about them. Participants� chronic tendencies to self-silence were measured and they were classed as "high" or "low" self-silencers based on a median split. Female participants who chronically self-silenced more frequently and who ruminated experienced the most dramatic decrease in mood. In Study 5 participants wrote factually or suppressed their feelings about sad or neutral events and their tendency to ruminate was measured. Participants were divided into "high" and "low" ruminators based on a median split of their rumination scores. There was no support for the alternative hypothesis that chronic ruminators who suppressed would report depressed mood. Study 6 confirmed that in women, the combination of both chronic self-silencing in romantic relationships and acute rumination resulted in more severe symptoms of depression. Participants were e-mailed daily for one month about their self-silencing, rumination and negative mood. Chronic self-silencing, rumination and depressive symptoms were measured at the start and end of the month. Again, the combination of chronic self-silencing and acute rumination emerged as a better predictor of depressive symptoms than either variable alone. The six studies reported in this thesis support the hypothesis that self-silencing and rumination together explain short term negative mood as well as depressive symptoms even after one month. These studies explain why certain women are more likely to experience depressed mood in the context of romantic relationships. In particular, the combination of being a high self-silencer and ruminating makes one especially vulnerable to depressed mood and depressive symptoms. Clinically, there are already interventions targeted at rumination that are effective in reducing distress. However, the current research demonstrates that self-silencing may also be a promising target for intervention. Self-silencing is based on a wider understanding of the social context of depression. By targeting self-silencing, as well as rumination, depression may be more effectively treated.

This paper explores lesbian and gay teachers’ understandings of how their sexuality interacts with the Victorian secondary state school culture in which they work. With the aim of investigating the relationship between heteronormative schooling cultures and queer teachers, six same-sex attracted teachers were interviewed. The interviews were analysed, using discourse analysis, in order to examine teachers’ understanding of their school culture and its intersection with their sexual identity. The analysis and discussion showed a divide between teachers who chose to be out to students and those who did not. Most of the participants felt that their level of openness about their sexuality linked closely to their personality and that this dictated how much of their identity they wished to be on display at school. This often had a flow-on effect to how they managed other issues, such as addressing homophobia in their school. Participants were concerned about being labeled a pedophile or being seen as trying to recruit students to homosexuality and were therefore conscious of not looking or acting too stereotypically gay. This suggests that lesbian and gay teachers expend more energy and are more conscious of their demeanor than straight teachers in the heteronormative school cultures in which they operate. Despite there being legal protection for lesbian and gay teachers in government schools, on the ground there is still tension within schools about opening a dialogue with students about sexuality.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, August 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-137).

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Ed. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes final project proposal. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [128]-135, 194-200).