This thesis investigates the cultural politics of a small group of women through their writing and other activities in 1880s London. Focussed on Olive Schreiner, Eleanor Marx and Amy Levy and the connections they had to one another and to other women, such as Henrietta Frances Lord, Clementina Black and Henrietta Müller, it explores key events in their everyday lives, the writings and texts they produced. It analyses a wide selection of textual sources, re-reading these for small details, intertextual connections and points of disjuncture, to allow for different ways of understanding the mechanics of feminist cultural politics as produced and performed by these interconnected women. Small things in texts can be revealing about such women’s everyday lives and connectedly the cultural politics which underpinned their actions, thus contributing to knowledge about how writing was used strategically and imaginatively to challenge, side-step and overcome oppression and inequality, in these years in London and after. Using the term ‘writing’ in a broad sense to include letters and diaries and other archival sources such as newspaper articles, reviews and manuscript drafts, as well as some selected published work and biographies, the thesis is anchored around four event-driven investigations: Olive Schreiner being accosted by a policeman; the first public performance of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; the writing of a letter mentioning Eleanor Marx; and, the death of Amy Levy. Relatedly, there are discussions concerning working with historical documents, documenting and archiving the past, researching and representing the past in the present. These investigations allow for the operationalization of a research approach framed by ideas concerning micro, small-scale, everyday life and its qualitative aspects, which together contribute to a re-conceptualisation of a ‘sociology of small things.’ Specifically, it is argued that close and small-scale studies of women’s writing, whether undertaken alone or connected to others, sheds light on the importance of relationship dynamics in connection with writing output, on what writing was produced and what role each text played in larger scale political agendas. Concepts such as palimpsest, liminality and bricolage are interrogated with respect to researching and representing the spatial and temporal interconnectedness of the selected authors and textual sources. And contributions are made to contemporary thinking about epistolarity and social networks, focussing on reciprocity, gift-giving and receiving and notions of ‘letterness,’ along with the defining of boundaries, and the value of determining the nature of ties between women. The thesis also argues that the relationships between intimacy and distance, interiority and exteriority, public and private, are frayed with complicated overlaps.

This thesis examines the use and representation of letters (and other written messages) in Thomas Hardy's novels, and it considers how Hardy's writing engages with Victorian communication technologies. The 1895 Preface to Far from the Madding Crowd describes Hardy's fictional setting as a ‘a modern Wessex of railways, the penny post, mowing and reaping machines, union workhouses, lucifer matches, labourers who could read and write, and National school children'. The penny post, a communication revolution with an enormous social, economic, and cultural impact, was introduced on 10 January 1840, just a few months before Hardy was born. This thesis aims to demonstrate how a consideration of the material, technological and cultural conditions of communication in Victorian England might reshape our understanding of Hardy's novels, especially of the countless letters, notes, and telegrams which permeate his texts. The written messages in Hardy's novels serve as a means for exploring the process of human communication, and the way this process shapes individual identity, interpersonal relationships, and social interactions alike. Chapter I of this thesis relates Hardy's portrayal of letters to the historical transition from oral tradition to written culture. Chapter II enquires into the relationship between letter writing and notions of privacy and publicity in Hardy's novels. Chapters III and IV argue that Hardy uses letters so as to give a strikingly modern complexity to his representation of human subjectivity and intersubjectivity. The two final chapters investigate how the modalities and technological conditions of written communication influence the construction of Hardy's narratives, the design of his plots. Taken together, the six chapters examine Hardy's perception of one of the most fundamental human activities: communication.

John Graves's creative non-fiction has earned him respect in Texas letters as a seminal writer but scarce critical commentary of his work outside the region. Ecological criticism examines how language, culture and the land interact, providing a context in which to discuss Graves in relation to the southwestern literary tradition of J. Frank Dobie, Walter P. Webb, and Roy Bedichek, to southern pastoral in the Virgilian mode, and to American nature writing. Graves's rhetorical strategies, including his appropriation of form, his non-polemical voice, his experimentation with narrative persona, and his utilization of traditional tropes of metaphor, metonymy, and irony, establish him as a conservative and Romantic writer of place concerned with the friction between traditional agrarian values and the demands of late-twentieth-century urban/technological existence. Sequentially, Graves's three main booksGoodbye to a River (1960), Hard Scrabble (1974), and From a Limestone Ledge (1980)represent a movement from the pastoral mode of the outward journey and return to the more domestic world of georgic, from the mode of leisure and contemplation to the demands and rewards of hard work and ownership. As such they represent not only progression or maturation in the arc of the narrator's life but a desire to reconcile ideological poles first examined so long ago in Virgil: leisure and work, freedom and responsibility, rural and urban values.

