Order No: AAC 1383416 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE INFLUENCE OF UKIYO-E WOODCUTS ON THE PRINTS OF ARTHUR WESLEY DOW (MODERNISM)
Author: WATANABE, KAORU
School: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY (0128) Degree: MA Date: 1996
pp: 73
School: FLOYD, PHYLIS
Source: MAI 35/03, p. 608, Jun 1997
Subject: ART HISTORY (0377)
Abstract: Arthur Wesley Dow, an artist and art educator who
contributed to lead the development of Modernism in American art,
established a style for his woodcut prints through the influence of
Japanese art, especially Ukiyo-e prints and Zen ink paintings. The
influence of Japanese art can be observed more clearly in his prints
than in this paintings; therefore, his prints will be the focus of
this study in order to expand the existing scholarship on the
influence of Japanese art on Dow's artistic theories and style. This
project suggests that Dow was much more inspired by Hiroshige's
poetic expression of natural scenery than that of any other Ukiyo-e
artist, as Dow's adaptation of Hiroshige's compositional devices
shows. His mature style demonstrates an exploration of a harmonious
relation of colors and tones, which reflects the gradation technique
of Zen ink painting as well as Japanese Ukiyo-e prints.
Order No: AAC 9705515 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SIGNALING PATHWAYS AND TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS IN THE DROSOPHILA EMBRYO
Author: RUSCH, JANNETTE
School: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO (0033) Degree: PHD
Date: 1996 pp: 120
School: LEVINE, MICHAEL S.
Source: DAI-B 57/09, p. 5501, Mar 1997
Subject: BIOLOGY, MOLECULAR (0307); BIOLOGY, GENETICS (0369)
Abstract: Signaling between cells plays a crucial role for the
determination of cell fates during development, by altering patterns
of gene expression in the target cell. In the early Drosophila
embryo, a variety of signaling pathways are involved in several
aspects of dorsal-ventral patterning and the establishment of
different tissue types.
A signaling pathway triggered by the activation of the
interleukin-1 receptor-like Toll protein leads to the graded
transport of the Rel protein dorsal (dl) into nuclei, where it
functions both as an activator and a repressor of gene transcription.
Here I present evidence that the lateral diffusion of the activated
Toll receptor may contribute to the formation of this dl gradient in
the early syncytial embryo. Moreover, evidence is presented that the
transcriptional activity of dl is also influenced by the torso
receptor tyrosine kinase pathway active at the embryonic poles. The
torso pathway, acting via the intracellular components D-raf and MAP
kinase, specifically blocks the ability of the dl protein to repress
target genes such as zerknullt at the poles, while not affecting dl's
ability to activate other targets, such as the mesoderm determinants
twist and snail.
The patterning of the dorsal half of the embryo is accomplished
by the action of an activity gradient of the TGF$/beta$-like protein
decapentaplegic (dpp), leading to the establishment of the
amnioserosa and the dorsal epidermis tissues. Here, I analyze the
activation of an amnioserosa-specific dpp target gene, Race. By
misexpressing dpp I show that the functions of several other zygotic
genes can be circumvented by high levels of dpp, suggesting that most
of these genes act by establishing or maintaining the dpp activity
gradient. A combination of biochemical analysis and P-transformation
assays is used to demonstrate that dpp activates Race via the
zerknullt (zen) homeodomain transcription factor. Furthermore,
analysis of a zenVP16 transgene suggests that the dpp pathway acts by
modification of the zen protein. Genetic analysis indicates that zen
cooperates with a second transcription factor, possibly dFOS. From
these results, I propose a model for dpp haploinsufficiency.
Order No: AAC 9617496 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: MOLECULAR CLONING AND FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERIZATIONS OF CHICKEN CARDIAC TENSIN (ACTIN CAPPING PROTEIN)
Author: CHUANG, JEN-ZEN
School: THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (0098) Degree: PHD
Date: 1996 pp: 91
Source: DAI-B 57/01, p. 114, Jul 1996
Subject: BIOLOGY, MOLECULAR (0307); BIOLOGY, CELL (0379)
Abstract: Tensin (200 kDa) is an F-actin capping protein initially
purified from chicken gizzard smooth muscle and immunolocalized to
various types of adherens junctions. This dissertation describes the
isolation and characterization of the cDNA encoding chicken cardiac
tensin as well as the identification of its actin filament capping
site. The isolated cDNA comprises 6,347 nucleotides and contains an
open reading frame of $/sim$5.4 kb encoding 1792 amino acids. In
transfected mammalian cells, tensin cDNA initiates protein
translation at methionine 55 and produces a polypeptide of $/sim$200
kDa (M55-R1792) recognizable by antibodies to chicken gizzard tensin.
Antibody made to a 24-mer peptide synthesized according to deduced
peptide sequence down stream from this site (M55-T78) also recognizes
the expressed protein as well as the 200 kDa tensin polypeptides
prepared from various chicken tissues. In transfected 3T3 mouse
fibroblasts, this polypeptide is colocalized with the termini of
actin stress fibers at focal adhesions (cell-substrate junctions).
Bacterially expressed tensin deletion derivatives produce capping
effects similar to that of 165 kDa gizzard tensin. These effects are
attributable to a protein module of only 85 amino acid residues,
S1061-H1145. The sequence comprising this protein module contains a
tandem repeat in which the repeated segments (35 residues each) are
bridged by an intervening stretch of 14 residues. Three strong PEST
sequences (conditional signal for rapid intracellular proteolysis)
are found in K1039-R1163. Of these, two are embracing the tandem
repeat, and one coincides with the intervening sequence. Consensus
phosphorylation motifs for cdc kinase, protein kinase c, and tyrosin
kinase are also found in the vicinity of the capping site.
These findings, however, contradicts the conclusion of Lo et al.
(1994a) that a different region (S935-S1036) contains the capping
site, and that tensin produces an 'actin-insertion' effect rather
than classical F-actin capping effect. The 'actin-insertion' effect
was originally proposed by Wegner's group to explain the properties
of gizzard insertin, now known to be a proteolytic fragment
comprising residue R909-R1287 of tensin (Ruhnau, et al., 1989; Weigt,
et al., 1992). To clarify this controversial issue, nucleated
elongation assay and actin depolymerization assay were carried out on
deletion derivatives made to encompass the respective regions. The
results indicate that S1061-H1145 is essential and sufficient for
capping effects, whereas S935-S1036 shows no apparent effect on both
assays.
Order No: AAC 9620098 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: CHARACTERIZATION, IDENTIFICATION AND CLONING OF THE C-REACTIVE PROTEIN RECEPTOR ON HUMAN MONOCYTE
Author: ZEN, QIN
School: THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY (0168) Degree: PHD Date: 1996
pp: 136
School: MORTENSEN, RICHARD F.
Source: DAI-B 57/02, p. 907, Aug 1996
Subject: BIOLOGY, MOLECULAR (0307)
Abstract: C-reactive protein (CRP), the prototype inflammatory acute
phase reactant, interacts with monocytes and neutrophils via a
specific receptor and influences their effector functions. To map the
site on CRP recognized by the CRP-receptor (CRP-R), synthetic
peptides corresponding to functional domains as well as other regions
within each of the subunits of CRP were tested as competitors vs.
($/sp[125]$I) -CRP in cell-binding assays with U937 monocytic cells.
A peptide of residues 27 through 38 (TKPLKAFTVCLH) efficiently
inhibited CRP binding when compared to other non-overlapping
peptides. Competitive binding studies with synthetic peptides
truncated from either the NH$/sb2$- or COOH-terminus of the Pep27-38
revealed that the minimum length recognized by the CRP-R consisted of
residues 31 through 36: KAFTVC. Conservative substitutions of
residues within the 12 residue Pep27-38 indicated that the four
residues, AFTV, were critical for CRP-R binding. Anti-Pep27-38 IgG Ab
reacted more extensively with heat-modified CRP than untreated CRP
suggesting that an altered conformation of CRP is preferentially
recognized by the CRP-R. The results suggest that this contiguous
sequence on a $/beta$-strand on one face of each of the CRP subunits
serves as a unique motif recognized by inflammatory cells.
The partial amino acid sequences of CRP-R obtained from
CRP-affinity chromatography demonstrated that the CRP-R is a unique
receptor present on both monocytes and granulocytes, that is
different from any types of Fc$/gamma$Rs. Previous reports indicated
that the isolated, partially purified CRP-Rs from U937 cells are 40
and 55-60 kDa; however, anti CRP-R monoclonal and polyclonal
antibodies generated against the 40 kDa protein demonstrated that the
40 and 55-60 kDa proteins are most likely the degradation products of
an 85 kDa protein. In addition, a 66 kDa membrane protein from both
U937 and HL-60 cells was co-captured by both CRP and antibodies along
with the 85 kDa protein, and is not recognized by the anti-CRP-R
antibodies in immunoblots. These observations suggest that the 66 kDa
protein is distinct from the 85 kDa CRP-R and its degradation
products; therefore it seems likely that the 66 kDa membrane protein
is a CRP-R associated protein.
Order No: AAC 9619405 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF ELECTROKINETIC PHENOMENA IN BRINE-SATURATED POROUS MATERIALS
Author: LI, SIDNEY XI
School: UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS (0118) Degree: PHD
Date: 1996 pp: 133
School: WONG, PO-ZEN
Source: DAI-B 57/02, p. 1109, Aug 1996
Subject: CHEMISTRY, PHYSICAL (0494); PHYSICS, CONDENSED MATTER
(0611); GEOPHYSICS (0373)
Abstract: When a pressure difference is applied to the two ends of a
capillary tube containing an electrolyte, the fluid flow will induce
an electric current flow. Streaming potential (STP) will result
across the capillary tube when there is no net electrical current
flow. Conversely when a voltage difference is applied to the two ends
of a capillary tube containing an electrolyte, the electric current
flow will induce the fluid flow. This is called Electroosmosis (ELO).
The electroosmotic counter pressure will result when there is no net
fluid flow. We investigated experimentally streaming potential and
electroosmosis associated with brine flowing through porous media.
Rock and sintered glass beads samples are made in the form of porous
plugs which are then saturated with aqueous NaCl solutions.
The experimental set-up is automated through a computer
interface. Lock-in amplification and FFT techniques are used and
their advantages over conventional DC flow method are demonstrated.
Streaming potential and electroosmosis coefficients are measured
along with permeability and conductivity. These linear response
coefficients give a complete description of electrical and fluid
transport properties.
Onsager's relations are verified in our experimental data. We
then propose a new way of measuring the throat size and the
permeability of the porous materials. We also find when we change the
electrolyte concentration, the surface properties of different
samples show a different characteristics. We will propose a method to
detect the thickness of a mudcake using STP frequency spectrum.
Order No: AAC 9639413 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: WRITERS AT PLAY: A STUDY OF THE USE OF PLAY STRATEGIES IN A COLLEGE CLASSROOM TO ALLEVIATE WRITER'S BLOCK AND ENCOURAGE THE DEVELOPMENT OF A WRITER'S AUTHENTIC VOICE
Author: MILLER, CORINNE LILLIAN
School: MIAMI UNIVERSITY (0126) Degree: PHD Date: 1996 pp: 190
School: DAIKER, DONALD A.
Source: DAI-A 57/07, p. 2919, Jan 1997
Subject: EDUCATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (0279); EDUCATION,
HIGHER (0745); JOURNALISM (0391)
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to observe what happens when
students encounter unfamiliar strategies of play in an arena of usual
seriousness, writing. The impetus behind the course as the teacher
envisioned it was to encourage the students to become independent
self-learners and experience the joy of writing in an authentic
voice. The purpose of the researcher was to observe, document,
describe, and interpret the students' responses to nontraditional
play activities.
This ethnographically oriented study follows a triangular
qualitative research approach of using observation, in-depth
interviews, and documents such as surveys and questionnaires to find
out how student participants responded to nontraditional play
activities in a college writing classroom. This study differs from
most research in written composition in that it focuses on play
activities and students' attitudes rather than the evaluation of
actual student writing, presenting students' responses, experiences,
and stories in their own words as often as possible.
Chapter One presents theories of play, Zen Buddhism, and
composition and how they can tap the subconscious mind to influence a
writer's voice and creativity. Chapter Two describes the setting and
introduces the participants, the teacher, and the researcher. Chapter
Three explains the methodology of the study. Chapter Four delineates
the traditional and nontraditional play activities and the students'
responses to them. Chapter Five presents the students' evaluations of
the course as a whole and the researcher's interpretation of the
data.
