Helen Post (1907-1978) was a twentieth century American photographer, whose images of the Navajo offer sensitive insight into the lives of individuals residing on the reservation from 1938-1942. An employee at the time for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Post traveled to the West on numerous excursions, each time gaining perspective and understanding into the intricacies of Native life. Her ability to portray the Navajo in unguarded and intimate moments stands as a significant contribution to discourse on visual records of American Indians. Examining Post's work provides an opportunity to not only reexamine her work, which has largely been overlooked, but also acknowledge misrepresented facets of the Navajo. Unlike other well-known white photographers working prior to and concurrent with Post, she avoided portraying her sitters in the common tropes, instead choosing to humanize the Navajo. Theoretically this examination utilizes Post-colonial theory in order to better understand Post's position as both outsider and friend to her sitters. It also explores the social interactions and cultural differences between photographer and subject. She emphasized rather than neglected the many complexities evident among the Navajo in the late 1930s to early 1940s. Post documented the effects of crucial reform policies and by so doing comprised a poignant collection of images. In her photographs of the Navajo, one sees a celebration of character and emotion, underscored by the simplicity of Post's thoughtful compositions. As stated by John Collier, Sr., Post's employer and former commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Post was one who, "willed above all that the Indian spirit... should live on."

Placing archetypal "underdogs" or "losers" in the roles of protagonists allows and encourages the viewer to identify with them or understand them as an idealized Other, though the audience may differ from the failure protagonist in social class, gender, or any other condition. In film, one of the most persuasive and ubiquitous media of the 20th century, underdog and weakling characters germinated in early popular comedies such as those by Charlie Chaplin and the other silent clowns. Using Chaplin's filmography to illustrate the underdog's ironic supremacy, this thesis aims to unravel the initial values and expectations inherent in Hollywood underdog comedy films, trace these components to their paradoxical political and economic roots, and draw conclusions on their social and economic consequences.

This dissertation offers new answers to the ethical questions posed by Homer’s epics by implementing interdisciplinary methods and perspectives. Drawing insights from anthropology, literary criticism, philosophy, and psychology, I construct an ethical model, which evaluates ethical systems not primarily as a means of regulating conduct but as a means of endowing particular actions with exemplary significance. My methodology, which is based on this ethical model, approaches ethics as a complex system that can never be adequately described in its totality but only in reference to specific human problematics. The problematic I investigate is death: how it serves as an opportunity for Homeric heroes to pursue the most significant kind of life they can in light of their mortality. The Homeric hero is obliged to protect his “lot” in life as his birthright and property in the divinely-governed world; he is obliged also to recognize the limits of his lot and respect the lot of other noblemen by rendering them due honor. Not all lots are equal, of course, and certain ethical sensibilities are required to negotiate the social domain properly. The Iliad and Odyssey illustrate what ethical sensibilities come into play as their exemplars struggle against a diverse range of human vicissitudes. Three sensibilities are especially important: (1) a sense of culturally appropriate restraint out of fear of retribution, (2) a sense of culturally appropriate anger upon seeing shameless behavior, (3) a sense of culturally appropriate love/friendship and pity that opens a path for even strangers to be treated as intimates, i.e. to have their needs met. Corresponding to these sensibilities are battle customs and civic customs. A heroic death garners significance from occurring either under the auspices of battle customs or under the auspices of civic customs. The Iliad illustrates good death in war as a “beautiful death,” and the Odyssey illustrates good death in the community as a “gentle death.” Death is the culmination of one’s living actions, and glorious actions are worthy of being remembered by a community in song. Even when a hero no longer can act in the world, he is able, if his actions are preserved in memory, to participate in the life of the community. To be remembered and honored “equally to a god” is the greatest good a mortal can have, insofar as it approximates the immortal existence of the gods. In my conclusion, I also discuss methods of researching the reception of Homeric ethics, especially by Plato.

