The study of secularity in Iceland has so far largely been restricted to institutional differentiation, alongside legal aspects of the relationship between the state and the country’s national church. This paper approaches the formation of secularity in the country from a different angle. Adopting a research perspective shaped by both cultural history and sociology of culture, it investigates the role of the Icelandic sagas, and the medieval culture which spawned them, in the development of secularity in Iceland. Instead of looking at the processes through which Christian religion came to be separated from other spheres of society, it probes the discourses legitimising such a separation. It pays special attention to the reception and understanding of the sagas and the medieval culture which produced them, and further asks how they provided a background against which a secular culture could be imagined, both in the past and for the present.

No description available.

Drowning is a frequent mode of death for female literary characters because of the strong symbolic relationship between female sexuality and water. Drowning has long been a punishment for sexually transgressive women in literature. In the introduction, Chapter 1, I describe the drowning paradigm and analyze drowning scenes in several pre-twentieth century works to establish the tradition which twentieth-century women writers begin to transcend. In Chapter 2, I discuss three of Kate Chopin's works which include drownings, demonstrating her transition from traditional drowning themes in At Fault and “Desiree's Baby” to the drowning in The Awakening, which prefigures the survival of protagonists in later works. I discuss one of these in Chapter 3: Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Although Janie must rely on her husband to save her from the flood, she survives, though her husband does not. In Chapter 4, I discuss two stories by Eudora Welty, “Moon Lake” and “The Wide Net.” In “Moon Lake,” Easter nearly drowns as a corollary to her adolescent sexual awakening. Although her resuscitation is a brutal simulation of a rape, Easter survives. “The Wide Net” is a comic story that winks at the drowning woman tradition, showing a young bride who pretends to drown in order to recapture the affections of her husband. Chapter 5 analyzes a set of works by Margaret Atwood. Lady Oracle includes another faked drowning, while “The Whirlpool Rapids” and “Walking on Water” feature a protagonist who feels invulnerable after her near-drowning. The Blind Assassin includes substantial drowning imagery. Chapter 6 discusses current trends in near-drowning fiction, focusing on the river rafting adventure stories of Pam Houston.

Abstract not available

In the course of its history, Prague has been the site of many significant cultural confrontations and conversations. From the medieval chronicle of Cosmas to the work of contemporary writers, the city has taken shape in literature as a multivalent space where identities are constructed and questioned. The evolution of Prague's literary significance has taken place in an intercultural context: both Czech-speaking and German-speaking writers have engaged with the city and its past, and their texts have interacted with each other. The city has played a central part in many collective narratives in which myth, history and literature intertwine. Looking at contemporary prose fiction written in both Czech and German, this thesis explores continuities and contrasts in the literary roles played by Prague. It analyses two German-speaking emigrant authors, Libuše Moníková (1945-1998) and Jan Faktor (1951- ), viewing them alongside three Czech writers, Jáchym Topol (1962- ), Daniela Hodrová (1946- ), and Michal Ajvaz (1949- ). Through close readings of eight texts, the thesis approaches the imagined city from four angles. It discusses how contemporary authors portray the search for meaning in the city by imagining Prague as two contrasting realms (the 'real' city and the 'other' city), how the discontinuities of the city are reflected by the fragmentation of the authorial stance, how these authors assemble new Prague myths from the vestiges of older topoi, and how they confront the contradictory urges to uphold the boundaries of the city and to transgress them. In post-1989 Prague, authors explore the unstable spaces between continuity and discontinuity, constructing an authorial ethos in these areas of tension.

Dazai Osamu (born Tsushima Shûji) was a post-WWII writer who wrote a number of works using a female narrator. This thesis research focused on the reasons as to why Dazai may have written using female narratives, taking into consideration the time period and social milieu in which he was writing, as well as his own personal history with women. In addition, the history of male authors utilizing female narratives was explored, as well as the ideas of gender in the Japanese arts. Dazai works were also compared with Tankizaki Junichirô's to see how the roles of women in their works differ. The four main Dazai works analyzed were "Magic Lanterns" ("Tôrô"), "The Schoolgirl" ("Joseito"), "December 8th" ("Jûnigatsu yôka"), and "Villon's Wife" ("Biyon no tsuma"). The conclusion was that Dazai was using female narrators as a different approach to further critiquing himself, with the female narrator being used to critique a Dazai-like persona in the works.

