The impact of Enlightenment rhetoric on Revolutionary conceptions of gender has been a topic of historiographical debate. This thesis examines how Scottish Enlightenment stadial views of progress influenced early American female education discourse. Within this framework, upper middle-class white women transitioned from “slaves” to reasonable companions through the performance of feminine domesticity. Women who conformed to the prescriptions of Scottish moralists represented Anglo-American ideals of civility and refinement which served as a justification for the enslavement and dispossession of African and Indigenous peoples. Examining opinion pieces, advertisements for schools, academy addresses, and runaway slave advertisements reveals how early Americans participated in the simultaneous construction of race and gender. Beginning in the colonial era, editorialists deployed rhetoric from James Fordyce’s Sermons to Young Women (1766) to argue that upper-class white women were capable of reason and thus deserving of educational opportunities. Pre-revolutionary rationales persisted into the post-revolutionary era. This suggests that increased educational opportunities were not contingent on the Revolution. In the 1780s, editorialists deployed lines of reasoning from John Greogory’s A Father’s Legacy to his Daughters (1774), to broaden the construct of reasonable companionship. They argued that upper middle-class white women influenced men’s manners and made society more virtuous. This conception gave women an informal public role as moral arbiters. In the 1790s, women’s rights rhetoric challenged but did not refute the ideological construct of reasonable companionship. Taking a critical race approach to studying Revolutionary women’s access to educational opportunities reveals how dominant discourses upheld the racial hierarchy. / Graduate / 2023-08-24

This thesis examines the relationships between different nations and cultures in Ivanhoe, The Talisman, Quentin Durward, Anne of Geierstein and Count Robert of Paris using Post-colonial theory. An analysis of Scott’s conception of society in general shows that 18th century Scottish historiography is fundamental to his vision of the world because it forms the basis of his systematization of history, social development and interaction between communities. It also profoundly influences his imagery and descriptions, as well as providing him with a range of stereotypes that he manipulates so skilfully that his great dependence upon them is occulted. Contemporary ideas and his own attitude to the Union of Scotland and England lead him to conceive of nation formation in terms of descent and hybridity. In part, he sees the nation as a community of blood. Yet, his acceptance of the Union means that he also considers it to be a body of different ethnic elements that live together. His use of the 18th century metaphor of family to figure the nation allows him to incorporate heredity and miscegenation into his analysis of national development through father-daughter couples. The father represents traditional culture, and the daughter, the nation’s present and future; her marriage to a foreigner signifying that people of differing descent can cross the nation’s porous borders. Religion is the final frontier: Christian nations cannot absorb non-Christians. Scott sees dominance and subordination as a complex part of human relationships. Apparently-subordinate subjects possess occulted power because their support of the hegemonic is often essential if the latter is to maintain its superiority. While his conception of society in patriarchal terms means that his female characters cannot offer violence to men, he shows that passive resistance is very effective. Through mimicry, the subordinate threatens the power and identity of the dominant. Power is not only conceived of in political terms. In Ivanhoe, Scott reveals the importance of moral stature which allows Rebecca to dominate the work although she is at the bottom of the political and racial hierarchy that structures English society. Scott’s conception of time is fundamental to the manner in which he conceives of the nation. Historical cultural forms are physicalised through chronotopes. Politically subordinate cultures base their actions in the present on pedagogic time, while the dominant ignore their past and live only in the present and the future. He also expresses dominant-subordinate relationships through speed, with time moving quickly for the powerful and slowly for the weak. Time, whether in the form of history, the characters’ perception of it or speed amalgamates all the various elements of Scott’s conception of nationhood into a seamless whole. Cette thèse analyse par le biais la théorie post-coloniale les relations internationales