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Li, Jing. "Self in community: twentieth-century American drama by women." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2016. https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_oa/322.
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This thesis argues that twentieth-century American women playwrights spearhead the drama of transformation, and their plays become resistance discourses that protest, subvert, or change the representation of the female self in community. Many create antisocial, deviant, and self-reflexive characters who become misfits, criminals, or activists in order to lay bare women's moral-psychological crises in community. This thesis highlights how selected women playwrights engage with, and question various dominant, regional, racial, or ethnic female communities in order to redefine themselves. Sophie Treadwell's Machinal and Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother are representative texts that explore how the dominant culture can pose a barrier for radical women who long for self-fulfillment. To cultivate their personhood, working class Caucasian women are forced to go against their existing community so as to seek sexual freedom and reproductive rights, which are regarded as new forms of resistance or transgression. While they struggle hard to conform to the traditional, gendered notion of female altruism, self-sacrifice and care ethics, they cannot hide their discontent with the gendered division of labor. They are troubled doubly by the fact that they have to work in the public sphere, but conform to their gender roles in the private sphere. Different female protagonists resort to extreme homicidal or suicidal measures in order to assert their radical, contingent subjectivities, and become autonomous beings. By becoming antisocial or deviant characters, they reject their traditional conformity, and emphasize the arbitrariness and performativity of all gender roles. Treadwell and Norman both envision how the dominant Caucasian female community must experience radical changes in order to give rise to a new womanhood. Using Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun as examples, this thesis demonstrates the difficulties women may face when living in disparate communities. The selected texts show that Southern women and African-American women desperately crave for their distinct identities, while they long to be accepted by others. Their subjectivity is a constant source of anxiety, but some women can form strong psychological bonds with women from the same community, empowering them to make new life choices. To these women, their re-fashioned self becomes a means to reexamine the dominant white culture and their racial identity. African-American women resist the discourse of assimilation, and re-identify with their African ancestry, or pan-Africanism. In the relatively traditional southern community, women can subvert the conventional southern belle stereotypes. They assert their selfhood by means of upward mobility, sexual freedom, or the rejection of woman's reproductive imperative. The present study shows these women succeed in establishing their personhood when they refuse to compromise with the dominant ways, as well as the regional, racial communal consciousness. Maria Irene Fornes' Fefu and Her Friends and Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles are analyzed to show how women struggle to claim their dialogic selfhood in minoritarian communities (New England Community and Jewish Community). Female protagonists maintain dialogues with other women in the same community, while they choose their own modes of existence, such as single parenthood or political activism. The process of transformation shows that women are often disturbed by their moral consciousness, a result of their acceptance of gender roles and their submission to patriarchal authority. Their transgressive behaviors enable them to claim their body and mind, and strive for a new source of personhood. Both playwrights also advocate women's ability to self-critique, to differentiate the self from the Other, to allow the rise of an emergent self in the dialectical flux of inter-personal and intra-personal relations. The present study reveals that twentieth-century American female dramatists emphasize relationality in their pursuit of self. However, the transformation of the self can only be completed by going beyond, while remaining in dialogue with the dominant, residual, or emergent communities. For American women playwrights, the emerging female selves come with a strong sense of "in-betweenness," for it foregrounds the individualistic and communal dimensions of women, celebrating the rise of inclusive, mutable, and dialogic subjectivities.
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Rivest, Mélanie. "Nouveau théatre et nouveau roman : la quête d'un art perdu." Thesis, McGill University, 2004. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=79975.
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The histories of the Theater and of the Novel have rarely been linked to one another. Nevertheless, studying the evolution of the two arts as of the seventeenth century, allows us to pinpoint and define the sources of contamination. It is more precisely in the nineteenth century that the history of both the Theater and the Novel became envenomed, going from fresh influences to disloyal relations during which time the Theater faded by admitting romanesque realism to take the stage. By denying its capacity to reveal the "real", the Theater failed its possibilities and let its art be disinterested from the theatricality showing all that should have been evoked. Men of theater participated at recapturing the theatrical art so to regain confidence on stage and near 1950, an avant-garde movement flourished to favor a renewal of vitality for the theater with a new language which utilizes all of what the scene could provoke. This "New Theater" is soon followed by a similar romanesque enterprise, the "New Novel", a group of novelists also wishing to acknowledge the right to explore a new style of writing.
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Wong, Chi-keung Frederick, and 黃志強. "Postmodernism, drama, language: Waiting for Godot and Inadmissible evidence revisited." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1994. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31951053.
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Ingham, Michael Anthony. "Theatre of storytelling : the prose fiction stage adaptation as social allegory in contemporary British drama /." Thesis, Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1998. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B20275961.
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Turner, Irene. "Farce on the borderline with special reference to plays by OscarWilde, Joe Orton and Tom Stoppard." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1987. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31949204.
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Vieira, de Andrade Ana Lúcia. "Margen y centro : dramaturgia femenina Brasileña contemporánea." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=38429.
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The aim of this thesis is to give an account of the position taken by certain women dramatists in the context of both box-office success and theatre criticism in Brazil in the latter half of the twentieth century in order to provide a panoramic view of the way the Brazilian theater canon reacts to the work of women authors, by either incorporating it or not, according to political and social circumstances. It is hoped then that a more comprehensive vision of these dramatists will result than that of the traditional academic criticism which either elevates by acceptance or dismisses by ignoring or playing down their work. The production of three dramatists will be analysed here, namely, those plays by Leilah Assuncao, Maria Adelaide Amaral and Isis Baiao which fall into the period 1969--1999, and which exemplify two key tendencies in the Brazilian theatre of the last thirty years. These tendencies are: first, the attempt to widen the traditional horizon of politicized theatre by adding to its socio-political concerns a focus on the individual and his/her particular agenda, and, secondly, the break with any specifically aesthetic or conceptual format on stage in a blurring of the legacies of tradition and the vanguard, in which a "hybridism" of form and language is particularly noticeable in the privileging of a kind of writing that is not bound by formal limits. Such an analysis has made it possible to highlight how determined types of reaction may be altered along the time when different interpretive parameters are used by the critical community and by the public. While a certain sympathy is shown here for the feminist reading of the ideological bases of the literary canon, this is done not only to corroborate the masculine bent of such a canon to the exclusion of the Other, but also to prove that the criteria regulating excellence are products of a specific ideology which changes according to its sociohistorical context. The ultimate goal here is, thus, to make
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Lauzière, Carole. "El monólogo en el teatro español desde los años setenta : un estudio sobre las funciones del lenguaje en un "nuevo" género dramático." Thesis, McGill University, 1996. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=40379.
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The object of this thesis is to study the monologue, a dramatic genre that re-emerged on the Spanish literary scene in the 1970s. Despite the fact that a number of well-known Iberian playwrights have cultivated this genre assiduously over the past three decades, their work has received relatively little critical attention from either academic or theatre circles. What is sought here, therefore, is the means to demonstrate the importance and richness of the monologue as an autonomous dramatic creation. To do this it was necessary to establish a sufficiently large corpus--some eighty long and short monologues--and identify those particular conventions and the structural diversity that would make possible the formulation of a theory of connected language functions in the monologue by adapting existing theoretical principles to the study of this singular genre. The application of this theoretical construct enabled me to determine the nature of the functions of expression, communication and persuasion present in the discourse of a single speaker.Specifically, in considering the function of expression I reflect both upon the coherent discourse that derives from the (exterior) verbalization of (interior) thought and emotion, and upon the objectives and consequences of such expressions of the mental and emotional states of the individual. Secondly, I focus attention on the same verbal discourse inasmuch as it reflects the complex function of communication manifested in both an immanent and in a transcendental form. Such complexity derives from the fact that, if verbal discourse here is enunciated either in isolation or before an interiorized addressee (a fictional being), it is always emitted in the "presence" of an external addressee (the theatre audience/or reader). Finally, my study of the function of persuasion underscores the idea of empowerment: the authority of the word that is wielded by the monologist upon his/her addressee(s), a verbal manipulation that takes place both within the fictional world and beyond.
