Dialogic and material influence on the formation of identity in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and Michael Cunningham's The Hours

2011 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway are texts that creatively and poignantly reveal how personal identity can be shaped. The construction of identity as portrayed in the characters of these novels goes beyond sexual orientation and constricted roles for women, two areas frequently highlighted in analyses of these books, to the essence of "being" and especially to how self or identity evolves in one's everyday place and time. The focal women in the books, though fictional creations, provide an opportunity to consider how identity evolves within particular ideological settings and how it is influenced by one's material, day-to-day circumstances and personal relationships. I examine identity formation as reflected in the protagonists with the ultimate goal of better understanding, as Bakhtin scholar Michael Holquist states well, "an activity in which we are all implicated. . . creating the ultimate act of authorship [that] results in the text which we call our self," (315). I draw upon the theories of Mikhail M. Bakhtin to apply his model of identity development and his thinking regarding how dialogics, language, ideology and a person's unique acts sculpt identity. My thesis emphasizes kairos, used here to indicate the particular time, place and socially charged environments in which each of the key female characters in Mrs. Dalloway and The Hours are portrayed. Not only do these texts mirror one another, they also keenly mirror human consciousness as it participates in forming personal identity. Applying a Bakhtinian critique to these novels illuminates the creation, sustainment and potential for change in individual identity, or in Bakhtin's words, "consciousness becoming." A Bakhtinian perspective also calls attention to the choices individuals make of their own accord and the responsibility created because of these choices. This is important in the academic setting today because increased awareness about how identity is formed, both by ideological influences and material reality, can contribute to individual empowerment and belief in the possibility of enacting change in self and in others

Beliefs, Behavior, and Being: A Cognitive-Behavioral Application for Corporate Chaplaincy

Karen Diefendorf, Director of Chaplains at Tyson Foods, shares her philosophy and approach to ministry as a business/industrial chaplain

Taking Back Sicily: The Antimafia Movement and its Counter-Hegemonic Attack on Cosa Nostra

This thesis utilizes Gramscian theory to explore the antimafia movement’s shift in tactics from the 1980s to present day. The movement that arose out of the violence of 1980s Sicily is hardly the same in nature as the contemporary movement. During the 1980s, the mafia was conceptualized mainly as a political problem requiring political solutions. When legislative reforms did not eradicate the mafia’s entrenched power, however, Cosa Nostra came to be perceived as a cultural phenomenon. In order to curb mafia power, therefore, the antimafia movement recognized the need to focus on society as the agent that could deliver Sicily into a new future. Using my own fieldwork from Sicily, it will be shown that the movement has changed its focus over time from state to society. Gramscian theory will be employed to argue that the antimafia movement is counter-hegemonic in nature, as it works to eliminate the physical and ideological domination Cosa Nostra has held over Sicilians for nearly 150 years. Moreover, Gramsci’s ideas will show why—when challenging hegemonic power—it is not enough for civil society to target the state for reform. Rather, the antimafia movement must engage in a deliberate and evolving attack on Cosa Nostra, working amongst society in order to redirect Sicily’s political, social, and economic trajectory that the mafia has dictated since the 1860s

From Penitence to Charity: The Practice of Piety in Counter-Reformation Paris

Barbara Diefendorf argues that Vincentian piety arose from the spirituality evoked by the late sixteenth century’s religious wars. These wars brought with them a fear of God’s judgment. This fear, coupled with disgust for the excesses of the unreformed Church, led to penitential piety, which emphasized extreme asceticism and Christ’s suffering on the cross. Later, there was a shift to the imitation of his life through service to the poor. Diefendorf examines female piety typified by Marie Du Drac and Barbe Aurillot, also known as Madame Acarie. Both practiced severe forms of mortification, nursed the poor, and worked in prisons. Both exemplified the political element of their era’s piety as ardent supporters of the Holy Union of the Catholic League, a Parisian faction prominent in the religious wars. The asceticism and influence of the Capuchin and Feuillant orders are discussed

Late-glacial to holocene climate variability in western Ireland

Increasing concerns over future anthropogenic effects on climate change as a result of increasing greenhouse gases generate concomitant efforts to better characterize recent climate in order to more accurately predict climate in the future. To this end, a multiproxy study of climate variability in western Ireland from lacustrine sediment was undertaken. The interpretation of paleoclimate records derived from lacustrine carbonate minerals is difficult without a good understanding of the mechanisms that generate variation in isotope values of modern surface waters. Variation in surface waters are ultimately incorporated into lacustrine sediment records conflated by temperature. Therefore, a study of the spatial distribution of ä18O and äD values of lake and river waters from 144 locations in Ireland has been conducted to provide insight into the behavior of lakes and rivers in Ireland, including source, recycling and loss through evapotranspiration. A 7.6 m sediment core was recovered from Lough Inchiquin that provides evidence for rapid and long-term climate change from the Late Glacial to the Holocene. This was determined using carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of lacustrine calcite as well as carbon from bulk organic sediment fractions. Several significant climate perturbations were identified in the ä18Ocalcite record such as the Oldest Dryas, Younger Dryas, and the 8.2 ka cold event. A previously undescribed climate anomaly between 7,300 to 6,700 cal. yr B.P. characterized by low ä18Ocalcite values with high frequency variability. Variations in carbon isotopes of calcite and bulk organics from the Late Glacial to the Holocene are significant in magnitude (~12‰) and have similar trends that record temporal shifts in the relative contributions of carbon from the weathering of limestone versus the weathering of terrestrial organic matter. ä13Ccalcite and ä13Corg suggest a rapid recovery of terrestrial vegetation following the Younger Dryas. Change in Ää13Ccalcite - org documents a rapid increase in exogenous fluxes of carbon into the lake at ~9 ka

