El siglo XIX fue para Cuba de gran significacion porque presencio el rompimiento con el poder colonial y asistio al nacimiento de la cultura nacional. La obra cumbre de la epoca fue Cecilia Valdes de Cirilo Villaverde, joya de la literatura cubana, cuyo argumento podr(')ia resumirse, en cuanto al aspecto narrativo, a la urdidumbre tejida alrededor de los amores tragicos de una bell(')isima mulata y un joven de la mejor sociedad quienes ignoraron ser hermanos. El autor realiza en esta obra un gigantesco estudio social de la vida cubana de aquellos tiempos, de las costumbres y de los tipos humanos. Su estilo es claro y objetivo; su metodo es vivir exactamente dentro del hecho. / Cecilia Valdes nos muestra la esclavitud en toda su amplia organizacion. Por ser esta una obra de persistente ambientalismo, el lector asiste comodamente a lo que hac(')ian los habaneros en su vida diaria. El retratismo de Villaverde capta completamente el esp(')iritu de la epoca. / A la vez que es costumbrista, esta novela es antiesclavista. Ademas, las figuras femeninas presentadas por el autor fueron tratados con carino y comprens(')ion. Esto prueba que Villaverde era un escritor feminista. Cecilia Valdes, dona Rosa, Isabel Ilincheta, sena Josefa, Nemesia y Mar(')ia de Regla son personajes no creados sino tomados de la vida misma con sus virtudes y defectos, con actitudes y conductas convincentes. / El ambiente espiritual que envuelve la obra es triste y sombr(')io. El mismo autor se acuso de haber presentado un cuadro deprimente y ten(')ia razon porque el tomo los datos de la vida misma con sus risas y lagrimas, esperanzas, dolores y suenos. / Se concluye que Cecilia Valdes es una novela magn(')ifica, de gran valor historico-social. Su merito estriba en que ha salvado para la posteridad un trozo de la historia de Cuba. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 1074. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

Jose Mart(')in Recuerda is an important dramatist on the contemporary Spanish theater of protest, which demonstrates a direct concern for the harsher actualities of Spanish social life. Although Spanish critics generally agree in placing him among the most significant of the day, there is a lack of serious criticism on the works of this playwright. / This study proposes to analyze the dramatic works of Mart(')in Recuerda, whose controversial theater depicts the existence of individuals bound to their harsh society and victimized by political and economic injustice. / The individuals may react with passive resignation or staunch resistance to the social conditions. The author's plays of the first period (La llanura, Los atridas, El Payaso y los pueblos del sur, Las ilusiones de las hermanas viajeras and El teatrito de don Ramon), corresponding to the years 1948-1960, reveal characters who agonize secretly and succumb to the social and political structures. His dramas of the second period (Como las secas canas del camino, Las salvajes en Puente San Gil, El Cristo, (INV?)Quien quiere una copla del Arcipreste de Hita?, Las arrecog(')ias del beaterio de Santa Mar(')ia Egipciaca and El enganao), corresponding to the years 1961-1977, reveal characters who protest and collectively resist those oppressing conditions surrounding them. No longer do they grieve privately as they did in the plays of the first period. Instead, they project the harsh truths of reality in these works of tension and social protest. / There is a consensus that Mart(')in Recuerda's works are primarily dramas of social protest. Although this is true in a sense, it is only a part of the meaning of his plays. Of course, this limited perspective weakens the full dramatic impact of his theater. / Through the idea of protest and indictment, the playwright delves into human conditions and demonstrates a certain sympathy for the underdog. At the same time, he protests social bigotry directed at the individual and denounces the corruption of political, religious and social institutions. / The first chapter treats the dramatist's literary production and examines the Spanish theater of the post-Civil War and the theater of Jose Mart(')in Recuerda. The second chapter examines the works of the dramatist's first period, while the third chapter focuses on the author's play of the second period. The appendix offers a chronological listing of the plays by the dramatist through 1977. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 1076. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 37-10, Section: A, page: 6540. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1976.

The purpose of this study was to classify the lies of the characters that appear in the first part of Don Quixote. To that end was borrowed Warren Shibles' definition of a lie as "merely a contradiction between belief (self-talk) and expression." Although gestures are a form of expression and can be used to deceive, this study has limited itself to verbal, oral and written, expression. Thus, every contradiction between what a character thinks or believes and what he says or writes has been examined and the following questions posed: who lies, why, how, to what end, how does the reader know, and what are the consequences of lying? / The results of this analysis show that Cervantes gives indications to the reader before or after the lies are told through the narrators' voices or the characters of the characters lies. Churchmen, noblemen, rich and poor peasants, ladies and prostitutes, innkeepers and servants, parents and children lie. Men, women, and boys, learned people and ignorant people, Spaniards and Moors all lie. Contrary to what many critics have stated, even Don Quixote lies; thus gentlemen who want to be knight-errants also lie. The characters lie for different reasons: in self-interest, to help others, for entertainment, and for a combination of these. Most of the characters want to have fun and use their lies as a form of entertainment; even when, as in Pero Perez' and Maese Nicolas' case, they have an important mission to accomplish. Lies are part of everyday life and therefore, appear throughout the novel as false or unfulfilled promises, jokes or practical jokes, tales, life stories, conversations, excuses, and untold truths. Among the few characters who do not lie are, ironically, the merchant and the criminal Gines de Pasamonte--characters whose professions are linked with lying. Very few lies have malicious intent. In those cases, the liars either rectify their mistakes or suffer punishment. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: A, page: 1249. / Major Professor: David H. Darst. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Lodovico Guicciardini's work L'Hore di Ricreatione was one of the most important books of its genre to come out of 16th century Europe. It had an immediate impact on the literary world and was published into all of the major European languages shortly after its publication in 1568 in Antwerp. This book is a compilation of maxims, poems, proverbs, fables, and words of wisdom taken from both ancient and modern sources such as Aristotle and Plato, Ariosto and Boccaccio. Many of the stories that this book contains are examples of everyday wisdom and have a distinctly regionalistic flavor of Italy. / This book was written by an Italian who was living in Antwerp, which was subject to the Spanish crown at the time of its writing. Because the work was so popular and because its author was a Spanish subject, it was translated into Spanish in 1586 and again in 1588. It is the translation of 1586 by Vicente de Millis Godinez which more closely follows the original Italian edition although Millis Godinez added some stories and translations that serve as an enhancement for the Italian stories. He also added Spanish translations of all the Latin that Guicciardini included in the original text for which no Italian translation was given. / This new edition closely duplicates Millis Godinez's edition with the following additions: (1) an introduction and bibliography, (2) the omitted Italian introduction, (3) the numbering of the stories, and (4) the Spanish Tabla with these story numbers instead of folio numbers, (5) the Italian stories that were omitted because of Spanish censorship, (6) corrections of the typographical errors, and lastly (7) a list of those corrections. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: A, page: 3746. / Major Professor: David Henry Darst. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, Section: A, page: 4075. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-06, Section: A, page: 3345. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, Section: A, page: 4079. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 36-06, Section: A, page: 3756. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1975.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 37-06, Section: A, page: 3668. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1976.