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McDonnell, Tavish. "Plankwalk : a novella." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=98558.
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Plankwalk is a creative thesis in the form of a novella and critical afterword. The essay explains how the author makes use of a variety of sources, and how he shapes their effect according to an original conception of the form of the contemporary novella. There follows a discussion of this form and its relation to the confessional narratives of Vladimir Nabokov, and to cultural critics' views on the social role of criminals. The author demonstrates how the changing nature of criminality and confession is reflected in the works of de Sade, Poe, and Nabokov. The issues of the handling of irony, paranoia and the relation of crime to work emerge as the key elements. The author posits the fusion of confessional narrative with the literature of genre overdetermination, in which the expectations of genre dominate a character's interiority.
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Plouffe, Bruce. "The post-war novella in German language literature : an analysis." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=74297.
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This study examines the interpretive possibilities in the shorter fiction of Post-War German literature. The corpus includes works by Rolf Hochhuth, Friedrich Durrenmatt and Martin Walser. The historical framework of the theory of the novella and short story provides a basis for a discussion of genre, extended to include the coordinates of metaphor and metonymy. With the exception of one text designated as a novel, these works demonstrate interlocking and restricted motif complexes, repetitive and parallel structure and the integration of most narrative components. They project a tenor of hermetic plurality from a vehicle of abbreviated and truncated referential discourse. They use myth and intertextuality to show general principles to be extrapolated from specific contexts. Metafiction complements the theme of the subject not at one with itself. A partial resolution to the incertitude of existence, rendered according to Freud and Lacan, is offered through the emerging role of women as a stabilizing factor.
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Veciana, Romeu Maria del Mar. "La recepción crítica de la novela hispanoamericana en España (1927-1958)." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/401330.
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La mayoría de estudios sobre la recepción de la literatura hispanoamericana en España se habían centrado en el finisecular Modernismo, en la figura de Rubén Darío, en el vanguardismo y, sobre todo, en el llamado boom de la novela hispanoamericana de los años 60. Sin embargo, el segundo tercio del siglo XX había sido con frecuencia olvidado, así como el peso que el contexto histórico, político, social y cultural podía tener en la interpretación de otras realidades culturales. Resultaba necesario examinar cómo la intelectualidad española había contemplado la narrativa de sus excolonias en un período especialmente inestable y turbulento del devenir español, siendo aún reciente el golpe moral de la pérdida definitiva de las últimas posesiones ultramarinas. Así pues, al analizar la recepción crítica de la novela hispanoamericana en España en el intervalo 1927-1958, la presente tesis viene a rellenar la ausencia de investigaciones exhaustivas y rigurosas sobre dicha materia y época. Nos interesaba rastrear, sistematizar e interpretar las figuraciones de lo americano en la Península y comprobar el poder performativo de los discursos culturales en la construcción de identidades nacionales, partiendo del estrecho vínculo entre literatura, nación y poder.
En la época estudiada existió en la Península un interés patente por la realidad americana -y por fomentar las relaciones transatlánticas- que estuvo íntimamente ligado al origen y desarrollo del hispanoamericanismo español. El hispanoamericanismo, en su doble faceta de idea -como corriente y voluntad de acercamiento y de unión espiritual entre los pueblos hispánicos-, y en tanto que movimiento, es decir, agrupando las
acciones concretas para afianzar dicha unión, empezó a postularse durante la Restauración. No obstante, adquirió especial importancia en el segundo tercio del siglo XX, instituyéndose como un elemento fundamental -vector- del nacionalismo español, cambios de gobierno incluido.
Esta atención por América también englobaba a su narrativa, tal y como lo demuestra la edición de novelas hispanoamericanas, pero también las obras y estudios críticos, secciones literarias y reseñas en la prensa que se le dedicaron. Sin embargo, se trató de un interés parcial y paradójico: si bien se admitía un considerable desconocimiento de la literatura hispanoamericana, al mismo tiempo, la ex metrópoli se autopresentaba como autoridad competente para hablar y definir a Ultramar. Sus letras aparecían simplificadas –y en cierto modo encasilladas- en una serie de características y tópicos, como el protagonismo de la naturaleza, el mestizaje, la unidad continental y el vínculo hispánico, los cuales se reconocían y/o se aplicaban a los autores y obras más valorados y conocidos, un número relativamente escaso teniendo en cuenta la vasta producción americana. Estas ideas fueron igualmente preconizadas como rasgos propios desde América, sin embargo, en España, ostentaron un carácter reduccionista y, de algún modo, “determinista”.
Tras nuestra investigación podemos concluir que la interpretación mayoritaria de la narrativa hispanoamericana en España entre 1927 y 1958 aparece íntimamente vinculada a la imagen que se tenía de Hispanoamérica, a las relaciones intercontinentales y, sobre todo, al discurso hispanoamericanista. Dicha recepción se mantuvo, -con ligeras disimilitudes y algunas excepciones-, sorprendentemente uniforme y constante a lo largo de todo el período, a pesar de los profundos sobresaltos y rupturas político-sociales: no respondía tanto a una voluntad o un planteamiento organizado y dirigido, sino al peso del hispanoamericanismo y de su sustrato
ideológico. Esta visión colaboró a difundir una determinada imagen de Hispanoamérica, pero también de España, en tanto que Madre, hermana, guía, interlocutora, portavoz o tutora. Todo ello concordaba, en una época de claro retroceso y aislamiento internacional, con la voluntad de la Península de recuperar cierto prestigio en Europa y de ejercer influencia y hegemonía cultural en el Mundo Hispánico.Our thesis intends to fulfill the lack of accurate and exhaustive studies, from a multidisciplinary and critical perspective, about the reception of Hispano-American Literature in Spain during the second third of the twentieth century. This period being a turbulent and unsteady time – with the setback caused by the recent loss of their last overseas possessions –, it seems necessary to analyze how the Spanish Intelligentsia attended the narratives of its ancient colonies, based on the premise of the intimate connection between literature, nation and power. During this time period, a patent interest for Hispano-America existed in Spain, as well as a desire to strengthen transatlantic relations. This concern was also expanded to its narrative, as proven by the edition of Hispano-American novels and the existence of critical works, literary sections and reviews about them. However, this attention was debatable and paradoxical since on the one hand, the Intelligentsia admitted an appreciable ignorance of Hispano-American Literature but, on the other, intellectuals were constantly defining it, and therefore categorizing it, within a series of features and topics, such as the importance of Nature, the Hispanic bond, hybridism and continental unity. They were recognized in and applied to the authors and novels known in the Peninsula, which constituted a relatively reduced corpus considering the extensive American production. Additionally, these ideas were also defended from overseas as American traits, but in Spain they acquired a reductionist, and in some way determinist, nature. In fact, the main interpretation of the Hispano-American narratives performed by the Spanish Intelligentsia from 1927 to 1958 appeared intimately connected to the image of Hispano-America itself, as well as to the intercontinental relations and, more interestingly, to the Hispano-Americanist discourse. This reception remained quite constant and uniform despite the breakdowns and socio-political changes of the period at study because it responded to the importance of Hispano-Americanism and the persistence of its ideological background, instead of being produced by an organised will or driven proposal. That perception contributed to spread a particular image of Hispano-America, as well as of Spain, considered as its mother, sister, guide, interlocutor or mentor; a vision that would allow Spain to exert a certain influence and cultural hegemony in the Hispanic world.
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King, Sophia Mary Hillan. "Explorations of fictional form : Michael McLaverty's stories, novels and criticism, 1932-1950." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.357452.
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Gregson, Michael Anthony O'Malley. "Victorian criticism of the Waverley Novels of Sir Walter Scott, 1832 to 1900." Thesis, Open University, 1992. http://oro.open.ac.uk/57391/.
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This thesis examines the phenomenon of Sir Walter Scott's extraordinary Victorian popularity. Focussing on criticism of his Waverley Novels between 1832 - the year of his death - and the end of the century, the thesis plots the development and terms of Scott's eminence. An introductory chapter sets out principal areas of study, being followed by a section leading up to 1832. Then follow analyses of critical work on Scott by, respectively, Harriet Martineau, Thomas Carlyle, Walter Bagehot, John Ruskin, Leslie Stephen, Richard Hutton and Julia Wedgwood. The thesis concludes with an epilogic section covering critics of the late nineteenth century, including Frederic Harrison and Andrew Lang. In each instance the context of each critic's wider work figures prominently. The thesis contends that large elements of Scott's achievement received relatively little attention in Victorian criticism. These are Scotti,s Enlightenment interests in speculative history and detailed, almost sociological, methods of composition, as well as the 'experimental' character of his work. By contrast, much was made in criticism of what may be summarised as his 'health' and 'beneficial effects'. It is claimed that the construction of such consensual critical notions about the merits of Scott's very popular work had a great deal to do with the buttressing and underpinning of some Victorian attitudes. While these varied with critics' own preoccupations - and Scott's 'malleability' is remarkable - Scott's role was so significant in Victorian culture that his employment, within what was still a relatively eclectic and formally undisciplined critical practice, constituted significant ideological manoeuvring. Specifically, Scott's remit in Victorian criticism was most usually to represent and validate some kind of opposition to the present. This both excluded much of his achievement, and also narrowed the terms of his appraisal so as to permit a revealing coalescence of literary with social, political and even racial arguments. This thesis traces the increasing definition of such a pattern within Victorian criticism of the Waverley Novels.
