Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Nonsens (Literatur)'

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Sussex, 2008.The thesis outlines the course of Victorian nonsense as a playful form of children's literature since Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll and its resurgence in the modernist novel as a dialogic form of writing that calls attention to the physicality of the text: its texture, sound, shape and colour.

This thesis examines the literary relationship between James Joyce and Victorian nonsense, particularly Lewis Carroll. Tracing the defining characteristics of literary nonsense beyond the Victorian period, it aims to assess what we mean by 'literary nonsense', and to evaluate the terms of Joyce's nonsense inheritance. The thesis is divided into four chapters: Chapter One: "'A letters from a person to a place about a thing": The Nonsense Letter.' This chapter looks at central nonsense themes of miscommunication, the (mis)construction of meaning, textual play, and the inadequacies and absurdities of epistolary conventions. My research draws on personal letters from Joyce, Carroll, and Edward Lear, as well as examining the relationship between fictional letters and their host texts, and delivering a detailed analysis of the Finnegans Wake letter in its various guises. Chapter Two: "'Mocked majesty": Games and Authority.' This chapter explores the various forms of authority in nonsense, from autocratic monarchs to omniscient authors, and from the parental or pedagogic authority of adults over children to the rigid and unspoken rules of children's games and discourses. The various species of games we find in the work of both Carroll and Joyce are analysed, from the tightly ordered playworlds of chess, cards, and games with logic and language, to the rough-and-tumble hijinks of the Finnegans Wake children's twilight street games. Chapter Three: '''Jest jibberweek's joke": Comic Nonsense.' This chapter begins by exploring the Kantian model of incongruous humour we find in the nonsense double act, examining how both Joyce and Carroll emphasise and exploit the double nature of the joke, using it to generate the vaudevillean dialogues and comic contrasts between the many 'collateral and incompatible' pseudocouples who populate the nonsense terrain. It goes on to address the dark underbelly of the comic, identifying a Hobbesian meanness at the heart of nonsense humour. A treatise on the bad pun concludes the. chapter, moving from Carroll's portmanteau words to the pun-infatuated jokescape of Finnegans Wake. Chapter Four: 'Nonsense and the Fall.' This chapter offers a unique reading of literary nonsense asa philosophical answer to the FalL Nonsense texts betray an almost morbid obsession with falling; literal and symbolic falls are a central theme of both the Wake and the Alice books, and falls into language, madness, chaos, and forbidden knowledge are staples of the nonsense condition. Ontological crisis and semantic collapse are among this chapter's themes, as it investigates why it is a general and necessary condition of literary nonsense to be always hovering on the edge of the abyss, and forever toying with its own destruction.

Orientador: Maria Bernadete Marques Abaurre
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
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Resumo: O que está em discussão nesta tese é a construção do sentido na leitura, discussão possibilitada aqui por uma das maneiras de se estudar o sentido, ou seja, perseguir justamente a sua falta. O nonsense é essencial à definição de sentido porque constitui a sua margem, o seu limite. Não há como definir um sem o outro: só se sabe o que é o sentido ao esbarrarmos em seus limites. Para que haja o nonsense é pre_iso que haja o sentido, mesmo que seja o sentido paradoxalmente posto em questão. Para que haja o que não é nonsense é preciso que haja, em algum lugar, o que é. O nonsense sempre se refere a um séntido ao qual não podemos nos reportar, não podemos recorrer. A investigação se dá, então, na natureza do que é negado. Por isso trabalhei aqui com dados indiciários e o que propus foi uma possibilidade de leitura nonsense. O capítulo que trata do nonsense mostra o quanto este efeito está calcado na forma que o texto tem. No capítulo sobre leitura levanto estudos que discutem a origem do significado: elenco desde autores que consideram que o significado de um texto está nele mesmo, a autores que postulam que este significado é dado pelo leitor. Faço ainda, em outro capítulo, um percurso por considerações acerca da leitura em língua estrangeira já que os dados com que trabalhei provêm dessa situação de leitura. Partindo de uma concepção dialógica da linguagem só é possível concluir que o sentido de um texto é resultado da leitura, resultado do trabalho que faz sobre o texto o leitor. Lendo, esse leitor circula dentro do uníverso de leituras possíveis determinado ao mesmo tempo por todas as outras leituras que se faça de um texto e por cada uma delas. Dentre essas possibilidades está a leitura nonsense. Nos dados analisados aqui não há um investimento para a criação proposital do efeito de nonsense. No entanto, é do efeito que causa um texto nonsense que se aproxima o efeito obtido na leitura dos trechos analisados. E é a leitura que instala essa aproximação. O que procurei fazer foi determinar os descaminhos da leitura trilhados pelo leitor sob análise
Abstract: This work presents a discussion of an alternative approach to the construction of meaning in .reading through the use of nonsense, or lack of meaning. The investigation probes the nature of what is being denied and the interactive of relationship between the text and the reader in the struggle to establish meaning. The thesis identifies a dialectical relationship between sense and nonsense and argues that the existence of nonsense is critical to the definition of sense, as it establishes the edges, or limits of meaning
Doutorado
Doutor em Linguística

