Protest in fiction : an approach to Alex la Guma
- Authors: Cornwell, David Gareth Napier
- Date: 1979
- Subjects: La Guma, Alex , South African literature (English) -- Black authors -- History and criticism , Protest literature, South African (English) -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2169 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001820
- Description: From Introduction: Thus for the black South African, the act of creative writing is inescapably a form of political action, and unless he turns his back on the reality which confronts him and retreats into a private imaginary world, it is also a form of social action, Yet Ezekiel Mphahlele has rightly cautioned that "creating an imaginary world" can never be an effective substitute for social act ion . Composing fictions about social and political problems is an indubitably oblique way of seeking a solution to them, and even the tendentious recreation of reality is only a metaphor for its actual transformation. Protest writing in South Africa is paradoxically a form of social action which is also only a parasitical imitation of social action, and therefore its avoidance . The freedom of literary creation described above is ambiguously not only a freedom to express reality, but also a freedom from the constraints of reality. And this suggests why the outlaw was such an important symbol to an earlier generation of rather more self-conscious writers.
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- Date Issued: 1979
Satan and Lucifer: a comparison of their metamorphoses from Angel to Devil in Milton's Paradise lost and Vondel's Lucifer and Adam in Ballingschap
- Authors: Paterson, Lynette
- Date: 1979
- Subjects: Milton, John, 1608-1674 Vondel, Joost van den, 1587-1679
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2184 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001837
- Description: The aim of this thesis is to compare the poetic delineation of the character of Satan in Paradise Lost with that of Lucifer in Lucifer and Adam in Ballingschap, and to consider the influence of the genre in each case , not in order to prove similarities or differences , but rather to allow the characters to illuminate each other. Both Satan and Lucifer develop progressively from angel to devil in the course of the poem or play. However, this process is more than just a physical metamorphosis, or even a moral degeneration. It is in each case a process of identity change, intensely and consciously experienced by the character. The fall is a movement from God to Self. The unfallen creature's integrity consists in his submergence in the Being and Will of God; for the fallen creature integrity means a separate, independent self-hood. In rebelling against their role and duty as Archangel, Satan and Lucifer rebel against submergence in the Being of God and thus against their very nature and the order of things. Consequently they experience personal and psychological disintegration. From this condition of imbalance and uncertainty they both develop to a new state of personal reintegration and unequivocal identity, now as Arch-fiend. In neither case is the process instant or entirely concurrent with the physical fall into Hell. Rather, it is protracted, hence the division of this thesis into sections that focus on the different stages in the development: Archangel, Arch-rebel and Arch- fiend (introduction, p. ii-iii).
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- Date Issued: 1979
The nature and function of setting in Jane Austen's novels
- Authors: Kelly, Patricia Marguerite Wyndham
- Date: 1979
- Subjects: Austen, Jane, 1775-1817 , English fiction , Eighteenth century , Novel , Setting , Northanger Abbey , Pride and Prejudice , Mansfield Park , Emma
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2172 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001823
- Description: This study examines the settings in Jane Austen's six novels. Chapter I introduces the topic generally, and refers briefly to Jane Austen's aims and methods of creating her settings. Short accounts are given of the emphasis put on setting in the criticism of Jane Austen's work; of the chronology of the novels; and of the use made of this aspect of the novel in eighteenth-century predecessors. Chapter II deals with the treatment of place in Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma. The consideration of five novels together makes it possible to generalize about aspects of place common to all , and to discuss particulars peculiar to individual novels without, I hope, excessive repetition. The chapter may be thought disproportionately long, but this aspect of setting is most prominent and important in the delineation of character. Chapter III discusses the handling of spatial detail and time in these five novels. Chapter IV offers a fuller analysis of what is the chief concern of this thesis, the nature and function of setting, in respect of the single novel Persuasion, and attempts to draw together into a coherent whole some of the points made in Chapters II and III. Persuasion separates conveniently from the other works, not only because it was written after them, but more importantly because in it there is a new development in Jane Austen's use of setting. Some critics, notably E.M. Forster and B.C. Southam, have found startlingly new qualities in the setting of Sanditon, and, certainly, the most striking feature of the fragment is the treatment of place. But Jane Austen left off writing Sanditon in March 1817 because of illness, and the twelve chapters make up too small and unfinished a piece to be considered in the same way as the other novels. The Watsons, too, except for some references to it in Chapter I, does not come within the scope of this dissertation. Another introductory point needs to be made briefly. Where it is necessary, the distinction between Jane Austen and the omniscient narrator is observed, but generally, partly because it is clear that Jane Austen's values are close to those of the narrator, and partly because it is convenient, traditional and sensible to do so, the name "Jane Austen" is used to refer both to the actual person and to the narrator of the novels.
