Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Language of Ambivalence'

This thesis explores the conceptualisation of subjectivity, the past and language in the work of one particular English novelist and critic, A. S. Byatt. In doing so, it examines significant points of overlap between Byatt's fiction and criticism, on the one hand, and, on the other, the discourses that have contributed to their formation. Whilst Byatt's work is inflected by recent critical examinations of the three concepts, this thesis is less concerned with how it reflects prevailing notions of subjectivity, the past and language, than with its participation in an ongoing examination of each. Although I do investigate the interplay between Byatt's fiction and criticism, my focus is on how this is played out in Byatt's fictional texts, in particular the novels. The Introduction offers a brief summary of other criticism on Byatt's work summarises the recent definitions of 'text' and broader discussions of postmodernism that have impacted on my approach to her fiction, and proposes a reading of these texts that accounts for their ambivalence. In Chapter One, I focus on the reconfiguration of subjectivity in Byatt's writing, particularly as it relates to textuality. Chapter Two explores the relationship between present and past in Byatt's fiction that is partly enacted through the texts' own engagement with past literatures, in particular nineteenth-century literature, and the related issues of historiography, linearity and memory that these texts investigate. Language, in particular Byatt's interest in its relation to 'things', is the focus of the third and final chapter of this thesis. Throughout each of the chapters is an exploration of Byatt's engagement or reexamination of a persistent 'thread of two' in Western discourse. Although each chapter focuses on one of the three concepts, each also explores the issues that arise from the conjunction of 'two things' in these fictions: text and subject, present and past, language and the world. Related to this is my consideration of how Byatt's fiction is characterised by a number of contradictory impetuses. Of particular interest is the ambivalence that arises from Byatt's partial engagement with recent critical theory - not only because it reflects larger cultural and discursive movements, but also because it contributes to a productive forging of new forms of fiction that combine an awareness of the concerns of literary and cultural criticism with a desire to evoke pleasure in the texts.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s collection of short stories, Mosses from an Old Manse, serves as his contribution to the philosophical discussions on Transcendentalism in Concord, MA in the early 1840s. While Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and the other individuals involved in the Transcendental club often seem to readily accept the positions presented in Emerson’s work, it is never so simple for Hawthorne. Repeatedly, Hawthorne’s stories demonstrate his difficulty in trying to identify his own opinion on the subject. Though Hawthorne seems to want to believe in the optimistic potential of the spiritual and intellectual ideal presented in Emersonian Transcendentalism, he consistently dwells on the evil and blackness that may be contained in the human heart. The collection of short stories written while Hawthorne lived in Concord and surrounded himself with those dominant literary figures represents the clearest articulation of his ambivalent position on Transcendentalism.

The position of the maternal body within patriarchy is the topic of this discussion where, rather than looking at a linear sequence of events, various aspects of this position are explored. On an individual level, the intrusion of the father into the dyadic, and potentially incestuous mother-child relationship, marks the entry of the child into the Symbolic Order, and this reflects the mythical account of creation in the Old Testament, where actual maternity is repressed in favour of a paternal monopoly in creation. Just as monotheism both represses and appropriates many aspects of the goddess cult which preceded it and which it replaces, the maternal body is repressed and appropriated within patriarchy. The acquisition of language and awareness of sexual difference marking entry into the 'Law of the Father,' are constructed on a duality of self and other, a dichotomy of inside and outside with a border, represented by the skin, separating the two. This border, separating the symbolic from its other is tenuous and ambiguous, for it is not entirely impermeable barrier. What seeps across this border, what transgresses the barrier between inside and outside, is considered by Kristeva to be abject. Positioned at the threshold separating inside and outside, abjection is the threat of the ever present, but submerged mother crossing the threshold and disrupting social order. Throughout the paper are images selected from an entire body of related visual research which is closely linked to the ideas contemplated here.
