8,633 research outputs found

    Equitable and Inclusive Dance Assessment Resources

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    This capstone inquires, how can the Minnesota K-12 Dance Standards (revised 2018) lay a practical framework for dance educators to create equitable and inclusive assessments for student success? A dance teacher addresses the need to expand how standards and success are defined in educational dance, noting circumstances where students of dance outside the dominant culture in the United States experience fewer feelings of inclusion and success when dance standards, curriculum, and assessment do not encompass what success looks like for them given their historical and cultural identities, hindering student ability to become self-actualized and wholistically educated artists. Through a review of literature in the areas of general education pedagogy, culturally relevant pedagogy, and dance pedagogy, this capstone applies Historically Responsive Literacy, Culturally Relevant Teaching, and Universal Learning Design, to propose a resource that teachers working in diverse dance settings can utilize to facilitate equitable and inclusive assessments for success

    Towards ending incarceration of Indigenous peoples in Canada: A critical, narrative inquiry of hegemonic power in the Gladue report process

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    Abstract This study is concerned with the possibility that Gladue perpetuates the hegemonic powers of settler colonialism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and neoliberalism. Gladue is intended to remediate systemic anti-Indigenous racism by requiring judges to consider all alternatives to incarceration when sentencing Indigenous peoples, yet Indigenous incarceration rates continue to rise precipitously. On the surface, Gladue does not appear to disrupt the hegemonic status quo. How is it that the Canadian state, even when ‘remediating,’ keeps producing the same – colonial, oppressive, and tyrannical – result? This qualitative study used a critical, narrative methodology, interviewing Gladue report writers (n=9) and judges (n=12) about their perspectives and experiences with Gladue, particularly Gladue reports. The study purposefully emphasized settler accountability – research as reparation – in the research design, data collection, and analysis. A careful, ethical protocol for researching with Indigenous peoples (n=9) was followed, premised in Truth and Reconciliation ‘Call to Action’ number 30 to reduce Indigenous incarceration in Canada. This study found that Gladue is falling short of achieving its systemic aim because of (a) a hyper-individualistic, dehumanizing configuration that discursively shifts judges away from dealing with the systemic issue of anti-Indigenous racism, towards judging the individual Indigenous person before the court; (b) colonial mentalities (e.g., whiteness and patriarchy) persisting in the process; (c) a lack of funding for Gladue writers, as well alternatives to incarceration, constraining judges’ capacities to divert Indigenous away from prisons. The study points towards the need for a more radical framework for Gladue that honours Indigenous self-determination and foundational treaties such as the Two Row Wampum

    A Parent's Autoethnography: Examining My Experiences and Identity as Parent, Educator, and Researcher While Teaching Literacy to My Adolescent Sons Who Have Autism and Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication

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    This autoethnography was completed from my unique perspective as a mother to two adolescent sons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have complex communication needs and use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to communicate. Although literacy is a human right (Ontario Human Rights Commission, 2022a), it often has been overlooked in my sons’ self-contained classrooms in high school. As my sons’ parent and educator, I gathered my reflections, observations, descriptions, journals, lesson plans, and artifacts to examine the experiences I encountered in developing their literacy. Initially, I conducted a pilot project based on Erickson and Koppenhaver’s (2007) Children With Disabilities: Reading and Writing the Four Blocks¼ Way, the results of which guided my planning in teaching literacy with an adaptation of the more recent Comprehensive Literacy for All: Teaching Students With Significant Disabilities to Read and Write (Erickson & Koppenhaver, 2020). I coded by hand each line of the collected data to extract categories and then streamline these into the meaningful themes to respond to my two research questions: (a) What are the experiences of a parent educator who has been teaching literacy awareness and skills to her adolescent sons who both have autism and use AAC devices? (b) Does the experience shape her identity as a parent, educator, and researcher? Thematic findings pertaining to the first question revealed experiences related to planning and questioning and my own transformational learning and mindshift. Thematic findings related to the second question include: Parental concerns; Educator: advocating and imposter syndrome; Researcher: Lesson planning and questioning; and Transformational learning and mindshift. Findings are discussed in light of the literature on experiences of parents as educators of children with exceptionalities. The study also presents implications for theory, practice, and research, as well as limitations and future directions

