Tesi di laurea--Milan. / Without thesis statement. "Nota bibliografica": p. [109]-111.

<p>These at times somewhat mathematical studies are not intended as a complete survey of the style of Phaedrus' Fables, but represent, it is hoped, useful contribution to our knowledge of the work of an otherwise rather obscure figure.</p> <p>I. Phaedrus seems often to have used haterodyne ("ictus"accent clash) effectively to convey agitation, surprise, speed, and the like, and homodyne to convey the opposite, though there is no good evidence of patterning like that knight thought to have found in the Aenid. (The predominance of heterodyne in the mock-tragic 4.7.6-16 is however, probably due to factors of genre.)</p> <p>II. (There is less va:riation in prota.gotists in the second part of book 1 than in the first-- this is a field for durther investigation)</p> <p>Verse-endings are repeated less and less in the later books in a fairly smooth progression which supports the present order.</p> <p>III. Words occurring only once in Phaedrus' work are relatively rare in book 1 and in prologues and epilogues. Poems high in such "once-words" tend not to be beast fables and are on average longer, while poems low in these words, when not prologues or epilogues, are beast-fables or jokes.</p> <p>IV. Phaedru.s' use of Greek words increased with time, but this largely be due to a. change in the type of poems. Possible particular occasions for using Greek words (apart from unavoidable instances, such as the names of certain animals) seem to be insincerity/ deceit, riches, glorification, hyperbole, Greek settings, and possibly alliteration. Phaedrus introduced few new Greek words, if any, and the overall proportion of Greek words in his vocabulary is low in comparison with other poets.</p> <p>V. Phaedrus uses "unpoetic" words to a fairly high degree, though less frequently in narrative than in direct speech and personal material. He also has some words characteristic of poetry and shows sensitivity to certain "rules" of poetic speech, and his vocabulary could not be confused with that of a prose-author. Not unexpectedly, he is closer in vocabulary to "low" poetry (such as satire) than to "high" poetry (Such as epic).</p> <p>VI. Phaedrus seems to have been conscious of certain rhyming effects or homoeoteleuta, notably between the final 'words of successive verses (a type he cultivated in book 4 especially, but seems to have avoided in book 5).</p> <p>VII. Alliteration is generally used sparingly by Phaedrus, who seems to have avoided extreme concentration of alliterative verses. It occurs with slightly greater frequency in narrative, and also appears to have been employed somewhat less in Phaedrus' middle work generally. There is some indication of preference for particulr alliterative patterns (e.g. avoidance of the concentric pattern).</p> <p>VIII. Only tentative observations are possible on the structure, if any, of the books. The numerical approach seems somewhat more promising than the thematic (book. 5 in its present form is numerically balanced).</p> <p>IX. About one eighth of Phaedrus' poems are exactly seven verses long, ®d this may have represented for him an ideal minimum length. Babrius, on the other hand, does not favour this length, but shows instead a strong preference for even numbers of verses. Avienus' poems do not vary greatly in length, but do not favour any exact figure.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Voltaire began his career in literature by writing for the theater. One of his plays, The Orphan of China, was an adaptation of a Chinese play, The Orphan of the Mansion Tchao. Many critics contend that in this play Voltaire is: 1. Propagating the spirit of the Enlightenment to the Europeans via his representation of the Chinese; 2. Refuting Rousseau because he condemns civilization as the source of men's suffering and pain; and 3. Lacking in understanding of Chinese history during the Mongolian invasion. This thesis will argue that critics have not examined the essential philosophical theory in The Orphan of China because they have overlooked the significance of sacrificial and judicial systems (in Europe and, more importantly, in China) in the play. In the first chapter, I will demonstrate Voltaire's theory of civilization by contrasting The Orphan of China with Rousseau's essays: Discourse on Arts and Science and On the Origin of Inequality. The succeeding chapters will illustrate Voltaire's ideal society which is supported by judicial system.

Book Summary: The essays in this collection explore the languages - artistic, symbolic, and ritual, as well as written and spoken - in which power was articulated, challenged, contested, and defended in Italian cities and courts, villages, and countryside, between 1300 and 1600. Topics addressed include court ceremonial, gossip and insult, the performance of sanctity and public devotions, the appropriation and reuse of imagery, and the calculated invocation (and sometimes undermining) of authoritative models and figures. The collection balances a broad geographic and chronological range with a tight thematic focus, allowing the individual contributions to engage in vigorous and fruitful debate with one another even as they speak to some of the central issues in current scholarship. The authors recognize that every institutional action is, in its context, a political act, and that no institution operates disinterestedly. At the same time, they insist on the inadequacy of traditional models, whether Marxian or Weberian, as the complex realities of the early modern state pose tough problems for any narrative of modernization, rationalization, and centralization. The contributors to this volume trained and teach in various countries - Italy, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia - but share a common interest in cultural expressions of power. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1186/thumbnail.jpg

