Theses (English)

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Anaesthetic modernism
(2025) Tunnicliffe, Kevin; Ross, Stephen
Anglophone literary modernism has often been discussed in terms of its various attempts to shock its readership back to their senses, to reinvigorate a culture too used to convention. The notorious and persistent sentiments forwarded by Ezra Pound and Wyndham Lewis—to blast such a stagnant culture into a frenzy of radical creativity by embracing progress and cutting away stale traditions—are both familiar and useful touchstones. However, against the view of modernism as a strong, bombastic attempt to shock people back to their senses, my dissertation draws attention to a contrary understanding of anglophone literary modernism and defines it in terms of its pervasive anaesthetics: a mode of formal experimentation that takes anaesthesia and insensitivity as its key aesthetic elements. Anaesthetic modernism pertains to the multitude of experiences of insensitivity, numbness, and disembodiment that also made up a significant strain of modernist creation. Anaesthetic modernism connects the formal, stylistic, and thematic with the sensory, affective, and bodily, thus embracing aesthetics on broad terms and emphasizing the connections among content, form, and feeling in art. In this dissertation, I examine major works by Virginia Woolf, Malcolm Lowry, and Mulk Raj Anand that all represent anaesthetization, but do so in very different ways, ranging from how age, social expectations, and even language cut us off from direct sensory experiences, to self-medicating with alcohol and coping with the existential fallout of being suspended between cultures, to the defining limitations one’s social status can enact on one’s sensorium and identity. I weave literary criticism and close reading together with biological definitions of insensitivity and the embodied cognition model of consciousness in hopes of expanding the terrain of anglophone literary modernist studies.
The affective phenomenology of beyond-ment and the narrative voice of Toni Morrison's Jazz
(2025) Hagedorn, Kara; Bancroft, Corinne
This project outlines a new method for understanding the affective phenomenology of narrators in literary fiction and I demonstrate its application through Toni Morrison's novel Jazz (1992). When this method is applied to literary fiction, it assumes that there is a spatial-temporality to the narrator's emotions, which produces their sense of embodiment and the narrative's trajectory as well. Furthermore, this method demonstrates how the sense of embodiment of Jazz's narrator is the Jazz Age itself. Affective phenomenology is a theory that originates from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception (2012), Sara Ahmed's Queer Phenomenology (2006), Teresa Brennan's Transmission of Affect (2004), and Eve Sedgwick's Touching Feeling (2003). Additionally, this project demonstrates the affective phenomenology of Jazz's narrator by referencing Toni Morrison's own reflections on the novel too. This project approaches a pivotal moment in Jazz when the narrator admits that their emotions have affected their "imagining" the characters disingenuously. Here, I demonstrate how the feelings of loss, hostility, and bereavement make the narrator see the characters inauthentically. It is here that I demonstrate how their realization ignites their imagination. It is in this moment that the narrator senses the beyond-ment of their emotions and situates themselves in their own authenticity. This realization then causes the narrator to move towards a future that originates from the past, the site of their authenticity. This method invites scholars to be curious about how the emotions of a narrator's voice produce the spatial-temporality of the narrative and the futurity of the fictional world.
"this was here procreation": The storie of Asneth and spiritual marriage in the Middle Ages, including a suggestion of the patroness and poet of the later Middle English verse translation; a discussion of late antique typology
(2003) Reid, Heather A.; Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn
The Storie of Asneth survives in Later Middle English Verse in just one manuscript dating from the early fifteenth century. The story was translated from Latin and is originally a Jewish Hellenistic romance dating from around the first century BC. Asneth is sometimes spelled Aseneth or Asenath in English. Chapter One of this thesis discusses the possible identity of the unknown Middle English patroness and poet alluded to in the Prologue and Epilogue. Specifically, I propose that Elizabeth Berkeley commissioned John Walton to translate Asneth in the Middle Ages, a hypothesis supported by John Shirley's ownership of the manuscript. Chapter Two is a literary discussion of the medieval text. The Late Medieval poem may have been translated in the historical context of the practice of Spiritual Marriage, and some discrepancies in the translation may be owing to the promotion of this ideal. Contrasted with an implicit sense that the characters, Joseph and Asneth, are chaste, is an erotic visionary encounter between Asneth and the "Man from Heaven." Asneth seems to have been endowed with many of the same divine characteristics that may have informed the Virgin Mary and Miraculous Conception, though the story is originally pre-Christian. The visionary sequence in Asneth also seems to have much in common with accounts of women visionaries of the Middle Ages, partly because of what appears to be Marian iconography. Chapter Three is a discussion of ancient icons that may have informed the story, but have remained a mystery. There is a discussion of Egyptian myth in the context of the Sacred Marriage associated with harvest rituals, astronomy and temple theology, that unite the Moon Goddess with the Sun God. I propose that the "Field of Our Heritage" spoken of in Asneth, may be a reference to the Egyptian "ancestral field," the Underworld of the Soul. Other associated icons, such as the honey bees, may reflect funerary and fertility expectations from the Ancient Near East, specifically Egypt, that may have informed Judaism and, in turn, Christianity. In any case, paradigms of chastity and fertility, particularly where they inform concepts of conversion and renewal, seem to be supported by the marriage theme in the text, from the Hellenistic Near East, up until the Middle Ages.
