Analysis of organic form begins not with plants but with the problem of Cartesian dualism. Inadvertently, its effect was to remove God from the natural world, thus opening the way to atheism. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this was refuted by stress on God's active role in nature. The presence and operation of his intellect was equated with life as the primary force in the natural world. Later natural philosophy developed a theory of power which was also equated with life and mind. The subject of Wordsworth's two-part Prelude is the relation of the mind to this life or permeating spirit, and the epistemological uncertainties which it entails. While proposing a view in which the individual is integrated into the totality, the poem also raises the problem of how the individual can also be contradistinguished from it. Blumenbach, under whom Coleridge studied in 1798-99, proposed a different theory of life in which it was defined as a nisus formativus, or inner self-generating power, which creates the form of the living body. Coleridge developed this into a theory of life as individuation, which resolved the opposition of the infinite and the individual. Study of Kant also showed how the nisus formativus could be allied to a theory of method based on a priori cognitive structures. The expansion of The Prelude in 1804 is related to Wordsworth's identification of the self, as the inner principle of life, with the a priori guiding Idea of his poem. Imagination, the "co-adunating Faculty," links the two together. Wordsworth's related theory of poetry views mind and language as integrated in the same way as mind and body, life and matter, and God's mind and nature. Together, these provide the basis for an understanding of the structure of the poem, and, in particular, its "fall."

The aim of this thesis is to explore the images of the self constructed by Florbela Espanca in her poetry, viewing the complexities of her work in the light of her difficult position as a woman writing in the early twentieth century and showing how this work challenges conventional ideas of womanhood. The first part of the study provides the necessary background to understand the poet's early career. Chapter 1 examines the emergence of women's poetry in Portugal at the turn of the century, showing how it provided a favourable context for her aspirations to become a writer. Chapter 2 focuses on Florbela Espanca's poetic beginnings and her assimilation and reworking of male influences, while drawing attention to the problems facing a woman writer trying to emulate male authors. The central part of the study is divided into three chapters. They deal in turn with each of her collections, Livro de Mágoas (1919, Livro de Soror Saudade (1923)) and her most famous work, Charneca em Flor (1931, posthumous). The chronological order aims to throw into relief the evolution in her poetry. Each chapter provides a detailed analysis of the poet's treatment of her problematic identity as a woman and as a writer, and of love as a means to self-assertion, through which traditional sexual stereotypes can be subverted. The final part of the thesis looks at the transformations which her image has undergone since her death. It shows how initially Florbela Espanca was viewed as a neglected romantic artist, forever seeking something more. It analyses how it then took a lengthy argument over the erection of her bust in Évora to reinforce the poet's place in the literary canon and to ensure that her stock image became that of a representative woman writer.

The intention of this thesis is to show, through the example of Marguerite Duras's L'Amant, various issues raised by the new autobiography, an autobiography influenced by the epistemological changes that have brought on postmodernity. The absence of certainty found in the postmodern era brings about a new conception of individuality, truth and referentiality and forces traditional autobiography to question its premises. Through the writing process and taking into account the plurality of the postmodern ego, the limits of memory and the relativity of truth, L'Amant tries to fill the emptiness left by this absence.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2002.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2006. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Christian Moraru; submitted to the Dept. of English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-170).

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The Glass Catamount is concerned with one James Frederick Curling, a young, up-and-coming senator from Delaware. As Curling moves up through his political party, suspicion of infidelity begins to rise to the surface as a woman from his past appears and claims to know intimate details about the senator. Her intentions are unknown, but as the senator's old friend and aide, Robertson Peters, finds himself drawn in by her stories, unsure if they are truth or fabrication, the longevity of the career of the senator, and possibly even his life, come into question. Themes of truth versus reality are dealt with throughout, and the act of sexual exploration and discovery is broken down and analyzed in the context of the senator's past and what he constructs as truth, whether it was always the way he claims or not. The glass catamount of the title is a symbol of the fragility and rarity of an understood self, appearing only briefly as it passes through the trees on its climb back up the mountain. / by Robert Slattery. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-196).

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