Hannah Arendt And Feminist Agency, Katherine N. Fulfer

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My goal in this dissertation is to articulate an Arendtian conception of feminist agency, that is, agency that aims at resistance from within oppressive situations. There is a tendency in feminist literature to depict women in the global south as if they are passive victims of their oppression, with no opportunities to resist. This tendency is replicated in feminist responses to transnational contract pregnancy, the practice in which people travel across national borders to hire a woman to gestate an embryo.

I argue that the feminist literature on contract pregnancy is polarized and unable to resolve the problematic trend of …

L’Identité De Groupe Chez Les Écrivains Francophones : Postures Institutionnelles Et Pratiques Littéraires, El Hadji Camara

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Résumé

Cette thèse explore la problématique de l’identité de groupe dans la pratique esthétique et discursive des écrivains francophones. En effet, parmi les questions majeures posées par la littérature francophone contemporaine, on peut noter celle de l’identité et de sa problématisation. L’écrivain francophone étant pris dans une sorte de négociation identitaire, j’ai étudié les manifestations de cette identité groupale en analysant d’une part le contexte institutionnel de la littérature francophone et, d’autre part, la configuration de cette identité telle qu’elle transparaît dans les œuvres littéraires. En fait, on a toujours parlé de générations littéraires ou d’écrivains « francophones » sans …

Because I Am Not Here, Selected Second Life-Based Art Case Studies. Subjectivity, Autoempathy And Virtual World Aesthetics, Francisco Gerardo Toledo Ramírez

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Second Life is a virtual world accessible through the Internet in which users create objects and spaces, and interact socially through 3D avatars. Certain artists use the platform as a medium for art creation, using the aesthetic, spatial, temporal and technological features of SL as raw material. Code and scripts applied to animate and manipulate objects, avatars and spaces are important in this sense. These artists, their avatars and artwork in SL are at the centre of my research questions: what does virtual existence mean and what is its purpose when stemming from aesthetic exchange in SL?

Through a qualitative …

Online Social Breast-Working: Representations Of Breast Milk Sharing In The 21st Century, Cari L. Rotstein

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This thesis explores the controversial subject of online breast milk sharing through the lens of Social Positioning Theory and interpretative repertoire analysis. I examine medical statements, Facebook wall posts on the Human Milk 4 Human Babies Global group and selected Canadian provincial groups, as well as a selection of Canadian print news media coverage pertaining to milk sharing to discover how this practice is discussed. I argue that the medical literature discusses milk sharing as unsafe, informal, and a generally unacceptable means of obtaining breast milk, whereas the HM4HB group members discuss it as a safe, intimate experience between donor …

The Reasonable Effectiveness Of Mathematics In The Natural Sciences, Nicolas Fillion

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One of the most unsettling problems in the history of philosophy examines how mathematics can be used to adequately represent the world. An influential thesis, stated by Eugene Wigner in his paper entitled "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences," claims that "the miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve." Contrary to this view, this thesis delineates and implements a strategy to show that the applicability of mathematics is very reasonable indeed.

I distinguish three forms of the …

Day Of The Woman?: Feminism & Rape-Revenge Films, Kayley A. Viteo

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This thesis examines the horror film sub-genre of ‘rape revenge’ for the ways it reflects and helps to constitute broader public debates about women and feminism. In order to do so, it examines two well-known representatives of the sub-genre, Last House on the Left and I Spit On Your Grave. Both of these films were initially made in 1972 and 1978 respectively and were recently remade in 2009 and 2010. This thesis examines both the originals and the remakes of these films within and against their socio-historical context, with a specific focus on dominant discussions about feminism and women taking …

El Modelo De Autorización Del Relato En La Historiografía Medieval Castellana: La Escritura Y Lo Real En La Cronística Alfonsí, Santiago Normann Kalinowski

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This thesis explores the nature of the relationship between truth and text during a key moment in Castilian culture. Focusing on xiii^th century historiography, supervised by King Alfonso X “el Sabio”, the thesis proposes an evolution of “textual truth” along a set of specific theoretical principles and formal (literary/rhetorical) features. The first part defines “authority” and “authorization” of the written word: Chapter 1 studies the fundamental issues surrounding the writing of History; Chapter 2 provides precedents, starting in the Bible, for an understanding of “sacred” authorship that will be recognizable in the Primera Crónica General; Chapter 3 analyzes …

Anarchy In The Unity: Compositional And Aesthetic Tensions In Mauricio Kagel's Antithese Für Einen Darsteller Mit Elektronischen Und Öffentlichen Klängen (1962), Makoto Mikawa

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In 1962 the Argentine-German composer Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008) completed an innovative multimedia/interdisciplinary piece, Antithese für einen Darsteller mit elektronischen und öffentlichen Klängen. The unique compositional style and formal structure consisting of heterogeneous compositional components reflected his profound insights into issues inherent in postwar avant-garde music. Kagel remarked strikingly that “anarchy in the piece was omnipresent.” Indeed, his use of the term ‘anarchy’ is a keystone not only of the structural features of Antithese, but also of Kagel’s aesthetic of music in the piece. The present study seeks to reveal Kagel’s idea of anarchy in musical context and how …

Biopolitics Of Climate Change: Carbon Commodities, Environmental Profanations, And The Lost Innocence Of Use-Value, Emanuele Leonardi

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The analytical core of this study is the historical development of the relationship between nature and the capitalist mode of production. In particular, we aim at shedding light on the process through which the “grammar” of ecological crisis (and consequently of its possible solutions) turned into an exclusively economic one. In addressing this issue we discuss the successive problematisations of the environment that took place since the emergence of biopolitical governmentality (late Eighteenth century). Following Foucault's intuition, and supplementing it with aspects of Marxist analysis, we argue for a profound transformation – based on a crucial leap of abstraction – …

Rowan Williams And Mikhail Bakhtin: The Appeal Of Polyphony, Antony N. Gremaud

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This thesis explores the relationship between Rowan Williams and Mikhail Bakhtin, especially Bakhtin’s notion of polyphony. This thesis traces the presence of the polyphonic approach in Williams’ work to three main issues: the debate around the nature and future of the Anglican Communion, the debate around the place of Christianity in the increasingly secular modern West and the debate around the nature of faith presented in the works of Dostoevsky. Adopting Bakhtin’s polyphonic approach, Williams sees the need for an on-going conversation, one that argues for the equality of voices within a conversation, one that resists the impulse toward closure …

The Reel Latina/O Soldier In American War Cinema, Felipe Q. Quintanilla

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This study carries out archaeological research around the representation of the Latina/o soldier in American war-minded cinema. The theoretical orientation is comprised of a synthesis of sociological, New Historical, and genre-studies frameworks. I start from the assumption that images of Latinas/os in war-minded cinema—whether “negative” or “positive,” marginal or center-stage—come to propose, and in most cases reinforce, modes of “being” in the nation. Whether in the form of a colourful tokenism, vile-stereotypes, or suspect models of identity, these representations are hardwired to prescribe specific valances, to heed or to follow, of patriotism, sacrifice and positionality vis-á-vis the (white) heroes and …

A Modest Proposal: A Chamber Opera In One Act, Kevin Morse

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A Modest Proposal is a chamber opera in one act adapted from the 1729 satirical essay of the same name by Jonathan Swift. The opera’s narrative was developed in close partnership with Toronto-based Governor-General’s Literary Award-nominated playwright Lisa Codrington, whom I commissioned to write the libretto. Set in an unnamed city in the present day, the work explores themes of economic disparity, social class, political power and process, parents and children, love, anger, and revenge. I integrate musical quotations from (or references to) folk lullabies and the works of Mahler, Debussy, and Schoenberg to support and enhance the richness and …

"Rap Is Easy, Career Is The Hard Part:" Analyzing Success, Longevity And Failure Within The Framework Of The Hip-Hop Career, Christopher R. White

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Conceptualizing and analyzing the hip-hop career and the role of success therein allows us to investigate the long-term shifts in the economic and cultural capitals associated with the genre, and can help us better understand how hip-hop has achieved enduring success and respect. As hip-hop musicians continue to prosper financially and achieve unprecedented levels of success and longevity in the industry, understandings of the hip-hop career have shifted. Hip-hop musicians attempt to translate their cultural capital into financial profit by leveraging their respective personas into marketable brands and lifestyles that act as non-musical, career extending strategies. The thesis investigates how …

Religious Rebels: The Religious Views And Motivations Of Confederate Generals, Robert H. Croskery

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During the American Civil War, widely held Christian values and doctrines affected Confederate generals’ understanding and conduct of the war. This study examines the extent and the manner of religion’s influence on the war effort and the minds and lives of Confederate generals. Letters, diaries, and memoirs are used in addition to war reports and secondary sources to understand the range and complexity of this topic. Based on the supposition that each person’s religion is a unique relationship between a human being and his or her Creator, this study analyses the uniqueness of the generals’ religious beliefs using biographical details. …

Securing Populations: Foucault And The Cartography Of Natural Bodies, Andrew A.T. Grant

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The concept of biopolitics tends towards universal applicability and thus analytical impotency. By examining Foucault’s lecture seminars that address this concept directly and indirectly, this project aims to delimit its coordinates for future use. To do so, I begin by looking at the way biopolitical discourses on the population constituted liberal governmentality in the eighteenth century. This analysis will be supplemented by a cartography of the surfaces on which biopolitics emerges before and within liberalism, affecting its formation. I will therefore map out the formation of two objects that characterize modern biopower: the ‘natural’ body of the individual and the …

