Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy is a novel consumed with conversation. The conversations that the characters have with each other and the ongoing conversation between Tristram and the reader all address the importance of communication. This study examines the theme of communication as Sterne presents it in his novel. The first chapter explores the personalities of Walter and Toby Shandy with the assumption that an understanding of their eccentricities will illustrate the reasons for the difficulties they encounter when trying to communicate with others. The relationships between the sexes are the subject for the second chapter. Sterne recognized the opportunity that the barrier of gender afforded him in the development of his theme, and he utilizes these relationships to illustrate the consequences of miscommunication. The final chapter focuses on Tristram’s role as the narrator. His personality and conversations with the reader also speak to the role of communication in the novel.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2001. Graduate Programme in English. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-113). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ67713.

The usefulness of a detailed examination of the fictional world of a novel is demonstrated in a study of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.Analysis of the fictional world of Tristram Shandy, reveals a binary world which is created by the novel's narrative technique. Distinct outlines of the two fictional worlds of Tristram (TW) and the Shandy Brothers (SBW) can be established, and-the examination of these worlds provides new insights for explicating the structure, coherence, unity, and completeness of Sterne's novel.The duality of fictional worlds in the novel is not merely the reflection of movement between the two time frames of Tristram's present and his past. There are distinguishing differences not only of time, characters, and events, but also of place and quality of experience. As one views these worlds alternately but consistently throughout the novel, the bifocal perspective which emerges creates the depth perception necessary not only to see Tristram as he is, but also to comprehend a composite universe in which the attitudes, conflicts, and complications of the present world of Tristramn both mirror and complement those of the world of the Shandy family.Just as the juxtaposition of two fictional worlds augments the reader's perception of Tristram's character, life, and opinions, so also does it alter significantly the perception of the book he is writing. For it is by means of Tristram's narrative stance, his self-conscious role as author busily attempting to chronicle the events occurring in both worlds, and the perspective created by his dual narration of these events, that the reader comes to see and appreciate his book as an artifact watched in the process of its creation. As the artifact which Tristram is struggling to create, the book itself assumes a fictional role as an object in Tristram's world.In the process of his virtuoso performance in entertaining the reader while failing in the attempt to complete his autobiography, Tristram unwittingly succeeds in disclosing in his present world as much of his spirit and character as a reader requires in order to know him well. The ultimate success, of course, is that of Sterne, who has created a remarkably involuted, complex, and transparent structure of fiction by means of (1) Tristram's intrusive and digressive narration, in which the two fictional worlds emerge simultaneously; (2) the plot of Tristram attempting to write his Life; and (3) the unfolding character of Tristram. Taken together these elements interact and combine to produce a novel which is artful, ingenious, and a structure of paradox and irony.

Zugleich: Diss. Münster (Westfalen), 2007. / Register. Literaturverz.

