Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in History." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.) in Ecology and Environmental Science--University of Maine, 2002. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-134).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [155]-162).

The White Distance’ is a work of fiction set in Australia and Antarctica at the time of World War I. The story focuses on two lovers, Dora and Daniel, who are part of Australia’s vigorous anti-war movement. Each of the lovers comes to the movement for different reasons. Dora’s beloved brother has been killed in France; Daniel is a printer interested in the new left-wing ideas emerging in Europe, especially Russia. Wanting to escape public pressure to join up and fight, Daniel takes a position with an Antarctic expedition and travels there with a small team from the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology to collect weather data. This was a time of major Antarctic exploration, with the Australian expedition led by Douglas Mawson taking place in 1913. In Antarctica, in the novel, the leader of Daniel’s expedition suffers a nervous breakdown and becomes dangerously violent, believing his men are German spies. Daniel and his colleagues have to consider the possibility that the only way to stop their leader might be to kill him. After Daniel leaves, Dora joins a more radical anti-war group led by the charismatic Malachy Mara. She is forced to reconsider what she believes when the group decides to place a pipe bomb in a railway station, which will kill many civilians. Worse for her, she is likely to be the one selected to put the bomb into position. ‘The White Distance’ is also a love story about two lovers who, after being very close, are separated by a great and unfathomable distance. Dora and Daniel struggle to keep their love alive by writing letters to one another, even though they cannot be posted, and keeping journals that will not be read until Daniel returns. Each confronts a deep personal crisis without the other there for support. They use their words to one another to draw the strength to hold on. Although set in the past, the novel raises issues which are relevant to current international and national concerns such as the clash of ideals and personal morality, terrorism, public violence, war and pacifism, love and separation. Exegesis The accompanying exegesis, ‘Reframing the Past for the Present: Writing ‘The White Distance’’, examines the research material and creative influences behind the development of the novel, ‘The White Distance’. It considers the issues which I confronted in writing an historical work of fiction, and concludes by placing the novel in the wider context of current debates about Australian historical fiction. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2008

This thesis draws upon the literatures of historical geography, book history, and archival theory to investigate the production of travel narratives by the London publisher John Murray during the second half of the nineteenth century. It traces the processes by which in-the-field experiences of explorers and travellers were translated into a textual and physical object: the published book. By interrogating the practicalities and technicalities of geographical publishing, particularly in relation to travellers’ paratexts, the thesis draws attention to the need for geographers to consider the literary commercialisation of geographical knowledge. The John Murray Archive provides an unusual opportunity to examine geographical publishing across 33 years, 138 titles, and 102 authors. Murray’s extensive correspondence and detailed financial records provide source material for the first comparative study of these books. The structure of the thesis follows Murray’s publication process, from accepting or rejecting manuscripts to textual editing, the shaping of paratexts, production of illustrations, and, ultimately, sales, translations, and further editions of later nineteenth-century books of travel. It places remarkable works of travel Murray published in the later nineteenth century — books by authors including David Livingstone, Paul Du Chaillu, Heinrich Schliemann, and Isabella Bird — in the context of the unexceptional. In conclusion, this thesis furthers academic understanding of a nationally important archival resource, demonstrating the value of a longitudinal survey which accounts for economic as well as epistemic influences upon geographical publishing.

