Six English novels adapted for the cinema

This study examines the film adaptations of six English novels; Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Tess, Jude, A Room with a View and A Passage to India. Through textual analysis of both the films and the original novels it demonstrates that many of the changes which occur in the transition between media are explicable in terms of differences between film and literary genres. Most previous writing on adaptation has tended to explain such changes as a consequence of film and literature having different signifying or expressive capacities. Whilst this study does not argue that literary styles and devices have necessary or inevitable equivalents in film form, it does propose that filmmakers can find satisfying and comprehensible correlatives for written idioms, and that differences between novels and their adaptations are not therefore always best understood as arising from failures in the mechanics of translation. In its consideration of what each film alters and omits this study finds compelling evidence that they are reshaped in particularly genre-related ways. This takes the form both of alterations that place an adaptation more comfortably in a particular fihn genre than the original story materials might allow, and changes which diminish or elide the operation of a literary genre to which the original novel belongs or relates. Sense and Sensibility, Emma and A Room with a View are discussed in terms of how they become romantic comedies, while the Hardy adaptations are the occasion of most of the original melodrama being omitted. Other genres and modes which pose problems and questions in adaptation - including tragedy, the didactic and the modern - are also examined. Additionally, this study will consider the political contexts and conditions of production of the novels and their adaptations as well as examining the extent to which the films may be said to be authored

From <i>Wessex Poems</i> to <i>Time's Laughingstocks</i> : An eco-critical approach to the poetry of Thomas Hardy

The aim of this thesis is to re-evaluate the poetry of Thomas Hardy from an ecocritical perspective, and in so doing, show how and in what ways Hardy's poetic oeuvre represents a revealing response to the environment, and an important and still relevant comment on humankind's relationship to it. As the Introduction explains in more detail, the thesis concentrates on the verse drama and verse collections published between 1898 and 1909. However, Chapter 1 opens with an eco-critical analysis of Hardy's earliest surviving poem, 'Domicilium', written 1857-60; the Chapter develops into a discussion of the origins of eco-criticism as a theoretical approach with a political edge. Chapter 2 discusses the complex Victorian concept of 'Nature', which shaped Hardy's own response to the environment. Chapter 3 engages with Hardy's career as a novel writer, and notes the way in which it informs his later poetry. Chapter 4 extends the eco-critical analysis to Hardy's poetry, focusing on Wessex Poems, his first verse collection. Although short, the collection shows how Hardy was already shaping his own poetic sense of the natural world. This theme is developed in Chapter 5, on Poems of the Past and Present, a collection notable for a series of poems with a bio-centric focus on the natural world in general and bird life in particular. Chapter 6 deals with The Dynasts, a retelling of the Napoleonic Wars through which Hardy dramatized his belief that all life on earth is connected by the workings of the 'Immanent Will'. Chapter 7 discusses Time's Laughingstocks, Hardy's bleakest reading of the human condition. The Conclusion analyses another individual poem, 'The Convergence of the Twain', written following the loss of the Titanic in 1912, and summarises Hardy's distinctive contribution to our emerging sense of what might constitute a meaningful 'eco-poetic'

Universe in a glass of iced-water. Exploration in off-the-wall physics

Various exploration in astrophysics has revealed many breakthroughs nowadays, not only with respect to James Webb Telescope, but also recent finding related to water and ice deposits in the Moon surface. Those new findings seem to bring us to new questions related to origin of Earth, Moon and the entire Universe