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- Date Issued: 1979
The nouvelles of Henry James : a phenomeno-generic approach
- Authors: Bijker, Antony Jan
- Date: 1979
- Subjects: Novelists, American -- 19th century -- Diaries , James, Henry, 1843-1916 -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc. , James, Henry, 1843-1916 -- Diaries
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2168 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001819
- Description: From Introduction: The present work is about the nouvelles of Henry James and not about phenomenology. That is to say that I am more concerned with James's use of the form of the nouvelle than with the illustration of a method. But, as Roland Barthes has pointed out: "How can we tell the novel from the short story, the tale from the myth, suspense drama from tragedy ... without reference to a common model? Any critical attempt to describe even the most specific, the most historically orientated narrative form implies such a model. "I Hence, because phenomenology is somewhat alien to the Anglo-American critical sensibility, I must temporarily reverse this emphasis and discuss the phenomenological "model" that underlies my investigation of James and the nouvelle form. Elsewhere phenomenological theory will take precedence only when it throws light on what is a highly elusive genre.
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- Date Issued: 1979
From novice to master craftsman: a study of Athol Fugard's plays
- Authors: Hogge, David Somerville
- Date: 1978
- Subjects: Fugard, Athol -- Criticism and interpretation , Dramatists, South African -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2302 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012328 , Fugard, Athol -- Criticism and interpretation , Dramatists, South African -- 20th century
- Description: Athol Fugard was born in Middelburg, Karroo, on the 11th June; 1932, his mother an Afrikaner, his father an English-speaking South African, possibly of Irish descent. When he was three years old, the family sold the small general dealer's store in the village and moved to Port Elizabeth, which has been his home ever since, though he has lived at various times in Europe, America, and other parts of Africa. After schooling at Port Elizabeth Technical College, he went to the University of Cape Town in 1950, where he read philosophy and social anthropology, supporting himself by working in the vacations as a waiter on the South African Railways. Chapter 1, p. 1.
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- Date Issued: 1978
Pastoralism and the function of the pastoral in late sixteenth century english literature
- Authors: Beard, Margaret Mary
- Date: 1978
- Subjects: English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism , Pastoral literature, English -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2282 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007609 , English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism , Pastoral literature, English -- History and criticism
- Description: In this thesis I have made a study of certain aspects of pastoralism and the pastoral genre in late Elizabethan literature. I have done this because I felt that Elizabethan pastoral writing was, at its best, far more than just a literary exercise undertaken, as was much Continental pastoral writing, to furnish the vernacular with a genre approved by Classical precedent. The strength of Elizabethan pastoral derived from the combination of certain indigenous factors present during Elizabeth's reign, with the current interest in imitating the Classics and introducing a famous genre into the vernacular. There had always been in English literature a strong response to the natural world and this response revealed itself in pastoral writing in which the traditional naturalistic details derived from Classical sources were infused with the grace and strength of direct observation. More importantly, Elizabethan England had a monarch who was not only ideally suited through her sex and celibacy to play the leading role in a pastoral world, but who also actively encouraged and enjoyed the eulogistic sentiments native to the Renaissance pastoral. In the English attempt to imitate a favourite Renaissance version of the pastoral - the use of a pastoral framework to comment on ecclesiastical or political affairs - there was, in Tudor Protestantism, with all its internal conflicts and its vital struggle against the political and spiritual forces of the Roman church, an ideal source of material for eclogues in the style of Mantuan. Such factors ensured that Elizabethan pastoral had a significance and relevance largely lacking in the more academic products of Continental pastoralists. Preface, p. i
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- Date Issued: 1978
Aspects of imagery, syntax and metrics in the poetry of George Herbert
- Authors: Edgecombe, Rodney Stenning
