'The Work of Art in Postwar Fiction 1945-2001' explores the responses of postwar novelists to visual art by focusing on the work of Samuel Beckett, William Gaddis, John Berger and W.G. Sebald. In doing so, it opens up a new approach to understanding the relationship between fiction and art in the postwar period as a whole, for what distinguishes these writers is that they use an engagement with visual art in order to historicize their own work as distinctly 'postwar' fiction. This thesis shows that in the writings of these novelists, long running aesthetic issues in the study of the relationship between text and image are reformulated and transformed: medium specificity; ekphrasis; and visual representation as a model for literary realism. Drawing throughout on original archival research, The Work of Art in Postwar Fiction 1945-2001 traces what T.J. Clark terms the 'processes of conversion and relation' between art, its contexts and its commentators, and it is by studying these mediations that the literary consequences of the work of art for these writers are shown. With a historicizing approach throughout, and an interest in the ways in which postwar novelists mediate their engagement with art through history, this thesis contributes to a new understanding of the literature and art of the postwar era, or what Amy Hungerford has called 'the period formerly known as contemporary'. This thesis offers a revisionary account of a relationship previously subsumed under the dominant logic of postmodernism, which according to Fredric Jameson was defined by a 'waning of historicity'. In returning historicity as method and theme to the study of the relationship between literature and art since 1945, The Work of Art in Postwar Fiction 1945-2001 shows the diverse ways in which postwar writers historicized their writing, and reflected on their techniques, in dialogue with visual art. Concerning itself with the distinct challenges posed by focusing on what Hannah Ardent called the 'most recent' past, this thesis also develops new ways of thinking more broadly about the relationships between literature, art and history. Chapter 1, 'Reviewing Postwar Fiction', situates this thesis within recent debates in literary studies surrounding what Mark McGurl has termed a discipline-wide 'hegemony of history'. Chapter 2, on Samuel Beckett, argues that Beckett's postwar art criticism responds to a specific strand of Marxist humanist aesthetics developed after the war, and it studies Beckett's manuscripts to show the relationship between this criticism and the composition of The Unnamable. Chapter 3 discusses William Gaddis's 1955 novel The Recognitions, arguing that the novel pivots around some of the central cruxes of postwar American aesthetic debate: Clement Greenberg's theory of abstraction, and Michael Fried's identification of the problem of 'art and objecthood'. Chapter 4 discusses the work of the British art critic and novelist, John Berger. It shows that Berger's critical account of Cubism shaped the narrative forms of his novels A Painter of Our Time and G., and that these narrative innovations were central to his theory of the artistic and revolutionary 'moment'. Chapter 5 focuses on the relationship between photography, painting and aesthetics in the work of W. G. Sebald. It argues that aesthetic concepts such as 'the readymade' and 'objective chance' offer a better account of Sebald's engagement with art than accounts which draw on trauma theory. The thesis concludes with a short discussion of how the writers studied in this thesis have influenced the contemporary fiction of Jonathan Franzen, Teju Cole, and Tom McCarthy.

Literary works and other manifestations that demonstrate, disseminate or stimulate the practice of extremely brief narrative texts have increasingly been gaining ground in the 21st-century. This phenomenon, which varies in intensity depending on the country - seemingly more substantial in the American continent and more timid in European countries - has ramifications more or less on a global scale. Naturally, there has been, over the last few decades, a greater awareness of the dissemination of this type of productions, thanks to the visibility that new information technology, above all the Internet, has afforded. This tendency, however, just like any other human activity, is bound to have antecedents. To analyse its roots may help us to understand its relevance today. The research carried out here has as its object of study extremely brief narrative texts produced in Portugal. It focuses on a period of time which, it will be argued, is of utmost importance for the presence of micro-narratives in the Portuguese literary landscape: the period situated between the dawn of modernism at the beginning of the 1910s and the post-revolutionary moment when Ana Hatherly publishes the third volume of her overarching project entitled Tisanas, in 1980.

