In his novels on India, Rushdie finds it necessary to employ the mythical mode which accommodates the deeply religious as well as the secular side of the nation. Especially in Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh, the Hindu gods dance through his pages, taking on the myt…
"32" Result
Sort By:
This thesis is an interpretation of the evolution of Wittgenstein's view of language. I distinguish three main phases in this evolution according to what Wittgenstein considers to be the basis of the distinction between correct and incorrect uses of language, between sense and n…
This dissertation explores the relationships between John 6 and Exodus. Although many interpreters have noted connections between these texts, the predominant reading has been to emphasize the way in which Jesus replaces or supersedes the former things. For example, most have id…
Identity-based conflict is a complex and pervasive form of contemporary war. These conflicts are macro-social and involve two or more groups that are organized around aspects of religious, ethnic or political identity. This dissertation focuses on the role of “conflict narrative…
This study is an attempt to trace the evolution of the medieval phoenix icon and its attendant symbolism (e.g., numbers, meanders, chevrons, olive branches) and meaning (e.g., resurrection, inconquerable spirit, self-regeneration, androgyny). The study follows these attendant sy…
This dissertation examines the contemporary social function of Malian jelis (‘griots’), arguing that material compensation and caste status are essential to a signifying practice with profound continuing relevance. As Mande society's hereditary “masters of the word,” jelis entra…
Metaphors raise several problems for semantic theory and the philosophy of language. How, for example, is metaphorical language distinguished from literal language? Do metaphors have a linguistic or semantic meaning beyond the literal meaning of the words? Are metaphors either t…
This study is the first to examine the potential moderating effects of positive and negative religious coping, trait forgiveness, and meaning in military duties on the identified link between combat exposure and subsequent symptoms of generalized psychological distress and postt…
This study examines the relationship between sound and meaning in medieval Arabic linguistic theory, with particular attention given to the work of Ibn Jinni. The historical background of discussions of the relationship between sound and meaning in the Arabic linguistic traditio…
The opening chapters of Islamic legal theory manuals offer extended discussions of the language of the Qur'an, and principles for its interpretation. This discourse takes the form of detailed analyses of specific verbal constructions--for example, when a command has the form "if…
Means of Intelligibility is a study in comparative semiotics based in three groups of Classical Arabic texts. After a consideration of the semiotic paradigms of Aristotle and Augustine and their continuing preponderance in the post-Hellenic West, the dissertation's first chapter…