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Historian David Bell recently suggested that scholars reconsider the impact of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) upon modern culture, naming them the first "total war" in modern history. My thesis explores the significance of the wars specifically in the British mourning culture of the period by studying the war literature of four women writers: Anna Letitia Barbauld, Amelia Opie, Jane Austen, and Felicia Hemans. This paper further asks how these authors contributed to the development of a national consciousness studied by Georg Lukács, Benedict Anderson, and others. I argue that women had a representative experience of non-combatants' struggle to mourn war deaths occurring in relatively foreign lands and circumstances. Women writers recorded and contributed to this representative experience that aided the development of a national consciousness in its strong sense of shared anxieties and grief for soldiers. Excluded physically and experientially, women would have had an especially difficult time attempting to mourn combatant deaths while struggling to imagine the places and manners in which those deaths occurred, especially when no physical bodies came home to "testify" of their loved ones' experiences. Women writers' literary portraits of imagined women mourning those whose bodies never came home provide interesting insights into the strategies employed during the grieving process and ultimately demonstrate their contribution to a collective British consciousness based on mourning. The questions I explore in the first section of this thesis circle around the idea of women as writers and mourners: What were writers saying about war, death, and mourning? What common themes begin to appear in the women's Romantic war literature? And, perhaps most importantly, how did such mourning literature affect the growing sense of nationality coming out of this period? In the second section, I consider more precisely how these literary contributions affected mourning culture when no bodies were present for burial and advanced the development of a national consciousness that recognized the wars' "nobodies." How did women's experiences of being left behind and marginalized in the war efforts prepare them to conceptualize destructive mass deaths abroad, and, conceptualizing them, to mourn them?

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Contemporary Canadian prairie women poets write about the mother figure to counter maternal suppression and the homogenization of maternal representations in literature. Critics, like Marianne Hirsch and Andrea O’Reilly, insist that mothers tell their own stories, yet many mothers are unable to. Daughter and mother stories, Jo Malin argues, overlap. The mother “becomes a subject, or rather an ‘intersubject’” in the text (2). Literary depictions of daughter-mother or mother-child intersubjectivities, however, are not confined to auto/biographical or fictional narratives. As a genre and potential site for representing maternal subjectivities, poetry continues to reside on the margins of motherhood studies and literary criticism. In the following chapters, I examine the writing strategies of selected poets and their representations of mothers specific to three transformative occasions: mourning mother-loss, becoming a mother, and reclaiming a maternal lineage. Several daughter-poets adapt the elegy to remember their deceased mothers and to maintain a connection with them. In accord with Tanis MacDonald and Priscila Uppal, these poets resist closure and interrogate the past. Moreover, they counter maternal absence and preserve her subjectivity in their texts. Similarly, a number of mother-poets begin constructing their mother-child (self-other) relationship prior to childbirth. Drawing on Lisa Guenther’s notions of “birth as a gift of the feminine other” and welcoming the stranger (49), as well as Emily Jeremiah’s link between “‘maternal’ mutuality” and writing and reading practices (“Trouble” 13), I investigate poetic strategies for negotiating and engaging with the “other,” the unborn/newborn and the reader. Other poets explore and interweave bits of stories, memories, dreams and inklings into their own motherlines, an identification with their matrilineage. Poetic discourse(s) reveal the limits of language, but also attest to the benefits of extra-linguistic qualities that poetry provides. The poets I study here make room for the interplay of language and what lies beyond language, engaging the reader and augmenting perceptions of the maternal subject. They offer new ways of signifying maternal subjectivities and relationships, and therefore contribute to the ongoing research into the ever-changing relations among maternal and cultural ideologies, mothering and feminisms, and regional women’s literatures. / May 2016

Text in Afrikaans / Rituals are part of our everyday life and are usually performed unconsciously. In this dissertation rituals are used consciously, within a therapeutic context, with the purpose to facilitate healing and growth. The aim of the research is to focus the readers' attention on the therapeutic potential of rituals and its value as an intervention strategy. The study concentrates on the grieving process. The researcher therefore specifically wants to show how rituals are used during grief counselling. The following research problem was investigated in the study: "What is the attitude, opinion and knowledge of professional caregivers concerning the use of rituals as a therapeutic tool during grief counselling?" Out of the research data the following hypothesis was formulated: - To grief over a loss is essential. Because of the basic properties and remedial functions of rituals, rituals can be a valuable therapeutic tool in the facilitation of this process. - There is an inherent connection between professional caregivers' attitudes, opinions and knowledge of therapeutic rituals and the regular and effective use of them during grief counselling. - The use of rituals during grief counselling is only one component in the comprehensive pastoral care of the bereaved. / Practical theology / M.Th.

