My dissertation explores the parodic Biblical language employed by medieval and early modern staged heretics. The plays' coupling of parody and heresy forges ideological connections between the two, as when they disrupt authorized, orthodox models of the Word, as both the Scriptures and the Host. My Introduction addresses the theological controversies over the relationship between language and meaning that arise from Lollard, Catholic, and Protestant heresies. Chapter two analyzes how, in the Chester cycle, Antichrist's theological and verbal dissents are eerily similar to orthodox models. That framework forces the audience to depend on the context of the heretic's words and deeds, rather than the words and deeds themselves, to interpret meaning. Chapter three examines Mankind's construction of orthodox and parodic registers of language and its mapping of Mankind's fall and ascent through his transition from one register to the other. Chapter four addresses how the Croxton Play of the Sacrament defends the doctrine of the Real Presence by aligning the transformative power of the consecratory words with the transformative power of believers' confessions at conversion, wherein both enact a transubstantiation. Chapter five argues that John Bale's Three Laws relies on the dichotomy of the letter and the spirit to characterize his parodic Catholic vices as legalistic adherents to the Word and his Protestant heroes as spiritually-enlightened believers. Chapter six analyzes how Falstaff's Puritan parody, in the Henry IV plays, locates meaning in the audience rather than the speaker, particularly through dramatic irony, equivocation, and allusions. Lastly, chapter seven examines how, in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, the spectrum of orthodox and parodic language use collapses into Faustus's idiom, and I contend that Faustus's heresy is ultimately his indecision. My conclusion ultimately finds that the univocity between language and meaning is a specious construction, and, collectively, these texts demonstrate that language may be a marker but not a maker of meaning.

RÉSUMÉ Forme littéraire développée dès les débuts du IVe siècle, l’hagiographie, plus tard sanctionnée par l’Église catholique romaine, se déploie avec tout le rituel et le décorum requis par le genre institué, dévoilant les modalités du savoir et du croire qui la distingue. Cette forme fixe fut réactivée, contre toute attente, dans une somme étoffée durant la seconde moitié du XXe siècle par le Collège de ‘Pataphysique, aréopage de philosophes, littérateurs et plasticiens, qui n’est pas un conclave d’excentriques, pas davantage qu’un nouvel « isme », mais une institution qui résolument emblématise la Science. Ce réemploi générique de l’hagiographie est caractérisé par une hétérogénéité bien peu canonique s’inscrivant dans une continuité problématique par rapport au sous-texte. Une première traversée du Calendrier inviterait à croire à une entreprise parodique et iconoclaste. La parodie, qui est aussi une imitation, pose un problème de visée. Le second degré de Gérard Genette implique deux grands régimes discursifs : le sérieux (le sérieux proprement dit et le satirique) et le ludique. Ces régimes nous ont été utiles pour arrimer la question de l’humour. Il y a là en somme deux possibilités, soit la parodie sérieuse conduisant à ridiculiser l’hagiographie et le Calendrier des Saints qui seraient sérieusement visés, néantisés, tournés en dérision; soit la parodie ludique, à portée nulle, simple jeu, farce farfelue, « pour rire ». Or, nous avons tenté de démontrer dans ce mémoire que, même s’il y a lieu d’avancer des arguments en faveur de l’un et de l’autre type de parodie, le partage ne fonctionne pas, précisément peut-être parce qu’il est possible de montrer à la fois que c’est sérieux et pas sérieux. Dans un troisième temps, on peut aussi faire la démonstration que le pas-sérieux est sérieux. Les jeux de mots, d’homophonie n’engagent-ils pas le Verbe? L’imitation impossible ne réfléchit-elle pas les imitabile de la Sainte Église? La situation énonciatrice tributaire de l’hagiographie pataphysique est non différentiable d’un souci de didactisme qui place la composante moralisatrice au centre des enjeux discursifs. Elle induit de ce fait des attentes en matière d’ethos consistant à mettre au même diapason une représentation sociale de l’énonciateur et une représentation intradiscursive au ton didactique. Elle adjoint un autre ton, savant celui-là, érudit, qui vient défaire la belle convergence et fait disjoncter la rhétorique du genre. Cette rhétoricité problématique de l’hagiographie pataphysique a été abordée sous l’angle de l’ethos. L’ethos est l’instance de validation par laquelle nous renvoyons non pas au caractère de l’orateur, mais, suivant en cela Dominique Maingueneau, au type de parole engendrée par le discours et qui, en retour, rend ce discours crédible. Que devient cette instance lorsque la visée persuasive