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Moeketsi, Solomon Monare. "Space and characterization in Sesotho novels." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/53060.
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Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines space and characterization in Sesotho novels focussing on three main categories such as the space of travelling characters; the space of migrating characters; and the space as an abstraction. CHAPTER 1 introduces the aims of study as well as the theoretical framework which forms the basis on which the study is analysed. The notions of space and character are discussed within the theoretical framework of structuralism, and the focus is placed on narratology. CHAPTER 2 studies the travelling characters, focus is on Mofolo's novels, Moeti wa botjhabe/a and Pitseng which depict two types of space where one space is presented as traditional, and the other as a westernized space. The traditional and westernized spaces are symbolized by means of bad and good characters respectively. The good characters are depicted as angels, and the bad characters as monsters. CHAPTER 3 examines the space of migrating characters that leave their rural spaces for the urban spaces. Their characters are shown by means of changes that they experience at different spaces. In most of the novels examined, characters are motivated by certain desires to act in a particular way, and the change in them is the result of a crucial situation in life, hence we say characterization and space in those novels are reconciled in an appropriate way. CHAPTER 4 deals with the space as an abstraction which shows how the characters' personalities are affected by the political, psychological and socio-economic factors. Characterization in these novels is good except in Makappa's novel, Thatohatsi. In CHAPTER 5 we look as to whether the novels are good or bad in terms of literary appreciation and conclusion is drawn to the effect that it is not heredity that makes up a character, but the social environment. This is achieved through the literary aspects such as the way conflict is handled, types of characters and the portrayal of the space in which the characters live.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorsing wat hierdie proefskrif gedoen is het die soeklig op ruimte en karakterisering in Sesotho novelles laat val. Klem is op drie hoof-kateqorie gele. uimte wat deur rondreisende karakters ingeneem word, die ruimte wat deur nomadiese of rondtrekkende karakters beslaan word, en ruimte as n bepaalde begrip. Hoofstuk 1 stel die leser voor aan die doelwitte van die navorsing, sowel as die teoretiese raamwerk wat die grondslag waarop die studie berus, vorm. Die begrippe 'ruimte' en 'karakter' word binne die teoretiese raamwerk van die strukturalisme bespreek en die fokus word in hierdie geval op die vertelkunde geplaas. Hoofstuk 2 Ie klem op rondreisende karakters en ondersoek Mofolo se novelles Moeti wa botjhabela en Pits eng waarin twee soorte ruimtes uitgebeeld word; naamlik, tradisionele ruimte en verwesterse ruimte. Tradisionele en verwesterse ruimtes word onderskeilik deur slegte en goeie karakters versinnebeeld. Die goeie karakters word as engele uitgebeeld, terwyl die slegte karakters as monsters voorgestel word. In Hoofstuk 3 word die ruimte van die nomadiese karakters wat hulle plattelandse ruimte vir 'n stedelike ruimte verruil, ondersoek. Hierdie karakters word deur middel van veranderinge wat in verskillende ruimtes plaasvind, voorgestel. In die meeste novelles wat ondersoek is, het die karakters op n sekere manier opgetree omdat hulle deur bepaalde begeertes daartoe gedryf is. Die verandering in die lewens van hierdie karakters as gevolg hiervan, kan dan beskou word as die direkte gevolg van sekere deurslaggewende gebeurtenisse. Karakteriseering en ruimte word dus in hierdie novelles op n geskikte wyse met mekaar verbind. Hoofstuk 4 neem die begrip 'ruimte' onder die loep om sodoende aan te dui hoe die karakters se persoonlikhede deur politieke, sielkundige en sosio-ekonomiese faktore beinvloed word. Karakterisering in hierdie novelles is geslaagd, behalwe in Makappa se novelle Thatohatsi. In Hoofstuk 5, word aandag geskenk aan die beoordeling van die novelles in terme van die hulle literere waarde en daar word tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat dit nie oorerflike eienskappe is wat gestalte aan 'n bepaalde karakter gee nie, maar veel eercer sy omgewing. Oit word veral duidelik as gelet word op bepaalde literere aspekete soos die manier waarop konflik uitgebeeld word, asook die beskrywing van die ruimte waarin die karakters hulle bevind.
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Pérez, López Ana María. "El discurso amoroso en la novela de la Restauración: las novelas de Benito Pérez Galdós." Doctoral thesis, Universidad de Murcia, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/10954.
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El objetivo de esta Tesis Doctoral ha sido el estudio de las concepciones amorosas que están presentes en la novela española de la Restauración (tomando como punto de referencia la obra de Benito Pérez Galdós), sobre todo, en lo que respecta a una visión idealista, y en una doble vertiente: 1,- La importancia del discurso amoroso para la conformación estructural y temática de estas obras, por tratarse de un componente esencial en la configuración sentimental, moral e intelectual de los personajes protagonistas de las mismas.2,- Las ideologías subyacentes que, a través de la exégesis y comentario de los textos pertinentes podemos detectar, en su relación con las concepciones amorosas de los autores de la época. Nos hemos fijado en las influencias de las grandes corrientes de pensamiento de finales del siglo XIX (Idealismo, Positivismo, Pragmatismo y Espiritualismo), y su plasmación y desarrollo en la novela de la Restauración española.The aim of this Doctoral Thesis has been the study of the amorous conceptions which are present in the spanish novel of the Restoration period (taking Benito Pérez Galdós works as a point of reference), especially regarding an idealistic point of view, and considering the following two aspects:1.The importance of amorous speech for the structural and thematic constitution of these works, since it is an essential component in the sentimental, moral, and intellectual configuration of their protagonists.2.The underlying ideologies which can be discovered through the exegesis and the analysis of the relevant texts in their relation to amorous conceptions of the authors of that time. We have focused on the influence of the most important schools of thought at the end of the XIX th. century (Idealism, Positivism, Pragmatism and Spirituality), and on their reflection and development in the Spanish novel in the Restoration period.
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Carosella, Maria A. (Maria Angelica). "Le novelle dell'Orlando furioso : struttura e tradizione." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=63248.
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Nordby, Wernø Johanne. "Engaged encounters : fiction as art writing - a practical investigation of the borders of art criticism." Thesis, Konstfack, Institutionen för Interdisciplinära Studier (IS), 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:konstfack:diva-2859.
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The thesis project Engaged Encounters has been a multi-part investigation into art criticism. Its main components are one of practice and one of theory: a fiction text – Transatlantic Journeys – which I am publishing as a small book in an edition of 200 and exhibiting at Konstfack´s Spring Show, and the present reflective essay. In the essay, I identify the central elements of the current «crisis of art criticism» and ask what impact experimental writing modes can have on the practice and its alleged crisis. I give an account of fields of contemporary writing where the text is acting with or through, rather than being about, art. I find that a common view is that the crisis, real as it might be, can serve as a possibility to re-envision art writing. The fiction text, a two-part short story, is a critical response to my one month internship at Henie Onstad Art Centre. A character is extracted from a chosen artwork of the then current exhibition and "cast" in the narrative opposite the history of the art institution. In the fiction as well as in the essay, I treat the «engaged encounter», the face to face meeting with the other. This is the aspect of art criticism I at present find to be most pertinent: criticism as an encounter between work and viewer, a reciprocal addressing analogous to the risky business of face-to-face human relations. The Norwegian word henvendelsen (approximately approach, address) is the key term used to denote this relation. The insights of the linguist Benveniste and the philosopher Levinas are important references.WIRE, Critical Writing and Curatorial Practice
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Duce, Cristy Lee. "In love and war : the politics of romance in four 21st-century Pakistani novels." Thesis, Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of English, 2011, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10133/3127.
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Writers of fiction have long since relied on love, romance, and desire to drive the
plots of their work, yet some postcolonial authors use romance and interpersonal
relationships to illustrate the larger political and social forces that affect their relatively
marginalized experiences in a global context. To illustrate this literary strategy, I have
chosen to discuss four novels written in the twenty-first century by Pakistani authors: Tbe
Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, Trespassing by Uzma Aslam Khan, The
Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam, and Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie. With the
geographical origin of these writers as a common starting place from which to compare
and contrast their perspectives on global politics, their understandings of gender, and
their perceptions of how the public and the private constitute and intersect each other, I
will use postcolonial theory to dissect the treatment of romance in their respective novels.v, 85 leaves ; 29 cm
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Remillard-Belanger, Judith. "Galdós, o la novela como lectura de la historia." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=33921.
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The objective of this thesis comes from a desire to ponder on the role played by Benito Perez Galdos' novels. As a prolific Spanish journalist, novelist and "historian," his work offers a deep insight into the second half of the nineteenth-century society for it depicts historical situations of that particular moment. Through the evolution of the author's artistic representation, we will assess the values he seeks to impart. Moreover, in conjunction with this artistic evolution, there is our perception of the various political changes and turmoils, that is, we shall try to understand these historial events, not so much in a rational manner, but rather according to the author's philosophical perception.
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Parera, Rodriguez Caterina. "Xavier Benguerel i Llobet. Obra novel·lística de la primera etapa (1929-1953)." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/393883.
