This thesis rereads the work of Aimé Césaire and René Depestre as a broad reply to the current drive in Caribbean literary studies to stress similarities and points of convergence between the various islands of the archipelago and their authors. It asks questions such as: how do these two Caribbean writers construct their sense of themselves; how do they relate to the Caribbean and to the wider world; and how do the historical and cultural particularities of their respective islands influence all of this? For Aimé Césaire, I argue that his sense of himself and of the Caribbean is essentially shaped around the <I>circuit triangulaire</I>, the model of Africa/Europe/Caribbean interdependencies, ultimately inherited from the time of the slave trade. I show how Césaire views the Caribbean as a deeply traumatic, insubstantial space; how he looks to Africa for his lost sense of self; and how Europe is at once the malevolent colonial power and also the home of poetry, learning etc. I then compare Césaire's Caribbean "shape" to that of René Depestre, and a quite different model emerges. I find that Africa is relatively absent in Depestre's work: Europe is not presented as a threat; and that Depestre, unlike Césaire, sees, in the Caribbean, an energy and a creativity brought about by the historical fusion of disparate cultures. I consider how the reality of Depestre's long exile from the Caribbean has affected his views of the islands. In conclusion, I bring the argument back to its starting point: the problematic (as I see it) attempt to view and read writing from the Caribbean as one literature. Difference and diversity, I argue, predominate as Caribbean writing embraces the new century, and the whole notion of Caribbeanness undergoes further processes of highly creative splintering and reshaping.

Collage Grrrls represents the first sustained attempt to define, historicise and analyse the contentious genre of ‘anti-chick lit’. In this thesis, I argue that anti-chick lit – while critically neglected – represents a key development in women’s writing from the 1990s onwards; alighting on the girl and the grrrl as figures of contradiction and transitional possibility, anti-chick fictions generate spaces in which the darker aspects of female experience – from mental illness, self-harming and unwanted pregnancies, to sexual excess and consumerism – can be creatively (re)imagined. In this way, Collage Grrrls makes a timely intervention into debates about feminine identity and feminism in popular culture. At the heart of these debates, however, exists a fraught paradox that Collage Grrrls will interrogate: at the same time as celebrating a female subject that is ‘untamed, ungroomed and unglossed’, does anti-chick lit’s alignment with the mass- market appeal of chick lit mean that the subject is simultaneously re-tamed, re-groomed and re-glossed in order to preserve her appeal – paradoxically – to a mass audience? I identify Emma Forrest, an Anglo-American author and journalist, as a representative for the genre. Along with Forrest’s novels Namedropper (1998), Thin Skin (2002) and Cherries in the Snow (2005), I will also include detailed reference to Stephanie Kuehnert’s I wanna be your Joey Ramone (2008) and Kristin Hersh’s Rat Girl (2010). Collage Grrrl’s scope of literary genres includes Young Adult fiction and memoir, with each key work presenting an unapologetic portrait of female pathology. The discussion will address the impact of third wave and postfeminism, and the cultural shifts in mainstream representations of gender, specifically in light of the fluxional identity politics of the 90s and their effect on young women. The politics and practices of this era paved the way for movements such as riot grrrl, with the grrrl becoming a notable figure for challenging normative meanings of femininity. By examining authors and works on which there is little critical material, Collage Grrrls aims to do the same, seeking out authors and texts that have yet to be recuperated to academic discourse.

Comprised of four separate case studies – one on the Eastern novels of Penelope Aubin and Eliza Haywood written in the 1720’s, one on Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s Turkish Embassy Letters, one that features female castaway narratives of the later eighteenth century, and a fourth on Isabel Burton’s public mediation of her husband’s writing and the transgressions of her own life – this work argues that discursive constructions of female travel were frequently challenged by women writers and female travelers themselves. Engaging with critics like Amanda Vickery, Robert Shoemaker, and Alison Conway, who wish to call our totalizing, homogenous views of the restrictions placed on women’s lives in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into question, this dissertation argues that despite the prevalence of works arguing against female travel because it was either too dangerous or too sexually liberating, many women conceived of themselves as not only able to travel but to do so while remaining loyal to British notions of civility and cultural purity. At the same time, the texts studied here demonstrate that, once freed from the restrictive confines of British society, English women were able to make important contributions to Britain’s imperial and mercantile goals overseas that men were unable to make. In this work I examine the ways in which domestic and sexual violence at home prompted the construction of travel as an escape to a fantasy of easy female circulation in less-restrictive public spaces where women could manage their own fates, or indeed spaces in which they were free from the seemingly constant fear of sexual assault at the hands of European men. Travel – in the case of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Isabel Burton – offered women an opportunity to transform notions of femininity into ways of making particular and unique claims to knowledge because they had access to information male travelers could not gain. Rather than descending into lust or various forms of cultural degeneration, traveling women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries opened up a space for women after them to make significant contributions to scientific and ethnographic discourse. The work on fictional female captives and castaways in the first and third chapters of this dissertation indicates that the supposedly corrupting qualities of the “torrid zones” were ones easily fended off by English women, who were thus able to demonstrate that female interactions with so-called ‘male’ spheres of mercantile exchange, seafaring, and captivity abroad could result in greater freedom for women to travel. These texts also highlight the important contributions women could make to public life in England as a result of the knowledge gained during their periods overseas. In every chapter, this work examines the way that violence against women – and the powerlessness of women to counteract it – was a seemingly constant concern during the period Finally, my conclusion gestures toward the possible continuities between ideas about female travel in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the twenty-first century. Though much more work is required, I conclude that, from the very brief research I have conducted on the subject, it appears that the inroads made by Aubin, Haywood, Montagu, Burton and others have largely been destroyed by a continual concern with the safety and sexual propriety of the Western woman overseas.

