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The results of the research are presented in two forms—a digital edition of the play, viewable at http://entretenida.outofthewings.org/index.html, and this written submission. Chapter 1 focuses on the quasi-improvisational quality of La entretenida, exploring connections with Plautus, the rhetorical tradition, the commedia dell’arte, jazz, storytelling, and metatheatre. Chapter 2 challenges the widely held view that La entretenida is a parody of the comedia nueva, and looks at the way in which Cervantes engaged with dramatic theory, and in particular with the principle of decorum. Chapter 3 shows how the play reflects Cervantes’s tendency to view life through literature, relating this aspect of his writing to the role of memory in Early Modern culture, while Chapter 4 demonstrates how this metaliterary quality becomes a means whereby Cervantes explores social issues. Chapter 5 examines the circumstances surrounding the publication of Ocho comedias, revealing an interesting connection with the second part of Don Quijote, and arguing that Cervantes had a highly ambivalent attitude to print. Chapters 6 and 7 investigate the process of production, with particular reference to the punctuation of the published volume. Chapter 8 presents the rationale for the digital edition, which, because of its special advantages in generating different views of the text and navigating between them, can facilitate engagement with the text from a number of different perspectives and reflect the web-like nature of Cervantes’s writings. Chapters 9 and 10 describe the multidimensional approach that was adopted in the process of translating and performing the play, which involved extensive preparatory work with a group of actors. Interrogation of the text through translation and performance was able to inform, as well as be informed by, its scholarly investigation.

The intention of this thesis is to give an account of the evolution from an inward-looking theatre of obsessions to a more outward-looking theatre of commitment, which characterises the theatre of Fernando Arrabal over a period of seventeen years. The study has a tri-partite structure, corresponding to three distinct periods of artistic creativity: 1952-8, 1962-7 and 1967-9. Each part consists of a chapter exposing background material relating to Arrabal's life, personality and intellectual evolution, followed by a chapter devoted to the analysis of selected plays. The plays of the first period, described as introverted in nature and hermetic in structure, are seen as intensely personal dramatic projections of the nightmare labyrinth of the author's memory and obsessions. These plays are frenetic efforts to impose order on internal chaos, or to eradicate neuroses through the exploitation of fantasies. In the second period, when for the first time in his life he discovers a degree of security and self-confidence, Arrabal brings a more lucid introspective approach to bear on the material which provides his inspiration. This is matched by conscious efforts on Arrabal's part to create a more formalised theatrical universe, structured in accordance with the principles of Panique, and an increasing willingness to draw the spectator into the theatrical ceremony, initiating him to the confusion of the author's world. In this period, his heroes are seen to acquire a degree of lucidity and self-determination which was lacking in the earlier heroes, and as the period closes Arrabal is seen to achieve some detachment from his former obsessions. Finally, under the influence of Arrabal's revelatory imprisonment and the catalytic effect of the "évenéments" of May 1968, the Panique theatre is seen to give way to a new type of theatre in which Arrabal seeks to integrate his old obsessions into his new awareness of external reality, and produces plays which are manifestly committed in intention. Arrabal's commitment is described as an unusually non-ideological and broadly based commitment on behalf of tolerance and freedom from political persecution.

