Ph.D theses on alchemy

Ph.D theses on alchemy

A provisional list of some Ph.D. theses on alchemy and hermeticism.
Microfilms of most of these can be ordered on Inter-Library loan through many educational institutions and libraries.
Back to reference library . Theses authors I-O . Theses authors P-Z.

1. Akerman, Susanna Kristina.
Queen Christina of Sweden and her circle: a study in seventeenth-century political theology.
Order No: AAC 8818501 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY (0252) Degree: PHD Date: 1988 pp: 384
Source: DAI-A 49/08, p. 2249, Feb 1989
Subject: PHILOSOPHY (0422)
Abstract: Queen Christina's abdication in 1654 and her subsequent journey to Rome is explained in a twofold context: First, I show that the Queen's ideas on immortality, and especially Leibniz' report on her adoption of a philosophical belief in a single universal spirit, accounts for the contemporary rumours about her libertine, i.e. heterodox, religious opinions. I account for Christina's World Soul philosophy by describing some possible background causes to her attitude. I argue that the spiritual atomism of Swedish-Baltic thinkers may explain Christina's statement that Lucretius' philosophy is her religion. The studies in theological linguistics at the Stockholm Academy founded the Hermetic esthetics of the Stockholm court. Second, I show that this structure of ideas is compatible with millenarian doctrines that can explain Christina's political moves in the years following the abdication, beginning with her attempt in 1656 to set herself up as the future monarch of Naples. Her support of Isaac La Peyrere' s work on men before Adam poses the question of her relationship to the Prince of Conde, and to the group who argued that Conde was the legitimate heir of the throne in France. La Peyrere's doctrine on the Political Messiah may have played a role in Christina's acceptance of pope Alexander VII as the Angelic Pope who through his league against the Ottomans would save Europe from disintegration.
By showing the mythical character of Descartes' "Catholic" influence on Queen Christina, I argue that the Queen's irreligious scepticism comes to the foreground. The evidence in the reports of Christina's Jesuit instructors does not preclude that her conversion primarily was a political act. I show that her fringe involvement with alchemy and astrology is tied to her World Soul philosophy and that such activity gave her insights that facilited her acceptance of Molinos' Quietist internalism. In concert with Leibniz' argument I pose the question of the underlying similarities between World Soul philosophers and spiritual personalists. I consider the social conditions for European internalism and its simultaneous development among Quakers, Jansenists, and Quietists and pose the question whether these forms of mysticism were due to the breakdown of midcentury expectations for the millenium and its accompaning doctrine of restitution.
Finally, I argue that Christina's abdication and unusual existence as a political convert gave arguments to the Enlightenment critique of royal grace and absolute sovereignty.

2. Ambrose, Elizabeth Ann.
Self and cosmos in Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, Meister Eckhart and Paracelsus.
Order No: AAC 9234297 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY (0252) Degree: PHD Date: 1992 pp: 242
Advisor: POAG, JAMES F.; WILLIAMS, GERHILD SCHOLZ
Source: DAI-A 53/07, p. 2386, Jan 1993
Subject: LITERATURE, GERMANIC (0311); HISTORY OF SCIENCE (0585); RELIGION, HISTORY OF (0320)
Abstract: This dissertation analyzes the concepts of interior/exterior, i.e. self and cosmos, in the Corpus Hermeticum, selected sermons of Meister Eckhart, and the Astronomia magna and Opus paramirum of Paracelsus. These works arose at critical points in the history of spirituality and philosophy; they reflect human attempts to come to terms with the mutability and uncertainty of an often incomprehensible universe, a problem which dramatically increased in intensity with the advent of the early modern period. This study investigates important stages in the development of modern self-concept and self-awareness, represented by Hermetism, medieval German mystical theology, and early modern humanistic/alchemical philosophy. It compares and contrasts these modes of thought, and their representative texts, in an intellectual-historical and psychological light, focusing on issues of identity, faith, transcendence, and autonomy. The nature and degree of systematization present in each of these philosophies, which is most visible in the structuring of interior and exterior worlds, greatly illuminates the evolutionary nature of human self-perception.

3. Amourette, Gerard.
Jean Vauquelin des Yveteaux (1651-1716), sa vie, son oeuvre, et le milieu des alchimistes Normands du XVIIe siecle.
These de doctorat de IIIe cycle. Histoire de l'esoterisme chretien, Directeur d'etudes: M. Francois Secret. Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Ve section - Sciences religieuses.

4. Anthony, Elizabeth A.
Imaginal noesis and the alchemical art.
Order No: AAC MM60956 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: YORK UNIVERSITY (CANADA) (0267) Degree: MA Date: 1990 pp: 383
Advisor: CLARKSON, AUSTIN
Source: MAI 30/03, p. 572, Fall 1992
Subject: SOCIOLOGY, INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY STUDIES (0628)
Abstract: This thesis grounds itself in the image of the alchemist's furnace, the athanor. A preface documents the origin of this image as a potent symbol within the author's experience.
The thesis is arranged in two parts. Part One defines imaginal noesis as that process of coming-to-know the simultaneity of self and world as it presents itself to us, as us, within psychic fields of felt meanings. This way of knowing occurs through interaction with the commanding images that present themselves to our consciousness.
Part Two provides an instance of involvement in alchemical imaginal processes through my engagement in the construction of a bread oven, a personalized athanor-image.
Imaginal noesis within the alchemical model is offered as a way of restoring wholeness to human perception and being, both intrapsychically and within the social and natural environment. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

5. Baldrian, Farzeen.
Alchimie interieure des song. Etude introductive d'un systeme accompagnee d'une traduction du Ling-Pao Pifa.
Nature : Doctorat de 3e cycle. Ancien regime. Discipline : Etudes Indiennes et extreme-Orientales. Date : 1979. University : Paris 7.

6. Beretta, Marco.
The enlightenment of matter: the definition of chemistry from Agricola to Lavoisier (Georgius Agricola, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier).
Order No: NOT AVAILABLE FROM UMI ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: UPPSALA UNIVERSITET (SWEDEN) (0903) Degree: FILDR Date: 1993 pp: 397
Source: DAI-C 55/03, p. 732, Fall 1994
Subject: HISTORY OF SCIENCE (0585)
ISBN: 0-88135-152-0 Publisher: SCIENCE HISTORY PUBLICATIONS/USA, WATSON PUBLISHING INTERNATIONAL, P.O. BOX 493, CANTON, MA 02021, USA
Abstract: This study examines the historical development of the attempts to reform the nomenclature of early chemistry. It is shown that the historical emergence of chemistry as a scientific discipline during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was closely tied to the move to provide a new foundation for its technical language. Chapter One provides a short overview of the historiography of science and chemistry during the eighteenth century. Chapter Two investigates the relationship between the progress made by some eighteenth-century sciences and the lively discussions on the origin of their language. Chapter Three examines the sources and the development of the lexicons of metallurgy, mineralogy, alchemy, and chemistry during the period 1500 to 1782. Chapter Four analyzes in detail the contents of the Methode de nomenclature chimique, a work published in 1787 in which Lavoisier and his collaborators established the basis of the modern nomenclature of inorganic chemistry. Chapter Five offers an analysis of Lavoisier's masterpiece, the Traite elementaire de chimie (published in 1789), and considers the reception of this work in Europe. A brief appendix reconstructs the development of alchemical and chemical symbolism and discusses their affinities and differences.

7. Bernardo, Anthony J.
A functional approach to the unconscious in the 'circe' episode of James Joyce's 'Ulysses' (Ireland)
Order No: AAC 1332858 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY (0928) Degree: MA Date: 1987 pp: 129
Source: MAI 26/04, p. 372, Winter 1988
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593)
Abstract: Throught the seemingly chaotic presentation of unconscious material via projection hallucination in "Circe" occurs an organized process of psychic integration that Bloom and Stephen undergo. Viewed from the perspective of Jungian alchemical transformation in the unconscious, the brothel scene becomes the ritual immersion into the primal chaos that Bloom and Stephen encounters the terrifying aspect of the mother archetype that has filled him with guilt and anxiety regarding his personal mother and rendered his artistic isolation fruitless. Bloom faces his unconscious self-created image of worthlessness personified in submission to female domination centered around the infidelity of his wife Molly (of which he is painfully aware) and the death of his son Rudy (unfulfilled paternal aspect). They emerge more confident human beings as well as archetypal figures.

