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McClelland, Roderick William. "White discourse in post-independence Zimbabwean literature." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18261.
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Literally hundreds of novels were written by white Rhodesians during the U.D.I. era of the 1960s and 1970s. Since Independence, however, not much more than a handful of literary texts have been produced by whites in Zimbabwe. This dissertation, therefore, involves an interrogation of both white discourse and the (reduced) space for white discourse in postcolonial Zimbabwean society. In addition to the displaced moral space, and the removal of the economic and political power base, there has been an appropriation of control over the material means of production of any discourse and white discourse, which has become accustomed to its position of superiority due to its dominance and dominating tendencies, has struggled to come to terms with its new, non-hegemonic 'space'. In an attempt to come to some understanding of the literary silence and marginalisation of white discourse in post-independence Zimbabwe there has to be some understanding of the voice that was formed during the British South Africa Company's administration and which reached a crescendo of authoritarian self-assertion at the declaration of unilateral independence. Vital to this discussion (in Part I) is an uncovering of the myths that were intrinsic to white discourse in the way that they were created as justification for settlement and to propagandise the aggressive defence of that space that was forged in an alien landscape. These myths have not been easily cast aside and, hence, have made it so difficult for white discourse to adapt to post-colonial society. Most Rhodesian novels were extremely partisan and promulgated these myths. Part II, discusses ex post facto novels about the war (from the white perspective) to investigate whether white discourse is recognising the lies that make up so much of its belief system. This investigation of this particular perspective of the war, then, will help to define at what stage white Zimbabweans are at in the development of a national culture. Part III takes this discussion of acculturation and national unity further. Furthermore, through the discussion of a number of novels in this chapter, it is argued that white discourse is struggling to come to terms with its non-hegemonic position and is continuing to attempt to assert its control. The 'space' available to the early settlers' discourse for appropriation, however, has been removed and, in the reduced space available to white discourse, one continued area of possible control is that of conservation.
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Butale, Phenyo. "Discourses of poverty in literature : assessing representations of indigence in post-colonial texts from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/96749.
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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis undertakes a comparative reading of post-colonial literature written in English in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to bring into focus the similarities and differences between fictional representations of poverty in these three countries. The thesis explores the unique way in which literature may contribute to the better understanding of poverty, a field that has hitherto been largely dominated by scholarship that relies on quantitative analysis as opposed to qualitative approaches. The thesis seeks to use examples from selected texts to illustrate that (as many social scientists have argued before) literature provides insights into the ‘lived realities’ of the poor and that with its vividly imagined specificities it illuminates the broad generalisations about poverty established in other (data-gathering) disciplines. Selected texts from the three countries destabilise the usual categories of gender, race and class which are often utilised in quantitative studies of poverty and by so doing show that experiences of poverty cut across and intersect all of these spheres and the experiences differ from one person to another regardless of which category they may fall within. The three main chapters focus primarily on local indigence as depicted by texts from the three countries. The selection of texts in the chapters follows a thematic approach and texts are discussed by means of selective focus on the ways in which they address the theme of poverty. Using three main theorists – Maria Pia Lara, Njabulo Ndebele and Amartya Sen – the thesis focuses centrally on how writers use varying literary devices and techniques to provide moving depictions of poverty that show rather than tell the reader of the unique experiences that different characters and different communities have of deprivation and shortage of basic needs.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis onderneem ‘n vergelykende studie van post-koloniale letterkunde in Engels uit Botswana, Namibië en Zimbabwe, om sodoende die ooreenstemmings en verskille tussen letterkundige uitbeeldings van armoede in hierdie drie lande aan die lig te bring. Die tesis ondersoek die unieke manier waarop letterkunde kan bydra tot ‘n beter begrip van armoede, ‘n studieveld wat tot huidiglik grotendeels op kwantitatiewe analises berus, in teenstelling met kwalitatiewe benaderings. Die tesis se werkswyse gebruik voorbeelde uit gelekteerde tekste met die doel om te illustreer (soos verskeie sosiaal-wetenskaplikes reeds aangevoer het) dat letterkunde insig voorsien in die lewenservarings van armoediges en dat dit die breë veralgemenings aangaande armoede in ander (data-gebaseerde) wetenskappe kan illumineer. Geselekteerde tekste uit die drie lande destabiliseer die gewone kategorieë van gender, ras en klas wat normaaalweg gebruik word in kwantitatiewe studies van armoede, om sodoende aan te toon dat die ervaring van armoede dwarsdeur hierdie klassifikasies sny en dat hierdie tipe lewenservaring verskil van persoon tot persoon ongeag in watter kategorie hulle geplaas word. Die drie sentrale hoofstukke fokus primêr op lokale armoede soos uitgebeeld in tekste vanuit die drie lande. Die seleksie van tekste in die hoofstukke volg ‘n tematiese patroon en tekste word geanaliseer na aanleiding van ‘n selektiewe fokus op die maniere waarop hulle armoede uitbeeld. Deur gebruik te maak van ‘ die teorieë van Maria Pia Lara, Njabulo Ndebele en Amartya Sen, fokus hierdie tesis sentraal op hoe skrywers verskeie literêre metodes en tegnieke aanwend ten einde ontroerende uitbeeldings van armoede te skep wat die leser wys liewer as om hom/haar slegs te vertel aangaande die unieke ervarings wat verskillende karakters en gemeenskappe het van ontbering en die tekort aan basiese behoefte-voorsiening.
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Nyambi, Oliver. "Nation in crisis : alternative literary representations of Zimbabwe Post-2000." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/85652.
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Thesis (PhD)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The last decade in Zimbabwe was characterised by an unprecedented economic and political crisis. As the crisis threatened to destabilise the political status quo, it prompted in governmental circles the perceived 'need‘ for political containment. The ensuing attempts to regulate the expressive sphere, censor alternative historiographies of the crisis and promote monolithic and self-serving perceptions of the crisis presented a real danger of the distortion of information about the situation. Representing the crisis therefore occupies a contested and discursive space in debates about the Zimbabwean crisis. It is important to explore the nature of cultural interventions in the urgent process of re-inscribing the crisis and extending what is known about Zimbabwe‘s so-called 'lost decade‘. The study analyses literary responses to state-imposed restrictions on information about the state of Zimbabwean society during the post-2000 economic and political crisis which reached the public sphere, with particular reference to creative literature by Zimbabwean authors published during the period 2000 to 2010. The primary concern of this thesis is to examine the efficacy of post-2000 Zimbabwean literature as constituting a significant archive of the present and also as sites for the articulation of dissenting views – alternative perspectives assessing, questioning and challenging the state‘s grand narrative of the crisis. Like most African literatures, Zimbabwean literature relates (directly and indirectly) to definite historical forces and processes underpinning the social, cultural and political production of space. The study mainly invokes Maria Pia Lara‘s theory about the ―moral texture‖ and disclosive nature of narratives by marginalised groups in order to explore the various ways through which such narratives revise hegemonically distorted representations of themselves and construct more inclusive discourses about the crisis. A key finding in this study is that through particular modes of representation, most of the literary works put a spotlight on some of the major talking points in the political and socio-economic debate about the post-2000 Zimbabwean crisis, while at the same time extending the contours of the debate beyond what is agreeable to the powerful. This potential in literary works to deconstruct and transform dominant elitist narratives of the crisis and offering instead, alternative and more representative narratives of the excluded groups‘ experiences, is made possible by their affective appeal. This affective dimension stems from the intimate and experiential nature of the narratives of these affected groups. However, another important finding in this study has been the advent of a distinct canon of hegemonic texts which covertly (and sometimes overtly) legitimate the state narrative of the crisis. The thesis ends with a suggestion that future scholarly enquiries look set to focus more closely on the contribution of creative literature to discourses on democratisation in contemporary Zimbabwe.