This study explores Thomas Gray’s concepts of literary history, tradition, and the past. It proffers critical examinations of Gray’s literary and historical thoughts, illustrating the extent of the complexity of the mid‐century cultural and intellectual climate in which Gray and his contemporaries were writing. It shows the aesthetic, cultural, and political dimensions of canonicity in the course of examining the ideological motivation behind Gray’s literary history. Though much of Gray’s poetry is private and written for a narrow literary circle, his literary history seems engaged with issues of public concerns. Gray’s literary history must not be understood as a mere objective scholarly study, but as an ideological narrative invented to promote specific national and cultural agendas. Though Gray’s plan for his History of English Poetry was inspired directly by Pope’s scheme of writing a history of English poetry, Gray’s historiography represents a challenge to Pope’s most fundamental “neo‐classical” premises of canonicity in that it aligns English literary poetry back to the literary tradition of ancient Britain and resituates the English literary canon in an entirely different theoretical framework. Gray reworked Pope’s historical scheme to suits the need of the political and intellectual agendas of his own time: the national need for a distinctive cultural identity, which was promoted by and led to the emergence of a more national and less partisan atmosphere. Gray’s comprehensive project of literary history charts the birth and development of what he views as an English “high‐cultural” tradition, whose origins he attributes to the classical and Celtic antiquity. In Gray’s view, this tradition reaches its peak with the rise of Elizabethan literary culture; a culture which was later challenged by the “French” model which dominated British literary culture from the Restoration to Gray’s time. Gray’s literary history is to be examined in this study in relation to the concept of canonformation. Gray’s historiographical study of literary culture of ancient Britain, his historicization of Chaucerian and medieval texts, his celebration of Elizabethan literary culture, and his polemical attack on “neo‐classical” literary ideals intend to relocate the process of canon‐formation within a “pure” source of national literary heritage, something which provides cultural momentum for the emergence of a historiography and an aesthetics promoting Gray’s idea of the continuity of tradition. As is the case in his poetry, the concept of cultural continuity is also central to Gray’s literary history, and permeates through his periodization, historicism, criticism, and his concept of the transformation of tradition.

This dissertation considers why fantasy has been so slow to be valued in literary circles, how those conditions are changing, and the implications of these changes for the broader topic of literary value. What makes literature worthy of study? It has become commonplace to observe, on the one hand, the increasing significance and ubiquity of cultural productions, and on the other hand, the waning significance of the humanities in higher education. Literary study, in particular, has seemed to be in danger of losing the basis for its justification. Over the last several decades, critique has become one of the most popular means of justifying the study of literature, as a practice of awakening resistance to ideological forces. And yet, literature has much more to offer besides critique, such as the affirmative values of communication, integration, and well-being. This dissertation seeks to enhance the relevance of literary study by outlining ongoing revisions to literary value through interpretations of contemporary fantasy. Previously, under modernism, literary value was defined as autonomy from the marketplace. However, following the rise of postmodernism, this ontological definition of literary value became questionable, legible only as a cultural construction. Critique functions as a means of preserving the movement towards, if not the content of, ideals of autonomy. The method of critique locates value in the insights of the critic or the author who demystifies, debunks, or otherwise criticizes social and cultural structures. To the extent that literary value has become identified with the aims of critique, these practices of negation offer an apparent certainty that glosses over the fact that constructions of value continue to require acts of faith from both readers and authors. Recent shifts in literary value point towards the inclusion of affirmative practices of construction, in addition to negative practices of deconstruction. Taking up these trends, this dissertation interprets how recent fantasies work to reconstruct the grounds for faith in literary value. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, especially, fantasists have begun to experiment with new ways of combining the values of critique with the values of affirmation. A postcritical approach to fantasy re-opens avenues in academic valuing for discussing the positive, embodied elements of literary value—particularly the value of escaping into a different world in order to understand, and to cope with, one’s own world better. As a form of genre fiction involving the mode of enchantment, fantasy has long been devalued along gendered lines, criticized for its supposed positioning of readers as passively manipulated. Part One, “Recovering Enchantment,” considers how fantasists have built on the growing recognition of the role of genre as a mode of communication; through enchanted reading, both authors and readers engage in relatively passive acts of absorption, which can be constructed to be more nourishing than other acts of consumption. Building on the substance of enchantment, Part Two, “Integrating the Values of Critique and Affirmation,” interprets how recent fantasies overcome the theoretical divergence that associates critique with literary autonomy and affirmation with popular manipulations, moving towards solutions for re-enchanting literary value. The methodology emphasizes the contributions of individual texts in the context of emerging and established uses of fantastic genres. Because reading fantasy involves an encoded act of faith, this literature is particularly suited for investigating new directions in literary value, and for producing literary artifacts that both recall and progress the inquiry into what it might mean to ‘believe in books.’

"Realizing the importance of the subject of literary awards, the interest in short stories, and the value of good anthologies to the small library the writer chose for her study a short story award--The O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories. The first twenty-five years of that anthology paralleled an era in which she was interested. The study has been confined to the first, second and special prize-winning stories of those years (1919-1943). The study has followed these divisions: a history of the award and its purpose; an analysis of the stories as to types; a recording of the inclusion of these stories in lists of stories of note; a noting of their selection for publication in other anthologies; a tabulation of the types of magazine in which the stories first appeared; a consideration of the authors of the stories. The results of the study have been given, wherever possible, in tabular form with a summary for each table"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "January, 1955." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Agnes Gregory, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-91).

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How I applied the Licentiate curriculim in English at the Universidad Nacional de México to my 30-year experience in book-publishing. / Licenciatura en Letras Inglesas

My thesis investigates the theories·proposed by three popular psychoanalysts-Sigmund Freud, Carl G. Jung, and Jacques Lucan. Their theories are then applied to well-known literary works in the genres of fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. I analyze portions of selected writings to serve as literary microcosms that demonstrate a practical application of psychoanalytic literary theory. The conclusion of my application is an interpretation of the selected literature from a psychoanalytic viewpoint. This thesis not only explains and demonstrates the application of the theories, but also presents various methods and precise directions for any college-level English student to use as a supplemental resource for psychoanalytic textual interpretations. This thesis combines into a single document my studies from all three English degree track options offered at the University of Central Florida-- Technical Documentation, Creative Writing, and Literature. I use first person narration as the voice of my thesis to relate my own experiences as an English major to my audience and to offer. practical solutions tp sp'tcific problems many literary theory students encounter during their studies. Classical and modem literature selections serve as models for my analysis, interpretations, and applications. My research is designed as a "how-to" manual directed towards English majo~s; this format enables me to convert complex theoretical concepts into straightforward e~pressions and easy application guidelines, resulting in a useful and practical psychoana1ytic literary theory guide for college-level literature students.

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published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

No description available.