My thesis that Coleridge employed universal images of the supernatural and traditional Christian symbols to illustrate the Mariner’s religious conversion in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The basis for this proposition is that Coleridge made religion the Rime’s theme. The following validations of the religious theme proposal will be offered in these chapters: (1) The religious theme synthesizes two popular but unsatisfactory thematic statements: “estrangement” and “sacramental vision.”; (2) Coleridge’s philosophical system is founded upon the postulation of a supernatural reality. The Mariner’s conversion may be seen as his change from Aristotelian conceptualism (which recognizes one reality - nature) to Platonic dualism (which recognizes two realities - nature and supernature).

This thesis reassesses the evidence surrounding Edward Irving’s controversial teaching about the doctrine of the incarnation. Irving was a controversial figure in his own day and his legacy has been contested ever since he was dismissed from the ministry of the Church of Scotland for teaching that Christ had a ‘fallen’ human nature. This thesis re-examines the emergence and significance of Irving’s teaching. It evaluates the scholarly consensus that his distinctive Christology was a stable feature of his thought and argues the case that his thinking in this area did change significantly. Methodologically, this thesis draws on some aspects of Quentin Skinner’s work in the importance of context (Chapter Two) to understand Irving as he really was, rather than in terms of his later significance. In the light of this, Irving’s biography is examined in Chapter Three, before moving into a discussion of the influential part played by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Irving’s intellectual development (Chapter Four). The second half of the thesis then moves on to consider the development of Irving’s Christology and the questions surrounding its provenance and development (Chapters Five and Six). Finally, in Chapter Seven, possible sources of explanation for Irving’s distinctive ideas about the Incarnation are exhibited and assessed. The argument of this thesis is that Edward Irving developed an account of the Incarnation that was essentially novel, in response to the Romantic ideas that he had derived from Coleridge. In accordance with Coleridge’s assessment, it is argued that this derivation was rendered more complex by Irving’s incomplete apprehension of Coleridge’s underlying philosophy. Nonetheless, it is argued that Edward Irving’s teaching presented a Romantic version of Christ, and that this distinctive conception owes more to the times in which Irving lived than to the theological tradition to which he claimed adherence.

The following is a collection of original poetry. The manuscript consists of an introduction explaining influences and style, and four chapters of poems categorized by subject matter: object/nature, writing/creativity, relationships, and family/figures. INDEX WORDS: Poetry, Poem

Marguerite Duras a assurément pensé à la littérature en se mesurant sans cesse à sa production littéraire et plus amplement, à sa production artistique. Littérature, cinéma, théâtre font en effet l’objet d’une réflexion constante chez l’écrivain qui montre par là une tendance certaine pour la pensée théorique. Si Marguerite Duras a pu s’exprimer négativement vis-à-vis de la théorie, c’est parce qu’elle redoute les dérives de l’esprit théorique qui peut parfois se révéler dogmatique. L’adhésion à l’idéologie du PCF d’abord partagée puis contestée, fait ainsi l’objet de sévères critiques qui donneront raison dans son œuvre à des textes littéraires traversés par cette épreuve du théorique doctrinaire. D’autres engagements théoriques et politiques prouveront en revanche incontestablement l’attrait intellectuel de l’écrivain envers une époque qui, entre les années 1960 et 1980, fait avancer le discours de la théorie et notamment de la modernité littéraire. Cette thèse se propose de montrer que la théorie occupe sans cesse l’esprit de l’auteur, qu’elle se révèle particulièrement sous la forme d’une tentation à laquelle l’écrivain ne succombe jamais définitivement, et qui donc revient comme une obsession habiter et interroger son œuvre. Cette tentation s’intègre d’abord à la vie de Duras qui évolue au sein d’une génération fortement politisée et marquée par la pensée critique. Elle saura ensuite s’incorporer à l’activité créatrice de l’auteur et, dès lors, à sa pratique littéraire et artistique. La tentation du théorique suit ainsi deux directions. Elle passe par une aventure publique, sans pour autant jamais témoigner d’une voix chorale désireuse de se joindre notamment aux nouvelles tendances du Nouveau Roman. Elle se manifestera plutôt comme une voix solitaire, une voix qui s’exprime à travers la confidence privée. Cette voix murmure dans son œuvre ses critères conceptuels personnels qui accompagneront néanmoins la modernité littéraire. La voix de la tentation théorique se confondra enfin à la voix poétique de l’auteur qui révélera, à travers un jeu réflexif, la force productive de son écriture. Vouée sans cesse à faire résonner le mouvement du dernier mot, dépassant les cloisons génériques, la puissance créatrice prodigieuse de Marguerite Duras ira nourrir le paysage à plusieurs facettes de son œuvre ainsi que celui de l’Ecriture moderne. / For sure Marguerite Duras always thought about literature by comparing herself to the rest of literature and the artistic production of her time. Indeed, literature, cinema and theater are the reflexive centers of a constant thinking which shows how much theory is a main issue for the writer herself. Her apparent and negative odds against theory in general are all because of the wanderings of the dogmatic way of the theoretical spirit. Being an active member of the French Communist Party (PCF), sharing its ideological point of view and then quitting it made way for a severe criticism and gave to her literary works a doctrinal trial. Others theoretical and political commitments may decidedly show in contrast her intellectual attraction of the writer for her age which, between the 1960s and the 1980s, made theory and literary modernity look forward. This essay will show how theory is always on Duras’s Mind as it is for her such a temptation that she never totally succumbs to, and that came back as an obsession to haunt and question her works. This temptation marks at first place her life that went through a harsh political generation that also dealt with criticism and thinking. This temptation would also be an important part of her creativity process and made her way unto literary and artistic technicals. The Theoretical temptation she dealt with went on two different ways. She went on a public adventure but without never belonging to the chorus of her times or explicitly belonging to the New Novel too. She stood as a solitary voice, a voice of her that expressed herself as a intimate confidence. This voice whispered in her writings her personal and conceptual thoughts that escorted modernity in literature. Her voice made of theoretical temptation would mingle at last with her poetical voice which reveals, through a reflexive game, the productive strengh of her writing. Vowed to a never-ending movment unto the last word, beyond the walls of all genres, the tremendous creativity of Marguerite Duras will give birth to a mesmerizing landscape in her works that goes unto the modern writing.