Abstract
This paper discusses that, after a two-month long oil strike, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is assuring voters and foreign investors that the Venezuelan economy is on track to rebound but economic; but, geopolitical indicators point to a prolonged aftershock for Venezuela and the region. The author points out that the country's overdependence on oil has overexposed the economy to the high volatility in oil prices and the resultant "booms and busts" of the oil industry cycle. The paper reveals another problem: Chavez' s handling of the strike risks tarnishing Venezuela's reputation as one of the regions more stable democracies.

From the Paper
"Venezuela is also in the midst of a difficult restructuring of its foreign debt, which totals $23 billion, leaving it less flexibility in the use of its reserves. President Chavez stated at the end of March that the country would be able meet its $2 billion in foreign debt obligations in 2003 and stave off any defaults. An important component of the foreign debt refinancing is the country's intention to issue a voluntary bond swap. A credit default would jeopardize the security exchange and could trigger further defaults."

Tags:strike, rebound, dependency, debt, volatility

Abstract
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank managed to draw criticism from the political, left, right and center for their activities and policies. Interestingly enough, the left and right agree on their distaste for some of these policies, although for different reasons. The right worries about measures the IMF institutes as inherently anti-growth, while the left complains that the IMF measures are destructive to the local populations.

From the Paper
"IMF

Introduction
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank managed to draw criticism from the political, left, right and center for their activities and policies. Interestingly enough, the left and right agree on their distaste for some of these policies, although for different reasons. The right worries about measures the IMF institutes as inherently anti-growth, while the left complains that the IMF measures are destructive to the local populations.

During the past year, the IMF has both expressed a new, expanded understanding of its role in the world economy and been involved in attempting to stave off economic collapse throughout Asia. In the following pages, the focus is on exploring some of ..."

Abstract
In this paper it is shown that Auster's original novel has become a visual presentation of existentialism that is knowledgeable and innovative through the artwork of Mazzucchelli and Karasik. The paper shows that the theme of identity and the inward struggles of Self are brought forth in a clever and intriguing manner, through this philosophical detective mystery.

From the Paper
"The aim of this reaction paper is to determine the existential basis of philosophy that resides in the identity of Quinn in the graphic novel: City of Glass by Paul Auster. This philosophical perspective brings forth the unique approach in comic book writing, which defines the Self and Identity through words and images. In essence, Auster's existential plot and characterization provides a unique graphic art presentation through the comic book artistry of Mazzucchelli and Karasik. Auster is trying to prove the basic presumption that existentialism offers through the individual experience of Daniel Quinn, his main protagonist."

Tags:auster, comic, glass

Abstract
This paper aims at analyzing the 'metaphysical detective story', a genre that twists the conventions of the conventional Holmesian detective stories and slyly leaves philosophical questionings of 'reality', 'truth', 'self' and 'identity' in the texture of the text. The writer observes curious results when postmodernism with its characteristic indeterminacy and chaos is applied on to a genre that hinges on certainty and order. This genre is dissected in the context of three texts - Paul Auster's "City of Glass", Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" and Jorge Louis Borge's "Death and the Compass" where the detectives Daniel Quinn, Christopher Boone and Erik Lonnrot are caught in a perilous world and the case as well as the story is left unfinished. The mystery is never solved and the detective becomes a failure. The paper concludes that these queer consequences raise deeper philosophical questions and raises the detective genre, as a whole, from its 'popular' image to an 'avant garde' form of art.

Outline:

Chapter 1 - "A Cross-Section of the Metaphysical Detective Story". Chapter 2 - "Shattering Expectations: Paul Auster's City of Glass". Chapter 3 - "The Curious Case of a Doomed Detective:An analysis of Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time". Chapter 4 - Pursuing the Pursuer: Jorge Louis Borges' "Death and the Compass"
Conclusion

From the Paper
"This new form of detective fiction is extremely self-reflexive where the author constantly reminds the reader of the construction and physicality of the text itself. It is metalinguistic in the sense that the text often critiques the linguistic medium that it employs and undermines its worth showing it incapable of fully constructing and conveying reality. This postmodern genre involves not only the detective figuring out what his purpose is in the text, but what his relationship to the author of the text is. Fictional boundaries are often transgressed and there is constant intermixing of the real with the fictional. The real world merges into the fictional world to the extent of being almost undistinguishable from one another, where, at times, the author himself (and other real life characters) enters into the fabric of the text and assumes the role of a character. At times he himself becomes one of the suspects. He creates a world where identities are not fixed. The detective fails to identify individuals, misinterprets texts and gets confounded and defeated at every step. In this kind of story, one character may have multiple identities and names."

Tags:Sherlock Holmes, sub-genre detection parody intertextuality self-reflexivity hermeneutics interpretation ontological

Abstract
This paper discusses the novel "City of Glass" written by Paul Auster. "City of Glass" is the first of three volumes that comprise the New York trilogy written by this author. The paper then goes on to discuss the book "City of Glass: the Graphic Novel" which was written later and which analyzes the relationship between the story's characters and the city they inhabit.

