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Pages
- Title
- Canoemates: A story of the Florida Reef and Everglades.
- Creator
- Munroe, Kirk
- Date Issued
- 1893
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dl/FA00000022.pdf
- Subject Headings
- Literature
- Format
- E-book
- Title
- AMORY BLAINE AND THE "PURGATORIO" ("THIS SIDE OF PARADISE", "DIVINE COMEDY", FITZGERALD, DANTE).
- Creator
- ARNONE, EUGENE M., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise, is a well organized and intricately detailed work which uses as its basic metaphor the middle poem of the Divine Comedy by Dante Al ighieri. Thematically, structurally, and symbolically, Fitzgerald's novel parallels Dante's poem, incorporating the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Mirrors of Narcissus motif, Dante's idea of Amore, and the symbolic figure of Beatrice. Critics have overlooked Dante as a source for Fitzgerald's work and...
Show moreFitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise, is a well organized and intricately detailed work which uses as its basic metaphor the middle poem of the Divine Comedy by Dante Al ighieri. Thematically, structurally, and symbolically, Fitzgerald's novel parallels Dante's poem, incorporating the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Mirrors of Narcissus motif, Dante's idea of Amore, and the symbolic figure of Beatrice. Critics have overlooked Dante as a source for Fitzgerald's work and therefore have not adequately explained the thematic concerns of this novel.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1986
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14331
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Comparative, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- "The Battle of Maldon": Evidence of the move away from epic heroism.
- Creator
- Baird, Diane Stetson, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
The Battle of Maldon is a poem of change, a pivot point in the English literary tradition. It lies between Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both in time and in intent. The Maldon poet created finely interrelated philosophic and social commentary in his poem, playing the epic hero against the newer Christian martyr. He used both characterizations to create a picture of Byrhtnoth as a political martyr. With some understanding of the historical and religious perspectives of tenth...
Show moreThe Battle of Maldon is a poem of change, a pivot point in the English literary tradition. It lies between Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both in time and in intent. The Maldon poet created finely interrelated philosophic and social commentary in his poem, playing the epic hero against the newer Christian martyr. He used both characterizations to create a picture of Byrhtnoth as a political martyr. With some understanding of the historical and religious perspectives of tenth century England, it is possible to begin to appreciate The Battle of Maldon and to understand its pivotal role in artistic evolution. The poet integrated disparate ideas to produce an Anglo-Saxon work of surprising complexity that has survived for one thousand years.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1991
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14779
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Medieval, Literature, English
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Chaos in Kurt Vonnegut's "Sirens of Titan".
- Creator
- Barney, David Lawrence, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
The individual's search for absolute order and meaning within a chaotic universe is an important theme in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. In Sirens of Titan, Malachi Constant unwillingly undertakes this futile quest and is consequently victimized, philosophically and psychologically, by various agents and symbols of chaos. After spiraling outward into the chaotic cosmos, his simplistic beliefs revealed to be illusion, Malachi spirals back to himself and to Earth, literally and figuratively, only...
Show moreThe individual's search for absolute order and meaning within a chaotic universe is an important theme in the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. In Sirens of Titan, Malachi Constant unwillingly undertakes this futile quest and is consequently victimized, philosophically and psychologically, by various agents and symbols of chaos. After spiraling outward into the chaotic cosmos, his simplistic beliefs revealed to be illusion, Malachi spirals back to himself and to Earth, literally and figuratively, only to confront the illusions within. In addition, the form of Sirens of Titan can be seen as a metaphor for meaninglessness, mirroring and echoing Malachi Constant's and the reader's absurd call for clarity within chaos.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1991
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14727
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Cerebral Cabaret: All Voices Present and Accounted For. A collection of short stories.
- Creator
- Angel, Tee, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Cerebral Cabaret: All Voices Present and Accounted For is a collection of short stories that question identity and purpose in life. Each of the stories gravitates to a center of family, the need for love, and the search for a sense of belonging. Is success the sale of the perfect work of art, or is it taking a drive, rolling down the windows, and fighting to hold the breeze in outstretched hands? When love fails, can an unholy communion provide solace? Can a man feel at home in the house of a...