"Living words": Tracing processes of national subject formation and racialization in Japanese Canadian life writing
(1999) Quirt, Maggie; Kamboureli, Smaro
ln the process of being constituted as subjects, individuals respond to a variety of coterminous interpellations. Identification along lines of national affiliation is encouraged, in part, through diverse pedagogical strategies, while identification based on racial categories is developed through a process of racialization characterized by porous temporal boundaries. Both forms of identification are ambivalent; while they may be mobilizing processes, they can also serve to contain individuals within limiting fields of association. In the World War II Japanese Canadian internment, identification based on national and racial affiliation became of paramount importance to displaced individuals. Japanese Canadian life writing narratives chronicling this event provide first-hand evidence of how such forms of identification operate. By exploring the discursive formation and content of these texts, 1 suggest that national subject formation and racialization can be understood as ongoing processes. This, in turn, invites us to re-visit and theorize anew the history of the internment.
"Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays": Demystifying authority and constructions of female sexuality in T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land
(1999) Khambalia, Andrea Catherine; Carson, Luke
This study attempts to identify the site of The Waste Land's authority. Examining T.S. Eliot's theoretical investments, namely his theory of impersonality articulated in "Tradition and the Individual Talent," results in an awareness of the authority he invests in tradition, which he conceives of as impersonal and objective. However, what appears to be impersonality in fact constitutes a consensual agreement among individuals of a specific social and ideological perspective. The paper then reveals the strategies the poem employs to engineer objectivity and to obscure its subjective perspective. The analysis specifically exposes the poem's use of metaphoric and metonymic devices to project its image of woman and female desire. Consequently, misogyny is inscribed in The Waste land through metonymy, and universalized through metaphor.
'Eaten for a word': the intersection of food and revolution in Russia
(2002) Holmes, Matthew John; Cobley, Evelyn
This paper explores the linkages between food and revolution in Russia, from 1850 to the present. Food is examined as both material and symbol, and situated in notions of hunger, consumption, power relationships and identity formation. The paper beg ins by discussing the writing of the populist A.N. Engelgardt within the context of common views of the peasants in the late-nineteenth century. The second chapter looks at the 1905 and 1917 Revolutions as they relate to food politics and class identity through the writings of Andrei Bely and Victor Pelevin. The final chapter discusses the social and literary theory of M.M. Bakhtin, specifically of the carnival and banquet traditions, and reflects on the relationship between his philosophy and the historical reality of Stalin's government, the Gulag labour camps, and the politics of consumption. The conclusion touches on some contemporary Russian literature, notably of Victor Pelevin and Andrey Kurkov, which respond to events since the Revolution of 1917.
“What should we read, how should we read it, and why?”: The cultural politics of English Studies in British Columbia’s Language Arts English (Graduation) Program
(1995) Depledge, Norma Elizabeth; Gunew, Sneja
Postcolonial critics such as Benedict Anderson, Robert Morgan, Homi Bhabha, and Ian Hunter explore the study of English literature within a context of nation building or as an element of the "Imagined Communities" which Anderson finds to be the essence of nationness. These critics connect the study of literature to the shaping of both individual and collective subjectivities and, in doing so, offer a framework within which to explore one facet of the politics of English reading. It is within the context of postcolonial theory that this thesis examines the politics of British Columbia's Language Arts English (Graduation) program. It examines the values, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions--the ideology—about nationness embedded in policy documents, curricula and resources. The thesis takes its compass bearing from the questions of Francis Mulhern: "What should we read, how should we read it, and why?" It concurs with Mulhern that unexamined, unproblematized assumptions about the collective pronoun "we" settle in advance "[i]ssues of selection, procedure, and purpose" (Mulhern, 250). The first chapter establishes a theoretical framework, one which recognizes the imbrication of postcolonial theory with poststructuralism and feminist theory. Chapter 1 also touches on current debates around multicultural and antiracist education. Chapter 2 applies the theory outlined in Chapter 1 to a study of curricula and policy documents. Chapter 3 examines officially approved resources, and Chapter 4 presents the findings of an empirical study carried out in high schools. That study examines ways in which teachers interpret, and either implement or resist the ideology embedded in curricula, and ways in which students receive and understand or refuse that ideology.
