Dissertations / Theses on the topic '1803-1869 Criticism and interpretation'

The unique stylistic particularity of the novel as a literary form is that it is the presentation of the speaking human and his words (Bakhtine, 1978). The speaker in a novel is an exponent of a specific ideology and his words serve to express this ideology. For all its ideological components, the novel's dialogues form the characteristic feature of the narrative gender. The characters fill concrete social roles and they speak from within the limits of those roles, their speech emerging from different social languages. Prosper Merimee's short story, Arsene Guillot (1927: 85-145), offers an ensemble of character's constrained voices, of speakers imprisoned by their own social positions. The novel is developed as a sequence of carnivalesque reversals. Paradoxically, the text establishes a prostitute as an admirable figure (Arsene Guillot) and deposits a pious French bourgeoise from her social acknowledgements. Philippe Hamon, in his book Texte et Ideologie (1984), presents a theory of the semiotic of character's normative knowledge. This factorisation of the ideology notion, in separated normative elements, form a group of knowledges composing the text's ideology-effect. With the assistance of the critical concepts of speech universe, power and position struggle, discourse insignia and speaker's desire of fulfillment elaborated by Francois Flahault (1978), we apply the ideas of Hamon to the non-exclusive study of the dialogues in Arsene Guillot. Our pragmatic analysis emphasizes on how the dialogue contributes to the construction of the novel's ideology-effect.

This thesis examines a selection of verses taken from the Urdu divan of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib. Ghalib is considered by many to be the preeminent writer of the classical Urdu ghazal (circa 1750-1850). Although the examination is restricted to Ghalib's verse, the problem it investigates is broader in nature and involves questions which some aspects of the ghazal raise with respect to the reader's involvement. An essential feature of the ghazal form is the fact that, although the ghazal poem consists of a set of couplets, each couplet of a ghazal is itself a complete text with respect to its content The question, then, is "how does the reader become involved in a form limited to two lines of text?" This thesis discusses the question from a narratological perspective: the couplet involves the reader by telling a story. The narrative of the couplet differs from what one normally thinks of as narrative in that the significance of its plot is derived, not from a series of episodes arranged in chronological order, but from a thematic continuity which links couplet to couplet within the tradition as a whole. The world of the ghazal is inhabited by a few characters, the principal being the lover and the beloved, whose behaviour and attitudes are determined largely by a set of well-defined conventions. The characters who appear in the individual couplet are already familiar from the dramas to which these characters have been subjected in previous readings of other couplets. However, unlike the characters in a traditional novel whose histories connect a great variety of events within a chronological framework, the couplet is extremely limited in term of the number of chronological connections it can establish. The depiction of time in the ghazal is radically different from the often elaborate histories presented in forms such as the novel. The world of the ghazal is merely suggested. Consequently, the reader's role in reconstructing the world of the text is of particular importance in compact forms such as that of the ghazal. The contention of this thesis is that the restrictions imposed by the couplet on plot structure has been compensated for by the cultivation of a narrative style in the ghazal text which often forces the reader to become aware of the process of discovering the drama of the text. The first chapter begins with an introduction to the thesis, and is followed by an introduction to the formal features of the ghazal text and some of the important themes of the tradition. The second chapter presents a review of critical writings in English on the Urdu ghazal. The third chapter presents a discussion of methodology. In this chapter I use Peter Rabinowitz' analysis of the reader's beliefs in my attempt to define what I mean by the reader's involvement in the world of the text. According to Rabinowitz, a fictional work invites its reader to pretend that its plot is a historical account, even though the reader knows that the world of the text is imaginary. To account for the reader's dual role, Rabinowitz divides the reader's beliefs into what he calls the "authorial audience" and the narrative audience." Briefly, the authorial audience can be viewed as the competent reader, the one who possesses the required knowledge to understand the text, to decipher its allusions, but who knows the world of the text is a fiction. The narrative audience sees the fictional text as a description of events that "really" happened. My investigation of the reader's attempt to discover the world of the text is from the point of view of the narrative audience. The third chapter attempts to apply Rabinowitz' views to some general features of the plot structure in the ghazal text. The fourth and final chapter examines the ways in which the ghazal text forces the reader to become aware of the process of discovering the world of the text.
Arts, Faculty of
Asian Studies, Department of
Graduate

Nous espérons montrer dans cette thèse que le développement du type de l'individu exceptionnel dans les romans du dix-huitième siècle en France est le résultat des courants philoso-phiques et artistiques de la période. Les Liaisons dangereuses de Laclos reflète mieux que tout autre roman du siècle ces deux influences, mais elles se font aussi sentir dans Manon Lescaut de Prevost, La Vie de Marianne de Marivaux, et Jacques le fataliste de Diderot. L'introduction démontre que les philosophes du siècle désiraient le bonheur personnel de l'individu, la tolérance et la raison au lieu de l'ascétisme, l'intolérance et la foi aveugle qui dominaient la pensée du dix-septième siècle. Les philosophes voyaient l'aristocratie comme un obstacle à la réalisation d'un meilleur monde car cette classe ne voulait pas un changement de l'ordre établi. Puisque la pensée d'une période influeence souvent l'art, le fait que les romanciers du dix-huitième siècle adoptaient le point de vue des philosophes en critiquant l'aristocratie n'est pas surprenant. L'individu exceptionnel devient par la suite un moyen idéal pour voiler de telles critiques aussi bien que pour satisfaire des instincts créateurs chez les romanciers. Dans le premier chapitre nous indiquons que Prévost, Marivaux et Diderot critiquaient l'aristocratie à mesure qu'ils analysaient les raisons pour lesquelles les personnages princi-paux de leurs romans étaient exceptionnels. Des influences à l'extérieur du roman comme le conflit philosophique entre la raison et la sensibilité semblent définir à première vue la nature extraordinaire de Des Grieux, Marianne et Mme de la Pommeraye; ces individus veulent nous convaincre qu'ils sont spéciaux à cause de leur sensibilité ou de leur intelligence. Cependant des influences à l'intérieur du roman, comme la forme, nous donnent les vrais clefs du caractère unique de ces personnages. Les protagonistes racontent leur propre histoire au lecteur et leur talent de duper autrui afin de se montrer dans une image flatteuse est ce qui les distingue enfin des autres. Néanmoins, les protagonistes se sentent obligés de se faire valoir car la société leur est presque toujours hostile. Le deuxième chapitre introduit les protagonistes des Liaisons dangereuses, le vicomte de Valmont et la marquise de Merteuil. Chacun d'eux se croit un libertin sans pareil et dans ce chapitre nous étudions comment ils exploitent leur sagacité pour prouver leur supériorité l'un à l'autre. Nous expliquons la tradition libertine qui est la base de la philosophic personnelle de Valmont et de Merteuil. Le roman est dans la forme épistolaire; les protagonistes échangent des lettres. La forme du roman, une influence à l'intérieur, révèle encore une fois que ce que Valmont et Merteuil croient les rendre exceptionnels est illusoire. C'est de nouveau leur capacité de tromper autrui et eux-mêmes dans leurs lettres sur leur qualité spéciale qui est vraiemnt leur qualité distinctive. Les lettres soutiennent l'illusion de l'invincibilité de Valmont et Merteuil dans le deuxième chapitre, mais elles les détruisent dans le troisième chapitre en leur révélant toutes leurs faiblesses émotionnelles. La rivalité entre les libertins s'intensifie vers la fin du roman et l'influence de la raison sur leur conduite s'affaiblit. Nous voyons que la façade intellectuelle cède rapidement à la force des émotions violentes, longuement supprimées. La forme épistolaire du livre révèle done que cette oeuvre suit l'exemple des romans précédents du siècle. L'illusion du point de vue du protagoniste et la réalité du point de vue du lecteur existent en meme temps; cette juxtaposition indique une attitude des romanciers envers la société contemporaine. Dans la conclusion nous montrons que cette attitude est une critique de l'aristocratie qui ne permet pas aux protagonistes de se réaliser complètement car chaque protagoniste symbolise le bouleversement de l'ordre établi. Des Grieux, Marianne, Mme de la Pommeraye, et surtout Valmont et Merteuil outragent la société en brisant les règles de conduite qu'ils devraient suivre. Qu'ils n'atteignent pas le bonheur personnel malgré leurs efforts reflète le sentiment de frustration que les romanciers veulent partager avec le lecteur. Prévost, Marivaux, Diderot et Laclos créent des romans dans lesquels les influences de la philosophic et de l'art romanesque de l'époque aident ces auteurs à critiquer une société décadente et à créer un personnage unique. Les Liaisons dangereuses est l'exemple le plus brillant des possibilités inhérantes à cette combinaison d'influences.
Arts, Faculty of
French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of
Graduate

This study demonstrates that Edwin Arlington Robinson's keen interest in mystery is reflected in his poetry. However, he creates an unusual subgenre--the unresolved mystery. Definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary, religious treatises, and philosophical works, helped formulate a working definition of the word mystery. I then selected eight murder poems from The Collected Poems -- "The Tavern," "The Whip," "Stafford's Cabin," "Haunted House," "Avon's Harvest," "Cavender's House," "The Glory of the Nightingales," and "The March of the Cameron Men" and three poems from the Uncollected Poems and Prose of Edwin Arlington Robinson --"The Miracle," "For Calderon," and "The Night Before." In these murder mystery poems, Robinson fails to provide definite motives or conclusive evidence or reliable narrators--all necessary components to solve a mystery. These violations of mystery writing rules appear both in his long and short poems.In the short poems, without exception, Robinson provides no motives. Dead bodies indicate that crimes have been committed, but none of the perpetrators is brought to justice, and in some cases, not even identified. Hence, the presence of relevant, but skimpy details disallow solving the mystery with any degree of certainty. In addition, the long poems exclude clear motives, hard evidence or reliable narrators--all of which prevent the reader from reaching a sound conclusion. Other poems suggest the involvement of supernatural beings. Consistently, all his murder mystery poems conclude with the mystery either partially or completely unresolved.
Department of English

This thesis explores the role of Nihilism in Oscar Wilde's thought and writing, beginning with the depiction of Russian Political Nihilism in Wilde's first play; Vera, or the Nihilists and tracing the engagement with philosophical Nihilism in his fiction, drama and essays, up to and including De Profundis. It is argued that Russian Political Nihilism derives from the same sources and expresses the same concerns as the philosophical Nihilism discussed by Nietzsche in The Will to Power, and that Nietzsche and Wilde, working independently, came to a strikingly similar understanding of Nihilism. Philosophical Nihilism is defined in two ways; as the complete absence of values (Absolute Nihilism) and as a sense that, while absolute values may exist, they are unattainable, unknowable or inexpressible (Relative Nihilism). Wilde uses his writing to express Nihilism while simultaneously seeking aesthetic and ethical counterforces to it, eventually coming to see Art and the life of the Artist as the ultimate forms of resistance to Nihilism. Wilde's philosophical views are examined in the context of his time, and in the light of his exceptionally wide reading. He is compared and contrasted with Nietzsche, the philosopher who has done most to shape our view of what Nihilism means, in his ethical and aesthetic response to Nihilism. The conclusion also considers the reception of Wilde's expression of Nihilism and his employment of Art as the only superior counterforce in the first half of the twentieth century, with particular reference to the works of Gide and Proust. Their engagement with Nihilism is explored both in historical context and as a way of addressing a problem which has become uniquely pervasive and pressing in the modern era.

This dissertation attempts to demonstrate how Nathaniel Hawthorne's lifelong friendship with Franklin Pierce influenced the author's literary imagination, often prompting him to transform Pierce from his historical personage into a romanticized figure of notably Jacksonian qualities. It is also an assessment of how Hawthorne's friendship with Pierce profoundly influenced a wide range of his work, from his first novel, Fanshawe (1828), to the Life of Franklin Pierce (1852) and such later works as the unfinished Septimius romances and the dedicatory materials in Our Old Home (1863). This dissertation shows how Pierce became for Hawthorne a literary device—an icon of Jacksonian virtue, a token of the Democratic party, and an emblem of steadfastness, military heroism, and integrity, all three of which were often at odds with Pierce's historical character. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the Hawthorne-Pierce friendship. The chapter also assesses biographical reconstructions of Pierce's character and life. Chapter 2 addresses Hawthorne's years at Bowdoin College, his introduction to Pierce, and his early socialization. Chapter 3 demonstrates how Hawthorne transformed his Bowdoin experience into formulaic Gothic narrative in his first novel, Fanshawe. Chapter 4 discusses the influence of the Hawthorne-Pierce friendship on the Life of Franklin Pierce, Hawthorne's campaign biography of his friend. The friendship, the chapter concludes, was not only a context, or backdrop to the work, but it was also a factor that affected the text significantly. Chapter 5 treats the influence of Hawthorne's camaraderie with Pierce on the author's later works, the Septimius romances and the dedicatory materials in Our Old Home. Chapter 6 illustrates how Hawthorne's continuing friendship with the controversial Pierce distanced him from many of the prominent and influential thinkers and writers of the day, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Chapter 7 offers a final summation of the influence of Pierce on Hawthorne's art and Hawthorne's often tenuous role as political artist. Finally, the chapter shows how an understanding of Hawthorne's relationship with Pierce enhances our perceptions of Hawthorne as writer.

Orientador: Verônica Fabrini Machado de Almeida
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes
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Resumo: Esta pesquisa propõe uma investigação sobre os aspectos políticos presentes nas obras de Antonin Artaud e as implicações do trabalho deste autor na relação entre teatro e poder. Levando em consideração a extensa obra de Artaud e sua grande contribuição para o teatro e para a cultura, visando fazer um recorte para este trabalho, escolhemos dar maior ênfase em escritos produzidos em dois períodos da vida do autor: a participação no movimento surrealista e o período de internação em asilos da França, principalmente em Rodez. Com intuito de trazer um caráter híbrido à pesquisa teatral, procuramos analisar o estudo das obras de Artaud à luz de conceitos advindos da filosofia, principalmente às questões que se referem às relações de poder abordadas por Michel Foucault. No último capítulo, propomos uma aproximação entre as propostas artaudianas e sua contribuição para o teatro hoje através de autores como Antônio Negri e Hans-Thie Lehman, visando discutir qual é o espaço do teatro atual nas relações de poder contemporâneas
Abstract: This research proposes an investigation about the political aspects in the works of Antonin Artaud and its implications to the relation between theater and power. Due the extension of his entire work and the impact through theater and culture, we decided to focus in his writings done in two periods of his life: the participation in the surrealist movement and the period of hospitalization in French asylums, mainly Rodez. In order to bring a hybrid character to theater research, we analised the study of Artaud's works through filosofical concepts, especially issues related to power relations pointed by Michel Foulcault. In the last chapter, we approach Artaud's proposals and contributions for today theater through authors such as Antonio Negri and Hans-Thie Lehman, trying to discuss which space is left to theater in contemporary power relations
Mestrado
Artes
Mestre em Artes

Orientador: Fabio Akcelrud Durão
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
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Resumo: A proposta deste trabalho é pensar o estatuto literário e político de uma escrita, que nomeio Escrita do Suporte, partindo da imagem habitual de um suporte lido como sustentáculo ou mediador neutro, terreno sobre o qual edificar instituições, a que nomear "pátria" ou em que fundar um Estado. Esse terreno neutralizado funciona como lugar de arquivamento e violência, que representa, para as Escritas do Suporte, uma impostura que se deve expor, publicar em seu centro regulador, para que se possa repensar a História. Essa impostura do suporte neutro, que se pretende exposta pelas Escritas do Suporte, mobiliza questões políticas e jurídicas, filosóficas, psicanalíticas e autobiográficas. O trabalho parte de textos de Jacques Derrida e Antonin Artaud, em especial compreendendo a Escrita do Suporte compartilhada entre uma carta de Artaud a André Rolland de Rénéville, escrita em 1932, o ensaio Enlouquecer o subjétil (1998b), no original Forcener le subjectile (1986a), em que Derrida retoma essa carta de Artaud, e a pictografia de Lena Bergstein, no ensaio em português, que se inscreve no lugar da ausência dos desenhos de Artaud, retirados pela artista brasileira do ensaio original, que fazia parte do livro Antonin Artaud: dessins et portraits, de Derrida e Paule Thévenin (1986a). Pela leitura desses textos, trazemos ao questionamento khôra, que Derrida faz intercambiar com o subjétil. Khôra é o suporte metafísico de Platão que excede a dialética. Na leitura do Timeu, de Platão (2011), pensamos tanto esse excesso, como o problema do estrangeiro e da política externa de guerras para a validação da técnica interna grega, a partir de um elemento aparentemente acessório e "pouco sério", a introdução de Sócrates. O problema dessa relação com o estrangeiro, todavia, é destinado ao rodapé por Derrida em Khôra, livro escrito sete anos após o ensaio sobre Artaud (1995b), bem como por Rousseau, como retoma Derrida em nota. Para nossa Escrita do Suporte, trazemos ao centro essa questão, da mesma maneira como a Escrita do Suporte traz ao centro da cena os elementos que nela pareciam acessórios, reservados à margem. Nesse deslocamento, pensamos o problema da língua e da pátria, que Derrida traz a Enlouquecer o subjétil, e, em especial, a questão de um "habitar a casa na apatridade", que lemos com Vilém Flusser (2007). Juntamente com khôra, pensamos outro excesso que Derrida faz intercambiar com o subjétil: cruauté, e com ela relemos os textos de Antonin Artaud. Por fim, compreendemos as estratégias de antecipação, justaposição/sobreposição (l'air surajoutée) e encenação de um arrancamento de cena como técnicas compartilhadas por Artaud, Derrida e Bergstein nessa Escrita do Suporte, em seus quatro movimentos: uma primeira neutralização do suporte, seguida pelo desarquivamento de suas variantes, passando para uma denúncia ou publicação da violência dessa neutralidade e, por fim, pela antecipação epistolar do teatro, que compreenderemos como uma dimensão "missiva", referente às cartas que pedem o compartilhamento entre desencontros, recuando as remissões. Esses quatro movimentos são também lidos por um questionamento das políticas do presente, pois é justamente essa a necessidade que se impõe para tais escritas
Abstract: This paper presents the political and literary status of a different kind of writing, called here as Support Writings. This concept comes from the habitual image of a support read as the basis or mediator for institutions to be built upon, as somewhere to be called homeland or as somewhere to found a State. This neutral foundation site works as a place of an "archive of violence", that represents, for the Support Writings, an imposture that needs to be exposed, published, in order for History to be thought differently. The neutral foundation imposture involves political, juridical, philosophical, psychoanalytical and autobiographical issues. The paper starts by reading Jacques Derrida and Antonin Artaud, specially understanding the Support Writings shared by a letter from Artaud to André Rolland de Rénéville, written in 1932, and an essay by Jacques Derrida, Maddening the subjectile, in Portuguese Enlouquecer o subjétil (1998b), from the original Forcener le subjectile (1986a), in which Derrida brings this letter by Artaud. The Support Writings is also shared by the graphic work of a Brazilian artist, Lena Bergstein, who removes the drawings by Artaud, included as part of the book Antonin Artaud: dessins et portraits, by Derrida and Paule Thévenin (1986a), and inserts her own, in the Portuguese version. From these texts, we bring the image of khôra, which Derrida thinks as part of the image of his subjectile. In Plato's text Timeu (2011), khôra is the metaphysical support that exceeds dialectics. Reading Timeu, we considered