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Herbert, George, 1593-1633 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2294 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011613 , Herbert, George, 1593-1633 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: I intend In this thesis to examine some central features of George Herbert's art - aspects of his imagery syntax and metrics. These topics have been chosen because they encompass large areas of his poetic practice, ramifying as they do into questions of theme, tone and structure. Even a partial. survey of Herbert' s imagery, such as the one I attempt to offer, should enable the reader to judge the range of experience that Herbert brings to bear upon a comparatively circumscribed number of themes, (The "Affliction " poems, for example, are wonderfully diverse, although they have a common thematic centre). A brief examination of the traditions within which Herbert's manipulation of imagery falls should allow one also to judge his resourcefulness, especially in the composites of emblem and symbol he devises on occasion; which in the concluding analyses I attempt to show the structural significance of image patterns in representative poems from The Temple. Thus Chapter I falls into three sections: a brief discussion of emblematic and symbolic traditions together with Herbert 's place in relation to them, a deliberately selective glance over some images (a full examination is far beyond the scope of this thesis), and finally some close analyses of poems in the course of which I try to show the imagery operating as a structural and coordinating device. In Chapter II, I move on to the closely related area of syntax, examining Herbert's formulation of his material, and finding - amongst other things - that there is evidence of "grammatical" imagery where the disposition of a sentence provides a concrete embodiment of the theme. This interrelationship of imagery and syntax (and of imagery and metrics) is a corollory of poetry's organic nature, and in order to stress the mutual collaboration of these features, I have subjected a single poem, "The Flower" to an analysis from three different angles, assuming that each approach will further illuminate the others. All the lyrics would yield riches if treated in this way but my limits of space have naturally precluded so elaborate an undertaking. Even In the analyses of poems that are treated only once, I have been at pains to allow in a glimmering of topics other than that in hand, so as to enlarge the scope of my examination. Although the material in Chapter II is designed to highlight the structural, tonal and thematic effects of syntax in turn, such divisions remain theoretical rather than actual, for they combine almost indivorcibly into a complex whole. Chapter III is patterned like Chapter I in that it moves from a general survey of Herbert's metrics, his rhyme and his stanzaic design, to further close analyses of his metrical procedures in particular lyrics. Both here and in the preceding chapters I have undertaken to look at Herbert's work in close detail, because, as I have already suggested, his is an art of compression, of telescoping a whole range of meanings into the neatest and most compact shape. Given the differences in mode and intention, his poetry often puts one in mind of Jane Austen's fiction - at least in the profundity it achieves within a consciously limited scale and a critical magnifying glass seems to me to be the most apposite aid for such a study as I have undertaken.
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- Date Issued: 1977
The intensifying vision of evil: the Gothic novel (1764-1820) as a self-contained literary cycle
- Authors: Letellier, Robert Ignatius
- Date: 1977
- Subjects: Gothic revival (Literature) , English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism , English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2274 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006920 , Gothic revival (Literature) , English fiction -- 18th century -- History and criticism , English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism
- Description: The purpose of this study is to investigate the Gothic novel, a much neglected and misunderstood school, as a unified literary cycle. Attention has been centred on the domains or sub-systems of the novel where cultural models and generic traits are particularly important and distinguishable: character, plot (with the necessary evocation of a fictional world), theme and symbol. No apology is offered for the many quotations: far too little recourse is made to the texts in most discussions of the Gothic novel and this has all too frequently led to misapprehensions and unfounded generalizations. The opening section places the genre in a historio-literary context, and centres attention on the major novels, while the final section opens additional perspectives on the cycle, suggests the importance of the Gothic school for modern times, and illustrates the inevitability of its central vision of evil.
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- Date Issued: 1977
Poetic situation in the poetry of John Crowe Ransom
- Authors: Driver, Dorothy
- Date: 1975
- Subjects: Ransom, John Crowe,1888-1974 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2292 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011459 , Ransom, John Crowe,1888-1974 -- Criticism and interpretation
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- Date Issued: 1975
A share in pain and passion: the women of Synge's plays
- Authors: Finn, Stephen Michael
- Date: 1974
- Subjects: Synge, J. M. (John Millington), 1871-1909 , English literature -- Irish authors -- History and criticism , English drama -- Irish authors -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2295 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011865 , Synge, J. M. (John Millington), 1871-1909 , English literature -- Irish authors -- History and criticism , English drama -- Irish authors -- History and criticism
- Description: Synge's plays contain some of the most arresting figures in modern drama, his characterization second only to his unique language, the most striking feature of his writing. Of the men, only Christy Mahon and Martin Doul stand out but the women form a brilliant company usually overshadowing the other characters. Chapter 1, p. 1.
