Thesis (M. A.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Leigh H. Edwards, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 15, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 49 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1960. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Charlotte Canning. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis examines the function and presentation of “Nature” in American literature written between 1945 and 1971. It argues that the widespread presence of ecological representations of “Nature” within Cold War literature has been critically overlooked, as a result of Cold War literary criticism’s comparatively narrow concentration on the direct effects of political and ideological metanarratives on texts. It uncovers a plethora of ecological portrayals of the relationship between the human and the environment, and reveals the significance of the role played by non-Western and non-Anglocentric philosophies and spiritualties in shaping these presentations. This study is methodologically informed by the most recent developments in the field of ecocriticism, including Scott Knickerbocker’s work on ecopoetics and Timothy Morton’s explorations of the problems associated with the term “Nature”. It finds significant continuities within these ecological portrayals, which suggest that nuclear discourse had an influential effect on the presentation of “Nature” within Cold War literature. This influence is, however, heavily mediated by the role that non-Western and non-Anglocentric philosophies play in writers’ theorisations of relations of interdependence between the human and the environment. Such literary presentations challenge the understanding that the Nuclear Age represents a conquest of “Nature”. Rather, they reveal that a number of Cold War writers present human interdependence within an ecological system, capable of the annihilation of the human, and of the containment of the new nuclear threat. The thesis’s introductory chapter questions the characterisation of Silent Spring (1962) as the founding text of the modern environmental movement. It outlines this study’s intervention into the field of Cold War criticism, detailing its specific ecocritical methodology and engaging with the legacy of Transcendentalism. Chapter One looks at the work of Paul Bowles, with a primary focus on The Sheltering Sky (1949). It demonstrates the centrality of the landscape to the writer’s creative project, and reveals the substantial influence of the Sufi mysticism on Bowles’s presentation of the human’s relationship to the environment. Chapter Two focuses on the work of the New Mexican poet Peggy Pond Church. It establishes the influence of the writer’s familiarity with the Pueblo Native American worldview on her poetic portrayals of the human and the nuclear as interrelated parts within a greater ecological system. It also uncovers similar portrayals within the work of the “father of the atomic bomb”, J. Robert Oppenheimer. The third chapter analyses the effects of Chinese and Japanese literature and thought on the work of J. D. Salinger. It outlines the function of “Nature” in the work of the specific translators that Salinger names, arguing that this translated Taoism substantially informed the ecological vision present across his oeuvre. Chapter Four explores the impact of Simone Weil on the work of Mary McCarthy. It reads Birds of America (1971), demonstrating the governing influence of Weil’s concept of “force” on McCarthy’s presentation of the human as an interdependent part within a powerful ecological system.

This study offers an exploration of masculinity in both Iraqi and Iranian fiction which holds the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) as its major theme. Representations of masculinities in Iran-Iraq War fiction present a deep, and at times, confounding paradox. Whilst this corpus of war fiction at times deeply challenges hegemony and completely reformulates its own definitions of normative codes of manliness, at other times it strictly conforms to chauvinistic and often profoundly oppressive patterns of male behaviour. By relating these works of fiction to their wider social and political context, the aim of this study is to recognise and nuance the relationship between representations of masculinities, and literary depictions of the nation at war. Theoretically grounded in reformulations of the concept of hegemonic masculinity, the study also reflects the work of Joseph Massad, as it attempts to contextualise a body of fiction which employs representations of masculinities as part of wider socio-political allegories. As such this study treats masculinity as a complex phenomenon fraught with ambivalence, operating within particular historical and political contexts, whose subjects are often empowered and oppressed in equal measure. By relating these representations to wider social and political contexts, this study seeks to recognise and nuance the relationship between representations of masculinities and the role which the nation plays in literature, in particularly, when war is the over-arching theme. It is within the context of war, when masculinity is often proposed to be at its most simple, that it is proven to be at its most complex as age, class and political affiliations become defining factors in the pursuit of hegemony and therefore what constitutes hegemonic masculinity. By comparing two national literatures participating in the same conflict, this study reveals the close socio-political dynamic which exists between gender, literature and the so-called constructed “reality” of nation which they purport to represent. Accordingly this study showcases a corpus of work which speaks to a larger literary canon systematically ignored in studies of Persian and Arabic literature. Through in-depth readings of eight works of fiction, published between 1982 and 2003, this study investigates representations of masculinity in both an Iranian and Iraqi context. This thesis is a riposte to common assumptions that literary canon which constitutes Iran-Iraq War is purely associated with state-sponsored narratives, and instead sheds light on a subtle body of fiction which offers a complex account of war and its effect on society.

