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Divorces in the United States during the twentieth century were, to say the least, extremely difficult to obtain. Most states had few grounds for divorce, and some, like New York, only allowed divorce in the instance of proven adultery. Waiting periods could stretch from one to three years. But for some hopeful divorcees, there was another way. Nevada had nine broad grounds for divorce, among them “mental cruelty.” After 1931, anyone could become a Nevada citizen and divorce within the state after a mere six weeks of residency. Before the widespread liberalization of divorce law in the early to mid-1970s, Reno, Nevada became the divorce capital of America. Divorcees, usually women, from all over the country poured into Reno to “get Reno-vated” and quickly part with their spouses. Subsequently, a complex local economy developed to accommodate the “six-weekers” during while they established residency. For the wealthy divorce-seeking elite, luxurious “divorce ranches” offered a relaxing six-week stay complete with catered meals, horseback riding, and trips to Lake Tahoe. The ranches brought together a substantial number of women who were overtly there for the same reason: to obtain a divorce. The simple fact of this mutual understanding provided a level of closeness and openness that was very unusual for the time, facilitating commiseration, camaraderie, and friendship. The closeness of ranch relationships was amplified by their demographics; the ranches were overwhelmingly female spaces, as the majority of their guests, proprietors, and staff were women. The Reno divorce industry demonstrates that women were willing to go to great lengths, measured in miles, days, and dollars, to obtain divorces. Affirming the existence of these Reno divorcees and examining their experiences during their quickie divorces illustrates substantial shifts in marital expectations throughout the twentieth century and contextualizes the 1970s expansion of divorce rights.

The concept of ‘middlebrow’ literature in the twentieth century, which received minimal critical attention from the Leavises onwards, has recently become a site of literary and sociological interest, especially regarding the interwar period. This thesis considers the ways in which a corporate middlebrow identity, amongst an intangible community of like-minded readers, was affected by a popularity of the fantastic in the 1920s and 1930s. This subgenre, which I term the ‘domestic fantastic’ (in which one or more elements of the fantastic intrude into an otherwise normalised domestic world) allowed middlebrow authors and readers to focalise and interrogate anxieties affecting the status of the home and its inhabitants which were otherwise either too taboo or, conversely, too well-worn for a traditional, non-fantastic examination. This fantastic vogue was largely initiated by the success of David Garnett’s metamorphosis novel Lady Into Fox (1922), which prepared the way for the other novels discussed in this thesis, predominantly Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes (1926), Elinor Wylie’s The Venetian Glass Nephew (1926), Ronald Fraser’s Flower Phantoms (1926), Edith Olivier’s The Love-Child (1927), John Collier’s His Monkey Wife (1930) and Green Thoughts (1932), and Frank Baker’s Miss Hargreaves (1940). Through the lenses of metamorphosis, creation, and witchcraft, these novels respond to and reformulate contemporary debates concerning sexuality in marriage, childlessness, and autonomous space for unmarried women. The ‘middlebrow fantasy’ of the stable, idealised home was being revealed as untenable, and the fantastic responded. During the interwar years, when assessments of British society were being widely recalibrated, the domestic fantastic was a subgenre which produced a select but significant range of novels which (whether playful or poignant, hopeful or tragic, nostalgic or progressive) provided the means for both author and reader to interrogate and comment upon the most pervading middle-class social anxieties, in unusual and revitalising ways.

In my dissertation, "Narrative Representations (of Time) in the 20th Century Novel" I examine the way in which depictions of time intersect with narrative representation in the modern and postmodern novel. I specifically focus on the use of parentheses as a way to capture differing types of chronology in narrative. The parenthesis, in a purely visual sense, physically disrupts the act of reading by creating a type of barrier around one text, separating it from the main narrative. I argue that it is with this disruption that 20th century authors were able to experiment with depictions of time and the disruption of linear narrative. Borrowing Gerard Genette's phrase "temporal ellipses" I examine how authors in the 20th century used the "temporal parentheses" in order to convey different temporal experiences in narrative. For Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, the parenthesis works as a way of presenting simultaneity of experiences when spatially separated. For William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom, the parenthesis creates a kind of compressed time, so that the past becomes a heavy burden upon the present, as represented by the way a narrative experience can be extended within parentheses. In Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children the parenthesis is used to bridge and create a dialogue between the present moment of the telling and the past moment of the story. In Toni Morrison's Sula, the parenthesis calls attention to physical placement, representing the way in which personal identity is linked to physical place and the rejection of permanence in the novel.

