Zugl.: Wien, University, Diss., 2003.

Zugl.: Freiburg (Breisgau), Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.

No description available.

This thesis has three main sections, the first a full-length novel entitled The Gift of Death, the third the bibliography and two appendices. The second contains variously: a preface; a critical exposition/analysis of the preceding novel with subsections, considering in conceptual fashion three central themes: death considered through symbolic, ideological and other meanings; a positioning of the academy in the ‘Campus’ novel sub-genre; and a socio-cultural analysis of fiction as a field of production and associated struggles for entry determined by class, origin and periodic cultural preferences. The Gift of Death concerns a sixty-year-old’s attempt to write a novel. Procrastinating English scholar, archetypal baby-boomer Jim Dent, revisits the thwarted ambitions of youth. Inspired by novelist Sue Townsend’s death, once a friend, Jim recalls knowing other aspirant artists—writers and film-makers— living and dying in obscurity. He reflects upon a troubled past, on unsatisfactory elements of the present and the increasingly daunting task of composition. The Gift of Death reworks the tradition of the campus or varsity novel, detailing lives tied to the rhythms of the academy. The chapters explore various eccentrics whose lives Jim traces through tentative, inadequate notes. Expanding such recollections the narrative includes: schooldays; postgraduate studies and school-teaching in Leicester; a voyage to interview Basil Bunting; and friendships with oddball alcoholics writers, Cedric and Challis, never satisfied or fully recognized creatively. Finally, overwhelmed by self-doubt, Jim abandons his Sisyphean task. Reflecting upon failure, an unexpected turn of events associated with visiting Bunting emerges in the present, offering resolution of sorts. The Gift of Death’s primary themes/contexts are: self-reflexive, multi-chronic form; death, loss and mourning; the baby-boomer generation; struggling for professional entry into the field of fiction; lost provincial and local creativity; the juxtaposition of past and present; loyalty, friendship and memory; parental conflict; and finally procrastination and disappointment.

Dissertation ARS MORIENDI IN THE LIGHT OF THE THEOLOGICAL PERSONALISM - POIMENICAL EXPLICATION Ruth Kubíčková Abstract The dissertation Ars moriendi in the light of the theological personalism - poimenical explication aims to investigate how the question of death, life and potential preparation for death, or life in an eschatological perspective is reflected in the realm of social sciences and philosophy, in the Scriptures and by selected systematic and personalistic theologians, in correlation with medieval ars moriendi texts; and in doing so, implicitly define central aspects defining an afterlife hope of a modern human, including its practical theological outcome leading to an authentic realization of a personal ontological responsibility.

Univ., Diss.--Wien, 2003.

The development of ethics with samples of period fine art pieces with the emphasis on Christian view. (Range 14.-16. century). The base of this thesis is a brief description of eschatology, developing in the frame of Christian ethics in the midstream of the pestilence's apocalypse of the late Middle Ages. The main part of the thesis is focused on changes in individual as well as social perception of death during the very demanding era of extreme wave of pestilence's epidemic in late Middle Ages even early modern history. The changes in approach and coping with the attribute of death are being observed. The aim of the thesis, on the basis of literary studies, is to gather and analyze the changes in interpretation of death during the mentioned period, evaluate their influence of people's behavior by verification or denial of given hypothesis. The accessible materials are supplemented by previews of period fine art pieces showing the attitude of people in given era towards the perception of their own death. Key words Ars moriendi, Bible, carpe diem, pestilence, eschatology, flagellant, macabre art, dying memento mori, death, death dances, vanitas.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise nous amène à Paris, au cœur du XVIIe siècle religieux et judiciaire. À travers La marquise de Brinvilliers. Récit de ses derniers moments, l'abbé Edme Pirot (1631-1713), confesseur de la Sorbonne rapporte comment, le 16 juillet 1676, il assista à la mort la marquise de Brinvilliers; il y raconte les derniers instants passés avec la criminelle et le discours qu'il lui tint et qui transforma, en quelques heures, une horrible criminelle parricide et empoisonneuse en une femme repentie, prête à affronter dignement la mort. Ce document exceptionnel est le rare témoignage que nous possédions d'une exhortation auprès d'un supplicié; il constitue une fenêtre unique sur la culture et le savoir d'un confesseur parisien en plein cœur de la contre-réforme. La marquise de Brinvilliers a été l'objet de plusieurs recherches tandis que son confesseur est demeuré peu connu. Dans cette étude, nous avons tenté de montrer que Pirot avait tenté d'écrire une sorte de modèle de récit de mort destiné aux confesseurs de la Sorbonne qui assistaient à la mort les condamnés. À travers une approche sémantique et sérielle, nous avons effectué une analyse comparée entre le texte de Pirot et d'autres modèles d'écriture profane et religieuse. L'abbé s'est certainement inspiré des ars moriendi, des hagiographies, des idées jansénistes sur la grâce et le salut, de l'idéal de la bonne mort présenté à travers l'écriture du fait divers et des histoires tragiques, puis des textes juridiques. Bien que son œuvre soit unique, la mise en lumière de l'argumentation de Pirot nous démontre l'influence d'une multitude de modèles d'écriture et rend compte, par-là, d'un modèle rhétorique utilisé pour assister à la mort un criminel. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Paris, dix-septième siècle, confession, exécution publique, préparation à la mort.

Zugl.: Münster (Westfalen), Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2003/2004

Keywords: ars moriendi, castrum doloris, early modern period, epitaphs, funeral essentials, funeral procession, funeral sermons, Prague, sepulcher essentials, tomb stones The thesis introduces a specific part of the cultural history of the early modern period - the funeral culture. Considering the extensiveness of thematter, the scope has been limited to the area of Prague, to the cultural sphere of secular nobility and to the time period between the years 1500 and 1700. Naturally, the timeframe is not and cannot be absolute given the nature of this subject matter, which is culture. In the introductory chapter, the paper seeks to clarify eschatology and religious conditions in the early modern period, depicting death and its grip in the 16th and 17th centuries. Each chapter is devoted to a specific phenomenon of the funeral culture, in the same order in which the succession should logically follow shortly before and after the death of an important person. As such, the thesis specifically discusses the doctrine of "good death" - so called ars moriendi, exhibitions of the body, the funeral procession, construction of the Castrum Doloris, funeral sermons, and provision of funeral monuments. At the conclusion, the thesis ventures into the geographically and religiously distant Duchy of Finland, which...