My poetry portfolio is 75 pages long, and consists of single poems as well as two series. The first series includes the ‘Good Work’ poems, which explore different ideas of ‘good work’ based on characters’ occupations, preoccupations and mental perspectives. The second series is the ‘Makar’ poems, depicting an imagined world in which the poet is a guardian angel or guiding force. The style of my poetry varies from lyric to prose poetry, with a few language-focused abstract poems, and more formal styles, like a villanelle. Dreaming and waking are two themes that reflect aspects of reality and perception. Much of my portfolio is rooted in reflections of identity: Identity in terms of work, and the story we tell to the world about what we do; identity in terms of inter-personal relationships and how those connections form who we become; identity in terms of memory, and the story of who we have been; and identity in terms of the stories we tell ourselves about who we think we are. And if none of those stories align, what kind of fragmented self-identity does that reveal? The narrative poems often use different characters and personas in order to enact these lenses of identity. Even with only a few epistles in the collection, my poetry has been influenced by the epistolary ideas of separation and reunion (as critic Altman describes them: ‘bridge’ and ‘distance’). Similarly, the prose poems often riff on the unification and distancing of various themes, in a mediation of together- and apart-ness. I have used letters and diary-entries as addresses to the audience, and also as invitations for the reader to access the poem through different points of entry. My academic thesis focuses on the utilisation of epistles in contemporary American prose poetry. It is 26,000 words, and is divided into three sections: focused on Epistles: Poems by Mark Jarman; Letters to Kelly Clarkson by Julia Bloch, and The Desires of Letters by Linda Brown; and Dear Editor: Poems by Amy Newman. Why are we still writing poems as letters when we don’t habitually write letters for personal correspondence anymore? The poem-as-letter, or epistle, offers the ability to craft complex relationships within the reader/author, writer/recipient, and open/closed dynamics of intimacy in literature. The criticism is framed within the methodology of reader-response theory, and draws upon examples of epistles in history and literature to connect and establish themes.

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This thesis examines modern fiction's debt to Romantic poetry for its key concepts in terms of educating an individual. The persistence of William Wordsworth's views on education in the modern fiction of James Joyce and E. M. Forster is evidence of The Prelude as a classic study of the growth of an individual. It is argued that Wordsworth does not envisage the institutional mode of education as a totally reliable means of educating an individual. He challenges the assumptions underlying the institutional mode of education. It is argued that the influence of Wordsworth's views on education is not limited to Victorian writers alone. Joyce and Forster take up a position similar to Wordsworth. Almost all the protagonists in the novels and short stories discussed in this thesis are educated at privileged institutions of education, and yet they rebel against the mode of education there. All the novels and short stories discussed, in a series of close readings, bear testimony to the fact that Wordsworth's The Prelude is fundamental to both Joyce and Forster in terms of the growth of an individual. Seen within the framework of the Romantic notion of education, this thesis contributes to an increase of the understanding of modern fiction. It is possible to study this theme in other modern writers such as D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, and Ford Madox Ford. The thesis retrieves a traditional reading of the writers under discussion by foregrounding the pattern of humanitarian values the Wordsworthian model of growth engenders. The recent studies in my field are referred to where necessary to indicate what they are missing in their study of Joyce and Forster.

