The legibility of the digitized copy is limited due to the quality of the original document. McMaster Digitization Centre, 18 March 2019. / The original document does not provide an abstract. McMaster Digitization Centre, 18 March 2019. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Lo héroes trágicos son los seleccionados para llevar una vida extraordinaria llena de aventuras y retos. Sin embargo, hacia el cumplimiento de su objetivo, ellos deben seguir un camino dramático, uno que no pueden elegir, sino que estará impuesto por el hado. Es por ello que ningún héroe trágico es portador de la felicidad ni de la buena ventura, su final siempre ha de ser funesto. Por ello, nos preguntamos: ¿todos los héroes trágicos seguirán el mismo camino hacia la inevitabilidad de su desdicha? La muerte es la culminación del camino recorrido por el héroe trágico y es, al mismo tiempo, la redención de sus faltas, pues a lo largo de su camino dramático ha cometido muchas: es soberbio y tirano, y conoce el alcance de su poder y lo maneja a su conveniencia. Es así que la imagen de los héroes trágicos ha ejercido fascinación en nosotros, desde un comienzo con el mito de Edipo. Su representación teatral nos demuestran lo temible que es el destino. El hado está marcado y mientras más se alejen los héroes de su destino, más próximos estarán de encontrar su desgarrador final. Es así que Edipo se ha convertido en el arquetipo del héroe trágico por excelencia.

The worlds of Dickens's novels and of Darwin's science reveal striking similarity in spite of their involvement in different areas. The similarity comes from the fact that they shared the ethos of Victorian society: laissez-faire capitalism. In The Origin of Species, which was published on 1859, Charles Darwin theorizes that nature has evolved through the rules of natural selection, survival of the fittest, and the struggle for existence. Although his conclusion comes from the scientific evidence that was acquired from his five-year voyage, it is clear that Dawinian nature is reflected in cruel Victorian capitalism. Three novels of Charles Dickens which were published around 1859, Bleak House, Hard Times, and Our Mutual Friend, share Darwinian aspects in their fictional worlds. In Bleak House, the central image, the Court of Chancery as the background of the novel, resembles Darwinian nature which is anti-Platonic in essence. The characters in Hard Times are divided into two groups: the winners and the losers in the arena of survival. The winners survive in Coketown, and the losers disappear from the city. The rules controlling the fates of Coketown people are the same as the rules of Darwinian nature. Our Mutual Friend can be interpreted as a matter of money. In the novel, everything is connected with money, and the relationship among people is predation to get money. Money is the central metaphor of the novel and around the money, the characters kill and are killed like the nature of Darwin in which animals kill each other. When a dominant ideology of a particular period permeates ingredients of the society, nobody can escape the controlling power of the ideology. Darwin and Dickens, although they worked in different areas, give evidence that their works are products of the ethos of Victorian England.

The nineteenth century was a time of rapid change, brought about by increasing industrial development and changing patterns of thought and belief. Dickens's attitude to industrialism was ambivalent. He was not averse to progress, but feared that the ills of society would remain overshadowed. This dissertation explores representations of loss in Bleak House and examines some of the challenges the subject presents. The first chapter concentrates on examples of the wide range of losses with which Dickens deals in the novel to create the cumulative impression of individuals and a nation existing in a state of chaos and decay. Chapter Two focuses on the loss of physical life and the state of death-in-life. Chapter Three deals with the narrative techniques which Dickens uses to represent loss in the novel. / English Studies / M.A.