8. Biel, Timothy Levi
Natural magic and modern science in the poetic works of Novalis and Shelley (alchemy, romantic poetry, neoplatonism)
Order No: AAC 8702530 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY (0251) Degree: PHD
Date: 1986 pp: 188
Source: DAI-A 47/10, p. 3752, Apr 1987
Subject: LITERATURE, COMPARATIVE (0295); LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593); LITERATURE, GERMANIC (0311)
Abstract: Although the English Romantic poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was twenty years younger than the German Romantic poet, Novalis, he never read Novalis' work. Despite this fact, however, many of the poetic works of these two Romantic poets reveal an extraordinary philosophic similarity. This emerges primarily from their attempts to "galvanize" their knowledge of philosophy and natural science into mystical truth.
Few poets or men of letters have studied both philosophy and natural science as intently as did Novalis and Shelley. Certainly no other Romantic poets used such extensive scientific knowledge in their creative works. This dissertation shows how the study of philosophy and science led to a remarkable similarity in Novalis' and Shelley's treatment of Nature. The most conspicuous resemblance is between Novalis' Heinrich von Ofterdingen and Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. Although the former is a novel containing a mixture of prose and verse, while the latter is a lyrical drama, the two works share a profound similarity in both substance and structure.
Like Heinrich von Ofterdingen, Prometheus Unbound is structured to portray three stages in a mythic cycle: first, an earthly paradise or golden age, then the fall from this state of innocence, and finally a new paradise on earth. Both poets use scientific knowledge as an important instrument for this final redemption. This application of science for mystical ends is a renewal of the medieval and Renaissance tradition of natural magic. Novalis and Shelley were disenchanted with the static, mechanical perception of the universe propagated by eighteenth-century thought. In their poetry they applied the mystical precepts of alchemy and Neoplatonism to the most current scientific theories and findings of their day.

9. Blumenthal, Harriet Spanierman.
A critical, old-spelling edition of Samuel Pordage's 'Mundorum explicatio'
Order No: AAC 8811292 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: TULANE UNIVERSITY (0235) Degree: PHD Date: 1987 pp: 928
Advisor: BOYETTE, PURVIS E.
Source: DAI-A 49/05, p. 1147, Nov 1988
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593)
Abstract: In 1661, six years before the publication of Milton's Paradise Lost, another epic appeared that justified the ways of God to men--Samuel Pordage's Mundorum Explicatio. Unusual among the many poetic biblical narratives of the seventeenth century for its mixture of theology with magic, mysticism, astrology, and alchemy, Mundorum Explicatio anticipates Paradise Lost in its treatment of hexameral themes.
Pordage, whose mystical natural philosophy is derived from the works of the German mystic Jacob Boehme, attempts to shape his material into epic form: He includes invocations, catalogues, extended similes, and celestial messengers, self-consciously measuring his style against the models of Tasso, Spenser, and DuBartas. However, Mundorum Explicatio is stylistically closer to the emblematic mode than the epic. A hieroglyphical figure that precedes the poem is the foundation for its structure. Pordage frequently refers his reader to the visual representation of the four spheres contained in the figure, creating a dialectic between the illustration and the poem that imitates the relationship of icon and gloss found in emblem books.
Pordage divides the poem into three parts. The first contains a didactic account of Creation and the Fall of Man, followed by an allegorical journey through the horrors of Hell. In the second part Pordage depicts the journey of a Pilgrim to the celestial world. The narration is propelled up the ladder of mystical ascent by a sequence of animated tableaux, emblematic representations of virtues and vices illustrating the spiritual struggles of the seeker of God. The third part is a brief description of the three orbs of the eternal world; each increases the Pilgrim's rapture as he moves toward ecstatic fusion with the Godhead at His golden throne in the center of the New Jerusalem.
The 1661 edition has served as the copy-text. The critical apparatus includes a record of substantive and accidental emendations, a set of textual and discursive notes, a historical collation of the 1661 edition and the manuscript, and specimens of the four scribal hands of the manuscript.

10. Bonardel, Francoise.
Vision du Grand OEuvre en Extreme Occident
Nature : Doctorat d'etat. Discipline: Philosophie. Grenoble 2 University. Date: 1984. Director: Durand, Gilbert.

11. Boulos, Pierre J.
Alchemy and Newton's philosophy of nature.
Order No: AAC MM64664 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY (CANADA) (0228) Degree: MA Date: 1990 pp: 118
Source: MAI 30/04, p. 1051, Winter 1992
Subject: PHILOSOPHY (0422); HISTORY OF SCIENCE (0585)
Abstract: Philosophers of Science have maintained that Newton's philosophy of nature is an example of a good scientific paradigm. Newton, it is claimed, is a founding member of that movement which brought about the scientific revolution. Newton has been presented as an ideal towards which all true scientists ought to aim in their quest to reveal the secrets of nature. Despite these claims this thesis proposes that Newton's esoteric projects were important to him. Furthermore, these projects helped him in forming some of his scientific theories. It will therefore be maintained that Newton's alchemy was as important to him as were his scientific endeavours. To show that this is true, the thesis is divided into three parts. The first part examines the topic of Newton and Empiricism. The second part is an examination of the main circumstantial evidence for Newton's interest in the esoteric. The third and final part is the examination of the main direct evidence connecting Newton and the esoteric. These findings illustrate the role of the mystical elements of Newton's thought in his scientific work. The results suggest that the study of alchemy is invaluable for understanding the context in which Newton made his chief scientific discoveries.

12. Brown, Barry Alan.
Alchemical themes and gnostic myth in Alfred Doblin's novel 'Wallenstein'
Order No: AAC 8018035 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: RICE UNIVERSITY (0187) Degree: PHD Date: 1980 pp: 213
Source: DAI-A 41/02, p. 684, Aug 1980
Subject: LITERATURE, GERMANIC (0311)
Abstract: This study identifies structural themes for analysis in relation to the mythopoeic contours of Alfred Doblin's "historical" novel Wallenstein. While its extensive historical and quasi-historical material conforms to empirical facticity, its fictional structure (or mythic aspect) reveals a modern gnostic myth of enlightenment and salvation countered by forces of darkness and chaos. The introductory chapter outlines bio-graphical conditions including Doblin's extensive research and planning before the writing of the novel. Partially on the basis of factual evidence, partly because of the coherent and intricate design of the novel, the "automatic" or spontaneous fallacy is rejected. Recent critical literature pertinent to Wallenstein and mythic elements in Doblin's works are examined. Finally, Doblin's own aesthetic theory of the genre and his reaction to the initial critical reception of Wallenstein are discussed in the context of the alchemical-esoteric images which are present to a limited degree even in Doblin's non-fictional writings. Chapter II presents a summary of the number symbolism imbedded in the novel's chapter and book divisions and gives a synopsis of the origins and traditions of numerology, astrology, Pythagoreanism, and gnosis as they pertain to the interpretation of the novel. The names of the polar figures of Ferdinand II and Wallenstein have gematric numeric roots which correspond to the numerical roots of the book divisions (1-5-5-5-5-1). The Valentinian gnostic myth of cosmogony integrates imagery and symbolism of the oriental salvation and mystery religions and offers a syncretistic doctrine both of dualism in the existential world and of the promise of man's mystic reunification with God. Fictional elements of knowledge, ignorance, love, and the metamorphosis of the main figure Ferdinand become the focus of the analytical third and fourth chapters. Figurative language, mythical and mythological material and religious allusions give the keys to the interpretation of Doblin's epic structure which has its center in the exemplary case of the fictional Emperor Ferdinand. The discussion presents a system of symbols and metaphors which are directly linked to alchemical and gnostic principles and arcana. In modern psychological terminology borrowed from Herbert Silberer and Carl Gustav Jung, Ferdinand's mythical metamorphosis functions as an example of introversion and re-birth of the personality. The newly transformed Emperor possesses freedom, resultant vitality, and understanding of self and world through his gnostic revelation. Chapter V shows the poetic structure of the chthonic counterpart to Ferdinand, i.e. Wallenstein. On the literal level, Wallenstein is portrayed as a ruthless and genial organizer of force. While this facet conforms to historical reality, Doblin mythifies the figure through frequent metaphors and imaginary-apocalyptic scenes. Commensurate with the Ferdinand-symbolism, Wallenstein's exposition is demonstrably informed with number symbolism.

