As a large-scale international cultural phenomenon, the Jerusalem pilgrimage must be approached comparatively. This project compares the pilgrimage accounts of two Germans and two Englishmen who travelled to Jerusalem in the second half of the long fifteenth century. The texts are those of William Wey, (written c.1470), Bernhard von Breydenbach (printed 1486), Arnold von Harff (written 1499) and the 'Pylgrymage of Sir Richard Guylforde', composed by his anonymous chaplain (printed 1511). Each chapter focuses on a pilgrim, and one of four thematic topics: genre, the religious other, curiosity and print. This project treats these works as literary texts which can be approached from the perspective of cultural history, rather than as historical sources. The project, therefore, is more a consideration of how the pilgrimage is represented than it is about the events of each pilgrimage, and so it looks at the pilgrimages created in writing. Pilgrimage writings tend to focus on Jerusalem's spiritual significance, rather than its worldly position. In this sense, textual representations of travel to Jerusalem represent something of a disconnect with travel to other physical destinations, and the conceptual space of pilgrimage will be of key significance to this thesis. This has implications for practice as well as writing, and therefore the thesis will address how the writers consider their journeys, as well as the idea of virtual pilgrimage. The thesis engages with questions of identity, and how it is presented, as well as the authors' relationship with their audiences. This necessitates analysing collective identity, as well as the different audiences for printed and manuscript texts. The most important research question, bringing together these issues, considers whether the authors' different geographical origins affect their self-presentation and understanding of pilgrimage. This leads to my central contention: that pilgrimage must be portrayed as a single, unified experience.

This thesis is a queer theory analysis of the feminist science fiction novel The Kanshou by Sally Miller Gearhart. After exploring both male and female authored science fiction in the literature review, two themes were to be dominant. The goal of this thesis is to answer the questions, can the traditional themes that are prevalent in male authored science fiction and feminist science fiction in representing gender and sexual orientation dichotomies be found in The Kanshou? And does Gearhart challenge these dichotomies by destabilizing them? The analysis found determined that Gearhart's The Kanshou does challenge traditional sociological norms of binary gender identities and sexual orientation the majority of the time.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Chinese / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / English / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Étroitement liée à l’expérience des voyages, où elle trouve tout à la fois ses intensités et sa diversité, la culture perceptive de Flaubert doit être comprise comme une véritable éducation sentimentale. Si le jeune écrivain se donne pour but l’apprentissage du «bien écrire », c’est en concevant l’esthétique d’abord en son sens premier comme un art de la sensation qui nécessite l’apprentissage d’un « bien voir ». Dans le travail de conversion du regard que Flaubert accomplit sur lui-même entre 1845 et 1851, on peut donc parler d’un véritable « primat de la perception ». La présente recherche doctorale, fondée sur une approche phénoménologique, examine la façon dont l’ « homme-plume » a résolument investi dans son art une leçon du sensible en intégrant toutes les découvertes liées à l’approfondissement de son expérience perceptive. Loin de s’achever dans un formalisme désincarné, le nouveau système esthétique qui permet à Flaubert de passer de l’écriture de jeunesse aux œuvres de la maturité est un dispositif qui totalise un itinéraire sensoriel : la connaissance, les idées et les facultés d’abstraction y ont été corrigées, réévaluées et redéfinies à la mesure d’un « bien sentir » qui devient capable de réformer l’art d’écrire et la délimitation de son véritable objet. / Intimately associated to the travelling experience, during which it meets at the same time its intensities and diversities, Flaubert’s perceptive culture should be understood as a truly sentimental education. If the young writer imposes himself the “well writing” learning as a goal, it’s done before anything else, by interpreting the aesthetics, in its primary meaning, as a sensation art that requires a “well seeing” learning. In relation to the conversion work of the look that Flaubert gives over himself between 1845 and 1851, it’s possible to talk, this way, of a true “primate of perception”. This doctorate research, based on a phenomenological approach, explores the decisively way in which the penman invested a lesson of the sensible in his art, integrating all the findings related to the deepening of his perceptual experience. Far from reducing itself to a disincarnate formalism, the new aesthetical system that allows Flaubert to go from the young writings to the maturity works is a device that completes a sensorial itinerary: along this itinerary, the knowledge, the ideas and the abstraction faculties were corrected, reevaluated and redefined for the purpose of a “well feeling” that is able to reshape the art of writing and the delimitation of its true object.

