Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Literary criticism'
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Dalton, Liam. "Euphony in Hellenistic literary criticism." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.416836.
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Wisch, Stephen H. "Teaching Literary Criticism Through Independent Reading." Ohio Dominican University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oduhonors1556705309193909.
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Needham, Donna Dorr. "Margaret Fuller's lost legacy literary criticism /." Connect to this title online, 2009. http://etd.lib.clemson.edu/documents/1263396777/.
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Buhrman, William D. "Nathan Scott's literary criticism and fundamental theology /." New York : P. Lang, 2006. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb410794517.
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Buck, Ron M. "Narrative criticism, authorial intention, and historicity modern literary criticism and the Gospels /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1992. http://www.tren.com.
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Bailey, Raymond Frederick. "Some preoccupations of Australian literary criticism 1945-83." Thesis, University of London, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.282412.
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Atherton, Carol. "Defining literary criticism : scholarship, authority and the possession of literary knowledge, 1880-2002." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.275951.
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Al-Shamaa, Khaldoun. "Modernism and after : modern Arabic literary theory from literary criticism to cultural critique." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2007. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28817/.
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This thesis aims to provide the interested reader with a critical account of far-reaching changes in modern Arabic literary theory, approximately since the 1970s, in the light of an ascending paradigm in motion, and of the tendency by subsequent critics and commentators to view literary criticism in terms of a self-elaborating category morphing into cultural critique. The first part focuses on interdisciplinary problems confronting Arab critics in their attempt "to modernize but not to westernize", and also provides a comparative treatment of the terms, concepts and definitions used in the context of an ever-growing Arabic literary canon, along with consideration of how these relate to European modernist thought and of the controversies surrounding them among Arab critics. The second part explores some distinguishable morphological markers whose deployment involves a more or less radical distinction between, on the one hand, renovationist assumptions of cultural change as an uninterrupted process of historical continuity, and, on the other, innovationist assumptions based on discontinuity. The first of these modernizing models, involving revivalist ideas from the age of al-Nahdah, laid the foundation for a double dependency, on the past, serving to compensate, through remembering and reviving, for lack of creativity; and on the European-American West, serving to compensate, through intellectual and technical adaptation and borrowing, for the failure to invent and innovate. However, it is the second, counter-revivalist model that has assumed pride of place through the work of various poets, theorists and critics considered here. By the end of the eighties a self-generating, self-referential modernist theory had become the dominant critique. The third part proffers the case for a new paradigm. Drawing on the arguments and views of numerous scholars, the emphasis here is that "difference" establishes a distinctive mode of autonomy vis-a-vis Western Eurocentric theory.
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Birdsall, Stephanie. "Meaning and the literary text." Thesis, McGill University, 1995. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=24076.
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Often debates over literary meaning can get swept up into larger discussions about social significance, political responsibilities, identity struggles and deification of cultural objects. Literary meaning becomes, in these deliberations, not just a theoretical entity but a powerful social force. All of these queries, however, inasmuch as the literary enterprise is a part of human interaction, are dependent on the brute fact of communication. Any notion of literary meaning must ultimately rest upon a concept of meaning that explains, or attempts to explain, how communication is possible. This, in turn, leads down the dark path into human psychology and the relationships of our minds to the world around us. This thesis will attempt to explore various viewpoints about the connections between thought, language, and literature and to argue that these connections necessitate more attention than has been paid to them by literary theorists.
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McVeigh, Jane. "Literary biography and its critics." Thesis, University of Roehampton, 2013. https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/studentthesis/literary-biography-and-its-critics(a8f5e71a-c008-4fe2-b56b-2f3ab633e6d7).html.
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This thesis analyses Anglo-American criticism of biography, during the late twentieth century from within and outside the academy. It moves on to discuss the work of three contemporary British biographers, Claire Tomalin, Richard Holmes and Hermione Lee, in the context of recent debate about the genre. Claire Tomalin, is an independent freelance biographer; Hermione Lee, is a lifelong academic who writes biography for the general and academic reader; and Richard Holmes has had a foot in both camps in his experience both as an independent biographer and an academic. The aim is to make the case that contemporary British biography since 1970, literary biography in particular, has not only responded to objections from some academics critics but, at least in the biographies by Tomalin, Holmes and Lee, embraces aspects of recent academic literary theory, New Historicism and Feminism in particular. It is not within the remit of my thesis to provide an overview of literary theory or weigh up its arguments. It is rather the intention to argue that objections to the genre have been influenced by aspects of recent theory, and that critics have not acknowledged the extent to which biographers have also been aware of, and have responded to comparable influences. I will also consider the extent to which objections to the genre are reflected in reviews of biographies by Tomalin, Holmes and Lee, as well as recent developments in the academic study of the genre. The first chapter will identify major objections to biography influenced by academic theory, drawing on both British and American sources. The next chapter will discuss how biographers, within and outside the academy, have responded to these objections. A study of Claire Tomalin’s biographies in Chapter Three will explore the extent to which she considers ‘truth’ as mediated and provisional; how she approaches autobiographical evidence; her use of anecdotes and chronology; and the use she makes of speculation. Richard Holmes, the subject of Chapter Four, is often associated with debates about identification in biography and the chapter devoted to him will explore the extent to which his approach can be seen as ‘Romantic’ in its treatment of the subject as an isolated individual, a great i man or autonomous genius; the extent to which he places his biographical subjects within their social, political and cultural contexts; and his approach to historiography, influenced by the ontological and fictional focus important to Ira Nadel. Hermione Lee, the subject of Chapter Five, is a distinguished academic whose biographical writing negotiates the balance between fact and fiction and ontological and historical knowledge differently from that of Holmes, in ways more congruent with academic practice. Chapter Six will consider the critical reception of biographies by Hermione Lee, Claire Tomalin, and Richard Holmes in academic journals and the reviews of academics in the quality press. Chapter Seven will discusses the extent to which biography as a written narrative has been subsumed within the academy into the wider field of life-writing, and how this subsuming has affected its status and character as a literary genre.
