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
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 naive moral as a possible mental attitude behind the outlaw-motif in English medieval narratives and its influence upon the structure of Thomas Lodge's "Rosalynde" and Shakespeare's "As you like it"
- Authors: Ruthrof, Horst
- Date: 1967
- Subjects: Literature and morals , English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 , English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2312 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013105
- Description: The idea for this thesis originated in a seminar concerned with short forms of epic literature. It is meant to throw some light on the development of rudimentary narrative technique, especially on the influence a particular motif can exert on a writer's mind and the final form of his work. Preface, p. 7.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1967
- Authors: Ruthrof, Horst
- Date: 1967
- Subjects: Literature and morals , English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 , English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2312 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013105
- Description: The idea for this thesis originated in a seminar concerned with short forms of epic literature. It is meant to throw some light on the development of rudimentary narrative technique, especially on the influence a particular motif can exert on a writer's mind and the final form of his work. Preface, p. 7.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1967
The motif of initiation in selected works by Joseph Conrad
- Authors: Doherty, Helen
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 -- Criticism and interpretation , Initiation rites in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2220 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002263 , Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 -- Criticism and interpretation , Initiation rites in literature
- Description: This thesis explores the archetypal theme of initiation in selected texts by Joseph Conrad. The Introduction first surveys critical attention to initiatory motifs in Conrad with the objective of demonstrating the need for an approach to the topic informed by a more formal and theorized understanding of initiation. It then offers a prima facie case for the centrality of the idea of initiation in Conrad's oeuvre, based on references culled from a range of the author's writings. Chapter One seeks to contextualise initiation by providing a history of anthropological research into and theorisations of the rite, proceeding to a description of its typical structure and functions. A detailed account is given of the most widely accepted model of initiation, Arnold van Gennep's tripartite schema. Moving on to Conrad's writing, Chapter Two draws on both his fiction and more personal writings in order to provide a provisional account of the writer's own understanding of initiation and its importance, and to offer some explanation of why Conrad should have been prompted to accord the motif such prominence in his work. Conrad's presentation and (impliedly) his understanding of initiation was never entirely consistent and underwent some change in the course of his writing career. The critical assessment of "Typhoon" in Chapter Three depicts Conrad's more optimistic conception of initiation as a rite benefitting both society, by promoting solidarity, and the individual, by advancing self-knowledge. Chapter Four introduces, via analyses of the novellas "Youth" and "The Shadow Line", that variation on the motif of initiation which is more typical of its manifestation in Conrad: the failure of individuals to complete their cycles of initiation. Chapter Five identifies those characteristics of initiation which appear to be determinative in the representations of incomplete initiation in Conrad's work. Initiation seems to play out approximately seven paradoxes; the impact of some of these is examined through analysis of the initiatory ordeals of the main protagonists in The Secret Agent. Integral to this discussion is an attempt to demonstrate the vital role which initiation plays in the healthy maintenance not only of social order but also of faith and life itself. The Conclusion summarises the more important findings of the study and indicates some directions for further, related research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
- Authors: Doherty, Helen
- Date: 1998
- Subjects: Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 -- Criticism and interpretation , Initiation rites in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2220 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002263 , Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924 -- Criticism and interpretation , Initiation rites in literature
- Description: This thesis explores the archetypal theme of initiation in selected texts by Joseph Conrad. The Introduction first surveys critical attention to initiatory motifs in Conrad with the objective of demonstrating the need for an approach to the topic informed by a more formal and theorized understanding of initiation. It then offers a prima facie case for the centrality of the idea of initiation in Conrad's oeuvre, based on references culled from a range of the author's writings. Chapter One seeks to contextualise initiation by providing a history of anthropological research into and theorisations of the rite, proceeding to a description of its typical structure and functions. A detailed account is given of the most widely accepted model of initiation, Arnold van Gennep's tripartite schema. Moving on to Conrad's writing, Chapter Two draws on both his fiction and more personal writings in order to provide a provisional account of the writer's own understanding of initiation and its importance, and to offer some explanation of why Conrad should have been prompted to accord the motif such prominence in his work. Conrad's presentation and (impliedly) his understanding of initiation was never entirely consistent and underwent some change in the course of his writing career. The critical assessment of "Typhoon" in Chapter Three depicts Conrad's more optimistic conception of initiation as a rite benefitting both society, by promoting solidarity, and the individual, by advancing self-knowledge. Chapter Four introduces, via analyses of the novellas "Youth" and "The Shadow Line", that variation on the motif of initiation which is more typical of its manifestation in Conrad: the failure of individuals to complete their cycles of initiation. Chapter Five identifies those characteristics of initiation which appear to be determinative in the representations of incomplete initiation in Conrad's work. Initiation seems to play out approximately seven paradoxes; the impact of some of these is examined through analysis of the initiatory ordeals of the main protagonists in The Secret Agent. Integral to this discussion is an attempt to demonstrate the vital role which initiation plays in the healthy maintenance not only of social order but also of faith and life itself. The Conclusion summarises the more important findings of the study and indicates some directions for further, related research.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1998
The morality play as prelude to Elizabethan drama
- Authors: Oosthuizen, Ann
- Date: 1966
- Subjects: Moralities, English , English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- Classical influences
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2309 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012990
- Description: Although it is generally accepted that the Morality Plays greatly influenced Elizabethan drama, this statement is often followed by the rider that they are dull and lifeless and that their chief legacy is a sense of moral earnestness which also characterises the best Elizabethan drama. The aim of this thesis has been to read the Morality Plays closely and in an appreciative spirit in order to find out what significant contribution they do make to the techniques of Elizabethan drama and to a proper understanding of it. Chapter I discusses the earliest complete Morality, The Castle of Perseverance, which is the longest and most comprehensive of all the Moralities. The chapter tries to show what a Morality is about and how it differs from the great mediaeval cyclus, the Mystery Plays. It is also an attempt to relate the early Morality Play to other mediaeval literature and to show that it is closely linked to the homeletic literature of the period. Chapter II is a study of three Moralities of the period 1500- 1520. There are fewer Moralities in this period and the plays chosen show a marked similarity to The Castle of Perserverance in their structure, although they differ from the earlier Moralities in their attitude to their subject matter and in their portrayal of the different allegorical characters. The plays under discussion are Nature, Mundus et Infans and Magnyfycence Chapter III; the period after 1535 was a period of great political and religious upheaval and this chapter discusses the plays written for propaganda purposes in the strife between Catholic and Protestant. John Bale's Three Laws, an anti-Catholic play, was chosen because Bale is a startlingly original dramatist who makes use of techniques derived from the liturgy and from emblematic devices, and because he tries to mould the Mystery Plays and the History Plays into a Morality framework. The other plays The Conflict of Conscience was chosen because of its affinity to Dr Faustus and also because it tries to show the psychomachia in psychological, personal terms rather than in a general allegorical manner. Chapter IV discusses three later Moralities, Cambyses, Horestes and Appius Virginia, which portray historical or fictional characters in situations of conflict. They were chosen because they seem to show that the Morality Plays laid the bases for the Elizabethan tragic situation and the Elizabethan tragic hero. With such diverse material, it is difficult to trace a clear line of development from one play to the next, but each group of plays has its own contribution to make to our understanding of Elizabethan drama.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1966
- Authors: Oosthuizen, Ann
- Date: 1966
- Subjects: Moralities, English , English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- Classical influences
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2309 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012990
- Description: Although it is generally accepted that the Morality Plays greatly influenced Elizabethan drama, this statement is often followed by the rider that they are dull and lifeless and that their chief legacy is a sense of moral earnestness which also characterises the best Elizabethan drama. The aim of this thesis has been to read the Morality Plays closely and in an appreciative spirit in order to find out what significant contribution they do make to the techniques of Elizabethan drama and to a proper understanding of it. Chapter I discusses the earliest complete Morality, The Castle of Perseverance, which is the longest and most comprehensive of all the Moralities. The chapter tries to show what a Morality is about and how it differs from the great mediaeval cyclus, the Mystery Plays. It is also an attempt to relate the early Morality Play to other mediaeval literature and to show that it is closely linked to the homeletic literature of the period. Chapter II is a study of three Moralities of the period 1500- 1520. There are fewer Moralities in this period and the plays chosen show a marked similarity to The Castle of Perserverance in their structure, although they differ from the earlier Moralities in their attitude to their subject matter and in their portrayal of the different allegorical characters. The plays under discussion are Nature, Mundus et Infans and Magnyfycence Chapter III; the period after 1535 was a period of great political and religious upheaval and this chapter discusses the plays written for propaganda purposes in the strife between Catholic and Protestant. John Bale's Three Laws, an anti-Catholic play, was chosen because Bale is a startlingly original dramatist who makes use of techniques derived from the liturgy and from emblematic devices, and because he tries to mould the Mystery Plays and the History Plays into a Morality framework. The other plays The Conflict of Conscience was chosen because of its affinity to Dr Faustus and also because it tries to show the psychomachia in psychological, personal terms rather than in a general allegorical manner. Chapter IV discusses three later Moralities, Cambyses, Horestes and Appius Virginia, which portray historical or fictional characters in situations of conflict. They were chosen because they seem to show that the Morality Plays laid the bases for the Elizabethan tragic situation and the Elizabethan tragic hero. With such diverse material, it is difficult to trace a clear line of development from one play to the next, but each group of plays has its own contribution to make to our understanding of Elizabethan drama.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1966
