Writing the Unspeakable: an Ethical Approach to a Traumatized Narrative

This project uses the works of contemporary author Tim O’Brien, whose fiction often performs the trauma of the Vietnam War, to explore new ways of encountering the traumatized text. Informed by Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics of the face, and Sigmund Freud’s and Dominick LaCapra’s work on the narratology of the melancholic and the mourner, I consider the different ways we respond to the suffering Other and explore the paradox that through reading a traumatized narrative empathically we may come face-toface, as it were, with the suffering Other. If this is indeed the case, I reason, then the obligations that are due to the Other are also due to the text itself.

Place for video games : a theoretical and pedagogical framework for multiliteracies learning in English studies

Students are now involved in a vastly different textual landscape than many English scholars, one that relies on the “reading” and interpretation of multiple channels of simultaneous information. As a response to these new kinds of literate practices, my dissertation adds to the growing body of research on multimodal literacies, narratology in new media, and rhetoric through an examination of the place of video games in English teaching and research. I describe in this dissertation a hybridized theoretical basis for incorporating video games in English classrooms. This framework for textual analysis includes elements from narrative theory in literary study, rhetorical theory, and literacy theory, and when combined to account for the multiple modalities and complexities of gaming, can provide new insights about those theories and practices across all kinds of media, whether in written texts, films, or video games. In creating this framework, I hope to encourage students to view texts from a meta-level perspective, encompassing textual construction, use, and interpretation. In order to foster meta-level learning in an English course, I use specific theoretical frameworks from the fields of literary studies, narratology, film theory, aural theory, reader-response criticism, game studies, and multiliteracies theory to analyze a particular video game: World of Goo. These theoretical frameworks inform pedagogical practices used in the classroom for textual analysis of multiple media. Examining a video game from these perspectives, I use analytical methods from each, including close reading, explication, textual analysis, and individual elements of multiliteracies theory and pedagogy. In undertaking an in-depth analysis of World of Goo, I demonstrate the possibilities for classroom instruction with a complex blend of theories and pedagogies in English courses. This blend of theories and practices is meant to foster literacy learning across media, helping students develop metaknowledge of their own literate practices in multiple modes. Finally, I outline a design for a multiliteracies course that would allow English scholars to use video games along with other texts to interrogate texts as systems of information. In doing so, students can hopefully view and transform systems in their own lives as audiences, citizens, and workers.

El problema de la identidad narrativa en la filosofía de Paul Ricoeur

El artículo analiza el problema de la "identidad narrativa" como el punto nodal a partir del cual se erige la filosofía de Paul Ricoeur. En abierta oposición a las "filosofías del cogito" en las cuales el yo se define como "yo empírico" o como "yo trascendental", el filósofo francés propone el concepto de sí mismo como otro aunando las nociones de mismidad e ipseidad en un mismo centro al que sólo accede el sujeto por medio de un rodeo narrativo dado en llamar "hermenéutica del sí". Se intentará comprender la noción de sujeto que esta filosofía delinea.

Trajano en la Estoria de Espanna de Alfonso X (Segunda Parte)

En este artículo se desarrollan nuevas perspectivas de análisis sobre el lugar del principado de Trajano en la Estoria de Espanna de Alfonso X. En particular, y desde el marco teórico de la narratología, son objeto de estudio las anécdotas de la viuda y del consejo, las descripciones del emperador y el relato de su muerte. Se indagan especialmente los límites entre narración y descripción, la articulación de los 'possibles narratifs y la organización del relato, factores que contribuyen a presentar a Trajano como optimus princeps

El problema de la identidad narrativa en la filosofía de Paul Ricoeur

El artículo analiza el problema de la "identidad narrativa" como el punto nodal a partir del cual se erige la filosofía de Paul Ricoeur. En abierta oposición a las "filosofías del cogito" en las cuales el yo se define como "yo empírico" o como "yo trascendental", el filósofo francés propone el concepto de sí mismo como otro aunando las nociones de mismidad e ipseidad en un mismo centro al que sólo accede el sujeto por medio de un rodeo narrativo dado en llamar "hermenéutica del sí". Se intentará comprender la noción de sujeto que esta filosofía delinea.

