Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Epistolary fiction'

During the 18th century, the novel was criticized for a lack of representation of reality and in turn a public distrust of fiction was established. The epistolary form addressed these issues by presenting a narrative that was bound by a real-life structure that allowed for the illusion of reality and authenticity. Today, this distrust of fiction is nonexistent but the epistolary form is still present and a frequently used literary device, providing the real-life structure for an escape from reality. However, while commercial fiction has embraced the form and moved past the historical justification of the epistolary novel, most artists’ books have not. This paper will prove how the artist book has struggled to move past the historical epistolary form and what lessons it can take from the world of contemporary commercial fiction.

This thesis examines the significance of a ubiquitous presence of fictional letters and diaries in neo- Victorian fiction. It investigates how intercalated documents fashion pastiche narrative structures to organise conflicting viewpoints invoked in diaries, letters, and other addressed accounts as epistolary forms. This study concentrates on the strategic ways that writers put fragmented and found material traces in order to emphasise such traces of the past as fragmentary, incomplete, and contradictory. Interpolated documents evoke ideas of privacy, confession, secrecy, sincerity, and seduction only to be exploited and subverted as writers idiosyncratically manipulate epistolary devices to support metacritical agendas. ..iJ~1 Underpinning this thesis is the premise that much literary neo- Victorian fiction is bound in an incestuous relationship with Victorian studies. This can be identified and analysed in works that metafictionally and self-consciously engage the- nineteenth century. My study therefore examines a diverse critical awareness refracted through epistolary strategies, investigating how neo- Victorian writers collaborate with or contest critical ideologies by way of perceptual and interpretative manipulation afforded by both diaries and letters. Diary form particularly refracts reflexive critical commentary on the novel and its processes and this study consequently sustains a greater focus on diaries than letters as strategic narrative devices in neo- Victorian fiction. In five chapters, I examine five novels by writers who share a common characteristic of critical, theoretical, and academic backgrounds. Chapter one investigates how A. S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance (1990) employs techniques of epistolary seduction to support a critique of fictional academics who construct Victorians to fit their own critical agendas. Chapter two considers the ways in which Sarah Waters's nov el, Affinity (1999), parodically foregrounds the Foucauldian 'gaze' with two diarists and secret letters that engage critical discourses of Victorian sexualities and nineteenth-century spiritualism. Chapter three examines Alias Grace (1996) to consider Margaret Atwood's interrogation of the textual re-construction of past lives by way of a diary-style voice. Chapter four discusses Katie Roiphe's 2001 novel, Still She Haunts Me, which plays to contemporary unease about Charles Dodgson's relationship with Alice Liddell by exploiting archival gaps with invented diary entries that eulogise desire. My final chapter explores Mick Jackson's The Underground Man (1997), which interpolates a diary with 'official accounts' in a form of textual autopsy that defends personal liberty and an eccentric viewpoint against communal testimony. This study demonstrates that neo- Victorian writers use documents creatively to interrogate history and our understanding of it in diverse strategic and intertextual ways. My study is grounded in theories of pastiche and builds on Linda Hutcheon's work on historiographic metafiction. It is also informed by the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, whose discussion of heteroglossia coincides with theories of diary form's dialogic double- voicedness outlined by Loma Martens's work, The Diary Novel (1985). My study investigates the intertextual processes of metafiction in neo- Victorianism as an area that has as yet received little critical attention, with no specific investigation of epistolary forms in the genre.

This thesis considers the presence of the epistolary tradition of female complaint in the writings of five late eighteenth-century women writers: Hester Thrale Piozzi, Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Turner Smith, Mary Robinson, and Frances Burney D’Arblay. The epistolary female complaint tradition is premised on the suggestion that readers are permitted, through the literary endeavours of male authors/transcribers, a glimpse into the authentically felt woes of women; the writers in this study both question and exploit this expectation. Often viewed by critics like John Kerrigan as a tradition that stifled female creativity, epistolary female complaint proves, this thesis argues, a lively and enlivening tradition for women writers; it provided opportunities for literary experimentation and enabled them to turn their experiences into artistic form. Five themes central to the epistolary female complaint tradition are considered: betrayal, absence, suicide, falls, and authorship. Each chapter looks at one theme and one author specifically. Chapter 1 examines the narrative of betrayal Hester Thrale Piozzi established in her journals from 1764 to 1784. Chapter 2 turns to Mary Wollstonecraft and her accounts of absence in her private letters to Gilbert Imlay, and her epistolary travel account, A Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796). Chapter 3 discusses Charlotte Turner Smith’s engagement with the theme of suicide in her Elegiac Sonnets (1784) and her epistolary novel, Desmond(1792). Chapter 4 considers the strategies employed in Mary Robinson’s autobiographical, poetic, and fictional writings, which work to move beyond the moral fall the tradition implied. Chapter 5 focuses on the recurrent theme of authorial debt in Frances Burney D’Arblay’s journals, plays, and fiction. I conclude by considering Jane Austen’s appropriation of the tradition in her final novel, Persuasion (1818), and her transformation of the tradition by providing a resolution to the cause of complaint.