En Mésopotamie, l’écriture fut inventée et longtemps maîtrisée par un groupe restreint d’individus au service du temple ou du palais. Après l’effondrement de la troisième dynastie d’Ur, en 2002 av. J.-C., les données archéologiques et épigraphiques témoignent d’une intensification et d’une généralisation du recours à l’écrit. Ce phénomène, connu sous le nom de « révolution de l’écrit paléo-babylonienne » (« Old Babylonian writing revolution »), se traduisit plus précisément par l’abandon du sumérien au profit de l’akkadien, la multiplication des archives privées, le remaniement du système éducatif et l’apparition de nouveaux genres de texte, du format tabulaire et de l’écriture cursive. L’enjeu de notre recherche a été d’étudier les répercussions qu’eut cette révolution culturelle spécifiquement sur la pratique épistolaire de l’époque amorrite (2002-1595 av. J.-C.). Nous avons d’abord cherché à définir la place des échanges épistolaires dans les interactions sociales des Mésopotamiens. En dressant le portrait des épistoliers et en étudiant leurs voies d’accès à la pratique épistolaire, nous avons évalué l’implantation de la communication par lettres dans la société. Écrire et lire une lettre requérait l’apprentissage d’un savoir et d’une technique. Nous avons donc cherché, parmi les exercices étudiés par les élèves pendant leur formation à l’écrit, ceux qui pouvaient leur servir à rédiger et lire des lettres, et avons étudié dans quelle mesure ces exercices les préparaient à écrire des lettres plus ou moins complexes et variées. Nous avons aussi voulu voir si les changements introduits dans le système éducatif ont bouleversé l’enseignement du genre épistolaire et s’ils ont une part dans le développement de la littéracie et de la communication par lettres. La diffusion de l’écrit bouleversa également le rapport des Mésopotamiens au texte écrit : une lecture empirique, « naïve » des lettres a permis aux chercheurs de se rendre compte que les lettres de l’époque amorrite sont plus précises et plus longues que celles des siècles antérieurs. Nous avons voulu objectiver, rationaliser cette impression en étudiant la qualité et la quantité des informations communiquées par écrit. Qu’est-ce qui, dans les lettres, a évolué ? Est-ce le degré d’implicite et d’ambiguïté ? Les lettres pouvaient-elles être comprises sans l’intervention du messager qui les transportait ? Ou est-ce le contenu, devenu plus détaillé et varié ? Ces recherches s’appuient notamment sur la pragmatique, qui offre un cadre conceptuel pour travailler sur la notion d’implicite et analyser la possibilité pour le destinataire d’une lettre d’interpréter le message dans le contexte spécifique de l’écrit. L’éclatement de l’administration centrale, en 2002 av. J.-C., fit naître de nombreux royaumes rivaux. Ces derniers n’utilisèrent pas les mêmes graphèmes ni les mêmes formes graphiques pour écrire leurs lettres, mais peu de comparaisons systématiques ont été effectuées jusqu’à présent. Nous avons étudié comment se sont constituées et ont circulé certaines conventions graphiques. La comparaison des formes graphiques nous a ensuite permis de travailler sur la standardisation des lettres et la notion d’ « orthographe ». Nous avons finalement cherché à évaluer le niveau de maîtrise du système d’écriture requis pour lire et écrire des lettres. Nos recherches apportent un éclairage nouveau sur un corpus qui n’avait jamais été exploité dans son ensemble (environ 7000 lettres) et constituent une première tentative pour analyser les répercussions de l’intensification du recours à l’écrit sur l’ensemble d’une activité, à savoir la pratique épistolaire. Au-delà des assyriologues, ces recherches s’adressent à tous ceux qui s’intéressent à l’histoire de l’écrit et du genre épistolaire. / In Mesopotamia, writing was invented, and for a long time mastered, by a small group of individuals working for the temple or the palace. After the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur, in 2002 BC, archaeological and epigraphic evidence reveals an intensification in the use of writing. This phenomenon, known as the “Old Babylonian writing revolution”, resulted more precisely in the abandonment of Sumerian for the benefit of Akkadian, in the multiplication of private archives, in the reorganisation of the educational system and in the emergence of new genres, of the tabular format and of the cursive writing. The aim of our research is to study the consequences that this cultural revolution had specifically on the epistolary practice during the Amorite period (2002-1595 BC). We first sought to define the place of epistolary exchanges in the Mesopotamian social interactions. By portraying the letter-senders and studying how they had access to the epistolary practice, we have been able to estimate the establishment of letter communication in the society. Writing and reading a letter also required a certain knowledge and technique. Among the exercises studied during the training in writing, we looked for those which could be used to write and read letters. We then examined to which extent the scribal training prepared individuals to write more or less intricate and varied letters. Finally, we looked to see if the changes introduced in the educational system altered the way the epistolary genre was taught and if these changes were involved in the development of literacy and letter communication. The diffusion of writing also changed how Mesopotamians related to written text: an empirical, “naive” reading of the letters made the researchers realize that letters from the Amorite period are more precise and longer than those written during the previous centuries. We wanted to objectify and rationalise this impression by studying the quality and quantity of the information communicated in writing. What evolved in the letters? Is it the degree of implicitness and ambiguity? Could the letters be understood without the intervention of the messenger who carried them? Or is it the content, which became more detailed and varied? This research is based in particular on pragmatics, which offers a conceptual framework for working on the notion of implicitness and analysing the possibility for the addressee of a letter to interpret the message in the specific context of writing. The fall of the central administration in 2002 BC gave rise to many rival kingdoms. These kingdoms did not use the same graphemes nor the same spellings to write their letters, but very few systematic comparisons have been made so far. We studied how some graphical norms were created and circulated. The comparison of spellings then allowed us to work on the standardisation of letters and on the notion of “orthography”. We finally sought to assess the level of mastery of the writing system required to read and write letters. Our research sheds new light on a corpus of texts that had never been studied as a whole (about 7,000 letters) and is a first attempt to analyse the impact of the intensification of the use of writing on an entire activity, namely the epistolary practice. Besides Assyriologists, our research is aimed at all those who are interested in the history of writing and the epistolary genre.

