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1
Gadbois, Pauline. „La parole parlée dans l'oeuvre de Jacques Brault 1954-1965 /“. Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=59886.
Annotation:
Often designated as "le poete de la parole parlee", Jacques Brault, author of a substantial and rigourous work dealing with poetry, language, writing and art, is one of the most significant modern writers of Quebec. In our literature, rare are the figurative expressions inventing their own trajectory and rarer still is the emblematic used to evoke simultaneously the essence of a generation, a work, a writer, a style. The expression "la parole parlee" says it all.This figure of speech, intimately linked to though and writing, has progressed from a rhetorical to a living expression throughout the eleven years on which our study focuses. In the analysis of this period, "la parole parlee" stands out as the obscure leitmotiv which favours a dialogue between the critical and the creative in the act of writing. Finding its own way, the work discovers a refrangible and versatile universe and the unique voice of Jacques Brault.
2
Sanborn, Robert E. „Free servitude : a study of the mythos in the poetry of Edwin Muir“. Virtual Press, 1986. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/468077.
Annotation:
The poetry of Edwin Muir has inspired a distinctive body of criticism. Realizing that his poetry is inexorably linked with his life, Roger Knight, Michael Phillips, Peter Butter and others have produced fine studies of his work against a biographical background. Margaret Anderson has contributed an important dissertation on the importance of dualism in the poems. R. P. Blackmur, J. R. Watson and Kathleen Raine have published articles that are central in informing any new Muir scholarship.This study intends to illuminate the source of Muir's inspiration, to show that his imagery is drawn from the mythos. A general review of Muir criticism supports the theory that the imaginative background he knew as the Fable, which underlies all temporal human behavior (labeled as the Story) is also the collective unconscious of Jung, the Spiritus Mundi of Yeats, the "inseeing" of Rilke, and the Mythos of Aristotle.The study reviews Muir criticism and the poetic technique of Muir, develops a special definition of "mythos" and goes on, through the explication of selected Muir poems, to show how his poetic and philosophical growth was influenced by his unique ability to gain access to the most powerful of Aristotle's four modes of Rhetoric. Finally, the study crystalizes Muir's overall aesthetic in the oxymoronic conclusion to his 1956 masterpiece, "The Horses," the term "free servitude."Muir felt that we can only function at our full potential when we use the power of our imagination to realize the essential duality of the human condition. We are, to an extent, free, and in a state of servitude. In Freudian terms, the superego enslaves us through guilt and our debt to the concept of civilization, while the id urges us on the ultimate freedom represented by the unchecked expression of violence and sex.The study concludes with an examination of Muir's final enigmatic symbol, found in the title of his last collection of poems: One Foot in Eden. Man, through the imaginative realization of his immortality, may plant one foot in Eden; the other foot remains trapped in the Labyrinth, Muir's symbol for the bewildering, impersonal complexity of our twentieth century beaurocractic wasteland. The transcendence of this entrapment gave Muir his purpose, in life and in art.
3
Reiswig, Amy. „Robinson Jeffers, hermit of Carmel : recontextualizing inhumanism“. Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp03/MQ64185.pdf.
4
Bagraim, Abigail Sarah. „The Hasidic spirit as the foundation of the art of Marc Chagall“. Thesis, Rhodes University, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002189.
Annotation:
In considering Chagall's art the observer is immediately struck by the constancy of his almost obsessive repetition of certain symbols and themes. In this way Chagall has created his own fantasy world, one with which the observer soon becomes acquainted and grows to love and understand.
5
Laue, Ingrid Elizabeth. „Pictorialism in the fictional miniatures of Albert Paris Gütersloh“. Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/27367.
Annotation:
The purpose of this study has been to investigate and analyze the "fictional miniatures," i.e., the short prose works, of Albert Paris Gütersloh. The assumption was that a marked interrelationship exists between these and Gütersloh's painted miniatures. Given the fact that Gütersloh was both writer and painter, and since many of the questions which logically arise out of this duality either have not been addressed at all in the scholarly literature on Gütersloh, or dealt with only superficially, it was felt that the approach used in the present study had to focus, to some extent, on the artist's dual talent. The study attempts to illustrate Gütersloh's artistic nature in conjunction with an investigation of one area of artistic expression, namely the short fictional works.
The method was one of proceeding from the general to the particular, i.e., by first examining the complex phenomenon of the "painting writer," or "writing painter," as well as the widely discussed notion of "reciprocal illumination" of the arts. This, together with the detailed analysis of scholarly works on Gütersloh as well as his own theoretical writings on art was seen as part of the necessary "anatomy" of the study. Although the narrational quality of the painted miniatures has been alluded to by several other critics, the inherent similarity between Gütersloh's painted and "literary miniatures" (i.e., his short prose works) is being analyzed for the first time in this study. It aims at proving the claim that the former's overriding characteristic is their distinctly narrational quality. As such the paintings are permeated with a writer's imagination, a feature which makes their narrative component as important as the pictorial. Each of these small-scale paintings depicts some crucial point in a "story," thereby forcing the viewer to imagine a "before" as well as an "after" of each specific scene — in other words, to see these paintings in epic terms.
By isolating such elements as delineation, framing, staging, setting, and colour (both descriptive and metaphorical) among others, it could be shown that the fictional miniatures give evidence of Gütersloh's persistent inclination to think, and write, in "pictures," hence to work from a largely pictorial conception: the story-line frequently is developed as a series of static "pictures" which are given as much compositional weight as the chronologically progressing plot. It could also be demonstrated that the general phenomenon of Fantastic Realism is a pronounced feature not only of the painted but also of the literary miniatures.
The conclusion the study reaches is that Gütersloh's artistic expression, whether as writer or painter, is of a much more unified nature than has previously been argued; that both forms of artistic expression are of a complementary
nature, and that this phenomenon is exemplified most succinctly in his fictional miniatures.Arts, Faculty of
Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of
Graduate
6
Pham, Thien Truong. „Tanizaki Junʼichirō and the art of storytelling“. Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25504.