America’s ‘long early twentieth century’ (1890-1945) was a period of intense industrialization, urbanization, and immigration which fundamentally altered the character of the nation. Between 1900 and 1924, which saw the curtailing of immigration from southern and eastern Europe via the passage of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act (successor to 1921’s stop-gap Emergency Quota Act), more than 14 million people flocked to the U.S. in search of economic opportunity, social equality, and freedom from religious and political oppression. Descendants of these ‘new immigrants,’ as they were called, were by the late twentieth century a staple of white American suburbia, but their progenitors were variously considered ‘off-white,’ ‘dark-white,’ or non-white, with attendant connotations of mental, physical, and moral inferiority. This research examines texts, authored by Jewish immigrants such as Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, Rose Cohen, and Mary Antin, which were published between 1890 and 1930, when the onset of the Great Depression saw a rise in anti-Semitism that contributed to the decline in popularity of ‘up by the bootstraps’ Americana whose narratives chronicled, ostensibly, social assimilation and cultural integration; it considers the ramifications of writing in English for a native audience, which frequently alienated Jewish immigrants from their peers, and analyzes the manner in which the United States’ shifting social mores coincided with—and facilitated—new immigrants’ reappraisal of religion, education, commerce, and family life in the ‘new world’ of the west. It argues that the ambivalence contained within many of these texts was both a reaction to nativist prejudices and an effort to expose misconceptions present on both sides of the wildly popular Americanization movement, as well as exploring the way that such narratives attempted the redefinition of American philanthropic, educational and civic paradigms—the preponderance of which passionately espoused rhetoric of equality while reinforcing the stratification of the United States’ class system—into modes of interaction that accommodated difference while seeking to establish common ground upon which could be built a more inclusive, multiethnic future. Finally, it addresses the continuing relevance of these works as texts which both predict and presage modern modes of social interaction and discusses their future in an evolving literary canon that has, historically speaking, been an agent of western patriarchal hegemony.