This thesis attempts to situate three Hispano-Latin histories within the broader context of twelfth-century Spanish literature that includes chronicle writing and vernacular epic. The Introduction traces the development of Latin historiography in Leon from the ninth century, highlighting features still evident in the twelfth-century histories. It also describes the evolution of Spain's heroic age in Castile and contrasts this with the Reconquest aspirations of Lean. The one inspired epic poetry, the other a complementary form of celebratory literature: the heroic biography. Each history celebrated the deeds of one man: Rodrigo Diaz in the Historia Roderici, Alfonso V1 in the Historia Silence and Alfonso VII in the Chronica Adefonsi Imperatcris. The final section of the Introduction outlines the approach to these works, which focuses on form in relation to theme, on the significance of a heightened form of expression and on point of view. In the following three chapters, these aspects are examined in each work in relation to the portrayal of the central figure. Chapter II examines also the panegyrical Carmen Campidoctoris and concludes with a comparison of the attitudes of the poet of the Cantar de Mio Cid and the historian of the Historia Roderici to their subject-matter. The second part of Chapter III distinguishes between the Historic Silense and the Liber chronicerum of Pelayo with which it has been compared. Chapter IV includes a separate study of the verse section of the Chronica Adefonsi Irnperatoris, the Poem de Almeria, but the latter is seen as an integral part of the history. Chapter V draws together aspects of the preceding chapters, for it studies the Cronica Majerense c as a cross-section of twelfth-century Spanish literature, its material being drawn from chronicles, histories and heroic legends. Finally, the historical writings of the twelfth century are related to broadly defined categories of chronicle, biography and history. Chapter VI examines common stylistic features of the Latin works and of vernacular epic. The first part is devoted to linguistic features and distinctive forms of phraseology, the second to narrative motifs typical of the celebratory work. An appendix-to the chapter explores the function of several of these features in one genre: the Romance epic. The approach adopted in this final chapter coincides with that sustained throughout the thesis, 'which is to highlight similarities between histories and epic, while observing the basic' differences between the two genres.

