<p>It is the contention of this thesis that Thomas Chatterton had an artistic and philosophic influence on Keats comparable to that of Shakespeare. By treating first the biographical similarities that exist between the two poets, and then moving into actual artistic influence, the close interrelation of life and art, and the osmotic nature of Keats's organic response to Chatterton reveal themselves. Exciting stylistic and linguistic affinities are to be discovered between Keats and Chatterton, affinities which have either been overlooked or dismissed as irrelevant. In all cases, the affinity between the two poets deepens from the word surface into the meaning of their art.</p> <p>The study of artistic parallels is always. rewarding for it intensifies our understanding of the poets under consideration. My thesis is from the point of view of Keats, and so the comparison has greater ramifications for his art. While Chatterton shows himself a true craftsman, the empathic nature of Keats's artistic response is confirmed. Indeed, if Shakespeare was a good omen to Keats, Chatterton was his silent presider.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>I suggest that Hemingway's prose works externalize his fear of the feminine principle in the world and that Hemingway's heroes, projections of the author, himself, are in flight away from the feminine principle originating in the Dark Mother. First, I examine the hero's attempts to escape the biological cycle of birth-procreation-death and to seek refuge on his own terms in an Eden-like Moment with a woman. But the Edenic Moment is subject to Time, Flesh, and a sexually-based Invidia, and as an actual experience is transitory. Second, I examine the Hemingway man's escape into self-fulfillment through work as an effort to maintain his masculine individuality. But progressively throughout the works, the Hemingway man loses his ability -to cope with the forces which disrupt his work, and the nature of the forces opposing man's successful escape into work is seen as feminine •. And finally, I relate the elemental forces bent on the destruction of the Hemingway man's autonomy and on the bending of him to their will to Woman as Dark Mother. Woman is associated with desire, with mutability, and - ultimately with death and decay in the cyclical renewal of nature. Nothing is permanent in such a world. In the increasing association of the artist-figure with mutability, one can conjecture that even art, for Hemingway, came increasingly under the all-pervading influence of the Great Mother, and perhaps provides an insight into his final despair.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

<p>In this study of Whitman, the emphasis has been on analysis instead of biography; text, rather than sources. For the single-theme-multiple-theme of Self, in its endless possibilities and unbounded diversity "Song of Myself" has been examined very closely. In order to establish the pervasiveness of the theme or themes in Leaves of Grass, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry", "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking", and "Passage to India" have been analysed.</p> <p>I have attempted to show the uniqueness and the complexity of Whitman's mystical experience, which I call Integral, through structure, imagery and symbolism. And, since aesthetic evaluation cannot be wholly divorced from philosophical criticism, theories of perception, both Eastern and Western, have been cited to fix Whitman in the right perspective, and to point out the non-dual concept of the Self in the poetry of Whitman.</p> <p>While reading Whitman, I have been aware, as many other critical readers of the Leaves are, and I have used these, wherever necessary, for interpreting the poet in the light of Indian Thought. But, I have not been over-enthusiastic about the kinship, because Whitman evinces certain basic attitudes which are non-Vedantic.</p> <p>Perhaps this study would not have taken its present form had it not been for M.r Joseph Sigman's encouragement and sympathetic judgment of my interpretations. Mr. Sigman directed this thesis with as much sympathy as competence, and was of great help during the entire course of its development. To him I am especially grateful. I am grateful also to Mr. George McKnight for his many hours of patient reading of my manuscript, and for offering me much helpful criticism.</p> <p>Words cannot express my gratitude to Professor Frank Norman Shrive who initiated me into the study of American Literature, and who, first of all, encouraged and approved my plan to write on Walt Whitman. Professor Shrive has been a source of great inspiration to me, and I consider it my good fortune to have studied at his feet.</p> <p>I cannot end this preface without expressing my deep sense of indebtedness to Dr. Gordon Stewart Vichert who has always been very helpful and gracious to me.</p> <p>I should also acknowledge my general debt to students and scholars of Whitman for influencing me in the preparation of this thesis, while at the same time provoking me to differ with their approaches.</p> <p>Finaly, I wish to thank most profusely McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario for awarding me a Graduate Teaching Fellowship in 1965-1966, without which the present accomplishment would have been very difficult.</p>

Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis deals with .the development of the self-conscious authorial voice in the fiction of John. Barth, especially as this self-consciousness relates to the fictional form in which it is found-realistic, fabular, and metafictional. Each chapter will deal with two of Barth's works, which themselves will also be dealt with chronologically. Chapter I will deal with the authorial self-consciousness in the realist mode, as seen in The Floating Opera and The End of the Road. Chapter II will consider the self-conscious presence of the author-figure in The Sot"':"Weed Factor and Giles Goat-Boy, both of which are attempts to create whole fictional universes, and which indicate in their form the exhaustion of the realist mode for Barth' s purposes. Chapter III will deal with Bartht's metafictional shorter works in Lost in the Funhouse and Chimera, works which take the continual exhaustion of fictional forms as their donnee or subject matter, and which emblematically as well as thematically attempt to describe the dynamics of this exhaustion. Attention will be paid to the last novella "Bellerophoniad," since it stands as Barth's ultimate gesture of exhaustion, culminating and devouring as it does all of Barth's previous fictional corpus. In addition, there is an Appendix containing a glossary of equivalent terms for those found in the allegorical Giles Goat-Boy. This is intended as a short reader's guide, and is by no means exhaustive.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter I, the Introduction, examines critical approaches that have been made towards the poetry of Sylvia Plath and tries to show their limitations & Chapter II discusses the essentially allusive nature of the poetry and proposes a different method -- extensive analysis of the imagery - whereby a greater understanding of what the poet is trying to communicate may be obtained. Each of the next three chapters examines, in a roughly chronological way, a particular group of recurring symbols and images. Attention is paid to the body of as yet uncollected poetry and, where appropriate, the prose works are mentioned, Chapter VI, the Conclusion, summarises the implications of the analysis, and provides an example of the insights that may be made into the meaning of some of the apparently impenetrable obscurities that face the reader of Plath's poetry. Implicitly throughout, the view, is adhered to that the poetry itself rather than the poet is of the greater importance.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis is a study of the work of Adele Wiseman, with particular emphasis on the analysis of her novels, The Sacrifice and Crackpot. The Eastern European Jewish background of the writer, with which she identifies strongly, as well as her Winnipeg roots, are a focus of special attention for the purpose of interpreting her work within its appropriate cultural context. The development of similar themes and symbols, and apparent differences in perspective and style in the two novels are examined. Adele Wiseman's continuing social, political, and moral concerns are analyzed, and her ideas and observations about the creative process are noted. An attempt has been made to demonstrate the integral relationship of these concerns and ideas to her literary creativity.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)