Thesis: Courtly Love was a comprehensive cultural phenomenon brought about by changes in the social environment and influences from the Arab world. The crisis of the aristocracy in fifteenth-century Spain was a major determining factor in the revival of poetic themes and forms inspired by this literary and sentimental ideology. Oblectives: 1. To study the various trends in scholarship from the sixteenth century to the present day so that the term 'Courtly Love' can be redefined as a valid instrument for critical analysis; II. To investigate the socioeconomic background to the revival of troubadour poetry and chivalric idealism in late medieval Spain. The study inquires into: - I. The Origin and Meaning of Courtly Love. The theories are examined chronologically and analytically. For purposes of analysis they are divided into those concerned with the origins of amour courtois and those concerned with the meaning and validity of the concept. 1. Chronological survey: this survey shows the extent to which opinions on the medieval love lyric reflect contemporary literary fashions and political ideas. 2., Theories of origin: include Chivalric-Matriarchal., Crypto-Catharg Neoplatonic, Bernardine-Marianistg Spring Folk Ritual, Feudal-Sociological and the Hispano-Arabic. The Hispano-Arabio theory stresses the impact of Arab medical doctrines and Slid mysticism on European literature; the Sociological theory attributes the emergence of the troubadour movement to social and economic factors. 3. Theories of meaning: include the interpretation of Courtly Love as a collective fantasy fulfilling a psychological function; as an example of the play element in culture; as a figment of the imagination projected on the Middle Ages by nineteenth-century writers and scholars. II. Background to the Troubadour Revival. Courtly Love was from the start an aristocratic phenomenon. A considerable number of the nine hundred poets who flourished in the courts of Spain and Naples during the fifteenth century were related by ties of kinship and dependence to a rebel aristocracy, whose moral authority had been diminished by changes in the art of war and in the structure of society. Many were court officials Jewish conversos and the lesser landless sons of noble families. The rise of the Castilian love lyric is linked with the prevalence of baronial anarchy and with the rapid inflation of the titular nobility. It was a conservative reaction to social crisis by the dominant minority. 1. The aristocratic theory of society: examines the theory of the three estateat different forms of patronage, and the court as a centre of culture. 2* Historical background to the troubadour revival: outlines events during the reign of the Trastamaran dynasty, and attempts to assess the influence of personalities on cultural attitudes. 3. Documents: include decrees issued by Joan I of Aragon and his successor Harti" extollling the benefits of the Gay Science.

This dissertation explores the surprising intersections among women's scandalous fiction and other popular genres in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England. I use the term "women's scandalous fiction" to refer to the illicit tales of seduction authored by Aphra Behn, Delarivier Manley, and Eliza Haywood. Women's scandalous fiction has consistently been viewed, both by contemporary readers and writers and modern critics, as a distinct genre: contemporary writers explicitly distance their works from its illicit and immoral content and modern critics continue to focus on the transgressive aspects of the works to the exclusion of other considerations. Challenging earlier critics whose analyses rely on the superficial qualities of these texts, in this dissertation I emphasize the ideological consistency that aligns women's scandalous fiction with other popular prose genres of this period. This comparative work reveals a consistent ideal of moderation and restraint-across eighteenth-century genres-that evidences a larger cultural belief in the value of regulating sexual desire. Chapter one establishes the mutability of genre categories in the early eighteenth century in contrast to the narrow specificity of genre definitions constructed as a result of the modern critical "origins of the novel" debate. This chapter shows that, while modern genre distinctions are theoretically useful, it is important to recognize that contemporary readers of the early novel had different and significantly broader ways of categorizing genre. I also discuss eighteenth-century attitudes about gender and genre, and I highlight the importance these attitudes have for understanding the ideological connections among texts in the period. In chapter two I compare women's moral fiction with immoral fiction and argue that, though these genres differ in the nature and degree of their sexualized discourse, both genres convey an implicit critique of failed patriarchal influence. Using self-proclaimed moral fictions-Penelope Aubin's The Strange Adventures of Count de Vinevil and Jane Barker's Love's Intrigues-and stigmatized immoral, scandalous fiction-Behn's The History of the Nun and Haywood's The City Jilt-I argue that many of these texts idealize female self-restraint and hold father figures responsible for women's capacity to perform this model of female identity. Chapter three compares Haywood's Fantomina: or, Love in Maze and Manley's New Atalantis with two English translations of French pornographic texts, The School of Venus and Venus in the Cloister, and explores the ways in which differing patterns of sexual discourse construct surprising ideals of femininity; specifically, analysis of narratives of seduction shows that both genres defer power at moments of sexual encounters to the man, allowing the ideal of feminine passivity to prevail. Chapter four moves to popular periodical papers by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele that construct an ideology of the aesthetic subject that parallels libertine ideology; I argue that the similar constructions of libertine and aesthetic pleasure in Addison and Steele's The Spectator, Addison's "Pleasures of the Imagination" essays, Haywood's Love in Excess, and Behn's Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister are underpinned by the same hegemonic systems of patriarchal authority that govern the ideological constructions of gender discussed throughout this dissertation. Ultimately, the analysis in these chapters shows that we should continue to question the degree to which Haywood, Manley, and Behn are "scandalous writers" whose works challenge dominant eighteenth-century discourses about gender. By instead recognizing the ideological intersections among these texts and "moral" texts of the period, we can see the ways in which these writers engaged with dominant discourses about gender in complex ways.

This dissertation focuses on the many tales of distressed women found in mid-eighteenth-century British magazines and essay serials. On the one hand, I argue, scenes of “virtue in distress” and amatory fiction more generally demonstrate the increasing commercialization of literature and the rise of the sentimental reader. On the other hand, they reveal the periodical writers’ drive to educate readers both in and through the passions. I propose that two factors complicate the pathos of these narratives. In the first place, the periodical form was thought to work against the arousal of vehement passions. In the second place, even if such passions could be raised in the miscellaneous format, there were moral reasons why indolent, distracted periodical readers craving sympathetic identification should not be indulged. Driven by market forces and yet constrained by the unique nature of periodical publication, writers of miscellanies responded with ingenuity to these challenges, crafting and deploying literary depictions of “virtue in distress” that suited this compressed and constrained medium. In part because of the challenges and risks associated with raising powerful feelings on the limited canvas of the periodical, some periodicalists worked to suppress or otherwise complicate the most affecting aspects of their amatory fictions. Others strove to correct the reader’s passions in their operation; and others still called into question, elsewhere in their periodicals, the suitability of a passionate response. All attempted to justify their efforts on aesthetic and/or ethical grounds. Drawing on their knowledge of eighteenth-century aesthetic theory, classical models of rhetoric and composition, and early modern theories of the passions, periodical writers strove to raise useful, calm passions through their fictions—passions in some sense suited to the periodical form—and to suppress vehement, dangerous ones. By examining mid-century periodicals in relation to broad strands of enlightenment and also classical thought, my thesis uncovers an important proto-disciplinary moment in eighteenth-century Britain, when the fields of psychology, rhetoric, and moral theory were not yet separated. The organization of my study is, with some exceptions, chronological, with sections on Eliza Haywood’s Female Spectator (1744-46), Samuel Johnson’s Rambler (1750-52) and Idler (1758-60), Christopher Smart’s Student (1750-51) and Midwife (1750-53), John Hawkesworth’s Adventurer (1752-54), and Oliver Goldsmith’s Citizen of the World (1760-61). My purpose is not to chart a change over time, but to reveal the innovative ways mid-century periodical writers responded to a set of interrelated questions and concerns: is it possible to import the famously sentimental motif of “virtue in distress” into the miscellany, given the structural limitations of the form; which passions should, ethically speaking, be raised by depictions of distressed women and which suppressed; and what aesthetic and rhetorical resources can be mobilized to convey such depictions effectively to readers and thereby influence their passions?

This thesis adopts the medieval medical discourse on love melancholy to analyze the representation of erotic love in Keats¡¦s poetry and to the changes in his ideas concerning love. In medieval discourse on love melancholy, women are seen as demonic agents to seduce men. In the process of their seductions, these temptresses also use amatory magic and love philters to bewilder and to enthrall their ¡§games.¡¨ People who fall in love usually lose their minds, their senses, and their judgments. They appear obsessed and insane, which leads to weakness, absurdity, and mental obscurity. Many of Keats¡¦s poems depict lovesickness, such as ¡§Lamia¡¨ and ¡§La Belle Dame sans Merci.¡¨ There are evidences showing that when he was composing these poems, he was also reading medieval treaties on love melancholy, which suggests that he might to a great extent be influenced by medieval concepts on lovesickness and sexuality. The characters in these poems, furthermore, can be seen as representations of the medieval images of the ¡§agents of love,¡¦ who, usually female, seduce men and cause all kinds of symptoms of ¡§love.¡¨ Keats was influenced by medieval discourse on lovesickness not only in his poetry but also in his personal life. When he first fell in love with Fanny Brawne, seemed to act under the influence of the so-called ¡§love-sickness,¡¨ and he strived to escape from love. Nevertheless, his failure to cure himself of this ¡§disease¡¨ enabled him to perceive the restraining viewpoint of this medieval discourse in regard to being love sick. Realizing this restrictive rational ideology lurking behind the medieval ideas of love melancholy and sexuality, Keats changed his belief in lovesickness. With Lycius¡¦s accusation of Apollonius and the knight¡¦s aimless loitering, he satirizes in ¡§Lamia¡¨ and ¡§La Belle Dame sans Merci¡¨ the derogation of reason on lovesickness, while in ¡§the Ode on Melancholy¡¨ and ¡§To Autumn,¡¨ Keats represents melancholy in a way that differs from the discourse he has inherited. Instead of showing feminine beauty as threatening and haunting, he delineates it as giving a perplexing delight. Rather than sober male characters, he prefers and describes indecisive male characters in love who demonstrates qualities such as softness, capriciousness and uncertainty¡Xqualities usually associated with females. Keats came to realize that the female perplexing beauty is suppressed and disliked in a society dominated by men, and males were not allowed to express feminine traits and emotions. The emphasis on rationality in late-eighteenth century somewhat resembled the medieval times in that both emphasize male calmness and intelligence. However, experience enabled Keats to realize that, rather than singularly repel the feminizing symptoms aroused by love melancholy, it is healthier to accept both the female and male features demonstrated within a man. Emotional perturbation and temporary irrational passions are human emotions that should be permitted. Instead of running away from love, Keats with his insight into lovesickness cured his fear for lovesickness. The idea of medieval sexuality no longer haunted on Keats on his journey to love, but is criticized for its excessive rationality.

