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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Man Thinking about Nature: The Evolution of the Poet's Form and Function in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau 1837-1852

Bagley, S H
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1411121082

Abstract Details

2006, BA, Oberlin College, English.
The real question at hand with the study of any work of prose literature is not related at all to the textual contents-the who, the what and the how that comprise its narrative-but the why. The attempt to understand the reasons behind the events described is often undergone in conjunction with a degree of considering the author's own role or purpose in the given written endeavor. These considerations are framed in their relationship to the reader, forcing the reader to become an active participant in something which amounts to an interaction with a text. This three-step process is, at bottom, the process by which an academic studies a written work. It describes the fundamental relation of author-to-text-to-reader, and leads to one idea: at bottom, the purpose for studying a literary work is not merely to reflect upon the text itself, but the text in relation to whoever is studying it. When a reader considers the text in relation to himself, what the reader is implicitly doing is examining himself in relation to a larger meaning, a meaning which is derived from recognition of this larger system created in the relationship between text and reader.
T. S. McMillin (Advisor)
49 p.
Literature
prose; literature; Henry David Thoreau; Journal;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bagley, S. H. (2006). Man Thinking about Nature: The Evolution of the Poet's Form and Function in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau 1837-1852 [Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1411121082

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bagley, S. Man Thinking about Nature: The Evolution of the Poet's Form and Function in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau 1837-1852. 2006. Oberlin College, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1411121082.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bagley, S. "Man Thinking about Nature: The Evolution of the Poet's Form and Function in the Journal of Henry David Thoreau 1837-1852." Undergraduate thesis, Oberlin College, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1411121082

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

oberlin1411121082
343
© 2006, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Oberlin College Honors Theses and OhioLINK.