Michel Rybalka was the first critic who in 1969 tried to define the crisis pervading Vian's universe through the figure of the double, in fiction as in reality. My study is an attempt to show how the identity conflicts are expressed through the treatment of the body of his characters and through his themes. Vian's specificity, in his trangressive approach to the body, lies in the very personal fantasy world and poetic dimension that he brings The core of my study bears on the constant juxtaposition of the love for the body and the death or slow destruction of that same body. This painful conflict is an essential component of Vian's world. His obsession with the 'body beautiful' reveals in fact his obsession with death. He focuses on beauty as a means to ward death off. I will show that through the simultaneous representation of a glorified body, and of an abused body, Vian asserts that it is impossible for the individual to become a whole being, free of an existential void I will present the love for the body and for life in a first chapter which I will situate historically. In a second chapter, I will show how the obsessive horror of death appears in the form of old age and disease. I will expose in a third chapter how the search for an identity involves an exploration of the sexual body. In a fourth chapter, I will explain how the quest for identity through the body eventually leads to a feeling of emptiness. It seems that for Vian the concept of emptiness arises from the essential duality of man for whom the body is a mask, biding a profound alienation. Vian is halfway between narcissism and the rejection of himself. What I call narcissism in the context of Vian's work is the double movement that consists first of a self-analysis followed by the desire to find some answers in society, and secondly, after this appeal to society has failed, of a return to one's own image and body leading to despair / acase@tulane.edu

In the creation of his tragedies, Jean Racine draws upon an already existing dramatic form and style: the seventeenth-century French dramaturgy, predominantly based on the Latin translations of Aristotle's Poetics. However, unlike his contemporaries, who were unfamiliar with Greek, Racine had acquired a sound knowledge of this ancient language during his years at Port-Royal. Therefore, he was able to read the original text of the Poetics and better understand its principles than could most of his contemporaries whose only contact with Aristotle was through the imprecise and even erroneous Latin translations. Racine's translation of certain passages from the Poetics reveal not only his insight into Aristotle's original thought, but also his preoccupation with the emotional effect of tragedy rather than its technical composition. A critical confrontation of Aristotle's Poetics wth Racine's translation of this classical text and with Racine's dramatic creation shows the extent of Racine's indebtedness to Aristotle and the degree of his originality in the formulation and dramatic application of his concept of the tragic The first chapter of this study deals with tragic action. Racine's interpretation of Aristotle's doctrine of the primary importance of action focused, not on the proper disposition of the incidents, but on the emotional effect the incidents are designed to produce. However, whereas in the Greek tragedies described by Aristotle action was the result of an external collision of contending moral forces, action in Racinian tragedy stems from a conflict of the collective and individual self The second chapter examines the problematic nature of the ideal hero. Aristotle deduced the qualities of the tragic character from the function of tragedy which is to produce the emotions of pity and fear. An analysis of Racinian tragedy reveals that the seventeenth-century dramatist never lost sight of this objective. However, whereas the heroes of antiquity are often engaged in an unequal struggle with destiny, the Racinian hero discovers within himself the existence of an individual entity which is in conflict with the collective values. It is the discovery of this incompatible duality which leads to his sense of profound isolation and his downfall. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI / acase@tulane.edu

In this Dissertation I examine a group of novels by Juan Goytisolo, Magdalena Lasala, Angeles de Irisarri and Lourdes Ortiz which re-interpret the Moorish presence in the Spanish past. Informed by New Historicism and Post-colonial theory, my Dissertation examines the long history of intertexts that narrate the Conquest of Spain by the Moors in the form of the 'Loss of Spain' legend and the uses recent novels make of the Reconquest as a negotiation between Arab and Christian identity. The symbolic return of the repressed self in the form of a massive wave of immigrant Moroccan workers becomes the framework for a recent boom in narratives that reconstruct Spanish national identity as multiple and heterogeneous The first chapter analyzes the legend of the 'Loss of Spain,' one of the most provocative metaphors that were produced to explain Spain's relationship with its 'others.' The different versions of this legend, which expand throughout Spanish literary history, continuously re-interpret the meaning of this foundational myth. In the second chapter I read Goytisolo's Don Julian as an extremely subversive, although intensely problematic, reinterpretation of the legend. Goytisolo, following Americo Castro, emphasizes the importance of Spain's Arab past, embracing it through an intensive use of language, as defined by Deleuze and Guattari. Don Julian also defies the hegemonic centers of Spanish culture, performing a Derridean trespassing of discursive and geographical frontiers Chapters Three and Four analyze contemporary readings of the Reconquest in the form of novels that problematize, as does Hayden White, the notions of history and fiction as they narrate the lives of Medieval Spanish Women. The Trip of the Queen of Irisarri and Moorish and Christian Women of Irisarri and Lasala show the ambivalence that characterizes discourses of cultural difference, following the notion of stereotype of Homi Bhabha. Ortiz's Urraca and Irisarri's Queen Urraca , in the Fourth Chapter, establish the difficulties of narrating the life of a woman who is mother, wife, and Queen. These novels question Spain's official history of the Reconquest, as well as Franquist discourse on national unity, revealing Spain to be a hybrid and heterogeneous nation / acase@tulane.edu