The students responded more positively to the class as a whole
than to each individual play exercise. Since they had been trained in
traditional academic settings, some of the students were uneasy with
the individual play exercises. Some were self-conscious, others
impatient with what appeared to them as diversions from the serious
job of learning. Most welcomed the opportunity to explore other
approaches to writing. The majority of students felt that this class
improved their attitude toward writing and their actual writing.
Order No: AAC 9716459 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE RELEVANCE OF CH'AN/ZEN BUDDHISM TO ISSUES IN ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY RELATIVE TO MORAL EDUCATION (BUDDHISM)
Author: KUO, SHUN-MEI
School: INDIANA UNIVERSITY (0093) Degree: PHD Date: 1996
pp: 346
School: STEINER, ELIZABETH
Source: DAI-A 57/12, p. 5095, Jun 1997
Subject: EDUCATION, PHILOSOPHY OF (0998); RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY OF (0322); PHILOSOPHY (0422)
Abstract: The dissertation is an analytical analysis of the ethical
propositions of Ch'an/Zen Buddhism relevant to the moral dimensions
of education. The doctrines of Ch'an/Zen Buddhism which are often
viewed as mystical, subjective, and illogical, seem unlikely to have
any significant normative implications for ethical questions that are
mainly concerned with the ordering of the world, the stability of the
society, and the evaluation of moral behavior. However, the result of
my research suggests that significant ethical implications reside in
the problem of traditional moral language itself which is dominantly
influenced by Rationalism. For Rationalism, morality belongs, very
much like geometric truth, within the realm of theoretical knowledge,
which emphasizes internally coherent and externally generalizable
system constructions. Its language, which is linear, reductionistic,
and dualistic in nature, creates a detachment from the real world and
from our direct experience of life. Ethical Rationalists see reality
from a discriminative standpoint, and they categorize moral values
into sets of oppositional extremes, such as good and evil, right and
wrong, etc.. Furthermore, knowing true knowledge is understood to
mean knowing what one ought to do and then should do accordingly.
From the ontological and epistemological perspectives of Ch'an/Zen
Buddhism, 'morality' is a kind of non-discriminating wisdom and is
hence totally different from theoretical knowledge. For Ch'an/Zen
Buddhism, the Ultimate Reality resides in indivisible, concrete, and
personal experience. There is nothing apart from one's own
self-nature; any dualistic conceptualization of objectivity and
subjectivity, goodness and evil, is incomplete and illusory.
Ethically speaking, the highest Good is not seen as a conquest over
evil, nor as the obtaining of good by eliminating evil, but is to be
completely free from the antinomy of good and evil and to realize
Sunyata (Absolute Emptiness) as the Ultimate Reality. And,
educationally speaking, the highest goal of moral education is the
actualization of authentic and sincere personality; and this
personality is not an egoistic self, but a compassionate non-self
self.
Order No: AAC 1382790 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE GREENING OF AMERICAN ZEN: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW AND SPECIFIC APPLICATION (BUDDHISM)
Author: YAMAUCHI, JEFFREY SCOTT
School: PRESCOTT COLLEGE (MASTER OF ARTS PROGRAM) (1181)
Degree: MA Date: 1996 pp: 132
School: UTTER, JACK
Source: MAI 35/03, p. 639, Jun 1997
Subject: EDUCATION, RELIGIOUS (0527); AMERICAN STUDIES (0323);
EDUCATION, SCIENCES (0714)
Abstract: This thesis represents an exploration of the integration
of Zen Buddhism and environmentalism. The so-called 'greening' of
American Zen is a recent phenomenon that has been especially active
in the last decade. In order to better describe the emergence of Zen
environmentalism, the thesis is designed into three parts: (1) an
historical overview of Zen from its origins in India to its arrival
in America (2) an examination of the works of Eihei Dogen and Gary
Snyder, and (3) a case study of Zen Mountain Center, California. The
first two parts are theoretical investigations, while the last part
is direct application of environmentalism at a specific American Zen
center. A primary purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the
viability of American Zen as one religious path for addressing the
environmental crisis. Recommended readings on Buddhism and ecology
are also provided.
Order No: AAC 9708676 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: FUZZY IDENTIFICATION OF PROCESSES ON FINITE TRAINING SETS WITH KNOWN FEATURES
Author: DIAZ-ROBAINAS, REGINO R.
School: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY (0119) Degree: PHD
Date: 1996 pp: 184
School: HUANG, MING ZEN; ZILOUCHIAN, ALI
Source: DAI-B 57/10, p. 6442, Apr 1997
Subject: ENGINEERING, ELECTRONICS AND ELECTRICAL (0544); MATHEMATICS (0405); LANGUAGE, LINGUISTICS (0290)
Abstract: A methodology is presented to construct an approximate
fuzzy-mapping algorithm that maps multiple inputs to single outputs
given a finite training set of argument vectors functionally linked
to corresponding scalar outputs. Its scope is limited to problems
where the features are known in advance, or equivalently, where the
expected functional representation is known to depend exclusively on
the known selected variables. Programming and simulations to
implement the methodology make use of Matlab Fuzzy and Neural
toolboxes and a PC application of Prolog, and applications range from
approximate representations of the direct kinematics of parallel
manipulators to fuzzy controllers.
Order No: AAC 1380270 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: TOTALITY OF SPACE. (ORIGINAL ARTWORK)
Author: MIN, HELENA JIN AH
School: CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH (6080) Degree: MA Date: 1996 pp: 18
School: THIBEAULT, MARIE C.
Source: MAI 34/06, p. 2102, Dec 1996
Subject: FINE ARTS (0357); PHILOSOPHY (0422)
Abstract: The project took the form of a series of mixed media works
ranging in various sizes. The images were inspired primarily by the
study of the Confucianist, Taoist, Buddhist, and Zen roots of my
Korean culture as well as my childhood memory. Various aspects of
Korean aesthetics and philosophy were explored and understood through
the study and the process of making the project. In order to
emphasize the phenomenon of pictorial dynamics, a 'plane concept' was
adopted from the theories of Hans Hofmann. Through the project, which
was intended as the search for identity, I gained an immense
appreciation for my own culture as well as an effective synthesis of
Korean aesthetics and the western notion of space.
Order No: AAC 9633120 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF YAN YU'S CANGLANG SHIHUA: AN EARLY THIRTEENTH-CENTURY CHINESE POETRY MANUAL
Author: CHEN, RUEY-SHAN SANDY
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN (0227) Degree: PHD
Date: 1996 pp: 375
School: FAUROT, JEANNETTE L.
Source: DAI-A 57/06, p. 2485, Dec 1996
Subject: LITERATURE, ASIAN (0305); LITERATURE, COMPARATIVE (0295); LITERATURE, MEDIEVAL (0297)
Abstract: The Canglang shihua (Canglang's Remarks on Poetry) by Yan
Yu (fl. 1200) of the Southern Song dynasty, is widely recognized as
one of the finest works of Chinese poetry criticism. However, a
complete annotated translation of Yan Yu's work is not available in
English; current English journals and anthologies only contain
fragments of Yan's Remarks on Poetry. This dissertation provides a
complete translation of his work, supplemented by detailed
annotations of classical Chinese words, textual allusions, literary
traditions and figures, cultural concepts, legends, religious
beliefs, philosophies, and political and social conditions, designed
to give the modern reader access to this seminal work.
Yan Yu, as a literary theorist and poet, is remembered mostly for
two things: first, as an archaist advocating a return to High-Tang
poetry, which he admired because it possessed magnificent 'qixiang'
(atmosphere and imagery); second, his insightful analogy between the
process of attaining enlightenment in Zen Buddhism and the writing of
poetry. These two issues, along with some other topics raised by Yan
Yu himself and by later critics, are explored from various
perspectives in the Introduction. The intention is to achieve a
multidimensional understanding of Yan Yu's poetic and world views,
since Yan's aesthetic ideas still exert a far-reaching influence on
critics and readers in China and beyond.
The Canglang shihua consists of five sections. Part One:
Arguments on Poetry (Shibian)--the major thesis of Yan Yu's view of
poetry is laid out here. Part Two: Forms of Poetry (Shiti)--contains
a classification of poetic styles by time and person, and a list of
various poetic genres. Part Three: Methods of Poetry
(Shifa)--suggestions on how to write excellent poetry are offered.
Part Four: Commentaries on Poetry (Shiping)--individual poets and
poems are evaluated. Part Five: Proofs of Poetry (Shizheng)--textual
discrepancies are collated, and the authorship and dates of poems are
discussed.
Scholarship has traditionally focused on Parts One and Three due
to the obvious importance of their contents. However, the much
less-studied parts of the Canglang shihua can also contribute to an
understanding of Chinese poetic traditions, since in Part Two Yan Yu
provides a list of poetic styles and genres, valuable to the reader
in surveying and becoming familiar with Chinese poetry, thus
developing his 'shi' (ability to discern). Then in Parts Four and
Five where Yan Yu discusses poetry, the reader sees Yan Yu's sense of
'shi' at work in his evaluation and collation of poems as well as in
his judgment of the authenticity of attributed authorship.
Order No: AAC 9631764 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: APPRAISING THE CATCHWORDS, C. 1942-1959: JOHN CAGE'S ASIAN-DERIVED RHETORIC AND THE HISTORICAL REFERENCE OF BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE (NORTH CAROLINA)
Author: PATTERSON, DAVID WAYNE
School: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (0054) Degree: PHD Date: 1996
pp: 370
School: KRAMER, JONATHAN
Source: DAI-A 57/05, p. 1905, Nov 1996
Subject: MUSIC (0413); FINE ARTS (0357); THEATER (0465)
Abstract: Although the 1940s and 50s are widely recognized as the
period in which John Cage's aesthetic underwent its most profound
transformations, the idiosyncratic catchwords that characterize
biographical sketches or aesthetic summations of this period often
confound attempts at comprehension. This dissertation systematically
addresses these terms ('Coomaraswamy,' 'Huang-Po,' 'Black Mountain
College,' etc.), providing definitions and offering assessments of
their historical and aesthetic relevance to Cage.
Chapter I provides a general context for this study, reviewing
Cage scholarship to date and summarizing both the nature of his place
in New York's creative community and his persona in general during
this period. The chapter concludes with a preliminary categorization
of the techniques that Cage employed when appropriating material from
extraneous textual sources into his aesthetic prose.
Chapter II enumerates his appropriations from and more general
aesthetic affinities with South Asian philosophy and aesthetics,
specifically in light of the writings of Ananda Coomaraswamy and The
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
Chapter III details the continuity and evolution of Cage's
central aesthetic themes through his appropriations from East Asian
philosophy in the 1950s, including those drawn from Taoism, Buddhism,
and in particular instances, Zen.
Chapter IV historically documents Cage's visits to North
Carolina's Black Mountain College in 1848 and 1952, years that stand
at the beginning and end of his most significant transitional period
that led toward the adoption of indeterminate compositional
techniques. This study also attempts to contextualize several of the
aesthetic issues raised in previous chapters through the historic
example of his activities at the College.
An Epilogue concludes the textual portion of this dissertation.
The accompanying Appendix is a dual chronology spanning the years
1938 through 1954, including both a listing of significant events in
Cage's life (such as performances and lectures) and an inventory of
his creative output from this period.
Order No: AAC 9633061 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: 'ZAZEN' FOR ORCHESTRA. (ORIGINAL COMPOSITION)
Author: LAMBERT, JERELL AKIN
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN (0227) Degree: DMA
Date: 1996 pp: 75
School: GRANTHAM, DONALD
Source: DAI-A 57/06, p. 2261, Dec 1996
Subject: MUSIC (0413); RELIGION, GENERAL (0318)
Abstract: ZAZEN is a one-movement composition for orchestra
approximately thirteen minutes in duration. Zazen is a Japanese term
meaning 'sitting meditation' (za-sitting; seated zen-meditation;
concentration) and is the heart of the practice of Zen Buddhism,
particularly the sect of Soto Zen, founded by Dogen Zenji, a monk who
brought Zen (chan in Chinese) to Japan from China in 600 A.D.
ZAZEN, the composition, was inspired by the composer's two-year
residency as a student of Soto Zen at the San Francisco Zen Center
which took place between August 1988 and August 1990.
The piece is primarily concerned with depicting the early morning
activities at Zen Center, from waking to the point at which the
residents of the building (students and priests) are deep in
meditation in the zendo, the Japanese term for 'meditation hall'.
