45 research outputs found
Concepts of folly in English Renaissance literature : with particular reference to Shakespeare and Jonson
No full textChapter 1 considers Barclay's 'Ship of Fools' in relation to other folly literature in English, particularly Lydgate's 'Order of Fools', Skelton's 'Bowge of Courte', and 'Cocke Lorrel's Bote'. Motifs, allegories and the woodcuts of the text are discussed and some are included in an Illustrations section. Chapter 2 discusses Erasmian folly looking back to the Neoplatonic writings of Nicholas of Cusa, and to the debt Erasmian exegeses owe to Origen. Erasmus' own philosophical and theological views are examined, particularly as they are found in his 'Enchiridion', and in the influence of Thomas à Kempis' 'Imitation of Christ'. A close textual analysis of the 'Moriae Encomium' is undertaken in this light. Chapter 3 defines the lateral boundaries of folly, where it blends into madness. In the context of Renaissance psychology sixteenth century medical works are analysed, including Boorde's 'Breviary of Healthe', Barrough's 'Method of Physicke' and Elyot's 'Castel of Helth'. Blurring between madness and sin, the negative judgments on the mad as demon-possessed, and the biblical models from which such judgments largely arose give alternative perspectives on madness and its relation to folly. Chapters 4-6 look at three Shakespearean comedies showing the development of a primarily Erasmian view of folly. This moves from overt references in 'Love's Labour's Lost' to natural folly, the folly of love and theological folly, through carnivalesque aspects of folly and madness in 'Twelfth Night', to an embedded notion of folly which influences and affects the darker comedy of 'Measure for Measure'. Chapter 7 considers satires of Hall, Marston and Guilpin, and looks at Jonson's Humour plays in this context. 'Volpone' and 'Epicoene', and 'The Alchemist' and 'Bartholomew Fair' are discussed in pairs, showing the softening of Jonson's attitude to folly, and his increasing representation of Erasmian folly reaching its full expression in 'Bartholomew Fair'
Fixing New York's State Education Aid Dinosaur: A Proposal
No full textNew York State provides aid to local schools through a confusing maze of aid programs that are, according to many commentators, unfair to the neediest school districts, often defined as those with many students who are poor or otherwise "at risk." For example, New York City, which, by any measure, is one of the neediest districts, currently receives less aid per pupil than the average district in the state. On January 9, 2001, in the case of Campaign for Fiscal Equity vs. State of New York (719 N.Y.S2d 475, 150 Ed. Law Rep. 834), the New York State Supreme Court brought new salience to this issue. In a strongly worded opinion, Justice Leland DeGrasse ruled that the current educational aid system violates the state's constitutional requirement to provide a "sound basic education" and needs to be reformed. Among other things, Justice DeGrasse labeled the failure to account for the needs of at-risk students "one of the great failings of the State school financing system" and declared that "New York City does not receive State aid commensurate with the needs of its students." This policy brief proposes a new formula for distributing educational aid in New York State, a formula designed to direct aid to the districts that, through no fault of their own, are in the greatest need of assistance. High-need districts are those with high educational costs or low property wealth. This policy brief begins by explaining why the cost of education varies from one school district to the next. It then shows how variation in the cost of education across districts can be incorporated into a state education aid program that brings all districts up to some minimally adequate performance level. This approach is applied to New York State. Specifically, I propose a new education aid formula for Newe York State that would bring all the school districts up to an adequate performance defined with reference to the new Regents graduation standards. This policy brief also explores various ways to share the cost of this program between school districts and the state.
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
The liturgical vision of Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin
No full textThe aim of this thesis is to argue that Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) was a liturgist who had a liturgical vision. He is commonly regarded as an architect and designer per se, but many believe he had eccentric ideas, was a fanatic for the Gothic style of architecture and that while he was religious, he had little impact on the religious controversy and events of his time. The thesis will bring forward a different picture of him. The reasons put forward to support the claim that he was a liturgist are that he had a particularly definition of liturgy; he studied liturgy for three years; he employed a particular method of writing, which was commonly used by past liturgists; many of his authorities were liturgists and historians, as well as architects and designers, and his sources related to liturgy. Pugin went from attacking Protestants, to defending his views against Roman Catholics. To argue for his views, Pugin employed a particular methodology, which included a vast number of authorities and sources. He offered to England an alternative setting of the Roman rite. The new converts who had seceded from the Church of England to the Church of Rome, including John Henry Newman and his circle, did not support him and this led to a major conflict. Their different views of liturgy became a matter of judgement for the Roman Catholic Church. Pugin was influenced by Continental, particularly French, Roman Catholic scholars and liturgists. The influence of the leader of the liberal Catholics in France, Charles-Forbes-Rene, Count de Montalembert, is also brought to light. The thesis will argue that Pugin sought to implement his views on liturgy in England and had a vision of a future England that could act as an example to the rest of Catholic Christendom, including the Church of Rome. He initially had a measure of success, but finally failed and bowed to the judgement of the Roman Catholic Church
Iowa History and Culture : A Bibliography of Materials Published Between 1952 and 1986, 1989
No full textThis bibliography was compiled by two reference librarians, Patricia Dawson and David Hudson with the goal of making it easier of tracking down material on Iowa history and culture. This supplements the Iowa History Reference Guide published in 1952 by William Petersen