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die afgelope dekade in Zimbabwe is gekenmerk deur ‗n ongekende ekonomiese en politiese krisis. Terwyl die krisis gedreig het om die politieke status quo omver te werp, het dit die ‗noodsaak‘ van politieke insluiting aangedui. Die daaropvolgende pogings om die ruimte vir openbaarmaking te reguleer, alternatiewe optekenings van gebeure te sensureer en ook om monolitiese, self-bevredigende waarnemings van die krisis te bevorder, het 'n wesenlike gevaar van distorsie van inligting i.v.m. die krisis meegebring. Voorstellings van die krisis vind sigself dus in 'n gekontesteerde en diskursiewe ruimte in debatte aangaande die Zimbabwiese krisis. Dit is gevolglik belangrik om die aard van kulturele intervensies in die dringende proses om die krisis te hervertolk te ondersoek asook om kennis van Zimbabwe se sogenaamde 'verlore dekade‘ uit te brei. Die studie analiseer literêre reaksies op staats-geïniseerde inkortings van inligting aangaande die sosiale toestand in Zimbabwe gedurende die post-2000 ekonomiese en politiese krisis wat sulke informasie uit die openbare sfeer weerhou het, met spesifieke verwysing na skeppende literatuur deur Zimbabwiese skrywers wat tussen 2000 en 2010 gepubliseer is. Die belangrikste doelwit van hierdie tesis is om die doeltreffendheid van post-2000 Zimbabwiese letterkunde as konstituering van 'n alternatiewe Zimbabwiese 'argief van die huidige‘ en ook as ruimte vir die artikulering van teenstemme – alternatiewe perspektiewe wat die staat se 'groot narratief‘ aangaande die krisis bevraagteken – te ondersoek. Soos met die meeste ander Afrika-letterkundes is daar in hierdie literatuur 'n verband (direk en/of indirek) met herkenbare historiese kragte en prosesse wat die sosiale, kulturele en politiese ruimtes tot stand bring. Die studie maak in die ondersoek veral gebruik van Maria Pia Lara se teorie aangaande die 'morele tekstuur‘ en openbaringsvermoë van narratiewe aangaande gemarginaliseerde groepe ten einde die verskillende maniere waarop sulke narratiewe hegemoniese distorsies in 'offisiële‘ voorstellings van hulself 'oorskryf‘ om meer inklusiewe diskoerse van die krisis daar te stel, na te vors. 'n Kernbevinding van die studie is dat, d.m.v. van spesifieke tipe voorstellings, die meeste van die letterkundige werke wat hier ondersoek word, 'n soeklig plaas op verskeie van die belangrikste kwessies in die politieke en sosio-ekonomiese debatte oor die Zimbabwiese krisis, terwyl dit terselfdertyd die kontoere van die debat uitbrei verby die grense van wat vir die maghebbers gemaklik is. Die potensieel van letterkundige werke om oorheersende, elitistiese narratiewe oor die krisis te dekonstrueer en te omvorm, word moontlik gemaak deur hul affektiewe potensiaal. Hierdie affektiewe dimensie word ontketen deur die intieme en ervaringsgewortelde geaardheid van die narratiewe van die geaffekteerde groepe. Nietemin is 'n ander belangrike bevinding van hierdie studie dat daar 'n onderskeibare kanon van hegemoniese tekste bestaan wat op verskuilde (en soms ook openlike) maniere die staatsnarratief anngaande die krisis legitimeer. Die tesis sluit af met die voorstel dat toekomstige vakkundige studies meer spesifiek sou kon fokus op die bydrae van kreatiewe skryfwerk tot die demokratisering van kontemporêre Zimbabwe.
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Tagwirei, Cuthbeth. "Should I stay or should I go : Zimbabwes white writing, 1980 to 2011." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/95815.
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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis finds its epistemological basis in two related motives: the re-conceptualisation of white writing in Zimbabwe as a sub-category of Zimbabwean literature, and the recognition of white narratives as necessarily dialogic. The first motive follows the realization that writing by Zimbabwean whites is systematically marginalized from “mainstream” Zimbabwean literature owing to its perceived irrelevance to the postcolonial Zimbabwean nation. Through an application of Even-Zohar’s polysystem theory, this thesis argues for a recognition of white writing as a literary sub-system existing in relation to other literary and non-literary systems in Zimbabwe’s polysystem of culture. As its second motive, the thesis also calls for a critical approach to white Zimbabwean narratives built on the understanding that the study of literature can no longer be left to monologic approaches alone. Rather, white narratives should be considered as multiple and hence amenable to a multiplicity of approaches that recognize dialogue as an essential aspect of all narratives. The thesis attempts, by closely reading nine white-authored narratives in Zimbabwe, to demonstrate that white Zimbabwean literature is characterized by multiplicity, simultaneity and instability; these are tropes developed from Bakhtin’s understanding of utterances as characterized by a minimum of two voices. To consider white writing in Zimbabwe as a multiplicity is to call forth its numerous dimensions and breadth of perceptions. Simultaneity posits the need to understand opposites/conflicts as capable of existing side by side without necessarily dissolving into unity. Instability captures the several movements and destabilizations that affect writers, characters and the literary system. These three tropes enable a re-reading of white Zimbabwean narratives as complex and multi-nuanced. Such characteristics of the literary system are seen to reflect on the experiences of “whiteness” in postcolonial Zimbabwe. The white narratives selected for examination in this thesis therefore exhibit crises of belonging that reflect the dialogic nature of existence. In sum, this thesis is meant as a dialogue, culminating in the proposition that calls for a decentred and redemptive literary experience.
AFRIKKANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis vestig sy epistemologiese basis in twee verwante motiewe: die herkonseptualisering van skryfwerk deur wit skrywers in Zimbabwe as ’n sub-kategorie van Zimbabwiese letterkunde, en die erkenning van wit narratiewe as onontkombaar dialogies in aard en wese. Die eerste motief volg die argument dat die skryfwerke van wit Zimbabwieërs stelselmatig gemarginaliseer is uit “hoofstroom” Zimbabwiese literatuur, as gevolg van dié skryfwerke se beweerde irrelevansie tot die koloniale Zimbabwiese nasie-staat. Deur Even-Zohar se polisisteem teorie toe te pas, pleit hierdie tesis vir die erkenning van letterkunde deur wit skrywers as ’n literêre sub-stelsel wat bestaan in verhouding tot ander literêre en nie-literêre sisteme in Zimbabwe se polisisteem van kultuur. As sy tweede motief, vra die tesis ook vir ’n kritiese benadering tot wit Zimbabwiese narratiewe, gebou op die verstandhouding dat die studie van letterkunde nie meer suiwer aan monologies benaderings oorgelewer behoort te word nie. Inteendeel, wit narratiewe moet as veelsydig beskou word, en dus vatbaar vir ’n verskeidenheid benaderings wat dialoog as ’n noodsaaklike aspek van alle verhale erken en verken. Deur nege wit outeurs se verhale in Zimbabwe noukeurig te lees, dui hierdie tesis aan dat wit Zimbabwiese literatuur gekenmerk word deur veelvuldigheid, gelyktydigheid en onstabiliteit; hieride is teoretiese konsepte wat ontleen is aan Bakhtin se begrip van uitsprake (“utterances”) as bestaande uit ’n minimum van twee stemme. Om wit lettere in Zimbabwe as veelvuldig te verklaar is om die talle dimensies en breedtes van persepsie in letterkundige korpus te erken. Gelyktydig postuleer die tesis die moontlikheid dat teenoorgesteldes/konflikte langs mekaar kan en móét bestaan, sonder om noodwendig in ’n eenheid te ontaard. Onstabiliteit, soos dit hier verstaan word, omvat die verskillende bewegings en ontstuimige roeringe wat skrywers, karakters en die literêre sisteem beïnvloed. Hierdie drie konsepte laat ’n herlees van wit Zimbabwiese verhale toe wat as kompleks en multi-genuanseerd bestempel kan word. Sulke kenmerke van die literêre sisteem moet in ag geneem word om die ervaring van “witheid” in post-koloniale Zimbabwe effektief uit te beeld. Die wit verhale wat gekies is vir herlees in hierdie tesis beeld dus krisisse van bestaan uit wat die dialogiese aard van die menslike bestaan omvat. Ter afsluiting is hierdie tesis bedoel as ’n dialoog wat kulmineer in ’n oproep vir gedensentraliseerde en verlossende ervarings van die letterkunde in sy geheel.
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Muchemwa, Kizito Zhiradzago. "Imagining the city in Zimbabwean literature 1949 to 2009." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/85579.
