ETD@CUA collection: 2011 Fall / 2012 Spring

Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts: Context and Canons

2012-02-15T20:55:01Z

Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts: Context and Canons Kopfstein-Penk, Alicia Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) was recently featured in BBC Magazine with the headline “Why he was the greatest musician of modern times”. No other twentieth-century musician has inspired so many people from all walks of life as profoundly as this composer, conductor, pedagogue, humanitarian, and activist. The growth of Bernstein's career coincided with the growth of the new medium of television; thus, many knew him primarily through his broadcasts. Yet this facet of Bernstein remains completely unexplored by scholars.His fifty-three hour-long award-winning Young People's Concerts (1958-1972) are among his most significant television work but have been relegated to the periphery of his life. The series provides a window into how this musical genius was shaped by his times, and in turn how he attempted (both consciously and unconsciously) to use television to influence the world. Archival work, interviews, and a comparison of a timeline of American history with the scripts permits a four part investigation of the programs. The first part sets the stage by documenting the inception, production issues, Nielsen ratings, sponsors, and the selection process for both topics and works (revealing the sound economic basis of Bernstein's decisions). The second and third parts investigate how Bernstein's own cultural, political, and social context influenced him, and how he attempted to influence his audience. Unbeknownst to viewers, Bernstein addressed the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, civil rights, and feminism in a surreptitious, non-confrontational manner. As an early “post modernist”, the programs show how he easily integrated elements from lowbrow and middlebrow culture into these highbrow programs. The final part studies Bernstein's programming of and reactions to modernism (his tonal bias is evident) and his quest to nurture American music. No other musician in the late twentieth century so fully addressed the issues of the day as did Bernstein, and no other classical musician has ever been so widely seen. Through the Young People's Concerts, he not only spread his love of music but raised his artistic voice from this bully pulpit to work for a better world. Degree awarded: Ph.D. Musicology. The Catholic University of America; This dissertation can be viewed by CUA users only.

A Phenomenology of Having

2012-02-15T20:54:54Z

A Phenomenology of Having Yu, Yang The term having easily triggers associations of possession, particularly that of material possession, which can in turn connote vulgarity. This sequence of ideas is so natural that it could have been the inspiration for Gabriel Marcel's Being and Having, and Erich Fromm's To Have or To Be, two books that reprimand the attitude of having in various aspects of life.In this dissertation, however, I attempt to reveal the philosophical significance of having by articulating a phenomenological understanding of it. Metaphysically speaking, I argue, having is no less important than being. Crucial to my argument are two distinctions: one between having and possession, and another between having and being.The two distinctions are developed in two steps, the first being my critical evaluation of the being-having dichotomy set up by Gabriel Marcel in his Being and Having. Marcel misidentifies having with possession, and his negative attitude toward having results from that misidentification. While I disapprove Marcel's being-having dichotomy, I accept the two eidetic moments of having he discovers in his study of having (the tension between within and without, and the distinction between the self and the other) and employ them in my study of Husserl. Turning to Edmund Husserl's Ideas I and Cartesian Meditations, I show that the two eidetic moments of having are operative in Husserl's methods of phenomenological epoché and transcendental reduction, and for this reason the two methods are the transcendental ego's means to achieve its self-evidence, that is, its self-having. The transcendental ego's self-having is then shown to be constitutive of being, and it also serves as both the archē; and the telos of Husserl's transcendental phenomenology. I conclude that Husserl's phenomenology can rightly be called a phenomenology of having because its subject matter, methodology, and terminology all can be understood in terms of having.I close the present dissertation by pointing out how a larger research project that aims at elucidating the topic of having in the history of philosophy (for example, in Plato and Aristotle's epistemology and metaphysics) can be carried out, and how this project could benefit greatly from Husserl's phenomenology. Degree awarded: Ph.D. Philosophy. The Catholic University of America

Silence Through Representation: La Malinche as Christian, Mistress, and Conquistadora

2012-02-15T20:54:48Z

Silence Through Representation: La Malinche as Christian, Mistress, and Conquistadora Sweet, Colleen A. Silence Through Representation: La Malinche as Christian, Mistress andConquistadoraColleen A. Sweet, Ph.D.Director: Mario A. Ortiz, Ph.D.La Malinche played a major role in the Mexican Conquest. She is known as both mistress and translator of Hernán Cortés. In Mexican history, her name is associated with betrayal. The year 1992 was pivotal in the discourse concerning the encounter between Europe and the Americas. Postcolonial studies stressed the need to recover the long-silenced voice of the subaltern characters of the Conquest. This search for an indigenous perspective inspired a new body of artistic works concerning Malinche. In this dissertation I examine the film La otra conquista (Salvador Carrasco, 1998), the novel Malinche (Laura Esquivel, 2006), and the play La Malinche (Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda, 2000). These works address three major roles associated with the representation of Malinche: as convert to Christianity, as mistress to Cortés, and as collaborator in the events of the Conquest. The works under study posit new explorations into the role of both female and indigenous figures in the discourse of the Conquest of Mexico. In La otra conquista, Carrasco removes Malinche from the historical record and replaces her with a revisionist figure. The character of Isabel Moctezuma subverts the traditional representation of Amerindian female women as passive victims of Mexico's colonial past. In her novel Malinche, by turning Malinche into a romance heroine not only does Esquivel silence her, she also perpetuates a model of passivity for Amerindian women. In La Malinche, Rascón Banda fragments Malinche into many different characters in order to parallel the political divisiveness plaguing Mexico after the crisis of 1994. Malinche is an ever-changing palimpsest that serves to broach the issues of Mexican, Latin American, feminine, and indigenous identity that each author wishes to revisit. The representations of Malinche in these works remind us that the relationships of domination and subordination from our historical past still echo today. Thus, Malinche's silence underscores the impossibility of rescuing the subaltern from historical obscurity. Degree awarded: Ph.D. Spanish. The Catholic University of America

