https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/4344 Sat, 18 Apr 2026 07:03:45 GMT 2026-04-18T07:03:45Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/102225 Title: Infertility in science fiction Abstract: This dissertation attempts a comprehensive and historical poetics of infertility in science fiction through a process of thematic and narratological typologisation, cross verifying various aspects of science in the genre with current and possible future trends. This work is particularly opportune in the contemporary critical climate, with an upsurge of critical attention in the genre in the midst of a renewed interest in interdisciplinarity, and with science fiction studies becoming increasingly present on the academic curriculum. The intersection of science fiction and medicine is vast and therefore an inescapably narrowing approach has been adopted, focussing almost exclusively on aspects of the genre that commingle infertility with science fiction, using thematic and narratological approaches. This methodology is indicative in obtaining a representative sample of the many attributes that are almost universally represented in the wider genre: the postulation of a novum and the resulting threat (such as infertility in the case of this dissertation, on an individual or racial scope) or adventure that is successfully dealt with by dint of team effort, loyalty, courage and leadership. While some of these fictional tropes and recycled devices may appear trite and cliched, authors continue to create innovative, intertextual and invigorating stories that challenge the reader's very ability to suspend disbelief. That much was never in doubt but the dissertation attempts to draw attention also to the further implications of this in literary studies generally and science fiction studies more particularly. The commonest trope that emerges from these narratives is that of the cautionary tale, and of how the excessive and Frankensteinian desire to wrest nature's secrets, suggests that hubris must meet tragedy. Yet another trope that has emerged is that of the almost fairy tale happy ending. Both of these tropes are expected by habitual SF readers in this inherently interdisciplinary genre which routinely and debonairly goes where no man has gone before. Description: PH.D.ENGLISH Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/102225 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101269 Title: The mystery of things : a Girardian reading of Shakespearean tragedy Abstract: Amongst the many recent and conflicting approaches to Shakespeare's works which one critic has aptly characterized as the 'balkanization' of Shakespearean studies, the still though hardly small voice of Rene Girard and his approach to Shakespeare's works have largely and unfairly gone unnoticed. His own most extensive exploration of the plays, contained in the book A Theatre of Envy, has not been taken up and elaborated in mainstream Shakespearean scholarship and remains strangely neglected if not studiously ignored by most critics. Indeed Girard's self-styled 'neo-mimetic' approach to Shakespeare's texts, barring his own book, still remains a largely 'undiscovered country' which few have ventured into, much less returned from to celebrate or complain. There have been some isolated cases of critics like Harry Berger Jr., James Calderwood and Naomi Conn Liebler who have utilized Girardian insights in their meta-theatrical speculations about Shakespearean drama and their interpretation of individual plays, yet no one has so far attempted a rigorous and systematic application of the Girardian theoretical model to the plays, in particular to the major tragedies. Girard himself was self-confessedly selective in his choice of the plays he treated, claiming it was largely dictated by illustrative, utilitarian and logistic reasons: Another problem was choosing the plays and specific scenes that would illustrate my discussion. This was an embarrass de richesse. I selected not the richest texts necessarily, but the most straightforward for my purpose. As a rule they are the first dramatization of whichever mimetic configuration they illustrate. This mode of selection explains why the plays about which I say little or nothing are often located at the end of the period in which the author cultivated the particular genre to which they belong ... In effect, except for a quite extensive treatment of Julius Caesar, a single chapter on Hamlet and a few scattered pages on some of the other tragedies, most of the tragedies are almost totally ignored. This is what inspired and gave impetus to the idea behind this thesis, which attempts to fill this lacuna in recent criticism by attempting to apply systematically and rigorously Girard's neo-mimetic approach to Shakespearean tragedy, focusing in particular on the classical four major ones: King Lear, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth. Why tragedy and why these four? Aside from the more prosaic reason of limitations of length imposed by a doctoral thesis, there 1s their obvious 'canonical' status as being perhaps Shakespeare's supreme achievements in the genre conferred on them not just by Bradley but by most critics. Another strategically convenient explanation is that, with the exception of the single chapter on Hamlet, Girard himself