Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-120). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The late Ming artist and poet Xu Wei (1521-1593) is most well known for his self-representation as a cultured "mountain hermit" and "eccentric", pursuing the literary ideals of originality, simple language and direct emotional expression. His wild ink-brush paintings, mental instability, numerous suicide attempts and the murder of his third wife all helped to consolidate Xu's image as China's Van Gogh. However, later hagiographies of Xu as the "patron saint of eccentrics" have led to a one dimensional view of Xu. This thesis presents Xu as someone who explored and wrestled with different and sometimes contradictory self-representations against a thorny political and social backdrop. It moves away from Xu's "eccentric" persona, instead examining his writings within the political context of the 16th century. Against the backdrop of Mongol and pirate invasions, Xu's close friend Shen Lian was executed by the Chief Grand Secretary Yan Song and his clique. Yet only a month after his friend's execution, Xu switched sides and worked as a ghost-writer for Hu Zongxian, a protégé of Yan Song. Yet with the fall of Yan Song in 1562 and the arrest of Hu Zongxian, this became an embarrassment for Xu. Fearing that he would be implicated with the Yan Song clique, Xu distanced himself from his flattering ghost-written poems. Overwhelmed by feelings of guilt, he explored the complexities of loyalty and identity in his poetry. Xu's career is representative of many Ming scholars who were frustrated by examination failure and the inability to find an official post. His literary ideals contradicted with lived reality. Xu is unique among Ming literati in voicing these contradictions.

The vast corpus of testimonial literature that has been produced in Latin America since the 1960s, reaches a peak in the 1970s and continues to the present day. The dissertation investigates this phenomenon in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, through the examination of a group of literary works that range from personal testimonies to documentary novels. This genre is defined by a pact of truth established with the reader in relation to the experience that is being narrated. The first chapter describes testimony as a collective discourse that responds to a counter-hegemonic cultural project which opposes the doctrine of “National Security” that prevailed in the region during that period. Chapter II presents the guidelines that will frame the dissertation, preparing a synthesis of several existing models based upon diverse criteria: social, semantic, syntactic and functional. In establishing the relationship between narration, history and testimony, the thesis emphasizes that narrative techniques are needed in order to tell any story, even those which were not developed with a literary purpose. Testimony is not an exception, because it transforms experience into stories, applying to remembrances the structure of a plot. The texts are organized accordingly, taking into account the types of narrativization employed, and this taxonomy is connected with the reception theory and the contributions of the social criticism, in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the genre. Chapters III, IV and V examine various works from the three countries mentioned above, establishing a connection between the historic-social situation, the collective symbols, the artistic production of that period, and testimonies. The conclusion suggests that the return of Latin American literature to its hybrid origins implies transformations such as the democratization of writing and the disappearance of the author as the centre of the literary production. It also claims that this corpus provokes a change in the direction of contemporary writing in those countries, generating a necessary catharsis and a new elaboration of a fragmented collective identity. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

M.A. / In this dissertation an examination is made of the different strands of contemporary South African protest and resistance poetry. This is done by way of analysing selected poems to highlight the relationship which exists between politics and aesthetics and to illustrate that the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. A brief history of written African protest and resistance poetry is provided in an attempt to put this poetry within its historical context and to trace its influences and development. The poems are then examined with the express aim of identifying and understanding their themes and the socio-political contexts from which they emanate. These contexts are then shown to have important implications in so far as the aesthetics of protest and resistance poetry is concerned. The dissertation highlights the fact that for this poetry to be fully appreciated, there is a need to recognize the particular circumstances which surround it. This recognition is essential because these circumstances are instrumental in the shaping of the poetry and the formation of an aesthetics of protest and resistance. An examination of whether this type of poetry has any socio-political relevance and literary significance to contemporary South Africa is made.

Critics and historians of science fiction widely recognize the genre's importance as a forum for political ideas during the 1950s. But the political role of science fiction diminished during the 1960s, overshadowing the ongoing involvement of sf writers in future-related debates. This paper employs biography, autobiography, memoir, archival papers, recordings, and secondary sources to demonstrate that sf writers continued to discuss the future and its potential problems after the 1950s. Judith Merril and Isaac Asimov, two giants in science fiction, form the core of this paper's focus. Merril and Asimov began to discuss the future in essays, interviews, and documentaries in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, Merril and Asimov were examining the then-emerging problems of overpopulation and planetary ecology in mainstream non-fiction. Merril and Asimov demonstrate that sf writers still addressed political and social issues in the 1960s and early 1970s - even if their involvement increasingly took place outside the boundaries of science fiction literature. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Así surge el problema materia de la presente investigación, cuyo punto de vista básico es que, hay algunos puntos de contacto en la acción causada por el dictador en las dos novelas, pero también hay algunas diferencias, que dan a cada una de las novelas un carácter peculiar. El objeto de este estudio es hacer un análisis comparativo de ciertas consecuencias producidas por la acción del "señor Presidente," en las novela El señor Presidente, y de Antón Bocanegra, en la novela Muertes de perro. Para que los terminos de comparacion se coloquen en un plano factible y lógico, se partirá del punto de vista que las dos novelas tratan de un tema común, la dictadura, pero bajo estructuras, procedimientos, métodos, y recursos utilizados diferentes.

