Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1977. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 367-377).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a contemporary reading of Euripides’ dramas, the Helen and the Alcestis. The main problem investigated is how Euripides treats the motif of love in the Helen and the Alcestis. This problem is approached by way of an analysis of the function of language. It is not just a simple interpretation of the female and male type but an exposition of the characteristics of the motif of love. The motif of love is explored as an event between husband and wife regulated by certain norms and expectations. The result of this research is given as an account of how Euripides deconstructs the traditional social norms governing the interaction between husband and wife. The method used is the application of Wittgenstein’s gloss analysis as it is described in his work Tractatus Logico Philosophicus. Gloss analysis is the philosophical analysis of language that extracts the underlying propositions. It is chosen because it allows for a deconstruction of the social order implied in literary texts. It also allows for a rereading of such texts within a surrealistic and post–modern framework that reveals Euripides’ enduring relevance. Gloss analysis is applied to the Helen and the Alcestis as follows: first of all, the use of language and how it functions are analysed both in the traditional myth and in Euripides’s version. Secondly, the philosophical grammar of his language is examined so that the reader can understand the function of the surface and the depth grammar especially with regard to the use of metaphors. Thirdly, his language games are analysed pragmatically by illuminating the elementary propositions of the traditional myth as well as of Euripides’ version. Finally, the theme of illusion related to the Helen and the theme of restoration with regard to the Alcestis are recreated in a modern–day version. Generally speaking, special emphasis is placed on the role of metaphorical language in order to show up the tensions in a classical marriage. Classical society was patriarchal and military and it prescribed fixed roles to male and female. Public life was organised mostly around the male, while domestic life was organised around the female. It is especially through the use of metaphors that Euripides shows up the dysfunctions of gender ideology and that he calls for social reform. Through gloss analysis his use of metaphors is illuminated, and this reveals the function of the value system and how it failed in the classical era. In the Helen, the result of the method applied to the motif of love is a new image of Helen: through gloss analysis, the Helen of Euripides appears as a cubist product of modern art because it represents a double reality, namely the theme of illusion. It reflects a false world which the couple must escape. The tragic world of Euripides speaks to the contemporary reader or artist in a surrealistic way. The epic Helen is represented by a range of circles that symbolise irrationalism, while the Egyptian Helen is represented by squares that symbolise rationalism. In the Alcestis the heroine’s restoration is the antidote to her husband’s patriarchal deficiency, namely his selfishness. Through gloss analysis, the Alcestis of Euripides is rewritten as an experiment in the principles of what is called today the Theatre of the Absurd. The result of the method applied to the motif of love is a new reading of the Alcestis¬¬ – the most creative part of this study – that is based upon the irrational elements of Euripides’ version, such as the theme of restoration. The Helen and the Alcestis are still relevant because the problems dealt with, such as the gender role, adultery and woman’s value remain crucial issues in modern society. The female and male interaction is regulated by rules which may vary but still show how people are controlled in a loving relationship and how they experience interpersonal problems. The modern reader who enters the fictional world of Euripides comes back to reality wiser after a therapeutic self–discovery journey that is worthwhile. Finally, it is hoped that the findings of this research may lead to a better understanding of the Euripidean dramas, the Helen and the Alcestis.

This thesis examines the attitudes to love and sex reflected in eight Canadian novels dating from 1925 to 1969. The first three, Frederick Philip Grove's Settlers of the Marsh, Morley Callaghan's They Shall Inherit the Earth, and Hugh MacLennan's The Watch That Ends the Night, were chosen not only as works centrally concerned with love, but also as good examples of their writers' treatment of sexuality in other novels. And since Grove, Callaghan, and MacLennan are generally held to be the major Canadian writers of at least the first half of this century, collectively their novels form an accurate picture of the traditional, mainstream attitude to sex, insofar as it can be seen operating in and through fiction. Chapter One introduces the reader to the ways in which twentieth-century Canadian fictional attitudes to love and sex are directly contiguous with those of Victorian England: the fundamental duality of body and soul; the "worship" of the good woman as the embodiment of the Christian virtue of self-sacrificing, pure love; the resulting splitting off of aggressive sexuality from feelings of tenderness; and the subsequent driving underground of the repressed sexual urges and their emergence into perverse forms. Chapter Two traces Grove's insistence upon a tender, asexual Victorian ideal and his deliberate efforts to eliminate what he regards as degrading and destructive, that is, any sexual urges not strictly passive and subordinate to spiritual love and monogamous procreation. Chapter Three discusses Callaghan's attempt to break away from this traditional duality of love and sex, and then demonstrates how his fusion of body and soul actually breaks down into just another version of the old split so that sex is good only so long as it remains in the service of self-sacrificing love. It also establishes how Callaghan's notion of love comes to depend ultimately upon covert sadomasochism in which both the male and female unconsciously and destructively attempt to break out of sexual roles too rigid and narrow to serve their complex human needs. Chapter Four looks at MacLennan's apparent affirmation of life and sex, and maintains that his mystical message is really a sadomasochistic impulse in which life becomes the unconscious and obsessive pursuit after pain and death. The relationship which emerges between the sexes in all three of these novels is that of dominant female and dependent, resentful, frightened male. Grove, Callaghan, and MacLellan all portray women as essentially stronger than their men: the "good" ones dominate by means of protective, maternal power and the "bad" ones through aggressive, self-gratifying sexuality. The male responses to these powerful women are deeply ambivalent: they seek infantile security and gratification at the breasts of the "good" women, while they simultaneously attempt to establish their potency, autonomy and safety by overtly destroying the "bad" mothers and