This thesis investigates the Yiddish poems of the South African Lithuanian immigrant David Fram. It locates Fram’s poetry and aesthetics in the context of Yiddish poetry in general and Lithuanian-South African Yiddish literature in particular. In doing this it identifies and investigates Fram’s main poetic themes, Diaspora, the memory of home and the condition of exile; landscape and people, nature and creator; his response to the Holocaust suggesting poetry is a legitimate means of expressing trauma. The thesis also deliberates on the potential relevance of taking Fram’s biography and personal experiences into consideration when interpreting his poetry. It reflects on the approach to and process of writing both this thesis and the novel Illuminating Love, considering how thesis and novel relate to each other and to Fram’s poetry, as well as to the notion of postmemory. Indicating the antecedents of Illuminating Love, the thesis discusses aspects of realism and postmodernism, genre and mixed genre, as well as development of voice, point of view and character in my novel. In conclusion, suggestions are made for future projects that might be undertaken to revitalise the vibrant language of Yiddish and memorialise its community. The appendix contains translations (following transliteration) of Fram’s poems. The creative component of the thesis is the novel Illuminating Love. Its narrative entwines the journeys of two Jewish women, Judith, forced to leave her home in Lithuania, Eastern Europe before World War II, and Cally her granddaughter living in contemporary South Africa. Transcribing Judith’s poems in calligraphy, Cally uncovers her family’s history and roots. The content of the love sampler she inscribes for her husband Jake, and the illuminating of a ketuba (the Jewish marriage contract) serve to counterpoint her personal circumstances. Behind the gilding lies the reality of domestic violence, Judith’s escape from the genocide and Jake’s experiences in the bush during the South African Border War.

Literarishe Bleter was distinctive in the history of Yiddish-language publications: it was Warsaw's longest running, Yiddish-language weekly literary journal, appearing from 1924 to 1939. It was not affiliated with a political organisation; and Nakhman Mayzel, one of its four founders and later its sole editor, relentlessly committed the publication to the furtherance of the broad scope of Yiddish literature, language and culture. Prior scholarly attention has been generally confined to the extraction of the journal's literary content, with little attention paid to the publication's historical interest in understanding the scope and depth of Yiddish cultural production and development. This thesis will provide the first documentation of the history of the journal: the historical contexts which promoted its creation; its key editors and contributors; and its ongoing quest for a broad national and international readership. The focus of the thesis will be upon issues pertaining to Yiddish language itself as presented in Literarishe bleter and within a wider context. Mayzel's passionate interest in Yiddish resulted in continuous articles about the shifts in language and culture throughout the period of publication. Although many Yiddish-speaking communities existed throughout the world, the emphasis in this study is on the Yiddish-language cultural centres frequently represented in Literarishe bleter such as: Poland, Soviet Russia, the United States and Mandate Palestine. All four centres presented distinct challenges to the survival and growth of Yiddish, to which Mayzel's editorial policy of intellectual openness was well suited. Moreover, this policy often resulted in a kaleidoscope of opinions which fostered lively debate among the readership. Although Literarishe bleter was intended as a literary publication, as a historical source it provides invaluable information on cultural and literary trends, Yiddish pedagogy, artistic expression, Yiddish book production, and the nature of the Yiddish language itself both in Poland and beyond during the interwar period.

This thesis examines the body of medieval literature associated with Old Norse myth and legend. Though this is a diffuse corpus produced over a long span of time and from a wide geographical area, it is possible to establish connections between texts and to highlight certain recurring narrative patterns that are deeply entrenched in this literary tradition. The specific focus of the present study is to analyse the narrative patterns that characterise the interactions between male and female figures. It has long been understood that female figures tend to occupy carefully defined social roles in this body of literature, and much work has been done in assessing these. This thesis takes the unique approach of investigating whether these roles can be viewed, not as a product of the mentality of the writers of this literary material, but rather as a product of male characters within the literary narratives themselves. The investigation poses the question of whether men can be seen, through their words, thoughts, and actions, to be responsible for creating female identities. Intimately connected to the concept of identity creation is the idea of power: this thesis will argue that most male attempts to redefine female identity is motivated by a desire to acquire, control, negate, or otherwise alter, the powers possessed by females. Quite often, because fallible males demonstrate an imperfect understanding of female power, there can be a marked disparity between the abilities certain women are thought to possess, and those they actually do. The thesis will examine a large selection of supernatural female figures, across a broad range of literature, ultimately to suggest that the male creation of female power is deeply entrenched in narrative patterns observable in many different contexts.