Disertacija skirta svarbiausio XIX a. lietuvių poeto Antano Baranausko rankraštinių tekstų (dienoraščio, Baranauskų silva rerum bei eilių rinkinio Wiersze) tyrimui. Darbe aprašomas šių lenkiškai rašytų rankraščių kultūrinis kontekstas, komunikacinis pobūdis. Pasitelkus rašymo istorijos koncepciją, nagrinėjamas rankraščių rašymo kelias ir aptariamas rašančiojo asmens, tekstinės bendruomenės bei kūrybinės savimonės formavimasis, funkcionavimas ir kaita. Paskutiniame disertacijos skyriuje aptariami lietuviškai rašyti Baranausko tekstai, jų dainavimo tradicija bei santykis su vieta. Disertacijoje poeto kūrybinis kelias neskirstomas į lenkišką ir lietuvišką. Jo kūrinių kalbos ir poetikos permainos siejamos su socialinių statusų kaita – taip kuriamas vientisas pasakojimas apie Baranausko rašymo istoriją. / The thesis analyses the manuscripts of the most famous Lithuanian poet of the 19th century Antanas Baranauskas, including his diary, the family book (silva rerum) of the Baranauskas family and the collection of poems Wiersze. The thesis exposes the cultural context of manuscripts written in Polish and their communicative nature. Through the conception of the history of writing, the author of the thesis examines the process of writing the manuscripts and scrutinises the formation, functioning and transformation of the writer, the portrayed community and creative self-consciousness. The final section of the thesis deals with Baranauskas’s poems in Lithuanian, the tradition of turning them into songs and their relationship with an environment. The poet’s creative biography is reviewed without splitting it into Polish and Lithuanian. His turn from one language to another and shifts in his poetics are associated with a change in social status and thus represents an integral narrative of the history of Baranauskas’s writing.

Disertacija skirta svarbiausio XIX a. lietuvių poeto Antano Baranausko rankraštinių tekstų (dienoraščio, Baranauskų silva rerum bei eilių rinkinio Wiersze) tyrimui. Darbe aprašomas šių lenkiškai rašytų rankraščių kultūrinis kontekstas, komunikacinis pobūdis. Pasitelkus rašymo istorijos koncepciją, nagrinėjamas rankraščių rašymo kelias ir aptariamas rašančiojo asmens, tekstinės bendruomenės bei kūrybinės savimonės formavimasis, funkcionavimas ir kaita. Paskutiniame disertacijos skyriuje aptariami lietuviškai rašyti Baranausko tekstai, jų dainavimo tradicija bei santykis su vieta. Disertacijoje poeto kūrybinis kelias neskirstomas į lenkišką ir lietuvišką. Jo kūrinių kalbos ir poetikos permainos siejamos su socialinių statusų kaita – taip kuriamas vientisas pasakojimas apie Baranausko rašymo istoriją. / The thesis analyses the manuscripts of the most famous Lithuanian poet of the 19th century Antanas Baranauskas, including his diary, the family book (silva rerum) of the Baranauskas family and the collection of poems Wiersze. The thesis exposes the cultural context of manuscripts written in Polish and their communicative nature. Through the conception of the history of writing, the author of the thesis examines the process of writing the manuscripts and scrutinises the formation, functioning and transformation of the writer, the portrayed community and creative self-consciousness. The final section of the thesis deals with Baranauskas’s poems in Lithuanian, the tradition of turning them into songs and their relationship with an environment. The poet’s creative biography is reviewed without splitting it into Polish and Lithuanian. His turn from one language to another and shifts in his poetics are associated with a change in social status and thus represents an integral narrative of the history of Baranauskas’s writing.

Coves of Departure: Field Notes from the Sea of Cortez is a literary natural history presented in mixed forms of nature memoir, personal essay and redacted field notes. Intended as narrative nonfiction for general readership, it focusses on the natural history of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, attending especially to the littoral zone of the Sea of Cortez. Numbered chapters narrate several sea kayak expeditions led by the author to the Isla Espiritu Santo archipelago of Baja California Sur. Chapters chronicling discrete expeditions are sectioned off by two long interludes that describe natural history explorations in the northern state, Baja California. The title essay, which transitions between the second interlude and the final chapter, investigates natural history from the perspective of material ecocriticism,.