Annotation:
This thesis deals with the storytelling art of Tanizaki Jun'ichirō. An esthete par excellence, this prolific writer produced for over half a century a string of works that are essentially dedicated to the glorification of art and beauty. This glorification in turn enhances the quality of life which, also in the author's view, is both a dream and a game. Art and beauty, dreams and games are virtually the building blocks of Tanizaki's fictional universe in which illusion and reality are meant to be complementary rather than opposing forces that govern human existence. Transplanting this fabulous world into the reader's heart is the result of Tanizaki's special skill in storytelling. An analysis of his four major works will hopefully bring this skill into full view.
Chapter One examines Tanizaki's early short story "Shisei" that marks his brilliant debut. Though marred by technical flaws, "Shisei" succeeds remarkably in luring the reader into a fairy-tale atmosphere where art and beauty are the only raison d'être. A sensuous style characterizes this lively tale and between the lines flows a life force that will become Tanizaki's trademark.
The theme of art and beauty is brought to a climax in "Shunkinshō" which is analysed in Chapter Two. The simple perspective of "Shisei" is now abandoned, giving way to a maze of multiple viewpoints that are there for the single purpose of hypnotizing the reader. The ultimate goal is to make the reader share the passion and devotion of an artist in the pursuit of the Ideal. The monogatari style is a feature of this novella and helps generate the ambiguity needed for the narrative.
Chapter Three deals with "Yume no ukihashi," a tale of dream and sensuality. Man's ambition to create and perpetuate dreams is given full treatment in this story in which illusions are the name of the game. Incest is also a thorny issue but Tanizaki seems to consciously skirt the problem with various devices.
Fùten rōjin nikki, Tanizaki's crowning novel, is the subject of Chapter Four. Everything that the author stands for in his writing is now brought into focus. Using the casual form of a diary, art motifs and erotic scenes are placed at well-calculated points so that structural balance is maintained throughout the story. A game-playing spirit and the overwhelming life force which starts with "Shisei" embody this last tour-de-force that proudly consolidates the author's fame.
This thesis, through the four works that are examined, can be considered an attempt to shed some light on the question of why and how Tanizaki fascinates the reader.Arts, Faculty of
Asian Studies, Department of
Graduate
7
Iwama, Marilyn Joy. „When Nikkei women write, transforming Japanese Canadian identities, 1887-1997“. Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ34557.pdf.
8
Wishart, Ruth. „Georg Trakl and the literature of decadence“. Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13361.
Annotation:
This thesis examines the poetry of Georg Trakl within the context of literary decadence in Europe at the turn of the century (1880-1914). It provides an analysis of Trakl's early writing, and traces themes of literary decadence which recur throughout his work, particularly in the late prose and the dramatic fragment of 1914. In so doing, it also undertakes a comparative study of Trakl's poetry and decadent literature in Austria, Germany, France and England. Chapter One looks at the literary background and attempts a definition of what was understood by literary decadence in France and Germany at the end of the nineteenth century. Chapter Two examines motifs of crime and horror in Trakl's writing, paying particular attention to the concept of Lustmord in the early dramas Blaubart and Don Juans Tod and the later dramatic fragment of 1914. Chapter Three examines the issue of sexual guilt, and the portrayal of women in Trakl's poetry, from the femme fatale of the early poetry to the figure of the sister and the androgyne in the later poetry. Chapter Four traces the theme of blasphemy from the early lyric to the last poetic utterances of 1914, and touches briefly on the question of Trakl as a Christian poet. Chapter Five looks at motifs of isolation, obsession with death and decay, and poetry as the expression of the poet's etat d'ame. Chapter Six provides an analysis of the language and style of the early poetry, focusing on Trakl's affinity with the style of literary decadence.
9
Danezi, Irene. „Richard Jefferies as a social critic : modern loneliness“. Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683338.
10
Van, Wyk André Johan. „Die dood, die minnaar en die oedipale struktuur in die Ingrid Jonker-teks“. Thesis, Rhodes University, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003917.
Annotation:
From Inleiding: In dié inleiding word die implikasies van die woord "teks", asook die resepsie van die Ingrid Jonker-teks in die lig van haar dood, en 'n eie benaderingswyse, in teenstelling met die tradisionele kritiese metodes, bespreek. 1.1 Die teks: Die Ingrid Jonker-teks behels (met die dood, die rninnaar en die OedipaIe struktuur as uitgangspunt) aIIes waarop die woorde "Ingrid Jonker", as teks - die parentese tussen die datums op haar grafsteen - dui. Dit beteken dat genre-onderskeidinge en die onderskeid biografie en literatuur opgehef word. Verdere implikasies van die woord "teks" gaan vervolgens ter inleiding ondersoek word. Daar sal ruim gebruik gemaak word van die literêr-teoretiese en filosofiese veronderstellinge van Julia Kristeva, Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Pierre Macherey en Roland Barthes.
11
Rayneard, Max James Anthony. „Reading William Blake and T.S. Eliot: contrary poets, progressive vision“. Thesis, Rhodes University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007545.
Annotation:
Many critics resort to explaining readers' experiences of poems like William Blake's Jerusalem and T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets in terms of "spirituality" or "religion". These experiences are broadly defined in this thesis as jouissance (after Roland Barthes' essay The Pleasure of the Text) or "experience qua experience". Critical attempts at the reduction of jouissance into abstract constructs serve merely as stopgap measures by which critics might avoid having to account for the limits of their own rational discourse. These poems, in particular, are deliberately structured to preserve the reader's experience of the poem from reduction to any particular meta-discursive construct, including "the spiritual". Through a broad application of Rezeption-Asthetik principles, this thesis demonstrates how the poems are structured to direct readers' faculties to engage with the hypothetical realm within which jouissance occurs, beyond the rationally abstractable. T.S. Eliot's poetic oeuvre appears to chart his growing confidence in non-rational, pre-critical faculties. Through "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", The Waste Land, and Four Quartets, Eliot's poetry becomes gradually less prescriptive of the terms to which the experience of his poetry might be reduced. In Four Quartets he finally entrusts readers with a great deal of responsibility for "co-creating" the poem's significance. Like T.S . Eliot, although more consistently throughout his oeuvre, William Blake is similarly concerned with the validation of the reader's subjective interpretative/creative faculties. Blake's Jerusalem is carefully structured on various intertwined levels to rouse and exercise in the reader what the poet calls the "All Glorious Imagination" (Keynes 1972: 679). The jouissance of Jerusalem or Four Quartets is located in the reader's efforts to co-create the significance of the poems. It is only during a direct engagement with this process, rather than in subsequent attempts to abstract it, that the "experience qua experience" may be understood.
