Philosophy Commons^™

The Agrarian Ideology: Fascism As Utopia And Hypocrisy, Jost Hermand

University of Dayton Review

In the eyes of Marxist theorists fascism is seen as the most immediate and brutal manifestation of imperialism ; that is, it is a form of capitalism which seizes upon right-radical elements of society during times of economic and social upheaval in an effort to maintain a system of total suppression and control of public opinion. Internally, fascism is evoked to dissolve the opposition of leftist labor organizations; externally, it launches an aggressive mobilization of the interests of "big business" by creating new colonies, outlets for manufactured goods, sources of raw materials and areas of market manipulation. Thus viewed, Hitler …

Emilia Gaiotti And The Limits Of Psychological Criticism, Frank G. Ryder

University of Dayton Review

Psychoanalytic and psychological criticism of literature abounds, but the encounter, in an integral reading, of a fully qualified psychologist and an acknowledged literary masterpiece is not a commonplace event. In this light a recent interpretation of Lessing's Emilia Galotti deserves attention. In addressing myself to it, I am more interested in examining the implications and consequences of the encounter than in making ad hoc objections to a specific interpreter or his work. Admittedly the line of separation is sometimes obscure.

Horse’S Skull And Soul-Mouse: Folklore In A ‘Fairy-Tale’ By Wiihelm Busch, John Fitzell

University of Dayton Review

Elements of folklore in literature—motif and/or symbol—tend to be archetypal by nature. This is eminently true of Busch’s weird skull and mysterious mouse. A perceptive reader senses a symbolic level even in the humorous poem. Goethe’s remarks on motif, symbol, and folk-tale can serve here as an introduction to our examination of what appears to be a mere light verse tale.

Goethe's "Das Gottliche": A New Reading, Christoph E. Schweitzer

University of Dayton Review

The following interpretation of Goethe’s poem "Das Gottliche" is not entirely original: If one considers the fame of the poem—who does not know by heart its first verse?—and the quantity of Goethe scholarship, it stands to reason that some of the ideas presented here can be found elsewhere. We will refer to such agreement at the appropriate place in the article. However, there are major points in our reading of "Das Gottliche" that are original and that let us see the poem in a new light.

Thomas Mann And Teachers, Walter D. Morris

University of Dayton Review

Thomas Mann's attitude toward the teaching profession is in many ways a negative one. He attacked and ridiculed conventional teachers, and he made teachers of manners laughable and pitiful. Nevertheless, he did have great respect for the good teacher who is a master in his field and who attracts pupils of ability. The pedagogical ideal which Mann developed is a personal, aesthetic one in which teacher and pupil are drawn together by love and where education takes place as an end in itself. The process is creative, not infrequently involving the demonic. It may lead one into difficulty, but it …

Thomas Mann And 'The Jewish Question': Perhaps The Last Word, Sol Gittleman

University of Dayton Review

Perhaps the least discussed—and for that reason least understood—of the multitudinous facets of Thomas Mann's writings has been that which concerns his image of the Jew. Generally, the subject is not mentioned even in the more comprehensive studies of Mann's works. The story which deals most directly with a Jewish theme, The Blood of the Volsungs (Wälsungenblut, 1905), has attracted relatively little critical attention. This is remarkable for two reasons. Artistically, it is a minor masterpiece; and biographically, the story became the center of a storm of outrage within Mann's own family and precipitated a …

The Symbolic Use Of Color In Heinrich Böll's Billard Um Halbzehn, Gertrud Bauer Pickar

University of Dayton Review

The central role of the billiard table and the game played upon it within Böll’s novel has significant ramifications, among them the initiation of a color system, which is subsequently employed consistently throughout the novel. In the course of the text, the reader’s attention is focused repeatedly upon the billiard table and upon the red and white balls rolling over its green surface. Indeed, the words “weiß über grün, rot über griin, rot-weiß über grün” serve as a refrain which becomes one of the key leitmotifs in the work. They establish as well a trio of colors which …

The Soviet Version Of Heinrich Böll’S Gruppenbild Mit Dame: The Translator As Censor, Henry Glade, Konstantin Bogatyrev

University of Dayton Review

All of Heinrich Böll’s major fictional works have been translated into Russian and have appeared in book form, except for "Irisches Tagebuch" (Novij mir) and "Ende einer Dienstfahrt" (Inostrannaja literatura). In accordance with the special rules and quirks of the Soviet publishing system, issuance of his major works has not proceeded in chronological order: from Und sagte kein einziges Wort in 1957 to the volume comprising Der Zug war pünktlich; Im Tal der donnernden Hufe; Entfernung von der Truppe in 1971. Publication of any foreign book in the Soviet Union is never a routine matter, and …

Die Marionette Ais Interpretationsansatz Zu Bölls Ansichten Eines Clowns, Ralf R. Nicolai

University of Dayton Review

No abstract provided.

Geld Und Liebe In Bölls Roman Und Sagte Kein Einziges Wort, Ehrhard Bahr

University of Dayton Review

No abstract provided.

