Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Italian Religious literature'

This thesis is concerned with one key aspect of the reception of the vernacular poetry of Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), namely translations and imitations of the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (Rvf) and Triumphi in English. It aims to provide a more comprehensive survey of the vernacular Petrarch’s legacy to English literature than is currently available, with a particular focus on some hitherto critically neglected texts and authors. It also seeks to ascertain to what degree the socio-historical phenomena of religion, politics, and culture have influenced the translations and imitations in question. The approach has been both chronological and comparative. This strategy will demonstrate with greater clarity the monumental effect of the Elizabethan Reformation on the English reception of Petrarch. It proposes a solution to the problem of the long gap between Geoffrey Chaucer’s re-writing of Rvf 132 and the imitations of Wyatt and Surrey framed in the context of Chaucer’s sophisticated imitative strategy (Chapter I). A fresh reading of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella is offered which highlights the author’s misgivings about the dangers of textual misinterpretation, a concern he shared with Petrarch (Chapter II). The analysis of Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti and Epithalamion in the same chapter reveals a hitherto undetected Ovidian subtext to Petrarch’s Rvf 190. Chapter III deals with two English versions of the Triumphi: I propose a date for Lord Morley’s translation which suggests it may be the first post- Chaucerian English engagement with Petrarch; new evidence is brought to light which identifies the edition of Petrarch used by William Fowler as the source text for his Triumphs of Petrarcke. The fourth chapter constitutes the most extensive investigation to date of J. M. Synge’s engagement with the Rvf, and deals with the question of translation as subversion. On the theoretical front, it demonstrates how Synge’s use of “folk-speech” challenges Venuti’s binary foreignising/domesticating system of translation categorisation.

Shakespeare's ideas about free will and moral choice, as illustrated in his play Macbeth, may have been influenced by Dante's Inferno. Dante was known to Shakespeare's contemporaries, and therefore most likely to the Bard himself. Current literature has not conclusively addressed this topic, and a focused examination is important, because it offers both an additional perspective on free will in Inferno, and adds to the understanding of free will in Macbeth. Read at face value, Macbeth seems to bear no responsibility for his actions because they were preordained by the fates. Dante believed in free will, and Macbeth bears more than one similarity to his Commedia. Read through a Dantean lens, Macbeth has free will - even if choosing not to exercise it. Through the mere contemplation of the four reasons for not killing Duncan, Macbeth recognizes that he has the choice whether to become a traitor, with the consequences of suffering contrapasso damnation. But Macbeth elects to disregard the wisdom passed down in Dante's Commedia, and knowingly commits a heinously immoral act. Shakespeare uses his predecessor Dante as a tool to advocate for human agency and moral choices in a text that would otherwise be fatalistic. Both then and now, Shakespeare sought to influence his audiences' understanding of their own free will. One first has to believe in possessing free will, in order to use it to make the best possible choices. Dante and Shakespeare reaffirm our possession of free will to help us avoid individual and societal tragedies.

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo demonstrar a finalidade catequética da obra intitulada Laudes e Cantigas Espirituais escrita pelo beneditino André Dias na primeira metade do século XV. Os versos de Mestre André parecem assumir um valor pedagógico à medida que visam a transmitir a mensagem do Evangelho inclusive com o propósito de edificar os cristãos a partir da exemplaridade de Jesus e Maria. Sob esta ótica, o laudário parece enfatizar uma religiosidade mais intimista, mais palpável e acessível à esfera divina sem prescindir, contudo, de seu aspecto devocional. Desta forma, através das análises de três grupos temáticos do laudário de Mestre André (Loas de Natal, Loas e Prantos de Nossa Senhora e Laudas da Paixão), este estudo visa a evidenciar os elementos que assinalam a finalidade doutrinária das composições em questão. À luz da tradição laudística medieval - cujo centro difusor fora a Península Itálica -, procuraremos apontar, ainda, o possível diálogo entre as laudes portuguesas e os escritos dos italianos Feo Belcari e Jacopone da Todi.
This research aims at showing the catechetic function of Laudes e Cantigas Espirituais written by the Benedictine Monk Andre Dias in the first half of the fifteenth century. The verses of Master André seem to assume an educational value as they aim at transmitting the Gospels message in order to edify christians through the exemplarity of Jesus and Mary. Within this scope, the lauds seem to emphasize some kind of more intimist, more palpable sense of religiosity, as well as more accessible to the divine sphere. However, the lauds still do not neglect their devotional aspect. Thus, through the analyses of three thematic groups, Master Andres laudarium (Loas de Natal Christmas Loas - , Loas e Prantos de Nossa Senhora Loas and Sorrows from Our Lady - and Laudas da Paixão Lauds of the Passion), this study seeks to highlight the elements which determine the doctrinary functions of analyzed compositions. Based on the medieval laudistic tradition, which was mainly diffused in the Italian Peninsula, we shall attempt at pointing out a possible relationship between the Portuguese Lauds and the writings by the Italian writers Feo Belcari and Jacopone da Todi.

This study considers Thomas Hoccleve’s role, throughout his works, as a “religious” writer: as an individual who engages seriously with the dynamics of heresy and ecclesiastical reform, who contributes to traditions of vernacular devotional writing, and who raises the question of how Christianity manifests on personal as well as political levels – and in environments that are at once London-based, national, and international. The chapters focus, respectively, on the role of reading and moralization in the Series; the language of “vice and virtue” in the Epistle of Cupid; the moral version of Chaucer introduced in the Regiment of Princes; the construction of the Hoccleve persona in the Regiment; and the representation of the Eucharist throughout Hoccleve’s works. One main focus of the study is Hoccleve’s mediating influence in presenting a moral version of Chaucer in his Regiment. This study argues that Hoccleve’s Chaucer is not a pre-established artifact, but rather a Hocclevian invention, and it indicates the transnational literary, political, and religious contexts that align in Hoccleve’s presentation of his poetic predecessor. Rather than posit the Hoccleve-Chaucer relationship as one of Oedipal anxiety, as other critics have done, this study indicates the way in which Hoccleve’s Chaucer evolves in response to poetic anxiety not towards Chaucer himself, but rather towards an increasingly restrictive intellectual and ecclesiastical climate. This thesis contributes to the recently revitalized critical dialogue surrounding the role and function of fifteenth-century English literature, and the effect on poetry of heresy, the church’s response to heresy, and ecclesiastical reform both in England and in Europe. It also advances critical narratives regarding Hoccleve’s response to contemporary French poetry; the role of confession, sacramental discourse, and devotional images in Hoccleve’s work; and Hoccleve’s impact on literary tradition.

Tese (doutorado)- Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Literatura.
Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-25T20:54:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 310620.pdf: 2928189 bytes, checksum: 0ddd6df273264652484ccbf955eb2c9b (MD5)
O presente trabalho busca, fundamentado na leitura de textos de Pier Paolo Pasolini e Murilo Mendes, montar um diagrama a partir do qual são constatados similitudes e diferenças entre ambos os poetas. Aparece, no decorrer da pesquisa, um núcleo duro que, como centro de ação poética em ambos, marca-lhes a postura diante da vida, uma característica ética: a agonia alegre ou a abgioia. Como maneira de expor tal núcleo, trama-se um arcabouço teórico que possibilite a sua abordagem crítica, o que, por sua vez, viabilizará a proposição de análises de suas obras (análises estas que ultrapassam o limite de algumas obras e também circunscrevem artigos publicados em periódicos, entrevistas e cartas - isto é, remexendo os arquivos). Composto como uma montagem, o trabalho apresenta variadas análises tanto de Pasolini como de Murilo Mendes separadamente, bem como leituras cruzadas de ambos; além disso, cortes (incisões) de caráter metodológico e teórico colocam o espaço dialógico dos autores em evidência. Dessa estrutura, o texto faz emanar a proposição da tese: diante da agonia da existência (numa postura que remete já a Anaximandro) - com o agravante de serem estas existências historicamente situadas num ponto nebuloso da recente cronologia, os meados do século XX -, aos poetas resta, como única possibilidade ética, provar da resistência do estar no mundo sem redenções vindouras. Ou seja, a presente tese vê em Murilo Mendes e Pier Paolo Pasolini - mais uma vez, a despeito das disparidades personalistas entre ambos, que também são assinaladas - uma mesma postura ética diante do esvaziamento da linguagem e da decrepitude da vida no moderno. Conclui que essa postura assumida é para ambos o lugar da religião (as religiões de seus tempos), para além de seu aspecto separador entre sagrado e profano, mas como possibilidade de reler o próprio tempo em que se encontram e, desse modo, abrir uma nova possibilidade de mundo quando o mundo tem as feições do impossível.
Le présent travail cherche, d'après la lecture des textes de Pier Paolo Pasolini et Murilo Mendes, monter un diagramme selon lequel des similitudes et des différences sont constatés parmi les deux poètes. Apparaît, dans le développement de la récherche, un noyau dur qui, en tant que centre de l'action poéthique des poètes, marque leur attitude face à la vie, c'est à dire, une caracteristique éthique: l'agonie heureux ou l'abgioia. Comme manière d'exposer un tel noyau, il concevoit un cadre théorique qui permet à son approche critique, qui à son tour permettra la proposition de analyses des ses oeuvres (analyses qui dépassent la limite de quelques oeuvres et également circonscrivent articles publiés dans revues, interviews et lèttres - c'est à dire, en fouillant dans les fichiers). Composé comme une montage, le travail présent des analyses variées tant de Pasolini comme de Murilo Mendes séparément, aussi bien que des lectures transversales à la fois; en outre, des coups (incisions) de caractère méthodologique et théorique posent le space dialogique des auteurs en évidénce. De cette structure, le texte fait surgir la proposition de la thèse: en face à l'agonie de l'existence (dans une position qui se réfère dejà à Anaximandre) - avec la circonstance aggravante d'être des existences historiquement situées dans un point obscure de la récente cronologie, c'est à dire, les années de guèrre froide dans le XXème siècle -, aux poètes reste, comme l'unique possibilité éthique, prouver de la résistence d'être au monde sans aucune rachat à venir. C'est à dire que la thèse voit en Murilo Mendes et Pier Paolo Pasolini - encore une fois, malgré les disparités personnalistes entre eux, lequelles sont aussi signalées - une même position éthique devant le vidange du langage et de la décrépitude de la vie dans le modernité. Conclut que cette position assumée c'est, pour eux, le lieu de la religion (les religions de ses temps), au delà de son aspect séparateur entre le sacré et le profane, mais comme possibilité de relire le propre temps dans lequel ils se réncontrent et, de cette manière, ouvrir une nouvelle possibilité de monde quand le monde se montre avec les caracteristiques de l'impossible.

Este trabalho analisa o aspecto lírico-religioso de três canções marianas, recolhidas do Cancioneiro Popular do imigrante italiano na Região de Colonização Italiana e se propõe revelar, sob o aspecto das metáforas e das metonímias, a representação de Maria. Para tanto, este estudo dialoga com temas imprescindíveis para a obtenção de resultados, como História, Cultura, Identidade, Regionalidade, Mariologia, Metáforas, Metonímias (a Teoria de Metáforas Conceituais) e música. Assim sendo, a dissertação está estruturada sobre quatro capítulos que norteiam a análise e a interpretação. A saber: o Primeiro Capítulo entrelaça a História e a Cultura, procurando fazer uma revisão de aspectos relevantes da história da imigração italiana na RCI na Região Nordeste do Estado, focando a importância da religião e ou da fé desde os primórdios desse processo. A partir disso, há a análise sobre Região, Identidade e Religiosidade. O Segundo Capítulo destaca o Cancioneiro Popular e assim, o aspecto da Tradição Oral Popular. Aprofunda o aspecto da cultura popular expressada com o canto e traz em evidência a caracterização do Canto Mariano (origens, ritualismo e devoção do imigrante italiano). Demonstra, ainda, aspectos da devoção mariana, tão presente e viva junto ao imigrante, pois Maria é descrita como sendo a mãe que está sempre presente e junto aos seus filhos (povo). O Terceiro Capítulo, por sua vez, concentra a análise dos aspectos da Teoria da Metáfora Conceitual, da Simbologia e, também, da interpretação e pesquisa sobre as Virtudes, objetivando a análise da figura da mulher idealizada , ou ainda, da representação da mãe - Maria (Madonna). Por fim, no Quarto Capítulo, tem-se a Metodologia e a Análise das canções marianas, ou seja, a análise do corpus das canções: Beléssa di Maria; Maria Consolatrice; O Bèla mia Speransa, que motivam este estudo. Esta parte segue o método da análise semântica com base em George Lakoff (e colaboradores) que permeiam o estudo das metáforas conceituais. Há, também, a posição etnográfica, onde é destacada a pesquisa de campo realizada para conhecer opiniões e perspectivas do povo, indo além da análise do pesquisador. Após isso, é feita a síntese com os resultados obtidos pela pesquisa/estudo.
Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-05-28T17:29:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Lauro Edson da Cas.pdf: 660533 bytes, checksum: 67162060ee2c9127d36245efbaca0ad2 (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-28T17:29:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Lauro Edson da Cas.pdf: 660533 bytes, checksum: 67162060ee2c9127d36245efbaca0ad2 (MD5)
This study analyzes the religious lyrical aspect of three Marian songs, collected from the book Cancioneiro Popular do Imigrante Italiano na Região de Colonização Italiana, and also intends to clarify, using metaphors and metonymies, the representation of Mary. To do that, this study takes into consideration imprescindible issues such as History, Culture, Identity, Religiosity, and Mariology, Metaphors, Metonymies (Conceptual Metaphor Theory) and music. This dissertation is structured upon four chapters as follows: the first chapter links History and Culture, trying to revise some relevant points of the history of the Italian immigration on the RCI in the Northeast Region of our state, focusing on the importance of religion and/or faith since the beginning of that process. Therefore, there is the analysis about the Region, Identity and Religiosity. The second chapter highlights the Cancioneiro Popular and then, the Popular Oral Tradition. Also, it deepens the aspect of popular culture expressed by the songs and brings into evidence the characterization of the Marian Songs (origins, ritualism and devotion of the Italian immigrant). Moreover, it shows some aspects of the Marian devotion, so present and alive within the immigrant, because Mary is described as the mother who is always with her children (the people). The third chapter, in turn, focus on the analysis of aspects of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory , of the Symbolism, and also of the interpretation and research regarding the Virtues, aiming at analyzing the idealized woman´s portrait , or still, the representation of the mother Mary (Madonna). At last, presented in the fourth chapter are the Methodology and the Analysis of the Marian Songs, that is, the analysis of the corpus of songs: Beléssa di Mary, Mary Consolatrice and O Bela mia Speransa that motivate the study. This part follows the method of semantic analysis, based on George Lakoff (and collaborators) that permeates the study of the conceptual metaphors. There is the ethnographic position as well, where is emphasized the field work carried out to know opinions and perspectives of the people, going beyond the researcher´s analysis. After that, the synthesis is done with the obtained results by the research/study.

Review of Anthony F. D’Elia. Pagan Virtue in a Christian World: Sigismondo Malatesta and the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016. x + 355 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-674-08851-1.

I examine how religion is presented in the Annals of Tacitus, and how it resonates with and adds complexity to the larger themes of the historian’s narrative. Memory is essential to understanding the place of religion in the narrative, for Tacitus constructs a picture of a Rome with ‘religious amnesia.’ The Annals are populated with characters, both emperors and their subjects, who fail to maintain the traditional religious practices of their forebears by neglecting prodigies and omens, committing impious murders, and even participating in the destruction of Rome’s sacred buildings. Alongside this forgetfulness of traditional religious practice runs the construction of a new memory – that of the deified Augustus – which leads to the veneration of living emperors in terms appropriate to gods. This religious narrative resonates with and illuminates Tacitean observations on the nature of power in imperial Rome. Furthermore, tracing the prominence of religious memory in the text improves our understanding of how Tacitus thinks about the past, and particularly how he thinks about the role of the historian in shaping memory for his readers. I consider various religious categories and their function in Tacitus’ writings, and how his characters interact with them: calendars (do Tacitus’ Romans preserve or change the traditional scheduling of festivals?), architecture (what determines the building of or alterations to temples and other religious monuments?), liturgy (do they worship in the same ways their ancestors did?), and images (how do they treat cult statues?). I analyze the patterns of behaviour, both in terms of ritual practice and in how Tacitus’ characters think about and interpret the supernatural, and consider how Rome’s religious past features in these patterns. The thesis is structured according to the reigns of individual emperors. Four chapters chart Tiberius’ accession, Germanicus’ death, its aftermath, and Sejanus’ rise to power; one chapter examines the religious antiquarian Claudius; and the final chapter analyzes Nero’s impieties and their consequences.

The Roman festival of the Lupercalia is one of the most discussed issues in the field of pre-Christian Roman religion. Hardly a year goes by without an article on the subject appearing in a major Classics journal. But the festival presents a range of issues that individual articles cannot address. This thesis is an attempt to present a modern analysis of the phenomenon of the Lupercalia as a whole, including literary, archaeological and historical evidence on the subject. The first section presents the ancient sources on the Lupercalia, and is divided into five chapters, each analysing a particular aspect of the festival: fertility, purification, the importance of the wolf and the foundation myth, the mythology of Arcadian origins, and Caesar's involvement with the Lupercalia of 44 BC. The second section places the Lupercalia in a wider context, discussing the festival's topography and the course of the running Luperci, its relationship to other lustration rituals, and its position in the Roman calendar, ending with an appraisal of the changes it underwent in late Antiquity. The third section employs methods from linguistics, anthropology and comparative religion to show that the Lupercalia involved a ritual of initiation, which was also reflected in the Roman foundation myth. The central chapter of this section discusses the methodology used in comparative Indo-European mythology, and offers a case study that parallels the god of the festival (Faunus) with Rudra of Vedic Hinduism. The last chapter considers other parallels with Indian religion, especially the relationship between flamen and brahmin. The thesis challenges a number of established theories on the subject and offers new evidence to show that the festival has Indo-European origins, but also that it played an important role throughout Roman history.

In 1918, Archbishop Shaw invited the Texas Catholic religious order, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, to New Orleans to manage the St. Louis Cathedral and its filial parish for Southern Italians, St. Mary’s Church. This thesis will look at the personalities and preferentialism that affected this early 20th century transfer of religious power from secular priests to a religious order. Comparing the language used by Archbishop Shaw in correspondence with Oblate Fathers with the language he used with his secular priests will determine that Shaw displayed favoritism in his decision to invite the Oblates. This decision was affected by four primary factors: Shaw’s prior relationship with the Oblates as Bishop of San Antonio, his concerns with archdiocesan finances, his perceived threat of encroaching Protestantism, and politics of discontent amongst his secular clergy. Shaw’s distinct idealistic pragmatism shows the dynamic nature of the institution of the Catholic Church in Louisiana.

Civil unions are currently a divisive issues in the United States. Religion has historically influenced these debates. The French version of civil union, the Pacte Civil de Solidarité (Pacs,) was created in 1999 after seven years of debate. Many have written about the Pacs in the last decade. However, few have explored the direct correlations with France's relationship with Catholicism, her dominant religion that is doctrinally opposed to any sexual relationships outside of marriage. Laïcité has influenced a steady decrease in religiosity among French Catholics. This thesis explores the impact of this religious decline on the creation and surprising popularity of the Pacs, especially among heterosexual couples seeking an alternative to traditional marriage. The author believes that French society's tendency to modify institutions to meet the needs of the times assures a permanent place in society for both marriage and the Catholic Church, though both will probably continue to change forms.

