The story of king Pelayo is one of the first legends of the Iberian Peninsula after the Moorish invasion of 711. It is clearly a necessary response to this invasion, and also an attempt to legitimize the newly established monarchy of the Kingdom of Asturias. In its effort to restore the "glories" of the now extinct Gothic kingdom, these monarchs needed a miracle and a foundational hero as the backbone of their national historiography. Furthermore, from its early conception until the present day, the legend of Pelayo has never been cast into shadows, and even though it has seldom been a popular story, it has always served as vehicle to the prevailing ideology of its time. In other words, the story of Pelayo was never an innocent one. It has always been subordinated to a very specific ideology and to society's attempts to legitimize itself. This dissertation examines the ties between the historiographic fictions of Spain and the concept of nation-building. My research attempts to analyze the story as it is, a literary fiction that can be traced back to other, older stories and, in short, to prove that this story has been the backbone of Spain's national identity—at least one of them—ever since its first recorded manifestation in the 9th century. The main thesis of this dissertation is not so much the analysis of the origin of this legend—as this is easily found in the Albeldense and Alphonsine chronicles—but, rather, its debt to other "fictions" and its development throughout the Spanish Middle Ages. The different rewritings of the legend during these centuries are an exceptional witness as to what was the prevailing ideology of each different time period, so that, accordingly, every reworking of the legend must be checked against the religious, political and sociological culture that produced it. What is being analysed here is not merely the development of a literary hero, but rather the foundational fiction in which a country's ideological grounds are based.

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To traverse the blinking, Transitar el parpadeo, is to consider six poetries that seem invisible or at least blurred in current Spanish poetic contexts: José-Miguel Ullán, Carlos Piera, Pedro Provencio, Ildefonso Rodríguez, Olvido García Valdés, Miguel Casado. All of these poets start writing in a period strongly marked by the endings of francoism, and the beginnings of the democracy. The blinking refers to their apparitions and disappearances in general panoramas of Spanish poetry, but it also refers to something that bothers the eyes of most Spanish critics: their criticism is only able to see generations, replacements, and poetic hegemonies. To traverse the blinking is, thus, a question about the reason that their vision is so obstructed, and, at the same time, an attempt to really see these poets, which implies finding a new way of reading them. Since these poetics resist any form of closure, and, at the same time, they offer themselves as an invitation to mobility; we need to find theoretical approaches to reading that do not betray those resistances and preserve the trace of that traversing. This is why I have chosen to organize my dissertation in six chapters, each of them dealing with a poet, and I have concluded without properly or formally closing, but formulating some premises on how to keep crossing through those poetic visions. My conclusion is that categories such as strangeness, the foreign, exodus, and the border, would necessarily need to be acknowledged in order to start to make visible the foundations of these writings. I maintain that they reveal a tradition, long repressed during francoism and also during the first stages of a democratic transition based in a pact of forgetting, a tradition that these poets claim as theirs and which considers the avant-garde as a lineage that, not only cannot be waived, but should be reconsidered. Traversing them, thus, offers new insights on theoretical issues such as subjectivity, poetry's relation to thought, its formal limits, and the question about reality, while believing that language, by retaining its restlessness, continues to offer itself as a powerful tool of resistance and memory. / Dissertation

Verismo was established in the early 1880s by Luigi Capuana and Giovanni Verga from Sicily and roughly paralleled the development of realism and naturalism in other European countries at the time. / Theatre history survey texts list Marco Praga, Giuseppe Giacosa and Roberto Bracco as the major verist playwrights in Italy between 1890 and 1915. Treatises that study verismo in greater depth usually add Gerolamo Rovetta to complete the roster. But two women verismo playwrights have apparently become obscured by the passage of time: Amelia Rosselli and Teresa Ubertis. / This marginalization against women's artistic achievements by male-dominated historians fell under increasing scrutiny in the 1980s. It seemed as if inherited societal and cultural prejudices had buried women's artistic works in the dustbin of history; the unearthing of these works subsequently became a scholarly pursuit. / Amelia Rosselli wrote five full-length plays and four shorter plays. She also published several books of poems and short stories. Her first play, Anima, which won first place in a national competition, and her second play Illusion are verismo works arguably as significant and representative as the more famous male-authored plays. / Teresa Corinna Ubertis, also known as Teresah, wrote six plays, five books of poetry, fourteen children's books and thirteen novels, including one co-written with her husband E. M. Gray, between 1902 and 1925. The Judge, Ubertis' first and most well-known play, was produced and directed by the famous Italian actor Ermete Zacconi, who brought Ibsen to the attention of the Italian public. / In this dissertation, characters in the Rosselli and Ubertis verismo plays are compared and contrasted with characters in A Doll House and An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, and Maternity by Eugene Brieux, to determine if the verismo plays reveal a different perspective from that of the male-authored plays that might be due to a uniquely female point of view. / Passages from the author's translations of Anima, Illusion and The Judge are contained in the dissertation to contribute to the analysis of the plays and demonstrate the artistry of these marvelous but forgotten scripts. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: A, page: 2490. / Major Professor: Stuart E. Baker. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 35-05, Section: A, page: 3008. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1974.

