Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Apology And Reconciliation In Settler States, Nicholas B. Murphy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation offers a normative account of how we should conceive of reconciliation between Indigenous people(s), states qua states, and their non-Indigenous citizens. It mines pre-theoretic understandings of reconciliation to determine appropriate governing norms for reconciled relationships, the normative expectations that attend these, and what processes or initiatives might be necessary to achieve them. In liberal democratic settler states like Canada, Australia, the United States and New Zealand the desirability of reconciliation is acknowledged by all parties. However, considerable ambiguity surrounds the concept ‘reconciliation.’ This is problematic because concepts influence social discourse, and the rhetoric of reconciliation not only guides …

(End)Zones And (Out)Fields Of Production: Contemporary Conditions Of Labor And Artistic Critique, Stephanie G. Anderson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In a 2013 exhibition publication titled It’s the Political Economy, Stupid!, John Roberts made the observation that “Over the last ten years we have become witness to an extraordinary assimilation of art theory and practice into the categories of labor and production.” Whereas once art claimed for itself a critical capacity in relation to the larger system of capitalist domination by its status as a putatively ‘autonomous’ sphere of production from which it leveraged its difference and critique, today it is largely acknowledged that there is no longer any such ‘outside’ to be aspired to. If, in the recent …

Aristotle's Account Of Time: A Moderate Realism, Pierre-Luc Boudreault

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This dissertation proposes an interpretation of Aristotle’s theory of time as a whole from a study of Physics IV. 10-14. It addresses interpretive issues and objections pertaining to Aristotle’s view about the nature of time, its existence, as well as its unity and universality. In response to these problems, the interpretation of some ancient and medieval commentators – Themistius, Simplicius, Philoponus, Albert the Great and in particular, Thomas Aquinas – is by and large defended against recent interpretations. It is argued that by defining time as “the number of movement with respect to the “before” and “after” (Phys. IV. …

Sacred Mnemonics In Late Medieval England: Ars Memoria In The Hagiography Of Osbern Bokenham, Erica C. Leighton

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This thesis examines the practice and understanding of the ancient ars memoria (art of memory) tradition in late medieval England. Using the work of fifteenth-century Augustinian friar Osbern Bokenham, I argue that his hagiography demonstrates a pronounced engagement with both ancient ars memoria techniques and original medieval adaptations and expansions of these narrative mnemonic strategies. The late medieval ars memoria, therefore, speaks to the education and training that allowed for complex and fluid approaches to mnemonic narration.

Bokenham’s surviving body of work includes a set of commissioned female saints’ lives entitled Legendys of Hooly Wummen, and a sizeable …

La Ficción Revelada. La Poética De La Autoficción En La Literatura Mexicana Contemporánea, Alba Devo Colis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Esta disertación investiga el estatuto genérico de la autoficción, el cual se ha entendido como un género híbrido entre autobiografía y novela o como un producto derivado de la autobiografía posmoderna. Mientras que teóricamente se ha defendido la ambigüedad genérica a partir de la identidad nominal y los elementos autobiográficos compartidos entre autor, narrador y protagonista, el presente trabajo sigue la perspectiva que sitúa a la autoficción como un género ficcional y no como un género híbrido. Por ello, se busca identificar las estrategias utilizadas por los autores para erigir la obra como una ficción que no depende de gradientes …

To Be Me: The Contingency Of The Body, Sepideh Tajalizadeh Dashti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Exploring my Iranian and immigrant identity, this dossier investigates factors that contribute to the formation of my identity through the experience of living in a complex and repressive society. This dossier is composed of an extended artist statement, a case study of UK-based, Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum’s art practices, documentation of a selection of my artworks, and a Curriculum Vitae. In my extended artist statement, I engage with feminist post-structuralist theories to explore my identity as multiple, performative, and contingent. I also discuss how I use these feminist post-structuralist theories in my art practice to question the phallocentric dominant ideology …

Shame And Its Other Family Members In Philip Roth's Sabbath's Theater And Everyman And Pierre Lemaitre's Au Revoir Là-Haut, Shahrzad Izadpanah

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis is going to provide a comparative study of three novels: Sabbath’s Theater (1995) and Everyman(2006) by Philip Roth and Au revoir là-haut(2013) by Pierre Lemaitre. Although at first glance these three works seem to bear little or no resemblance to each other, certain crucial parallels can be drawn between and among the dominant themes in these novels. This study considers how death, loss, and their implications affect the main characters: Mickey Sabbath in Sabbath’s Theater, the nameless character in Everyman, and Édouard Péricourt in Au revoir là-haut. How bodily decay and trauma affect …

See It And Believe It: An Investigation Into Singers' Imagery Use, Brianna Desantis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Sport and dance psychology researchers have shown, time and again, how imagery improves performance in their respective fields. In singing, imagery has a long history in the bel canto (beautiful singing) tradition but it is more linked to using metaphor and simile as teaching aids rather than a mental practice technique to improve performance. Because of this, imagery in singing is even broader than imagery in athletics or dance. Moreover, imagery in singing psychology has not been as thoroughly examined in an empirical setting, especially not from a sport and dance psychology perspective.

