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This study identifies permanence, the search for it and its attainment, as the most important variable influencing social, economic and demographic behaviour in rural society. The dissertation examines the interaction between families and land between 1820 and 1890 in a rural mid-Victorian Upper Canadian community, Toronto Gore township. The Gore of Toronto, one of the prime wheat producing townships in nineteenth century Ontario, is a wedge-shaped tract of land of some nineteen thousand acres situated fifteen miles northwest of Toronto. The theoretical underpinning for the study is Richard Easterlin's consumption/inheritance model for the behaviour of rural societies. This is butressed by historical studies of the American midwest as well as studies of rural Ontario by David Gagan, Marvin Mclnnis and Lorne Tepperman. These studies, as well as the data for Toronto Gore, are used to demonstrate that the processes of social change in rural society were related to incursions of economic stress arising out of land and population pressure. Stress was accompanied by demonstrable changes in demographic and economic behaviour at the household level. Toronto Gore was subjected to two forms of economic stress during the period. The first arose from agricultural change and the demands for land made by immigrants and a maturing younger generation. The second was a crisis of shorter term that began in 1857 with the collapse of the wheat market and was exacerbated two years later by a drastic decline in land values. In responding to these crises the younger generation postponed marriage and family formation. The older generation limited marital fertility and adopted devices for the distributuon of property that would protect the productivity and profitability of the land. These changes, which conform to the broad outlines of the Easterlin model and the actual historical experience of populations elsewhere, suggest that the Gore's households were not unusual in their behaviour. The major thrust of the dissertation, however, is that permanence was the most important variable influencing the timing and degree of change. The foundation for permanence was laid during the settlement phase when approximately one hundred families put down roots. Three generations later most of those families were still represented among the township's householders. Others have identified core populations during the settlement phase but thus far no one has systematically studied their behaviour. For Toronto Gore, techniques of family reconstitution developed by French and English demographers are used to reconstruct the population and family relationships. In three generations, intermarriage knit the permanent families into a cohesive group. They owned the largest farms, had the largest households, and were the leaders of the principal social and political institutions. Their children had the best opportunities of acquiring places for themsleves in the township. They maintained their relative prosperity because,. as a group, they were more sensitive to economic change. In times of economic stress they reacted quickly to protect what they had. Their neighbours responded much more slowly and adjustments in their demographic behaviour appeared almost a decade later. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Nous avons analysé les articles de Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau publiés dans le Courrier des États-Unis de New York (1828-1938) pendant la décennie 1840. Le journal rejoignait de nombreuses communautés francophones dispersées dans les Amériques. Chauveau est le seul Canadien français à y collaborer au milieu du XIXe siècle et se révèle un correspondant étranger particulièrement prolifique. Afin de comprendre les poétiques d’écriture du correspondant canadien, nous avons comparé ses articles avec ceux des autres correspondants, principalement parisiens. Nous avons observé que les correspondances, autant celles de Chauveau que celles de ses collègues d’outre-mer, répondent aux mêmes logiques d’écriture que les autres genres journalistiques de l’époque, en particulier la chronique; aussi conservent-elles des traces d’un fort héritage épistolaire. De surcroît, pour pallier le manque de balises dans la manière d’écrire le journal, les correspondants convoquent des formes « canoniques et livresques » : l’influence de la matrice littéraire est tangible. L’étude du contenu des correspondances de Chauveau révèle qu’il utilise sa tribune dans l’espoir de désenclaver sa nation afin de l’arrimer au reste des Français d’Amérique. Pour y parvenir, il exalte la nostalgie pour la Nouvelle-France en misant sur l’identité de « Français d’autrefois » du Canadien, critique de manière récurrente l’opposant commun, l’Angleterre, et fait ressortir les multiples impacts du pouvoir de la religion catholique, rappelant ainsi la France prérévolutionnaire. / We analyzed Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau’s foreign correspondences published in the Courrier des États- Unis (1828-1938) between 1840 and 1850. The newspaper was produced in New York and reached many French-speaking communities scattered throughout the Americas. Chauveau was the Courrier’s only French- Canadian correspondent and one of the most prolific among his colleagues. In order to unveil the various influences associated to his writing, we compared his articles with the ones that his Parisian colleagues produced. We observed that more important journalistic genres of the era such as the editorial had a significant impact on their writing. Their articles also contain strong literary and epistolary influences. We dedicated the most crucial part of our study to the analysis of Chauveau’s articles. We discovered that his articles are a means to convince his readers that French Canadians should be perceived as a legitimate part of French America. In order to do so, Chauveau exacerbated the nostalgy for New France. He also tried to prove that French Canadians are actually pre-revolutionary French citizens, namely by highlighting the extent of the Catholic Church’s powers. Moreover, by constantly criticizing a common opponent, England, Chauveau aspired to strengthen his readers’ sympathy for his nation

Using a sociolinguistic and post-colonial approach, I analyze Irish dramas that speak about language and its connection to national identity. In order to provide a systematic and wide-ranging study, I have selected plays written at approximately fifty-year intervals and performed before Irish audiences contemporary to their writing. The writers selected represent various aspects of Irish society--religiously, economically, and geographically--and arguably may be considered the outstanding theatrical Irish voices of their respective generations. Examining works by Alicia LeFanu, Dion Boucicault, W.B. Yeats, and Brian Friel, I argue that the way each of these playwrights deals with language and identity demonstrates successful resistance to the destruction of Irish identity by the dominant language power. The work of J. A. Laponce and Ronald Wardhaugh informs my language dominance theory. Briefly, when one language pushes aside another language, the cultural identity begins to shift. The literature of a nation provides evidence of the shifting perception. Drama, because of its performance qualities, provides the most complex and complete literary evidence. The effect of the performed text upon the audience validates a cultural reception beyond what would be possible with isolated readers. Following a theoretical introduction, I analyze the plays in chronological order. Alicia LeFanu's The Sons of Erin; or, Modern Sentiment (1812) gently pleads for equal treatment in a united Britain. Dion Boucicault's three Irish plays, especially The Colleen Bawn (1860) but also Arrah-na-Pogue (1864) and The Shaughraun (1875), satirically conceal rebellious nationalist tendencies under the cloak of melodrama. W. B. Yeats's The Countess Cathleen (1899) reveals his romantic hope for healing the national identity through the powers of language. However, The Only Jealousy of Emer (1919) and The Death of Cuchulain (1939) reveal an increasing distrust of language to mythically heal Ireland. Brian Friel's Translations (1980), supported by The Communication Cord (1982) and Making History (1988), demonstrates a post-colonial move to manipulate history in order to tell the Irish side of a British story, constructing in the process an Irish identity that is postnational.