This PhD thesis deals with how new discourses on femininity and gender developed in Scandinavian literature during the Modern Breakthrough, 1880-1909. Political, economic and demographic changes in the Scandinavian societies put pressures on the existing, conventional gender roles, which literature reflects; however, literature also created and introduced new discourses on gender. The main focus has been on transgressive female characters in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian novels, which I have seen as indicators of emerging new forms of femininity. The study shows how the transgression of gender boundaries is used in the novels, when presenting their views on what femininity is, should be or could be. In addition to analysing the textual strategies in the representation of these ‘deviant’ literary characters, I have examined how the relevant texts were received by critics and reviewers at the time, as reviews are in themselves discursive constructs. The theoretical basis of this study has mainly been Michel Foucault’s discourse theory, Judith Butler’s theory of performativity and Yvonne Hirdman’s theory of gender binarism. I have also used concepts from several (mainly Anglo-American and Scandinavian) literary gender theorists and historians in the analyses. The four novels analysed in this study are as follows: 1) Danish author Herman Bang’s early decadence novel Haabløse Slægter (1880), where I use a queer theory perspective. 2) Norwegian author Ragnhild Jølsen’s Rikka Gan (1904), where the strong elements of pre-psychoanalysis are analysed. 3) Swedish author August Strindberg’s Le Plaidoyer d’un fou (1887-88), where I make a narratological examination of the narrative voice from a gender perspective. 4) Swedish author Annie Quiding’s Fru Fanny (1904), analysed as an example of ‘negative’ New Woman literature. The thesis shows how literature of the time represented and introduced new forms of femininity, often in the form of ambiguous female characters, and often to the disapproval of the critics. It also shows that gender discourses were much alike within Scandinavia. Furthermore, my study lays bare the skeleton of normative Breakthrough femininity, what can be called the dominant discourse on femininity at the time: a nonexisting sexual desire, feminine immobility/containment in the home and an imperative, self-sacrificing motherliness.

This study is an examination of the major theories concerning mythology that were popular in the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century and the ways in which they can be applied to Old Norse myth. The goal is to develop a greater understanding of how specific theories can or cannot be applied to certain mythological poems that are contained with the Poetic Edda collection. The examination begins with the etymological approach of Max Müller and his applicability to Alvíssmál, Skírnismál and Lokasenna. It will be shown that Müller’s ideas are difficult to apply, with only Skírnismál being particularly receptive. The next chapter examines the development of anthropological approaches, specifically that of Edward Tylor and Andrew Lang, and the content of Vafþrúðnismál and Vǫlospá. These poems will be shown to have many indicators of the scholar’s theories, but offer little insight into any larger, societal, functions the myths contained within the poems may have served. The third chapter focuses on the role ritual was thought to play in relation to myth and continues the examination of Vafþrúðnismál and Vǫlospá from the perspective of William Robertson Smith and Sir James George Frazer. Here, special focus is placed on the riddle-contest form of Vafþrúðnismál and the narrative surrounding the god Baldr that is partially contained in Vǫlospá. Finally, the study analyzes the theories of the Cambridge Ritualists and Bertha Phillpotts; scholars who posited that myths were derived from not only rituals, but ritual dramas. These final scholars will reveal that at the beginning of the twentieth century there was good reason to believe some of the Poetic Edda poems had a previous dramatic state, but more thorough research was needed. The study concludes with a summary of scholarship that followed these academics and possible future avenues of examination.

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The "Studies' deal mainly with Y. L. Peretz's life and work until 1878, the date to which the latest parts of the Unknown Manuscript belong. Peretz's background is outlined in chapters dealing with the political, economic and cultural conditions in which he lived, with the character of his native town, and with his family. The meagre sources for this period of Peretz's biography are scrutinized. They are supplemented by details drawn from allusions dispersed in his writings (and particularly in the Unknown Manuscript), and verified with the help of external sources. An attempt is made to fix the dates of the principal events in Peretz's life and of his writings. Solutions are offered to several intricate problems, as for instances the ownership of a library which greatly stimulated young Peretz's intellectual development (Chapter 7); the "brewery episode" (Chapter 11); the authorship of "A Letter from Asmodeus" (Chapter 16); the meaning of the signatures and the authorship of the poems included in a book published jointly by Peretz and G. Y. Lichtenfeld, and also the origin of the "first edition" of this book (Chapter 17). A period in Peretz's life (l870-1875/6), about which very little was known is dealt with, systematically for the first time (Chapter 11). Peretz's life and his works up to 1878 are discussed in great detail. His views on% many problems, his relations with his family, friends and writers, the various influences on his works, and so one are often followed beyond 1878. A detailed survey of the Unknown Manuscript constitutes the last part of the "Studien". A great deal of the Manuscript is given in an English rendering and the rest is summarized. Explanatory notes and discussion are attached to each item. The Unknown Manuscript, first identified by the writer of these lines, contributes a great deal to our knowledge of Peretz's life, views and literary evolution during the period 1873-1878. An additional chapter briefly surveys Peretz's life and work after 1878.

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