The focus of this thesis is the Visio Baronti (VB), an account of a seventh-century monk's journey to the other world. This text serves as a metaphoric fulcrum to support a more extensive study of early medieval conceptions of the other world and the historical context in which visionary accounts were produced. Chapter 1 contains an introduction to ideas of the other world, a survey of types of visionary experiences, their uses, imitations and historiographical responses to them. Chapter 2 focuses on medieval and modern responses to visions. This chapter includes a survey of the terminology for dreams and visions found in theoretical writings, compares dream theory with otherworld visions and identifies medieval methods of determining the validity of a visionary experience. Chapter 3 investigates the manuscript tradition of the VB, in order to illuminate medieval receptions and treatments of this text. Because the text appears unusual for the seventh century, chapter 4 provides an analysis of the grounds for dating the VB to the seventh century, while chapter 5 treats the VB in its seventh-century monastic context and assesses what influences shaped this text. Chapter 6 compares Barontus's vision with ninth-century visions and other Carolingian writings to consider Carolingian interest in the VB in light of their contributions to the genre. Chapter 7 examines the artistic response to this text through an examination of the illustrations which accompany the text in the ninth-century St Petersburg manuscript. A brief conclusion to this study follows.

This thesis explores how the paratexts to and physical features of English Tudor books about the New World presented the books’ content to their original readers. The contribution this thesis makes to knowledge is threefold. First, the field of study of English travel and colonial literature lacks a bibliographically informed account of how the books’ constitutive elements of type and paper affect meaning. Widespread use of modern editions of the few accessible texts effaces the originals’ rich aesthetic, structural and tactile forms and fails to comprehensively historicise the production and intentions of the books. The careful, contextualised examinations of typefounts and composition included in this thesis go beyond what has been previously done and suggest agendas for further, necessary and illuminating bibliographical work. Second, the thesis presents the first comprehensively investigative survey of how the paratextual elements of the books marketed the New World to Tudor England. It goes beyond John Parker’s fifty-year-old _Books to Build an Empire_ (1965) by considering the full range of forty-three editions’ paratextual apparatus, not just prefaces, proems and dedications. It is simultaneously a counterbalance to the narrow focus on Richard Hakluyt’s anthological _Principal Navigations_ (1598-1600). The thesis begins the much-needed recovery of the conceptual and publication histories of both the constitutive texts reprinted in _Principal Navigations_ and those not included in Hakluyt’s anthology that are nontheless relevant to the history of the genre. Third, this survey that challenges a still powerful teleology: that the publications were unequivocally books to build an empire. Many of these books were in fact marketed as recreational reads. As the paratextual, structural and material features of many of the books this thesis looks at are under-explored and under-reported, close examination of multiple exemplars was necessary to ensure that this thesis is a representative and reliable record of the marketing strategies used to promote Tudor books about America.

This thesis seeks to contribute to the conversations in the humanities about the treatment of the physical environment in the context of a global ecological fragility and increased scholarly interest in the poetry of Arthur Nortje, a South African poet who wrote in the 1960s. While previous studies on Nortje concentrate on the political, psychic and technical aspects of his poetry, this study particularly explores the representations of the environment in Nortj e’s poetic imagination. Writing in the dark period of apartheid in South Africa’s history, Nortje’s poetry articulates a strong interest in the physical environment against the backdrop of official racialization of space and his personal nomadic life and exile. The poetry abounds with constant intersections of nature and culture (industrialism, urbanity and the quotidian), a sense of place and a deep sense of dislocation. The poems, therefore, present a platform from which to reevaluate conventional ecocritical ideas about nature, place-attachment and environmental consciousness. Drawing mainly on Felix Guattari’s ideas of three ecologies and transversality along with other theories, I conduct the study through what I call a transversal postcolonial environmental criticism, which considers the ecological value of the kind of assemblages that Nortje’s works represent. The first chapter focuses on conceptualizing a postcolonial approach to the environment based on Guattari’s concept of transversality to lay the theoretical foundation for the whole work. The second chapter analyses Nortje’s poetic imagination of place and displacement through his treatment of the private-public tension and the motif of exile. While the third chapter examines Nortje’s depiction of nature as both an everyday and urban phenomenon, the fourth chapter turns to his direct treatment of environmental crises handled through his imagination of the Canadian urban spaces, exile memory of apartheid geography, war and ecocide and the human body as a subject of environmental degradation. The fifth chapter, which is the conclusion, takes a brief look at the implication of Nortje’s complex treatment of the environment on postcolonial environmentalism.

No description available.

