This thesis presents a biographical and literary study of Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding. It also looks at the romanticism and realism of Richardson, the realism of Fielding, and the differences between Richardson and Fielding.

When the Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) wrote Waiting for Godot in 1948-1949 he was in a state of artistic depression and confusion. He had already turned to French instead of English and with a manuscript for the stage he made an effort to get away from what he called ”the awful prose” he was working on at that time. Waiting for Godot had its first opening night in Paris in 1953, and during the years since then many different interpretations have been made of this challenging work of art. In this essay, with the meta textual elements in Waiting for Godot as a foundation, I’m reading the drama as a writer’s struggle with his material – not strictly biographical, but with Beckett as an artistic example. Vladimir and Estragon, as well as Pozzo and Lucky, then become personalizations of the voices in the mind of the author, where intellect/reason/analysis on one hand and intuition/feeling/fantasy on the other are working side by side, or as a pair of opposites, to try to get along through conflict and cooperation; conferring, clashing, and complementing one another. Godot will then function as the mystical and driving force, the necessary lack of purpose or fundamental meaning that keeps the artist in touch with art. In this aspect Godot has not to come; his absence is an absolute condition to get the play going, to keep the writer writing, to make all artists continue their lonely, tiresome, difficult work. Waiting for Godot tells us something about the struggle every writer has to face when writing a play, or a novel, or a poem, where he, or she, has to speak with and listen to the inner voices of intuition and intellect and try to get by in spite of the overall sense of hopelessness of it all. Art is at the same time without meaning and of infinite value and I believe that this paradox is alive and working in Waiting for Godot.

Abstract not available

Thesis (DTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation seeks to develop further the theological interpretation of the books of Samuel, by examining I Samuel I: 1-2:10 in the context of fertility and barrenness as blessing and curse. This reading was related to the Karanga understanding of fertility and barrenness. The contribution shows how the Biblical narrative can become a resource for ethical reflection in African communities such as the Karanga women. The hypotheses that guided this study, were that: a-Fertility and barrenness in the Old Testament should be understood in close conjunction with blessing and cursing as theological concepts in ancient Israel. b-Fertility and barrenness could also be examined in a relevant and contextual manner by relating it to the culture and understanding of the Karanga people. In order to achieve this, two major tasks were attempted. One: An exegesis of I Samuel I: 12: 10 in which Vernon Robbins' method of Socio- Rhetorical criticism was used. The method helped to identify that the text is a narrative, and that the author might have been the Deuteronomistic historian, who wrote in the period of the decline of the Judean monarchy and when the Jews were in exile. The narrative is used to tell about the despair of the Jews, and to inform the Jews that there was hope for restoration if they obeyed God. This ideology is woven in the story of a barren woman Hannah who suffered the despair of barrenness and was later blessed with a child because of her prayer and obedience to God. In the narrative God is described as one who cares for the marginalised, and one who changes the lives of his people, from curse to blessing. The method also helped to realise tbe culture and context of Hannah, and made it possible to relate this culture and context to other cultures that are similar. Secondly an empirical survey was conducted amongst one hundred Karanga women. The findings were that Karanga consider fertility as blessing and barrenness as curse. The curse is experienced in the suffering of the barren women. Barrenness is used to inflict pain, to marginalise women, and has become a major cause of divorce and death through the spread of HIV and Aids. A reading of the story of Hannah helped the Karanga women to identify their barren problems with Hannah, and to find a new way of understanding their own problem in terms of hope. This study was able to prove its hypothesis both through the exegesis and the discussions of the research findings. It was found that the narrative form of the text appealed effectively to the understanding of Karanga women. This was possible because narrative is one of the methods of communication that is used effectively by the Karanga in their language. Through using Hannah as a paradigm of curse and blessing in relation to barrenness and fertility, Karanga women were challenged to view their barren situations in a different way that is open to accept change from curse to blessing. The study has also contributed to see how an old text of the time of Hannah could in the present day contextually influence Karanga women's barren experiences through holding the same culture and also by having similar experiences barren of women. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie dissertasie poog om die teologiese interpretasie van die boeke van Samuel verder te ontwikkel by wyse van 'n ondersoek van I Samuel 1:1-2:10 in die konteks van vrugbaarheid en onvrugbaarheid as 'n seën en as 'n vervloeking. Hierdie ondersoek verwys na die Karangabevolking se begrip van vrugbaarheid en onvrugbaarheid. Die bydrae toon aan hoe die Bybelse verhaal 'n bron vir etiese nadenke onder Afrika-gemeenskappe, soos die Karangavroue, kan word. Die hipoteses wat hierdie studie gerig het, was dat: a-Vrugbaarheid en onvrugbaarheid in die Ou Testament behoort begryp te word in 'n noue verbintenis met seën en vervloeking as teologiese begrippe in antieke Israel. b-Vrugbaarheid en onvrugbaarheid kan ook ondersoek word in 'n relevante en kontekstuele wyse deur dit te verbind met die kultuur en begrip van die Karanga-mense. Om dit te vermag, is twee hooftake onderneem. Die eerste was 'n eksegese van I Samuel 1: 12: 10 waarin Vernon Robbins se metode van sosioretoriese kritiek aangewend is. Hierdie metode het gehelp om die teks as 'n narratief te identifiseer en dat die skrywer die Deuteronomiese historikus kon gewees het, wat in die periode van die monargie van Juda geskryf het en ook tydens die Jode se ballingskap. Die narratief word gebruik om aan te toon hoe wanhopig die Jode was en om hulle in te lig dat daar hoop op hul herstel was indien hulle God gehoorsaam. Hierdie ideologie is verweef in die verhaal van die onvrugbare vrou, Hanna, wat aan die wanhoop van onvrugbaarheid gely het en later met 'n kind geseën is op grond van haar gebede en gehoorsaamheid aan God. In die narratief word God as die een beskryf wat na die gemarginaliseerdes omsien en wat die lewens van sy mense vanaf vervloeking tot seën omvorm. Die metode het ook meegehelp om die kultuur en konteks van Hanna te begryp en dit moontlik gemaak om hierdie kultuur en konteks te verklaar ingevolge die van ander soortgelyke kulture. Tweedens is 'n empiriese studie onder 'n honderd Karanga-vroue onderneem. Die bevindinge was dat Karanga-vroue vrugbaarheid as 'n seën en onvrugbaarheid as 'n vervloeking beskou. Die vervloeking word in die lyding van die onvrugbare vroue ervaar. Onvrugbaarheid word aangewend om pyn en lyding te veroorsaak, om vroue te marginaliseer en het 'n belangrike bron van egskeiding en dood deur die verspreiding van HIV en Vigs geword. Deur die verhaal van Hanna te lees, het die Karanga-vroue gehelp om hul eie onvrugbaarheidsprobleme met die van Hanna te identifiseer en om nuwe wyses te vind om hul eie probleme te verstaan in terme van hoop. Hierdie studie was in staat om sy hipoteses te bewys sowel by wyse van die eksegese en ook deur die bespreking van die navorsingsbevindings. Dit is bevind dat die narratiewe vorm van die teks duidelik tot die begrip van die Karanga-vroue gespreek het. Dit was moontlik aangesien 'n verhalende trant een van die kommunikasiewyses is wat doeltreffend deur Karanga-vroue aangewend word in hul taal. Deur Hanna as 'n paradigma van vervloeking en as seën te gebruik met verwysing tot onvrugbaarheid en vrugbaarheid, is Karanga-vroue uitgedaag om hul beskouing van hul onvrugbare toestand op verskillende wyses te betrag wat oop is om 'n verandering te aanvaar vanaf vervloeking tot seën. Die studie het ook daartoe bygedra om te sien hoe 'n ou teks uit die tyd van Hanna tans kontekstueel die Karanga-vroue se onvrugbaarheidservarings kan beinvloed waar hulle uit 'n soortgelyke kultuur kom en ook soortgelyke ervarings as Hanna het as onvrugbare vroue.

Se peut-il que l'auteur s'efface en partie de son texte ? Se peut-il que sa discrétion soit délibérée, et au point de déléguer des pouvoirs auctoriaux à son destinataire ? Peut-il prendre les devants sur l'opération critique qui voudrait le "tuer" ? Et comment réagir face à une telle production ? Le lecteur n'en deviendrait-il pas autre ? L'objet de cette thèse sera de montrer qu'une littérature "moindre-auctoriale" est possible. Mieux ; qu'elle existe. / Is it possible that the author clears himself from his text ? is it possible that his discretion is delibarate, and to the point of delegating auctorial powers to his recipient ? Can he take the lead on the critical operation that would "kill" him ? And how to respond to such production ? Wouldn't the reader become another one ? The goal of this thesis will be show that a "lesser-auctorial" litterature is possible. Better ; that it exists.