Master of Arts (Hons)

Предмет истраживања у овом раду представља одређивање чворишних тачакаоко којих се образује идентитет у поетици Растка Петровића. Циљ је доказивања тезеда његово стваралаштво антиципира савремено схватање и разумевање идентитетакао конструкције, која се одвија унутар дискурса моћи, а он настоји да регулишеидентификацијске процесе унутар субјекта. Дело Растка Петровића указује начињеницу да идентитет представља сложену и динамичну мрежу сачињену одидентитетских конституената који се непрекидно укрштају, те се на местима укрштајаобразују амбивалентне субјекатске позиције из којих аутор исповеда своју онтолошкустрепњу и свест о конститутивној амбиваленцији. Укључивањем методолошкихпремиса из области студија културе (маргинализација, трансгресија, лиминалност) упроучавање аутентичних авангардних поетичких стратегија Растка Петровића, указалисмо на чињеницу да је аутор трагајући за собом остваривао своје поетско биће. На тајначин образовао се хибридни и лиминални идентитет у динамичком пољуантагонистичких дискурса, који се непрекидно међусобно пресецају.Реч је, дакле, о томе да поетичко-естетско-филозофско исходиштестваралаштва Растка Петровића чини идеја да се биће (оно што јесте), као иконституенти његовог идентитета (пол, род, раса, нација, класна, верска ипрофесионална припадност...) разумевају као процесуалне категорије које сунепрекидно изложене променама. Петровић, заправо, отвара пут савременомантиесенцијалном тумачењу бића као флукса (оно што је ток и што се мења) унутарсимболичких мрежа, односно дискурзивних пракси. На тај начин, ствара се могућностда се појам, односно концепт идентитета тумачи као стратегијски и позицијски, те је уПетровићевом делу идентитет увек релационо конструисан и изратито обележен не-припадањем. Истовремено, идентитет сугерише истост и подржава неки обликзаједништва који варљиво испуњава онтолошку празнину.Овај рад своје методолошко утемељење проналази у претпоставци да јеплуралитет у теоријским приступима и критичким праксама нужан, управо због2сложености и амбивалентности појма идентитет, који је интердисциплинаран по свомедосегу. Истовремено, овај рад се бави различитим аспектима идентитета са циљем дасе сачува и истакне свест о интеракцији између конституената идентитета и теоријско-критичких пракси које се њима баве. У фокусу нашег истраживања налази се културни,родни и наративни идентитет, тачније, модуси њихових конструкција. У том смислу,ова студија доказује да поетика, али и живот Растка Петровића представљајупарадигму културолошке и родне лиминалности. Сходно томе, путујући моделегзистенције показује се као пресудан у творби идентитета који се формира каохибридни, услед седиментације различитих култура.Исцрпна анлиза родног идентитета, односно маскулинитета, истичесубверзивни потенцијал Петровићевог дела у односу на патријархалнуфалогоцентричну бинарну културолошку матрицу. Растко Петровић несумњивоисказује свест о идеолошком карактеру родне улоге која му је намењена, те је процес„постајања“ мушкарцем изузетно сложен, обележен противуречностима и стрепњом.Посебан комплекс питања која се нужно намећу када је у питању ауторефлексијапредставља језик, јер је писац принуђен да доказ властитог постојања тражи у језику, упојмовима који су такође производ дискурса који не одобрава алтернативну мушкост.Тумачење наративног иденитета као ипсеитета које смо користили у раду,дакле, упознавање и конституисање себе као метакатегоријалног Другог, маркирало језначај културног дијалога коме је Растко Петровић несумњиво стремио. У питању једијалог у коме припадници мањинских/маргиналних култура и субкултура постајуравноправни саговорници. Истовремено, размена културних дарова обезбеђивала бипотенцијал за, из данашње перспективе посматрано, повлашћен статус агенса устварању сопствене културе, као и активно учешће у мапирању културе у свету.
