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Walker Percy's 'The Last Gentleman' contains many allusions to, and similarities with, Thomas Mann's 'The Magic Mountain.' For example, protagonists of both novels are called 'the engineer' and embody man in modern society. The works also satirize science and psychoanalysis. Percy even uses the German title of Mann's work as part of his story. However, Percy crafts an ending which is optimistic and which stresses the value of both spiritual and physical life., In 'Walker Percy's Enchanted Mountain,' Gary M. Ciuba shows that Percy's unpublished novel 'The Gramercy Winner' imitates Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, and mentions in passing that The Last Gentleman's [...]

The postulation of the presence of an omniscient narrator in third-person fiction is unnecessary and the reasons advanced for postulating such a narrator are irrational. Third-person narratives are not a form of fiction with an internal narrator, and are easier to construct than authorial fiction. The characters, not the narrator, communicate with the reader in third-person fiction.

EDUCATORS NATIONWIDE have long been deploring the withering of our students' abilities to read, write, and think critically. Nowhere is this crisis felt more severely than in the Humanities, where [...]

La Fontaine's 17th-century version of the tale of Psyche provides insights into the nature of fiction. La Fontaine's 'Psyche' represents a departure from the then-dominant tradition of heroic romance, particularly because of the hero's absence. Cupidon's concealment reflects a new type of representation which highlights the gap between description and reality. Psyche is also not described directly; her perfection is portrayed in terms of other well-known heroines and, finally, left to the reader's imagination. In addition, the tale is structured to suggest fiction's self-reflecting nature, with the second half mirroring the first.

To his painting The Treason of Images (1928-1929), one of his most infamous weddings of cheek and dread, Rene Magritte assigns the warning 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe.' The joke, [...]

Dasenbrock, Reed Way. 'Anatomies of Internationalism in Tarr and Howards End.' Unpublished paper presented at the 108th MLA convention (28 Dec. 1992). Eksteins, Morris. Rites of Spring: The Great War [...]

Oft from new truths, and new phrase, new doubts grow, As strange attire aliens the men we know. (John Donne, 'To the Countess of Bedford') While reading the conclusion of [...]

When William Golding's Pincher Martin appeared in 1956, it was eagerly received by an audience well prepared for another survival narrative along the lines of Lord of the Flies and [...]

DOES RECENT FLEMISH literary prose tend to be 'postmodern' and its Dutch counterpart more 'classical'? The first part of this introduction covers Dutch literature and the second part covers Flemish [...]

There has been extensive critical debate about the exact time frame of the Boom, which was the period of intensive creative activity in Spanish-American fiction. The 1960s were the peak of Boom fiction but it cannot be limited to the 1960s. Such a limitation would exclude works such as Juan Carlos Onetti's 1950 novel 'La vida breve,' which marked a turning point in Latin American fiction. Onetti's work rejected traditional realism and questioned the nature of reality and the creative process. In doing so it encapsulated the characteristic features of Boom fiction.

Works of fiction have both invented names such as 'Sherlock Holmes' and proper names such as 'London,' though the use of an invented name with a proper name in a sentence does not make that sentence meaningless. Though fictional works do not have standard proposition they have general proposition.

The modern Vietnamese novel originated from the south, and did not revolt against traditional literary values, unlike the novels published in the north. The first modern Vietnamese novelists were influenced by two Sino-Vietnamese literary traditions, namely the 'knight-errant' and the 'scholar-beauty' stories. The 'knight-errant' story involved a knight who would act individually, often rebelling against the established authority, rather than leading great armies into battle. The 'scholar-beauty' stories involve a scholar who meets a beautiful maiden, falls in love, overcomes obstacles, passes official examinations, marries her, and lives happily ever after.

Mariama Ba's novel 'Une si Longue Lettre' portrays two themes of women's displacement in African francophone literature. Traditionally, male writers have dominated the literature creating stereotyped female characters. Mariama Ba depicts the struggle for female identity in a male-dominated social order. The major theme is the woman's challenge to such a society by consciously dissociating herself from such stereotypes. The secondary theme of displacement is the woman's displacement by a patriarchal society.

In 'Linden Hills' Gloria Naylor uses images of food to convey effacement of black identity in African-Americans' attempts to integrate into white society. Inhabitants of Linden Hills are well-educated and successful. However, the price they pay for white social integration is cultural malnourishment and loss of identity. Food images reflect the spiritual poverty of their chosen existence. For example, foods such as pork ribs, hog maws, collard greens and deep-fried catfish are rejected in favour of foods such as marinated shrimp, caviar and stuffed artichokes.