dans Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward, Anne of Geierstein et Count Robert of Paris. Les théories historiques élaborées en Écosse au XVIIIème siècle sont fondamentales dans la vision scottienne parce qu’elles forment la base de la systematisation de l’histoire, du développement sociale et, par conséquent, des relations entre les différentes communités. Ces théories influencent profondement les images qu’il utilise et la façon dont il décrit les caractères et les scènes. De plus, elles lui fournissent une gamme de stéréotypes qu’il manipule très adroitement. Sa conception de la manière dont se forment les nations vient des idées contemporaines et de sa propre expérience de l’union politique de l’Angleterre et de l’Écosse. Il considère la nation comme une communauté fondée sur l’ascendance par le sang mais aussi comme un groupe d’ethnies différentes qui vivent ensemble. Sa description de la nation emprunte à la métaphore de la famille courante au XVIIIième. Celle-ci lui permet d’inclure dans son analyse l’héridité et la mixité au moyen des couples formés par un père et sa fille. Le père représente la culture traditionelle, et la fille, le présent et le futur national. Son marriage avec un étranger signifie que les gens d’ascendance différente peuvent traverser les frontières perméables d’une nation. La religion est la frontière ultime: les nations chrétiennes ne peuvent absorber de non-chrétiens. Scott considère que la domination et la sujetion forment une partie complexe des relations humaines. Les sujets qui paraissent subordonnés possèdent en fait un pouvoir occulte, le dominant ayant besoin de leur soutien pour maintenir sa position. Bien que sa conception patriarcale de la société fasse que les caractères feminins ne manifestent pas d’agression envers les hommes, il montre que la résistance passive est très efficace. En imitant le sujet dominant, le sujet subordonné menace le pouvoir et l’identité de ce dernier. Le pouvoir ne s’exprime pas seulement dans la politique. Rebecca dans Ivanhoe revèle l’importance que revêtent le caractère et la moralité. Bien qu’elle soit au bas de la hiérarchie structurante de la société anglaise, elle domine le roman. La conception que Scott se fait du temps est fondamentale à celle de la nation et de la culture. Au moyen du chronotope, les cultures historiques prennent des formes physiques. Les cultures qui sont subordonnées politiquement basent leur action au présent sur le “temps pédagogique”. Au contraire, le dominant rejette son passé et ne vit qu’au présent et au futur. Les relations entre le pouvoir dominant et le subordonné s’expriment aussi par la vitesse: le temps passe vite pour les puissants, mais lentement pour les faibles. En définitive, tous les éléments de la conception scottienne de la nation sont liés au temps, qu’il s’agisse de l’histoire, de perception par les caractères, ou de la vitesse.

The thesis explores the reception of the works of the Scottish Enlightenment in provincial Scotland, broadly defined, aiming to gauge their diffusion in the libraries of private book collectors and 'public' book-lending institutions, and to suggest the meanings and uses that contemporary Scottish readers assigned to major texts like Hume's History of England and Smith's Wealth of Nations. I thereby acknowledge the relevance of more traditional quantitative approaches to the history of reading (including statistical analysis of the holdings of contemporary book collections), but prioritise the study of sources that also allow us to access the 'hows' and 'whys' of individual reading practices and experiences. Indeed, the central thrust of my work has been the discovery and interrogation of large numbers of commonplace books, marginalia, diaries, correspondence and other documentary records which can be used to illuminate the reading experience itself in an explicit attempt to develop an approach to Scottish reading practices that can contribute in comparative terms to the burgeoning field of the history of reading. More particularly, such sources allow me to assess the impact that specific texts had on the lives, thought-processes and values of a wide range of contemporary readers, and to conclude that by reading these texts in their own endlessly idiosyncratic ways, consumers of literature in Scotland assimilated many of the prevalent attitudes and priorities of the literati in the major cities. Since many of the most important and pervasive manifestations of Enlightenment in Scotland were not particularly Scottish, however, I also cast doubt on the distinctive Scottishness of the prevailing 'cultural' definition of the Scottish Enlightenment, arguing that such behaviour might more appropriately be considered alongside cultural developments in Georgian England.