In 1651, Thomas Hobbes published his Leviathan. In it he analyses the passions and behaviour of men in an emerging market or competitive society. By posing his hypothetical "state of nature," he draws the conclusion that man is essentially a self-motivated creature. Lord Ashley Cooper, the third Earl of Shaftesbury, reacted to the picture of man drawn by Hobbes. In Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times, first published in 1709, Shaftesbury analyses the affections or passions and concludes that man is essentially benevolent. Unlike the Hobbesian picture, the Shaftesburian analysis shows man as outward-oriented, seeking the good and company of others. These theories or the doctrines of the heart (as I call them for the purpose of this thesis) were current in the eighteenth century and at a time when Fielding and Sterne wrote Tom Jones and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman respectively. The doctrines are reflected substantially in both novels. In Tom Jones, for example, Tom becomes the epitome of the doctrine of benevolence in his persistent performance of good works; Blifil, in his selfish attempts to supplant Tom, displays Hobbesian egocentricity. Uncle Toby and Mr. Walter Shandy each reflect aspects of both doctrines in Tristram Shandy. It is my intention to show in this thesis that the doctrines of egocentricity and benevolence inform both Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy, and that Fielding and Sterne react critically to the teaching of Hobbes and Shaftesbury in the process of their artistic creation. I shall approach the discussion chiefly by way of character analysis thus showing how the behaviour of the main figures in the novels suggests the thoughts of the philosophers. But the novelists' vision becomes clearer to the reader when it is seen in direct relation to the style of their works. In addition to the character analysis , therefore, I shall emphasize the narrative technique of each author, such as, the "comic- epic prose" of Fielding, the digressions as well as the "Shandean rhetoric" of Sterne, and attempt to illustrate how the style strengthens the awareness of the artistic vision. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Basically, a study of the structure of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy involves an analysis of the point of view of both the author and the narrator, and hence of variations on the first-person narration that are found in this novel. Tristram Shandy is related wholly in the authorial and historical present, and the reader as well as the fictional characters is included in the narrator's discourses of Tristram's own world. Hence, one must apply a considerable degree of critical objectivity when examining the narrator's role in the novel. A second problem is the importance of the fictional world that Tristram is ostensibly concerned with – that is, his birth and upbringing within the social environment of Shandy Hall, because the process of Tristram's narration proceeds to usurp most of the novel, shouldering out events at Shandy Hall, which are left half-introduced, or unfinished, or barely hinted at, and we are left with a fairly complete portrait of Tristram Shandy, but not of his life at Shandy Hall. A third problem is that of the inherent structure of the novel, which necessarily is centered around the dominant, controlling voice of the narrator. Although this structures has been dismissed as chaotic or irregular or formless, it does possess definite patterns which allow for the addition of further units. As Tristram Shandy is basically an open-ended novel allowing for infinite expansion, its chronology and subject matter are designed to cohere only in terms of Tristram's entire life; thus we find the events and characters are remembered in the authorial present. The novel moves back and forth on different levels of the historical present, and besides setting out an accumulative amount of remembered biographical detail, presents a projected picture of the mind of an individual in the process of remembering and narrating. A close study of the associational links between chapters clearly reveals the above points, for significantly, these links are all easy to follow and accumulative in effect. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how the structure of the novel proceeds from the dominant single point of view that Tristram represents, how the ostensible autobiographical subject matter is eventually subjugated to this personality in operation, and how the structure of the novel functions efficiently towards this end. Chapter I examines the Tristram persona and Chapter II the Yorick persona, in order to determine how they function in this first-persom narration, and to what combined effect. Chapter III on Shandy Hall examines the characters of the novel, exclusive of Tristram, with a view to motivational factors that may proceed from them and that impinge on his story. And Chapter IV examines the associational and chronological structure of the novel in terms of the actual patterns and linkages Sterne provided his segmentalized novel with, and draws a general conclusion from this study. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries / Department: English.

