This thesis provides a wide-ranging account of the work of Robert Louis Stevenson, tracing an unyielding preoccupation with the mode of romance throughout his famously diverse body of writing. It argues that Stevenson's prose retools romance in several important ways; these include modernization, disenchantment, and the reinterpretation of romance as a practical force able to reach beyond textual confines in order to carve out long-lasting psychological pathways in a reader. In its pursuit of these arguments, the thesis draws upon and appends a significant amount of archival material never before used, including excerpts from The Hair Trunk – Stevenson's first extended piece of fiction, still unpublished in English. More widely, it analyses the appearance of romance within four major aspects of Stevenson's prose: aesthetic theme, structure, setting, and heroism, each of which is the focus of a discrete chapter. The introduction engages with the history and definition of romance itself, arguing that it is most usefully approached as mode rather than genre in the context of Stevenson's writing. Chapter I then assesses Stevenson's direct critical engagement with romance, and appraises his wider literary aesthetic in that light. Romance is shown to be built in to the way he writes about writing, adventure being intrinsic to his authorial quest for adequate expression. Chapter II goes on to examine Stevenson's relationship with structure, and argues that self-reflexivity interacts with romance to form the habitual core of his creative writing. Chapter III investigates the use of cities, forests and seas as sites of modern romance within Stevenson's oeuvre, arguing that he eschews descriptive Romanticism and instead lauds a primarily practical approach towards the navigation of these environments. Finally, Chapter IV demonstrates Stevenson's perception of a relationship between authorship and the heroic, charting his use of romance as part of a progressive evocation of the failure of heroism itself as a sustainable modern ideal.

This diploma thesis deals with the analysis of nine gothic tales by an English writer of the nineteenth century Elizabeth Gaskell. These gothic tales are compared with the first gothic novels and gothic literature in general. Their analysis is carried out on the basis of spaces, heroes and themes which appear in E. Gaskell´s gothic tales. The diploma thesis reveals in which aspects Gaskell´s tales are different from the first gothic novels and which new themes, heroes and spaces were introduced by E. Gaskell. An important part of the diploma thesis consists of a brief biography of Elizabeth Gaskell. The events which influenced Gaskell´s work are especially emphasized. The diploma thesis also mentions several other authors whose works inspired E. Gaskell in writing her gothic tales.

This paper presents Sepé. Also famous hero, from the perspective of literary heritage left by Basilio da Gama, in the Uraguai (1769), but as points Bakhtin (1981), an emblematic figure of a historical universe, mythical and cultural beyond the scope of this heritage gaining independence such that allows you to cycle through historical events, artistic and diverse literary. One of these manifestations is Sepe, the rebel morubixaba (1964), Fernandes Barbosa, part of a group of literary productions whose base (re) of the Indian story-telling Sepé Tiaraju, since for 144 years the only literary version known was the range. These works are The lunar Sepe (1913), poem Simoes Lopes Neto, Tiaraju (1945), historical novel Manoellito of Ornella, the mainland (1949), a novel by Erico Verissimo, Sepe - the rebel morubixaba (1964), poem epic Fernandes Barbosa, and Sepé Tiaraju - Romance of the Seven Peoples Mission (1975), novel Alcy Cheuiche, whose version is adapted to comics. Note, with such productions, a landmark move that paves the way for a vast cultural artistic production recognition and reaffirmation of the Indian heroism. Conceiving Sepe, the rebel morubixaba as a hypertext The Uraguai, believing that the story of Sepé Tiaraju out distorted by Basilio da Gama, Fernandes Barbosa rewrites the history of the Indian hero, giving it a new meaning and new life. In his rewriting, it uses several tricks to give the work a garment and a feature that the poet believes, are worthy of the indigenous hero Sepé Tiaraju, the warrior Lunar. Therefore, this work is intended to make a comparative reading between two literary works, one of the eighteenth century, the Uraguai, and one twentieth, Sepe - the rebel morubixaba, and from that read, analyze and explore