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En un moment marcat per la polèmica sobre la represa del gènere novel.la i l'entrada, a Catalunya, de la influència proustiana a les acaballes dels anys vint, les primeres novel•les de Xavier Benguerel porten l'empremta d'aquestes coordenades i, alhora, suposen l'esforç d'un jove escriptor per tal de fer-se un estil. L'autor parteix de la tradició literària i cultural que li aporten els entorns familiar, escolar i social, per confegir aquestes novel•les de la primera etapa, en les quals incorpora diversos elements innovadors, d'entre els quals cal assenyalar el psicologisme, que és el model que li sembla més adequat per tal de recrear i mitificar el món que coneix, que està en continu canvi i que, finalment, s'extingirà. La cultura popular, les seves vivències més personals i la poesia simbolista vindran a enriquir les seves possibilitats literàries sempre en llengua catalana. Precisament l'estudi i l'anàlisi de l'elaboració de les vuit primeres novel•les és el tema de la meva tesi amb l'objectiu de veure qui na és I a seva manera de treballar, quines són les constants de la seva producció primerenca, com consolida I a seva manera d'entendre i resoldre el gènere com a creador de novel•les i quina recepció troba entre el seu públic lector.
Amb la primera novel•la, Pàgines d'un adolescent, a les acaballes dels vint, comença a dibuixar el seu personal coneixement del món a partir d'una sèrie d'elements autobiogràfics i d'un estil impregnat de lirisme que constitueixen les bases de I a seva novel•lística. A La vida d’Olga, El teu secret i Suburbi, Benguerel continua la línia endegada en la construcció de la novel•la de formació, d'estil poètic i amb elements autobiogràfics, en una progressiva evolució dins el marc de la novel•la psicològica. Aquestes novel•les configuren el procés de formació de l'escriptor que no consolidarà la seva veu literària fins als anys quaranta, quan salvades mínimament les vicissituds de la guerra i de l'exili, podrà reprendre l'escriptura i oferir títols com La màscara, L’home dins el mirall, La família Rouquier i La veritat del foc.
Al final de l'exili, Benguerel reprendrà també unes coordenades d'espai i temps, creades anteriorment, amb les quals podrà reconstruir el record del seu món perdut, fugint de la realitat d'exiliat. L'exemple més clar és La família Rouquier, que pot ser caracteritzada per la mirada retrospectiva arrelada en el passat familiar català anterior a la guerra
del 1936-39 i en les tendències narratives de les lletres catalanes de les primeres dècades del segle XX.
En conclusió: el pensament estètic i la producció novel·lística de Xavier Benguerel, entre 1929-1953, dibuixen dues grans etapes, de formació, la primera, i de represa literària, la segona, separades per la profunda crisi que suposa la marxa a l’exili. Malgrat tot, el corpus novel·lístic estudiat presenta unes característiques unitàries i comunes, que coincideixen a constituir un conjunt autobiogràfic, amb rerefons poètic i psicologista. Efectivament, partint de la seva experiència personal i del seu coneixement del món, Benguerel aprofundeix en la introspecció psicològica dels personatges amb la incorporació del flux de la consciència, del monòleg interior, dels diaris íntims o de les cartes. D’altra banda, en el rerefons d’aquestes novel·les benguerelianes, hi bateguen els versos que l’autor escriu paral·lelament i que recull a Poemes de Suburbi i Carroussel de somnis. En prosa o en vers, l’autor vol penetrar l’ànima humana que facilita l’actualització de grans temes: la infantesa i l’adolescència com a estats transitoris de la consciència vers el món dels adults, la complexitat de les relacions humanes i la gestió de les emocions com ara la descoberta de l’amor, la passió, l’angoixa i el patiment humans.At a time marked by controversy over the resumption of the novel and the beginning of Proust's influence in Catalonia in the late twenties, Xavier Benguerel's early novels are marked by these coordinates and also represent the efforts of a young writer to draw an own style. The author starts from his own literary and cultural tradition that is brought by his fami I y, school and social environment, and incorporates several innovative elements, among which he can find an especially valid psychological model, to evocate and recreate a world that he knows is going to become extinct. Popular culture, their most personal experiences and symbolist poetry come to enrich their literary possibilities always in Catalan. Precisely the study and analysis of the development in the first eight novels is the subject of my thesis in order to see the way he works, the constants in his early production, his consolidation as a creator of novels and the reception of his works among his readers. With his first novel, Pagines d'un adolescent, he begins to outline his personal knowledge of the world through a series of autobiographical elements and a style steeped in lyricism that constitute the bases of his novels. In La vida d'Olga, El teu secret and Suburbi, Benguerel continues the work begun on the construction of the novel of formation, with poetic style, autobiographical elements and a progressive evolution within the framework of the psychological novel. In the forties, when he minimally saves the vicissitudes of war and exile, he resumes writing and offers titles such as La mascara, L'home dins el mirall, La familia Rouquier and La veritat del foc. At the end of exile, with Rouquier Family, characterized by a retrospective view rooted in the past before the Civil War and by the narrative tendencies of Catalan literature in the first decades of the twentieth century, Benguerel recovers the memory of his lost world, eluding the reality of exile. In conclusion, Benguerel’s aesthetic thinking and novel work, 1929-1953, draw two major stages, training and renewal of literary, marked by the deep crisis that involves walking in exile. However, the studied novel corpus shows some common and uniform features which coincide to form a psychologist set with a poetic and an autobiographical backdrop.
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Teichert, Evelyne. "Zhang Ailing's experimental stories and the reader's participation in her short stories and novellas." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28303.
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This thesis is an in-depth analysis of three later short stories "Lust and Restrictions" (Characters Omitted),"Flowers and Pistils Floating on the
Waves" (Characters Omitted), and "Happy Reunion" (Characters Omitted), written by the 1921 Shanghai born Chinese author Zhang Ailing. The analysis takes a look at the structure of these short stories and discovers that they differ from her earlier short stories, that is those she wrote ten years earlier in the 1940s, in their structural and narrative approach and thereby place a greater demand upon the reader's participation.
These three stories are the only short stories by Zhang Ailing that do not develop in a linear fashion. The author introduces them in the preface of the anthology Sense of Loss by calling the second story "Flowers and Pistils Floating on the Waves" an "experiment." Because of their similar structural and narrative approach, I called all three of them "experimental" which really means the same as "modernists", to distinguish them from her earlier linear stories.
The three major characteristics of the experimental stories, that is—the narrative happening in the character's minds, the chronological distortion of the narrative and the almost invisibility of a narrator large subordinated to the character's presence—all have the effect of bringing the reader close to the characters' subjective thoughts and reflect the characters' state of mind in the stories' present time, depending on the frequency of the switches between the times, that is between the past happening in the characters' minds and the stories present time. The reader's participation in these three stories is largely due to the narrative structure while in some of Zhang Ailing's lienar stories, as examined in this paper, it is based on the stories' content.
The political changes in China, and the author's move away from the mainland could account for her increasingly pessimistic outlook on life reflected in the disjointed structures of the "experimental" stories.Arts, Faculty of
Asian Studies, Department of
Graduate
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Mayekiso, Amlitta Cordelia Theresa-Marie. "The historical novels of Jessie Joyce Gwayi." Thesis, University of Zululand, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/1158.
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Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of African Languages at the University of Zululand, South Africa,1985.In the first chapter we are given the biography of Joyce Jessie Gwayi, including a section on her domestic position, her present occupation and her state of health. It is her state of health that has made it impossible for her to undertake any further literary work. This has been the worst drawback to the budding Zulu historical novelist. Here also a few writers of various Zulu books are reviewed. Most of these books found their way into the classroom because there had been no Zulu literature except the Holy Bible. This was so chiefly because, for a long time, schools belonged to missionaries whose primary aim was to bring the Christian Gospel to the Black people. Moses Ngcobo, Gwayi's husband, inspired her because, as a novelist, he had already written the historical work on the Xhosa National Suicide. Gwayi wanted to write about Dingiswayo Mthethwa, her ancestor, after discovering through research that the names Gwayi and Mthethwa were synonymous, used in the Transkei and Natal respectively. She discovered that Shaka Zulu grew up under the guidance of Dingiswayo Mthethwa and that after uniting the Zulu and the Mthethwa Tribes, he initiated a period of conquest. Gwayi seems to have been interested in this period which is known as "Difaqane" and thus used the Tlokoa Tribe, with its 'warrior queen', as the subject of her first novel Bafa Baphela, It was after the completion of this novel that she wrote Shumpu after which she wrote the third book Yekanini. The theme, structure and plot in each novel conform to the pattern as has been diagrammatically represented in the dissertation. There is exhibited a very well developed sunrise, noontide and sunset trend in each novel. /To To achieve this the novel must have a variety of characters. We find Gwayi's heroes and heroines behaving realistically, especially in view of the fact that some of them are real historical people. Both her simple and complex characters behave very much like ourselves or our acquaintances. There are characters central to the plot and also those who are included simply to enrich the setting of the story. Gwayi even has characters who are ancestors of living people. In Chapter Four, the milieu of Gwayi's books is discussed. Ancient people have a different culture from modern people so that as her characters lived prior to westernization, they conform to their environment. This aspect is obtained from traditional and oral history because Zulus were, up to then, illiterate. Attire, food and religion, however, remained largely unchanged for a long period of time. Ancestor worship, it is true, has been disturbed by the introduction of Christianity. On the military side it was Dingiswayo Mthethwa who regimented his warriors and Shaka Zulu who revolutionized the method of fighting by introducing a short spear (Iklwa). It is the style, language and technique that disclose the fact that the novels have been written by two people. (Gwayi confirmed this fact to the author.) The language in the first two books leaves much to be desired. For example, some expressions are used in such a manner that a non-Zulu reader may be confused. This is regrettable since Gwayi cannot now do anything about it. The language of the third book is good. The structure could have been Gwayi's, but Ngcobo so deftly manipulated the language that this book proves to be the best of the three. Ngcobo ends the book so conveniently that the reader becomes anxious to know what happened to Zwide Ndwandwe and Shaka Zulu when Dingiswayo had gone. It leaves the reader with a wish to read his next book, which deals with the conflict between Zwide and Shaka. It is unfortunate that Gwayi and Ngcobo do not revise and edit the books to the advantage of the future Zulu reader.
