For the purpose of analyzing James' interpretation of the American character, it is first necessary to study his individual Americans.

Late nineteenth-century Victorian adventure novels offer a complex depiction of manhood in relation to colonial adversaries. H. Rider Haggard's 1880s novels portray imperial adventure as an opportunity for masculine rejuvenation, while later adventure novels express a sense of imperial dread and suggest that adventure traumatizes, instead of rejuvenates, masculinity. All of these novels offer insight into a larger shift in Victorian thought concerning Britain's role as an imperial power. The novels define masculinity in two distinct ways: as modern and as medieval. Each novel approaches modern manhood as impotent when faced with the colonial threat, but the narratives all offers a different interpretation of medieval masculinity, underscoring the vexed nature of the Victorian's relationship with the past. H. Rider Haggard's novels, King Solomon's Mines (1885) and She (1887), suggest that imperial adventure offers modern manhood rejuvenation and purpose through interaction and eventual suppression of the colonial female. Haggard offers an optimistic portrayal of adventure because of both the men's distinctly medieval form of physical rejuvenation and the men's ability to influence the landscape in their favor. Authors Bram Stoker and Richard Marsh present a vastly different interpretation of empire and medieval masculinity in their 1897 novels Dracula and The Beetle. Adventure traumatizes the men in the later novels, and their hysteria attests to their effeminate lack of masculine virility. The 1897 novels critique both the optimistic depiction of imperial adventure and the unnatural reliance on medieval forms of masculinity offered in novels such as Haggard's.

As to form, Wolfe's novels are deliberately loose, because that is important to his purpose. Conceiving America as an open society of potentiality, he could do no less than remain open himself. To do otherwise would have meant impotence if not sterility. In this thesis, I shall attempt to show that the episodes, divergences, and observations all illustrate and amplify this spiritual growth.

