" The Post - Expressivist Turn : Four American Novels and the Author - Function " proposes a model of the author - function as a " diagnostic " tool. An " author - centred " mode of critique can interrogate the hegemonic narrative of liberal humanism, or " liberal modernity ", in Western culture. The argument in this thesis proceeds from the recognition that the hegemonic convention of the author in contemporary Western culture ( that is, the " expressivist " convention of the author ) has been disarmed of its claims to ideological innocence and commonsensicality. This thesis utilises the insights of poststructuralism, specifically the discourse theory of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, to deploy a new model of the author - function which foregrounds the ideological and discursive precepts that the expressivist model of the author has been assumed to transcend. The thesis examines four novels : The Bostonians by Henry James, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, V. by Thomas Pynchon, and Democracy by Joan Didion. Taken together, these encompass a hundred - year trajectory defined by the literary schools of late realism ( The Bostonians ), modernism ( The Great Gatsby ), late modernism ( V. ), and postmodernism ( Democracy ). Each of these novels is deployed as a stage in a cumulative trajectory which foregrounds a " post - expressivist " operation of the author. This post - expressivist model of the author presumes no claims to epistemological self - evidence or commonsensicality. Consequently, the author - function in each of these novels is freed from its traditionally displaced, reified position in the cultural milieu. Instead, the author is re - engaged in the Western body politic as a discursively - situated material event. It is this discursive engagedness which once more installs the author as a productive diagnostic, as a productive means of interrogation of the hegemony of liberal modernity. This is effected through an interrogation by this post - expressivist author - model of the perceived efficacy of the project of American liberal humanism as a basis for the realisation of a democratic, rational utopia. In tracing a progressive denaturalisation of the author as an extra - contextual function ( The Bostonians ), through to a foregrounding of the author as an enunciative function ( Democracy ), this thesis delineates an " author - centred " model of critique relative to a trajectory that recognises the position of pre - eminence still enjoyed by the author in late - capitalist Western culture. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Humanities, 2005.

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Joe Louis Clark was the principal of Eastside High School (EHS) located in Paterson, New Jersey from 1982 to 1989. The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to explore Mr. Clark’s leadership style as principal of EHS, and to investigate from the point of view of Mr. Clark’s former students, teachers, and administrators what, if any effect, his leadership style had at EHS, as well as on his students, teachers, and administrators’ lives during and subsequent to their time at EHS. I conducted this investigation by giving voice to my classmates, teachers, administrators and myself. I graduated from EHS during Mr. Clark’s tenure and I am a member of his first graduating class in 1986. When Mr. Clark arrived as principal, EHS was characterized by large numbers of students living at or below the poverty line, overcrowded classrooms, and outdated resources. Additionally, there were issues such as: high dropout rates, drugs, teenage pregnancy, violence towards students and teachers. In an attempt to raise the students’ Minimum Basic Skills Test scores and eliminate the violence at EHS, Mr. Clark was hired as the principal. Through face-to-face and telephone semi-structured, open ended in-depth interviews with twenty-two participants, I uncovered personal views of Mr. Clark’s leadership style. Mr. Clark used a leadership style that was characterized by the informants as autocratic, directive, charismatic and caring. The voices of his students, teachers, and administrators speak volumes about the strategies he developed that made an impact on their lives in addition to reforming EHS.

This thesis analyzes not only the book itself but also the development and transformation of main characters of the novel The House of the Spirits written by Chilean author Isabel Allende. The work deals with an introduction period of the Spanish-American fiction of the twentieth century, with emphasis on magic realism and related spirituality and historical events of the 20th century Chile. The text also focuses on the general theory of characters and plot outlines and structure of the novel. Furthermore, these findings are applied to the fictional character of this work. The conclusion summarizes the results of the investigation carried out and refuted the thesis of literature Isabell Allende. It is concluded that House of the Spirits clearly belongs to the literature of Latin American post - boom and it means much more than just a simple entertaining reading.

Joe Louis Clark was the principal of Eastside High School (EHS) located in Paterson, New Jersey from 1982 to 1989. The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to explore Mr. Clark’s leadership style as principal of EHS, and to investigate from the point of view of Mr. Clark’s former students, teachers, and administrators what, if any effect, his leadership style had at EHS, as well as on his students, teachers, and administrators’ lives during and subsequent to their time at EHS. I conducted this investigation by giving voice to my classmates, teachers, administrators and myself. I graduated from EHS during Mr. Clark’s tenure and I am a member of his first graduating class in 1986. When Mr. Clark arrived as principal, EHS was characterized by large numbers of students living at or below the poverty line, overcrowded classrooms, and outdated resources. Additionally, there were issues such as: high dropout rates, drugs, teenage pregnancy, violence towards students and teachers. In an attempt to raise the students’ Minimum Basic Skills Test scores and eliminate the violence at EHS, Mr. Clark was hired as the principal. Through face-to-face and telephone semi-structured, open ended in-depth interviews with twenty-two participants, I uncovered personal views of Mr. Clark’s leadership style. Mr. Clark used a leadership style that was characterized by the informants as autocratic, directive, charismatic and caring. The voices of his students, teachers, and administrators speak volumes about the strategies he developed that made an impact on their lives in addition to reforming EHS.