Ce travail de thèse a pour but d’étudier le degré d’implication des Écossais dans le système esclavagiste britannique graduellement mis en place dans les colonies du Nouveau Monde à partir du XVIIe siècle. Dans la lignée de publications récentes témoignant d’un intérêt grandissant pour la question, il vise à mettre au jour un pan problématique de l’histoire écossaise, qui trouve un écho particulier dans les discussions actuelles sur l’identité nationale écossaise. Cette thèse s’attarde ainsi sur le rôle particulier joué par les Écossais dans le développement économique de la traite négrière et au sein des sociétés esclavagistes des Antilles britanniques. Ce travail de recherche s’intéresse également à l’émergence des idées abolitionnistes en Grande-Bretagne au début du XIXe siècle et à la place des Écossais dans ce grand débat sociétal. L’enjeu de cette thèse est de déterminer s’il existait une spécificité de comportement, d’idéologie, dans le rôle joué par les Écossais au sein du système esclavagiste et dans les campagnes abolitionnistes dans le contexte impérial post-Union. Cette démarche ne s’inscrit pas dans la volonté clivante de singulariser les Écossais, mais de remettre en question l’homogénéité des notions d’« esclavagisme britannique » et d’ « abolitionnisme britannique ». Selon une approche chronologique, ce travail de recherche s’organise en trois mouvements. La première partie s’articule autour de la genèse d’une idéologie impériale écossaise, s’appuyant sur une conception économique esclavagiste. La seconde partie s’attarde sur la réalité du système esclavagiste dans les colonies et la place des colons écossais tandis que la dernière partie revient sur l’apport philosophique, idéologique et politique des Écossais dans les campagnes abolitionnistes britanniques et sur leur inclusion dans un projet à l’identité britannique très affirmée. / This dissertation explores the scope of the Scottish involvement in the British slave system that was implemented in the colonies of the New World from the 17th century onwards. In the wake of recent research revealing a growing interest for this specific issue, it aims at examining a problematic aspect of Scotland’s history, shedding some new light on the current debate about national identity in Scotland. This thesis dwells on the particular role played by the Scots in the economic development of the African slave trade and their participation in slave societies in the West Indies. This research also takes interest in the emergence of abolitionist ideas in Great Britain at the beginning of the 19th century and the part Scottish people played in the national debate. The main purpose is to determine whether there existed a Scottish specificity, regarding behaviours and ideology, in the British slave system and in the British abolitionist movement within the post-Union imperial context. The intent is not to single Scottish people out but rather to question the relevance of concepts such as « British slavery » and « British abolitionism ».Adopting a chronological approach, this thesis consists of three parts. First, it revolves around the development of the Scottish imperial ideology and of a colonial economic conception based on slavery. The second part dwells on the harsh reality of the slave system in the colonies and the role Scottish colonists played in it. Finally, the thesis tackles the philosophical, ideological and political contribution of Scottish people to the British abolitionist campaigns and examines their inclusion within this British scheme.

Persistent Pasts: Historical Palimpsests in Nineteenth-Century Prose traces Victorian historical discourse with specific attention to the works of Thomas Carlyle and George Eliot and their relation to historicism in earlier works by Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg. I argue that the Victorian response to the tense relation between the materialist Enlightenment and the idealist rhetoric of Romanticism marks a decidedly ethical turn in Victorian historical discourse. The writers introduce the dialectic of enlightened empiricism and romantic idealism to invoke the historical imagination as an ethical response to the call of the past. I read the dialectic and its invitation to ethics through the figure of the palimpsest. Drawing upon theoretical work on the palimpsest from Carlyle and de Quincey through Gérard Genette and Sarah Dillon, I analyze ways in which the materialist and idealist discourses interrupt each other and persist in one another. Central to my argument are concepts drawn from Walter Benjamin, Emmanuel Levinas, Richard Rorty, and Frank Ankersmit that challenge and / or affirm historical materiality.