has commented too briefly or not at all on the other three tragedies; they belong to the middle or_ 'the end of the period in which the author cultivated the particular genre' of tragedy that he programmatically underplayed. A more critically cogent reason is that the two major pillars of Girardian theory, namely mimetic desire and the scapegoat mechanism, together with the central role they play in the genesis and dynamics of human culture, arguably lend themselves more readily to the tragic genre, with its intense focus on the exploration of interpersonal and social conflicts and their devastating consequences that are often dramatically 'resolved' through some violent form of explicit or implicit victimage. A further reason is that in these later 'tragedies of consciousness' the arena of inwardness and subjectivity, starting with Hamlet, is infinitely richer and more complex and yields greater scope to the subtle exploration of mimetic desire and its conflictual aftermaths, within and around the hero, than in the earlier tragedies. Description: PH.D. Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/101269 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/87006 Title: The handmaid's tale : a pedagogical stylistic approach Abstract: A recent development in the field of stylistics has been the interest in its pedagogical applications, as a tool to increase the awareness regarding linguistic application in literature, and thus to enable a point of entry into texts for students as a means of engendering interpretation. This dissertation sets out to show how this can be applied to the local setting, with particular focus at sixth form level, specifically in the preparation for the MATSEC Advanced level examination in English. The area specified being quite broad, only one section of the examination paper was focused on, that is Paper 2, which deals with prose texts. Moreover, in order for the analysis and subsequent application to be in-depth and comprehensively relevant, one novel was looked at within this study, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. The examination candidates' scripts were employed in order to identify gaps in the students' knowledge which needed addressing. The findings of the candidates' scripts' perusal indicated that areas which candidates felt challenged by were the novel's narrative structure, the point of view employed and the grammatical tenses used throughout the novel. These issues were especially pertinent vis-a-vis the epilogue of the novel, that is, the 'Historical Notes'. Such gaps having been identified, an in-depth analysis of stylistic features pertinent to the said gaps was carried out. The material from the analysis was subsequently employed to construct a pedagogical apparatus for the teaching of the novel to students in preparation for the examination. Therefore, it can be seen that the apparatus was designed with candidates' actual difficulties in mind, and is, therefore, felt to be applicable and relevant to the local context. A detailed rationale has also been included which outlines step by step the thought-process involved in the selection and design of each task. Description: B.A.(HONS)ENGLISH Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/87006 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/86955 Title: Contemporary library architecture as event : a cultural study Abstract: The public library is at a crossroads. Whereas for much of the past century and a half, public libraries held a deeply-rooted and defined role as a house of knowledge, they are now undergoing rapid and sometimes volatile changes. Indeed, some have characterised the present moment as a crisis which will result in the extinction of the library. As digital technologies rapidly diffuse, the library's essential identity is continually questioned. Perhaps one of the most lingering concerns is the question: 'Why spend millions in constructing elaborate buildings to house printed books when a quick online search can provide access to the knowledge one seeks from the comfort of one's home?' In acknowledging the validity of such challenges, this dissertation examines the public library from a critical lens. It brings to bear a variety of viewpoints and arguments which highlight the ways in which the institution has evolved in spite (or perhaps because) of these changes. Rather than allowing the crisis to overcome them, many contemporary libraries have focused on their unique features as an advantage; their very physical structure and their potential for becoming the central gathering and educational spaces for an urban community. For these reasons, the following study approaches the public library as a cultural and architectural text which is worthy of academic study due to its potential in encouraging intellectual stimulation. The overall aim of the dissertation is twofold: to uncover the value and the full potential of the physical public library in the contemporary age; and to uncover possible trajectories for the public library of the future. These arguments inform the method of argumentation which draws together a variety of philosophical, architectural and theoretical works. Description: B.A.(HONS)ENGLISH Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/86955 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z