Shakespeare's early comedies: studies in The comedy of errors, The taming of the shrew and The two gentlemen of Verona
- Authors: Bryant, Peter
- Date: 1970
- Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Comedy of Errors Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Comedies Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Two gentlemen of Verona Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Taming of the shrew
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2291 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009964
- Description: This dissertation offers fairly full readings of three early Shakespearean comedies. Because these works are still partly misunderstood, it has seemed reasonable to lay the critical emphasis on explication, though a certain amount of judging has been inevitable. The aim has been to induce recognition of aspects of these plays to which much modern criticism has seemed opaque.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1970
- Authors: Bryant, Peter
- Date: 1970
- Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Comedy of Errors Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Comedies Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Two gentlemen of Verona Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Taming of the shrew
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2291 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009964
- Description: This dissertation offers fairly full readings of three early Shakespearean comedies. Because these works are still partly misunderstood, it has seemed reasonable to lay the critical emphasis on explication, though a certain amount of judging has been inevitable. The aim has been to induce recognition of aspects of these plays to which much modern criticism has seemed opaque.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1970
The archetypal fable : an inquiry into the function of traditional symbolism in the poetry of Edwin Muir
- Authors: Gillmer, J E
- Date: 1970
- Subjects: Muir, Edwin, 1887-1959 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2297 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011975
- Description: Edwin Muir's poetic vision is bound up with that belief in a twofold structure of reality that in European culture has been called Platonist but which is so ancient and widespread that no one can determine its origins. Though no longer fashionable in a time when materialist philosophies flourish and even Christian clerics are busy "de-mythologizing" their faith, it has been the potent source of our greatest poetry and perhaps, as Kathleen Raine believes, of all true poetry. Those who hold this conviction regard the sensible world as the reflection of an "intelligible" or spiritual world which gives meaning and purpose to life, and they see the objects of nature as images that evoke the ideal forms of a divine reality. For poets, as for traditional men, this belief is less a metaphysic than an intuitive way of apprehending and ordering experience, a "learning of the imagination" inherited from ancient and mysterious sources. To Muir it came directly and spontaneously in the symbolic images of dreams, and the fact that he entitled the first version of his autobiography The Story and the Fable testifies to the importance, both for his life and his poetry, of his belief in two corresponding orders of experience. Intro., p. 1-2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1970
- Authors: Gillmer, J E
- Date: 1970
- Subjects: Muir, Edwin, 1887-1959 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2297 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011975
- Description: Edwin Muir's poetic vision is bound up with that belief in a twofold structure of reality that in European culture has been called Platonist but which is so ancient and widespread that no one can determine its origins. Though no longer fashionable in a time when materialist philosophies flourish and even Christian clerics are busy "de-mythologizing" their faith, it has been the potent source of our greatest poetry and perhaps, as Kathleen Raine believes, of all true poetry. Those who hold this conviction regard the sensible world as the reflection of an "intelligible" or spiritual world which gives meaning and purpose to life, and they see the objects of nature as images that evoke the ideal forms of a divine reality. For poets, as for traditional men, this belief is less a metaphysic than an intuitive way of apprehending and ordering experience, a "learning of the imagination" inherited from ancient and mysterious sources. To Muir it came directly and spontaneously in the symbolic images of dreams, and the fact that he entitled the first version of his autobiography The Story and the Fable testifies to the importance, both for his life and his poetry, of his belief in two corresponding orders of experience. Intro., p. 1-2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1970
A critical investigation of the problems of teaching poetry to English-speaking pupils in South African senior schools
- Authors: Durham, Ken
- Date: 1969
- Subjects: Poetry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2293 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011609 , Poetry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis is a study of the problems of teaching poetry to English speaking pupils at South African senior schools. It is a study of what is generally agreed to be 'a peculiarly difficult department of teaching' Reeves 1958. Some would go as far as to suggest that the teaching of poetry is the most difficult aspect of any school subject : "No topic in the school curriculum has so many pitfalls as the teaching of poetry in the classroom: it is easier to go astray in attempting to promote aesthetic responses to a poem than in any other kind of lesson. 'Currey {19S8) p. 126.' If one may judge too by the number of complaints from a large body of teachers (see Chapter Four) about the difficulty of teaching poetry successfully the assessments given by Reeves and Currey appear to be well- founded. Additional weight is given by some of the attitudes of pupils themselves towards poetry and the poetry lesson (see Chapter Three). Further confirmation is evident at Teachers' Conferences and from examiners' reports that examination questions on poetry are often among the most badly answered and the least popular of all questions set. Even more significant, perhaps. were the responses from two separate graduate student teacher groups (U.E.D. English Method classes, Rhodes University 1965, 1967). When asked at the beginning of the course to name the one type of English lesson they felt least confident in handling, 42 of the 64 student teachers answered, 'The poetry lesson'. Into. p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1969
- Authors: Durham, Ken
- Date: 1969
- Subjects: Poetry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2293 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011609 , Poetry -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa
- Description: This thesis is a study of the problems of teaching poetry to English speaking pupils at South African senior schools. It is a study of what is generally agreed to be 'a peculiarly difficult department of teaching' Reeves 1958. Some would go as far as to suggest that the teaching of poetry is the most difficult aspect of any school subject : "No topic in the school curriculum has so many pitfalls as the teaching of poetry in the classroom: it is easier to go astray in attempting to promote aesthetic responses to a poem than in any other kind of lesson. 'Currey {19S8) p. 126.' If one may judge too by the number of complaints from a large body of teachers (see Chapter Four) about the difficulty of teaching poetry successfully the assessments given by Reeves and Currey appear to be well- founded. Additional weight is given by some of the attitudes of pupils themselves towards poetry and the poetry lesson (see Chapter Three). Further confirmation is evident at Teachers' Conferences and from examiners' reports that examination questions on poetry are often among the most badly answered and the least popular of all questions set. Even more significant, perhaps. were the responses from two separate graduate student teacher groups (U.E.D. English Method classes, Rhodes University 1965, 1967). When asked at the beginning of the course to name the one type of English lesson they felt least confident in handling, 42 of the 64 student teachers answered, 'The poetry lesson'. Into. p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1969
The ideals of consciousness and conduct in Henry James's The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl
- Authors: Bryer, Lynne
- Date: 1969
- Subjects: James, Henry, 1843-1916. Ambassadors , James, Henry, 1843-1916. Golden bowl
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2321 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014635
- Description: The mature work of Henry James gives the fullest expression of certain ideals which I have called the ideals of consciousness and conduct. These ideals are the subject of this thesis. As they are best illustrated in the two novels The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904), I have first analysed these books in detail. Though emphasising "theme" rather than "techniques" (I make the usual working distinction while recognising its limitations), I have also attempted to show how intimately James's technique is related to his exploration of consciousness and conduct. In Part Three I have tried to gather up ideas arising from the analyses of The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl to compare them, expand on them and generalise from them. In this way I have arrived at conclusions that may help to interpret mature vision of James.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1969
- Authors: Bryer, Lynne
- Date: 1969
- Subjects: James, Henry, 1843-1916. Ambassadors , James, Henry, 1843-1916. Golden bowl
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2321 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014635
- Description: The mature work of Henry James gives the fullest expression of certain ideals which I have called the ideals of consciousness and conduct. These ideals are the subject of this thesis. As they are best illustrated in the two novels The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904), I have first analysed these books in detail. Though emphasising "theme" rather than "techniques" (I make the usual working distinction while recognising its limitations), I have also attempted to show how intimately James's technique is related to his exploration of consciousness and conduct. In Part Three I have tried to gather up ideas arising from the analyses of The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl to compare them, expand on them and generalise from them. In this way I have arrived at conclusions that may help to interpret mature vision of James.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1969
Death situations in the short story : a study in structure
- Authors: Ruthrof, Horst
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Short story , Death in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2313 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013108
- Description: In an article on Ernst Cassirer, Konstantin Reichardt says, Since form is the only rational factor of every art, and the form of each art manifests a specific order, 'the order and form of the arts are to be investigated, if we want to examine the artist's imagination at work and the architecture of the world of art. It is the aim of this thesis to cast some light on a small, yet beautiful building within the complex architecture of this world of art, the genre of the short story. To isolate its structural and generic characteristics in general, however, would entail an analytical investigation into a huge number of short stcries, a task too great to be tackled in a thesis. Intro., p. 8.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
- Authors: Ruthrof, Horst
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Short story , Death in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2313 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013108
- Description: In an article on Ernst Cassirer, Konstantin Reichardt says, Since form is the only rational factor of every art, and the form of each art manifests a specific order, 'the order and form of the arts are to be investigated, if we want to examine the artist's imagination at work and the architecture of the world of art. It is the aim of this thesis to cast some light on a small, yet beautiful building within the complex architecture of this world of art, the genre of the short story. To isolate its structural and generic characteristics in general, however, would entail an analytical investigation into a huge number of short stcries, a task too great to be tackled in a thesis. Intro., p. 8.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
From myth to allegory: a study of the poetry of W.H. Auden, with special reference to the poet's intention
- Authors: Bell, I M
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Auden, W. H., (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2290 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009514 , Auden, W. H., (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: The more attentively Auden's poetry is studied, the more one critical problem emerges. How can the poet of the "twenties and ' thirties be reconciled with the poet of the last three decades? "We've all got to come to terms with the later Auden" writes Professor Richard Hoggart, but he does not explain how. The man who wrote the pungent early poetry with its constant reiteration of warnings to a sick society that what was needed was " … death, death of the grain, our death, Death of the old gang … " before it could achieve "new styles of architecture, a change of heart", seems an entirely different person from the man who is on the side of Authority to-day; that is to say in so far as Auden can ever be said to be definitely on one side or another. Intro. p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
- Authors: Bell, I M
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Auden, W. H., (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2290 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1009514 , Auden, W. H., (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Description: The more attentively Auden's poetry is studied, the more one critical problem emerges. How can the poet of the "twenties and ' thirties be reconciled with the poet of the last three decades? "We've all got to come to terms with the later Auden" writes Professor Richard Hoggart, but he does not explain how. The man who wrote the pungent early poetry with its constant reiteration of warnings to a sick society that what was needed was " … death, death of the grain, our death, Death of the old gang … " before it could achieve "new styles of architecture, a change of heart", seems an entirely different person from the man who is on the side of Authority to-day; that is to say in so far as Auden can ever be said to be definitely on one side or another. Intro. p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
Tragic themes in the plays of Arthur Miller
- Authors: Wortham, Christopher John
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005 , American drama (Tragedy) -- History and criticism -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2306 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012875
- Description: Aeschylus wrote that we learn through suffering. Whether one agrees with this statement or not, one has to recognise that it has given rise to a great deal of discussion about tragedy. What kind of suffering we can associate with tragedy will be considered in the chapters which follow. The more immediate concern is the business of learning. Man can learn a good deal about the problems that confront him, but he cannot learn all there is to know about anything. His knowledge is relative. He may postulate the absolute, but it is beyond the grasp of the human mind to perceive the absolute in its absoluteness. The relativist can avoid an epistemological quagmire by simply accepting that a relativistic attitude is only of relative value; he has the intellectual humility to recognise that whatever he thinks or says is likely to reveal only part of the truth. Arthur Miller has suggested that the best serious literature is concerned with the absolute, in that he criticises one of his contemporary playwrights for writing a work which "fails to extend itself so as to open up ultimate causes". Chap. 1, p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
- Authors: Wortham, Christopher John
- Date: 1968
- Subjects: Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005 , American drama (Tragedy) -- History and criticism -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2306 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012875
- Description: Aeschylus wrote that we learn through suffering. Whether one agrees with this statement or not, one has to recognise that it has given rise to a great deal of discussion about tragedy. What kind of suffering we can associate with tragedy will be considered in the chapters which follow. The more immediate concern is the business of learning. Man can learn a good deal about the problems that confront him, but he cannot learn all there is to know about anything. His knowledge is relative. He may postulate the absolute, but it is beyond the grasp of the human mind to perceive the absolute in its absoluteness. The relativist can avoid an epistemological quagmire by simply accepting that a relativistic attitude is only of relative value; he has the intellectual humility to recognise that whatever he thinks or says is likely to reveal only part of the truth. Arthur Miller has suggested that the best serious literature is concerned with the absolute, in that he criticises one of his contemporary playwrights for writing a work which "fails to extend itself so as to open up ultimate causes". Chap. 1, p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1968
A study of the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Authors: Rodda, Peter
- Date: 1967
- Subjects: Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940 , American literature -- Criticism and interpretation , American fiction -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2311 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013072
- Description: Henry Dan Piper has exploded the legend that all of Fitzgerald' s books where out of print when he died. There may be similar romantic exaggeration which does not bear examination in the popular view that Fitzgerald's reputation as an artist was eclipsed in his later years and magically revived after his death by the editing and publication by Edmund Wilson in 1941 of the unfinished novel Last Tycoon, and of The Crack-Up. Investigation by Matthew J. Bruccoli has shown the essential oversimplification inherent in the widely-held belief that Fitzgerald's last complete novel to be published, Tender is the Night was dismissed or ignored by reviewers demanding novels of social conscience. Fitzgerald attracted legends and since his death has become something of a folk-hero the type of the golden boy who achieved early and instantaneous fame, lives riotously and is then engulfed by the backwash of his own youthful folly somehow leaving an unpublished masterpiece to confound his critics at his early death. Preface, p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1967
- Authors: Rodda, Peter
- Date: 1967
- Subjects: Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940 , American literature -- Criticism and interpretation , American fiction -- 20th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2311 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013072
- Description: Henry Dan Piper has exploded the legend that all of Fitzgerald' s books where out of print when he died. There may be similar romantic exaggeration which does not bear examination in the popular view that Fitzgerald's reputation as an artist was eclipsed in his later years and magically revived after his death by the editing and publication by Edmund Wilson in 1941 of the unfinished novel Last Tycoon, and of The Crack-Up. Investigation by Matthew J. Bruccoli has shown the essential oversimplification inherent in the widely-held belief that Fitzgerald's last complete novel to be published, Tender is the Night was dismissed or ignored by reviewers demanding novels of social conscience. Fitzgerald attracted legends and since his death has become something of a folk-hero the type of the golden boy who achieved early and instantaneous fame, lives riotously and is then engulfed by the backwash of his own youthful folly somehow leaving an unpublished masterpiece to confound his critics at his early death. Preface, p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1967
The naive moral as a possible mental attitude behind the outlaw-motif in English medieval narratives and its influence upon the structure of Thomas Lodge's "Rosalynde" and Shakespeare's "As you like it"
- Authors: Ruthrof, Horst
- Date: 1967
- Subjects: Literature and morals , English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 , English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2312 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013105
- Description: The idea for this thesis originated in a seminar concerned with short forms of epic literature. It is meant to throw some light on the development of rudimentary narrative technique, especially on the influence a particular motif can exert on a writer's mind and the final form of his work. Preface, p. 7.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1967
- Authors: Ruthrof, Horst
- Date: 1967
- Subjects: Literature and morals , English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500 , English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2312 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013105
- Description: The idea for this thesis originated in a seminar concerned with short forms of epic literature. It is meant to throw some light on the development of rudimentary narrative technique, especially on the influence a particular motif can exert on a writer's mind and the final form of his work. Preface, p. 7.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1967
Shylock's origins and evolution : the image of the Jew in English literature from the middle ages to the mid-seventeenth century
- Authors: Durbach, Errol
- Date: 1966
- Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Characters -- Shylock , Judaism and literature , English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 , English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2322 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014821
- Description: [From Preface]. Any study centred in the exploratlon and analysis of the medieval and Elizabethen images of the Jew might, with some justification. seem redundant and impertinent to a modern reader; for the third quarter of this century has witnessed the almost total obviatlon of a great many such time-honoured images and symbols. The immemorial figure of the Wandering Jew, to cite a sIngle instance, has for the past two decades, attained his country and place of destination - history no longer condemning him to tarry until the Second Coming of the Messiah. Even the deicide Jew has been granted complete absolution, by an offlcial decree from the Vatican, for his complicity in the killing of Christ. It would seem, moreover, that the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews during the course of the Second World War have resulted in an alteration of the Jewish image radically transforming It from one of contempt into one of compassion a living symbol of "man's inhumanlty to man"; and the modern European dramatist has revived the Jewlsh figure on the stage as an instance of almost personal atonement or, alternatively, as a means of scourging the state of middle-class mind which abetted the persecution of the Nazi regime, attacking state policies of inactio and deploring the failure of influentlal powers to resist the blatant inhumanlty perpetrated within Its boundaries. Max Frisch's Andorre and Rolf Hochhuth's The Representative embody, each in its own way the 2Oth century's sense of shame and horror at those events with which the century has yet to come to terms. They are both extreme reactions agalnst the image of the Jew whlch the Nazi propogandized in the 1930s. And the image which the Nazis propogandized was curiously consistent wlth the medieval and Elizabethan images of the Jew.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1966
- Authors: Durbach, Errol
- Date: 1966
- Subjects: Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Characters -- Shylock , Judaism and literature , English literature -- Early modern, 1500-1700 , English literature -- Middle English, 1100-1500
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2322 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1014821
- Description: [From Preface]. Any study centred in the exploratlon and analysis of the medieval and Elizabethen images of the Jew might, with some justification. seem redundant and impertinent to a modern reader; for the third quarter of this century has witnessed the almost total obviatlon of a great many such time-honoured images and symbols. The immemorial figure of the Wandering Jew, to cite a sIngle instance, has for the past two decades, attained his country and place of destination - history no longer condemning him to tarry until the Second Coming of the Messiah. Even the deicide Jew has been granted complete absolution, by an offlcial decree from the Vatican, for his complicity in the killing of Christ. It would seem, moreover, that the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews during the course of the Second World War have resulted in an alteration of the Jewish image radically transforming It from one of contempt into one of compassion a living symbol of "man's inhumanlty to man"; and the modern European dramatist has revived the Jewlsh figure on the stage as an instance of almost personal atonement or, alternatively, as a means of scourging the state of middle-class mind which abetted the persecution of the Nazi regime, attacking state policies of inactio and deploring the failure of influentlal powers to resist the blatant inhumanlty perpetrated within Its boundaries. Max Frisch's Andorre and Rolf Hochhuth's The Representative embody, each in its own way the 2Oth century's sense of shame and horror at those events with which the century has yet to come to terms. They are both extreme reactions agalnst the image of the Jew whlch the Nazi propogandized in the 1930s. And the image which the Nazis propogandized was curiously consistent wlth the medieval and Elizabethan images of the Jew.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1966
The morality play as prelude to Elizabethan drama
- Authors: Oosthuizen, Ann
- Date: 1966
- Subjects: Moralities, English , English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- Classical influences
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2309 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012990
- Description: Although it is generally accepted that the Morality Plays greatly influenced Elizabethan drama, this statement is often followed by the rider that they are dull and lifeless and that their chief legacy is a sense of moral earnestness which also characterises the best Elizabethan drama. The aim of this thesis has been to read the Morality Plays closely and in an appreciative spirit in order to find out what significant contribution they do make to the techniques of Elizabethan drama and to a proper understanding of it. Chapter I discusses the earliest complete Morality, The Castle of Perseverance, which is the longest and most comprehensive of all the Moralities. The chapter tries to show what a Morality is about and how it differs from the great mediaeval cyclus, the Mystery Plays. It is also an attempt to relate the early Morality Play to other mediaeval literature and to show that it is closely linked to the homeletic literature of the period. Chapter II is a study of three Moralities of the period 1500- 1520. There are fewer Moralities in this period and the plays chosen show a marked similarity to The Castle of Perserverance in their structure, although they differ from the earlier Moralities in their attitude to their subject matter and in their portrayal of the different allegorical characters. The plays under discussion are Nature, Mundus et Infans and Magnyfycence Chapter III; the period after 1535 was a period of great political and religious upheaval and this chapter discusses the plays written for propaganda purposes in the strife between Catholic and Protestant. John Bale's Three Laws, an anti-Catholic play, was chosen because Bale is a startlingly original dramatist who makes use of techniques derived from the liturgy and from emblematic devices, and because he tries to mould the Mystery Plays and the History Plays into a Morality framework. The other plays The Conflict of Conscience was chosen because of its affinity to Dr Faustus and also because it tries to show the psychomachia in psychological, personal terms rather than in a general allegorical manner. Chapter IV discusses three later Moralities, Cambyses, Horestes and Appius Virginia, which portray historical or fictional characters in situations of conflict. They were chosen because they seem to show that the Morality Plays laid the bases for the Elizabethan tragic situation and the Elizabethan tragic hero. With such diverse material, it is difficult to trace a clear line of development from one play to the next, but each group of plays has its own contribution to make to our understanding of Elizabethan drama.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1966
- Authors: Oosthuizen, Ann
- Date: 1966
- Subjects: Moralities, English , English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- Classical influences
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2309 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012990
- Description: Although it is generally accepted that the Morality Plays greatly influenced Elizabethan drama, this statement is often followed by the rider that they are dull and lifeless and that their chief legacy is a sense of moral earnestness which also characterises the best Elizabethan drama. The aim of this thesis has been to read the Morality Plays closely and in an appreciative spirit in order to find out what significant contribution they do make to the techniques of Elizabethan drama and to a proper understanding of it. Chapter I discusses the earliest complete Morality, The Castle of Perseverance, which is the longest and most comprehensive of all the Moralities. The chapter tries to show what a Morality is about and how it differs from the great mediaeval cyclus, the Mystery Plays. It is also an attempt to relate the early Morality Play to other mediaeval literature and to show that it is closely linked to the homeletic literature of the period. Chapter II is a study of three Moralities of the period 1500- 1520. There are fewer Moralities in this period and the plays chosen show a marked similarity to The Castle of Perserverance in their structure, although they differ from the earlier Moralities in their attitude to their subject matter and in their portrayal of the different allegorical characters. The plays under discussion are Nature, Mundus et Infans and Magnyfycence Chapter III; the period after 1535 was a period of great political and religious upheaval and this chapter discusses the plays written for propaganda purposes in the strife between Catholic and Protestant. John Bale's Three Laws, an anti-Catholic play, was chosen because Bale is a startlingly original dramatist who makes use of techniques derived from the liturgy and from emblematic devices, and because he tries to mould the Mystery Plays and the History Plays into a Morality framework. The other plays The Conflict of Conscience was chosen because of its affinity to Dr Faustus and also because it tries to show the psychomachia in psychological, personal terms rather than in a general allegorical manner. Chapter IV discusses three later Moralities, Cambyses, Horestes and Appius Virginia, which portray historical or fictional characters in situations of conflict. They were chosen because they seem to show that the Morality Plays laid the bases for the Elizabethan tragic situation and the Elizabethan tragic hero. With such diverse material, it is difficult to trace a clear line of development from one play to the next, but each group of plays has its own contribution to make to our understanding of Elizabethan drama.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1966
Xhosa-English pronunciation in the south-east Cape
- Authors: Hundleby, C E
- Date: 1965
- Subjects: Xhosa language -- Pronunciation by foreign speakers English language -- Pronunciation by foreign speakers
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2303 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012467
- Description: The thesis mainly concerns itself with an analysis of the present day pronunciation of Xhosa-English. The isolation and identification of the segmental phonemes and the phonemes of stress, intonation and transition form the core of the work. The author has attempted to give continuity by introducing a subsidiary theme, the Lado hypothesis as stated on page 1. In conformity with the the methodology imposed by the Lado formula, it was first necessary to establish two things: first, a standard background against which the characteristics of XEP could be compared, and secondly, to give briefly, but in sufficient detail for our purpose, the main phonological features of the mother tongue.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1965
- Authors: Hundleby, C E
- Date: 1965
- Subjects: Xhosa language -- Pronunciation by foreign speakers English language -- Pronunciation by foreign speakers
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2303 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012467
- Description: The thesis mainly concerns itself with an analysis of the present day pronunciation of Xhosa-English. The isolation and identification of the segmental phonemes and the phonemes of stress, intonation and transition form the core of the work. The author has attempted to give continuity by introducing a subsidiary theme, the Lado hypothesis as stated on page 1. In conformity with the the methodology imposed by the Lado formula, it was first necessary to establish two things: first, a standard background against which the characteristics of XEP could be compared, and secondly, to give briefly, but in sufficient detail for our purpose, the main phonological features of the mother tongue.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1965
The dramatic theory of William Hazlitt : "Imagination in criticism"
- De Villiers, André Rex Wepener
- Authors: De Villiers, André Rex Wepener
- Date: 1964
- Subjects: Hazlitt, William, 1778-1830 , Drama -- History and criticism -- 19th century , English drama -- History and criticism -- 19th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2320 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013383
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1964
- Authors: De Villiers, André Rex Wepener
- Date: 1964
- Subjects: Hazlitt, William, 1778-1830 , Drama -- History and criticism -- 19th century , English drama -- History and criticism -- 19th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2320 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013383
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1964
The use of certain myths in the work of T.S. Eliot
- Authors: Hall, R F
- Date: 1964
- Subjects: Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 -- Knowledge -- Literature , Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 -- Criticism and interpretation , Mythology in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2300 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012129 , Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 -- Knowledge -- Literature , Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 -- Criticism and interpretation , Mythology in literature
- Description: T.S. Eliot's statement that myth is an ordering device in literature 'is constantly belied by his use of myth in his own poems'. This is the belief of the American critic Richard Chase, noted for his work on myths and mythological themes in English and American literature. Whether or not Chase is right must emerge from the chapters which follow. The purpose will be to examine the effects of the use of myths and mythological patterns on Eliot's work in general, rather than to annotate individual mythological allusions. Simply to recognise an allusion is to raise a question, not to answer one: for we have then to decide what the writer hope to achieve by its use, and whether or not he has succeeded. Unless they lead on to such questions, lists of sources contribute little to our understanding of a work. Far more important than incidental allusions are the mythological themes and patterns on the larger scale, which reveal themselves in recurrent allusions and in basic patterns of symbolism. Again, merely to recognise such a pattern is inadequate: in every case a discovery of its function in both the poem's (or play's) structure and the poet's technique should be our main concern. ... Eliot himself has made it clear that in his case the use of myths and mythological patterns has often been a fully conscious, even self-conscious process. Therefore we may apply to his work the questions mention by Norman: what functions the myths fulfil within individual works; and why Eliot uses them in the first place. This last question leads us back to a more fundamental one; why do many writers, especially modern ones, use myths 'in the first place'? The problem involves discussion of the relation between myths and literature and of the nature of myths themselves, this forms the material of the first chapter. The other chapters will deal with some of Eliot's works, attempting to explain and analyse his use of myths in them, and to illustrate its importance in each case.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1964
- Authors: Hall, R F
- Date: 1964
- Subjects: Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 -- Knowledge -- Literature , Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 -- Criticism and interpretation , Mythology in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2300 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012129 , Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 -- Knowledge -- Literature , Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 -- Criticism and interpretation , Mythology in literature
- Description: T.S. Eliot's statement that myth is an ordering device in literature 'is constantly belied by his use of myth in his own poems'. This is the belief of the American critic Richard Chase, noted for his work on myths and mythological themes in English and American literature. Whether or not Chase is right must emerge from the chapters which follow. The purpose will be to examine the effects of the use of myths and mythological patterns on Eliot's work in general, rather than to annotate individual mythological allusions. Simply to recognise an allusion is to raise a question, not to answer one: for we have then to decide what the writer hope to achieve by its use, and whether or not he has succeeded. Unless they lead on to such questions, lists of sources contribute little to our understanding of a work. Far more important than incidental allusions are the mythological themes and patterns on the larger scale, which reveal themselves in recurrent allusions and in basic patterns of symbolism. Again, merely to recognise such a pattern is inadequate: in every case a discovery of its function in both the poem's (or play's) structure and the poet's technique should be our main concern. ... Eliot himself has made it clear that in his case the use of myths and mythological patterns has often been a fully conscious, even self-conscious process. Therefore we may apply to his work the questions mention by Norman: what functions the myths fulfil within individual works; and why Eliot uses them in the first place. This last question leads us back to a more fundamental one; why do many writers, especially modern ones, use myths 'in the first place'? The problem involves discussion of the relation between myths and literature and of the nature of myths themselves, this forms the material of the first chapter. The other chapters will deal with some of Eliot's works, attempting to explain and analyse his use of myths in them, and to illustrate its importance in each case.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1964
The role of the artist in society as seen in the novels of Henry James
- Authors: Middleton, D F
- Date: 1963
- Subjects: James, Henry, 1843-1916 , Journalists as artists , Art and society , Fiction -- History and criticism -- 19th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012874
- Description: Henry James (1843-1916) is a curious and, by his own choice, enigmatic figure. We have a great many dates, a few letters, and little else. James's fragment of autobiography, vast as it is; is strangely unrevealing. There is a wealth of impressions as one would expect from such a writer but precious little about the man. Henry James was chary of describing his personal feelings - so much so that some doubted his ability to have any strong emotions. His autobiography, interesting as it is, is pure observation, memories of people, places and impressions, all marvellously sensitive, but little personal feeling. Intro., p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1963
- Authors: Middleton, D F
- Date: 1963
- Subjects: James, Henry, 1843-1916 , Journalists as artists , Art and society , Fiction -- History and criticism -- 19th century
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2305 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012874
- Description: Henry James (1843-1916) is a curious and, by his own choice, enigmatic figure. We have a great many dates, a few letters, and little else. James's fragment of autobiography, vast as it is; is strangely unrevealing. There is a wealth of impressions as one would expect from such a writer but precious little about the man. Henry James was chary of describing his personal feelings - so much so that some doubted his ability to have any strong emotions. His autobiography, interesting as it is, is pure observation, memories of people, places and impressions, all marvellously sensitive, but little personal feeling. Intro., p. 1.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1963
The frontier in South African English verse : 1820-1927
- Authors: Taylor, Avis Elizabeth
- Date: 1960
- Subjects: South African poetry (English) -- 19th century , South African literature (English) -- History and criticism , South Africa -- In literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2318 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013347
- Description: The concept of a distinctively South African poetry in English has been, and still is, derided as a "pipe dream" as part of the fallacy which stems from the desire for a "national" literature. In 1955, for instance, C.J. Harvey (in an article containing much common sense as well as sound literary judgment) denounced the self-conscious hunting for "Local Colour" which engrosses so many South African writers. Harvey claimed: "Our civilization is not "South African", except in trivial details, it is Western European, and more specifically as far as poetry written in English is concerned, English ... ". There is a serious error of emphasis here. It would be more accurate to say that our ancestors brought Western European civilization to this continent. To imagine that this civilisation has not undergone and is not still constantly suffering a subtle but far-reaching metamorphosis in Africa would be to fly in the face of reality. White South Africans do not only carry the same identity-card but they can be distinguished from Frenchmen, Englishmen or Irishmen by more than "trivial details". This thesis is an examination of some af the earliest English written in southern Africa, particularly of the verse produced by our poetasters and near-poets. It attempts, during the course of this examination, to call attention to a few of the more significant changes which have arisen as the result of the importation of Western civilsation to an African frontier. Further I hope to show some at the varying ways in which these differences affected the white pioneer and how this has been reflected in our verse since pioneering times. In this sense the Frontier may be thought of as the background against which South African English writers developed certain characteristic traits. Intro., p. 1-2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1960
- Authors: Taylor, Avis Elizabeth
- Date: 1960
- Subjects: South African poetry (English) -- 19th century , South African literature (English) -- History and criticism , South Africa -- In literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:2318 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013347