Thesis (MMus)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: When twentieth century music composed specifically for children is discussed, Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and occasionally Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra are the two examples most often mentioned, as if they represent the sum total of works in this genre. It seems then that there is a general lack of awareness of the actual existence of a rich variety of twentieth century music for children. Consequently the conclusion seems justified that most music educators in South African primary schools do not include this music in their repertoire nor has it been specifically recommended for use in the 2005 or 2011 syllabi. The question that prompted the current study is whether this repertoire of contemporary children’s music can be exploited to a much larger extent in South African primary schools than has been the case up until now. In the educational system of 2005, where ‘subjects’ have been replaced by ‘learning areas’, the former subject, Class Music, has been integrated into a new learning area consisting of four components (music, drama, dance and visual arts). However, this more comprehensive learning area has been implemented without actually making provision for more time on the time table than was formerly allocated to Class Music. With the implementation of CAPS in the Foundation Phase (Gr R – 3) in 2011 and in the Intermediate Senior Phase (Gr 4 - 9) in 2013, extra time allocated proves to still be insufficient for continual, thorough teaching of music. Although strong concern had been expressed previously about the fragmentation of subject content and the low status of music education in South African schools, this concern was not really addressed in both the curricula of 2005 and 2011, and subject content within the components is still scaled down to compensate for lack of time. This has also had serious consequences for the training of teachers. Requirements of the curriculum are only given in the form of general guidelines and teachers with no musical education, who have to teach the musical component, have no clearly defined examples to go by. For that reason a catalogue is included in this study by which teachers can gain access to relevant examples of twentieth century music. In the main section of this study music for children is examined in its historical context, it is defined and categorised. Strategies by which composers attempt to find access to a child’s world are also examined. While it may be assumed that children are familiar with the tonal idiom of folk, sacred and popular songs, composers of twentieth century music see themselves challenged to introduce children to a modern musical idiom, not compromising accessibility and a child friendly approach. In addition to the general discussion of the extensive repertoire of twentieth century music for children, four examples are selected to examine more specifically how composers go about when composing such music. These are: Wir bauen eine Stadt (Paul Hindemith), l’Histoire de Babar (Francis Poulenc), Die Weihnachtsgeschichte (Carl Orff) and The little sweep (Benjamin Britten). (Die Weinachtsgeschichte was translated into the Griqua dialect by Prof Hans du Plessis especially for the purpose of this study). The educational potential of twentieth century music for children is vast. Even with minimal teaching time it can be an efficient and time saving medium of tuition that at the same time opens up an exciting contemporary sound world to the young learner. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Wanneer daar oor twintigste-eeuse musiek vir kinders gepraat word, word daar dikwels spontaan na Sergei Prokofjef se Pieter en die Wolf en miskien na Benjamin Britten se The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra verwys, asof dit die ‘somtotaal’ van die genre uitmaak. Hieruit blyk dit dat daar oor die algemeen ‘n onbewustheid ten opsigte van die beskikbaarheid van ‘n ryke verskeidenheid van werke in hierdie genre bestaan. Dit blyk ook dat die meeste musiekopvoeders in Suid-Afrikaanse laerskole nie hierdie musiek by hul repertorium insluit nie en dat dit ook nie in die sillabusse van 2005 en 2011 spesifiek gepropageer word nie. Die vraag wat aanleiding gee tot die huidige ondersoek is of die pedagogiese waarde van sodanige eietydse musiek nie baie beter in Suid-Afrikaanse skole ontgin kan word as wat tans die geval is nie. Met die 2005-onderwysbedeling waar ‘vakke’ met ‘leerareas’ vervang is, is Klasmusiek in die vier-komponent-leerarea Kuns en Kultuur, met musiek, drama, dans en visuele kuns as spesialis-onderafdelings, geïntegreer. Die Kuns en Kultuur leerarea, wat inhoudsgewys meer omvattend as Klasmusiek was, is sonder ‘n ruimer tydstoekenning ingestel. Met die implementering van KABV in die Grondslagfase (Gr R-3) (2012), en in 2013 by die Intermediêre en Senior Fase (Gr 4 – 9) is die tydstoekenning marginaal verruim, maar steeds onvoldoende vir volgehoue, deeglike onderrig van musiek. Hoewel sterk kommer oor die dilemma van onder meer voortdurende fragmentasie van inhoude asook die lae, kwynende status van musiekopvoeding in Suid-Afrikaanse skole reeds voorheen uitgespreek is, is hierdie kommer nie werklik in die leerplanne van 2005 of 2011 aangespreek nie. In teendeel, die vakinhoud binne die onderskeie komponente is steeds ontoereikend, omdat daar nie genoeg tyd beskikbaar is om werksinhoud deeglik te onderrig nie. Die nuwe bedeling hou verder ook implikasies vir die opleiding van opvoeders in, deurdat vereistes binne die skoolkurrikulum uit breë riglyne ten opsigte van vakinhoud bestaan. Die dilemma van ‘n opvoeder sonder musiekopleiding wat die musiekkomponent moet aanbied, is dus duidelik. Daarom word, as hulpmiddel vir opvoeders, ‘n katalogus by hierdie studie ingesluit om die leemtes in die kurrikulum te help ondervang. In die hoofdeel van hierdie studie word musiek vir kinders in ‘n historiese konteks geplaas, gedefinieer en gekategoriseer. Verder word die middele ondersoek waarmee komponiste van hierdie musiek toegang tot die leefwêreld van die kind probeer verkry. Terwyl aanvaar kan word dat kinders vandag vertroud is met die tonale idioom soos dit in volks-, gewyde of populêre liedere voorkom, kom komponiste van twintigste-eeuse musiek voor die uitdaging te staan om kinders met die moderne musiektaal vertroud te maak sonder om toeganklikheid en kindervriendelikheid prys te gee. Bykomstig tot die algemene bespreking van die omvangryke repertoire van twintigste eeuse musiek vir kinders word vier werke gekies om meer spesifiek te bepaal hoe komponiste te werk gaan wanneer hulle sodanige musiek komponeer, te wete Wir bauen eine Stadt (Paul Hindemith), l’Histoire de Babar (Francis Poulenc), Die Weihnachtsgeschichte (Carl Orff) en The little sweep (Benjamin Britten). (Vir hierdie studie is Die Weihnachtsgeschichte spesiaal deur Prof Hans du Plessis in die Griekwa-dialek vertaal). Twintigste-eeuse musiek vir kinders het veelsydige gebruiksmoontlikhede. Met minimale onderrigtyd kan dit ’n doeltreffende, tydsbesparende medium van onderrig wees, en terselftertyd ’n opwindende, eietydse klankwêreld vir kinders oopsluit.

