This thesis draws together material and archival sources to investigate the long-overlooked portraits of English provincial gentry families commissioned between c.1550 and c.1680. Specifically, its focus is on portraits of family groups where more than one generation, connected through blood or kinship, is depicted in the same composition. The thesis identifies these as a coherent genre for the first time and examines the ways in which the gentry used such paintings to establish familial legacy and heritage for future generations. This thesis explains how these portraits respond to, and reflect, family memory and narratives, social networks, local histories, religious observance and artistic developments. They are important because the family, as the basic unit of society, was essential for the formation and transmission of belief and identity, and the place where children were socialised. The portraits simultaneously reflect broad social trends while also containing personal messages about the lives and relationships of individual families which were specific to their own particular place and time. The thesis argues for the significance of visual artworks and especially this genre of painting, in the construction of gentry status and self-fashioning over this key period of social change.

Based on archival research in six countries, this thesis distils new documentary material into an analysis of the role of Sephardic cristãos novos in the formation of Creole society in Cabo Verde and Guiné (Caboverdean space). The role of pre-existing anti-Semitic stereotypes in otherization in the Atlantic world is examined; Sephardic involvement in Cabo Verde was accompanied by transference of subalternity in the Atlantic world from Sephardim to Africans, ensuring that the cristãos novos of Cabo Verde were, indeed, masters of difference. It is argued that the cristãos novos’ doubleness of identity facilitated their success in Cabo Verde, where protean cultural identities emerged. As a destination of (successful) escape for cristãos novos fleeing the Inquisition, Cabo Verde lacked effective control by the metropolis, and was a place where an autonomous Creole identity could develop in which malleable worldviews were key. The thesis highlights the pan-Atlantic nature of the cristão novo diaspora in the 17th century, where West Africa was of comparable importance to the American communities in Cartagena and Lima. The symbiotic relationship of hegemonies and rebellions against hegemonies is, finally, examined in this local and international framework which elucidates crucial aspects of the formation of Creole and modern identities.

This study investigates the history of Morris Dancing in the twentieth century through written sources detailing the development of the dance, but more importantly, through the oral testimony of some of those dancers who began their dancing careers after the second world war. Three particular questions were identified, firstly concerning the way in which ancient dance forms are generally linked, perhaps incorrectly, with place; secondly, the way in which the part that women played in the development of the dance has been written out of the popular modern view of the Morris; and finally, the part that Morris Dancing has played in the production of an invented myth of English history and English tradition. These, and further questions raised during the interviews, forced the study to take a wider view of the history of the dance. Looking back towards the earliest records became important because of the apparent changes that have affected Morris Dancing throughout the centuries, a dance form that is assumed to have been firmly established as an unchanging ritual, but in fact, it would seem, has always been prepared to follow whatever alterations have been demanded by society. Looking forward also became important, because as the dance has clearly changed dramatically during its history, interviewees were keen to explore the ways in which the dance could continue to develop. To follow this final area interviews were conducted with a few of those young dancers who are taking the dance forward. Sections have also been included which will try to explain some of the mysteries of the Morris for those readers who come to the dance as observers rather than performers. Through these sections further areas of study have been identified that cannot be followed in this present work but should be noted for further investigation.

No description available.

<p> This study will focus on the role of the writer during the early years of the Soviet Union (1920&ndash;1935) through the example of the life and works of Mikhail Bulgakov. Bulgakov&rsquo;s literary career paralleled Josef Stalin&rsquo;s rise to supreme power over not only the Communist Party but the Soviet Union and its citizens. As Bulgakov struggled to publish and stage his works, the Soviet government under Stalin strengthened its resolve to utilize writers to educate the masses in the correct behaviors and values of good Soviet citizens. Each demonstrated his own leadership style: as Stalin evolved into a strong Authoritarian Leader, Bulgakov &lsquo;s survival depended upon his Adaptive Leadership skills. Stalin&rsquo;s greatest successes were during his lifetime; Bulgakov&rsquo;s followed his death as the Soviet Union declined and his works were published. Research questions include the role of the writer in his contemporary society and the writer&rsquo;s ability to influence his contemporary society through his own survival in an authoritarian society but the survival of his works for audiences in other times and places. Bulgakov could not compromise his artistic vision, Stalin, although he recognized and appreciated talent, could not compromise his ideological convictions. The result was a complex relationship between two prominent figures whose leadership styles as much as their differing viewpoints dictated the course of their actions.</p>