Quantum Communication, Sensing and Measurement in Space

The main theme of the conclusions drawn for classical communication systems operating at optical or higher frequencies is that there is a well‐understood performance gain in photon efficiency (bits/photon) and spectral efficiency (bits/s/Hz) by pursuing coherent‐state transmitters (classical ideal laser light) coupled with novel quantum receiver systems operating near the Holevo limit (e.g., joint detection receivers). However, recent research indicates that these receivers will require nonlinear and nonclassical optical processes and components at the receiver. Consequently, the implementation complexity of Holevo‐capacityapproaching receivers is not yet fully ascertained. Nonetheless, because the potential gain is significant (e.g., the projected photon efficiency and data rate of MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Lunar Lasercom Demonstration (LLCD) could be achieved with a factor‐of‐20 reduction in the modulation bandwidth requirement), focused research activities on ground‐receiver architectures that approach the Holevo limit in space‐communication links would be beneficial. The potential gains resulting from quantum‐enhanced sensing systems in space applications have not been laid out as concretely as some of the other areas addressed in our study. In particular, while the study period has produced several interesting high‐risk and high‐payoff avenues of research, more detailed seedlinglevel investigations are required to fully delineate the potential return relative to the state‐of‐the‐art. Two prominent examples are (1) improvements to pointing, acquisition and tracking systems (e.g., for optical communication systems) by way of quantum measurements, and (2) possible weak‐valued measurement techniques to attain high‐accuracy sensing systems for in situ or remote‐sensing instruments. While these concepts are technically sound and have very promising bench‐top demonstrations in a lab environment, they are not mature enough to realistically evaluate their performance in a space‐based application. Therefore, it is recommended that future work follow small focused efforts towards incorporating practical constraints imposed by a space environment. The space platform has been well recognized as a nearly ideal environment for some of the most precise tests of fundamental physics, and the ensuing potential of scientific advances enabled by quantum technologies is evident in our report. For example, an exciting concept that has emerged for gravity‐wave detection is that the intermediate frequency band spanning 0.01 to 10 Hz—which is inaccessible from the ground—could be accessed at unprecedented sensitivity with a space‐based interferometer that uses shorter arms relative to state‐of‐the‐art to keep the diffraction losses low, and employs frequency‐dependent squeezed light to surpass the standard quantum limit sensitivity. This offers the potential to open up a new window into the universe, revealing the behavior of compact astrophysical objects and pulsars. As another set of examples, research accomplishments in the atomic and optics fields in recent years have ushered in a number of novel clocks and sensors that can achieve unprecedented measurement precisions. These emerging technologies promise new possibilities in fundamental physics, examples of which are tests of relativistic gravity theory, universality of free fall, frame‐dragging precession, the gravitational inverse‐square law at micron scale, and new ways of gravitational wave detection with atomic inertial sensors. While the relevant technologies and their discovery potentials have been well demonstrated on the ground, there exists a large gap to space‐based systems. To bridge this gap and to advance fundamental‐physics exploration in space, focused investments that further mature promising technologies, such as space‐based atomic clocks and quantum sensors based on atom‐wave interferometers, are recommended. Bringing a group of experts from diverse technical backgrounds together in a productive interactive environment spurred some unanticipated innovative concepts. One promising concept is the possibility of utilizing a space‐based interferometer as a frequency reference for terrestrial precision measurements. Space‐based gravitational wave detectors depend on extraordinarily low noise in the separation between spacecraft, resulting in an ultra‐stable frequency reference that is several orders of magnitude better than the state of the art of frequency references using terrestrial technology. The next steps in developing this promising new concept are simulations and measurement of atmospheric effects that may limit performance due to non‐reciprocal phase fluctuations. In summary, this report covers a broad spectrum of possible new opportunities in space science, as well as enhancements in the performance of communication and sensing technologies, based on observing, manipulating and exploiting the quantum‐mechanical nature of our universe. In our study we identified a range of exciting new opportunities to capture the revolutionary capabilities resulting from quantum enhancements. We believe that pursuing these opportunities has the potential to positively impact the NASA mission in both the near term and in the long term. In this report we lay out the research and development paths that we believe are necessary to realize these opportunities and capitalize on the gains quantum technologies can offer

Quantum nonlocality, cryptography and complexity

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Breaking the rules: Teaching and learning writing in the high school

This dissertation explores the development of student- and process-centered writing classrooms within the context of a traditionally structured, curriculum-centered high school. The focus of the study is on how teachers and students experience and address contradictions between assumptions implicit in writing process pedagogy and assumptions implicit in the structure and organization of the high school. An eight-month ethnography of two high school English classrooms, the study is a descriptive narrative of the classroom and school events punctuated by the reflective comments of teachers and students in intensive and extensive interviews. The classrooms are placed within the school, the teachers within their lives, the school within the community. The research findings suggest that teachers interested in teaching processes and in developing student-centered classrooms in the high school may be frustrated by institutional factors. These include time structures and curriculum fragmentation, authoritarian administrative models, attitudes toward work, and accountability and comparative evaluation measures, all of which assume transmission pedagogies. Students who have learned school appear not only to understand how school works, but also to be critically articulate about school success strategies and procedures that trivialize learning. Teachers and students address these frustrations by bringing their own lives into the classroom, by talking about their intentions for their classrooms, by negotiating curriculum and evaluation. Thus they begin to change the institution. Finally, change itself--personal, professional, and organizational--is explored as an organic process, taking place from the inside out

