This work focuses on the topic of identity and, particularly, on the study of lies as a component of identity through the analysis of the main character in the comedy La verdad sospechosa , and the Court represented in the play. The text has been divided into two sections: the text's reality and the stories invented by the main character. This distinction serves to establish the relation between the elements of both parts, as well as their consequent influence in the construction of the character's identity. Conditions such as space, time and, particularly, social surrounding are taken into account in the fabrication of lies. The work shows how lying serves as a tool to create, sometimes fictitious but nevertheless useful, routes that help achieve an immersion in the society, even if it seems to go completely against the social values that, on the other hand, helps attain. Through the deconstruction of the character's lies, this work shows how, gradually, the made-up stories assimilate with the reality of the text until they become one with it. This gradual assimilation goes hand in hand with the character's immersion into the community, which includes the learning of social values and the fulfillment of the community's expectations.

This thesis is an evaluation of the extent to which theories of focalization are useful for the analysis of point of view in film. In it, I apply the small number of focalization models advanced within film studies to an analysis of the works of an internationally acclaimed Taiwanese director, Edward Yang. I reveal that Yang's films serve well to demonstrate how the conventional typologies of external and internal focalization are convenient labels that mask the considerable degree of ambiguity that is reflected by processes of focalization and narration in many films. Furthermore, I illustrate how an application of the alternative theory of auto-focalization to film analysis can generally free us from the limitations of these typologies, by drawing our attention to the iconic implications of film imagery. Finally, I determine that both models of focalization are largely useful for highlighting the degree to which the functions of character-focalizers and narrators can be indistinguishable, particularly in self-reflexive films.

This thesis discusses the oriental fiction of W. Somerset Maugham in the light of current theoretical models introduced by postcolonial and gender studies. Immensely popular from their time of publication to the present, Maugham's novels and short stories set in Asia and the South Pacific exhibit a consummate recycling of colonialist tropes. Through their manipulation of racial, gender, and geographical binarisms, Maugham's texts produce a fantasy of a seemingly stable British male subjectivity based upon emotional and somatic continence, rationality, and specularity. The status of the British male subject is tested and confirmed by his activity in the colonies. Maugham's situation of writing as a homosexual man, however, results in affiliations which cut across the binary oppositions which structure Maugham's texts, destabilising the integrity of the subject they strive so assiduously to create. Commencing with Maugham's novel The Moon and Sixpence, and his short story collection The Trembling of a Leaf, both of which are set in the South Pacific, the thesis moves to a discussion of Maugham's Chinese travelogue, On a Chinese Screen, and his Hong Kong novel, The Painted Veil. Further chapters explore the Malayan short stories, and Maugham's novel set in the then Dutch East Indies, The Narrow Corner. A final chapter discusses Maugham's novel of India, The Razor's Edge. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Maugham does not even attempt a liberal critique of British Imperialism. Writing and narration are, for him, processes closely identified with codes of imperial manliness. Maugham's putatively objective narrators, and the public "Maugham persona" which the writer carefully cultivated, display a strong investment in the British male subjectivity outlined above. Yet Maugham's texts also endlessly discover writing as a play of signification, of decoration, of qualities that he explicitly associates in other texts with homosexuality. If Maugham's texts do not critique the formation of colonial subjects they do, to a critical reader, make the rhetoric necessary to create such subjects peculiarly visible.

Išanalizuotos informacijos pagrindu sukurta 26 modelių drabuţių kolekcija „Mėnuo Sauluţę vedė“, iš kurių 4 pasiūti bei pagaminti jiems tinkantys aksesuarai. Kolekcija norima atkreipti dėmesį į senąjį tikėjimą, kultūrą, papročius ir suteikti galimybę XXI a. ţmogui iš naujo pajusti, kokia plona riba yra tarp realybės ir mitų. Sukurti 2 planšetai, kuriuose pristatoma kolekcija. Filmavimas ir fotosesija vykdyta kartu su ketvirto kurso audiovizualinio meno studentu Mantu Galvičiumi. Kolekcijos pristatymas vykdomas kartu su specialiai tam paruoštomis videoprojekcijomis ir erdvės ketimu videoinstaliacijos pagalba. / According to analyzed information the collection of 26 clothes was designed, 4 of them were sewn and appropriate accessory were made. The purpose of this collection is to attract the attention into old beliefs, culture, and custom and provide the possibility for 21st century human to find the slight boundary between the reality and myths. There were created 1 plane–table where the collection is represented. Filming and photos where made together with the 4th year student of audiovisual art Mantas Galvičius. The presentation of the collection is made with the help of special for this purpose created video-projections and space shifting video-installations.

