<p>Using Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, India Edghill's Queenmaker Margaret George's Mary, Called Magdalene, whose texts recreate/re-envision the lives of Dinah, Michal, and Mary Magdalene respectively, this project focuses on fictional portraits of biblical women who are either silent or whose histories are relayed, possibly inaccurately, in the original biblical accounts. The development of this popular sub genre of historical fiction can be viewed as part of the tradition of feminist biblical scholarship, which focuses on the examination of biblical women and their experiences and identities, the omission of women as narrators in the Bible canon, and the subsequent position of women in the church and in other social structures. <br /> My research indicates that there exist two opposing bodies of feminist biblical critics: on one side there are the 'rejectionist' feminists who argue that the Bible is the handbook of patriarchy and that, consequently, its theological traditions must be rejected by women. On the other side there are the 'reinterpretationist' feminists who refuse to give up on the authoritarian and liberating power of the Scriptures and insist that, through reinterpretation, women can be empowered by the Bible. Throughout my consideration of fictional re-imaginings of Bible women's histories, including the ways in which these novels re-present female knowledge and power, I consistently address the need for a negotiation between the rejectionist and reinterpretationist paradigms that resolves their individual inherent inadequacies. My project asserts that rewriting biblical histories using the genre of the novel enables theorists to transcend the boundaries and limitations imposed on the discipline by the contrasting theoretical paradigms and create a third, hybridized approach to critiquing the Bible from a feminist perspective that both rejects and reinterprets biblical narratives. <br /> My project focuses on the theoretical function of revisionary novels in feminist biblical scholarship, although it invites a further consideration of the valuable stake that these novels might claim in the wider arena of theological discourse.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>After battling savage beasts, wild storms, and his own fears, a shipwrecked man finally escapes his island prison by means of the flying machine he has constructed using his own ingenuity and bits of debris washed ashore. Francis Godwin, Robert Paltock, and Ralph Morris, in their respective narratives M<em>an in the Moon, The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins</em>, and <em>The Life and Astonishing Adventures of John Daniel</em>, build their narratives on variations of that plot. Their proto-science fiction texts, written in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while intended to titillate and amaze their readers, also purposefully highlight the positive potential of experimental science. They respond to doubts and criticisms of the natural history espoused by people such as Francis Bacon, Thomas Sprat, and Robert Boyle, but satirized by authors like Jonathan Swift. Swift, in<em> Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World</em>, questions the claims of empirical scientists who aver that natural history can praise God and benefit society. Using their texts as laboratories and mixing religious imagery and metaphor with technological advancement, Godwin, Paltock, and Morris experiment with the potentialities and implications of science, concluding that the natural historian can be both a good Christian and an aid to his community. This project, therefore, delves into questions of science, community, and the Church in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, building on previous studies of actual natural historians, but focussing instead on fictional representations of Christian scientists.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This study considers the critique of American exceptionalism in Toni Morrison's Paradise and Beloved. While much African American fiction, particularly classic slave narratives, employ critiques of exceptionalism, most of these critiques appeal to the nation's failure to live up to its claims of greatness. These critiques focus on the hypocrisy of a nation that makes claims to American greatness despite the nation's racial exclusions and inequalities. Morrison's critical and creative work, on the other hand, suggests the interlocking racial, gender, and economic oppression of African Americans is absolutely crucial to the development and maintenance of America's exceptionalist ethos. Defining themselves against its black population, European America, Morrison argues, was able to develop a powerful exceptionalist self-image. From this perspective American racial, imperialist, and sexual domination is not a contradiction of but is instead inevitably implicated in American exceptionalism. Using Morrison's critical work as a starting point and methodological framework I investigate the various ways exceptionalism is registered in the two novels. Chapter 1 outlines the history of exceptionalism drawing out the key points of its development from the Puritans through the twentieth century, particularly as this mythology was employed in the field of literary studies. Outlining Morrison's critical work on the nation and the "Africanist presence" alongside her self-professed use of paradoxically pregnant silences, I lay the groundwork for an investigation into the two novels' unwillingness to use exceptionalist rhetoric to advance the cause of social justice. Chapter 2 discusses Beloved's historical context and the resurgence of the exceptionalist mythology in the Reagan years when the achievements of Civil Rights were being undermined by neo-conservatism. This context, along with a discussion of the generic codes of the slave narrative, frame a consideration of Beloved's lack of overt appeal to the mythology, a pregnant silence that strategically undermines the idea that America, because it abolished slavery and granted Civil Rights, is a model of freedom and democracy, an exceptional nation on the world stage. Chapter 3 reflects upon Paradise as a critique of exceptionalism as a misogynist mythology that both justifies and produces war and imperialism. The chapter draws out the links Paradise makes between domestic racism and imperialist wars abroad by way of Morrison's consideration of exceptionalism. Ultimately, Morrison's work offers an imaginative, critical contextualization for the contemporary American wars of aggression and the current resurgence of the exceptionalist mythology.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

