identifier: Santowski, Britta <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Santowski=3ABritta=3A=3A.html>   (1995) Transgressing terms of gender in the The Faerie Queene : Britomart, Radigund and Artegall.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene is designed, in part, to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline . . . the which the most part of men delight to read, rather for variety of matter, then for profite of the ensample."¹  To profit from the ensample, the reader learns vicariously through the adventures of each hero.  The hero captivates the reader's gaze, and to stay in focus, nature's periphery harmonizes around the hero: shadows cast suspicion, light foreshadows sight, beauty unveils truth.  Just as nature's ideals form around the allegorical needs of the hero, so does the ideal Woman.  In my thesis, I argue that the feminine-ideal, presented in part through Britomart, Radigund and Artegall, solely reflects patriarchal order.  To be "ideal," as we see through Britomart, means to cease to exist as woman.  Woman's refusal to submit to this feminine-ideal, as we see through Radigund, results in obliteration.  The only Woman resurrected from her diminished self is the one who began as, and is returned to, man: Artegall. -- To move from the periphery to the centre of existence, the male-inscribed feminine-ideal can only be presented to the reader by writing the man into woman.  Britomart needs the guise of masculinity to see and be seen.  When Britomart cross-dresses, she transcends her lesser, feminine nature and becomes like man in order to perfect her patriarchally-prized chastity.  Once perfected as "Woman," she spins herself into oblivion.  Radigund, on the other hand, refuses to be defined as man's extension.  Her refusal results in her death.  Finally, when Artegall submits to Radigund's world, he becomes Woman (Woman as defined by the traditions of patriarchy) by donning woman's clothing.  Once dressed in this feminine garb, the feminine soul invades and usurps his masculine body.  As Woman, Artegall can neither act nor react.  Nor can he be seen.  It is not until he is re-dressed by Britomart that he re-enters the narrative as a central figure.  The only good Woman, as scripted in The Faerie Queene, is an absent woman. -- ¹Edmund Spenser's letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, from the Hamilton edition of the Faerie Queene, Appendix A, 737.


identifier: Somerton, Elizabeth M. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Somerton=3AElizabeth_M=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1988) Vernon Watkins and Kierkegaard : "the poetry of eternity".  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

format: application/pdf application/pdf

abstract: This thesis examines Vernon Watkins's affinity for Søren Kierkegaard and the light it sheds on Watkins's poetic theory and practice.  The Introduction documents Watkins's intensive knowledge of Kierkegaard's works in support of the argument that his thought is either straightforwardly Kierkegaardian, or involves an application to poetry of Kierkegaard's metaphors for Christianity.  To establish the basis of Watkins's "belief" in an eternity to which both poetry and Christianity belong, the first chapter explores Watkins's theory that every "serious poet" experiences "a pivotal crisis in time" similar to the one which led to his recovery from the severe mental breakdown he suffered at age twenty-one and equivalent, it becomes clear from his prose, to the Kierkegaardian Christian "conversion," the significance of which is described in Kierkegaard's metaphor of the "Archimedean point." -- The bulk of the thesis is extended analysis of a selection of Watkins's poems emphasizing the Watkins/Kierkegaard affinity, with references to Kierkegaard's works as these elucidate Watkins's concerns.  The thrust of the discussion, then, is thematic, and comments on Watkins's technique are limited.  Chapters two and three consist of detailed analysis of the Kierkegaardian notion of "eternal moments" and the metaphors describing them in a selection that includes two "core" poems in the Watkins canon.  Chapter four focuses on Watkins's literal application to poetry of Kierkegaard's "Paradox" and "poetry of eternity" metaphors for Christianity.  Watkins's notion that the poet is "a liberating god," identifiable with Christ as the "mediator" of a poetic Christian eternity, is documented by statements concerned with it in his prose and poetry and by analysis of his poem "Egyptian Burial:  Resurrection in Wales" where the theory is seen in practice. -- The Conclusion relates Watkins's Kierkegaardian metaphysic of "inwardness or subjectivity" and his exclusive concern with "the poetry of eternity" to the predominant complaint in Watkins criticism - that Watkins does not ground his poems in the physical or everyday world - and to his reputation as an "obscure" poet.


identifier: Mills, Sharon Elizabeth <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Mills=3ASharon_Elizabeth=3A=3A.html>   (1987) The use of metaphor in Samuel Johnson's Rambler (1750-52).  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Samuel Johnson's Rambler (1750-52) has often been regarded as abstract preaching on moral issues, but of late scholars have begun to realize that these essays possess a concrete, richly allusive style.  This thesis focuses on one particular aspect of the Rambler's style, i.e., its metaphorical dimension, a topic which has received only limited attention from scholars.  This study endeavours to provide a more comprehensive and analytical treatment of Rambler metaphor than has yet been attempted by scholars. -- Chapter 1 familiarizes the reader with the scholarly work already done on Rambler metaphor.  It outlines the ensuing chapters, and provides a working definition of metaphor as the term is used in this study. -- Chapter 2 identifies six categories of metaphor that recur regularly in the essays.  Investigation of their use leads to an interpretation of these individual categories as part of an interrelated system of metaphor derived from Johnson's view of life as a struggle.  An attempt is also made to establish connections between these iterative metaphors and Johnson's life, interests, and personality. -- Johnson's use of metaphor extends far beyond these iterative categories; hence Chapter 3 offers a general survey of the extensive variety of metaphor found in the Rambler.  The main intent here is to reveal the wide variety of sources from which the metaphors are drawn.  Some attention is also given to traditional sources of metaphor which are little used by Johnson. -- Chapter 4 examines the way metaphor functions within the structure of individual essays.  In the Rambler Johnson appears to use metaphors most frequently in six ways:  as allegory, decoration, stock analogy, concluding device, recurring "undersong," and multiple expanders of theme.  Examination of each of these functions leads finally to a consideration of the thought process behind these particular uses of metaphor.


identifier: MacLeod, Lewis <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/MacLeod=3ALewis=3A=3A.html>   (2002) "The way a man does do things" : epic masculinity, grand narrative and ideological discourse in selected twentieth century novels.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This study posits a complex set of interrelationships between narrativity, epic masculine images, and ideologically motivated critical practices.  Focusing on the work of Evelyn Waugh, Sam Selvon, Paule Marshall, and J.M. Coetzee, the project examines the degree to which idealized visions of masculinity and manhood operate as "grand narratives," epic story-structures which frame the individual's consciousness and override his ability to perceive, and undermine his ability to operate productively in, the "real" world.  The study places consistent emphasis on the degree to which the world of stories can become more meaningful and more influential than any kind of direct experience, the degree to which characters come to live inside distinct story worlds.  Inherent in such an approach is an acknowledgment of the slippage between ontological categories like "real" and "imaginary."  The study frequently considers pervasive narrative structures as real things by virtue of the force they seem to wield, while at the same time considering certain real experiences and opportunities as ontologically deficient by virtue of the force they seem to lack. -- As a study of masculinity, this project focuses on several masculine signposts and establishes relationships between particular masculine benchmarks and particular narrative forces.  Different masculine imperatives are viewed in terms of some relationship to the "storied" figure of the Ideal Man.  The first chapter addresses the icon of the gentleman soldier relative to Waugh's war trilogy.  Sword of Honour The second addresses Selvon's Moses trilogy, emphasizing the connection between the masculine impulse for sexual conquest, and some corresponding anxieties about material prosperity and public visibility.  The third deals with Marshall's novels, Brown Girl, Brownstones and Praisesong for the Widow, highlighting the emotional stasis that seems to accompany any masculine acceptance of the traditional of "Breadwinner."  The fourth chapter, addressing Coetzee’s Foe and The Master of Petersburg, engages Coetzee’s complex treatment of the anxieties associated with the father's role, as "begetter," in the life some type of offspring. -- The investigation of ideological critical practices (in particular certain practices in postcolonial and feminist thinking) takes place in every chapter, and extends the examination of unproductive grand narratives to include critical approaches which adhere too rigidly to the "storylines" stipulated by particular critical discourses.  The study posits a close relationship between the delusions (generated by stories) that trouble particular characters in the selected novels, and the shortcomings (generated by discourse) of particular critical approaches, and suggests that any overdeveloped adherence to the plot of any type of grand narrative debilitates the individual's ability to productively perceive his or her surroundings, literal or literary.  Close attention is paid to the current shortcomings in the critical oeuvre of each author to demonstrate this point.  In every case, the preoccupations of some critical discourse seem to have obscured, if not outright overlooked, certain key aspects of the literary text, aspects which seem obvious when the text is viewed from outside the grand narrative of the ideological critical apparatus.


