Form and idea in the fiction and non-fiction of John Fowles
- Authors: Etter, Julie-Anne
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Fowles, John, 1926-2005
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2179 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001830
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1986
- Authors: Etter, Julie-Anne
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Fowles, John, 1926-2005
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2179 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001830
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1986
"Rest and unrest": some rural and romantic themes in the poetry of Edward Thomas
- Authors: Lagan, Charles J
- Date: 1985-12
- Subjects: Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917 , Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2264 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004770 , Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917 , Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 20th century
- Description: From Preface: The scope and focus of this thesis has been determined by the fact that I have tried to present a thematic, though not exhaustive, account of the poetry of Edward Thomas. (I have analysed a representative selection of the poems.) Much has been written on his life and poetry in this past decade to coincide with the centenary of his birth which was celebrated in 1978. Edna Longley, William Cooke and more recently, Andrew Motion have thrown much light on his poetry and I am indebted to them. I acknowledge especially the work of Edna Longley; her Edward Thomas: Poems and Last Poems, though it does not include all the poems, has proved to be an invaluable source because of the many extracts from Thomas's prose incorporated into her notes on his poems. Her book is also rich in suggestive insights into Thomas's poetry. Unfortunately not all of Thomas's works are available in South Africa. On a brief visit overseas I tried without success to obtain the more important books not available here. I have had to make use of anthologies of Thomas's prose where a particular text was not available, for example, In Pursuit of Spring and The South Country. I thank Ms Yolisa Soul who through the Inter Library Loan services of the University of Fort Hare managed to obtain for me a substantial number of Thomas's prose works.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985-12
- Authors: Lagan, Charles J
- Date: 1985-12
- Subjects: Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917 , Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2264 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004770 , Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917 , Thomas, Edward, 1878-1917 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 20th century
- Description: From Preface: The scope and focus of this thesis has been determined by the fact that I have tried to present a thematic, though not exhaustive, account of the poetry of Edward Thomas. (I have analysed a representative selection of the poems.) Much has been written on his life and poetry in this past decade to coincide with the centenary of his birth which was celebrated in 1978. Edna Longley, William Cooke and more recently, Andrew Motion have thrown much light on his poetry and I am indebted to them. I acknowledge especially the work of Edna Longley; her Edward Thomas: Poems and Last Poems, though it does not include all the poems, has proved to be an invaluable source because of the many extracts from Thomas's prose incorporated into her notes on his poems. Her book is also rich in suggestive insights into Thomas's poetry. Unfortunately not all of Thomas's works are available in South Africa. On a brief visit overseas I tried without success to obtain the more important books not available here. I have had to make use of anthologies of Thomas's prose where a particular text was not available, for example, In Pursuit of Spring and The South Country. I thank Ms Yolisa Soul who through the Inter Library Loan services of the University of Fort Hare managed to obtain for me a substantial number of Thomas's prose works.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985-12
A study of the numinous presence in Tennyson's poetry
- Louw, Denise Elizabeth Laurence
- Authors: Louw, Denise Elizabeth Laurence
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2268 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005891 , Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism
- Description: From Preface: A reader looking to this study for a charting of the diverse religious views held by Tennyson at different periods in his life may be disappointed. My primary concern has been not with religious forms, but with the numinous impulse. However, though I approached the topic with a completely open mind, I find my own Christian convictions have been strengthened through the study of Tennyson's poetry. As the title indicates, I have not attempted to deal with the plays. To explore both the poetry and the plays in a study of this length would have been impossible. I have perhaps been somewhat unorthodox in attempting to combine several disciplines, especially since I cannot claim to be a specialist in the areas concerned. However, I felt it necessary to approach the subject from a number of points of view, and to see to what extent the results could be said to converge on some sort of central "truth". When I have despaired of being able to do justice to a particular aspect within the imposed limits, I have sometimes found comfort in the words of Alan Sinfield (The Language of Tennyson's "In Memoriam", p.211): "We can only endeavour continually to approach a little closer to the central mystery; the ma j or advances will be infrequent, but most attempts should furnish one or two hints which others will develop. "
