This paper evaluates the critical response to Samuel Coleridge's "Kubla Khan." In the Introduction I outline my critical approach, which attempts to see the relationships between parts of the poem, sources outside the poem and poet himself. In analyzing Coleridge's esthetics, I have come to the conclusion that the poem was the first of a new type of Romantic poem. The central structural principle of this type of poem is the use of illusion and the fragmented form, or the illusion of the fragmented form. Poems that fall within this esthetic frequently use the "vision within a dream" motif as a metaphor for this illusion.

The meaning of democracy was contested theoretical and political terrain in classical Athens. In this dissertation I examine three contending theoretical views of democracy found in the works of three Greek thinkers--Thucydides, Aeschylus and Plato--present at the height of Athenian democracy. I show that each view draws upon competing conceptions of nature, language, truth, and power in order to claim the contested terrain. I argue that the heroic view of democracy, portrayed in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, saw politics as the means by which states achieve immortal glory through feats of war which simultaneously destroy them. In this view political power was delivered by the unified voice--the single identity--of the Athenian assembly produced by the power of persuasion. I interpret the tragic view, represented by Aeschylus' Oresteia, to criticize the heroic tradition of politics as dangerously unbalanced. The Oresteia offers an alternative view of democracy in which multiple voices divided against themselves produce not weakness but balance as a shield against the loss of limits implied in the heroic view. I argue that the ambiguity of language, and the ambiguous identity it produces, is affirmed by tragedy to be a source of political strength and not a sign of political disintegration. The Platonic view articulated in the Republic opposes both the heroic view of politics and its tragic revision. I contend that the Republic, while appearing to oppose democracy, actually seeks to place it on a more secure foundation grounded in the logical concept of identity and rational thought applied to the soul. I argue that the Platonic attempt to found political order on the twin concepts of logical and psychological identity maintained by rational thought and language actually recapitulates on a grand scale the same dangers it identifies in its heroic opponents. And I suggest in conclusion that our Platonic legacy may effectively blind us to the dangerously heroic trajectory of the modern political state.

<p>This dissertation interrogates existing scholarly paradigms regarding aetiology in the Histories of Herodotus in order to open up new avenues to approach a complex and varied topic. Since aetiology has mostly been treated as the study of cause and effect in the Histories, this work expands the purview of aetiology to include Herodotus’ explanations of origins more generally. The overarching goal in examining the methodological principles of Herodotean aetiology is to show the extent to which they resonate across the Histories according to their initial development in the proem, especially in those places that seem to deviate from the work’s driving force (i.e. the Persian Wars). Though the focus is on correlating the principles espoused in the proem with their deployment in Herodotus’ ethnographies and other seemingly divergent portions of his work, the dissertation also demonstrates the influence of these principles on some of the more “historical” aspects of the Histories where the struggle between Greeks and barbarians is concerned. The upshot is to make a novel case not only for the programmatic significance of the proem, but also for the cohesion of Herodotean methodology from cover to cover, a perennial concern for scholars of Greek history and historiography.</p><p>Chapter One illustrates how the proem to the Histories (1.1.0-1.5.3) prefigures Herodotus’ engagement with aetiological discussions throughout the Histories. Chapter Two indicates how the reading of the proem laid out in Chapter One allows for Herodotus’ deployment of aetiology in the Egyptian logos (especially where the pharaoh Psammetichus’ investigation of the origins of Egyptian language, nature, and custom are concerned) to be viewed within the methodological continuum of the Histories at large. Chapter Three connects Herodotus’ programmatic interest in the origins of erga (i.e. “works” or “achievements” manifested as monuments and deeds of abstract and concrete sorts) with the patterns addressed in Chapters One and Two. Chapter Four examines aetiological narratives in the Scythian logos and argues through them that this logos is as integral to the Histories as the analogous Egyptian logos studied in Chapter Two. Chapter Five demonstrates how the aetiologies associated with the Greeks’ collaboration with the Persians (i.e. medism) in the lead-up to the battle of Thermopylae recapitulate programmatic patterns isolated in previous chapters and thereby extend the methodological continuum of the Histories beyond the “ethnographic” logoi to some of the most representative “historical” logoi of Herodotus’ work. Chapter Six concludes the dissertation and makes one final case for methodological cohesion by showing the inextricability of the end of the Histories from its beginning.</p> / Dissertation