the profile of hero these two epic poems, watching as the modern epic dialogues with the neoclassical epic, is to rewrite it, is to overcome it. This highlights the mimetic character, in the sense of emulation, the literary text. This is when a writer is motivated to imitate another, either to match up or overcome it. In the case studied, Fernandes mimics Gama, when writing his epic poem based on the story of Sepé Tiaraju in order to overcome it. With his attempt he just entering his poem in the national epic tradition. This work addressed the contemporary theory of the epic developed by Anazildo Silva (1984), and treated by Ramalho and Silva (2007); Ramalho (2013); Silva (2012); and Neiva (2009; 2012). Were also worked the concepts of dialogism Bakhtin (1981; 1997; 2006), intertextuality Kristeva (1974), hypertextuality of Genette (2010), among others. On the historical, social and cultural context were useful studies developed by Candido (1984; 1999; 2006a; 2006b), Teixeira (1999), Verney (1952), Oliveira (2010), Nunes (2013), Rue (2009) Carvalho (1987), among others. / Este trabalho parte de Sepé. Também herói famoso, sob a ótica da herança literária deixada por Basílio da Gama, em O Uraguai (1769), mas, tal como aponta Bakhtin (1981), uma figura emblemática de um universo histórico, mítico e cultural que ultrapassa o âmbito dessa herança, ganhando independência tal que lhe permite circular por manifestações históricas, artísticas e literárias diversas. Uma dessas manifestações é Sepé, o morubixaba rebelde (1964), de Fernandes Barbosa, que integra um grupo de produções literárias que tem como base a (re) contação da história do índio Sepé Tiaraju, já que por 144 anos a única versão literária conhecida era a de Gama. Essas obras são O lunar de Sepé (1913), poema de Simões Lopes Neto, Tiaraju (1945), romance histórico de Manoellito de Ornella, O continente (1949), romance de Érico Veríssimo, Sepé – o morubixaba rebelde (1964), poema épico de Fernandes Barbosa, e Sepé Tiaraju – romance dos Sete Povos da Missão (1975), romance de Alcy Cheuiche, cuja versão é adaptada para histórias em quadrinhos. Nota-se, com tais produções, um movimento divisor de águas que abre caminhos para uma vasta produção artística cultural de reconhecimento e reafirmação do heroísmo do índio. Concebendo Sepé, o morubixaba rebelde, como um hipertexto de O Uraguai, acreditando que a história de Sepé Tiaraju fora falseada por Basílio da Gama, Fernandes Barbosa reescreve a história do herói indígena, dando a ela um novo sentido e um novo fôlego. Em sua reescrita, ele utiliza vários artifícios para dar à obra uma roupagem e uma feição que, o poeta acredita, sejam dignas do herói indígena Sepé Tiaraju, o guerreiro Lunar. Assim sendo, neste trabalho pretende-se fazer uma leitura comparativa entre duas obras literárias, uma do século XVIII, O Uraguai, e outra do XX, Sepé - o morubixaba rebelde, e, a partir dessa leitura, analisar e explorar o perfil do herói nesses dois poemas épicos, observando como o épico moderno dialoga com o épico neoclássico, seja para reescrevê-lo, seja para superá-lo. Isso evidencia o caráter mimético, no sentido de emulação, do texto literário. Isto é, quando um escritor é motivado a imitar outro, seja para igualar-se ou superá-lo. No caso estudado, Fernandes imita Gama, ao escrever seu poema épico baseado na história de Sepé Tiaraju, a fim de superá-lo. Com sua tentativa ele acaba inserindo seu poema na tradição épica nacional. Esse trabalho abordou a teoria contemporânea sobre o épico desenvolvida por Anazildo Silva (1984), e tratadas por Ramalho e Silva (2007); Ramalho (2013); Silva (2012); e Neiva (2009; 2012). Também foram trabalhados os conceitos de dialogismo de Bakhtin (1981; 1997; 2006), intertextualidade de Kristeva (1974), hipertextualidade de Genette (2010), entre outros. Sobre o contexto histórico, social e cultural foram úteis os estudos desenvolvidos por Candido (1984; 1999; 2006a; 2006b), Teixeira (1999), Verney (1952), Oliveira (2010), Nunes (2013), Arruda (2009) e Carvalho (1987), entre outros.