The thesis adopts a structural and systematic approach to the study and analysis of colour terms in Flaubert's fiction.The Introduction highlights how Flaubert has come to be regarded as a problematic writer and how much existing work on his colour terms is in some way lacking in clarity. I proceed to fill this gap in Flaubert studies by elaborating a method of analysis of colour terms which clarifies how meaning is produced by the text. The method of analysis comprises eight stages which are systematically worked through as one considers eleven variables, one or several of the latter coming into play at any stage in the method and which may influence the ultimate type and degree of value-charge carried by a colour term. The method and the variables should be thought of as one ensemble or a methodology for the analysis of colour terms in prose fiction. The methodology is highly refined and is without precedent in that I examine the dual exchange of figurative charging which is always operational between a colour term and its associated referent.The thesis is divided into five chapters where each text is studied separately. The Oeuvres de Jeunesse are experimental writings and Flaubert is testing the figurative potential of colour terms. The chromatic codification is mainly traditional, though a nascent private elaboration may be discerned. Madame Bovary represents the peak of literary perfection. All the novel's colours contribute to the overall illusion/reality dichotomy which lies at the heart of the text.

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In the context of changes in British theatre theory and practice, in particular in the post-1968 Fringe, is it possible to consider playscripts as literary works,expressing the views of individual writers? The emphasis within the early Fringe was on collectively organized workshops and group creativity, and on the exploration of non-verbal expression on stage, something which had been anticipated by the pre-1968 avant-garde and which amounted to a challenge to the playwright's traditionally dominant position in the theatre. However, the playscript, as an example of written fictional narrative, dependent on the theatre for its realization but not its creation, still commands an independent status as a work, and the fiction enables the playwright to explore and evaluate reality in his own terms. Snoo Wilson's works illustrate his clear awareness on the power of fiction to posit the equal reality of the rational and the irrational in dramatic terms, as a metaphor for our way of understanding reality outside the theatre, where reality and fiction seem difficult to distinguish. David Hare focusses on the discrepancy between fiction and reality in the way we experience our lives and interpret history, and he seeks, as a conscious story-teller, to reveal, in imaginative terms, how that discrepancy leads to actual suffering. Howard Brenton's declared preference for content and fact, rather than form and fiction, and for the theatre as a democratic medium, cannot conceal his consistent endeavour to use fictional narrative as fantastic as Wilson's to oppose bourgeois versions of reality. In spite of their having learned to work with theatre companies and, hence, come to see themselves as parts of a larger, complex art, these playwrights, like their predecessors, continue to write fictions which express their personal vision in a form, print, that is accessible and analysable in isolation from actual performance.

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This thesis explores the process of comprehension as a purposeful interaction between a reader and the information in a text. The review begins by discussing the difference between educational and psychological perspectives on comprehension. Approaches to the analysis of text structure are then described and models and theories of the representation of knowledge are evaluated. It is argued that these are limited in that they tend to focus either on the text or the reader: they either examine those procedures that are necessary for text analysis or the knowledge structures required for comprehension, storage and retrieval. Those that come nearest to examining the interaction between text and knowledge structures tend to be limited in terms of the texts they can deal with and they do not deal adequately with the predictive aspects of comprehension. Experiments are reported which look at the ongoing predictions made by readers, and how these are affected by factors such as text structure and ‘interestingness’. The experiments provided the opportunity for examining the potential of alternative methodologies (such as the content analysis of open-ended questions). It is felt that it is necessary to examine comprehension using methods which are direct but not intrusive. The studies reported demonstrate that it is possible to obtain reliable measures of a reader's predictions and that these are systematically affected by the structure and content of the text.

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This thesis examines the character of the schlemiel in comparative Jewish and Gentile American literature and cinema. It is the central claim that whilst the schlemiel is a strong Jewish character type this figure also appears in the texts of other socio-cultural groupings to an ever increasingly degree. With this is mind the character is examined in relation to the contemporary Western world, or Postmodern society.To achieve this aim the study is divided into three sections. The first deals with traditional perspectives on the schlemiel, examining prior definitions and gives a brief historically linear overview. Key examples are given to provide `case studies' in both literature and film. The examples chosen represent those characters considered to be archetypes, specifically Hyman Kaplan and the characters created by Woody Allen. Section Two examines processes of characterisation in literature and film to investigate whether there is anything at the most basic level of the text which identifies the traits and attributes of a schlemiel or from where an audience may derive information. This section examines a range of Jewish and non-Jewish texts via Structuralist and Narratological analysis. Section Three looks at the contemporary social function of schlemiels. Even if it is possible to clearly identify what schlemiels are their socio-cultural function remains important. The character is placed in a `postmodern' context. The final chapter develops from this into looking at the function of the schlemiel as a comic character and theories of comedy.Whilst the theoretical approaches utilised are there to test the character it is inevitable that the schlemiel will test the theories. It is the irrational and illogical nature of . schlemiebthat dictates that they will have problems fitting into the rigid patterns created by any neo-Structuralist approach such as Narratology. The character also tests rationalist responses to the `Postmodern condition' and this in turn provides a critique of the Aristotelian principles of Section Two and the socio-temporal definitions of Section One. This work attempts to provide a re-evaluation of a historically entrenched character for the late twentieth century and to provide a critique of theories, which purport to provide universal answers.

This study seeks primarily to examine three Scandinavian examples of the documentary novel. Initially I endeavour to isolate certain purported characteristics of the genre as a whole by considering which aspects of a narrative have prompted the critics to call it a 'documentary novel'. I then examine the three works in detail, applying standard techniques of literary criticism and comparing the facts on which the novels are based with the novels themselves to determine what makes them 'documentary' and what makes them 'novels'. The three novels share common techniques and all deal with the subject of Scandinavian polar exploration, but the author's relationship and attitude to the facts he has at hand are sufficiently different in each instance to permit a discussion of the literary form, ambitions and potential of the 'documentary novel'. The evidence suggests that the documentary novel uses authentic historical material but presents it through the techniques and forms of creative literature: the novelists adapt documented facts to support a view of a history which typically differs from accepted tradition. I then show that the conclusions to which this unorthodox view points, however, are invariably the same as those the authors draw about life in their other, non-documentary fictional works. Finally I demonstrate how the documentary novel is a fluid form which can be used in the service of fact, fiction or fraudulent propaganda, and I suggest a definition that embraces the three novels examined and the three kinds of documentary fiction that they represent.