The purpose of this study has been to investigate and analyze the "fictional miniatures," i.e., the short prose works, of Albert Paris Gütersloh. The assumption was that a marked interrelationship exists between these and Gütersloh's painted miniatures. Given the fact that Gütersloh was both writer and painter, and since many of the questions which logically arise out of this duality either have not been addressed at all in the scholarly literature on Gütersloh, or dealt with only superficially, it was felt that the approach used in the present study had to focus, to some extent, on the artist's dual talent. The study attempts to illustrate Gütersloh's artistic nature in conjunction with an investigation of one area of artistic expression, namely the short fictional works. The method was one of proceeding from the general to the particular, i.e., by first examining the complex phenomenon of the "painting writer," or "writing painter," as well as the widely discussed notion of "reciprocal illumination" of the arts. This, together with the detailed analysis of scholarly works on Gütersloh as well as his own theoretical writings on art was seen as part of the necessary "anatomy" of the study. Although the narrational quality of the painted miniatures has been alluded to by several other critics, the inherent similarity between Gütersloh's painted and "literary miniatures" (i.e., his short prose works) is being analyzed for the first time in this study. It aims at proving the claim that the former's overriding characteristic is their distinctly narrational quality. As such the paintings are permeated with a writer's imagination, a feature which makes their narrative component as important as the pictorial. Each of these small-scale paintings depicts some crucial point in a "story," thereby forcing the viewer to imagine a "before" as well as an "after" of each specific scene — in other words, to see these paintings in epic terms. By isolating such elements as delineation, framing, staging, setting, and colour (both descriptive and metaphorical) among others, it could be shown that the fictional miniatures give evidence of Gütersloh's persistent inclination to think, and write, in "pictures," hence to work from a largely pictorial conception: the story-line frequently is developed as a series of static "pictures" which are given as much compositional weight as the chronologically progressing plot. It could also be demonstrated that the general phenomenon of Fantastic Realism is a pronounced feature not only of the painted but also of the literary miniatures. The conclusion the study reaches is that Gütersloh's artistic expression, whether as writer or painter, is of a much more unified nature than has previously been argued; that both forms of artistic expression are of a complementary nature, and that this phenomenon is exemplified most succinctly in his fictional miniatures. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

Keeper of the Protocols argues that Jens Bjørneboe was a consciously European author, of international stature, whose works cannot be properly understood if treated simply as the product of a "Scandinavian" writer. As Bjørneboe remains for the most part untranslated into English, the objectives of the study are two-fold: to introduce the works of Jens Bjørneboe, and to provide a detailed commentary on influence in his works from classic and contemporary sources. The first chapter serves as an introduction to Bjørneboe supplying a concise overview of his literary career as playwright, novelist, poet and essayist. In chapter two, his early achievements as a poet and novelist are discussed. The point of departure for the earliest works lies in the spiritual system of Anthroposophy and the powerful influence of Rilke. The chapter culminates with commentaries on his highly controversial debate-novels. The third chapter is an extended study of his pivotal trilogy known as "The History of Bestiality": Frihetens øyeblikk (1966), Kruttårnet (1970) and Stillheten (1973). While the trilogy represents a confrontation with Western , culture, it also depicts modern man in a world devoid of values and meaning. Here, the influence of Nietzsche and Sartre are traceable. In the trilogy, Bjørneboe's thinking on violence and society intersects with that of Michel Foucault and René Girard. The fourth chapter is a discussion of Bjørneboe and the theater. As a Norwegian dramatist who rejected Ibsen's form of theater, he found recourse alternately in Brecht, Strindberg and Tennessee Williams. Bjørneboe's major plays can best be understood in light of this set of influences. The fifth and final chapter examines the "anarchism" which was Bjørneboe's final philosophical resting place. The parallels with Camus's ideas in L'Homme revolté are readily discernible. Bjørneboe's final novel, Haiene (1974), which was to commence his "History of Freedom," is a sea novel which invites comparison with Conrad, particularly Conrad's conception of history. Bjørneboe's letters and unpublished autobiography show an increasing preoccupation with the split between social and metaphysical concerns. His final months, and his assessment of his own literary accomplishment, are reviewed in light of this conflict. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

