This study examines the aesthetic and representational strategies and objectives of Guillaume Apollinaire's Orientalism in his poetry, prose fiction, literary and art criticism, and journalism. To Apollinaire, the Orient was a body of cultural resources which, when skillfully 'digested' in the creative process, was believed to hold the key to the regeneration of European poetry and art. His ambivalent discourse on a mute and unknown Orient was the means by which--as a foreigner in France--he sought to define himself socially. The general orientation of the thesis rests on the theoretical foundation generated by contemporary discourse analysis, and on a comparative study of literary sources After a first chapter which briefly situates Apollinaire's knowledge of the Orient and his interest in Oriental ideographic alphabets, a new reading of his most hermetic poem, 'Le Larron,' reveals the author's debt to German Romantic and French pre-Romantic thought. The aesthetic and socio-political dimensions of Apollinaire's Orientalism, as shown in the third chapter, are at work, interwoven, in the poet's expressed longing for images and forms. The significance of the speculative Kabbalah--a para-Oriental domain--in Apollinaire's most innovative enterprises is stressed in the following chapter: along with plotting devices, it provides a metalanguage most suitable in theorizing abstract art; the kabbalistic maps, as my study attempts to show, have inspired the poet's first 'lyrical ideograms.' Orientalism as a discursive system of representations and a battery of preset strategies of appropriation is sub-sequently illustrated in the consistent internal dichotomy affecting images and discourse on the East, North Africa and Black Africa. The collection of Culture and representations in La Fin de Babylone is discussed in chapter 5. Apollinaire's criticism of French Algerian literary productions sheds light on the underlying concepts which regulate the literary productions in the Periphery. In Chapter 7, Apollinaire's discourse on Africa and his image as a promoter of African art are reevaluated This thesis' major objectives are to dispel the myth of modernism attached to Apollinaire's creative endeavor and to introduce this poet, novelist and critic, into the current debate on Orientalist, Africanist and Colonialist discourses / acase@tulane.edu

This interdisciplinary dissertation, integrating the fields of history, art and literature, examines the historical and cultural contexts surrounding a small sample of comedias in which the Virgin Mary is presented as a strong maternal figure and feminine role model in seventeenth-century Spanish theater. I focus in detail on three works: Lope de Vega's La limpieza no manchada (1618), Angela de Azevedo's Dicha y desdicha en el juego o devocion a la Virgen (1640?) and Agustin Moreto's and Pedro Lanini's Santa Rosa del Peru (1669) Chapter One, Cleaning with Virgin Power: Lope's La limpieza no manchada (Purity Unblemished) analyses the role of the University of Salamanca in endorsing Philip III's project of proclaiming as dogma the religious doctrine on the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. This chapter weaves into the close reading the circumstances of its commission and performance, religious iconography, the burning theological debates surrounding the doctrine and the ideological interests implicated therein Chapter Two, The Immaculate Craftings of Angela de Azevedo: Writing about the Queen in Heaven for the Queen on Earth focuses on the how the iconography of the Immaculate Conception sheds light on the staging and ideological underpinnings of the drama as performed at Phillip IV's court theater. This drama presented the Virgin as a model of active feminine leadership and motherhood absent in male-authored drama. I propose that Mary served as a model of propriety and piety for the earthly queen, Isabel of Bourbon. Azevedo discreetly praised the Habsburg queen during her years of regency and brought to the surface the queen's conflicts with the very influential Count-Duke of Olivares Chapter Three, Spanish Mother to an American Daughter: The Virgin Mary in Moreto's and Lanini's Santa Rosa del Peru analyzes how the Virgin Mary is used to authorize the beatification and canonization of the first American saint. Santa Rosa of Lima's life and miracles are staged for a Spanish audience that accepts and understands the American saint as a source of Spanish pride and nostalgia / acase@tulane.edu