    Community Oral History to widen the path: The Jewish Mobile Oral History Project

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    This article presents the case study of the Jewish Mobile Oral History Project of the McCall Library at the University of South Alabama as an example of a participatory archival practice. With goals to build a collection centered on a minority experience, to engage with community members, and to foster inter-communal dialogue, the project highlights affect as one vital consideration for archival record keepers, users, and subjects

    The place where curses are manufactured : four poets of the Vietnam War

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    The Vietnam War was unique among American wars. To pinpoint its uniqueness, it was necessary to look for a non-American voice that would enable me to articulate its distinctiveness and explore the American character as observed by an Asian. Takeshi Kaiko proved to be most helpful. From his novel, Into a Black Sun, I was able to establish a working pair of 'bookends' from which to approach the poetry of Walter McDonald, Bruce Weigl, Basil T. Paquet and Steve Mason. Chapter One is devoted to those seemingly mismatched 'bookends,' Walt Whitman and General William C. Westmoreland, and their respective anthropocentric and technocentric visions of progress and the peculiarly American concept of the "open road" as they manifest themselves in Vietnam. In Chapter, Two, I analyze the war poems of Walter McDonald. As a pilot, writing primarily about flying, his poetry manifests General Westmoreland's technocentric vision of the 'road' as determined by and manifest through technology. Chapter Three focuses on the poems of Bruce Weigl. The poems analyzed portray the literal and metaphorical descent from the technocentric, 'numbed' distance of aerial warfare to the world of ground warfare, and the initiation of a 'fucking new guy,' who discovers the contours of the self's interior through a set of experiences that lead from from aerial insertion into the jungle to the degradation of burning human feces. Chapter Four, devoted to the thirteen poems of Basil T. Paquet, focuses on the continuation of the descent begun in Chapter Two. In his capacity as a medic, Paquet's entire body of poems details his quotidian tasks which entail tending the maimed, the mortally wounded and the dead. The final chapter deals with Steve Mason's JohnnY's Song, and his depiction of the plight of Vietnam veterans back in "The World" who are still trapped inside the interior landscape of their individual "ghettoes" of the soul created by their war-time experiences

    Understanding factors affecting the teaching of teamwork in Australian higher education business schools

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    Integrating teamwork into higher education (HE) curricula has been part of the employability skills agenda for decades. Whilst HE academics have published widely on a variety of strategies utilised to implement teamwork in their teaching, there is little evidence of the interrelated factors associated with teaching teamwork and the paradoxes of critical tension points arising from challenges encountered by educators in their efforts to integrate teamwork in their courses. This thesis explores the salient influences affecting the teaching and learning of teamwork in the Australian HE business school context. The outcomes are presented in a thesis by compilation, which includes the traditional structure of introduction, literature review, methodology, findings/discussion, and conclusion chapters, along with three published articles demonstrating original, primary research. A published global systematic literature review (SLR) identified that temporal, fiscal, psychological, and human resource transaction cost interactions for HE educators, students and institutions affected the uptake of HE teamwork. Interactions are predicated on the way in which educators derive benefits or costs from developing, coordinating, monitoring, participating in, interacting with, and evaluating HE teamwork. Transaction costs, for example, whether to engage with the employability agenda, or provide instruction in team skills, collaborative learning, curriculum design, and assessment of teamwork, represent the return on investment to educators when undertaking the teaching of teamwork. These findings are an original contribution to the HE teamwork literature as there is scant evidence of costs associated with affording or constraining HE teamwork. A second published SLR article was confined to a more rigorous review of the Australian HE teamwork literature. Numerous factors were identified as constraints to HE teamwork, with findings thematically indicating that Australian business discipline educators were mainly concerned with team formation and management, teaching and learning approaches to HE teamwork and challenges influencing teaching and learning practices, thus providing an original contribution to knowledge of the salient issues affecting the teaching and learning of teamwork in the Australian business school context. These findings were used to inform semi-structured interview questions for a case study of business educators from a range of disciplines across four public universities in Australia. Grounded in a social constructivist paradigm, and using the case study approach, findings from 30 qualitative interviews with Australian business educators identified that performative demands on HE educators resulted in a range of critical paradox tension points, highlighting the salient influences contributing to understanding educator factors affecting the teaching of HE teamwork. Specifically focusing on the performativity paradoxes of performing/organising, performing/learning, and performing/belonging, illuminated the lived experience of business educators navigating performativity with HE teamwork and their reactions to critical tension points in their required or perceived performativity. In this thesis the third published article presented in Chapter Five, conceptualises how business school educators negotiated the inherent stresses, conflicts, and tensions in their teaching to understand, react and influence their approaches to HE teamwork. Theoretically, the utility of transaction cost and paradox theories as heuristic conceptual lenses to understand the dynamic interactions for educators’ facilitating the teaching of teamwork is demonstrated. Conceptual understandings are expanded through the application of paradox theory in the educational context, contributing to the advancement of knowledge and/or professional practice acknowledged by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (2018) as a core aspect of HE scholarship. This is a unique feature of this study, generating original contributions to the understanding of the scholarship of teaching and learning in the field of teamwork in the Australian business school context. Implications for theory and practice have wider application within HE and provide a sound basis for the development of teamwork as a requisite skill to satisfy not only the broader aspects of the employability agenda, but also advancement of knowledge in the field which has implications for future research, providing opportunities to broaden the scholarship of teaching and learning as it relates to the functionality of teamwork pedagogy