"Still Life" argues that Patrick White's fiction reveals objects in surprising, unexpected attitudes so as to challenge the process by which the mind usually connects with the world around it. In particular, White's novels disrupt readers' tacit assumptions about the lethargic nature of substance; this thesis traces how his fiction reaches beyond familiar linguistic and stylistic forms in order to reinvent humanity's generally passive perception of reality. The first chapter outlines the historical context of ideas about the "object," tracing their development from the Bible through literary movements such as romanticism, symbolism, surrealism and modernism. Further, the chapter considers the nature of language and the relation of object to word in order to distinguish between the usual symbolic use made of objects in literature and White's treatment of things as discrete, palpable entities. The second chapter focuses on White's first three published novels—Happy Valley (1939), The Living and the Dead (1941) and The Aunt's Story (1948)--as steps in his novelistic growth. Chapters Three, Four and Five examine respectively The Tree of Man (1955), The Solid Mandala (1966) and The Eye of the Storm (1973); these novels represent successive stages of White's career and exemplify his different formal and stylistic techniques. White's innovations demand a new manner of reading; therefore, each novel is discussed in terms of objects which reflect the shapes of the works themselves: "tree" defines the structure and style of Tree of Man "house" inspires Solid Mandala and "body" shapes Eye of the Storm. Reading White's novels in terms of structural analogues not only illuminates his methodology, but also clarifies his distinction between objective and subjective ways of understanding the world. Further, these chapters also refute critics' arguments that White's objects are merely victims of his overambitious use of personification and pathetic fallacy, or that they are the result of his dabbling in mysticism. "Still Life" concludes by showing how Patrick White's novels sequentially break down assumptions about reality and appearance until the reality of language itself falters. The author restores mystery to things by relocating the possibility of the extraordinary within the narrow, prescribed confines of the ordinary. White succeeds in changing readers' notions about the nature of reality by disrupting the habitual process by which they apprehend the world of things. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

In the endless cycle of life and death, the issues of love and marriage are a constant and recurrent theme of literature. The man, as a foreigner, comes to court the woman with the intent of taking her away from her parents and bringing her into his own home. He must first convince the woman to leave the paternal location. The hearth, the center of the new home and the symbol of his wife, constitutes the one constant and stable aspect of the man's otherwise nomadic existence. The tensions and conflict inherent in this masculine struggle serve to mold and prepare the man for his future role as the protector and provider of his home and society. The woman, for her part, must also undergo -a spatial displacement. Not only must she travel to the new domicile, but she must also be prepared to change and adapt herself to the idea of leaving her birthplace. The vertical movement from the tower to the grove by way of the bedroom constitutes the process of maturation for the lady. Once she has proven herself capable of adulthood, the woman will assist her mate in gaining access to the society he had originally rejected in his search for self. Thus the woman serves as the instrument of God in redeeming the man while maintaining her own individuality, seen in the parallel process of displacement which she experiences. The reader response to the text of the Lais is based upon the realization that the reader also experiences a type of spatial displacement similar to that of the protagonists. Marie, through the use of a variety of literary mechanisms, forces the recipients of the text to go back in time and space to the mythic locale of Bretaigne. The purpose of this narrative technique is that, through identification with the various characters, each reader learns the proper methods of social interaction. In other words, the twelve stories form a manual of courtly etiquette. The Lens of Marie de France are not only for entertainment but for edification as well. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Giovanni Bellini's The Blood of the Redeemer has been traditionally approached in terms of its style and iconography. The two separate lines of investigation have shown the painting to be a complex image that participates in the traditions of both private and public Christ imagery. This thesis will focus on the painting with regard to both the function that it served and the Venetian context in which it was produced. The purpose of the study will be to show the work as a private devotional painting in which the public Christ type has been adapted to fulfill the needs of contemporary Venetian meditations. Chapter One will deal with the two distinct ways in which the work has been discussed and the particular problems that exist in approaching suffering Christ imagery in terms of context. Chapter Two will focus on the development and function of the full-length bleeding Christ in the private and public spheres within the context of Christ-centred piety in the fifteenth century. Chapter Three will discuss Venetian devotions to Christ with particular regard to the impact of historical events. Chapter Four will focus on the adaptation of the public Christ type in The Blood of the Redeemer. The appropriation will be discussed in terms of the liturgical resonances that are brought to the image and with regard to the use of public types in Bellini's other private Christ images. In addition, the importance of northern graphics will be examined as well as the civic associations with which the Christ type had become imbued in northern Italy. The location of the image within a particular social strata will be effected through considering the way in which it addresses contemporary intellectual issues in Venice. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

