The scores here collected represent all the music heard in the recital of 3 April, 1995 (programme on p. iii), save "Shimmering Reflections on a Dark Carrall Street Night." This is an electroacoustic piece which does, however, appear on the accompanying recording.

The scores here collected represent all the music heard in the recital of 3 April, 1995 (programme on p. iii), save "Shimmering Reflections on a Dark Carrall Street Night." This is an electroacoustic piece which does, however, appear on the accompanying recording. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Accompanied by sound cassette of recital. / Graduate

Cette thèse interroge le sens du mythe orphique dans la poésie de six auteurs européens du début du XXe siècle (Valéry, Rilke, Trakl, Apollinaire, Campana, Goll), et le sens de la poésie orphique dans la modernité. En partant du double constat d’une crise de la Weltanschauung signant la désertion de la transcendance et du sens, et d’une crise du langage héritée de Mallarmé, cette thèse définit la poésie orphique comme une tentative de ré-enchantement visant à refonder la place de l’être dans le monde, le sens de la mort et la profondeur ontologique de la poésie. La thèse pose la question de l’unité ou de l’éclatement d’un lyrisme orphique moderne. Elle propose une mise au point historique sur les sources de l’orphisme jusqu’au début du XXe siècle, puis un parcours analysant le passage de la mythologie à des poétiques orphiques parfois opposées dans leur aboutissement (réharmonisation de soi et du monde, catabase sans fin, démembrement du sujet, incarnation par l’orphisme de l’idée d’une poésie parfaitement composée). Cette thèse s’attache aussi à définir l’orphisme dans ses dimensions musicales et picturales, interroge les liens entre orphisme et union des arts, et étudie la langue musicalisée et picturalisée des poètes, ainsi que plusieurs œuvres vocales et plastiques (Honegger, Poulenc, Webern, Weill, Delaunay, Dufy, Klee, De Chirico). Enfin, considérant le mythe selon sa dimension fondatrice d’une manière d’être au monde, cette thèse envisage la poésie orphique du début du XXe siècle comme le signe et le moyen d’un désir de retour à une forme de rapport mythique au monde où l’être, dans le chant, coïnciderait avec le sacré et avec le dicible. / This thesis examines the meaning of the myth of Orpheus in the poetical works of six early twentieth century European poets, and the meaning of Orphic poetry within a context of modernity. Having taken into account a twofold crisis, both of the Weltanschauung – revealing that any sense, or transcendent reference, is missing – and of language (Mallarmé’s legacy), this thesis defines Orphic poetry as an attempt to re-enchant the world, in order to give new roots to the being, a new meaning to death, and a new ground to settle poetry’s ontological depth. The thesis tries to determine if such a lyricism is unique or manifold. It makes a historical mise au point from the sources of Orphism up to the twentieth century; then, it tries to describe the transformation of mythological elements into poetical principles – from which may even have issued contradictory achievements (setting back harmonious links between the world and the self; endless katabasis; dismemberment of the I; Orphic embodiment of a perfect poetry). Our thesis also tries to describe how Orphism is conveyed through music and painting: it questions the link between Orphism and the union of the arts, and studies the poet’s music-like and picture-like language, as well as some vocal or painted works (Honegger, Poulenc, Webern, Weill, Delaunay, Dufy, Klee, De Chirico). At last, as it considers myth as the settling of a new way of being-in-the-world, this thesis pictures early 20th century Orphic poetry both as the symptom and the way of a desire to get back some kind of mythical relationship to the world, in which the being, the sacred and the sayable, through the poetical song, would prove coextensive.

My D.Phil, dissertation sheds new light on German literary decadence around 1900, its universal concepts, plurality of discourses and poetic transformations. The heuristic value of my dissertation is a refined differentiation of Dekadenz which reconstructs the literary history of the concept and for the first time proposes specific poetic constellations. In chapter 1, decadence is reviewed with its rich research heritage and introduced as a decisive concept and discourse of aesthetic modernism. Although much has been written on decadence, the concept is clearly in need of scholarly reconsideration. I argue that decadence is not only a vague epochal construct and an ensemble of motifs, but also encompasses discourses, universal concepts and a versatile literary style. In view of the stylistic eclecticism around 1900, I argue that decadence is a dynamic and malleable concept which can be combined with other aesthetic styles, movements and philosophical contexts depending on the specific author. Chapter 2 contextualizes Dekadenz from its etymology and central discourses to its universal concepts. Etymologically derived from the Latin verb de-cadere decadence signifies a downward movement and a figure of fragmentation. It evokes cultural and political decline especially that of the Roman Empire (décadence romaine) and undergoes various aesthetic transformations (1857-1894). After touching upon the precursors Baudelaire (1857), Bourget (1883) and Bahr (1889-1894), I dwell on Nietzsche to demonstrate the philosophically complex German double evaluation of decadence. I derive three universal concepts from Nietzsche (health vs. sickness, endings vs. new beginnings, fragmentation vs. wholeness) which are crucial to my literary analysis. My comprehensive literary analysis centers on three specific poetic constellations of decadence between late realism and aesthetic modernism. Chapter 3 illuminates Mann's spätrealistische Dekadenz (1894-1924) with his (Nietzschean) double evaluations. Transformations of decadence are shown in his early novellas, Buddenbrooks, Der Tod in Venedig and Der Zauberberg. Chapter 4 illustrates Hofmannsthal's ästhetizistische Dekadenz (1891-1902) in his early essays, his prose fragment Age of Innocence and Das Märchen der 672. Nacht. A significant transformation of decadence is illuminated in Ein Brief (1902), where Nietzschean decadence is concentrated and tentatively overturned. In chapter 5, Rilke's modernistische Dekadenz (1898-1910) is shown from his early fragment Ewald Tragy to his only novel Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge. His novel attempts a poetic 'revaluation of all values' and culminates in the emergence of a genuinely modernist decadence.

Part 1: ‘True Receivers': Rilke and the Contemporary Poetics of Listening In this part of this thesis I argue that a contemporary ‘poetics of listening' has emerged in the UK, and explore the writing of three of our most significant poets - John Burnside, Kathleen Jamie and Don Paterson - to find out why they have become interested in the idea of the poet as a ‘listener'. I suggest that the appeal of this listening stance accounts for their engagement with the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, who thought of himself as a listening ‘receiver'; it is proposed that Rilke's notion of ‘receivership' and the way his poems relate to the earthly (or the ‘non-human') also account for the general ‘intensification' of interest in his work. An exploration of the shifting status of listening provides context for this study, and I pay particular attention to the way innovations in audio and communications technology influenced Rilke's late sequences the Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus. A connection is made between Rilke's ‘listening poetics' and the ‘listening' stance of Ted Hughes and Edward Thomas; this establishes a ‘listening lineage' for the contemporary poets considered in the thesis. I also suggest that there are intriguing similarities between the ideas of listening that are emerging in contemporary poetics and Hélène Cixous' concept of ‘écriture féminine'. Exploring these similarities helps us to understand the implications of the stance of the poet-listener, which is a counter to the idea that as a writer you must ‘find your voice'. Finally, it is proposed that ‘a poetics of listening' would benefit from an enriched taxonomy. Part 2 of the thesis is a collection of my poems entitled ‘Small Weather'.