Another major endeavor of this thesis concentrates on self-formulations of these queer sf bodies and textualities. My elaboration concerns their delineation of ontological pursuit, multi-hybrid post/non-humanity, and a highly self-aware appropriation of obscene, ambivalent and amoral performatives to constitute deviant cultural strategies which have by far successfully counter-written dominant politics' desire to assimilate dissident voices and recalcitrant sites. / My thesis provides three different approaches to re-read non-realistic, fantasmatic queer gender formations and trans-masculine sexualities. From these positions and perspectives, I will argue for the emergent force of queer transboyhood and gradual recognition given to several non-normative transgender masculine presences, starting from their connections and disagreements with old-guard lesbian feminist agenda and homo-normative les-bi-gay politics. This multitude built by trans-masculine affects not only greatly disturbs hetero-normativity and homo-normative discourses, such charismatic inscriptions which link into marginal territories also have created a persistent intervention to interfere and even convert/pervert canonized texts and representational modes. In these chapters to extrapolate this queer masculine sf heterogenesis, I focus on analyzing three archetypes of trans-masculine personalities and their highly different subjectivities. My aim for these analyses is to theorize how these marginal genders and bodies counterattack, infect, and thus re-write mega-historical narratives by their cultural momentum and anti-human poetics/politics. By performing these "infections", queer masculine subjectivity twists and transforms a seemingly liberal hegemony devoted to excluding the non-normative in the name of single-minded progress and bi-polar gender dichotomy. / This dissertation proposes to closely study writings on queer masculinity in English science fiction and fantasy, forming a trajectory of queer transboy representations from 1930s to the beginning of 21st century. By this project, I embark to articulate multi-layered historical contexts between speculative literature, sub-cultural sites, transgender politics, and constructions on marginal queer-gendered bodies. Through intertextual dynamics embedded within and among theoretical frameworks such as sf study, paraliterary interaction, penumbra sub-subjective tactics, post-human/trans-species writings, I will conduct articulations to generate forms and genealogies of queer masculinity in sf realm, building their continuum and ruptures, agency and subversive power. / 洪泠泠. / Adviser: Natalia Chan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 296-313). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Hong Lingling.

In order to counter what I regard as premature and reductive formulations of a 'native' British postmodernism, I identify a specific tendency in contemporary writing which I name the domestic surreal, and which I trace through the poetry of John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Roy Fisher, Christopher Middleton, John Ash, Peter Didsbury and Ian McMillan. Through close reading and a comparative approach, I uncover key preoccupations with idiosyncratic perception, shared experience, urban space and poetic play. I also describe a network of allegiances and influence among these writers which reveals the domestic surreal to be one of the contemporary manifestations of an imaginative tradition which stretches back through the Surrealist and Cubist movements to Baudelaire and Rimbaud. For the poets of the domestic surreal, engagement with an aesthetic tradition is inextricably linked with their response to contemporary conditions. Drawing on dialectical and poststructuralist perspectives, I propose that the domestic surreal attempts to resist the constraints of social and aesthetic consensus in Britain and America in the period following the Second World War.

This dissertation examines selected love lyrics composed during the 1930s by Cole Porter, whose witty and urbane music epitomized the Golden era of American light music. These lyrics present an interesting paradox – a man who longed for his music to be accepted by the American public, yet remained indifferent to the social mores of the time. Porter offered trenchant social commentary aimed at a society restricted by social taboos and cultural conventions. The argument develops systematically through a chronological and contextual study of the influences of people and events on a man and his music. The prosodic intonation and imagistic texture of the lyrics demonstrate an intimate correlation between personality and composition which, in turn, is supported by the biographical content. / English / M.A. (English)

In my kennismaking met die poësie van Yeats en Roland Holst het ek onvermydelik opgemerk dat hulle sekere simbole ooreenkomstig gebruik, dat hulle dieselfde hoë, aristokratiese waardes handhaaf en gevolglik 'n afkeer het van die moderne massa-demokrasieë. Later het ek ontdek dat albei digters sterk in die Keltiese mites en sages belang gestel het en dat Roland Holst Yeats as 'n belangrike invloed eien. Dit alles, en die feit dat hulle albei enkele gegewens uit die Griekse mitologie daarby voeg in wat hulle "mites" word, het my voorgekom as goeie rede vir 'n vergelykende studie. So 'n ideë-studie het egter gedreig om iets heel anders te word as die literêre beskouing wat ek beoog het. Geleidelik het dit egter geblyk dat die mite méér moet wees dan die ideë-sisteem; en juis dit waardeur die mite meer is dan ideë-sisteem het die belangrikste regverdiging geword vir 'n vergelykende studie, en terselfdertyd, vir 'n toespitsing van die aandag op die poësie.