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Winchester, Rachel. "Dance as Literary Criticism: Literary Analysis and Dramaturgy in a Dance Theatre Choreographic Process." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18356.
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In my research into interdisciplinary choreographic processes, I found there to be a lacking representation of recent scholarship dedicated to exploring the relationship between literature and dance. As a dance theatre choreographer who often utilizes textual sources as impetuses for artistic creation, I have employed methods of traditional dramaturgy in my practice and, in seeking scholarship on this subject, have noted a need for clear examples of dance dramaturgy in practice. In this thesis study, I employed methods from literary studies and dramaturgy in the process of adapting a work of short fiction by Kurt Vonnegut for the stage. I documented my process and have structured the information for the benefit of those who may read it. The artistic product of this research was presented to an audience in direct relation to its literary source. At the conclusion of this research, I posit that dance can function as literary criticism.
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Anger, Suzy. "Victorian hermeneutics and literary interpretation /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9374.
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Copeland, John. "Richard Rorty and the Cultural Politics of Literary Criticism." The University of Montana, 2009. http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-12162008-133459/.
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Simon Stow warns that the influence of political readings of literary texts could be harmful to political discourse. In particular, he cautions against the growing popularity of political readings over political arguments. Compared with traditional arguments, readings are, Stow argues, poorly suited for liberal political discourse. To demonstrate this point, Stow challenges the political character of Richard Rortys reading of Pale Fire. In this essay, I dispute Stow's criticism of Rorty. My basic argument is that literary criticism (or "readings") can be politically significant and that Rorty's acknowledgement of this fact ties him to rather than separates him from, both the political and literary arenas. To make my point, I reconsider the reading of Pale Fire Rorty offers relative to the kind of reading of Don Quixote offered by Nabokov. By arguing that even the most "literary" of writers reads for political purposes, I hope to situate Rorty within a cultural space where the literary and political converge.
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Andersen, David Hess Jonathan M. "Parody as criticism the literary life of Eulalia Meinau /." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,1550.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008.Title from electronic title page (viewed Sep. 16, 2008). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature." Discipline: Germanic Languages; Department/School: Germanic Languages.
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McLean, Ralph R. "Rhetoric and literary criticism in the early Scottish Enlightenment." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2009. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/802/.
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In recent years the importance of the Scottish contribution to rhetoric and literary criticism has begun to be fully recognised by historians and literary critics. Men such as Hugh Blair, Adam Smith and George Campbell have now been afforded a just place in the canon of literary critics. However, the period before the 1760s which saw a great flourishing in Scottish intellectual activity has, by in large, remained untouched. The main purpose of this thesis is to rehabilitate those thinkers in Scotland who were active in the period before this, and who began to change the boundaries of rhetoric and literary criticism, which ultimately paved the way for their fellow countrymen to export their own systems to Europe and the wider Atlantic world. In addition to this, the thesis addresses two other major concerns. Firstly, it will argue that Scotland in this period does not deserve to be viewed as merely a cultural province of England, reacting solely to its larger neighbour’s cultural agenda. Instead, the Scots were engaged in a European-wide exchange of ideas which allowed them to develop a system of rhetoric and literary criticism which was richer than a brand that was developed only in response to English cultural pressure. Secondly, the thesis will demonstrate the importance of the classical influence on Scottish thinkers in their attempts to forge a new style of rhetoric for modern consumption. The structure of the thesis has been set in such a way as to provide a balance between the development of rhetoric in regional enlightenment centres, in terms of both university and club activity, and its development and progression in the traditional institutions of Scotland: the parliament, the church and the law. The first three chapters focus on Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and chart the different influences that each city was subjected to, that in turn led to the construction of differing, yet still in many respects, complementary systems. Within the universities themselves, the figures of Thomas Blackwell of Aberdeen, Francis Hutcheson of Glasgow, and John Stevenson of Edinburgh, merit substantial analysis for their role in this process, not only for the influence which they exerted on future generations of literary critics in Scotland and abroad, but also for their own contributions to the discipline, which have been frequently overlooked. The focus on the regional varieties of Enlightenment also permits for a discussion of club activity in Scotland, which was an integral part of the Scottish Enlightenment. This will demonstrate that the growth of rhetoric and literary criticism in the country was not the sole preserve of the educated elites, but was something which could be accessed from all levels of society. The second half of the thesis focuses on the institutions of Scotland. This section seeks to restore to parity, sources such as political pamphlets, sermons and style books which, under the rules of modern day criticism that concerns itself with only a narrow band of literature, have become overlooked as a foundation for rhetorical development. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to assess the contribution to the advance in critical theory of those individuals such as Lord Kames and Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh who did so away from the universities.