The main technique of composition employed in ZAZEN is that of
continuous variation. The musical material consists of five
integrated themes that undergo separate and combined developments
within a continuous but sectional structure.
The two main themes are entitled SANGHA and MONKEY MIND,
respectively. Sangha is a Sanskrit term referring to the community of
nuns and monks in a Buddhist monastery but in ZAZEN refers to the
residents of Zen Center. Monkey mind is a term describing the
agitated, grasping nature of the thoughts, feelings and perceptions
of human consciousness.
The remaining three themes are a sub-group of short musical ideas
and correspond in name and treatment to three positions held by the
composer while a student at Zen Center. These themes are titled
CHIDEN, FUKUDO, and DOSHI/JIKO, respectively.
The CHIDEN is responsible for maintenance of the various altars
throughout Zen Center. The FUKUDO is a signalperson/timekeeper that
announces the call to meditation by striking the han (a suspended
slab of wood struck by a long-handled wooden mallet), and wakes up
Zen Center's residents by running through the hallways ringing a
handbell. Doshi means 'priest' and his or her attendant is the jiko,
the position held by the composer. The doshi and jiko make an early
morning circuitous route to the various altars of Zen Center offering
incense before morning meditation. A highlight of ZAZEN is the
instrumental depiction of an 'Enlightenment' experience where the
meditator directly experiences the essential, absolute nature of
form, understanding in a flash of realization that the Absolute and
the Relative are two aspects of the same Reality.
Order No: AAC 9616406 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: DISCLOSURE OF PRESUPPOSITIONS: HUSSERLIAN PHENOMENOLOGY AND DOGEN'S ZEN (EDMUND HUSSERL)
Author: NODA, KEISUKE
School: NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH (0145) Degree: PHD
Date: 1996 pp: 366
School: BERNSTEIN, RICHARD J.; STAMBAUGH, JOAN
Source: DAI-A 57/02, p. 716, Aug 1996
Subject: PHILOSOPHY (0422); RELIGION, GENERAL (0318); RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY OF (0322)
Abstract: A power of thinking is often exhibited by its capacity for
disclosing unnoticed presuppositions which we take for granted. The
radicalness of philosophical thinking may be measured by its range
and the penetrating depth of its disclosure. Dogen and Husserl as
well as Nietzsche and Heidegger are radical enough in this regard.
What are presuppositions? This question is answerable only in a
manner unique to each thinker's mode of disclosure. Dogen and Husserl
detected various presuppositions and explicitly called for standing
on presuppositionlessness. Through the disclosure of the
presuppositions of modern sciences as the 'natural attitude,' Husserl
characterized phenomenology by contradistinction to modern sciences.
I trace Husserl's path to the formation of phenomenology exhibited in
The Idea of Phenomenology and Ideas I along with the explication of
his key insights.
The affinity between Husserl and Dogen has already been noticed
by a few phenomenologists. I step forward and attempt to interpret
Dogen's 'enlightenment' as presuppositionlessness. I explicate two
key fascicles of Shobogenzo, 'Being-time'(Uji) and 'Genjokoan.'
Dogen's 'forgetting the self,' 'dropping off body-mind,' are
interpreted as his call for presuppositionlessness and faithful
disclosure of what we directly encounter. Dogen detects the tendency
of our thinking to posit and cling to various stable constants. Dogen
captures the being of beings as 'being-time,'
taking-placeness-at-the-present. This problematizes an entire
problematic which separates being and time. Dogen's insight for the
eventfulness of the being is seen along with the explication of
various views of time in Western philosophy and Heidegger's criticism
of Descartes. Dogen's poetic and unusual expression is also
understood from his insight into the inadequacy of our language and
conceptual vocabularies which distortively stabilize the being.
Unlike Husserl, Dogen's path to presuppositionlessness is not
opened by changing a doxic stance. It demands one to drop off one's
hold of constants centered on the self by practical engagement in
'zazen.' The primacy of practice in Dogen's 'epoche' is understood in
relation to his insight into the radical universality of
hermeneutics, which is akin to Nietzsche's insight, the embodiment of
knowledge, and authentic knowing as awakening.
Order No: AAC 9705294 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: HOPE: PEDAGOGY IN A DESPAIRING WORLD (MYSTICISM, GNOSIS)
Author: MCLAURIN, WILLIAM MOORE, JR.
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO (0154)
Degree: PHD Date: 1996 pp: 196
School: PURPEL, DAVID E.
Source: DAI-A 57/09, p. 3974, Mar 1997
Subject: PHILOSOPHY (0422); ANTHROPOLOGY, CULTURAL (0326); RELIGION, GENERAL (0318)
Abstract: The first chapter asserts that we have exhausted our
cultural repertoire, careening through both modern certainty and
postmodern disorder without finding hope--the things in and for which
we have been told to hope do not keep us from despair. The chapter
critiques failed definitions of 'hope' and proposes boundaries for
this work which lead to a quest theme, and a series of questions
against which to test whatever might be found in that quest.
The second chapter expands the theme of cultural exhaustion,
maintaining that, if one is to avoid despair, the discovery by an
individual of this cultural failure must be intentional, the product
of a search which involves bringing conscious awareness to what are
usually automatistic behaviors. The necessary type of consciousness
for that search is found to occur in an eclectic group of
anthropologists, critical theorists, psychologists and iconoclasts--a
group whose work generally includes a critique of modernist
rationality, scientism, and control, as well as a critique of the
relativism endemic in postmodernism.
To render this search more generally accessible, a similar type
of consciousness is sought--and found--in several Christian
theologians, of a generally prophetic or liberation bent. Others, who
stand against such 'God talk', are acknowledged, and a path around
some of their objections sought in a negative theology, requiring the
sort of approach most familiar as 'skillful means' in Zen practice.
The fourth chapter is a personal narrative of this quest,
situating the author's sources from mystical traditions and his life
experience within the preceding analytical frame, and relating his
own encounter with the chasm's edge to a transcendental experience of
unreasonable assurance.
The final chapter looks back to consider what the preceding
analysis and narrative might say about how to be a teacher. It asks
what sort of pedagogy is implied in what has been asserted and
whether such a pedagogy might truly make a difference--questions to
which it responds affirmatively with a pedagogy and a credo grounded
in the perennial quest for Wisdom through transcendent experience and
manifested in a compassionate classroom praxis.
Order No: AAC 9710005 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: MEDITATION IN ZEN BUDDHISM (BUDDHISM)
Author: IIBACHI, KAZUKO
School: THE UNION INSTITUTE (1033) Degree: PHD Date: 1996
pp: 56
School: MOUSTAKAS, CLARK
Source: DAI-A 57/10, p. 4398, Apr 1997
Subject: PHILOSOPHY (0422); RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY OF (0322); RELIGION, GENERAL (0318)
Abstract: This dissertation investigates the question: 'How do Zen
Priests and Priestesses perceive and describe their experiences of
Meditation in Zen Buddhism?' A comprehensive review of Japanese
literature disclosed only two pertinent studies, both by Tamaki,
'Meditation and Experience' (1973) and 'Meditation and Thought'
(1984). A qualitative research design was utilized to obtain
data--vivid descriptions of the textures and structures of the
experience. From these, the meanings and essences of Meditation in
Zen were derived. Data were gathered from eight co-researchers in
open-ended interviews. The phenomenological research design included:
epoche, phenomenological reduction, eidetic variation, and synthesis.
Phenomenological theory and methods were delineated, and from the
analysis of data outcomes and conclusions were presented. The data
revealed six core themes: (1) Life is Zen; (2) Search For Oneself;
(3) Meditation and Silence in Zen; (4) Discovery and Enlightenment in
Zen; (5) Time in Zen; and (6) Essence of Zen. These themes were
supported and explicated by verbatim descriptions from the data.
Psychological, educational, and societal implications, as well as
suggestions, for future research were addressed.
Order No: AAC 9704755 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: AN EXISTENTIAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL HISTORICAL INQUIRY INTO THE AWARENESS OF SILENCE AS A TRANSPERSONAL PARADIGM
Author: BALLOU, STEVEN FRANCIS
School: THE UNION INSTITUTE (1033) Degree: PHD Date: 1996
pp: 221
Source: DAI-B 57/09, p. 5905, Mar 1997
Subject: PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL (0622); PHILOSOPHY (0422); RELIGION,GENERAL (0318)
Abstract: This review began with an extensive review of the
literature in western psychology, its relation to eastern philosophy,
and to spiritual teachings. Using this as a foundation, the
historical beginnings and the evolution of psychology were discussed
as a precursor to the transpersonal explorations currently being
researched today.
This was a heuristic study into the awareness of Silence. The
intent and goal was to interview men and women who practice
meditation, or, contemplative techniques, to find if they had any
transformational relationship to Silence.
This study found: that (a) Silence is not always a focal point in
the practice of meditation and contemplation. (b) Silence can be a
reference point in the practice of meditation and contemplation. (c)
Silence can, at times, precipitate a change that is mild, humorous,
dynamic, transformative, or adorational. (d) Silence as a tool for
contemplative therapy is a possibility that still needs to be
explored since there was not enough evidence in the literature to
either accept it or reject it.
The study did find, through the review of the literature that
Silence has a relationship to the Tibetan Buddhist reference to
shunyata, to (Japanese) Zen Buddhist reference to sunyata, to
American Quakerism reference to quietism, and to Christian
Benedictine Order's reference to solitude.
The study also indicated that a state-specific definition of
Silence is dependent on an individual relationship to the
comprehension of Silence, that is also dependent on the individual's
awareness of the psycho-social or psycho-spiritual contextualization
of Silence.
Finally, Silence can be benefited by further study in the area of
psychotherapy, for its relevancy to communication, insight, and
psychopathology. This current study does not substantiate the
conclusive findings in this particular area of psychotherapy, but it
certainly points others in that direction.
In conclusion, Silence as a reference point, has the ability and
capacity to increase awareness of one's relationship to noise,
thinking, experience, to being 'there', to reality, to other people,
and to one's self. It is not a focal point of dialectical substance.
It does not have the ability to constitute a field of cognitive
ideation in the area of philosophy, religion, education, or
psychology. However, as part of the perennial philosophy throughout
documented history, it pre-supposes and superimposes the structural
content of all the above-mentioned fields of cognitive ideation.
Because of this point, Silence does have a relevancy to our lives,
scientifically and spiritually.
Order No: AAC NN11858 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: BEYOND LANGUAGE: MYSTICS AND THE LANGUAGE TRAP
Author: SMITH-EIVEMARK, PHILIP JOHN
School: UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO (CANADA) (0779) Degree: PHD
Date: 1996 pp: 309
School: TURNER, DAVID H.
Source: DAI-A 57/08, p. 3537, Feb 1997
Subject: RELIGION, GENERAL (0318); LANGUAGE, GENERAL (0679)
ISBN: 0-612-11858-4
Abstract: This dissertation deals with the limiting role language
plays in the description of mystical experience which is understood
as a particular type of awareness. It focuses upon mystics and those
commentators on mysticism who attempt to present a description of
mystical experience through the medium of language. The problem
initially is defined in terms of metaphysical explanations of
mystical experience and then, by way of the philosophy of Nagarjuna
and Wittgenstein, it is shown that metaphysical language is
meaningless. Next using the work of Julian Jaynes, Leslie Dewart,
Robert Ornstein and Walter Ong, it is shown how consciousness, or
simple awareness, is related to language formation and, eventually,
mystical experience.
Language is a culturally formed construct and, as such, is rarely
capable of breaking out of those cultural frameworks. Mystical
experience is then placed within a mythological framework, but mythic
symbolism is also shown to be inadequate to describe mystical
experience. Music, sound, silence and degrees of silence are
considered as methods of suspending language.
The discussion is concluded by demonstrating how acts of thinking
and perceiving bounded by specific cultural limits imposed through
the medium of language can be suspended by the individual to allow
new insights into reality for which language has little preparation.
Suspending the pattern of perception changes the perceptual
understanding of the individual.
Finally, quantum theory is invoked as a possible avenue of
correspondence with the experience the mystic. However, quantum
theory is also language and therefore limited, leaving us only with
'silence' or degrees of silence as the appropriate response.
What is common to those who claim mystical experience is the
effect, compassion. In the final chapter an attempt is made by our
field work in Zen meditation to grapple with the problem of
suspending language in relation to mystical experience.
