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This thesis explores prescriptive literature and conduct books, specifically The Book of Homilies, and how these prescriptions manifest in Shakespeare’s work. This text examines the depictions of marital relationships and argues that the actions of husbands in two of Shakespeare’s comedies, The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice, deviate from prescriptive ideals that homilies deem proper for the husband-and-wife relationship. Through the combination of new historicism and gender criticism, this thesis suggests that Katherine and Portia use submission to gain agency in moments when they seem to have none while showing that the men do not fulfill their husbandly duties. This dynamic demonstrates that submission did not mean subordination, and men in these plays do not totally recognize the agency women have despite the larger scheme of patriarchal power still existing.

Nous nous intéressons à l’évolution des rapports économiques entre la Rome républicaine et l’Égypte lagide et notamment à la commercialisation du blé égyptien au bénéfice de Rome. L’étude diachronique des échanges économiques entre les deux pays nous mène à nous confronter avec l’évolution de leurs rapports politiques réciproques. Nous poursuivons notre enquête pour le premier siècle d’Empire Romain. Nous nous attarderons sur l’étude de la gestion du blé égyptien au sein du système annonaire, sans pour autant négliger les acteurs « privés » du commerce du blé sous les Empereurs julio-claudiens. Nous articulerons notre recherche autour des trois axes principaux: les institutions, les acteurs et les structures du commerce du blé. / We will study the history of economic relationships between Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Egypt, focusing on Egyptian grain trade in western Mediterranean basin, especially in Rome and Puteoli. Our diachronic approach about economical exchanges between these two countries will retain attention on their reciprocal political relationships. We will continue our research during the first century of Roman Empire. We will interest to Egyptian grain administration by the annona and the imperial supply structures. We will bring interest also on private grain trade under Julio-Claudians emperors. We will develop our research on three fundamental items: the institutions, the actors and the structures of the grain trade.

Falling within the ambit of the Department of English Literature but with interdisciplinary scope and method, the research undertaken in this thesis examines Michael Radford’s 2004 film production William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice using the Book History approach to textual study. Previously applied almost exclusively to the study of books, Book History examines the text in terms of both its medium and its content, bringing together bibliographical, literary and historical approaches to the study of books within one theoretical paradigm. My research extends this interdisciplinary approach into the filmic medium by using a modified version of Robert Darnton’s “communication circuit” to examine the process of transmission of this Shakespearean film adaptation from creation to reception. The research is not intended as a complete Book History study and even less as a comprehensive investigation of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Rather, it uses a Shakespearean case study to bring together the two previously discrete fields of Book History and filmic investigation. Drawing on film studies, literary concepts, cultural and media studies, modern management theory as well as reception theories and with the use of both quantitative and qualitative data, I show Book History to be an eminently useful and constructive approach to the study of film.

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Arbitration is the preferred method of dispute resolution in international trade. Naturally, a set of rules is necessary to govern the conflict&rsquo / s resolution. For cultural, political, economical or other reasons the parties&rsquo / national laws may not serve the individual interests and needs of that particular contract well. If one wants to avoid the application of both parties&rsquo / national laws, one can choose that the contract be governed by an a-national legal standard, e.g. general principles of International Trade Law or the general usages of a particular trade. These internationally accepted principles of law governing contractual relations are called lex mercatoria (law merchant).<br /> <br /> Lex mercatoria already existed in the Middle Ages and can even be dated back to antiquity. Later it disappeared through the nationalization of International Trade Law and was rediscovered in the 1950s, when international traders were again creating their own law and disputes were increasingly resolved outside of the national jurisdictions and applying a-national law. Lex mercatoria is being applied more and more by arbitrators and is therefore becoming increasingly important for dispute resolution in International Trade. Numerous different concepts and theories of lex mercatoria have been developed. Its being an autonomous legal system is questioned by some authors and the doctrine in favour of it called unfounded. The critics also argue that the authority to apply lex mercatoria may be a recipe for amateurism and the substitution of the arbitrator&rsquo / s private preferences for the parties&rsquo / intentions, for itis easy to proclaim common principles on the basis of limited knowledge. The lex mercatoria is said only to exist because scholars talk about it. However, these and other allegations can be refuted by critically analyzing the arguments that are supposed to underline those assumptions. Applying lex mercatoria to solve international trade disputes has many advantages. By choosing lex mercatoria the parties avoid rules which are unfit for international contracts, e.g. peculiar formalities, brief cut-off periods and special difficulties created by domestic laws. In addition to that, neither of the parties has the advantage of having the dispute governed by his own law. Since one of the central rules is the principle of good faith and fair dealing, lex mercatoria neither leads to arbitrary results nor does it favour the rich. Is it possible for the arbitrators to apply lex mercatoria if no law has been chosen by the parties? The failure of the parties to indicate a choice could well mean that they did not wish to have their contract governed by any of their national laws. In some awards arbitrators applied lex mercatoria as they considered the community of international merchants to be autonomous and to exist beyond national legislation. However, it cannot be deduced from the absence of such a choice that the parties have impliedly chosen lex mercatoria to be the law governing the conflict. Lex mercatoria is applicable only as a subsidiary law in cases where no national law has been chosen and seems apt.