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
- Authors: Louw, Denise Elizabeth Laurence
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2268 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005891 , Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson, Baron, 1809-1892 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- 19th century -- History and criticism
- Description: From Preface: A reader looking to this study for a charting of the diverse religious views held by Tennyson at different periods in his life may be disappointed. My primary concern has been not with religious forms, but with the numinous impulse. However, though I approached the topic with a completely open mind, I find my own Christian convictions have been strengthened through the study of Tennyson's poetry. As the title indicates, I have not attempted to deal with the plays. To explore both the poetry and the plays in a study of this length would have been impossible. I have perhaps been somewhat unorthodox in attempting to combine several disciplines, especially since I cannot claim to be a specialist in the areas concerned. However, I felt it necessary to approach the subject from a number of points of view, and to see to what extent the results could be said to converge on some sort of central "truth". When I have despaired of being able to do justice to a particular aspect within the imposed limits, I have sometimes found comfort in the words of Alan Sinfield (The Language of Tennyson's "In Memoriam", p.211): "We can only endeavour continually to approach a little closer to the central mystery; the ma j or advances will be infrequent, but most attempts should furnish one or two hints which others will develop. "
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
Spenser's Colin Clout : an introductory study
- Authors: Brown, Molly Anne
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Faerie Queene , English poetry , Epic , Criticism , Interpretation , Clout, Colin (Fictitious character)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2180 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001831
- Description: From introduction: In the sixth book of The Faerie Qveene, the reader is presented with a vision of the Graces and their attendants dancing on Mount Acidale to the piping of a simple shepherd. Spenser identifies this favoured musician as Colin Clout and then goes on to pose a seemingly inconsequential rhetorical question. "Who knowes not Colin Cloute?” he asks. The note of confident pride which can be discerned in the query clearly reveals Spenser's peculiar interest in one of his most intriguing creations. It is almost impossible to read a representative selection of Spenser's poetical works without noticing the hauntingly frequent appearances of his "Southerne shepheardes boye". Colin appears or is named in no fewer than six of Spenser's poems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
- Authors: Brown, Molly Anne
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Faerie Queene , English poetry , Epic , Criticism , Interpretation , Clout, Colin (Fictitious character)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2180 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001831
- Description: From introduction: In the sixth book of The Faerie Qveene, the reader is presented with a vision of the Graces and their attendants dancing on Mount Acidale to the piping of a simple shepherd. Spenser identifies this favoured musician as Colin Clout and then goes on to pose a seemingly inconsequential rhetorical question. "Who knowes not Colin Cloute?” he asks. The note of confident pride which can be discerned in the query clearly reveals Spenser's peculiar interest in one of his most intriguing creations. It is almost impossible to read a representative selection of Spenser's poetical works without noticing the hauntingly frequent appearances of his "Southerne shepheardes boye". Colin appears or is named in no fewer than six of Spenser's poems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
Characters in search of a home: a study of themes in the work of David Storey
- Authors: Howie, Claerwen
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Storey, David, 1933- -- Criticism and interpretation.
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2275 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007222 , Storey, David, 1933- -- Criticism and interpretation.
- Description: From Introduction: Anyone familiar with David Storey's work will find, on reading a brief outline of his life, that much of the inspiration for his novels and plays springs from personal experience. The third son of a coal-miner, he was born in Wakefield on 13 July 1933. He is one of three surviving sons, an older brother having died in childhood. (In Saville and In Celebration the death as a child of a mining family's eldest son has a powerful effect on the parents and some of the remaining brothers.) Although his father wanted his children to reach the middle class through education, Storey has indicated that this ambition was not pursued wholeheartedly.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1984
- Authors: Howie, Claerwen
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: Storey, David, 1933- -- Criticism and interpretation.
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2275 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007222 , Storey, David, 1933- -- Criticism and interpretation.
- Description: From Introduction: Anyone familiar with David Storey's work will find, on reading a brief outline of his life, that much of the inspiration for his novels and plays springs from personal experience. The third son of a coal-miner, he was born in Wakefield on 13 July 1933. He is one of three surviving sons, an older brother having died in childhood. (In Saville and In Celebration the death as a child of a mining family's eldest son has a powerful effect on the parents and some of the remaining brothers.) Although his father wanted his children to reach the middle class through education, Storey has indicated that this ambition was not pursued wholeheartedly.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1984
Dream and the preternatural in the poetry of Walter de la Mare
- Authors: Townsend, Rosemary
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: De la Mare, Walter, 1873-1956 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2258 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004501 , De la Mare, Walter, 1873-1956 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: From Chapter 1: In this chapter I hope to illustrate in general terms how de la Mare's interest in dream and the preternatural pervades his work. His views on reality and in what it truly consists will be considered and definitions provided of various terms used throughout this study. These will approximate as closely as possible the meanings they acquire through de la Mare's own use of them. Some detailed reference to his work, especially to his prose introduction to the anthology Behold, This Dreamer! and to his poem "Dreams", will provide support for the statements made. Finally, an attempt will be made to place de la Mare, briefly and in broad outline, within his literary context, again with particular reference to his interest in dream and the preternatural and where it corresponds to or deviates from what one could expect from a poet of this period.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1984
- Authors: Townsend, Rosemary
- Date: 1984
- Subjects: De la Mare, Walter, 1873-1956 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2258 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004501 , De la Mare, Walter, 1873-1956 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: From Chapter 1: In this chapter I hope to illustrate in general terms how de la Mare's interest in dream and the preternatural pervades his work. His views on reality and in what it truly consists will be considered and definitions provided of various terms used throughout this study. These will approximate as closely as possible the meanings they acquire through de la Mare's own use of them. Some detailed reference to his work, especially to his prose introduction to the anthology Behold, This Dreamer! and to his poem "Dreams", will provide support for the statements made. Finally, an attempt will be made to place de la Mare, briefly and in broad outline, within his literary context, again with particular reference to his interest in dream and the preternatural and where it corresponds to or deviates from what one could expect from a poet of this period.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1984
Some observations on Wordsworth's achievement in sonnet
- Authors: Gubb, Linette Reay
- Date: 1982
- Subjects: Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850. Sonnets
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2270 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006346 , Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850. Sonnets
- Description: From preface: This study seeks to give a perspective on Wordsworth's achievement in sonnet, taking into account all the sonnets he wrote, from the outburst of sonneteering in 1802 to the final decade (1840-1850). My chief concern has been to trace Wordsworth's handling of form and theme throughout his poetic career. A subordinate but related concern has been to try to show that Wordsworth's powers do not diminish after 1815, a date which is sometimes regarded as marking the beginning of the poet's "decline" ~ Wordsworth’s skill in blank verse and in other types of lyric is widely acknowledged; his dexterity in the sonnet form is less well recognized or thought to be limited to fewer poems (usually those of the earlier years) than there actually are. As a result, his performance in sonnet is sometimes underestimated, there being more sonnet concerns and structural patterns than the well-known few reflect. It is possible that Wordsworth's own ambiguous attitude to the genre as expressed in his prose writings, together with his insistence that his sonnets were not amongst the best of his poems, has helped to foster such a view. His practice in sonnet, however, proves that his genius is as evident in some of these poems as it is elsewhere, whether he esteemed them less or not.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1982
- Authors: Gubb, Linette Reay
- Date: 1982
- Subjects: Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850. Sonnets
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2270 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006346 , Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850. Sonnets
- Description: From preface: This study seeks to give a perspective on Wordsworth's achievement in sonnet, taking into account all the sonnets he wrote, from the outburst of sonneteering in 1802 to the final decade (1840-1850). My chief concern has been to trace Wordsworth's handling of form and theme throughout his poetic career. A subordinate but related concern has been to try to show that Wordsworth's powers do not diminish after 1815, a date which is sometimes regarded as marking the beginning of the poet's "decline" ~ Wordsworth’s skill in blank verse and in other types of lyric is widely acknowledged; his dexterity in the sonnet form is less well recognized or thought to be limited to fewer poems (usually those of the earlier years) than there actually are. As a result, his performance in sonnet is sometimes underestimated, there being more sonnet concerns and structural patterns than the well-known few reflect. It is possible that Wordsworth's own ambiguous attitude to the genre as expressed in his prose writings, together with his insistence that his sonnets were not amongst the best of his poems, has helped to foster such a view. His practice in sonnet, however, proves that his genius is as evident in some of these poems as it is elsewhere, whether he esteemed them less or not.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1982
