Augustine, the fourth-century Christian philosopher, is perhaps best-known for his spiritual autobiography Confessions. Two aspects of the problem of evil are arguably critical for comprehending his life in Books 1 through 9 of the work. His search for the nature and origin of evil in the various philosophies that he encounters (the intellectual aspect) and his struggles with his own weaknesses (the experiential aspect) are windows for understanding the actual dynamics of his sojourn. I defend the idea above by providing a fuller examination of the key role that both aspects play in his spiritual journey. Examining relevant events from Augustine's life chronologically, I analyze his philosophical wanderings from his encounter with Cicero's work Hortensius through his eventual disillusionment with the Manichaean religion, and finally, his move in the direction of Christian teachings with the help of Neo-Platonism. Along the way his philosophical questions (the intellectual aspect) and his struggles with his own depravity (the experiential aspect) have an effect on each other until his ultimate move toward Christianity resolves both problems of evil.

It is apparent that what is characterized as Christian Apophatic Theology has been poorly related to its antecedents existing in Greco-Roman philosophy. This study proposed the following research hypothesis: Greco-Roman philosophy exerted a structural and terminological influence upon Christian apophatic theology. To prove or disprove this hypothesis, apophatic terminology and textual structures in Greco-Roman philosophical texts were compared to classic Christian apophatic texts, primarily from the Apostolic and Cappadocian Fathers. Throughout this process, Michael Sells' clasic definition of apophatic language, consisting of the apearance of the metaphor of emanation, dis-ontological language, and dialectical language of immanence and transcendence, was used as a benchmark for the occurrence of apophatic language in the texts examined. It was found that Greco-Roman pagan apophatic philosophy exerted significantly less structural than terminological influence. Thus, this research will strengthen claims that Platonic and Neo-Platonic terminology was simply overlaid atop a pre-existing Semitic-Christian apophatic framework.

Ambitionen med denna uppsats är att skapa en översikt över hur modern forskning ser på den hierarkiska indelning av de kristna änglarna som Dante redogör för i Den Gudomliga Komedin, samt vad som ligger till grund för rangordningen. Dessutom analyseras sambandet mellan hierarkin och änglarnas kosmologiska funktioner och deras betydelse för upprätthållandet av världen. En viktig faktor för förståelsen av Dantes änglalogi är dess relation till senmedeltidens filosofi och kristna tro; hur den påverkades av – och i sin tur påverkade – sin kontext, vilken sedan bidrog till utvecklingen av den moderna västerländska synen på världen. Den teologiska diskurs som sträcker sig ända tillbaka till de första århundradena når nämligen en höjdpunkt i Dantes änglahierarki, där tron slutligen förenas med filosofin. I Dante möts således den kristna ängladoktrinen, med utgångspunkt i Bibeln, med den neo-platonska emanationsläran och Aristoteles kausalitetslära, vilka tillsammans utgör fundamentet för det senmedeltida västerländska sättet att se på verkligheten. I denna uppsats redogörs följaktligen för Dantes änglahierarki och änglarnas kosmologiska betydelse genom att analysera den assimilation av tro och filosofi som utgör dess metafysiska grund. / The ambition with this essay is to create a general idea of how modern research estimates the hierarchic division of the Christian angels, as Dante accounts for in The Divine Comedy, as well as the hierarchy it is based on. In addition to that, the connection between the hierarchy and the cosmological functions of the angels, and the subsequent task to uphold the world, is analyzed. An important factor for the comprehension of Dante’s angelology is its connection to the philosophy and Christian faith of the late medieval period; how it was affected by – and at the same time affected – its context, which eventually contributed to the generation of the modern Western world view. In fact, the theological discourse that expands from the first centuries of Christianity reaches a summit in Dante’s angelic hierarchy, where faith and philosophy finally consolidate. Thus, Christian angelic doctrine, with starting point in the Bible, meets in Dante the neo-platonic doctrine of emanation and Aristotle’s principle of causality, which together count for the foundation of the Western late medieval view of reality. The aim of this essay is consequently to investigate Dante’s angelic hierarchy and the cosmological functions of the angels, by investigating the assimilation of faith and philosophy that constitutes their metaphysical base.