The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho tells the story of Mariela Valdes, who discovered she was clairvoyant in her teens, but renounced her gift when she failed to foresee her mother’s fatal illness. When her lover is found dead mere yards from her front door, she embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of his death, regain her gift for knowing, and free herself of the fear that has kept her from “seeing” her way to happiness. Though the novel contains a murder and several mysteries, it is not primarily a murder mystery. Instead, as in the novels of Dame Muriel Spark, crime is just the catalyst for the unraveling of the motivations, secrets, and true characters of a small community. As Mariela conquers her fear of seeing, she discovers the importance of sisterhood among women and comes to a new definition of marriage, infidelity, and forgiveness.

Through her texts depicting amorous adventures, Eliza Haywood engages with critical, contemporary discussions about power relations and consent in both social and legal constructs. Her texts resist the boundary between the private domain of interpersonal relationships and the public domain of political relations. Rather, her fiction engages in a wide-reaching discourse that explores the interrelations between power, agency, consent, and education, and lays bare the ways in which societal roles and expectations are reinforced in damaging ways. This thesis aims to prove that Haywood’s repetition of central motifs—including the continued tension between resisting and yielding to sexual pressure or temptation, and the line between seduction and rape—serves to question how these behaviours become normalized and naturalized. Through analyzing three categories of relationships—women and their fathers or guardians, women and their lovers, and women with other women—this thesis unpacks how women’s agency is stifled by parental relationships, transferred to male lovers, and finally empowered by female intimacy.

My dissertation challenges the longstanding dismissal of love in James Joyce's texts by examining the ethical and political implications of his love stories. Primarily using Martin Buber's works (but also including perspectives derived from bell hooks and Julia Kristeva), I define love as an affirmation of otherness and adopt a critical framework that promotes the love of others over the narcissistic devotion to oneself. In so doing, I highlight love as the ultimate challenge to authoritarian systems because the embrace of the other is necessary to transcend the boundaries that alienate individuals from each other and that justify imperialist and racist political structures. I thus offer a love ethic that not only compels meaningful individual interaction, but also establishes a model for effective social and civic participation, encouraging a climate of cooperation that embraces the solidarity and empathy needed for progressive politics. I also argue that analyzing Joyce's works provides a fruitful opportunity to recognize the individual and political viability of this love ethic. Focusing on Dubliners, Stephen Hero, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Exiles, and Ulysses, I examine the relationships between his characters' pursuits of love and their socio-political struggles, arguing that their love for others directly influences their acceptance of otherness within the colonialist discourses of Joyce's Dublin. For example, James Duffy's refusal of Emily Sinico in "A Painful Case" also rejects her advice to engage in the political cooperation that would promote his socialist ideas. Similarly, Stephen Dedalus's promotion of symbolic romance over real-world attachments focuses his aesthetics on ideal beauty instead of everyday Dublin, which alienates him from his audience and limits the practical success of his art. By contrast, Leopold Bloom's love for his wife Molly reflects a broader empathy for others that encourages social dialogue and counteracts what Joyce called "the old pap of racial hatred," an element in both British imperialism and Irish nationalism. My dissertation's afterword anticipates the amorous potential of Finnegans Wake, reading ALP's concluding soliloquy as a demonstration of her enduring affection for HCE that is reignited through each iteration of the text's cyclical narrative.