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The dissertation examines the early reception of Piers Plowman through the responses of the poem's early readers and copyists in order to revive the context in which the poem was originally read and understood. These responses are derived from manuscript evidence. The dissertation is divided into five chapters, and begins with an examination of the background to the study, previous work on and assumptions about the reception of the poem. This is followed by a discussion of the theory of reception of literary works, and its relevance to MS studies, thus setting out the theoretical basis of the dissertation. A brief discussion of methodology follows. The next three chapters analyse the evidence from the MSS, examining respectively the contributions of the professional book producers in terms of layout, decoration and rubrication; readers' comments, usually in the form of marginalia; and the contribution of the scribes, through alteration of the text. The concluding chapter draws together the evidence from all three areas of analysis and discusses the relevance of the study to the understanding of the poem. There are four appendices, the first providing a list of early poems associated with Piers Plowman in the sixteenth century, and a list of names associated with the poem before Robert Crowley printed the poem in 1550. The other three appendices provide evidence from the MSS, respectively descriptions of all the Piers Plowman MSS; all the professional rubrication from the MSS; full readers' annotation from selected MSS, Digby MS 145, BL Additional 35287, Douce MS 104, and BL Additional 35157, the reader's wordlist from CUL L1 4.14, and glossed words from TCD MS 212. These appendices are included to provide as much evidence as possible from the MSS in a readily accessible form.

The thesis introduction identifies the many theoretical approaches to myth, and reveals the need to find a new approach to the study of myth in the works and thought of C. S. Lewis. Most approaches to the study of myth are criticised by Lewis and his literary group of friends, known as the Inklings, as reductive. In contrast, Lewis proposed a more holistic, transcendent power of myth. The first chapter explores the specific importance of myth to Lewis' developing thought, from his early experiences of Norse myth to the development of his views in debate and through his involvement with the Inklings. Tensions and inconsistencies in Lewis' statements about myth are explored and the chapter culminates with Lewis' appreciation of myth in Christian faith, literature, and his realisation of myth as an object of contemplation. Chapter Two explores and contrasts the theories and approaches to myth of Ernst Cassirer with those of Lewis. Both thinkers are compared and areas of similarity and difference are identified, including their reactions to the problem of myth and Nazi ideology. Chapter Three applies the phenomenological traits, characteristics and principles of myth developed by Cassirer to Lewis' science fiction fantasy Perelandra. Mythical consciousness is evoked in this work through mythical images, the inner form of myth, and the type of worldview that threatens to engulf Ransom. We can observe the way that myth involves a sense of unification. Chapter Four identifies the symbolic form of myth in Till We Have Faces. The general characteristics of myth are explored and the inner form, or particular logic, of myth is revealed to actively form the mythical relations that dominate the lives of the characters. The function of myth as a form of thought is explored in the novel. Chapter Five delineates the symbolic form of myth within The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, with particular emphasis upon Lewis' handling of demonic and divine forces and the mythical concept of sacrifice and rebirth. In conclusion, a more holistic appreciation of myth in Lewis' works and thought is developed through the application of Cassirer's myth principles to Lewis' works. Apparently disparate aspects of myth are revealed to have a cohesive unity in mythical consciousness.

Lawrence's work has almost invevitably been read as an aesthetic production whereby one must eventually agree or disagree with his vision of "reality". Those who assume a formalist standard of taste often find that Lawrence "loses control" of his material; those who offer ideological apologies for his work argue that disruptions in the aesthetic plane are representative of an exploratory genius, often seen as the outstanding characteristic of literary modernism. Both approaches, explicitly or otherwise , rely on the ultimate sanction of the achieved image, transmuted by the author always in control of his material. Yet anyone who reads Lawrence with an eye to to what the "tale" says in addition to what the "teller" claims discovers that Lawrence is not in full control of his material, thought it cannot simply be argued, on aesthetic or linguistic criteria, that he is out of control. Rather, there exists a "third" state whereby Lawrence both writes and is written, gives us a message with one hand, yet retracts, as it were, with the other. Because this double-move is preeminently suited to the language of fiction, and because it appears in Lawrence's fiction with the greatest versatility and incisiveness, this dissertation analyzes six of his novels for their rhetorical significance, understood as both an organization of tropes and figures and as a system of persuasive doctrine. A new definition for allegory is proposed, the introductions of thematic and structural "blanks" is examined, and a spread of narrative delays are identified and discussed, all concerned with the central problem of writing novels that direct themselves to the resurrection of a pre-linguistic universe, yet ironically depend more and more upon writing to bring this about. Ideas drawn from Continental philosophy and recent critical theory are incorporated for support and instruction. Attention is also focused on Lawrence's revision processes, often with specific emphasis on unpublished manuscript material.

