The Black Revolution, an American social upheaval of this century, poses numerous questions and challenges to all segments of our culture. For the artists, black and white, there is a dilemma of commitment as regards the acceptance of Black art for its merit without approval of the white artist. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if the Black Revolution would be a turning point in American Negro art.

Revolutions, demonstrations, and, elections have a wide range of political and social impacts on societies. In many instances, the repercussions of these movements cause significant and irrevocable transformations that affect the daily lives of those living within the community. As a native Iranian female artist, my works of art speak specifically to the women who, like me, have been affected by these radical changes. As such, I use my personal experience of the post-revolution and election era to create poignant and progressive art that reflects the sentiments of many modern, Iranian women.

Francis Poulenc’s three-act opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1953-1956) depicts the struggles of the novice nun Blanche de la Force during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution. The use of Latin liturgical music at critical points in the opera conveys the ritualistic nature of Catholic worship. The spiritual message of mystical substitution, along with the closely related notion of vicarious suffering, imbue the opera with a spirituality that offers a sharp contrast to earlier operatic settings of Catholic texts, particularly during the age of grand opera. Marian devotion also plays an important role in the opera. The final tableau of the opera stages the execution of Blanche and her sisters, complete with the sound of a guillotine, with the nuns singing the Salve Regina as they proceed to the scaffold. The multivalence of the final tableau highlights the importance of voice and its absence. While the nuns, onstage spectators, and the guillotine are audibly present in the scene, the priest participates solely through gesture. The surfacing of the Lacanian Real in the silent moment of traumatic shock that follows the guillotine’s first fall allows for intertextual references to the opera in Poulenc’s Sonate pour Flûte et Piano (1957) to function as a work of remembrance.

Thesis advisor: Franklin Harkins / Thesis advisor: Brian Dunkle / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

The historiography of the Cuban Revolution includes numerous accounts which detail the responses to Batista's coup. The fact that anti-Batista sentiments were very popular in Cuba, and that several revolutionary groups existed has also been highly documented. Nonetheless, the most highly recognized insurrectional organization remains Castro's M-26-7. The goal of my thesis is to explain the steps which Castro took in order to remove all competition, allowing him to remain the only figure left in power. The process in which Castro came to power will be analyzed in order to gain a better understanding of how he orchestrated the removal of other revolutionary groups. My thesis will show that Castro purposely aided some groups, when it was to his benefit, but also denied aid to these same groups when he knew that he could gain an advantage over them. An analysis of the manifestos will reveal that most anti-Batista groups had their own agendas and that often times they were attempting to work together in order to coordinate Cuba's future. I will focus on primary source materials such as eye witness accounts, historical publications, diaries and newspapers. I intend on analyzing Castro's M-26-7, from the time of his attack of the Moncada Barracks, through the course of the insurrection itself, and his final actions as Batista fled Cuba in 1959. By investigating the actions that were taken by Castro and his followers, in light of how those actions affected the other revolutionaries groups, will shed light on why certain decisions were made by the M-26-7. The outcome of this research will show that the M-26-7 orchestrated their actions with the sole purpose of bringing Castro to power when the insurrection war was over.

In the latter half of the Eighteenth Century, France experienced a seismic shift in the nature of political culture. The king gave way to the nation at the center of political life as the location of sovereignty transferred to the people. While the French Revolution changed the structure of France's government, it also changed the allegorical representations of the nation. At the Revolution's onset, the monarchy embodied both the state and nation as equated ideas. During the Revolutionary Decade and through the reign of Napoleon different governments experienced the need to reorient these symbols away from the person of the king to the national community. Following the king's execution, the Committee government invented connections to the ancient past in order to build legitimacy for their rule in addition to extricating the monarchy's symbols from political life. During the rule of Napoleon, he used classical symbols to associate himself with Roman Emperors to embody the nation in his person. Through an examination of the different types of classical symbols that each government illustrates the different ways that attempted to symbolically document this important shift in the location of sovereignty away from the body of the king to the nation.

This thesis examines the role of theatre in promoting and perpetuating the early American republican and liberal ideals during the pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary periods. The investigation begins with the idea of the use of theatre as utilized by nations to oppress a populace to maintain the status quo and reinforce the societal structure of the community. Augusto Boal’s theory of theatre as a tool for oppression is used to demonstrate the point beginning with Ancient Greece. To understand the idea of revolutionary theatre, the author examines how theatre has been historically used to satirize and rebel against the social order. The historical ideals of republicanism, liberalism, virtue, and natural rights as developed from the Magna Carta to the American Revolutionary War are dissected. Authors and orators such as John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, Martin Luther, and John Locke are studied. The paper then moves into the introduction of theatre as brought to the Americas from England followed by the rhetoric of the revolutionary propaganda in place at the time. The author then continues this line of inquiry into the period of the Revolutionary War itself. The use of theatre by both the British military and the Continental Army is discussed with the main focus on General Howe’s meschianza and the production of Joseph Addison’s Cato at Valley Forge. It is concluded that theatre played a significant role in the creation of the United States of America and American identity by using the rhetoric of republicanism, egalitarianism, and patriotism.

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This dissertation presents the first thorough study of Charles Leslie's political and theological writings. During his career as a pamphleteer and journalist, Leslie wrote against whigs, disserters, freethinkers and latitudinarians. These groups, he believed, had conspired to bring about England's rebellion against legitimate authority in both church and state. Leslie attempted to demonstrate the veracity of the scriptual record and to argue that legitimate government must be deduced from the divine model set down there. In the process, he become his generation's most vigorous opponent of whig political thought and offered the first detailed criticism of John Locke's theory of government. Throughout the thesis the theological aspect of post-revolutionary politics and political thought has been emphasised. Leslie derived his theory of monarchical government from his theory of episcopal government. Freeing the church of England from secular control was his fundamental goal, and a restoration of the Stuarts--who had promised to give up certain prerogatives in the area of ecclesiastical affairs--was a first step towards such a reform of the church. None of the scholars who have noticed Leslie's writings in the past few years have been concerned with his emphasis upon theological questions and the proper relationship of church and state. Historians of jacobitism have not considered what a Stuart restoration would have meant for the church of England. A close examination of Charles Leslie's career and writings helps to clarify both the motives and the goals of that small group of English churchmen of which he was a leading member. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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