13. Buntz, H.
Deutsche alchimistische Traktate des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts.
Ph.D. Munich. 1968.

14. Calvet, Antoine.
La version d'oc du Rosarius philosophorum attribue a Arnaud de Villeneuve (Introduction, etude de langue, edition, traduction.)
Nature : Doctorat (Nouveau Doctorat ). Discipline : Litterature Francaise. Date : 1995. University : Paris 4. Director : Thiolier Mejean, Suzanne. Registration number : 94PA040244. English summary :
The Rosary is a translation in the Occitan language of the second part (Practica) of Rosarius philosophorum, the famous fourteenth century alchemical treatise ascribed to the physician Arnald of Villanova. After an introduction where we tackle problems of the dating and authenticity of the text, together with questions related to manuscripts and relationships between the Occitan text and its Latin model, we propose, following a linguistic study (phonetic, morphology, syntax and lexicology), an edition of the Rosary with a translation in standard French, accompanied by a transcription of the Latin text.

15. Carney, Linda L.
Alchemy in selected plays of Shakespeare.
Order No: AAC 7728811 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: DRAKE UNIVERSITY (0387) Degree: DA Date: 1977 pp: 146
Source: DAI-A 38/07, p. 4176, Jan 1978
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593)

16. Clack, Randall Anthony.
The phoenix rising: alchemical imagination in the works of Edward Taylor, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Order No: AAC 9511413 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT (0056) Degree: PHD Date: 1994 pp: 353
Advisor: GATTA, JOHN JR.
Source: DAI-A 55/12, p. 3842, Jun 1995
Subject: LITERATURE, AMERICAN (0591); AMERICAN STUDIES (0323)
Abstract: This study explores the use of the alchemical opus--the esoteric science which was concerned with the transmutation of base metals into gold--in the works of Edward Taylor, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, three major authors from two distinct periods of pre-twentieth-century American literature who were influenced by hermetic (occult) philosophy and alchemy. Previous accounts of Hermeticism and alchemy in the work of Taylor, Poe, and Hawthorne have been limited to single-work or single-author explications. This study synthesizes these past investigations, and re-envisions them in the context of the canon of each individual author's work. For Taylor, alchemical metaphors became an imaginative way to illustrate the redeeming grace of God upon the soul of fallen man. These same alchemical metaphors were re-discovered in the nineteenth-century (by way of European Romanticism) and used by Poe and Hawthorne to illustrate a broader sense of redemption. These later writers used the alchemical opus not only as a way of describing the transformation of man's fallen soul, but also as a way of describing the transformation of the individual and of culture and as a metaphor for the creative process itself. For Poe, the philosopher's stone became a metaphor for the power of the imagination (a way to the supernal); for Hawthorne, the stone was synonymous with the redeeming power of love.

17. Colinet, Andree.
The Anonymous of Zuretti. A Greek alchemical treatise of the fourteenth century [l'Anonyme de Zuretti: un traite alchimique grec du 14e siecle].
Order No: NOT AVAILABLE FROM UMI ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN (BELGIUM) (0288) Degree: PHD Date: 1992 pp: 1300
Source: DAI-C 54/04, p. 1026, Winter 1993
Language: FRENCH
Subject: HISTORY OF SCIENCE (0585) Location: CENTRE GENERAL DE DOCUMENTATION, UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, COLLEGE ERASME, PLACE CARDINAL MERCIER, 31, B-1348 LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, BELGIUM
Abstract: Ce traite, le plus long de l'alchimie grecque, nous est connu par un seul manuscrit: le Vaticanus gr. 1134, sans titre et sans nom d'auteur. Zuretti l'edita en 1930 dans le 7e volume du Catalogue des Manuscrits Alchimiques Grecs. Le travail se compose d'abord d'une etude codicologique, d'une recherche des sources et d'une description de la langue, ensuite d'une nouvelle edition critique, accompagnee d'une premiere traduction francaise et d'un commentaire philologique et technique sous forme de notes. La decouverte du deplacement d'un feuillet dans le Vaticanus resout les incoherences du plan de l'oeuvre. La recherche des sources identifie un grand nombre d'oeuvres latines et arabo-latines dont la principale est le Breve Breviarium de Roger Bacon. L'auteur connai t aussi l'alchimie grecque ancienne. Sa langue est savante, mais parfois tres demotique. Elle est influencee par les dialectes grecs de l'Italie meridionale. L'ouvrage apporte des elements interessants pour l'historie de la langue grecque medievale et permet de rencontrer les problemes de la traduction. C'est aussi un temoin du syncretisme culturel qui se manifeste en Italie du Sud a l'epoque angevine. Pour l'alchimie en particulier, c'est une encyclopedie de connaissances pratiques, employant les acides mineraux et privilegiant le mercure. Elle s'inscrit dans le grand courant de la fin du moyen age qui veut la mise en ordre du savoir.

18. Colnort Bodet, Suzanne.
Distillateurs et alchimistes. Histoire des oppositions et de leur Remede: La Quintessence.
Nature : Doctorat de 3e cycle. Ancien regime. Discipline : Histoire.
Date : 1984. University : Paris 4. Director : Moraze, Charles.

19. Degli-Esposti, Cristina.
The alchemical trend of postmodernism: Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, and Federico Fellini (Calvino Italo, Eco Umberto, Fellini Federico, Italy).
Order No: AAC 9134801 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: INDIANA UNIVERSITY (0093) Degree: PHD Date: 1991 pp: 320
Advisor: BONDANELLA, PETER
Source: DAI-A 52/07, p. 2542, Jan 1992
Subject: LITERATURE, COMPARATIVE (0295); CINEMA (0900); LITERATURE, ROMANCE (0313)
Abstract: The impact of the ancient alchemical-hermetic lore upon Postmodernist figures informs many significant literary and cinematic works produced by Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, and Federico Fellini, a trio of narrators who have greatly influenced contemporary prose and cinema. Intrigued with the impossible idea of creating the future, writers such as Calvino and Eco or directors such as Fellini rely on the collective heritage that either consciously or unconsciously influences us whenever we plunge into what Eco calls "the role of the reader" or of the spectator.
Like semiotics, or psychoanalysis, the hermetic art of alchemy, in connection with the art of memory, developed from the interpretation (the "seeing," "reading," and "remembering/imagining") of the symbols and signs of the world in pursuit of the impossible (the "knowing"). Calvino's descriptions of the process of writing and film-making given in Six Memos for the Next Millennium (1988), are similar to the changes that pave the path of the alchemical-hermetic chains of transformation. Fellini produces the imagery of his films through a process of transformation in much the same manner as Calvino created his literary work. One can clearly see this in his production from 8 1/2 (1963) until his latest La voce della luna (1990) where his mnemonic transforming powers are responsible for the changes occurring within the vessel of memory. Umberto Eco recently confirmed his active theoretical interest in hermeticism and alchemy in the fictional world of Il pendolo di Foucault (1988) and in the theories of Limits of Interpretation (1990) which discuss the unlimitedness of the semiotic process of transformations as well as the limits of the interpretative role of "the reader."
Images, words, tropoi, film-thinking (Calvino), film-making (Fellini), and computerized "framed" literary composition (Eco) lead writer/director and reader/viewer into a quest which meanders through both the territory of the fantastic and the real, the loci of the Imaginary where the Jungian "principle of individuation" takes place. It is the alchemical principle that by singling out the artist and his work as a central force in the "production" of art also foreshadows the conception of the auteur theory, a surrogate of the poiet, maker of images.