This study pursues the quest and struggle for total liberation in post-independence Shona poetry. The study also relies on views of key respondents obtained through interviews and questionnaires. Couched and guided by Afrocentricity and Africana womanism, the study elucidates the politico-economic and socio-cultural factors that militate against Africa’s total liberation in general as well as women’s liberation, respectively. Simultaneously, critical judgments are passed on the extent to which poets immerse their art in African existential philosophy. The study is energized by the idea that pursuing the quest for authentic liberation provides a lens through which one can understand threats to Africa’s true liberation. It observes that poets and key informants largely attribute ersartz independence to internal problems. The researcher holds that it is problematic to hold a domesticated vision of the African condition to the extent that poets and other literary workers need to widen their canvas beyond fighting internal oppression and internationalise the struggle. The researcher argues that it is myopic and self-defeating to protest against Africa itself without giving adequate attention to the incapacitating hegemonic world system. Therefore, the poetry is lacking on its critique on domination. The centerpiece of the thesis is that in order to be purposeful and functional, poets need to grapple with both endogenous and exogenous factors that obstruct the march towards genuine liberation. The study also observes that in some instances poets produce cheap literature which is marked by a narrow and moralistic approach and this is attributable to the fact that poets lack a scientific vision in understanding reality. Concerning women’s authentic liberation, the commonly identified obstacles to women’s freedom are the male counterpart, self-depreciation, lack of education and culture. The study observes that women poets in Ngatisimuke (1994) and key respondents seem to approach gender relations from a feminist perspective and hence fail to situate women’s condition in the context of the history and culture that shape African gender relations. Women poets in Ngatisimuke fall short of internationalising their struggle in concert with the male counterpart such that their poetry degenerates into sponsored and misguided activism. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Narrative Bonds: Female Friendship, Affect, and Politics in Novels by 20th-century Francophone Women Writers examines the link between friendship and politics in novels by the Algerian writers Assia Djebar and Taos Amrouche, the Haitian writer Marie Chauvet, and the French writer Claire Etcherelli. In fiction, Francophone women writers develop their own definitions of female friendship, departing from the idealized notions in classical philosophy. I argue that the desire for dyadic friendship between women is an organizing force in women’s writing of the 1940s-1960s, although it may initially appear to be a minor concern. Historically not included in philosophical treatises on friendship, women are excluded from the category of “friends,” and must imagine a form of friendship that they can participate in before making and becoming friends. My dissertation analyzes the literary affect of negation, in which women must feel an absence or impossibility of friendship before they can then define female friendships on their own terms. I argue that female friendship is a form of relations that is new, troubling, and exciting for these women. In the works of my corpus, friendship is inextricable from political awakening and anti-colonial and anti-patriarchal resistance. As women’s political status changed in France, Haiti, and Algeria, women became more fully able to imagine themselves as both subjects and friends.

This thesis examines works written about imprisonment by four South African political prison writers who were incarcerated for political reasons. My Introduction focuses on current research and literature available on the subject of political prison-writing and it justifies the study to be undertaken. Chapter One examines the National Party's policy pertaining to the holding of political prisoners and discusses the work of Michel Foucault on the subject of imprisonment as well as the connection he makes between knowledge and power. This chapter also considers the factors that motivate a prisoner to write. Bearing in mind Foucault's findings, Chapters Two to Five undertake detailed studies of La Guma's The Stone Country, Dennis Brutus's Letters to Martha, Hugh Lewin's Bandiet and Breyten Breytenbach's The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, respectively. Particular emphasis is placed on the reaction of these writers against a repressive government. In addition, Chapters Two to Five reflect on the way in which imprisonment affected them from a psychological point of view, and on the manner in which they were, paradoxically, empowered by their prison experience. Chapters Four and Five also consider capital punishment and Lewin and Breytenbach's response to living in a hanging jail. I contemplate briefly the works of Frantz Fanon in the conclusion in order to elaborate on the reasons for the failure of the system of apartheid and the policy of political imprisonment and to reinforce my argument. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

