The inherent flexibility of the letter form or epistolary mode of writing frees the writer within the framework of salutations and closings to use vocabulary and language to create, to omit or to invert conventional constraints imposed on women by a patriarchal society. The letter begins as a blank page but becomes the space for writing one’s personal thoughts and emotions to the absent other in a communicative effort to minimize the separation. This dissertation examines the female narrator in actual letters written during the Spanish emigration to the New World in the sixteenth century and four epistolary novels written by female authors during the nineteenth- and twentieth centuries. The female “I” emerges in the selected texts and attests to the writer’s ability to inhabit her own writing space. By applying Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism and Janet Altman’s formal approach to the epistolary novel, the epistolary and literary textual creations by women writers challenge the silence and traditional anonymity generally assigned to women. I explore the cultural enculturation of the transgressive female who loses her “self”, her very being because of her inability to conform to societal norms as outlined by Barbara Creed and Elaine Showalter. In addition, I apply ideas from Linda Kauffman’s study on the transformation of the female writer who metamorphoses from victim to artist through the use of pen and paper. The female ‘self’ crafted by each of the letter writers is studied as they narrate their space, exercise agency, and negotiate the conflicts and contradictions of their domestic and public space. The epistolary, whether actual or fictional, becomes a textual creation challenging the silence and traditional anonymity assigned to women. The letter, when used as a literary device, is the perfect vehicle to create a narrator who controls his or her own life’s narrative. The writer constructs an implicit recipient linking the addressee and engages the reader in an absorbing story.

Pushing the "Scented Envelope": Elisa von der Recke at the Cultural Crossroads Carrie L. Cox Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages, BYU Master of Arts This thesis serves as an introduction to the 5-volume electronic edition of the collected works of the influential German-language author Elisa von der Recke to be published by the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages at Brigham Young University. The compilation presents a modern edition of Recke's published writings and letters in German, with an extensive critical apparatus in English, including introductions to the edition, author and individual sections, biographical information, a complete bibliography of primary and secondary works, a photo/portrait gallery, and critical annotations. During her life as an author, traveler, social luminary, and salonnière, Elisa von der Recke (1754-1833) stood at the crossroads of European history and culture. Born into a German-speaking noble family in the Duchy of Courland (now Lithuania), Recke was positioned between the conflicting intellectual discourses of religion and rational Enlightenment; between intellect and sentiment; between the noble class, to which she belonged, and the bourgeoisie, which she preferred; between traditional views of a woman's role, and her own ceaseless intellectual striving. This essay examines the way Recke creatively asserted herself as an individual in spite of the limitations of her time in three main areas. First, I discuss the way that Elisa writes her memoir in an expertly layered style, utilizing her author's voice alternately as both character and narrator. Second, I examine discusses her unconventional education and why it allowed for exceptional opportunities for a woman at her time, and thirdly, I consider Elisa's lifelong search for affection that led her to uniquely constructive avenues atypical of someone so deprived of consistent affection as Elisa had been in her childhood and marriage. Because of Recke's central position in the culture of her time, her writings provide a wealth of insight relevant to gender roles, political, religious and philosophical history, as well as travel and culture. What was unique about Elisa von der Recke, was her quiet refusal to remain within the borders set for her by society, her social status and her gender. Where many women might never have questioned the role they were assigned and its restrictions, and others never found a way to escape them, against all odds, Elisa burst politely through the "scented envelope" that contained her, and literally created herself, her education, her role in society, and her reputation, becoming in the process a truly remarkable woman.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:39:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1066120 bytes, checksum: e77fc2f6336fb6d85e4a1145cac9607b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This work aims at presenting the results of our research on point of view and the creation of meanings in the novel Dangerous liaisons, by Choderlos de Laclos, and in two of its film adaptations: Dangerous liaisons 1960 (1959), by Roger Vadim, and Dangerous liaisons (1988), by Stephen Frears. Throughout the work, we try to carry out a comparative analysis between the source text and its two hypertexts, focusing on the question of narrative perspective and the meanings this category produces. We started with a discussion of film adaptation of literary works, so as to confirm that the question of fidelity has long been overcome, having been replaced by a rather more coherent and necessary debate that concerning the sociology of adaptation, that is, the context in which the adaptations are materialized. From this point we try to present a concept and a classification of point of view that enabled us to analyze the selected narratives. The constructed theoretical support was used in the investigation of both the novel by Laclos and the adaptations by Vadim and Frears. Our initial hypothesis is that point of view is the most responsible element, in each work, for the elaboration of different meanings of evil. Taking into account the considerable relevance of narratives in our everyday life, we understand the fundamental role of critical analysis of values conveyed by such stories, from which derives the significance of our research. We hope the research transcends the proposed analysis so as also to contribute with further critical readings of narratives that inhabit our everyday life. / Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar os resultados da nossa pesquisa sobre o ponto de vista e a criação de sentidos no romance As ligações perigosas, de Choderlos de Laclos, e em duas de suas adaptações fílmicas: Ligações amorosas 1960 (1959), de Roger Vadim, e Ligações perigosas (1988), de Stephen Frears. Nele, tentamos realizar uma análise comparativa entre o hipotexto e seus dois hipertextos, tendo como foco de atenção a questão da perspectiva narrativa e os significados por ela criados. Nosso ponto de partida foi a discussão sobre a adaptação para o cinema de obras literárias, durante a qual procuramos confirmar que a questão da fidelidade de transposição está há muito superada e já foi substituída pelo debate mais coerente e necessário sobre a sociologia da adaptação ou seja, sobre o contexto em que são realizadas as adaptações. A partir daí, procuramos apresentar um conceito e uma classificação da categoria do ponto de vista que nos permitisse realizar a análise das obras narrativas em questão. A base teórica construída foi utilizada na análise do romance de Laclos e das obras de Vadim e de Frears. Partimos da hipótese de que o ponto de vista é o maior responsável pela elaboração, em cada obra, de sentidos diferentes de mal. Levando-se em consideração a importância considerável das narrativas em nossa vida cotidiana, entendemos como é fundamental a análise crítica dos valores transmitidos por essas histórias, de onde a relevância de nossa pesquisa. Esperamos com ela não apenas realizar as análises propostas, mas ainda oferecer uma contribuição para a leitura cada vez mais crítica das narrativas que fazem parte de nosso dia-a-dia.

