Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Biography as a literary form'

This thesis argues that the best genre parallel for the Acts of the Apostles is collected biography. This conclusion is reached through an application of ancient and modern genre theory and a detailed comparison of Acts and collected biographies. Chapter 1 offers prolegomena to this study and further delineates the contours of the thesis. Chapter 2 provides an extensive history of research, not only to provide the context and rationale for the present work, but also to indicate some of the shortcomings of previous investigations and the need for this present study. Chapter 3 presents the methodological perspective for this exploration. Making use of ancient and modern genre theory, I propose that scholars need to understand genre as a dynamic and flexible system that is culturally influenced and highly adaptable. In Chapter 4 I trace the diachronic development of ancient biographies, describe different sub-divisions, and note the strong, enduring relationship between biography and history. In evaluating the development of biography as a whole, there appears to be a distinct preference by ancient biographers for collected biographies. Chapters 5 to 7 interpret Acts in light of its possible relationship with collected biographies. Chapter 5 provides a detailed comparison of the structural and content features of history, novels, collected biographies, and Acts. Overall, this chapter argues that the structural and content features of Acts are most strongly related to the genre of biography and, secondarily, to history. Chapters six and seven evaluate Acts as a modified collected biography, identifying notable similarities in content features, structure, and endings. Chapter 8 summarizes and concludes the thesis, along with a brief mention of avenues for future research. Related literary investigations, such as a list of literary topoi references in biographies, biographies referenced by Diogenes Laertius, and a full discussion of biography’s adaptability in the first century (modelled by Plutarch and Philo), are treated in appendices.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1998.
Title from title page screen, viewed July 6, 2006. Dissertation Committee: John C. Shields (chair), Cynthia Huff, Russell K. Rutter, Ray Lewis White. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-226) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.(Afrikaans))--Universiteit van Pretoria.
Afrikaans text with summaries in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 183-189). Also available on the Internet via World Wide Web.

In this thesis, I have studied the elements that distinguish the biography as a literary genre. After analysing the different facets involved in the making of a biography, I have applied some theories to practical use. I chose a subject, became acquainted with the facts of this person's life, found the ideal form and produced on paper the life of a real human being. I chose to write a biography on Odelie Brisebois, a very loving and humble woman. Her seventy-seven years encompasses a period of Quebec history and life style that we will never see again.

The major part of this thesis, In the Space Behind His Eyes, is a biography of Western Australian author, Donald Robert Stuart (1913-1983), a colourful life story woven around accepted and persistent myths found in the Australian psyche. In his childhood, Donald Stuart listened to stories about his Scottish immigrant grandfather finding gold on the Victorian fields and his father's part in the 1891 Queensland Shearers strike. His poverty-stricken, but peaceful, upbringing in suburban Perth, Western Australia, was overtaken by the 1930s Depression and, as a rebellious fourteen-year old, he left home and took to the road. In the next decade or so, as he adopted the north-west outback life, he was exposed further to Australia's traditional yarns and philosophies. He emerged from this period as the outrageous ‘Scorp’ Stuart, who drank too much and took advantage of the freedoms on offer. At the start of World War II, Scorp volunteered for the 2nd AlF. He served in the Middle East and somehow survived three-and-a-half years as a Prisoner of the Japanese, including a time on the infamous Burma-Thailand railway. On his return to Australia, he began to tread the writer's path, supplementing his memories with renewed visits to the outback of his youth and working on yet another railway. Encouraged by his sister and her friends, supported by two of his wives and recognised by the Western Australian writh1g community, Donald R. Stuart played the role of noted author, a construct only possible because of Scorp Stuart's adventures. Calling on these experiences, in eleven novels and many short stories, he set down his record of a particular Australian life. The varying facets of his complex character come together in his writing, notably through his deep love of the land and in his sympathetic examination of the north-west Aborigines' position since white settlement. This biography of a writer sets out to trace the life of Donald Stuart, examine the disparity between Stuart the bushman and Stuart the noted author, and to shed light on the man behind the writing. In the essay following In the Space Behind His Eyes, I explore the biographical form, consider directions the genre has taken in recent years, discuss aspects of biography generally and support choices made in the writing of this biography.

This thesis presents a series of case studies demonstrating that literary biography and literary criticism concerning writers who abused alcohol or who lived in relationships with those who abused alcohol can be enriched by an interdisciplinary appreciation of contemporary addiction theory. It begins with an overview of the various constructions of addiction to alcohol and to other substances and activities, ways of thinking about harmful dependencies which have dominated Western attitudes since the eighteenth century. It then identifies the directions current addiction research and therapy have taken and focuses particularly on the paradigm in most frequent clinical use today; that is, the understanding of alcohol addiction as a disorder not merely of the individual subject but of a constellation of codependent relationships. Literary biography has all too often either trivialized or sensationalized the addictions of writers and their families, and in doing so, has made it difficult for critics to address textual questions which could be resolved more appropriately with a sensitivity to addiction theory in general and to the circumstances of the writer's life in particular. To demonstrate that current thinking about alcoholism and codependency provides a valid way to read works by writers who were either alcoholic themselves or who lived in domestic relationships with alcoholics, it presents "case studies" from eras prior to our own and argues that authorial anxiety about alcohol abuse and addiction was not only a significant factor in the production of the texts but in the preoccupations within the works themselves in ways which repay close reading. It provides readings of well-known nineteenth and twentieth-century novels: Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, and Evelyn Waugh's The Sword of Honour trilogy. In doing so, it seeks to demonstrate that anxiety about alcohol abuse in the context of marriage and parent-child relationships is a recurring and meaningful element, attention to which deepens a reader's appreciation of the writers' theme and technique and, moreover, challenges-or complements, in unexpected ways-insights from more conventional criticism.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010.
Title from screen (viewed on July 19, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Robert Rebein, David Beck, Terry Kirts. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 16-17) and annotated bibliography (leaves 100-108).

In the context of a renascent interest in the thought of Jean-Paul Sartre, this thesis proposes a close examination of one of his less studied texts, the study of Gustave Flaubert, L'Idiot de la famille (1971-72). The analysis focuses on theoretical developments that emerge from Sartre's biographical enquiry, pursuing an interdisciplinary approach combining a consideration of literary theory and literary history with the perspective of Sartre's philosophy of subjectivity. L'Idiot is situated amongst a wide variety of texts by Sartre, from Qu'est-ce que la littérature? (1948) to the Critique de la raison dialectique (1960), identifying theoretical innovations within Sartre's understanding of the subject (ch. 1), his social theory (ch. 2), his theory of the imaginary (ch. 3), of literary production (ch. 4) and of reading (ch. 5). Additionally, hitherto largely unexplored passages highlight Sartre's reflections on the situation of the late 1960s. Previous analyses of the philosophical innovations presented in L'Idiot have often focused on the strictly theoretical passages in the biography. The present thesis also concentrates on the 'imagined' scenes presented throughout the text. Read as an integral part of Sartre's method, it is suggested that the dramatization facilitated by the biographical format is an integral part of the theoretical enquiry. Despite the lack of explicit referencing provided by Sartre, the biography is explored in its open character, identifying a series of resonances and similarities with a diverse range of authors. The different chapters consider thinkers whose relationship with Sartre has received little or no attention (such as Pierre Bourdieu and Walter Benjamin), or whose work resonates with Sartre in ways that have so far gone unnoticed (Roland Barthes, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Maurice Blanchot).