Order No: AAC 9628376 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: CHINESE CH'AN (ZEN) BUDDHIST MONASTICISM AND ITS TEACHING (ZEN BUDDHISM)
Author: WU, CHAO-TI
School: CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF INTEGRAL STUDIES (0392)
Degree: PHD Date: 1996 pp: 300
School: WU, YI
Source: DAI-A 57/04, p. 1684, Oct 1996
Subject: RELIGION, HISTORY OF (0320); RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY OF (0322)
Abstract: This study investigates and analyzes Ch'an monastic
development during the T'ang and Sung Dynasties. Ch'an masters
developed a monastic system unique in the history of world Buddhism,
different in important respects from the Indian Vinaya brought into
China, but maintaining lines of continuity. Ch'an monasticism
succeeded in China because Ch'an masters realistically approached the
problem of adapting Buddhism into a Chinese cultural milieu with
strong ethics of work and filial piety, and that of developing a
niche for Buddhism beside the indigenous Confucian and Taoist
traditions. Their solution was both internal, in a redefinition of
Buddhist ideals together with a program for economic
self-sufficiency, and external, in a successful campaign to win
social and political support. The study traces also the political
fortunes of Buddhism in general and the Ch'an School in particular,
from royal patronage in the pre- and early T'ang periods, through the
late T'ang period persecutions, and stabilization in the Sung period.
Unique methods of Ch'an survival developed from Ch'an doctrines of
iconoclasm and antinomianism, and the treatment of labor as spiritual
practice.
The character and development of the monastic Pure Rule
(Ch'ing-Kuei), both textually and practically, forms the backbone of
this study. Considerable attention is given to the Ch'an master
Pai-Chang (749-814), the most important monastic reformer in the
history of Chinese Buddhism, but also to the contributions of his
teacher, the Ch'an master Ma-Tsu (709-788), and to the Ch'an master
Te-Hui, whose Pure Rule of Pai-Chang Re-edited under Imperial Decree
was published in 1336 under the auspicies of the Yuan Dynasty Emperor
Shun-Ti. The textual genealogies of the Pure Rule and personal
lineages of its transmission are described in detail. The
bureaucratic apparatus of the Ch'an monastery is and the monastic
precepts underpinning the institution are examined closely.
Monastic living embodies a number of ethical ideals, both
individual and social. The study traces the place of sila, good
conduct, in the Ch'an ethical vision, and the abbot as the highest
ethical embodiment. The ethical implications of competing Ch'an
pedagogues, particularly the gradualist and immediatist approaches to
enlightenment are considered, as are some of the ethical shortcomings
of the application of Ch'an doctrines of no-thought. The study
concludes that Ch'an monasticism's ethical strength lay not so much
in its doctrines and texts, but in its functioning as a model of
egalitarian, democratic society.
Order No: AAC 9632106 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: ZEN AND JAPANESE MILITARISM: A CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO THE ROOTS OF 'IMPERIAL WAY-ZEN' (SOTO, RINZAI ZEN, PAN BUDDHISM, JAPAN)
Author: VICTORIA, BRIAN ANDRE
School: TEMPLE UNIVERSITY (0225) Degree: PHD Date: 1996 pp: 438
School: FU, CHARLES
Source: DAI-A 57/06, p. 2533, Dec 1996
Subject: RELIGION, HISTORY OF (0320); HISTORY, ASIA, AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA (0332); POLITICAL SCIENCE, INTERNATIONAL LAW AND RELATIONS (0616)
Abstract: In Imperial Japan of the 1930s, a loosely organized
movement arose within the Soto and Rinzai Zen sects which was known
variously as 'Imperial Way-Zen,' 'Imperial State-Zen,' or 'Imperial
Military-Zen.' The thrust of this movement was to place meditation
power (J. zenjo-riki/XXX), coupled with the spirit of self-discipline
and self-sacrifice derived from Zen training, at the disposal of
Japan's armed forces.
'Imperial Way-Zen' was itself only a subset of a larger
pan-Buddhist movement known as 'Imperial Way-Buddhism.' This latter
movement was supported by all of the sects composing institutional
Buddhism. Its doctrinal foundations rested on the twin pillars of
total subservience to the state in the person of the Emperor and the
identification of war as an act of Buddhist compassion.
This dissertation examines both of these movements with
particular emphasis on 'Imperial Way-Zen' and seeks to explain how it
was possible that Buddhism, a religion with non-violence as one of
its fundamental precepts, could have been interpreted so as to
support the war policies of Imperial Japan.
Order No: AAC 9706975 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: BEYOND PERSONAL IDENTITY: RETHINKING A DOMINANT PARADIGM FROM A ZEN PERSPECTIVE (PERSONHOOD, ZEN BUDDHISM)
Author: KOPF, GEREON
School: TEMPLE UNIVERSITY (0225) Degree: PHD Date: 1996 pp: 329
School: NAGATOMO, SHIGENORI
Source: DAI-A 57/09, p. 3990, Mar 1997
Subject: RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY OF (0322); PHILOSOPHY (0422); PSYCHOLOGY, PERSONALITY (0625)
Abstract: In contemporary western philosophy, there are two major
positions on the issue of personal identity, the one upholding the
substantive notion of an enduring ego, the other rejecting the idea
of an enduring subject completely. While the substantive position
seems to be untenable in the light of contemporary cognitive science
and philosophy of mind, the rejection of an enduring agency has left
unanswered the questions of subjective agency, ethical responsibility
and accountability. In contrast to these approaches, Buddhism has
long upheld a conception which, while rejecting the problematic
notion of an enduring person or self, does not dispense with the
notion of subjective agency. My dissertation will formulate such a
non-substantive notion of personhood based on the Buddhist theory of
self-cultivation.
My dissertation commences with a critique of the present theories
of personal identity and the assumptions underlying the very notion
of personal identity. In the light of this criticism, the notion of
'Mensch-sein' seems to be more appropriate than the notion of
'personal identity.' With this as a basis, the dissertation offers a
new conception of Mensch-sein, drawing on Dogen's theory of
self-cultivation and Jung's notion of individuation. It will
especially investigate the phenomena of selfhood, alterity, and
continuity. It is my belief that such an understanding of Mensch-sein
not only contributes to a comparative philosophy of personhood and of
the mind but also provides a conceptual tool to understand latest
developments in cognitive science and psychology. Thus, it
illustrates that the study of religion contributes to the
systematized understanding of the world.
Order No: AAC 9632363 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: SACRED SPACE AND RITUAL PERFORMANCE: MAPPING A SHAMANIC PERSPECTIVE IN THE WORK OF PETER BROOK (ENGLAND, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, LES IKS, ORGHAST)
Author: CULLEN, ROBERTA JEAN
School: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA (0130) Degree: PHD Date: 1996
pp: 208
School: BALK, H. WESLEY
Source: DAI-A 57/06, p. 2275, Dec 1996
Subject: THEATER (0465); ANTHROPOLOGY, CULTURAL (0326); RELIGION, GENERAL (0318)
Abstract: Richard Schechner, researcher and writer in Performance
Studies, believes that shamans were the first theatre practitioners.
The current work begins with a systematic comparison between shamanic
ritual performance and theatre performance to reveal an underlying
structure of a theatre of the sacred. This shamanic
performance/sacred theatre model is applied to the work of Peter
Brook during a crucial period of his development: from A Midsummer
Night's Dream (1970) to Conference of the Birds (1979/80). Through
application of this model, Brook's literal and figurative journey
toward a theatre of the sacred is revealed.
Shamanic performance is defined in terms of sacred space and
ritual performance. Sacred space is described within a
shamanic/theatrical construct as: place of enactment (or
performers/audience members within a sacred landscape); lighting;
icons/props or set dressing; sound; costumes and masks. Ritual
performance is described within a shamanic/theatrical context as:
purification/warm-up; calling on helping spirits; embodiment of roles
through trance states; dialogue/action/story; role separation and
thanking spirits.
When applied to the theatre of Peter Brook, this structure
reveals buried constructs and methods. In Midsummer Brook created a
ritual circle of healing infused with 'spirit' and moments of contact
with a non-ordinary realm. In Orghast Brook and company used ancient
and sacred languages, ancient methods of breathing, body work, etc.,
to enter into a sacred landscape which revealed myth as a hidden
world within a Zen present moment. Brook's field work with his
company in Africa provided direct experience with practitioners of
sacred performance: shamans, trance dancers, etc. The African
experience, the US tour, and his work on Les Iks, had direct impact
on his actors' ability to 'incarnate' the sacred within Conference of
the Birds. Conference synthesized Brook's methods learned from the
previous ten years. It was a breakthrough in plane. Since that time
Brook has continued his journey forward, 'back' to an ancient theatre
of the sacred.
Order No: AAC 9604631 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF MARGARET FULLER: A BUDDHIST INTERPRETATION (TRANSCENDENTALISM)
Author: LYOO, HWANG TAE
School: CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY (0042) Degree: PHD
Date: 1995 pp: 191
School: KIM, CHIN-TAI
Source: DAI-A 56/10, p. 4014, Apr 1996
Subject: AMERICAN STUDIES (0323); LITERATURE, AMERICAN (0591);
RELIGION, GENERAL (0318)
Abstract: Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), a Transcendentalist of the
nineteenth century America, was a woman of enigmatic thought and
remarkable personality. However, both her thought and personality
have neither been understood nor forgotten. This is the Margaret
Myth. She has been depicted as an arrogant woman, who said that there
was no intellectual above her in America, and as an immoral eccentric
woman who pursued free love. Her thought was full of nobility and
wisdom. Some say that her thought is very modern or even ahead of our
age, yet it was disregarded because it was not Christian. These are
her images for a few who still remember her in America. Yet she has
been a popular topic for the students and scholars of
Transcendentalism, Women's Studies, feminism and so forth. Once she
becomes a topic, many are deeply attracted to her. Some scholars have
tried to do more justice to her. Generally speaking, however, she is
still not well recognized. Surprisingly, however, her thought is very
similar to that of Buddhism. She had an awakening experience like the
Buddha had, and her thought was constructed on it. The central idea
of her thought is the ineffability of Truth. It is very similar to
the doctrine of sunyata (emptiness) in Buddhism. Her enigmatic
personality is not that of an eccentric, but it is very similar to an
awakened person, who is well recognizable in Buddhism, especially in
Zen. The inseparability of her thought and personality was also a
mystery; however, such phenomenon also similarly happened in many
awakened persons.
Order No: AAC 9609529 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE PAINTING AND CALLIGRAPHY OF THE JAPANESE ZEN PRIEST TOJU ZENCHU, ALIAS NANTENBO
Author: WELCH, MATTHEW RAYMOND
School: UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS (0099) Degree: PHD Date: 1995
pp: 394
School: ADDISS, STEPHEN; EGLINSKI, EDMUND
Source: DAI-A 56/11, p. 4180, May 1996
Subject: ART HISTORY (0377); BIOGRAPHY (0304)
Abstract: The Rinzai Zen priest Toju Zenchu (1839-1925), sobriquet
Nantenbo, produced an astonishing number of paintings and
calligraphies between the ages of sixty-four and his death at
eighty-seven. The majority of these works are distinguished by their
impressive power and refreshing lack of overt artifice.
In order to clearly elucidate the forces motivating Nantenbo to
take up the brush, considerable attention is given to his biography
(Chapter One). Zen tradition and legend is shown to have exerted an
overwhelming influence on the formation of Nantenbo's fierce
character. His use of brush and ink, while expressive in the extreme,
was properly within the narrow confines acceptable for Zen priests.
The vast majority of what he wrote or painted was didactic in
content. It is postulated, too, that he originally took up the brush,
not from any burgenoning desire to be artistic or to express
enlightenment, but to satisfy demands for samples of his writing. The
long-standing custom among lay followers and tea aficionados of
collecting bokuseki (priestly writings) surely spurred Nantenbo's own
production. In this regard, this study serves to demystify the
generative impetus for Nantenbo's artistic production and should be
applicable in examining the works of other high ranking Zen priests.
The primary focus of this study is an examination of a
representative sampling of Nantenbo's calligraphy (Chapter Two) and
painting (Chapter Three) in order to identify the salient
characteristics of his oeuvre, his debt to tradition, and his
personal contribution. He cultivated a rough, brusque quality in his
calligraphy, an element in keeping with his persona of an unrefined
religious ascetic. In painting, he simplified form so drastically as
to render some elements unreadable without a prior point of
reference. The expansive freedom with which he interpreted
traditional form, however, reflects not only his unbridled spirit,
but the tenor of the times. Nantenbo's propensity for dramaticism and
expressive freedom, at the expense of legibility, presages twentieth
century modernism. His works, in fact, have exerted considerable
influence on contemporary avante-garde artists such as Morita Shiryu
and Yoshihara Jiro.