Throughout history, women have suffered from the mind/ body dualism, a major component of Western patriarchal ideology, which has consigned the body to women and the brain to men. Women's role is relegated to procreating, a "natural" act of the body that produces offspring, while men create, a conscious undertaking of the mind that brings something new into being. Women artists frequently confront continuous challenges to their creativity having to choose between mothering and artistic creation. Theorists like de Beauvoir saw the two as incompatible, three novels by Nancy Huston: La Virevolte (1994), Instruments des tenebres (1996) and Prodige (1999), seem in some ways to confirm that dilemma. Yet elsewhere this bilingual author affirms not only the possibility of combining them, but the importance of doing so to produce works that are feminine. Her work challenges the view of motherhood as metaphor in French feminist theory, as Huston relates that theory to practical concerns more often associated with anglophone feminist theory. A range of feminist works on maternity will be employed to examine the changing positions adopted in these novels, where the division between creation and maternity is primordial, but this split implies different results in each case. Instead of the traditional or feminist figure of motherhood, based on maternal love or instinct, the reader is confronted with specific types of conflict between mother and child. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

In the early 1890s, Ingeborg von Bronsart (1840-1913) was hailed by the German musical press as the "first lady" of the German stage. Her first two extant dramatic works —Jery und Bately (Singspiel, 1873) and Hiarne (grosse Oper, 1891) — had captivated audiences and were met with enthusiasm from critics. By 1904, Arthur Elson noted that Bronsart was "one of the few really great women composers." Yet by the time her last opera, Die Siihne, premiered in 1909, the magic had faded. Critics rejected the work as unimaginative, while audiences stayed away. Bronsart and her works quickly disappeared from the repertoire and from history. Employing manuscript and contemporary published sources, Chapter One examines Bronsart's life and the rich artistic circles in which she lived and worked. Chapters Two, Three and Four are devoted to each of Bronsart's three extant operas. The individual works are considered with respect to their genesis as well as to more general matters of plot and dramatic structure. Because little is known about Bronsart's music, in order to obtain a better understanding of her style a substantial portion of my discussion concentrates on the musical analysis and dramatic interpretation of each opera. Focusing on the specific numbers and scenes that I consider to be of significant interest, I examine the vocal writing, harmonic language, formal structures, unity and continuity. The thesis concludes with an exploration of broader historiographical issues of reception, gender, genre and aesthetic value, laying the foundation for a renewed interest in this unique composer and her works. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

Dynasties of Demons: Cannibalism from Lu Xun to Yu Hua focuses on the issue of representations of the body in modern Chinese fiction. My interest concerns the relationship, or correspondence between "textual" bodies and the physical "realities" they are meant to represent, particularly where those representations involve the body as a discursive site for the intersection of state ideology and the individual. The relationship between the body and the state has been a question of profound significance for modern Chinese literati dating back to the late Qing, but it was Lu Xun who, with the publication of his short story "Kuangren riji" (Diary of a Madman), in 1918, initiated the literaty discourse on China's "apparent penchant for cannibalizing its own people. In the first chapter of my dissertation I discuss L u Xun's fiction by exploring two distinct, though not mutually exclusive issues: (1) his diagnosis of China's debilitating "spiritual illness," which he characterized as being cannibalistic; (2) his highly inventive, counter-intuitive narrative strategy for critiquing traditional Chinese culture without contributing to or stimulating his reader's prurient interests in violent spectacle. To my knowledge I am the first critic of modern Chinese literature to write about Lu Xun's erasure of the spectacle body. In Chapters II, III and IV, I discuss the writers Han Shaogong, Mo Yan, and Yu Hua, respectively, to illustrate that sixty years after Lu Xun's madman first "wrote" the prophetic words, chi ren A (eat people), a number of post-Mao writers took up their pens to announce that the human feast did not end with Confucianism; on the contrary, with the advent of Maoism the feasting began in earnest. Each of these post-Mao writers approaches the issue of China's "spiritual dysfunction" from quite different perspectives, which I have characterized in the following way: Han Shaogong (Atavism); Mo Yan (Ambivalent-Nostalgia); and Yu Hua (Deconstruction). As becomes evident through my analysis of selected texts, despite their very significant differences (personal, geographic, stylistic) all three writers come to oddly similar conclusions that are, in and of themselves, not dissimilar to the conclusion arrived at by Lu Xun's madman. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