Aesthetic Origins: Peter Viereck and the Imaginative Sources of Politics

2012-02-15T20:54:41Z

Aesthetic Origins: Peter Viereck and the Imaginative Sources of Politics Starliper, Jay Patrick Aesthetic Origins: Peter Viereck and the Imaginative Sources of PoliticsJay Patrick Starliper, Ph.D.Director: Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D.In 1941, as Germany invaded Russia and Japan prepared to bomb Pearl Harbor, a Harvard University Ph.D. named Peter Viereck published Metapolitics: From Wagner and the German Romantics to Hitler<\italic>. It argued that the chief driving force behind National Socialism was a diseased imagination. A young Viereck made the ostensibly absurd claim that a certain shade of German romanticism had generated one of the most destructive political movements in the history of the world. Nazism was the culmination of over a century and a half of imaginative extravagance and pollution. This book inaugurated what would become a central theme in Viereck’s work: the power of the imagination to shape politics and society, for good or ill. Although Viereck’s conservative humanism influenced many prominent thinkers, his ideas on how the imagination affects politics have not been explored in depth. Utilizing a traditional hermeneutic of Viereck’s relevant prose and poesy, this dissertation examines his view of the political significance of the imagination and how we can improve our grasp of how society and politics evolve. Viereck believed that the imagination shapes custom and culture and thus determines what values govern the daily lives of individuals. Society greatly needs elevated works of imagination that omit neither the dark side of human life, nor the constant struggle between ethically opposed potentialities. At the bottom of our ability to distinguish among goodness, truth and beauty and their opposites is the ethically infused imagination, which is typically inspired by the wisdom of the ages. It is the duty of persons of this inspiration to expose endearing but illusory and dangerous dreams, but also conserve, rearticulate and refurbish humane civilization. Liberty is threatened by “overadjustment,” the uncritical adherence to existing patterns. Both stale imagination and irresponsible fancy threaten the loving higher obligations that make life worth living. In elucidating and assessing Viereck’s view that we can understand political phenomena better by exploring their aesthetic origins, this dissertation suggests ways of analyzing the political problems of the present time. Degree awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America

A Program for a Christian Social Order: The Organic Democracy of René de La Tour du Pin

2012-02-15T20:54:35Z

A Program for a Christian Social Order: The Organic Democracy of René de La Tour du Pin Sladky, Joseph F.X. A Program for a Christian Social Order: The Organic Democracy of René de La Tour du PinJoseph F.X. Sladky, Ph.D.Director: Rev. Jacques M. Gres-Gayer, Th.Dr., Hist.Dr.René de La Tour du Pin was one of the leading social Catholic theorists during the latter half of the nineteenth century. This dissertation examines La Tour du Pin’s role in attempting to lay the foundations for a more just and representative Christian social order. There is a particular focus on the analysis of his social theories and the examination of the utility and foresight of his many contributions to Catholic social thought.La Tour du Pin was at the helm of Association catholique, the most influential social Catholic journal in late nineteenth century Europe. He was also the secretary and moving spirit behind the Fribourg Union, a multi-national group of prominent and influential social Catholics, whose expertise was drawn upon by Pope Leo XIII in the drafting of Rerum Novarum. Later, some of his ideas found their way into Quadragesimo anno. Through his corporative system he promoted a program which organized society by social function and which gave corporations public legal recognition and autonomy in all areas pertaining to their proper sphere. As this corporative system extended itself into the political arena, it would grant a proportionate, yet real representation to all segments of society by true participation.Concerning sources, I have drawn primarily upon La Tour du Pin’s central work, Vers un ordre social, his articles from Association catholique, and his shorter work Aphorismes de politique social. This dissertation begins with a survey of the historical, religious and socio-economic environment of the nineteenth century. The thought of important thinkers who shaped La Tour du Pin’s views is then examined. This is followed by a brief biography of the thinker’s life. Next, his social theories are investigated and analyzed. His ideas on the family, the Church’s role in society, corporations, decentralization of power, the role of the State, and political representation are comparatively analyzed with the social works of thinkers such as Locke, Rousseau, and Tocqueville. La Tour du Pin’s ideas are also assessed and critiqued by the Church’s social teaching, especially that of the popes. Lastly, his influence on later thought and politics is assessed. Degree awarded: Ph.D. Church History. The Catholic University of America; This dissertation can be viewed by CUA users only. [6 months embargo]

