Bio
Robert P. Rois is a scholar affiliated with the English and Modern Languages Department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Linguistics & Literature from the University of California. His research interests lie in linguistics and literature, with notable works including 'The Heroic Code and the Challenge of Time in Beowulf' and 'Cinco Rimas Fantasmales de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer'. He has authored five publications to date.
Educational Journey
University of California
Ph.D., M.A. in Linguistics & Literature • Linguistics & Literature
Experience
Research
Cinco Rimas Fantasmales de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Observing how a specific theme emerges within the work of a poet leads to greater appreciation of stylistic technique and to a better understanding of human experience. In this paper we study the poetry of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer to perceive how a lover’s passion transforms itself into an autonomous entity that travels through space. Relevant connections between poems must be carefully traced. We start by examining the nostalgia evoked by remembrance of past love in Rhyme LIII.
The Heroic Code and the Challenge of Time in Beowulf
In this study we endeavor to explain significance by viewing the hypothetical statements. Recurring syntactic units in a text, such as “if clauses,†allow us to decipher meaning by relying on rhetorical semantics. We combine the social, religious and political roles of the Homeric Zeus with basic notions for evaluating behavior in primitive warring societies. The roles of Zeus as protector of guests, suppliants, and those laboring under the sworn word, yield as paradigms the categories of boast, prayer, and oath. Opposing binary structures generate from these categories as challenge, curse, and betrayal respectively. We may classify as a heroic code the combined non-truth conditional statements that define or approximate equivalence to each one of the mentioned categories. Oscillation between positive and negative correspondence leads to character motivation and plot development in Beowulf. The reader is left to interpret conceptually the relevant symbolism, drawn from the hypothetical expressions, which commit the decision to act to a narrative dimension. We close our study with a suggestion that eager attempts to extend the will in time may inevitably fail, even in a predetermined heroic context.
