O presente trabalho tem por intuito a análise do Primeiro Congresso Brasileiro de Escritores, realizado em São Paulo, entre os dias 22 e 27 de janeiro de 1945, por iniciativa da Associação Brasileira de Escritores (A.B.D.E.). Consagrado pela historiografia como um movimento da intelectualidade brasileira em favor da democracia, em franca oposição ao Estado Novo de Getúlio Vargas, este evento será estudado sob uma perspectiva mais ampla, que abarque não apenas as questões de cunho político, mas também aquelas de ordem econômica e profissional. Por esse viés, a leitura dos artigos publicados em jornais paulistanos e dirigidos aos congressistas, assim como das teses apresentadas e aprovadas durante as sessões plenárias, sugere uma expectativa em torno dois aspectos fundamentais: o estabelecimento de um regime democrático de governo, trazendo consigo o fim da censura; e a regulamentação dos direitos autorais, o que permitiria aos escritores uma melhor remuneração pela venda de suas obras e, por conseguinte, profissionalizarem-se enquanto homens de letras. A partir destes elementos, analisados à luz das idéias do pensador e sociólogo francês Pierre Bourdieu - notadamente as suas teses acerca do conceito de autonomia - este trabalho partirá do pressuposto de que o congresso dos escritores significou, para além da sua representatividade política - o primeiro grande movimento da intelectualidade brasileira em prol da autonomização do seu campo. / This study is aimed to review the First Brazilian Congress of Writers, held in Sao Paulo, between 22 and 27 January 1945 at the initiative of the Brazilian Association of Writers (ABDE). Enshrined in the historiography as a movement of the intellectual community to promote democracy in opened opposition to the Estado Novo of Getúlio Vargas, this event will be studied from a broader perspective, encompassing not only issues of political nature, but also those of economic and professional. For this aspect, the reading of articles published in São Paulo and headed to Congress and the submissions made and approved during the plenary sessions, suggests an expectation around two fundamental aspects: the establishment of a democratic system of government, bringing the end censorship, and regulation of copyright, which would allow the writers a better return by selling their works and, therefore, doing professional as men of letters. From these elements, considered in the light of the ideas of french philosopher and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu - notably his thesis about the concept of autonomy - this work will proceed on the assumption that Congress of writers means, in addition to his political representation, the first large movement of brazilian intellectuals in favor of the autonomy of their field.

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Much of what has been researched on Shona fiction has been limited to literature published before independence. The current research endeavours to assess the treatment of socio-economic issues as conveyed through fiction published since 1990. This fiction focuses on socio-economic issues in both pre-colonial and independent Zimbabwe. The study endeavours to establish if writers who focus on these issues in the pre-colonial era have been able to reclaim a complicated picture of the African pasts. It also discusses fiction that focuses on post-independence experiences; such as extent of the impact of empowerment brought about by independence, continued poverty among Africans, emancipation of the female being and the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Here, it strives to ascertain if the writers have identified the causes and offer meaningful solutions to these. The study observes that contemporary novelists on the Shona pasts have reclaimed more realistic ‘worlds’ when compared to their predecessors who have largely presented distorted images of these pasts. On the outcome of independence, two groups portray it as a total success and a total failure respectively, whilst the third and more successful group gives a balanced exposition. Fiction on poverty among contemporary Africans falls into two classes, namely rural and urban. The former still suffers from the heavy influence of colonial myths as it only highlights the effects of poverty without situating them in their tension-ridden historical context. The latter provides important sociological information on the plight of the characters but is lacking when it comes to suggesting ways of alleviating such poverty. On female empowerment, it emerges that while some writers are for women empowerment, others are against it. Women writers are better at explaining problems of women. However, both groups are still unable to identify the root cause of the incapacitation of women. On HIV and AIDS, whilst male writers demonstrate a wider social vision on the factors that disempower society against the spread and curbing of the virus, female authors still fall in the trap of blaming both men and Shona traditional customs. Overall, it emerges that contemporary Shona writers reveal contradictory modes in articulating these issues. / African Languages / Thesis (D. Litt et Phil. (African Languages))

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America’s ‘long early twentieth century’ (1890-1945) was a period of intense industrialization, urbanization, and immigration which fundamentally altered the character of the nation. Between 1900 and 1924, which saw the curtailing of immigration from southern and eastern Europe via the passage of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act (successor to 1921’s stop-gap Emergency Quota Act), more than 14 million people flocked to the U.S. in search of economic opportunity, social equality, and freedom from religious and political oppression. Descendants of these ‘new immigrants,’ as they were called, were by the late twentieth century a staple of white American suburbia, but their progenitors were variously considered ‘off-white,’ ‘dark-white,’ or non-white, with attendant connotations of mental, physical, and moral inferiority. This research examines texts, authored by Jewish immigrants such as Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, Rose Cohen, and Mary Antin, which were published between 1890 and 1930, when the onset of the Great Depression saw a rise in anti-Semitism that contributed to the decline in popularity of ‘up by the bootstraps’ Americana whose narratives chronicled, ostensibly, social assimilation and cultural integration; it considers the ramifications of writing in English for a native audience, which frequently alienated Jewish immigrants from their peers, and analyzes the manner in which the United States’ shifting social mores coincided with—and facilitated—new immigrants’ reappraisal of religion, education, commerce, and family life in the ‘new world’ of the west. It argues that the ambivalence contained within many of these texts was both a reaction to nativist prejudices and an effort to expose misconceptions present on both sides of the wildly popular Americanization movement, as well as exploring the way that such narratives attempted the redefinition of American philanthropic, educational and civic paradigms—the preponderance of which passionately espoused rhetoric of equality while reinforcing the stratification of the United States’ class system—into modes of interaction that accommodated difference while seeking to establish common ground upon which could be built a more inclusive, multiethnic future. Finally, it addresses the continuing relevance of these works as texts which both predict and presage modern modes of social interaction and discusses their future in an evolving literary canon that has, historically speaking, been an agent of western patriarchal hegemony.