The 'Mare amoroso' has been the subject of sporadic critical interest for the last two centuries. Containing 334 verses, this anonymous love poem exists in a single manuscript, the Riccardiano 2908, located in the Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence, Italy. Considered to be of the late thirteenth century or early fourteenth century, it is the third work in a bound codex which begins with two poems of Brunetto Latini (1220?-?1294), the 'Tesoretto' and the 'Favoletto,' and includes a sonnet of Cecco Angiolieri (1250?-?1312) on the recto side of the last folio. All four poems were copied by a single hand The poem is conventional in its content, yet unusual in its form. Although largely hendecasyllabic, its verses present a wide variation of meter. There is no rhyme scheme to the poem other than twelve isolated final rhymes and several internal rhymes, a fact which has led some scholars to call the 'Mare amoroso' the first example of hendecasyllabic free verse, or 'endecasillabo sciolto.' In modern collections, the poem is sometimes grouped with bestiaries because of its extensive use of animals to describe by way of metaphors and similes either the author or his beloved. It is also a treasury of references to European literary works and characters, both contemporary and classic, including many Arthurian allusions The most comprehensive research on this poem and the previous criticism dealing with it was done by Emilio Vuolo. His findings first appeared in installments in Cultura Neolatina from 1952 to 1958 and were subsequently compiled in a diplomatic edition in 1962 I summarize past and more recent criticism of the work, provide an English translation and detailed analysis of the poem, and elaborate my reasons for asserting that this poem is the work of Brunetto Latini / acase@tulane.edu

The works of the French New Novelists which adapt elements from popular detective fiction illustrate the process of generic evolution and regeneration in which, according to Roman Jacobson, minor or extraliterary forms often provide the materials for renewing older, canonical genres. This study investigates the relation between traditional detective literature and the New Novel and then submits three novels to detective-fiction readings: Michel Butor's L'Emploi du temps, Alain Robbe-Grillet's Les Gommes, and Claude Ollier's La Mise en scene An examination of the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Golden Age detective writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie reveals an unusual approach to realism which expresses an awareness of its fictional nature, a strong emphasis on the contributing role of the reader, and a capacity for self-commentary. In their theoretical writings, Butor and Robbe-Grillet express particular interest in these aspects of fiction and often use terms associated with detective literature as a kind of metalanguage with which to discuss their aesthetic concerns The three New Novels which are treated show the way their authors alter the rules of the detective genre, transforming the roles of detectives, criminals, and victims, subverting the teleological flow of the text, innovatively using emblems of detective fiction such as the double and the labyrinth both formally and thematically to enhance the plurality of the texts, and calling attention to the participation of the reader. Thus, the lowly detective story makes important contributions to the New Novel and is itself remade in the process / acase@tulane.edu

Extensive questioning and exploring of a number of theories about how we receive knowledge characterize the eighteenth century, a period of epistemological revolution. One of the most prominent theories of the time was John Locke's theory of empiricism, which proposed that our knowledge comes from our sensory perception of things in the world. Among the senses sight was accorded a privileged position. This dissertation, an interdisciplinary project that draws on empiricism theory, deals with female spectatorship as it is represented in French Enlightenment novels, aesthetic tracts, and scientific writings. I examine women's gaze as it navigates societal prejudices and comes to occupy a space of importance in four key domains where the gaze is underscored and where women faced restrictions: science, aesthetics, sexuality and worldliness. Feminist historiography and literary studies have tended to oscillate between an emphasis on the subordination and exclusion of women and a countervailing insistence on the achievements of women as agents of social change, literary and artistic production, and scientific discovery. My work argues for a middle position that acknowledges women's agency in these areas, yet does not lose sight of the context of constraint in which it was achieved. I therefore define eighteenth-century women's gaze as a stolen glance My first chapter, entitled 'Of Microscopes and Telescopes: Women's Quest for Knowledge,' explores the scientific gaze, drawing on the writings of Mme Du Chatelet, a leading French translator and interpreter of Newton, and Mme Thiroux d'Arconville, also a scientist and translator. Chapter two, 'An Artist's Perspective: Women's Gaze in the Aesthetic Realm,' considers the aesthetic gaze, focusing on the memoirs of court painter Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, and novels by Mme Riccoboni and Isabelle de Montolieu. Chapter three, 'Coming to Paris: Women's Gaze at the World,' investigates women's worldly gaze in an age preoccupied with social spectatorship through an analysis of novels by Mme de Graffigny and Marivaux. And my last chapter, 'Forbidden Desire: Women's Erotic Gaze,' turns to the erotic realm and studies representations of female spectating in novels by Voltaire, Retif de la Bretonne and the Marquis de Sade / acase@tulane.edu

