This thesis studies the dialogue that occurs between the works of Jorge Luis Borges and Miguel de Unamuno relative to their views on various issues of a philosophical nature, such as the limits of human knowledge or the possibility of immortality. This study is made from a transnational perspective in which the texts are read not as simple representatives of a local context, but as part of a literary dynamic which transcends geographical limits. In approaching the analysis form this perspective, one can observe the way in which, on occasions, both authors’ works follow parallel lines of reason which thereby mutually clarify and expound upon each other. In other instances, although the ideas expressed with respect to certain arguments – particularly that of immortality– originate from opposite directions, these very ideas become complementary and even find some common ground. The introduction to the thesis sets out a dual approach that has served as a methodological framework to this investigation. Thus, the proposed approach combines perspectives from both comparative and transnational studies which will facilitate the inclusion in the study of concepts derived from different philosophical, literary, cultural and religious sources. This is followed by the core of the thesis which is divided into two parts. The first part consists of two chapters that are dedicated to the analysis of the relationship between the Borges’ and Unamuno’s literary texts and Kierkegaard’s and Schopenhauer’s philosophical works, placing special emphasis on the interest that Borges’ and Unamuno’s texts have in the notions of knowledge –of both the self and the universe– and on the existence of the subject. The first chapter revolves around the study of the existing relationship between the Works of Miguel de Unamuno and the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. A brief section is dedicated to the explanation of some of the fundamental notions of Kierkegaardian ideology, paying particular attention to what he understands as the three principal states of individual development: the aesthetic (in which responsibility is rejected), the ethical (responsibility is accepted), and the theological (one achieves closeness to God). Through this explanation of Kierkegaard’s approaches, one can observe the way in which the analysis of certain Unamunian texts in the light of these parameters will offer new and intriguing shades of meaning. Thus, the concept of accepting responsibility that is so prevalent in Kierkegaard’s works will reveal Augusto Pérez from Niebla as an aesthetic, liminal or Romantic character who feels alienated by his surrounding reality and aspires to iii escape this alienation and embrace a more complete, more ethical existence. The notion of responsibility to others and to oneself is also key in understanding the tortured nature of don Manuel in the novella Don Manuel Bueno, mártir. Don Manuel’s ethics are challenged by the conflict generated between the internal and the external. At the same time, this conflict will help to elevate the moral stature of another character in the story; Angela Carballino. Finally, the notion of a ‘leap of faith’, which according to Kierkegaard is necessary in order to arrive at the theological stage of development, will become fundamental when studying how brother Juan confronts his difficulties relating to divinity and the infinite. If the analysis of the existing relationship between the works of Unamuno and Kierkegaard will permit a broader comprehension of the key ideas in Unamuno, such as personal evolution, the relationship with oneself, reality and divinity, then the study of Borges’ and Schopenhauer’s works, as presented in the second chapter, is equally beneficial. In this chapter, after another brief presentation of some of Schopenhauer’s basic philosophical concepts, one will be able to observe the way in which Borges incorporates these into his stories –however, sometimes subtly modified. The idea of Schopenhauerian will plays a fundamental role when configuring the relationship that man maintains with himself and with the universe in texts such as ‘La forma de la espada’ or ‘ La escritura del dios’, and thereby illustrates the importance of universal causality in certain Borgesian works. The story ‘Deutsches Requiem’ is particularly revealing in this aspect as this narrative acquires a fundamental presence of the notion of a ‘moment of clarity’; an instant in time and space when a human being is capable of modifying the inevitable universal causality through choice. The second part of the thesis, also divided into two chapters, revolves around the study of the creative dialogue between both authors’ texts in relation to two particular issues; the limits of human reason and the challenge of eternity. The first chapter of this part delves deeper into the previously mentioned interest that Unamuno and Borges exhibited in their writings for the relationship between the individual and the universe. Knowledge is fundamental to this relationship, which is problematic due to the limits that reason imposes upon human beings. This chapter will focus on the manner in which both authors’ characters face the inability to comprehend their surrounding realities whilst attempting to satisfy the need for knowledge. There are two main consequences in the search for knowledge: death, at the hands of another or self-induced, or the hopeful resignation to a future where the truth will be revealed. Both Borges’ and Unamuno’s characters throw themselves into the search for wisdom propelled by identical motives. They experience similar moods and suffer the same negative consequences. However, a small number of Borges’ characters are able to go one step further than their Unamunian counterparts and end up in full possession of the knowledge they seek. The result is deceiving as these characters, upon achieving universal wisdom, lose their very essence, thereby demonstrating that human beings are unable to comprehend the ultimate mysteries of the universe. The creative dialogue studied in this third chapter is based upon Unamuno’s and Borges’ communion of perspectives on the fact that humans suffer from the impossibility of absolute knowledge. In this dialectic, Borges’ texts complement Unamuno’s and offer another perspective of the topic in question by introducing new elements to the debate and arriving at the same conclusion. iv Through a narrative dialogue, the second chapter of this part studies how Borges’ and Unamuno’s positions on the afterlife, although seemingly opposite, actually complement each other and even share some common ground. Initially, both authors’ texts play with two completely different perspectives on the existence of the individual in eternity. Unamuno’s texts plead from the very beginning for the need of a human to access an individual immortality in which the personal conscience is preserved at all costs. In spite of the fact that there exists a certain flexibility with regard to the preservation of individuality after death in Unamuno’s texts, their insistence upon perpetuating one’s own conscience separates them from Borges’ narrations. In these texts, passing into eternity is described as collective experience in which an indispensable condition must be observed at all times; the complete dissolution of the individual conscience. These two perspectives on human existence in the hereafter do not only complement and illuminate one another, but also find a point of middle ground in one of Unamuno’s most classic propositions; the concept of intrahistoria.

Pendant les 70 premieres annees du 19e siecle La France s'interessa a la Russie, comme la langue liste de livres ecrits par des voyageurs et des diplomates franeais francais sur laRussie nous le montre. Cette liste est plus langue que celle qui montre les relations intellectuelles de la France avec aucun autre pays europeen. Un examen attentif revelera ce fait, que l'interet est dirige principalement vers la politique russe, vers les methodes de gouvernement, les institutions religieuses: les livres sont, pour la plupart, ou des impressions de voyage a travers les paysages pittoresques de la Russie, ou des traites politiques ou religieuses. Sauf quelques articles par H.Delaveau dans la "Revue des Deux Mondes" et une petite oeuvre insignlficantepar Charles de St. Julien sur Pouchkin et le movement intellectuel70 premieres annees. L'attitude de la France envers la Russiequi desirait explorer le seul pays de l'Europe qui, a cetteepoque avancee, restât encore un mystere. Le mobile qui poussaAnatole Leroy-Beaulieu a s'en aller voyager dans la Russie pourraitbien s'appliquer aux autres voyageurs.'Je connaissais le reste de l'Europe, j'etais attire versl'est par ce grand empire qui sur nos cartes ressemblait encorea une terra incognita. Cet argument est appuye par un examen des traductionsfrancaises des auteurs russes qui parurent pendant cette periode.(1) Vr. Gustave Lanson. ,Manuel bibliographique de la litterature francaise. Tom IV. Revolution et 19e siecle (1912) pp.938 et 1125 et seq.(2) Lettre de Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu a E .Halperip-Kaminsky, citee dans l'article de celui-ci intitule "La Litterature russeen France". Revue Internationale Scientifique, Litteraire et Artistique. 1897. (Vol: 4)(3) Vr. Gustave Lanson Manuel bibliographique. Tom IV,p. 1177 et seq.depuis 40 ans (1847), l'interet litteraire est absent pendant cesest plutot une attitude de curiosite que d'interet, une curiosite.

From his childhood Stendhal was fascinated by the theatre, and from the age of seventeen to twenty-two he aimed at achieving fame as a playwright. In spite of failure he made desultory efforts for a further twenty years. His study of eighteenth-century philosophy (French) and English and Italian plays, freed him from his early orthodox views on drama. The influence of the Italian Romantics completed this emancipation, and from 1821 to 1828 Stendhal was accounted a leader in the French Romantic Movement. He advocated the writing of historical drama, modelled on Shakespeare, unrestricted by classical conventions and in prose. "Le Globe" echoes these arguments and a group of writers put his theories into practice. They failed as dramatists, but their plays form a transition between the pseudo-classic and the romantic theatre. After 1834 Stendhal lost interest in the theatre and prophesied that the novel would be the comedy of the nineteenth century. The "Theatre" contains an adaptation from Florian, a translation from Goldoni and attempts at original plays, the most important being "Les Deux Hommes" and "Letellier". These examples reveal Stendhal's lack of creative imagination and his pre-occupation with theory. They also indicate the growth of his methods of building up characters by collecting traits from people he had observed. His tendency to portray himself as the hero is already marked. There remains the problem of his long and unsatisfactory apprenticeship to the theatre. The fact that drama was traditionally a higher form of literature than the novel, and brought swifter success may have caused Stendhal to persist in his attempts, but by temperament and bent of mind he was unsuitable to be a playwright. He was too self-centred and had a deductive mind that preferred analysing the motives of his characters to depicting their actions. Traces of his early studies are visible in his novels, but the unity of his work as a playwright and novelist is his passion for the study of human nature.

The Symbolistic technique as applied to the novel. A consideration of Marcel Proust, as exponent in the novel of some of the themes dear to Symbolism, and, before the Symbolists, to their precursor Charles Baudelaire. In treatment of all these themes of memory, synesthesia, and music; symbol, liturgical symbolism, and mysticism: Time, and dreams; he shows close affinity with Baudelaire, and varying degrees of affinity with Symbolism proper, but everywhere he makes the novel a flexible instrument for expression of subject matter, and use of technique, hitherto considered the domain of poetry and the other arts, such as music, even the province of metaphysics (time) and psycho-analysis (sleep and dreams, memory and synesthesia).

“Bare-Faced Cheek: Authenticity, Femininity and Cosmetics in English Romantic-Era Print Culture” examines the rhetoric that surrounded women’s use of cosmetics in Romantic-era England through the focus of prevailing notions of authenticity and a Romantic valorisation of nature over artifice. The rhetoric that surrounded women’s use of cosmetics in Romantic-era England was as contentious as it was dichotic when the moralising dogma of literature of conduct came to clash with the commercial agenda of advertising rhetoric and notions of beauty, taste and women’s proper place in the social order became subjects of deliberation and debate. The significance of cosmetics in the Romantic era shifted from that of courtly display and fashionable visibility to that of tasteful moderation and restrained decorum. This, in turn, elicited a furious anti-cosmetic backlash that spoke of women’s use of cosmetics in terms of vanity, duplicity and fraudulence. The increasing medicalisation of the female body and the dissemination of that knowledge through a burgeoning print trade meant that such accusations could be accompanied by dire warnings of the deleterious nature of many lead, mercury and arsenical-based preparations that were being prepared, manufactured and promoted by a coterie of hucksters, quacks and charlatans. However, the very burgeoning print culture that gave voice to such allegations and cautions also provided a sounding-board for other voices such as the newly emerging sub-genre of the beauty manual that presented cosmetics as benign, effectual and the sign of a healthy regard for the beauty bestowed upon humanity by God. Furthermore, the rise of periodical publications designed particularly with a female readership in mind provided a forum for discussion of matters cosmetical and regular features within such publications promoted the cosmetic benefits of skincare and the effectual preservation of beauty. Advertisers also made good use of such publications as places to promote their goods as anodynely effective and discretely undetectable: an effective weapon against the ravages of time and the vagaries of nature. Cosmetics under such auspices became not only admissible but laudable, a service to both society and domestic harmony through their mollifying ability to beautify the female face. Paradoxically then, the key to using cosmetics successfully within Romantic-era England was to learn the art of appearing authentic, natural and untouched by the dubiety of feminine ‘arts’. In a print culture conflicted over the permissibility of cosmetics within the secretive realm of the female toilette the figure of the cosmetically enhanced female was thus, one that came to be used figuratively by female novelists of the time to raise questions about: the validity of authenticity within the lives of contemporary women; the contingent nature of femininity in a society that increasingly sought to confine women within an idealised cultural script; the crushing intensity of a powerful social scrutiny; and the hegemonically disruptive potential of elective female transgression. Hence, cosmetic artifice within the works of the women authors I investigate becomes a metaphor for the over-arching artifice inherent within the social construction of Romantic-era woman. Moreover, the self-control required for her to assimilate herself as naturally virtuous, diffident and unworldly points to the cosmetic artistry required to make her naturally beautiful.