This thesis argues that a ‘tradition of moral analysis’ between Jane Austen and George Eliot — a common ground which has been identified by critics from F.R. Leavis to Gillian Beer, but never fully explored — can be illuminated by turning to what this thesis calls ‘the reflective tradition’. In the eighteenth century, ideas about reflection provided a new and influential way of thinking about the human mind; about how we come to know ourselves and the world around us through the mind. The belief in the individual to act as his/her own guide through the cultivation of a reflective mind and attentiveness to a reflective voice emerges across a wide range of discourses. This thesis begins with an examination of reflection in the philosophy, children’s literature, novels, poetry, educational tracts and sermons that would have been known to Austen. It then defines Austen’s development of reflective dynamics by looking at her six major novels; finally, it analyzes Middlemarch to define Eliot’s proximity to this aspect of Austen’s art. The thesis documents Eliot’s reading of Austen through the criticism of G. H. Lewes to support a reading of Eliot’s assimilation of an Austenian attention to mental processes in her novels. Reflection is at the heart of moral life and growth for both novelists. This thesis corrects a tendency in Austen’s reception to focus on the mimetic aspect of her art, thereby overlooking the introspective sense of reflection. It offers new insights into Austen’s and Eliot’s work, and it contributes to an understanding of the development of the realist novel and the ethical dimension in the role of the novel reader.

Zugleich: Diss. Kiel, 2007. / Register. Literaturverz.

Les mythologies – gréco-romaine, irlandaise, perse, indienne, japonaise, chinoise –sont omniprésentes dans la poésie de Bunting, Eliot, Pound et Yeats. Les prédilections desauteurs pour certaines mythologies, véritables choix identitaires et politiques, montrenttoutefois une péroccupation commune pour les mythes violents, aux niveaux martial et sexuel.Ce premier niveau thématique se combine avec une réflexion plus distanciée sur le mythe,outil critique qui permet la reformulation de croyances rituelles et spirituelles, et de nouvellesthéories poétiques qui visent à ordonner et donner un sens au monde chaotique du XXe siècle.Le mythe, subversif, permet donc l’articulation de nouvelles spiritualités et denouvelles expériences poétiques. Enfin, matériau vivant et modelable, dont la mention est à lafois un raccourci de récits anciens et un horizon élargi vers d’autres références et réécritures,le mythe est objet linguistique. En traduction, le mythe transfert les contenus thématiques,déplace les rythmes et fait circuler et s’entremêler les arts. En effet, retour fantasmé à uneorigine du langage artistique, le mythe est parfois fiction d’un art total où les figuresmythiques seraient à la fois objet linguistique, représentation imaginaire picturale etmanifestation musicale. De cette vision du mythe émane une poésie polyphonique et hybride,à l’image du centaure et des autres créatures monstrueuses présents dans l’oeuvre poétique deBunting, Eliot, Pound et Yeats. / Greek and Roman, Irish, Persian, Indian, Japanese and Chinese mythologies areeverywhere in the poetry of Bunting, Eliot, Pound and Yeats. Their favouring somemythologies over others are often justified by their definitions of identity and politics. Yettheir common point is a recurent rewriting of sexually or martially violent myths. Secondly,more than a theme, myth also provides a distanced reflection which enables the poets toformulate new ritual and spiritual beliefs, together with a new poetics meant to order andmake sense of what is seen as a chaotic 20th century.Finally, myth is a living and protean material, whose presence is both a shorthand forolder narratives and a broader horizon pointing to other rewritings. In its linguistic dimension,myth in translation emphasizes questions of rhythm and enables the incorporation of other artsinto poetry. Indeed, the use of myth suggests a fantasized return to the origins of language andthe arts. Myth enables poets to try and create total art works where mythical figures are bothlinguistic and musical objects, as well as pictural representations of the imagination. From thepossibilities afforded by myth stems a polyphonic and hybrid poetry, akin to the image of thecentaur and other monstrous creatures present in the poetic works of Bunting, Eliot, Poundand Yeats.

Le rapprochement du Waste Land de T. S. Eliot et de la Kasidah de R. F. Burton produit une théorie littéraire. Cette théorie est fondée sur le principe de l'Unité de la Conscience (Wahdat al Wayy) d'après l'exégèse d'Ibn Arabi (Wahdat al Wujud et Wahdat al Adyân). Elle postule également que toute vie n'est qu'un courant de conscience. L'action est une forme d'écriture de la conscience dans le monde, et l'expérience vécue est une forme d'écriture du monde dans la conscience. Or l'expression de la conscience en perspective est un invariant profond des littératures, qui relie The Waste Land et The Kasidah mais également Al Aaraaf de Poe, le Voyage de Baudelaire, le Testament de Villon ou encore le Canto Notturno de Leopardi. Un autre invariant, fondé par le précédent, est l'invariant de la gâtine, que l'on peut résumer par le mythe de l'Ortolano Eterno : Homo : locatus est, damnatus est, humatus est, renatus est : in Horto. Or la Septième sourate du Coran est une expression notable de l'invariant de la gâtine. Ainsi comme il existe une cartographie dynamique des connexions cérébrales, la connectomique, il existe une connectomique des littératures et une biologie des littératures. Une partie du corps calleux des littératures, le faisceau de connexions directes entre Orient et Occident, est la "chaîne de la gâtine", un linéament de textes qui se fascinent pour l'interaction entre le monde et la conscience. Concernant Eliot, ses influences soufies directes vont de Omar Khayyam à Guénon ou Schuon, et ses influences indirectes relèvent de l'influence soufie sur les troubadours. Eliot influence lui-même la poésie de l'aire musulmane depuis au moins 1950. / Connecting T. S. Eliot's Waste Land to R. F. Burton's Kasidah produces a literary theory. The founding principle of this theory is the Unity of Consciousness (Wahdat al Wayy), after the exegesis of Ibn Arabi (Wahdat al Wujud and Wahdat al Adyan). It also postulates that any life is but a stream of consciousness. Action is thus the way by which consciousness writes in the world, and experience is the way the world writes in consciousness. The expression of consciousness in perspective is in turn a profound literary invariant, connecting The Waste Land and The Kasidah but also Poe's Al Aaraaf, Baudelaire's Voyage, Villon's Testament or Leopardi's Canto Notturno. Another invariant, based on the precedent, is the invariant of the wasteland, which can be summed up by the myth of the Ortolano Eterno : Homo : locatus est, damnatus est, humatus est, renatus est : in Horto. Now the seventh surah of the Quran is a notable expression of the invariant of the wasteland. In the same way that there is a connectomics of the human brain, there is a connectomics and also a biology of literatures. A sample of its corpus callosum, connecting the Western and Eastern literatures, is the "chain of the wasteland", a lineament of texts which leitmotiv is the interaction between consciousness and the world. Regarding Eliot his direct sufi influences range from Omar Khayyam to Guénon and Schuon, and his indirect ones regard the known sufi influence over the troubadours. In turn Eliot has been influencing the contemporary poetry of the muslim area since at least 1950.