    Discovery of tissue specific network properties associated with cancer driver genes

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    Tese de Mestrado em BioquĂ­mica, Faculdade de CiĂȘncias, Universidade de Lisboa, 2022Using the notion of disease modules, network medicine has effectively identified diseaseassociated genes in recent years. In biological networks, genes linked to a particular illness tend to interact closely [1]. These networks allow both physical and functional connections between biomolecules to be identified, resulting in a map of cell components and processes that constitute biological systems [2]. Not all disease-associated genes, however, have a major impact on disease phenotype. The discovery of important genes able to produce or change disease phenotype paves the path to new therapies and a personalized medicine strategy. Recent research has found that biological network topological features per se may accurately predict perturbation effects in a dynamical model of the system with a 65-80% accuracy [3, 4]. Biological networks differ depending on whatever tissue or cell type is being studied. As a result, each gene's topological features and ability to impact the system may alter [5]. The main goal of this thesis is to discover network topological parameters associated with influential cancer driver genes using context specific networks. In order to achieve this, we evaluated local network features around each driver gene across multiple tissue specific networks, including tissues that are affected in the disease and others where the gene perturbation has no significant effect. We aimed to identify topological parameters and its characteristics contributing to the cancer driver gene’s influential role. The results of this dissertation point out that several topological parameters can be used to determine cancer “driver” genes. We found that these genes have higher values of topological parameters, such as Degree or Closeness, in tissues where they tend to cause cancer. We also found that this difference is present in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. Another factor that we found to influence the value of topological parameters is the number of tissues in which these genes cause the disease. There is an increasing trend of topological parameter values with the increase of the number of tissues in which they cause cancer. Together, these results support the significant association of topological parameters like the Degree with the influential role of a driver gene in cancer.Usando a noção de mĂłdulos de doença, a medicina de redes identificou eficazmente nos Ășltimos anos genes associados a doenças. Nas redes biolĂłgicas, os genes ligados a uma determinada doença tendem a interagir proximamente [1] . Essas redes permitem que conexĂ”es fĂ­sicas e funcionais entre biomolĂ©culas sejam identificadas, resultando num mapa de componentes celulares e processos que constituem sistemas biolĂłgicos [2]. Nem todos os genes associados Ă  doença, no entanto, tĂȘm um grande impacto no fenĂłtipo da doença. A descoberta de genes importantes capazes de produzir ou alterar o fenĂłtipo da doença abre caminho para novas terapias e uma estratĂ©gia de medicina personalizada. Pesquisas recentes descobriram que as caracterĂ­sticas topolĂłgicas da rede biolĂłgica podem prever com precisĂŁo os efeitos de perturbação num modelo dinĂąmico do sistema com uma precisĂŁo de 65-80% [3, 4]. As redes biolĂłgicas diferem dependendo do tipo de tecido ou cĂ©lula estudado. Como resultado, as caracterĂ­sticas topolĂłgicas de cada gene e a capacidade de impactar o sistema podem ser alteradas [5]. O principal objetivo desta dissertação Ă© descobrir parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos de rede associados a genes promotores de cancro usando redes especĂ­ficas de tecido. Para conseguir isso, avaliamos as caracterĂ­sticas da rede local em torno de cada gene promotor em vĂĄrias redes especĂ­ficas de tecidos, incluindo tecidos afetados pela doença e outros onde a perturbação do gene nĂŁo tem efeito significativo. Deste modo, podemos identificar parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos e as caracterĂ­sticas que contribuem para o papel influente dos genes promotores do cancro. Para atingir os nossos objetivos, começåmos por construir e otimizar as nossas redes especĂ­ficas de tecidos. Cada rede especĂ­fica de tecido foi construĂ­da usando quatro bases de dados diferentes de interaçÔes proteĂ­na-proteĂ­na, vias de sinalização e fatores de