Since World War II Canadian literary criticism has tended to be either historical or aesthetic in its emphasis. Little or no interest has been shown in the linguistic approach to criticism; no work has been done on Canadian poets comparable to the writing of Donald David and David Abercrombie on English poets, or of Chatman or Miles on American poets. It is the purpose of this thesis to make a preliminary survey of contemporary Canadian poets from Pratt to Newlove, with particular reference to their style and technique. Special attention will be given to rhythm, and sound, relating Canadian poets' experience to contemporary trends elsewhere. Central to this study is the concept of rhythm in poetry. For the older poets, Pratt and Klein, rhythm was contained in the traditional metres. Raymond Bolster, influenced by the Chicago poets, directed attention to the imagist conception of free verse; and this led, among the poets of the forties, to an increasing interest in the experiments of Pound and Williams. In the fifties, Olson, Duncan, Creeley and Ginsberg began to emphasize the oral and linguistic side of poetry-making. Their influence, first felt in Eastern Canada, has recently gained recognition on the West Coast. The Canadian poets dealt with in this study are those specifically concerned with new experiments in rhythm and sound, and for this reason such poets as Birney and Layton have been excluded. Their eclecticism and frequent changes in style would seem to deserve specialized. research. In this present work, Chapter I defines the terms used and summarizes various critical views on verse techniques, from the Russian Formalists up to the present. Chapter II deals with the forerunners of experimentation, Pratt and Klein. Of the two, Klein was the greater technician, a poet who played with many metrical forms. Both men, however, were deeply concerned with language and its relation to poetry, and this linguistic interest undoubtedly Influenced younger poets. Chapter III examines the imagist movement and in particular its effect on the poet of the thirties, Raymond Knister. Although he used metaphor and symbol, the emphasis which Knister put upon the object— "little things and great"— did great service to the growth of an indigenous, objective movement in Canadian poetry. This movement is the subject of chapters IV and V, in which the work of Souster and Dudek is examined. Chapter VI considers the poetry of Milton Acorn as it relates to the imagism and social commentary already present in the poetry of Souster and Dudek. An unusual aspect of Acorn's verse is its didactic note, expressed in resonant rhythms. Chapter VII examines the style of Alfred Purdy. Although he eschews rhyme, he uses the Iambic stance whenever it suits his purpose. Purdy's own personal rhythm dominates the content and structure of all his poetry. In conclusion Chapter VIII refers to the contemporary scene in British Columbia, attempting to show that the experimental trends from the western States and from eastern Canada have united in the work of Phyllis Webb, James Reid and John Newlove. Each one, though markedly individual, is profoundly conscious of the spoken word, the linguistic collecation of words, and the importance of syntax as a propeller of rhythm and sound. Newlove's poetry is especially singled out as being an 'oral' and 'aural' reflection of his place and time. An Appendix is attached which described the Trager and Smith approach to stress, intonation and juncture, with some critical notes on its application to the art of poetry. Throughout this thesis, the emphasis is on an examination of a poet's style rather than an evaluation of his content. Nonetheless it should be borne in mind that "Sound and meter...must be studied as elements of the totality of a work of art, not in isolation from meaning." An examination of Canadian poetry from Pratt to Purdy must recognize the intimate interplay that exists between thought and expression. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

This thesis is composed of the translation of previously untranslated works of important modern Spanish authors from Spain, Argentina and Mexico: Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentine novelist and frequent collaborator with Jorge Luis Borges): PLAN DE EVASION, 1945. The entire novel is structured on a "fantastical" formula of physiological-philosophical ideas--rooted in the psychological theories of William James and encompassing even the borders of the current threshold of biological engineering. This "formula" is presented near the end of the novel and serves as the key to the reality of the novel itself: to the manner of its architecture, its mental and emotional perceptions and its ultimate "resolution" which turns the conclusion back on its parts, forcing the reader to make a reassessment of the perplexing components of reality in the novel and, perhaps, even to reexamine the questions of the nature of reality itself. In a fully fictional and highly symmetrical manner, the novel explores the question of reality, building its own structure of a network of multiple and conflicting realities which are each developed to be consistent with themselves but which conflict insolubly at their ultimate junctures with each other. Rafael Alberti (poet and dramatist of the famous "Generation of 1927" in Spain): EL ADEFESIO, 1944. This work, often compared with Garcia Lorca's "House of Bernarda Alba", is considered by the critics to be his finest play, and in Spain his work is more highly regarded than that of Lorca. Like Lorca, in El Adefesio Alberti utilizes common Spanish folklore, but unlike Lorca he uses it only as a springboard to larger and more complex ends. In the play he interweaves Spanish folklore with Greek mythology and Christian legend, employing a naked, fluid symbolism in a way that is at moments strikingly modern and existential. In the play he achieves a startling poetic counterpoint between the classical, lyrical ritual of tradition, with its elevated emotion, and a dissonant ritual of grotesqueries suggestive of the modern theatre of the absurd—resulting in a poetic unity that is both rich and complex. Jorge Guillen (an imagist poet, also of the "Generation of 1927" in Spain): CANTICO, 1928. His self-professed aims in Cantico (a "poetry of affirmation") are to express his concept of the basic unity, harmony and abundance of life and of the intimate relatedness of all things in time and space. In the poems of Cantico Guillen pursues this affirmation through purity, intensity of vision and exclusion, his verses characterized by a refined, joyful classicism and brilliant metaphor. Alfonso Canales (an important member of the school of modern Spanish poets, whose works date from 1950 to the present): 0T0N0, 1956. This poem is from his book of poetry El Candado. Max Aub (major modern playwright and fervent anti-fascist, self- exiled from Spain and now residing in Mexico since 1942): LOS EXCELENTES VARONES, 1946. Although his work is no longer recognized in Spain, Aub is generally regarded by critics as one of the finest living Spanish playwrights. The concerns which have dominated Aub's post-Spain writings are those of war, fascism, exile, humanism and the dignity of man under pressure in relation to moral values. Although Los Excelentes Varones, by Aub's own classification, belongs to the genre of his work which he calls "police theatre", it is much more than that, being also a piercing black farce satirizing the recurrent and ominous impulse of society—past, present and possibly future—toward the police state / Arts, Faculty of / Graduate

