This thesis investigates the library formed by a Scottish clergyman, James Bairn (1629-1678), and bequeathed by him to Edinburgh University Library. Comprising over nineteen hundred items in some eighteen hundred and forty volumes, it was one of the largest Scottish libraries of the day, and the variety of the contents, make it an important source for the examination of the scholarly interests of Scots in the Restoration period. Contemporary libraries formed by eight other Scottish clergymen are also studied in detail, to give added depth. These eight are: Robert Leighton (1611-1684), Bishop of Dunblane and Archbishop of Glasgow; Patrick Scougal (1607?-1682), Bishop of Aberdeen, and his son Henry Scougal (1650- 1678) Professor of Divinity at King's College, Aberdeen; William Woore (c.1640-1684), Archdeacon of St Andrews; Villiarn Annand (1633-1689) Dean of Edinburgh; James Wemyss (c.1630-16961, Principal of St Leonard's College, St Andrews) and two other parish ministers, Jams Lundie (c.1646- 1696) of Edinburgh and John Gray (1646-1717) of Aberlady. The acquisitions of several other Scottish contemporary libraries, public and private, are also discussed when apposite. An analysis of these libraries,subject by subject, with Bairn's library its corner-stone, comprises part two of this thesis (chapters four to seven). The first part begins with a chapter outlining the nature and extent of the sources available for study and the various interrelated aims of the thesis. Chapter two is a biography of James Nairn. Nairn exemplified important traits within the episcopal church in Scotland as well as being and Bishop of Salisbury. This chapter ends with an examination of the an important influence on the young Gilbert Burnet, statesman, historian book purchasing power of Nairn and his clerical colleagues in theory and practice, which serves as an introduction to chapter three, an investigation of tastes and techniques in book collecting in later seventeenth-century Scotland. Bairn's library is used here as a casestudy to discover patterns in imprints and languages found in a later seventeenth-century Scottish learned library. In cumulo, the contents of Bairn's library and those of his contemporaries cast new light on the intellectual preoccupations of Scots in the highly important period immediately before the Enlightenaent. and Bishop of Salisbury.

The later tragedies of Thomas Otway have frequently been regarded as forerunners of the pathetic mode. Such a view has rested in part on neglect of the comedies which are acknowledged to be unsentimental and harsh. The analysis of all his known plays undertaken in this thesis reveals that although the comedies are works of lesser density than the tragedies they are related to the tragedies in terms of common thematic concerns, plot structures, character types and imagery. Here it is further argued that Otway intimates an absolute morality which is registered through depictions of moral violations and conveys a pessimistic view of man's ability to live in terms of a moral framework. A profound sense of disorder permeates his works which show man regressing down the Chain of Being towards primitive and animal states of existence. This Otway diagnoses as stemming from fallen man's divided nature and a destructive interaction between physical and rational impulses. The plays illustrate this by depictions of the erosion of man 1s rational faculties and the collapse, mockery or misuse of the institutions, ceremonies and rituals which enshrine a common morality. Otway began working within the heroic mode but gradually liberated himself from its assumption of human potential for greatness. His later works are broadly based examinations of human nature in terms of the individual and society as a whole. It is suggested that his work as a comic writer provided him with a wide range of literary techniques and social concerns. Otway is seen as combining the literary styles and some of the philosophic ideas of his period into a uniquely flexible whole Which produced emotionally and intellectually satisfying drama.

This thesis argues that the notion of 'impurity' may be taken as a model for paradigms in MacNeice's texts which are subjected to undercutting and transgression, by virtue of their presumed identity, their context, and by the workings of the text. This impurity challenges notions of MacNeice as an exponent of 'common-sense' empiricism. Chapter One examines notions of purity and impurity as promoted by MacNeice in the thirties. MacNeice's exposition in Modern Poetry is shown to be contradictory. Comparison with the figure of Orwell indicates that Modern Poetry, and its promotion of common-sense 'experience' or 'life', is an unreliable guide to MacNeice's thirties work. Chapter Two examines notions of 'History' in the thirties, and of MacNeice's treatment of time in a number of poems. MacNeice's poems demonstrate a conception of time-as-difference, which is shown to be historically constructed within 'static' or 'imaginary' frames of reference. These frames of reference are seen to be imperiled by historical circumstances Chapter Three analyses MacNeice's presentation of representation in, and of, society in the thirties. Attention is paid to poems dealing with problems of representation and of observation within a given social context, particularly that of consumer culture. Chapter Four examines MacNeice's examination of the subject or 'I' of the thirties. I argue that MacNeice evidences a scepticism towards the claims of the thinking, acting, subject, inhabited as it is by the dominance of text or 'writing' within history, and the indeterminacies this engenders. Chapter Five offers a reading of Autumn Journal which emphasises MacNeice's attention to the processes of the construction of 'unreliable' fictions. Rather than asserting the values of liberal humanism in the poem, it is seen to question the implications of such an act itself. The poem is shown to question the notion of the possibility of the 'honesty' of the subject which is often attributed to MacNeice. Chapter Six argues for the necessity of further re-examination of 'Louis MacNeice, writing and the thirties' and the wider implications of 'impurity'.