Virginia Woolf's writing is aesthetically complex, politically engaged, and remains relevant today - an astonishing achievement. This thesis begins by asking how and why this is the case, and thinks through Woolf's relationship to history as a means of suggesting some answers. References to the past abound in Woolf's fiction in the form of meaningful names, stories, myths, and national histories. I am especially interested in allusions that are not immediately obvious, but still work to convey something about human nature. These were sometimes inspired by artifacts in museums, or by articles in magazines or newspapers, or literature she owned, or borrowed, or was being written by her contemporaries - sources that a careful researcher can track down. Other references are more difficult to prove; for example, they may have come from travel experiences related by friends, or personal experiences not recorded in her diary. In this case we need to balance circumstantial evidence, common sense, and an understanding of the spirit and concerns of the age. In the first chapter I highlight Woolf's early interest in the tension between fact and fiction as it is expressed in her 1906 short story, "The Journal of Mistress Joan Martyn". The chapter serves as way of demonstrating my process. I point out the interplay between form, content, and autobiography that is in her other work. In short, a good deal of what is imagined may have been inspired by personal experience and real historical material. The next three chapters reveal new character types and source material for Jacob's Room, To the Lighthouse, and The Waves - the novels in which Woolf worked out what I have called her "mythical method". I end by inviting scholars to reconsider tensions in her work such as fact and fiction, self and other, art and politics from a new angle: not only as thematic preoccupations but also as crucial to thinking of - to borrow from Gertrude Stein - composition as a form of explanation. Woolf's project in fiction was to figure out what modernism can and should do. Although it is not necessary for all readers to do the kind of research demonstrated here in order to understand the novels, having an awareness of this work is important. This new way of looking at how and why Woolf wrote both in and outside of time as part of the process of composition makes us think again about the reasons that we should care so much about "Mrs. Brown". It helps us appreciate that the project of conveying both the ephemeral and temporal qualities of human experience is what makes the study of literary modernism (and its current global, transnational forms) a dynamic, political, and expanding phenomenon today.

This thesis examines the way in which children's adventure fiction makes use of Gothic features, how these features have been modified for a younger audience and how these modifications have been influenced by other developments in children's and popular fiction: Chapter One sets out to define the nature of Gothic and isolate those aspects of it relevant to the proposed study. It puts forward a theory to account for the movement of Gothic trends into later children's fiction. Chapter Two examines the use of landscape, setting and atmospheric effects in Gothic and the way in which children's fiction has used similar trappings to create similar effects. Children's fiction, emphasising pleasurable excitement rather than fear has, however, muted these effects somewhat and played down the role of the supernatural, so intrinsic to Gothic. Chapter Three emphasises the Gothic's use of stereotypes, focusing on the portrayal of heroes and heroines. Those of children's fiction are portrayed very similarly to those of Gothic and the chapter compares and, on occasion, contrasts them noting, inter alia, their adherence to rigid moral codes and narrowly defined norms of masculine and feminine behaviour. Chapter Four looks at the portrayal of villains and the way in which their appearance defines them as such (as, indeed, does that of heroes and heroines). It examines in some detail their relationship to and interaction with the heroes and heroines, noting, for example, the 'pseudo-parental' role of villains who are characteristically older and in socially approved positions to exert power over heroes and heroines. The Conclusion addresses the fantasy aspect of these novels,referred to several times in passing in the course of earlier chapters, and comments on how the features detailed in Chapters Two, Three and Four all operate within the conventions of a fantasy.

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Die roman Ons is nie almal so nie (1990) deur Jeanne Goosen word aangebied in 'n realistiese (oftewel tradisionele) vertelvorm. Feministiese vakkundigheid verwys na die narratiewe tipe as patriargaal of fallosentries. As sodanig, is daar 'n ingrypende verskil tussen die vertelwyse van hierdie teks en die van die outeur se vroeere tekste. Hierdie verskuiwing dien as stimulus vir 'n evaluasie van bogenoemde teks binne 'n raamwerk van die feministiese literere teorie en kritiek. Genoemde verskuiwing beteken ook 'n behoefte na 'n ondersoek van die feministiese literatuur en vakkunde in verhouding tot die heersende manlike "stem" van tradisionele redevoering. Dit word beklemtoon dat elkeen van die feministiese teoretiese standpunte die onvoorwaardelike politieke doelstellings van alle feministiese tekste aan die lig bring. Daar word onder andere te kenne gegee dat patriargale mag nie net op persoonlike vlak voorkom nie, maar ook op die vlak van instellings en sosiale gebruike. Patriargale beheer is dus nie 'n onveranderliknatuurlike gegewe nie; dit is vatbaar vir teoretiese analise en praktiese wysiging. Vanwee die feministiese literere teoriee se preokkupasie met patriargale mag, word hierdie teoriee dikwels gekritiseer as synde onbetrokke by strydvrae ten opsigte van rassisme en klasseverdeling. Dit word erken dat die feministiese literere kritiek die geskil met betrekking tot seksisme moet transendeer; dat die toekoms van die feministiese literere teoriee gelee is in 'n deurdringende gesprekvoering met materialisme. Dit is die uitdruklike doelstelling van die marxisties-feministiese kritiese standpunt om rekening te hou, nie net met vraagpunte ten opsigte van taal en "gender" nie, maar ook van klas en ras. Goosen se teks is besonder ontvanklik vir 'n ondersoek van hierdie verwante probleme. * * * The novel Ons is nie almal so nie (1990) by Jeanne Goosen is presented in a realistic (or traditional) narrative form. In feminist terms this narrative form is referred to as patriarchal or phallocentric. As such, the text differs radically from the narrative mode in which the author's previous texts are presented. This shift invites an assessment of the text within a framework of feminist theory and criticism. Moreover, it indicates the need for an investigation into the relationship of feminist literature and scholarship to the dominant male voice of traditional discourse. It is stressed that each of the feminist theoretical positions reveals the unreservedly political purpose of all feminist writing. It is further suggested that patriarchal power exists in institutions and social practices, not merely in individual intentions. Patriarchal power is therefore not a part of immutable nature, but open to effective theoretical analyses and practical change. Due to their preoccupation with patriarchal power, feminist literary theories are often criticised as being blind to issues of race and/or class. It is recognised that feminist literary theory must transcend the issue of sexism; that its future lies in a far more articulated dialogue with materialism. The express purpose of the marxist-feminist critical position is to take into account questions not only of language and gender, but also of class and race. Goosen's text is particularly receptive to an exploration of these interrelated problems.