No description available.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study comprises a comparative visual analysis of three picture books, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, Posy Simmonds and Edward Gorey. The illustrators reinterpret the cautionary tale, Matilda, who told lies and was burned to death by Hilaire Belloc (1908). Not only does this study present a brief historical overview of the genre but it also interrogates the manner in which different styles of illustration underscore the pedagogical didactic narrative. The visual interpretations of these three illustrators are compared in order to establish whether or not they have succeeded in sustaining the subversive or grotesque elements of this cautionary tale. Belloc’s narrative as well as the illustrations are analysed in terms of gender. I discuss my own version of Belloc’s cautionary tale as a parody of this tale that serves to exaggerate the sometimes overt gendering of girl characters in cautionary tales. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie skripsie behels die visuele analise van drie verskillende prenteboeke, onderskeidelik geillustreer deur Steven Kellogg, Posy Simmonds en Edward Gorey. Al drie illustreerders bied ʼn visuele herinterpretasie aan van die vermaan-vers Matilda, who told lies and burned to death deur Hilaire Belloc. Die skripsie bied nie net ʼn geskiedkundige oorsig oor die genre nie, maar ondersoek die manier waarop verskillende illustrasie-style die opvoedkundige, didaktiese narratief onderstreep. Die illustreerders se prenteboeke word vergelyk en daar word vasgestel of hulle daarin geslaag het om die subversiewe en selfs groteske elemente in hierdie vermaan-verhaal te behou. Belloc se narratief en die illustrasie daarvan is ook in terme van gender geanaliseer. Ek bespreek my eie weergawe van Belloc se vermaan-verhaal, wat ek aanbied as ʼn parodie om die soms duidelike “gendering” van meisie-karakters in vermaan-verhale te oordryf.

This dissertation deals with the symbolic uses of the prominent old houses in selected fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, and Henry James. The major texts include Hawthorn's "Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure," The House of Seven Gables, and Doctor Grimshawe's Secret; Dicken's Bleak House, Great Expectations, and Little Dorrit; and James's The Portrait of a Lady, "The Jolly Corner," and The Sense of the Past. The introductory chapter of the dissertation points out the importance of the house in nineteenth-century fiction. To a century which was obsessed with time and particularly fascinated by the past, the house could serve as a literary symbol of the past and aid in the investigation of the relation of a character to the past he has experienced and the past he remembers with various degrees of accuracy. For Hawthorne, Dickens, and James the house is always more than inanimate space. It is linked by imagination and memory to the past. Chapter II identifies and defines the house of the imagined past. The house has a name and a long history which illuminates the present situation of the inhabitants. All three authors draw freely from the gothic tradition to fill the houses with old relics, curses, secrets, sins, and treasures from the past. Seeking the treasure--hidden gold in some cases, self-knowledge in others--the characters keep the past alive in their old houses. The character in the house of the imagined past is often fragmented because he does not understand or accept his relation with his own past. Time inside the house of the past is arbitrary. The past, or certain imagined or remembered portions of it dominate the space. Chapter III concerns the functions of the house. First, the actual fact of the house's existence generates action in the works. Second, the physical relation to his house suggests aspects of the character's spiritual state. The characters search and probe, even assault their houses, seeking themselves. Third, all three authors continually emphasize parallels between houses and people. Characters voluntarily imprison themselves in their houses just as they willingly imprison themselves in their interpretations of the past. The house also suggests that the past lives into and influences the present by means of heredity and environment. In addition, the physical state of the house mirrors the spiritual state of the characters: morally sick people inhabit decaying houses. Even further, houses become animated, metonymic representations of their inhabitants. The house of the past, then, projects or represents the character's mind. In Chapter IV I deal with the final return to and departure from the house of the imagined past. Finally the characters recognize the imprisoning nature of their obsessions and can then leave the house of the past or as happens in many cases, can be rescued by a woman who lives in the present. Hawthorne's characters turn their backs on the past with relief and turn to the present. Dickens's characters must know the past, accept it, and build on it, not simply turn away as Hawthorne's characters do. James allows his characters to close the door of the house of the past behind them if they can find love in the present. If domestic happiness is impossible, however, the broad human past can offer imagined solace and relief. The final chapter points out that Hawthorne, Dickens, and James, like many other authors, recognize archetypal and psychological relationships between a human and the space he inhabits. They use the house to understand the self, especially in relation to the past.

The dissertation is a biography of the industrialist and statesman Christian Lundeberg, a leading and stongly pronounced conservative actor in Swedish political life during the decades around1900, but nowadays almost forgotten. The purpose is to identify the main forces – convictions as well as external factors – behind his actions. He was very influential within  a range of important sectors, i.a. compulsory national service, repeated interventions to keep the iron ore of Norrland under Swedish ownership,  establishment of a regular conservative party and the decision on the vote to right (for men) in 1907. His most well-known action was as Swedish Prime Minister and head architect behind the peaceful dissolution in 1905 of the union with Norway. However for a long time biographies have not been regarded as ”real” scientific work within the concerned academic Swedish circles. For this reason the introductory chapter analyses these discussions  and  concludes that time now is ready for the genre to come in from the cold , enumerating six criteria regarded to be of paramount importance. These are being observed in the consecutive parts of the study. The following chapter studies the concept of paternalism as defined within Swedish professional circles, forming a background to the remaining parts of the dissertation. In their turn these present thorough reviews both of Lundeberg’s activities as a paternalistic foundry proprietor in the local family owned community of Forsbacka and of his contributions on the central political level. The final chapter summarizes the driving forces behind Lundeberg’s activities in stating that he was not an ultraconservative person, a priori opposing all progress.  Instead as the years passed he developed a clear readiness for compromise solutions. Three key concepts are said to be central to the understanding of his person: “Fatherland”, ”Responsibility” and “Duty”.  Throughout all his life he adhered to many of the paternalistic principles and values he learnt at an early age in Forsbacka. His present anonymity is explained  by the fact that he in a retrospective very often is considered as being defeated in a number of political convictions now regarded as important.

This investigation sought to compare the transcription techniques of two pianist-composers, Godowsky and Liszt, using three Schubert lieder as examples. The lieder were "Das Wandern" from Die Schöne Müllerin, "Gute Nacht" from Winterreise, and "Liebesbotschaft" from Schwanengesang. They were compared using four criteria: tonality, counterpoint, timbral effects, and harmony. Liszt, following a practice common in the nineteenth century, was primarily concerned with bringing new music into the home of the domestic pianist. The piano transcription was the most widely used and successful medium for accomplishing this. Liszt also frequently transcribed pieces of a particular composer in order to promulgate them by featuring them in his recitals. The Schubert lieder fall into this category. Liszt did not drastically alter the original in these compositions. Indeed, in the cases of "Liebesbotschaft" and "Das Wandern," very little alteration beyond the incorporation of the melody into the piano accompaniment, occurs.Godowsky, in contrast, viewed the transcription as a vehicle for composing a new piece. He intended to improve upon the original by adding his own inspiration to it. Godowsky was particularly ingenious in adding counterpoint, often chromatic, to the original. Examples of Godowsky's use of counterpoint can be found in "Das Wandern" and "Gute Nacht." While Liszt strove to remain faithful to Schubert's intentions, Godowsky exercised his ingenuity at will, being only loosely concerned with the texture and atmosphere of the lieder. "Gute Nacht" and "Liebesbotschaft" are two examples that show how far afield Godowsky could stray from the original by the addition of chromatic voicing and counterpoint. Godowsky*s compositions can be viewed as perhaps the final statement on the possibilities of piano writing in the traditional sense. As such these works deserve to be investigated and performed.

This study proposes to establish an intrinsic relationship between Valle-Inclán and Muñiz based on the theme of dehumanization in their theater. It examines (1) the stylistic techniques which each playwright uses to depersonalize his characters, (2) the manner in which these characters dehumanize each other, (3) the role of society as the agent of dehumanization, and finally, due to each author's preoccupation with one social convention in particular (4) the devastating effects on men of the vestiges of an outmoded code of honor. The principal works used for the study are Valle-Inclán's Martes de carnaval, Luces de Bohemia, and Divinas palabras, and El tintero, Un solo de saxofón, Las viejas difíciles, and El grillo by Carlos Muñiz. Such an analysis proposes to reveal a profound literary affinity between these two writers, a bond which unites Valle-Inclán and Muñiz in a common protest against the dehumanization of mankind.