<p> Few modern economic historians dispute the notion that America's phenomenal economic growth over the last one hundred and fifty years was in large measure enabled by the development of the nation's antebellum Middle West&mdash;those states comprising the Northwest Territory and the Deep South that, generally, are located between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. By far, the labor of 14.8 million people, who emigrated there between 1830 and 1860, was the most important factor propelling this growth. </p><p> Previously, in their search for the origins of this extraordinary development of America's heartland, most historians tended to overlook the voices of a variety of peoples&mdash;African Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans, and artisans&mdash;who did not appear to contribute to the historical view of the mythic agrarian espoused by Thomas Jefferson and J. Hector St. John de Cr&egrave;vecoeur. Another marginalized voice from this era&mdash;one virtually forgotten by historians&mdash;is that of English women travel writers who visited and wrote about this America. Accordingly, it is the aim of this dissertation to recover their voices, especially regarding their collective observations of the economic development of America's antebellum Middle West. </p><p> After closely reading thirty-three travel narratives for microeconomic detail, I conclude that these travelers' observations, when conjoined, bring life in the Middle West's settler environment into sharper focus and further explain that era's migratory patterns, economic development, and social currents. I argue these travelers witnessed rabid entrepreneurialism&mdash;a finding that challenges the tyranny of the old agrarian myth that America was settled exclusively by white male farmers. Whether observing labor on the farm or in the cities, these English women travel writers labeled this American pursuit of economic opportunity&mdash;"a progress mentality," "Mammon worship," or "go-aheadism"&mdash;terms often used by these writers to describe Jacksonian-era Americans as a determined group of get-ahead, get-rich, rise-in-the-world individuals. Further, I suggest that these narratives enhanced migratory trends into America's antebellum Middle West simply because they were widely read in both England and America and amplified the rhetoric of numerous other boosters of the promised land in America's Middle West.</p>

<p> This dissertation contends that the kinds of consistency composition both affords and demands in order to hold together <i>as a</i> composition have a special location within European and American late modernism. In the decades surrounding the Second World War, artists acknowledged that art needed to let in disorder to reflect lived experience; yet, it still had to cohere in order to be recognizable as art, or a form of presentation. Paying attention to how diverse late modernist artists were thus creatively challenged, I argue that their works of art demonstrate historically located and informed compositional conservatism, or formal rigidity. Making the case for the breadth of composition's organizing force during the period, I focus on a different artist and disciplinary area in each of three chapters: Francis Bacon's oil paintings, Samuel Beckett's dramatic and theatrical work in <i>Endgame,</i> and Ralph Ellison's novelistic efforts in <i>Invisible Man</i> and his unfinished second manuscript. </p><p> Late modernist artwork exercises formal control in ways extreme enough to be called violent. But if "violence" signifies here how formal control stringently orders components (and excludes others) to bring them into line with composition's demands, this <i>formal</i> signification hardly removes such violence from having lived consequences. More, such components' failure to fall into line, or the artist's failure to accomplish such organization, can itself have unfortunate repercussions. Building on Gilles Deleuze and F&eacute;lix Guattari's art theory, which lays the groundwork for aligning apparently dissimilar compositions, I argue that in Bacon, Beckett, and Ellison, compositional force operates in ways shared by larger physical and psychological arrangements. I show how not just home or domestic spaces, but also national and political structures, including, e.g., those defining German fascism, partake in composition's formational activities. Making use of conceptual apparatuses that extend beyond Deleuzoguattarian theory to include psychoanalysis and Frankfurt School theorists, this dissertation examines how the violence (and pleasure) of form variously subtends the period's configurations.</p>

This thesis has its starting-point in a recognition that, so far, Maurice Blanchot's work has been considered as posing its critic an impossible problem. In recognising this, however, it does not seek merely to provide advance justification for its own shortcomings. On the contrary, it sets out to demonstrate that the impossibility of accounting for Blanchot's work arises not simply because he is a 'difficult' author, but because his sole ambition has been to call into question the entire categoric framework of possibility in terms of which we seek to approach him. The task it seeks to fulfil is thus to locate the gradually occurring break with traditional categories which is at the heart of Blanchot's work. On the basis of close attention to the variants between his finished works and the original texts which constitute them, it seeks to transform his work from the forbidding, self-sufficient universe it is generally taken to be, and, by replacing Blanchot in his neriod, to show how he brings about a gradually evolving transmutation of the forms and structures within which literature is traditionally contained. The period it examines lies between the appearance of Thomas l'obscure in 1941 and that of L'Espace littéraire in 1955. More precisely, by detailed study of L'Arrêt de mort and of the development of his criticism from La Part du feu to L'Espace littéraire, it seeks to reveal how, in the domain of fiction and in that of criticism, Blanchot sets about subverting the very structure of language, preparing the way for the new literary idiom which is his today, and in which fiction and theory coexist in a single philosophical discourse of great originality.