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Central stars of planetary nebulae are low-mass stars on the brink of their final evolution towards white dwarfs. Because of their surface temperature of above 25,000 K their UV radiation ionizes the surrounding material, which was ejected in an earlier phase of their evolution. Such fluorescent circumstellar gas is called a "Planetary Nebula". About one-tenth of the Galactic central stars are hydrogen-deficient. Generally, the surface of these central stars is a mixture of helium, carbon, and oxygen resulting from partial helium burning. Moreover, most of them have a strong stellar wind, similar to massive Pop-I Wolf-Rayet stars, and are in analogy classified as [WC]. The brackets distinguish the special type from the massive WC stars. Qualitative spectral analyses of [WC] stars lead to the assumption of an evolutionary sequence from the cooler, so-called late-type [WCL] stars to the very hot, early-type [WCE] stars. Quantitative analyses of the winds of [WC] stars became possible by means of computer programs that solve the radiative transfer in the co-moving frame, together with the statistical equilibrium equations for the population numbers. First analyses employing models without iron-line blanketing resulted in systematically different abundances for [WCL] and [WCE] stars. While the mass ratio of He:C is roughly 40:50 for [WCL] stars, it is 60:30 in average for [WCE] stars. The postulated evolution from [WCL] to [WCE] however could only lead to an increase of carbon, since heavier elements are built up by nuclear fusion. In the present work, improved models are used to re-analyze the [WCE] stars and to confirm their He:C abundance ratio. Refined models, calculated with the Potsdam WR model atmosphere code (PoWR), account now for line-blanketing due to iron group elements, small scale wind inhomogeneities, and complex model atoms for He, C, O, H, P, N, and Ne. Referring to stellar evolutionary models for the hydrogen-deficient [WC] stars, Ne and N abundances are of particular interest. Only one out of three different evolutionary channels, the VLTP scenario, leads to a Ne and N overabundance of a few percent by mass. A VLTP, a very late thermal pulse, is a rapid increase of the energy production of the helium-burning shell, while hydrogen burning has already ceased. Subsequently, the hydrogen envelope is mixed with deeper layers and completely burnt in the presence of C, He, and O. This results in the formation of N and Ne. A sample of eleven [WCE] stars has been analyzed. For three of them, PB 6, NGC 5189, and [S71d]3, a N overabundance of 1.5% has been found, while for three other [WCE] stars such high abundances of N can be excluded. In the case of NGC 5189, strong spectral lines of Ne can be reproduced qualitatively by our models. At present, the Ne mass fraction can only be roughly estimated from the Ne emission lines and seems to be in the order of a few percent by mass. Furthermore, using a diagnostic He-C line pair, the He:C abundance ratio of 60:30 for [WCE] stars is confirmed. Within the framework of the analysis, a new class of hydrogen-deficient central stars has been discovered, with PB 8 as its first member. Its atmospheric mixture resembles rather that of the massive WNL stars than of the [WC] stars. The determined mass fractions H:He:C:N:O are 40:55:1.3:2:1.3. As the wind of PB 8 contains significant amounts of O and C, in contrast to WN stars, a classification as [WN/WC] is suggested. / Zentralsterne Planetarischer Nebel sind massearme Sterne kurz vor ihrer finalen Entwicklung zu Weißen Zwergen. Aufgrund ihrer Oberflächentemperatur von über 25 000 K sind sie in der Lage, durch Abstrahlung von UV-Licht das sie umgebende Material, welches in einer vorigen Phase ihrer Entwicklung abgestoßen wurde, zu ionisieren. Das solchermaßen zum Leuchten angeregte Gas bezeichnet man als Planetarischen Nebel. Etwa ein Zehntel der galaktischen Zentralsterne sind wasserstoffarm. Im Allgemeinen besteht die Oberfläche dieser Zentralsterne aus einer Mischung der Elemente Helium, Kohlenstoff und Sauerstoff, welche z.T. durch Heliumbrennen erzeugt wurden. Die