This monograph aims to outline the term …

An Archaeology Of Contemporary Speculative Knowledge, Justas Patkauskas

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This dissertation investigates contemporary speculative knowledge grounded in the immanence episteme, which is struggling to emerge as a foundation for a new kind of absolute knowledge. Regarding method, I use Michel Foucault’s concept of archaeology, situating archaeology in the context of deconstruction. In general, by delineating the various differences and genealogies within immanence theory, I show that immanence is neither a monolithic homogeneity nor a schizophrenic multiplicity but a coherent, if troubled, ground for speculative thought.

In Chapter 1, I define deconstruction as a broad philosophical project concerned with the order of knowledge and the University and its disciplines. I …

Between A Harmless Game And A Bittersweet Disease: Forms Of Nostalgia In Post-Socialist Central And Eastern Europe, George A. Condrache

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This thesis focuses on novels, essays, films, and popular culture miscellanea representative of Central and Eastern Europe, in the attempt to explain how nostalgia developed in this area since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe has undergone a major - and, for many, unsettling - historical shift, thus, perhaps not surprisingly, nostalgia for the former communist regime does not lack in popularity. Due to the region’s turbulent past cum present, millions of Eastern Europeans have migrated westward; homesickness is only one of the feelings they share. The region is also a cauldron for far-right ideologies, …

Writing Against The Grain: Expressions Of Resistance In The Postcolonial Novel Of Equatorial Guinea, Sarita Addy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines the extent to which selected postcolonial narratives of Equatorial Guinea express resistance at the social, religious and political levels. Three postcolonial texts, namely Los poderes de la tempestad (1997), El párroco de Niefang (1996) and Arde el monte de noche (2009) emit various discourses of resistance. These works which rehash the Spanish colonial legacy are also concerned with the social degeneration brought on by the first postcolonial presidency, often referred to as Nguemism. In response to these events, the writings of these authors show a refusal to be absorbed by both the colonial rhetoric and nguemist …

The Alia Musica And The Carolingian Conception Of Mode, Matthew R J Nace

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The Alia musica is perhaps the most idiosyncratic of the early treatises on the ecclesiastical modes. It is a composite made up of at least three independent treatises and additional commentary, and the majority of the scholarly attention that it has thus far received has been devoted to questions of dating and authorship, as well as to the place of the Alia musica in the development of the octave species paradigm of modality. However, the majority of the treatise is dedicated to the explanation of a complex harmonic numerology that applies the fundamental relation 12:9:8:6 (which generate the intervals of …

The Language Vitality Of Nahuatl In Santiago Tlaxco, Mexico, Grace Gomashie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis assesses the language vitality of Nahuatl (also known as Mexicano) in Santiago Tlaxco, a rural bilingual community in the municipality of Chiconcuautla, located in Puebla, Mexico, in the face of the growing trend of language endangerment for many Indigenous languages. It explores the linguistic use and attitudes of community members, and how they contribute to language maintenance and language shift of Nahuatl. The main research questions are: a) what are the language use patterns of the community? and b) what are the prevailing language attitudes of this Nahuatl-speaking community towards its Indigenous language? Data on the language practices …

The Habits Of Settlement: A Critical Phenomenology Of Settlerness, Deanna L. Aubert

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This thesis investigates the role of settlers in maintaining settlement in Canada. I problematize settler bodies to deliberate on their potential for performing decolonization. My discussion seeks to complicate theoretical approaches that position the onto-epistemological stance of the settler as their impediment to decolonizing action. Drawing from the fields of phenomenology and affect theory, I discuss habit formation in bodies. I use case studies that discuss settler-Indigenous land relations to ground these theories of habit. I look to Indigenous leaders, artists and scholars, who offer valuable insights into the habituations of settlement as an institutionalized arrangement and a mode of …

Toward A Fluid Cinematic Spectatorship And Desire: Revisiting Laura Mulvey’S Psychoanalytic Film Theories, Taylor Ashton Mcgoey

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This thesis project re-evaluates Laura Mulvey’s film theories regarding psychoanalysis and the “male gaze,” first found in her essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975). By re-evaluating the limitations of Mulvey’s use of the Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic model this project seeks to understand the desires and processes of identification of cinematic spectators who reject the ideological imperative of the “male gaze”. As many critics have noted, Mulvey’s initial examination of cinema does not account for LGBTQ+ spectators and/or black spectators who occupy looking relations that reject cis-normative and heteronormative white Hollywood cinematic conventions. From this standpoint, we begin the …