Few authors in the second half of the nineteenth century wrote in such a decisive way on the subject of women as Theodor Fontane, who produced literary studies on women’s lives, determined both by others and by the women themselves. Of Fontane’s seventeen novels, thirteen focus on female characters. In his texts, Fontane questions the concept of a hierarchy of genders and the ambivalence between the intended femininity of women and the “imaginierte Weiblichkeit” (imagined femininity) of men (Silvia Bovenschen). In doing so, he contributes significantly to the gender discourse of the late nineteenth century, creating new images of women that often differed from common literary images, including the femme fatale, femme fragile or the water-nymph. This divergence is especially evident in Fontane’s construction of his female protagonists Melanie Van der Straaten and Mathilde Möhring. This thesis examines the similarities between Fontane’s conceptions of the self-determined life of women in his lesser-known novels L’Adultera (1882) and Mathilde Möhring (1906). It poses the question: How can the protagonist Melanie in the first work of the Berlin Women Novels be seen as a precursor to the protagonist Mathilde in the last book of the series? The works of Silvia Bovenschen, Inge Stephan, Sigrid Weigel and Ute Frevert point to the discrepancies between the realities of life of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women and the ways in which they were portrayed by contemporary male authors. I apply their insights on identity, literary and historio-cultural representations of femininity in my analysis of the images of women contained in the two texts. After giving an overview of the status of research concerning Fontane and femininity (Chapter 2) and the approach of Bovenschen, Stephan, Weigel and Frevert (Chapter 3), I discuss the narrative presentation of femaleness and examine how Fontane’s conception of the women in both works is represented (Chapter 4 and 5). Here, I analyze the characters in light of two identity-attributions: other-directedness and self-determination. In Chapter 4, I examine the depiction of other-directedness in both novels. The emphasis of my analysis here lies on the male characters and their perceptions of the two female protagonists. Chapter 5 examines the notion of self-determination in both novels. It is concerned primarily with the female protagonists and their images of themselves. This chapter also delves into the narrators’ views of this self-perception. I conclude that despite the obvious differences between these two female characters, there are similarities between them, and that Mathilde can be seen as a modern successor of Melanie.

In this thesis I argue that Thomas Glavinic’s novel Die Arbeit der Nacht (Night Work) investigates existential themes of the human condition in a post-modern world. My analysis demonstrates that the novel can be understood – at least in part – as a radical implementation of Jean Baudrillard’s ideas of simulation and hyperreality. My analysis reveals the message of the novel regarding our relationship to media and technology in contemporary society. Glavinic’s novel demonstrates that digital media and new technologies are indeed integral to post-modern human beings, but it also maintains that they cannot substitute for interpersonal contact. Textual references to contemporary Western society are numerous and intended to give the readers the opportunity not only to identify with, but also to reflect on their own situations. The central character Jonas is representative of an average Western individual who maintains a need to be part of a social network. I argue that he can be read as a post-modern protagonist. Considering these findings, I conclude that the novel warns of the dangers of a world saturated by media where we underestimate the importance of close personal human contact and, as a consequence, are in danger of losing our sense of humanity. In my first chapter, I introduce the novel and Baudrillard’s key ideas of hyperreality: the disappearance of human existence as we know it, the prevalence of video culture, and a reliance on technology that ultimately function as prostheses. In the second chapter, I analyze the relationship of media to individuals based on Baudrillard’s thesis that in hyperreality, digital technology becomes part of the human body. I argue that Glavinic’s protagonist can no longer be considered a self-determined, essential human being, but rather is defined by media and technology. The continued encroachment of hyperreality on Jonas’s life results in his cars, cell-phone, and self-created antagonist, the so-called “sleeper,” functioning, in Baudrillard’s terminology, as “prostheses.” The third chapter is concerned with the media’s construction of reality based on four examples: Video cameras, digital and Polaroid cameras, television screens and mirrors. The first three examples impart a sense of hyperreality into our lives. In Baudrillard’s theories the mirror is designated as obsolete; however, in this analysis I show that even in a post-modern world it remains an important motif. In my fourth chapter, I examine Jonas’s attempts to construct a linear time structure despite the intermittent appearances of non-linear ones. Following Baudrillard’s classification of the three different orders of the simulacrum as being imitation, serial production and simulation, I conclude that Jonas is situated in the simulacrum of simulation, which constitutes hyperreality. Despite the obvious applicability of Baudrillard’s ideas to Glavinic’s novel, I ultimately conclude, that it does not follow all of Baudrillard’s arguments. I propose instead that the novel allows for a much more optimistic view of a high-tech world than is immediately apparent.

