<p>This study examines two of the most popular sensation novels of the 1860s, <em>Lady Audley's Secret</em> by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and <em>East Lynne</em> by Ellen Wood, and their respective treatments of the Victorian family. Building on the work of critics who question and challenge the cohesiveness of the domestic ideal and the complete family within Victorian ideology, this project explores the representation of family units in both novels that are somehow beyond the ideological normative family of husband, wife and biological children. I examine several different figures, including the stepmother, the governess, the orphaned child, the single parent, and the unmarried aunt in order to trouble the distinction between the normative family and the transnormative family and thereby suggest that the contradictions and tensions that exist within a family grouping can function as enabling rather than debilitating. Through such an examination, I redefine the domestic ideal as ultimately flexible and adaptable rather than fleeting, frail or unachievable.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis is intended to explore the relationship between Dickens's use of 'type' characters and the portrayal of goodness in his novels. The 'benevolent old man', the 'impulsive young hero', and the 'good and simple man' are identified as Dicken's primary 'types' of 'goodness', and their development is traced over the course of selected novels ranging from Pickwick Papers to Great Expectations.</p> <p>Dickens's original formulation of goodness is a simple one and his naivete as well as his artistic immaturity is reflected in characters, like the Cheeryble brothers, whose uni-dimensional virtue ultimately renders them absurd. Over the course of his many novels Dickens develops a more complex moral view that endeavours to explore the interplay of good and evil within the individual. Great Expectation's Magwitch is, perhaps, the best example of the increasing moral complexity of Dickens's art.</p> <p>This thesis also examines the journey of the 'impulsive young hero', another of Dickens's 'types' of 'goodness', from dependence upon the providential figure to self-determination and moral autonomy. Early heroes like Nicholas Nickleby and<br />Martin Chuzzlewit remain subordinate to the will of the 'benevolent old man' in order to guarantee their future prospects. As Dickens matures as a novelist, however, the 'benevolent old man' becomes an increasingly less powerful figure and, as a result, the hero is forced to become more responsible for his cwn existence. Through his rejection of Magwitch's fortune in Great Expectations Pip constitutes the final movement in the hero's search for self-determination.</p> <p>As the 'benevolent old man' appears in increasingly abrogated forms the 'good and simple man', the final Dickensian type of goodness that is discussed in this study, becomes the representative of the pure virtue that was formerly the province of the providential figure. The 'good and simple man', is, however, invariably a member of the lower classes and his social helplessness reflects Dickens' gradually declining faith in an ameliorative middle class.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>In Aspects of the Novel, Forster discusses the function and importance of "fantasy" and "prophecy", fictional elements that play an essential role in his own works. The object of this study is to provide a definition of these two terms, and to apply them to an evaluation of Forster's two most renowned novels--Howards End and A Passage to India.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>When a reader opens a novel and begins reading he enters a fictional world, one which he discovers and unfolds via his act of reading. This basic fact of reader/text interaction is, in short, the focal point of many metafictional works. Metafiction, which is simply "fiction about fiction," centers not only on the writer's processes of creation and his product, the text, but also broadens its scope to include the equally important process, that of reading. The contemporary metafictionists' concern for equating the creative acts of writing and reading engenders a new role for the reader--that of the text's co-creator. The reader, who accepts his new co-creative role, is made more aware of how he activates a text to bring it to life. This fact sets contemporary metafictional works apart from previous "novelistic self-consciousness."</p> <p>The representative contemporary American writers selected for this study share in common their focus on the reader and his act of reading. The concept of "intertextuality " and its constituent structural parts, the "intertext" and the "intratext," are key elements amongst the fictions here discussed, elements which seek to make the reader more aware of his co-creative role. After all, a text does not exist beyond the confines of print and page until it is read, until it is brought to life via an active, imaginative, and hence, creative mind.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to show the development of J.D. Salinger's character, Seymour Glass, in the following works, and in the order in which they first appeared: "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (1948), "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" [19551, "Seymour: An Introduction" [19591, "Hapworth 16; 1924" [1965].</p> <p>Seymour Glass is a greatly misunderstood protagonist in modern literature, and I hope to shed some light on his important function. He is a character who possesses a remarkable intellect, and whose supposed saintliness is conceived by many critics as inconsistent with the fact that he commits suicide, I hope to show, nevertheless, that Seymour Glass is a figure of hope for modern North America, in particular, and not a figure of despair. I also hope to show that the charge made against Seymour's inconsistent and, therefore, incredible, unreliable character, reveals the insufficiently perceptive reading on the part of the critics, and not the inability of Salinger to create fine literature.