Show moreCerebral Cabaret: All Voices Present and Accounted For is a collection of short stories that question identity and purpose in life. Each of the stories gravitates to a center of family, the need for love, and the search for a sense of belonging. Is success the sale of the perfect work of art, or is it taking a drive, rolling down the windows, and fighting to hold the breeze in outstretched hands? When love fails, can an unholy communion provide solace? Can a man feel at home in the house of a stranger? Do voices from the past seal the fate of our future? Does death alter love? Can life be revised? These are a few of the questions mulled over in this collection. Each character's ostensible success is not at stake, only their continued willingness to navigate the world in which they exist.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13337
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Feasting with Banquo: The ghost stories of Fritz Leiber.
- Creator
- Adair, Gerald M., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
In "Smoke Ghost" (1941), Fritz Leiber created the contemporary paradigm for the "urban horror story" that has been so successfully exploited by Stephen King, Richard Matheson, Dennis Etchison, Ramsey Campbell and many others. At the heart of Leiber's ghost stories, however, rest a firm "tradition" of supernatural fiction, stemming from primitive religion, on the one hand, and literary example on the other. While his urban settings (Chicago, San Francisco) may be seen as contemporary...
Show moreIn "Smoke Ghost" (1941), Fritz Leiber created the contemporary paradigm for the "urban horror story" that has been so successfully exploited by Stephen King, Richard Matheson, Dennis Etchison, Ramsey Campbell and many others. At the heart of Leiber's ghost stories, however, rest a firm "tradition" of supernatural fiction, stemming from primitive religion, on the one hand, and literary example on the other. While his urban settings (Chicago, San Francisco) may be seen as contemporary reinterpretations of Horace Walpole's Gothic castle, his specters are the lineal descendants of Shakespeare's, LeFanu's, and Henry James's. Leiber's later use of Jungian archetypes (Shadow and Anima) is superimposed on the traditional ghostly archetype. An analysis of his novel-length ghost story, Our Lady of Darkness , reveals the lurking malevolence of a LeFanu specter, while the ghosts of Shakespeare hover in the wings of stories in which he explores themes of sex, guilt, and death. In each of Leiber's ghost stories, the elements of the tradition combine with "haunts" from the author's personal psychic history to produce a powerful fantasy experience that persists despite threats to the genre by "science, common sense, and psychiatry."
Show less - Date Issued
- 2000
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12666
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- THE PORTRAYAL OF ADOLESCENCE IN THE NOVELS OF CARSON MCCULLERS.
- Creator
- BINDAS, SUSAN ANNE, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Adolescents play an integral role in Carson McCullers' work, particularly The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding, and Clock Without Hands. In these novels the characterizations of Mick, Frankie, Jester, and Sherman are drawn with an intuitive awareness of principles of adolescent psychology. McCullers focuses on the expectations, uncertainties, and contradictions of the adolescent years. However, her novels are much more than stories of troubled teens. Largely because of...
Show moreAdolescents play an integral role in Carson McCullers' work, particularly The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding, and Clock Without Hands. In these novels the characterizations of Mick, Frankie, Jester, and Sherman are drawn with an intuitive awareness of principles of adolescent psychology. McCullers focuses on the expectations, uncertainties, and contradictions of the adolescent years. However, her novels are much more than stories of troubled teens. Largely because of their adolescent characteristics, Nick, Frankie, Jester, and Sherman serve as fitting symbolic vehicles for McCullers' exploration of such ageless themes as the search for self and the search for love.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1977
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13862
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE NARRATOR AND THE BLACK KNIGHT IN CHAUCER'S "THE BOOK OF THE DUCHESS.".
- Creator
- BING, LOUISE ADELE, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
An examination of the dream-vision form and the Hiddle English lyric clarifies the role relationship in Chaucer's The Book of the Duchess, a relationship not fully clarified by past scholarship. In the dream vision a conventional pattern establishes the relationship between the narrator and his superior guide and, in the English lyric form, the "chanson d'aventure," the narrator encounters a sorrowing figure who provides enlightenment through the explanation of his sorrow. Chaucer employs the...
