Browsing by Author "Moffett, Helen"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Arthurian mythology in the twentieth century : T.H. White and John Steinbeck's interpretations of Malory's Morte d'Arthur
    (1987) Moffett, Helen; Marx, Lesley G
    This thesis sets out to analyse and evaluate T.H. White's The Once and Future King and John Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights, two novels based on the Arthurian legend, and to investigate their reliance on Malory's Morte Darthur. A close critical reading of both texts is provided. The thesis begins by setting the novels in the context of the body of twentieth-century literature inspired by the Arthurian legend, and notes that both aspire to provide a fresh interpretation of the Morte Darthur. A broad outline of certain themes in the Morte Darthur which become central concerns in The Once and Future King and The Acts of King Arthur is given. A mythopoetic approach to the Morte Darthur is used, and it is examined as tragic and elegiac mythology in which archetypal characters appear. In the treatment of T.H. White's The Once and Future King, selective use is made of various contextual approaches to literature. In the first volume, The Sword in the Stone, the interaction of the work with the genres of comedy and fantasy is examined, and it is concluded that White makes use of both to create a pastoral idyll. It is suggested that the next three volumes, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight and The Candle in the Wind, demonstrate a progressively ( tragic vision in which the idealism of the first volume is sorely tried by the relentlessness of fate, and the machinations of human beings. It is indicated that White creates his most successful balance between romantic idealism and pessimistic realism in The Ill-Made Knight. It is also argued that The Candle in the Wind fails to maintain the intensity of Malory's tragedy and that The Book of Merlyn, the author's alternative ending to the saga, provides a more fitting ending to the entire cycle, although marred by White's bitterness and polemic argument. John Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights is examined in the light of the author's original aims to translate the Morte Darthur. It is suggested that the first chapters in which he does this are flat and sometimes laboured in comparison with the original, but that his last two sections, Gawain, Ewain and Marhalt and The Noble Tale of Sir Lancelot, provide a fresh and inventive approach. It is argued that in The Noble Tale of Sir Lancelot, Steinbeck comes to grips with the drama at the heart of the Morte Darthur as he introduces the eternal triangle in which the central characters are situated, and explores the potential for failure, even chaos, within the Round Table itself. The thesis concludes by drawing parallels between the two works and comparing their respective merits. It is maintained that while Malory's Morte Darthur cannot be improved upon, it is transmuted in the hands of White and Steinbeck into rich, lively and thought-provoking novels.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Rewriting Christina Rossetti : cross-gendered sibling rivalry, fraternal intervention and the counter-poetics of dissidence
    (1993) Moffett, Helen
    Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Michael Rossetti, paying especial attention to unravelling the received tradition that as an artist, Rossetti was indebted to Dante Gabriel's patronage. Instead, I argue that she negotiated her career as a poet against a covertly competitive backdrop of sibling rivalry, in which Dante Gabriel made strenuous efforts to direct and control her creative work. This thesis also examines and challenges the myths that William Michael set in motion as his sister's initial editor and biographer, and which still inform our perception of her as a poet and as a sister. I also investigate her standing regarding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a relation which is more problematic than is generally believed, maintaining that she was excluded from equal membership within this glamorous circle while simultaneously strategically important to them, both as a poet and a model. Clearly, the various misrepresentations of Rossetti's life and works are gendered. I employ the tools of feminist literary practice and new historicism in order to reveal the extent to which the treatment of Rossetti both by her brothers and various critics, has reflected patriarchal pressures and strictures. Primary manuscripts, some unpublished, or published in censored versions, are scrutinised and pieced together in an attempt to present a more accurate view of both Rossetti's relationships with the men in her life, and her own sense of herself as a poet. Close attention is also paid to the singularity of her personal history, which was underscored by her strong sense of poetic vocation. This attempt to rework the traditional picture of Christina Rossetti provides significant new perspectives on and readings of her canon, and her brother's. I trace patterns in her poetry which are related to her struggle for creative agency in the face of fraternal intervention, and propose a model of dialogic interrogation for re-reading significant texts. I conclude that a comparative study of intertextuality between the Rossettis contributes vitally to the further understanding of both poets.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Writers Researching: Fact and Fiction
    (2014-09-29) Irwin, Ron; Moffett, Helen; Beukes, Lauren; Makholwa, Angela; Dowling, Finuala
    What is the relationship between research and the writing process and between historical ‘truth’ and fictional ‘truth’? Are there boundaries which should not be crossed? In this course writers will talk about the research that resulted in their recent novels. Ron Irwin, author of Flat Water Tuesday, will discuss how he researched people, places and real events and the challenges associated with turning the events of one’s own life into a novel. Helen Moffett, one of the trio behind the Girl Walk In series, will explain how she and her co-authors research and write erotica novels, providing insight into collaboration, champagne and condoms. Award-winning Lauren Beukes will describe how she ‘kinks’ reality in relation to the real-world research that informed The Shining Girls and Zoo City. Angela Makholwa will explore the process of writing the criminal mind, including interviews with a serial killer for Red Ink, and research about women who killed their husbands for Black Widow Society. Readers always assume that everything that happened in your book happened to you, complains Finuala Dowling, so what’s the point of trudging uphill for five hours in search of one sentence? Referring to both Homemaking for the Down-at-Heart and her latest manuscript, The Fetch, she discusses the price of authenticity.