The male novelist and the 'woman question' George Meredith's presentation of his Heroines in The Egoist (1879) and Diana of the Crossways (1885)
- Authors: Bell, Alan Nigel
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Meredith, George, 1828-1909 -- Criticism and interpretation Meredith, George, 1828-1909. Egoist Meredith, George, 1828-1909. Diana of the Crossways English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism English fiction -- Male authors -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2203 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002245
- Description: Focusing on four early works, then three from his middle period and three from the 1890s, this dissertation explores Meredith’s role as a novelist in the unfolding of a social and literary paradox, namely, that with the death of George Eliot in 1880, the dominant writers of fiction were male, and this remained the case until the advent of Virginia Woolf, while at the same time the woman’s movement for emancipation in all spheres of life—domestic, commercial, professional and political—was gathering in strength and conviction. None of the late nineteenth-century male novelists—James, Hardy, Moore and Gissing, as well as Meredith—was ideologically committed to the feminist cause; in fact the very term ‘feminist’ did not begin to become current in England until the mid-1890s. But they were all interested in one aspect or another of the ‘Woman Question’, even if James was ambivalent about female emancipation, and Gissing, on the whole, was somewhat hostile. Of all these novelists, it was Meredith whose work, especially in its last two decades, most copiously reveals a profound sympathy for women and their struggles to realize their desires and ambitions, both inside and outside the home, in a patriarchal world. The dissertation therefore concentrates on his presentation of his heroines in their relationships with the men who, in one way or another, dominate them, and with whom they must negotiate, within the social and sexual conventions of the time, a modus vivendi—a procedure that will entail, especially in the later work, some transgression of those conventions. Chapter 1 sketches more than two centuries of development in female consciousness of severe social disadvantage, from literary observations in the mid-seventeenth century to the intensifying of political representations in the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, and the rise of the woman’s movement in the course of the Victorian century. The chapter includes an account of the impact on Meredith of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1869), and an examination of some of his female friendships by way of illuminating the experiential component of his insights into the ‘Woman Question’ as reflected in his fiction and letters. His unhappy first marriage is reserved for consideration in Chapter 2, as background to the discussion of The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859). This early novel, Meredith’s first in the realist mode, is widely accepted as being of high quality, and is given extended treatment, together with briefer accounts of three other early works, The Shaving of Shagpat (1855), Evan Harrington (1861), and Rhoda Fleming (1865), and one from Meredith’s middle period, Beauchamp’s Career (1876). Two more novels of this period, The Egoist (1879) and Diana of the Crossways (1885), are generally considered to be among his best works, and their heroines are given chapters to themselves (3 and 4). Chapter 5 provides further contextualization for the changing socio-political circumstances of the 1880s and 1890s, with particular reference to that heightening of feminist consciousness represented by the short-lived ‘New Woman’ phenomenon, to which Diana of the Crossways had been considered by some to be a contribution. Brief discussion of some other ‘New Woman’ novels of the 80s and 90s follows, giving literary context to the heroines of Meredith’s three late candidates in the genre, One of Our Conquerors (1891), Lord Ormont and His Aminta (1894), and The Amazing Marriage (1895). The dissertation concludes with a glance at Meredith’s influence on a few early twentieth-century novelists.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
- Authors: Bell, Alan Nigel
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Meredith, George, 1828-1909 -- Criticism and interpretation Meredith, George, 1828-1909. Egoist Meredith, George, 1828-1909. Diana of the Crossways English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism English fiction -- Male authors -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2203 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002245
- Description: Focusing on four early works, then three from his middle period and three from the 1890s, this dissertation explores Meredith’s role as a novelist in the unfolding of a social and literary paradox, namely, that with the death of George Eliot in 1880, the dominant writers of fiction were male, and this remained the case until the advent of Virginia Woolf, while at the same time the woman’s movement for emancipation in all spheres of life—domestic, commercial, professional and political—was gathering in strength and conviction. None of the late nineteenth-century male novelists—James, Hardy, Moore and Gissing, as well as Meredith—was ideologically committed to the feminist cause; in fact the very term ‘feminist’ did not begin to become current in England until the mid-1890s. But they were all interested in one aspect or another of the ‘Woman Question’, even if James was ambivalent about female emancipation, and Gissing, on the whole, was somewhat hostile. Of all these novelists, it was Meredith whose work, especially in its last two decades, most copiously reveals a profound sympathy for women and their struggles to realize their desires and ambitions, both inside and outside the home, in a patriarchal world. The dissertation therefore concentrates on his presentation of his heroines in their relationships with the men who, in one way or another, dominate them, and with whom they must negotiate, within the social and sexual conventions of the time, a modus vivendi—a procedure that will entail, especially in the later work, some transgression of those conventions. Chapter 1 sketches more than two centuries of development in female consciousness of severe social disadvantage, from literary observations in the mid-seventeenth century to the intensifying of political representations in the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft, and the rise of the woman’s movement in the course of the Victorian century. The chapter includes an account of the impact on Meredith of John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women (1869), and an examination of some of his female friendships by way of illuminating the experiential component of his insights into the ‘Woman Question’ as reflected in his fiction and letters. His unhappy first marriage is reserved for consideration in Chapter 2, as background to the discussion of The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859). This early novel, Meredith’s first in the realist mode, is widely accepted as being of high quality, and is given extended treatment, together with briefer accounts of three other early works, The Shaving of Shagpat (1855), Evan Harrington (1861), and Rhoda Fleming (1865), and one from Meredith’s middle period, Beauchamp’s Career (1876). Two more novels of this period, The Egoist (1879) and Diana of the Crossways (1885), are generally considered to be among his best works, and their heroines are given chapters to themselves (3 and 4). Chapter 5 provides further contextualization for the changing socio-political circumstances of the 1880s and 1890s, with particular reference to that heightening of feminist consciousness represented by the short-lived ‘New Woman’ phenomenon, to which Diana of the Crossways had been considered by some to be a contribution. Brief discussion of some other ‘New Woman’ novels of the 80s and 90s follows, giving literary context to the heroines of Meredith’s three late candidates in the genre, One of Our Conquerors (1891), Lord Ormont and His Aminta (1894), and The Amazing Marriage (1895). The dissertation concludes with a glance at Meredith’s influence on a few early twentieth-century novelists.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2008
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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1973
- 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.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1973
The location of meaning in the postmodernist literary text: a reading of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves and related material
- Authors: Jeffery, Thomas Carnegie
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Danielewski, Mark Z. House of leaves , Danielewski, Mark Z. Criticism and interpretation , Horror tales , English literature -- Criticism, Textual , Literature, Modern -- History and criticism , Postmodernism (Literature)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2196 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002238
- Description: In House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski has produced a text which epitomises the traits and concerns of postmodernist literature. Through his attention to aspects such as metafiction, intertextuality and parody, Danielewski develops a narrative structure which is best understood as a literary labyrinth. It is a structure intended to reflect the social conditions of the twenty-first century and comment on the experience of people living at this time. Some of the meaning-making strategies within the book’s labyrinthine structure are thus discussed in detail in order to demonstrate the relevance and importance of House of Leaves as social commentary. House of Leaves is an exemplary postmodernist text, but it is also one that seeks to guide the reader beyond the intellectual impasse of the postmodernist paradigm toward a renewed ethical and political engagement with the world. One of the most important goals of both Danielewski’s novel and this thesis is to attempt to redefine the postmodernist perspective in such a way as to insist on the necessity of what I call a new realism. This is founded upon an awareness of the pervasiveness of the self-perpetuating ideology of capitalism, even in the perspective of postmodernism (which purports to subvert all authoritative ideologies). Playing a crucial role in perpetuating the status quo of capitalism is the growth of entertainment culture, which works to sideline crucial political issues by replacing information with infotainment. The result is an intensification of the processes of commodification. Such an intensification, it is argued, may be countered by a radical scepticism which draws upon the methods and insights of contemporary science.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