In short, this thesis seeks to show how the monologue as a fictional dramatic genre questions the viability of interpersonal relationships.
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Behin, Bahram. "Aspects of the role of language in creating the literary effect : implications for the reading of Australian prose fiction /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1997. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phb419.pdf.
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Wang, Hui, and 王卉. "Reconfigurations of gender: contemporary Chinese drama 1979-1989 : the politics of re-inscribing sexualdifferences." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31242364.
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Macbeth, Georgia School of Theatre Film & Dance UNSW. "A Plurality of Identities: Ulster Protestantism in Contemporary Northern Irish Drama." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Theatre, Film and Dance, 1999. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/33257.
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This thesis examines the ways in which Ulster Protestant identity has been explored in contemporary Northern Irish drama. The insecurity of the political and cultural status of Ulster Protestants from the Home Rule Crises up until Partition led to the construction and maintenance of a distinct and unified Ulster Protestant identity. This identity was defined by concepts such as loyalty, industriousness and ???Britishness???. It was also defined by a perceived opposite ??? the Catholicism, disloyalty and ???Irishness??? of the Republic. When the Orange State began to fragment in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so did notions of this singular Ulster Protestant identity. With the onset of the Troubles in 1969 came a parallel questioning and subversion of this identity in Northern Irish drama. This was a process which started with Sam Thompson???s Over the Bridge in 1960, but which began in earnest with Stewart Parker???s Spokesong in 1975. This thesis examines Parker???s approach and subsequent approaches by other dramatists to the question of Ulster Protestant identity. It begins with the antithetical pronouncements of Field Day Theatre Company, which were based in an inherently Northern Nationalist ideology. Here, the Ulster Protestant community was largely ignored or essentialised. Against this Northern Nationalist ideology represented by Field Day have come broadly revisionist approaches, reflecting the broader cultural context of this thesis. Ulster Protestant identity has been explored through issues of history and myth, ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality. More recent explorations of Ulster Protestantism have also added to this diversity by presenting the little acknowledged viewpoint of extreme loyalism. Dramatists examined in this thesis include Stewart Parker, Christina Reid, Frank McGuinness, Bill Morrison, Ron Hutchinson, Marie Jones, Graham Reid, Robin Glendinning and Gary Mitchell. The work of Charabanc Theatre Company is also discussed. What results from their efforts is a diverse and complex Ulster Protestant community. This thesis argues that the concept of a singular Ulster Protestant identity, defined by its loyalty and Britishness, is fragmented, leading to a plurality of Ulster Protestant identities.
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Sun, Christine Yunn-Yu. "The construction of "Chinese" cultural identity : English-language writing by Australian and other authors with Chinese ancestry." Monash University, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, 2004. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/5438.
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Percival, Gary William. "Developments towards a theatre of the absurd in England, 1956-1964." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14879.
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In 1961 Martin Esslin created the term 'Theatre of the Absurd' as a working hypothesis, a device with which to make fundamental traits present in the plays of a number of France-based dramatists accessible to discussion by tracing the features they had in common. Despite the popularity of Esslin's study, there has been no comparable discussion of England-based absurdism. An explanation for this lack of critical attention may be found in the dogged insistence amongst scholars that there are only two absurd playwrights in the English theatre before 1967. My first aim in this thesis is to redress the imbalance in critical literature, to demonstrate that there existed in England, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, an indigenous expression of absurdism far broader and significantly more complex than that which has been recognised by theatrical reviewers during the past thirty years. Having identified an indigenous absurdism, I go on to challenge the generalisations and over-simplifications surrounding the English 'absurd', which are a product of its critical marginalisation and neglect. I discuss the complexities of the evolution of the English 'absurd', and the ramifications of its development, paying due regard to the theatrical, historical and social factors which shaped its early growth. The playwrights who represent the genre are examined in tum, and attention is devoted to the details of the development of an absurd dynamic within their works. The study falls into three parts. Part I attempts to explain why the English 'absurd' had such a limited impact within its own country up until the late 1960s. It is revealed that many of the writers of the English 'absurd' were incapable of divorcing their plays from the social-orientated drama which dominated English theatre in the late 1950s. The cross-fertilization of an overtly social theatre and absurdism resulted in an expression of the genre which was modified and, to an extent, compromised by its adherence to external, political realities. The focus shifts, in the second part, to accommodate those neglected writers of the English 'absurd' who managed to avoid such compromises and who created a more abstract theatre, the aesthetic and epistemological intentions of which resemble those of the French absurd. Part III explains why, despite the relative obscurity of the English 'absurd', a fragmented absurdism managed to be absorbed into the permanent vocabulary of dramatic expression in England in the 1960s. This final section examines the works of a number of non-absurd writers who took on isolated absurd devices as part of an experiment with the parameters of drama, thereby bringing those techniques into mainstream theatre.
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Sorrells, David J. "The Evolution of AIDS as Subject Matter in Select American Dramas." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2000. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2600/.
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Dramatic works from America with AIDS as subject matter have evolved over the past twenty years. In the early 1980s, dramas like Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, William Hoffman's As Is, and Robert Chesley's Night Sweat educated primarily homosexual men about AIDS, its causes, and its effects on the gay community while combating the dominant discourse promoted by the media, government, and medical establishments that AIDS was either unimportant because it affected primarily the homosexual population or because it was attributed to lack of personal responsibility. By the mid-eighties and early nineties, playwrights Terrence McNally (Love! Valour! Compassion!)and Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey)concentrated on relationships between sero-discordant homosexual couples. McNally's "Andre's Mother" and Lips Together, Teeth Apart explored how families and friends face the loss of a loved one to AIDS. Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America epic represents living beyond AIDS as a powerful force. Without change and progress, Angels warns, life stagnates. Angels also introduces the powerful drugs that help alleviate the symptoms of AIDS. AIDS is the centerpiece of the epic, and AIDS and homosexuality are inextricably blended in the play. Rent, the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Jonathan Larson, features characters from an assortment of ethnic and social backgrounds - including heterosexuals, homosexuals, bi-sexuals, some with AIDS, some AIDS-free, some drug users - all living through the diverse troubles visited upon them at the turn of the millennium in the East Village of New York City. AIDS is not treated as "special," nor are people with AIDS pandered to. Instead, the characters take what life gives them, and they live fully, because there is "no day but today" ("Finale"). Rent's audiences are as varied as the American population, because it portrays metaphorically what so many Americans face daily - not AIDS per se, but other difficult life problems, including self-alienation. As such, Rent defies the dominant discourse because the community portrayed in Rent is the American community.
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Thoday, Heather Frances. "Lived spaces of representation : thirdspace and Janette Turner Hospital's political praxis of postmodernism /." Title page, abstract and table of contents only, 2004. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09pht449.pdf.
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Duncan, Dawn E. (Dawn Elaine). "Language and Identity in Post-1800 Irish Drama." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1994. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc277916/.