In recent years critical projects spanning philosophy, the social sciences, science studies, and nearly everywhere that has employed the term ecology have engaged in thinking humans and non-humans together as collectively producing outcomes, where objects do work beyond how humans perceive or make use of them. Taking Zelda Fitzgerald’s Save Me the Waltz as its focus, this thesis explores how this reorientation might contribute to literary studies and to literary criticism more specifically. The thesis considers a notion that novels constitute objects with biographies running “against” the biographic material of their authors, mobilizes actor network theory as a manner of mapping that biographic assemblage, and tentatively develops a biographic network approach as one alternative to traditional literary interpretative practices. Attending to the novel as an actor shifts critical focus away from its interior – the “text” or content – and expands traditional literary criticism’s default practice – interpretation – and logic – mimetic representation – in hopes of facilitating a discussion of Zelda’s novel in a manner which destabilizes the overdetermined themes that continue to scaffold her imaginary. Ultimately, this work argues that a biographic network approach can prove instructive as a “method” for dealing with other texts which remain relatively obscured at the margins of literary consciousness.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-257). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Orientador: Fabio Akcelrud Durão
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
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Resumo: Este trabalho tem como objetivo a análise da obra autobiográfica da cartunista estadunidense Alison Bechdel publicada no formato livro, composta, até o momento, por duas histórias em quadrinhos: Fun Home ¿ A Family Tragicomic (2006) e Are you my mother? ¿ A Comic Drama (2012). Além do estudo de obras autobiográficas em quadrinhos e as implicações desta combinação de meio e gênero, visamos observar a maneira como Bechdel estrutura suas narrativas através da intertextualidade com outras produções, sejam elas literárias, psicanalíticas, ou imagéticas. Nossa atenção será voltada para o uso que Bechdel faz de tais obras e qual a relação desta construção de paralelos com a sua criação autobiográfica, na qual articula obras e biografias (das personagens relacionadas à sua história e experiência de vida) em diversos níveis, bem como a maneira como a autora reflete sobre o próprio ato de autobiografar-se ao longo de suas obras
Abstract: The aim of this work is the analysis of the autobiographical work of American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, published in book form, composed, so far, of two comics: Fun Home ¿ A Family Tragicomic (2006) and Are you my mother? ¿ A Comic Drama (2012). Apart from the study of autobiographical works in comics and the implications of this specific media and genre combination, we aim to observe how Bechdel structures her narratives through intertextuality with other productions, such as literary, psychoanalytic, or imagery. Our attention will be focused on the use that Bechdel makes of such works and what is the connection between the building of parallels with the author's autobiographical production in which she articulates the works and biographies (of the characters related to her history and life experience) at various levels, as well as the way the author critically thinks, while constructing her autobiographies, of the act of autobiography itself
Mestrado
Teoria e Critica Literaria
Mestra em Teoria e História Literária

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005.
Title from title page screen, viewed on April 12, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Anita Tarr (chair), Cynthia Huff, Karen Coats, Roberta Seelinger Trites. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-178) and abstract. Also available in print.