12
Haedrich, Alexandra. „L' opera narrativa di Maria Messina : maschi e femmine "alla deriva" in un'epoca di transizione“. Thesis, McGill University, 1995. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23214.
Annotation:
Maria Messina (1887-1944) is one of the writers whose work has been "rediscovered" as a result of the recent interest in women writers of the past. Until now, criticism has tended to focus on her representation of the female condition. This thesis attempts to offer a more precise and yet more broadly contextualized characterization of her work. The analysis takes into account the social and economic upheavals of the early decades of this century which affected both men and women. In fact, the crisis of the rigid division of gender roles is shown to be the real thematic source of her work.
13
Poirier, Guy. „La structure symbolique de la poésie de Pierre Jean Jouve /“. Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=66050.
14
Laver, Sue 1961. „Poets, philosophers, and priests : T.S. Eliot, postmodernism, and the social authority of art“. Thesis, McGill University, 2000. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=37755.
Annotation:
This comprehensive analysis of T. S. Eliot's literary-critical corpus provides both a long-overdue reassessment of the nature and extent of his commitment to notions of aesthetic autonomy, and an Eliotic critique of the hypostatization of art that characterizes both philosophical postmodernism and its literary-theoretical derivatives.The broader context for these two primary objectives is the "ancient quarrel" between the poets and the philosophers and its various manifestations in the work of a number of prominent post- and anti-Enlightenment thinkers. Accordingly, I begin by highlighting several fundamental but much-neglected (or misunderstood) features of Eliot's critical canon that testify to his life-long preoccupation with this still resonant issue. Specifically, I demonstrate that there is a logical connection between his sustained opposition to those who seek in literature a substitute for religious faith or at least philosophic belief, his critique of various more or less sophisticated forms of generic confusion, and his robust defence of the integrity of different discursive forms, social practices, and disciplinary domains. In anticipation of my Eliotic critique of philosophical and literary-theoretical postmodernism, I then locate Eliot's account of these characteristic features of "the modern mind" within the context of Jurgen Habermas remarkably congenial The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity.
In successive chapters, I next provide detailed analyses of Eliot's account of the discursive and functional integrity of art, literature, poetry, and criticism. By way of providing additional support for the concept of "integrity," and indicating its relevance to contemporary debates about the relationship between literature, criticism, and philosophy, I advert to the work of a number of other contemporary philosophers, John Searle, Goran Hermeren, Monroe Beardsley, Peter Lamarque, Paisley Livingston, and Richard Shusterman chief among them. I then demonstrate that Eliot's critique of the hypostatizing and levelling tendencies of many of his predecessors and contemporaries can itself legitimately be brought to bear on the similar practices of contemporary postmoderns such as Jacques Derrida and Richard Rorty.
I conclude by suggesting that a return to Eliot's literary critical corpus is both timely and instructive, for it provides a much-needed corrective to some late twentieth-century trends in literary studies, and, in particular, to the influence of philosophical postmodernism upon it.
15
Shih-Ching, Judy Tao, und Shih-Ching Judy Tau. „The holy spirit in the Qur'an : an assessment from a Christian perspective“. Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1965.
Annotation:
Thesis (MTh (Practical Theology and Missiology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.This study is an attempt to gain an understanding of the al-ruh (Holy Spirit) from a Muslim perspective and a comparison with the Christian perspective. Chapter 1 is an introduction. Chapter 2 and 3 are textual study; the meaning and usage of the al-ruh (Holy Spirit) in the Qur’an will be examined, especially in Muslim Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias and Commentaries as compared with the meaning and usage in the Biblical and Jewish scriptures. Obviously, the Holy Spirit plays an active role with humankind in creation and in revelation; the al-ruh has evidently inspired all the prophets and even believers according to the Qur’an. The experience of Muhammad with respect to the al-ruh is also mentioned in the Qur’an even when he was not yet aware of the work of Holy Spirit as well as the person of the Holy Spirit, as the third person of the Trinity in Christianity. Chapter 3 carries on the findings from the Qur’an, and furthermore give explanations as well as evaluate exegeses and various commentators’ opinions regarding al-ruh. Moreover, there are some disagreements among various Muslim commentators as manifested in their interpretations. Such disagreement is discernable with respect to the doctrine of Holy Spirit as a Person in the Trinity. In addition to this, various issues are investigated like: ‘Where did the divisions and disunity come from?’ Is it possible to find a satisfactory answer? ‘Is al-ruh the angel Gabriel?’ since the angel Gabriel is only mentioned once (66:4). Nevertheless, most of the commentators indicate that the Holy Spirit and the Spirit as the angel Gabriel are the same. Is there a gap in understanding between Muhammad and commentators? Is there a gap between classical and contemporary commentators? Chapter 4 presents a report of the empirical fieldwork carried out through interviews. Questionnaires are designed based on findings in the Qur’an and what commentators have said. A cross section of Muslims in the Western Cape of South Africa as well as Muslims from other African countries presently in Stellenbosch is selected for interviews. Several Islamic sects (i.e. Sunni, Sufis) who are found in South Africa are included in these interviews along with relevant information obtained from Internet sources. An analysis of data provides the basic thoughts for the assessment and response from the Christian point of view in Chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 is a comparative study. The aim is to find out similarities in both Christian and Muslim religious concepts, thereby attempting to build up on common grounds; and to find out the differences in understanding about the Holy Spirit and to restore an agreeable understanding of the concept of the Holy Spirit. The ultimate goal is to use the idea of the al-ruh from Qur’anic and Islamic concepts in order to build a bridge to the understanding of the Holy Spirit in Christianity. Some concepts are common to both Christianity and Islam, i.e. spirit (ruh), soul (nafs) and conscience (fitrah). Some fundamental doctrines are essential for