identifier: Zaman, Marzia Rabbi <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Zaman=3AMarzia_Rabbi=3A=3A.html>   (1996) Artificial neural network based protection of power transformers.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: In this work, an artificial neural network based algorithm for a three phase power transformer protection scheme is developed and implemented in real time using the DS-1102 digital signal processor.  Distinguishing between the magnetizing inrush and internal fault currents is always a consideration for power transformer protection.  Existing methods, mostly based on harmonic restraint, are not very reliable for modern transformer protection.  The reason for loss of reliability is that the use of low-loss amorphous material in modern transformer cores causes reduced second harmonic content of the magnetizing inrush current.  Other methods based on the transformer equivalent circuit model are susceptible to parameter variations and hence are not suitable under all operating conditions.  The work presented here shows the usefulness of the artificial neural network which is able to distinguish between the magnetizing inrush and the internal fault currents without harmonic decomposition or using the transformer equivalent circuit model.  The inherent advantages of the generalization and the pattern recognition characteristics make the artificial neural network based method quite suitable for distinguishing between magnetizing inrush and the internal fault currents.  In this work, a two-layer artificial neural network with sixteen inputs and one output is designed.  The data to train and test the artificial neural network are experimentally obtained.  The artificial neural network is trained with an input data set and subsequently tested with a different data set.  The off-line test results show that the artificial neural network is quite capable of distinguishing between the magnetizing inrush and internal fault currents.  Finally, the on-line implementation successfully establishes the efficacy of the ANN based algorithm for power transformer protection.


identifier: Hussein, Amgad Ahmed <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Hussein=3AAmgad_Ahmed=3A=3A.html>   (1998) Behaviour of high-strength concrete under biaxial loading conditions.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

format: application/pdf application/pdf

abstract: With the increasing applications of high strength concrete in the construction industry, the understanding of its behaviour under multiaxial loading is essential for reliable analysis and safe design.  This thesis encompasses an investigation of the behaviour of high strength concrete under biaxial loading conditions, and a constitutive modelling study to enable numerical prediction, through the finite element method, of such a behaviour. -- The experimental phase included the evaluation and design of the loading platens.  The test set-up and supports are very crucial to this type of testing due to the friction that exists between the testing platens and the specimen.  A theoretical study using the finite element approach was conducted to investigate the effect of confinement on the displacement field in addition to the stress distribution in the loading direction.  Three types of loading platens were examined: the dry solid platens, the brush support and teflon friction reducing pads.  The results of the simulation indicated that the most homogeneous stress and displacement field are achieved through the brush platens.  Based on the finite element investigation, the size and dimensions of the brush platens were recommended.  They were used in the experimental study. -- A test set-up was designed and manufactured.  Modern control schemes and highspeed data acquisition system were be used to monitor the material response and collect the experimental results.  Four different types of high strength concrete plate specimens were tested under different biaxial load combinations.  The principal deformations in the specimen were recorded and the crack patterns and failure modes were examined.  Based on the strength data, failure envelopes were developed for each type of concrete.  The test results revealed that the failure envelopes of concrete depends on the concrete strength and on the type of aggregates.  A pronounced difference was found between the high strength light weight and the high strength normal weight concrete.  The deformation characteristics indicated that high strength concrete shows a linear behaviour up to a higher stress than normal strength concrete.  It also has a higher discontinuity limits.  The observed failure modes showed that there is no fundamental difference in the crack patterns and failure modes due to the increase in the compressive strength of the concrete or due to the use of light weight aggregates under different biaxial loading combinations. -- The test results were used to modify and calibrate a fracture energy-based non-associated model for high-strength concrete.  The model was implemented in a general purpose finite element program and was verified against the test results.  Using the proposed constitutive model, a finite element study was carried out to analyze the standard compression test on a concrete cylinder.  The effects of the compressive strength, cylinder size, loading platens and sulphur capping were investigated.  The study confirmed that a triaxial compressive stress state exists at the cylinder end, and a large stress concentration occurs at the corner.  The simulation results revealed that the use of a standard bearing block is essential in testing high strength concrete.  Moreover, in some cases, the use of a non standard bearing block can result in a lower strength, which was observed experimentally.  The simulation provided an explanation for such a behaviour.  Finally, the finite element analysis demonstrated that the use of soft materials, as friction reducers, could create drastic changes in the state of stress in the specimen as well as its compressive strength.  The use of soft materials should, therefore, be carried out with caution.


identifier: Thoms, Joseph I. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Thoms=3AJoseph_I=2E=3A=3A.html>   (2000) Bacterial inactivation and dispersion in cold ocean waters.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: For discharge of sewage into the ocean, two parameters need to be estimated, namely the T₉₀ time and the diffusion coefficient (K). The T₉₀ time is a measure of the rate of decay of the bacterial contained in the sewage, representing  a 90% reduction from the initial value. The diffusion coefficient (K) is a measure of how fast a plume of sewage will grow or disperse once released into the ocean. -- Both the T₉₀ value and the diffusion coefficient (K) depend upon local conditions, such as latitude and sea conditions. Published values are based upon tests that generally have been carried out in lower latitudes and/or in temperate waters, and may not accurately predict sewage dispersion and  bacterial decay in local waters. It was therefore important to determine acceptable values that can be used for sewage outfalls in Newfoundland. -- It was the goal of this study to determine acceptable ranges for both bacterial decay and dispersion that accurately depict conditions encountered in Newfoundland, and to determine generally if water temperature appears to have a important effect on the T₉₀ value. -- For the T₉₀ study, a clear lexan container was filled with sewage and allowed to float around in the ocean,  thus simulating natural conditions as much as possible. Samples of the sewage were taken every half hour and analyzed for total coliform count. The results gave an average T₉₀ time of 4 hours in the summer (July to September) and 6.5 hours in winter (September to March). These values agree with current literature. -- For the dispersion study, several floats were released into the ocean and tracked over a period of time. Using analysis methods proposed by other authors, the rate of plume growth was determined. The values that were obtained estimated the rate of dispersion to be greater than anticipated. Weather and conditions of the test may have contributed to this. In addition, no significant difference was found between dispersion rates for both inshore and open ocean tests.


identifier: Liyanapathirana, Ranjith <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Liyanapathirana=3ARanjith=3A=3A.html>   (1995) A study of CPFSK trellis modulation codes on Gaussian and non-Gaussian channels.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The objectives of this study are to find improvements to CPFSK trellis modulation codes on AWGN channels, and to investigate the effectiveness of using suboptimum coherent phase detection of CPFSK signals on non-Gaussian channels. A  simplified, time-invariant, finite-state trellis is introduced for M-CPFSK signals. Based on this, a matrix representation is formulated for M-CPFSK with h ≤ 1/M. A class of fixed-h binary nonlinear CPFSK trellis modulation codes is constructed and analysed. Numerical results indicate that, for a given complexity, binary nonlinear CPFSK schemes can be designed so that they achieve the maximum memory length allowed by the number of trellis phase  states. When h = 1/M, the optimum binary nonlinear CPFSK schemes exhibit coding gains of upto 2.2 dB compared with MSK signalling. The suboptimum coherent phase detection technique for CPFSK is a detection technique that has been directly adapted from PSK. Implementation of this detector is much simpler than that of the correlation receiver. Based  on a code search subject to a set of heuristic design rules,  self-transparent 4-CPFSK and 8-CPFSK trellis modulation codes with h ≤ 1/M are found for the carrier phase offset channel. It is found that the best self-transparent codes for M-CPFSK with h ≤ 1/M are identical with the optimum codes for the classical Gaussian channel found in the literature. Using the conventional method of computing an equivalent minimum distance, the performance of suboptimum coherent detection of CPFSK is evaluated on carrier phase offset channels. It is found that 8-CPFSK trellis modulation  codes are more susceptible to carrier phase offsets than 4-CPFSK trellis modulation codes. Channel cutoff rate bounds are calculated for coherent PSK and suboptimum coherent CPFSK on (i) the AWGN channel and (ii) the mobile satellite channel modelled as a Rice fading channel with a steady line-of-sight component. It is shown that suboptimum coherent detection of 4-CPFSK is inferior to 4-PSK, but suboptimum coherent detection of 8-CPFSK with h ≥ 1/4 and 16-CPFSK with h ≥ 1/8 offer better coding potential than coherently detected 8-PSK and 16-PSK, respectively. This makes suboptimum coherent detection of 8-CPFSK and 16-CPFSK more attractive alternatives to PSK signalling on mobile satellite channels.


identifier: Howse, Everett Dwight <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Howse=3AEverett_Dwight=3A=3A.html>   (1981) A digital acoustic underwater communication system.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: There is a need for an underwater communication system capable of reliable data transmission at rates in excess of 10³bps. Such a system would have applications in controlling unmanned tetherless submarines or in transmission of slow-scan television pictures through the ocean.  The main hinderance to the development of reliable data transmission through water, using acoustic propagation is the multipath interference caused by reflection and refraction in the ocean channel. The effects of multipath may be suppressed using a swept carrier modulation technique. -- A prototype swept carrier system using a ramp type of sweep has been designed and built. This system is designed to provide a bandpass channel of reduced multipath which may be used for either analog or digital transmission. The prototype is designed to transmit a 2 kHz message through the ocean by amplitude modulating a swept carrier. Laboratory test using a carrier which is swept from 20 kHz to 40 kHz with a 500 ms  repetition rate indicating that this type of system is capable of suppressing the multipath effects. Tests conducted at sea identified a need for modifications which are required before the prototype can be developed into a full-scale undercover acoustic communication system.