Trajano en la Estoria de Espanna de Alfonso X (Segunda Parte)

En este artículo se desarrollan nuevas perspectivas de análisis sobre el lugar del principado de Trajano en la Estoria de Espanna de Alfonso X. En particular, y desde el marco teórico de la narratología, son objeto de estudio las anécdotas de la viuda y del consejo, las descripciones del emperador y el relato de su muerte. Se indagan especialmente los límites entre narración y descripción, la articulación de los 'possibles narratifs y la organización del relato, factores que contribuyen a presentar a Trajano como optimus princeps

Trajano en la Estoria de Espanna de Alfonso X (Segunda Parte)

En este artículo se desarrollan nuevas perspectivas de análisis sobre el lugar del principado de Trajano en la Estoria de Espanna de Alfonso X. En particular, y desde el marco teórico de la narratología, son objeto de estudio las anécdotas de la viuda y del consejo, las descripciones del emperador y el relato de su muerte. Se indagan especialmente los límites entre narración y descripción, la articulación de los 'possibles narratifs y la organización del relato, factores que contribuyen a presentar a Trajano como optimus princeps

El problema de la identidad narrativa en la filosofía de Paul Ricoeur

El artículo analiza el problema de la "identidad narrativa" como el punto nodal a partir del cual se erige la filosofía de Paul Ricoeur. En abierta oposición a las "filosofías del cogito" en las cuales el yo se define como "yo empírico" o como "yo trascendental", el filósofo francés propone el concepto de sí mismo como otro aunando las nociones de mismidad e ipseidad en un mismo centro al que sólo accede el sujeto por medio de un rodeo narrativo dado en llamar "hermenéutica del sí". Se intentará comprender la noción de sujeto que esta filosofía delinea.

Fleshing Out and Losing Flesh: The Decomposing Corpse as Narrative Object in American Hardboiled Detective Fiction

This dissertation examines the corpse as an object in and of American hardboiled detective fiction written between 1920 and 1950. I deploy several theoretical frames, including narratology, body-as-text theory, object relations theory, and genre theory, in order to demonstrate the significance of objects, symbols, and things primarily in the clever and crafty work of Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) and Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), but also touching on the writings of their lesser known accomplices. I construct a literary genealogy of American hardboiled detective fiction originating in the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, compare the contributions of classic or Golden Age detective fiction in England, and describe the socio-economic contexts, particularly the predominance of the “pulps,” that gave birth to the realism of the Hardboiled School. Taking seriously Chandler’s obsession with the art of murder, I engage with how authors pre-empt their readers’ knowledge of the tricks of the trade and manipulate their expectations, as well as discuss the characteristics and effect of the inimitable hardboiled style, its sharpshooting language and deadpan humour. Critical scholarship has rarely addressed the body and figure of the corpse, preferring to focus instead on the machinations of the femme fatale, the performance of masculinity, or the prevalence of violence. I cast new light on the world of hardboiled detective fiction by dissecting the corpse as the object that both motivates and de-composes (or rots away from) the narrative that makes it signify. I treat the corpse as an inanimate object, indifferent to representation, that destabilizes the integrity and self-possession, as well as the ratiocination, of the detective who authors the narrative of how the corpse came to be. The corpse is all deceptive and dangerous surface rather than the container of hidden depths of life and meaning that the detective hopes to uncover and reconstruct. I conclude with a chapter that is both critical denouement and creative writing experiment to reveal the self-reflexive (and at times metafictional) dimensions of hardboiled fiction. My dissertation, too, in the manner of hardboiled fiction, hopes to incriminate my readers as much as enlighten them.

De latinitate qua usus est Tertullianus i Apologetico.

Mode of access: Internet.