The study focuses on the emotional experiences of parental bereavement of African adolescents who live in a rural environment. Findings revealed that the loss of a parent is very devastating for African adolescents. The adolescents received inadequate assistance from family, peers, community members or educators. It is essential after this study to uncover ways in which these adolescents could be assisted to cope with the loss of a parent who had been providing love, care, financial and material support, as well as safety and security. To gather data the researcher drew meaning from eight participants’ lived experiences from transcriptions of interviews with the participants. The participants, seven girls and one boy, were adolescents between the ages of twelve and fifteen years, who had lost their fathers. This study recommended that educators be equipped to take a major role in dealing with children in bereavement, since there are no educational psychologists or other professionals based in the school or neighbourhood. The community needs to be made aware of the plight of bereaved adolescents and should be introduced into giving positive and constructive assistance to these young people. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

Summaries in Afrikaans and English / ‘n Praktiese teologiese probleem is in die bediening geïndentifiseer: die man wie se vrou ‘n mastektomie gehad het, word nie pastoraal ondersteun nie. Hierdie probleem is deur middel van kwalitatiewe navorsing ondersoek. Met die kennis uit die navorsing en die literatuurstudie is daaraan die navorsingsdoelstelling beantwoord. Hierdeur is die praktiese teologie op ‘n unieke wyse verryk, deur ‘n wetenskaplike bydrae om die pastorale berader beter te bekwaam. Borskanker is ‘n lewensbedreigde siekte waarop geen man voorberei is nie. Met die verlies van ‘n kosbare liggaamsdeel van die vrou en haar behoefte aan ondersteuning van haar man, begin hy om sy ware-man wees (identiteit) te bevraagteken. Die verlies het ook trauma by die man tot gevolg. As die man deur sy emosies oorweldig word en hy nie oor die vermoë beskik om dit te verwerk nie, kan hy in wanhoop verval. Die man lewe in die postmoderne era. Die uitdagings en onsekerhede van hierdie era het ‘n bydrae tot die ontwikkeling van die “Post-foundational” praktiese teologiese benadering gelewer. Daarom het die navorser besluit om hierdie benadering in die studie te volg. Hierdeur is ‘n gesprek tussen die praktiese teologie, mediese- en geesteswetenskappe vanuit ‘n transversale perspektief moontlik, om die invloed van die mastektomie op die man te bepaal. Duidelike behoeftes en vrae kom navore wat vereis dat die berader homself sal onderskei in kennis van die onderskeie pastorale benaderings en tegnieke, toepaslike mediese, Bybel- en geestes wetenskappe. Die omstandighede waarin die man hom bevind het die bevraagtekening van sy spiritualiteit tot gevolg. Sy spiritualiteit kan vir hom van groot waarde wees. Die doel van die beradingsmodel is om die man te fasiliteer om sy ware identiteit in Christus te ontdek. Deur die genade van die Here word geloofsvolwassenheid in die man ‘n waarheid. Daardeur vind transendering ten opsigte van ‘n “bevraagde identiteit” na ‘n “identiteit van betekenis en hoop” plaas. Deur die werking van die Heilige Gees word die man op die vervulling van God se heilsbeloftes vir die nood waarin verkeer verseker. Die doel van hierdie beradingsmodel vir die praktiese teologie, is ‘n geloofsvolwasse man met ‘n nuwe toekomsverhaal. / A practical theological problem was identified in the ministry: a husband whose wife undergoes a mastectomy does not receive pastoral care. This problem was investigated through a qualitative research study. The research objective was answered by doing research and a literature study. This scientific research enriches the practical theology in an unique way so that the pastoral counsellor is supported and can be more competent. Breast cancer is a life-threatening disease that no husband is prepared for. The wife loses an intimate part of her body and needs to be supported by her husband. He starts to question his own manhood (identity). This loss is also a traumatic experiences for him. He is overwhelmed by his emotions and can fall into despair if he does not have the ability to process the problem. We live in the post-modern era. This has lead to the development of the Post-foundational practical theological approach. The researcher therefore decided to follow this approach in his study. This help to determine the influence of the disruption and uncertainties in the life of the man through a discourse between the practical theology, medical- and human science from a transversal perspective. Evident questions were raised for which the counsellor needs to distinguish himself with knowledge about the various pastoral approaches and techniques, appropriate knowledge of the Bible, medical- and human science. The circumstances in which the man finds himself raise questions about the meaning of his spirituality. Spirituality can be of great help for the husband. The aim of this counseling model is to facilitate the husband through the narrative approach to find the meaning of his true identity in Christ. Through the grace of God the husband becomes spiritually mature. The dependence on God through a process of transcendence changes the ‘question identity’ to an ‘identity of value and hope’. Through the work of Holy Spirit the husband is reassured of the fulfillment of the promises of salvation by God. The aim of this counseling model for the practical theology is a spiritually matured husband with a new future story. / Practical Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)

Contemporary scholarship has seen increasing interest in the study of elegy. The present work attempts to elevate and expand discussions of death and survival beyond the ambit of elegy to a more genre-inclusive and ethically sensitive survey of Romantic posthumous life writings. Combining an ethic of remembrance founded on mutual fulfilment and reciprocal care with the Romantic tendency to hybridise different genres of mourning and commemoration, the study re- conceives 'posthumous life' as the 'inexhaustible' product of endless collaboration between the dead, the dying and the living. This thesis looks to the philosophical meditations of Francis Bacon, John Locke and Emmanuel Levinas for an ethical framework of human protection, fulfilment and preservation. In an effort to locate the origin of posthumous life writing, the first chapter examines the philosophical context in which different genres and media of commemoration emerged in the eighteenth century. Accordingly, it will commence with a survey of Enlightenment attitudes toward posthumous sympathy and the threat of death. The second part of the chapter turns to the tangled histories of epitaph, biography, portraiture, sepulchre and elegy in the writings of Samuel Johnson, Henry Kett, Vicesimus Knox, William Godwin and William Wordsworth. The Romantic culture of mourning and commemoration inherits the intellectual and generic legacies of the Enlightenment. Hence, Chapter Two will try to uncover the complex generic and formal crossovers between epitaph, extempore, effusion, elegy and biography in Wordsworth's 'Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg' (1835-7) and his 'Epitaph' (1835-7) for Charles Lamb. However, the chapter also recognises the ethical repercussions of Wordsworth's inadequate, even mortifying, treatment of a fellow woman writer in his otherwise successful expression of ethical remembrance. To address the problem of gender in Romantic memorialisation, Chapter Three will take a close look at Letitia Elizabeth Landon' s reply to Wordsworth's incompetent defence of Felicia Hemans. Mediating the ambitions and anxieties of her subject, as well as her public image and private pain, 'Felicia Hemans' (1838) is an audacious composite of autograph, epitaph, elegy, corrective biography and visual portraiture. The two closing chapters respond to Thomas Carlyle's outspoken confidence in 'Portraits and Letters' as indispensable aids to biographies. Chapter Four identifies a tentative connection between the aesthetic of visual portraiture and the ethic of life writing. To demonstrate the convergence of both artistic and humane principles, this cross-media analysis will first evaluate Sir Joshua Reynolds's memoirs of his deceased friends. Then, it will compare Wordsworth's and Hemans's verse reflections on the commemorative power and limitation of iconography. The last chapter assesses the role of private correspondence in the continuation of familiar relation and reciprocal support. Landon's dramatic enactment of a 'feminine Robinson Crusoe' in her letters from Africa urges the unbroken offering of service and remembrance to a fallen friend through posthumous correspondence. The concluding section will consider the ethical implications for the belated memorials and services furnished by friends and colleagues in the wake of her death.