This thesis explores ways in which T. S. Eliot, when he wrote his most autobiographical poetic work<em> Four Quartets</em>, might have been influenced by Thoreaus famously autobiographical prose work <em>Walden</em>, written nearly a century earlier<em>.</em> Much evidence suggests that Eliot knew of the earlier writer and his work. Not only did Eliot assign <em>Walden</em> as suggested reading in a course he taught, but as time went on Eliot also admitted that he was influenced by the New England literary tradition. Reading <em>Four Quartets</em> in light of <em>Walden</em> and its context not only helps a reader understand the connections between the two works, it also gives a reader a better understanding of <em>Four Quartets</em>' fundamental meanings. Although Eliot in <em>Four Quartets</em> adds another layer of his spiritual goals beyond those expressed in <em>Walden</em>, he expresses his religio-philosophical quest for Incarnational "still point[s] of the turning world" (<em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) using autobiographical aspects and poetic tropes that are in many ways strikingly similar to the expressions also present in <em>Walden</em>. </p> <p>The chapters of this thesis unfold these concepts. My Introduction highlights some of the key connections. Chapter One sets the stage for the discussion of the Incarnation by explaining how <em>Four Quartets</em>' spiritual round-trip journey from England to America is grounded in real world places and experiences. This chapter also explains how this guardedly autobiographical re-collection of an almost-real journey includes a response to Eliots personal history and to his literary ancestors, including Thoreau<em>.</em> In Chapter Two, I unpack the similarities and differences between many of the religio-philosophical questions asked in the two works, focusing in on Eliots and Thoreau's complex handlings of such themes as simplicity versus complexity, Incarnation, stillness versus activity, and the difficulty of achieving spiritual goals. Finally, these religio-philosophical questions are incarnated in very similar poetic devices and tropes within both works; in Chapter Three, I describe the most important of these. The "still point of the turning world" (Eliot, <em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) and the "mathematical point" (Thoreau, <em>Walden</em> 1.100) are rich metaphors that form the heart of this chapter.</p>

This thesis explores ways in which T. S. Eliot, when he wrote his most autobiographical poetic work<em> Four Quartets</em>, might have been influenced by Thoreaus famously autobiographical prose work <em>Walden</em>, written nearly a century earlier<em>.</em> Much evidence suggests that Eliot knew of the earlier writer and his work. Not only did Eliot assign <em>Walden</em> as suggested reading in a course he taught, but as time went on Eliot also admitted that he was influenced by the New England literary tradition. Reading <em>Four Quartets</em> in light of <em>Walden</em> and its context not only helps a reader understand the connections between the two works, it also gives a reader a better understanding of <em>Four Quartets</em>' fundamental meanings. Although Eliot in <em>Four Quartets</em> adds another layer of his spiritual goals beyond those expressed in <em>Walden</em>, he expresses his religio-philosophical quest for Incarnational "still point[s] of the turning world" (<em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) using autobiographical aspects and poetic tropes that are in many ways strikingly similar to the expressions also present in <em>Walden</em>. </p> <p>The chapters of this thesis unfold these concepts. My Introduction highlights some of the key connections. Chapter One sets the stage for the discussion of the Incarnation by explaining how <em>Four Quartets</em>' spiritual round-trip journey from England to America is grounded in real world places and experiences. This chapter also explains how this guardedly autobiographical re-collection of an almost-real journey includes a response to Eliots personal history and to his literary ancestors, including Thoreau<em>.</em> In Chapter Two, I unpack the similarities and differences between many of the religio-philosophical questions asked in the two works, focusing in on Eliots and Thoreau's complex handlings of such themes as simplicity versus complexity, Incarnation, stillness versus activity, and the difficulty of achieving spiritual goals. Finally, these religio-philosophical questions are incarnated in very similar poetic devices and tropes within both works; in Chapter Three, I describe the most important of these. The "still point of the turning world" (Eliot, <em>Burnt Norton</em> 62) and the "mathematical point" (Thoreau, <em>Walden</em> 1.100) are rich metaphors that form the heart of this chapter.</p>

No description available.

Diss. Northwestern Univ., 2007.

Diss. Northwestern Univ., 2007.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-238) and index.