This thesis examines the music criticism of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892- ), a well known composer and music critic active in England from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. Although many authors have referred to Sorabji's music and criticism, neither has been treated in a substantive manner. The present study focuses on Sorabji's contributions to The New Age, a weekly journal, and particularly on his articles therein dealing with contemporary British composers. It is of interest that Sorabji's criticism deals with a vibrant period of music history, known as the English Renaissance. An examination of Sorabji's writings, published articles and private correspondence reveals him to be a highly complex personality. His marginal position in English society, based partly on his racial background and his negative views of the British, led him to view the musical scene from a perspective differing from that of other critics. Not fully admitted into the inner circles of the musical establishment, Sorabji surrounded himself with a small, elite group of friends and admirers, which included well known composers and literary figures such as Bernard van Dieren, Peter Warlock, William Walton, John Ireland, Sacheverall Sitwell, Hugh McDiarmid and Cecil Gray. It is within this context that Sorabji redefined the role of the music critic and criticism to suit his personal values and style which were much influenced by his involvement in the mystical tradition of Tantric Hinduism. A detailed discussion of Sorabji's writings on the British composers Delius, Elgar, Bax, Vaughan Williams, Hoist, Ireland, van Dieren, Walton, Lambert, Smyth, Berners, Bush, Warlock, Howells, Bliss, Boughton, Scott, Goossens and Britten reveals that the critic's musical affinities were conservative throughout his career as music critic for The New Age. An analysis of these writings shows a clear-cut pattern of likes and dislikes. Sorabji praised highly the musical styles that appealed to him and wrote in a harsh and negative manner about music that he found distasteful. While this emotionalism tainted many of his reviews, it also encouraged the support of those who shared his opinions. Nonetheless, Sorabji's use of harsh and blunt language often turned the tide of public opinion against him. Yet, it is this particular style, which can sometimes be humourous and racy and other times harsh to the point of cruelty, that distinguishes Sorabji writings from the mainstream of music criticism. An appendix lists Sorabji's writings in The New Age during the period 1915 to 1934. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

This thesis examines the inward turn of the contemporary Chinese novel: a tendency in fictional narrative to move from representing social reality and political events from an "objective" point of view to exploring personal experience, especially the interior world of human beings, from a subjective point of view. I take three novels published in the early 1990s as examples: Yu Hua's Crying in the Fine Rain(1991), Ge Fei's On the Margins (1992), and Wang Anyi's Fact and Fiction: One Way to Create a World (1993). I demonstrate a new narrative mode emerging, with thematic innovations and formal changes, against the background of the collapse of Communist collectivist ideology and the "master narrative" of socialist realism. In these three works, first-person autobiographical narrators are employed to explore personal experience and private life, a space once repressed and forbidden in modern Chinese literature. Reflections on growing-up, personal memory of the past and the imaginative search for identity can thus be read allegorically as a Chinese Bildungsroman of the awakening consciousness of Self. This new narrative not only emphasizes the importance of inner territory, but also ushers in a subjective writing which has greatly altered the appearance and conception of the Chinese novel. Chronological line is broken up into a psychological temporal order; plot and event become obscured within mental scenes; and omniscient didactic voices are replaced by self-conscious, reflective minds. Such individualistic, modernist narratives challenge the former collective, socially-oriented "realist epics" produced since 1930s, providing an alternative form and function for the modern Chinese novel. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

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