20. Delaney, Marita Katherine.
Magic and science: the psychological origins of scientific endeavor.
Order No: AAC 9113124 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS (0150) Degree: PHD Date: 1989 pp: 217
Source: DAI-A 51/12, p. 4255, Jun 1991
Subject: HISTORY OF SCIENCE (0585); PSYCHOLOGY, GENERAL (0621)
Abstract: The figure of the magus, the master magician, as embodied by Renaissance magicians Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno and the physician Paracelsus, is considered in terms of how a hidden tradition serves as a source of inspiration to science and technology. Magic was possible, for these magicians, only through the development of the imaginative faculties. When memory and imagination are empowered by magical practices, spiritual power is drawn into the soul, unlocking its latent powers and allowing a gnostic ascent to the higher spheres of knowledge. The magus embodied both spiritual wisdom and technical proficiency. Manipulation of the material world was not pursued as a goal, but rather ensued from reaching for a more exalted goal--that of becoming God.
The manner in which this spiritual ambition is transformed into the development of the scientific world view is traced through the work of Francis Bacon, particularly his vision of the benefits of collaborative science expressed in the New Atlantis. A review of historians' perspectives on Bacon's relationship to the magical tradition examines the continuity of Bacon's work with the alchemical world view and provides reflection on Bacon's vision of science as a cooperative and collective enterprise. This vision took the historical form of the Royal Society, which manifested the power of collaborative effort to investigate productively the secrets of nature. The utopian and religious aspirations that characterize Bacon's view of science are shown to emerge in twentieth century manifestations of scientific endeavor.
The consequences of the spiritual ambitions underlying science are examined psychologically, in terms of contemporary technological developments. The structure of the psyche as suggested in concepts of Carl Jung and the history of human spiritual development reflected in the notion of the astrological "aeons" provide a framework for viewing the underlying psychic transformations wrought by contemporary science. Psychological transformation of a collective nature has occurred concomitant with scientific and technological developments; understanding of these developments is deepened by reference to the legacy of the master magicians, who consciously expressed the aspiration for harmony between human understanding and the exercise of human power in relationship to nature.

21. Dibernard, Barbara Jo.
Alchemy and 'Finnegans Wake'.
Order No: AAC 7620856 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BINGHAMTON (0792) Degree: PHD Date: 1976 pp: 281
Source: DAI-A 37/03, p. 1540, Sep 1976
Subject: LITERATURE, MODERN (0298)

22. Dixon, Laurinda S.
Alchemical imagery in Bosch's 'Garden of Delights' triptych.
Order No: AAC 8013203 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: BOSTON UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL (0822) Degree: PHD Date: 1980 pp: 434
Source: DAI-A 40/12, p. 6046, Jun 1980
Subject: FINE ARTS (0357)

23. Dobbs, Betty Jo Teeter.
The foundations of Newton's alchemy, or 'The Hunting of the Greene Lyon'.
Order No: AAC 7426868 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL (0153) Degree: PHD Date: 1974 pp: 574
Source: DAI-A 35/06, p. 3629, Dec 1974
Subject: HISTORY, MODERN (0582)

24. Dumery, Henry.
L'Alchimie en France dans la premi�re moitiee du XIX eme siecle.
Doctorat de Philosophie, Paris X University, 1981.

25. Duncan, Edgar Hill.
Alchemy in Chaucer, Jonson and Donne.
Order No: NOT AVAILABLE FROM UMI ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY (0242) Degree: PHD Date: 1941
Source: ADD W1941
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593)

26. Eaves, Gregory Nigel.
Figures of the imagination: a Yeatsian noumenology
Order No: AAC 9002733 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS (0029) Degree: PHD Date: 1989 pp: 339
Source: DAI-A 50/08, p. 2495, Feb 1990
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593); LITERATURE, MODERN (0298)
Abstract: This dissertation addresses Yeats' visionary style in the years preceding A Vision. I argue that in the visionary texts of the 1910's the Moment of inspiration is approached, only to be by-passed, by a set of rhetorical strategies that combine the magical and the figurative.
Mask is the key rhetorical figure--the medium, both textual and spiritual, that facilitates visionary experience. Its locus is in between--at the threshold of transcendence, mediating between self and anti-self, poet and Daimon. Mask may be a landscape or a poetic style (Responsibilities and At the Hawk's Well) or a visionary geometry (The Wild Swans at Coole and A Vision). It allies Yeats' occult practice of "evocation," Irish folklore, alchemical rhetoric, and his theory of daimonic inspiration.
Having discussed the barren Irish landscape of Responsibilities as a pre-condition of vision and the figure for the appropriate poetic technique (Chapter 1), I identify the aesthetic and spiritualistic lore with which Yeats endows it: "the doctrine ... of the desolate places" (Chapter 2).
In The Wild Swans at Coole the creative Moment of union with the Muse or Daimon is represented in a visionary optics--archetypal images on a reflecting surface, mirror or lake. But this optics doubles vision and displaces the Moment; the visionary medium (Mask) steals the show from visionary knowledge itself (Chapter 3).
Focussing on "The Double Vision of Michael Robartes," I trace Yeats' use of doubles and reflection back to the specula of the Hermetic and alchemical traditions. Design, like watery surfaces, mediates between mundane and visionary perception. Examining the Great Wheel, I assemble a rhetoric of figure: the Wheel as hieroglyph, as Mask, as spiritual discipline, as instrument of vision, as the alchemical Mercury (Chapter 4).
"Michael Robartes and the Dancer," with its mirrors and sexual antagonism, represents Yeatsian aesthetics as an alchemical mysterium coniunctionis (Chapter 5) and implies a speculative Yeatsian epistemology--"the Thinking of the Body"; attacking a dualistic rationalism, this thinking proposes a figurative and fictive rather than an objective approach to the worlds of our senses and signs (Chapter 6).

27. Ehlers, Lynne Victoria Lee.
The alchemical nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and rubedo stages of transformation: a case study.
Order No: AAC 9312783 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY - BERKELEY/ALAMEDA (0039) Degree: PHD Date: 1993 pp: 347
Advisor: HARRIS, ANNE SINGER
Source: DAI-B 54/03, p. 1692, Sep 1993
Subject: PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL (0620); PSYCHOLOGY, PERSONALITY (0625)
Abstract: Among the ancient, medieval and Renaissance alchemists of Europe and the Middle East, it was generally believed that in order for the alchemical opus to be successful, the matter in their vessels must turn first black, then white, yellow and finally red. C. G. Jung contended that the work of the alchemists was a metaphor for the process of individuation, and that these four colors, black, white, yellow and red, termed after their Latin alchemical equivalents, nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and rubedo respectively, represented stages of psychological development. This study hypothesized that corroborating evidence for this theory would be found in the dreams, recorded over a fifteen year period, of a single individual in analysis. Statistical (i.e. Chi-square) and content analysis of the dream record supported the hypothesis that the nigredo, albedo and rubedo were distinct, overlapping, sequential stages in this individual's growth. Because of the extremely small number of yellow dreams, there was no support for a citrinitas phase per se, although the content of two dreams suggested that it is a transitional phase between the white and the red phases. Black appears to be connected to the archetype of death, descent into the unconscious, and confrontation with the shadow or core problem. White appears to be connected with the Lunar, passive/receptive non-gender-identified feminine principle and the primacy of psychic reality; and red, with the Solar, active, non-gender-identified masculine principle and the primacy of conscious, physical reality. In addition, four secondary alchemical colors, green, blue, brown and the multi-colored 'peacock's tail' were studied. Among the dreams containing the secondary colors as a group, the broad meaning which the colors carried was consistent with alchemical symbolism in about one third to one half of the cases; the remaining dreams were more consistent with current cultural associations to those colors. Chi-square analysis of these colors as a group showed that after the end of the nigredo (i.e. black) phase, the dreamer experienced a highly significant increase in color in dreams.

28. Ehrman, James Frederick.
Translation, world view, and time: rewriting organic science in translation (alchemy, Enlightenment, premodern, scientific texts).

School: THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN (0227) Degree: PHD Date: 1994 pp: 173
Advisor: LEFEVERE, ANDRE
Source: DAI-A 55/06, p. 1572, Dec 1994
Subject: LITERATURE, GERMANIC (0311); HISTORY OF SCIENCE (0585)
Abstract: This dissertation investigates the consequences of changes in world view for the process of translation. It is based on an examination of the translation of pre-modern scientific works for a modern readership. These works include alchemical and other texts based on what can be called the organic paradigm. In this way of thinking, the universe is understood to be a single, living organism. As a part of this organism, every object in the universe is ensouled and occupies a specific location along a chain of being ranging from minerals on the lower end to animals, humans, and finally discarnate entities on the higher end. This paradigm is alien, however, to a modern readership that thinks in categories predicated upon the mechanical paradigm. In this paradigm the universe is explained as a machine consisting of separate parts related only by function. Laws of cause and effect governing the actions of these parts replace the notion of growth toward absolute being. How modern translators negotiate this difference in paradigm is the focus of this investigation. To conduct this investigation, an analytic framework has been developed beyond the confines of equivalence. This framework uses presupposition to analyze the presence and absence of information predicated upon world view. Within this framework, a comparative analysis of Roger Bacon's (ca. 1215-95) Speculum Alchimiae (Mirror of Alchemy, 1659 reprint) with a 1692 translation by William Salmon (1644-1713) as well as Paracelsus' (1493-1541) Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris et de caeteris spiritibus (Book of Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders and other Spirits, 1566) with a 1964 translation by Manly P. Hall (1901-) shows that information presupposed by the original is significantly, as well as predictably altered in translation to fit the constraints of a new way of thinking. Because presupposed information of the original text has been rewritten in this way, traditional notions of translation and equivalence must be rethought. Rather than attempting to construct an abstract level of symmetry between languages, the translation theorist's task becomes refocused on explicating the implied conditions under which actual translations are made. Determining how differences of understanding between source and target contexts ultimately govern translation strategy is the theorist's primary objective.