Imperialist interpretive repertoires : cultural investments and self-preservation
(1996) Yuen, Chin Kong
An imperialist interpretive repertoire translates other cultures in derogatory terms with the purpose to preserve the imperialist's power. Journalists, museum advertisers, and movie makers use tropes of violence and invasion to describe the Mongolian subject in the 1995 exhibit "Empires Beyond the Great Wall: the Heritage of Genghis Khan" at Royal British Columbia Museum and in the movie The Shadow. Although these media have different forms of production and requirement, they all share an imperialist interpretive repertoire that creates orientalist presentations. These presentations have double standards that exaggerate the barbarism of Mongolian colonization and promote the civilizing agency of European colonization. The ideology and language available to naturalize and rationalise the biased power structure wihin these presentations encompass political and economic endorsements that control what we learn about other cultures and how these cultures are perceived and treated.
Wanker Punster con man queer: Melville's The Confidence-Man
(1994) Young, Bryan Kirk
Although critics have finally recognized the textual complexities of Melville's proto-post structuralist 'novel,' The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade, there has been no effort to link the its avant-garde narrative strategies with the novel's plentiful homo- and autoerotic content The sexual and the textual converge in several of his works to give us a texts that are deeply 'homotextual' in nature, exhibiting a writing style that is as subversive of bourgeois literary expectations as it is of bourgeois heterocentric norms. In this thesis I examine how Melville 'queers' a very complex set of cultural vectors on the levels of both form and content. On the one hand, Melville's writing challenges late nineteenth-century notions of literary realism by pointing out that any attempt to 'represent' 'reality' pretends that one has access to a kind of metaphysical ' truth' that post-structuralist criticism has worked to discredit. On the other hand, Melville criticizes essentialist notions of (hetero)sexuality by injecting same-sex desire into his texts. 'The homosexual' in this novel, though, is as undetectable as the confidence man himself, exhibiting an uncanny ability to 'pass' without being recognized, an invisibility which works to his advantage as he picks the pockets of his fellow passengers. This ability to 'masquerade,' has the effect of 'dragging' identity in a manner which undermines the essentialized nature of liberal humanist notions of identity which promise a centred, knowable 'self.' Melville's The Confidence-Man is especially relevant to us now in the context of an academic atmosphere which is becoming increasing resistant to post-structuralist criticisms of Western metaphysics as they relate to political practice.
Prince Hal's soliloquy: The legacy of King Richard in Shakespeare's second tetralogy
(1991) Yorath, Linda Carol
In addressing the problem of thematic continuity in Shakespeare's Second Tetralogy (Richard II to Henry V), this thesis examines the solar imagery that links Prince Hal with his ill-fated predecessor King Richard, and explores the far-reaching ramifications of such a connection. Hal's "imitation" of the sun, announced in his first soliloquy, is viewed more specifically as his identification with King Richard, whose personal badge or emblem "the sunburst"--in heraldic terms, "a sun emerging from behind clouds"-undoubtedly inspired the playwright's intricate development of this imagery in the previous play. Just as Richard's "sun" had been eclipsed by the "clouds" of Bolingbroke's treason, so does Hal mask his sun-like identity with the "base contagious clouds" that represent his tavern companions. His later "throwing off" this pretence will likewise signify the rejection of Bolingbroke's illegitimate reign and Hal's emergence as the new sun-king: Richard's true heir. A close look at the solar imagery of Richard II reveals that much of the playwright's imaginative treatment of later events is pre-figured in this first play of the tetralogy. For example, it becomes apparent that, whereas Richard's reign is dominated figuratively by the sun and its correlative images, Bolingbroke's "misruled" kingdom is "sunless," "stormy," the dominant image being water instead of the sun's fire. Moreover, in light of Richard's characterization of Bolingbroke as "the thief who reveled in the night," Falstaff emerges in Henry IV as the ideal double for a treasonous king. It becomes apparent that, during his prolonged truancy from princely duty, covered roughly by the two parts of Henry IV, Hal's purpose is to purge the stain of treason from his own accession to the throne. He accomplishes this vicariously through his interaction with Hotspur and Falstaff, both of whom function as dramatic "doubles" or alter-egos of the Prince and Bolingbroke respectively. This symbolic process unfolds in two stages. Whereas killing Hotspur banishes his own treasonous tendencies, Hal's rejection of Falstaff marks a final expunging of Bolingbroke's crime. Henry V can be seen as the fulfilment of Hal's earlier promise to emerge a renewed sun-king. His style of kingship is marked by a return to solar images, divine sanction, and chivalric values, all of which were abandoned during Bolingbroke's reign. Also functioning to dissociate him from the previous reign are his identification with the illustrious ancestors he shares with Richard, as well as his choice of a French campaign over Bolingbroke's dying wish for a Crusade to the Holy Land. Henry's revelation on the eve of Agincourt that he has honorably reburied King Richard serves as the culmination to his longstanding symbolic identification with the wronged king. It is this positive bond between the two monarchs that lends not only consistency of character to the Prince who becomes Henry V, but thematic unity to the entire tetralogy.
