Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69).

This thesis looks into the relationship between dance and politics. It argues that dance is both a method of intervening in other symbolic languages and a system of inscription that is intertwined in that moment of intervention. Dance as a political language has a subversive potential; it can challenge verbal political statements. In the thesis I work with and against Jacques Rancière’s interpretation of politics as re-distribution of the sensible and with Aletta Norval’s reading of Rancière’s conception of democracy as egalitarian inscription which I expand and read as egalitarian embodied inscription. I show that Rancière’s focus on politics as rupture disables the recognition inscription as continuity. I show that dance enables a reading of politics as both rupture and continuity, an intervention that leaves traces that endure after it ends. Through a genealogy of the concept of the Dionysian I show that philosophers and dance practitioners alike have read dance as both subversive and affirmative, an intervention and a system of inscription that acts independently of spoken discourse. I show that Isadora Duncan created the first political moment in modern dance as a re-distribution of the sensible; at the same time although she created egalitarian embodied inscription she did not leave a codified system of movement, and did not contradict her politics in spoken language. I show that Martha Graham created the second moment of re-distribution of the sensible in which she created a codified movement language that subverted politics in spoken words. Finally, I revisit Rancière’s work and bind his discussion of human rights with the problematic of the tension between rupture and continuity. I re-read both these arguments with my interpretation of dance as political and argue that it yields a reading of dance as enabling the creation of human rights claims. Dance is both subversive and affirmative.

This thesis is a response to the increasingly widespread belief in the potential for technology and modern science to enable finite subjects to overcome the essential limitations constitutive of finitude and, hence, subjectivity. It investigates the truth and extent of such claims, taking as its focus quasi-miraculous technological developments in neuroscience, in particular Brain-Computer Interfacing systems and cognitive imaging technologies. The work poses the question of whether such emergent neurotechnologies signal a profound shift beyond receptivity and finitude by effectively bridging the gap between interiority and exteriority. Organised around a quadripartite division, the thesis pursues this idea firstly with regard to the act of artistic creation; secondly through an exegesis of Kant’s account of the original or infinite creativity of the Supreme Being; thirdly through readings of Freud and Jung and their respective models of the psyche; and finally through an interrogation into the possibility of telepathy and the various ways in which it can be conceived. Each chapter thus takes place as an extended thought experiment, exploring the consequences of a seemingly unprecedented proposition that promises to eradicate the finite gap between internal and external. This is followed to the limits of conceivability before asking in each case whether we may in fact need to rethink the very premises around which each proposition has framed the problem.

Thesis project (D. Min.)--Abilene Christian University, 1996. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-254).

El objetivo de esta Tesis Doctoral ha sido el estudio de las concepciones amorosas que están presentes en la novela española de la Restauración (tomando como punto de referencia la obra de Benito Pérez Galdós), sobre todo, en lo que respecta a una visión idealista, y en una doble vertiente: 1,- La importancia del discurso amoroso para la conformación estructural y temática de estas obras, por tratarse de un componente esencial en la configuración sentimental, moral e intelectual de los personajes protagonistas de las mismas.2,- Las ideologías subyacentes que, a través de la exégesis y comentario de los textos pertinentes podemos detectar, en su relación con las concepciones amorosas de los autores de la época. Nos hemos fijado en las influencias de las grandes corrientes de pensamiento de finales del siglo XIX (Idealismo, Positivismo, Pragmatismo y Espiritualismo), y su plasmación y desarrollo en la novela de la Restauración española. / The aim of this Doctoral Thesis has been the study of the amorous conceptions which are present in the spanish novel of the Restoration period (taking Benito Pérez Galdós works as a point of reference), especially regarding an idealistic point of view, and considering the following two aspects:1.The importance of amorous speech for the structural and thematic constitution of these works, since it is an essential component in the sentimental, moral, and intellectual configuration of their protagonists.2.The underlying ideologies which can be discovered through the exegesis and the analysis of the relevant texts in their relation to amorous conceptions of the authors of that time. We have focused on the influence of the most important schools of thought at the end of the XIX th. century (Idealism, Positivism, Pragmatism and Spirituality), and on their reflection and development in the Spanish novel in the Restoration period.