Over the course of the “Genji monogatari” (“The Tale of Genji,” c. 1008) narrative, roughly fifty characters die. The eponymous hero’s arc starts with the passing of his mother and ends as he himself succumbs to grief at being parted from his beloved Murasaki; the subsequent ten chapters of the text are likewise marked by successive personal losses. However, while the “Genji’s” plot is consistently catalyzed through encounters with death, it would be a mistake to say that the tale is about death: instead, it is the highly aestheticized scenes of grief experienced privately and communally by its characters in the aftermath (and sometimes even in the anticipation) of their loved ones’ passing that motivate much of the action and narrative development. My dissertation project aims to analyze the intrinsic affective qualities of “Genji monogatari’s” portrayals of death and mourning. Although the text showcases Murasaki Shikibu’s skillful interweaving of Heian spiritual beliefs, social rituals, and funerary practices with classical literary tropes and the preexisting traditions in elegiac poetry, it also represents a significant departure and innovation vis-à-vis earlier and contemporary depictions of death. For one, it resurrects and reinvents the depiction of the corpse which all but disappeared from courtly literature, and expands the narrated experience of bereavement from the point of view of an isolated principal mourner to that of a larger emotional/affective community. What’s more, the narrative patterns and images it establishes early on continue to evolve over the span of the text itself. The “Genji’s” hallmark death scenes foreground the exquisite bodies of the dying or already dead—and almost exclusively female—subjects, laid out unobstructed to the discerning gaze of the male protagonists. As I will show through a thorough exploration of the poetic vocabulary and affective narrative structuring in situations dealing with grief and sorrow in these scenes, this has the effect of narratively minimizing the moment of death as a descriptive event and instead heralding an affective mode of storytelling that creates communal bonds between the bereaved characters, the narrator(s), and the readers. That said, as the plot progresses, subtle subversive changes start to emerge: the women in the first part of the tale, who remained beautiful but voiceless after frequently meeting sudden ends, give way to characters who anticipate and eventually even will their demise, and whose richer interiority offers insights on their mortality that can counterpoint the ensuing objectifying consumption of their bodies. This development consequently not only brings into question the larger meaning of death retrospectively throughout the entire text, but also allows us to glean Murasaki Shikibu’s own intratextual theorization on the affective and narrative functions of death, in addition to its wider literary potential.

Since earliest times death has been an important and always actual theme in the arts. The point of departure of this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the ”discourse of and about death” in the poems of three women poets, namely Elisabeth Eybers, Olga Kirsch and Eveleen Castelyn. Various aspects of death thematics are considered and, from a formal perspective, the presence and absence of traditional forms concerning death, such as the ”obituary poem”, the ”elegy”, the ”dirge” and the ”threnody” are investigated. The research plan and the development of the study are dealt with in chapter one. The problem formulation and theoretical approaches for this study are given special attention. In chapter two the death theme in literature throughout the centuries, and specifically in poetry, is relevant. Death thematics occurring in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Chinese, American, Russian, German, French and Spanish literatures are examined. Philosophical and Christian viewpoints concerning death are also investigated. The portrayal of death in the poetry of Elisabeth Eybers is the topic in chapter three. Her oeuvre is devided into four periods. The collections from Belydenis in die skemering up to Rymdwang are only summarily referred to, since this section has already been dealt with in my MA dissertation (Schutte, 1988). The following six volumes are discussed in detail concerning her religious views and the portrayal of death by way of various subthemes and stances. Chapter four is dedicated to the poetry of Olga Kirsch and in chapter five to that of Eveleen Castelyn. In chapter six a comparison is drawn between the three poets regarding their shared death thematics, similarities and differences in their mode of betrayal and their views on the afterlife. During her oeuvre Eybers adopts an agnostic view, Kirsch embraces the Jewish faith and Castelyn holds a Christian point of view throughout her oeuvre. At the end of the study a summary and findings are given and the conclusion, that the three poets increasingly become preoccupied with death, is reached. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / (D. Litt. et Phil. Afrikaans))

Thesis (MA (Afrikaans and Dutch))—University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between eroticism, violence and death as it occurs in Jeanne Goosen's short story collection, ' n Gelyke kans. The research is based upon the hypothesis that these stories express in a particular manner the transgressive role of eroticism in breaking through social conventions and barriers. As a possible framework for discussion reference is made in the first place to George Bataille's theories on the subversive nature of eroticism, Julia Kristeva's semiotic and pre-Oedipal theories, and Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of the carnivalesque. Subsequently a reading strategy was designed by means of an in-depth analysis of ten stories from the collection in accordance with general formalistic principles. The conclusion is reached that Goosen with non-judgmental sympathy exposes man's inborn, continuous search for the illusion of perfect happiness. This state of bliss is sometimes achieved by the violent "incorporation" of the beloved/desired “other", and the final outcome is a concomitant and inevitable decline into an unwholesome, destructive, and fatal erotic power play.

Nineteenth-century British fiction is often dismissed as necrophillic or obsessed with death. While the label of necrophilia is an apt description of the fetishistic representations of dead women prevalent at the end of the century, it is too narrow to fit literature produced earlier in the century. This is not to say that abnormal attitudes toward death are only a feature of the late nineteenth century. In fact, pathological attitudes toward death abound in the literature, but the relationship between the deceased and the survivor is not always sexual in nature. Rather, there is a clear shift in attitudes, from the chaste death fantasy, or attraction to the idea of death, prevalent in Gothic works, to the destructive, stagnant mourning visible in mid-century texts, and culminating in the perverse sexualization of dead women at the turn of the century. This literary shift is most likely attributable to the concurrent changes in attitudes toward sex and death. As sex became more acceptable, more public, via the channels of scientific discourse, death became a less acceptable idea. This “denial of death” is a direct reaction to the religious uncertainties brought about by industrialization. As scientists and industrialists uncovered increasing evidence against a literal interpretation of the Bible, more people began to doubt the nature of God and the existence of an afterlife. If there was no God, then there was no heaven, which raised questions about what happened to the soul after death. With the certainty of an afterlife gone, death became mysterious, something to fear, and the passing of loved ones was doubly-mourned as their fate was now uncertain.

Stevie Smith's treatment of her two major themes of God and death reveals her seriousness as a poet; although she earned a reputation as a writer of comic verse, she is rather a serious writer employing a comic mask. This thesis explores her two, dominant themes, which reveal her inability to synthesize her views about both subjects. In religion, she proved to be a doubter, an atheist, and a believer. Her attitude toward death, though more consistent, is nonetheless ambiguous, particularly regarding suicide. Smith always considered death as a god, and her examination of both the gods of Christianity and of Death was exhaustive. She never developed a single view of either theme but proved to believe in several conflicting ideas at once.

O objetivo da tese é estudar o narrador do romance A Menina que Roubava Livros, publicado em 2005 pelo autor australiano Markus Zusak. A história enfoca Liesel Meminger, uma menina de nove anos adotada por um casal alemão que, não sendo entusiasta do regime Nazista, esconde um Judeu em seu porão durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial. A imagem da morte como narrador é a principal característica da obra de Zusak, que apresenta uma entidade coletora de almas que observa as experiências de Liesel e tece comentáros sobre os seres humanos. A fim de analisar tal narrador, esta dissertação se apóia em estudos de Carl Gustav Jung, Gilbert Durand e, em certa medida, em Sigmund Freud. Também utiliza premissas teóricas do campo da narratologia, tendo Gérard Genette e Mieke Bal como principais vozes representativas. A dissertação está dividida em três capítulos. O capítulo 1 oferece um panorama acerca da construção da morte enquanto imagem arquetípica, enquanto personificação e enquanto narrador. Nesse capítulo, as perspectivas teóricas de Jung, Durand, Genette e Bal são prevalentes. O objetivo é entender como a morte é representada como ideia e como imagem. O capítulo 2 foca nas implicações da morte. Assim, analiso a morte de indivíduos, a pulsão de morte (que toma de assalto muitas das personagens), a morte em massa e a morte social como uma consequência direta da guerra. O objetivo desse capítulo é visualizar a morte como um tema. Para tanto, são aplicados alguns conceitos freudianos, como pulsão de morte e melancolia. O capítulo 3 oferece uma leitura narratológica do romance, ao relacionar a morte aos aspectos de focalização, tempo e espaço. O obejtivo do último capítulo é analisar como a morte se posiciona enquanto observador dos fatos narrados. Na conclusão, apresento minhas considerações finais acerca da utilização desse peculiar narrador em A Menina que Roubava Livros e seu papel na construção do romance e na formulação do tom da narrativa. / The aim of this dissertation is to study the narrator of the novel The Book Thief, published in 2005 by the Australian author Markus Zusak. The story centers upon Liesel Meminger, a nine-year old girl fostered by a German couple who are not enthusiasts of the Nazi regime and hide a Jewish man in their basement during World War II. The image of death as the narrator is the main feature in Zusak’s novel, which presents a soul collecting entity who observes Liesel’s experiences and makes comments about the human beings. In order to analyze such narrator, the dissertation relies on studies by Carl Gustav Jung and Gilbert Durand and, to some extent, to Sigmund Freud. The dissertation also borrows theoretical assumptions from the narratological field, having Gérard Genette and Mieke Bal as its main representatives. The dissertation is divided in three chapters. Chapter 1 offers an overview about the construction of death as an archetypal image, as a personification and as a narrator. In this chapter, the theoretical perspectives of Jung, Durand, Genette and Bal are prevalent. The objective here is to try to understand how death is represented as an idea and as an image. Chapter 2 focuses on the implications of death through the book. Hence, I analyze the death of individuals, the death drive (which assaults many of the characters), mass death and social death as a direct consequence of war. The objective of this chapter is to view death as a theme. In order to do that, some concepts from Freud, such as death drive and melancholia, are applied. Chapter 3 offers a narratological reading of the novel through the link of death to focalization, time and space. The objective in this last chapter is to analyze how death positions himself as an observer of the facts narrated. In the conclusion, I present my final considerations about the use of such peculiar narrator in The Book Thief and its role for the construction of the novel and the setting of the tone for the narrative.

李淑文. / "2001年1月" / 論文 (哲學碩士)--香港中文大學, 2001. / 參考文獻 (leaves 114-121) / 附中英文摘要. / "2001 nian 1 yue" / Li Shuwen. / Lun wen (zhe xue shuo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2001. / Can kao wen xian (leaves 114-121) / Fu Zhong Ying wen zhai yao. / 撮要 --- p.i / Abstract --- p.ii / 目錄 --- p.iv / Chapter 第一章 --- 導論 / Chapter 一´Ø --- 引言 --- p.1 / Chapter 二´Ø --- 硏究方法 --- p.4 / Chapter 三´Ø --- 六朝志怪的特性 --- p.6 / Chapter 1´Ø --- 志怪小說的內容 / Chapter 2´Ø --- 志怪小說的寫作手法 / Chapter 3´Ø --- 志怪小說的寫作動機 / Chapter 四´Ø --- 選擇《搜神記》的原因 --- p.14 / Chapter 1 ´Ø --- 從文學角度看 / Chapter 2´Ø --- 從內容看 / Chapter 五´Ø --- 本文結構與內容 --- p.16 / Chapter 第二章 --- 《搜神記》的成書與流傳 / Chapter 一´Ø --- 成書 --- p.18 / Chapter 1 ´Ø --- 資料來源 / Chapter 2´Ø --- 寫作目的 / Chapter 二 ´Ø --- 流傳 --- p.22 / Chapter 第三章 --- 《搜神記》中「死而復生故事」內容分析 --- p.30 / Chapter 一´Ø --- 死而復生的原因 --- p.32 / Chapter 1´Ø --- 被司命誤召 / Chapter 2´Ø --- 未當死 / Chapter 二´Ø --- 死而復生的詮釋 --- p.36 / Chapter 1´Ø --- 精誠所至 / Chapter 2´Ø --- 徵兆 / Chapter 三´Ø --- 死後的去處及生活 --- p.41 / Chapter 1´Ø --- 死後往天上及其生活 / Chapter 2´Ø --- 死後往泰山及其生活 / Chapter 第四章 --- 《搜神記》中「鬼故事」內容分析 --- p.47 / Chapter 一´Ø --- 鬼顯現的原因 --- p.50 / Chapter 1´Ø --- 死於非命 / Chapter 2´Ø --- 安葬不宜 / Chapter 3´Ø --- 未嫁而死 / Chapter 二´Ø --- 死後的去處及其生活 --- p.58 / Chapter 1 ´Ø --- 死後的去處 / Chapter 2 ´Ø --- 死後的生活 / Chapter 三´Ø --- 死者與生者的關係 --- p.60 / Chapter 第五章 --- 《搜神記》中死後世界的承傳與轉變 --- p.65 / Chapter 一´Ø --- 死而復生與漢代流行思想 --- p.67 / Chapter 二´Ø --- 《搜神記》中死後世界的承傳與轉變 --- p.74 / Chapter 1 ´Ø --- 死後的去處 / Chapter 2´Ø --- 死後世界的官僚架構組織 / Chapter 3´Ø --- 死後的生活 / Chapter 4´Ø --- 死者與生者的關係 / Chapter 第六章 --- 總結 --- p.109 / 參考書目 --- p.114

Thesis--Catholic University of America, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-170).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-215). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis--Catholic University of America, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [167]-170).