Thesis (doctoral)--Georg August-Universität zu Göttingen, 1931. / Sonderdruck aus "Studien zur englischen philologie", Heft LXXIII, 1931. "Literaturverzeichnis": p. [vii]-x.

Thesis (M. Div.)--Grace Theological Seminary, 1986. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-59).

Throughout British decadent literature, authors creatively experiment with religion. While part of this experimentation is a matter of how authors represent religious subjects or syncretized religious traditions, a much more foundational level of this experimentation seeks to redefine “the religious” altogether. Collectively, the authors in this study seek to redefine “religion” as focused around community, ritual, and aestheticism over creed or dogma. This new definition resonates with the way many twentieth-century sociologist, theologians, and psychoanalytic theorists have discussed the nature and role of religion in Western society, and I rely on these thinkers throughout my methodology. Also central to my methodology is my suggestion that the primary lens through which critics often read British decadence is the lens of experimentation and redefinition. It has been well established that British decadents creatively experimented with their representations of gender and sexuality, their use of genre, and their incorporation of Western philosophy, yet their treatment of religion—specifically the Western religious traditions which appear in their works—has been largely unexamined. This project argues that the British decadent authors’ creative treatment of religion is central to their works and to their broader experimental project. In my first chapter, I suggest that the experimental work that Pater does with philosophy, art theory, and genre has its roots in the experimental work he does with religion. Pater espouses a syncretic approach to religion which sees Christianity as the most recent, and most evolved, link in a series of conversant religious and philosophical traditions. At the same time, he opposes the institutionalization of religion as well as any violence that might take place in its name. In my second chapter, I claim that Oscar Wilde’s destabilization of language—separating words from their denotative meanings—lays the groundwork for his separation of religious ideology from the aesthetic and communal elements of religion. My third chapter argues that decadent religion, as imagined by Pater and Wilde, was not always easily integrated into religious life. I suggest that the sadomasochistic imagery seen throughout some of Francis Thompson’s works signifies a larger conflict between his attraction to decadence and his devotion to Catholicism. In the final chapter, I consider Vernon Lee, a woman writer who spent much of her life in Continental Europe. I claim that her position on the fringes of British, male, decadent society allowed her a unique vantage point, from which she repeatedly examined the decadent religious project even as she valued a secular, moral humanism over that project.

In Walter Pater’s work there are often mentions of discipline and ascesis in an explicitly positive way. But, in some of his work, discipline, although not ascesis, seem to be taking on a more negative form. Critics have nonetheless seemed satisfied with Pater’s explicit praise for discipline and the area is thus not very thoroughly researched. One area that is well researched is the homoerotic subtexts that are evident in a lot of Pater’s work, which critics have examined in a variety of different ways. I suggest analysing the imaginary portraits “Emerald Uthwart” and “Apollo in Picardy,” to argue that Pater contrasts the Ancient Greek notion of ascesis with the nineteenth century understanding of discipline in order to question the legal restrictions on homosexuality in late nineteenth century England. Due to the historical context of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act, which criminalised homosexuality, and Pater’s regular use of—as well as his admiration for—Ancient Greece, I have found that there is a connection between discipline, ascesis, and homosexuality. In the essay I make use of some of Foucault’s theories, especially from The History of Sexuality Vol. 1 and Vol. 2., to argue that the juxtaposition between homosexuality and discipline and ascesis in the two portraits provides new insights to the intricacies of Pater’s work. Keywords: Walter Pater; discipline; ascesis; homosexuality; “Apollo in Picardy”; “Emerald Uthwart”; Imaginary Portraits

Estudo sobre a filiação com ênfase na regra do caput do artigo 1.601 do Código Civil Brasileiro Lei 10.406/2002, segundo a qual cabe ao marido o direito de contestar a paternidade dos filhos nascidos de sua mulher, sendo tal ação imprescritível. A dissertação tem como objetivo principal demonstrar a inconstitucionalidade do direito perpétuo do pai em desconstituir a paternidade do filho menor nascido em uma relação de casamento à luz do princípio do melhor interesse da criança. Para tanto foi realizada pesquisa bibliográfica e jurisprudencial em tribunais nacionais de segunda instância, no Superior Tribunal de Justiça e no Supremo Tribunal Federal. Os critérios da presunção legal pater is est quem nuptiae demonstrant, da verdade biológica e da posse de estado de filho foram um a um analisados, não havendo entre eles predominância no ordenamento jurídico. O levantamento deste material permitiu a constatação de que a regra supracitada é, pela doutrina majoritária, acriticamente louvada e utilizada nos julgados de conflitos de paternidade. O filho, no entanto, não pode permanecer por toda a vida sujeito à possibilidade do pai desfazer, a qualquer momento, a relação paterno-filial pela ausência do dado biológico por que: (i) o exercício deste direito é mutilador de sua identidade e dignidade humana; (ii) a posse de estado de filho confirma a presunção pater is est; (iii) o estado civil de filho deve se tornar certo e estável em um curto período de tempo. Sustenta-se que é imperioso o afastamento por inconstitucionalidade material da regra do artigo 1.601 do Código Civil e a aplicação analógica do prazo de quatro anos previsto no artigo 1.614 do Código Civil. De lege ferenda propõe-se a elaboração de uma norma que fixe um prazo decadencial para que o marido e pai possa exercer o direito potestativo de negar a paternidade. / A study of paternity with emphasis on the rule of the caput of the article 1.601 of the Brazilian Civil Code law 10.406/2002, which states that its allowed to the husband contesting the paternity of his wifes child, and such claim is imprescriptible. The main purpose of the thesis is demonstrate the unconstitutionality of the fathers perpetual right to disregard the paternity of the minor born from a married couple, based on the principle of childs best interest. It was based on Brazilian Courts jurisprudence and bibliographical research. The criteria of legal presumption pater is est quem nuptiae demonstrant, of biological truth and of putative fatherhood were peered reviewed, and no hierarchical relevance was observed. Based on this survey it is reasonable to declare that the aforementioned rule is uncritically employed in the paternity issues. On the other hand, the child might not be a lifelong susceptible to paternal status changing based on the absence of biological linkage, in that: (i) this practice may be perverse and annihilate the human dignity; (ii) informal adoptions confirm the pater is est presumption; (iii) the paternity status must be undeniable, stable and promptly established. According to the arguments demonstrated along this thesis, the article 1.601 of Brazilian Civil Code must be banished and a four years term rule, as proposed by the article 1.614 of the Brazilian Civil Code, must fulfill it. It is mandatory the elaboration of a new rule of law in which the husband and father, after a four years period of limitation, is prohibited from denying the paternity.