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In seventeenth-century France, rhetoric constituted an ensemble of precepts governing all forms of discourse. The influence of this art of persuasion and eloquence on the dramatic literature of the period has been the subject of studies primarily devoted to Cornelian and Racinian tragedy. This dissertation examines the relationship of rhetorical theory and practice to comedy, and to Moliere in particular Part One of the study brings into historical perspective the ancient affiliation of the ars poetica and the ars oratoria and explores the interrelated comic and rhetorical traditions of the agon form. The normative influence of rhetorical ideals and modes of expression on literature is shown to have persisted throughout the centuries-long dominance of the artes liberales in Western Europe. The contributions of rhetoric to the neo-classical canons of French drama are subsequently examined in light of Marvin Herrick's work, which establishes that rhetorical analysis of comedy was standard critical practice during the Renaissance, even after Aristotle came to influence poetic thought and dramatic criticism In Part Two, rhetorical principles of invention, disposition, and elocution serve to analyze selected verbal debates, or agones, that parallel the judicial and deliberative genres of rhetoric. Moliere exploits to comic end the moral and psychological dimension of hapless plaintiffs and frustrated raisonneurs whose attempts at persuasion are seldom successful. The comic poet's Aristotelian sense of persuasion as demonstration is manifest in his use of role reversal, a valuable source of comic irony and dramatic interest: accusers become accused and raisonneurs caution against the limitations of logic Considerable evidence is adduced to support Lane Cooper's hypothesis that a serious kind of dianoia characterized by formal rhetorical proofs is proper to comedy. However, reasoned discourse serves primarily to highlight the broader archetypal context of Moliere's works. The defeat of the alazon-imposter and the ultimate vindication of the young are not effects of rhetorical argumentation. Rhetoric enters comedy as a subsidiary art capable of illuminating but not superceding the inexorable comic justice that requires the triumph of the new order over the old and makes of Molieresque comedy the celebration of life itself / acase@tulane.edu