A detailed study of the poetry (shi R#) of Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072). Though Ouyang Xiu was one of the major cultural figures of the northern Song period (960-1126), later generations have rather neglected his poetry. After a brief introduction explaining this neglect, my study begins with a biographical sketch, outlining Ouyang's public career and concentrating on events that may have shaped his development as a poet. Chapter two deals with Ouyang's poems on mountains, one of his most favoured topics. I describe three kinds of mountain poems: dynamic, forceful works; tranquil works; and those which compare different kinds of mountains in an intellectual manner. Frequently domestic or cultural objects — stone screens, calligraphic rubbings, music — provide the inspiration for Ouyang's mountain poetry. Chapters three and four turn from the "cosmic" level of mountains to the "domestic" world, to discover whether other everyday objects exert a similar effect on his imagination. Chapter three deals with activities: poems on tea and wine drinking; eating; sleeping; music and calligraphy. These works tend to jump back and forth between the mundane and the transcendent, as Ouyang traces each subject to its source in the natural world. Chapter four treats the buildings, gardens, pets and plants in Ouyang's immediate environment. Techniques of caricature and witty argumentation increasingly appear in his mature verse. Water is a central figure in Ouyang's mountain poems. Chapter five reverts to the "cosmic" level to discuss Ouyang's poetry on water in its many transformations: storms, snow, reflected moonlight, rivers and the ocean. In his mature works, Ouyang increasingly mixes levels of discourse — prosaic and lyrical, pure and crude — to indicate the complexity of human reaction to outside events. The concluding chapter summarizes the evolution of Ouyang's poetic style. I define wit, noting its centrality in the English poetic tradition. I carefully analyse Ouyang's recorded comments on poetry: he constantly advocates breadth and variety of mood and subject matter, including even laughter and joking, crudity and baseness. I suggest possible influences on his style, especially Mid-Tang poets like Han Yu and Bai Juyi, and his own contemporary, Mei Yaochen. Finally, I yoke together the concept of wit and Ouyang's phrase "competing with Creative Transformation": like the English witty poets, Ouyang transforms harsh realities into ingenious artistic structures, and finds vitality in the midst of suffering and destruction. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

The thesis links the writings of the Italian Italo Calvino and the Chinese Ma Yuan through the Taoist symbol of the Tao and the Borgesian concept of the Aleph, an imaginary point in space containing all points in space and time. Based on Zhuangzi’s parable of the Emperor Hun-tun (Chaos) who lost his original state of chaos when he had sensory openings poked into him, the vision of the Aleph/Tao represents the return to that chaotic state of undifferentiated knowledge one experiences when one closes all sensory perceptions. This unnameable vision allows one to transcend all apparent conceptual dichotomies as it lies in the realm of intuition rather than language. Calvino, like Borges, posits that the chaos of the universe cannot be represented through the sequential language system, but nevertheless demonstrates this ineffability through language. Ma Yuan celebrates the chaos of life by writing about a mythological Tibet, upholding the uniqueness of that culture as a subtle subversion to the Chinese political and territorial takeover. Chapter One and Two, respectively, discuss the “Overlapping Conceptual Spaces” in Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Ma Yuan’s ‘The Temptation of the Gangdisi’. Chapter Three looks in greater detail at the images of the Aleph and the Tao in the two main texts against the backdrop of Borgesian thought. In accordance with the concept of the Aleph/Tao whose definition is continuously unsettled by contradictory conjectures, the fourth chapter undoes the conclusions reached in the previous chapters. This chapter discusses Calvino’s Cosmicomics and Ma Yuan’s shorter Tibetan stories in the light of comic parody. That which was earlier posited as the ineffable in these stories is elaborated in a profusion of words. The Conclusion discusses from a Taoist point of view the predominantly male voice in the writings of the two authors. While both advocate the spiritual sameness of all phenomena in an undifferentiated knowledge of the world, they nevertheless write from the male perspective of the yang pursuing and wanting to possess the yin. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate