This work addresses the historically-read despotism Genesis 1.28 has often received in its subordination of nature for the interests of human enterprise and counters the notion of reading the entire Bible as an anti-environmental, anthropocentric text. In using a combined literary lens of eco-criticism and new historicism, this work examines the Hebrew Bible with particular attention to the books of Genesis and Exodus, offering within the Torah’s oldest literary tradition (the J source) an environmental connection between humanity and the divine that promotes a reverence of natural world and, conversely, a rejection of rampant urbanization and its cultural departure from nature. It is the goal of this research to create a discourse by bridging the gap between religious and green studies and forging a connection with the works of the early biblical writers and environmental thought of the modern world.

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This dissertation undertakes a comparative study of certain works of literature concerning Vietnamese and American troops during the United States’ involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s. My assumption was that during war it is possible to conclude that enemy forces behave in the same manner in order to reach the identical goal, that of victory over the ‘other’ side. I sought to ascertain how under the selfsame conditions they could be considered as enemies. Divided only by the 17th Parallel: A Study of Similarities Between American and Vietnamese Soldiers in Selected Works By close reading of six texts, three from Vietnamese and three from American perspectives, I have attempted to extract their similar views from each in order to create a context in which the likeness of each side is demonstrated. This was achieved by exploring four themes: those of landscape, time, conflict and ghosts. It was discovered that the protagonists’ behaviour was the same and that rather than being the others’ adversary their true enemies were found within their own ranks. The results indicate that a wider perspective should be adopted on war than one which regards it as a simplistic binary consisting of two opposing sides. Contrary to any supposition that enemies must remain separated, there is more than enough evidence for one to conclude that they actually occupied mutual psychological territory. Key Terms: Landscape, time, ghosts, psychological damage, Reader Response, CSR, PTSD, New Historicism, dehumanisation, conditions of war, 1954 Geneva Agreement, ideology, war literature. / English Literature / M.A. (English Literature)

This dissertation undertakes a comparative study of certain works of literature concerning Vietnamese and American troops during the United States’ involvement in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 1970s. My assumption was that during war it is possible to conclude that enemy forces behave in the same manner in order to reach the identical goal, that of victory over the ‘other’ side. I sought to ascertain how under the selfsame conditions they could be considered as enemies. Divided only by the 17th Parallel: A Study of Similarities Between American and Vietnamese Soldiers in Selected Works By close reading of six texts, three from Vietnamese and three from American perspectives, I have attempted to extract their similar views from each in order to create a context in which the likeness of each side is demonstrated. This was achieved by exploring four themes: those of landscape, time, conflict and ghosts. It was discovered that the protagonists’ behaviour was the same and that rather than being the others’ adversary their true enemies were found within their own ranks. The results indicate that a wider perspective should be adopted on war than one which regards it as a simplistic binary consisting of two opposing sides. Contrary to any supposition that enemies must remain separated, there is more than enough evidence for one to conclude that they actually occupied mutual psychological territory. Key Terms: Landscape, time, ghosts, psychological damage, Reader Response, CSR, PTSD, New Historicism, dehumanisation, conditions of war, 1954 Geneva Agreement, ideology, war literature. / English Literature / M.A. (English Literature)

<p>Pat Barker’s fictional account of the Great War, The Regeneration Trilogy, completed in 1995, is considered to be her most important work to date and has captured the imagination of the reading public as well as attracting considerable scholarly attention. Although the trilogy appears to be written in the realistic style of the traditional historical novel, Barker approaches the past with certain preoccupations from 1990s Britain and rewrites the past as seen through these contemporary lenses. Consequently, the trilogy illustrates not only how the past returns to haunt the present, but also how the present reciprocally haunts perceptions of the past. The haunting quality of the trilogy is developed through an extensive, intricate pattern of intertextuality. This reciprocal haunting at times breaks the realistic framework of the narrative, giving rise to anachronisms.</p><p>This study offers a reading of trauma, class, gender and psychology as thematic areas where intertexts are activated, allowing Barker to revise and re-accentuate stories of the past. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of discourse and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue, it focuses on the trilogy as an interactive link in an intertextual chain of communication about the Great War. Received versions of history are confirmed, expanded on and sometimes questioned. What is innovative about the trilogy is how Barker incorporates discursive formations not only from the Great War period, but from the whole twentieth century. The Great War is regenerated and transformed as it passes from one dialogic context to another. My reading shows that the trilogy presents social structures from different historical epochs through dialogism and diachronicity, making the present-day matrices of power and knowledge that continue to surround, determine and limit people’s lives highly visible. The Regeneration Trilogy regenerates the past, simultaneously confirming Barker’s claim that the historical novel can also be “a backdoor into the present”.</p>

Abstract My aim for this paper is to analyse the character Jeeves' obsession with perfect clothing in     P. G. Wodehouse's The Inimitable Jeeves (1923). My method has been to study the historical context of the British aristocracy at the time of the first publication of the book in 1923, as well as the previous four decades during which the author grew up and decisive changes in the British class society took place. This paper studies sources on the significance of clothing in general, and examines its importance at the time in particular. For my analysis I have borrowed elements from new historicism. The norms, traditions and values of the aristocracy lost in importance during this time, and the aristocracy was divided into individuals who were willing to adopt to these changes and others who fought to defy them. My conclusion is that Jeeves considers the strict dress codes to be an important symbol of the old aristocratic values that he has to defend, in order to legitimize his own position, as he is profoundly devoted to his calling of being a first class valet faithful to the old traditions. Wooster, then, acts as Jeeves' opponent on the matter as he embodies the part of the aristocracy willing to embrace the changes instead.

Pat Barker’s fictional account of the Great War, The Regeneration Trilogy, completed in 1995, is considered to be her most important work to date and has captured the imagination of the reading public as well as attracting considerable scholarly attention. Although the trilogy appears to be written in the realistic style of the traditional historical novel, Barker approaches the past with certain preoccupations from 1990s Britain and rewrites the past as seen through these contemporary lenses. Consequently, the trilogy illustrates not only how the past returns to haunt the present, but also how the present reciprocally haunts perceptions of the past. The haunting quality of the trilogy is developed through an extensive, intricate pattern of intertextuality. This reciprocal haunting at times breaks the realistic framework of the narrative, giving rise to anachronisms. This study offers a reading of trauma, class, gender and psychology as thematic areas where intertexts are activated, allowing Barker to revise and re-accentuate stories of the past. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of discourse and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogue, it focuses on the trilogy as an interactive link in an intertextual chain of communication about the Great War. Received versions of history are confirmed, expanded on and sometimes questioned. What is innovative about the trilogy is how Barker incorporates discursive formations not only from the Great War period, but from the whole twentieth century. The Great War is regenerated and transformed as it passes from one dialogic context to another. My reading shows that the trilogy presents social structures from different historical epochs through dialogism and diachronicity, making the present-day matrices of power and knowledge that continue to surround, determine and limit people’s lives highly visible. The Regeneration Trilogy regenerates the past, simultaneously confirming Barker’s claim that the historical novel can also be “a backdoor into the present”.

Adding something new to the understanding of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), which is considered a twentieth-century classic, would be nearly impossible if not for the outlook of new historicism. Through a new historicist analysis of Harper Lee’s literary text parallel to non-fictional texts relating to the American justice system and civil rights, this essay explores how race affects U.S. institutions and society. Lee’s novel is contextualized by delving into the American South of the 1930s, American society and politics in the1960s and the racial landscape in America today, connecting them through the experiences of racial bias within the justice system and the civil rights movement. The essay explores the racial and cultural norms that governed the American justice system at the set time of the story. It analyzes the time of publication and the American society in which the novel made such an impact on the racial debate. Finally, it looks at the impact of the novel and its connection to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the Black Lives Matter movement and readers today. In the spirit of new historicism, the mechanisms of racism and how they affect the population, both the oppressors and the oppressed, is highlighted showing parallels between Lee’s fictional world and American society over time. Through the experiences of the characters, the structures of racism translate to a time and place where the Black Lives Matter movement has infused new life to the civil rights movement worldwide. Looking at retellings of the historical Scottsboro trials, which inspired the story unfolding in To Kill a Mockingbird in light of the justice system, Maycomb county and its inhabitants serves as guides into the racial norms that is ingrained in American society and politics. The results reveal a society where racial segregation is constantly reinforced by legal, economical, and social barriers, despite constitutional efforts to level the playing field for all American citizens.

