Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Intertextuality : Eastern Themes

Abstract The Name of the Rose, first novel by Umberto Eco, the Italian novelist and semiotician was published in 1980. The story happens in the Middle Ages (14th century) in an abbey, having a large and wonderful library. This historical detective story is a complicated novel full of intricate signs and symbols. In this paper, some of the themes of The Name of the Rose found in Eastern texts are discussed that indicate intertextuality and the immense amount of knowledge that Eco had of literature. It is stated that the frame tale is very much similar to Kalila va Demna and some of the subplots of the novel have similarities with stories from ancient Iran and the Middle East. Keywords: The Name of the Rose, Eastern literature, narrator, narration, frame tal

A critical study of the seven major Victorian pessimistic poets

The following thesis is a critical study of seven sig­ nificant Victorian pessimistic poets. Having as its basis a seminar paper for Dr. Lewis F. Ball in which four of the Victorian pessimists were discussed, the original study was expanded in order to include the remaining three. In this critical study, the emphasis has been placed mainly upon the themes characteristic of these pessimistic poets, and the poems that I consider to be the best examples of their various attitudes have been incorporated, either partially or in full, into the text of this thesis. Fur­thermore, though these chapters are not intended as critical biographies, some biographical facts have been included so that the poets\u27 lives can be seen as influencing their thought and work

The Koranic Doctrine of Sin

The problem that was the occasion for the writing of this thesis is indicated by the title - namely, what is the teaching of sin as it is set forth in the Koran, the Holy Book of Mohammedanism. The problem may be a strictly academic one; but for the writer the problem is one of more than casual importance, since he is a representative of the Christian Church. And the Christian Church in its effort to present the Gospel to Islam, must be vitally concerned with the concept of sin as it is to be found in that theological system

Shakespeare

Openly licensed anthology focused on the theme of Shakespeare. Contains The Complete Works of Shakespeare