This thesis is a study of social mobility in Thomas Hardy's novels based on The Return of the Native, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure. Using the influence of family background, education and social injustice, it discusses the identity crisis that arises from an individual's rapid social mobility. The study also shows how the obstacles and the inner conflicts that the novelist himself encounters in his own process of moving upward socially, are transformed into parts or fragments of his novels, imbuing them with highly autobiographical elements. The introduction discusses the roles that the Industrial Revolution and other occurrences in history played in creating social mobility at the time and the roles that family background, education, personal temperament, and social injustice played in inhibiting it. Particular attention is paid to how the individuals, particularly those from the lower classes, are stopped from moving upward completely and what conflicts in self-identity are created in their struggles. Chapter one discusses The Return of the Native, focusing on the dilemma arising from the discrepancy between the expectations of oneself and others in social mobility. Chapter two discusses Tess of the d'Urbervilles, focusing on the idea that family background and education can lead to social displacement and alienation in a mobile society. Chapter three discusses Jude the Obscure, focusing on how disillusion with one's own life and goals caused by one's own family background and negative temperament as well as social injustice can sabotage one'

This study seeks to unravel the intricate connection between a selection of graphic novels, the moments in which they were created, and the process of weaving an Italian cultural history. It analyzes graphic novels and comics from three periods in Italian contemporary history – 1968, 1977 and 2001 – and asks how the hybrid image-text language of graphic novels might provide a unique insight into the relationship between the individual and history in contemporary Italy. More specifically, it looks at how the comic medium not only reflects or represents historical events, but effectively re-writes and re-traces them, allowing us to re-think History. Ultimately, this work reveals how the graphic novel medium has been used as an instrument in the process of weaving an Italian cultural history since 1968. Comics not only reflect the time in which they are created, either explicitly or implicitly, but also work as cultural agents in the formation and re-telling of history. Whether they attempt to speak to and for a generation seeking change and a new reality of freedom, are a means of aggressive socio- political criticism in a moment of apathy and disillusion, or a space to reflect on and work through personal and historical trauma, graphic novels are shaped by, and help to shape, our vision of ourselves and our society. / Romance Languages and Literatures

The Middle Age Period in Eight Juvenile Novels. This study investigates how the Middle Age is presented in literature for youths. I have taking four questions into consideration: How are the different groups or class in the Middle Age society are presented in terms of their housing, clothing, work assignments and leisure activities? What work assignments, leisure activities did children had and their relationship to adults? How was the religious life of monks, nuns and of the people in general? How are the people in the Middle Age described? The study focuses on youth literature written by Swedish authors. Eight books were read and compared. The results of this study shows that there were four kinds of housing during the Middle Age period: housing in cities or villages, housing on the country side and farms, housing in fortresses and housing in monasteries. The difference between housing conditions of the rich and the poor is that the rich could afford bigger houses, fancier building materials and interial details. Most of the garments were worn by both men and women in all the society classes. The biggest difference in the people´s clothing was the one between the rich and poor. The clothes of the rich were made in the fancier materials silk and velvet. Their clothes also had more ornaments. The work assignment between women in the different society groups differs less than the work assignments between men in the different society groups. Children most often took over their parents work. The leisure activities for children were about the same between the society groups. The relation between adults and children was strainous and the children were totally submissive to the adults. The religious life of the people consisted of actions done daily, weekly, annually and once in a life time. There were also actions that were done once in a while. Monks and nuns religious life was different from the rest of the people. They dedicated their lives to prayer and singing for God, and also to assist their fellowmen. The most common description of the people in the Middle Age period is that they did and thought things that were typical for that time period in question and that can seem strange for today`s readers.

The exegesis accompanies a thesis, the latter being the portfolio of work consisting of two parts, each being a completed first draft of a novel written during the Masters of Creative Writing course: Part 1: ‘Sandcastles’ - a 'closed' text novel Part 2: ‘The Postmodern Rules For Family Living’ - an 'open' text novel These two works are separately bound with a thesis cover sheet and numbered. They are embargoed until 30 June 2011. The exegesis covers the writer’s motivation for writing these works, reflections on the course of development and changes in thinking that occurred during research and the act of writing. It shows the changing perspectives of the writer’s two thesis works in context and in contra-distinction to each other. It includes the writer’s academic and creative goals as they developed and the result achieved in terms of those goals. It highlights the writer’s developing interest in literary theory including suggesting an ephemeral adjunct to Reader-Response theory which is described as 'Collapse'. It shows the development of the writer’s deep interest in reality in fiction versus the lie in fiction and in the differences between writing and reading a creative work produced primarily for entertainment versus work of a literary nature, identifying some of the differences in features the writer has perceived.

The exegesis accompanies a thesis, the latter being the portfolio of work consisting of two parts, each being a completed first draft of a novel written during the Masters of Creative Writing course: Part 1: ‘Sandcastles’ - a 'closed' text novel Part 2: ‘The Postmodern Rules For Family Living’ - an 'open' text novel These two works are separately bound with a thesis cover sheet and numbered. They are embargoed until 30 June 2011. The exegesis covers the writer’s motivation for writing these works, reflections on the course of development and changes in thinking that occurred during research and the act of writing. It shows the changing perspectives of the writer’s two thesis works in context and in contra-distinction to each other. It includes the writer’s academic and creative goals as they developed and the result achieved in terms of those goals. It highlights the writer’s developing interest in literary theory including suggesting an ephemeral adjunct to Reader-Response theory which is described as 'Collapse'. It shows the development of the writer’s deep interest in reality in fiction versus the lie in fiction and in the differences between writing and reading a creative work produced primarily for entertainment versus work of a literary nature, identifying some of the differences in features the writer has perceived.

Dissertation (BA (Hons)--Bachelor of Art and Design) -- AUT University, 2005. / Print copy accompanied by CD. Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (99 p. : col. ill. ; 20 cm. + CD (3 in.)) in City Campus Theses Collection (T 707 WIL)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-267).

Thesis (M.A. in English) -- University of Dayton. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed 06/23/10). Advisor: James Boehnlein. Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-46). Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed on Oct. 6, 2006). PDF text:190 p. ; 8.76Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3213860. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm, microfiche and paper format.

This study investigates the subject of illusionism in contemporary American fiction. A recurrent yet under-examined theme, the history of stage magic in the U.S. suggests how an earlier age domesticated the seeming sorcery of market capitalism, credit, limitless self-(re)making, and ethnic vanishing. Such conditions provide antecedents and analogues for the writing of fiction in a world of digitalized knowledge, work, identity, and financialization. Self-reflexively illusionist fiction today represents itself ambivalently as magical entertainment. Is its function to mesmerize audiences or alert them to ideological sleight-of-hand? If the enchantments of literary art screen the machinations of power, how do novelists preserve fiction's capacity to inspire wonder, affective experience, and ethical commitment? Chapter One argues that Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian presents illusionism as integral to imperialism and commodification, as well as to its own artistry. McCarthy indicates the instrumentalization of aesthetics under late capitalism yet seeks through moments of enchantment to transcend it. Chapter Two shows that in Mr. Vertigo by Paul Auster and In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien, fiction’s "magic" lies in transcending social differences and inspiring empathy, but that the historical residue of racism in American illusionism obstructs the effort to imagine otherness. Both novels reframe the worth of fiction as therapeutic. Chapter Three argues that the figure of Harry Houdini embodies literature's status as primarily entertainment, inspiring wonder rather than critique. Michael Chabon's Kavalier & Clay celebrates escapistry, but seeks through Houdini to restore a utopian dimension to entertainment. / 2017-11-04T00:00:00Z