29. Esposito, Daniel.
La porte du Dragon
Paris 7 University, ref : 93 PA070101.

30. Faidutti Bruno
Images et connaissance de la licorne, fin du Moyen-�ge - XIX�me si�cle. Nature : Doctorat (nouveau r�gime). Discipline : Histoire. Director: Lucien B�ly. Date : 1996. University : Paris XII.
The legends about the unicorn as a friend of young virgins come
from medieval bestiaries, but the animal's current image - a white horse
with a long spiralled horn - only appeared in the Renaissance. The unicorn,
whose horn was the object of an important trade, was said to live in the
Orient and was often mistaken for the rhinoceros. The first texts
questioning its existence date from the sixteenth century, but the debate
about it was not closed until the nineteenth century. Doctors - who used
its horn as an antidote to poison -, travellers - who were looking for it
or wrote that they had seen it -, geographers, theologians, hermetists and
symbolists, and of course specialists in natural history, have all
expressed a variety of points of view on this issue.

31. Fenner, Edward Todd.
Rasayana Siddhi: Medicine and alchemy in the Buddhist Tantras.
Order No: AAC 8008814 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON (0262) Degree: PHD Date: 1979 pp: 282
Source: DAI-A 40/12, p. 6318, Jun 1980
Subject: RELIGION, HISTORY OF (0320)

32. Fisher, Sheila Marie.
Chaucer's poetic alchemy: A study of value and its transformation in 'The Canterbury Tales'
Order No: AAC 8220842 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: YALE UNIVERSITY (0265) Degree: PHD Date: 1982 pp: 263
Source: DAI-A 43/06, p. 1977, Dec 1982
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593)
Abstract: Abstract Not Available.

33. Frederick, Patricia E.
Mythical magnitude: selected short fiction of Marguerite Yourcenar (France).
Order No: AAC 8900234 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: RICE UNIVERSITY (0187) Degree: PHD Date: 1988 pp: 257
Advisor: ARESU, BERNARD
Source: DAI-A 49/10, p. 3042, Apr 1989
Subject: LITERATURE, ROMANCE (0313)
Abstract: During the decade of the 1930's Marguerite Yourcenar's metaphysical thinking expressed itself through myth, an, as the writer herself affirms, many of her characters thus represent "figures of mythical magnitude." With the object of revealing this "mythical magnitude" or universal aspect of her short fiction, our study, which relies upon the theories of Mircea Eliade, Gilbert Durand and C. G. Jung, offers a symbolic reading of three of Yourcenar's early works, all originally published in the 1930's: the Nouvelles orientales, Lew Coup de Grace and "Anna, Soror dots" (Comme l'Eau qui coule). Despite the worldwide recognition the author's novels have received, these examples of her early fiction have been largely overlooked by scholars. Included in the Nouvelles orientales (1938) are ten tales which share a great deal more than an Eastern orientation and whose particular positions in the collection are far from arbitrary. Linking all of the stories is the foundation of alchemical thought and mythical symbolism upon which they are all constructed, and their placement in the work is based upon a precise pattern of solar imagery. The concluding tale, revealing the disparity between Oriental and Occidental thought, leads to our examination of two longer narratives set in Europe, Le Coup de Grace (193) and "Anna Soror dots" (1934), both of which also rely upon Alchemy and Myth in their presentation of themes which parallel those found in the Nouvelles orientales. A central element in all three works is the contrast they present between a "diurnal" and a "nocturnal" conception of time, the former represented by Western or Christian thought and the latter, by Eastern philosophy, mysticism or the hermetic sciences. In addition to disproving comments regarding the anti-feminist aspects of Yourcenar's writing, our study of her short fiction ultimately signals the fundamental originality of these early narratives and firmly establishes them as masterpieces of French literature.

34. Futrell, Allen Walter.
The language of crime and alchemy: a way into Ben Jonson's London.
Order No: AAC 1315915 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE (0110) Degree: MA Date: 1980 pp: 126
Source: MAI 19/02, p. 170, Summer 1981
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593)

35. Gagnon, Claude.
Rapport sur l'attribution du Livre des Figures Hieroglyphiques attribue a Nicolas Flamel.
Postdoctoral research in Paris from 1973 to 1988 at the Ecole Pratique
des Hautes Etudes, under the direction of Guy Beaujouan.

36. Gagnon, Claude.
Analyse archeologique du Livre des Figures attribue a Nicolas Flame
Ph.D. University of Montreal, 1977.

37. Gamache, Janet Lauren.
Shifting paradigms: the science of transformation and the transformation of science.
Order No: AAC MM66036 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: TRENT UNIVERSITY (CANADA) (0513) Degree: MA Date: 1991 pp: 109
Source: MAI 30/04, p. 1105, Winter 1992
Subject: HISTORY OF SCIENCE (0585); PHYSICS, GENERAL (0605)
Abstract: Despite the revolutionary theories which have arisen within the field of theoretical physics since the turn of the century, the Newtonian paradigm has prevailed within the industrial West. The image of the universe as a giant machine still dominates the minds of most scientists and laymen, and a sufficiently compelling alternative vision has not, as yet, appeared.
In order to understand how a dominant paradigm can be successfully challenged, it is necessary to examine the period prior to Newton and the rise of the scientific outlook. The world view which characterized the medieval age is very different from that of the mechanistic perspective originating in the seventeenth century, and this radical shift provides the context for a re-examination of that controversial figure, the Renaissance alchemist. His powerful vision, a remarkable synthesis of pragmatism and mysticism, provided the necessary bridge between competing paradigms. Whether the critical, self-reflective approach to the practice of science which has arisen recently will perform the same function within the twentieth century is still uncertain.

38. Gavel Adams, Ann-Charlotte.
The generic ambiguity of August Strindberg's 'Inferno': occult novel and autobiography (Sweden, novel)
Order No: AAC 9108471 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON (0250) Degree: PHD Date: 1990 pp: 248
Advisor: STEENE, BIRGITTA
Source: DAI-A 51/11, p. 3761, May 1991
Subject: LITERATURE, GERMANIC (0311); LITERATURE, SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN (0314)
Abstract: This dissertation focuses on genre and reception aspects of August Strindberg's Inferno. The study attempts to determine Strindberg's genre intentions with regard to Inferno, using both Philippe Lejeune's generic pact model and extra-textual material, such as Strindberg's letters and his Occult Diary. Textual evidence suggest that Strindberg was aware of the intricate interplay between text and reader, and that he to a considerable extent adapted his text to be understood and appreciated by two different reading audiences. The first part of Inferno contain numerous occult encoded message, addressed to the alchemists, the members of L'Ordre Martininste, and their publisher Chamuel in Paris, with whom Strindberg had come in contact in the spring of 1896. Strindberg's conviction that occultism was the latest international trend in literature very likely made him decide to encode its religio-philosophical belief system into his book. Letters and diary entries further suggest that Inferno was planned and begun as a novel, with an occult sub-text, illustrating a spiritual rebirth, in the same style as J. K. Huysmans' La bas and En Route. However, midway through the writing of Inferno, at the beginning of chapter nine, entitled "Swedenborg," Strindberg decided to offer Inferno for publication in Sweden. Turning to a new and Swedish target audience, he continued his work as an autobiographical confession, demonstrating the futility of the pursuit of glory and fame and presenting the misguided life of August Strindberg as an exemplum. By switching intended readership in the middle of his book, Strindberg created a work of a double genre, part occult novel, part autobiography. The double genre of Inferno proved problematic for the contemporary Swedish readers, whose genre expectations did not allow them to understand the fictional nature of the work. However, the modernistic movement has created a new reading public with a broader horizon of expectations and a more receptive attitude towards works which once violated traditional genres, which has resulted in a re-evaluation of Inferno, particularly by foreign scholars.