As a comparative study, this dissertation analyzes the novels of Mademoiselle de Scudery as they relate to theories expounded by twentieth century psychiatrists and psychologists. The looking-glass self concept as a literary and psychological vehicle, expressed by the female characters of Mademoiselle de Scudery's novels, is the focal area of comparison. / The nature of this work promises a vitality and originality as there has never been a scholarly work with this unique orientation. / The relationship of symbols, spirituality, and the unconscious projections of the human psyche are analyzed extensively in the works of Jung, Mademoiselle de Scudery, and other thought-provoking writers. / A biography of Jung and Mademoiselle de Scudery is included in this study as their imaginative creations are expressions of their unique life-styles. More extensive emphasis is placed on Mademoiselle de Scudery's personal life as it is so closely a projection of her personal acquaintances and philosophy. / The scholarly contemporary reader deserves to be exposed to the abilities of this remarkable woman. Her complicated plots, absence of precise descriptions, and extensive study of love are a deterrent to many modern readers. This dissertation attempts to bring a new vitality, comprehension and appreciation for Mademoiselle de Scudery by employing a uniquely contemporary approach. / This dissertation is divided into four chapters followed by a conclusion. The first chapter discusses biographical information about Madeleine du Scudery as it relates to her works as well as to the theories of Jung. In the second chapter selected volumes of Ibrahim are analyzed, with emphasis placed on mirror images, masks, and the Jungian concept of symbols and reflections of man's innermost self. The third chapter explores the looking-glass self concept in designated volumes of Artamene ou Le Grand Cyrus. The point of departure is the maturation and development of mirror-images as they continue to substantiate Jung's philosophical and psychological orientation. The fourth chapter focuses on selected volumes of Clelie with continued exploration of the looking-glass self and its dynamic Jungian qualities. In the conclusion an attempt is made to establish and summarize the intimate relationship between the looking-glass self concept in Mademoiselle de Scudery's female characters and the philosophy of Jung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1471. / Major Professor: Azzurra B. Givens. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

This dissertation is a study and critical edition of Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza's comedy Cada loco con su tema. The introduction presents a short biography of the playwright, comments on his other plays, analyzes the major themes and ideas of this work, and presents the criteria used in preparing this edition. The basis of the text is a microfilm copy of the autograph manuscript (signed and dated August 29, 1630), located in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. This manuscript was collated with two other early manuscript and the three printed editions. The text of the play retains the orthography of the autograph manuscript but has adjusted the capitalization and punctuation to modern norms. The notes list the variants from the other copies and explain difficult passages. Also included are a table of versification and bibliography / acase@tulane.edu