Order No: AAC 9527922 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: ZEN AS A VEHICLE TO INCREASE CREATIVITY (ZEN BUDDHISM, BUDDHISM)
Author: KEDAR, DORIT
School: THE UNION INSTITUTE (1033) Degree: PHD Date: 1995
pp: 289
School: MCKELVIE, WILLIAM H.
Source: DAI-A 56/04, p. 1160, Oct 1995
Subject: ART HISTORY (0377); FINE ARTS (0357); EDUCATION, ART
(0273)
Abstract: 'Zen as a vehicle to enhance creativity' is a book on art,
Zen Buddhism and Creativity. It has an interdisciplinary character
combining Zen-inspired works of art and text. The artistic component
includes works of art by 67 Israeli artists including the author.
Contrary to conventional books-the author does not write about
the artists, rather, the artists are the ones who write about
themselves and their works. The reader can look at the work of art
and simultaneously read what the artists themselves think about life,
art and the process of creativity. The reader is thus introduced to
art directly, without having to go through the art historian or the
critic. This direct introduction to art is a unique experience, for
everyone of us sees life and conceives of art differently, and
consequently our interpretations are tinted by personal
idiosyncrasies.
The author's approach to Art is influenced by her perception of
the Zen Mind experience of life--trying to capture life as it is,
skipping the tinting of the personal Ego. In some cases the author
included her own prose or poetry.
The writing differs from the conventional art historian's
approach for it is not meant to interpret, to clarify or to present.
Instead, it is another piece of art inspired and stimulated by the
specific works of art dealt herewith. The book reflects a personal
experience rather than a description of art. Art is comprehended in a
wholistic fashion--pictures or sculptures and words form one integral
and inseparable unit.
Historically, books of art were written by art historians, or by
artists who wrote about their own art persuasions. Art historians
intervene between the artist and the reader, while books authored by
artists do not present the pictorial aspect and thus, remain sterile
from the pictorial point of view.
This book takes a different approach. It encompasses pictorial
aspects, artists' experiences and the author's experience--as a
single all encompassing art experience. It is possible that this
approach was facilitated by the author's simultaneously playing the
role of the historian, the poet and the artist. This approach is
consistent throughout the book.
Order No: AAC 9536329 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: SEQUENCE OF CDNA AND EXPRESSION OF THE GENE ENCODING AN
INSECT EPIDERMAL AND GUT BETA-N-ACETYLGLUCOSAMINIDASE
(MANDUCA SEXTA, MOLTING)
Author: ZEN, KUO-CHANG
School: KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY (0100) Degree: PHD Date: 1995
pp: 88
School: MUTHUKRISHNAN, SUBBARATNAM; KRAMER, KARL J.
Source: DAI-B 56/06, p. 3052, Dec 1995
Subject: BIOLOGY, MOLECULAR (0307); CHEMISTRY, BIOCHEMISTRY (0487)
Abstract: Chitinolytic enzymes such as chitinase and
$/beta$-N-acetylglucosaminidase are major hydrolases involved in
insect molting. These enzymes are attractive pest control agents
since they destabilize the cuticle and gut of insects. By screening a
Manduca sexta (tobacco hornworm) cDNA library with an antibody
against $/beta$-N-acetylglucosaminidase (EC 3.2.1.30) from the
molting fluid of tobacco hornworm, several putative cDNA clones for
this enzyme were isolated. The longest of the cDNA clones #405, had
an insert of about 3 kb and the complete nucleotide sequence was
determined. Because clone 405 was missing the initiation codon and
the sequence coding for signal peptide, the 5$/prime$-end sequence
was determined by PCR amplification and cycle sequencing. The
predicted N-terminal is identical to one of
$/beta$-N-acetylglucosaminidases isolated from the pharate pupal
molting fluid of M. sexta. The amino acid sequence shows similarity
to $/beta$-N-acetylglucosaminidases of human, mouse, invertebrates
and microorganisms at two conserved regions. Southern blot analysis
indicated that there is one gene related to the cDNA clone in the
Manduca genome. The gene is expressed abundantly in epidermal and gut
tissue of fifth instar larvae. The expression of the gene is maximal
at days 6 and 7 of the fifth instar larvae. Western blot analysis
revealed two proteins in the molting fluid that cross-reacted with
the $/beta$-N-acetylglucosaminidase antibody. Proteins of three
different sizes were present in the gut tissue, whereas only one size
existed in epidermal tissue and hemolymph. The antibody did not
recognize proteins from day five of the fifth instar in epidermal
tissue. Administration of 20-hydroxyecdysone induces the expression
of the $/beta$-N-acetylglucosaminidase gene, whereas juvenile hormone
analog, fenoxycarb, suppresses the effects of molting hormone.
Order No: AAC 1375045 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE FREEDOM OF THE EYE: SOME ROOTS OF AN UNFOCUS (MERCE
CUNNINGHAM)
Author: GEHRY, BRINA STEPHANIE
School: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY (0146) Degree: MA Date: 1995 pp: 92
School: SIEGEL, MARCIA B.
Source: MAI 34/01, p. 7, Feb 1996
Subject: DANCE (0378)
Abstract: Apparent in the work of dancer and choreographer Merce
Cunningham is an East Asian influence that can be attributed to his
association with composer John Cage and their mutual interest in Zen
Buddhism and the Chance methods of the I Ching. Cunningham's dances
are dealing philosophically with the present tense and points of
view.
Abstract Expressionism is also evident in Cunningham's use of a
non-literal, non-narrative, open field approach to composition. The
open field of Cunningham's dances finds its precedent in Surrealism.
Cunningham's choreographic process in many ways resembles the work of
the Surrealist painter Rene Magritte. Magritte broke from the
Surrealists' preoccupation with the unconscious, directing his
attention to an objective level rather than a subjective one. Both
Magritte and Cunningham extend the possibilities of meaning in their
given disciplines, and both utilize methods of problem solving to
this end, paying close attention to practical reality. According to
Magritte and Cunningham, poetic mystery is found most astonishingly
in the commonplace. This is closer to an Asian way of thinking, where
there is no need to reconcile one state of mind with another. Looking
at the visual landscape of Cunningham's dances, one can see that not
only did he adopt the methods and philosophical stance of East Asia,
but he also adopted an East Asian aesthetic.
Order No: AAC 9603226 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF A STRESS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM ON
JOB-RELATED STRESS PERCEPTION OF BUSINESS EXECUTIVES (ZEN,
BUDDHISM)
Author: CHANG, CHUNG YEN
School: DRAKE UNIVERSITY (0387) Degree: EDD Date: 1995 pp: 97
School: LAIR, GEORGE S.
Source: DAI-A 56/10, p. 3816, Apr 1996
Subject: EDUCATION, ADULT AND CONTINUING (0516); EDUCATION,
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING (0519); BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION,
MANAGEMENT (0454)
Abstract: The Problem. The purpose of this study was to assess the
effectiveness of a stress management intervention program based in
Eastern philosophy in the amelioration of stress among Taiwanese
managers. The stress management intervention program assessed was Zen
Buddhist-based.
Procedures. A pre-test/post-test research design characterized
the study. Stress perceptions of the members of two sample groups (a
control group and an experimental group that participated in a
Zen-based stress management intervention program) were measured at
the inception of the intervention program, and again at the
completion of the program. Differences in stress perception levels
between the two measurements were determined, and quantitative
procedures were applied to determine the significance of the
differences between the sample groups. A second post-test was
performed 60 days subsequent to the completion of the program to
determine if changes induced by the intervention program dissipated.
Findings. The results of the research indicated that a Zen-based
stress management program can lead to significant decreases in
perceived levels of job-related stress, but that such positive
effects likely will develop over some extended period of time as
opposed to producing immediate results. The results also indicated
that specific demographic and organizational variables (subject
gender, subject education, subject marital status, organizational job
level, firm size, and subject religious preference) act as
intervening variables in relation to the level of benefit that likely
will be derived from participation in a Zen-based stress management
intervention program.
Conclusions. A stress management program based in Eastern
philosophy can be an effective intervention in organizations based in
Eastern societies. Specifically, a Zen-based stress management
intervention may be expected to be effective within a society with a
large Buddhist population segment.
Recommendations. Organizations in both the private and public
sectors located in Taiwan should be encouraged to implement stress
management intervention programs for employees. Organizations
implementing such interventions, but to measure program outcomes over
the long-term.
Order No: AAC 9619893 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: SUFISM, TAOISM, AND RALPH WALDO EMERSON: A CROSS-CULTURAL
PERSPECTIVE ON THE RHETORIC OF THE PLACE BETWEEN (EMERSON,
RALPH WALDO)
Author: RAIKES, LEON ALLEN
School: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY (0128) Degree: PHD Date: 1995
pp: 265
Source: DAI-A 57/02, p. 610, Aug 1996
Subject: EDUCATION, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (0279); EDUCATION,
PHILOSOPHY OF (0998); LITERATURE, AMERICAN (0591)
Abstract: Conceiving of the tensions between the rhetorics of the
east and west metaphorically helps us to confront both the felt gulf
between language and learning and the conventionality of our theory.
The gulf between language and life is related to institutions,
cultural diversity, creativity, and search for the truth. The place
between is between active, logical categories of intelligence and
receptive, sensual categories of feeling; it has a prophetic
intelligence which becomes real only in finding a language for it.
The rhetoric and pedagogies of Sufism, Taoism, and Ralph Waldo
Emerson reveal a theory of the place between capable both of
conforming and challenging modern western theories of language and
learning. The experience of the place between arrests time, instills
a special kind of Zen stupidity, disdains discursiveness, and
animates all religion. The language of the place between involves the
speaker/writer more than the audience in a purposive disturbance of
conventional thinking. Tentative and questioning, the rhetoric of the
place between celebrates constant unsettling.
The rhetoric of Sufism explores beyond reasoning the home of the
active imagination, a real place between. The language of this place
is indirect, impersonal, dependent on surprise and symbol. An
initiate brought beyond words through words transcends the self,
understands received culture as dead culture, is creatively
stimulated to doubt. The Sufi practices prayer as a reshaping of
reality. Sufism creates for modern westerners key practical
pedagogical imperatives.
Similarily, language in Zen practice enables transcendence of
conditioning, favors spontaneity over discursiveness, aims at clarity
by avoiding direct affirmation, and cures scholastics of dependence
on explanations.
A key guide into eastern rhetorical insights for westerners is
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Favoring not instruction but provocation, his
rhetorical strategy gives clear answers only to take them away. This
assimilation of eastern influences helps him to focus less on either
logic or self expression and more on taking himself out of time into
the metaphorical place between.
Order No: AAC MM98759 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: LES EFFETS DE L'ETAT DE CENTRATION SUR UNE PERFORMANCE
D'EQUILIBRE DYNAMIQUE AU TEST DE BASS (FRENCH TEXT)
Author: CROTEAU, ALAIN
School: UNIVERSITE DE SHERBROOKE (CANADA) (0512) Degree: MSC
Date: 1995 pp: 240
School: BELISLE, MARC; TANGUAY, ELAINE; RINFRET, MICHELLE
Source: MAI 34/01, p. 42, Feb 1996
Language: FRENCH
Subject: EDUCATION, PHYSICAL (0523)
ISBN: 0-315-98759-6
Abstract: La presente experience a pour but de verifier l'effet de
l'etat de centration sur le test d'equilibre dynamique de Bass. Nous
voulons ainsi investiguer les effets reels de l'etat de centration
sur une performance physique. L'etat de centration est obtenu par la
pratique d'une activite qui comporte des elements de meditation, de
conscience de la respiration et de maintien corporel (ex.: le zen).
Il existe differentes formes et definitions de la centration.
Notre traitement, quant a lui, ressemble a la pratique du Zazen, d'ou
l'importance de la respiration et du maintien corporel dans ce
traitement. Cependant, il garde son originalite du fait que nous
pratiquons la centration dans plusieurs situations (couche, assis,
debout, en marchant, etc.). Le traitement se deroule en quatorze
jours consecutifs avec des periodes d'entrai nement de trente minutes
par jour.