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Thesis (PhD)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: My thesis is on the literary imagining of the city in Zimbabwean literature that emerges as a re-visioning and contestation of its colonial and postcolonial manifestations. Throughout the seven chapters of the thesis I conduct a close reading of literary texts engaged in literary (re)creations of the city. I focus on texts by selected authors from 1949 to 2009 in order to trace the key aspects of this city imagining and their historical situatedness. In the first chapter, I argue the case for the inclusions and exclusions that are evident. In this historical span, I read the Zimbabwean canon and the city that is figured in it as palimpsests in order to analyse (dis)connections. This theoretical frame brings out wider relationships and connections that emerge in the (re)writing of both the canon and city. I adopt approaches that emphasise how spaces and temporalities ‗overlap and interlace‘ to provoke new ways of thinking about the city and the construction of identity. I argue for the country-city connection as an important dynamic in the various (re)imaginings of the city. Space is politicized along lines of race, ethnicity, gender and class in regimes of politics and aesthetics of inclusion and exclusion that are refuted by the focal texts of the thesis. I analyse the fragmentation of rural and urban space in the literary texts and how country and city house politico-aesthetic regimes of domination, exclusion and marginalisation. Using tropes of the house, music and train, I analyse how connections in the city are imagined. These tropes are connected to the travel motif found in all the chapters of the thesis. Travel is in most of the texts offered as a form of escape from the country represented as a site of essentialism or nativism. Both settlers and nationalists, from different ideological positions, invest the land and the city with symbolic political and cultural values. Both figure the city as alien to the colonised, a figuration that is contested in most of the focal texts of the thesis. Travel from the country to the city through halfway houses is presented as a way of negotiating location in new spaces, finding new identities and contending with the multiple connections found in the city. The relentless (un)housing in Marechera‘s writing expresses a refusal to be bounded by aesthetic, nationalist and racial houses as they are constructed in the city. In Vera‘s fiction, travel – in multifarious directions and in a re-racing of the quest narrative in Lessing – becomes a critical search for a re-scripting of gender and woman‘s demand for a right to the city. The nomadism in Vera‘s fiction is re-configured in the portrayal of the marginalised as the parvenus and pariahs of the city in the fiction of Chinodya and Tagwira. In the chapter on Chikwava and Gappah, in the contexts of spatial displacement and expansion, the nationalist nativist construction of self, city and nation comes under stress. I interrogate how ideologies of space shape politico-aesthetic regimes in both the country and the city throughout the different historical phases of the city. In this regard I adopt theoretical approaches that engage with questions of aesthetic equality as they relate to the contestation of spatial partitioning based on categories of race, gender and class. In city re-imaginings this re-claiming of aesthetic power to imagine the city is invoked and in all the texts it emerges as a reclaiming of the right to the city by the colonised, women, immigrants and all the marginalised. I adopt those approaches that lend themselves to the deconstruction of hegemonic figuration, disempowerment and silencing of the marginalised, especially women, in re-imagining the city and their identities in it.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: My tesis se onderwerp is die literêre voorstellings van die stad in Zimbabwiese letterkunde wat ontstaan as ‗n herverbeelding van en teenvoeter vir beide koloniale en postkoloniale manifestasies. Regdeur die sewe hoofstukke van die tesis voer ek deurtastende interpretasies van literêre tekste aan, wat die stad op nuwe maniere uitbeeld. My fokus val op tekste deur geselekteerde skrywers van 1949 tot 2009 ten einde die sleutelelemente van hierdie proses van stadverbeelding en die historiese gesitueerdheid daarvan te ondersoek. In die eerste hoofstuk bied ek die argument aan betreffende die voor-die-hand liggende in- en uitsluitings van tekste. Deur hierdie historiese strekking lees ek die Zimbabwiese kanon en die stad wat daarin figureer as palimpseste, ten einde die (dis-)konneksies te kan analiseer. Hierdie teoretiese beraming belig die wyere verhoudings en verbindings wat na vore kom in die (her-) skrywe van beide die kanon en die stad. Ek gebruik benaderings wat benadruk hoe ruimtes en tydelikhede oormekaarvloei en saamvleg om sodoende nuwe maniere om oor die stad en oor identiteitskonstruksie te besin, aanmoedig. Ek argumenteer vir die stad-platteland konneksie as ‗n belangrike dinamika in die verskillende (her-)voorstellings van die stad. Ruimte word só verpolitiseer met betrekking tot ras, etnisiteit, gender en klas binne politieke regimes asook ‗n estetika van in- en uitsluiting wat deur die kern-tekste verwerp word. Ek analiseer verder die fragmentasie van landelike en stedelike ruimtes in die literêre tekste, en hoe die plattelandse en stedelike ruimtes tuistes bied aan polities-estetiese regimes van dominasie, uitsluiting en marginalisering. Die huis, musiek en die trein word gebruik as beelde om verbindings in die stad te ondersoek. Hierdie beelde sluit aan by die motif van die reis wat in al die hoofstukke manifesteer. Die reis word in die meeste tekste gesien as ‗n vorm van ontsnapping uit die platteland, wat voorgestel word as ‗n plek van essensie-voorskrywing en ingeborenheid. Beide intrekkers en nasionaliste, uit verskillende ideologiese vertrekpunte, bekleed die platteland of die stad met simboliese politieke en kulturele waardes. Beide verbeeld die stad as vreemd aan die gekoloniseerdes; ‗n uitbeelding wat verwerp word in die fokale tekste van die studie. Reis van die platteland na die stad deur halfweg-tuistes word aangebied as metodes van onderhandeling om plek te vind in nuwe ruimtes, nuwe identiteite te bekom en om te leer hoe om met die stedelike verbindings om te gaan. Die onverbiddelikke (ont-)tuisting in die werk van Marechera gee uitdrukking aan ‗n weiering om deur estetiese, nasionalistiese en rassiese behuising soos deur die stad omskryf en voorgeskryf, vasgevang te word. In die fiksie van Vera word reis – in telke rigtings en in die her-rassing van die soektog-motif in Lessing – ‗n kritiese soeke na die herskrywing van gender en van die vrou se op-eis van die reg tot die stad. Die nomadisme in Vera se fiksie word ge-herkonfigureer in uitbeelding van gemarginaliseerdes as die parvenus en die uitgeworpenes van die stad in die fiksie van Chinodya en Tagwira. In die hoofstuk oor Chikwava en Gappah word die nasionalistiese ingeborenes se konstruering van die self, stad en nasie onder stremmimg geplaas in kontekste van ruimtelike verplasing en uitbreiding. Ek ondervra hoe ideologieë van spasie vorm gee aan polities-estetiese regimes in beide die platteland en die stad regdeur die verskillende historiese fases van die stad. In hierdie opsig maak ek gebruik van teoretiese benaderings wat betrokke is met vraagstukke van estetiese gelykheid met verwysing na kontestasies oor ruimtelike verdelings gebaseer op kategorieë van ras, gender en klas. In herverbeeldings van die stad word hierdie reklamering van die estetiese mag om die stad te verbeel, bygehaal in al die tekste as herklamering van die reg tot die stad deur gekoloniseerdes, vroue, immigrante en alle gemarginaliseerdes. Ek maak gebruik van benaderings wat hulself leen tot die dekonstruksie van hegemoniese verbeelding, ontmagtiging en die stilmaak van gemarginaliseerdes, veral vroue, in die herverbeelding van die stad en hul plek binne die stadsruimte.
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Fairley, Ian. "Criticism in history : the work of György Lukacs, 1902-1914." Thesis, University of York, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.333708.
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Schillinger, Stephen. "Common representations : Jack Straw and literary history as cultural history on the early modern stage /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9363.
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葉淑蘭 and Sook-lan Yap. "A study of Zhang Tianyi's children's literature." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1992. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31211057.
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Byrne, Aisling Nora. "The otherworlds of medieval insular literature." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610076.
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何倬榮 and Cheuk-wing Ho. "Engendering children: from folk tales to fairy tales." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2002. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B31227363.
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McAllister, Catriona Jane. "Rewriting independence in contemporary Argentine literature : postmodernism, politics and history." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.648742.
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Feng, Liping. "Modernity and tradition : Chinese theories of literature from 1900 to 1930." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=28445.
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This thesis examines the development of Chinese theories of literature in the early twentieth century: what was considered as literature, the role of the writer and reader, and the function of literature in society. The central purpose of the thesis is to retrace the Western-influenced theories of literature of the 1920s back to the theoretical developments at the turn of the century. The thesis also shows that, as a whole, modern Chinese theories of literature are deeply rooted in traditional Chinese poetics. In characterizing traditional Chinese theories, it compares the latter with the mimetic model of Western literature. Throughout the thesis, the account of the theoretical developments makes constant reference to the changes taking place within two major literary genres: lyrical poetry and the narrative.
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Dixon, Marzena M. "The structure and rhetoric of twentieth-century British children's fantasy." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14858.
