This thesis examines selected prose fiction works of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in an effort to establish a clearer understanding of the creative principles informing her writing, based on more evidence than her well-known novel Frankenstein provides. Overturning the hitherto dismissive and/or reductive critiques of her lesser-known works, this thesis challenges negative assessments by reinterpreting the structure of Shelley's fiction. Concentrating particularly on the early Frankenstein(1818), Mathilda (written in 1819), and The Last Man (1826), with a focus on the use of insistent embedded quotations, this thesis begins by exploring Shelley's belief in textuality as a form of "grafting." As scholars have suggested, Shelley's literary borrowings are a result of her materialist-based views of human reality. The persistent use of embedded quotations is one way in which Shelley's fiction represents texts as collations of materials. The core of the argument posits that citational "grafting" has distinctive and striking effects in each of the works examined. In Frankenstein, quotations underscore existential alienation by pointing to the need for texts to fill in the lacunae of human understanding; in Mathilda, the narrator uses citations to create a sense of personal identity; and in The Last Man, citational excerpts are used with the assumption that they are shared pockets of meaning belonging to a community of human readers. This reconceptualization of Shelley's writing contributes to the generic taxonomies that are now being used to retheorize "the novel" in more inclusive and specific ways.

This study investigates the problem of defining Mary Benson as a person and a writer. Her writing spans a range of generic classifications - biography, history, plays, a novel and an autobiography. Yet, all are centred on her preoccupation with the struggle for freedom in South Africa. All reveal, moreover, a great deal about Benson's own values and commitment, prompting us to question the validity, in her case, of such strict generic categories as useful defining properties in her literary career. Starting with her most recent publication, the autobiography A Far Cry. I shall look at the way she presents herself in a traditionally introspective genre. It soon becomes apparent that Benson views herself within a perspective of South African social reality, and that her sense of self is inextricably linked to her political involvement. Her personal needs and desires, to a large extent, remain unobtrusive as she foregrounds her public interactions and her concern with humanitarian and racial issues. A study of Benson, therefore, needs to address a selection of her work in an attempt to fully appreciate her sense of her own identity. In consequence, I go on to discuss her biography Nelson Mandela and her novel At the Still Point. .Both works confirm the portrait in A Far Cry of Benson as a responsible South African who has selflessly and consistently devoted herself to her role as a witness of racial oppression in South Africa. In her biography, Nelson Mandela, for example, the ANC leader emerges as an exemplary figure in the public world while his values and ideals are allowed to parallel Benson's own 'autobiographical' ideals. In At the Still Point, Anne Dawson, Benson's fictional protagonist, I shall argue, gives her author the opportunity to express her own feelings about private life in relation to sociopolitical action. These 'personal ' feelings seem to be avoided in the more direct opportunities of the autobiographical form. In exploring Benson's sense of self, therefore, this study suggests that for Benson 'commitment' overrides her sense of herself as a literary figure, and that this has consequences for the weight we give to content and form in the reading of her work. My conclusion is that we are looking not so much at the challenges of genre as at a large autobiographical project, in which the 'self is defined substantially in its meetings with other people in political circumstances / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1991.

The French Wars of Religion were more than a battle for outright military victory. They were also a battle for the hearts and minds of the population of France. In this struggle to win over public opinion, often apparently peripheral or collateral issues could be engaged to make partisan points. Such was the case with the polemical literature surrounding Mary Queen of Scots. Mary was a very French figure. But Mary's complex career- her brief marriage to the dauphin Francois, her adoption of a tolerant religious policy in Scotland, her implication in the murder of her husband, and her imprisonment and execution at the hands of a Protestant monarch - inevitably made her an ambiguous subject for polemicists, Catholic and Huguenot alike. Based on a bibliographic survey of over four hundred and twenty sixteenth century editions in French relative to the Queen, and extensive reading of these works, this study explores both the general contours and finer detail of French public interest in the Queen of Scots. Chapter one discusses the shifting historical relationship between Mary and France, while chapters two and three deal with the steady stream of Catholic and Huguenot publications relating to Mary that appeared in the public domain between 1548 and 1586. The heart of this study, however, can be found in its final two chapters, which deal with the polemical literature that poured off the presses in response to the execution or martyrdom of Mary. These chapters investigate the interface between the printed word and other media in the Catholic response to the 'tragedy' of Fotheringhay, and examine the many facets of the image of the martyred Queen. The martyrdom of the Queen of Scots and dowager Queen of France became one of the most prominent themes in the propaganda of the Catholic League. Over one fifth of Catholic polemic in the period 1587-1588 touched on the event, contributing to the radicalisation of popular opinion against the king of France, Henri III.

Mary Shelley's gothic novel Frankenstein has traditionally been read by critics as a cautionary tale and social responsibility for their creations. However, like many of its gothic sisters, the novel also contains other substantial lodes which can be mined by the twentieth century literary critic.One largely ignored and potentially rich vein in the novel is the compulsive and self-destructive behavior of Dr. Frankenstein himself. No critic has yet borrowed Freud's black bag of psychoanalytical tools and used them to plumb the subterranean depths of the young scientist's labyrinthian unconscious.After the death of his mother, and despite his protestations to the contrary, Dr. Frankenstein's real desires are unconscious, the primary one being the need for closure of the family circle. These repressed desires are fulfilled by his alter ego, the homicidal monster he stitches together in an obsessive effort to reconcile life and death. The study seeks to reveal Dr. Frankenstein as an allegorical figure representing the dark side of man's nature.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (MEd) -- University of South Australia

Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University, 1977. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-62).

Thesis (M.A.)--North Carolina College for Negroes, 1942 / Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-60). Also issued in print and microfiche.

Thesis (M.A.)--College of William and Mary. / Typescript (photocopy). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-86). Also available via the World Wide Web.