The four novels Hyperion, The Fall ofHyperion, Endymionand The Rise of Endymionconstitute the Hyperion Cantosby the American science fiction writer Dan Simmons. Thisgalactic-empire,epic,science fictionnarrative containsa plethora ofliterary references. The dominant part comes from the nineteenth-century Romantic poet John Keats. The inclusion of passages from his poetry and letters is pursuedin my analysis.EmployingLubomír Doležel’scategorizations of intertextuality—“transposition,” “expansion,” and “displacement”—I seek to show how Keats’s writings and his persona constitute a privilegedintertext inSimmons’s tetralogyand I show its function.Simmons constructs subsidiary plots, some of which are drivenby Keats’s most well-known poetry. In consequence, some of the subplotscan be regarded as rewrites of Keats’s works.Although quotations of poetry have a tendency to direct the reader’s attention away from the main plot,slowing down the narrative,such passages in the narrativesevokeKeats’s philosophy of empathy, beauty andlove,which is fundamental for his humanism.ForKeats, the poet is a humanist, giving solace to mankind through his poetry. I argue that the complex intertextual relationships with regards toKeats’s poetryand biographyshow the way Simmons expresses humanism as a belief in man’s dignity and worth, and uses it as the basis for his epic narrative.

In this paper, I consider the success of Jonathan Swift’s The Drapier’s Letters and Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show in changing the political climate of the world around them. By analyzing the political background of America in the 2000s and the Irish reaction to William Woods’ patent in the 1720s, I prove the influence of Stewart and Swift’s satire. I then analyze the specific tactics each employs in order to achieve an audience and influence change, concluding by comparing the similar tactics that each use, including persona, irony, and humor as a veil of serious intent.

Le but de ce projet de doctorat c’est celui de donner une contribution aux études littéraires concertantes la fin du XVIIIe siècle et le début du XIXe, au moyen de l’édition critique de la correspondance de l’autrice Diodata Saluzzo Roero. La thèse se compose de trois chapitres et de l’édition des lettres. Le premier chapitre donne une contextualisation historique du Piémont du 1700, avec une attention particulière à l’expérience intellectuelle de Carlo Denina et Prospero Balbo, lesquels ont eu une influence importante sur Diodata et sa génération. Dans ce chapitre on a analysé, aussi, la première activité de l’Académie des Sciences de Turin, fondée par Giuseppe Angelo Saluzzo, le père de Diodata. Dans le deuxième chapitre, on donne la biographie complète de l’autrice, revue et augmentée de nouvelles informations, obtenues en analysant les lettres. Le troisième chapitre examine les correspondances principales de Diodata Saluzzo, et quelques-unes de ses lettres les plus intéressantes. En particulier, on a analysé les correspondances avec Cesare Lucchesini, Alessandro Manzoni, Coriolano Malingri, Prospero Balbo e toutes les auteurs femmes. Dans ce chapitre sont présentes aussi quelques voies thématiques, pour faciliter l’orientation du lecteur.La seconde partie contient l’édition commentée de l’entier corpus des lettres de Diodata Saluzzo, rangé selon un principe rigidement chronologique. Enfin, dans un appendice final, on a joint toutes les lettres que les autres autrices de cette période ont envoyées à Diodata ; ces lettres ont été analysées dans le dernier paragraphe du troisième chapitre. / This thesis is focused on the commented edition of the epistolary of Diodata Saluzzo, a female poet who had a central role in Italian literature between 18th and 19th centuries.The thesis, in addition to the letter’s edition, is composed of three chapters. First chapter gives an historical contextualization focused on Piemonte during the 18th century. It pays particular attention on Carlo Denina and Prospero Balbo’s intellectual experience, which had an important influence on Diodata Saluzzo and her generation. In this chapter is also analysed the early activity of the Accademy of Sciences, which was founded by Diodata’s father, Giuseppe Angelo Saluzzo. The second chapter includes a complete biography of Diodata Saluzzo, updated with the new information obtained by the epistolary. In the third chapter the most important letters and main correspondences pertained to Cesare Lucchesini, Alessandro Manzoni, Prospero Balbo and the female writers are examined as well. In this chapter, the main topics are also introduced, to simplify the reader’s approach to the epistolary. The second part is composed of the commented edition of the entire corpus of Diodata Saluzzo’s letters, ordered chronologically. Lastly, in the final appendix, are included the letters of other female writers sent to Diodata Saluzzo, which were exanimated in the last paragraph of the third chapter.

