| dc.contributor.author | Stojkovic, Tijana. | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-10-21T12:37:25Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2003 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2003 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.other | AAINQ89818 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10222/54625 | |
| dc.description | Starting from an interest in the concept of the plain style in literature and its place in the twentieth century, this study focuses on Philip Larkin as one of the most eminent English modern plain stylists. The two general goals of the thesis are an examination of the controversial genre of the plain style, with its ramifications in modern literature, and a consideration of Larkin's poetry in the midst of the plain-style literary framework. | en_US |
| dc.description | The notion of the plain style is first examined from a theoretical and a historical point of view. The discussion of the style's general linguistic and literary properties focuses on its frequent definition through an opposition to the difficult style and on the controversies related to its epistemological, ideological and aesthetic qualities. A brief historical overview of the origin and the development of the long-standing traditions of the plain style in literature suggests a cluster of the core elements featured in most manifestations of the style. Together with an outline of Larkin's provisional artistic theory and an examination of the specific cultural and historical factors (e.g. pro-democratic post-war Welfare State), this part of the research contextualizes Larkin's work and establishes the key concepts guiding the subsequent investigation. | en_US |
| dc.description | Under the basic categories of Rhetoric and Themes, a close-textual analysis of Larkin's poetry reveals those of Larkin's writing strategies which either contribute to or complicate his plainness. Concepts such as "narrative composition," "empiricism," "analytical thought," and "tone of voice" in Rhetoric, and "common man," "commercialized age," "community and traditions," etc. in Themes are explored within specific poems. Particular attention is paid to instances of "unplainness" in Larkin, with the ultimate goal of determining whether plain-style poetry can accommodate complexity (such as ambiguity, contradiction, or tension) without causing difficulty. | en_US |
| dc.description | Finally, the thesis assesses Larkin's work within the plain-style traditions, suggesting the ways in which he further develops such traditions while simultaneously reflecting his own environment and influences, with his peculiar blend of the old (classicism) and the new (modernism). Looking at the prerequisites for literary plainness and at the twentieth-century literary context, the thesis works towards a description of the aesthetics of the plain style in poetry. | en_US |
| dc.description | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada), 2003. | en_US |
| dc.language | eng | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Dalhousie University | en_US |
| dc.publisher | | en_US |
| dc.subject | Literature, English. | en_US |
| dc.title | "Unnoticed in the casual light of day": Philip Larkin and the plain style. | en_US |
| dc.type | text | en_US |
| dc.contributor.degree | Ph.D. | en_US |
