This thesis examines the impact of Edward Said’s influential work Orientalism and its legacy in respect of contemporary reading and writing across cultures. It also questions the legitimacy of Said’s retrospective stereotyping of early examples of cross-cultural representation in literature as uncompromisingly “orientalist”. It is well known that the release of Edward Said’s Orientalism in 1978 was responsible for the rise of a range of cultural and critical theories from multiculturalism to postcolonialism. It was a study that not only polarized critics and forced scholars to re-examine orientalist archives, but persuaded creative writers to re-think their ethnographic positions when it came to the literary representations of cultures other than their own. Without detracting from the enormous impact of Said, this thesis isolates gaps and silences in Said that need correcting. Furthermore, there is an element of intransigence, an uncompromising refusal to fine-tune what is essentially a binary discourse of the West and its other in Said’s work, that encourages the continued interrogation of power relations but which, because of its very boldness, paradoxically disallows the extent to which the conflict of cultures indeed produced new, hybrid social and cultural formations. In an attempt to challenge the severity of Said’s claim that “every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was consequently a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric”, the thesis examines a number of different discursive contexts in which such a presumption is challenged. Thus while the second chapter discusses the ‘traditional’ profession-based orientalism of nineteenth-century E. G. Browne, the third considers the anti-imperialism of colonial administrator Leonard Woolf. The fourth chapter provides a reflection on the difficulties of diasporic “orientalism” through the works of Michael Ondaatje while chapter five demonstrates the effects of the dialogism used by Amitav Ghosh as a defence against “orientalism”. The thesis concludes with an examination of contemporary writing by Andrea Levy that appositely illustrates the legacy of Said’s influence. While the restrictive parameters of Said’s work make it difficult to mount a thorough-going critique of Said, this thesis shows that, indeed, it is within the restraints of these parameters and in the very discourse that Said employs that he traps himself. This study claims that even Said is susceptible to “orientalist” criticism in that he is as much an “orientalist” as those at whom he directs his polemic.

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This thesis presents an account of the relationship between literary Theory and close reading in Joyce studies. Throughout, 'Theory' is understood not in a general, conceptual sense, but as a word we use to refer to certain specified intellectual developments in the literary academy that have taken place over roughly the last half-century. Working from the basis that little can be deduced regarding the contentious relationship between Theory and close reading as long as the issue remains an abstract one, the thesis works towards a description of that relationship based upon scrutiny of key works in the field. To that end, it performs a series of case studies of some of the more significant attempts to combine a deep Theoretical commitment with rigorous textual analysis. The argument developed is that in a significant number of cases a commitment to reading 'Theoretically' has led the critic into an erroneous reading of the literary text under discussion. The possibility of such error is defined with reference to a set of standards which, the author hopes, will be accepted by most scholars working in the field. Alongside this primary concern, the thesis sets out a technique of close reading designed to minimise the chances of such errors occurring. This technique is referred to as Thematic Stylistics. Requiring both broad and deep engagement with literary texts, it aims to encourage both fidelity and sensitivity when put into practice, and thereby to act as a balance to the suggested tendencies of Theoretical reading. This technique is not left as a set of bare principles, but is exemplified in alternate chapters with reference to errors discussed during the critique described above. Together, the critique of Theory and the outline of Thematic Stylistics are taken to provide a constructive suggestion for the future of the academy.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / After being neglected, Ford Madox Ford has been re-discovered as an important novelist. This dissertation deals with Ford as a literary theorist and as an influence on other writers. Chapter I treats Ford's emergence with the help of Joseph Conrad from his Pre-Raphaelite background and his subsequent renunciation of Pre-Raphaelite aesthetics. Chapters II and III treat his theory of the novel and his acceptance of certain Flaubertian techniques, e.g. impressionism, the progression of effect, and the impersonal author [TRUNCTAED]

The author believes that Ayn Rand presents a systematic approach to aesthetics and that her work presents an interesting and significant approach to aesthetic problems. The author will attempt to present Ayn Rand's basic aesthetic concepts that throw light on her literary theory. The author will also present her views on literary schools and of individual authors.

