4,212 research outputs found
A more comprehensive and commanding delineation: Mary Shelley's narrative strategy in Frankenstein
Get PDFThis thesis argues that the first edition of Frankenstein challenges conventional reading by employing what Simpson in Irony and Authority in Romantic Poetry calls Romantic irony, where the absence of a stable 'metacomment' precludes an authoritative reading. The novel hints at such readings but prevents them. The insights offered by Tropp's Mary Shelley's Monster, Baldick's In Frankenstein's Shadow, Poovey's The Proper Lady and the woman writer and Swingle's, 'Frankenstein's Monster and its Relatives: Problems of Knowledge in English Romanticism' are considered, but none recognises the full implications of the instability deriving from multiple first- person narratives. Clemit's The Godwinian Navel acknowledges the novel's indeterminacy, but reads a specific ideological purpose in it. Paradise Last provides a language to describe the relationship between the monster and Frankenstein, but proves too unstable to fix identity or establish moral value. Similarly, Necessity ultimately fails to provide a stable explanation in terms of cause and effect. The status of nature shifts between foreground and background, never allowing final definition. These uncertainties destabilise knowledge which is compromised by its provisional nature: no authoritative reading is possible, yet the novel has narrative coherence. The reader is encouraged to try to develop a reading the structure prevents. The radical nature of the first edition is highlighted by comparison with the 1831 edition, which removes much of the ambivalence and gives the novel a clearer morality. The novel challenges conventional methods of deriving authority by disturbing the reader's orthodox orientation in the world around him' (Simpson) in order to afford 'a point of view to the imagination for the delineation of human passions more comprehensive and commanding than any which the ordinary relations of existing events can yield' (Mary Shelley)
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
On the trail of Mary Shelley: Frankenstein and the Gothic
No full textreservedThe purpose of my dissertation is to contextualize and analyze Mary Shelley’s Frankesntein; or, the Modern Prometheus from a peculiar point of view. In the first chapter I’m going to present the scientific atmosphere surrounding the composition of the novel: in order to understand Mary Shelley’s work it is essential to go deep into the cultural, social and scientific climate of the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century, to examine the controversies and the debates that were taking place at that time and to present some of the key figures who contributed to scientific progress. The second chapter introduces the figure of Mary Shelley: I’m going to reflect upon her biography and I find it particularly interesting to analyze the ways in which her own life finds an echo in Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus and its characters. Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus mirrors Mary Shelley’s life from different points of view and I believe it is stimulating to read the novel while searching for traces of its author. The third and final chapter focuses on the Gothic and on Mary Shelley’s rewriting of the Gothic
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
"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
Mary Shelley’s The Last Man: dystopia, the future, and process drama pedagogy
No full textreservedLa tesi esplora modalità di apprendimento della letteratura inglese concentrandosi sul romanzo distopico di Mary Shelley The Last Man (1826) e sull’ applicazione pedagogica del Process Drama (O’Toole, 1992; O’ Neill, 1995; Bowell & Heap, 2013; Dalziel & Piazzoli, 2019; Piazzoli & Tiozzo, 2023). Lo studio si articola in due parti: la prima analizza il romanzo stesso con i suoi grandi temi distopici attraverso diverse prospettive critiche (Federici & Parlati, 2018; Parlati, 2018; Parlati & Pugliese, 2022), i personaggi e l’autrice, mentre la seconda si concentra sul Process Drama come sistema per insegnare la letteratura utilizzando specifici esercizi in aula, chiarendo la metodologia, osservandone i partecipanti e i risultati. Nella stesura di questa parte ho utilizzato metodi misti che combinano dati quantitativi e qualitativi attraverso l’uso di un sondaggio su scala Likert e tre domande aperte per raccogliere il feedback delle studentesse e degli studenti, un poster relativo all’ identità del protagonista, ho in seguito raccolto e analizzato la produzione scritta del gruppo di studentesse e studenti in risposta alle sollecitazioni proposte. I risultati suggeriscono che il Process Drama è una metodologia pedagogica fortemente raccomandata per l’apprendimento della letteratura inglese in modo flessibile e coinvolgente e per favorire lo sviluppo e la motivazione personale degli studenti.The thesis explores