Critical theory has historically situated the beginning of the “modern” era of subjectivity near the end of the seventeenth century. Michel Foucault himself once said in an interview that modernity began with the writings of the late seventeenth-century philosopher Benedict Spinoza. But an examination of early modern English utopian literature demonstrates that a modern notion of subjectivity can be found in texts that pre-date Spinoza. In this dissertation, I examine four utopian texts—Thomas More’s Utopia, Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis, Margaret Cavendish’s Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World, and Henry Neville’s Isle of Pines—through the paradigm of Jacques Lacan’s tripartite model of subjectivity—the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real. To mediate between Lacan’s psychoanalytic model and the historical aspects of these texts, such as their relationship with print culture and their engagement with political developments in seventeenth-century England, I employ the theories of the Marxist-Lacanian philosopher, Slavoj Žižek, to show that “early modern” subjectivity is in in fact no different from critical theory’s “modern” subject, despite pre-dating the supposed inception of such subjectivity. In addition, I engage with other prominent theorists, including Fredric Jameson, Jacques Derrida, and Donna Haraway, to come to an understanding about the ways in which critical theory can be useful to understand not only early modern literature, but also the contemporary, “real” world and the subjectivity we all seek to attain.

Margaret of Austria (1480--1530) ruled the Burgundian Netherlands for over twenty years and was an integral member of the joint Houses of Burgundy and Habsburg. She was also one of the most prolific patrons and collectors of her time. This dissertation examines Margaret's patronage in relation to her contemporary environment with the aim of extending and deepening our understanding of her commissions within the dynamics and discourses of the culture of the early sixteenth century. / Margaret of Austria was a highly conscientious patron and the art and architecture she commissioned intimately reflected her life. Chapter one introduces the historical facts of Margaret's life as well as issues affecting her patronage. Chapter two considers the monastery of Brou in Savoy as Margaret's architectural autobiography. Drawing on documentation and the building itself, it examines Margaret's involvement in Brou's creation. Chapter three looks at several of Margaret's other commissions such as her residence, the Palace of Savoy in Mechelen and the Convent of the Annunciate in Bruges. This chapter considers the potential goals of these projects, as ambitious as founding a capital city, embellishing her authority as a ruler, or attaining sainthood. Chapter four turns to Margaret's self-portraits, that is, images she commissioned of herself. Created in several mediums for a variety of audiences (including herself), Margaret's self-portraits portray her as everything from a widow to a goddess to a saint. Each image was designed for a specific audience and demonstrates Margaret's understanding of the function of images in negotiating a place in the contemporary world and history. Chapter five presents Margaret's view of herself as one of the rulers of a New World Empire with her pioneering collection of artefacts from the Americas. The conclusion considers the unique image of Margaret of Austria that emerges from her commissions.

Le présent mémoire pose la question de l'évolution du débat politique dans les démocraties occidentales depuis la révolution néo-libérale des années 1980, laquelle rompt avec la période sociale-démocrate keynésienne d'après-guerre. Il vise en cela à démontrer comment le néo-libéralisme s'inscrit dans le débat politique actuel. Pour ce faire, le cadre théorique d'analyse mis à profit repose sur trois piliers conceptuels. D'une part, le néo-libéralisme est pensé comme une clé conceptuelle de compréhension par le rejet des approches le réduisant à une simple Doxa politique marchande et anti-étatiste. À ce titre, il est ici réfléchi comme courant idéologique plural à la fois traversé par des lignes de convergence et de divergences. D'autre