Whereas the relationship between real autobiography and its fictional forms has been studied at length, the equivalent relationship for diaries has barely been acknowledged, let alone explored. This thesis follows the history of diary-writing – as a field that includes real and fictional diaries and the complex relations between them – in twentieth-century French writing. I take as my starting point the moment in the 1880s when, following a series of successful posthumous diary publications, a new generation of writers became aware that their own journaux intimes would probably come to be published, with considerable consequences for the way their literary œuvre and their very persona as an author (or their textual author-figure) would appear to readers. Of this generation, André Gide exerted by far the greatest influence over the course of diary-writing, and four works in particular experiment, in extremely diverse forms, with the literary possibilities of the diary: Les Cahiers d'André Walter (1891), Paludes (1895), Le Journal des faux-monnayeurs (1926), and his Journal 1889–1939 (1939). After the Second World War, diary-writing continued to draw on forms established by Gide, but now inflected by radical changes in attitudes towards the writing subject: Raymond Queneau's works published under the pseudonym of Sally Mara (1947–62) cast light on attitudes towards the diary at the time of a theoretical exclusion of the writing subject; Roland Barthes experimented with diaries at the point of a return of the writing subject (1977–79); and Annie Ernaux's published diaries between 1993 and 2011 demonstrate the role of diary-writing within the modern field of life-writing. Rather than making a gradual progress towards literary recognition, this history of diary-writing shows that, in a great variety of ways, diaries have consistently been used for their marginal or supplementary role, which simultaneously constructs and qualifies a literary œuvre and author-figure.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The concept of the self or subject is more relevant now than ever, since society’s perceptions about selfhood are in the process of changing. Autobiography is an important site for the critical discussion of issues surrounding the subject – such as truth, identity formation and agency – seeing that it is one of the most revealing spaces in which these altering perceptions manifest. As can be deduced from the title of my thesis, FICTION, FRICTION AND FRACTURE: Autobiographic Novels as a Site For Changing Discourses Around Subjectivity, Truth and Identity, I explore what autobiographic novels disclose about the notions truth, self-representation and identity formation that emerge from an investigation of the subject. Poststructuralism and feminism have been instrumental in destabilizing the notion of a unified subject as well as any concept that makes universal claims. Throughout this thesis I will be applying poststructuralist and feminist theories around subjectivity to my work as well as the work of a selection of autobiographic novelists, namely Robert Crumb, Dan Clowes, Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware. When referring to autobiographic novels I will be applying Leigh Gilmore’s term autobiographics. Autobiographics introduces a way of thinking about life narrative that focuses on the changing discourses of truth and identity that feature in autobiographical representations of selfhood. I will be utilizing Gilmore’s term since it so neatly encompasses the concepts that I will be investigating. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die konsep van die self of subjek is nou meer as ooit relevant siende dat die samelewing se persepsies omtrent die subjek tans ’n transformasie ondergaan. Outobiografie is ’n belangrike platform vir die kritiese bespreking van idees wat uit besprekings van die subjek vloei – soos waarheid, identiteits konstruksie en agentskap – aangesien die genre ’n duidelike refleksie van die veranderende persepsies lewer. Soos afgelei kan word uit die titel van my skripsie FICTION, FRICTION AND FRACTURE: Autobiographic Novels as a Site For Changing Discourses Around Subjectivity, Truth and Identity, beoog ek om vas te stel wat autobiografiese romans blootlê in terme van konsepte soos waarheid, self-voorstelling en identiteitskonstruksie wat uit die ondersoek rondom die subjek na vore kom. Poststrukturalisme en feminisme speel beide ‘n belangrike rol in die destabilisering van die uniformige subjek asook enige ander konsep wat aanspraak tot enige universiële veronderstellings maak. Ek plaas poststrukturalistiese en feministiese teorie rondom subjektiwiteit deurlopend op my werk, asook the werk van die outobiografiese kunstenaars Robert Crumb, Dan Clowes, Art Spiegelman en Chris Ware toe. Wanneer ek na autobiografiese romans verwys, verwys ek spesifiek na Leigh Gilmore se term autobiografies. Gilmore se interpretasie behels ‘n begrip van outobiografie wat fokus op die veranderende diskoerse van waarheid en identiteit wat in outobiografiese voorstellings van die self voorkom. Ek beoog om haar term te gebruik aangesien dit die konsepte waarna ek kyk duidelik omvat.

