The goal of this thesis is to shed light upon a particular style of writing, namely the rhetoric of the extreme, which characterizes the oeuvre of Anne Hebert. Many facets of this rhetoric are reflected in her work: the use of words referring explicitly to the notion of the extreme ("toujours", "jamais", etc.); formation of isotopies (extreme wealth or extreme poverty); dualistic themes; ethical polarisation; the elaboration of strongly contrasting characters (Bernard and Heloise in the novel Heloise); and the use of the trope which unifies two extremes: the oxymoron. / Rhetoric, in the modern sense of the word (following the work of the Groupe Mu, Gerard Genette and Roland Barthes) enables, on the one hand, a lexical analysis of the vocabulary of the extreme (such as "toujours", "rien", "pas un", etc.), and on the other, through the character analysis of Elisabeth Rolland, heroine of Kamouraska, renders the repeated use of the oxymoron meaningful. / Finally, the adoption of a holistic viewpoint highlights an evolution in her style. Given the possible juxtapositions inherent in a Manichean universe (opposition in her earliest and latest works, union in her three novels from the 1970s), two different worldviews are revealed which correspond, for the author, to two stylistic modes.

In 1972, Italo Calvino published Le citta invisibili, a text which marked a radical departure from "traditional" narrative methods. / This study is an analysis of the literary techniques used in the text. It posits Calvino's critical and theoretical evolution as the source of the specific stylistic choices that determine the originality of the work.

This thesis represents the first full-scale, English commentary on the opening book of Lucan�s epic poem, De Bello Ciuili, in sixty-five years. Its fundamental purpose is to explain the language and content of the Latin text of the book. The subject matter of the thesis beyond the introduction is naturally dependent upon the content of each individual line under consideration, but the following questions may help establish some of the larger issues I have prioritised throughout my response to the Latin text of book one. These questions may be variously relevant to an episode within book one of De Bello Ciuili, or else a sentence, a line, a word, a metrical issue, or a combination of these. How does it help locate the text within the genre of epic? What does it contribute to the overall meaning of the poem? What does it contribute to our understanding of epic narrative technique? What does it contribute to our understanding of Lucan�s poetic usage and technique? How does it interact with the rest of the poem (i.e. what are the structural or intratextual markers advertised and what do they contribute to the meaning of the passage under consideration or the structure of the book or poem as a whole)? How does it interact with its (especially epic) models (i.e. what intertextual markers are at work and how does the invocation of earlier models affect the meaning of the passage under consideration)? How does it behave in relation to what we know of the norms espoused by Classical literary criticism? What are the programmatic issues, themes, and images explored or established by book one?

Thesis--Lund. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-140) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 31-32).

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Learning to read is one of the most crucial life tasks that the young child must acquire whilst in primary school. In modern society, much of what one does is dependant on having the ability to read. While a great deal of research has focused on how children learn to read, relatively little attention has been paid to the literary quality of the material the children are exposed to whilst learning to read. In the past few years I have become increasingly concerned with the number of teachers who use material designed for teaching children to read without being aware of the literary quality of the material. While numerous teachers are aware of the issues surrounding the learning to read debate and use up to date materials to teach reading, far too many accept the material supplied by the school without questioning its literary merit and its impact upon the young reader. This piece of research is an attempt to evaluate the literary quality of two reading schemes currently in use in Cape Education Department schools. The chief conclusion of the research is that the schemes examined fall far short of the standards required for them to be considered good literature. Although the research is limited to two reading schemes, it is hoped that a teacher using other schemes could use the framework supplied in this study to examine the literary quality of the material she is using. Furthermore, the final chapter offers suggestions as to how to replace material of poor literary quality with books of a higher literary standard. On the basis of the above findings it is suggested that there is a need for individual teachers, schools, teacher training institutions and the Cape Education Department to examine the literary quality of reading schemes and books that are used in the process of teaching children to read. It is hoped that this piece of research will create a greater awareness amongst teachers of the literary quality of reading materials and prompt further research into such materials that will be of benefit to the central character in this study; the young child learning to read

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This study examines rhythm, syntax, sound, and diction in selected early and late poems from Dylan Thomas's Collected Poems. It demonstrates, on the basis of stylistic evidence, that the later poetry is the greater achievement. The early and later poems are different in the area of rhythm. Early poems are regularly metered with a strong iambic beat, and a majority of lines are end-stopped. Rhythms in the later, finer poems are irregular, and enjambed lines predominate. The later poems show an increased ability to match rhythm with meaning. Dylan Thomas's syntax is simpler on the surface than ordinarily supposed. Early poems contain restrictive relative clauses that result in complex deep structure and sentence stacking. The later poems contain appositive relative clauses, a change in style that results in greater clarity. Repetitive patterning is frequent during both poetic periods. Thomas shows his greatest virtuosity in the area of sound. Many techniques are common to both periods, but his achievement in making sound functional in the later poetry gives it greater dimension. In creating his unique poetic voice, Dylan Thomas uses both old and new devices. Common and uncommon rhetorical figures abound in both periods, but, in common with the other stylistic elements, the figures are used more effectively in the later poetry. On the basis of an examination of the stylistic elements of rhythm, syntax, sound, and diction, this study demonstrates a greater level of achievement in the last poems of Dylan Thomas.

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