Margery Kempe and the dramatic imagination : a study of The book of Margery Kempe in relation to the Middle English Corpus Christi plays
(1989) Wilson, Christina
Although medieval literary works are usually examined in relation to other literary sources , other art forms are also relevant in the understanding of literary texts. In a largely illiterate society the visual arts would have been especially significant , particularly medieval drama which was easily apprehended and retained in the memory. This thesis attempts to show how knowledge of the English Corpus Christi plays can illuminate the reader's understanding of both the life and the Book of Margery Kempe. Used as an educational tool by the Church, the Corpus Christi plays not only reflected the e vents of the past, they also took a critical look at the moral and social life of society as it existed in the Middle Ages. The religious drama provides important evidence about Margery and the society she lived in, the development of her spirituality, and the nature of her devotional practices. In Chapter One Margery is viewed in relation to the medieval attitudes t o wards women as they are reflected in the characterization of Noah ' s wife , in the N.Q.ah plays. In an antifeminist society, where all women are considered corruptible and disobedient, Mrs. Noah is depicted as the typical female shrew, the label given to any woman threatening the established order of society through a show of independence. Unlike Mrs. Noah whose "rebellious" activity is curbed at the end of each play, Margery's spirit of independence exists both before and after her religious conversion, disturbing religious and laypersons alike. By comparing the behaviour of both Margery and Mrs. Noah, and the reactions each receives, it is possible to show how Margery is able to use the medieval system against itself in order to achieve and maintain a measure of personal independence not usually afforded to women in her time. Chapter Two discusses two aspects of Margery's spiritual growth: 1) the various influences on Margery which increased her sense of dramatic awareness and participation in her meditations, and 2) the importance of visual stimuli to Margery. The spiritual influences Margery would have encountered included the Franciscan teachings on meditation, and the revelations of various female mystics and visionaries, including those of Saint Bridget of Sweden. The religious drama, however, provided Margery with an effective visual influence, particularly in the characterization of figures like the Virgin and Mary Magdalene, who were role models for Margery and who, through their shared womanhood, brought Margery closer to Christ. In Chapter Three the importance of the Passion to medieval Christians is discussed in relation to Margery's own meditations on the Passion. In this section the Corpus Christi Passion sequences are used to explain Margery's heightened awareness of, and devotion to, the Passion, and illustrate Margery's use of the dramas as a direct source for her own meditations. In the Conclusion, it is suggested that the dramatic qualities which existed in and influenced Margery's life allowed her to live a life essentially of her own making. Like the Corpus Christi plays, Margery could blend the past with the present, fantasy with reality, and reconcile her secular life with her religious vocation. With her active imagination and heightened sense of the dramatic, Margery is able to move back and forth between her daily, physical activities and her all-consuming spiritual meditations while continuing to live in a society which never ceased trying to govern her life for her.
Drifting from the pattern : the changing treatment of religion in the novels of Guy Gavriel Kay.
(1994) Walsh, Kathleen Susan Maeve
High fantasy is characterized by its setting in fictitious, secondary worlds. In order to render these worlds intelligible, such fantasy requires the invention and assertion of transcendental knowledge, so that religion assumes a certain importance within the genre. The fantasy novels of Guy Gavnel Kay are all centrally concerned with religion, yet reflect an evolving treatment of this theme. While each of Kay's novels plays out the timeless conflict between the forces of good and the forces of evil, Kay moves from grand mythic drama to a context more closely connected to reality. The first chapter considers the three books comprising The Fionavar Tapestry, The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road. Kay's establishment of Fionavar as the first of all worlds claims for this trilogy a mythopoeic importance, even as his incorporation and adaptation of various mythological motifs further inflates the stature of the tale. Because The Fionavar Tapestry deals with the ultimate battle between the ultimate forces of Good and Evil, the nature and resolution of this conflict directly expresses Kay's metaphysical vision. The second chapter discusses the novel Tigana. Again, the conflict of good and evil 1s shown to provide the genesis of the action. In this novel, however, Kay depicts humanity as dislocated from the d1vme Tigana's ironic treatment of the heroic quest illustrates at once the futility and valour of human morality. The final chapter considers religion in A Song for Arbonne. Kay uses religious conflict as a focal point for the major tensions in the text, and demonstrates the manifold ways in which religious beliefs shape society. In particular, Arbonne's goddess-based religion is revealed as a vehicle for the exploration of the historical impact of the troubadours and courtly on the status of women in medieval Provence.