Charles Kingsley and H.G. Wells contrast with most Victorian writers in their positive portrayal of machines. Machines assume a central role in Kingsley's 'The Water-Babies' and in Wells' 'The Time Machine' and 'The War of the Worlds.' These works also reflect a changing appreciation of machines. Kingsley emphasised a merging of the mechanical with the natural order for a greater good. He considered the benefit of machines as they existed in the Victorian Age. Wells considered future possibilities of machines through inventions.

The Xu Xiyou ji (Sequel to the Westward Journey) is one of four traditional Chinese vernacular novels associated with the legendary journey to India by Xuanzang and his disciples in the seventh century. It is a work that was little known in China or elsewhere until its publication in two modern typeset editions in 1986. As its title indicates, this is a sequel (xu) to the Xiyou ji (Record of the Westward Journey), although there is some question about which version of the parent novel served as its progenitor. It is a work in 100 chapters, which tells of the return journey of Xuanzang and his disciples from the Western Paradise back to China. Although the Xu Xiyou ji is highly imitative of its parent novel, close examination of its text shows that the author was significantly original and creative, even within the narrow constraints of the sequel format. This is the only work in the Westward Journey tradition to satirize Sun Wukong, better known to English readers as Monkey. Monkey is ridiculed for his failure to follow the basics of what the author perceives as correct Buddhist doctrine. The work promotes a kind of radical passivism unique in the Chinese tradition. Coupled with this is an emphasis on forgiveness, an emphasis rarely seen in a literary tradition dominated by ideas of reciprocity., THE XU XIYOU JI IS ONE OF FOUR traditional Chinese vernacular novels associated with the legendary journey to India by Xuanzang and his disciples in the seventh century.(1) The four [...]

Willy Loman, the tragic hero of Miller's Death of a Salesman, powerfully illustrates self psychology principles governing profound deficits, shame, and the possibilities of self-restoration. When conditions of birth and upbringing are unsuited to establishment of a strong self structure, an adult is unable to maintain psychological equilibrium, most often experiencing profound shame as a consequence. Heinz Kohut's self psychology framework, and Andrew Morrison's definition of shame, are invoked to examine Willy's self, his increasing awareness of shame, and ultimately his choice of suicide. Willy Loman serves as a dramatic, if hypothetical, case study. Accurately described by self psychology, he is authentic to the lay audience; he reaffirms an inherent strength in self psychology theory, reducing the distance between theoretical appreciation and clinical application.

In Japan and in Germany the aftermath of World War II brought a preoccupation with the destruction of monuments (both real and fictional) by fire. In 1950, in the city [...]

Edith Wharton's 'Mrs. Manstey's View' and 'Duration' demonstrate her theme of imprisonment and the techniques she uses to portray her captive characters. In both stories Wharton presents her imprisonment theme through tantalizing beginnings, surprise endings, extended flashbacks, penetrating monologues, vibrant dialogues, dramatic irony, biting satire and symbolic settings as well as the enclosed space. 'Mrs. Manstey's View' has Mrs. Manstey as a semi-invalid confined in her New York City boardinghouse while 'Duration' also portrays the protagonist, Martha Little, as a prisoner in her enclosed space.

Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse' presents the complex relation of self with language, gender, community and being. The novel has parts which cannot be unequivocably designated as the consciousness of any single character which implies a dissolution of the boundaries of the ego and the ability to merge with the consciousness of others and the external world. This allows for the portrayal of consciousness as severed from self. They reveal the form of a self without an identity, waiting to be filled with a character.

Charlotte Bronte's 'Villette' portrays the home in a seemingly complicated and oppositional relationship with the self. This is done through the context of disjunction which stipulates that Lucy Snowe will have to choose between a self-sacrificing marital home and a self-serving educational establishment. Lucy indicates that the domestic ideal does not stem from romance or the egocentric concerns of a sexual relationship but from something more communitarian. This exclusion of the sexual in the marital household reflects the exclusion from the home of personal intentions.

