Th.--Lettres--Paris, 1969. / Contient des lettres inédites de Hilaire Belloc. Bibliogr. pp. 687-725. Notes bibliogr. Index.

Thesis (B.A.(Hons.))-- University of Adelaide, Dept. of History, 1973.

In this thesis, I have analysed representations of a selection of fictional and factual serial killers from Thomas de Quincey to Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the autobiographical narratives of real life serial killers Carl Panzram, Donald Gaskins and Ian Brady. My analysis of these texts identifies the portrayals of serial killers in terms of representations as aesthetic, existential, socially othered phenomena. The thesis proceeds from the premise that serial killer narratives often obscure the existential brute reality of murder. As such, I examine serial killing vis-à-vis attempted explanatory shifts in such narratives which represent serial murder and serial killers in terms of aesthetic, psychopathological, moral/religious/supernatural and socio-political phenomena, and I investigate the implications of these shifts. I focus initially on Romantic ideas of the self, and in the relationship between the ‘outsider’ artist/poet and the textual emergence of the figure of the solitary ‘serial’ murderer in the early nineteenth century, particularly in relation to De Quincey’s aesthetic murder essays. Subsequent fluctuations of the representation of serial killing between mental-health, law-and-order and political/social discourses are discussed in relation to the subsequent texts. I conclude by examining cognitive dissonance theory, A.E. Van Vogt’s description of the Violent Man, and James Gilligan’s theories on violence, in order to propose a possible synergetic response to narratives and representations of serial killers and serial killing.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study comprises a comparative visual analysis of three picture books, illustrated by Steven Kellogg, Posy Simmonds and Edward Gorey. The illustrators reinterpret the cautionary tale, Matilda, who told lies and was burned to death by Hilaire Belloc (1908). Not only does this study present a brief historical overview of the genre but it also interrogates the manner in which different styles of illustration underscore the pedagogical didactic narrative. The visual interpretations of these three illustrators are compared in order to establish whether or not they have succeeded in sustaining the subversive or grotesque elements of this cautionary tale. Belloc’s narrative as well as the illustrations are analysed in terms of gender. I discuss my own version of Belloc’s cautionary tale as a parody of this tale that serves to exaggerate the sometimes overt gendering of girl characters in cautionary tales. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie skripsie behels die visuele analise van drie verskillende prenteboeke, onderskeidelik geillustreer deur Steven Kellogg, Posy Simmonds en Edward Gorey. Al drie illustreerders bied ʼn visuele herinterpretasie aan van die vermaan-vers Matilda, who told lies and burned to death deur Hilaire Belloc. Die skripsie bied nie net ʼn geskiedkundige oorsig oor die genre nie, maar ondersoek die manier waarop verskillende illustrasie-style die opvoedkundige, didaktiese narratief onderstreep. Die illustreerders se prenteboeke word vergelyk en daar word vasgestel of hulle daarin geslaag het om die subversiewe en selfs groteske elemente in hierdie vermaan-verhaal te behou. Belloc se narratief en die illustrasie daarvan is ook in terme van gender geanaliseer. Ek bespreek my eie weergawe van Belloc se vermaan-verhaal, wat ek aanbied as ʼn parodie om die soms duidelike “gendering” van meisie-karakters in vermaan-verhale te oordryf.