Orientador: Haquira Osakabe
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
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Resumo: Este trabalho analisa as cinco biografias escritas pela romancista portuguesa Agustina Bessa-Luís, a saber: Santo António (1973), Florbela Espanca - a vida e a obra (1979), Sebastião José (1981), Longos dias têm cem anos - presença de Vieira da Silva (1982) e Martha Telles - o castelo que irás e não voltarás (1986). O interesse pelo traço biográfico, manifestado em O susto (1958), romance à clefcujos personagens são inspirados nos poetas Teixeira de Pascoaes e Femando Pessoa, vai se tomar mais evidente após a publicação de Santo António. Tal livro marca uma nova fase na obra da Autora, em que predomina a pesquisa histórica para dar conta de um passado mais longínquo, não alcançado pela memória, seja em romances à elef ou não, e em ensaios. A presença do traço biográfico nessa produção, além das próprias biografias, justifica a pesquisa que busca identificar quais as marcas caracterizadoras desse discurso não ficcional. O trabalho se organiza em três partes. A primeira consiste dum estudo abrangente da obra da Autora, incluindo os ensaios, seguido de um levantamento do estado da arte do discurso biográfico, com o objetivo de estabelecer um protocolo de leitura das biografias. A segunda parte aborda os já citados cinco textos na ordem cronológica em que foram publicados, analisando-se o processo criador das biografias, as quais se apresentam com formatos e enfoques diferentes, mas com marcas comuns, entre as quais destacam-se: a) insatisfação com a produção existente a respeito do sujeito biografado, evidenciando-se aí uma falta que deverá ser suprida pela escritura da biografia em causa; b) desobediência a uma ordem cronológica linear da narrativa, em que o mesmo fato é evocado em diferentes momentos da vida narrada e da narração, resultando numa abertura do texto a diferentes interpretações de ações ou fatos acontecidos na vida do sujeito biografado; c) predileção por documentos escritos pelo biografado como cartas, bilhetes, poemas, sermões, discursos, que se apresentam como meios autênticos de expressão do ser. Mais importante, porém, é que a citação desse discurso do Outro dá ensejo à criação do texto agustiniano, de tal modo que aquela produção se toma parte indissolúvel do discurso da Autora. O resultado dado a ler revela o interesse provocado pelo sujeito biográfico, cuja vida se apresenta como um enigma a ser decifrado, ou como adivinha a ser demonstrada pela biógrafa que desempenha um papel de detetive, à procura de pistas que levem a completar o quebra-cabeça a ser resolvido. O desenho formado pelas peças reunidas, no entanto, é mutável, não prevalecendo nenhuma conclusão fechada, de modo que o sujeito biográfico não se apresenta ao leitor como mitificado com complacência ou radicalismo: é a sua condição humana complexa que é dada a conhecer. Assim, não ficam de fora as fraquezas, os vícios, os defeitos, ao lado das realizações que tomaram a pessoa um sujeito biográfico. Nesse sentido, determinados acontecimentos, ou sua falta, são identificados pela Autora como a "prova da existência" desses indivíduos, ou, como o momento em que sua força plástica é reconhecida publicamente. A terceira parte é a conclusão. Reitera-se o processo criativo da escrita das biografias, diferente da criação ficcional, e conclui-se que, se a obra ficcional de Agustina Bessa-Luís é reconhecida pela crítica como ficcionista, o mesmo não acontece com seus trabalhos de cunho ensaístico em geral e biográfico em particular. No entanto, não deixa de haver uma recognição de seu trabalho de biógrafa, pois das cinco biografias, apenas a de Santo António é fruto de sua vontade, as demais lhe são todas encomendadas
Abstract: The present work analyzes the five biographies written by the Portuguese novelist Agustina Bessa-Luís, namely: Santo António (1973), Florbela Espanca - a vida e a obra (1979), Sebastião José (1981), Longos dias têm cem anos - presença de Vieira da Silva (1982) and Martha Telles - o castelo que irás e não voltarás (1986). The interest in the biographical trace manifested in O Susto (1958), an 'à ele! novel whose characters are inspired on the poets Teixeira Soares and Fernando Pessoa, becomes more evident after the publication of Santo António. This book stands as the landmark of a new phase in the Author' s life characterized by the dominance of historical research in order to account for a more distant past, not reached by memory, either in novels - 'à elef' or not - or in essays. The presence of the biographical trace in this production, apart from the biographies themselves, justifies the present research as a step toward the identification of the characterizing marks of this non-fictional discourse. The present work is organized in three parts. The first consists of a comprehensive study of the Author' s work, including her essays, followed by a state of the art research focusing on the biographical discourse aiming at establishing a reading protocol for those biographies. The second part deals with the five above-mentioned texts in chronological order according to their date of publication, analyzing the creative process of biographies, which present themselves in different formats and approaches, nonetheless sharing some marks among which we can point out: a) dissatisfaction with the available production about the biographee, thus evidencing a gap that will be filled in by the writing of the biography in case; b) disregard for a linear chronological order of the narrative, in which the same fact is evoked in different moments of the narrated life and of the narration, leaving the text open to different interpretations of actions or facts that happened in the biographee's life; c) preference for documents written by the biographee such as letters, notes, poems, sermons, speeches, that present themselves as genuine ways of expressing the being. More important, however, is that the citation of this discourse of the Other allows for the creation of the Agustinian text, so much so that that production becomes an indiscerptible part of the Author' s discourse. The result offered for reading reveals the interest raised by the biographee, whose life presents itself as an enigma to be solved, or as a riddle to be demonstrated by the biographer who performs the role of a detective, looking for clues that lead to the completion of a jigsaw puzz1e. The picture formed by the reunited pieces, however, is changeable, not prevailing any closed conclusion, in such a way that the biographee is not presented to the reader as mythicized with complacency or radicalism: it is their complex human condition that is made known. Thus, weaknesses, vices, flaws are not left out and are presented side by side with the achievements that turned the person into a biographee. In this sense, certain events - or the lack of them - are identified by the Author as the 'proof of existence' of these individuaIs or as the moment in which their plastic force is publicly recognized. The third part is the conclusion. The creative process of biography writing is reaffirmed as different from the fictional creation and we conclude that, if the fictional work of Agustina Bessa-Luís is recognized by the critics as fictionist, the same does not happen with her essay-type works in general and her biographic-type works in particular. Nevertheless, this does not invalidate the recognition of her work as a biographer for, out ofthe five biographies, the one of Santo António is a product of her own wish, whereas the others had alI been ordered.
Doutorado
Teoria e Critica Literaria
Doutor em Teoria e História Literária

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2005.
Title from title screen. Elizabeth Sanders Lopez, committee chair; Pearl A. McHaney, Mary E. Hocks, committee members. Electronic text (167 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed July 17, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-159).

This thesis consists of two components: a 70,000-word verse novel and a 50,000-word critical component that has arisen out of the research process for that novel. Creative Component: The Marlowe Papers The Marlowe Papers is a full-length verse novel written entirely in iambic pentameter. As with verse novels such as The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth, or The Emperor's Babe by Bernadine Evaristo, its inspiration, derivation, conventions and scope owe more to the prose novel than to the epic poem. Though there is as yet no widely-accepted definition, a verse novel may be distinguished from an epic poem where it consists, as in this case, of numerous discrete poems, each constituting a ‘chapter' of the novel. This conception allows for considerable variations in form and tone that would not be possible in the more cohesive tradition of the epic poem. The Marlowe Papers is a fictional autobiography of Christopher Marlowe based on the idea that he used the pseudonym ‘William Shakespeare' (employing the Stratford merchant as a ‘front'), having faked his own death and fled abroad to escape capital charges for atheism and heresy. The verse novel, written in dramatic scenes, traces his life from his flight on 30 May 1593, through the back-story (starting in 1586) that led to his prosecution, as we similarly track his progress on the Continent and in England until just after James I accedes to the English throne. The poems are a mixture of longer blank verse narratives and smaller, more lyrical poems (including sonnets). Explanatory notes to the poems, and a Dramatis Personae, are included on the advice of my creative supervisor. Critical Component: Writing Marlowe As Writing Shakespeare This part of the thesis explores the relationship between early modern biographies and fiction, questioning certain ‘facts' of Marlovian and Shakespearean biography in the light of the ‘thought experiment' of the verse novel. Marlowe's reputation for violence is reassessed in the light of scholarly doubt about the veracity of the inquest document, and Shakespeare's sonnets are reinterpreted through the lens of the Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship. The argument is that orthodox and non-Stratfordian theories might be considered competing paradigms; simply different frameworks through which interpretation of the same data leads to different conclusions. Interdisciplinary influences include Kuhn's philosophy of scientific discovery, post-modern narrativist history, neuroscience, psychology, and quantum physics (in the form of the ‘observer effect'). Data that is either anomalous or inexplicable under the orthodox paradigm is demonstrated to support a Marlovian reading, and the current state of the Shakespeare authorship question is assessed. Certain primary source documents were examined at the Bodleian Library, at the British Library, and at Lambeth Palace Library. Versions of Chapters 2, 3 and 4, written under supervision during this doctorate, have all been published, either as a book chapter or as a journal article, within the last year (Barber, 2009, 2010a, b).

