Zugl.: Augsburg, Univ., Diss., 2007

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Botho Strauss a writer of prose, essays and plays, belongs to the most interesting and controversial authors of the last thirty years. Like a seismograph he picks up numerous discourses, the most important one being Memoria . His peculiar and eccentric way of representing and reflecting on memory, in the early texts, is innovative, critical, self reflective, but in the later texts becomes neo-conservative, elitist and patriarchal. This later discourse sparked off a discussion, involving writers such as Peter Handke, Martin Walser and Peter Sloterdijk, about the role of the intellectual in German society. / I begin by examining how cultural studies approaches the topic of Memoria. I then apply to the texts of Strauss a 'mnemonic reading,' meaning, to explore and discover topographies of memory. Literature and the arts in general are perceived as places of memory, or as archives where cultural memory is kept alive. Quoting, or rewriting selections from texts, as described in theories of intertextuality, changes and keeps alive a tradition of literature within literature. A text becomes a palimpsest in which fragments of foreign texts suddenly become visible and can enter the readers memory. In Strauss, to form a memory from the fragments is not without major problems. The pieces move in all directions to form a paradoxical body of text. / In his early texts the narrator laments the impossibility of creating an identity based on personal memories and so he concentrates on the problem of how to represent memory within the context of increasing amnesia. The seemingly dead subject moves about within the texts where he hopes to build himself a place for his identity to survive. In reaction to loss of memory and identity, a calculated game appears in which the representation and experience of the past plays only a minor role. The author turns towards the models of aesthetic memory, adapting, for example, the romantic mode of writing. The metamorphosis of texts, such as those from the romantic period, occurs as a backdrop against which the writer projects his erotically inspired allegorical "memory theater." Dramatization of the memory process leads him to conclude that memories only exist within the aesthetic world of literature, where they manifest themselves beyond a historical and social reality. At the end of his writing project, Strauss creates an aesthetic refuge of personal memories by turning himself into a "diarist." The male voice regresses to an aggressive and melancholic mode of limited perception, which the author knows cannot be more than an artificial construction.

This dissertation demonstrates that Leo Strauss, in The City and Man, continues his response to Carl Schmitt�s arguments concerning the affirmation of the political, as outlined by Strauss in his 1932 article on Schmitt�s The Concept of the Political. In affirming the political, Strauss spoke of the 'theologico-political problem', or the question regarding who, or what, should rule society. Strauss outlines six criteria in his 1932 'Comments', which he argues can be found in Schmitt�s The Concept of the Political, as essential for the recovery of the political. In raising the question of the political, both Schmitt and Strauss return to the fundamental question regarding how one should live. In so doing, Strauss rejects Schmitt�s reliance on conflicting faiths and returns to the Socratic description of the best regime (politeia), understood as the best way of life, that is devoted to contemplation, peace and justice. In his argument in The City and Man, Strauss satisfies the six criteria outlined in his 'Comments': (1) the acceptance of moral evil within human nature; (2) the problem of opposition among groups; (3) the possibility of a non-neutral, transprivate obligation; (4) the need for a content that determines the distinction between friend and enemy; (5) a content that leads to a quarrel over the question of 'what is Right?' and (6) that the political must address 'the order of human things from a pure and whole knowledge'. This thesis demonstrates that Strauss�s 1964 book, The City and Man, indirectly addresses Schmitt�s general criteria, using an interpretation of Thucydides�s, Aristotle�s and Plato�s best regime � which is linked to the pursuit of wisdom, or the philosophic life � to provide a transpolitical standard that opposes Schmitt�s insistence on 'concrete' experience, that relies on historical destiny, and faith, as the guide to political life.

Zugl.: Bayreuth, Univ., Diss., 2005

Thesis (D. Mus. Arts)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-75).

Th.--Lettres--Université de Fribourg, Suisse, 1984. / Bibliogr. pp. 195-228.

Thesis--Freie Universität Berlin. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 870-891).

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<p>This thesis shows that the criticisms of Levi-Strauss' analysis, entitled "The Story of Asdiwal", arise out of the careless application of structuralist principles on the part of Levi-Strauss. They are not due to problems inherent in structuralism itself. To further this point, the story of Asdiwal is re-analyzed using a rigourous application of structuralism which avoids the mistakes made by Levi-Strauss. That is, it takes all the versions into account, considers the ethnographic material in detail, and uses those ethnographic sources with attention to focus and method of collection. The result is an analysis which shows the theme of the story of Asdiwal to be rivalry while the basic binary opposition is between competition and cooperation and not between the matriline and the patriline as Levi-Strauss supposed. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)