Madame de Gondi: A Contemporary Seventeenth-Century Life

There are few sources of information about Madame de Gondi’s life, and the prevailing view has held that she was selfish, insecure, and neurotic. This sketch of her many virtues comes from a 1630 collection of women’s lives written by Brother Hilarion de Coste and appears to have been unknown to Pierre Coste and other scholars of Vincent de Paul’s relationship with Madame de Gondi. Brother Hilarion’s information came from oral and published sources, and he also knew Vincent, quoting him regarding one incident. This portrait of Madame de Gondi has particular authenticity. In accordance with contemporary expectations of women, Brother Hilarion praises her obedience to and dependence on her spiritual directors. He also cites her intelligence, which suggests that her submissiveness was, as Barbara Diefendorf says, “a deliberate conformity to an expected social role—and not an innate character trait.” Her care for her vassals and her management of her estates do not conform to her image as “clinging and demanding.” Reasons for the prevalence of this image are discussed in Diefendorf’s introduction

Groundwater, A century of word evolution

Words, especially those that apply directly to more than one discipline, often become the object of intense debate among professionals in those disciplines. This is particularly true with those people who have to deal with technical jargon on a day-to-day basis and who are concerned that scientific facts get communicated in as clear and concise a manner as possible. Communications regarding environmental restoration projects for the US Department of Energy are no exception. Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc., its subcontractors and other prime contractors often disagree about the spelling and use of compound words. This frequently results in inconsistent spelling between project reports and incorrect spelling of referenced document titles. The following discussion is an attempt to provide an objective, in-depth examination of the evolution of one particular word and recommendations for its proper and consistent use. This discussion is the result of an extensive literature search conducted within the library system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as well as the personal geologic libraries of the author and colleagues. The author has attempted to cite only those works produced by recognized names in the related disciplines or those works that constitute common references or glossaries

Internationalism, Regionalism, and National Culture: Music Control in Bavaria, 1945–1948

For many Germans in the immediate postwar period, all that remained of their country was its art. Subjugation, destruction, the pain of unfathomable guilt: these had ripped away at the national psyche, severing nation from nationalism, person from people, the present from the past. “We are,” wrote Wolfgang Borchert in 1946, “a generation without a homecoming, because we have nothing to which we can return.” Nation: what would that word now mean? An occupied state no longer possessing statehood, a conquered people starved even of the moral strength that might come from resisting. Even if the institutions of national governance could be recreated, they could have no historical legitimacy; if Bonn were not to be Weimar, it would equally not be the kaisers’ or the Führer’s Berlin. For many, refuge from the shaming of the nation lay, as Theodor Heuss reflected, in a “decentralizing of the emotions,” in a “flight” to those fields “where the violence of the great political world shake-up is not felt so directly.” This drove literate Germans back to Goethe and music lovers to the endlessly-performed postwar symphonic cycles of Brahms and Beethoven. And yet, escaping into what Jost Hermand aptly termed “the protective wall of self-absorption” did not completely preclude connection to the national community of Germans. In fact, a powerful communion with the whole might still come through the personal enjoyment of a shared art or culture. In art might reside the essence of the national community, a stateless collectivity, without territories perhaps, but with borders and guardians nonetheless

Investigating the carbon isotope composition and leaf wax n-alkane concentration of C3 and C4 plants in Stiffkey saltmarsh, Norfolk, UK

The carbon isotope composition of terrestrial plants records valuable ecophysiological and palaeoecological information. However, interspecies variability in 13C/12C, at both the bulk and compound-specific (CS) level, requires further exploration across a range of ecosystem types. Here, we present bulk and n-alkane δ13C values, and n-alkane concentrations, from seven plants (C3 and C4) growing in a temperate UK saltmarsh. Inter- and intra-species variation in n-alkane δ13C values among C3 plants ranged from 8‰ (n-C31) to 10‰ (n-C27) across the 2011 and 2012 growing seasons, exceeding variability in bulk tissue (7‰). In contrast, the C4 monocot showed < 2‰ seasonal shifts in bulk and CS values. As a result of the variability in our CS data, we calculate that n-alkane based C3/C4 reconstructions in temperate saltmarshes have a maximum uncertainty of ∼11%. For dicots and succulents, seasonal bulk and CS δ13C trends diverged, while for C3 and C4 monocots, bulk and CS values followed similar temporal patterns. Fractionation between bulk and n-alkane carbon isotope values varied from −4 to −10‰ for C3 plants, and reached −13‰ for the C4 monocot. We explain discrepancies between bulk and n-alkane δ13C values by referring to possible interspecies variation in salinity adaptation, which may influence the partitioning of pyruvate, shifting the isotopic composition of lipid biomarkers. These findings open new avenues for empirical studies to further understand the metabolic processes fractionating carbon during the synthesis of n-alkanes, enhancing interpretation of the biomarker signal from the geological record