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This thesis discusses twentieth century children's fantasy fiction. The writers whose creative output is dealt with include Penelope Lively, Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, Pat O'Shea, Peter Dickinson, T.H.White, Lloyd Alexander and, to a lesser extent, C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien. These authors have been chosen because their books, whilst being of a broadly similar nature, nevertheless have a sufficient diversity to illustrate well many different important aspects of children's fantasy. Chapter I examines the sources of modern fantasy, presents the attitudes of different authors towards borrowing from traditional sources and their reasons for doing so, and looks at the changing interpretation of myths. Chapter II talks about the presentation of the primary and secondary worlds and the ways in which they interact. It also discusses the characters' attitudes towards magic. Chapter III looks at the presentation of magic, examines the traditional fairy-tale conventions and their implementation in modern fantasies, and discusses the concepts of evil, time, and the laws governing fantasy worlds. Chapter IV deals with the methods of narration and the figure of the narrator. It presents briefly the prevailing plot patterns, discusses the use of different kinds of language, and the ideas of pan-determinism and prophecy. The concluding chapter considers the main subjects and aims of children's fantasy, the reasons why the genre is so popular, and its successes and failures.
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Smith, Mark Ryan. "The literature of Shetland." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2013. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3938/.
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This thesis is the first ever survey of Shetland’s literature. The large body of material the thesis covers is not well known, and, apart from Walter Scott’s 1822 novel The Pirate, and Hugh MacDiarmid’s sojourn in the archipelago, Shetland is not a presence in any account of Scottish writing. ‘The Literature of Shetland’ has been written to address this absence. Who are Shetland’s writers? And what have they written? These are the fundamental questions this thesis answers. By paying close attention to Shetland’s writers, ‘The Literature of Shetland’ extends the geographical territory of the Scottish canon. ‘The Literature of Shetland’ covers a chronological period from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Virtually no creative poetry or prose, either written or oral, survives in Shetland from before this time so, after a brief discussion of the fragmentary pre-nineteenth century sources, the thesis discusses the archipelago’s literature in eight chronologically arranged chapters. Chapter One concentrates on a group of three obscure early nineteenth-century Shetland authors – Margaret Chalmers, Dorothea Primrose Campbell, and Thomas Irvine – and also explores Scott’s involvement with the northern isles. Chapters Two and Three discuss an important period at the end of the nineteenth century, in which books and newspapers were published in Shetland for the first time, and in which a number of pioneering and influential local writers emerged. Jessie M.E. Saxby became the first professional writer from Shetland and, in the work of George Stewart, James Stout Angus, Basil Anderson, and especially J.J. Haldane Burgess, the Shetland dialect developed as a serious literary idiom. These writers laid down foundations for much of what came next. Chapter Four discusses the end of this period of growth, with James Inkster posed as the last significant figure of his generation, and the war poet John Peterson as the first local writer to depart from the literary principles which developed in the Victorian era. Chapter Five looks at the work Hugh MacDiarmid did in Shetland from 1933-1942. MacDiarmid is not really part of the narrative of the thesis, but the work he produced in the isles is vast. Because he does not need to be introduced in the way the other writers do, this chapter takes a different approach to the rest of the thesis and looks at MacDiarmid’s Shetland-era work alongside that of Charles Doughty. Doughty was a crucial presence for MacDiarmid during his time in the isles, and considering their work together opens up a better understanding of the work MacDiarmid did in Shetland. Chapters Six and Seven discuss the second major period of growth in Shetland’s literature, focussing on the writers associated with the New Shetlander magazine, an important local journal which emerged in 1947. The final chapter then looks at contemporary Shetland authors and asks how they negotiate the literary tradition the thesis has worked through. This chapter also discusses the Shetland-related work of several non-native authors, Jen Hadfield being the most well known. In moving through these authors, as well as providing necessary introductory material, several general questions are asked. Firstly, because almost all the writing studied emerges from the isles, the question of how each writer engages with those isles is consistently relevant. How do local writers find ways of writing about their native archipelago? Do writers who are not from Shetland write about the islands in different ways than local people? The thesis shows how Scott and MacDiarmid, the two most famous non-native authors dicussed here, draw on earlier literary sources – the sagas and the work of Doughty – to construct their respective creative visions of the isles. And, in discussing the work of local authors, it will be shown that, in the early period covered in Chapter One, landscape is the most prominent idea whereas, from the Victorian era to the present day, the croft provides the central imaginative space for Shetland’s writers. A second question that runs through the thesis is one of language. Almost every local author has written extensively in Shetland dialect, and this study explores how they have developed that language as a literary idiom. The thesis shows how Shetland dialect writing gets underway in the 1870s, and how writers have continued to expand and diversify that literary tradition. The two most innovative figures to emerge are J.J. Haldane Burgess and William J. Tait and, after demonstrating how the corpus of writing in Shetland dialect has grown, the thesis concludes by examining the ways in which contemporary writers engage with the vernacular legacies their predecessors have left. Extensive use of the local language gives Shetland’s writing a regional distinctiveness, and this thesis shows how some writers have been enabled and inspired by that idiom, how some have taken dialect writing in exciting new directions, but also how some have felt limited by it and how, by not using the language, some writers have been unfairly ignored by local editors and critics. The thesis also shows that, in its two main eras of development – at the end of the nineteenth century and in the middle of the twentieth – Shetland’s writers took their cues from the general movements in Scottish writing. In the Victorian period, developments in local letters paralleled the interest in regionality and upsurge in vernacular writing that are marked characteristics of Scottish writing at the time. And, in discussing the emergence of the New Shetlander and the writers associated with it, the thesis demonstrates how the second period of flourishing in Shetland’s literature is part of the wider cultural movement of the Scottish Renaissance. The picture of Shetland’s literature the thesis offers is a self-consciously heterogeneous one. Despite the marked use of the vernacular, the thesis resists moving towards an encompassing definition of the large body of work covered, preferring to celebrate the diversity of the writing that Shetland has inspired during the last two centuries. Questions of engagement with the local environment and the use of the local language are constantly asked, but the primary scholarly contribution offered by ‘The Literature of Shetland’ is a realignment of Scotland’s northern literary border.
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Şaim, Mirela. "La traversée du discours moderne par le dialogue /." Thesis, McGill University, 1990. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=70221.
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Dialogue is a written text representing an oral exchange between two or more persons; it also includes catechisms and rhetorically formulated series of queries and responses presenting an argument. The purpose of my thesis is to identify the main non-dramatic dialogues published in France and Italy between 1800 and 1914 and--through their discursive analysis--to provide an assessment of their signification and their impact on modern social discourse.The first part focuses on the general discourse elements of modern dialogue, such as narrativity, rhetorical devices, character definition and function, paratextual structures, etc.
The second part includes a series of text analyses that proposes a study of ideological tendencies of modern social discourse through the most representative dialogues of the age.
Finally, the third part concentrates on the literary value and the build-up of dialogue as an aesthetic structure towards the end of the XIXth century and at the turn of the XXth century.
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Batson, Sandra. ""A profound edge" : the margin as a place of possibility and power, or, Revisioning the post-colonial margin in Caribbean-Canadian literature." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0001/MQ43832.pdf.
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Kokotailo, Philip 1955. "Appreciating the present : Smith, Sutherland, Frye, and Pacey as historians of English-Canadian poetry." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=39772.
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This thesis argues that as historians of English-Canadian poetry, A. J. M. Smith, John Sutherland, Northrop Frye, and Desmond Pacey explicitly promote the value of past conflict reconciled into present harmony. They do so by claiming that such reconciliation marks the maturity of English-Canadian culture. This thesis also argues, however, that the interactive progression of their histories implicitly undermines this value. It does so because each critic appreciates a different group of poets for realizing their shared cultural ideal, thereby establishing contradictory representations of what they all claim to be the culmination of English-Canadian literary history. The thesis concludes that while their lingering sense of present cultural maturity should now be fully renounced, the value these critics place on reconciliation is well worth preserving and transforming.
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Turner, Kerry Lynn. "Pagan Nostalgia and Anti-Clerical Hostility in Medieval Irish Literature." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1008344167.
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Schmid, William A. (William Albert). "An Analysis of Elements of Jazz Style in Contemporary French Trumpet Literature." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1991. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc332815/.
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French trumpet works comprise a large portion of the contemporary standard repertoire for the instrument, and they frequently present unique stylistic and interpretive challenges to performers. The study establishes the influence of jazz upon Henri Tomasi, André Jolivet, Eugène Bozza and Jacques Ibert in their works for solo trumpet. Idiomatic elements of jazz style are identified and discussed in terms of performance practice considerations for modern-day trumpeters.
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Papanikolaou, Dimitris. "Singing poets : literature and popular music in France and Greece /." London : Legenda, 2007. http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&doc_number=016510046&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA.
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Therrien, Denis. "La littérature de la décolonisation en Afrique noire : étude d'un phénomène d'émergence : le roman d'expression anglaise et française." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=63299.