Rene d'Anjou's Livre du Cuer is a romance allegory, set up as a dream narrative, recounting the failed quest of the knight Cuer (the personified heart of the narrator), who seeks to conquer the lady Doulce Mercy, held prisoner by the enemies of Love. The Mortifiement de Vaine Plaisance is a didactic religious allegory concerning the Soul, who desires heaven, distressed by her heart's yearning for worldly things ('vaine plaisance'), and the heart's subsequent purification by crucifixion The surviving illuminated manuscripts of these two fifteenth-century texts provide an interesting case study of the relationship between text and image, serving as impetus to a larger investigation of a more general and theoretical understanding of such a relationship. The first order is a thorough comparison of the miniature cycles and their visual interpretation of the details of the text. Subsequent chapters develop a semiotic approach to manuscript illumination as two sign systems interrelated in a single space, and discuss the particular case of allegory, represented both verbally (in the text) and visually (in the miniatures). The allegorical heart is the sign that connects the two texts, but the miniatures serve different purposes in each: in the Mortifiement, the miniatures amplify the text's lessons and its attempt to excite intense religious emotion; in the Livre du Cuer, they largely exalt the chivalric quest, which is fundamentally questioned by the text / acase@tulane.edu

There are, no doubt, aspects that suggest a continuity between the Poema del Cid and the Poema de Fernan Gonzalez, and these must be recognized before attempting more narrow determinations that can serve to distinguish the two poems. This sense of continuity between the juglaria and the clerecia traditions is attributable to the practice of the literate clerics who borrowed from the juglaria poets. But in the oral-based society in which these poets functioned, few people knew the written word, and the literate mentality of the clerics produced works which were essentially distinct from a poem like the Cid The purpose of this study is to describe the peculiar expression of the Cid, particularly in the ways it differs from the PFG. The focus is on the syntactic traits of the two poems in relation to formula, lexis, and poetic form. The many examples of syntactic differences between the two poems dissipate the initial impression of continuity. The Cid is the product of a long oral-tradition by which the poet of the PFG was influenced, but the language he employs, full of metaphors and abstractions, his inability or unwillingness to portray Fernan Gonzalez as an epic hero free of faults, the more extensive vocabulary at his disposal, and the replacement of a feudal hierarchy by an ecclesiastical one all point to a learned cleric, far removed from the one-dimensional view of society that permeates the Cid / acase@tulane.edu

