Thesis (PH. D)--Catholic University of America, 1912. / Biography. Bibliography: p. 139-142.

Thesis (PH. D)--Catholic University of America, 1912. / Biography. Bibliography: p. 139-142. Also available in digital form on the Internet Archive Web site.

This thesis is a study of a recurring figure or trope of post-war British school stories wherein a ‘radical’ character enters a school or classroom setting to introduce an alternative concept of learning or education. The radical may be a teacher or a student. Teacher types include the tyrannical pedagogue; the ostentatious but ultimately self-serving teacher-sophist; the charismatic, benevolent Master; and the predatory teacher. Representations of the pupil include the loving disciple; the disloyal pupil; the autodidact; and the student-creator whose steals the Master’s knowledge and runs, fashioning new worlds from it. While these types vary from story to story, all modern classroom radicals challenge the way teaching and learning are practised in their educational institutions. In doing so, they reflect on the purpose of schools and the political ambitions behind knowledge construction. The post-war British school story classroom radical asks perennial questions about the modern site of pedagogy. What gives one the right to teach? Why must one be taught? What is true teaching? How should one educate and to what end? This thesis begins with a historical overview of British school story fiction, and argues that this flamboyant school-story character emerges from the debris of World War Two. My thesis moves on to focus on eight key novels, plays and autobiographies: Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954), To Sir, With Love (E.R. Braithwaite, 1959), Forty Years On (Alan Bennett, 1968), Black Teacher (Beryl Gilroy, 1976), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark, 1981), Another Country (Julian Mitchell, 1981), The History Boys (Alan Bennett, 2004) and Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005). Chapter One focuses on radical dissent in the 1930s classroom, using Spark’s and Mitchell’s retrospective accounts. Chapter Two considers black teacher radicalism from the late 1950s to the 70s, using Braithwaite’s To Sir, With Love and Gilroy’s Black Teacher. Chapter Three takes the reader up to the 1980s, analysing the containment of radicalism in the figure of Alan Bennett and his work. Chapter Four discusses the limitations of classroom radicalism and the future of the school story radical in contemporary fiction, by examining the earliest and latest of the school stories selected for attention, Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954) and Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005). In the former radicalism is punished but idealised. The latter imagines a future of such a level of institutionalisation that radicalism in the classroom or elsewhere will have been rendered simply unthinkable. This thesis demonstrates that the radical in the classroom narrative trope is always didactic. Whether or not one is encouraged to agree with the radical, the implicit role of the radical character in the British school story is to educate the reader to think critically about the world and their place within it. Paradoxically, repeated textual examples of the radical’s failure and/or incorporation into the establishment point a type of critical pedagogical radicalism that is inherently conservative. This summation is supported by a brief genealogy of educational discourses and debates in Britain post-World War Two. / published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

This project asserts that revolution is characterised by the expression of unthinkable possibilities, and so addresses the paradox implicit in any attempt to "write revolution." That is, how does one represent revolution without reducing it to an ordered term of reference, and thereby subduing its radical character? Additionally, can transformative action be conceptualised as a creative project to which an ethical subject may, and in fact should, be drawn? To answer these questions, my investigation develops in three strands. I combine the radical theory of Alain Badiou with similar affirmations of revolutionary intervention from Slavoj Žižek and Paulo Freire, and so create an aesthetic that affirms revolutionaries as agents of supplementary creativity. My first purpose is thus to establish revolution as a productive enterprise that enables peace, rather than a destructive undertaking that introduces violence. This done, I apply the resultant conceptual tools to literary representations of radical transformation, and demonstrate that my aesthetic enables new readings of the literature of revolution to which it is applied. In the course of my analysis, I also evaluate the suitability of Badiou's ethic as a standpoint from which to engage with literature on revolution. Ultimately, then, the aesthetic I construct not only contests the notion that radical transformation is always destructive, but also renders one sensitive to revolutionary literature's excessive and supplementary dimensions.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 305-316).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-224).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in English, Literatures in." Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-209).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1998. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 6, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Maurice Scharton (chair), Bruce Hawkins, Janice Neuleib. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-260) and abstract. Also available in print.

This thesis explores radicalism at work in M. Maxwell Philip's Emmanuel Appadocca (1854) and China Miâeville's The Scar (2002). These novels highlight piracy as a means of rejecting systems of power and social order. Through speculative fiction, each author finds the means to resist the hegemonic power of genre, race, empire, and knowledge that pervade each author's social and historical milieu. This work examines the historical and literary context of piracy as a metaphor for radicalism, the project of legitimization and resistance to generic categorization of both texts. Emmanuel Appadocca resists racial stereotypes, and both texts exhibit clear resistance to colonial expansion. This resistance is made possible by each author's use of the sea as the site of insurgency and challenging boundaries of knowledge. Thus both novels lend themselves to interpretation as works of postcolonial fiction. / by Elizabeth Kelly. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 6, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-68).