Turkish humanist, literary historian, novelist, essayist and poet Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar's work (23 June 1901 - 24 January 1962) provides us with a unique opportunity to reframe the major questions of contemporary literary historiography, particularly those relating to the politics of literature and the history of religion. This dissertation surveys Tanpinar's writings in a variety of genres (fiction, poetry, literary history and theory) with a particular attention on his masterpiece, namely the novel /The Time Regulation Institute/. It demonstrates how Tanpinar's humanistic sensitivities, together with his dedication to social scientific scrutiny, results in a quest for an original, cross-disciplinary position for the critic, or at least an alternative "mood" in writing and representing. Alternatively, his is a quest for a new "method" for literature, literary criticism and cultural study. Among his company in this quest are nineteenth century Ottoman-Turkish revolutionaries, poets and novelists - such as the nationalist Namik Kemal, pious Ziya Pasha, populist Ahmet Midhat Efendi and suicidal Besir Fuad, to name some of the figures I discuss in this dissertation - alongside French symbolists, Paul Valéry in particular, but also philosophers such as Henri Bergson and even Martin Heidegger, alongside eminent sociologists August Comte and Emile Durkheim. Yet one would only do injustice to Tanpinar's thinking and writing unless one takes into consideration his reception of modernist writing at large, against the background of Melville's, T. S. Eliot's or Kafka's works; or his literary- historical and political position in contrast to Erich Auerbach's or Maurice Blanchot's. Tanpinar's account of the late Ottoman intellectual legacy and modern Turkish and European letters is most instructive today in understanding the social and political relevance of modern literary activity and its position vis-à-vis religion, particularly in the non-West. Accordingly he must also be read against the background of sociology of religion and art. Tanpinar's original "mode" of writing or "method" redraws the contours of the global expansion (or "globalization") of a particular "regime" of sensibility -- a particular way of seeing and saying, making and sharing, writing and reading -- i.e. an "aesthetic" regime, as Jacques Rancière has it. Tanpinar's elaborations on the social, cultural, theological and philosophical implications of this expansion -- particularly in the Ottoman world and later the Turkish republic, but also in what he calls the "Muslim Orient" at large -- leads to the discovery of certain zones of indistinction or ambivalence ("duplicitous" spaces, as Tanpinar has it) not only between religion and literature, but also between literature and social sciences. This enables him to "critique" social scientific writing literarily, i.e. through specifically literary writing in the novel The Time Regulation Institute. But he also critiques literary and philosophical writing with social scientific scrutiny not only in The Time Regulation Institute but also in his theoretical writings and his history, in his essays and his Nineteenth Century Turkish Literature. He thereby postulates a concept for the political history of literature on a global scale that in turn scrutinizes the relationship between writing beyond genres and religion. Tanpinar the literary historian was hired in the late 1930s to establish Turkish philology at Istanbul University, together with Auerbach who was hired to establish Romance philology at the same institution. Auerbach, whose literary historiography displays a similar attention to the history and politics of representation in the Judeo-Christian tradition, wrote his most influential works during his Istanbul exile. Given Tanpinar's alternative focus on the question of verbal arts and representation in the "Muslim Orient," reading Tanpinar and Auerbach together produces a more complete picture of the stakes of a world literature in this dissertation. Finally, to address the relevance of Tanpinar's writings to contemporary scholarship with clarity, this dissertation recontextualizes Tanpinar's thinking and his unvoiced disagreements with Auerbach, among others, against the background of the productive tension between Jacques Rancière -- "the humanist" of the dissertation who often traces back his literary thinking to Auerbach -- and Pierre Bourdieu -- "the social scientist" here whose thought is very much imbedded in the sociological tradition extending from Comte to Durkheim.

Nabokov is well known for writing numerous indictments of totalitarian tyranny, most notably Invitation to a Beheading (1935) and Bend Sinister (1947). However, my contention in this thesis is that Nabokov�s most sustained and most significant assault on totalitarian tyranny occurred in 1938. The extent of Nabokov�s response to tyranny in 1938 is not immediately obvious. Some of Nabokov�s work of the year engages in an explicit assault on tyranny; however, in other cases the assault is oblique and in one instance cryptically concealed. In my thesis I examine each of the works of 1938, and set these against the political circumstances of the year, the tense atmosphere on the threshold of World War II. I find that all of the works of 1938, in one manner or another, respond to the political climate of the day; that Nabokov in 1938 made an unparalleled artistic response to tyranny in a uniquely ominous year. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part 1 contains studies of each of the lesser works of 1938: chapter 5 of The Gift, "Tyrants Destroyed," The Waltz Invention, "The Visit to the Museum," and "Lik." These studies are inset into a chronological survey of the personal and political circumstances of Nabokov�s life in 1938. Part 2 constitutes the most significant aspect of my thesis, an in-depth study of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Nabokov�s main work of 1938. The novel has been regarded as detached from the pre-war climate of the day; however, in an extensive new reading I find that the bright appearance of the novel is only a facade. My reading reveals a triadic, chess-problem-like structure to the novel, where the innocuous surface (the thesis) gives way to a cryptically concealed level of totalitarian themes (the antithesis), before the novel finally emerges onto a notional third level (the synthesis), the novel�s "solution." The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, I contend, represents the heart of Nabokov�s artistic response to tyranny in 1938. Through the triadic unfolding of the novel and the reader�s creative engagement with the text, Nabokov demonstrates that art itself triumphs over tyranny.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-210).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 305-316).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 299-303).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 200-210). Also available online.

published_or_final_version / Political Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

This dissertation explores changing form and political purpose in selected works of Ronnie Govender, by analysing reasons for the shifts in Govender’s choice of genre, and the effects of these genre shifts in his work. Govender is unusual in that he has chosen to recast certain of his most popular works into different genres, throwing up questions of context and impact as associated with these works. The investigation of a selection of Govender’s works that have appeared in at least two genres over a period of change in South Africa allows for an examination of political impact on Govender’s works both during and post apartheid. This study will be analysed within a range of theatre ‘isms’ and theories which influenced Govender’s skills in the theatre. These are important to situate Govender as, firstly, in his early career, a theatre practitioner. Attention will be given to Constantin Stanislavski and the Method Acting Theory, (1937) as the philosophies advocated by Stanislavski were particularly useful to Govender for the staging and performance of his plays. Reference will be made to the ‘Theatre of Commitment’, Community Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed and Epic Theatre, as elements of these theories feature in Govender’s writing and stage performances. Some focus will also be given to Zakes Mda (1993), as both Mda and Govender are associated with the ‘Theatre of Commitment’, and share a vision of socio-political change through theatre and literature. As contributors to the South African literary canon, Mda and Govender continuously reinvent themselves through their experimentation with form which results in them consistently producing new works. In addition, this dissertation also examines audience reception of Govender’s stage performances and reader reception in his texts, and this allows for a brief investigation into Reception Theory. The theories of Wolfgang Iser (1978), Stanley Fish (1980) Hans Robert Jauss (in Bahti 1982) and Susan Bennett (1990) will be referred to in so far as they inform the reception of the works selected for the purposes of this study. In order to contextualise Govender as a writer of both plays and prose, a brief biography of his life and his work will be undertaken. The findings of researchers such as Rajendra Chetty (2002) and Pallavi Rastogi (2008) who have studied the work of South African Indian writers will be drawn on in order to contextualise Govender’s writing particularly and his position as a South African Indian writer generally. This dissertation assesses Govender’s contribution to the South African canon, and forwards him as an example of a South African writer who is pointing to new directions in writing. The fictional works selected for this dissertation which best illustrate political purpose, changing form and the changing dynamics of reader-audience response, include The Lahnee’s Pleasure as play, The Lahnee’s Pleasure as novel; “1949”, first as short story then as play; and “At the Edge”, first as short story then as play. These works which have appeared as both play and prose (novel and short story) have been chosen for their versatility and suitability to different genres and because Govender has chosen to recast them in new forms. Reasons for this will be explored. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Nabokov is well known for writing numerous indictments of totalitarian tyranny, most notably Invitation to a Beheading (1935) and Bend Sinister (1947). However, my contention in this thesis is that Nabokov�s most sustained and most significant assault on totalitarian tyranny occurred in 1938. The extent of Nabokov�s response to tyranny in 1938 is not immediately obvious. Some of Nabokov�s work of the year engages in an explicit assault on tyranny; however, in other cases the assault is oblique and in one instance cryptically concealed. In my thesis I examine each of the works of 1938, and set these against the political circumstances of the year, the tense atmosphere on the threshold of World War II. I find that all of the works of 1938, in one manner or another, respond to the political climate of the day; that Nabokov in 1938 made an unparalleled artistic response to tyranny in a uniquely ominous year. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part 1 contains studies of each of the lesser works of 1938: chapter 5 of The Gift, "Tyrants Destroyed," The Waltz Invention, "The Visit to the Museum," and "Lik." These studies are inset into a chronological survey of the personal and political circumstances of Nabokov�s life in 1938. Part 2 constitutes the most significant aspect of my thesis, an in-depth study of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Nabokov�s main work of 1938. The novel has been regarded as detached from the pre-war climate of the day; however, in an extensive new reading I find that the bright appearance of the novel is only a facade. My reading reveals a triadic, chess-problem-like structure to the novel, where the innocuous surface (the thesis) gives way to a cryptically concealed level of totalitarian themes (the antithesis), before the novel finally emerges onto a notional third level (the synthesis), the novel�s "solution." The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, I contend, represents the heart of Nabokov�s artistic response to tyranny in 1938. Through the triadic unfolding of the novel and the reader�s creative engagement with the text, Nabokov demonstrates that art itself triumphs over tyranny.