5,614 research outputs found
Women's life writing 1760-1830 : spiritual selves, sexual characters, and revolutionary subjects
No full textPhDThis thesis uses print and manuscript sources to analyse and interpret women's life
writing at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. I
explore printed works by Catharine Phillips, Mary Dudley, Priscilla Hannah Gurney,
Ann Freeman, Elizabeth Steele, Mary Robinson, Helen Maria Williams, Mary
Wollstonecraft, Grace Dalrymple Elliott, and Charlotte West and discuss the
manuscripts of Mary Fletcher, Mary Tooth, Sarah Ryan, and Elizabeth Fox. Of these
sources, five have never been analysed in the critical literature and six have received
little attention. Considered as a group, this large corpus of texts offers new insights
into the personal and political implications of different models of female selfhood and
social being.
In chapter one, I compare the religious identities presented in the spiritual
autobiographies of Quakers and Methodists. For these women, religious identification
provides a powerful sense of social belonging and enables public participation.
However, it may also lead to a loss of self in the demand for religious conformity and
self-abnegation. In chapter two, I consider the life writing of late eighteenth-century
courtesans. These women adapt available models of femininity and female authorship
in order to establish themselves as socially connected subjects. However, their
narratives also reveal that dependence on the sexual and literary marketplace puts
female selfhood under pressure. In chapter three, I explore the eyewitness accounts of
British women in the French Revolution. I argue that, for these writers, connecting
personal identity to political history is an enabling source of self-definition but it also
exposes them to the risks of self-fragmentation.
In my focus on the social function of women's life writing, I present an alternative to
the traditional alignment of the eighteenth-century autobiographical subject with the
autonomous self of individualism. These narratives allow us to reconsider the
productive and problematic dialectic between personal expression and representative
selfhood, self-authorship and collective narratives, and individualism and social
being. They suggest that women's life writing has the potential to be both the self-expression
of a unique heroine and the self-inscription of a politicised subject
Letter from Mary F. Clark, July 9, 1947
No full textWritten on official letterhead of the U.S. Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service in Crystal City, Texas, Mary F. Clark, the Senior Assistant Nurse Officer writes in support of Harukichi Watanabe.Collection of notes, articles, correspondence, photographs, and term papers collected by Yukio Mochizuki, a student at CSU Dominguez Hills, while researching Japanese American incarceration and Japanese Peruvian internment during World War II
"In this moment of alarm and peril": Female Education, Religion and Politics In the Late Eighteenth Century, With special reference to Catharine Macaulay and Hannah More
No full textPhDCatharine Macaulay and Hannah More are conventionally represented as
ideological opposites. Through an analysis which centres on their writings, this
thesis critically examines that representation, and more broadly explores
contemporary perceptions of the roles of women of the middling sort in the late
eighteenth century. It argues that revolution, particularly the French Revolution,
created a climate wherein the duties of women became the subject of increasing
debate. The discussion challenges and builds upon recent work on women's
writing and history, by examining how and why the role of women changed at this
time. This work is concerned with contemporary representations of women, and
concentrates on analysis of primary texts and archival material over a wide range
of genres, including educational treatises, plays, popular tracts, political pamphlets,
historical writing and newspapers - the latter proving a major resource.
Following a critical introduction, the thesis falls into four chapters. Chapter one
discusses the reputation, critical reception and public fame of Macaulay and More,
thereby providing insights into contemporary sexual and social politics. Women
were considered arbiters of morals and manners - believed to play a vital role in
ensuring social stability - and the second chapter examines how the threat of
revolution led to increasing anxiety and debate about the nature of female
education. The third and fourth chapters discuss religion and politics respectively,
and argue that beliefs about the interdependency of Church and State, together with
the feminization of religion, legitimized women's involvement in politics and
enlarged their sphere of influence.