My study seeks to explore the interest that Spanish women authors such as Josefina Aldecoa, Carme Riera, Nuria Amat, Esther Tusquets, Marina Mayoral, Carmen Martín Gaite, and Olga Guirao have taken in the revival of epistolary fiction in recent decades. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century epistolary fiction in Spain was conditioned by social practices and by literary conventions that typically confined its heroines to an amorous plot and women authors to anonymity. I contend that if modern tradition of epistolary practices and other male-discriminatory practices kept women writers silenced or invisible in the Spanish literary world, contemporary women writers sketch themselves back into their texts. Fictional letters function as written self-portraits for them to reflect and tell their own stories, thereby creating a playful mirror effect between the fictional epistolographer and the historical author. By pushing the conventional boundaries of letter writing as a sentimental genre, contemporary women authors take liberty to rewrite female representation and to give the fictional protagonists a new voice and visibility. They revisit the theme of love in epistolary literature to explore refashioned—and often transgressive—discourses on gender, sexuality, and subject identity.

In this thesis, I argue that identity construction is a postal effect: it results from a transmission of some sort, received or sent. I examine three instances of postal effect. In a chapter on Jacques Derrida's "Envois," a collection of fragments presented as if transcribed from a one-way love letter correspondence, I explore the performative force of relayed address. Working from Derrida's account of the literary performative, I point out that the "Envois" letters are addressed to "you" in the singular, which implies an address reserved for a particular subject, but that the postal relay of the collection enacts a repetition of their address. For the reader of the book, this repetition has evocative force which I compare with the force of transference in the context of the psychoanalytic situation. In a second chapter on the "Envois" letters, I examine their haunting effect. The "Envois" letters have an I/we signature that intimates pluralities in the writing subject. I argue that this signature is the effect of a postal relay of another order: a phantom, which Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok define as a gap in the psychic topography of the subject caused by a secret unwittingly received along with a legacy. To a certain extent, the "Envois" letters are written by Plato's "in-voices." In a chapter on J. M. Coetzee's epistolary novel Age of Iron, I explore the gift effects of a posthumous letter. Age of Iron is an epistolary novel consisting exclusively of a single letter written by a dying South African woman, Mrs. Curren, to her daughter, a political objector who has emigrated to the United States. Writing her letter in the knowledge that her death is imminent, Mrs. Curren anticipates her daughter's mourning. Working with J. L. Austin's doctrine of illocutionary forces and Derrida's analysis of the gift event, I postulate two effects of Mrs. Curren's letter, one that annuls the gift in a circular return and another that surpasses this circuit with textual diss

Magister Artium - MA
In this thesis I focus on the ways I believe Jane Austen re-imagines the idea of the hero. In popular fiction of her time, such as Samuel Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison (1753), what we had as a hero figure served as a male monitor, to guide and instruct the female heroine. The hero begins the novel fully formed, and therefore does not go through significant development through the course of the novel. In addition to Sir Charles Grandison, I read two popular novels of Austen’s time, Fanny Burney’s Cecilia and Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda. An examination of Burney’s construction of Delvile and Edgeworth’s construction of Clarence Hervey allows me to engage with popular conceptions of the ideal hero of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Burney and Edgeworth deviate from these ideals in order to accommodate conventions of the new Realist novel. I argue that Austen reimagines her male protagonist so that hero and heroine are well-matched and discuss, similarly, how Burney and Edgeworth create heroes as a complement to their heroines. Austen’s re-imagining of her male protagonist forms part of her contribution to the genre of the Realist novel. Austen suggests the complexity of her hero through metaphors of setting. I discuss the ways in which the descriptions of Pemberley act as a metaphor for Darcy’s character, and explore Austen’s adaptations of the picturesque as metaphors to further plot and character development. I offer a comparative reading of Darcy and Pemberley with Mr Bennet and Longbourn as suggestive in understanding the significance of setting for the heroine’s changing perceptions of the character of the hero. I explore Austen’s use of free indirect discourse and the epistolary mode in conveying “psychological or moral conflict” in relation to Captain Wentworth in Persuasion and Mr Knightley in Emma, offering some comparison to Darcy. This lends itself to a discussion on the ways in which Austen’s heroes may be read as a critique of the teachings of Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son (1774). I conclude the thesis with a discussion of the ways in which Darcy has influenced the stereotype of the modern romance hero. Using two South African romance novels I suggest the ways in which the writers adapt conventions of writing heroes to cater for the new black South African middle class at which the novels are aimed. My reading of Jane Austen’s novels will highlight the significance of Austen’s work in contemporary writing, and will question present-day views that the writing of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries is not relevant to African literature.

Although the letter purports to represent fact, it cannot avoid having a partly or potentially fictive status, turning as it does on the complex interplay between the real and the imagined. Consequently, the main critical approach of this paper is to consider the interactions between conflicting modes of expression in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century epistolary fiction. The rhetorical and conceptual contrarieties that I examine are broadly characterized by the contradiction between the implied spontaneity of the familiar letter and the inevitable artifice of its form. Working with familiar letters by four writers between the years 1740 and 1825, I specifically address various narrative patterns by which each turns to the act of communication to draw upon the experience of an isolated self. Against a background which explores the main developments in epistolary fiction and a historical progression of the uses and significance of letter-writing, I investigate epistolary texts by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Lord Byron, John Keats, and William Hazlitt. In turning to letters by each author, I explore the literary, theoretical and especially the psychological implications of the tenuous divisions between fact and fiction. In particular, my analysis stresses that letter-writing is an authorial act in which writing about the self can be understood as a literary form of self-portraiture or creative expression.
I examine this claim---and the metaphors defining it---in two ways. First, by focusing on selected letters, I foreground each writer's language as an agent of internal conflict. In so doing, I am able to formulate distinctive questions regarding the potential of epistolary narratives to transform emotional or psychological schisms into fictions which become explicitly creative texts. Secondly, I analyze the changing nature of the fictions which emerge through this process. My findings conclude that authors' letters must be read, at least very often, as a constituent part of their literary work and as interpretive models of a shifting dynamic of psychological expression.

