To date, the most substantial accounts of our engagement with literature have focused on prose-fiction, in particular the novel, drawing on issues of plot, character and narrative in explaining our understanding of literary works. These accounts do not consider how the poetic features of a literary work may affect our reading experience and how this contributes to the meaning of the work. In this thesis I show the philosophical importance of the experience of reading poetry for the role it can play in inquiry, in particular, how such an experience can facilitate philosophical thinking and active inquiry. Adopting a reader-response view of our engagement with poetry, I argue that the experience of reading lyric poetry can make a valuable contribution to philosophical inquiry by enriching our conceptual understanding. The reading experience helps us to forge explicit awareness of our concepts and the networks of associations and beliefs that determine our use of them. Understanding poetry necessarily requires attending to the unity of form and content, and the particular perspectives on offer in the poem. This complex whole sustains perspectives and emotions where character and narrative are lacking. I argue that the perspectival nature of our reading experience is important for philosophical inquiry into aspects of human life. Encountering the perspectives of the poem helps to activate our own perspectives through our emotional and intellectual responses, bringing into focus what we value. I apply this argument to the moral domain, arguing that poetry can facilitate moral inquiry in particular by exposing moral significance in our concepts, helping us to feel what is at stake, and by testing our moral understanding. The way in which the poetic examples discussed engage us emotionally, imaginatively and cognitively (through the reading experience) help us address moral questions from distinctive and valuable perspectives, which provide us with moral insights of value in philosophical inquiry.

This study is concerned with the way in which Racine, particularly through his use of language, dramatises areas of tension inherent in the concept of power. Considering three plays from Racine's middle period (Britannicus, Bajazet and Berenice), Chapter One seeks to uncover the basis of political power. Taking as its starting point the ambivalence underpinning the term legitimacy, Section A examines the foundations of power in the sense of political and moral authority. Section B in turn looks at the implications of these findings for the nature and operation of power, while Section C highlights the discrepancy between real and imagined power, by raising the all-important question as to its locus. Chapter Two takes a fresh look at the relationship between power and love. The ruler/lover dichotomy dramatises both an exterior clash and an interior conflict. We see firstly how the role of ruler impinges upon the role of lover, betraying the transgressive nature of power. However, the examination of the operation of power in a realm where it should not prevail, is ironically confounded by the fact that the political and the erotic are shown to be almost inextricably intertwined. The roles of ruler and lover therefore paradoxically conflict and concord simultaneously. By examining relations between individual characters from the Sartrean perspective of pour autrui, Chapter Three ultimately reveals what the power structure would conceal, that is that those in power are subject to the same cycle of dominance and subservience as those who are not. Section A demonstrates the way in which the familiar acts of thinking and speaking, traditionally perceived as our principal means of positive interaction with others, give rise to conflictual relationships similar to those portrayed three centuries later by Sartre in Huis Clos. Language itself, far from uniting characters, becomes a source of anxiety and discord. Characters find themselves in a bewildering hall of mirrors as speech becomes increasingly deceptive, distorting and concealing the truth. In this way we see how the dit gives way to the tyranny of the non-dit, for like a sinister 'thought police', Racine's protagonists set about capturing and controlling the Other's mind. Section B highlights the development of techniques of manipulation and suppression. The title of this section, Merry-Go-Round, reflects the endless and fruitless struggle to dominate the Other's thought-process.

Although scholarly interest in the field of emblematics has increased greatly over the last decade, there is still much to be done, particularly in the area of religious emblems. The emblem form has been considered from the perspective of individual author, geographical factors and theological background but there have been few comparative studies with respect to religious emblems. This study will compare Protestant and Catholic emblems produced during the Reformation and Counter- Reformation, drawing on specific examples from, in particular, France, but also Germany and England. Emblems played a huge role in early-modern life. They expressed contemporary thought and also became part of the physical environment, being etched into stone, or wood, or sewn into cloth as decoration. In a period of such political, civil, and religious unrest, it would, therefore, seem likely that the Catholic and Protestant emblem would be quite distinct types either expressing theologically opposed notions, or manipulating the text/image relationship in quite different ways. Understanding how these emblems functioned, therefore, necessitates close reading, indeed, reading in the way the emblems were intended to be read. This study, therefore, will address the question of differences through detailed analysis of specific examples. This study begins with an introduction which gives a brief history of emblem literature and a review of relevant secondary material. Key terms and definitions regarding emblems are also explained here. This chapter also introduces the authors of the emblems analysed in later chapters. The first part of this thesis examines the emblem form in the wider context of the Reformation. From an initial overview of some of the key issues of the Reformation in chapter one, chapters two and three move on to analyse closely a wide corpus of Catholic and Protestant emblems. In these chapters the emblem is broken down into its component parts of verse and picture. Chapter two examines the religious emblem from the perspective of motif while chapter three approaches the emblem from a thematic angle. The second part of this study adopts a different approach presenting case studies of three authors. Chapter four explores the importance of the visual element in the emblems of Protestant author Rollenhagen. Chapter five investigates the Jesuit influences which shape the emblems of Catholic Berthod. While chapters four and five offer an insight into the work of prototypical Protestant and Catholic authors chapter six demonstrates the successful fusion of both Protestant and Catholic influences in the emblems of Wither. Indeed, this study suggests that the differences between Protestant and Catholic at this time are largely exaggerated with respect to emblems. Protestant and Catholic emblems are not, this study maintains, in essence all that different. It argues that, in fact, Protestant and Catholic emblems were often very close in terms of content and that the real difference is in the way they manipulate the text/image relationship.

Through an analysis of, and novel comparison between, the thought of Jacqes Lacan and Paulo Freire, this thesis endevours to rethink subjective agency in a way which takes into account the determinate influence of socio-symbolic structures. It argues for a reconceptualisation of subjecthood such that it might once again (subsequent to postmodernism and poststructuralism) become a basis of a system of ethics. The project examines the ways in which Lacan and Freire innovatively chart the dialectic between being and meaning which, they posit, is a universal human phenomenon. Within their conceptions of this dialectic a subject not only has the ability to make fundamental choices but can also ground trans-subjective truth. The thesis addresses what it percieves as a need to re-emphasize subjecthood as a symbolic existence required of all human beings. Such an existence, it maintains, is the object of Lacan and Freire's work. It, furthermore, posits that the impetus behind their interventions concerning subjectivity is primarily an ethical one. Both thinkers cite engagement with and humility before the project of meaning (as shared human activity) as an essential component of an authentic subjective act. Literacy operates in this thesis as a unifying motif between the thought of Freire and Lacan.Understood in light of their work, literacy suggests a pedagogical practice that prompts individuals to realise their capacity and responsibility as subjects. The project aims to outline the central features and tactics of such practice. The thesis also draws on examples from literature, particularly that of J.M. Coetzee, in an attempt to explicate the dynamics with which both Freire and Lacan are preoccupied. Coetzee is particularly suited to this end because his novels are largely concerned with how subjects confront the necessity as well as the difficulty of making ethical interventions in meaning.

This thesis examines music and its relationship to gender and the related social commentary woven throughout New Woman writing, putting forth the New Woman musician figure for consideration. In contrast to the male-dominated world of Victorian music, New Woman fiction is rife with women who not only wish to pursue music, but are brilliantly talented musicians and composers themselves. These women are the focal point of this thesis. The primary texts used are Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899); Sarah Grand’s Ideala (1888), The Heavenly Twins (1893), and The Beth Book (1897); George Egerton’s Keynotes (1893), Discords (1894), Symphonies (1897), and Fantasias (1898); George Moore’s Evelyn Innes (1898) and Sister Teresa (1901); and Mona Caird’s The Daughters of Danaus (1894); with George du Maurier’s Trilby (1894) (and, to a lesser extent, the Moore texts) offered in contrast to the foregoing. This thesis seeks to answer the following question: what is music’s function in New Woman fiction, and to what end? Each chapter offers an answer to this question using different areas of women’s musicianship: stifled musicians, performers, composers, and auditors. In addition, the penultimate chapter works toward a theory of “melopoetic composition,” or the blending of literary and musical composition, and discusses the role of mirror neurons in creating a unique reading experience which is visual, aural, and neural. Ultimately, this thesis illustrates that the sister arts of music and literature were woven together by the sisterhood of the New Woman writers, who used fiction as a medium through which to assert their multi-layered creative capabilities.

