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Jenny Holzer's text-based projects have attracted the attention of critics, historians, and curators from Des Moines to Dresden. An understanding of the complex interplay between language, gender, power, and site within Holzer's work demonstrates how a singular interpretive approach is insufficient for discussing the multitude of meanings her projects produce. Perhaps most significantly, a fresh analysis of Holzer's work and critical reactions to it challenges the story of modernism and postmodernism and the relationship between these two terms.

This study examines the political theory of modernity as it appears in the work of contemporary Latin American writers and thinkers (pensadores). It is designed to help bridge the gap that separates the North American and European dialogue on modernity from the parallel dialogue on modernity currently flourishing in Latin America. The dialogues are brought together in two ways. First, the theory of modernity, which is still often thought to apply only or primarily to the developed world, is subjected to the challenge of the Latin American political and cultural context. Many features of the theory are found to apply equally well to both cultures, and these features provide the basis for the second "bridging" of the two dialogues, in which some of the most interesting Latin American responses to the problems of modernity are brought to the attention of North American and European political scholars. After reviewing the problem of modernity in some depth, the work of Jose Ortega y Gasset is presented both as a link to German philosophical thought and as a pattern for subsequent discussion of modernity in the Spanish-speaking world. Ortega's uniquely Latin way of understanding modernity is then compared to other philosophical approaches, and placed within the context of political literature in Latin America. Literature is shown to be a uniquely suitable forum for conveying Ortega's approach to modernity because it expresses in itself the central role of arts and culture in his political thought. The balance of the study focuses on the works of three contemporary Latin American authors: Octavio Paz of Mexico, Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Colombia, and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru. Each author's major works are placed within the context of the model Latin American response to modernity inspired by Ortega and analyzed for significant contributions to the discussion of modernity. Their most important insights center around the need to assimilate the value of tradition in a new approach to modernity by means of some form of democratic dialogue combined with critical appreciation for the cultural uniqueness of nations.

This thesis examines Ezra Pound's linguistic theory in relation to literary, philosophical and academic treatments of language in the modernist period. Pound is a central figure in the history of twentieth century literature, and his poetic career marks a sustained engagement with questions of how language can register thought, how it can transmit and communicate images, and, ultimately, how language is able to mediate between artists (or, indeed, language speakers as a whole) and the world. I read Pound's statements on language against the disciplinary history of linguistics, assessing the extent to which his positions are representative of his period, or, conversely, the ways in which they form part of an idiosyncratic worldview. My approach is broadly historical. I begin with Pound's educational background, and move chronologically through his career to the concluding passages of his Cantos. I investigate the extent to which Pound's critical writing engages with new departures taking place in linguistics in the late nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century. The scope of my investigation ranges from the legacy of nineteenth century philology to the approaches taken by William Dwight Whitney, Michel Bréal, and Ferdinand de Saussure, to name but a few, in focusing linguistic scholarship on synchronic study of language as function in the early twentieth century, to Franz Boas's and Edward Sapir's studies in the relationship between language and culture between 1910 and 1939. In situating Pound in relation to the history of linguistics as a discipline, I argue that his work asks some of the period's most apposite questions about language and culture, even if his conclusions differ from the dominant academic positions of the time.

Space constitutes one of the main leitmotifs of Czeslaw Milosz's work, both theoretical and poetic. Central in this respect is the notion of imagination as a faculty organizing space, the faculty which, from the times of the Scientific Revolution, has been subject to erosion, especially as far as the religious imagination is concerned. The abolition of the anthropocentric, hierarchical vision of space, threw human beings into a state of alienation, conceptual nowhere. Religion was replaced by the dogmatism of scientific reductionism, the reality of Ulro. Milosz shows the way out of Ulro, the way out of nowhere to the somewhere. This thesis aims to illustrate the conceptual map of the way out of Ulro as portrayed in four selected volumes of poetry and the novel Dolina Issy, anchored in different points of Milosz's biography. The Land of Ulro, the collection of essays which encapsulate Milosz's ideas on space, constitutes a canopy work for the interpretation of the practical realization of those ideas in Milosz's poetic work. Trzy zimy (1936), Swiat, poema naiwne (1943), Miasto bez imienia (1969), and Druga przestrzen (2002) provide the material for the analysis of different aspects of Milosz's conception of space. Subject to analysis is the relationship between object and human subject as regards the formative, childhood experience of the space of the house (manor) and surrounding landscape, the act of building space on the basis of memory and retrospection in the context of distance and exile, and the workings of religious imagination in the context of the realm of second space. Through his conception of space, Milosz defends human existence in its completeness. He shows the way out of Ulro. This thesis aims to retrace Milosz's map out of the land of alienation on the basis of the poet's selected works.

