The Trail, 2006-04-21

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Insights and disclosures: a study of the philosophical theology of Bernard Lonergan and Ian Ramsey

The thesis compares and contrasts some aspects of the philosophical theology of Canadian Jesuit Bernard Lonergan (1904 - 1984) and Anglican Bishop Ian Ramsey (1915 - 1972). We ask whether the views of two theologians from very different backgrounds can be compatible. Lonergan and Ramsey both thought that modern science was a key resource for examining how intentional cognitive activity in humans is undertaken and hence science and scientific method give a strong indication of how we think and talk about God, theology and theological method. We therefore start with the authors’ views of science and scientific method, noting similarities alongside a crucial difference: Ramsey emphasises the scientific use of models, while Lonergan emphasises the precision of mathematics. We then argue that their descriptions of cognitive processes are similar, albeit with some differences. The differences in the views of models are emphasised in our comparison of their understandings of language and meaning. We suggest that while the views are different they are compatible and we propose a hybrid model for religious language based on an integration and synthesis of both authors’ views. The discussion draws together around theological method. Lonergan proposed several methods in his work and we discuss two. Ramsey did not describe an explicit method, but a consistent approach can be found in his theological writings. These methods are then compared with the authors’ theological writings in a case study, the atonement. We argue that Lonergan follows neither of his methods and that both he and Ramsey have a flexible approach to the process of doing theology. The discussions of theological method, supplemented by earlier considerations of models and method are used to suggest a hybrid theological method. This generalises Lonergan’s method, includes Ramsey’s process and yields a model whereby we can discuss how theology is done

The construction of narrative suspense in Contos do Edgar : a narratological study

Este trabalho investiga a construção narrativa de Contos do Edgar (2013), uma minissérie de televisão brasileira que adapta sete contos de Edgar Allan Poe e os situa na São Paulo atual. Composta por cinco episódios, Contos do Edgar gira em torno da rotina diária de trabalho dos dedetizadores Edgar e Fortunato. Ao mesmo tempo, essa estrutura episódica da série também encobre um enredo secundário envolvendo o passado conflituoso dos personagens principais, que se desenvolve do primeiro ao último episódio. Dessa forma, Contos do Edgar transpõe para um formato audiovisual a dupla estrutura narrativa do conto literário, conforme propõe Ricardo Piglia (2011), e apresenta um balanço narrativo entre as formas episódica e seriada, remetendo à noção de complexidade narrativa proposta por Jason Mittell (2015). A partir disso, este trabalho objetiva demonstrar que essa adaptação seriada das histórias de Poe recria o suspense narrativo (INDRUSIAK, 2016) que o autor alcançava ao recorrer à dupla estrutura narrativa em suas obras ficcionais. Portanto, como meio de mapear os recursos narrativos empregados por Poe e os produtores de Contos do Edgar na criação do suspense, a metodologia deste trabalho apoia-se na Narratologia literária e cinematográfica, de acordo com as proposições de Mieke Bal (2009) e de Peter Verstraten (2009), respectivamente. Em relação à análise do corpus desta dissertação, o capítulo final agrupa em seções específicas cada um dos episódios de Contos do Edgar com o(s) conto(s) nele adaptado(s) e destaca os recursos empregados em sua construção narrativa. Desse modo, corrobora-se o diálogo formal entre as obras analisadas e evidencia-se a transposição de recursos narrativos de um meio literário para um audiovisual.This work investigates the narrative construction of Contos do Edgar (2013), a Brazilian television miniseries that adapts seven short stories by Edgar Allan Poe and sets them in present-day São Paulo. Consisting of five episodes, Contos do Edgar revolves around the daily working routine of Edgar and Fortunato as two pest exterminators. At the same time, this episodic structure of the series also conceals a secondary storyline involving the main characters’ troubled past, which unfolds from the first episode to the last. That way, Contos do Edgar adapts to an audiovisual format the double narrative structure of the short story, as proposed by Ricardo Piglia (2011), and presents a shifting balance between episodic and serialized modes of storytelling, thus recalling the notion of narrative complexity proposed by Jason Mittell (2015). Based on that, this work aims to demonstrate that this serialized adaptation of Poe’s stories recreates the narrative suspense (INDRUSIAK, 2016) the author achieved by resorting to a double narrative structure in his fictional works. Therefore, as a means to map the narrative resources employed by Poe and the producers of Contos do Edgar in order to create suspense, the methodology of this work relies on literary and film Narratology, according to the propositions of Mieke Bal (2009) and Peter Verstraten (2009), respectively. As for the analysis of the corpus of this thesis, the final chapter groups each episode of Contos do Edgar with the short story(ies) it adapts in specific sections, highlighting the resources employed in their narrative construction. That way, the formal dialogue between the works analyzed is reinforced, and the transposition of narrative resources from a literary medium to an audiovisual one is made explicit

