https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/5180 2026-04-24T07:36:56Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/81085 Title: The gothic tradition in children's literature : Neil Gaiman's ‘Coraline’ and Lewis Carroll's ‘Alice's adventures in Wonderland’ Abstract: The idea of children's literature being connected to the Gothic genre is one that some people could not easily accept or even comprehend, because the thought of children being associated with a genre that deals with themes of darkness, fear and oppression is one which tends to make people uncomfortable. Most adults would rather believe that the child is a perfect and pure creature with no problems, worries or fear of their own. Children have for a long time been considered as the ultimate symbol of innocence, and this connection with the Gothic threatens the ideal. This thesis deals with certain elements which help make up the Gothic genre, but which may also be found in children's texts, looking at such characteristics as the carnivalesque and its past in the masquerade, and how this past has helped bring about the theme of chaos. It also looks at the Freudian theory of the uncanny, connecting it to fear and anxiety. These characteristics are then connected to the child and how adults have perceived children through the centuries. This paper also looks at the female in the Gothic genre and how girls are represented through the Gothic in children's literature. The Gothic is also looked at in terms of modern film, and how this medium can help emphasize certain elements. Description: B.A.(HONS)ENGLISH 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/73698 Title: Common spoken errors in English by native speakers of Arabic/ L1 Arabic speakers Abstract: This work consists of an analysis of common grammatical errors made by a sample of 30 Arab speakers of English who are currently studying at the University of Malta and who were interviewed for this study. The participants in this study come from Libya and Kuwait. They are following various degree courses in: English, Medicine, Science, and Engineering. The study of grammatical errors was based on analysing the transcript of 30 interviews taken as a sample and selected from the target population. The results showed that the three most frequent types of errors were in the use of tenses, articles and prepositions. Among the major findings of this study were the following: Arab speakers of English find the past tense to be the most difficult English tense form to master. Also, the findings indicate that the English tense causes more problems for Arab speakers than prepositions and articles. In addition, the number of errors ascribed to insufficient mastery in the target language itself exceed the number of errors related to mother tongue interference. In terms of the possible causes of errors identified in this study, negative transfer (interlingual) from the first language (Arabic) to the second language (English) and the difficulty in the target language itself (intralingual) such as overgeneralisation, ignorance of rules restriction, incomplete application of rules and false concepts hypothesized seem to be the most common sources of errors. Description: M.A.ENGLISH 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/7718 Title: 'A billion times told lovelier' : the struggle for correspondence in Gerard Manley Hopkins's poetry Abstract: This dissertation sets out to explore Gerard Manley Hopkins‘s struggle to find pattern and unity against the background of his acute awareness of the manifold variety of nature, and how this struggle is played out in his poetry. The relation between these two contrasting aspects of his sensibility shaped his thought, as shown by the writings in his early notebooks and journals. Moreover, this relation was defined by his struggle to establish a connection with God, which he describes as ‗the wish to correspond‘, ‗the life and spirit of man‘. My research tries to understand the way Hopkins attempts to write poetry which does justice to his vision. The first chapter of the dissertation focuses on the nature of the relation Hopkins perceives between unity and ‗piedness‘, through his journals and papers, analysing the background against which he starts to write his mature poetry. Hopkins‘s distinctive concept of inscape, which is at the basis of his vision, is examined. The second chapter seeks to investigate the ways in which Hopkins attempts to write in a language which could carry his vision of a unity achieved through ‗piedness‘ into poetry. In the third chapter, I attempt to trace the way the tranquillity of his earliest poetry, which is characterised by a desire to withdraw from the world to be closer to God, gives way to a poetry which struggles to achieve a connection with God through the very dissonance and multiplicity of that world. Hopkins senses that looking closely at the ‗selves‘ of individual objects of nature is the only way in which he can hope to achieve a truthful correspondence with God, and this is reflected in the rich and distinctive language of his poetry. The fourth chapter of this dissertation seeks to investigate the poems in which Hopkins deals with the distinctiveness of his own self: 'more distinctive and higher pitched than anything else I see.‘ The patterns of his previous poems seem to break down, leaving the poet trapped in his own self-enclosure. The struggle for unity seems to have led to a painful awareness of the jarring of the self with what is outside it, rather than to a connection with God, yet is this jarring all that is left at the end of Hopkins‘s poetic trajectory? My research attempts to explore whether Hopkins‘s poetry allows for the possibility of a vision of unity which does not discard the dazzling variety Hopkins perceived in the world. Description: M.A. ENGLISH 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/7715 Title: Idle writing and emptiness : Roland Barthes's studies on Japan and Haiku Abstract: The purpose of this project will be to investigate Roland Barthes's studies on Japan and Haiku. The main texts of his that I will be dealing with are Empire of Signs and The Preparation of the Novel with frequent references to other texts of his as well as relevant secondary readings. I intend to look at how Barthes looks at Japan as a world that offers a different look at familiar signs, and in so doing, he attempts to reinterpret the genre of travel literature in a way that provides him a fresh opportunity for writing. The emphasis will be on Barthes's personal preference and reading of haiku as a form of poetry that attempts to reduce the effects of metalanguage, commentary, etc., while also providing a new mode of writing that lays the ground for novel writing. Furthermore, I will investigate to what extent the idea of a positive form of idleness as well as the notions of space/interval (間) and emptiness/void (無) are pervasive throughout Barthes's works on the orient. Finally, I will shed light on Barthes's endless personal struggles he increasingly faced in expressing his desire to write a novel and how his studies on the Orient and haiku were stepping stones in his ongoing project. Description: M.A. ENGLISH 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z