Orientador: Peter James Harris
Banca: Lauro Maia Amorim
Banca: João Luís Cardoso Tápias Ceccantini
Resumo: Publicada em 1865 e considerada obra nonsense, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland é o livro mais conhecido de Lewis Carroll (pseudônimo de Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). Escrito e publicado no período vitoriano, Alice apresenta um cenário repleto de fantasia onde a protagonista vive suas aventuras, que são vistas por muitos leitores como algo meramente fantasioso e desprovido de lógica. A partir de leituras relacionadas à sociedade vitoriana e ao discurso histórico, percebe-se que os acontecimentos e experiências experimentados pela garota são permeados por traços irônicos relativos à sociedade em que Alice vivia. A presente dissertação propõe, com base no estudo da narrativa histórica realizado por Hayden White, particularmente a questão do tropo da ironia, o entendimento de como o discurso no Alice é relacionado a implicações da ideologia da época. No âmbito da História da época e das técnicas discursivas utilizadas pelo autor o presente trabalho resgata alguns dos aspectos históricos ironizados por Carroll, utilizando não somente os estudos relacionados à linguagem e aos modos de elaboração de enredo de Hayden White (1994, 1995), mas também a história dos princípios educacionais da Inglaterra vitoriana, de Morais (2004)
Abstract: Published in 1865 and considered a work nonsense, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the best-known book by Lewis Carroll (pen-name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). Written and published in the Victorian period, Alice is set in a fantastic scenario where the protagonist's adventures take place, and the book is seen by many readers as something merely fanciful and illogical. From readings related to Victorian society and historical discourse, it is clear that the events and experiences lived by the girl are permeated by ironic traces related to the society of Alice's day. The present dissertation, based on Hayden White's study of historical narrative, particularly the question of the trope of irony, proposes an understanding of how Carroll's discourse in Alice is related to implications of the prevailing ideology. In the context of the history of the period and of the discursive techniques used by the author the present study examines some of the historical aspects satirised by Carroll, utilising not only Hayden White's studies of language and modes of plot development (1994, 1995), but also Morais's history of the principles of Victorian education, Morais (2004)
Mestre

This thesis analyses the difficulties in reading modern poetry that arise out of not the references but the unconventional use of language, and presents them in a theoretical framework based on Julia Kristeva&rsquo
s semanalytic theory and Melanie Parsons&rsquo
s application of it to a comparison of Nonsense literature and twentieth century poetry. Then aspects of the works of G. M. Hopkins, Dylan Thomas and Edith Sitwell are discussed and poems by these poets are analysed within this framework.

This thesis investigates three major areas in the background of Edward Lear's literary nonsense: the parodic relationship with text and genre of early children's literature, the trends behind Lear's innovative illustration style, and the "nonsense" child construct manifest within the genre, which I claim is, in many ways, an expression of the Romantic conception of the child. The first chapter explores the parodic basis of nonsense. Most literary nonsense is referential; it often begins by inhabiting a genre or individual work, but what it does to the original is debatable. Some critics see nonsense as parody, while others claim that nonsense precludes parody in its intentional purposelessness. In this chapter I explore the critical debate surrounding parody in nonsense, and parody in general. I then examine the works of Lear, and some Carroll, looking first at their genuine, clear parodies. Next, I look at the many borderline cases of parody which use nonsense as a device but are not overshadowed by it. Finally, I discuss the more "pure" literary nonsense which, I argue, goes beyond parody to establish a new genre. The next chapter looks at the background of Lear's nonsense illustration. His style of illustration was a widely original combination of devices which are best seen in the context of the children's book illustrations of his day. With Bewick's innovations in woodcuts, the quality of children's illustrations had drastically improved. Diverging from this trend, Lear's illustrations hearken back to the rough chapbooks which he probably read as a child. His child-like style, coupled with an expert draughtsman's eye, began a rival tradition of children's book illustration. His illustrations are in way caricatures of chapbooks. His text and illustrations, like those of Blake and Hood, are integral, and their self-reflexiveness with the verses places them in an altogether different class of illustration.