Between Worlds, Between Times: Thinking With Trans Narratives At The Limits Of Ontology And Temporality, Elden L. Yungblut

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis offers up an explicitly transfeminist mobilization of the theoretical notions of ontological pluralism and queer temporality against the pervasive cultural norm of cis-normativity and the dominant temporal logic of chrono-normativity. First, I critique the blatantly transphobic and fallacious rhetoric of Kathleen Stock, the face of the “gender critical” feminist movement in the UK, which I contextualize as part of a contemporary resurgence of the hateful legacy of trans-exclusion rooted in the second wave feminist movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s and cemented in academic theory by Janice Raymond’s (1979) Transsexual Empire. I then delve deeper, aiming to …

"Second Sight": Acknowledging W.E.B. Du Bois's "Double Consciousness" As A Step Towards Dissolution, Alexandra M. Hudecki

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This project examines American scholar W.E.B.’s DuBois’ idea of “double consciousness”, from his book The Souls of Black Folk (1903). The idea of “double consciousness” has and continues to be utilized by Black scholars and artists in literary, theoretical, and psychological contexts, some of which I hope my paper will adequately survey. I begin by examining “double consciousness” from the perspective of particulars by understanding Du Bois’s original idea and the specificities of the American context he himself was a part, considering the legacy of slavery. Then, by focusing primarily on writers such as Frantz Fanon, Richard Wright and Paul …

The Syntax-Pragmatics Interface: Intransitivity And Word Order In L3 Spanish, Diana M. Fernandez Acosta

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Until fairly recently, most researchers assumed that the acquisition of a second language (L2) and of a third (or subsequent) (L3/Ln) language were indistinguishable. This is not the case, as knowledge of two or more previous languages adds complexity to non-native acquisition. This study addresses the issue of crosslinguistic influence between three languages in view of two theories: (a) the L2 will always be the cause of crosslinguistic influence in an L3 (Bardel & Falk, 2012); (b) the determining factor for transfer is typological similarity between the languages in question (Rothman, 2010).

This study focuses on the L3 acquisition of …

Exquisite Corpses: Markedness, Gender, And Death In Video Games, Meghan Blythe Adams

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation analyzes gendered death animations in video games and the way games thematize death to remarginalize marked characters, including women. This project combines Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s work on the human subjection to death and Georges Bataille’s characterization of sacrifice to explore how death in games stages markedness. Markedness articulates how a culture treats normative identities as unproblematic while marking non-normative identities as deviant.

Chapter One characterizes play as a form of death-deferral, which culminates in the spectacle of player-character death. I argue that death in games can facilitate what Hegel calls tarrying with death, embracing our subjection to …

The Search For Canadian Art Song: Developing The Framework For A Database Of Art Song By Canadian Composers, Leanne Vida

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Art song is a diverse, inclusive genre of music, as well as an important pedagogical tool for singers. It can be performed in the smallest of spaces, but it is also able to hold its own in the largest concert halls. It requires only a few musicians, making it an ideal choice for a concert or recital setting, and its poetic content describes virtually every aspect of life, in many languages, making it accessible to a broad audience. Many of its works require less physical maturity on the part of singers and require less rigorous technical ability than larger concert …

Indigenous Land Claims And Reconciliation: The Importance Of Land And Relationship Between Indigenous Nations And The Government Of Canada, Joy S. Spear Chief-Morris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis discusses whether Indigenous land claims settlements signal reconciliation between Indigenous nations and the Government of Canada. Using Indigenous methodologies, anti-oppressional and intersectional lenses, and process tracing, it argues that land claim settlements do not signal reconciliation of the Indigenous-Canadian relationship. This is because the modern land claims settlement process exists as a reiteration of the colonial policies and institutions that proceeded it. It examines the historical treaty process, case law on Aboriginal rights and title, existing documents, and statutes that protect and promote Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood. Lastly, it examines the 2015 Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission as …

Latino, Latina, Latin@, Latine, And Latinx: Gender Inclusive Oral Expression In Spanish, Katie Slemp

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Gender identity is a rapidly changing concept and so is the language that we use to talk about ourselves or others that may identify outside of the traditional binary system. Spanish typically functions as a masculine generic-dominated language, but there are attempts to make the language more inclusive. One of those attempts appeared in the early 2000s: -x. This marker is unpronounceable as a syllable nucleus. Via an online survey and virtual interviews, this project discovers how Spanish speakers from various countries incorporate gender inclusive language (IL) in writing and speech. Which speakers incorporate IL? Additionally, why do they …

El Ritmo Y La Palabra O Para Una Poética De La Salsa Y La Presalsa, Witton Becerra

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Salsa has been widely developed as a musical style, as well as part of Spanish American culture, specifically from the Spanish Caribbean. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the poetics of salsa music produced in New York City, and “presalsa” in particular, which is the name coined to the Cuban and Puerto Rican rhythms preceding and establishing the musical and poetic patterns of salsa music.

