Theodore Beza and the Quest for Peace in France examines the changing political strategies and religious attitudes of French Protestant leaders between the Saint Bartholomew's day massacres (1572) and the Edict of Nantes (1598). The hand-picked successor of John Calvin in 1564, Theodore Beza was an influential teacher, preacher, and power-broker in Geneva, as well as a prominent exiled leader of the French Reformed churches during the next four decades. Drawing on Beza's correspondence network, city archival materials and rare Huguenot pamphlets, I reconstruct the survival tactics of French Protestants in response to Catholic advances, document the decline in Huguenot expectations after 1572, and examine how social and political factors created widening ideological fissures within the Reformed movement by century's end. In highlighting the patterns of thought of the Huguenot leadership, my research contributes to an understanding of Protestant mentalities during the turbulent era of the French civil wars. In the aftermath of the massacres of 1572, Beza and other exiled leaders in Geneva were not only theorists of political resistance, but major players in Protestant agitation against the Valois monarchy. As the Reformed churches withered under royal persecution and Catholic missionary activities during the next decade, the reformer and his colleagues gradually aligned their political fortunes with Henri of Navarre. Beza tempered, but did not abandon his resistance theories when Navarre became presumptive heir to the French throne (1584). In return for a secret--hitherto unknown--annual stipend, Beza became Navarre's 'public relations agent' in Germany and Switzerland, raising money and mercenaries for Huguenot armies in the years prior to Henri's accession (1589). The bonds of friendship, patriotism and patronage made Beza a dedicated supporter of the person and program of Henri IV, even after the king converted to Catholicism in 1594. Thereafter, he urged the Reformed to trust the king's peace overtures, while attempting to silence 'moderates' who advocated doctrinal compromise in return for a political settlement. Though welcoming the Edict of Nantes, Beza and other Protestant leaders recognized that prospects for reform in France had been decisively curtained: 'the golden age has degenerated into a century of iron.'

This dissertation looks at Sally Potter's career by focusing upon the ways in which her directorial style has been influenced by her performance and dance background. Chapter 1 provides the reader with an introduction to Potter's major film work, the motivation for undertaking this study, and ends with an overview of Potter's early film work through Combines (1972). Chapter 2 takes up the issues of auteurism, essentialism, and genre, in an attempt to create a strategy for writing a major study of an individual filmmaker at this critical juncture in film/feminist/cultural studies. This study of Potter draws out a discernible sense of style in relation to a corresponding body of social and artistic concerns that shape Potter's work from her early experimental films through her feature films in the 1990S. Chapter 3 covers the years between 1972-1979, during which Potter performed in a variety of situations and groups around Europe. These years also provided her formative experiences in feminist groups and with early feminist film theory. In 1979 Potter returned to filmmaking and made Thriller, a remaking of the opera, La Boheme. Thriller is both a reflection of 1970s feminist thought and the precursor to feminist film theory in the 1980s and 1990s. Chapter 4 and 5 are dedicated to Potter's most recent film, The Tango Lesson (1997). Chapter 4 focuses on The Tango Lesson as a musical and explores the genre from various angles, including women making musicals, and the theme of Jewishness in Potter's exploration of the tango. Chapter 5 elaborates on the history of tango and its marketability as the exotic, and compares Potter's film, in which Pablo Veron choreographs a menage-a-quatre to Piazzolla's "Libertango," and Matthew Diamond's documentary on Paul Taylor in which Taylor choreographs a performance to Piazzolla's "Caldera." This discussion ends with a look at The Tango Lesson and Jutta Bruckner's Ein Blick und die Liebe bricht aus (One Glance and Love Breaks Out, 1985). I also place Potter's work with the tango in history of women filmmakers like Leni Riefenstahl and Maya Deren, who were also dancers and explored the exotic on film.

Dahl-Wolfe (1895-1989) is best-known as a fashion photographer, her photographic life encompassed a pattern of art and documentary ideas interwoven over a forty-year period. This thesis describes her early art influences and explores her photography career in regards to the historical and cultural developments from World War I through the 1950s. Dahl-Wolfe is compared with her contemporaries such as Consuelo Kanaga, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Richard Avedon, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. The study reveals how Dahl-Wolfe's work reflects photography's evolution over a specific period and how traditional constructions affect the reception of commercial photographers. Conclusively, Dahl-Wolfe's oeuvre straddles such an array of constructed arenas that she virtually fell through the cracks and has been narrowly defined as a result of art historical definitions.

