Browsing by Author "Marx, Lesley"
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- ItemOpen AccessAdapting Henry James to the screen: Washington Square & The portrait of a lady(2004) Mowlana, Yasmin; Marx, LesleyThis dissertation explores the film adaptations of two of the novels of Herny James, namely Washington Square (1880) and The Portrait of a Lady (1881). The Introduction discusses issues relating broadly to the problems and attractions of film adaptation. I draw especially on the work of James Naremorc, Brian Mcfarlane and George Bluestone. Naremore surveys the history of film adaptation, pervasive in many countries with a film industry. Mcfarlane looks at the reasons for this interest in adapting novels to film as well as the issue of authenticity with regard to film adaptation. Bluestone looks at what film and literature have in common. In Chapter One, I discuss the novel Washington Square and two adaptations, William Wyler's 1949 version and Agnieszka Holland's 1997 version. The chapter opens with a discussion of the novel, focussing on themes such as marriage, money and status in society. I then examine selected aspects of the two films. In The Heiress, I look at the inclusion of scenes that don't appear in the novel, and how these scenes drive the narrative in the film. I also look at how the characters are portrayed in the film and how they bring their own uniqueness to the screen. In Holland's Washington Square, I examine both the characters and the sets, while also looking at Holland's feminist interpretation of the story. In Chapter Two, I examine the novel The Portrait of a Lady and Jane Campion's film version of this story. The discussion of the novel looks at themes like tragedy, the European experience, marriage, and the displaced American. I also discuss the various characters in the novel and the role that each of them plays. With regard to Campion's film, I look at unusual filmic devices that have been used as well as the way in which the characters from the novel have been translated to the screen. I conclude by noting how films have inspired people to read classic works once again.
- ItemOpen AccessApocalypse and elegy in contemporary american fiction(2004) Sacks, Michelle Tamara; Marx, LesleyIn this dissertation, the use of apocalypse and elegy in contemporary American literature has been explored in an attempt to draw some conclusions about America's complex twenty-first century consciousness. I have selected the millennial novels of Joyce Carol Oates (Blonde), Don DeLillo (Underworld), and Philip Roth (American Pastoral), since all three, written at the century's end, are at once apocalyptic and elegiac in tone, and comprise a useful trilogy tor giving voice to the fracturedness of the American experience. My analysis of the texts traces apocalyptic moments in the novels -- moments of destruction and rebirth, endings, new beginnings, and great revelations -- against some of the most turbulent and often despairing twentieth-century events, in an attempt to show the connection between public and private history. While contemporary apocalypse diners from its biblical origins, the desire for regeneration and renewal persists despite its necessary deferment -- and, even, failure. Yet the apocalyptic impulse persists, and it is this determined future-looking and repeated self-reinvention that I discuss. In terms of the elegy, I argue that the overwhelming sense of loss and mourning that permeates the novels is reflective of a much larger national sense of disillusionment and disappointment at the failure of the American Dream and the dissolution of the America conceived of in the imagination of its first European settlers. While the traditional elegy moves towards consolation, the contemporary elegy often denies the mourner such release from grief. Consequently, in the contemporary novels discussed, consolation is to be found elsewhere. Indeed, I conclude that despite the melancholia of novels that deal so intensely with death, suffering, and tragedy, the act of writing an apocalyptic novel -- of presenting an image of the apocalypse, even if not an apocalypse that gives way to rebirth -- is itself an act of hope, and a call for change.
- ItemOpen AccessAt the end of the Rainbow: Jerusalema and the South African gangster film(2010) Marx, LesleyBetween Oliver Schmitz’s Mapantsula, released in 1988, and Ralph Ziman’s Jerusalema, released twenty years later, lies the history of a country torn apart by systematic racist oppression for half a century. Reborn under the sign of truth and reconciliation, the brave new world carries not only the scars of the old, but has given birth to mutations of poverty, disease, crime and rampant violence. Since the glory days of classic Hollywood, when Cagney, Raft, Robinson and Bogart scowled their way across the screen, the gangster film has been the genre par excellence to engage with these themes of economic inequity and class stratification, and to explore the possibilities of violence both to transform and to destroy.1 The genre emerged as a powerful expression of economic frustration during the Depression, a period that challenged the founding ideals of America as well as the preferred image of American heroic masculinity forged on the frontier. The gangster as self-made man, in search of the pot of gold, has been inscribed into different plots: on the one hand, he (invariably ‘‘he’’) plays the system in order to control it and have the freedom to become legitimate (The Godfather films [1972–1990] are an example). Or he plays the system too recklessly and brings about his own destruction: one thinks of Tony Montana, collapsing into paranoia, snorting a pile of cocaine as bullets rain through his mansion in De Palma’s baroque Scarface (1983). Alternatively, he plays the game too conspicuously, like Frank Lucas in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster (2007): Lucas breaks his rule not to attract attention by his dress, and becomes, literally, a marked man.