both religions. For instance, The Oneness of God is understood in Islam as Tahwid (i.e. Oneness of Allah), and in Christianity, as Trinity, the Godhead or Triune God. Besides, both religions in terms of this doctrine contain elements of the transcendence and immanence of God in relation to creation. The key issue investigated further is ‘whether the Spirit is created or eternal’ and ‘Is al-ruh the created Spirit or the creator Spirit’? The question of how a Christian explains to a Muslim that Jesus is ultimately the Ruh Allah (the Spirit of God) introduced in the next chapter. Chapter 6 is a Missiological approach which is based on the fundamental knowledge of the Holy Spirit and the Trinity in Systematic theology and Missiology. Certain topics are examined from a comparative religious point of view; firstly, a comparison of the natural human with the spiritual human to find out the function of the conscience and of spirituality from a Biblical point of view. Secondly, a comparison of Jesus with Adam and an angel in terms of the purpose for which God created the whole world is made with a focus on Jesus in humanity. Thirdly, a definition of the divinity of Jesus in terms of two aspects: Jesus as the first-born Son of God and Jesus as Messiah (the anointed one and saviour of the world), using a historical, traditional and Christological understanding. Fourthly, a Pneumatological approach is applied as an innovation to this study. Its endeavours generally explore the human religious experience, in order to initiate a ‘dialectical dialogue’; and subsequently to focus on the Trinitarian experience in Islam. An interesting example of martyrdom as an imitation of Christ on the cross can be found among Sufi Sunni Muslims. This is an evidence of the freedom of the Holy Spirit working wherever he wills. In brief, although the Person and the work of the Holy Spirit are not very obvious in the Qur’an, a careful study makes it increasingly apparent. Finally, the work of the Holy Spirit is still alive in all religions, not least in Islam, as the resulting evidence of my research suggests.
16
Snyman, Jacobus Wilhelmus Otto. „A life worthy of being lived : dialectics in Svevo and Michelstaedter“. Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/69085.
Annotation:
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 1991.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to point out and elaborate the affinities, culturally as well as textually, between the two Italian authors, Italo Svevo and Carlo Michelstaedter. Furthermore, it is the object of this study to demonstrate how, implicitly, the two authors provide an answer, each in his own way, to the question of "una vita degna di essere vissuta" - "a life worthy of being lived". The central theme in this regard concerns the distinctive notions that each author has in respect of 'Ihealth" and "disease", and "life" and "death", as well as how these notions correspond to the implicit search in their respective writings for "perfection", "authenticity" and "liberty".
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het ten doel am die kulturele en tekstuele affiniteite tussen die lwee Italiaanse outeurs, Ital0 Svevo en Carlo Michelstaedter, uit te wys en uitvoerig te bespreek. Daarbenewens, is die voorneme van hierdie studie om te wys hoe elk van die tv:ee outeurs, implisiet, '0 aotwoord verskaf op die kwessie van "una vita degna di essere vissuta" - II 'n lewe wat waardig is om geleef te word". Die sentrale tema in hierdie verband het betrekking op die onderskeidelike opvattings wat elke auteur se werk bevat ten opsigte van "gesondheid" en "siekte", en "Iewe" en "dood". Daar word ook getoon hoe hierdie opvattings betreffende die implisiete soeke ten opsigte van "volmaaktheid", "outentisiteit" en ''vryheid" in hul onderskeidelike tekste korrespondeer.
17
Berns, Torben. „Artifice and witness : representation judgement and accountability within a non-transcendent framework“. Thesis, McGill University, 1993. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=69583.
Annotation:
This thesis considers the notion that it is the future which judges the present and that judgement is always guilty. In effect to understand modernity on its own terms one would have to inquire if we have any more right to affirm a given future than to deny one?The question arises as follows. If a subject exists prior to the process which is its being, an uncomfortable aporia ensues.
Firstly, if being human is understood as "becoming", i.e. humans can and do appear through the enactment of change, then "being" itself is temporal. How then does this self secure its appearance other than through the very process it assumes itself to be prior to? Such a securing would imply an absolute uniformity and homogeneity not predicated on human-enacted change. If securing is in fact the aim of appearance, and therefore the operative term in judgement, what then are the consequences of action in terms of created results?
In other words, what are the consequences of the temporality of "being"? It continues to produce a world. The second question then is: how does one judge, make and act, toward a future which properly speaking, cannot be our rightful concern?
The question is approached initially through a discussion of the integral terms. In the final chapters, an attempt is made to understand the premise of Marcel Duchamp's Etant Donnes. Duchamp's work is taken as paradigmatic of making circumventing the aporia of self-revelation through becoming.
18
Porcina, Mark. „I am not a ceramicist“. Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Art, c2012, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/3393.
Annotation:
Ceramics has always existed on the fringes of craft and high art. The purpose of this
thesis project is to elevate clay beyond the traditions of craft by examining the historical use of
clay and the everyday object. My research looks specifically at works by Marcel Duchamp, Andy
Warhol, Jeff Koons and Jasper Johns in order to examine the origin of displaying the massproduced
object and reflecting upon it’s validity as high status art object. In this project I am also
interested in infrastructural systems within modern architecture-- plumbing, wiring, heat ducts
vents-- with a specific focus on systems lurking inside walls and how these function to influence
architectural space. With the advent of modern plumbing, concealing these elements was
adopted as the new standard and still exists today. Through the presentation of defamiliarized
handmade objects, my exhibition presents the appearance of manufactured material through the
serial manipulation of scale, surface and quantity. The result reveals a clay piece that renders the
material unrecognizable providing the viewer with a new view on the object's tradition.v, 47 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm
19
Zipp, Collin. „A theoretical exploration of the transformative properties of experience“. Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Art, 2011, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/3243.
