Whilst Simone de Beauvoir has become an icon of feminism, and The Second Sex in particular been recognized as a point of reference for writers and philosophers worldwide, her reputation in Italy was not established immediately, and there she remains a controversial figure. This study focuses on one aspect of her influence in Italy: the relationship between her writing and that of the Italian best-selling author, Alba de Céspedes. It is the first in-depth analysis of the complex pattern of influence evident in the relationship between what the two authors have described as their most important novels, Les Mandarins and Il rimorso. Part I deals with the historical and theoretical backgrounds to this research. It provides a study of the socio-political events that are relevant to the narrative contents, and an overview of different theories of intertextuality. Part II is a detailed comparative analysis of the novels and establishes for the first time the precise nature of the relationship between Les Mandarins and Il rimorso ideologically and philosophically, as well as intertextually. In particular, this work explores a number of superficial resemblances between the novels’ structures, characterization and thematic content, and it also reveals a more sophisticated relation that is not manifest in the similarities, but rather in the way the texts differ from each other. This thesis brings two significant contributions to literary research: firstly, it will become evident that studies of de Céspedes’ life and works should include close attention to de Beauvoir; and secondly, it is an addition to a popular area of de Beauvoirian studies, that of the charting of the extent of the French author’s philosophical and ideological influence and of its legacy worldwide.

The poems of the Old French Cycle des Narbonnais are highly concerned with touch, paying close attention to who touches whom first in greetings, who is authorised to perform certain symbolic touches and, reading violence as a radical version of touch, whose touch is victorious in battle. Modern sociologists suggest that touching follows lines of social prestige; however, by employing a performative approach to identity, overlaid with a psychoanalytic interpretation of the subject’s relationship with the Other, I argue that regulated patterns of touch in the poems iterate and maintain heroic identity. Of course, an identity forged in this way is problematic, for touch both creates and erases the difference upon which performative identity depends, and I argue that violence erupts as a result of this paradox. By thus linking touch, violence and identity, I ask questions about the nature of violence itself, making this a relevant study in a world that is getting out of touch, yet is riven by violent conflict. I demonstrate that within the community of knights with which the poems concern themselves, there is a shared language of touch that creates bonds between those men, excluding those who are ineligible: women, peasants, children and Saracens. The ritualised public touch of the dubbing ceremony marks the knight’s entry into this community, and announces his willingness to kill its enemies. Now his prowess, honour and self-worth – his heroic identity – will be figured through his ability to destroy outsiders whilst remaining inviolate. His violent touching of the Other is a means to safeguard his own body against the Other’s traumatic touch, yet it also necessitates proximity with an enemy that troublingly mirrors his own values and achievements. As anxiety provoked by disintegrating subjective boundaries worsens, violence escalates and knights battle mercilessly, until as one poem describes, ‘de lor sanc cort li ruz contre val’ (‘the river of their blood ran down the valley’, Les Narbonnais, l. 3952).

In picaresque fiction, subversive humor is related to genre, thematic unity, narrator/protagonists' points of view, and it illustrates fictionalized reality that is linked to contemporaneous culture and society. In this dissertation, I employ theories on humor---superiority, incongruity, release, and entropic---to study humorous episodes in Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), Guzman de Alfarache (1599, 1604) and El buscon (1626). Chapter one provides an overview of theories on humor, beginning with Plato and Aristotle and including modern theorists such as Victor Raskin, Marvin Koller and Patrick O'Neill. The superiority theory begins with Plato and Aristotle and acquires popularity in the seventeenth century with the philosophers Thomas Hobbes and Rene Descartes. The incongruity theory, which treats playful humor, originates in the eighteenth century with philosophers such as Francis Hutcheson, James Beattie and Emmanuel Kant. This theory is also associated with black humor that combines violent extremes of horror and humor and causes people to become both horrified and amused. The release theory, which emanates from Freud's ideas on psychoanalysis relates to an individual's release of forbidden thoughts, inhibitions and anxieties. O'Neill's entropic humor theory, which is related to satire, irony and parody, erodes truths and certainty and exposes the disruption of ordered systems. Henri Bergson's study of laughter functions as a social corrective while Mikhail Bakhtin's view of carnivalesque laughter signifies the symbolic destruction of authority and official culture. Chapter two studies the entropic narrator in Lazarillo de Tormes and the ways in which humor reflects a breakdown of traditional perceptions of reality, the crumbling of ordered systems and the erosion of truth and certainty related to sixteenth-century Spain. Chapter three analyzes four types of humor in Guzman de Alfarache that deal with social and moral dishonesty, horror and humor and literary vengeance. Chapter four treats grotesque black humor in the Buscon that relates to death, gallows humor (galgenhumour), cannibalism and the mutilation of a human corpse (reductio ad absurdum). Subversive humor in picaresque fiction conceptualizes reality that is linked to thematic unity, points of view and the poetics of culture and environment of Spanish society during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