'The Art of War' studies the transition of the soldier from fighter to settler as it is reflected in the texts he produces. Drawing on texts written by soldiers, in English, between c. 1624 and 1685, it focuses on representations of events in Ireland from 1641-1655, that is to say, during the Catholic Confederation and the Cromwellian campaigns and settlement. The focus and methodology of the thesis seek to restore a more literary reading of seventeenth century texts from, and about, Ireland to the current vibrant historical debate on the period. It argues that the writings of the Old Irish, Old English, New English, and Cromwellian soldiers in Ireland draw on a variety of literary influences – the traces of Guicciardini and Machiavelli, Sidney and Spenser are clear. It also charts shifts in the genres of military writing from professional handbooks, to documents of civil policy, to romance, poetry, and the theatre. In doing so, it addresses the literary tools which the soldier-writer uses to define the self within a complex network of political, national, religious, and personal allegiances. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first, chapter one, explores the trafficking of military images between military handbook and literary text. It pays particular attention to Ireland as a borderland for the European Wars and the English colonial enterprise. The second part, comprising three chapters, examines three different perspectives on the Irish Wars. The first, that of the Old English writer Richard Sellings; the second, that of the anonymous Aphorismical Discovery; the third begins with a view of the 'Irish enemy' from England, as it is constructed and enforced in the pamphlet literature of the Civil War period, and ends with the perspective of Richard Lawrence, a Cromwellian soldier-turned-settler in the early 1680s. The third part, the fifth and final chapter, explores the controversies surrounding recent Irish history as they are played out in the wake of the Exclusion Crisis. This is followed by a brief conclusion.