methods for learning English literature by focusing on Mary Shelley’s dystopian novel The Last Man (1826) and the pedagogical applications of Process Drama (O’Toole, 1992; O’ Neill, 1995; Bowell & Heap, 2013; Dalziel & Piazzoli, 2019; Piazzoli & Tiozzo, 2023). The study is divided into two parts: the first analyses the novel itself with its major themes tied to dystopic and critical perspectives (Federici & Parlati, 2018; Parlati, 2018; Parlati & Pugliese, 2022), characters and the author, while the second focuses on Process Drama as a means to teach literature using specific classroom exercises, and on the applied methodology, plus an examination of participation and students’ feedback. I combine both quantitative and qualitative data through the use of a Likert scale survey and three open-ended questions to collect students’ feedback, a character identity poster with students’ written responses on the main character of the novel, and the interpretation of the message of the Sibylline cave that each student wrote on a sheet of paper. Findings suggest Process Drama as a strongly recommended pedagogical methodology for learning English literature in a flexible and engaging manner and for fostering students’ development and personal motivation
Virginity matters: power and ambiguity in the attraction of the Virgin Mary
Get PDFThis thesis seeks to account for virginity as the source of Mary's power to attract. The point of departure is the syncretistic culture of the classical world. Here, patristic use of Old Testament typology recognises the distinctive work of grace in Mary's virginity, thus allowing it to become the determining quality by which her experience is subsequently perceived and universalised. The thesis divides its exploration into the three categories by which Mary is portrayed in the gospels - woman, spouse, mother - concluding its investigation with the end of the nineteenth century and its new understanding of human identity in gender and sexuality. In each category the thesis attempts to identify ways in which the attraction of virginity has functioned through ambiguity (Mary as virgin and mother, mother and spouse of her son) as a positive quality of potency and freedom, rather than as a strictly biological human condition with negative association in contemporary culture. In order to assess the extent of Mary's attraction in periods that lacked the modern forms of articulating self-awareness, the thesis has considered the fabric of devotional practice in religious texts, art, drama and ritual, seeking to allow the perceptions of earlier periods of history (a medium in itself) to challenge our own. As expressions of attraction to Mary, these media have yielded an insight into the power of virginity as a statement of paradisal, heavenly life accessed by grace through male and female human experience. They have also shown virginity to be a source of power that can be exploited for political ends. Finally, the thesis suggests that the power of Mary's virginity has been subversive and liberating in Church and society, thus indicating its neglected significance as a statement about the ambiguity of our nature as human, gendered, and sexual beings
The manuscript miscellany in early Stuart England : a study of British Library Manuscript Additional 22601 and related texts
No full textPhDThis thesis is an intensive study of a manuscript miscellany dating from the early years
of the reign of James VI and 1: British Library Manuscript Additional 22601. Compiled
by someone who had close links to the court, but who was also likely to have been
associated with the Inns of Court and possibly with the south-west of England, the
miscellany contains verse (including that of King James) and prose in a wide range of
genres, with a particular interest in the political culture of the period. My thesis
provides a description of the manuscript's contents as a whole and then goes on to focus
on texts from three specific genres: the letter, political prose, and poetry. Studying
these individually and in their immediate context, it goes on to trace their appearance in
a number of other contemporary miscellanies held in British and North American
archives.
The two primary contentions of the thesis are (1) that manuscript miscellanies need to
be treated as coherent wholes, whose arrangement to some extent determines the
meaning of the texts they contain and (2) that in the process of transmission from one
manuscript to another texts and their meanings are significantly modified. The act of
transcription is thus also an act of interpretation. Building on work by Peter Beal, Mary
Hobbs, Harold Love, Henry Woudhuysen and others, the thesis aims to expand our
understanding both of the culture of scribal publication and of the ways in which that
culture engaged with the political, religious and literary life of the nation
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
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