This thesis provides an overview of Moritz Daniel Oppenheim's portraits of the Rothschild family with attention paid to the artist's training and personal artistic pursuits, as well as participation in Gentile and Jewish discourses. Oppenheim's knowledge of art history and use of style in creating the identities of his Rothschild subjects are the focus of this study. Oppenheim's methods and use of art historical styles are discussed with deference to the public or private nature of the portraits, and the resulting works' engagement of both German and Jewish issues. Methodologies used include the history of style and identity theory.

Au XVIIIe siècle, La Rochelle vit au rythme de son grand commerce colonial, né à la confluence du marché canadien, de la droiture avec les Antilles et de la traite négrière. Au sein de la ville atlantique, se démarque dès lors une élite tenant le haut du pavé : les négociants. Moteur de la croissance et de l’emploi, à la tête des plus grandes fortunes et propriétaires des plus beaux hôtels particuliers, ils forment un milieu socioprofessionnel ouvert et disposent d’un esprit de corps autour duquel se cristallisent une conscience et une culture partagées. Regroupés derrière leur chambre de commerce et valorisés par l’honorabilité de leur profession, les négociants réussissent sans mal à se positionner comme des figures incontournables de la société rochelaise, ayant une influence certaine sur la vie de la cité et pesant de tout leur poids face aux élites traditionnelles d’Ancien Régime.Les constats issus d’une pesée historiographique et bibliographique sont toutefois sans appel : si les travaux jusqu’ici menés sont majoritairement restés inféodés à l’étude des rouages de l’économie rochelaise, force est de constater que nous n’avons aucune vision d’ensemble du milieu négociant. Il y a là un vide scientifique certain qu’il est nécessaire de combler. En usant de protocoles et de questionnements plus mosaïques, cette thèse a pour ambition d’être la première étude socioculturelle vouée aux grands entrepreneurs du commerce rochelais. A l’appui de plus de dix mille documents d’époque mis en articulation, surgissent 738 négociants qui, au XVIIIe siècle, constituent l’âme et le cœur de La Rochelle. / In the 18th century, the pace of life in La Rochelle was dictated by the rhythm of its great colonial commerce, at the confluence of the canadian market, the direct route to the Caribbean and the slave trade. Within this atlantic town, an elite soon reached the top of the ladder : the merchants. Prime movers for economic growth and employment, owners of the greatest fortunes and most beautiful mansions, they formed an open socio-professional class with a group spirit centred on a common consciousness and shared culture. United behind their chamber of commerce and esteemed as a result of their honourable profession, the merchants easily established themselves as indispensable figures of Rochelais society, exerting a considerable influence on city life and bringing pressure to bear against the traditional elites of the Ancien Régime.However, any historiographical and bibliographical study of the subject reveals an inescapable fact : to date, the work undertaken has largely concentrated on the workings of the local economy, and there is no global overview of the merchant world. This scientific void needs to be filled. By using more varied methods and forms of inquiry, this thesis aims to be the first socio-cultural study of the great trading entrepreneurs of La Rochelle. Drawing on more than ten thousand documents from the time, 738 merchants stand out, who, in the eighteenth century, constituted the body and soul of La Rochelle.

Comedy is an inherently pleasurable phenomenon with beneficial psychological functions, but its potential to bring on undesirable and socially destabilizing consequences is less intuitively obvious. In this essay, I argue that one of the hitherto under-recognized features of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is its covert problematization of the phenomenon of comedy itself, and that the play invites its audience to become more aware of in what situations laughter is constructive and appropriate. I apply psychological and cultural-historical theories of humor— specifically, Freudian relief theory and Bakhtinian thought on laughter and festivity—as a framework for interpreting the play, with a particular emphasis on the secondary protagonist called Gratiano. I argue that Gratiano serves as a personification of comedy, whose function is to problematize it and demonstrate its positive as well as negative attributes in relation to seriousness and restraint. Gratiano’s laughter-inducing antics compel audience members to sympathize with him in the dialectic which Shakespeare sets up between him and other characters, but the play also portrays his jovial behavior as concomitant with less desirable traits which his comedy successfully obscures. While the character presents comedy as attractive and instinctively preferable to propriety and decorum, he also shows how the allure of laughter and comedy may be used by disingenuous actors to provide an attractive veneer for immoral or abhorrent behavior.