Thesis (M.A.(Creative Writing))--University of Western Australia, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2002. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 418-438).

This thesis examines how Gwyn Thomas and Ron Berry interact with and respond to landscape and environment in their fictional and non-fictional writing. Exploring how the writers negotiate the convergence of the industrial and the rural/natural in the uplands of the south Wales coalfield, in particular the Rhondda Fawr Valley, the study considers the literary geographies their work creates. Examining the themes of the cultural and political use of landscape and rural imagery, the manifestation of authority in landscapes, the impact of industrialisation and de-industrialisation, the uncanny underground environment and its dynamic interactions with the ground above, and post-industrial environmental issues, the study re-positions two industrial writers of Wales to reveal the significance of landscape, place and environment in their writing.

Thesis--Basel. / Limited ed. of 500 copies. Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-160).

Thesis--Copenhagen. / Summary in Danish. Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-206).

This thesis studies fictional narratives of the countryside by writers of rural origin in English and Chinese literature in relation to the "countryside ideal." The term, borrowed from Michael Bunce, describes an ancient as well as modern theme in literature, which sees the countryside as a desirable "home." The conventional construction of the countryside by urban writers sustains this ideal with simplistic and static images. My thesis extends the discussion beyond the idyllic countryside in the mainstream of Anglo-American culture and the genteel culture in China to concentrate on Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), Shen Congwen (1902-1988), and Mo Yan (b. 1956), who all have personal relations with the countryside and who enrich its image with accounts of actual life, reconnecting it to authentic home place. I discuss fictional narratives of the rural homelands of the three writers not as unmediated transcriptions but as cultural constructs, which are shaped by different literary traditions and responsive to specific historical contexts. My approach is mainly text-based, but supplemented by references to each writer's cultural and historical contexts. The Introduction situates these writers and their rural homelands in relation to the specific interest in the countryside in each writer's cultural milieu. Chapter One reads Hardy's reconstruction of the countryside in light of the struggle for existence in a Darwinian natural world. Hardy's sombre-looking rural landscapes highlight the complex difficulties of rural life and the moral and intellectual qualities required to survive in such a world. Chapter Two studies Shen Congwen's justification of rural culture in the midst of nationalist aspirations for globalization. His multi-layered fictionalization of the rural homeland centres on the image of water, a root symbol of Chinese culture, merging traditional Chinese culture with modernist vitalism. Chapter three examines Mo Yan's reconstruction of the rural homeland after the severe disruption of Chinese culture during the Mao era. Mo Yan's magic realist reconstruction testifies to the repression of the genius loci of his rural homeland by politics and expresses a desire to be reconnected with the original homeland through sensual bonds rather than detached observations. These writers' narratives redefine the countryside in relation to "home" as a centre for meaningful activities. The fact that they reappropriate and situate rural life and work in specific cultural traditions and diverse forms of modernity is manifested in their unique and irreplaceable literary constructions. I will offset Hardy's writing against that of the two Chinese writers, in order to clarify their rich and diverse cultural implications. Whereas Hardy subjects his fictional rural landscape to a scientific approach, Shen Congwen reconfirms traditional Chinese culture, linking it with the ideals of the May Fourth movement for renewal and revitalization. Mo Yan, for his part, combines the rural perspective and faith in the land with a modernist use of magic realism. Fictionalizations of the rural homeland thus reveal complex interactions with modernity.

No description available.

Cette étude se propose de répondre à la problématique liée à la généricité d’un corpus de maqāmāt de type munāẓarāt paysagères composées au Yémen à l’époque postclassique. L’appellation maqāma devient, en effet, de plus en plus englobante au point de s’étendre à la munāẓara, ce qui nous permet de parler d’une évolution générique par régime de transformation. L’analyse de ces œuvres permet aussi de montrer comment ces textes revendiquent une appartenance et un rattachement à la notion d’adab, point essentiel pour la compréhension générique de ces œuvres. Cette étude se propose d’analyser également les représentations paysagères qui sont au cœur de ces munāẓarāt. Elle aborde les éléments constitutifs du paysage en tenant compte de l’organisation de ces représentations sur l’axe vertical et l’axe horizontal, mais aussi en fonction de différents sens sollicités : la vue, l’odorat et l’ouïe. Tous ces éléments nous poussent à considérer les représentations paysagères présentes dans les descriptions du Paradis coranique ainsi que dans des descriptions similaires présentes dans la poésie arabe classique. L’étude de ces corpus montre, en dernier lieu, que le but des auteurs n’est pas celui de créer des représentations bucoliques sur la description de la nature mais que derrière la simple description paysagère, ces textes sont la plupart du temps porteurs d’un message situé à un second niveau de lecture (politique, religieux, etc.). / This work aims at studying the question of the literary genre of a corpus of maqāmāt of the kind “landscape munāẓarāt” written in Yemen in the Post-Classical era. The name maqāma has become always more comprehensive until it extended to the munāẓara. Hence, we can speak of a generic evolution due to processing. The analysis of such texts allows us to show why they claim to belong to the notion of adab, which is an essential point for understanding the genre of these works. This study deals also with the landscape representations that are at the heart of these munāẓarāt. It approaches the constituent elements of the landscape according to the organisation of the representation - on the vertical or on the horizontal axis – and also through the different senses appealed to the perception: sight, smell and hearing. All these elements lead us to consider landscape representations in the Koranic description of Paradise and in other similar descriptions in Classical Arabic poems. Finally, the study of this corpus shows that the aim of the authors is not a bucolic representation of nature. Instead, behind the simple landscape description, most of texts convey a message related to politics, religion, etc. located in a second level of reading.

