Thesis--Uppsala. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-140).

This thesis examines awkwardness between characters in Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. It offers the first full-length study of awkwardness in literary fiction, and provides a new prism through which to analyse many major characters in Proust's novel, and, crucially, their interactions. While the word "awkwardness" poses translation challenges, the thesis identifies a rich lexicon of French terms used by Proust to denote various aspects of the phenomenon: through close analysis of passages containing these terms, a coherent vision of awkwardness and its importance in the novel emerges. Awkwardness occurs in very different types of relationship - family, social, friendship and love - because, Proust stresses, human interaction is rarely easy. This latter point is not a new argument, but by focusing directly on the feelings of awkwardness which arise, original insights can be made about the specific challenges of communication, cohesion and desire in the Recherche. The thesis explores the degrees of togetherness and separation Proust depicts, and compares well-known scenes and neglected moments to their mutual illumination. We find that awkwardness is essential to the novel's depiction of society in a state of rapid flux - the consequence of accelerated social change is escalated awkwardness - and that uncomfortable encounters with other people develop the protagonist's relation with his own mind.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in the fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis is interested in the fiction of Abdulrazak Gurnah, bringing into consideration all the eight novels he has published to date. It explores the representation of human relations, focussing on the theme of power and how it is attained, consolidated, used and contested in the human relations depicted in the novels. A close reading of pre to postcolonial East Africa as well as the regions outside of East Africa in which Gurnah’s novels are also set, through quotidian interactions in micro-spaces, this thesis argues, presents power dealings alternative to one that emphasizes the effect of colonial domination and the failed project of decolonization. The thesis further suggests that inherent in everyday human interactions – whether at home in East Africa or in migrant spaces – are power dealings far removed from macro-political power plays. The interactions to be brought under scrutiny here are those occurring between children and adults, family members, as they interact not only with each other but also with the various environments they occupy. Through a skilful narrative strategy that employs complex narrative perspectives, vivid descriptions, imagery, symbolism and credible characterization, Gurnah affords the reader an opportunity to read East Africa through the basic units of the community, focussing on ordinary everyday lives and interactions. This thesis therefore investigates the different ways in which Gurnah employs narrative strategy in order to depict the various avenues through which power comes into play in diverse areas of human interactions. The focus is on his application of implied authors in the form of multiple narrators and how this technique helps to draw readers in to his texts. It is important to also examine symbolism used especially in the relationship between characters and (mis)use of the spaces they occupy, the significance of rot, filth and squalor in the said spaces as well as the use of irony, coincidences, silences and suppressions. To be specifically interrogated is relations between individuals and the society, parents and children, lovers, employers and employees among others. Even though the dominant theme in Gurnah’s the entire oeuvre is that of migrancy, of characters attempting to construct ideas of home away from home, his treatment of the varied power relationships inherent in the texts warrants investigation. / MT2017

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of French, Classics, and Italian, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 17, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-190). Also issued in print.

The dissertation traces the trope of the incomplete character in four twentieth-century cosmopolitan novels that reflect European colonialism in a global context. I argue that, by creating characters sharply aware of the insufficiency of the Self and thus constantly seeking the constitutive participation of the Other, the four authors E. M. Forster, Samuel Beckett, J. M. Coetzee, and Congwen Shen all dramatize the incomplete character as an agent of postcolonial resistance to Western humanism that, tending to enforce the divide between the Self and the Other, provided the epistemological basis for the emergence of European colonialism. For example, Fielding's good-willed aspiration to forge cross-cultural friendship in A Passage to India; Murphy's dogged search for recognition of his Irish identity in Murphy; Susan's unfailing compassion to restore Friday's lost speech in Foe; and Changshun Teng, the Chinese orange-grower's warm-hearted generosity toward his customers in Long River--all these textual occasions dramatize the incomplete character's anxiety over the Other's rejection that will impair the fullness of his or her being, rendering it solitary and empty. I relate this anxiety to the theory of "posthumanism" advanced by such thinkers as Marx, Bakhtin, Sartre, and Lacan; in their texts the humanist view of the individual as an autonomous constitution has undergone a transformation marked by the emphasis on locating selfhood not in the insular and static Self but in the mutable middle space connecting the Self and the Other.

The purpose of my dissertation is to conduct an intertextual study of two fantasy texts — Alice in Wonderland by Victorian author Lewis Carroll, and Stardust by postmodern fantasy author Neil Gaiman — and their filmic re-visionings by Tim Burton and Matthew Vaughn respectively. In scrutinising these texts, drawing on insights from feminist, children’s literature and intertextual theorists, the actions of ‘growing up’ and ‘falling down’ are shown to be indicative of a paradoxical becoming of the text’s central female protagonists, Alice and Yvaine. The social mechanisms of the Victorian age that educate the girl-child into becoming accepting of their domestic roles ultimately alienate her from her true state of being. While she may garner some sense of importance within the imaginary realms of fantasy narratives, as these female protagonists demonstrate, she is reduced to the position of submissive in reality – in ‘growing up’, she must assume a ‘fallen down’ state in relation to the male. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

