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The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate ontological relationality in literary theory and criticism by critically reflecting on modern theories of literature and by practically examining the literary texts of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Oscar Wilde. Traditional studies of literary texts have been oriented toward interpretative or hermeneutic methodologies, focusing on an independent and individual subject in literature. Instead, I explore how relational ontology uncovers the interactive structures interposed between the author, the text, and the audience by examining the system of how the author's creative positioning provokes the reader's reaction through the text. In Chapter I, I critically inquire into modern literary theories of "irony" in Romanticism, New Criticism, and Deconstructionism to show how they tend to disregard the dynamic dimension of interactive relationships between different literary subjects. Chapter II scrutinizes Wilde's humor in An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) in order to reveal the ontological relationships triggered by a creative positioning. In chapter III, I examine Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (c. 1400) and the laughter in "The Miller's Tale" in particular, to examine the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of its interactive relationships. In Chapter IV, I explore Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Othello (1603-4), and The Winter's Tale (1609-11) so as to show how artistic positioning creatively constructs a relational system of dynamic interactions to circulate social ideals and values. In so doing, this dissertation is aimed at revealing the aesthetic values of literature and the objective scope of literary discourse rather than providing yet another analytical paradigm dependent primarily on a single literary subject. Thus, the ontological study is proposed as an alternative, yet primary, dimension of literary criticism and theoretical practice.

During the period of military government in Argentina (1976 – 1983) a machinery of censorship was imposed. The state had a systematic plan of cultural repression and manipulation of public opinion. Even though there was not an official censorship office, the regime had an organised and sophisticated operating control over publication and public performance. However, the dissident writers and lyricists examined in this study developed strategies of resistance that depended largely on allegory and irony to convey subtle and oblique oppositional messages. By means of a detailed rhetorical analysis of a varied literary and popular corpus this study examines the functioning of allegory and irony under the constraints of censorship. The corpus includes the musical production of one of the most outstanding representatives of the rock nacional movement and four novels. The fictional narratives selected are divided into two symmetrical groups: in each group, one novel is written by a female writer and the other by a male author; one has reached a large readership and popularity while the other had a delayed reception but has won critical acclaim. / Far from repressing forms of expression, the regime’s censorship policies fueled creativity in authors and composers. Irony and allegory were adapted to new necessities. While the former was used as a means to avoid political commitment, a use identified in this study as evasive irony, the latter schooled the reader in alternative ways of thought at the same time as it allowed multiple interpretations. This thesis shows that irony and allegory, as literary figures, can evolve and assume new functions, adapting themselves to the different political circumstances in which they are used.

Thesis--Syracuse University. / 1974 ed. has sub-title: Studies in the victimization of the Augustan fiction. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [196]-199).

Thesis--Strassburg. / Cover title. Vita. Includes indexes. Includes bibliographical references (p. [v]-vi).

Humour and Irony are identity markers that have long since been associated with Sub-Saharan francophone literary works. Intimately linked to Africa throughout the years, humour and irony have evolved hand to hand with socio-political situation of the continent and fulfill several functions: denouncing through laughter, varying sorts of injustices, playing down the tragic nature of a given situation and subverting individual or collective values. However, and perhaps more importantly, humour and irony belong the category of what Roland Barthes calls "verbal expedients" which allow a writer to avoid common and inadequat usage of language. In this way, we show by using the theorical frameworks of Bergson, Schopenhauer, Jankelevitch, Escarpit and Genette among many others just how humour and irony create a particular vision, one that shows the multiple ways in which we can perceive the world around us. They make possible the representation of what is undeniably real and bring out polysemous meannings(s) in that which may at first appear incongruous. Given the numerous interpretations that humour and irony offer for a given situation, theses devices thus constitute strategies that build different esthetics within the novel as a literary genre. The latter becomes a sort of semantic playgroung where the specific forms of humour and irony develop: parody, derision, sarcasm,the grotesque and the farce. It is in this way that a veritable "poetics oflaughter" becomes apparent within the novels that we have examined. / Thesis (Ph.D, French) -- Queen's University, 2008-04-01 11:23:19.947

Thesis (Doctoral)--Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Faculté Victor Segalen, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 563-587) and indexes.

Thesis--Syracuse University. / 1974 ed. has sub-title: Studies in the victimization of the Augustan fiction. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [196]-199). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Doctoral)--Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Faculté Victor Segalen, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 563-587) and indexes.

Inaug.-Diss.--Heidelberg. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 221-225.