This thesis uses critical theory to examine animal–human relationships in the zhiguai tales [志怪小说], using Deleuze and Guattari as the theoretical framework alongside which I draw on aspects of queer theory and animal studies to think through several intersecting ‘othernesses,’ including the ‘queer,’ the ‘animal,’ and the ‘strange.’ Zhiguai is a well-known transliteration for “Tales of the Strange,” a genre of writing featuring ghosts, magical animal–human shapeshiftings, dreams that intervene in reality, and other supernatural characters and events. In this thesis, the strange comes to the forefront in the figure of the non/human – a two-fold figure made up of both ‘human’ and ‘animal.’ Throughout this thesis I appropriate the term ‘queerkind’ to foreground this ‘strange’ figure, which cannot be wholly generalized as ‘the animal,’ but is instead a magical creature most often existing between ‘human’ and ‘animal.’ The traditional scholarly approach to the zhiguai tales has been to understand the non/humans in these tales as purely allegorical representations of humans and human society. This thesis, however, does not only consider the figurative potential of non/human figures as questioning social and political issues, but also approaches them from the perspective of their distinct supernatural qualities, or the importance of “non/human” bodies in the stories, to complicate anthropocentric readings of the zhiguai tales. In this thesis, while broadly informed by queer theory and animal studies, I am specifically using Deleuze and Guattari’s theories of becoming, affect, and assemblage to argue for a rhizomatical reading and approach to the zhiguai tales, aimed at exploring the affects of ‘queerkind’ ‘animals.’ I therefore also use Noreen Giffney and Myra Hird’s concept of “queering the non/human” as a foundation which finds an affable conjunction with Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s theories, to provide a space for thinking about the fragile and porous boundary between human and animal in the zhiguai tales. I suggest that the blurring of the boundary between animal and human is crucial in shaping the non/human realm of zhiguai through the strange animal-human kinships and erotic encounters we discover there. I specifically argue that affects of these ‘queerkind’ are firstly within the text, as figures of boundary-crossing and ambiguity (humans/animals, alluring/dangerous, just/violent, strange/familiar); secondly beyond the text, affecting the reader through enchantment, anxiety, and titillation. I contextualize kinship and erotic relationships through the competing classical Chinese philosophies of naturalistic Daoism and humanistic Confucianism, which I read alongside Deleuze and queer theory.

The study investigates present-day public events and ceremonies in Cardiff, and how they reflect, illustrate or employ traditional forms of communal activity. It employs the theoretical and empirical approaches of folkloristics, which deals with the identification, documentation and analysis of traditional material and expressive forms. Unusually, the study considers activities of popular origin and habitual practices of institutional origin on the same basis. It is framed largely by practice theory both generally and as applied within folkloristics, but with appropriate recognition given to the significance of performance theory. The topic is addressed through the observation of a range of activities and their associated forms of public engagement. The study was limited to activities taking place outdoors in daylight within the city centre and Cardiff Bay, with most fieldwork between 2010 and 2013. Three themes are addressed: socialising, protesting and remembering. A few activities are largely unorganised, but the majority are organised by public authorities and/or commercial bodies or by members of the public acting together. Many events have been launched in the past decade, and have become established within a recognisable cultural calendar, albeit the concept of a present-day ‘ritual year’ cannot be justified. As the capital city of Wales, certain institutional activities associated with the state, i.e. United Kingdom, are enacted. In contrast, there are few formal celebrations of Cardiff or Wales as such. Informal expressions tend to illustrate the cultural norms of the mainly English-speaking south-east, but the increasing presence of Welsh-speakers is becoming more noticeable, although there are few regular events centred on the language.

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Despite the late stage of modernity we live in, urban legends, an already prolific form of folklore, have become even more prone to retransmission within the internet. This thesis aims to understand why and how these contemporary folk tales are so widely believed and disseminated. Two crime legends that spread in Mexico City through email from 2005 to 2007 will be studied as narratives that address some of the most pressing problems as perceived by a given population, engaging human beings principally by helping to make sense of hostile environments, binding together human groups through fear and collective reassurance, and fulfilling a basic, atavistic compulsion in human beings towards conflict and its representations. Urban legends about ongoing crime seem to give momentary relief to the people engaging with them, but may ultimately aggravate the vision they hold of their surrounding reality and erode their context at large. Metaphorically, they can be compared to the use of cigarettes to alleviate stress. As a result, such urban legends may be regarded as negative and deluding stories leading a culture, as the title suggests, deeper into the 'labyrinth' it most fears. The thesis concludes that this ongoing narrative construction of social fears may thus indeed have detrimental consequences, such as lessening the living standards of whole communities and deteriorating their social fabric.

