Anthropologists, folklorists and popular writers have, in general, neglected to describe. the social contexts in which traditional Irish music is played. Although the dance was probably the most important context for traditional Irish music in Rochester, as elsewhere in the United States and Ireland, interest among Irish-born Americans and Irish- Americans in traditional dancing has waned. At present, the most important social contexts for Irish music in Rochester are the session, the Feis, and various representational contexts. The session is by far the most important, and has developed as interest in the dance has declined. Unlike the dance, it is musician-focused and music-oriented; few members of the community attend. The Feis is an institutionalized dancing competition for young people that many musicians dislike. Representational contexts are events, such as folk festivals, at which the musicians present their national music to people of other ethnic groups. There seems to be sufficient interest in the session and in Irish music in general so that the music will continue its popularity in Rochester.

Although many critics have dealt with their general impressions of the character of Eve or have traced specific passages concerning her to the Bible or to rabbinical tradition, no one critic has made a detailed study of the way in which Milton portrays Eve from prelapsarian innocence through the fall to her ultimate reconciliation with Adam and with God. This study is concerned with Milton's complete portrait of Eve and with the way in which he uses the themes of women's inferiority, of the hierarchy of nature, and of the virtue of reason over passion to explain the fall of man. These three themes are reflected in certain images with which Milton consistently surrounds Eve and which are used with variations to illustrate her weaknesses and to foreshadow the fall and its aftermath. The method of this study has been to trace Milton's use of these images and themes throughout Paradise Lost and to support observations with contemporary scholarship.

It is the primary purpose of this thesis to resurrect the ideals, hopes, theories and accomplishments of a man whose active years paralleled the stormy and provocative years of slavery. It is desired, in the resuscitation of these events, to connect them properly with the contemporary features of the stated period.

In order to attempt an analysis of the success of the symbol and the method of achievement, it is necessary to understand the major intentions of Hawthorne's art and his concept of the symbol; the second chapter explains these theories and with this knowledge, the symbols selected were evaluated.

In the consideration of most critics and scholars. Middlemarch by George Eliot is a catalog of the Victorian era, depicting with clarity the concerns of the period as they appeared in all levels of social, economic, and political life. Although the form of the book is that of the novel, dealing primarily with the development of characters and their relationships, the author includes a sufficient number of references to contemporary political events to merit in-depth study of the purpose of these references. This paper locates and explains the references to contemporary political events in Middlemarch, it discusses the ways in which Eliot works the various references into the overall work and their contribution to the action and characterizations, and it draws some conclusions regarding the view of Middlemarch as a representative political or historical novel of the period. Any study of Victorian literature must include some discussion of the background provided by the times. In a paper dealing with the political elements of a novel. this aspect of research is particularly important. To aid the reader in understanding Eliot's use of politics. Chapter 1 explains the political set-up in effect during the years covered by the action of Middlemarch and the events generated either by that situation or by efforts to alter the arrangement. The novel itself provides the point of focus in Chapter II in determining Eliot's purpose for using political events. Each reference is studied to find what contribution it makes to the development of the story. Several events, such as the Reform Bill of 1832 and Catholic Emancipation, are referred to repeatedly; these running allusions are examined to see how they pertain to the overall idea of the novel. Various critical and scholarly works on Middlemarch, George Eliot, and the Victorian period are utilized in Chapter III to reach a conclusion regarding the novel's right to be considered a valid political or historical novel of the times. This determination rests on other factors, including comparison with other political and historical literature of the period, both by George Eliot and by other authors.

An examination of Conrad's life will provide one with insight into the revelation of his women characters. The following novels and short stories, investigated in this study, will reveal Conrad's portrayal of the woman, her characteristics and associated imagery, and her role in his works to unveil his all-encompassing philosophy of life: Almayer's Folly, The Arrow of Gold, Chance, Lord Jim, Nostromo, An Outcast of the Islands, The Rescue, The Rover, The Secret Agent, Under Western Eyes, Victory, "Amy Foster," "The Brute," "The End of the Tether," "Freya of the Seven Isle," "The Heart of Darkness," "The Idiots," "The Planter of Malata," "The Return," "A Smile of Fortune," and "Tomorrow.