Many critics have noted Perez de Ayala's fondness for contrasts and paired opposites. We believe that his Jesuit training and education in the classics of both Greece and Spain helped form the author's dualistic frame of mind. But, in his novels, we notice a progression from clear-cut dualisms to a more polaristic view and, finally, to integration in the person of Tigre Juan The early novels are replete with paried opposites but, later, the oppositions begin to be between major themes such as, for example, the dualisms of spectator vs. actor, 'voluntad' vs. 'abulia,' the ideal vs. the real and, finally, the most basic dualism of all--the male and the female. The characters of the early novels are extreme examples of one dualism or another but, in the later novels, the characters become polaristic. The best example of this is, of course, the meshing of the personalities of Belarmino and Apolonio. In like manner, Urbano is able to change from 'abulia' to 'voluntad,' thus showing that the two are not irreconcilable opposites but, instead, poles that can be interchanged depending on the circumstances. When we reach the two volumes dedicated to Tigre Juan, the dualisms have all been integrated: the protagonist is a harmonious blend of spectator and actor, and the dualism of 'voluntad' and 'abulia' has disappeared. Moreover, he is also able to integrate the dualism of the ideal vs. the real by humanizing the Don Juan and the 'honra' traditions of Spanish culture Starting with Belarmino y Apolonio, we notice an increase in personages that combine contradictory characteristics and, in particular, increasing use of the androgynous character. Again, Tigre Juan serves as an example of the harmonious blend of male and female elements into one integrated whole The first attempt at unification was by the use of circles in La ca(')ida de los Limones. Later, in Belarmino y Apolonio, we observed the use of language as a unifying factor and, in the last novels, the great integrating force is love. El curandero de su honra ends with Tigre Juan's song which symbolizes the harmony of the universe / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation intends to demonstrate that Mateo Aleman uses the proverb in order to elaborate his prose in Guzman de Alfarache (1599, 1604). To exemplify this, the dissertation begins in chapter one to trace the origins and define the proverb. In chapter two, the author gives a detailed study of the two parts of the novel. The analysis proves that Guzman de Alfarache contains 244 proverbs, some of them repeated more than twice, These proverbs convey a series of themes clearly elaborated in the text. These themes are: (1) need of survival, (2) wrong administration of goods, (3) misogyny, (4) determinism, (5) lack of solidarity and (6) lack of justice The proverb is also used to introduce other parts of the discourse. They combine with other levels of popular language and result in a sort of formulaic language. This is the subject of chapter three. In chapter four the author studies the morphology of the proverbs. The forms that the proverbs take provide another way of interpreting the text. Five forms were found which function accordingly to the context: complete proverbs, variant proverbs, fragments of proverbs, allusions to proverbs and motifs. Chapter five deals with the paremiological style of Mateo Aleman. Aleman uses the same features of the proverb in his prose: rhyme, alliteration, antithesis, paradox, rhetorical questions, exclamations, allusions to proverbial literature. The dissertation also has proverbs and proverbial phrases indexes / acase@tulane.edu

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, a philosophical movement of German origin, called krausismo, was introduced in Spain by a University professor, Julian Sanz de R(')io. As a philosophy krausismo was short-lived, but it evolved to become a powerful cultural and educational movement destined to transform many facets of Spanish society. One of the principal concerns of the followers of Krausism was the reform of the country's educational system. They believed that many of the Spain's problems stemmed from the dogmatic, partisan education which isolated it from the rest of Europe. Krausismo became the burning issue of the day, and the liberal krausistas found irreconcilable enemies in the neo-Catholics. In 1876, when a group of the Krausist professors was expelled from their chairs, they found the Institucion Libre de Ensenanza, the first independent educational institution in Spain. This act was to become Krausism's most valuable contribution to the country. A large number of intellectuals were attracted by the institucionistas, among them such writers as Leopold Alas, Emilia Pardo Bazan, and Benito Perez Galdos, as well as members of the Generation of 1898 The cultural climate created by the krausistas led to a change of attitude towards literature in general and the novel in particular. This genre was considered the best medium by which to carry a message to the people. In our opinion, it is not mere coincidence that the years of greatest Krausist activity were also those of the rebirth of the modern Spanish novel. This dissertation explores the relationship between Krausism and the novel of the turn of the century, in order to establish this movement's link with the Generation of 1898 The study is divided into an introduction, five chapters, a conclusion, and two appendixes. In Chapter I, we define krausismo and summarize its origin and evolution. Chapter II, analyzes its influence on the novelists Alas, Pardo Bazan, and Galdos. It is our conclusion that their novels reflect the krausist concept regarding this genre. A third chapter systematically explores the contact between nineteenth century writers and intellectuals associated with Krausism and the Institucion Libre, and the Generation of 1898 in the years 1898-1905. For this purpose we have examined their correspondence as well as newspaper and magazines of that period In Chapter IV, we study the content of those periodicals and letters, in order to point out krausist ideas echoed or shared by Unamuno, Azor(')in, and Baroja in their formative years. Principal among them are their ideas about pedagogy, antidogmatism, and the 'Europeanization' of Spain. Chapter V, analyzes krausist themes in such works as En torno al casticismo, El alma castellana, La voluntad, El arbol de la ciencia and Camino de perfeccion, thus establishing the strong link between krausismo and the early works of Unamuno, Baroja, and Azor(')in. The appendixes reproduce two documents which are difficult to obtain. One is Krause's 'Mandamientos de la Humanidad al Individuo', and the other is an article on Francisco Giner de los Rios by Azor(')in, in which he evaluates this educator's influence on 98 / acase@tulane.edu