John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi subverts early modern hierarchical structures of matter and life by characterizing the human body as fundamentally deceptive and inferior to the animal body. Through close readings of Bosola’s meditations and Ferdinand’s lycanthropy, I consider how Webster constructs animals as simplistic creatures that enjoy a desirable existence, where body and soul are continuous. Within Webster’s play, the dualist conflict between human body and human soul is a primary subject of discourse. Various human characters see animal existence as preferential, as they view animals as automated creatures that do not suffer the self-consciousness that humans do. This model of animal existence further increases the thematic significance of Ferdinand’s lycanthropy, which I argue is an escape from the discontinuity between the human body and human soul. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

Thesis (M.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2006. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2833. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as 1 leaf (iii). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 461-474).

The purpose of this study is to analyze the problem posed by homosexuality in Dante's Commedia. I look at several topics and questions : A) What are the implications of homosexuality in regards to both justice in the polis and to divine justice in the next world? B) What are the poetics of queer variance? C) What are the oedipal issues surrounding the Dantean father-figures VIrgil, Brunetto Latini, and other males? D) What is the role of the pedagogic Eros in promoting a strong national bond and social ethos? E) Where does Dante situate "sodomites" (and, by extension, what role does desire play) in the schemata of Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, and why is this important? All of these questions are interrelated and have a bearing on Dante's notion of the good society and divine justice. / by Albert Morris. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Broken bodies litter the landscape of African American women’s literature. Missing limbs and teeth, paralyzed appendages, lost hair, and deformities appear frequently in the works of authors like Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, Dorothy West, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Pearl Cleage, and Octavia Butler. While many white authors also include broken bodies in their works, Hemingway’s preoccupation with synecdoche in terms of body parts perhaps being the most notable example, the motif permeates the tradition of African American women’s fiction like no other genre, appearing in the work of almost every major African American woman author. In the case of some authors, Morrison and Walker for example, broken bodies appear in every novel of their corpuses. In fact, every story in Walker’s first collection of short stories, In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women, features a broken body. Several questions arise from the ubiquity of this motif in the texts of African American women authors: Where did the motif originate? Why does the motif persist? Do the authors use the motif in the same way? What does the trail of broken bodies reveal about how African American women authors interpret the relationship between body and self? Surprisingly, given the prevalence of the motif and the number of critical comments on one or another text, no critic has essayed a comprehensive examination of the motif in African American literature. While this paper does not have the scope to cover the African American canon as a whole, it will discuss the motif across the works of Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.

Text in German / Many treatises and disquisitions concerning "Die Blendung" concentrate on the main character, Peter Kien, as well as on other protagonists. In contrast, this dissertation deals with Pfaff, the primitive force and his influence on Peter Kien, the "Brain", the masterspirit. Common traits of these di verse characters are highlighted and it is explained why Pfaff, the brute, manages to exult over Kien, the intellectual. Their interactions and their interdependence are dealt with and it is shown that insanity which is prevalent in both protagonists prepares the way to Kien's doom whereas it leads to Pfaff's survival. / Das Interesse zahlreicher Untersuchungen Uber "Die Blendung" konzentriert sich auf die Hauptperson, Peter Kien, sowie auf andere Protagonisten. Im Gegensatz dazu beschaftigt sich diese Arbei t mi t dem Hausmeister Pfaff, dem "Schadel", und mit dem EinfluB, den er auf Peter Kien, den "Kopf", den Geistesmenschen hat. Es wird versucht, Gemeinsamkeiten, die diese beiden so gegensatzlichen Charaktere aufweisen, aufzuzeigen und darzulegen, warum der Gewaltmensch Pfaff Uber den wirklichkeitsfremden Wissenschaftler Kien zu triumphieren vermag. Der EinfluB, den sie aufeinander nehmen, und die Abhangigkeit voneinander werden aufgezeigt, und es wird aufge fUhrt, wie der Wahnsinn, dem sie be ide verf all en, zu Kiens Untergang filhrt, wahrend Pfaffs Uberleben durch seinen Wahnsinn gesichert wird / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M. A. (German)

Text in German / Many treatises and disquisitions concerning "Die Blendung" concentrate on the main character, Peter Kien, as well as on other protagonists. In contrast, this dissertation deals with Pfaff, the primitive force and his influence on Peter Kien, the "Brain", the masterspirit. Common traits of these di verse characters are highlighted and it is explained why Pfaff, the brute, manages to exult over Kien, the intellectual. Their interactions and their interdependence are dealt with and it is shown that insanity which is prevalent in both protagonists prepares the way to Kien's doom whereas it leads to Pfaff's survival. / Das Interesse zahlreicher Untersuchungen Uber "Die Blendung" konzentriert sich auf die Hauptperson, Peter Kien, sowie auf andere Protagonisten. Im Gegensatz dazu beschaftigt sich diese Arbei t mi t dem Hausmeister Pfaff, dem "Schadel", und mit dem EinfluB, den er auf Peter Kien, den "Kopf", den Geistesmenschen hat. Es wird versucht, Gemeinsamkeiten, die diese beiden so gegensatzlichen Charaktere aufweisen, aufzuzeigen und darzulegen, warum der Gewaltmensch Pfaff Uber den wirklichkeitsfremden Wissenschaftler Kien zu triumphieren vermag. Der EinfluB, den sie aufeinander nehmen, und die Abhangigkeit voneinander werden aufgezeigt, und es wird aufge fUhrt, wie der Wahnsinn, dem sie be ide verf all en, zu Kiens Untergang filhrt, wahrend Pfaffs Uberleben durch seinen Wahnsinn gesichert wird / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M. A. (German)