Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Tours, 1996. / At head of title: Université François Rabelais, Tours. Groupe de recherche littérature et nation. Includes bibliographical references (p. 410-425).

Thesis--Freiburg im Breisgau. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-289).

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-226)

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1992. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Recognizing that the grotesque is a common characteristic of much popular art, and recognizing that grotesque images are integral to the sensual world of Dickens' novels, the thesis seeks to discover what grotesque images are shared by Dickens and contemporary popular artists, and whether similar meanings can be attributed to their use in the caricatures, the pantomime, the gothic novels, and childrens' literature and in Dickens' fiction. The essence of grotesque art can best be understood from a survey of historical grotesque images and the thesis traces these briefly. The grotesque image usually involves the double face, two or three beings united within one formal structure. It may however be typified by its extreme ugliness, its deviance from aesthetic standards of beauty. Or it may exist as a mimic re-creation of man in man-made terms, through costume or mask, or as a puppet, robot or doll. The grotesque humour in the caricatures, the pantomime and the nursery rhymes, with its dispensing with boundaries between the animate and the inanimate and mimic re-creation of the world in new forms, implies a delight in the sensual qualities of the material world. In the gothic novels the grotesque images, particularly the complex of images revolving around prisons, are seen to function as physical manifestations of the obsessive reasoning and fears that plague the characters. The grotesques in the fairy tales are related essentially to the role of magic, supernatural power in these tales being wielded either through object-talismans or by grotesque figures. Dickens merges grotesques from all these sources into one fictional universe, and consequently any one grotesque in Dickens' work may recall imagery from several of these art forms, as well as the traditional images. The thesis does not attempt a comprehensive study of the grotesque in Dickens' novels. It examines only three novels, The Old Curiosity Shop, Our Mutual Friend, and The Mystery, of Edwin Drood, with references to A Tale of Two Cities and Hard Times, analyzing the thematic patterns that revolve, around the grotesques. In The Old Curiosity Shop the grotesque hallucinations of Nell, her grandfather, and the narrator are linked to their passivity, their fear of confronting or having to manipulate a naturalistic reality. Quilp and the other natural grotesques are, on the other hand, seen to resemble clowns, in their use of the grotesque image as a source of comedy, and in their skill at using this humour to control their environment. Our Mutual Friend is approached from one viewpoint only, though it is one considered vital to the nineteenth century British imagination, the relationship of its grotesque imagery to children's art. Through meshing picturesque figures of innocence with the vicious, the deformed and the decaying, Dickens establishes a vision of beauty growing out of the destruction of innocence and the imaginative vitality of anarchic grotesques. In The Mystery of Edwin Drood the architecture of the cathedral city gives material shape to the type of obsessive thinking that permeates The Old Curiosity Shop, and concurrently functions as a spell-bound environment for those who seek to deny their relationship with the brutal or ugly. As with the prisons of the gothic novels, this architecture breeds grotesque figures whom Dickens employs for a dual, purpose, to represent the hallucinations of his spiritually trapped characters, and as a natural artistic counterpart to the cold rigidity of the cathedral. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This thesis attempts to demonstrate the manner in which Barlach used the phenomenon of the grotesque in his prose and dramatic writing. The concept of the grotesque has been examined in the light of a number of the more significant attempts to define it. Particular attention has been paid to the recent studies of the grotesque by Wolfgang Kayser and Lee Byron Jennings, but extensive reference has also been made to the definitions of George Santayana and John Ruskin, as well as to the 1929 dissertation of Ernst Schweizer and the 1940 discussion of the grotesque by Robert Petsch. The paper attempts to demonstrate that Barlach made use of the grotesque to mystify reality and to point to otherwise hidden mythological aspects of the world, as well as to give expression to what he called a "Panik vor dem So-Sein," i.e., a panic which he felt whenever he compared the temporal existence to the potentiality of some higher realm of being. To demonstrate the universality of the grotesque experience, reference has also been made to the concept of the demonic as described by Goethe, and the grotesque is related to it. Representations of the divine in Barlach's works appear grotesque from a human vantage, because man, in his struggle to maintain his identity and to perpetuate his own trivial world has no eye for higher values or higher modes of existence. Man interprets the intrusion of the divine into his world.as a threat to his existence, not as an act of grace. The influence of Theodor Daeubler and Albert Kollmann is considered with respect to Barlach's concept of the "high lord", and an attempt is made to come thereby to an understanding of Barlach's relationship to deity. The divine is represented by Barlach as not an extension and perfection of the human, but supra-human and hostile to man in his closed little world. To demonstrate the manner in which the elements of the divine intrude into man's world and threaten his orientation, a study has been made of Barlach's use of grotesque metaphors, objects, and situations, with special reference to Barlach's novel Seespeck and his early dramatic works. The phenomenon of the grotesque is seen to be related to that of the absurd as presented by modern playwrights, and Barlach is shown to have anticipated the Absurd in many respects. But it is pointed out that Barlach refused to accept the idea of an absurd universe, despite his admitted incapacity to resolve his doubts. Barlach's later plays and correspondence are considered, to establish that he became resigned in his mature years to a state of "not-knowing" as a way of life in which the panic of the earlier years, and with it the grotesque, diminished. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate