Arts
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10323/11882
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Item type: Item , Language and Perception: Richard the Lionheart in Crusade Narratives of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries(2026-01-01) Janish, Tessa Alexandria; Naus, James; Wenz, AndreaThe character of Richard the Lionheart (r. 1189-1199) remains prevalent in the national legend of medieval England. Images of the king as a valiant knight have bled into the popular perception of the country’s past, prompted by legendary literature such as Richard Coeur de Lyon. In part, these legends find their origins in the narrative chronicles contemporary to Richard, many favoring his kingship over that of his peers. Previous scholarship, analyzing these sources for their adherence to truth, argues for and against Richard’s capabilities as king. This thesis, instead, examines narrative sources as cultural artifacts to explain why Richard was distinguished from his contemporaries, despite his questionable kingship. In analyzing the Estoire de la Guerre Sainte and the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Recardi, this thesis argues that crusade chroniclers idealized Richard to bolster Angevin kingship amid power struggles with the French at the turn of the twelfth century.Item type: Item , Alfred Delp and the “Third Way”: the Munich Jesuit Contribution to Political and Spiritual Resistance in Nazi Germany(2026-01-01) Evans, Emily; Hastings, DerekAlfred Delp and the “Third Way:” The Munich Jesuit Contribution to Political and Spiritual Resistance in Nazi Germany examines how Jesuit priest Alfred Delp’s theological and uniquely Jesuit formation shaped his resistance to Nazism, arguing that his opposition was as moral and intellectual as it was political. Deeply influenced by Catholic social theory, Delp developed a “Third Way,” an alternative to both capitalism and Soviet Marxism, grounded in natural law, subsidiarity, solidarity, and the inviolable dignity of the human person. Delp’s work on the Third Way was the result of several years of study, culminating with his participation in the discussions of the Kreisau Circle, a group dedicated to creating a society based on Christian principles after the fall of the Nazi regime. Delp’s Christian vision for a world without Nazism, Jesuit identity, and ties—albeit indirect—to the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler ultimately led to his execution in early 1945. This paper situates Delp within the unique context of Munich, one of Germany’s most Catholic cities and the birthplace of the Nazi Party. Alongside fellow Jesuits Augustin Rösch, his superior, and Lothar König, Delp built a vast network fostering a wide-reaching network of connections across Catholic and Protestant lines, culminating in his participation in the Kreisau Circle in 1942. By examining Delp within this Munich context, his resistance emerges in contrast to the cautious approach of Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, revealing the distinctive moral, intellectual, and political contributions of Delp and the Munich Jesuits to broader German resistance.Item type: Item , Educating the Republic: the Founders’ Provisional Civic Curriculum(2026-01-01) Dunlop, Sean Robert; Estes, Todd; DiPucchio, NicholasThe American Revolution established a political system grounded in popular sovereignty, raising new questions about the education citizens needed to govern themselves. If republican government depended upon the knowledge and judgment of the people, early American thinkers had to consider what subjects citizens should study to sustain the new republic. This thesis argues that the writings of the founding generation reveal a recurring set of civic subjects: history, the science of government, law, natural and moral philosophy, and the disciplined use of Americanized English. Together these subjects form what may be understood as a provisional civic curriculum for republican self-government. Although no formal national curriculum was adopted, these subjects appear repeatedly across educational proposals, essays, institutional plans, and political writings from the colonial era through the early republic. By examining both prominent founders and lesser-known reformers, this study reconstructs the curricular ideas early Americans believed necessary for sustaining republican government.Item type: Item , Women, Wombs, and Witchcraft: The Implications of Fertility on the Early Modern European Witch Hunts(2025-01-01) Grundy, Morgan Elizabeth; Wenz, Andrea; Chapman-Williams, SaraMy thesis is focused on the integration of women’s gender roles in reproduction and procreation into elite beliefs of witchcraft as a contributing factor in the targeting of women as witches in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. Ancient elite beliefs of women being imperfect and passive evolved into discussions of women’s gender and sexuality in medieval and early modern Europe. In turn, these elite beliefs of the female gender become incorporated into the elite early modern beliefs of witchcraft and witches. Elites focused on women’s inferiority and weakness as being the reasons that made women more susceptible to witchcraft. These gender beliefs also influenced ideas of female carnality, specifically sexual desires, appetites, and sexual interactions with the Devil, as being the heart of accusing women as witches and influencing the stereotype of the witch.