The short works of Donald Barthelme.

It would seem most useful to read Barthelme's literature as both comment on and instance of the generic evolution in fiction during the past two decades. Reading the non-fiction parodies first enables us to recognize and reject outmoded conventions cast off by writers during the 1960's. Since the parodies depend upon the familiarity of their content for success, they clearly move the reader through generic transition from the "literature of exhaustion" to "literary disruptions." With a knowledge of the social and artistic backdrop that prompted fictionists to explore new literary structures, the reader is then prepared to see how linear plot is displaced by a spatially designed text, how character is displaced by a grammatical presence without a history, and how narrative viewpoint is fragmented through the prismatic structures of a collage format. Finally, an understanding of the inventive structures of Barthelme's texts becomes the foundation for discovering how aural and visual associations play across the spaces of the intermedia compositions, arranged in increasing complexity of their designs.Guided by this systematic approach, as well as by authorial comments in books, essays, interviews, and sound recordings, Barthelme's audience may easily adapt to its new role as reader/critic, whether it is playing within the shifting perimeters of Barthelme's works or the broader scope of contemporary fiction.Since the early 1970's, Donald Barthelme has been acknowledged as a forerunner among a maverick breed of "disruptive" American writers, whose innovative techniques have renewed the life of fiction. However, critical response to this renaissance has been somewhat misleading. Heralded by its enthusiasts upon the so-called death of the novel, the advent of "new fiction" gives the impression that the shift from "literature of exhaustion" to "literary disruptions" occurred abruptly. Moreover, critics, either unable or unwilling to discuss variety in technique, have attempted to embrace all disruptive works as "experimental" fiction or as offshoots of an emerging subgenre. Such hypotheses, taken without the previous decade's literary backdrop, somewhat distort the evolution of fiction as a whole and, more particularly, the processes of construction among Barthelme's short works--non-fiction parodies, inventive fictions, and intermedia compositions

The Image of Africa in Ghana’s Press

"The Image of Africa in Ghana’s Press is a comprehensive and highly analytical study of the impact of foreign news organisations on the creation of an image of Africa in its own press. Identifying a problematic focus on the Western media in previous studies of the African media image, Serwornoo uses the Ghanaian press as a case study to explore the effects of centuries of Afro-pessimistic discourse in the foreign press on the continent’s self-description. This study brings together a number of theoretical approaches, including newsworthiness, intermedia agenda setting, postcolonial theory and the hierarchy of influences, to question the processes underpinning the creation of media content. It is particularly innovative in its application of the methodological frameworks of ethnographic content analysis and ethnographic interview techniques to unveil the perspectives of journalists and editors. The Image of Africa in Ghana’s Press presents a vital contribution of the highest academic standard to the growing literature surrounding Afro-pessimism and postcolonial studies. It will be of great value to scientists in the field of journalism studies, as well as researchers interested in the merging of journalism research, postcolonial studies, and ethnography.

Communicative Language Teaching to develop oral production on intermediate level students at Sucre Language Institute in Quito

To determine the efficiency of using the Communicative Language Teaching activities in the development of oral production on intermediate-level students at Sucre Language Institute of Quito in the academic year 2021- 2022.Desarrollar las destrezas adecuadas del habla inglesa se ha vuelto fundamental para enfrentar este mundo globalizado, siendo el idioma inglés fundamental en cualquier ámbito. Por ello, el presente estudio de investigación se centró en determinar la eficiencia del uso de actividades comunicativas de Enseñanza de Lenguas en el desarrollo de la producción oral en estudiantes de nivel medio del Instituto Sucre. La muestra escogida por la investigadora fueron dos grupos de nivel B1 de 15 participantes cada uno, utilizando una metodología no probabilística. Un grupo fue el control y el otro fue el grupo experimental. Para la investigación se utilizó una metodología cualitativa y cuantitativa, basada en una investigación aplicada cuasiexperimental y descriptiva. Los datos cualitativos se obtuvieron a través de una entrevista con el docente, mientras que para los datos cuantitativos los instrumentos utilizados fueron una encuesta, un pretest y un post-test. Ambas pruebas evalúan el habla del estudiante antes y después del uso de las actividades CLT. El resultado del estudio demuestra una mejora significativa en el desarrollo de la producción oral utilizando esta metodología.Maestrí

