Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1945. / Published also without thesis note. Vita. Bibliography: p. [400]-438. Also issued online.

Proefschrift--Utrecht. / "Stellingen": iii p. laid in. "Bijlage" (lists of German literary works translated into Dutch): p. [146]-161 and [23] p. Bibliographical foot-notes.

Inaug.-Diss.--Greifswald. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur": p. [v]-viii.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Nancy Blake. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-223) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Inaugural-Dissertation, Münster. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-198).

"Teza za doktorskii ispit"--Beograd. / "Prilozi": p. [136]-152 in Church Slavic. Bibliography: p. [124]-135.

Thesis--University of Washington. / Vita. Bibliography: leaves [326]-343.

<p> I argue in this dissertation that Thornton Wilder is a <i>poeta doctus</i>, a learned playwright and novelist, who consciously places himself within the classical tradition, creating works that assimilate Greek and Latin literature, transforming our understanding of the classics through the intertextual aspects of his writings. Never slavishly following his ancient models, Wilder grapples with classical literature not only through his fiction set in ancient times but also throughout his literary output, integrating classical influences with biblical, medieval, Renaissance, early modern, and modern sources. In particular, Wilder dramatizes the Americanization of these influences, fulfilling what he describes in an early newspaper interview as the mission of the American writer: merging classical works with the American spirit. </p><p> Through close reading; examination of manuscript drafts, journal entries, and correspondence; and philological analysis, I explore Wilder&rsquo;s development of classical motifs, including the female sage, the torch race of literature, the Homeric hero, and the spread of manure. Wilder&rsquo;s first published novel, <i>The Cabala</i>, demonstrates his identification with Vergil as the Latin poet&rsquo;s American successor. Drawing on feminist scholarship, I investigate the role of female sages in Wilder&rsquo;s novels and plays, including the example of Emily Dickinson. <i>The Skin of Our Teeth</i> exemplifies Wilder&rsquo;s metaphor of literature as a &ldquo;Torch Race,&rdquo; based on Lucretius and Plato: literature is a relay race involving the cooperation of numerous peoples and cultures, rather than a purely competitive endeavor. </p><p> Vergil&rsquo;s expression, <i>sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt</i> [Here are the tears of the world, and human matters touch the heart] (Vergil: <i>Aeneid</i> 1.462), haunts much of Wilder&rsquo;s oeuvre. The phrase <i>lacrimae rerum</i> is multivocal, so that the reader must interpret it. Understanding <i>lacrimae rerum</i> as &ldquo;tears for the beauty of the world,&rdquo; Wilder utilizes scenes depicting the wonder of the world and the resulting sorrow when individuals recognize this too late. Saturating his works with the spirit of antiquity, Wilder exhorts us to observe lovingly and to live life fully while on earth. Through characters such as Dolly Levi in <i>The Matchmaker</i> and Emily Webb in <i>Our Town</i>, Wilder transforms Vergil&rsquo;s <i> lacrimae rerum</i> into &ldquo;Our Tears.&rdquo;</p><p>

This dissertation studies the sociopolitical place of poetry in Transatlantic Hispanic culture within different crises of the public realm in the wake of the Spanish Civil War. It locates a tradition of authors who question autonomy as “integrity” or “wholeness” and who produce “broken”, “unfinished”, “absent” and “unimaginable” poems. The investigation of this trope helps discover how literature understands itself in relation to war, concentration camps, dictatorship, and post-dictatorship. Authors include: César Vallejo, María Zambrano, Max Aub, Gabriel Ferrater, and Roberto Bolaño. / Romance Languages and Literatures

Umorismo as Luigi Pirandello defines it is distinct from the general body of literary material meant to invoke laughter. It consciously turns rhetorical convention on its head: it creates unexpected oppositions through conscious and careful use of certain types of language in contexts where it is not expected. The aim of my study is to offer readers new ways to approach Giovanni Boccaccio’s lesser-known works as fundamentally humorous texts, among other things, and to observe how they are crafted and what sets them apart from other works to which one might compare them. I argue that Boccaccio created the Amorosa visione, the Teseida delle nozze di Emilia, the Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta, and the De mulieribus claris with a sense of umorismo, that is to say, by playing with the conventions that each book’s respective genre invokes and then subverting expectations set up by those conventions. I examine each of these four works in its own chapter, with special attention to authorial voice, fictionality, narrative strategies, and intertextual practices. I rely chiefly on close readings of the texts themselves, in the original language first and foremost, and I attempt to draw out the humor that I see in the way they have been composed, often a result of play between their content and their structure and style. Ultimately, the umorismo in these works is, as Pirandello would agree it should be, not immediately evident: it takes patience and close reading to uncover. Boccaccio is staunchly in favor of critical and persistent reading as a necessary value that all poetry and fiction should require. His treatise in the Genealogia deorum gentilium on how readers should interact with books explicitly promotes the sort of reading required to perceive and parse the umorismo within his texts. / Romance Languages and Literatures