This thesis takes as its starting point current views on the relationship between man and god in Archaic and Classical Greek literature, according to which mortality and immortality are primarily temporal concepts and, therefore, mutually exclusive. This thesis aims to show that this mutual exclusivity between mortality and immortality is emphasised only in certain poetic genres, while others, namely those centred on extraordinary achievements or exceptional moments in the life of a mortal, can reduce the temporal notion of immortality and emphasise instead the happiness, success, and undisturbed existence that characterise divine life. Here, the paradox of momentary immortality emerges as something attainable to mortals in the poetic representation of certain occasions. The chapters of this thesis pursue such notions of momentary immortality in the wedding ceremony, as presented through wedding songs, in celebrations for athletic victory, as presented through the epinician, and at certain stages of the tragic plot. In the chapter on the wedding song, the discussion focuses on explicit comparisons between the beauty of bride and bridegroom and that of heroes or gods, and between their happiness and divine bliss. The chapter on the epinician analyses the parallelism between the achievement of victory and the exploits of mythical heroes, and argues for a parallelism between the victory celebration and immortalisation. Finally, the chapter on tragedy examines how characters are perceived as godlike because of their beauty, success, or power, and discusses how these perceptions are exploited by the tragedians for certain effects. By examining features of a rhetoric of praise, this thesis is not concerned with the beliefs or expectations of the author, the recipient of praise, or the surrounding milieu. It rather intends to elucidate how moments conceived of as extraordinary are communicated in poetry.

This thesis investigates the Roman idea of fortuna, by examining its representation in different media (coins, cults, philosophy, and literature) and the thought worlds which these media inhabited. Drawing chiefly on evidence from the late Republic and the first two centuries of the Empire, I examine the interactions between the meanings of fortuna and the contexts in which they occur, showing how fortuna was used to construct understandings of broader social processes. Chapter 1 charts how various groups and individuals appropriated the religious character of fortuna into discourses of power to promote their interests, from the first archaic cults through to Imperial fortunae. By propitiating fortuna, the founders and worshippers of these cults attempted to ‘tame’ fortuna by representing themselves or the groups to which they belonged as particularly favoured by this deity. Chapter 2 examines how literary authors used fortuna to talk about ideas of social status, luck, chance, and fate. How these authors chose to describe fortuna, or which powers they chose to ascribe to her, were choices frequently determined by the text’s relationship to the structures of Roman power. Chapter 3 examines the iconography of fortuna on Imperial coins, for which I used a statistical methodology to quantify her numismatic representation. This sets our understanding of the interconnections between numismatic iconography and cultural and political history on a firmer basis and allows us to analyse more precisely how fortuna was imagined in imperial ideology. I look at the periods in which fortuna was most often deployed and when her iconography and legends underwent the greatest changes, discussing the political and cultural contexts that motivated these uses. Chapter 4 addresses philosophical conceptions of fortuna. I look at what was peculiarly Roman about how Roman Stoics and Epicureans figured fortuna in their physics and ethics, focusing especially on the philosophical and cultural implications of their concern with fortuna.