My research explores how the oft-maligned zombie genre reveals deep-seated American cultural tendencies drawn from the nation's history with colonization and imperialism. The zombie genre is a quintessentially American construct that has been flourishing in popular culture for nearly 60 years. Since George A. Romero first pioneered the genre with 1968's Night of the Living Dead, zombie narratives have demonstrated a persistent resilience in American culture to emerge as the ultimate American horror icon. First serving as a method to exploit and react to cultural anxieties in the 1960s, the zombie genre met the decade's tumultuous violence in international conflicts like the Vietnam War and domestic revolutions like the Civil Rights Movement. It adapted in the 1970s to expose a perceived excess in consumer culture before reflecting apocalyptic fears at the height of the Cold War in the 1980s. Following a period of rest in the relatively peaceful 1990s, the genre re-emerged in the early 2000s to reflect cultural anxieties spurred on by the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the subsequent resurgence of war those attacks inspired. Its ability to grow with American culture and reflect the relevant crises of the age in which each narrative is conceived suggests the genre can act as a barometer of cultural and social change and unrest. The zombie genre is ultimately an American construct as it is the only folkloric monster born of an American imagination. Romero's re-envisioning of the genre to an apocalyptic siege narrative rather than an icon of Haitian lore presented American audiences with a perfect outlet to embrace survivalist fantasies that hearken back to the nations birth on the frontier. It can be aligned alongside the plight of early settlers, as its characters find themselves displaced between a lost concept of society and the need to rebuild in a new, hostile environment. An environment which allows the return of iconic frontier figures like Daniel Boone, while redefining the role of the family to suit the needs of such an environment. It provides scenarios in which the nation can be regenerated through violence as the emergence of an antagonistic foe devoid of morality and consciousness must be met with extreme prejudice. It strips the antagonist of personality and thought, allowing audiences to return to an imperialistic conquest of a conquerable foe while eliminating any guilt associated with the act of colonization. In doing so, the genre glorifies the American past, allowing the reopening of the frontier in the zombie apocalypse as a method of escaping current cultural anxieties and romanticising concepts like the Indian hunter while stripping them of negative association. This thesis will suggest that the zombie has emerged as the ultimate American horror icon, and that it will continue to remain as such so long as there are instances of tumult and instability in the American cultural zeitgeist to which it can react.

Few authors in the second half of the nineteenth century wrote in such a decisive way on the subject of women as Theodor Fontane, who produced literary studies on women’s lives, determined both by others and by the women themselves. Of Fontane’s seventeen novels, thirteen focus on female characters. In his texts, Fontane questions the concept of a hierarchy of genders and the ambivalence between the intended femininity of women and the “imaginierte Weiblichkeit” (imagined femininity) of men (Silvia Bovenschen). In doing so, he contributes significantly to the gender discourse of the late nineteenth century, creating new images of women that often differed from common literary images, including the femme fatale, femme fragile or the water-nymph. This divergence is especially evident in Fontane’s construction of his female protagonists Melanie Van der Straaten and Mathilde Möhring. This thesis examines the similarities between Fontane’s conceptions of the self-determined life of women in his lesser-known novels L’Adultera (1882) and Mathilde Möhring (1906). It poses the question: How can the protagonist Melanie in the first work of the Berlin Women Novels be seen as a precursor to the protagonist Mathilde in the last book of the series? The works of Silvia Bovenschen, Inge Stephan, Sigrid Weigel and Ute Frevert point to the discrepancies between the realities of life of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century women and the ways in which they were portrayed by contemporary male authors. I apply their insights on identity, literary and historio-cultural representations of femininity in my analysis of the images of women contained in the two texts. After giving an overview of the status of research concerning Fontane and femininity (Chapter 2) and the approach of Bovenschen, Stephan, Weigel and Frevert (Chapter 3), I discuss the narrative presentation of femaleness and examine how Fontane’s conception of the women in both works is represented (Chapter 4 and 5). Here, I analyze the characters in light of two identity-attributions: other-directedness and self-determination. In Chapter 4, I examine the depiction of other-directedness in both novels. The emphasis of my analysis here lies on the male characters and their perceptions of the two female protagonists. Chapter 5 examines the notion of self-determination in both novels. It is concerned primarily with the female protagonists and their images of themselves. This chapter also delves into the narrators’ views of this self-perception. I conclude that despite the obvious differences between these two female characters, there are similarities between them, and that Mathilde can be seen as a modern successor of Melanie.

