Retention in general science ..

Typewritten sheets in cover. Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University This item was digitized by the Internet Archive. Bibliography: p. 61-62

Parenting style as a predictor of music preference

Although previous research has established relationships between perceived parenting styles and children’s deviant behaviours and links between these behaviours and a liking for intense and rebellious music, no research has explored the associations between perceived parenting styles and children’s liking for different music styles. Whereas previous research has considered musical taste by looking at a small number of individual difference variables in isolation from one another, the present research used a cross-sectional correlational design to investigate whether parenting styles, the Big Five personality traits, sensation seeking, age, and gender were associated with a liking for different music styles. In total, 336 Australians completed an online, self-report questionnaire. Analyses demonstrated there were relationships between five of the six parenting style variables and five of the music styles considered. This indicates that various parenting styles were associated with musical taste, and the nature of these associations extends well beyond those concerning rebellious music and neglectful parenting that have been identified by previous research

The Hourglass Hotel

Original work of fictio

An Empty Labyrinth: Nihilism and the Creation of Fear in Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves

In his debut novel, House of Leaves (2000, Mark Danielewski created a unique work of art, incorporating aspects of film and literary criticism as well as visual art into an already irregular novel. The complex nature of the novel allows it to be categorized as a work of ergodic literature: one which requires non-trivial effort on the reader’s behalf. However, House of Leaves has a powerfully frightening effect on the reader and in this paper, the author considers House of Leaves as a work of horror, based on the convictions that it incites fear in the reader and that this fear is established mainly by unknown forces. The paper looks at the effect of horror and the concept of nihilism in the context of the novel, and concludes that, faced with a nihilistic text such as House of Leaves, the reader’s experience is a unique one: he or she must choose how to react to the fear of nothingness and meaninglessness that is presented

In England

Original short stor

“Among Mankind’s Deepest Needs”: Repetitive Grief and Intimate Isolation in Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude

In this paper, the author considers how two novels, though written by wholly different men from wholly different regions, manage to evoke a similar perspective on the concept of grief–born out of relational instances of shame, sacrifice, and betrayal–as it arises in close relationships. Both authors seek to portray the griefs experienced by their respective characters in an equally realistic and compassionate manner. In exploring the intimacy which exists on multiple levels–both in the isolation of the relationship itself, as well as in the further, personal isolation of individuals recognizing the failures of their relationships–both Kundera and Garcia Marquez have managed to create a vastly complex and full-bodied picture of grief as it exists within the realm of the intimate relationship. Through the use of similar repetitive structures, philosophizing narrators, and excursions into the world of magical realism, both authors create a means of exploring the way in which grief, iterated cyclically and perpetually, shapes a close relationship, and ultimately redefines the very nature of the intimacy itself

Language and the creation of characters in Arundhati Roy's The God of small things

This thesis will demonstrate how Arundhati Roy uses language psychologically, typographically, structurally, and culturally in her debut novel The God of Small Things. For the purposes of this thesis “language” should be understood to mean not only the spoken or written word but also the way cultural groups understand and communicate to one another through customs and traditions. Roy’s use of language throughout the novel helps the reader better understand her various complex characters, most importantly Estahappen and Rahel, the sevenyearold twins who are most affected by the events that take place within their family and community in 1969. Discussion will focus on the characters’ manipulation of the English language coupled with Malayalam (the twins’ native language) to bring meaning into the confusing context of their lives. In addition, this thesis will explore the power dynamics found in language as it relates to gender. Finally, the use of silence as a language will be discussed in both Velutha and Esthappen. These topics will be analyzed not only in linguistic terms but in postcolonial terms as well

PROXIMAL AND DISTAL CONSTRAINTS REDUCE DIMENSIONALITY OF VERTICAL JUMPING TASKS

The purpose of this study was to examine motor control strategies employed to control the degrees of freedom when performing a lower limb task with constraints applied at the hip, knee and ankle. Thirty-five individuals performed vertical jumping tasks: hip flexed, no knee bend and plantar flexed. Joint moment data from hip, knee and ankle was analysed using principal component analysis (PCA). In all, PCA performed, a minimum of two and maximum of six principal components (PCs) were required to describe the movement. A proximal to distal reduction in variability was only observed for the hip flexed and no knee bend conditions. Collectively, the results suggest a reduction in the dimensionality of the movement occurs, despite the constraints imposed within each condition and would suggest dimensionality reduction and motor control strategies are a function of the task demands

“Scope for elbow and mind”: industrial labor and working-class culture in the nonfiction of Jack Hilton AND “To pick out for oneself, to choose”: Ezra Pound, Carl Schmitt, and the poetics of sovereignty

Jack Hilton was a working-class author who frequently expressed ambivalent attitudes toward modernity and industrialism. He often seems nostalgic for a pre-industrial past, yet simultaneously acknowledges the material benefits of industrialism and the difficulties of rural life. Many of Hilton’s critiques of industry focus on the effects of mechanized or “rationalized” labor on the intellectual and cultural development of the working class. But while Hilton critiques industrial labor, he is careful not to romanticize labor in other fields, acknowledging the oppressive nature of all wage labor and its negative effects on culture. In this essay, I outline Hilton’s critique of rationalized work and its effects on working-class culture. Then, I contrast his criticism of industry with his depictions of other types of work, including both agricultural labor and work in skilled trades, highlighting how Hilton problematizes his own critique of rationalization. I conclude by detailing Hilton’s proposed solutions to labor’s negative effects on culture, and explore the extent to which his concern for working-class culture informed his support of socialism, which he believed would provide working-class people with the economic stability and leisure time necessary for intellectual and artistic pursuits. Hilton’s materialist analysis of his own cultural moment seems to anticipate cultural studies methodology, positioning Hilton as part of the intellectual pre-history of the discipline. Moreover, Hilton’s refusal to separate cultural and political critique provides a model of cultural studies as an active political practice. AND. This essay explores the apparent contradiction between Ezra Pound’s foundational role in the formulation of modernist poetics and his active engagement in fascist political projects beginning in the interwar years and continuing through World War II. Recently, many scholars have worked to document the extent of Pound’s investment in fascist projects and to explicate the political and social content of much of his poetry. Yet the question still stands: what connections exist between Pound’s understandings of poetics and politics? This essay seeks to address this question by examining Pound’s inter-war nonfiction prose. I read these texts alongside the work of German judicial theorist Carl Schmitt, focusing on his theory of sovereignty. First, I outline Schmitt’s definition of sovereignty and the relationship between a sovereign’s power and his use of language. Using Schmitt as a theoretical framework, I then turn to Pound’s early articulations of the role of the artist and the implications of that role on his creation of a paratactic poetic style. By creating a new poetic language that denies the figurative, Pound rescues poetry from the flaws of discursivity by allowing it to approach the status of action. His articulation of aesthetic problems in terms of sovereignty carries over into his political writing and eventual support of fascist dictators like Mussolini. By using Schmitt’s work to explicate Pound’s, I also demonstrate the relevance of Schmitt’s judicial theory to literary studies and provide a framework for further investigations of the political implications of modernist poetics