This is not a fashion paper: Modernism, Dorothy Todd and British Vogue "Style is thinking." In 1922, six years after its initial inception in England, Vogue magazine began to be edited by Dorothy Todd. Her spell in charge of the already renowned magazine, which had begun its life in America in 1892, lasted until only 1926. These years represent somewhat of an anomaly in the flawless history of the world's most famous fashion magazine, and study of the editions from this era reveal a Vogue that few would expect. Dorothy Todd, the most enigmatic and undocumented figure in the history of the magazine and, arguably within the sphere of popular publications in general, used Vogue as the vehicle through which to promote the innovative forms in art and literature that were emerging at the beginning of the twentieth century. Through her inclusion of artists and writers whom we would now consider to be the influential makers of modernism, Todd turned Vogue into an advanced literary and social review and thus a magazine of modernism. Preconceptions which regard Vogue as a mere mass circulated fashion glossy need necessarily be dismissed before reading this work, as the Vogue of 1922-1926 presented the fashions of the body alongside the “fashions of the mind"2 This research will demonstrate both the extent of Vogue's transformation into a modernist magazine and to seek to locate the lost editor of Dorothy Todd. Such a meticulous project has never yet to be undertaken. Dorothy Todd's Vogue can be no longer dismissed as mere frivolity in the frenzied and tumultuous intellectual climate of the inter-war period.

There has been some sociological interest in MG Rover’s decline and widespread deindustrialisation in Birmingham. However, little research has considered the proximity of Rover’s closure in 2005 to another seminal event for the city – the opening of the Bullring shopping centre in 2003. These events appear indicative of Daniel Bell’s conception of ‘postindustrialism’. This thesis uses the tradition of ‘psychogeography’ to critique postindustrialism in Birmingham, examining the city’s collective psyche from a dynamic literary perspective. In Chapter 1, Daniel Bell’s predictions (made in 1973) of the likely characteristics of a post-industrial society are outlined and measured against recent economic and social events in Birmingham. In Chapter 2, the tradition of psychogeography is critically analysed, from Situationism and Kevin Lynch’s The Image of the City in the 1960s to the contemporary works of Iain Sinclair and Rebecca Solnit. I explore the argument that the key tenet of psychogeography missing from the work of contemporary practitioners is a utopian element with which writers theorize alternative forms of the city. This chapter provides a theoretical basis for both the use of literary montage and Stirchley’s inclusion in the psychogeography. Consequently, Chapters 3, 4 and 5 constitute the psychogeography itself, moving through three key geographical areas. These chapters offer a creative-critical representation of Birmingham in montage form, weaving fragments of narration with literary, theoretical and sociological works and considering the impacts of technology, industry and post-industrial urbanism on the city’s landscape and psyche. The discussion of Raymond Williams’s ‘mobile privatisation’ in Longbridge provides a catalyst for the consideration, in the final chapter, of a porous but socially divisive architecture in the Bullring. As the psychogeography progresses, the suburb of Stirchley and the Bullring market-area both emerge as contested spaces and, simultaneously, blueprints for an alternative form of the city. This thesis celebrates the variety, incoherence and inclusiveness of both spaces.

George Orwell's reputation as a writer rests largely upon his final two works, selected essays and some of his journalism. As a novelist, he is often considered limited, and it is for this reason that his writing has perhaps received less serious attention than that of many of his contemporaries. Some recent publications have sought to redress this balance, identifying an impressive level of artistry, not only in his more recognised works, but in the neglected novels of the 1930s. Yet, aside from studies focused upon his political beliefs, there has been a lack of attention given to the wider ideas underpinning Orwell's writing, in particular, those which might be considered, in popular terms, ‘existential'. Given its unusually firm grounding in the many experiences he underwent, Orwell's thought, I argue, can be viewed profitably from this philosophical standpoint. By engaging his writing in a dialogue with that of the phenomenological-existentialist thinkers, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Emmanuel Levinas, this project aims to make sense of the ideas implicit within his work. Where the work of the aforementioned figures is often opaque and highly abstracted, it will be shown that Orwell's offers the reader literary and real-life exemplars as a means of making difficult ideas understood. The study is divided into four two-part chapters, which track the Orwell canon in a broadly chronological fashion. In parallel with this, the ideas of the existential philosophers are, too, introduced chronologically: Heidegger, Sartre and, Levinas. The thesis attempts to argue that understanding the implicit existentialism in the work of Orwell not only offers a more complete insight into the man, and the tensions inherent in his character, but also affords the reader many much-needed exemplifications, and in some cases augmentations, of some of the most important ideas in existentialist philosophy.