Erika Duncan has commented that ‘because of the intangible sentimental quality of Mary Webb’s special genius, there has been a general reluctance to acknowledge her as a major writer.’ This thesis argues against such dismissive approaches to Webb and makes a case for a re-evaluation of Webb as an unusual writer of pantheist spirituality and nature mysticism and one who can now be appreciated for the ecopoetics of her work. Within this framework the study charts the stylistic qualities of her writing and its mutative shifts through a chronological examination of her work which also includes a biographical account of her life and the major influences which shaped her ideas and writing. Aspects of inter-textuality with other writers will be considered throughout and will underscore the value of Webb’s work whilst emphasising the unique and beautiful quality of her voice. The first chapter, ‘Early Responses’, considers her formative experiences and her earliest essays and poems. ‘Mythological Motifs’ then reviews the mythopoeic nature of Webb’s first two novels and her use of myth in furthering her themes. The ensuing chapter, ‘Preceptive Perception’, evaluates both the didacticism in authorial style and the pertinence of Webb’s vision which are features of her third book. Chapter Four discusses her final two completed volumes as ‘A Dyad’ for they represent, respectively, her weakest and her finest writing. The final chapter, ‘A Medieval Message’, focuses on Webb’s last, incomplete, work, analysing its experimental qualities and its potential to reveal Webb’s last efforts to leave a parting missive for her readers before her death. Central critical concepts are that: in the development of Webb’s religious views from conventional Christianity to pantheism she anticipated modern feminist spirituality; and, in her insistence upon the supreme value of nature and its continual risk from human exploitation in connection with the oppression of women and their need for spiritual freedom, Webb is an unrecognised ecofeminist who was reflecting early twentieth-century issues. In addition, I attempt to discover reasons for Webb’s neglect and positively propose a place for her in literary studies. A Conclusion will summarise the main arguments and indicate possible further avenues of research.

A poética de Henri Michaux, autor da literatura de expressão francesa contemporânea, apresenta alguns traços recorrentes que imprimem à obra um caráter de diversidade e heterogeneidade relevante e instauram o que denominaremos uma poética de limiares e limites. Trata-se de procedimentos que incidem de maneira direta e/ou indireta em seus textos poéticos, tais como a instabilidade nas fronteiras dos gêneros e a interferência do fantástico e do grotesco na figuração. Com isso, as noções de referência e de representação, de designação e identidade, subjetividade e objetividade enunciativa são desestabilizadas e as relações entre os demais componentes estruturantes da construção do sentido ficam comprometidas. Sua poética gera, então, vários tipos de movimentos que favorecem um alto grau de instabilidade dos sentidos e ocasionam tensões de ordem ora narrativa, ora figurativa, ora enunciativa, passional ou tensiva. Sob a perspectiva da teoria semiótica francesa, a pesquisa intenciona demonstrar de que maneira esses movimentos afetam as modalidades do crer, do parecer e do saber, provocando dúvidas, incertezas, sensação de estranhamento e desconforto no leitor, ao relativizar a visão que normalmente se tem do mundo natural. Esses movimentos, considerados como estratégias discursivas, são operacionalizados de acordo com os modos de presença dos atores da enunciação. Logo, serão tomados como aspectualizações enunciativas, suscetíveis a modulações graduais e tensivas. Considera-se aqui que, examinados numa totalidade discursiva, esses procedimentos concorrem para consolidar efeitos de sentido que contribuem para construir um estilo próprio do autor, um éthos. Para compor o corpus da pesquisa, foram selecionados textos das obras Mes propriétés (1930), La nuit remue (1935), Plume précédé de Lointain intérieur (1938) e Face aux verrous (1954). Para as relações intertextuais estabelecidas entre o autor e Lautréamont, esse corpus inclui ainda textos da obra Os Cantos de Maldoror (1869). / The poetry of Henri Michaux, the author of the French contemporary literature, shows some features that transmit to the work a character of considerable diversity and heterogeneity and establish what will be called the poetry of threshold and limit. Its about proceedings that incise directly or indirectly in your poetics texts, as: the instability on the frontiers of gender, the interference of the fantastic and of the eccentric in the portray. Whit that the conceptions of reference and representation, of designation and identity, subjective and objective enunciation modes are disestablished and the connections among all the others structure components of the construction of the meaning get engaged. His poetry creates several kinds of movements, what benefits a higher degree of instability of the senses and cause tension on the orders, sometimes as a narrative, as figurative, as enunciatively, as trouble of passion or tensity. Under the perspective of the French semiotics, the research intends to demonstrate the way these movements affect the ways to believe, to appear, and to knowledge, challenging doubts, uncertainty, unfamiliarity and uncomfortable sensation to the reader on the relativity of the vision that normally there is of the natural world. These movements, considered as discourse proceedings, are done according to the presence modes of the actors of the enunciation. Therefore, there will be seen as the effective functioning of the consideration of the subject as aspect, susceptible to gradual and tense modulations. To consider that, these proceedings happen in order to consolidate the effects of meaning that contribute to build a style that is from the authors style an ethos. The ethos apprehension always depends of a totality of discourses. To compose the corpus of this research, it was necessary to sort texts of the writers works Mes propriétés (1930), La nuit remue (1935), Plume précédé de Lointain intérieur (1938) and Face aux verrous (1954). In order to relate the intertexts between the author and Lautréamont, this corpus includes a totality of texts of the work Os Cantos de Maldoror (Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror, 1869).