This thesis places Chaucer within the tradition of philosophical poetry that begins in Plato and extends through classical and medieval Latin culture. In this Platonic tradition, poetry is a self-reflexive epistemological practice that interrogates the conditions of art in general. As such, poetry as metapoetics takes itself as its own object of inquiry in order to reinforce and generate its own definitions without regard to extrinsic considerations. It attempts to create a poetic-knowledge proper instead of one that is dependant on other modes for meaning. The particular manner in which this is expressed is according to the idea of the loss of the Golden Age. In the Augustinian context of Chaucer’s poetry, language, in its literal and historical signifying functions is an effect of the noetic fall and a deformation of an earlier symbolism. The Chaucerian poems this thesis considers concern themselves with the solution to a historical literary lament for language’s fall, a solution that suggests that the instability in language can be overcome with reference to what has been lost in language. The chapters are organized to reflect the medieval Neoplatonic ascensus. The first chapter concerns the Pardoner’s Old Man and his relationship to the literary history of Tithonus in which the renewing of youth is ironically promoted in order to perpetually delay eternity and make the current world co-eternal to the coming world. In the Miller’s Tale, more aggressive narrative strategies deploy the machinery of atheism in order to make a god-less universe the sufficient grounds for the transformation of a fallen and contingent world into the only world whatsoever. The Manciple’s Tale’s opposite strategy leaves the world intact in its current state and instead makes divine beings human. Phoebus expatriates to earth and attempts to co-mingle it with heaven in order to unify art and history into a single monistic experience. Finally, the Nun’s Priest’s Tale acts as ars poetica for the entire Chaucerian Performance and undercuts the naturalistic strategies of the first three poems by a long experiment in the philosophical conflict between art and history. By imagining art and history as epistemologically antagonistic it attempts to subdue in a definitive manner poetic strategies that would imagine human history as the necessary knowledge-condition for poetic language.

This thesis provides a fresh investigation of a collection of Roman imperial biographies conventionally known as the 'Historia Augusta'. The thesis supports the authenticity of the texts included in this corpus, in particular the claims they make about their dates, authorship, and scope, through philological, literary, prosopographical, and historical arguments. It shows that this corpus of texts, if the main conclusions are accepted, potentially improves our understanding of the tetrarchic-Constantinian era. It also explores the wider implications for the historiography of the fourth century; the transmission and formation of multi-author corpora in antiquity and the middle ages. It also suggests that the canon of Latin imperial biographies be widened. The thesis has two parts. Part I explores the actual state of the corpus, its textual transmission, and relation to other texts. It shows that the ancient and medieval paratexts presented the corpus as a collection of imperial biographies. The paratexts are compatible with the authorial statements in the main text. It then explores the corpus' medieval transmission, and the interest medieval scholars had in such texts. This part suggests that the corpus’s current state explains well the inconsistencies found in it. Finally, it shows that words and phrases, once thought peculiar to the corpus and the holy grail of the forgery argument, are intertextual links to earlier texts. Part II explores chronological statements and historical episodes relevant to the Diocletianic-Constantinan period. It establishes the actual dates of each author, and suggests that the confusion found in these biographies is similar to that of other contemporaries. The few apostrophes are shown to be authentic, and the historical and prosopographical passages are shown to represent, and improve our understanding of, the zeitgeist and history of the period. The final conclusion weaves the various arguments together, and emphasises the authenticity and significance of the corpus' texts. It suggests separating the composition of the texts from the disinterested formation of the corpus as a whole, as part of a new hypothesis and further lines of enquiry.

