Th. doct.--Informatique--Grenoble 1, 1995. / Bibliogr. p. 253-262. Résumé en anglais et en français. 1996 d'après la déclaration de dépôt légal.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 1981. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (v. 1, leaves 214-220).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 1981. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (v. 1, leaves 214-220).

Having spent over 20 years under house arrest fighting for democracy in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi has been a bastion for peace for decades. She has received many international awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, which she accepted in person in 2012. The plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar, has marred Suu Kyi’s reputation as a bastion of peace, leading to calls for her to lose her Peace Prize. Why is it that Suu Kyi’s image as the future of peace so different from reality? That question is what this research attempts to answer. Through a rhetorical analysis of Suu Kyi’s Nobel lecture and the media coverage that followed it, the impact of the use of tropes becomes evident. Metonymy, synecdoche, and narrative emerge in both the lecture and media coverage. Suu Kyi’s use of tropes heavily influences public perception of her.

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, arguably the most famous Brazilian author, has been studied perhaps more than any other figure in Brazilian literature. Because Machado's novels are so exceptional, many of his good short stories have been neglected by scholars, particularly those categorized by some as “fantastic.” This study attempts to fill that gap by analyzing the most prominent female characters in Machado's fantastic fiction. After providing a brief overview of the term fantastic and explaining how the stories used qualify as fantastic, this study identifies several tropes into which their female characters fit. Chapter 1: The Femme Fragile analyzes the tropes of woman as foil for rational man and woman as manipulable possession, while Chapter 2: The Femme Fatale examines the tropes of woman as siren and woman as fantastic other. Although these tropes seem to expose Machado's misogyny, in reality they function as his dramatization of the erroneous chauvinist thinking of nineteenth-century Brazil. Machado employs these tropes only to subvert them and the patriarchal thinking on which they are based, allowing his readers to come to more productive ways of seeing gender relations in Brazil.

This essay will study how the two main characters Eragon and Roran in Christopher Paolini’s fantasy series The Inheritance Cycle conform to the literary ideal of the hero and traits of a traditional male according to Jeffrey A. Brown and Leanna Madell who both use Hegemonic Masculinity Theory. The essay does this by a qualitative reading of Inheritance which is the final part in a fantasy novel series and studies how Paolini’s characters fit within the Hero archetype and if their masculinity could be considered hegemonic as per Brown and Madell’s definition of the term.

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This thesis explores ways in which T. S. Eliot, when he wrote his most autobiographical poetic work<em> Four Quartets</em>, might have been influenced by Thoreaus famously autobiographical prose work <em>Walden</em>, written nearly a century earlier<em>.</em> Much evidence suggests that Eliot knew of the earlier writer and his work. Not only did Eliot assign <em>Walden</em> as suggested reading in a course he taught, but as time went on Eliot also admitted that he was influenced by the New England literary tradition. Reading <em>Four Quartets</em> in light of <em>Walden</em> and its context not only helps a reader understand the connections between the two works, it also gives a reader a better understanding of <em>Four Quartets</em>' fundamental meanings. Although Eliot in <em>Four Quartets</em> adds another layer of his spiritual goals beyond those expressed in <em>Walden</em>, he expresses his religio-philosophical quest for Incarnational "still point[s] of the turning world" (<em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) using autobiographical aspects and poetic tropes that are in many ways strikingly similar to the expressions also present in <em>Walden</em>. </p> <p>The chapters of this thesis unfold these concepts. My Introduction highlights some of the key connections. Chapter One sets the stage for the discussion of the Incarnation by explaining how <em>Four Quartets</em>' spiritual round-trip journey from England to America is grounded in real world places and experiences. This chapter also explains how this guardedly autobiographical re-collection of an almost-real journey includes a response to Eliots personal history and to his literary ancestors, including Thoreau<em>.</em> In Chapter Two, I unpack the similarities and differences between many of the religio-philosophical questions asked in the two works, focusing in on Eliots and Thoreau's complex handlings of such themes as simplicity versus complexity, Incarnation, stillness versus activity, and the difficulty of achieving spiritual goals. Finally, these religio-philosophical questions are incarnated in very similar poetic devices and tropes within both works; in Chapter Three, I describe the most important of these. The "still point of the turning world" (Eliot, <em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) and the "mathematical point" (Thoreau, <em>Walden</em> 1.100) are rich metaphors that form the heart of this chapter.</p>

This thesis explores ways in which T. S. Eliot, when he wrote his most autobiographical poetic work<em> Four Quartets</em>, might have been influenced by Thoreaus famously autobiographical prose work <em>Walden</em>, written nearly a century earlier<em>.</em> Much evidence suggests that Eliot knew of the earlier writer and his work. Not only did Eliot assign <em>Walden</em> as suggested reading in a course he taught, but as time went on Eliot also admitted that he was influenced by the New England literary tradition. Reading <em>Four Quartets</em> in light of <em>Walden</em> and its context not only helps a reader understand the connections between the two works, it also gives a reader a better understanding of <em>Four Quartets</em>' fundamental meanings. Although Eliot in <em>Four Quartets</em> adds another layer of his spiritual goals beyond those expressed in <em>Walden</em>, he expresses his religio-philosophical quest for Incarnational "still point[s] of the turning world" (<em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) using autobiographical aspects and poetic tropes that are in many ways strikingly similar to the expressions also present in <em>Walden</em>. </p> <p>The chapters of this thesis unfold these concepts. My Introduction highlights some of the key connections. Chapter One sets the stage for the discussion of the Incarnation by explaining how <em>Four Quartets</em>' spiritual round-trip journey from England to America is grounded in real world places and experiences. This chapter also explains how this guardedly autobiographical re-collection of an almost-real journey includes a response to Eliots personal history and to his literary ancestors, including Thoreau<em>.</em> In Chapter Two, I unpack the similarities and differences between many of the religio-philosophical questions asked in the two works, focusing in on Eliots and Thoreau's complex handlings of such themes as simplicity versus complexity, Incarnation, stillness versus activity, and the difficulty of achieving spiritual goals. Finally, these religio-philosophical questions are incarnated in very similar poetic devices and tropes within both works; in Chapter Three, I describe the most important of these. The "still point of the turning world" (Eliot, <em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) and the "mathematical point" (Thoreau, <em>Walden</em> 1.100) are rich metaphors that form the heart of this chapter.</p>

The Tide Lords series of fantasy novels set out to examine the issue of immortality. Its purpose was to look at the desirability of immortality, specifically why people actively seek it. It was meant to examine the practicality of immortality, specifically — having got there, what does one do to pass the time with eternity to fill? I also wished to examine the notion of true immortality — immortals who could not be killed. What I did not anticipate when embarking upon this series, and what did not become apparent until after the series had been sold to two major publishing houses in Australia and the US, was the strength of the immortality tropes. This series was intended to fly in the face of these tropes, but confronted with the reality of such a work, the Australian publishers baulked at the ideas presented, requesting the series be re-written with the tropes taken into consideration. They wanted immortals who could die, mortals who wanted to be immortal. And a hero with a sense of humour. This exegesis aims to explore where these tropes originated. It will also discuss the ways I negotiated a way around the tropes, and was eventually able to please the publishers by appearing to adhere to the tropes, while still staying true to the story I wanted to tell. As such, this discussion is, in part, an analysis of how an author negotiates the tensions around writing within a genre while trying to innovate within it.