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Khumalo, Hlonpha Pamela Vivienne, and Linda Loretta Kwatsha. "Perspectives of the historical–biographical criticism In the creative works of J. J. R. Jolobe." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/21983.
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Olu phando lohlalutyo lukwaluncomo-gxeko lwemisebenzi kaJolobe, injongo yalo kukubonisa ukuba lukho uqhagamshelwano phakathi kobomi bakhe jikelele kunye noncwadi lwakhe. Ulwazi olunjalo lungathi lube luncedo kwiphulo elibalulekileyo ekuncediseni kulwazi lokubhala ibhayografi yakhe. Kubonakele kufanelekile ukuba iphulo elinjalo lenziwe ukukhumbula imisebenzi emikhulu eyenziwe ngamaqhawe abantu abaNtsundu abathe banegalelo elikhulu ekuphakanyiswni koncwadi lwemvelo kwakunye nenkuqubela phambili kwimfundo yabantu abangama-Afrika beli lizwe. Umzekelo uJolobe ulusebenzele ukuba uncwadi lwakhe ukuxwayisa abantu bakowabo abaNtsundu ngemfundo nolwazi olwakhaya. Ukwalusebenzise uncwadi lwakhe ukuvusa abantu ama-Afrika balumke kwingozi zemimoya yocinezelo lwabo ngurhulumente ocalule abantu abaNtsundu kuba bebantsundu ngebala. Nangona uncwadi lwakhe ulenze lwabasisonwabiso kodwa ikhakhulu ulusebenzise kwanokunika intuthuzelo, ithemba kwanokomelela kubantu abathe bacinezelwe zimeko zobomi ukuba bangalahli ithemba loluzuza impumelelo, kuba izinto zingatshintsha ebomini babo ngokuhamba kwamaxesha. Kwakhona ukongeza uncwadi lwakhe ulusebenzise ukuphakamisa nokuhambisela phambili ulwimi lwemveli, inkcubeko, imbali ngokusebenzisa isixhobo esiluncwadi lwakhe ukuze ezi ngongoma zikhankanyisweyo zihlale ezincwadini zakhe ezithe zazisele zolwazi, zingabi nakuze zife kuba zililifa lesizwe esiNtsundu, Uninzi loncwadi olubhalwe nguJolobe luthe lwaxoxwa kwesi sifundo, kodwa kuye kwaphonongwa ikakhulu uncwadi lwemibongo, inoveli idrama kuba kubonakele ukuba lo msebenzi ubanzi kakhulu kwaye esi sifundo kubonakele ukuba kungabanzima ukuba singagqibeka lula, kodwa ke uJolobe ubengumntu okhutheleyo. Ubhale incwadi eziliqela ngenxa yothando lwakhe lobhalo loncwadi oluqhutywe ngumbono wakhe wobuthandazwe, wokubona kubalulekile ukuba inani loncwadi olubhaliweyo esiXhoseni linyuke kwaye libe kwizinga eliphezulu, ukuze umzi wasemaXhoseni nowamanye ama-Afrika ngokubanzi ungalambathi ngoncwadi lokufunda ujongelwe phantsi ngokuba semva kwinkqubela phambili zezinye izizwe Ingokuphandle uncwadi lukaJolobe lubonakela luyinxenye yobomi bakhe. Kulunye uncwadi kwakhe kufumaniseka ukuba ukubhale endululwe zizinto ezithe azamphatha kakuhle ebomini bakhe zazaza ezo zinto zawuphazamisa umoya wakhe, nentlalo yakhe wada waqanda ukuba makabhale aphokoze okukuphuphuma kwengcinga zakhe ukuzithuthuzela kwanokuphilisa kwanabanye abantu abathe badibana neenzima ezinjalo zobomi. Umzekelo: iimeko zopolitiko zeli lizwe zithe zabuchaphazela ubomi bakhe, oko kubesisiphumo sokuba abhale incwadi yakhe yedrama apho adiza ngeemeko zokuphatheka kwabantu baseBhayi kwilokishi eyathi yabelwa bona ngurhulumnte wobandlululo, apho ebexelenga khona njengetitshala kwanoMfundisi weliZwi. Kanti noncwadi apho athe wabonisa ukuvuya khona olo luvuyo olusukela kwinto ethe yamvuyisa emalunga nobomi bakhe, izimvo zakhe kwanenkolo yakhe njengomntu, kwanendlela akhule ngayo. Umzekelo, uJolobe uye wazisa abafundi bakhe ukuba iimbalo zakhe zisukele kwizinto ezithe zamchukumisa ebomini bakhe. Ngoko ke kwabonakala ukuba olu phando luluncedo ekusungulweni kweprojekti yokubhalwa kwebhayografi kaJolobe neya kuba luncedo kwimisebenzi yophando olubalulekileyo kuncwadi kuba iincwadi ezinje zityebile ngolwazi olubalulekileyo ekungena kucingelwa ukuba lunokufunyanwa kulo.
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McArthur, Kathleen Maureen. "The heroic spirit in the literature of the Great War." Thesis, University of Cape Town, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23680.
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Oppelt, Riaan. "The valley trilogy: a reading of C. Loius Leipoldt's English-language fiction circa 1925-1935." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2007. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_7246_1257247882.
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C. Louis Leipoldt is known as a canonical figure in the history of Afrikaans poetry, He is customarily included in the pantheon of writers such as C.J. Langenhoven who not only established Afrikaans as a standardized national language in the early twentieth century, but also contributed to the idea of the Afrikaner Volk as a distinct nation within South Africa. The recent publication of Leipoldt's Valley Trilogy, three novels written in English in the 1930's now reveals Leipoldt in a very different light. Today, in a time of national transformation, Leipoldt's liberal ideas deserve to be given the broader scope he had intended for them.
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Januzzi, Angela. "Making an "American Classic": Faulkner, Ferber, and the Politics of 20th Century Canon Formation." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2007. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/JanuzziA2007.pdf.
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Dobozy, Tamas. "Towards a definition of dirty realism." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2000. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ56533.pdf.
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Cusack, Andrew. "The wanderer in nineteeth-century [sic] German literature : intellectual history and cultural criticism /." Rochester (N.Y.) : Camden House, 2008. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb41331975c.
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Turner, Fiona. "Literature, intuition and faith." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2013. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/47113/.
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This thesis is entitled ‘Literature, Intuition and Faith' and it aims to create a new critical perspective of Thomas Hardy's novels by examining four of his best-known works. I will suggest that the novels of Thomas Hardy reveal a particular narrative concerning the idea of spiritual intuition and the Hardyean protagonist. The discussion will use as its methodology a close analysis of the sub-textual impulses of the novels rather than the considerable biographical information that is already available on Thomas Hardy. The contention of the thesis is that in contrast to Hardy's expressed allegiance to agnosticism, an unspoken and so far unrecognised narrative of intuitive spiritual faith inhabits the text.
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Choudhury, Suchitra. "Textile orientalisms : cashmere and paisley shawls in British literature." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2013. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5201/.
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Britain imported a vast number of cashmere shawls from the Indian subcontinent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These were largely male garments in India at the time, which became popular dress accessories for British women. The demand for these shawls was opportune for textile manufacturers at home – particularly in Edinburgh, Norwich, and Paisley, who launched a thriving industry of shawls, ‘made in imitation of the Indian’. There has been considerable scholarship on cashmere shawls and their European copies in textile history. However, it has enjoyed no such prominence in literary studies. This PhD thesis examines Cashmere and ‘Paisley’ shawls in works of literature. Indian shawls are mentioned in a number of literary texts, including plays, poems, novels, opera, and satire. A wide variety of writers such as Richard Sheridan, Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, and Wilkie Collins (to name a few) depict these textiles in their works. For these writers, I argue, shawls provide a means to explore Britain’s changing social and imperial identity through the prism of material culture. The sheer incidence of ‘shawls’ in printed discourse furthermore suggests that they went beyond the realm of everyday fashion to constitute one of the important narratives of nineteenth-century Britain. In emphasising the significance of material culture and recovering new historical contexts, this investigation raises important questions relating to the links between industry and trade, and literary production. I rely on literary criticism, scholarship on India, and textile history to examine the phenomenon of cashmere shawls. In the wider context of postcolonialism, the research suggests that instead of the Saidian model which viewed the East as an abject ‘Other,’ colonies actually exerted a reverse and important influence on the imperial centre. A new emphasis on Indian things in literature, this work hopes, will contribute a fresh strand of thought to studies of imperialism.
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Birdsall, Stephanie. "Meaning and the literary text." Thesis, McGill University, 1995. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=24076.