Este trabalho teve como objetivos analisar o conjunto de arranjos corais elaborados pelo maestro Samuel Kerr e estabelecer possíveis ligações entre sua produção e sua trajetória artística. Para isso, apresentamos um texto biográfico originado a partir da pesquisa bibliográfica e notamos necessária uma entrevista com o maestro que visou apurar os caminhos condutores de sua escrita coral. Em seguida elencamos e exemplificamos os quatorze procedimentos encontrados recorrentemente durante o processo de análise de um conjunto de cento e noventa e nove arranjos. Por fim, escolhemos cinco arranjos representativos do conjunto para uma análise mais detalhada, realizada através do Referencial Silva Ramos, processo que nos possibilitou enxergar com clareza a aplicação dos procedimentos. Durante a dissertação buscamos relacionar a quantificação de aplicação dos procedimentos de escrita ao pensamento criativo e pedagógico que identificamos na pesquisa e evidenciamos na maior parte das análises. / The purposes of this study were to analyze the set of choral arrangements elaborated by the conductor Samuel Kerr and establish possible connections between his production and his artistic career. Thereunto, we presented a biographical text originated from bibliographic research, and we realized that an interview with the conductor was needed to raise his background which led to his choral writing. Afterwards, we listed and exemplified the fourteen procedures recurrently found during the process analysis of a set of one hundred and ninety nine arrangements. At last, we choose five representatives arrangements from the set for a further detailed analysis, performed by Silva Ramos Benchmark, process that allowed us to understand clearly the application of the procedures. Throughout the dissertation we pursue to relate the quantification of the application of procedures writing to creative thinking and pedagogical research that we have identified in the research and we have evidenced in most analyzes.

Ângulos de uma caminhada lenta: exercícios de contenção, reiteração e saturação na obra de Bruce Nauman parte da discussão de um conjunto de trabalhos do artista norte-americano com o intuito de compreender a estrutura, os elementos constitutivos e os procedimentos característicos de sua produção. A obra de Bruce Nauman mantém uma projeção pública há mais de quatro décadas e contempla meios e materiais variados - das primeiras moldagens às recentes instalações sonoras, o artista passa pela performance, vídeo, fotografia, desenho, gravura e intervenção em escala urbana - e mobiliza, a despeito de sua natureza multifacetada, um conjunto recorrente de questões, algumas das quais em franco diálogo com a tradição da escultura. Além de interrogar a persistência de uma espécie de inteligência escultórica na obra, esta tese propõe examinar o modo peculiar com que Nauman lança mão de alguns procedimentos disseminados nas obras de artistas da sua geração, sobretudo o uso da repetição em chave distinta dos processos de seriação em voga na década de 1960. Nos trabalhos de Nauman, os procedimentos de reiteração, redução, contenção e permutação de poucos elementos tendem a promover experiências de saturação e de extenuação, e, nesse sentido, aproximam-se de certos aspectos da obra de Samuel Beckett; duas linguagens artísticas diferentes que, todavia, mantêm pontos de convergência temática e formal / Angles of a slow walk: exercises in restraint, reiteration and saturation in the work of Bruce Nauman has as its starting point a discussion of a representative array from among the artist\'s production that seeks to obtain a greater understanding of the structure, constitutive elements and specific procedures found in his work. Nauman\'s production has sustained its popular prominence for more than four decades, and spanned an impressively wide spectrum of means and materials - from the early castings and moldings to the recent sound installations, through performance, video, photography, drawing, engraving, print and urban scale interventions - which summons, in spite of its multifarious nature, a persistent, recurring set of questions, some of which engage the sculptural tradition in an open and challenging dialogue. In addition to assessing the endurance of this type of sculptural intelligence in the artist\'s production, the thesis aims at examining the idiosyncratic way in which Nauman employs certain artistic procedures common to the works of artists of his generation, in particular his use of repetition in a fashion quite distinct from the serial processes en vogue in the 1960s; furthermore, the thesis attempts to uncover a number of formal convergences between Nauman\'s procedures in a significant assortment of pieces, and Samuel Beckett\'s body of work, with an emphasis on the exhaustive recombination of minimal elements as well as the use of repetition, suppression and restraint as fundamental mechanisms to promote a saturation of experience.