Esta pesquisa se refere a documentos autobiográficos (cartas e memórias) acerca da experiência de imigração escritos por Claire Reuge Lange. Claire chegou ao Brasil em Agosto de 1887 e, enquanto aqui viveu, escreveu várias cartas para seus pais adotivos, que permaneceram na Alemanha. As memó-rias de Claire Reuge Lange tratam da instauração da colônia de Brüderthal no município de Joinville, em Santa Catarina. O objetivo desta pesquisa é o es-tudo das 13 cartas escritas por Claire e de suas memórias, nas quais procu-ramos analisar os impactos da mudança de contexto nas vivências da autora. Para tanto, realizamos uma análise das vivências por ela narradas nas cartas, levando em conta a função psicológica da correspondência epistolar enquanto vínculo do imigrante com o seu mundo de origem e seu passado. Focamos a dinâmica psicológica e as vivências relatadas pela autora, à luz do texto O Estrangeiro (2010) de Alfred Schutz, e à luz da fenomenologia de Edmund Husserl e de Edith Stein. Nos relatos de Claire foram encontradas vivências perceptivas, afetivas, vivências de temporalidade e vivências espirituais de fé, concomitante às categorias de análise do texto O Estrangeiro de Schutz. No que diz respeito a estas categorias, evidenciamos três grupos de vivências: as primeiras vivências do estrangeiro como recém-chegado; a crise: as vivên-cias de choque de confiança no pensar habitual e os mecanismos de supera-ção da crise - emergindo a vivência espiritual como recurso para superação desta. Conclui-se pela possibilidade de superação da crise através do com-partilhamento de vivências com a alteridade, que ocorre nas cartas ou nas memórias, seja ela a alteridade das relações sociais representadas pelos destinatários das cartas, seja ela a dimensão transcendente do divino. / This research refers to autobiographical documents (letters and memories) about immigration experiences, written by Claire Reuge Lange. Claire arrived in Brazil in August 1887. While she lived here, she wrote many letters to her adoptive parents, who stayed in Germany. Claire Reuge Langes memories are about the Brüderthals colony settling in the city of Joinville, Santa Catari-na. The main objective of this research is the studying of the 13 letters written by Claire and her memories, in which we sought to analyze the impacts of the changes of context, lived by the author. In order to achieve it, we performed an analysis of her living experiences portrayed on her letters, taking into ac-count the psychological function of the epistolary correspondence as immi-grant bound with their original world and past. We focused on the authors psychological dynamics and living experiences based on the text The For-eigner (2010) by Alfred Schutz, and also on the phenomenology by Edmund Husserl and Edith Stein. On Claires stories, perceptive, affective, temporality and faith-spiritual living experiences were found, according to the categories of the analysis over The Foreigner by Schutz. Concerning these categories, we evidenced three groups of experiences: the first living experiences as a new-comer; the crisis: the living experiences of trust shock over the habitual think-ing and the tools of the crisis overcoming arising the spiritual experience as a resource to overcome it. It is concluded through the possibility of overcom-ing the crisis through the sharing of the living experiences with the otherness, which occurs on the letters or memories, either from the social relations rep-resented by the receivers of these letters, or the divine transcending dimen-sion.

O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar o gênero cartas, na sua especificidade, cartas entre escritores apresentado em um corpus único e cronológico e demonstrar que ele registra marcas de oralidade, especificamente marcadores de atenuação, criando um discurso epistolográfico cortês de Mário de Andrade e Manuel Bandeira com seu interlocutor Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho. Elegemos como corpus seis cartas de Mário de Andrade e dezenove de Manuel Bandeira enviadas a Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho no período de 1940 a 1944 e editadas no livro Itinerários . Faz-se um estudo descritivo e histórico do gênero cartas, verificando que a forma/composição do gênero não sofreu alterações desde os primórdios do ano 200 dC até os nossos dias. Posicionamos as cartas entre os polos da escrituralidade/oralidade, constatando a condição híbrida do gênero e dos textos sob análise. As cartas foram produzidas de forma gráfica, no entanto, apresentam marcas de oralidade. Verificamos que a história epistolográfica entre os escritores foi duradoura e atingiu seu objetivo, colaborando para o aprimoramento estético de Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho. Acrescenta-se que tal êxito se deu pela presença da cortesia verbal nas cartas, especialmente, por meio dos marcadores de atenuação. Tais marcas modalizaram o enunciado, diminuindo a força dos atos ameaçadores de face. Na conclusão, destaca-se a valiosa contribuição das cartas de Mário de Andrade e Manuel Bandeira em relação às conquistas literárias de Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho. A tese contribui para os estudos linguísticos, uma vez que comprovamos que mesmo sendo escritores renomados, Mário de Andrade e Manuel Bandeira mostraramse respeitosos e corteses para com o jovem escritor Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho, conseguindo manter a interação mesmo à distância. / The objective of this paper is to study the genre \'letters\' in their specificity \'letters between writers\' presented in a unified, chronological corpus and demonstrate that it registers brands of orality, particularly attenuation markers, creating a courteous epistolographic speech of Mario de Andrade and Manuel Bandeira and his interlocutor Alphonsus Guimaraens Filho. We elected as a corpus 6 letters from Mário de Andrade and Manuel Bandeira and 19 sent to Alphonsus Guimaraens Filho during the period of 1940 to 1944 and edited in the book Itinerários. A descriptive and historical study of the genre letters is made, verifying that the form/composition of the genre did not suffered any modifications since the beginning of the year 200 AD to the present day. We positioned the letters between the scripturality/orality poles, evidencing the hybrid condition of the genre and the texts under analysis. The letters were produced graphically and conceptually written, however, they present orality marks. We verified that the epistolographic history between the authors was long lasting and it reached its goal, contributing to the aesthetic enhancement of Alphonsus Guimaraens Filho. It can be added that such success is given by the presence of verbal courtesy in the letters especially through the markers of attenuation. Such marks modalized the statement, decreasing the strength of face threatening acts. In conclusion, it is highlighted the valuable input of Mário de Andrade and Manuel Bandeiras letters regarding the literaly achievements. The thesis contributes to linguistic studies, once proven that despite being renowned writers, Mário de Andrade and Manuel Bandeira proved to be respectful and courteous towards the young writer Alphonsus Guimaraens Son, succeeding at keeping the same distance interaction.

O objetivo desta tese é analisar, partindo de uma perspectiva filológica, um conjunto de cartas manuscritas, lavradas durante a década de 1765 a 1775, na capitania de São Paulo. Transcrevem-se os textos, para, a partir desse trabalho inicial, buscar-se definir algumas de suas coordenadas sincrônicas e diacrônicas, situacionais e linguísticas.1 Realiza-se um estudo minucioso de aspectos materiais e formais de um corpus predominantemente homogêneo quanto à espécie documental (carta), porém que mostrou apresentar variações. Ao final do trabalho filológico, publica-se a edição semidiplomática dos 137 fólios que compõem o corpus, acompanhada dos facsímiles. Por seu caráter conservador, a edição interessa a linguistas, e, pelo assunto tratado nas cartas, é fonte rica para historiadores. A partir do exame atento das fontes publicadas, trabalha-se com a hipótese da existência de uma relação entre a categoria socioprofissional dos destinatários e as formas de tratamento a eles dirigidas. A contextualização sócio-histórica dos documentos setecentistas culmina com a pesquisa sobre a origem dos remetentes, que localizou e permitiu traçar um perfil social mínimo de metade deles, atestando que pelo menos 32 documentos foram escritos, ou ditados, por homens nascidos na Colônia, principalmente na capitania de São Paulo. A partir dessas informações, da descrição sócio-histórica do período e do estudo de Marquilhas (2000), apresenta-se uma proposta de categorização socioprofissional que dê conta do corpus. As formas de tratamento (FT\'s) em língua portuguesa têm sido objeto de vários estudos, sincrônicos e diacrônicos: parte busca explicar de que maneira se deu a inclusão do pronome você, advindo da forma nominal vossa mercê, no sistema de tratamentos brasileiro; parte concentra-se na análise das formas nominais e pronominais, buscando descrever sua utilização e comparar o uso em documentos públicos e privados e entre períodos distintos. Número significativo de investigações linguísticas sobre o tema constituem corpora a partir de cartas, espécie documental bastante produtiva para tal análise. A teoria do Poder e da Solidaridade, desenvolvida por Brown e Gilman, e a análise das relações epistolares a partir das classificações em simétrica e assimétrica são comumente utilizadas em trabalhos recentes. No presente estudo, a análise das FT\'s comprova que a forma mais frequentemente empregada é vossa mercê, resultado que contraria a literatura especializada com relação a documentos oficiais. Além disso, chega-se à conclusão de que tal forma, diferentemente do que se verifica em outras pesquisas, não é utilizada preferencialmente nas relações assimétricas descendentes. O que condiciona seu emprego, na esfera pública, é a categoria socioprofissional do destinatário. Assim, aqueles que pertenciam às categorias socioprofissionais dos militares e dos administradores locais (juízes, ouvidores, provedores) eram tratados por vossa mercê. A análise sob o ponto de vista de categorias socioprofissionais permite também identificar que algumas delas, como a dos eclesiásticos, marcavam linguisticamente as posições hierárquicas superiores por meio do uso de FT\'s de alto valor honorífico, como vossa senhoria e vossa reverendíssima, enquanto outras, como a dos militares, não apresentavam essa diferenciação, sendo todos tratados por vossa mercê. / The present study uses a philological perspective to analyse a group of handwritten letters drafted during the decade of 1765-1775, in the Sao Paulo captaincy. From this initial work, the texts are transcribed for one try to define some of their syncronic and dyacronic coordenates, situational and linguistics. Thus, one can do a detailed philological study of material and formal aspects of a mostly homogenous corpus of one type of document (letters) but which shows variations. At the end of this philological work, the semidiplomatic edition of 137 folios is published, along with document facsimiles. Because of its conservative character, the edition is of interest to linguists, and because of the topics covered in the letters, it is a rich source for historians. From the attentive observation of the published sources, it has been possible to raise a possible relation between sociohistorical factors of senders and receivers and about the adress forms used on the texts. To make clear the relationship between social factors and linguistic elements, it has been done a social-historical description of the documents, culminating with research on the senders\' origin, and allowing the researcher to outline a basic social profile of half the authors. At least 32 documents were written, or dictated, by men born in the Colony, mainly in the Sao Paulo captaincy. Based on this information, of the social-historical description of the period and of Marquilha\'s study (2000), we propose a socialprofessional classification that takes the corpus into account. Forms of address (FAs) in Portuguese have been the object of various synchronic and diachronic studies. Some seek to explain how the pronoun você (from vossa mercê) was included in the Brazilian FA system; some focus on analysis of nouns and pronouns, describing and comparing their use in public and private documents at specified time periods. A significant number of linguistic investigations on the subject base their corpora on letters, a very productive kind of document for this analysis. Brown and Gilman\'s Theory of Power and Solidarity and the analysis of epistolary relationships in symmetrical and asymmetrical classifications have often been used in recent works. On the present study, the analysis of the FAs proves that the form of address most frequently used was vossa mercê, a result that contradicts the specialized literature related to official documents. Furthermore, one may conclude that this form, differently from that found in other researches, is not used preferentially in descending asymmetrical relationships. What determines one\'s employment in the public sphere is the social-professional classification of the recipient. Thus, those who belonged to categories of military social-professionals and local administrators (judges, ombudsmen, providers) were addressed as vossa mercê. The analysis from the socialprofessional point of view also allows us to identify that some of them, such as clergy, were linguistically marked, by means of highly honorific FAs, such as vossa senhoria and vossa reverendíssima, superior hierarchical positions, while others, like those in the military, did not make this distinction, all being addressed as vossa mercê.