Predmet istraživanja u ovom radu predstavlja određivanje čvorišnih tačakaoko kojih se obrazuje identitet u poetici Rastka Petrovića. Cilj je dokazivanja tezeda njegovo stvaralaštvo anticipira savremeno shvatanje i razumevanje identitetakao konstrukcije, koja se odvija unutar diskursa moći, a on nastoji da regulišeidentifikacijske procese unutar subjekta. Delo Rastka Petrovića ukazuje načinjenicu da identitet predstavlja složenu i dinamičnu mrežu sačinjenu odidentitetskih konstituenata koji se neprekidno ukrštaju, te se na mestima ukrštajaobrazuju ambivalentne subjekatske pozicije iz kojih autor ispoveda svoju ontološkustrepnju i svest o konstitutivnoj ambivalenciji. Uključivanjem metodološkihpremisa iz oblasti studija kulture (marginalizacija, transgresija, liminalnost) uproučavanje autentičnih avangardnih poetičkih strategija Rastka Petrovića, ukazalismo na činjenicu da je autor tragajući za sobom ostvarivao svoje poetsko biće. Na tajnačin obrazovao se hibridni i liminalni identitet u dinamičkom poljuantagonističkih diskursa, koji se neprekidno međusobno presecaju.Reč je, dakle, o tome da poetičko-estetsko-filozofsko ishodištestvaralaštva Rastka Petrovića čini ideja da se biće (ono što jeste), kao ikonstituenti njegovog identiteta (pol, rod, rasa, nacija, klasna, verska iprofesionalna pripadnost...) razumevaju kao procesualne kategorije koje suneprekidno izložene promenama. Petrović, zapravo, otvara put savremenomantiesencijalnom tumačenju bića kao fluksa (ono što je tok i što se menja) unutarsimboličkih mreža, odnosno diskurzivnih praksi. Na taj način, stvara se mogućnostda se pojam, odnosno koncept identiteta tumači kao strategijski i pozicijski, te je uPetrovićevom delu identitet uvek relaciono konstruisan i izratito obeležen ne-pripadanjem. Istovremeno, identitet sugeriše istost i podržava neki oblikzajedništva koji varljivo ispunjava ontološku prazninu.Ovaj rad svoje metodološko utemeljenje pronalazi u pretpostavci da jepluralitet u teorijskim pristupima i kritičkim praksama nužan, upravo zbog2složenosti i ambivalentnosti pojma identitet, koji je interdisciplinaran po svomedosegu. Istovremeno, ovaj rad se bavi različitim aspektima identiteta sa ciljem dase sačuva i istakne svest o interakciji između konstituenata identiteta i teorijsko-kritičkih praksi koje se njima bave. U fokusu našeg istraživanja nalazi se kulturni,rodni i narativni identitet, tačnije, modusi njihovih konstrukcija. U tom smislu,ova studija dokazuje da poetika, ali i život Rastka Petrovića predstavljajuparadigmu kulturološke i rodne liminalnosti. Shodno tome, putujući modelegzistencije pokazuje se kao presudan u tvorbi identiteta koji se formira kaohibridni, usled sedimentacije različitih kultura.Iscrpna anliza rodnog identiteta, odnosno maskuliniteta, ističesubverzivni potencijal Petrovićevog dela u odnosu na patrijarhalnufalogocentričnu binarnu kulturološku matricu. Rastko Petrović nesumnjivoiskazuje svest o ideološkom karakteru rodne uloge koja mu je namenjena, te je proces„postajanja“ muškarcem izuzetno složen, obeležen protivurečnostima i strepnjom.Poseban kompleks pitanja koja se nužno nameću kada je u pitanju autorefleksijapredstavlja jezik, jer je pisac prinuđen da dokaz vlastitog postojanja traži u jeziku, upojmovima koji su takođe proizvod diskursa koji ne odobrava alternativnu muškost.Tumačenje narativnog ideniteta kao ipseiteta koje smo koristili u radu,dakle, upoznavanje i konstituisanje sebe kao metakategorijalnog Drugog, markiralo jeznačaj kulturnog dijaloga kome je Rastko Petrović nesumnjivo stremio. U pitanju jedijalog u kome pripadnici manjinskih/marginalnih kultura i subkultura postajuravnopravni sagovornici. Istovremeno, razmena kulturnih darova obezbeđivala bipotencijal za, iz današnje perspektive posmatrano, povlašćen status agensa ustvaranju sopstvene kulture, kao i aktivno učešće u mapiranju kulture u svetu.