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劉燕萍 and Yin-ping Grace Lau. "Grotesque satire in the Ming and Qing novels." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31240495.
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Charlier, Marie-Madeleine. "La lettre de rémission : un problème d'intertextualité." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=63304.
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Wong, Chi-hung, and 黃自鴻. "Space in Taiwan urban novels." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2006. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B35808068.
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Coleman, Robert L. "A literary study of the novels of Paule Marshall /." Access Digital Full Text version, 1990. http://pocketknowledge.tc.columbia.edu/home.php/bybib/10938412.
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Hood, Robin Elizabeth. "Protagonist moral development in children’s translated European war novels." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25423.
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This study evaluated moral dilemmas and Lawrence Kohlberg's (1975) stages of moral reasoning of protagonists in a sample of children's translated European war novels. The sample, consisting of fourteen books, was defined as all children's European war novels published between 1950 and 1984.
The content analysis first determined the moral dilemmas in each of the novels by identifying those story situations where two or more moral issues were in conflict. A second procedure evaluated the protagonists' response to the dilemma, making possible the assignment of a Kohlberg level and stage of moral judgement.
The collected data were evaluated following two steps. First, the Issues, Levels and Stages were quantitatively analyzed for representation, number, and frequency. In addition, the Issues and Stages were evaluated for those moral issues most frequently paired with each moral stage. The second procedure examined the relationship between the data and selected variables: Era (Era I 1952-1962, Era II 1963-1973, Era III 1974-1984), Sex of author and Sex of protagonist.
The findings revealed that moral dilemmas in the European war novels were most often related to issues of Affiliation Roles, Morality and Mores, and Truth. No dilemma situations arose out of conflicts of the moral issues of Sex or Law. All other Kohlberg moral issues were represented at least once in the sample.
The predominant stage of moral reasoning in the sample was Stage 2 (serving one's own needs), closely followed by Stage 1 (blind obedience to authority) and Stage 3 (playing the good role). Significantly, these stages reflect the general moral reasoning capabilities of the intended reading audience, ages 8 12 years. While higher stages were represented, they accounted for substantially fewer protagonist resolutions to dilemma situations. With regard to sex of the protagonist, the findings revealed that male characters more frequently resolved their dilemma situations with sophisticated levels of moral reasoning than did female, a factor which may be linked to the type of story.
The relationships between moral development and Era appeared to reflect the transition from traditional realism to modern realism in children's fiction. Books written in Era I (1952-1962) contained few or no moral dilemmas. As with other traditional realistic fiction, child protagonists in that era were insulated from the world around them and thus remained relatively unaffected by World War II. Books written in Era II (1963-1973) and Era III (1974-1984), however, showed evidence of portraying children in the modern mode of realism. Unlike Era I, protagonists of these periods encountered large numbers of moral dilemmas and were highly involved in and affected by the war.Arts, Faculty of
English, Department of
Graduate
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McFarlane, Anna M. "A gestalt approach to the science fiction novels of William Gibson." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6263.
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Gestalt psychologists Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler argue that human perception relies on a form, or gestalt, into which perceptions are assimilated. Gestalt theory has been applied to the visual arts by Rudolf Arnheim and to literature by Wolfgang Iser. My original contribution to knowledge is to use gestalt theory to perform literary criticism, an approach that highlights the importance of perception in William Gibson's novels and the impact of this emphasis on posthumanism and science fiction studies. Science fiction addresses the problem of difference and the relationship between self and other. Gestalt literary criticism takes perception as the interface between the self and the other, the human and the inhuman. Gibson's work is of particular interest as his early novels are representative of 1980s cyberpunk while his later novels push the boundaries of science fiction through their contemporary settings. By engaging with Gibson the thesis makes its contribution to contemporary science fiction criticism explicit. In Gibson's Sprawl trilogy autopoiesis defines life and consciousness, elevating the importance of perception (Chapter I). The Bridge trilogy uses the metaphor of chaos theory to examine dialectic tensions, such as the tension between space and cyberspace (Chapter II). Faulty pattern recognition is a key theme in Gibson's post-9/11 work as gestalt perception allows and limits knowledge (Chapter III). Chapter IV explains how the gestalt in psychoanalysis creates a fragmented subject in Spook Country (2007). Finally, the gestalt appears as a parallax view, a view that oscillates between the world we experience and the world as represented in the text (Chapter V). I conclude that gestalt literary criticism offers an exciting new reading of Gibson's work that recognises its engagement with visual culture and cyberpunk as a whole.
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Coetzee, Paulette June. "South African panorama: the novels of Daphne Rooke." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002265.
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This thesis covers Daphne Rooke's eight published "South African" novels: A Grove of Fever Trees, Mittee, Ratoons, Wizards' Country, A Lover for Estelle, The Greyling, Diamond Jo, and Margaretha de la Porte. It supports the recent revival of critical interest in Rooke, and argues for the continuing relevance of her work in post-apartheid South Africa. This study also broadens the scope of recent Rooke research by including lesser known works like The Greyling and Margaretha de la Porte in its analysis. Recent criticism has focused on Rooke's unusual blend of romance and realism. The first three chapters concentrate more on "realism", emphasising the depth and extent of Rooke's engagement with serious social issues. The novels are examined in terms of their handling of the themes of class (chapter one), race (chapter two) and gender (chapter three). The concluding chapter shifts in focus to "romance" and examines the question of generic_identity -- touching on Rooke's gothic, magical realist and "popular" qualities -within a consideration of the particular "South African-ness" of her work.
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Mokhele, M. P. "Race relations in two post-apartheid Sesotho farm novels." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/50434.
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Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the presentation of race relations in two Sesotho novels written after 1994. The purpose of the study is to establish whether or not post-apartheid Sesotho novels present race relations as they were presented during the apartheid era. The novels of focus are, N.S. Zulu's Nonyana ya Tshepo (The bird of hope) (1997) and T.W.D. Mohapi's Lehfaba fa fephako (The pain of hunger) (1999). The manner in which the authors who wrote during the two distinct eras presented the issue of race and presented race relations will be the focal point. At the end of this study it should be clear whether or not authors after 1994, that is, after the apartheid era continue to present race relations in an idealistic manner. During the apartheid era authors such Lesoro (1968) and Mophethe (1966) were very cautious when presenting race relations in their novels. The common factor in these novels is the portrayal of the white Afrikaner characters by the authors. White characters were portrayed as very merciful, good Samaritans and their relationship with their black counterparts were often harmonious and crisis free. Attributes of race such as racial discrimination, racial hatred, racial conflict and racial intolerance were seldom spoken about in those novels. This is reminiscent of the notorious apartheid laws, which prohibit freedom of press. White characters in some novels published during the apartheid era were not characters derived from real life. In N.S. Zulu's novel, Nonyana ya Tshepo we examine the portrayal of the characters from the two distinct races, black Africans and white Afrikaners. The author portrays the two groups of characters to be what Scholes (1981 :11) calls characters representative of a social class, race and a profession. Black characters are portrayed as the exploited, which are always inferior, submissive and subjected to racial discrimination by their white counterparts. White Afrikaners are portrayed as the exploiters, who are superior, oppressors and the ones who further the policy of apartheid. This state of affairs prompted the black Africans to develop hatred towards the Whites. Instead of idolizing their masters, Blacks do the opposite. Our main character, Tshepo who is said to be fathered by the white Afrikaner, is marginalized by his fellow Blacks and declared an outcast. In T.W.D. Mohapi's novel, Lehlaba la lephako, the main character, Seabata who lusts for power and wealth is seen struggling for both at the expense of his fellow black Africans. Seabata is used by his white boss, Sepanapodi, to maintain the legacy of apartheid. The narrator portrays Seabata in such a way that he could carry out his boss' mission. Seabata is power hungry and always likes to please his boss to attain that, even if that means creating enmity with his own black people. Seabata's socio-economic status makes him vulnerable to manipulation by Sepanapodi. Seabata was advised by his father that he should always strive to please his master in order to gain glory and wealth. He followed the advice slavishly and that left him devastated. He found himself at loggerheads with his colleagues, with the pastor, Nkgelwane, with a local teacher, Mohanelwa and with his wife, Mmabatho. Conflict between Seabata and the community is caused by the pain of hunger.