This dissertation investigates the representation of the image of the stone in poems by four modern Latin-American poets. To do this, I selected one key poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz. Based on pertinent principles of literary criticism and analysis, I perform close readings of each of these texts. Despite the use of the same image, the semantic results in each poem present significant variation. That is my starting point for discussions of related historical and theoretical issues such as critical reception, value, ("No meio do caminho" by Drummond), the representation of the lyrical speaker, imagery, metapoetry, ("A educação pela pedra" by João Cabral), the role of the history in poetry, the manipulation of literary sources, (Poema XVII by Pablo Neruda), the concept of "logos" and the relationship between poetry and myth ("Como las piedras del Principio" by Octavio Paz). The basic goal of this dissertation is to put into practice critical and theoretical approaches that optimize the reading of poetry. / text

The central idea of this study is an examination of the transformation of the image of the poet in different generations. My thesis problem is that the poet is dynamic, reflecting both the self-image and reception of society at different times. I collected data from many different sources- the primary sources were memoirs, poetry, short stories, novels and original documents from the Canadian Jewish Congress Archives and by speaking with historians about A.M. Klein, Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen. The secondary sources used were scholarly books about the poets articles from the Canadian Jewish press and documentaries. I used literary analysis for the poetry and I took a social-historical approach in the examination of the poets' relationship to the community and biography. The social historical approach and the literary approach were both used in this study to analyze the succession of Canadian Jewish poets. As an original contribution to the field, this study categorizes the three poets in a succession: Klein is the Jewish poet, Layton is the Canadian Jewish poet and Cohen is the spiritual guru, all reflecting the changing situation for Canadian Jews. I examine the first generation poet in this succession of gifted Canadian Jewish poets, A.M. Klein, the second generation, Irving Layton and the third generation poet, Leonard Cohen. Specifically, I argue that the roles and the reception to these poets have changed in the Jewish press as a result of changing times. As the years progress and the situation for worldwide Jewry becomes more stable with greater tolerance in a multicultural society, the poet moves away from the identification as a Jewish poet. In Klein's generation he is labeled as a Jewish poet. Layton fights the label of a Jewish poet and through controversy and celebrity he is recognized as a Canadian Jewish poet. Leonard Cohen re-defines the category of a Canadian Jewish poet in favor of a spiritual guru. This study provides an overview of the times and the issues that each poet faced in their generation. The first part of each chapter is devoted to a brief biography and an exploration of the way the Jewish community responded to the poets in terms of roles that they wanted them to undertake and the own reception to the poets in the local Jewish press. It is interesting that each poet served a different function in different generations as a response to the needs of the community. The second section of each chapter is an examination of the poets' self-image as depicted in their writing. All of the poets viewed themselves in the same manner, as spokesmen, controversial figures and as modern poets similar to ancient biblical figures. This section includes the ways the poets viewed their relationship with the community and their relationship to Judaism as a way of shaping their self-perception.

Poetry by Russian women which has been published since the fall of the Soviet Union reveals that the quest to explore female identity and experience is no longer inviolable in Russian literature. This thesis examines female personae, gender and cultural identity in the work of Russian poets Nina Iskrenko (1951--1994), Tatiana Voltskaia (b. 1960), and Iuliia Kunina (b. 1966). Although the poetics of these writers' texts are broad-ranging, all of their work takes up the subjects of gender and cultural identity. Their poems explore identity as a discursive practice, rather than a fixed construct within the strictures of authoritative metanarratives' binary oppositions (male/female, feminine/masculine, Russian/non-Russian). This lends their poetry to postmodern analysis, an approach that heretofore has rarely been applied to poetry by Russian women. Within this theoretical framework, Judith Butler's formulation of "performativity" and Mikhail Epstein's theory of "transculturalism" are particularly well-suited to the task, as each entails non-essentialist conceptions of identity. Donna Haraway's formulation of "woman" as cyborg" is also a fitting theoretical complement, as it suggests the hybridization of identity, as well as the increasing role of the Internet in contemporary and future developments in Russian literature. The rapid changes in the late- and post-Soviet cultural landscape have engendered in contemporary poetry by Russian women powerful, new expressions of gender and cultural identity, which are resulting in startling subversions of authoritative discourses while at the same time forging coalitional "transmodern" identities.