This thesis aims to determine the crucial points of identity formation in RastkoPetrović’s poetics with the intention to verify the idea that Rastko Petrović’s workanticipates the modern understanding of identity as a construct which emerges from thediscourse of power with its identificational processes within the subject. Rastko Petrović’soeuvre is an excellent example of the fact that identity represents a complex and dynamicnetwork of identity constituents that constantly intertwine, and, in the places where thecontacts happen, they form ambivalent subject positions from which the author narrates hisontological fear and the awareness of the constitutive ambivalence. By including some ofthe methodological premises from the field of cultural studies (such as marginalization,transgression, liminality) into the research of Petrović’s authentic avant-garde poeticstrategies, the thesis shows that, while searching for his inner self, Petrović was epitomizinghis poetical self, thus forming a hybrid and liminal identity in the dynamic field ofantagonistic discourses that constantly intersect.Therefore, we can say that the poetic, philosophical and aesthetic sources ofPetrović’s work are found in the idea that self (what is), as well as the constituents of hisidentity (sex, gender, race, nation, class, religious beliefs, professional orientation…) areunderstood as processing cathegories constantly exposed to changes. What is more, it canbe said that Rastko Petrović clears the path for the modern, antiessetialist interpretations ofself as flux (that which is a flow, which changes constantly) within the symbolic network, i.e.discoursive practices. In this way, arises the possiblity of interpretation of the notion, or theidea of identity, as strategic, or positional, meaning that in Petrović’s works identity isalways relationally constructed and strongly marked by non-belonging. At the same time,identity means sameness and supports at least some kind of unity feebly fulfilling theonthological void.Methodological foundation of this thesis is found in the assumption that the pluralityin critical and theoretical approaches is necessary, precisely because of the complexity andambivalence of identity, the term whose scope and range are interdisciplinary positioned. Atthe same time, the thesis examines various aspects of identity with the objective topreserve and enhance the awareness about the interaction between the constituents of4identity and theoretical and critical practices that deal with it. Cultural, gender and narrativeidentities or, more precisely, the modes of their constructions, form the central part of thethesis. In this sense, this thesis shows that the poetics, but also the life of Rastko Petrović,represent a paradigm of cultural and gender liminality, while the life on the constant moveproves to be crucial in the creation of identity which is formed as a hybrid one because ofmany layers coming from various cultures. A detailed analysis of gender identity or, moreprecisely, masculinity, stresses the subversive potential of Petrović’s work when juxtaposedto patriarchal, logocentric, binary cultural matrix. Rastko Petrović expresses an awareness ofthe ideological character of the gender role he was assigned with; therefore, the process of“becoming” a man is a highly complex one, marked with contradictions and fear. A separatecluster of questions that inevitably appear with introspection is found in language, sincewriter is compelled to search for the proofs of his existence in the language and in thenotions which are also a product of discourse that does not approve of the alternativemasculinity.The interpretation of narrative identity as ipseity, used in this work, as well as theintroduction and constitution of self as a meta-categorical Other, marked the importance ofcultural dialog which Rastko Petrović undoubtedly strived for. It is a dialog where themembers of minority cultures and subcultures are equal participants. At the same time, theexchange of cultural gifts provides the potential for a privileged status of agens in creationof one’s own culture, and also in active mapping of the world culture.

