Diss.--Münster. / Bibliography: p. 385-420.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on April 28, 2010). A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Comparative Literature, University of Alberta. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Kiel, 1969. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-246).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on April 28, 2010). A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Comparative Literature, University of Alberta. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Boston University, 1985. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Indiana University. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 211-224).

Herman Melville's Piazza Tales is a collection of short stories which first appeared individually in Putnam's Magazine; subsequently Melville re-edited them, wrote a title story, and had them published as a collection. Hitherto the stories have been analysed individually rather than collectively; this thesis, on the other hand, points out the numerous recurrent features in the tales, and it adduces evidence from the title story to support the view that the collection should be regarded as a unit. This supposition leads to a fresh critical view of the individual tales; it also helps to illuminate Melville's artistic development at a time which shortly precedes his transition from fiction-writing to poetry. After discerning briefly the critical history of the Piazza Tales and the situation which led Melville to adopt the short story as a new medium of writing, this thesis analyses the title story both as a story in its own right and as an introduction to the collection. Since it is Melville's last quest story in prose and is written retrospectively, the nature of the questor's disappointment on the mountain throws a light on the meaning of the collected stories. Thus his retirement to the uninvolved viewpoint from the piazza and the theme of human isolation, captured in the figure of Marianna, emphasize salient features common to the following stories. With these generic features in mind, each story is analysed; the last, chapter evaluates these common characteristics from the viewpoint of Melville's development. Thus, the Piazza Tales not only show inner artistic consistency but appear as an important milestone in Melville's literary career, as an important link between Pierre and The Confidence Man, after which Melville gave up publishing fiction altogether. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Because of his portrayal of noble and heroic Indians in the Leatherstocking Tales, James Fenimore Cooper has often been regarded as a writer very sympathetic to the Indian people in their struggle against dispossession by white society. Because they include many statements which support concepts of aboriginal land rights for the Indians, the Leatherstocking Tales appear to support this understanding of Cooper. However during the time in which Cooper wrote and published the five Leatherstocking Tales, Pioneers (1823), Last of the Mohicans (1826), Prairie (1827), Pathfinder (1840), and Deerslayer (1841), the United States debated and adopted a policy of Indian removal. As a result of this policy, most Indian peoples living east of the Mississippi were removed to unfamiliar lands west of the Mississippi. While some Indians agreed to this policy, others, most notably the Cherokee, objected and tried to maintain themselves as a people on their traditional lands. A treaty, endorsed by an unrepresentative minority of the Cherokee people, ceded these lands and the Cherokee were expelled from their homeland; some four thousand Cherokee people died on this "Trail of Tears" to their new home. Although Cooper was politically active and aware, he did not protest the actions of the government. In Notions of the Americans (1828), a fictional travel narrative, the presumed author, who, in many respects, can be identified with Cooper, speaks of removal as a "great, humane, and . . . rational project." Otherwise, Cooper does not appear to have addressed himself to the removal controversy. The thesis, therefore, re-examines the Leather-stocking Tales in the light of the removal controversy; it seeks to determine what understanding these novels give of the Indian people, of Indian-white relations, and of Indian rights to the land. The first three Leatherstocking novels were written during the debate on Indian removal. Although Indian rights to the "land are frequently mentioned, other aspects of these novels work to deny the validity of the Indian claim. The last two Leatherstocking novels, written after the removal policy had come into effect, do not have as much rhetoric about Indian land rights; like the earlier Leatherstocking Tales, however, they see the Indian and white civilization as mutually exclusive. Although Cooper presents good and noble Indians, in opposition to his Indian villains, they lack the necessary qualities to become a happy and worthwhile part of American life and culture. Critics accused Cooper of patterning his Indians too much after those described by Rev. John Heckewelder, one of Cooper's major sources. However, as this thesis shows, Cooper significantly altered Heckewelder's view of the Indians and of Indian-white relations; Cooper plays down the importance of white savagery, which Heckewelder had stressed and detailed, and, in contrast, emphasizes and details Indian acts of savagery and cruelty. The thesis concludes that Cooper saw the Indian primarily as material for romance; wrongs done to the Indian and statements about Indian rights to the land are included in the novels because they added to the picture of the Indian as a romantic figure. Basically, Cooper did not have any political or social commitment to the Indian people. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This thesis puts forward the case for a political reading of Thomas Hardy's Wessex Novels. Although the political aspects of these novels cannot be seen as his main preoccupation, it is argued that an awareness of the political motivation of Hardy is necessary for a proper and responsible reading. Through biographical and textual material, and through a comparison of Hardy with Boris Pasternak, it can be shown that a consistent political theme runs through the Wessex novels from the beginning to the end. The main reason why this political theme has not been generally appreciated is attributed to a misconception about Hardy's role as a novelist. For too long Hardy has been popularly described as a defender of the peasant or rustic. In fact, Hardy's interest was with those people who were just above the lowest class. Since he was himself from this slightly higher class, he was naturally sensitive to their difficulties in social improvement. Hardy therefore attacked the systems in society that protected the wealth and power for the middle and upper classes at the expense of the poorer people. The first chapter follows Hardy's early career both as an architect in London, where he developed strong political views that tended towards socialism, and as an aspiring novelist in a market which would not accept expression of those political views. The early novels show evidence of his suppressed political anger as Hardy lapses into outbursts of bitter social satire. The satire disappears after The Hand of Ethelberta when the novels complete a gradual movement towards tragedy. This meant that the discord between the early novels' general optimism and his political anger was eliminated. As a harmonious part of the later novels, Hardy's political attitudes are not so easily discerned. For this reason a special critical approach is needed. The second chapter compares Hardy's novels and political views with those of Boris Pasternak. Pasternak's poetic political novel provides a model for analysing the later more poetic Wessex Novels. Utilising the genre of the "lyrical novel," it is shown how the poet-novelist often pays less attention to narrative development and concentrates on shaping his central concerns within a symbolic structure. The third chapter makes a political reading of Tess of the D'Urbervilles based on the political attitudes established in the first chapter, and on the techniques of the lyrical novel defined in the second. The consistency of Hardy's political views in the Wessex Novels becomes apparent as the same concerns of the early novels are found through an analysis of the novel's symbolic structure. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

No description available.