In reading or seeing Antony and Cleopatra, several clear dualities emerge. The first is the polarity between Egypt and Rome as different settings for the action. Rome is cold, mechanical, rational, and businesslike, whereas Egypt is lush, erotic, exotic, and langourous. Antony is torn between the two worlds, and this split of loyalty and interest helps to make the second duality of the play, that of the personalities and attitudes of the main characters. Antony and Cleopatra are both seen in double perspective--as lustful, self-gratifying sinners and as lovers in a truly transcendent sense of love. Both perspectives are important to the play, and the tension between them is never entirely resolved. Finally, the tone of the play is neither purely tragic nor purely comic, but is a mixture of both. Antony and Cleopatra was written just before the period of the great tragi-comic romances, and may be seen as the first of these, or a transition piece between tragedy and tragi-comedy, rather than as a pure tragedy. These three polarities, Rome-Egypt, Antony and Cleopatra as lustful epicures vs. Antony and Cleopatra the world's greatest lovers, and the mixture of tragedy and comedy, form the framework of Antony and Cleopatra and make it one of the richest and most varied of plays.

This study focuses on an analysis of militarism in German culture from the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648 to the Fall of the Third Reich in 1945. Its focuses on the effects of the military, its presence, needs, personnel, values and activities on the four main groups of relevance to this topic within the German populace; The rulers of Germany and its various states prior to unification, the aristocracy, the common solidres and the common people who comprise the remainder of the populace. The differences in the specificity between the first three categories and the last one is that the rulers, nobility and soldiery each have unique and intense connections with the military and its structures as they are either directly a part of its traditions and hierarchies or are deeply intertwined with its functioning. The rest of the German populace, the common man, experience the structures of the military second hand, they are affected by it but not directly connected to it. This study focuses on an analysis of militarism in German culture from the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648 to the Fall of the Third Reich in 1945. Its focuses on the effects of the military, its presence, needs, personnel, values and activities on the four main groups of relevance to this topic within the German populace; The rulers of Germany and its various states prior to unification, the aristocracy, the common soldiers and the common people who comprise the remainder of the populace. The differences in the specificity between the first three categories and the last one is that the rulers, nobility and soldiery each have unique and intense connections with the military and its structures as they are either directly a part of its traditions and hierarchies or are deeply intertwined with its functioning. The rest of the German populace, the common man, experience the structures of the military second hand, they are affected by it but not directly connected to it. This study will also focus primarily on the history and military tradition a German state, Brandenburg-Prussia later the Kingdom of Prussia. This is for two reasons; first, that Russia's hegemony over the other German states and its eventual role in unifying them into the German Empire in 1871 give its traditions and structures a primacy amongst its neighbors; second, that the history of Prussia is so deeply entwined with their army, which made them famous at the time and is still the main contributor to their notoriety in history today, that its military culture has the strength and recognition amongst the other German states.

Silence in and around mixed-status families in the United States is an issue that is not an easy task to categorize or understand. In order to comprehend the various ways in which silence intersects with the lives of these communities, this study uses various accounts from mixed-status families as well as studies from various fields as a starting point.

My dissertation examines representations of nationalism in Peninsular and Latin American literary works from the 19th and 20th centuries, and sets them in dialogue with their respective adaptations to dance created and designed for a contemporary audience. It analyzes novels by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (Cuba) and Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (Spain), a drama by Federico García Lorca (Spain), a poem by Jorge Luis Borges (Argentina), and compares them to the choreographies composed by Reinaldo Echemendía (Cuba), Léonide Massine (Russia), Antonio Gades (Spain) and Nuria Aparicio (Spain) respectively. My study identifies elements of the language of dance in these adaptations that convey a representation of national identity that is more in line with the contemporary period. Seen through the lens of folklore, gender representation and popular culture in the performing arts, these choreographies differ significantly from the literary works and the historical contexts in which they were created.