<p>The Laws is generally regarded as Plato’s attempt to engage with the practical realities of political life, as opposed to the more idealistic, or utopian, vision of the Republic. Yet modern scholars have often felt disquieted at the central role of religion in the Laws’ second-best city and regime. There are essentially the two dominant interpretations on offer today: either religion supports a repressive theocracy, which controls every aspect of the citizens’ lives to such an extent that even philosophy itself is discouraged, or religion is an example of the kind of noble lie, which the philosopher must deceive the citizens into believing—viz., that a god, not a man, is the author of the regime’s laws. I argue that neither of these interpretations do justice to the dialogue’s intricately dramatic structure, and therefore to Plato’s treatment of civil religion. What I propose is a third position in which Plato both takes seriously the social and political utility of religion, and views theology as a legitimate, and even necessary, subject of philosophical inquiry without going so far as to advocate theocracy as the second best form of regime. </p><p>I conclude that a proper focus on the dialogue form, combined with a careful historical analysis of Plato’s use of social and political institutions, reveals an innovative yet traditional form of civil religion, purified of the harmful influence of the poets, based on the authority of the oracle at Delphi, and grounded on a philosophical conception of god as the eternal source of order, wisdom, and all that is good. Through a union of traditional Delphic theology and Platonic natural theology, Plato gives the city of the Laws a common cult acceptable to philosopher and non-philosopher alike, and thus, not only bridges the gap between religion and philosophy, but also creates a sense of community, political identity, and social harmony—the prerequisites for political order and stability. The political theology of the Laws, therefore, provides a rational defense of the rule of law (νόμος) re-conceived as the application of divine Reason (νοῦς) to human affairs.</p> / Dissertation

<p>This dissertation identifies Cicero's <italic>Consolatio</italic>, Seneca's <italic>Ad Polybium de consolatione</italic>, and Boethius' <italic>De consolatione Philosophiae</italic> as self-consolations, in which these Roman authors employ philosophical argument and literary art, in order to provide a therapy for their own crippling experience of grief. This therapeutic discourse unfolds between two contradictory conditions, though, since the philosophers must possess the self-mastery and self-possession that qualifies the consoler to perform his task felicitously, and they must lack those very same qualifications, insofar as their experience of loss has exposed their dependence upon others and they thus require consolation. Foucault's theoretical treatment of ancient philosophical discourse is supplemented by Lacanian critical theory and the political theology of Giorgio Agamben to perform analyses of the consolatory texts and their political context. These analyses reveal that self-consolation overcomes the contradictory conditions that found this discourse through literary and rhetorical artifice. But this resolution then places the apparent completeness of the philosophical argument in doubt, as the consoled authors in each case finally call for a decisive action that would join philosophical reflection to the merely human world that philosophy would have these consolers leave behind. Each author's self-consolation therefore demonstrates a split allegiance to the Roman political community and to a Socratic philosophical heritage that advocates for withdrawal from politics.</p> / Dissertation

Orientador: Maria Rosa Rodrigues Martins de Camargo / Banca: João Batista Toledo Prado / Banca: Eliane Aparecida Bacocina / Resumo: A presente dissertação traz observações e elaborações teóricas da experiência de uma professora com a Literatura Clássica. Apresenta reflexões sobre a interseção entre leitura, escrita e práticas artísticas na formação e constituição do espaço subjetivo fronteiriço entre essas práticas, na formação do aluno adolescente leitor. De abordagem qualitativa, apresenta- se como uma pesquisa narrativa e autobiográfica (ARFUCH, 2002). A professora parte de observações ao longo de alguns anos de experiências realizadas em uma escola pública agrícola de período integral de um município de São Paulo. Das colocações discursivas, "Amo ler" e "Odeio ler", identificam-se três tipos de leitores: o que ama, o que odeia ler e o indiferente; dois níveis de leitura: o narrativo ("Tempo Relativo") e o atemporal ("Tempo Absoluto"), que se interligam pela "Ponte de Einstein-Rosen", processo pelo qual se dá a diluição e reconstituição do eu no ato de ler. Outras elaborações teóricas, que possibilitam outras relações do aluno com o ato de ler, também foram desenvolvidas. O'Sullivan et al., (2015) e Calvino (2007) embasam o porquê da proposta da Literatura Clássica. E a partir das ideias de Barthes (1987) e Proust (2003), observou-se que, e como, os espaços físico e psicológico influenciam o "espaço psicológico" da leitura. No âmbito artístico, com Chekhov (2015), na representação teatral, e Vigotski ([1999?]), na valorização do social, as práticas artísticas tornaram o contexto de ler um ambiente cria... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The present dissertation brings one teacher's theoretical observations and elaborations from experiencing Classic Literature. It is a compilation of reflections on the co-interactions among practices of reading, writing and artistic tasks, as well on their influence on adolescent-student-reader's formation and constitution. Findings, obtained from qualitative approach, are presented as a narrative and autobiographical research (ARFUCH, 2002). Observations were conducted, experiences gathered over several years at a public agricultural school in Sao Paulo city (Brazil). Based on statement positions: "I love to read" and "I hate read", three types of readers were identified: "loves reading", "hates reading" and "indifferent". Adjacently defined two levels of reading: the narrative -"Relative Time" and the timeless and continuous time -"Absolute Time", which are interconnected by an "Einstein- Rosen Bridge". This is a process by which the "I" is diluted and reconstituted in the act of reading. Other theoretical elaborations that enabled other student relations with the act of reading were also developed. O'Sullivan et al. (2015) e Calvino (2007) substantiate the proposal of Classical Literature reasoning. Barthes (1987) and Proust (2003) ideas supported observations of physical and psychological spaces influence on the reading "psychological space". Chekhov (2015)'s theatrical performance along with Vygotsky ([1999?])'s social valorization transformed the context of reading in a... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