On Quality (A critical reading of Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila)

This thesis offers a critical discussion of Robert M. Pirsig's 'metaphysics of Quality', based upon his two written works, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) and Lila (1991). Discussion is pursued through a narrative style loosely modelled on Pirsig's literary contemplation of composition and Quality, but also with an emphasis on the form of a Platonic dialogue, albeit from a Postmodern perspective. The issues raised in the thesis focus upon an examination of Pirsig's conception of Quality in the light of philosophical histories and Deconstruction and include a detailed discussion of whether all forms of writing are, by definition, both creative and rhetorical. Investigation is also made into elements of Zen Buddhism and Taoism in relation to Quality and Post-Structuralism. I analyse Pirsig's use of specific terms such as 'The Platypus' (that which challenges traditional categorisation); the 'Church of Reason' (a critique of a blind faith in logic), 'Care' (a term with close links to Heidegger's philosophy) and the 'ghost of rationality' (reality constructed upon the voices of the dead). I also examine Pirsig's attempts to disseminate binary oppositions such as Literature/Philosophy, Classic/Romantic and Subject/Object. The thesis concludes by discussing, with the personifications of the 'ghosts of rationality', the merits of Pirsig's suggestion that everything in the universe is an ethical activity

Three chapters in the history of femicide

This dissertation describes the genesis of the idea of femicide in a period of English and American Letters, the last decade of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, in which patriarchal values and constructions were entering a crisis which resulted in the revision of the idea of gender—in a way, that was the period in which the concept of gender was coded. In the first chapter, I look at the way the term femicide was first given currency in the English language in 1827 through Robert Macnish’s The Confessions of an Unexecuted Femicide, a fiction disguised as a true story, and how it spawned a short-lived literary sub-genre. In the second chapter, I examine Poe’s reworking of the femicide story, and to the ways in which he has drawn attention to its Gothic roots. Finally, in the third chapter, I offer a reading of Memoirs of the Author of ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,’ in which I argue that Godwin’s “sentimentalised” portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft, and by extension of the female intellectual, constitutes an implicit refutation of her ideas, and therefore can be profitably compared to the portraits Poe’s femicide narrators make of Morella and Ligeia in the tales named after them.Esta dissertação descreve a génese da ideia de femicídio durante um período nas letras Anglo-saxónicas, entre a última década do séc. XVIII e meados do século seguinte, em que os valores e elaborações ideológicas patriarcais entravam numa crise que conduziria a uma revisão da ideia de género (de certo modo, poder-se-ia mesmo dizer que é nesse período que o conceito de género começa a ser codificado). No primeiro capítulo, descrevo como o termo femicídio ganhou pela primeira vez projecção na língua inglesa depois da publicação, em 1827, de The Confessions of an Unexecuted Femicide de Robert Macnish, uma ficção apresentada ostensivamente como relato verídico que deu origem a um efémero sub-género de ficção, a que chamo “história de femicídio.” No segundo capítulo examino a reinterpretação da história de femicídio por Edgar Allan Poe, e sobre o modo como este autor pôs em evidência as suas raízes góticas. Finalmente, no terceiro capítulo, apresento uma leitura de Memoirs of the Author of ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ em que argumento que o retrato “sentimentalizado” que Godwin aí faz de Mary Wollstonecraft, e por extensão da mulher intelectual, porquanto constitui uma refutação implícita das ideias dessa autora, ganha em ser comparado com os retratos que os narradores femicídas de Poe fazem das suas esposas em “Morella” e “Ligeia.

Frontiers in psychodynamic neuroscience

he term psychodynamics was introduced in 1874 by Ernst von Brücke, the renowned German physiologist and Freud’s research supervisor at the University of Vienna. Together with Helmholtz and others, Brücke proposed that all living organisms are energy systems, regulated by the same thermodynamic laws. Since Freud was a student of Brücke and a deep admirer of Helmholtz, he adopted this view, thus laying the foundations for his metapsychology. The discovery of the Default Network and the birth of Neuropsychoanalysis, twenty years ago, facilitated a deep return to this classical conception of the brain as an energy system, and therefore a return to Freud's early ambition to establish psychology as natural science. Our current investigations of neural networks and applications of the Free Energy Principle are equally ‘psychodynamic’ in Brücke’s original sense of the term. Some branches of contemporary neuroscience still eschew subjective data and therefore exclude the brain’s most remarkable property – its selfhood – from the field, and many neuroscientists remain skeptical about psychoanalytic methods, theories, and concepts. Likewise, some psychoanalysts continue to reject any consideration of the structure and functions of the brain from their conceptualization of the mind in health and disease. Both cases seem to perpetuate a Cartesian attitude in which the mind is linked to the brain in some equivocal relationship and an attitude that detaches the brain from the body -- rather than considering it an integral part of the complex and dynamic living organism as a whole. Evidence from psychodynamic neuroscience suggests that Freudian constructs can now be realized neurobiologically. For example, Freud’s notion of primary and secondary processes is consistent with the hierarchical organization of self-organized cortical and subcortical systems, and his description of the ego is consistent with the functions of the Default Network and its reciprocal exchanges with subordinate brain systems. Moreover, thanks to new methods of measuring brain entropy, we can now operationalize the primary and secondary processes and therefore test predictions arising from these Freudian constructs. All of this makes it possible to deepen the dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalysis, in ways and to a degree that was unimaginable in Freud's time, and even compared to twenty years ago. Many psychoanalytical hypotheses are now well integrated with contemporary neuroscience. Other Freudian and post-Freudian hypotheses about the structure and function of the mind seem ripe for the detailed and sophisticated development that modern psychodynamic neuroscience can offer. This Research Topic aims to provide comprehensive coverage of the latest advances in psychodynamic neuroscience and neuropsychoanalysis. Potential authors are invited to submit papers (original research, case reports, review articles, commentaries) that deploy, review, compare or develop the methods and theories of psychodynamic neuroscience and neuropsychoanalysis. Potential authors include researchers, psychoanalysts, and neuroscientists

