Problems of Duality of Self and Time in Thomas Hardy's Novels

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I have heretofore investigated Thomas Hardy's novels from the viewpoint of Time Consciousness reflected in the protagonists. During the research years 2003-2005, I have particularly focused on some short stories as complementary works to longer and more complicated works of Thomas Hardy. As short stories are generally regarded to be efective in highlighting some phases of the themes treated in the novels, the research on short stories has made some important aspects clearer and more prominent until now.Thomas Hardy treats the relationship of man and woman, the fundamental and universal theme, in the novels and short stories, and further in numerous poems. Some part of his modernity and radicalness is considered to be the uncertainty and changeable aspects of the relationship of man and woman : man and woman are hankering for ‘a congenial channel' as is aptly put in the short story ‘An Imaginative Woman.'The research has produced three papers published in Journal of Language and Literature The Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences The University of Tokushima every year in the research period. I also made two oral publications at academic meetings, one in the Kansai Branch Memorial Meeting of Japan Comparative Literature in 2004, the other in the Meeting of Japan Thomas Hardy Society in 2005. These oral publications are about Hardy's, as are generally estimated, lesser novels. From the analyses in the research period, very stimulating and expanding vista has been established, and this certainly will make not a small contributions to the study of Thomas Hardy's novels.