The second edition of Shakespeare's sonnets, titled Poems: Written by Wil. Shake-Speare, Gent, and published by stationer John Benson in 1640, was a text typical of its time. In an effort to update the old-fashioned sonnet sequence in which its contents had first reached print, the compiler or editor of the Bensonian version rearranged the poems from the earlier quarto text, adding titles and other texts thought to have been written by or about the sonnets' author. The immediate reception of the 1640 Poems was a quiet one, but the volume's contents and structure served as the foundation for more than half of the editions of Shakespeare's sonnets produced in the eighteenth century. In part due to the textual instability created by the presence of two disparate arrangements of the collection, Shakespeare's sonnets served only as supplements to the preferred Shakespearean canon from 1709 to 1790. When, at the end of the century, the sonnets finally entered the canon in Edmond Malone's groundbreaking edition of the plays and poems together, Benson's version was quickly overshadowed by the earlier text, which was preferred as both more authorial and, due to Malone's careful critical readings, autobiographical. In contrast to the many scholars since Malone who have overlooked or denigrated the Poems of 1640, this thesis studies the second edition of Shakespeare's sonnets within the framework of the early modern culture that produced it, arguing that Benson's edition provides valuable evidence about the editorial habits and literary preferences of the individuals and culture for which it was originally intended.

In the Central African Presbyterian Church (C.C.A.P.) women are marginalised in its synods. The Nkhoma Synod has taken the strictest measures in marginalising women in the sense that, unlike the other synods, at the time of writing this dissertation, they did not allow women to be deacons, elders or ministers. The dissertation is a quest to find out the root cause of this marginalisation. The main focus has been on finding out to what extent the Pauline writings influenced this marginalisation. Chapter 1 describes the extent of women marginalisation in the C.C.A.P. Synods in Malawi, focusing especially on the Nkhoma Synod. Chapter 2 deals with the unparalleled contribution of women to the success of the Nkhoma Synod’s work. The position of women in Malawi and within the Chewa society is discussed in chapter 3. Chapter 4 deals with various interpretations of 1 Corinthians 11:2–16; 14:34, 35. These are Pauline texts which seem to support the marginalisation of women. Chapter 5 presents the results of the research, while in chapter 6 suggestions are made with regard to the future improvement of the position of women. / New Testament / M.A. (Biblical Studies)