La période 1870-1914 est une ère de paix relative pour la France. Apres la défaite de 1870, la politique revancharde française ranime les efforts impérialistes de colonisation en Afrique et dans les iles. Cet élan colonialiste se traduit dans la pratique du sport qui gagne de popularité et devient le moyen idéal d’acheminer les idéaux républicains. L’alpinisme et la course aux sommets des Alpes deviennent alors symboliques de l’imaginaire de conquête présent dans l’esprit de la bourgeoisie européenne. Bien que ce phénomène soit l’objet de plusieurs études historico-culturelles, telles que celles d’Olivier Hoibian, Philippe Joutard et Dominique Lejeune, rares sont les études de la représentation de la mentalité colonialiste dans les œuvres de littérature alpine, qui, selon moi, capturent cette mentalité de façon unique et forte. L’analyse littéraire des deux textes sélectionnés montre comment la mentalité impérialiste se traduit dans l’appropriation et l’exploitation de l’espace montagnard. Les notions de progrès et de civilisation jouent le rôle d’étendards pour une domination évidente du capital et de la modernisation qui caractérise l’Europe du XIXe siècle, et auxquels les Alpes n’échappent pas.

Prior to the 1848 Revolution in France, a democrat and communist named Étienne Cabet organized one of the largest worker's movements in Europe. Called "Icarians," members of this party ascribed to the social philosophy and utopian vision outlined in Cabet's 1840 novel, Voyage en Icarie, written while in exile. This thesis analyzes the conception of space developed in Cabet's book, and tracks the group's actual spatial practice over the next seventeen years. During this period, thousands of Icarians led by Cabet attempted to establish an actual colony in the wilderness of the United States. Eventually settling in the recently abandoned Mormon enclave of Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1849, Cabet and the Icarians struggled to find meaning in the existing architecture and design of the city. This work describes the spatial artifact that they inherited, and recounts how the Icarians modified and used the existing space for their purposes. The thesis concludes that they were not ultimately successful in reconciling their philosophy with the urban form of Nauvoo, and posits a spatial cause for the demise of their colony.

In the continuing debate among historians over the nature, if not the actual existence, of the Italian Renaissance, the life of Francesco Petrarch has played a major role. Petrarch was an outspoken critic and commentator on the state of fourteenth-century society. His opinions have been cited by all scholars interested in the origins of the “Renaissance Mind.”

During the Italic Wars, the Italian peninsula experienced foreign invasions and internal discord between rivaling duchies and city-states. Florence and Venice both faced internal and external discord due to the constant wars and political in fighting. Venetian Pietro Bembo wrote historical accounts of this period during the Renaissance. His contemporaries, Marino Sanudo, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Francesco Guicciardini, also wrote historical accounts of this time. My research spotlights Bembo’s history of the Venetian Republic. This history was written in a supposedly objective fashion, yet, scholarship shows that historical writing from this time contained bias. I focused on Bembo because there is a lack of scholarship that looks at his historical writings. This bias can be linked with the socio-political ties these men had. Examining his accounts of historical events and comparing them with the other three historians, Bembo’s slanted accounts illustrate the effect and importance of having a strong patronage network.

In 1649, during the Fronde Parlementaire (1648-1650), Paris was teetering between opposing political camps that were trying to seize control of the city. The city's bourgeois parliament, in open rebellion to the political policies of King Louis XIV's Chief Minister, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, was raising an army and threatening to oust the Italian imposter. With the rise in violence within the city limits, Parisian printers and booksellers began circulating political propaganda in the form of booklets, mini-plays, brochures, and pamphlets that came to be known as mazarinades. Because these mazarinades—which took their name from the very man they were either attacking or defending—were often scathing in their criticism of the political forces at play within the city, they were rarely attributed to an identifiable author. But while the minds behind the matter were usually anonymous, the authors of the mazarinades made frequent reference to specific public places within Paris in an attempt to rally support to their cause. These public places, especially the Bourbon-constructed projects of the Pont-Neuf and the Place Royale, were depicted in new ways to transform Parisian perceptions of the functionality of those places and to alter the relationship between the city's inhabitants and their Bourbon royal family. This was done in an effort to manipulate public opinion and to redefine the urban culture of the city during the conflict.This thesis demonstrates that the mazarinades were altering their Parisian readers' perceptions of the Pont-Neuf and the Place Royale as they tried to sway public opinion in favor of their authors' partisan viewpoints of the citywide conflict. By appropriating these places and subsequently attributing specific political viewpoints and behaviors to their visitors, the authors of the mazarinades sought to change the way Parisians perceived those places and thus redirect the political atmosphere of the city. Public space became the critical intersection of the many political camps and emerged as a major thematic element in the many mazarinades circulating throughout Paris at that time.

Eugène Ionesco's plays are often thought of only as absurd. This thesis explores another possible interpretation of his plays, including Rhinocèros, Le Roi se meurt, Jeux de massacre, Les Chaises, Victimes du devoir, La Jeune fille à marier, and La Leçon. These plays are investigated with the help of anthropologist René Girard's theory on ritual, violence, and sacrifice. Since these elements are recurring themes in Ionesco's plays, Girard's theory is a useful key to unlocking what may seem at times to be nothing but nonsense, but is full of meaning. In the first chapter, the rituals and repetitions that abound in Ionesco's plays are discussed in the light of Girardian theory, illustrating the negative effects of ritual without substance. Chapter two analyses the violent and sacrificial nature of these plays, and their contagious qualities. The third chapter discusses where redemption can be found amidst the violence. This thesis also debates the possible Christian aspects within Ionesco's works relating to the themes of ritual, violence, and redemption.