John Milton's Italian sonnets are more significant than they are generally thought to be. In spite of attempts to revive interest in them, they are among the poet's least valued works. In this dissertation, I demonstrate that the practices of publishing the sonnets out of their original order and including English translations along side of the original Italian alter readings of the sonnets by altering their context. These practices are largely responsible for the sonnets' poor reception. In addition to being altered by editorial practices and translations, the context in which the sonnets are received has been altered by changing views about Milton's biography. The present study, therefore, also involves an examination of the way biographical studies can affect interpretation. Reading the poems in their original order and considering their arrangement as purposeful and artistic expands the possibilities for interpretation. My particular reading of the sonnet sequence reveals Milton's self-conscious, retrospective portrayal of a rite of passage in which he prepares to assume a mature and public role. The sonnets show that new understandings of religious and secular love motivate the poet to represent his views in a public form. In his presentation and arrangement of Sonnets 1-7, the poet translates personal conflict into social and political action, and he uses the interplay of tbe English and Italian languages and traditions to dramatize his relationship and responsibility to his native land and the world at large.

Fray Luis de Leon was incarcerated for nearly five years by the Spanish Inquisition, on the basis of charges brought against him by antagonistic colleagues who disagreed with his scholarly approach. Through a systematic consideration of his writings in light of the sociohistorical climate that gave rise to disputes between him and his detractors, it is evident that a number of themes run through Fray Luis' prose production which can be related directly to his experience as an inmate in the Inquisition's cells. These topoi, found throughout the Salmantine friar's prose, are present also in his poetry. Therefore, by analyzing those prose passages that have a direct bearing on his trial before the Inquisition and by relating those passages to his poetry, we shall gain access to unique avenues of interpretation. The results will offer new insights into Fray Luis' poetry that are not readily apparent through other methods of analysis. This study will afford us an opportunity to see Fray Luis and his works in great detail from a perspective that has not yet been explored.

This dissertation catalogues and examines Albert Camus's thematic repetitiveness as seen in his fiction and in how this repetitiveness relates to the world view presented in the so-called guillotine passage in his novel The Plague: that the world consists of scourges, victims, and an elusive third domain. A scourge can be an aggressor. It causes suffering and even death. The plague and other infirmities, both physical and mental, are aggressors. They are indiscriminate, merciless, and oftentimes deadly. Tyrants, too, are aggressors, some of which cling to the arbitrary, while others have a considerably more formal agenda. An aggressor can be metaphysical: the inner plague. Some aggressors, Like poverty and the climate, can also have a positive side to them. A scourge can also be an aggression--what the aggressor causes. They usually cannot be justified (existential separation, death, murder, execution, suicide), but some aggressions lead to enlightenment or positive change (exile, imprisonment, separation from loved ones). Yet one aggression, solitude of a certain kind, can actually be a desired and pleasant experience. Victims are the second domain. Camus focuses primarily on children, artists, clergy, judges and lawyers. The first three groups are presented in a balanced fashion, with emphasis on both the positive and the negative. Judges and lawyers are presented in a negative light, with only slight deviations. The third domain consists of true doctors (true friends) and peace/happiness, with true doctors--who are not necessarily doctors--contributing to the attainment of happiness or at least an improvement in circumstances. Light, the sea, other aspects of nature and sensual pleasures can also contribute to finding peace/happiness.

En esta disertacion mostramos que Ramon Perez de Ayala es un autor humoristico, es decir, un autor que se aproxima al mundo tanto criticamente como de modo tolerante y afectivo. El impetu critico lo impulsa a escudrinar su entorno y a desvelar lo que se halla tras lo aparente. Su postura tolerante lo ayuda a comprender las contradicciones que percibe y a preconizar que todo y todos tienen algo que aportar al mundo, donde el observa la armonia caudalosa, concepto que explica la presencia de todas las ideas y las personalidades, infinitamente enfrentadas entre si. Su arte constituye un intento de recrear este estado de "armonia desarmonica", como se aprecia en la riqueza de personajes conflictivos, incongruentes e imprevisibles que crea. Para explicar la manera en que Ayala se aproxima al mundo y al arte, en base a sus ideas y a las que Luigi Pirandello vierte en L'umorismo , configuramos la nocion de acercamiento humoristico . Esta se apuntala en la distincion entre dos conceptos: lo comico, que se refiere a las discrepancias que se revelan a raiz del escudrinamiento critico del mundo y el humorismo, que es la tolerancia de las discrepancias, nacida de la observacion critica. Nuestra nocion consta de dos fases. En la primera, dominada por lo comico, se escudrina a las personas. Surge la risa. El humorismo predomina en la segunda fase, en que se llega a comprender el origen de las contradicciones que se percibe. La risa da paso a una sonrisa cervantina--confortadora y comprensiva. Mediante el estudio del acercamiento humoristico intentamos ofrecer una imagen de Perez de Ayala diferente a la del rigido moralizador que predomina en la critica.