Eden lost : the spiritual dimension in the Manawaka novels of Margaret Laurence
(1982) Wagner, Jeannette Ethel
Margaret Laurence strongly believes .that one can only know oneself if one knows one's roots, and her own roots are firmly imbedded in the Scots Protestant tradition. Her four female protagonists in the Manawaka novels share this tradition. However, neither Laurence nor her protagonists are able to wholeheartedly accept their religious heritage and must find alternative means of coping with their spiritual dilemmas. This thesis begins by presenting Laurence's background and orientation and how they relate to her protagonists' lives. It then explores the traditional religious elements in the novels. Chapter Two deals with the single element Laurence finds positive-the Bible. She makes extensive use of Biblical: allusions and parallels. The protagonists also make Biblical allusions and quote or refer to verses at moments of deep emotion. The Bible remains a vital source of· succor and enlightenment. Not so the church, as Chapter Three illustrates. Institutionalized religion is depicted by Laurence and experienced by her protagonists as sterile and judgmental. The only strong feeling it is still capable of raising is guilt. Chapter Four, the main chapter, focuses on Laurence's protagonists. They all feel they have lost Eden, having been banished to a spiritual wilderness and suffering from culturally imposed bondage. Gradually they come to realize that much of their bondage is self-imposed. Hagar is bound by her upright p ride; Rachel is bound by childishness and fear of life; Stacey is bound by her fear that she cannot always make everything all right for her loved ones; Morag, the social outcast, is bound by her desire for social acceptance. As they each learn to accept themselves and their lives, they relinquish their often denied belief in an Old Testament judgmental, patriarchal God. They develop instead a personal relationship with a New Testament loving, compassionate God who becomes a source of grace in their lives. In the course of the four novels, then, there is a definite progression in the spiritual development of the protagonists from Hagar to Morag. The former does not gain any real awareness of her plight until she is on her deathbed. The latter, like Laurence, is a mature author who expresses her faith in God and life through her fiction.
Articulating ecstasy : image and allegory in The booke of gostlye grace of Mechtild of Hackeborn
(1990) Voaden, Rosalynn Jean
The Booke of Gostlye Grace of Mechtild of Hackeborn is the Middle English translation of the Liber specialis gratiae, a compilation in Latin of accounts of the visions of Mechtild of Hackeborn, a nun at the convent of Helfta in the last half of the thirteenth century . It is an intriguing example of medieval women's visionary writing which has been largely ignored by scholars. The Booke of Gostlye Grace is notable for its unusual mode of visionary expression; each visionary or mystic has to develop her or his own language to attempt to convey experiences of ecstasy . Mechtild of Hackeborn' s unique language emerges as an original combination of image and allegory. She materializes her spiritual sensations in vivid , concrete, highly detailed images which capture the imagination and draw the reader into the visionary experience. She then formulates t hose images into complex transformational allegories - allegories in which the various elements shift or change in significance as the allegory progresses - which defy the laws of nature and so subvert the materialization of the images . The mind is then forced to reach past the concrete visualization to contemplate a transcendent reality which is beyond both logic and language. Mechtild' s images are sensual and aesthetically pleasing; they are drawn from scripture, the liturgy, domestic life at Helfta, her own experiences, and the courtly love tradition. This thesis examines Mechtild's visionary images both as discrete entities and as elements of the allegories which contain them. It defines and categorizes the various types of allegory in The Booke of Gostlye Grace, and analyzes the interplay between image and allegory in Mechtild's visionary accounts. The thesis is structured around four groups of images: those deriving from the devotion to the Wounded Side and the Sacred Heart; those drawn from familial and domestic life; those focusing on erotic or nuptial union; and those originating in the courtly love tradition. One of the purposes of this thesis is to direct the attention of scholars to The Booke of Gostlye Grace as a possible source for later Middle English works, both spiritual and secular. To this end, Pearl, The Book of Margery Kempe, Piers Plowman, A Book of Showings to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich, and Le Morte d'Arthur will be briefly examined. It is in Mechtild's startling inconsistencies between image and allegory in The Booke Of Gostlye Grace that can be perceived the spiritual truths about the nature of God's love that she sought to express. Her accounts materialize the essence of her ecstatic experiences in vivid, sensual images; she formulates these into engrossing, unpredictable transformational allegories whose defiance of natural laws gives promise of a realm of transcendent order. The Book of Gostlye Grace is a rich and vibrant tapestry of image and allegory, sensuality and spirituality, which repays further study.