Verbal compounding and causativity in Mandarin Chinese

L\u2019oggetto di studio di questa tesi sono i composti verbali [V V]V con testa a sinistra in cinese mandarino. Tali formazioni costituiscono un fenomeno di grande interesse, in quanto rappresentano un\u2019eccezione alla tendenza generale del cinese a formare parole composte con testa a destra. Questa ricerca si focalizza, in particolare, su alcune tipologie di composti causativi con testa a sinistra; in questo lavoro, tali composti sono considerati come una strategia innovativa del cinese moderno, diffusasi in seguito alla perdita di altri mezzi per esprimere causativit\ue0 in questa lingua, nel quadro del cambiamento tipologico del cinese da lingua maggiormente sintetica a lingua maggiormente analitica. I composti causativi oggetto di questa ricerca sono stati analizzati utilizzando il framework proposto da Ramchand (2008), che consiste in una scomposizione sintattica della struttura dell\u2019evento. Il lavoro \ue8 supportato empiricamente da una variet\ue0 di dati provenienti da diverse fonti. Innanzitutto, i dati sono stati ricavati dalla bibliografia sull\u2019argomento e da alcuni dizionari di cinese mandarino. Inoltre, sono stati utilizzati due corpora di cinese mandarino (il corpus del Centro di Linguistica Cinese dell\u2019Universit\ue0 di Pechino e, marginalmente, il corpus di cinese mandarino dell\u2019Academia Sinica), testi letterari e giornalistici (soprattutto testi disponibili on-line) e dati tratti da ricerche sul web. Infine, per i giudizi di grammaticalit\ue0 ci si \ue8 avvalsi anche della consulenza di parlanti nativi, soprattutto studenti universitari. Il primo tipo di verbi complessi analizzato \ue8 costituito da composti in cui V1 \ue8 una radice verbale light, fonologicamente realizzata, come ad esempio \u5f04 n\uf2ng \u2018fare\u2019, \u6253 d\u1ce \u2018colpire\u2019, \u641e g\u1ceo \u2018fare\u2019, \u52a0 ji\u101 \u2018aggiungere, aumentare\u2019. Questi verbi light sono stati considerati, all\u2019interno del framework proposto da Ramchand (2008), come items lessicali causativi che formano la versione transitiva di verbi incoativi, attraverso un processo di costruzione della struttura. L\u2019alternanza causativa in cinese, dunque, pu\uf2 essere ottenuta per mezzo di verbi light che marcano la variante transitiva. Tra le radici causative light, una particolare attenzione \ue8 stata rivolta a \u6253 d\u1ce, il cui sviluppo diacronico ci ha portato ad ipotizzare che la sua funzione come elemento lessicale causativo si sia sviluppata a partire dal suo significato di \u2018fare, creare\u2019. A sostegno di questa ipotesi, la radice \u6253 d\u1ce \ue8 stata messa a confronto con forme parallele di altre due lingue sinitiche, ossia \u62cd phah4 nel dialetto Min meridionale parlato a Taiwan e \u6253 da2 in Hakka. Inoltre, in questo lavoro \ue8 stata analizzata come elemento causativo anche la radice \u52a0 ji\u101 \u2018aggiungere, aumentare\u2019. Questa radice rappresenterebbe un tipo particolare di verbo causativo light: forma la versione transitiva di verbi deaggettivali di scala aperta, in particolare di quei verbi che esprimono un \u201caumento\u201d nella propriet\ue0 denotata dalla base aggettivale. I composti causativi formati con una radice verbale light sono stati messi a confronto con un altro tipo di verbi complessi, ossia verbi derivati con il suffisso \u5316 -hu\ue0 \u2018-izzare, -ificare, ecc.\u2019 (ad es. \u73b0\u4ee3\u5316 xi\ue0nd\ue0ihu\ue0 \u2018modernizzare\u2019, \u7f8e\u5316 m\u11bihu\ue0 \u2018bello + SUFF = abbellire), un modello di formazione di parola piuttosto produttivo in questa lingua, sottolineando le differenze in termini di caratteristiche e di funzioni tra il suffisso \u5316 -hu\ue0 e i verbi causativi light. La discussione sui verbi causativi light, che tiene conto anche di elementi simili in altre lingue sinitiche (il dialetto Min meridionale parlato a Taiwan e l\u2019Hakka), fornisce argomenti a sostegno dell\u2019ipotesi che la direzione dell\u2019alternanza causativa sia da incoativo a causativo (cfr. Hale & Keyser 1998, Hoekstra 1992, 2004, Ramchand 2008) e non viceversa (cfr. Levin & Rappaport Hovav 1995, Reinhart 2002, Chierchia (2004 [1989]), dal momento che il verbo light esplicita la presenza di una componente causativa e la forma transitiva \ue8 strutturalmente marcata. Il secondo tipo di verbi complessi presi in esame sono i composti risultativi, oggetto di un vivace dibattito nella bibliografia sull\u2019argomento. In questo lavoro si sostiene che i composti risultativi, cos\uec come i verbi formati con un verbo causativo light, esprimono causativit\ue0 diretta. La differenza tra i due tipi di verbi complessi sta nel fatto che, mentre i composti formati con un verbo light esplicitano la presenza di una componente causativa, ma non specificano il tipo di azione che porta allo stato risultante, nei composti risultativi viene specificata l\u2019azione particolare che porta al cambiamento di stato. L\u2019analisi dei composti risultativi basata sul framework proposto da Ramchand (2008) permette di superare molte delle difficolt\ue0 derivanti da approcci che cercano di spiegare le propriet\ue0 di questi composti in base alla transitivit\ue0 dei costituenti (ad esempio, Li 1990) ed evidenzia i vantaggi di un approccio basato sulla struttura dell\u2019evento (cfr. Cheng & Huang 1994). Inoltre, questo tipo di analisi permette di scomporre l\u2019evento in una struttura funzionale che si presuppone essere universale: i blocchi fondamentali che costituiscono l\u2019evento sono gli stessi a livello cross-linguistico (cfr. Ramchand 2008, Son & Svenonius 2008). La scomposizione sintattica della struttura eventiva dei composti risultativi del cinese fornisce anche sostegno all\u2019ipotesi secondo la quale tali composti hanno testa a sinistra sulla base di motivazioni strutturali (cfr. Cheng & Huang 1994). L\u2019ultimo tipo di composti causativi analizzati sono verbi complessi che, a nostro avviso, esprimono causativit\ue0 indiretta. Diversamente dagli altri due tipi di verbi complessi analizzati in questo lavoro, questi composti permettono un certo grado di autonomia dell\u2019evento causato, che varia a seconda del tipo di V1 utilizzato. Il gruppo di possibili V1 utilizzati nella formazione di questi composti \ue8 piuttosto ristretto: ad esempio, \u8bf7 q\u1d0ng \u2018chiedere\u2019, \u9080 y\u101o \u2018invitare\u2019, \u6c42 qi\ufa \u2018chiedere, richiedere\u2019, \u529d qu\ue0n \u2018dare un consiglio/persuadere\u2019, \u4fc3 c\uf9 \u2018promuovere\u2019, \u52a9 zh\uf9 \u2018aiutare\u2019, \u903c b\uec \u2018forzare\u2019, \u8feb p\uf2 \u2018forzare\u2019, \u7981 