Amharic literature has always occupied an important place in the history of the literary traditions of Ethiopia. Although this literature is believed to be strongly related to the politics of the country, there has been no study that proves this claim across the different political periods in the country. It would be ambitious to deal with all the literary genres in this respect. Therefore, delimiting the investigation of the problem is considered to be useful to filling the knowledge gap. Accordingly, this comparative research which investigates a representation of Ethiopian politics in selected Amharic novels across three political periods: 1930 – 2010 was designed. The objective of the research is to investigate the representation of Ethiopian politics in selected Amharic novels. The basic research question focuses on how these representations can be explained. An eclectic theoretical approach (the New Historicism, Bourdieu’s System Theory and the Critical Discourse Analysis) is employed to understand the representations. The main method of data collection focuses on a close reading of non-literary and literary texts. A purposive sampling technique is used to select the sample novels as the technique allows to select those that yield the most relevant data using some criteria. Based on the criteria set, sixteen novels are selected. The manners in which the political events represented in the novels are examined using different parameters. The parameters also look into the methods used in representing the political events and the time in which the events were represented, i.e. whether they are represented contemporarily, post-contemporarily or before the actual happening of the event. Having read the novels critically, the political events that took place in the three respective states are identified, analyzed and interpreted. The analysis mainly shows that different novels represented the political events in different manners: lightly or deeply, overtly or covertly, positively or negatively, contemporaneously or post-contemporaneously. Regarding the ‘how’ of the representations, it is observed that the critical novels, for instance, Alïwälädïm and Adäfrïs are covert and use symbols, direct and indirect allusions and other figures of speeches, and other techniques including turn taking, and size of dialogues to achieve their goals. Some political events are found to be either under-represented or totally un-represented in the novels. In some cases, same political events are represented differently in different novels at different times. Some novels that criticized the political events of the governments contemporaneously have been removed from market, republished in the political period that followed and exploited by the emerging government for its political end. There are some patterns observed in the analyses and interpretations of the politics in the novels. One of the patterns is that sharp criticisms on the events of an earlier political period are usually reflected in novels published in a new period. The critique novels of the Haileselassie government, for instance, Maïbäl Yabïyot Wazema, were published during the Darg period, and those that were critical of the Darg government, for instance, Anguz, were published in the EPRDF period. Another pattern observed is that there is no novel that praises a past regime, even despite being critical of a contemporary government. No novel written during the Darg period admired the Haileselassie period; and no novel written during the EPRDF period appreciated the Darg period. There are cases in which novelists who were critical of the contemporary Haileselassie and Darg periods, for instance, Abe and Bealu, respectively, ended up in detention or just disappeared and their novels, Alïwälädïm and Oromay, respecitely were banned from being circulated. Unlike the two previous political periods, the critique novels of the EPRDF period, for instance Dertogada, Ramatohara, and Yäburqa Zïmïta, have been published, or even republished, several times. Novels written during the Haileselassie period, such as Alïwälädïm, which were critical of the respective contemporary period, made their criticism covertly, using probes and imaginary settings and characters, while the critique novels of the EPRDF period, criticize overtly, and boldly. Generally, it could be concluded that the novels had the power to reflect history, and show human and class relationships implicitly, through the interactions of characters, story developments, and plot constructions, and the impact that politics has on the literature, and the influence of literature on politics. / Classics and World Languages / D. Phil. (Theory of Literature)

Amharic literature has always occupied an important place in the history of the literary traditions of Ethiopia. Although this literature is believed to be strongly related to the politics of the country, there has been no study that proves this claim across the different political periods in the country. It would be ambitious to deal with all the literary genres in this respect. Therefore, delimiting the investigation of the problem is considered to be useful to filling the knowledge gap. Accordingly, this comparative research which investigates a representation of Ethiopian politics in selected Amharic novels across three political periods: 1930 – 2010 was designed. The objective of the research is to investigate the representation of Ethiopian politics in selected Amharic novels. The basic research question focuses on how these representations can be explained. An eclectic theoretical approach (the New Historicism, Bourdieu’s System Theory and the Critical Discourse Analysis) is employed to understand the representations. The main method of data collection focuses on a close reading of non-literary and literary texts. A purposive sampling technique is used to select the sample novels as the technique allows to select those that yield the most relevant data using some criteria. Based on the criteria set, sixteen novels are selected. The manners in which the political events represented in the novels are examined using different parameters. The parameters also look into the methods used in representing the political events and the time in which the events were represented, i.e. whether they are represented contemporarily, post-contemporarily or before the actual happening of the event. Having read the novels critically, the political events that took place in the three respective states are identified, analyzed and interpreted. The analysis mainly shows that different novels represented the political events in different manners: lightly or deeply, overtly or covertly, positively or negatively, contemporaneously or post-contemporaneously. Regarding the ‘how’ of the representations, it is observed that the critical novels, for instance, Alïwälädïm and Adäfrïs are covert and use symbols, direct and indirect allusions and other figures of speeches, and other techniques including turn taking, and size of dialogues to achieve their goals. Some political events are found to be either under-represented or totally un-represented in the novels. In some cases, same political events are represented differently in different novels at different times. Some novels that criticized the political events of the governments contemporaneously have been removed from market, republished in the political period that followed and exploited by the emerging government for its political end. There are some patterns observed in the analyses and interpretations of the politics in the novels. One of the patterns is that sharp criticisms on the events of an earlier political period are usually reflected in novels published in a new period. The critique novels of the Haileselassie government, for instance, Maïbäl Yabïyot Wazema, were published during the Darg period, and those that were critical of the Darg government, for instance, Anguz, were published in the EPRDF period. Another pattern observed is that there is no novel that praises a past regime, even despite being critical of a contemporary government. No novel written during the Darg period admired the Haileselassie period; and no novel written during the EPRDF period appreciated the Darg period. There are cases in which novelists who were critical of the contemporary Haileselassie and Darg periods, for instance, Abe and Bealu, respectively, ended up in detention or just disappeared and their novels, Alïwälädïm and Oromay, respecitely were banned from being circulated. Unlike the two previous political periods, the critique novels of the EPRDF period, for instance Dertogada, Ramatohara, and Yäburqa Zïmïta, have been published, or even republished, several times. Novels written during the Haileselassie period, such as Alïwälädïm, which were critical of the respective contemporary period, made their criticism covertly, using probes and imaginary settings and characters, while the critique novels of the EPRDF period, criticize overtly, and boldly. Generally, it could be concluded that the novels had the power to reflect history, and show human and class relationships implicitly, through the interactions of characters, story developments, and plot constructions, and the impact that politics has on the literature, and the influence of literature on politics. / Classics and World Languages / D. Phil. (Theory of Literature)