1,135 research outputs found
Writing and the rights of reality: usurpation and potentiality in Derrida, Plato, Nietzsche, and Beckett
No full textThe thesis critically evaluates Jacques Derrida's conferral of the rights of reality on writing, focussing on his theory of an arche-text in light of the speculative nature of this theory. The theory is initially considered in the context of Derrida's elucidation of the usurpatory status of writing within the Platonic and Nietzschean texts. This consideration reveals an admission of writing's usurpatory status by both writers while at the same time demonstrating their awareness of the intrinsically speculative nature of this view, the significance of writing lying in its ability to exteriorise the radically indeterminate status of consciousness m relation to reality rather than its ability to displace consciousness or reality The analyses, therefore, not only bring the Derridean hypothesis of a repressive or phonocentric metaphysical episteme into question but also exhibit the historical and philosophical role of potentiality in relation to writing, writing's ultimate significance lying in its capacity to exteriorise our existence as a mode of potentiality. Accordingly, in the second half of the thesis the Derridean theory of writing is countered with a specifically Aristotelian theory of the text as it is exhibited in the prose of Samuel Beckett, an author whose significance lies in his close alignment with Derridean theory within contemporary criticism. It is demonstrated that this identification has obviated an awareness of the significance of potentiality within the Beckettian text, his work consequently being appraised in the previously neglected context of Aristotelian metaphysics
Fear of fiction: the authorial response to realism in selected works by Swift, Defoe, and Richardson
No full textIf Mrs. Whitehouse produced a pornographic play, it would arouse enormous interest, mainly because of Mrs. Whitehouse’s well known views on pornography. It is an ancient fact of English Literature that two of the best known pioneers of the English realistic novel, Daniel Defoe and Samuel Richardson, were Puritans. And there is an almost equally ancient critical tradition which traces the easy path of Puritan literature, in combination with other cultural forces, towards the production of realistic fiction. The central argument of this thesis is that there was no such easy path. Puritan autobiography was unrealistic in its very nature, while Puritan feeling towards fiction was hostile, with realistic, or verisimilar fiction provoking most hostility because the most deceitful. Thus the writing of a realistic novel was a radical departure for the Puritan, and one that was fraught with tension. It is this tension, or fear of fiction, and its effects on work of the two Puritan novelists, and that odd Anglican Jonathan Swift, that is the subject of this thesis. Swift joins Defoe and Richardson as an author with a special relationship with Defoe, and himself closer to a fearful anti- mimetic "tradition" than the comic tradition in which he is usually placed alongside Fielding and Sterne. Selected works of the three authors reveal their struggle with the intense problems that realism created for them, and their eventual 'solutions'. Hence by the time that Dr. Johnson made his famous critical statement against the fearful potential of realism in his fourth Rambler [31 March 1750), he was actually formalising material that had been well examined in the fiction under discussion, rather than beating an original critical path in response to Fielding's supposedly 'new' verisimilar form
Michal, contradicting values : understanding the moral dilemma faced by Saul's daughter
No full textValue conflicts due to cultural differences are an increasingly pressing issue in many societies. Because Old Testament texts hail from a very different milieu to our own they may provide new perspectives upon contemporary conflicts and, in this context, the present dissertation investigates one particular value clash in 1 Samuel.
Studies of Old Testament ethics have attended to narrative only relatively recently. Although social-scientific interpretation has a longer pedigree, there are important debates about how to employ the fruits of anthropology in biblical studies. The first part of this thesis, therefore, attends to methodological issues, advancing four main propositions. First, attention should be paid to the moral goods that feature in the text. Second, the family, a central feature of Old Testament morality, should be understood as a set of practices rather than an institution. Third, 'models' of social action that purport to comprehend the social world of the Bible should be used only cautiously. Finally, a modified version of Bakhtin's theory of heteroglossic voices can help readers appreciate how authors present a moral vision by approving some characters' actions whilst undermining others.
The second part of the thesis employs this methodology to examine 1 Samuel 19.10-18a. The discussion of the moral dilemma facing Michal adduces anthropological theories and ethnographic data concerning violence, lying, and the relationship between fathers and daughters. Given that the conflicts of moral goods are 'resolved' by characters choosing to act in a certain way, the dissertation enquires after the author's assessment of each character's moral choices, and hence their theological import. The dissertation argues that Michal's loyalty to David and deception of Saul was counter-cultural, and by approving of her choice the author affirms the importance of loyalty to the Davidic dynasty
Samuel Beckett and the Writers of Port-Royal
No full textIt has been observed that ‘the literary influences on Beckett have been far more important than has been acknowledged, and more important indeed, than the philosophical influences’ (Smith 2002: 3). The truth of this statement is evidenced by the description that scholars have given of Samuel Beckett’s relationship to seventeenth century French classicism. To date, critical interest has been limited for the most part to the figure of the philosopher René Descartes on the (fragile) grounds that Beckett was exclusively concerned with the Cartesian imperative of clarity and order, the fundamental dualism between body and mind, and Nominalism.
Together with the assumption that Beckett’s vision was essentially Cartesian, his literary filiation with Pascal was suggested by critics, but only in terms of Beckett’s formal approach to the theatre. In his short article on En attendant Godot in 1953, the playwright Jean Anouilh was among the first reviewers to suggest that Beckett’s drama synthesizes the encounter between ‘classicism’ and a ‘modern’ form of art. It is well known that Beckett retained a lifelong admiration for Pascal – indeed, Pascal was one of his ‘old chestnuts’ (Knowlson 1997: 653). Little attention has been paid, however, to the originality of Pascal’s thought, the specific nature of his prose, and the impact these might have had upon Beckett’s mature work, especially the trilogy and the subsequent short prose. Yet, in the literary and philosophical context of post-war France, Beckett’s filiation with Pascal, their corresponding preoccupations, were evident to his contemporaries, who identified Pascal as an underlying presence in his works
Poética da penúria: a ator beckettiano
No full textTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Literatura, Florianópolis, 2013.O objeto deste estudo é refletir sobre os principais dispositivos da poética beckettiana, os testemunhos de atores históricos que trabalharam sob a direção de Samuel Beckett para propor alguns caminhos de composição de um ator particular, que, com experiências de uma preparação dramatúrgica, condensaria um corpo em penúria. Para isso, investigamos algumas das características da obra beckettiana como a influência minimalista sobre suas peças tardias, a musicalidade que permeia o seu texto teatral e a imobilidade imposta à suas personagens. Mergulhamos no íntimo dessas personagens, com a finalidade de, através do levantamento dos principais traços absorvidos pelo ator beckettiano, estabelecer relações com o ator pós-dramático. A fim de confrontar as referências estudadas, propusemo-nos a encenar o espetáculo Inomináveis # coletivo Beckett, uma reunião das peças Play, Not I, Rough for theatre I e Footfalls. Consideramos e aferimos nossas hipóteses através de depoimentos cedidos pelos atores envolvidos em nossa encenação This work aims to study the most important tools of Samuel Beckett#s art, the testimony of historical actors who worked under his direction to propose possible ways of formation a particular actor that would condensate a body in a state of penury using experiences from dramaturgical preparation. We observed some characteristics of Beckett#s work as an influence of the Minimalism in his last plays, the musicality in his theatrical texts and the immobility of his characters. We studied the characters in depth to clear relations with the post-dramatic actors by mean of recognizing the most important features of actors involved with Samuel Beckett. In order to confront our references, we put forward a staging: Inomináveis # coletivo Beckett, a sequence of Play, Not I, Rough for theatre I and Footfalls. We investigated and assessed our hypotheses using testimonies of the actors involved in our staging
Richardson, Barbauld, and the construction of an early modern fan club
No full textMPhilMuch has been written about the life and long works of the eighteenth century epistolary novelist, Samuel Richardson, but the prospect of his position as the first celebrity novelist – responsible for courting his own fame as well as initiating his own fan club – has largely been ignored. The body of manuscripts housed at the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London provides the modern scholar with evidence of the skeletal beginnings of an early fan club. This thesis aims to show how these manuscripts were turned into a saleable commodity by the publisher and entrepreneur Richard Phillips, while under the guiding hand of another, slightly later, literary celebrity, Anna Laetitia Barbauld. In order to restore Richardson’s reputation amongst a new nineteenth century audience, Barbauld was required to construct her own idea of him as an eighteenth century celebrity author, and in doing so the insecurities of a self-professed, apparently diffident man, are revealed. Barbauld’s capacious, but heavily edited selection of letters is analyzed in this thesis, providing ample evidence that Richardson’s correspondents were more than just eager letter writers. By using Barbauld’s biography of Richardson this thesis aims to show how she manipulates the genre of life writing in her construction of him.
This thesis offers an alternative reading of how the Richardson manuscripts are viewed, redefining them as not simply a collection of letters, but as a collective entity, deliberately selected and archived as evidence of an early modern fan club, and its celebrity managing director
Samuel Hopkins and the New Divinity Movement: Calvinism, the Congregational Ministry, and Reform in New England between the Great Awakenings
No full textSamuel Hopkins was the closest friend and disciple of the man generally considered to be the greatest religious thinker America has produced—Jonathan Edwards. Hopkins was also a founder and leading spokesman of the New Divinity Movement, a major religious movement in New England congregationalism from 1740 to 1800.The author here combines biographical detail with a balanced and scholarly assessment of the historical and theological significance of this influential Calvinist thinker.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1146/thumbnail.jp
The sentiments of a Church-of-England man : a study of Swift's politics
No full textThis contextualist study re-examines the contested critical
question of Jonathan Swift's political character. It is
concerned with the historical meaning of Swift's texts
and attempts to recover their original political impact.