- Authors: Jeffery, Thomas Carnegie
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Danielewski, Mark Z. House of leaves , Danielewski, Mark Z. Criticism and interpretation , Horror tales , English literature -- Criticism, Textual , Literature, Modern -- History and criticism , Postmodernism (Literature)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2196 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002238
- Description: In House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski has produced a text which epitomises the traits and concerns of postmodernist literature. Through his attention to aspects such as metafiction, intertextuality and parody, Danielewski develops a narrative structure which is best understood as a literary labyrinth. It is a structure intended to reflect the social conditions of the twenty-first century and comment on the experience of people living at this time. Some of the meaning-making strategies within the book’s labyrinthine structure are thus discussed in detail in order to demonstrate the relevance and importance of House of Leaves as social commentary. House of Leaves is an exemplary postmodernist text, but it is also one that seeks to guide the reader beyond the intellectual impasse of the postmodernist paradigm toward a renewed ethical and political engagement with the world. One of the most important goals of both Danielewski’s novel and this thesis is to attempt to redefine the postmodernist perspective in such a way as to insist on the necessity of what I call a new realism. This is founded upon an awareness of the pervasiveness of the self-perpetuating ideology of capitalism, even in the perspective of postmodernism (which purports to subvert all authoritative ideologies). Playing a crucial role in perpetuating the status quo of capitalism is the growth of entertainment culture, which works to sideline crucial political issues by replacing information with infotainment. The result is an intensification of the processes of commodification. Such an intensification, it is argued, may be countered by a radical scepticism which draws upon the methods and insights of contemporary science.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
The limitations and possiblilites of identity and form in selected recent memoirs and novels by white, female Zimbabwean writers : Alexandra Fuller, Lauren Liebenberg
- Authors: Eppel, Ruth
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Women, White -- Zimbabwe -- Biography Women, White -- Zimbabwe -- Fiction Zimbabwean fiction (English) -- 21st century Women, White -- Zimbabwe -- Autobiography Fuller, Alexandra, 1969- Liebenberg, Lauren St. John, Lauren,1966- Rheam, Bryony
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2185 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001985
- Description: This study examines selected works by four white female Zimbabwean writers: Alexandra Fuller, Lauren Liebenberg, Bryony Rheam and Lauren St John, in light of the controversy over the spate of white memoirs which followed the violent confiscation of white farms in Zimbabwe from 2000 onwards. The controversy hinges on the notion that white memoir writers exploit the perceived victimhood of white Zimbabweans in the international sphere, and nostalgically recall a time of belonging – as children in Rhodesia – which fails to address the fraught colonial history which is directly related to the current political climate of the country. I argue that such critiques are too generalised, and I regard the selected texts as primarily critical of the values and lifestyles of white Rhodesians/Zimbabweans. The texts I have selected include a range of autobiographical and fictional writing, or memoirs and pseudo-memoirs, and I focus on form as a medium enabling an exploration of identity. The ways in which these authors conform to and adapt particular narratives of becoming is examined in each chapter, with a particular focus on the transition from innocence to experience, the autobiography, and the Bildungsroman. Gender is a recurring point of interest: in each case the female selves/protagonists are situated in terms of the family, which, in reflecting social values, is a key site of conflict. In regard to trends in white African writing, I explore the white African (farm) childhood memoir and the confessional mode. Ultimately I maintain that while the texts may be classified as white writing, as they are fundamentally concerned with white identity, and therefore evince certain limitations of perspective and form, including clichéd tendencies, all the writers interrogate white identity and the fictional texts more self-reflexively deconstruct tropes of white writing.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Eppel, Ruth
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Women, White -- Zimbabwe -- Biography Women, White -- Zimbabwe -- Fiction Zimbabwean fiction (English) -- 21st century Women, White -- Zimbabwe -- Autobiography Fuller, Alexandra, 1969- Liebenberg, Lauren St. John, Lauren,1966- Rheam, Bryony
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2185 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001985
- Description: This study examines selected works by four white female Zimbabwean writers: Alexandra Fuller, Lauren Liebenberg, Bryony Rheam and Lauren St John, in light of the controversy over the spate of white memoirs which followed the violent confiscation of white farms in Zimbabwe from 2000 onwards. The controversy hinges on the notion that white memoir writers exploit the perceived victimhood of white Zimbabweans in the international sphere, and nostalgically recall a time of belonging – as children in Rhodesia – which fails to address the fraught colonial history which is directly related to the current political climate of the country. I argue that such critiques are too generalised, and I regard the selected texts as primarily critical of the values and lifestyles of white Rhodesians/Zimbabweans. The texts I have selected include a range of autobiographical and fictional writing, or memoirs and pseudo-memoirs, and I focus on form as a medium enabling an exploration of identity. The ways in which these authors conform to and adapt particular narratives of becoming is examined in each chapter, with a particular focus on the transition from innocence to experience, the autobiography, and the Bildungsroman. Gender is a recurring point of interest: in each case the female selves/protagonists are situated in terms of the family, which, in reflecting social values, is a key site of conflict. In regard to trends in white African writing, I explore the white African (farm) childhood memoir and the confessional mode. Ultimately I maintain that while the texts may be classified as white writing, as they are fundamentally concerned with white identity, and therefore evince certain limitations of perspective and form, including clichéd tendencies, all the writers interrogate white identity and the fictional texts more self-reflexively deconstruct tropes of white writing.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
The just figure shape, harmony and proportion in a selection of Andrew Marvell's lyrics
- Authors: Gardner, Corinna
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2230 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002273 , Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
- Description: The phrase "the just Figure" - a quotation from Upon Appleton House - is the central theme of this thesis as it aptly describes Marvell's repeated use of shape, harmony and proportion to suggest morality and virtue. The poet's concern with geometrical imagery is conveyed by the word "figure", which also is another term for a metaphor or conceit. The word "just" suggests not only moral appropriateness, but also mathematical exactness or fit. The thesis consists of five chapters, each dealing with an aspect of the imagery of shape and form which pervades so many of Marvell's lyrics. The first chapter, "Moral Geometry", deals with the way in which Marvell uses the imagery of lines, angles and curves. In some poems the lines are curved, as in Upon the Hill and Grove at Bill-borrow, where the graceful downward curved line of the hill conveys Fairfacian humility. Symmetry and circularity are discussed in the second chapter. The poet uses the perfect shape of the circle to depict objects which convey a moral significance. Similarly, several of the lyrics are themselves quasi-circular with their closing lines echoing their openings. Chapter Three deals with liquid spheres. Marvell explores the nature, shape and texture of tears in poems such as Eyes and Tears and Mourning; and in On a Drop of Dew uses the shape of the dew drop to suggest the perfection of the heavenly realm from which it has been parted. In several of the lyrics, Marvell places a frame around his poems to create an enclosed world in which his poetic creations exist. These enclosed, or framed, worlds are discussed in Chapter Four. The final chapter, "Beyond The Frame", describes how some of the lyrics suggest a move from the world within to the world beyond the frame of the poem.This can either be a movement from confinement to release, or from the seen world to worlds unseen. Shape, harmony and proportion are the qualities which Marvell uses to convey morality and humility and a vision of the world based on what is, in the various senses of the word, "just".
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1994
- Authors: Gardner, Corinna
- Date: 1994
- Subjects: Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2230 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002273 , Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678 -- Criticism and interpretation , English poetry -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- History and criticism
- Description: The phrase "the just Figure" - a quotation from Upon Appleton House - is the central theme of this thesis as it aptly describes Marvell's repeated use of shape, harmony and proportion to suggest morality and virtue. The poet's concern with geometrical imagery is conveyed by the word "figure", which also is another term for a metaphor or conceit. The word "just" suggests not only moral appropriateness, but also mathematical exactness or fit. The thesis consists of five chapters, each dealing with an aspect of the imagery of shape and form which pervades so many of Marvell's lyrics. The first chapter, "Moral Geometry", deals with the way in which Marvell uses the imagery of lines, angles and curves. In some poems the lines are curved, as in Upon the Hill and Grove at Bill-borrow, where the graceful downward curved line of the hill conveys Fairfacian humility. Symmetry and circularity are discussed in the second chapter. The poet uses the perfect shape of the circle to depict objects which convey a moral significance. Similarly, several of the lyrics are themselves quasi-circular with their closing lines echoing their openings. Chapter Three deals with liquid spheres. Marvell explores the nature, shape and texture of tears in poems such as Eyes and Tears and Mourning; and in On a Drop of Dew uses the shape of the dew drop to suggest the perfection of the heavenly realm from which it has been parted. In several of the lyrics, Marvell places a frame around his poems to create an enclosed world in which his poetic creations exist. These enclosed, or framed, worlds are discussed in Chapter Four. The final chapter, "Beyond The Frame", describes how some of the lyrics suggest a move from the world within to the world beyond the frame of the poem.This can either be a movement from confinement to release, or from the seen world to worlds unseen. Shape, harmony and proportion are the qualities which Marvell uses to convey morality and humility and a vision of the world based on what is, in the various senses of the word, "just".