"Of That Transfigured World" identifies a generally unremarked upon mode of nineteenth-century literature that intermingles realism and fantasy in order to address epistemological problems. I contend that works of Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Walter Pater, and Oscar Wilde maintain a realist core overlaid by fantastic elements that come from the language used to characterize the core narrative or from metatexts or paratexts (such as stories that characters tell). The fantastic in this way becomes a mode of interpretation in texts concerned with the problems of representation and the ability of literature to produce knowledge. Paradoxically, each of these authors relies on the fantastic in order to reach the kinds of meaning nineteenth-century realism strives for. My critical framework is derived from the two interrelated discourses of sacred space theology and cultural geography, focusing primarily on the terms topos and chora which I figure as parallel to realism and fantasy. These terms, gleaned from Aristotle and Plato, function to express two interweaving concepts of space that together construct our sense of place. Topos, as defined by Belden C. Lane, refers to "a mere location, a measurable, quantifiable point, neutral and indifferent" whereas chora refers to place as "an energizing force, suggestive to the imagination, drawing intimate connections to everything else in our lives." In the narratives I examine, meaning is constructed via the fantastic interpretations (chora) of realistically portrayed events (topos). The writers I engage with use this dynamic to strategically address pressing epistemological concerns relating to the purpose of art and its relationship to truth. My dissertation examines the works of Dickens, the Brontës, Pater, and Wilde through the lens of this conceptual framework, focusing on how the language that each of these writers uses overlays chora on top of topos. In essence each of these writers uses imaginative language to transfigure the worlds they describe for specific purposes. For Dickens these fantastic hermeneutics allow him to transfigure world into one where the "familiar" becomes "romantic," where moral connections are clear, and which encourages the moral imagination necessary for empathy to take root. Charlotte and Emily Brontës's transfigurations highlight the subjectivity inherent in representation. For Pater, that transfigured world is aesthetic experience and the way our understanding of the "actual world" of topos is shaped by it. Oscar Wilde's transfigured world is by far the most radical, for in the end that transfigured world ceases to be artificial, as Wilde disrupts the separation between reality and artifice. "Of That Transfigured World" argues for a closer understanding of the hermeneutic and epistemological workings of several major British authors. My dissertation offers a paradigm through which to view these writers that connects them to the on-going Victorian discourses of realism while also pointing to the critical sophistication of their positions in seeking to relate truth to art. My identification of the tensions between what I term topos and chora in these works illuminates the relationship between the creation of meaning and the hermeneutics used to direct the reader to that particular meaning. It further points to the important, yet sometimes troubling, role that imagination plays in the epistemologies at the center of that crowning Victorian achievement, the Realist novel.