M.Com. (Information Science) / Although the influence of literature cannot be determined exactly, it is generally accepted that it can influence attitudes and values and therefore play an important role in the socializing process of the adolescent. One of the most important processes the adolescent undergoes is the development of his/her sex role through socialization, within the context of the family and society at large. In addition the traditional role of women through the ages has undergone such substantial changes that women play an increasingly important part in society. The modern woman can attain self-realization and self-expression through marriage, motherhood and a career. The problem addressed in this research, is whether the portrayal of women in available youth literature is a realistic reflection of society at a particular point. The ideal is that the attitudes that are projected are not biased toward either of the sexes and that boys as well as girls may develop to their full potential within the prescribed boundaries of their sex roles. Because of the feminist interest, much research has been done since the sixties and seventies regarding sexism in children's and youth literature. Virtually throughout, the findings of these investigations showed that the female characters are portrayed as passive stereotypes. The portrayal of women in literature awarded with the Scheepers Prize for Afrikaans youth literature is investigated in this research.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-01-27T14:18:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 waldyrimbroisirocha.pdf: 1564026 bytes, checksum: 1f7dd20c183514848c554cfa1eb3fb54 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-01-28T10:36:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 waldyrimbroisirocha.pdf: 1564026 bytes, checksum: 1f7dd20c183514848c554cfa1eb3fb54 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-28T10:36:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 waldyrimbroisirocha.pdf: 1564026 bytes, checksum: 1f7dd20c183514848c554cfa1eb3fb54 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-14 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este trabalho tem como objetivo um exame da presença da feiticeira na literatura brasileira do entresséculos, focando-nos no período entre 1881 e 1904. Levando em consideração as mudanças políticas e sociais do período, buscamos analisar a relevância que essa figura ganha na literatura nacional entre os anos de 1865 e 1920. Nossa análise leva em conta, em perspectiva histórica, a evolução do conceito e da figura da bruxa na Europa e no Brasil, a delimitação do estereótipo de feitiçaria como predominantemente feminino e a presença mais ou menos proeminente da bruxa ao longo da história da literatura, demandando-nos uma abordagem interdisciplinar que se apoia na discussão sobre a própria constituição da história, nas reflexões sobre a presença de culturas populares e eruditas, no pensamento feminista contemporâneo e na crítica literária que se debruça sobre as personagens do texto como amálgamas de elementos sociais, históricos e psicológicos atuando dentro da economia narrativa de cada obra. Após territorializarmos nossa discussão nos termos expostos, dedicamos os capítulos finais deste trabalho à análise aprofundada das duas personagens feiticeiras mais relevantes do período: Paula, a bruxa de O Cortiço, e Bárbara, a cabocla vidente de Esaú e Jacó, tomando como princípio de análise a presença de um phármakon que, antes de ser bom ou mau, é o elemento que faz fugir às leis gerais. / This paper aims at presenting an examination of the witch’s presence in Brazilian literature during the turn of the centuries, focusing on the period between 1884 and 1904. Taking into account the political and social changes of the period, we analyze the importance that this figure gains in the national literature between 1865 and 1920. Our analysis takes into account, in a historical perspective, the evolution of the concept and figure of the witch in Europe and Brazil, the definition of the stereotype of witchcraft as predominantly female, and some significant occurrences of witches throughout the history of literature, requiring us an interdisciplinary approach that is built on the discussion of the constitution of the historical narrative, on the reflections about the existance of popular and scholarly cultures, on the contemporary feminist thought and on literary criticism that focuses on the characters of the text as amalgams of social, historical and psychological elements functioning within the narrative economy of each work. After territorializing our discussion under the exposed terms, we dedicate the final chapters of this work to in-depth analysis of the two most important characters of the witches period: Paula, the witch of The Slum, and Barbara, the seer of Esau and Jacob, taking as a principle of analysis the presence of a pharmakon that, before being good or bad, is the element that escapes from the general law.

The period of 1919 to 1939 was a significant one for the development of the literature of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. The literary work produced in the region prior to the first world war was greatly influenced by the "Genteel tradition" of the late nineteenth century. By 1939, however, the literature of Oregon and the region had emerged from the outdated literary standards of the pre-war period and had found a new, realistic, natural voice, strongly regional in nature and rooted in the modern American tradition.

This study of Zakes Mda's life and sixteen of his plays and seven novels, written from 1966 to the present day, set in South Africa, Lesotho and the United States of America, shows how his life and works interweave, and how his defamiliarisation mode, his magic realism and his juxtaposed timeframes stimulate reader response and self-realisation, bringing about change. Experiences of marginalisation due to early childhood sexual abuse, exile, and being banished from church, and his involvement in political movements outside the mainstream, have caused him to be an astute observer of life. He is sceptical of authority and power, and is as critical of those who seek power, becoming intoxicated thereby, as of those who give away their power and so perpetuate unacceptable institutions and their own victimisation. At all times though, his writing style is creative and entertaining, rooted in the African oral tradition from which he springs, but also portraying international influences to which he has been exposed over the years. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

