The matter of the Good in classical Greek philosophy and literature is so important and extensive that it can hardly be covered in one document. Therefore the aim of the first part of the thesis is to express both fundamental context and critical attitude towards the concept of the Good in the philosophy of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The second part provides a coherent perspective on the development of archaic literature in terms of forming the idea of gods, virtues, good and evil in classical Greek epic and tragedy. Theoretical basis of the thesis relies on the studies of important philosophers, literature historians, religionists and mythologists, whose views are connected systematically or outlined comparatively in corresponding chapters. Both main parts of the thesis are divided into chapters which follow in logical sequence. The thesis is theoretical and corresponds to the assigned topic.

This thesis addresses the role of the birth complex in Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy and in Richard Wagner’s operas. I see the birth complex as characterised by a dialectical relation between flesh and light, which is itself polarised by the tension between desire and anxiety. A structural determinant of the human relation to the world, this complex in my argument is of special importance for understanding the roles given to and assumed by women. Wagner gave the birth complex its first comprehensive elaboration through his operas. This, I contend, is the aspect of Wagner’s work that Nietzsche in his writings particularly reacted to through the ambivalent fascination it awakened in him. I argue that, even after Nietzsche’s break from Wagner, the birth complex remains central in his philosophy. The primary reference I build on here is Otto Rank’s theory of birth trauma, as set out in Das Trauma der Geburt (1924). To me, Rank’s theorisation of the trauma of birth is a translation into psychoanalytic language of Nietzsche’s philosophy, which itself arose with a translation into philosophical language of Wagner’s operas. In this thesis I build especially on Rank’s formulation of the tension between desire and anxiety and on his suggestions concerning the causes of the undoing of women. However, Rank did not take into account what I contend is a key aspect of both Nietzsche’s and Wagner’s work: the role of light in its dialectical relation with the flesh. By flesh I mean the interiority of the mother’s body and, by extension, the human body insofar as it is conceived through its relation to the maternal body. In the first main section of my PhD, I propose a theoretical understanding of the birth complex through an analysis of Nietzsche’s philosophy. I start with his writings pro and contra Wagner, showing that what Nietzsche primarily sees in Wagner’s operas is the birth complex. I then go on to argue that Nietzsche’s philosophy of life and of creativity is an exploration of the ways in which birth could be overcome. The second main section of my PhD is dedicated to Wagner, with largely text-based readings of three operas. I first discuss the extent to which death in Der fliegende Holländer and in the Freudian conception of the death drive is a mask for birth. I then tackle Tristan und Isolde and its famous celebration of night and death, in order to investigate whether love can be reduced to the birth complex. The last chapter of this section presents a close analysis of Das Rheingold and especially of its first scene and of Wagner’s indications on lighting. In a third and shorter section, I show that Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s and Richard Strauss’s Elektra pursued and reviewed this fundamental preoccupation of Nietzsche’s and Wagner’s work in proposing a further formulation of the birth complex that incorporates the scene of matricide. Finally, as a coda to the thesis, I explore the extent to which the uses of stage lighting pioneered by Adolphe Appia have been coming to terms with the birth complex.