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Chapin, Charles Nicholas. "The turn to reading in twentieth-century literary criticism." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609859.
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Barga, Rachel M. "Sex Theory: Theology of the Body as Literary Criticism." Miami University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1304527876.
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Filsinger, Judy Ann. "Literary criticism, composition, and "passing theory": Conflicts and connections." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1994. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/963.
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Graves, Barbara. "On literary expertise : the description of a fictional narrative by experts and novices." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=59243.
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The objective of this research is to provide an account of literary expertise by examining literary experts and students in English Literature as they describe a fictional narrative. The experimental text is a complex narrative conveyed by means of character dialogue.To investigate expert performance this study developed a model of text description that identified semantic units in the description protocols as a set of possible "discursive patterns." A discursive pattern identifies the text unit being described along with the point of reference of the description, that is, from the point of view of the reader, the author, or simply the text.
The results indicate that students' descriptions closely paraphrased the text, repeating either the narrative events or the characters' speech, while experts' descriptions reflected higher-level references to narrative structure or the function of the dialogue which were derived either from the text or from prior knowledge. Experts relied on specific information in the text as a support for more inferential statements. In addition, experts commented more extensively on the language of the text. Experts also included references to the author, the reader and the relationship between the two. It seems that experts view the text as the result of deliberate linguistic and conceptual choices made by an author and awareness of these choices appears to guide their descriptions.
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Segal, A. P. M. "Deconstruction and the logic of criticism." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.234922.
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The dissertation seeks to take account of the implications of Jacques Derrida's deconstructive philosophy for literary theory and criticism through analysis of the work of non-deconstructionists theorists and critics. In particular, the dissertation deals with the attempt by much traditional Anglo-American literary theory to articulate what might be called a lq'logic of criticism' - an attempt evident in the use made by this theory of oppositions such as intrinsic/extrinsic, structural/genetic, essential/contingent, and so on. The attempt is considered with respect to three concerns of modern literary theory: organic form, authorial intention and the question of value. On the first issue, it is argued that the organicist's construal of the relation of form and content in poetry is analogous to Husserl's construal of the relation of signifier and signified in speech, and that Derrida's deconstruction of Husserl's privileging of voice provides the model for the deconstruction of organicism. In the case of intention, it is argued that modern criticism and theory has characteristically relied on a notion of the literary work as saturated by a fully conscious intention, a reliance which marks a succumbing to what Derrida calls 'the structural lure of consciousness'. Concerning the question of value, the target is the attempt to defend value by locating it as the ground, the centre, the telos or origin of the phenomenon to be accounted for. The dissertation concludes by broaching the question of the nature of a properly deconstructive literary criticism. It is argued that so-called deconstructionist criticism involves a neutralization of deconstruction, a defect which Derrida avoids in his own literary criticism.
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Phegley, Jennifer. "Educating the proper woman reader : Victorian family literary magazines and the professionalization of literary criticism /." The Ohio State University, 2000. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1488192119261626.
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Mayes-Elma, Ruthann Elizabeth. "A Feminist Literary Criticism Approach to Representations of Women's Agency in Harry Potter." Oxford, Ohio : Miami University, 2003. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?miami1060025232.
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Wynter-Vincent, Naomi. "In the penumbra of Wilfred Bion : possibilities for literary criticism." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2016. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/66367/.
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Tynan, Aidan. "The literary clinic : Deleuze, criticism, and the politics of symptoms." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2011. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/54183/.
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This thesis presents a reconstruction of Deleuze's theory of literature as health. What I refer to throughout as the “literary clinic” relates to how Deleuze characterised literary practice in clinical terms as an engagement with both vital and semiotic processes. The fundamental intuition in this regard is that there is a way of conceiving health as a strength or vitality distinct from the organic and socio-linguistic categories which give to experience a liveable form. There is a “formless” or “unliveable” element attending every instantiation of form, and this is what positions the question of the inorganic life of the body alongside issues relating to literary creativity and formal renewal. It is this simultaneous concern with living and semiotic processes that characterises literary criticism as a type of clinic: the pathological exceeds organic construction just as the author discovers a mode of enunciation beyond the terms of socio-linguistic convention. However, Deleuze's own writings on these issues are extremely disparate, and his conception of literature as health was never realised in a completed form in his work. The reconstruction presented here follows the literary clinic from its origins in Deleuze's early philosophical readings and tracks its course through some of the major turning points in his career, most notably his collaboration with Guattari. I argue that, despite its incompleteness, the literary clinic constitutes a coherent account of literary theory and practice, one which, furthermore, is responsive to the philosophical and political issues most salient to the Deleuzian corpus. My goal has been not only to provide an analysis of this neglected area of Deleuze studies, but also to open paths towards a properly Deleuzian critical practice.
