History and national consciousness are central to the creation and sustaining of national identity. Although much has been written on German national identity, there has been little examination of how the 60th anniversary of the Allied air campaign or expulsion of ethnic Germans are remembered from the perspective of the Germans as victims. Reflecting the changing status of the National Socialist past as it continues to affect the present, this thesis argues there were significant disparities between official and popular perceptions of national identity and memory. Presenting a focussed examination of current developments in German society and politics from a German perspective, this thesis examines why many in Germany have rejected a national identity based on a constitutional patriotism and collective atonement. Debates conducted by prominent intellectuals, journalists and academics in leading newspapers and magazines have been compared to statements from Ministers and official reports in order to ascertain the extent to which elite conceptions of national identity find resonance within Germany. Providing fresh evidence from periodicals, archive publications, eyewitness testimonies and books, this informative and arguably compelling thesis makes a significant and original contribution on how German history and identity are now being perceived and represented in Germany. Competing perceptions of the past and present warrant urgent recognition because so long as a disparate national identity and culture of remembrance continues there can be no effective reconciliation with either the German elite or with others. A greater understanding and recognition of the themes addressed however could not only encourage greater toleration, but also perhaps dispel the increasing sense of bitterness concerning recent aspects of the country's past.

Comprising a novel and complementary discourses, this thesis blurs the traditional distinctions between critical theory and creative practice, and contributes new insights into the practice, craft, and theory of the contemporary novel. It stages a praxical enquiry in which the creative texts perform a triple function: as original literature, as documents of process, and as critical enquiry. In so doing the texts add to our understanding of how life history and gender influence literary production, and delineate the nexus of fiction/biography/autobiography, both in terms of the individual writer negotiating the matrix of self and other, and in terms of the author in a wider social and historical context. The main apparatus for this investigation is a work of prose fiction that exploits the ability of the novel to sustain a critical exploration while simultaneously delivering a satisfying narrative. It is a composite text that, I will argue, works as historiographic metafiction to dramatise key events in the apparently disparate lives of three women who are separated by historical and social context. The relationship between the three women becomes visible as the narratives gradually reveal their connections. Via this structure, layers of resonance accrue as the themes outlined above are worked through in this fictional space. Alongside the novel, complementary discourses present the poetics that have been developed in its production. They examine the critical and historical context of my work, articulating insights gained into the novelist’s craft, the nature and purpose of the writer's tool kit, and its relationship with the author's life history. The complementary discourses conclude by offering responses to questions about the interactions between gender, genre and creative processes, before proposing future lines of enquiry into the nature and possibilities of the novel.

The thesis seeks to analyse the industrial strategy of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CP) within the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Although many historians have discussed the CP’s industrial work, particularly in the pre-1945 period, this thesis is original because there is not yet a detailed study of the party’s work in the NUM between 1945 and 1985. The thesis also aims to make an intervention into post-war political history more generally, beginning its coverage in 1945 with the election of the first majority Labour government, at a time when both the party and the mining industry had high hopes for the future. The research concludes in 1985, after the miners’ strike, when both the NUM and the CP were irreparably divided. The thesis works within two overarching paradoxes: firstly, that the CP was believed to be ubiquitous in industry, yet weak elsewhere. Secondly, that the party ultimately imploded as a result of factionalism, which arose because of the industrial strategy that the CP had spent most of the post-war period adhering to. Moreover, the thesis makes four original contributions to knowledge. The work uses the historical method, drawing on empirical evidence from archives in Salford, Manchester, Warwick, Kew, London, Swansea and Barnsley, along with secondary evidence and interviews with protagonists, to construct a chronological analysis of the events; this, in addition to the scope of the work, is an original methodological contribution to knowledge. The second contribution discusses the relationship between the CP and communists in industry; although this has been discussed in the existing literature, the thesis adds more evidence to this through a detailed analysis of this specific period within the NUM. The thesis also offers the findings as a hypothesis for observations about the party’s industrial strategy generally, considering how the results of this study might be applied to other industries. The third original area is the theme of conflict across three groups: particularly, concerning the relationship between individual communists in the union; the party itself and communists in the union; and communists in the NUM and the union itself. The fourth area of originality derives from the thesis’s detailed analysis of wage militancy in the union across this period, a focus yet to be explored in any depth.

