3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Alternative times: temporalities in the alternative histories of Philip Roth, Martin Amis, and Quentin Tarantino(2017) Van Wyk, KarlThe publication of alternative history fiction increased greatly after World War II, the war itself having become one of the mode’s most popular subjects. In recent years several acclaimed authors and filmmakers have constructed their own World War II alternative histories, thus providing the mode with increased academic at tention. This study focuses on Philip Roth’s fictional memoir The Plot Against America, Martin Amis’s novel Time’s Arrow, and Quentin Tarantino’s film Inglouri ous Basterds. These texts are also read against more typical instantiations of the mode to demonstrate how they may or may not deviate from an assumed norm. This will be done with particular focus on formulations of temporality as it is rep resented within alternative history. That time, among other matters, is among this study’s central concerns is reflected in this project’s structure. In the Introduction existing definitions of the mode are critiqued, and new definitions offered. There after, the study is divided into four parts, with parts one (Pasts), two (Presents), and three (Futures) offering discussions on how these conventional temporal de marcations are portrayed in the primary texts. “Part 1: Pasts” discusses the texts’ subversive representations of World War II. This section interrogates whether such subversions of history may open the primary texts to accusations of Holocaust de nial and historical relativism. “Part 2: Presents” demonstrates how understandings of the past come to influence understandings of the present. This section is also concerned with how a traumatic past both constructs characters’ present identity and may alter their perception of the past from the vantage point of their present. And “Part 3: Futures” discusses how certain characters’ ability to rethink the past, or narrate alternative histories, may inform their ability to imagine future possi bilities. Before offering a conclusion, “Part 4: Pasts, Presents, Futures” proposes that the primary texts, and alternative histories more generally, destabilise the common temporal nodes as they may be understood within the context of causal ity. Also, using Paul Ricoeur’s theories of narrative time, particularly mimesis 1 , mimesis 2 , and mimesis 3 , this section argues that past, present, and future proliferate within the context of alternative histories. This is particularly true when understanding the readers’ time as read against the time of the text, and also demonstrates how alternative histories may offer ways of thinking about alterna tive temporalities.Item Different natures: an ecocritical analysis of selected films by Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog and Sean Penn(2012-07-31) Van Wyk, KarlHumanity’s relationship with nature has, in recent years, undoubtedly been one of contention and turmoil, an issue whose drama is gaining popularity in popular culture and, especially, film. In this dissertation I examine how these challenging human-nature relationships play out in Terrence Malick’s The New World, Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World, Sean Penn’s Into the Wild, and the Jon Krakauer book, of the same title, upon which Penn’s film is based. As one’s views on nature (like all else) are mediated through language, using ecocritical principles slanted towards filmic, as opposed to written, texts, I provide a close examination of the ways in which these artists portray the relationship between language and nature, and the impact this has on our cultural and individual identities. I will also show how these primary texts make use of centuries-old Romantic aesthetics in order to humanise nature for moral ends. The primary texts agree that a large part of the problem in the poor relationship between humanity and nature is due to inadequate metaphors with which humanity views the earth. Thus, each artist promotes a certain kind of anthropomorphic understanding of nature which he believes is pivotal in encouraging better interconnections between humanity and nature. As a result, I provide a critique of the kinds of metaphors used by each respective artist, where some metaphors of nature may support or contradict a certain artist’s aims in his portrayal of human-nature relationships.