Show moreAn examination of the dream-vision form and the Hiddle English lyric clarifies the role relationship in Chaucer's The Book of the Duchess, a relationship not fully clarified by past scholarship. In the dream vision a conventional pattern establishes the relationship between the narrator and his superior guide and, in the English lyric form, the "chanson d'aventure," the narrator encounters a sorrowing figure who provides enlightenment through the explanation of his sorrow. Chaucer employs the dream vision's conventional pattern and, in the dream portion of the poem, he makes use of the "chanson d'aventure" form with the added complexities of his own material. His Narrator has forgotten his nature as man. The sorrowing Knight reminds him of the need to feel this emotion, both over the loss of the Duchess and because of man's own fallen state. The Knight, then, becomes a guide who provides enlightenment for the erring Narrator.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1973
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13601
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Medieval, Literature, English
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Reading Henry: The author's role in Henry James's criticism and in "The Middle Years".
- Creator
- Alvarez, Camila, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Henry James wrote several works fictionalizing ideas of authorship. No critics have yet looked at "The Middle Years" as an affirmation of the role of the author. Julie Rivkin and Joyce Carol Oates are critics I cite as valuable support to my interpretation of "The Middle Years," a short story that gives us insight into Henry James's critical theory. The story deals with the final days of the author---Dencombe and his creation of a work of art also entitled "The Middle Years." This doubling of...
Show moreHenry James wrote several works fictionalizing ideas of authorship. No critics have yet looked at "The Middle Years" as an affirmation of the role of the author. Julie Rivkin and Joyce Carol Oates are critics I cite as valuable support to my interpretation of "The Middle Years," a short story that gives us insight into Henry James's critical theory. The story deals with the final days of the author---Dencombe and his creation of a work of art also entitled "The Middle Years." This doubling of the title causes authority over the story to become diffused: the real author writes the actual story, while the fictional author owns both the fictional and actual story. Authority is further complicated by the processes of reading and revision. Through these processes, the author and the reader become both creators and spectators. This duality in combination with Dencombe's identification as the ideal author and Dr. Hugh's identification as the ideal reader grants insight into James's stance on the author's role in a work of fiction.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2005
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13218
- Subject Headings
- Literature, American, Literature, English
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- TWO WISE MEN IN QUARTET. ELIOT AND SANTAYANA: THE SEARCH FOR FAITH.
- Creator
- BARNES, JACKIE WARD, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Santayana's thought underlies much of Eliot's poetry. Both Eliot and Santayana were skeptics, and Eliot's skepticism is documented in the quartets, a work that is a personal journal of his search for faith. That search was to be an unsuccessful one, for Eliot realized the impossibility of union with the Absolute. The symbolism of the rosegarden, the bedded axle-tree, the still point, and the clematis, when analyzed, demonstrates Eliot's concept of a clockwork universe, a universe that is...
Show moreSantayana's thought underlies much of Eliot's poetry. Both Eliot and Santayana were skeptics, and Eliot's skepticism is documented in the quartets, a work that is a personal journal of his search for faith. That search was to be an unsuccessful one, for Eliot realized the impossibility of union with the Absolute. The symbolism of the rosegarden, the bedded axle-tree, the still point, and the clematis, when analyzed, demonstrates Eliot's concept of a clockwork universe, a universe that is unknowing and uncaring. Eliot reaches that concept, basically, because of Santayana's influence.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1983
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14152
- Subject Headings
- Literature, American, Literature, English
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- The clause of congruency: A possible worlds reading of three novels of Ray Bradbury.
- Creator
- Adamo, Nicole Maria, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Using Marie-Laure Ryan's definition of the law of minimal departure, I propose an important addendum, the clause of congruency. It is necessary to delve deeper into the connection a reader makes with a textual possible world and its relation to the actual world. The textual world, with all its various rules and mores, becomes just as accessible to the reader as the world he currently resides in, so long as it flows along in a logical manner. It is only when something appears that is...
