Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1954. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (prelim. leaves [99]-106).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 64-66)

A partir da controvérsia entre John Webster (1610-1682) e Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680) em torno da bruxaria como um pacto diabólico propõe-se compreender em alguma medida o sentido que a demonologia poderia adquirir na Inglaterra da Restauração e relacionar a polêmica de ambos com o declínio da perseguição às bruxas. A demonologia é entendida como uma literatura controversa dotada de dimensão cognitiva e social e dedicada ao preternatural, ou seja, a eventos que estariam nas fronteiras entre o natural e o sobrenatural. As obras de demonologia se apropriaram de modo eclético de argumentos, teorias e de episódios oriundos das mais diversas fontes e os organizaram em torno de alguns tópicos fundamentais. A demonologia esteve relacionada com diferentes lugares, épocas e saberes, em especial a filosofia natural e a teologia. Tendo isso em vista, os tratados de demonologia de Webster e Glanvill, The displaying of supposed witchcraft (1677) e Saducismus triumphatus (1688), foram estudados em paralelo, colocados em confronto, relacionados com outros escritos deles, associados às discussões demonológicas e ao contexto intelectual e histórico. A polêmica entre Webster e Glanvill mostrou que a demonologia se apresentava como uma maneira de advogar compromissos de natureza filosófica e religiosa que estavam relacionados com o surgimento da ciência moderna e com a diversidade religiosa existente na Inglaterra. Mas, apesar dessa flexibilidade, a demonologia entrou em declínio à medida que avançou o ceticismo das autoridades com relação ao crime da bruxaria e a experiência se tornou experimentação. O fim dos julgamentos de bruxas impossibilitou que a demonologia se adequasse a requisitos mais rigorosos, e impossíveis, de evidência. / From the controversy between John Webster (1610-1682) e Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680) about witchcraft as diabolical pact it is proposed to comprehend in some sort the meaning that demonology could acquire in Restoration England and to relate the polemics of both to the decline of the witches\' persecution. Demonology is understood as a controversial literature endowed of cognitive and social dimensions and dedicated to the preternatural, that is, to events that would be in the border between natural and supernatural. The works of demonology would appropriate in a eclectic way the arguments, theories and episodes from different sources and would organize them into some essential topics. Demonology was related to different places, times and fields of knowledge, specially to natural philosophy and theology. Keeping that in mind, Webster\'s and Glanvill demonology treatises, The displaying of supposed witchcraft (1677) and Saducismus triumphatus (1688), were studied in parallel, put in conflict, related to other works of the authors, associated with the demonological controversies and with the intellectual and historical context. The controversy between Webster and Glanvill showed that demonology presented itself as a manner of defending philosophical and religious compromises that were related to the rise of modern science and religious diversity in England. However, despite this flexibility, demonology declined as skepticism of the authorities about the crime of witchcraft advanced and the experience was turn into experimentation. The end of the witch trials made impossible for demonology to adapt to more strict, and unreachable, requirements of evidence.

A partir da controvérsia entre John Webster (1610-1682) e Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680) em torno da bruxaria como um pacto diabólico propõe-se compreender em alguma medida o sentido que a demonologia poderia adquirir na Inglaterra da Restauração e relacionar a polêmica de ambos com o declínio da perseguição às bruxas. A demonologia é entendida como uma literatura controversa dotada de dimensão cognitiva e social e dedicada ao preternatural, ou seja, a eventos que estariam nas fronteiras entre o natural e o sobrenatural. As obras de demonologia se apropriaram de modo eclético de argumentos, teorias e de episódios oriundos das mais diversas fontes e os organizaram em torno de alguns tópicos fundamentais. A demonologia esteve relacionada com diferentes lugares, épocas e saberes, em especial a filosofia natural e a teologia. Tendo isso em vista, os tratados de demonologia de Webster e Glanvill, The displaying of supposed witchcraft (1677) e Saducismus triumphatus (1688), foram estudados em paralelo, colocados em confronto, relacionados com outros escritos deles, associados às discussões demonológicas e ao contexto intelectual e histórico. A polêmica entre Webster e Glanvill mostrou que a demonologia se apresentava como uma maneira de advogar compromissos de natureza filosófica e religiosa que estavam relacionados com o surgimento da ciência moderna e com a diversidade religiosa existente na Inglaterra. Mas, apesar dessa flexibilidade, a demonologia entrou em declínio à medida que avançou o ceticismo das autoridades com relação ao crime da bruxaria e a experiência se tornou experimentação. O fim dos julgamentos de bruxas impossibilitou que a demonologia se adequasse a requisitos mais rigorosos, e impossíveis, de evidência. / From the controversy between John Webster (1610-1682) e Joseph Glanvill (1636-1680) about witchcraft as diabolical pact it is proposed to comprehend in some sort the meaning that demonology could acquire in Restoration England and to relate the polemics of both to the decline of the witches\' persecution. Demonology is understood as a controversial literature endowed of cognitive and social dimensions and dedicated to the preternatural, that is, to events that would be in the border between natural and supernatural. The works of demonology would appropriate in a eclectic way the arguments, theories and episodes from different sources and would organize them into some essential topics. Demonology was related to different places, times and fields of knowledge, specially to natural philosophy and theology. Keeping that in mind, Webster\'s and Glanvill demonology treatises, The displaying of supposed witchcraft (1677) and Saducismus triumphatus (1688), were studied in parallel, put in conflict, related to other works of the authors, associated with the demonological controversies and with the intellectual and historical context. The controversy between Webster and Glanvill showed that demonology presented itself as a manner of defending philosophical and religious compromises that were related to the rise of modern science and religious diversity in England. However, despite this flexibility, demonology declined as skepticism of the authorities about the crime of witchcraft advanced and the experience was turn into experimentation. The end of the witch trials made impossible for demonology to adapt to more strict, and unreachable, requirements of evidence.

