Goethe had a complex and evolving relationship with the nobility, for reasons which can in part be inferred from his biography. This thesis, however, is primarily concerned with examination of relevant texts, and is largely confined to the years before the journey to Italy in 1786. The first three chapters cover the period before his arrival in Weimar. This is followed by an account of the relevant works from the first Weimar decade (1775-1786), with some biographical detail. The main weight has fallen on Wilhelm Meisters theatralische Sendung, a text which is still sometimes undervalued, and has a rather limited bibliography. It is naturally a more direct reflection of his social attitudes than the three major plays associated with the decade, which however have been given separate, more cursory treatments in the three final chapters. General themes include the emergence of Goethe from immature, or at least inherited, stereotypes of the nobility, first towards an attempted alliance between it and the ‘Genie’ of the Sturm und Drang, and then to a more detailed critique made possible by personal experience. The final phase (final, that is, within the limited time frame) was the formation and development of an internal ideal of nobility with an increasingly tenuous relationship with social and political reality. Goethe’s picture of nobility as performance and presentation of self is considered, and its links, for the non-noble author, with theatre and theatrical role performance. Other recurring themes include court manners and their value, both inherently and as an analogue of the heightening which for Goethe was essential to art, court life as a paradigm of social life in general, and the related subject of flight from society.

This thesis demonstrates a new methodology for the linguistic analysis of literature drawing on the data within The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (2009). Developing ideas laid out by Carol McGuirk in her book Robert Burns and the Sentimental Era (1985), this study offers a novel approach to the cultural connections present in the sentimental literature of the eighteenth century, with specific reference to Robert Burns. In doing so, it responds to the need to “stop reading Burns through glossaries and start reading him through dictionaries, thesauruses and histories”, as called for by Murray Pittock (2012). Beginning by situating the methodology in linguistic theory, this thesis goes on firstly to illustrate the ways in which such an approach can be deployed to assess existing literary critical ideas. The first chapter does this testing by examining McGuirk’s book, while simultaneously grounding the study in the necessary contextual background. Secondly, this study investigates, in detail, two aspects of Burns’s sentimental persona construction. Beginning with his open letter ‘The Address of the Scotch Distillers’ and its sentimental use of the language of the Enlightenment, and moving on to one of Burns’s personas in his letters to George Thomson, this section illustrates the importance of persona construction in Burns’s sentimental ethos. Finally, a comprehensive, evidence-based, comparison of linguistic trends examines the extent to which similar sentimental language is used by Burns and Henry Mackenzie, Laurence Sterne, William Shenstone and Samuel Richardson. This thesis shows how this new methodology is a valuable new tool for those involved in literary scholarship. For the first time in any comprehensive way the Historical Thesaurus can be harnessed to make new arguments in literary criticism.

'Ecopoetry' has been identified as a subset of nature poetry that proposes alternative modes of human inhabitation on the earth, often by focusing on what it means to be at 'at home' in nature. This is linked to the ecocritical interest in place-making, as an alternative to the homogenized spaces of capitalism. And yet the idea of place as 'home' or shelter has been criticised for its conservatism, and for the ways it ignores the dynamic simultaneity of the planet. This has urged some critics to focus instead on poetic evocation of space. Here I argue that Thomas's and Frost's poetry of home and 'extra-vagance' between 1912 and 1917 suggests the dialectical connections between our homes and other spaces, places and times. At the same time, these concepts convey both the necessity and limits of language to suggest these experiences. This version of home is constantly seeking its antithesis, forming what Éduard Glissant called 'rooted errantry'. While this idea is apparent prior to the poets' meeting, it becomes most prominent both during and after Thomas and Frosts' meeting, particularly in those poems that address the impact of nature on the human mind in 'wayfaring'. In addition to my development of ecocriticism and ecopoetry, the study furthers Thomas and Frost scholarship by emphasising the philosophical, as well as poetic, influence of both poets on each other. This influence been underplayed by national affiliations in British criticism and, where it is explained, attributed to Frost's theory of the 'sound of sense' rather than to his philosophical interests. Further, national interests have undervalued the importance of Frost's stay in England to his mature poetic theorising: his learning from T.E. Hulme and his experiences of 'extra-vagance' and walks with Thomas, and have subsequently undervalued the importance of these encounters for Frost's poems written during and after this period. This alignment between Thomas and Frost highlights, at the same time, Thomas's critical difference from the Georgians. Thomas and Frost's physical and poetic extra-vagance prefigures Timothy Ingold's writing about 'wayfaring' (Ingold 2011). In addition, I argue that Thomas's and Frost's poetry of référance, dialogue and birdsong shows how the poets are concerned with representing the processes of experience, rather than presenting static ideas. After their likely contact with the philosophy of Henri Bergson, both poets seem to demonstrate that the processional and dynamic aspects of non-human nature resemble the forces that they observe in their own minds. Thomas and Frost illustrate how being at home, either in non-human nature or the mind, will always involve a process of negotiation with other conflicting impulses and 'otherness'. In doing so, they overcome the limitations of traditional pastoral poetry.