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doelstelling van hierdie studie is om ondersoek in te stel of die twee Sesotho novelles wat na 1994 geskrywe is, die verhouding tussen verskillende rasse behandel. Die doel van die studie is om uit te vind of die Sesotho novelles wat gedurende die tydperk van apartheid die aanbieding van rasse-verhouding dek, soos wat dit aangewys was gedurende die tydperk van apartheid. Die ondersoek sal gedoen word met die vergelykking van twee novelles wat na 1994 geskrywe is, d.w.s. N.S. Zulu se Nonyana ya Tshepo en T.W.D. Mohapi se Leh/aba /a /ephako . Die manier waarop die twee skrywers wat gedurende die twee afsonderlike tydperk, die kwessie van rasse behandel, en hoe hulle dit aangebied het, sal die fokuspunt wees. Aan die einde van hierdie studie moet dit duideliker word aan die lesers tot watter mate die skrywers wat na 1994 geskryf het, d.w.s na die apartheid tydperk, nog die rasse-verhouding op 'n idealistiese manier aangebied het. Die skrywers wat gedurende die apartheid tydperk geskrywe het, soos Lesoro (1968) en Mophethe (1966) was baie versigtig toe hulle die rasse-verhouding in hulle novelles aangebied het. Die gewone faktor van hierdie novelles is die uitbeelding van die wit Afrikaners se karakters deur die skrywers. Wit karakters is altyd as baie barmhagtig, en as goeie Samaritane beskrywe, en hul verhouding teenoor hulle swart teenhangers is dikwels eensgesind en vry van krisis uitgebeeld. Die hoedanigheid van rasseonderskeiding wat rassehaat, rasse in stryd met mekaar, en rasse onverdraagsaamheid, is in daardie tyd seide van geskryf in die novelle. Dit herinner die leser aan die ongunstige apartheidswette wat nie vryheid van die pers toegelaat het nie. Wit karakters, in sommige novelle wat gedurende die tydperk van apartheid gepubliseer is, is nie karakters wat van die ware lewe afgelei is nie. In N.S. Zulu se novelle, Nonyana ya Tshepo word 'n uitbeelding gemaak van karakters van die twee afsonderlike rasse, die swart Afrikaners en die wit Afrikaners. Die skrywer beeld die twee groepe van karaktes as die wat Scholes (1981 :11) noem die wat verteenwoordigend van 'n sosiale klas, rasse en beroep is. Swart karakters is beskrywe as diegene wat geeksploiteer word, wat altyd as minderwaardige, onderworpe en mindere rasse beskou word. Hulle word gediskrimineer deur hulle wit landgenote. Wit Afrikaners is beskou as die eksploiteerders, wat die voortreflike onderdrukkers is en wat wat die beleid van apartheid laat voortgaan. Hierdie toestand het die swart Afrikaners gelei om haat te ontwikkel teenoor die Wittes. In plaas van om hulle meesters eer te bewys, het die swart Afrikaners die teenoorgestelde gedrag. Die hoofkarakter, Tshepo, wat geglo is dat hy kind van die wit Afrikaner is, is deur sy mense verban en as verworpeling verklaar. In T.W.D. Mohapi se novelle, Lehlaba la lephako het die hoofkarakter, Seabata, begeertes van mag en rykdom. Hy word opgelei as 'n stryder op koste van sy medemense, swart Afrikaners. Seabata is deur sy wit meester, Sepanapodi misbruik om die nalatenskap van apartheid te handhaaf. Die verteller beeld Seabata af op so 'n manier dat dit duidelik is dat Seabata sy baas se opdrag sou voortdra. Hy, Seabata het 'n wens om mag te he en bo alles om sy baas tevrede te stel op koste van ander swart Afrikaners, al maak dit hom 'n vyand van sy mense. Seabata se sosiale status het hom laat kwesbaar ge stel teenoor Sepanapodi se manipulasie. Sy vader het hom advies gegee dat hy altyd sy meester moes bevredig ter wille van glorie en rykdom. Hy het toe die advies van sy vader slaafs nagevolg, daarom het dit hom in 'n neerdrukkende gevoel laat eef. Aan die einde is hy in 'n konflik met andere soos sy kollegas, die plaaslike predikant, Nkgelwane, die onderwyser, Mohanelwa en sy vrou. Die stryd wat Seabata met al die mense in die gemeenskap het, is die oorsaak van hongersnood.
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Stanev, Mariane. "On Record: Soundscapes as Metaphor and Physical Manifestation of Memory in Early Holocaust Novels and Contemporary Criticism." FIU Digital Commons, 2015. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1907.
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This thesis compares two perspectives on the production of Holocaust memory: a novel that leads up to The Holocaust in Britain and one that reflects the hindsight perspective of a liberator in the Soviet Union. The novels are Virginia Woolf’s BETWEEN THE ACTS and Vasily Grossman’s LIFE AND FATE. The analysis offers a locus of analysis for the diasporic literary energy created by the catastrophe in the 20th and 21st centuries. The project offers a theorized standpoint on the role of literature on official historical archives. Proposing a method through which contemporary readers can engage the diasporic event of The Holocaust, the project adopts both the extended metaphor and literal expression of soundscapes. Soundscapes encompass the immaterial processes of memorialization and the literal sonic textures developed in Holocaust novels. The critical perspective incorporates contemporary notions of narratology, archival practices, and cultural manifestations of language into the notion of literary ethnomusicology.
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Catsikis, Phyllis Joyce. ""Unfolding" the letter in Jane Austen's novels." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0005/MQ43843.pdf.
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Denison, Stephanie Susan. "The function of self-awareness in selected novellen by Theodor Storm." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1998. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1745/.
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Aranda, Silva Alfredo. "La escritura articulística y ensayística de Enrique Vila-Matas: la crítica de un escritor." Doctoral thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/400943.
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La presente tesis doctoral ofrece una propuesta de estudio para situar la obra de Vila-Matas en un espacio de reivindicación neocrítica en torno a una nueva forma de entender el artículo y el ensayo literarios en un arco cronológico que se extiende entre los años 1968 y 2012. Dicha reivindicación defiende que la obra de Vila-Matas comienza su andadura en el periodismo cultural desde una justificación crítica entreverada, desde el principio, con un inapelable componente fabulador, lo que llevará a Vila-Matas a hacerse escritor en el periodismo no solo por efectos formativos sino por una muy consciente militancia de fines creativos en la idea del fraude. Nuestro trabajo pretende exponer que Vila-Matas es cuando menos tan ensayista que inventa como novelista que reflexiona, si no más.
Por otra parte esta circunstancia se lleva a cabo desde claves de producción literaria muy claramente localizables en torno a lo que denominamos las dinastías intelectuales de Vila-Matas y su comprensión de la creación literaria como una apuesta autodidacta, metaliteraria y autoficticia operada en el trasfondo de las vanguardias de entreguerras y el modernismo europeo.Todo ello fue conformando la naturaleza autocrática del estilo vila- matiano, el cual no solo se ha separado menos de sí mismo en los artículos y ensayos entre 1968 y 2012 que en la producción narrativa –la cual necesitó una evolución y un cambio mucho más apreciable– sino que se ha caracterizado notablemente por comprender una evolución que denominamos, a partir de Edward Said, de “estilo tardío” y que consiste en ir contra lo esperable, armónico y maduro con la finalidad de no traicionar la serie de inquietudes profundas que, según el caso, pueden acechar al creador en su etapa biológicamente madura. Así ha sido desde luego para Vila-Matas, que ha ofrecido y sigue ofreciendo sus retos más díscolos y arriesgados en su producción literaria aparecida en el presente siglo. Se trata, al cabo, de una literatura que trata de entenderse a sí misma –y de mostrarse al exterior– basándose en lo imprevisto, lo dificultoso y lo impopular a la vez que en una disposición personal por investigar experimental y denodadamente sobre las tripas de la literatura por venir, por radicarse en un entorno de crisis que le permita contrariar sus límites ad infinitum.This doctoral thesis offers a study proposal to place the work of Enrique Vila-Matas in a space of recognition of the inventive essay about a new way of understanding the article and the literary essay in a chronological arc extending between the years 1968 and 2012. This claim argues that the work of Vila-Matas started his career in cultural journalism from a critical justification mixed with a final fabricative component, leading to Vila-Matas becoming a writer in journalism, not only by formative effects but by a very conscious militancy with creative purposes in the idea of engaged fraud in the pursuit of a stylistic poetical project. Vila-Matas’s literature has an ethical commitment to expose the failures of our times by reanalyzing the history of literature from a permanent environment of crisis. Our work aims to show that Vila-Matas is at least as much of an essayist as novelist, if not more. Moreover, this circumstance is held from keys of literary production, clearly found in what we call the intellectual dynasties of Vila-Matas and his understanding of literary creation as a self-taught bet, metaliterary and autofictional, operated in the background of the Avant-Garde of the Interwar period and European modernism. The articles and essays of Vila-Matas were born closer to the maturity of the writer than his novels. This process was characterized by comprising an evolution that we have called, from Edward Said, “late style”, that which goes against the expectable, harmonious, and mature in order to not betray the series of deep concerns that the literature of Vila-Matas demands of him.
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Bong-Toh, Mei Choo Aileen. "Fictions of power : the novels of Bessie Head." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=59862.
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Bessie Head's fiction reflects the author's consciousness of power as the definitive force in the South African context. By considering Head as a social realist, the thesis relates sociological evidence to authorial interest and demonstrates Head's treatment of the power issue in her three novels, When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru, and A Question of Power. Biographical data, particularly Head's unique, though socially marginal position as a political exile, a Coloured, and a woman are also applied. The thesis covers three areas--politics, race, and gender. The first explores the nature of power in South African politics within the time-frame of the present, past, and future. The second which focuses on the institution of apartheid examines racial relations between the blacks and whites and also among the blacks, with attention given to the dilemma of the Coloured. The third section discusses sexual politics, looking at male-female relationships in both traditional and contemporary societies.
