A study of Henry Vaughan’s early life and friends; his attitude to and part in contemporary affairs; poems (1646); Olor Iscanus: translations; Silex Scintillans; the prose works 1651-1655; Thalia Rediviva; his attitude to nature; his views on pre-existence; childhood; the past; style; reading and teachers; and his influence.

A study of the development of the critical thought Paul Elmer More (1864 – 1937), the American journalist, essayist and Christian apologist.

This thesis examines William Blake's American legacy by identifying a precise American interest in Blake that can be dated from Ralph Waldo Emerson's early reading of Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1842. Chapter one will show that the New England Transcendentalists - primarily Emerson, but also Elizabeth Peabody and readers of the transcendentalis publication The Harbinger - were reading Blake's Poetical Sketchse in the 1840's. This American interest in Blake's poetry will be presented against a background of British neglect of the English poet until after 1863 and the publication of Alexander Gilchrist's Life of William Blake. Chapter one provides details of Emerson's reading of Blake. According to Walter Harding, Emerson owned a copy of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. This was given to him by Elizabeth Peabody in 1842, is inscribed 'R.W. Emerson from his friend E.P.P.', and has notes throughout in Emerson's hand. Indeed, a diary entry of Henry Crabb Robinson (1848) refers to discussions between himself, Emerson and James John Garth Wilkinson about Blake. Drawing on the Transcendentalists' reading of Blake's poetry, chapter two will read Emerson's essay in light of his interest in the English poet. Some critical attention has been given elsewhere to Blakean passages in Emerson's essays, but it has been fleeting. Richard Gravil is the critic who makes the most effort to record Emerson's interest in Blake, but does so sporadically and mainly as a footnote to a larger point about transatlantic Romanticism more generally. Richard O'Keefe's 1995 study, Mythic Archetypes in Ralph Waldo Emerson claims that Emerson was not reading Blake until after 1863; this thesis will challenge that assumption. Chapter two also examines Emerson's later essays and offers a new reading of Society and Solitude (1870) and Letters and Social Aims (1875) by placing these collections alongside a consideration of Blake's prophetic poems, Poetical sketches (1783) and Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794). Chapter three will then show that, in 1868, a transatlantic discussion about the affinities between Whitman's and Blake's poetry emerged simultaneously. Algernon Charles Swinburne opened the discussion in Britain with the publication of his study William Blake, which ended with a long proclamation on the merits of the American poet, Walt Whitman, whose Blakean affinities Swinburne identified as being worthy of critical attention. That same year, in the United States, John Swinton, editor of the New York Times, was reading Blake's poetry aloud at social gatherings and passing off Blake's poems as Whitman's work to audiences familiar with Leaves of Grass. These discussion concerning the similarities between Blake's and Whitman's poetry dwindled into a critical silence in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but are reopened here in the form of a transatlantic discussion of Whitman's Leaves of Grass. This thesis queries why a readership of Blake's poetry should have featured so ealry in New England when the British appetite for it was not whetted until after the Gilchrist revival in 1863. My argument suggests that by reading Blake, Emerson and Whitman together, new readings of each of them can profitably be made. By exploring the Blakean affinities in Emerson and Whitman, their visionary qualities - like those found in Blake's prophetic works - become freshly apparent. It will also be argued that something distinctly American can be discerned in Blake's poetry. This original approach to Emerson and Whitman challenges their critically ingrained reputation as writers of America individualism by reinstating them as the heirs to Blake's American legacy.

