In 1908, two Canadian women published first novels that became instant best-sellers. Nellie McClung's Sowing Seeds in Danny initially outsold Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, but by 1965 McClung's book had largely disappeared from Canadian consciousness. The popularity of Anne, on the other hand, has continued to the present, and Anne has received far more academic and critical attention, especially since 1985. It is only recently that Anne of Green Gables has been criticized for its ideology in the same manner as Sowing Seeds in Danny. The initial question that inspired this dissertation was why Sowing Seeds in Danny disappeared from public and critical awareness while Anne of Green Gables continued to sell well to the present day and to garner critical and popular attention into the twenty-first century. In light of the fact that both books have in recent years come under condemnation and stand charged with maternal feminism, imperial motherhood, eugenics, and racism, one must ask further why this has now happened to both Danny and Anne. What has changed? The hypothesis of the dissertation is that Danny's relatively speedy disappearance was partly due to a shift in Canadians' religious worldview over the twentieth century as church attendance and biblical literacy gradually declined. McClung's rhetorical strategies look back to the dominant Protestantism of the nineteenth century, in contrast to Montgomery's, which look forward to the twentieth-century's waning of religious faith. Although there is enough Christianity in Montgomery's novel to have made it acceptable to her largely Christian reading public at the beginning of the century, its presentation is subtle enough that it does not disturb or baffle a twenty-first-century reader in the way McClung's does. McClung's novel is so forthright in its presentation of Christianity, with its use of nineteenth-century tropes and conventions and with its moralising didacticism, that the delightful aspects of the novel were soon lost to an increasingly secular reading public. Likewise, the recent critical challenges to both novels spring from a worldview at odds with the predominantly Christian worldview of 1908. The goal of the dissertation has been to read Sowing Seeds in Danny and Anne of Green Gables within the religious contexts of a 1908 reader in order to avoid an unquestioning twenty-first-century censure of these novels, and to ascertain the reasons for their divergent popularity and recent critical condemnation.

In 1908, two Canadian women published first novels that became instant best-sellers. Nellie McClung's Sowing Seeds in Danny initially outsold Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, but by 1965 McClung's book had largely disappeared from Canadian consciousness. The popularity of Anne, on the other hand, has continued to the present, and Anne has received far more academic and critical attention, especially since 1985. It is only recently that Anne of Green Gables has been criticized for its ideology in the same manner as Sowing Seeds in Danny. The initial question that inspired this dissertation was why Sowing Seeds in Danny disappeared from public and critical awareness while Anne of Green Gables continued to sell well to the present day and to garner critical and popular attention into the twenty-first century. In light of the fact that both books have in recent years come under condemnation and stand charged with maternal feminism, imperial motherhood, eugenics, and racism, one must ask further why this has now happened to both Danny and Anne. What has changed? The hypothesis of the dissertation is that Danny's relatively speedy disappearance was partly due to a shift in Canadians' religious worldview over the twentieth century as church attendance and biblical literacy gradually declined. McClung's rhetorical strategies look back to the dominant Protestantism of the nineteenth century, in contrast to Montgomery's, which look forward to the twentieth-century's waning of religious faith. Although there is enough Christianity in Montgomery's novel to have made it acceptable to her largely Christian reading public at the beginning of the century, its presentation is subtle enough that it does not disturb or baffle a twenty-first-century reader in the way McClung's does. McClung's novel is so forthright in its presentation of Christianity, with its use of nineteenth-century tropes and conventions and with its moralising didacticism, that the delightful aspects of the novel were soon lost to an increasingly secular reading public. Likewise, the recent critical challenges to both novels spring from a worldview at odds with the predominantly Christian worldview of 1908. The goal of the dissertation has been to read Sowing Seeds in Danny and Anne of Green Gables within the religious contexts of a 1908 reader in order to avoid an unquestioning twenty-first-century censure of these novels, and to ascertain the reasons for their divergent popularity and recent critical condemnation.

In 1908, two Canadian women published first novels that became instant best-sellers. Nellie McClung's Sowing Seeds in Danny initially outsold Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, but by 1965 McClung's book had largely disappeared from Canadian consciousness. The popularity of Anne, on the other hand, has continued to the present, and Anne has received far more academic and critical attention, especially since 1985. It is only recently that Anne of Green Gables has been criticized for its ideology in the same manner as Sowing Seeds in Danny. The initial question that inspired this dissertation was why Sowing Seeds in Danny disappeared from public and critical awareness while Anne of Green Gables continued to sell well to the present day and to garner critical and popular attention into the twenty-first century. In light of the fact that both books have in recent years come under condemnation and stand charged with maternal feminism, imperial motherhood, eugenics, and racism, one must ask further why this has now happened to both Danny and Anne. What has changed? The hypothesis of the dissertation is that Danny's relatively speedy disappearance was partly due to a shift in Canadians' religious worldview over the twentieth century as church attendance and biblical literacy gradually declined. McClung's rhetorical strategies look back to the dominant Protestantism of the nineteenth century, in contrast to Montgomery's, which look forward to the twentieth-century's waning of religious faith. Although there is enough Christianity in Montgomery's novel to have made it acceptable to her largely Christian reading public at the beginning of the century, its presentation is subtle enough that it does not disturb or baffle a twenty-first-century reader in the way McClung's does. McClung's novel is so forthright in its presentation of Christianity, with its use of nineteenth-century tropes and conventions and with its moralising didacticism, that the delightful aspects of the novel were soon lost to an increasingly secular reading public. Likewise, the recent critical challenges to both novels spring from a worldview at odds with the predominantly Christian worldview of 1908. The goal of the dissertation has been to read Sowing Seeds in Danny and Anne of Green Gables within the religious contexts of a 1908 reader in order to avoid an unquestioning twenty-first-century censure of these novels, and to ascertain the reasons for their divergent popularity and recent critical condemnation.

The dissertation situates the Goethean sublime in an obscured countermovement of resistance to the aestheticization the concept underwent in the 18th century. Before the encounter with the English aesthetic concept of the sublime, the German notion of das Erhabene (the sublime) named not a category of aesthetic experience, but a social affect. In contrast to the Sublime of Edmund Burke's theory, which explicitly excludes melancholy from the sources of the Sublime, das Erhabene is an affect related to the self-overcoming of melancholic subjectivity. As the aestheticized notion of the sublime displaced das Erhabene, Goethe became one of the most radical innovators of the aesthetics of the sublime. But as is demonstrated in chapters on The Sorrows of Young Werther, Elective Affinities, Faust and Wilhelm Meister, he did so with the aim of recovering the displaced meaning of das Erhabene as social affect. Goethe's sublime aims to show at every turn that the so-called "aesthetic experience" of the sublime is really displaced social affect. His treatment of the sublime therefore constitutes a radical critique of the establishment of aesthetics as an independent sphere of inquiry. There is for Goethe no way to understand aesthetic experience independently of its social context. By reconnecting the sublime it to the original social meaning of das Erhabene, Goethe recovers the aesthetics of the sublime as a means of mediating and facilitating the movement of subjectivity from frustrated stasis to divine creativity; i.e., from exclusion to participation in the material creation of reality.

The dissertation situates the Goethean sublime in an obscured countermovement of resistance to the aestheticization the concept underwent in the 18th century. Before the encounter with the English aesthetic concept of the sublime, the German notion of das Erhabene (the sublime) named not a category of aesthetic experience, but a social affect. In contrast to the Sublime of Edmund Burke's theory, which explicitly excludes melancholy from the sources of the Sublime, das Erhabene is an affect related to the self-overcoming of melancholic subjectivity. As the aestheticized notion of the sublime displaced das Erhabene, Goethe became one of the most radical innovators of the aesthetics of the sublime. But as is demonstrated in chapters on The Sorrows of Young Werther, Elective Affinities, Faust and Wilhelm Meister, he did so with the aim of recovering the displaced meaning of das Erhabene as social affect. Goethe's sublime aims to show at every turn that the so-called "aesthetic experience" of the sublime is really displaced social affect. His treatment of the sublime therefore constitutes a radical critique of the establishment of aesthetics as an independent sphere of inquiry. There is for Goethe no way to understand aesthetic experience independently of its social context. By reconnecting the sublime it to the original social meaning of das Erhabene, Goethe recovers the aesthetics of the sublime as a means of mediating and facilitating the movement of subjectivity from frustrated stasis to divine creativity; i.e., from exclusion to participation in the material creation of reality.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise est consacré à un aspect peu étudié de l'art de Jacques-Louis David, c'est-à-dire l'influence caravagesque dans les œuvres de l'artiste. Les différentes périodes de la production de l'artiste sont étudiées en fonction d'identifier cette influence et la façon dont elle s'est manifestée. Cette influence est apparue à partir de la deuxième moitié du 18e siècle dans la peinture française pendant une période de réforme de l'art pictural. Jacques-Louis David n'est pas le seul artiste à s'être intéressé au caravagisme. L'intérêt pour Caravage et ses suiveurs coïncidait aussi avec un intérêt pour le naturalisme et le dessin d'après nature. Le maître de David, Joseph-Marie Vien, a joué un rôle important dans la promotion de ces deux notions. C'est lors de son premier voyage en Italie avec son maître Vien que Jacques-Louis David entra pour la première fois en contact avec le caravagisme. C'est à partir de ce moment que son oeuvre commença à se transformer alors que l'artiste s'affranchit de l'influence de la peinture rococo. Le Salon de 1781 qui suivra ce voyage sera un moment très important dans sa carrière et les œuvres qu'il y présenta étaient grandement marquées par le caravagisme, ce qui se manifeste par la couleur, la lumière et par le rendu naturaliste du corps. Le jumelage entre le naturalisme et l'idéalisme joue un rôle important dans la formation de l'esthétique davidienne. Après ce Salon, l'influence caravagesque s'exprimait de façon moins évidente dans son œuvre, mais elle était toujours présente et se manifestait plutôt par l'emprunt de motifs. Nous avons identifié cette influence jusqu'à la fin de la carrière de l'artiste. Nous voyons aussi dans ce mémoire que le rapport entre David et Caravage peut aussi être effectué par le biais d'une manifestation d'homosexualité et d'androgynie dans le travail des deux artistes. Ce mémoire n'est pas axé sur l'interprétation des œuvres, mais plutôt sur des analyses qui permettent de mettre en évidence l'influence caravagesque / This Master's Thesis deals with the influence of Caravaggio and his followers on french artist Jacques-Louis David, an aspect of his work that has not been studied much. The different periods of the artist's production are discussed in terms of identifying this influence and how it manifested itself. This influence has emerged from the second half of the 18th century in French painting during a reform period. Jacques-Louis David is not the only artist who got interested in the Caravaggesque tradition. The interest for Caravaggio and his followers coincides with an interest for naturalism and drawing from nature. David's master, Joseph-Marie Vien, played an important role in the promotion of these concepts. It is during his first trip to Italy with his master Vien that Jacques-Louis David first came into contact with Caravaggism. It is from that moment that a transformation could be observed in his work, as the artist was liberating himself from the rococo style. The 1781 Salon following his trip in Italy has been an important moment in his career and the Caravaggesque style greatly influenced the works he then presented. This influence could be observed in terms of colors, luminosity, and the naturalistic rendering of the body. The juxtaposition of naturalism and idealism played an important role in the shaping of the Davidian aesthetic. After this Salon, the influence of Caravaggism would not be has apparent in David's work, but still present, has designs and motifs were borrowed by the artist. We have identified this influence till the end of the artist's career. We also demonstrate in this thesis that the relationship between David and Caravaggio can also be established through a manifestation of homosexuality and androgyny in the work of both artists. This thesis is not based on the interpretation of the works, but rather on analyses that highlights the Caravaggesque style's influence.

The purpose of this study is to present the different approaches, which Hegel and Marx have developed regarding the relation between consciousness and life, consistent with their aims. Hegel&rsquo / s aim is to combine all the opposed ideas and beliefs proposed throughout the history of philosophy into a unified whole. Hegel&rsquo / s dialectics which is immanent to life can also explain the opposition between consciousness and life. Self-consciousness, which appears as subjectivity in Hegel&rsquo / s philosophy, at first, treats the life as an object of desire. Later, however, self-consciousness which cannot thus realize itself desires another self-consciousness who will recognize itself, so it relates with an other self-consciousness. This relation is defined as a &ldquo / life and death struggle&rdquo / . At the end of the struggle, there arise new forms of self-consciousnesses, Master and Slave. While the Slave produces for its Master, it relates itself to Life and this relation between Slave and Life brings about Slave as self-consciousness. On the other hand, the aim of Marx is not only to combine the oppositions but also to create a worldly philosophy. To this end, Marx puts economic relations of human beings at the centre of his theory. According to Marx, relations of production condition classes. While one class produces, the other exploits the productions of the former class. In Hegel, the Slave obtains its certainty as self-consciousness while it produces, whereas in Marx, the worker, who produces, is alienated form him/herself in the capitalist mode of production. To sum up, both Hegel and Marx emphasize the mutual relation between consciousness and life, but their divergent aims lead to them constructing this relation with different concepts on different foundations.

The thesis deals with a philosophical conception of an Austrian thinker of the 20th century Ferdinand Ebner in his life?s work ?Das Wort und die geistigen Realitäten: Pneumatologische Fragmente? (1921). Not only his life and the persons who influenced Ebner?s work were taken into account, but also the cultural-historical context of the period in which his original thoughts evolved. The heart of this paper lies in the introduction and explanation of the basic terms and theses that are crucial for Ebner?s philosophy, or more precisely his pneumatology. This part also contains Czech translation of some of the most important passages of Ebner?s work.

The subject of this work is the analysis of the content of the fictional and essayistic production from the writer Jorge Luis Borges, mainly that one made during the 1930s and 1940s and thematizing metaphysical subjects. The aim is to investigate if is there a philosophical project underlying it, and what are the general lines of this project. The introduction includes brief remarks about the importance of the work of Borges to Western thought in the second half of the twentieth century. The first chapter discusses the limitations that are imposed to a philosophical project included in a fictional work, and of its critical efficacy. The next chapter investigates the metaphysical essays Borges wrote during the period in analysis, searching for their philosophical roots. This effort focuses on interpretations by Borges of the systems built by George Berkeley, David Hume and Francis Herbert Bradley, and leads to the discussion of the refutation of the conception of time that permeates British idealism, promoted by the writer through the application of the principle of the indiscernibility. The borgian refutation of time, however, undermines the notion of personal identity, which is self-evident. The third and final chapter shows up that Borges tried to solve this paradox by means of a critical plunge in Gottfried Leibniz´s philosophical system, no longer by means of the essayistic discourse , but through fictional prose. Accordingly, the final chapter includes an outline of the method by which Borges, drawing on the resources of modal fictional discourse, contests speeches such as philosophy itself, supposed to have higher truth- value. It includes, as well, the review of those short stories written by Borges which reverberate leibnizian categories, in order to show the application of that method and hence the meaning of those narratives, which is, according to our hypothesis, to display, each under a different point of view, the fundamental contradiction of Leibniz´s conceptual system. This contradiction is that, despite all the efforts of the philosopher in safeguarding human freedom before a perfect and infinite mathematical cosmology, and of the assertion of the independence of the individual monad, the human condition which emerges from this order is humiliating for men, reducing them to a single piece in a stiff cosmic system. / A presente dissertação tem por objeto o conteúdo da produção ficcional e ensaística do escritor Jorge Luis Borges, mais especificamente aquela composta durante as décadas de 1930 e 1940 e que tocam ou tematizam temas metafísicos. O objetivo é investigar se existe ali, subjacente, um projeto filosófico, e quais são as linhas gerais desse projeto. A introdução inclui breves considerações a respeito da importância da