[From Preface]. Any study centred in the exploratlon and analysis of the medieval and Elizabethen images of the Jew might, with some justification. seem redundant and impertinent to a modern reader; for the third quarter of this century has witnessed the almost total obviatlon of a great many such time-honoured images and symbols. The immemorial figure of the Wandering Jew, to cite a sIngle instance, has for the past two decades, attained his country and place of destination - history no longer condemning him to tarry until the Second Coming of the Messiah. Even the deicide Jew has been granted complete absolution, by an offlcial decree from the Vatican, for his complicity in the killing of Christ. It would seem, moreover, that the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews during the course of the Second World War have resulted in an alteration of the Jewish image radically transforming It from one of contempt into one of compassion a living symbol of "man's inhumanlty to man"; and the modern European dramatist has revived the Jewlsh figure on the stage as an instance of almost personal atonement or, alternatively, as a means of scourging the state of middle-class mind which abetted the persecution of the Nazi regime, attacking state policies of inactio and deploring the failure of influentlal powers to resist the blatant inhumanlty perpetrated within Its boundaries. Max Frisch's Andorre and Rolf Hochhuth's The Representative embody, each in its own way the 2Oth century's sense of shame and horror at those events with which the century has yet to come to terms. They are both extreme reactions agalnst the image of the Jew whlch the Nazi propogandized in the 1930s. And the image which the Nazis propogandized was curiously consistent wlth the medieval and Elizabethan images of the Jew.

Among the most important characters in contemporary writer Anne Tyler's nine novels of modern American life are her skillfully-drawn managing women who choose the family circle as the arena in which to use their skills and exert their influence. Strong, competent, independent, capable of caring for themselves, their husbands, their children, and others, too, as well as holding outside jobs, these women are the linchpins of their families. Among their most outstanding qualities are their abilities to endure hardships with heads high and skills unhampered. Within this broad category of managing women, Tyler clearly delineates two types of managers: the regenerative managing woman and the rigid managing woman. A major character in every novel, the regenerative managing woman not only endures, she also adapts. The key to her development and her strength is her capacity for trying again, renewing herself, and her family relationships. The evolution of a vital regenerative woman from a lonely childhood through the beginning of her vibrant womanhood is a key element in every Tyler novel. This development always includes an escape from her original family? an attempt to establish her own family; at least one major hardship that often sends her reeling home; and finally, at least one new start toward establishing her ideal family circle. Tyler's treatment of the regenerative managing woman in the first four novels concentrates on her young womanhood and her early establishment of her family. The later novels begin when the regenerative managing woman is in her thirties or forties and concentrate primarily on the ways the regenerative woman manages her family. Many of Tyler's novels also feature a rigid managing woman. While this character type manages with strength and competence, she is not a positive influence on her family. She endures. But she does not adapt. Too proud to admit her mistakes, or too selfish to notice them, she does not learn; thus, she does not change. Consequently, she stifles her own growth, as well as that of her family, even though she is not totally devoid of good qualities.

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This thesis takes a fresh, character-based approach to the Íslendingasögur. It is inspired by a narratological study that unites the functional and structural role of characters with their human, individualistic portrayal. My major objective is to demonstrate the important connection between characterisation and structure in the sagas. By drawing attention to characters that I term narrative triggers, I offer a way of reading the sagas that relies both on the narrative conventions of tradition and on the less predictable, personal interactions between the cast of any given saga. In the case of both major and minor figures in the Íslendingasögur a certain type of character is often present to perform necessary motivational functions, allowing the plot to develop. In Part I I emphasise the functional aspect of these characters, before exploring unusual examples that emphasise their individuality in Part II.The motivation of the plot is linked throughout to the figure of the ójafnaðarmaðr. A secondary objective is to provide a clearer understanding of the nature and function of this commonly occurring character type. The ójafnaðarmaðr is frequently alluded to in scholarship,but this thesis provides the first in-depth study of the portrayal of these characters. The quality that informs them (ójafnaðr,‘inequity’, lit. ‘unevenness’) is a threat to one of the core values of saga society and hints at an ‘unbalancing’ of social interactions and of the narrative equilibrium itself. That this unbalance leads to changes in the social structure of the setting is a key factor in driving the plots of the sagas along. For this reason, a detailed examination of the figure of the ójafnaðarmaðr is long overdue: they can be observed to perform a specific narrative function but are always fitted to suit their particular context. Focussing on the structural conventions of character introduction, Part I establishes my methodology and catalogues the examples of characters introduced as ójafnaðarmenn. The scope is limited to those introduced as such because it allows me to establish for the first time the full corpus and conventions of these characters and their introductions. Following developments in our understanding of the oral background to the sagas, my approach to these narratives is built upon the evidence of their shared origins in pre-literate storytelling [...]. The intersection between functionality and individuality in character brings certain aspects of the Íslendingasögur to the fore. Part II of this thesis shows that in combination with the structural markers explored in Part I, the sagas employ the collective perspective of the general public, other characters and ‘irrational’ motivators such as fate to contribute to their techniques of characterisation. Because disruptive qualities speak inherently of a difference in the way an individual sees themselves and in the way the public sees them, or we as an audience are meant to see them, figures termed ójafnaðarmaðr are an ideal focal point for the development of this study.

This dissertation describes the relationship between George Herbert's two principal works, The Temple (1633) and The Country Parson (1651). The introduction discusses the main problems faced by readers of The Temple: its paradoxical religious statements, its apparent lack of unity, its variable poetic voice, and its place in literary history. Chapter 1 argues that The Temple and The Country Parson are complementary: that they may have been written together and considered companionpieces, that they are similar in form and content, and that they should be read together. Chapter 2 places The Country Parson in the genre of the clerical manual, and explains its distinctive form as the influence of various kinds of renaissance prose, including the essay, the professional handbook, the courtesy book, the prose character, and the moral resolve. Chapter 3 provides the first thorough analysis of the prose style of The Country Parson, a style which may be loosely characterized as a combination of Ciceronian and Senecan attributes, but is better thought of as "Anglican" or "poetic." Chapters 4 and 5 apply The Country Parson to the problems faced by readers of The Temple, and describe the Anglican spirituality, pastoral voice, and coherence of The Temple, along with its proper place in literary history. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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This study analyzes the development of the major characters in Fowles's novel - Charles, Sarah, and Sam - in terms of the heroic quest motif. Using the basic pattern of the heroic quest, the monomyth, that Joseph Campbell sets forth in his The Hero with a Thousand Faces, I attempt to show that Fowles's novel may best be understood as the story of three separate heroic quests whose paths cross rather than as the story of a single hero or heroine. This reading seems to account best for all elements of the novel and to explain best the final positions of the characters in question as well as providing a rich appreciation of the novel's wealth of imagery.

This paper closely examines fairy tale films with road movie components, in particular those films featuring female protagonists. The study’s objective is twofold: first, to further develop existing research on the road movie by exploring one of the lesser known constituents of this broad genre and, second, to address gaps in scholarly literature on road movies when it comes to themes in female-led trips and the characterization of travelling females. Through a detailed analysis of the journeys of female characters in recent voyage-oriented fairy tale films—Peter Pan (P.J. Hogan, 2003), Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton, 2010) and Tangled (Byron Howard and Nathan Greno, 2010)—the investigation shows that these new heroines significantly differ from those of old. Their travels are portrayed as being less difficult, and the traits that they exhibit while on the road, namely fearlessness, rationality and an undying optimism, are rather favourable when compared to those exhibited by former road heroines. Although these protagonists still face characters who wish to impede their movement away from a domestic setting, it is demonstrated that the protagonists are ultimately successful in not only acquiring power in the surroundings that they find themselves in, but also in carrying over their goals and dreams to their own worlds upon their return, privileges that most former road heroines did not have. Ultimately, the study shows that females can be as efficient travellers as males, and in some cases are portrayed as even more competent than their male counterparts.

Cette thèse se propose d'étudier la question du Bouc Emissaire dans les œuvres de Gabriel García Márquez. Le thème du Bouc Emissaire est étroitement lié aux personnages dont l'existence semble attachée à ce phénomène. Soumis à leur triste sort, il est difficile d'envisager les personnages de Gabriel García Márquez en dehors de ces cercles vicieux. L'auteur associe inconsciemment ou pas ce phénomène du Bouc Emissaire aux thèmes tels que ceux de la Maison, du Corps meurtri ou sublimé, de l'Identité, de l'Altérité... qui seront exploités tout au long de ce travail. Il est donc intéressant de se demander pourquoi l'auteur semble ressentir le besoin pressant et permanent de construire des sociétés fictives faites avec et par des personnages boucs émissaires. En se servant de l'écriture, l'auteur semble dévoiler et affronter son univers personnel, le monde, notre actualité. Aussi, ce travail compte bien interroger certains ouvrages de Gabriel García Márquez afin d'observer dans un premier temps les éléments nécessaires à la formation du Bouc Emissaire. Puis notre analyse nous permettra de voir comment se manifestent les phénomènes d'exclusion en parallèle avec les réalités sociétales, tout en gardant en toile de fond la vie de l'auteur. / This thesis proposes to study the issue of Scapegoat in the works of Gabriel García Márquez. The theme of the Scapegoat is closely related to characters whose existence seems attached to this phenomenon. Submitted to their fate, it is difficult to imagine the characters in Gabriel García Márquez outside these vicious circles. The author combines unconsciously or not this phenomenon Scapegoat themes such as those of the House, the bruised body or sublimate, Identity, Otherness ... of which will be used throughout this work. It is therefore interesting to ask why the author seems to feel the pressing need to build permanent and fictitious companies made with the characters and scapegoats. By using writing, the author seems to reveal and confront his personal universe, the world, our news. Also, this work intends to examine certain works of Gabriel García Márquez to observe in the first place the elements necessary for the formation of the Scapegoat. Then our analysis allow us to see how phenomena occur in parallel with the exclusion societal realities, keeping in the background the life of the author.

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. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate