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The Recurrence of Rhythm is an inquiry into the notion that the voice flows ??? a theme that continually recurs in the Homeric poems, Plato's Cratylus and James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses. Through a re-interpretation of the meaning of rhythmos in pre-Socratic philosophy, I define rhythm as the particular manner in which the voice is flowing, and argue that it is the specific quality of phonetic writing to represent the flowing aspect of the voice. The Greek concept of rhythmos is held to be inseparable from the invention of phonetic writing and the transcription of the Homeric poems, and it is this new definition of rhythm that allows the thesis to engage in contemporary debates concerning the relationship between speech and writing (as developed by Derrida, Ong, Havelock, Parry, Lord and Prier). I also argue that the Platonic concept of rhythm qua metre provides an essential point of mediation between the Greek oral tradition and the history of Western literature, a move that sets the scene for a comparative study of Homer and Joyce. By developing an original concept of recurrence that pertains to both the repetition of themes in the Homeric poems and the heroic experience of living for the sake of the story, this thesis proposes that rhythm and recurrence are interrelated concepts that distinguish the lyrical and dramatic modes that structure the epic form of narrative found in both Homer's poems and Joyce's novels. Drawing upon the esthetic philosophy of Stephen Dedalus, I develop the dialectical theory of genre first outlined by Joyce in the Paris notebook, and argue that the latent lyricism contained in the narrative style of A Portrait is a proto-typical form of the interior monologue found in Ulysses. In opposition to the early modernist paradigm of Joyce criticism, this thesis rejects the notion that mythic archetypes function as Platonic ideals (i.e. the transcendent form of the modernist artwork), but rather holds that heroic themes recur in the mental stream of the modern subject, and manifest themselves immediately through Joyce???s use of the interior monologue technique.

In his works, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Ulysses (1922), James Joyce demonstrates what he perceives to be the paralyzing effects of those institutionalized religions that sit at the center of cultures. Drawing on Michel Foucault's analysis of institutional dressage as well as his use of Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon prison in Discipline and Punish (1981), this thesis argues that Joyce's portrait of the Catholic Church's influence on Irish culture is his attempt to display its ubiquitous and inextricable power. In both works, Joyce focuses on the internalization of this power which emanates from the physical manifestations of the Church's presence, the strict tenets of its doctrine, and its concept of an omnipotent, omniscient God who, embodied in an individual's conscience, becomes the perfect "surveillant." Tracing the influence of Catholic dressage on his first protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, who unequivocally abandons the Catholic faith in A Portrait, Joyce reveals the overwhelming power that the Church held over the cultural consciousness of Ireland, an influence rivaled solely by the British colonial powers. Similarly, in Ulysses, Joyce introduces Leopold Bloom, the Jewish Other, who stands outside the institutional structure of the Church and provides a removed but critical perspective on the Catholic rituals and beliefs which, according to Joyce, were intricately woven into the Irish Weltanschauung. Indeed, while Joyce's critique of the Church's power is clearly evident in the narrative of the novel, in a larger context this criticism is directed at the stifling effects of all institutional powers on individual consciousness. Similarly, Foucault's cultural theories examine the intricacies of such power within a culture and their effect on the individual, who, in short, is a product of these elements. This thesis explores these dynamics in Joyce's works to further understand his position as one of the central novelists of the twentieth century. / Graduation date: 1997

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The postmodern is characterised by an incredulity towards the universal truths which mark modernity. Kuki Shuzo, like many intellectuals in Japan during the twenties and thirties, anticipates this discourse by attempting to confront the hegemonic claims and universal pretensions of modernity. Using the latest European methodologies, Kuki attempted to define a site of difference--a site that could escape the putative universality of Western modes of dealing with historical development and consciousness--through a particular reading of cultural artefacts, especially Edo poetry and painting. Yet Kuki would ultimately locate this special site within the temporal, spatial, and subjective boundaries of the modern nation implicating the geopolitics of modernity and providing an interesting context to study the complicity of art, ideology, and aesthetics in modern discourse.

This thesis is an examination and assessment of the life and work of Evelyn Underhill. Particular emphasis is given to the development of her thought after she had written the classic, Mysticism: a Study in the Nature of Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness. / After more than a decade of being virtually a non-communicating Roman Catholic, Underhill returned to the church of her baptism and confirmation, the Church of England. / The "shift" in her thought which led to this decision and subsequent commitment resulted in what she herself called her "vocation." This was followed by an involvement in the retreat movement and in an increase in the task of that classic art, called in the church, the "cure of souls." / To her writings on philosophy and religion she added collections of retreat addresses. Together with the correspondence between Underhill and Friedrich von Hugel, many of her works offer an important contribution to spirituality today--its history, theory and practice.

The remarkable challenges Finnegans Wake offers to its readers and to the very process of reading are the results of an evolution of Nonsense literature. Despite the unduly "serious" framework of criticism which has been built up around it, Joyce's anomalous last work is a radical "hoax" upon interpretation. The regular confluences of linguistic deconstruction (via word association as well as recurring word and phrase matrices) and ontological metaphor, developed from authors such as Rabelais, Sterne, and Lewis Carroll, are offered by the Wake as tests to the reader's (qua reader) sensibilities. As Nonsense, Finnegans Wake departs from typified modernist modus operandi (metonymic allusion) and instead explores the limits of metaphor. The stakes of Joyce's hoax are of vital interest to the contemporary student of literature and culture, since the Wake dares the reader to find new meanings rather than to project old ones; to exult its eccentricities and its difference; and all the while to call into question (as the text itself does), its authenticity and authority.

In the first segment of the critical part of my thesis, my thought lays on "L'art du roman" of Virginia Woolf. In the second part, while recognizing certain qualities in the critical work of the English writer, I take side in favor of the literary theories of Celine and Sartre. In the last part of this text, I am exposing my views according to which the Quebec's literature would have greater advantage of being more "engage". The creating part of my thesis takes shape as a "roman engage". The story is about a disillusioned nationalist Quebecer, graduate and unemployed, who decides to change his personality to be like an English Canadian to better start his career in Toronto. Though all the sustained efforts he made to become Canadian, he realizes that he is first and above Quebecer. In ... Dent pour dent, the political message plays a fundamental role, but the esthetical aspects like humor, repetition and rythm are in the first place.

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