The thesis investigates both how and why many of the best post-war poets have moved back to use myth and legend just when they seemed finally discredited. Chapter One briefly discusses the various scholarly theories of myth, and sharpens the critical terminology to be employed. It describes the personal myth-systems of Yeats, Graves and Lawrence and, conversely, the four systems most generally used by modern poets. The following four chapters study, in turn, four major approaches to the use of myth in poetry. Chapter 2 shows how Seamus Heaney' s work employs legend as archetype; the history of Ulster being erected as a timeless metaphor to illuminate the present Troubles. Chapter Three takes the poetry of Geoffrey Hill as an example of the development of newly created legend, culminating with that centred on King Offa of Mercia. Chapter Four examines Thom Gunn' s use of myth as archetype, showing how the timeless can be given contemporary force, either through existential philosophy or Californian psychedelia. Chapter Five explores Ted Hughes' creation of a new myth, a new reality, the crowning achievement. Chapter Six discusses why myth is still relevant, distinguishing its careful adoption into four modern stylistic traditions and its four major modes of relevance. Legend is seen as a form of place, myth as a form of time, and the best new poetry is recognised as utilizing both, a surprise invocation of the White Goddess.

This research looks at the textuality of hiplife – the Ghanaian version of hip hop – by investigating the hiplife discursive and non discursive practices. The thesis is that hiplife is a major platform for Ghanaian youth cultural expression. I choose the qualitative methodology because it meets the subtle demand of an enquiry on expressive culture like hiplife. Using focus group discussion, interviews and participant observation to collect data from the whole country with emphasis on the four main cities, the research analyses transcribed data and comes up with various findings. These include the fact that hiplife started with the quest of Ghanaian youth for a syncretic culture, the combination of local and foreign cultures, mediated by DJs, artistes and sites. It also reveals that it is the rhythm of the Akan drum language that provides the rhythmic complexion of hiplife. Again, as a platform for youth expression, hiplife expresses new values – new social truths, a common destiny and protest against hegemony. Furthermore, hiplife appropriates the “looking glass” concept to circulate its cultural expression and ideologies in and out of Ghana. Such a visibility is also taken advantage of by the Ghanaian women to address their gender concerns.

This thesis looks at the role and function of the dragon in the saint's encounter with the monster in hagiographic texts, written primarily in the vernacular, between 1200 and 1500. Those connotations accrued by the dragon which are relevant to this thesis are traced from their earliest beginnings. Although by the middle ages the multi-valency of the dragon is reduced to one primary symbolic valency, that of evil and significantly, the evil of paganism, the dragon never loses completely its ancient associations and they help to colour its function within the narrative. The symbolic use of the dragon in vernacular saints' lives is generally consistent, although allowing for different didactic emphases. However, the two legends on which this thesis concentrates are those of St George from Caxton's Golden Legend and St Margaret from the Katherine Group. Each reveals tensions within the text when the dragon's role departs from the familiar hagiographic topos. Firstly, the role of the hagiographic dragon is identified by a comparison with that of the dragon in romance. Allowing for cross-fertilization, this thesis focuses on the significance of the hero's dragon-fight and the saint's dragon encounter to differentiate between the ethos of the romance and hagiographic genres respectively. Tensions are created in the hagiographic text when the romance topos of the dragon-fight is used in conjunction with the hagiographic dragon encounter, as in the legend of St George. Finally, in the legend of St Margaret, the dragon's appearance unbalances and unsettles the perspective of the narrative when its role and function are deployed in the promulgation of virginity.

