<p>A brief analysis of the satirical and grotesque elements in the published prose works of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>In the space of eleven years (1897-1908), Twain worked intermittently on three different portrayals of a devilish stranger in unfinished stories which are known collectively as the Mysterious Stranger manuscripts. In this thesis I will examine these different devilish strangers, taking as my starting point an examination of Hank Morgan in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), whom I feel is their precursor. I will conclude the thesis by illustrating Twain's continued interest in the devilish stranger figure after his abandonment of the Mysterious Stranger manuscripts, in "Letters from the Earth."</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the development of a narrative persona in selected works of Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita, Pnin and Pale Fire are novels which seem particularly well-suited to a study of this nature because of the remarkable self-consciousness and vitality of their respective narrators. A chapter has been devoted to each of these novels, and within each chapter the implied relationships between the narrator and those who act upon or react to his resence -- author, other characters and reader -- have been considered.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Herman Melville is a difficult writer because of the built-in ambiguities of his narrative technique, i.e. point of view. The present study attempts to examine his use of point of view in his two early novels--Typee and Redburn with a view to understanding the meaning and vision embodied in them. The introductory chapter reviews some of Melville's critics and evolves an approach which may grapple with Melville's intricate handling of point of view. In the follmving chapters I use this approach. to study two of Melville's early noveis, Typee and Redburn. The analysis of the point of view in these two novels reveals that they are inspired by a vision of evil. Each of the novels expresses and illuminates some particular aspect of the human situation or of evil in the universe.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>After a half-century of writing, Morley Callaghan has earned a place in Canadian literature. The difficulty in this is that Callaghan wants no such place.</p> <p>To locate Callaghan in our literary development, Canadian critics have attached labels, sought out resemblances and dependences, applied extrinsic analytical tools such as Jungian psychological theory, and finally, they have treated his work with special consideration because he is Canadian. In short, they have reduced his work to a sterile series of commonalities, and have ignored its individuality and mystery.</p> <p>A Fine and Private Place is, in part, a reaction to such critics. It shows the shallowness of critic J.C. Hilton, and traces the right education as a critic of Al Delaney as he moves from his dependence on scholarship to a trust in his heart's reaction to Eugene Shore's writing. In particular, the novel shows that its realism can be verified by a Jungian framework, and yet that the framework does not encapsulate Callaghan's creativity. As a fine tale, it has a charm and intimacy which critical tools cannot dissect.</p> <p>The novel alludes to three other Callaghan works: The Loved and the Lost, More Joy in Heaven, and Such Is My Beloved. In this context, A Fine and Private Place reveals its place in an evolving treatment of the rivalry between criminal-saints and their repressive societies, with the value of the individual as the prize.</p> <p>Callaghan's works must not be trapped in a literary mosaic: they must be accepted by the reader in private on their own merits. A Fine and Private Place is both a request for such treatment and a critical tool to assist in the task.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Criticism of Lampman, while recently successful in finally getting away from reading him merely as a descriptive nature poet, has not closely examined his complex relationship with Emersonian Transcendentalism, nor has it looked at his poetical career as a whole. Many critics portray Lampman as a "dreamer of dreams", an escapist, and the critics who have noticed transcendental tendencies in his poetry conclude that his poetical career was, like that of Emerson or Thoreau, a sustained retreat into nature. After first of all offering a fairer and more balanced biographical account of Lampman than has yet been offered, this study examines past and present criticism of Lampman and the biases that inform it, and looks at Lampmap's views of Emersonian Transcendentalism before coming to the major task which is to examine closely Lampman's three volumes of verse and to show that there is a development, a maturing, of his poetic vision. His first volume, Among The Millet (1888), reflects an attempt to give expression to the Emersonian identification of man with nature; in his second, Lyrics of Earth (1895), after adopting a thoroughly transcendeptal stance, he sees the dishonesty and inadequacy of this philosophy; and in his last volume, Alcyone (1899), he abandons his transcendental quest for unity with nature and gives uninhibited expression to his frightening, direct vision of nature and human nature. In Lampman there is an important, but hitherto neglected, transcendental-visionary development.