This thesis examines the relationships between different nations and cultures in Ivanhoe, The Talisman, Quentin Durward, Anne of Geierstein and Count Robert of Paris using Post-colonial theory. An analysis of Scott’s conception of society in general shows that 18th century Scottish historiography is fundamental to his vision of the world because it forms the basis of his systematization of history, social development and interaction between communities. It also profoundly influences his imagery and descriptions, as well as providing him with a range of stereotypes that he manipulates so skilfully that his great dependence upon them is occulted. Contemporary ideas and his own attitude to the Union of Scotland and England lead him to conceive of nation formation in terms of descent and hybridity. In part, he sees the nation as a community of blood. Yet, his acceptance of the Union means that he also considers it to be a body of different ethnic elements that live together. His use of the 18th century metaphor of family to figure the nation allows him to incorporate heredity and miscegenation into his analysis of national development through father-daughter couples. The father represents traditional culture, and the daughter, the nation’s present and future; her marriage to a foreigner signifying that people of differing descent can cross the nation’s porous borders. Religion is the final frontier: Christian nations cannot absorb non-Christians. Scott sees dominance and subordination as a complex part of human relationships. Apparently-subordinate subjects possess occulted power because their support of the hegemonic is often essential if the latter is to maintain its superiority. While his conception of society in patriarchal terms means that his female characters cannot offer violence to men, he shows that passive resistance is very effective. Through mimicry, the subordinate threatens the power and identity of the dominant. Power is not only conceived of in political terms. In Ivanhoe, Scott reveals the importance of moral stature which allows Rebecca to dominate the work although she is at the bottom of the political and racial hierarchy that structures English society. Scott’s conception of time is fundamental to the manner in which he conceives of the nation. Historical cultural forms are physicalised through chronotopes. Politically subordinate cultures base their actions in the present on pedagogic time, while the dominant ignore their past and live only in the present and the future. He also expresses dominant-subordinate relationships through speed, with time moving quickly for the powerful and slowly for the weak. Time, whether in the form of history, the characters’ perception of it or speed amalgamates all the various elements of Scott’s conception of nationhood into a seamless whole.<p><p>Cette thèse analyse par le biais la théorie post-coloniale les relations internationales dans Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward, Anne of Geierstein et Count Robert of Paris. Les théories historiques élaborées en Écosse au XVIIIème siècle sont fondamentales dans la vision scottienne parce qu’elles forment la base de la systematisation de l’histoire, du développement sociale et, par conséquent, des relations entre les différentes communités. Ces théories influencent profondement les images qu’il utilise et la façon dont il décrit les caractères et les scènes. De plus, elles lui fournissent une gamme de stéréotypes qu’il manipule très adroitement. Sa conception de la manière dont se forment les nations vient des idées contemporaines et de sa propre expérience de l’union politique de l’Angleterre et de l’Écosse. Il considère la nation comme une communauté fondée sur l’ascendance par le sang mais aussi comme un groupe d’ethnies différentes qui vivent ensemble. Sa description de la nation emprunte à la métaphore de la famille courante au XVIIIième. Celle-ci lui permet d’inclure dans son analyse l’héridité et la mixité au moyen des couples formés par un père et sa fille. Le père représente la culture traditionelle, et la fille, le présent et le futur national. Son marriage avec un étranger signifie que les gens d’ascendance différente peuvent traverser les frontières perméables d’une nation. La religion est la frontière ultime: les nations chrétiennes ne peuvent absorber de non-chrétiens. Scott considère que la domination et la sujetion forment une partie complexe des relations humaines. Les sujets qui paraissent subordonnés possèdent en fait un pouvoir occulte, le dominant ayant besoin de leur soutien pour maintenir sa position. Bien que sa conception patriarcale de la société fasse que les caractères feminins ne manifestent pas d’agression envers les hommes, il montre que la résistance passive est très efficace. En imitant le sujet dominant, le sujet subordonné menace le pouvoir et l’identité de ce dernier. Le pouvoir ne s’exprime pas seulement dans la politique. Rebecca dans Ivanhoe revèle l’importance que revêtent le caractère et la moralité. Bien qu’elle soit au bas de la hiérarchie structurante de la société anglaise, elle domine le roman. <p>La conception que Scott se fait du temps est fondamentale à celle de la nation et de la culture. Au moyen du chronotope, les cultures historiques prennent des formes physiques. Les cultures qui sont subordonnées politiquement basent leur action au présent sur le “temps pédagogique”. Au contraire, le dominant rejette son passé et ne vit qu’au présent et au futur. Les relations entre le pouvoir dominant et le subordonné s’expriment aussi par la vitesse: le temps passe vite pour les puissants, mais lentement pour les faibles. En définitive, tous les éléments de la conception scottienne de la nation sont liés au temps, qu’il s’agisse de l’histoire, de perception par les caractères, ou de la vitesse.<p> / Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation langue et littérature / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The purpose of my dissertation is to conduct an intertextual study of two fantasy texts — Alice in Wonderland by Victorian author Lewis Carroll, and Stardust by postmodern fantasy author Neil Gaiman — and their filmic re-visionings by Tim Burton and Matthew Vaughn respectively. In scrutinising these texts, drawing on insights from feminist, children’s literature and intertextual theorists, the actions of ‘growing up’ and ‘falling down’ are shown to be indicative of a paradoxical becoming of the text’s central female protagonists, Alice and Yvaine. The social mechanisms of the Victorian age that educate the girl-child into becoming accepting of their domestic roles ultimately alienate her from her true state of being. While she may garner some sense of importance within the imaginary realms of fantasy narratives, as these female protagonists demonstrate, she is reduced to the position of submissive in reality – in ‘growing up’, she must assume a ‘fallen down’ state in relation to the male. / English Studies / M.A. (English)