This dissertation is the first comprehensive analysis of the subject of mortality in Gerard Manle... more This dissertation is the first comprehensive analysis of the subject of mortality in Gerard Manley Hopkins's writings. Hopkins's writings on this subject are broad and varied: while still a student at Oxford, Hopkins became fascinated by martyrs; later, as a priest he would go on to write movingly about the deaths of parishioners in his care and would extol the virtues of soldiers, or "daredeaths" as he refers to them in one poem; finally, toward the end of his life, Hopkins became preoccupied with the role our own mortality plays in shaping our life, perspective, and choices. While previous scholars have tended to dismiss Hopkins's interest in death as "morbid" and have commonly rejected the notion that there is a unified perspective on death in his writings, I argue that his treatment of death exhibits both a fundamental unity and an ethical perspective. In a synthesis of formal criticism and moral philosophy, I show that Hopkins's poems are not so much emotional expressions as spiritual exercises; they are both shaped by and imitative of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola as well as the broader tradition of spiritual exercises in Christian and classical thought. As such, they provide methods for responding to death ethically by using our experiences and awareness of death to redirect and transform our will and desires.
Le roman d’Oscar Wilde Le Portrait de Dorian Gray se distingue des autres, fait rare, non seuleme... more Le roman d’Oscar Wilde Le Portrait de Dorian Gray se distingue des autres, fait rare, non seulement par son contenu controverse, mais egalement par son histoire textuelle controversee. En fait, les deux sont inseparables. Lors des differents proces de Wilde, les procureurs ont utilise le fait que Wilde ait change – ou plutot “expurge”, pour reprendre leur terme – de nombreux aspects du roman apres sa premiere parution dans le Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Mais ni eux ni la majorite des lecteurs de Wilde ne savaient que le tapuscrit original avait deja fait l’objet d’une censure importante sans la permission de Wilde avant que le roman ne se retrouve sous presse. Dans cet article, je me propose d’etudier ces trois textes – le tapuscrit, la version pour le magazine et la premiere edition – en utilisant a la fois les methodes des etudes textuelles et les methodes de l’histoire sociale et litteraire afin de demontrer que les differentes versions du Portrait de Dorian Gray representent en fait plusieurs polemiques concernant le statut des objets materiels memes. L’unique roman de Wilde est depuis longtemps considere comme une critique de la societe victorienne, mais c’est seulement en comprenant la dimension sociale que revetent les concretisations materielles de ce roman que nous pouvons mesurer aujourd’hui toute la portee de cette critique.
Critics and biographers have long expressed misgivings about Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ethical persp... more Critics and biographers have long expressed misgivings about Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ethical perspective. Characterising him as overly ‘morbid’ or ‘scrupulous’, they present his moral preoccupations as injurious to his imagination. Here I offer a fuller, more sympathetic account of Hopkins’ moral theology, showing three key ways that morality not only harmonises with but actually provides a central, productive focus in his works. Drawing upon the recent work of Linda Zagzebski, I characterise Hopkins as a Christocentric moral exemplarist, one who prioritises persons over principles, finds motivation in the emotion of admiration, and understands all moral acts as acts of emulation.
This dissertation is the first comprehensive analysis of the subject of mortality in Gerard Manle... more This dissertation is the first comprehensive analysis of the subject of mortality in Gerard Manley Hopkins's writings. Hopkins's writings on this subject are broad and varied: while still a student at Oxford, Hopkins became fascinated by martyrs; later, as a priest he would go on to write movingly about the deaths of parishioners in his care and would extol the virtues of soldiers, or "daredeaths" as he refers to them in one poem; finally, toward the end of his life, Hopkins became preoccupied with the role our own mortality plays in shaping our life, perspective, and choices. While previous scholars have tended to dismiss Hopkins's interest in death as "morbid" and have commonly rejected the notion that there is a unified perspective on death in his writings, I argue that his treatment of death exhibits both a fundamental unity and an ethical perspective. In a synthesis of formal criticism and moral philosophy, I show that Hopkins's poems are not so much emotional expressions as spiritual exercises; they are both shaped by and imitative of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola as well as the broader tradition of spiritual exercises in Christian and classical thought. As such, they provide methods for responding to death ethically by using our experiences and awareness of death to redirect and transform our will and desires.
Le roman d’Oscar Wilde Le Portrait de Dorian Gray se distingue des autres, fait rare, non seuleme... more Le roman d’Oscar Wilde Le Portrait de Dorian Gray se distingue des autres, fait rare, non seulement par son contenu controverse, mais egalement par son histoire textuelle controversee. En fait, les deux sont inseparables. Lors des differents proces de Wilde, les procureurs ont utilise le fait que Wilde ait change – ou plutot “expurge”, pour reprendre leur terme – de nombreux aspects du roman apres sa premiere parution dans le Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Mais ni eux ni la majorite des lecteurs de Wilde ne savaient que le tapuscrit original avait deja fait l’objet d’une censure importante sans la permission de Wilde avant que le roman ne se retrouve sous presse. Dans cet article, je me propose d’etudier ces trois textes – le tapuscrit, la version pour le magazine et la premiere edition – en utilisant a la fois les methodes des etudes textuelles et les methodes de l’histoire sociale et litteraire afin de demontrer que les differentes versions du Portrait de Dorian Gray representent en fait plusieurs polemiques concernant le statut des objets materiels memes. L’unique roman de Wilde est depuis longtemps considere comme une critique de la societe victorienne, mais c’est seulement en comprenant la dimension sociale que revetent les concretisations materielles de ce roman que nous pouvons mesurer aujourd’hui toute la portee de cette critique.
Critics and biographers have long expressed misgivings about Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ethical persp... more Critics and biographers have long expressed misgivings about Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ethical perspective. Characterising him as overly ‘morbid’ or ‘scrupulous’, they present his moral preoccupations as injurious to his imagination. Here I offer a fuller, more sympathetic account of Hopkins’ moral theology, showing three key ways that morality not only harmonises with but actually provides a central, productive focus in his works. Drawing upon the recent work of Linda Zagzebski, I characterise Hopkins as a Christocentric moral exemplarist, one who prioritises persons over principles, finds motivation in the emotion of admiration, and understands all moral acts as acts of emulation.
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