2,524 research outputs found

    Sarah Fielding: Satire and Subversion in the Eighteenth-Century Novel

    No full text
    This study of Sarah Fielding (1710―68) is an original contribution to Fielding scholarship that has a dual purpose: to support those who are striving to re-introduce her to the modern literary landscape in an effort to restore her eighteenth-century literary standing, and to firmly establish Fielding as an early feminist writer. It is argued here that throughout her oeuvre Fielding challenged prevailing traditions that denied women a choice, particularly in education, employment and marriage. These themes are also considered in the political treatises of Mary Astell (1666―1731) and Mary Wollstonecraft (1759―97), who are now widely recognised as feminist writers. It is further argued that Fielding’s subversion in fiction of the English patriarchal system is underscored by her unorthodox performance in the literary arena. This is fully explored alongside her use of sentimentalism as a literary tool with which she challenges her seemingly inhumane society. Fielding’s interest in ‘the Labyrinths of the Mind’ (in modern terms, human psychology) will also be addressed as will her placement in the history of feminism and her placement in the sentimental novel tradition. Fielding’s performance as a literary critic will be compared with the few female authors who, like her, dared to publish literary criticism during her writing career. Accordingly, extracts from Fielding’s novels and her two critical pamphlets will be thoroughly examined. An updated biography of Fielding that is also included here will provide evidence for a further claim, that her fiction is autobiographical in part. A comprehensive account of Fielding’s performance as a literary critic forms the final chapter of this work. It is the first full-length examination of her contribution to the genre and includes an appraisal of her recently unearthed critical pamphlet entitled A Comparison Between the Horace of Corneille and The Roman Father of Mr. Whitehead (1750) that is yet to be formerly attributed to her. Ultimately this study of Fielding will go far beyond what has previously been written about this remarkable eighteenth-century author, particularly regarding her feminist activity

    The 'true use of reading' : Sarah Fielding and mid eighteenth-century literary strategies.

    No full text
    PhDThe 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 clinical stew: two children’s responses to treatment within a family system of multiple and complex traumas

    No full text
    As a social worker in the child maltreatment field, there are a great deal of challenges throughout the investigation and treatment stages while working with children and their families. This case study will demonstrate the complexities of working with two young siblings, Hope and John, who have experienced multiple and complex traumas in their family of cognitive limitations. The frame of this case study is an ethnographic description of an integrated approach to the case and my reflexive actions, in which I will examine the theoretical perspectives and treatment modalities of Eye Movement, Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Play Therapy, and Family Therapy and how the theories were applied to clinical practice. Furthermore, the aim of this case study is to explore different reasons two children from the same familial environment have different reactions to the same therapeutic modalities in treatment with the same therapist. Resilience, moral development, and attachment will be explored as reasons for their positive or negative outcomes to therapy. I also question whether there was anything else I could have done to help this family have a more positive response to treatment.DSWIncludes bibliographical referencesby Sarah B. Michaloswk

    A critical analysis of the plays of Sarah Daniels.

    Get PDF
    As one of the forerunners of 'second wave' feminist playwriting, Sarah Daniels has for the past fifteen years been one of Britain's most prolific writers for the stage. This thesis is the first to offer a detailed critical analysis of all her published plays along with a developmental account of her career. My approach throughout is text-based and non-prescriptive, although I do at certain points indicate where Daniels reflects or voices differing feminist perspectives. I also consider, beginning in Chapter Three, the critical reception and 'gendered' reviewing the playwright has received over the years. The thesis is organised into five chapters with an Afterword. Chapter One, the Introduction, offers an overview of Daniels' career as well as certain key characteristics of her work. In Chapter Two I analyse the early plays, Ripen Our Darkness, The Devil's Gateway and Neaptide, and consider in particular how they reflect, along with other women's playwriting at the time, certain ideals of the Women's Liberation Movement. Chapter Three is devoted entirely to Masterpieces, Daniels' most controversial and, on many levels, successful play to date. Chapter Four is an analysis of the 'history plays', Byrthrite and The Gut Girls. In addition to giving voice to women traditionally silenced in and by history, these plays (especially Byrthrite) also echo particular strands of modern feminist debate. Chapter Five examines Daniels' plays of the 1990s (Beside Herself, Head- Rot Holiday and The Madness of Esme and Shaz) with their central theme of 'women and madness'. This is also a fitting theme with which to conclude the thesis as it brings together and expands on the most significant motif running throughout the playwright's work. In the Afterword I consider the effect of Esme and Shaz's critical reception on Daniels, as well as her current 'work in progress'. Finally, the two Appendices provide a chronological table of Daniels' productions and a list of subsequent professional productions as well as awards