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DeWitt, Helen Marsh. "Quo virtus? : the concept of propriety in ancient literary criticism." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1987. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8001826b-03c5-4a37-a2e2-8f7966f5f375.
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The standard of propriety is frequently appealed to in ancient literary discourse, most notably in discussions of poetics, criticism of literary works and precepts for composition. Its importance derives from the audience orientation of most ancient discussions of literature: writers were interested in the ways various forms of speech and writing had to be accommodated to their audience in order to achieve particular effects. Discussion of the representation of character, for instance, explored the ways that fictional persons or oratorical speakers could be made moving and convincing: they must conform to common preconceptions about the behviour and language suitable to their rank, sex, age, nationality, education. This raises important questions about the concept of propriety. First, is it coherent? It seems to depend heavily on the assumption that audiences are homogeneous; in practice, however, ancient writers recognise wide disparities in readers and spectators, and are often ready to accuse certain types of audience of bad taste. The concept is thus embroiled in the general aesthetic problem of the nature of taste: can criteria for artistic excellence be found which are independent of what people happen to like, and which can therefore justify claims about what they should like? Second, where does use of the concept place ancient literary discussion in relation to various forms of modern literary theory and criticism? A large number of modern movements have held it as axiomatic that the excellence of art lies in defeating the preconceptions of the audience; does ancient criticism have any defence against such a position? Both of these points touch on further issues: the place of literature and oratory in Greek and Roman societies, and the connection between literary discourse and other types of intellectual activity, most notably philosophy (propriety is equally important in most ancient moral philosophy). I consider these points in connection with major poetic genres, rhetoric, and the question of linguistic purity.
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Nash, Andrew. "Kailyard, Scottish literary criticism, and the fiction of J.M. Barrie." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15199.
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This thesis argues that the term Kailyard is not a body of literature or cultural discourse, but a critical concept which has helped to construct controlling parameters for the discussion of literature and culture in Scotland. By offering an in-depth reading of the fiction of J.M. Barrie - the writer who is most usually and misleadingly associated with the term - and by tracing the writing career of Ian Maclaren, I argue for the need to reject the term and the critical assumptions it breeds. The introduction maps the various ways Kailyard has been employed in literary and cultural debates and shows how it promotes a critical approach to Scottish culture which focuses on the way individual writers, texts and images represent Scotland. Chapter 1 considers why this critical concern arose by showing how images of national identity and national literary distinctiveness were validated as the meaning of Scotland throughout the nineteenth century. Chapters 2-5 seek to overturn various assumptions bred by the term Kailyard. Chapter 2 discusses the early fiction of J.M. Barrie in the context of late nineteenth-century regionalism, showing how his work does not aim to depict social reality but is deliberately artificial in design. Chapter 3 discusses late Victorian debates over realism in fiction and shows how Barrie and Maclaren appealed to the reading public because of their treatment of established Victorian ideas of sympathy and the sentimental. Chapter 4 discusses Barrie's four longer novels - the works most constrained by the Kailyard term - and chapter 5 reconsiders the relationship between Maclaren's work and debates over popular culture. Chapter 6 analyses the use of the term Kailyard in twentieth-century Scottish cultural criticism. Discussing the criticism of Hugh MacDiarmid, the writing of literary histories and studies of Scottish film, history and politics, I argue for the need to reject the Kailyard term as a critical concept in the discussion of Scottish culture.
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MacKeen, Alison. "From discovery to creation : feminist literary criticism's aesthetic turn." Thesis, McGill University, 1989. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=59590.
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This thesis challenges the way feminist literary criticism has been represented as a field polarized between American and French positions. As an alternative to the American/French distinction, I propose one between feminist criticism oriented to research and feminist criticism oriented to aesthetics. In keeping with this alternative distinction, I relocate the shift in feminist criticism within American feminism. The "aesthetic turn" inaugurated by American "gynocriticism" is itself identified in relation to a more general philosophical shift from discovery to creation. While the relativistic and voluntaristic tendencies which distinguish the latter pole are exemplified by French feminism, I argue that they are anticipated by American feminism's "aesthetic turn." Finally, this thesis not only relocates and redefines the shift in feminist literary criticism, but provides arguments in favour of a research-oriented feminist criticism.
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Gao, Wei Zhi. "Creative criticism : the example of James Joyce /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9422.
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Loevlie, Elisabeth M. "Literary silences : saying the unsayable: an exploration of literary silence in the works of Pascal, Rousseau and Beckett." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.365530.
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Miller, Dane Eric. "Micah and its literary environment: Rhetorical critical case studies." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/185441.