An investigation into the nature and function of prescribed literature in schools and a comparative study of the required reading in English literature in school syllabuses in South Africa, Rhodesia and the ex-High Commission Territories from 1945-1980
- Authors: Marzo, Patricia Beatrice
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: English literature -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , English literature -- Study and teaching -- Zimbabwe , South African literature (English) -- Study and teaching , South African literature (English) -- History and criticism -- 20th century , Zimbabwean literature (English) -- History and criticism -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2273 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006887 , English literature -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , English literature -- Study and teaching -- Zimbabwe , South African literature (English) -- Study and teaching , South African literature (English) -- History and criticism -- 20th century , Zimbabwean literature (English) -- History and criticism -- 20th century
- Description: From preface: The original purpose of this thesis was to make a comparative study of all the English literature which had been prescribed from 1945 to 1980 for study by all high school pupils in the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe and the ex-High Commission Territories. This proved to be a formidable task. However, most of the material collected, including all the individual poems prescribed, was recorded in table form. This proved too bulky a system for comparative purposes and the field was narrowed to include only that English literature which had been prescribed for candidates writing Matriculation or Senior Certificate examinations on the higher grade as part of the English Language syllabus. From time to time, however, reference will be made in this thesis to prescriptions for the lower grades and for the lower standards.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
- Authors: Marzo, Patricia Beatrice
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: English literature -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , English literature -- Study and teaching -- Zimbabwe , South African literature (English) -- Study and teaching , South African literature (English) -- History and criticism -- 20th century , Zimbabwean literature (English) -- History and criticism -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2273 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006887 , English literature -- Study and teaching -- South Africa , English literature -- Study and teaching -- Zimbabwe , South African literature (English) -- Study and teaching , South African literature (English) -- History and criticism -- 20th century , Zimbabwean literature (English) -- History and criticism -- 20th century
- Description: From preface: The original purpose of this thesis was to make a comparative study of all the English literature which had been prescribed from 1945 to 1980 for study by all high school pupils in the Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe and the ex-High Commission Territories. This proved to be a formidable task. However, most of the material collected, including all the individual poems prescribed, was recorded in table form. This proved too bulky a system for comparative purposes and the field was narrowed to include only that English literature which had been prescribed for candidates writing Matriculation or Senior Certificate examinations on the higher grade as part of the English Language syllabus. From time to time, however, reference will be made in this thesis to prescriptions for the lower grades and for the lower standards.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
Freedom and form in the fiction of Doris Lessing
- Authors: Flischman, Rita
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: Lessing, Doris May, 1919- -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2269 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005921 , Lessing, Doris May, 1919- -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: From Introduction: This thesis then is a detailed study of Lessing's novels in an attempt to show her development as a writer. Her short stories are handled briefly in connection with her novels. For, although the short stories are among her finest work, focus on the novels is sufficient to show her growth as a writer. Hers is the small individual struggle to overcome the limitations of both her content and her form. To overcome the limitations of her content means expanding her own consciousness and re-forming life itself. Only when she is free and the world is free can she overcome the limitations of her content. Then, of course, she need no longer and can no longer write. The task seems as impossible as that of the dung beetles, but she nevertheless continues. Like the sacred beetles with "the sun between their feet" she carries on rolling the muck of the world into symbols of the truth.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
- Authors: Flischman, Rita
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: Lessing, Doris May, 1919- -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2269 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005921 , Lessing, Doris May, 1919- -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: From Introduction: This thesis then is a detailed study of Lessing's novels in an attempt to show her development as a writer. Her short stories are handled briefly in connection with her novels. For, although the short stories are among her finest work, focus on the novels is sufficient to show her growth as a writer. Hers is the small individual struggle to overcome the limitations of both her content and her form. To overcome the limitations of her content means expanding her own consciousness and re-forming life itself. Only when she is free and the world is free can she overcome the limitations of her content. Then, of course, she need no longer and can no longer write. The task seems as impossible as that of the dung beetles, but she nevertheless continues. Like the sacred beetles with "the sun between their feet" she carries on rolling the muck of the world into symbols of the truth.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
The poetry of Guy Butler