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This thesis explores how gender and sexuality are conceptualised in human spaceflight. The culture of outer space has received relatively little critical attention, and even less on the subjects of gender and sexuality. In this thesis I aim to expand upon this limited field and to investigate how the cultural dimensions of outer space can be used to productive critical ends. The history of gender in human spaceflight is a troubled one. For decades, women were systematically excluded from most spaceflight endeavours. I argue that in addition to this, more insidious forms of exclusion have continued despite increasing representation of women in the global astronaut corps. Representations of gender in space culture are drawn from a long history of traditional conceptualisation of masculine and feminine bodies, particularly in spatial theory. Additionally, using the particular spatiality of extra-terrestrial spaces, I argue that traditional notions of gendered bodies and spaces can be uniquely destabilised by human spaceflight experience. The gendering of outer space is often entangled with sexual culture in space discourse,as discussions of women in space are often conflated with discussions of sexuality, reproduction, and human futures in space. I analyse these ideological connections alongside feminist and queer theory to argue that while space culture is primarily heteronormative, it also holds great potential for destabilising narratives of heteronormativity. Discussions of the future, in particular, often revolve around heteronormative ideas of family and procreation, however the temporality of space culture is not as straightforward as these narratives would suggest. It is my contention that the critical potential of outer space both necessitates and facilitates a radical shift in understandings of spatiality and temporality. Ultimately, I argue that the extremity associated with extra-terrestrial exploration can inform broader theoretical discussions of gender, sexuality, cultural space, time and the future.

Anthropology and literary criticism can interact fruitfully in the investigation of theoretical, general and specific issues concerning literature. Anthropological concepts of magic and ritual are useful to account for those fictions which defy neat labels and sit at the crossroad between the fantastic and the mimetic impulses. Furthermore, the reading process of such fictions can be interpreted as a liminal experience, whereby the reader’s consciousness is ritualized. Adopting a phenomenological stance and a socio-anthropological methodology, the thesis presents the author’s auto-ethnography of reading, also integrating the latest findings of cognitive linguistics and psychology of fiction into the theoretical reflection. Other conceptual tools, such as ideas concerning performative language, the hero quest and epiphany, metaphor and symbolism, are elaborated in order to illustrate the reading of ‘hybrid’ fictions, and how the reader is actively involved in the process. Moreover, three sample novels are analysed in the light of concepts of magic from a thematic and structural point of view, as texts which posit the issue of the de-reification of the real and of the imagination itself as a critique of the discourses of modernity. Overall the thesis supports an ecological view of the (literary) imagination, conceived as a relational process whereby nature and culture are seen as co-extensive and not in opposition to each other.