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I began this investigation with the presupposition that the MT of Micah offered us a valid object upon which to apply the methodology of rhetorical criticism. The examination of the text proceeded along the lines of two emphases: (1) a structural analysis which studied the various blocks of material in order to describe a unity or cohesiveness in Micah, and (2) a thematic approach which identified underlying images which tend to enhance the coherence of the work. I used these two methodologies to address both pericopes and also larger units and even to discuss the book itself. Two other methodological strategies have also guided my analysis of Micah. In Chapter 1, I described two foci of the ellipse that is rhetorical criticism: first, those who emphasize the task of "listening" to the text, which I understand as more of an empathic approach, and second, those who utilize a quantifying style of investigation. Both these focal points are reflected in my structural and thematic analyses. Although no readily recognizable patterns such as A:B:A appears in describing the three parts of the book, there does seem to be a thematic development in Micah 1-7. Thus Part I (Micah 1-3) resounds with the words of witness followed by judgment and concludes with the destruction of Jerusalem. That scene of destruction gives way, however, to the restoration and encouragement of Part II (4:1-5:8), although the threats in 4:9-5:8 remind us that the restoration is not an accomplished fact. Part III (Mic 5:9-7:20) begins with what seems to be an assertion that the judgment will take place, especially with the appearance again of the witness/judgment model in 6:9-7:6. However, the final picture of restoration and covenant fidelity on the part of YHWH affirms that the judgment will be overturned. I have further suggested that echoes from the literary tradition of Israel enhance the movement from judgment to renewal in Micah. The conclusion to the judgment in Part I (Mic 3:1-12) has particular impact, because it is presented in the language of the judgment scene from the garden of Eden (Genesis 3). In fact, we see here again that theme and structure intermix in Micah. I suggest that the book begins with material which mimics and recalls older traditions (the theophany, David, and even Anat) and ends with similarly old recollections (David and Moses). Thus I posit that Micah comes to us wrapped in an envelope of ancient echoes.
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Moore, Lindsay Emory. "The Laureates’ Lens: Exposing the Development of Literary History and Literary Criticism From Beneath the Dunce Cap." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2015. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc822784/.
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In this project, I examine the impact of early literary criticism, early literary history, and the history of knowledge on the perception of the laureateship as it was formulated at specific moments in the eighteenth century. Instead of accepting the assessments of Pope and Johnson, I reconstruct the contemporary impact of laureate writings and the writing that fashioned the view of the laureates we have inherited. I use an array of primary documents (from letters and journal entries to poems and non-fiction prose) to analyze the way the laureateship as a literary identity was constructed in several key moments: the debate over hack literature in the pamphlet wars surrounding Elkanah Settle’s The Empress of Morocco (1673), the defense of Colley Cibber and his subsequent attempt to use his expertise of theater in An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber (1740), the consolidation of hack literature and state-sponsored poetry with the crowning of Colley Cibber as the King of the Dunces in Pope’s The Dunciad in Four Books (1742), the fashioning of Thomas Gray and William Mason as laureate rejecters in Mason’s Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Whitehead (1788), Southey’s progressive work to abolish laureate task writing in his laureate odes 1813-1821, and, finally, in Wordsworth’s refusal to produce any laureate task writing during his tenure, 1843-1850. In each case, I explain how the construction of this office was central to the consolidation of literary history and to forging authorial identity in the same period. This differs from the conventional treatment of the laureates because I expose the history of the versions of literary history that have to date structured how scholars understand the laureate, and by doing so, reveal how the laureateship was used to create, legitimate and disseminate the model of literary history we still use today.
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O'Reilly, Séan A. (Séan Anthony). "Guy Davenport's literary primitivism." Thesis, McGill University, 1995. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=23347.
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This thesis shows how literary primitivism is the pivot around which Davenport's literary designs spin. Thematically as well as technically the material in his first four collections of short stories is all derived from a desire to explore the beginnings, or the primitive wellsprings, of writing and art. The collage-like construction of picture and sentence will be shown to evolve from a knowledge of palaeolithic cave painting, humanity's first writing system, while Davenport's use of cataloguing and paratactic systems will be shown to evolve from ancient Greek. His primitivism also reveals itself in a Rousseau-like concern to highlight the advantages of primitive civilization on a modern industrial one and how the lessons learned from that are invaluable for present-day society.
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MacGregor, Catherine. "Writing lives of addiction: A context for literary biography and criticism." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/9180.
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This thesis presents a series of case studies demonstrating that literary biography and literary criticism concerning writers who abused alcohol or who lived in relationships with those who abused alcohol can be enriched by an interdisciplinary appreciation of contemporary addiction theory. It begins with an overview of the various constructions of addiction to alcohol and to other substances and activities, ways of thinking about harmful dependencies which have dominated Western attitudes since the eighteenth century. It then identifies the directions current addiction research and therapy have taken and focuses particularly on the paradigm in most frequent clinical use today; that is, the understanding of alcohol addiction as a disorder not merely of the individual subject but of a constellation of codependent relationships. Literary biography has all too often either trivialized or sensationalized the addictions of writers and their families, and in doing so, has made it difficult for critics to address textual questions which could be resolved more appropriately with a sensitivity to addiction theory in general and to the circumstances of the writer's life in particular. To demonstrate that current thinking about alcoholism and codependency provides a valid way to read works by writers who were either alcoholic themselves or who lived in domestic relationships with alcoholics, it presents "case studies" from eras prior to our own and argues that authorial anxiety about alcohol abuse and addiction was not only a significant factor in the production of the texts but in the preoccupations within the works themselves in ways which repay close reading. It provides readings of well-known nineteenth and twentieth-century novels: Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, and Evelyn Waugh's The Sword of Honour trilogy. In doing so, it seeks to demonstrate that anxiety about alcohol abuse in the context of marriage and parent-child relationships is a recurring and meaningful element, attention to which deepens a reader's appreciation of the writers' theme and technique and, moreover, challenges-or complements, in unexpected ways-insights from more conventional criticism.