Show moreUsing Marie-Laure Ryan's definition of the law of minimal departure, I propose an important addendum, the clause of congruency. It is necessary to delve deeper into the connection a reader makes with a textual possible world and its relation to the actual world. The textual world, with all its various rules and mores, becomes just as accessible to the reader as the world he currently resides in, so long as it flows along in a logical manner. It is only when something appears that is incongruent with the reader's understanding of the textual world, the reader is forced to dissemble his current textual world and build a new one. Ray Bradbury utilizes the clause of congruence to reveal meaning in three of his novels.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2002
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12964
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Comparative, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Gabriel Conroy and closure in "Dubliners".
- Creator
- Becker, Virginia Mary, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Gabriel Conroy in "The Dead" appears to be the boy of the first three stories in adulthood. The boy's artistic mind is formed and limited by adult influences so that he dreams of escape. Gabriel has the same artistic disposition and has developed a limited outlet for his talents. He, too, envisions escape. Gabriel's epiphany and his sense of insecurity and pride are so like the boy's that the similarity suggests one character who has developed a habit of introspection. Finally, Gabriel's...
Show moreGabriel Conroy in "The Dead" appears to be the boy of the first three stories in adulthood. The boy's artistic mind is formed and limited by adult influences so that he dreams of escape. Gabriel has the same artistic disposition and has developed a limited outlet for his talents. He, too, envisions escape. Gabriel's epiphany and his sense of insecurity and pride are so like the boy's that the similarity suggests one character who has developed a habit of introspection. Finally, Gabriel's sexual anxiety implies that he fears women and fears his own sexuality. Joyce repeats patterns of imagery in "The Dead" that echo the boy's developing sexuality, indicating that the boy and the man suffer the same fears. Seeing Gabriel Conroy as the boy-narrator of the first three stories creates closure for Dubliners, and it gives the reader insight into the character of Gabriel.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1991
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14764
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, English
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- The Hemingway hero and the monomyth: An examination of the hero quest myth in the Nick Adams stories.
- Creator
- Bajger, John James, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
The code hero is the foundation of Hemingway interpretation and central to an understanding of his ideology. The values, ideals and actions of many of Hemingway's greatest heroes fit within this framework, and the Hemingway hero is as firm a part of American literary myth as Melville's Great White Whale. Twain's Huckleberry Finn, or Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha county. I will use Joseph Campbell's work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a study in which he details his conception of the monomyth--...
Show moreThe code hero is the foundation of Hemingway interpretation and central to an understanding of his ideology. The values, ideals and actions of many of Hemingway's greatest heroes fit within this framework, and the Hemingway hero is as firm a part of American literary myth as Melville's Great White Whale. Twain's Huckleberry Finn, or Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha county. I will use Joseph Campbell's work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a study in which he details his conception of the monomyth---the basic underlying structure for all heroic myths---to show how the idea of the mythic hero links the Nick Adams stories together and also serves to reveal the character of Nick himself. Most importantly, however, it is my contention that Campbell's stages of the monomyth---the departure, the road of trials, and the return---can be utilized to describe and analyze the major themes found in the Nick Adam's stories.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2003
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13052
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Hiro of the platonic: Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash".
- Creator
- Boehm, Carl John, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
In The Republic, Plato constructs the ideal city-state built on the principle of justice. Plato establishes an urban utopia with a set of morals through which the citizen helps the state and the state helps the citizen. Centuries after Plato's Republic, Neal Stephenson presents in Snow Crash, a cyberpunk adventure, a virtual city known as the Metaverse. Hiro Protagonist, as his name implies, defends his virtual city from a threatening virus in the same way that a citizen in Plato's Republic...