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This dissertation, called Leitura da nação em Tobias Barreto: uma ressignificação de Dias e Noites, presents an overview of the political issues surrounding the nation's rep-resentation in the poems of this writer from Sergipe. We contrast the idealized vision of the romantic poets with the questioner way of Tobias Barreto in his Dias e Noites work (1881), which brings together his texts published throughout his literary career. The excerpt of this imaginary in this research is analyzed by three aspects: the intellectual role; romantic themes; and the debate about the country’s volunteer as a national hero. In his poems, this hero has two faces: anonymous, represented by a poor and former slave volunteer, and legitimized, represented by the brazilian military commanders. Methodologically, it was developed a bibliographic research with emphasis on historio-graphical studies about the reception of Tobias Barreto’s work by Sílvio Romero, Anto-nio Candido and Armando Gens. The last one proposes a cultural approach to under-stand the literary legacy of this writer. Concerning the theoretical concepts, we explore the reflections on the nation imaginary in the history of the brazilian literature from Nicholas Sevcenko and Lúcia Helena, who approach the concept of writer and intellec-tual. Regarding the nation category, we take into consideration the redefinition of the term given by Benedict Anderson and Homi Bhabha, who propose an extension of this imaginary, questioning the homogeneous view of the dominant groups. Didactically, this dissertation is divided into three chapters. In the first, we have an approach about the intellectual work of Tobias Barreto, who rejects the view of the Rio de Janeiro court and questions monarchical government policies both in lyrical texts and critical essays. In the second one, we present the nation imaginary during the nineteenth century and we analyze how the author of Dias e Noites retakes it in his poetry. In the third, we prioritize the study about the nation's image in the patriotic poems of Tobias Barreto, contemplating the debate on the Paraguay War’s heroes. With this research, we believe that we are not only expanding the reception possibilities of a work seen as less valued in our literature; but also reviewing the place of an intellectual who often was classified as romantic writer or evaluated from his social status and ethnicity, with little regard to his critical attitude in relation to the organization of brazilian society of the nineteenth century, including the monarchy. / Esta dissertação, denominada Leitura da nação em Tobias Barreto: uma ressignifi-cação de Dias e Noites, apresenta uma visão panorâmica dos aspectos políticos que envolvem a representação da nação nos poemas desse escritor sergipano. Contrasta-mos a visão idealizada dos poetas românticos com a forma questionadora de Tobias Barreto em sua obra Dias e Noites (1881), que reúne textos publicados ao longo de sua carreira literária. O recorte desse imaginário passa por três aspectos: o papel do intelectual; os temas românticos; e o debate acerca do voluntário da pátria como he-rói nacional. Em seus poemas, esse herói apresenta duas faces: o anônimo, represen-tado pelo voluntário pobre e ex-escravo, e o legitimado, representado pelos coman-dantes militares brasileiros. Metodologicamente, desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa bi-bliográfica com ênfase nos estudos historiográficos acerca da recepção da obra de Tobias Barreto por Sílvio Romero, Antonio Candido e Armando Gens. Este último propõe uma abordagem cultural para entendermos o legado literário desse escritor. Quanto aos conceitos teóricos, exploramos as reflexões sobre o imaginário da nação na história da literatura brasileira a partir de Nicolau Sevcenko e Lúcia Helena, que aproximam o conceito de escritor de intelectual. No que se refere à categoria nação, partimos da ressignificação desse termo dada por Benedict Anderson e Homi Bhabha, que propõem uma ampliação desse imaginário, ao questionarem a visão homogênea dos grupos dominantes. Didaticamente, esta dissertação está estruturada em três capítulos. No primeiro, temos uma abordagem referente à atuação intelectual de Tobias Barreto, que rejeita a visão da corte carioca e questiona as políticas do governo monárquico tanto em textos líricos como em ensaios críticos. No segundo, apresentamos o imaginário da nação durante o século XIX e passamos a analisar como o autor de Dias e Noites o retoma em sua poesia. No terceiro, priorizamos o estudo sobre a imagem da nação nos poemas patrióticos de Tobias Barreto, contem-plando o debate sobre os heróis da Guerra do Paraguai. Com esta pesquisa, acredi-tamos que estaremos não só expandindo as possibilidades de recepção de uma obra vista como menor em nossa literatura; mas também revisando o lugar de um intelec-tual, que, muitas vezes, foi classificado como escritor romântico ou avaliado a partir de sua condição social e de sua etnia, sem se atentar à sua postura crítica em relação à organização da sociedade brasileira do século XIX, inclusive à monarquia.

