Many critics have noted the crucial role of internal generators in Claude Simon's La Bataille de Pharsale. This study demonstrates that a body of liquid-related textual elements comprises a subsystem into which a significant number of associations and associative patterns may be integrated. Comprehension of this subsystem results in a new understanding of the novel's underlying structure and its treatment of various kinds of destruction. / Three general areas of liquid-based destruction are identified. Within the novel's descriptions of surface deterioration, numerous references to liquids are generated. A major effect of these references is that they serve to foredoom the quests of each of the novel's two central protagonists. / A second general area of liquid-based destruction derives from the novel's phonological structure. A significant number of liquid-related sounds generate meanings which are threatening to one or both of the two central protagonists. / A liquid-based structural movement comprises the third general area in which this element undermines both the activities of the central protagonists and the linguistic coherence of the text. The ascension of bubbles to the surface of a liquid constitutes an emblematic structure which has a destructive impact on the quests of the central protagonists. / The concluding section of this study demonstrates how the liquid-related elements reveal the underlying structure of La Bataille de Pharsale. The ever-widening levels of associative patterns visible in the novel's liquid subsystem constitute a microcosm of the structure of the entire text. The association of the two liquid-related terms of vers and version, for example, represent a restricted example of linkage within this subsystem. Yet that association may be subsequently inserted into a larger associative pattern, which is the body of liquid-related terms, and hence into the entire text. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-12, Section: A, page: 3932. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75009 |
| Contributors | STORRS, NEAL THOMAS., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 150 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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