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Using a sociolinguistic and post-colonial approach, I analyze Irish dramas that speak about language and its connection to national identity. In order to provide a systematic and wide-ranging study, I have selected plays written at approximately fifty-year intervals and performed before Irish audiences contemporary to their writing. The writers selected represent various aspects of Irish society--religiously, economically, and geographically--and arguably may be considered the outstanding theatrical Irish voices of their respective generations. Examining works by Alicia LeFanu, Dion Boucicault, W.B. Yeats, and Brian Friel, I argue that the way each of these playwrights deals with language and identity demonstrates successful resistance to the destruction of Irish identity by the dominant language power. The work of J. A. Laponce and Ronald Wardhaugh informs my language dominance theory. Briefly, when one language pushes aside another language, the cultural identity begins to shift. The literature of a nation provides evidence of the shifting perception. Drama, because of its performance qualities, provides the most complex and complete literary evidence. The effect of the performed text upon the audience validates a cultural reception beyond what would be possible with isolated readers. Following a theoretical introduction, I analyze the plays in chronological order. Alicia LeFanu's The Sons of Erin; or, Modern Sentiment (1812) gently pleads for equal treatment in a united Britain. Dion Boucicault's three Irish plays, especially The Colleen Bawn (1860) but also Arrah-na-Pogue (1864) and The Shaughraun (1875), satirically conceal rebellious nationalist tendencies under the cloak of melodrama. W. B. Yeats's The Countess Cathleen (1899) reveals his romantic hope for healing the national identity through the powers of language. However, The Only Jealousy of Emer (1919) and The Death of Cuchulain (1939) reveal an increasing distrust of language to mythically heal Ireland. Brian Friel's Translations (1980), supported by The Communication Cord (1982) and Making History (1988), demonstrates a post-colonial move to manipulate history in order to tell the Irish side of a British story, constructing in the process an Irish identity that is postnational.
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Fenn, Jeffery W. "Culture under stress : American drama and the Vietnam War." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28668.
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The dissertation undertakes an analysis of the dramatic literature engendered by the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, and illustrates how the dramas of that period reflect the stresses and anxieties that assailed contemporary American society. It investigates the formative influences on the drama, the various styles in which it emerged, and the recurring themes and motifs. The thesis proceeds from the premise that the events of the 1960s fractured American society in a manner unknown since the Civil War. It demonstrates that the social, political, and intellectual divisiveness that characterized the society was interpreted in the theatre by dramatic metaphors of fragmentation of the individual and collective psyche, and that this fragmentation was reflected in characters who experienced a collective and individual sense of loss of cultural identity, cohesion and continuity.
Included in the examination of the drama is a description of how the social upheaval of the period influenced playwrights to undertake a reassessment of American values and ethics, and to interpret in dramatic form the nature of the trauma of Vietnam for American society. The study includes a discussion of how individual and collective reality is based on cultural conditioning, and how the challenging of cultural myth in an extra-cultural milieu.Arts, Faculty of
Theatre and Film, Department of
Graduate
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Berlando, Maria Elena, and University of Lethbridge Faculty of Arts and Science. "De-colonizing bodies : the treatment of gender in contemporary drama and film." Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Arts and Science, 2007, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/648.
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Dramatic literature and film are often political and work to deconstruct and dismantle some of the assumptions of a dominant ideology. Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, Caryl Churchill’s Cloud Nine, and Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game, show how gender roles are used in oppression and show that other social categories like race, class, and sexuality are interrelated and constructed. This shows the hollowness of the so-called inherent categories that cause “naturalized” divisions between people and groups. Through exploring these works I hope to draw attention to how these artists use theater and film to educate their audiences, as well as challenge them to take control over complicated issues surrounding power and oppression. These writers encourage their audiences to employ social criticism and to re-evaluate the social order that is often naturalized through dominant ideology and discourse.v, 104 leaves ; 29 cm.
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Penazzi, Leonardo. "The fellow (novel) ; and Australian historical fiction, debating the perceived past (dissertation)." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2008. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2008.0070.
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Novel The Fellow What is knowledge? Who should own it? Why is it used? Who can use it? Is knowledge power, or is it an illusion? These are some of the questions addressed in The Fellow. At the time of Australian federation, the year 1901, while a nation is being drawn into unity, one of its primary educational institutions is being drawn into disunity when an outsider challenges the secure world of The University of Melbourne. Arriving in Melbourne after spending much of his life travelling around Australia, an old Jack-of-all-trades bushman finds his way into the inner sanctum of The University of Melbourne. Not only a man of considerable and varied skill, he is also a man who is widely read and self-educated. However, he applies his knowledge in practical ways, based on what he has experienced in the
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Peter, Zola Welcome. "The depiction of female characters by male writers in selected isiXhosa drama works." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1482.
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This research expresses female character portrayal in various drama works written by males. Chapter one is a general introduction that gives the key to this study, the motivation that leads to the selection of this topic; a literary review on the portrayal of female characters in literary works written by males; the scope of study, the basic composition of the ensuing chapters and the definitions of terms that are of paramount importance for this research. Various literary theories are used in Chapter two for the analysis of the research texts. These literary theories include womanism, gender and feminism which expose the social effects caused by the negative perception of females in social life and the negative portrayal of female characters in male dramatic writings. Other literary theories include onomastics as a literary theory, which exposes the relationship between the name giver of a person and the power the name gives to its bearer, as well as psychoanalysis as a theory which proved to be unavoidable, since this study analyses the personal behaviour of the individual characters within their literary environment. Chapter three depicts the general victimization of female characters in male drama works and exposes the various effects of the attitudes of male writers towards female characters in terms of gender role. Chapter four shows a general stereotypical portrayal of female characters in male written drama texts. This chapter shows the impact of stereotyping on female characters from drama works that puts them in a vulnerable position, showing that it is risky to become a victim of ill-treatment in their communities and the literary world. Chapter five deals with the psychological literary review of female characters, showing them as being suicidal and murderers who easily take their own lives and those of other people. Chapter six is a general conclusion of the works which includes observer remarks from other literary researchers of the literature.
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Duguay, Sylvain. "Le dialogue homosexuel dans Les feluettes de Michel Marc Bouchard /." Thesis, McGill University, 1999. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=30163.
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This thesis proposes to apply Queer theory as the framework for examining Michel Marc Bouchard's play Les Feluettes. This study is built around two methodological axes, one being the analysis of dialogue; the second, the application of Queer theory. Dialogue and staging are scrutinized in an effort to discover the Queer. The links between sex, power, language and knowledge will be specifically studied. The intention is to show how their relationship, based on opposition, can be modified by a subversive discourse. By way of introduction, a brief discussion of Queer theory will be presented to familiarize the reader with its origins, sources of inspiration and strategies of deconstruction. The first chapter will focus on the homosexual's interior monologue. Chapter two will focus on the homosexual's dialogue with other homosexuals. The third, and final chapter, will round out the analysis by studying the dialogue between the homosexual and heterosexuals. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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Wright, Elizabeth Helena. "Virginia Woolf and the dramatic imagination." Thesis, St Andrews, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/510.
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Drouin, Jennifer. ""To be or not to be free" : nation and gender in Québécois adaptations of Shakespeare." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=85904.
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At first glance, the long tradition of Quebecois adaptations of Shakespeare might seem paradoxical, since Quebec is a francophone nation seeking political independence and has little direct connection to the British literary canon. However, it is precisely this cultural distance that allows Quebecois playwrights to play irreverently with Shakespeare and use his texts to explore issues of nation and gender which are closely connected to each other. Soon after the Quiet Revolution, adaptations such as Robert Gurik's Hamlet, prince du Quebec and Jean-Claude Germain's Rodeo et Juliette raised the question "To be or not to be free" in order to interrogate how Quebec could take action to achieve independence. In Macbeth and La tempete, Michel Garneau "tradapts" Shakespeare and situates his texts in the context of the Conquest. Jean-Pierre Ronfard's Lear and Vie et mort du Roi Boiteux carnivalize the nation and permit women to rise to power. Adaptations since 1990 reveal awareness of the need for cultural and gender diversity so that women, queers, and immigrants may contribute more to the nation's development. Since Quebec is simultaneously colonial, neo-colonial, and postcolonial, Quebecois playwrights negotiate differently than English Canadians the fine line between the enrichment of their local culture and its possible contamination, assimilation, or effacement by Shakespeare's overwhelming influence, which thus allows them to appropriate his texts in service of gender issues and the decolonization of the Quebec nation.