Bien que la majorite des tests ne demontre pas de difference
significative au niveau statistique apres le traitement, on percoit
tout de meme dans presque tous les cas, une tendance qui nous laisse
supposer qu'il y a eu une amelioration. C'est ainsi que dans le test
d'equilibre dynamique de Bass (Bass & Leach, 1968) pour les donnees
regroupees des trois essais, nous avons note une amelioration de 4.78
points entre le pre-test et le post-test pour le groupe experimental
et une amelioration de 1.03 point entre le pre-test et le post-test
pour le groupe temoin. Cette difference entre le groupe experimental
et le groupe temoin reste minime dans ce cas, mais nous retrouvons
cette meme situation dans la majorite des tests. L'explication qui
reste la plus plausible pour comprendre ces resultats, est que nos
sujets n'ont pas recu une periode de pratique de la centration
suffisamment longue, mais ils etaient sur la bonne voie. (Abstract
shortened by UMI.)
Order No: AAC 9621226 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: INVESTIGATION OF HEAT TRANSFER FROM CONDENSING STEAM-GAS
MIXTURES AND TURBULENT FILMS FLOWING DOWNWARD INSIDE A
VERTICAL TUBE (DOWNWARD FLOW)
Author: KUHN, SHINE-ZEN
School: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY (0028) Degree: PHD
Date: 1995 pp: 336
School: PETERSON, PER F.
Source: DAI-B 57/03, p. 2095, Sep 1996
Subject: ENGINEERING, MECHANICAL (0548); ENGINEERING, NUCLEAR
(0552)
Abstract: This research experimentally investigates the local heat
transfer from condensation of steam in the presence of noncondensable
gases and from condensation of pure vapor in turbulent films at high
Reynolds numbers. A novel experimental apparatus was designed and
constructed for accurately measuring local heat fluxes. This research
was performed as part of an effort to support the design of the
Passive Containment Cooling System Condensers and Isolation
Condensers of the General Electric's Simplified Boiling Water
Reactor.
Forty-two test runs with pure steam condensation were performed
with liquid films in the laminar range. Using the classical Nusselt
solution as the reference state, a correlation for laminar film
condensation was obtained using hydrodynamic calculations to
determine the interfacial shear effect on film thinning, and using
data to correlate the waviness effect against the film Reynolds
number. Seventy-one runs with steam-air mixtures and 24 with
steam-helium mixtures were performed to investigate condensation
phenomenon in the presence of noncondensable gases. Three different
correlations, one implementing the degradation method, initially
proposed by Vierow and Schrock, a second diffusion layer theory
initially proposed by Peterson et al., and a third fundamental mass
transfer conductance model, are presented.
Approximately 300 test runs were performed to evaluate the film
Reynolds number and interfacial shear effects on turbulent film local
heat transfer. An extended data base for film Reynolds number and
interfacial shear was generated. A phenomenologically-based approach
was developed to treat heat transfer in the near-wall and
near-interface regions separately, and to combine the two thermal
resistances in series. A 'two-layer thermal resistance model' was
developed using theoretical and empirical methods. Without
interfacial shear, heat transfer coefficients in the near-wall layer
were theoretical determined using an integral analysis. The heat
transfer coefficients in the near-surface layer were correlated from
the experimental data. In the presence of interfacial shear, the
ratios of local Nusselt numbers between sheared and unsheared flows
were then correlated by curve fit to the data, using the scaling
parameters obtained from the surface eddy renewal theory.
Order No: AAC 9607993 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: WEST MEETS EAST IN LUCIEN STRYK'S POETRY: A STUDY OF
INFLUENCES AND A TRANSLATION OF 'AWAKENING'
Author: DEBORD, BRIGITTE
School: UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS (0011) Degree: PHD Date: 1995
pp: 188
School: DUVAL, JOHN T.
Source: DAI-A 56/11, p. 4386, May 1996
Subject: LANGUAGE, MODERN (0291); LITERATURE, AMERICAN (0591)
Abstract: This dissertation consists of two parts. The first part
studies surrealist and Zen influences in the work of Lucien Stryk, a
contemporary American poet; and the second part is a translation of
one of his collections of poetry published in 1973, Awakening, with
an introduction analyzing Stryk's style and the method involved in
translating his poems.
The study of influences directly relates to Stryk's own personal
experiences. During two years spent in post-war Paris, Stryk became
particularly interested in surrealism, which he studied at the
Sorbonne. Later, on two occasions, he lived in Japan and encountered
Zen, which transformed his life personally and professionally.
Research reveals that Stryk's poetic style was somewhat influenced by
surrealism--its linguistic conciseness, strong imagery, and interest
in dream states. However, it is further demonstrated that surrealism
was merely a step on the road to Zen. Through Zen, the poet was able
to pursue immediacy of experience and to transcribe it in a concise
and vigorous style. It is established that the Zen influence is more
prominent than the surrealist one. A parallel between surrealism and
Zen follows, such as anti-intellectualism and an unfragmented vision
of the world. Examples are drawn from Awakening as well as other
collections of Stryk's poetry.
The introduction to the translations deals with Stryk's stylistic
characteristics (concision, cultural references, ambiguities) and how
the translator can transpose them in another language, French. The
translation of 59 poems follows.
Order No: AAC 1362107 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE ZEN TRUTH IN J. D. SALINGER: 'IT'S VERY HARD TO
MEDITATE AND LIVE A SPIRITUAL LIFE IN AMERICA'
Author: GOAD, ANGELA LEE
School: NORTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY (6180) Degree: MA
Date: 1995 pp: 80
Source: MAI 33/06, p. 1673, Dec 1995
Subject: LITERATURE, AMERICAN (0591); RELIGION, GENERAL (0318)
Abstract: Undeniably, J. D. Salinger views the Western culture of
America through the lens of the Eastern tradition of Zen Buddhism.
Throughout his collected volumes, The Catcher in the Rye, Nine
Stories, Franny and Zooey, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
and Seymour: An Introduction, Zen roles and themes appear to
enlighten the pages of the fiction. Ultimately, reading Salinger
becomes a Zen journey of discovery and exploration, which finally
ends in a special type of satori, or enlightenment.
Order No: AAC 9616545 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE WORK OF THE SONG. (ORIGINAL WRITING) (POETRY)
Author: EARLEY, BERNARD JAMES
School: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BINGHAMTON (0792)
Degree: PHD Date: 1995 pp: 63
Source: DAI-A 57/02, p. 679, Aug 1996
Subject: LITERATURE, AMERICAN (0591); LITERATURE, MODERN (0298)
Abstract: The Work of the Song can be conceptualized as a study in
persona, whereas this creative dissertation of 45 poems distinguishes
five different voices and their corresponding styles, with variations
according to individual poems within each of four sequences. 'Biker
Poems' portrays, narratively/descriptively, a disintegration of a
motorcycle gang and the flight of the persona through difficulties to
the 'real boats' that 'shine on horizons like stars.' 'This Day' is
delivered by an articulate, well-mannered denizen of a big city. His
quasi-sonnets are more believable to him than the harsh aspects of
city life that these blocky lyrics personify; these poems of anxiety
find a resolve in poetry itself, that is, creative process in a
reflexive mode that transcends the losses of which the poems speak.
'Ink Play' takes its influence from Eastern poetry, as it modifies
the subtleties of nuance and gesture, and it might be Li Po speaking
in contemporary English on a variety of subjects that are reflexive
of the emergence of poetry. The poems in 'Spares' attempt to reify
the trace of experience, its disappearance as it appears in language.
Persona is generalized, reduced to consciousness that anticipates
differences that allow for acknowledgement of poetic process and
ultimately poetry as a trace on the page. The counterpart to these
brief condensations is the long poem, 'Spares,' in which a mechanic
restores a motorcycle. The forces of difference disrupt the
allegorical task of motorcycle reconstruction. Zen, as in Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, is transcribed as a direct adherence
to the task at hand which might very well signify the salvaging of
writing (rather than of self) framed or limited by the
classifications of replacement parts, a metaphorical index. The
result is a type of performance poem occupied by the voice of the
motorcycle mechanic who is preoccupied and somewhat obsessed with
getting back on the road--a doubtful accomplishment, given the sense
that the experience of the road, along with motorcycle reconstruction
and maintenance, is already an anachronism traced out as by the poem
itself.
Order No: AAC 9538465 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: TOWARDS A UNIFIED ARTICULATION OF THE SELF: AESTHETIC
THEORY AND PRACTICE IN CHARLES JOHNSON'S FICTION
(PHILOSOPHICAL NOVELS)
Author: NASH, WILLIAM RICHARDSON
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL (0153)
Degree: PHD Date: 1995 pp: 252
School: HARRIS, TRUDIER
Source: DAI-A 56/07, p. 2684, Jan 1996
Subject: LITERATURE, AMERICAN (0591); LITERATURE, MODERN (0298);
BLACK STUDIES (0325)
Abstract: Numerous scholars of contemporary American literature
recognize Charles Johnson as a writer of growing significance;
however, to date no book-length study of his work has appeared.
Arguably, one deterrent to the scholarly examination of his works is
the dense philosophical substructure supporting all of his
narratives. This substructure comprises an extensive knowledge of
western philosophy (particularly the phenomenology of Maurice
Merleau-Ponty), an exploration of Eastern religious/philosophical
thought (particularly Zen Buddhism, the Bhagavad-Gita, and Chinese
martial arts), and a sweeping perspective on contemporary and
historical African-American culture; the major intention of his
aesthetic project is the creation of unity in the face of a host of
forces that propagate dividedness in all aspects of our culture. In
each of his works, Johnson takes up a different approach to this
central question and tries a variety of perspectives in his search
for the fullest articulation of his ideas. This project establishes
the basis of Johnson's paradigm of unity, outlines some of the major
points of phenomenology, then traces some of the general means he
employs to achieve his goals. The project addresses his individual
works and gives attention to specific elements and situations on
which he tests his aesthetic as it develops: the dichotomy between
African-American folk culture and rationalist scientific philosophy;
the interplay of Zen Buddhism, western philosophy, and nineteenth
century American history; his development of key tropes and
perspectives; and his place in the line of American philosophical
novelists, with major attention on nineteenth century practitioners
of the form.
Order No: AAC 9530870 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: JOYCE AND MYSTICISM: THE HERMENEUTICS OF DIFFICULT TEXTS
(JAMES JOYCE, IRELAND)
Author: FRUMKIN, ROBERT MAXIM
School: CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK (0046) Degree: PHD
Date: 1995 pp: 263
School: EPSTEIN, EDMUND
Source: DAI-A 56/05, p. 1791, Nov 1995
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593); LITERATURE, MODERN (0298);
RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY OF (0322)
Abstract: The use of silence is a pattern in the works of James
Joyce. It is not a caprice; though the enigmas in his works allow
plausible explanations, Joyce deliberately does not supply crucial
information. Why does Joyce choose not to specify? Why does he
'prefer not to' say? Joyce uses silence in the form of enigmas,
omissions, and gaps in narrative, as an artistic medium. While these
silences may at first seem trivial, or part of a plan to avoid
censorship, they are in fact similar to religious mysteries which
cannot be solved. Joyce's silences invite the reader to pour himself
into the gap and to experience these mysteries with his whole being.
But how can we talk about this experience if these mysteries are
insoluble and if the mystical experience they bring about is
ineffable? Religious literature which deals with silence can help us
fill these gaps or at least to assimilate them into our reading as
Joyce would have wanted us to. Mystical texts and the literature of
Zen Buddhism can tell us what happens in those silences and can
reconcile us to the fact that we cannot have certainty. Joyce
embraced the method of silence; other philosophies of silence can
help us make sense of this practice.
Order No: AAC 9604365 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: EVERYWHERE EMPTY: PARADOX AND DIFFERENCE IN CRITICAL
THINKING AND PROCESS RHETORIC (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS)
Author: BERTHEL, JAMIE BETH
School: ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY (0092) Degree: DA Date: 1995
pp: 172
School: SCHARTON, MAURICE
Source: DAI-A 56/10, p. 3950, Apr 1996
Subject: LITERATURE, MODERN (0298); PHILOSOPHY (0422); EDUCATION,
PHILOSOPHY OF (0998)
Abstract: The rampant eruption of political agendas in our
classrooms and the weight of 'political correctness' on our private
lives suggests the need to adopt an egalitarian pedagogy in which
writers confront but do not censor one another's political positions.
While politics has become academically fashionable, theoretical
interest has turned via post-structuralism to the subject, the
self-conscious agent. While educators may readily defend subjectivity
for its dialectic potential or effect, in which case subjectivity is
not dismissed out of hand, the issue of subjectivity becomes just
another topic on the syllabus when it should be regarded as the
critical difference between dialectics and dogma, of which language
is merely a sign.