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M.A. (Afrikaans) / In this study the place of the death poem as genre and particularly its incidence in Afrikaans is traced. Because the corpus of poems about death is so comprehensive, a distinction is made between two significant categories: death poetry in general and death poetry with specific regard to the death of a beloved, especially with reference to a close relative. For the purpose of this study the latter is dealt with. It is established that the death poem referring to the death of a close relative has in almost every known literature been responsible not only for some of the most touching poems, but also for some of the best. In certain Iiteratures particular conventions in connection with . the death poem have crystallized. In others the theme of death has found unrestrained expression. A comparative study and an assessment of value are the two most important methods that were used in this study to ascertain the place of the death poem in literature. The death poem can be classified under several categories, each of which has contributed to a greater or lesser degree to the genre of the death poem. The category of the beloved deceased, especially the beloved close relative is emphasized in this particular study. Most poets have contributed to the corpus of the death poem, but Totius, Elisabeth Eybers, D.J. Opperman and T.T. Cloete, each representing one of the great literary eras in Afrikaans, have contributed the best death poems. It appears from the comparative study that there has been a qualitative improvement in this genre.

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Entreprenant l'étude du Roman Catholique Contemporain, nous nous sommes heurté à plusieurs difficultés. Comment maintenir un titre que renieraient les auteurs des romans que nous abordions? Uhamimement, faisant écho à la voix de Francois Mauriac, quelques décades plus tôt ils, déclarent qu'ils ne sont pas des romanciers catholiques mais des catholiques qui font des romans, rejetant une étiquette qui engagerait d'autres que leur propre personne. Comment, pourtant, choisir un titre qui ne correspondît pas à la vraie nature de ce qui devait être exposé? Nous avons donc décidé de nous en tenir à notre idée première, tout en avertissant qu'un romancier catholique ne se veut pas le porte-parole certifié de l'Eglise mais est un écrivain qui transpose dans son oeuvre le résultat de son experience et sa réflexion personnelle, éclairée à la lumiere de sa foi. Le second probleme était celui des limites à imposer à ce travail. II s'est révélé impossible d'examiner d'une facon exhaustive, une production littéraire trop vaste. Un choix s'est imposé. Nous avons, en accord avec les critiques éprouvés, résolu de porter notre attention sur les cinq auteurs les plus marquants: Roger Bésus, Jean Cayrol, Gilbert Cesbron, Luc Estang, et Paul-André Lesort. Là encore, le champ se découvrait trop vaste et il fallait se restreindre. Une nouvelle question surgissait: "Quels romans retenir dans la sélection définitive?" Nous avons inclus délibérément les premiers ouvrages en date, lorsque la critique, ne les présentait pas comme médiocres. Nous avons inscrit aussi les derniers, puisque celui qui fait le point, prolonge toujours sa courbe jusqu'aux données les plus récentes. Pour le reste, nous avons fait fond sur le jugement des sociétés littéraires et nous avons opté pour les publications primées par leur jury. Lorsque ce procédé restait insuffisant, nous nous en sommes encore remis, pour les additions supplémentaires, à l'opinion de la critique, conditionnant autant que possible notre choix au pro-rata de la production romanesque totale de chaque auteur, et prenant soin de ne mutiler en aucun cas un diptyque ou un triptyque. C'est ainsi que la liste des ouvrages sélectionnés se présente comme suit: [ … ] / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate