Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1991

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Pearce, Howard D.

Abstract

The function of humor in Eudora Welty's work is to allow the reader access to her experiential world through language in order to reveal the multivalent life process, the insulating network of ritualistic endurance, and the dignified grace of ill-fated defiance. Exaggerated stereotypes and mythical allusions provide a way of entry into the fictional world of Losing Battles. Using vernacular dialogue and absurd actions as virtually her sole method of character development, Welty represents the elemental vitality of her characters whose will to persevere is reflected in their endless autobiographical storytelling. By recreating the family with talk, Welty's characters are able to shrug off the impinging reality that threatens their Sisyphian effort to survive. Her use of a self-conscious Southern idiom invites a phenomenological reading revealing the ultimately life-affirming pattern that informs the novel and gives shape to her fundamental comic spirit.

Extent

124 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1991.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FADT14730

Format

pdf

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