本文是第一部專以清初陶學為研究對象的論文，擬從文人的情懷、詩學的演變、詩歌的用意、意象的運用、注本的闡釋等多角度概述清初陶學的全貌。在方法上，筆者除分析當時文人對陶淵明的評論外，還選取了清初四十家身份不同的文人，比較他們詩作中運用的陶淵明典故，探討他們對「陶淵明形象」的塑造與取捨，並以歷史背景為線索，梳理陶淵明意象在清初文人心目中地位的差異與其變化。 / 基於上述的研究，筆者認為以往學術界把清初陶學只理解為「忠憤」的表現是不夠全面的，尤其是清初關於陶淵明的討論，除了遺民文人有熱烈的參與外，非遺民文人亦有相當數量的研究，而且他們之間還存在着不少的交流，互相回應。正因如此，清初和陶風氣盛極一時，並且出現了一種嶄新、「反其致」的和陶現象--〈反乞食〉詩。 / 這種借用陶淵明的意象互相交流與回應，更多反映在詩歌方面。清初文人借讀陶、評陶、和陶等方法抒發他們於易代間的鬱悶。這種詩歌世界，重現了陶淵明筆下的桃源，在這裏，他們「不知有漢，無論魏晉」，思想上可以暫時脫離現實的痛苦，悠然人間。這也使得清初《陶集》評注本的編撰，一改南宋以來十卷本的「全集」形式，而偏重於四卷本，只收錄詩作的體制。 / The author intends to discuss the reception of Tao Yuanming in the Early Qing Dynasty from the aspects such as the emotions of poets, the changes of poetics, the intentions of poetries, the poetic imageries and the differences of the editions. And, it is the first work focusing solely on the reception of Tao Yuanming in the Early Qing Dynasty. Regarding the research methods, this dissertation not only studies the critiques through the existed methods, but also analyses the existed materials in a different manner. By comparing the literary allusions of Tao Yuanming’s life of 40 scholars lived in Early Qing who had different social background, the thesis discusses how these people constructed the images of Tao Yuanming and how they selected from Tao’s qualities. The thesis also tries to sort out the different attitudes of Tao among scholars of Early Qing and its changes with regard to the historical context. / Based on the research, the author finds out that the existed understanding of the reception of Tao Yuanming in the Early Qing, which focuses on the leftover citizen’s aspect, and which portrays Tao image as a rebellion was largely incomplete. Apart from the vigorous discussions regarding the images of Tao among the leftover citizen, the non-leftover citizen also discussed Tao with great enthusiasm. Under this circumstance, a new form of He Tao Shi(和陶詩) “poems written to match Tao’s , was found in opposite mode in order to response to those leftover citizen. / By appropriation of Tao’s images in their communication and responding each other especially in poems, scholars lived in Early Qing expressed their uneasiness and pain as in the change of the regime through reading, commentary and writing of Tao’s collections. Thus, this special kind of poem allowed the Early Qing scholars to escape from the distress of the reality to an ideal world, a typical example of which was “Peach-Blossom Spring created by Tao Yuanming. This tendency reflected in the editions of Tao’s works in Early Qing Dynasty that Tao’s poems received much attention while other forms of works were not included in the collections of works. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 梁樹風. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 331-376) / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Liang Shufeng. / 提要 --- p.I / 目錄 --- p.III / Chapter 第一章 --- 緒論 --- p.1 / Chapter 第一節 --- 研究範圍 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二節 --- 研究旨趣 --- p.7 / Chapter 第三節 --- 相關文獻回顧 --- p.14 / Chapter 第四節 --- 論文架構與研究方法 --- p.17 / Chapter 第二章 --- 清初陶學背景 --- p.24 / Chapter 第一節 --- 明清易代與文人「生死」的抉擇 --- p.24 / Chapter 第二節 --- 陶淵明生存方式對清初文人的啟示 --- p.29 / Chapter 第三節 --- 清初文人寄情陶淵明的表現 --- p.37 / Chapter 第四節 --- 清初遺民的逃禪與蓮社之約 --- p.56 / Chapter 第三章 --- 清初詩學與陶詩評價的關係 --- p.91 / Chapter 第一節 --- 清初詩壇尋「真」對陶詩評價的影響 --- p.91 / Chapter 第二節 --- 清初「詩史」的重視與陶淵明甲子紀年之義 --- p.115 / Chapter 第三節 --- 清初田園詩的復興與陶淵明田園詩內涵的解讀 --- p.130 / Chapter 第四章 --- 清初的擬陶、集陶與和陶 --- p.151 / Chapter 第一節 --- 清初擬陶與集陶的表現與陶文詩意的賞讀 --- p.152 / Chapter 第二節 --- 清初和陶詩的表現與其意義 --- p.162 / Chapter 第三節 --- 清初擬陶、和陶的觴濫--陶淵明〈酒二十首〉 --- p.169 / Chapter 第四節 --- 清初的「反乞食詩」 --- p.184 / Chapter 第五章 --- 清初的陶淵明意象與繪事 --- p.206 / Chapter 第一節 --- 清初陶淵明與菊的意象與繪事 --- p.207 / Chapter 第二節 --- 清初桃源的意象與繪事 --- p.228 / Chapter 第六章 --- 清初《陶集》評注本 --- p.257 / Chapter 第一節 --- 《陶淵明集》版本源流與清初的《陶淵明集》 --- p.257 / Chapter 第二節 --- 清初的《陶淵明集》注釋 --- p.277 / Chapter 第三節 --- 清初《陶集》評注的特色 --- p.319 / Chapter 第七章 --- 結論 --- p.328 / 參考書目 --- p.331 / Chapter 附錄一 --- 清初文人詩作用陶淵明典故語句輯錄 --- p.1 / Chapter 附錄二 --- 清初文人用陶淵明典故的創作時間與數量分佈 --- p.105 / Chapter 附錄三 --- 歷代書目所錄《陶淵明集》 --- p.106 / Chapter 附錄四 --- 宋代《陶集》注本研究 --- p.119 / Chapter 附錄五 --- 清初文人和陶詩附表 --- p.147