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- Date Issued: 1974
A structural investigation of the short stories of Katherine Mansfield with special reference to the idea of the true and false self
- Authors: Geldenhuys, M F
- Date: 1974
- Subjects: Mansfield, Katherine, 1888-1923 -- Criticism and interpretation , Short stories , Self in literatur
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2296 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011969
- Description: A survey of the available literature on Katherine Mansfield has shown that, in the five decades which have elapsed since the author's death, critical interest has gradually, but significantly, altered its direction. Despite the workmanlike assessments of such critics as David Daiches in Britain and Andre Maurois in France, and the recognition of her mastery of the short story form by such fellow practitioners of the art as H.E. Bates and Elizabeth Bowen, the mainstream of criticism tended, in the first decades after the author's death, to centre less upon the characteristics of the work itself than upon a cult- like fascination, initiated, perhaps, by the perceptive but over-interested pen of Middleton Murry. Only more recently has this tendency been superseded by a more rigorous scrutiny of the stories themselves; thus the excellence of the author 's technique has now become a major concern. Recent recognition has been accorded, too, to the fact that the stories were in the vanguard of their time with regard to the choice of, as well as the treatment of, theme. Intro. p. 1-2.
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- Date Issued: 1974
Some aspects of John Clare's pastoral vision as reflected in the The Shepherd's Calendar, sonnets and other selected poems
- Authors: Pyott, Maureen
- Date: 1974
- Subjects: Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Clare, John, 1793-1864 -- Criticism and interpretation , Pastoral poetry, English , Country life -- England -- Poetry , Nature -- Poetry
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2281 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007580 , Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Clare, John, 1793-1864 -- Criticism and interpretation , Pastoral poetry, English , Country life -- England -- Poetry , Nature -- Poetry
- Description: From Preface: In this thesis it is proposed to examine the pastoral vision, symbolized by Eden, which permeates Clare's poetry, as it is reflected in The Shepherd's Calendar, the sonnets (certain of which will be analysed in detail) and a group of lyrics. This pastoral vision, while including time and space, transcends them in such a way that Eternity becomes an important concept in Clare's pastoral poems. The final chapter of this thesis will, therefore, concentrate on this aspect of Clare's pastoral vision, not by attempting to define Clare's understanding of Eternity, but by illustrating it in four of his lyrics. Because of the lack of a full and reliable text of the complete works of John Clare and the inability of the present writer to establish for certain the chronological order of his poems, there will be no attempt in this thesis to show a development in Clare's poetry. Nor will there be an attempt to evaluate in the light of Clare's "madness" those poems known to have been written while he was in a mental asylum - a non-literary study requiring knowledge associated with the discipline of psychology; and the present writer concurs in the opinion that "it is the continuity of Clare's life and ways of thought and feeling which claims one's attention, rather than the disruptions of insanity".
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- Date Issued: 1974
The place of man and nature in the shorter poems of William Wordsworth, 1793-1806
- Authors: Mirkin, Barry
- Date: 1974
- Subjects: Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2285 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007656 , Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: Introduction: This present essay is an analysis of the place of man and nature in [Wordsworth's] poetry ... I have been concerned essentially with trying to discover how Wordsworth used his two most prominent poetic subjects. I have attempted to trace Wordsworth's development from the poet of nature, to the poet of man, and finally to the poet of man and nature. What I have hoped would emerge from this essay is an understanding of Wordsworth's relationship with nature and his attitude to it in the poems. I have attempted to stress that man and humanity were not always important to Wordsworth as a poet, and that their importance does not eventually equal that of nature. For by 1807 man, the mind of man and humanity in general are very much more important and much more vital as poetic subjects than is nature. I have tried to show that Wordsworth was at different times a poet of landscape descriptions, a poet interested only in man and humanity, and finally a poet interested in man within nature.