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The conclusion argues that the political and religious climate provided
opportunities for women to reassess and redefine their roles; while often remaining
within parameters defined by commonly held perceptions of femininity, they
politicized the domestic, extended female agency, and elevated the status of
women
Harmony and discord within the English ‘counter-culture’, 1965-1975, with particular reference to the ‘rock operas’ Hair, Godspell, Tommy and Jesus Christ Superstar
No full textPhDThis thesis considers the discrete, historically-specific theatrical and musical sub-genre of ‘Rock Opera’ as a lens through which to examine the cultural, political and social changes that are widely assumed to have characterised ‘The Sixties’ in Britain. The musical and dramatic texts, creation and production of Hair (1967), Tommy (1969), Godspell (1971), Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) and other neglected ‘Rock Operas’ of the period are analysed. Their great popularity with ‘mainstream’ audiences is considered and contrasted with the overwhelmingly negative and often internally contradictory reaction towards them from the English ‘counter-culture’. This examination offers new insights into both the ‘counter-culture’ and the ‘mainstream’ against which it claimed to define and differentiate itself.
The four ‘Rock Operas’, two of which are based upon Christian scriptures, are considered as narratives of spiritual quest. The relationship between the often controversial quests for re-defined forms of faith and the apparently precipitous ‘secularization’ and ‘de-Christianization’ of British society during the 1960s and 1970s is considered.
The thesis therefore analyses the ‘Rock Operas’ as significant, enlightening prisms through which to view many of the profound societal debates – over ‘faith’ and ‘belief’ in the widest senses, sexuality, the Vietnam war, generational conflict, drugs and ‘spiritual enlightenment’, and race – which were, to some considerable extent, elevated onto the national, political agenda by the activities of the broadly-defined ‘counter-culture’. It considers subsequent representations of the ‘counter-culture’ as the root of a contested but enduring popular legacy of ‘The Sixties' as a period of profound cultural change
The Natural History of The Silkewormes and their Flies
No full textImages published with permission of The British Library Board (434.f.10), the Huntington Library and Proquest. Further reproduction is prohibited.Images published with permission of The British Library Board (434.f.10), the Huntington Library and Proquest. Further reproduction is prohibited.Images published with permission of The British Library Board (434.f.10), the Huntington Library and Proquest. Further reproduction is prohibited.Images published with permission of The British Library Board (434.f.10), the Huntington Library and Proquest. Further reproduction is prohibited.This study examines the overlap between natural philosophy and humanist imitation in two works by Thomas Moffet: his reference work Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalum Theatrum (written c.1589) and his poem The Silkewormes, and their Flies (1599). Both works draw extensively on contemporary and classical authors in order to create intertextual collages that look backwards towards the natural unity found in the Garden of Eden. This leads me to argue that The Silkewormes’ compositional style shares more in common with Guillaume de Saluste, Sieur Du Bartas's Sepmaine (1578, 1584) than with Virgilian didactic poetry. I consider throughout Elizabethan notions of authority, composition and originality, and conclude that Silkewormes merits critical attention for its skilful synthesis of diverse material in creating a work appropriate for Mary Herbert and her household at Wilton.Arts and Humanities Research Counci
The 'true use of reading' : Sarah Fielding and mid eighteenth-century literary strategies.
No full textPhDThe aim of this thesis is to explore, by examining her life and
works, how Sarah Fielding (1710-68) established her identity as an author.
The definition of her role involves her notions of the functions of
writing and reading.
Sarah Fielding attempts to invite readers to form a sense of ties
by tacit understanding of her messages. As she believes that a work
of literature is produced through collaboration between the writer and
the reader, it is an important task in her view to show her attentiveness
toward reading practice. In her consideration of reading, she has two
distinct, even opposite views of her audience: on the one hand a familiar
and limited circle of readers with shared moral and cultural values and
on the other potential readers among the unknown mass of people. The
dual targets direct her to devise various strategies. She tries to
appeal to those who can endorse and appreciate her moral values as well
as her learning. Her writings and letters testify that she is sensitive
to the demands of the literary market, trying to lead the taste of readers
by inventing new forms.