Orientador: Daniela Mantarro Callipo
Banca: Marcos Antonio de Moraes
Banca: Ana Maria Carlos
Resumo: No romance epistolar O marido da adúltera, publicado em 1882 pelo escritor e jornalista Lúcio de Mendonça, encontram-se traços marcantes e inequívocos da estética naturalista desenvolvida, sobretudo, por Émile Zola. Neste trabalho, pretende-se verificar de que modo o idealizador da Academia Brasileira de Letras recebeu as ideias do Naturalismo e as inseriu em sua obra, verificando o processo de adaptação executado pelo autor brasileiro, que soube dialogar com a estética naturalista em voga na época, aplicando muitos de seus princípios, discordando de alguns deles. Cabe observar, igualmente, o fato de que Lúcio de Mendonça optou pelo romance epistolar, gênero pouco utilizado no Brasil do século XIX, mas fundamental para a construção desta obra. Esta pesquisa visa, portanto, analisar de que maneira o autor de O marido da adúltera utilizou-se do naturalismo francês para criar um romance epistolar brasileiro, publicado, originalmente, no periódico O Colombo, em forma de folhetim; característica, aliás, que se conserva no momento da publicação do romance em livro, em 1882
Abstract: On the epistolary novel The adulterer's husband, published in 1882 by the writer and journalist Lúcio de Mendonça, it‟s found distinctive features and unequivocal from the naturalist theory developed, especially, by Émile Zola. In the present paper, it‟s intended to verify what way the creator from the Brazilian Academy of Letters received the ideas of Naturalism and put them into his work, checking the adaptation process performed by the Brazilian author, who knew how to dialog with the naturalist aesthetics in common use that time, enforcing lots of his principles, disagreeing with some of them. It must be noted, equally, the fact that Lúcio de Mendonça chose the epistolary novel, a not very used gender in Brazil in XIX century, but something fundamental to this work to be made. Therefore, this research aims to analyze what way The adulterer's husband's author used the French naturalism to create the Brazilian epistolary novel, published, at first, by Colombo journal, as a soap opera; characteristics that, by the way, are preserved at the book‟s publishing moment, in 1882
Mestre

Ce travail constitue une approche pluri- et interdisciplinaire des phénomènes épistolaires dans le cinéma de fiction de 1940 à nos jours. Depuis ses débuts, le cinéma a intégré la lettre et représenté la relation épistolaire. Après l’avènement du parlant, la lettre est véritablement devenue un objet audiovisuel prisé des cinéastes. Ces derniers ont continué de la mettre en scène en inventant, chaque fois, de nouvelles modalités expressives. D’un côté, le cinéma donne à voir et à entendre les caractéristiques de l’épistolaire ; de l’autre, la lettre détermine une certaine esthétique tout en influant sur l’énonciation et le sens du film. En tant que support médiatique, elle génère des processus d’écriture, de lecture et d’acheminement spécifiques. Par ailleurs, elle déploie un réseau d’adresses visibles et audibles qui engage une relation particulière avec le spectateur. Ces différents phénomènes contaminent le film à un niveau symbolique, la matérialité et l’adresse ne se réduisant pas à leur acception première. La lettre engage donc à réfléchir aux enchevêtrements complexes liés à sa représentation, à son énonciation et à sa signification dans le film de fiction
This work is a pluri- and interdisciplinary approach to epistolary phenomena in movies from 1940 to today. Since its earliest days, cinema has integrated the letter motif and depicted the epistolary process. As talking movies emerged, letters became genuine audiovisual objects cherished by film-makers.They have continued to use this motif by inventing ever new expressive terms. On the one hand, cinema allows us to see and hear the characteristics of epistolarity; on the other hand, the letter motif establishes particular aesthetics while influencing the discourse and meaning of the movie. As a medium, the letter motif generates specific writing, reading and delivering processes. It also develops a network of visible and audible addresses, which fuels a particular relationship with the spectator. These phenomena contaminate the movie on a symbolic level as the materiality and address of the letter stand for more than their primary signification. The letter motif thus leads us to think about complex interconnections involving its representation, discourse and meaning in movies

This is an attempt to analyze the epistolary style, a genre within a long and distinguished literary tradition, that is used as the principal narratological technique in the novel El amor que me juraste (1998) by the contemporary Mexican writer Silvia Molina. The object of this thesis is to discover how the author adapts the genre to make a certain socio-cultural contextualization that will be elaborated upon in the analysis here of the intimate discourse exchanged by the two protagonists of the novel. At all times the important role will be stressed of the "real" reader of this fictional amorous correspondence which gives every impression of authenticity.
The first chapter gives some historical background, highlighting the growing critical interest of contemporary authors in the epistolary genre. Also a bio-bibliography of Silvia Molina is given in order to emphasize the direction of her literary work as well as her professional development as a multifaceted author.
This is followed in the second chapter by an examination of epistolary writing as a specific narrative technique in El amor que me juraste in order to facilitate the refocusing, executed by the female protagonist, of how a woman might combat patriarchal ideology in contemporary Mexican society.
Finally, the third chapter centers upon the legal and conventional functioning of epistolary writing in the genre. Thereby the protagonist's search carried out here to find her cultural roots is shown to complement her elaboration of her personal identity as a modern woman in the recasting of masculine and feminine roles, and certain moral repercussions thereof, portrayed both in the text as in society. A full bibliography is also given.

