This study analyses the ways in which gender relations are expressed and articulated through the use of folk proverbs amongst Pashto-speaking people of Pakistan. Previous work on Pashto proverbs have romanticised proverbs as a cultural asset and a source of Pashtun pride and ethnic identity, and most studies have aimed to promote or preserve folk proverbs. However, there is little recognition in previous literature of the sexist and gendered role of proverbs in Pashtun society. This study argues that Pashto proverbs encode and promote a patriarchal view and sexist ideology, demonstrating this with the help of proverbs as text as well as proverbs performance in context by Pashto speakers. The analysis is based on more than 500 proverbs relating to gender, collected from both published sources and through ethnographic fieldwork in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Qualitative data was collected through 40 interviews conducted with Pashto-speaking men and women of various ages and class/educational backgrounds, along with informal discussions with local people and the personal observations of the researcher. The study is informed by a combination of theoretical approaches including folkloristics, feminist sociology and sociolinguistics. While establishing that patriarchal structures and values are transmitted through proverbs, the study also reveals that proverbs’ meanings and messages are context-bound and women may, therefore, use proverbs in order to discuss, contest and (sometimes) undermine gender ideologies. More specifically, it is argued that: (1) Proverbs as ‘wisdom texts’ represent the viewpoint of those having the authority to define proper and improper behaviour, and as such, rather than objective reality represent a partial and partisan reality which, in the context of the present research, is sexist and misogynist. (2) While proverbs as ‘texts’ seem to present a more fixed view of reality, proverbs as ‘performance in context’ suggest that different speakers may use proverbs for different strategic purposes, such as to establish and negotiate ethnic and gendered identities and power which varies on the basis of gender, age, ethnicity, and class of the interlocutors. The thesis concludes that, rather than considering folk proverbs as ‘factual’ and ‘valuable’ sources of cultural expression, scholars should pay more attention to their ‘performatory’, ‘derogatory’ and ‘declaratory’ aspects as these often relegate women (and ‘other’, weaker groups) to a lesser position in society.

Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis est né à Marseille en 1739. Admis, en 1752, à l'École des Enfants de Langue, créée par Colbert, il apprend le métier de drogman. Outre l'enseignement des discipline classiques qui est dispensé par les jésuites, il y commence l'apprentissage des langues orientales et reçoit une solide formation à l'érudition. Devenu drogman, il passe plus de trente ans de sa vie dans les Échelles du Levant et de Barbarie et sa carrière remarquable lui ouvre les portes de la Bibliothèque du Roy dans laquelle il sera nommé Secrétaire Interprète pour les Langues Orientales, l'acmé de la profession. Il se consacre alors à la philologie, à la traduction d'ouvrages orientaux et fait bénéficier de nombreux auteurs de son savoir sur l'Orient. Il devient un jalon marquant de l'orientalisme académique français. L'Expédition d'Égypte est sa dernière mission, il y accompagne le général Bonaparte et meurt lors de la retraite de Syrie. L'utilisation du prisme biographique permet, au delà de la vie et de l'œuvre de Jean- Michel Venture de Paradis, d'avoir une vision d'ensemble de la constitution et de la professionnalisation du corps des drogmans français, tout au long du XVIIIe siècle français. il permet également de mettre en évidence l'évolution de cette profession aux multiples facettes, médiation linguistique, commerciale et diplomatique, qui se transforme , se divise et donne naissance à la fin du siècle, à la diplomatie et à l'orientalisme académique. / Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis was born in Marseille in 1739. In 1752 he boarded the Ecole des Enfants de Langue, founded by Colbert, where he is trained as a drogman. Aside from the classical disciplines teached there by the Jesuits, he studies oriental languages and receives a solid training in erudition. Once a drogman, Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis will spend more than 30 years in the Levant and Barbary. His successful career leads him to the Bibliothèque du Roy where he is named Secrétaire Interprète pour les Langues Orientales, the most important post in the profession of drogman. He then studies philology, translates oriental texts and shares his knowledge with many authors, becoming a key personality in the academic circle of Oriental studies. The Expédition d’Egypte will be his last assignment. He accompanies General Bonaparte and dies during the retreat of the French army from Syria.The use of biographical material taken from the life of Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis opens to a broader vision of the creation, and professionnalization, during all of the 18th century, of the position of drogman. It also permits to focus on the evolution of a profession which relies on a variety of competencies : linguistic, diplomatic, and commercial mediation, which transforms itself, splits up, and gives birth, at the end of the century, to professional diplomacy on the one hand, and academic orientalism on the other.

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The present work addresses the notions of poverty and poverty relief in Buddhist social and economic ethics, comparing them to current approaches to conceptualizing poverty used in the development community. Given the Buddhist preoccupation with ceasing suffering and removing its causes, and the key Buddhist principle of Right Livelihood that is found in the Ennobling Eightfold Path to enlightenment taught by the Buddha, economic ethics appear to be central to the Buddhist path and a concern for the suffering caused by extreme poverty therefore ought to be a key point of concern in Buddhist ethics. Buddhist ethics has developed into a field of study all its own over the last few decades, addressing issues in applied ethics from bioethics to human rights and environmental concerns, but little has been written by virtually any standard on the important topic of poverty relief. The present work makes a step toward filling that gap by examining relevant passages in the Pāli Canon as well as popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras to demonstrate that a concern for deprivation or non-voluntary impoverishment is evident in key Buddhist doctrines and teachings from the earliest recorded history of the Buddhist tradition. The thesis further discusses the duties to relieve poverty outlined in Buddhist social ethics as well as the development of Buddhist economics and its critique of dominant mainstream economics. It also offers a comparison of Buddhist conceptions of poverty with contemporary notions of poverty, such as the capabilities approach to poverty developed by Amartya Sen and currently in use by the UNDP. In both of these cases poverty is portrayed in a comprehensive and multi-dimmensional manner which views income as only one aspect of poverty. Additionally, this dissertation examines the contemporary Socially Engaged Buddhist movement and identifies historical and contemporary examples of Buddhist poverty relief efforts.

This Creative Writing PhD consists of a novel, The Encyclopaedia of Istanbul, and accompanying critical essays, Ottoman Crossroads: Coffeehouses, Politics, Theatres and Storytelling. The Encyclopaedia of Istanbul is historical in nature, and magically real in temperament. It is an account of fin de siècle Constantinopolis, and contains forgotten fairy tales, remnants of an ancient manuscript culture, Armenian playwrights, Turkish feminists, Greek fortune-tellers and Sephardim cantors. It tells the tale of six intersecting lives in 1876, a time known as “the year of the three Sultans” in Ottoman history. This period was filled with tensions between traditionalism and Westernization, but also new political possibilities forwarded by the Young Ottomans. While the characters in The Encyclopaedia of Istanbul are fictitious, they are inspired by historical events and figures. The second element of my PhD, Ottoman Crossroads, is made up of four individual essays that focus on selected themes from the novel. They scrutinize, in order of presentation, the history of coffeehouse culture, the secretive society of the Young Ottomans and their political thought, the formation of Armenian-Turkish theatre, and the rediscovery of Ottoman fairy tales. Whilst the novel and essays are coherent independently, they also link to each other in ways that are sometimes direct, and at other times subtle.