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Thesis (M.A.)--Acadia University, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-100). Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Zürich, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-151).

Inwiefern, so konnte man sich zu Beginn dieses renditeorientierten, hoch kapitalistischen und allzeit praxisbezogenen 21. Jahrhunderts durchaus zu Recht fragen, gehört Kunst überhaupt zum Leben, inwiefern gehört Literatur zur Lebenskunst, und inwiefern trifft dies im Besonderen auch auf den Akt der Lektüre selbst zu? [...] Im Mittelpunkt der Analyse steht deshalb Jude the Obscure als 'medialer', fast schon medientheoretischer Roman, in dem es primär um den gelungenen oder gescheiterten Lektüreprozess von Zeichen geht, wobei gezeigt werden soll, dass Hardys letzter Roman gleich auf mehreren Textebenen sehr dezidiert verdeutlicht, wie Literatur gelesen werden und welche Kriterien eine adäquate Lektüre erfüllen sollte.

The purpose of this research was to study in depth the relationships of individuals in the three social classes in England during the Victorian Age. Since original documents and research material were scarce I used two novels by Thomas Hardy to illustrate the conflicts between representatives of the social classes. In 1891 England was prosperous and many people believed there was no conflict between the classes. Thomas Hardy believed this was untrue and, by method of comparison, wrote Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure to prove his point. This thesis includes research on the two novels, Thomas Hardy’s life, and last but not least is a study of the Age of Victoria.

Over the last two decades the potential for the combined study of literature and archaeology has been increasingly recognised. The Victorian era, which gave rise to new literary forms, and to archaeology as a science, offers a fertile area of enquiry. This thesis seeks to bring together the imaginative possibilities of archaeology and literature, conceiving their close association to be rooted in the observance and appreciation of the natural world. Focusing on the work of Thomas Hardy and Richard Jefferies, who both wrote about Wessex landscapes rich in archaeology, the thesis identifies the processes involved in the authors’ engagement with nature in archaeological settings. In 1851, Sir Daniel Wilson welcomed archaeology into the ‘circle of the sciences’, and the subject rose to popularity in the periodical press alongside rural pursuits; driven by the closing divide between town and country. Literary depictions of nature in ancient settings elevated the imaginative conception of the past, and found a receptive audience in London papers such as the Graphic and the Pall Mall Gazette, to which Hardy and Jefferies contributed. Both authors associate the mysterious qualities of prehistoric times, and the consonant sense of ‘untrodden space’, with the discovery of new subterranean territories in the self. In a society that was ‘adrift on change’, and seeking new meaning, these connections between the literary and archaeological imagination, and between the present and the past, forged at least temporary consolation. Both authors anticipated early Modern approaches to an archaeology of mind.

This thesis is entitled ‘Literature, Intuition and Faith' and it aims to create a new critical perspective of Thomas Hardy's novels by examining four of his best-known works. I will suggest that the novels of Thomas Hardy reveal a particular narrative concerning the idea of spiritual intuition and the Hardyean protagonist. The discussion will use as its methodology a close analysis of the sub-textual impulses of the novels rather than the considerable biographical information that is already available on Thomas Hardy. The contention of the thesis is that in contrast to Hardy's expressed allegiance to agnosticism, an unspoken and so far unrecognised narrative of intuitive spiritual faith inhabits the text.

This thesis is a study of social mobility in Thomas Hardy's novels based on The Return of the Native, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure. Using the influence of family background, education and social injustice, it discusses the identity crisis that arises from an individual's rapid social mobility. The study also shows how the obstacles and the inner conflicts that the novelist himself encounters in his own process of moving upward socially, are transformed into parts or fragments of his novels, imbuing them with highly autobiographical elements. The introduction discusses the roles that the Industrial Revolution and other occurrences in history played in creating social mobility at the time and the roles that family background, education, personal temperament, and social injustice played in inhibiting it. Particular attention is paid to how the individuals, particularly those from the lower classes, are stopped from moving upward completely and what conflicts in self-identity are created in their struggles. Chapter one discusses The Return of the Native, focusing on the dilemma arising from the discrepancy between the expectations of oneself and others in social mobility. Chapter two discusses Tess of the d'Urbervilles, focusing on the idea that family background and education can lead to social displacement and alienation in a mobile society. Chapter three discusses Jude the Obscure, focusing on how disillusion with one's own life and goals caused by one's own family background and negative temperament as well as social injustice can sabotage one'

This thesis is divided into four chapters, the first of which is theoretical and synoptic. The method of chapter 1 is threefold. Firstly, an examination of the idea of the late career, including previous research on the subject, common perceptions and archetypes, and a consideration of the nature of artistic self-consciousness as it influences the late career. Secondly, a discussion of old age in literature, including the context of gerontology, our typically equivocal picture of old age as both decaying and spiritualized, and a consideration of the mode of creativity of the aged. Thirdly, an examination of literary "endings": the point at which the poet is faced with formal conclusions and "last things." A number of topics associated with or generated by the late career are considered, particularly the summational impulse, confrontation with death, and engagement with posterity: three perspectives supplied by the moment of ending. In the three chapters which follow, I examine the structure of the late careers of Hardy, Yeats and Stevens, in particular the points of crisis and self-renewal, and including in each case works which precede the final phase. The evolving attitude of each poet to old age is examined, and a number of topics which seem intrinsic to the late career: monumental intentions and their decay, the fate of the poet's work in posterity, the dividing of the mortal body from the poetic corpus, the old man's introjected sexuality, and the heightened dualism of old age. Finally, in each case the "final gestures" of the poet are considered: his attempts to confront the demands of the literary "ending. "

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Zürich, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-151).