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- Date Issued: 1974
A study of the tragedy of Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
- Authors: Knox, Catherine Mary
- Date: 1973
- Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Coriolanus , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2304 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012642 , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Coriolanus , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: It would be difficult to prove conclusively that Shakespeare was not invited or requested to write a play based on the popular story of Coriolanus. J.M. Robertson concretises this possibility with an intriguing thesis that the play was in fact rewritten from an original by Chapman. The story, he argues, would have had a far greater appeal to Chapman with his consuming interest in the heroic age of Classical antiquity, than to Shakespeare. Further, it is likely, he says, that Chapman was familiar with Alexandre Hardy 's Coriolan which, it is generally accepted, Shakespeare was not, hence the startling similarities in some of the two plays' deviations from their common source. This is hardly a more satisfactory explanation than the kind of airy alternative that disposes of the mystery by saying the source material is such that it would invite any dramatist to make similar changes. Chap. 1
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- Date Issued: 1973
Coleridge on drama
- Authors: Wagstaff, Brian John
- Date: 1973
- Subjects: Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 -- Dramatic works , Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 -- Criticism and interpretation , English drama -- 18th century -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2276 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007255 , Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 -- Dramatic works , Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 -- Criticism and interpretation , English drama -- 18th century -- History and criticism
- Description: From Introduction: In the Preface to his book The idea of Coleridge's Criticism, Richard Harter Fogle states: There is... I am confident, a need for such a study as I here introduce; a study of Coleridge's criticism in itself, tentatively accepting the metaphysical assumptions on which it is based and focusing upon its central principles and inner relationship; endeavouring without direct regard for its external connections to the past and the present to see it as a whole, yet at the same time anxiously regardful of its permanent significance and its bearing upon practical criticism. These are the principles on which I have based this thesis, applied more particularly to Coleridge's criticism of drama.
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- Date Issued: 1973
Dr Johnson's critical assumptions in the preface to Shakespeare: an essay in descriptive method
- Authors: Gouws, John Stephen
- Date: 1973
- Subjects: Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 -- Criticism and interpretation , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2298 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012073 , Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784 -- Criticism and interpretation , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: "His criticism may be considered as general or occasional. In his general precepts, which depend upon the nature of things and the structure of the human mind, he may doubtlessly be safely recommended to the confidence of the reader: but his occasional and particular positions were sometimes interested, sometimes negligent, and sometimes capricious." With certain qualifications, it would be the opinion of those critics who share a great admiration of the man that this statement might well have been made of Johnson himself. There are those, however, whose esteem of Johnson is perhaps not so great. One thus finds Alan Tate writing: "One is constantly impressed by Johnson's consistency of point of view, over the long pull of his self-dedication to letters. There is seldom either consistency or precision in his particular judgements and definitions -- a defect that perhaps accounts negatively for his greatness as a critic: the perpetual reformulation of his standards, with his eye on the poetry, has done much to keep eighteenth century verse alive in our day. His theories (if his ideas ever reach that level of logical abstraction) are perhaps too simple for our taste and too improvised; but his reading is disciplined and acute." Tate is eager to perpetuate the notion of Johnson as a critic with a massive common sense and little more, an imputation which Johnson would not only resent, but dismiss as short-sighted. Intro., p. 1.