In the Parallel Lives Plutarch does not absolve his readers of the need for moral reflection by offering any sort of hard and fact rules for their moral judgement. Rather, he uses strategies for eliciting from readers an active engagement with the act of judging. This study, building upon and verifying further recent research on the challenging and exploratory, rather than affirmative, moral impact that the Lives are designed to have on their readers, offers the first systematic analysis of the representation of 'experimental' moralism of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. It seeks to describe and analyse the range of narrative techniques that Plutarch employs to draw his readers into the process of moral evaluation and expose them to the complexities and difficulties involved in making moral judgements. Through illustrating Plutarch's narrative techniques, it also sheds significant light on Plutarch's sensibility to the artistic qualities of historical narrative as well as to the challenges and dangers inherent in recounting, reading, and evaluating history. Chapter 1 considers the interrogatory nature of the moralism of the Lives and their narrative sophistication, which the insights of recent literary theories can help us to unfold and analyse. Chapter 2 is concerned with Plutarch's projection of himself and his readers, and, more specifically, with the devices that Plutarch exploits to build his authority with his readers, establish their complicity, and draw them into engaging all the more actively with the subjects of his Lives. Chapter 3 examines how Plutarch's delving into the minds of the in-text characters generates in readers empathy that keeps them alert up to the end of the Life to the complex and provisional character of a clear-cut moralising judgement. Chapter 4 reflects especially upon Plutarch's tendency to refrain from offering an overall moral conclusion in the closing chapters of the biographies. It examines several closural devices (such as anecdotes, the aftermath of cities, literary allusions, and generalised moral statements) that are effective in drawing readers to review in retrospect moral themes and questions which matter to the book as a whole, and (in the case of the endings of the second Lives) help a neat transition to the final comparative epilogue (Synkrisis) - whenever this follows. Chapter 5 explores how the Synkriseis expose readers to the particular challenges involved in deciding an overarching concluding judgement. It also closely examines the books that (as they now stand) do not have a Synkrisis and makes the case that no 'terminal irregularity' can justify and explain any deliberate omission of their comparative epilogues. Finally, Chapter 6 focuses on Plutarch's essay On the malice of Herodotus and explores how far Plutarch's techniques in the Lives escape and how far they are vulnerable to the criticisms that Plutarch makes of Herodotus. This analysis brings together the main strands of the earlier chapters so as to illuminate further Plutarch's narrative strategies; it also discusses the possibility that Plutarch exploits the rhetorical agonistic framework of the essay in order to elicit a similar sort of attentive and acute reader response to historical narrative, as in the Lives, and to arouse awareness of the precarious act of exercising moral judgement.

This thesis consists of two sections. The intention of Section One, 'Biographical Texts: Theoretical Underpinning', is to explore and discuss the theoretical underpinnings of Maori feminism and Kaupapa Maori as they relate to biography as a research method into the lives of Maori women. Biography, as a literary genre is also examined with particular reference to feminist, women of colour and Maori biography. Section One is a wideranging section, encompassing a broad sweep of the literature in these areas. It both draws from existing literature and contributes to the discourse regarding Maori feminism, Maori biography and Maori research. It is relevant to but unconstrained by the content of Section Two. The intention of Section Two, 'Locating the Story of Betty Wark; A Biographical Narrative with Reflective Annotations', is to provide an example of the biographical method and what might constitute Maori biography. The subject of the biographical narrative, Betty Wark, was a Maori woman who was actively involved with community-based organisations from the 1950s until her death in May 2001. Several major themes which emerged from Betty's biographical history occur throughout her narrative and provide a framework in which her story is located. One of the most significant themes was the notion of 'home'; both literal and metaphorical. This theme is reflected in the title of the thesis, Writing Ourselves 'Home'.

Part 1 of this thesis comprises a biography which, for the first time, places Marion Angus within her historical, family and social context. A version of this was published as the introduction to my edited collection The Singin Lass: Selected Work of Marion Angus (Polygon, 2006). Assumptions made about the poet's activities and attitudes derive from critical reading of archival material: her published 'diaries', letters and prose, as well as her poetry. The appraisal of her work places it within literary contexts. The development of her linguistic awareness of the Scots language is traced and the extent of her commitment to it noted. I conclude that assessment of her work has frequently been affected by erroneous judgements about her lifestyle and that the poetry, which has greater depth than it sometimes is given credit for, illuminates her struggle rather than defines her character. Her strength and resilience, as well as her contribution to Scots literature, should be respected and admired. Part II comprises three extracts from Blackthorn, a novel based on aspects of the life and work of Marion Angus. My starting point was the marked contrast between her earlier prose and her later poetry. This, I believe, reflects an actual family crisis which is central to my narrative. The extracts presented here (dated 1900, 1930 and 1945-46) present a credible alternative to inaccurate assumptions which were made about her life. I explore two actual significant relationships in her life: with a sister who becomes wholly dependent on her, and with a younger friend who looks after her in her final year. In the absence of any firm evidence of lovers, I speculate on other relationships.

His Story takes the form of a fictive but autobiographically based investigation into the child and young adult I used to be, and follows that protagonist into early adulthood. It tries to show the damage done to that character and the way in which he damaged others in turn. As Hemingway said, We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to hurt like hell before you can write seriously. More importantly, the main protagonist is somebody who became concerned with, and cognizant of the main political and social events of his day. His life is set in its social context, and reaches out to the larger issues. That is to say, the personal events of the protagonist's life are recorded alongside and set in the context of the major events taking place on the world stage. The manuscript is some sort of hybrid of novel, autobiography, and historical and social document. As Isaac Bashevis Singer said, The serious writer of our time must be deeply concerned about the problems of his generation. In order to make His Story effective in sharing my ideas and beliefs, and, of course, in order to protect the innocent and more particularly, the guilty, it is created in the colourful area that is the overlap between memory and fiction. When we tell the stories of our lives to others, and indeed, to ourselves, we prise them out of memory's fingers and transform them into fiction. To write autobiography well, as E.L. Doctorow said, you have to invent everything, even memory.

This thesis analyses Anglo-American criticism of biography, during the late twentieth century from within and outside the academy. It moves on to discuss the work of three contemporary British biographers, Claire Tomalin, Richard Holmes and Hermione Lee, in the context of recent debate about the genre. Claire Tomalin, is an independent freelance biographer; Hermione Lee, is a lifelong academic who writes biography for the general and academic reader; and Richard Holmes has had a foot in both camps in his experience both as an independent biographer and an academic. The aim is to make the case that contemporary British biography since 1970, literary biography in particular, has not only responded to objections from some academics critics but, at least in the biographies by Tomalin, Holmes and Lee, embraces aspects of recent academic literary theory, New Historicism and Feminism in particular. It is not within the remit of my thesis to provide an overview of literary theory or weigh up its arguments. It is rather the intention to argue that objections to the genre have been influenced by aspects of recent theory, and that critics have not acknowledged the extent to which biographers have also been aware of, and have responded to comparable influences. I will also consider the extent to which objections to the genre are reflected in reviews of biographies by Tomalin, Holmes and Lee, as well as recent developments in the academic study of the genre. The first chapter will identify major objections to biography influenced by academic theory, drawing on both British and American sources. The next chapter will discuss how biographers, within and outside the academy, have responded to these objections. A study of Claire Tomalin’s biographies in Chapter Three will explore the extent to which she considers ‘truth’ as mediated and provisional; how she approaches autobiographical evidence; her use of anecdotes and chronology; and the use she makes of speculation. Richard Holmes, the subject of Chapter Four, is often associated with debates about identification in biography and the chapter devoted to him will explore the extent to which his approach can be seen as ‘Romantic’ in its treatment of the subject as an isolated individual, a great i man or autonomous genius; the extent to which he places his biographical subjects within their social, political and cultural contexts; and his approach to historiography, influenced by the ontological and fictional focus important to Ira Nadel. Hermione Lee, the subject of Chapter Five, is a distinguished academic whose biographical writing negotiates the balance between fact and fiction and ontological and historical knowledge differently from that of Holmes, in ways more congruent with academic practice. Chapter Six will consider the critical reception of biographies by Hermione Lee, Claire Tomalin, and Richard Holmes in academic journals and the reviews of academics in the quality press. Chapter Seven will discusses the extent to which biography as a written narrative has been subsumed within the academy into the wider field of life-writing, and how this subsuming has affected its status and character as a literary genre.