In light of often derogatory and unqualified assessments of Yiddish literature adapted from German narrative models, this thesis will propose a different approach to viewing these adaptations. Building on methodologies and frameworks of analyses developed in contemporary medieval scholarship, this thesis pushes for a re-assessment of this literature and suggests a flexible model of adaptation that views adaptation as a creative interaction between two texts. In response to unsatisfactory approaches to judaizing strategies found in Yiddish texts adapted from German literature, this thesis also suggests a different approach. Judaizing processes can either be part of overall processes of adaptation aimed at coding the text as Jewish within an overarching framework of renewed cultural specificity; or, they can function as translation principles by achieving equivalence with the original model. To illustrate both ends of this scale of adaptation, this thesis centres on two early modern Yiddish texts: the Kuhbukh (Verona, 1595) and the Siben weisen mainster bichel (Basel, 1602). The four chapters at the core of this thesis develop and apply extensive frameworks of literary analyses which enable us to rigorously assess the differing levels of adaptations (translation and Wiedererzählen) of both texts. This thesis pushes for a future reassessment of other popular Yiddish narratives adapted from German models. This could ideally be achieved by a positioning of each individual Yiddish text based on German narratives on the proposed scale of adaptation. This should be backed by verifiable methodologies and analyses devoid of unjustifiably dismissive opinions. This would consequently move scholarship towards structured, methodological analyses of early Yiddish secular literature.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The term 'representation' is often used to refer to the possibility of a link between literature and reality. The word also suggests the reiteration of an event and is used in literary studies to indicate that a representation should be read as the author's interpretation of events and thus as a mediated rendition thereof. This study focuses on the representation of a black character who lived in the 19th Century by a white author from the zo" Century, Arthur Japin, in his novel, De zwarte met het witte hart (1997). This novel, based on historical events, is a rendering of the lives of two Ashanti princes who were taken to the Netherlands in 1837 as guarantee to an agreement between the king of the Ashanti and the Netherlands. This study therefore looks at the way in which Japin interpreted and represented the available information in his novel. This study furthermore focuses on ways in which this novel, written in what may be termed a postcolonial era could be read as a continuation of the colonial discourse in the 21st Century. This is demonstrated by identifying and examining the characteristics of colonial discourse, postcolonial discourse, the historic novel and the didactic novel, as well as ways in which these genres deal with representation. The study refers to the work of literary and social theoreticians such as Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Linda Hutcheon and Maaike Meijer. The study indicates that this novel can partially be read as a continuation of the colonial discourse. The results of this study also indicates that an uncritical reading of the novel De zwarte met het witte hart could lead to a continuation of the colonial discourse in the 21st Century. The role and responsibility of the reader in the interpretation and the subversion of the colonial discourse could therefore be further investigated. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die term 'representasie' word dikwels gebruik om die moontlikheid van 'n verband tussen die letterkunde en die werklikheid aan te dui. Die woord suggereer die herhaling van 'n gegewe en word in die letterkunde gebruik om aan te dui dat die representasie wat gelees word, die outeur se interpretasie en dus bemiddelde weergawe van gebeure is. Hierdie ondersoek fokus op die representasie van 'n swart hoofkarakter uit die 19de eeu deur 'n blanke outeur in die 20ste eeu soos dit in die roman, De zwarte met het witte hart (1997) deur Arthur Japin, weergegee word. Hierdie roman, gebaseer op historiese gegewens, handeloor die lewens van twee Ashanti prinse wat in 1837 as onderpand vir 'n ooreenkoms tussen Nederland en die Ashantynse koning na Nederland geneem is en die gevolge wat dit vir hulle ingehou het. Daar word dus in dié ondersoek gekyk na die manier waarop Japin die gegewens tot sy beskikking geïnterpreteer en in die roman weergegee het. Verder fokus die ondersoek op die manier waarop hierdie roman, geskryf in wat as 'n postkoloniale era gesien kan word, moontlik as 'n voortsetting van die koloniale diskoers in die 21ste eeu gelees kan word. Dit word gedoen deur kenmerke van die koloniale diskoers, die postkoloniale diskoers, die historiese roman en die tendensroman te identifiseer en ondersoek, saam met die wyses waarop hierdie genres met representasie omgaan. Daar word verwys na die werk van letterkundige en sosiale teoretici soos Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Linda Hutcheon en Maaike Meijer. Uit die ondersoek blyk dat hierdie roman gedeeltelik as 'n voortsetting van die koloniale diskoers gelees kan word. Die resultate van hierdie ondersoek dui ook aan dat 'n onkritiese lees van die roman De zwarte met het witte hart kan lei tot die voortsetting van die koloniale diskoers in die 21ste eeu. Die rol en die verantwoordelikheid van die leser in die interpretasie en ondermyning van die koloniale diskoers kan dus verder ondersoek word.