published_or_final_version / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

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This study seeks to redress the continued exclusion of women poets from the theorization of the dramatic monologue. I argue that an unacknowledged consensus on the definition of the dramatic monologue exists, in spite of the oft-proclaimed absence of one, and that it is the failure to recognize this consensus which has in part debarred women poets from the theorization of the form. In particular, the failure to acknowledge this consensus has led recent feminist critics attempting to “rethink” the dramatic monologue, such as Cynthia Scheinberg and Glennis Byron, to reinscribe the very model they are attempting to rewrite by admitting into their analysis only those poems which already conform to the existing model. In consequence, these critics inadvertently repeat the exclusion they are attempting to redress by reinscribing a model which is predicated—as both Scheinberg and Byron acknowledge—on the exclusion of women poets. In order to end this cycle of exclusion, my project begins from a different beginning, with Hemans instead of Browning, and traces her innovations and influence across the dramatic monologues of two key dramatic monologists of the 19th-century, Augusta Webster and Amy Levy. In the hands of all three women poets, the dramatic monologue develops into a form which calls into question not only the nature of the self, as is characteristic of Browning’s model, but more crucially, the possibility of the subject. Their poems persistently dramatize what Judith Butler calls “impossible speech”—speech that is not recognized as the speech of a subject—and thereby challenges the model of authoritative speaking which underpins both men’s dramatic monologues and the prevailing theory of women’s as a clutch for linguistic freedom, power and authority. This project therefore has dual aims: to complicate our current conception of the dramatic monologue by placing the women’s dramatic monologues in conversation with the larger tradition of the form; and to complicate our understanding of 19th-century women poets’ conception and constructions of female subjectivity by re-theorizing their poetic strategies in the development of the dramatic monologue. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2008-06-26 14:13:29.982

This thesis examines the life and poetry collection of the woman poet Li Shuyi (1817--?) within the context of women's literary culture in late imperial China. In particular, the textuality of Li Shuyi's poetry collection Shuyinglou mingshu baiyong (One Hundred Poems from Shuying Tower on Famous Women) forms the centre of critical analysis, which aims to articulate her gendered intervention into representations of women's image in poetry. The thesis is organized into three interconnected sections: the reconstruction of Li Shuyi's life in order to provide a context to articulate her relationship to writing, a reading of Li Shuyi's self-preface to discuss her motivation to write, and critical analysis of poems according to the three thematic categories of "beauty, talent, and qing ." The thesis demonstrates how a woman author's self-perception leads to her becoming a conscious writing subject, and how this self-realization then motivates her to produce a gendered writing project.

Augustan propaganda surrounding Apollo provided the perfect literary device through which Augustan poets could express their sentiments about the new regime. Augustus transformed Apollo from a relatively insignificant god in the Roman pantheon to his own multi-faceted god whose various attributes were meant to legitimize his new position within the Roman Empire. In this thesis I discuss how Ovid uses Augustus’ political affiliation with Apollo to comment on Augustan marriage legislation in two of his texts. In Ovid’s manual on seduction, the Ars Amatoria, he denies poetic inspiration from Apollo at the beginning of his work, preferring instead to draw from his own experiences. However, Ovid seemingly contradicts himself by having Apollo appear later on to offer him advice. In his Metamorphoses, Ovid ridicules Apollo’s failed pursuit of Daphne. However, Apollo is seemingly victorious after all, since he uses Daphne’s laurel as his perpetual victory symbol. In both these instances, Ovid veils his political commentary by initially ridiculing Apollo in matters of love, only to seemingly glorify him shortly after. By excluding Apollo from matters of love, Ovid indirectly is disapproving of Augustus’ involvement in social affairs in Rome. Ovid proves to be a master of language yet again as he plays with the literary tradition and political implication of Apollo in these two texts to convey his discontent regarding Augustan marriage legislation.