This novel of the Vietnam War examines the effects of prolonged stress on individuals and groups. The narrative, which is told from the points of view of four widely different characters, follows an infantry company through three days and two nights of combat on a small island off the coast of the northern I Corps military region. The story's principal themes are the loss of communication that contributes to and is caused by the background of chaos that arises from combat; the effect of brutal warfare on the individual spirit; and the way groups reorganize themselves to cope with the confusion of the battlefield. The thesis includes an explication of the novel, explaining some of the technical details of its production.

Abstract (Jill Nudelman) This dissertation presents a novel that charts the progress of the white protagonist, Rose, whose mysterious origins have rendered her disconnected and alienated. In addition, moulded by her sheltered and privileged lifestyle she experiences guilt faced with the suffering and poverty that she encounters in post-apartheid South Africa, but lacks the strength to act. The novel opens with Rose, now 30, bereft and alone. When she discovers a box of mysterious objects which hint at her origins, she is lead to Oberon, a fictional village in the southern uKhahlamba-Drakensberg. Here, Rose’s search becomes more than a search for her biological parents as she experiences events that lead her to an identity beyond whiteness and help her to find rootedness in African soil. A reflexive essay follows. The essay is a personal reflection of the writing process, and includes the inspiration and development of the story line, problems encountered around the narrative voice and the contribution of the Masters programme workshops to the project. It also explores and expounds on the theoretical underpinnings of the novel, such as white identity in post-apartheid South Africa, the use of Western mythologies in an African context, and a discussion of San culture, including concerns around its inclusion in the text. The use of the heavily-loaded signifier, “White Goddess” as in the title, is also touched upon.

Esta tese de doutorado, intitulada José Luandino Vieira: memória e guerras entrelaçadas com a escrita, propõe a leitura de três romances: Nós, os do Makulusu (1975), O livro dos rios (2006) e O livro dos guerrilheiros (2009), do angolano Luandino Vieira. As três narrativas produzidas nos fins do século XX e nos primeiros anos do século XXI encenam as transformações vivenciadas a partir do processo de colonização (guerra de libertação/independência de Angola), bem como o entrecruzamento da História/ficção (na apropriação e interpretação do passado), da memória e da escrita (individual e/ou coletiva) decorrentes desse momento. Portanto, através de uma leitura baseada nos pressupostos da literatura comparada, procuramos analisar a relação entre os três romances. Desse modo, esperamos mostrar como a ficcionalização da guerra de libertação evidencia as fissuras, perplexidades e profundas contradições internas de um país que viveu guerras sucessivas que só terminaram no ano de 2002, portanto em pleno século XXI / This doctoral thesis entitled José Luandino Vieira: memory and wars intertwined with writing proposes the reading of three novels: Nós, os do Makulusu (1975), O livro dos rios (2006) e O livro dos guerrilheiros (2009), by Luandino Vieira from Angola. The three narratives produced in the late 20th century and in the early 21st century stage the changes experienced since the colonization process (war of liberation/independence of Angola) which constitute the central theme as well as the interweaving of History/fiction (in appropriating and interpreting the past), of memory and writing (individual and/or collective) resulting from this moment. Therefore, by means of a reading based on the assumptions of comparative literature, we attempted to analyze the relationship between the three novels. Therefore, we hope to show how the fictionalization of the war of liberation highlights the fissures, perplexities and deep internal contradictions of a country that has experienced recurrent wars, which did not end until 2002, that is in the 21st century

Interrogamos a escrita política de Espinosa e o sentido da definição de democracia oferecida no Tratado Teológico Político. A partir das concepções de história da Natureza e história da Escritura, no capítulo VII, buscaremos os vínculos que a escrita espinosana estabelece entre a linguagem e a politica, entre a definição de democracia e a história no capítulo XVI. Nosso propósito é demonstrar que a escrita política de Espinosa é concebida como uma instituição livre que é internamente estruturada segundo leis necessárias imanentes e pela compreensão estas leis nós poderemos verificar de que maneira Espinosa pensava as relações entre a prática discursiva livre e a prática política que institui a liberdade na República. / We interrogate here Spinozas art of writing politics and the meaning of the definition of democracy in the TTP. From the history of Nature and the history of Scripture, in chapter VII, we will search the links between language and politics, between the definition of democracy and the history, in chapter XVI. We wish to demonstrate that Spinozas art of writing politics is a free institution that is constructed following necessary laws whose comprehension can show us how Spinoza conceived the relations between discursive practices and the political practice that institutes freedom in the Republic.

