Creolization and the collective unconscious : Locating the originality of art in Wilson Harris' Jonestown, The Mask of the Beggar and The Ghost of Memory

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Hillslope Dissolved Organic Matter Transport and Transformation in a Semi-Arid Headwater Catchment

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a ubiquitous mixture of compounds formed from the degradation of both terrestrial and microbial materials. It is a key link across the terrestrial-aquatic interface in headwater catchments, and therefore is intimately linked with the hydrologic connectivity of the catchment to the stream. This study uses fluorescence spectroscopy and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) to evaluate the mobility of specific chemical constituents of DOM during snowmelt. Monitoring occurred on a daily basis within the shallow soil (10 - 25 cm depth) and the stream during snowmelt and was compared to approximately bi-monthly groundwater samples (~18 m depth). Results suggest that a transition occurred in the stream during snowmelt from DOM dominated by protein-like material to more humic-like material. This transition is indicative of an engagement of DOM originating from shallow soils during snowmelt. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) normalization of these loadings suggest that the peak in DOC concentration seen in the stream is mainly controlled by the non-fluorescent fraction of DOM. This study identifies a humic-like component fluorophore in the soil and the stream that is traditionally seen only in soil DOM. We propose that the presence of this component in our stream samples during high flow in a small headwater catchment but not in larger systems during variable flow, suggests that this humic-like component is preferentially processed within the stream. These results indicate that shifts in hydrologic connectivity of different watershed units to the stream are a major control on DOM export from the watershed and that DOM mobility is unique to its chemical composition

Postcolonial singularity and a world literature yet-to-come

This article considers the challenge posed by Gayatri Spivak to rethink world literature along postcolonial lines as an ethical encounter with alterity. Read in this way, Spivak participates in a reframing of world literature that retains the critical gains made by postcolonial theory and suggests that the work of world literary analysis ought not necessarily be de/prescriptive (classifying and ordering) but might involve a contestation of the power relations that structure the world. In developing this argument, I draw on four further perspectives: Pascale Casanova's problematic assertion of literary singularity in The World Republic of Letters; Fredric Jameson's theorization of “third world literature” as counterpoint to Casanova's limiting understanding of national literature; Gilles Deleuze, who offers a way to rethink world literature in a process of becoming; and Édouard Glissant, whose work proposes a “relational” vision of difference that, like that of Spivak, demands an ethical, imaginative response to literature as literature.PostprintPeer reviewe

Interpretation and analysis of the Tristan story since Tennyson

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityIt has been my purpose in this thesis to interpret and analyze the modern versions of the Tristan story since the time of Tennyson. In the first chapter, which was concerned with the genesis and evolution of the Tristan legend, we saw that the original version of the story appeared at some time during the age of feminine literature. Although the source of the tale is vague and undetermined, several eminent authorities are of the opinion that it is either Piotish or Celtic in origin. The oral Ur-Tristan, which furnished a crude source for other versions of the tale, was the first account of the story to appear in the old, French language. The most renowned early version of the Tristan legend was the lost poem of Chrétien de Troyes written before 1162 or about eight years after the Ur-Tristan came into existence. Two other important French fragments also survived thanks to the work of Bidier. They were the works of the Anglo-Norman, Thomas, and the Continental Norman, Beroul, both of whom wrote in the latter half of the twelfth century. Some minor versions of the story, including the Chievrefeuil of Marie de Franoe--La Folie Tristan, the work of an unknown Anglo-Norman--and the Donnei des amanz, an English poem--also appeared in the latter half of the twelfth century. In my first chapter I mentioned the nineteenth century Bédier as the author who took the best elements from both Béroul and Thomas and combined them into one prose tale. I showed in Chapter I that the Tristan legend spread into other countries, notably Germany. In the latter part of the twelfth century Eilhart von Oberge wrote a Tristant based on the Béroul work. In 1210 Gottfried von Straussbourg worked on a version which his death interrupted. This work of Gottfried was unsuccessfully finished by three or his compatriots. A Norse prose version of the tale appeared in the first half of the thirteenth century, and an English version, Sir Tristram, in the last half of the same century. Around 1220 there appeared a French prose Tristram by Élie de Boron, probably patterned after Chrétien's lost poem. The story was expanded to such an extent during the course of the thirteenth century that many incidents were changed. For example, instead of dying du chagrin because Iseult of Ireland does not come to see him, Tristram is treacherously slain by Mark. Malory used this same ending in his prose work which was written about 1470. Tennyson later used Malory's Morte d'Arthur as the principal source of his Idylls of the King. Both men described the disruption and disintegration of the laws of chivalry and made Tristan one of the worst knights of the Round Table. During the Elizabethan Age Edmund Spenser presented a portrait of the youthful Tristram in the sixth book of his Fairie Queene. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries interest in the medieval romances fell off due to the strong influences of Puritanism and Neo-Classicism. It wasn't until the early nineteenth century that there was a revival of interest in medievalism, and Sir Walter scott, an early romanticist, was greatly responsible for the renewal of interest in the "matière de Bretagne". His sir Tristram was the last important work concerning the tale before the Victorian poets began to write on the subject