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Remington, Rachel. "Personal identity in the novels of Max Frisch and Luigi Pirandello." Thesis, McGill University, 1999. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=30208.
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This MA thesis is a comparative study of the novels of Luigi Pirandello (Agrigento 1867--Rome 1936) and Max Frisch (Zurich 1911--1991). Six texts are discussed: Pirandello's Il fu Mattia Pascal (1904), Quaderni di Serafino Gubbio operatore (1915), and Uno, nessuno e centomila (1925--6); and Frisch's Stiller (1954), Homo faber (1957), and Mein Name sei Gantenbein (1964). The comparison highlights the great similarities between Pirandello's and Frisch's treatment of the theme of identity as well as some important (and mainly structural) differences in their novelistic works. The analysis of the three pairs of novels shows the developments in narrative structure and the characteristic change of attitude towards the question of identity construction that took place from early-modernism to postmodernism.
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Truter, Victoria Zea. "Dreamscape and death : an analysis of three contemporary novels and a film." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012976.
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With its focus on the relationship between dreamscape and death, this study examines the possibility of indirectly experiencing – through writing and dreaming – that which cannot be directly experienced, namely death. In considering this possibility, the thesis engages at length with Maurice Blanchot's argument that death, being irrevocably absent and therefore unknowable, is not open to presentation or representation. After explicating certain of this thinker's theories on the ambiguous nature of literary and oneiric representation, and on the forfeiture of subjective agency that occurs in the moments of writing and dreaming, the study turns to an examination of the manner in which such issues are dealt with in selected dreamscapes. With reference to David Malouf's An Imaginary Life, Alan Warner's These Demented Lands, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and Richard Linklater's Waking Life, the thesis explores the literary and cinematic representation of human attempts to define, resist, or control death through dreaming and writing about it. Ultimately, the study concludes that such attempts are necessarily inconclusive, and that it is only ever possible to represent death as a (mis)representation.
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Dokolwane, Kutala Primrose. "Characterization in selected Xhosa novels of the 90's." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52160.
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Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the portrayal of characters in four Xhosa novels of the 1990s. The objective is to found out whether or not characterization in the Xhosa novels of the 1990s improves. This is done with the view that past studies of characterization done before 1990 by Jafta (1978; 1996), Satyo (1978), Sirayi (1989) and Dlali (1992) gave the picture that a high percentage of writers portray characters as archetypes because of thematic concerns. This often renders characterization poor in the sense that the reader is able to predict the outcome of events through the actions of the characters. However, Zulu (1999:3) argues that with the inceptor of democracy in South Africa in 1994, African Languages literature was liberated as well from several constraints, and reveals some signs of maturing. This study is thus conducted to confirm or refute Zulu's (1999) claim that there are signs of improvement in the way writers portray characters. The study concentrates of four selected Xhosa novels published in the 1990s. The novels are selected on the criteria that they have won literary prizes and are written by prolific writers. It is found that in all four novels, Iqlina lomtshato, Kazi Ndenzeni na?, Koda Kube Nni na? and Ukhozi Olumaphiko the novelists have succeededin creating realistic, live, dynamic, complex and multidimensional characters. The change and development of characters are influenced by environmental change as a result of social, political and economic factors. However, the study also shows that some events in Ukhozi Olumphiko are implausible.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die voorstelling van karakters in vier Xhosa novellas in die 1990s. Die hoofdoelstelling is om te bepaal of daar 'n verbetering in kwaliteit is in die Xhosa novellas in die negentiger jare. Hierdie ondersoek word gedoen in die lig van voorafgaande studies soos Jafte (1978, 1996); Satyo (1978); Sirayi (1989) and Dlali (1992) wat bevind dat 'n groot aantal skrywers, karakters in Xhosa novellas as stereoptipes voorstelop grond van die "telematiese" oorwegings at hulle het. Dit het dikwels die gevolg dat karakterisering swak is in die sin dat die leser die uiteinde van gebeurtenisse kan voorspel deur die handelinge van die karakters. Zulu (1999:3) argumenteer egter dat met die verkryging van demokrasie in Suid Afrika, is die letterkunde van die Afrikatale ook bevry, en dit vertoon tekens dat die literêre wasdom bereik. Hierdie studie word dus onderneem om Zulu (1999) se aanspraak te ondersteun of te weerlê dat daar tekens van verbetering is in die wyse waarop skrywers karakters voorstel. Die studie konsentreer op vier geselekteerde Xhosa novelles wat in die 1990s gepubliseer is. Die novelles is geselekteer volgens kriteria dat hulle literêre pryse gewen het en deur erkende skrywers geskryf is. Daar word bevind in die studie dat die skrywers in al vier die novelles, Iqlina lomtshato, Kazi Ndenzeni na?, Koda Kube Nni na? en Ukhozi Olumaphiko suksesvol was in die skep van realistiese, lewendige, ekonomiese komplekse en multi-dimensionele karakters. Die verandering en ontwikkeling van karakters word beïnvloed deur omgewingsverandering, sowel as deur sosiale, politieke en ekonomiese faktore. Dit word egter bevind dat sommige handelinge in die novelle Ukhozi Olumaphiko ongeloofwaardig is.
INTSHWANKATHELO ISIXHOSA: Lo msebenzi uphonononga ukuvezwa kwabalinganiswa kwiinoveli zesiXhosa ezine ezibhalwe ukususela kumnyaka ka-1990 ukuya ku-1999. Injongo yalo msebenzi kukuqwalasela ukuba ikho kusini na impucuko kwindlela abazotywa ngayo abalinganiswa kwezi noveli zesiXhosa zibhalwe ngomnyaka ka-1990 ukubheka phambili. Oku kwenziwa phantsi koluvo lokuba izifundo zamandulo ezimalunga nokuzotywa kwabalinganiswa ngokubhalwa nguJafta (1978;1996), uSatyo (1978) uSirayi (1989) noDlali (1992) zibonakalisa ukuba uninzi Iwababhali luveza abalinganiswa njengemizekelo esisiseko ukuzama ukubanxulumanisa nomxholo wenoveli leyo. Oku ke kubeka ukuzotywa kwabalinganiswa kwizinga eliphantsi nanjengoko umfundi aye akwazi lula ukuthelekelela iziphumo zezehlo ngokujonga iintshukumo ezi zabalinganiswa. Ukanti ke, uZulu (1999:3) uveza ukuba ukususela mhla kwamiselwa ulawulo lukawonkewonke okanye inkululeko eMzantsi Afrika ngomnyaka ka-1994, uncwadi IweeLwimi zaseAfrika Iwaye Iwakhululeka nalo, Iwaze Iwabonakalisa iimpawu zokuvuthwa. Lo msebenzi ke ujolise ekuqinisekiseni okanye ekuphikiseni ingcamango kaZulu (1999) yokuba kukho iimpawu ezibonakalisa ukuphuhla kwindlela ababhali abaveza ngayo abalinganiswa. Lo msebenzi ke uza kuqwalasela kwiinoveli zesiXhosa ezine ezikhethiweyo nezishicilelwe kwisithuba sika-1990 ukubheka phambili. Ezi noveli zikhethwe phantsi komgomo wokuba ziphumelele amabhaso oncwadi yaye zibhalwe ngoomakhwekhwetha bababhali abavunyiweyo. Kuye kwafunyaniswa into yokuba kwezi noveli zone, Iqhina lomtshato, Kazi Ndenzeni na?, Koda Kube Nini na?, kunye noKhozi Olumaphiko ababhali beenoveli baphumelele ekwakheni abalinganiswa ababonisa izinto ngobunjalo bazo, abaphilayo, abanentshukumo, abantsonkothileyo nabambaxa. Utshintsho nokuphuhla kwabalinganiswa lubangelwa kukutshintsha kweendawo abahlala kuzo ngokudalwa ziimeko zokuhlala, ezopolitiko, nezoqoqosho. Ukanti ke, ezinye zezehlo kuKhozi Olumaphiko aziqondakali ngokugqibeleleyo.
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DeAngelis, Angelica Maria. "History and fiction as narrative in the novels of Salman Rushdie." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=22394.
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This work examines the fiction of Salman Rushdie--Grimus, Midnight's Children, Shame and The Satanic Verses, and its complex narrative structure. Fictional narrative is discussed in terms of structuralist theory using studies by Mieke Bal, Seymour Chatman and Gerald Prince. Historical narrative is analyzed through the writings of the philosophers of history, Hayden White, Louis O. Mink and Paul Ricoeur. These theories are applied to the fiction of Salman Rushdie in order to investigate his use of narrative. It is concluded that he uses a combination of historical and fictional narrative in order to explode existing 'truths' and mythologies, and to suggest alternative realities in their place.
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Lithander, Erik Per Emanuel. "A study of the pre-exile novels of Julio Cortázar." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.621003.
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Westmaas, Juanita Anne. "Edgar Mittelholzer (1909-1965) and the shaping of his novels." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2013. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4367/.