identifier: Cook, Samuel James <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Cook=3ASamuel_James=3A=3A.html>   (1990) "Deserts of the heart" : the poetry of John Newlove.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: John Newlove, whose main recognition as a poet came with the  publication of Lies (1972), is often considered as the Prairies' first poet. This thesis explores four major themes  of Newlove's poetry: man alone, the failed lover, the searcher, and the poet. -- The first chapter depicts individuals who are essentially alone. They are isolated from other individuals and from their essential selves. Their isolation appears to stem from society's indifference to their plight and from their own insecurities and inadequacies. -- The second chapter explores those poems in which the personae fail to find communication, communion and  commitment in their love-relationships. The desire to find love is especially intense, yet the personae are unable to effect a mutually lasting relationship. -- In the third chapter, a search motif is presented. Here, the personae look especially to the land and its people - as they are portrayed in history and legend - to satisfy their desire to  find fulfilment, to accept fears of death, and to find their  respective identities. -- The fourth and final chapter concentrates on the poetic process and the poetic vision. With respect to the former, the poems deal with Newlove's suspicion of language, his direct and unadorned speech that defies traditional poetic techniques, and the difficulty of composing. The latter part of the chapter focuses on the poet's desire for perfection, the need to present the truth,  and the poet's task - to warn and to affirm.


identifier: McManus, Katherine Ogar <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/McManus=3AKatherine_Ogar=3A=3A.html>   (1990) Courting the reader : rhetorical style in culture and anarchy.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy questions and discusses the opinions of politicians, clergy, and educators in a unique  rhetorical style. This thesis examines Arnold's rhetorical style by examining the specific strategies that Arnold used to  create a special relationship with the reader. Arnold's use of  these strategies and his rhetorical method are traced back to his knowledge of German literature, specifically to Goethe, and the process through which he wrote Culture and Anarchy.


identifier: Spracklin, Rochelle Mary <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Spracklin=3ARochelle_Mary=3A=3A.html>   (1990) Didacticism in the fictional works of Harold Horwood.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The main purpose of didactic literature is to instruct rather than to entertain; consequently, the author intrudes upon the reader with his own views.  Harold Horwood's view of art has been didactic from the beginning of his writing career.  From his earliest years as an editor of a local literary magazine, through his time as a political columnist, he used his writing as a means of expounding on the many controversial topics of concern to him. -- When he turned his attention to fictional writing in the 1960's, his adherence to the didactic theory of literature became even more pronounced.  His novels abound in expressions of his opinions on moral, social, and political issues.  In Tomorrow Will Be Sunday Horwood elaborates on his feelings towards organized fundamentalist religion as it affects the Newfoundland outport.  The major criticism levelled against this work is that Horwood forces his negative ideas on a setting with which he is only vaguely familiar.  In the case of White Eskimo, Horwood is using a setting with which, as a member of the House of Assembly for Labrador and as a frequent traveller to the area, he was familiar.  But the didacticism is just as distinct, as he clearly uses the novel to attack white colonialism in Labrador.  The short stories in Only the Gods Speak and the novel Remembering Summer are vehicles primarily for Horwood’s ideas on the counterculture movement in which he was an active participant. -- Political, religious, and social didacticism takes precedence for Horwood in his fiction.  The didacticism is often so blatant that readers may be offended and the positive aspects of the works may be overlooked.  The didacticism has caused many critics to perceive Horwood’s work as flawed, even though there are some admirable qualities in his fiction.  Indeed, it can be argued that some of the finest sections of his work - for example, his descriptions of the natural environment in Tomorrow Will Be Sunday and White Eskimo - are the least didactic.  Yet the lasting impression one receives on reading Horwood's fiction is that of a man whose convictions are so strong that he cannot avoid authorial intrusion.  His works are both powerful and revealing, and he has made a significant contribution to the literary history of Newfoundland.


identifier: Kewley, Fay <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Kewley=3AFay=3A=3A.html>   (1968) Myth and symbol in some major novels of D.H. Lawrence.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: An interest in symbolism and a particular interest in the work of D.H. Lawrence furnish the motive for this study.  Three things are apparent in reading Lawrence:  (1) His symbolism is more methodical than would appear at first reading and leads into a network of myths.  (2) The writing technique used by him corresponds to the process with which he describes the development of his characters.  (3) He does not fit comfortably into a literary line of succession but fits in a general way into areas of development within other disciplines. -- The most noticeable characteristic of Lawrence's writing seems to be the zealous pursuit of a state of being in which man could reflect the cosmic harmony.  By-passing the novels which concentrate mainly upon male relationships and questions of political and religious leadership, one can isolate a number of novels which concentrate on the acquisition of this state of being, and which, in fact, constitute a philosophy of “becoming”.  The novels which indicate a progression towards the ideal of man living harmoniously in the universe are Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow, Women in Love, and Lady Chatterley’s Lover.  There is, however, a sense of dissatisfaction at the end of all these novels, a feeling of uncompleted business.  By reading The Man Who Died as a key to further development of this theme the line of thought is as finished as a philosophy of becoming can be. -- The problem of fragmentation, considered by Lawrence as the major evil resulting from the mechanization of industry, seems even more important in the age of cybernetics.  It is in this connection that a comparison of Lawrence with the insights of Jung seem particularly important and rewarding.  Also, since Lawrence’s death in 1930 there has been a renewed interest in mythology, sparked by new discoveries made in anthropology.  All of these things give credibility to notions which Lawrence put forth in purely literary form. -- The myth which underlies much of the writing is the myth of Daphne, interpreted not as a fate of vegetation, but of mechanization.  Mechanization is a step beyond vegetation because it is no longer rooted in earth and, therefore, completely lifeless.  Lawrence works out his own version of life-death.  Death for him is another consideration; the life-death debate is really life vs. lifelessness which means life lived creatively from the "quick" or lifelessness as a state of existence without vitality.  Loss of vitality for Lawrence was the disaster which threatened mankind.  The coming disaster was not flood or fire (although he uses these metaphors), or a fate imposed by God, but loss of vitality through mechanization, a disaster of man's own making.  Although Lawrence uses the symbol of the Ark it is clear that the Ark is woman. -- So man is another Adam seeking his lost paradise, and the key to his salvation is the same thing that was the key to his downfall - woman.  The kind of woman who contributes to the downfall and is of no use in redeeming is symbolized by Gudrun, who is the ultimate in the horror of recession into mechanism - the completely mechanical woman who realizes her predicament.  At the other end of the scale is the priestess of Isis, the healer. -- No final decision can be made about the total meaning or value of Lawrence's work except to say the work lends itself to interpretation and reinterpretation because his philosophy was a philosophy of becoming and his creed was continuous creation.


identifier: O'Rourke, Jacqueline <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/O=27Rourke=3AJacqueline=3A=3A.html>   (1989) "Private acts of revolution" : feminism and postmodernism in the fictions of Aritha van Herk.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The fiction of Aritha van Herk allows feminism and postmodernism to overlap.  Throughout her multi-layered texts van Herk questions humanist notions of unitary consciousness, universal truth and the objective construction of the past.  Her weapons are narrative strategies, intertextuality and women's reclaimed mythologies.  Through these techniques, van Herk manages to engender and, at the same time, deconstruct the rational consciousness at the heart of humanist discourse. -- Van Herk's subversions are both literary and societal.  She works within established literary forms and simultaneously transforms and subverts the thematic and formalistic conventions of these forms.  Furthermore, she questions the very power structure out of which her texts are generated.  She especially critiques the social construction of gender and the marginalization of ex-centrics.  The aesthetic and the political are inseparably integrated in van Herk's texts.  Her textual practice is political and her politics are generated from her textual practice.  Her texts are always situated in society and van Herk is always aware of her historical specificity. -- All of van Herk's work, from her short fictions and essays to her three novels - Judith, The Tent Peg, and No Fixed Address - disclose her feminist postmodern poetics.  Her narrative experimentation is evident, to varying degrees, in all of her fictions.  Also, her novels establish intertextuality with other texts.  They question the construction of the mythologies of the past and present.  Foregrounded in all of van Herk's texts is a concern with woman and her place in twentieth-century society.  The treatment of women by various literary conventions and societal norms always places them as ex-centrics in van Herk's texts. -- Van Herk celebrates ex-centricity and pluralism.  Her texts become more revolutionary as she dramatizes the conflict between the feminist and society.  The metafictional layers of her works always remind the reader of the plight of the feminist postmodern in Canadian literary and social communities.


identifier: Collins, Peter <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Collins=3APeter=3A=3A.html>   (1990) Violence and the overreacher in the plays of Christopher Marlowe.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Elizabethan scholarship has, for the most part, overlooked the importance of violence in the period's drama.  Although recent scholarship displays an awareness of this glaring oversight, the study of Christopher Marlowe's use of dramatic violence remains, for the most part, limited to uneven commentaries, of no more than a page or two, in the major works of Marlovian criticism.  The standard critical approach has been to dismiss the dramatic violence of his plays as either the regrettable product of a violent social milieu or the result of the influence of the violent Senecan and native dramatic traditions. -- The generally dismissive critical attitude towards violence in Marlowe's work and, by extension, in all Elizabethan drama, is clearly inadequate.  I shall attempt to rectify this oversight by examining the use of dramatic violence in Marlowe's plays in order to show how thoughtfully the playwright employed violence for a variety of theatrical and thematic purposes.  As a primary focus I will use the "overreacher," a term originally coined by Harry Levin in his seminal study of power and aspiration in Marlowe's works, to illustrate how integral is the analysis of Marlowe's use of dramatic violence to the study of character and theme in his plays. -- In Tamburlaine: Part One Marlowe uses violent language to define an overreaching figure of incredible power and attraction, while in Part Two his increasing use of disturbing staged violence suggests a questioning of the overreacher's amorality.  In The Jew of Malta Marlowe makes extensive use of comic violence to refashion a morality Vice within a Renaissance context.  Here the exploitation of the comic aspects of violence (a common feature of the dialogue and stage action in all of Marlowe's plays) undercuts any negative audience reaction to the protagonist's crimes and even allows the audience to identify, to some degree, with the fantastically villainous Barabas.  In Doctor Faustus the comic violence of the "eldritch" and "comedy of evil" traditions plays a vital role in depicting the degeneration of the Marlovian overreacher.  With The Massacre at Paris and Edward II the overreacher has been debased from visionary to villain.  In these plays Marlowe questions the overreacher's power and engenders sympathy for the pathetic Edward, despite his weak misrule of England, by portraying him as the hapless victim of the overreacher's violence.


identifier: Pothen, Sara Susmitha <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Pothen=3ASara_Susmitha=3A=3A.html>   (1982) The poetic theory of John Keats.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

title: The poetic theory of John Keats

abstract: In the early years of his poetic career Keats regarded poetry primarily as a form of escape.  The poet, he believed, fleeing from the painful realities of life, takes refuge in a dream world of enchanting beauty and unalloyed bliss.  Keats held that this sensuous paradise conjured up by the poet's imagination ought to form the basis of poetry. -- This juvenile conception of poetry gradually yields to a mature view.  Keats becomes convinced that a great poet, instead of turning his back on real life, has to draw sustenance from it.  He should, he realizes, have an intimate, personal acquaintance with human sorrow.  He must be educated in the school of life.  This will enable the poet to explore and to shed light on the dark chambers of the mansion of human life.  In short, Keats comes to regard the poet as an interpreter of human life. -- In Keats's view, the distinguishing characteristic of a great poet is "negative capability."  He considers a poet who has this quality as superior to one who does not have it.  A poet who possesses "negative capability” does not, he believes, approach life with certain preconceptions or attempt to view it in the light of a personal philosophy.  Unlike the philosopher who strives to arrive at absolute certainty through intellectual reasoning, the poet fully trusts and faithfully records his intuitions, without attempting to fit them into a rational system of thought. -- Keats believes that poetry should not teach, but merely "reveal" to the reader the poet's intuitions regarding the meaning of the universe.  Keat’s conception of poetry as revelation is intimately linked to his mature conception of poetic beauty.  In his years of maturity Keats associates poetry with a “beauty" which is equal to "truth."  The poet looks at the world in a state of detached imaginative contemplation.  In such a state, the universe is seen as a harmonious whole.  In Keats's view, what appears to the imagination as "beauty"  in a disinterested state of contemplation constitutes the "truth" of things.  The poet embodies in poetry the "truth" which his imagination has perceived as "beauty."  The picture of life set forth in poetry stimulates the reader's imagination and excites deep speculation on the purpose and meaning of life.  Such imaginative speculation on the part of the reader culminates in a greater insight into life.


identifier: Schultz, Audrey Deena <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Schultz=3AAudrey_Deena=3A=3A.html>   (1985) A biography of Newfoundland-born author Ron Pollett (1900-55).  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This biographical study of Newfoundland-born author Ron Pollett presents a detailed account of his life, and attempts in its final chapter to assess his literary contribution, particularly as an émigré author, to Newfoundland literature.  To date, no extensive study either of Pollett's life or of his works has been undertaken.  This thesis attempts to redress this oversight in the area of Newfoundland studies; and to provide, particularly through the use of information obtained from approximately 100 personal interviews and pieces of correspondence, previously undocumented and uncollected materials pertaining to Pollett's life and works. -- Chapter One focuses on Pollett's early years, from 1900 to 1916, in New Harbour, Trinity Bay, a Newfoundland outport where he learned the traditional skills and values of a fisherman-farmer.  These sixteen years are presented as a time of preparation for the tasks and ideals which he was to pursue during his young adulthood. -- Chapter Two describes Pollett's experiences from 1917 to 1924 in various professions- outport schoolteacher, record-keeper, and linotype operator- as he migrated to a number of villages and towns within Newfoundland, then emigrated first to Montreal, and finally to New York.  Personal and economic circumstances which prompted these changes of profession and residence are explored. -- In Chapter Three Pollett's experiences in New York from 1925 to early 1945 are described.  This chapter provides a glimpse into the professional and domestic life of one of the thousands of Newfoundlanders who settled in New York during the 1920s. -- Chapter Four describes Pollett's life between 1945 and his death in 1955, and suggests the circumstances which led him, by 1946, to embark on a second career, as an author.  Aspects of the writing he produced, based on his own and other Newfoundlanders' lives at home and abroad, are discussed in relation to his rapidly declining health and precarious finances. -- Chapter Five focuses mainly upon Pollett's three major works: The Ocean at My Door and Other Newfoundland Outport  Stories (1947); Peter the Grate:  An Outport Character Study (1952); and The Ocean at My Door (1956).  This chapter addresses the following topics: the extent of Pollett's oeuvre: the kind of writing he produced; his writing, seen in the larger literary context; and finally, his achievement as a writer.


identifier: Grant, Jessica <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Grant=3AJessica=3A=3A.html>   (2001) The social costs of cooking from scratch: approaching my mother's brownie recipe.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis is a contextual analysis of my mother's brownie recipe. Following the recipe through the microcosmic to the macrocosmic, I illuminate its biography in each context. To this end, I have structured my thesis under the overarching umbrella of Marxist cultural theory, on the relationship between basic global modes of production and superstructural  social institutions. Within the microcosm, I employ performance analysis, comparative historical and feminist critiques. To understand how the brownie and its recipe communicate within the macrocosm, I deconstruct the recipe, analyzing the historic nature of the ingredients and how those natures become symbols of oppression and exploitation.  After examining the utilization of the brownie recipe within  the superstructure and exploring the repercussions of the ingredients' production modes within the base, I appraise the normalizing, hegemonic forces that interplay between the  base and the superstructure—the forces that make the brownie  so seemingly benign and mundane.


identifier: Ní Shúilleabháin, Caoimhe <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/N=ED_Sh=FAilleabh=E1in=3ACaoimhe=3A=3A.html>   (2004) The wren tradition and other visiting customs in Newfoundland and Ireland.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The Wren, or Hunting the Wren, is a Christmas tradition in which a group of people visit homes carrying with them an object representing a wren and reciting a traditional rhyme declaring the wren the "King of all Birds" while asking for a reward for saying the verse. Information on the custom's history and distribution in Newfoundland has been compiled through fieldwork, archival and printed sources. The Wren or  Wren Boy tradition is discussed in the context of other visiting traditions in Newfoundland: the ritual visits of the mummers as well as everyday social-casual visits. As distribution of the custom in Newfoundland is primarily restricted to the Irish-settled communities it can be assumed that it came to Newfoundland from Ireland. Therefore, while an overview of the Wren tradition in Europe  is given, there is particular comparative focus on the Irish  tradition. Similarities in form and function between seasonal house-visits in Newfoundland and Ireland are also dealt with.


identifier: Hiscock, Philip <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Hiscock=3APhilip=3A=3A.html>   (1986) Folklore and popular culture in early Newfoundland radio broadcasting : an analysis of occupational narrative, oral history and song repertoire.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis illustrates the interaction of folk culture and popular culture in Newfoundland in the mid-twentieth century, mainly the 1930s and 1940s, through three case studies. One of these studies examines the occupational narratives of a man whose adult life was spent as an announcer on local and regional radio. These folklife narratives are interpreted in terms of the impression management of a local celebrity. -- The second study focusses on a category of radio programme, the message programme, which played an important role in the conveyance of information in and among Newfoundland outport communities  from the 1930s to the 1960s. In particular, the Gerald S. Doyle News Bulletin is examined in detail. This programme was influenced not only by the sensibilities of its creators  and "gatekeepers," but also by its listeners. This led to its being a flexible form of folk communication. -- The third study scrutinizes the radio serial, Irene B. Mellon, which was popular in and around St. John's from 1934 to 1941. This serial combined adventure fiction and regional music with much traditional context. In particular an annotative study of the programme's song repertoire is presented. -- Together these studies display the array of materials available to the student of Newfoundland folklore and the mass media. Oral history, folklore, radio programming, archival materials and published sources are drawn together to provide the resource base for the thesis.


