Diss.--München, 1956. / Bibliography: p. 11-16.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / Typescript and manuscript. V. 1. Text (29 cm.) -- v. 2. Score (49 x 33 cm.). Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-100).

This thesis attempts to define Hopkins' use of the word "inscape" in terms of a cultural tradition in which he shares. Inscape is basically a concern for ordering experience in both its temporal and eternal manifestations. Each individual is part of a vast, harmonious whole wherein the parts are related to one another and confront one another with their unique individuality. The order thus envisaged is upheld by God, who sustains relationships and reveals Himself in the communication between man and his world. The order that Hopkins encounters is the same order working through the artistic movement encompassed by the terms Renaissance, Mannerism, and Baroque. The Renaissance artist thought that man could become a part, of that order, using it to reach God, by means of the intellectual contemplation of beauty. The Mannerist challenged his oredecessors' logic, suggesting that man's problems were such as to impede the Neo-Platonic progression: if God is to be reached through the beautiful, the individual who cannot penetrate an ugly reality to ultimate perfection, who cannot rest content with a hypothetical ideal world, will fail to find peace or assurance. The Baroque artist admits the Mannerist's list of grievances, but responds with force and plenitude, believing that the emotional impact of a work of art can carry the will in a positive direction. The Baroque artist feels that God is very present in the material world and may be apprehended there. The basic order includes that material world as a necessary and lasting part of God consistant and continuous revelation of Himself. Michelangelo uses the term concetto much as Hopkins uses the word inscape, though more directly in terms of his art. Part of the ordered whole may be grasped and communicated in the harmonious ordering of the sculpted marble block. Michelangelo achieves his goal by working with Renaissance structures and the Manneristic breakdown of those structures. He resolves the Mannerist's conflicts not by turning to Baroque, but by returning to an expression of the Gothic yearnings of an earlier age. Hopkins is ultimately a Baroque poet, but the Renaissance ordering that must precede the Baroque sensibility is clearly evident in a large portion of his work, as is the disruption of order inherent in Mannerism. What Michelangelo sees as a threat, however, Hopkins sees as a trial of his faith in both God and this world. Michelangelo's retreat, however, serves to clarify Hopkins determination not to retreat. Michelangelo eventually loses the ability to project a concetto, and therefore endeavours to do something less concrete with his medium. Hopkins continually loses his instressing power, but constantly seeks to relate to the wholeness that he knows surrounds him. By postulating a relationship with his environment that demands an ability to meet that environment with an emotional as well as an intellectual stability, he has left himself in a position where often it is only volitional effort that will carry him through any estrangement from his environment. For the sake of his own inscape, as person, priest, and poet, he commits himself to making that effort. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Gerard Manley Hopkins' particular vision of reality derives from his intense and unique intellectual response to the fact of the Incarnation. In his view, the Incarnation so colors the world that each created thing, by virtue of its selfhood, expresses Christ. Hopkins' apprehension of the integration of the finite and infinite in all things, without the loss or diminution of either, creates his vision of a paradoxical world. The problem examined in this thesis is to what degree such a view of life is reflected in, and by, his poetry. There is no examination of purely verbal paradox, except insofar as it reflects or reveals the poet's vision of a paradoxical reality. In the investigation, Hopkins' letters, in particular, those to Robert Bridges and to Richard Watson Dixon, his early diaries, notebooks and journals, as well as his retreat notes, sermons and other devotional writings have been examined and have yielded valuable information about Hopkins' views of life and poetry. The focus of the investigation, however, has been the poems themselves. It is with these that the study was begun, and to these that it constantly returned. From that study, it became apparent that definite themes recur in Hopkins' poetry. When the poems were grouped according to theme, it was found that certain poems center on natural beauty and man's response to it; others on the idea of sacrifice; still others on the problem of suffering, and yet others on the fact of death. An examination of each of the poems in these groups revealed that Hopkins' poetry is his response and solution to the problems posed by his simultaneous awareness of the apparently contradictory elements in reality. In that group whose theme is mortal beauty emerge the paradoxes of the changing creation revealing the changeless creator, of God's simultaneous immanence in, and transcendence of, his works, and of man's consequent difficult, but necessary, response of attachment to, and detachment from, mortal beauty. From those whose theme is sacrifice emerge the paradoxes of the beauty and the merit of the good which the poet voluntarily, but with