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1994
The interface of history and fiction in Russel Brownlee’s Garden of the plagues, Ingrid Winterbach’s To hell With Cronjé, and Etienne van Heerden’s The long silence of Mario Salviati
- Authors: Wyrill, Beth Alexandra
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Brownlee, Russel -- Criticism and interpretation , Winterbach, Ingrid -- Criticism and interpretation , Van Heerden, Etienne, 1954- -- Criticism and interpretation , South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism , South African fiction (English) -- 20th century -- History and criticism , African fiction (English) -- 21st century -- History and criticism , Brownlee, Russel -- Garden of the plagues , Winterbach, Ingrid -- Niggie -- English , Van Heerden, Etienne, 1954- -- Swye van Mario Salviati -- English , Historical fiction -- History and criticism , Magic realism (Literature)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2323 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015517
- Description: Both historiographical and literary practices have undergone revision in recent years in attempting to address the inheritance of nineteenth-century realism. Since the object of realist stylistics, employed in both the writing of fiction and history, is to render authorship authoritative or even invisible, the ideological import of these narratives is often such that the constructedness of the historical record and its absences are veiled. In developments beginning in the 1980s with the advent of ‘New Historicism’ and with the emergence of postmodern literary techniques, the interface of literature and history became of seminal importance, since both were now credited as being products of narrative and discourse, and hence, to varying degrees, of the literary imagination. This movement intersects interestingly with developments in postcolonial studies, since it is the voices of the marginalized and disempowered colonized peoples that are routinely co-opted and excised from nineteenth-century realist histories. These concerns are now being fully explored in the literature of the contemporary post-transitional South African moment, since authors in this country seemingly now feel freed up to look back to histories that precede the immediate traumas of apartheid. The concern, in relation to apartheid developments but also on a broader universal scale, is this: if history is viewed as perpetual emergences of modernities, then one of the great absences in the record is the historical determinants of any given epistemology. The attempt to recreate such an epistemological genealogy is thus simultaneously postcolonial, historiographical, and literary. Russel Brownlee’s Garden of the Plagues (2005), Ingrid Winterbach’s To Hell with Cronjé (2010), and Etienne van Heerden’s The Long Silence of Mario Salviati (2002) attempt to bridge this gap in the recorded sensibilities of any historical moment by representing a ‘lived experience’ of the past, and in the process imaginatively recreating the cultural, historical and psychological locations of the proponents of an emerging modernity. This study concerns itself with the ways in which these authors address the influence of realist historiography through the use of literary innovations that allow for the departure from realist stylistics. Most commonly, all three authors draw on forms of magic realism, but multiple refigurings and recombinations of notions of temporality, narrative, and characterization likewise work to defamiliarize the once stable discourse of history.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Wyrill, Beth Alexandra
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Brownlee, Russel -- Criticism and interpretation , Winterbach, Ingrid -- Criticism and interpretation , Van Heerden, Etienne, 1954- -- Criticism and interpretation , South African fiction (English) -- History and criticism , South African fiction (English) -- 20th century -- History and criticism , African fiction (English) -- 21st century -- History and criticism , Brownlee, Russel -- Garden of the plagues , Winterbach, Ingrid -- Niggie -- English , Van Heerden, Etienne, 1954- -- Swye van Mario Salviati -- English , Historical fiction -- History and criticism , Magic realism (Literature)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2323 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015517
- Description: Both historiographical and literary practices have undergone revision in recent years in attempting to address the inheritance of nineteenth-century realism. Since the object of realist stylistics, employed in both the writing of fiction and history, is to render authorship authoritative or even invisible, the ideological import of these narratives is often such that the constructedness of the historical record and its absences are veiled. In developments beginning in the 1980s with the advent of ‘New Historicism’ and with the emergence of postmodern literary techniques, the interface of literature and history became of seminal importance, since both were now credited as being products of narrative and discourse, and hence, to varying degrees, of the literary imagination. This movement intersects interestingly with developments in postcolonial studies, since it is the voices of the marginalized and disempowered colonized peoples that are routinely co-opted and excised from nineteenth-century realist histories. These concerns are now being fully explored in the literature of the contemporary post-transitional South African moment, since authors in this country seemingly now feel freed up to look back to histories that precede the immediate traumas of apartheid. The concern, in relation to apartheid developments but also on a broader universal scale, is this: if history is viewed as perpetual emergences of modernities, then one of the great absences in the record is the historical determinants of any given epistemology. The attempt to recreate such an epistemological genealogy is thus simultaneously postcolonial, historiographical, and literary. Russel Brownlee’s Garden of the Plagues (2005), Ingrid Winterbach’s To Hell with Cronjé (2010), and Etienne van Heerden’s The Long Silence of Mario Salviati (2002) attempt to bridge this gap in the recorded sensibilities of any historical moment by representing a ‘lived experience’ of the past, and in the process imaginatively recreating the cultural, historical and psychological locations of the proponents of an emerging modernity. This study concerns itself with the ways in which these authors address the influence of realist historiography through the use of literary innovations that allow for the departure from realist stylistics. Most commonly, all three authors draw on forms of magic realism, but multiple refigurings and recombinations of notions of temporality, narrative, and characterization likewise work to defamiliarize the once stable discourse of history.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
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
The ideals of consciousness and conduct in Henry James's The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl
- Authors: Bryer, Lynne
- Date: 1969
- Subjects: James, Henry, 1843-1916. Ambassadors , James, Henry, 1843-1916. Golden bowl
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2321 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014635
- Description: The mature work of Henry James gives the fullest expression of certain ideals which I have called the ideals of consciousness and conduct. These ideals are the subject of this thesis. As they are best illustrated in the two novels The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904), I have first analysed these books in detail. Though emphasising "theme" rather than "techniques" (I make the usual working distinction while recognising its limitations), I have also attempted to show how intimately James's technique is related to his exploration of consciousness and conduct. In Part Three I have tried to gather up ideas arising from the analyses of The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl to compare them, expand on them and generalise from them. In this way I have arrived at conclusions that may help to interpret mature vision of James.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1969
- Authors: Bryer, Lynne
- Date: 1969
- Subjects: James, Henry, 1843-1916. Ambassadors , James, Henry, 1843-1916. Golden bowl
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2321 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014635
- Description: The mature work of Henry James gives the fullest expression of certain ideals which I have called the ideals of consciousness and conduct. These ideals are the subject of this thesis. As they are best illustrated in the two novels The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904), I have first analysed these books in detail. Though emphasising "theme" rather than "techniques" (I make the usual working distinction while recognising its limitations), I have also attempted to show how intimately James's technique is related to his exploration of consciousness and conduct. In Part Three I have tried to gather up ideas arising from the analyses of The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl to compare them, expand on them and generalise from them. In this way I have arrived at conclusions that may help to interpret mature vision of James.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1969
The idea of gaiety in Yeats's lyric poetry
- Authors: Brady, Bronwyn
- Date: 1990
- Subjects: Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939 -- Criticism and interpretation , Lyric poetry -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2324 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015642
- Description: In June 1917 W.B. Yeats wrote to his father : Much of your thought resembles mine . . but mine is part of a religious system more or less logically worked out, a system which will I hope interest you as a form of poetry. I find the setting it all in order has helped my verse, has given me a new framework and new patterns. (Wade 1954, 627) The new framework and new patterns that he claimed to have found in his system generated a new, and for Yeats, radically different sort of poetry. Before 1919 (The Wild Swans at Coole), the poetry had as its subject various traditional themes: the pity of love; the romance and heroism of Irish mythology; the threat of age, change and death. The poetry up to this point is, formally speaking, highly skillful, but locked into its own admissions of failure to touch or incorporate reality in any but a romantically defeatist way. However, the order which Yeats refers to in his letter, and the system he generated as a propaedeutic to this new order, once assimilated into the habit and texture of the poetry, generated new topics of its own which made those of the earlier work seem subjective, self- indulgent and intellectually uninformed. Yeats's poetry now changed drastically in focus and form, from subjective to objective poetry. Whereas the earlier poetry had opposed reality with romantic heroism or selfdestructive despondency, the poetry subsequent to his change of practice, incorporates a new vision of reality as the intrinsic architechtonics of poetry itself. Now the measure of human and aesthetic completion is no longer an inexplicable and inscrutable sadness, but an intelligent and informed detachment, an energy of mind that Yeats called "gaiety". My thesis explores this energy of mind and what it meant for Yeats and his poetry. My contention is that the idea of gaiety provides a way for Yeats to grant meaning to his life, a way for him to create himself. As the poetry is completed thanks to the new system, so is the poet. In order to see this, it is necessary to read the poems as a series of collections, or stories, that resonate back and forth with meaning and qualification and understanding. Yeats's system is his myth, and he writes his poetry in terms of and informed by that myth, shaping and re-shaping the experience of the created and fictional self until it has meaning in a way that the real self does not. The thesis explores this process of creation firstly in theoretical terms, using Lotman's ideas of Story and Myth, and looking at Yeats's intellectual and poetic inheritance. It goes on to examine some of the great poems in an attempt to define gaiety, and how Yeats achieves it in the poetry, and then to look at the early, pre-system poems to see how they differ. Finally, it takes the last of Yeats's lyric collections, Last Poems, and shows how gaiety works in the most mature poetry when the poems are read as narrative events within a story.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1990
