Academic Catalog: 2005-2006

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Academic Catalog Volume 17: 2002-03 to 2004-05

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Bergson, Eliot, and American Literature

Until now, Bergson\u27s widely acknowledged impact on American literature has never been comprehensively mapped. Author Paul Douglass explains and evaluates Bergson\u27s meaning for American writers, beginning with Eliot and moving through Ransom, Penn Warren, and Tate to Faulkner, Wallace Stevens, Henry Miller, William Carlos Williams, and others. It will be a standard point of reference. Bergson was the continental philosopher of the early 1900s, a celebrity, as Sartre would later be. Profoundly influential throughout Europe, and widely discussed in England and America in the Teens, Twenties, and Thirties, Bergson is now rarely read. His current obsolescence, Douglass argues, illuminates the Western shift from Modern to post- Modern. Ambitious in scope, this book remains admirably close to Bergson himself: what he said, where that fits in the historical context of philosophy, why his ideas moved across the Atlantic, and how he affected American writers. At the book\u27s heart are readings of Eliot\u27s criticism and poetry, analyses of Faulkner\u27s The Sound and the Fury and Light in August, and evaluations of Ransom\u27s, Tate\u27s and Penn Warren\u27s criticism. This impressively researched and beautifully written study will remain of lasting value to students of American literature. Paul Douglass is assistant professor of English literature at Mercer University in Atlanta. He is the author of articles on T.S. Eliot, Anthony Powell, Lord Byron, Modernism, and Organicism. Valuable for reopening the Bergson issue and for showing that many writers, Eliot especially, made use of Bergsonism long after they had publicly rejected it. —South Atlantic Reviewhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_north_america/1056/thumbnail.jp

Revolutionary Education: A Modern Synthesis of John Dewey\u27s Evolutionary Philosophy and Educational Theory

John Dewey was one of the first philosophers who intentionally used the principles of evolution to produce his perspective. He was also the foremost educational theorist of a generation. In both fields, he was a pragmatist, and he sought to lay waste to the dualisms that prevented progress. It is therefore ironic that he erected an artificial wall between the evolutionary thought that pervaded his writings on philosophy, psychology, and even art, and his works on education. I argue in this dissertation that the true power of Dewey would come through the synthesis of his evolutionary and educational thoughts. Using Dewey’s works and the trajectory of his career as a template, I identify three key problems in education that Dewey needed to solve for his vision of education to align with his evolutionary philosophy. The first problem is that of the separation between subject and method, the second is from where education’s direction should derive, and the third seeks to achieve balance between the concrete and abstract knowledge that is taught in the classroom. Following Dewey’s model of using various disciplines to inform his reasoning, I draw upon research in fields that include cognitive ethology, neuroscience, anthropology, and archaeology in my quest solve Dewey’s aforementioned problems. In the dissertation’s final chapter, I conclude that the vehicle for the success of Dewey’s evolutionary educational philosophy will be a classroom suffused with art and science, or more broadly, invention and inquiry. This conclusion aligns with some of the recent movements in education, and that provides me with hope. It is time for John Dewey to be revisited. We need the change in education to be not just about a revolution, but also about evolution

The Apothecary's Tales: a game of language in a language of games

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Creative Writing)The thesis shows how the novel The Apothecary's Tales manipulates narrative frames to create a 'simulachron', an unreliable virtual world, which problematises the reader's conceptions of the past. The novel transgresses the generic rules of 'historical fiction' to create a quality of 'historicity' located in the affect of alterity. This is argued to be a somatic response to peril deferred. The novel seeks to evoke alterity by defamiliarising linguistic norms. It does this principally through the use of 'diachronic polysemia' (lexical 'false friends') and intertexts to syncopate the reader continually between the disparate sensibilities of the 1ih and 21 st centuries. These sensibilities are simulated in the novel by the imbedment of sociolects and 'hypomemes', the tacit thoughtways supposed peculiar to a given milieu. To self-authenticate its fictions, the novel employs the 'parafictive' devices of a testamentary found artifact, an unreliable narrator and editor, plausible sociologuemes (social conventions) and ideologuemes (ideologies that inform behaviour), along with a density of period minutiae putatively grounded in the record. Any truth effects achieved are then ludically subverted by a process of critique in which structural units of the novel systematically parody the other. The novel is patterned in the structure of a nested diptych, of expositions contra posed in a mutual commentary, which extends from the defining templates of plot and episode to the micro levels of morphemes in polysemic wordplay. The tropes of nested framing and repetition of form and syntagm are defined in the thesis, respectively, as encubi/atio and 'emblematic resonance'. It is argued that these tropes, encoded in a fictive discourse that defies closure, provide a simulation of hermetic form that -when mapped upon the aleatory life world -can be productive of aesthetic affect. The agonistic elements of plot and incident in the novel are figured within the tapas of theatre, foregrounded by the duplicitous self-fashioning of the characters, and by the continual metaleptic shifts or 'frame syncopation' of narrative viewpoint, both intra and extra-diegetic. Frame syncopation is used advisedly to dilemmatise significations at both the structural and syntagmatic levels. The thesis contends that such contrived collisions of narrative interpretation may be the dynamic of affectivity in all aesthetic discourse