The present dissertation investigates the use of the fantastic and its functions in contemporary prose, the initial hypothesis being that the fantastic is not historically exhausted, but continues to be productive. The major part of this study consists of a close reading of four novels printed between 1995 and 2001: Marie Hermanson’s Värddjuret (1995), Majgull Axelsson’s Aprilhäxan (1997), Karen Duve’s Regenroman (1999) and Elfriede Kern’s Schwarze Lämmer (2001). Tzvetan Todorov’s definition of the fantastic as structural ambiguity is fundamental to the dissertation. In order not to bind the definition to a normative concept of genre, the fantastic is in this study considered as a narrative strategy. The dissertation’s analyses demonstrate that in these contemporary novels there is considerable variation of narrative devices, as well as of intertextual motifs deriving from the ‘archive’ provided by the tradition of the fantastic. The fantastic is to a great extent intertextual, but does not merely function as a “signal of fiction” in a postmodern game where ambiguity is no longer relevant. Instead, the narrated world in these novels is characterized by a deeply-rooted ambivalence, heterogeneity and instability. Both attractive and dangerous, the fantastic corresponds to a meeting with “the other” and the unknown, while dampening the conflict between the supernatural and the natural so clearly seen in Todorov. What is central is not the crisis of perception undergone by the novel’s characters as they choose between two opposing views of reality, but their mental state of mind. These characters are in a condition of “betwixt and between”, which in all four novels is linked to the theme of the artist. Via the fantastic, Regenroman initiates a confrontation with male myths of the artist and images of women. Schwarze Lämmer also engages the romantic fantastic tradition and investigates the link between adolescent delusions of grandeur and artistic creativity. Värddjuret, on the other hand, depicts the genesis of a female artist, while Aprilhäxan presents the female artist’s monstrous image of herself and fantasies of omnipotence. An additional function of the fantastic in these four novels is to thematize a concept of reality that is based, not on the contrast between the natural and the supernatural, but on the possibility of several different realities.

Background: Specific language impaired (SLI) children are at risk of emotionalbehavioural difficulties yet few studies have examined the part played by language Method: Cognitive-linguistic skills required by typically developing and SLI children to understand emotional ambivalence were investigated in three related studies using Donaldson and Westerman's 1986 methodology. This American study required children to answer questions related to stories evoking emotional ambivalence: The Puppy Story (love/anger); The Kitten Story (sad/happy). First study results replicated American findings on British subjects. The second study identified 5 cognitive-linguistic devices used by 32 typically developing children (7 - 11 years) when resolving two different types of ambiguity: emotional ambivalence and linguistic ambiguity (The Puppy Story/The Twins Story): mental role play (subjects answered questions in the character of the story protagonist), mime, metaphor, personal experience, folk psychology. Responses were analysed for expressive language performance/discourse errors. Differences were interpreted as differences in the cognitive demands of the tasks. Results: Children used different cognitive-linguistic devices resolving the two types of ambiguity. Girls became more specific in their use of cognitive-linguistic devices when answering questions relating to emotions. Children found linguistic ambiguity easier than emotional ambivalence to resolve showing that it was the emotional content not the ambiguity which created the difference in cognitive and linguistic stress. The third study compared 4 SLI children's responses to ambivalent emotion (Puppy Story) with those of the typically developing children. The Kitten Story was presented with pictures to support language skills. Results: SLI children's responses were less mature and atypical compared to language normal children's ability to understand ambivalent emotion and use cognitive-linguistic devices. The use of pictures did not help the children. Conclusions: Mental role play represents the gradual internalisation of empathy required for understanding emotional ambivalence which was lacking from the SLI children's data. Atypical metaphor use reflected the SLI children's inability to conceptualise the confusion inherent in contradictory emotions.

This study examines the functions of objects in a selection of British colonial travel accounts about Africa. The works discussed were published between 1863 and 1908 and include travelogues by John Hanning Speke, Verney Lovett Cameron, Henry Morton Stanley, Mary Henrietta Kingsley, Ewart Scott Grogan, Mary Hall and Constance Larymore. The author argues that objects are deeply involved in the construction of pre-modern and modern spheres that the travelling subject moves between. The objects in the travel accounts are studied in relation to a contextual background of Victorian commodity and object culture, epitomised by the 1851 Great Exhibition and the birth of the modern anthropological museum. The four analysis chapters investigate the roles of objects in ethnographical and geographical writing, in ideological discussions about the transformative powers of colonial trade, and in narratives about the arrival of the book in the colonial periphery. As the analysis shows, however, objects tend not to behave as they are expected to do. Instead of marking temporal differences, descriptions of objects are typically unstable and riddled with contradictions and foreground the ambivalence that characterises colonial literature.