identifier: Marshall, Mervin Allan <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Marshall=3AMervin_Allan=3A=3A.html>   (1990) Structural integrity monitoring of a hydro-elastic model of a jacket platform.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: As a result of the increasing requirement for structural safety of offshore drilling platforms, the need for monitoring techniques capable of detecting damage of subsurface structural components increases.  Since it is not possible, because of limited time constraints, to carry out tests on an actual operating platform in the ocean, an alternative solution is to experiment on a reduced model of an offshore structure.  Very few experiments using a truly hydro-elastic model of a jacket platform have been published. -- This treatise deals with a detailed design and construction of a hydro-elastic model of a typical four-legged jacket offshore platform to carry out structural integrity monitoring.  Both an indepth theoretical and experimental analysis were carried out.  Experiments were conducted in a wave tank equipped with a pseudo random wave making facility.  To obtain the necessary modal parameters (e.g., resonant frequencies, and damping ratios) from the ambient response data, the recently developed Marple algorithm was used with the very powerful Maximum Entropy Method (MEM).  Regarding structural integrity monitoring, structural damage was simulated by saw cutting the member(s) under consideration.  In the theoretical analyses, this was done by making the member(s) inactive in the analyses.  The detection of damage was based on the changes in resonant frequencies compared with the intact structure. -- Resonant frequencies were determined for the intact and damaged structure and the results (i.e., experimental and theoretical) were compared to measure the influence of the damaged member(s) on the resonant frequencies of the structure.  By cutting an inclined member in a k-braced panel to simulate damage of the member, a 39% decrease in the resonant frequency of the 2nd flexural mode was measured on the spectral density function of the wave induced vibration from the hydro-elastic model.  The theoretical results showed a 29% decrease.  (Theoretical results from the prototype structure showed similar trends.) -- Based on the reported results and evaluations, it was concluded that the resonant frequency changes clearly indicated the structure had been damaged.  Besides, the theoretical analyses showed that the global modes most affected from the damage depended on the location of the damaged member(s).


identifier: Attwood, Daryl <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Attwood=3ADaryl=3A=3A.html>   (1986) Wave induced motion of small ice masses.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

title: Wave induced motion of small ice masses

abstract: Experiments have been performed to assess the ability of linear diffraction theory to predict the motion of ice masses under wave excitation.  Variables in the regular wave portion of the experiment included iceberg size and shape and wave steepness.  Regular wave tests demonstrated accurate motion prediction, with best results achieved for smooth sided bodies undergoing small amplitude motion.  Accuracy was lower for low frequency surge and heave resonance results, and generally for bodies with steeply sloping sides. -- Irregular tests were performed to demonstrate the ability to predict motion in an irregular seaway.  It was seen that by combining response amplitude operators (RAO's) with wave spectra, response spectra for individual bodies could be predicted.  The predicted spectra generated using experimentally determined RAO's very accurately mirrored the ones generated by transforming irregular-wave body response data to the frequency domain.  Predicted spectra generated using theoretically determined RAO's were studied as well.  It was found that the accuracy of such spectra was directly tied to the accuracy of the associated RAO's.


identifier: Wrinch, Michael C. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Wrinch=3AMichael_C=2E=3A=3A.html>   (2002) Acquisition of ice properties using mechanical actuation.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Research surrounding acoustic resonance properties of ice has increased and now a practical method for depth profiling has been developed.  Experiments were performed in real-time with high sensitivity, biaxial, wide bandwidth accelerometers (10 KHz bandwidth), which encompassed a high sampling rate of 200 Kb/sec/channel with a 12-bit resolution (36 dB).  The implementation of signal processing produced a seismic and resonant signature.  Initially repeated results revealed an accurate correlation between ice depth to its characteristic frequency.  The required velocity was determined using the time of arrival and the cross-correlation between transducers.  Theoretical analysis has indicated that the system will be capable of resolving values close to the theoretically calculated error of less than 6 %: this device therefore can be readily realized as a compact portable field instrument.


identifier: Liu, Pengfei <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Liu=3APengfei=3A=3A.html>   (1996) A time-domain panel method for oscillating propulsors with both chordwise and spanwise flexibility.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: A time domain panel method was formulated and a computer program package, OSFBEM, was developed to evaluate the propulsive performance of oscillating propulsors. -- This method was designed, and is able, to obtain hydrodynamic properties for an unsteady, 3-D flexible wing.  A number of features were implemented including the geometry of both 2-D and arbitrary 3-D planforms; a non-zero thickness foil section and a section with a thickness as thin as 2% of the chord; large amplitude pitch and heave motions; non-zero trailing edge thickness; flexible motion and geometry parameters such as steady flow, unsteady motion, chordwise and spanwise flexibility; and prediction of skin friction and qualitative examination of sectional flow patterns in terms of boundary layer growth.  Major limitations of this method include the inability to precisely predict separation, stall and hydrodynamic characteristics of a foil with a very small aspect ratio. -- A large amplitude theory was developed and used to analyze the propulsive efficiency and thrust.  An instantaneous angle of attack of the oscillating foil and a large amplitude feathering parameter were defined for this study.  As a result of this theoretical establishment, the thrust was identified to be directly related to the instantaneous angle of attack.  Most importantly, the best efficiency was obtained at the maximum instantaneous angle of attack of about 10°, for any combination of motion parameters and any shape of planforms with and without flexibility that were examined in this research. -- Most previous numerical predictions on 3-D unsteady oscillating foils were based on the small amplitude theory.  The present method, instead, is based on the finite amplitude theory and it also takes the sectional thickness distribution, planform shape and skin friction, etc., into account.  Therefore, a parametric study was also conducted for rigid planforms to give results from a more realistic model. -- The chordwise and spanwise flexibility were implemented by using a positive approach, i.e., different amplitudes of deflexion and shape functions were predetermined, to simulate a fin whale's flukes.  Two non-dimensional parameters, the spanwise and chordwise deflexion amplitude factors, together with another two parameters, the spanwise and chordwise deflexion phase angles relative to the pitch were defined.  A parametric study was then conducted in terms of these parameters. -- A numerical procedure was also established to determine the angle of zero lift for a foil due to the chordwise flexibility and, this angle of angle of zero lift was then used to modify the instantaneous pitch angle to obtain the instantaneous angle of attack at each time step.  A numerical scheme was also formulated for foils with spanwise flexibility in calculating the efficiency in which case the heave amplitude had a variation across the span. -- Major findings include the limitation and validity of the small amplitude theory obtained from a large amplitude analysis; determination of the instantaneous angle of attack of rigid and flexible oscillating foils; the relation between the maximum instantaneous angle of attack and the thrust; the instantaneous angle of attack for the best efficiency; sectional thickness ratio effect on efficiency and thrust; skin friction effect on the propulsive performance; pressure distribution and validity of the steady Kutta condition for an unsteady oscillating foil with both chordwise and spanwise flexibility; the chordwise and spanwise deflexion phase angles and their effects on the efficiency and thrust; and the effect of the spanwise deflexion amplitude on efficiency and thrust. -- Conclusions were drawn from these predicted results and suggestions on the geometry and motion parameters in oscillating foil design were also made.


identifier: Staveley, Annette <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Staveley=3AAnnette=3A=3A.html>   (1992) Festivities, masquerades and epiphanies: the comic world of E. F. Benson.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940) lived a long and productive life as a writer. During his career he published more than a hundred books that ranged across several literary genres, as well as contributing innumerable articles and short stories to magazines in England and North  America. E.F. Benson is best remembered for his comic novels, but in spite of the fact that these have been frequently republished, they have received virtually no attention from literary critics. In part, this neglect is due to the traditional scepticism of many critics towards the comic genre during E.F. Benson's life-time. It was only after his death that the seminal work in comedy by C.L. Barber (1951), Susanne Langer (1953), Northrop Frye (1957), Moreton Gurewitch (1975), Robert Heilman (1978), Robert Polhemus (1980) and Harry Levin (1987) established the thematic significance and aesthetic structures of comic works. As yet, however, there has been no formal study of the range of E.F. Benson's comic work within the matrix of the comic genre, though some biographical studies of Benson and his family have been published and some biographical information is useful for understanding the background against which Benson created his comedies. -- E.F. Benson never detached himself from the human capacity for folly. In  fact, he drew extensively on his own experience and the experience of his family, friends and acquaintances, who lived at the centre of the political, social and literary world of his time. Nevertheless, although he keenly observed  the malice, greed and self-delusion of unredeemed men and women in closely knit communities, he never lost sight of the significant and possibly redemptive role the comic artist can play in exposing human irrationality, pettiness and hypocrisy. -- This dissertation examines a selection of eleven of E.F. Benson's comic novels, establishing their contemporary reception as well as demonstrating the comic patterns in characterization, structure and themes that distinguish them. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the enduring appeal of E.F. Benson's work lies not only in these recognizably comic patterns and characters but also in the increasing dexterity of his narrative skill in counterpointing diverse and allusive discourses in order to expose human frailty. The novels are grouped under the headings festivities, masquerades and epiphanies in order to show the versatility of his comic vision and techniques as well as to establish them firmly within the matrix of the comic genre. The "Dodo" novels, Dodo: A Detail of a Day (1893), Dodo's Daughter (1914) and Dodo Wonders (1921), present characters who use their wit, integrity and imagination to overcome worldly limitations. These are E.F. Benson's festive novels. In the "Lucia" novels, Queen Lucia (1920), Miss Mapp (1922), Lucia in London (1927), Mapp and Lucia (1931), Lucia's Progress (1935) and Trouble for Lucia (1939), the characters are devoid of integrity and talent and rely, instead, on disguise and masquerade to control their circumstance. In the final two novels I discuss, Paying Guests (1929) and Secret Lives (1932), the characters initially are no less shallow and self-deceived, but for a brief, epiphanic moment  they catch a glimpse of their folly and strive to improve their lives and relationships after these momentary revelations into their fallible condition.


identifier: Morgan-Cole, Trudy <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Morgan-Cole=3ATrudy=3A=3A.html>   (1992) Mother tongues : language and maternity in the fictions of Audrey Thomas.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Audrey Thomas' novels and short stories employ autobiographical material and repeated storylines to explore the relationship between language and experience. This thesis focuses on stories in which Thomas writes about maternity and motherhood, specifically female experiences which her characters struggle to capture in language. Her use of this subject matter and the techniques of autobiography and repetition leads the reader to question the shifting, non-transparent relationship between language and experience.


identifier: Ripley, Glenda L. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Ripley=3AGlenda_L=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1996) Moving into awake : Daphne Marlatt's re-vision of women in Ana historic, Double negative, and Salvage.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: In her books Ana Historic, Double Negative, written with Betsy Warland, and Salvage, Daphne Marlatt penetrates the silence surrounding women's experiences in history, poetry, and fiction. This thesis analyzes how, in her recent writing, Marlatt negates depictions of women as passive objects of desire. At the same time it explores how Marlatt creates a new relationship between women and words while she  opens up her writing to others, beckoning them to join her in naming themselves, their realities, and their desires from their infinitely varied perspectives. Drawing the reader's attention to the power of language to include or exclude, Marlatt poses questions and invites responses from her reader whom she envisions as an active co-creator of meaning. Based on her own experience of desire, the rhythmic  flow of Marlatt's writing abandons subject - verb - object sentence structure for a fluid form. The dialogue between her characters in Ana Historic and the reciprocal writing exchanges between Marlatt and other writers in Double Negative and Salvage provide examples of ways in which women, marked by their absence or misrepresented in writing,  can represent themselves.


identifier: Zhou, Xiaojing <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Zhou=3AXiaojing=3A=3A.html>   (1995) "My real hopes and ambitions" : Elizabeth Bishop's poetics of dialogism.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This dissertation examines Elizabeth Bishop's poetics and its development in her poems. Bishop indirectly articulates her confidence in her artistic talents and expresses her literary ambitions and her theories of how to fulfil them in  her prose piece "In Prison." The principles and methods elaborated in this prose piece reveal Bishop's basic conceptions of artistic originality and creative activity, which can be better understood in terms of Mikhail Bakhtin's  theory of dialogism. Bakhtinian dialogism provides an encompassing set of theories concerning both literary and extra-literary conditions for aesthetic activity and creative production. These theories offer an approach to literary works, which goes beyond the limitations of a purely thematic and formalist methodology. -- My discussion of Bishop's poetics follows five major concerns central to the development of her poetry: 1) how to make limited commonplace material perform to its utmost capability; 2) how to make a poetry which, in Bishop's own words, "is in action, within itself" as opposed to poetry "at rest"; 3) how to apply her notions of "experience-time" in her poems so as to show the "constant process of adjustment" in one's perception over time and through experience; 4) how to make her poems more "serious," more "real and fresh"; and 5) how to express complicated ideas and feelings through simple language and visual images. These major concerns are expressed and revealed in Bishop's notebooks, essays, letters, and interviews which are used as major sources for my exploration and discussion of Bishop's poetics. -- My basic method in examining Bishop's poetics, though guided by  theory, is close-reading of her poems, which are discussed in five chapters according to the publication order of her five books of poetry. Chapter One examines how Bishop deals with material for poetry, movement within poems, and surrealism. Bishop's earliest attempts at portraying "experience-time" in her poems are also examined in this chapter. Chapter Two continues examining Bishop's treatment of "experience-time" and traces her other developments. Chapter Three explores Bishop's further artistic growth in connection to her life in Brazil and her reading. Chapter Four discusses her poetics and poems in relation to American  "confessional" poetry. Chapter Five examines Bishop's masterful integration in her final poems of the technical and thematic concerns she explored and developed from the beginning of her poetic career.


identifier: Miller, Elizabeth Anne <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Miller=3AElizabeth_Anne=3A=3A.html>   (1987) Norman Duncan : a critical biography.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

title: Norman Duncan : a critical biography

abstract: Norman Duncan (1871-1916) was a prolific writer, having published over 140 periodical stories and articles as well as 20 books. Though he was born in Canada, he did all of his  writing and publishing in the United States. In his day he was heralded as one of the most promising authors on the literary horizon. Yet, with the exception of very brief references, he has been virtually ignored by critics. Only one biography of any significance has been undertaken, while  no sustained critical assessment has appeared. The purpose of this dissertation is to present a combined biographical and critical study of this neglected Canadian writer. -- It is impossible to separate Duncan the man from Duncan the writer. Many of the themes of his stories — importance of family, idealization of masculine heroes, fondness for boys,  obsession with sin and redemption, and concern for alcoholics — have their genesis in his own life. The peak of  his literary achievement came early, with the publication in  1903 of his second collection of short stories, The Way of the Sea. After that date, even though he did produce a number of fine essays on Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as the occasional short story of merit, there was an uneven quality in his work. Though he expanded his subject matter considerably, primarily as the result of travel, he never surpassed the level of intensity and the perfection of form that he achieved in the early Newfoundland works. -- Although one can detect strong influences of Dickens in Duncan's fiction, he is part of the tradition of the American local color movement and its Canadian counterpart, regional fiction. His success is due in no small part to the  fact that he found a region virtually unexplored in literature, and made it his own. Over half his total literary production is rooted in his experiences in Newfoundland and Labrador. Certainly his best work comes from this group, ensuring him a permanent place in the literary history of Newfoundland.


identifier: Alcock, Mary Ellen <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Alcock=3AMary_Ellen=3A=3A.html>   (1989) Byron's homage to Rousseau : Childe Harold's pilgrimage, Canto III, and La Nouvelle Heloise.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Little detailed study has been made of the similarity in thought between Byron and Rousseau. At first glance, the men  and their works ostensibly appear too different to warrant investigation. Analysis of the third Canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and La Nouvelle Héloïse, however, suggests that Byron and Rousseau had very similar views of nature, society and the individual. Furthermore, Byron was intensely aware of Rousseau while composing the third Canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. -- Throughout his life, Byron  vehemently denied any resemblance between himself and Rousseau. La Nouvelle Héloïse and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III, however, reveal that their authors viewed nature as beneficent, society as corrupt and imagination as a liberating force for the individual. During  the summer of 1816 when Byron completed Canto III, he was drawn into an imaginative communion with Rousseau. Visiting Rousseau's Swiss homeland, Byron deepened his appreciation of the eighteenth-century Genevan. Like Rousseau, Byron was profoundly affected by the natural beauty of the Alpine landscape. Reading La Nouvelle Héloïse and using it as a guide book for his boat tour with Shelley of Lake Geneva, Byron was imaginatively stimulated into a Rousseauistic reverie. Seeing first-hand the places vividly depicted in La  Nouvelle Héloïse, Byron was frequently led into reflection on Rousseau's fictional characters and often related their experiences to his own. -- In this thesis, I examine Childe Harold, Canto III, with emphasis on the biographical facts of Byron's Swiss experience in 1816. I discuss the similarities between Canto III and Rousseau's novel and conclude that Byron's intense awareness of Rousseau's ideas helped significantly in shaping the poetry of Canto III. Byron's viewpoint while in Switzerland and the ideas expressed in Canto III prove that his Swiss experience amounted to an imaginative journey into the world of Rousseau's novel.


identifier: Simpson, Judy A. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Simpson=3AJudy_A=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1977) Herman Melville's Battle-pieces and aspects of the war: background, structure and meaning.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Herman Melville published his first book of poetry, a small volume of seventy-two poems about the American Civil War, in August, 1866. Although Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War has stimulated little interest, the volume is a well-conceived, unified, meaningful work of art. A study of Battle-Pieces reveals that Melville wrote in poetic form because he had well-defined theories about the nature of poetry, because he considered himself a poet, and because he believed that the poet had important functions to perform for society. An examination of Battle-Pieces not only manifests why Melville turned to poetry in verse, but it also discloses his process of composition. Melville did not write the war poems haphazardly. His theories about composition determined when as well as how he wrote them. In addition, an investigation into the source's which Melville used gives in sight into how he converted personal experiences and borrowed materials into original poems. -- Until one is aware of and applies Melville's concept of architectonics to the study of the entire volume and until one is knowledgeable about Melville's philosophy of the organic theory of art and utilizes it in a study of the individual poems in Battle-Pieces, the volume appears to be a disjointed collection of shards and patches. Only as one studies the structure of the whole and the parts is the organic unity of Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War revealed. Not only is a study of Battle-Pieces significant for what it reveals about the background and structure of the volume, but it is also important for what it discloses about Melville's response to the Civil War. That Melville views the war from the perspectives of patriot, citizen, and  philosopher-poet contributes to the complexities and ambiguities of the volume. These three cycles do, however, fit together to support the main concern of the volume-- reconciliation. -- A careful investigation of the background, structure, and meaning of Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War can only lead to the conclusion that the volume is a fine work of art in its own right. Its style is more often than not suited to content. Its structure fully supports meaning, and its content reveals an objectivity, realism, and universality nowhere else seen in American Civil War poetry. A study of Battle-Pieces also leads to the conclusion that it is significant for its revelation of Melville. Melville was a conscientious artist who sought to put his poetic principles to work in Battle-Pieces. He was also a devoted American who did not let his patriotism for the North override his concern for the unity of his nation. Finally, Battle-Pieces reveals that Melville wished to help insure the progress of all mankind with his war poetry. He believed that if man could recognize the duality of existence, manifested in America by the Civil War, he would be more tolerant of his fellow men, and the world, therefore, would be a better place.


identifier: Eckert, Ken <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Eckert=3AKen=3A=3A.html>   (2001) It's about time : kingship and the character in a contemporary Beowulf.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis has no abstract


identifier: Stacey, Shirley <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Stacey=3AShirley=3A=3A.html>   (1991) John Dickenson's "Greene in conceipt" (1598): a critical edition with commentary.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Greene in Conceipt (1598) is a late example of euphuistic prose romance.  It is highly moralistic account of one woman's life, prefaced by a unique satirical advertisement in which the ghost of Robert Greene transmits the story to the narrator in a dream.  The story within the dream-frame reworks the popular prodigal son motif found in the works of Greene and Lyly.  Valeria, a prodigal daughter, is one of the most complex and interesting female characters in Elizabethan prose fiction. -- Greene in Conceipt is a bibliographical rarity: only two copies of the single edition remain (located in the Huntington and Bodleian Libraries).  This edition provides a critical old-spelling text, and is the first to examine both extant copies.  The text attempts to follow the Huntington copy exactly with regards to spelling, punctuation, paragraphs, indentations, and dialogue (except for minor regularization of printing house conventions) and all emendations are duly noted.  The presence of some variants indicate that the text was corrected in the press, although not necessarily by the author. -- The introduction discusses Greene in Conceipt, particularly with reference to its didacticism and interest in punished women, and examines the role of Robert Greene in the work.  The narrative voice, which is deliberately obscured, provides a possible explanation for the didacticism and euphuistic elements in the text.  A brief biography of John Dickenson is included, followed by an outline of the critical principles upon which the edition is based. -- The commentary attempts to provide present-day meanings for Dickenson's language, read against the Oxford English Dictionary, as well as his own works and those of his contemporaries (particularly Robert Greene); to identify his use of proverbs and natural history; to examine his classical and contemporary allusions; and, where possible, to give parallels to other texts.


identifier: Harvey, Donald Frederick <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Harvey=3ADonald_Frederick=3A=3A.html>   (1987) John Keble : poet and critic.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

title: John Keble : poet and critic

abstract: In this thesis I have examined the literary career of The Rev. John Keble (1792 - 1866) so as to demonstrate that his role in the development of English critical theory has been seriously underrated.  His neglect, I contend, is due to several factors, not the least of which was the temperament and religious convictions of the man himself.  I also have presented evidence to show that the initial and enduring popular appeal of his first volume of poetry, The Christian Year, overshadowed his later scholarship, which consequently went largely unnoticed.  His literary contribution was presented in a series of lectures given during the ten years that he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford University; and in a series of articles and reviews in learned journals.  Not only were his ideas perceptive and illuminating, but they also helped to some extent to determine the direction that English critical theory was to follow during the remainder of the nineteenth century. -- My method of presentation is to begin with an evaluation of John Keble as a pastor and as a leader of the Oxford Movement within the Church of England.  I show that each of these roles had a distinctive bearing both on his own poetry and on his beliefs about poetry in general.  In doing this, I found it useful to examine the concept Keble referred to as the Doctrine of Reserve. -- I then analyse Keble’s poetry with a special emphasis on The Christian Year (1827) and The Lyra Innocentium (1846).  This is followed by an appraisal of the forty lectures given at Oxford between 1832 and 1842, and later published under the title of The Praelectiones Acadamicae (1844).  Some passages in the Occasional Papers and Reviews, which support and enhance the main themes of the lectures, are also presented and evaluated. -- Finally, I suggest why the fame of John Keble, who made such a distinctive and important contribution to English literature, so rapidly passed into obscurity.


identifier: Healey, Keli Jo T. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Healey=3AKeli_Jo_T=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1995) Keeping out the shadows : overreading L.M. Montgomery's novels through her journals.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The individual who tries to separate Lucy Maud Montgomery's novels from one another or who attempts to study her journals as distinct from her novels soon experiences frustration.  Montgomery's writings are interwoven in a pattern so intricate they may never be completely untangled.  A study of her work therefore requires a flexible approach to the concept of literary genres.  Because each of Montgomery's works are so intricately interrelated, every text responds to another text. -- In recent years, scholars have approached Montgomery's writings with renewed interest, as access to her published journals now invites intertextual readings of her work.  The journals enable readers to identify the personal and political life conditions that shape Montgomery's fiction.  Once the connections between her fiction and nonfiction are established, it becomes possible to discern important connections among Montgomery's novels.  This thesis will show that because Montgomery's fiction is rooted in the reality of her journals, each of her novels inevitably becomes a response to other novels as well. -- The stories of her heroines Anne Shirley and Emily Byrd Starr are closely connected to one another.  The form and content of the Emily of New Moon series speaks directly to that of the Anne of Green Gables series.  Our reading of Emily's story depends upon how we read Anne's story.  Because Montgomery writes herself into her fiction, it follows that the part of her personality and life story that is closest to Anne's will enter Emily's tale as well.  In Emily's story, Montgomery explores her own experiences of writing her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, and of rewriting her journals.  The author is present in each of her novels depicting the characters of Anne and Emily, and the echoes of Anne's story can be traced through Emily's narrative when a direct link is established between the novels and the journals. -- To make such connections, the principles of overreading will be applied to the Anne of Green Gables series and to the Emily of New Moon series.  The principles of this theory allow the reader to focus on the conditions that influence the writer during the creation of a text.  The thesis is divided into three sections.  Chapter One provides an intertextual introduction to Montgomery's journals and novels.  Chapter Two focuses on the Anne series, and explores how the writing of Anne of Green Gables becomes a therapeutic process for Montgomery.  The character of Anne, as she appears throughout the series, will be studied as an emblem of the female artist who is and is not able to use her own voice.  In Chapter Three, the Emily of New Moon trilogy will be overread on two levels.  First, it will present Emily as an emblem of the female writer in a society that imposes limitations on the artist and her art.  Second, it will demonstrate that the form and content of the Anne series is closely connected to that of the Emily series.  This chapter argues that in the Emily series, Montgomery traces her own creation of Anne of Green Gables through Emily's acts of writing, and depicts the rewriting of her own journals through Emily's acts of revision.  Montgomery's journals will be used to decipher the autobiographical context of the novels in the Anne of Green Gables series and Emily of New Moon series. -- Nonfiction and fiction blend and blur in Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon.  Montgomery's journals from the 1890's are crucial to understanding the creative process underlying the stories of both Anne and Emily, for she takes life experiences recorded in her journals and incorporates them into each story.  Her journals, wherein she records the events that shape her life, enable her to impose order on her fiction.  In turn, her fiction and her journals collectively impose order on her life.  This need to write and analyze life experiences leads to the creation of such characters as Anne Shirley and Emily Byrd Starr.  Applying the principles of overreading to the Anne of Green Gables series and to the Emily of New Moon series uncovers the autobiographical, the political, and the personal elements in each work and focuses on the function of the form and content in the novels comprising the stories of both heroines.


identifier: O'Driscoll, Patrick Robert <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/O=27Driscoll=3APatrick_Robert=3A=3A.html>   (1960) Pedagogic themes in the major novels of Brooke, Day and Inchbald.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The novels of Brooke, Day, and Inchbald were natural developments of the late eighteenth-century climate of ideas and taste.  Three circumstances combined to produce these novels: first, the widespread belief that the society of the day was corrupt; second, the primitivistic notion that man should act according to his natural impulses and instincts rather than the accepted rules of society; and third, the educational ideas of Rousseau, which were currently being acclaimed.  Like Rousseau, these novelists exemplified their educational doctrines through the medium of the novel. -- Brooke, Day, and Inchbald believed that environment is largely responsible for the type of character produced.  The conventional patterns of society can stultify the impressionable minds of children; therefore, these novelists condemned the fashionable environment which thwarted the natural virtues of the child.  They maintained that a child must be placed in a natural environment which would permit the natural virtues to develop uncontaminated.  Their conception of education accepted the child as a child; promoted the natural development of his faculties; aided him to recognize the dangerous habits of mind which a blind adherence to the conventions of society can develop; guided him in the formation of good habits; instilled qualities into his mind and heart which would cultivate a humane disposition and a sympathetic feeling for his fellow-man; and aimed at producing a useful and virtuous member of society.  This education was to be conducted far from the vices of fashionable life.  But the pedagogical novelists did not want to destroy society; they only wished to alter its sense of values so that a child's faculties could develop without constraint.