The main issue elucidated here is how salsa and presalsa music take their poetic forms from the “décima espinela”, a 17^th century Spanish poetic style, coupled with sounds from Bantu languages called …

Sounding Unsettlement: Rethinking Settler States Of Mind And Re(-)Cognition Through Scenes Of Cross-Cultural Listening, Ryan Ben Shuvera

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation I consider how listening to music produced by Indigenous peoples might convince settler listeners to surrender settler states of mind. I focus on the elements of settler colonialism that are exemplified in and challenged by the experiences of listening to music produced by Indigenous peoples. I focus on these aesthetic encounters as a way of exposing the everyday presence and power of settler states of mind and, more importantly, exploring how settlers might go about rebuilding states of mind through these moments of aesthetic surrender that are spurred by embodied experiences of sound. My project builds on …

The Hell Of A Boiling Red, George Kubresli

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As a refugee from the ongoing Syrian war, the tragedy of that war is my subject. This thesis addresses the tragedy of the war, and specifically the impact on the Syrian people. Alongside an analysis of my paintings and my artistic method, the calamity that Syrians experience is discussed, while I also attempt to explore the depths of the human soul to express the enormous traumas that are suffered in various encounters with war. This analysis and its manifestations is two sided: the role of facial expressions reflecting the inner turmoil of the individual, and the role of nature in …

Euripides' 'Andromache' And Athenian Hegemonic Ideology, Alexandra H. Dawson

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Scholarship on the political character of Athenian tragedy has increasingly turned its attention to the relationship between tragedy and empire. In Athenian panegyric, Athens’ rule is frequently portrayed as hegemonic, although historiographical sources reveal inconsistencies between the idealized image of the city and the historical realities of empire. Several recent approaches have concentrated especially on tragedies that feature an Athenian setting or character in the dramatic action as a means to explore the ways in which the plays engage with Athenian ideas on power and domination. In response, the primary aim of this analysis is an understanding of the way …

Nietzschean Problematics, Jacob Vangeest

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This thesis is a commentary and exegesis on François Laruelle’s 1977 text Nietzsche contre Heidegger with a focus on the concept of the ‘Nietzschean problematic.’ It explores Laruelle’s use of Nietzsche by comparing his reading with that of Gilles Deleuze. This relation is explored in Deleuze and Laruelle’s reading of the Nietzschean problematic through the distinction between complementarity and supplementarity to enable a reading of Laruelle’s text as an extension of Deleuze’s project. This extension is one that simultaneously overturns what it extends. Laruelle’s aim is presented as a ‘machinic materialism’ infused with Derridean différance. Over the course of the …

Foucault, Affect, History: On The Art Of Feeling, Austin Chisholm

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While the work of Michel Foucault has not generally been thought to engage in questions of affect, I argue that his work entails a meaningful engagement with such questions but in a way that challenges how we tend to think about affect. Drawing from Foucault’s oeuvre, I enter a series of dialogues with thinkers of affect, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Brian Massumi, in order to understand to what extent the turn to affect—especially for Sedgwick and Massumi—represents an attempt to work through a number of difficulties and tensions in Foucault’s thought and writing. I argue …

“Born Of A Spirit That Knows No Conquering:” Innovation, Contestation, And Representation In The Pcha, 1911-1924., Taylor Mckee

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The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional North American hockey league that operated from 1911 to 1924. With markets in Victoria, Vancouver, New Westminster, Seattle, and Portland, the bourgeoning league was a viable competitor to the NHA and offered a distinctive approach to the developing sport. Through innovations and rule changes, the PCHA made significant strides in player safety, in line with the vision of “clean” hockey promoted by the league’s founders, Frank and Lester Patrick. In turn, these innovations were represented through newspaper accounts from the period, which helped promote a modern, scientific, and highly-marketable brand of …

Still, Unfolding, Ramolen Mencero Laruan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Together with my Master of Fine Art thesis exhibition, still, unfolding, at Zalucky Contemporary (Toronto, Ontario), this dossier constitutes the following accompanying components: a comprehensive artist statement, documented artwork, an interview with artist Erika DeFreitas, and a curriculum vitae. These components contextualize my subject-position, and outline theoretical research, motivations, and reflections that drive my work. I expand on the diasporic experience, politics of knowledge, and the autobiographical genre as they are linked methodologies in the retrieval of immigrant histories. The fusion of autobiography and fiction becomes a hopeful approach in challenging forgotten or omitted history and confronts the expectations …