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Though Kenneth Burke has often been dismissed as a brilliant but idiosyncratic thinker, this dissertation will argue that he is actually a precocious systems theorist. The systemic and systematic aspects of Burke’s work will be demonstrated by comparing it to the General Systems Theory (GST) of biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Though beginning from very different starting points, Bertalanffy and Burke develop similar aims, methods, and come to remarkably similar conclusions about the nature and function of language. The systemic nature of Burke’s language philosophy will also become evident through an analysis of the Burkean corpus. Burke’s first book contains several breakthrough ideas that set him irrevocably upon the path of a systemic theory of symbolic action. Burke’s next book, influenced by GST-inspired biology, seeks to understand the nature of associative networks by employing an organic metaphor. Burke’s interest in systems comes from his desire to repair the cultural system crumbling around him as a result of the Depression. Consequently his next book, Attitudes Toward History, studies what happens to such “orientations” (i.e., the systems by which humans classify and evaluate the world) during epistemological crises. The Philosophy of Literary Form is concerned primarily with the function of these orientations. In A Grammar of Motives Burke seeks to understand the basis for transformation of these evaluative systems, and in A Rhetoric of Motives he demonstrates how these transformations are used to persuade. Burke next turns his attention to understanding a small part of the system, a theological doctrine, in The Rhetoric of Religion. Burke’s theory appears plausible when compared to and supplemented by GST and the related self-organizing system theory. Furthermore, a paradigm shift to non-mechanistic cognitive theory allows us to refine and extend Burke’s intuitive theory of symbolic action. The final chapter will argue that symbolic action is the manipulation of the quality space, which is a multi-dimensional model for the super-system composed of mental, linguistic and cultural sub-systems. In mental systems, skeletal information structures called schemas combine to form simple models, which in turn combine to form a model of the world. Similarly, a culture can be seen as a system of schemas held in common by the group. The linguistic system labels, transmits and thus evokes these schemas. The primary means by which the quality space becomes reconfigured is through metaphor, which creates new schemas, and modifies the connections between schemas (and thus the position and relative value of a schema). Metaphor, therefore, is the basis of symbolic action. This systemic theory of symbolic action may be modeled by Connectionist networks. These analogical neural networks provide a model for how brains form and associate categories and support Burke’s assertion that thought is primarily analogical and categorical, thus affording the means for refining Burke’s theory of symbolic action. Ultimately, such a theory may provide a unified field theory for rhetoric, showing how various symbolic action strategies work and interrelate.

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'Sola gratia' is the core of 'spiritual childhood' for Therese of Lisieux (1873--1897) as an existential theology centered on the redemptive work of God. This theological aspect is shared both by Therese's spirituality and by Dietrich Bonhoeffer's (1906--1945) theology. This study offers for the first time a comparison between their thought, mainly with regard to the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith, analysed through the notion of kenosis and the question of otherness. The first part (chapters 1 to 3) is more philosophical. It deals with Bonhoeffer's theology in its early stage and analyses his debate with Erich Przywara (1889--1972) concerning the 'analogy of being' ('analogia entis'). The second part (chapters 4 and 5) expatiates on the proper basis for the comparison between Bonhoeffer and Therese offered by the notion of kenosis (chapter 4) and by the communicative structure of faith experience (chapter 5). This part is the pivotal one, from the first phase of Bonhoeffer's theology---his discussion with Przywara's philosophical and theological endeavour---to the second and third phases of Bonhoeffer's theology then compared to Therese's spirituality. The third part (chapters 6 to 9) deals with the kenotic structure common to Bonhoeffer and Therese, and basic for a genuine understanding of justification by faith. / Justification by faith is thus the unifying aspect of this study, whose three-parts structure reflects the evolution of Bonhoeffer's theology traditionally divided up in three different periods. This study deepens the way Bonhoeffer understands otherness and the shifted emphasis in his thinking from the subject/object scheme, through otherness as exteriority, and finally to otherness as interiority. / The many cultural and thematic differences between the Roman-Catholic nun and the Lutheran pastor are being taken into account, along with the common elements central to their thinking. The emphasis on the kenotic structure sheds light on questions never asked in theresian studies so far, e.g. the relationship between 'faith' and 'works'. Through the gratuitousness of redemption implied in justification and in sanctification as well, Therese's teaching and Bonhoeffer's theology are on the same line: the freeing of the self does imply the conformation to Christ's kenotic existence. / This study pertains to the following three major concerns: oecumenical (doctrine of justification by faith), philosophical (otherness), and spiritual (authentic self-accomplishment). This study offers a polyphonic analysis pertaining to issues christological (kenosis), theological (grace and freedom), and spiritual (maturity in faith). Thus, it shows how theological discourse can be developed in a new way mainly with regard to the anthropological foundation of spiritual experience and the relevance of it for systematic theology; this cannot be achieved without a more critical use of the philosophical argumentation in theology.

This dissertation develops an analytical model for studying the specific nature of "themes of return" in the instrumental music of Brahms. Such a formal type, whose most familiar examples are the period and the small ternary, is distinguished by the presence of a "return," that is, the restatement, after intervening material, of its initiating material, which performs the same function as it did in its first appearance. / Brahms' return structures are analyzed according to four parameters: cadence, return, phraseology (which combines aspects of grouping, accentuation and rhythmic activity) and variation of tension (produced by the combined action of such factors as the curve of the melodic line, dynamics and surface and harmonic rhythms). / Brahms' use of cadence and return differs fundamentally from that of classical composers. His cadential gestures are subjected to a looser categorization and articulate broader tonal relations than those found in classical practice. With respect to his treatment of return, he differs from classical composers largely in the influence of underlying factors, such as greater continuity in texture or a tendency to avoid an over-predictibility in cadential organization. The study of cadences and returns thus leads to the identification of formal traits characteristic of Brahms, including the use of structures beginning off tonic harmony. / Both the phraseology and the variation of tension in Brahms' themes exhibit a striking diversity in organization. For example, the phraseology may feature a grouping hierarchy based on a binary division combined with an irregular pattern of accentuation, an additive structure associated with a regular accentuation, or asymmetrical groupings. Variations in tension are often organized around a climax; however, the size and range of the fluctuations in tension can vary considerably, the accumulation of intensity which prepares the climax may be accomplished by different combinations of parameters, and each climax may occupy a different position within a given segment. / Return structures, so abundant in the Brahms' instrumental music, feature a great variety in their organization. This abundance and diversity is due to the structural type's ready adaptability to the particular demands of Brahms' musical style.

This thesis examines eight novels by William Faulkner by means of a critical method based on a concept of landscape. The thesis developed out of a curiosity regarding the vivid pictures that Faulkner's novels evoked in the mind of this reader. These reminded the reader of pictures similar in their vividness to those evoked in childhood by fairy tales and children's literature. In the main, here, ` the vivid Faulknemian pictures are examined from a moral point of view. The critical method follows from the idea of the literary landscape as a holistic entity, 'a prospect such as may be taken in at a glance from one point of view'. The method operates in three stages, and the vivid pictures found in the landscapes of the novels are deemed to function as centres of particular interest. In the first stage of the method, an impressionistic landscape, so called, is established, based on the facts of place, time, society, events and values given in or deducible from the novel. The vivid pictures are noted. The second stage calls for the quantification of the author's technical strategies, and in the third stage the vivid pictures are adopted as the starting points for detailed analyses of one or more aspects of the novel. The method seems to bring into focus a mature, detailed and satisfying reader's landscape which, it is hoped, functions as an R accurate reflection of the author's literary creation.

One of the remarkable features of Brahm's B-flat major Intermezzo for piano, Op. 76, no. 4 is the ambiguity of its tonal definition. The work disclosed a contrapuntal tension between its fundamental structural-harmonic organization, which is based on an incomplete harmonic progression (V7-I), and its more remote intermediary tonal areas, which Brahms implies throughout the Intermezzo but to which he never wholly commits. / The aim of this investigation is to illustrate how tonal ambiguity is achieved though recurrent "incompletions" of the expected (or at least the more likely) harmonic progressions. The thesis undertakes a detailed study of Brahms' Intermezzo, Op. 76, no. 4, in B-flat major, with additional reference to the openings of Opp. 118, no. 1 (A minor); 118, no. 6 (E-flat minor); 119, no. 1 (B minor); 117, no. 2 (B-flat minor) and 76, no. 8 (C major). The study combines a Schenkerian linear-reductive approach with observations based on phenomenology--after Leonard Meyer and David Lewin--and narrative, after Edward T. Cone.

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Zugl. geringfügig bearb. Fassung von: Greifswald, Univ., Diss.