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This thesis is a response to the critics of the pioneering novelist Edgar Mittelholzer whose second novel was instrumental in paving the way for other Caribbean novelists during the 1950s. Critics of Mittelholzer have accused him of fascism, racism, an unhealthy interest in sexually sensationalist topics and death. He has until the recent centenary of his birth been marginalised and understudied. The first chapter of this thesis outlines the areas of study that have thus far been focused on and explores the underlying methods and theoretical framework of this thesis. The second chapter focuses on the author’s background, career and contribution to the Caribbean. The third explores the genesis of Mittelholzer’s creativity with a view to revealing how intertextuality is key to an understanding of his novels. It also discusses his creative use of the Middle Eastern notion of the Jinnee. The fourth chapter offers a critical analysis of The Life and Death of Sylvia and demonstrates how Mittelholzer employed the themes of sex, race and death. The fifth Chapter establishes that the texts of Yogi Ramacharaka were his primary source of inspiration and that Mittelholzer’s novels can be best understood in terms of the Oriental Occultist’s teachings. The sixth chapter explores Mittelholzer’s racial identity and finds that his mixed ancestry was a key source of creative inspiration. The final chapter concludes that further research is needed into his work and that an exploration of the intertextual references serves to clarify the author’s objectives.
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D'Imperio, Cristina Maria. "Pain, hunger, and birth of epiphany in the novels of Toni Morrison." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/7977.
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The thesis, entitled The Pain, Hunger, and Birth of Epiphany in the Novels of Toni Morrison, is divided into three chapters. The introduction discusses some of the traditional uses of the word “epiphany” in literature and then proceeds to define the ways in which Morrison’s characters experience epiphanical journeys. Furthermore, Morrison’s development of the idea plays a fundamental role in the structure and unification of all of her novels. The first chapter compares the texts Love and Sula and charts the progression of pain from external, communal, and inherited to internal, individual, and isolationist. In both Love and Sula, death and the body are irrelevant, and it is only when characters learn to dispel pain and disregard the body that they can truly experience an epiphany. Chapter two discusses Paradise in detail and describes the role of food in allowing or preventing characters’ spiritual awakenings or transcendence. Food and the way it is consumed, prepared, grown, and perceived are inextricably linked to characters’ journeys to epiphany. The third chapter compares the novels Jazz and Song of Solomon and illustrates the ways in which perceptions of pain and food are translated to younger generations. It also raises questions of generational sterility and degeneration as well as conveys ideas of stunted or aborted growth and truncated epiphanies.
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Murphy, Katharine Anne. "Pio Baroja and English literature : a comparative approach to the novels." Thesis, University of Exeter, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.267209.
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Lawrie-Munro, Brian. "The double in Dickens' final completed novels /." Thesis, McGill University, 1997. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=27950.
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This thesis is an examination of the double motif used by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend. There is a subtle shift that takes place in these last completed works, from a double motif which is used to prescribe individual behaviour along the lines of domestic or Christian ideology, to one which examines the social and psychological consequences of the individual's submission to such ideological imperatives. In fine, Dickens begins to distance himself from the stock, physical double he had inherited, turning instead to a double that finds its causes and ramifications firmly located in both the social and psychological spheres. This increasing complexity of the double motif is indicative of Dickens' gradually more sophisticated, less stereotypical view of the relationship between the individual and society than that suggested by his famous caricatures or his previous works.
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Horn, Paul Matthew Austin. "Psychical phenomena and the body in the late novels of Henry James." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2013. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4413/.
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This thesis focuses on the connections between fin de siècle accounts of psychical phenomena and the extraordinary bodily capabilities of the characters in Henry James’s late novels. In reaction to the scholarly commonplace that these characters are simply refined out of corporeal existence, I posit the alternative that their bodies are unconventionally constituted: hyperaesthetic like the Society for Psychical Research’s ‘sensitives’, or materially reconfigured like the ‘etheric bodies’ of the dead envisioned by Sir Oliver Lodge, and thus perfectly adapted for life in the phantasmagorical world of James’s ‘major-phase’ and beyond. Against the backdrop of recent scholarly work on the material world of James’s novels by Thomas Otten, Victoria Coulson and others, and theories of embodiment such as those of Didier Anzieu, I assert the importance of fin de siècle psychical research narratives of the hyperextension of human bodily capabilities and their historical collocates in art, literature, and occult philosophy to fully excavate the cultural work with which Henry James’s late novels are involved.
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Skublics, Heather A. L. E. "Naming and vocation in the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien, Patricia Kennealy and Anne McCaffrey." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=68137.
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"Naming and Vocation in the Novels of J. R. R. Tolkien, Patricia Kennealy and Anne McCaffrey" discovers in recent works of fantasy and science fiction a pattern of authority which is rooted in the existence of namers and characters who are called to specific tasks. Each of these authors portrays individuals who are called to their own particular and unique roles by other figures whose knowledge of them is deeper than their own. The Biblical account of Samuel's life provides a paradigm for both namer and named that is informative in recognising this pattern in each of the works studied. The virtues essential to living out the call of a namer are faith and obedience; and personal fulfilment as well as heroic feats can only be achieved if those virtues are cultivated.
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Collett, Jenna Lara. "'I want to tell the story again': re-telling in selected novels by Jeanette Winterson and Alan Warner." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002291.
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This thesis investigates acts of ‘re-telling’ in four selected novels by Jeanette Winterson and Alan Warner.Re-telling, as I have defined it, refers to the re-imagining and re-writing of existing narratives from mythology, fairy tale, and folktale, as well as the re-visioning of scientific discourses and historiography. I argue that this re-telling is representative of a contemporary cultural phenomenon, and is evidence of a postmodern genre that some literary theorists have termed re-visionary fiction. Despite the prevalent re-telling of canonical stories throughout literary history, there is much evidence for the emergence of a specifically contemporary trend of re-visionary literature. Part One of this thesis comprises two chapters which deal with Winterson’s Sexing the Cherry (1989) and Weight (2005) respectively. In these chapters, I argue that, although the feminist and historiographic elements of her work are significant, there exist further motivations for Winterson’s acts of re-telling in both Sexing the Cherry and Weight. In Chapter One, I analyse Winterson’s subversion and re-imagining of historiography, as well as her re-telling of fairy tale, in Sexing the Cherry. Chapter Two provides a discussion of Winterson’s re-telling of the myth of Atlas from Greek mythology, in which she draws on the discourses of science, technology, and autobiography, in Weight. Part Two focuses on Warner’s first two novels, Morvern Callar (1995) and These Demented Lands (1997). In both novels, Warner re-imagines aspects of Christian, Celtic and pagan mythology in order to debunk the validity of biblical archetypes and narratives in a contemporary working-class setting, as well as to endow his protagonist with goddess-like or mythical sensibilities. Chapter Three deals predominantly with Warner’s use of language, which I argue is central to his blending of mythological and contemporary content, while Chapter Four analyses his use of myth in these two novels. This thesis argues that while both Winterson and Warner share many of the aims associated with contemporary re-visionary fiction, their novels also exceed the boundaries of the genre in various ways. Winterson and Warner may, therefore, represent a new class of re-visionary writers, whose aim is not solely to subvert the pre-text but to draw on its generic discourses and thematic conventions in order to demonstrate the generic and discursive possibilities inherent in the act of re-telling.
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Holliday, Brian. "The conundrum of the West : reading the novels of Nicholas Hasluck." Curtin University of Technology, School of Communication and Cultural Studies, 1998. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=10562.
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The purpose of this thesis is to explore the ways in which Nicholas Hasluck's novels have been read in the past, and to develop an alternative interpretation which takes into account all Hasluck's narratives, reading them through the framework of current trends in literary and cultural theory. Hasluck is a Western Australian writer whose work takes seriously, while at the same time parodies, the institutions of both Western Australia and Western society.The initial section comprises three chapters, in which Hasluck's novels are read through the commonly used frameworks of the mystery-thriller genre and satire. The second part of the thesis, which covers four chapters, is a reading of Hasluck's narratives through the shift from modernism to postmodernism, drawing particularly on the work of theorists such as Linda Hutcheon, Michel Foucault and Brian McHale. This interpretation reveals how Hasluck's work increasingly uses the marginal, regional narratives of Western Australia to contest the mega-narratives of the West.The significance of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, this is currently the most in-depth examination of the work of a neglected Western Australian writer, and, secondly, the combining of Hasluck's literary themes and this thesis's critical framework provides a productive format for exploring issues of Western Australian history and literature.
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Ho, Julie Elaine. ""Half of life": male voices in the novels of Carol Shields." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31222596.
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O'Beirne, Emer. "Irony, dialogue, and the reader in the novels of Nathalie Sarraute." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1994. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:bfd4b2a5-305b-4984-8091-17cd99bb3c0e.
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This thesis explores the concept of dialogue, and of reading as a dialogue, in relation to Sarraute's novels. Its view of dialogue draws on various theories of (spoken and written) communication which see dialogue as transcending the limits of linguistic expression (Ch.l). This transcendence of language through language is epitomised by the ironic exchange, where communication succeeds in spite of the utterance which is openly recognised to be defective. Full participation in dialogue entails ironically recognising the inadequacy of one's discourse; if the subject's language constitutes his identity, then engaging in dialogue further involves acknowledging one's lack of authority as a subject. However, reading Sarraute complicates this idealistic notion of dialogue: despite her writing's formal dialogism, it not only represents but also enacts aspects of communication which oppose rather than promote consensus. The way the authorial voice inevitably reasserts an initially renounced unitary identity (something her fiction condemns), demonstrates how speaking always unifies the subject despite itself, reaffirming that authority which the aspiration to dialogue should reject (Chs.3 and4). Secondly, reading as a form of dialogue raises the question of the relationship of writing to speech: their structural identity means that spoken communication cannot offer mutual presence but always involves alienation (Ch.2). Thus Sarraute's attempt to counter the alienation of writing by simulating speech cannot succeed, and so she replays a conversational strategy of her characters to control the distant reader's response she defines him (as passive and assenting) in her address. But the mediation of writing preserves the reader from this definition, and so Sarraute finally rejects this uncontrollable other (Ch.5). However, spoken dialogue also illuminates the text-reader exchange: its reciprocity, which counters the alienation of writing, indicates how the text too can "answer" the reader by resisting his interpretation and making him revise it. Some text-reader communication is possible, for the text's language exceeds both its author's intention and its reader's interpretation, uniting them in the symbolic universe within which they define themselves (Ch.6). But their linguistic selfdefinition means that their dialogue around the text will always be oppositional as well as consensual.
