Abstract Decimal time. Analysis of a rational reform. Decimal tideräkning. Analys av ett rationellt förslag. Christina Rydberg    University of Stockholm. History of ideas. Bachelor’s study. Autumn 2014 Mentor: Elisabeth Mansén   The aim of this study is to try to understand why the late 18th century French attempt to introduce decimal time was a failure. The question is whether there are substantial differences to be seen when compared to the rest of the reforms, like the meter. What part did politics, science, implementation, design and public opinion play in the outcome? The study draws on primary sources on decimal time, such as minutes of the French Convention and Senate (Gallica data base), as well as secondary sources on the contemporary reforms. There are few studies on decimal time; but those of Michel Froeschlé and Lars Nystedt introduce important aspects. Literature is otherwise mainly focused on the spatial reforms and especially on definition and introduction of the meter. The method used is close reading with the purpose of identifying arguments and circumstances relevant to the outcome of the reform.  The result of this study concurs with prior research in the impression that the “revolutionary” halo of the calendar discredited decimal time, especially in other countries. Also confusion was created by old names given to the new hours and minutes. The watchmakers disliked not being able to sell their stock of handicraft. Finally, most people disliked fewer days off. This study further argues that the reform was given away by the French Convention in order to save the rest of spatial metric reforms including decimalization. It also highlights the ambiguity with which the reform was abolished by the politicians. The metric reforms had meant creating standards, defining units and agreeing on what mathematical base to be used. It is important to note that the arguments for abolishing decimal time were less negative to decimalization than to other parts of the reform. The study suggests that if the French reform on time had been limited to the decimal dimension alone, the possibilities for success could have been greater. Instead decimal time was introduced as part of a revolutionary era and disappeared with the persons who created this vision.   Key words: Decimal time, metric reform, Republican calendar, 18th century, French revolution

This dissertation interrogates correlations between imperial expansion and the history paintings produced for London audiences by the American-born artist Benjamin West (1738-1820) during his first decade in England (1764-1774). Within that ten-year span, Grand Manner academic history painting shaped and reflected the imperial anxieties that elite Britons experienced as a result of dramatic territorial gains, consolidations and losses in North America and South Asia. To follow the trajectory of history painting’s rise, relevance and obsolescence is to track Britons’ negotiation of their global status as a “free though conquering people.” As England’s pre-eminent history painter, West secured for himself a place within the discourses of the imperial self-imaginary by developing two types of iconographic program. First, the selective appropriation of narratives from classical antiquity allowed West and his patrons to inculcate their audiences with visual models for British imperial virtue. Advancing the cause of imperial self-ratification through classical narrative, West cast the English as the natural heirs to the Roman empire. The resulting images paralleled and buoyed contemporary textual discourses of empire and intersected with antiquarian collecting practices, both of which were based on the notion of modern British proprietorship of classical antiquity. Second, developing and refining a model introduced by Francis Hayman (1708-1776) at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in 1761, West contrived a pictorial format which introduced persons living and recently dead into a realm of visual expression formally reserved for characters from biblical and classical textual sources. Invoking some of history painting’s most familiar compositional and figural conventions, West recombined history painting, portraiture, landscape and genre to formulate the iconographically hybrid heroics of empire, complete with its own set of pictorial motifs through which West and his followers styled their subjects exemplars of classical imperial virtue. Imperial anxiety afforded history painting its short-lived relevance among English-speaking audiences during the second half of the eighteenth and first quarter of the nineteenth centuries, and imperial self-acceptance rendered that most highly-esteemed of artistic genres obsolete. Through the visual heroics of empire, Benjamin West established history painting as a viable form of Anglophone cultural production during his first decade in London. / text

Castrati were without doubt, an extraordinary phenomenon in the vocal world. Four centuries of history exist from the first evidence of their presence in music, dating from the 1550s, and the death of the last castrato Allessandro Moreschi, in 1922. A tradition almost solely practiced in Italy, the castrati experienced their halcyon days in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. At first, they were recruited and castrated as young boys to sing in the soprano sections of the church choirs. They enjoyed an extensive training in specialized conservatorios and grew to be the most accomplished vocalists the world had known thus far. Inevitably, their art was noticed by opera composers of the time. They flourished and were celebrated in Italy and abroad. Their vocal technique and artistic skills dictated the bel canto style for nearly two hundred years. At the end of the eighteenth century, the growing awareness in moral philosophy, and a series of political shifts in Europe put an end to the overwhelming success of the eunuchs. Yet their influence on opera composition of the time and of the subsequent decades was of immense consequence. An important question should be raised when performing the opera roles written for castrati nowadays. Who will sing the castrato roles? As a logical solution, women or countertenors should adopt these roles into their repertoire. A study of opera roles written for castrati by a baroque master in the genre, Georg Friedrich Handel, sheds some light on the music for these rare birds. The castrato role-study encompasses Handel’s operas written for the First Royal Academy of Music (1720-1728). By disclosing some particular aspects in the music and the drama, it becomes clear what voice type should be singing these roles in present day Handel opera production. / text

