The purpose of this study is to examine the use of narrative devices in the fiction and collected non-fiction of Joan Didion in order to evaluate her abilities as a novelist and as a New journalist. The works considered include the novels Run River, Play It As It Lays, and The Book of Common Prayer; the non-fiction works include Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, and Salvador.The narrative devices examined are those essential to the sense of story in fiction: plot, character, setting, and point of view. The same devices are examined in the nonfiction works because of their similarity to what Tom Wolfe identifies as the characteristics of New Journalism: scene-by-scene construction, dialogue, third person point of view, and the detailing of status life.Conclusions1. Didion's fiction is weak. She combines narrative elements artificially rather than artistically. The plots in each novel are contrived, beset with problems of plausibility and insufficient character motivation. Didion's personal sensibility affects her fictive point of view, making it artificial and subjective. Setting has a disproportionate emphasis.2. In both genre Didion emphasizes a common theme: the effect of time and place on her own sensibility. Although this strengthens the non-fiction, it weakens the fiction. Her over-abundant use of setting details is appropriate in her non-fiction where the subject is herself in specific times and places. In the fiction the setting overshadows other narrative elements.3. Didion uses narrative devices effectively in her non-fiction. She exercises methods of developing characters and detailing setting in the non-fiction as well as, or better than, in her fiction. Her selection' and arrangement process creates a unity much like plot in fiction.4. Didion writes essays primarily. According to Wolfe's guidelines, only three of the works in her collected non-fiction qualify as New Journalism. Although she uses techniques of characterization, scene construction, and status life detail, Didion's point of view, with the exception of the three works, is the subjective perspective of the essayist.5. Didion writes better in the real world of nonfiction than she does in the imaginary world of fiction.

This dissertation studies the prosody, poetic theory, theme, and affective nature found in the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. The prosody, striking in his time, is still controversial; the theory employs the rhetorical principle of parallelism extensively, and the theme (which is the reason for the affective nature of his work) deals always with Christ: Christ in nature and Christ in man.The study lays emphasis on Hopkins' religious vision. These insights pervade all his work and are prime factors in his poetry. The vision gained from his religion appears throughout all his work.Although recent critics have suggested that the material of his great ode, "The Wreck of the Deutschland" was "recalcitrant" and that his symmetry was "laboured," explication of the poem reveals his early intense voice, sprung rhythm, and his use of the techniques of cynghanedd and dysfalu. His prosody reveals his sense of parallel structure (noted in his art work and in his journals as symmetry) which increased with "number and distinctiveness" with the rise of passion.His "dark night," noted in the sonnets written during 1884-85, have caused some readers to suspect a crisis of faith occurring. Hopkins experienced trauma, but the prolonged depression suggested by the present numbering of the sonnets is inconsistent with his unquestioned faith. The night becomes less dark if chronology is followed.Hopkins' deepest message was delivered in his poetry and throughout his life. As a Catholic priest, teacher, and poet, he sought Christ. Common knowledge informs us that emotional and physical hardships follow such seekers. Teilhard de Chardin's philosophy as ennobling is certainly applicable to any study of Hopkins' life and works. This philosophy provides supplementary confirmation of the poet. Hopkins' achievements surpass the prescriptive condemners of his art.

Often regarded as one of the eminent humanist directors working today, Japanese filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu has demonstrated consistent authorial intentions and thematic orientations throughout his filmography despite the variety of styles – from social documentary to period comedy – involved. Through in-depth textual analysis of his narrative strategies and exhaustive research on the English-language literature about the director, this study seeks to shed light on the first seven feature films in his career. Commentaries by Kore-eda on his creative impulse and filmmaking method, collected from both diverse sources of media interviews and insightful analyses published in academic journals, are meticulously examined. By taking a formalistic perspective, this thesis sets out to consolidate existing research in the field, while providing a systematic study that builds upon authoritative investigation. The study begins with an analysis of the filmmaking techniques utilised in Maborosi and Distance, both contemplative narratives that seek to capture the fragmented consciousness of the characters in mourning. With its seemingly naturalistic composition, Maborosi nonetheless presents a partially abstract narrative that is directly reflective of the grieving protagonist’s inner state. Distance, on the contrary, offers hints to the possible cause of the family members’ plans to join a religious cult and commit mass suicides – such as the emotional isolation in an urban society – while providing a final plot twist that confirms the slippery quality of any assumption. Both films imply that full comprehension of one’s family members is impossible. In the following chapter, the coherent authorial concerns in Kore-eda’s fourth to sixth feature – Nobody Knows, Hana and Still Walking – are illustrated along with his fascination with the process of forgetting. Kore-eda, who started out as a socio-documentarist, borrowed a real-life tragedy as the framework for Nobody Knows to construct a subversive take on the traditional perception of the Japanese family, extending a decidedly non-judgemental view on the irresponsible parents and celebrating the autonomy of the new generation. The solace of memory is highlighted in the anti-bushido comedy Hana, which is interpreted as Kore-eda’s protest against tradition and, by extension, the older generation. The director’s recurrent themes of broken promises, failed expectations and forgotten family legacies are highlighted with the slice-of-life domestic drama, Still Walking. The thesis then concludes with an analysis of the fantastic representations of the human condition in After Life and Air Doll, Kore-eda’s only two fantasy films to date. His use of quasi-realist documentary style in After Life facilitates a largely non-religious meditation on the importance of human co-dependence and recollection. The film’s metaphysical setting is compared to the absurd existence pondered in Albert Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus”, and its central premise – that the affirmation of one single memory can validate a person’s entire existence – is compared to Friedrich Nietzsche’s thesis of the eternal return. Also adopting the perspective of a non-human protagonist, Air Doll extends Kore-eda’s perception of the depressing prospects of modern life – substantiating the city dwellers’ pervasive sense of emptiness, while constantly looking for the beauty of living. / published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

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