Syphilis caused unprecedented terror as it rapidly spread through Western Europe at the onset of the sixteenth century. In France, a flourish of literary production specifically about syphilis provides an important record of various reactions to what constituted the first known experience of deadly disease, sexually transmitted. This dissertation examines three types of literary representations of syphilis in texts dating from 1500-1550, by authors as familiar as Rabelais and Jean LeMaire de Belges, in addition to many that remain anonymous. With a foundation of anthropological theories of sickness as danger and pollution, psychoanalytic theory is employed to elucidate the thought processes that led to the pervasive blaming and scapegoating of women, the most common social reaction to syphilis seen in this literature. Organization of texts on the same subject into separate units was achieved by considering the tone with which they deal with syphilis. Chapter One presents and analyses Le Triomphe de Treshaulte et Puissante Dame Verolle, the only known Renaissance compilation of texts about syphilis. Reliance on allegory and myth to explain the origins and causes of syphilis make this text a prime example of socially sanctioned literary reaction to the disease, clearly the most polite discourse found to date. Chapter Two examines the cornucopian representations of syphilis found in Rabelais. As a monk, physician and writer, Rabelais had a unique and varied perspective on the disease. His text imitates, reverses or mocks most common reactions to syphilis while advancing the important message of 'temperance in all things' that forms and informs his works. Twelve popular poems, mostly anonymous, are presented in Chapter Three. Analysis of vivid, realistic descriptions of loss associated with syphilis and a discourse of warning whose foundation rests on the denigration of women demonstrate that these texts were both cathartic and didactic. A compilation and translation of the works discussed in chapters one and three appear as special appendices, so that these cultural artifacts may be considered in future studies of social reaction to deadly, sexually transmitted disease in Renaissance France.

This study proposes to show that Pirandellian echos abound in Samuel Beckett's dramatic works, especially in En Attendant Godot and Fin de partie. Pirandello and Beckett both explore a new consciousness concerning the relationship of man to life. Their works embody the fundamental theme of human suffering. / Three aspects of Pirandellism are analyzed: reality of the unreal, comedy of surface appearance, and paradox of alienation. These elements constitute respectively the three chapters of this study. To illustrate the Pirandellian dimension, Enrico IV and Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore are analyzed for details that emphasize the aspects of Pirandellism in Beckett. / Chapter One shows how in the works of both Pirandello and Beckett the mind is seen in multiple form thereby making it difficult for man to distinguish between the real and the unreal. The chapter also explores the playwrights' universe of chaos, and the collapse of absolutes, and disintegration of the self. / Chapter Two presents man in his comic incongruity and examines the tedium of existence which lies beneath the surface appearance, namely: human incommunicability, suffering, loneliness, and isolation. The last Chapter discusses the dialectics of alienation emphasizing that within the framework of deep pessimism a basic mitigating if grudging optimism can and does emerge. / In addition to a detailed analysis of Pirandellism in Beckett's works, this study deals with the theatrical links between the two playwrights. These links will be explained in terms of the thinning of the line between the stage and the auditorium, the interplay of illusion and reality, the crystalization of life and form, and above all, the fabrication of mental realities to make life less agonizing. / The thesis aims neither to force comparison nor to study a line of influences. It rather hopes to provide new interest and focus for studying and understanding Beckett. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-08, Section: A, page: 2693. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

Typology is the science that establishes the relationships between figures and events of the Old Testament, called types, and their counterparts in the New, called antitypes. Prevalent throughout Europe in the first centuries after Christ, it reached all artistic manifestations, including Literature. Christian writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries used typology to deliver a religious message to the public. Lope de Vega, the prolific Spanish dramatist (1562-1635), included typological matter in his eight biblical plays La creacion del mundo y primera culpa del hombre, El robo de Dina, Los trabajos de Jacob, La corona derribada y vara de Moises, David perseguido y montes de Gelboe, Historia de Tob(')ias, Le hermosa Ester and El inobediente o la ciudad sin Dios. Although three of these plays are still controversial regarding authorship, all of them exhibit typological examples. The main antitype of the New Testament is Jesus, the fulfillment of God's plan for mankind. With him and in him, perfection is incarnated and the era of the spirit replaces the era of the flesh. Lope's purpose is to show within the Jewish history of the Old Testament the message of hope and salvation attained by Jesus' death and resurrection. Jesus' Old Testament types used by Lope in his plays are several: Adam, Abel, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David, Tobias the Elder and Younger, and Jonah, the prophet to the Ninivites. These men, imperfect in their humanity, followed God's command and delivered the chosen Israelites from oppression. Lope indicates that they all prefigure Jesus, perfect in his divinity, who delivers mankind from the pitfalls of sin. Events are typological also: the paradisiacal tree of life is the type of the cross, the lamb offerings prefigure the Mass, circumcision is a type of Baptism, and sleep is a type of death. Through close analysis of the eight / plays, abundant examples of prefigurations are presented which demonstrate how Lope de Vega incorporated into the biblical accounts sufficient references and symbols to emphasize the various typological relations. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, Section: A, page: 1808. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

