This thesis consists of a close reading and meta-analysis of themes and patterns in the works that comprise the fictional world of “Middle-Earth” created by J. R. R. Tolkien, in specific relation to the culturally prevalent views of the decadence of modernity and the ideological dynamics of fascism. This thesis explores the ideological dynamics of the fictional world constructed by Tolkien’s texts, and argues that his work contains demonstrable similarities to the ideological dynamics of fascism in its response to the existential challenges of modernity. To clarify, this thesis does not argue that Tolkien’s fiction can be read as “fascist,” tout court, but rather to give a comprehensive outline of how the fictional world created within his texts relate to discourses critical of modernisation and to what extent the aesthetic and ideological dynamics of this world present what I will call a fascist utopia. Tolkien’s work will be approached using the arguments and theories from canonical texts and authors regarding discourses on modernity, including works from the fields of philosophy (Nietzsche), political economy (Marx and Engels), literary studies, sociology (Durkheim, Weber and Simmel) and psychology (Freud). Alongside this I will use relevant studies of fascism to analyse how Tolkien fits within and relates to the aforementioned discourses. I assert the findings that Tolkien creates a world which, in its attempts to renew the values of the past through the presentation of mythology, rootedness, community, agrarianism and hierarchy, demonstrates a semi-fascistic utopia. This is not to cast aspersions or make claims about Tolkien’s creative intentions or personal ideology, rather an observation as to the content and themes of his fictional world. I will argue this fictional world aligns with fascist concepts of identity, nationhood, heritage, mythology and renewal; however, at the same time finding it non-aligned with the central thrust of fascism, in its overt condemnation of industrialism and technology. This contradictory combination produces a fictional world which presents the renewal of what Roger Griffin terms the “shields against ontological terror” (75) now lost or delegitimised in the modern age.

Thesis advisor: John Houchin / The objective of this project was to attempt not only to adapt the novel "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov to the stage, but rather to translate it in both time and place to the stage. It has been more than 60 years since the novel was written, and as such the concerns of the characters have changed both in time and locale. Not only are their objectives adjusted, but the novel is ultimately that: a novel. Being a theatrical adaptation, the play must acknowledge its own existence as such and take issue with its form as much as "The Master and Margarita" does its own. The play is, ultimately, a failed one in my opinion. The greatest downfall thereof being the fact that theatre, drama, is centered around a single thing: conflict. The devil can be in conflict with no one but the divine, and as such any time he is on stage there is simply something missing. The failure is, to a certain extent, befitting of the piece for what it takes to heart as its issues. Enjoy. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Theater.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, In fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Art History), September 2017 / This thesis analyzes how the Congo has been represented in modernist design situations, from colonial depictions to variegated forms of Congolese self representation. Architecture and art exhibitions in Euro-America and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are approached as points of contestation and intersection. The aim is to look at mutual dependencies and interrelations in modernist forms and spatial practices that migrate and mutate across huge distances and time spans. Links and recurring tropes are located in Art Nouveau total artworks in Belgium (circa 1890 -1905), Congolese objects in 20th century gallery space (from MOMA in the 1930s to 1970s Kinshasa), imperial remains from the early 1900s (in present day Mbanza Ngungu and Kinshasa) and the Africanist aesthetics of Mobutu Sese Seko’s era of retour a l’authenticité (1970s). In revisiting historic representations of the Congo, certain forms and spatial practices emerge, whose meanings are revealed according to how they engage with and are acted upon by their different contexts and temporalities. / XL2018

Le Jeune Européen publié originalement en 1927 est une œuvre dont le genre est difficile à saisir pour les lecteurs. Ce fait offrirait une des raisons de la rareté des études sur elle. Cependant, lorsqu’il a publié Écrits de jeunesse en 1941, ce n’est pas autres œuvres en prose écrites pendant des années 20 avec la première personne du singulier comme État civil ou Mesure de la France, mais c’est ce Jeune Européen que Drieu a choisit pour ce recueil. De ce fait, nous avons bâti une hypothèse : Drieu y a procuré une sorte de perfectionnement pour son style narratif de la première personne du singulier au bout de son tâtonnement pendant les années 20, période de sa formation comme écrivain. Ce perspective nous permet d’étudier ses autres écrits publiés avant 1927 comme itinéraire de l’auteur vers la création du style narratif : « transcendant » dans Le Jeune Européen. Effectivement, Drieu s’est procuré ce style comme un des achèvements de ses études qu’il avait fait dans ses écrits des années 20 sur la littérature contemporaine. Cette lecture nous amène à conclure que cette instance narrative et l’ambigüité générique sont inséparables. Non seulement cette étude met en relief l’esthétique à laquelle Drieu visait à cette époque, mais montre aussi un prototype de son style narratif des années 30 et 40. / Le Jeune Européen originally published in 1927 is a work whose genre is difficult to identify for readers. This fact explains a reason for the paucity of research on it. However, when Pierre Drieu la Rochelle published Écrits de jeunesse in 1941, it is not other prose works written while 1920’s using the first person singular like État civil or Mesure de la France, but it was this Jeune Européen that Drieu chose for this collection. Therefore, our hypothesis is : Drieu obtained a kind of perfection for his narrative style using the first person singular after his trials and errors while the 20’s, a period of training as a writer. This perspective allows us to study his other works published before 1927 as a process of the creation of narrative style of this author: "transcendent" in Le Jeune Européen. Indeed, Drieu had obtained this style as a result from his studies he had done in his writings of the 20s on the contemporary literature. This reading leads us to conclude that this narrative style and generic ambiguity of his work are indivisible. Not only our study illuminate the aesthetic that Drieu pursuit at that time, but also shows a prototype of his narrative style of the 30s and 40s.

O objetivo deste trabalho é empreender uma leitura monográfica de Os Quatro Elementos, livro de Murilo Mendes de 1935. A motivação inicial foi o caráter original da obra e a inexistência de investigação crítica a respeito do volume, temas que são abordados mais extensivamente na introdução. A seguir, passa-se à análise detida de alguns poemas do livro, em que se busca identificar alguns dos temas principais da lírica de Murilo Mendes (a religiosidade, o erotismo, a visão mitológica, a influência surrealista, o humor); aborda-se também algumas questões de cunho mais filosófico, mas centrais para a compreensão do poeta, como as da relação entre História e Transcendência. Finalmente, a reflexão incide sobre o caráter original da obra de Murilo Mendes face seus contemporâneos do Modernismo, e intenta explicar o silêncio da crítica relativamente ao livro. / Our work aims at presenting a monographic study of 1935 Murilo Mendes´ book, Os Quatro Elementos. Picking that subject was motivated by original characteristics of the book, and also by the inexistence of critical inquiries regarding the piece. These particular aspects are analysed more extensively in the Introduction. Then, our study moves on to carefully analysing of some poems of the book, in which we try to identify some of the major themes of Murilo Mendes´s poetry (religion, eroticism, mythological aspects, the influence of Surrealism, humour). It also adresses philosophical aspects that are central to the understanding of the poet, such as the relationship between History and Transcendence. Finally, our analysis focuses on the unique character of Murilo Mendes´work in comparison to his Modernist contemporaries using that as means to explain the silence of our literary criticism about this specific masterpiece.

O objetivo principal desta dissertação de mestrado é uma leitura do romance Orlando: A biography (1928) de Virginia Woolf a partir do levantamento de uma hipótese interpretativa do processo de construção do romance. Basicamente, procura-se investigar como acontece a seleção, organização e articulação dos materiais sociais e estéticos envolvidos na sua produção de modo a reconstruir momentos-chave da obra, bem como a propor códigos interpretativos. No primeiro capítulo há uma análise dos dispositivos formais que constituem a narração com intuito de revelar os conteúdos sócio-históricos que eles carregam. Já no capítulo dois identifica-se na dialética entre forma e conteúdo do romance duas formações ideológicas antagônicas: a figuração do patriarcado capitalista que organiza a experiência coletiva de maneira autoritária e da estética da modernização cultural que emerge em oposição à primeira. As considerações finais retomam os principais pontos trabalhados nos capítulos anteriores e propõem que o projeto de Woolf tematiza a amplitude da interioridade com o intuito de gerar uma compensação simbólica para crescente desumanização da vida no período entreguerras. Identifica-se, assim, ao menos duas linhas de força da narrativa modernista: uma que aposta na subjetivação e outra na objetivação do processo artístico. Esta dissertação propõe que Woolf se filia à primeira linhagem. / The central objective of this dissertation is a reading of the novel Orlando: A biography (1928) by Virginia Woolf from an interpretative hypothesis of its construction process. Basically, it seeks to investigate how the selection, organisation and articulation of the social and aesthetic materials involved in its production takes place, in a such a way that it is possible to reconstruct the work\'s key moments as well as to propose interpretative codes. In the first chapter there is an extensive analysis of the formal devices that constitute the narrative; in chapter two it is identified in the novel\'s dialectics of form and content two antagonist ideological formations: the figuration of capitalist patriarchy which organises colective experience in an authoritarian way and the aesthetic of cultural modernisation that rises in opposition to the former. Finally, in the conclusion, all the main points discussed in the previous chapters are summarized and it proposes that Woolf\'s project thematizes the human interiority\'s amplitude in order to create a symbolic compensation for the increasing dehumanization of social life in the interwar period. Thus, we identify two modernist paths: one that places centrality on subjectivization and another on objectivization of the artistic process. This dissertation supposes that Woolf belongs to the first lineage.

A leitura dos produtos deixados por uma viagem nos contam várias histórias, mais do que detalhes da expedição, a forma como o registro foi elaborado nos informa mais sobre o autor, o seu tempo, suas ideias, seus laços. A busca por entender uma época, suas contribuições para a história da arquitetura, das artes, das cidades, das perspectivas formadas num espaço de tempo encontra muitos indícios nas narrativas de viagem deixada por seus personagens. O registro de viagem é compreendido aqui não só como causalidade, mas como momento de produção de perspectivas, de transformação e invenção da história. O registro não é interpretado como notação asséptica, mas em toda a sua fatura, suas escolhas representativas e a expressão que delas decorrem. Dentre essas viagens, a pesquisa toca a experiência brasileira, de modernidade e de alteridades. Uma viagem para muitos viajantes, recortamos o ano de 1924, da incursão a Minas Gerais, de um poeta, um escritor, uma pintora e um arquiteto, como ponto em comum, que marca o início de uma trajetória de pesquisa que esteve presente nas viagens de Blaise Cendrars, Mário de Andrade, Tarsila do Amaral e Lucio Costa. Esse marco comum começa a formular visões de um mesmo Brasil, impulsionando ora novas experiências, repetindo o mesmo método, ora pela via da memória, pelo processo reflexivo, que não é, senão, também uma viagem. Interpretar as peculiaridades e a formação de um grupo mais ou menos coeso a partir da participação dos quatro personagens, através da mediação que cada um faz do sistema espaço-registro-experiência. / The reading of the products left by a trip tell us many stories, more than journey details, the way the record was elaborated tell us more about the author, their time, their ideas, their ties. The pursuit for learning an age, its contribuitions for the architecture history, for arts, for the cities, for the perspectives formed in a space of time finds many clues in the trip narratives left by their characters. The travelogues are understood not only as causality, but as moment of forming prospects, of transformation and history invention. The record is not interpreted as an aseptic note não, but in their whole facture, their representatives choices and expressions. Among these trips, the research touches the brazilian experience of modernity and otherness. One trip for many travellers. It was elected the year of 1924, the trip to Minas Gerais, taken by a writer, an intelectual, an painter and an architect, that have a common view which marks the beginning of a research trajectory that has been present in the Blaise Cendrarss, Mário de Andrades, Tarsila do Amarals and and Lucio Costas htrips for many years after these. This common mark begins forming differents views of a same Brazil, propelling either new experiences, repeating the same method, or by the memory way, by the reflexive process, wich is notting but also a trip. Interpret the peculiarities and the formation of a somewhat cohesive group from the four characters participation, through the mediation that each one does about the system: space-recording-experience.

Thesis advisor: Peter Kreeft / In a letter dated 1939, C.S. Lewis wrote, “To me the real distinction is not between high and low, but between religion with a real supernaturalism and salvationism on the one hand, and all watered-down and modernist versions on the other.” Today, the branch of the Anglican Communion in America (the Episcopal Church, and to a less visible extent, the Church of England,) is contemplating a formal split along these very lines. It is popularly believed that the major issues in contention revolve around sexuality, but in America's sex-obsessed culture, sexuality is merely the most visible dividing-line. This dialogue seeks to create several fictional modernist bishops, based on both the writings of real Episcopal bishops and on Lewis' own writings, and put them in conversation with Lewis in order to examine their arguments and offer some of Lewis' own timeless wisdom. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: James M. Smith / This dissertation examines individual experiences of grief and trauma in Irish writing from 1935 to 2013, focusing specifically on novels by Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett, Sebastian Barry, and Eimear McBride. It offers a feminist reclamation of personal forms of loss that fall outside the purview of documented history and that typically go overlooked in literary criticism. Examples in this study include the suffering caused by the natural death of a family member, infertility, domestic and sexual abuse, social ostracism, institutionalization, and forced adoption. Through careful close readings of Bowen’s The House in Paris (1935) and The Death of the Heart (1938), Beckett’s Molloy (1955), Barry’s The Secret Scripture (2008), and McBride’s A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing (2013), I unpack how women’s insidious vulnerability to grief and trauma manifests in modern and contemporary Irish fiction. The works I discuss here reveal the depth and complexity of grief—making visible forms of loss and violence that society tends to ignore, working through what impedes the grieving process, and giving voice to underrepresented experiences of emotional and psychological suffering. Over three chapters, I engage with the discourses of trauma theory, Irish memory studies, and modernism and its afterlives. I draw on feminist psychiatrist Laura S. Brown’s discussion of “insidious trauma” to inform my own concept, “insidious vulnerability,” which I use to refer to the persistent threat of loss and violence that haunts marginalized groups in their daily lives. Likewise, I make reference to the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic definition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to distinguish trauma from other forms of emotional and psychological distress. I contribute to Irish memory studies by extending the critical conversation beyond public historical events (like the Easter Rising of 1916)—to include private forms of grief and trauma, particularly in the lives of women. Furthermore, I focus on authors who innovate, whose novels exhibit dissatisfaction with the limitations of conventional realist narratives and who attempt new modes of representation in an effort to articulate the inexpressible and the unexpressed. Bowen and Beckett stand as representatives of late modernism (1930s-1950s), while Barry and McBride help extend literary modernist afterlives into the twenty-first century. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.

Thesis advisor: Paul Mariani / The fireplace has long stood at the center of the American home, that hearth which requires work and duty and which offers warmth and transformation in return. Fireplaces: The Unmaking of the American Male Domestic Poet takes a look at three major twentieth-century men whose poetry manifests anxieties about staying home to "keep the fire-place burning and the music-box churning and the wheels of the baby's chariot turning," as Wallace Stevens described it (L 246), during a time of great literary change when their peers were widely expatriating to Europe. Fireplaces considers contemporary poet Stephen Dunn as an inheritor of this mottled Modernist lineage of male lyric domesticity in the Northeastern United States, a tradition rattled by the terrorist events of September 11, 2001 after which Dunn leaves his wife and family home to remarry, thus razing the longstanding domestic frame of his poems. Ultimately Fireplaces leaves us with a question for twenty-first century verse--can a male poet still write about home? Or has the local domestic voice been supplanted at last by a placeless strain of lyric. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.