The Cleaving Of House And Home: A Lacanian Analysis Of Architectural Aesthetics, Sarah E. Thorne

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Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis and digital media studies, this thesis explores the radical disconnect between the home as a fantasmatic object of desire and the house as the space in which the fantasy of home is staged. By analyzing the house as a prosthetic replacement for our originary home (the womb), the aim is to uncover how architectural aesthetics of the Victorian, modern, and postmodern house respond to this irreconcilable gap, and why each aesthetic necessarily fails to create a more homely home. Considering recent trends in architecture, the thesis then examines the coincidence of the “small house” movement with …

Shame And The Sharing Of Existence, Noel A. Glover

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Abstract: Our aim with this project is to re-animate shame, to argue that there are in fact two kinds of shame experience. The first, primary shame, refers to the exposure of the self by the primordial other, a moment prior to the interpolation of judgment and morality in which the self apprehends its object state before the other, fixed within its gaze. Primary shame is the revelation that I am insofar as the other sees me. Secondary shame, on the other hand, is the mobilization within the pale of society of this originary exhibition of self. Secondary shame is …

The Cruelty Of Reading: Reading And Writing In The Works Of Friedrich Schelling, Marc D. Mazur

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Friedrich Schelling has re-emerged in Anglo-Saxon philosophy as a singularly important figure in Germand Idealism, not as some mediate figure in between Kant, Fichte, and Hegel. Because Schelling's works resist being subsumed into a univocal or systematic articulation, they instead invite a reading, in the sense developed by Jean-Luc Nancy, that itself is transported to the writing of his texts. In order to show the auto-immune character of Schelling's writing, this thesis will turn to Schelling's First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature (1799), the Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom (1809), and the unfinished …

In The Fullness Of Time: M. M. Bakhtin, In Discourse And In Life, James C. Hall

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The phrase “the fullness of time” touches upon one of M. M. Bakhtin’s most consistently upheld tenets; for Bakhtin, philosophical and everyday utterances rely on their historical embeddedness for the material and concrete reality from which they draw their meaning and through which they are conditioned, inflected, and re-evaluated. In his very last work Bakhtin stated that all meanings are in continuous evolution. In this thesis the attempt will be made to interpret Bakhtin’s corpus by concentrating particularly on the movement of historical and philosophical becoming, the art of responding to philosophy and the events of everyday life, and the …

Toward A Dialogical Hermeneutic Of A Hindu-Christian: A Socio-Scientific Study Of Nepali Immigrants In Toronto, Surya Prasad Acharya

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In search of a hermeneutic that is dialogical, transcending one’s own realm of understanding to give enough space to the other, the theory of dialogical self provides a framework which is not only able to engage mutually incompatible traditions but inculcates a whole new insight into considering that the other is not completely external to the self. One of the most significant features of theory of dialogical self is that it is devised in the conviction that insight into the workings of the human self requires cross-fertilization between different fields. The thesis therefore employs social-psychology, religious studies, inter-cultural studies, theology …

Narrativity In Postmodern Music: A Study Of Selected Works Of Alfred Schnittke, Karen K. Ching

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The validity of music narratives has engendered much debate and research. This dissertation traces the development of narratology from its pre-structuralist phase to the post-structuralist phase where the discipline went through a narrative turn and blossomed into a broad-spectrum expansion that takes the form of interdisciplinary narratological studies such as music narratology. By adopting the viewpoints of postmodern philosophers and psychologists such as Mikhail M. Bakhtin, Ihab Hassan, Jean-François Lyotard, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Carl Jung, we develop a cognitive narratological theory for postmodern music that is veracious both epistemologically and philosophically.

We then analyze formally and contextually four concertos by …

Antropofagia And Constructive Universalism: A Diptych, Aarnoud Rommens

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This study proposes a rethinking of the word-image relation through an examination of Joaquin Torres-García’s Constructive Universalism (ca.1934-1949) and the Brazilian Modernist movement of Antropofagia (1928-ca.1934). By placing both in the close relation of a ‘diptych,’ I argue for a new reading of Torres-García’s visual work as well as a different understanding of Antropofagia.