"Exclusion in Sophocles" dass Exklusion als Motiv sich durch alle erhaltenen Sophoklesstücke zieht nebst einiger der längeren Fragmente. Auffällig ist die Vielfalt des Motivs, welches sich auf einen Ausschluss aus der Familie (Elektra), der Stadt (Ödipus-Dramen), der Armee (Philoktet), der Gemeinschaft der Menschen (Tereus) und noch vieles Weitere bezieht. Diese Arbeit sammelt, ordnet und analysiert sophokleische Exklusionsszenarien. Insbesondere wird der Gebrauch von Tropologien des Un/Menschlichen in der extrinsischen Charakterisierung der tragischen Protagonisten herausgestellt sowie damit verbundene Metaphern des Pathologischen, Monströsen, Bestialen und sog. Primitiven als Marker und Auslöser von strukturellen Exklusionen. Dabei wird das Exklusionsmotiv nicht als vollendete Tatsache erfasst, sondern als dynamischer und sich teilweise über ganze Plots hinweg erstreckender Prozess, als Narrativ eines ehemals gut Eingegliederten und von der Gemeinschaft nach und nach Exkludierten. Gleichwohl diese Entwicklung vom tragischen Protagonisten in eloquenten und selbstdarstellerischen Reden vehement kritisiert wird, erwächst im Bereich der Metaphern und rhetorischen Bildsprache der Gemeinschaft eine regelrechte Ausradierung und Neuzuweisung seiner Identität. Durch eine vergleichende Gegenüberstellung beider Standpunkte stellt sich heraus, wie tiefgreifend die als Exkludierend handelnde Gemeinschaft in das Vorantschreiten des tragischen Geschehens involviert ist und die Dramen eben nicht nur—wie in zahlreichen Forschungsstandpunkten festgehalten—die Manci des Exkludierten Protagonisten als moralische Fabel vorführen. / Social exclusion as a literary theme is common to all of Sophocles' fully extant plays as well as some of the longer fragments. The variety of settings is wide, between exclusion from the family like for example in Electra, exclusion from the city as in the case of Oedipus, from a regiment of the armed forces like in Ajax or Philoctetes, or even humankind, like with Tereus. This inquiry sets out to present, taxonomize and unpack Sophoclean discourses of exclusion and their attaining literary tropes of the pathological, the bestial, the brutish, the monstrous, and the so-called uncivilized. The aim is to demonstrate how deeply implicated the whole cast of characters and their language are in the process of a tragedy unfolding, rather than the causes of tragedy being lodged in the doings of one protagonist alone. One key point argued here is that, instead of taking 'the isolation of the tragic hero' as fait accompli, exclusion is a dynamic process that often takes up the entire plot arc of a tragedy. In the space of extrinsic characterization, it is argued that a process of rhetorical erasure and overwriting of identity takes place, where peer groups gradually dismantle a formerly well-established identity and re-assign a new and undesirable one. It is shown how the protagonists seek to resist, lament or somehow negotiate this process through long and expansive speeches of futile self-reinstatement. In the synthesis of both, it is argued that Sophocles' deployment of the theme puts a critical spotlight on the rhetorics of exclusion and its discourses of the bestial, the brutal, and especially the pathological, which embed and frame the work's overall literary, cultural and dramatic effects.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The purpose of this study was to evaluate the fracture resistance of three post and core systems in endodontically treated teeth by loading to failure, and to measure marginal gaps before and after cyclic loading. Sixty extracted canines were assigned to three groups. The groups tested were: 1) Single cast post and core (Group CP). 2) Prefabricated metal post and composite resin core (Group MR). 3) Glass fiber post and composite resin core (Group FR). All teeth were obturated and prepared to receive a post and core with a coping. Thirty teeth (10 from each group) were loaded to failure, and the other 30 teeth were fatigue-loaded. The marginal gaps on the facial and lingual surface of the fatigue-loaded group were measured before and after cyclic loading. There were two hypotheses for this study. The first was that the FR group would have less marginal gap opening on the lingual surface than the other groups. The second was that the CP group would have a higher load at failure than the other groups. Group CP was found to have a significantly smaller pre-loading marginal gap than group FR (p = 0.0265) and group MR (p = 0.0273), while groups FR and MR did not have a significantly different pre-loading marginal gaps (p = 0.86). Group FR had significantly less change in marginal gap than group MR (p = 0.0013). Groups CP and MR did not have significantly different changes in marginal gap (p = 0.09). Groups CP and FR did not have significantly different changes in marginal gap (p = 0.11). The three post types did not have significantly different maximum loads to failure (p= 0.49), moments of inertia at cervical area (p = 0.75), or moments of inertia at fracture site (p=0.12). There was no significant difference between groups CP, FR, and MR in the load-to-failure test. Group CP demonstrated the highest load-to-failure values; however, the highest load-to-failure mean was for group MR. All fractures observed in this study were catastrophic. Group FR demonstrated better stress distribution and caused no early fractures in the fatigue-loading group. All groups demonstrated significant marginal gap changes on the lingual surface after fatigue loading; however, group FR demonstrated <45 μm marginal gap opening. In group FR, the reduced marginal gap opening was attributed to the use of Panavia 21 with the proper surface treatments to bond to the tooth structure, the resin composite, and the metal coping.