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Weeda-Zuidersma, Jeannette. "Keeping mum : representations of motherhood in contemporary Australian literature - a fictocritical exploration." University of Western Australia. School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0054.
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[Truncated abstract] This thesis argues that the non-representation and under-representation of mothering in contemporary Australian literature reflects a much wider cultural practice of silencing the mother-as-subject position and female experiences as a whole. The thesis encourages women writers to pay more attention to the subjective experiences of mothering, so that women’s writing, in particular writing on those aspects of women’s lives that are silenced, of which motherhood is one, can begin to refigure motherhood discourses. This thesis examines mother-as-subject from three perspectives: mothering as a corporeal experience, mothering as a psychological experience, and the articulations and silences of mothering-as-subject. It engages with feminist, postmodern and fictocritical theories in its discussion of motherhood as a discourse through these perspectives. In particular, the thesis employs the theoretical works of postmodern feminists Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva in this discussion . . . A fictional narrative also runs through the critical discussion on motherhood. This narrative, Catherine’s Story, gives a personal and immediate voice to the mother-as-subject perspective. In keeping with the nature of fictocriticism, strict textual boundaries between criticism and fiction are blurred. The two modes of writing interact and in the process inform and critique each other.
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Lyons, Sara J. "The sacrifice of honey (fiction) ; The depiction of the media in The shark net, Evil angels and The sacrifice of honey (thesis)." University of Western Australia. English, Communication and Cultural Studies Discipline Group, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0055.
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Reddy, Colleen. "Ecological consciousness in modern Australian poetry." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1998.
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One of the most significant issues confronting humanity as the twentieth century draws to a close is that concerning environmental degradation. This study posits the dual notion that at the centre of any movement to protect the earth from further degradation there must be a change in the predominant anthropocentric worldview, and that there is a role for poets to help bring about such change by
writing ecologically-conscious poetry. The study explains what is meant by ecological consciousness as distinct from a
conservation or environmental ethic. There follows a brief discussion of Deep Ecology (the philosophical perspective which, along with others, critiques human domination of nature) and a survey of relevant literature. The growth of an Australian poetic and the concomitant development of an Australian relationship with the land are also surveyed. Then, through a process of close reading, comparative analysis and discourse, the work of a number of poets (both
indigenous and non-indigenous) is considered for its ecological awareness. The study highlights some pivotal ideas for the development of a new worldview:
these are the development of a non-anthropocentric perspective of nature similar to that embraced by adherents of Deep Ecology; acceptance of the notion that nature
is ambivalent (that the cycle of life is also a cycle of death and decay); and the possible use of indigenous people's deeply ecological relationship with the land as
a basic model on which to build a new worldview. The study contends that only poetry which is grounded in ecocentrism, rather than anthropocentrism, can claim to be ecologically-conscious. It concludes by reaffirming the need for poets to
encourage a change in the prevailing anthropocentric worldview by adopting a deeply-ecological focus on nature in some of their poetry.
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De, Wagter Caroline. "Mouths on fire with songs: negotiating multi-ethnic identities on the contemporary North american stage." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210237.
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A travers une étude interculturelle détaillée et comparée de la production théâtrale minoritaire canadienne et américaine, ma thèse cherche à mettre en lumière les les apports thématiques et esthétiques du théâtre multi-ethnicque nord-américain contemporain à la tradition anglo-américaine du 20ème siècle. Les communautés asiatiques, africaines et aborigènes sont retenues comme poste d'observation privilégié de l'expression esthétique de la condition multiculturelle postcoloniale dans le théâtre nord-américain de la période allant de 1972 à nos jours. Sur base d'un corpus de pièces de théâtre, ma recherche m'a permis de redéfinir les grandes articulations des notions d'hybridité, d'identité et de communauté/nation postcoloniale.Through a detailed cross-cultural approach of the English Canadian and American minority theatrical production, my thesis aims to identify the thematic and aesthetic contributions of multi-ethnic North American drama to the Anglo-American tradition of the 20th century. My study examines North American drama from the vantage points of African, Asian, and Native communities from 1972 until today. Relying on a number of case studies, my research opened up new avenues for rethinking the notions of hybridity and identity in relation to the postcolonial community/nation.
Doctorat en Langues et lettres
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Bain, Keith Norman. "Hyperartifical cinema and the art of cool." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52880.
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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis, an ontology of contemporary cinema is developed using the position assumed by postmodern thinkers (notably Jean Baudrillard) and contemporary filmmakers. Using Baudrillard's perspective it is argued that the cinematic apparatus is an expression of both human curiosity and a desire to place "reality" at a distance. While the spectator seeks involvement with the viewed subject, he or she remains detached from the images which simulate the various "realities" in which he or she becomes "involved" through the act of viewing. The contemporary Western subject is said to crave "meaning" in a universe which is increasingly secular, materialistic, individualistic and, to a certain extent, "virtual". Life is also said to be more ironic, providing illusory concessions such as communication in lieu of interaction, information instead of knowledge, choice in favour of quality, surfaces rather than depth, and images which ultimately extinguish "the real". Moving images may be said to allude to the artificial nature of a "reality" which is itself a human construction. This suggests that the role of the camera is to place both the world and human subjects "at a distance", thereby objectifying (and potentially dehumanising) the subject-objects of the gaze. Many postmodern films are concerned with the functioning of the cinematic apparatus itself, and these films - implicitly and explicitly - deal with the way in which subjectivity is established through the cinematic gaze. "Realism" in the cinema has to a large extent shifted from the documentation of the world, to techniques which problematise the viewer's experience of "reality". Interactivity, faux-verité and the hyperrealism of computer graphic imaging, have contributed to the confusion of various forms of screen "realism", arguably impacting on the viewer's experience of "reality". In another sense, "reality" has been transformed by the blurring of distinctions between high and low cultural paradigms, increasingly evident in work that privileges the showing of "perverse", "profane", "grotesque", "vulgar" and explicit "realities". Boundaries between private and publiC spaces are eroded as the cinematic apparatus takes spectators into increasingly intimate personal spaces, demystifying and popularising the unknown and previously hidden. Considering the influence of commercial and socio-economic factors on the development of contemporary cinema (emphasizing Hollywood), the thesis looks at the aesthetic, thematic and narrative concerns of both mainstream and niche-market films. Focus is given to the socalled postmodern aesthetic which is closely linked to what some critics call recycling (an inability to say anything "new"), some label "empty" (meaningless) and many see as "schizoid" (able to be read in various, often contradictory, ways). The thesis proposes that contemporary (postmodern) cinema is a "pure" form which increasingly sets "reality" at a distance so that it's illusory nature is emphasised. It also demonstrates how contemporary films serve as reflections of a world which is itself nothing but a reflection (artificial construction). Like dreams, fantasies and other "virtual realities", the cinema represents a form of "remembering" which is detached from any particular time or space. In this sense, cinematic moving images enable viewers to engage with aspects of their own humanity which may be quite independent of the "reality" status of the world.