- Authors: Van der Mescht, Hennie
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: Butler, Guy, 1918-2001 -- Criticism and interpretation , South African poetry (English)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2256 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004387 , Butler, Guy, 1918-2001 -- Criticism and interpretation , South African poetry (English)
- Description: This study of ButIer's poetry proceeds chronologically in accordance with the dates of composition of his poems. The first task has, therefore, been the compilation of a chronology of his poems. Butler rarely dates his poems; nor does he keep a diary. Yet there are several criteria which make sensible dating of his poems possible. The first is the date of publication of individual poems. Many of the poems which appear in one or more of the five collections were published earlier in army magazines, student newspapers, and the like. A work which can be traced back to one of these early sources may be assumed to have been written fairly soon before its date of publication. Another criterion is subject. It is possible to discern periods in the poet's career in relation to the subjects of his poems. The most obvious example is the War Period. Allied to subject is the criterion of theme. To use the War Period again, poems written during or immediately after the war years all treat the theme of man's dehumanisation. Both subject and theme are linked with biography. It is often possible to ascertain Butler's location from details in the poem; knowledge of his movements thus enables one to date such a poem. Butler's style is the most significant criteion. This study is based on the observation that his style develops as time passes. The Butler of the Sixties is different from the Butler of the Fifties as far as style of writing is concerned. A poem which defies dating on all other grounds cannot escape this ultimate test. Each of these criteria - date of publication, subject matter and theme linked to biography, and style - has limited reliability as a guide to dating the poems. But combined they are a meaningful instrument to assist in the structuring of a chronology whose most valuable source was the poet himself who was kind enough to search his memory for dates. The fact that Butler rewrote or revised a number of his poems several times does of course raise the question: Is the first version merely a stage in the development of the poem, or a poem in its own right? This study is based on the opinion that a poem is a poem, regardless of the number of versions which precede or follow it, provided it is a complete statement. Each version should, in fact, be regarded as representative of the poet's thoughts, feelings, and skills at the time he wrote it, and is lndependent of subsequent versions. For the purposes of this chronology, poems have been placed at the time of the experience from which they grew. This thesis does, however , take cognizance of the ehanges in style or theme later versions may reveal.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
- Authors: Van der Mescht, Hennie
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: Butler, Guy, 1918-2001 -- Criticism and interpretation , South African poetry (English)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2256 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004387 , Butler, Guy, 1918-2001 -- Criticism and interpretation , South African poetry (English)
- Description: This study of ButIer's poetry proceeds chronologically in accordance with the dates of composition of his poems. The first task has, therefore, been the compilation of a chronology of his poems. Butler rarely dates his poems; nor does he keep a diary. Yet there are several criteria which make sensible dating of his poems possible. The first is the date of publication of individual poems. Many of the poems which appear in one or more of the five collections were published earlier in army magazines, student newspapers, and the like. A work which can be traced back to one of these early sources may be assumed to have been written fairly soon before its date of publication. Another criterion is subject. It is possible to discern periods in the poet's career in relation to the subjects of his poems. The most obvious example is the War Period. Allied to subject is the criterion of theme. To use the War Period again, poems written during or immediately after the war years all treat the theme of man's dehumanisation. Both subject and theme are linked with biography. It is often possible to ascertain Butler's location from details in the poem; knowledge of his movements thus enables one to date such a poem. Butler's style is the most significant criteion. This study is based on the observation that his style develops as time passes. The Butler of the Sixties is different from the Butler of the Fifties as far as style of writing is concerned. A poem which defies dating on all other grounds cannot escape this ultimate test. Each of these criteria - date of publication, subject matter and theme linked to biography, and style - has limited reliability as a guide to dating the poems. But combined they are a meaningful instrument to assist in the structuring of a chronology whose most valuable source was the poet himself who was kind enough to search his memory for dates. The fact that Butler rewrote or revised a number of his poems several times does of course raise the question: Is the first version merely a stage in the development of the poem, or a poem in its own right? This study is based on the opinion that a poem is a poem, regardless of the number of versions which precede or follow it, provided it is a complete statement. Each version should, in fact, be regarded as representative of the poet's thoughts, feelings, and skills at the time he wrote it, and is lndependent of subsequent versions. For the purposes of this chronology, poems have been placed at the time of the experience from which they grew. This thesis does, however , take cognizance of the ehanges in style or theme later versions may reveal.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
Trapped identity in the novels of Dan Jacobson
- Authors: Bekker, Janine
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: Jacobson, Dan -- Criticism and interpretation , Identity (Philosophical concept) in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2260 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004545 , Jacobson, Dan -- Criticism and interpretation , Identity (Philosophical concept) in literature
