The femme fatale is a marker for the past is evident in the film noir work of German exile directors. These directors created a femme fatale character similar to Weimar examples of the sexual woman icon, using Weimar cultural constructions as a template for their work in Hollywood. The femme fatale figure in film noir is specifically an enigma or duplicitous mystery, a woman with a gun who threatens the male protagonist. She represents a piece of the male character's past often seen through the structure of the voice-over and flashback. These narrative devices enable the male protagonist to rework this jaded past vis-a-vis his relationship to the femme fatale and his fatal attraction to her. The film noir femme fatale is linked to German exile directors' desire to review a past that has been lost and cannot be recuperated. In the case of the Weimar femme fatale, she is a sign for the trauma of World War I and the ensuing political/social crises of the Weimar republic. The femme fatale in her castrating capacity is a marker for historical upheaval and male subjectivity in flux. She is ultimately the scapegoat for male questions of self and a split subjectivity brought on by historical events such as war and the experience of exile. Her various guises include the criminal woman, the technological entity, and the double.

by Wan-kan Chin. / Includes passages in Chinese. / Thesis (M.Ph.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 164-184.

Thesis (Ph.D.(Literature)) -- University of the North, 1973 / Refer to the document

published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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Long suspected of being frivolous, of cultivating bad taste and of encouraging its reader's chimerical daydreams, the novel, at least after Cervantes, curiously turned against itself in the name of the reality it was once accused of fleeing. In doing so, it changed radically, of course, since it separated itself from the old idealistic romances which it now named as its enemies; but it also remained, more discreetly perhaps, faithful to its origins, i.e. to the lies and illusions whose profound and secret necessity novelists have never ceased to reaffirm. / This dissertation is a meditation on the paradoxical foundation of the novel, which can be defined according to the classical theories of Rene Girard and Mikhail Bakhtin. The former, by assigning the novelist the task of revealing the "novelistic truth", insists on the critical function of the novel, and on the decisiveness of the change brought about by Cervantes; Bakhtin, by placing the character rather than the author at the heart of his reflexion, and by making dialogical "openness" to this character a positive value, subtly defends the necessity of the "romantic lie". / Girard and Bakhtin are both right, as the examples of the three novelists whose "poetics" are analyzed here in light of this paradox illustrate. Paul Valery, though not a novelist in the usual sense, is the creator of Mr Teste, a strange character who lives in perfect conformity with the requirements of the "novelistic truth", but whose life is inconceivable, which makes him a comic figure. Flaubert, enclosing himself in a kind of quiet lucidity, keeps his characters at a distance but still shows a sort of subtle sympathy for them. Finally Balzac, whose posture at first seems more romantic, is no less quiet and distant than Flaubert, albeit in a more discreet way. / These reading exercises, together with theoretical considerations inspired by Bergson's definition of the comic and Kundera's metaphoric definition of the novelist's work as the exploration of being, lead to the idea that the novel is subjected to contradictory requirements between which it does not propose a synthesis, except that of humour -- which is not truly one.

Lamentations on the absence of tragic texts in the twentieth century center on the untenability of Aristotelian parameters of tragedy within a modern context. These parameters include the immediacy of the dramatic experience as a vehicle for identification with the audience and a hero fully capable of realizing the tragic truth of his existence. Curiously restrained by formal requirements postulated in antiquity, the majority of critics have neglected that modern tragedy may have shed structures no longer culturally relevant while maintaining the essence of the tragic vision. The novel has been largely ignored despite its being perfectly suited for a contemporary communication of the tragic vision. The skepticism shattering the belief that our respective destinies can be fully embodied by another is no obstacle for tragedy in the novel. Through a narrating choric figure acting as mediating consciousness, the novel provides a direct link between reader, hero, and the tragic experience. The very act of narration also sheds light on the creation of the tragic text, extending this link to the tragedian himself. The result is a three-pronged identification, (with the hero, choric figure, tragedian), through which the reader is confronted with the multifarious truths laid bare in the text. These revelations, along with a deliberate absence of closure, compel the reader into the same unending quest to complete the tragic cycle--an experience akin to the catharsis of old.

This study seeks to identify and describe the characteristic elements of European Jewish fiction during the period 1890-1945. Writings that deal with overtly religious themes or which have Zionist publicistic tendencies have been excluded and emphasis is placed on works with settings that are sim- ilar to those to be found in contemporary European fiction by non-Jewish writers. In order to provide a broad comparison, the study incorporates representative literary material by Jews from both Western and Eastern intellectual traditions, and includes texts in the three major languages of artistic expression in these communities: German, Yiddish, and Hebrew. On the basis of this material, it is argued that, in three respects at least, there is an identifiable unity in secular Jewish writing. Firstly, there is a thematic preoccupation with thwarted idealism, which is elaborated in a complex interaction among such themes as social alienation, ambivalence in interpersonal relationships, political altruism and impotence. Secondly, there is a consistent treatment of the characterisation of women, the devel- opment of their relationships to men, and the role of the family. Finally, there is a special reliance on the literary device of irony, in both its verbal and situational forms. The introductory chapter provides historical background and gives a general outline of the thesis. Subsequent chapters are organised as a sequence of thematic and stylistic comparisons; firstly between represen- tative texts from Eastern and Western Jewish communities and finally between the writings of a Jewish and a non-Jewish author, in an analysis of the use of irony in the works of Siegfried Kracauer and Thomas Mann. The German texts studied are Der Weg ins Freie by Arthur Schnitzler, Junge Frau von 1914 by Arnold Zweig, Kafka's Das Schlofl, Georg and Ginster by Siegfried Kracauer and Die Flucht ohne Ende by Joseph Roth. The Yid- dish writings are Di mishpokhe Karnovski and Khaver Nakhmen by I.J. Singer, Tsvishn emigrantn, Nokh Alemen and Mides-hadin by Dovid Bergelson and Di gas by Yisroel Rabon and the Hebrew texts are Nokhah hayam and Hayey nisu'im by David Vogel.

The thesis reviews the techniques employed by Latin authors up to the second century A.D. to report the spoken words and articulated thoughts of their characters. The study is principally devoted to continuous narratives of a fictitious kind: epic, 'epyllia' and prose fiction, although some consideration has been given to narratives in other genres for comparative purposes. Several means are at the disposal of a narrator for presenting the discourse of his or her characters. What is supposed to have been said or thought may be conveyed by quotation in direct speech, some form of indirect or free indirect discourse, or by the simple mention that a speech act has occurred. The Introduction sets out the terminology used in this enquiry and surveys the modes of reporting speech in Latin. Some attention is given to the views of ancient literary critics and theorists on speech presentation. The first chapter on martial epic examines the reporting of speech in Virgil and Lucan in particular. The second chapter on poetry reviews epyllion and Ovidian narrative, and compares the practices of authors working in different genres. Divergences in style between authors working in the same genre are also considered: the techniques of four poets who report speech in scenes involving the dictation and delivery of messages are compared. The final chapter treats the prose fiction of Petronius and Apuleius. For all the texts taken into account, it will be shown that concentration on speech presentation can broaden our insight into some fundamental features of Latin narrative.