This thesis analyses a selection of plays written by the following three Spanish writers: María Teresa León (1903 - 88); María de la O Lejárraga García / María Martínez Sierra (1874 - 1974) and Concha Méndez (1898 - 1986). Close readings are carried out of a selection of plays written in exile, mainly from Argentina and Mexico, following the outbreak of Spain’s Civil War. The methodological approach taken are close readings set within the historiography of these plays within their specific socio-political and artistic contexts. The context of the authors’ marginality as female authors writing during Spain’s avant-garde at the turn of the twentieth century, the historical and political contexts of Spain’s Second Republic and Civil War and the experience of exile are all important in this reading. Also of significance are the intertextual crossovers between the other multiple genres in which these authors have written. Whilst there are intertextual echoes, ultimately these plays convey a distinct and original artistic response to the experience of exile. Their responses to exile are mapped not only in relation to each oher and their wider writing, but also in relation to their better known male contemporaries of Spanish Republican exile culture. All of these plays share a characteristic of creating what I term to be “spaces of resistance”. This is evidenced in their aesthetic and thematic subversion of conventions and their playful experimentation. Central to the analysis of the plays and their creation of subversive dramatic spaces is gender. All three authors wrote from a selfconsciously marginal position, which is evidenced in their use of metatheatrical devices that break the fourth wall. The thesis addresses the current critical absence of a discussion of the complex richness of these plays and their potential for performance. An absence that is evidenced by the fact that all of the plays have remained unperformed and existing criticism has been either scarce or non-existent. It highlights the need to broaden existing research on exiled Spanish playwrights and especially of women playwrights. In doing so it aims to renegotiate how overlooked play texts can be used as important cultural objects, especially in discussing topics of gender and exile in Hispanic studies. Despite having less cultural capital than other genres such as autobiography, poetry and “testimonio” texts, the thesis argues that these are important texts worthy of more critical debate. The continued omission of these plays highlights the ongoing absence of women playwrights from the Spanish canon; an issue that remains to be fully addressed by scholars.

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Fully atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to predict the properties of EPON 862 cross-linked with curing agent DETDA, a potentially useful epoxy resin for future applications of nanocomposites. The properties of interest were density (at nearambient pressure and temperature), glass transition temperature, bulk modulus, and shear modulus. The EPON molecular topology, degree of curing, and MD force-field were investigated as variables. The range of molecular weights explored was limited to the oligomer region, due to practical restrictions on model size. For high degrees of curing (greater than 90%), the density was found to be insensitive to the EPON molecular topology and precise value of degree of curing. Of the two force-fields that were investigated, cff91 and COMPASS, COMPASS clearly gave more accurate values for the density and moduli as compared to experiment. In fact, the density predicted by COMPASS was in excellent agreement with reported experimental values. However, the bulk and shear moduli predicted by simulation were about two times higher than the corresponding experimental values.

This thesis presents a first critical edition of Lope de Vega’s saint’s play 'San Nicolás de Tolentino' (c. 1614) alongside an introductory study. The text is based on the sole seventeenth-century witness. The four modern re-prints/editions of the play have been consulted to help remedy defects in the 'princeps', which has been edited in accordance with the current practices of 'comedia' editors. Variants are collated in a list following the playtext. Footnotes to the text explain the important complexities and obscurities of 'San Nicolás' and some idiosyncrasies of Golden-Age literature generally. The introductory study has six sections. The first pieces together a history of the veneration of St Nicholas in Spain, detailing the miracles and patronages that might have led Lope to compose this play of his own accord or that might have led to a commission. Internal evidence suggests strongly that any commission must have come specifically from the Discalced Augustinians. The second section examines Lope’s possible sources, concluding tentatively that Critana’s 'Vida' is the most likely source. Sections 3 and 4 present an interpretation of the protagonists – Nicolás and the 'gracioso' Ruperto. My comparison of Lope’s Nicolás with the saint depicted in the hagiographies casts into relief techniques Lope used to prevent this prodigious miracle-worker from alienating the audience. The 'gracioso' character, I argue, is intended to offer a model of Christian piety of a humbler kind: one significant factual departure from the hagiographic tradition places Ruperto at the forefront of the play’s religious purpose. However, a couple of comically lewd scenes in Act 2 (unmentioned by previous critics) make for a complex 'gracioso' struggling to resist temptation. I argue that Ruperto’s inner turmoil might reflect Lope’s own sense of unworthiness as he prepared for priestly ordination. Section 5 treats the supernatural in 'San Nicolás', demonstrating Lope’s familiarity with early modern theories of supernatural phenomenology and concluding that, despite the typically allegorical names of Ira, Carne, and Inobediencia, for example, these figures are intended, not as literary abstractions, but as real spirits, incorporeal demons. The final section presents an analysis of the play’s versification, which is largely in keeping with Lope’s usual habits.