Although the wilderness preservation movement has emerged as a political force relatively recently, man's desire for retreat and renewal in untamed wilderness environments has a rich history in North America. Using contemporary guidetooks, diaries and journals, this study examines the early nineteenth century "Fashionable Tour" from New York City to Niagara Falls and combines description of the most important "natural wonders" en route with an analysis of their cultural meaning and value. There are two major themes. (1) Although pompous religiousness of language suggests conventional religiosity, pilgrims were overwhelmed with feelings of reverence, awe and wonder when face to face with natural wonders. (2) The extravagance of the New World's natural wonders influenced American and European images of the American experiment. Romanticism and Scottish Common Sense Realism are the intellectual and aesthetic background for this study. After some preliminary observations and definitions, I review the widespread importance of these two movements in early America and their points of contact with American sensibilities. Significant iconological moments in the lives of three leading Americans -- John Bartram, Samuel Mitchill and Timothy Dwight -- who donned their tourist habits to visit the Catskill Mountains, illustrate both the diversity of these influences and the beginnings of the Fashionable Tour. Analysis of the tour itself begins with chapter three. From their steamboat, tourists divided the Hudson River Valley into five "reaches" symbolizing grandeur (the Palisades), repose (Tappan Sea), sublimity (the Highlands), picturesqueness (the Hillsides) and beauty (the Catskills). In the first four reaches (chapter 3), the sublime Highlands dominate the landscape. But the "view from the top'' and Kaaterskill Falls at Pine Orchard in the Catskills were the most significant natural wonders in the Hudson Valley. Chapter five introduces Part II: West to Niagara Falls. The overwhelming effect of ongoing European settlement on the wilderness -- on flora, fauna and native Americans -- differentiates the unpredictable trip west from the predictable trip north. At Albany, tourists left their luxurious steamboats and transferred to stagecoaches and/or canalboats. Cohoes Falls, Little Falls and especially Trenton Falls, N. P. Willis' "Rural Resort," highlight the journey from Albany to Utica and suggest greater wonders to come. Images of the wilderness west of Utica comprise chapter seven. "Soft" pastoral landscapes, as in the Finger Lakes Region, did not arouse the intense response that major wonders such as the "view from the top" and Trenton Falls did. Niagara Falls was the climax and conclusion of the pilgrimage. The "greatest natural wonder" known and accessible to early nineteenth century tourists, Niagara elicited a torrent of enthusiasm and verbiage. After a detailed examination of tourist expectations and anticipations, descriptions and dreams, I focus specifically on the religious sentimentality which laced images of Niagara Falls. Pilgrims, responding with awe and protestations of "indescribableness," found evidence to support their popular religiosity. The trip from New York to Niagara was not just a relaxed holiday, but a highly focussed pilgrimage for persons seeking mystery and majesty in the sublime and the beautiful. Niagara, and to a lesser extent the other natural wonders; along the Hudson and across New York State, became religious shrines in early nineteenth century America.

李智浩. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 230-248). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Li Zhihao.

Exploring age structure in Mediterranean cultures illuminates the social dynamics of intergenerational relationships that became more visible in late first and early second century early Christian texts, and especially in 1 Timothy 5. This was a time of crisis when those with a living memory of the foundations of the movement were almost gone, and the community was scrutinized by outsiders. Since we have relatively few clues related to aging and age structure in the extant texts, a model of generational stability and social change based on ethnographic data helps us to imagine culturally sensitive possibilities that we can then test out as we reread the texts in their Roman cultural context. In his fictive story of Paul and Timothy, the author of the heterographical (pseudepigraphical) letter of 1 Timothy establishes an ideal intergenerational relationship between “Paul” as an older man and “Timothy” as his adult “child.” When the fictive Paul directs Timothy to speak kindly to older people (5:1-2), he introduces a section on age-related issues. Behaviour that was causing concern for public reputation included adult children shirking filial duty (5:4, 8), young widows gadding about in public (5:11-15), and younger men accusing their elders (5:19). These behaviours threatened the reputation and honour of the community and may have been encouraged by the opposing faction. The author’s solution was to reject the opposing teachings and enforce behaviour that reflected proper age structure: adult children should fulfill their filial responsibilities and care for widowed mothers and grandmothers (5:4); young widows should be guided and supported by middle-aged women who were responsible for them in the age hierarchy among women (5:16); middle-aged women should imitate the exemplary behaviour of the enlisted widows who were over 60 years old; and young men were to be rebuked in front of everyone for their disrespect toward elders (5:20). In the face of social change, the author advocates for behaviour reflective of the traditional age structure of Roman society.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of this project centered on the influential literary magazine Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. Using Bruno Latour’s network theory as well as the methods put forth by Robert Scholes and Clifford Wulfman to study modernist little magazines, I analyzed the influence McSweeney’s has on contemporary little magazines. I traced the connections between McSweeney’s and other paradigmatic examples of little magazines—The Believer and n+1—to show how the McSweeney’s aesthetic and business practice creates a model for more recent publications. My thesis argued that The Believer continues McSweeney’s aesthetic mission. In contrast, n+1 positioned itself against the McSweeney’s aesthetic, which indirectly created a space within the little magazines for writers, philosophers, and artists to debate the prevailing aesthetic theories of the contemporary period. The creation of this space connects these contemporary magazines back to modernist little magazines, thereby validating my decision to use the methods of Scholes and Wulfman.

In his 1987 essay "Canadian Poetry After Auschwitz," Michael Greenstein argues that A.M. Klein's mock-heroic poem, The Hitleriad (1944), ultimately fails to portray the severity and tragedy of the Holocaust because "it lacks the necessary historical distance for coping with the enormity" of the event (1). Greenstein's criticism is interesting because it suggests that in order for a writer to adequately represent the horrors of a traumatic event like the Holocaust it is "necessary" for him to be distanced from the event. While Greenstein specifically addresses historical (or temporal) distance, Canadian authors writing about the Holocaust have also, inevitably, had to negotiate their geographical and cultural distance from the historical event as well. Not surprisingly, their works tend to be immensely self-reflexive in nature, reflecting an awareness of the questions of authority and problems of representation that have shaped critical thinking about Holocaust literature for over half a century. This dissertation examines the role that distance has played in the creation and critical understanding of representative works of Canadian Holocaust literature. It begins with an extensive analysis of the poetry and prose of geographically-distanced poet A.M. Klein, whose work is unique in the Canadian literary canon in that it mirrors the shifting psychological state of members of the Canadian Jewish community as news of the Holocaust slowly trickled into Canada. This is followed by a discussion of the Holocaust texts of Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen, both of whom experimented with increasingly graphic Holocaust imagery in their works in response to the increasingly more horrifying information about the concentration camps that entered the Canadian public conscience in the 1960s. The dissertation then turns its attention to the uniquely post-memorial and semi-autobiographical works of two children of Holocaust survivors, Bernice Eisenstein and J.J. Steinfeld, before focusing on the Holocaust works of Timothy Findley and Yann Martel, both of whom produce highly metafictional novels in order to respond to the questions of appropriation and ethical representation that often surround works of Holocaust fiction created by non-Jewish writers. The dissertation concludes with an analysis of Anne Michaels' novel Fugitive Pieces—a text that addresses all three types of distance that stand at the center of this dissertation, and that illustrates many of the strategies of representation that Canadian writers have adopted in their attempts to negotiate, highlight, erase, and embrace the distance that separates them from the Holocaust.

Denna uppsats undersöker ekopoetiken i Fredrik Nybergs diktsamling Offerzonerna (2018). Analysen utgår från Timothy Mortons teori om mörk ekologi. Utifrån en tematisk, retorisk och ekokritisk läsning av Offerzonerna – som diskuteras tillsammans med texter av bland annat Kate Rigby, William Cronon och Sofia Roberg – dras slutsatserna att Nybergs ekopoetik kan beskrivas som anti-dualistisk, språkmaterialistisk, fragmentarisk och collageartad. En ödslig och utarmad natur präglad av klimatförändringar gestaltas, samt mötet mellan natur och kultur. Form och innehåll återspeglar varandra och gestaltar ett ekologiskt och anti-antropocentriskt tema.

In the Anthropocene, a new approach towards nature in poetry is emerging. This change is closely related to ecocritical theory, which is a reevaluation of the human view on, and representation of, nature. It moves away from a more traditional anthropocentric perspective to a more critical one. This can for instance be in the spirit of Arne Naess or Timothy Morton, the two main theorists used in this essay. This essay is an ecocritical close reading of two Swedish contemporary poems on nature: “När jag går i skymningsmörkret” by Ingela Strandberg (from Att snara en fågel, 2018) and “(Strandförskjutningar)” by Gunnar D Hansson (from Tapeshavet, 2017). The focus of the reading is on the representation of wild, untouched nature. The formulated questions in the essay concern how untouched nature is represented in the poems, the human relationship towards it and how the differences and similarities between the two poems relate to and transform romantic representations of nature.  The conclusion is that these two very different poems exemplify the range of contemporary Swedish nature poetry. Strandberg’s poem is leaning towards a romantic or ecosofist representation of nature, whilst Hansson’s is more clear-cut ecocritical in line with Morton’s dark ecology.

In this essay I study how humans and nature are portrayed in three Swedish picture books: Sprätten satt på toaletten(1970) by Annika Elmqvist, En blommas liv (2008) by Stefan Casta and Sara Lundberg and Naturen (2020) by Emma Adbåge. This is done based on the concept of ecomimesis from Timothy Morton's Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (2007) and other ecocritical terms such as: anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism and nature. In order to analyse the picture books I also use relevant ideas from Maria Nikolajeva’s Bilderbokens pusselbitar (2000). In addition to this, I discuss environmental literature for children and examine the didactic and aesthetic properties of the works.  Finally, I conclude that the books portay humans and nature differently but that they all have the message that we should cherish nature. Sprätten satt på toaletten has an anthropocentric worldview with humans shown as both the problem and the solution to the environmental crisis. En blommas liv gives a clear example of ecomimesis and anthropomorphism with its romantic illustrations of a conscious flower. Naturen ridicule antopocentrism and makes an attempt to redefine the concept of nature. All the works have both aesthetic and didactic qualities. They contain thought-provoking illustrations and stories but they also have clear messages. In other words, they are created based on the idea that literature can change the world. I question the phenomenon that adults, which cause the environmental crisis, speak for other peripheral groups. That we think we know what nature is and needs and hand over the responsibilities to the children. / I denna uppsats undersöker jag hur människa och natur gestaltas i tre svenska bilderböcker: Sprätten satt på toaletten (1970) av Annika Elmqvist, En blommas liv (2008) av Stefan Casta och Sara Lundberg samt Naturen (2020) av Emma Adbåge. Detta görs utifrån begreppet ekomimesis från Timothy Mortons Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (2007) samt andra ekokritiska termer såsom: antropocentrism, antropomorfism och natur. Till grund för bilderboksanalysen ligger relevanta begrepp från Maria Nikolajevas Bilderbokens pusselbitar (2000). Utöver detta för jag även en diskurs kring miljömedveten litteratur för barn och undersöker de nämnda verkens didaktiska och estetiska egenskaper.   Slutligen kommer jag fram till att verken gestaltar människa och natur på olika sätt men att de alla har budskapet att vi ska värna om naturen. Sprätten satt på toaletten visar en antropocentrisk världsbild med människan som både problemet och lösningen till miljökrisen. En blommas liv ger ett tydligt exempel på ekomimesis och antropomorfism med sina romantiska bilder av en tänkande blomma. Naturen förlöjligar antopocentrismen och gör ett försök till att omdefiniera naturbegreppet. Samtliga verk har både estetiska och didaktiska egenskaper. De innehåller tankeväckande illustrationer och berättelser men har också tydliga budskap. Med andra ord är de skapta utifrån idéen om att litteratur kan förändra världen. Jag ifrågasätter företeelsen att vuxna, som orsakar miljökrisen, för andra perifera gruppers talan. Att vi tror oss veta vad naturen är och behöver och lägger över ansvaret på barnen.

In the history of exegesis 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15 have functioned as the heavy artillery against women in the ministries. From the 4th century BC, when the Church really started to develop from a dynamic underground movement of believers to a state Church organised in the image of the Roman Empire and so became the Catholic Church, women were more and more suppressed under the influence of deeply rooted Hellenistic anthropological ideas that were read into these passages. Only in the second half of the Twentieth Century, under the influence of changes in society after the sexual and feminist revolutions, changes set in that sparked the discussion about the role of women in the Church. This discussion is still continuing – in the Reformed tradition at least. These two passages, however, seem to oppose an overwhelming number of biblical themes and data that at least bring a strong nuance to the picture the two passages seem to portray. The creation of man and woman in the image of God and the protection for women against the arbitrariness of men clearly picture an original and principal equality of men and women. In the circle of disciples around Jesus Christ this becomes even more manifest. This attitude is also visible in the earliest churches. Paul expresses this in Galatians 3:28: In Christ there is no … male nor female. The passages that seem to limit the rights of women in the Church do not actually oppose this picture, but show that for the sake of the proclamation of the gospel not everything is (immediately) allowed. This dissertation attempted to interpret these two passages with the help of the grammatical-historic method. In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 Paul personally intervenes in the apparent chaotic meetings of the cosmopolitan and charismatic congregation. He requires from different categories of participants – among them the married women that have a Christian husband – to not burden the fellowship with – in the case of the aforementioned women – their (otherwise rightful) participation in the discussion of the prophetic message during the worship service. In 1 Timothy 2:11-15 he gives his friend and student Timothy, the young pastor and teacher of the congregation in Ephesus, tools to call upon the members of the congregation not to start a revolution but to conquer the world for Christ by living an exemplary life. The context of this directive is a heresy that was particularly influencing some women that developed a prominent and domineering attitude in the Church. None of these directives or instructions of Paul talk about special ministries in the Church. It is all about attitude. For the sake of the steady progress of the gospel this attitude is to be determined by discipline and humbleness. However, the form this discipline and humbleness have largely depends on the context of the believers. / MTh (New Testament), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014