The impact of Johnson's beliefs and his statements of them have frequently been interpreted as excessively dogmatic. Indeed, some critics have chosen to view Johnson as an eccentric, the last defender of an obsolete neo-classical tradition. Moreover, before the twentieth century's reappraisal of Johnson's literary role, the nineteenth had heaped scorn and derision on his perceptive judgment.As a practitioner of most forms of literary criticism, Johnson was particularly qualified to pass judgment on the "faults and beauties" of. literary compositions. His own distinguished career as poet, biographer, essayist and journalist gave him direct and invaluable knowledge of the creative process so that his pronouncements represent a lifelong interest in and association with literature.Johnson was an empirical critic. His point of departure was always the literary text. Although he acknowledged that rules could be formulated from an analysis of poetry, he stressed the danger of rigid standards of measurement. While Johnson exemplified the classical tradition in criticism, he was no slavish conformist to rules even when they had evolved from the ancients in such matters as the unities.Truth, nature and reason were basic to Johnson's criticism. He insisted that conventions should harmonize with the dictates of reason and common sense. Moreover, he took an independent stand when occasion demanded it. Such was his opposition to the pastoral and his censure of the use of excessive mythology in poetry.Johnson was a strong advocate of general principles. He believed that only general effects were indicative of true worth, and so he repudiated both microscopic and telescopic methods of criticism. Particularity, he maintained in Rasselas, was to be avoided because the minute analysis of poetry fragmented the general spirit of the composition.Johnson was a moral critic. He never judged literature solely on aesthetic grounds, nor did he value literature for its own sake. Life and literature were inseparable for him. He supported the established custom in letters that held that poetry should provide utility and pleasure. Moreover, Johnson insisted that poets should teach man the correct view of manners, morals and social relations, for he strongly believed that literature should inculcate goodness, teach society principles of reason and justice and demonstrate the repression of evil.This study was divided into five chapters. Chapter I, "The Critic and Criticism," is devoted to Johnson's pronouncements on the role of the critic and the nature of criticism. Johnson forcefully provides a rationale for the dual function of poet and critic which he so admirably exemplifies. Chapter II, "Little Prefaces, Little Lives," reviews the circumstances that resulted in his last great work and includes a representative sampling of Johnson's critical declarations as it appears in a number of major and minor lives. Chapters III and, IV present an analysis of six major life studies: Dryden, Milton, Addison, Cowley, Swift and Pope. The accounts of these particular poets were selected for detailed comment because they represent Johnson's critical writing at its best. In each spirited rendition, Johnson weaves a rich tapestry of critical and biographical composition that is unrivalled in English letters.Finally, in Chapter V, "Critical Matrices," significant clusters of ideas are identified around which Johnson's critical attitudes adhere in all of his works. Thus it is with admirable consistency of statement, abundant illustration and clarity of example, that Johnson skillfully presents his view on mythology, imagination, decorum and imitation, as well as on the pastoral and the general and particular in literary criticism. Each of these topics, therefore, is discussed at some length in the last chapter, illustrated by examples from the Lives of the English Poets.

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�Every poet who takes language seriously is working against a culture of clear marketable meanings and commodified production� states New Zealand novelist, essayist and poet Gregory O�Brien. This statement is the motivation for research that is explored in a collaborative ethnographic study of brand culture perceptions in New Zealand. It takes its inspiration from The Poetics of Space (Bachelard, 1978) and provides intimate lyrical insights into the experience of brands and brandscapes. Gregory O�Brien describes the artists that inspire him as: �Those who resolutely stand on their own creative terms, working towards their own objectives, as oblivious as they can be to any market forces.� O�Brien�s observations are relevant to the research project in two essential ways: first to cast light on a shared cultural commodity construct such as a brand from its proposed opposite cultural site of individual imagination and secondly, to accept the poetic in the form of the undiluted voice of vocational poets as valuable media in their own right to achieve insightful interpretations. Critical marketing projects have the duty to generate an alternative �marketing gaze� sufficient to the task of �revelation� (Brownile & Hewer, 2007). With regards to individual artists and poets specifically, critical marketing concepts implicitly pose the main research question as to the scenarios that are conceivably available to consumers: how does �working against marketable meanings� imaginatively work? The project proposes the new construct of co-imagination as the co-active mental and spiritual engagement of consumers with the cultural artefacts of brandscapes that invite individual meaning making. It substantiates this individuality in a poetic evocation of brandscapes by thirteen artists. It analyses the holistic imaginative process on the basis of mental models, strategic scenarios and evocative aesthetics, in order to assess how talented consumers work against marketable meaning. It subsequently offers the relationship of co-imagination with existing co-optive concepts in marketing, literature and consumer behaviour, such as co-creation (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004), co-performance (Deighton, 1992) and co-duction (Booth, 1988). It results in a collaborative artistic inquiry that assembles individual evocations of enchantment and disenchantment with the beauty and ugliness of brandscapes, through newly created poetry. The research introduces the new concepts of aesthetic scarcity and aesthetic community and in its collaborative method of inquiry offers an alternative to a poetic tradition in consumer behaviour of the poet / researcher conflation (Sherry & Schouten, 2002). As a result, the project complements the understanding of the individual meaning-making process in brand culture and is relevant to both practitioners and researchers in consumer behaviour and brand strategy. The design of the project included a four month research journey that covered the North and the South Island of New Zealand with the objective of meeting a variety of poets in their local inspirational environments and brandscapes and catalyse an unusual creative cooperation of highly individual radical artists. In the thick description and analyses of the extensive field research, the project implicitly adds to existing work on brand culture (Schroeder, Salzer Morling, & Askegaard, 2006), brand aesthetics (Saizer-Mörling & Strannegård, 2004) and the relationship between artists and brands (Schroeder, 2005). The research includes design elements based on romantic pragmatism (Rorty, 2007a) and cognitive aesthetics (R. H. Brown, 1977), both post-romantic concepts that explore aesthetic perception as perspectival knowledge and aesthetic distance as a means to transcend the dichotomy of objectivity and subjectivity.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2000. / Adviser: Carol Flynn. Submitted to the Dept. of English Literature. Includes bibliographical references. Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;