This thesis investigates acts of ‘re-telling’ in four selected novels by Jeanette Winterson and Alan Warner.Re-telling, as I have defined it, refers to the re-imagining and re-writing of existing narratives from mythology, fairy tale, and folktale, as well as the re-visioning of scientific discourses and historiography. I argue that this re-telling is representative of a contemporary cultural phenomenon, and is evidence of a postmodern genre that some literary theorists have termed re-visionary fiction. Despite the prevalent re-telling of canonical stories throughout literary history, there is much evidence for the emergence of a specifically contemporary trend of re-visionary literature. Part One of this thesis comprises two chapters which deal with Winterson’s Sexing the Cherry (1989) and Weight (2005) respectively. In these chapters, I argue that, although the feminist and historiographic elements of her work are significant, there exist further motivations for Winterson’s acts of re-telling in both Sexing the Cherry and Weight. In Chapter One, I analyse Winterson’s subversion and re-imagining of historiography, as well as her re-telling of fairy tale, in Sexing the Cherry. Chapter Two provides a discussion of Winterson’s re-telling of the myth of Atlas from Greek mythology, in which she draws on the discourses of science, technology, and autobiography, in Weight. Part Two focuses on Warner’s first two novels, Morvern Callar (1995) and These Demented Lands (1997). In both novels, Warner re-imagines aspects of Christian, Celtic and pagan mythology in order to debunk the validity of biblical archetypes and narratives in a contemporary working-class setting, as well as to endow his protagonist with goddess-like or mythical sensibilities. Chapter Three deals predominantly with Warner’s use of language, which I argue is central to his blending of mythological and contemporary content, while Chapter Four analyses his use of myth in these two novels. This thesis argues that while both Winterson and Warner share many of the aims associated with contemporary re-visionary fiction, their novels also exceed the boundaries of the genre in various ways. Winterson and Warner may, therefore, represent a new class of re-visionary writers, whose aim is not solely to subvert the pre-text but to draw on its generic discourses and thematic conventions in order to demonstrate the generic and discursive possibilities inherent in the act of re-telling.

How does a poet fare nowadays at the hands of his critics? This study examines the critical reception Auden received from 1930 to 1960; through a close consideration of a selection of the poems written in this period it will be demonstrated that a considerble discrepency exists between Auden's poetic achievement and. the criticism it received. The main reason for this discrepancy is the lack of attention to individual poems in favour of sweeping surveys of a volume of poetry or the poet's total output. The core of the thesis lies here and the thesis as a whole derives from concern for a poet's reputation during his poetic career.