The thesis offers a historical account of the representation of friendship in the novels of English women writers from the nineteenth century to the present. Questioning the prevalent understanding of the history of women's friendship in terms of a single major rupture, from nineteenth-century 'innocence' to twentieth-century 'guilt', the thesis identifies narrative configurations which recur throughout this, period, and which define friendship as a formative learning experience integrally related to the acquisition of gendered identity. It concludes that there can be no final and 'perfect' representation of friendship, since the nature of the "knowledge' shared has continually shifted in relation to changing understandings of femininity. Chapter 1 identifies the origins and nature of the Victorian concept of the "second self", in which the friend acts as the mirror of, and means of access to, an idealised female subjectivity. Chapter 2 analyses the ways in which this concept informs the narrative patterns and rituals in Victorian fictions of friendship. Chapter 3 offers a new reading of novels by Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot and Charlotte Bronte, in which the conventions identified in Chapter 2 are adapted to question the existing boundaries of feminine identity. Chapter 4 examines the impact of changes in women's education upon the representation of friendship in turn-of-the-century feminist and anti-feminist novels, and in a new genre, the school story for girls. Chapter 5 shows that the scientific construct of lesbianism produced a new distinction between the 'healthy' and the 'unhealthy' relationship, but that the terms of this distinction were contested; in twentieth-century novels of the 'gyriaeceum', the tradition continues, but is newly eroticised. Chapter 6 looks at friendship as 'revision' in recent English and American novels, in which earlier configurations are redeployed in the light of contemporary feminist concern to recuperate and re-imagine the past.

This thesis studies how the image of homosexual people has evolved on the British stage during the present century. It aims to discern general trends rather than compile an exhaustive list of plays containing homosexual characters. Similarly, it is not intended to be a compendium of homosexual playwrights, but will focus on the contents of the drama rather than the biographical details of authors' lives. It makes no attempt to analyse work that is not ostensibly homosexual which could be argued to contain latent homosexual content. Nor, finally, does it discuss phenomena of interest in this field which are tangential to the area of study - for example, cross-dressing in pantomime and music hall. At the risk of superficiality, it concentrates on plays that have tried to discuss homosexuality and depict gay characters in an open, straight-forward manner. The approach taken to the subject has been historical and sociological, linking developments in gay drama to the social and political situation facing homosexual people throughout the present century. As such, this thesis argues for the existence of seven stages in homosexual drama during this time. While plays cannot always be fitted into a rigid chronological schema - some overlap clearly occurs - the history of homosexual drama can be briefly summarised as follows: - 1) Silence. 2) The first plays depict homosexual characters, but these are generally censored heavily or closed down. 3) Plays begin to raise the subject more boldly, but only by portraying characters who are wrongly accused of homosexuality or about whose sexuality there is left some doubt. 4) Homosexual characters are depicted openly as such, but they conform to degrading stereotypes. 5) Gay people break away to create their own separatist drama, generally intending to proselytise in favour of gay rights. 6) Mainstream plays on the West End and television begin to feature gay people in an unsensationalised way. 7) AIDS arrives and dominates homosexual drama. Although this study concentrates on British drama, theatre is now an international phenomenon, and this has been especially true of gay drama. Therefore, it has often been necessary to refer to the drama of other countries, in particular America.

This thesis takes Mikhail Bakhtin's definitions of the classical and the grotesque, uses various other theorists to problematise and extend these concepts through an engagement with gender categories, and applies them to the work of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. Although the first part deals with the 'theory' of the classical and the grotesque, the following sections on Pope and Swift seek to recognise the historical specificity and complexity of these modes as they intersect with the cultural, material, and psychological circumstances of the writer. The methodology is not solely biographical', 'political', 'cultural', 'feminist' or 'textual', but combines those approaches most relevant to the particular text in question, sometimes engaging more directly with the political environment, for example, at other times placing greater stress on mythological and generic allusions. The thesis shows that the classical and the grotesque emerge from a long social and literary tradition, yet the ways in which they manifest themselves in the time of Pope and Swift are very specific and constructed at least partially in response to contemporary cultural contexts such as the publishing trade, the present monarchy, the situation of Ireland and so on. Extending the work of Susan Gubar, particular attention is paid to the figure of the female grotesque, a common and yet varied image that is made to stand for a variety of cultural and moral ills in the writing of Pope and Swift. In contrast the figure of the 'classical' woman or 'softer man' is found to be symbolic of order as the unruly 'natural' substance of woman is transformed into masculine 'Culture' through social and textual containment. Classical and grotesque constructions of the masculine are also examined, especially in relation to the author's perceptions of his own masculinity. The thesis concludes with a brief analysis of the classical masculine friendship between Pope and Swift.

This thesis is in two parts. Part I deals with the life of Henry Yorke, the real name of the author, Henry Green. My aims are: to suggest how the roles of businessman and novelist interrelated and how Green's personality and attitudes affected his writing; to describe how the novels were critically received at the time of publication; and to establish Green's social context. Green's life has up to now been virtually ignored by critics so research involved not only reference to published material but also contact with Green's friend and family. The opening pages of Part II make the link between life and work in a brief discussion of Green's theoretical writings, which were based largely on his own experience. I then go on to consider the novels in detail. Some comparisons are made with other novelists, not so much to set Green in a tradition as to establish a context of twentieth-century literature which Green is at once part of yet apart from. Chapters 9 to 12 examine techniques: structure, imagery, symbolism, narrative style, dialogue. There are several reasons for my approach. First, the concentration on language is due to my interest in Green primarily as a writer of prose rather than fiction. Repeated words and, even more, dialogue, are structural elements in Green's novels but have received scant attention. My discussion of these topics stresses ambivalence, which characterized Green's style of perception. I explore his belief that a novel should be open to a multitude of interpretations and show how the reader is encouraged to participate in the creation of meaning. The last chapter brings together many of the points already made in a close reading of Loving.

In my thesis I study the work of Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal and Anita Desai. I study the the formal and ideological developments of each writer individually and place her work within its social, cultural and historical context. I focus on the following four areas: 1) the formal preoccupations of each writer and her political 'message'; 2) the representation of women in their novels; 3) the intersection between Hindu ideology and ideals of passivity and suffering; 4) the treatment of specific forms of female suffering and oppression such as subordination within the joint family, sati, dowry deaths and the social ostracism of widows. I analyse seventeen texts in all: Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve, A Silence of Desire, A Handful of Rice, Two Virgins and The Golden Honeycomb; Sahgal's autobiographies (Prison and Chocolate Cake and From Fear Set Free) and five of her novels (A Time To Be Happy, The Day in Shadow, A Situation in New Delhi, Rich Like Us and Plans For Departure); Desai's Cry The Peacock, Voices in the City, Where Shall We Go This Summer?, Clear Light of Day and In Custody. I reveal that the work of these writers shares seven key elements: formal plurality and ideological diversity; a thematic preoccupation with conceptions of nationhood; an affirmation of cultural and sexual difference; a development towards a feminist protest; the use of debate for the revaluation of national ideals; a selective form of protest; and the depiction and interrogation of fatalism and passivity. I suggest that these elements constitute a broad frame of reference in which Indo- Anglian women's literature can be set, and argue that current feminist literary theory must draw from the specific cultural and historical background of women's texts if it is to be of relevance to women from different parts of the world.

The idea of redemption is central to an understanding of the work of Francis Stuart. Through an examination of its development and expression, it is possible to demonstrate the integrity of his work and its distinctive qualities. Such a demonstration is necessary because Stuart's writing has been subjected to comparatively little scholarly inquiry, although reviews of his work, especially that produced since 1949, suggest that it is impressive and important. First, a general background to Stuart's work, a discussion of the special problems associated with reading it, and a summary of his corpus is provided. This indicates that the idea of redemption is important to his earliest writing. The state of redemption is shown to be a necessary apotheosis for Stuart's outcast heroes; it involves spiritual suffering through which may be found a sense of reintegration and a higher reality. This is expressed through interrelated themes such as those of gambler, artist and ordinary man; mystic and criminal; sacred and profane love; and spirituality and the mundane. The nature of the redemptive experience is further elaborated by distinctive, complex motifs, especially the hare, the ark and the woman-Christ. Their recurrence provides an important element in the unity of Stuart's work. Because Stuart's idea of the outcast raises important biographical questions, an examination of the relationship between Stuart's life and his work is made. Finally, the way in which the idea of redemption exists in the language structures of Stuart's novels is examined, with especial reference to his most recent work, The High Consistory. The thesis shows that the development of the these of redemption demonstrates the integrity of Stuart's work.

This thesis considers the gender and cultural politics of selected Jamaican women's poetry published during the first half of the twentieth century and seeks to establish that an approach to this poetry sensitive to these issues will illuminate aspects of their work previously neglected by canonical and colonial modes of interpretation. The central interest of this thesis is the poetry of Una Marson, a black woman poet whose work has been critically neglected and devalued to date. My project is to read Marson's work in some detail, and to explore to what extent her poetry, which often works within colonial models and with conventional notions of feminine fulfilment, employs received aesthetic and ideological paradigms both strategically and subversively. In the belief that critics of Jamaican women's writing should be as attentive to the gender and cultural politics of their ways of reading, as of the texts they wish to read, the first chapter of this thesis engages in a sustained analysis of theoretical positions and attempts to map out the various problems and possibilities which critical discourses present in relation to this material. The second chapter examines the various social and literary contexts in which Jamaican poetry was produced and received during this period, and the third chapter looks in more detail at contemporary notions of aesthetic and cultural forms. The fourth and fifth chapters are structured aromd close textual readings which explore the variety and complexity of Marson's, and her Creole contemporaries', poetic engagement with the issues of cultural and gender identities. The thesis concludes that Marson's poetry questions dominant notions both of identity and of aesthetics, and consequently that her poetry offers an example of Jamaican literary expression which moves beyond the nationalization of consciousness which has come to mark the literary achievement of this period.