Thc devolopment of scene changing machinery in Great Britain is perhaps one of the few disciplines in the field of mechanical engineering which have virtually never relied upon new discoveries in technology for their advancement. Instead it has always lagged behind, perhaps modifying, certainly adapting, existing techniques. This study aims to examine the evolution of stage machinery during the nineteenth century, when many techniques had already been in existence and traditions firmly established since the previous century. The degree of development in the course of the nineteenth century was in many ways a reflection of the type of drama presented. As time went by, the public's taste for spectacle and visual presentation intensified and fostered an increase in the complexity of scene changing equipment. This in turn meant that many of the theatres built in the eighteenth century, especially in the provinces, were sadly inadequate for housing the vast quantities of equipment which machinists needed to install above and below the stage. As a result architects, began improving and enlarging existing theatres as well as building new ones, with increased stage width and depth, increased flying space above and increased depth below the stage.There was indeed an enormous rise in demand for scenic effects shortly after the beginning of the nineteenth century. This rapid growth caused the smaller existing Georgian playhouses, like the Theatre Royal, Ipswich, either to be modified in an attempt to cater for new trends, or to close. This dilemma alone must be acknowledged as a significant contributory factor in the decline of the Georgian playhouse and helps to explain the comparatively small number of such theatres surviving to the present day.The techniques of the stage machinist in the first half of the nineteenth century relied almost totally on technology and basic engineering principles which had existed for many years. Certainly the comparison often made between the backstage of a theatre of this period and a sailing ship is a very apt one, since both relied on manually hauled ropes, sheaves and the principles of mechanical advantage. However, these techniques had also been utilised for other, non-theatrical purposes. For instance, housed in the central tower of Beverley Minster is a large treadwheel, which was, and is still, used to raise equipment from ground level into the roof space [sec photo.1]. This is based upon the principles of mechanical advantage, in much the same way as many pieces of scene-changing equipment.Thus, because the theatrical profession was slow to adopt now apparatus and constantly replacing old machinery with brand new near-replicas, its evolution was comparatively slow. The job of a stage machinist was quite often a family concern, as the techniques, traditions, secrets and tricks of the trade were passed from father to son. The Sloman family and the Grieve family were particularly well known in London for their knowledge and expertise in this hold. Change was to a greater or lessor extent resisted and in any case many saw little need for change, especially those who were steeped in the traditions of the machinist and his machinery. It was, in fact, this basic resistance which caused a disruption in the evolutionary development of stage machinery. Many theatre architects were happy to furnish a traditional stage machinist with a blank drawing denoting "The Stage", requiring him to fill in the details as he saw fit, whilst the innovators devised all manner of new equipment, that which worked and sometimes that which emphatically did not. There was therefore a bifurcation, with the 'traditional school' refining the 'English wood stage' to a higher degree of sophistication, whilst the 'modern school' developed and attempted to apply the engineering technology associated with other disciplines. In essence, the latter attempted to replace muscle power with hydraulic or electrical power.This thesis documents the development of stage machinery from its comparatively primitive state at the beginning of the nineteenth century, through years of growth and expansion, and finally into the last decade of the century, when theatrical productions were in truth exercises in spectacle.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2003. / Bibliography : leaves [457]-484.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "August, 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 268-270). Library also has microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [2008]. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. Online version available on the World Wide Web.