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie proefskrif word die uitgangpunte van postmoderne denkers (by uitstek Jean Beaudrillard) en kontemporêre filmmakers benut om 'n ontologie van die kontemporêre film te ontwikkel. Vanuit Beaudrillard se perspektief word geargumenteer dat die filmiese apparatuur 'n uitrukking is van die mens se Inherente nuuskierigheid en die behoefte om "realiteit" op 'n afstand te hou. Alhoewel die kyker streef na betrokkenheid by die subjek wat bekyk word, bly hy of sy altyd afsydig (detached) van die beelde wat die verskeie "werklikhede" simuleer waarby hy of sy in die proses van kyk "betrokke" raak. Daar word beweer dat die hedendaagse Westerse subjek verlang na "betekenis" in 'n heelal wat al meer sekulêr, materialisties, individualisties en, tot 'n sekere mate, "virtueel" word. Die lewe is deurspek met ironie en maak allerlei illusionêre toegewings aan die "werklikheid", byvoorbeeld deur voorkeur te gee aan kommunikasie in plaas van interaksie, inligting in plaas van kennis, keuse in plaas van kwaliteit, oppervlakkighede in plaas van diepgang en beelde wat uiteindelike "die werklikeid" uitwis. Daar kan gesê word dat filmiese beelde (moving images) verwys na die kunsmatige aard van "realiteit", wat op sigself 'n menslike konstruksie is. Hiermee word dus gesuggereer dat dit die funksie van die kamera is om beide die wêreld en menslike subjekte "op 'n afstand" te plaas, en daarmee te objektiviseer (en moontlik te dehumaniseer). Baie postmoderne films hou hulle besig met die manier wat die filmiese apparatuur self funksioneer, en hierdie films ondersoek die wyse waarop subjektiwiteit deur middel van die kamera verkry word. "Realisme" in die film het tot 'n groot mate verskuif van die dokumentasie van die wêreld na tegnieke om die kyker se ervaring van die "werklikheid" te problematiseer. Interaktiwiteit, faux-verité en die hiper-realiteit van rekenaar gegenereerde beelde het bygedra tot die verwarring oor die verskeie vorme van filmiese "realisme", wat mens sou kon argumenteer 'n impak op die kyker se siening van "die werklikheid" het. In 'n ander sin, is "die werklikheid" getransformeer deur paradigma verskuiwings waardeur die onderskeide tussen "hoë" en "lae" kulture vervaag, iets wat al meer gedemonstreer word deur werke wat verkies om die "perverse", "profane", "groteske", "vulgêre", en eksplisiete "realiteite" te wys. Die grense tussen private en publieke ruimtes vervalook waar die filiese apparatuur kykers in al hoe intiemer persoonlike ruimtes inneem, om daardeur dit wat voorheen onbekende en versteek was te demistifiseer en populariseer. Met inagname van die invloed wat die kommersiële en sosio-ekonomiese faktore op die ontwikkelling van die hedendaagse film (veral van Hollywood) het, kyk die proefskrif na die estetiese, tematiese en narratiewe kwessies wat beide hoofstroom en niche-mark films kenmerk. Daar word veral gefokus op die sogenaamde post-moderne estetiek wat gekoppel word aan wat sommige kritici recycling noem (dws die onvermoë om iets nuuts te sê), ander as "leeg" (dws betekenisloos) beskou, en baie ander weer "shizoid" brandmerk (dws dit kan in verskeie, menige kere kontradiktoriese wyses, gelees of verstaan word). Die proefskrif bevind uiteindelik dan dat die kontemporêre (postmoderne) film 'n "suiwer" vorm is wat dit geleidelik regkry om "realiteit" op 'n afstand te hou, om sodoende sy eie illusionêre wese te benadruk. Dit illustreer ook hoe kontemporêre films funksioneer as refleksies van 'n wêreld wat self niks meer is as refleksie (kunsmatige konstruksie) is nie. Nes drome, fantasieë, en ander "virtuele realiteite", verteenwoordig die film 'n tipe "onthou" (remembering) wat onafhanklik is van 'n spesifteke tyd of plek. In hierdie sin help filmiese beelde kykers om hulself te kontfronteer met aspekte van hulle eie menslikheid wat onafhanklik is van hul werklikheidsstatus in die wêreld.
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Idrissi, Nizar. "Stephen Poliakoff: another icon of contemporary British drama." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210559.
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This thesis is an attempt to portray the birth of British modern drama and the most important figures breaking its new ground; more to the point, to shed light on the second generation of British dramatists breaking what G.B. Shaw used to call ‘middle-class morality’. The focal point here is fixed on Stephen Poliakoff, one of the distinctive dramatists in contemporary British theatre, his work and the dramatic tinge he adds to the new drama.Doctorat en Langues et lettres
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Potter, Emily Claire. "Disconcerting ecologies : representations of non-indigenous belonging in contemporary Australian literature and cultural discourse." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09php865.pdf.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-325) Specific concern is the poetic, as well as literal, significance given to the environment, and in particular to land, as a measure of belonging in Australia. Environment is explored in the context of ecologies, offered here as an alternative configuration of the nation, and in which the subject, through human and non-human environmental relations, can be culturally and spatially positioned. Argues that both environment and ecology are narrowly defined in dominant discourses that pursue an ideal, certain and authentic belonging for non-indigenous Australians.
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Grogan, Bridget Meredith. ""Abject dictatorship of the flesh" : corporeality in the fiction of Patrick White." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001554.
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Bouko, Catherine. "La réception spectatorielle et les formes postdramatiques du spectacle vivant." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210342.
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Selon différents théoriciens (Guénoun, Lehmann, Ryngaert, etc.), la fin du vingtième siècle se caractérise par l'émergence de nouvelles formes théâtrales, marquées par la contamination des pratiques spectaculaires.Hans-Thies Lehmann reprend la notion de "théâtre postdramatique" proposée par Richard Schechner pour qualifier ces formes métissées de spectacle vivant La thèse défendue est la suivante :le théâtre postdramatique trouve sa spécificité non seulement dans la transgression des codes dramatiques mais surtout dans des processus de réception spécifiques qu'il importe de définir, à l'aide d'outils notamment sémiotiques. Ces processus sont situés et construits par rapport à différents modèles interdisciplinaires.
Doctorat en Information et communication
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Tremblay, Janie. "Le personnage de la mere dans trois pieces quebecoises des annees 1980 /." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=33938.
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The various transformations that Quebec society was undergoing throughout the 1980s are reflected in the dramaturgy of the period, notably in the critique of nationalist discourse, and in the writing of hitherto marginalized groups such as women, immigrants, and gays and lesbians.The tensions within the family unit are one of the leitmotivs of Quebec theatre in the 1980s, which usually represents the mother either as a sort of monster who suffocates her children, or as a victim of the Law of the Father. When a woman decides to speak and to redefine motherhood, this dual model of the "patriarchal mother" crumbles and the universe of the family must be reconfigured.
In this thesis, we propose a semiological analysis for each of the plays of our corpus. The first chapter analyzes Addolorata, by Marco Micone. In this play, the mother's taking possession of speech not only destabilizes her family but also calls into question established structures within the Italo-Quebecois community. The second chapter examines Marie Laberge's Aurelie, ma soeur, a play which illustrates the (re)construction of the family unit around a nonbiological maternal bond. The third and final chapter studies Michel Marc Bouchard's Les Muses orphelines, in which access to speech and to the condition of mother is achieved through lies and truth. In the conclusion of this thesis, we bring together the principal characteristics of the feminine and maternal voices which are heard in the three plays, voices which are all defined by the desire, the need to affirm their subjectivity.
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Satyo, Priscilla Nomsa. "Women in Xhosa drama : dramatic and cultural perspectives." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52615.