LD2668 .T4 1947 M37 / Master of Science

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die oorlogsretoriek van die Nederlandse skrywer en openbare intellektueel, Arnon Grunberg, word in hierdie tesis bestudeer en verbind met etiese vraagstukke wat deur sy werk opgeroep word. Daar word ondersoek op welke wyse reportage uit Kamermeisjes en soldaten; die roman Onze oom; en enkele essays geskryf deur Grunberg asook deur sy heteroniem Marek van der Jagt die leser prikkel om etiese vrae te stel, na aanleiding van die wyse waarop hierdie tekste van retoriese middele gebruik maak, of daarop kommentaar lewer. Die reportages wat Grunberg as klandestiene joernalis in onder andere Afghanistan, Irak en Guantánamo Bay geskryf het, word ondersoek om te bepaal hoe hy “die ander” uitbeeld wat hy in hierdie oorlogsterreine ontmoet. Daar word geargumenteer dat Grunberg se reportage nie as instrumentalisties beskou kan word nie omdat hy probeer om sy subjekte as ongelyksoortig uit te beeld. Grunberg dui die werking van retoriek in hierdie literêre joernalistiek aan deur die gaping tussen die sg. offisiële diskoers en die werklikheid aan te stip. Hierdie reportages word beskou as tekste wat die werking van retoriek ten toon stel en kommentaar lewer op die impak van retoriese meganismes. Die ondersoek na die oorlogsretoriek van Grunberg behels ook die bestudering van die roman Onze oom, ’n verhaal gebaseer op werklike oorlogservarings en gesprekke met soldate. Grunberg maak met hierdie roman ’n studie van die potensiële mag van woorde om “immorele dade” te regverdig, deur die kortsluiting te wys tussen die “werklikheid” en die karakters se opvattings. Daar word stilgestaan by die weerstand wat hierdie roman teen appropriasie bied in die manier waarop die teks geen eenvoudige morele boodskap verkondig nie, en nie as ’n vervoermiddel van ’n sekere boodskap – vir of teen oorlog of rewolusie – beskou kan word nie. Dit is eerder ’n roman wat die illusionêre gedagtegoed van sy karakters aanspreek en daardeur die gevaar van retoriek as ’n vorm van vleitaal ten toon stel. In plaas daarvan om Onze oom as ’n etiese roman te beskou wat sy subjek op ’n etiese wyse verteenwoordig, kan dit gesien word as ’n roman wat ’n etiese eksperiment aangaan en weerstand bied teen ’n finale interpretasie. Die term “oorlogsretoriek” verwys in hierdie tesis ten slotte na die potensiaal van ’n diskoers om verandering te bewerkstellig. Die oortuigende retoriese effek van Grunberg se gebruik van aforismes of maxims word ondersoek en daar word bevind dat Grunberg die maatskaplike relevansie van fiksie probeer bevestig. Aan die ander kant maak hy gebruik van ironie en dubbelsinnigheid wat hierdie absolute uitsprake kompliseer. Dié spel tussen betrokkenheid en afsydige ironie lei daartoe dat sy werk nié as manifes vir of propaganda teen ’n sekere saak beskou kan word nie. Die sosiale en sosiologiese betrokkenheid van Grunberg is nie onproblematies of duidelik definieerbaar nie. Die konflik wat hierdie tekste genereer, stimuleer by die leser ’n kritiese besef van eties-komplekse vraagstukke oor die verhouding tussen “die self” en “die ander”, en kan daarom gesien word as ’n vorm van “etiese getuienis”. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis makes a study of the war rhetoric of the Dutch writer and public intellectual, Arnon Grunberg, and connects it to the ethical demands provoked by his work. The ethical questions being triggered by his literary journalism from Kamermeisjes en soldaten [Chambermaids and soldiers]; his novel Onze oom [Our uncle]; and singular essays (partly written under Grunberg’s heteronym Marek van der Jagt) are examined to determine how these texts make use of or comment on rhetorical devices. Grunberg’s literary journalism, written as an undercover journalist in, amongst other places, Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, is studied in order to define how he portrays “the other” that he comes across in these war zones. It is argued that Grunberg’s journalism cannot be classified as instrumentalist. He rather tries to portray his subjects as heterogeneous. Grunberg points to the working of rhetoric in these reportage by demonstrating the gap between the so-called official discourse and reality. These reportages are seen as texts that depict the workings of rhetoric and comment on the power thereof to have a certain effect. A study of Arnon Grunberg’s war rhetoric also includes the examination of the novel Onze oom, a narrative based on real war experiences and conversations with soldiers. With this novel Grunberg makes a study of the potential power of words to justify “immoral deeds” by exposing the short-circuit between the “reality” and the characters’ interpretation thereof. The way in which this novel offers resistance against appropriation is inspected. It is argued that it does not proclaim a simple moral message and is not a conveyor of a specific agenda – for or against war or revolution. Rather, it is a novel that addresses the illusionary sentiments and reflections of its characters and therewith depicts the danger of rhetoric as a form of flattery. Instead of considering Onze oom as an ethical novel that represents its subject in an ethical manner, it is a novel that makes an ethical experiment and provides resistance against a final or firm interpretation. The term “war rhetoric” in this thesis finally refers to the potential of discourse to bring about change. The convincing rhetorical effect of Grunberg’s use of aphorisms or maxims are examined as a case in point of his aim to affirm the relevance of fiction to have a social effect. On the other hand his use of irony and ambiguity complicates these absolute utterances. This play between engagement and detached irony prohibits the reader to see his work as a form of propaganda for or against a certain cause. It is concluded that Grunberg’s social and societal engagement is not unproblematic or clearly definable. The conflict that these texts generate, stimulates with the reader the critical understanding of ethical-complex questions about the relation between “the self” and “the other” and is therefore considered as a form of “ethical witnessing”.

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Thesis (Ph.D.) - Simon Fraser University, 2007. / Theses (Dept. of English) / Simon Fraser University. Senior supervisor: David Stouck -- Dept. of English. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.