The "demise" of Native American cultures and the possibility of their "renascence" is the subject of the literary work analyzed in this thesis. The German popular novelist Karl May (1842-1912) aspired to write the epic drama of the American Indians. Using randomly selected anthropological and linguistic information, he described particularly Apache and Comanche Indian cultures with regard to leadership, warfare, women, and intermarriage. May viewed the Indians' assimilation as necessary and arrogantly recommended the "benign" influence brought by Germans to the New World. The Indians would be able to withstand the lure of "Yankee" materialism and pursue the path of righteousness. As this thesis points out, there is a correlation between Karl May's biography and his compassion for a wronged people such as the Native Americans. This study analyzes Karl May's thoughts on the "Indian question" and his emphasis on the role of change.

No description available.

No description available.

Ceux qui s'intéressent à la littérature savent que la période la plus fructueuse de la carrière de Victor Hugo est celle des dix-huit années qu'il passa en exil aux îles de Jersey et Guernesey. Pendant ce temps son génie littéraire est en pleine floraison: il donne La Légende des Siècles, Les Contemplations, et Les Misérables. [...]

No description available.

No description available.

In this dissertation it is contended that central to Reinhold Niebuhr's theology and ethics is his understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as a revelation of the suffering of God. Keeping in mind the theologia crucis of Martin Luther, Part I examines the significance of the Christian symbol of the cross during Niebuhr's formative years and as he later sought to relate the moral and ethical insights of the Christian faith to the more tragic social and political events of his age. / Part II begins with a systematic appraisal of Niebuhr's theology of the cross in reference to his understanding of Christian anthropology, theology proper, the atonement, history and eschatology. The theological similarities of Niebuhr's thought to the theologia crucis of Luther are made explicit. A delineation is then made of Niebuhr's social ethic of the cross. It is an ethic which seeks to underscore the true but limited relevance of the norm of sacrificial love to issues of relative justice. This ethic is then contrasted to the ethica crucis of Luther. / The dissertation concludes with an examination of the current debate regarding Niebuhr's ultimate political position. It is suggested that an understanding of Niebuhr's theology and ethic of the cross is essential to any thorough appreciation of the major shifts which occurred within his political thought.

Orwell often treats liberal and radical figures sympathetically and explores his own political position through them. He discriminates between types of liberalism and strongly prefers nineteenth-century liberalism and radicalism to contemporary liberalism. His patriotism, and its distinction from nationalism, are influenced by G.K. Chesterton and by the 'Little England' section of the late nineteenth-century Liberal Party. Many of Orwell's other values, freedom of expression, privacy, and individual autonomy, are part of liberalism. He attacks Marxist forms of socialism which threaten liberal values, and becomes committed to socialism where it promises to protect or fulfil them, although such a form of socialism remains only a possibility. He is best described as a liberal committed to socialism. Orwell was dissatisfied with the exclusion of historical considerations from most contemporary literary criticism. Marxism was an exception to this. He is influenced by Marxist criticism in his treatment of proletarian literature, and in his critical method of analysing a writer's work in terms of its political tendency and the writer's position in society. His knowledge of passages of Marx's work itself can be traced to The Adelphi. Orwell argues that the writer must be a liberal, and that prose literature is associated with liberalism, yet also admits the Marxist case that liberalism is a product of capitalism. He then doubts whether the culture of liberalism will continue to exist if capitalism is replaced by socialism, and finds it definitely incompatible with the growth of totalitarianism. An uneasy resolution of these dilemmas is reached in the distinction between a man as a writer and as a citizen, the preservation of the writer's liberal mind in a separate compartment from his activity as a man in an increasingly non-liberal society. The witness-narrator of Orwell's reportage of the 1930s can be compared to the autonomous self preferred by liberalism. These works were not directly influenced by the contemporary documentary movement. Orwell's tendency to appeal to common sense and to argue from observation and experience can be connected with liberalism, as can his view of language as an instrument, and the validation of personal identity by sensation and memory in his work. The distance of the observing subject of his reportage from the observed person can disrupt attempts at empathy and run counter to his expressed socialism. A sequence of composition is established for the essays in Inside the Whale.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University

A study of the political and social thought of Jean-Paul Marat was undertaken in an attempt to establish whether this eighteenth-century personality, of notorious yet poorly understood proportions, might in any way be considered an original theorist. The clarification of this point is presented as one answer to the credibility of the historical and contemporary notion of “maratism” and the “maratiste” as representative of a distinctive theory. Respecting the chronology of Jean-Paul Marat's writings, his first political treatise, The Chains of Slavery of 1774, is analyzed within the framework of its debt to English radicalism. Marat is then followed to France, where a decade before the Ancien Régime was to expire, the Plan de législation criminelle was written. Having discussed the rudiments of the pre-revolutionary's political and social thought as epitomized by these works, the outbreak of the French Revolution introduces Jean-Paul Marat in his first and most important revolutionary vocation as the journalist of L'Ami du Peuple. Henceforward, the evolution of Marat's revolutionary thought is first examined in the context of his professional capacity, where increasing intolerance and suspicion of other journalists testify to his radicalization. Next, consideration is given to the metamorphosis of his revolutionary ideal, or the discovery of the “people” and their requisite virtue of “esprit public”. This, in turn, raises the questions of how Marat proposed to achieve the revolution in the name of his new elite. His two principal methods of violence and dictatorship are therefore probed. And, in keeping with the pervading negative vein of Marat's teachings, those whom he considered a permanent threat to any society are revealed as Marat, the Friend of the People, perceived them. Finally, the thought of Jean-Paul Marat is reviewed from the perspective of his relationship to the clubs and of his turbulent but short-lived career as a representative of the people, which was brought to a dramatic end by the knife of Charlotte Corday. On the basis of the foregoing analyses, it is concluded that although Marat was the first to synthesize many ideas subsequently to be adopted by the revolution, he was not an original theorist. It is contended, therefore, that the significance of the terms “maratism” or “maratiste” remains vacuous on a theoretical level.