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Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study aims at highlighting a crucial aspect of Xhosa drama: The portrayal of the role women have been forced culturally to assume in society. A selection of Xhosa plays from three periods (1958 - 1965; 1974 - 1982; and 1988 - 1997) is examined. In the process of the study, the analysis and the interpretation of these dramas as well as the depiction of women characters is examined. Authors of the ten dramas under study advocate change through the powerful forces of gender stereotypes and culture distortions. The attributes that the authors commonly ascribe to women characters are passivity, irrationality, compliancy and incorrigibility. An examination of the reasons behind this proliferation of these female stereotypes and the lack of realistic women characters is undertaken. The study posits reasons why particular stereotypes appear in the works of several authors over a period of time. The women characters are products of social conditioning, that is, ideals or counter-ideals of the prevailing values of the authors' culture. They are a symbolic fulfillment of the writers' needs. The broad cultural perspectives of the authors also shape the texts they produce. These dramas treat issues and themes, which become central to the formal and structural ordering of the drama. Such themes have an impact at times on form and structure. In each case the ideology of the class represented by authors under study is indeed reflected in the text, to its detriment. The dominating themes in the ten dramas are forced marriages and women abuse. The authors are so preoccupied with injustices against women that they distort certain cultural aspects by, for example, exaggeration. Women are constantly depicted as victims, while there are no indications in the authors' depictions of women that perceptions of their cultural role and status are in reality undergoing changes. The thesis is arranged as follows: Chapter 1 introduces the aim, the scope, the theories and the methods of the study. Chapter 2 deals with the development of plot within episodes in the dramas of the first literary period (1958 - 1965). These episodes depict the different phases of the dramas. A critical evaluation of the dramas by motivating their positive and negative aspects is undertaken. Chapter 3 deals with the development of plot within episodes in the dramas of the second literary period (1974 - 1982). As in the first literary period, a critical evaluation of the dramas by motivating their positive and negative aspects is examined. Chapter 4 deals with the development of plot within episodes in the dramas of the third literary period (1988 - 1997). A critical evaluation of the dramas by motivating their good and bad points is undertaken. Chapter 5 deals with woman as character in Xhosa dramas under study. A detailed analysis of the main woman character in each drama is undertaken. Furthermore, a critical summary of how the woman has been portrayed in the dramas is presented. Chapter 6 presents depiction of Xhosa culture in the Xhosa dramas. From each drama, certain selected aspects of culture are explored and an investigation of the portrayal of these aspects is undertaken. Chapter 7 summarizes the findings of the study.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doelstelling van hierdie studie is om 'n kern aspek van Xhosa drama te belig: die rolle wat vroue kultureel gedwing is om te vervul in die gemeenskap. 'n Seleksie Xhosa dramas vanuit drie tydperke (1958 - 1965; 1974 - 1982; en 1988 - 1997) word ondersoek. In die loop van die studie, ontleding en interpretasie van hierdie dramas word die uitbeelding van vroue karakters ook ondersoek. Die skrywers van die tien dramas wat bestudeer word, betoog vir verandering deur middel van die sterk kragte van stereopites en kultureelverwronge voorstellings. Die eienskappe wat die skrywers algemeen toeskryf aan vroue karakters is passiwiteit, irrasionele optrede, gehoorsaamheid en deugsaamheid. 'n Ondersoek na die redes vir die proliferasie van hierdie vroulike stereotipes en die tekortkoming aan realistiese vroue karakters in Xhosa dramas word uitgevoer in die studie. Die studie voer redes aan waarom bepaalde stereotipes in die werk van verskeie skrywers oor 'n tydperk verskyn: hulle vrouekarakters is die produk van sosiale kondisionering, dit wil sêm ideale of teen-ideale van die heersende waardes van die skrywer se kulturele agtergrond en 'n simboliese vervulling van die skrywer se behoeftes. Die algemene kulturele perspektiewe van die skrywers beïnvloed en vorm ook die tekste wat hulle lewer. Hierdie dramas behandel naamlik vraagstukke tematies wat sentraalook bepalend is ten opsigte van die vorm en struktuur van die drama. Sodanige temas het gevolglik in bepaalde gevalle 'n invloed op die vorm en struktuur van die drama. Voorts word die ideologie van die klas verteenwoordig deur die skrywers in elke geval gereflekteer en die teks tot bepaalde nadele daarvan. Die prominente temas in die tien dramas is gedwonge huwelike en vrouemishandeling. Die skrywers is so gepre-okkupeer met die ongeregtighede teenoor vroue dat hulle bepaalde kulturele aspekte verwring deur, byvoorbeeld, buitensporige voorstellings. Vroue word voortdurend voorgestel as slagoffers, terwyl daar feitlik geen aanduidings is in die skrywer se voorstelling van vroue, dat persepsies oor hulle kulturele rol en status inderwaarheid besig is om veranderinge te ondergaan. Die proefskrif is soos volg gestruktureer: Hoofstuk 1 gee die doelstellings, omvang, teorieë en metodes wat in die studie gevolg word. Hoofstuk 2 behandel die ontwikkeling van intrige binne verskillende episodes in die dramas van die eerste literêre periode (1958 - 1965). Hierdie episodes gee 'n uitbeelding van die verskillende fases van die dramas wat in die studie ondersoek word. 'n Kritiese evaluering word van die dramas gedoen deur die positiewe en negatiewe aspekte daarvan te motiveer. Hoofstuk 3 behandel die ontwikkeling van intrige binne die episodes van die dramas van die tweede literêre periode (1974 - 1982). Soos vir die eerste literêre periode, word 'n kritiese evaluering gedoen van die dramas deur onder andere die positiewe en negatiewe literêre aspekte daarvan te motiveer. Hoofstuk 4 ondersoek die ontwikkeling van die intrige binne die episodes in die dramas van die derde literêre periode (1988 - 1997). Die kritiese evaluering van hierdie dramas sluit, soos vir die vorige periodes, 'n gemotiveerde beskouing in van die positiewe en negatiewe aspekte. Hoofstuk 5 ondersoek die vrou as karakter in die Xhosa dramas wat bestudeer word. 'n Gedetaileerde analise van die hoof-vroue karakters in elke drama word gedoen. Daarna word 'n kritiese oorsig aangebied van hoe die vrou voorgestel word in die dramas wat bestudeer is. Hoofstuk 6 bied 'n uitbeelding van Xhosa kultuur in die dramas wat ondersoek is. Bepaalde aspekte van kultuur word vir elke drama ondersoek en die uitbeelding van hierdie kultuur aspekte word behandel. Hoofstuk 7 bied 'n opsomming van die belangrikste bevindinge van die studie.
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Gibson, Donald. "Twentieth-century poetry and science : science in the poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid, Judith Wright, Edwin Morgan, and Miroslav Holub." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/8059.
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The aim of this thesis is to arrive at a characterisation of twentieth century poetry and science by means of a detailed study of the work of four poets who engaged extensively with science and whose writing lives spanned the greater part of the period. The study of science in the work of the four chosen poets, Hugh MacDiarmid (1892 – 1978), Judith Wright (1915 – 2000), Edwin Morgan (1920 – 2010), and Miroslav Holub (1923 – 1998), is preceded by a literature survey and an initial theoretical chapter. This initial part of the thesis outlines the interdisciplinary history of the academic subject of poetry and science, addressing, amongst other things, the challenges presented by the episodes known as the ‘two cultures' and the ‘science wars'. Seeking to offer a perspective on poetry and science more aligned to scientific materialism than is typical in the interdiscipline, a systemic challenge to Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) is put forward in the first chapter. Additionally, the founding work of poetry and science, I. A. Richards's Science and Poetry (1926), is assessed both in the context in which it was written, and from a contemporary viewpoint; and, as one way to understand science in poetry, a theory of the creative misreading of science is developed, loosely based on Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence (1973). The detailed study of science in poetry commences in Chapter II with Hugh MacDiarmid's late work in English, dating from his period on the Shetland Island of Whalsay (1933 – 1941). The thesis in this chapter is that this work can be seen as a radical integration of poetry and science; this concept is considered in a variety of ways including through a computational model, originally suggested by Robert Crawford. The Australian poet Judith Wright, the subject of Chapter III, is less well known to poetry and science, but a detailed engagement with physics can be identified, including her use of four-dimensional imagery, which has considerable support from background evidence. Biology in her poetry is also studied in the light of recent work by John Holmes. In Chapter IV, science in the poetry of Edwin Morgan is discussed in terms of its origin and development, from the perspective of the mythologised science in his science fiction poetry, and from the ‘hard' technological perspective of his computer poems. Morgan's work is cast in relief by readings which are against the grain of some but not all of his published comments. The thesis rounds on its theme of materialism with the fifth and final chapter which studies the work of Miroslav Holub, a poet and practising scientist in communist-era Prague. Holub's work, it is argued, represents a rare and important literary expression of scientific materialism. The focus on materialism in the thesis is not mechanistic, nor exclusive of the domain of the imagination; instead it frames the contrast between the original science and the transformed poetic version. The thesis is drawn together in a short conclusion.
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韋明月. "當代澳門民眾戲劇先行者 : 周樹利 = The forerunner of contemporary Macau community theatre : Chow Shui Lee." Thesis, University of Macau, 2009. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b2101715.
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Hedley, Jocelyn School of English Media & Performing Arts UNSW. "The unpublished plays of Miles Franklin." 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/40895.
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With the publication of her novel, My Brilliant Career, in 1901, Miles Franklin became the darling of the Sydney literati. Great things were expected of the little girl from the bush. But five years later, nothing had eventuated; her talent, Miles thought, was barely recognised in Australia. In the hope of gaining greater writing opportunities, she shipped to Chicago where she became involved in social reform. It was hard work and ill paid, and though she bewailed the fact that it sapped her writing energy, she nonetheless felt a commitment to the cause such that she remained for almost a decade. In her spare time, though, she continued to write -- and not just prose. More and more she wrote for the theatre, attempting to push into a world of which she had always dreamed. Blessed with a beautiful singing voice, she had long desired to be on the stage. This was impossible, though; her voice, she believed, had been ruined by bad training in her youth. To write for the stage, then, though a poor substitute, was at least in the field of her original ideal. Miles' plays, though, are not remembered today, and are little thought of in scholarship, are considered, in fact, to have failed. This gives the false impression that they were always little thought of. Her correspondence, however, reveals that at least five of the plays were produced, indicating a certain level of success. Miles Franklin's theatrical work, then, is surely worthy of further examination. This thesis looks at five of the plays in the light of Miles' life and in the light of the society in which she found herself. In turn, it uses the plays to reveal something of the nature of the playwright herself and to show that Miles Franklin's theatrical writing did not fail as once thought. In addition, it provides a complete bibliography of the plays (inclusive of locations), lists the duplications as they appear under alternate titles and provides synopses of a large number. This will make up for a gap in Miles Franklin scholarship and will facilitate other scholars in accessing the plays. This thesis, then, is an introduction to a new facet of Miles Franklin scholarship.
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Barker, Heather Isabel. "A critical history of writing on Australian contemporary art, 1960-1988." 2005. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/7134.
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This thesis examines art critical writing on contemporary Australian art published between 1960 and 1988 through the lens of its engagement with its location, looking at how it directly or indirectly engaged with the issues arising from Australia's so-called peripheral position in relation to the would-be hegemonic centre. I propose that Australian art criticism is marked by writers' acceptances of the apparent explanatory necessity of constructing appropriate nationalist discourses, evident in different and succeeding types of nationalist agendas, each with links to external, non-artistic agendas of nation and politics. I will argue that the nationalist parameters and trajectory of Australian art writing were set by Australian art historian, Bernard Smith, and his book Australian Painting, 1788-1960 (1962) and that the history of Australian art writing from the 1960s onwards was marked by a succession of nationalist rather than artistic agendas formed, in turn, by changing experiences of the Cold War. Through this, I will begin to provide a critical framework that has not effectively existed so far, due to the binary terror of regionalism versus internationalism.Chapter One focuses on Bernard Smith and the late 1950s and early 1960s Australian intellectual context in which Australian Painting 1788-1960 was published. I will argue that, although it can be claimed that Australia was a postcolonial society, the most powerful political and social influence during the 1950s and 1960s was the Cold War and that this can be identified in Australian art criticism and Australian art. Chapter Two discusses art theorist, Donald Brook. Brook is of particular interest because he kept his art writing separate from his theories of social and political issues, focussing on contemporary art and artists. I argue that Brook's failure to engage with questions of nation and Australian identity directly ensured that he remained a respected but marginal figure in the history of Australian art writing. Chapter Three returns to the centre/periphery issue and examines the art writing of Patrick McCaughey and Terry Smith. Each of these writers dealt with the issue of the marginality of Australian art but neither writer questioned the validity of the centre/periphery model.
Chapter Four examines six Australian art magazines that came into existence in the 1970s, a decade of high hopes and deep disillusionment. The chapter maps two shifts of emphasis in Australian art writing. First, the change from the previous preoccupation with provincialism to pluralist social issues such as feminism, and second, the resulting gravitation of individual writers into ideological alliances and/or administrative collectives that founded, ran and supported magazines that printed material that focused on (usually Australian) art in relation to specific social, cultural or political issues. Chapter Five concentrates on the Australian art magazine, Art & Text, and Paul Taylor, its founder and editor. Taylor and his magazine were at the centre of a new Australian attempt to solve the provincialism problem and thus break free of the centre/periphery model.
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Nkuna, Khulisile Judith. "Portrayal of women in SiSwati drama." Thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/886.
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Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Department of African Languages in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2001.This study looks at the portrayal of women in siSwati drama. The main aim is to reveal how women are portrayed in siSwati drama. In real life women are usually portrayed negatively. This is due to cultural directives that reveal woman as inferior beings. This affects our young children who read books and perceive women as useless. A child reads and has the idea that a woman is unfaithful, useless, a pretender, and dependant and has no job opportunities. If a child is a boy he grows with a negative connotation that a woman has no power. This affects our young girls because they do not develop confidence. There is a belief that the place of a woman is at home where she is expected to do all the household jobs. Our culture too, perceives women as inferior, forgetting that there are women who are single and those who are breadwinners who maintain their homes. This study looks at the presentation of women characters in different siSwati drama books. It reveals the impact of Western culture and African culture to women. It is found that patriarch dominates over women. It also looks at the views of different people about the portrayal of women in siSwati culture.
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"中國現代戲劇建設過程中戲曲因素的消長." 1999. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b6073776.
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張秉權.論文(博士)--香港中文大學, 1999.
參考文獻 (p. i-xvi)
中英文摘要.
Available also through the Internet via Dissertations & theses @ Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Zhang Bingquan.
Lun wen (bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 1999.
Can kao wen xian (p. i-xvi)
Zhong Ying wen zhai yao.
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Buchler, Louise Anne. "In-yer-face : the shocking Sarah Kane." Thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10413/213.
Full textAbstract:
Playwright, Sarah Kane emerged as a new voice in British writing in the early 1990s. Her work, recognized most notably for its shocking content, was the source of media hype, and rendered her work, with that of her peers, as In-Yer-Face Theatre.
This dissertation analyses the use of shock in Kane‟s work, with particular reference to her first and last plays: Blasted and 4.48 Psychosis. I discuss the shock elements employed by Kane in these texts and consider the reasons behind their use, particularly Kane‟s break with realism and subversion of form.