Cette thèse se concentre sur deux groupes bien particuliers de propositions subordonnées dont, à l'heure actuelle, les définitions sont loin de faire consensus parmi les linguistes : les propositions interrogatives et exclamatives indirectes. L’étude syntaxique et textométrique effectuée dans le cadre de cette recherche part d'un vaste ensemble d’interrogatives et d’exclamatives indirectes, prélevées de manière exhaustive au sein d'un corpus de 68 pièces du théâtre français moderne s’étalant de 1775 à 1914. Les résultats de cette recherche, largement facilitée par les apports d’outils technologiques nouveaux et variés sont présentés dans ce travail. Les deux piliers substantiels de ces structures sont étudiés de manière circonstanciée : il s’agit des verbes et des outils qui les introduisent. Afin de mener à bien cette recherche, une banque de données, appelée Theatre68 a été constituée. Elle regroupe l'ensemble des attestations des séquences interrogatives (appelées SIC) et exclamatives complexes (appelées SEC) du corpus étudié. Cette banque est accessible sur le CD-Rom qui accompagne la thèse. Des cas d’ambiguïté syntaxique (relatives sans antécédent/interrogatives indirectes) et d’ambivalence sémantique (interrogative /exclamative) sont étudiés et commentés. Enfin, l’étude s’élargit vers des constructions particulières qui peuvent servir de supports aux structures exclamatives vu leur force expressive et le degré de figement qu’elles semblent avoir atteint
This thesis concentrates on two particular groups of subordinate clauses: the indirect interrogative and exclamative clauses, the definitions of which, at the moment, are far from reaching a consensus among the linguists. The syntactic and textometrical study conducted for this thesis is based on a vast set of indirect interrogative and exclamative clauses, extracted from a collection of 68 theatrical plays of the modern French theater, from 1775 to 1914. The results of this research have been greatly facilitated by the contribution of new and varied technological tools (in particular the Lexico5 software). Both substantial pillars of these structures are thoroughly examined, mainly taking into account the introductive verbs and the linking words. To bring this research to a successful conclusion, a data bank, called Theatre68, was constituted. It includes all the examples of indirect interrogative and exclamative clauses and it is available on the CD-ROM attached to this thesis. Cases of syntactic ambiguity (relative/interrogative clauses) and semantic ambivalence (interrogative /exclamatory) are studied and commented upon. The study spreads upon particular constructions which can be used as supports to the exclamative structures considering their expressivity and the semi-fixed form which they seem to have reached

Though her early writing owes much to nineteenth-century American Realism, Willa Cather experiments with male and female literary traditions while finding her own modern literary voice. In the process Cather gives nature an ambivalent role in My Ántonia, O Pioneers!, and Death Comes to the Archbishop. She produces a tension between rivers and gardens, places where nature and culture converge. Like Mary Austin and Sarah Orne Jewett, Willa Cather confronts the boundaries between humans and nature.

El presente trabajo está orientado a detectar los símbolos y metáforas ambivalentes en la obraLa Casa de Bernarda Alba de Federico García Lorca. Debido a que hay pocos estudiosdedicados al simbolismo de la frustración, se ha concentrado en analizar dicha temática. Paraanalizar el concepto de frustración, primero ha sido necesario comprender cómo eraconcebida la moral de la época en que se inscribe la obra. En segundo lugar, ha sidofundamental entender cómo surge la frustración en el ser humano. Atendiendo a estascuestiones se ha aplicado la teoría del formalismo iluminista y una visión freudiana sobre lasteorías del psiquismo. En base a estas nociones se detectaron cuatro símbolos ambivalentesque connotan sentimientos de frustración: el blanco, el olivo, la maroma y el mar. Estossímbolos antitéticos contienen una fuerza negativa que se impone a la fuerza positiva, lo cualtiene como resultado la frustración. Las fuerzas contradictorias están presentes durante laobra entera. Esta característica no solo se manifiesta a través de los tropos estudiados, sinoque también se detectó que a menudo las fuerzas antitéticas se hacen presentes enprotagonistas que forman grupos ambivalentes, donde cada personaje actúa como una fuerzaopuesta, lo cual lleva hacia una tensión permanente entre una persona positiva y otranegativa.

Cette thèse propose une caractérisation syntaxique et sémantique de la subordonnée interrogative en anglais contemporain en l'opposant aux autres structures proches en surface (subordonnées introduites par des mots en WH- : relatives libres, exclamatives, circonstancielles en " if ", " when " et " whether "). Cette étude passe par un examen attentif des contextes d'emploi et des termes introducteurs de chacun de ces types de subordonnées. Nous abordons également les questions suivantes : quelle définition donner à la subordination ? Comment définir l'ambiguïté et traiter les cas limite (nous exploitons ici les notions d'ambivalence et de neutralisation) ? Quel rapport existe-t-il entre interrogatives et propositions en that ? Entre exclamatives et factivité ? Comment analyser des exemples comme Tell me the time ou Tell me if it's too expensive ? Et surtout que dire de I know who came ?...

碩士
臺灣大學
外國語文學研究所
97
In this thesis, I argue that Anthony Burgess’s The Malayan Trilogy expresses an ambivalent attitude toward British imperialism and colonialism. On the one hand, he shows that British colonial project is doomed to failure through the characterization of Crabbe, the protagonist; on the other hand, a whole range of racial stereotypes and exotic images of Malaya are exploited to fulfill the Oriental imagination and colonial gaze of Western readers. In the first chapter, I argue that Burgess’s critique of British colonialism is mainly prompted by his Catholic guilt as well as his identity as an exile. The issue of guilt is examined on three levels, including the guilt of Burgess, Crabbe, and the British Empire. In the second chapter, I provide an overview of the racial stereotypes and inept British characters portrayed in the novel. Many racial stereotypes are created to satisfy the need of English readers, who are eager to consume the exotic culture in the Far East. In the third chapter, I analyze how Burgess’s ambivalent view of colonialism is also reflected in the language of the novel by analyzing the “hybridized” language, which combines local languages and Standard English, in the trilogy.

This dissertation delves into the complexities and nuances of the contemporary French author J.M.G. Le Clézio, one of the most respected and prolific writers of his era. Specifically, it investigates the phenomenon of a “privileged moment” or a “moment privilégié” in his works. This literary concept is most often associated with Marcel Proust. In this study, the intricacies as well as the limitations and paradoxes of three distinct types of privileged moments in Le Clézio’s writings are methodically explored. Privileged moments related to nature, musicality, and sexuality are systematically probed during the course of this investigation. The introduction provides an operational definition for the expression “privileged moment,” and briefly outlines some of the main ideas discussed in the various chapters which follow. Although several literary scholars use this term, a precise definition of this word or even a clear explanation of what it encompasses does not seem to exist. Chapter one explores manifestations of privileged moments in the writings of earlier French writers. Specifically, it analyses intense instants of euphoria in Proust’s A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, Sartre’s La Nausée, and Camus’s Noces. Chapter two investigates the undeniable literary transformation that occurs in Le Clézio’s works beginning with the publication of Mondo in 1978. Specifically, this section examines the existentialist nature of some of Le Clézio’s early writings and explores how his powerful experiences with the Embreras and Waunanas in Panama, with the indigenous cultures in Mexico, etc. drastically altered him and his writings. Chapter three investigates the inexplicable instants of euphoria which abound when Le Clézio’s characters commune with nature in Mondo, Désert, Le Chercheur d’Or, and Pawana. Chapter four explores privileged moments related to music in the short story “La Roue d’Eau,” as well as in the novels Etoile Errante, Désert, Le Chercheur d’Or, and Le Poisson d’Or. Chapter five systematically investigates moments of sexual ecstasy shared with an Other in Désert, Le Chercheur d’Or, and La Quarantaine. Whereas the other mysterious moments of euphoria are solitary instants, these erotic encounters constitute a different type of experience, which will also obligate us to reflect upon various ethical issues.