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Reproduced from the copy in the University of Adelaide.

When I decided to produce an edition of Akhbar Siffin I discovered four manuscripts dealing with the historical accounts of the Battle of Siffin. The examination of these four manuscripts showed that they are not the same work; two of them are different copies of Akhbar Siffin. They are Ambrosiana H 129 and Borlin Q.U. 2040. The other two are different copies of the work of Abu Muhammad, Ahmad b. A`tham al-Kufi entitled Waq`at Siffin. They are Ankara, 'Saib 5418 and Mingana Collection, Islam, Arab 572. The next action was to compare the material of Akhbar Siffin with the material of Ibn A'tham's Waq`at Siffin. I concluded that Akhbar Siffin had more original material than Ibn A'tham's Waq'at Siffin and accordingly I decided to edit it. A study of the Ambrosiana Manuscript and the Berlin Manuscript of Akhbar Siffin indicated that the edition would best be based upon the Ambrosiana Manuscript because it has the fuller text and fewer mistakes and gaps than the Berlin Manuscript. The name of the author of Akhbar Siffin does not appear in either of the two manuscripts, and there is no assistance from any other source which may help in identifying him. The introduction of this edition consists of two parts; a bibliographical survey of the, works on the Battle of Siffin and analytical description of the material and the manusoripts of Akhbar Siffin.

published_or_final_version / English Studies and Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

Often debates over literary meaning can get swept up into larger discussions about social significance, political responsibilities, identity struggles and deification of cultural objects. Literary meaning becomes, in these deliberations, not just a theoretical entity but a powerful social force. All of these queries, however, inasmuch as the literary enterprise is a part of human interaction, are dependent on the brute fact of communication. Any notion of literary meaning must ultimately rest upon a concept of meaning that explains, or attempts to explain, how communication is possible. This, in turn, leads down the dark path into human psychology and the relationships of our minds to the world around us. This thesis will attempt to explore various viewpoints about the connections between thought, language, and literature and to argue that these connections necessitate more attention than has been paid to them by literary theorists.

This thesis examines the development of Chinese theories of literature in the early twentieth century: what was considered as literature, the role of the writer and reader, and the function of literature in society. The central purpose of the thesis is to retrace the Western-influenced theories of literature of the 1920s back to the theoretical developments at the turn of the century. The thesis also shows that, as a whole, modern Chinese theories of literature are deeply rooted in traditional Chinese poetics. In characterizing traditional Chinese theories, it compares the latter with the mimetic model of Western literature. Throughout the thesis, the account of the theoretical developments makes constant reference to the changes taking place within two major literary genres: lyrical poetry and the narrative.

No description available.

The Nose of Death considers the common matrix of the English scientific revolution and the modern English novel through the indicator of laughter. Whereas death is the paradigmatic object of laughter in the premodern period, animate or thinking matter is the prevailing object of laughter in modernity. The change is located in texts of the English baroque period from 1607 to 1767. Baroque discourse is defined by the language developed by writers loyal to both the Christian and the Copernican world views. Contradictory allegiances required them to institute a narratorial position based on simultaneous attachment to and detachment from a single point of view. This position is the defining feature of baroque discourse, the basis of both the perspective of modem science and the animation of multiple viewpoints in the modern novel. / The Nose of Death develops Walter Benjamin's reading of baroque "muting" and "fragmentation," processes that free matter, language, and time for alternative composition. The dissertation likewise adapts M. M. Bakhtin's account of the "grotesque method," considered as the approach to language and the human body that the modern "scientific method" posits itself against. This study treats baroque novelistic discourse in forgotten texts drawn from McGill's Redpath Tracts by Thomas Tomkis, Thomas D'Urfey, Tobias Swinden, and a selection of anonymously authored pamphlets. It considers, as well, two early medical works by Robert Boyle and Walter Charleton. Analogous fragments are similarly analyzed from three canonical works: Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady (1747--48), and Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759--67).

There is no abstract available for this thesis.