identifier: MacDonald, Martha Jane <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/MacDonald=3AMartha_Jane=3A=3A.html>   (1986) Group identity in social gatherings : traditions and community on the Iona Peninsula, Cape Breton.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis proposes the idea that social gatherings in a rural community of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, are a forum for  displaying and reinforcing a group identity based on collective community values. Both present and past social gatherings on the Iona peninsula are discussed, using the contrasts between them to point out how these values and their manifestations have or have not changed. -- The methodology for the study consisted largely of tape-recorded  interviews and participant observation, carried out on the peninsula over a period of two months. Other sources of information included written material by folklorists and others on social gatherings of different types, on Gaelic language use and on such concepts as reciprocity, leadership  and communication. After an introduction and a chapter describing the communities studied, three chapters are demoted to groups of gatherings divided according to function, with ethnographic descriptions of present-day gatherings included in each. -- Where entertainment options are limited due to a diminishing population and geographical  distance from major centres, people will construct their own  entertainment and their own methods of gathering for what purposes they find. The ways in which they set up these gatherings and the form they take depend on resources available, motives for gathering and gathering traditions already in place. The thesis posits that people of this area, because of their common heritage of Hebridean, Roman Catholic traditions, and because of the complete lack of commercial entertainment options, tend to maintain some of the forms or aspects of gathering which their ancestors imported from Scotland in the early nineteenth century. These traditions have been retained in a largely practical, unselfconscious way because they continue to fill a need felt by the community, and are the natural way of gathering because they have been in place for several generations. -- At the same time a number of changes have come about in the patterns of gathering in order to fulfill the needs of the present day. Other changes, such as the decline in use of the Gaelic language, the rapidly shrinking population and the increase in the average age of the residents have brought about further adaptations in the gathering process. These consist of differences in dress, food use, narratives told, and even in the objectives of the group in holding the gathering. -- I examine here the ideas of reciprocity, with food as the medium of exchange, the concept of hidden leadership in an ideally egalitarian community, and communication within social gatherings. All of these relate to the idea of the group identity which gives this community  its distinctive character. -- In conclusion, I consider the fate of this area and its group identity, when the population is diminishing to such an extent that the end of these particular traditions seems inevitable.


identifier: Kimiecik, Kathryn Mary <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Kimiecik=3AKathryn_Mary=3A=3A.html>   (1987) Aspects of contemporary courtship in a rural Newfoundland community.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: In this thesis, rural Newfoundland courtship is treated, not  as one stage on the way towards engagement or marriage, but as a system of behavior that may be divided into marital and  non-marital courtship. Male-female relationships in Newfoundland are characterized by strong nonverbal expressions. These expressions and correlated behavior may be referred to as a code courtship behavior. -- This behavior takes place in various contexts, most notably, at dances or when walking along community roads. Each of these contexts determines behavior specific to the structure of the event. The dances are a primary source of opposite sex interaction. "Walking the roads" is an evening's stroll along roads and lanes whereby young adults and adolescents come together to socialize and to confirm or deny mutual interest. Each of these social events is conducive for male-female interaction on both a group and individual level. Nonverbal signals are used to convey messages of interest and to encourage or discourage a potential partner, whether it is for sexual or emotional gratification. -- Love and friendship poetry is analyzed as it exists in one rural community but especially for one young man who has been both  recipient and author of such poems. Relationships between author and recipient are of paramount importance as is the relationship between recipient and the third party to whom a  poem is shown. Adolescent poetry is an intensely private tradition and its functions exemplify this. The poetry maintains the privacy so absolutely necessary for the conveyance of such intimate emotions without disturbing community standards. -- Newfoundland courtship communication  is perhaps most indicative of a culture's desire for nonvocality when dealing with sensitive topics. In order for  participants in courtship to communicate successfully an intricate and elaborate code of nonverbal signals is used.


identifier: Bowman, Marion Irene <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Bowman=3AMarion_Irene=3A=3A.html>   (1985) Devotion to St. Gerard Majella in Newfoundland : the saint system in operation and transition.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: In Newfoundland this century there has been considerable devotion to St. Gerard Majella, who has been best known and most vigorously promoted as "The Mothers' Saint." St. Gerard  has been particularly important to many women during pregnancy and childbirth, but what has been asked and expected of him has varied according to the needs and circumstances of the individual, and the manner of dealing with the saint has been very much a personal affair. This study investigates why and how St. Gerard achieved such popularity on the island, how relationships with him have been conducted, and why this devotion, like many others, is now in decline. In doing so, it provides a record of the saint system in operation and transition in twentieth century Newfoundland. -- There has frequently been a significant gap between official theory and private practice  in devotion to saints. What has become accepted belief and behaviour at popular level has not always tallied with the official standpoint, nor has the official position always been made clear at parish level. To get an accurate picture of the practice, as opposed to the theory, of religion, it is necessary to take into account folk and individual beliefs and practices. Using information from popular devotional literature, and interviews with people involved in and peripheral to devotion to St. Gerard Majella, this study demonstrates the lack of uniformity below the surface of a standard feature of Roman Catholicism. It shows the complex interrelationship of official, folk, and individual religion, and the difficulties faced by laity, religious, and observers alike in distinguishing between them. -- In addition to tracing a significant episode in the socio-religious history of Newfoundland, and examining one manifestation of a centuries' old devotional tradition, it is hoped that this account of devotion to St. Gerard Majella  will contribute to the recognition of folk religion as an important, extensive, and inevitable element of religion per  se.


identifier: MacDonald, Lynn Marie <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/MacDonald=3ALynn_Marie=3A=3A.html>   (1988) A survey of mat hooking traditions in central Nova Scotia, 1900-1985.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This study examines mat hooking traditions in central Nova Scotia over a span of seventy years, 1915-1985. Examination of  one craft's historic and present state in a specific geographic region provides information about the effects of social and economic change on the craft's forms and functions.  By focusing on the maker, as well as the artifact, one discerns a relationship between group aesthetics and individual preference, and craft production's role and function in the maker's life. These two factors exert influence on each other.


identifier: Fulton, Patricia Lynne <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Fulton=3APatricia_Lynne=3A=3A.html>   (1989) Social and personal values and attitudes of Newfoundland lightkeepers : a dyadic life history of a married couple.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This study considers the life history narratives of a married couple, Albert and Averil Wakeley of Centreville, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland.  It was discovered that their oral autobiographical account is a portrayal defined by two major themes:  work experience and family life.  An examination of these themes was made, focusing on the social and personal values and attitudes featured in the Wakeleys’ narratives. -- What sets this study apart from other life histories is the fact that Albert's occupation as lightkeeper results in an overlap of work and family life that the historical nature of the job and its attendant responsibilities demands.  Unlike other occupations in Newfoundland, such as fishing, mining and logging, the lightkeeping profession requires twenty-four hour attention.  Elements of work pervade almost every aspect of personal life.  This is particularly true for those people who work and raise their families on islands or remote regions where there is little opportunity to interact with the community. -- The examination of the themes of work experience and family life revealed social, as well as personal values and attitudes.  These were also studied in relation to the uniqueness of a lightkeeper's life.  Attention was paid to the cultural influences that shaped behaviour and to the dyadic nature of the couple's repertoire.  Material for this study was gathered during four visits with the Wakeleys in their homes in three different locations over a period of three years.  The methodology for the study consisted of tape-recorded interviews with the couple.  Other sources included works on life history and personal experience narratives written by scholars in those respective areas of study.  An introduction is followed by a detailed account of my collecting experiences.  Chapter Three is a biographical perspective of the couple, as well as a theoretical evaluation of their life histories.  The following two chapters present and analyse the Wakeleys' autobiographical narratives.  Conclusions are then drawn in the last chapter.  The aim of my study was to apply and expand folkloristic procedure to a subject which warrants such investigation.


identifier: Butt, William Clouston <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Butt=3AWilliam_Clouston=3A=3A.html>   (1986) Richard Wells : a Newfoundland storyteller and aspects of his storytelling.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This work is a biographical, contextual, performance and aesthetic-oriented examination of a Newfoundland storyteller’s art.  As such, the focus of the work is on the narrator and the contexts, and to a lesser degree on the narratives themselves.  It is the contention that the narrator who is the focus of this research, Mr. Richard Wells of Exploits Islands, Notre Dame Bay, has become known as a storyteller much more so because of his narrative style than the kinds of stories he tells. -- The formal research began in the summer of 1979 and has been largely ethnographic in nature.  It has involved field recordings and field notes taken over many hours and different situations up until and including the summer of 1985. -- Several significant conclusions have resulted from this work.  The narrator's style has adapted and continued to thrive in a community which has undergone massive change and upheaval indicating that traditional narrative styles may have widespread and universal appeal.  Also implicit in this finding is the possibility that audience aesthetics are somewhat universal.  The narrative style itself is indicative of the power which folkloric performance may have.  The results indicate the value that research which focuses on individuals can have.