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Often debates over literary meaning can get swept up into larger discussions about social significance, political responsibilities, identity struggles and deification of cultural objects. Literary meaning becomes, in these deliberations, not just a theoretical entity but a powerful social force. All of these queries, however, inasmuch as the literary enterprise is a part of human interaction, are dependent on the brute fact of communication. Any notion of literary meaning must ultimately rest upon a concept of meaning that explains, or attempts to explain, how communication is possible. This, in turn, leads down the dark path into human psychology and the relationships of our minds to the world around us. This thesis will attempt to explore various viewpoints about the connections between thought, language, and literature and to argue that these connections necessitate more attention than has been paid to them by literary theorists.
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Su, Weizhen, and 蘇偉貞. "The influence of Eileen Chang and her followers in Taiwan=." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2005. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B32017789.
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Morgan, Dawn. "The nose of death : Baroque novelistic discourse in the history of laughter." Thesis, McGill University, 1997. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=35019.
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The Nose of Death considers the common matrix of the English scientific revolution and the modern English novel through the indicator of laughter. Whereas death is the paradigmatic object of laughter in the premodern period, animate or thinking matter is the prevailing object of laughter in modernity. The change is located in texts of the English baroque period from 1607 to 1767. Baroque discourse is defined by the language developed by writers loyal to both the Christian and the Copernican world views. Contradictory allegiances required them to institute a narratorial position based on simultaneous attachment to and detachment from a single point of view. This position is the defining feature of baroque discourse, the basis of both the perspective of modem science and the animation of multiple viewpoints in the modern novel.The Nose of Death develops Walter Benjamin's reading of baroque "muting" and "fragmentation," processes that free matter, language, and time for alternative composition. The dissertation likewise adapts M. M. Bakhtin's account of the "grotesque method," considered as the approach to language and the human body that the modern "scientific method" posits itself against. This study treats baroque novelistic discourse in forgotten texts drawn from McGill's Redpath Tracts by Thomas Tomkis, Thomas D'Urfey, Tobias Swinden, and a selection of anonymously authored pamphlets. It considers, as well, two early medical works by Robert Boyle and Walter Charleton. Analogous fragments are similarly analyzed from three canonical works: Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady (1747--48), and Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759--67).
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Bellamy, Connie. "The new heroines : the contemporary female Bildungsroman in English Canadian literature /." Thesis, McGill University, 1986. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=72826.
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Shannon, Josephine E. "From discourse to the couch : the obscured self in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century epistolary narrative." Thesis, McGill University, 1997. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=34533.
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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.
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Brannigan, John Gerard. "Literature's poor relation : history and identity in the writing and criticism of nineteen-fifties literature." Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10547/620747.
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All the major critics of postwar literature regard the fifties as a period in which literature was inept, conservative and conformist. This thesis argues that fifties literature was instead an active and successful agent in problematising conservative political orthodoxies, and in articulating alternative identities and politics. The study is concerned with two major themes: the relationship between literature and history, and the critical reputation and location of literature in nineteen-fifties Britain. It begins from positions that are already evident in postwar literary criticism towards both of these themes. Literature is understood in much of the critical writing of postwar Britain to be representative of social trends and attitudes, and its meaning is determined largely according to particular understandings of postwar British history and society. The literary text, if understood as 'representative', is capable of offering the reader direct access to the society of its production, and of reflecting the dominant trends and attitudes in a given period. Because it is the most recent period of realism in the history of English literature, the fifties seem to be particularly susceptible to this view. Reading fifties literature in the light of poststructuralist thinking on textuality and representation, this study argues that literature is not representative bu negotiates identities and social experiences of the fifties in a much more diverse way. These negotiations are demonstrated in readings of the work of John Osborne, Brendan Behan and Sam Selvon, and elaborated theoretically in the concluding chapters of the study. Literature's Poor Relation demonstrates that fifties literature is able to manoeuvre into a space wherein it can articulate oppositional and critical stances towards power, by firstly, imitating social detail and literary traditions, and secondly, reading these details and traditions in such was as to deconstruct them. The appearance of representativeness serves to seduce the reader into desiring the text (the idea that Look Back in Anger was representative attracted many of its original audiences to see it), and its readings and interpretations of history and identity deflect the reader's desire towards oppositional and critical moments in the text.
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Moeketsi, Solomon Monare. "Space and characterization in Sesotho novels." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/53060.
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Thesis (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines space and characterization in Sesotho novels focussing on three main categories such as the space of travelling characters; the space of migrating characters; and the space as an abstraction. CHAPTER 1 introduces the aims of study as well as the theoretical framework which forms the basis on which the study is analysed. The notions of space and character are discussed within the theoretical framework of structuralism, and the focus is placed on narratology. CHAPTER 2 studies the travelling characters, focus is on Mofolo's novels, Moeti wa botjhabe/a and Pitseng which depict two types of space where one space is presented as traditional, and the other as a westernized space. The traditional and westernized spaces are symbolized by means of bad and good characters respectively. The good characters are depicted as angels, and the bad characters as monsters. CHAPTER 3 examines the space of migrating characters that leave their rural spaces for the urban spaces. Their characters are shown by means of changes that they experience at different spaces. In most of the novels examined, characters are motivated by certain desires to act in a particular way, and the change in them is the result of a crucial situation in life, hence we say characterization and space in those novels are reconciled in an appropriate way. CHAPTER 4 deals with the space as an abstraction which shows how the characters' personalities are affected by the political, psychological and socio-economic factors. Characterization in these novels is good except in Makappa's novel, Thatohatsi. In CHAPTER 5 we look as to whether the novels are good or bad in terms of literary appreciation and conclusion is drawn to the effect that it is not heredity that makes up a character, but the social environment. This is achieved through the literary aspects such as the way conflict is handled, types of characters and the portrayal of the space in which the characters live.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die navorsing wat hierdie proefskrif gedoen is het die soeklig op ruimte en karakterisering in Sesotho novelles laat val. Klem is op drie hoof-kateqorie gele. uimte wat deur rondreisende karakters ingeneem word, die ruimte wat deur nomadiese of rondtrekkende karakters beslaan word, en ruimte as n bepaalde begrip. Hoofstuk 1 stel die leser voor aan die doelwitte van die navorsing, sowel as die teoretiese raamwerk wat die grondslag waarop die studie berus, vorm. Die begrippe 'ruimte' en 'karakter' word binne die teoretiese raamwerk van die strukturalisme bespreek en die fokus word in hierdie geval op die vertelkunde geplaas. Hoofstuk 2 Ie klem op rondreisende karakters en ondersoek Mofolo se novelles Moeti wa botjhabela en Pits eng waarin twee soorte ruimtes uitgebeeld word; naamlik, tradisionele ruimte en verwesterse ruimte. Tradisionele en verwesterse ruimtes word onderskeilik deur slegte en goeie karakters versinnebeeld. Die goeie karakters word as engele uitgebeeld, terwyl die slegte karakters as monsters voorgestel word. In Hoofstuk 3 word die ruimte van die nomadiese karakters wat hulle plattelandse ruimte vir 'n stedelike ruimte verruil, ondersoek. Hierdie karakters word deur middel van veranderinge wat in verskillende ruimtes plaasvind, voorgestel. In die meeste novelles wat ondersoek is, het die karakters op n sekere manier opgetree omdat hulle deur bepaalde begeertes daartoe gedryf is. Die verandering in die lewens van hierdie karakters as gevolg hiervan, kan dan beskou word as die direkte gevolg van sekere deurslaggewende gebeurtenisse. Karakteriseering en ruimte word dus in hierdie novelles op n geskikte wyse met mekaar verbind. Hoofstuk 4 neem die begrip 'ruimte' onder die loep om sodoende aan te dui hoe die karakters se persoonlikhede deur politieke, sielkundige en sosio-ekonomiese faktore beinvloed word. Karakterisering in hierdie novelles is geslaagd, behalwe in Makappa se novelle Thatohatsi. In Hoofstuk 5, word aandag geskenk aan die beoordeling van die novelles in terme van die hulle literere waarde en daar word tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat dit nie oorerflike eienskappe is wat gestalte aan 'n bepaalde karakter gee nie, maar veel eercer sy omgewing. Oit word veral duidelik as gelet word op bepaalde literere aspekete soos die manier waarop konflik uitgebeeld word, asook die beskrywing van die ruimte waarin die karakters hulle bevind.
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Van, Huyssteen Konstant. "Populêre vs. literêre grensverhale : twee beelde van die Angolese oorlog (1966-1989)." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19512.