part, comme il s'agit d'étudier l'évolution du débat politique principal, lequel se pose à l'intérieur des institutions démocratiques, le concept de champ de production politique développé par Bourdieu est ici utilisé dans l'analyse. Il représente l'espace où se jouent les rapports de concurrence entre les grands partis politiques et leurs protagonistes. Enfin, notre approche revisite le concept d'hégémonie tel que formulé par Gramsci, l'hégémonie ne pouvant être complètement moniste, mais impliquant toujours la présence de tensions internes. Ne prétendant pas étudier d'un même mouvement l'ensemble des champs de production politique de l'Occident, l'analyse porte essentiellement sur le cas britannique. Ce champ de production politique, à travers l'émergence du thatchérisme, est le premier à voir naître la révolution néo-libérale. En parallèle, durant les années 1980-1990, les réformes du parti travailliste, puis l'affirmation du néo-travaillisme déplacent la cadre idéologico-politique de ce parti historiquement à gauche. Par le survol rapide de la période d'après-guerre, par la comparaison idéologique et politique du thatchérisme au néo-travaillisme, puis par la conjonction analytique de ces derniers au néo-libéralisme, il est possible de déterminer l'état du débat politique contemporain tel qu'il se présente au sein du champ de production politique britannique. Il semble qu'à une hégémonie sociale-démocrate keynésienne se soit substituée une hégémonie néo-libérale et que ce soit cette dernière qui puisse définir le mieux l'état du débat démocratique contemporain. Alors que le thatchérisme semble apparenté à une forme d'ultralibéralisme hayekien, le néo-travaillisme synthétise involontairement les pensées de deux auteurs néo-libéraux à la fois distincts et liés à des écoles différentes du néo-libéralisme : l'ordo-libéralisme de Wilhelm Ropke et le libéralisme constructif de Walter Lippmann. Ainsi, les lignes de convergences et de tensions qui rapprochent et séparent le thatchérisme et le néo-travaillisme trouvent leurs pareilles au sein du courant néo-libéral. De la sorte, le débat démocratique au sein du champ de production politique serait implicite à l'hégémonie du néo-libéralisme, car il se déploierait le long de ses frictions internes et autour de son noyau idéologique consensuel. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Grande-Bretagne, thatchérisme, néo-travaillisme, néolibéralisme, champ de production politique, hégémonie, ordo-libéralisme, ultralibéralisme et libéralisme constructif.

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This thesis starts with an overview of the historical record tied to the birth of a new nation studied by Alexis de Tocqueville and Henry Steele Commager. It singles out the works of Henry Nash Smith and Eugene D. Genovese for an understanding, respectively, of the "myth of the frontier" tied to the conquest of the American West and the "plantation myth" that sustained slavery in the American South. Both myths underlie the concept of hybridity or cross-cultural relations in America. This thesis is concerned with the representation or lack of representation of hybridity and the roles played by female characters in connection with the land in two seminal American novels and their film versions---James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, and Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind---and Alice Randall's rewriting of Mitchell's novel, The Wind Done Gone , as a point of contrast. Hybridity is represented in the mixed-race bodies of these characters.

Nation-building novels are novels which attempt to weave the experiences, values and richness of a variety of cultures, language groups and social contexts into a national heritage that creates a sense ofnational identity and identification for all people within a particular nation-state. This dissertation explores how Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, Keri Hulme's The Bone People and Margaret Laurence's The Diviners all use the particularly illuminating metaphor of family to explore nation-building in India, New Zealand and Canada respectively. In questioning traditional definitions of family through the image of the adopted child (or changeling in the case of Midnight's