The purpose of this thesis is to examine the letters of Diderot to Sophie Volland for the year 1759 as they are a source of important autobiographical, social, and psychological elements that shed light on Diderot's private and public life. In fact a turning point in the sentimental relationship between Diderot and Sophie Volland, the death of his father, the difficulties experienced in publishing the Encyclop6'die and consequently the coolness in his friendship with D'Alembert make 1759 a crucial year in Diderot's life. The conclusion reached is that the stylistically beautiful and modern letters to Sophie Volland of this year are self-revelatory for they show that the events of 1759 made a great psychological impact upon Diderot and started a process of maturity in his character. These letters can undoubtedly be considered a major part of Diderot's work and they can certainly contribute to a deeper understanding of this genius.

Spain underwent drastic social and political changes in the last decades of the twentieth century which also affected the nation’s patterns of emigration. Contemporary Spanish literature and film that portray these decades reflect the country’s fluctuating characteristics of migration. ¡Vente a Alemania, Pepe! (1971) by Pedro Lazaga, Coto vedado (1985) by Juan Goytisolo, El hijo del acordeonista (2003) by Bernardo Atxaga, and Yoyes (2000) by Helena Taberna demonstrate Spain’s migration trends during the last years of Franco’s dictatorship and the transition to democracy. The nation’s highly increased socioeconomic development in the 1970s and 1980s which eventually led to a first-world status also affected emigration, which can be seen in Carlota Fainberg (1999) by Antonio Muñoz Molina, Kasbah (2000) by Mariano Barroso, Restos de carmine (1999) by Juan Madrid, and Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (2009) by Isabel Coixet.

The Italian composer of operas, Giuseppe Verdi, relied heavily on plays of the Romantic Era as sources for opera librettos. Three such plays were from the Spanish Romantic School: El trovador and Simon Bocanegra by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, and Don Alvaro o la fuerza del sino by Angel de Saavedra, el Duque de Rivas. The operas which Verdi composed using these plays as sources--Il trovatore, Simon Boccanegra, and La forza del destino--range in popularity from near zenith (Il trovatore) to near nadir (Simon Boccanegra). The study attempts to assess the suitability of the three Spanish dramas as source material for operas, and to determine if this suitability is correlated to each opera's popularity.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining how Francisco Garcia Pavon's concept the detective novel evolved throughout the period during which he cultivated that literary form. To trace this evolution Garcia Pavon's detective novels and novelettes are studied in chronological order of publication, each work being given a chapter of its own. The character development is analyzed and the style is given consideration in the study.

The thesis states that women characters in the works of Ramuz have much more depth, life and variety than first meets the eye. In order to demonstrate this, it was decided to show women characters, main, secondary and in groups, and to look at their presentation in the novels recognized generally as the most important.

The purpose of this study is twofold: the first and most important purpose is to examine the various forms of humor; the second is to present views of the author concerning universal topics.

This thesis describes the work of Uruguayan-born author Javier de Viana and his imagery of Uruguayan rural life in his short stories and novellas.

This thesis will give a brief biography of Miguel Mihura, summarize and discuss his more important plays, comment on the less important ones, and point out recurrent patterns and themes, with the hope that the general public as well as the student of Spanish, may be better informed of the values to be found in the works of this writer.

This thesis explores the characterizations and themes in the novels of Elena Quiroga.

Alejandro Casona is a major playwright in the Spanish language today. He is known chiefly for his fantasy and humor. The intent of this paper is to show that his humor is a device for obtaining the attention of those whom he would teach.

The present thesis is an experiment in adaptation of one of Roberto Payró's plays for staging in English. Sobre las Ruinas was chosen both because it is one of the best known of his works and because no previous translation is known to exist.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether Blasco Ibáñez in his novel La Horda used Pío Baroja's Material which was published in La Lucha por la Vida. Baroja claimed that he did. Therefore, this paper compares the two novels to discover similarities in their settings, their plots, and their characters.

This thesis studies the life and the novels of Vicente Blasco Ibanez, including his Valencian period and his Madrid novels

This thesis presents a brief biography of the Mexican writer José Rubén Romero and discusses his prose writings, with an emphasis on his novels.

This thesis examines the fiction of the Columbian author Gabriel García Márquez, and focuses on hyperbole as a fundamental characteristic of Márquez's fiction. There is special interest in three aspects of his work: setting, people, and themes.

The type of alienation discussed in this thesis is not related to the famous Verfrenidungseffekt attempted by Brecht, where the audiences are prevented from identifying with the characters of the drama in the hope that the public will reflect on the ideas presented more rationally and objectively. "Alienation" in this thesis is a psychological force which acts divisively between the characters in the drama and thus contributes to the development of a tragic situation.

In this work, superficial to the extreme, it is my purpose to offer a review of the development of lyric poetry ("poesía lírica") in Colombia throughout its history. It is logical that because of the extent of the subject it is not possible to give a complete treatment of our political history, though I have tried not to leave out points of significance. The classification of authors and of poems, as well as the division of periods I have made arbitrarily, guided by my own criteria. Thus, I have the Romantic period divided into romanticism and post-romanticism, according to the dates generally regarded as the beginning and end of these two literary movements. In reality, romanticism only ended with the beginning of modernism, and one cannot therefore distinguish romantic poets from post-romantic poets. Due to the nature of this thesis, many poets--some of them well known--will not be mentioned. However, my intention is not to write a lyric anthology, but to reveal the spirit of Columbia through her poets and her poetry.

The purpose of this thesis is to make an intensive study of the dramatic works of Max Aub in order to determine his significance as a playwright.

This thesis is an experiment in adapting a Florencio Sánchez play for staging in English. La Gringa was chosen because it is the best known of Sánchez' works, and because, to this writer's knowledge, no translation of this play is available.

Through a direct comparison of representative extracts from the Lettres and the Cartas, this thesis proposes to demonstrate each author's portrayal of contemporary political, religious, social, and literary conditions in his own country.

It will be the purpose of this thesis to comment upon the eight novels by Marta Brunet. The novels will be examined in detail, giving special consideration to her emphasis on fatalism and destiny, and will examine critical opinion of her work and draw conclusions as to the author's place in the modern Latin American novel.

The purpose of this investigation is to characterize the dramatic characters of Federico García Lorca as realists or idealists. Lorca wrote a total of fifteen plays, and the majority of them are considered in this study. Additional source materials include the works of such critics as J. Alberich, María Teresa Babín, Alfredo de la Guardia, and Francisco Umbral.

This thesis looks at the two idological phases of Armando Palacio Valdés' writings as manifested in his novels.

Until the time of Lope de Vega and the Golden Age of Spanish literature, women had always had secondary roles in the Spanish drama. There were two reasons for this: 1) Women were not fully appreciated in the society of the times. 2) Women were prohibited from appearing on the stage for many years, and boys usually took their parts. With the advent of Lope de Vega and his arte nuevo de hacer comedies, the situation was changed. The great genius, Lope de Vega, set the pattern for the drama of the Golden Age.