The object of the following study is to analyse the role of Racine in the works of the eight most influential literary critics in France and Germany during the reign of Napoleon I: J. W. von Goethe, F. Schiller, A.W. Schlegel, Mme de Stael, F-R. de Chateaubriand, B. Constant, P. de Barante and S. de Sismondi. These critics were important participants in the development of romanticism in France and they contributed to the redefinition of the methods and goals of literary criticism. Because of historical circumstances and individual personalities, the debate on classicism and romanticism gained a greater publicity than would have otherwise been the case. It is therefore justified to ask why literary criticism experienced such a far-reaching shift and how the transformation of criticism, and subsequently literature, was accomplished, as well as in what way the relationship between French and German critics determined the nature of romanticism in France The fundamental premise of this work is that French and German writers of the napoleonic era focused their critical and literary innovations on a rediscovery of the poetic power of Jean Racine. During the eighteenth century, French classical theater had become the standard against which most plays in France were judged. Some German critics had also attempted to transfer the rules of French classicism to the German theater. For the proponents of theatrical classicism, Racine was the writer most often proposed as a model and the French tragedian was the object of a critical cult, making him the symbol of classical perfection through submission to the formal rules of the seventeenth century, including the Aristotelian unities and the practice of imitation. In this way, the individual merits of the writer had been transformed into an example of the objective, universal aesthetic viewpoint of the eighteenth century classical critics and remained so, at least in France, until well into the nineteenth century. Any change in literary theory had, consequently, to deal with the function of Racine in literary criticism, the aesthetic theory implict in French classicism and the artistic value of the tragedian's works themselves The task of the Empire critics was complicated by the close relationship between literature and politics under Napoleon I. The period produced an overt desire, on the part of the French regime, to establish political control over most of Europe through military conquest. The successes of Napoleon's armies were directly linked to the conviction that the French nation, having overcome the chaos of the Revolution, could return to the power of France under Louis XIV. Since the emperor saw himself as the new Sun King, it is not surprising that the literary glories of the past were endowed with the same feeling of superiority as was the political destiny of France in Eurpoe, in fact this was merely an extension of the prominence of French literary fashion in eighteenth-century Europe. Imitation of Racine and submission to the emperor were judged to be inextricably joined, a fact acknowledged by both classical and romantic critics The role of Racine in the romantic criticism of the Empire will thus be useful in defining the changes in society and literature which took place after the French Revolution and led to the French romantic movement in the 1820s. It should be possible to explain some of the elements that distinguished French romanticism from its European counterparts. The example of Racine criticism during a short but important period also points out the process of evolution in literary and critical ideas. In this way both the specific nature of aesthetic change and the more general shift of the attitudes of an entire society can be seen. Coming to terms with the classical heritage was a major part of French literary development in the nineteenth century / acase@tulane.edu

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For many years critics apparently accepted Boroja's own affirmation that his novels were written without a plan. It was customary to gloss over structure in his works by explaining that they reflected his view of life, which he saw as chaotic and disordered, and therefore it was useless to expect a compact and well-defined framework. Especially since 1972, the centenary year of Baroja's birth, there has been a reappraisal of many apsects of his work, including the structure of his novels. Many critics have questioned the 'traditional' concept of structure in Baroja by analyzing its role in given novels, and have been quite successful in disproving the 'chaos and disorder' theory which was the critical reaction perpetuated for many years This dissertation explores the relationship between structure and theme in five of Baroja's most famous novels. The study is divided into six chapters. In Chapter I we summarize scholarly efforts to date which have dealt with the topic of structure in Baroja's novels. Each of the subsequent five chapters is devoted to one novel. In each case we discuss how the work is constructed in order to determine how structure and theme affect and support each other Chapter II, Camino de perfeccion, elaborates on Jose Ares Montes' identification of a mystical structure in that novel, with Fernando Ossorio passing through the three mystical v(')ias in his wanderings through Spain. Baroja used the novel's title as its theme, having drawn both from Santa Teresa's book. Other elements support this sturcture, including secondary characters, nature descriptions, and point of view In Chapter III, Zalaca(')in el aventurero, Baroja writes his most intrahistorical novel. He saw to it that the structure enhances the historical theme by surrounding the Carlist War on either side with two relatively short intrahistorical sections that resemble each other structurally. Tying the three parts together is the ancient antagonism between the Ohandos and the Zalaca(')ins, itself an intrahistorical conflict. Popular songs and stories serve as a secondary support for the structure Cesar o nada, Chapter IV, is essentially a novel of setting and characters. The two divisions, 'Roma' and 'Castro Duro,' which comprise the novel are basic to an understanding of its major theme, which is the Church and its effect on Spanish life. The events in Rome and the presentation of the city prepare us for what is to happen in Spain when Moncada returns. Also, the negation with which Barojo treats the characters foreshadows Cesar's failure in Castro Duro El arbol de la ciencia, the fifth chapter, follows a quite symmetrical plan. The center of the book (Andres' philosophical discussions with his uncle) acts as the central 'trunk' or heart of the narration, in such a way that the other parts spread from it like branches of a tree. These sections preceding the central part concern Andres and the tree of knowledge; those which follow deal with the tree of life The theme of el gran torbellino del mundo, Chapter VI, is the torbellino to which the title refers, the confusion and lack of direction of modern life. The structure mirrors this theme by its lack of cohesion and well-defined orientation. Jose's acceptance of the world at the end of the novel is prepared by the vignettes which precede each chapter. They act as a calming influence on life's disorder as well as providing another point of view, that of the quieter, more static aspects of the chapters which they precede There is a final section summarizing our conclusions. Principal among them is that these five novels are well-constructed pieces of literature in which the structure is used to reflect the main theme. Implicit in our view is that this relationship may exist in Baroja's work in general; however, much investigation is yet to be done before this can be stated with certainty / acase@tulane.edu