Esta dissertação estuda comparativamente o grotesco presente no manuscrito Alices Adventures Underground, de Lewis Carroll e no filme Alice (1988) do diretor Jan Svankmajer. Considerando a diferença dos campos narrativos em que atuam, relevou-se a especificidade de cada suporte, identificando como cada artista desenvolveu a estética em seu trabalho. Para focar a análise, selecionamos alguns aspectos: o início das histórias, o personagem do coelho branco, as mudanças de tamanho sofridas por Alice, a união do humor e do horror e o encerramento das narrativas. Observamos como esses elementos, marcantes no manuscrito de Carroll, reverberam na obra do cineasta surrealista, levando à construção de um filme capaz de ampliar, com maestria, os elementos da estética do grotesco, estabelecendo um diálogo criativo com o escritor vitoriano.
This thesis studies, through comparison, the grotesqu e found in the manuscript by Lewis ,jer. In view of the difference between their narrative fields, the specific traits of each medium were taken into consideration, and it was recognized how both the writer and the film director developed aesthetics in their work. To refine the analysis, some aspects were selected: the beginning of the stories, the White Rabbit character, the size changes through which Alice goes, the joining together of hu mor and horror, and the ending of the tales. We remark how these elements, so distinguished in Carrolls manuscript, echo in the work of the surrealist filmmaker, leading him to the creation of a film capable of masterly increasing the elements in the aesthetic of the grotesqu e, establishing a creative dialogue with the writer from the Victorian era.

Lewis Carroll, and George MacDonald are responsible for some of the most popular yet obscure texts in the English Canon. Because Carroll and MacDonald are often credited with pioneering much of their genres — Nonsense Literature and Fantasy Literature — it seems that often they are labeled as originators, and not as active contributing members of a much larger literary tradition. Carroll and MacDonald were close friends and literary confidants, using each other’s works, as well as employing that of other writers. This is a study of the sources Carroll and MacDonald used in an attempt to better understand the underlying meanings and symbols in some of their works. For example, I study the analogous symbols they utilized, along with the words used to express them, to convey their ideas about identity and metamorphosis. I show that they rely on ancient, complex symbols, and the traditional language and meanings associated with them, to communicate deeply embedded messages to their readers. They employ the symbols of the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly, in several different guises, in their complex works. It is these symbols that allowed them to elucidate the concepts of the individual’s initial materialist state, followed by the midway period of dreaming/reflecting, and the subsequent spiritual awakening. The analysis of the literary sources they used helps to uncover symbols and themes of interest for Carroll and MacDonald, which in turn help to expose other of their sources, such as the Bestiaries, biblical stories, and the works of Isaac Watts, and William Blake. I attempt to explain how some of these symbols and themes function in the portrayal of coherent, yet creative, meanings in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and MacDonald’s Fantasy.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of English, 2007.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2960. Adviser: Linda Charnes. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Apr. 10, 2008).

This thesis presents a critical analysis of Deleuze’s philosophy of language, using and examining Russian and Italian futurist manifestos to draw out the ‘futurist’ aspects of Deleuze’s language and thought. These aspects constitute a poetics of Deleuze as well as a poetics of the avant-garde, presenting in both areas the celebrated, utopian state of language as dynamic, performative matter. The way in which futurist manifestos often attempt to perform and demand their aims simultaneously, and the temporal problems which arise due to this, is an operation which can be perceived in Deleuze’s writing. The difference between writing which describes a linguistic practice and writing which performs this linguistic practice is a temporal gap requiring a double operation of description and enactment, which the performative manifesto purports to fulfil. In both Deleuzian and futurist poetics, however, the fulfilment of this double operation can lead to problematic territory. Deleuze presents several linguistic practices in The Logic of Sense which can also be located in the writings of both Russian and Italian futurists, despite the differing political and aesthetic programmes of these variants of the movement. The common element identified and examined in this thesis is an accelerative drive to eliminate the temporal gap between items in an analogical equation so that synonymy is no longer an inexact science; the conjunction and the copula are truncated and cleave together, resulting in radical linguistic becoming. My argument is that minute technical linguistic modifications such as these operate synecdochically within futurist and Deleuze’s poetics, standing for their creators’ entire conceptual systems. Ultimately, the paradoxes inherent in the relationship between the radical fluidity of futurist nonsense and the radical fixity of its ensuing formalism provide a new way of thinking about Deleuze’s approach to language.