Les chansons populaires grecques sont imprégnées d’une profonde religiosité qui apparaît à la fois comme cadre et comme vecteur d’action. Le poète populaire entretient une relation multidimensionnelle avec le Dieu de la Bible et de l’Ancien Testament et fait des saints et des anges des personnages actifs et récurrents dans les textes ; ils évoluent parallèlement avec les héros et leurs destinées s’entrecroisent. Charos est une figure mythique qui joue un rôle fondamental dans l’ensemble des chansons. Personnage mythologiquement et symboliquement sophistiqué, Charos constitue le pilier des mirologues. Ses relations ambiguës avec la divinité déterminent celles qu’il entretient avec l’homme et fait de lui un être à part. A la fois incarnation du mal et agent de la mort, son riche parcours historique dévoile ses nombreuses facettes, ainsi que ses liens avec certaines figures héroïques ambigües telles que Digenis ou Tsamados. La nature et les animaux détiennent un rôle significatif, caractérisé d’une sacralité profonde, et ils accompagnent l’homme des chansons dans tous les aspects de sa vie personnelle et sociale. Leur capacité de métamorphose et leur rôle d’annonciateurs dans les ballades, placent les animaux sur le devant de la scène et leur accordent un rôle de première importance dans le déroulement de l’action. Le poète accorde une importance particulière à l’aspect social du sacré en explorant la notion de la trahison divine mais également celle de l’obéissance de l’homme à son dieu. La vie monacale et le clergé comme l’altérité religieuse, deviennent l’objet d’une critique d’ordre social et une source d’humour. Les chansons populaires véhiculent en les adaptant un nombre important de mythes qui ont une logue présence sur le territoire hellénique : le mythe de Tantale, de Calypso et d’Adonis en font partie. L’héritage antique de l’expression publique du deuil, du rachat du mort et du tombeau du héros vient former les bases de la philosophie populaire et fait de la mort un véritable croisement de cultures. / Greek folk songs are infused with a profound religiosity that appears both as a framework and as a means of action. The folk poet has a multidimensional relationship with the God of the Bible and of the Old Testament and makes saints and angels active and recurrent personalities in his texts; they evolve in parallel with the heroes, and their destinies intertwine. Charos is a mythical figure that plays a fundamental role throughout the songs. A mythologically and symbolically sophisticated personality, Charos is the pillar of the lament songs. His ambiguous relationship with the divine determines his relationship with man, and makes him a separate being. Both incarnation of evil and agent of death, his rich historical journey reveals his many faces, as well as his links with some heroic and ambiguous figures such as Digenis or Tsamados. Nature and the animals hold a significant role, characterised by a profound sacredness, and they accompany man in all aspects of his personal and social life. Their ability to transform and their role as announcers in the ballads, place the animals on the front of the stage and grant them a major role in the unfolding of the action. The poet attaches particular importance to the social aspect of the sacred by exploring the notion of divine betrayal but also that of obedience of man to his god. Monastic life and the clergy, as well as religious diversity, become objects of social criticism, and a source of humour. Folk songs preserve an important number of myths by adapting them, that have a literary presence in the Hellenic territory: the myths of Tantalus, Calypso and Adonis belong to them. The ancient heritage of the public expression of grief, of the redemption of the dead and of the hero's tomb, forms the basis of folk philosophy and makes death a true crossroads of cultures.

The study critically examines public art in postcolonial Zimbabwe‘s cities of Harare and Bulawayo. In a case by case approach, I analyse the National Heroes Acre and Old Bulawayo monuments, and three contemporary sculptures – Dominic Benhura‘s Leapfrog (1993) and Adam Madebe‘s Ploughman (1987) and Looking into the future (1985). I used a qualitative research methodology to collect and analyse data. My research design utilised in-depth interviews, observation, content and document analysis, and photography to gather nuanced data and these methods ensured that data collected is validated and/or triangulated. I argue that in Zimbabwe, monuments and public sculpture serve as the necessary interface of the visual, cultural and political discourse of a postcolonial nation that is constantly in transition and dialogue with the everyday realities of trying to understand and construct a national identity from a nest of sub-cultures. I further argue that monuments and public sculpture in Zimbabwe abound with political imperatives given that, as visual artefacts that interlace with ritual performance, they are conscious creations of society and are therefore constitutive of that society‘s heritage and social memory. Since independence in 1980, monuments and public sculpture have helped to open up discursive space and dialogue on national issues and myths. Such discursive spaces and dialogues, I also argue, have been particularly animated from the late 1990s to the present, a period in which the nation has engaged in self-introspection in the face of socio-political change and challenges in the continual process of imagining the Zimbabwean nation. Little research focusing on postcolonial public art in Zimbabwe has hitherto been undertaken. This study addresses gaps in this literature while also providing a spring board from which future studies may emerge. / Microsoft� Word 2010 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

The original contribution of this thesis is the examination of the official construction of a post-apartheid foundation myth through the analysis of the dead body politics of five iconic South African women that spans the three presidencies that have defined South Africa’s democratic era. This thesis examines the death and funeral of Albertina Sisulu, the return and burial of Sara Baartman, and the commemoration of Charlotte Maxeke, Lilian Ngoyi, and Helen Joseph. Sisulu, Baartman, Maxeke, Ngoyi, and Joseph have been constructed as heroines and as foundational figures for the post-apartheid nation in official rhetoric. It will contend that the dead body politics of these women not only informs a new foundational mythology, but also features in the processes of regime legitimation when the ANC-dominated government faces strong societal criticism. Although such official expressions of nationalism may appear exhausted, this thesis will show that nationalism remains a powerful and dangerous force in South Africa that attempts to silence opposition and critical analysis of perceived failing government policies or inaction. This thesis will indicate that as women’s bodies and legacies are appropriated for nationalist projects they are subsumed in discourses of domestic femininity in official rhetoric that dangerously detract from women’s democratic rights and their ability to exercise responsible and productive citizenship in the post-apartheid state. It will argue that women’s historic political activism is contained within the meta-narrative of ‘The Struggle’ and that women are re-subsumed into the patriarchal discourses of the past that are inherited in the present. This thesis approaches this topic by considering a top-to-bottom construction of post-apartheid nationalism through applying feminist critical discourse analysis to official rhetoric articulated at the public mourning and commemorative rituals of these five women.