    'F- F- Felt it': Breathing Feminist, Queer and Clown Thinking into the Practice and Study of Sarah Kane’s Cleansed and Blasted

    No full text
    This thesis uses studio practice, scholarly research, close reading of text, performance observation and conversation with practitioners to establish diverse readings of Sarah Kane’s Cleansed. It includes original material from the 2012 productions of Cleansed in Japan (Kamome-za Fringe Theatre), and in Ireland (Bare Cheek Theatre). It notes practice on Cleansed in gallery spaces (Cast-Off Drama, UK). It offers a dramaturgical approach to workshopping the play from a feminist and queer position, informed by theories of gender and transgender, and the marginalised, loving and delinquent practice of clowning. The research discusses principles of breath, voice and sexuate difference drawing primarily on the philosophies of Luce Irigaray, on the voice practice of Cicely Berry and the clown teaching of Sue Morrison. The work challenges the ‘in-yer-face’ theatre discourse on Kane arguing that it represents a McDonaldization of its subject matter, and an insidious trivialisation of her texts. It offers new thinking on the opening night of Blasted (1995), suggesting that the ‘furore’ was fuelled by collective male hysteria and superstition; its roots centred in mourning. Analysing Cleansed in relation to Edward Bond’s Saved and Lear, it explores tropes of ghosts, stitching and the silent scream, and argues that Kane militates for gynocentric time and becoming. It analyses the symbol of the perimeter fence as a feature of 1980s Britain, noting the strength of binary associations configured in it with reference to both English football hooliganism (male) and the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp (female). It argues that Kane sets up heteronormative binaries in Cleansed to debate and contest them. A key conclusion of the thesis is that Cleansed politically addresses and dramatises issues of transgender experience presenting accounts of gender violence, mutability, transitioning, the sharp fractures and silences of gender dysphoria, but also, ultimately, queer desire, love and optimism

    Constructed service : gendered discourses across the United States military

    No full text
    The status of female service members in the United States military evolved significantly during the years between 2001 and 2013 due primarily to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the changing nature of warfare, and military manpower requirements. However, despite women’s increased participation in combat and throughout the organization, there is limited understanding of how gender is constructed in the military, its consequences for women’s status, and the nature of cultural change in the organization. This thesis analyzes gender construction in the military across three levels: official documents, recruiting, and service member experience. Discourse analysis is used to uncover the dominant discourses articulated at each level and to understand what identities and policies are legitimated or prohibited. The primary finding is that there is no monolithic construction of gender in the military or single understanding of women’s status and the nature of military culture. The most prevalent discourses illustrate movement towards a more inclusive organization, where gendered traits are downplayed relative to traits understood as ‘gender-neutral,’ equally available to both men and women. The desire to maximize military effectiveness is central to discourse at the official level. Recruiting is the only level of analysis without an explicit challenge to women’s equal service in the military. Service members, articulating their identity and that of those they work with, subordinate femininity, but allow women who reject feminine traits to participate on equal footing with men. The January 2013 decision by the Department of Defense to lift policies that formally exclude women from some types of combat reflects the policies articulated in the dominant discourses uncovered across the three levels of analysis. What new discourses will emerge and how the dominant discourses in the organization will change as a result of this new policy, comprise areas deserving future research