To date no major research has been undertaken on the correspondence of Anne Sturges Bourne and Marianne Dyson (1822-1871) located in the Hampshire Record Office. This valuable collection of letters not only offers a wealth of information about the letter-writing practices of women from the landed gentry, it also provides the opportunity to examine the letter as a cultural and historical artefact. By using Marilyn Friedman’s theories on women’s friendships and relational autonomy, this thesis has been able to combine the methodology required for studying letters as a genre with the concept of the letter as a purveyor of social and cultural experiences. This has resulted in an interdisciplinary study which has analysed the important role that letter writing played in the development of Anne and Marianne’s friendship, while, at the same time, demonstrating their intellectual engagement with the prevalent literary, religious, and philosophical discourses of the day. As a process which encouraged reflection, letter writing enabled these two women to develop a gendered subjectivity and to achieve degrees of personal autonomy in a social context. I argue that the supportive nature of their epistolary friendship empowered them to embrace life as single women and to pursue their shared ideals for the future, which, for them, meant a life spent in service to the Church and educating the poor. It also provided them with a route into authorship through their collaborative literary endeavours in support of the Anglo-Catholic doctrine of the Oxford Movement, or Tractarianism as it was later called. In the 1850s and 60s Anne and Marianne used the collaborative model of authorship they had developed for writing and publishing their own juvenile tales to support the novel writing of the major Victorian novelist, Charlotte Mary Yonge. While Yonge’s habit of discussing her novels with friends and family is known from Christabel Coleridge’s biography (1903), the empirical evidence found in the Sturges Bourne/Dyson correspondence provides a more nuanced account of the way in which literary collaboration could function. It also corroborates recent scholarly claims that female collaborative authorship was more commonplace in the nineteenth century than has hitherto been recognised. More significantly, the stories written by Anne, and Marianne in particular, were recognised in contemporary Tractarian circles as important contributions to the establishment of Anglo-Catholic doctrine for future generations. This marks Anne Sturges Bourne and Marianne Dyson out as part of a forgotten generation of women writers who paved the way, not only for Yonge, but for other known women writers of Tractarian fiction in the second half of the nineteenth century, such as Elizabeth Missing Sewell and Felicia Skene.

This thesis aims essentially at a re-evaluation of the marginalisation that conventional critical assessment makes of Jane Austen's epistolary novella 'Lady Susan' (1794-1795). The consensus within Austen studies, one that has largely been unchanged and unchallenged since the time of the first professional academic accounts of Austen's work (and in turn influenced by the C19 view of the writer) is that 'Lady Susan' is an artistic failure, a regressive step in Austen's stylistic development and, most fundamentally, that its epistolarity is a constraint on the technical progress that Austen appeared to be making in work prior to this, most notably, the unfinished third-person novella "Catharine, or The Bower". The thesis provides a close reading of 'Lady Susan' and of 'Catharine' and in marked opposition to the consensus, concludes that 'Lady Susan' is an emphatic step forward in Austen's stylistic progress, most particularly through the manner in which it establishes a moral framework from within which to develop character and plot, its attainment of incipient narrative voice through a complex use and exploitation of epistolary polyphony (thereby foreshadowing the omniscient third-person narrators of Austen's mature fiction, in addition to its experimentation with a form of free indirect speech) and the markedly plausible realism that is present throughout the novella. Austen's termination of the epistolary section (the novella being concluded in third-person narrative - an ending that was added some time later and which is generally viewed as her own recognition of epistolary limitation), in the view of this thesis, therefore cannot be attributed to stylistic inadequacy or constraint, and obliges other motives to be posited. The thesis then proceeds to move from text into context and assesses the extra-literary factors that may have prompted Austen's abandonment of the epistolary section, according a co-centrality to the character of Catherine that has never before been emphasised in Austen studies and the consequences of which suggest the writer’s political engagement with “the French Question”, and with political concerns in general, at an age that is far earlier than most critics usually accept (‘Lady Susan’ was written when Austen was 19). Beyond the text itself, our close assessment of a broad range of critical views (both on ‘Catharine’ and ‘Lady Susan’) lead us to posit that the critical insistence on the novella’s inferiority and regressiveness, both of which claims we strongly refute through our close reading of the text, in fact corresponds to a determinedly evolutionary manner of understanding novelistic development, on that in turn derives from Ian Watt’s account of the rise of this literary form. In accordance with standard academic procedure, the thesis begins with a critical review—in this case, of epistolary studies— including studies that monographically consider Austen’s work. It also considers the role of Austen’s private correspondence in the broader question of literary epistolarity. The thesis terminates by adding to its conclusion the obligatory outlines of what we deem to be valid and necessary further research into this subject and related issues.