Deconstruction and originary analysis : Gans, Derrida, and generative anthropology
(1994) Van Oort, Richard
In the wake of Saussurian structuralism, the twentieth century has spawned a great deal of interest in the formal structures that make up our cultural heritage. But "synchronic" investigation, as Jacques Derrida's key "post-structuralist" term différance points out, suffers from a certain idealization of history that has no answer to the temporal element in culture. In short, it has no means for exploring history in its broadest sense, namely, in terms of ethical evolution. At the same time, the Derridean critique, though hitting structuralist formalism at the heart of its ungrounded moment in a metaphysics of ideal presence, nevertheless refuses to present a positive ground from which to explore culture in its ethical, aesthetic, and linguistic incarnations, believing that all "grounds" suffer from the same "logocentric" desire for metaphysical presence. But need this negativity be thus hypostatized as a "groundless ground" itself? To what extent does the abyss of the Derridean aporia found a (de)structured a priori itself? This thesis explores the positive recuperation of Derrida via the generative anthropology of Eric Gans, whose "transcendental hypothesis" or "scene of origin" seeks to give historical and ethical-in a word, anthropological-rigour to Derrida's agnostic formalism. Gans contends that all explanations of culture, in order to be considered scientific, must begin where all sciences begin-at the origin of their subject-matter. Hence, human science must begin in a generative scene of anthropological origin. Yet unlike the empirical sciences, human science can only understand the origin of its subject-matter-culture-in terms of the origin of its own presence as a theory. For to engage in human scientific investigation is also to engage in culture in its broadest sense: namely, at the level of the ethical. Generative anthropology presents itself as the secular counterpart to the universal religious intuition that humanity originated in an event. But to the religious story of creation, generative anthropology proposes its originary hypothesis, thus foregrounding the transcendental element of metaphysics in a plausibly conceived, historical scene of origin, from which explanations of culture can be generated. Chapter 1 of the thesis explores the epistemological questions addressed by Gans's conviction that human science must begin in a scene of origin. Thus, it examines, first, the inadequacy of the empirical epistemology of the natural sciences, upon which the social sciences have largely sought to take their model, and, second, Gans's suggestion that what is needed is a synthesis of the work of two thinkers in the human sciences: that is, a synthesis which combines Rene Girard's fundamental anthropology with Derrida's deconstructive epistemology. The essential premise underlying the argument is that Gans's generative anthropology successfully builds on the work of Girard by introducing the Derridean problematic---différance (difference and deferral)-to provide a linguistic ground for Girard's radically nonformalistic postulate of the scene of victimary origin. Chapter 2 continues the dialogue, showing the greater explanatory power of the Gansian model of "originary analysis" over Derridean deconstruction. Thus, it proposes that Derrida's analysis of Kafka's parable "Before the Law" all but divulges an aesthetic model of human origin. To Derrida's model of the aporetic character of representation, originary analysis proposes the concrete context of the originary sign, which ultimately forms the fulcrum of the originary scene. The basis for the analysis stems from Gans's genetic scheme of linguistic evolution, comprehensively outlined in his The Origin of Language. The conclusion upon which the thesis finally comes to rest is that Gans's evolutionary scheme, grounded in the formal structures of language, provides a positive basis from which to explore deconstruction as, ultimately, an "aesthetic" manifestation of the scene of human origin.