- Authors: Brady, Bronwyn
- Date: 1990
- Subjects: Yeats, W. B. (William Butler), 1865-1939 -- Criticism and interpretation , Lyric poetry -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2324 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015642
- Description: In June 1917 W.B. Yeats wrote to his father : Much of your thought resembles mine . . but mine is part of a religious system more or less logically worked out, a system which will I hope interest you as a form of poetry. I find the setting it all in order has helped my verse, has given me a new framework and new patterns. (Wade 1954, 627) The new framework and new patterns that he claimed to have found in his system generated a new, and for Yeats, radically different sort of poetry. Before 1919 (The Wild Swans at Coole), the poetry had as its subject various traditional themes: the pity of love; the romance and heroism of Irish mythology; the threat of age, change and death. The poetry up to this point is, formally speaking, highly skillful, but locked into its own admissions of failure to touch or incorporate reality in any but a romantically defeatist way. However, the order which Yeats refers to in his letter, and the system he generated as a propaedeutic to this new order, once assimilated into the habit and texture of the poetry, generated new topics of its own which made those of the earlier work seem subjective, self- indulgent and intellectually uninformed. Yeats's poetry now changed drastically in focus and form, from subjective to objective poetry. Whereas the earlier poetry had opposed reality with romantic heroism or selfdestructive despondency, the poetry subsequent to his change of practice, incorporates a new vision of reality as the intrinsic architechtonics of poetry itself. Now the measure of human and aesthetic completion is no longer an inexplicable and inscrutable sadness, but an intelligent and informed detachment, an energy of mind that Yeats called "gaiety". My thesis explores this energy of mind and what it meant for Yeats and his poetry. My contention is that the idea of gaiety provides a way for Yeats to grant meaning to his life, a way for him to create himself. As the poetry is completed thanks to the new system, so is the poet. In order to see this, it is necessary to read the poems as a series of collections, or stories, that resonate back and forth with meaning and qualification and understanding. Yeats's system is his myth, and he writes his poetry in terms of and informed by that myth, shaping and re-shaping the experience of the created and fictional self until it has meaning in a way that the real self does not. The thesis explores this process of creation firstly in theoretical terms, using Lotman's ideas of Story and Myth, and looking at Yeats's intellectual and poetic inheritance. It goes on to examine some of the great poems in an attempt to define gaiety, and how Yeats achieves it in the poetry, and then to look at the early, pre-system poems to see how they differ. Finally, it takes the last of Yeats's lyric collections, Last Poems, and shows how gaiety works in the most mature poetry when the poems are read as narrative events within a story.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1990
The haunted bedroom: female sexual identity in Gothic literature, 1790-1820
- Authors: Rae, Angela Lynn
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797 -- Criticism and interpretation , Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 -- Criticism and interpretation , Gothic literature , Women and literature , Feminism and literature , Radcliffe, Ann Ward, 1764-1823 Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2251 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002294 , Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797 -- Criticism and interpretation , Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 -- Criticism and interpretation , Gothic literature , Women and literature , Feminism and literature , Radcliffe, Ann Ward, 1764-1823 Criticism and interpretation
- Description: This thesis explores the relationship between the Female Gothic novel of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and the social context of women at that time. In the examination of the primary works of Ann Radcliffe, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, this study investigates how these female writers work within the Gothic genre to explore issues related to the role of women in their society, in particular those concerned with sexual identity. It is contended that the Gothic genre provides these authors with the ideal vehicle through which to critique the patriarchal definition of the female, a definition which confines and marginalizes women, denying the female any sexual autonomy. The Introduction defines the scope of the thesis by delineating the differences between the Female Gothic and the Male Gothic. Arguing that the Female Gothic shuns the voyeuristic victimisation of women which characterizes much of the Male Gothic, it is contended that the Female Gothic is defined by its interest in, and exploration of, issues which concern the status of women in a patriarchy. It is asserted that it is this concern with female gender roles that connects the overtly radical work of Mary Wollstonecraft with the oblique critique evident in her contemporary, Ann Radcliffe’s, novels. It is these concerns too, which haunt Mary Shelley’s texts, published two decades later. Chapter One outlines the status of women in the patriarchal society of the late eighteenth century, a period marked by political and social upheaval. This period saw the increasing division of men and women into the “separate spheres” of the public and domestic worlds, and the consequent birth of the ideal of “Angel in the House” which became entrenched in the nineteenth century. The chapter examines how women writers were influenced by this social context and what effect it had on the presentation of female characters in their work, in particular in terms of their depiction of motherhood. Working from the premise that, in order to fully understand the portrayal of female sexuality in the texts, the depiction of the male must be examined, Chapter Two analyses the male characters in terms of their relationship to the heroines and/or the concept of the “feminine”. Although the male characters differ from text to text and author to author, it is argued that in their portrayal of “heroes and villains” the authors were providing a critique of the patriarchal system. While some of the texts depict male characters that challenge traditional stereotypes concerning masculinity, others outline the disastrous and sometimes fatal consequences for both men and women of the rigid gender divisions which disallow the male access to the emotional realm restricted by social prescriptions to the private, domestic world of the female. It is contended that, as such, all of the texts assert the necessity for male and female, masculine and feminine to be united on equal terms. Chapter Three interprets the heroine’s journey through sublime landscapes and mysterious buildings as a journey from childhood innocence to sexual maturity, illustrating the intrinsic link that exists between the settings of Gothic novels and female sexuality. The chapter first examines the authors’ use of the Burkean concept of the sublime and contends that the texts offer a significant revision of the concept. In contrast to Burke’s overtly masculinist definition of the sublime, the texts assert that the female can and does have access to it, and that this access can be used to overcome patriarchal oppression. Secondly, an analysis of the image of the castle and related structures reveals that they can symbolise both the patriarchy and the feminine body. Contending that the heroine’s experiences within these structures enable her to move from innocence to experience, it is asserted that the knowledge that she gains, during her journeys, of herself and of society allows her to assert her independence as a sexually adult woman.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1999
- Authors: Rae, Angela Lynn
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797 -- Criticism and interpretation , Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 -- Criticism and interpretation , Gothic literature , Women and literature , Feminism and literature , Radcliffe, Ann Ward, 1764-1823 Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2251 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002294 , Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797 -- Criticism and interpretation , Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797-1851 -- Criticism and interpretation , Gothic literature , Women and literature , Feminism and literature , Radcliffe, Ann Ward, 1764-1823 Criticism and interpretation
- Description: This thesis explores the relationship between the Female Gothic novel of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and the social context of women at that time. In the examination of the primary works of Ann Radcliffe, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, this study investigates how these female writers work within the Gothic genre to explore issues related to the role of women in their society, in particular those concerned with sexual identity. It is contended that the Gothic genre provides these authors with the ideal vehicle through which to critique the patriarchal definition of the female, a definition which confines and marginalizes women, denying the female any sexual autonomy. The Introduction defines the scope of the thesis by delineating the differences between the Female Gothic and the Male Gothic. Arguing that the Female Gothic shuns the voyeuristic victimisation of women which characterizes much of the Male Gothic, it is contended that the Female Gothic is defined by its interest in, and exploration of, issues which concern the status of women in a patriarchy. It is asserted that it is this concern with female gender roles that connects the overtly radical work of Mary Wollstonecraft with the oblique critique evident in her contemporary, Ann Radcliffe’s, novels. It is these concerns too, which haunt Mary Shelley’s texts, published two decades later. Chapter One outlines the status of women in the patriarchal society of the late eighteenth century, a period marked by political and social upheaval. This period saw the increasing division of men and women into the “separate spheres” of the public and domestic worlds, and the consequent birth of the ideal of “Angel in the House” which became entrenched in the nineteenth century. The chapter examines how women writers were influenced by this social context and what effect it had on the presentation of female characters in their work, in particular in terms of their depiction of motherhood. Working