The present study explores the relationship between language and architecture as symbolic systems against the background of the creation of independent Czechoslovakia at the end of World War I. It takes as its focus the Prague Castle, and the intent of the first President of Czechoslovakia, philosopher Thomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850--1937), to "democratize" the vast complex of historic structures that formed it, with the help of the Slovenian architect Joze Plecnik (1872--1957). To effect change in the charged, historically circumscribed spaces of the Castle can be viewed as a language analogy mainly in the terms of creating new relationships . Polysemy is a characteristic, sometimes dominant, feature of the transformation process. / In the hierarchy of public spaces, the Castle was meant to constitute the ultimate symbolic space not just for Prague, but for the entire nation. Memory as recollection, but also as imagination and ingegno, impelled symbolic action both verbally and architecturally. Plecnik's own "grammar of creation" sought constitutive forms in the traditions of Antiquity and ancient Egypt, in Masaryk's ideas of democratic governance as well as in the collective memory of the city. These were the informing principles that created a more layered referential field. / The invention of the tradition and symbolic identity of the Castle in the new context of republican Czechoslovakia was a complex process accompanied by competing narratives. Masaryk wished the Castle to become "a symbol of our [Czech and Slovak] national democratic ideals," and spoke of a need to "embody" the new parliament in search for an ethical existence rooted in faith and self-education, imbued with both scientific rigour and poetic making, and implemented through the everyday work by all citizens. / A unique example of another type of narrative is a body of correspondence addressed to Plecnik between 1920 and 1956 by the President's daughter, Alice Garrigue Masaryk (1879--1966), who represented her father in his role as patron and served as a conduit between him, the Castle Building Administration and Plecnik himself. A close reading of these letters explores to interrogate the role of language in both the transmission of tradition and in the actual process of architectural making and constitutes an original contribution to scholarship.

This thesis considers past autobiographical theory and questions whether it addresses the autobiography of the female writer. Autobiographies of Harriet Jacobs, Margaret Sanger, and Maxine Hong Kingston are examined to reveal their polyvocality, use of the autobiographical "I", and rhetorical strategies maintained in order to create a close relationship with the reader. Particular attention is paid to Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogism and Sidonie Smith's autobiographical "I."

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Many religious leaders in the early 1900s were afraid of the immoral associations and repercussions of birth control. The Catholic Church and some Protestants never accepted contraception, or accepted it much later, but many mainline Protestants leaders did change their tune dramatically between the years of 1920 and 1931. This investigation seeks to understand how Margaret Sanger was able to use her rhetoric to move her reform from the leftist outskirts and decadent, sexual connotations into the mainstream of family-friendly, morally virtuous, and even conservative religious approval. Securing the approval of religious leaders subsequently provided the impetus for legal and medical acceptance by the late-1930s. Margaret Sanger used conferences, speeches, articles, her magazine (Birth Control Review), and several books to reinforce her message as she pragmatically shifted from the radical left closer to the center and conservatives. She knew the power of the churches to influence their members, and since the United States population had undeniably a Judeo-Christian base, this power could be harnessed in order to achieve success for the birth control movement, among the conservative medical and political communities and the public at large. Despite the clear consensus against birth control by all mainline Christian churches in 1920, including Roman Catholics and Protestants alike, the decade that followed would bring about a great divide that would continue to widen in successive decades. Sanger put forward many arguments in her works, but the ones which ultimately brought along the relatively conservative religious leaders were those that presented birth control not as a gender equity issue, but rather as a morally constructive reform that had the power to save and strengthen marriages; lessen prostitution and promiscuity; protect the health of women; reduce abortions, infanticide, and infant mortality; and improve the quality of life for children and families. Initially, many conservatives and religious leaders associated the birth control movement with radicals, feminists, prostitutes, and promiscuous youth, and feared contraception would lead to immorality and the deterioration of the family. Without the threat of pregnancy, conservatives feared that youth and even married adults would seize the opportunity to have sex outside of marriage. Others worried the decreasing size of families was a sign of growing selfishness and materialism. In response, Sanger promoted the movement as a way for conservatives to stop the rising divorce rates by strengthening and increasing marriages, and to improve the lives of families by humanely increasing the health and standard of living, for women and children especially. In short, she argued that birth control would not lead to deleterious consequences, but would actually improve family moral values and become an effective humanitarian reform. She recognized that both liberals and conservatives were united in hoping to strengthen the family, and so she emphasized those virtues and actively courted those same conservative religious leaders that had previously shunned birth control and the movement. Throughout the 1920s, she emphasized the ways in which birth control could strengthen marriages and improve the quality of life of women and children, and she effectively won over the relatively conservative religious leaders that she needed to bring about the movement’s public, medical, and political progress.