Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Literatures in English." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Literatures in English." Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-213).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Literatures in English." Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis describes Eliot and Flaubert’s shared fascination for the figure of the ascetic saint, with special attention given to The Waste Land and La Tentation de saint Antoine. I examine how the structure, style and themes of these two works in particular show the authors updating into a modernist context the model of the trial they inherit from saintly literature. I explore in detail the varied connotations that the saint attracts, structuring my analysis on the basis of dialectical tensions which allow me to trace the relation of the saint’s experience to the theory and praxis of the two authors: the contrasting forms of discourse within each text, scientific and religious thought as distinct but potentially complicit approaches to knowledge, or the contrapuntal relationship of desert and city, allow me to illustrate the texts’ enactment of a central paradox of the ascetic’s via negativa – where the comprehensive vantage point to which they aspire is only achieved through loss. I give extensive attention to the techniques and structure of each work, in which I elaborate the operative significance of the saint’s emblematic status. My analysis culminates in a reading of the Tentation and The Waste Land that stresses their relation to an ascetic paradigm, which not only inheres through the recurrence of various motifs in the work of Eliot and Flaubert but is characteristic of modernism more generally. On the one hand expanding on undeveloped hints in Eliot criticism, regarding both the influence of Flaubert and The Waste Land’s relation to the saint’s trial, whilst on the other allowing Flaubert’s Tentation to benefit from the greater critical scrutiny given to its more canonical counterpart, the thesis enhances our understanding of both the individual authors and the broader intellectual climate to which they belong.

With diversity as an overarching theme, women writers' responses to the cultural feminisation and developing social climate of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain are explored through analyses of their poems on sensibility, community, and abolition. To determine a focus for expressive criticism and recover Romantic women writers from the social and historical contexts that have previously succeeded in highlighting male literary achievements, women's poetry is considered a distinct contribution to Romanticism. This dissertation analyses poems written by Joanna Baillie, Anna Barbauld, Harriet and Maria Falconar, Frances Greensted, Frances Greville, Elizabeth Hands, Eliza Knipe, Isabella Lickbarrow, Hannah More, Amelia Opie, Priscilla Pointon, Mary Robinson, Mary Scott, Helen Maria Williams, Ann Yearsley, and Mary Julia Young. Although literature brought together the public and private spheres, sensibility mediated between the two and served as a social currency for women. The various applications of sensibility are apparent in its dual-gendered nature, its link with reason, and the significance of economic language. A new genre of the "Address to Sensibility" was prominent in the period and followed a loose formula which defined sensibility, traced its personal impact, and determined a link between the Romantic culture and heightened emotion. Through explorations of poems on intellectual coteries, patronage, creative influence, Reviews, and literary critique, it is evident that women poets' affiliations with the literary community were marked by a discomfort based on their literary associations, the anxiety about their public reception, and the social differences in the literary community. However, the development of social, intellectual, literary, and critical communities alleviated this discomfort and contributed to women's participation in literary culture. In addition, women poets expressed sensibility and used images of community in diverse ways in their works against slavery and the trade. Abolitionist poetry acts as a case study of the particular motifs, highlighted throughout, such as the amalgamation of masculine and feminine, the political and economic applications of sensibility, the association of feeling with reason and community, and the assertion of individuality amidst commonality. Women poets' petitions to alleviate the sufferings of slaves paralleled arguments for the improvement of British society to benefit women. The poems discussed signify the complexity of the issues of sensibility, community, and diversity.

This thesis offers a thematic comparison of the ways in which fallen women are depicted by two writers: D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) and Jorge Amado (1912- ). The comparison highlights the contrasts and similarities between two cultures and how they are reflected in literature. The focus of the thesis is on an examination of unconventional female characters and it illuminates more generally the ways in which literary creativity is shaped by the interaction between writers and their social milieus. The theme of the fallen woman provokes discussion of changing patterns of sexuality in two different societies, in two different periods of their historical development. It also involves the question of the social, political and cultural background of both England and Brazil, where these images of the fallen women were fabricated. The thesis argues that both Lawrence and Amado share tremendous sympathy for these women. The thesis is divided into eight chapters. Chapters Two through Six are divided into two parts. The analysis in Part One involves a number of Lawrence's novels: The White Peacock, Sons and Lovers, The Lost Girl, Aaron's Rod, Mr. Noon, `Sun', and three versions of Lady Chatterley's Lover. Part Two looks at the fallen woman in Amado's writing from 1934 to 1977, and the discussion focuses on Jubiabä, Terras do sem fim, Gabriela, cravo e canela, Dona Flor e seus dois maridos, Tereza Batista cansada de guerra and Tieta do Agreste. Female desire and its fulfilment in an unconventional way has been a central question in all these novels. Without a moral judgement, both Lawrence and Amado depict the female characters who are triumphant lovers, redeemed from the sense of sin or guilt by their passion. The depiction of these women highlights the class and gender differences. Both writers show how patriarchy plays a dominant role in keeping female sexuality under control in both English and Brazilian societies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2010. / "Graduate Program in Literatures in English." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2010. / "Graduate Program in Literatures in English." Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-256).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Literatures in English." Includes bibliographical references (p. 192-205).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in English, Literatures in." Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-259).