This thesis studies fictional narratives of the countryside by writers of rural origin in English and Chinese literature in relation to the "countryside ideal." The term, borrowed from Michael Bunce, describes an ancient as well as modern theme in literature, which sees the countryside as a desirable "home." The conventional construction of the countryside by urban writers sustains this ideal with simplistic and static images. My thesis extends the discussion beyond the idyllic countryside in the mainstream of Anglo-American culture and the genteel culture in China to concentrate on Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), Shen Congwen (1902-1988), and Mo Yan (b. 1956), who all have personal relations with the countryside and who enrich its image with accounts of actual life, reconnecting it to authentic home place. I discuss fictional narratives of the rural homelands of the three writers not as unmediated transcriptions but as cultural constructs, which are shaped by different literary traditions and responsive to specific historical contexts. My approach is mainly text-based, but supplemented by references to each writer's cultural and historical contexts. The Introduction situates these writers and their rural homelands in relation to the specific interest in the countryside in each writer's cultural milieu. Chapter One reads Hardy's reconstruction of the countryside in light of the struggle for existence in a Darwinian natural world. Hardy's sombre-looking rural landscapes highlight the complex difficulties of rural life and the moral and intellectual qualities required to survive in such a world. Chapter Two studies Shen Congwen's justification of rural culture in the midst of nationalist aspirations for globalization. His multi-layered fictionalization of the rural homeland centres on the image of water, a root symbol of Chinese culture, merging traditional Chinese culture with modernist vitalism. Chapter three examines Mo Yan's reconstruction of the rural homeland after the severe disruption of Chinese culture during the Mao era. Mo Yan's magic realist reconstruction testifies to the repression of the genius loci of his rural homeland by politics and expresses a desire to be reconnected with the original homeland through sensual bonds rather than detached observations. These writers' narratives redefine the countryside in relation to "home" as a centre for meaningful activities. The fact that they reappropriate and situate rural life and work in specific cultural traditions and diverse forms of modernity is manifested in their unique and irreplaceable literary constructions. I will offset Hardy's writing against that of the two Chinese writers, in order to clarify their rich and diverse cultural implications. Whereas Hardy subjects his fictional rural landscape to a scientific approach, Shen Congwen reconfirms traditional Chinese culture, linking it with the ideals of the May Fourth movement for renewal and revitalization. Mo Yan, for his part, combines the rural perspective and faith in the land with a modernist use of magic realism. Fictionalizations of the rural homeland thus reveal complex interactions with modernity. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Fragments of the Moon is a novel set mostly in South Korea, examining relationships between people, interpersonal spaces, architectural spaces and landscape through a cross-cultural context. Matt, a graduate architect from Perth, Australia, finds himself increasingly vulnerable to cultural confusion as he adjusts to life away from his home and friends. Having initially assumed that Seoul's western facade echoes its social dynamic, Matt increasingly discovers that the Confucianism which underpins much of contemporary Korean society makes all relationships far more complex than his assumptions had allowed. Together with a Canadian student who is seeking to find the essence of a different Korea through her investigation of Buddhism, and through meeting diverse Korean characters, readers will discover several of the many facets of contemporary Korean culture. Readers will be encouraged to test the slippery surfaces on which familiar and unfamiliar attitudes to bodies, landscape and created spaces rest. 'Body, Space, Ideas of Home: Cross-cultural Perspectives' (thesis) The thesis examines the interaction of body space, architectural space, landscape, and emotional states in contemporary literary fiction from several cultural perspectives. Bodies, landscapes, and architectural spaces are shown to be devices through which contemporary authors with different cultural backgrounds have expressed character and explored ideas, especially thematic concerns related to cultural or cross-cultural confusion or understanding. Notions of 'feeling at home' and 'being alien' are investigated through the work of authors who either have a cross-cultural heritage (e.g. Jhumpa Lahiri a Bengali/American), or who write about a culture which is not their own (e.g. Dianne Highbridge, an Australian writing about Japan). Several chosen authors explore the relationships between the spiritual and the physical, the metaphysical and the corporeal. These elements are particularly highlighted when examining the narratives of Tim Winton (The Riders, 1994) and Simone Lazaroo (The World Waiting To Be Made, 1994); and two of Japan's most popular writers, Haruki Murakami (Norwegian Wood, 2000) and Banana Yoshimoto (Lizard, 1995). For some writers, this exploration of spaces forms the focal point of their work; for others, it is an important facet of their narrative world, which helps to ground their writing for contemporary readers whose own backgrounds must also influence their understandings.