Ambrose Bierce As Fabulist: Controlling the Moment
AMBROSE BIERCE AS FABULIST: CONTROLLING THE MOMENT by DONNA SUE CHRISTOPHER INGHAM, B.A., M.A, A DISSERTATION IN ENGLISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved May, 1992 §01 '^^^-<?927;2 Copyright 1992, Donna Sue Christopher Ingham ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To committee members Dr. Michael Schoenecke, Dr. Bar bara Rodman, and, especially, to chairman Dr. Patrick Shaw, I acknowledge my gratitude and indebtedness. Throughout the writing process they were supportive as well as con structively critical, and Dr. Shaw, in particular, was efficient without being impatient, demanding without being demeaning. I must mention also two friends. Dr. Kim Smith, a colleague who read manuscript and shared linguistic ex pertise, and Dr. Barbara McDougal, a role model and gra cious hostess who provided a port in the occasional storm in Lubbock. Finally, and most importantly, I thank my husband and chief research assistant, Jerry, and my son, Christopher, without whose love and encouragement I would never have started this whole project in the first place. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT IV CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. FABLE: A DEFINITION 16 III. AMBROSE BIERCE: A FABULIST 36 IV. CONTROL: A CONSTANT 98 V. SUMMARY AND SIGNIFICANCE 138 WORKS CITED 197 111 111 ABSTRACT This is a study of Ambrose Gwinett Bierce (1842- 1914?), a journalist, satirist, and fiction writer during the last three decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century. As part of his narrative output, he turned to fables and produced over 300 of them, attracted to the fable form apparently because it offered him a medium for control of style, tone, and reader response.
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