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This dissertation aims to investigate the (self) reflexivity that is revealed in the Claricean posthumous work, Um sopro de vida (Pulsações), in two levels: in (auto) biographical terms and in structural terms, transforming it into a double mirror. In a first level, we consider our corpus of analysis, investigating the (auto) biographical and autofictional indexes of Clarice Lispector in the novel. Starting from the hypothesis that the author, in countless moments of its literary production, left traces that evidences aspects of her life in her characters, transforming them into a sort of her alter egos. Based on this premise, we aim to bring Clarice's life and work closer together through the author' s mirroring in her writing, establishing relationships between the textual elements of the posthumous novel in harmony with the life of Clarice Lispector. Our exploratory-descriptive and bibliographical research uses theories about autobiography, through the postulates of Philippe Lejeune and Alba Olmi; the considerations of Gerard Genette and Lucien Dallenbach of intratextuality, as well as of the autofictional studies from Serge Doubrovsky, Leonor Arfuch, Diana Klinger and Vincent Colonna. In a second level, we analyze the reflexivity of our corpus from the perspective of the mirroring of the work on itself, that is, the reflections on the literary doing itself, evidencing the text as an artifact in the construction process. We consider the premise that this mirroring would be printed in the text through metalinguistic, metafictional and authorial processes. In order to investigate how the word goes beyond the perspective of language and reaches the fictional plane, we use the studies of metalanguage developed by Samira Chalub, as well as the metafictional studies developed by Linda Hutcheon, Patricia Waugh and Gustavo Bernardo. For the different levels of authorship, we explain the notions of authorship, according to Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault
Esta dissertação tem como proposta investigar a (auto)reflexividade que se revela na obra póstuma clariceana, Um sopro de vida (Pulsações), em dois níveis: em termos (auto)biográficos e em termos estruturais, transformando-a num duplo espelho. Em um primeiro nível, adentramos em nosso corpus de análise, investigando os índices (auto)biográficos e autoficcionais de Clarice Lispector no romance, partindo da hipótese de que a autora, em inúmeros momentos de sua produção literária, deixou rastros que evidenciam aspectos de sua vida em suas personagens, transformando-as em espécies de alter egos seus. Com base nessa premissa, aproximamos a vida e a obra de Clarice, por meio do espelhamento da autora em sua escritura, estabelecendo relações entre os elementos textuais do romance póstumo coadunados à vida de Clarice Lispector. Nossa pesquisa de caráter exploratório-descritivo e bibliográfico utilizou-se, neste viés, de teorias acerca da autobiografia, por meio dos postulados de Philippe Lejeune e Alba Olmi; das considerações de Gerárd Genette e Lucien Dallenbach em torno da intratextualidade, bem como dos estudos autoficcionais a partir de Serge Doubrovsky, Leonor Arfuch, Diana Klinger e Vincent Colonna. Em um segundo nível, analisamos a reflexividade do nosso corpus sob a perspectiva do espelhamento da obra sobre si mesma, ou seja, as reflexões sobre o próprio fazer literário, evidenciando o texto como artefato em processo de construção. Partimos da premissa de que esse espelhamento estaria impresso no texto por meio de processos metalinguísticos, metaficcionais e pelos jogos autorais. A fim de investigarmos como a palavra ultrapassa a perspectiva da linguagem e atinge o plano ficcional, recorremos às considerações de Samira Chalub acerca da metalinguagem, bem como aos estudos em torno da metaficção desenvolvidos por Linda Hutcheon, Patricia Waugh e Gustavo Bernardo. Quanto aos diferentes níveis autorais, explicitaremos as noções de autoria, segundo Roland Barthes e Michel Foucault

