When literary movements do not grow out of specific groups who adopt a name fort heir endeavors, they have usually been named to refer to certain stylistic features. Such is the case with "Decadence," a rubric referring to specific poets in turn-of-thecentury France. Most extant work on the artists of decadent literature focuses on its stylistic elements and narrative tropes: their reaction against the image of artist/creator from Romanticism, to cast the artist as egotist; their plea for art's autonomy (as well as for art for art's sake and for the artist as society's outsider); and their idea that art must be sensationalist and melodramatic, bizarre, perverse, exotic, or artificial to make an impact. What is overlooked in traditional approaches to decadent literature is its own frequent claims to social critique, toward which Julia Kristeva points in the un-translated second half of her Revolution in Poetic Language (1974). Moreover, much decadent literature emerges at a historical moment in which a ruling class is under fire; the typical "decadent" work portrays the decline of a class, and the possible repercussions of that deconstruction for the individuals in it. To approach the literature of fin de siècle decadence as social critique, this project considers three novels taken as the three bibles of the decadent movement in French, Italian and English literatures: Huysmans' A rebours (1884), D'Annunzio's own recreation of A rebours, his own Il piacere (1889), and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). I will argue that, in this era of emergent modernism, decadent literature tries to claim a more resistant and social critical position from within class structure than does modernism, and that decadent literature, despite its superficial affinities with the Romanticism to which modernism also refers, not only is a literature of the struggle of the individual against an uncaring social world, but also underscores the necessity of reconstructing the hero/narrator's ego, as his identity reflects a class position which must be altered if it is to remain viable. / text

This thesis examines the social politics of literary production at London's Inns of Court from 1572 to 1634. Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of cultural production are widened beyond his own French academic context so that the Inns may be located as institutions central to the formation of literary and, in particular, dramatic culture in early modern London. A significant part of Bourdieu's research has concerned the establishment of a foundation for a sociological analysis of literary works. The literary field, Bourdieu argues, is but one of many possible fields of cultural production—social networks of struggle over valued economic, cultural, scientific, or religious resources. As a historically constituted arena of activity with its own specific institutions, rules, and capital, the juridical field of early modern London was a competitive market in which legal agents struggled for the power to determine the law. Within this field, the Inns of Court served as unchartered law schools in which the valuable cultural currency of the common law was transmitted to the resident students, whose association with this currency was crucial for their pursuit of social prestige. Focusing on the four Inns of Court as central institutions in the juridical field and their relationship with the larger political and economic forces of London, that is, the field of power, the thesis demonstrates how the literary art associated with these institutions relates to the students' struggle for social legitimation, particularly in their interaction with the City and the Crown. By demonstrating how the structures of literary texts reflect the structures of the relationship between the Inns and other centers of urban power, this analysis examines the pivotal role(s) played by law students in the development of London's literary culture.

This thesis examines the political and literary reception in Spain of the figure of Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Golden Age playwright, during the years comprising the start of the querella calderoniana until the end of the nineteenth century; a period dominated by the intellectual figure Marcelino Menendez Pelayo. The nineteenth century is characterized by widespread social, political, economic, religious and cultural change, as much as for the development of the intention, on the part of political ideologies in positions of power, to generate a concrete idea of the Nation; in short, a specific way of interpreting Spanish national identify. This changes and the process which followed the configuration of this idea of the nation are recorded in little studied and highly politicized print media of the time, as well as in various verbal polemics maintained over the course of the century. / The study of these has allowed me to demonstrate that the reception of Calderon has been strongly influenced by the presence and interaction of these aspects. As the century progresses, the figure of the playwright becomes increasingly identified with the ideals of the National identify established by political conservatives. / In the first chapter, I analyse what happened in this intellectual conflict contextualizing it ideologically in the calderonian polemics of the eighteenth century, and frame it within relevant events in the formation of national identity. / The next two chapters analyse the development of the querella calderoniana and the subsequent appropriation of Calderon, in one of the darkest moments for the written press in Spain, corresponding with Fernando VII's absolutist regime. This study has been achieved through close readings of various periodicals, literary and ideological discourses of this epoch. / The final chapter concentrates on the conservative appropriation of Calderon effectuated by Menendez Pelayo, one of the most important intellectual figures of nineteenth century in Spain, who attempted to integrate this appropriation with others preceding it. A brief section of conclusions summarizes the theses, followed by a selected bibliography.

The present project sets out to discover what the Xingshi yinyuan zhuan ('A Tale of Marriage Destinies that will Bring Society to its Senses'), an anonymous novel of manners from seventeenth-century China, can tell us about life in the world out of which it emerged. Seventeenth-century records depict China on the verge of modernity as a world torn between the traditional agricultural society and the new challenges of urban life, commerce and a money economy. The shifts from conventional norms and values gave rise to concepts of Utopia and anti-utopia: to nostalgia for the lost paradise of the past and to apocalyptic satire on present conditions. Scholars have noted the prominence of utopianism in seventeenthcentury fiction but no detailed study has been undertaken so far. Utopianism is here explored in terms of the indigenous Chinese traditions. The text of the Xingshi yinyuan zhuan is analysed to see how it perceives and reflects the seventeenth century Chinese world. Utopia serves as an analytical construct to recreate a glimpse of society and the moral evaluation of the world through the eyes of a contemporary observer. The body of the thesis analyses three major motifs in the Xingshi yinyuan zhuan: the healers, the elite and the mother. Critical comparison with other contemporary literary and historical sources attempts to place the novel into its context. The visions of Utopia and anti-utopia provide insight into the dreams and nightmares as seventeenth-century Chinese minds may have perceived them, shedding light on the vernacular culture as opposed to the officially recognised and imperially ordained culture of China.

Bibliography: leaves 29-340 / 340 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, 1988

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Kassel, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-247).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007.

Based on the author's thesis (doctoral--Oxford). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-221) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1997. / Text in Spanish with abstracts in English and Spanish. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 434-462).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-120). Also available via the World Wide Web.