This study investigates the use in the comedias of Calderon de la Barca of a particular event which I have named the "elimination motif." This term refers to the excisement, whether physical or figurative, of one of the play's main characters from the dramatic events that usually, but not always, leads to the denouement, or final moments of the particular drama's action. / Chapter I provides descriptions of the 35 dramas from which Calderon excised a major character as the primary solution to the play's dilemma. The descriptions concentrate on the action surrounding the excision, but brief summaries of the preceding action are provided in order to orient the reader. The descriptions are ordered by the supposed date of composition to determine whether or not this may be a significant factor. / Chapter II consists of a motif index of Calderon's excision plays. There are actually a total of 60 excisions included in the investigation since plays often contain more than one elimination. The motif index was developed in order to systematically organize the dramatic features related to the character excisions and contains the following information: (1) The name, social class, sex, nationality and religion of both the excisor and the excised character; (2) The relationship of the excisor to the excised character; (3) The nature of the excision, i.e., how and where the elimination took place; and (4) The solution or consequences which were a direct result of the excision. / Chapter III compares and evaluates the statistics collected from the motif index in the previous chapter. This analysis is separated into five sections which correspond to the divisions of the motif index in chapter II. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, Section: A, page: 0765. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

In this study the psychological analytical method of Dr. Eric Berne as presented in Games People Play (1964) and in Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy (1973) serves as a viable method for the analysis of three works by the twentieth century French novelist Nathalie Sarraute: Portrait d'un inconnu (1948), Martereau (1953), and Le Planetarium (1959). These three novels are characterized by that aspect of the family "unit," namely the Parent/Child relationship, with its accompanying lack of communication, strain, and misunderstanding. Since it opens the possibility for role reversals in Sarraute's characters, the Hegelian dialectic of the Master/Bondsman is useful to the modification of Berne's transactions. / The recent publication of Sarraute's latest biographic "novel" Enfance (1983) amply justifies this study. This work deals with the author's childhood in France and in Russia and shows the many difficulties of communication and understanding that Sarraute encountered in her relationships with her parents and with others around her during her childhood. These problems surface over and over again in the three novels analyzed in this study. Thus Sarraute herself has opened the way for a psychoanalytical analysis of her characters and their relationships with each other--and in the case of each of the works chosen, for scrutiny of the "Parent/Child" relationship. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-11, Section: A, page: 3394. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The major poets of the second post-Spanish Civil War literary period have received critical attention for their original, insightful poetry. Among these writers, Jose (')Angel Valente has distinguished himself as the author of fifteen individual collections of poetry, several anthologies, and significant works of literary criticism. This dissertation examines Valente's poetry that illustrates his search for poetic expression. / The introduction provides an overview of Valente's poetic pro- duction, including the stages of his evolution as a writer, and places him within his poetic generation. The following three chapters study the poetry that is concerned with the theme of poetic creation. Chap- ter Two investigates both poetry and prose works, demonstrating Valente's view of poetry as a means to knowledge of reality, as a form of vision and revelation, and as an expansion of the limits of understanding and expression. Chapter Three examines the role of the poet, who functions as a writer of poetry, as a searcher for knowledge and expression, and as an illuminator of new perspec- tives. This poet, engaged in the process of poetic creation, recog- nizes the potentiality and the difficulties inherent in the task of writing. In Chapter Four, a study of the poetic word, the investiga- tion concludes that the word is a catalyst urging the poet to write, restoring vitality to language, and affecting man's circumstances. Of major importance is the role of the word as a means of illumination offering increased understanding of man's reality through vital, revealing poetic expression. / In this dissertation, the poetry is examined thematically and stylistically, with emphasis on elements such as metaphor, symbol, imagery, and structure. Detailed analyses of poems include numer- ous selections not studied by the critics and poems from Valente's recent collections. The examination of Valente's critical works complements the close readings of his poetry. / This dissertation focuses on Valente's search for original poetic expression that offers heightened understanding of man's reality. The study provides an investigation of the poet's own discoveries regarding the process of poetic creation and the roles of poetry, the poet, and the poetic word. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: A, page: 2607. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

