This thesis essays a comparative study of William Plomer's Turbott Wolfe (1925) and Sol Plaatje's Mhudi (1930). Although writing from very different subject positions within the social order of the time, Plomer and Plaatje embody in their novels a strikingly similar vision of a South Africa free of racial barriers. Plaatje's version of South African history in Mhudi deconstructs colonial binarism by dramatizing not only conflict and difference but also co-operation and commonality. Holding the past up as a mirror to the present, it protests against racial injustice while implying the continuing possibility of reconciliation. Plomer reacts angrily to white hypocrisy and insists on the rights and humanity of his African characters, in the name of imperatives both moral and political. He seeks additional sanction for these by situating the South African race questioning the context of a Western world slowly awakening to the consequences of modernity. During a time of political turbulence, both writers speak out boldly and confidently against the rising dominance of segregationist ideology. The imminent inception of full democracy in South Africa has reanimated the relevance of these writers' vision of a non- racial social order. If one of the challenges facing the South African literary historian 'today is the reconstruction of a truly national literary tradition, then Mhudi and Turbott Wolfe would appear to be key works in such an enterprise. As different as Plaatje's epic myth-making is from Plomer's modernist irony, both novels contrive to speak with a new voice: a national voice which expresses the aspirations of all South Africa's people. They are, moreover, novels whose survival seems guaranteed as much by their aesthetic qualities as by their ideological orientation. The novels are examined against the backgrounds of South African society and colonial literary production. They are seen as milestones in the development of a liberal South African literary tradition. By breaking with the dominant oppositional mode, whether that of "white writing" or an emergent "writing black", Plomer and Plaatje exemplify a literature at once socially relevant and possessed of a prophetic vision that remains of significance in South Africa today.

Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Filosofía / El objetivo general de esta tesis es presentar la ontología social del anarquismo tal como es desarrollada en los escritos filosóficos y políticos de Pierre-Joseph Proudhon y Mijaíl Bakunin. Esto se lleva a cabo mediante la revisión de las categorías de fuerza colectiva, poder social y razón colectiva en Proudhon, cuya idea central es la de que las instancias de acción colectiva, y en particular la sociedad, no son simples agregados de factores individuales, sino realidades sustantivas específicas; y del marco naturalista en el que Bakunin integra una teoría del individuo como constituido biológica y socialmente, de la sociabilidad como un desarrollo emergente natural característico de la humanidad y de la libertad como una conquista histórica colectiva que requiere tanto la condición subjetiva de la autonomía como la condición objetiva de la igualdad concreta en términos económicos.

This study brings together Plaatje’s politicaland literary visions, arguing that the one informs the other. Plaatje’s literary work is used as a starting point for the discussion, and the first chapter explores the relationship of his political and artistic visions. Mhudi is his definitive romance text, and it is argued that Plaatje’s romance visionin this text is reflected in his political thinking, and in turn reflected by it. His romance work was part of a literary romance tradition which Plaatje both drew upon and transformed, and thus the basic features of romance are explored in Chapter Two. Plaatje’s work is situated between two influential romance models, therefore Chapter Two also discusses the romances of Shakespeare, whomPlaatje read as reflectinga non-racial humanism that was translatable into the African context, in terms of political vision and of literary text. His other models were the colonial romances of Haggard. It is argued that, while Plaatje could glean many elements fromHaggardthat suited his purposes as an African, specifically a SouthAfrican, writer, he nevertheless—despite his own pro-British leanings, qualified though they might have been by the complexities of his colonial context—would not have represented Africa and Africans in terms of the exotic other in the way Haggard clearly did. Thus Plaatje, in terms of his romance vision, may have usedmanyofthe themesand techniques of Haggardianromance, but consistently qualified these colonial works by using the more classically shaped Shakespearean romance structure at the deep level of his work. The third chapter examines Haggard’s romance, but differentiates between two Haggardian types, the completed or resolved romance, whichis more classical in its form, and evokes an image of a completed quest, as well as the necessity of the quester entering the world again. Haggard’s “completed” African romance, it is argued, is resolved only in terms of a colonial vision. Chapter Four, by contrast, examines examples of his unresolved African romance, in which African ideals implode, and show themselves to be inneed of foreign intervention. It is argued that Haggard’s image of Africa was based on the unresolved or incomplete romance. His vision of Africa was such that it could not in itself provide the materialfor completed romance. This vision saw intervention as the only option for South Africa. While Plaatje uses elements of Haggard’s “incomplete” romance models when writing Mhudi, he handles both his narrative and politicalcommentaryin this text in terms of his own politicalthought. This non-racial politicalvisionis guided by his belief that virtue and vice are not the monopoly of any colour, a non-racialism he associates with Shakespeare. However, within the context of the South Africa of his fictionand of his life, this non-racial ideal is constantly under threat. It is partly threatened by political forces, but also challenged by moral changes within individuals and societies. In Chapter Five the examination of Plaatje’s work begins withhis Boer War Diary, inwhicha romance structure is sought beneath his diurnal observations and political optimismduring a time of warfare and siege. The discussion of this text is followed by a reading of Native Life in South Africa in which it is argued that Plaatje looks, in the midst of personal and social suffering, for that which can translate a tragic situation into romance resolution. “Translation” is used in a broad sense, echoing Plaatje’s view of the importance of translation for cross-cultural understanding and harmony. The arguments of Chapter Five are extended into Chapter Six, where a reading of Mhudi places emphasis on the possibilities of change implied in romance. Plaatje’s non-racial humanism recognizes the great potential for injustice and human suffering within the context of South African racism, but constantly seeks to translate such suffering into the triumph of romance. While the narrative of Mhudi concludes on a romance peak, tensions between the tragic and romance possibilities alert the reader to the sense that, despite its romance resolution, something has been lost in the translation of the potential tragedy into romance.

No description available.

Orestes A. Brownson was an American journalist who converted to Catholicism in 1844, at the age of forty-one. He had been writing editorials and occasionally managing publications since 1828 in connection with religious activities as minister to various sects, Brownson, from the 1830's on, read, reviewed, and kept abreast of European literature concerned with philosophy, social, political, and economic theory. It was assumed that he continued that practice after his conversion in 1844 and that he would enlist the aid of European Catholic theorists to develop an acceptable Catholic system of thought—particularly since American Catholic literature in the mid-nineteenth century was mainly devoid of theoretical works. A brief scanning of Brownson's works written after 1844 revealed the names of several French Catholic writers who were part of a group known as Traditionalists--De Maistre, Bonald, Lamennais, Veuillot, Donoso Cortes, Bonnetty, and others. The problem evolved from this discovery to determine whether Traditionalists had influenced Brownson's Catholic theorizing, and if so, to what extent. The main source of reference for this research problem was the twenty-volume collection Henry Brownson had compiled of his father's Catholic journalistic efforts. Henry Brownson also published a three volume biography of his father, and I obtained the first volume, Early Life. Other biographies on Brownson have been written by Theodore Maynard, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Doran Whalen, which were useful for background material. A variety of articles have been written about Brownson, but none related him to Traditionalism; their usefulness, therefore, was limited. I relied on secondary sources for interpretations of the French Traditionalists: Quinlan's thesis and Cohen's article on Bonald; works from Lively, Greffer, and Koyre on de Maistre; and a variety of French historical surveys. I also consulted materials which would provide background information on the Enlightenment--a necessity since Traditionalists and Brownson continually attacked Enlightenment ideas. I compared the social, political, and economic aspects of Brownson's ideas to those of the Traditionalists. The conclusion arrived at was that Brownson had used Traditionalist theory almost exclusively as a foundation for his own work. Brownson not only displayed ideas similar to the Traditionalists, he featured their exact terminology: "germ of perfection theory", "divine origin of language", and "generative principle of constitution.” He referred to them as the "illustrious Bonald" and "illustrious de Maistre”l and occasionally stated that he was sympathetic to Traditionalist ideas. Brownson's deviation from Traditionalist theory was usually a result of translating French ideas to American society. He was careful to make the point that the ideas he altered remained valid for France, and Traditionalists were essentially correct in their entire assessment of society.

Although there is some difference of opinion today concerning George Sand's position in French literature, it is a definite fact that she was an important literary figure during her lifetime. By important, I do not necessarily mean that she was always popular, for she received a great deal of unfavorable criticism; but her name was famous name, her works were generally the talked-of books, and her influence was feared. "George Sand" attached to a new publication brought immediate interest and heated discussion. Commercial men capitalized on this fact, for we are told that a certain in Rafin named a new perfume after the famous author, and one of two balloons let loose from Paris to establish communication with the provisory government at Bordeaux carried the appellation "George Sand".1 George Sand has, by all means, a claim to high position in the realm of French literature. The ideal, the illusion of life, which she presents, has done a great deal to assure this position, but it is not all. For the first time in the history of the literature of France, the humble peasants took their place in the novel.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Symphonie Militaire is a three movement work for twelve solo wind instruments composed by Edouard Batiste (1820-1876), a professor at the Paris Conservatoire and organist. The composition is scored for flute, two oboes, two B-flat clarinets, two bassoons, E-flat trumpet with valves, two F horns with valves, trombone, and B-flat ophicleide. In this edition, which was prepared from the original manuscript, the trumpet part is transposed to B-flat and a tuba has been substituted for the ophicleide. Based on a study of the score, as well as knowledge of wind band music of the period, several speculations have been made concerning the reason for the composition of the piece. The limited instrumentation supports the idea that, like other military symphonies, Symphonie Militaire may have been written for a special occasion. The work is, however, at least a reflection of the concern in 1845 for the reconstruction of the French military bands.