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Weather Images in Canadian Short Prose 1945-2000 Phd Dissertation

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Weather Images in Canadian Short Prose 1945-2000 Phd Dissertation But a Few Acres of Snow? − Weather Images in Canadian Short Prose 1945-2000 PhD Dissertation Judit Nagy Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere and heartfelt thanks to my advisor and director of the Modern English and American Literature, Dr. Aladár Sarbu for his professional support, valuable insights and informative courses, which all markedly prompted the completion of my dissertation. I would also thank Dr. Anna Jakabfi for her assistance with the Canadian content of the dissertation, the cornucopia of short stories she has provided me with, and for her painstaking endeavours to continually update the Canadian Studies section of the ELTE-SEAS library with books that were indispensable for my research. I am also grateful to Dr. Istán Géher, Dr. Géza Kállay, Dr. Péter Dávidházi and Dr. Judit Friedrich, whose courses inspired many of the ideas put forward in the second chapter of the dissertation (“Short Story Text and Weather Image”). I would also like to express my gratitude to the Central European Association of Canadian Studies for the conference grant that made it possible for me to deliver a presentation in the topic of my dissertation at the 2nd IASA Congress and Conference in Ottawa in 2005, to the Embassy of Canada in Hungary, especially Robert Hage, Pierre Guimond, Agnes Pust, Yvon Turcotte, Katalin Csoma and Enikő Lantos, for their on-going support, to the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and Environment Canada for providing me with materials and information regarding the geographical-climatological findings included in my dissertation, and, last but not least, to the chief organisers of the “Canada in the European Mind” series of conferences, Dr. Judit Molnár and Dr. Péter Szaffkó (University of Debrecen) for providing me with a wonderful forum to exchange ideas with other Central European Canadianists on the subject of my dissertation. Dr. Sándor Martsa and Dr. Sárosdyné Dr. Judit Szabó, former and current heads of the Department of Linguistics at the Faculty of Arts of Károli University also deserve credit for financially supporting my participation at various dissertation-related conferences and for their continuous encouragement of my scholarly ambitions. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their patience, understanding and for all efforts invested in facilitating me to complete my dissertation, and, in particular, my husband, Mátyás for taking over the chores I was supposed to do around the house and for helping out with my batch of academic tasks at Károli University. 2 Table of Contents Chapter 1 − Introduction .................................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2 − Short Story Text and Weather Image ......................................................................... 13 2.1 Approach to the short story texts.......................................................................................... 13 2.2 Characteristic features of the short story and its Canadian variety of potential relevance to weather depiction ....................................................................................................................... 16 2.2.1 Weather-related short story themes............................................................................... 17 2.2.2 Style .............................................................................................................................. 25 2.2.3 Technique...................................................................................................................... 27 2.2.4 Length ........................................................................................................................... 32 2.3 Image.................................................................................................................................... 36 2.3.1 Image in literature ......................................................................................................... 36 2.3.2. Image in linguistics ...................................................................................................... 38 2.4 Hypotheses ........................................................................................................................... 45 2.4.1 Frequency of weather images........................................................................................ 45 2.4.2 More than just ornamentation ....................................................................................... 45 2.4.3 From local to universal ................................................................................................. 46 2.4.4 The existence of a regional code................................................................................... 46 2.4.5 Women writers’ use of weather images ........................................................................ 46 2.4.6 The weather-emotion function ...................................................................................... 46 2.4.7 Weather image quality .................................................................................................. 47 Chapter 3 − The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories Project......................................... 48 3.1 The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English ............................................. 48 3.2 Proposed points of observation ............................................................................................ 50 3.2.1. Quantitative markers .................................................................................................... 51 3.2.1.1 Regional distribution.............................................................................................. 51 3.2.1.2 Rural versus urban ................................................................................................. 51 3.2.1.3 Temporal distribution............................................................................................. 51 3.2.2 Qualitative markers ....................................................................................................... 51 3.2.2.1 Degree of abstraction ............................................................................................. 52 3.2.2.2 Image role .............................................................................................................. 53 3.2.2.3 Polarity................................................................................................................... 53 3.2.2.4 Weather images and Atwood’s victim theory........................................................ 55 3.3 Overall results of the survey................................................................................................. 55 3.3.1 Quantitative results ....................................................................................................... 55 3.3.1.1 Regional distribution.............................................................................................. 55 3.3.1.2 Rural versus urban ................................................................................................. 56 3.3.1.3 Temporal distribution............................................................................................. 57 3.3.1.4 Image distribution within the sample..................................................................... 57 3.3.2 Qualitative results ......................................................................................................... 61 3.3.2.1 Degree of abstraction ............................................................................................. 61 3.3.2.2 Image role .............................................................................................................. 61 3.3.2.3 Central versus marginal ......................................................................................... 62 3.3.2.4 Polarity................................................................................................................... 63 3.3.2.5 Victim theory ......................................................................................................... 64 3.4 The detailed analysis ............................................................................................................ 66 3.4.1 Clouds ........................................................................................................................... 66 3.4.1.1 Quantitative markers.............................................................................................. 66 3.4.1.1.1 Regional distribution ...................................................................................... 67 3.4.1.1.2 Rural versus urban .......................................................................................... 67 3.4.1.1.3 Temporal distribution ..................................................................................... 68 3.4.1.2 Qualitative markers................................................................................................ 69 3.4.1.2.1 Degree of abstraction...................................................................................... 69 3.4.1.2.2 Image role ....................................................................................................... 69 3.4.1.2.3 Central versus marginal .................................................................................. 76 3 3.4.1.2.4 Polarity...........................................................................................................
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