In the first part of this work, I argue, through a close reading and viewing of Torres-García’s work, that the constitutive instability between word/image has been overlooked in favour of, on the one hand, an appropriation in terms of a ‘deviation’ from the canon of Geometric …

Ruining Representation In The Novels Of China Miéville: A Deleuzian Analysis Of Assemblages In Railsea, The Scar, And Embassytown, Kristen Shaw

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This work explores the social and political potentialities of body-assemblages in China Miéville‘s novels Railsea, The Scar and Embassytown. Using the theories of Deleuze and Deleuze and Guattari, my analysis focuses on the manner in which assemblages within these texts resist unification and reification under representational frameworks and forge new identities based on an ethical appreciation of difference, fluidity, and creative self-actualization. Whereas representational schemas privilege supposedly ahistorical, transcendent, and cognitive-based iterations of identity divorced from material contingencies, the assemblages at work in Railsea, The Scar, and Embassytown instead focus on embodied-knowledge and fluid, emergent notions …

Moral Revision In Latin Ethnography: A Reassessment Of Tacitus’ Germania And Caesar’S Bellum Gallicum, Joseph D. Davis

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ABSTRACT

The preponderance of interest in the Roman frontier and its peripheral non-Roman cultures has manifested itself in all aspects of the discipline of Classical Studies: from material archaeology to the social historian’s inquiry into the voiceless minorities in antiquity. Consequently, scholarship pertaining to the ethnography of those who inhabited the frontier has been made intrinsically more important. Nevertheless, outdated modes of inquiry and overly positivistic interpretations have dictated their study and, in some cases, stripped texts of their underlying significance. Tacitus’ Germania is one such text.

Within the ethnographic tradition, the Germania exists as a series of puzzling singularities: …

Out Of Order: Thinking Through Robin Collyer, Discontent And Affirmation (1973-1985), Kevin A. Rodgers

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This dissertation takes up a particular problematic between formal aesthetic content and discontent (political and aesthetic). This is done in two ways: directly through examining the work of Robin Collyer from 1973-1985 and the writings of Philip Monk, and indirectly through my own practice. While Part One is a written thesis, Part Two documents elements of my material practice developed over the course of my PhD studies: it is the research and working material culminating in the exhibition OUT OF ORDER. The period of time that I write about (1973-1985) and the location (Toronto) is one where thinking, …

Olympism, Ethics And The Rio 2016 Olympic Games Preparations: An Ethical Analysis, Dana Poeta

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Olympism is the underlying philosophy of the modern Olympic Games. It provides the ethical foundation of the Olympic Movement. This thesis defends the maintenance of human rights as essential for the achievement of Olympism. The problem investigated and evaluated in this thesis is the preparation for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. A critical analysis and account of the ethical demeanor in regard to the actualization of Olympism is provided. By comparing relevant current issues with past Olympic Games, the recurring problems in achieving Olympism are identified. The conclusion emphasizing the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) responsibility for ensuring that Olympism, …

“Winds Of Change”: Explaining Support For Wind Energy Developments In Ontario, Canada, Chad Jr Walker

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This thesis addresses a major gap in the wind turbine and risk assessment literatures. It explains local support for wind energy in some areas in spite of vocal opposition in others. Findings from Port Burwell and Clear Creek, Ontario indicate that social and contextual forces may help explain much of the difference in opinion between the two communities. The case study was focused through 21 in-depth interviews. The interviews were analyzed verbatim using NVIVO 9 software. The findings were found to be consistent with Kasperson’s theory of the Social Amplification of Risk and seem to explain why Port Burwell is …

Burying Dystopia: The Cases Of Venedikt Erofeev, Kurt Vonnegut, And Victor Pelevin, Natalya Domina

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One of the main things we have come to expect from a dystopian novel is the portrayal of an evil social structure. Such a text would aim to put reader in a position of a judge and/or warn him/her about the inevitability of an impending catastrophe (Zamyatin, Orwell, Huxley). This thesis focuses on how Venedikt Erofeev’s Moscow to the End of the Line, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and Victor Pelevin’s The Clay Machine-Gun respond to Dostoevsky’s prophetic dystopia and go against the grain of the genre, and, by doing so, redefine the genre itself.

Miscegenation In The Marvelous: Race And Hybridity In The Fantasy Novels Of Neil Gaiman And China Miéville, Nikolai Rodrigues

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Fantasy literature in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries uses the construction of new races as a mirror through which to see the human race more clearly. Categorizations of fantasy have tended to avoid discussions of race, in part because it is an uncomfortable gray area since fantasy literature does not yet have a clear taxonomy. Nevertheless, race is often an unavoidable component of fantasy literature. This thesis considers J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings as a taproot text for fantasy literature before moving on to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station, both newer fantasy …

Does Empirical Moral Psychology Rest On A Mistake? Understanding Theories About The Nature Of Moral Judgment As Moral Propositions, Patrick Clipsham

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The main goal of this dissertation is to develop and defend the thesis that theories about the nature of moral judgment must be understood as carrying moral commitments. This has profound consequences for the methodology of metaethics. Specifically, it implies that theories about the nature of moral judgment cannot be understood as empirical hypotheses.

There have historically been many attempts to develop a philosophically satisfying theory that characterizes the nature and content of moral judgments. Many philosophers have thought that such theories are best understood as morally neutral hypotheses about human psychology. Recently, a number of philosophers have attempted to …