My dissertation explores several topics recurring throughout Ovid’s single Heroides. When, how, and why does Ovid restructure tragic, epic, or pastoral stories into elegy? How do his heroines deal with their lovers starting relationships with new women, and what method of coping with abandonment is the most effective? What is the role of magic in the Heroides, what rules does it follow, and who uses it successfully? How does Ovid capitalize on the connection between elegy and lament, and which heroines does he use to do so? Finally, what is the role of writing in the Heroides, how does Ovid use the character of Sappho in the collection, and how does the Sappho epistle help readers interpret the rest of the Heroides? The letters of Briseis (3), Phaedra (4), Hermione (8), and Oenone (5) transform previously epic, tragic, and pastoral worlds and inhabitants into elegiac contexts to show how they wish their men to accept the role of the elegiac lover. Ovid uses these reclassifications to explore the boundaries of elegy and show how thorough knowledge of audience and the genre are necessary for success. Oenone (5), Hypsipyle (6), Deianira (9), and Medea (12) each see their lovers replace them with another woman; Ovid uses their different methods—emulating the new woman’s qualities, attempting to regain the lover’s affection, and seeking revenge—to discover which approach will achieve its desired purpose. Ovid’s construction of magic as a practical tool is established in the letter of Medea (12), and can be applied to the epistles of Deianira (9), Hypsipyle (6), and Laodamia (13) to interpret the magical practices in those epistles. Ovid explores a different facet of the elegiac genre by using the traditional link between elegy and epitaph in the letters of Phyllis (2), Dido (7), and Hypermnestra (14), but alludes to it in the epistles of Canace (11), Ariadne (10), and Deianira (9) to bridge the gap between literary characters and his readers’ reality. Finally, the Sappho epistle (15) provides a tool for interpreting both the individual letters of the Heroides and Ovid’s own concerns. By using the famous poetess as one of his heroines, Ovid connects himself and his reputation to hers. His character Sappho provides a lens through which we can examine all of the heroines who are at a crisis point, a metaphorical cliff’s edge, as they write.

This dissertation provides a new examination of the figure of Cato within Lucan's epic poem Bellum Civile by focusing on the theme of memory within the epic and its interaction with Cato's character specifically. It argues that one may read the epic as possessing the rhetorical function of a literary funeral monumentum, the purpose of which is to retell the death of Rome in the Roman Civil War, mourn its passing, and yet in so doing simultaneously preserve its memory so that future generations may remember the liberty Rome once possessed and may be influenced by that memory to action. In this reading, the epic itself--like Cato within the epic--offers a counter-memory of what the civil wars meant to Rome in competition with that promoted by Caesar and his descendants. This study centers upon the speech of Cato found in Book 2 in which Cato states his two major goals for participation in the civil war: successfully commemorate a perishing Roma et Libertas and transform his own defeat into a self-sacrifice that is beneficial to his fellow Romans. The opening chapters place Cato's speech into its larger context by arguing that it is an integral part of a narrative arc spanning most of the first two books. The image of national suicide within the epic's proem reveals that gaining victory in civil war is what assures self-defeat. This economy of universal defeat pervades Lucan's epic and stands as the greatest threat facing Cato in the successful achievement of his goals. Lucan also shows that the very nature of civil war poses a threat to the viability of memory, as evidenced by scenes in which Roman soldiers and citizens forget and abandon the social ties that bind their identity to that of Rome. Cato's speech illustrates that his chosen weapon against the epic's economy of defeat will be the power of memory. A careful analysis of the speech reveals that Cato's desired goal of enacting a self-sacrifice--a nod to his future suicidal martyrdom at Utica--can transform him into a monumentum of `Old Rome' (the pre-Caesarian Rome that still retained its libertas) which will in turn ensure his second goal of achieving funeral commemoration of what Rome used to be--and could still be again. The closing chapter examines key passages in Book 9 in which the power of memory is explicitly connected with renewal even in the midst of defeat, suggesting that Cato's (and the epic's) mission to preserve memory can be ultimately successful. This reading of Lucan's Cato has the benefit of showing that his success need no longer be based mainly upon whether or not he can be a virtuous sapiens but also upon what he can actually do for future generations of Romans by preserving the powerful memory of a Rome that still possessed her freedom from the Caesars.