O epicurismo apresentou teorias sobre a física que constituíam, em boa parte, uma continuidade do pensamento materialista antigo, ainda assim, há certamente muitos elementos originais em seu pensamento para destacá-lo e torná-lo em um sistema reconhecido por sua própria importância. Como se desenvolveu em uma filosofia de amplo alcance, e por isso mesmo muito visada por adversários, além dos conteúdos de sua física, ética e canônica, disciplinas principais de seu pensamento, Epicuro e os membros de sua escola viam-se compelidos a opinar em assuntos que transcendiam esse grupo de investigações. É notório o conjunto de opiniões que a escola teria apresentado sobre o lavor poético e a veiculação de mitos; testemunhos de Plutarco, Sexto Empírico, Cícero e outros marcam essa postura como de oposição a essas expressões, oposição essa que certamente encontra respaldo na orientação pela busca pela felicidade por meio da remoção do indivíduo das fontes de perturbação com as quais normalmente essas formas de expressão se associam. Ainda assim, a obra mais apreciada dessa mesma escola, o poema De rerum natura do romano Tito Lucrécio Caro, escrito no século I a.C. é notória por transigir com relação a essas modalidades de expressão \"rechaçadas\" por sua escola. Além dessa aparente transgressão, um outro elemento digno de nota nesse poema é a recusa em se usar um termo apenas para referenciar os átomos, definitivamente singularizado por Epicuro por meio do termo &#7940;&#964;&#959;&#956;&#959;&#962; e ocasionalmente retomado também por meio termo &#963;&#959;&#956;&#945; pelo autor grego. As opções de cunho estético (uso da forma poética e de elementos míticos) revelam a adesão a um programa didático estabelecido e nos convidam a relativizar a postura epicurista e a buscar elementos mais sólidos que corroborem uma visão não tão sectária como a veiculada pelos críticos da doutrina. De outra parte, a variação vocabular reflete o desenvolvimento do programa didático encampado, no qual se faz uso de posições de outros pensadores (pré-socráticos) a respeito dos componentes essenciais da matéria, posições essas que são convenientemente deturpadas como forma de desqualificar escolas de pensamento ativas e influentes na época de Lucrécio (estoicismo e a academia). Outra função que esse expediente cumpre é a de adiantar ao leitor a explicação de conceitos complexos sobre o atomismo, a partir dos quais a exposição das teses epicuristas possa se dar de uma forma mais rápida e completa. / Epicureanism presented theories on physics that can be seen to continue, for the most part, the ancient materialistic thought of the pre-socratics. Even so, it has certainly many original ele-ments on itself so it may be considered to have its own relevance and importance. As it became a well known philosophy in its time, and therefore a constant target for its adversaries, it needed to approach other subjects beyond the contents of its intended fields: physics, canonics and ethics. For this reason, Epicuro and the members of its school were compelled to provide posi-tions on aesthetic matters, even though this was not a primordial object of inquiry. The set of opinions that the school may have presented on subjects such as poetic creation and the propa-gation of myths is well known; testimonies of Plutarch, Sextus Empiricus, Cicero and others mark epicureanism stance as of oppositon to these forms of expressions. This alledged hostility certainly finds endorsement on the guidance for the pursuit of happiness by means of the re-moval of sources of disturbance normally associated with those means of expression. Still the most appreciated work of the epicurean school, the poem De rerum natura by the Roman author Titus Lucretius Carus, writen in the 1st century BC, is notorious for its compromise with regard to those modes of expression \"repeled\" by epicureans. Beyond this apparent violation, another noteworthy element in this poem is the refusal of a single term to mean \'atom\', which was definitively singularized by Epicuro by means of the term &#7940;&#964;&#959;&#956;&#959;&#962; and, occasionally referred also by the term &#963;&#959;&#956;&#945;. The options of aesthetic matrix (use of the poetical form and mythical elements) disclose Lucretius\' adherence to an established didactic program and invite us to rel-ativize the epicurean position and to search for more solid elements that support a view on aesthetic and mythic matters less sectarian than the one propagated by the critics of the doctrine. On the other hand, the vocabulary variation reflects the development of the didactic program, in that sense Lucretius makes use of positions of other thinkers (pre-socratic thinkers) regarding the essential components of matter. Those positions are conveniently misrepresented so to dis-qualify active and influential schools of thought at the time of Lucretius (stoicism and the Acad-emy). These misrepresentations help Lucretius to guide the reader throught complicated con-cepts and by this mean the exposure of the Epicurean thesis can be performed in a faster and more complete way.

Nesta tese, desenvolvemos a partir de categorias literárias o aspecto polêmico da obra Apologia contra Rufino, de São Jerônimo, padre latino do século IV da era cristã, importante autor da Antiguidade Tardia e da Literatura Latina Cristã. Descrevemos a variedade dos aspectos de gênero de que se serviu São Jerônimo para construir seu texto da Apologia contra Rufino, como o gênero apologético, a diatribe cínico-estóica, os gêneros aristotélicos da Retórica, a sátira e a epístola. Visto que a obra é palco de debates, refutações e invectivas, o texto foi submetido a análises intertextuais, resultando em interessante diálogo entre Jerônimo e seu ex-amigo Rufino, bem como, igualmente interessante, retrato cultural do contexto de época em que o texto foi gerado. O trabalho contém análise estilística com reflexões sobre a língua latina cristã, as figuras de linguagem, os recursos expressivos da língua de Jerônimo, os motivos clássicos, os motivos bíblicos, o bestiário, de modo a reconstituir o processo formal e expressivo do texto da Apologia. Nosso trabalho recupera, pois, em aspectos formais, boa parte do conteúdo e da construção da polêmica da Apologia contra Rufino. / In this thesis, we develop with literary categories the polemical aspect of Saint Jerome’s Apology against Rufinus, whose author was an important Latin Father of the Fourth Century of our era, an important author of Late Antiquity and Christian Latin Literature. We describe the variety of gender aspects employed by Saint Jerome in order to construct his Apology against Rufinus text, such as the apologetic gender, the cynic-stoical diatribe, the aristotelic rhetorical genders, the satire and the epistle. Because the text is a place where we find debate, refutations and invective, we submitted it to intertextual analysis, and the result was an interesting dialogue between Jerome and his ex-friend Rufinus and also no less interesting cultural background of the epoch in which the text appeared. This work contains stylistic analysis with analyses on the Christian Latin Language, the figures of speech, the expressive ressources of Saint Jerome language, the classical and biblical motifs, the presence of the beasts, in such a way of reconstituting the formal and expressive process of Apologia’s text. Our work rescues in formal aspects a good portion of the contents and the polemical construction of the Apology against Rufinus.