L’objectif de la thèse est de rassembler des arguments permettant de déterminer si la seconde partie de la légende mariale moyen-néerlandaise Beatrijs (vv. 865-1038) est originale ou plutôt l’œuvre d’un continuateur. Dans la séquence narrative dont il est question, l’auteur développe le thème de la confession, préalable spirituel à la rémission des péchés.<p>En premier lieu, l’analyse stylistique objective (c.-à-d. basée sur des paramètres quantitatifs) de l’ensemble du corpus-texte nous a permis de ne déceler aucune différence notable entre les deux parties de la légende.<p>Ensuite, par l’étude de la structure diégétique, nous avons tenté d’expliquer le rôle du processus pénitentiel dans l’œuvre moyen-néerlandaise. Grâce aux principes d’analyse sémiotique de Propp, Greimas, Courtès et Dundes, nous avons pu remarquer que la légende présente une double articulation narrative reposant sur une double quête :le rejet du péché par le retour à l’espace hétérotopique initial (dans la première partie) et la quête de la pureté originale par la confession des péchés (dans la seconde partie). Cette dernière quête semble donc très logiquement faire partie intégrante de l’œuvre médiévale.<p><p><p>The aim of this thesis is to determine whether the second part of the Middle-Dutch legend Beatrijs (vv. 865-1038) is original. In the final sequences, the author highlights the role of confession in the absolution of sins.<p>In the first part of our work, we carried out a stylistic analysis of the whole legend that rested on quantifiable parameters. As no significant differences could be observed between the two parts, the stylistic homogeneity seemed obvious.<p>In the second part of our research, the emphasis was laid on the narrative structural approach. On the basis of the theories of semioticians (Propp, Greimas, Courtès and Dundes), we could analyse the legend as a bimotifemic « complex tale » in which the success of the first quest in the first part (return to the heterotopic point of departure) must be considered the first stage in the expiation. The second quest in the second part (return to the original purity) can only be achieved through confession. This physical and spiritual movement ensures absolution and salvation :for that reason we can assert that the confession process is an integral part of the medieval legend as a whole. / Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation langue et littérature / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis explores the significance of John Keats's medical Notebook, and his time at Guy's Hospital (October 1815 – March 1817), for the poet's career. As a primary contribution, it offers a new transcription of Keats's medical Notebook (Appendix 1). The transcription reproduces Keats's text and indicates the layout of his notes, but is neither a facsimile, nor a new edition: the visual form of Keats's notes is not reproduced, nor do I offer critical annotations; commentary follows in subsequent chapters. The achievements, limitations and influence of the only edition of Keats's medical Notebook — Maurice Buxton Forman's from 1934 — are the subject of the first chapter, which also considers accounts of Keats's medical career in Keats biography and criticism. Chapter two focuses on the poems Keats wrote while at Guy's to show that the two aspects of his life — medicine and poetry — were mutually influential. Chapter three considers Keats's medical notes in comparison to a fellow-student's, indicating how some characteristics of Keats's note-taking prefigure aspects of his mature poetry. Chapter four finds Endymion suffused with medical knowledge and imagery, and argues that this was a vital aspect of the poem's depiction of passion. Chapter five suggests that the publication of Keats's 1820 volume was greatly influenced by questions of health, medicine, and disease; concerns reflected by the poems in it, which also reveal the extent of Keats's continued awareness of, and interest in, contemporary medical thought. In sum, the thesis argues that the origins of Keats's poetic achievement can be traced in his medical Notebook and ‘hospital' poems, and that the ability to infuse his poetry with medical knowledge was a vital component of Keats's poetic power and achievement.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / James Joyce’s Ulysses is a work of art that engendered scandal in every stage of its production, dissemination, and reception. The work is now hailed as the prose monument of modernism, a twentieth-century masterpiece, and revolutionary in its stylistic technique, its foregrounding of language and psychological drama, and its ambiguity. Ulysses is, in truth, a simple tale, about a lifetime of one day, in a world of one place, in the lives of one people, played out on a stage of pages. The telling of the tale is far from simple—it is among the greatest literary artifacts of our cultural heritage. But the text of Ulysses continues to be entangled in the tension of its status as both a literary artifact, created by an artist, and a cultural artifact, influenced by the aspects of its currency. Among the many questions the novel begs is, who controls the meaning of a work of literary art? This thesis begins to answer that question. Chapter 1 surveys available materials and outlines four waves in the history of textual scholarship of Ulysses. This chapter reads like the prose version of a library catalogue. Sorry, it is a symptom of academese. Chapter 2 outlines the history of censorship and suppression of Ulysses. Chapter 3 gives a historical context to legalizing the work and discusses the implications of the ban upon the development and reliability of the text. Chapter 4 outlines the second scandal of Ulysses, at the close of the twentieth century, now commonly referred to as the Joyce Wars. Chapter 5 discusses the influences upon Gabler’s editorial method and the resultant text. Together, these chapters tell the story of the book's creation and life in print.

From the end of the 19th century, the Old Czech apocryphal story of Joseph (son of Jacob), called Life of Joseph, has not been in the center of the scholars' and editors' attention, and therefore many pivotal philological questions concerning this Old Czech composition have not been satisfactory solved yet. This thesis offers a comprehensive analysis of the Old Czech Life of Joseph in terms of textual criticism and literary history and attempts to bring answers to the main problems of its contextualization. The six extant medieval manuscripts of the Life of Joseph, representing the inherent part of the thesis, are provided with critical edition. The Old Czech Life of Joseph is a late medieval work of an anonymous author and should be dated to the second half or to the end of the 14th century. It is based on a Latin model, namely Historia Ioseph, which was composed in the year 1336 by the Spanish Dominican Alfonso Buenhombre (Alphonsus Bonihominis). The Czech Life of Joseph is the unique vernacular translation of Alfonso's Latin text. This Latin text has not been broadly disseminated. I am aware of the existence of 14 manuscripts, six of which originated in Bohemia and represent the specific Bohemian manuscript branch. The Czech translation is admittedly based on the Latin text related closely to...