Tha an tràchdas seo a’ coimhead air buidheann de dhàin fhada a nochd aig toiseach an fhicheadaimh linn. Cha deach cus ùidh a shealltainn sna dàin seo bho sgrùdairean Gàidhealachadh sa chiad dol a-mach. Bho chrìoch an fhicheadamh linn, tha ùidh air nochdadh sna dàin seo a-rithist, gu h-àraidh An Cuilithionn, Aeòlus agus Balg agus Mochtàr is Dùghall. Ach ’s e an tràchdas seo a’ chiad sgrùdadh domhain air a’ bhuidheann seo de dhàin nan aonar. Gus an rannsachadh seo a dhèanamh thèid corpas a lorg am measg leabhraichean agus irisean bhon àm, agus na co-chruinneachaidhean a chaidh fhoillseachadh nas anmoiche. Thèid taghadh a dhèanamh a tha a’ riochdachadh prìomh fheartan nan dàn seo. Thèid rannsachadh a dhèanamh air cuid de dh’eisimpleirean bhon 18mh agus 19mh linn ann an Caibideil 2. Air sgàth ’s an uidhir de shurbhaidhean nas fharsainge a tha ri fhaotainn de litreachas na Gàidhlig, seallaidh an sgrùdadh sin air feartan sònraichte. Chìthear mar a chleachd bàrdachd Mhic Mhaighstir Alasdair cruth a’ chiùil mhòir gus gnè-sònraichte ùr de dhàin fhada a chur air bog ann an 1751. Ghabhar sùil mar an ceudna air Uilleam MacDhùn-Lèibhe air tàilibh a bhuaidh air Somhairle MacGill-Eain, agus gu robh amasan nàiseantach agus socio-cànanachais an Ìlich ri fhaicinn anns a’ mhòr-chuid de bhàird a’ chorpais cuideachd. Seallaidh Caibideil 3 air na bàird fhèin, gu h-àraidh na beachdan aca agus na ceanglaichean eatorra. Bha iad seo ri fhaicinn ann an saoghal litreachais agus poilitigs. ’S e prìomh amas na h-anailisean (Caibideilean 4-10) tuigse nas fheàrr fhaighinn an dà chuid air na dàin fhèin agus air ceistean teòiriceil a tha a’ buntainn ris a’ chorpas. ’S e an dàrna amas barrachd dhòighean-obrach teòiriceil a chleachdadh sa Ghàidhlig gus bruidhinn air litreachas na cànaine. Stèidhicheadh na h-anailisean air na feartan a bha ri fhaicinn anns gach dàn, a leithid iar-phlanntachais ann am Mochtàr is Dùghall, air neo air coimeasan a bha gus tuigse nas fheàrr a thoirt seachad air a’ chorpas shlàn. Bidh na h-anailisean seo a’ dearbhadh cuid de na ceanglaichean cudromach a th’ aig litreachas na Gàidhlig ri litreachasan Eòrpach eile, air uairean airson a’ chiad uair. Tha an co-dhùnadh a’ tilleadh do sealladh nas fharsainge air a’ chorpas. Chìthear gu bheil buidheann sònraichte de dhàin ri fhaicinn bhon chiad leth den fhicheadamh linn, dàin nach deach a sgrùdadh còmhla riamh. Tha na dàin seo ceangailte ann am meud, cuspairean, iomraidhean agus amasan nam bàrd. Leasachaidh tuigse nas fheàrr air na dàin seo an t-eòlas a th’ againn air bàrdachd na Gàidhlig, gu h-àraidh sna bliadhnaichean nuair a bha na nua-bhàird a’ nochdadh an toiseach.

This thesis demonstrates how selected texts by J.G. Ballard—Crash (1973), Concrete Island (1974) and High‐Rise 1975)—and Kurt Vonnegut—Player Piano (1952), Slaughterhouse‐Five(1969) and Galápagos (1985)—can be considered in terms of theoretical stances derived from posthumanism. By analysing representations of the ‘human’ in relation to both the ‘machine’ and the ‘evolutionary human animal’, this thesis illustrates the emergence of the posthuman subject. In addition, by recognising the intersection between posthumanism and evolutionary theory, a wider project of this thesis involves demonstrating how the use of various theoretical approaches, from the ‘humanities’ and the ‘sciences’, contributes to the formation of a ‘posthumanities’ approach to literature. J.G. Ballard and Kurt Vonnegut consistently present fictional scenarios in which the lines between ‘human’, ‘machine’ and ‘evolutionary animal’ are disrupted and blurred. Depictions assume various triangulations and configurations: from the protagonist Ballard’s auto‐eroticism, to the characters of High‐Rise conflating boundaries between the ‘human’ and the evolutionary animal that is conveyed as a constituent of human identity, as well as between the machinic environment and the human inhabitant. Further,comparable configurations characterise Vonnegut’s texts: Player Piano’s Paul Proteus’ war against the machine is superimposed by human affiliation with the machine, and the castaway characters of Galápagos are stranded by evolutionary forces that displace human authority and control to the uttermost limit. Each of these instances contributes to the effective intervention of posthumanist thinking when reading the texts. In addition, the utilisation of evolutionary concepts derived from contemporaneous publications circulating in the cultural and scientific sphere highlights the usefulness of acknowledging sources from beyond the remit of traditional literary studies’ methodologies when reading texts. The triangulation between literature, posthumanism and evolutionary theory results in a reconfigured methodological approach to fictional texts: the posthumanities.