Politically-literate contemporaries claimed to read Jacobite
Tory politics in Swift's texts. Rather than dismiss the
judgement of Swift's contemporaries, this study asks whether
there is anything about Swift's political writing in polemical
context that could have led contemporaries to construe
the politics of his texts as Jacobite Tory. The conclusion
this study reaches is that aspects of Swift's political
rhetoric are consonant with Tory and Jacobite polemic.
While contesting current conceptions of Swift as a Whig,
this study offers a partial revision of that scholarship
which describes Swift as a non-Jacobite Tory.
The thesis is based on an analysis of Swift's prose, poetry
and correspondence and contemporary (mainly printed) sources
books, pamphlets, poems on affairs of state and newspapers.
Some new or neglected polemical contexts and analogues
for Swift's works are suggested. Chapter 1 considers some
of the problems and contested issues in interpretation
of Swift's political biography and writing. Chapter 2
witnesses Swift's combination of High Church attitudes
with a radical political critique of Whig establishment.
Swift is read in juxtaposition with Jacobite Tory authors
such as George Granville, Lord Lansdowne. Chapter 3 relocates
A Tale of a Tub in historical context to reveal the satire's
relation to High Church Tory polemical languages. Chapter
4 discusses the disaffected Tory aspect of Gulliver's
Travels. Chapter 5 attempts to register the complexity
of the textual evidence of Swift's attitude to Jacobitism.
Detailed attention is given to his politically-revealing
attitudes to the Dutch. A coda briefly describes Swift's
discontent with the Revolution settlement, examines this
Church-of-England Man's sentiments on the crucial ideological
issue of resistance, and suggests the importance of Hugo
Grotius in Swift's political thought
The 'true use of reading' : Sarah Fielding and mid eighteenth-century literary strategies.
No full textPhDThe aim of this thesis is to explore, by examining her life and
works, how Sarah Fielding (1710-68) established her identity as an author.
The definition of her role involves her notions of the functions of
writing and reading.
Sarah Fielding attempts to invite readers to form a sense of ties
by tacit understanding of her messages. As she believes that a work
of literature is produced through collaboration between the writer and
the reader, it is an important task in her view to show her attentiveness
toward reading practice. In her consideration of reading, she has two
distinct, even opposite views of her audience: on the one hand a familiar
and limited circle of readers with shared moral and cultural values and
on the other potential readers among the unknown mass of people. The
dual targets direct her to devise various strategies. She tries to
appeal to those who can endorse and appreciate her moral values as well
as her learning. Her writings and letters testify that she is sensitive
to the demands of the literary market, trying to lead the taste of readers
by inventing new forms.
The thesis opens with an overview of Sarah Fielding's career,
followed by a consideration of her critical attention to the roles of
reading. I go on to examine the narrative structures and strategies
she deploys, with a particular emphasis on her use of the epistolary
method. The following chapter deals with her attention to the reading
of the moral message tangibly embodied in her educational writing. It
is followed by an analysis of the activity which earned her a reputation
as a learned woman. Various as the forms of her works are, they invariably
reflect her attempt to balance herself between the two demands of
inventiveness and familiarity
The monster of monsters: a true and faithful narrative of a most remarkable phaenomenon lately seen in this metropolis; to the great surprize and terror of His Majesty's good subjects: humbly dedicated to all the virtuosi of New-England. / By Thomas Thumb, Esq. ; [One line in Latin ; five lines from Milton]
No full text24 p. ; 18 cm. (8vo)A satire arising from a bill debated in the Massachusetts General Court for laying an excise on wine and spirituous liquors retailed and consumed within the province. It was ordered by the General Court to be burnt by the common hangman."Samuel Waterhouse is supposed to be the author, as it is known he made use of the same pseudonym in 1760. It has also been attributed to Benjamin Church (1734-1778). In the copy in the possession of the Boston Athenaeum is written in contemporary handwriting: The supposed authors Benj. Brandon & Rev.d Dr. [Jonathan] Mayhew."--Evans. The attribution to Church is rejected in Sibley's Harvard graduates.Printed by Zechariah Fowle. Fowle's brother Daniel was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the publication of the work. Cf. Thomas, Isaiah. The history of printing in America, 1970, p. 126-132
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