A poética de Henri Michaux, autor da literatura de expressão francesa contemporânea, apresenta alguns traços recorrentes que imprimem à obra um caráter de diversidade e heterogeneidade relevante e instauram o que denominaremos uma poética de limiares e limites. Trata-se de procedimentos que incidem de maneira direta e/ou indireta em seus textos poéticos, tais como a instabilidade nas fronteiras dos gêneros e a interferência do fantástico e do grotesco na figuração. Com isso, as noções de referência e de representação, de designação e identidade, subjetividade e objetividade enunciativa são desestabilizadas e as relações entre os demais componentes estruturantes da construção do sentido ficam comprometidas. Sua poética gera, então, vários tipos de movimentos que favorecem um alto grau de instabilidade dos sentidos e ocasionam tensões de ordem ora narrativa, ora figurativa, ora enunciativa, passional ou tensiva. Sob a perspectiva da teoria semiótica francesa, a pesquisa intenciona demonstrar de que maneira esses movimentos afetam as modalidades do crer, do parecer e do saber, provocando dúvidas, incertezas, sensação de estranhamento e desconforto no leitor, ao relativizar a visão que normalmente se tem do mundo natural. Esses movimentos, considerados como estratégias discursivas, são operacionalizados de acordo com os modos de presença dos atores da enunciação. Logo, serão tomados como aspectualizações enunciativas, suscetíveis a modulações graduais e tensivas. Considera-se aqui que, examinados numa totalidade discursiva, esses procedimentos concorrem para consolidar efeitos de sentido que contribuem para construir um estilo próprio do autor, um éthos. Para compor o corpus da pesquisa, foram selecionados textos das obras Mes propriétés (1930), La nuit remue (1935), Plume précédé de Lointain intérieur (1938) e Face aux verrous (1954). Para as relações intertextuais estabelecidas entre o autor e Lautréamont, esse corpus inclui ainda textos da obra Os Cantos de Maldoror (1869). / The poetry of Henri Michaux, the author of the French contemporary literature, shows some features that transmit to the work a character of considerable diversity and heterogeneity and establish what will be called the poetry of threshold and limit. Its about proceedings that incise directly or indirectly in your poetics texts, as: the instability on the frontiers of gender, the interference of the fantastic and of the eccentric in the portray. Whit that the conceptions of reference and representation, of designation and identity, subjective and objective enunciation modes are disestablished and the connections among all the others structure components of the construction of the meaning get engaged. His poetry creates several kinds of movements, what benefits a higher degree of instability of the senses and cause tension on the orders, sometimes as a narrative, as figurative, as enunciatively, as trouble of passion or tensity. Under the perspective of the French semiotics, the research intends to demonstrate the way these movements affect the ways to believe, to appear, and to knowledge, challenging doubts, uncertainty, unfamiliarity and uncomfortable sensation to the reader on the relativity of the vision that normally there is of the natural world. These movements, considered as discourse proceedings, are done according to the presence modes of the actors of the enunciation. Therefore, there will be seen as the effective functioning of the consideration of the subject as aspect, susceptible to gradual and tense modulations. To consider that, these proceedings happen in order to consolidate the effects of meaning that contribute to build a style that is from the authors style an ethos. The ethos apprehension always depends of a totality of discourses. To compose the corpus of this research, it was necessary to sort texts of the writers works Mes propriétés (1930), La nuit remue (1935), Plume précédé de Lointain intérieur (1938) and Face aux verrous (1954). In order to relate the intertexts between the author and Lautréamont, this corpus includes a totality of texts of the work Os Cantos de Maldoror (Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror, 1869).