While it is widely held that Ben Jonson uses emblem tradition in the development of imagery in his court masques and entertainments, how or why Jonson employs this genre of word-image combinations is rarely addressed. This thesis offers an explanation for what is often assumed in studies of Jonson’s masques and entertainments. Rather than identifying particularly emblematic scenes or characters and analysing their construction, however, this investigation of the emblematic in Jonson begins with analysis of his theory of masque creation. The evidence he leaves in the introductions to masque publications and his notes in Discoveries (1641) points to a conscious decision to incorporate not emblems themselves but an emblematic method in his new literary masque form, especially between 1605 and 1618. Once Jonson’s familiarity with emblematic methods is realized, what is considered ‘emblematic’ in his imagery can be reassessed. The reason why Jonson’s masques appear to retain emblematic qualities but contain few true emblems can thus be explained. In order to explicate Jonson’s use of emblem tradition in his creation of masque imagery, this thesis is divided into three parts. The first part outlines Jonson’s theory of masque writing within three contexts. It initially looks at how Jonson’s literary methods compare to contemporary emblem and symbol theories, and thus works out a methodology for analysing the emblematic in his masques. Then, it considers the awareness of emblems in the early modern British court, both in material and intellectual culture. In so doing, these two sections on emblems in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British culture highlight the prevalence of the emblematic mindset in Jonson and his aristocratic audience. This argues for the relevance of Jonson’s emblematic development of imagery for performances in the Stuart court. The second and third parts of this thesis then turn to the masques and entertainments themselves. Part II looks at how Jonson uses emblematic techniques to design characters. Recognizing Jonson’s different approaches to abstract personifications and mythological figures, it is split into two sections. The first section looks at key personifications in The Masque of Beautie (1608) and The Masque of Queenes (1609). It considers how Jonson changes the characters Januarius and Fama bona from personifications in Ripa’s Iconologia to emblematically-rendered figures. The second section then analyses Jonson’s reinvention of stock characters Cupid and Hercules. Discussion covers Cupid’s appearance in many of Jonson’s entertainments, and then concentrates on his appearance with Anteros in A Challenge at Tilt (1613) and Loves Welcome at Bolsover (1634). Hercules’ pointedly emblematic role in Pleasure reconcild to Vertue (1618) finally crowns study of Jonson’s characters. Part III extends investigation into Jonson’s development of themes and arguments in the masques. By identifying Jonson’s processes in the expression of certain themes, this part gives a full picture of Jonson’s use of emblematic techniques and material. The first section realizes their use in the moulding of Platonic themes of love into celebration of King and State. The second section then scrutinizes the invention of the Masques of Blacknesse (1605) and Beautie, Love Freed (1611), and The Golden Age Restor’d (1615). This is followed by analysis of the changes Jonson makes to emblematic constructions between Pleasure reconcild and its rewrite For the Honour of Wales (1618). The alterations highlight Jonson’s reliance on emblematic interpretation of his entertainments. At the same time, it marks his decision to subvert his techniques after 1618 in order to cater to court tastes following the failure of Pleasure reconcild. A conclusion to this thesis is thus derived from the comparison, which illustrates Jonson’s methods up to 1618.

This study considers the work of three women poets writing in English during the period 1970-2000. I argue that the poets, Eavan Boland, Michele Roberts and Jackie Kay are all `hybrid' voices, positioned and positioning themselves on the borders between different cultures and traditions. Locating the poets within a specific social, cultural and intellectual context the study considers the different ways in which the poets negotiate these mixed heritages and how gender interacts with their cultural location to affect the poetic identities they inhabit. My study of Eavan Boland locates her as a post-colonial poet writing out of a very specific historical relationship with Britain. I argue that the effects of this relationship are explored in two ways; the political and psychic legacy of the British colonisation of Ireland but also the ways in which women in Ireland have been colonised by a nationalist poetic tradition. I show how Boland interrogates these different colonisations and drawing on the work of Homi Bhabha I argue that Boland finds her own hybrid space in the Dublin suburbs from where she explores the frictions between a number of conflicting positions. My study of Michele Roberts explores the effects of her dual French and English heritage on her writing. I argue that Roberts' desire to embrace both aspects of her identity manifests itself as a desire to reconcile what western dualistic thinking has split and separated. I consider how Roberts advocates a writing and reading practise which asks us to embrace the stranger within ourselves and so begin to heal the split within individuals and nations. My chapter on Kay explores how she negotiates the cultural specificity of her location as a Scottish writer who identifies as black and how her poetry complicates questions of cultural authority and theories of cultural hybridity. I argue that Kay through a focus on `performance' as both theme and aesthetic subverts simple fixed notions of identity. I conclude that all three poets problematise any simple notion of home and belonging as a fixed and immutable space. Rather they inhabit borderlands, unsettled spaces, where there is a constant interaction and reformulation of identity.

