This thesis offers new perspectives on the Yiddish poet and novelist Chaim Grade, examining his reflections on the world of historic Lithuanian Jewry from the outset of his career through his post-Holocaust novels. Chapter one explores the gap between the historical reality of interwar Vilna and its literary representation in his novel Di agune and questions the widely accepted view of this work as a credible historical source. / Chapter two deals with Grade's depiction of his experience as a student in a Novaredok Musar yeshiva, contrasting the depiction of this yeshiva in the poem Musernikes (1938) and the novel Tsemakh atlas (1967). The writer's shift from a fierce condemnation of the Novaredok Yeshiva to a more moderate and affectionate view as a post-Holocaust writer is explained as the older Grade's attempt to reconcile his art and identity as a modern Jew with the religious world he had forsaken.

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<p> This thesis explores Japanese society through the lens of cultural hybridity and liminality to understand the shift towards nonconformity and hyper-individualism among post-postwar Japanese. This shift reflects an important point in Japan's transculturation process whereby post-postwar Japanese have developed a cultural hybridity of inbetweenness (liminality) juxtaposing their native Japaneseness (<i>wakon</i>) against their adopted Westernness (<i>y<span style="text-decoration:overline"> o</span>kon</i>). This <i> wakon-y<span style="text-decoration:overline">o</span>kon </i> hybrid construct is posing a challenge to Japan's longstanding hybrid modernity philosophy of <i>wakon-y<span style="text-decoration:overline"> o</span>sai</i> (Japanese spirit- Western things), which perpetuated the pre-modern core values and collectivist ethics of Japaneseness for nearly 150 years below its fa&ccedil;ade of Western modernity. The dilemma inherent in Japan's <i>wakon-y<span style="text-decoration:overline"> o</span>kon</i> in-betweenness is foreshadowed in the pioneering works of Abe K<span style="text-decoration:overline">o</span>b<span style="text-decoration:overline"> o</span> and Murakami Haruki, who both illuminated the conflicting juxtaposition of the core values and ethics of Japaneseness (wakon) and <i>seken</i>-Other (the jury-surrounding- the-Self) against the pursuit of the individualist ethics of Westernness (y<span style="text-decoration:overline"> o</span>kon) and Selfhood (<i> shutaisei)</i> within their imaginaries. </p>

A protean doctrine, claiming cultural pride and demanding self-expression for those who espouse it, nationalism yet casts its defining symbols and reserves its privileges and powers according to gendered criteria. Nationalism, if seen as symbolically constructed, may be interpreted as a gendered discourse in which subjects in history and also in literature are assumed to be male. Especially in the Manichean worlds of colonial and newly post-colonial societies, nationalist narratives - such as those produced at the time of African independence - read as family dramas in which honour and duty are patrilineally bequeathed, and national sons honour iconic mothers. The invisibilities in nationalist discourse, often left obscure in the interests of an ironic 'liberation', may be redressed both through the displacement of dominant subject positions in literature - where 'non-nationals' tell their own fictions - and through the remoulding of inherited tropes and symbolic scenarios. In this way new plots are written into history; nationalist romances give way to literary fictions. An investigation of the status of nationalism as symbolic language of gender, this thesis concentrates first on the inscription of nationalist icons in post-colonial African literature and on the gendered tropic patterns which govern that inscription. Writers considered include Peter Abrahams, Leopold Senghor, Camara Laye, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o. The iconic role of artist as nationalist hero is explored in particular in a discussion of essays and plays by Wole Soyinka. In its latter half, the thesis looks at African women's writing - novels by Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta, Mariama Bâ and Bessie Head - and the work of a second generation of African writers, considering the ways in which this literature has begun to rescript the dramas of nationalism, to redream its visions of wholeness and healing.

The main part of this thesis is a survey of Pindar's treatment, in his epinicians, of myths involving the mythological family of the Aiakids. I establish what may be known of Pindar's sources for these stories, and then compare his own accounts. I consider (together with some minor incidents) Aiakos' assist- ance in building the walls of Troy; Phokos' murder; Peleus' experience with Hippolyta and Akastos, and his marriage to Thetis; Telamon's participation in Herakles' expedition against Troy; Achilles' infancy, his combats against Telephos, Kyknos, Hektor and Memnon, and his own fate; Aias' birth and suicide; and finally the story of Neoptolemos' visit to Delphi (chapters 1-7). My major conclusion is that his versions of these myths are more firmly grounded in the mythological tradition than is widely believed: they are constantly allusive, and contain little innovation. What changes there are may be ascribed to a broad rationalizing tendency, rather than to sophisticated poetic purposes. Pindar seems to prefer lesser known, often locally preserved, strands of tradition, but is concerned to produce authoritative accounts of them. The defensive tone of N. 7 may be satisfactorily explained by his care to produce such an account from confused and undignified material; the poem does not contain an apology for a hostile treatment of Neo- ptolemos in Pae.6. In chapter 8, I confirm my conclusions by examining three difficult cases: the myths of P. 3, O.I, and the break-off from the first myth of 0. 9. These examples confirm that traditional material has intrinsic value in epinician, and suggest the conclusion that the explication of a paradeigmatic relation between myth and victory is not the only valid explan- ation of the function of myth in Pindar. Myth may also serve to provide a publicly acceptable warrant for the praise of the victor.

The historical narrative constructed by John of Fordun in the last quarter of the fourteenth century was used as an outline by the majority of Lowland historians for the next century and a half. Only the earliest of the authors studied, John Barbour, can safely be said to have escaped being influenced by Fordun's Chronica; even Andrew of Wyntoun and the other vernacular authors, generally more independent than those who wrote in Latin, took some of Fordun's material. In the sixteenth century, John Major tried to cast aside the traditions inherited from Fordun, but his history was as unpopular as his proposal for union with England. On the other side of the debate which must have flared up after Flodden, Boece turned away from Major's proposals, took up the cherished traditions, and demanded that the Scots defend their independence as they had always done. Although most of their narratives were based on the same material, the authors' reorganization of it, what they chose to add or omit, is a reflection of their attitudes toward their nation or kingdom and of how they saw themselves within it, how they envisaged the relationship between the king and the kingdom, and their opinion of their nation. These attitudes varied from author to author, and there was seldom a neat progression from first to last thanks to the differences in personality, background, and circumstances. One broad change during the period studied was in the attitude toward the king. For Fordun, to be a Scot meant to be loyal to the person of the king, the cornerstone on whom the welfare of the kingdom depended; later authors divorced the person of the king from the crown and thought in terms of loyalty to the kingdom, state or nation. Another striking change came just with the last author to be discussed, Boece. Until his work was published, there had been no mention of a Golden Age or of such a retrogression by the Scottish nation as he harped upon. His sense of insecurity and false bravado had had no place in the earlier narratives whose authors were not only proud of their nation's independence, but were sure the Scots had the strength to maintain it.

This study explores the literary representations of the post-colonial margin, and develops this site as a place of possibility to transform self identity and acquire power. This exploration of Caribbean-Canadian literature, from writers born in the Caribbean who emigrated to Canada indicates the potential for power in the margins without idealizing this space. / Close readings of fiction by Neil Bissoondath, Dionne Brand and Marlene Nourbese Philip illustrate various struggles within the margin based on race, gender, economics, and education. Despite vast ideological differences regarding identity, all three authors concur in their characterizations of the margin. In each work, the margin is not a monolithic entity, but rather a diverse space which allows for the constitution of various identities. / This textual analysis in conjunction with critical analysis also addresses issues of language appropriation and cultural ghettoization, by critiquing the right of one group to speak for another in a racially mixed society such as Canada, as well as by critiquing the homogeneity of identity within one racial group. Ultimately, by illuminating these textual and critical trends, this study looks toward possible future directions for Caribbean-Canadian literature.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Pennsylvania State University, 2007. / (UMI)AAI3266198. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-05, Section: A, page: 1921.