La fiction longue entièrement composée d'une lettre ininterrompue – le roman (ou la pièce) épistolaire monologique – représente un cas de figure négligé, souvent même refusé, par la théorie. Son existence est démontrée ici par un corpus de quinze textes en anglais, français, italien et allemand, de Gide (1902) à Norman (2011) via Yourcenar, Coetzee, Celestini, ou Amis.Ce travail mesure dans un premier temps les dimensions de cet inventaire : sa largeur, grâce à la mise en place d'un cadre formel ; sa longueur historique ; la profondeur de ses interactions avec la lettre réelle, le genre épistolaire, et enfin avec les qualités épistolaires de toute fiction, dont la lettre monologique est un miroir aux déformations calculées.Le corpus révèle l'intérêt de ce cadrage technique grâce à des thèmes récurrents, qui interrogent trois caractéristiques-clé de l'écriture épistolaire. Le thème de la mort de soi (Yourcenar, Coetzee, Bernstein, Robinson, Amis) se conjugue à une réflexion sur la structure physique de tout texte que la lettre rend soudainement tangible, établissant une réflexion sur la lettre-cadavre. Une imagerie apocalyptique (Auster, Coetzee, Amis) problématise ensuite cette idée de la lettre qui se résumerait comme manifestation physique de la mort de l'auteur ; il met en scène un portrait de la temporalité qui ouvre à des superpositions et des rencontres. Ces deux chapitres établissent les pôles du débat pour un dernier, qui emprunte l'imagerie du double pour parler de la communication épistolaire (Gide, Coetzee, Bernstein, Celestini). Après l'absence et la correspondance, ce chapitre interroge le problématique “avec” du titre ; le plan narré de la lettre et le plan dramatique de son envoi sont rejoints par un troisième, pragmatique, posant la question de l'éthique de la correspondance épistolaire, et à travers elle, l'éthique de la fiction même
Long fictions composed of one uninterrupted letter – monologic epistolary fictions – are underrepresented in critical discourse, and frequently shunted more or less overtly beyond its margins. Their existence is brought to light here by one play and fourteen novels in French, English, Italian and German, ranging from 1902 (Gide) to 2011 (Norman) via a cast of authors including Yourcenar, Coetzee, Amis and Celestini.This study aims firstly to fill the critical lacuna, establishing the dimensions of this new sub- genre. It measures the breadth of the formal definitions of the single-letter epistolary novel, the length of its inscription in literary history, and the depth conferred upon it by critical discourse about real letters, the letter-novel genre and a certain epistolary quality to be found in all literature, which our novels set themselves up to reflect and refract.Our rather disparate corpus of texts reveals the interest of this technical framework, haunted as it is by recurrent themes which illuminate the characteristics of monological epistolary writing. Firstly, the theme of one's own death (Yourcenar, Coetzee, Bernstein, Robinson, Amis) shines a light on the physical structure of any text, rendered visible in the format of the letter; this conjunction suggests the idea of the text as corpse. A series of apocalyptic universes complicates this rather empirical portrait, which reads like the symbol of the Death of the Author; novels by Coetzee, Amis and Auster use complex portraits of fictional time to suggest the possibility of coincidence, overlap, meetings both epistolary and literary. These two chapters set up the terms of a final debate concerning literary communication, investigated via the symbol of the double (Gide, Coeztee, Bernstein, Celestini). After the narrative of the text itself and the implied drama of the letter's trajectory, a pragmatic dimension comes to light. This final analysis allows us to investigate the ethics of correspondence, and the letter as one key to understanding those of fiction itself

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No romance epistolar O marido da adúltera, publicado em 1882 pelo escritor e jornalista Lúcio de Mendonça, encontram-se traços marcantes e inequívocos da estética naturalista desenvolvida, sobretudo, por Émile Zola. Neste trabalho, pretende-se verificar de que modo o idealizador da Academia Brasileira de Letras recebeu as ideias do Naturalismo e as inseriu em sua obra, verificando o processo de adaptação executado pelo autor brasileiro, que soube dialogar com a estética naturalista em voga na época, aplicando muitos de seus princípios, discordando de alguns deles. Cabe observar, igualmente, o fato de que Lúcio de Mendonça optou pelo romance epistolar, gênero pouco utilizado no Brasil do século XIX, mas fundamental para a construção desta obra. Esta pesquisa visa, portanto, analisar de que maneira o autor de O marido da adúltera utilizou-se do naturalismo francês para criar um romance epistolar brasileiro, publicado, originalmente, no periódico O Colombo, em forma de folhetim; característica, aliás, que se conserva no momento da publicação do romance em livro, em 1882
On the epistolary novel The adulterer’s husband, published in 1882 by the writer and journalist Lúcio de Mendonça, it‟s found distinctive features and unequivocal from the naturalist theory developed, especially, by Émile Zola. In the present paper, it‟s intended to verify what way the creator from the Brazilian Academy of Letters received the ideas of Naturalism and put them into his work, checking the adaptation process performed by the Brazilian author, who knew how to dialog with the naturalist aesthetics in common use that time, enforcing lots of his principles, disagreeing with some of them. It must be noted, equally, the fact that Lúcio de Mendonça chose the epistolary novel, a not very used gender in Brazil in XIX century, but something fundamental to this work to be made. Therefore, this research aims to analyze what way The adulterer’s husband’s author used the French naturalism to create the Brazilian epistolary novel, published, at first, by Colombo journal, as a soap opera; characteristics that, by the way, are preserved at the book‟s publishing moment, in 1882

Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 21, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

En Europe au XVIIIe siècle, le roman épistolaire connaissait un grand succès. En France aussi, un grand nombre d'auteurs s'appuyait alors sur ce genre littéraire pour transmettre des idées philosophiques et souvent critiques envers la société de l'époque, à travers des lettres prétendument véritables, à un lectorat croissant.À l'époque, parmi les écrivains dont les œuvres étaient très appréciées par les lecteurs, un nombre non négligeable était composé de femmes. Parmi elles se trouvent par exemple Françoise de Graffigny avec les Lettres d'une Péruvienne ou bien Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni avec plusieurs romans épistolaires comme les Lettres de Fanny Butler.À partir du XIXe siècle, ces auteurs ont souvent été effacées de la mémoire culturelle et ont, pendant longtemps, été délaissées par la recherche littéraire. Parmi elles se trouve Marie Leprince de Beaumont, gouvernante catholique, qui était jusqu'au XIXe siècle surtout connue pour ses ouvrages sur l'éducation des enfants, des jeunes filles et des pauvres. Elle a pourtant publié une œuvre d'une variété étonnante : on y trouve des contes pour enfants, le Nouveau Magasin français, un des premiers journaux mensuels en français à avoir été dirigé par une femme, ainsi que plusieurs romans épistolaires.L'œuvre de cette femme auteur qui, quoique catholique et croyante, essaie de transmettre dans ses livres des perspectives sur les possibilités pour les femmes de mener une vie vertueuse et honnête dans une société imprégnée par la prédominance des hommes, ne fait l’objet de recherches littéraires approfondies que depuis peu de temps.Cette thèse vise à analyser et interpréter la tension entre un christianisme profond et le désir d'améliorer l'accès au savoir pour les femmes dans les romans de Maire Leprince de Beaumont, qui « [...] avait une prédilection affichée pour le genre épistolaire [...] » . Il s'agit d'abord de les placer dans leur contexte littéraire et historique et de situer ensuite l'idée de « l'éducation narrée » au centre des recherches : comment Leprince de Beaumont se sert-elle du genre épistolaire pour communiquer des idées philosophiques ainsi que des modèles de comportement au lecteur ?La thèse veut démontrer qu'au XVIIIe siècle, il était tout à fait possible de concilier le christianisme avec le souhait de faire progresser la société de l'époque en facilitant l'accès au savoir pour les femmes ; qu'être croyant ne voulait pas forcément dire repousser les idées novatrices et que Marie Leprince de Beaumont et son œuvre épistolaire méritent une place honorable parmi les auteurs des Lumières
In 18th century Europe, the epistolary novel was very popular. In France, a great number of authors used this literary genre to spread, across supposedly real letters, the philosophical, and often critical ideas on society (of the time) between a growing readership.At that time, a significant number of authors, whose works were very appreciated by the public, were (was?) female. Among them were for example Françoise de Graffigny with the Peruvian Letters or Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni with serveral epistolary novels like Fanny Butler’s Letters or Julie Catesby’s Letters.From the 19th century, these authors often disappeared from the cultural memory and have been neglected by literary research for a long time. Amongst them we can find Marie Leprince de Beaumont, a catholic governess, who was, in the 19th century primarily known for her educational works for children, young girls and poor people. However, she has published a surprisingly divers œuvre : it consists of fairy tales for children, the Nouveau Magasin français, one of the first monthly journals edited by a woman, a considerable correspondence and several epistolary novels.The work of this female author who, even though she was catholic and believing, tried to pass on in her books new perspectives on the possibilities women had to live a vertous and simple life in a society that was shaped by male predominance, is only recently in the center of enhanced literary research. This thesis wants to analyse an interpret this tension between a profound christianism and the desire to improve womens acces to knowledge and education in the fictions of Marie Leprince de Beaumont who « had a predilection for the epistolary genre ». We will first range the works in their literary and historical context and place then the idea of „narrated education“ in the center of our research: how does Marie Leprince de Beaumont employ the epistolary genre to communicate philosophical ideas and behavioral patterns to her readers ?This thesis wants to show that in the 18th century it was possible to reconcile christianism with the desire to help developping the society by facilitating women’s acces to education ; that believing in God didn’t obligatorily mean that one rejected new ideas and that Marie Leprince de Beaumont and her epistolary fictions deserve their place among the authors of the Enlightenment

