Thesis (master's)-Universität, München. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-140).

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 and Theory of Literature / (D. Litt. et Phil. Afrikaans))

The primary thesis of this dissertation is that the development of narrative strategy and technique through the course of Samuel Beckett’s fictional oeuvre enacts a parody of the Cartesian method of doubt, in which the search for first principles, instead of providing grounds for certainty, is a hopeless, grotesque quest for a self which eludes any and every assertion. My chief concerns are thus, firstly, to explicate and elucidate the nature of such narrative strategies and techniques, and how these can be said to parody epistemological procedure; and secondly, to interrogate the implications of this parody for the epistemological and interpretative endeavour of which the human sciences are comprised. These two issues are explored by way of an examination of Beckett’s earliest novel, Murphy, and the narrative impasse that arises from the contradiction between this work’s largely realist form and quasi-postmodern content. I thereafter argue that the later fiction, most particularly the Trilogy, achieves formal and stylistic solutions to the aesthetic and epistemological challenges raised by the earlier work. Beckett’s fictional oeuvre, I contend, can best be construed as an attempt to attain that which exceeds and escapes narrative in and through narrative, namely madness or death. The achievement of either would entail the obliteration of the possibility of narrating at all, and the novels, engaging in a self-deconstructing endeavour, thus occupy a profoundly paradoxical position. Any attempt to interpret a body of work of this nature can only respond in an analogous manner, by trying to make meaning of the subversion of meaning, and deconstructing the assumptions that inform its procedures. This dissertation argues that it is precisely in the way in which it necessitates such selfreflexive discursive analysis that the import of Samuel Beckett’s fiction lies, and extrapolates the significance of this for an understanding of discourse, literary criticism, and epistemological procedure.

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.

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.

No description available.

PhD (English Literature) / Department of English / This study explored the depictions and perspectives of health, illness and death in selected postcolonial texts written after the year 2000. Although tantamount attention has been directed to notions of health, illness and death in literary texts (medical narratives) largely from scientific and clinical perspectives, the study primarily focuses on memoir accounts of experiences and perspectives of health, illness and death. In response to the dearth of critical work, which primarily refers to body and its wellbeing socially integrating clinical diagnosis and the socio-natural human factors. The study interrogates how memoirs depict the health, illness and death subjective experiences and perceptions of people in typical African communities. My argument is that literature and memoirs in particular, are a site where conceptions of perspectives and experiences of people (Africans) are (de)constructed. The experiences of health, illness and death are not an exception. In reading the selected texts, I focused on how a merger of factors such as culture, gender, beliefs (African and Religious), age, society, and social status are drawn from the personal narratives in the selected memoirs (re) conceptualise the notions of health, illness and death in a typical African community. The discourses in memoirs challenge the norms and the construction of human and social expectations in dominant ideological discourses such as culture, beliefs, gender, race, class, democracy, post colonialism, Afrocentrism among others. The study enters into a critical conversation with the postcolonial personal (memoir) representation of health, illness and death as a human social context. Using discourse analysis and literature review, I have placed Postcolonial, Afrocentric and bio-political perspectives of several writers in conversation with the health, illness and death defined practices voiced in the selected texts. The discursive debates in the study allow us to consider personal or individual experiences and perspectives as chambers, sites and conceptions of knowledge production in a typical African community and this either silence or make visible the minority and marginal African social ideals and interpretations of health, illness and death as well as body agency. The study established that, the hybridity of perspectives and experiences in personal narratives (memoirs), the subject, and discourses are in the ‘third’ space from where the writers challenge the norms which dictate over the nature of how the body (subject) and the other social factors decipher health, illness and death. Thus, my thesis concludes that the perspectives and experiences examined in the selected texts, the socio-cultural factors of human existence premise the interpretations of the clinical understanding of the body as the point of departure, but socio-cultural interpretations of the body pre-occupy perspectives and experiences of health, illness and death. The clinical aspects and interpretations of the human body are then perceived through the social production of information. The selected texts are Our Kind of People: A Continent's Challenge, A Country's Hope (2005) by Uzondimna Iweala, Eloquent Body (2012) by Dawn Garisch, The Last Right (2013) by Marianne Thamm, Postmortem (2014) by Maria Phalime , Holding My Breath (2016) by Ace Moloi. / NRF

