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In seventeenth-century England, pursuits of knowledge were shaped by two seemingly paradoxical, yet interwoven beliefs: a persistent belief in the devastating effects of the Fall on human reason, and a growing trust in human ability to sharpen understanding and pierce the seemingly impenetrable. This dissertation explores how writers of works of physiognomy, shorthand, astrology and secret history simultaneously presented human conjecture and intuition as limited and flawed but also capable of providing ordinary people with access to privileged information. The authors of these “do-it-yourself” manuals made distinctions between God’s secrecy and human secrecy and provided tips on how each could be tapped. Physiognomy inspired constant searching for hidden sources of insight; shorthand encouraged the sense that there was often more than met the eye; astrology emphasized the usefulness of uncertainty. Secret histories suggested that the very skills which the practices of physiognomy, shorthand, and astrology honed could be used to unveil the secrets of carnal monarchs, ministers, and royal mistresses. Over the course of the seventeenth century, the limits of attainable knowledge – and who could reliably present and access it – were being defined and redefined. To leading philosophers and political figures, human uncertainty necessitated the weighing of probabilities and the idealization of transparent, empirical and elite approaches to information. I argue that to writers of physiognomy, shorthand, astrology, and secret history, it reinforced the notion that arcane knowledge could be accessed by anyone. Such writers variously suggested that information that mattered to people’s daily lives depended upon personalized, conjectural and intuitive approaches to knowing. In short, secrets that were once divine and impenetrable were actually up for grabs. / Graduate / 2019-09-10

M.A. / This particular historical-intertextual study that delves into the life and work of the empress Theodora, wife of Justinian I, have as its fundamental source the testimony of the historian Procopius of Caesarea, contemporary of this “Augusta”. Procopius’ main information is contained in the Anekdota or Secret History, a work generally acknowledged by historians and scholars as one of slander. Nevertheless, it is believed to be the most important source of information of Theodora’s controversial and eventful life. The purpose of this study is to examine The Treatment of Theodora, empress of Byzantium. We have selected the works of five modern writers, namely Theodora by the French historian-byzantinist C. Diehl, Theodora Augusta by novelist K. Theocharous, Theodora by the Italian historian P. Cezaretti, Theodora by French novelist Guy Rachet and Flaming Purple by the historical writer G. Roussos. Our research has examined whether these above-mentioned biographers of Theodora have brought to light new and important explanations. These, compared to older or more recent historical documentation, have made it possible to collect as much ‘data’ as possible on Theodora and, by comparing this ‘data’, convey the best appreciation possible about the ‘disputed’ and ‘multifarious’ personality of this empress.

This essay analyzes the theme of the pursuit of beauty in The Secret History. It analyzes the main characters’ concept of beauty, their manner of seeking beauty, as well as the result of this search. For this analysis, I use Friedrich Nietzsche’s theories of the Apollonian and the Dionysian as outlined in The Birth of Tragedy and in scholarly texts that analyze TBT— which describe the Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy as the opposed worlds of order and madness— to define the main characters’ concept of beauty. The narrator of the novel once says that “beauty is terror” (Tartt 45), a statement which paints beauty as harsh and shocking, and potentially destructive. Likewise, in this essay I argue that for these characters beauty is created through the interplay between the Apollonian and the Dionysian, and that its pursuit leads to destruction. I analyze this through the characters of Richard Papen, Henry Winter, and Bunny Corcoran. Richard and Henry pursue beauty in that the actions they take are aimed at embodying an aesthetic ideal. In Richard’s case, it is his longing for beauty which leads him to imitate and join the classicists— particularly by mimicking their socio-economic class— and which eventually places him in a disordered Dionysian world of madness and murder. Henry, on the other hand, is the embodiment of Apollonian order, and it is his search for beauty through a bacchanal which leads him to commit murder twice and, eventually, to take his own life. Lastly, Bunny is different in that he is neither beautiful nor interested in beauty as his peers define it. It is because of this that he is excluded from the others’ pursuit of beauty, that he is murdered, and that his murder is justifiable in the eyes of his murderers. This study finds that, in The Secret History, where beauty is defined as the dance between Apollonian order and Dionysian madness, the Dionysian ends up as the victorious half of the dichotomy, causing the loss of reason and the triumph of destruction and disaster. This portrayal of beauty as destruction and vice versa, rather than serving as the vehicle for a moral indictment, is instead the very purpose of the novel.

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Textual Analysis of the Extant Original of The Secret History of the Mongols Abstract The purpose of the present thesis is to analyze every aspect of textual nature present in the Chinese original of the Secret History of the Mongols. The work consists of four chapters that touch issues such as the Chinese characters used for the transcription, their pronunciation and meaning, as well as invented or wrong characters. A list is presented with all the Mongolian syllables obtainable by means of the Chinese transcription system and with all the characters used for this. Subsequently, graphic aspects such as word division or punctuation are examined. The last chapter approaches the glossing system of the Mongolian text used in this work. On the basis of the analysis of the collected data, some plausible assumptions about historical or linguistic issues are advanced, such as the ethnic identity of the author of the transcript or the author of the glosses, the existence of a Mongolian dialect with own characteristics in the Yuan dynasty environment, or the reason why this transcript was glossed, and whether it was done out of an original written in Uyghur script. Keywords: textual analysis, Mongolian language, The Secret History of the Mongols, Yuan Dynasty

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