La présente étude aborde une œuvre de Théophile Gautier, Arria Marcella, au regard de la thématique de l’imagination créatrice. L’analyse se concentre sur la nouvelle elle-même, mais prend largement en compte aussi l’ensemble des œuvres narratives, et au-delà, du polygraphe – critique d’art, critique dramatique, récit de voyages et dans une moindre mesure poésie. Ce travail s’organise en trois temps : la première partie expose les différentes composantes de la nouvelle, montre la manière dont Gautier organise sa narration à partir d’un matériel intertextuel, et d’un objet transitionnel qui lui permet de mettre en scène l’aventure rétrospective d’un jeune homme du xixe siècle dans l’antiquité, à la rencontre de son idéal féminin. Arria Marcella est d’abord le récit d’un parcours, diurne, puis nocturne ; réel, puis mental. La seconde partie traite de l’imagination créatrice, donc de l’image et de sa restitution fécondante par l’écriture, à travers le travail descriptif d’un regard qui prend position. Il ne s’agit pas de restituer, mais d’enchanter le réel en le passant au révélateur du fantastique, de la survivance et de la figurabilité. La troisième partie analyse Arria Marcella à travers le prisme de lectures complémentaires qui entendent montrer la richesse de l’œuvre, laquelle occupe une position stratégique permettant d’éclairer la production de Gautier dans son ensemble. L’approche procède en trois temps : esthétique ; philosophique, par le biais d’un examen approfondi de la composante platonicienne et néoplatonicienne, fondamentale bien que filtrée, dans Arria Marcella et plus largement dans les œuvres narratives de l’auteur; générique enfin, puisqu’il s’agit de montrer comment la nouvelle pompéienne atteint au Gesamtkunswerk en mêlant les genres créatifs. / The subject of this PhD is a short story by Théophile Gautier, entitled Arria Marcella, as seen through the theme of creative imagination. Although the present dissertation focuses on this particular short story, it also takes into consideration the author’s entire works – fiction, art criticism, travel literature and to a lesser degree, poetry. The 3-part study begins by describing the different sections of the short story, and the way Gautier organized his narration. The story is based on different literary sources and a transitional object (a museum artefact) through which he staged the adventures of a nineteenth-century young man encountering his female ideal in ancient times. Arria Marcella is the story of a walk at daytime then nighttime, in reality and in the character’s mind. The second part deals with creative imagination: image and the way it is transformed and enriched in literature through descriptive work as seen through the writer’s eye. Rather than remaining faithful to reality, it is a matter of enchanting reality through the fantastic genre, survival and figurability. The third part is devoted to an analysis of Arria Marcella through further readings so as to highlight its complexity. Thus, this work, which holds a strategic position among Gautier’s works, can help explain his writings. The viewpoint is threefold: aesthetic, philosophical, through a close examination of the Platonism and Neoplatonism features – essential though filtered, and finally generic since it shows how the Pompeian short story reaches Gesamtkunswerk by combining different creative genres.

L’encyclopédie en neuf livres de Martianus Capella, vraisemblablement composée au début du Ve s. après J.-C., se situe à la transition entre les conceptions antiques et médiévales de la « formation libérale ». Sept sciences, dons de Mercure à Philologie, exposent leur discipline devant les dieux, et forment un programme d’ascension de l’âme vers le monde divin et rationnel. En promettant un exposé conforme au statut de science (disciplina) qu’elle partage avec ses six compagnes, Rhétorique propose de dépasser les débats dont elle fait l’objet : son enseignement veut construire un art général de l’argumentation persuasive. Notre étude définit la place du livre 5 dans l’œuvre de Martianus et dans la tradition rhétorique antique. Contrairement aux traités des rhéteurs latins tardifs qui nous sont parvenus, le traité du livre 5 adopte (et adapte) les orientations des derniers ouvrages rhétoriques de Cicéron (le De oratore notamment) : la théorie est conçue pour répondre aussi bien aux questions « particulières », domaine des orateurs, qu’aux questions « générales » et philosophiques. Cette conception de la rhétorique n’est pas nouvelle : elle s’appuie sur des traditions philosophiques d’enseignement de la rhétorique, notamment développées dans des cadres péripatéticiens et académiciens. Le traité de Martianus est toutefois le seul témoin tardif qui reprenne ces perspectives avancées, et cherche à les organiser sous forme systématique. Science de la parole persuasive, la rhétorique occupe une place essentielle dans la mise en œuvre du projet de Martianus, et constitue une étape importante avant le principe plus élevé représenté par l’harmonie. / Martianus Capella’s encyclopedic work, probably composed in the early 5th century A.D., forms an original transition between Ancient and Medieval conceptions of "liberal education". As wedding gifts given by Mercury to Philology, seven Sciences present their branch of knowledge in a divine assembly : this scientific programme aims at the ascension of the soul towards the divine and rational world. Rhetoric answers (and goes beyond) the traditional critics directed against oratory. She promises a presentation consistent with the status of science (disciplina) she shares with her six companions : her teaching builds a general art of persuasive argument. Our study defines the position of Book 5 in Martianus’ work and in the Ancient rhetorical traditions. Whereas the Late Latin rhetorical handbooks that have survived partake of the « standard » rhetorical teaching, Martianus’ Book 5 adopts (and adapts) the guidelines of the Cicero’s latest rhetorical works (especially De oratore) : the theory is designed to meet both "particular " questions, area of orators, and the "general" philosophical questions. This conception of rhetoric is not new : it relies on philosophical traditions of teaching rhetoric that were developed in Peripatetic and Academic settings. Martianus’ Book 5 is however the only Late Antique testimony that embraces these advanced prospects, and seeks to organise them in a systematic form. As the science of persuasive speech, Rhetoric plays an essential role in Martianus’ project, and constitutes an important step before the higher principle represented by Harmony.