'Women and independence in the nineteenth century novel : a study of Austen, Trollope and James', begins with the concept of independence and works through the three most common usages of the word. The first, financial independence (not needing to earn one's livelihood) appears to be a necessary prerequisite for the second and third forms of independence, although it is by no means an unequivocal good in any of the novels. The second, intellectual independence (not depending on others for one's opinion or conduct; unwilling to be under obligation to others), is a matter of asserting independence while employing terms which society recognizes. The third, of being independent, is exemplified by an inward struggle for a knowledge of self. In order to trace the development of the idea of self during the nineteenth century, I have chosen a group of novels which seem to be representative of the beginning, the middle, and the end of the period. Particular attention is given to the characterizations of Emma Woodhouse, Glencora Palliser, Isabel Archer, Milly Theale and Maggie Verver. Whereas in Jane Austen's novels the self has a definite shape which the heroine must discover, and in Anthony Trollope's novels the self (reflecting the idea of socially-determined man) must learn to accommodate social and political changes, in Henry James's novels the self determined by external manifestations (hollow man) is posed against the exercise of the free spirit or soul. Jane Austen's novels look backward, as she reacts against late eighteenth century romanticism, and forward, with the development of the heroine who exemplifies intellectual independence. Anthony Trollope's women characters are creatures of social and political adaptation; although they do not derive their reason for being from men, they must accommodate themselves to men's wishes. And Henry James looks backward, wistfully, at Austen's solid, comforting, innocent self and forward, despairingly, to the dark, unknowable self of the twentieth century.

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À l’orée des années soixante, la performance a cherché à imposer un art de l’action éphémère que n’entraverait aucun type de médiation, qu’il soit symbolique (la distance acteur/spectateur), technique (les médias), ou même linguistique (le langage, les signes). Enjeu de nombreux débats entre les années 1960 et 1990, ces tentatives ont trouvé de multiples formulations théoriques s’appuyant sur les outils du poststructuralisme en particulier, mais aussi sur des cadres de pensée différents, directement hérités du modernisme de Greenberg. On explore ici les étapes et enjeux de ce croisement, jusqu’à la rupture apportée dans les années 1990 et 2000 où les débats théoriques, toujours dirigés par des schémas poststructuralistes, redonnèrent une place centrale aux médiations, tout particulièrement au document. Or, la figure importante de la pratique artistique qu’est devenu le document depuis les années soixante s’avère mettre en question l’ontologie traditionnelle de la performance, orientée sur l’événement, autant que son épistémologie, qui valorise l’expérience directe. La prise en compte des dimensions instrumentales et artistiques du document nous conduit à réviser la poïétique traditionnelle de la performance et les théories de la communication qui lui sont liées, et à repenser par là même l’opposition entre objet et événement qui fonde la définition de la performance. C’est ainsi qu’on interroge le rapport de celle-ci à l’inscription, pour la redéfinir comme un art irréductible à son contexte d’exécution et travaillé en profondeur par la reproduction et la représentation, au travers notamment de l’étude de certaines figures exemplaires, Allan Kaprow, Chris Burden ou Tino Sehgal. / On the edge of the 1960’s, performance looked after imposing an art of ephemeral action that no kind of mediation would impede, be it symbolic (the distance between actor and spectator), technical (the medias), or even linguistical (language, signs). Those attempts led to numerous discussions between the 1960’s and the 1990’s, and have found numerous theoretical formulations using particularly the tools of poststructuralism, but also frames of thought directly inherited from Greenberg modernism. We explore here the stages and issues of this cross-over until the break of the 1990’s and 2000’s where the theoretical debates, always using poststructuralist schemes, gave a central role to mediations, particularly to the document. Documents have become an important figure of artistic practice since the 1960’s and turned out to question the traditional ontology of performance, based on the event, as well as its epistemology that promotes live experience. We try to consider the instrumental and artistic dimensions of the document ; this leads us to revise the traditional poetics of performance and theories of communication that are related to it, and to consider anew the opposition between object and event on which the definition of performance is based. Thus, we question the links between performance and inscription, redefined as an art that is irreducible to its context of execution and worked in depth by reproduction and representation, through the study of certain figureheads : Allan Kaprow, Chris Burden or Tino Sehgal.