- Description: The concept of a distinctively South African poetry in English has been, and still is, derided as a "pipe dream" as part of the fallacy which stems from the desire for a "national" literature. In 1955, for instance, C.J. Harvey (in an article containing much common sense as well as sound literary judgment) denounced the self-conscious hunting for "Local Colour" which engrosses so many South African writers. Harvey claimed: "Our civilization is not "South African", except in trivial details, it is Western European, and more specifically as far as poetry written in English is concerned, English ... ". There is a serious error of emphasis here. It would be more accurate to say that our ancestors brought Western European civilization to this continent. To imagine that this civilisation has not undergone and is not still constantly suffering a subtle but far-reaching metamorphosis in Africa would be to fly in the face of reality. White South Africans do not only carry the same identity-card but they can be distinguished from Frenchmen, Englishmen or Irishmen by more than "trivial details". This thesis is an examination of some af the earliest English written in southern Africa, particularly of the verse produced by our poetasters and near-poets. It attempts, during the course of this examination, to call attention to a few of the more significant changes which have arisen as the result of the importation of Western civilsation to an African frontier. Further I hope to show some at the varying ways in which these differences affected the white pioneer and how this has been reflected in our verse since pioneering times. In this sense the Frontier may be thought of as the background against which South African English writers developed certain characteristic traits. Intro., p. 1-2.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1960
A study of the heroine in certain Victorian novels
- Authors: Addecott, Grahame John
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism , Heroines in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2319 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013374
- Description: During the reign of Queen Victoria was seen the gradual emergence of the emancipated woman. The idea that women were innocent beings who must be kept from real knowledge of the world died hard, however, and to the end of the era there were many who repudiated the very concept of emancipation whether in literature or life. Coupled with the chivalrous, idealistic concept of womanhood was Victorian respectability, and it is not surprising that in the earlier Victorian novels we see clearly the idealistic concept of women and the effects of the cult of respectability. To illustrate my theme, of the gradual change in the concept of the novel which naturally kept pace, more or less, with the progress the emancipation of women was making, I have chosen one novel from each of seven great Victorian novelists whose works span the whale era. The only exception I have made is with Charlotte Bronte. In her case the heroines of two of her novels are discussed mainly because she is the first Victorian novelist to sound a note of protest against the then conventional concept of the heroine.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1959
- Authors: Addecott, Grahame John
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism , Heroines in literature
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2319 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013374
- Description: During the reign of Queen Victoria was seen the gradual emergence of the emancipated woman. The idea that women were innocent beings who must be kept from real knowledge of the world died hard, however, and to the end of the era there were many who repudiated the very concept of emancipation whether in literature or life. Coupled with the chivalrous, idealistic concept of womanhood was Victorian respectability, and it is not surprising that in the earlier Victorian novels we see clearly the idealistic concept of women and the effects of the cult of respectability. To illustrate my theme, of the gradual change in the concept of the novel which naturally kept pace, more or less, with the progress the emancipation of women was making, I have chosen one novel from each of seven great Victorian novelists whose works span the whale era. The only exception I have made is with Charlotte Bronte. In her case the heroines of two of her novels are discussed mainly because she is the first Victorian novelist to sound a note of protest against the then conventional concept of the heroine.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1959
A study of the relationship between the poetry and criticism of Ezra Pound 1908-1920
- De Villiers, André Rex Wepener
- Authors: De Villiers, André Rex Wepener
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2317 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013320
- Description: From the preface: The purpose of this thesis is exposition rather than criticism. Pound's position in the hierarchy of the 'New Criticism' would provide an extremely interesting subject; but I have rather tried to outline; the standards which he has laid down as being central in the technics of good poetry and to show how closely he has adhered to them in his own verse. I have limited the period to be discussed because all of the essential principles which he employs in his writing after 1920 are discernible in the body of his work published before that date.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1959
- Authors: De Villiers, André Rex Wepener
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972 -- Criticism and interpretation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2317 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013320
- Description: From the preface: The purpose of this thesis is exposition rather than criticism. Pound's position in the hierarchy of the 'New Criticism' would provide an extremely interesting subject; but I have rather tried to outline; the standards which he has laid down as being central in the technics of good poetry and to show how closely he has adhered to them in his own verse. I have limited the period to be discussed because all of the essential principles which he employs in his writing after 1920 are discernible in the body of his work published before that date.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1959