My study of the early Romantic novel explores the model of identity presented through the the mal du siecle theme. The analysis of five texts--Chateaubriands Rene, Stendhal's Armance, Constant's Adolphe, Stael's Corinne, and Sand's Lelia--supports my argument that while the events of the Revolution effectively removed Christian institutions from direct participation in the political sphere, this by no means weakened the power Christian dogma held over the individual. On the contrary, the ensuing perception of religion as a matter of individual choice only strengthened the influence of such dogma as the authority previously held by the clergy was adopted by the private individual. The self-development of early Romantic heroes and heroines depends upon the Christian institution of Confession as well as on paradigmatic models of Christian Conversion. Thus, when deconstructed, the Romantic individual reveals himself to be more aptly associated with the modern concept of the subject The model of identity based upon Christian dogma is particularly problematic when posited as a universal. The notion that sexual desire must be overcome is essential to Christian thought and fully incorporated into the Confessional and Conversional processes to which the heroes and heroines adhere in their quest for self-definition. A double standard is ingrained in this model of self, for religious ideals of spirituality demand the shedding of corporality and thus the binds imposed by a sexed state, yet societal existence is ruled by a discourse promoting ideals of male nobility. The self constructed according to this model is an impossibility: the very sexuality upon which it is dependent must paradoxically be disavowed in order to achieve full selfhood. With this dissertation, I hope not only to offer an alternative criticism of the Romantic hero, but also to contribute to our current understanding of identity by acknowledging the Christian origins of self-definition in the early Romantic novel / acase@tulane.edu

There is almost no mention of suicide in Spanish literature until late into the eighteenth century, with the exception of a brief period during the Renaissance. With the advent of Romanticism, suicide became a common literary topic, and what had previously been virtually a taboo subject quickly was transformed into a common theme. Throughout the nineteenth century, authors remained interested in the subject, adapting it to Realism and Naturalism. This dissertation studies the portrayal of suicide by representative writers of the period and traces the evolution of artistic and ideological beliefs in the light of the differing attitudes that they displayed Suicide became popular among the Romantics as an emblem for their rejection of and revolt against society. Our study finds that Romantic suicides almost always occurred in a political context, even if it was an adversary relationship. Self-destruction was also treated as a metaphor in several Social-Thesis novels. In such cases, ideological principles were usually much more clear-cut and specific than was the case in Romanticism. By and large, however, even artists such as Galdos and Pardo Bazan, who were passionate in their commitment to social issues, refused to simplify suicide into a black and white matter. Both authors evolved from a more or less clear-cut point of view, as exemplified in Marianela and Un viaje de novios, where the characters were primarily symbolic representations of ideological or social beliefs, to a more psychological approach that avoided moral absolutes. Very few of the protagonists in the works studied considered their suicides from a moral standpoint. Self-destruction most often was motivated by a sense of revenge in the Romantics; characters who committed suicide in the Realist and Naturalist novels primarily did so in order to resolve an unbearable conflict in their life This dissertation finds that Romanticism situates suicide in an essentially political context and avoids the study of it as a social vice. Although none of the works studied here are explicitly political, they all share a social context of oppression that readily yields a revolutionary moral. There is a political dimension to the portrayal of suicide by the Realists and Naturalists also. In these cases, however, it is impossible to attribute it to any particular orientation--it is used by both liberals and conservatives. None of the Naturalist writers studied here wrote about suicide in the sense of a social ill to be analyzed and remedied. We have concluded that, given the Spanish tradition of individualism and a private, moral preoccupation with death, authors such as Galdos and Pardo Bazan understandably approach suicide primarily from a psychological and ethical point of view. The use of suicide as a literary theme seems to have coincided with an upsurge in the actual rate of suicide in Spain. Its treatment by writers became increasingly complex as the century progressed, reflecting the revolutionary changes in politics, science, and religion that characterized the period / acase@tulane.edu