In the 1580s, almost a century after Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World, England could not make any substantial claims to the rich territories there. Less than a century later, England had not only founded an overseas empire but had also managed to challenge her most powerful rivals in the international arena. But before any material success accompanied English New World enterprises, a major campaign of promotion was launched with the clear objective of persuading Englishmen that intervention in the Americas was not only desirable for the national economy but even paramount for their survival as a new and powerful Protestant nation-state. Making use of the research carried out by scholars such as Michel de Certeau, Hayden White, Walter Mignolo, Stephen Greenblatt, Louis Montrose, Shannon Miller, Mary Fuller, and many others, this work explores the metaphors that dominate England's New World discourse in their attempt to conceptualize it and make it ready for immediate consumption. The New World was not a pre-formulated concept for the mentality of Englishmen before this period, and this formulation had to be carried out resorting to well-known rhetorical tropes. The “otherness” intrinsic to the Americas was tamed and inscribed within a discourse that was comprehensible and acceptable before it was manipulated and made ready for England's imperial aspirations. The creators of England's “proto-colonial” discourse were forced to make use of their rivals' prior experience at the same time they pretended to present England as radically different than them, an aspect of great importance in order to legitimate English claims over territories that were already occupied. The “other” these promotional authors encountered in the New World was not limited to the indigenous cultures, but also included other European powers against which England had to measure herself so as to establish her legal and moral authority over the colonizable lands. One of the most outstanding consequences of this ideological game is the way in which the English nation emerges not only in opposition to the American natives they try to submit, but also, and more importantly, in contrast to other nations that had been traditionally considered as culturally similar.

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published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Arts

The American Romance is characterized by its use of memorial images which contribute in developing the form and content of its individual literary works. Readings of works by four authors who fall within the American Romance tradition--Hawthorne, James, Faulkner, and Toni Morrison--reveal a poetics of memory that operates in terms of tensions between word and image, with memory achieving apparent embodiment through the image, while the simple presence thus generated is revealed to be both contaminated and opposed by cultural codes. Through portraits, photographs, and other less concrete representations of the human countenance, characters seek to take personal possession of both themselves and others and thereby gain a form of self-possession which places them in a certain relationship to the culture. In creating verbal constructions of images, the authors also pursue a goal mirroring that of their characters. Individual chapters specifically address the way in which the written work of art's identity is reflected in the characteristics of the visual art forms it represents; the power of the memorialized image of woman; and the imaginary strategies by which the cultural authority of one written text can be defused by the written Romance that appropriates it. Works discussed are: The House of the Seven Gables, The Wings of the Dove, The Sound and the Fury, and Song of Solomon and Beloved.

Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學硏究院中國語文學部. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-211). / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue yan jiu yuan Zhongguo yu wen xue bu. / Chapter （一） --- 序言 / Chapter （二） --- 經學家之文論 / Chapter （甲） --- ℗¡唐初之崇儒及修經情況 / Chapter （乙） --- 經學家之文論 / Chapter （1） --- 孔穎達 / Chapter （2） --- 陸德明 / Chapter （三） --- 史學家之文論 / Chapter （甲） --- 唐初修史之目的及其經過 / Chapter （乙） --- 史學家之文論 / Chapter （1） --- 魏徵 / Chapter （2） --- 令狐德芬 / Chapter （3） --- 李百藥 / Chapter （4） --- 姚思廉 / Chapter （5） --- 房玄齡 / Chapter （6） --- 李延壽 / Chapter （7） --- 顏師古 / Chapter （丙） --- 史論家之文論 / 劉知幾 / Chapter （四） --- 結論 / Chapter （五） --- 參考書目

Chow, Shun Man Emily. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

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<p> This project seeks to understand the relationship between discursive practices and the conceptions of nature, heroism, and masculinity found in Victorian and modern Imperial British culture. It does this by tracing two interwoven stories that materialized in the North and South Poles. The first being concerned with how polar landscape was perceived and created as Sublime by the discursive practices of explorers, authors, artists, and the press. The second being concerned with how polar discourse was used and influenced by British imperial rhetoric. In such a context, there was an opportunity for the British Empire to create a space that reclaimed and &ldquo;proved&rdquo; the unchanging presence of mid-Victorian Britishness. Even in its decline, the Empire was able to push forth the idea that modernism, war, and flux would not hold sway over the British spirit itself. Relying on expedition narratives, literary publications, paintings, and press coverage, this work highlights the importance (and fluidity) of intellectual concepts and their influence over the way that space was imagined by the British. Ultimately, the project seeks to lend insight into the significant connection between polar discourse and World War I discourse, showing how the mythological way of imagining the poles became a catalyst for imagining indescribable spaces of horror during the most destructive war in European history.</p>

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<p> Haitian and Antillean literatures are written in French. However, certain linguistic deviations are noticed in the works of Francophone writers from the Americano-Caribbean region. Even though linguistic creativity is one of the most salient characteristics of these literatures, critics tend to analyze the messages of those authors through historical and cultural lenses. However, when one houses the layout of the text, one is able to discover in it a message that is not always accessible to the francophone reader unfamiliar with Haitian and Antillean cultures. That is the reason why this dissertation analyzes the language in the works of Haitian and Antillean authors not only as a medium of communication, but also as a message in itself. To conduct this study, the dissertation examines, in the first chapter, the theories of researchers such as Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Baissac, Jules Faine, Suzanne Sylvain, Robert Chaudenson, and Albert Valdman. The second chapter takes into consideration the historical aspects of the development of the French-based Creoles and their status in Haiti and the Antilles through the texts of Thomas Madiou, Jean Fouchard, Gabriel Debien, Dani B&eacute;bel-Gisler, Frantz Fanon, Maryse Cond&eacute;, and Edouard Glissant. The third chapter investigates texts of Haitian authors from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the last quarter of the twentieth century. The writers studied include Ignace Nau, Oswald Durand, Justin Lh&eacute;risson, Jacques Roumain, and Marie-Th&eacute;r&egrave;se Colimon. The fourth chapter analyzes the Antillean writings through the three main literary periods: Negritude, Antillanit&eacute;, and Cr&eacute;olit&eacute;. The works of authors such as Aim&eacute; C&eacute;saire, Joseph Zobel, Edouard Glissant, Simone Schwarz-Bart, Maryse Cond&eacute;, and Rapha&euml;l Confiant are investigated. To determine whether and how the linguistic innovations are still reflected in the works published, the fifth chapter studies contemporary Haitian and Antillean novels. To a certain extent, this dissertation emphasizes the importance of the role and the significance of language in these territories. It provides new tools and opens up new research avenues to scholars interested in exploring the written work produced in this area of the Francophone world.</p><p>