Cette thèse a pour objet l’étude des métamorphoses de l’écriture de Marguerite Duras. Elle se fonde sur une analyse de ses romans où nous lisons d’abord une conformité aux lois du genre romanesque, puis une révolte qui se traduit par une déconstruction générique et scripturaire. Notre travail consiste en une étude des noyaux de nouveauté qui se trouvent en germes dans la période de conservatisme et leur éclosion qui innove par la suite l’écriture de l’auteur. Ces noyaux, particulièrement liés aux formes dramatiques et poétiques, seront soulignés dans leur développement et dans la façon dont ils transforment l’écriture romanesque. / This thesis investigates the metamorphoses of Marguerite Duras’ writing. It is based on an analysis of her novels where we can first read a compliance to the laws of the traditional novel, then a rebellion against any kind of generic or scriptural constraint. Our work consists in studying the germs of innovation of the conservative period and their blossoming that progressively innovates the author’s writing. We emphasize on these nuclei particularly related to dramatic and poetic forms, and on their development, as well as on the way they transform Marguerite Duras’ novel.

Textbooks teach architecture as conveniently divided into styles and periods, but in reality styles overlap. At the turn-of-the-twentieth century there were three major architectural and decorative movements in the United States: the Aesthetic Movement, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the American Renaissance Movement. This thesis shows how superficial stylistic labels can be by comparing two very different-seeming houses of the early twentieth century: The Hapke-Geiger House of ca. 1912 in Chesterfield, Virginia, based on a Gustav Stickley Arts and Crafts design, and the Hunton House of 19 14 in Richmond, Virginia, designed in the American Renaissance style by Noland and Baskervill. These homes are very different from one another, but they have three major similarities: They each use an established plan with no essential connection to the building's supposed style, they mix styles, and they have similar kinds of porches. This thesis will pursue these issues to go beyond the superficial stylistic labels and examine how the three major movements of the time are interrelated.

L’œuvre musicale de Pierre Boulez est l’une des œuvres majeures de la seconde moitié du vingtième siècle. Celle-ci a évolué entre 1945 et 2008 conjointement avec les écrits de Boulez, dans lesquels sa réflexion traite, successivement, les différents aspects de son langage : la théorie entre 1948 et 1963, puis l’esthétique entre 1963 et 1995.Le premier livre de cette thèse traite des évolutions esthétiques de Boulez. Les deux analyses proposées dans le second livre, consacrées aux deux groupes d’œuvres Domaines/Dialogue de l’ombre double et Anthèmes/Anthèmes 2, ont pour objectif de démontrer la complexité toujours présente ainsi que la rigueur de la démarche compositionnelle de Boulez à la lumière des esquisses, nonobstant une simplicité apparente des éléments constitutifs. / Pierre Boulez’s musical compositions are one of the most important compositions in the second half of the twentieth century. They moved a lot between 1945 and 2008 together with his written works, in which his thought deals successively with the different aspects of his language : the theory between 1948 and 1963, then the esthetics between 1963 and 1995.The first part of this doctoral dissertation deals with Boulez’s esthetic evolutions. The two analyses in the second part – devoted to Domaines/Dialogue de l’ombre double and Anthèmes/Anthèmes 2 – aim at demonstrating in the light of the sketches the complexity and the rigour of Boulez’s reasoning when he composes, although the constituents seem apparently simple.