Children), the novels also explore new ways of understanding "belonging" and the "other". Since the meaning of these terms is rooted in the past, these novels also question the "truth" of the past by exposing the fallibility of memory. In chapter one a working definition of "nation" and "nation-building" is given and the vision, purpose and characteristic features of nation-building novels are discussed. Chapter two focuses on Rushdie's novel in which the metaphor of pickling is used to explore history not as a collection of hard facts but as a conglomeration of subjective, sensuous, manufactured and carefully created and preserved flavours. In chapter three Hulme's novel is discussed, particularly in relation to what is "other" and the importance of names. The narrator's idea of "commensalism" is explored as an ideal of syncrecity which does not deny individual identity. Chapter four looks at the development from consolation to contradiction to construction in the development of a hybrid national identity in Laurence's novel. Chapter five looks at the narrative techniques used in order to convey the prophetic nature of the novels' message and discusses the importance of the intertexts of each novel. Chapter six focuses on belonging as it looks at the return of each narrator to her/his symbolic or literal home. The chapter also discusses how the novels attack linearity by separating "time" and "space" (instances of social interaction) from "place" (specific geographical locations) in order to "disembed" their message to emphasise its universal applicability. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

1982年4月2日，阿根廷入侵福克蘭/馬爾維納斯群島，震驚英國朝野。時任首相的柴契爾夫人在4月7日成立戰爭內閣，並決定出兵奪島，不到三個月的時間，英軍於6月14日克復福克蘭/馬爾維納斯群島，阿根廷戰敗，聯合軍政府總統加爾鐵里下台。 柴契爾夫人的領導風格揉合法理型及卡理斯瑪式的支配型權威，以及轉換型的領導方式，在處理這場危機時掌握快速反應及賦予危機定義的要領，指出阿根廷入侵已危害英國的基本利益，一面派遣特遣隊開赴戰場，同時以外交談判方式拖延掩護特遣隊行蹤。阿根廷駐軍雖是以逸待勞，但軍隊指揮調度的反覆埋下戰敗的禍根，軍政府想要移轉國內焦點的動機並未如願，反而加速本身的崩解，開啟民選政府的扉頁，阿方辛成為戰後首位民選總統。 英國在戰爭之後有意與阿根廷恢復正常的外交關係，與90年代阿根廷梅南上台後以發展經濟為主的外交政策不謀而合，在主權保護傘的前提下共同開發與勘探油氣。但到了2001年德拉魯阿上台後一改外交政策，強調阿根廷擁有福克蘭/馬爾維納斯群島的主權，歷經多位總統至今仍維持一貫的基調。而英國自2010年國家安全戰略報告發表後，確立保障該群島島民安全與自決的權利，促成2013年島民決定政治地位的公投，結果是壓倒性的贊成票決定仍由英國管轄，英阿爭議依舊紛擾。 / On 2 April 1982, UK was stunned with the news that Argentina had invaded the Falkland/Malvinas islands. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher set up the war cabinet rapidly at 7 April and decided to dispatch the military to take the island back. In three months, the British military recovered the Falkland/Malvinas islands on 14 June, Argentina was defeated, President Leopoldo Galtieri stepped down. The leadership of Thatcher was composed of legal-rational authority and charismatic authority, as well as transformational leadership. When she faced the crisis she realized the essentiality of the fast-reaction and make-a-definition-to-the-crisis, so she accused the invasion had undermined the Britain's interest and dispatched the armed forces to the battlefield, at the same time used diplomatic negotiations to cover up the military actions. On the other hand, Argentina's military had the advantage of having the island under their control, but the advantage was undermined with the change in command, which eventually lost the war. The Junta not only failed to shift the focus of the society, but also dug its own grave. After the collapse of the Junta, Raúl Alfosin the elected president, and started a new era of Argentina. After the war, the UK intended to normalize the relationship with Argentina. That coincided with the diplomatic policy of President Carlos Menan in the 90s, whose main focus was developing the economy. Under the sovereign umbrella, UK and Argentina cooperated and exploited natural gas and oil in the sea surrounding the Falkland/Malvinas islands. Until 2001 Fernando de la Rua was elected and changed the diplomatic policy to emphasize Argentine’s sovereignty over the Falkland/Malvinas islands. That policy was consistently upheld by several presidencies afterwards. Nevertheless, with the promulgation of the "National Security Strategy", UK assured to safeguard the islanders' safety and the right of self-determination. A referendum was facilitated in 2013 on the Falkland Islands. An overwhelming 90% of voters chose to remain as UK territory. The dispute is still unsettled.