Ângulos de uma caminhada lenta: exercícios de contenção, reiteração e saturação na obra de Bruce Nauman parte da discussão de um conjunto de trabalhos do artista norte-americano com o intuito de compreender a estrutura, os elementos constitutivos e os procedimentos característicos de sua produção. A obra de Bruce Nauman mantém uma projeção pública há mais de quatro décadas e contempla meios e materiais variados - das primeiras moldagens às recentes instalações sonoras, o artista passa pela performance, vídeo, fotografia, desenho, gravura e intervenção em escala urbana - e mobiliza, a despeito de sua natureza multifacetada, um conjunto recorrente de questões, algumas das quais em franco diálogo com a tradição da escultura. Além de interrogar a persistência de uma espécie de inteligência escultórica na obra, esta tese propõe examinar o modo peculiar com que Nauman lança mão de alguns procedimentos disseminados nas obras de artistas da sua geração, sobretudo o uso da repetição em chave distinta dos processos de seriação em voga na década de 1960. Nos trabalhos de Nauman, os procedimentos de reiteração, redução, contenção e permutação de poucos elementos tendem a promover experiências de saturação e de extenuação, e, nesse sentido, aproximam-se de certos aspectos da obra de Samuel Beckett; duas linguagens artísticas diferentes que, todavia, mantêm pontos de convergência temática e formal / Angles of a slow walk: exercises in restraint, reiteration and saturation in the work of Bruce Nauman has as its starting point a discussion of a representative array from among the artist\'s production that seeks to obtain a greater understanding of the structure, constitutive elements and specific procedures found in his work. Nauman\'s production has sustained its popular prominence for more than four decades, and spanned an impressively wide spectrum of means and materials - from the early castings and moldings to the recent sound installations, through performance, video, photography, drawing, engraving, print and urban scale interventions - which summons, in spite of its multifarious nature, a persistent, recurring set of questions, some of which engage the sculptural tradition in an open and challenging dialogue. In addition to assessing the endurance of this type of sculptural intelligence in the artist\'s production, the thesis aims at examining the idiosyncratic way in which Nauman employs certain artistic procedures common to the works of artists of his generation, in particular his use of repetition in a fashion quite distinct from the serial processes en vogue in the 1960s; furthermore, the thesis attempts to uncover a number of formal convergences between Nauman\'s procedures in a significant assortment of pieces, and Samuel Beckett\'s body of work, with an emphasis on the exhaustive recombination of minimal elements as well as the use of repetition, suppression and restraint as fundamental mechanisms to promote a saturation of experience.

Jin, Lu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

Although the wilderness preservation movement has emerged as a political force relatively recently, man's desire for retreat and renewal in untamed wilderness environments has a rich history in North America. Using contemporary guidetooks, diaries and journals, this study examines the early nineteenth century "Fashionable Tour" from New York City to Niagara Falls and combines description of the most important "natural wonders" en route with an analysis of their cultural meaning and value. There are two major themes. (1) Although pompous religiousness of language suggests conventional religiosity, pilgrims were overwhelmed with feelings of reverence, awe and wonder when face to face with natural wonders. (2) The extravagance of the New World's natural wonders influenced American and European images of the American experiment. Romanticism and Scottish Common Sense Realism are the intellectual and aesthetic background for this study. After some preliminary observations and definitions, I review the widespread importance of these two movements in early America and their points of contact with American sensibilities. Significant iconological moments in the lives of three leading Americans -- John Bartram, Samuel Mitchill and Timothy Dwight -- who donned their tourist habits to visit the Catskill Mountains, illustrate both the diversity of these influences and the beginnings of the Fashionable Tour. Analysis of the tour itself begins with chapter three. From their steamboat, tourists divided the Hudson River Valley into five "reaches" symbolizing grandeur (the Palisades), repose (Tappan Sea), sublimity (the Highlands), picturesqueness (the Hillsides) and beauty (the Catskills). In the first four reaches (chapter 3), the sublime Highlands dominate the landscape. But the "view from the top'' and Kaaterskill Falls at Pine Orchard in the Catskills were the most significant natural wonders in the Hudson Valley. Chapter five introduces Part II: West to Niagara Falls. The overwhelming effect of ongoing European settlement on the wilderness -- on flora, fauna and native Americans -- differentiates the unpredictable trip west from the predictable trip north. At Albany, tourists left their luxurious steamboats and transferred to stagecoaches and/or canalboats. Cohoes Falls, Little Falls and especially Trenton Falls, N. P. Willis' "Rural Resort," highlight the journey from Albany to Utica and suggest greater wonders to come. Images of the wilderness west of Utica comprise chapter seven. "Soft" pastoral landscapes, as in the Finger Lakes Region, did not arouse the intense response that major wonders such as the "view from the top" and Trenton Falls did. Niagara Falls was the climax and conclusion of the pilgrimage. The "greatest natural wonder" known and accessible to early nineteenth century tourists, Niagara elicited a torrent of enthusiasm and verbiage. After a detailed examination of tourist expectations and anticipations, descriptions and dreams, I focus specifically on the religious sentimentality which laced images of Niagara Falls. Pilgrims, responding with awe and protestations of "indescribableness," found evidence to support their popular religiosity. The trip from New York to Niagara was not just a relaxed holiday, but a highly focussed pilgrimage for persons seeking mystery and majesty in the sublime and the beautiful. Niagara, and to a lesser extent the other natural wonders; along the Hudson and across New York State, became religious shrines in early nineteenth century America.