Show moreIn The Republic, Plato constructs the ideal city-state built on the principle of justice. Plato establishes an urban utopia with a set of morals through which the citizen helps the state and the state helps the citizen. Centuries after Plato's Republic, Neal Stephenson presents in Snow Crash, a cyberpunk adventure, a virtual city known as the Metaverse. Hiro Protagonist, as his name implies, defends his virtual city from a threatening virus in the same way that a citizen in Plato's Republic would protect the city-state. An analysis of Snow Crash using ideas from The Republic reveals the "hacker" to be a socially minded individual who preserves order in the cybernetic utopia that is the Metaverse. This analysis demonstrates that justice must be sought in every era, and that heroes unique to their milieu pursuit justice.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2001
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12867
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- The technique of morality: Post-transactional readings of "The Turn of the Screw" and "Lolita".
- Creator
- Bretan, Charles Paul, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Over the years the study of literature has shifted its attention from the author to the text to the reader and back again--all this in an attempt to understand what a text means and how that meaning got into the text in the first place. Wayne C. Booth's rhetorical model of interpretation, while excellent in its detailing rhetorical techniques and their effects on the reader, ignores both the active role readers play in interpretation and the creative power of language. This thesis takes a...
Show moreOver the years the study of literature has shifted its attention from the author to the text to the reader and back again--all this in an attempt to understand what a text means and how that meaning got into the text in the first place. Wayne C. Booth's rhetorical model of interpretation, while excellent in its detailing rhetorical techniques and their effects on the reader, ignores both the active role readers play in interpretation and the creative power of language. This thesis takes a post-transactional approach to The Turn of the Screw and Lolita in an attempt to expose two blind spots in Booth's rhetorical criticism: his refusal to allow the reader into the creative, interpretive process, and his insistence on the author's use of clear, unambiguous language to produce a single reading of his text.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1989
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14572
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Comparative, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- The textual masks of Nathanael West.
- Creator
- Bezet, Jared, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
The novels of Nathanael West are preoccupied with the deconstruction of Western civilization, satirizing and parodying its most respected ideologies and literatures; they are also involved in recreating both cultural and personal identity from the deconstructed fragments of this culture by performances or masks of identity. The textual mask is a trope that performs both these functions in the work of Eliot, Pound, and Joyce, but especially in West. West demonstrated the mask's destructive...
Show moreThe novels of Nathanael West are preoccupied with the deconstruction of Western civilization, satirizing and parodying its most respected ideologies and literatures; they are also involved in recreating both cultural and personal identity from the deconstructed fragments of this culture by performances or masks of identity. The textual mask is a trope that performs both these functions in the work of Eliot, Pound, and Joyce, but especially in West. West demonstrated the mask's destructive force and constructive potential in both his writing and his personal life. The novels---The Dream Life of Balso Snell, Miss Lonelyhearts, A Cool Million, and The Day of the Locust---variously attack artistic or political formulae that privilege escape from culture's degradation, or that offer erroneous promises of subjective or cultural wholeness. West's life and art, then, exhibit the usefulness of the mask in the grim battle for the formation of artistic and political subjectivity.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2005
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13201
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- SOUTH AFRICAN ANALOGUE TO "ABSALOM, ABSALOM|" (FAULKNER, PATON).
- Creator
- BLANTON, JERRY CAIN, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Literature is influenced by the society in which it is written. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner and Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton have many similarities because the societies which produced them have similarities. The Old South and the Afrikaner society of South Africa have many historical occurrences and cultural attitudes in common, among them: former slave societies, wars with aborigenes, an agrarian-industrial conflict in which they were defeated, racial segregation,...
Show moreLiterature is influenced by the society in which it is written. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner and Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton have many similarities because the societies which produced them have similarities. The Old South and the Afrikaner society of South Africa have many historical occurrences and cultural attitudes in common, among them: former slave societies, wars with aborigenes, an agrarian-industrial conflict in which they were defeated, racial segregation, Calvinist religion, and an intermingling of the past and the present. Absalom, Absalom! and Too Late the Phalarope have the following in common: tone, titles of despair, character types, function of setting, qualities of Greek tragedy, Biblical allusions and syntax. A sociological literary study may help to understand how a society influences its literature.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1977
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13850
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, African
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- THE THEMATIC RELEVANCE OF JOHN GARDNER'S "UNRELIABLE NARRATOR.".