The Hydrological and Geochemical Role of the C Horizon in a Glacial Till Mantled Headwater Catchment

The C horizon is the deepest soil layer that is technically unweathered, similar to the rest of the regolith beneath the bottom of the pedon. In New England, the C horizon formed from the retreat of the glaciers eroding bedrock and depositing an unsorted and unstratified glacial till on the surface. This research evaluated the hydrologic and chemical role of the C horizon, inclusive of underlying regolith, in a forested watershed at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) in New Hampshire. Results suggest that the C horizon at HBEF is extensive and heterogeneous. Traditional concepts of basal till offer a limited role for the C horizon in watershed hydrology, but the C horizon appears to make a significant contribution to the hydrologic cycle in this watershed system. Hydraulic conductivity across B/C horizon boundaries does not decrease with depth indicating a hydrologic contribution of the C horizon to watershed hydrology. There was no evidence of marked differences in mineralogy among study sites based on weathering studies, although no conclusions could be drawn about the chemical contribution of the C horizon without further analysis and information on mineralogy. However, the presence of water flow paths through the C horizon means that this zone in the regolith contributes to watershed hydrology, and causes us to consider the effects of mineral weathering in the C horizon on deep water and its relative contribution to surface water chemistries. Future studies should be conducted with the aim of refining our understanding of the mineral composition of the C horizon and its relative importance in ground water chemistry

The Hague Convention on Taking Evidence Abroad: Conflict Over Pretrial Discovery

This note asserts that the Hague Convention is not the exclusive vehicle available to U.S. litigants for taking evidence abroad. It argues that in certain circumstances, U.S. courts should allow litigants to use the more liberal methods of the Federal Rules when seeking evidence from party litigants in other signatory nations

Unit organization of two topics in occupations

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1947. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Creating a Family-Centered Plan: Family Negotiation in Child Welfare

In this article, the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings for child welfare negotiations, assessment strategies useful in preparing for such negotiations, and practice implications for child protective service workers involved in the process are explored. Particular emphasis is given to the benefits of employing negotiation techniques in child welfare matters. The opportunities to use negotiation strategies are numerous in the child welfare arena. They range from formal mediation of an adoption plan, to family group conferencing of a placement issue, to negotiating a visitation and access plan with a parent. Common to all of these situations is the recognition that families have a better chance of success and potential for a better outcome when they are part of the planning and when they are empowered in the process

Increasing leaf hydraulic conductance with transpiration rate minimizes the water potential drawdown from stem to leaf.

Leaf hydraulic conductance (k leaf) is a central element in the regulation of leaf water balance but the properties of k leaf remain uncertain. Here, the evidence for the following two models for k leaf in well-hydrated plants is evaluated: (i) k leaf is constant or (ii) k leaf increases as transpiration rate (E) increases. The difference between stem and leaf water potential (ΔΨstem-leaf), stomatal conductance (g s), k leaf, and E over a diurnal cycle for three angiosperm and gymnosperm tree species growing in a common garden, and for Helianthus annuus plants grown under sub-ambient, ambient, and elevated atmospheric CO₂ concentration were evaluated. Results show that for well-watered plants k leaf is positively dependent on E. Here, this property is termed the dynamic conductance, k leaf(E), which incorporates the inherent k leaf at zero E, which is distinguished as the static conductance, k leaf(0). Growth under different CO₂ concentrations maintained the same relationship between k leaf and E, resulting in similar k leaf(0), while operating along different regions of the curve owing to the influence of CO₂ on g s. The positive relationship between k leaf and E minimized variation in ΔΨstem-leaf. This enables leaves to minimize variation in Ψleaf and maximize g s and CO₂ assimilation rate over the diurnal course of evaporative demand