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Bibliography: pages 198-207.In this dissertation, a study is made of two bodies of fiction documenting the South African soldier in Angola. The fiction was limited to Afrikaans short stories, as this genre is believed to best reflect the fragmentary, explosive experience of combat. This demarcation also served as a way of limiting the body of fiction for the study. A cut-off year of 1990 was taken. The rationale for this is that the late seventies and eighties was the golden age for the publication of border fiction, and that Southwest AfricaNamibia gained independence in 1990 with a SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organisation) government, thus largely defeating the purposes of South African military involvement in Namibia and Angola. The collections of short stories that were analyzed in this study, were divided into two categories. The stories published in popular family magazines such as Die Huisgenoot were considered to be popular fiction. These stories are overtly accepting of South Africa's involvement in Namibia and Angola, and are highly propagandistic. The collections Ses Wenverhale (1988) by Maretha Maartens and others, and Verby die wit brug (1978) by Johan Coetzee, were analyzed as examples of this category. In the category of literary short stories, Wie de hel het jou vertel? (1988) by Gawie Kellerman and 'n Wereld sonder grense (1984) by Alexander Strachan were analyzed. It is important to note that the texts were selected thematically i.e. the criterium was that they had to have the South African soldier in South West AfricaAngola as main theme. Analyses of the texts are based on the thesis formulated by H P van Coller in his article "Afrikaanse literatuur oor die gewapende konflik in Suider-Afrika sedert 1963 - 'n voorlopige verslag". In this report, Van Coller mentions that studies comparing the literary border fiction with the popular border fiction, have been left behind. The study aims at examining this unexplored territory and looks extensively at how these two bodies of fiction differ. It was found that two radically different images of the border war emerge from the two bodies of fiction: the popular fiction is uncritical, war is presented more as an exciting game in the popular fiction, whereas it is presented as deadly, yet addictive, in the literary fiction. The ideological backgrounds from which the stories are written, are fundamentally opposed: the popular fiction often sees the war as a continuation of the white man's struggle for survival on a violent continent, and God is assumed to be on the South African side. The literary fiction documents a loss of God and criticises the government, censorship and apartheid. The literary fiction also fulfills a function of reporting - that which has not been said in the media due to censorship by government. The scope of the popular fiction is much narrower than the literary fiction, ignoring issues such as homosexuality in the army, torture and atrocities. Finally, the conclusions differ, with a sentimental "all will be well" in the popular fiction, as opposed to the fundamental pessimism in the literary fiction.
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Damiano, Carla Ann. "Walter Kempowski's Familienchronik : history and the role of Erziehung." PDXScholar, 1990. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3993.
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This thesis attempts to prove that Walter Kempowski writes historical fiction. For this reason he should be considered an important 20th century German author. This contention is based on the presence of historical references regarding the topic of Erziehung in the Kempowski Familienchronik.
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Huang, Ching-Sheng 1952. "Jokes on the Four Books: Cultural criticism in early modern China." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/288885.
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Jokes were considered low and insignificant in traditional Chinese literature. Ssu-shu hsiao is witty and provocative, different from other conventional and contemporary jestbooks for its parodic relationship with the Four Books, which were the core-texts of Neo-Confucianism and civil service examinations. The purpose of this study is to examine the late Ming jestbook, Ssu-shu hsiao, and analyze its cultural value, sociopolitical implications, and psychological concepts. This dissertation is divided into four chapters. Chapter one contains two important parts: It establishes the ground of historical studies relevant to the significance of the Four Books and Five Classics as well as the tradition of humor and jest. Part two provides an introduction of the text Ssu-shu hsiao and a description of my interpretive strategy. In order to help the reader understand the Chinese and Western theories of humor and literary tropes related to Ssu-shu hsiao, I direct my discussion to the following issues: imitation, allusion, quotation, parody, intertextuality, and paradox. Through the comparison between Ssu-shu hsiao and two other contemporary jestbooks, Hsien-hsien p'ien and Hsiao-fu, we can understand that the jokes of the late Ming were considered as public property used by people regardless of authorship. Chapter two investigates jokes in relation to the civil service examinations. Through examination books in the bookmarkets, we know the commercialized texts available for the prospective examinees; such a cultural phenomenon sheds light on the derailing of educational function from the level of self-cultivation to that of profit-making. The downward transformation of intellectual status from the Sung dynasty to the Ming resulted from defects in various factors. Jokes concerning the examination consisted of those making fun of the forms and contents of the eight-legged essays. The methods that enable one to become an expert of this type of prose include the memorization of the Four Books, Five Classics, and their commentaries, imitating the words and teachings of ancient sage-kings. Chapter three deals with the Sung-Ming pedagogical authority, Neo-Confucianism or the so-called "True Way Learning," and its activity of "learning by discussion" (chiang-hs Ueh). The factional disputes, philosophical debates, and the problem of legitimacy are signaled by the jokes targeting the Ch'eng Brothers and Chu Hsi. The equalization of the scholars of "True Way Learning" and "mountain-recluse" ("shan-jen") was an indication of the decline of intellectual status in the late Ming. Chapter four discusses gender and sexuality in the bawdy jokes of Ssu-shu hsiao. Dirty jokes expose the conflict of moral principle and pleasure-pursuit. The male jokesters manipulated gender stereotypes humorously by which we can probe into the problems such as the practice of concubinage, the remarriage of widows, and female same-sex relationship and adultery. Joking on male same-sex sexuality is also discussed. A conclusion recapitulates the key issues of the previous chapters.
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L'Hostis, Aurelie Marie. "Literature and historical consciousness in the French Caribbean." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609280.
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Bisdorff, Claire Janine. "Essayer des mots : translating French and English Caribbean literature." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609255.
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Handa, Atsuko. "Bridging Sōseki and Murakami : the modernity of Japan through modernist and postmodern prose." Monash University, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, 2004. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/5230.
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Evans, Gareth Lloyd. "Models of men : the construction and problematization of masculinities in the Íslendingasögur." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:bdca4ee5-b171-4d27-b3cb-1f422bf785a0.
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This thesis examines masculinities in the Íslendingasögur. It attempts to uncover the dominant model of masculinity that operates in the sagas, outlines how masculinities and masculine characters function within these texts, and investigates the means by which the sagas, and saga characters, may subvert masculine dominance. The thesis applies to men and masculinities in saga literature the same scrutiny traditionally used to study women and femininities. The first - introductory - chapter reviews the limited scholarship that presently exists on masculinities in Old Norse literature. It then proposes a new model for the critical study of saga masculinities, drawing on sociological theories of hegemonic and subordinated masculinities. The second chapter ranges across the entire Íslendingasaga corpus in order to demonstrate how masculinity inflects homosocial relationships (and thus virtually all aspects of saga texts). It also suggests that almost all masculine characters have a problematic relationship with masculinity as a result of the intersectional nature of subject formation. The third chapter, focusing on Njáls saga, argues that the male body is used to undermine the prevailing model of masculinity. It is argued that the Njála author purposefully deploys somatic indices that have gendered significance to show embodied resistance to the demands of masculinity. The fourth chapter examines the representation and treatment of a character (Grettir Ásmundarson) that embodies masculinity to an exceptional degree, but who nevertheless - or perhaps for that reason - experiences a problematic relationship with masculinity. Finally, an epilogue briefly investigates some of the ways in which female characters may undermine and problematize the masculinity of men and the category of masculinity itself. Ultimately, this thesis shows that masculinity is not simply glorified in the sagas, but is represented as being both inherently fragile and a burden to all characters, masculine and non-masculine alike.
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Turner, Robert Charles Grey. "Counterfeit culture : truth and authenticity in the American prose epic since 1960." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.709455.
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曾昭楹 and Chiu-ying Venus Tsang. "Temporality in modernist literature: Ezra Pound and Virginia Woolf." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2003. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B26822428.
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Stryz, Jan A. "Memorial pictures: Visual representation in the American Romance." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/185575.
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The American Romance is characterized by its use of memorial images which contribute in developing the form and content of its individual literary works. Readings of works by four authors who fall within the American Romance tradition--Hawthorne, James, Faulkner, and Toni Morrison--reveal a poetics of memory that operates in terms of tensions between word and image, with memory achieving apparent embodiment through the image, while the simple presence thus generated is revealed to be both contaminated and opposed by cultural codes. Through portraits, photographs, and other less concrete representations of the human countenance, characters seek to take personal possession of both themselves and others and thereby gain a form of self-possession which places them in a certain relationship to the culture. In creating verbal constructions of images, the authors also pursue a goal mirroring that of their characters. Individual chapters specifically address the way in which the written work of art's identity is reflected in the characteristics of the visual art forms it represents; the power of the memorialized image of woman; and the imaginary strategies by which the cultural authority of one written text can be defused by the written Romance that appropriates it. Works discussed are: The House of the Seven Gables, The Wings of the Dove, The Sound and the Fury, and Song of Solomon and Beloved.