An African (Auto)biography: Ama Ata Aidoo's Literary Quest és un estudi exhaustiu del que considero que configura la primera fase de l'obra d'Ama Ata Aidoo, escriptora ghanesa. El text que marca la primera fase del desenvolupament i consolidació de la veu d'Aidoo és Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint, un text inclassificable genèricament i una presència indiscutible en la literatura africana anglòfona.
La tasca d'escriure que envolta a escriptors/es es defineix per una necessitat de trobar la seva pròpia veu en el món literari. Si bé aquesta cerca de la veu pròpia ve marcada per un impuls entusiasta per deixar una empremta en el món de les lletres, o si bé està segellada per la càrrega que suposa la superació del que Harold Bloom anomena l' "angoixa de la influència," és a dir, la presència omnipotent de totes aquelles veus d'escriptors/es anteriors que impedeixen l'articulació d'una veu indiscutiblement independent i única, la veritat és que un autor s'ha d'enfrontar i ajustar a una tradició de textos que intenta emmotllar a la seva pròpia imaginació i experiència.
Ama Ata Aidoo és una escriptora africana. Nascuda l'any 1940 a la regió central de Ghana, Aidoo ha conegut el colonialisme de primera mà -Ghana era l'antiga colònia britànica anomenada Gold Coast-, ha estat implicada directament amb la lluita per la independència del seu país -els britànics varen empresonar el seu pare, Abeadzi Kyiakor, per la seva participació en la lluita per la independència de Ghana-, ha disfrutat i celebrat els anys immediatament posteriors a la independència, ha patit i criticat l'onada neocolonialista que seguí el període d' independència i, durant tota la seva vida ha mantingut una perspectiva clarament feminista. La seva cerca literària -la seva lluita per trobar una veu pròpia- és un intent de reconciliar aquells aspectes diferents i discrepants que han configurat la seva experiència com a dona a l'Àfrica. La seva obra literària no es pot entendre sense tenir en compte les realitats sovint ambivalents, ambigües i contradictòries que forgen la seva identitat -la seva (auto)biografia- com a escriptora, dona i africana.
En l' obra d'Ama Ata Aidoo la llegendària lluita entre l'àmbit personal i l'àmbit públic de l'escriptor, entre l'individu com a ésser tancat en sí mateix i ésser polític, s'articula dintre de la realitat sobrecollidora dels estats moderns africans, un llegat que, no es pot oblidar, és patrimoni de l'època colonialista. Quan Harold Bloom mostrava, des d'una perspectiva crítica, la seva preocupació sobre la tradició literària que els escriptors es veuen obligats a confrontar per a poder definir una veu pròpia, singularment seva, ho feia trepitjant terreny occidental, és a dir, ho feia considerant únicament i exclusivament la tradició literària d'occident. Però què passa quan la veu que s'està cercant i intentant definir és el resultat d'una herència polèmica, una herència marcada per una tradició literària occidental, per una banda, i una experiència indiscutiblement i inequívocament africana, per l'altra?
L'any 1994, Vincent Odammten, dedicà un llibre sencer a l'anàlisi de l'obra d'Aidoo: The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo: Polylectics and Reading Against Colonialism. L'anàlisi que Odammten fa de l'obra d'Aidoo es centra en el fet de que els seus textos són un exemple de la lluita literària contra el colonialisme, però, en cap moment, fa referència a la cerca personal de l'autora per definir la seva veu pròpia. El meu argument és que aquesta lluita per definir la seva veu com a escriptora és fonamental per una apreciació crítica de la seva obra, i, afegeixo que aquesta cerca de la veu pròpia està indissolublement lligada a la seva essència com a dona i com a africana.
L'obra d'Ama Ata Aidoo desestabilitza el discurs eurocèntric d'una manera insidiosa, consistent i incansable. El terme "eurocèntric" és un prèstec del llibre de Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought, i interpreto "discurs" de la manera que Foucalt ho va definir a The Archaelogy of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. Així doncs, la meva utilització del terme "discurs eurocèntric" obeeix a, en primer lloc, la interpretació de l'adjectiu "eurocèntric" que trobem en el llibre de Hill Collins i que defineix com a la condensació de dues coordenades: blanca -occidental- i masculina; i, en segon lloc, a la interpretació Foucaldiana de "discurs" com a combinació de pràctica i manera de parlar la naturalesa de la qual determina el criteri pel qual els seus resultats es jutgen com a exitosos. D'aquesta manera, es produeix un cercle viciós, ja que, si masculinitat i occidentalitat són els dos aspectes que alimenten i determinen els criteris mitjançant els quals aquest discurs, aquesta combinació particular i específica de pràctica i manera de parlar, es considera satisfactòria, aleshores, tot sembla indicar que no hi ha cap camí el suficientment satisfactori que ens allunyi de la masculinitat i l' occidentalitat. Mes, com l'obra d'Aidoo demostra, aquest no és el cas.
La literatura africana en llengua anglesa està estigmatitzada pel fantasma de la novel.la de Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Cor de Tenebres). Aquesta novel.la, altament controvertida, publicada l'any 1898, turmenta la imaginació dels escriptors africans per la seva representació del continent africà com a buit negre. Malgrat tot, Heart of Darkness, s'ha de llegir com un text ambivalent, ambigu, terriblement i espantosament contradictori i que s'ha de tenir en compte en qualsevol estudi d'escriptors africans anglòfons que s'emprengui. La meva lectura de la novel.la de Conrad està influenciada per l'obra del crític Edward Said que defineix Heart of Darkness com a una primera i incipient crítica del discurs eurocèntric. Podem afirmar que el motiu que va empènyer a Joseph Conrad a escriure Heart of Darkness va ser el seu desig de plasmar i denunciar l'explotació cruel i brutal que Bèlgica portava a terme en el Congo. Aleshores, i aquí radica l'ambivalència i la importància de l'obra, si aquesta era la intenció de Conrad, com és que Àfrica es descriu com una terra nullius, i els africans es representen com a animals? En altres paraules, perquè la crítica del discurs eurocèntric que sembla desprendre's del text de Conrad cau en el més nefast de l'eurocentrisme: el racisme i el masclisme? Said respón a aquesta pregunta d'una manera parcial: Conrad, mitjançant la seva novel.la, copsa la incapacitat de l'individu que, volent expressar una experiència contrària a l'imperialisme, acaba caient en l'esperit imperialista que vol denunciar i això és degut al fet de que aquesta experiència l'intenta articular mitjançant un discurs eurocèntric, que Said defineix com a marcadament occidental. Com he assenyalat anteriorment, la resposta de Said és parcial perquè, en cap moment, reconeix la masculinitat que desprèn la novel.la de Conrad. Hi ha hagut re-escriptures importantíssimes de Heart of Darkness per part d'autors africans anglòfons -Paradise d'Abdulrazak Gurnah (Zanzíbar), Waiting for the Barbarians de J.M.Coetzee (Sudàfrica), Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (Nigèria)- però cap ha reconegut en la seva re-escriptura crítica la masculinitat que junt amb l'occidentalitat conforma el discurs eurocèntric. Amb una excepció: Ama Ata Aidoo i la seva obra Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections of a Black-Eyed Squint, que suposa una re-escriptura brillant -i, m'agradaria afegir, poc reconeguda- de la novel.la de Conrad.
La meva tesi doctoral consta de dues parts: The Cave: Colonialism Black and White i The Cave Revisited. Towards a Subjectification of Africa and African Women. La primera part la conformen dos capítols: Unveiling the Ghost: Heart of Darkness or Africa-Chronotope Zero i (Auto) Biographical Fiction: The Facing and De-Facing of Africa-. Aquests dos primers capítols són una anàlisi de la ambigüitat del text de Conrad que encara avui dia és una realitat fantasmagòrica en l'imaginari africà anglòfon, per una banda, i una crítica de la masculinitat que amaga el moviment literari de la Négritude que sorgí com un intent per part d'autors africans d' omplir el buit que l'imaginari occidental havia deixat en el continent africà, per l'altra. La segona part se centra en l'estudi de les obres que configuren la primera fase de la cerca literària d'Aidoo -The Dilemma of a Ghost i Anowa (drama), No Sweetness Here (contes) i Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint (text genèricament inclassificable)-, uns textos que s'enfronten a un legat literari que nega o, en el millor dels casos, dilueix, la experiència de les dones africanes.
Per demostrar com Ama Ata Aidoo desestabilitza el discurs eurocèntric exposant les seves ambivalències, contradiccions i inconcebibilitats m'emparo en l'obra crítica de Luce Irigaray i, concretament, Speculum of the Other Woman (1974). En aquesta obra, Irigaray desmonta el pensament filosòfic occidental evidenciant la mirada marcadament masculinista que ha interpretat el món i que ha deixat a la dona rellegada a un simple -i sovint molest- apèndix de l'home. L'última part del llibre ( Plato's Hystera) és una anàlisi minuciosa d'un dels fonaments del pensament occidental: la caverna de Plató. La seva lectura deconstruccionista de la caverna de Plató determina la línea argumental de la investigació, dividint la tesi doctoral en les dues parts prèviament definides. Part I. The Cave. Colonialism Black and White i Part II. The Cave Revisited. Towards a Subjectification of Africa and African Women. La crítica que Irigaray fa de la caverna de Plató exposa un camí de pensament linear -marcadament blanc i masculí- que allibera als presoners, sempre i quan aquests siguin homes. Dins del pensament platonià les dones no fugiran de la caverna, el camí linear no funciona per a elles però la realitat de la caverna, i això és el que demostra Irigaray, és més complexa que un simple camí linear; a la caverna hi ha bifurcacions, a la caverna s'hi pot trobar el que ella anomena "el camí oblidat" (the forgotten path) que és el que s'ha de recuperar si volem avançar més enllà del discurs eurocèntric. Irigaray no fa referència d'una manera sistemàtica a la occidentalitat blanca del discurs eurocèntric, sí que ho fa, incansablement, a la masculinitat que es desprén d'ell. L'obra d'Aidoo s'emmotlla perfectament a una crítica basada en el pensament d'Irigaray més, en aquest cas, el discurs eurocèntric que l'autora africana dissecciona desplega la seva masculinitat junt amb la seva occidentalitat blanca. En altres paraules, les dues coordenades que fixen la crítica al discurs eurocèntric en els textos d'Aidoo són el gènere i la raça.