This dissertation concerns two aspects of Plutarch’s ethics that have received relatively little attention: the link between his metaphysics and ethics, and Plutarch’s use of diatribe, a rhetorical style primarily associated with Stoics and Cynics, as a means of targeting a wider audience of educated elite for his philosophy. I argue that Plutarch’s De virtute morali links his ethics with his understanding of Platonic metaphysics. De virtute morali also serves as model for Plutarch’s ethical treatises on specific topics. I analyze the following works: De curiositate, De garrulitate, De vitando aere alieno, De vitioso pudore, and De superstitione. In these, Plutarch identifies a vicious behavior (κρίσις) and suggests methods of self-training to eliminate the vicious behavior (ἄσκησις). Self-training always involves the subordination of emotions to reason (μετριοπάθεια), rather than the elimination of emotions (άπάθεια) advocated by the Stoics. Plutarch uses diatribe, in which the author adopts a conversational tone and addresses the reader in second person, both in κρίσις and ἄσκησις, as well as in his arguments against Stoic άπάθεια. Since Stoicism was the most popular philosophical adherence among educated elites during the time when Plutarch began to write, I argue that Plutarch adopts rhetoric associated with the Stoics as a means of promoting Platonism, and himself as its interpreter, in a culture where intellectuals required the patronage of the educated elite for their personal livelihood and the livelihood of their schools.

Thesis (M.A.)--Taiwan da xue. / Caption title. Reproduced from ms. copy. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 371-373).

This dissertation examines the narrative of Augustine's Confessions in light of his conception of memory and time. It responds to two long-standing scholarly debates about the work. The first of these concerns the historicity of Augustine's autobiography in Books 1-9, for Augustine's version of events is not always consistent with the historical record. The second concerns what the last four non-historical books (Books 10-13) have to do with this autobiography. The first chapter argues that the story of the Confessions is about the present author as he narrates the content of his mind. Thus, it shows how all thirteen books may be considered equally autobiographical. The second chapter proposes that Augustine judges the veracity of his stories according to his memory of events, since he does not believe that he has access to the events themselves as they once unfolded in time. Due to his unequivocal condemnation of lying and deceit in De mendacio and elsewhere, he must have considered his story in the Confessions to be true from this perspective. The third chapter explains how Augustine's view of memory allows his story to be considered true even when it diverges from the historical record. Memory is imperfect, and Augustine believes that memories, too, have agency in recollection. Thus, the historical innacuracies in Augustine's story may in fact be understood as evidence of the veracity of the account as he recalls it rather than as evidence against the story's historicity. The fourth chapter explores Augustine's proposal that time is a distentio animi, or a fragmented swelling of the mind. Augustine believes that the mind may find respite in an activity called intentio through which one may experience eternity while the body still participates in time. The conclusion suggests that confession was for Augustine a means by which one could practice intentio. Thus, the Confessions is a story about the author/narrator as he progresses through his present, from the presence of his past in Books 1-9 to the presence of God in Books 10-13. / text

In evaluating Alcibiades' speech in Plato's Symposium, modern commentators often either conflate the historical figure and the fictive character, or else fail to make a distinction between Alcibiades the narrator and Alcibiades the eager young man whose adolescent encounters with Socrates which the more mature adult describes. The resulting scholarship tends to cast Alcibiades as a foil for Socrates and to reduce Plato's creation to a philosophic cautionary tale. Such reductions are misleadingly simplistic and require revision.By taking care to let neither history nor reputation supersede the textual evidence the Symposium provides, we can make a compelling case for a more moderate assessment of Alcibiades' philosophical progress. In doing so, we find that he is not lacking in understanding but rather that his understanding is incomplete. As such, Alcibiades occupies the vaguely defined space of intermediacy and intermediaries--the metaxu with which so much of the Symposium is concerned.

In the early centuries of Christianity every Christian writer even from New Testament times attempted in his own way to come to terms with the apparent opposition inherent in the confrontation of Christianity and classical thought. The inspired word of God in Sacred Scripture revealed to man the way, the truth and the life of his salvation, to which he had no access except through this revelation which was to be gained only through faith. What need, then, was there that man possessing this faith should turn to pagan thought? Speculation, no matter how deeply concerned with the quest for truth, could add nothing to what God had already revealed. [...]