j\uecn \u2018proibire\u2019, \u62d2 j\uf9 \u2018rifiutare\u2019. L\u2019analisi di queste forme verbali complesse in cinese mandarino, anche in prospettiva diacronica e, marginalmente, cross-linguistica, ci ha permesso di sostenere la proposta di Ramchand (2008), secondo cui i blocchi fondamentali che costruiscono il significato dell\u2019evento sono gli stessi per tutte le lingue, e le lingue variano solo nel modo in cui esprimono la struttura dell\u2019evento, a seconda dell\u2019inventario di items lessicali disponibili e di altre caratteristiche idiolinguistiche. Dunque, la preferenza per l\u2019espressione di eventi complessi in cinese attraverso la composizione sarebbe strettamente legata all\u2019analiticit\ue0 di questa lingua. L\u2019indagine sui composti causativi in cinese mandarino ha anche dimostrato che i composti con testa a sinistra in questa lingua sono caratterizzati da una struttura funzionale gerarchica soggiacente, in cui i due costituenti rappresentano lo spell-out di teste differenti di questa struttura. Sarebbe proprio la presenza di struttura funzionale a guidare l\u2019interpretazione di questi composti; infatti, mentre i composti con testa a destra in cinese sembrano essere caratterizzati da una grande libert\ue0 di interpretazione (le relazioni possibili tra i costituenti possono essere molteplici), caratteristica particolarmente evidente nei composti nominali, i composti con testa a sinistra sembrano avere un\u2019interpretazione piuttosto ristretta.This thesis deals with the issue of left-headed verbal V-V compounds in Mandarin Chinese, which represent an interesting phenomenon, since they are an exception to the general tendency of Chinese to form right-headed compounds. In particular, this research takes into account some types of left-headed causative compounds, which are considered as an alternative (analytic) strategy to express causativity in Mandarin Chinese, after the loss of other morphological and phonological strategies, as a consequence of the typological shift of Chinese from a synthetic to an analytic language. This thesis provides an analysis of such causative compounds adopting the framework put forth by Ramchand (2008), which consists in a syntactic decomposition of the event structure. First, we consider the issue of the causative alternation by means of phonetically realized light V1s, e.g. \u5f04 n\uf2ng \u2018make\u2019, \u6253 d\u1ce \u2018hit\u2019, \u641e g\u1ceo \u2018do\u2019, \u52a0 ji\u101 \u2018add; increase\u2019. The phonetically realized light verbs are considered to be init heads with semantics of general causation, which build an extra-layer on top of verbs lacking an [init] feature in their lexical entry, through a process of structure building. We focus mainly on \u6253 d\u1ce \u2018hit\u2019 (and, also, comparing it with analogous roots in Taiwanese Southern Min and Hakka) and \u52a0 ji\u101 \u2018add; increase\u2019, which is found only in the formation of transitive deadjectival verbs based on open-range adjectives, in particular those involving an increase in the property denoted by the adjective. We claim that \u52a0 ji\u101 \u2018add; increase\u2019, besides contributing an extra (causative) layer, seems also to be the overt realization of one of the parts involved in the logical representation of degree achievement verbs, i.e. the increasing event (cf. Hay, Kennedy & Levin 1999). The second type of causative V-V compounds discussed in this thesis are resultative compounds, e.g. \u6447\u9192 y\ue1ox\u1d0ng \u2018shake-awake\u2019, \u54ed\u6e7f k\u16bsh\u12b \u2018cry-wet\u2019, a very debated issue in the literature on the topic, which apparently arose as an alternative causative strategy after the loss of other means to express causativity in Chinese, following the typological shift undergone by this language. In resultative compounds the nature of the causing event is fully expressed by the left-hand verbal root, specifying the kind of action which brings about the change of state, while in transitive verbs formed with a light V1 the causing event is spelled out by the left-hand verbal root, which just provides an [init] feature to the event. In the latter case, many different actions can bring about the resultant state expressed by V2, much as in the case of English labile causatives, e.g. break. The decomposition of the event structure based on a hierarchical functional structure also enables us to defend the position that resultative compounds are left-headed due to structural reasons (cf. Cheng & Huang 1994). In fact, assuming a structural notion of headedness, it is clear that V1 acts as the head of the compound: the two constituents of a resultative compound spell out different heads in a functional hierarchical structure characterized by causal embedding; nevertheless, it is V1 which identifies the hierarchically superior head in the structure. Lastly, this thesis takes into account another kind of left-headed causative compounds, which, to the best of our knowledge, have not received much attention in the literature. We propose a tentative analysis of this kind of compounds, which, according to us, express indirect causation. Differently from resultative compounds and causative verbs with a light V1, these compounds allow a certain degree of autonomy of the caused event, which varies according to the kind of V1 involved. The set of possible roots occurring in this kind of compounds is quite restricted, e.g. \u8bf7 q\u1d0ng \u2018ask\u2019, \u9080 y\u101o \u2018invite, request\u2019, \u6c42 qi\ufa \u2018ask, request\u2019, \u529d qu\ue0n \u2018advice/persuade\u2019, \u4fc3 c\uf9 \u2018promote\u2019, \u52a9 zh\uf9 \u2018help\u2019, \u903c b\uec \u2018force\u2019, \u8feb p\uf2 \u2018force\u2019, \u7981 j\uecn \u2018prohibit\u2019, \u62d2 j\uf9 \u2018refuse\u2019. Some of these items are apparently very similar to curative affixes in some languages . The analysis of such verbal formations, also in a diachronic and, marginally, cross-linguistic perspective, enables us to support Ramchand\u2019s (2008) claim, namely that the fundamental building blocks of the eventive meaning are the same for all languages, and languages vary only in the \u201csize\u201d of their lexical items, plus other idiolinguistic characteristics: thus, the very same syntactic structures can be expressed lexically, synthetically or analytically, depending on the language and on the particular lexical items in its inventory. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that an analytic language like Modern Chinese prefers to express complex event structures through compounding, which is also its most productive means of word formation