Management Information Sources and Corporate Intelligence Systems

In this book the word “intelligence” is used in several different contexts. Intelligence can refer to the process of gathering data; it can refer to the data itself; and it can refer to the application of knowledge to product useful information from the data. We will see in this chapter how the computer can be used in business to further all three aspects of intelligence: capturing the data, storing the data in an accessible form, and adding value to the data by transforming it into useful information for decision making. This chapter is organized according to these three areas of computer support for business intelligence: 1. Transaction processing and intelligence capture 2. Data-base management and intelligence storage and retrieval 3. Decision support systems and intelligence processing We provide an overview of the concepts in transaction processing, data-base management, and decision support systems. References are listed in each of these areas for further details. Our purpose is to provide the perspective for the executive to detenmne the use of these concepts for his or her company and to understand the choices open to him or her in today’s technology

The Image of Africa in Ghana’s Press

"The Image of Africa in Ghana’s Press is a comprehensive and highly analytical study of the impact of foreign news organisations on the creation of an image of Africa in its own press. Identifying a problematic focus on the Western media in previous studies of the African media image, Serwornoo uses the Ghanaian press as a case study to explore the effects of centuries of Afro-pessimistic discourse in the foreign press on the continent’s self-description. This study brings together a number of theoretical approaches, including newsworthiness, intermedia agenda setting, postcolonial theory and the hierarchy of influences, to question the processes underpinning the creation of media content. It is particularly innovative in its application of the methodological frameworks of ethnographic content analysis and ethnographic interview techniques to unveil the perspectives of journalists and editors. The Image of Africa in Ghana’s Press presents a vital contribution of the highest academic standard to the growing literature surrounding Afro-pessimism and postcolonial studies. It will be of great value to scientists in the field of journalism studies, as well as researchers interested in the merging of journalism research, postcolonial studies, and ethnography.

Making Speech-Matter: Recurring Mediations in Sound Poetics and its Contemporary Practice

This thesis produces a critical and creative space for new forms of sound poetics. Through a reflective process combining theoretical research and poetic practice – performances, text-scores and installations – the thesis tests the contemporary terms of intermedial poetics and sound poetry, establishing a conceptual terminology for speech-matter. Beginning with a study of 1960s sound poet Henri Chopin and his relation to the tape machine, I argue that this technological mediation was based on a poetics of analogue sound hinged on bodily engagement. Social and physical properties of the tape machine contribute to a mode of practice that negotiates the body, machine, and effort. Exploring Michel Serres’s concept of parasitic noise and the relation of interference to lyric appeal, via the work of Denise Riley and Hannah Weiner, I understand sound poetics as a product of lyrically active noise. Through an analysis of radio address, a conceptual link is drawn between lyric poetry and technological mediation, which posits the radiophonic as a material effect of transmission and also a mode of hailing. This is tested through sound poems that are investigative of distortion and echo. Addressing the conceptual limits of Intermedia, a new critical model is established for a poetics of sound operating in present-day media technologies. This alternative model, based on a concept of milieu, is a means of negotiating a poem’s materiality and context, in order to posit a work’s multiple connections and transmissions. This model is tested through the text and installation work of Caroline Bergvall, and subsequently realised in my own gallery installation that investigates links between sound, milieu and archive. Through this research into mediated speech, new platforms for intermedial sound poetics are produced. This project offers a model for practice-based research that produces knowledge of speech-matter by way of the ‘black box’ of poetic practice

Sound and Documentary in Cardiff and Miller's 'Pandemonium'

From 2005 to 2007, Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller automated a live performance of simple robots striking furniture detritus and pipes in the cells of Eastern State Penitentiary, a Philadelphia prison that once specialized in isolation and silence. Oscillating between referential and abstract sounds, 'Pandemonium' suspended percipients between narrative and noise. So far scholars have investigated only the work's narrative aspects. This projects examines Cardiff and Miller's specific use of percussive sounds to position 'Pandemonium' in dialogue with noise music, sound art, and documentary-related practices in contemporary art. 'Pandemonium''s representational sounds coalesced into a curious kind of concrete documentary that triggered a sense of radical proximity between the percipient's body and the resonant environment of Eastern State Penitentiary. In doing so, it explored the potential for sensory relations and collectivity in a complex, contemporary world

All We Are is All We Were: the Bridge and Blight of Sandwich Towne

In Windsor, Ontario there is a historic community known as Sandwich Towne that is currently being destroyed by a single man: Matty Moroun. He owns the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest border crossing in North America, as well as a stretch of more than 110 abandoned houses running parallel to the bridge. Moroun plans to knock houses down and building a second bridge to Detroit, despite the fact that the Canadian government is already building their own span. All We Are is All We Were: the Bridge and Blight of Sandwich Towne is a creative nonfiction exploration of this community stricken with urban blight. Through using a combination of prose and comics storytelling, the work not only serves to tell the tale of walking through and talking to residents in Sandwich, but also embodies the conflict between objective and subjective telling of “truth” in a work of creative nonfiction