This thesis examines the impact of gender, feminism and motherhood on the careers of four Australian composers: Margaret Sutherland (1897–1984), Ann Carr-Boyd (b. 1938), Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957) and Katy Abbott (b. 1971). / Aspects of the biographies of each of these women are explored, and I situate their narratives within the cultural and musical contexts of their eras, in order to achieve heightened understanding of the ideologies and external influences that have contributed to their choices and experiences. Methodologies derived from feminist biography and oral history/ethnography underpin this study. Theorists who inform this work include Marcia Citron, Daphne de Marneffe, Sherna Gluck, Carolyn Heilbrun, Anne Manne, Ann Oakley, Alessandro Portelli, Adrienne Rich and Robert Stake, along with many others. / The demands traditionally placed on women through motherhood and domesticity have led to a lack of time and creative space being available to develop their careers. Thus they have faced significant challenges in gaining public recognition as serious composers. There is a need for biographical analysis of these women’s lives, in order to consider their experiences and the encumbrances they have faced through attempting to combine their creative and mothering roles. Previous scholarship has concentrated more on their compositions than on the women who created them, and the impact of private lives on public lives has not been considered worthy of consideration. / Three broad themes are investigated. First, the ways in which each composer’s family background, upbringing and education have impacted on their decision to enter the traditionally male field of composition are explored. The positive influence from family and other mentors, and opportunities for a sound musical education, are factors particularly necessary for aspiring female composers. I argue that all four women have benefited from upbringings in families where education and artistic endeavour have been valued highly. / The second theme concerns the extent to which the feminist movement has influenced the women’s lives as composers and mothers, and the levels of frustration, and/or satisfaction or pleasure each has felt in blending motherhood with composition. I contend that all four composers have led feminist lives in the sense that they have exercised agency and a sense of entitlement in choices regarding their domestic and work lives. The three living composers have reaped the benefits of second-wave feminism, but have eschewed complete engagement with its agenda, especially its repudiation of motherhood. They can more readily be identified with the currently evolving third wave of feminism, which advocates women’s freedom to choose how to balance the equally-valued roles of motherhood and the public world of work. I assert that Sutherland was a third-wave prototype, a position that was atypical of her era. / The third and final theme comprises an investigation of the ways in which historical and enduring negative attitudes towards women as musical creators have played out in the musical careers in these composers. It is contested that Sutherland experienced greater challenges than her successors in the areas of dissemination, composition for larger forces, and critical reception, but appears to have been more comfortable in promoting her work. The exploration of their careers demonstrates that all four of these creative mothers are well-respected and recognised composers. They are ‘third-wave’ women who have considerably enriched Australia’s musical landscape.

Thesis (M.A.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis uses an analysis of Fay Weldon's Puffball and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale to explore the construction of identity, particularly female identity. It takes into consideration the influence of both biology and culture on identity and explores how, within the context of the patriarchal societies depicted by the novels, female identity is closely linked to reproductive function. It examines how the construction of female identity based on reproductive function further objectifies the female body in society, and how it can aid patriarchal domination and oppression of women. The analysis of the novels draws on both essentialist and social constructionist feminist approaches to oppression and female identity. The essentialist approach views female biological difference (reproductive function) as responsible for the way in which women are oppressed. The social constructionist view argues that female oppression stems from the social construction of female identity around concepts of motherhood and femininity. The thesis takes both approaches into account as it seeks to explain how patriarchy oppresses women through the construction of female identity. The thesis also explores how control over the female body and identity can be exercised through reproductive technology. An examination of the role reproductive technology plays in contributing to patriarchal dominance, suggests that new technologies may compel women to conform to stereotypes of femininity based on pregnancy and motherhood. The thesis considers the impact infertility and the choice not to have children have on female identity and takes into account the options available to these women. The main focus, with regard to infertility and choice, is on the relationship between women who have children and those who do not. This thesis refutes the notion that there is solidarity between