Causality and narrative in French fiction from Zola to Robbe-Grillet

(print) xxxi, 245 p. ; 24 cmPreface ix -- Introduction xiii -- Part I : Rectilinear Causality in Narrative 1 -- 1 Causality in Fiction 3 -- 2 Causal Options in the Récit : Gide 21 -- 3 Causal Options in Histoire and Narration : Zolas L'Assommoir 37 -- 4 Causal Chains and Textualization : Zola's La Bête humaine 65 -- 5 Inference, Causality, and the Levels of Narrative 88 -- Part II : Nonrectilinear Causal Strategies 101 -- 6 Track and Sidetrack 103 -- 7 Associating with Proust 122 -- 8 Myth and Mythos 136 -- 9 The Broken Line 149 -- 10 Mental-Representation Fiction 174 -- Conclusion 208 -- Appendixes 227 -- Works Cited 233 -- Index 23

Madness, Resistance, and Representation in Contemporary British and Irish Theatre

This thesis questions how theatre can act as a site of resistance against the political structures of madness. It analyzes a variety of plays from the past 25 years of British and Irish theatre in order to discern what modes of resistance are possible, and the conceptual lines upon which they follow. It questions how these modes of resistance are imbibed in the representation of madness. It discerns what way these modes relate specifically to the theatrical, and what it is the theatrical specifically has to offer these conceptualizations. It achieves this through a close textual and performative analysis of the selected plays, interrogating these plays from various theoretical perspectives. It follows and explores different conceptualizations across both political and ethical lay lines, looking at what composes the theatrical practical critique, how theatre can alter and play with space, how theatre capacitate the act of witnessing, and the possibility of re-invigorating the ethical encounter through theatrical means. It achieves this through a critical engagement with thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Henri Lefebvre, Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas. Engaging with the heterogeneity of madness, it covers a variety of madness’s different attributes and logics, including: the constitution and institutional structures of the contemporary asylum; the cultural idioms behind hallucination; the means by which suicide is apprehended and approached; how testimony of the mad person is interpreted and encountered.AHR