covertly punishing the "good" ones. Thus Grove, Callaghan and MacLennan all create fictional worlds in which sadomasochism inadvertently works against their notions of idealized love. Chapters Five and Six examine Sheila Watson's The Double Hook and Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, concentrating on their more contemporary treatment of sexaulity and particularly on their response to the archetype of the castrating mother. Watson pioneers the way out of the Victorian past by exploring aggression as a potentially positive mode of behaviour, and by seeing in the traditional role of the self-sacrificing woman the kind of tyranny-by-guilt which covertly holds sway in the earlier works. Richler also rejects the notion of the efficacy of suffering and thus has his young hero attain manhood partially through his repudiation of the "security" offered in a relationship with a self-sacrificing woman. Moreover, his satire repeatedly focuses on the covert sexual reality which underlies idealistic pretensions, and thus makes the same comment as this thesis is making about the novels of the traditional mainstream. Chapter Seven analyzes the ways in which Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers, Margaret Laurence's The Fire-Dwellers and Robert Kroetsch's The Studhorse Man all work through various responses to the repressive limitations of Victorian ideals: Cohen dramatizes an ideal of polymorphous perversity, Laurence "masculinizes" her heroine and "feminizes" her male protagonists, and Kroetsch insists upon an unidealized, aggressively sexual response to life. Nevertheless, as Chapter Seven demonstrates, even contemporary imaginations continue to focus on the woman as castrating mother and the man as threatened son. Thus in the final analysis, the differences between the attitudes of contemporary writers and those of their predecessors lie not in an abandonment of the traditional archtype, but only in the degree to which they are conscious of, and deliberately choosing to work with, sado-masochistic sexuality. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to offer some explination of the manner in which Ezra Pound has created a metaphysical centre for The Cantos through absorption and integration of the Renaissance metaphysic of courtly and transcendent love and the pragmatic ethical philosophy of Confucius. It resolves no problems, either textual or critical, but rather suggests that the thirty-sixth Canto is central to the philosophy underlying the poem as a whole. From the central fourth chaper, the thesis attempts to give some idea of the nature of Pound's influence upon one other poet and how this influence has resulted in a new evaluation of the original Cavalcanti material. The short intoductory chapter outlines the nature of the problem of love as an ordering principle which provides a reconciliation of the disparate and seemingly opposing forces which shape human experience. This unity, it is stated, represents an attempt on the part of western man to integrate his dualistic response to the world of Process, an essentially eastern concept. Chapter two outlines the nature of Cavalcanti's poem and the philosophy of love which it contains. Apparently, this poem has yet to be interpreted with any degree of finality and I have necessarily had to work through the general concensus of critical opinion. The third chapter points to Pound's conception of the philosophy of Guido Cavalcanti's canzon and how Pound has interpreted the "guerdon" of the amour courtois tradition as the Confucian doctrine of li. Chapter four explores the connexion between Pound's conception and interpretation of Donna Me Prega and how, from the concept of individual compassion, Pound envisions a viable order for the society of western man, while continually maintaining the concept of the universe as Process. The fifth chapter deals with Robert Duncan's stated variation on Pound's view of Donna Me Prega and the philosophy contained therein, and offers some comments on the different possibilities of order, or lack of same, as expressed by Duncan. The conclusion discusses the metaphysical concept of love as a principle of unity in relation to some modern statements of epistemology and aesthetics, and concludes that Pound has expressed the sense of order and unity in a more universal and objective manner than has Duncan. The addendum of chapter seven suggests some possibilities for further research into these areas and concludes that Ezra Pound's consciousness of the Processal universe is essentially oriental, ie., an aesthetic response, while the concept remains largely an intellectual postulate in the western world. On the whole, the primary concern is for the explanation of the relationship among such elements as imagination, transcendent love, human social order, and the concept of the universe as an all-embracing Process of interacting elements. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This thesis explores the subject of love and self-love in the Misanthrope of Moliere. The central issue is whether or not the main character, Alceste, is blinded by his own self-love. If so, does this blindness lead him to madness? My analysis shows that true love is not present in this play - and the reason for that is l'amour de I'autre. That is, both Alceste and Celimene are much too self-absorbed and preoccupied with self-love to be able to honour and cherish each other. In Alceste's case, the issue of blindness and illusion are also crucial elements that influence his ability to love. In the first chapter, I shall introduce these two elements and show how I'amour-propre causes Alceste to lose sight of reality. Then, in the second chapter, different aspects of love shall be examined, allowing me to illustrate how I'amour de I'autre is not achieved. Finally, the third chapter introduces the idea of self-love and l'amour-propre, distinguishes the two and shows how they lead the two characters of the Misanthrope to reject love. The theme of Amour-propre, as well as love mistreated or misunderstood, as subjects of literary works, are widespread during the seventeenth century. The play on illusion and reality, reason and madness, as well as the element of change and instability, as they appear in the Misanthrope, are familiar ground in Baroque theatre. Indeed, as Jean-Marie Apostolides notes in an article, the theatre is a space where new thoughts and ideologies are presented, where people, places and time are transformed and tested. This is undeniably what Moliere proposes to do in the Misanthrope and this project illustrates how this great playwright achieves that goal. In this thesis, I demonstrate how he brilliantly illustrates the social and philosophical influence of his time on individuals and its consequences. How does one react to such external forces? In Alceste's and Celimene's case, they each move in completely opposite directions in reaction to these external powers. The result of this, as well as of their forced union is what gives this play its strengths. For Moliere is able to show us the humour in such a marriage between a misanthrope and a coquette. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

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