39. Gordon-Grube, Karen Joyce.
The alchemical 'golden tree' and associated imagery in the poems of Edward Taylor, viewed in the broader context of the hermetic-Paracelsist philosophy. (volumes i and ii) (Taylor Edward, alchemical imagery, Puritanism)
Order No: AAC 9207677 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: FREIE UNIVERSITAET BERLIN (GERMANY) (0693) Degree: PHD Date: 1990 pp: 352
Advisor: BRUMM, URSULA
Source: DAI-A 52/10, p. 3601, Apr 1992
Subject: LITERATURE, AMERICAN (0591); RELIGION, HISTORY OF (0320); PHILOSOPHY (0422)
Abstract: The subject is one which has been neglected by Taylor research: the all-pervading alchemical dimension of his sacramental Meditations. Two manuscripts in Edward Taylor's own hand are examined: (a) his excerpts from John Webster's Metallographia, and (b) his medical "Dispensatory." These two unpublished manuscripts document Taylor's intense interest in, and his extensive knowledge of, alchemical theory. They show that his thought was fundamentally influenced by Renaissance Neoplatonic beliefs in the hierarchy of worlds, in the correspondence of microcosm and macrocosm, and in "natural magic," particularly as evidenced in the Hermetic-Paracelsist theories of alchemy and medicine. These beliefs are reflected throughout his Meditations.
Taylor uses alchemical imagery to express the deepest religious mysteries: transmutation symbolizes for him the change in bread and wine to the body and blood of Christ, and the change in human nature through its union with Christ in the Sacrament. The distillations of Taylor's spiritual alchemy liberate his eternal soul from "drossy" human matter. Through the workings of the spiritual "tincture" of Grace, i.e., by the gold-generating "influences" emanating from Christ the "Sun of Righteousness," man's soul--and the poet's words--are transformed to pure gold.
The complexity of many of Taylor's images can only be appreciated in the alchemical context. His dominant "tree" imagery, e.g., is not based solely on Biblical expressions of Christ as the "Tree of Life," but is blended with imagery of the alchemical "golden tree"--a tree of "living gold" growing from the "womb" of earth--which expresses the completed alchemical opus. (Taylor took the latter image directly from Webster's Metallographia.) In many meditations Taylor uses the alchemical correspondences of "moon/silver" and "sun/gold" to express man and Christ respectively. He develops imagery of the alchemical wedding, the alchemical labyrinth, the alchemical ocean voyage, the alchemical golden fleece, the alchemical bird, etc., whereby the alchemical dimension blends with imagery from the Bible, from natural science, music, antiquity, etc.
Recognition of Taylor's indebtedness to the Renaissance Hermetic-Paracelsist philosophy adds a new dimension to his Meditations. In addition, the documentation of this influence on Edward Taylor opens an unexplored chapter in the history of Puritan thought.

40. Gorski, William Thomas.
Yeats and alchemy (Ireland)
Order No: AAC 8924155 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK (0117) Degree: PHD Date: 1989 pp: 305
Advisor: LOIZEAUX, ELIZABETH
Source: DAI-A 50/07, p. 2063, Jan 1990
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593)
Abstract: Among Yeats's spiritual and occult interests, his artistic use of alchemy has been relatively unexplored. Through reading and the Golden Dawn Yeats became acquainted with alchemy's rich poetic content. Famed for turning lead into gold, alchemy had a dual nature whose philosophical discourse stemmed from the material world, creating a metaphysics based on metaphor which was more suitable to Yeats's poetry than were his other occult interests. Alchemy provided Yeats with a poetics of transformation operating on two levels: spiritually the alchemist refined his soul to unite with God, and aesthetically the alchemist symbolized the artist's task to transmute human life into its highest expressions. However, the claims of artistic and spiritual searchers were often opposed throughout Yeats's career. Therefore, artist and alchemist alternate between twin and antithetical terms. Further, alchemy's dual nature provided Yeats with a scapegoat when disenchanted with the spiritual guest. That is, while respecting alchemy's metaphorical richness, Yeats also deprecated the physical practice of alchemy for its materialism. Hence, Yeats often figured the threatening aspects of the occult in alchemical terms since its duality afforded him a position of ambivalence.
After discussing the fundamental principles of Yeats's alchemy, I demonstrate how Yeats employs alchemy in his early poems to explore the hazards and potentials of the spiritual guest. The dismal conclusions of such poems as "Fergus and the Druid" attest to Yeats's uncertainties about his otherworldly yearnings. I then examine "Rosa Alchemica" to show how Yeats fully dramatizes his attraction and terror regarding the transcendence depicted via alchemy. "Rosa Alchemica" enunciates Yeats's theories about history whereby alchemy becomes the refinement of civilization throughout time. After 1900, Yeats's alchemy grows radically intimate and physical. Concentrating on the "mystical marriage", I study Yeats's journals to illustrate how body and instinct become incorporated into his alchemical paradigm, ultimately yielding the philosophical love lyrics in A Woman Young and Old and Supernatural Songs. I conclude by showing how Yeats further alleviates dialectical tension between matter and spirit in his last years. The late essays and poems evince Yeats's tenacity to formulate an alchemy which accepted the whole of human reality.

41. Grennen, Joseph Edward.
Jargon transmuted: Alchemy in Chaucer's 'Canon's Yeoman's Tale'.
Order No: AAC 6101569 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: FORDHAM UNIVERSITY (0072) Degree: PHD Date: 1960 pp: 270
Source: DAI- 22/03, p. 859, NOV 1967
Subject: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, GENERAL (0586)

42. Grimal, Sophie Isabelle.
The alchemy of writing: a stylistic analysis of August Strindberg's 'Inferno': I, II and III (Sweden).
Order No: AAC 9519818 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES (0031) Degree: PHD Date: 1995 pp: 292
Source: DAI-A 56/02, p. 563, Aug 1995
Subject: LITERATURE, GERMANIC (0311)
Abstract: This dissertation is an analysis of the so-called 'Inferno' trilogy, written by August Strindberg from 1897 to 1898. Although the author wrote it in French--except for the last pages of the third volume--these texts have been mostly studied in Swedish translation. Based on the original and uncorrected version, this study is an attempt to understand and explicate Strindberg's experimental use of French in the three volumes. To better comprehend the particular type of discourse developed in Inferno, Legendes and L'Enfer D'Amour, the texts are viewed in the light of the cultural background of the time. The influence of the many currents and fashions of the French capital on the author's vision is part of the discussion. Focusing on Strindberg's relationship with the Parisian intelligentsia, the first chapter is devoted to the presentation of his pre-Inferno production. It introduces his new conception of art and the experimental literary pieces he published in various Parisian newspapers and magazines. While chapter one places the writing of the trilogy in its cultural context, chapters two and three focus on the three manuscripts. The second chapter presents the author's stylistic experimentation in Inferno, Legendes and L'Enfer D'Amour as exemplified by three particular devices used throughout the narrative: the analogical method, the negation of opposites, and the merging of categories. Chapter three deals with a peculiar type of discourse defined in the three volumes aiming at transforming reality into symbolical abstraction. This linguistic experiment is illustrated by the 'objet trouve' technique, Strindberg's use of omen reading and the elaboration of an intricate network of signs. The discussion shows that the trilogy corresponds to a turning point in the author's treatment of language. Thanks to his new, transformational, and largely symbolist technique Strindberg reintroduces the metaphysical in his writing. From then on his style will be religious, in the etymological sense of 'religare,' to link, reconciling the tangible and the intangible in a unitary discourse.