The theory and attending practice of this project introduces
writing exercises modeled after the reductio arguments of classic
eleatic sophistry in concert with the paradox of Zen Buddhist koan
riddles. This project therefore merges occidental sophistry and
oriental 'emptiness' for the purpose of enhancing the writer's
awareness of the reflective, subjectively driven process called
critical thinking. I have designed a series of writing exercises,
called obstacles, in the spirit of those implemented by Rinzai Zen
Patriarchs and in light of the sophistry which underlies our interest
in the West in the socratic method of 'drawing out' the student
through a series of leading questions.
Order No: AAC 9526048 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: NO-THING IS MORE REAL THAN NOTHING: ZEN/CHAOS THEORY IN
THE DRAMATIC ART OF SAMUEL BECKETT (BUDDHISM, IRELAND)
Author: KUNDERT-GIBBS, JOHN LEELAND
School: THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY (0168) Degree: PHD Date: 1995
pp: 297
School: BURKMAN, KATHERINE H.
Source: DAI-A 56/04, p. 1350, Oct 1995
Subject: LITERATURE, MODERN (0298); LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593);
LITERATURE, ROMANCE (0313)
Abstract: This study uses Zen Buddhism and Chaos theory as binocular
lenses to examine the existential difficulties in Samuel Beckett's
plays in terms which circumvent traditional Western schools of
thought.
The religio-philosophy of Zen and science of Chaos function in
analogous ways, affecting a paradigm shift from a mode of thought
involving polarity and conceptual difference to one which allows a
'pre-reflective,' pattern-oriented view of reality. By utilizing
these thought systems as epistemological methodology, it becomes
evident that Beckett's plays undertake a similar paradigm shift, both
for characters on stage and for audience watching.
Beginning with Waiting for Godot, which negates much of Western
metaphysics, then working through Endgame and Happy Days, which
radically destabilize causality, to Footfalls, which avoids
referential meaning, and ending with Ohio Impromptu, which confounds
categorization, a chronological trend develops in which each
subsequent play moves further from the 'common,' everyday paradigm of
conceptual distinction and nearer a stark, Zen-like presentation of
the paradoxes inherent in our normal mode of thought. Footfalls, for
example, decenters any static notion of self-presence, opening the
play to a dynamic interplay of presence and absence. Additionally,
Chaos theory reveals a scaling-down, 'self-similar' process which
compresses presentation of this paradox. By the later plays, the
potential for characters (and audience) to move beyond the
'existential impasse' of dualistic thought and achieve a
pre-reflective state of being becomes progressively more fully
realized, until, in Ohio Impromptu, the characters are able to free
themselves into 'Profounds of mind. Of mindlessness.'
In terms of the study's overarching 'touchstone,' Zen in the Art
of Archery, Beckett's plays move from rejecting the quotidian mode of
existence which necessitates conceptions of distinct objects like bow
and arrow, through a period of doubt and anxiety over this loss, to a
vision wherein the subject/object dichotomy ceases to function, the
elements of archery forming a dynamic whole beyond the need for
conceptual categorization.
Thus, both within and throughout the larger scale of Beckett's
plays as a whole, there is a movement toward re-visioning our world
in terms of a non-closed, unselfconscious state.
Order No: AAC 9534661 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE DANCE OF TIME: THE EVOLUTION OF THE STRUCTURAL
AESTHETICS OF THE PREPARED PIANO WORKS OF JOHN CAGE
Author: RHODES, CAROL SHIRLEY
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA (0009) Degree: DMA Date: 1995
pp: 143
School: FAN, PAULA
Source: DAI-A 56/06, p. 2039, Dec 1995
Subject: MUSIC (0413); DANCE (0378); EDUCATION, MUSIC (0522)
Abstract: John Cage, (1912-1992) pioneer in new music, innovator,
inventor of the happening and philosopher, writer and artist was one
of the most creative forces of the twentieth century.
His earliest works were 25-tone contrapuntal compositions. He
later developed a strong interest in writing for percussion ensembles
and collected instruments that were both found and made. He conducted
his own percussion orchestras and discovered that they were the
answer to his philosophy of the sounds of the future. He considered
percussion music the transition from keyboard-influenced music to
music which allowed for all sounds and silences.
From 1939-1951 John Cage composed several works for prepared
piano that used time as a structural device. Many of these works were
written for the dance in collaboration with Merce Cunningham. This
document addresses the historical significance of these works and
relates Time to other areas that influenced Cage--including Zen and
the Dance. This document provides descriptive analyses of Bacchanale,
Music for Marcel Duchamp and selected Sonatas from the Sonatas and
Interludes. To this writer's knowledge there have not yet been any
analyses of Bacchanale or Music for Marcel Duchamp. The analyses
reveal Cage's primary structural techniques in which he uses duration
of spaces of time. Time lengths and the square root method appear to
be the most important. These techniques first appeared in Imaginary
Landscape #1 and First Construction in Metal--both dating from 1939.
A brief description of all his prepared piano works is included to
demonstrate Cage's commitment to rhythmic structuring. All of these
works have been studied by this writer and several have been
performed in concert by this writer. These include: Music for Marcel
Duchamp, Primitive, For a Valentine Out of Season, A Room, Prelude
for Meditation, Amores (Movements I and IV), and selected Sonatas
from Sonatas and Interludes.
A section has been included which explains the nature of
materials used for preparations and their timbral effects.
A Conclusion is provided demonstrating that Cage chose rhythm
over harmony to structure his music. This information is drawn from
the influences on Cage, his early percussion works, procedures
employed in the percussion works and transferred to the prepared
piano and the influence of dancers and Oriental philosophy.
An Appendix is included with charts of the Sonatas.
A Bibliography which shows the references consulted is included.
Order No: AAC 9532857 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: QUIETING THE MIND, MANIFESTING MIND: THE ZEN BUDDHIST
ROOTS OF JOHN CAGE'S EARLY CHANCE-DETERMINED AND
INDETERMINATE COMPOSITIONS (WITH) MOTION ALARM I CHING.
(ORIGINAL COMPOSITION)
Author: NELSON, MARK DOUGLAS
School: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY (0181) Degree: PHD Date: 1995
pp: 423
Source: DAI-A 56/05, p. 1577, Nov 1995
Subject: MUSIC (0413); PHILOSOPHY (0422)
Abstract: John Cage's engagement with Zen Buddhism in the early
1950's precipitated profound changes in his aesthetic. In the late
1940's he had embraced the traditional Hindu notion that the purpose
of music was to induce a 'quiet mind;' Zen Buddhism, with its
exhortation that one cultivate preconceptual awareness and its
corollary insistence that discursive thought mitigates such
awareness, suggested to Cage that quiet-mindedness entailed an ego-
and thought-free attentiveness to one's environment. He began to view
music as a discipline comparable to sitting meditation, a vehicle
with which one might curb the inveterate thinking that artificially
separates human beings from the 'divine' flood of perceptual
experience.
Cage aspired to immerse musicians and listeners in this flood.
Striving to preclude ego influences from his activity, he began to
use chance operations to make decisions affecting musical continuity.
The radical changes in his methods for harnessing chance operations
in the 1950's--the evolution from an I Ching-governed concatenation
of pre-composed arrays towards the use of superposed transparent
materials to generate 'cameras' with which performers might take
'snapshots' of their sonic environment--reflect his abiding search
for strategies which would (a) remove opportunities for his own
tasteful shaping, (b) nurture thought-stilling perceptual acuity in
performers and listeners, and (c) ensure that his work truly tapped
the universe's natural processes and did not impose artificial,
thought-full contours upon them.
After recounting the circumstances which prompted Cage to seek
alternative approaches to composition, this paper considers
fundamental tenets of Zen Buddhist thought. A close examination of
Cageian assimilations of that thought--with particular focus upon
'nothing,' the composer's adaptation of the Zen concept of
'emptiness'--forms the central foundation of this thesis. Such
philosophical ground is then used as the basis for integrated
discussion of the synergic evolutions of Cage's aesthetic perspective
and musical style in 1948-1960. The indeterminate scores--which may
be viewed as challenging puzzles for David Tudor, as incipient
'circus situations,' and as utterly flexible tools facilitating the
mining of any facet of the unpredictable and manifold universe--are
portrayed as apotheoses of Cage's Zen-informed activity of the
1950's.
Order No: AAC 9608007 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: HOW CONFUCIANISM CAN CONTRIBUTE TO CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Author: POON, HENRY GAN-CHYEN
School: CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF INTEGRAL STUDIES (0392)
Degree: PHD Date: 1995 pp: 264
School: WU, YI
Source: DAI-B 56/11, p. 6404, May 1996
Subject: PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL (0622); PHILOSOPHY (0422); EDUCATION,
GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING (0519)
Abstract: Past decades have witnessed the cross-fertilization
between Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism and psychoanalysis, between Taoism and
psychotherapy. However, theoretical as well as clinical work done in
the area of Confucianism and clinical psychology has been lacking.
This dissertation introduces Confucianism for the first time as a
Confucian Psychology of Self-Cultivation. Confucian Psychology can
provide modern clinicians with a wisdom-based counseling guideline
for lifetime Self-improvement, transformation, and realization of
higher life goals and Self ideal. Confucianism contributes to
clinical psychology precisely with its unceasing effort to discover
easily applicable Psychological Guiding Principles and Methods that
can help a person to affirm, enhance, and up-lift one's life towards
a higher level of well-being, maturity, and Self-realization.
This dissertation has identified significant guiding principles
and methods of living through in-depth discussion of three stages of
Self-cultivation. These are the developmental stages of (1)
Self-learning, (2) Self-examination, and (3) Self-completion. It has
also introduced clinical implications of Confucian principles and
methods through the discussion of four cross-cultural case histories
and clinical interventions. These presentations explore in a
practical manner how clinicians can apply Confucian guiding
principles and methods in everyday clinical practice.
This dissertation has concluded that Confucian Psychology can
help western clinicians to recognize the great importance of
comprehending human development from a lifetime perspective of
Self-cultivation. Clinicians can approach each patient's clinical
condition as the person's ability to practice central problem solving
and conflict resolution methods which can lead to a higher sense of
life purpose, meaning and fulfillment. Furthermore, Confucian
Psychology can help eastern clinicians to recognize the great
importance of rediscovering Self psychology as a psychology of
Self-cultivation. Thus clinicians can return to their traditions and
approach modern psychology not only from a scientific, experimental,
and empirical perspective, but also from a perennial, practical, and
wisdom-based perspective. Clinicians can help revive the lost
psychology of Self-cultivation as a lifetime process of becoming a
person of virtue, integrity, and leadership.
Order No: AAC 9609954 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE METAPHYSICAL INTERPRETATION OF RELIGIONS
Author: SCHILBRACK, KEVIN EDWARD
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (0330) Degree: PHD Date: 1995
pp: 181
School: GRIFFITHS, PAUL J.; GAMWELL, FRANKLIN I.
Source: DAI-A 56/12, p. 4824, Jun 1996
Subject: RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY OF (0322); PHILOSOPHY (0422);
RELIGION, GENERAL (0318)
Abstract: In many religious traditions, knowledge of reality as
such, of the true nature of things, is a condition of putting oneself
in proper relation with it, focusing one's mind upon it, or otherwise
avoiding the problems caused by false views of it. Despite this
alleged centrality of metaphysics to religions, a great deal of the
academic study of religion today does not include the study of
religious metaphysics. A great deal of the academic study of religion
today is either explicitly or implicitly anti-metaphysical.
But if it is true that many religious beliefs and practices are
designed precisely to teach, defend, inculcate, and celebrate
metaphysical claims, then this anti-metaphysical bias distorts the
interpretation of religions. Something important to religions is
missed without the metaphysical interpretation.
In the light of these observations, the goal of this dissertation
can be put briefly. It argues that metaphysics as the inquiry into
the character of reality as such can be rational, and that therefore
metaphysics cannot be precluded as a legitimate tool for the
cross-cultural study of religions.
The dissertation proceeds as follows. Using Charles Hartshorne's
understanding of metaphysics, the first chapter outlines the
hermeneutic and critical aspects of the study of religious
metaphysics. The second chapter defends the possibility of validating
metaphysics against the criticisms of W. V. O. Quine, John Hick, and
Richard Rorty. The third chapter defends the intelligibility of
metaphysics against the criticisms of Edward Burnett Tylor and Peter
Winch. The fourth and final chapter illustrates the metaphysical
interpretation by giving extended attention to the writings of the
Soto Zen Buddhist teacher, Dogen Kigen.
