In Poets of Reality, Joseph Hillis Miller seeks to establish T.S. Eliot as a precursor of the modern movement towards romantic. subjectivism. By applying his phenomenological critique, Miller claims that several major modern writers, including Eliot, adopt aesthetics based on various forms of philosophical monism. The point underlying this thesis is that Eliot stands opposed to any such position and, until 1930, breaks with philosophy, monistic or otherwise. His art from this period is instead characterized by a search for solution in poetic artifice, a pure art. However, with "Ash Wednesday," the poet once again enters fully into the realm of ideas, and by Four Quartets has achieved a synthesis of art and idea that is clearly dualistic in nature and affirms the importance of a progressive, and not destructive tradition. All of this he finally undergirds with a logocentric belief in language as a vehicle to be purified, far from the linguistic nihilism of Miller's "Yale School" colleague, Jacques Derrida.

À travers cette analyse textuelle et iconographique, nous avons suivi les déclinaisons de l’idée de hiérarchie à l’intérieur du Tristan en prose et dans l’iconographie d’une partie de ses manuscrits. Introduite dans la fiction, la hiérarchie devient principe ordonnateur et conduit les personnages à la recherche d’une place privilégiée dans le monde et à la recherche du sens de ce monde en expansion. Oblique, verticale ou horizontale, la hiérarchie traverse le roman et le dépasse, tout en ouvrant un dialogue problématique avec d’autres grands textes de l’époque. Nous avons cherché à comprendre le fonctionnement de l’image par rapport aux axes thématiques du roman, mais aussi par rapport à d’autres cycles iconographiques. / Throughout our analysis, we have investigated the multiple aspects of the idea of hierarchy within the Prose Tristan and a part of its iconography. Introduced in fiction, the hierarchy becomes an ordering principle that makes the characters search for both a privileged place and a meaning in a continuously expanding world. The hierarchy can be oblique, vertical or horizontal. It goes through the novel and beyond it, chiefly to open a problematic dialogue with other major texts of that time. We tried to understand the way the image functions in connection not only with the main themes of the novel but also with other iconographic cycles.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

The author's Habilitationsschrift (Universität Zürich, 1983). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-326) and index.

What the Spirit Knows: Charles Williams and Kenneth Burke examines the Arthurian poetry of Charles Williams using a methodology derived from Kenneth Burke. This is an experiment in literary criticism of a Christian poet using a methodology that is not specifically Christian. Key critical ideas found in Burke are utilized in reading poems from Taliessin Through Logres and Region of the Summer Stars. Burke's work on form and symbol (primarily from Counter-Statement) is addressed first. Form in an individual poem (using "Taliessin's Song of the Unicorn) and in an entire cycle is examined. Burke lists several uses for symbol in Counter-Statement, and an example of each of these from Williams' poetry is described. Burke relates the ideas of substance and scapegoat (with the latter being a special case of the former). Williams also had much to say poetically about substance and the relations of people within Cities, Kingdoms, and other normal social groups. Scapegoating occurs in Burke when a victim is at once identified substantially with a group, yet symbolically cast from the group to bear some punishment that symbolically expiates the sin of the entire group. Williams does not treat the scapegoat as traditionally as he might, chiefly due to his Christian orientation.Burke is perhaps most famous for his introduction of the Pentad: five elements present in motivation within a work. Williams is able to mold the Arthurian myth to his own purposes through his manipulation of the elements of the Pentad. For Burke, rhetoric is largely a question of identification. He also shows that the poet's identification with his own creation often betrays itself within the text. Since Williams strongly identified himself with Taliessin, several examples of the narrator betraying the beliefs and feelings of the poet are discussed. Burke's use of the hierarchical dialectic as a form of entelechy is compared to Williams use of dualism within the Christian belief system.

No description available.

When comparing Ywain and Gawain with its source, Chretien de Troyes' Yvain. many critics concentrate on the dramatic omissions and reductions made by the anonymous English adapter. However, the more subtle differences between the two Arthurian romances also deserve attention. Since the goal of medieval adapters of secular texts was to rethink and reinvent their sources, these changes could reveal further aspects of the originality of Ywain and Gawain. which is generally considered a sophisticated work in its own right. With this study, I hope to demonstrate that some of the differences in the Middle English adaptation may signify an effort on the part of the adapter to present his own vision of society and hierarchy. While it is not possible to situate all the characters on a social scale, the probable hierarchical relation between many of them can be established based on their lineage, tide or social position. The present analysis examines modifications in the interaction between some of these characters—due to the limits of this study, I treat only the cases where at least one female character is concerned—and the role of hierarchical submission. I explore examples from two perspectives: that of the characters of lower rank, whose subordination to social superiors is a basic element of social order, and that of the characters of higher rank, whose standing implies both their own authority and the submission of their inferiors. I found that the English poet diminished or omitted many examples that do not respect hierarchy in Yvain. creating the impression of a more hierarchical society in the adaptation. That overall impression is not changed by the fact that the adapter also introduced or amplified other exceptions to the hierarchy, for they are not of an extreme nature and occur only in a limited context. In fact, these additions seem to follow a logical pattern as well, presenting the image of a society in which rank and power are linked. Consequently, they too may be interpreted as part of a coherently modified version of society and hierarchy created by the author of Ywain and Gawain.

Univ., Diss.--Frankfurt (Main), 2003. / Literaturverz. S. 186 - 229.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed September 22, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-89)