    Depression and Gender: The Expression and Experience of Melancholy in the Eighteenth Century

    No full text
    This thesis investigates the life and work of six eighteenth-century writers, two male and four female. It explores their experience of depression through their letters and other autobiographical material, and examines the ways in which they represent melancholy in their poetry and prose. The subject of Chapter Two is Thomas Gray, whose real life persona as the lonely intellectual is also identifiable in his poetry. The Scottish poet Robert Fergusson is studied in Chapter Three. Fergusson’s lively and vigorous mind was shattered in the months leading up to his death, during which time some of his writing became darkly nihilistic. Chapter Four looks at Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, a lifelong depressive who often wrote about her feelings of despair in her poetry. Chapter Five explores Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. She was a courageous and controversial figure, but despite her resilience, on occasion in her letters she reveals her vulnerability and susceptibility to low spirits, a mood which is sometimes expressed in her creative writing. Sarah Scott, whose life and work have not yet been considered in relation to the subject of melancholy, is examined in Chapter Six. Her novel includes several low-spirited and depressed female characters who are continually seeking asylum from a hostile world. Chapter Seven analyses Charlotte Smith, a mother of twelve children whose unhappy marriage ended in separation. Smith wrote extensively about her depression in her letters, prefaces, poetry and novels. This study shows that the women in particular use their writing on melancholy and depression to express their discontent with the confined way in which they are often expected to live out their lives

    Role of the multidisciplinary team in the care of the tracheostomy patient

    Get PDF
    Barbara Bonvento,1 Sarah Wallace,1,2 James Lynch,1 Barry Coe,1 Brendan A McGrath1 1Acute Intensive Care Unit, University Hospital South Manchester, Manchester, 2Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, London, UK Abstract: Tracheostomies are used to provide artificial airways for increasingly complex patients for a variety of indications. Patients and their families are dependent on knowledgeable multidisciplinary staff, including medical, nursing, respiratory physiotherapy and speech and language therapy staff, dieticians and psychologists, from a wide range of specialty backgrounds. There is increasing evidence that coordinated tracheostomy multidisciplinary teams can influence the safety and quality of care for patients and their families. This article reviews the roles of these team members and highlights the potential for improvements in care. Keywords: tracheotomy, physiotherapist, Speech & Language, Nursin

    Building Quality Assurance into Metadata Creation: an Analysis based on the Learning Objects and e-Prints Communities of Practice

    Get PDF
    This paper challenges some of the assumptions underlying the metadata creation process in the context of two communities of practice, based around learning object repositories and open e-Print archives. The importance of quality assurance for metadata creation is discussed and evidence from the literature, from the practical experiences of repositories and archives, and from related research and practices within other communities is presented. Issues for debate and further investigation are identified, formulated as a series of key research questions. Although there is much work to be done in the area of quality assurance for metadata creation, this paper represents an important first step towards a fuller understanding of the subject.

    Adapting musicology's use of affect theories to contemporary theatre making: Directing Martin Crimp's attempts on her life

    No full text
    Copyright @ Intellect 2011Adopting and adapting musicology's use of affect theories, specifically Jeremy Gilbert's idea of an 'affective analysis' and David Epstein's idea of 'shaping affect', this article looks at Martin Crimp's Attempts on Her Life from a practitioner's perspective. It investigates the challenges and benefits of adopting an 'affective approach' to directing recent theatre texts that stress the musicality and corporeality of language along with, and at times above, its signifying roles. Rather than locating Aristotelian dramatic climaxes based on narratological or characterological progression, an affective approach seeks to identify moments of affective intensity, which produce a different sort of impact by working on a 'body-first' methodology, rather than the directly cerebral. That this embodied impact is not ultimately meaningless is one of affect theory's most vital assertions. This approach has resonance in terms of how directors, performers and critics/theorists approach work of this type
    corecore