<p> The Marquis de Sade became famous, or infamous depending on one's perspective, for the ferocious depictions of sexual predation which are found throughout his literary works, and consequently, the character of the sexual predator is indispensable to understanding the author's philosophical standpoint. For Sade, the laws of nature determine the sex of the individual, but they also require him or her to satisfy a set of physical needs which reject the masculine/feminine binary as often as they embrace it. This blurring of the lines between masculinity and femininity is thus characteristic of the Sadian sexual predator who must constantly seek satisfaction for his needs regardless of social and religious constraints on his behavior and on the sex of his victim. When examining the myriad variations on this character in Sade's work, it becomes clear that he has transferred the natural law of &ldquo;survival of the fittest&rdquo; from a purely physical to a highly intellectual concept and, in so doing, has created a predator who uses mental as well as physical strength to dominate his victim. I, therefore, propose that masculinity mixes fluidly with femininity when examined through the lens of the predator and that by investigating the hierarchy of predator versus prey, the mutability of gender at both extremes of the predatory relationship, and the description of specific acts of predation, it is possible to deconstruct the gender differences through the strict adherence to the laws of nature observed by Sade's sexual predators.</p>

This study is an experiment in the application of the science of characterology to literary study. The methods of characterological research have been applied to the principal works of an author in an attempt to discover his true character and the impulses underlying his behaviour. The Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz, being autobiographical, served this purpose particularly well. The introduction explains the methods of characterology and their advantages. It also gives a brief historical background of this science and defines the terms which will be used in the course of the study. Part One, Chapter One investigates the author's inherent psychological structure, i.e. "le caractere." Our analysis reveals that Retz falls into the "sanguin" category, i.e. a "non-Emotif-Actif-Primaire." As a "non-Emotif," he never loses his composure and is capable of a great presence of mind, two qualities which permitted him to excel in the field of diplomacy. Like most "actifs," Retz possesses a strong vital energy, an ability to make quick and right decisions, and a reliable, practical sense. Despite a strong determination, Retz presents the characteristics of a "Primaire," a person who obeys momentary impulses rather than being influenced by deep-rooted and lasting impressions. Chapter Two studies the main tendencies which acted upon Retz's character: his "polarite Mars" which, enhanced by a narrow "champ de conscience," led him to want to dominate others: his quest for intellectual pursuits paralleled by a keen intelligence and a remarkable memory. In Part Two, we have considered the influence of heredity, of intellectual formation, of environment and of the times on the individual's innate character. Part Three gives a general survey and an evaluation of Retz's "psychodialectique," the use he made of his idiosyncrasies and his efforts to compensate and remedy the weaknesses of his personality. In his autobiographical works he projects the image of a would-be self whom he tries to emulate. His mode of existence followed the dynamic dictates of his "Activite-Primarite," making his life a series of adventures in search of his ideal of glory. At the conclusion of his life, he seems satisfied that he had attained his goal and realized the potentialities of his character.

Aucune oeuvre n'a ete plus intimement motivee que la mienne---et l'on n'y voit pas loin si l'on n'y distingue pas cela. Le but de cette etude est de presenter, grace a des documents nouveaux, le role qu'a joue dans la vie et l'oeuvre d'Andre Gide, Madeleine Rondeaux, qui fut la compagne des jeux de son enfance et, dans la suite, son epouse. Cette etude permet de donner de certains des ouvrages de Gide, comme l'Immoraliste et la Symphonie Pastorale, une interpretation totalement nouvelle et d'eclairer bon nombre de points restes jusqu'ici obscurs dans la vie comme dans l'oeuvre de Gide. Parmi les livres de Gide publies depuis sa mort en 1951, il en est deux qui contiennent, peut-on dire, la clef du drame de la personnalite de l'ecrivain: le Journal Intime, qui complete le Journal qui va de 1889 a 1949, et Et Nunc Manet in Te, l'histoire de la vie conjugale d'Andre et de Madeleine Gide. Un fait semble nettement etabli aujourd'hui lorsqu'on examine les livres posthumes de Gide. C'est que Madeleine Rondeaux, devenue dans la suite Madame Gide, est la personne qui a joue le plus grand role dans la vie de cet ecrivain. Elle reparait presque constamment dans son oeuvre. Gide est un des ecrivains les plus etudies aujourd'hui. Il n'est pas d'aspect de sa personnalite ou de son oeuvre qui n'ait ete aborde et discute. Il nous a semble, malgre tout, que le probleme auquel nous avons consacre les chapitres suivants n'a jamais ete traite separement, ni d'une facon tant soit peu complete. On le comprend, d'ailleurs, etant donnee la delicatesse du sujet. Celui-ci est, en effet, tres difficile a presenter. Le role de Madame Gide dans la vie et l'oeuvre de l'auteur est cependant tel qu'on ne peut le passer sous silence, pas plus qu'on ne peut dissimuler certaines fugues ou irregularites dans la vie de Gide. En depit de celles-ci, Gide n'en reste pas moins un des plus grands ecrivains contemporains et ce n'est pas sans d'excellentes raisons que le Prix Nobel lui a ete decerne. Dans le discours prononce a l'occasion de la remise de cette tres haute distinction, Gide a ete, a juste titre, loue pour son amour passionne de la verite, qui, ajouta le secretaire suedois, semblait lui etre une necessite. Gide a pousse, a vrai dire, tres loin cet amour de la verite, parfois meme pour des raisons que nous connaissons aujourd'hui, au dela des limites generalement acceptees.