This dissertation focuses on one of the greatest, yet most problematic, novels in William Faulkner's canon. As I Lay Dying, Faulkner's self-proclaimed "tour de force," is a multilayered, multi-voiced text that leaves many critics wondering how to approach it, which has led to there being only a handful of full length critical texts devoted entirely to the book. The narrow approach used by most articles and critical texts leads to a necessarily cursory glance at the novel. The complexity of this narrative demands a multi-theoretical approach where no one theory is the primary voice or ultimate authority. The structure of the novel has dictated the order in which the theories are presented in the dissertation. The story follows members of a poor farm family as they journey to bury their matriarch. The family journeys from a private isolated space to a public outer space. The chosen theories are ordered in this same inner to outer fashion. The study begins with Freudian theories which consider how the inner workings of the mind affect the individual and moves steadily to Marxist critiques which focus on the effect of society on the individual. In this manner, the discussion grows from individual concerns to communal concerns. Spanning the theoretic gulf between Freud and Marx are Lacanian theories and Race issues using Appiah's theories, each a certain step from the inner to the outer. An important factor in the dissertation is the discourse between the theories as each theory sounds a note of meaning that builds toward a unified chord of meaning. I hope this exercise in literary criticism will add to a fuller understanding of Faulkner's novel. / English

Through an analysis of the reception of Charles Dickens’ unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood this thesis establishes the centrality of the figure of the author as the perceived sanction for the completed text. Through an initial analysis of completed narrative, in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories, it shows that the ending is of particular importance as the point at which the reader can look back over the whole and confirm or disconfirm the provisional interpretations which have been made during the reading. It only makes sense to talk of unfinished texts or unfinished narratives in the context of a creative authority, generally identified as the author. An analysis of the reception of unfinished serial narratives of the late Victorian period, specifically the unfinished works of William M. Thackeray and Robert Louis Stevenson, confirms the centrality of the figure of the author in attempts to reconstruct the missing ending. The main body of the thesis provides a period-based analysis of Droodiana, the completions of and speculations about Dickens’ unfinished novel. In the analysis of the strategies employed to justify completions, and the responses to these, it establishes not only that the attempts to take on the authorial authority are perceived as sacrilegious, but that the perception of the completion-writers’ lack of the authority to posit an ending affects whether completions are read as able to complete the story: the willingness to submit to the ending (and revise provisional readings in light of it) is dependent on the perception of the authorial authority of the writer. The analysis shows that while the author-function develops over time, there is some continuity from the late Victorian period towards the present. The analysis of Droodian speculations trace their origin and development through a series of periods, showing that the variety of plots proposed masks a common concern with arriving at Dickens’ intended plot: a desire to identify the creative intention with the plot that would provide the most satisfying ending produces an increased variety over time.

Thesis advisor: Alan Richardson / The purpose of this project is to examine how text and image function cognitively in the graphic narrative paying particular attention to its manifestation in Satrapi’s "Persepolis." The structure is such that each chapter will progressively become more specific, from medium to genre to text, drawing on specific examples from Persepolis for support. Chapter 2 will first categorize the various relationships between text and image as they function in the graphic narrative as a medium. They are described in terms of the reader’s cognitive experience of the verbal narrative line’s juxtaposition against the visual narrative line. Chapter 3 will examine how a multimodal narrative—a dual verbal/visual narrative—affects the genre of nonfiction in the graphic narrative medium. It will define not only the tensions that text and image necessarily bring to the authenticity of nonfiction, but also the benefits. Chapter 4 will focus on Persepolis as a cognitive product in its own right. Stemming from theories of autobiography which suggest that an autobiographic text is a self-construction or self-understanding of identity, one can examine Persepolis as a material product and personal construction through this lens. I offer a cognitive approach which suggests that Persepolis functions as a material anchor of a conceptual blend—cognitive theories developed by Mark Turner, Gilles Fauconnier, and Edward Hutchins which are further explained in Chapters 2 and 4. While the primary goal of this project is specific to the research goals explained above, the secondary goal is advocacy. Both cognitive literary theory and comics criticism are marginalized in current literary studies. The former—whose scientific method looms over literature—threatens to overshadow the beauty and philosophy behind prose and poetry, while the latter—as a product of mass consumption and popular culture—threatens to undermine the legitimacy of literature. However, this project will show the viability of both cognitive literary theory as a method and the graphic narrative as a subject for serious academic inquiry. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: English Honors Program. / Discipline: English.