Esta tese efetua uma leitura comparada das obras Percursos (Do Luachimo ao Luena), publicada em 1981, pela portuguesa Wanda Ramos (1948 1998), e O Berro do Cordeiro em Nova York, escrita em 1995 pela mato-grossense Tereza Albues (1936 2004), focalizando a memória enquanto elemento estético literário organizador da narrativa, cuja gênese está ligada ao ato de recordar as experiências de vida pela personagem principal a partir das relações sociais, constituídas durante todo o percurso de sua existência e, de modo especial, no presente da narração. Ao tecer a própria história, o eu é sujeito e objeto da sua percepção e da abordagem discursiva. Ao rememorar e construir sua história de vida sempre à luz do ficcional, as protagonistas atribuem uma espécie de unidade ao eu textual que se distingue do eu da experiência, descontínuo e fragmentado pela infinitude da existência em oposição ao mundo finito, fixado através da linguagem escrita; pela vulnerabilidade do vivido, impossível de ser apreendido pelo sujeito na totalidade, e pela fragmentação do ser em constante mobilidade. A rememoração no ato criador das duas narrativas literárias mencionadas vem acompanhada do imaginário ficcional, capaz de preencher as lacunas provocadas pelo esquecimento e pela limitação da percepção e da apreensão do vivido pelas protagonistas. Por considerar o ato de lembrar intrinsecamente ligado às relações interpessoais, a memória como uma habilidade psicológica do ser humano, que depende dos signos para se fazer expressar e que os signos possuem significados constituídos socialmente, o suporte teórico desse trabalho é norteado pelos estudos de Halbwachs e de Bakhtin, acrescidos das abordagens de Walter Benjamin referentes à habilidade de narrar como uma das peculiaridades fundamentais do ser humano intimamente ligada ao processo mnemônico. Este estudo nos leva a entender que a formação das protagonistas revelada, construída e apresentada no final dos textos por meio do discurso metalingüístico está entrelaçada às próprias escrituras do eu, tendo como ápice desse processo a autonomia da obra de arte em relação a seu criador. / This paper aims at reading comparatively the works Percursos (Do Luachimo ao Luena) (1981) by Portuguese writer Wanda Ramos (1948-1998), and O Berro do Cordeiro em Nova York, (1995) written by Tereza Albues (1936-2004) and born in Mato Grosso - Brazil. It will be focused the memory while aesthetic literary organizer element of the narrative, whose genesis is linked to the act of remembering life experiences by the main character from social relations constituted during the whole course of his existence and, in a special way, in the present of narration. By writing the own history, the self is subject and object of his perception and discursive approach. In the exerecise of remembering and constructing their life history, always through the fictitious light, the leading characters of these works attribute a species of unity to the textual self that distinguishes itself from experience self, discontinued and fragmented by the existence infinitude in opposition to the finite world, fixed through written language; by voluntarity of the vivid, impossible of being carried off by the subject on its totality, and by the fragmentation of being in constant mobility. The remembrance at creative act of the two literary narratives mentioned above comes along with fictional imaginary, capable of filling the gaps provoked by forgetfulness and limitation of perception and the apprehension of the vivid by the leading characters. By considering the act of remembering intrinsically linked to the interpersonal relations, memory as a psychological skill of the human being, which depends on the signs to express itself and that the signs own meanings socially constituted, the theoretical support of this paper is based on the studies of Halbwachs and Bakhtin, added by the approaches of Walter Benjamin concerning the ability of narrating as one of the fundamental peculiarities of the human being closely linked to the mnemonics process. This study leads us to understand that the leading characters formation revealed, constructed and presented in the end of the texts by means of metalinguistical discourse is interlaced to the own writings of the self, having as the climax of this process the fine arts autonomy in relation to its creator.