This thesis considers Jane Austen's reception in America from 1800 to 1900 and concludes that her novels were not generally recognized for the first half of the century. In that period, she and her family adversely affected her fame by seeking her obscurity. From mid century to the publication of J.E. Austen-Leigh's Memoir in 1870, appreciation of Austen grew, partly due to the decline of romanticism, and partly due to the focusing of critical theory for fiction, which caused her novels to be valued more highly. From 1870 to 1900 Austen's novels gained popularity. The critics were divided as to those who admired her art, and those who found her novels to be dull.

This dissertation carries out a study of the American pragmaticist C.S. Peirce and constructively applies his thought to a religious understanding of nature called "ecstatic naturalism," a philosophy developed by Robert S. Corrington that conjoins American pragmatism and Continental phenomenology. In this project I explore how the modality of possibility functions in the disclosure of a "divine life," that is, the life of a developing cosmos taken to be sacred in its continual processes of evolutionary growth and transformation. Possibility, found in Peirce's category of experience known as "Firstness," provides organisms with the ontological conditions required for any immediately felt qualitative experience--experience that is the site for potential religious experience. "Religious" experience here means the ecstatic contraposition of finite being before "infinite" being. I consider infinite being first as an honorific sheer availability of being (potential or possible being: becoming) and then in terms of how inquiry may reveal nature to be an encompassing infinite that locates and situates finite organisms. It is my thesis that, as it is found in Peirce's category of Firstness, possibility serves as a ground for the disclosure of this infinite, "the divine life," by enabling its presence to come forward as a feeling of the sacred-- a feeling found when inquirers muse over nature and establish beliefs about the universe in which they are situated. To the end of making these claims more concrete, I draw on figures such as the German existential phenomenologist Martin Heidegger, and the German idealist F.W.J. Schelling so as to identify how possibility may serve as a ground (Abgrund) for divine disclosure, and to identify understandings of existence that take nature to be a sacred life of φύσις (phusis), dynamically revealing and concealing before finite and situated organisms.

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Les romans de Jane Austen sont souvent perçus comme étant une narration parfaite de la vie domestique au dix-neuvième siècle. La plupart des intrigues sont centrées autour de quelques familles et d'une héroïne qui, à la fin du roman, est récompensée à travers son mariage avec l'homme de son choix (qui s'avère souvent riche et muni d'une bonne position sociale). Puisque les romans d'Austen se terminent généralement par un mariage conventionnel et apparaissent d'une envergure limitée, les analyses des thèmes féministes sous-jacents ne sont pas apparues avant le vingtième siècle. Plusieurs études ont révélé qu'au dessous de ces romans à caractère domestique se cache des arguments féministes en faveur de l'éducation des femmes et une critique des inégalités entre les sexes et des codes de conduite. L'étude qui suit comparera le féminisme d'Austen à celui de Mary Wollstonecraft, à partir de ses essais A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, ainsi que ses romans Mary et The Wrongs of Woman. Cette analyse portera aussi sur trois des romans d'Austen : Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility et Mansfield Park. Ces romans reflètent clairement la situation des femmes de l'époque et s'attardent sur l'importance de l'éducation des femmes, les stéréotypes socialement définis, les relations homme-femme et les situations de violence dans le mariage et la famille. En comparant son engagement avec cette problématique aux oeuvres de Wollstonecraft, cette étude démontre que, au travers de ses romans, Austen était beaucoup plus consciente et engagée avec la société dans laquelle elle vivait qu'on ne l'imaginait