A pesar de que la internacionalización no es un concepto nuevo en la educación superior, en los últimos 20 años su impacto viene provocando discusiones sobre el papel que asume en la actualidad la universidad en la economía mundial, y las consecuencias de pensar la internacionalización como un objetivo significativo para el sistema educativo de enseñanza superior. Sin embargo, muchos investigadores vienen demostrando cierta preocupación cuando, el capitalismo académico comienza a inducir los proyectos de internacionalización según los intereses del mercado, en lugar de considerar las experiencias de los que más sufren sus consecuencias, los estudiantes internacionales. Me pregunto, ¿cómo podemos entonces tratar y abordar el tema de "la internacionalización de la educación superior" teniendo en cuenta el relato de los estudiantes extranjeros? Frente a este contexto y a partir de mi experiencia como estudiante internacional, definí como objeto de estudio ¿cómo se constituye el sentido de ser estudiante de doctorado de Brasil en Barcelona?, trayendo así como pregunta de la investigación: ¿por qué es importante y necesario pensar en las pedagogías y prácticas que tengan en cuenta el contexto internacional? Desde una perspectiva narrativa de investigación, propongo conocer para comprender lo que dicen nueve estudiantes brasileños sobre sus experiencias como estudiantes en la Universidad en Barcelona. En un primer momento, al entrevistarlos, mi objetivo fue conocer la historia de cada estudiante para comprender más tarde qué dicen los relatos sobre la experiencia de ser un estudiante en Barcelona. Además de las entrevistas, los sujetos han compartido imágenes y canciones que, para ellos, también representaban sus experiencias. Como estrategia narrativa de investigación, esta tesis está organizada a través de siete cartas. Además de funcionar como un recurso ficcional, las cartas son espacios de diálogo e interlocución en el que el investigador se relaciona con otros personajes, los destinatarios de las cartas (tribunal de la tesis doctoral, amigas, Meeri Hellsten, colaboradores de la investigación, los futuros estudiantes internacionales y el director la tesis doctoral), enseñándoles escenas y acontecimientos que se configuran importantes para el problema de la tesis, y que promueven así un espacio-tiempo singular de construcción de la subjetividad de los colaboradores de la investigación.
Apesar de a internacionalização não ser um conceito novo para o Ensino Superior, é nos últimos vinte anos que seu impacto tem provocado discussões a respeito do papel que assume hoje a universidade na economia mundial e as consequências de se pensar e tomar a internacionalização como meta para o sistema educativo. No entanto, muitos pesquisadores têm demonstrado certa preocupação quando o capitalismo acadêmico passa a induzir e direcionar os projetos de internacionalização segundo os interesses do mercado, ao invés de considerar o relato e a experiência daqueles que mais sofrem seu impacto, o dos estudantes internacionais. Pergunto-me como podemos, então, abordar e aproximar o tema ‘internacionalização do Ensino Superior’ levando em consideração o relato dos estudantes estrangeiros. Foi frente a este contexto e a partir das minhas inquietações como estudante internacional que defini como foco de estudo para esta investigação o modo como é constituído/construído o sentido de ser estudante brasileiro de doutorado em Barcelona, trazendo, assim, como pergunta da pesquisa: por que é importante e necessário pensarmos em pedagogias ou práticas que levem em conta o seu contexto internacional? Desde uma perspectiva narrativa de investigação, me propus, nesta tese, a conhecer, para então compreender, o que dizem nove estudantes brasileiros sobre suas experiências como estudantes na universidade em Barcelona. Em um primeiro momento, ao entrevistá-los, meu objetivo era conhecer a história de cada um deles, para mais tarde compreender o que tais relatos ‘diziam’ sobre a experiência de ser estudante em Barcelona. Além das entrevistas, os sujeitos compartilharam imagens e músicas que, conforme eles próprios, também representavam suas experiências. Como estratégia narrativa de investigação, esta tese está organizada através de sete cartas. Além de servir como recurso ficcional, as cartas são espaços de diálogo e interlocução onde a investigadora se relaciona com outros personagens, os destinatários das cartas, o tribunal da tese de doutorado, algumas amigas, Meeri Hellstén, os colaboradores da pesquisa, os futuros estudantes internacionais e o diretor da tese de doutorado; trazendo a tona fatos e acontecimentos importantes para a discussão da problemática da tese e promovendo assim um espaço-tempo singular de construção da subjetividade dos colaboradores da pesquisa.
Despite the fact that the internationalization is not a new concept for the Higher Education, it is from the last twenty years that its impact has provoking discussions concerning the role which the university assumes, nowadays, in the international economy and the consequences of thinking and taking internationalization as a goal of the educational system. However, many researchers has demonstrating some concern when the academic capitalism starts to induce and to direct the internationalization projects in accordance with the market interests, instead of considering the report and the experience of those who are the most affected with its impact, the international students. I ask myself how can we approach the theme ‘Internationalization of Higher Education’ considering the international students’ reports. Considering this context and from my own unrests as an international student, I have defined as the focus of this study the way how it is constituted/constructed the meaning of being a Brazilian doctoral student in Barcelona, bringing, thus, as the research question: ‘Why is it important and necessary to think about pedagogies or practices which consider its international context?’. From a narrative perspective of investigation, I have proposed myself, in this thesis, to know; in order to, then, comprehend; what do the nine Brazilian students say about their experiences as students in the University of Barcelona. In a first moment, by interviewing them, my goal was to know each one’s history, in order to, later, comprehend what did such reports were saying about the experience of being a student in Barcelona. Beyond the interviews, the subjects shared images and songs which, according to their reports, were also representing their experiences. As a narrative strategy of investigation, this thesis is organized through seven letters. Beyond of serving as a fictional resource, the letters are spaces of dialogue and interlocution where the researcher relates to other personas: the letters’ addressees, the examiner of the doctoral thesis, some friends, Meeri Hellstén, those who collaborated with the research, the next international students and the thesis director; bringing, thus, some facts and happenings which are important for the discussion of this thesis’ issue and promoting a singular time-space for the construction of the subjectivity of the research collaborators.

Thesis (M.A.)--Florida State University, 2004.
Advisor: Dr. Barry Faulk, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 18, 2005). Includes bibliographical references.