Triangular relationships are a structure de base in Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart. Sixteen of the twenty novels utilize this motif which is announced in La Fortune des Rougon with the competition among Adela(')ide Rougon's legitimate son Pierre Rougon and her illegitimate children Antione and Ursule Macquart. Each of their descendants is involved in triangles whose varied configurations include the menage a trois in the traditional sense where three people live together and where there is a sharing of sexual favors as well as the menage a trois in a nontraditional sense where the three characters live together, but sex is not part of the relationship because it is repressed either temporarily or permanently due to the power struggle involved. There are also triangular conflicts which include family members, others which do not, and those which are formed by two people and an abstraction or an inanimate object. / This study analyzes the patterns presented by the relationships of Pierre Rougon's children and grandchildren first, then those of Ursule Macquart, and finally those of Antoine Macquart. Zola's chosen themes of sex, money, and power are developed through the play of his characters' inherited characteristics with their environmental influences. Three of Pierre Rougon's children inherit his love of power, manifested differently in each of them. The other two children exhibit a tendency toward hysterical passion inherited through Pierre from Adela(')ide. That same folie appears in Ursule herself and is passed on to her two children. Antoine's tendency toward alcoholism is passed on to one of his children while the other two reflect either weakness or preoccupation with self. In keeping with Zola's announced intention of tracing the "manifestations bonnes et mauvaises" of the Rougon-Macquart family is their inclination toward the variety of triangular relationships in which they participate. Since every member of the family, except those who die young or are retarded, is involved in such a structure, this pattern is clearly a significant one in Les Rougon-Macquart. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-03, Section: A, page: 0664. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

Many critics have noted the crucial role of internal generators in Claude Simon's La Bataille de Pharsale. This study demonstrates that a body of liquid-related textual elements comprises a subsystem into which a significant number of associations and associative patterns may be integrated. Comprehension of this subsystem results in a new understanding of the novel's underlying structure and its treatment of various kinds of destruction. / Three general areas of liquid-based destruction are identified. Within the novel's descriptions of surface deterioration, numerous references to liquids are generated. A major effect of these references is that they serve to foredoom the quests of each of the novel's two central protagonists. / A second general area of liquid-based destruction derives from the novel's phonological structure. A significant number of liquid-related sounds generate meanings which are threatening to one or both of the two central protagonists. / A liquid-based structural movement comprises the third general area in which this element undermines both the activities of the central protagonists and the linguistic coherence of the text. The ascension of bubbles to the surface of a liquid constitutes an emblematic structure which has a destructive impact on the quests of the central protagonists. / The concluding section of this study demonstrates how the liquid-related elements reveal the underlying structure of La Bataille de Pharsale. The ever-widening levels of associative patterns visible in the novel's liquid subsystem constitute a microcosm of the structure of the entire text. The association of the two liquid-related terms of vers and version, for example, represent a restricted example of linkage within this subsystem. Yet that association may be subsequently inserted into a larger associative pattern, which is the body of liquid-related terms, and hence into the entire text. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-12, Section: A, page: 3932. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This dissertation investigates certain theological principles of the tradition established by St. Augustine which are reflected in a number of the works of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. These principles are gathered from the City of God, the Confessions and On Christian Doctrine by St. Augustine. / Chapter I examines the salient religious ideas of Cervantes utilizing data both from his life and from his works. Chapter II posits the various ways through which Cervantes would have become acquainted with the elements of the Augustinian tradition. In this chapter are also examined the Castilian translations of the De Civitate Dei, the Confessiones and the De Doctrina Christiana. Following the investigation of these translations is an examination of a work falsely attributed to St. Augustine, the Meditaciones y soliloquios y manual. The remaining section of this chapter studies the various religious and devotional works published by Augustinian and Franciscan monks in Spain during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. The point is made that Cervantes would have read this type of literature not only because of its availability, but also because Cervantes mentions these books in the Prologue to the Quijote and within the narrative of the novel itself. / Chapter III commences an investigation of the first Augustinian principle which is that of the influence placed on faith over reason. In the dissertation, various examples of the manifestation of how faith is more important than reason are examined in certain works of Cervantes, such as the Quijote, the Persiles, the Novelas ejemplares, the captivity plays and the play El rufian dichoso. / Chapter IV investigates Christian dualism and how this principle applies to the works of Cervantes. Christian dualism is an important element of the religious tradition which can be traced back to St. Augustine himself in the above-cited works of Cervantes. / Chapter V studies the concepts of saving grace, free will, and original sin. These three important religious elements, common to the tradition established by St. Augustine, are most operative in the works of Cervantes. Certain works, such as the play El rufian dichoso, are totally animated by these religious principles. Chapter VI demonstrates the manner in which St. Augustine contrasted such Christian virtues as faith, hope, charity, humility, temperance, justice, fortitude and prudence, with such deadly vices as pride, sloth, intemperance, injustice, arrogance, amor uti (amor para usar) and amor frui (gozar). / All of the above theological elements are investigated and traced within the entirety of such Cervantine writings as Persiles, El coloquio de los perros, El curioso impertinente. Certain episodes of the Quijote involve or are motivated by one or more of the elements common to the Augustinian tradition. The Persiles is totally animated by the protagonists' emphasis on faith and love. In the Quijote, the knight advises his squire on the proper government of his "(')insula" using the four cardinal virtues. The animating force behind the play El rufian dichoso is the dualistic element of conversion and salvation. The conclusion is made that these precepts had a profound influence on Cervantes' religious thinking and world-view. This, in turn, is reflected in almost every work that Cervantes wrote. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-03, Section: A, page: 1172. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