- Creator
- ATWILL, WILLIAM D., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Gardner's use of unreliable and often intrusive narrative voices is a structural key to the world view presented in his novels. All the narrators, whether they be involved central characters or intrusive third-person voices, journey toward knowledge and affirmation in art. In The Wreckage of Ag'athon, the aged seer is driven by the chaos he cannot untangle to create his own rationale. Grendel embraces a nihilistic world view until the monster is finally lifted to a limited sort of vision as a...
Show moreGardner's use of unreliable and often intrusive narrative voices is a structural key to the world view presented in his novels. All the narrators, whether they be involved central characters or intrusive third-person voices, journey toward knowledge and affirmation in art. In The Wreckage of Ag'athon, the aged seer is driven by the chaos he cannot untangle to create his own rationale. Grendel embraces a nihilistic world view until the monster is finally lifted to a limited sort of vision as a shaper of experience. The voice of The Sunlight Dialogues is limited omniscient, yet the narrator intrudes, reminding the reader that he is dependent upon an involved point of view. In the dream-narrative of Jason and Medeia, perhaps the best utilization of an involved, fallible narrator, the journey toward affirmative vision balongs more to the narrator than the hero.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1978
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13911
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, American
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Aesthetic immersion and imaginative constructs in the novels of Henry James.
- Creator
- Alvarez, Alberto Gabriel, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
A recurrent condition plaguing many of James's characters can be diagnosed as an aesthetic dependency. These characters turn their back on "the real thing" and exist in a precarious world of beauty and misplaced ideals. The novels examined present various methods James's characters utilize to elude the actual world. In The Tragic Muse, the line that separates mimetic art and actuality is nonexistent. Through imitation and performance characters create and represent what ought to be. Aesthetic...
Show moreA recurrent condition plaguing many of James's characters can be diagnosed as an aesthetic dependency. These characters turn their back on "the real thing" and exist in a precarious world of beauty and misplaced ideals. The novels examined present various methods James's characters utilize to elude the actual world. In The Tragic Muse, the line that separates mimetic art and actuality is nonexistent. Through imitation and performance characters create and represent what ought to be. Aesthetic immersion and imaginative constructs are opposed methods of escape in The Spoils of Poynton. The Ambassadors depicts a world where characters conspire to disguise the truth. Lambert Strether's imagination is stimulated by this milieu and takes flight. Similarly, the characters in The Wings of the Dove go to extreme lengths to realize their aesthetic visions. Ultimately, each character in these novels must deal with the sacrifices that are made when one chooses to exist in a world consisting solely of beauty and imagination.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1996
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15331
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, American, Literature, English
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Imaginative integration in four novels by Doris Lessing.
- Creator
- Blondin, Brian Gerard, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Within the remarkable diversity of Doris Lessing's fiction, the author's interest in the interrelation between the individual and the collective remains a constant. Her early works pursued this theme within a socio-political framework; however, her continued explorations have evolved an apolitical ethos which unfolds progressively in all of her work since The Golden Notebook. The impetus of this development, which has encouraged Lessing's experiments with various narrative techniques, is her...
Show moreWithin the remarkable diversity of Doris Lessing's fiction, the author's interest in the interrelation between the individual and the collective remains a constant. Her early works pursued this theme within a socio-political framework; however, her continued explorations have evolved an apolitical ethos which unfolds progressively in all of her work since The Golden Notebook. The impetus of this development, which has encouraged Lessing's experiments with various narrative techniques, is her desire to articulate a formula integrating the self with society; in one form or another, the catalyst of this integration is the creative imagination. By tracing related thematic and aesthetic courses of development in four novels--The Golden Notebook, The Four-Gated City, The Making of the Representative for Planet Eight, and The Good Terrorist--this thesis will demonstrate how Lessing's quest for integration has shaped her present apolitical ethos.
Show less - Date Issued
- 1989
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14508
- Subject Headings
- Literature, Modern, Literature, African, Literature, English
- Format
- Document (PDF)