identifier: LaBossiere, Camille R. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/LaBossiere=3ACamille_R=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1976) 'Ice or flame' : a thematic study of the fiction of Joseph Conrad.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Conrad abandons as means of ‘seeing’ truth traditional formal logic and practical reason, idols worthipped in nineteenth-century positivist thought; and, like Calderon, he adopts a dream-logic of contradictions akin to Nicholas of Cusa's principle of the coincidentia oppositorum.  Conrad, like a mystic, struggles ‘to see’ the Inconceivable by the light of a synthetic logic and to translate into verbal symbols the unspeakable truth within and without. -- Conrad's logic is the dream-logic of the infinite, the logic of analogy.  Expressed analogically as sea, dream, mirror, woman and jungle, the Infinite is mutually-reflected within the craftsman, mankind and the universe.  Conrad’s works are themselves dreams, dramatic performances of the absurd in a universal playhouse of multiple inter-changing optical and moral perspectives and identities, in which distinctions between reality and illusion, actor and spectator, good and evil, order and anarchy, dreaming and waking are ambiguous and obscure.  Immersed in this dream-like, timeless element of contradictions, Conrad's protagonists, landsmen and seamen, initially ignorant of the truth of existence, become ‘raving somnambulists’ afloat in a sea of 'ice or flame.’  Their subsequent interior vision, a-learned unknowing of truth, coincides with catastrophe. -- The widespread failure of critics to perceive Conrad as a dream-logician and prose-poet of the Infinite, rather than as a craftsman of mere facts and surface logic, accounts for much of the mistranslation of Conrad's semantics of the Inscrutable, for the general misreading of his achievement within the tradition of Western letters, and for the mistaken charges that Conrad sentimentalized women and 'the seaman-self.’  Conrad's ironic dream-logic, the logic of the Inscrutable, pervades the corpus of his work and provides its single underlying formal theme.  Mankind, 'the intimate alliance of contradictions,' is Conrad's perennial subject.


identifier: Fralic, Michael Lloyd <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Fralic=3AMichael_Lloyd=3A=3A.html>   (1996) Marginalization and the active margins in the plays of Ray Guy.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The political, economic and cultural marginalization of human populations has become an important theme in post-colonial literary scholarship because it frequently has occurred in the context of colonial rule, and because colonial marginalization in various forms has in recent decades been the subject of widespread literary treatments.  Such marginalization practices as objectification, commodification and stereotyping have been rooted in assumptions by colonial powers that they are also the sources of truth and value, and are the rightful rulers of the colonies they have held.  Colonial powers frequently have marginalized colonial territories by discouraging cultural self-definition, through colonial authorities' and missionaries' imposition of cultural practices from the centres of power and the constant reinforcement of their superiority.  Another frequent effect of colonial rule has been an inability within marginalized populations to escape economic or political dependency on the colonial powers-a state of affairs which frequently has been due to the economic exploitation of colonies by the colonial powers they rely on. -- The post-colonial study of marginalization is an appropriate basis for an exploration of Ray Guy's plays because all three of his plays emphasize marginalization, which has been a defining factor throughout Newfoundland's history.  The plays are all set during the crucial period surrounding the 1949 regime change in which Newfoundland ended its life as a British colony and became a province of Canada. -- Guy's first play Young Triffie's Been Made Away With focuses on a history of ethnocentric and egotistic missionary activity in Newfoundland; his second play Frog Pond addresses a psychological dependency among many Newfoundlanders on exogenous cultures as the sources of cures to Newfoundland's economic and political ills; and his third play The Swinton Massacre focuses on the residue of colonial attitudes in the new regime, and on marginalization practices among Newfoundlanders. -- Guy also emphasizes the multifarious responses to processes of marginalization among marginalized people, drawing attention to the active margin as a site of struggle and change.


identifier: Balisch, Loretta Faith <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Balisch=3ALoretta_Faith=3A=3A.html>   (1984) Spiritual blight : religion in the writings of Robertson Davies, the early period: 1940-1960.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Following the publication of the Deptford Trilogy in the 1970's Robertson Davies' concern over the nature of religion drew much critical attention, as did his use of various aspects of the psychology of C.G. Jung.  There has not, however, been much critical attention given to the problem of religion in his earlier writings.  It is the contention of this thesis that the problem of religion is no less significant to Davies' writings in the early period-from 1940 to 1960-than it has been acknowledged to be in his later ones.  Moreover, this concern with religion in the early writings is not, as has been accepted, confined primarily to the social aspects of religion. -- From his earliest writings, Davies has shown his concern over the way in which man's concepts of religion have affected his outlook on his own human nature as well as how these concepts affected the ethical and moral considerations on which his society was based.  Davies' concern about the problem of religion has thus been two-fold.  First, he has been concerned with the detrimental effects of those forms of religion which appear to cut man off from an understanding of his own nature--from his physical, emotional and spiritual needs.  These religions in many ways were seen to have diminished rather than augmented the quality of the human spirit.  They had, in their emphasis on the societal and mundane reality, eroded man's concept of the transcendental to such an extent that for many religion has ceased to be a meaningful experience.  Davies' second concern has been with the difficulty of reconciling any belief in the necessity of the transcendental with the prevailing rationalistic, empiricist outlook which decries the values of the spirit. -- In pursuing these two concerns, Davies' approach to religion has been oblique rather than straightforward.  He has tended to view religious questions from a psychological rather than a traditionally theological point of view.  His first concern thus led him to explore the theories of the depth psychologists such as Freud and Jung in his effort to discover the identity of the human being, not merely in physical and mundane terms but in terms of the needs of the human spirit.  His second concern led him, through his acceptance of certain psychological theories of the nature of man, to a confrontation with accepted concepts of good and evil, and ultimately to the nature of religion itself. -- As his later writings embody this confrontation with the nature of religion, and ultimately, of God, the theme of religion in his writing is obvious.  However, Davies' exploration of religion in these works rests on the prior determination of the value and necessity of the transcendental to the spiritual health of man, and this task has been completed in his writings prior to 1960.


identifier: Balisch, Loretta Faith <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Balisch=3ALoretta_Faith=3A=3A.html>   (1994) Scrub growth : Canadian humour to 1912, an exploration.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This dissertation contends that Canadian humour did not emerge suddenly with the work of Thomas Chandler Haliburton and then vanish until Stephen Leacock's work appeared.  The humour that Canadians created in large quantities, both before Haliburton and after, has too frequently been disregarded. -- Some of the reasons for this disregard stem from the critical tenets of Canadian critics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  Others are to be found in the character of the humour itself.  Nineteenth-century Canadian humour is rarely cosmopolitan; it is parochial, satiric and ironic by turns, often racy, sometimes even crude and racist.  It mocks both Canada's colonial status and its literary establishment, and it depicts a country in flux rather than a unified nation.  Incongruities stemming from the imposition of European literary and cultural conventions on the Canadian milieu provide material for metafictional parody.  Critics generally have only recently begun to recognize the complex nature of various kinds of parody. -- This study investigates aspects of Canadian humour in selected newspapers, periodicals and books published between 1752 and 1912.  It shows that from the beginning Canadians have published humour in the newspapers and that one of their concerns has been the quality of indigenous writing.  The ironic narrative techniques that are still distinctive in Canadian literature make their appearance in this early humour as Canadians devise ways of writing about their own milieu while avoiding regionalism.  There is clear evidence of American influence on Canadian humour throughout the period, but a distinctive Canadian humorous perspective emerges in response to Canada's colonial status in the British Empire and its position relative to the U.S. -- The nationalist nature of Canadian criticism has led to rejection of many of the works by expatriate writers, but these works share many characteristic attitudes with those of writers who remained in Canada.  Their subject matter may be quite different, but their ability to present several sides to every question and their ironic perspective are similar to those of other Canadian writers. -- Obviously, not all humour is literary humour--such humour is exceptional in the literature of every country.  In Canada, even today, there is more literary humour than current criticism allows.  And the belief that there was no significant Canadian humour between Haliburton and Leacock continues to dominate Canadian criticism.  No doubt the works of Haliburton and Leacock do occupy the summit of nineteenth-century Canadian humour; but there is a whole mountain range of lesser elevation surrounding them. -- The study concludes that there is indeed a distinctive nineteenth-century Canadian humour, most of which is expressed in the short forms dictated by publication in newspapers and magazines.  Robertson Davies reminds us that -- in attempting to form an estimate of Leacock's work, we must remember that he wrote in an era when magazines were many and all but the most highbrow welcomed short, funny pieces (31). -- Leacock was writing within this well-established Canadian tradition of humour when he published Literary Lapses, Nonsense Novels and Sunshine Sketches of A Little Town.  He is not the first Canadian to create humour after Haliburton, but he is the first to present it in a way that could be accepted by the Canadian literary establishment.  After Leacock, humour gradually became more respectable in Canada, but that is the subject for another study.


identifier: Sojka, Eugenia <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Sojka=3AEugenia=3A=3A.html>   (1996) Search procedures : carnivalization in language- and theory-focused texts of four Canadian women writers.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The study analyzes language- and theory-focused texts by four Canadian women writers: Lola Lemire Tostevin, Betsy Warland, Gail Scott and Erin Mouré.  The texts are read as representative of a contemporary avant-garde.  The term avant-garde, when used in conjunction with modernism or postmodernism, points to the more radical, norm-breaking aspects of both movements.  Avant-garde writing is read as a reincarnation of the spirit of carnival.  The concept of “carnival,” with all its Bakhtinian and Kristevan associations, when translated into literature accounts for multiple subversions of language and forms of writing.  Such forms of feminist writing as "écriture feminine" and "feminnage" are examined in the thesis.  The writers explore the writing itself as a process of finding a form through a dialogue with multiple genres and modes of writing. -- These language-focused texts explore the concept of intersemiotic translation of body into a written script.  In this process the phonetic/alphabetic notation is carnivalized by codes from other writing systems.  The picto-ideo-phono/sono graphic body is inscribed onto a page through the exploration of synaesthetic properties of language.  In a way similar to the historical avant-garde, the texts provoke a rethinking of the very notion of verbal art.  They are not pure literary objects but interdiscursive compositions.  The avant-garde ideal of the Total Work of Art is effectively inscribed in them.  The exploration of verbal synaesthesia and of the synaesthetic understanding of book art brings the texts close to historical avant-garde experimentalism.  They are like cubist, futurist or surrealist canvases that distort pictorial realism by manipulation of visual, auditory, kinetic and olfactory fragments.  They are open-ended compositions which through the use of parodic discourse challenge any monologic concepts of language, self and genre.  They also question the dichotomization of aesthetics and politics that is typical of such politically ineffective theories as the New Critical or Derridean school of thinking. -- The thesis is not only an exploration of language- and theory-focused texts but also a record of my search for an alternative form of thesis writing.  I examine a variety of forms including parody, self-interview, journal, e-mail letter, essay, collage and a formal critical commentary.  In general, these forms of writing translate a dialogue that takes place between various parts of my self.


identifier: Hobbs, Michelle <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Hobbs=3AMichelle=3A=3A.html>   (1996) Reshaping the archetype : mythmaking and matriarchy in Anne Rice's Vampire chronicles.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Since its birth in the nineteenth century, the vampire has been a prominent figure in English prose literature.  John Polidori, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, and Bram Stoker adapted and reshaped the creature of legend into the archetypal character we see today in popular literature and films.  These authors began a literary tradition through which the vampire became far more than the mindless, animated corpse of folklore.  It served as a symbol of evil, predation, aberrant sexuality, and abusive power - a corruptive force which parasitically drains the innocent victim of life and soul, and which, consequently, must be destroyed by human society. -- The twentieth century has seen a resurgence of interest in the classic monster.  In particular, in The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice has adopted and transformed the nineteenth century fiend into a "vehicle for introspective examination of the human condition" (Skrip 3).  Even though Rice creates a new vampire mythology, it is nonetheless rooted in the tradition established in the nineteenth century.  She rejects many of the traditions, and reforms the cold-hearted killer into a sympathetic character with a conscience.  Rice's vampires explore complex issues such as the nature of morality, the need for community, the aesthetic principle, and the equality of the sexes. -- In the first three novels of The Vampire Chronicles, namely Interview With the Vampire (1976), The Vampire Lestat (1985), and The Queen of the Damned (1988), Rice explores the vampire's quest for knowledge and identity.  The result is the progressive development of a mythology of vampirism in which oppositions are blurred.  The concepts of good and evil, male and female, heterosexual and homosexual, vampire and god, death and life, become malleable, reflecting her vision of a society in which ethical behaviour depends upon replacing the patriarchal and religious absolutism of the nineteenth century with relativism. -- While nineteenth century literature presented a vehicle for asserting patriarchal standards of social behaviour, depicting women as subservient, self-sacrificing victims or sexual deviants, Rice liberates women from restrictive, male-imposed roles.  Commencing her mythology in Interview With the Vampire, Rice assaults traditional views of women as infantilized objects of exchange between men.  She reacts against nineteenth century patriarchal and religious absolutism and creates instead strong female and male characters who struggle against the established ideologies.  The mythology becomes more intricate and matrilineal as the series progresses, and in The Queen of the Damned, Rice realizes her vision of gender equity by reconstructing vampirism as a matriarchy.  Patriarchal structures deemed effective by nineteenth century writers because they restore order by suppressing the monstrous female become defective structures in Interview With the Vampire because they create the monstrous female by repressing her.  Finally, these structures are subsumed by matriarchal structures in The Queen of the Damned by liberating the feminine.  Rice constructs an ethical system which encourages individuals to search for the goodness within rather than relying upon gender divisions or abstract ideologies, be they social, political, or religious.


identifier: Quaicoe, Lloydetta U. (Lloydetta Ursula) <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Quaicoe=3ALloydetta_U=2E_=28Lloydetta_Ursula=29=3A=3A.html>   (1996) Rethinking Greek tragedy in African contexts : a study of Ola Rotimi and Wole Soyinka.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This study is a critical analysis of two Yoruba (Nigerian) dramatic texts which have been re-worked from fifth-century Greek tragedies: Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not To Blame from Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Wole Soyinka's The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite from Euripides' Bacchae.  Although there are similarities between the ancient Greek and Yoruba myths and rituals, the purpose of this study is to establish that the essential link between Greek tragedy and modern Nigerian drama is the influence of western education imposed by the British during colonization and to demonstrate that the Nigerian adaptations of canonized western texts are significant within the context of postcolonial discourse and modern African drama. -- Following the preface, there is a brief discussion of aspects of postcolonialism, the British slave trade and colonization as reflected in the ideological structure of imperial expansion and the eurocentric assumptions written in history and literature.  The next two chapters examine the plays individually with references to their Greek originals and the ancient African myths that provide the cultural environment for the plays.  Appropriate biographical information on Ola Rotimi and Wole Soyinka help establish ways in which western education influenced their writing and provide the socio-political context within which the plays were written. -- The study concludes that the re-writing and re-interpreting of fifth-century Greek tragedies, which formed the models for western dramatic art forms, contribute to distinctive discursive practices aimed at challenging and interrogating eurocentric ideologies while authenticating and valorizing pre-colonial Nigerian history and culture.  The transformation of ancient Greek originals by modern Nigerian playwrights show how the colonial language and cultural heritage which were used as tools of oppression could be used paradoxically as instruments to undermine and resist that oppression.  Postcolonial discourse is marked by this irony.


identifier: Innes Parker, Catherine A. <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Innes_Parker=3ACatherine_A=2E=3A=3A.html>   (1992) Virgin, bride and lover : a study of the relationship between sexuality and spirituality in anchoritic literature.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The spirituality portrayed in Ancrene Wisse and the texts associated with it is rooted in the anchoress’ own situation; a female solitary enclosed within the four walls of her anchorhouse.  The images used to express that spirituality are tied to her experience of enclosure and to her gender.  These two elements come together in the matrix of anchorhouse/body/heart, in which the anchoress' female body becomes identified with the anchorhouse in which it is enclosed.  The spirituality of these texts is thus deeply grounded in the anchoress' sexuality and her perception of her own body. -- The images of enclosure and female sexuality which dominate these texts are expressed in terms of the paradox of the virgin who is at the same time the lover and bride of Christ.  The female body enclosed within the anchorhouse is sealed by physical chastity, just as the anchoress is sealed within her anchorhouse.  Physical purity is itself an image or symbol of the purity of heart and soul which is an essential prerequisite for the anchoress' goal of union with God.  It is for this, and this alone, that she has turned from the world and enclosed her body and heart in the confines of her anchorhouse. -- The union with God which the anchoress seeks is also described in images which are governed by both her enclosure and her gender.  The spiritual quest of the anchoress is unequivocally the search of a female devotee for a male God, who approaches her in very human terms.  The enclosed chamber of her heart which she prepares for his coming is the arbour or bower in which she greets her beloved, and the nest or womb in which she nurtures her God.  Her union with God is described in terms both sensual and sensuous, combining erotic imagery with imagery of motherhood and fertility.  The erotic union with Christ available to the anchoress in her enclosure transforms and redeems, as the body which is vulnerable to lust (her own and others') becomes the vessel which bears Christ through imitation and union.


identifier: Cowan, Yuri Allen <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Cowan=3AYuri_Allen=3A=3A.html>   (2000) William Morris and the Middle Ages : two socialist dream-visions.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: William Morris was well versed in the history, literature, and material culture of the European Middle Ages, and of the fourteenth century in particular; his medievalism, however, was not purely nostalgic.  In marked contrast to the prescriptions of other Victorian medievalist reformers, Morris never sought to bring back the social order of feudal England, but to build upon the organic traditions of a popular art and of mutual aid which he felt the art and certain democratic institutions of the Middle Ages embodied.  His medievalism and socialism, far from being incongruous, were inseparable. -- It was therefore only natural that Morris seized upon such medieval forms as the poetic dream-vision for his socialist propaganda.  His two most important works for the socialist journal Commonweal, A Dream of John Ball and News From Nowhere, show not only a marked prevalence of medieval and medievally-inspired forms of art and architecture, but are themselves an adaptation (rather than an imitation) of a fourteenth-century literary form.  Moreover, it can be shown by reference to a selection of dream-poems, chief among them the poetic visions of Chaucer and the anonymous Pearl, that the literary form Morris chose was itself not dogmatic or prescriptive.  In keeping with the nature of allegory, the dream-vision requires an act of interpretation on the part of the reader that is analogous to the act of interpreting real dreams.  Morris adopted the dream-vision's evocation of an (earthly) real and a (heavenly) ideal in his utopian socialism and in his art.  His medievalism was an attempt to evoke both the best of the past and the possibilities of the future; his dream-visions point toward an ideal society while acknowledging the real everyday necessities of life, work, and individual expression.


identifier: Smith, Jeffrey Llewellyn <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Smith=3AJeffrey_Llewellyn=3A=3A.html>   (1988) William Shakespeare's The Rape of Lucrece : a defense of Lucrece.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The Rape of Lucrece has been condemned by many scholars who suggest that Shakespeare lacked a clear and unified vision of his topic.  However, an examination of the poem establishes that the poet did have a clear and unified vision of his topic. -- In the poem, Shakespeare makes a conscious entry into a debate which had existed between theologians and secular writers concerning the suicide of Lucrece.  This debate centred around the ethics of suicide.  For Christian theologians, suicide is a damnable sin.  Secular writers, however, saw something heroic and noble in it. -- Shakespeare, like other secular writers, chooses to defend the virtue of Lucrece and the necessity of her suicide, both of which had been questioned by such Christian theologians as Tertullian, Augustine and Tyndale. -- Throughout The Rape of Lucrece, Shakespeare provides artistic justification for the classical matron's suicide.  He uses his dramatic adeptness to explore the motivations of the two principal characters - Tarquin and Lucrece.  Shakespeare methodically builds up a case for Lucrece’s innocence, stressing that Targuin must bear the sole responsibility for his own actions.  The poet also provides a biased narrative commentary which supplies the frames of reference needed to judge the motives of Lucrece as admirable and Tarquin as reprehensible.  Far from being incoherent and disunified, the poem shows a unity of purpose and design, a unity which centres around the presentation of Lucrece as virtuous and refuting theological claims that she was vain and guilty of adultery.


identifier: Nolan, Michael Francis <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Nolan=3AMichael_Francis=3A=3A.html>   (1986) Woodstock : study of an Elizabethan history play.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Woodstock scholarship is, in its present state, unsystematic.  The most substantial recent work is forty years old and however admirable are the qualities of A.P. Rossiter's edition, its pronouncements cannot now be considered as conclusive.  Newer scholarship modifies or extends many of the older views.  Yet because this scholarship consists of individual pieces or notes scattered throughout four decades of journals, Rossiter's edition remains, for most scholars, the undoubted authority.  The lack of comprehensive up-to-date scholarship cannot but be prejudicial to a true consideration of the worth of the play. -- This thesis attempts to gather and examine all existing scholarship on Woodstock and augment it with original work.  For convenience, the thesis is divided into two sections.  The first deals with the most common topics of concern for scholars, most of these being peripheral to an examination of the intrinsic merits of the play.  The topics consist of the dating, historical sources and literary relationships of the play.  The second part examines the internal workings of Woodstock, centering around its political designs.  The politics of Woodstock is its most important aspect and this section details the Morality influences on the play, the political shapings of the imagery, and the significance of the political stand of Woodstock. -- Woodstock deserves greater attention than it has received.  It is a play of artistic integrity and has important connections with Shakespeare and the development of the Elizabethan history play.  Its neglect is due rather to circumstance than any artistic weaknesses.  This thesis, at least in part, rectifies the imbalance between critical study and the merits of the play.


identifier: Mellor-Hay, Winifred Mary Catherine <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Mellor-Hay=3AWinifred_Mary_Catherine=3A=3A.html>   (2000) Writing the gap : the performance of identity in texts by four Canadian women.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This examination of the writing by four Canadian women takes common notions of identity to task.  Investigating the strategies that Lee Maracle, Joy Kogawa, Dionne Brand and Gail Scott use in their texts, this work builds an argument for a positing of identity as a kind of assemblage.  Re-configuring identity as an activity or performance rather than an inborn immutable trait empowers typically-disadvantaged groups to remake their worlds by re-making their identity. -- The importance of language as shaper of culture emerges as the examined texts manifest women characters who creatively seize control of their lives.  They become agents of change by entering language and wrestling with its ambiguities.  These writers insert markers, codes and signs of identity into gaps and spaces in traditional forms, breaking open codified patterns.  Deft, flexible, adaptive and determined, women in these texts form a bricolage of signifiers and imbue them with the potency of identity. -- Language as a bodily act, the reclamation of sexual power, an exploration of the effects of hate speech, and interrogation of racist, sexist and classist paradigms all work in these selections to support the necessity for a new understanding of identity.  Specific techniques such as the trace, the transverse, the genotext, and the deployment of certain positivist values enable the writing to re-invent the nature of identity.


identifier: Legge, Valerie <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Legge=3AValerie=3A=3A.html>   (1990) The fugitive feminine in early Canadian writing : vision, performance and masquerade.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Reading backward from the twentieth-century fictions of Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence, Sheila Watson and Ethel Wilson to nineteenth-century writers like Rosanna Leprohon, Anna Jameson, and Lily Dougall, it becomes evident that from the beginning of letters in Canada to the present time, our literature is densely populated with a host of oracles, diviners, magicians, and seers.  Although they often occupy auxiliary roles, at least in early nineteenth-century texts, they perform, in these works, significant functions - they are ancestral shades, cartographers, mediators, healers, harbingers, guides, hysterics, magicians, and holy women.  Disrupting the dominant discourse of the narratives, they mutter and malign, gesture and prophesize.  When their voices are suppressed or ignored, chaos and loss abound. -- As this study will show, the oracle that appears so frequently in our literature respects no boundaries.  Appearing in works written by men and women, the figure can be either male or female.  She is minor and major character, central and peripheral.  She is young and old, innocent and experienced.  Most importantly, she is powerful.  She voices her warnings, utters her prophecies in a number of ways: orally (through verbal articulation); through signs (i.e. natural phenonema); through dreams, fantasies, memories, epiphanies; and through ancestral shades, ghosts or apparitions. -- Curious as to where this visionary figure originated in Canadian literature, I decided to start at the beginning - in the journals and diaries of the early explorers and fur-traders, and in the letters and sketches of women pioneers.  Restricted to the years prior to 1900, this survey focuses on the movement of these sibylline figures who are so closely linked with their ancient foremothers.  They are active, though often subversive agents; their messages, covert and palimpsest, are revealed in strange dreams and through mystical experiences - messages that are presented in enigmatic forms that require deciphering, divining.  These figures are capable of strangeness and transformation; they are associated with naming as a means of knowing; they are visionaries who possess a mysterious second sense.  Invariably they are connected to the cyclical world of nature, to a pastoral world as well as to an unruly world of darkness and despair.  Just as often, they are found within settlements where they are perceived by the populace as models of virtue and morality.  By examining the textual positions of these figures, and the context and the nature of their [m]utterances, it is possible to see how prophecy, heeded or ignored, contributes to the shaping of a Canadian literary tradition.  Going back to the seventeenth century, to the beginning of letters in Canada, I discovered what a few critics have tentatively observed - that what has evolved in Canada is a distinctly feminine tradition of writing, a tradition which, I suggest, is intimately linked to this pervasive prophetic presence. -- Most of the characters examined in this study are feminine.  I have deliberately decided to treat them as active agents who possess "middle voices" - that is, as characters in which subject and object positions are often the same.  Occupying shifting spaces, these characters disrupt the harmony of conventional binary systems; they act as destabilizing as well as stabilizing agents; they challenge fundamental assumptions, undermine established authorities, often while under the explicit threat of silencing or exclusion.  Others, through private ceremonies or rituals, create the illusion of conformity and stability.  Assuming postures and positions which suggest openings rather than closure, these conservative/radical figures create fissures, ruptures and raptures, and magnificent transformations.  Moving erratically and elusively between confinement and freedom, they cross borders, violate cultural codes, transmit treasonous messages, instigate revolution, create spectacles, and institute change. -- This analysis of what I call the "fugitive feminine" in early Canadian writing will demonstrate that the actions of these unruly figures belie the notion that Canadian literature is essentially conservative.  It will also negate the myth of the Canadian as either strictly law-abiding or victimized by a profound fear of chaos or wilderness.  Janus-like, these figures rebel while pretending to uphold the law.  Often perceived by the status quo as models of morality, they secretly transgress, defy, and revolt.  Their covert actions necessarily require some form of subterfuge or masquerade.  Like spies, moles, voyeurs, they perform their duplicitous acts from within shadowy spheres as well as in open spaces.  When their performances are censured by a restrictive and regulating social order, they willfully become ex-centric, alien, and anomalous.


identifier: Fraser, R. Scott <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Fraser=3AR=2E_Scott=3A=3A.html>   (1985) The importance of the political element in William Shakespeare's Richard II.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Throughout the twentieth century, literary critics have largely undervalued the political element inherent in William Shakespeare's Richard II, preferring instead to emphasize its tragic qualities.  However, upon close analysis of the text and the period in which it was written one finds that the play's printed and performed popularity owed much to its political content. -- With an analogy existing between Queen Elizabeth I and Richard II, writing on the subject of the latter monarch's reign was both a daring and dangerous thing to do in the last decade of the sixteenth century.  Yet, Shakespeare was able to write his play with a great deal of current political commentary and political theorizing without any extensive repercussion - even after his play was performed on the eve of the Essex Rebellion in 1601.  This contrasts starkly with the fate of Dr. John Hayward, who was imprisoned in 1599 until after the death of Elizabeth for employing the analogy to comment on the politics of the day in his prose history Henry IIII. -- It is the assertion herein that Shakespeare was able to do so because he carefully balanced his play between tragedy and political theory - a balance permitting Richard II to operate as a cautionary tale within the area of functional ambiguity.