My research draws upon social constructionist thought as a strand of the larger discourses of postmodernism, in particular those which inform the existence of war, violence and trauma. Focusing too, on the work of theatre practitioners such as Antonin Artaud, whose „Theatre of Cruelty‟ is reminiscent of Kane‟s own theatre.
I discuss the origin of In-Yer-Face Theatre as well as its forerunners by examining Post-War British Theatre from the 1940‟s, especially those plays that have resonated on a provocative level. My research also explores the social and political factors influencing theatre over the decades and in relation to Kane, particularly the Thatcher government of the 1980s. I argue that the social and political climate of the 1980s and 1990s played a direct role in the formation of Kane‟s theatre and examine Kane‟s work and its reception in relation to other playwrights of the time. I have deliberately chosen to locate my research in terms of British theatre.Thesis (M.A. (Drama and Performance Studies)) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.
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Lyssa, Alison. "Performing Australia's black and white history: acts of danger in four Australian plays of the early 21 century." 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/714.
Full textAbstract:
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in English in the Division of Humanities, Dept. of English, 2006.Thesis (MA)--Macquarie University (Division of Humanities, Department of English), 2006.
Bibliography: p. 199-210.
Introduction -- Defiance and servility in Andrew Bovell's Holy day -- Writing a reconciled nation: Katherine Thomson's Wonderlands -- Transformation of trauma: Tammy Anderson's I don't wanna play house -- The rage inside the pain: Richard J. Frankland's Conversations with the dead -- Conclusion: towards an understanding of witness to the trauma of invasion.
In an Australia shaped by neo-conservative government and by searing contention, national and global, over what the past is, how it should be allowed to affect the present and who are authentic bearers of witness, this thesis compares testimony to Australia's black/white relations in two plays by white writers, Andrew Bovell's 'Holy day' (2001) and Katherne Thomson's 'Wonderlands' (2003), and two black writers, Tammy Anderson's 'I don't wanna play house' (2001) and Richard J. Frankland's 'Conversations witht the dead' (2002).
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
210 p. ill. 30 cm
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Hooton, Fiona Art History & Art Education College of Fine Arts UNSW. "The impact of the counterculture on Australian cinema in the mid to late 20th century." 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/41008.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis discusses the impact of the counterculture on Australian cinema in the late 20thcentury through the work of the Sydney Underground Film group, Ubu. This group, active between 1965 -1970, was a significant part of an underground counter culture, to which many young Australians subscribed. As a group, Ubu was more than a rat bag assemblage of University students. It was an antipodean aspect of an ongoing artistic and political movement that began with the European avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century and that radically transformed artistic conventions in theatre, painting, literature, photography and film. Three purposes underpin this thesis: firstly to track the art historical links between a European avant-garde heritage and Ubu. Experimental film is a genre that is informed by cross art form interrelations between theatre, painting, literature, photography and film and the major modernist aesthetic philosophies of the last century. Ubu's revolutionary aesthetic approaches included political resistance and the involvement of audiences in the production of art. Their creative wellspring drew from: Alfred Jarry, Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Fluxus, Conceptual and Pop art. This cross fertilization between the arts is critical to understanding not only the Australian experimental movement but the history of contemporary image making. The second purpose is to fill a current void of research about early Australian Experimental film. This is a significant gap given it was a national movement with many international connections. The counterculture movement also contains many major figures in Australian art history. These individuals played their parts in the Sydney Push, Oz magazine and the activities of the Yellow House and have since become important multi arts practitioners and commentators. Thirdly, the thesis attempts to evaluate Ubu's political and social agenda for the democratization of film appreciation through their objectives of: production, exhibition, distribution and debate of experimental film both nationally and internationally. Ultimately the group would succeed in these objectives and in winning the war on repressive censorship laws. Their influence has informed the practice of many of Australia's current film heavy weights. Two key films have been selected for analysis, It Droppeth as the Gentle Rain (1963) and Newsfront (1978). The first looks forward to Ubu's contemporary practices and political agenda while the second demonstrates their longer term influences on mainstream cinema.
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Behin, Bahram. "Aspects of the role of language in creating the literary effect : implications for the reading of Australian prose fiction / by Bahram Behin." Thesis, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/19041.
Full text
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Cloete, Henrietta. "Soziales Drama bei Gerhart Hauptmann." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10210/6067.
Full text
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Heley, Matthew. ""Men made out of words": reading men writing masculinities in Australian literature." Thesis, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/110812.
Full textAbstract:
This study of some Australian literary texts covers Rod Jones ("Julia Paradise"), David Brooks ("The book of Sei"), Robert Drewe ("A cry in the jungle bar"), George Johnston ("My brother Jack") and Patrick White ("The Twyborn affair")Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of English Language and Literature, 1996
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Bolton, Ken 1949. "At the flash & at the baci." 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phb6943.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
"August 2003." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-177) Pt. 1. At the flash & at the baci: contents, poems, notes to poems -- pt. 2. Exegetical essay: note on the text, essay: How I remember writing some of my poems - why, even Consists principally of poems. The collection does not pursue any particular theme. It is organized chronologically. An exegetical essay written as a poem forms the second part of the thesis. The essay does not explain the poem's 'meanings' to any great extent but considers the poems' relation to each other and to poems written in the past.
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Bolton, Ken 1949. "At the flash & at the baci / Ken Bolton." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/21996.
Full textAbstract:
"August 2003."Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-177)
2 v. (131, 177 leaves) ; 30 cm.
Consists principally of poems. The collection does not pursue any particular theme. It is organized chronologically. An exegetical essay written as a poem forms the second part of the thesis. The essay does not explain the poem's 'meanings' to any great extent but considers the poems' relation to each other and to poems written in the past.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of English, 2003
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"Imagistic action: an interdisciplinary study of poetic tension in Yeats' theatre." 2000. http://library.cuhk.edu.hk/record=b5895814.
Full textAbstract:
by Wong Hing Yi.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-137).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
Introduction --- p.1
Chapter Chapter One --- "“The Last Romantic or the First Modern?"": in the light of the predecessors and contemporaries" --- p.7
Chapter Chapter Two --- "“More than Cool Reason"": a study of the poetic metaphor in Yeats's poems" --- p.29
Chapter Chapter Three --- """An illusion that should not be quite an illusion"": a study of the visual image in Yeats´ةs plays" --- p.51
Chapter Chapter Four --- Image as Action: Yeats as the forerunner of the modern theatre --- p.80
Conclusion --- p.112
Illustrations --- p.119
References --- p.131
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Thoday, Heather Frances. "Lived spaces of representation : thirdspace and Janette Turner Hospital's political praxis of postmodernism / Heather Thoday." Thesis, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/22112.
Full text
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Cairns, Glen. "Danceland: a production record." Thesis, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4105.
Full textAbstract:
The thesis is a record of the writing and
rehearsal process which led to the British premiere of
the full length Canadian play, Danceland, at The Old
Red Lion Theatre, London, in November of 1994. The
first chapter is a discussion of the dramatic theories
and historical research which informed the initial
creative writing process. The second chapter is the
final draft of the play itself. The third chapter is a
record of the rehearsal and production process, as well
as an overview of the major dramaturgical problems
which the actors, director and designers encountered
during rehearsals of the play. A full cast and crew
list and the reviews from the British press are
contained in the appendices.
The playwright's "experiment" which sits at the
heart of this production record is that Aristotle's
idea of "place" is essential to the creation of an
indigenous, Canadian dramatic literature. The writing
process, however, is only the beginning of the
translation of drama from the page to the stage; and it
is this final, rehearsal and production process which
demands that all dramatic theory be placed within the
context of believable characterization and dramatic
action.