This thesis consists of two components: a 70,000-word verse novel and a 50,000-word critical component that has arisen out of the research process for that novel. Creative Component: The Marlowe Papers The Marlowe Papers is a full-length verse novel written entirely in iambic pentameter. As with verse novels such as The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth, or The Emperor's Babe by Bernadine Evaristo, its inspiration, derivation, conventions and scope owe more to the prose novel than to the epic poem. Though there is as yet no widely-accepted definition, a verse novel may be distinguished from an epic poem where it consists, as in this case, of numerous discrete poems, each constituting a ‘chapter' of the novel. This conception allows for considerable variations in form and tone that would not be possible in the more cohesive tradition of the epic poem. The Marlowe Papers is a fictional autobiography of Christopher Marlowe based on the idea that he used the pseudonym ‘William Shakespeare' (employing the Stratford merchant as a ‘front'), having faked his own death and fled abroad to escape capital charges for atheism and heresy. The verse novel, written in dramatic scenes, traces his life from his flight on 30 May 1593, through the back-story (starting in 1586) that led to his prosecution, as we similarly track his progress on the Continent and in England until just after James I accedes to the English throne. The poems are a mixture of longer blank verse narratives and smaller, more lyrical poems (including sonnets). Explanatory notes to the poems, and a Dramatis Personae, are included on the advice of my creative supervisor. Critical Component: Writing Marlowe As Writing Shakespeare This part of the thesis explores the relationship between early modern biographies and fiction, questioning certain ‘facts' of Marlovian and Shakespearean biography in the light of the ‘thought experiment' of the verse novel. Marlowe's reputation for violence is reassessed in the light of scholarly doubt about the veracity of the inquest document, and Shakespeare's sonnets are reinterpreted through the lens of the Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship. The argument is that orthodox and non-Stratfordian theories might be considered competing paradigms; simply different frameworks through which interpretation of the same data leads to different conclusions. Interdisciplinary influences include Kuhn's philosophy of scientific discovery, post-modern narrativist history, neuroscience, psychology, and quantum physics (in the form of the ‘observer effect'). Data that is either anomalous or inexplicable under the orthodox paradigm is demonstrated to support a Marlovian reading, and the current state of the Shakespeare authorship question is assessed. Certain primary source documents were examined at the Bodleian Library, at the British Library, and at Lambeth Palace Library. Versions of Chapters 2, 3 and 4, written under supervision during this doctorate, have all been published, either as a book chapter or as a journal article, within the last year (Barber, 2009, 2010a, b).

Mémoire (M.E.L.)--Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1995. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

This work will consist of an analysis of the book The Three Halves of Ino Moxo and other wizards of the Amazon (Tres mitades de Ino Moxo y otros brujos amazónicos) written by the Peruvian writer César Calvo. It will mainly focus on the author's attempt to understand the different and wrongfully underestimated spiritual world of the Amazonian Indians. Firstly, it will briefly introduce the author and mention the situation in Peruvian literature of the time. It will then look at the context in Latin American literature and will point out the common aspects of the book with novels of the jungle, with indigenist literature, and with the novels of magic realism and marvelous real. The core of the work will lie in the interpretation of the text. It will try to answer the question on the genre of the book and will then define its composition. Of particular importance will be the chapter on style, which will analyse in details the lyrical character of this prose. It will give evidence of the frequent use of poetic figures in the book by presenting examples thereof. It will look at the way of creating time and space. The thematic analysis will capture particular topics from the viewpoint of the world of the Amazonian Indians by looking at the conception of its typical characters. The work will lead to an...

The thesis comprises an investigation of three aspects of sentence structure in Classical Greek (henceforth CG) dramatic poetry: order of the main sentence elements (subject, verb, and object) within the clause, the emphatic position at the start of the clause, and the structure of inter-clausal linking. It is argued that these three features, usually considered separately, are interdependent, and that intra-clausal word order is directly related to the structure of compound and complex sentences. The discussion undertakes a systematic survey of subject, verb, and object order in a corpus of texts, proposes an explanation for the observed order, and develops a model which explains how prominence within the clause is exploited in clause linking to produce the complement structures observed in Homeric and tragic complementation.