The thesis opens with an overview of Sarah Fielding's career,
followed by a consideration of her critical attention to the roles of
reading. I go on to examine the narrative structures and strategies
she deploys, with a particular emphasis on her use of the epistolary
method. The following chapter deals with her attention to the reading
of the moral message tangibly embodied in her educational writing. It
is followed by an analysis of the activity which earned her a reputation
as a learned woman. Various as the forms of her works are, they invariably
reflect her attempt to balance herself between the two demands of
inventiveness and familiarity
The contribution of the United States Supreme Court and the European Court of justice in the vertical and horizontal allocation of power
No full textPhDThis thesis explores the contribution of the US Supreme Court
(USSC) and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the vertical and
horizontal allocation of power. Said differently, it answers the two
following questions: How do both Courts draw the line between the realm
of politics and judicial process? How do they allocate power between the
Union and its component States? After examining standing, the political
question doctrine, negative and positive integration and liability in damages
on both sides of the Atlantic, it is concluded that both Courts should not
always look for “substantive” constitutional benchmarks. The reason lies in
that sometimes the latter may turn to be either questions deemed too
political for judicial resolution or insufficient to control congressional or
Community legislative powers. Additionally, the judicial department should
also pay due regard to a “process” review. This type of review would
operate at two levels. At first stage, Courts should solve flaws in the
procedure by which the political institutions adopt their decisions. For
instance, this would be the case where procedures neglect “discrete and
insular” minorities, or where they entrench incumbent political majorities.
Thus, judicial review would be principled upon understanding “democracy”
as an intangible value that cannot succumb to majoritarian pressures. At a
second stage, Courts should also examine whether, in their deliberations,
political actors pay due account to all interests at stake, particularly, to those
not represented in the political process
The works of Mary Birkett Card 1774-1817 originally collected by her son Nathaniel Card in 1834: an edited transcription with an introduction to her life and works in two volumes
No full textThis thesis makes available the writings of Mary Birkett Card, a Dublin Quaker,
as collected by her son Nathaniel Card in 1834. It provides an annotated
transcription of the manuscript collection, with textual and editorial notes, and
an introduction recovering her life within her cultural community. The writings
consist of a spiritual autobiography, 43 religious letters, other prose pieces and
over 220 poems. Two poems were published in her lifetime: A Poem on the
African Slave Trade (1792) and Lines to the Memory of our Late Esteemed and
Justly Valued Friend Joseph Williams (1807).
The introduction is in three parts. Part 1 offers a biographical outline and sets
Mary Birkett Card's childhood poems in the context of the Quaker community in
which she grew up. Part 2 explores her autobiography, questioning concepts
of a separate female autobiographical tradition. It then investigates her
encounter with 'deist' thought, and later conflicts, after her marriage. These
concern money (seeking to reconcile the spiritual and material) and issues of
language and gender (a desire for'a pure language', linked to constraints upon
women's speech). Part 3 contrasts her 1790s verse with her later poems, and
epistles, arguing that embedded within these works as a whole lies a struggle
with her literary imagination.