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This dissertation gives a close analysis of the letters of Clarissa and Lovelace written after five crucial incidents in the novel. Based on structuralist assumption that language constructs and shapes our world, this thesis examines the writing style of the two main characters of Clarissa. The manner of linguistic expression of these characters is considered: i.e., diction; choice of words, tone, sentence structure and syntax, the types of figurative language; imagery, and rhetorical devices. In the process, we discover that Richardson uses style to reveal character and the unconscious. How a writer says whatever he says is as important as what he says.</p> <p>In the last few years, much critical attention has been paid to Lovelace. His attractiveness as a dashing young rake cannot be denied. However, some of Richardson's main aims in writing Clarissa are to "warn the inconsiderate and thoughtless of the one sex against the base arts and designs of specious contrivers of the other," and to warn young people against the notion that "a reformed rake makes the best husband." Lovelace claims to be reformed, but his style, unaltered from beginning to end, shows that he is not. This paper shifts the attention away from Lovelace to the true heroine of the novel, Clarissa. She is in fact Richardson's idea of "christianity... thrown into action." His portrayal of her makes him truly worthy of the<br />title "master in the delineation of the female heart."</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The thesis concentrates on the treatment of love and separation in Emily Brontë's poetry and novel, Wuthering Heights. The first chapter discusses Emily Brontë as a Romantic artist and attempts to deal with the critical difficulties encountered in placing her in this tradition. Her imaginative use of source material is also considered along with the influences of Scott and Byron. Comparisons with other Romantic artists cofirm the sense that Emily Brontë is a Romantic writer.</p> <p>The second chapter explores the development of Emily Brontë's creative imagination by comparing the treatment of love and separation in her poetry to its treatment in her prose. The themes of love and separation are handled most powerfully in Wuthering Heights.</p> <p>The focus of the thesis in the third and fourth chapters shifts to love and separation in Wuthering Heights. The first part of the novel is Romantic in its emphasis on the transcendental nature of thwarted, passionate love. Heathcliff's desire for union with Catherine's spirit reveals the continuation of Romantic elements in the second part of Wuthering Heights. The novel's moral concern, the necessity of forgiveness, is viewed, however, as something it shares with the conventions of Victorian fiction. The recurring interest and faith in the transcendental make the novel primarily a Romantic work.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The following study deals with the individual's relationship with his social, historical and institutional milieu in three novels by John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925), U.S.A. (1930-36), and Midcentury (1960). In chapter I, the introduction to this study, I have presented a brief biographical sketch on the author as well as an examination of Dos Passos' choice of an artistic form. Dos Passos' conception of art and the function of the artist as well as Dos Passos' place in the evolution of naturalistic literature have been discussed.</p> <p>The second chapter of this study focuses on the individual in conflict with an urban environment. The effects of this setting upon the individual's psyche forms the crux of my investigation. In chapter III, I have examined Dos Passos' U.S.A trilogy. The individual's relationship with his historical milieu and Dos Passos' essentially Marxist interpretation of history are used as the basis of my analysis. Chapter IV deals with Midcentury. The discussion in this chapter is founded upon the individual's conflict with social institutions, especially American labor organizations. In chapters two, three and four, Dos Passos' anti-deterministic philosophy and his concern with the individual is accentuated. Dos Passos' belief that personal integrity and social responsibility and conscientiousness are the mainstays of the survival of both individual and national liberty is established as the focal point of discussion. The "vag", who embodies this idea, is used as the linking motif between the three studies.</p> <p>Chapter V, the conclusion, discusses Dos Passos' role as both a writer and citizen. Here the instructive and artistic qualities of the three novels examined in this study have been evaluated.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis prioritizes the role of the Fabulous, an underdeveloped critical concept, in the construction of gay male literature and film. Building on Heather Love's observation that queer communities possess a seemingly magical ability to transform shame into pride - queer alchemy - I argue that gay males have created a genre of fiction that draws on this alchemical power through their uses of the Fabulous: fabulous realism. To highlight the multifarious nature of the Fabulous, I examine Thomas Gustafson's film Were the World Mine, Tomson Highway's novel Kiss of the Fur Queen, and Quentin Crisp's memoir The Naked Civil Servant.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Spenser's concern with English sovereignty is evident throughout The Faerie Queene, and in "The Legend of Holinesse" he promotes an entirely indigenous faith structure aligned with the state as the basis for a unified nation. I argue that in Book I of The Faerie Queene, Spenser presents an allegorical model of England through the Redcrosse Knight, Prince Arthur, and Una. These three characters represent the English citizenry, monarchy, and Protestant church, the three institutions proposed as necessary for a unified nation. Spenser's heroic model is presented as an emblem in Canto ix, where through the efforts of Prince Arthur, Redcrosse is reunited with Una. These three characters are similarly used in this paper as a structuring device to organize this thesis into three self-contained, interrelated essays, and issues relevant to each character/institution are explored in his or her chapter. After a brief discussion of the poetic emblem in Canto ix, where all three characters are present and exchange tokens of friendship, Redcrosse, Arthur, and Una are considered individually.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)