- ItemOpen AccessBehind Indian Teeth' : the use of humour in contemporary Native American film(2004) Eliot, Geraldine Maynard; Marx, LesleyThis thesis primarily addresses the use of humour and the comic in four films about contemporary Native Americans, largely by Native Americans (Smoke Signals, Powwow Highway, Medicine River and Dead Man). Emphasis falls on the importance of these types of positive self-representations in counteracting the legacy of stereotyping and appropriation surrounding the image of the Native American, particularly the concept of the stoic, humourless, 'vanished American.' The nature of comedy as a genre rooted in survival and endurance is discussed, and its usefulness in depicting the situation of modem Native Americans is explored - highlighting the presence of comedy in traditional Native American culture that has influenced contemporary experience.
- ItemOpen AccessBeyond the inferno : literary representations of New York City before and after 9/11(2010) Smith, Jared; Marx, LesleyFrom its founding, New York City has served as the gateway to the New World and, as such, has been the impetus behind the American Dream. As the city grew in size and importance, though, so the levels of antagonism rose among its inhabitants, for, like any large-scale urban environment, it was filled with what Georg Simmel labels 'overwhelming social forces' (1950:410). These forces became even more relevant within the context of what Fredric Jameson calls the 'postmodern hyperspace' (1984:83) of urban society which emerged during the latter half of the twentieth century. Thus, by focusing on the real-world example of New York, this dissertation examines how the dialectical negotiation between a postmodern city's form and its function has a profound impact on the identities of that city's inhabitants, producing alienating and antagonistic experiences of city life which, in turn, places increasing pressure on both the conception and perception of an individual's status within the boundaries of that cityscape. The terrorist attacks that occurred on 11 September 2001 functioned as yet another overwhelming force that greatly affected New York's inhabitants. The dedicated media coverage of the event effectively burned the image of a 'wounded' New York into people minds. This emotional imprinting occurred not only because of the horrifying destruction wrought upon the city, leading to the loss of the spectacle that was the World Trade Centre, but also because of the change that this destruction brought about in the mindset of everyone who watched those buildings fall, leading to the establishment of a 'before' and 'after' dialectic. Two literary texts that highlight this dialectic were chosen to provide the basis of this dissertation's analysis. These are Salman Rushdie's Fury (2001) and Don DeLillo's Falling Man (2007). Written and set in 2000, Fury provides an insightful and provocative account of life in New York at the turn of the twenty-first century and, through a retrospective reading of this novel, one can identify its prescience in depicting a New York in which the escalating antagonism, both within and without the city, seems to herald impending disaster. Indeed, that disaster was the 9/11 attacks, which Falling Man takes as its subject, providing individualised, albeit 3 fictional, accounts of the trauma that was experienced by those who were in the towers and their families, as well as those who witnessed it. By offering an analysis of Rushdie and DeLillo's narrative strategies in these novels, specifically in light of Michel Foucault's theory of the heterotopia, Italo Calvino's conception of the 'infernal city' in his Invisible Cities (1974), and the work of key 9/11 theorists this dissertation will plot the trajectory of the 'before' and 'after' dialectic in order to ascertain how effectively these novels function as (re)presentations of the real-world city of New York.
- ItemRestrictedBodies and Borders: Vietnam/Namibia(2007) Marx, LesleyTen years ago I sat at a kitchen table in a beautiful home at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado, and told my hosts the history of my three brothers, all of whom had been conscripts in the South African Defence Force (SADF), each of whose lives demanded that a different kind of story be told. And so the discussion developed: how would one—how would I—ever tell that story, those stories? My listeners suggested that the story I could (should?) tell would be the story of the sister who couldn’t save her brothers, each of whom had given up his life either metaphorically or, in the case of the youngest, literally. I have been haunted ever since by the beckoning specter of that story that the sister should (try to) tell. The urgency grows as the years go by and the history of South Africa’s ‘‘Border War’’ becomes an increasingly ill-defined and contested one.