Annotation:
This thesis document serves as a support paper for my exhibition titled, Selected Work. The goal of this document is to present and discuss a set of ideas and interests as they pertain to my studio practice and thesis project in particular, and to contemporary (ie. current) art practices in general. In this document I examine selected works from Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Andy Kaufman, Maurizio Cattelan and Richard Prince. Through the exploration of these artists and their works, I begin by examining the object and the conditions that give it approval as an art object. Using these conditions, I examine the effect that experience has on the object. This support paper will serve as a glossary of terms and theoretical concerns relevant to my thesis exhibitionvi, 64 leaves : col. ill. ; 29 cm
20
Prisco, Mario. „Journeys beyond binaries : storytelling and polyphony in the narratives of Gabriella Ghermandi, Igiaba Scego, Ubax Cristina Ali Farah and Amara Lakhous“. Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11947.
Annotation:
In the last two decades, in media and political discourses, Italianness has been increasingly represented as a homogeneous and compact entity, which is intruded on and contaminated by immigrants. In this study, the binary opposition between Italians and migrants is investigated from the perspective of writers who inhabit a liminal space, between at least two cultures, with the main intent to problematize the binary itself and to show its nature of fabrication. On the basis of Said's contrapuntal method, the novels by Ghermandi, Scego, Ali Farah and Lakhous are thought to establish a counterpoint with dominant discourses about Italianness. With the firm belief that discourses about postcolonial Italy must address its colonial past, the works analysed are considered as in dialogue with both colonial and postcolonial discourses. A dialogical relation is established, within the study, between Ghermandi's Regina di fiori e di perle and Flaiano's Tempo di uccidere. Written from the perspectives of the colonized and the colonizers respectively, both novels unveil colonial crimes and faults in Ethiopia, thus being counter-narratives about official representations of Italian colonialism. In Scego's Rhoda and Oltre Babilonia and Ali Farah's Madre piccolo, like threads, the individual stories of Somali exiles intertwine to create a fabric, whose pattern reveals the importance of the legacy of colonialism within contemporary Italy. Mainly situated between Italian and Somali cultures, the protagonists experience traumas, suffering and loss but finally attain a contrapuntal awareness between the two cultural poles. They become conscious of how enriching their in-between position is; they affirm the value of their hybrid identity. With a further zoom into postcolonial Italy, Lakhous' Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio and Divorzio all'islamica a viale Marconi analyse the binary ‘us-Italians' versus ‘thosemigrants' in two microcosms in Rome. General polarizations such as Islam and the West emerge as factors which are exploited in order to exacerbate tensions and divisions. In addition, Italianness appears to be an internally fragmented entity, which is imagined as compact and homogeneous, as a reaction to the influx of immigrants. Against any logic of binarism, the novels by Ghermandi, Scego, Ali Farah and Lakhous reveal the constant effort to create a passage between two poles and to uphold a dialogical relation between them; crossings over and hybridity are continuously affirmed. With their highly important affirmation of multiplicity, the works challenge any essentializing notion of identity and any narrow representation of Italianness, within multiethnic contemporary Italy.
21
Barr, A. F. M. Abdul. „Text and sub-text in T.S. Eliot : a general study of his practice, with special reference to the origins and development through successive drafts of 'The Confidential Clerk'“. Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15142.
Annotation:
This thesis explores Eliot's allusive method, that is his use of Judaeo-Christianity with its analogues (and sometimes sources) in pre-Biblical primitive myths and legends. The first chapters study The Confidential Clerk and the draft material of the play which contains overt allusions-subsequently expurgated - to Sargon and Dionysos'as pre-Biblical archetypes of Moses and Christ respectively. I discuss the growth and development of the two legends of Sargon and Dionysos and their Biblical counterparts through successive drafts of the' play. In adapting the Sargon-Moses legend, Eliot was influenced by Sigmund Freud and Sir James George Frazer who both believed that the legend of Moses's birth and early life closely resembles that of his Babylonian predecessor, Sargon of Accad, which the Hebrews imitated. In adapting, on another level of the play, the Dionysos-Christ legend, Eliot was in debt of Frazer and. John M. Robertson who have persuasively shorn the shaping influence of Dionysos and the Dionysos religion upon the Founder of Christianity and the Christian system. I have used the same approach in studying the other plays of Eliot, The same pattern,ie.,the adaptation of a pre-Biblical legend which has its counterpart in the Bible is to be found in The Family Reunion in which Eliot drew upon the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh from which he adapted the pre- Biblical legend of the Fall and the deluge story. For the minutiae of these legends in the epic of Gilgamesh and their Old Testament parallels Eliot is indebted to Alfred Loisy, the French Modernist theologian who explains the Genesis in terms of Babylonian mythology. In writing. The Cocktail Party, Eliot went to The Golden Ass of Apuleius, an anti- Christian work, from which he transformed the pre-Biblical legend of Isis, the forerunner of the Virgin Mary, as well as other motifs. Finally The Elder Statesman, Eliot's last play, adapts the pre-Biblical legend of Ahriman, an archetype of the Biblical story of Satan and the concept of evil in the Old Testament. But I have not included this play in my thesis, although I have investigated it, because of limitations of length, and also because the connection of text and sub-text in The Elder Statesman is less significant than that in the other plays.
22
McAlonan, Pauline. „Wrestling with angels : T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, and the idea of a Christian poetics“. Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=100653.
Annotation:
This thesis addresses the impact of religious conversion on the later works of Eliot and Auden, and the manner in which they responded to each other as they developed a Christian poetics. Following an introduction which discusses the nature of their relationship as well as their basic theological positions, Chapter One examines their postconversion criticism, and particularly their stance on what is typically formulated as "the problem of belief in poetry," which focuses on how ideology influences a work's creation and reception. Chapter Two considers their transitional poetry, wherein their new religious beliefs figure prominently and their anxiety over the potential conflict between artistic and spiritual values is most acute. Chapter Three looks at their major postconversion poems and specifically at how Eliot's and Auden's understanding of the Incarnation informs their views on time, history, language, and literature, as embodied by these works. Chapter Four centers on their drama, initially comparing their early plays---written when Eliot was a Christian but Auden was not---to show how they employed similar techniques to further different ends, before turning to an examination of Eliot's later verse plays and Auden's libretti. I investigate the ideological motivation behind the adoption of these different dramatic forms, as well as the specific ways in which they affect how belief is conveyed. Throughout the dissertation, the effects of Eliot's and Auden's conversion upon their reputations and the difficulties facing modern Christian artists in general are given particular consideration.