<p>Jag vill i den här uppsatsen beskriva hur sexualitet och genus konstrueras, befästs och utmanas i Margareta av Navarras verk <em>Heptameron</em>. Jag utgår från Judith Butlers och Thomas Laqueurs queerteoretiska perspektiv och visar hur de olika maktdiskurserna kristendom, aristokrati, patriarkalism och nyplatonism påverkar och påtvingar olika konstruktioner av sexualitet<strong> </strong>och genus, och kan konstatera att alla dessa diskurser bygger på<strong> </strong>en normerande och<strong> </strong>normaliserad heterosexualitet som ständigt för tillbaka avvikelserna från denna norm, hos såväl devisanterna som i de två noveller jag studerat, till en binär könskategorisering. Huvudfokus ligger på tvetydigheten hos begrepp som man, kvinna, och fullkomlig kärlek. Jag menar att just avsaknaden av slutgiltiga definitioner av sådana begrepp i verket visar på att det inte går att finna något essentiellt ursprung eller någon slutgiltig definition av dem. Det är just därför den heterosexuella normen måste iscensättas gång på gång.</p><p>Jag menar dock att man kan konstatera att det finns en skillnad i fråga om de bakomliggande diskursernas gestaltning i ramberättelse där de slås fast och i novellerna där de problematiseras, vilket också påpekats av Bernard. Det finns med andra ord ett större utrymme för avvikande från sexualitets- och genusnormer i <em>Heptamerons </em>noveller, medan ramberättelsens funktion tycks vara att föra dem tillbaka till ordningen. Likväl sker en ständig upprepning av den heterosexuella normen både hos devisanterna och i novellerna, en upprepning som tyder på att heterosexualiteten inte är vare sig given eller naturlig utan iscensatt.</p> / <p>In this study I am analyzing how categories of sexuality and gender are represented in Marguerite de Navarre’s <em>Heptameron</em>. I have narrowed the object of study down to two of the seventy-two novellas; number forty-seven and forty-three, and to four of the ten devisants; Oisille, Parlamente, Hircan and Dagoucin. The theoretical frame<strong> </strong>is taken from Judith Butlers <em>Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity</em> (1990) and <em>Undoing Gender</em> (2004) and from Thomas Laqueurs <em>Making Sex. Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud</em> (1990). Butler’s aim is to deconstruct terms such as feminine and masculine, which function as imagined normalization categories due to power relations. In <em>Undoing Gender </em>she asks: “If I am a certain gender, will I still be regarded as part of the human? Will the ‘human’ expand to include me in its reach? If I desire in certain ways, will I be able to live?” These questions are of great importance for my study, which presents how the categories of sexuality and gender can be negotiated in the equalized frame Marguerite de Navarre creates for her ten devisants and novellas. At the same time I assess how every attempt to go beyond the boundaries of norms fails due to a norm of heterosexuality, which constrains the binary categories of man and woman.</p><p>There are four main discourses by which the heterosexual norm is internalized by the devisants in <em>Heptameron</em>: the Christian, the aristocratic, the patriarchal and the neo-platonic. I suggest that each of the four devisants that I have studied represents one of these discourses. Since there are no definitive lines or definitive conclusions reached in the discussions among them it would be more correct to say that all the discourses effect all of the devisants to some extent, but<strong> </strong>that all the devisants act through a main discourse when he/she express his/her individual opinions.</p><p>When the devisants in the frame leave it to the reader to come to a conclusion about right or wrong behavior for men and women, they are still rather set in their own opinions and, also, quite unforgiving. It is my contention that the novellas create more room for negotiations of the sexual and gender roles than the frame. In novella forty-three a woman acts within the role of the active, hence masculine, part of a love affair, and novella forty-seven tells the story of a <em>parfaicte</em> <em>amytié</em> between two men. But it is also obvious that these attempts to stress and break the norms of sexuality and gender are unsuccessful, once again due to the fixed norm of heterosexuality which constrain the binary categories of man and woman. In the novellas these very failures put the norms under stress, since they point out the very problem with the determination of sexual and gender categories which were prevalent during the Renaissance.</p><p>I conclude my results by returning to Butler’s question above; “If I desire in certain ways, will I be able to live?” In <em>Heptameron </em>one can always find a chance to try a different way, but in the end only the heterosexual desire in which man and woman are in dichotomy survives.</p>