Moonbeamin' for lobster traps : notes toward the definition of Maritime literary regionalism
(1986) Tremblay, M. Anthony
This thesis addresses the essential problem inherent in the criticism of Maritime literature: while a distinguishable literary tradition certainly does exist in Maritime Canada, rarely have critics attempted to investigate that tradition. Consequently, few insights into writing "maritime" have been recorded. This lack of critical attention is particularly unfortunate at a time when postmodernism is becoming increasingly common as a form of narrative intertext in many Canadian regional literatures. Correspondingly, without a comprehensive understanding of the accepted myths and even the collective unconscious of a regional tradition (Northrop Frye, after all, espouses that an environment and a tradition affect a writer's imagination more than does a nation), an appreciation of the new phenomenon of postmodernism is virtually impossible. A preliminary investigation of the central myths of the Maritime literary tradition must, therefore, precede an introductory analysis of David Adams Richards, the Maritimes ' foremost postmodernist. Since there is a real lack of critical scrutiny into the archetypal and mythic base of the Maritime literary tradition, this study will examine the most fundamental parameters of Maritime literature. The introductory chapter, by identifying major writers and major literary trends, will establish the historical framework out of which that literary tradition evolved. Subsequent to the introduction, three chapters will isolate and identify the basal myths and archetypes attendant in the Maritime literary tradition: chapter two will identify representative fictional landscapes and examine the extent to which writers employ concepts of environmentalism; chapter three will analyze the traits and mannerisms that typify Maritime characters; and chapter four will isolate the two predominant patterns of recurring motifs that comprise the Maritime thematic tradition. Finally, the concluding chapter will show how David Adams Richards works within the archetypal framework of the Maritime literary tradition--a tradition Richards uses as a backdrop against which he illuminates the misfortune and hopelessness inherent in the Maritimes of his own experience. Although the conclusions to an eclectic study of varied authors and different historical eras are generally (and often sufficiently) manifest in the identification of recurring concepts, motifs, and sources, the major conclusion to this work goes beyond the recognition of particular concepts. Rather, this study reveals that the Maritime regional tradition ls predominantly comprised of a set of culturally distilled myths, adopted and perpetuated by writers who, whether consciously or not, either accept or reject the regional literary tradition and archetypal myths synonymous with the Maritimes. Whereas L.M. Montgomery, Charles G.D. Roberts, Ernest Buckler, Charles Bruce, and Alden Nowlan, at least on the surface, appear to have accepted the Maritime literary tradition as an authentic voice--all employing what Frye termed the mythic formulas concomitant with their literary tradition--David Adams Richards certainly has not accepted the regional tradition of his predecessors. This thesis will conclude with an investigation of the methods Richards uses to subvert the established mythic formulas of the Maritime tradition. Finally, this study will end with a possible reason for Richards' postmodern alternatives amidst a literary tradition wholly steeped in conventional regional myths, the most notable of which is the agrarian myth.
The presentation of women in the fiction of Ford Madox Ford
(1987) Trimmer, Karen-Marie
Women play major roles in most of Ford's novels, yet little critical attention has been paid to their presentation in his fiction. Through a close examination of three of Ford's works, The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906-1908), The Good Soldier (l9l5), and the Parade's End tetralogy (l924-28), this study establishes that Ford was strongly claimed by several considerations in his presentation of female character, which considerations he articulated only very generally in his advocacy of "realism" in their portrayal. Taking Ford's realism as a starting point, this study utilizes several criteria to determine what would theoretically constitute an acceptable presentation of female character, and applies them to Ford's writing as a means of measuring his accomplishment in the three works considered. Allowing for the independent and very real artistic achievement which each of these works represents, the presentation of women in each is explored in a different chapter. In "Katherine Howard: The Creation of a Personality," Ford's engaging portrayal of an historical personage is probed and the limitations of his creation - for in a very real sense he does indeed "create" this woman, disregarding as he does most historic accounts of her character - are delineated. In "The Good Soldier: Some Edwardian Women," Ford's masterwork of literary Impressionism, the complex, and not untroubling, accomplishment of presenting female character through a male narrator who is himself the embodiment of many of the ills of Edwardian society, and, most especially, the constraints under which Ford's female characters live in a society preoccupied with the forms of propriety, are the focal points of the inquiry. And, in "The Women in Parade's End," two of Ford's most compelling female characters, and their relation to the society in which they live, are treated in some depth. In the final analysis, Ford's sensitivity to the complexity, difficulties, and limitations which define the female relation to society is made manifest through his presentation of female character in these works, and is appreciated for the considerable achievement that it is. But it is an achievement which is tempered by the fact that Ford chose not to explore what things in society needed to be changed in order to remove, or substantially lessen, the difficulties and limitations which characterize the relation of women to the society in which they live.