Whilst in recent years a number of historians and sociologists have analysed sports as social, cultural and economic processes, relatively few have considered the cultural and ideological implications of sport as an object of representation. This thesis aims to intervene in such debates by considering the emergence and development of the discourse of cricket, a sport intimately associated with ideas of "Englishness" and empire, and one with an unparalleled "Literary" tradition. In order to account for the socially productive function of forms of literary discourse in defining the hegemonic meaning of the cricket field, three interconnected discursive processes are identified: Literaturisation, Canonisation and Aestheticisation. These processes are related to broader manifestations of English cultural nationalism such as the emergence of English Studies in the late nineteenth century. The main body of the thesis is structured around the analysis of a series of historical moments (such as The Great War and the 1926 General Strike), "discursive events" (for instance, the "Bodyline" Series of 1932-33), and key writers and texts. As well as utilising its main trinity of theoretical concepts, the analysis identifies patterns of repetition and regularity within the changing patterns of cricket discourse. These analyses reveal that the discursive meaning of cricket as a symbol of nation and empire was a matter of constant renegotiation, and was consistently produced and reproduced as a response to perceptions of socio-economic, political and cultural crisis. Because cricket discourse was an agent of both imperial hegemony and anti-colonial counter-hegemony, the analysis also considers its dissemination and cultural work within the colonial and postcolonial dispensations. Through a reading of C.L.R. James's Beyond a Boundary, a theorisation of the relationship between the discursive and the performative emerges as a means of accounting for the counter-hegemonic appropriation and re-articulation of cricket into an instrument of postcolonial subjectivity and agency.

Intercultural contacts that allowed for cross-cultural fertilization were made possible through translation. Translation, in the main, has been understood as an activity that requires knowing the source and target languages to achieve the same informational and emotive effects of the source language in the target one. Yet, the search for equivalence led translators to realize that linguistic terms do not appear in isolation; they are part and parcel of a culture. Fairclough's stipulation, from a critical discourse analysis point of view, that language as discourse is invested with ideologies that organize socially shared attitudes, engages language in a complex relationship with social cognition, power and culture. The characterization of language as such leads to the production of a master discourse through which identity, similarity and difference are identified. Within the context of globalization, intercultural translation, particularly between cultures that are unequal politically and economically, adheres to a master discourse of translation and representation through which the other is received, accepted and/ or refused then reproduced. Consequently, source texts and people are transformed into signs familiar to the translating community constructing as such domestic identities of foreign cultures. Drawing on translation from Arabic, and in light of critical discourse analysis approaches, the translation of culture and the culture of translation, the research considers the case of Nawal El-Saadawi. The aim is to explore and examine how the constraints and disciplinary demands of the master discourse of translation and representation affect the translation traffic from Arabic into English. In a rapidly globalizing world, the ethics of translation postulate that translation should create a readership that is open to cultural differences for a true globalization of cultures, and improve cultural relations rather than being a tool for reinforcing and diffusing existing representationsa nd images of one culture about the other

One of the outstanding scholars of the field of Moroccan travel literature was Muh?ammad b. Muh?ammad al-T?ayyib b. Muh?ammad b. Musa b. Muh?ammad al-Sharqi al-Sumayli, al-Fasi al-Madani. Born in the city of Fez in 1110/1698. He studied with some of the most known scholars of Morocco at that time including Abu al-cAbbas Ah?mad al-Misnawi, Abu cAbdullah Muh?ammad al-Misnawi, Abu al-cAbbas Ah?mad al-Fasi and Abu T?ahir Muhammad al-Kurani. Having acquired his early education in his home country he emigrated eastward to Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and finally to Medinah where he died in 1170/1756 after living and teaching there for many years. It is not surprising then that this great scholar left behind him a treasure of works in a variety of fields; indeed we find Ibn al-T?ayyib wrote many works, including four in jurisprudence, three in h?adith and sixteen in grammar and in linguistics. Despite this however many of his academic contributions remain in manuscript form and therefore are inaccessible to the greater majority. One such work is “Rih?lah il a al-H?ijaz,” which is particularly important to the field of travel literature as it represents a major contribution. This is because Ibn al-T?ayyib came relatively late, historically, compared to other travel writers. In addition, it contains many minute details, which the author took care to record during his journey from place to place. It also contains accounts of everything he saw and his comments regarding the social, economic and political conditions of the countries he visited, as well as comments about the scholars whom he was able to meet. This work is important also because it is considered the most important reference for the author’s life, culture and is an important literary reference in terms of the poetry and prose, classical and modern, eastern and western, that it contains. In addition it accounts for both literary and religious scholars, the linguistic derivations of geographical names and draws attention to the mistakes of those who wrote about them before him. Bearing in mind the great significance of this work from a variety of aspects this thesis involves the complete revision, editing, annotation and authentication of the manuscript including the correction of missing characters and providing available information and biographical notes on the text.

This study is concerned with the relationship between the European Union(EU) and the Maghreb countries from its inception up to now. It sets out to examine the effects that the Union policy, in its different phases and proper instruments, appears to have had on the Maghreb countries. The claim of the thesis is that the outcome of this policy, in relation to its goals in the various areas during earlier phases, has been less than satisfactory. It further argues that if the present phase is not accompanied by a much more assertive presence of, and active role from, the EU in this region, it is most likely to prove highly costly to the Maghreb countries and may amount as a result to an additional disappointing attempt. To develop and illustrate these arguments, the study is divided into three parts. The first part, consisting of two chapters, surveys the major theoretical debate on North-South relations and attempts a definition of the nature and characteristic features of the Euro-Maghreb relationship along with an examination of certain determinant factors in its evolutionary process. The second part, composed of two chapters, takes stock of, and assesses the comparative achievements/shortcomings of former phases of the EU policy towards the Maghreb countries both initially in the area of trade, and later with the addition of issues of economic aid and migrant labour. The third part, made up of two chapters, considers the EU's present partnership approach that is essentially a European response to the implications arising from growing socio-economic dislocation and political instability in the Maghreb region. On the one hand, it reviews the sources of that potential instability and, on the other hand, attempts an evaluation of the partnership arrangements in their immediate effect and future prospects. Finally, a number of implications for a better approach to the future development of the relationship between both sides emerge from the summary and suggestions of the concluding chapter.