identifier: Fowler, Adrian Joseph <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Fowler=3AAdrian_Joseph=3A=3A.html>   (1977) The poetry of marriage, 1575-1625.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

title: The poetry of marriage, 1575-1625

abstract: This thesis is a study of lyric poetry and masques written for weddings.  Both form and content are analysed.  An attempt is made to define the epithalamium in its various manifestations in relation to classical models.  The development of the masque is outlined and the similarities in function between the epithalamium and the wedding masque pointed out.  But it is also realized that literature written for weddings puts forward certain conceptions about matrimony and utilizes certain motifs.  Some of these represent something universal in human experience; others represent a particular age and culture.  I have tried to show how Renaissance writers came to terms with the legacy of formal and thematic conventions which they inherited from the Greeks and Romans, as well as how they reflected their own time in the songs and poems which they wrote for weddings. -- The "Introduction" describes the changes that occurred in the idea of matrimony in 16th. century England and defines three varieties of epithalamium from classical times.  The first chapter, "The Nuptial Songs," surveys the most lyrical of these types in vernacular literature between 1575 and 1625.  The second chapter, "The Literary Lyrics," analyses examples of a more literary kind of epithalamium, represented most notably by Spenser's Epithalamion and Donne's "Epithalamion made at Lincolnes Inn."  The third chapter deals briefly with three examples of the heroic epithalamium.  And the final chapter is a detailed look at the wedding masques performed between 1575 and 1625, in relation to epithalamic tradition as well as contemporary views and attitudes concerning marriage.


identifier: Colbert, Mary Rosalie Ledwell <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Colbert=3AMary_Rosalie_Ledwell=3A=3A.html>   (1986) The portrayal of outport women in selected twentieth century Newfoundland writings.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: Although there has been a dramatic upsurge in the amount of literary material regarding life in outport Newfoundland, little has been done in the area of comparison of fictional and non-fictional portrayals.  This thesis proposes to examine the presentation of outport women in a selected group of fictional works and to assess, the extent to which these portrayals accurately reflect the actual roles of women in the traditional Newfoundland outport. -- Three writers have been selected to present a cross-section of views covering the period from 1900 to 1980.  Norman Duncan, in The Way of The Sea, interprets Newfoundland outport life at the beginning of the twentieth century, presenting women in their traditional roles.  By contrast, Margaret Duley, a Newfoundland woman writing about Newfoundland women, develops in her novels multi-dimensional, female protagonists who reflect a new sense of independence and struggle.  The third writer to be examined is Michael Cook, whose play Theresa's Creed is chosen because the female protagonist is modeled on a real person, living in a specific location in Newfoundland.  This woman, whose values and life patterns were set in the pre-Confederation era, finds herself caught in a tidal wave of change and upheaval of post-Confederation influences. -- The above works, are assessed with reference to a number of non-fictional studies of outport women covering the same time period.  The main sources of reference are:  Hilda Chaulk Murray's More Than 50%, which is an extensive study covering all phases of the outport woman’s life; Dona Lee Davis Blood and Nerves focusing on the southwest coast and covering both pre-and post-confederation times up until the late 1970’s and Ellen Antler’s study, Women's Work in Newfoundland Fishing Families which deals with the traditional role of women in the outport setting and traces it through the effects of cultural and economic change. -- While all three imaginative writers to be examined reflect to some extent the patterns of life experienced by women in the traditional Newfoundland outport as outlined in these sociological studies, significant differences do occur.  These variations can be attributed for the most part both to the attitudes towards women of the respective writers and to the unique personalities of these writers.


identifier: Balsom, Edwin James <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Balsom=3AEdwin_James=3A=3A.html>   (1987) The process of self-discovery in Matt Cohen's novels from Korsoniloff to Flowers of Darkness.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: To read a Matt Cohen novel is to experience a sense of futility and despair followed by a faint sense of confidence in human beings to achieve psychological and spiritual maturity.  His characters are constantly bombarded by familial, amorous, or sociological problems, and are often driven to the brink of confusion with only a glimmer of hope for survival and recovery.  But survive and recover they do, and with an appetite for life that leads them towards self-knowledge and the possibility for self-discovery. -- Regardless of the setting or plot in each novel, the main issue is always the perpetual quest of his pathetic central characters for self-identification.  The sense of futility and despair is engendered by their successive failures to recognize themselves as whole individuals amidst the wreckage of their past lives; they cannot seem to discern the detailed characteristics of their ‘real’ selves because they have always practiced self-deception or allowed themselves to wander aimlessly from relationship to relationship without concern for permanence. -- The sense of confidence in human beings to achieve maturity comes with the characters’ success in mastering their own fears and emotions, and in penetrating the superficial layers of their psyches to glimpse the nature of their true spiritualities.  Although the depth of penetration and the clarity of their perceptions vary with each character, it is the precarious survival of his characters themselves and the possibility for further growth which becomes the trademark for Cohen’s novels.


identifier: Penney, Joan <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Penney=3AJoan=3A=3A.html>   (1986) The literature of the colonized : feminist perspective in the novels of Margaret Duley.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis traces the developing feminist perspective of Newfoundland author Margaret Duley (1894-1968). Her four novels, The Eyes of the Gull (1936), Cold Pastoral (1939), Highway to Valour (1941), and Novelty on Earth (1942), constitute a significant addition to Newfoundland literature and embody a transition from imitation of British tradition to the establishment of Duley's own voice as a Newfoundland woman writer. Duley's novels are clearly feminist in nature, becoming more forceful and outspoken with each new publication.  The feminism of her early novels is exhibited often in the use of imagery such as veils, masks, enclosure, and possession; but she moves in her later writing to forthright   feminist philosophy and the assertion of the autonomy of the heroines.  As an author working in a colonial society, Duley echoes Canadian literary tradition in imitating the literature of Britain as she first begins work as a novelist.  She rapidly  outgrows models of literature in the British male perspective, however, and, like many nineteenth-century female writers, rejects them. She then moves beyond the implications of her imagery to speak openly from a feminist point of view, thus "de-colonizing" her work, both in terms of geography and gender. In establishing her own position as an author, Duley moves from nineteenth to twentieth-century styles and themes in literature, but, without exception, the work that she produces arises from feminist attitudes and perspectives, uniquely rooted in her experiences in Newfoundland.


identifier: Brown, Janice <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Brown=3AJanice=3A=3A.html>   (1993) The seven deadly sins in the work of Dorothy L. Sayers.  Doctoral (PhD) thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: This thesis examines all of the major works of Dorothy L. Sayers in the light of the religious concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, which has been a basic part of Christian theology since the Middle Ages. It is, essentially, a structured way of describing the various facets of the sinful nature which all men share. -- After tracing the historical roots of the concept, and examining Sayers’ personal familiarity with it, the thesis proceeds to review her work chronologically, beginning with her early poetry; moving through her twelve major works of fiction; and ending with the dramas, essays, and lectures written in the last years of her life. -- Sayers’ use of the Seven Deadly Sins in her earlier work, particularly her fiction, is not conscious or deliberate. Instead the concept provides part of the background for her characterization which is based on a Christian view of human nature as a "fallen" nature.  The survey of her detective writing reveals that she considered the worst Sins to be the spiritual, or cold-hearted ones, particularly Pride (the root of all the others), and Envy. -- In the dramatic and discursive works of her later years she is more direct and didactic in her discussion of Sin. The Sin of Sloth becomes a major theme in this period, yet her overall perception of the Seven Deadly Sins is consistent throughout her entire career. -- The impact of Dorothy L. Sayers' work, viewed as a whole, is a powerful one. She was a gifted artist who worked in many genres and addressed many issues, but her achievement is not only a function of her creative skill and her variety and range. What she consistently communicates about Sin - the basic problem of human existence - provides a core of content which has lasting value. It evokes, as she believed artistic work should, a spiritual "response in the lively soul" (The Zeal of Thy House 103).


identifier: Parks, Claudia Susan <https://research.library.mun.ca/view/creator_az/Parks=3AClaudia_Susan=3A=3A.html>   (1976) The solitary dancer : isolation and affirmation in the poetry of Margaret Atwood.  Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

abstract: The poetry of Margaret Atwood reflects an awareness of the isolation of the individual.  This isolation is seen by the persona of Atwood’s poems as the result of the subjectivity of perception, the turning inward onto the self of the data supplied by the senses, and of the conditioned and artificial responses which the individual makes to all external phenomena, whether of the natural world or of the behaviour of other people.  These aspects of the theme of isolation are revealed through the persona's comments on other people, in particular her observations about the male figure who is her unseen companion in the poems and to whom many of the poems are addressed.  However, fear, evasiveness, hostility and resignation also bear a causal relation to the isolation of the individual, and these aspects of the isolation theme are revealed by image patterns in the poems, and by the implied or suggested motives behind what the persona admits and what she will not admit. -- Isolation also inheres in the individual's response to the past.  To the adult persona, the past represents an exclusive and desirable order which is inaccessible in the present.  In the poems which deal with this aspect of isolation, the lack of continuity between past and present is revealed through the imagery as the result of a conscious acceptance of the logical order manifested by the modern world and a rejection of the non-formal element of reality or the non-manifest order of the world. -- The continuing exploration of the nature of the self in Atwood's poetry reveals that the split between past and present is due to the divided nature of man, the split between the ordering conscious mind and the non-formal unconscious. -- Atwood does not resolve the tensions inherent in man's divided nature but, through her persona, she does explore and give voice to the repressed or denied half of the individual.  This acknowledgment of the instinctual, extra-logical side of man's nature provides the changing emphasis necessary in order to make a realistic and yet whole-hearted affirmation of the human condition.  In the poems of affirmation, isolation is not disproved but is seen as singleness, an intrinsic condition of every individual life which does not exclude the possibility of communion.