The very mention of the genre of the 'girls' school story' tends to provoke sniggers. Critics, teachers and librarians have combined throughout the century to attack a genre which encourages loyalty, hard work, team spirit, cleanliness and godliness. This dissertation asks why this attack took place and suggests one possible answer - the girls' school story was a radical and therefore feared genre. The thesis provides a brief history of the genre with reference to its connections with the Victorian novel and its peculiarly British status. Through examination of reading surveys, newspapers and early critical works it establishes both the popularity of the genre amongst its intended audience and the vitriolic nature of the attack against it. Biographical information about the writers of the school story begins to answer why the establishment may have been afraid of the influence of the purveyors of girls' school stories. By discussing their depiction of education, religion, women's roles and war the dissertation shows in what respects the genre can be seen as radical and shows how the increasing conventionality of the genre coincided with its decline in vigour and popularity. The influence of the oeuvre is then revealed in the discussion of its effects on adult literature.

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In this dissertation, I investigate the textual tradition of the Cretan tragedy Erofili by Georgios Chortatsis (16th century). The play, accompanied by a set of four Interludes, has survived in three manuscripts and two editions, all originating from the 17th century. All the witnesses are examined and presented thoroughly, both as autonomous texts and in comparison to each other. The examination of each witness separately sheds light not only on the history of the transmission of Erofili, but also to the production of manuscripts and printed books in Crete, the Heptanese and Venice in general. As far as the condition of the text is concerned, three witnesses preserve the most reliable texts: the second edition and the two manuscripts originating from Crete. The investigation of their relationship shows that two groups can be identified: one includes the two Cretan manuscripts and another one the three other witnesses. Νo important alterations in the plot and the sequence of events are found, so the textual variation concerns mainly the phrasing. There are indications that variation among the witnesses might have resulted from revisions by the playwright himself. The evaluation of the two groups of witnesses shows that it is not possible to consider one of them as superior, and this leads to the question which would be the most appropriate editorial method. Previous editors have followed the eclectic approach, which has many positive aspects, but cannot help the readers to realize all the stages of the transmission of the play. Since various theoretical approaches have appeared during the last decades, it has been understood that no edition can be called “definitive” and that editions following different methods can address different questions and achieve different aims. Erofili, and other texts with a rich and complicated textual tradition, can be edited in various ways and each edition can offer new insight in the history of the production, transmission and reception of the work.

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This thesis seeks to map out the development of literary modernism in the 1930s and 1980s People's Republic of China (PRC). Despite the long temporal halt, these two periods are innately and historically related to each other. Much as Chinese literary modernism was a literary legacy of Western modernism, its decades-long development provided it with the conditions for a second life. When it reemerged in the 1980s, it bore unique national characteristics that, in turn, enriched the realm of global modernism. In short, the distinct historical and national context of the twentieth century China dictated that Chinese literary modernism could not be a mechanical reproduction of its Western counterpart. The importation and translation of Western modernist creative and critical works, together with the modernist practices of modern Chinese intellectuals, contributed to the formation and rise of modernist literature in the 1930s, as well as its revival in the 1980s PRC. Structurally, this thesis identifies three localities of global modernism in the works and literary theory of Fei Ming, Mu Dan, and Wang Zengqi. It argues that these writers' modernist practices and distinct writing styles not only represented the characteristics of Chinese literary modernism, but also added diversities to modernist literature in the global context. Methodologically, I pair the Chinese modernists with their Western counterparts, including Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot. This comparison helps to find similarities between modernist works across time and place, and to identify the unique features of Chinese literary modernism. In practice, when studying the three modernists' first encounters with literary modernism in Republican China, as well as their respective experience in the PRC, I seek to (i) present three modes of initiation of literary modernism at the beginning of the twentieth century; (ii) trace the development of literary modernism both in the republican era and its revival in the PRC; (iii) show the process of Chinese literary modernism growing its distinct characteristics and evidence its second life. In short, Chinese modernists' participation in the building of global modernism and their contributions to the enrichment of literary modernism in the global context are two foci of my thesis. In the final analysis, this thesis engages research on Chinese literary postmodernism. No matter the literary movement's status in the PRC, then and now, how and why it differs from the development of postmodernism in Western literature and culture are valuable research questions.

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杜綺明. / "2007年12月". / 論文(哲學碩士)--香港中文大學, 2007. / 參考文獻(leaves 90-96). / "2007 nian 12 yue". / Abstract also in English. / Du Qiming. / Lun wen (zhe xue shuo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007. / Can kao wen xian (leaves 90-96). / 摘要 --- p.iii / 目錄 --- p.iv / Chapter 第一章 --- 導論 --- p.1-10 / Chapter 第二章 --- 民族音樂學與香港「兒歌」的硏究 --- p.11-19 / Chapter 第三章 --- 從歷史看「幼童時期」Childhood的槪念與香港「兒歌」 的關係 --- p.20-35 / Chapter 第四章 --- 中國兒童歌謠與香港電視「兒歌」 --- p.36-48 / Chapter 第五章 --- 香港電視廣播有限公司與香港「兒歌」的發展 --- p.49-73 / Chapter 第六章 --- 校園裡兒歌與兒童生活及成長 --- p.74-81 / Chapter 第七章 --- 總結 --- p.82-89 / 書目 --- p.90-96

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