There is a divergence of views in German First World War literature concerning the presentation of medical aspects and nursing experiences. Although all accounts of the war claim implicitly to present the truth about a section of, or even the whole of, the war, be they diaries, letters or war fiction, variations arise due to the individual attitude, perspective and intention of each author. This thesis examines a range of different types of fictional and non-fictional war literature: diaries, letters, reports, narratives and novels written by or about participants during or after the war, taking due account of the precise relationship to the experience, the intent of the writers and the context of their accounts. Some of these are based on personal experience and provide an imnediate impression of the war. Some use personal experience, but not specific historical details, to look at the war in retrospect, conditioned by the (additional) medical knowledge of the late 1920s. Others blend fictional and historical characters and events. Although the standpoint of the individual ordinary soldier and sailor, or officer, predominates in writings of this kind, writings both by and about women and other non-combatants involved in the war have been included. German material is compared with American, British and French accounts wherever possible and practicable. A preliminary section (chapters 2+3) provides the reader with a detailed and necessary historical overview of the organization of the German lieeressanialtswesen. between 1914 and 1918, followed by an examination of the discrepancy between the historical experience and perception of the Lazarett in the German literary context. The second part of the work (chapters 4-6) examines descriptions and perceptions of specific medical aspects of the war from the point of view of those immediately involved in the Yermuncletenliirgarge: surgeons and medical practitioners, paramedical orderlies and stretcher-bearers as well as nurses. The largest part (chapters 7-12) examines the medical effects of the war as perceived in different literary and non-literary contexts, ranging from straightforward wounds, shell-shock and other psychological phenomena, to the effects of poison gas and chemical warfare, venereal diseases, self-inflicted wounds and the medical implications of trench warfare, followed by an analysis of the motif of 'war as disease'.

The Communist Party's control of Soviet literature gradually evolved from the 1920s and reached its height in the 1940s. The amount of control exerted over Soviet literature reflected the strengthening power of the Communist Party. Sources used in this thesis include speeches, articles, and resolutions of leaders in the Communist Party, novels produced by Soviet authors from the 1920s through the 1940s, and analyses of leading critics of Soviet literature and Soviet history. The thesis is structured around the political and literary developments during the periods of 1917-1924, 1924-1932, 1932-1941, and 1946-1949. The conclusion is that the Communist Party seized control of Soviet literature to disseminate Party policy, minimize dissent, and produce propaganda, not to provide an outlet for creative talent.

No description available.

by Linda Pui-ling Wong. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-299). / Acknowledgements --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / Abbreviations --- p.v / Chapter Chapter One --- Chinese Modernity Reconsidered --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter Two --- The Presence of the Pre-Raphaelites in China --- p.21 / Chapter Chapter Three --- The Cross-cultural Counterparts: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Crescent Moon Society in China --- p.44 / Chapter Chapter Four --- "New Images of Lovers: Chinese Adaptations of Dante Rossetti's ""The Blessed Damozel""" --- p.66 / Chapter Chapter Five --- The Lyrical and Melancholic Women: The Reconstruction of Christina Rossetti --- p.132 / Chapter Chapter Six --- Utopian Thinking in May Fourth China: The Rise of William Morris --- p.152 / Chapter Chapter Seven --- A Patriotic Model for Modern China: The Early W.B. Yeats as a New Romantic --- p.172 / Chapter Chapter Eight --- "The Chinese ""Decadents"": Indebtedness to Algernon Swinburne, Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde" --- p.193 / Chapter Chapter Nine --- "The ""Fleshly School of Poetry""in China?" --- p.244 / rllustrations --- p.272 / Glossary --- p.274 / Bibliography --- p.277