As Philip L. Simpson notes, humankind has an ‘ongoing ... fascination with tales of gruesome murders and evil villains’ (15). Popular culture abounds with depictions of the mad and the bad; and perhaps no single disorder holds as much morbid appeal as psychopathy, the baffling condition which combines what Hervey M. Cleckley terms a ‘mask of sanity’, with a seeming lack of the qualities usually deemed to constitute humanity. My thesis focuses on how authors have sought to explain, interpret and understand the psychopathic individual, and explores how literary techniques have manipulated readers’ responses to the moral questions posed by psychopathic characters. Between the mid-nineteenth century and the present day, authors have increasingly used empathetic narrative techniques to encourage readers to identify with and accept the villains whose stories they so voraciously consume. I track the transitions in narrative style, structure and form which take us from depictions of the psychopath as fiendish ‘other’, for example Rigaud in Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit, to modern portrayals of the psychopathic murderer as hero, as seen in Jeff Lindsay’s series of Dexter novels. I consider what the reader gains from reading such material and how we as readers negotiate the paradox of empathising with characters who are themselves incapable of empathy. I also explore whether cultural fascination with the psychopath is based on a desire to understand the workings of the psychopathic mind, a perverse delight in our fear of the aberrant ‘other’, or whether it reveals something altogether darker and more disturbing about ourselves.

Studies of childhood bereavement suggest that communication is a crucial issue for adults and for children (Silverman and Worden, 1993). Closed communication seems to be a ‘natural’ adult response and this seems to be shared by some professionals. This study was designed to explore aspects of communication between adults and children experiencing loss or impending loss. The study consisted of five investigations: 1) An analysis of narratives obtained in interviews with 4 adults bereaved in childhood; 2) An exploration of 8 narratives illustrating the theme of children’s grief in literature; 3) An exploration of communication strategies used by 6 counsellors working with bereaved children; 4) An exploration of 6 counsellors’ communication strategies obtained by interviews with counsellors and volunteers and 5)An evaluation of a support programme using qualitative data from brief interviews with 24 participating children, attending 2 distinct, age appropriate, groups. A semiotic analysis of texts culled from the investigations was carried out. In Investigations 1 and 2, it was established that silence functioned as a sign whilst, unsurprisingly, the investigations in which counsellors’ communication was analysed (3 and 4) showed that empathy and dialogue were central. The specific question addressed in the first investigation was whether closed communication had operated in the lives of bereaved children who are now adults and, in the second, whether this is found across generations and cultures. The findings in both cases gave an affirmative answer. The evaluation of group support for 24 children suggested that the programme had been helpful in resolving shorter term effects of loss and lends some support to the notion of ‘Continuing Bonds’. The research question formulated for the study was: What psychological tools, including signs, operate in adult-child communication in this context. The main finding was that both open and closed styles of communication are employed.

How do people listen to soundscapes in the built environment? Current soundscape research within urban planning disciplines tends to focus on measuring outdoor spaces in the built environment by interviewing the people within. This thesis, by contrast, followed individual listeners, using a qualitative, Grounded Theory methodology, examining listening preferences and habits across multiple environments. This approach gave a broad range of reactions to different soundscapes, from homes to workplaces to bars, clubs, and places of worship. This thesis reviews various soundscape epistemologies, methodologies, and methods, and argues that we need a stronger theoretical understanding of all these elements. It questions what is being measured, and how people are measuring it. The thesis suggests some ways qualitative and quantitative research can work together more effectively, and move soundscapes from the current multidiciplinary research landscape to a truly interdiciplinary one. In defining the soundscape as ‘the listener's perception of their auditory surroundings’, I shift the focus from measuring people's evaluation of spaces, to evaluating people themselves. This leads to a radically new empirical approach and theoretical description of the soundscape, using social science methods to build thick description of listening habits. Twenty people were given audio recorders and log books, and asked to record their day-to-day lives for two weeks. They were then interviewed about their experiences. The main finding was that soundscapes are not noticed most of the time, with participants seeming to have a ‘noticing threshold’: affected by factors such as control, expectation, and activity. Soundscapes which were noticed fell into one of four categories: positive--loud, positive--quiet, negative--loud or negative--quiet, with different judgement criteria for each. Participants were also highly adept at using coping mechanisms, such as recorded music and TV, to counteract undesirable sound environments.