43. Halford, Donna Allard.
A rhetorical legacy: the art of memory's place in literature and semiotics (Chaucer, Eco Umberto, Donne John, Italy).
Order No: AAC 9119231 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY (0925) Degree: PHD Date: 1990 pp: 208
Source: DAI-A 52/02, p. 547, Aug 1991
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593); SPEECH COMMUNICATION (0459); EDUCATION, PHILOSOPHY OF (0998)
Abstract: Classical rhetoric's five parts consist of invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. The first three now enjoy privileged status in modern rhetorics, whereas the latter two have all but disappeared from view. Cicero's rhetoric certainly included all five canons of rhetoric. In De Oratore, his version of the art of memory focuses on order, place, and symbol. Using Cicero's three terms, this study investigates semiotics (as an offshoot of memoria) and representative literary works, and provides that the art of memory has a multitude of heirs and forms.
This dissertation touches on many aspects of memoria, eventually linking the art to metacognition and semiotics. The study examines the poetic theory of Chaucer as exemplified by his dream visions, revealing the connection between the art of memory and Chaucer's invention practice. The study also places Renaissance memoria in its proper context--as genesis of the commonplace book and the emblem. But in the examination process, I discovered memoria's contribution to alchemy, Hermeticism, the metaphysical conceit, and that uniquely seventeenth-century production--wit.
The study also examines the relationships between the Romantics and the seventeenth-century poet, John Donne, proving that Romanticism and the metaphysical conceit both contain elements from the art of memory. The Romantics' affinity for memory also stems, in part, from the work of George Campbell, an eighteenth-century rhetorician, whose faculty psychology theories move memory to a place between the understanding and the will. Finally, Umberto Eco's novel, The Name of the Rose, containing a semiotic-based memory labyrinth, illustrates the timelessness of the art of memory.
This work raises questions about the relationship between the classical/rhetorical concept of memory and the processes of creativity and writing. Further study of the classical art of memory can enhance the writing process.

44. Halka, Chester Stanley.
Melquiades, alchemy and point of view: The quest for gold in 'Cien Anos de Soledad'.
Order No: AAC 7732599 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: BROWN UNIVERSITY (0024) Degree: PHD Date: 1977 pp: 198
Source: DAI-A 38/08, p. 4862, Feb 1978
Subject: LITERATURE, LATIN AMERICAN (0312)

45. Hall, Jan.
In Swedenborg's labyrinth: studies in the lives and teachings of the Gustavian Swedenborgians (August Nordenskjold, Christian Johanssen, Emanuel Swedenborg) [Swedenborgs labyrint: studier i de Gustavianska Swedenborgarnas liv och tankande]
School: UPPSALA UNIVERSITET (SWEDEN) (0903) Degree: PHD Date: 1995 pp: 512
Source: DAI-C 56/04, p. 886, Winter 1995
Language: SWEDISH
Subject: HISTORY OF SCIENCE (0585); PHILOSOPHY (0422); BIOGRAPHY (0304)
ISBN: 91-7486-183-2 Publisher: BOKFORLAGET ATLANTIS, STUREGATAN 24, S-114 36 STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
Abstract: This dissertation examines the lives and teachings of the Swedenborgians during the reign of Gustaf III (1772-1792). It consists of three separate studies. The first concerns the alchemical theory and practice of August Nordenskjold (1754-1792). To Nordenskjold the main goal of alchemy was to destroy the 'tyranny of money' through the production of gold in vast quantities, and thereby prepare the road to the Swedenborgian Utopia: the New Jerusalem. The study follows his alchemy from its origin in his uncle Magnus Otto Nordenberg's mystical revelation in 1735, through its adventurous fortunes at the court of Gustaf III, to its end in Africa, where Nordenskjold died in 1792. The second study deals with the diaries of the less well-known Swedenborgian Christian Johanssen (1746-1813). It describes his meeting with the teachings of Swedenborg--including a visit to Swedenborg himself in 1770--and his experience of the Swedenborgian regeneration of the soul. In time, this made him the leading authority among the Gustavian Swedenborgians, a kind of a Swedenborgian Paul. The third and final study concerns some of the functions of Swedenborg's teachings in the lives of the Gustavian Swedenborgians. Among the topics discussed here are dream interpretation, self-knowledge, introspection, individualization, Swedenborg's description of man as a 'receiver', physiognomy, exegesis, the French revolution. In this study Christian Johanssen is further portrayed as a main character of the Gustavian Swedenborgianism.

46. Hamilton, Mary Gertrude.
Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and W. B. Yeats: the alchemical model and the phantasmagoric imagination.
Order No: NOT AVAILABLE FROM UMI ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA (CANADA) (0351) Degree: PHD Date: 1980
Source: ADD X1980
Subject: LITERATURE, COMPARATIVE (0295)

47. Hathaway, Charles Montgomery, Jr.
The Alchemist, by Ben Jonson, critically edited.
Order No: NOT AVAILABLE FROM UMI ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: YALE UNIVERSITY (0265) Degree: PHD Date: 1902
Source: ADD S0265
Subject: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, GENERAL (0586)

48. Henriot, Carine Majou.
Study of a mineral substance used in alchemy and eliminated by chemistry: The case of antimony [etude du devenir d'une substance minerale utilisee sous l'alchimie et eliminee par la chimie: cas de l'antimoine]
Order No: NOT AVAILABLE FROM UMI ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: UNIVERSITE DE BOURGOGNE (FRANCE) (0721) Degree: MD Date: 1991 pp: 95
Source: DAI-C 53/04, p. 721, Winter 1992
Language: FRENCH
Subject: HEALTH SCIENCES, PHARMACOLOGY (0419) Location: BIBLIOTHEQUE DE L'UNIVERSITE - SECTION MEDECINE-PHARMACIE - 7, BOULEVARD JEANNE D'ARC - F-21100 DIJON, FRANCE
Abstract: L'Antimoine, element mineral, decouvert depuis la plus haute Antiquite, a ete utilise tres tot par les alchimistes et les medecins. La querelle, qui intervint de 1564 a 1665, eut un impact publicitaire et permit de faire la promotion de l'Antimoine. Celui-ci connut alors son heure de gloire comme expectorant, emetique et purgatif. L'emploi fut meme souvent abusif au XVII, XVIII et XIX siecles. Grace aux progres de la chimie de synthese et a la decouverte d'une extreme toxicite de l'antimoine, le XX siecle en fait un usage beaucoup plus rigoureux et restreint. Cet element est prescrit dans le traitement des leishmanioses et en homeopathie. On en retrouve l'usage en industrie.

49. Heusser, Ulrich.
Die Fruehe Alchimie [Early alchemy.]
Inaugural dissertation for obtaining the degree of Doctor (PhD) at the
Higher Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne. (Institute for the
History of Medicine at the University of Cologne).
Presented by Ulrich Heusser, from Zurich. Doctorate awarded 26 June 1976.

50. Hill, Eugene David.
Image and argument in an Elizabethan syncretist: a study of Everard Digby's 'Theoria analytica'.
Order No: AAC 8027702 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY (0181) Degree: PHD Date: 1980 pp: 224
Source: DAI-A 41/06, p. 2612, Dec 1980
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593)
Abstract: Everard Digby is best known for his participation in the Ramist controversy of the early 1580's; his anti-Ramist polemics have been studied by several modern scholars. But Digby's first and most revealing book, the Theoria analytica of 1579, has not received extended treatment. This work is a vastly ambitious, if not vastly successful, piece of constructive metaphysics. My study is an attempt to characterize Digby's project in the Theoria. Digby claims that the Theoria derives from his reading and from his teaching of the Posterior Analytics of Aristotle, in which he professes to find many arcane meanings. In his choice of this Aristotelian text, Digby was, as I show, taking a position in an ongoing sixteenth-century debate about the purport and the value of the Posterior Analytics. Rejecting the efforts of Ramus--never named, but often attacked implicitly in the Theoria--and his followers to reduce logic to a kind of rhetoric, Digby insists upon the congruence between Aristotle and the transmitted wisdom of the ancient Greeks and Hebrews. Where Ramus left no room for metaphysics, Digby resolutely links logic to metaphysics--to Neo-Platonic philosophy, to Hermetic lore, and, especially, to the Hebrew Kabbalah, which Digby knew from the two philosophical dialogues of Johannes Reuchlin. It is this kabbalistic wisdom that is the veiled meaning of Aristotelian logic. Along with Kabbalah, Digby makes striking use of other areas of Renaissance esoterica, particularly of alchemy and of arithmology. All these were enlisted by Digby in a voyage of ascent which determines the symmetrical structure of the book as a whole. On this voyage the mind is purified as it moves toward oneness with divine objects. For Digby, alchemy was not only a chemical process, but, more importantly, a mental process. In developing his analysis of the mind as it is transformed by the mental alchemy of knowing, Digby draws especially upon Ficino's translation with commentary of The Enneads of Plotinus. It is from this work especially that Digby draws his theory of knowledge as identification with the object of knowledge. It is this notion of knowledge, I argue, that is the figure in the carpet of the Theoria. Digby emerges as a link between the Elizabethan academy and the high syncretic mode of the period of Ficino, Lefevre and Reuchlin. For students of literature, Digby provides some support for the recent critical movement that would utilize Renaissance esoteric texts for the interpretation of literary works of the English Renaissance.