23
Barker, Debra Kay Stoner. „Ironic designs in the exotic short fiction of W. Somerset Maugham“. Virtual Press, 1989. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/558342.
Annotation:
This study analyzes the expression of Maugham's ironic vision in his short stories set in the South Seas and Southeast Asia. Through point of view, setting, character, and plot, Maugham explores the dialectic of expectation outcome, hope-disappointment, and illusion-reality. In the exotic short stories, not only do Maugham's characters confront this dialectic, but readers do as well. Using irony as a heuristic, Maugham prods his readers into rethinking unexamined assumptions about human nature and about the often disillusioning repercussions of clinging to ideals or having unrealistic expectations of life.The narrative voice in Maugham's stories, whether that of the omniscient or the dramatized first-person narrator, draws attention to the discrepancy between the ideal and the actual, using irony to highlight characterization as people are shown to be something other than they might be or what they are. Further, the narrators also establish a context for irony by inviting readers to share their insights on characters and conflicts, thereby emphasizing their distance from the characters who speak and act in ignorance of the actual state of affairs.Relying upon the conventions of realism, which assumes that man may find his destiny shaped by his responses to an environment, and using that environment to achieve artistic ends, Maugham demonstrates that setting generates irony as it precipitates tension, conflict, and sudden revelations of character. In other instances, the irony grows from Maugham's explorations of his characters' expectations of the exotic settings, suggesting that the tropical paradises are places of nightmares, as well as dreams.The volatile combination of setting and character often erupts in shocking plot reversals that have become the hallmark of Maugham's narrative techniques. The ironies of plot surface as characters and the first-person narrators confront realities that have been hidden or that have been denied. In many cases, the characters and the narrators have allowed their ideals or expectations to mislead them or cloud their judgment. Other plot ironies occur with the frame stories, as the narrators connect the fictive world of the story to the factual world of the reader, thus juxtaposing the ironic dialectic of reality and fiction.Throughout the exotic short stories, the designs of Maugham's narrative technique suggest that irony effectively expresses his philosophic stance on the ambiguity of human motives and the futility of idealism.Department of English
24
Jeffrey, Johnson Kirstin Elizabeth. „Rooted in all its story, more is meant than meets the ear : a study of the relational and revelational nature of George MacDonald's mythopoeic art“. Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1887.
Annotation:
Scholars and storytellers alike have deemed George MacDonald a great mythopoeic writer, an exemplar of the art. Examination of this accolade by those who first applied it to him proves it profoundly theological: for them a mythopoeic tale was a relational medium through which transformation might occur, transcending boundaries of time and space. The implications challenge much contemporary critical study of MacDonald, for they demand that his literary life and his theological life cannot be divorced if either is to be adequately assessed. Yet they prove consistent with the critical methodology MacDonald himself models and promotes. Utilizing MacDonald’s relational methodology evinces his intentional facilitating of Mythopoesis. It also reveals how oversights have impeded critical readings both of MacDonald’s writing and of his character. It evokes a redressing of MacDonald’s relationship with his Scottish cultural, theological, and familial environment – of how his writing is a response that rises out of these, rather than, as has so often been asserted, a mere reaction against them. Consequently it becomes evident that key relationships, both literary and personal, have been neglected in MacDonald scholarship – relationships that confirm MacDonald’s convictions and inform his writing, and the examination of which restores his identity as a literature scholar. Of particular relational import in this reassessment is A.J. Scott, a Scottish visionary intentionally chosen by MacDonald to mentor him in a holistic Weltanschauung. Little has been written on Scott, yet not only was he MacDonald’s prime influence in adulthood, but he forged the literary vocation that became MacDonald’s own. Previously unexamined personal and textual engagement with John Ruskin enables entirely new readings of standard MacDonald texts, as does the textual engagement with Matthew Arnold and F.D. Maurice. These close readings, informed by the established context, demonstrate MacDonald’s emergence, practice, and intent as a mythopoeic writer.
25
Hogue, Cynthia Anne. „Figuring woman (out): Feminine subjectivity in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, and H.D“. Diss., The University of Arizona, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/185054.
Annotation:
Historically, women have not been "speaking subjects" but "spoken objects" in Western culture--the ground on which male-dominated constructions have been erected. In literature, women have been conventionally held as the silent and silenced other. Lyric poetry especially has idealized not only the entrenched figures of masculine subject/feminine object, but poetry itself as the site of prophecy, vision, Truth. Most dramatically in lyric poetry then, the issue of women as subjects has been collapsed into Woman as object, that figure who has been the sacrifice necessary for the production of lyric "song" and the consolidation of the unified masculine voice. It has thus been difficult for women poets to take up the position of speaking subject, most particularly because of women's problematic relationship to Woman. Recent feminist theorists have explored female subjectivity, how women put into hegemonic discourse "a possible operation of the feminine." This dissertation analyzes that possibility in poetry as exemplified in the works of Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore, and H.D. I contend that these paradigmatic American poets constitute speaking subjects in their poetry that both figure Woman conventionally and reconfigure it, i.e. subvert the stability of those representations, thereby disturbing our view. I argue that this double identification produces, in effect, a divided or split subjectivity that is enabling for the female speaker. As an alternative to the traditionally specularized figure of Woman then, such a position opens up distinctly counter-hegemonic spaces in which to constitute the female subject, rendering problematic readerly consumption of the image of Woman as a totality. I explore the attempts to represent women's difference differently--the tenuous accession to, rejection of, or play with the lyric "I" in these poets' works. Dickinson, Moore, and H.D. reconfigure Woman and inscribe female speakers as grammatically and rhetorically, but not necessarily visually, present, thereby frustrating patriarchal economies of mastery and possession.
