Thesis ( M.A. )-- Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2004. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2845. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as 1 preliminary leaf (iii ). Includes bibliographical references ( leaves [ 90-93] ).

M.A. (French) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Many critics examine Shaw's plays in terms of the subjects they deal with, but they often ignore what aspects of these subjects Shaw draws on or how he uses them. One subject that appears in many of his works is war. This thesis examines Shaw's treatment of war in Arms and the Man and Heartbreak House, and attempts to discover a common element between them that reveals something not only about the plays themselves, but also about Shaw's drama in general. The chapter on Arms and the Man notes how Shaw makes war a highly visible element of the play, but avoids dealing with issues directly related to war. Shaw does not draw on war itself, but on its image. The sources for Catherine's and Bluntschli's impressions of both war and Sergius—Lady Butler's paintings, the military melodrama and extravaganza, Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade," and accounts of the Battle of Balaklava—indicate that the play's focus is not on war, but on how one perceives the world. This idea is further reinforced by Shaw's own views about idealism, romanticism, and realism. Unlike Arms and the Man, war is an integral part of Heartbreak House. Shaw uses elements from the British homefront during the First World War—the wasted lives of England's youth, the lies of the government and the press, and the potential for violence both on the front and at home during the conflict—to help create the play's deep sense of crisis and impending doom. But as with Arms and the Man, Heartbreak House is not a play about war. Whereas war is highly visible in the former, its presence is negligible in the latter: there are no military characters or any clear indication that a war is in progress until the end of the play. Moreover, Shaw does not draw on sources related only to the war. Thus while Heartbreak House was born largely out of the despair of the First World War, its themes go beyond that conflict to deal with questions about the individual, the family, and the fabric of society itself. This thesis concludes by briefly examining Saint Joan, and notes that it combines the two approaches to war found in Arms and the Man and Heartbreak House, but distances its intended audience—the English—by using a historical conflict where Englishmen are the enemy. In comparing the three plays' treatment of war, one can conclude that the common element in Shaw's treatment of war is his distancing of an audience from the subject itself. Moreover, one discovers that this distancing is related to the nature of the subjects that Shaw uses for his plays. Only subjects that he believed were complex were suitable for creating his dramatic works. Therefore, it is fruitless for critics to examine Shaw's plays for his opinions about a subject; they should concentrate on how Shaw uses these subjects in his plays instead. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Using insights drawn from research in a variety of disciplines into theories of the body, this dissertation investigates Heinrich Boll's (1917-1985) early prose (1936-1955) as a discourse of war damaged bodies. The "new" texts discussed appeared in Germany between 1982 and 1995. The thesis represents the first attempt to analyse Boll's work from the perspective of the human body. Chapter I briefly outlines the influence sociology has had for a better understanding of the role of the human body in society. This chapter demonstrates that the body can be fruitfully used both as a critical tool and as an interpretative device in discussing literary texts. An elucidation of the methodology and theoretical approach used concludes the chapter. The thesis explores Boll's use of the body not only as aspects of the narrative and also for its ethical implication. According to him, an author's temporality ("Zeitlichkeit") is the first thing to be communicated before embarking on an analysis or interpretation of his work. Chapter II investigates the "Aryan/Nazi" body and refers to other contemporary body discourses. Chapter III, investigating the "Writer's" body, provides insights into Boll's biography. Both chapters shed considerable light on Germany's cultural, social, internal, and external political situation. Chapter IV describes the soldier's 'closed,' "disciplined" body as portrayed in texts such as Das Vermachtnis. Colonel Bressen, a key character in Wo warst du, Adam?, epitomises the "mirroring" body in Chapter V. More "Schein" than "Sein," it reflects an intentionally internalised and acquired "habitus." In Chapter VI, Boll's war story "Der blasse Hund," provides a striking example of a "dominating" body which seeks to preserve its power and to control its fears through committing violent acts against its helpless victims. In contrast, however, a "communicative" body such as Kate Bogner's in Und sagte kein einziges Wort, examined in Chapter VII, is 'open' and caring. Throughout his early prose, Boll's careful use of body language reveals the multi-layered nature of reality. Chapter VIII summarises the thesis and presents its major findings upon which further critical work on the significance of the human body in Boll's later writings might be based. / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

English Studies / M.A. (English)

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Two separate texts are submitted towards the degree of MA in Creative Writing. The first is this essay, A Reading of Blood Meridian. The second is a novel, The Book of War. Essay The general focus of the essay is the theme of free will in Blood Meridian and the techniques with which the narrative elements of character, story, style and voice are deployed to focus the reader's mind on this theme. The central question: is the meaning, the final message, of Blood Meridian that as individuals human beings lack agency and that as groups they are shackled to a common destiny? The hypothesis is that Blood Meridian contains significant patterns, oppositions and dialectics, designed to place arguments for and against agency in the mind of the reader, but that the book's response to the theme is inherently and structurally ambiguous. Novel The novel was written before the essay. It was written in direct response to Blood Meridian and to the realization that Blood Meridian was a text rooted in history. Like Blood Meridian, The Book of War is based on, grows out of, first person accounts, specifically Stephen Bartlett Lakeman's What I saw in Kaffir-Land (1880) and William Ross King's Campaigning in Kaffirland: Or Scenes and Adventures in The Kaffir War of 1851- 1852 (1853). The novel takes characters devolved from Lakeman and places them in King’s journey through the war. These characters create, around a child called the kid, the social backdrop of a coming of age tale. The novel uses its source texts as a lens through which to view, and tell the story of, the War of The Prophet (Eight Frontier War 1850-53). Readers seeking to answer the question: Why is South Africa a violent society? might find at least part of the answer in the nature of, and the relationships between, English, Xhosa, Dutch, Khoi and Mfengu cultures in the 19th Century.

This project explores two main lines of inquiry concerning representations of ruins in Paris. I first identify a turning point in the evolution of the ruin leitmotif beyond Romanticism in its transfer into a new context: modern Paris. The analysis demonstrates the correlation between this leitmotif and urban environment in transformation, and their influence on aesthetics, leading to the renewal of modes of representation in literary and visual discourse. Unconventional ruins, recently created by demolition during Haussmannisation (1853-70) or war (1870-71) challenge conceptions about space (inside/outside, up/down, visible/invisible), time, and the individual in relation to the city. In view of tracing the transformation of the ruin ethos in relation to modern sensibilities towards the city and its modes of representation, a chronological approach concentrates on two main periods divided into four chapters. The first interval extends from 1848 throughout the Second Empire and the second spans the 1870-1871 conflagration and the Third Republic. An interdisciplinary and dialogic approach reveals the exchanges between different media (literature, journalism, painting, photography) aiming to convey the paradoxes of Paris's modern ruins. Moreover, close reading and comparisons of authors' and artists' depictions across media and genres nuance, correct or disprove critical appraisals, re-establishing artistic authority (e.g. photographers Charles Marville and Bruno Braquehais). The second line of inquiry posits that representations of ruins reflect on the relationship of Parisians with their city during systematisation and wartime destruction. Research reveals that individual initiatives of representing urban ruins attest to a new sensibility towards the city, preceding the Second Empire's (1853-1870) apparatus of historical and topographic documentation to preserve the appearance of spaces before intervention. Thus, during Paris's systematisation, private and artistically-minded projects become the tools of patrimonial preservation. By comparison, aesthetic approaches to ruins in 1871 mark a new appreciation of modern architecture, while engaging with war trauma.

The thesis examines Bolivian fiction written about the war with Paraguay (1932-35), known as the Chaco War. The study takes two different perspectives: the first considers the fiction as works of literature, and studies three major aspects of fictional writing: narrative organization, characterization arid figurative language, in order to investigate the constraints imposed upon writers who produce fiction about an historical event, (in this instance a military conflict). The second perspective views the works of fiction as historical documents and assesses their informative value by comparing factual information supplied in the novels with that provided in historiographical accounts and also by examining the kind of information which is the peculiar contribution of fiction to the understanding of an historical event. These two examinations are undertaken in Chapters V and VI respectively, and constitute the main body of the thesis. In order to place them in a wider context, the thesis considers previous critical studies of Chaco War fiction (in the Introduction). There follows a study of the relationship between the writing of contemporary history and documentary fiction (Chapter I), a brief summary of the Chaco War (Chapter II), an examination of some possible influences and precedents (Chapter III) and a survey of the writers and the works of Bolivian fiction of the Chaco War (Chapter IV). The conclusion suggests that the problems encountered by writers of documentary fiction are those faced by any naturalist writer, compounded here by the nature of the subject matter. If they cannot fully succeed on an artistic level, however, these works do provide a view of the historical facts of the war which is reasonably accurate. In addition they lead to a distinctive understanding of the war as an historical experience which no historiographical work can produce.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed December 16, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 206-219).