The Swedish contemporary poet Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson (UKON) creates his poems by recycling and manipulating existing material. Though the overall opinion of his work has been positive, the idea that experimental poetry focus shape on the expense of content has led critics to either interpret the nonsensical and absurd aspects of UKON’s poetics as a consequence of the technical methods he uses to create his poetry, or to look beyond the nonsensical and absurd aspects to focus the fact that the poems creates meaning at all. The poems of UKON’s sixth collection of poems, Block (2005), differ from each other in many ways: some poems are lists and other revolves around a person – their content and construction vary and they can hardly be read as an expression of one persons thought. Still, the homogenous visual form creates a sense of uniformity – all the poems are shaped like blocks in different sizes, it has no page numbers and no names has been given the individual poems. By focusing the nonsensical and absurd aspects of UKON’s collection Block, and at the same time read the poetry through the light of the poetic context that UKON is connected to, this essays shows that UKON destroys and creates meaning in a way that is similar to the techniques used by the Victorian nonsense literature. As the Victorian nonsense literature make use of the language’s grammatical rules and genres to give the nonsense text a structure, UKON stages a reciprocal action between making use of and exceeding the conventional use of different language-contexts (e.g. erotic language or expressions such as “one must…”). Thus, the nonsensical aspects of UKON’s poetry are exposed as a consequent course of action to create and destroy meaning and Block can be read as a way to disclose how the language creates and maintains cultural clichés.

Em vista da permeabilidade conceptual do nonsense literário, a exploração do eixo cómico de Aliceþs Adventures in Wonderland e Through the Looking-glass é uma via de demarcação teórica e análise prática do nonsense carrolliano. Com efeito, tendo previamente assumido uma linha de tradição literária enraizada no cómico, estabelecem-se várias conexões entre o discurso nonsense, enquadrado nos esquemas socioculturais vitorianos, e as práticas linguísticas pós-românticas, nomeadamente a introversão da linguagem poética na sua significação interna que legitima a construção verbal nonsense deslocada e descentrada do seu apoio referencial. Nesta perspectiva, a desconstrução cómica da realidade nos textos de Carroll intercepta a distorção subjectiva do mundo empírico característica do simbolismo onírico e, como tal, torna-se possível localizar no processo simbólico da figuração verbal nonsense o seu evidente sentido: a confirmação da realidade da linguagem poética.

Em vista da permeabilidade conceptual do nonsense literário, a exploração do eixo cómico de Aliceþs Adventures in Wonderland e Through the Looking-glass é uma via de demarcação teórica e análise prática do nonsense carrolliano. Com efeito, tendo previamente assumido uma linha de tradição literária enraizada no cómico, estabelecem-se várias conexões entre o discurso nonsense, enquadrado nos esquemas socioculturais vitorianos, e as práticas linguísticas pós-românticas, nomeadamente a introversão da linguagem poética na sua significação interna que legitima a construção verbal nonsense deslocada e descentrada do seu apoio referencial. Nesta perspectiva, a desconstrução cómica da realidade nos textos de Carroll intercepta a distorção subjectiva do mundo empírico característica do simbolismo onírico e, como tal, torna-se possível localizar no processo simbólico da figuração verbal nonsense o seu evidente sentido: a confirmação da realidade da linguagem poética.