From the creative drive to the musical product : a psychoanalytic account of musical creativity

This thesis is the result of a life's work dedicated to re-introducing people of all ages to their inherent musicality which, more often than not, has been denied and invalidated by society's rigid adherence to the reified status of `creativity'. The main premise sine qua non is that creativity is no more, and no less, than the re-realization of things that already exist, and that it is indeed the ubiquitous mode of Eros itself (libidinal energy). In explaining the means whereby the existents of music per se are imprinted in the minds of us all, and then why only certain people choose to manipulate these existents into musical compositions, we proceed from the universal experience of intra-uterine life. The importance to us all of sound impingement upon the fetus is explained, for it is revealed to be foundational to the genesis of the Self. However, as each one of us has different sound-experiences, the affective reactions to those experiences inform our unconscious attitudes towards music. These are revealed in our projections into `the containing space of music'. Furthermore, it is posited that, in utero, not only are we initiated through sound-impingements into that which is dissonant to the Self (necessitating integration), but we also acquire three paradigmatic schemes of reference which thereafter inform all that we do. Our aesthetic sense is rooted here too, through tactility and even visibility. Choosing the mode d'emploi of musical composition is first dependent upon extrinsic environmental factors, but the imperative to compose arises intrinsically. The process though, is one available to us all, as we already possess the necessary mental function. This is explicated by Freud as the dream-work. The thesis culminates in a three-way synthesis predicated upon the dynamics of the transference and counter-transference, between the work that takes place in psychoanalysis, the tripartite teleology of a musical work from composer to performer and listener, and the musical structure known as sonata form. The first movement of Beethoven's third symphony, the Eroica is used as exemplar. ' Appendices are designed to accommodate information pertaining to both disciplines, while comments are to be understood as the opinions of no-one else but mysel

Ecological Analysis of Bisexual Identity and Health Access: An Interpretive Critical Inquiry

Ecological Analysis of Bisexual Identity and Health Access: An Interpretive Critical Inquiry (May 2019) This interpretive critical inquiry was aimed at coming to understand the experiences of self-identified bisexuals, and how bisexual health disparities occur due to misunderstandings of bisexual identity and institutional barriers that foster biphobia. This study was carried out in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Purposive sampling was used to select 36 self-identified bisexuals as study participants. The data collection included participant observations ethnographic interviews, focus groups, and document analyses and occurred over a 19-month period between January 2017 and July 2018. The focus groups and interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Lincoln and Guba’s approach to content analysis. Based on the themes and subthemes that emerged, the experiences of bisexual healthcare experiences seemed to yield positive self-image that is complicated by how society construes their sexuality. Overall, participants did experience different obstacles in accessing healthcare, there is a lack of bisexual social spaces to socialize, and face discrimination from both the heterosexual and homosexual communities. One key theme is how bisexual identity is often collapsed with other identities such as men who have sex with men (MSM) or women who have sex with women (WSW). Typically, within the academic literature bisexuality as an identity is synonymous with gay or lesbian identities. This folding of bisexuals into broader categories (MSM, gay, etc.) is based on sexual behavior rather than one’s sexual chosen identity. The majority of the participants appeared to be resilient and have a positive self-image of bisexuality. Many said their bisexuality is an important aspect of their social identity. Results indicate that when bisexuals seek medical care there is considerable variation in how they receive medical care. The conclusion includes implications for public health planning, community practitioners, and, state systems; recommendations for future research; and three working hypotheses

Order and the literary rendering of chaos : children's literature as knowledge, order, and social foundation