Romantic heroes are questers, according to Harold Bloom and Northrop Frye. Whether employing physical strength or relying on the power of the mind, the traditional Romantic hero invokes questing for some sense of self. Chapter 1 considers this hero-type, but is concerned with defining a non-questing British Romantic hero. The Romantic hero's identity is problematic and established through contrasting narrative versions of the hero. This paper's argument lies in the "inconclusiveness" of the Romantic experience perceived in writings throughout the Romantic period. Romantic inconclusiveness can be found not only in the structure and syntax of the works but in the person with whom the reader is meant to identify or sympathize, the hero(ine). Chapter 2 explores Byron's aesthetics of literature equivocation in The Giaour. This tale is a consciously imbricated text, and Byron's letters show a purposeful complication of the poet's authority concerning the origins of this Turkish Tale. The traditional "Byronic hero," a gloomy, guilt-ridden protagonist, is considered in Chapter 3. Byron's contemporary readers and reviewers were quick to pick up on this aspect of his verse tales, finding in the Giaour, Selim, Conrad, and Lara characteristics of Childe Harold. Yet, Byron's Turkish Tales also reveal a very different and more sentimental hero. Byron seems to play off the reader's expectations of the "Byronic hero" with an ambiguous hero whose character reflects the Romantic aesthetic of indeterminacy. Through the accretive structure of The Giaour, Byron creates a hero of competing component characteristics, a focus he also gives to his heroines. Chapters 4 and 5 address works that are traditionally considered eighteenth-century sentimental novels. Mathilda and Evelina, both epistolary works, present their heroines as worldly innocents who are beset by aggressive males. Yet their subtext suggests that these girls aggressively maneuver the men in their lives. Mathilda and Evelina create a tension between the expected and the radical to energize the reader's imagination.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of the warrior-hero ideal as it evolves in Shakespeare's English and Roman plays, and its ultimate failure as a standard for exemplary conduct. What this study demonstrates is that the ideal of kingship that is developed in the English histories, especially in the Second Tetralogy, and which reaches its zenith in Henry V, is quite literally overturned in three Roman plays--Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Coriolanus. The method of determining this difference is a detailed analysis of these groups of plays. This analysis utilizes the body of Shakespearean criticism in order to note the almost total silence on what this study shows to be Shakespeare's growing disillusionment with the hero-king ideal and his final portrait of this ideal as a failure. It is the main conclusion of this study that in certain plays, and most particularly in the Roman plays, Shakespeare demonstrates a consciousness of something more valuable than political expediency and political legality. Indeed, the tragedy of these political heroes lies precisely in their allegiance to the standard of conduct of the soldier-king. Brutus, Antony, and Coriolanus, among others, suffer defeat in their striving to capture a higher reality. This investigation demonstrates that the concept of honor has lost its value in the social matrix of political machinations.

Presenting and applying an ideal developmental model for the classical existential hero, or main character, provides a functional paradigm for discrimination between essentialist and existential texts. In particular it allows for degrees of fine existential differentiation amongst the hero's acts of any literary work. The paradigm does so by making it possible clearly to discern and describe the "recuperation" that a reader must do to render an "impaired" text intelligible. The paradigm covers four phases of transformational activity by the hero, more or less successfully negotiated, depending on the given work under analysis; vacillation/bad faith; crisis/arrest; abrogation/nothingness; and nihilation/project choice. Only one of the three novels so analyzed, Camus' The Stranger, contains a hero, Meursault, who is able to engage this paradigm successfully. The other two novels, not generally associated with existentialism, Heller's Something Happened and Chopin's The Awakening, reveal important and explicable variations of the model, but neither finally gives an exemplary authentic hero. The value of this paradigm is the way it functions as a dynamic heuristics, as a template, to isolate and render meaningful the dimensions of the career of each main character of these works as an "existential murderer." After an introduction of the paradigm, the thesis analyzes the tragic suicide of Mrs. Edna Pontellier, the comic infanticide of Bob Slocum, and the tragicomic homicide of Meursault.