Argues that Bellow purposefully creates ambiguity and deception using impersonal narration and free indirect discourse in order to present Herzog and The Dean's December as reflections of an ambiguous and deceptive world. The discussion of impersonal narration is based on Wayne Booth's theories about the confusion of distance resulting from impersonal narration; the discussion of free indirect discourse is drawn from a number of definitions. Utilizes a number of specific references to the texts and to criticisms of the texts to demonstrate the absence of norms and the effect that the ambiguity and deception may have on readers.

The American author Jane Goodwin Austin published 24 novels and numerous short stories in a variety of genres between 1859 and 1892. Austin’s most popular works focus on her Pilgrim ancestors, and she is often lauded as a notable scholar of Puritan history who carefully researched her subject matter; however, several of the most common myths about the Pilgrims seem to have originated in Austin’s fiction. As a writer who saw her work as her means of entering the public sphere and enacting social change, Austin championed women and religious diversity. The range of Austin’s oeuvre, her coterie of notable friendships, especially amongst New England elites, and her impact on American myth and culture make her worthy of in-depth scholarly study, yet, inexplicably, very little critical work exists on Austin. This dissertation provides the most comprehensive biography of Austin to date, compiled largely from archival sources, and examines two of her novels, the 1865 Dora Darling: Daughter of the Regiment, one of the only Civil War-era adventure novels featuring a young girl who engages directly in the war, and the 1889 Standish of Standish, a carefully researched novel of the first few years of the Pilgrim’s Plymouth settlement, based on primary sources, popular culture, and family lore.

Given Rebecca West's fame during her lifetime, the amount of significant and successful writing she created, and the importance and relevance of the topics she took up, remarkably little has been done to examine her intellectual legacy. Writing in most genres, West has created a body of work that illuminates, to a large degree, the social, artistic, moral, and political evolution of the twentieth century. West, believing in the unity of human experience, explored such topics as Saint Augustine, Yugoslavian history, treason in World War II, and apartheid in South Africa with the purpose of finding what specific actions or events meant in the light of the whole of human experience. The two major archival sources for Rebecca West materials are located at the University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library, Special Collections, and at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Many of her works have been recently reprinted and those not easily available are found in the British Library or in the archival depositories noted above. Interviews with persons who knew West were also an important source of information. This dissertation explores chronologically West's numerous works of nonfiction, and uses her fiction where it is appropriate to place into context social, historical, or biographical topics. The manner in which she took up the topics of feminism, art, religion, nationalism, war, history, treason, spying, and apartheid demonstrate the wide-ranging mind of an intellectual historian and social critic. Though her eclecticism makes her a difficult subject, the diversity of her mind and her talent in expressing her thoughts, allow her work to symbolize and illuminate twentieth century intellectual history. Known for her elegant fiction, and forceful personal style, West should also be known as a thinker and social critic. What is common to her eclectic opera is that she forcefully propounded ideas, shook loose staid preconceptions, and recommended new ways of perceiving politics, religion, art, culture, law, and morality.

Although Flannery O'Connor's fiction reflects her religious point of view, most of her protagonists are secular, either materialists, who value possessions, or rationalists, who value the intellect. During the period 1949 to 1964, when O'Connor was writing, the South was rapidly changing, and those changes are reflected in the shift in emphasis from the materialists in O'Connor's early fiction to the rationalists in the late stories. This study of O'Connor's protagonists follows the chronological order of publication. A close textual analysis of the materialists in Chapter II and of the rationalists in Chapter III supports the conclusion that O'Connor was aware of the growing secularity of the South. Whereas some of her protagonists undergo a religious experience, the majority of her protagonists are thoroughly secular materialists or rationalists.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine evidences of dramatic technique in Diderot's three major fictional works, "La Reliieuse," "Le Neveu de Rameau," and "Jaccues le fataliste." The management of dialogue, setting, and gesture is of particular concern, along with style and structure and the recurrent theme of the actor. The conclusion reached is that the influence of dramatic technique is everywhere present in the three works under consideration. Diderot enlists the reader's visual and auditory participation by the use of fast-paced dialogue, striking gestures, and dynamic settings. He also borrows certain stylistic and structural devices from the theater and enhances the dramatic impression by presenting many of his main characters as actors playing their own special roles.