LIMA, Natália Sampaio Alencar. Alice in Wonderland da literatura para o cinema: um estudo da tradução da era vitoriana e do nonsense literário de Lewis Carroll para o cinematográfico no estilo Burtoniano. 2016. 124f. - Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos da Tradução, Fortaleza (CE), 2016.
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Esta pesquisa busca analisar os elementos utilizados por Tim Burton para representar a Era Vitoriana através do figurino, meio de transporte e decoração. Trabalharemos também com a tradução em imagens do nonsense em sua adaptação fílmica Alice in Wonderland (2010). Nessa perspectiva, o presente trabalho resulta de um estudo comparativo entre o filme e a obra na qual se baseia, o cânone da literatura infantil Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland de Lewis Carroll (1865). Para tanto, faremos um cotejo entre as duas obras à luz das teorias de Elizabeth Sewell (2015), Wim Tigges, (1988) e Susan Stewart (1980) que alicerçam o gênero literário nonsense. Lançaremos mão da versão literária Lewis Carroll: The Complete Fully Illustrated Works de 1995 da editora Gramercy, contendo toda a obra de Lewis Carroll com ilustrações originais. Isso, a fim de viabilizar e facilitar a comparação com as figuras presentes no texto literário, quando necessário, para investigar se houve aproximação na representação visual feita pelo diretor.

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Esta pesquisa busca analisar os elementos utilizados por Tim Burton para representar a Era Vitoriana atravÃs do figurino, meio de transporte e decoraÃÃo. Trabalharemos tambÃm com a traduÃÃo em imagens do nonsense em sua adaptaÃÃo fÃlmica Alice in Wonderland (2010). Nessa perspectiva, o presente trabalho resulta de um estudo comparativo entre o filme e a obra na qual se baseia, o cÃnone da literatura infantil Aliceâs Adventures in Wonderland de Lewis Carroll (1865). Para tanto, faremos um cotejo entre as duas obras à luz das teorias de Elizabeth Sewell (2015), Wim Tigges, (1988) e Susan Stewart (1980) que alicerÃam o gÃnero literÃrio nonsense. LanÃaremos mÃo da versÃo literÃria Lewis Carroll: The Complete Fully Illustrated Works de 1995 da editora Gramercy, contendo toda a obra de Lewis Carroll com ilustraÃÃes originais. Isso, a fim de viabilizar e facilitar a comparaÃÃo com as figuras presentes no texto literÃrio, quando necessÃrio, para investigar se houve aproximaÃÃo na representaÃÃo visual feita pelo diretor.

A presente tese se ocupa de uma vertente da literatura e do cinema contemporâneos, especialmente do escritor Julio Cortázar e do cineasta David Lynch, que: busca um novo tratamento para a realidade, não esconde os artifícios discursivos das obras, joga com estratégias ilusionistas e antiilusionistas, debate a própria ficção por meio de recursos metaficcionais, que se utiliza da metáfora do teatro como espaço diferenciado e como palco de ilusões e que trabalha com a questão do fantástico (ou absurdo). Grande parte do trabalho é dedicada ao estudo da obra do escritor argentino Julio Cortázar. Estudo esse que se constrói a partir das correspondências entre as produções ficcionais e teóricas de Cortázar, além de suas próprias entrevistas. Cortázar é nosso foco principal e dele, acreditamos, brotou um veio dos mais significativos na narrativa contemporânea, que estabelece novos modos de se lidar com a representação e com as referências. É devido a esses aspectos, apontados anteriormente, que estabelecemos relações com outros autores, inclusive do cinema, como é o caso de David Lynch
This thesis deals with one aspect of literature and contemporary cinema, especially the writer Julio Cortázar and filmmaker David Lynch, that: a search for new treatment really does not hide the artifice of the discursive works, plays with illusionist and anti-illusionist strategies, debate the fiction itself through metaficcionais resources, which uses the metaphor of the theater as a space variable and to stage illusions and working with the issue of the fantastic (or nonsense). Much of the work is devoted to the study of the work of Argentine writer Julio Cortázar. Study which is constructed from the correspondence between the fictional and theoretical productions of Cortázar, and his own interviews. Cortázar is our main focus and goals, we came a shaft of the most significant in contemporary novels, establishing new ways of dealing with the representation and referrals. It is because of these issues, previously mentioned, we have established relationships with other authors, including the cinema, as is the case of David Lynch