This study explores the literature of late Choson in its material context, examining how the physical aspects of the production and circulation of texts impacted the practice of writing. By analyzing various travelogues from Beijing (yonhaengnok) and private collections (munjip) from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century, I examine how transcultural contacts across borders and changing textual environments influenced intellectual circles and literary trends in late Choson Korea. Interpreting the literary text as the material product of a culture, my study shifts the emphasis from the author as the creator of a text to the editors, publishers, collectors, and readers, through whose hands a text is reshaped and given new meaning. In light of the concept of social authorship, the written culture of late Choson will be revisited in relation to complex networks of social interactions. The print and manuscript culture of the day, socio-political groups that the author belonged to, the book market, and the government policies of that time provide interesting information on the practices of literary production, based on the larger cultural dynamics of East Asia. This dissertation revolves around a series of questions about circulation networks and their impact. In regard to the social and cultural condition of literary production in the eighteenth century, I examine transnational interactions with foreign intellectuals as well as collective coterie activities of reading and writing among the literati in Seoul. How did the flourishing of print culture of the Jiangnan area and the book markets in Beijing change the textual dynamics of Korea? Did the government censorship carried out by the Qing and the Choson governments effectively control the circulation of books? How did the Choson literati consume the foreign books and why did they form so many literary communities in Seoul? By investigating the large scope of these textual situations, I explore how the transcultural contacts "across borders" and the changing textual environments influenced intellectual circles and literary trends in late Choson. With respect to textual dynamics, I emphasize the various "informal networks" that have been placed at the center of book reception and consumption. For example, a number of book brokers in the Qing and Choson facilitated the distribution of books, and the sharing of manuscripts among friends in literary coteries was influential in the shaping of new literary tastes and public culture. These unconventional routes outside of established channels functioned as the actual key drivers of book culture in late Choson. My argument throughout this dissertation is that "informal circulation" is a central, rather than marginal, feature of eighteenth-century book culture and literary production. Through a specific case study of a literatus-official, Yi Tong-mu (1741-1793), my dissertation addresses these issues in three parts that consist of seven chapters: (1) Part One, "Social Authorship and Manuscript Production," examines how the writings of Yi Tong-mu were constructed and transmitted through a complex of social interactions and how the physical aspects of texts inform various transactions of human and non-human agencies in the production of texts. (2) Part Two, "The Location of Texts: Circulation of Books, Censorship, and Community Activities" traces how social networks among the domestic literati as well as among foreign intellectuals facilitated the circulation of books. First, I examine the large scope of transnational interaction between China and Korea, and the literary inquisition carried out by the Choson government in response to the changing textual environment. This is followed by a discussion of the poetry communities in Seoul, in which the Choson literati shared their reading practices and produced their common aesthetic tastes in their writings. (3) Part Three, "Making Meaning: Reading Self and Social Discourses," examines how Yi Tong-mu read books from the Ming and the Qing--such as those by Yuan Hongdao of the Ming and Wang Shizhen of the Qing--and wrote his own poetry and literary criticism and embodied his interpretive activities in his own works. / East Asian Languages and Civilizations

This thesis offers a new interpretation of the origins of eighteenth-century popular political consciousness in Scotland during the second half of the eighteenth century by considering the relationship between Presbyterianism, literacy and political activity, and it examines the long-standing enmity to the authority of the elite expressed through patronage disputes, the burgh reform movement and opposition to Catholic relief. In particular it discusses the ongoing debate over lay ecclesiastical patronage arguing that religious dispute was a major stimulus to the process of politicising ordinary people. This process was aided by the inherent radicalism within Presbyterianism which was egalitarian and anti-hierarchical, and which was used to justify inclusion in the political process. It also emphasises the continuing relevance of Scotland’s Covenanting tradition for people from all walks of life who engaged with ideas predominantly through polemical religious books, particularly Covenanting theology and history, and it argues that the clergy provided a crucial link between the general populace and the issues of the day through their ability to draw people into contemporary debate as a result of their preaching and publications.

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