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- Date Issued: 1973
The lyric vision of W. H. Davies: pastoral, the unintelligible universe, community
- Authors: Rabinowitz, Ivan Arthur
- Date: 1973
- Subjects: Davies, W. H. (William Henry), 1871-1940 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 20th century , Poets, English -- 20th century -- Biography
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2280 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007579 , Davies, W. H. (William Henry), 1871-1940 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 20th century , Poets, English -- 20th century -- Biography
- Description: From Introductory note: The Complete Poems of W.H. Davies (London: Jonathan Cape, 1963; rev. 1968) has been used throughout this study. Accordingly, unless otherwise stated, all citations of poem numbers and pagination refer to this text. Critical literature on the work of W.H. Davies is restricted in quantity and limited in scope. There are few comprehensive assessments of Davies as poet, autobiographer, novelist, or raconteur. Apart from such sources as Richard J. Stonesifer's full-length critical biography (1963), Lawrence Hockey's biographical monograph (1971), and Thomas Moult's anecdotal and historical appreciation (1934), critical material must be drawn from contemporary reviews, isolated articles in magazines such as The Catholic World and Fortnightly Review, and specific chapters in surveys of the poetry of the early twentieth century, although Davies is frequently alluded to passim in literary histories which deal with this period. Many of these studies favour biographical exposition and evaluation rather than descriptive analysis and discursive interpretation. A detailed chronology of Davies's works is included in Stonesifer's discussion. This thesis is not attempting to trace a line of development for two reasons. First, the Complete Poems gives no indication of date of composition or publication of particular poems, and the present writer has access only to the dates of publication of individual volumes as external evidence of a chronology, internal evidence being confined to such infrequent references as "the birds of steel" in Poem no. 236, p. 260. Secondly, the lyrics themselves do not, on the whole, evince much stylistic and thematic development, and the concern of this study is with recurrent themes and techniques dispersed throughout the oeuvre.
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- Date Issued: 1973
The voice of protest in English poetry : with special reference to poets of the first three decades of the twentieth century
- Authors: Verschoor, Edith N E
- Date: 1973
- Subjects: Protest poetry, English -- History and criticism , English poetry -- History and criticism , English poetry -- 20th century -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2277 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007270
- Description: Poetry, like every other form of art, reflects the values of the artist himself as well as the values of the age in which he lives. "I would say that the poet may write about anything provided that the thing matters to him to start with, for then it will bring with it into the poem the intellectual or moral significance which it has for him in life". (Louis MacNeice). This thesis sets out to uncover some of the things which, in the long pageant of English poetry, have "mattered" to poets to such an extent that they have felt compelled to voice their protest against any violation of such things perceived by them in life around them. The basic study has been a search for the different kinds of values and codes of conduct, in social, political and moral spheres, which have been unacceptable to some of the major poets in English, and to examine particularly the manner and the tone of voice in which each one has expressed his disapproval. "Poetry was the mental rattle that awakened the attention of intellect in the infancy of civil society." (T.L.Peacock). English poets who have protested against whatever they regarded as worthy of protest have continued up to the maturity of civil society to be rattles (some soft and mellow, others loud and harsh), to awaken both the intellect and the conscience of their readers.
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- Date Issued: 1973
A survey of South African English verse printed in Cape periodicals and newspapers from 1824-1851
- Authors: Hammond, Carol Anne
- Date: 1972
- Subjects: Mass media and literature -- 19th century , South African poetry (English) -- History and criticism -- 19th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2301 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012146 , Mass media and literature -- 19th century , South African poetry (English) -- History and criticism -- 19th century
- Description: An interest in colonial literature is relatively new in the study of English. English-speaking South Africans especially, cut off as they are, a minority group in a new republic, have begun to re-assess their identity through a study of their existing literature. When asked what South African verse there was beside his own, Kipling remarked, "As to South African verse, it's a case of there's Pringle, and there's Pringle, and after that one must hunt the local papers." This thesis is the result of such a hunt - the hunt being limited to the years 1824 to 1851 - and on occasion, the writer has been tempted to conclude rather unfairly, "And there is only Pringle." It cannot be claimed that every poem ever printed during the period under review has been collected and examined, for the reason that many volumes of old newspapers are no longer available. Nevertheless, it has been possible to make a representative selection, which could provide the raw material for several theses to come. A detailed study of critical criteria prevalent at the Cape during this period, or public taste and the influence especially of the lesser British poets are some of the topics which might repay study. Intro., p. 1.
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- Date Issued: 1972
A reading of Emily Dickinson
- Authors: Wilson, Ian
- Date: 1970
- Subjects: Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2286 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007689 , Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886
- Description: From Chapter 1: Even before the publication of The Poems of Emily Dickinson in the variorum edition by Harvard University in 1955, under the editorship of Thomas H. Johnson, there was a steadily growing interest in the work of this poet and in her position both in the sphere of American literature and in the larger field of English poetry. In 1957, The Letters of Emily Dickinson appeared, with Johnson as editor, and Theodora Ward as associate editor. With this publication critical literature received an incentive to increase and extend the exploration already undertaken.
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- Date Issued: 1970