This thesis is an analysis of the ways in which images of bodily disgust function in social conflicts. It considers the necessary embodiment of political struggle: that is, the ways in which inequalities are sustained and contested through the material forms taken by human bodies and the meanings attached to bodily states. In chapter one I map out the theoretical grounding for an inquiry into embodiment, by showing how the physical forms taken by bodies are produced by social practices. I argue that ‘the body’ should be seen as a biological product, a ‘body project’, regulated and transformed by its environment. This in turn leads me to a consideration of how such body-shapings sustain regimes of power through constructing for subjects physical forms which are designed to maintain existing systems of inequality. Through a reading of Michel Foucault’s work, I show how such bodies are also able to resist power by making use of the material and discursive structures which seek, but fail, to render them wholly submissive. In chapter two I look at the ways in which the body acts as a map of the psyche, producing a subject which understands itself in terms of its experience of its body parts. I also consider how the body acts as a social symbol, encoding anxieties about the society that it inhabits. By considering both psychoanalytic accounts, and the work of Mary Douglas, I interrogate how concepts of order, form, and integrity become central to embodied subjectivity. In chapter three I consider how, in the Naked Lunch Quartet, William Burroughs represents the body as under threat from repulsive external substances, and how his depiction of such substances in fact relies on a notion of body matter itself as repulsive. I will show how this results from his conceptualization of bodily materiality as antithetical to freedom, and I argue that by demonstrating the impossibility of escaping from acts of invasion and possession, Burroughs's texts in fact undermine the libertarian position that he adopts. In chapter four I develop this argument through a comparison with Julia Kristeva's concept of abjection. I suggest that his representation of abject bodies enables Burroughs to critique the invasive mechanisms of authority, but requires that he collude with the stigmatizing discourses of authority in order to adopt such a position. In particular I consider how this affects his representation of gender. In chapter five I show how David Cronenberg's Shivers may be read as a film that both sustains and critiques the notion of innate bodily disorder. I argue that this is derived from his reliance upon notions of a hierarchy of bodies derived from inequalities of race and class. In chapter six I develop this critique with a reading of Cronenberg's The Fly. I suggest that this film is much more explicit about the fact that bodily chaos is in fact a state experienced by the socially excluded. It offers a critique of the processes by which we are made to feel disgust at our bodies, suggesting that disgust inaugurates a logic of paranoid purification, which in fact impedes the possibilities of the acceptance of those bodies which fall outside certain social limits. Finally, in my conclusion, I look at how Cronenberg's Rabid might be seen as a compendium of the issues of embodied politics, and use this to suggest possible directions in which the work of this thesis might be extended.

This thesis explores the position of female film directors working in Hollywood. It is intended to address an area in feminist film theory which has often been overlooked. Although it is incorrect to say there has been no feminist analysis of the "mainstream" woman director, most of the work which has been done concentrates either on finding the feminism or femininity of her films, or studies only a select few directors. This research widens the debate by validating the study of all women directors, and moves away from the search for definitive feminist meaning in the cinematic text. It employs a contextual and multi-theoretical approach to interrogate the multiplicity of meanings embodied by the phrase "woman director". The first chapter interrogates auteur theory because any discussion of female authorship must confront this critical perspective. The female director makes a problematic auteur since that figure is traditionally gendered as masculine. Chapter two is a "state of the industry" examination of the position of the woman director in Hollywood, with a special emphasis on mentoring. Chapter three examines the marketing of Mimi Leder's films The Peacemaker (1997) and Deep Impact (1999). Chapters four, five and six explore the construction of the woman director as "star", presenting in-depth case studies of Jodie Foster and Penny Marshall. Chapters seven and eight look at the reception of Blue Steel (1990) and Strange Days (1995) directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and Clueless (1995) directed by Amy Heckerling. Each chapter is designed to contextualise and historicise the woman director in order to better understand why her gender has prevented her from being seen as a "natural" director: that is, why directing has been viewed as a suitable job for a man but "no job for a lady".

