Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-05-23Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:08:08Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_ie_me_arafcl.pdf: 547814 bytes, checksum: b7e92a8c84d9d767a09f24764778abb4 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Thomas Hardy é um autor cuja produção se assenta no período que compreende o final do século XIX e o começo do século XX, momento que marca não apenas o fim de uma era histórica e o recomeço de novos tempos, mas caracteriza também uma ocasião de mudança na concepção literária. No caso inglês, aquele período apontava para um declínio da literatura vitoriana – com seus temas baseados na moral austera da época, ancorada na figura íntegra da rainha Vitória – e revelava os primeiros indícios de uma tendência literária voltada para o retrato do homem cindido, imerso no processo de crise existencial e destituído de muitas de suas antigas certezas. Este trabalho apresenta uma análise do romance Tess of the d‟Urbervilles com vistas a flagrar, segundo o ponto de vista de Thomas Hardy, a crise de valores que se estabelece, quando o modo de produção capitalista avança sobre as antigas instituições feudais na Inglaterra daquele tempo e deflagra um processo de reconsideração dos papéis dos indivíduos na sociedade. O estopim desta efervescência foram os desdobramentos da Revolução Industrial e as inovações nos campos científico e cultural que convulsionaram os padrões de comportamento e colocaram em questionamento a própria conduta humana. Com ironia, a sociedade vitoriana é criticada e, seus costumes, em grande monta, são apresentados como hipócritas no romance de Hardy, que tem um desfecho fatalista e parece retratar a visão desencantada do homem daquele momento sobre o destino de sua própria espécie no mundo em ascendente ebulição. Publicado pela primeira vez em 1891 e concebido sob a forma realista, interessa à pesquisa o romance Tess of the d‟Urbervilles justamente pelo seu caráter duplo: pertence ao cânone da literatura vitoriana e, ao mesmo tempo, antecipa a temática modernista do colapso da solidez humana. Para apontar esta crise, adotamos... / Thomas Hardy‟s works are set in a time comprehending the end of nineteenth century and the beginning of twentieth century, a period that not only highlights the end of a historical era and the beginning of a new time, but also characterizes an occasion of change in literary conception. That period in England was representative of the decay of Victorian literature – with moral-based themes inspired in Queen Victoria‟s integrity – and it showed up the first signs of a literary tendency of revealing the image of the divided man, sunk into the process of existential crisis and void of many of his previous certainties. This study presents an examination on Tess of the d‟Urbervilles in order to depict, according to Thomas Hardy‟s point of view, the crisis of values installed in the social order, when capitalism advances over the old feudal institutions in England at that time and sets forth a process of reconsideration of the roles of the individuals in society. The starting point of all this effervescence was the Industrial Revolution and its implications that brought innovation to scientific and cultural realms, disrupting old standards of behaviour and putting human conduct in check. The Victorian society is criticized with irony and many of its habits are taken as hypocrisies in Hardy‟s novel, which ends fatalistically, seeming to portrait man‟s disappointed view about his own destiny in the disturbed world in that time. Tess of the d‟Urbervilles, written under the realist form, was published for the first time in 1891 and it is important to this research because of its double character: it belongs to the canon of Victorian literature and, at the same time, anticipates the modernist theme of the collapse of human solidity. To point out this crisis, we take Raymond Williams‟s position that considers Hardy not simply a regionalist writer exclusively worried with... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

This essay highlights The Happy Prince’s advantageous use of conventions of the fairy tale genre to stress critical issues of the Victorian period: the challenge of the established Christian socio-moral order, the rising of the bourgeois industrial society, and the advent of aestheticism as a response. Using the close reading technique supported by the Victorian socio-historical background, the analysis establishes that the criticism proceeds by double associations. Firstly, the clear structure of the tale, enriched by a plethora of aesthetical features and suitable narrative processes, is propitious for children’s access to a message calling for more human generosity. Meanwhile, subtle analogies to the Christian imagery appear blurred by paradoxical elements. This prevents a definite religious interpretation from adults to which those messages are intended. Secondly, in connection with aestheticism, a social and moral criticism takes the form of a satire of the utilitarian vision of the bourgeoisie and a questioning of the common Victorian beliefs: the link between beauty and moral integrity, as well as the moral code of femininity. Finally, the utilitarian discourse and the disapproval of the research for pleasure from beauty merging with a hedonist vision, advocate an “art for art’s sake” free of these respective considerations.

During the 19th century, defence was a major issue in Victoria as indeed it was in other British colonies and the United Kingdom. To help defend themselves, self governing colonies throughout the Empire enlisted local citizens to serve as part time soldiers on a voluntary basis. The Victorian government in 1859 - 60 took a calculated risk in adopting a Volunteer Force to underpin the whole colonial defence scheme, particularly as the military effectiveness of the citizen soldiers was questionable due to the lack of any real discipline within the Force and the part time nature of the military service. Whilst the savings which resulted (from using Volunteers rather than expensive Imperial troops) were spent on building forts and purchasing ordnance to protect Port Phillip Bay, there were other advantages to be gained from the government decision. It harnessed the considerable groundswell of public patriotism and pride in the Empire to ensure the development of a colonial society with strong links to Britain. The Government also linked Volunteering, stability and patriotism together as part of a less obvious agenda for the goldfields. In a period of lingering unrest only a few short years after Eureka, the Volunteers provided a clear indication of government power and yet another sign (along with the judicial system, education, language) of the importance and expanse of British society. Should there be any civil unrest on the goldfields, the local Corps were ideally suited to the role of civil control. On a number of occasions, the Volunteer Corps were called out to maintain law and order. The thesis studies a major group of over 5,100 men on the goldfields over two decades, particularly with regard to their motives for joining the Volunteers and their demographics such as ages, occupations, addresses, activities and the networks between members. By addressing the Corps demographics it is possible to understand the role played by the Volunteers in the development of goldfields society.

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Victorian society had strict written and unwritten laws about what was permissible in terms of personal relationships. Anglican patriarchal church values governed behaviour between the classes and enforced codes of conduct on gender related boundaries of private individuals. Society subscribed to the traditional family of man, woman and children in the context of marriage. Homosexuality amongst men was punishable by prison. Government and religion preached Christian morality, yet the number of prostitutes had never been greater. This dissertation explores the problems of a pro-homosexual and anti-establishment Victorian author writing about human relationships forbidden by society. It exposes the consequences suffered by Oscar Wilde due to his investigative insights into the `Other' in the context of individual rights of preference in regard to sexual orientation, as expressed in selected texts, and his resolution of conflict, in De Profundis. / English Studies / MA (English)

Afin d'explorer la transition du genre Gothique vers le Policier dans la fiction de Dickens, notre étude suivra un plan général en trois grandes parties, divisées elles-mêmes en trois chapitres chacune. Il s'agira tout d'abord de présenter le contexte sociétal qui a conduit à la collision de deux genres littéraires, le Gothique et le Policier. Pour cela nous définirons les caractéristiques du Gothique dickensien. Dickens met en scène un univers doublement familier – un univers qui appartient au passé, un monde réel connu de ses lecteurs, mais également un univers qui appartient à l'histoire de la fiction, qui relève d'une intertextualité forte, que l'on pourrait qualifier de typique, aisément partagée par ses lecteurs. En second lieu, nous nous tournerons vers les effets de cette transition violente sur la mémoire des personnages, en définissant d'abord l'expression du trauma dans la fiction de Dickens. Nous verrons que le trauma repose en particulier sur le trouble identitaire que créent le sentiment d'une faillite de l'appartenance, ainsi que la disparition des repères que les Victoriens, et les personnages que Dickens met en scène, pensaient immuables. Dans un troisième temps, nous montrerons comment le Gothique et le Policier interagissent dans la fiction de Dickens, en analysant les éléments de société qui expliquent, à notre avis, cette rencontre presque contre nature – puisqu'on pourrait supposer que l'explication rationnelle obtenue au terme d'une fiction policière résolve les tensions gothiques. Nous verrons qu'il n'en est rien, et que la résolution des enquêtes ne libère pas complètement la fiction d'un après-coup gothique. Afin d'illustrer cette ligne d'analyse, nous étudierons la passation des pouvoirs entre les hommes de loi et les détectives, une passation des pouvoirs visible à la fois dans la société victorienne et dans le texte dickensien, et enfin la rémanence du Gothique qui fait des détectives les antiquaires d'un nouveau genre. / In order to investigate the transition from the Gothic genre to the detective fiction in Charles Dickens's works, our study will first concentrate on the Victorian social context that led to the collision of two literary genres, the Gothic and the detective fiction. We will define Dickensian Gothic. Actually, Dickens stages a twofold familiar universe. One universe belongs to the past – a real world that is well known to the readers. The second universe shows an insertion in literary history of an intertextual fabric – described as typical and easily shared by his readers. We will then deal with the effects of this violent collision upon the characters' memories and will define the expression of trauma in Dickens's fiction. Trauma primarily rests upon identity confusion. It originates from a sense of failure of identity belonging together with a sense of loss of society bearings that Dickens's characters experience and thought to be immutable. Finally, we will show how Gothic and Detective fictions interact in Dickens's fiction. We will analyse the societal elements that explain this almost against nature meeting for we could assume that the rational explanation that comes at the end of the detective novel should solve the Gothic tensions. But in fact, the solving of the inquests doesn't free the fiction from a Gothic aftermath. We will then study the transfer of powers from lawyers to detective police officers. This transfer of powers is noticeable both in Victorian society and the Dickensian text. We will then conclude with the persistence of Gothic in Dickens's fiction that makes detective police officers some sort of antiquarians of a new genre.

The themes of uncertainty, muddle and imprisonment, which are inextricably linked, permeate Charles Dickens’s novels. In his ‘early’ first five novels, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge, society is depicted as emerging from the Classical episteme of the eighteenth century into a period of uncertainty that is dominated by values inspired by mercantilism. Social and bureaucratic institutional practices have been outpaced by commercial developments and are shown to be lacking; they are outdated and irrelevant in meeting the needs of a society that is in the process of rejecting its feudal history. Yet, during these uncertain times, these archaic instruments of social control continue to exert a power over the individual in the absence of something more relevant to a commercialised nineteenth-century society. The legislature, the judiciary and the executive all continue to exercise their misguided power over those under their control, capturing these in webs and labyrinths of uncertainty, with the result that Mr Pickwick, Oliver, Nicholas, Little Nell and Barnaby all fall victim to these vagaries, and experience prison in one form or another. The second, or ‘middle’ group of novels, comprising Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House and Hard Times, reveal something different. Although institutions are still depicted as deeply flawed, Dickens shifts his focus from the inadequacies of social institutions to the flawed individuals who inhabit this defective society; individuals who are required to rid themselves of their flaws in order to achieve authenticity and, thus, enable a regeneration within society to take place. The ‘final’ novels, Little Dorrit, The Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend, seem to suggest that the ambit of commercialisation, with its skewed values, is so all-encompassing that no character is able to escape its clutches. The result is a society and its citizens who are inescapably imprisoned in their respective physical, emotional and moral prisons. This thesis examines the development and consequences of institutional uncertainty on the individual and on society. It is argued that Dickens follows a Foucauldian trajectory, initially visiting the uncertainties of the times on the bodies of his characters during the early nineteenth century, attempting to create ‘docile bodies’ of his characters through discipline and punishment of the soul in the middle of the century and, finally, in the second half of the century, revealing an entire society caught up in the morass of uncertainty from which there appears to be no escape. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.(English)

Victorian society had strict written and unwritten laws about what was permissible in terms of personal relationships. Anglican patriarchal church values governed behaviour between the classes and enforced codes of conduct on gender related boundaries of private individuals. Society subscribed to the traditional family of man, woman and children in the context of marriage. Homosexuality amongst men was punishable by prison. Government and religion preached Christian morality, yet the number of prostitutes had never been greater. This dissertation explores the problems of a pro-homosexual and anti-establishment Victorian author writing about human relationships forbidden by society. It exposes the consequences suffered by Oscar Wilde due to his investigative insights into the `Other' in the context of individual rights of preference in regard to sexual orientation, as expressed in selected texts, and his resolution of conflict, in De Profundis. / English Studies / MA (English)

This thesis seeks to show the ways in which Charlotte Brontë's fiction anticipates the concerns of contemporary feminist theology. Whilst Charlotte Brontë's novels have held a place of honor in feminist literary criticism for decades, there has been a critical tendency to associate the proto-feminism of Brontë's narratives with a rejection of Christianity—namely, that Brontë's heroines achieve their personal, social and spiritual emancipation by throwing off the shackles of a patriarchal Church Establishment. And although recent scholarly interest in Victorian Christianity has led to frequent interpretations that regard Brontë's texts as upholding a Christian worldview, in many such cases, the theology asserted in those interpretations arguably undermines the liberative impulse of the narratives. In both cases, the religious and romantic plots of Brontë's novels are viewed as incompatible. This thesis suggests that by reading Brontë's fiction in light of an interdisciplinary perspective that interweaves feminist and theological concerns, the narrative journeys of Brontë's heroines might be read as affirming both Christian faith and female empowerment. Specifically, this thesis will examine the ways in which feminist theologians have identified the need for Christian doctrines of sin and grace to be articulated in a manner that better reflects women's experiences. By exploring the interrelationship between women's writing and women's faith, particularly as it relates to the literary origins of feminist theology and Brontë's position within the nineteenth-century female publishing boom, Brontë's liberative imagination for female flourishing can be re-examined. As will be argued, when considered from the vantage point of feminist theology, 'Jane Eyre', 'Shirley', and 'Villette' portray women's need to experience grace as self-construction and interdependence rather than self-denial and subjugation.

Towards the end of the 19th century, Wilde produced the three comedies that I will focus on in this essay. These plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, A woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, are all comedies of manners: intelligent dramatic comedies satirising contemporary fashionable circles of society and its manners, as well as social expectations. This type of comedy is often represented by stereotypical characters, such as the fallen woman, the good woman and the young innocent maiden, all three of which I will investigate in this essay.