Le présent travail tente de retracer le parcours de la signifiance éthique. Bien que le trait structurel décisif du mouvement de signifiance éthique soit le « pour l’autre », nous montrons qu’en suivant la double méthode phénoménologique de la concrétisation-et-emphase, Levinas accomplit ce mouvement par d’autres traits structurels: « à sens unique », « à partir de soi », « malgré soi », « autre dans le même », « je est un autre », « pour rien » et « par l’autre ». Le chapitre II apporte un trait signifiant limite « l’un pour tous les autres », articulant l’éthique avec la justice. Néanmoins, la liste établie n’est pas exhaustive, mais simplement indicative. Ce travail n’est qu’une digression dans le mouvement de la signifiance éthique, mouvement infini, qui précède diachroniquement toute tentative d’en rendre compte et qui interrompt le sens que l’auteur de ces lignes croît mettre dans les mots. Les différentes recherches constituant le présent travail peuvent dès lors être interprétées comme différentes modalités de ce Dédire du Dit qu’est la mise en évidence de l’exception du tiers exclu – notre seul accès au Dire. Dans cette perspective, le chapitre I cherche à dépasser la dichotomie signification vécue / signification thématisée, le chapitre II la dichotomie langue / parole, le chapitre III la distinction entre sens et non-sens. L’alternance du sens détermine le statut des trois premiers chapitres: thématiser l’avant de la signifiance éthique est impossible sans thématiser l’après de la signifiance ontologique, qui, elle, est toujours déjà interrompue par l’après de l’après de l’alternance du sens, et ainsi de suite
The paper here presented attempts to retrace the course of the ethical signifying. Although the main characteristic feature of this movement of signifying is the « for-the-other », we show that following the double phenomenological method called concretisation-and-emphasis, Levinas accomplishes this movement by means of other features: « unique sense », « starting from the self », « despite oneself », « the other in the same », « I am an other », « for nothing » and « by the other ». The chapter II brings a borderline feature « one-for-all-the others » which articulates ethics with justice. Eventhough, this list is not exhaustive, but simply indicative. This paper is not anything more than a digression in the movement of ethical signifying, an infinite movement, which precedes diachronically every attempt to give an account of it and interrupts the sense that the author believes putting in words. Then the investigations here presented can be interpreted as different modalities of the Un-saying (Dédire in french) of the Said which consists in putting in evidence the exception of the excluded third – our only acces to the Saying. In this perspective, chapter I tries to exceed the dichotomy lived significance / thematised significance, chapter II the dichotomy langue / parole, chapter III the distinction between sense and non-sense. The alternance of sense defines the status of the first three chapters: to thematise the « before » of the ethical signifying is impossible without thematising the « after » of the ontological signifying, which is always already interrupted by the « after the after » of the alternance of sense, and so on

The diploma thesis describes Polish and Czech nonsense in children's literature. The main goal is to define nonsense literature, its development from a historical and formative point of view, considering contemporary events. The first part of the thesis focuses on the theoretical definition of the term nonsense and its historical aspect, especially on the two key representatives of English nonsense Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. The next part deals with the development of Polish nonsense in children's literature. Two main authors, Julian Tuwim and Jan Brzechwa, who are considered as the creators of the new poetic school, took part in the formation of nonsense in Poland. Absurd humour and the world of children readers became the main inspirations for their work. This poetics was followed by other representatives of the Polish nonsense, including Ludwik Jerzy Kern, Wanda Chotomska and others. The work also focuses on the development of Czech nonsense for children, its main personalities and major works, which are based on nonsense, absurdity and word play. The diploma describes nonsense work for children of Josef Kainar, Jiří Kolář, Miloš Macourek, Pavel Šrut and other writers of literature. The last part of the thesis deals with specific nonsense literature for children of Polish and Czech authors....

Research Doctorate - PhD English
This thesis challenges the idea that children’s literature is an inherently colonising act. By applying Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of dialogism and the carnivalesque to the nonsense literature of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, I show that children’s texts can be read as non-colonising. A dialogic reading of Edward Lear’s limericks and Lewis Carroll’s Alice books shows that these texts are non-colonising and emancipatory because they do not promote one worldview or impose a concept of the essentialised child onto the reader. Instead, they challenge the arbitrary boundaries established and maintained by tools such as language and threats of social judgement that support imperial dichotomies of self and other. I also show how the discourse surrounding children’s literature perpetuates a “politics of innocence” concerning a dominant social concept of the child. This discourse encourages purposive adaptations of children’s books, in this case, Lear’s and Carroll’s nonsense texts, that are more colonising than the original texts.