This thesis examines the influence of Parthenius' doctrine of erotika pathemata on the Neoteric epyllion. His influence on Cinna has been readily acknowledged, but except for a few incidental and tentative references, little has been made of his role in determining important features of Neoteric poetry; in fact, many Leading scholars in the field fail even to mention him. A survey of the evolution of the epyllion in the Hellenistic world shows a radical transformation of the Callimachean type by Euphorion and Parthenius", in the late Alexandrian era. It is clearly the late Alexandrian epyllion that became popular with the Neoterics, as the relevant works of Catullus and, what can be conjectured about the nature of the lost Neatenc epyllia suggest. There is a marked bias towards tragic love-stories, sensational and bizarre, often metamorphic and with ample scope for emotional analysis and a subjective treatment. These features closely parallel the tenor of Parthenius', summary of 36 love-stories in the Erotika Pathemata, his only wholly extant work. While the collection was dedicated to Comelius Gallus well after most of the Neoteric epyllia were written, it is safe to assume that Parthenius preached his doctrine from the time of his arrival at Rome, as his widely acknowledged influence on Cinna's Zmyrna, perhaps the first Latin epyllion, seems to suggest. This thesis cannot pretend to defend Ross' extravagant claim that "without Parthenius' timely arrival there could have been no New Poetry"; but it can attempt to illuminate Parthenius' central role in establishing the nature of the Neoteric epyllion. This study has been undertaken, then, in the belief that Parthenius' influence on the Neoterics and on the creation of a new genre at Rome warrants closer scrutiny than has so far been attempted. Thus, it seeks to provide an alternate basis for the analysis of poems like 63 and 64, and heralds a possible shift from the emphasis on the autobiographical approach, which, though undoubtedly valid, has been belaboured in recent years to the point of excess. Abbreviated title: Erocika Pathemata and the Neoteric Epyllion. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Durban-Westville, 1996.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

From Introductory note: The Complete Poems of W.H. Davies (London: Jonathan Cape, 1963; rev. 1968) has been used throughout this study. Accordingly, unless otherwise stated, all citations of poem numbers and pagination refer to this text. Critical literature on the work of W.H. Davies is restricted in quantity and limited in scope. There are few comprehensive assessments of Davies as poet, autobiographer, novelist, or raconteur. Apart from such sources as Richard J. Stonesifer's full-length critical biography (1963), Lawrence Hockey's biographical monograph (1971), and Thomas Moult's anecdotal and historical appreciation (1934), critical material must be drawn from contemporary reviews, isolated articles in magazines such as The Catholic World and Fortnightly Review, and specific chapters in surveys of the poetry of the early twentieth century, although Davies is frequently alluded to passim in literary histories which deal with this period. Many of these studies favour biographical exposition and evaluation rather than descriptive analysis and discursive interpretation. A detailed chronology of Davies's works is included in Stonesifer's discussion. This thesis is not attempting to trace a line of development for two reasons. First, the Complete Poems gives no indication of date of composition or publication of particular poems, and the present writer has access only to the dates of publication of individual volumes as external evidence of a chronology, internal evidence being confined to such infrequent references as "the birds of steel" in Poem no. 236, p. 260. Secondly, the lyrics themselves do not, on the whole, evince much stylistic and thematic development, and the concern of this study is with recurrent themes and techniques dispersed throughout the oeuvre.

Since earliest times death has been an important and always actual theme in the arts. The point of departure of this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the ”discourse of and about death” in the poems of three women poets, namely Elisabeth Eybers, Olga Kirsch and Eveleen Castelyn. Various aspects of death thematics are considered and, from a formal perspective, the presence and absence of traditional forms concerning death, such as the ”obituary poem”, the ”elegy”, the ”dirge” and the ”threnody” are investigated. The research plan and the development of the study are dealt with in chapter one. The problem formulation and theoretical approaches for this study are given special attention. In chapter two the death theme in literature throughout the centuries, and specifically in poetry, is relevant. Death thematics occurring in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Chinese, American, Russian, German, French and Spanish literatures are examined. Philosophical and Christian viewpoints concerning death are also investigated. The portrayal of death in the poetry of Elisabeth Eybers is the topic in chapter three. Her oeuvre is devided into four periods. The collections from Belydenis in die skemering up to Rymdwang are only summarily referred to, since this section has already been dealt with in my MA dissertation (Schutte, 1988). The following six volumes are discussed in detail concerning her religious views and the portrayal of death by way of various subthemes and stances. Chapter four is dedicated to the poetry of Olga Kirsch and in chapter five to that of Eveleen Castelyn. In chapter six a comparison is drawn between the three poets regarding their shared death thematics, similarities and differences in their mode of betrayal and their views on the afterlife. During her oeuvre Eybers adopts an agnostic view, Kirsch embraces the Jewish faith and Castelyn holds a Christian point of view throughout her oeuvre. At the end of the study a summary and findings are given and the conclusion, that the three poets increasingly become preoccupied with death, is reached. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / (D. Litt. et Phil. Afrikaans))

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