Soya beans and cricket bats : society and the artist in the plays of Tom Stoppard
(1984) Thompson, Doreen Helen
In the early Stoppard plays, the hero-heroine prototypes are super-sensitive characters whose exclusive, often irresponsible behaviour is Justified by the special dispensation implied in being an artist, whether in factor in fancy. But in Travesties, Stoppard expresses a concern with the neutrality of the artist vis-a-vis the day-to-day politics of t he rest of society. The shift from detached craftsman to committed artist becomes increasingly apparent in the later plays as the artist-figures become participants in issues which move substantially closer to real-life situations An exploration of the role of the artist throughout the plays provides a valuable insight int the continual tension that Stoppard experiences as regards the privilege and responsibility of the artist and the function of art in society. The first chapter examines the spectator-hero of Stoppard's earliest writings , beginning with Lord Malquist, who advocates stylish withdrawal from social pressures Similar escapist maneuvers are employed by the artist-figures in Albert's Bridge, Enter a Free Man, If You're Glad, I'll Be Frank, and Jumpers, who find themselves at odds with an incompatible world For Stoppard himself, artistic detachment manifests itself as an overt intellectualism that refuses to take sides, and a fascination with his own unique ability to present i de as cleverly, effectively, and with a dazzling theatrical flair The verbal and visual jokes which claim no other purpose than to entertain can be justified however on the basis of Stoppard's particular "art for art's sake" Stoppard's artfulness, at least in the early plays, can be seen as stylish withdrawal. The second chapter focuses on Travesties, the work in which Stoppard most clearly articulates the problem of neutrality versus involvement Significantly, the war of ideas in Travesties is waged with no suggestion of a clear-cut authorial position. But Stoppard's link with Oscar Wilde, through frequent allusions to The Importance of Being Earnest, encourages the view that the author is operating on more than one level, deliberately assuming a superficial frivolity as a means of advancing more serious considerations. Even though, in Travesties, Stoppard continues to create visual and verbal complexities in the cause of "art for art's sake," he is faced with the same dilemma that he devises for his artists-in-war who ask themselves whether the pursuit of art for its own sake can be maintained amidst political disasters that affect all mankind. The third chapter deals with the social commitment of Stoppard's later, more polemical writing, in plays such as Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Professional Foul, which also heralds a departure from his former dispassionate rendering of ideas by puppet-like figures to the creation of relatively self-motivated characters, capable of expressing human emotions in recognizably true-to-life situations A gr owing uneasiness with the discrepancy between his own art and actuality probably caused Stoppard to narrow the gap in his most recent play, The Real Thing Questions pertaining to art are no longer presented in the form of an open-ended debate, but relate to matters which the hero, Henry, must resolve on a personal level The theory of art for art's sake has now been replaced by Henry's conviction that art is his means of shaping what he has to say into a more effective instrument for conveying his ideas As Stoppard aligns himself more directly with the play's central character, we receive a clearer picture of the privileged and gifted artist coming to terms with his responsibilities as they relate to his art, and to the politics of his public and private life.
In search of a definitive : some variorum problems in the poetry of Robert Graves to 1948
(1975) Thomas, William David
This study is a collation of all accidental and substantive variants in a selection of poems from the work of Robert Graves. A representative selection has been made from poems published between 1914 and 1948, covering three of the four periods in his literary development. The three periods are from 1916 to 1923, 1923 to 1927, and 1927 to 1938. The collations are continued to include poems from the volume Collected Poems (1914-1947), published in 1948. This cut-off date (1948) has been chosen because in the following year, 1949, Graves' The White Goddess appeared. The White Goddess marks a significant change in the poet's work and provides a convenient terminal point for this study. In each instance, the basic text used for a poem was that of the first book publication. Collations were made from this. No magazine, periodical, or anthology versions have been considered or collated because it is not the standard procedure with such publications to offer the author galleys for proofing. For this reason, such versions are not deemed to have the author's authority. The methodology used has been a modified version of that employed by Peter Allt and Russell K. Alspach in their work The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W B Yeats (New York Macmillan, 1957).
Modern British socialist theatre : social revolution and the drama of Howard Brenton and John McGrath
(1984) Thompson, Ian Charles
The thesis discusses the political function and production problems of socialist theatre in a capitalist society. Brita in has seen a remarkable growth of political theatre in the last few decades. This theatre is discussed within its context of Britain's changing economic and political climate since the 1950's. The thesis examines the relationship between theatre and society, the production of literature, and the cultural identification afforded to a rt by institutions and classes. It is argued that socialist playwrights are faced with two choices: (1) either they work within the bourgeois theatrical institutions as oppositional voices against the hegemony of ruling class ideology, or (2) they work outside these institutions, performing to working-class audiences and attempting to create a socialist counter-culture based on the working class. The careers of Howard Brenton and John McGrath represent two conflicting responses in both theory and practice by socialist playwrights to this choice. Finally, the thesis examines three plays from each playwright to show the development of differing theatrical form in relation to theoretical considerations and practical constraints.

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