Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.

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本篇論文試圖以列維納斯之倫理哲學、傅科和薩依德的觀點來分析、討論譚恩美的小說《百種神秘感》。小說透過兩種敘述的並置，描繪同父異母兩姊妹—中國出生的李關與美國長大的葉奧莉薇—之間的關係，以及一趟迷人的穿越時空之旅。譚恩美藉由這故事傳達她對倫理議題中「他者」的關懷。由於西方哲學及認識論傳統自柏拉圖以降便將「我思」的想法視為靈魂與自我的對話，認為一切真理皆在自身之中。在這樣的思想體系架構下，「他者」被視為暫時脫離但最終將被「同一」（「自我」）給同化的客體。易言之，「他者」的「他性」（或「無限性」）在「同一」的「整體」之中是可被壓制、吸納。大體而言，西方哲學其實是一門有關自戀的「同一」、而非有關真正「他者」的知識。 正是在這樣的哲學背景之下，《百種神秘感》探索許多知識所蘊含有關「整體」的論述暴力，比如心理學、西方醫藥論述及歷史學。同樣地，小說也批判了許多跨文化關係當中所表現出的「整體」暴力。在小說中，西方人透過東方主義式的觀點看待非西方人及他者的文化，並建構出一系列簡化的二元對立概念—西方與東方、文明與野蠻、自我與他者等。列維納斯反對這種不公平且充滿暴力的西方哲學傳統，是以他提出了肯定「他者」之「他性」的倫理哲學。在倫理關係中「自我」與「他者」兩者和平共存；兩者之間有關係但各自獨立。「自我」的主體性因「他者」的存在而建立，因而是為「他者」服務的。在倫理關係中「自我」對「他者」負有責任。藉由列維納斯、傅科和薩依德的觀點，本論文將探討《百種神秘感》中人際關係與文化交流間的他者倫理意涵。 / This thesis aims to investigate Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses in terms of Emmanuel Levinas’s ethical philosophy, Michel Foucault’s discursive theory and Edward Said’s observations about Orientalism. Through the use of juxtaposition of two narratives, the novel depicts the relationship between two half sisters, Chinese-born Kwan Li and Chinese American Olivia Yee, and a fascinating journey through time and space. By telling this amazing story, Tan expresses her serious concern for ethical issue of the Other. Western philosophy and epistemology have a tradition of totalizing thought. Plato regarded the “I think” thought as the dialogue of the soul with itself; truth was said to inhabit the soul. In western philosophical tradition, the Other is viewed as something that is temporarily separate from the Same (the Self) but is ultimately reconcilable with the Same. In other words, the otherness of the Other is assimilated and oppressed within the totality of the Same. Hence western philosophy is a knowledge about the narcissistic Same, rather than about genuine Other. The Hundred Secret Senses explores the discursive violence of totality in various knowledges such as psychology, medicine, and history. Likewise, the novel also depicts the violence of totality in intercultural relationships. The westerners in the novel tend to view non-westerners and their culture in an Orientalist way, in which a series of constructed opposites are adopted—West/Orient; Civilized/Barbaric; We/They. Against this violent and unjust tradition in western philosophy, Levinas advocates an ethical philosophy, in which the Other is affirmed in his otherness. In the Levinasian ethical relationship, the Self and the Other are viewed as separate but connected terms; neither is assimilated into or confused with the other. Ethical relationship is the coexistence of Totality and Infinity (otherness). Subjectivity of the Self is awakened by the presence of the Other; hence its essence is for the Other. In ethical relationship the Self has responsibility for the Other. Through the perspectives of Levinas, Foucault and Said, the thesis will also scrutinize the ethical meaning of interpersonal relations and cultural exchanges in The Hundred Secret Senses.

While John Keats never traveled to America and only wrote a handful of admittedly hostile lines about it in his poetry, American writers and readers have consistently regarded Keats as one of the greatest and most influential poets of the past two centuries. His critical reputation in America has been stable since the 1840s, enduring throughout changing tastes and movements, and his biography and work have been utilized in manifold appropriations by American poets and writers. I examine Keats’s attitude toward the United States—which was in conflict with the general feeling regarding the country by his fellow Romantic poets—and briefly review the American reception of Keats’s poetry in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries before considering quintessential appropriations of Keats and the Keats biography in works by three American poets: Amy Clampitt, Stanley Plumly, and B.H. Fairchild.