In 1910 Alfred Stieglitz published two pamphlets titled Photo-Secessionism and Its Opponents, reproducing letters written by Stieglitz and fellow Secessionist Annie W. Brigman, to Frank Roy Fraprie, Walter Zimmerman, and Francis J. Mortimer, members of the international photographic community in public opposition to the activities of the Photo-Secession. The extent of Stieglitz's frustration with the frequent pictorialist quarrels occurring from 1900 to 1910, and the degree to which "secessionist" principles and actions were misunderstood is apparent from the correspondence. This thesis examines the letters published in Photo-Secessionism and Its Opponents, the statements of the opposition figures which these letters answer, and the situations which produced them. From this examination a clearer understanding of pictorial photographic politics and the principles and purposes of the Photo-Secession is gained.

Ben Shahn's 1940 solo exhibition of his so-called "Sunday Paintings" at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York manifested a transformation that had occurred in his art during the 1930s. Both the formal language and the subject matter of his art had changed. I explore in depth the wide variety of contextual influences (political, professional, and personal) that informed this metamorphosis. Specifically addressed is the federal government's political realignment at the end of the New Deal, a paradigm shift in the emphasis of art criticism and artistic practice, and the influence of a "photographic-aesthetic" on Shahn's paintings. In spite of the easy answers offered by critics, historians, and the artist himself, the actual reason for Shahn's new visual language was a complex set of internal and exterior factors, not always directly related, but, nevertheless, all contributors to a condition in which Shahn felt compelled to change his course.

From the birth of the republic through annexation and secession two men in Texas politics loom in bitter opposition---Sam Houston and David C. Burnet. Of the former much is known. The first good history of Texas was by his follower, Henderson Yoakum. John Henry Brown, Hubert Howe Bancroft, and a host of others broadcast the fame and immortalized the name of the "Victor of San Jacinto." By the close of the nineteenth century "Old Sam" was signally preeminent. In 1901, however, a youthful scholar gave the friends of Houston pause when he raised again the ever-haunting question posed by Burnet and countless others: In Houston's retreat from the Colorado, which is the key to San Jacinto, did not the general display gross misjudgment, and hence, is not Houston's entire military fame totally unwarranted? It is over half a century since Eugene C. Barker published his critical study of the Campaign of San Jacinto---and three decades since his reinterpretation. With Barker's later reevaluation the publicists recaptured the field: Clarence R. Wharton wrote his San Jacinto, the Sixteenth Decisive Battle of the World, Andrew Jackson Houston published his Texas Independence , and Marquis James won the Pulitizer Prize for his novel, The Raven. From the retreat, where they began their rivalry, through a long series of clashes closing with the latter's death at the Civil War, Burnet and Houston captured the attention of the Republic. Others could oppose the General: Lamar, Burleson, Sherman, Green were but a few who did---but their tenure was brief compared to that of the "Old Puritan." Arriving in Texas over a decade before Houston, Burnet was to live to see the South downtrodden and himself, its chosen representative, turned from the doors of the capitol. President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, United States Senator-Elect, Burnet has long merited a suitable published work; yet none has appeared. In an effort to remedy an obvious defect, the author submits this monograph on "The First President of Texas."

This study is an experiment in the application of the science of characterology to literary study. The methods of characterological research have been applied to the principal works of an author in an attempt to discover his true character and the impulses underlying his behaviour. The Memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz, being autobiographical, served this purpose particularly well. The introduction explains the methods of characterology and their advantages. It also gives a brief historical background of this science and defines the terms which will be used in the course of the study. Part One, Chapter One investigates the author's inherent psychological structure, i.e. "le caractere." Our analysis reveals that Retz falls into the "sanguin" category, i.e. a "non-Emotif-Actif-Primaire." As a "non-Emotif," he never loses his composure and is capable of a great presence of mind, two qualities which permitted him to excel in the field of diplomacy. Like most "actifs," Retz possesses a strong vital energy, an ability to make quick and right decisions, and a reliable, practical sense. Despite a strong determination, Retz presents the characteristics of a "Primaire," a person who obeys momentary impulses rather than being influenced by deep-rooted and lasting impressions. Chapter Two studies the main tendencies which acted upon Retz's character: his "polarite Mars" which, enhanced by a narrow "champ de conscience," led him to want to dominate others: his quest for intellectual pursuits paralleled by a keen intelligence and a remarkable memory. In Part Two, we have considered the influence of heredity, of intellectual formation, of environment and of the times on the individual's innate character. Part Three gives a general survey and an evaluation of Retz's "psychodialectique," the use he made of his idiosyncrasies and his efforts to compensate and remedy the weaknesses of his personality. In his autobiographical works he projects the image of a would-be self whom he tries to emulate. His mode of existence followed the dynamic dictates of his "Activite-Primarite," making his life a series of adventures in search of his ideal of glory. At the conclusion of his life, he seems satisfied that he had attained his goal and realized the potentialities of his character.

Aucune oeuvre n'a ete plus intimement motivee que la mienne---et l'on n'y voit pas loin si l'on n'y distingue pas cela. Le but de cette etude est de presenter, grace a des documents nouveaux, le role qu'a joue dans la vie et l'oeuvre d'Andre Gide, Madeleine Rondeaux, qui fut la compagne des jeux de son enfance et, dans la suite, son epouse. Cette etude permet de donner de certains des ouvrages de Gide, comme l'Immoraliste et la Symphonie Pastorale, une interpretation totalement nouvelle et d'eclairer bon nombre de points restes jusqu'ici obscurs dans la vie comme dans l'oeuvre de Gide. Parmi les livres de Gide publies depuis sa mort en 1951, il en est deux qui contiennent, peut-on dire, la clef du drame de la personnalite de l'ecrivain: le Journal Intime, qui complete le Journal qui va de 1889 a 1949, et Et Nunc Manet in Te, l'histoire de la vie conjugale d'Andre et de Madeleine Gide. Un fait semble nettement etabli aujourd'hui lorsqu'on examine les livres posthumes de Gide. C'est que Madeleine Rondeaux, devenue dans la suite Madame Gide, est la personne qui a joue le plus grand role dans la vie de cet ecrivain. Elle reparait presque constamment dans son oeuvre. Gide est un des ecrivains les plus etudies aujourd'hui. Il n'est pas d'aspect de sa personnalite ou de son oeuvre qui n'ait ete aborde et discute. Il nous a semble, malgre tout, que le probleme auquel nous avons consacre les chapitres suivants n'a jamais ete traite separement, ni d'une facon tant soit peu complete. On le comprend, d'ailleurs, etant donnee la delicatesse du sujet. Celui-ci est, en effet, tres difficile a presenter. Le role de Madame Gide dans la vie et l'oeuvre de l'auteur est cependant tel qu'on ne peut le passer sous silence, pas plus qu'on ne peut dissimuler certaines fugues ou irregularites dans la vie de Gide. En depit de celles-ci, Gide n'en reste pas moins un des plus grands ecrivains contemporains et ce n'est pas sans d'excellentes raisons que le Prix Nobel lui a ete decerne. Dans le discours prononce a l'occasion de la remise de cette tres haute distinction, Gide a ete, a juste titre, loue pour son amour passionne de la verite, qui, ajouta le secretaire suedois, semblait lui etre une necessite. Gide a pousse, a vrai dire, tres loin cet amour de la verite, parfois meme pour des raisons que nous connaissons aujourd'hui, au dela des limites generalement acceptees.

In this study of Mallett's dramatic work, I have relied heavily on four collections of letters: the correspondence found in the first two volumes of Aaron Hill's Works (1753), George Sherburn's Correspondence of Alexander Pope, Alan D. McKillop's Letters and Documents of James Thomson, and David Mason Little's unpublished Letters of David Mallet. Unless otherwise indicated, references to these collections cite letters, not introductory material or annotations. But the summary of Mallet's life given in the first chapter is based mainly upon the introductory essays in Little's Letters and Frederick Dinsdale's edition of Mallet's Ballads and Songs (1857). Other sources used in the summary are specifically noted. The biographical material elaborated upon in succeeding chapters is built of information drawn from the correspondence indicated above.

The Mississippi planter and poet William Alexander Percy (1885-1942) is best remembered for his autobiography, Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (1941), which was a bestseller and remains a seminal book in the study of the American South. Although scholars have traditionally portrayed Percy as an iconic provincial, he maintained an ambivalence towards his region---particularly towards local values regarding masculinity and sexuality. Percy left the South regularly and traveled across the world, and his encounters abroad informed his views about gender, sexuality, and race at home. Cosmopolitan Southerner maps connections between the American South and the broader world by tracing Will Percy's travels across the globe: from Mississippi to the Mediterranean, to such places as Paris and Japan and Samoa, back to Mississippi. Will Percy's life story invites consideration of how one man became a sexual liberationist, cultural relativist, white supremacist in late Victorian Mississippi. I engage the paradox of Percy's life and personality to make three main arguments. First, I examine the ways the experience, performance, and construction of gender and sexuality were connected to the concept of place. Will Percy's heterodox views of sexuality and what it meant to be a man---namely, his belief that love between men was not only legitimate but a superior form of love---can only be understood by studying the ways he experienced reality in different cultural contexts. Second, I examine the ways Percy participated in an international intellectual tradition centered on the idea of ancient Greece as a kind of spiritual "home" for men with gay desire. The nostalgia that many have interpreted as Percy's longing for the Old South was, in fact, an important imaginative vehicle many men used to express homoerotic desire in a culturally sanctioned idiom. Finally, I examine Percy's essentially racist critique of modernity---a critique also grounded in values of cultural relativism and sexual liberation. In situating Percy's view of racial difference in the context of his cross-cultural encounters. I find that his interpretations of race and "primitivism" worked to simultaneously critique bourgeois sexual ethics and reinforce the structures of racial inequality in the American South.