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Hallam, Lynne. "Intertextual interventions in the novels of Marlene Streeruwitz and Lilian Faschinger." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2012. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13066/.
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This thesis considers prose texts by the Austrian authors Marlene Streeruwitz and Lilian Faschinger from the viewpoint of intertextuality. The research does not rely on the narrow definitions of intertextuality which are concerned with the appearance of an anterior text in a later text, or on studies of source and influence. Rather my treatment of the novels considers the way meanings are constructed by a network of cultural and social discourses which embody distinct codes, expectations and assumptions. This study discusses the ways in which the chosen texts, through their intertexts, display a postmodern impetus towards reappropriating authorized discourse in new and challenging ways, from feminist perspectives. My intertextual readings are alert to two main threads – the critique of aspects of Austrian society evident in the novels of Streeruwitz and Faschinger and their place within the tradition of Österreich-Beschimpfung, and the interventions into issues pertaining to gender. I examine thematic similarities and differences in the texts, which draw attention to specifically Austrian or gender related issues, as well as scrutinizing formal and linguistic elements. Ultimately, my thesis poses and suggests answers to questions regarding strategies of intervention by feminist authors and the fruitfulness of intertextual readings.
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Robb, Paul H. "Graham Greene's use of evil in selected novels." Virtual Press, 1988. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/533881.
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Korhonen, Jenny. "Racism and multiculturalism in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-32144.
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In this essay, the Harry Potter series will be analyzed in three different sections. I will use African American criticism and Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the discussion of ‘race’ and segregation that occurs between three different groups. This section will explain along what lines the world of Harry Potter is segregated and to what extent. Further, it will contain a case-study of house-elves through the lens of postcolonial criticism, that shows how certain groups are relegated to the status of “subaltern”, what form their oppression take and how they respond to it. I have chosen the elves, who are at the very bottom of the social ladder, because the extent of their oppression has been cut out from movie adaptions, and Rowling herself has liquidated the house-elf plot from the last novels. They provide the clearest example of differentiation between the groups of magical creatures, even though as a group they do not play an important part the series. The main concepts that will be used in this section are the issues of subaltern, mimicry and anticolonialist resistance. Finally, I will look at the novels through a multicultural perspective to see how Rowling has portrayed contemporary multicultural England and how it connects to the racial divisions in the magical world.
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Dass, Minesh. "“The stranger at home” : representations of home and hospitality in three South African post-transitional novels." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1016355.
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This thesis examines the representation of home and hospitality in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light, Ishtiyaq Shukri’s The Silent Minaret, and Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative. It attempts to trace the un-homeliness of the central characters and to account for their feelings of discomfort. As such, it argues that the home is incapable of being inviolable because the invasion of the public is always a possibility. The implication is that master narratives such as race, history and politics are always entering the space one constructs as private. That said, this study also argues that the home and those things with which it is most closely associated, such as belonging, comfort and safety, may actually hide a form of violence. By this I mean that in the desire for homeliness, one may exclude others from one’s home. Consequently, this argument draws on Jacques Derrida’s writings on the aporia of conditional and unconditional hospitality to investigate what ethical possibilities might, somewhat unexpectedly, be created by the un-homely home. The study is therefore an exploration of the potentials that inhere in a certain kind of un-homeliness, the most important of which is the chance to respond ethically to the alterity of the other. In sum, there is a necessity to extend hospitality beyond condition and beyond limit, and this ethical imperative is at odds with the desire for comfort and safety. The way in which post-transitional novels explore these issues of hospitality and home is the primary focus of this study.
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Huggan, Graham. "The novelist as geographer : a comparison of the novels of Joseph Conrad and Jules Verne." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/26839.
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The works of Joseph Conrad and Jules Verne share a fascination with geography: concern with geographical issues made explicit in their non-fictional works is also implicit in their fiction. Unfortunately, limited knowledge of or interest in geographic theory on the part of the literary critic has made the relation between literature and geography a relatively unpopular focus; to redress the balance, it is necessary to outline briefly some of the ways in which geographical theory may usefully inform the practice of literary criticism. Areas to be introduced include geography and literature as spatial distribution, as spatial perception, as inscription on and description of the environment, as text, as cultural matrix.
The above areas serve as a focus for the comparative analysis of a series of novels by Joseph Conrad and Jules Verne in which three issues are foregrounded: first, the interrelations between concentrated place and surrounding space in the sea-tales The Nigger of the Narcissus and Vingt mille lieues sous les mers; second, the reading and writing of cultural landscape in Heart of Darkness and Voyage au centre de la terre; third, the geopolitics of territory, boundary and landclaim in Lord Jim and L'lle mystérieuse. In each case, relevant geographical theory is drawn upon: in the first instance, the phenomenological notions of Yi-Fu Tuan and Edward Relph; in the second, the landscape evaluations of Carl Sauer and Courtice Rose; in the third, the geopolitical and politico-geographical definitions of Glassner, De Blij and Cohen.
The first section (on The Nigger of the Narcissus and Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) explores the spatial notions of topophilia, placelessness and geometricity inherent in the relation between ship and sea. The second section (on Heart of Darkness and Voyage au centre de la terre) discusses the various connotations of landscape: cultural imprint (rewriting),
false perspective (mis-reading), textual sign-system (encoding/decoding), which suggest that landscape can be interpreted as a controlling mechanism of and means of access to the text. The third section (on Lord Jim and L' Ile mystérieuse) outlines the geographical motifs of the two novels (division, (dis)possession, ascent and descent, etc.) and infers possible motives behind these motifs, relating topographical issues to personal and political ones and paying particular attention to the implications of island environments and communities and to the connections between imperialism, colonialism and narrative strategy.
Finally, the 'literary geography' of Conrad's and Verne's novels is situated in its historical context and related particularly to the late nineteenth-century debate on the relative merits of positivism and phenomenology. In Verne's work, the doctrine of positivism, which has been constituted in terms of an ideology of science, is only celebrated in so far as its limitations are recognized. In Conrad's work, man's struggle to conquer Nature through a physical and verbal mastery of his environment is reinterpreted as an attempt to overcome his own duality. Conrad's predominantly phenomenological geography of the mind serves as a critique of positivist doctrine, but its fractured topography also suggests that the attempt to substitute 'more traditional views of the social and moral order' (Watt, 163) is, perhaps, little more than a saving illusion.Arts, Faculty of
English, Department of
Graduate
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Crous, Matthys Lourens. "Presentations of masculinity in a selection of male-authored post-apartheid novels." Thesis, Link to the online version, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/1672.
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Mason, Christopher. "The politics of experience : social and political criticism in the novels and non-fiction of Doris Lessing : a cultural study." Grenoble 3, 1993. http://www.theses.fr/1993GRE39044.
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Le but de la thèse est d'étudier l'œuvre d'un écrivain engagé, voire critique, à partir de ses écrits, entretiens et romans. Elle comprend une introduction à l'art de Doris Lessing, suivie de sa biographie. Les chapitres iii à x abordent les grands thèmes évoqués dans ses documents (l'Afrique, l’Angleterre, la littérature, la politique, le féminisme, le pacifisme, la psychologie et les sciences sociales, le soufisme). Le chapitre xi propose une présentation générale des romans de Doris Lessing. Les chapitres xii à xv sont consacrés à une étude détaillée de quatre romans spécifiques (Vaincue par la brousse, Le carnet d'or, La cité promise et La terroriste). Le dernier chapitre est une conclusion succincte. Les documents et romans choisis reflètent les principales préoccupations sociales, politiques et littéraires de Mme Lessing tout au long de sa carrière d'écrivain, soit de 1950 à nos jours. La thèse illustre la position de Doris Lessing envers ses deux patries : la Rhodésie du sud et l’AngleterreThe aim of the thesis is to study the work of a committed, critical writer as revealed in the non-fiction and novels of Doris Lessing. The study begins with an introduction to the art of Doris Lessing, followed by biographical details. Chapters iii - x deal with the major themes in Mrs Lessing's non-fiction (Africa, England, literature, politics, feminism, pacifism, psychology and the social sciences, Sufism). Chapter xi offers a general introduction to the novels of Doris Lessing. Chapters xii-xv are devoted to a detailed study of specific novels (the grass is singing, the golden notebook, the four-gated city and the good terrorist). The final chapter is a succinct conclusion. Non-fiction and novels chosen span the entire breadth of Mrs Lessing's writing career from 1950 to the present day and reflect her major social, political and literary preoccupations throughout this period. The thesis illustrates Doris Lessing's position towards her two homelands, southern Rhodesia and England
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Sautter, Sabine. "Irrationality and the development of subjectivity in major novels by William Faulkner, Hermann Broch, and Virginia Woolf." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0017/NQ55379.pdf.
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