Vision and form in John Updike’s short fiction

This thesis studies the visual aesthetics of the twentieth-century American writer John Updike's short fiction. Exploring the related issues of form and vision, temporality and visuality, the thesis seeks to combine two analyses: a study of visuality in the short fiction of Updike, and a re-consideration of the short story as a genre. I shall argue that the two levels of analysis are interrelated, for it is at the point of the epistemological uncertainty in the act of ‘seeing’ that Updike offers something unusual to the short story form; it is also around this stubborn issue of the relationship between vision and knowledge that contemporary short story criticism seems to fall short. The thesis unfolds first with a negotiation for an understanding of the short story’s special narrative space and then with a formalist analysis of Updike’s short fiction and its respective involvement with three visual media: painting, photography and cinema. Exploring the complex interrelationship between ‘seeing’ and ‘reading’ through the lens of Updike’s visually rich texts, the thesis aims to come to a better knowledge of vision and form in the short story

Integrating Phylogeographic Analysis and Geospatial Methods to Infer Historical Dispersal Routes and Glacial Refugia of Liriodendron chinense

Liriodendron chinense (Hemsl.), a Tertiary relic tree, is mainly distributed in subtropical China. The causes of the geographical distribution pattern of this species are poorly understood. In this study, we inferred historical dispersal routes and glacial refugia of this species by combining genetic data (chloroplast DNA (cpDNA), nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA), and nuclear DNA (nDNA)) and geospatial data (climate and geology) with the methods of landscape genetics. Additionally, based on sequence variation at multiple loci, we employed GenGIS and Barrier software to analyze L. chinense population genetic structure. Dispersal corridors and historical gene flow between the eastern and western populations were detected, and they were located in mountainous regions. Based on species distribution model (SDMs), the distribution patterns in paleoclimatic periods were consistent with the current pattern, suggesting the presence of multiple refuges in multiple mountainous regions in China. The genetic structure analysis clustered most eastern populations into a clade separated from the western populations. Additionally, a genetic barrier was detected between the eastern and western populations. The dispersal corridors and historical gene flow detected here suggested that the mountains acted as a bridge, facilitating gene flow between the eastern and western populations. Due to Quaternary climatic fluctuations, the habitats and dispersal corridors were frequently inhabited by warm-temperate evergreen forests, which may have fragmented L. chinense habitats and exacerbated the differentiation of eastern and western populations. Ultimately, populations retreated to multiple isolated mountainous refugia, shaping the current geographical distribution pattern. These dispersal corridors and montane refugia suggested that the mountains in subtropical China play a crucial role in the conservation of genetic resources and migration of subspecies or related species in this region