transcrição. TentĂĄmos quatro mĂ©todos diferentes de construir as redes, incluindo o uso do filtro de nĂ­veis de expressĂŁo gĂ©nica acima de 0,1 e 5 transcritos por milhĂŁo em cada tecido. ConstruĂ­mos tambĂ©m uma matriz associando os genes promotores de cancro (retirados de uma base de dados online de genes promotores de cancro) aos tecidos onde provocam a doença. Cada gene promotor foi inserido em seis categorias diferentes de acordo com o nĂșmero de tecidos onde provocam cancro, sendo a categoria seis aquela que inclui os genes que provocam a doença em seis ou mais tecidos. Começåmos por comparar os valores dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos dos genes em tecidos onde estes provocam a doença versus os seus valores em tecidos onde nĂŁo a provocam. Esses valores tambĂ©m foram comparados com uma lista de genes associados ao cancro (retirados de uma base de dados online de genes associados a doenças), mas nĂŁo promotores de cancro, e uma lista de genes nĂŁo associados a nenhuma doença. Este estudo foi feito sobre os quatro diferentes mĂ©todos de construção de rede. ContinuĂĄmos o estudo observando como os parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos mostraram diferenças ao nĂ­vel do tecido. AnalisĂĄmos em cada tecido os valores dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos dos genes promotores que causam a doença num determinado tecido versus os valores dos genes que nĂŁo causam doença naquele tecido. Depois de comparar os valores dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos usando todos os genes promotores juntos num grupo global, querĂ­amos verificar se a diferença entre os valores destes nos tecidos onde causam cancro versus os valores nos tecidos onde nĂŁo provocam a doença, tambĂ©m estava presente dentro das categorias do nĂșmero de tecidos onde os genes promotores causam cancro e como esses valores aumentam ou diminuem ao longo dessas categorias. Avaliamos em seguida o impacto combinado dos valores dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos (selecionando o parĂąmetro topolĂłgico “Degree”) de genes promotores de cancro em tecidos onde causam doença versus onde nĂŁo causam e tambĂ©m a diferença entre estes ao longo das seis diferentes categorias de nĂșmero de tecidos onde provocam cancro, usando um Modelo Linear Generalizado (GLM) para avaliar a interação desses fatores. Da base de dados de onde retiramos a lista de genes promotores de cancro, tambĂ©m retiramos uma lista de oncogenes e genes supressores de tumor que usĂĄmos para avaliar tambĂ©m as diferenças dos valores dos seus parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos nos tecidos onde causam cancro versus os tecidos onde nĂŁo causam. A fim de avaliar outras variĂĄveis que possam ter impacto para alĂ©m dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos e que possam tambĂ©m diferir dependendo do nĂșmero de tecidos onde os genes “drivers” causam a doença, usamos os dados da base de dados de onde retiramos os genes promotores que incluĂ­am informaçÔes sobre o nĂșmero de interaçÔes que cada gene promotor estabelece com diferentes miRNA e sobre o nĂșmero de complexos proteicos que estes genes integram. TambĂ©m avaliamos o impacto da expressĂŁo gĂ©nica nas diferentes categorias de nĂșmero de tecidos. Por fim, enriquecemos funcionalmente os genes promotores de cancro, usando dois mĂ©todos diferentes. No primeiro mĂ©todo usamos os genes que tinham uma diferença topolĂłgica maior (para este estudo usamos apenas o parĂąmetro topolĂłgico “Degree”) entre os tecidos onde causam ou nĂŁo cancro. Classificamos cada gene como positivo, negativo e nĂŁo significativo com base na diferença entre o valor mĂ©dio do “Degree” nos tecidos onde causam cancro versus o valor nos tecidos onde nĂŁo causam. O segundo mĂ©todo foi o enriquecimento dos diferentes genes promotores de cancro de acordo com o nĂșmero de tecidos que causam cancro. Fizemos esse estudo usando as diferentes categorias de nĂșmero de tecidos. Globalmente, os nossos resultados sugerem que os valores dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos (por exemplo, “Degree“ e “Closeness”) tendem a ser maiores nos tecidos em que os genes promoteres de cancro provocam a doença ( “Tissue Drivers”), seguidos pelos valores dos genes de cancro que sĂŁo nĂŁo promotores de cancro mas estĂŁo associados ao desenvolvimento da doença (“Disease Genes”), os valores dos genes promotores de cancro nos tecidos onde nĂŁo causam cancro (“NonTissueDrivers”) e por Ășltimo, com os menores valores de parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos, os genes que nĂŁo estĂŁo associados a qualquer doença. A diferença entre os valores dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos nos “TissueDrivers” versus “NonTissueDrivers” Ă© estatisticamente significativa na maioria dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos testados e nos diferentes mĂ©todos de rede utilizados, exceto no mĂ©todo “JustHuRiTPM5Zminmax” (usando apenas a base de dados Huri). Quando analisĂĄmos em cada tecido os valores dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos, pudemos ver que os valores de “Degree” tendem a ser maiores nos genes promotores de cancro que causam cancro naquele tecido em comparação com os genes promotores que nĂŁo provocam cancro nesse tecido. Essa diferença Ă© estatisticamente significativa em muitos dos tecidos analisados. Em relação a como os valores dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos se comportam ao longo das diferentes categorias associadas ao nĂșmero de tecidos em que os genes promotores causam cancro, descobrimos que nos genes promotores de cancro que causam doença em apenas em um e dois tecidos, o valor do “Degree” nos tecidos onde causam cancro Ă© menor que o valor apresentado nos tecidos onde nĂŁo causam cancro. Observamos a tendĂȘncia inversa nos genes promotores que causam cancro em seis ou mais tecidos (o valor do “Degree” Ă© maior nos tecidos onde causam cancro). Observamos tambĂ©m que o valor do “Degree” aumenta gradativamente ao longo do nĂșmero da categoria de tecidos, atingindo o valor mais alto na categoria seis (constituĂ­da por genes promotores que provocam cancro em seis ou mais tecidos). No modelo linear generalizado (GLM), pudemos ver o efeito combinado da variĂĄvel tipo de tecido (onde o gene promotor provoca ou nĂŁo cancro, mostrando uma diferença estatisticamente significativa entre estas duas situaçÔes) e da variĂĄvel nĂșmero de tecidos onde os genes promotores provocam cancro (mostrando tambĂ©m uma valor estatisticamente significativo entre as diferentes categorias). A interação entre esses dois fatores tambĂ©m foi estatisticamente significativa. TambĂ©m pudemos observar valores de “Degree” estatisticamente diferentes entre os genes promotores supressores de tumor nos tecidos que causam cancro (com valores mais altos) e os valores nos tecidos onde nĂŁo causam. Vimos tambĂ©m a mesma diferença nos Oncogenes, mas com menor significĂąncia. Os valores do “Degree” nos genes Supressores de Tumores foram inferiores aos valores do “Degree” apresentados pelos Oncogenes. Pudemos igualmente ver uma clara tendĂȘncia de correlação entre o aumento do nĂșmero de tecidos com o aumento do nĂșmero de complexos que os genes promotores de cancro integram. O mesmo comportamento foi observado em relação ao nĂșmero de miRNAs com os quais os genes promotores interagem. Em relação Ă  expressĂŁo do mRNA ao longo das categorias de nĂșmero de tecidos, pudemos ver uma diferença estatisticamente significativa nas categorias dois e trĂȘs entre os valores dos genes promotores(em relação ao parĂąmetro topolĂłgico “Degree”) nos tecidos onde causam cancro versus onde nĂŁo causam. Finalmente, no estudo de enriquecimento de funçÔes pudemos ver que os processos biolĂłgicos, funçÔes moleculares e componentes celulares que obtivemos enriquecidos usando o mĂ©todo das diferentes categorias de nĂșmero de tecidos estĂŁo muito mais relacionados com os processos de cancro baseados na literatura (“hallmarks of cancer”). NĂŁo conseguimos encontrar uma divisĂŁo muito clara entre funçÔes biolĂłgicas enriquecidas que tiveram uma diferença de z-score do “Degree” acima de 1 e aqueles com diferença abaixo de -1. NĂŁo encontramos nenhum processo de enriquecimento funcional relevante em nenhum desses dois grupos de genes e que de alguma forma os pudesse distinguir entre si. Os resultados desta dissertação apontam para que vĂĄrios parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos possam estar associados a genes promotores de cancro. VerificĂĄmos que estes genes tĂȘm valores de parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos, como o Degree ou Closeness, mais elevados nos tecidos onde tendencionalmente provocam cancro. VerificĂĄmos tambĂ©m que esta diferença estĂĄ presente nos oncogenes e nos genes supressores de tumor. Outro fator que verificamos influenciar o valor dos parĂąmetros topolĂłgicos, Ă© o nĂșmero de tecidos em que estes genes provocam a doença. HĂĄ uma tendĂȘncia crescente do valor topolĂłgico com um nĂșmero de tecidos em que provocam cancro