This thesis is concerned with the way multi-national issues are dealt with by media. I illustrate this by the example of the media treatment of Mideast relations, concentrating on three newspapers: The Washington Post and The New York Times from the US, and Al Ahram from Egypt. The events central to the study lay within the Camp David Period of September 1977 to March 1979, with the signing of the Camp David Accords in September, 1978, and the Treaty in March, 1979 ("Camp David"). Because of the media coverage this is an ideal series of events to study methods of filtering information within newspapers. Since Camp David created as much interest in the Mideast as in the West, a comparison of different reports is fruitful. Within Chapter 5I utilise a content analytical method to discover what biases may have been present in the reporting of Camp David, widening this to deal with issues of journalism and the North/ South divide, and show that media is less an investigative tool and more an anchor for established views. A tentative conclusion is an identification of the lack of what are considered journalists' most valued qualities: objectivity and professionalism. I identify a misunderstanding in the lay-person's view of the media profession: as The Washington Post and The New York Times show, although articles may have attempted a balanced format, these media may not have been investigative internationally (though they were domestically). We have to be wary when extrapolating from only three newspapers to the wider world (though I studied other newspapers and media) but since these titles were chosen for their standing and influence, some wider conclusions may be drawn. The thesis indicates no single viewpoint of developed media; no "conspiracy" somehow politically to defraud or act directly for domestic interests. I seek a perspective on developed media in a simultaneous analysis of the Egyptian media and its milieu. What I contend is of interest is that forces acted on Al Ahram, The Washington Post and The New York Times which, though different in kind, were more similar in effect than heretofore argued. Western journalism I assess as operating within a narrower set of models than is frequently believed.

The social construction of the discourse of medical institutions is analysed, drawing on both speech act and structural theories. Discourse is defined as a symbol system which has an ideological effect. This effect is linked to the maintenance of the interests of hegemonic social groups. Michel Foucault's archaeological method accords primacy to the relations which exist between institutional and social processes in the formation of discursive relations. Foucault's genealogical method also describes how the identity of the modern subject is constituted within the power nexus of coercive institutions. Medical discourse is paradigmatic of Basil Bernstein's model of pedagogic discourse. Pedagogic discourse is constructed according to the intrinsic grammar of the pedagogic device. This comprises distributive, recontextualizing and evaluative rules. These operate in three institutional contexts: the field of production, the field of reproduction and the recontextualizing field. M. A. K. Halliday's systemic linguistics defines three metafunctions of the text which operate in relation to its context of situation: the textual, ideational, and interpersonal. The textual characteristics of three principal modalities, or genres, of medical text are described in relation to their institutional contexts: the medical research report within the field of production, the medical interview within the field of reproduction and the medical textbook within the recontextualizing field. As a medical text shifts from the field of production to the recontextualizing field, certain transformations take place in the ideational options of tense, transitivity and process and the interpersonal options of modality. These syntactic transformations, organized by codes of the pedagogic device, symbolically authorize the recontextualized medical text.

This study critically examines the position of women in post-colonial societies across the Arab region and the structuring of female experience and gender by patriarchy, class, literacy, religion and historical conditions such as colonization, neo-imperialism and the rise of capitalism. The male writing of the female body and the perception of the latter as a field of power within the Arabo-Muslim culture constitutes the framework of the thesis. This critical approach also informs the growing feminist scholarship on the subject of the so-called Arab woman in the area under study. The notion of the feminine delivered by male dogmatic discourses, whether old or new, traditional or modern, orthodox or profane, is briefly presented in the first part of the dissertation while the deconstruction of such a referential setting by feminist academic work is undertaken in Part two as an attempt to integrate notions of womanhood, sexuality, identity, culture, religious belief, statehood, and material factors into a discursive order. Sexual difference becomes problematized within the critical assessment of the fictional voices developed by women, their exploration of concepts of sexual behaviour and their analysis of how gender ideology permeates the modernist endeavours of the post-colonial state in its efforts at development. A significant predicament is highlighted by the thesis: the cultural discourse on women, enduringly linked to their functions within the private realm, copulation and reproduction, as indicated by both the fictional and the scholarly literature, clashes with the developmentalist endeavours which require active roles within the public sphere. The conflict and indeterminacies generated by such a discrepancy are projected as an essential framework for understanding the construction of women as the 'subordinate sex' at various levels. It is also read as a fundamental dilemma that post-colonial societies across the Mediterranean have yet to address in order to resolve, at least partly, their present socio-economic crisis. The notion of woman is further essentialized within concepts of difference drawn by other dominant discourses examined in Part three. Perspectives of neo-colonialism emanating from the post-industrial First World become a framework in which to insert the work of feminist academics from North Africa and the Middle East as well as definitions of women, whether in the world at large or in more academic terms. The furthest concern of the debate on the 'women question' is to underline however the significance of feminism to operate as a major socio-political force within the post-colonial world. The findings of this research already indicate that the various movements for female emancipation taking place in the region open up new possibilities of struggle for economic growth, equality and secular democracy.