Lawrence Durrell has written in most of the genres of literature not just in an attempt to find his metier, but in the act of satisfying his powerful creative urge. His works include fiction, criticism, and travel literature, each undertaken in various degrees of seriousness, and for various reasons, literary as well as monetary. The quality of Durrell's work makes him suitable for critical judgment as a novelist, and for commentary on the merit of his non-fiction as well--especially his much celebrated travel recollections. Durrell's fiction, criticism, and non-fiction ofter merge in matters of style and diction, but they differ in matters of tone and objectivity This dissertation traces Durrell's success as a writer as he moves through different genres toward his masterpiece The Alexandria Quartet, and beyond. The first part reviews Durrell's contributions to literature in general, focusing on the quantity and variety of his interests and accomplishments. His chronological development as a writer, traced through his attempts to get his works published, provides the framework for this section. The second part is an extensive analytical treatment of the critical responses to Durrell's Quartet. Analyses detail each author's theme or argument, and make clear the themes, topics, faults, and the literary significance of Durrell's work. The third part analyzes Durrell's major travel works, and incorporates a critical discussion of the methodology he uses for travel literature, including structure, fictional attributes and intentions. The point of reference for this section is Durrell's essay 'Landscape and Character,' in which he defines the 'spirit of place' as it affects his work These different approaches to Durrell's work--biographical, bibliographical, and critical--make possible a broader and better understanding of the author, his works, his accomplishments as a whole, and the significance of his canon / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_24603 |
| Date | January 1984 |
| Contributors | Todd, Daniel Ray (Author) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
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