The focus of the present research work is the contemporary American short stories that bring up issues of compulsory norm and the conflict between marginalized characters and their environment. This research was based on those short stories that seemed to represent the idea of being "different" in the most complex and multilayered way, and its goal was to unfold new aspects of the conflict between "normal" and "abnormal"/"different". Variations of norm as well as diversity within the marginalized raise a number of questions about the reasons for their inability to coexist peacefully. The close reading and the analysis of the selected stories show that all the conflicts in them, in one way or another, repeat similar patterns and lead to the same root of the problem of misunderstanding, which is fear. To be more precise, all the cases of hate towards "different" characters can be explained by the hater's explicit or implicit fear of death in its various forms: inability to procreate one's own kind, cultural or personal self-identity loss, actual life threat in the form of a reminder of possible physical harm and death. Most often it would be the case where shame and fear of death overlap in a very complex way. In general, the cases of characters' otherness fall into three major groups. The nature of the alienation for each of these groups is described and analyzed in three separate chapters. Prejudice and stereotypes are playing a great role in formation of fears and insecurities which need to be dismantled in order to make peaceful coexistence possible. This work concludes with pointing out the crucial role of taking an approach of representation of various perspectives and diversification of voices in creative writing, academia and media in the context of multicultural society.

The reading of four contemporary novels, namely: Credo by Melvyn Bragg, The Catastrophist by Ronan Bennett, Everything You Need by A.L. Kennedy and American Gods by Neil Gaiman explores the prominent position of mythification and remythification in contemporary literature. The discussion of Bragg's novel examines the significance of Celtic mythology and folklore and to what extent it influenced Christian mythology on the British Isles and vice versa. The presentation of the transition from a cyclical, pagan to a linear, Christian belief system is analysed. My analysis of Bennett's novel supports the observation that political myth as myth transformed contains elements and qualities embodied by sacred myths and investigates the relevance of Johan Degenaar's observation that "[p]ostmodernism emphasises the fact that myth is an ambiguous phenomenon" and practices an attitude of "eternal vigilance" (1995: 47), as is evident in the main protagonist's dispassionate stance. My reading of Kennedy's novel explores the bond that myth creates between the artist and the audience and argues that the writer as myth creator fulfils a restorative function through the mythical and symbolic qualities embedded in literature. Gaiman's novel American Gods focuses on the function of meta/multi-mythology in contemporary literature (especially the fantasy genre) and on what these qualities reveal about a society and its concerns and values. The thesis contemplates how in each case the original myths were substituted, modulated or transfigured to be presented as metamyth or myth transformed. The analysis shows that myth can be used in various ways in literature: as the data or information that is recreated and transformed in the creative process to establish a common matrix of stories, symbols, images and motifs which represents a bond between the author and the reader in terms of the meaning-making process; to facilitate a spiritual enrichment in a demythologized world and for its restorative abilities. The study is confirmed by detailed mythical reference. / English Studies / (D. Litt. et Phil. (English))

This dissertation attempts to show that the phenomenon of loneliness is written into Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. The Introduction offers a description of the origins of loneliness as a field of study, presents key instances of loneliness in literature, and investigates the nature of loneliness. In the first chapter, the Villa is introduced as a figural and conceptual framework for analysis. The second chapter focuses on the patient’s room and the library, leading to a discussion of personal and existential loneliness, identity and naming. The third chapter investigates social loneliness with reference to the kitchen, garden and hallway, addressing notions of race and othering, home and family. The fourth chapter discusses the body and embodiment, as well as emotion and metaphor. The dissertation argues that the stylistic, thematic and structural features of The English Patient suggest and reflect the complexities and characteristics of loneliness. / English / M. A. (English)

Text in Afrikaans / The concepts of parody and pastiche are oftell employed by leading theoreticians to offer definitions of the elusive term "Postmodernism". One is led to conclude that parody and pastiche are direct1y linked to Postmodernism. This is especially valid in the case of pastiche. Indeed, it appears, therefore, that the continllous assumption of the appellation "pastiche" in the Postmodernist discourse could reveal its link to Postmodernism and Postmodernity in general. While parody and pastiche are not new phenomena, the question is why, ill our time, these concepts should be so acutely present in the discourse of literary theory - especially in theoretic contributions on Postmodernism and/or Postmodernis! texts. However, an investigation of the studies done on Postmodernist drama/theatre reveals a distinct lack of reflection about the role of parody and pastiche and a disturbing absence of publication on the the subject. This state of affairs reveals a conspicuous delay in terms of theoretical deliberation when compared to other investigat1ve practices, i.e. literary criticism and philosophy. This study, then, is essentially interested in transposing the present emphasis on parody and pastiche found in contemporary literary theory to Postmodernist drama/theatre. The final objective of this study is to explore the impact of the concepts of parody and pastiche on twentieth century drama/theatre and their possible contribution to a better understanding of the elusive term "Postmodemist drama/theatre". / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D. Litt. et Phil. (Literature)