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Chater, Nancy. "Technologies of remembrance, literary criticism and Duncan Campbell Scott's Indian poems." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape7/PQDD_0003/MQ45483.pdf.
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King, Noel. "Anxieties of commentary : interpretation in recent literary, film and cultural criticism /." Title page, table of contents and abstact only, 1994. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phk532.pdf.
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Donnelly, Daniel. "The Madrigal as literary criticism: Veronese settings of Ariosto's «Orlando furioso»." Thesis, McGill University, 2009. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=32563.
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This thesis describes the importance of the amateur academy as a centre for the consumption of both literary and musical works in cinquecento Italy. By occupying a middle space between the public and private spheres, the cultural environment of the academy lends itself particularly well to the practice of analytical "readings" of texts through music. In their musical lezioni of selections from Ariosto's chivalric epic Orlando furioso, Jachet de Berchem, Vincenzo Ruffo, and Jan Nasco show themselves to be concerned with many of the same issues as contemporary literary critics (the explication of imagery and metaphor), but at the same time they also create complex emotional and psychological readings of the subjectivities of the poem's central characters in a manner that lay outside the scope of the writings of Ariosto's contemporary commentators. The association of all three composers and their music with the Accademia Filarmonica di Verona thus suggests that composers indeed had an important rôle to play in academic discussions of literary æsthetics, and that the madrigal can be seen as a form of literary criticism that preserves some aspects of academic discourse that have otherwise been lost. My analysis, in turn, represents a new way to interpret madrigals and draw meaning from them in the context of this discourse.Cette thèse décrit l'importance des académies amateures en tant que lieu de consommation d'œuvres musicales et littéraires dans l'Italie du cinquecento. En se positionnant entre les sphères publiques et privées, l'environnement culturel des académies fut très propice à la « lecture » analytique de textes par la musique. Lors de lezioni musicales d'extraits de l'épopée chevaleresque Orlando furioso d'Arioste, Jachet de Berchem, Vincenzo Ruffo et Jan Nasco se montrèrent sensibles aux mêmes problèmes que les critiques littéraires contemporains (l'interprétation d'images et de métaphores), mais en même temps, ils ont également créé des interprétations émotionnelles et psychologiques complexes des subjectivités des personnages principaux d'une manière qui va au-delà de celle des critiques contemporains sur les écrits d'Arioste. L'association de ces trois compositeurs et leur musique avec l'Accademia Filarmonica di Verona suggère donc que les compositeurs eurent un rôle important à jouer lors de discussions académiques sur l'esthétique littéraire, et que le madrigal peut être vu comme une forme de critique littéraire préservant certains aspects du discours académique, autrement perdu. Mon analyse représente donc une nouvelle façon d'interpréter les madrigaux et interprète leur signification via le contexte de ce discours.
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Neidorf, Leonard. "The Origins of Beowulf: Studies in Textual Criticism and Literary History." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11366.
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Beowulf is preserved in a single manuscript written out around the year 1000, but there are many reasons to believe that the poem was composed several centuries before this particular act of manual reproduction. Most significantly, the meter of Beowulf reveals that the poet regularly observed distinctions of etymological length that became phonologically indistinct before 725 in Mercia. This dissertation gauges the explanatory power of the hypothesis that Beowulf was composed about three centuries before the production of the extant manuscript. The following studies test the hypothesis of archaic composition by determining whether it is able to accommodate independent forms of evidence drawn from the fields of linguistics, textual criticism, and literary history.
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Seymour, G. S. "History and aesthetics and in the development of English literary criticism." Thesis, University of Essex, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.381257.
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Maserow, Joshua. "Responsible responding: the ethics of a literary criticism of the Other." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13939.