碩士
銘傳大學
應用英語學系碩士在職專班
107
This thesis explores the phenomenon of “nonsense literature for children” through the works of two prominent authors, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, as known as Lewis Carroll and Theodor Seuss Geisel, as known as Dr. Seuss. Naturally taking a comparative approach, the study is not limited to comparison but it also investigates the timing of the aforementioned authors and their success. Timing has twofold interpretation: the first is the examination from historical background, as in the research on Lewis Carroll and Dr. Seuss; the second aims the phase of children’s language development, noting the importance nonsense literature plays for children to master a language. This thesis builds off research in the fields of English, education, and cultural anthropology while sidestepping various abstract concepts such as postcolonialism, translation theory, hidden adult theory, Nietzsche and Freud. This thesis begins with a brief statement of our research interests, including references to children’s enjoyment of the absurd, whether on television, in play, or in reading. Next we review some existing literature on the subject, exploring the arguments of some other scholars and education authorities, pointing to gaps in the literature which make our study more feasible. In this section we argue that the material produced by other scholars is either insufficient, irrelevant, impractical, or not useful for our own research. In our main discussion section, we consider the authors Carroll and Seuss in a traditional comparison/contrast platform while hoping to gain new insights into their popularity. At all times during our discussion, we keep in mind that our subject matter is children, and when they benefit from nonsensical engagement.

Annotation The theme of this diploma thesis is Czech author fairy-tale from 1989 onwards. The first three chapters deal with general information on author fairy-tale, its reader and its history. In the fourth chapter we reflect on original Czech children's books published after 1989 and attempt to describe the current state and developing trends. We selected several representative fairy-tale books and divided them into three principle types of the contemporary Czech author fairy- tale. The imitative-innovative type is closest to the folklore tradition, the nonsense-parodical type is based on parody or negation of the folk fairy-tale, and the imaginative type is based on symbol, metaphor and allegory. We identified another type of modern fairy-tale and called it the fairy-tale mixed into a real story. It comes out of the nonsense-parodical type and sits on the edge between fairy-tale and real prose. The aim of this diploma thesis is to describe the main trends in contemporary Czech author fairy-tale and to apply them to the selected children's books.