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This thesis examines the relationships between different nations and cultures in Ivanhoe, The Talisman, Quentin Durward, Anne of Geierstein and Count Robert of Paris using Post-colonial theory. An analysis of Scott’s conception of society in general shows that 18th century Scottish historiography is fundamental to his vision of the world because it forms the basis of his systematization of history, social development and interaction between communities. It also profoundly influences his imagery and descriptions, as well as providing him with a range of stereotypes that he manipulates so skilfully that his great dependence upon them is occulted. Contemporary ideas and his own attitude to the Union of Scotland and England lead him to conceive of nation formation in terms of descent and hybridity. In part, he sees the nation as a community of blood. Yet, his acceptance of the Union means that he also considers it to be a body of different ethnic elements that live together. His use of the 18th century metaphor of family to figure the nation allows him to incorporate heredity and miscegenation into his analysis of national development through father-daughter couples. The father represents traditional culture, and the daughter, the nation’s present and future; her marriage to a foreigner signifying that people of differing descent can cross the nation’s porous borders. Religion is the final frontier: Christian nations cannot absorb non-Christians. Scott sees dominance and subordination as a complex part of human relationships. Apparently-subordinate subjects possess occulted power because their support of the hegemonic is often essential if the latter is to maintain its superiority. While his conception of society in patriarchal terms means that his female characters cannot offer violence to men, he shows that passive resistance is very effective. Through mimicry, the subordinate threatens the power and identity of the dominant. Power is not only conceived of in political terms. In Ivanhoe, Scott reveals the importance of moral stature which allows Rebecca to dominate the work although she is at the bottom of the political and racial hierarchy that structures English society. Scott’s conception of time is fundamental to the manner in which he conceives of the nation. Historical cultural forms are physicalised through chronotopes. Politically subordinate cultures base their actions in the present on pedagogic time, while the dominant ignore their past and live only in the present and the future. He also expresses dominant-subordinate relationships through speed, with time moving quickly for the powerful and slowly for the weak. Time, whether in the form of history, the characters’ perception of it or speed amalgamates all the various elements of Scott’s conception of nationhood into a seamless whole.<p><p>Cette thèse analyse par le biais la théorie post-coloniale les relations internationales dans Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward, Anne of Geierstein et Count Robert of Paris. Les théories historiques élaborées en Écosse au XVIIIème siècle sont fondamentales dans la vision scottienne parce qu’elles forment la base de la systematisation de l’histoire, du développement sociale et, par conséquent, des relations entre les différentes communités. Ces théories influencent profondement les images qu’il utilise et la façon dont il décrit les caractères et les scènes. De plus, elles lui fournissent une gamme de stéréotypes qu’il manipule très adroitement. Sa conception de la manière dont se forment les nations vient des idées contemporaines et de sa propre expérience de l’union politique de l’Angleterre et de l’Écosse. Il considère la nation comme une communauté fondée sur l’ascendance par le sang mais aussi comme un groupe d’ethnies différentes qui vivent ensemble. Sa description de la nation emprunte à la métaphore de la famille courante au XVIIIième. Celle-ci lui permet d’inclure dans son analyse l’héridité et la mixité au moyen des couples formés par un père et sa fille. Le père représente la culture traditionelle, et la fille, le présent et le futur national. Son marriage avec un étranger signifie que les gens d’ascendance différente peuvent traverser les frontières perméables d’une nation. La religion est la frontière ultime: les nations chrétiennes ne peuvent absorber de non-chrétiens. Scott considère que la domination et la sujetion forment une partie complexe des relations humaines. Les sujets qui paraissent subordonnés possèdent en fait un pouvoir occulte, le dominant ayant besoin de leur soutien pour maintenir sa position. Bien que sa conception patriarcale de la société fasse que les caractères feminins ne manifestent pas d’agression envers les hommes, il montre que la résistance passive est très efficace. En imitant le sujet dominant, le sujet subordonné menace le pouvoir et l’identité de ce dernier. Le pouvoir ne s’exprime