梁珊珊.
"2006年8月"
論文(哲學碩士)--香港中文大學, 2006.
參考文獻(leaves 133-146).
"2006 nian 8 yue"
Abstracts in Chinese and English.
Liang Shanshan.
Lun wen (zhe xue shuo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2006.
Can kao wen xian (leaves 133-146).
Chapter 第一章 --- 緒論 --- p.1
Chapter 第一節 --- 硏究對象 --- p.1
Chapter 第二節 --- 硏究範圍 --- p.5
Chapter 第三節 --- 他人硏究成果槪述 --- p.18
Chapter 第四節 --- 女性主義敘事學理論簡介 --- p.20
Chapter 第二章 --- “五四´ح時期書信體小說興起的源流及槪况 --- p.26
Chapter 第一節 --- 客觀歷史條件的具備 --- p.27
Chapter 第二節 --- 晚清以迄“五四´ح書信體小說的流變 --- p.31
Chapter 第三節 --- 西方文學理論的影響 --- p.42
Chapter 第三章 --- 書信體小說的文體特徵 --- p.46
Chapter 第一節 --- 真實性 --- p.46
Chapter 第二節 --- 私密性/封閉性 --- p.48
Chapter 第三節 --- 對話性/公共性 --- p.53
Chapter 第四節 --- 兼容性 --- p.56
Chapter 第四章 --- 書信體小說的敘述視點及敘述層次 --- p.58
Chapter 第一節 --- 敘述視點 --- p.58
Chapter 第二節 --- 敘述層次 --- p.74
Chapter 第三節 --- 小結 --- p.87
Chapter 第五章 --- 書信體小說的女性主義敘事學硏究 --- p.88
Chapter 第一節 --- 作者型敘述聲音 --- p.94
Chapter 第二節 --- 個人型敘述聲音 --- p.100
Chapter 第三節 --- 集體型敘述聲音 --- p.108
Chapter 第四節 --- 小結 --- p.110
Chapter 第六章 --- 書信體小說的衰落 --- p.113
Chapter 第七章 --- 結論 --- p.118
Chapter 第一節 --- 總結 --- p.118
Chapter 第二節 --- 硏究意義 --- p.123
[附錄一]“五四´ح女作家小傳 --- p.125
[附錄二] “五四´ح女作家書信體小說(1917-1927)列表 --- p.131
參考文獻 --- p.133
Chapter 一、 --- 作家作品 --- p.133
Chapter 二、 --- 參考. --- p.135
Chapter 三、 --- 學位論文 --- p.141
Chapter 四、 --- 期刊論文 --- p.141

The Dryland Diaries is a multigenerational narrative in the epistolary style, a tale of four women, central character Luka; her mother Lenore; grandmother Charlotte; and great-grandmother Annie – cast in the Quebecoise tradition of the roman du terroir, invoking place and family, the primal terroir of a storyteller. The novel is driven by three acts of violence – the possible murder of Annie’s husband, Jordan, by her Hutterite father; the rape of Charlotte; and the probable murder of Lenore by a notorious serial killer. Set in rural Saskatchewan and Vancouver, Luka, a single mother, finds Annie’s and Charlotte’s journals in the basement of her farm home, where both her predecessors also lived. She reads their stories while attempting to come to terms with her search for her missing mother, and with her attraction to her former flame, Earl, now married. Luka learns that Jordan disappeared shortly after the Canadian government enacted conscription for farmers in the First World War, when Annie became a stud horsewoman, her daughter Charlotte born before the war ended. Letters and newspaper clippings trace the family’s life through the drought and Great Depression; then Charlotte’s diaries reveal her rape at Danceland during the Second World War. Her daughter, Lenore, grows up off-balance emotionally, and abandons her daughters. Luka returns to Vancouver and learns her mother’s fate. Told from Luka’s point of view, in first-person narrative with intercutting diary excerpts and third-person narratives, the novel examines how violence percolates through generations. It also examines how mothers influence their children, the role of art, how the natural world influences a life, and questions our definition of “home.” At its heart, the novel is a story about what makes a family a family, about choices we make toward happiness, and about how violence perpetuates itself through the generations. Inspired by Margaret Lawrence’s The Stone Angel, Carol Shields’ The Stone Diaries, and the place-particular writing of Annie Proulx and Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Dryland Diaries paints a family portrait of loss, hope and redemption, locating it on the boundaries of historical fiction, firmly within the realm of epistolary and intergenerational narrative.

This doctoral thesis is concerned with autobiographical forms, their general characteristics as well as with three examples of Czech works of art that prove how difficult it is to make that general characteristics and show various kinds of autobiographical narrative. It aims to show the often heterogeneous character of the so- called autobiographical genres, and present some approaches in their study. In the opening chapter, we define the term autobiography or autobiographical form in regard to literary history and theory, and special attention to Czech research in this field. We concentrate on the genre specifics of autobiographical forms, the opposition of "literary" and "authentic" diary, the term "autobiographical pact" coined by Philippe Lejeune and several patterns of autobiographical memory introduced by James Olney. The key aspect of our study is the nature of autobiographical form derived from the subject's style and illocutionary acts, i. e. stylization as defined by John Searle followed by Jean Starobinski or Paul de Man. Out of the wide spectrum of issues connected with autobiography we focus on the description of the subject's narrative structure, mainly on its language, style, frequent motifs, its memory and relationship to other characters in its text. The complexity of the very...