This dissertation comprises a study revealing the differences and similarities between late Roman and medieval Christian conceptions of tragedy and classical Greek ideas of tragedy. Representative of the Roman conception of tragedy is the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca. As the legends of the martyrs and the teachings of the Fathers made their way into the Middle Ages, they brought with them the mixture of Greek, Roman, and Christian tragical motifs as well as an awareness of, and at times anxiety over, the similarity of pagan and Christian elements. Our failure to understand the Roman conception of tragedy has caused us to miss much in medieval literature that is tragical. To miss the Senecan content of Boethius, for instance, is to miss the Senecan element in medieval conceptions of tragedy. My analysis of the tragedies of Seneca, early and medieval Christian commentaries thereon, and the influence of this tradition on medieval works reveals a direct line of influence from Seneca's Latin plays, through the Consolatione de Philosophiae of Boethius, to de Meun, Boccaccio, and Geoffrey Chaucer. My study culminates in a comprehensive, detailed investigation of tragedy as it appears in various of the works of Chaucer. It is my contention that Chaucer recognized the similarity of the pagan and Christian traditions, and explored the significance of this correspondence in his writings. I find evidence, in his Monk's Tale, for example, of a fully-developed understanding of the nature of Senecan tragedy with its characteristic defiance, as well as its shortcomings in light of the Boethian-Platonic interpretation of tragedy which postulates all misfortune as a Good, i.e. a part of the workings of the inscrutable divine plan. The Chaucerian conception of tragedy, I conclude, is the philosophically and artistically inclusive playfulness by which he reveals the surprising similarities and crucial differences between classical and Christian viewpoints. Thus I attempt to reconnect the literatures and attitudes towards tragedy of these periods, by tracing continuities, literary patterns in which pleasure, transcendence, even comedy are merged with motifs that are generally considered tragical.

This study of 1930s German fiction adds a new dimension to existing scholarship on the depiction of crowds in literature. Whereas previous surveys on the topic have predominantly focused on the crowd as a revolutionary phenomenon judged on the basis of class perspectives, or as a feature of mass society, this investigation deals specifically with reactions to the crowd in its incarnation as a manifestation of and symbol for political fascism. Drawing on a number of contemporaneous theoretical treatises on crowds and mass psychology, it seeks to demonstrate that war, extreme socio-political upheaval and the rise of Nazism produced intense multidisciplinary engagement with the subject among German-speaking intellectuals of the period, and examines the portrayal of crowds in works by selected literary authors in this context. Exploring the interplay between literature and concurrent theoretical works, the thesis asks how writers used specific possibilities of fiction to engage with the theme of the crowd at a time when the worth of art was often questioned by literary authors themselves. In doing so, it challenges the implication of earlier criticism that authors uncritically appropriated the findings of theoretical texts for fictional purposes. At the same time, it becomes clear that although some literary crowd portrayals support a distinction between the nature of theoretical and literary writing, certain crowd theories are as imaginative as they are positivistic. Extrapolating from textual comparisons, the thesis thus challenges the view held by some authors that knowledge produced by theoretical enquiry was somehow truer and more valuable than artistic responses to the politics of the age.