Text in Afrikaans / In hierdie studie word 'n bydrae tot die beskrywing van 'n resente periode in die Afrikaanse prosageskiedenis, naamlik die dekade 1980-1989, aangepak. Die terme ''Tagtiger" en "tagtigerskrywer" word bespreek en gedefinieer. Negentien skrywers word aan die hand van vyf kanoniseringsmeganismes as belangrike Afrikaanse tagtigerprosaskrywers geidentifiseer. Hierdie skrywers en hulle 51 prosatekste wat tussen 1980-1989 gepubliseer is, word dan deur Vanheste (1981) se vier gei"dentifiseerde literatuursosiologiese aandagsvelde naamlik die outeur, die literere werk, die literere kanaal en die leser ondersoek ten einde die posisie van die gekose skrywers m.b.t. maatskappy en skrywerskap, enkele samebindende aspekte in die proefgroep se tagtigerprosatekste, die funksionering van die literere kanaal t.o.v. hierdie tekste en die resepsie daarvan te bepaal. Met behulp van vraelyste aan die proefgroep is hul houdings t.o.v. 'n aantal aktuele aangeleenthede ondersoek. Ses onderskeidende kategoriee in die proefgroep se tekste, naamlik politiek en betrokkenheid; realisme; grens- en geweldliteratuur; postmodernisme; homoerotiek en goeie gewilde prosa word aangedui. Die posisie van verskillende "hekwagters" in die literere kanaal, saam met die invloed van sensuur op die proefgroep, die rol van die Afrikaanse Skrywersgilde en die "little magazines" wat publikasiegeleenthede vir die jong skrywers gebied het, ontvang aandag. J.C.Kannemeyer as geskiedskrywer en 'n verskeidenheid resensente se waarde-oordele word nagegaan. Aan die hand van Vanheste se literatuursosiologiese kommunikasiemodel, gekombineer met sy (aangepaste) analisemodel, word etlike sosiale werklikhede in Alexander Strachan se 'n Wereld sander grense dan onder die loep geneem. Die ondersoekterrein van die literatuursosiologie dek s6 'n wye veld dat heelwat interessante aspekte noodwendig agterwee moes bly. Resepsiestudies van lesers gedurende die tagtigerdekade was nie moontlik nie en 'n resepsiestudie kon ongelukkig eers vyf jaar na die tagtigerdekade uitgevoer word. Die gevolgtrekking waartoe in hierdie studie gekom word, is dat, hoewel waarskynlik nie op dieselfde betekenisvlak as die term "Sestigers" nie, daar wel van ooreenkomste in die werk van Afrikaanse tagtigerskrywers gepraat kan word. Samehang word ook aangedui tussen die sosiale omwereld en die tagtigertekste wat daarbinne tot stand gekom het, veral met betrekking tot tematiese en stilistiese keuses. Terselfdertyd het die literere werke van hierdie dekade 'n invloed uitgeoefen op die omwereld waarbinne dit verskyn het / This study attempts to make a contribution to the description of a recent period in Afrikaans Prose History, namely the decade 1980-1989. The term writer of the Eighties is defined and discussed. Nineteen writers have been identified as important Afrikaans Eighties writers with the aid of five canonization mechanisms. These writers and their 51 prosa texts published between 1980-1989 are then investigated by means of Vanheste's four identified attention areas in the sociology of literature, namely the author, the literary work, the literary channel as well as the reader. Questionnairs have been used to investigate the attitude of the trial group with regards to a number of current affairs. Six distinguishing categories have been identified in the texts of the trial group namely politics, realism, border and violence literature, postmodernism, homo-erotics and popular prose. The position of different gate-keepers in the literary channel, together with the influence of censorship on the trial group, the role of the "Afrikaanse Skrywersgilde" and the "little magazines", together with publication opportunities offered to these young writers, have enjoyed attention. J.C.Kannemeyer as historian, together with the critics as readers of the trial group's texts are investigated. The manipulation of a few social realities in Alexander Strachan's 'n Wereld sander grense is investigated in terms of Vanheste's communication model of literary sociology, combined with his (adapted) analysis model. The field of investigation of the sociology of literary covers such a wide field that numerous interesting aspects had to be omitted. Reception studies during the decade of the eighties were not possible and could, unfortunately, only be done five years after the decade of the eighties. The conclusion of this study is that, although not at quite the same level of significance as the term "Sixties", one could still find similarities in the works of Afrikaans writers from the Eighties decade. Cohesion between the social world and the texts of the Vll eighties have evolved from it, especially with regards to thematic and stilistic choices. At the same time, the literary works of this decade have contributed to the social world in which they were published / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / D. Litt. et Phil. (Afrikaans)

Text in Afrikaans / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / D.Mus. (Musiekwetenskap)