- ItemOpen AccessBody/sexuality/control : female identity in four Fay Weldon novels(1995) Alexander, Robyn Gaye; Marx, LesleyThis thesis explores the manner in which female identity is depicted and the concept itself deployed in four novels by Fay Weldon (1931- ), a contemporary English writer. The novels examined are Puffball (1980), The President's Child (1982), The Cloning of Joanna May (1989) and Growing Rich (1992). The thesis's· theoretical focus is feminist, and it makes use of terms, arguments and insights provided by contemporary feminist literary and cultural theory. It thus in part also explores the usefulness of insights provided by recent feminist poststructuralist theory, with particular reference to psychoanalytic theory. On the whole, these insights are found to be useful, even though they do not entirely answer some of the questions generated by the possibilities which are shown to exist for female subjects within western culture. The thesis's conclusion suggests ways in which this lack of definitive answers might in its turn be interpreted. The first chapter, dealing with Puffball, examines the novel's depiction of the effects of pregnancy on a woman's body and in turn on her sense of her own identity. This is followed by a chapter on The Cloning of Joanna May, which also takes female experience of the maternal as its central focus. This chapter shows how Weldon investigates current meanings of birth, children, identity and the natural via a plot concerned with the uses and abuses of contemporary reproductive technologies. A short chapter on Weldon's prose style, which is seen to manipulate aspects of form in order to generate particular effects, follows. In it, the current reception of Weldon's work and her use of humour in her writing is commented upon. This chapter also anticipates the question of the use of narrative voice, which is crucial to the novels dealt with in the final two chapters. In the first of these, which explores Growing Rich, the manner in which masculine power is shown to impact on the bodies of the two central female characters is central. Like the final chapter on The President's Child, this chapter also deals with the narrator's use of narrative as vehicle for both the stories of the female characters which she relates and for her own story. The final chapter focuses on the increasingly open conflict which Weldon depicts between male and female power, and also explores how the public/private division central to western culture is disrupted in this novel. Throughout the thesis, an attempt is made to show how female identity is at present constructed for and by western women: via their own and others' representations of their bodies and their sexuality, and as a concept over which they have varying degrees of control. It concludes that the often contradictory fictional representations of female subjectivity in the four novels under discussion suggest the constraints and difficulties involved in attempts to create new visions of female bodies, sexualities and identities. However, these depictions of such experiences are in addition shown to suggest the possibility of new and different representations.
- ItemOpen AccessThe cross-cultural camera of Akira Kurosawa(2003) Molapo, Mpaki; Marx, LesleyThis minor dissertation is undertaken to examine the cross-cultural similarities that are revealed by motion pictures through analyzing the work of Akira Kurosawa and contrasting it with selective mainstream cinema texts. Kurosawa is a critical case in point due to his welding of Occidental and Japanese ideas into his films, and his origin from a hybridized Japan, a society which historically has freely absorbed and embellished itself from numerous cultures, including America, Korea, China and Europe.
- ItemOpen AccessDark mirrors and disembodied spirits : gender, sexuality and incest in selected fiction by Daphne du Maurier(2010) Duncan, Rebecca; Marx, LesleyDaphne du Maurier has long been considered chiefly as a writer of popular fiction. She is celebrated as a masterful constructor of plot and acclaimed for her ability to infuse novelistic narrative with a nameless and pervasive frisson of unease, but it is only recently that critics have begun seriously to investigate the shadowy complexities of her widely-read novels. In this thesis, three of du Maurier's best-known works 'Jamaica Inn', 'Rebecca' and 'My Cousin Rachel' are examined using psychoanalytic theory and close textual analysis together with autobiographical information. Each novel reveals an informing concern with the stability of identity, and the psychological perils by which the self is both shaped and haunted. In my discussion of Jamaica Inn, Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection elucidates Mary Yellan's confinement within the rigid boundaries of a violently imposed gender role, and her dangerous quest to transgress these limits. In the case of Rebecca, Nancy Chodorow's version of the female Oedipus complex illuminates the bisexual triangle in which du Maurier's nameless heroine finds herself trapped at Manderley, and brings into focus the anxiety which haunts her in her pursuit of maturity. Finally, in the chapter on My Cousin Rachel Jean Baudrillard's work on seduction and Gilles Deleuze's account of masochism help to explain Philip's compulsion to rid himself of his wealth, his land and the house in which he grew up, so that he might live like a servant with his cousin's maternal and alluring widow. In my reading of each of these novels, analysis uncovers a preoccupation with varying combinations of gender, sexuality and incest, a trinity of issues which beset the author in her own life, and which, in her fiction, inflect the protagonists' quest towards or away from a coherent identity. In conclusion it will be suggested that du Maurier's narratives are written with a double-edged pen: at once widely read, popular fiction, and darkly psychological, subvertive literature, in which deep-rooted social and cultural boundaries are destabilized.
- ItemOpen AccessA death in the family: meditations on mourning in contemporary cinema(2012) Petousis, Simone; Marx, LesleyThis thesis examines cinematic depictions of traumatic loss and mourning, with particular focus on representation. My study merges a theoretical and analytical investigation. I aim to defend cinema against the wider post-structuralist claim that trauma refutes the possibility of representation and argue, instead, that an increasing array of filmic examples demonstrate cinema's potential to provide valuable insights into the complexities of the subject. I use Freud's discussion of trauma as a belated, repetitious experience as an entry point to illustrate the ways in which cinema, a medium bound to temporality, can develop a relationship between linear and traumatic time...
- ItemOpen AccessDetection and the modern city(1993) Rossouw, Jean-Pierre; Marx, LesleyThis dissertation examines detective fiction as a form which has evolved in close relation to the modern city from the nineteenth century to the present. The argument runs that the link between the urban setting and the detective story is an essential characteristic of the form which has been undervalued in the study of detective fiction. The importance of this relationship to the genre is delineated and emphasized through the use of representative examples, beginning with Edgar Allan Poe and then moving to Arthur Conan Doyle, Dashiell Hammett and finally a number of later writers in the field, all of whom use the city as setting for the narrative, as well as a problematizing element. The city can be a comfortably known environment wherein the detective operates, but it can also be a labyrinth of confusing forces and misleading clues. For the detective, whose goal is the solution of the puzzle, this environment causes by turn reassurance and distress. In a comparison between these authors, fundamental differences pertaining to the detective as individual and his interaction with the city are explored, and a development is described which sees the detective becoming increasingly unsure of the city and of his position within it. In terms of the genre, this relation shows how the detective becomes a figure who has to be dealt with in ever more complex terms, a shedding of the sureties of the past. On the personal level, the detective becomes a symbol of the modern individual in the city, who tries to make some sense of the living environment which the city offers, and the difficulties which the city creates for perception of the environment and the development of self-realization in terms of this environment. The study therefore operates on three levels: the formal, where the epistemology of the detective form is traced from early confidence to later manifestations of disruption of these confidences; the socio-urban, where the representation of the city is described as it changes; and the linked concern operating on the individualistic level, the development of the detective as unitary individual and "hero".
- ItemOpen AccessDetective/text/critic(1994) Sorfa, David; Marx, LesleyThis thesis grapples with the curious relationship of the metaphors of detection and reading. Detective fiction is often seen as an enactment of reading, while the literary critic is often described in terms of detection, investigation and interrogation. The Introductory section discusses the implications that such a self-reflexive and reflecting involvement has for narrative, the self, logic and the very institution of academic literary criticism itself. The notion of a detective genre, and genre-criticism in general, is put into question by analysing the legal and coercive nature of a literary concept that styles itself as objective, scientific and historical. The power of the critic to construct genre is likened to the legal capacity of the detective and a polemical call is made to re-examine the academy's resulting claims of authority. An analysis of the crime of incest in two films, Roman Polanski's Chinatown and Jack Nicholeson's The Two Jakes, is used to further problematise the notion of the law. Claude Levi-Strauss' work on kinship structures helps to point to the aporetic and contradictory position that incest can be seen to occupy in the formation of human society. Criminal anthropology provides an interesting frame for this discussion. Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 is used to explore the fundamental uncertainty in which the detective/reader necessarily finds herself. Sigmund Freud's concept of the uncanny is introduced to account for the interpreter's state of unease in the face of ambiguity. Finally, a literary essay, Jacques Derrida's "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences", is read rather as a form of detective story than as a factual analysis, whether this experiment is successful will be up to the reader. The overriding claim of this thesis is that there is no such thing as perception.
- ItemOpen AccessDiving into the wreck : an investigation into the 'other' voices of history within the discourse of colonialism and slavery(1999) Clark, Caroline Frances; Marx, LesleyThis dissertation focuses on the occlusion of 'other' voices within the discourse of colonialism and slavery. The work juxtaposes four texts from the seventeenth and twentiethcenturies, respectively, as a way of examining the continued weight of past history on our postcolonial present. The theoretical framework is drawn from postcolonial and postmodern literary theory with an emphasis on the problematics of speaking for the 'other' in twentiethcentury literary revisions.