Nesta tese, desenvolvemos a partir de categorias literárias o aspecto polêmico da obra Apologia contra Rufino, de São Jerônimo, padre latino do século IV da era cristã, importante autor da Antiguidade Tardia e da Literatura Latina Cristã. Descrevemos a variedade dos aspectos de gênero de que se serviu São Jerônimo para construir seu texto da Apologia contra Rufino, como o gênero apologético, a diatribe cínico-estóica, os gêneros aristotélicos da Retórica, a sátira e a epístola. Visto que a obra é palco de debates, refutações e invectivas, o texto foi submetido a análises intertextuais, resultando em interessante diálogo entre Jerônimo e seu ex-amigo Rufino, bem como, igualmente interessante, retrato cultural do contexto de época em que o texto foi gerado. O trabalho contém análise estilística com reflexões sobre a língua latina cristã, as figuras de linguagem, os recursos expressivos da língua de Jerônimo, os motivos clássicos, os motivos bíblicos, o bestiário, de modo a reconstituir o processo formal e expressivo do texto da Apologia. Nosso trabalho recupera, pois, em aspectos formais, boa parte do conteúdo e da construção da polêmica da Apologia contra Rufino. / In this thesis, we develop with literary categories the polemical aspect of Saint Jerome’s Apology against Rufinus, whose author was an important Latin Father of the Fourth Century of our era, an important author of Late Antiquity and Christian Latin Literature. We describe the variety of gender aspects employed by Saint Jerome in order to construct his Apology against Rufinus text, such as the apologetic gender, the cynic-stoical diatribe, the aristotelic rhetorical genders, the satire and the epistle. Because the text is a place where we find debate, refutations and invective, we submitted it to intertextual analysis, and the result was an interesting dialogue between Jerome and his ex-friend Rufinus and also no less interesting cultural background of the epoch in which the text appeared. This work contains stylistic analysis with analyses on the Christian Latin Language, the figures of speech, the expressive ressources of Saint Jerome language, the classical and biblical motifs, the presence of the beasts, in such a way of reconstituting the formal and expressive process of Apologia’s text. Our work rescues in formal aspects a good portion of the contents and the polemical construction of the Apology against Rufinus.

Literary histories of specific genres like tragedy or epic typically concern themselves with influence and deviation, tradition and innovation, the genealogical links between authors and the forms they make. Renaissance scholarship is particularly suited to these accounts of generic evolution; we read of the afterlife of Senecan tragedy in English drama, or of the respective influence of Virgil and Lucan on Renaissance epic. My study of epic poetry differs, though: by insisting on the primacy of material conditions, social organization and especially information technology to the production of literature, I present a discontinuous series of set pieces in which any given epic poem—the Iliad, the Aeneid, or The Faerie Queene—is structured more by local circumstances and methods than by authorial responses to distant epic predecessors. Ultimately I make arguments about how modes of literary production determine the forms of epic poems. Achilleus’ contradictory and anachronistic funerary practices in Iliad 23, for instance, are symptomatic of the accumulative transcription of disparate oral performances over time, which calls into question what, if any artistic ‘unity’ might guide scholarly readings of the Homeric texts. While classicists have conventionally opposed Virgil’s Aeneid to Lucan’s Bellum Civile on aesthetic and political grounds, I argue that both poets endorse the ethnographic-imperialist ideology ‘virtus at the frontier’ under the twin pressures of Julio-Claudian military expansion and the Principate’s instrumentalization of Roman intellectual life in its public library system. Finally, my chapter on Renaissance English epic demonstrates how Spenser and Milton grappled with humanist anxieties about the political utility of the classics and the unmanageable archive produced by print culture. It is my hope that this thesis coheres into a narrative of a particularly long-lived genre, the epic, and the mutations and adaptations it underwent in oral, manuscript, and print contexts.