O foco desta tese é a relação comercial entre três pólos principais: Brasil, Portugal e Hamburgo. Em dois momentos distintos, antes da abertura dos portos, quando o Brasil é uma colônia portuguesa e, posteriormente, quando se torna um país autônomo. O fluxo comercial de Hamburgo com o Brasil, através de Portugal, é intenso a partir de 1796, ano em que as balanças de comércio o registram regularmente. Sendo mesmo Hamburgo, ao contrário do que se costuma pensar, o principal importador de efeitos coloniais brasileiros e, por decorrência, seu principal consumidor e distribuidor na Europa do Norte e Oriental. Depois da abertura dos portos, o movimento se retraiu, mas se recuperou nos anos seguintes a paz na Europa após a queda de Napoleão, voltando a ter papel significativo com a proclamação da Independência brasileira em relação a Portugal. Os principais produtos nesse estratégico comércio e importação hamburguesa era, sobretudo, o açúcar, couros e algodão. As fontes para o estudo foram as Balanças Gerais de Comércio de Portugal com seus Domínios e Nações Estrangeiras, as Balanças Comerciais de Hamburgo e os relatórios e as cartas consulares. / The present work focus on the commercial relationship among the tree key poles Brazil, Portugal and Hamburg in two distinct moments: before the opening of the ports, when Brazil was a Portuguese colony, and afterwards, when Brazil became an independent country. The commercial flow from Hamburg to Brazil, through Portugal, is intense from 1796, the year when the trade balance started to register it regularly. In fact, contrary to what one may think, it was Hamburg the main importer of the effects from Brazil colony and therefore its major consumer and distributor along Northern and Oriental Europe. After the opening of the ports, the flow had retread but the peace recovered it on the following years, especially after Napoleons fall when the flow had played a major role with the proclamation of the Brazilian Independence from Portugal. Sugar, leather and cotton were, above all, the principal products in this strategic trade and in the Hamburguese importation. The source of the study was the General Balance of Trade between Portugal and his Colonies and Nations, Hamburgs Balance of Trade, reports and consular letters.