This thesis explores the textualizing of the South Atlantic island of St Helena (a British Overseas Territory) through an analysis of the relationship between colonizing practices and the changing representations of the island and its inhabitants in a range of colonial 'texts', including historiography, travel writing, government papers, creative writing, and the fine arts. Part I situates this thesis within a critical engagement with post-colonial theory and colonial discourse analysis primarily, as well as with the recent 'linguistic turn' in anthropology and history. In place of post-colonialism's rather monolithic approach to colonial experiences, I argue for a localised approach to colonisation, which takes greater account of colonial praxis and of the continuous re-negotiation and re-constitution of particular colonial situations. Part II focuses on a number of literary issues by reviewing St Helena's historiography and literature, and by investigating the range of narrative tropes employed (largely by travellers) in the textualizing of St Helena, in particular with respect to recurrent imaginings of the island in terms of an earthly Eden. Part III examines the nature of colonial 'possession' by tracing the island's gradual appropriation by the Portuguese, Dutch and English in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century and the settlement policies pursued by the English East India Company in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Part IV provides an account of the changing perceptions, by visitors and colonial officials alike, of the character of the island's inhabitants (from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century) and assesses the influence that these perceptions have had on the administration of the island and the political status of its inhabitants (in the mid- to late twentieth century). Part V, the conclusion, reviews the principal arguments of my thesis by addressing the political implications of post-colonial theory and of my own research, while also indicating avenues for further research. A localised and detailed exploration of colonial discourse over a period of nearly five hundred years, and a close analysis of a consequently wide range of colonial 'texts', has confirmed that although colonising practices and representations are far from monolithic, in the case of St Helena their continuities are of as much significance as their discontinuities.

In one of his publications, the politician and merchant Anthony Bacon asked if ‘some honest Persons, of plain Understanding, and of tolerable Judgement and Experience, could be engaged, at the Government’s Expence, to make the general Tour of North America’. This person, he thought, would be able to forge a connexion between the metropolitan centre and the far-flung reaches of America and improve the relationship between mother country and colony by increasing the level of understanding of the other on both sides of the Atlantic. Bacon appreciated that this lack of knowledge of their American brethren meant that British politics and politicians were often working with limited, or biased, information when formulating imperial policy. This thesis analyses the ways six MPs with significant American connexions operated throughout the imperial crises of the 1760s and 1770s. It establishes that these men operated at the highest levels of British politics at this time and sought to create themselves as the predominant experts on the American colonies. In the debates on the nature of the British Empire throughout the 1760s and 1770s, these men were at the forefront of the political mind and, at least until the hardening of opinions in the 1770s, had an impact on the way in which the colonies were governed. More than that, however, this work has shown that – contrary to much earlier belief – the House of Commons in the later eighteenth century was not working in ignorance of the situation in the Americas: rather, there were a small but significant number of men with real and personal connexions to, and knowledge about, the colonies. As the imperial grounds shifted through the 1770s, however, even the most well-versed of these ‘American MPs’ began to appear to have suffered some disconnection from the colonial viewpoint. This thesis takes into account the Atlantic and imperial networks under which these MPs worked and formed their political theories and opinions. In addition, it seeks in some way to bring the politics of the American Revolution into the fold of Atlantic History and to assess the ways in which those with the greatest experience of working in the peripheries of empire sought to reshape and reorganise its structure from the metropole after the close of the Seven Years War.

The contact of two different cultures in the colonization process produces a zone of cultural mingling that resembles Victor Turner's concept of "liminality" referring to states or persons that elude classification. This study considers the repercussions of colonization on the lives of women characters in novels about four different "post-colonial" contexts--Native American, Jamaican, Irish and Mexican American. These novels reflect both the unique historical circumstances of each context and common themes that occur due to colonization and transcend the specific cultures such as the mourning of personal and collective loss, liminal states of consciousness and mingling of cultures. The introductory chapter examines the particular historical contexts of each novel and the theories of Abdul JanMohamed and Frantz Fanon on colonization. This study also applies the work of Victor Turner, Mary Douglas, Julia Kristeva, Gloria Anzaldua, Homi Bhaba and others to an examination of the subversive cultural formations that evolve through the boundary dissolution of colonization. Chapter two considers Louise Erdrich's novel Tracks in which the decimation of the Anishinabe people is the context for the three primary characters who have experienced personal and collective loss and respond by resisting or adapting to colonization. Chapter three examines Erna Brodber's Myal and the impact of the manichean colonial ideology on a Jamaican woman who is literally half-black and half-white. Chapter four addresses Julia O'Faolain's No Country for Young Men, a novel about two women, one who lived through the early twentieth century movement for Irish independence and the other who is her great niece, that have both been silenced and sexually controlled by colonialism and Irish Catholicism. The fifth and final chapter examines Lucha Corpi's Delia's Song about a young Chicana activist who has suffered losses on several levels and recovers by writing an autobiographical novel that weaves the personal and political issues of her life. All four novels are concerned with the liminal states of consciousness in these women characters and their efforts to both find love and tell their stories, thus counteracting the colonizer's version of history.

