<p> Recent scholarship has added to our knowledge about the court masque, reinforcing its significance for the literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Milton's Comus has profited from such re-assessment so that its high valuation as dramatic literature need no longer be regarded as incompatible with its success as a court masque. The new seriousness of approach to the court masque in general and Milton's Comus in particular provides the impetus for an examination of the rest of Milton's poetic output for the purpose of tracing there the influence of his experience with the complimentary court entertainment.</p> <p> The court entertainment was encomiastic in intent, this encomium being patterned according to certain conventions. Paradise Lost, which praises God, uses a number of these conventions. Contrary to usual epic practice, Milton does not immortalize worldly conquests and compliment the statesmanship of his nation's leaders. Early notions of a British epic, to use the Arthurian or other indigenous material, were abandoned in favour of a work to celebrate the heavenly king and the spiritual kingdom. In the finished poem epic structures are interpreted in ways suggestive of the influence of court pageantry. Encomium of the heavenly king is expressed in the God-centred structure of Paradise Lost. The whole action of the poem focusses on the throne of the omniscient viewer. The angels sing and dance about this throne as the court danced before royalty in the court entertainment, and even creation is the setting for "a Race of Worshippers" (VII.630). A foil to the glory of Heaven, provided in the parodic activities of the fallen angels in Hell, suggests the conventions of the antimasque and the comedy of misrule. The victorious reign of Christ is celebrated, as many a pageant celebrated the reign of a seventeenth-century king, in a tournament. A mock battle in which no one is maimed, this culminates in the triumphal entry of Christ himself in a pageant chariot, symbolically banishing, rather than waging battle with, the forces of evil. In Satan's pilgrimage to earth even the traditional epic wanderings are transformed into an allegoric progress. The devices of the court entertainment inform the action of the poem, which is made up of processions, ceremonies and masques. The scenic spectacle, too, is influenced by the theatrical effects and iconography of royal pageantry.</p> <p> One might expect Heaven and Hell to be presented in terms of allegoric theatre, but in Paradise Lost even the garden itself is a golden world which works according to the pastoral conventions that so often informed court entertainments. Adam and Eve are the poem's legendary rulers. As he describes the pomp of the prelapsarian kingdom, Milton relies on a knowledge of contemporary pageantry. Here such pageantry expresses the perfection of the most perfect earthly kingdom of all. Referring to a legend often used to glorify the British court, Milton says of Paradise: "Hesperian Fables true, / If true, here only" (IV.250-51). To see Paradise Lost in the context of the contemporary pageantry and masque theatre is to see it not as history reconstructed, but as historic incident transmuted through the use of a series of literary devices into encomiastic fiction. The fictional world of the poem is designed to justify the workings of God's creation; it glorifies the providence of the omnipotent creator.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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When considering early Byzantine pilgrimage tokens, questions of touch and tactility arise almost instantly. Tokens lack cords or mountings, and so touch is implicit in such objects. Even gazing at them was a form of touching for the pilgrim. Hagiographies tell of pilgrims crowding to holy sites with the express intent to access sanctity through touch. Touch then, whether visual or manual, mediated the desire for connection between a pilgrim, a site, and a body. This requires an examination of a token’s touch as well as a pilgrim’s. In my thesis, I focus on a surviving token of the stylite saint Symeon the Younger, housed in the Menil Collection. This particular token bears iconography associated with physically and spiritually transformative events. Images of veneration, baptism, and healing appear together on the token’s obverse, while a human handprint on its reverse demands a multifaceted discussion of the implications of touching this object. I propose that in a pilgrim’s interaction with this token both object and viewer had agency. The token encapsulates a comprehensive pilgrimage experience. As a contact relic, the token makes present the saint’s body. Representation of baptism and the token’s backwards inscription enact sphragis – a figurative and literal stamping that pilgrims frequently described. I call attention to the experiential, memorial, and physical impressions made on the lives of early Byzantine pilgrims through the simultaneous touching of both viewer and object. / text

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The purpose of this thesis is to show the extent to which Byron revealed himself as the hero of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and the extent to which that hero was an original creation.

The Kinetic quest of Ashtanga yoga through the lens of pilgrimage : making sense of postmodern questing.

This thesis takes its starting-point in the post-secular changes in society and how these interplay with tourism. In spite of the intensive academic debate on and theorisation of the post-secular and post-secularism, the role of tourism in this change, called the return of religion, has not been studied. Conversely, neither has the role of post-secularism in tourism been addressed. The overall aim of this thesis is to describe and understand the relation between post-secularism and tourism. Specifically, the aim is to clarify and understand the relation between religious faith, place and tourism in our time on the basis of a case study of pilgrimage in the area of Santiago de Compostela. In other words, the thesis highlights the role of tourism in the emergence of what is now called the post-secular condition. Santiago de Compostela is a Catholic Church instituted holy city, which has increase in number of visitors. The growing number of pilgrimages and their significance lend vitality to the return of religion phenomenon. The empirical material derives primarily from individual interviews as narratives are considered to be a vital dimension to constitute and construct human realities and modes of being. This thesis shows that contemporary pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is a post-secular performative and place-creating phenomenon. Post-secular tourist places are subjective and spiritually meaningful destinations. Unlike traditional pilgrimage destinations a key attribute is that neither traditional religious faith nor loyalty to institutionalised faith are (pre)ordained. Rather, place is constructed by the narratives and experiences of post-secular tourists. / This thesis takes its starting-point in the post-secular changes in society and how these interplay with tourism. In spite of the intensive academic debate on and theorisation of the post-secular and post-secularism, the role of tourism in this change, called the return of religion, has not been studied. Conversely, neither has the role of post-secularism in tourism been addressed. The overall aim of this thesis is to describe and understand the relation between post-secularism and tourism. Specifically, the aim is to clarify and understand the relation between religious faith, place and tourism in our time on the basis of a case study of pilgrimage in the area of Santiago de Compostela. In other words, the thesis highlights the role of tourism in the emergence of what is now called the post-secular condition. This thesis shows that contemporary pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is a post-secular performative and place-creating phenomenon. Post-secular tourist places are subjective and spiritually meaningful destinations. Unlike traditional pilgrimage destinations a key attribute is that neither traditional religious faith nor loyalty to institutionalised faith are (pre)ordained. Rather, place is constructed by the narratives and experiences of post-secular tourists.

Southern Paiute people stipulate that when the world was formed, the Creator gave them sole possession of the lands that constitute the traditional Southern Paiute nation and the Creator gave them the responsibilities to tend to the land, resources, and each other. As a result, from these stewardship duties, Southern Paiute people developed complex socio-ecological methods for promoting and maintaining both ecological and spiritual balance. One method was used by medicine people or Puha'gants and it involved them traveling to special ceremonial areas to acquire knowledge and power. These journeys required Puha'gants to undergo intense purification and preparation and they traveled along designated trails to places far away from their home communities. The pilgrimage process allowed the pilgrims to gain knowledge and power at their destination places to use in ceremonies to restore balance and promote sustainability in their home communities. My dissertation study examines six pilgrimage trails across Southern Paiute territory in an effort to understand this process. As a way to frame my discussion, this analysis draws upon four concepts--(1) Southern Paiute place logic, (2) cultural landscapes, (3) pilgrimage, and (4) communitas. For trail systems under study, I examine the types of places visited and their associated performance characteristics, and specifically the types of relationships pilgrims, or Puhahivats with each other, the places visited, and objects used.

This core work is a mutual comparison approach, which relates to the internal character and motives of the three specific forms of travel: pilgrimage, wandering and hiking. They are presented in chronological order, with an emphasis on comparison, resources, development and continuity of individual approaches. Regarded as the basic motive of these three ways which one sets out of the home; the author considers the human need for change, a desire for knowledge and an escape from everyday life, which are presented in more detail. In addition, being discussed is the concept of looking at these forms of travel as a kind of ritual transition when a person away from their normal environment becomes an individual that is on the border, detached from his past and his future already changed thanks to the newly acquired experiences and expertise - a man who returns is never the same. Pilgrimage, wandering and hiking are presented as activities in which by their own way often enable an individual to abandon everyday life. The level and manner of this work are expressed via a culturally and historical contingent and subject to further transformation. The oldest and most important form of travel is pilgrimage, which is the starting point for the other two forms mentioned. Pilgrimage gradually provides a platform for...

This presentation is was given at the Great Basin Conference in 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This talk presents key findings from the 2005 report: Yanawant: Paiute Places and Landscapes in the Arizona Strip Volume One of the Arizona Strip Landscapes and Place Name Study (Stoffle et al. 2005). This talk focuses on pilgrimage trails in the Arizona Strip.