difficulty, abjures in his own life, and of the denial of self as the highest fulfilment of self. From those whose theme is the problem of suffering emerge, in one group, the paradox of the reconciliation of God's mastery and his mercy, and in another, of the poet's isolation from, and unity with, God. In the first such group, the reconciliation has been facilitated by a prior struggle and enlightenment of the poet. In the second group, the desdlate sonnets, emerges acceptance through indomitable faith, rather than reconciliation. From the final group, whose theme is death, emerges the paradox of the resurrection. This paradox bring Hopkins full circle, for, in the new life, mortal beauty has become immortal. It seems, then, that it is Hopkins' awareness of the duality of the response imposed on him by his perception of these paradoxes, and his efforts to make that response, which give to his poetry its particular tension and intensity. The poetry is the record of the poet's efforts to explain the inexplicable. Although the chronological and thematic progression of response do not always go hand in hand, in the main, they do. There is a definite progression from the poet's happy and untroubled acceptance of the mystery in "Pied Beauty", through his more difficult, yet none the less fully accepted reconciliation in "Carrion Comfort", through his anguish in the desolate sonnets, to his final ringing cry of faith in "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire". In his relentless questionings of the mysteries inherent in his views of a paradoxical world, Hopkins refused to surrender either his intellect or his faith. His poetry testifies to both, and each enhances the other. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This thesis presents original poems by the author, as well as a comparison of the religious sonnets by John Donne and Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is not traditionally known for valuing the company of women. While contemporary critics tend to be more forgiving and defer to the prevailing values of the eighteenth century, they generally do not dwell on the positive influence that Swift had on female writers of his day. This thesis will work towards remedying that omission by analyzing the writing of three prominent female contemporaries of Swift: Delariviere Manley, Mary Barber and Laetitia Pilkington. While varying in writing ability, each of the three women in this thesis had a personal relationship with Swift, was invited to join his "inner circle" for a time and received his advice on a variety of issues. Despite substantial analysis to the contrary, this thesis will emphasize the positive impact that Swift had on women writers of his day. While surely influenced by the mores of his time that relegated female writing to the "lower rungs" of literature, Swift nevertheless sought women out, reviewed their work and offered his suggestions and insights. Ever the keen social observer, Swift often expressed his doubts about the capabilities of the female mind through the veil of satire or by employing alternate literary voices. However, the Dean's ridicule does not mean that he was merely an insensitive misogynist. Despite the opinion of some critics, Swift was concerned with the development of the female mind, and dedicated human behavior troubled him deeply, he was nevertheless able and willing to support and befriend individual acquaintances (particularly females), lending them both personal and literary advice. Therefore, rather than bow to the prevailing societal pressures that kept women writers at arm's length, Swift welcomed female companionship, and helped them to become effective literary voices. The template that he advocated, however, was from the "male" perspective, as he encouraged his female protges to emulate "traditional" masculine behaviors in both their personal and literary endeavors. Therefore, this thesis focuses on three prominent female writers who benefited from the Dean's friendship and advice: Delariviere Manley (best known for her influential New Atalantis), Mary Barber (focusing primarily on her Poems on Several Occasions), and Laetitia Pilkington (notably through her groundbreaking The Memoirs of Laetitia Pilkington). While each writer wrote in a distinctive manner and possessed different public personas, Manley was perhaps the most talented of the three; in fact, many critics regard her as Swift's peer rather than simply a follower. Indeed, they were both concerned with many of the same issues, including dissatisfaction with those in power, a desire to satirically comment on the issues of the day and general disdain for the deficiencies of mankind. A primary influence for this thesis is the seminal work of Margaret Anne Doody. Her scholarship sheds light on Swift's positive influence on his female companions, as evidenced in numerous essays, including her essential "Swift among the Women" (1998). In this work, Doody offers evidence to support the Dean's concern for his female followers). This analysis will support her work and clarify the vital role that Swift played in the development of eighteenth century female writers.

It is the purpose of this dissertation to reveal Gerard Manley Hopkins as an incarnationist and sacramentalist, and to show how these doctrines manifested throughout his poetry affected the entire scope of his verse and completely colored his attitude toward life-- toward his own existence and that of his fellow man, and especially toward natural phenomena.

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