Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1992

Thesis Director

Robert W. Funk

Abstract

This study meets three primary objectives.

First, it demonstrates how rhetorical theory and Iiterary criticism are compatible fields of study and explains how Ernest Bormann's rhetorical theory based on "fantasy-theme analysis" can be used as an appropriate method for the analysis of literary works.

Secondly, this study identifies a trend in late Nineteenth Century "adventure stories" in which travel to foreign lands and European influence on the cultures of those lands is portrayed as "good" and "philanthropic."

Finally, this study concludes with a fantasy-theme analysis of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness which reveals that Conrad's adventure fiction breaks away from the established trends of other adventure writers. Through the fantasy chains within this work, Conrad suggests that European involvement in foreign cultures is harmful to those cultures as well as the individual Europeans involved.

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