Despite considerable research on the British North American colonies and their political relationship with Britain before 1776, little is known about the administration of Nova Scotia from the perspective of Lord Halifax’s Board of Trade in London. The image that emerges from the literature is that Nova Scotia was of marginal importance to British officials, who neglected its administration. This study reintegrates Nova Scotia into the British Imperial historiography through the study of the “official mind,” to challenge this theory of neglect on three fronts: 1) civil government in Nova Scotia became an important issue during the War of the Austrian Succession; 2) The form of civil government created there after 1749 was an experiment in centralized colonial administration; 3) This experimental model of government was highly effective. This study adds nuance to our understanding of British attempts to centralize control over their overseas colonies before the American Revolution.

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It is the contention of this thesis that the activities of, and the influences on, the senior administrators based in the Castle and the Custom House in Dublin during the Great Irish Famine are an essential element to understanding the formulation and execution of Irish Famine relief policy. The principal aim of the study is to articulate the role played by these administrators in the formulation of relief policy. Emphasis is also given to the debates in the Cabinet over Irish relief policy and the influence of the administrators on those debates. The subject of the first chapter is the Science Commission. It examines in turn Peel's motivations for establishing the Science Commission, the chronology of events leading up to its establishment and the activities of the Commissioners both in England and Ireland. The second chapter concerns the Scarcity Commission established by Peel and Graham. It explores the motivations behind the selection of individual Commissioners and the relationships between the Commissioners. It also considers and contrasts the tasks that were officially assigned to the Commissioners and the limited use to which their conclusions were put by the Government. Chapters three and four deal with the Board of Works and in particular its influence on the formulation and administration of relief policy of Richard Griffith, Thomas Larcom, and Harry Jones. The activities of the Commissioners after the reconfiguration of the Board of Works by Act of Parliament in 1846 are examined and the fourth chapter seeks to establish in detail the political context surrounding-the decision to abandon relief by public employment as revealed in the Cabinet discussions at the time. The final chapter examines the actions of Edward Twisleton in Ireland during the Famine and his influence, or lack of it, on the formulation of relief policy. A detailed account is offered of the political context of the Poor Law Extension Act. Twisleton's relationships with both the Treasury and Clarendon, and the motives underlying his resignation in March 1849, are investigated.

In a context characterised by the shift from fordism to post-fordism in the Iberian peninsula, this thesis addresses the following question how are capital, governments and social movements organised in the processes of integration and resistance that affect foreign immigration' in Barcelona and Lisbon? Thus, in the first chapter, an analysis of the concept of "integration" is undertaken in order to understand the complexities and elusiveness that hide behind it, giving special attention to immigrants' integration literature. A distinction between systemic integration and social integration is adopted, and thus in the second chapter recent theorisation on capital and the state (i. e. systemic institutions) is approached, while in the third chapter social movements and organisations are taken into account. In chapter four epistemological and methodological elements are noted. The last three chapters are devoted to analyse original fieldwork data (mainly qualitative interviews): chapter 6 analyses immigration governmental policies at European, 'national-state', 'national-regional', and local levels; chapter 7 studies social and capital organisations in Barcelona in relation to 'foreign immigration'; and in chapter 8 social and capital organisations are studied in relation to 'foreign immigration' in Lisbon. Finally, some conclusions are revealed whilst other questions are posed.