- ItemOpen Access"Don't look at the camera!" : an investigation into directorial methodologies and practise used when working with child actors in film(2005) Geanotes, Alyxia; Marx, LesleyThis dissertation sets out to explore the complexities inherent in working with children in a filmic context. The focus is on creating a set of guidelines for other emergent filmmakers to use when and if they choose to work with children in film. It will analyse how the complex dynamics of children and film together create both the obstacles and inspirations in filmmaking. The film Unwritten letters forms the platform for the analysis and discussion around the nature of children and the filmic environment with specific attention to Directorial techniques and Professional practice. It forms the basis for posing a number of theoretical questions about Realism and the intricate dynamics at work when dealing with children in film.
- ItemOpen AccessEmily Brontë : the mind of a visionary(2004) Melnick, Alan; Marx, LesleyThis dissertation is an investigation of the visionary and philosophical aspects of Emily Brontë's works. The first five chapters deal with the visionary process such as visions, spirit guides, dreams, imagination, encounters with the darker side of the self and a union with the divine. There is considerable evidence of these mystical avenues in both her poetry and in Wuthering Heights which have been explored. It is shown how Emily Brontë's mysticism is a direct result of personal experiences which augment her reputation as one of the leading mystics in the world of literature. There are however tensions in her works, such as the cynicism of her own intellect in accepting the visionary experiences as authentic and periods of suffering when her faith is tested. These tensions have been considered within the context of her mystical encounters and philosophy. The remaining four chapters deal with the philosophy of Emily Brontë per se. Her beliefs in respect of heaven and hell, mercy and justice, power and survival, and pantheism are considered in depth. It is argued that she is an unorthodox thinker who does not believe in an eternal hell and that she has drawn inspiration for this idea from Frederick Maurice and Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is also shown how issues of power have been of interest to her from a young age and how this needs to be integrated within her philosophy. To the writer power needs to be tempered by compassion if it is to be of use to society or the individual. Her pantheistic spirit is also investigated and related to the mystical ideas.
- ItemOpen AccessExploding spaces : present and future urban spaces cinematically considered(1998) Rijsdijk, Ian-Malcolm; Marx, LesleyThis study seeks to understand the visual dynamics of contemporary science fiction cities in film by exploring a number of diverse architectural and cinematic influences. The argument is initiated through a consideration of utopianism and science fiction, before moving onto specific architectural analysis focused on utopian plans from the modernist period, and the growth of New York during the 1920s. Through a brief reading of German Expressionist Cinema in Chapter 3, the spatial and architectural groundwork is laid for the analysis of several films in Chapters 4-6: Disclosure, Blade Runner, Selen, The Devil's Advocate, 12 Monkeys and The Fifth Element. (While not all the films would be considered as science fiction, those non-science fiction films offer provocative readings of the city as a whole). Within the discussion of these films, the paradigmatic nature of New York and Los Angeles is also analyzed. The author finds that the central thesis holds, though discussion of other contemporary films not dealt with here could produce an alternative interpretation. Specifically, the work of Edward Soja and Michel Foucault provide fruitful lines of examination through an engagement with the spatiality of postmodernism, though postmodernism is not analyzed in itself. The dissertation aims to have current application, in terms of the recent release of some of the films, but is also written with the aim of future expansion, stressing the design aspect of contemporary film.
- ItemOpen AccessFemale filmakers: Towards reconstructing women's images in Nollywood films(2018) Joseph, Morountodun; Marx, LesleyThe last five years have produced a steady increase of women in creative and technical roles in Nollywood. Against the backdrop that women have mostly been portrayed in demeaning ways in a male-dominated industry, this research explores the films of four contemporary female filmmakers, and pays critical attention to the advancement of women’s on-screen images and their narratives. Through the textual analysis of films by four female filmmakers, namely Rukky Sanda, Michelle Bello, Stephanie Okereke-Linus and Omoni Oboli, whose films were produced between 2013 and 2016, I critically analyse their diverse stories, genres, themes and narrative styles, all of which are, however, centred on Nigerian women’s contemporary experiences. I approach this research with the aim of seeking African feminist ways of reading the texts, since African feminists have questioned and challenged Western ideologies and called for African solutions to Africa’s problems. Modupe Kolawole, for example, refutes the claim that African women’s ideas about gender were learnt from the “global movement”; rather, some are inspired by accounts of African women’s mobilization in the pre-colonial past, “individual women giants who transformed their societies in pre-colonial times, such as Nehanda of Zimbabwe, Nzinga of Angola, Nana Asantewa of Ghana” (2015:252). I approach the films using Catherine Acholunu’s Motherism and Nnaemeka Obioma’s Nego-feminism as conceptual frameworks. With key attention paid to women’s representation, I argue that representations of women in films, whether the product of male or female directors, are a construct of a larger cultural situation which cannot be dismissed, even though women are making efforts to use films as a tool for activism. However, for there to be an effective paradigm shift, patriarchy and traditions that oppress women are among the societal norms that must be addressed.