women based on shared childbearing experience, and focuses on the conflict that occurs between fertile and childless women. It finds that the conflict that occurs is a result of the socialisation of women into viewing motherhood as an essential aspect of 'normal' femininity. The thesis also considers what causes the desire to have children and finds that, as in the case of the conflict between women, it is as a result of socialisation and an innate/instinctual biological drive. The thesis investigates options available to women in order for them to avoid constructing their identities solely around their reproductive function. It considers the alternatives women are presented with when constructing their identity and how these may contribute to or liberate them from patriarchal oppression. If they choose to identify themselves using patriarchal norms, then they are contributing to their objectification; but if they choose to construct their identity on their own terms, and offer some resistance to patriarchal constructions, they will be more liberated than women who conform to stereotypes. Evidence of such resistance can be seen in both novels in the narrative structure the respective authors have chosen: just as the main characters subvert traditional stereotypes through the construction of their own identity, embracing female experience on their own terms, so do both authors subvert traditional narratives. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is gegrond op die analisering van die novelle Puffball deur Fay Weldon en The Handmaid's Tale deur Margaret Atwood ter ondersoek van die konstruksie van identiteit, naamlik die vroulike identiteit. Die analise neem beide die biologiese en kulturele invloed van identiteit in ag, veral binne die konteks van die patriargale samelewing wat in novelles voorkom.Die wisselwerking tussen vroulike identiteit en die funksie van reproduksie word aangeraak. Die tesis ondersoek die wyse waarop die konstruksie van die vroulike identiteit gebasseer op die reproduksie funksie, verder die vroulike liggaam binne samelewingskonteks tipeer en hoe dit indirek patriargale dominansie ondersteun sowel as die onderdrukking van die vrou. Die analise van die novelles steun sterk op beide die essensialistiese en sosiale konstruksialistiese feministiese benaderings ten opsigte van onderdrukking en vroulike identiteit. Die essensialistiese benadering blameer die vroulike biologiese verskil, met verwysing na die reproduksie funksie, vir die wyse waarop die vrou onderdruk word. In kontras hiermee, argumenteer die sosiale konstruksialistiese seining dat vroulike onderdrukking voortspruit uit die sosiale konstruksie van vroulike identiteit binne die konsep van moederskap en vroulikheid. Die tesis neem beide standpunte in ag daar dit hom ten doel stelom te verduidelik waarom patriargie die vrou onderdruk deur die konstruksie van die vroulike identiteit. Die tesis fokus ook op die wyse waarop kontrole oor die vroulike liggaam en identiteit uitgeoefen kan word deur die reproduktiewe tegnologie. 'n Ondersoek na die rol wat reproduktiewe tegnologie speel ter ondersteuning van patriargale dominansie, argumenteer dat nuwe tegnologieë "Toue kan verplig tot die konformering van stereotipes van vroulikheid gebasseer op swangerskap en moederskap. Die analise neem ook die impak wat onvrugbaarheid op die vroulike identiteit het, in ag , sowel as die besluit om nie kinders te hê nie. Verder neem dit ook die verskeie opsies wat beskikbaar is vir die vrou wat daarteen besluit om kinders te hê, in ag, sover dit die konstruksie van identiteit raak. Die hooffokus met betrekking tot onvrugbaarheid en keuse, is gebasseer op die verhouding tussen vroue wat wel kinders het en diegene wat kinderloos is. Die tesis weerlê die idee dat daar solidariteit is tussen vroue gebasseer op gedeelde ervarings en gemeenskaplike doelwitte en begeertes en fokus op die konflik wat ontstaan tussen kinderlose en vrugbare vroue. Die ondersoek ondervind dat die konflik wat onstaan, 'n produk is van die sosialisering van vroue met die idee van moederskap as 'n essensiële aspek van "normale" vroulikheid. Die tesis ondersoek ook die oorsake van die begeerte om kinders te hê en ondervind dat, soos ook die geval met konflik, dit die produk is van sosialisering en instinktiefbiologies gedrewe is. Die tesis ondersoek die opsies beskikbaar vir die vrou ten einde haar te verhoed om die konstruksie van haar identiteit te grond alleenlik op die reproduktiewe funksie. Die analise neem die alternatiewe waarmee die vrou gekonfronteer word tydens die konstruksieproses, in aanmerking, en bevraagteken die wyse waarop hierdie alternatiewe kan bydra tot , of die bevryding van, die patriargale onderdrukking. Indien die vrou verkies om haarself te identifiseer deur patriargale norme te gebruik sal sy bydra tot haar objektivering binne die tradisionele patriargale konteks; maar indien sy kies om haar eie identiteit te konstruktueer volgens haar eie norme en terselfdertyd patriargale konstruksie teenstaan, sal sy meer geëmansipeerd wees as haar eweknie wat tot die stereotipe gekonformeer het. Deel van die weerstand wat voorkom in beide novelles, kan opgemerk word in die naratiewe struktuur gekies deur die skrywer. Paralelle word aangetref tussen enersyds, die wyse waarop die hoofkarakters hulself aan die tradisionele stereotipes ondermyn deur die konstruksie van hul eie identiteit, terselfdertyd deur die koestering van vroulike ervarings, en andersyds die wyse waarop beide skrywers hulself aan tradisionele naratiewe onderwerp.