My doctoral dissertation examines the relationship between the sacred and literature, explores how the Bible has influenced the literary production of Antonia Pozzi, Cristina Campo, and Margherita Guidacci, and reveals that each author had a distinctive way of dealing with the Sacred Book. In the first chapter I retrace the studies on the topic of Bible and Literature, and I show how literary critics only recently have begun to work intensively on them (in the past the "historical school" founded by De Sanctis and followed by Croce devoted few studies to the subject of the sacred and even so, only to those periods where the influence of the Scriptures was clear and indeed obvious, such as the Middle Ages and the Counter-Reformation). In the same chapter I explain my reason for deciding to study Pozzi, Campo, and Guidacci. These three authors share analogous biographical experiences and episodes that deeply influenced their lives (the presence of an authoritarian father, family losses, and sad love experiences). Moreover, their studies (specifically, European writers and philosophers) were of the same nature. I demonstrate that, although contemporary Italian literature is heterogeneous and varied, these three women astonishingly shared the same background that explains their concentration on the sacred. In the following chapter I consider the writers individually, in order to examine the path that led them to a dialogue with the religious and the sacred. In Pozzi, the sacred is something that lies beyond human understanding and, for all her attempts to reach it, she always fails due to her incapacity to fully free helself from human passions. In Campo and in Guidacci on the other hand, the sacred search is always consistent and, notwithstanding some missteps and second thoughts, they are able to basically fulfill their task. After the study of their ideas, in the last chapter I move to the poetical language used by these writers. It has been very interesting to see what is essentially the same vocabulary appearing again and again in our poets. As it is known, the biblical language is based on symbols that evoke a union between the contingent and the Absolute. Pozzi, Campo, and Guidacci were not only able to interpret the biblical symbology but they also used some of those terms in their poems; specifically I focused my attention on the recurrence of five words-symbols: assenza, deserto, nulla, fiore, luce (absence, desert, emptiness, flower, light). It is really significant that the writers in question use the same biblical symbols as poetical words: it is a vocabulary that ties together literary and religious experience. Their connection is also strengthened by the reference and the predilection for same specific books of the Bible, such as Job and The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet for Pozzi, and the Gospels, Psalms, and The Song of Songs for Campo and Guidacci. In my analysis I show that already in the desert we can see the first signs of Pozzi's weakness: In this solitary place, where the soul must deal with herself to reach the emptying of earthly passions, Pozzi got lost and fell into the error of looking backwards, to the beloved she had left. On the other hand, Campo and Guidacci were able to reach the spiritual light, so their journey through biblical symbolism can be finally considered complete. In other words, Pozzi's path towards the Scripture is fulfilled piecemeal and never ends in it, while in Campo and Guidacci the Scripture becomes an integral part of their lives, so they are constantly enlightened by the Word of God, while Pozzi misses this Light and sinks into the darkness of death. Finally, considering the fact that they have been relatively isolated from the literary world until recently, I do not believe they were rejected by a misogynist society, but rather by the fact that those years were demanding an active social participation. The women treated here never made that choice, instead they dedicated themselves to the search for the sacred, an issue not "present" in the years in which they lived. So I think that it was this combination of poetic themes and lifestyle choices that excluded them. In conclusion my work, which could have considered many other poets, confirms the point of view from which I started: the theme of the sacred in the twentieth century literature does not seem to present itself as a school or current, but is characterized by its inevitable uniqueness so that each poetic experience is described for its extraordinary authenticity and uniqueness. If anything, we can talk about similarities and links between these poets based on common readings that provide the basis on which to develop their own religious experiences.

Abstract This thesis illustrates the social engagement in the literary writings of Pier Vittorio Tondelli, an Italian gay author whose works have been described by many Catholic, Materialists, and gay critics as frivolous and disengaged. The dissertation summarizes the mutation of the Italian literary concept of impegno from Neorealism to Postmodernism, through a selection of the texts of Elio Vittorini, Italo Calvino, Franco Fortini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Leonardo Sciascia, and Umberto Eco. It shows how Tondelli’s interpretation of the role of the writer falls within the definitions given by Calvino and Eco. Moreover, the thesis demonstrates that Altri libertini and Pao Pao satisfy the characteristics of littérature mineure established by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, though Tondelli’s oeuvre is socially engaged instead of being politically engaged because of his lack of a political ideology. The dissertation highlights the core of Tondelli’s social commitment in his passionate defense of the outcasts in: Altri libertini where drug addicts, homosexuals, transsexuals, and bums are the protagonists; Pao Pao where a group of gay soldiers is described in its grotesque and camp attempt to “homosexualize” their barrack; Rimini where the Riviera Adriatica is portrayed as a place where everyone passes by and no one belongs; Camere separate through the love story of a gay couple in which one partner has to survive his lover’s death, due to an illness that is demonstrated in this thesis to be AIDS, while fighting against the homophobia of their families, institutions, society, and religion. Most of Tondelli’s socially excluded characters are introduced to the reader through an internal homodiegetic point of view. Another important component of Tondelli’s impegno is his open defense of both pop-culture and counter-cultures: gay, hippies, rockers, experimental theatre, street artists and alternative radio, which are central in all his writings.