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This thesis is a study of the way in which Wales and Welshness have been depicted in Welsh general histories published in the period between 1970 and 1997. National identity has been and remains a topical and controversial issue in Wales, due to the complex and multiple nature of the identities that could be classified as 'national' identities. Correspondingly, the issue of identity, particularly national and regional identities, has been the subject of considerable study within Wales. These studies have provided considerable insight into the nature of Welsh identity but there remain significant gaps in the overall research picture. This study focuses on one: the way in which Welsh historiography has portrayed Wales and Welshness. The very nature of Welsh history means that such a study must also involve consideration of the impact of England and the relationship between Wales and England on the historiographical depictions of Wales and Welshness. England, as the dominant country in Britain and Wales' neighbour, has played a major role in shaping both the Welsh historical experience and Welsh identity, facts to which Welsh historians must respond, particularly when writing general histories of their country. This thesis, then, also examines the depiction of the Welsh-English relationship within Welsh national historiography and the way this, in turn, impacted on the way in which the historians portrayed Wales and Welshness. These concepts are very significant for both Welsh historiography and the wider study of Welsh identity. Historical studies, in providing the information for the construction of historically based national identities, are heavily involved in the larger issue of Welsh identity. This study aims to contribute to the research on Welsh identity through the analysis of this specific area of Welsh historiography. In doing so, this thesis offers a new way of approaching the complicated and very real issues of understanding Wales, Welshness and the relationship between Wales and England.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis presents a new assessment of the identity and historical significance of Marguerite Porete, burned for heresy in Paris in 1310, and reconnects her to a vigorous, lay, discourse community that threatened the authority of the later medieval church. The thesis argues that a bilateral annihilation of Porete as an historical subject has been brought about by medieval and modern representations, and that this has served to obscure the presence of a subaltern religious discourse in the period. The historiography of Porete has followed distinctive stages of development that reflect, and are affected by, concurrent advances in the study of medieval female religious participation. This interplay has led to the development of a particularly influential hermeneutics that serves to exclude Porete from her contemporaries. Analysis of documentation issuing from Porete’s condemnation has similarly been influenced by hermeneutic issues that manipulate the ways in which Porete is perceived as an identity. This thesis challenges dominant representations of Porete in the scholarship and argues that Porete’s identity and discourse reflect a particularly vigorous, fluid and cross-discoursed lay engagement with religiosity that has roots in the precocious socio-religious environment of the Southern Low Countries. Central to the aims of this thesis is the question “how did Porete ‘fit’ the religious landscape of her period?” A seeming obstacle to this pursuit are claims from within the scholarship that Porete did not ‘fit’ at all, but was, rather, as an aberration amidst other female mystics of the period. Clear links, however, have suggested a wider discourse community and some have identified her, in conjunction with those that condemned her in Paris, as a beguine. Yet this affiliation is refuted by Porete within her book and the term, as an indicator of identity, is highly problematic. This thesis explores the historiographical issues that cloud Porete’s case and offers a reassessment of the possibilities her reconnection to the major religious currents of her day presents. It will be argued that her condemnation represents a major historical development wherein the boundaries of institutionally accepted discourse were hardened at the very moment when the possibilities for religious discourse were at their peak. Porete will thus be reassessed as a major figure in an alternative religious discourse that represents the excluded voice of lay engagement in the later Middle Ages.

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, Vancouver, B.C., 1998. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-145).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 302-318). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--Simon Greenleaf School of Law, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-196).

Thesis (M. A.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 1998. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-81).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Sociology, 2001. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 496-526).

Originally presented as the author's Thesis (doctoral)--Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 407-473) and index.

Diss. - Köln, 1966. / Includes bibliographical references.