From the Paper
"In Quinn's eyes, the detective looks, listens and moves through objects and events in search of the thought, the idea that will connect things together and develop sense in them (Swope 2002). The detective looks at the world from himself and demands that the world reveal itself to him too. This view or position provides him with the security and comfort he lacks and promises him that sense of his world and of securing his position in it. The detective's reliance on his ability to decode the world reflects a belief in a tightly formed linguistic economy and the possibility of maintaining one and stable identity."

Tags:detective, novel, trilogy

Abstract
This paper discusses the issues of home and homelessness in Paul Auster's "The New York Trilogy". Initially, home as non-entity and home as hell are explored in "City of Glass". Then, "the Locked Room" is examined as rumination on homelessness and flight.

Abstract
This paper explores Paul Auster's novella "Ghosts" and describes why the thesis of this story is how human beings can never truly get close to each other.

Abstract
The paper discusses how Cistercian Abbeys are remarkable for their extreme austerity and simplicity; not only do the Abbeys lack adornment, every aspect of the design was supposed to turn the monk's eyes inward, upon God, rather than upon worldly things. The paper describes the different buildings where the monks worshipped and lived and how they were spaced purely by the needs of practicality and theology, not aesthetics.

From the Paper
"The first Cistercian Abbey was constructed in March 1098 by a small group of reformist monks who "took over some unattractive swamp land they had been given in a forest at Citeaux "intent on finally setting up a monastic house true to real Benedictine ideals" (Fletcher 2008). Lay brothers rather than renters tilled the Abbey land, meaning the monks had more control over how the land was administered. They lived in total isolation: even the lay brothers and formally sworn minks were physically separated in the monetary: "the abbey churches were divided by a high masonry wall (misleadingly called a screen) across the nave to separate the 'choir monks' from 'lay brothers' and others" (Fletcher 2008)
"The monk's spirit of renunciation "manifested itself in the choice of the sites of their monasteries. The more dismal, the more savage, the more hopeless a spot appeared, the more did it please their rigid mood" (Snell "Cistercian," 2009, p.1). However, as well as great aesthetics many of these monks were also great architects. "The Cistercian monasteries are, as a rule, found placed in deep well-watered valleys. They always stand on the border of a stream...These valleys, now so rich and productive, wore a very different aspect when the brethren first chose them as the place of their retirement. Wide swamps, deep morasses, tangled thickets, wild impassable forests, were their prevailing features" (Snell "Cistercian," 2009, p.1). It is a tribute to the craftsmanship of early monks that the extant monasteries became so hospitable."

Tags:Clairvaux, austerity, adornment, aesthetics

Abstract
The paper asserts that Emily Dickinson's lack of exposure to wider society and the world at large allowed her to achieve such enduring success in her work. The paper examines Dickinson's relationships and reveals that although she was perhaps poor in direct experience, her life was rich in emotion and intellect. The paper looks specifically at the male influences in her life, her faith and her love of nature and contends that they greatly impacted the beauty and austerity of her poems.

From the Paper
"Many works of poetry benefit from dramatic and complex imagery. The poems of Emily Dickinson, however, function in the realm of the sublime. The simple nature of her words, the plainness of her language, and indeed the very austerity of her life all contributed to the artistry that has continued to live on long after her death.
"Far from being a well-traveled "citizen of the world", lustily absorbing the experiences life had to offer, Dickinson was the product of a close New England family that she was never really comfortable leaving. Like her sister, Lavinia, Emily preferred the home she grew up in and returned to it after only a year away from at school. (Sewell)"

Tags:relationships, intellect, faith, nature, austerity

Abstract
In this article, the writer examines the aesthetics of the Enlightenment in terms of architecture, painting and sculpture. The contention is that the Enlightenment is not only characterized by rationalism and humanism but also as a reaction against the austerity of Christian art. The writer discusses that the new aesthetic found expression in architecture through an incorporation of geometrical forms, as found in the design of the Palace of Versailles. The writer maintains that in painting and sculpture the focus shifts towards physical beauty, at the expense of the sublime. The writer concludes that much of this can be seen as a relapse into pagan values that flourished in the Classical Age, and indeed classical accomplishments were held up as ideals for artists and thinkers.

From the Paper
"Known as the Sun King, and an ardent champion of the enlightenment, he made sure that the designs reflected the emerging ethos of the age. The most noticeable feature is the absence of gaudy ostentation, characteristic of Baroque and Gothic architecture which had flourished in the previous ages. Instead, the palace exudes simplicity and mathematical harmony. The outlines are by and large flat and rectangular, which is in marked opposition to the Gothic style. The latter style, originating in Germany, incorporated upward curving lines, and spires that point sharply towards the sky. It is a style that emphasizes the other world, where the upward arching outlines were meant to suggest heaven. In contrast to this the Palace of Versailles very much directs us back to earth, telling us that the focus has shifted back to this world. Other mathematical motifs are triangles and circles, found incorporated in the extensive lawns and gardens that surround the Palace, all suggestive of humanism, as opposed to religion."

Tags:architecture, forms, austere, Church, pagan, values