5 research outputs found

    The archive on the hill : the Presidential Library and the architecture of American history

    Get PDF
    Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 545-560).Presidential libraries are not really about presidents. Rather, presidential libraries define publics through the transformation of American history into images and ideas. The presidential library is a uniquely American institution where national history plays out in a mitigated exchange between the representation of memory and the record of political action. On the one hand, the presidential library is a peculiar type of museum and a place of commemoration whose purpose is to perpetuate an often-mythic memory of a singular figure-offering simultaneously the image of an idealized leader and a model for citizenship. On the other hand, its history describes a tenuous accountability between the potentially critical archive and an elusive public. The presidential libraries project a prophecy of historical exceptionalism into the future through the deployment of objects, images, and documents. They reveal how history is used to define American identity, how institutions of stewardship control access and present meaning, and how the contested ownership of history's objects over time transforms ideas of democratic judgment. Therefore, this dissertation examines how the place of the museum and the archive as repositories of national identity, the role of records preservation as a necessary facet of public judgment, and the contentious representations of prophetic heroism in American memory are brought together in the presidential library.(cont.) From Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard M. Nixon and beyond, the records and artifacts of presidential intent and institutional practice have been forced over time into an unstable relationship between an obligation to public education as an essential feature of democratic idealism and a belief in the benevolent power of history to hold sway over a singular national future.by Patrick David Haughey.Ph.D

    Representation of the political in selected writings of Julio Cortázar

    Get PDF
    This thesis analyses the evolution of the representation of distinct political elements through Julio Cortázar’s writings, mainly with reference to the novels and the so-called collage books. I also allude to some short stories and refer to many of Cortázar’s nonliterary texts. Through this chosen corpus, I trace a thematic thread showing that politics was present in Cortázar’s fiction from his very first writings, and not – as he himself tended to claim – only following his conversion to socialism after a lifechanging trip to revolutionary Cuba. My analysis aims to show that in opposition to what many critics have argued, this crucial point in his life did not divide the writer into an irreconcilable before and after – the apolitical versus the political –, but rather, it simply shifted the emphasis of the representation of the political, which already existed in Cortázar’s writings. In order to trace this process, I carry out my analysis in chronological order, not of the publication of the works, but of the actual time when they were written. Therefore, in the first chapter, I look at some of the books written between 1948 and 1951, namely, Divertimento (1949), El examen (1950) and Diario de Andrés Fava (1951), focusing mainly on El examen; I then extend the analysis to Los premios (1960), written when Cortázar was already living in Paris. Chapter two focuses on Rayuela (1963) and the action/inaction dilemma as reflected in the novel’s protagonist. The third chapter considers a period of conflict for Cortázar, as he tries to come up with a way in which to write literature for the political revolution of Latin America, without compromising his belief in artistic freedom. To elucidate this phase, I analyse 62/modelo para armar (1968) on the one hand, and the collage books, La vuelta al día en ochenta mundos (1967) and Último Round (1969), on the other. My fourth and final chapter examines Libro de Manuel (1973), Cortázar’s explicit attempt to converge literature, politics and history, and assesses the results of this effort to merge art and politics, allegedly without making aesthetic concessions. Although there have been works analysing the political dimension of specific texts (particularly of his short stories), no study to date has analysed the evolution of the political element throughout Cortázar’s writings, from the first unpublished novels to his later more experimental works. The originality of my thesis lies in the tracing of this progression through an extensive analysis of these works. My examination is also original insofar as it refers to unpublished material – a selection of Cortázar’s manuscripts from Princeton University Library – to the most recent posthumous publications – such as Papeles inesperados (2009) – and to a series of personal interviews with Argentinian writers associated with Cortázar. This research therefore hopes to bring unique insight that will further the overall understanding of this major and influential writer of the twentieth century

    The Music Sound

    Get PDF
    A guide for music: compositions, events, forms, genres, groups, history, industry, instruments, language, live music, musicians, songs, musicology, techniques, terminology , theory, music video. Music is a human activity which involves structured and audible sounds, which is used for artistic or aesthetic, entertainment, or ceremonial purposes. The traditional or classical European aspects of music often listed are those elements given primacy in European-influenced classical music: melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color/timbre, and form. A more comprehensive list is given by stating the aspects of sound: pitch, timbre, loudness, and duration. Common terms used to discuss particular pieces include melody, which is a succession of notes heard as some sort of unit; chord, which is a simultaneity of notes heard as some sort of unit; chord progression, which is a succession of chords (simultaneity succession); harmony, which is the relationship between two or more pitches; counterpoint, which is the simultaneity and organization of different melodies; and rhythm, which is the organization of the durational aspects of music
    corecore