The purpose of this thesis is to survey Jane Austen biography and criticism published since 1940 in order to show the present state of Jane Austen study while providing a bibliographical guide to recent material.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Africa, 2002.

This thesis will examine the trope of the outsider figure in Lewis Nkosi's two novels, Mating Birds (1986) and Underground People (2002). Since both novels are set in South Africa and are informed by the political context of this country at particular junctures, the thesis will focus on the. effects of apartheid on the two black protagonists - central characters yet 'outsider figures' - in these novels. This thesis will argue that Lewis Nkosi's own position as an 'outsider figure' in South African letters plays an important function in his writing. In support of this point, I will therefore also refer to his non fictional books, Home and Exile and Other Selections (1965) and Tasks and Masks: themes and styles of African Literature (1981). These books are particularly important because they document Nkosi's comments on South African literature and his position as the 'outsider' acerbic critic. Nkosi can be seen as an outsider figure being a young, black South African living in an apartheid South Africa, and also, later, as a writer in exile. I have chosen Mating Birds and Underground People to illustrate my argument because they are not simply 'protest' novels, (in the sense Nkosi argued in Home and Exile and Tasks and Masks that so much black South African literature of a certain era was), but rather they examine the complex effects of exclusion, with regard to race and politics, on the individual. As the 'outsider' figure found full expression in French existentialist writing, I will also look at constructions of the outsider figure from an existentialist perspective. In his preface to the 2002 edition of Mating Birds, Nkosi reveals that the novel was to a large extent influenced by Albert Camus' The Outsider (1942). In writing The Outsider, Camus explores questions raised by the philosophy of existentialism. Similarly, Nkosi looks at black existence in a hostile apartheid environment, the absurdity of Sibiya's predicament and how he came to be there. He also explores the harshness of the physical environment which is a literal representation of Sibiya's anguish. Postcolonial analysis of 'othering', a logical extension of existentialism's 'outsider' figure will be used to support my argument. Mating Birds (1986), among other accolades, won the prestigious Macmillan International Pen Prize. Set between the 1950's and 1960's, it explores the divisions and prejudices that were experienced between white and black in a country steeped in racism and division. It deals primarily with the obsession an educated, young, black man, Ndi Sibiya, has for a white woman, Veronica Slater. Their illicit sexual relationship results in Sibiya being tried and convicted, by a white court, for rape. Underground People (2002), Nkosi's second novel, set in the late 1980's and early 1990's, takes the reader into the world of politics and underground resistance during the apartheid regime in South Africa. It narrates the adventures of Cornelius Molapo, an awkward member of the "National Liberation Movement", the fictional name of the African National Congress. Chapter One of this mini-dissertation will focus on a definition and exploration of the outsider figure in selected literary and theoretical works. Chapter Two will focus on the life and works of Lewis Nkosi in an effort to link the trope of the outsider figure to Nkosi's own life experience. His books, Tasks and Masks and Home and Exile, both collections of essays, help the reader to develop a picture of Nkosi, not only as a writer but also as a literary critic whose writing developed while in exile. Chapter Three and Four will provide a literary analysis of Mating Birds and Underground People, respectively. The analysis will deal with the outsider figure as a prominent feature of both these novels. Post-colonial analyses such as forwarded by Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha will be used to advance the thesis. The conclusion (Chapter Five) will refer briefly to Nkosi's current writing projects and situate them in the post-apartheid South African context. An assessment of the on-going potential for the 'outsider' figure in Nkosi's contemporary work will be made. / Thesis (M.A)-University of Durban Westville, 2005.

Habilitationsschrift-Cologne. / Bibliography: p. [266]-304.

Habilitationsschrift-Cologne. / Bibliography: p. [266]-304.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the trailblazing work of C.L. Moore’s Jirel of Joiry in light of themes of queerness, gender, and female masculinity, which has seldom been analyzed. In this thesis, I will juxtapose Moore’s work with other contemporaries like Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Éowyn to highlight Moore’s trailblazing gendered portrayal. This thesis utilizes Judith Butler’s Undoing Gender and Jack Halberstam’s Female Masculinity as lenses to codify the uniquely gendered portrayal that Moore has left for us to interpret. Furthermore, through examining Jacques Lacan’s interpretation of phallocentricity, this thesis will argue that the art of being a warrior (or warriorship) should be a non-binary conception. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 238-250).

Despite a devoted cult following and high praise from a handful of reviewers, Donald Harington has received scant attention in the academic literature. Harington (1935-2009) published 14 novels, most of them centered around the fictional Ozark hamlet of Stay More, Arkansas. Because he wrote mostly about a single town and because his novels contain a folkloric magical realism, he has often been compared to William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but his works defy easy classification. This report argues that Harington’s novel Farther Along is a recovery narrative structurally and thematically congruent with the recovery narratives told at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. The storyteller establishes his “qualifications” as an addictive drinker and depicts alcoholism as a symptom of underlying problems manifested not only in drinking but also in self-pity and resentment. The drinker reaches a crisis, or bottom, and begins to recover after going to meetings and hearing someone else’s autobiographical story that reveals truths about the nature of addiction. Continued attendance at meetings, during which one identifies with the stories of others, ends alcoholic isolation. Help from some type of higher power becomes crucial to achieving sobriety. And recovery includes service to others as a safeguard against the return of self-pity. However, in Farther Along it is not AA’s twelve-step program that leads the protagonist to sobriety. Instead, it is storytelling in itself – fiction – that functions as the “program” of recovery. More particularly, Harington, himself an alcoholic who remained sober for more than two decades, found an alternative to AA in his bizarre brand of magical realism. Thus, the novel is a testament to the healing power of stories. / text

The purpose of this investigation is to analyze the ways in which the American Western genre has been reworked in an Anglophone Caribbean context. This paper focuses on the role of the cowboy figure as it pertains to both a postcolonial Jamaican context a more globalized, diasporic Anglophone Caribbean setting. The Western genre, while not typically associated with the Caribbean, has tropes that certainly occur in both film and literature. There is not much scholarship that details the importance of this reimagination as a positive association in the region, and I have chosen both the film and novel The Harder They Come by Perry Henzell and Michael Thelwell, respectively, and Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall to trace these ideas. Together, these works provide a multifaceted understanding of how the American Western helps to interpret the Anglophone Caribbean as a participant in an increasingly globalized world. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis explores W.P. Kinsella's emphasis on love for land, family, and baseball in discussing relationships between characters in his short story "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa". Chapter I introduces the characters, their role in establishing this as a tale of conservation through agrarianism, and how Kinsella's choice to write a positive story creates unique potential for healing. Chapter II establishes similarities between the father's war experiences and Jackson's exile from baseball, underscoring its mythic importance. Chapter III examines the relationship between the protagonist and his wife, and how their relationship symbolically fosters love for nature through farming, and can be used to reconcile modern agrarianism with ecocriticism. Chapter IV discusses how connection with the earth brings healing. The final chapter underscores the worthiness of this work to be a cherished part of the American literary canon. / by Ashley Santy. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.