Jag vill i den här uppsatsen beskriva hur sexualitet och genus konstrueras, befästs och utmanas i Margareta av Navarras verk Heptameron. Jag utgår från Judith Butlers och Thomas Laqueurs queerteoretiska perspektiv och visar hur de olika maktdiskurserna kristendom, aristokrati, patriarkalism och nyplatonism påverkar och påtvingar olika konstruktioner av sexualitet och genus, och kan konstatera att alla dessa diskurser bygger på en normerande och normaliserad heterosexualitet som ständigt för tillbaka avvikelserna från denna norm, hos såväl devisanterna som i de två noveller jag studerat, till en binär könskategorisering. Huvudfokus ligger på tvetydigheten hos begrepp som man, kvinna, och fullkomlig kärlek. Jag menar att just avsaknaden av slutgiltiga definitioner av sådana begrepp i verket visar på att det inte går att finna något essentiellt ursprung eller någon slutgiltig definition av dem. Det är just därför den heterosexuella normen måste iscensättas gång på gång. Jag menar dock att man kan konstatera att det finns en skillnad i fråga om de bakomliggande diskursernas gestaltning i ramberättelse där de slås fast och i novellerna där de problematiseras, vilket också påpekats av Bernard. Det finns med andra ord ett större utrymme för avvikande från sexualitets- och genusnormer i Heptamerons noveller, medan ramberättelsens funktion tycks vara att föra dem tillbaka till ordningen. Likväl sker en ständig upprepning av den heterosexuella normen både hos devisanterna och i novellerna, en upprepning som tyder på att heterosexualiteten inte är vare sig given eller naturlig utan iscensatt. / In this study I am analyzing how categories of sexuality and gender are represented in Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron. I have narrowed the object of study down to two of the seventy-two novellas; number forty-seven and forty-three, and to four of the ten devisants; Oisille, Parlamente, Hircan and Dagoucin. The theoretical frame is taken from Judith Butlers Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990) and Undoing Gender (2004) and from Thomas Laqueurs Making Sex. Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (1990). Butler’s aim is to deconstruct terms such as feminine and masculine, which function as imagined normalization categories due to power relations. In Undoing Gender she asks: “If I am a certain gender, will I still be regarded as part of the human? Will the ‘human’ expand to include me in its reach? If I desire in certain ways, will I be able to live?” These questions are of great importance for my study, which presents how the categories of sexuality and gender can be negotiated in the equalized frame Marguerite de Navarre creates for her ten devisants and novellas. At the same time I assess how every attempt to go beyond the boundaries of norms fails due to a norm of heterosexuality, which constrains the binary categories of man and woman. There are four main discourses by which the heterosexual norm is internalized by the devisants in Heptameron: the Christian, the aristocratic, the patriarchal and the neo-platonic. I suggest that each of the four devisants that I have studied represents one of these discourses. Since there are no definitive lines or definitive conclusions reached in the discussions among them it would be more correct to say that all the discourses effect all of the devisants to some extent, but that all the devisants act through a main discourse when he/she express his/her individual opinions. When the devisants in the frame leave it to the reader to come to a conclusion about right or wrong behavior for men and women, they are still rather set in their own opinions and, also, quite unforgiving. It is my contention that the novellas create more room for negotiations of the sexual and gender roles than the frame. In novella forty-three a woman acts within the role of the active, hence masculine, part of a love affair, and novella forty-seven tells the story of a parfaicte amytié between two men. But it is also obvious that these attempts to stress and break the norms of sexuality and gender are unsuccessful, once again due to the fixed norm of heterosexuality which constrain the binary categories of man and woman. In the novellas these very failures put the norms under stress, since they point out the very problem with the determination of sexual and gender categories which were prevalent during the Renaissance. I conclude my results by returning to Butler’s question above; “If I desire in certain ways, will I be able to live?” In Heptameron one can always find a chance to try a different way, but in the end only the heterosexual desire in which man and woman are in dichotomy survives.