    Forms of retreat and return in the novels of Don Delillo

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    This thesis explores themes of retreat and return within the novels of the contemporary American author Don DeLillo. While several of these forms of retreat and return are well-documented in the established body of academic work devoted to DeLillo’s major novels of the 1980s and 1990s, there has been less attention paid to their prominence within his earlier writing. This thesis moves away from existing academic readings of the author’s work as either being defined by a three-part structure, or being categorized into two canonical and precanonical phases, to assess DeLillo’s work as one body. Within this more holistic view of DeLillo’s writing, ideas of retreat and return can be seen as a uniting authorial concern that runs throughout his novels, from the earliest to the most recent. Throughout the decades in which DeLillo has been recognised as one of the ‘great’ figures in American fiction, his work has featured many expressions of a fixation on forms of personal retreat. Characters in his work repeatedly withdraw from society through physical exile, self-sabotage, fasts, and periods of silence, in retreats influenced by secularised, and often vague, spiritual and religious antecedents. These forms of retreat are often followed by some form of elective or passive return, either physical or spiritual, so that a kind of ebb and flow of retreat and return becomes visible when DeLillo’s novels are viewed as a complete body of work. Alongside instances of characters enacting this ebb and flow, DeLillo’s work has dramatized an engagement with society and history within a context of diminished objectivity. His historiographic work explores a retreat from historical certainty following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This exploration is achieved in part through the fictional rendering of historical figures and events. In his most recent work, DeLillo appears to have enacted his own retreat from the title of ‘great American author’, while returning to some of the figures and fixations of his early publications. Images of ghosts and haunting become increasingly important within this simultaneous retreat and return, as DeLillo’s novels continue to be haunted by events from American history and figures and ideas from his own work. Finally, DeLillo imagines a near-future in which notions of objectivity appear to have retreated altogether, and in which individual characters retreat into a haunted state of contingency and uncertainty, which nevertheless implies the lasting possibility of return
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