Historical social research: the use of historical and process-produced data

Die Entwicklung einer quantitativen Sozialgeschichtsschreibung verstärkt die interdisziplinären Beziehungen zwischen Geschichte, Soziologie, Politikwissenschaft und anderen Sozialwissenschaften. Diese verstärkte Kooperation und methodische Diskussion findet in dem Sammelband ihren Niederschlag. Behandelt werden (1) theoretische Überlegungen zum Problem einer quantifizierenden Geschichtswissenschaft; (2) Analysen von Volkszählungsdaten; (3) Analysen von kollektiven und individuellen Biographien; (4) Gehaltsanalysen von Dokumenten; (5) Periodisierungsprobleme; (6) Analysen des sozialen Netzwerks; (7) Probleme der offiziellen statistischen Daten; (8) Probleme der Datenorganisation; (9) neue Datenbanken und Projekte. (BG

Quantum Communication, Sensing and Measurement in Space

The main theme of the conclusions drawn for classical communication systems operating at optical or higher frequencies is that there is a well‐understood performance gain in photon efficiency (bits/photon) and spectral efficiency (bits/s/Hz) by pursuing coherent‐state transmitters (classical ideal laser light) coupled with novel quantum receiver systems operating near the Holevo limit (e.g., joint detection receivers). However, recent research indicates that these receivers will require nonlinear and nonclassical optical processes and components at the receiver. Consequently, the implementation complexity of Holevo‐capacityapproaching receivers is not yet fully ascertained. Nonetheless, because the potential gain is significant (e.g., the projected photon efficiency and data rate of MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Lunar Lasercom Demonstration (LLCD) could be achieved with a factor‐of‐20 reduction in the modulation bandwidth requirement), focused research activities on ground‐receiver architectures that approach the Holevo limit in space‐communication links would be beneficial. The potential gains resulting from quantum‐enhanced sensing systems in space applications have not been laid out as concretely as some of the other areas addressed in our study. In particular, while the study period has produced several interesting high‐risk and high‐payoff avenues of research, more detailed seedlinglevel investigations are required to fully delineate the potential return relative to the state‐of‐the‐art. Two prominent examples are (1) improvements to pointing, acquisition and tracking systems (e.g., for optical communication systems) by way of quantum measurements, and (2) possible weak‐valued measurement techniques to attain high‐accuracy sensing systems for in situ or remote‐sensing instruments. While these concepts are technically sound and have very promising bench‐top demonstrations in a lab environment, they are not mature enough to realistically evaluate their performance in a space‐based application. Therefore, it is recommended that future work follow small focused efforts towards incorporating practical constraints imposed by a space environment. The space platform has been well recognized as a nearly ideal environment for some of the most precise tests of fundamental physics, and the ensuing potential of scientific advances enabled by quantum technologies is evident in our report. For example, an exciting concept that has emerged for gravity‐wave detection is that the intermediate frequency band spanning 0.01 to 10 Hz—which is inaccessible from the ground—could be accessed at unprecedented sensitivity with a space‐based interferometer that uses shorter arms relative to state‐of‐the‐art to keep the diffraction losses low, and employs frequency‐dependent squeezed light to surpass the standard quantum limit sensitivity. This offers the potential to open up a new window into the universe, revealing the behavior of compact astrophysical objects and pulsars. As another set of examples, research accomplishments in the atomic and optics fields in recent years have ushered in a number of novel clocks and sensors that can achieve unprecedented measurement precisions. These emerging technologies promise new possibilities in fundamental physics, examples of which are tests of relativistic gravity theory, universality of free fall, frame‐dragging precession, the gravitational inverse‐square law at micron scale, and new ways of gravitational wave detection with atomic inertial sensors. While the relevant technologies and their discovery potentials have been well demonstrated on the ground, there exists a large gap to space‐based systems. To bridge this gap and to advance fundamental‐physics exploration in space, focused investments that further mature promising technologies, such as space‐based atomic clocks and quantum sensors based on atom‐wave interferometers, are recommended. Bringing a group of experts from diverse technical backgrounds together in a productive interactive environment spurred some unanticipated innovative concepts. One promising concept is the possibility of utilizing a space‐based interferometer as a frequency reference for terrestrial precision measurements. Space‐based gravitational wave detectors depend on extraordinarily low noise in the separation between spacecraft, resulting in an ultra‐stable frequency reference that is several orders of magnitude better than the state of the art of frequency references using terrestrial technology. The next steps in developing this promising new concept are simulations and measurement of atmospheric effects that may limit performance due to non‐reciprocal phase fluctuations. In summary, this report covers a broad spectrum of possible new opportunities in space science, as well as enhancements in the performance of communication and sensing technologies, based on observing, manipulating and exploiting the quantum‐mechanical nature of our universe. In our study we identified a range of exciting new opportunities to capture the revolutionary capabilities resulting from quantum enhancements. We believe that pursuing these opportunities has the potential to positively impact the NASA mission in both the near term and in the long term. In this report we lay out the research and development paths that we believe are necessary to realize these opportunities and capitalize on the gains quantum technologies can offer