this excess also in relation to the question of the "foreigner" and the external politics of war as a validation of the internal Greek technique, by reading the apparently "accessory" and "less serious" introduction by Socrates. These questions are destined to footnotes by Derrida in Khôra, written seven years after the essay about Artaud (1995b), as well as by Rousseau, who Derrida talks about in the footnote. To our Support Writings, we bring this problem back to the center or the argument, the same way as the Support Writings bring back to the center its elements destined to the margins, considered accessories. With this displacement, we think about language and homeland, together with Derrida in Maddening the subjectile, specially through the topic of an "habitar a casa na apatridade", read with the Czech- Brazilian critic Vilém Flusser (2007). Together with khôra, we consider another "excess" that Derrida thinks as the subjectile: cruauté, and with it we read Antonin Artaud's texts. At last, we present the strategies of anticipation, juxtaposition (l'air surajoutée) and the scene of a scene displacement as shared techniques by Artaud, Derrida and Bergstein in these Support Writings, with its four movements: a first support neutralization, followed by a disorganization of the archive and its variants, then an exposure or publication of its "neutral violence", and, at last, an epistolary anticipation of the Theater, which we understand as a "missive" dimension, referring to the letters, asking for the displacement to be shared, retreating language's remissions. These four movements are also read by a questioning of the politics of the present, because that is the first necessity imposed by these writings
Doutorado
Teoria e Critica Literaria
Doutor em Teoria e História Literária

La pratique des interprètes de Berlioz qui créèrent Benvenuto Cellini, La Damnation de Faust et Béatrice et Bénédict gagne à être mieux connue : ils observaient d’autres traditions que les nôtres, et saisir leurs usages et leur contexte artistique offre un autre regard sur les œuvres. La présente thèse examine le cadre de travail de ces artistes, c’est-à-dire leurs formations, leurs carrières, le déroulement des répétitions d’une œuvre et les corps de métier convoqués, mais aussi les écoles de jeu, de chant, et les étapes de préparation d’un rôle. Ces artistes seront aussi présentés, en particulier ceux qui jouèrent dans les scènes comiques des œuvres concernées. Les derniers chapitres, qui explorent la manière dont les œuvres du corpus furent interprétées sur les scènes de l’Opéra et du théâtre de Bade, ainsi qu’à l’Opéra-Comique et au théâtre de Weimar, mêlent l’ensemble de ces sources et croisent aspect scéniques et musicaux
The practices of the performers who first produced Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, La Damnation de Faust and Béatrice et Bénédict deserves to be better known: they followed other traditions than ours, and to understand their habits, practices and artistic context offers another way of conceiving these musical works. The present thesis considers the framework in which these artists worked, that is to say their training, their careers, the progress of the rehearsal of an opera and the trades involved, as well as the schools of acting, of singing, and the preparation of a role. The individual artists will also be introduced, in particular those who played in the comic scenes of the concerned works. The last chapters, which explore the way in which the corpus’ works were performed on the stage of the Paris Opera and the theater of Bade, as well as at the Paris Opera-Comic and the theater of Weimar, mix all these sources and documents and combine musical and scenic elements

This dissertation explores what it is that makes Les nuits d’été such an effective musical composition. This is done by analysing the song cycle according to Terry Eagleton’s four categories of psychoanalytical literary criticism. The death of Berlioz’s mother, with whom he had an unresolved conflict at the time of her death, is proposed as the emotional trigger that led to the composition of these songs. The content and form of the music to which he set them reveals a narrative that closely corresponds to Freud’s description of the Oedipal conflict and its successful resolution. Using the psychoanalytical theories of Lacan, Barthes, Kristeva and others, the subliminal catharsis of Berlioz’s song cycle, in the way that it is transposed to the listener through the mediation of the music, is proposed as the reason why Les nuits d’été is such an effective musical composition.
Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology
M.A. (Musicology)

Recent changes in the historiography of American Transcendentalism have inspired a reappraisal of the relationship between the Transcendentalist movement in New England and the pietistic wing of the Unitarian church. This thesis explores this reappraisal through a close reading of selected writings by Henry Ware Jr. in juxtaposition to the more familiar strains of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Divinity School Address and other Transcendentalist texts of the late 1830's and early 1840's. In opposition to the view that American Transcendentalism is an imported form of German Romanticism, the thesis argues that both Emerson and Ware represent a response on the part of rational religious liberalism to the emotional enthusiasm of the Evangelical movement, and that the primary inspiration for Emerson's philosophy came from his own mentor in the Unitarian ministry. Henry Ware Jr. was the senior minister of the Second Church in Boston from 1817-1830. Emerson was called to that same congregation in 1829 to serve as Ware's assistant and eventual successor. From 1830 to 1842 Ware was "Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and the Pastoral Care" at the Harvard Divinity School. His Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching was an influential handbook of homiletics. His devotional manual On the Formation of the Christian Character went through fifteen editions. His sermon "The Personality of the Deity" has traditionally been perceived as a response to Emerson's controversial 1838 address, which Emerson delivered at the height of Ware's tenure at the Divinity School, and which is often depicted as the opening salvo of the so-called "Transcendentalist Controversy." Chapter One of the thesis summarizes the changes in the historiography of American Transcendentalism. Chapter Two relates Ware's "Formation of Christian Character" to the broader Unitarian understanding of Self-Culture, which the Transcendentalists also shared. Chapter Three compares Ware's "Hints" to the Emersonian ideal of preaching as proclaimed in the Divinity School Address. Chapter Four addresses the issue of the "Personality of the Deity" in relation to Emerson's notion of an "Over-Soul." The final chapter offers some personal observations about the nature of history and the reappraisal of the relationship between Unitarianism and Transcendentalism.
Graduation date: 1996

M.A.
Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was a prolific writer in many genres. This dissertation takes the major works of his occult genre and examines them in the backdrop of the scientific and religious paradigms informing the mid-Victorian reading public. In response partly to the increase in materialism, popular Victorian novelists such as Dickens and Thackeray were writing in a realistic style which Bulwer-Lytton found not suited to convey his mystical ideas. Instead, he made use of the metaphysical novel — a sub-genre of the romance novel — well-suited for his purposes but antithetical to critics often not willing to explore new territory. Although always alive to developments in Spiritualism, Bulwer-Lytton's life-long interest lay in the study of the occult and secret societies. The works chosen for this dissertation indicate how the boundaries between science, religion and the occult are permeable. In his works, these three discourses conflate instead of being kept discrete by artificial means. His passion for the mystical aligns Bulwer-Lytton more with the Romantics than the Victorians. Through a close friendship with John Varley (1778-1842), an inner-circle friend of William Blake, Bulwer-Lytton came to learn of aspects of Blake which reflect particularly in A Strange Story. W B Yeates and Rider Haggard, both admirers of Bulwer-Lytton, would incorporate his ideas into their works, and Madame Blavatsky would shamelessly plagiarise him in her Isis Unveiled. Unwittingly, Bulwer-Lytton’s wholly-fictional novel, The coming Race, would serve as “proof” to Hitler that a secret master race actually existed.