from the premise that, in order to fully understand the portrayal of female sexuality in the texts, the depiction of the male must be examined, Chapter Two analyses the male characters in terms of their relationship to the heroines and/or the concept of the “feminine”. Although the male characters differ from text to text and author to author, it is argued that in their portrayal of “heroes and villains” the authors were providing a critique of the patriarchal system. While some of the texts depict male characters that challenge traditional stereotypes concerning masculinity, others outline the disastrous and sometimes fatal consequences for both men and women of the rigid gender divisions which disallow the male access to the emotional realm restricted by social prescriptions to the private, domestic world of the female. It is contended that, as such, all of the texts assert the necessity for male and female, masculine and feminine to be united on equal terms. Chapter Three interprets the heroine’s journey through sublime landscapes and mysterious buildings as a journey from childhood innocence to sexual maturity, illustrating the intrinsic link that exists between the settings of Gothic novels and female sexuality. The chapter first examines the authors’ use of the Burkean concept of the sublime and contends that the texts offer a significant revision of the concept. In contrast to Burke’s overtly masculinist definition of the sublime, the texts assert that the female can and does have access to it, and that this access can be used to overcome patriarchal oppression. Secondly, an analysis of the image of the castle and related structures reveals that they can symbolise both the patriarchy and the feminine body. Contending that the heroine’s experiences within these structures enable her to move from innocence to experience, it is asserted that the knowledge that she gains, during her journeys, of herself and of society allows her to assert her independence as a sexually adult woman.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1999
The Harry Potter phenomenon literary production, generic traditions, and the question of values
- Authors: Glover, Jayne Ashleigh
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Rowling, J. K. Criticism and interpretation , Potter, Harry (Fictitious character) , Children's literature -- History and criticism , Fantasy fiction, English -- History and criticism , Wizards in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2201 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002243 , Rowling, J. K. Criticism and interpretation , Potter, Harry (Fictitious character) , Children's literature -- History and criticism , Fantasy fiction, English -- History and criticism , Wizards in literature
- Description: This thesis is a study of the first four books of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. It accounts for the widespread success of the novels by examining their publication and marketing histories, and their literary achievement as narratives including a sophisticated mix of generic traditions. Chapter One looks at the popularity of the novels, comparing their material production and marketing by Rowling’s English language publishers: Bloomsbury in Britain and Scholastic in the United States of America. The publisher’s influence on the public perception of each book is demonstrated by comparative study of its mode of illustration and layout. Further, the design of the books is linked to their strategic marketing and branding within the literary world. The second chapter considers Rowling’s debt to the school story. It concentrates first on the history of this relatively short-lived genre, briefly discussing its stereotypical features and values. Traditional elements of setting and characterisation are then examined to show how the Harry Potter novels present a value system which, though apparently old-fashioned, still has an ethical standpoint designed to appeal to the modern reader. Chapter Three focuses on the characterisation of Harry as a hero-figure, especially on how the influence of classical and medieval texts infuses Rowling’s portrayal of Harry as a hero in the chivalric mode. The episodes of “quest” and “test” in each book illustrate specifically how he learns the values of selflessness, loyalty, mercy and fairness. Chapter Four surveys the contribution of modern fantasy writing to the series. It shows how Rowling creates a secondary world that allows us to perceive magic as a metaphorical representation of power. This focus on the relationship between magic and power in turn has a bearing on our assessment of the author’s moral stance. The thesis concludes by suggesting that Rowling’s unusual mix of genres is justified by the values they share, and which are inscribed in her work: the generic combination forms a workable, new and exciting mode of writing that helps to account for the phenomenal popularity of the series.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
- Authors: Glover, Jayne Ashleigh
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Rowling, J. K. Criticism and interpretation , Potter, Harry (Fictitious character) , Children's literature -- History and criticism , Fantasy fiction, English -- History and criticism , Wizards in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2201 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002243 , Rowling, J. K. Criticism and interpretation , Potter, Harry (Fictitious character) , Children's literature -- History and criticism , Fantasy fiction, English -- History and criticism , Wizards in literature
- Description: This thesis is a study of the first four books of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. It accounts for the widespread success of the novels by examining their publication and marketing histories, and their literary achievement as narratives including a sophisticated mix of generic traditions. Chapter One looks at the popularity of the novels, comparing their material production and marketing by Rowling’s English language publishers: Bloomsbury in Britain and Scholastic in the United States of America. The publisher’s influence on the public perception of each book is demonstrated by comparative study of its mode of illustration and layout. Further, the design of the books is linked to their strategic marketing and branding within the literary world. The second chapter considers Rowling’s debt to the school story. It concentrates first on the history of this relatively short-lived genre, briefly discussing its stereotypical features and values. Traditional elements of setting and characterisation are then examined to show how the Harry Potter novels present a value system which, though apparently old-fashioned, still has an ethical standpoint designed to appeal to the modern reader. Chapter Three focuses on the characterisation of Harry as a hero-figure, especially on how the influence of classical and medieval texts infuses Rowling’s portrayal of Harry as a hero in the chivalric mode. The episodes of “quest” and “test” in each book illustrate specifically how he learns the values of selflessness, loyalty, mercy and fairness. Chapter Four surveys the contribution of modern fantasy writing to the series. It shows how Rowling creates a secondary world that allows us to perceive magic as a metaphorical representation of power. This focus on the relationship between magic and power in turn has a bearing on our assessment of the author’s moral stance. The thesis concludes by suggesting that Rowling’s unusual mix of genres is justified by the values they share, and which are inscribed in her work: the generic combination forms a workable, new and exciting mode of writing that helps to account for the phenomenal popularity of the series.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2004
The great bonds : nature, law and grace in "King Lear", "Antony and Cleopatra" and "Macbeth"
- Authors: Simpson, Mary-Helen Dawn
- Date: 1972
- Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Macbeth , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Antony and Cleopatra , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. King Lear
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2315 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013229
- Description: By looking at the world inhabited by those characters who partake of the dramatic action in King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra and Macbeth, and the relationship of these characters to their world, or universe, it is hoped to establish how certain factors affect the genesis, development and resolution of the tragedies in which they play their roles. This will be done by an examination of what Shakespeare sometimes called the "Bonds," which, as we shall see, derive from the mediaeval concepts of Nature, Law and Grace that were current in his time. This thesis does not claim to offer a complete or exclusive solution to the problem of the critical interpretation of these three tragedies: one of the dangers of Literary criticism has always appeared to the writer to be that of maintaining that the approach adopted is the only one and of attempting to demonstrate that the theory coincides at every point with the work - admitting of no inconsistencies or alternatives, and thereby making nonsense of a theory that does have considerable validiity. Similarly, it is with considerable hesitation that names have been given to the various Bonds discussed. Once one names them and applies a certain range of definitions to these names, it is difficult to stress that the names and definitions are not static or rigid. The Bond of Nature, for example, although it has a central core of meaning common to all three tragedies, is not treated from the same viewpoint in King Lear as it is in Antony and Cleopatra or Macbeth. Three considerations have prompted the writer to select this subject for the theme of a thesis. Firstly , the hypothesis that some failure, violation, misunderstanding or inadequacy of the Bonds lies at the heart of the tragic movement does appear to augment existing concepts of the nature of tragedy and help us better to understand the Why? How? and When? of the tragic process. Secondly, the concept of the principles of Nature, Law and Grace as determinants of the Bonds, which occurs so frequently in Elizabethan thinking, does seem to offer us a unified approach to their treatment of man and the world he inhabits at any particular point in history. By quoting from a wide range of sources dealing with this subject, the writer hopes to demonstrate that such a concept did exist, and that it was relatively consistent and generally accepted by Shakespeare and many of his contemporaries. It is, moreover, a system of thought that can embrace within its ambit such diverse materials as the great chain of being; the microcosm and the macrocosm; the nature of the soul; the structure of the family, the clan or the nation; the concepts of sin, damnation and life everlasting; the four elements; and the humours - and assign to these and many others a proper nature, place and function in the overall scheme. Thirdly, the writer was prompted to select this subject for a thesis because no critical writing to date appears to have dealt fully with the subject of the Bonds and their relationship to these principles of Nature, Law and Grace in Shakespearean tragedy . There have, it is true, been critics who have dealt with facets of these principles, and there have been critics who have commented on the violation, misunderstanding or inadequacy of various Bonds, but none of them seems to have dealt with the subject as a whole. Preface, p. iv-vi.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1972
- Authors: Simpson, Mary-Helen Dawn
- Date: 1972
- Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Macbeth , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Antony and Cleopatra , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. King Lear
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2315 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013229
- Description: By looking at the world inhabited by those characters who partake of the dramatic action in King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra and Macbeth, and the relationship of these characters to their world, or universe, it is hoped to establish how certain factors affect the genesis, development and resolution of the tragedies in which they play their roles. This will be done by an examination of what Shakespeare sometimes called the "Bonds," which, as we shall see, derive from the mediaeval concepts of Nature, Law and Grace that were current in his time. This thesis does not claim to offer a complete or exclusive solution to the problem of the critical interpretation of these three tragedies: one of the dangers of Literary criticism has always appeared to the writer to be that of maintaining that the approach adopted is the only one and of attempting to demonstrate that the theory coincides at every point with the work - admitting of no inconsistencies or alternatives, and thereby making nonsense of a theory that does have considerable validiity. Similarly, it is with considerable hesitation that names have been given to the various Bonds discussed. Once one names them and applies a certain range of definitions to these names, it is difficult to stress that the names and definitions are not static or rigid. The Bond of Nature, for example, although it has a central core of meaning common to all three tragedies, is not treated from the same viewpoint in King Lear as it is in Antony and Cleopatra or Macbeth. Three considerations have prompted the writer to select this subject for the theme of a thesis. Firstly , the hypothesis that some failure, violation, misunderstanding or inadequacy of the Bonds lies at the heart of the tragic movement does appear to augment existing concepts of the nature of tragedy and help us better to understand the Why? How? and When? of the tragic process. Secondly, the concept of the principles of Nature, Law and Grace as determinants of the Bonds, which occurs so frequently in Elizabethan thinking, does seem to offer us a unified approach to their treatment of man and the world he inhabits at any particular point in history. By quoting from a wide range of sources dealing with this subject, the writer hopes to demonstrate that such a concept did exist, and that it was relatively consistent and generally accepted by Shakespeare and many of his contemporaries. It is, moreover, a system of thought that can embrace within its ambit such diverse materials as the great chain of being; the microcosm and the macrocosm; the nature of the soul; the structure of the family, the clan or the nation; the concepts of sin, damnation and life everlasting; the four elements; and the humours - and assign to these and many others a proper nature, place and function in the overall scheme. Thirdly, the writer was prompted to select this subject for a thesis because no critical writing to date appears to have dealt fully with the subject of the Bonds and their relationship to these principles of Nature, Law and Grace in Shakespearean tragedy . There have, it is true, been critics who have dealt with facets of these principles, and there have been critics who have commented on the violation, misunderstanding or inadequacy of various Bonds, but none of them seems to have dealt with the subject as a whole. Preface, p. iv-vi.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1972
The functions of narrative : a study of recent novelistic nonfiction
- Authors: Carlean, Kevin John
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Reportage literature -- History and criticism , Nonfiction novel
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2176 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001827
- Description: Since Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences was published in 1965, there have been many attempts to define and explain the phenomenon of the "non-fiction novel" as a unified narrative genre. Some of these attempts have been highly theoretical and scholarly, but most have been rather loose definitions referring to an extremely wide range of diverse factual narratives. Over the years, so many different works have been called "non-fiction novels" that it now seems as if the notion of such a unified genre is questionable. Surely it is not generically useful to say that such functionally distinct works as Oscar Lewis's La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty (1967) and Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart ot the American Dream (1971) belong in the same narrative category. The purpose of this study is to show that many of the works routinely referred to as "non-fiction novels" perform fundamentally different narrative functions and do not belong together in a unified genre. Roman Jakobson's model of communication and his notion of the "dominant function" are used to identify three functional categories into which the narratives discussed in the study logically fall: first, there are predominantly sociological works in which the referential function is the most important element of the communication; second, there are predominantly journalistic works in which the opinions of the writer or emotive function constitute the central narrative concern; and thirdly, we have works performing a dominant novelistic or aesthetic function in the sense that the secondary meanings and themes implied are the most important elements communicated. The thesis follows the following structure. In the introductory chapter, a critique of some of the major generic theories of the "non-fiction novel" as unified genre is offered. The purpose here is not to caricature what are sometimes extremely sophisticated studies. (Indeed, in my own analysis of texts, I am often indebted to the critical insights of the scholars whose theories I question in the introduction.) My purpose is merely to show that the corpus of works each writer refers to can be divided more logically between different dominant narrative functions. The introduction ends with a more detailed explanation of the adaptation of Jakobson's notion of "the dominant" and how it relates to the functional categories identified. Chapter 2 offers analyses of a group of documentary narratives that perform a dominant sociological function but have often been referred to as "non-fiction novels." The chapter starts with an analysis of James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), a text widely regarded as the first real American example of the "genre." This is followed by an examination of the anthropological works of Oscar Lewis: Five Families: Mexican Case Studles in the Culture of Poverty (1959), The Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family (1964), Pedro Martinez: A Mexican Peasant and his Family (1964) and La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty. I conclude the chapter with an analysis of the recent sociological works of Studs Terkel: Division Street: America (1968), Hard Times: An oral History of the Great Depression (1970) and Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do (1974). In Chapter 3, the notion of subjective participation journalism is explained. This is followed by an analysis of three of the most famous and creative of the works that fall into this functional category: Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (1966), Michael Herr's Vietnam classic, Dispatches (1977), and Norman Mailer's account of a famous protest march, The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History (1968). Chapter 4 offers a discussion of three works that perform a dominant novelistic function in the realistic tradition of Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment. All three are based on actual murder cases, but the facts of the stories are subordinated to the novelistic themes the author wishes to abstract. They are: Meyer Levin's Compulsion (1957), Mailer's The Executioner's Song (1979) and Capote's In Cold Blood. From this outline, it may appear as if the study is loaded in favour of the sociological works discussed in Chapter 2. This is intentional because, although many critics have referred to them as "non-fiction novels", very little systematic and detailed analysis of these works as a corpus has been forthcoming. This long chapter is an attempt to redress the balance.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
- Authors: Carlean, Kevin John
- Date: 1988
- Subjects: Reportage literature -- History and criticism , Nonfiction novel
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2176 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001827
- Description: Since Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences was published in 1965, there have been many attempts to define and explain the phenomenon of the "non-fiction novel" as a unified narrative genre. Some of these attempts have been highly theoretical and scholarly, but most have been rather loose definitions referring to an extremely wide range of diverse factual narratives. Over the years, so many different works have been called "non-fiction novels" that it now seems as if the notion of such a unified genre is questionable. Surely it is not generically useful to say that such functionally distinct works as Oscar Lewis's La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty (1967) and Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart ot the American Dream (1971) belong in the same narrative category. The purpose of this study is to show that many of the works routinely referred to as "non-fiction novels" perform fundamentally different narrative functions and do not belong together in a unified genre. Roman Jakobson's model of communication and his notion of the "dominant function" are used to identify three functional categories into which the narratives discussed in the study logically fall: first, there are predominantly sociological works in which the referential function is the most important element of the communication; second, there are predominantly journalistic works in which the opinions of the writer or emotive function constitute the central narrative concern; and thirdly, we have works performing a dominant novelistic or aesthetic function in the sense that the secondary meanings and themes implied are the most important elements communicated. The thesis follows the following structure. In the introductory chapter, a critique of some of the major generic theories of the "non-fiction novel" as unified genre is offered. The purpose here is not to caricature what are sometimes extremely sophisticated studies. (Indeed, in my own analysis of texts, I am often indebted to the critical insights of the scholars whose theories I question in the introduction.) My purpose is merely to show that the corpus of works each writer refers to can be divided more logically between different dominant narrative functions. The introduction ends with a more detailed explanation of the adaptation of Jakobson's notion of "the dominant" and how it relates to the functional categories identified. Chapter 2 offers analyses of a group of documentary narratives that perform a dominant sociological function but have often been referred to as "non-fiction novels." The chapter starts with an analysis of James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), a text widely regarded as the first real American example of the "genre." This is followed by an examination of the anthropological works of Oscar Lewis: Five Families: Mexican Case Studles in the Culture of Poverty (1959), The Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family (1964), Pedro Martinez: A Mexican Peasant and his Family (1964) and La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty. I conclude the chapter with an analysis of the recent sociological works of Studs Terkel: Division Street: America (1968), Hard Times: An oral History of the Great Depression (1970) and Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do (1974). In Chapter 3, the notion of subjective participation journalism is explained. This is followed by an analysis of three of the most famous and creative of the works that fall into this functional category: Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (1966), Michael Herr's Vietnam classic, Dispatches (1977), and Norman Mailer's account of a famous protest march, The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, The Novel as History (1968). Chapter 4 offers a discussion of three works that perform a dominant novelistic function in the realistic tradition of Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment. All three are based on actual murder cases, but the facts of the stories are subordinated to the novelistic themes the author wishes to abstract. They are: Meyer Levin's Compulsion (1957), Mailer's The Executioner's Song (1979) and Capote's In Cold Blood. From this outline, it may appear as if the study is loaded in favour of the sociological works discussed in Chapter 2. This is intentional because, although many critics have referred to them as "non-fiction novels", very little systematic and detailed analysis of these works as a corpus has been forthcoming. This long chapter is an attempt to redress the balance.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1988
