Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of English language and literature, December 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 355 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes bibliographical references (p. 341-355). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Northeastern University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-127).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in English. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 316-350). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNR11551

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-175) and index.

M.A. / Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was a prolific writer in many genres. This dissertation takes the major works of his occult genre and examines them in the backdrop of the scientific and religious paradigms informing the mid-Victorian reading public. In response partly to the increase in materialism, popular Victorian novelists such as Dickens and Thackeray were writing in a realistic style which Bulwer-Lytton found not suited to convey his mystical ideas. Instead, he made use of the metaphysical novel — a sub-genre of the romance novel — well-suited for his purposes but antithetical to critics often not willing to explore new territory. Although always alive to developments in Spiritualism, Bulwer-Lytton's life-long interest lay in the study of the occult and secret societies. The works chosen for this dissertation indicate how the boundaries between science, religion and the occult are permeable. In his works, these three discourses conflate instead of being kept discrete by artificial means. His passion for the mystical aligns Bulwer-Lytton more with the Romantics than the Victorians. Through a close friendship with John Varley (1778-1842), an inner-circle friend of William Blake, Bulwer-Lytton came to learn of aspects of Blake which reflect particularly in A Strange Story. W B Yeates and Rider Haggard, both admirers of Bulwer-Lytton, would incorporate his ideas into their works, and Madame Blavatsky would shamelessly plagiarise him in her Isis Unveiled. Unwittingly, Bulwer-Lytton’s wholly-fictional novel, The coming Race, would serve as “proof” to Hitler that a secret master race actually existed.

While it may seem that "The Cap and Bells" finds its primary source in Yeats's love for Maud Gonne, the poem is also symbolic of his search for truth in occultism. In the 1880s and 90s Yeats coupled his reading of Shelley with a formal study of magic in the Golden Dawn, and the poem is a blend of Shelleyan and occult influences. The essay explores the Shelleyan/occult motif of death and rebirth through examining the poem's relation to the rituals, teachings, and symbols of the Golden Dawn. The essay examines the poem's relation to the Cabalistic Tree of Life, the Hanged Man of the Tarot, two Golden Dawn diagrams on the Garden of Eden, and the concept of Kundalini.

Remembering the Forgotten Beauty of Yeatsian Mythology: Personae and the Problem of Unity in The Wind Among the Reeds

This study examines late Victorian and Edwardian British mummy fiction as a response to the manifold anxieties of the last twenty or so years of the nineteenth century up to the First World War in Great Britain. Mummy narratives of this time reveal the genre to be a very flexible one, partaking not only of the expected Gothic form, but also making fascinating stories out of invasion narratives and mystery fiction, all the while commenting on—and trying to solve—the various challenges of the day. After an introductory chapter that sets the stage for my project, I examine problems of empire and worries about a failing masculinity in the second and third chapters of my study. My fourth chapter looks at the epistemological competition of science and the occult as ways of knowing. I conclude my examination of mummy fiction with a look at silent mummy films as a way to look ahead at the changes that occurred when mummy narratives began to be told in visual form. The whole of the project is examined through a New Historical approach, as I attempt to delineate the place of mummy fiction within the broader discourses of the period. The picture that emerges from the study is one that depicts a worried nation concerned with scientific and social advancement while at the same time largely working to maintain the status quo. / Department of English

Ueberarb. Thesis Univ. of Chicago, 1978. / Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Chicago, 1978. Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-260).