The ten stories in this short story collection explore the liminal spaces created by certain physical spaces as well as times in the characters’ lives. The stories are largely related to a school environment, and the relationships and experiences that are unique to the players living and moving within that context. How much are the relationships and actions of the characters influenced by the setting. What weight do institutional forces and tradition carry in the characters’ lives, and how do they exploit it for their own will or conform?

This thesis is concerned with readings of sculpture in Britain between 1900 and 1960, particularly by Ezra Pound, Adrian Stokes, Herbert Read and John Berger. The ideas on sculpture of each of the critics are examined in individual chapters. The study concentrates on texts that illustrate the diversity of literary forms in which accounts of sculpture were constructed. Those discussed include memoir, travel writing, biography, journalism and the novel. The study examines the literary and art historical traditions that had a bearing on the thought and methods of the four critics and identifies common themes in their writing. These include the figure of the sculptor, sculpture and memory, sculpture and war. Its central concern, however, is with the literary forms and emplotment of their narratives. The key findings of the thesis indicate that whereas some critics modified longestablished genres others experimented with innovative literary and visual forms. It is argued that these choices were affected by the polemical intentions of their writing. They raided the history of art to construct lineages for contemporary art and to propose new forms of sculptural and literary production. Other factors that had a bearing on the form, emplotment and language of their accounts - the late institutionalisation of art history in Britain, the need to differentiate their writing from past and contemporary aesthetic, literary and art historical traditions, politics, their complicity with sculptors and connections with each other - are identified. Their writing, it is argued, constituted a powerful story about modernist sculpture in which carving, abstraction, the engagement with contemporary life and a highly individualised notion of the artist came to the fore.

The following thesis aims to demonstrate the relevance of the work of Albert Camus to contemporary ethics. Drawing on recent debates around philosophical style and ethical communication, I suggest that Camus' work is characterised by an endeavour to formulate new ways of communicating moral issues and provoking ethical reflection. The following thesis is broken up into eight chapters. Chapter One is an introductory chapter which sets out the context to the current thesis, drawing on research on the significance of philosophical style (such as those of Berel Lang and Jon Stewart), as well as texts which assess the possibility of reading literature for ethical content (from Martha Nussbaum and Richard Posner), among other works. Chapter Two examines Camus' response to Christianity as the basis for the formulation of his own ethics, arguing that it is his inability to accept the concept of transcendence that motivates his desire to devise an alternative moral philosophy. The following four chapters (Chapter Three through to Six) examine specific devices used by Camus in both his literary and philosophical works, in order to demonstrate his endeavour to formulate new modes of ethical communication, all the way from grammatical constructions to ethical fables. Chapter Seven is a case study of a novel which I argue follows in Camus' footsteps in its attempt to elicit ethical reflection through narrative technique-that is, Kamel Daoud's Meursault, contre-enquête. Chapter Eight summarises the contribution that Camus' diverse writings make to ethical understanding, suggesting that drawing on interdisciplinary writings such as Camus' could beneficially expand the methodological arsenal of contemporary ethics.

This thesis aims to locate the poems of Parmenides, Empedocles and, to a lesser degree (due to paucity of evidence), Xenophanes in their literary context, and to begin to explain the ways in which they are designed to perform their didactic function. Chapters 1-4 focus on their generic status, as it is indicated by their form, content, and use of intertextuality. I suggest that the work of all three poets can be seen to draw upon the distinctive traditions of hexameter poetry on the one hand, and Ionian prose on the other. Moreover, Parmenides' type of narrative, with its detailed first person description of a supernatural journey, and its use of a divine narrator for the majority of the poem, seems unprecedented in canonical Greek hexameter texts, although this type may have occurred in more obscure, fragmentary poems such as those attributed to Aristeas and Epimenides. I argue that Empedocles' fragments come from a single poem which seems to invert this narrative pattern: instead of a mortal leaving the familiar world to meet a deity, a deity comes to the familiar world to meet with mortals. Chapters 5 and 6 aim to reconstruct Parmenides and Empedocles' theories of knowledge-acquisition: as the aim of both texts appears to be to bring their audiences from ignorance to knowledge, these theories can provide an explanation for the desired effect of the poems. Both Parmenides and Empedocles present knowledge as being from a divine source, which may offer an explanation for their choice of verse and use of divine narrators. Moreover, I argue that both present the acquisition of knowledge as one of purifying the divine component of the soul from its mortal component. This process may provide an explanation for the religious imagery of the poems, in particular the use of imagery that evokes initiation into mystery cults. In Empedocles' case, this process can also account for some of the ways in which the narrator comments on and characterizes the text itself: the poem is presented, in physical terms, as being composed of Love, the substance responsible for the acquisition of knowledge. Chapter 7 then explores some of the consequences of Parmenides and Empedocles' epistemological theories for their use of language and of certain formal literary features. It argues that differences between their uses of intertextuality can be explained as a consequence of differences in their epistemologies. A further consequence of their philosophical theories is that the two poets describe the world from both a divine and from a mortal perspective. I suggest that this leads them to employ a more developed and self-conscious form of allegory than anything found in earlier Greek literature: we are encouraged to interpret the 'mortal' sections of the text allegorically, by rejecting the literal meaning of the vocabulary and understanding the terms as referring to something else. An epilogue outlines some further literary-critical aspects of these texts which could be explored to specify the role that the two poets played in the history of the didactic genre, and of Classical literature in general.