The frontier in South African English verse : 1820-1927
- Authors: Taylor, Avis Elizabeth
- Date: 1960
- Subjects: South African poetry (English) -- 19th century , South African literature (English) -- History and criticism , South Africa -- In literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2318 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013347
- Description: The concept of a distinctively South African poetry in English has been, and still is, derided as a "pipe dream" as part of the fallacy which stems from the desire for a "national" literature. In 1955, for instance, C.J. Harvey (in an article containing much common sense as well as sound literary judgment) denounced the self-conscious hunting for "Local Colour" which engrosses so many South African writers. Harvey claimed: "Our civilization is not "South African", except in trivial details, it is Western European, and more specifically as far as poetry written in English is concerned, English ... ". There is a serious error of emphasis here. It would be more accurate to say that our ancestors brought Western European civilization to this continent. To imagine that this civilisation has not undergone and is not still constantly suffering a subtle but far-reaching metamorphosis in Africa would be to fly in the face of reality. White South Africans do not only carry the same identity-card but they can be distinguished from Frenchmen, Englishmen or Irishmen by more than "trivial details". This thesis is an examination of some af the earliest English written in southern Africa, particularly of the verse produced by our poetasters and near-poets. It attempts, during the course of this examination, to call attention to a few of the more significant changes which have arisen as the result of the importation of Western civilsation to an African frontier. Further I hope to show some at the varying ways in which these differences affected the white pioneer and how this has been reflected in our verse since pioneering times. In this sense the Frontier may be thought of as the background against which South African English writers developed certain characteristic traits. Intro., p. 1-2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1960
- Authors: Taylor, Avis Elizabeth
- Date: 1960
- Subjects: South African poetry (English) -- 19th century , South African literature (English) -- History and criticism , South Africa -- In literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2318 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013347
- Description: The concept of a distinctively South African poetry in English has been, and still is, derided as a "pipe dream" as part of the fallacy which stems from the desire for a "national" literature. In 1955, for instance, C.J. Harvey (in an article containing much common sense as well as sound literary judgment) denounced the self-conscious hunting for "Local Colour" which engrosses so many South African writers. Harvey claimed: "Our civilization is not "South African", except in trivial details, it is Western European, and more specifically as far as poetry written in English is concerned, English ... ". There is a serious error of emphasis here. It would be more accurate to say that our ancestors brought Western European civilization to this continent. To imagine that this civilisation has not undergone and is not still constantly suffering a subtle but far-reaching metamorphosis in Africa would be to fly in the face of reality. White South Africans do not only carry the same identity-card but they can be distinguished from Frenchmen, Englishmen or Irishmen by more than "trivial details". This thesis is an examination of some af the earliest English written in southern Africa, particularly of the verse produced by our poetasters and near-poets. It attempts, during the course of this examination, to call attention to a few of the more significant changes which have arisen as the result of the importation of Western civilsation to an African frontier. Further I hope to show some at the varying ways in which these differences affected the white pioneer and how this has been reflected in our verse since pioneering times. In this sense the Frontier may be thought of as the background against which South African English writers developed certain characteristic traits. Intro., p. 1-2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1960
The family in Shakespeare's plays: a study of South African revisions
- Authors: Hjul, Lauren Martha
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Parents , Parental bonds , Family , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- In literature -- Research , Coetzee, J M, 1940-. Disgrace , Gordimer, Nadine. My son's story , Peteni, R L, 1915-. Hill of fools , English drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism , Families in literature , English literature -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2181 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001832
- Description: This thesis provides a detailed consideration of the family in Shakespeare’s canon and the engagement therewith in three South African novels: Hill of Fools (1976) by R. L. Peteni, My Son’s Story (1990) by Nadine Gordimer, and Disgrace (1999) by J. M. Coetzee. The study is divided into an introduction, three chapters each addressing one of the South African novels and its relationship with a Shakespeare text or texts, and a conclusion. The introductory chapter provides an analysis of the two strands of criticism in which the thesis is situated – studies of the family in Shakespeare and studies of appropriations of Shakespeare – and discusses the ways in which these two strands may be combined through a detailed discussion of the presence of power dynamics in the relationship between parent and child in all of the texts considered. The three chapters each contextualise the South African text and provide detailed discussions of the family dynamics within the relevant texts, with particular reference to questions of authority and autonomy. The focus in each chapter is determined by the nature of the intertextual relationship between the South African novel and the Shakespearean text being discussed. Thus, the first chapter, “The Dissolution of Familial Structures in Hill of Fools” considers power dynamics in the family as an inherent part of the Romeo and Juliet genre, of which William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is but a part. Similarly, the impact of a socio-political identity, and the secrecy it necessitates, is the focus of the second chapter, “Fathers, Sons and Legacy in My Son’s Story” as is the role of Shakespeare and literature within South Africa. These concerns are connected to the novel’s use of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, King Lear, and Hamlet. In the third chapter, “Reclaiming Agency through the Daughter in Disgrace and The Tempest”, I expand on Laurence Wright’s argument that Disgrace is an engagement with The Tempest and consider ways in which the altered power dynamic between father and daughter results in the reconciliation of the father figure with society. The thesis thus addresses the tension between parental bonds and parental bondage
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Hjul, Lauren Martha
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Parents , Parental bonds , Family , Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- In literature -- Research , Coetzee, J M, 1940-. Disgrace , Gordimer, Nadine. My son's story , Peteni, R L, 1915-. Hill of fools , English drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism , Families in literature , English literature -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2181 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001832
- Description: This thesis provides a detailed consideration of the family in Shakespeare’s canon and the engagement therewith in three South African novels: Hill of Fools (1976) by R. L. Peteni, My Son’s Story (1990) by Nadine Gordimer, and Disgrace (1999) by J. M. Coetzee. The study is divided into an introduction, three chapters each addressing one of the South African novels and its relationship with a Shakespeare text or texts, and a conclusion. The introductory chapter provides an analysis of the two strands of criticism in which the thesis is situated – studies of the family in Shakespeare and studies of appropriations of Shakespeare – and discusses the ways in which these two strands may be combined through a detailed discussion of the presence of power dynamics in the relationship between parent and child in all of the texts considered. The three chapters each contextualise the South African text and provide detailed discussions of the family dynamics within the relevant texts, with particular reference to questions of authority and autonomy. The focus in each chapter is determined by the nature of the intertextual relationship between the South African novel and the Shakespearean text being discussed. Thus, the first chapter, “The Dissolution of Familial Structures in Hill of Fools” considers power dynamics in the family as an inherent part of the Romeo and Juliet genre, of which William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is but a part. Similarly, the impact of a socio-political identity, and the secrecy it necessitates, is the focus of the second chapter, “Fathers, Sons and Legacy in My Son’s Story” as is the role of Shakespeare and literature within South Africa. These concerns are connected to the novel’s use of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, King Lear, and Hamlet. In the third chapter, “Reclaiming Agency through the Daughter in Disgrace and The Tempest”, I expand on Laurence Wright’s argument that Disgrace is an engagement with The Tempest and consider ways in which the altered power dynamic between father and daughter results in the reconciliation of the father figure with society. The thesis thus addresses the tension between parental bonds and parental bondage
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013