Observing and describing textual "reality": a critique of the claims to objective reality and authentication in new critical and structuralist literary theory, seen against a background of Feyerabend's ideas concerning paradigms, dominance and ideology
- Authors: Masters, Kenneth Andrew
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: Feyerabend, Paul, 1924-1994 , Criticism , Structuralism (Literary analysis) , Science and the arts , Reality , Objectivity
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2247 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002290 , Feyerabend, Paul, 1924-1994 , Criticism , Structuralism (Literary analysis) , Science and the arts , Reality , Objectivity
- Description: This thesis sets out to examine the claims to objective reality and authentication in New critical and Structuralist literary theories, concentrating on their claims to "objectivity" and "scientific validity." It examines the nature of these claims in the light of the original ideas proposed by some of the major New critics and structuralists in the development of their respective "sciences" of literary theory. Taking direction from the nature of reality and objectivity shown by the theorists, the thesis then attempts an assessment of the validity of some of the original perceptions and presuppositions concerning scientific objectivity and reality. It proposes that inconsistencies within the literary theories resulted from the theorists' inability to grasp the complexity and fluctuating nature of the borrowed terminology and principles that they were using. It does so by taking a closer look at the development of some of the more influential physical theories and the philosophical ideas raised by these developments. It then uses Feyerabend's work on paradigms, dominance and ideology to attempt an assessment of the reasons for the literary theorists' perceptions and presuppositions regarding objectivity and reality. This amounts to accounting for the specific scientific models chosen as bases, and also to accounting for the desire for the "scientific approach" at all. Its conclusions give an indication of the extent to which these original errors contributed to the theories' necessary adaptations of perspective and eventual loss of influence, and emphasises the need for the total understanding of concepts in one field by researchers in other fields, especially if those concepts are to be used by the researchers with any degree of precision.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1992
- Authors: Masters, Kenneth Andrew
- Date: 1992
- Subjects: Feyerabend, Paul, 1924-1994 , Criticism , Structuralism (Literary analysis) , Science and the arts , Reality , Objectivity
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2247 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002290 , Feyerabend, Paul, 1924-1994 , Criticism , Structuralism (Literary analysis) , Science and the arts , Reality , Objectivity
- Description: This thesis sets out to examine the claims to objective reality and authentication in New critical and Structuralist literary theories, concentrating on their claims to "objectivity" and "scientific validity." It examines the nature of these claims in the light of the original ideas proposed by some of the major New critics and structuralists in the development of their respective "sciences" of literary theory. Taking direction from the nature of reality and objectivity shown by the theorists, the thesis then attempts an assessment of the validity of some of the original perceptions and presuppositions concerning scientific objectivity and reality. It proposes that inconsistencies within the literary theories resulted from the theorists' inability to grasp the complexity and fluctuating nature of the borrowed terminology and principles that they were using. It does so by taking a closer look at the development of some of the more influential physical theories and the philosophical ideas raised by these developments. It then uses Feyerabend's work on paradigms, dominance and ideology to attempt an assessment of the reasons for the literary theorists' perceptions and presuppositions regarding objectivity and reality. This amounts to accounting for the specific scientific models chosen as bases, and also to accounting for the desire for the "scientific approach" at all. Its conclusions give an indication of the extent to which these original errors contributed to the theories' necessary adaptations of perspective and eventual loss of influence, and emphasises the need for the total understanding of concepts in one field by researchers in other fields, especially if those concepts are to be used by the researchers with any degree of precision.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1992
Elie Wiesel's fictional universe : the paradox of the mute narrator
- Authors: Berman, Mona
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Wiesel, Elie, 1928- -- Criticism and interpretation , Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives , Auschwitz , Narration , Silence , English literature , Criticism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2178 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001829
- Description: The approach I have chosen for my study is to analyse the narrative techniques in Wiesel's fiction, with particular emphasis on the role of the narrator and listener in the narratives. This will not only highlight aspects of his authorial strategy involving the reader's response to various dimensions of the Holocaust, but will allow an appraisal of the literary merit of Wiesel's novels. The hushed reverence that tends to accompany allusions to Auschwitz and its literature has impeded certain theoretical investigations, with the result that most critical studies undertaken on Wiesel's works have dealt predominantly with themes and content rather than with form. A narrative approach, however, while it accounts for themes, does so within the narrative process of the work. Form and content are examined as interwoven entities in the particular context of an individual work. My decision to adopt this pursuit is based on the conviction that Wiesel's fiction is a significant contribution to the literature of testimony, not only because of its subject matter, but also because of the way in which his narrators unfold their stories with words suspended by silence in the text. The paradox of the mute narrator, the title of my study, is intended to convey the paradoxical quality of Wiesel's fiction and to show how silence, which is manifested in the themes of his work, is concretized by his strategy of entrusting the transmission of the tale to narrators, who, for various reasons have been silenced. A mute by definition cannot emit an articulate sound. A narrator, on the other hand, is a storyteller who is reliant on verbal articulation for communication. This contradiction in terms is dramatized in the novels and is symptomatic of the dilemma of Wiesel's narrators who are compelled to bear testimony through their silence. In my study of Wiesel's fiction, I will follow the chronological sequence in which the novels were written, although I will not be using a developmental approach, except to point out that the trilogy which marks the beginning of his exploration into narrative strategies, and The Testament, the last book I will be dealing with, are a culmination of his previous fictional techniques. While a developmental analysis of his fiction, particularly from a thematic point of view, enables the reader to gain insight into his background, which is important in a comprehensive study of his works, I feel that this avenue of investigation has been competently dealt with by other critics. Ellen Fine's Legacy of Night, one of the first book-length studies of Wiesel, puts forward a convincing argument for examining his fiction in chronological sequence as a kind of serialized journey from being a witness in l'univers concentrationnaire to bearing - witness in a post-Holocaust world. Furthermore, it is possible to trace the direction Wiesel's fiction follows, as in each book the seeds are sown for new ideas which are expanded upon in subsequent books. My discussion, however, will deal with the narrative process of each novel as an individual work in its own particular context. Apart from the trilogy which is examined in one chapter, and The Testament which serves as a conclusion to the study, I have not used cross references to Wiesel's other fiction when analysing specific books. Moreover, I have deliberately avoided including Wiesel's comments on his works and references to them in his essays, interviews and non-fiction writing. The reason for this approach is that I consider each novel to be a separate narrative work which merits an interpretative response that is independent of the comparative criteria that has up to now influenced the assessment of his fiction. (Introduction, p. 12-14)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1986
- Authors: Berman, Mona
- Date: 1986
- Subjects: Wiesel, Elie, 1928- -- Criticism and interpretation , Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives , Auschwitz , Narration , Silence , English literature , Criticism
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2178 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001829
- Description: The approach I have chosen for my study is to analyse the narrative techniques in Wiesel's fiction, with particular emphasis on the role of the narrator and listener in the narratives. This will not only highlight aspects of his authorial strategy involving the reader's response to various dimensions of the Holocaust, but will allow an appraisal of the literary merit of Wiesel's novels. The hushed reverence that tends to accompany allusions to Auschwitz and its literature has impeded certain theoretical investigations, with the result that most critical studies undertaken on Wiesel's works have dealt predominantly with themes and content rather than with form. A narrative approach, however, while it accounts for themes, does so within the narrative process of the work. Form and content are examined as interwoven entities in the particular context of an individual work. My decision to adopt this pursuit is based on the conviction that Wiesel's fiction is a significant contribution to the literature of testimony, not only because of its subject matter, but also because of the way in which his narrators unfold their stories with words suspended by silence in the text. The paradox of the mute narrator, the title of my study, is intended to convey the paradoxical quality of Wiesel's fiction and to show how silence, which is manifested in the themes of his work, is concretized by his strategy of entrusting the transmission of the tale to narrators, who, for various reasons have been silenced. A mute by definition cannot emit an articulate sound. A narrator, on the other hand, is a storyteller who is reliant on verbal articulation for communication. This contradiction in terms is dramatized in the novels and is symptomatic of the dilemma of Wiesel's narrators who are compelled to bear testimony through their silence. In my study of Wiesel's fiction, I will follow the chronological sequence in which the novels were written, although I will not be using a developmental approach, except to point out that the trilogy which marks the beginning of his exploration into narrative strategies, and The Testament, the last book I will be dealing with, are a culmination of his previous fictional techniques. While a developmental analysis of his fiction, particularly from a thematic point of view, enables the reader to gain insight into his background, which is important in a comprehensive study of his works, I feel that this avenue of investigation has been competently dealt with by other critics. Ellen Fine's Legacy of Night, one of the first book-length studies of Wiesel, puts forward a convincing argument for examining his fiction in chronological sequence as a kind of serialized journey from being a witness in l'univers concentrationnaire to bearing - witness in a post-Holocaust world. Furthermore, it is possible to trace the direction Wiesel's fiction follows, as in each book the seeds are sown for new ideas which are expanded upon in subsequent books. My discussion, however, will deal with the narrative process of each novel as an individual work in its own particular context. Apart from the trilogy which is examined in one chapter, and The Testament which serves as a conclusion to the study, I have not used cross references to Wiesel's other fiction when analysing specific books. Moreover, I have deliberately avoided including Wiesel's comments on his works and references to them in his essays, interviews and non-fiction writing. The reason for this approach is that I consider each novel to be a separate narrative work which merits an interpretative response that is independent of the comparative criteria that has up to now influenced the assessment of his fiction. (Introduction, p. 12-14)
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1986
Spenser's Colin Clout : an introductory study
- Authors: Brown, Molly Anne
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Faerie Queene , English poetry , Epic , Criticism , Interpretation , Clout, Colin (Fictitious character)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2180 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001831
- Description: From introduction: In the sixth book of The Faerie Qveene, the reader is presented with a vision of the Graces and their attendants dancing on Mount Acidale to the piping of a simple shepherd. Spenser identifies this favoured musician as Colin Clout and then goes on to pose a seemingly inconsequential rhetorical question. "Who knowes not Colin Cloute?” he asks. The note of confident pride which can be discerned in the query clearly reveals Spenser's peculiar interest in one of his most intriguing creations. It is almost impossible to read a representative selection of Spenser's poetical works without noticing the hauntingly frequent appearances of his "Southerne shepheardes boye". Colin appears or is named in no fewer than six of Spenser's poems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
- Authors: Brown, Molly Anne
- Date: 1985
- Subjects: Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599 -- Criticism and interpretation , Faerie Queene , English poetry , Epic , Criticism , Interpretation , Clout, Colin (Fictitious character)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2180 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001831
- Description: From introduction: In the sixth book of The Faerie Qveene, the reader is presented with a vision of the Graces and their attendants dancing on Mount Acidale to the piping of a simple shepherd. Spenser identifies this favoured musician as Colin Clout and then goes on to pose a seemingly inconsequential rhetorical question. "Who knowes not Colin Cloute?” he asks. The note of confident pride which can be discerned in the query clearly reveals Spenser's peculiar interest in one of his most intriguing creations. It is almost impossible to read a representative selection of Spenser's poetical works without noticing the hauntingly frequent appearances of his "Southerne shepheardes boye". Colin appears or is named in no fewer than six of Spenser's poems.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1985
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