pas seulement dans la politique. Rebecca dans Ivanhoe revèle l’importance que revêtent le caractère et la moralité. Bien qu’elle soit au bas de la hiérarchie structurante de la société anglaise, elle domine le roman. <p>La conception que Scott se fait du temps est fondamentale à celle de la nation et de la culture. Au moyen du chronotope, les cultures historiques prennent des formes physiques. Les cultures qui sont subordonnées politiquement basent leur action au présent sur le “temps pédagogique”. Au contraire, le dominant rejette son passé et ne vit qu’au présent et au futur. Les relations entre le pouvoir dominant et le subordonné s’expriment aussi par la vitesse: le temps passe vite pour les puissants, mais lentement pour les faibles. En définitive, tous les éléments de la conception scottienne de la nation sont liés au temps, qu’il s’agisse de l’histoire, de perception par les caractères, ou de la vitesse.<p> / Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation langue et littérature / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La tesi si occupa di verificare l’influenza che i classici greci e latini hanno esercitato su i padri fondatori americani e più in particolare su Thomas Jefferson. La prima sezione tratteggia il contesto universitario e lo studio delle lingue classiche tra seicento e settecento, comprendendo non solo le università inglesi (Oxford e Cambridge) e scozzesi, ma anche i nuovi college nati nelle colonie americane. Tale analisi dei modelli e delle pratiche educative ha permesso, in effetti, di comprendere meglio l’influenza dei classici sui rivoluzionari americani. Nello specifico viene scandagliata a fondo l’educazione ricevuta da Jefferson. Tra i numerosi spunti di studio aperti da codesto argomento, il lavoro si concentra sulle modalità con cui i classici gli furono insegnati, sul suo Commonplace Book (una raccolta di brani tratti in parte da autori antichi letti in giovinezza) e su documentazione epistolare. Quest’ultima è oggetto particolare di studio, allo scopo di scoprire quali opere antiche Jefferson, in età adulta e durante la vecchiaia, lesse e apprezzò. Essendo un collezionista di libri, comprò moltissimi testi classici come dimostrano alcuni suoi manoscritti. Nonostante manchino dati precisi a riguardo, risulta inoltre che Jefferson, benché facesse largo uso di traduzioni, preferiva leggere in originale e che probabilmente abbia letto la maggior parte di questi libri durante il ritiro dalla vita politica. La seconda parte della tesi si concentra, invece, a indagare quanto la sua educazione classica abbia contributo alla formazione della sua personalità e delle sue idee, nonché alla forma stessa del suo pensiero in merito ad alcune tematiche. Lo studio è di conseguenza dedicato all’esperienza umana di Jefferson, in particolare alla sua riflessione sulla morte e sull’eternità, temi fortemente legati alla sua ricezione di idee epicuree e stoiche. Epicureismo e Stoicismo rappresentano, in definitiva, i due sistemi filosofici antichi che hanno maggiormente influenzato la sua personalità e il suo pensiero. / The aim of the present work is to evaluate the impact of the ancient classics on the American Founding Fathers, with a particular focus on Thomas Jefferson. The first section gives a wide portrait of the academic context in which the Founders were educated, comprising not only of Oxford, Cambridge, and the Scottish universities, but also the colonial colleges. The evaluation of the educational practices in use at the time makes it possible to understand better the classical impact on revolutionary Americans. In particular, this analysis studies in depth Jefferson's education. Of the many possible perspectives and approaches to this topic, the present work focuses on the way ancient classics were taught to him, his Commonplace Book, which reports part of the ancient classics he read during his youth, and his correspondence. The latter has been studied especially to understand which other ancient writers he read, valued, and esteemed in his adulthood and old age. As book collector, Jefferson bought an incredible number of ancient classics, as attested by a few manuscripts of his book lists. Despite the dearth of sure evidence, it is very likely that he read the ancient works largely during his retirement. He loved reading them in the original, though he made great use of translations. The second part of this work is dedicated to investigating how Jefferson's classical education contributed to the building of his personality and ideas, as well as how he elaborated specific classical themes in his own life. The study is thus focused on Jefferson's personal human experience, specifically on his reflection on human mortality and the afterlife. These themes, indeed, are strictly linked to his reception of Epicurean and Stoic tenets, the two ancient philosophical systems which had the greatest and most profound impact on Jefferson's personality and thought.