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This thesis was inspired by a perceptible increase and change in depictions of motherhood in fiction and memoir between the years 19952010. It traces a body of intense motherhood literature that grew steadily throughout the twentieth century and culminated in an explosion of such writing at the turn of this century. The study contends that a significant body of these texts were directly reacting to inequalities still inherent in the social and cultural demands made on mothers. It also suggests a correlation between these inequalities and the increase of deeply ambivalent feelings about motherhood evident in this turn of the century literature. The first chapter considers the intensification of maternal ambivalence in this fiction and memoir and investigates the growing desire to establish this ambivalence as a normal reaction to the transition to motherhood. It also explores the resistance to historical narratives that imply the necessity for maternal sacrifice. By looking at seminal texts from the twentieth century, it considers where and how the myth of the ideal mother was constructed, demonstrating how such ideals came to influence contemporary writers, Hence, chapter two engages with the work of Michel Foucault and illustrates how certain postmodern ideas have coalesced with post or third-wave feminism to affect depictions of the mother in literature. This chapter argues that the lack of certainty in the mothering experience arises from notions of good mothering that have been patriarchically constructed and are, therefore. politically manipulative and suspect. As a consequence, writers have been inspired to re-imagine motherhood in a world without meaning. Chapter three considers the depiction of motherhood's pleasures that sit outside the construction of the ideal mother. It focuses on literary portraits of transgressive mothers, in particular those displaying problematic motherchild physical intimacy and mothers who are sexually active outside their relationship with their children's father. This chapter identifies both significant changes in the representation of mother-child intimacy and a surprising stasis in the fictional treatment of adulterous mothers. Finally, the thesis concludes with the ethical nature of motherhood and the duty of care parents owe to their children, This concluding chapter considers how certain twentieth-century discourses, including those influential in certain aspects of literary criticism, have contributed to an impoverishment of the motherhood experience which is strikingly evident in this particular body of fiction and memoir of motherhood written between 1995-2010.

This thesis provides the first full-length study of T. S. Eliot’s concern with agriculture. It examines Eliot’s consideration of agrarian issues within his social criticism of the 1930s-50s in relation to the organic thought of the period, and establishes that he should be considered an influential figure in the Christian context of the British organic husbandry movement. In doing so it explores the importance of his roles as the editor of the 'Criterion', a director of Faber, and a member of the editorial board of the 'New English Weekly' and the 'Christian News-Letter'. This thesis also compares Eliot’s religious agrarianism with the farming communities formed by Rolf Gardiner, Ronald Duncan and John Middleton Murry. It emphasizes that, for Eliot, “a wrong attitude towards nature” was as much overvaluing it as undervaluing it, and illustrates that his idea of an agricultural community advanced in the 1930s-40s was in no way idealized. In addition, it demonstrates that Eliot’s agricultural concerns emerged as a notable theme in his literary output – from his early notebook of poems known as 'Inventions of the March Hare' up to 'Murder in the Cathedral' and 'Four Quartets'. For the first time at any length, it offers readings of Eliot’s 'oeuvre' in light of his sustained preoccupation with organic issues. This thesis breaks new ground by demonstrating that a thorough understanding of Eliot’s engagement with agriculture is vital to our interpretation of both his poetry and prose.

The thesis recontextualises the fiction of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century writer Rudyard Kipling by exploring aspects of Victorian Buddhism in a selection of his published work. It demonstrates his engagement with a variety of Buddhist histories and cultures, showing a serious artistic and imaginative response to and interpretation of Buddhism. Focusing primarily on the novel Kim, the thesis develops existing criticism, examining the character of the lama. Additionally, it studies features of Victorian Buddhism other than textual sources, drawing on work by scholars in fields such as the history of art and the history of religion. As well as considering varied Buddhist elements in Kim, the thesis examines the theme of the survival of the soul, situating short stories from various periods of Kipling's writing life in the context of scholarly debates about Nirvana and reincarnation. Attention is also given to critically neglected travel writing from the Letters of Marque series written for periodical publication. Kipling's work is shown to be deeply concerned with and sympathetic to Buddhism and Buddhist cultures.

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Lewis Carroll, and George MacDonald are responsible for some of the most popular yet obscure texts in the English Canon. Because Carroll and MacDonald are often credited with pioneering much of their genres — Nonsense Literature and Fantasy Literature — it seems that often they are labeled as originators, and not as active contributing members of a much larger literary tradition. Carroll and MacDonald were close friends and literary confidants, using each other’s works, as well as employing that of other writers. This is a study of the sources Carroll and MacDonald used in an attempt to better understand the underlying meanings and symbols in some of their works. For example, I study the analogous symbols they utilized, along with the words used to express them, to convey their ideas about identity and metamorphosis. I show that they rely on ancient, complex symbols, and the traditional language and meanings associated with them, to communicate deeply embedded messages to their readers. They employ the symbols of the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly, in several different guises, in their complex works. It is these symbols that allowed them to elucidate the concepts of the individual’s initial materialist state, followed by the midway period of dreaming/reflecting, and the subsequent spiritual awakening. The analysis of the literary sources they used helps to uncover symbols and themes of interest for Carroll and MacDonald, which in turn help to expose other of their sources, such as the Bestiaries, biblical stories, and the works of Isaac Watts, and William Blake. I attempt to explain how some of these symbols and themes function in the portrayal of coherent, yet creative, meanings in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and MacDonald’s Fantasy.