[À l'origine dans / Was originally part of : Thèses et mémoires - FAS - Département de littérature comparée]Depuis que l'animal humain a conçu un système de technologies pour la pensée abstraite grâce au langage, la guerre contre le monde sauvage est devenu une voie à sens unique vers l'aliénation, la civilisation et la littérature. Le but de ce travail est d'analyser comment les récits civilisationnels donnent une structure à l'expérience par le biais de la ségrégation, de la domestication, de la sélection, et de l'extermination, tandis que les récits sauvages démontrent les possibilités infinies du chaos pour découvrir le monde en toute sa diversité et en lien avec sa communauté de vie. Un des objectifs de cette thèse a été de combler le fossé entre la science et la littérature, et d'examiner l'interdépendance de la fiction et la réalité. Un autre objectif a été de mettre ces récits au cœur d'un dialogue les uns avec les autres, ainsi que de tracer leur expression dans les différentes disciplines et œuvres pour enfants et adultes mais également d’analyser leur manifestations c’est redondant dans la vie réelle. C'est un effort multi-disciplinaires qui se reflète dans la combinaison de méthodes de recherche en anthropologie et en études littéraires. Cette analyse compare et contraste trois livres de fiction pour enfants qui présentent trois différents paradigmes socio-économiques, à savoir, «Winnie-l'Ourson» de Milne qui met en place un monde civilisé monarcho-capitaliste, la trilogie de Nosov sur «les aventures de Neznaika et ses amis» qui présente les défis et les exploits d'une société anarcho-socialiste dans son évolution du primitivisme vers la technologie, et les livres de Moomines de Jansson, qui représentent le chaos, l'anarchie, et l'état sauvage qui contient tout, y compris des épisodes de civilisation. En axant la méthodologie de ma recherche sur la façon dont nous connaissons le monde, j'ai d'abord examiné la construction, la transmission et l'acquisition des connaissances, en particulier à travers la théorie de praxis de Bourdieu et la critique de la civilisation développée dans les études de Zerzan, Ong, et Goody sur les liens entre l'alphabétisation, la dette et l'oppression. Quant à la littérature pour enfants, j'ai choisi trois livres que j’ai connus pendant mon enfance, c'est-à-dire des livres qui sont devenus comme une «langue maternelle» pour moi. En ce sens, ce travail est aussi de «l’anthropologie du champ natif». En outre, j’analyse les prémisses sous-jacentes qui se trouvent non seulement dans les trois livres, mais dans le déroulement des récits de l'état sauvage et de la civilisation dans la vie réelle, des analyses qui paraissent dans cette thèse sous la forme d'extraits d’un journal ethnographique. De même que j’examine la nature de la littérature ainsi que des structures civilisées qui domestiquent le monde au moyen de menaces de mort, je trace aussi la présence de ces récits dans l'expression scientifique (le récit malthusien-darwinien), religieuse, et dans autres expressions culturelles, et réfléchis sur les défis présentés par la théorie anarchiste (Kropotkine) ainsi que par les livres pour enfants écrits du point de vue sauvage, tels que ceux des Moomines.Ever since the human animal devised a system of technologies for abstract thought through language, the war on wilderness has become a one way path towards alienation, civilisation and literature. In this work, I examine how the civilised narrative orders experience by means of segregation, domestication, breeding, and extermination; whereas, I argue that the stories and narratives of wilderness project chaos and infinite possibilities for experiencing the world through a diverse community of life. One of my goals in conducting this study on children's literature as knowledge, culture and social foundation has been to bridge the gap between science and literature and to examine the interconnectedness of fiction and reality as a two-way road. Another aim has been to engage these narratives in a dialogue with each other as I trace their expression in the various disciplines and books written for both children and adults as well as analyse the manifestation of fictional narratives in real life. This is both an inter- and multi-disciplinary endeavour that is reflected in the combination of research methods drawn from anthropology and literary studies as well as in the content that traces the narratives of order and chaos, or civilisation and wilderness, in children's literature and our world. I have chosen to compare and contrast three fictional children's books that offer three different real-world socio-economic paradigms, namely, A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh projecting a civilised monarcho-capitalist world, Nikolai Nosov's trilogy on The Adventures of Dunno and Friends as presenting the challenges and feats of an anarcho-socialist society in evolution from primitivism towards technology, and Tove Jansson's Moominbooks depicting chaos, anarchy, and wilderness that contain everything, including encounters with civilisation, but most of all an infinite love for the world. Stemming from the basic question in research methodology on how we know the world, I first examine the construction, transmission, and acquisition of knowledge, particularly through the lens of Bourdieu's theory of praxis, as well as the critique of language and literacy through Zerzan's, Ong's, and Goody's studies on the links between literacy, debt and oppression. Regarding children's literature depicting the three socio-economic paradigms, I chose three books with which I have been familiar since childhood, i.e. in whose narratives I have “native fluency” and, in this sense, this work is also about “anthropology at home”. Moreover, I compared and contrasted the underlying premises not only in the three books, but also with the unfolding narratives of wilderness and civilisation in real life, that I inserted in the form of ethnographic/journal entries throughout the dissertation. As I examine the very nature of literature, culture, and language and the civilised structures that domesticate the world through the threat of death and the expropriation of food, I also trace the presence of these narratives in the scientific (the Malthusian-Darwinian narrative), religious, and other cultural expressions and the challenges provided by anarchist science and theory (Kropotkin) as well as wild children's books such as Jansson's Moomintrolls