Binarism and indeterminacy in the novels of Thomas Pynchor

Bibliography: pages 397-401.I attempt in this thesis, to graft together a close critical, and predominantly thematic, reading of Thomas Pynchon's novels with selected issues treated in the work of Jacques Derrida on philosophy and textuality, illustrating how this work demands the revision and interrogation of several major critical issues, concepts, dualisms and presuppositions. The thesis consists of an Introduction which sets forth a brief rationale for the graft described above, followed by a short and unavoidably inadequate synopsis of Derrida's work with a brief review and explication of those of his 'concepts' which play an important role in my reading of Pynchon's texts. The Introduction is succeeded by three lengthy chapters in which I discuss, more or less separately, each of Pynchon's three novels to date. These are V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49, (1966) and Gravity's Rainbow (1973), and I discuss them in the order of their appearance, devoting a chapter to each. I attempt to treat different but related issues, preoccupations, themes and tropes in each of the novels to avoid repeating myself, engaging the apparatuses derived from Derrida's writing where deemed strategic and instructive. I suggest moreover, that several of the issues examined apropos the novel under consideration in any one chapter apply mutandis rnutandi to the other novels. Each chapter therefore to some extent conducts a reading of the novels which it does not treat directly. Finally, supervising these separate chapters is a sustained focus on the epistemology of binarism and digitalism, and the conceptual dualisms which structure and inform major portions of the thematic and rhetorical dimensions The thesis concludes with a Bibliography and a summary Epilogue which seeks to assess briefly the 'achievement' of Pynchon's writing

Plutarch and the Persians

This paper deals with the image of Persia and the Persians in the works of Plutarch of Chaeronea (c. 45–c. 120 AD), in both his Moralia and Lives. It explores this theme under several headings: Plutarch as: (a) a Greek Imperial author, (b) an author dealing with historical subjects, (c) a biographer, (d) a moralist, and (e) a philosopher and an essayist concerned with religious themes

Russia's New Authoritarianism

Studies the transformation of Russian domestic politics and foreign policy under Vladimir Putin Asks what kind of political system ‘Putinism’ denotes Engages with the scholarly and policy debate on the growth of illiberal politics and authoritarianism globally in the post-Soviet space and in countries as diverse as Hungary, Egypt, Turkey and the Philippines Uses contemporary case studies – including Russia’s legal system, the annexation of Crimea and Russian policy in Syria – to critically examine Russia’s political ideology Why did Russia’s post-Soviet political system developed into a new form of authoritarianism? And how did its foreign policy came to pose such a profound challenge to the West? David G. Lewis goes beyond current polemical debates to address these questions. Lewis investigates the Russian understanding of key concepts such as sovereignty, democracy and political community. He analyses the Russian political system as a novel form of authoritarian political order, unpacking the ideological paradigm that underpins it. He reveals that Russia's new order is characterised by the consolidation of political and economic power around a sovereign leader, together with a willingness to take political decisions outside the law both at home and in international affairs

Tapestry of Russian Christianity: Studies in History and Culture

Tapestry of Russian Christianity: Studies in History and Culture. Nickolas Lupinin, Donald Ostrowski and Jennifer B. Spock, eds. Columbus, Ohio: Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures and the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies, The Ohio State University, 2016.https://encompass.eku.edu/fs_books/1008/thumbnail.jp

The Theology of Ritual and the Russian Old Rite: 'The Art of Christian Living'

This thesis is a study of the theology of ritual in the Russian Old Rite; in the characteristic worship and piety of the Russian Church prior to the Nikonian reforms in the mid-seventeenth century which led to the Great Schism in the Russian Church. In the context of the lifting of the anathemas against the Old Rite by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1971, this thesis sets out from the premise of the wholly Orthodox and salvific nature of the pre-Nikonian ritual and rite. It focusses on rite as not merely a specific mode of worship, but as a whole way of life, an existential-experiential phenomena, and it examines the notion of the ‘art of Christian living’ and the role of the rhythm of the ritual order in the synergistic striving for salvation. It argues that the ritualised and ordered Orthopraxis of the Old Rite represents, in principle, a translation of the notion of typikon or ustav into the life of the laity, and constitutes a hierotopic creativity with a distinctly salvific goal on both the collective and personal levels. Herein ritual is examined as an iconic mode which recapitulates, in its own fashion, the theological premises of the icon, furnishing a mode of ritual iconicity which can contribute to theosis - an argument related to the participatory nature of symbols. This thesis therefore relates ritual to iconicity and symbolicity and, more broadly, to the theology of image in its anthropological dimensions. In the context of the notion of iconicity, ritual is seen as a performative mode which facilitates an inspiriting of embodied action, thus ritual is looked at in a pneumatological way. Through these arguments this thesis contributes to contemporary understandings of the Russian Old Rite and Old Belief and, more generally, to the Orthodox theology of ritual

The Ambivalence of Science Fiction: Science Fiction, Neo-imperialism, and the Ideology of Modernity as Progress