- ItemOpen AccessA filmic adaptation of the Lorraine Loots's Ek is Suzie(2010) Loots, Lorraine; Marx, LesleyThe aim of the creative project was to adapt an autobiographical illustrated novel, Ek is Suzie, into a screenplay for a full-length feature film. Using a combination of live action and animation, the two main narratives play out parallel to one another – representing the past and present tense. The explication is intended to offer a reflection on the process of writing the screenplay, on filmic influences that shaped it and on the kinds of theory that illuminate what I was trying to accomplish. Thus, I investigate various creative and technical decisions made during the writing of the screenplay – dropping the novel’s narrator, the mixing of languages, the use of dream and, especially, the play between live action and animation. I note the debate on fidelity in adaptation especially as this debate applies to graphic novels and take special account of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, not only because of its engagement with the process of adaptation, but also because of it seminal use of animation as a serious medium of communication, dealing with trauma and childhood. Other (popular) filmic influences are In America, My Left Foot and Garden State, dealing with the dominant themes in my screenplay – childhood trauma, self-discovery, friendship, family and love.
- ItemOpen AccessThe healing power : mythology as medicine in contemporary American Indian literature(1998) Kendall, George Henry; Marx, LesleyThis study explores the symptoms of alienation witnessed in Indian characters and the healing they achieve through myth in three contemporary American Indian novels. In James Welch's historical novel, Fools Crow, I explore the methods through which Welch tells the story of Fools Crow. I draw comparisons between oppositions such as oral and written language, oral and written history, and history and narrative. I examine the ideas of many theorists, including Walter J. Ong's Orality and Literacy and Hayden White's inquiry into historiography in Tropics of DiscouT'Se. My conclusions suggest that myth is the foundation of history and that Welch effectively uses myth to rehabilitate Fools Crow. Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony presents its main character, Tayo, as alienated. He operates in a confusing world of dualities whereby the hegemonic culture brutalizes a feminine universe, and the counter-culture embraces a feminine universe. This study of Ceremony necessitates exploring the differences between Indian and Euro-American perceptions of landscape. Greta Gaard's studies on ecofeminism and Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality help to focus the theories v presented in this chapter. In addition, I consider the opposition between European patriarchal and American Indian matriarchal cultures, a difference that may affect the way the two cultures perceive the landscape. Finally I look at the Laguna captivity narrative that heals Tayo and compare the Laguna captivity genre to Euro-American captivity tales. The juxtaposition of cultural captivity narrative types reveals further differences in Laguna and Euro-American perceptions of the land. Annette Kolodny's theories on landscape and feminism prove useful in focusing my conclusions. N. Scott Momaday's The Ancient Child explores the parameters of representation and struggles with the question of how an Indian author can effectively describe the condition of an alienated American Indian to an audience who is, for the most part, Euro-American. This novel ties together many of the themes explored in Fools Crow and Ceremony. Momaday shows myth as originating in oral language and oral language as invented by vision: The story's main character, Set, has to overcome his alienation by understanding the origin of a myth which exists in his 'racial memory.' As an Indian, Set must discover the importance of non-textual spatiality and not the spaces contained within and influenced by written texts such as the very one Momaday creates to depict this character. The term non-textual spatiality refers to the imaginative space created by oral language and myth and the notion of non-textual spatiality opens a path for Set's healing. W.J.T. Mitchell's Picture Theory and Nelson Goodman's Languages of A rt are the main critical studies I use to amplify theories that grow out of The Ancient Child.
- ItemOpen AccessHomeward bound : late twentieth century domestic travel writing(2002) Maclay, Jeanne; Marx, LesleyThis thesis examines the state-of the-art of the domestic travel writing genre. In the introduction the challenges facing domestic travel writers are presented. The conclusion mentions recent criticisms of domestic travel writing and refutes these, maintaining that the genre can still offer ideas of worth to the public forum. The four chapters framed within the introduction and conclusion are all explorations of particular trends in domestic travel writing.