In response to certain social, political, and historical circumstances at the beginning of the twentieth century, there arose in France what many historians today identify as the 'French Nationalist Revival.' Central to the revived nationalist mood was the desire to exact revenge from Germany for the defeat of France in 1870 and the subsequent cession of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Several authors such as Maurice Barres, Paul Acker, and Georges Ducrocq--only to name a few--adopted the cause of the Alsatians and Lorrainers then living under the German occupation and actively fostered this spirit of revanchisme in their widely circulated literary writings of the period To provide the necessary introduction to the ten novels of occupation under consideration, this dissertation first establishes the historical background of France from 1870 to 1914 and the literary influence of French nationalist and anti-militarist writings from 1870 to 1904. Following this, the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century concept of the French race as related to the novels of occupation is elucidated since the perceived racial difference between the French and German peoples was essential to the nationalists' protest against the annexation. It is then shown how the nationalist authors attempted to convince their reading public of both the injustice of the occupation and its constant duty to the ceded French population by portraying the German occupiers as tyrannical oppressors determined to subjugate the provinces and by embellishing the resistance of the inhabitants, who remain loyal to France through their closeness to the soil of Alsace and Lorraine and their fidelity to the memory of their deceased French ancestors In this dissertation, it is demonstrated that these novels, which are undeniably ideological, played a pertinent role in shaping the nationalist mood in France in the years immediately preceding the First World War. Through the analysis of particular recurrent patterns of rhetoric, discourse, plot, character, terminology, and images, this dissertation reveals how the authors influenced and even manipulated the renewed militaristic and patriotic mood in France at the turn of the century and contributed to the enthusiasm with which the French nation went to war in 1914 / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation is a study of Le naturisme, an anti-symbolist literary movement that emerged in late nineteenth-century France. Chapter one is a literary-historical overview of the evolution of naturisme. It describes the state of crisis in symbolist literature at the end of the nineteenth century and details the efforts of Saint-Georges de Bouhelier and Maurice Le Blond--naturisme's founders--to create a literary aesthetic in opposition to the hermeticism and elitism of symbolism. Chapter two contains analyses of Bouhelier's poetic treatises and Le Blond's theoretical essays that define the naturiste aesthetic--an aesthetic that emphasizes the heroic nature of common people and the beauty of the quotidian and that advises the writer to avoid the hermetic poetic expression typical of Mallarmean symbolism. Chapter three illustrates Emile Zola's role as mentor to the naturistes, compares and contrasts naturisme to naturalism, and portrays the naturistes' courageous support of Zola in the Dreyfus Affair. Chapter four is a study of Bouhelier's poetry, the purpose of which is to demonstrate how the naturiste aesthetic was put into practice and to determine whether or not the movement's objectives were met in other than a strictly expository context. Chapter five is a discussion of Andre Gide's break from symbolism and his subsequent retour-a-la vie mentality that spawned his novel, Les nourritures terrestres (1897). For a time, it seemed as if Gide would proclaim himself a member of naturisme, but he was ultimately greatly responsible for the movement's demise. This chapter, thus, chronicles the beginning of naturisme's downfall, as Bouhelier and Le Blond lost the support of talented young writers who resented their bitter attacks against respected symbolists and their attempt to marshall young writers into their school. Chapter six describes the legacy of naturisme, which, although it had failed, prompted others to found similar movements and allowed writers to free themselves from the restrictive tenets of symbolism / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation studies the idea of nation, as well as that of nationalism, in the works of Andre Gide. Even though Gide thought of himself as primarily a writer and an artist, he did not remain indifferent to the social and political events that shook his country from the Dreyfus Affair to the Second World War. Even if he never gathered all of his political thoughts in a single text, most of them, which also tie into his literary and cultural discussions, can be found in his collections of essays and speeches, as well as in his Journal and his abundant correspondence with French and foreign writers and thinkers. The study of Gide's statements on political and cultural issues enables me to trace the development of his political and cultural perception of the French nation, as contrasted to others, especially Germany, and his views on nationalism, as well as his idea of a new, united Europe In his view, the basis of French culture, which also accounted for its cultural vitality, was its diversity. The nationalist movement of the late nineteenth century, however, under the influence of such writers as Maurice Barres and Charles Maurras, while focusing exclusively on the Latin elements of the French tradition, also barred any cosmopolitism, which, in Gide's eyes, doomed his country to mental atrophy. Therefore, from the 1890s to the end of the Second World war, Gide was to combat this nationalism, and the Nouvelle Revue Francaise, which he helped found in 1909 became the stronghold of cosmopolitanism. Between the two world wars, Gide came to see German culture as not opposed, but complementary to his own and committed himself to bringing together the two archrival enemies of France and Germany. He also conceived of a new Europe which, avoiding both nationalism and internationalism, would encourage each country to develop their very own culture, while at the same time respecting that of the others, so as to not shut out any of the voices in the great European concert of nations. In fact Gide thus promoted his own kind of European 'nationalism.' / acase@tulane.edu