This dissertation is a study of the Eastern Apache nations and their struggle to survive with their culture intact against numerous enemies intent on destroying them. It is a synthesis of published secondary and primary materials, supported with archival materials, primarily from the Béxar Archives. The Apaches living on the plains have suffered from a lack of a good comprehensive study, even though they played an important role in hindering Spanish expansion in the American Southwest. When the Spanish first encountered the Apaches they were living peacefully on the plains, although they occasionally raided nearby tribes. When the Spanish began settling in the Southwest they changed the dynamics of the region by introducing horses. The Apaches quickly adopted the animals into their culture and used them to dominate their neighbors. Apache power declined in the eighteenth century when their Caddoan enemies acquired guns from the French, and the powerful Comanches gained access to horses and began invading northern Apache territory. Surrounded by enemies, the Apaches increasingly turned to the Spanish for aid and protection rather than trade. The Spanish-Apache peace was fraught with problems. The Spaniards tended to lump all Apaches into one group even though, in reality, each band operated independently. Thus, when one Apache band raided a Spanish outpost, the Spanish considered the peace broken. On the other hand, since Apaches considered each Spanish settlement a distinct "band" they saw nothing wrong in making peace at one Spanish location while continuing to raid another. Eventually the Spanish encouraged other Indians tribes to launch a campaign of unrelenting war against the Apaches. Despite devastating attacks from their enemies, the Apaches were able to survive. When the Mexican Revolution removed the Spanish from the area, the Apaches remained and still occupied portions of the plains as late as the 1870s. Despite the pressures brought to bear upon them the Apaches prevailed, retaining their freedoms longer than almost any other tribe.

L’acquisition rapide de résistance aux antibiotiques par Staphylococcus aureus force le milieu hospitalier dans ses derniers retranchements au niveau des traitements antibactériens. Afin de pallier à ce problème, il est important de continuer à innover dans le développement de composés antibiotiques possédant des mécanismes d’action novateurs. Le groupe de François Malouin a récemment démontré que la tomatidine possède une activité antibactérienne et antivirulence contre différentes souches de Staphylococcus aureus, ainsi qu’un potentiel synergique avec les antibiotiques de la famille des aminoglycosides. La cible biologique et le mécanisme d’action de la tomatidine étant à ce jour inconnus, nous avons synthétisé une librairie de 34 analogues dans le but de comprendre la relation structure-activité de ce composé contre les souches persistantes de Staphylococcus aureus, ainsi que dans le but d’améliorer son activité biologique et mieux comprendre son mécanisme d’action. En nous basant sur l’hypothèse que le squelette stéroïdien standard servait principalement de support pour orienter les groupements pharmacophores, nous avons concentré les modifications chimiques sur les pharmacophores eux-mêmes, soit à la fonction hydroxyle en position 3 du cycle A, mais aussi à la fonction spiroaminocétale constituant les cycles E et F de la tomatidine. Les modifications de l’hydroxyle ont été effectuées à partir de la tomatidine elle-même. Nous avons testé l’effet de l’inversion de configuration, de l’allylation, de l’oxydation et de la substitution par différentes amines en cette position. Les modifications sur la fonction spiroaminocétale ont été synthétisées à partir de la tomatidine elle-même, mais également à partir de l’acétate de prégnénolone, un précurseur largement utilisé en chimie stéroïdienne. Dans le premier cas, les modifications ont consisté à synthétiser des analogues de la fonction spiroaminocétale bloquée en conformation fermée, ouverte ou partiellement ouverte. Dans le second cas, les modifications ont porté sur la synthèse d’analogue de la forme ouverte de la fonction spiroaminocétale. Tous les produits synthétisés ont été envoyés au laboratoire du Pr François Malouin afin d’être testés pour leur activité biologique. Les composés ont été testés afin de quantifier leur activité biologique contre S. aureus, seul ou en synergie avec la gentamicine, et également pour quantifier leur activité biologique contre les variantes de petite colonie de S. aureus, un phénotype bactérien souvent associé à des infections récurrentes et difficiles à traiter. Ces tests ont été effectués par Isabelle Guay, étudiante à la maîtrise en biologie à l’Université de Sherbrooke. Cette étude a mené à l’établissement des fondements de la relation structure-activité de la tomatidine envers S. aureus, ainsi qu’à la découverte de certains composés présentant une activité biologique améliorée. Ce travail a permis la rédaction d’un article scientifique intitulé « Unraveling the structure-activity relationship of tomatidine, a steroid alkaloid with unique antibiotic properties against persistent forms of Staphylococcus », soumis à European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry en juillet 2013, qui est présenté en ce mémoire.

The present work examines writings by authors of Somali origin in the Italian language. The analysis draws on and critically evaluates Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of minor literature. Firstly, it investigates the different strategies through which these texts insert Somali words within the Italian text. Secondly, it scrutinizes the political engagement of Somali-Italian writings with the issue of racism, and their attempt to show the legacy of colonialism in contemporary Italy. Thirdly, it considers the ways in which these partly autobiographical texts envision a relational, plural and dialogical identity for Somali-Italian characters. In particular, the construction of alternative communities and multiple belongings beyond the dichotomy between Italians and Somalis through means of exclusion and inclusion of other minoritarian groups is analyzed. In conclusion, this work suggests rethinking the ways in which Italian literature is conceived, in order to include “minor” transnational narratives that exceed national paradigms.