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This thesis is an examination of Farquhar's works, with an emphasis on major characterization. Such an analysis has not been done to my knowledge, and Farquhar's writing lends itself especially well to a search for the development of one man's art. In Chapter I, the setting in which Farquhar's works were presented is sketched out, as well as Farquhar's ideas about the creation of comedy, as discussed in his "Discourse upon Comedy". Chapter II deals with Farquhar's first play, Love and a Bottle, and its introduction of the basic four character pattern of rake-hero, his more sentimental friend, free-spirited coquette, and chaste maiden. The Constant Couple, a more polished attempt of what was set forth in Love and a Bottle combined with a manners style reminiscent of Congreve, is discussed in Chapter III. Chapter IV examines a problematic play, The Twin-Rivals, and searches for the reasons for this play's lack of success. With Chapter V the introduction of a more natural setting into Farquhar's plays is explored. Farquhar branches out into something different from the popular plays of the period in the rustic The Recruiting Officer with its country setting and military theme. The Beaux Stratagem represents the happy combination of city wit and graceful naturalness in a work which was entertaining as well as fresh. In conclusion, Farquhar's use of morality is discussed, as is his connection with other playwrights. This thesis, then, tries to discover what Farquhar did and perhaps did not do to make his plays popular, and what makes his work stand out as individual and worthwhile.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Edith Wharton has been criticised for her portrayal of male characters. They are often dismissed as being mainly one type: the inadequate, aristocratic, dilettante gentleman. This thesis argues that whilst this figure re-occurs in her work a development can be seen from Lawrence Selden of The House of Mirth, to Ralph Marvell of The Custom of the Country culminating in Newland Archer, hero of The Age of Innocence. Furthermore these men are not carbon copies of each other, but independent characters in their own right. Finally, it will be shown that there is a considerable range of male characters to be found playing secondary roles in her work.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Certain themes recur in all of the writings of Anais Nin: psychoanalysis; the nature of the artist; the nature of woman. Cities of the Interior unites all these themes in a perceptive study of three female artists. The psychological theories that most influenced Nin were those of Otto Rank, who perceived many similarities between the creative and the neurotic personality. Both are strongly influenced by the subconscious mind, the source of both inspiration and disturbance. The artist, however, can channel his creative energies outward, into art or even into creative human relationships, rather than turning them neurotically inward. The artist develops and fulfills himself through creation. The neurotic, on the other hand, remains trapped in futile narcissism, and never achieves his potential. Nin accepted these ideas, but gave them an added dimension. Rank was concerned mainly with the male artist, but Nin was interested in the psychology of the feminine artist. Cities of the Interior explores the psyche of the feminine artist, using the parameters of Rank's theories.</p> <p>The three major characters, Sabina, Djuna, and Lillian, strive to overcome neurosis, and fulfill their creative potential on their own terms, without imitating male artists. In doing so, they also create themselves, and this self-creation is, according to Rank, the ultimate goal of the artist. Nin extends this idea. She believes that women are, by nature, in closer touch with the subconscious than men, -but that it is only recently that they have had the opportunity to make use of their tremendous creative potential. Thus a woman who reaches artistic self-realization creates not only herself, but a new king of artist and a new kind of woman.</p> <p>Sabina is the least successful of the three artists. Far from being a new kind of woman, she vacillates between stereotypically "feminine" seductiveness and mystery, and aggressive imitation of masculine Don Juanism. She shows many symptoms of neurosis, particularly fragmentation. She has at least as many "selves" as she has lovers, and is unable to unite the various aspects of her personality. As an actress, she is an undisciplined failure, since she can only play her roles for a masculine audience of one. Her creative forces are too scattered to make her a successful actress or a self-determining woman.</p> <p>Djuna is more successful as an artist, but she lives in a dreamworld, preferring the ideal to the real. According to Nin, the artist must "proceed from the dream outward", and Djuna slowly learns to do this. She must also go beyond a feminine stereotype -- the saintly, compassionate woman. She becomes a true artist and a more complete woman when she realizes, first, that destruction is part of creation, and, second, that the interior world of "the dream" should be used as an inspiration and a temporary refuge, not a permanent habitation.</p> <p>Lillian also goes from neurosis to creativity. At first she is destructive and aggressive, denying her own femininity, rejecting all artistic discipline, and refusing to acknowledge her own inner life. The result is chaos, in her music and in her relationships. As she learns to look inward and understand herself, she is better able to fulfill the artist's function of creating harmony out of unordered, "natural" reality, and better able to interact creatively with others.</p> <p>Cities of the Interior is marred slightly by didacticism, one-dimensional male characters, and, at times, an overly-psychoanalytical tone, but it is nevertheless a strong statement of Nin's concept of woman and of creativity, as well as being a perceptive study of three psychologically complex characters. Rank's influence is obvious, but it is Nin's own idea that it is not only possible for a woman to be a successful artist, but artistic expression is only one manifestation of woman's potential creativity.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)