meisten dieser Sterne haben darüberhinaus einen starken Sternwind, ähnlich den massereichen Pop-I-Wolf-Rayet-Sternen und werden in Analogie zu diesen als [WC] klassifiziert, wobei die eckigen Klammern der Unterscheidung von den massereichen WC-Sternen dienen. Qualitative Analysen der Spektren von [WC]-Sternen lassen eine Entwicklungssequenz dieser Sterne von kühleren sogenannten late-type [WC]-Sternen (kurz [WCL]) zu sehr heißen, early-type [WC]-Sternen (kurz [WCE]) vermuten. Mithilfe von Computerprogrammen, die den Strahlungstransport im mitbewegten Beobachtersystem zusammen mit den statistischen Gleichungen der Besetzungszahlen der Ionen im Sternwind rechnen können, wurden quantitative Untersuchungen der Winde von [WC]-Sternen möglich. Erste Analysen mit Modellen ohne Eisenlinien ergaben dabei systematisch unterschiedliche Häufigkeiten für [WCL]- und [WCE]-Sterne. Während sich für [WCL]-Sterne ein Verhältnis der Massenanteile von He:C von etwas 40:50 ergab, fand man für die [WCE]-Sterne ein mittleres Verhältnis von 60:30 für die He:C-Massenanteile. Dabei sollte die Entwicklung von [WCL] nach [WCE] innerhalb einer sehr kurzen Zeit durch Aufheizung infolge der Kontraktion der Hülle erfolgen und nicht mit einer wesentlichen Abnahme der Kohlenstoffhäufigkeit bei gleichzeitiger Zunahme der Heliumhäufigkeit an der Oberfläche einhergehen. Im Rahmen der vorgelegten Arbeit wird untersucht, ob sich mittels verbesserter Modelle für die Atmosphären von [WC]-Sternen das He:C-Häufigkeitsverhältnis der [WCE]-Sterne bestätigt. Elaboriertere Modelle, welche vom Potsdamer WR-Modelatmosphären-Code (PoWR) berechnet werden können, berücksichtigen Line-Blanketing aufgrund von Elementen der Eisengruppe, kleinskalige Windinhomogenitäten und die Elemente He, C, O, H, P, N und Ne. Unter Bezug auf Sternentwicklungsmodelle, die die Ursache der Wasserstoffunterhäufigkeit von [WC]-Sternen erklären, sind insbesondere die Neon- und Stickstoff-Häufigkeiten interessant. Von den drei möglichen Entwicklungskanälen für [WC]-Sterne führt lediglich das VLTP-Szenario zu einer Stickstoff-Überhäufigkeit von einigen Prozent bezogen auf die Masse. Bei einem VLTP, einem very late thermal pulse, handelt es sich um einen plötzlichen, starken Anstieg der Energieproduktion in der helium-brennenden Schale, während das Wasserstoffbrennen bereits zum Erliegen gekommen ist. Infolge eines VLTPs wird sämtlicher Wasserstoff kurz nach dem thermischen Puls in tiefere Schichten gemischt und in Anwesenheit von C, He und O verbrannt. Infolgedessen wird N und auch Ne erzeugt. Bei der Analyse von elf [WCE]-Sternen wurden für drei von ihnen, PB 6, NGC 5189 und [S71d]3, Stickststoffmassenanteile von 1,5 % bestimmt, während für drei andere Sterne solche hohen Stickstoffhäufigkeiten ausgeschlossen werden können. Für NGC 5189 gelang außerdem die qualitative Reproduktion der beobachteten, starken Ne-Spektrallinien mittels unserer Modelle. Zur Zeit lässt sich aus der Stärke der Ne-Emissionslinien der Ne-Massenanteil leider nur abschätzen, er scheint aber im Bereich einiger Prozent zu liegen. Mittels eines diagnostischen He-C-Linienpaares konnte das He:C-Massenverhältnis von 60:30 für [WCE]-Sterne bestätigt werden. Als Ergebnis der Analyse von PB 8 postulieren wir eine neue Klasse von wasserstoffarmen Zentralsternen, die in ihrer Elementzusammensetzung eher an massereiche WNL-Sterne als an [WC]-Sterne erinnern. Die ermittelten Massenanteile H:He:C:N:O betragen 40:55:1.3:2:1.3, der Wind von PB 8 enthält daher im Unterschied zu WN-Sternen signifikante Mengen von O und C. Es wird daher eine Klassifizierung als [WN/WC] vorgeschlagen.

In Doppelsternsystemen, bei denen eine Komponente ein magnetischer weißer Zwerg und die zweite Komponente ein sonnenähnlicher Stern ist, beobachtet man häufig ein Überströmen von Materie (i. allg. ein Plasma) entlang der Magnetfeldlinien auf die Oberfläche des Zwergs ("Akkretion"). beim Fall im Gravitationspotential des weißen Zwergs erreicht der Materiestrom Überschallgeschwindigkeit, so daß die Abbremsung auf thermische Geschwindigkeiten auf der Sternoberfläche in Form eines starken hydrodynamischen Stoßes geschieht, in dem die Materie auf hohe Temperaturen geheizt wird. Durch Strahlungsprozesse verliert das Plasma einen Teil der beim Fall gewonnenen Energie wieder, und zwischen der Stoßfront und der Oberfläche bildet sich eine Temperatur- und Dichteverteilung aus, deren Ausdehnung durch die Effiezienz der Verluste bestimmt wird ...