identifier: Hornby, James John <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Hornby=3AJames_John=3A=3A.html>   (1982) The fiddle on the island : fiddling tradition on Prince Edward Island.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This study is an attempt to document fiddling tradition in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.  In particular, it examines the most important contemporary development in fiddling, the revitalistic Prince Edward Island Fiddlers’ Society.  The objective is to assess the Society against a background of local history and traditions, and with a knowledge of fiddling traditions and studies from Scotland, Ireland, England, and North America. -- A descriptive outline of Prince Edward Island fiddling traditions is extracted from a variety of historical and contemporary sources, based on library and field research.  From this a pattern of decline and revival emerges, as fiddling and old-time dancing are seen in the context of local social and musical ecologies.  These contexts were changed by many factors - fashions, population shifts, and technological innovations among them.  Among the important technological changes was the coming of radio, and the relationship of fiddlers and provincial radio stations is explored in some detail for the period 1923-1958.  Next, the influence of the Scottish Canadian fiddlers of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, upon Prince Edward Island fiddlers is outlined from the mid-1930s to the present.  This influence, and the related propagation of musical literacy by the Fiddlers’ Society are seen in relation to the concepts of traditional music” that animate said Society.  The origins of the Fiddlers’ Society (to which the author belongs) are traced and its activities described. -- Finally, the Society is evaluated in terms of its uses of tradition and the Island's cultural present, and the importance of local tradition is advocated for this group and other Island fiddlers, and society generally.


identifier: Kahn, Alison Joanne <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Kahn=3AAlison_Joanne=3A=3A.html>   (1983) The Jews of St. John's, Newfoundland : a rhetorical approach to a community autobiography.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The oral tradition of a small community continues as long as there exists a "chain of transmission” to perpetuate the cycle.  Through regeneration, the past continues to be sustained, revitalized, in the present.  When the future of the community is threatened, for some reason, and regeneration ceases, the chain breaks and the tradition atrophies eventually, the experience of the past disappears along with the last “links” unless it is translated into a more endurable document for posterity. -- The focus of this study is the small Jewish community in St. John's, Newfoundland.  It is a community without regeneration now, as older members die and the younger ones move away.  The consensus among members is that five or ten years from now, will be no Jewish community in Newfoundland. -- In an effort to “grasp" this community and its “story,” I collected life histories from members of the first and second generations.  This “multiple life history” approach not only revealed historical information, but also the attitudes and values of those who derive their identities from this community.  As each individual shaped his own past and present in his own words, each contributed to a collective re-creation of the shared past, and an affirmation of community identity. -- Two significant questions are asked in this study:  what is meant by “community” and, is a community’s life story simply a chronicle of its past?  A rhetorical approach is used to explore these questions by discerning the thematic and symbolic patterns representing these attitudes and values and, ultimately, by discovering the motives behind the storytelling. -- When the testimonies were juxtaposed and analyzed collectively, the rhetorical patterns served to define “community” by revealing its ethos.  The rhetoric also exposed the motives behind the telling:  the charting of the community in time and space, and an autobiographical impulse which motivated the community to create a monument to itself on the purported imminence of its “death.” -- This study further demonstrates how folklore - in this case, the expression of traditional knowledge - functions to educate by persuading an audience to assume a particular point of view.  It also serves a cathartic function by articulating conflict through performance which accomplishes the following:  it identifies and enacts conflict; it suggests a resolution to the conflict within the performance context even if, realistically, such a resolution is impossible to achieve; and finally, by “arguing” for tradition and against change, it reaffirms the tradition of community.


identifier: Pocius, Gerald L. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Pocius=3AGerald_L=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1975) The place of burial : spatial focus of contact of the living with the dead in eastern areas of the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The appearance of death in many cultures is met by a series of rituals which removes the dead gradually from a community, lessening the social and psychological disruptiveness of death.  After burial, the dead are still considered a part of the community by the living, and at the place of burial the living can express their desire to maintain contact with them through artifactual and customary displays. -- Through the use of material in the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive, questionnaires and extensive field work in two selected regions of the Avalon Peninsula of eastern Newfoundland, the customary and artifactual contact of the living with the dead is recorded and studied here both synchronically and diachronically. -- During the period of early Newfoundland settlement, the living were able to choose the form of contact with the dead at the place of burial.  The location of the place of burial in the community and its physical features were all determined by local traditions. -- With the arrival of clergymen in the early 1800’s, most of the channels of contact became institutionalized, and strict guidelines were followed.  The location of new cemeteries and the orientation of the grave with respect to the cardinal points of the compass were dictated by the church.  Professionally-carved gravestones, which were rare before 1800 and were manufactured in England and Ireland, were now increasingly used, and their designs were determined by external specialists.  The custom of decorating the surface of the grave, however, was not institutionalized in Newfoundland, and remains today one of the only viable channels through which the living can express their desire to maintain contact with the dead, thus lessening the social and psychological disruption at death.


identifier: Moreira, James <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Moreira=3AJames=3A=3A.html>   (1984) The songs of the shantymen : composition and performance in a nineteenth century tradition.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The study is an attempt to analyse the nature and function of formulaic composition in the performance of shanties, which were worksongs used to accompany manual labour on board merchant sailing ships in the last century.  The primary objective is to examine the stylistic and conceptual alterations that occur in a singer's approach to performance during the "transitional” phase between the non-literate and literate stages of a society, for although formulaic composition, or "re-creative performance," can exist in both non-literate and literate contexts, researchers have shown that the methods of performance differ significantly between the two phases of culture. -- Although some textual material has been garnered from published shanty collections, the analysis centres mainly on the repertoires of Richard Maitland, whose songs were collected by William Doerflinger and also by Alan Lomax, and another of Doerflinger’s informants, Capt. Patrick Tayluer.  Since the study is confined to a very specific context, a great deal of data pertaining to the tradition has also been obtained from the autobiographies of former seamen. -- Following the theoretical precepts of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, as well as other writers, such as John Barnie, David Buchan, David Evans, and John D. Niles, whose works are extrapolations of the “oral theory,” the study examines how literate attitudes, particularly the concepts of memorization and "improvisation," affect the shaintyman’s approach to performance.  The study also examines how the singer must modify his method of performance to satisfy certain functional conditions or to cope with the structural and stylistic differences in the songs themselves.  Generally speaking, literacy may be said to have a broad, conceptual effect on the shantyman's method of performance while the functional and poetic aspects of literacy affect the performance of specific songs in specific situations.


identifier: Gray, Pamela J. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Gray=3APamela_J=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1977) Traditional Newfoundland foodways : origin, adaptation and changesongs of the shantymen.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis is a study of traditional Newfoundland foodways.  Using a combination functional and modified historic-geographic method, I have attempted to trace through time the historical diffusion of ethnic patterns from the British Isles to Newfoundland, and ultimately the adaptation of these patterns to the particular circumstances of the island. -- Chapter one, the introduction, is a discussion of the major historical factors that determine patterns in any food system, and in this case their relevance to Newfoundland.  These factors include: settlement history and ethnic demography, environment and climate, economic history, religion, sociological factors, and changes due to urbanization and innovations in technology.  There is also a discussion about local Newfoundland cookbooks. -- Chapter two, methodology, is concerned with the techniques used to gather the data for this thesis, from both primary and secondary sources: printed sources, observation, the manuscript collection of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive, a questionnaire, and interviews.  The third chapter is a review of foodways literature, particularly that which has proven useful for this thesis. -- The raw data that is the core of this thesis is contained in chapter four.  Beginning with a discussion of the traditional Newfoundland kitchen and a general description of food patterns, the chapter’s other materials include such subjects as preservation, social and ceremonial role of food, and food preferences. -- The concluding chapter contains some general observations about the research that has been presented.  There is some discussion of the changing roles of both women and men in light of food traditions, and also of older versus newer traditions.  There is information about the few nutritional surveys that have been conducted in Newfoundland and their relation to the work of folklorists.  Finally, there are suggestions for further research.


identifier: Verrall, Edith Ann <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Verrall=3AEdith_Ann=3A=3A.html>   (1975) The use of videotaping in folklore fieldwork : some problems in the transcription of a children's game.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The description and assessment of a folklore event depends upon a recording of that event which is as exact and full as possible and which is influenced as little as possible by the presence of the recorder.  Videotape recording, with its capability to record both sound and movement, affords the means to obtain an exact and full record of an event available for immediate recall.  The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not videotape recording could be used effectively to collect folklore material and whether that material could be presented in a form acceptable for publication and analysis.  The event chosen to be recorded was a game played by certain children in St. John's, Newfoundland which they called Chestnuts. -- The research methods employed were experimental because at the time the study was made, the use of videotape in research had just begun and no guidelines were available.  Three types of recording situation were devised using VTR equipment of varying degrees of complexity to determine the capability and potential of a variety of equipment, to establish the latitude of technical competence necessary to operate different types of equipment, to test the range of technically acceptable material which could be used as research data and to learn, if possible, to what degree the recording equipment influenced the event being recorded.  The first situation employed movable and moderately sophisticated VTR equipment in an indoor setting; the second recording employed portable equipment in a field situation and the third was a full television studio recording.  The first two situations were unstructured and the last partly structured. -- A major difficulty in reducing the material to acceptable printed form arose for which three methods of transcription were devised:  two forms of descriptive commentary (differing in the degree of detail), a game summary and a supplementary photo record.  These are presented as part of the study. -- To demonstrate the fullness of the material collected by videotape, the game played by the children who were videotaped is described in detail.  For comparison, descriptions of the game from printed sources are presented in historic context. -- It was found that the videotape recorder is a versatile device with much potential for use in folklore research.  Even the least sophisticated equipment can meet a diverse range of recording needs.  It is important, however, that the researcher have technical competence, but the non-professional can learn to operate most of the equipment effectively provided he has technical aptitude and some training.  Tapes produced, though they vary according to the quality of equipment and videotape used, are technically acceptable for use as research date.  The extent to which the presence of the recording equipment influences an event is difficult to assess, but with children, the fact that they are familiar with television, seems to reduce undue influence and the equipment becomes part of the play situation.  Also, the less structured the recording situation, the less influence exerted by the equipment on the event.


identifier: McKinnon, Ian Francis <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/McKinnon=3AIan_Francis=3A=3A.html>   (1989) Fiddling to fortune : the role of commercial recordings made by Cape Breton fiddlers in the fiddle music tradition of Cape Breton Island.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis examines the role of commercial recordings made by Cape Breton fiddlers in the fiddle music tradition of Cape Breton Island.  The study begins with an overview of the Cape Breton fiddle tradition including an examination of the origin and development of the tradition in the context of the historical settlement of the Island.  Some treatment is also given to the place of the fiddle in the general music and dance traditions of Cape Breton as well as to the significant role that the Roman Catholic church has played in the popular development of the fiddle in Cape Breton. -- Examination of the complex role that commercial recordings have played in the tradition begins with a discussion of the recording industry and the many record companies that have been involved in the production of Cape Breton fiddle recordings.  What follows this is an inquiry into the factors which have motivated the fiddlers to record commercially including:  promotional vs. financial motivations; how these factors have changed with the introduction of independent record production; the problems which fiddlers have encountered in their dealings with record companies; and the growing “professional” attitude that fiddlers are developing towards their record production and their music in general. -- The study next shifts focus from the producer to the consumer with an examination of the various distinct groups of people who buy Cape Breton fiddle recordings.  This leads to a discussion of the ways which the recordings have been used.  Emphasis is placed here on the use of the recordings by the fiddlers themselves as tools in the learning of music; particularly style and repertoire.  This inquiry shows that commercial recordings, along with home-made tapes, have become an important extension of the tradition aural learning process not only in the Cape Breton fiddle tradition but in most other folk music traditions well. -- At the core of the thesis is a discography and tune listing which were compiled with the use of a microcomputer database management program.  These documents comprise the appendices to the thesis and are preceded by a discussion of discographic theory as well as the methodology that was developed for this study.


identifier: Mason, Bruce Lionel <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Mason=3ABruce_Lionel=3A=3A.html>   (1991) Belief, explanation and rhetoric in the crop circle phenomenon of Southern England.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis presents an analysis of various beliefs engendered by the crop circle phenomenon of southern England. It concentrates on the various explanations that have been offered for the origin of the circles. -- Crop circles are areas of cereal crop that have been flattened into a symmetrical, geometric, usually circular shape that do not appear to be explicable in terms of current scientific knowledge. The combination of the anomalous nature of the shapes, their objective reality, and the often  stunning beauty of the formations has led to an intensive debate, carried on at all levels of interest, into what causes these shapes, and why. -- The nature of the phenomenon has foregrounded issues in folk belief, that are often obscured in related fields (eg. UFOs, ghost beliefs, fairy lore), pertaining to the methods by which individuals construct systems of belief and explanations from the evidence presented to them. This thesis proposes to utilise this unique opportunity to demonstrate the folkloric nature of explanation. As such it draws on the concepts of traditions of belief and disbelief, paradigmatic revolutions  in systems of thought, and the concept of rationally constructed systems of folk belief to demonstrate the methods by which the various explanations for crop circles have been generated, maintained and disseminated.


identifier: Cartwright, Christine A. (Christine Ann) <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Cartwright=3AChristine_A=2E_=28Christine_Ann=29=3A=3A.html>   (1983) Charismatic culture in St. John's, Newfoundland : a crossdenominational study of religious folklife in three groups.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This is an ethnoscienitific study of three charismatic Christian prayer groups in St. John's, Newfoundland (Roman Catholic, Neopentecostal, and interdenominational), focusing upon the culture which provides the basis for their frequent interactions and sense of unity.  It places the groups in diachronic and synchronic context, discussing their development and relations to continental patterns of religious and cultural change, as well as to local religious traditions.  Its ultimate purpose is to provide detailed ethnographic data toward the definition of charismatics as a religio-cultural group, usefully analysed across denominational and demographic classifications. -- The study focuses especially upon relations between belief, language, and experience in everyday life.  Chapters focus upon the experiential nature of charismatic ritual; of conversion, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and divine inspiration; the administration and reception of the nine charismata or spiritual gifts; religious thought in everyday life; and the symbolic system and its functions.  Community discussions, analytic theorizing, and experimentation are shown to play crucial roles in the formation and revision of religious beliefs and customs and in the interpretation of mystical experiences.  Dialectical thought, using experiences to interpret biblical metaphor and metaphor to interpret experiences, is also typical of local charismatics.  Formal logic, biblical metaphor, sensory data, and community consensus are shown to form a coherent system through which customs and beliefs develop and change. -- Previous categorizations of Pentecostal and charismatic groups as forms of cathartic or compensatory religion, allied with Haitian Voudon, espiritismo, and shamanistic systems, are challenged on the basis of the St. John’s data.  It is argued that these categorizations have largely ignored the structure and phenomenology of native thought, and that glossolalia, spirit possession, trance, and ecstasy are etic concepts, not necessarily indicative of cultural or phenomenologicial similarity.  The absence of trance, of pathology, and of obvious demographic commonalities between local charismatics argue for the analysis of their religious culture as culture, and not as cult.


identifier: Bold, Valentina <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Bold=3AValentina=3A=3A.html>   (1990) James Hogg and the traditional culture of the Scottish borders.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis argues that James Hogg is the central and most significant figure in eighteenth century Borders' folklore. The indigenous culture of Ettrick Forest provided a deep source of subject-matter and form for Hogg. The Brownie of Bodsbeck, for example, is a subjective response to local religious history and supernatural beliefs and "Sir David Graeme" in The Mountain Bard draws on ballad style and content. Hogg's expertise as a shepherd enabled him to document folk life in The Shepherd's Guide and he was actively involved in promoting Borders' customs including the St. Ronan's Games (recently discussed by David Groves). It is demonstrated that Hogg's attitude towards traditional culture was ambiguous, partly because of his desire for personal and economic success. -- Hogg's reliability as a folklore informant has been questioned in the past, and is reassessed here, with particular attention being paid to his  involvement in Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Hogg's folksong collection, The Jacobite Relics of Scotland,  is considered and several of Hogg's songs, which are still in oral circulation, are examined, including "Birniebouzle" and "The Skylark". It is argued that Hogg suffered from cultural stereotyping as "The Ettrick Shepherd" and oral and  literary evidence is cited in this context. Following the methodology used by Mary Ellen Brown in her study of Burns and Tradition, by discussing Hogg's use of tradition and tradition's use of Hogg, the present writer seeks to establish Hogg's vital role in both preserving and presenting in a high-cultural context the traditional culture of the Scottish Borders. -- Key words: James Hogg; folklore; Scotland.


identifier: Ferguson, Mark <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Ferguson=3AMark=3A=3A.html>   (1996) Making fish : salt-cod processing on the east coast of Newfoundland, a study in historic occupational folklife.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: I investigate the occupational folklife of making salt fish on the east coast of Newfoundland in the light-salted fishery from 1920 to 1950. This processing was central to most Newfoundlanders' lives and has been neglected by scholars. Fundamental to my approach are insider (emic) perceptions and perspectives of fishing people. -- Occupational folklife posits that work and talk about work are key to people's understandings of themselves and their worlds. Several themes emerged from people's talk about fish  processing. I undertake a micro-analysis of the making of one variety of salt fish (pickled) to demonstrate that producing this valuable commodity was complex, labour-intensive work requiring skilled techniques and traditional knowledge. Women played a vital role in the work: their role  and the significance of the work to their identities are explored. Women and men derived various rewards from these often communal labours: social status, community bonds, and the satisfactions gained from skilled productivity. -- The hectic work of the summer fishery was but one element of a multi-faceted seasonal round. I examine fish-processing's dominant role in that round, highlighting important memories  and understandings of its positive and negative attributes. -- The salt fisheries had many branches and products. The key distinctions that differentiated these are investigated,  establishing the centrality of the inshore light-salted branches to the economy and culture of the Dominion of Newfoundland. Given their importance, the material rewards accruing to fisheries workers were meagre and, at times, living standards fell below subsistence. The overall quality  of life suffered badly, especially in times of economic depression. These harsh realities resulted in part from the effects of the system and practices of mercantile capitalism. The intricacies of the cull and truck were two strategies by which fishing people's gains were minimized and merchants' maximized. This system played a major role in  the decline of the industry through the first half of this century. -- Through these analyses, I come to terms with two  contradictory views of the salt fishery as described to me —  one dystopian and negative, the other utopian and seemingly nostalgic. I challenge the validity of the conventional dystopian depictions of the industry, the communities, and the people who did the work.


identifier: Tye, Diane <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Tye=3ADiane=3A=3A.html>   (1988) Local characters and the community : a case study of tradition and individual nonconformity in the Maritimes.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This study is an examination of the local character phenomenon within one Maritime community. Based on the town's cast of past and present characters, the study discusses what the label means and how it is applied. It explores the relationship between character and community from a number of aspects including the designation's value for the character; the nature and functions of local character anecdotes; characters' contributions to community folklore and dynamics; and official culture uses of character performances.


identifier: Cousins, John Robert <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Cousins=3AJohn_Robert=3A=3A.html>   (1990) Horses in the folklife of western Prince Edward Island : custom, belief and oral tradition.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This study has as its primary goal the analysis of oral/verbal forms of folklore connected with horses in a small North American region, that being the western end of Prince Edward Island, Canada.  The area is unique in that horses remained at the centre of its economic life and folklife until the early nineteen fifties. -- The work begins with a preliminary survey of Island agricultural history.  This analysis indicates that environmental factors, lack of stony walking surfaces, for instance, combined with compelling economic considerations created, for horses, an ideal environment.  In turn, the value of the horse to this farming society created an attachment which outlasted their economic value.  The work identifies and analyzes the unique alliance of official (political, educational and media) and unofficial aspects of culture which, over time, supported and promoted the Islanders’ steadfast devotion to horses.  An examination of the Islanders' resistance to the automobile demonstrates the power of this bond. -- The work's discussion of daily farm life illustrates set patterns of behaviour related to horses and horsemen.  These patterns include childhood initiation into work with horses, the naming of horses, and daily and yearly routine involving horses.  The function of horses in specific aspects of social life such as courtship and entertainment is also examined.  Research shows that the pervasiveness of the horse in everyday life, combined with the cultural propensities of founding ethnic groups, especially the Scots, created distinctive marks on the area's folklife. -- Analysis of those marks found in narrative and belief about horses indicates story-telling techniques utilizing specialized simile, metaphor, stock expression, and beginning and ending formulas.  The beliefs carried by both narrative and song display strong historic connections with those found in the British Isles.  Further examination illustrates both the power and function of horse-related belief in Island agrarian society.  The analysis of narrative and belief brings under closer focus the hidden texture of Island rural culture, its priorities, and even its language. -- Finally, research illustrates that, even today, the largely rural born and raised Islanders manifest the strong beliefs, attitudes and even the vocabulary of an earlier horse-drawn era.  An analysis of this phenomenon suggests that the so-called cultural lag represented by the continuance of horse-related lore may be a valuable therapeutic tool in a rural agrarian society undergoing dramatic change.


identifier: Saugeres, Lise <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Saugeres=3ALise=3A=3A.html>   (1991) Figgy Duff and Newfoundland culture.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

title: Figgy Duff and Newfoundland culture

abstract: This work is a study of the artistic use of traditional culture in creating a sense of regional identity. Specifically it will examine the Newfoundland folk revival band, Figgy Duff, as a group of urban musicians, who in the arrangements and performance of Newfoundland traditional songs and tunes, were attempting to express a sense of Newfoundland identity. The members of Figgy Duff decided to translate this traditional music into a different idiom by adapting it to their urban aesthetics. This translation from  rural to urban culture will be discussed as a somewhat paradoxical process. It will also be shown that it is in this process of translation that the urban artists create a sense of place rooted in an idealized folk culture.


identifier: Kearney Guigné, Anna <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Kearney_Guign=E9=3AAnna=3A=3A.html>   (1993) The "Dying child's wish complex" : a case study of the relationship between reality and tradition.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis is a case study of the relationship of the Dying Child's Wish complex, its related beliefs and associated practices, and "reality."  The nucleus of this complex of narratives and beliefs concerns a little boy (variously named Mario, Craig, Jarrod, Blaine), who is dying from a terminal illness.  His wish is to have his name recorded in The Guinness Book of Records for having collected the greatest number of get-well cards (or alternately postcards, Christmas cards, stamps, hats or other such items). -- Since 1987 four real appeals for world records have been launched using the same means generally associated with contemporary legend--that is by word of mouth as well as by office technology and the media.  As the parents soon found out however, once an appeal is launched, it became impossible to halt renegade appeals and the public's response was subsequently overwhelming and irrepressible.  One effect of these renegade appeals was the generation of a quagmire of distorted and missing information, the consequences of which have led to speculation, and the invention and generation of numerous scenarios based both on both fact and fiction. -- Using the Craig Shergold appeal as a focus, this study explores how textual variation and change in the presentation of information influences individual perceptions regarding both the real and legendary nature of Dying Child appeals.  When a total of 204 texts were individually compared against an Enhanced Baseline Profile of the Shergold Appeal, results showed that all texts but one varied from the reality of the appeal in some major or minor way in terms of both missing information and incorrect information.  A consequence was the generation of numerous scenarios ranging from positive support for the appeal to views of debate and rejection.  Examination of the rhetorical statements and textual changes in texts also showed that perceptions varied considerably from positive support for the Craig Shergold campaign to cynical views that the appeal was less than real.  This in turn led to the creation of a body of lore surrounding real appeals and the resulting generation of the Dying Child's Wish complex.


identifier: Hohmann, Delf Maria <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Hohmann=3ADelf_Maria=3A=3A.html>   (1993) Play and games in Southern Harbour : a performance oriented study of children's activities in a Newfoundland outport community.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This is a study of the performance of games and play among the children of a Newfoundland outport.  Based on fieldwork with children aged between seven and thirteen years, the thesis explores children's games through a performance-centred approach to folklore.  Other previous performance oriented studies have been taken into account in the analysis, and a performance-centred approach for the study of children's play and game activities is suggested. -- A detailed discussion of the fleldwork experiences and methods used while dealing with the raw materials in the context of the community of Southern Harbour is given in Chapter Two.  Chapter Three describes the play and game activities that were collected during fieldwork; it also suggests a classification system derived from the features of the play and game activities of the children.  Chapter Four presents a performance model and deals with the relationship of performer and audience in the context of children's play activities. -- Since children are less accessible to adults for a performance centred approach, this thesis tends to fill a niche in present possibilities for future research on the performance elements of children's play and game activities in folklore.


identifier: Macpherson, Natalie Dawn <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Macpherson=3ANatalie_Dawn=3A=3A.html>   (1987) Talk, narrative, and social interaction in a Cape Breton general store.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: A portrait of a rural community and the attitudes and values held by the people of this community is documented through this study of talk, narrative and social interaction.  The focus of this thesis is MacPherson's general store, located in Margaree Valley, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  The contents include the history of the store and its merchants, the physical environment, and the socializing patterns which occur within it.  The purpose of this study is to document the tradition of storytelling in Margaree Valley, to describe the context in which the storytelling takes place and to highlight the patterns of social behaviour associated with the art of communication. -- As a native of the community and a member of the MacPherson family, the author provides an insider's perspective on talk, narrative and socializing patterns in Margaree Valley.  Fieldwork was conducted from January to April, 1982.  During this time period, the author was involved in participant-observation fieldwork in the general store.  Additional field notes were collected in 1978 and from May 1982 until June 1985.  A total of seventeen formal interviews were also conducted. -- The documented research indicates that the tradition of storytelling in Margaree Valley is changing but not dying.  Narrative performances, once more common, have given way to more subtle narratives which are now imbedded in the routine daily conversations.  MacPherson's general store is the focal point in the community from which one can observe patterns of socialization.  It is an integral component of everyday socialization for members of Margaree Valley.  As this environment has changed, so have the patterns of sociability.  Observations indicate that storytelling is both versatile and flexible.  It continues to adapt and adjust to changes in the environment in order to survive.  The significance of the store's role to the community, and its relation to the author, have enabled her to present an intimate ethnographic study of socializing patterns in this Cape Breton community.  The contents are pertinent to anyone interested in the history of general stores, the function of general stores in a rural environment or the socializing patterns that have evolved within this setting.