51. Hitchcox, Kathryn Langford.
Alchemical discourse in the 'Canterbury Tales': Signs of gnosis and transmutation (Chaucer)
Order No: AAC 8900247 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: RICE UNIVERSITY (0187) Degree: PHD Date: 1988 pp: 222
Advisor: CHANCE, JANE
Source: DAI-A 49/10, p. 3033, Apr 1989
Subject: LITERATURE, ENGLISH (0593)
Abstract: Although most critics of the "Canon's Yeoman's Tale" agree that the tale's striking realism and wealth of detail suggest that Chaucer had an extensive knowledge of alchemical lore, they disagree about whether Chaucer condemned alchemy as a heresy or esteemed it as a divine science compatible with Christianity. For, the Canon's Yeoman begins his tale by asserting the impossibility of achieving the Philosopher's Stone, only to end his tale by affirming the Stone's existence, and describing it as a gift from Christ. In the past, most critics have investigated Chaucer's use of alchemical signs in the "Canon's Yeoman's Tale" by discussing medieval alchemy as an obscure laboratory procedure in which Chaucer did or did not have any faith. This study, however, proposes not only to reexamine the significance of Chaucer's references to alchemical apparati, procedures, and philosophy in the "Canon's Yeoman's Tale" but also to show that Chaucer was primarily interested in alchemy as a symbolic language, and that he utilized alchemical signs in both the "Canon's Yeoman's Tale" and the "Second Nun's Tale," which are linked by the prologue of the "Canon's Yeoman's Tale," to explore how discourse itself is a kind of alchemy which mediates between man and God, or physical reality and spiritual reality, to communicate truth and enable the individual to convert from the "old man of Adam" to the "new man in Christ." Both tales begin with references to the baseness of matter, and end with alchemical allusions to the perfection of matter. Since Chaucer presented the alchemical allusions in the "Second Nun's Tale" and the "Canon's Yeoman's Tale" within a penitential framework, he also implied that both alchemy and Christianity seek salvation, which may be understood as the reconciliation of spiritual and physical nature. Chaucer's Parson defines salvation in these terms when he explains, "Than shal men understonde what is the fruyt of penaunce, dots ther as the body of man that whilom was foul and derk is moore cleer than the sonne" (ParsT 1. 1078).

52. Hitz, Frederic.
L'Age d'Or de l'Alchimie en France. (French text).
Order No: AAC 1345288 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: RICE UNIVERSITY (0187) Degree: MA Date: 1991 pp: 127
Source: MAI 30/01, p. 32, Spring 1992
Subject: LITERATURE, ROMANCE (0313); HISTORY OF SCIENCE (0585); PHILOSOPHY (0422)
Abstract: Alchemy was probably born in Egypt, sometime during Antiquity. It received the influence of the Greek and hermetic doctrines (Chapter II). The Arab civilisation adopted it and brought it into the Western world. Alchemy quickly developed there, until it became widespread throughout France and the rest of Europe (Chapter III). Alchemy, as it was practised till the Renaissance, was not just the art of transmuting baser metals into gold. It was a philosophy which strove to bring to light the hidden architecture of the whole universe. In fact, the real aim of alchemy was the regeneration of the human soul to its divine condition (Chapter IV). The alchemists concealed in their highly allegorical, cryptic language the fabulous secrets of their Art. In Europe, some adepts started to use the alchemical symbolism in various forms of art (poetry, painting,...) which testify to the mysticism and exaltation of the alchemists (Chapter IV).

53. Hollwitz, John Charles.
The mythopoeic art of C.S. Lewis.
Order No: AAC 8026831 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY (0163) Degree: PHD Date: 1980 pp: 235
Source: DAI-A 41/06, p. 2352, Dec 1980
Subject: SPEECH COMMUNICATION (0459)
Abstract: C. S. Lewis believed that fiction could express certain religious truths more effectively than could formal dogma. This position is further defined by Stephen Crites, who maintains that stories have tacit components, a "sacred" basis which is expressible only in narrative speech. This study examines the "sacred" basis of Lewis' mythopoeic space trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. It analyzes the novels with the methodology of amplification, a technique associated with the psychology of C. G. Jung. Lewis employs transformation imagery derived from alchemical, initiatory, and mythological motifs. He forms this imagery into a distinct pattern at whose center is Elwin Ransom. Out of the Silent Planet describes a transformation in which Ransom is symbolically delivered to a new spiritual condition on the planet Mars. His rebirth is shamanic in tone, anticipating his later roles as an agent of transformation in others. The first novel introduces the alchemical and mythological imagery developed later, but its main concern is to introduce Ransom to a masculine and militant (Mars-like) spirituality. He becomes an heroic ideal who embodies the religious principles that Lewis advocated in his theological assays. Perelandra is set on an edenic and maternal Venus. It examines the role of the feminine in Lewis' militant spirituality. He now begins to adjust his customary theological position. As the shamanic agent, Ransom confronts and battles Satan. Before he succeeds he must accept an absolute obedience by which Perelandra is ruled. In this novel and in the next, Lewis makes obedience a feminine function. Ransom accepts the feminine (at least in its maternal capacities) within his spirituality. The conjunction of masculine and feminine was central to medieval alchemy, which was concerned with eros as the unacknowledged opposite of the Christian logos. Perelandra ends with an alchemical symbol (the marriage of Mars and Venus) and suggests that the story has tempered Lewis' exclusively masculine theology. In That Hideous Strength, Ransom bears the name and the wound of the fisher-king of medieval legends. The wound symbolized Christianity's inability to acknowledge the spiritual importance of eros. The wound is healed in this final novel through the redemption of the feminine. Lewis presents this redemption as a vindication of sexuality; in this he was strongly influenced by the novelist Charles Williams. Ransom cannot attempt this transformation himself. He has been stricken by his very inability to succeed. The hero is now a woman, Jane Studdock. She seeks authentic womanhood: her quest is initiatory and mythological (since it resembles the Demeter-Persephone story) and alchemical (in its similarities to the Grail tradition). Lewis' transformation imagery amounts to a redemption of the feminine within the exclusively masculine theology that he developed elsewhere. The study concludes that Lewis' mythopoeia suggests a continuation of alchemical and Grail traditions. The novels anticipated unforeseeable developments in Lewis' life and in modern theology.

54. Huckle, Nicholas Martyn.
Arrangements in alchemy: Studies in Mallarme and Char.
Order No: AAC 8715509 ProQuest - Dissertation Abstracts
School: BROWN UNIVERSITY (0024) Degree: PHD Date: 1987 pp: 117
Source: DAI-A 48/04, p. 934, Oct 1987
Subject: LITERATURE, ROMANCE (0313)
Abstract: The thesis interprets both the poetry and the critical literature on Mallarme and Char with reference to the imagery of alchemy. The particular connections between the three registers are held to be original, although the general framework is not. It is clear that the authors were not ignorant of such possibilities. The introduction puts into question the rigid distinction between Deconstruction and Jungian thought, with reference to James Hillman's "Archetypal Psychology." At the same time, alchemy is related to Roland Barthes' understanding of poetic "style." It is argued that Deconstruction exemplifies the dazzling effect of the archetypal figure of Hermes. Each of the following five chapters treats a particular literary text within this context. Chapter one interprets Mallarme's tale Igitur in the light of the alchemical whitening stage. Chapter two looks at Harold Bloom's theory of Poetic Influence and at the idea of the will in poetry; its focus in the poetry is Char's Moulin premier. The third chapter examines Mallarme's treatment of Berthe Morisot and Herodiade as two exemplary and opposing feminine figures. Chapter four looks at some connections between Deconstruction and Magic. Finally, there is some recapitulation of the thesis through the comparison of the images of House and Vessel in Char. The thesis is not, strictly speaking, a comparative study. It does, however, lay the foundations for such a study.