In this thesis I argue that Thomas Glavinic’s novel Die Arbeit der Nacht (Night Work) investigates existential themes of the human condition in a post-modern world. My analysis demonstrates that the novel can be understood – at least in part – as a radical implementation of Jean Baudrillard’s ideas of simulation and hyperreality. My analysis reveals the message of the novel regarding our relationship to media and technology in contemporary society. Glavinic’s novel demonstrates that digital media and new technologies are indeed integral to post-modern human beings, but it also maintains that they cannot substitute for interpersonal contact. Textual references to contemporary Western society are numerous and intended to give the readers the opportunity not only to identify with, but also to reflect on their own situations. The central character Jonas is representative of an average Western individual who maintains a need to be part of a social network. I argue that he can be read as a post-modern protagonist. Considering these findings, I conclude that the novel warns of the dangers of a world saturated by media where we underestimate the importance of close personal human contact and, as a consequence, are in danger of losing our sense of humanity. In my first chapter, I introduce the novel and Baudrillard’s key ideas of hyperreality: the disappearance of human existence as we know it, the prevalence of video culture, and a reliance on technology that ultimately function as prostheses. In the second chapter, I analyze the relationship of media to individuals based on Baudrillard’s thesis that in hyperreality, digital technology becomes part of the human body. I argue that Glavinic’s protagonist can no longer be considered a self-determined, essential human being, but rather is defined by media and technology. The continued encroachment of hyperreality on Jonas’s life results in his cars, cell-phone, and self-created antagonist, the so-called “sleeper,” functioning, in Baudrillard’s terminology, as “prostheses.” The third chapter is concerned with the media’s construction of reality based on four examples: Video cameras, digital and Polaroid cameras, television screens and mirrors. The first three examples impart a sense of hyperreality into our lives. In Baudrillard’s theories the mirror is designated as obsolete; however, in this analysis I show that even in a post-modern world it remains an important motif. In my fourth chapter, I examine Jonas’s attempts to construct a linear time structure despite the intermittent appearances of non-linear ones. Following Baudrillard’s classification of the three different orders of the simulacrum as being imitation, serial production and simulation, I conclude that Jonas is situated in the simulacrum of simulation, which constitutes hyperreality. Despite the obvious applicability of Baudrillard’s ideas to Glavinic’s novel, I ultimately conclude, that it does not follow all of Baudrillard’s arguments. I propose instead that the novel allows for a much more optimistic view of a high-tech world than is immediately apparent.

This thesis is a literary analysis of American settlement fiction, using a spatially-informed cultural historicist approach. The settlement movement in the U.S. was both a Progressive Era reform movement and a precursor to modern-day social welfare systems. As such, it has typically been viewed in either laudatory or censorious terms –- as an innovative force for social good, or as a negative source of social control. Drawing on Edward Soja’s concept of Thirdspace as a uniquely generative and semiotically rich cultural site, and focusing on Hull House as an example of Thirdspace, I argue that the settlement movement was in fact an extraordinarily multivalent phenomenon. Hull House (and the many settlement houses modeled after it) instantiated issues of gender, class, and race in complex ways that both reflected and refracted larger patterns in American culture. Moreover, these same patterns are evident in fiction that incorporates the spaces of the settlement house and the figure of the settlement worker. Contextualized readings of five novels (Elia Wilkinson Peattie’s The Precipice, Clara Laughlin’s Just Folks, Hervey White’s Differences, Sherwood Anderson’s Marching Men, and W.E.B. Du Bois’ The Quest of the Silver Fleece) provide evidence of the value of further recovering this dramatically understudied area of settlement discourse.

The edge of the abyss: Metamorphosis as reality in contemporary Native American literature, approaches the concept of metamorphosis from a metaphysical and philosophical perspective as a culturally defined reality. It focuses on the works of contemporary Native American writers: Leslie Silko, Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor, and Louise Erdrich, who address the metamorphic properties of Time and the metamorphic abilities of Man as a continuing link to the supernatural and natural worlds through stories which descend from a history of oral traditions. The Edge of the Abyss explores the use of language and stories as a cultural survival technique for the retention of tribal ideology and world view. It addresses the fine line which exists between Western and Native American concepts of reality in order to re-define metamorphosis within a cultural context. This thesis uses an interdisciplinary approach utilizing anthropological, sociological, shamanistic, literary, and cultural materials in a comparative analysis.