美國華裔作家譚艾美的第一本小說「喜福會」,1989年出版後立即名列紐 約、舊金山、洛杉磯的暢銷排行榜,這本小說主要敘述四位中國母親及她 們四個美國出生的女兒的故事。由於譚艾美本身是美國出生的中國女兒, 由她詮釋華裔美國女兒自然具有說服力。然而,誠如林艾美所問的:「一個 在美國長大旳華裔美人,能夠知道什麼是中國女性嗎?」林艾美的疑問是引 發這篇論文的主要動機。小說中的四位中國母親,宿願(Suyuan),安美 (An-mei), 靈多 (Lindo),以及瑩影(Ying-Ying)都是在1949年中國內戰 末期從中國移民到美國的,由於宿願在美國重組其麻將俱樂部: 喜福會, 使得這四位中國母親得以相聚相識,在這俱樂部中打麻將並互相述說她們 在中國的經歷,以及在美生活的點點滴滴。透過故事的敘述,這四位中國母 親的性格逐漸從其扮演的角色: 女兒、母親、妻子、及朋友中顯露出來。 這篇論文的第一、二、三、四章,將分別討論分析宿願、安美、靈多、及 瑩影的性格,首先簡述個人的生平經歷,再就其生命中所扮演的角色個別分 析其性格特點。第五章則比較四位母親性格中的異同。孰為典型之中國母 親?孰為非典型?作為文學創作之產物,她們是否成功?她們在這本小說中的 功能為何?作者對這四個角色所採取的態度有何不同?這些問題都將在第五 章探討。四位中國母親性格之分析比較,只是這本小說所能探討的諸多問 題之一 ,惟願在女性主義、婚姻問題、母女關係等之觀點外,提供另一審 查之角度。 / Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club was published and hit the best-seller lists in New York, San Francisco and L.A. in 1989. This novel deals with the stories of four Chinese mothers and their four American-born daughters. Due to her American -born-Chinese identity Amy Tan is qualified to present American- born-Chinese daughters convincingly. What triggers the study of this thesis is a question provided by a critic. Amy Ling doubts: Can a Chinese American growing up in America ever know what is Chinese? Before answering this question, another critic's viewpoint reinforces the motivation of this investigation. Carole Angiec remarks that the four Chinese mothers "are cleverly planned to cover every sort of Chinese woman's character and experience...." The main concern of this thesis is the image of the four Chinese mothers: are they typical Chinese female or not? To verify the four Chinese mothers' image, the focus of this thesis will be placed upon two parts: one is the respective analysis of the four Chinese mothers' characters; the other is general comparison between the four Chinese mothers and typical Chinese woman with respect to their identity and character traits.

This essay is an investigation of transnational author Joseph Conrad’s engagement with issues of cultural liminality during the years around the turn of the 20th century. Through an examination of Almayer from Almayer’s Folly, Yanko of “Amy Foster”, and Cornelius from Lord Jim, the common experience of cultural displacement is considered. Conrad placed these three culturally liminal characters in various, carefully constructed social environments. Thus far, these characters have been under investigated in the critical literature, particularly the mixed-culture Almayer and Cornelius. By investigating these three characters and their environments, this essay demonstrates how Conrad depicts cultural displacement in the age of nationalism to be increasingly multifaceted but inevitably disastrous. The essay further reveals the need for more careful critical assessments of the cultural nuances of Conrad’s characters.

Recent scholarship has examined the lived experience of unmarried women in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain, both in cities and in the countryside. Typically, scholarship in this field has focussed on women's social identity whether spinster, widow or lesbian and addressed how these types of women were variously used in fiction and the press to contest or uphold the gendered status quo. This thesis problematises the distinct characterisation of these social identities by examining works which seek to unify female social identity at the fin de siècle through a common modern experience: the conflict between individual and collective life. All of the female subjects examined in this thesis whether author, artist, or fictional character, and whether married, separated, unmarried, widowed, homosexual, or not easily identifiable either way are solitary figures. Their movement within and interaction with their environments reveal the uneasy combination of separation and exposure experienced by working women of all classes at the fin de siècle. This thesis examines the solitary female figure in works of British fiction produced between 1880 and 1922. It considers the pressures and implications of separation and exposure in relation to female celebrity and creative practices at the fin de siècle. My methodology involves examining the biography and auto/biographical works of Amy Levy (1861-1889), George Egerton (pseud. of Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright; 1859-1945), Sarah Grand (pseud. of Frances Elizabeth Bellenden McFall; 1854-1943) and Charlotte Mew (1869-1923), and drawing out aspects that speak to the desires for privacy and, conversely, publicity and/or companionship. I identify how their lived experience of this conflict broadly, between society and solitude affected the depiction of modern female consciousness in their literary works by examining their female characters subjective interaction with three environments: the foreign landscape, the home, and the city. My aim is to identify how Levy, Egerton, Grand and Mew used their literary works to acknowledge and retaliate against the restrictions which continued to limit urban women's physical, social and psychological autonomy.

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Every life tells a story. Film has proven to be a worthwhile medium in which individual lives can be told and thereby will be remembered. In recent years biographical documentaries telling significant life-stories, such as Amy (Asif Kapadia 2015), Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen, 2015) and Senna (Asif Kapadia, 2010) have taken over our screens. While their narrative style often alludes to common compositions of the fictional biopic, their foundation on indexical sound and imagery makes them differ radically. In this thesis theoretical implications on how to approach and understand biographical documentary within the lager scope of biographical filmmaking are discussed. Subsequently the term biodoc is suggested. It implies a close relation to the biopic without compromising documentary film's autonomy compared to fiction film. Furthermore, this thesis sets out to move toward a theory of the biodoc. By putting together a catalog of key aspects and elements common for the biodoc and discussing them in close relation to contemporary examples of the genre, this thesis provides a first theorization of a diverse and growing phenomenon in contemporary film culture.

Critics often credit Ezra Pound and his Imagist movement for the development of American poetics. Pound’s interest in international arts and minimalist aesthetics of cross-cultural poetry gained the attention of prominent writers throughout Modernist and Post-Modern periods. From writers like Wallace Stevens and Gertrude Stein to later poets like Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder, image and precise language has shaped American literature. Few critics have praised Eastern cultures or the Imagist poets who adopted an East-Western form of poetics: Amy Lowell and William Carlos Williams. Studying traditional Eastern painting and short-form poetry and interactions with personal connections to the East, Lowell and Williams adapt then progress aesthetic fusions Pound began and abandoned through his interpretation of Eastern art. Like Pound, Lowell and Williams illustrate a mix of form, free-verse language, and modernized poetics to not only imitate Eastern art but to create poetics of international discourse which shape American Modernism.