Roman épistolaire célébré par son siècle, Julie ou La Nouvelle Héloïse (1762) offre une réflexion d’une criante actualité. Par le déploiement d’une érotique placée sous l’égide de la connaissance, Rousseau voit dans l’amour le couronnement de sa réflexion politique et morale, articulée autour de la question des rapports, conformément à l’ouvrage fondamental mais non premier du système, à savoir l’Emile. Il y va en effet, dans La Nouvelle Héloïse, de la confrontation brutale de l’amour à des circonstances mondaines qui le contrarient sans pouvoir l’éteindre. Au sein de cette lutte, Julie cristallise le combat mené par la vertu au nom d’une passion qui, bien que conforme à la nature, ne peut se maintenir dans le monde sans impliquer indéfectiblement sa propre contrariété. Il s’agit alors tout autant de la mise en lumière des difficultés propres au système, que du jaillissement d’une érotique complexe au sein de laquelle le langage, vecteur de la temporalité à l’œuvre dans l’amour, devient la forme par laquelle le sentiment s’actualise tout au long d’une véritable phénoménologie morale, admirablement composée, qui suit les amants de la naissance de leurs feux à la mort de l’héroïne. En se présentant comme simple éditeur des lettres qu’il a rédigées depuis le pays de ses chimères, celui que Kant désignait comme le Newton du monde moral déplace la question de l’authenticité de la correspondance et permet ainsi à la passion amoureuse d’accéder pleinement à l’universalité vers laquelle elle ouvre, tout en révélant la conquête de l’identité qu’elle opère, au sein de la contradiction déchirante entre intérêt particulier et intérêt collectif. / An epistolary novel celebrated during its century, Julie, or the New Heloise (1762) offers a resoundingly topical reflection. By using erotica under the aegis of knowledge, Rousseau sees in love the peak of his political and moral reflection, articulated around the question of interactions, conforming to the fundamental albeit not the first piece of his system, i.e. Emile. In The New Heloise, there is a brutal confrontation between love and social circumstances that contradict the former without being able to extinguish it. In the core of this confrontation, Julie crystallises the fight brought by virtue of a passion that, albeit in conformity with nature, cannot remain in the world without unfailingly resulting in its own contradiction. The inherent difficulties in the system are thus touched upon as much the emergence of a complex erotica at the core of which language, vector of the temporality that operates within love, becomes the form by which feeling is actualised throughout an admirably composed moral phenomenology which follows the lovers from the birth of their passion to the death of the heroine. By presenting himself simply as the editor of the letters that he wrote from the depths of his fantasies, the one who Kant designated as the Newton of the moral world changes the question of the correspondence’s authenticity, and thus allows romantic passion to fully reach the universality towards which it opens, all while revealing the conquest for identity that it enables, in the heart of the harrowing contradiction between individual and collective interest.