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Mayekiso, Amlitta Cordelia Theresa-Marie. "The historical novels of Jessie Joyce Gwayi." Thesis, University of Zululand, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/10530/1158.
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Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of African Languages at the University of Zululand, South Africa,1985.In the first chapter we are given the biography of Joyce Jessie Gwayi, including a section on her domestic position, her present occupation and her state of health. It is her state of health that has made it impossible for her to undertake any further literary work. This has been the worst drawback to the budding Zulu historical novelist. Here also a few writers of various Zulu books are reviewed. Most of these books found their way into the classroom because there had been no Zulu literature except the Holy Bible. This was so chiefly because, for a long time, schools belonged to missionaries whose primary aim was to bring the Christian Gospel to the Black people. Moses Ngcobo, Gwayi's husband, inspired her because, as a novelist, he had already written the historical work on the Xhosa National Suicide. Gwayi wanted to write about Dingiswayo Mthethwa, her ancestor, after discovering through research that the names Gwayi and Mthethwa were synonymous, used in the Transkei and Natal respectively. She discovered that Shaka Zulu grew up under the guidance of Dingiswayo Mthethwa and that after uniting the Zulu and the Mthethwa Tribes, he initiated a period of conquest. Gwayi seems to have been interested in this period which is known as "Difaqane" and thus used the Tlokoa Tribe, with its 'warrior queen', as the subject of her first novel Bafa Baphela, It was after the completion of this novel that she wrote Shumpu after which she wrote the third book Yekanini. The theme, structure and plot in each novel conform to the pattern as has been diagrammatically represented in the dissertation. There is exhibited a very well developed sunrise, noontide and sunset trend in each novel. /To To achieve this the novel must have a variety of characters. We find Gwayi's heroes and heroines behaving realistically, especially in view of the fact that some of them are real historical people. Both her simple and complex characters behave very much like ourselves or our acquaintances. There are characters central to the plot and also those who are included simply to enrich the setting of the story. Gwayi even has characters who are ancestors of living people. In Chapter Four, the milieu of Gwayi's books is discussed. Ancient people have a different culture from modern people so that as her characters lived prior to westernization, they conform to their environment. This aspect is obtained from traditional and oral history because Zulus were, up to then, illiterate. Attire, food and religion, however, remained largely unchanged for a long period of time. Ancestor worship, it is true, has been disturbed by the introduction of Christianity. On the military side it was Dingiswayo Mthethwa who regimented his warriors and Shaka Zulu who revolutionized the method of fighting by introducing a short spear (Iklwa). It is the style, language and technique that disclose the fact that the novels have been written by two people. (Gwayi confirmed this fact to the author.) The language in the first two books leaves much to be desired. For example, some expressions are used in such a manner that a non-Zulu reader may be confused. This is regrettable since Gwayi cannot now do anything about it. The language of the third book is good. The structure could have been Gwayi's, but Ngcobo so deftly manipulated the language that this book proves to be the best of the three. Ngcobo ends the book so conveniently that the reader becomes anxious to know what happened to Zwide Ndwandwe and Shaka Zulu when Dingiswayo had gone. It leaves the reader with a wish to read his next book, which deals with the conflict between Zwide and Shaka. It is unfortunate that Gwayi and Ngcobo do not revise and edit the books to the advantage of the future Zulu reader.
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Malkin, Rachel M. E. "Ordinary pursuits : experience, community, and the aesthetic in American writing since modernism." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.708519.
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Bali, Nolundi Monica. "Uhlalutyo ngokwesithako sobunzululwazi nkcubeko-ntlalo yaseAfrika kwinoveli yesiXhosa: Inkululeko isentabeni." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/9077.
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Kule ngxoxo kuqwalaswele indlela amasiko nezithethe asetyenziswe ngayo kwincwadi kaSaule, ethi, Inkululeko isentabeni. Le ngxoxo ijolise ekuncomeni indlela lo kaSaule awasebenzise ngayo amasiko kunye nezithethe zakwaNtu ukwakha isizwe esimnyama. Konke oku kudandalazisa ukubaluleka kokusetyenziswa kwawo ukwakha isizwe. Injongo yolu phando kukuphendla indlela umtshato, isithembu, ulwaluko, imbeleko, intonjane, ukufa, ukukhapha, ukubuyisa nokungenwa ezaziqhutywa ngayo nezizathu zoko. Le ngxoxo iza kuphonononga ixhaswe ngezithako eziziimbono zeengcali zohlalutyo kwintlalo kaNtu. Ingxoxo le yahlulwe yazizahluko ezintandathu. Isahluko sokuqala sivula ngentshayelelo, ze sidandalazise intsusamabandla yolu phando, kushukuxwe imbangeli yophando, ze kwenziwe uphengululo lweencwadi zeengcali kwisithako sobuNzululwazi Nkcubeko-Ntlalo. Isahluko sesibini, siqwalasela ukuxabiseka kolwendo ngokwengcinga yesiNtu kwincwadi kaSaule. Indlela isiko lokuthwala lalisenziwa ngalo mandulo xa kuthelekiswa kweyangoku, nemiceli-mngeni elijamelene nalo eli siko. Isahluko sesithathu, sijongene nesithembu, iimeko ezazinyanzelisa ukuthathwa komfazi wesibini nangaphezulu nemiceli-mngeni ekhoyo kwesi sithethe. Isahluko sesine, singolwaluko ngemihla yamandulo size sithelekiswe nale mihla siphila kuyo. Iingxaki ezikhoyo kweli siko ezibangelwa kukungakhathali kwengcibi, namakhankatha. Esesihlanu, isahluko singamasiko nezithethe, iindlela ezazisaya kusetyenziswa mandulo kuthelekiswa nezeli xesha lokhanyo ekwenzeni la masiko nezi zithethe. Isahluko sesithandathu, sesokuphetha, siyintyilazwi yeengxoxo ezikolu hlalutyo, kuxilongwa ubuzaza besithako sobunzululwazi nkcubeko-ntlalo.
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Hood, Robin Elizabeth. "Protagonist moral development in children’s translated European war novels." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25423.
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This study evaluated moral dilemmas and Lawrence Kohlberg's (1975) stages of moral reasoning of protagonists in a sample of children's translated European war novels. The sample, consisting of fourteen books, was defined as all children's European war novels published between 1950 and 1984.
The content analysis first determined the moral dilemmas in each of the novels by identifying those story situations where two or more moral issues were in conflict. A second procedure evaluated the protagonists' response to the dilemma, making possible the assignment of a Kohlberg level and stage of moral judgement.
The collected data were evaluated following two steps. First, the Issues, Levels and Stages were quantitatively analyzed for representation, number, and frequency. In addition, the Issues and Stages were evaluated for those moral issues most frequently paired with each moral stage. The second procedure examined the relationship between the data and selected variables: Era (Era I 1952-1962, Era II 1963-1973, Era III 1974-1984), Sex of author and Sex of protagonist.
The findings revealed that moral dilemmas in the European war novels were most often related to issues of Affiliation Roles, Morality and Mores, and Truth. No dilemma situations arose out of conflicts of the moral issues of Sex or Law. All other Kohlberg moral issues were represented at least once in the sample.
The predominant stage of moral reasoning in the sample was Stage 2 (serving one's own needs), closely followed by Stage 1 (blind obedience to authority) and Stage 3 (playing the good role). Significantly, these stages reflect the general moral reasoning capabilities of the intended reading audience, ages 8 12 years. While higher stages were represented, they accounted for substantially fewer protagonist resolutions to dilemma situations. With regard to sex of the protagonist, the findings revealed that male characters more frequently resolved their dilemma situations with sophisticated levels of moral reasoning than did female, a factor which may be linked to the type of story.
The relationships between moral development and Era appeared to reflect the transition from traditional realism to modern realism in children's fiction. Books written in Era I (1952-1962) contained few or no moral dilemmas. As with other traditional realistic fiction, child protagonists in that era were insulated from the world around them and thus remained relatively unaffected by World War II. Books written in Era II (1963-1973) and Era III (1974-1984), however, showed evidence of portraying children in the modern mode of realism. Unlike Era I, protagonists of these periods encountered large numbers of moral dilemmas and were highly involved in and affected by the war.Arts, Faculty of
English, Department of
Graduate