<p>In the memoir That Summer in Paris, Morley Callaghan's vehemence regarding metaphor is pronounced. He is critical of writing that, in his view, examines the object in terms of some other thing and he insists upon a direct relationship between language and what is being described. Reflecting his expressed convictions, Callaghan's own writing style in the early novels is plain, at times even prosaic, seemingly stripped of shading and nuance. Callaghan's protagonists correspond to his style for they are all "ordinary" in the sense that they do not experience extremes either of wealth or poverty, heroism or ignominity, power or impotence. A close examination of the early novels reveals, however, that although his style is plain, it is far from simple and Callaghan himself uses metaphor, myth and symbol abundantly in his writing. Each of his protagonists, though "ordinary", is confronted with a profound moral dilemma whose outcome depends upon a clear, though frequently subtle perception of truth.</p> <p>In each of the early novels, the significance of seemingly unimportant detail enhances the single vision of life that Callaghan presents. In the context of each novel and the context of the early work as a whole, Callaghan's vision of life is based upon the acceptance of man as he is, neither naturally innocent nor naturally evil, but dependent upon his ability to distinguish truth from falsehood in his struggle for physical and spiritual survival. The early novels span a period of nine years, from 1925 to 1937 (More Joy in Heaven, published in 1937, is excluded in this study because of length requirements since its theme is somewhat similar to Such Is My Beloved). Callaghan's growing mastery of female characterization during this period corresponds with a decline in the influence of tangible Christian, and especially Roman Catholic symbols, such as the cathedral and its soaring spire. Without in any way diminishing the intangible values underlying the Christian faith, Callaghan emphasizes the need for individual responsibility as he probes the relationship between the recognition of truth and the survival of the contemporary human being in a materialistic, success-oriented society. By confronting myth, using symbol innovatively and employing metaphor to enhance truth and expose fraud, Callaghan's writing credo, as he sets it out in That Summer<br />in Paris, is confirmed through the early novels.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Alice Munro's fiction has a distinctive style that grows, in part, out of the close relationship between her themes and images. The main concern of this thesis will be to explore the way in which Alice Munro uses certain key images to dramatize the central themes of her fiction. Munro's fiction examines the trials and occasional triumphs which the individual experiences in developing from chilhood and youth to maturity and offers the reader insight into the complex processes of life through her subtle rendering of human experience.</p> <p>It is Alice Munro's perceptive dramatizations of life that mkae each of her short stories and novels memorable to the reader. She possesses the ability to present 'real life' vividly and convincingly as well as the talent to develop each story through her use of significant, and often recurring, images. These images are sometimes introduced<br />obliquely at first, yet the reader is made aware of their significance because of Munro's skillful attention to dramatic and sensuous detail. When each story reaches a climax or epiphanal moment it is because its images have been cumulatively built up and dramatically emphasized as essential to our grasp of the climactic moment and most important aspects of each novel or story's theme.</p> <p>The themes in each of her four works of fiction are similar and are often repeated in greater depth from earlier to later works. As a writer of fiction, Munro has created collections of short stories and novels which are basically concerned with the maturation process and the recognition of moral and social pressures which can influence the<br />individual. Munro's images are often sensuous and uncomplicated to begin with, mirroring the attitudes of her predominantly youthful narrators. As the individuals in her<br />stories grow to understand some of the pitfalls of society, Munro's images sometimes become unnatural and almost threatening. In becoming so they reflect the corruption and pressures of society which produce the madmen, suicides and cripples of her world who are the deprived manifestations of society's spiritual deformation.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The occasion for this study was a need for an analysis of the success of the Gentleman's Magazine in order to place its editorial policies and practices in proper perspective. The important work of C. L. Carlson and of James M. Kuist has focussed on the magazine's editorial history from 1731-1754 and from 1754-1800 respectively, but this particular study attempts to examine the editorial function in terms of the position of the Gentleman's as a successful periodical in the eighteenth century. The study, therefore, does not pretend to be a narrative; it is analytical rather than descriptive.</p> <p>Editorial involvement in the magazine was pervasive and complex. The Introduction provides necessary background to the study. Chapter II examines editorial policy and factors affecting its formulation and successful development. Chapter III discusses the nature of the magazine as a form of periodical. Furthermore, that section examines editorial criteria, methods and general presentation of materials in order to determine their effect on the magazine itself. Chapter IV analyzes the magazine's appeal from the viewpoints of the editors and the correspondents in order to assess further the success of the Gentleman's. That chapter develops the hypothesis that, in their attempts to be successful, the editors seriously compromised their claims to impartiality by involving themselves so completely within the magazine. Finally, Chapter V concludes that the establishment and continuation of the Gentleman's as a successful magazine with its basic ideas, form, criteria and personalities did not necessarily ensure the most effective presentation of literature.</p> <p>The policies adopted by the founders of the Gentleman's generally remained stable throughout the century. To facilitate analysis of that stability the study draws specific examples from a period roughly analagous to the 1770's. However, examples throughout the magazine's history in the eighteenth century appear in order to demonstrate the unity and complexity of the whole development of the periodical. Furthermore, the stableness of the Gentleman's was the result of the efforts of individuals. Those personalities associated with the magazine were primarily interested in the continuation of its success and in its general welfare for a variety of reasons. An examination of the involvement of those people in the magazine is a study in the expression of editorial opinion which, in turn, demonstrates and accounts for the success of the Gentleman's in the eighteenth century.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)