Social investigation in rural England, 1870-1914

This thesis analyses the work of a large group of social investigators who were active in rural areas in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. It follows on from studies of the investigations of Charles Booth, Seebohm Rowntree, Henry Mayhew and others, and shows how the investigation of rural life proceeded on different lines from the urban social inquiry of the period. It is argued that the political and social conflicts between town and country, and within the rural community itself, shaped the activities of the investigators considered. The model of a conflict between the 'informant' approach (where trustworthy authorities were asked to comment on the condition of the agricultural labourer) and the 'respondent' approach (where the labourer was consulted at first hand) is used to illustrate the complexity of the structure or rural social inquiries of the period. It is shown that the kinds of information which could be obtained from the two approaches differed, and that the same event or condition could be reported on very differently from two conflicting points of view. This argument is taken a study further by an examination of another genre of writers on the agricultural labourer. It is argued that the social commentary, usually by resident investigators, which tended to be cultural rather than economic in character, was as much a part of the project of social investigation as was the large-scale official inquiry or social survey. Drawing on the work of the few historians who have seriously analysed this genre of writers in its urban context, the thesis applies an analysis of this form of investigation in rural areas. The perceived need to communicate with the rural poor on a deeper level was another aspect of the 'respondent' approach to investigation, and is as much a forerunner of modern sociological method as is the classic social survey. The thesis also shows how the representations of rural communities and of agricultural labourers in the texts of the period affected the practice of investigators, and argues that the notion of the countryside as a scene of social peace and a repository of racial hardihood caused them to approach the task of investigation with particular preconceptions which shaped their diagnoses of the problems of rural life

Wilderness and western society: the essential role of myth in a cultural contructivist approach

The relationship between western culture and nature has historically been one of conflict and domination. Western culture, specifically that which has arisen from Europe and the United States of America, has tended towards a rapacious and destructive approach to the natural world. It has been increasingly exported around the world economically, socially, industrially, and in a western view of nature and wilderness which has been increasingly predominant in the global arena. This study asserts that this worldview is largely responsible for what is clearly by now a global ecological crisis. Wilderness is the focus of this study as it is identified as being the fundamental basis of our understanding of nature in general. Wilderness is at the boundary of the interaction between humans and non-human nature. It is initially how we dissociated ourselves as social creatures from nature. It is therefore an appropriate framework to use in a discussion of our relationship with the natural world. This study examines the role that culture has played in constructing our understandings of and behaviour towards wilderness. As culture is highly complex, the search for a singular, universal disposition towards wilderness is inappropriate. The study claims that contemporary theories such as deep ecology, ecofeminism or social ecology do not take into account the full range of cultural influences in their explanation of a global ecological crisis, and that they tend towards the simplistic and prescriptive in their approach to possible solutions. Furthermore, this study claims that they neglect the mythic element of culture, which plays a central role in forming our conceptions of wilderness, and that we must address this mythic element if a more complete understanding of our behaviour is to be reached. To this end, the study uses the theory of cultural constructivism. A cultural element is essential in addressing the mythic; myth being interpreted as the social explanations of our experience of the natural world. A constructivist approach is equally essential in exploring the foundations of these social explanations. The case studies in this thesis are the United States and Britain. An examination of wilderness myths in these two countries focuses on artistic representations, including landscape art, literature, and film. A range of responses towards wilderness is identified which has directly affected our modem perceptions of ecological problems. Individual cases are explored that demonstrate the cultural plurality and the complexity evident in the construction of myth. Such complexity means that there are plural cultural influences that affect our responses and guide our decision making processes. This study claims that the acknowledgement of a cultural plurality and complexity suggested by a cultural constructivist approach has the potential to guide societies towards more measured and inclusive decision making processes. These processes, it is hoped, can more fully recognise the range of considerations we must make, a range that will include the ecological health of the world. The study concludes that only by acknowledging a wider range of influences that include a consideration of the mythic can a more inclusive standpoint be adopted. This is essential to ensure that decision making processes have social and cultural resonance and relevance within their host cultures, and, it is hoped, lead towards ecological sustainability for our collective futures