A collection of poems that seeks the balance between imagination and reality that Wallace Stevens calls for in art, with a preface exploring Elaine Scarry's On Beauty and Being Just through the work of two contemporary poets.

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Summaries in Spanish and English / Text in Spanish / The aim of this dissertation is to analyse those poems in which the image of the knife, el cuchillo, appears in the collection El rayo que no cesa, by Miguel Hernandez. The poet manifests his all-encompassing tragic view of life by means of this recurring negative symbol. The poetry of Miguel Hernandez is autobiographical: The universal themes of nature, love and death reveal a close link between the course of his life and the evolution of his poetry. El rayo que no cesa is central to the evolution of Hernandez's poetry: it is the product of the crisis of conscience that propelled the poet toward a radical change of world-view. The book reveals his frustration with love within the rigid norms of the society of his time. The poet expresses his bitterness by means of destructive images such as knife, sword, and ray/flash, images that project the tragic fate that threatened his entire existence. / Esta disertacion tiene por objeto analizar los poemas en que aparece la imagen del cuchillo en el libro El rayo que no cesa, de Miguel Hernandez, y demostrar que la insistencia de este simbolo negativo revela la cosmovisi6n tragic a que de 1a vida tenia el poeta. La poesia de Miguel Hernandez es poesia autobiogr&fica. La trayectoria de su vida esta intimamente ligada a la evolution de su obra en los temas universales de la naturaleza, el amor y la muerte. El rayo que no cesa es libro clave en su evolution pues es fruto de la crisis de conciencia que motiva en el poeta una metamorfosis ideol6gica. Este libro desvela su amor frustrado debido a las normas rigidas de la sotiedad de la epoca. Miguel Hernandez expresa su amargura con imageries destructivas como cuchillo, espada y rayo, imagenes que presagian la amenaza de un destino tragico que abarco toda su existencia. / Classics & Modern European Languages / M.A. (Spanish)

Fyodor Dostoevsky is often regarded as a proponent of the rights of the poor and downtrodden in Russian society in the 19th century. This view is usually based on the work of his youth - his first short novel and his early short stories. An examination of his major novels - all of which were written during his mature years between 1861 and 1879 - shows, however, that his views were far removed from those of the progressive members of Russian society of his day (the 11 intelligentsia11 ) and that his opinions became more reactionary with advancing age. By the time of his death in 1881, Dostoevsky had long been an opponent of democratic ideals and a keen supporter of the autocratic regime of Tsar Alexander II. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Russian)

The present study began as an attempt to discover what mechanisms existed in Wilhelmine Germany to prevent the expression of radical views about politics and society by artists, writers and journalists. As the work progressed, it became clear that, because of the federal structure of the Reich, conditions varied considerably in different parts of the country} and that it would be both more practicable and more interesting to limit the investigation to a single city, Munich, which had a very active avant-garde, and where the strength of political clericalism made the debate about freedom of expression particularly fierce. Contemporary discussion centred mainly on two distinct, though related, topics: freedom of the press and freedom of the stage; and the sources available made it seem desirable, in addition to outlining the general legal background, to construct two detailed case-studies in order to investigate them. The choice of the satirical paper Simplicissimus on the one hand, and Frank Wedekind's plays on the other, soon proved to have been very appropriate. The history of Simplicissimus is interesting for three main reasons. In the first place, it sheds light on nearly all the major legal and practical issues connected with the liberty of the press in this period. Secondly, although Simplicissimus won a European reputation for its skilful satirical treatment of German and international affairs, the men who produced it were closely Identified with a particular community; and they commented acutely on events in Bavaria which had considerable bearing on Munich intellectuals' freedom to express themselves. Finally, a wealth of private and official documents makes it possible to study the relationship between an original and sometimes highly provocative paper and the state in exceptional detail. The case of Frank Wedekind forms an ideal counterpart to that of Simplicissimus. The authorities had much more power to control the theatre - which was regarded by many people ae an important channel of communication. than to control the press, and Wedekind's frequent and very well documented conflicts with the Munich censor reveal the weakness of a playwright's position compared with that of a journalist. Furthermore, Wedekind was for a time one of Simplicissimus' most 'subversive' collaborators; he was one of the acknowledged leaders of the Munich avant-garde. which was subjected to bitter attacks by Bavarian conservatives; and the nature of his plays meant that he became involved in the debate about pornography and low-grade literature which went on throughout the period. [Continued in text ...]

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