This is a study of what I argue is a neglected side of Aestheticism. A standard definition of Aestheticism is that its practitioners turn away from the general current of modernity to protest its utilitarian and materialistic values, but this generalization ignores the profound influence of contemporary philosophical and scientific thought on such major figures of British Aestheticism as Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. This study focuses on Aesthetes who are not in flight from modernity. I call their type of Aestheticism "Epicurean Aestheticism" and argue that since this temperament is characterized by a willingness to engage with the flux of modern times it must be distinguished from the more familiar, escapist form of Aestheticism I call "Platonic Aestheticism." I propose that Aestheticism be viewed as a spectrum with Epicurean Aestheticism on one side and the Platonic variety on the other. While Platonic Aesthetes like W. B . Yeats and Stephane Mallarme continue the Romantic project of trying to counter modernity with various idealist and absolutist philosophies, Epicurean Aesthetes adopt materialist and relativistic strategies in their desire to make the most of modern life. I argue that the first unmistakable signs of Epicurean Aestheticism are to be found in Thomas De Quincey, that the sensibility is fully formulated be Pater, continued by Wilde, and finds a current representative in Tom Stoppard. All Aesthetes are dedicated to the pursuit of beauty, but Platonic Aesthetes seek beauty in an eternal and transcendent realm, while Epicurean Aesthetes have given up such absolutist habits of thought. Pater writes: "Modern thought is distinguished from ancient by its cultivation of the "relative" spirit in place of the "absolute." Epicurean Aesthetes want a new aesthetic that will parallel the paradigm shift from absolutism to relativism. While a nostalgic, quasi-religious longing for a purely ideal realm characterizes Platonic Aesthetes, Epicurean Aesthetes accept that the high, idealistic road to eternal beauty is closed. Instead of lamenting this fact, they start looking for beauty among the uncertainties of the phenomenal world: by viewing life as an aesthetic spectacle to be observed and experimented on with playful detachment they become Epicureans of the flux of modernity.

Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s literary relation to Walter Pater has already been established in the secondary literature; nevertheless, the Frau ohne Schatten has not been analysed with respect to this relation. This project investigates the role of the arts (especially that of architecture, painting, poetry, music and the carpet) in the story and connects this role with the aesthetics that Pater sets out in The Renaissance. It will be shown that art in its various forms is closely connected to the plot and action of the story. In the work of Pater and Hofmannsthal, art even has a vivifying or animating function. Important characteristics of art for Hofmannsthal and Pater are the relation of the arts to and amongst one another, the idea that all things flow (following Heraclitus’ panta rhei, Gr.), and the concept of Anders-streben. The world of art and the world of reality in its everyday sense will be shown through their ambiguous and even paradoxical relation to one another. Hugo von Hofmannsthals literarisches Verhältnis zu Walter Pater ist in der Sekundärliteratur schon belegt; trotzdem ist Die Frau ohne Schatten hinsichtlich dieses Verhältnisses nie analysiert worden. Diese Arbeit untersucht die Rolle der Künste (besonders der Architektur, Malerei, Dichtung, Musik und des Teppichs) in der Erzählung und verbindet diese Rolle mit der Ästhetik, die Pater in The Renaissance darlegte. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Kunst in ihrer verschiedenen Gestalten sehr eng mit der Handlung der Erzählung verbunden ist. Bei Pater und Hofmannsthal hat die Kunst sogar eine belebende Wirkung. Wichtige Merkmale der Kunst für Hofmannsthal und Pater sind das Verhältnis der Künste untereinander, die Idee, dass alles fließt (nach Heraklits panta rhei, Gr.), und das Konzept des Anders-strebens. Die Welt der Kunst und die Welt der Wirklichkeit im alltäglichen Sinne werden durch ihre vieldeutige und zumal paradoxe Beziehung zueinander gezeigt.

By examining the process of production and reception of the works of Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde, this thesis explores the ways in which both conceptions of audience and actual audiences shaped these works. As proponents of "aestheticism," a philosophy which required the development of a highly specialised mode of perception and critical awareness, Pater and Wilde wrote with a fairly select audience in mind. Confronted, however, with actual readers who did not always meet the "aesthetic" criteria (even if they were supporters), they were forced to rethink their conceptions of audience. Pater's and Wilde's developing understandings of audience can be traced in their works, as they experiment with style and genre in an attempt to communicate effectively with their readers. Although at base Pater and Wilde advocated a similar "aesthetic" philosophy, their distinct conceptions of audience played a significant role in determining the nature of their particular versions of aestheticism.

The Victorian obsession with the child is also often, in the world of literary criticism at least, an obsession with death, whether the death of the child itself or simply the inevitable death of childhood as a seemingly Edenic state of being. This study seeks to consider the way in which the child figure, in texts by four authors published at the end of the nineteenth century, is aligned with an inversion of this relationship. For Walter Pater, Vernon Lee, George MacDonald, and Henry James, the child is bound up instead with un-death, with a construction of death which seeks to remove the finitude, even the mortality, of death itself, or else a death which is expected or anticipated, yet always deferred. While in “The Child in the House” (1878) and “Emerald Uthwart” (1892), Pater places the child at the nexus of his construction of a death which is, rather than a finite ending, a return or a re-beginning, Lee's interest in the child figure's unique access to a world of art, explored in “The Child in the Vatican” (1883) and “Christkindchen” (1897) culminates in a dazzling vision of aesthetic transcendence with “Sister Benvenuta and the Christ Child” (1906). MacDonald, for whom death is already never really death, uses the never-dead child figure in At The Back of the North Wind (1871) and Lilith (1895) as an embodiment of his own distinct engagement with aestheticism, as well as a means by which to express the simultaneous anticipation and depression he experienced in contemplation of death. Finally James, in What Maisie Knew (1897), explores the child's inherent monstrosity as he crafts the possibility of a childhood which consciously refuses to die. This study explores a trajectory in which the child’s place within such reconsiderations of death grows increasingly intense, reaching an apex with MacDonald’s fantastic worlds, before considering James’s problematisation of the concept of the un-dead child in What Maisie Knew.