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Derek Attridge’s insight that, ‘Coetzee’s works both stage, and are, irruptions of otherness into our familiar worlds, and they pose the question: what is our responsibility towards the Other?’ (Attridge 2005: JM Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading: Literature in the Event, xii), is conceptually rooted in Attridge’s tour de force on the theory of literary invention, The Singularity of Literature. In it he spins a complex, nuanced and powerful idea about the nature of literature as event in which the notion of otherness, or alterity, plays a primordial part in the advent of the literary. In this thesis, I develop a critique of the way in which a particular strand of literary criticism, which has blossomed in the field of Coetzee Studies, appropriates the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas in its creation of an ethics-based, theme-reliant interpretive framework. While Derek Attridge, Mike Marais and Stefan Helgesson have each contributed greatly to this critical outlook, which I abbreviate as the ‘Levinasian Approach’, I choose to focus my research on the work produced by Attridge. My argument unfolds across two main sections. Section 1 contains a disquisition on pertinent aspects of Levinas’s ethical philosophy to literary aesthetics (Chapter 1). Section 2 consists of two chapters where the first (Chapter 2) is a study of the interface of Levinasian ethics with Attridge’s theory of literature in the event. There, I begin with an exposition of Attridge’s theory of literature, exploring its conceptual bearing on Levinas’s ethics. I make apparent the extent of his indebtedness to Levinas’s ethics by closely examining how and where, in the gestation of his theory, he borrows from Levinas’s ethical writings to develop a discourse on the nature of literature. This I follow up with a look at the nodes of divergence, unveiling the ways in which Attridge departs from Levinasian conceptions in his deployment of Levinasian terms. In conscripting the pseudo-phenomenological and transcendental ethics developed by Levinas into a hermeneutics of aesthetic evaluation and literary judgment, Attridge’s position diverges with undesirable consequence from Levinasian ethics. In the second chapter of Section 2 (Chapter 3) I reveal how Attridge’s method of textual analysis in J.M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading goes against the grain of the theory of literary invention he elucidates in The Singularity of Literature. Furthermore, I argue that, in converting ethics into an applicative analytic for the audit of texts, with a view to exploring their literariness, he responds irresponsibly in Levinasian terms to Levinasian ethics. If his position is regarded as Levinasian, certain conceptual problems arise for his critical method. Should Levinas’s ethics be regarded as the source of Attridges’s notion of otherness and alterity, then Attridge’s selective appropriation is methodologically at odds with the source of its possibility, with Levinasian ethics.
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Le, Grange Jason John. ""Rewriting and redefining Utopia; minorities' perfect existence or ultimate destruction"." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7970.
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Utopia as a construct within an ideology offers minority groups a feasible space from which to negotiate an identity within a dominant discourse. Continuing human atrocities have led to a âspiral of oppressionâ, in which oppression continues, never resolving itself and never diminishing, but rather moving away from the utopian space within the centre. As the dominant discourse is threatened by the minority, minority groups are placed spatially, within this spiral of oppression into a marginal position called the âuniversal minorityâ, from which they have to negotiate with the dominant discourse, the âuniversal majorityâ, however unsuccessfully. Science fiction and utopian writing offer spaces in which minority groups can break through the âspiral of oppressionâ and negotiate directly with the dominant discourse. Trends in these two genres reveal which group is visioned as the âuniversal minorityâ, and the plight of the minority is highlighted in the alternative reality of these genres. Race (focussing on Hispanic discourse) and Sexuality (focussing on viable spaces for alternative sexuality) are two areas which are explored in this thesis as visions of the universal minority. Moreover, to understand the spiral of oppression, the Holocaust is reflected upon from a minority perspective, and literary responses as well as issues of post-holocaust compensation are addressed, reflecting the nature of the universal majority and universal minority. Finally, Utopia is often considered an unrealistic construct which cannot be attained by any legitimate agency other than an oligarchist regime or a strict governing body, which could lead to tyranny. Agency therefore is problematic; however, it will be argued that, even if full Utopia is not reached, the spiral of oppression can be broken and a utopian bridge of opportunity created through an idea of Brechtâs called Verfremdungseffekt (prompting self-awareness), using the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission as an example of a vehicle for this agency. The agency then becomes the awareness, which leads to the direct negotiation with the dominant discourse.
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Panda, Ujjwal Kr, and Indranil Acharya. "The sense of place : Divergent responses in the works of Seamus Heaney and Philip Larkin." Thesis, Vidyasagar University , Midnapore , West Bengal , India, 2017. http://inet.vidyasagar.ac.in:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/2382.
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Richter, Yvonne. "A critic in her own right taking Virginia Woolf's literary criticism seriously /." unrestricted, 2009. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04162009-164658/.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2009.Title from file title page. Randy Malamud, committee chair; Paul Schmidt, Lee Anne Richardson, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Aug. 13, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p, 91-97).
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Potts, Tracey. "Can the Imperialist read? : race and feminist literary theory." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1997. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/63653/.
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Since the mid 1980's it has been unthinkable for white feminist literary critics to neglect race in their theoretical work. Strong challenges from black feminists have been effective in placing race high on the critical agenda. No longer is the kind of exclusivity that marked early (white) feminist literary theory possible. However, despite the evident commitment to addressing the race question in their work, the black feminist challenge has been greeted with a considerable degree of anxiety by white feminist critics. I suggest that the main source of anxiety is a failure to square the pressing need to 'include' race on the feminist agenda with doubts about straying into what is perceived to be black feminist territory. In other words, white feminist critics have yet to resolve their relation to the black feminist project. This anxiety has meant that a concern over the notion of exclusion has given way to that of appropriation. This has tended to place the white feminist reader in the paralysing position where there seems little available ground between the twin poles of exclusion and appropriation. Typical questions that have arisen out of this dichotomy are: should white feminists teach black women's writing? Should white feminist critics produce critical readings of texts authored by black women? Can white women readers read black women's writings without imposing onto them their own critical agendas? Is a non-appropriative reading relation possible? How should white feminists deal with the fact of their own race privilege and what bearing does this privilege have upon the readings they, potentially, might produce? This project examines some of the ways in which white feminists have attempted to address their relation to the race question in feminist literary criticism. Over the space of six chapters I focus on a number of specific reading strategies offered as positive critical interventions. My main contention is the impossibility of a guaranteed anti-imperialist theory or reading position. I also argue for the necessity of asking the question: whether the imperialist can read, as a complement to that of whether 'the subaltern can speak'. Chapter 1 questions the white feminist ambition of arriving at the truth of the black text as a means of decolonising the text. Through an examination of the Rodney King events some of the perils of appeals to pure seeing are highlighted. Chapter 2 explores the implications of white feminist abstention from the race debates. Chapter 3 looks at the issue of identification as a basis for reading. Chapter 4 questions the identifications that inhere in applying theory to a text. Chapter 5 challenges the use of contextualisation as a source of textual limits. Chapter 6 examines the limits of self-reflexivity as an anti-imperialist method.