obra de Borges para o pensamento ocidental da segunda metade do século XX. O primeiro capítulo discute as limitações que se impõem a um projeto filosófico inscrito numa obra ficcional, e o horizonte de sua eficácia crítica. No capítulo seguinte, investigam-se os ensaios metafísicos que o escritor redigiu ao longo do período analisado, em busca de suas raízes filosóficas. Esse esforço concentra-se nas interpretações feitas por Borges dos sistemas edificados por Georges Berkeley, David Hume e Francis Herbert Bradley, e conduz à discussão da refutação, promovida pelo escritor por meio da aplicação do princípio dos indiscerníveis, da concepção de tempo que permeia a corrente idealista britânica. A refutação borgiana do tempo traz consigo, no entanto, o solapamento da noção de identidade pessoal, noção que, no entanto, é autoevidente. Tal paradoxo, demonstra-se no terceiro e último capítulo, Borges tentará resolvê-lo por meio de um mergulho crítico no sistema de Gottfried Leibniz, não mais pela via do discurso ensaístico, mas por meio da prosa ficcional. Nesse sentido, o capítulo final inclui um esboço do método pelo qual Borges, valendo-se dos recursos modais do discurso ficcional, coloca em discussão discursos de valor veritativo pretensamente superior, como é o caso da filosofia; bem como a resenha de contos escritos por Borges que ecoam categorias integrantes do sistema de Leibniz, com o objetivo de evidenciar a aplicação desse método e, por conseguinte, o sentido daquelas narrativas, que é, segundo nossa hipótese, de exibir, cada qual sob um ponto de vista diferente, a contradição fundamental do organismo conceitual leibniziano. Essa contradição consiste em que, malgrado todos os esforços do filósofo em resguardar a liberdade humana diante de uma cosmologia matemática perfeita e infinita, e não obstante a afirmação da independência individual da mônada, a condição humana que decorre dessa ordem é humilhante e nulificadora para o homem, pois o reduz a uma simples peça de um rígido sistema cósmico. / Mestre em Filosofia

Récusant à la fois les déterminismes naturels et les représentations d’un ordre politique ou moral, l’œuvre de Gary est marquée par une aspiration au dépassement des limites et par une posture de résistance. Face à la haine ou à la barbarie, elle défend les vertus de la dérision et le pouvoir de l’imaginaire et s’engage dans une double démarche de mise à distance et de réenchantement du monde. Nourrie par le traumatisme de la seconde Guerre Mondiale, elle soutient l’idée que l’humain est à réinventer, qu’il n’est pas une donnée préalable mais un fiction à construire, un idéal à atteindre. Artistes et créateurs se doivent donc de contribuer à l’invention d’une nouvelle mythologie de l’homme qui vienne réaffirmer un principe inaliénable de dignité et qui instille dans l’esprit de chacun la force de ne pas désespérer. Mais l’humanisme n’est pas seulement une valeur abstraite ou un horizon à conquérir : il met aussi en question une façon d’être au monde dans le présent. Il s’agit de se prémunir de ce que la réalité peut avoir d’envahissant et de dogmatique en privilégiant des « marges » où l’humain se trouve reconnu dans ses paradoxes et sa fragilité. Loin de l’idéalisme prophétique, ces refuges deviennent un espace propice à l’expression de l’intime et permettent à la fois de se dérober au regard de l’autre et d’échapper à l’injonction des discours de vérité. Façonnés autour des valeurs de l’affectif, ils incitent chacun à se rendre sensible à l’humanité latente du monde. Ils viennent rappeler que, face aux certitudes inflexibles et au principe aliénant de transparence, l’approximation et le mystère ouvrent des espaces de liberté et conditionnent bien souvent la possibilité d’être heureux. / Challenging both apparent determinism and political or moral representations, Gary's work is defined by its predilection for off limit situations and contentious attitudes. Confronted with hatred or barbarism, it will always stand for irony and the power of creativity, involved both in the process of getting detached as well as enrapturing the world anew. Fed on the World War II trauma, it sustains the concept of humanness needing reinvention, not being a set notion but a fiction to be built, an ideal to achieve. Artists and creators owe their contribution to such foundation of a new human mythology upholding the unalienable principle of dignity, thus implanting everyone's spirit with the strength to resist despair. However, humanism cannot be seen just as an abstracted value or some shore to reach, it also implies the actual manner of living in the world. One has to keep clear from whatever overwhelming dogmas reality can impose, by favoring “margins” that will accept human contradictions and frailty. Away from any prophetic idealism, these dedicated spaces become shelters for intimate expression, allowing one to avoid onlookers and escape compelling truth assessments. Shaped around affective values, they bring one to become sensitive to a potential world humanity. Against rigid certitudes and the alienating principle of transparency, they help remember that approximation and mystery can give access to freedom and oftentimes condition the possibility of happiness.