The Author As Advocatus Dei In Heinrich Böll’S Group Portrait With Lady, Theodore Ziolkowski

University of Dayton Review

In the lectures on aesthetics that he delivered in 1963-64 at the University of Frankfurt, Heinrich Böll enunciated a precept that is too often forgotten, or at least ignored, by literary scholars and critics. “The content of a prose work, after all, is its presupposition, a gift; and you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.” Böll does not mean, of course, that content is irrelevant; but he suggests that criticism often neglects to concern itself with that aspect of the literary work that is specifically aesthetic: its form. “Recapitulation of plot without analysis of form makes possible all …

A Feminist Critique Of Böll's Ansichten Eines Clowns, Evelyn T. Beck

University of Dayton Review

At this point in time, we cannot honestly speak of feminist criticism as if it were a single, unified approach. As a method, it is still in the process of being forged, and for this reason, I believe it would be more accurate to speak in terms of a variety of feminist approaches, some focusing on women characters, some on women writers, yet others linking up with existing modes of criticism. There is however, one basic assumption that unites all feminist perspectives: They take as given that women are as important as men—that is, they reject the male-centered view of …

Cover And Front Matter, University Of Dayton

University of Dayton Review

Cover, table of contents

Introduction, Robert C. Conard

University of Dayton Review

With this appearance of the UDR, it is the third time an issue of the journal has published the papers of the Heinrich Böll Seminar of the Modern Language Association of America. For cooperation in this effort to publish important recent criticism of the work of Heinrich Böll thanks are due to the organizer of the 1975 seminar, Professor Gertrud Pickar of the University of Houston, and to the participants in the seminar: Professors Theodore Ziolkowski of Princeton University, Evelyn Beck of the University of Wisconsin, Ralf Nicolai of the University of Georgia, Ehrhard Bahr of the University of California, …

Thomistic Wit And The Medieval English Hymn, Michael H. Means

University of Dayton Review

It is only fitting that we celebrate the 700th anniversary of St. Thomas Aquinas not only with scholarship and argumentation, but also with music and song and poem. Although he wrote only a few hymns, St. Thomas is one of the greatest and most profound of the Latin hymnodists. To pay homage to that aspect of his life's work, I wish here to single out a distinguishing characteristic of his religious verse and then look for similar characteristics in a rather different body of poetry, the religious lyrics of medieval England.

Natural Law: New Clues For Contemporary Issues, Robert B. Mellert S.M.

University of Dayton Review

The composite of ethical concerns facing civilization at this point in history seems to indicate that the fundamental ethical issue is no longer that of interpersonal relationships, but that of the man-nature relationship. This is evident not only with regard to the ecological crisis and our concern for establishing an environmental ethics, but also in the implications of some of the new biological advances and the ethical questions they are beginning to generate.

St. Thomas And The Preambles Of Faith, Ralph Mcinerny

University of Dayton Review

On several occasions St. Thomas makes use of the phrase praeambula fidei in speaking of those truths about God which are accessible to unaided human reason. It is well known that Thomas thought that pagan philosophers, notably Aristotle, had succeeded in proving that God exists and had come to knowledge of many of His attributes. These are the matters the phrase “preambles of faith” is meant to cover, and that is why discussion of it can aspire to cast some light on the notion of Natural Theology, the culminating concern of metaphysics and thus of philosophy.

St. Thomas And The Natural Order Of Things, Henry B. Veatch

University of Dayton Review

Surely, it must stand to reason that whatever our respect and even our reverence may be on the occasion of commemorating the 700th anniversary of a particular man's death, the very fact that it is a 700th anniversary must somehow betoken that the man himself is, to say the least, somewhat out of date! And so it is with St. Thomas. Let's face it: In the language of today's slang, he just doesn't seem to be "with it" any more. True, this does not mean that it is not at least conceivable that he might be more "with it" than …

Aquinas As A Political Theorist, W. Kenneth Howard

University of Dayton Review

That perennial controversy over the role of "normative" theory in social science has apparently abated somewhat; however, it is just such occasions as these that send academic political scientists wringing their hands. The work of St. Thomas Aquinas is hardly considered to increase our knowledge of political phenomena; he was, after all, a friar, hardly a political man, and he wrote philosophy. That latter charge is meant as the clincher. What could he possibly contribute toward an understanding of the political?

The question is fair enough; and here I propose an analysis of his only explicit political work, On Kingship. …

Saint Thomas And Social Justice, William Ferree S.M.

University of Dayton Review

The modern scientific concept of Social Justice is no older than the month of May of 1931 — the date of the publication by Pius XI of his Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno. It is true that the term “Social Justice” had been coming into increasing use since the middle of the 19th century, but its meaning was fuzzy and ambiguous and amounted to little more than “social problems.” In Pius XI, the term is a scientific renaming of the age-old “legal justice,” which comes down to us across the centuries from the golden age of Greek Philosophy but which, through more …