Tha an tràchdas seo na eachdraidh chultarach air Ìle, eilean ann an ceann an iar-dheas na Gàidhealtachd, le cuideam air 1890 gu 1960. Tha e ag amas air cultar Gàidhlig nan Ìleach a chur na cho-theacs sòisealta, le bhith a’ beachdachadh air an t-suidheachadh anns an nochdadh cuid de na gnèithean cultarach a bu chudromaiche, agus air na daoine a bha an sàs ann a bhith gan cumail suas. Tha e airson an dàimh eadar cultar agus an comann-sòisealta nas fharsainge a sgrùdadh, le a bhith a’ smaoineachadh air cultar mar dhòigh air coimhead air an t-saoghal, agus mar phàirt bhunaiteach den t-saoghal sin. Tha obair a’ Mharxaich Eadailtich, Antonio Gramsci, a’ toirt buaidh mhòr air an rannsachadh, agus ’s ann air ceistean a thaobh cumhachd, clas agus gnè a thathas gu tric a’ cnuasachadh. ’S e prìomh amas na h-obrach atharrachadh taobh a-staigh a’ chultair a thuigsinn anns an àm-sgrùdaidh shònraichte seo, nuair a b’ urrainnear fhathast bruidhinn air ‘coimhearsnachd Ghàidhlig’ ach far an robh a’ Bheurla a’ sìor fhaighinn làmh an uachdair. ’S ann air trì prìomh chuspairean a tha an rannsachadh: beul-aithris, bàrdachd agus creideamh. Tha caibideil air cruinneachadh beul-aithris Eachainn MhicGillEathain agus Iain Òg Ìle (1859-1862) rud beag ron phrìomh àm-sgrùdaidh, agus tha seo a’ coimhead air obair a’ chruinneachaidh fhèin, àite nan seann sgeulachdan ann an Ìle, agus air na sgeulaichean Ìleach. Thathas an uair sin a’ gluasad gu cruinneachadh beul-aithris Elizabeth Kerr a bha stèidhichte ann am Port Sioba, san Roinn Ìlich, eadar mu 1893 agus 1910, agus a’ sireadh fiosrachadh air cuimse eadar-dhealaichte a’ chruinneachaidh seo agus na tha toraidhean na beul-aithris ag innse mun chomann-shòisealta. Anns a’ chaibideil air bàrdachd san 20mh linn, thathas a’ faighinn a-mach mun cheathrar bhàrd mu dheireadh a bha foillsichte, air na bha aca ann an cumantas agus àite romansachais agus impirileis nan cuid obrach. Às dèidh seo, tha caibideil air òrain anns na clàraidhean-fuaim Ìleach a rinn Sgoil Eòlais na h-Alba eadar 1953 agus 1969. Thathas a’ beachdachadh air na fiosraichean, air na seòrsaichean òran a bha rim faotainn – agus nach robh – agus làthaireachd òrain nam bàrd Ìleach foillisichte. Bithear cuideachd a’ toirt cunntas air buaidh mhòr a’ Chomuinn Ghàidhealaich anns an eilean. Mu dheireadh, anns a’ chaibideil air creideamh tha ceist oirnn mu dè cho eadar-dhealaichte ’s a bha suidheachadh a’ chreideimh ann an Ìle an taca ri ceàrnaidhean Gàidhealach eile, thathas a’ cleachdadh staitistig airson obrachadh a-mach dè cho cudromach ’s a bha gach buidheann-eaglais, a bharrachd air fianais beul-eachdraidh airson smaoineachadh air àite a’ chreideimh ann am beatha dhaoine.

Human beliefs about health and illness structure the explanations for health and illness in a society and these explanations rationalise preventive or therapeutic strategies. The purpose of this research was to discover, identify and understand the perceptions of health, illness and health seeking behaviour of the Baloch people in a cultural perspective. More specifically, it was to document their perception regarding the origin and cause of illness and disease as revealed in their system of disease-classification and their etiological categories. It was also to describe the context in which Baloch access the traditional health care system as well as conventional health care. Participant observations and in-depth interviews were the tools for data collection in this ethnographic study. Four districts of Pakistani Balochistan were selected for fieldwork. Traditional or folk healers of different categories, medical professionals, sufferers, family heads, community elders, tribal chiefs and medical doctors were interviewed in depth during fieldwork and many socio-cultural phenomena and ritual healing practices were participated in and observed. It was observed that Baloch beliefs regarding health and illness revolve either on the concept of natural causes that are mainly due to humoral imbalance or supernatural causes: spirit possession, sorcery or evil eye. In contemporary Balochistan, despite the availability of the basic health care system in the majority of Baloch settlements, for all practical purposes, Baloch use their traditional medical practices alongside biomedicine. These medical practices mainly consist of herbal remedies and spiritual healing practices. Folk medical beliefs are inseparable from other elements of Baloch cultural life and in this context health planners and medical practitioners in Balochistan, mutually can do much to balance and integrate biomedicine and folk and traditional medicine. Working together, they can optimise the benefits for their client populations.

This thesis examines a small but unfashionable area of Scotland, invisible to tourist guidebooks, heavily urbanised, and whose towns have won environmental ‘Carbuncle awards’ from the Scottish media. Yet it is deep in Gaelic and Scots place-names which reveal a landscape that past inhabitants perceived to be a green and relatively pleasant land, if perhaps not flowing with milk and honey. Part Three belies its numeration, in that it is the core of the study, examining in detail the place-names of eight (modern) parishes, listing old forms and attempting a sound etymology for each. Part One, based on the data gathered for Part Three, attempts to seek patterns among these names, both between and within the languages concerned. Inter alia, it seeks to explore the degree to which the choice of elements for a particular name, from any language’s toponymicon, is conditioned by cultural, political and social influences ranging from feudal and parochial authorities, through the influence of Scots-speaking merchants, to onomastic local farming customs. The lessons derived from Part One were then used to shed light on some etymologies in Part Three: and hopefully will be of value to researchers in other areas of the country.