Matthew Clay was born on May 25, 1754 in western Halifax County, Virginia, which became Pittsylvania County in 1767. He was the son of Charles and Martha Green Clay. As an officer in the Continental Army, he served in the 9th Virginia Regiment (1776-1778), the 1st Virginia Regiment (1778-1781) and the 5th Virginia Regiment (1781 to 1783). As a member of the 1st Virginia, he achieved the rank of first lieutenant and became Regimental Quartermaster. After being mustered out of the military, Matthew Clay was briefly employed by the State Solicitor's (Auditor's} Office in Richmond, Virginia. Once he had completed reading law in Richmond, he returned to the place of his birth. He married Mary Williams, the orphan daughter of Joseph Williams. Mary's wealthy guardian, Colonel Robert Williams, assisted Clay in launching a career in politics. As a Delegate to the General Assembly, Matthew Clay always considered himself a servant of the people. After his return from the General Assembly, Clay became involved in agriculture, especially tobacco. In 1797 he returned to the world of politics and won election to the 5th through the 12th Congresses (1797-1813). During that period, he established himself as a political conservative, holding true to the principles that he had been exposed to when he entered Congress in 1797. The Old Republicans, as they later came to be known, opposed Jefferson's and Madison's semi-nationalistic tendencies. They supported a frugal and streamlined government, a small and cost-efficient military and a strict construction of the United States Constitution. Clay was a close friend of James Monroe and supported him for President in 1808. Like his fellow Southside Congressman John Randolph of Roanoke, Matthew Clay adhered to the ideals of Old School Republicanism, but unlike the former, he refused to join Randolph in his schism with Jefferson and Madison. In the main, Matthew Clay modified his conservative beliefs only once during his Congressional career as he openly supported the United States' military preparedness in the wake of continued British depredations in 1811-1812. The Pittsylvanian was defeated for reelection in 1813 partly because he abstained from voting on the declaration of war in 1812 and partly because he had become embroiled in unsuccessful litigation with his political rival John Kerr. Matthew Clay was reelected in 1815, but he died suddenly before he could go to Washington to resume his seat. / Master of Arts

This study of constitutional reform during the radical reconstruction of the South Atlantic states covers political organization and elections of 1867; locus of power; economic relief and homestead exemptions; civil rights, education, and state institutions; suffrage and eligibility to office; and structural reform.

An adequate supply of the right kinds of foods is critical to an army's success on the march and on the battlefield. Good food supplies and a dire lack of provisions have profound effects on the regulation, confidence, esprit de corps, and physical state of an army. The American War of Independence (1775-1783) provides a challenging case study of this principle. The relationship between food and troop morale has been previously discussed as just one of many factors that contributed to the success of the Continental Army, but has not been fully explored as a single issue in its own right. I argue that despite the failures of three provisioning system adopted by the Continental Congress - the Commissariat, the state system of specific supplies, and the contract system - the army did keep up its morale and achieve the victory that resulted in independence from Great Britain. The evidence reveals that despite the poor provisioning, the American army was fed in the field for eight years thanks largely to its ability to forage for its food. This foraging system, if it can be called a system, was adequate to sustain morale and perseverance.

Ill health, accident and death are themes common to all of Jane Austen's novels. Some illnesses are physical, whereas some of her heroines experience excessive psychological, emotional and spiritual traumas. These references are too numerous to be either coincidental, glossed over or ignored. Austen expressed an interest in the mind/body relationship, believing that illness could be brought upon in certain personalities by the sufferer herself, and it seems that she might have held theories similar to those advocated by Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and even have anticipated those on feminine hysteria, and the effects of unconscious motives on behaviour, which were advanced by Freud in works such as The Interpretation of Dreams. This study examines Austen's novels, and the origin and purpose of physical and psychological illness in these, and looks at how Austen uses illness, accident and death, and more particularly how their roles progressively change and develop. For Austen's handling of these common issues appears to vary and to develop in line with the order of composition of her novels. She places increasing emphasis on them, not just to further plot, but also to reflect character change and development. Many of the parents or guardians of Austen's heroines are inadequate. And so Austen's heroines are often deprived of commendable models, left to find their own way, alone and in need of emotional support, to confront their youthful excesses, to work their way through these and to find their own destiny despite their handicaps. Self-improvement is neither pleasant nor easy, especially where one is young, inexperienced and alone. And, where heroines exhibit unhealthy or excessive interests in anything that diverts them from their paths of virtue or usefulness, the correction may frequently be painful. Thus most of the novels are, to a greater or lesser degree, filled with references to both physical and psychological ill health. This thesis examines how Austen used these illnesses, accidents and deaths in the various novels, both in the development of plot, as well as in the development of the character of the heroine in each instance. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

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