- Description: Dan Jacobson has written short stories, many non-fiction articles and eight novels: The Trap (1955), A Dance in The Sun (1956), The Price of Diamonds (1957), The Evidence of Love (1959), The Beginners (1966), The Rape of Tamar (1970), The Wonder-Worker (1973), and · The Confessions of Josef Baisz (1977) . The first five are all set in South Africa, though Jacobson has been living in England since 1954, i.e. since before his first novel was published. A distinct break in terms of subject matter and voice occurs after The Beginners , giving Jacobson what he calls "two rounds as a novelist. But critics recognizing this break seem not to have recognized that all eight novels are linked by certain thematic preoccupations, notably the notion of the trapped identity, which this thesis will attempt to demonstrate. On a first reading of Jacobson's work one is drawn to affirm his portrayal of the position of the white English-speaking South African, but a closer reading reveals that he does not speak as vitally to the South African situation as he seems to, or has been taken to do. Why this should be so is the second main concern of this thesis. In the first chapter the expectations underlying English literary activity in South Africa are outlined, as this is a necessary background to the discussion of Jacobson's South African novels. (Introduction, p. 4)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
- Authors: Bekker, Janine
- Date: 1981
- Subjects: Jacobson, Dan -- Criticism and interpretation , Identity (Philosophical concept) in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2260 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004545 , Jacobson, Dan -- Criticism and interpretation , Identity (Philosophical concept) in literature
- Description: Dan Jacobson has written short stories, many non-fiction articles and eight novels: The Trap (1955), A Dance in The Sun (1956), The Price of Diamonds (1957), The Evidence of Love (1959), The Beginners (1966), The Rape of Tamar (1970), The Wonder-Worker (1973), and · The Confessions of Josef Baisz (1977) . The first five are all set in South Africa, though Jacobson has been living in England since 1954, i.e. since before his first novel was published. A distinct break in terms of subject matter and voice occurs after The Beginners , giving Jacobson what he calls "two rounds as a novelist. But critics recognizing this break seem not to have recognized that all eight novels are linked by certain thematic preoccupations, notably the notion of the trapped identity, which this thesis will attempt to demonstrate. On a first reading of Jacobson's work one is drawn to affirm his portrayal of the position of the white English-speaking South African, but a closer reading reveals that he does not speak as vitally to the South African situation as he seems to, or has been taken to do. Why this should be so is the second main concern of this thesis. In the first chapter the expectations underlying English literary activity in South Africa are outlined, as this is a necessary background to the discussion of Jacobson's South African novels. (Introduction, p. 4)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1981
Extinction as consummation: an exposition of Virginia Woolf's mataphysic of visionary relation
- Authors: Ryan, Rory
- Date: 1979
- Subjects: Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941 , Virginia Woolf
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2171 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001822
- Description: What follows is an attempt to circumscribe Virginia Woolf's ideas on life and death, the relation between self and all that which is not self, and the nature of reality, in short, Woolf's vision. I hope that whatever unity and structure may exist in the vision will not be overlooked, and moreover, I intend to avoid imposing a unity where none exists, whether the absence of unity is intentional or accidental
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1979
- Authors: Ryan, Rory
- Date: 1979
- Subjects: Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941 , Virginia Woolf
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2171 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001822
- Description: What follows is an attempt to circumscribe Virginia Woolf's ideas on life and death, the relation between self and all that which is not self, and the nature of reality, in short, Woolf's vision. I hope that whatever unity and structure may exist in the vision will not be overlooked, and moreover, I intend to avoid imposing a unity where none exists, whether the absence of unity is intentional or accidental
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1979
Protest in fiction : an approach to Alex la Guma
- Cornwell, David Gareth Napier
- 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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1979
- 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.
- Full Text:
- 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).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1979
- 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).
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1979
The nature and function of setting in Jane Austen's novels
- Kelly, Patricia Marguerite Wyndham
- 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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1979
- 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.
- Full Text:
- 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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1979
- 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.
- Full Text:
- 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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1978
- 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.
- Full Text:
- 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
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1978
- 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
- Full Text:
- 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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
- 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.
- Full Text:
- 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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977
- 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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1977