Throughout, the writings are set within the context of contemporary literary
forms in poetry, Quaker writing and women's writing. They are considered in
relation to now current critical debates - on public and private spheres,
autobiography, abolitionist verse, women's intimate friendships, domesticity,
philanthropy and sensibility. It is shown that Mary Birkett Card's literary
creativity was intimately connected with her Quakerism, and, moreover, with
attempts to negotiate an ideal of Quaker womanhood. One important aspect is
the challenge her work poses to assumptions, still generally prevalent, about
Quaker women's far greater autonomy within marriage in comparison to
women in society at large
Musikstädte as real and imaginary soundscapes: urban musical images as literary motifs in twentieth-century German modernism
No full textPhDThis study examines German literary images of musical life as part of the wider sound identity of the modern German city at the turn of the twentieth century. Focussing on a forty-year period from 1890 to 1930, synonymous with the emergence of the modern German metropolis as an aesthetic object, the project assesses, compares and contrasts how musical life in the Musikstädte was perceived and portrayed by writers in an increasingly noisy urban environment. How does urban musical life influence and condition city writings? What are the differences and similarities between the writings on various musical cities? Can an urban textual sound identity be derived from these differences and similarities? The approach employed to answer these questions is a new, cross-disciplinary one to urban sound in literature, moving beyond reading the key sounds of the urban soundscape using urban musicology, sensorial anthropology and cultural poetics towards a literary contextualisation of the urban aural experience.
The literary motifs of the symphony, the gramophone and urban noise are put under the spotlight through the analysis of a wide range of modernist works by authors who have a special relationship with music. At the centre of this analysis are the Kaffeehausliteratur authors Hermann Bahr, Alfred Polgar and Peter Altenberg, the then Munich-based author Thomas Mann and the lesser known René Schickele. The analysis of these particular works is framed in the music-geographical context of the Musikstadt and literary underpinnings of this topos, ranging from Ingeborg Bachmann to Hans Mayer and, once again, Thomas Mann. In analysing these texts, the methodological approach devised by Strohm, who identifies the blending of a range of urban sounds as a definition of urban space and identity, is applied. His ideas combine historical literary
analysis, musical history and urban sociology. They are rarely used in the analysis of the auditory environment.Arts and Humanities Research Council
Westfield TrustWestfield Trust Studentship
Arts and Humanities Reseach Council (AHRC
Detective fiction in Cuban society and culture.
No full textPhDThe object of this thesis is to reach towards an understanding of Cuban society through a
study of its detective fiction and more particularly contemporary Cuban society through
the novels of the author and critic, Leonardo Padura Fuentes.
The method has been to trace the development of Cuban detective writing and to
read Padura Fuentes in the light of the work of twentieth century Western European
literary critics and philosophers including Raymond Williams, Antonio Gramsci, Terry
Eagleton, Roland Barthes, Jean Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, Jean François Lyotard and
Jean Baudrillard in order to gain a better understanding of the social and historical
context from which this genre emerged.
By concentrating on the literary texts, I have explored readings which lead out into
an analysis of the broader philosophical, political and historical issues raised by the
Cuban revolution. Since it deals primarily with modes of deviance and notions of legality
and justice within the context of the modern state, detective fiction is particularly well
suited to this type of investigation. The intention is to show how this is as valid in the
Cuban context as it is in advanced capitalist societies where such research has already
been carried out with some success.
The thesis comprises an introduction, ten chapters and a conclusion. The chapters
are divided into three sections. Chapters 1 to 3 attempt a broad theoretical, historical and
socio-political analysis of the cultural reality within which the Cuban revolutionary
detective genre emerged. Chapters 4 to 6 analyse the Cuban detective narrative from its
inception in the early part of the twentieth century until the emergence of Leonardo
Padura Fuentes as the foremost exponent of the genre in Cuba after 1991. Chapters 7-
10 concentrate upon the work of Leonardo Padura Fuentes, offering a reading of his
detective tetralogy informed by the preceding discussion.
The contribution made by the thesis to knowledge of the subject is to build upon the
work of Seymour Menton and Amelia S. Simpson on the development of the Cuban
detective novel and to provide analyses of the pre-Revolutionary Cuban detective
narrative and the work of Leonardo Padura Fuentes for the first time in the English
language. The thesis concludes that the study of this popular genre in Cuba is of crucial
importance to the scholar who wishes to reach as full an understanding of the social
dynamics within that society as possible. In particular, it proves that Cuban detective
fiction provides a useful barometer of social change which records the shifts in the Cuban
Zeitgeist that have taken place over the past century
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