This essay is a literary analysis of the childhood sexual abuse trauma in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and its possible usefulness in the EFL classroom. Previous scholarly work has lacked in discussing how abuser closeness and a female perpetrator have affected the main character Charlie’s trauma. Therefore, theories regarding female perpetrated sexual assault and betrayal trauma have been applied and it has been concluded that many of the harmful effects of these theories correspond with Charlie’s behaviours. By reading and working with the novel through critical pedagogy, which according to Antero Garcia concerns exploring what is beneath surface level, students are offered multiple ways in which they can deal with their emotions whilst improving their language skills (96). In addition, trauma-informed teaching can be used for students to understand trauma consequences, implied trauma and to prevent students being retraumatized. The epistolary format also shows students that reading and writing about one’s emotions, through bibliotherapy and scriptotherapy, can improve one’s mental health and help one feel less alone in experiencing difficult situations or emotions.

This thesis analyzes Ying Chen's Les Lettres Chinoises through the lenses of literary translation, migrant writing and epistolary genres, as well as through critical theory of Chen's poetics in order to inform a translation of said novel from French into English. This theoretical groundwork is accompanied by analysis of the process of the translation, including specifications, methods used, and justifications for translation decisions. Les Lettres Chinoises is Ying Chen's second novel, written in French rather than her native Chinese language. Spanning a fifty-seven letter exchange between Shanghai and Montreal, Chen's choice to write in language other than her first, as well as the themes presented in the novel such as emigration, exile, identity, and Otherness, render Chen's novel ideal for critical discussion in the domain of migrant writing theory. Translating any exophonic text presents particular challenges for the translator and the analysis of these difficulties enrich both the translation as well as an understanding of the migrant writing genre. Inherent in these challenges is negotiating transparency (foreignization versus domestication) in the translation of cultural traces that speak of other traditions and realities. Chen's Les Lettres Chinoises is unique among migrant texts however, because she privileges voice through the use of the epistolary genre, a form that bespeaks a 19th century Western tradition. Her choice of this genre provides insight into the literary and cultural traditions that shaped her writing and encourage the reader as well as the translator to consider, or rather reconsider, the novel's intent. Les Lettres Chinoises contributes to the migrant and epistolary genres, redefining and enhancing each respectively. Chen's prerogatives as viewed through these lenses are varied: through her three letter-writing characters she reenacts literal and existential exile, creates a space of enunciation through letter writing, all while defining her own poetic style in another language. I negotiated these prerogatives in the translation by creating three subtly distinct and evolving voices for each of the characters. I used existing translations of Chen's works to create consistency in style and accuracy. Included as well are excerpts from my final translation.

RESUME The thesis 'Personal prose with an authorial commentary' consists of two parts. The first part is the authorial prose. The prose is titled The Subject: This is a novel in emails describing a partnership triangle. Jirka responds to Danka's advertisement on an Internet dating site looking for a pen pal. Although both of them are living with a partner their pen friendship grows into a love afair. The relationship and intimacy of characters are revealed through the correspondence of other people. Not only does Jirka correspond with Karel, his friend, but also his girlfriend confides Jirka's behavior to her friend Šárka. Jirka gets himself into a difficult position between two women. They then resolve the situation for him - both abandon him. In the second part of the thesis - reflection - the circumstances of the work's origin are discussed and particular aspects of the novel are reflected. In addition to the plot construction, character configuration and their characteristics the main focus is on the meaning of the work, and due to which the work's conclusion and the title have suffered. Coping with the form of emails, which is used in the novel, is also taken into consideration and the inclusion of the text into the genre of women's literature. The inability to cross autobiographical borders and...