Orientador: Roxana Guadalupe Herrera Alvarez / Banca: Elaine Cristina Cintra / Banca: Lúcia Granja / Resumo: Este trabalho tem como objetivo realizar um percurso reflexivo sobre o papel do leitor na literatura estabelecendo um diálogo entre a teoria do escritor italiano Umberto Eco (1932-) e alguns textos do escritor argentino Jorge Luis Borges (1889-1986). Em um primeiro momento, investigamos como o papel do leitor é tratado pela teoria de Eco, detendo-nos na leitura de alguns capítulos de suas obras intituladas Obra aberta, Lector in fabula e Os limites da interpretação, publicadas respectivamente em 1962, 1978 e 1990. Do contato com essas obras, pudemos depreender que a concepção teórica de Eco a respeito do papel do leitor se baseia no reconhecimento do leitor-modelo como uma categoria textual que norteia o caminho de leitura do leitor empírico. Para complementar essa perspectiva teórica, abordamos a visão Borges sobre o papel do leitor desenvolvida no interior da própria ficção. Antes disso, foi importante que passássemos pelos ensaios "A flor de Coleridge" [La flor de Coleridge] e "Magias parciais do Quixote" [Magias parciales del Quijote], publicados pela primeira vez em 1952 na obra Outras inquisições [Otras inquisiciones], e pelo conto "O Livro de Areia" [El Libro de Arena], publicado pela primeira vez em 1975 na obra de mesmo título, para que pudéssemos primeiramente conhecer a concepção de literatura do autor, baseada no conceito de panteísmo. Em nosso corpus principal, constituído pelo conto "Pierre Menard, autor do Quixote" [Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote], publicado pela primeira vez em 1942 na obra O jardim dos caminhos que se bifurcam [El jardín de los senderos que se bifurcan], identificamos a atuação da personagem Pierre Menard...(Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônicoi abaixo) / Abstract: The aim of this study is to outline a reflection on the role of the reader in literature by setting a dialogue between the theory produced by Italian writer Umberto Eco (1932-) and a collection of writings by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1889-1986). We begin by looking into the approach of Eco’s theory to the role of the reader, sparing a moment to read selected chapters spanning his works Obra aberta (The Open Work), Lector in fabula (The Role of the Reader) and Os limites da interpretação (Limits of Interpretation), published in 1962, 1978, and 1990 respectively. From the contact with these works we learn that Eco’s theoretic conception of the role of the reader is based on a recognition of the model reader as a textual category which ushers the empirical reader through the reading path to follow. In order to complement this theoretical position, we make an approach to Borges’s views on the role of the reader as developing within fiction itself. But before that we deem it important to go about the essays "The Flower of Coleridge" [La flor de Coleridge] and "Partial Magic in the Quixote" [Magias parciales del Quijote], first published in 1952 in Other Inquisitions [Otras inquisiciones], and the short story "The Book of Sand" [El Libro de Arena], first published in 1975 in the work with the same title, so that we could first become familiar with the writer's concept of literature, based on the concept of pantheism. Looking at our main corpus, consisting of the short story "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" [Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote], first published in 1942 in The Garden of Forking Paths [El jardín de los senderos que se bifurcan], we find that the active role of character Pierre Menard impersonates the role of the reader of a piece of literature. We go on to trace this metaphorisation within the short story to a depiction of the transformation...(Complete abstract clik electronic access below) / Mestre

The teaching of literature in New South Wales secondary schools has shifted significantly in the period 1990-2001, influenced both by the newer literary theories and by the belated application to the teaching of Shakespeare of active approaches designed to encourage students to think dramatically, think theatrically when approaching playscripts. This essay explores the way in which the author's research papers and the pedagogical materials that they have generated have supported and indeed to some extent been instrumental in bringing about these changes. Beginning with an overview of literature teaching in secondary schools 1990, the essay identifies the questions which have driven the research over the past decade: 1/. Can Reader-Response Theory be made explicit to junior and middle secondary students? Would such knowledge be of value to them? 2/. Are there other aspects of modern literary theory that are worth exploring with secondary students? 3/. Can young readers be encouraged to reflect on their processes of response? Is such an endeavour worthwhile? 4/. How can the teaching of Shakespeare be improved? The last question led the author, during the period of candidature, to explore the puzzling question of why the pedagogy of teaching Shakespeare had lagged so far behind the methods employed in the teaching of other literature, and thus to an historical enquiry covering the teaching of Shakespeare over the past hundred years. At the same time, the author has been concerned to refine some of his teaching methods in order to encourage senior students to explore the plays from, for example, feminist, new historicist and post-colonial perspectives. / Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)