This thesis assesses the novels of B.S. Johnson and, building on earlier socio-cultural readings, for the first time identifies affect, mood and space as key drivers of Johnson’s work. It suggests fresh interactions with the texts via the artistic practice and philosophical thought of the late twentieth to early twenty-first centuries and reveals what more we can gain from reading Johnson now. Rather than fix this author in a canonized literary past it presents Johnson as a writer with inter-disciplinary appeal and influence. My reading champions the continued significance of Johnson’s work and endeavours to resist teleology; it dips in and out of the seven novels, at times circling back to key passages and episodes that can be assessed in multiple ways. The thesis thus follows Johnson’s practice and is palimpsestic, it is formed from multiple layers. Working with affective energies the chapters unfold to build upon each other but also stand to be read individually or even, in true Johnsonian style, at random. The reading moves in a range of directions exploring different nodes of an organic whole that constitutes the body of Johnson’s literary output. Any thesis must build momentum and therefore this thesis culminates in an extended conclusion which for the first time places Johnson at the vanguard of a spatial turn in the humanities. My final analysis suggests that Johnson’s practice advances the novel towards a model of “creative research” or project work – a reflexive adventure peculiar to the making process. This model is concerned with possibilities and processes rather than final resolution and happily accommodates Johnson’s vision of a chaotic, unknowable world.

In a field as old as Classics, it difficult to find truly innovative approaches to literary works that have been studied for millennia, and it only becomes more difficult to find something new to explore in works as fundamental to the field as Marcus Tullius Cicero’s. However, in the burgeoning field of Digital Humanities, new avenues for textual exploration arise even among the over-picked rubble that is the Classical World. Through the use of computer software, we can search through and statistically analyze corpora of massive sizes. This project uses such techniques to perform a mesoanalysis of Cicero’s corpus. Through the use of R and Gephi, I will “read” Cicero’s works from a distance and see a much broader view of his character than I could through a traditional close reading of a few texts. This mesoanalysis includes a stylometric analysis of Cicero’s entire corpus, a sentiment analysis of his orations, and a network analysis of his letters. The sentiment analysis will explore Cicero as a literary figure. Through a hierarchical cluster analysis in R, I will assess not only how his style changes from genre to genre but within a genre (orations) as well. That analysis will close with an exploration of the lexical richness of his works, how it varies from genre to genre and over his lifetime. For the sentiment analysis, I built a lexicon based on Stoic theory, primarily as it is explained in the Tusculunae Disputationes, and Robert Kaster’s work with emotional scripts. After the lexicon was built, I applied it to Cicero’s orations in a method similar to Matthew Jockers’ syuzhet package for R, and I traced his use of sentiment across the speech. I then compared those trajectories to Latin rhetorical theory, especially the theories included in Cicero’s own treatises, in order to see if Cicero had put into effect his own advice or if he had a few techniques that he kept hidden. The mesoanalysis closes with a network analysis of the Epistulae ad Familiares. I merged Cicero’s social network with a sentiment analysis in order to assess how Cicero felt about and interacted with his peers. From this analysis, one could gather an idea of Cicero as a person. At the end of the mesoanalysis, we can attain a much broader sense of Cicero’s character. This project also has a second aim, and that is to explain how these techniques could be applied to other literary corpora, outside of Cicero’s and Latin. I have carefully detailed my process and provide more instruction in my appendices so that readers could attempt these analyses and be successful in them.

Relatively little is known of Gomez Manrique (c. 1415-1490), warrior, statesman and author of a significant corpus of cancionero poetry. His poetic and dramatic works were first published by Antonio Paz y Melia, Cancionero de Gomez Manrique (1885-6) in an edition that is at variance with current established norms and includes only a brief, thirty-two-page biography. In the 116 years since Paz y Melia's study, a significant amount of new historical material has been published on fifteenth-century Spain, much of which bears directly on the life and times of Gomez Manrique. Despite Manfque's close alliance with Isabel I and Fernando V and his extensive involvement in the political events of the day, we do not find him mentioned as frequently as we might expect. This dissertation analyzes the historical evidence that exists in order to construct Gomez Manrique's biography and incorporates Manrique's poetry as testimony to the influence that he had on many of the eminent poets and politicians of his day. Manrique's verse dedicated to many of the statesmen and troubadours of the fifteenth century links him to the historical context in which he functioned as author, statesman and soldier. Part One details the formative years of Manrique. The many events and issues that occurred during this turbulent period of Castilian history are presented to show how they affected Manrique's development as a poet and knight. Part Two portrays Gomez Manrique's adulthood and development from an obscure soldier to a chief defender of the Catholic Monarchs. His poetry and his actions as documented in the chronicles reveal his important contributions to Isabel's and Fernando's successful accession to the throne of Castile. Part Three offers a profile of the knights, prelates, family members and royalty to whom Manrique dedicated poetry, many of whom are significant historical figures despite their relative obscurity. Finally, the Appendix offers an annotated selection of Gomez Manrique's poetry, newly transcribed to conform to current norms.

Daniel Westover traces Thomas's poetic development over six decades, demonstrating how the complex interior of the poet manifests itself in the continually shifting style of his poems.
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The Woman in the Box is Smiling is a collection of poems, prose poems, short-short stories, and short stories. The introduction is a personal essay which discusses form as a device used to gain control over subject matter.

The investigation of Fitzgerald's equivocal success, of the decisive change in Britain's recent cultural perspective, involves raising questions around canon-formation, the consolidation of a national identity, strategies of writing, and the politics of reading. I have found it necessary to examine aspects of theme, form, genre and context in Fitzgerald's writing, focusing successively on convention and subversion in her work. This 'doubleness' has generated the two-part structure of the present thesis, the first book-length study of Fitzgerald's work. Part One examines the canonical literariness of Fitzgerald's novels through studying literary conventions and thematic preoccupations. It aims to elucidate Fitzgerald's fiction through the tradition of liberal humanism. The canon of English literature is more than a settled corpus, it involves a set of prescribed criteria which, I argue, is the cornerstone of Fitzgerald's literary success as a novelist, biographer, and literary critic. Contemporary British fiction has undergone a focal sea-change seen in its preoccupation with linguistic experimentation, typographical innovation, and topical engagement with current issues. Fitzgerald's fiction is out of step with current critical paradigms, and thus tends to get caught between the canonical and the contemporary. Part Two explores the impact of postmodern approaches on Fitzgerald's fiction, and examines the ways in which age, race, gender, identity and the nation have impinged on her writing. The scope of this study, therefore, comprises gender, writing, and the culture industry. In view of the scarcity of criticism on Fitzgerald's work, and apart from the more obvious critical concerns regarding authorship and periodisation, this thesis draws on a variety of critical perspectives in order to achieve a historical and contextual understanding of Fitzgerald's fiction and literary career in relation to contemporary British fiction.