The subject of the thesis is the epistolary novel genre in the works of German and Dutch female writers Sophie von La Roche, Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken. This narrative genre continued the former novelistic tradition and is inseparably connected with epistolary culture, sentimentalism, cult of friendship and the name of the English novelist Samuel Richardson. It attracted readers' attention, especially of female audience in the period of social changes based on ideas of the Enlightenment and its philosophy. In the second half of the 18th century it became the most popular genre. Thanks to its characteristics it became the medium of female opinions' and feelings' presentation in times of the beginning women's emancipation as well as the genre which enabled more women to enter the field of literature. The issue of the thesis is the comparative analysis and interpretation of two most successful novels of the women writers in the bordering countries with cultural influences: the first German professional women writer La Roche and her novel Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim and the Dutch author couple Wolff a Deken and their collective work Historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart.

The Dryland Diaries is a multigenerational narrative in the epistolary style, a tale of four women, central character Luka; her mother Lenore; grandmother Charlotte; and great-grandmother Annie – cast in the Quebecoise tradition of the roman du terroir, invoking place and family, the primal terroir of a storyteller. The novel is driven by three acts of violence – the possible murder of Annie’s husband, Jordan, by her Hutterite father; the rape of Charlotte; and the probable murder of Lenore by a notorious serial killer. Set in rural Saskatchewan and Vancouver, Luka, a single mother, finds Annie’s and Charlotte’s journals in the basement of her farm home, where both her predecessors also lived. She reads their stories while attempting to come to terms with her search for her missing mother, and with her attraction to her former flame, Earl, now married. Luka learns that Jordan disappeared shortly after the Canadian government enacted conscription for farmers in the First World War, when Annie became a stud horsewoman, her daughter Charlotte born before the war ended. Letters and newspaper clippings trace the family’s life through the drought and Great Depression; then Charlotte’s diaries reveal her rape at Danceland during the Second World War. Her daughter, Lenore, grows up off-balance emotionally, and abandons her daughters. Luka returns to Vancouver and learns her mother’s fate. Told from Luka’s point of view, in first-person narrative with intercutting diary excerpts and third-person narratives, the novel examines how violence percolates through generations. It also examines how mothers influence their children, the role of art, how the natural world influences a life, and questions our definition of “home.” At its heart, the novel is a story about what makes a family a family, about choices we make toward happiness, and about how violence perpetuates itself through the generations. Inspired by Margaret Lawrence’s The Stone Angel, Carol Shields’ The Stone Diaries, and the place-particular writing of Annie Proulx and Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Dryland Diaries paints a family portrait of loss, hope and redemption, locating it on the boundaries of historical fiction, firmly within the realm of epistolary and intergenerational narrative.

This doctoral thesis is concerned with autobiographical forms, their general characteristics as well as with three examples of Czech works of art that prove how difficult it is to make that general characteristics and show various kinds of autobiographical narrative. It aims to show the often heterogeneous character of the so- called autobiographical genres, and present some approaches in their study. In the opening chapter, we define the term autobiography or autobiographical form in regard to literary history and theory, and special attention to Czech research in this field. We concentrate on the genre specifics of autobiographical forms, the opposition of "literary" and "authentic" diary, the term "autobiographical pact" coined by Philippe Lejeune and several patterns of autobiographical memory introduced by James Olney. The key aspect of our study is the nature of autobiographical form derived from the subject's style and illocutionary acts, i. e. stylization as defined by John Searle followed by Jean Starobinski or Paul de Man. Out of the wide spectrum of issues connected with autobiography we focus on the description of the subject's narrative structure, mainly on its language, style, frequent motifs, its memory and relationship to other characters in its text. The complexity of the very...