identifier: McCarl, Robert Smith <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/McCarl=3ARobert_Smith=3A=3A.html>   (1980) Occupational folklife : an examination of the expressive aspects of work culture with particular reference to fire fighters.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The primary thesis of this work is that occupational culture is shaped by the work processes involved in producing a product or providing a service.  All of the expressive forms of interaction in the work place are linked to and shaped by the ever changing work process and its effect upon work behavior.  Using extensive examples from a number of occupational groups, particularly fire fighters' work culture, the forms and varieties of the expressive aspects of worker interaction are examined.  These forms range from substantive to ceremonial work techniques; physical, social and ideological customary activities; as well as various forms of verbal expression from the basic naming of tools to group verbal critiques and narrative sessions and finally to the elaborated personal experience account.  By arranging these expressive forms on a continuum from the most mundane term to the more recurrent central narrative sessions and finally to the more unusual individual narrative performances, it is possible to determine those expressive modes of interaction which form the critical center of a worker's occupational folklife upon which the bulk of worker interaction (verbal and non-verbal) is judged.  An initial section places this model in a disciplinary and historical perspective and a concluding section details the preliminary results of an applied study of urban fire fighting culture based on the theories suggested in the dissertation.


identifier: Scott, John Roper <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Scott=3AJohn_Roper=3A=3A.html>   (1985) Personal experience narratives among professional sailors : generic keys to the study of an occupation.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the ways in which personal experience narratives function within a specific occupational group, the individuals who work on modern, ocean-racing sailboats.  The examination employs the methods and materials of folklore to arrive at conclusions about those functions.  The basic thesis is that members of a folk group use their narrative traditions in communication among themselves and in performance situations, and that an understanding of these uses contributes to the interpretation of the evidence given in the narratives about the occupation. -- The methods of research have included the study of modern folkloric analysis of personal experience narratives, personal involvement in the group and the collection and examination of tape recordings, written notes and recollections about the occupation.  These include recordings of narrative events in context as well as directed interviews. -- The study begins with descriptions of the group and its normal activities and of the author's participation within that group.  It then describes the genre and the forms in which it manifests itself among the group members.  Next, it describes the ways in which the members of the group use the narrative tradition when communicating among themselves, and finally, it demonstrates the ways in which the performance of the narratives is used to portray images of individuals to other individuals and images of the group to other groups. -- The work concludes that there are many means by which an ethnographer can evaluate the evidence given by specific individuals about an occupation through scrutinizing their narrative traditions.  Form, content and total repertoire are keys to the storyteller's place within the occupation, as is his treatment by other performers and performance teams of the occupation.


identifier: Lovelace, Martin J. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Lovelace=3AMartin_J=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1983) The presentation of folklife in the biographies and autobiographies of English rural workers.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This is a study of the information on folklife found in writings about English country life.  It is also an attempt to describe the conventions of personal experience narration, spoken and written, among rural English working men.  Its sources are biographies and autobiographies of rural workers, country journals and character sketches, journalists’ reports on social and economic conditions, antiquarian studies and village histories.  The period surveyed is from approximately 1700 to the 1960's.  Its contention is that in such sources lies a relatively unknown literature of folklore and folklife which can augment the record of folk tradition.  In particular, it is suggested that such writings fill in some of the contextual background lacking in the text-oriented folklore studies of the nineteenth century. -- It is argued that several writers who created biographies of working people made valuable contributions to the tradition of ethnographic writing.  George Sturt is taken as an exemplar and his works are considered in detail.  Other writers discussed include Stephen Reynolds, W.H. Hudson, Alfred Williams, and Flora Thompson.  Like Sturt they achieved a breadth and depth of contextual description through close attention to everyday conversation and personal experience narration among their rural neighbours.  As amateur recorders of folk tradition their sense of what should be recorded was not limited by the narrower paradigms of the folklore science of their day; furthermore they gave detailed and humane descriptions of their informants as individuals. -- From these biographical studies and the passages of oral autobiography often incorporated in them together with autobiographies of rural workers, an attempt has been made to delineate an oral canon for personal experience narration.  This takes the form of five story topics, all dealing intrinsically with a man’s competence in his life's work, which emerge with striking regularity in oral and written recollections from this society.  In addition to revealing such preoccupations the oral canon is a means for testing the authenticity and representativeness of works purporting to be insiders’ views of rural working life.


identifier: Moreira, James <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Moreira=3AJames=3A=3A.html>   (1995) Ballad worlds : structure, meaning, and the fictional landscapes in classical and broadside ballads in oral tradition.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Taking as its source the notion of "the ballad world” as a recognizable generic construct, the study undertakes a comparative analysis of classical and broadside balladries by exploring the spatial structure of their respective fictional landscapes.  It begins with a survey of the academic concept of genre, showing a transition from previous static applications to current usage that considers the dynamic interplay between expressive forms and their cultural environments.  A generic distinction between classical and broadside ballads is validated on the grounds that their styles, whose differences are widely acknowledged, reveal orientations in different cultural milieux, one oral, the other literate. -- The study employs a radial model of spatial relationships, which enables the analysis of various strands of cultural and fictive space as both independent entities and interrelated wholes.  Through regionally situated studies from Norway, Britain, and the eastern seaboard of Canada, the study suggests that the predominant metaphors of classical balladry are drawn from a cultural discourse about the relationship of humans to their natural environment, and reflect particularly a paradoxical nature that is both benevolent and destructive, while the spatial relations of broadsides reveal a far greater concern for the impact of social and bureaucratic structures on everyday life.


identifier: Myrick, Jean M. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Myrick=3AJean_M=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1999) Belief and custom surrounding the Ouija board.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis presents an analysis of the Ouija board from a point of view that has not been published by any other folklorist, to date.  That is, it looks at the actual beliefs that people have about the Ouija board phenomenon and the rationale by which they maintain this belief.  Most scholars in the past have studied the Ouija board in terms of its "use" and in doing so, have focused on trying to convince believers that what they believe is false.  It is not the intention of this thesis to show who is right or wrong, but simply to report the beliefs, the rationale behind the beliefs, and the consequential customs that surround the Ouija board phenomenon. -- The nature of the Ouija board phenomenon is directly tied to the way in which people believe.  What a person believes or does not believe is largely dependent upon previously established belief systems.  A person who has no logical basis to believe in life after death, may not believe that spirit communication is possible.  On the other hand, those who believe that survival is possible after death do have a logical standpoint by which they can connect a new belief-such as the powers of the Ouija board. -- Anyone studying supernatural beliefs is well aware, however, that the opinions of our informants are not so black and white.  If anything, when it comes to the Ouija board a lot of people simply cannot conclude, definitively, what they believe.  At the time of an experience with a board they may have had absolute belief but in retrospect, begin to doubt and question that belief.  As a folkloristic study, therefore, this thesis utilizes the concepts of traditions of belief and traditions of disbelief in order to show how adherents of both traditions logically explain their opinions.


identifier: Widdowson, J. D. A. (John David Allison) <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Widdowson=3AJ=2E_D=2E_A=2E_=28John_David_Allison=29=3A=3A.html>   (1972) Aspects of traditional verbal control : threats and threatening figures in Newfoundland folklore.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Adults in many different cultures employ certain traditional verbal devices to control the behaviour of children.  These verbal controls, which frequently take the form of threats implying punishment or retribution, have existed at least since the days of ancient Greece and are still widely.  From the many entities which are regarded as frightening, each culture selects certain figures as focal points in the threats.  These figures and the linguistic structures which incorporate them exist in bewildering variety in each culture.  Both the threats and the figures, however, exhibit certain typical structural and semantic features which reflect the social context in which they are used.  The threats may be classified into a small number of fundamental structural categories which are expressed in a myriad different ways, including the potentially infinite variation of the central threatening figure.  The figures themselves include not only supernatural or invented entities but also living people, animals and inanimate objects. -- A survey of  traditional verbal controls in Newfoundland in the five-year period 1963-1968 reveals something of the wealth of such usages in the Province and reflects similar findings in other parts of the English-speaking world and beyond.  The wealth of data contributed in both manuscript and tape-recorded form to the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive not only illustrates the considerable range and linguistic variety of such structures but also shows that they have an important functional role.  Their primary function is to control unacceptable behaviour, but they are also used for such specific purposes as the protection of the child from the hazards of his environment.  Further, they serve as a release mechanism through which adults give vent to their anger and frustration, and they act as a substitute for physical punishment. -- While supernatural and invented threatening figures continue to be used in Newfoundland, as in other parts of the western world, belief in them is declining.  Alongside them, a number of living people, especially those who have authority or who are abnormal in some other way, appear very frequently in threats and their use is apparently increasing.  Society endows them with the aura of supernatural beings and makes them appear more fearsome in their threatening role.  The considerable variety of figures used makes it difficult to evolve a comprehensive typology, but in itself indicates something of the richness of these traditional usages in Newfoundland and elsewhere.  This study therefore makes available a substantial body of data which demonstrates the linguistic, semantic and functional complexity of the verbal controls and provides a basis for alternative interpretations of the material.