du discours est remise en question, que l’ethos se démultiplie de façon hétérogène sans véritablement assurer la cohésion du propos ni garantir sa portée? La parodie posant incidemment un problème de visée, est-ce du côté d’un ethos parodique que se trouve la réponse? Il nous a convenu de mesurer, d’articuler, de déplacer cette postulation. Nous nous sommes saisi, pour les besoins de notre argumentation, d’une discipline historiquement lourde d’investissement théorique, soit la rhétorique. Celle-ci constitue à la fois une méthode de composition d’un discours reposant sur des lieux susceptibles de susciter l’adhésion et l’émulation de l’énonciataire et une méthode d’analyse. Guidé par une définition étendue du texte, traversant les littératures non narrative et narrative, il nous a importé enfin de restituer la pratique cymbaliste à partir d’un corpus qui est resté l’apanage du « seul » pataphysicien. Nous nous sommes ainsi situé dans l’horizon plus global de la réceptivité d’un discours qui évacue l’idéologique, qui jamais ne se laisse saisir tout à fait, ni enferrer par le fétiche du sens au profit des potentialités qu’il recèle, et cela à partir d’axiomes arbitraires soumis à l’unique exigence de cohérence interne. / ABSTRACT Hagiography, a literary form dating back to the beginnings of fourth century Christianism, and later sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, exhibits itself with all the ritualistic devices and decorum requisite to the genre, displaying the full intricacies of its knowledge and beliefs in the process. It was unexpectedly given new life by an extensive body of work put forth, in the second half of the 20th century, by the Collège de ‘Pataphysique (or ‘Pataphysics), a gathering of philosophical and literary minds. The Collège intended to be an institution dedicated to the emblematization of Science, something other than a conclave of eccentrics or a mere new “ism”. This generic reuse of hagiography exhibits a singular heterogeneity, which, far from being canonical, is part of a continuation, a problematic element vis-à-vis the subtext. Upon reviewing the Calendar of the Saints, one could conclude that this collective work is little more than a parodical and iconoclastic enterprise. But parody, a form of imitation, raises the issue of scope. Gérard Genette’s Second degree refers to two main types of discourse: the serious -what is serious per say and what is satirical-, and the playful. This approach proved useful when tackling the matter of humour. There are, in fact, two alternatives: serious parody, which would deride hagiography and the Calendar of the Saints, or playful parody, a simple game, a farce with no actual scope, “just for fun”. While a valuable argument can be made for either option, we will attempt to demonstrate that a distinction between the two is in fact impossible, precisely because it is possible to prove that it is both serious and not serious. Ultimately, we can also demonstrate that the not-serious is serious. After all, isn’t it true that puns and homophony both involve the Word? And doesn’t the impossible imitation reflect the imitabile of the Holy Church itself? The enunciative situation stemming from pataphysical hagiography is indistinguishable from any didactical endeavour with a moralistic component at its core. It calls for ethos, with a social representation of the enunciator as well as a didactical representation from within the discourse itself. It also takes a more scholarly tone, which disrupts the convergence and has a disjunctive effect on the rhetoric of the genre. We chose to approach the “rhetorical problem” raised by pataphysical hagiography through the notion of ethos. The ethos, as a validation premise, takes us beyond the speaker’s character, in the footsteps of the likes of Dominique Maingueneau, to the type of message stemming from the discourse, making it credible. But what becomes of this premise when the discourse’s persuasive scope is put into question? When the ethos multiplies itself, preserving neither the message’s cohesion nor its scope? If parody incidentally raises the issue of scope, does the answer lie in some form of parodical ethos? We saw fit to measure, articulate and analyse this hypothesis from different angles. For the purposes of our analysis, we took on a disciplined, rhetorical approach. Although cumbersome from a theoretical standpoint, this method for creating discourse is based on elements capable of inciting both adherence from (and emulation of) the enunciator, as well as on a method of analysis. Guided by a broader definition of the text, spanning both narrative and non-narrative literary genres, we sought to restore the cymbalistic approach from a body of work belonging solely to the pataphysician. We thus positioned ourselves in the greater setting of a discourse free of ideological considerations, that is never quite fully understood or stuck within the confines of meaning, and therefore has endless potential ; a discourse based on random axioms bound only by the requirement of internal coherence.