Ill health, accident and death are themes common to all of Jane Austen's novels. Some illnesses are physical, whereas some of her heroines experience excessive psychological, emotional and spiritual traumas. These references are too numerous to be either coincidental, glossed over or ignored. Austen expressed an interest in the mind/body relationship, believing that illness could be brought upon in certain personalities by the sufferer herself, and it seems that she might have held theories similar to those advocated by Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and even have anticipated those on feminine hysteria, and the effects of unconscious motives on behaviour, which were advanced by Freud in works such as The Interpretation of Dreams. This study examines Austen's novels, and the origin and purpose of physical and psychological illness in these, and looks at how Austen uses illness, accident and death, and more particularly how their roles progressively change and develop. For Austen's handling of these common issues appears to vary and to develop in line with the order of composition of her novels. She places increasing emphasis on them, not just to further plot, but also to reflect character change and development. Many of the parents or guardians of Austen's heroines are inadequate. And so Austen's heroines are often deprived of commendable models, left to find their own way, alone and in need of emotional support, to confront their youthful excesses, to work their way through these and to find their own destiny despite their handicaps. Self-improvement is neither pleasant nor easy, especially where one is young, inexperienced and alone. And, where heroines exhibit unhealthy or excessive interests in anything that diverts them from their paths of virtue or usefulness, the correction may frequently be painful. Thus most of the novels are, to a greater or lesser degree, filled with references to both physical and psychological ill health. This thesis examines how Austen used these illnesses, accidents and deaths in the various novels, both in the development of plot, as well as in the development of the character of the heroine in each instance. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

The nineteenth century was a time of rapid change, brought about by increasing industrial development and changing patterns of thought and belief. Dickens's attitude to industrialism was ambivalent. He was not averse to progress, but feared that the ills of society would remain overshadowed. This dissertation explores representations of loss in Bleak House and examines some of the challenges the subject presents. The first chapter concentrates on examples of the wide range of losses with which Dickens deals in the novel to create the cumulative impression of individuals and a nation existing in a state of chaos and decay. Chapter Two focuses on the loss of physical life and the state of death-in-life. Chapter Three deals with the narrative techniques which Dickens uses to represent loss in the novel. / English Studies / M.A.

Jane Austen sprinkles deaths throughout her novels as plot devices and character indicators, but she does not tackle death directly. Yet death pervades her novels, in a subtle yet brutal way, in the lives of her female characters. Austen reveals that death was the definition and the destiny of women; it was the driving force behind the social and economic constructs that ruled the eighteenth-century woman's life, manifested in language, literature, religion, art, and even in a woman's doubts about herself. In Northanger Abbey Catherine Morland discovers that women, like female characters in gothic texts, are written and rewritten by the men whose language dominates them. Catherine herself becomes an example of real gothic when she is silenced and her spirit murdered by Henry Tilney. Marianne Dashwood barely escapes the powerful male constructs of language and literature in Sense and Sensibility. Marianne finds that the literal, maternal, wordless language of women counts for nothing in the social world, where patriarchal,figurative language rules, and in her attempt to channel her literal language into the social language of sensibility, she is placed in a position of more deadly nothingness, cast by society as a scorned woman and expected to die. Fanny Price in Mansfield Park is sacrificed as Eve, but in her death-like existence and in her rise to success she echoes Christ, who is ultimately a maternal figure that encapsulates the knowledge of the goddess, the knowledge that from death will come life. Emma Woodhouse in Emma discovers that her perfection, sanctioned by artistic standards, is really a means by which society eases its fears about death by projecting death onto women as a beautiful ideal. In Persuasion, Anne Elliotfindsthat women endure death while men struggle against it, and this endurance requires more courage than most men possess or understand. Austen's novels expose the undercurrent of death in women's lives, yet hidden in her heroines is the maternal power of women—the power to bear children, to bear language and culture, to bear both life and death.