The principal argument of this thesis is that royalist literary publishing in the civil wars and Interregnum was a more coherent and wider movement than has been recognised. It asserts the importance of print culture to royalists, both as a vehicle for personal responses to political circumstances, and as a means to criticize and undermine the opposition. The thesis uses the publisher Humphrey Moseley as a lens through which to examine the publisher's role in the dissemination of a wide range of royalist texts. It demonstrates that publishers, as well as authors, were driven by their political and ideological opinions. The thesis begins by establishing that the royalist and Anglican convictions expressed within the texts published by Moseley corresponded with his own. This opening chapter also demonstrates the editorial control that he exerted when publishing a book. Next follow five case studies. In the second chapter I examine writings of Moseley's most prolific author, James Howell. I show that until the censorship legislation of September 1649, Howell published royalist polemical pamphlets. I argue that in response to the censorship act Howell shifted to a more subtle method of polemical writing, most notably when he embedded extracts from his polemical pamphlets in his historical allegory Dodona's Grove which Moseley published in 1650. Chapters Three to Six are genre-based case studies. These chapters analyse the ways that a variety of genres were used by royalists in support of the Stuart cause and the Anglican Church. In the final chapter I set Moseley within the context of royalist publishing more widely. I review the careers of Henry Seile and Richard Royston to demonstrate that Moseley was not the only publisher committed to the royalist cause and that his productions belonged to a broad spectrum of royalist publishing.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T11:22:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 REGINA OLIVEIRA SILVA ARIMA.pdf: 899190 bytes, checksum: 6a2261208ec25490f6b9e6b6a3656216 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-09-06 / This work has a propose the redemption of regional sensibilities in the 1980s. The materiality of such feelings were found in the opinions and literary critics of the competition Exchange Publications "Hugo de Carvalho Ramos. Inside in of a thematic framework of cultural history sought to emphasize the dialogue between history and literature. It is emphasized in the text zoom in and out of such speeches, as well as its complementary relationship in the production of historical knowledge. The work also emphasizes the integration of literary criticism as a source for history, for it is pointed out some peculiarities that define its status as a stand-alone and text with specific aesthetic qualities. In addition, by working directly with literary texts we used the theory of reception as a way to explain how these texts have served as mediators between objective reality and the "world of the text" created by the fictional narrative. We made an overview of the Exchange Office, as well as some information about the writer Goias Hugo de Carvalho Ramos whose name was given to the stock as a way to honor the forerunner of regionalism in the state. Work verticalizes sensitivities as a representation of a specific temporality of history Goias. By focusing on emotions in relation to sensitive self and its reality, the sensitivities allow a form of knowledge of the world, making this a temporality disposed therefore to understand how men represented themselves and others. The texts (critical opinions) and (literary) were as marks of historicity, the reading of these sources could establish relations to reach another place where people expressed their feelings in many different ways. We decided to analyze literary works by dividing them according to genre (prose and poetry), then did the analysis of critical opinions. The reading of these sources revealed that nurture feelings relive a time unique, with remarkable presence of a regional identity with values and beliefs were associated with small-town atmosphere and simple country life. These specific situations have given their texts authors emphasize social and political critics. / Este trabalho tem como proposta o resgate das sensibilidades regionais na década de 1980. A materialidade de tais sentimentos foi encontrada nos pareceres críticos e obras literárias do concurso Bolsa de Publicações Hugo de Carvalho Ramos . Dentro de uma perspectiva temática da história cultural, procurou-se enfatizar o diálogo entre a história e a literatura. Ressaltam-se no texto as aproximações e distanciamentos de tais discursos, bem como sua relação de complementaridade na produção do conhecimento histórico. O trabalho destaca ainda a inserção da crítica literária como fonte para a história; pontuam-se, para isso, algumas singularidades que definem seu estatuto como um texto autônomo e com qualidades estéticas específicas. Além disso, por trabalhar diretamente com textos literários, utilizou-se a teoria da recepção como forma de esclarecer como esses textos serviram de mediadores entre a realidade objetiva e o mundo do texto criado pela narrativa de ficção. Procurou-se fazer um quadro geral da Bolsa de Publicações, bem como algumas informações a respeito do escritor goiano Hugo de Carvalho Ramos, cujo nome foi dado à bolsa, como forma de homenagear o precursor do regionalismo no Estado. O trabalho verticalizou as sensibilidades como representação de uma temporalidade específica da história goiana. Ao incidir sobre as emoções na relação do sensível do eu e sua realidade, as sensibilidades permitem uma forma de conhecimento do mundo, tornando presente uma temporalidade escoada, pois, permite entender como os homens representavam a si mesmos e aos outros. Os textos (pareceres críticos) e (obras literárias) apresentaram-se como marcas de historicidade, a leitura de tais fontes possibilitaram estabelecer relações para se alcançar um tempo em que as pessoas expressavam seus sentimentos das mais variadas formas. Optou-se por analisar as obras literárias dividindo-as de acordo com o gênero (prosa e poesia), em seguida procedeu-se à análise dos pareceres críticos. A leitura de tais fontes revelou sentimentos que oportunizaram reviver uma época singular, com presença marcante de uma identidade regional, cujos valores e crenças estavam associados ao ambiente interiorano e à vida simples do campo. Tais situações específicas proporcionaram aos autores enfatizarem em seus textos críticas políticas e sociais.