26
Cumps, Dorian. „De eenheid in de tegendelen: de psychomachische verhaalwereld van F. Bordewijk (1884-1965) en de mythe van de hermafrodiet“. Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/212522.
27
Buaes, Aline Greff. „Protegido pelas contradições - Coletânea de crônicas jornalísticas de Pier Paolo Pasolini (1960 a 1965)“. Universidade de São Paulo, 2009. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8148/tde-03022010-173749/.
Annotation:
Este trabalho apresenta a tradução comentada da língua italiana para o português de uma seleção das crônicas publicadas pelo escritor e cineasta italiano Pier Paolo Pasolini em sua coluna semanal na revista Vie Nuove, órgão oficial do Partido Comunista Italiano, entre os anos de 1960 e 1965. As crônicas foram divididas em três blocos temáticos: Literatura, Cultura e Política e Sociedade. Uma introdução ensaística acompanha a tradução comentada.This thesis presents a commented translation from Italian to Portuguese language of a selection of chronicles published by the Italian writer and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini on the weekly magazine Vie Nuove, official media of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), between 1960 and 1965. The chronicles are divided into three thematic groups: Literature, Culture and Politic and Society. An essayist introduction opens the commented translation.
28
Pycroft, Hayley. „Beyond Afrocentricism and Orientalism contemporary representations of transnational identities in the works of Nontsikelelo "Lolo" Veleko and Tracy Payne“. Thesis, Rhodes University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002216.
Annotation:
South African photographer Nontsikelelo “Lolo” Veleko and South African painter Tracy Payne explore different ways of communicating African realities. The visual imagery of these two artists focuses a lot on movement, challenging the rigidity of boundaries set by Western social constructs. In their work, Veleko and Payne critique the limitations of terms such as “authenticity.” It is extremely difficult to portray shifting notions of contemporary African identity in light of the stain of colonial philosophies which have, in times past, exoticised and appropriated the African body and ascribed conventions of “authenticity” to African representations. Undermining the burden of Western boundaries1, Veleko and Payne redefine what it means to operate in Africa today. Veleko seeks additional cultural realities to complicate her identity as a woman living in Africa while Payne uses concepts of movement to question the validity of structures which advocate an either/ or binary such as “East” and “West” and “masculinity” and “femininity”. By subtly merging aspects of these binaries in their representations, Veleko and Payne bring transnational possibilities to light by undermining the restrictions inscribed in the social and political history of (South) Africa with regard to collective and individual identities. Constructs of gender have contributed to a heightened sense of “African” “masculinity,” forming a stereotype of the African body which is difficult to break free from. Considering the notion of transnationalism and the issue of moving beyond boundaries, borrowing aspects of different cultures in attempt to better define a sense of self, Veleko and Payne engage in the sampling of different lifestyles and perspectives to better define their individualities. This thesis seeks to provide an analysis of the visual language used by Veleko and Payne to promote fluid “African” identities.
29
White, Deborah. „Masculine constructions : gender in twentieth-century architectural discourse : 'Gods', 'Gospels' and 'tall tales' in architecture“. Title page, contents and abstract only, 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phw5834.pdf.
Annotation:
Includes 2 previously published journal articles by the author: Women in architecture: a personal reflection ; and, "Half the sky, but no room of her own", as appendices. Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-251) An examination of some texts influential in the discourse of Australian architecture in the twentieth century. Explores from a feminist standpoint the gendered nature of discourse in contemporary Western architecture from an Australian perspective. The starting point for the thesis was an examination of Australian architectual discourse in search of some explanation for the continuing low numbers of women practitioners in Australia. Hypothesizes that contemporary Western architecture is imbued with a pervasive and dominant masculinity and that this is deeply imbedded in its discursive constructions: the body housed by architecture is assume to be male, the mind which produces architecture is assumed to be masculine. Given the cultural location of Australian architecture as a marginal participant in the wider arena of contemporary Western / international discourses, focuses on writing about two iconic figues in Western architecture; Le Corbusier, of international reknown; and, Glenn Murcutt, of predominantly local significance.
30
Adams, Stephen D. (Stephen Duane). „"Looking into the Heart of Light, the Silence": The Rule of Desire in T.S. Eliot's Poetry“. Thesis, University of North Texas, 1995. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc935756/.
Annotation:
The poetry of T. S. Eliot represents intense yet discriminate expressions of desire. His poetry is a poetry of desire that extenuates the long tradition of love poetry in Occidental culture. The unique and paradoxical element of love in Occidental culture is that it is based on an ideal of the unconsummated love relationship between man and woman. The struggle to express desire, yet remain true to ideals that have deep sacred and secular significance is the key animating factor of Eliot's poetry. To conceal and reveal desire, Eliot made use of four core elements of modernism: the apocalyptic vision, Pound's Imagism, the conflict between organic and mechanic sources of sublimity, and precisionism. Together, all four elements form a critical and philosophical matrix that allows for the discreet expression of desire in what Foucault calls the silences of Victorianism, yet Eliot still manages to reveal it in his major poetry. In Prufrock, Eliot uses precisionism to conceal and reveal desire with conflicting patterns of sound, syntax, and image. In The Waste Land, desire is expressed as negation, primarily as shame, sadness, and violence. The negation of desire occurred only after Pound had excised explicit references to desire, indicating Eliot's struggle to find an acceptable form of expression. At the end of The Waste Land, Eliot reveals a new method of expressing desire in the water-dripping song of the hermithrush and in the final prayer of Shatih. Continuing to refine his expressions of desire, Eliot makes use of nonsense and prayer in Ash Wednesday. In Ash Wednesday, language without reference to the world of objects and directed towards the semi-divine figure represents another concealment and revelation of desire. The final step in Eliot's continuing refinement of his expressions of desire occurs in Four Quartets. Inn Four Quartets, the speaker no longer carries the burden of desire, but language at its every evocation carries the cruel burden of ideal love.