Der Bereich von Sterben, Tod und Trauer gehört als indirekte oder auch direkte Todeswirklichkeit zum Alltag von Vor- und Grundschulkindern. Seit den 1990er Jahren finden diese Themen zunehmend Eingang in die deutschsprachigen Bilderbücher und werden dort anhand verschiedener literarästhetischer Erzählstrategien auf der Text- sowie Bildebene und deren Wechselverhältnis diskutiert. Die vorliegende Untersuchung ordnet das Primärtextkorpus deutschsprachiger Bilderbücher zu Sterben, Tod und Trauer anhand eines untersuchungseigenen inhaltsbezogenen Rubrikenmodelles. Der für die qualitative Beurteilung der untersuchten Bilderbücher entwickelte Katalog von Analysekriterien berücksichtigt sowohl gattungsspezifische Forschungsarbeiten als auch Studien zum Verhältnis von Kind und Tod. Um in den Bilderbüchern tabuisierte, kanonisierte und innovative Erzählstrategien von Tod und Trauer nicht nur herauszuarbeiten, sondern auch komparatistisch in einen europäischen Kontext einzuordnen, wird der Untersuchung deutschsprachiger Bilderbücher die Diskussion der Entwicklung des Themenfeldes im schwedischen Bilderbuch gegenüber gestellt. Das Innovationspotenzial, das ausgewählte seit den 1970er Jahren veröffentlichte schwedische Bilderbücher für die Entwicklung des Themenbereiches Tod und Trauer im deutschsprachigen Bilderbuchmarkt besitzen, wird insbesondere in den Grenzbereichen zwischen tradierten sowie innovativen Erzählstrategien deutlich. Sowohl in den zusammenfassenden Betrachtungen der einzelnen inhaltsbezogenen Unterrubriken, die das deutschsprachige sowie schwedische Primärtextkorpus gliedern, als auch in den einzelanalytischen Abschnitten werden bestehende Kanonisierungs- sowie Tabuisierungstendenzen in Bezug auf die Darstellung einzelner Themenaspekte von Tod und Trauer deutlich, wenngleich diese zunehmend in Auflösung begriffen und in einigen Unterrubriken stärker ausgeprägt sind als in anderen. / Dying, death and grief are a direct or indirect part of the reality of preschool and primary school children. Since the 1990s, these topics increasingly find their way into German picture books, where they are discussed using different literary-aesthetic narrative strategies through text and images as well as their interrelationship. The present study maps the primary text corpus of German picture books on dying, death and grief by means of a research-based content-related category model. The catalogue of analytic criteria developed for the qualitative assessment of the examined picture books takes into account both genre-specific research and studies on the attitudes of children toward death. In order not only to elaborate on tabooed, canonized and innovative narrative strategies of death and grief in picture books, but also to place them in a comparative European context, the study of German picture books is set against the discussion of the development of these topics in Swedish picture books. The innovation potential, which selected Swedish picture books published since the 1970s contain for the development of the theme of death and grief in the German picture book market, becomes particularly evident in the border areas between traditional and innovative narrative strategies. Both in the summary of the individual content-related subcategories, which classify the German and Swedish primary text corpuses, as well as in the individual analytic sections, existing tendencies to canonize or taboo with regard to the representation of individual aspects of death and grief become clear, though they are in a process of disintegration and are more pronounced in some subcategories than in others.

This thesis identifies continuities and disruptions within the tradition of literary allegory in Latin America and critically revisits the category of “national allegory” (Jameson 1986) in order to articulate an interpretative model suited to contemporary “transnational allegorical fiction”. Based on the analysis of seven Mexican novels that register the transition of neoliberalism from the political-economic order to a form of biopolitical control (Althusser, Foucault, Žižek), I identify the emergence of what I call a “transnational affective field”: a symbolic horizon, alternative to the nation, where the prospective function of foundational romances (Sommer) and the retrospective function of mourning akin to postdictatorial fiction (Avelar), converge. This ideological device negotiates power relations, facilitates the transfer of local/global meaning, promotes intercultural empathy and compromise, and denounces mechanisms of exclusion; thereby, reconfiguring the affective and political functions of allegory in Latin American fiction. Part One discusses critical approaches to allegorical fiction in both Latin American and World literatures. Part Two compares the representation of the binomial nation/world in three historiographic metafictions by Carmen Boullosa, Francisco Rebolledo and J.E. Pacheco through recent approaches in post-/de-colonial and memory studies. Part Three examines the depiction of the nation as simulacrum and the figuration of postmodern subjectivities in Jorge Volpi and Juan Villoro from a poststructuralist perspective. It also contends that Álvaro Enrigue’s and Valeria Luiselli’s novels are representative of an emergent meta-allegorical imagination that, in an ironic reversal of allegory (de Man), simultaneously constructs it as a mechanism of ideological control as well as a conscious strategy to resist commodification and symbolic violence (Bourdieu) in the contemporary world. The analysis demonstrates the vitality of Mexican transnational allegorical fiction as a socio-political and affective counter-hegemonic discourse that also functions as an effective strategy of recognition in the international literary field.