Finding God, Finding Me: Catholic Moral Development and Catholic High School Service-Learning

2012-02-15T20:54:28Z

Finding God, Finding Me: Catholic Moral Development and Catholic High School Service-Learning Ritchie-Carter, Cristiana Finding God; Finding Me: Catholic Moral Development and Catholic High School Service Learning.Cristiana Ritchie-Carter, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012Dissertation Director: Professor, Merylynn Schuttloffel, Ph.D Catholic Educational Leadership The primary goals of my study were: 1) to provide an understanding of the processes through which the socio-cultural tools provided by Catholic high-school service-learning pedagogy, mediate moral action. 2) to explore the experiences of Catholic service-learner exemplars and the processes, tools, language and symbols used to describe their experiences and subsequent moral action, and 3) to seek the possible connections between moral action and religious identity as it develops within a particular socio-cultural context. This study is qualitative and uses a multiple-case study design. I choose this methodology as it provides rich descriptions and deeply explores the phenomenon of continued moral action of young adults after participation in Catholic high school service-learning. The findings of my study determined that Catholic high school service-learning programs are a means for forming young persons who are not only committed to service, but are committed to living their faith in a way that is consistent with their moral identity. Furthermore, these young people demonstrate a distinctly Catholic moral identity that is consistent with the Catholic socio-cultural context of their high school programs. Implications for practice are presented. Degree awarded: Ph.D. Early Christian Studies. The Catholic University of America

Investigation of Noise Sources in Laser Doppler Vibrometer Measurements

2012-02-15T20:54:21Z

Investigation of Noise Sources in Laser Doppler Vibrometer Measurements O'Malley, Patrick Francis The laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) is a tool which can detect a Doppler shift induced in a laser beam incident on a vibrating target. This Doppler shift is processed to yield information about the velocity at which the target is vibrating. LDV systems have evolved from custom built laboratory instruments in the late 1960s to widely used, commercially available tools. A particular aspect of LDV systems that has not been thoroughly investigated in a unified manner is the way in which measurement conditions impart noise into the velocity signal. This work investigates several noise sources including target surface roughness, standoff distance, beam focus, angle of incidence, and amplitude-dependent noise. There is little literature dedicated to addressing the consequences of these fundamental noise sources, all of which confront LDV systems in every measurement. The aim of this dissertation is to study these noise sources and contribute meaningful analysis that will be of use to those in the LDV community who are concerned with maximizing measurement quality. A novel three-dimensional contour scanning LDV measurement system has been developed which allows measurement along vectors relative to the surface normal of the target. This unique system raised issues which motivated the investigation of noise sources in LDV. A new method of looking at the noise field, which considers standoff distance and beam focus, is presented, illustrating the complicated nature of LDV noise. These noise maps provide a starting point to a more detailed investigation of surface roughness effects. Methods for characterizing measurement noise arising from focus error and angle of incidence when the target has a rough surface are proposed and results from experiments performed on surfaces machined to a precise roughness average are used to draw conclusions about the effects of surface roughness.With LDV, the speckle phenomenon causes increased noise in measurements when the vibration amplitude increases. An experiment to characterize this behavior is presented, the results of which illustrate when this amplitude dependent noise will have potentially adverse effects on the measurement. Degree awarded: Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering. The Catholic University of America

Filicide in Medieval Narrative

2012-02-15T20:54:13Z

Filicide in Medieval Narrative McKenzie, Margaret Elizabeth The majority of children who appear in the narrative literatures of the Middle Ages garner attention because they mature into kings, queens, warriors, knights, or lovers. An oft ignored but significant type of literary child is the one who dies - sometimes at the hand of a parent - during the tale. This dissertation explores the purpose of such filicides featured in medieval narratives. While shocking to audiences even today, these killings have received little scholarly attention, and extant studies, though valuable, are hampered by their narrowness of scope.This study widens the field with a multilingual approach that permits the consideration of works based upon Celtic and Germanic mythology and heroic tales alongside their more famous and frequently studied continental and British counterparts. Primary texts identified through consultation of tale-type indices and reviews of secondary literature were grouped for evaluation by content: medieval adaptations of classical narratives, feudal narratives, Celtic narratives, and Germanic narratives. Historical and legal materials aid in the contextualization of these tales.These filicide episodes, regardless of origin, serve a dual purpose within their narratives, to captivate with gripping material and to educate through example. Patterns regarding victims and perpetrators transcend linguistic and cultural boundaries. Few females become victims, and all those are adolescents; male victims range in age from infancy to adulthood. All these deaths, even those where the child's characterization is minimal, highlight social anxieties, including concerns about preserving one's lineage and promoting social order. These narratives further demonstrate a sacrificial ability of mothers that was previously ascribed only to fathers. Degree awarded: Ph.D. Comparative Literature. The Catholic University of America