Despite the enormous interest in recent years in the movement to recover the ‘historical memory' of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, the teaching of these contentious and bloody periods of Spanish history has received relatively little attention. This qualitative study, which explores the experiences and perspectives of secondary school teachers of history, aims to address this gap in the literature. To select the participants for this research, I adopted a stratified, multi-stage, purposive approach, sampling by region, city, school and teacher. The sample comprised 24 history teachers from 17 separate secondary schools in the cities of Madrid (Torrejón de Ardoz), Barcelona, Seville and Oviedo. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five history education experts. All interview transcripts were imported into QSR NVivo 9, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis package. The data was then analysed using Framework, a systematic, matrixbased approach to data management and analysis. The research findings build on Kitson and McCully's (2005) work by developing their ‘continuum of risk-taking', which relates to the teaching of controversial issues associated with history in Northern Ireland. An adapted model of risktaking is presented. It helps to explain the challenges and pressures teachers face in the Spanish context by identifying and exploring five distinct approaches to the teaching of the history of the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship: avoiding (‘natural' and ‘reluctant'), containing, risk-taking and activist. The research also highlights teachers' frustration with the dominant narrative presented in textbooks of Spain's ‘exemplary' transition to democracy. In so doing, it points to the danger of retrospective inevitability if the history of the transition is not presented in a nuanced fashion and if the alternatives are not explored. As such, the research constitutes an original contribution to the literature, opening up space for new conversations about the teaching of the history not only of conflict but also of the difficult and often controversial compromises that help to bring about cessations of violence. The study also considers the role of history education in the recovery of historical memory and, more broadly, in contributing to the wider reconciliation of Spanish society. Finally, the thesis highlights implications for curriculum and teacher education policy in Spain and beyond.

<p> From late in the eighteenth century through World War I, states increasingly resolved their differences through arbitration; entering into over 1000 agreements to address past controversies and provide for future disputes. Rather than relying entirely on traditional diplomatic methods, states responded to the practical needs of an increasingly complex, commercial, and bureaucratic world. They used mechanisms with some legalistic components; although these procedures remained under political control. Arbitration never prevented a war; the efforts of the Anglo-American peace movement, later augmented by continental activities and the rise of the international legal community, had but small and indirect effects. While appearing responsive to the new influence of public opinion, states only made agreements to arbitrate that were highly controlled and which typically encompassed only relationships and parties for whom war was already quite unlikely. Western powers also extensively used arbitral agreements to resolve and protect their imperial interests, both formal and informal. </p><p> The traditional historiography of this field has been skewed by its emergence out of that peace movement, with its millennial, liberal, Eurocentric, and juridical biases. As a result, the significance of the Vienna settlements in launching the modern arbitral process has been overlooked, the Jay Treaty and the "Alabama Claims" case have been mythologized, the distinctive role of Latin American states has been sidelined, and the meaning of the Hague Conferences has been misunderstood. </p><p> States are political animals and their "states' system" was effective in using arbitration as a shared tool while preserving their essential political discretion and managing their domestic and international publics.</p>

<p> The text presented here is a study of the editing and appropriation techniques of three constructivist films and their affect on narrative: Artavazd Peleshian's <i>Our Century,</i> Johan Grimonprez's <i>dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y</i> and Adam Curtis' <i>It Felt Like a Kiss.</i> An analysis of these techniques is done through the lens of the Russian Formalists, Victor Shklovsky and Mikhail Bakhtin and their respective concepts of defamiliarization and familiarization. Attention is paid to formal analysis in relation to historical context.</p>

No description available.

This thesis considers the interrelationship between the discourse and performance of gender, national identity and political agency in Scotland during the Union debates of 1706-07 and the mid-to-late eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment. These two periods are offered in contrast to each other in order to demonstrate the means by which changing discourses of gender and national identity impacted upon the performance of political agency. The first section of this thesis (Chapters 2 and 3) demonstrates that anti-Union discourse in 1706-07 was founded upon a conception of a masculine Scottish nationhood defined by ‘heroick ancestors’. This is contrasted with women’s political agency at the time, demonstrated most markedly by elite women’s ability to influence parliamentary politics. I argue that despite masculinist discourses of nationhood, during the Union debates status was a more important determinant of political agency than gender. The second section of my thesis (Chapters 4, 5 and 6) considers the centrality of male refinement and ‘civilised’ femininity to discourses of North British nationhood in the context of the Scottish Enlightenment. I examine the construction and performance of male refinement within intellectual societies and convivial clubs and then consider women’s limited inclusion in the urban Enlightenment public sphere, demonstrating that discourses of femininity necessarily precluded women’s full public engagement in this sphere. The final chapter (Chapter 7) considers martial masculinity, particularly the masculine ideal of martial Highland manhood in order to demonstrate the problematic aspect of notions of hegemonic masculinity and in order to bring the story of the Highlands and Empire into the story of Enlightenment Scotland. This thesis will demonstrate the centrality of gender to discourses of national identity and examine the impact of these on the performance of political agency in eighteenth-century Scotland and in doing so offers a contribution to the history of gender and political power.