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Panagiotidou, Maria-Eireini. "Intertextuality and literary reading : a cognitive poetic approach." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2012. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14310/.
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The goal of this thesis is to propose a cognitive approach to intertextuality. Intertextuality has attracted the attention of a number of literary scholars interested in discussing the interrelations between literary texts without, however, focusing on how readers create these connections. On the other hand, despite its reader-oriented approach, cognitive poetics has largely neglected the concept. This project employs recent developments in the field of cognitive linguistics and cognitive psychology and proposes a multi-layered approach to intertextuality in the light of the principles of cognitive poetics. The main part of the thesis draws on the cognitive notion of frames defined as online processing domains. I propose that readers create intertextual links by combining their background knowledge with textual elements in intertextual frames. Three types of frames are identified: semantic, topical and stylistic. The term 'semantic frame' refers to the more impressionistic links that emerge from the identification of a single lexical item, while the term 'topical frame' refers to more complex constructions built by readers through the identification of multiple textual elements. The term 'stylistic frame' refers to links based on quotation identification or genre similarities. A variety of literary texts will be discussed in order to illustrate how these frames may be created. The final part of the thesis is dedicated to the investigation of the relationship between intertextuality and the emotional engagement of readers with literary texts reflecting recent directions in cognitive poetics. This is accompanied with a mixed methods study designed to present empirical data on how readers construct intertextual links and on the effects these have on the reading experience. The overall aim of this project is to provide the foundations and the theoretical point-of-entry for further related research.
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Westfall, Joseph. "The Kierkegaardian author authorship and performance in Kierkegaard's literary and dramatic criticism." Berlin New York de Gruyter, 2005. http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=2909222&prov=M&dok_var=1&dok_ext=htm.
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Westfall, Joseph. "The Kierkegaardian author : authorship and performance in Kierkegaard's literary and dramatic criticism /." Berlin [u.a.] : de Gruyter, 2007. http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=2909222&prov=M&dokv̲ar=1&doke̲xt=htm.
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Richter, Yvonne Nicole. "A Critic in Her Own Right: Taking Virginia Woolf's Literary Criticism Seriously." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2009. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/english_theses/56.
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Considered mostly ancillary to her fiction, Virginia Woolf’s prolific career in literary criticism has rarely been studied in its entirety and in its own right. This study situates her in the common critical practices of her day and crystallizes basic tenets and a critical theory of sorts from her critical journalism published 1904–1928: the author argues that Woolf does not advocate a policing role for the critic, but rather that critics foster art in collaboration with readers and writers. Finally, this work discusses Woolf’s appeal to writers to invest all their energy in improving their skills in character portrayal to adequately depict all classes and genders in order to invent a new kind of psychological fiction.
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Coonan, Emma Marya. "Senses of theory : conceptual metaphors and manoeuvres in 20th-century literary criticism." Thesis, University of York, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.431650.
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Brown, Joanne Elizabeth. "Reinterpreting Troilus and Cressida : changing perceptions in literary criticism and British performance." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7359/.
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Troilus and Cressida is the unusual instance of a Shakespearean play which had long been read and commented upon before stage practitioners explored it in the theatre. My thesis examines the changing perceptions of the play’s characters, paying attention to the chronological relationship between revisions in literary criticism, much of which was written with little proximity to performance, with reinterpretations during its British stage history. The thesis has a particular focus on issues of gender and sexuality. Both the theatre and literary criticism reflected and responded to social change in their dealings with this play, but they did so at different moments. By using the case of Troilus and Cressida, I examine whether theatrical practice or academic literary criticism has acted as the more efficient cultural barometer. Revisions of Cressida are my central example and I also examine the reinterpretations of eight other characters. The delayed acceptance of the play into the theatre means that the claims of relevance become especially acute. Despite the perceived progressive potential of performance, I conclude that theatrical representations of characters in this play have been slow to change in relation to the revisions seen on the pages of literary criticism.
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Swiderski-Ritchie, Martha. "The contents of criticism : Ingardenian theory in the context of literary analysis /." [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1986. http://www.ub.unibe.ch/content/bibliotheken_sammlungen/sondersammlungen/dissen_bestellformular/index_ger.html.
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