Order No: NOT AVAILABLE FROM UMI ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: REDEEMING THE SUBJECT: TRANSFORMATION, SELF-CARE AND THE
TWELVE STEPS OF AL-ANON (ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS)
Author: TURNBULL, ELIZABETH MUNRO
School: UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA) (0423)
Degree: PHD Date: 1995
Source: DAI-A 57/01, p. 467, Jul 1996
Subject: SOCIOLOGY, INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY STUDIES (0628);
PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL (0451)
Abstract: This thesis is an examination of contemporary
subjectivity. In particular, it is concerned with the self who feels
ill at ease in the world and seeks to overcome this. The case study
is of adult children of alcoholics and the Al-Anon Twelve Step
practice of recovery. The work is intended as a contribution to
theoretical debates concerning the 'subject' by focusing on the
feeling, imagining, remembering self. In the view developed here the
self is a lived poeisis or story which forms and transforms as a
relational being. An interdisciplinary approach, drawing mainly on
phenomenology depth psychologies and poststructuralism, is adopted in
order to avoid disciplinary closure and reductionism. The 'disease'
spoken of by adult children of alcoholics is analysed in terms of an
estrangement symptomatic of a nihilism pervading contemporary western
culture. This estrangement is in turn examined as a form of
narcissistic disturbance which develops within the systemic field of
the family. Repetition and the possibility of individuation are key
themes addressed. The stories told by adult children of alcoholics
contain mythological and elemental patterns which order the self as a
poeisis. The therapeutic nature of telling and listening to stories
within Al-Anon is examined as a process of undoing repetition through
shared mourning. The community of the Twelve Step group offers a
sacred space and holding environment for the narcissistic self,
allowing the self to undergo transformation. The Twelve Steps is a
sacred text bearing comparison to ancient philosophies of self-care.
The Twelve Step text is juxtaposed with the Zen Oxherding Pictures.
Paradox is central to both. A Buddhist understanding of the self in
conjunction with Merleau-Ponty's later ontology provides a quite
different view of the decentred self to that currently at work in
social theory. Recovery in Al-Anon has redemptive qualities and is an
antidote to nihilism and narcissism. This thesis itself has a
redemptive aim as it sets out to recover lived experience for the
category of the subject in social theory.
Order No: AAC 9522716 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE SOCIAL MEANINGS OF SPONTANEITY IN AMERICAN ARTS AND
LITERATURE, 1940-1960. (VOLUMES I AND II) (COUNTERCULTURE)
Author: BELGRAD, DANIEL MARK
School: YALE UNIVERSITY (0265) Degree: PHD Date: 1994 pp: 694
School: AGNEW, JEAN-CHRISTOPHE
Source: DAI-A 56/03, p. 989, Sep 1995
Subject: AMERICAN STUDIES (0323); HISTORY, UNITED STATES (0337);
ART HISTORY (0377)
Abstract: This study traces the intellectual influences and social
conditions that gave rise to an aesthetic of spontaneity in American
art, music, and literature during the 1940s and 1950s. This common
thread among diverse media historically linked the radical traditions
defined by an earlier modernist avant-garde and the politicized
'counterculture' of the 1960s. The practice of spontaneity embodied a
metaphysics that was opposed to that of the dominant culture,
emphasizing intersubjectivity and mind-body holism. Responding to
wartime pressures including the Hitler-Stalin pact and the
corporatization of American cultural life, artists and poets,
including Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, and Charles Olson,
turned to automatism in search of socially radical art forms. Jackson
Pollock, Merce Cunningham, Peter Voulkos, Allen Ginsberg, and LeRoi
Jones were among those who developed this aesthetic throughout the
1950s. By exploring the social and intellectual contents of the
signature forms of this aesthetic--the 'glyph,' the 'plastic
palimpsest,' and 'spontaneous bop prosody'--I trace connections
between the aesthetic of spontaneity and contemporary intellectual
influences, including Surrealism, Jungian psychology, Alfred North
Whitehead's process philosophy, Gestalt therapy, and Zen Buddhism. I
argue that this aesthetic and its associated value system challenged
dominant understandings of the meaning of corporate liberalism, the
nature of individualism and sociality, and the value of marginalized
cultures in American life.
Order No: AAC 9503249 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE SYMBOLISM AND SELF-IMAGING OF MARCEL DUCHAMP (DUCHAMP,
MARCEL, FRANCE)
Author: LEE, CHARNG-JIUNN TOSI
School: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN (0090)
Degree: PHD Date: 1994 pp: 567
School: FINEBERG, JONATHAN
Source: DAI-A 55/09, p. 2609, Mar 1995
Subject: ART HISTORY (0377); FINE ARTS (0357); RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY
OF (0322)
Abstract: Revered as 'the father of modern art,' Marcel Duchamp's
idea inspired many new art forms after the 1960s including Neo-Dada,
Op, Pop, Mobile Sculpture, Junk Art, Assemblage, Body Art, Happening,
and Conceptual Art. Given his profound influence on contemporary and
subsequent artists, Duchamp's own work remains extremely elusive and
germinates all kinds of readings. The reason perhaps is that Duchamp
consistently refused to explain more directly and clearly the
meanings and sources of his works and ideas.
Though often seen as a Dadaist who was also closely related to
the Surrealist movement, Duchamp joined without participating.
Noticing that there did exist certain affinity between Dada and Far
Eastern mysticism and that some art historians have sensed certain
Oriental flavor in Duchamp's work, this dissertation represents a
serious investigation of Duchamp's possible connection with the Far
Eastern culture.
After pointing out the close resemblance between Duchamp's first
readymade, The Bicycle Wheel (1913), and the sculptural
representation of the Buddha's first sermon, the author continues to
accumulate evidence that clearly suggest a link between Duchamp's
work and the philosophy of Buddhism and Taoism, which often implies a
profound concern for humanity. The author also finds in Duchamp's
thinking a consistent epistemological inquiry that echoes the spirit
of Ch'an (Zen) teachings.
The dissertation examines more than seventy major works by
Duchamp made after 1913 (including the readymades, installations,
graphic designs, machine-like structures, photographs, and gestures)
and discusses many of Duchamp's Notes. It contains 200 plus
illustrations of works by Duchamp and ancient Buddhist art. Detailed
analyses and side by side comparisons of these works further confirm
their relationship. It also makes great efforts to prove that these
oriental sources were available to Duchamp when he made those works.
The conclusion is that not only is Duchamp's life work a
spiritual process of the artist's self-discovery but also
significantly coherent. The text ends with a mythic theme from the
Greek source symbolizing the meeting of East and West culture, which,
as the author argues, is the motif of Duchamp's last masterpiece,
Etant donnes.
Order No: AAC 9501031 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: OBAKU ZEN PORTRAIT PAINTING: A REVISIONIST ANALYSIS (ZEN BUDDHISM, JAPAN, CHINA)
Author: SHARF, ELIZABETH HORTON
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (0127) Degree: PHD Date: 1994
pp: 664
School: BROCK, KAREN L.; SPINK, WALTER M.
Source: DAI-A 55/08, p. 2185, Feb 1995
Subject: ART HISTORY (0377)
Abstract: This dissertation concerns a body of early modern portrait
paintings of eminent Chan and Zen Buddhist monks associated with a
Chinese emigre monastic community in Japan known as Obaku. Over two
hundred and fifty portraits survive from the mid-seventeenth to the
early eighteenth centuries. These are executed in a colorful style
and bold en face format featuring a heavily applied modeling method.
As they differ dramatically in style from traditional medieval East
Asian portraits of eminent Buddhist monks, and, indeed, from all
prior genres of Japanese portrait painting, modern scholars are led
to focus on identifying their Western (Indic and/or European)
stylistic sources and to overlook their ritual use and religious
meaning.
I begin the dissertation with the premise that the portraits by
the prolific Kita Genki (active ca. 1664-1709) have enticed modern
scholars to become preoccupied with the notion of Western influence.
I then explore claims of such influence on painting in
seventeenth-century China and Japan, giving special attention to the
late Ming portraitist Zeng Jing (1564-1647) whose followers are
believed to have established the format and style of early Obaku
portrait paintings. This leads to a consideration of the rhetoric of
'Western influence' in studies of Chinese painting. Preconceptions
concerning the nature of mainstream Chinese and European painting
have led scholars to align linear techniques with China and modeling
techniques with Europe. I argue, however, that the rhetoric of
Western influence is historically suspect and ideologically laden; in
the Obaku case it is frequently used to marginalize and disparage
Obaku portraiture. Building on the work of Nishigori Ryosuke I then
reexamine a wide selection of extant early portraits in order to
identify internal stylistic developments freed of the legacy of the
later portraits in the 'Genki style.' In concluding, I link the Obaku
material to 'ancestor portraiture,' and return it squarely to the
fold of medieval Chan and Zen Buddhist portraiture known as chinzo.
The dissertation includes five appendices: two outline the early
history of the Obaku lineage in Japan and the career of its founder
Yinyuan Longgi (1592-1673); three summarize Nishigori's research on
the early major portraitists Yang Daozhen, Kita Doku (Chobei), and
Kita Genki.
Order No: AAC 9513834 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: THE DORSAL/VENTRAL PATTERNING OF TRANSCRIPTION IN THE DROSOPHILA EMBRYO
Author: HUANG, JIANDONG
School: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES (0031) Degree: PHD
Date: 1994 pp: 168
School: COUREY, ALBERT J.
Source: DAI-B 55/12, p. 5182, Jun 1995
Subject: BIOLOGY, GENETICS (0369); BIOLOGY, MOLECULAR (0307);
CHEMISTRY, BIOCHEMISTRY (0487)
Abstract: This work described here is aimed at illustrating the
mechanisms that regulate gene expression along the dorsal/ventral
axis of Drosophila embryo. Previous studies established the origin of
the morphogens that define positional information in the developing
embryo. One of the morphogens, the Dorsal protein, which is spatially
localized in a ventral to dorsal nuclear concentration gradient in
the blastoderm embryo, controls pattern formation along the
dorsal/ventral axis. High Dorsal concentration on the ventral side of
the embryo activates genes such as twist and snail while low levels
of Dorsal on the dorsal side of the embryo permits the expression of
genes such as decapentaplegic (dpp) and zerknullt (zen).
The twist gene was studied to reveal the mechanisms by which
dorsal activates transcription. A region in the twist promoter that
gives rise to a ventral specific expression pattern was found to
contain several Dorsal binding sites by footprint assays. The
interaction between Dorsal and its binding sites in twist DNA was
found to be critical for transcriptional activation, while other
proteins such as zeste also appear to contribute to the activation of
twist gene.
The dpp gene was studied to understand the mechanisms of
transcriptional repression by Dorsal. Dorsal was found to bind to dpp
regulatory regions identified by P-element mediated germline
transformation. The dpp second intron was found to be necessary and
sufficient to direct dorsal specific expression of the bacterial lacZ
gene in transgenic blastoderm embryos, while the dpp 5$/sp/prime$
promoter region is important for the overall level of transcription
and defines the spatial regulation of dpp during and after germband
elongation. The dorsal specific expression depends on the identified
Dorsal binding sites. Mutations in these sites resulted in loss of
transcriptional repression on the ventral side of the embryos.
Dorsal protein alone is not sufficient to mediate transcriptional
repression. Corepressors are also involved in this process. A
corepressor binding sequence, the DRE (dpp repression element) was
mapped by site-directed mutagenesis. A DRE binding activity (DREB)
was found to co-purify with two $125/pm10$ kD polypeptides.
Biochemical analysis suggests that DREB may play a role in the
ventral specific repression of both dpp and zen and that it may also
be used by the maternal terminal patterning system to regulate the
transcription of the tailless gene.
Order No: NOT AVAILABLE FROM UMI ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
Title: MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ZERKNUELLT REGION OF THE
ANTENNAPEDIA OF DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA
[ANALISIS MOLECULAR DE LA REGION ZERKNUELLT DEL COMPLEJO
ANTENNAPEDIA DE DROSOPHILA SUBOBSCURA]
Author: TEROL ALCAYDE, JAVIER
School: UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA (SPAIN) (5871) Degree: PHD
Date: 1994 pp: 141
Source: DAI-C 56/02, p. 381, Summer 1995
Language: SPANISH
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