In 'n hoofstuk getiteld In het teken van het persoonlijkheidsideaal in sy werk De Vlaamse Letterkunde van 1780 tot Heden bespreek R F Lissens die wegeb van die "expressionistische getij met die dood van Van Ostaijen, en die onvermoë van die roman om - op enkele min of meer geslaagde voorbeelde na - die tendense van die ekspressionisme te vertolk: verdere pogings in dié rigting loop dan ook teen die einde van die twintigerjare dood. Ook B F van Vlierden beskou die ekspressionisme as 'n in die grond ongeskikte voedingsbron vir die romangenre, met die gevolg dat die roman in dié jare - d.w.s. na die mln of meer naturalisties-impressionistiese romantradisie verteenwoordig deur Buysse, Streuvels, Timmermans, Claes - "in zijn eigen ontwikkeling op een kritiek keerpunt staat, waarbij men vooralsnog aIleen het kritieke van de situatie ziet ... Het decennium na de oorlog is in feite weinig gunstig voor de roman ... Ook P van Ostaijen heeft gepoogd een 'grote roman' te schrijven, maar deze werd nooit voltooid ... In de marge van het humanitair expressionisme ontstaan weI een aantal prozawerken, maar precies in het licht van de humanitaire poëzie is het vooralsnog duidelijk, dat deze uit een geestelijke kweeste bestaan, en dus een schakeI zijn in de ontwikkeling die van de werkelijkheid wegvoert naar een inwendig leven, naar een geestelijke ontwikkeling." Terselfdertyd, egter, is Lissens en Van Vlierden dit met J Weisgerber eens dat "het Jaar 1927 kan worden beschouwd als het begin van een nieuw tijdperk" en dat die leemte wat na die Eerste Wêreldoorlog onstaan het, weldra gevul sal word met 'n groot aantal romanwerke van 'n besondere gehalte. Die kritiek sien hierdie keerpunt met verloop van tyd al hoe duideliker in, maar erken nietemin óók dat die invloed van die modernisme, en met name die ekspressionisme, ''heilzame gevolgen heeft voor de roman. Niet vergeefs heeft deze beweging de ethische noot aangeslagen, de verantwoordelijkheidszin weer gewekt en al haar aandacht op de mens geconcentreerd. De nieuwe roman, die kort voor 1930 opkomt, kan men bezwaarlijk expressionistisch noemen, maar de grondige omkeer waar hij van blijk geeft, gebeurt ontegensprekelijk onder de invloed van het door het expressionisme gewijzigde klimaat." Anders gestel: "zij (gaan) akkoord met de veroordeling van de impressionistische en naturalistische opvattingen, maar tussen het individualisme van de 'estheten' en de humanitaire kunst van Ruimte, tussen de wetenschappelijke objectiviteit en de lyrische subjectiviteit kiezen zij doorgaans een middenweg. De nieuwe roman - en dat is de reden waarom hij deze benaming verdient - zal aan de individualiteit minder reliëf verlenen dan aan de 'persoonlijkheid', hetgeen wil zeggen dat het individu, dat zich op zichzelf bezint, aldus beseft dat het in morele of juridische zin met een gemeenschap verbonden is. Hij zal de mens tegelijkertijd in zijn individualiteit en in de eigenschappen van zijn soort beschouwen, en hoewel hij het Ik zal peilen, zal hij ook het zoeklicht richten op het onmetelijke terrein van de gemeenschappelijke waarden...". Dit is dus op die groeiende belang van 'n "persoonlijkheidsideaal, een modern humanisme dat sociaal solidair blijft doch de raadselen van de mens en het leven wil peilen" dat die klem tussen die jare 1930 en 1940 val: op "de mens op het voorplan", dus, maar óók op dié mens in gemeenskapsverband.

In 1961 Martin Esslin created the term 'Theatre of the Absurd' as a working hypothesis, a device with which to make fundamental traits present in the plays of a number of France-based dramatists accessible to discussion by tracing the features they had in common. Despite the popularity of Esslin's study, there has been no comparable discussion of England-based absurdism. An explanation for this lack of critical attention may be found in the dogged insistence amongst scholars that there are only two absurd playwrights in the English theatre before 1967. My first aim in this thesis is to redress the imbalance in critical literature, to demonstrate that there existed in England, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, an indigenous expression of absurdism far broader and significantly more complex than that which has been recognised by theatrical reviewers during the past thirty years. Having identified an indigenous absurdism, I go on to challenge the generalisations and over-simplifications surrounding the English 'absurd', which are a product of its critical marginalisation and neglect. I discuss the complexities of the evolution of the English 'absurd', and the ramifications of its development, paying due regard to the theatrical, historical and social factors which shaped its early growth. The playwrights who represent the genre are examined in tum, and attention is devoted to the details of the development of an absurd dynamic within their works. The study falls into three parts. Part I attempts to explain why the English 'absurd' had such a limited impact within its own country up until the late 1960s. It is revealed that many of the writers of the English 'absurd' were incapable of divorcing their plays from the social-orientated drama which dominated English theatre in the late 1950s. The cross-fertilization of an overtly social theatre and absurdism resulted in an expression of the genre which was modified and, to an extent, compromised by its adherence to external, political realities. The focus shifts, in the second part, to accommodate those neglected writers of the English 'absurd' who managed to avoid such compromises and who created a more abstract theatre, the aesthetic and epistemological intentions of which resemble those of the French absurd. Part III explains why, despite the relative obscurity of the English 'absurd', a fragmented absurdism managed to be absorbed into the permanent vocabulary of dramatic expression in England in the 1960s. This final section examines the works of a number of non-absurd writers who took on isolated absurd devices as part of an experiment with the parameters of drama, thereby bringing those techniques into mainstream theatre.