Dissertação de mestrado em Língua, Literatura e Cultura Inglesas
The aim of this dissertation is to bring Lewis Carroll (1832 - 1898) to light as an important writer in the context of the development of Children’s Literature. The work researches both the specific background and the innovations that the author incorporated in his revolutionary Alice cycle: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871), with regard both to the evolution of the concept of childhood and his representations of the feminine, which echo the beginning of a change in children’s and women’s role in society. Moving away from a crude realism, the tendency that characterized the early Victorian era, the author presents a fantastic style encompassing a language full of situational humour and word play, and a distinctive narrative episodic flow. In order to stimulate the child’s imagination, Carroll rewrites the more traditional forms of the fairy tale and the fable, namely through his unexpected introduction of challenging dialogues and allusive illustrations in his fantastic narratives. Additionally, he recurs to the dream element to suggest certain latent and underlying meanings that are present in most episodes and situations, intending to enhance an eventual crisis of identity in Alice and in the reader himself. The literary nonsense that characterizes the author’s writing thus allows two distinct levels of reading – the child’s and the adult’s. In the first, it is possible to see Carroll’s clear perception of the child as a sensitive being with a particular way of understanding the world. However, in the second, Carroll’s nonsense allows him to critically parody Victorian society and its strict values, without compromising his own social and professional position as a deacon and a mathematician at Oxford. Concerning the female figure in Alice, there is a prevalence of strong and independent representations; these are mostly severe and authoritarian characters who, when contextualized within the Victorian era, demonstrate a bold and critical subversion. Thus, questions of gender and the division between the public and domestic spheres are central aspects underlying his text, allowing Carroll to revisit female educational patterns, marital relationships and even notions of motherhood. These issues are closely connected with the central question of this study, which is the attempt to demonstrate Carroll’s unique form of representing fantasy and the fantastic: one that is initially intended to mirror freedom, as a value or practice opposed to repression, but which ultimately may also represent a form of repression. Carroll’s fantasy aims at representing a parallel world without rules, in order to confront the strict rules that exist in the real world, which signify repression. But, in the end, the reader concludes that a (mad) world without rules equally results in a repressing and unjust world, grounded in pure arbitrariness. The ways in which the author reinvented fantasy inspired modern children's literature and also other authors who demonstrated a particular interest in his style, such as James Joyce or Virginia Woolf. Likewise, he came to be a major influence in Surrealism and its artists, who indeed recognized him as their predecessor.
O objetivo principal desta dissertação é abordar o papel relevante que o escritor inglês Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) teve no desenvolvimento da chamada Literatura Infantil. O trabalho em questão pesquisa quer o contexto específico quer as inovações que o autor incorporou no seu revolucionário ciclo: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) e Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871), com relação à evolução do conceito de infância e à representação do feminino, que marcam o início de uma mudança no papel da criança e da mulher na sociedade. Distanciando-se do realismo cru, tendência que caracterizou a época Vitoriana, o autor apresenta o fantástico como um estilo que combina uma linguagem plena de humor situacional e um fluxo narrativo de cariz episódico. No sentido de estimular a imaginação da criança, Carroll reescreve as formas mais tradicionais do conto de fadas e da fábula, nomeadamente através da inesperada introdução de diálogos desafiantes e de ilustrações alusivas às suas narrativas. Além disso, ele recorre ao elemento do sonho para sugerir certos significados latentes e subjacentes aos episódios e situações, provavelmente com a intenção de questionar a identidade quer de Alice quer do próprio leitor. O absurdo literário (nonsense) que caracteriza a escrita do autor permite assim dois níveis distintos de leitura – o da criança e o do adulto. No primeiro, é possível constatar a perceção que Carroll tem da criança: um ser sensível e com uma maneira particular de entender o mundo. Todavia, no segundo, o absurdo de Carroll permite-lhe parodiar criticamente a sociedade vitoriana e os seus valores, sem comprometer a sua própria posição social e profissional, como diácono e matemático em Oxford. Relativamente à figura feminina em Alice, denota-se uma prevalência de representações fortes e independentes; personagens maioritariamente severas e autoritárias que, quando contextualizadas na era Vitoriana, demonstram uma subversão ousada e crítica. Assim, as questões de género e a separação entre as esferas pública e privada são aspetos centrais ao seu texto, permitindo a Carroll revisitar padrões educacionais femininos, relacionamentos conjugais e até noções de maternidade. Esta problematização está intimamente associada ao debate central deste estudo, que é a tentativa de demonstrar a forma única como Carroll representa a fantasia e o fantástico: inicialmente pretendendo espelhar a liberdade como um valor ou prática contrária à repressão, mas também como algo que em última instância pode representar a própria repressão. Por um lado, Carroll apresenta um mundo paralelo e sem regras, para poder confrontar as regras rígidas que existem no mundo real, as quais significam repressão. Mas, no final, o leitor conclui que um mundo (louco) sem regras também acaba por resultar num contexto repressivo e injusto, fundado numa arbitrariedade total. As formas através das quais o autor reinventou o fantástico inspiraram a literatura infantil moderna e também outros autores, os quais demonstraram um interesse particular no seu estilo, como James Joyce ou irginia Woolf. Da mesma forma, ele veio a ter uma grande influência no Surrealismo e nos seus artistas, muitos dos quais eventualmente o reconheceram como antecessor.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
The ‘loss of self’ trope is a pervasive shorthand for the prototypical process of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the popular imagination. Turned into an effect of disease, the disappearance of the self accommodates a biomedical story of progressive deterioration and the further medicalization of AD, a process which has been storied as an organic pathology affecting the brain or, more recently, a matter of genetic calamity. This biomedical discourse of AD provides a generic framework for the disease and is reproduced in its illness narratives. The disappearance of self is a mythic element in AD narratives; it necessarily assumes the existence of a singular and coherent entity which, from the outside, can be counted as both belonging to and representing an individual person. The loss of self, as the rhetorical locus of AD narrative, limits the privatization of the experience and reinscribes cultural storylines---storylines about what it means to be a human person. The loss of self as it occurs in AD narratives functions most effectively in reasserting the presence of the human self, in contrast to an anonymous, inhuman nonself; as AD discourse details a loss of self, it necessarily follows that the thing which is lost (the self) always already existed. The private, narrative self of individual experience thus functions as proxy to a collective human identity predicated upon exceptionalism: an escape from nature and the conditions of the corporeal environment.