Temat pracy magisterskiej Problematyka współczesnej powieści młodzieżowo – obyczajowej (na podstawie wybranych utworów literackich) Poniższa praca składa się ze wstępu, czterech rozdziałów i zakończenia. Rozdział I pt. Zarys rozwoju powieści młodzieżowo - obyczajowej skupia dużą część ogólnego przeglądu polskiej młodzieżowej powieści obyczajowej od początku oryginalnej twórczości dla młodzieży zaczynając od Klementyny Tańskiej - Hoffmanowej do współczesności. Rozdział II pt. Proza lat 30 tych w powieści młodzieżowo - obyczajowej. Kornel Makuszyński, poświęcony jest problematyce powieści młodzieżowo - obyczajowej po roku 1930. Rozdział III pt. Młodzieżowe powieści obyczajowe w latach 60 – 90 XX wieku, przedstawia problematykę powieści młodzieżowo – obyczajowych lat 60 - 90 XX wieku. Rozdział IV pt. Główne tendencje rozwojowe w młodzieżowej powieści obyczajowej po roku 1990 poświęcony jest pisarzom młodszej generacji, przede wszystkim omawiam tu twórczość Marty Fox, która jako pierwsza przełamała tabu pisania na temat pierwszych inicjacji seksualnych, niechcianej ciąży, samotnego macierzyństwa wśród nastolatków. Celem niniejszej pracy jest próba zarysu monograficznego współczesnej powieści młodzieżowo – obyczajowej zwłaszcza ostatnich 50 – 60 lat. Metody badawcze, które zastosowałam w pracy magisterskiej, to metoda opisowo - interpretacyjna i monograficzna. Powieści poddane głębszej analizie, pozwoliły mi na odnalezienie i wydobycie problemów, z którymi spotyka się... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Magistrinio darbo temą Šiuolaikinių buitinių jaunimo romanų problematika (pagal išrinktus kūrinius) sudaro šios dalys: įvadas, keturios dalys ir išvados. I. Jaunimo butinio romano vystymasis sudaro didelę dalį bendros abžvalgos lenkų jaunimo romanuose nuo pat kūrybos pradžios Klementinos Tanskos – Hoffmanovos iki šių laikų. II. 30 metų proza buitinio jaunimo romanuose. Kornel Makušinski skirtas buitiniam jaunimo romanui ir gilintės į jo problematiką nuo 1930 metų. III. Butiniai jaunimo romanai 60 – 90 metų XX amžiaus. Ypatinga dėmesį skiriu Irenos Jurgelevičiovos, Hannos Ožogovskos, Malgorzatos Musierovič, Kristinos Siesickos ir Evos Novackos kūrybai. IV. Pagrindiniai plėtros polinkiai butiniuose jaunimo romanuose po 1990 metų skirti jaunėsnės kartos rašytojams. Pagrinde nagrinėju Martos Fox kūrybą. Pagrindinis darbo tikslas yra bandymas apibrežti šiuolaikišką buitinį jaunimo romaną, paskutiniųjų 50 – 60 metų. Rašydama darbą remiausi šiais metodais: monografiniais, mokslinės literatūros aprašymas ir analizė. Gilesnė analizė man suteikė galimybę atrasti ir gilintės į problemas su kuriomis susidūrė jaunimas. Monografinį metodą panaudojau norėdama visapusiškai parodyti, kaip vystosi buitiniai jaunimo romanai nuo XX amžiaus iki šių laikų. / The M.A. thesis The issues of modern youth novels ( based on some literature works ) consists of introduction, four basic parts and conclusions. The first part The development of youth novel in majority presents general review of polish youth novel from the start of original creation beginning with Klemantyna Tańska – Hofman till nowadays. The second part The prose in 30s: Kornel Makuszyński deals with the issues of youth novel after 1930. The third part Youths’ novels in the XX th century, years 60-90. First of all I concentrate on the creation of Irena Jurgielewiczowa, Hanna Ożogowska, Małgorzata Musierowicz, Krystyna Siesicka and Ewa Nowacka. The fourth part The main developing trends in youth novel after 1990 is devoted to the younger generation of writers. I mainly concentrate on the creation of Marta Fox. The purpose of the research was an attempt to outline monographic features of modern youth novel in the last 50 - 60 years. The methods chosen for the study were descriptive, analytical and monographic. Detailed analysis of the novels allowed me to find and extract the problems which the young people face. Monographic method was used as an attempt to recognize the development of youth novels mainly since the mid - twentieth century to the present.

This thesis is concerned with the importance of the gaze in fin-de-siecle Gothic. One of the ways in which the importance of the gaze manifests itself is in the central role of the onlooker like Enfield, Utterson or Lanyon in Robert Louis Stevenson's Stange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Prendick In H.G. Well's Island of Dr Moreau (1896), or Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). As their appelation suggests, Wells's Beast Men confound the distinction between the human and the animal, which is also the case with 'Beast Men' like Hyde and Dracula. A central concern of the thisis is the perceptual drama that is involved in looking at the spectacle of the monstrous body, for excample, as the onlooker struggles to get to grips with the challenge to representation posed by these 'Beast Men'.

Confronter écriture fictionnelle narrative et transcendance à partir des métamorphoses que le romancier Georges Bernanos fait subir à son œuvre pendant les vingt années de son élaboration, nécessite une triple approche critique : générique, génétique, herméneutique. L’étude générique permet de comprendre comment les huit narrations relèvent le défi d’intégrer une notion à la fois théologique, métaphysique et mystique dans un cadre fictionnel par une mise en roman non réductrice. L’analyse génétique dessine une topographie et une chronographie des métamorphoses de cette écriture, de la page manuscrite raturée et corrigée à la totalité achevée de l’œuvre romanesque, sans oublier le bloc autonome et homogène constitué par l’unité scripturale et structurelle du roman. L’investigation herméneutique révèle les deux supports privilégiés au déploiement de cette écriture : la bible comme transcendance textuelle et l’aventure mystique chrétienne comme transcendance faite chair. / Confronting fictional narrative writing and transcendence thanks to the metamorphosis that the novelist Georges Bernanos had been subjecting his work to for its twenty years’ development requires a threefold critical approach: generic, genetic, hermeneutic. The generic study makes it clear how the eight narrations are challenged to integrate a theological, metaphysical and mystical concept in a fictional setting with a non-reductive novel. Genetic analysis is pointing out a metamorphosis’s topography and timeline of the writing in the corrected crossed-out hand-written page, and in the completed fiction work, not to mention the homogeneous self-block consisting in the scriptural and structural unit of a novel. The hermeneutic investigation reveals the two preferred deployment means of this writing: the Bible as textual transcendence and the Christian mystical adventure as incarnate transcendence.

This thesis analyzes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's contribution to the revival of chivalric ideals in late Victorian England. The primary sources of this study are Doyle's historical novels and the secondary sources address the different aspects of the revival of the chivalric ideals. The first two chapters introduce Doyle's historical novels, and the final four chapters define the revival, the class and gender issues surrounding the revival, and the illustration of these in Doyle's novels. The conclusion of the thesis asserts that Doyle supported the revival of chivalric ideals, and the revival attempted to maintain, in the late nineteenth century, the traditional class and gender structure of the Middle Ages.

This research project investigates the relationship between pain and the practices of explaining and narrating it to others. Current scholarship argues that the representation of suffering became, during the Imperial period, an increasingly effective and popular strategy for cultivating authority and that this explains the success of Christian culture’s representation of itself as a community of sufferers. One criticism of this approach is that the experience of pain has often been assumed, rather than analysed. Here, I investigate the nature of pain by attending to its intimate relationship with language; pain was connected to the strategies used to communicate that experience to others. I will show that writers throughout the Imperial period were concerned with questions about how to communicate pain and how that act of communication shaped, managed, and alleviated the experience. I investigate this culture along three axes. Part 1, ‘The Sublime Representation of Pain’, investigates the way different authors thought about the capacity of sublime language and rhetorical techniques such as enargeia to effectively communicate pain. I argue that for writers such as Longinus, the sublime offers an opportunity to replicate the traumatic experience of the pain sufferer in the audience or listener—pain is narrated to the audience through a traumatic communicative mode. Contrarily, I show how authors such as Plutarch and Galen were particularly concerned to desublimate the representation of pain, reducing the affective power of images of pain by promoting the audience’s conscious engagement with the text or representational medium. Part 2, ‘Medical Narratives’, examines a conflict between Galen and Aristides over the way language and narrative signified or referred to painful experiences. I show how both writers negotiate the way pain destroys and transcends ordered, structured, narrative by engaging in a process of narrative translation. I will illuminate the difference between scientific, diagnostic narratives which explain and rationalise pain experiences (in the case of Galen) and those which attempt to give witness to the nebulous, ineffable qualities of pain. In Part 3, ‘Narrating Cures’ I investigate ancient practices of psychotherapy. I show how various philosophical consolations were underpinned by an understanding of the power of pain to continually return and overwhelm the individual. I show further that the Greek romances engage in a type of talking cure: the novels use narration and story-telling to help assert the protagonists’ distance from their past traumatic experiences and, thus, allow the individual to overcome their painful past.