English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

12-12-1974

Abstract

My dissertation deals with the contrast between what I designate as the "prospector" and the "pioneer" or the transient and rooted elements of the frontier. The tensions between these two ways of life, I believe, provide an insight into Harte's fiction as indicated by the ten stories I discuss--"The Luck of Roaring Camp," "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," "Tennessee's Partner," "Brown of Calaveras," "Miggles," "The Idyl of Red Gulch," "How Santa Claus Came to Simpson's Bar," "Wan Lee, the Pagan," "A Passage in the Life of Mr. John Oakhurst," and “A Protégée of Jack Hamlin's." The opening chapter includes my approach to these stories, a biographical sketch and critical survey of the author, and a discussion of the prospector and the pioneer. The following six chapters discuss the first six stories in detail. I analyze each work and then isolate three techniques for which Harte has been criticized--superficial characterization, paradox, and surprise ending--and demonstrate that they are consistent with the artistic intention of his writing. The concluding chapter discusses the remaining four stories more briefly and recapitulates my main point, that an understanding of what Bret Harte referred to as "the Argonaut brotherhood'' is essential to a sensitive reading of his short stories.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Ernest Warren Baughman

Second Committee Member

George Warren Arms

Third Committee Member

Roy Glenwood Pickett

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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