This thesis sets out to examine the relationship between science fiction and its conditions of production, specifically interrogating the genre\u27s articulations of the ideology of modernity as progress. Sf has been characterized variously as a characteristically useful critical engagement with the ideologies of its context and as wholly ideological at the level of form, relying on the authority of a scientific episteme in its cognitive estrangements, while not obligated to operate within the boundaries of this episteme. As such, the genre is unparalleled in its capacity to articulate ideologies under the guise of a putatively neutral science and reason. However, this same formal action places the genre in the unique position of being able to utilize the authority of a scientific episteme to re-evaluate the putative neutrality of that very scientific episteme. As a result, this study concludes that while the genre\u27s reliance on the external authority of science in cognitively organizing its estrangements may make it particularly conducive to articulating ideological technoscience and the ideology of modernity as progress, the genre is characteristically ambivalent in this respect, both at the level of form and as a result of the incongruities between form and narrative. To support my thesis I engage a number of science fictional texts, focusing on Golden Age sf of the mid-20th century, while also branching out into explorations of a variety of 20th and 21st century sf texts, including texts from the pulp era, New Wave, cyberpunk, and post-singularity sf. I analyze within the effects of the conceptual mapping of society in terms of the natural sciences in sf, as well as the ambivalent presence of the robot as a megatextual motif, exploring the relationship of these to the ideology of modernity as progress and the post-scarcity fantasy of global mass consumption prosperity

The Economic Ethics of World Religions and their Laws

Based on analyses of the essays written by Max Weber on China, India, ancient Judaism and also on the dispersed material about Islam, Eastern Christianity and Occidental Christianity, this book examines the economic ethics of Asian and Christian traditions and their corresponding legal systems. Drawing also on Weber's methodology (particularly the concept of adequate causation), the author reveals that the nature of Asian religions as well as the nature of customary and other not formally rational laws in Asian cultures could not lead to modern capitalism out of their own sources, although capitalism could be adopted from the outside. The culture of the Occident, upon which capitalism is based, is revealed to consist of a double rationalisation: the formal rationality of the exterior circumstances of life (administrative and legal) and the innerworldly practical rationality of the inner motivations of the Protestants, supported by a goal-oriented rational technology

Configurations of imperialism and their displacements in the novels of Joseph Conrad.

PhDThis thesis examines certain configurations of imperialism and their displacements in the novels of Joseph Conrad beginning from the premise that imperialism is rationalised through a dualistic model of self/"other" and functions as a hierarchy of domination/subordination. In chapters one and two it argues that both Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim configure this model of imperialism as a split between Europe/not-Europe. The third and fourth chapters consider displacements of this model: onto a split within Europe and an act of "internal" imperialism in Under Western Eyes and onto unequal gender relations in the public and private spheres in Chance. Each chapter provides a reading of the selected novel in relation to one or more contemporary (or near contemporary) primary source and analyses these texts using various strands of cultural theory. Chapter one, on Heart of Darkness, investigates the historical background to British imperialism by focusing on the textual production of history in a variety of written forms which comprise the diary, travel writing, government report, fiction. It considers how versions of (imperial) history/knowledge are constructed through the writing up of experience. In chapter two, on Lord Jim, the hero figure is analysed as a product of the imperial ideology and the protagonist's failure is explored through the application of evolutionary theory. Chapters three and four, on Under Western Eyes and Chance, investigate displacements of the imperial model: the failure of an "enlightened" Western Europe to challenge Russian imperialism in Poland forms the basis for reading Under Western Eyes with Rousseau's writings and a nineteenth-century history of the French Revolution. Chance presents a further displacement of this model in its relocation of imperialist imperatives in the sexual/gender inequalities practised in the "mother" country

Madness in Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature: Identity, Self and Other

This thesis explores the connection between madness and identity in nineteenth-century Russian literature, with significant focus on works by Dostoevskii, Tolstoi, Gogol’ and Pushkin. Proposing personhood as comprised of the personal and the social, I argue that discrepancies between these two halves – relating to different types of breakdown in social relations – engender madness in Russian literary works. Analysing a range of characters through the lens of a variety of identity theories, I argue that duality is projected in three dimensions in these texts. Personal and social selves are opposed in the formation of identity, as are the real and imaginary in the construction of fictional worlds. The duality of sanity and madness straddles both to create an interdependence of self and other across the three spheres. Examining different types of ‘madness’, including clinical disorders such as mania and spiritual concepts such as holy folly, I argue that the fluidity of insanity in literary protagonists means it can be viewed as a non-alignment with the social other on any plane. I aim to answer the questions of how a disparity between perceptions of reality leads to a definition of madness, and the significance of the role the other plays in the categorisation of ‘the mad’ and ‘the sane’. This thesis is divided into three main parts, assessing the mad individual in relation to: social system, society, and individuals. The first examines mania and St Petersburg’s social hierarchy, demonstrating how relational identities create a desire for power, and how idealised selves distance an individual from reality. The second addresses group mindsets to explore how fluid definitions of madness are determined according to the social environment within the spheres of the provinces and holy folly. The third investigates epilepsy and depression, highlighting the importance of a loving relationship and morality for sanity

The Economic Ethics of World Religions and their Laws

Based on analyses of the essays written by Max Weber on China, India, ancient Judaism and also on the dispersed material about Islam, Eastern Christianity and Occidental Christianity, this book examines the economic ethics of Asian and Christian traditions and their corresponding legal systems. Drawing also on Weber's methodology (particularly the concept of adequate causation), the author reveals that the nature of Asian religions as well as the nature of customary and other not formally rational laws in Asian cultures could not lead to modern capitalism out of their own sources, although capitalism could be adopted from the outside. The culture of the Occident, upon which capitalism is based, is revealed to consist of a double rationalisation: the formal rationality of the exterior circumstances of life (administrative and legal) and the innerworldly practical rationality of the inner motivations of the Protestants, supported by a goal-oriented rational technology