Thesis (PH. D.)--Catholic university of America. / "A select bibliography": p. vii-viii.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Leipzig, 1910. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [86]).

Abhandlung--Zürich. / Lebenslauf. "Literaturnachweis": p. [vii]-xviii.

Issued also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Bibliography: p. 221-226.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2007. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves193-207). Also available via the World Wide Web.

This thesis argues that the human mind recognizes within the natural world a dimension of reality that is beyond its knowledge and understanding. Nature confronts it with an ineffable power the source of which is often sensed as a numinous presence. But the divine manifested by nature also assumes the qualities exhibited by nature, and this implies beauty as well as terror. Indeed, in the literature considered in this study duality can be seen to constitute a mark of the divine. To accept the dual forces of nature as a whole, both the beauty and the terror, light and dark, as a unity, one needs the vision of the Romantic Child. The Child of Romantic conception is able to accept the dynamics of the dual forces, because he has the ability to wonder; he has not been sundered from his natural environment like modern man. The realm of Romantic Childhood is seen as a timeless place where the Child experiences a profound communion with nature. Ever since the industrial revolution this place has become a repository of ideas, tradition and literature discarded by a technologically advancing civilization that scorns the link with the past and with nature, which is in the custody of the poet, the true hero, and the Romantic Child. For this reason, the ideas germane to this study are significantly represented in works of so-called 'children's literature'. The duality of the divine is explored within various contexts - as manifested in the natures of god and goddess figures, the cycles of life and death, the dual conceptions of the man-centred pastoral garden and the god-centred wilderness, or the mind of the cultural other. From a wide array of sources, dating from different periods of time and written by authors of divergent backgrounds and stances, a seemingly unified and coherent body of Romantic teaching emerges. These sources include works by P.L. Travers, c.s. Lewis, Walter de la Mare, Richard Adams and Jamake Highwater. The coherence of their teaching attests to the poetical validity of their timeless archetypal thoughts. / Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Modern European Languages / unrestricted

This thesis began with the desire to understand the gold ivy painted green that entwines the crystal fountain in Spenser's Bower of Bliss. Although this artificial vegetation struck me as an example of what twentieth-century critics would call "kitsch", I somehow felt that the poet himself was viewing his creation as an object of beauty. In order to test this feeling I began my research by examining the use of the terms "art" and "nature" in Elizabethan writing, for it seemed to me that in the definition of and the relationship between these two terms lay a key to Spenser's esthetic. The artist here has tried to make an artificial substance appear to be natural; reading the Elizabethan critics I found that such attempts at artistic deception were almost unanimously applauded. Spenser's age could not have formulated its esthetic intuitively, however, and in order to understand its historical perspective I have examined the relationship between "art" and "nature" in important historical periods before the Renaissance. Here it was found that at times when painting is dominant, as in the Renaissance, art's imitation of nature is understood naturalistlcally, and a convention of literary pictorialism arises. In the writings of the critics of the Italian Renaissance, art is praised for its approximation to nature, and the poet, like the painter, is admired for his accurate pictures. Turning to the Elizabethan critics I found an esthetic similar to that expressed by the Italian writers. A common philosophy lies behind this esthetic. It is believed that to imitate nature with accuracy is to reproduce in art the harmony of God's creation. In performing this imitation man the artist is demonstrating his relationship to God the Artist. It was found further that the Elizabethan environment also demonstrated the delight in art's ability to deceive that is expressed by the writers of the period. And we find in their surroundings, in visual support of the critical theories, that the Elizabethans are not only delighted when art appears to be nature, but that they are also delighted when nature appears to be art. Looking finally at Spenser's scenes, we find his period's esthetic exemplified. He bases his idea of the beautiful on the conception of a world made up of order and variety. He praises verisimilitude in art, delighting to see art appear to be nature. He also delights when he sees a natural scene that resembles art. In addition he describes with pleasure situations in which art and nature are in friendly competition, or, perhaps the most delightful relationship of all, situations in which art and nature play complementary roles. One of Spenser's characteristically Renaissance traits is his ability to separate ethics and esthetics. This point has often been overlooked for the gold ivy painted green has been dismissed in some previous criticism not as esthetically poor, but ethically, as evil. Rather, in Elizabethan eyes, It is basically an esthetic good and can be used by the poet to create a number of effects. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to examine Thomas Hardy's treatment of nature in his major works. His interpretation of nature was sharply divergent from the traditional viewpoint regarding the natural world, and it was the direct antithesis of those interpretations of nature made by the writers who had preceded him.

John Cheever uses nature imagery, particularly images of light and water, to support his main themes of nostalgia, memory, tradition, alienation, travel, and confinement in his five novels. In the novels these images entwine and intersect to reveal Cheever's vision of an attainable earthly paradise comprised of familial love and an appreciation of the beauties and strengths of the natural world.

No description available.