Abstract As members of a family, siblings act important roles for their family prosperity in both literary works as well as the real world. Conventionally, sibling cordial love and harmonious interactions are extremely respected and advocated by society. This kind of sibling motif was also frequently seen in plays, fairly tales and folk tales. Moreover, prohibited not only by society but also by the one in the literary works, the theme of the sibling incest becomes a caution for those having too intimate sibling interactions. Similarly, adopting sibling motif as the structure of his two tragedies, The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil, John Webster applies different sibling interactions from those traditional ones. Both of The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil end with the tragic ends--their families become devastated and all brothers and sisters are dead. Applying completely different sibling interactions within his two tragedies, John Webster who abandons all the depictions of harmonious sibling interactions may have his own motivation of presenting this kind of sibling conflict and rivalry. For this reason, the main concern of this thesis is to investigate Webster's motivation of adapting the sibling motif in his two tragedies, The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil and to comprehend his intention of writing this kind of sibling motif. The first chapter introduces a brief introduction of some critics' comments on Webster's plays, the social contexts of Webster's time and the Renaissance plays, fairy tales and folklore applying the sibling as its motif. The second chapter sketches how the family order was reinforced in the house manuals in the sixteenth century, how John Webster altered the historical events to present the sibling conflict and rivalry instead of the revenge plays. What John Webster presents is the complex sibling relationships, which are based on the marriage, the patriarchal figure and family members, property and the class system. The sibling relationship in The Duchess of Malfi obviously establishes the physical concern more than the psychological concern. The third chapter also points out how Webster elaborates the self-concerned brothers utilize his sister to confirm their social status without care as those in The Duchess of Malfi. After comprehending the sibling relationship based on the physical concern due to the social milieu, we may conclude that Webster¡¦s motivation to arrange the sibling motif not only manifest the evilness of human nature but also satirize the reinforcement of the patriarchal family and family order of Webster¡¦s time. On the whole, the morbid society Webster lived resulted in his depiction on the sibling conflict and rivalry in his two tragedies.

This thesis investigates the ways in which Webster’s Duchess of Malfi has been framed and interpreted, selecting various case studies from the four hundred years of the play’s history. It analyses the way in which a number of discourses have been brought to bear upon the play to delimit and shape its meanings, in the absence of a powerful determining author-figure such as Shakespeare. The investigation is organised around three “strands”, or elements which reappear in the commentary on the play. These are “pastness”, the sense that the play is framed as belonging to an earlier era and resistant to being completely interpreted by the later theatrical context being used to reproduce it; “not-Shakespeare”, the way in which Malfi has been set up in opposition to a “Shakespearean” model of dramatic value, or folded into that model; and “the dominance of the Duchess”, the tendency for the central character to act as a focus for the play’s perceived meanings. It identifies and analyses the co-opting of these elements in the service of wildly varying cultural politics throughout the play’s history. Sited within the assumptions and practices of Early Modern performance studies, this thesis constitutes an intervention in the field, demonstrating the possibility of a radically decentred approach. Such an approach is freed from either a reliance on Shakespeare as a prototypical model from which other works are imagined as diverging, or from the progressive narrative of theatre history in which twentieth century scholars “discovered” the true inherent meaning of early modern drama which had been “obscured” by the intervening centuries of theatre practice. It reveals blindspots and weaknesses in the existing Shakespeare-centred conception of the field, and opens up new possibilities for understanding Early Modern drama in historical and contemporary performance.

No description available.

No description available.

Drawing on the work of Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous and media philosopher Jean Baudrillard, this article concentrates on John Webster’s tragedies and – after a short discussion of Shakespearean tragedies as well as of The White Devil – argues that The Duchess of Malfi is a unique English Renaissance tragedy insofar as it presents an unprecedented conception of feminine identity, which is linked to an affirmative understanding of female sexuality, to a non-traditional understanding of motherhood and to the notion of the abject. As a consequence of this, the supposed irregularities or ‘flaws’ of the play can be explained as the semiotic pulsation of drives interfering with the symbolic order, while the play in its totality demonstrates that it is the negated “peculiar organisation of abjection which actually founds the signifying economy of our culture” (A. Smith).

The aim of this paper is to prove that there is a pattern in Webster’s use of imagery, at least in the two great plays. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)