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Parody is a concept central to much of the work of Peter Maxwell Davies. In this study the First Fantasia on an In Nomine by John Taverner, the Seven In Nomine, the Second Fantasia on an In Nomine by John Taverner and the opera Taverner are used as case studies of Davies' use of parody. Three categories of parody are discerned: parody in its pre-Baroque sense which entails the use of musical material from pre-existing compositions; parody in its modern sense whereby a particular work or style is imitated in such a manner that the source is ridiculed or satirized; and the non-satirical parody of compositional devices, forms or other features characteristic of a particular musical period. All four works examined in this study use the 'In nomine' by the sixteenth-century composer John Taverner as a source of pre-compositional musical material. Each of Davies' In Nomine works is examined in detail and the composer's use of the device and its function in each instance is discussed. The chronological consideration of the In Nomine compositions, and of Taverner in particular, reveals a gradual change in the manner in which Davies employed parody in his compositions. Attention is thus given to the transition from the emphasis on parody in the Renaissance sense to the emphasis on parody in its modern sense and it is shown. that this transition clearly parallels the change that was taking place within Davies' general compositional style during the sixties. In conclusion, some reasons for the predominant role played by parody in Davies' output and the preoccupation with musical materials derived from the pre-Baroque are suggested, in order to show the relevance of Davies' use of parody within a twentieth-century context. / Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1990.

Readers have associated Don Quixote and St Ignatius of Loyola for centuries. Many have inferred an intentional parody of Loyola in Cervantes’ classic novel, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. The first part of this thesis traces reader associations of Don Quixote and St Ignatius since the publication of Part I of Don Quixote in 1605. The second part analyzes two texts commonly cited as sources for reader associations of St Ignatius and Don Quixote, Loyola’s Autobiografía (1555) and Pedro de Ribadeneyra’s Vida de Ignacio de Loyola (1583), and proposes a hypothesis for how Cervantes may have intended to parody the founder of the Society of Jesus. The third part analyzes narrative, substantive and thematic parallelisms in Don Quixote, the Autobiografía and Vida and discusses the likelihood of Cervantes intentionally parodying Loyola in his most famous and enduring work. / Graduate / 0679 / 0401 / 0318 / pdavidso@uvic.ca

This study approaches parody as a multifarious literary form that has assumed diverse forms and functions throughout history. The study handles this diversity by classifying parody according to its objects of imitation. Three major parodic kinds are specified: parody directed at texts and personal styles, parody directed at genre, and parody directed at discourse. In the light of this classification, this study argues that different literary-historical periods in Britain have witnessed the prevalence of different kinds of parody &amp / #8211 / a phenomenon that may be accounted for mainly through the dominant literary, cultural, social, and ideological characteristics of each period. Although all periods from the Middle Ages to the present are considered in this regard, the study attributes a special significance to the postmodern age, where parody has become not only an essential area of inquiry but also a highly popular and widely produced literary form. In line with this emphasis, the study contends further that postmodern parody is primarily discourse parody. It argues, in other words, that discourse is the most essential target of parody during the postmodern age &amp / #8211 / a phenomenon which can again be explained through the major concerns of postmodernism as a movement. In addition to situating parody and its kinds in a historical context, then, this study engages in a detailed analysis of parody in the postmodern age, preparing the ground at the same time for making an informed assessment of the direction parody in general and its kinds in particular may take in the near future.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 1996. / Adviser: William Sun. Submitted to the Dept. of Drama. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 315-341). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis -- Departmental honors in Music. / Bibliography: ℓ. 88-92.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-195). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-195). Also available on the Internet.