AS RELAÇÕES INVERTIDAS NO HADES: HUMOR IRÔNICO E CRÍTICA SOCIAL NA NARRATIVA DO HOMEM RICO E DO POBRE LÁZARO

O trabalho aborda a micronarrativa do Homem rico e do pobre Lázaro de Lc. 16. 19-31. As relações entre os dois personagens da narrativa se mostram invertidas, sugerindo um tom irônico por parte do narrador lucano. A inversão os coloca no mesmo lugar, o Hades, mas em posições diferentes, gerando um conflito na narrativa. Buscou-se observar o motivo da inversão, seu papel na cena e seu impacto na trama da narrativa e em seus leitores. Examinou-se na sequência narrativa da parábola a relação entre seu enredo unificante e seu enredo episódico buscando o motivo dela dentro dessa sequência, o que demonstrou ser uma narrativa direcionada aos fariseus, onde sugerimos ter um tom irônico em uma crítica social. Buscou-se retratar o imaginário desse lugar de inversão, trazendo algumas imagens do imaginário judaico e greco-romano a partir de algumas fontes literárias, principalmente a obra Diálogo dos Mortos, de Luciano de Samósata do II séc. Demonstrou-se haver uma intertextualidade, onde ecos do relato lucano são vistos na obra de Luciano. Para tal elaboração, os passos da narratologia evidenciaram o que se pretendeu analisar.

On Record: Soundscapes as Metaphor and Physical Manifestation of Memory in Early Holocaust Novels and Contemporary Criticism

This thesis compares two perspectives on the production of Holocaust memory: a novel that leads up to The Holocaust in Britain and one that reflects the hindsight perspective of a liberator in the Soviet Union. The novels are Virginia Woolf’s BETWEEN THE ACTS and Vasily Grossman’s LIFE AND FATE. The analysis offers a locus of analysis for the diasporic literary energy created by the catastrophe in the 20th and 21st centuries. The project offers a theorized standpoint on the role of literature on official historical archives. Proposing a method through which contemporary readers can engage the diasporic event of The Holocaust, the project adopts both the extended metaphor and literal expression of soundscapes. Soundscapes encompass the immaterial processes of memorialization and the literal sonic textures developed in Holocaust novels. The critical perspective incorporates contemporary notions of narratology, archival practices, and cultural manifestations of language into the notion of literary ethnomusicology.

Fleshing Out and Losing Flesh: The Decomposing Corpse as Narrative Object in American Hardboiled Detective Fiction

This dissertation examines the corpse as an object in and of American hardboiled detective fiction written between 1920 and 1950. I deploy several theoretical frames, including narratology, body-as-text theory, object relations theory, and genre theory, in order to demonstrate the significance of objects, symbols, and things primarily in the clever and crafty work of Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) and Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), but also touching on the writings of their lesser known accomplices. I construct a literary genealogy of American hardboiled detective fiction originating in the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, compare the contributions of classic or Golden Age detective fiction in England, and describe the socio-economic contexts, particularly the predominance of the “pulps,” that gave birth to the realism of the Hardboiled School. Taking seriously Chandler’s obsession with the art of murder, I engage with how authors pre-empt their readers’ knowledge of the tricks of the trade and manipulate their expectations, as well as discuss the characteristics and effect of the inimitable hardboiled style, its sharpshooting language and deadpan humour. Critical scholarship has rarely addressed the body and figure of the corpse, preferring to focus instead on the machinations of the femme fatale, the performance of masculinity, or the prevalence of violence. I cast new light on the world of hardboiled detective fiction by dissecting the corpse as the object that both motivates and de-composes (or rots away from) the narrative that makes it signify. I treat the corpse as an inanimate object, indifferent to representation, that destabilizes the integrity and self-possession, as well as the ratiocination, of the detective who authors the narrative of how the corpse came to be. The corpse is all deceptive and dangerous surface rather than the container of hidden depths of life and meaning that the detective hopes to uncover and reconstruct. I conclude with a chapter that is both critical denouement and creative writing experiment to reveal the self-reflexive (and at times metafictional) dimensions of hardboiled fiction. My dissertation, too, in the manner of hardboiled fiction, hopes to incriminate my readers as much as enlighten them.

La imagen de España en la novela de viaje "Cabo de Gata" de Eugen Ruge

Este artículo presenta un análisis de la imagen de España trazada en la novela Cabo de Gata (2013). Con ello se toma en consideración un género que, hasta ahora, ha recibido poca atención en la investigación de la imagen de España en la literatura de viajes alemana. El foco del análisis lo constituyen tanto el motivo del viaje como la percepción y representación de lo ajeno español. Por último, el análisis narratológico de los diversos aspectos seleccionados de la técnica narrativa nos servirá para delimitar la repercusión imagológica de la novela.

Moments of Rupture: Narratological Readings of Contemporary German Literature

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08