Through an examination of Blake’s idea of Satan and his depiction of Satan and the rebel angels in the Paradise Lost design Satan Rousing his Legions, my thesis will demonstrate four principle findings, in addition to offering a fresh and unconventional interpretation to what is arguably Blake’s most profound depiction of Satan. One result is the demonstration that Blake maintained and developed his idea of Satan as a force of revolutionary energy and paradigm of Creative Imagination throughout his life. Secondly, I will demonstrate that Blake’s employment of, and references to, a punitive, destructive, and materialistic Satan is in fact a personification of the oppressive aspect of the Church and State. My third determination is that Blake’s vision of the Church as the oppressive and repressive tyrant Urizen did not soften as he aged but was steadfastly maintained until his death. And finally, I will establish that Blake did in fact maintain his revolutionary enthusiasm his entire life. / iv, 236 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 29 cm.

A woman’s choice between a starry-eyed dreamer and a pragmatic businessman ends in disaster. This situation is a motif in the works of Eugene O’Neill, and examining its occurrences in Beyond the Horizon, The Great God Brown, Strange Interlude and Long Day’s Journey into Night sheds light on the “seeker”(the starry-eyed dreamer)and “provider” (pragmatic businessman) characters in O’Neill’s work as well as his understanding of what women believe is the “Ideal Male.” Through his work, O’Neill questions whether women really want a seeker or a provider and, perhaps, would prefer a father instead. Nietzsche, Laing, Lao Tzu, and Frazer are all used to help ground this study of why exactly O’Neill’s women and men seem to get caught up in this cycle that often leaves both sexes dead or insane. / vi, 106 leaves ; 29 cm

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The thesis focuses on a variation of James's interest in the "international theme", the effect of transatlantic influences on the development of personality, culture and idea. In the context of this theme it seeks to understand the processes in the development of, and portrayal of change in, the identities of two central characters in the fiction of Henry James, Isabel Archer and Lambert Strether. The two novels analysed, The Portrait of a Lady and The Ambassadors. have a strong contextual relevance to the ''international theme", and compass the span of James's career, providing some degrees of comparison. Beginning with a view of the preliminary vision that James had of the main elements of each central character, the thesis seeks to understand how Isabel Archer and Lambert Strether are subsequently shaped, and developed, by way of the incidents and experiences they meet, and what they make of them. Of primary importance amongst these are the relations they form with the other characters in the novel. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.

As a writer and thinker, John Steinbeck has often been ridiculed by the academic community as trite and sentimental--someone who appeals to the masses but has little to say on life's "important" issues. This study applies an interdisciplinary approach to three of his later novels--The Pearl, East of Eden, and The Winter of Our Discontent--in order to more accurately assess the quality of Steinbeck's later fiction and to discover what this writer has to say concerning ethics and human nature, particularly the irrational emotions and vices.In concurrence with some of the latest research available, this study reveals that the emotions play a far greater role within the moral realm than previously believed by some philosophers and psychologists. Irrational emotions, such as extreme fear, anger, hatred, and guilt, are often sequential, cyclical, and cumulative in nature and frequently form dynamic combinations which feed on and intensify each other and which may lead to acts of violence or cruelty. Moreover, far from being uncontrollable, these emotions have been shown to have a cognitive dimension which is greatly influenced by upbringing and environment. As indicated in East of Eden, parental neglect and abuse play prominent roles in making certain characters susceptible to their own states of irrationality.The emotions are also primary to the development of more permanent character dispositions, both good and bad. As illustrated in East of Eden's Cathy Ames, a vice such as cruelty is often motivated and enabled by the fear and hatred that frequently form its core. Moreover, the vices themselves seem to be interactive and cumulatively debilitating; just as dishonesty plays a key role in enabling cruelty and loss of integrity, so does a lack of integrity make sense in a morally weak world.Thus, contrary to popular critical opinion, there was no dramatic falling off of quality in Steinbeck's writing, but rather a deliberate change in emphasis from social criticism to morality and from the group to the individual. This study confirms both the importance of what Steinbeck had to say as well as the eloquent and gifted manner in which he said it. / Department of English