Joseph Conrad's 'The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' demonstrates the author's mastery of his craft. The novel marks a significant phase in Conrad's career since it heralds the end of his apprenticeship by demonstrating his mastery of aesthetic and rhetorical skills. The text demonstrates his mastery in the overall performance of narrative structure as well as in the handling of dialogue, characterization, setting and ethical significance. Moreover, the racism in the novel is a reflection of the story's authenticity since it acknowledges the reality of the era's class structure.

In 1996, Granta published the 'Best of Young American Novelists' issue, and this list has been famous ever since. The Twenty under Forty have had varying degrees of success, and [...]

'Imagining' the community, a process made familiar in Benedict Anderson's analysis of the historical rise of the idea of 'the nation,' informs an understanding of local communities as well. Using the characteristics of the Nigerian village novel and the literary system underlying this genre, I show how a common picture of African rural life before and after the colonial encounter has been molded by the exigencies of literary production. A popular remnant of social science's old tradition versus modernity dichotomy, mediated by British publishers acting as gatekeepers for African literature, has developed and sustained a Nigerian literary genre, highly influential in the West, that is at odds with the intentions of most Nigerian authors. The case of the village novel demonstrates the impact of global cultural production systems on aesthetic creation, as well as the interplay between social fictions and literary fictions.

The novel 'Troubles' by J.G. Farrell expresses the opposing elements of life lived in the middle of historical change through its carnivalesque form. Analysed through Mikhail Bakhtin's carnival theory, the various aspects of the novel's community are revealed in the struggle between the continuity of the past and the change of the future. The lives of the characters are framed between these contradictions, and the dualistic image of the carnival is played out with its laughter and tears, triviality and depth.

Mainstream fiction must reflect real life if it is to become popular again. Mainstream writing has become isolated in the academic ghetto while popular fiction has stuck to unrealistic generic formulas such as heroic violence and courtly love. Academic fiction tends to become abstract puzzles instead of writing which engages the meaning of readers' lives. That meaning, and subsequent reader interest, can only come from reality.

Anatolij Kim's recent novel 'Otec-les' addresses a wide range of philosophical, historical and aesthetic issues using cyclical, emblematic and mythical patterns. The novel offers unusual ways of perceiving reality and human existence through a composite of realistic episodes and mythic as well as religious beliefs. It also addresses ontological, ecological, psychological and historical concerns which reveals the unending relationship between humans and other living things. Thus, 'Otec-les' provides philosophical challenges in unique and fascinating ways.

Fyodor Dostoyvsky's novel 'Notes from the Underground' reflects Old Testament lamentations and suggests the protagonist's longing for God as well as the author's criticism of secular morality. In the context of Biblical references, the Undergound Man's disdain of monumental grandeur signifies the Biblical curse on Babylon and the forty years referred to in several contexts reflects the Biblical lamentation of wandering in the wilderness. These references in part one as well as the non-theoretical stance of part two indicate Dostoevskij's belief in religion and his condemnation of secular existentialism.

The international theme of Henry James' novel 'Lady Barberina' is analyzed in the presentation of incompatibilities between the English aristocracy of blood and the American aristocracy of wealth through comparisons of national characteristics as well as individual personalities. The contrasts can be seen in the leisure time, conservative nature and evasiveness of the English aristocrats and the purposeful, democratic and articulate nature of the Americans. Through these issues insight is derived into the nature of alien societies and the efforts of adaptation by the foreigner.

Anthony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time' may appear void of ideological commitment as a reflection of Powell's avoidance of any ideological stance, however, an implicit political ideology is revealed upon deeper analysis. The author's use of the upper classes as symbols of traditional values threatened by change and of the lower classes as the perpetrators of that change show his negative attitude toward progress in society. Powell's abhorrence of change is further revealed by his insistence on the perpetuation of traits rather than the creation of totally new types.

American book collector Montgomery Evans' collection of letters written to him by fantasy writer Arthur Machen from the 1920s until Machen's death in 1947 tells of the filial and fannish relationship that existed between the two men. The correspondence between Machen and Evans also tells us about the reluctance of both men to come to terms with the changes brought about by World War I and the relationship between the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

The ideological interpretation of George Gising's works by John Sloan in his recent 'George Gising: The Cultural Challenge' is too limiting since it focuses solely on the political significance of Gising's works denying the artistic influence of the author's personality and life on his literature. Sloan's interpretation is based on the relation between literature and society as shown in the writer's literary techniques. However, this omits the significance of the artist in his art, an influence which can be seen in the combination of acute personal insight and coherent literary expression of Gising's best works.