Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Monograph

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Comparative Literature

Supervisor

Tumanov, Vlad

Abstract

Some people often identify themselves too strongly with one particular belief system. Others, throughout their lives, travel from one belief system to another without necessarily weaving their experiences and gained bodies of knowledge in a complementary manner. This thesis discusses different frequencies and principles of this sort of settlements or oscillations. I argue that it is impossible to believe in perfectly purist ideologies that would not deviate from their putative, pre-established, holistic inner order. Through multiple literary, cinematic, and philosophical examples it is shown that people are of dividual (not individual) nature. That is to say, potentially we contain multiple dividual poles such as hedgehog versus fox, character versus author/agent, and different levels of authorship/agency, and a very large number of tropologies – a small, coherent system of different tropes that revolve around one axial trope – such as noise, silence, laughter, etc. Our level of authorship/agency depends on how often we oscillate between different dividual and tropological poles and how close is our relationship with them. These terms also allow us to look at the problem of determinism and free will from a slightly different conceptual angle.

This may pose two traditional questions: (i) Why act at all, if we are tropologically conditioned? (ii) What could be constructive principles for action? This thesis argues that even though we are incapable of controlling and predicted the consequences of people’s actions (entropology), we may still follow the principle of melioristic, amphibian, tropological and dividual oscillations and hope for serendipitous outcomes. Examples and cases from the areas of literature, arts, philosophy, and cultural studies used in this thesis seek to provide a rich conceptual framework and gain new synthesized perspectives. Comparisons of old and new intellectual production helps us understand why tropological and dividual oscillations are inevitable and more desirable than tropological and dividual settlements.

Summary for Lay Audience

Some people often identify themselves too strongly with one particular belief system. Others, throughout their lives, travel from one belief system to another without necessarily weaving their experiences and gained bodies of knowledge in a complementary manner. That is to say, at different times they may hold very different, contradictory, and perhaps even opposite ideas. Naturally, this affects the perception of one’s personal identity. Too often in literature, politics or philosophy, we tend to oversimplify the understanding of who we are by putting ourselves in one or another firm category. Then, we cannot re-contextualize ourselves or the ideas we hold and look at them in a different light. I call this phenomenon tropological settlement. In this thesis, I advocate the idea of tropological oscillations. This means that there are no pure, well-established, holistic ideologies and that we constantly oscillate between different ideas even if we do not notice it. Through multiple literary, cinematic, and philosophical examples it is shown that people are of dividual (not individual) nature. This means that we consist of many selves, not one particular self. I demonstrate this by showing how we tend to oscillate between the poles such as hedgehog versus fox, character versus author/agent, and different levels of authorship/agency. Moreover, I also analyze how certain very popular contemporary tropes such as noise, silence, and laughter impact the way we think, speak, act, and conceptualize our identity. These terms also allow us to look at the problem of determinism and free will from a slightly different conceptual angle.

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