Date of Award

3-1969

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Literatures, Languages, and Cultures

First Advisor

William J. Farrell

Second Advisor

Joseph Schwartz

Abstract

Though there is little controversy as to the literary greatness of Samuel Johnson's Rasselas, there is much divergence of opinion as to its underlying principle of organization. The multiplicity of gen­eric labels given to Rasselas is due to this divergence in critical focus. Labels for Rasselas vary from comedy to tragedy, from sermon to novel, from apologue to allegory, and from satire to romance. Such variety in generic assertions need not imply disorganization and am­biguity in the work itself. Nor need it imply that one critic's label­ing must exclude the significance of the other critics' assertions. Rather this uncertainty with regard to naming the genre of Rasselas may point to a high degree of artistic complexity within the work it­ self. And it may indicate that the critics differ because they are concentrating on individual aspects of this complexity rather than on the unifying principle of organization.

Comments

Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of English Marquette University. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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