No description available.

Vikings and pirates have been studied through the years in both the archaeological and historical disciplines. Both have been compared with each other, especially if Vikings can be classified as pirates or if they practiced piracy. The stereotypical descriptions and definitions of both terms may have contributed to the above-mentioned comparisons between Vikings and pirates in search after similarities and/or differences. Vikings have and are still portrayed as savages ravaging along European coasts, robbing cities, burning churches, and violating innocents, whose actions left behind devastation and chaos. Pirates have also been classified as violent individuals, especially sea bandits or sailors who attacked both friend and foe, seizing property and/or people through violence at sea. This thesis will problematise, question, analyse and discuss if studies about pirates and pirate societies can contribute to today’s understanding of Vikings, namely to study and examine them through the perspective of pirate studies. Separate geographical areas with Viking and pirate presence have been selected in England, Ireland, the Baltic Sea region, and the Bahamas. The overwintering camps of Torksey and Repton in England, together with Dublin in Ireland concerns Viking activity. Meanwhile, Visby and Vivesholm in the Baltic Sea with piracy carried out by the Victual Brothers, together with Nassau in the Bahamas represents pirates and piracy. In addition, the above will also be analysed and discussed through an application of three selected theoretical frameworks: agency theory, actor-network theory, and the concept of utopias. The problematisation will also be examined through a determination of the terms Viking and pirate, an application of hydrarchy, and how the colonization of areas and establishment of smaller communities functioned for each actor.

Lo studio ha riflettuto su alcune costanti della letteratura comparata che accomunano tale disciplina all’esilio, quando chi lo vive è in grado di contrastare i molti traumi che esso può comportare.L’emigrazione intellettuale avvenuta nel corso degli anni Trenta e Quaranta è l’evento storico a cui lo studio ha fatto riferimento. Costringendo molti intellettuali ad abbandonare i propri posti di lavoro e le proprie case, questa emigrazione ha contribuito a una notevole mobilitazione culturale soprattutto dall’Europa verso gli Stati Uniti d’America, dove ha cominciato a svilupparsi una nuova comparatistica sovranazionale e reazionaria. L’espressione “disciplina dell’esule” suggerisce un provocatorio inquadramento del modo di vedere e affrontare il testo come il mondo: crisi, apertura verso il nuovo e inclusività sono solo alcune parole chiave che, contraddistinguendo tanto la letteratura comparata quanto l’esilio, permettono di chiarire senso e prospettive di entrambe. Si è anche affermato che un tale atteggiamento ha come presupposto due processi culturali che sono caratterizzati da una spiccata dinamicità e disponibilità al cambiamento: la denazionalizzazione della scienza e l’ibridazione del sapere. Senza di essi non avrebbe potuto formalizzarsi una comparatistica “disciplina dell’esule”, da questo punto di vista intesa come un’utopica reazione a un percorso storico tendente sempre più al nazionalismo e all’esclusione. Lo studio ha infine individuato molte di queste idee e di questi valori nell’opera “americana” di Paolo Milano, intellettuale italiano esule negli Stati Uniti che lì si costruì una carriera come professore di letteratura comparata.

In geography, maps are a tool of placement which locate both the cartographer and the territory made cartographic. In order to place objects in space, the cartographer inserts his own judgment into the scheme of his design. During the Early Modern period, maps were no longer suspicious icons as they were in the Middle Ages and not yet products of science, but subjects of discourse and works of art. The image of a cartographer’s territory depended on his vision—both the nature and placement of his gaze—and the product reflected that author’s judgment. This is not a study of maps as such but of Early Modern literature, cartographic by nature—the observations of the author were the motif of its design. However, rather than concretize observational judgment through art, the Early Modern literature discussed asserts a reverse relation—the generation of the material which may be observed, the reality, by the views of authors. Spatiality is now an emerging philosophical field of study, taking root in the philosophy of Deleuze & Guattari. Using the notion prevalent in both Postmodern and Early Modern spatiality, which makes of perception a collective delusion with its roots in the critique of Kant, this thesis draws a through-line across time, as texts such as Robert Burton’s An Anatomy of Melancholy, Thomas More’s Utopia, and selections from William Shakespeare display a tendency to remove value from the standard of representation, to replace meaning with cognition and prioritize a view of views over an observable world. Only John Milton approaches perception as possibly referential to objective reality, by re-inserting his ability to observe and exist in that reality, in a corpus which becomes less generative simulations of material than concrete signposts to his judgment in the world.

No description available.

No description available.

Proceeding from a framing of theater as collaborative storytelling, I argue for defining role-playing games as a kind of performance and for their value in structuring experiential and participatory theater. Building on the impulse at the heart of experiential and immersive theater to place the audience within the world of the performance and center their experience, I explore what it means for theater artists to cede control over how audiences make meaning of their work in favor of letting narrative emerge from the participation of the audience during the performance event. I propose a framework called pervasive performance that merges theatrical frames and methods with pervasive gaming, which expands the magic circle of play and blurs the distinction between the game and everyday life. This union of ideas puts audience members in contact with one another and allows them to be playful and co-author the overall performance experience. Further, the blurring of the performance and everyday life transforms audience members’ relationship to the real world and gives them space to imagine and experiment with other worlds and ways of being in them. I devised an alternate reality game (ARG) at UMass Amherst in May 2023, and in my thesis I analyze this project and the process of creating it as a case study in pervasive performance.

An attempt to save the city of Detroit, Michigan, and its existing buildings by giving it a new meaning and future. Cars and roads are eliminated. Tiger Stadium is converted into a city-wide freight receiving and shipping facility. A system of pneumatic tubes is implemented in each neighborhood, with a district tube router facility inside the LaFayette Tower. Apartments vitalize the landmark Fisher Building. A new multi-storey research/ education/ work station with more stairs then elevators fills in an old parking lot. / Master of Architecture

As a consequence to Gilbert and Sullivan's famed Carpet Quarrel, two operettas with decidedly "exotic" themes, The Nautch Girl; or, The Rajah of Chutneypore, and Utopia Limited; or, The Flowers of Progress were presented to London audiences. Neither has been accepted as part of the larger Savoy canon. This thesis considers the conspicuous business atmosphere of their originally performed contexts to understand why this situation arose. Critical social theory makes it possible to read the two documents as overt reflections on British imperialism. Examined more closely, however, the operettas reveal a great deal more about the highly introverted nature of exotic representation and the ambiguous dialogue between race and class hierarchies in late nineteenth-century British society.

Cette thèse vise à établir les rapports pluriels que les représentations des langues imaginaires ou étrangères des récits viatiques à la première personne du xviie siècle entretiennent avec l’imaginaire langagier français de la même époque. Que les voyages soient authentiques ou fictifs, la place et les fonctions des représentations des langues autres y sont conséquentes : ce sont à la fois un moyen de nouer une relation avec autrui, un objet de connaissance à maîtriser, un outil de légitimation du récit, un espace de convocation de l’imaginaire langagier français, un creuset des difficultés épistémiques du voyageur. Les langues autres sont tout d’abord un motif central dans les textes, de la rencontre à l’immersion sociale, en passant par le premier contact, l’apprentissage et les échanges suivis. L’intersubjectivité entre les Européens et les habitants locaux est modelée selon les besoins et les attentes du narrateur, manifestant l’existence d’enjeux extratextuels qui informent ces représentations. Les métamorphoses du rapport narratif à la figure d’autrui au gré des textes révèlent la nécessité, pour faire récit, d’articuler l’expérience du voyageur à quelque chose de concevable pour ses lecteurs et lectrices. L’altérité dont les habitants autochtones sont porteurs est souvent condamnée à être évacuée, rapportée à une seule différence, ou circonscrite a minima. Les représentations langagières sont davantage traversées par des références, des modèles et des questionnements qui ont alors cours en Europe. Ces récits de voyage témoignent de la diversité des réflexions philosophiques, mondaines, théologiques, grammaticales en cours, en même temps qu’ils constituent un pôle du débat éloigné des sphères des querelles, qui les met en perspective. Sans chercher à systématiser cet imaginaire langagier, il est possible d’en distinguer plusieurs nœuds : les mythes bibliques, les quêtes de perfection et de régularité, la grammaire latine étendue, la tripartition rhétorique antique, les notions d’éloquence sacrée et de clarté. Convoqué par les narrateurs, ce réseau discursif est cependant bousculé par les représentations des langues autres, qui n’y trouvent pas une place préexistante. Cet infléchissement fragilise le dispositif de la narration à la première personne et manifeste comment discours et usages de l’autre interroge l’imaginaire langagier européen. / This thesis aims to establish the plural relationships that exist between the representations of imaginary or foreign languages in first-person travel narratives of the seventeenth century and the French linguistic imagery of the same period. Whether the journeys are authentic ou fictitious, the places and functions of the representations of other languages are consistent: they are a means to institute a relationship with the other, an object of knowledge to be mastered, a tool to legitimate the narrative, a space for mobilizing the French linguistic imagery, and a crucible for the traveler’s epistemic difficulties. Other languages are first and foremost a narrative motif, central to several topoi in the texts, from encounters to social immersions, via first contact, learning and ongoing exchanges. The intersubjectivity between Europeans and locals is shaped according to the narrator’s needs and expectations, demonstrating the extratextual stakes that inform these representations. The transformation of the narrative’s relation to the figure of the other over the course of the texts reveals the need to articulate the traveler’s experience to something conceivable for his or her readers. The otherness of native inhabitants is often ignored, reduced to a single difference, or minimally circumscribed. Language representations, on the other hand, are more influenced by references, models and questions that were common in European thought. These travel narratives reflect the diversity of philosophical, mundane, theological and grammatical reflections underway at the time, while at the same time constituting a pole far removed from the spheres of debate, allowing for a different perspective. Without seeking to systematize this linguistic imagery, it is possible to distinguish several nuclei : biblical myths, quests for perfection and regularity, extended Latin grammar, antique rhetorical tripartition of speeches, as well as notions of sacred eloquence and clarity. Invoked by the narrators, this discursive network is also jostled by representations of other languages, which do not have a pre-existing place. This inflection undermines the first-person narrative device, and shows how discourses and practices of others interrogate the European linguistic imagery.