English Language and Literature Commons^™

From Ritual To Resurrection: The Exploratory Poetic Of Seamus Heaney, Susan L. Morris

Masters Theses

Heaney's poetry has grown and changed since the publication of his first collection of poetry, Death of a Naturalist. This paper is an attempt to present the development of Heaney's exploratory poetic which was created through his use of language and image, allowing him metaphorical vehicles for the examination of oppositions.

Heaney began his poetic exploration, or "dig," with the collections Death of a Naturalist and Door Into the Dark. The poetry presents nature images which represent Heaney's search into the unknown, the dark places. These images symbolize a searching for the imagination and for the purpose of …

Good Phrases Shining, One Wave After Another : A Look At Virginia Woolf's Creative Process And The Waves, John Mc Dowell

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

[Abstract not included]

The purpose of this thesis is first to understand the nature of Virginia Woolf's creative process and second to show that the writing of The Waves is illustrative of the maturity of that process.

Providence & Free Will In The History Of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Steven Smith

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The three books J.R.R. Tolkien has written about his imaginary world of Middle-earth, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, have a common element. In all thre& books, he presents the characters and their adventures within an historical framework which he has structured according to the four principles of Christian history: periodization, universality, apocalypse, and providence. While this historical perspective serves to give his fantasized world "an inner consistence of reality," it also frames one of the main themes of his stories: the relationship between Divine Providence and free will in a world containing good …

Coleridge's Failed Quest: The Anticlimax Of Fancy/Imagination In Biographia Literaria, Eugene L. Stelzig

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Leggett, The Poetic Art Of A. E. Housman: Theory And Practice; [Smitskamp] Housman On Plautus: Manuscript Notes In The 'Rudens' Of Friedrich Marx, William White

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

John Jasper: Hero-Villain, Natalie Schroeder

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

"The Forsaken Merman" And "The Neckan": Another Look, Clyde K. Hyder

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

John O'Keefe And The Restoration Of Farce On The Later Eighteenth-Century Stage, Phillip B. Anderson

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Gilbert And Gubar, The Madwoman In The Attic: The Woman Writer And The Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, Missy Dehn Kubitschek

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Mac Andrew, The Gothic Tradition In Fiction, Gary William Crawford

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Bliss And Dickens: A Note On Little Nell And "Little Willie", Thomas H. Stewart

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

William Dunbar's Dialogus Obscoenus In Locus Amoenus, Thomas W. Ross

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Escape From Reality: A Comparative Study Of Bleak House And Little Dorrit, Julie L. Mcmillen

Masters Theses

During the later period of his career, Charles Dickens wrote Bleak House (1853) and Little Dorrit (1857). Both of these novels share a common theme: those who face life squarely, though scarred, survive while those who try to escape do not.

In developing this theme Dickens uses parallel types of major characters. The motherly concern for others exhibited by Esther Summerson is repeated in Amy Dorrit. The irresponsibility of Richard Carstone reappears in William Dorrit. Finally, the protective concern of John Jarndyce reoccurs in Arthur Clennam.

Dickens develops these characters in five basic ways: the narrator, either omniscient or first-person, …

British Reviews Of Shikasta, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph] British reviewers had mixed reactions to Shikasta, the first novel in Doris Lessing's new series, "Canopus in Argos: Archives." Favorable and critical comments balanced one another, often within the same review. Furthermore, reactions tended to be extreme: either it was a magnificent novel (Times 11/15/79) or reading it was "a shameful waste of precious and irreplaceable time." (Sun Telegraph 11/18/79); or it was simultaneously great and boring. In general, British reviews of Shikasta were more perceptive than those of the second novel in Lessing's new series, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five. Because …

British Reviews Of Marriages, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) British reviews of Doris Lessing's second novel in her "Canopus in Argos: Archives" series, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five, were more favorable than those of the first novel, Shikasta. However, compared with comments about Shikasta, both negative and positive remarks about Marriages were less perceptive and more often blatantly inaccurate, perhaps because a novel dealing with male-fem ale relationships draws forth in reviewers and other readers the multitude of misconceptions and prejudices that abound on this topic. Moreover, although reviewers obviously enjoyed reading Marriages more than they did Shikasta, their praise …

Chaucer's Literary Road From Romance To Reality, Kendal E. Mitchell

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Eliot's Use Of Contemporary Political Events In Middlemarch, Sara Winstead

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In the consideration of most critics and scholars. Middlemarch by George Eliot is a catalog of the Victorian era, depicting with clarity the concerns of the period as they appeared in all levels of social, economic, and political life. Although the form of the book is that of the novel, dealing primarily with the development of characters and their relationships, the author includes a sufficient number of references to contemporary political events to merit in-depth study of the purpose of these references. This paper locates and explains the references to contemporary political events in Middlemarch, it discusses the ways …

"Fair Terms & A Villain's Mind:" Shylock In Perspective, Montreva Calhoun

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

While The Merchant of Venice has long been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, it has also been one of the most controversial with Shylock being the hub of the conflict. Critics have long been arguing whether this great character is a tragic hero or a larger-than-life villain. Those opting for the first often believe the playwright guilty of anti-semitism, and those following the latter consider Shylock the embodiment of evil. Very few critics have viewed this character as three dimensional, possessing human dignity as well as a capacity for evil.

The first chapter reveals the many sources for both …

Functions Of Menace: A Comparison Of The Room And The Birthday Party, Lee R. Martin

Masters Theses

An atmosphere of menace surrounds the action of Harold Pinter's plays, The Room and The Birthday Party. Several critics seem to agree that the menace originates in the outer world and threatens to intrude upon the security of a room, where people attempt to hide. But the menace may also originate within the room--from the inner world and not the outer. The Room illustrates how a character deals with a menace that is within, while The Birthday Party deals with agents of menace from the outer world.

Rose Hudd, in The Room, is dissociated from the outer world …

Fielding's Clergymen, Kathleen Marie Puhr

Masters Theses

Henry Fielding presented more clergymen in his fiction than any other major novelist except Trollope, and his non-fictional writings--notably articles in his journal, The Champion--also reflect his interest in the status of the clergy in eighteenth-century England. In his series of articles entitled “An Apology for the Clergy,” Fielding establishes the criteria by which he feels clergymen should be judged and lists the qualities of the “true” and “false” clergymen.

This study reveals that while Fielding in his non-fictional works clearly explains the traits of the true clergyman, his fiction does not contain a clergyman measuring up to his …

Celesta Wine Shippey Papers - Accession 200, Celesta Wine Shippey

Manuscript Collection

The Celesta Wine Shippey Papers consists of correspondence, photographs, speeches, newspaper clippings, publications, and other papers related to her research, club activities, and her travels as a Fulbright Fellow. Dr. Shippey served as a professor of English at Winthrop from 1945 to 1961. Much of her research as an English professor focused on the 16th century writer Nathaniel Woodes who wrote the morality play, Conflict of Conscience.

Also of interest are the photographic albums kept by Dr. Shippey, including photographs of Denmark (She attended Brethren Church) in 1913 through 1916, Manchester College, Oak Park, Illinois (ca 1920), Europe (1955), …

Matthew Arnold, The Development Of A Social Critic, Annette Hoines

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since time began, mankind has learned to cope with change as a consistent element of life. History is partly a record of man's response to changes in people, in physical circumstances, in social conditions, in moral attitudes. Change, therefore has always been an integral part of living, but in Victorian England, the changes taking place were so tremendous, so numerous and so widespread in their effect as to have a dominating influence on the work of certain authors or the period. The Victorian period, during the decades 1850 – 1870, rife with change and turbulence, saw the rise of Matthew …

Antony & Cleopatra: A Study In Polarities, Mary Yarbrough

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In reading or seeing Antony and Cleopatra, several clear dualities emerge. The first is the polarity between Egypt and Rome as different settings for the action. Rome is cold, mechanical, rational, and businesslike, whereas Egypt is lush, erotic, exotic, and langourous. Antony is torn between the two worlds, and this split of loyalty and interest helps to make the second duality of the play, that of the personalities and attitudes of the main characters. Antony and Cleopatra are both seen in double perspective--as lustful, self-gratifying sinners and as lovers in a truly transcendent sense of love. Both perspectives are …

Sing No Sad Songs For Me : A Study Of The Influence Of The Oxford Movement Upon Christina Rossetti As Evidenced In Her Poetry, Debbie J. Brown

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Christina Rossetti was largely influenced by the religious reformation known as the Oxford Movement; this study attempts to record that influence by discussing the etiology and the doctrines of the Movement in relationship to Christina's life and her poetry. A cursory review of the topics of Miss Rossetti's poetry, based on her work published in The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, is included, in addition to a more in-depth evaluation of selected poems. A partial biographical study is offered, which relies primarily upon William Rossetti's Memoir to the Poetical Works and The Family Letters of Christina Georgina Rossetti. The …

A Study Of Tennyson's Use Of Light Imagery In Idylls Of The King, Colette G. Tennant

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

"Myself I Found" : A Jungian Reading Of Coleridge's The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, James Ralph Brooks

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner¹ is essentially a poem of survival through transformation, one which, according to William Walsh, 'has to do equally with man's capacity for failure and with that which makes available to him resources for recovery."² It is also. as Richard Haven recognizes, "the record of the evolution of self." ³ Even more specifically, however, The Ancient Mariner is s tale which reveals key elements of Carl Jung's thought: the process of individuation, the nature of shadow and anima forces, the power of dreams and symbolism.

Given the myriad and divergent interpretations of the …

A Jungian Interpretation Of The Tempest, Tana Smith

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The following psychological interpretation of Shakespeare's The Tempest is unique to articles on the same subject which have appeared in literary journals because it applies a purely Jungian reading to the characters in the play. Here each character is shown to represent one of the archetypes which Jung described in his book Archetypes ~ the Collective Unconscious. In giving the play a psychological interpretation, the action must be seen to occur inside Prospera's own unconscious mind. He is experiencing a psychic transformation or what Jung called the individuation process, where a person becomes "a separate, indivisible unity or whole" and …

The Rite Of Initiation In Pinter's The Birthday Party, Richard C. Slocum

Masters Theses

The paper is an attempt to give full treatment to elements in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party which suggest the rite of initiation practiced in primitive societies. A few critics have touched upon the subject of initiation in the play, but they fail to discuss it in detail.

Extensive comparisons are made between Charles Eckert's summary of initiation rituals and the actions and characters in the play. The initiate is isolated from society as a preliminary to the rite of initiation; Stanley is isolated in a seaside boarding house. The initiate is secluded in a dark and threatening place; Stanley …

Hermione Lee's The Novels Of Virginia Woolf [Book Review], Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Priest In Gulliver's Travels, Mary Virginia Green Mathews

English Theses & Dissertations

Dr. Jonathan Swift was a priest of the Church of England. For a sermon, he wrote: "I look upon myself, in the capacity of Clergyman, to be appointed by providence for defending a post assigned me, and for gaining over as many enemies as I can." He is ever-present in the role of priest in Gulliver's Travels. The Anglican Church is a State Church. For centuries it has taught profound truths through ritual and symbolism. Dr. Swift used Christian symbolism and political allegory in Gulliver's Travels, being fully aware that his contemporary readers would perceive and understand the underlying dimension …