In Andre Gide's Les Caves du Vatican, an understanding of the narrative structures underlying the novel and of the symbolism attached to them necessitates using a method which acknowledges multiple levels of meaning within the work. Therefore, the present investigation utilizes the theories of Claude Levi-Strauss, a structural anthropologist. In his studies, Levi-Strauss discovered that the primary object of mythic narrative structures is the conciliation on a symbolic level of irreconcilable conflicts. Levi-Strauss' method for elucidating the deep structures of myths proves useful when applied to other narrative genres. In Gide's novel, the narrative structures evidence insurmountable conflicts at several levels which tend progressively toward resolution at the conclusion of the novel. / Our presentation contains a discussion of previous critical works on Les Caves du Vatican, followed by an elaboration of Levi-Strauss' theories and an explanation of methodology. In the third part, these theories are applied to the five orders or levels of meaning elicited from the novel: the familial, sociological, economic, intellectual, and ritual. Each of these orders is studied in terms of its apparent content or chronological sequences and also in terms of its latent content or non-manifest oppositional schemata so that we are able to bring to light its deeper symbolic meaning. In the final section, the five orders are compared and integrated so that conclusions concerning the mediation process are more clearly demonstrated. Levi-Strauss' formula for the description of mythic structure is employed as a generative and explicative base for the mediation process. / In the novel, the fundamental oppositions arising from the familial, sociological and economic orders are: amplification vs. diminution (the growth of the family as opposed to its dissolution), non-conformity vs. conformity (anti-establishment forces as opposed to the social establishment), and gain vs. loss (financial well-being as opposed to financial deprivation). In the global integration process these oppositions may be understood as transformations of the elementary opposition of freedom vs. constraint. Correspondingly, the basic oppositions which stem from the intellectual and ritual orders are demonstrable vs. intuitive (the rational and ordered as opposed to the irrational and indeterminate), and expected vs. surprising (the predictable as opposed to the unpredictable). Underlying these two oppositions is the latent opposition of order vs. chaos. / Establishment and anti-establishment forces clash at the outset of the novel. The mechanistic and systematizing base of an established order constrains and limits the characters of the novel. In conflict with the established order are vitalistic, liberating elements, forces which tend toward disruption, chaos, and disorder. For Lafcadio, who seeks an authentic mode of being, the gratuitous murder of Amedee does not in itself affirm his independence but rather engenders confusion and a crise de conscience. He is entrapped by Protos and enmeshed in family affairs by his action. Realizing that he cannot accept roles imposed on him by others, Lafcadio rejects the restraints of the system and awakens to a renewed, self-affirmation at the close of the novel. Thus, the conflict between order and chaos in Gide's novel is overcome by a self-determining freedom of action. / In Les Caves du Vatican, Gide satirically and farcically portrays fundamental conflicts which remain even today basic to the human condition. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-07, Section: A, page: 3129. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.