31
關冠斌. „論錢基博白話文體研究的創見與反思 = The original thoughts and reflections of Qian Jibo's study on vernacular Chinese“. Thesis, University of Macau, 2011. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2485813.
32
Query, Patrick. „"They called me the hyacinth girl" : T. S. Eliot, masculinity, and the Great War“. Thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1957/33073.
Annotation:
This thesis traces the relationship between the First World War, constructions of masculinity, and the life and poetry of T.S. Eliot. Central to this relationship is a study of homoeroticism, which the author characterizes as different from homosexuality but not exclusive of it, in late 19th and early 20th century poetic traditions. The argument begins by establishing a critical framework that draws on contemporary paradigms of Modernist literary gender studies but also seeks to revise them by shifting the focus to issues surrounding masculinity. With this framework in place, the thesis goes on to discuss the tradition of male homoeroticism in artistic movements preceding World War I, including Symbolism, Uranianism, and Aestheticism, then moves on to an examination of the war itself, its effect on soldiers' notions of masculinity, and the intensification of the homoerotic element in the poetry composed by soldier poets. I then reexamine the relationship between Eliot's poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and The Waste Land, arguing that both are significantly inflected by the changing masculine consciousness of the war era and that both are largely personal in nature despite their author's insistence on the impersonality of poetry. An explication follows of Prufrock and Eliot's other verse written between 1914 and c.1920, focusing on passages that suggest the homoerotic. The bridge between this and the section on The Waste Land is a commentary on the relationship of Eliot and his friend Jean Verdenal, a Frenchman who was killed in the war, and the import of this friendship to Eliot's work. The possibility of their homosexual involvement is entertained but not insisted upon, the point being reemphasized that homoeroticism, not homosexuality, has the more meaningful impact on the masculine artistic consciousness. All of these ideas culminate in the Waste Land chapter, which highlights passages of the poem dealing with a range of human possibilities for intimacy-male and female, sexual and non-sexual. The study concludes that the poem ought to be read as a representation of an embattled masculine consciousness drawn to the homoerotic but uncomfortable with changing 20th century sexual mores.Graduation date: 2001
33
Bang, Solveig Marina. „The "observers" attendant in the poems The love songs of J. Alfred Prufrock, Portrait of lady, Preludes and Rhapsody on a windy night from Thomas Stearns Eliot's Prufrock and other observations as quintessential figures of modernity as defined by Alain Touraine's, Critique of modernity“. Thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/3805.
Annotation:
This thesis posits that the "observers" attendant in Eliot's poems The Love Song of Alfred Prurock, Portrait of a Lady, Preludes and Rhapsody on a Windy Night can be considered quintessential figures of modernity. Against a backdrop of more than 200 years of thought on
the concept of modernity - a notion that in recent decades has been much under siege - French sociologist Alain Touraine, in his Critique of Modernity, offers a reinterpretation of the modern. I chose to hold this text against the four poems by Eliot because Eliot himself has
been described as "emphatically modem". Recalling the initial triumph of the rationalist vision of modernity, Touraine calls for
modernity to be redefined as a continuous and reflexive relationship between Subject and Reason, subjectivation and rationalisation. Using this idea of the modem subject having two faces (subjectivation and rationalisation) as a model of a quintessential figure of modernity I have attempted to match the "observers" to this blueprint offered by Touraine. I hope to show that these figures, wandering the streets of the rational and increasingly industrial and alienating world of the city and sitting drinking tea in its parlours, can be seen as both casualties of "classical" modernity and as the vanguard of Touraine's "new modernity". Almost drowning in the rationalism of metropolitan existence these figures are at once sensing their absorption by this rationalism and fighting to free their intense subjectivity the very struggle that characterises Touraine's modern subject. Finally, I hope to show that combination of rationalisation and subjectivation within the modern subject, while seemingly at odds with Eliot's theories (especially regarding the "objective correlative" and "inner voice") is not as far from his practice of poetry and criticism as may be assumed at first glance. The figures he has created in these four chosen poems testify to this.Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.
34
Holden, Philip Joseph. „Colonizing masculinity : the creation of a male British subjectivity in the oriental fiction of W. Somerset Maugham“. Thesis, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/6830.
Annotation:
This thesis discusses the oriental fiction of W. Somerset
Maugham in the light of current theoretical models
introduced by postcolonial and gender studies. Immensely
popular from their time of publication to the present,
Maugham's novels and short stories set in Asia and the South
Pacific exhibit a consummate recycling of colonialist
tropes. Through their manipulation of racial, gender, and
geographical binarisms, Maugham's texts produce a fantasy of
a seemingly stable British male subjectivity based upon
emotional and somatic continence, rationality, and
specularity. The status of the British male subject is
tested and confirmed by his activity in the colonies.
Maugham's situation of writing as a homosexual man, however,
results in affiliations which cut across the binary
oppositions which structure Maugham's texts, destabilising
the integrity of the subject they strive so assiduously to
create.
Commencing with Maugham's novel The Moon and Sixpence,
and his short story collection The Trembling of a Leaf, both
of which are set in the South Pacific, the thesis moves to a
discussion of Maugham's Chinese travelogue, On a Chinese
Screen, and his Hong Kong novel, The Painted Veil. Further
chapters explore the Malayan short stories, and Maugham's
novel set in the then Dutch East Indies, The Narrow Corner.
A final chapter discusses Maugham's novel of India, The
Razor's Edge. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Maugham
does not even attempt a liberal critique of British
Imperialism. Writing and narration are, for him, processes
closely identified with codes of imperial manliness.
Maugham's putatively objective narrators, and the public
"Maugham persona" which the writer carefully cultivated,
display a strong investment in the British male subjectivity
outlined above. Yet Maugham's texts also endlessly discover
writing as a play of signification, of decoration, of
qualities that he explicitly associates in other texts with
homosexuality. If Maugham's texts do not critique the
formation of colonial subjects they do, to a critical
reader, make the rhetoric necessary to create such subjects
peculiarly visible.
35
Yannacci, Christin Essin. „Landscapes of American modernity: a cultural history of theatrical design, 1912-1951“. Thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/3444.