This thesis examines the representations of housing in the fiction and non-fiction texts of Gordon Burn, Andrew O’Hagan and David Peace. This thesis will explore the relationship between housing and class in all three writers’ work and consider the ways in which housing displays and conceals class. These three writers have never been critically examined together, and their similar subject matter provides interesting points of contrast and comparison. ‘Housing. The Greatest Issue of Our Poor Century’ writes Andrew O’Hagan in his novel Our Fathers (1999) and this is a sentiment shared by Burn and Peace throughout their texts. All three writers depict the ways in which housing has changed over the course of the twentieth century, as against the slum clearances of post-World War II Britain, Modernist tower blocks were erected. Against these visual changes there was a sustained campaign, by all major political parties, to increase home ownership. A succession of Acts throughout the latter half of the twentieth century saw council houses being sold to tenants and a subsequent decrease in the construction of council houses. These Acts promoted, and made easily achievable, home ownership and ingrained within society the idea that owning property was a symbol of success and security. By examining changes in housing Burn, Peace and O'Hagan consider the fate of the working-class in the latter half of the twentieth century, and this thesis will explore to what extent, and in what ways, housing displays and conceals class. Chapter One will consider the changes in housing policy over the latter half of the twentieth century and the ways in which government policy affected issues of class. This chapter will look at the ways in which Burn, Peace and O’Hagan consider issues of class and will argue that by examining issues of housing all three are examining the fate of the working-class. Issues of housing are inexorably linked with issues of class and this chapter will form the basis on which the remaining chapters’ arguments are based. Chapter Two will explore issues of housing in the cases of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Fred and Rosemary West, specifically the ways in which housing both concealed and motivated their crimes and how in turn assumptions about class hide their murders within plain sight. Chapter Three will examine the construction of high-rise tower blocks and the ways in which the creation of housing allowed for social crimes to be committed for both political and economic gain by various individuals. Chapter Four will look at the underground spaces of the houses featured in the previous chapters and will consider to what extent the underground reflects the issues of the over-ground and the significance of the underground in debates about class. The final Chapter, Chapter Five, will look at depictions of the celebrity house and will consider how the house of the celebrity fits into narratives of twentieth century housing and how the inhabitants are as hidden and revealed as their working-class counter parts.

This thesis is comprised of two components: a creative work of fiction and a critical analysis of the fiction through a discussion of craft and creative influence. The creative section, the novel The Gospel of Something or Other, is a formally experimental work that explores authenticity - of both narrative and voice - authorial identity, the performativity of grief and sincerity, and the aesthetic function of narratalogical failure. The critical section of the thesis, Critical Mass, analyses the work of David Foster Wallace and James Wood in relation to the aforementioned fiction, discussing aspects of craft most relevant to the novel: the function of comedy and the function of manipulation. The critical piece investigates the extent to which influence can be identified in the creative process and the unstable relationship between critical interpretation and authorial intent.

This essay begins by claiming that much conventional usage of fictional literature as historical evidence is inadequate. Rejecting any view of literature as passive 'reflector' of reality, it suggests that literature should be seen as an active cultural product. To develop this idea, several areas of cultural and literary theory are addressed: literature is seen as functioning within the overall context of written and spoken language: as part of an ideological system continuously concerned with its own production and reproduction. The example of mid-Victorian Britain is used to illustrate this assertion. The place of reading and writing within sections of this society are examined. They are seen to be the context of a literary culture based around the periodical press: fictions are examined as part of that literary culture. Fictional literature is thus seen as a connected part of a system whose functioning was to produce and reproduce the culture and ideology of the time, and specifically with the ideological compromise between traditional aristocratic/gentry and middle class cultures which occurred at that time. The final chapter summarises the essay itself and comments on recent literature in the field of Victorian history. It demonstrates the need for a history of ideological change which examines, as here, the mechanisms producing that change, claiming that such study would not only inform history, but would be of much use in understanding current major social problems. The final claim illustrates the originality of an investigation whose approach both to cultural theory and to cultural history is, while comparable with much current work in the field of cultural studies, of itself unique in both subject-matter and emphasis.

This thesis is written to promote and pursue an understanding of lesbian fandom and its function on the Internet. It will demonstrate how a particular television text Xena: Warrior Princess (X: WP) and a dedicated online fandom „xenasubtexttalk‟ (XSTT) of diverse lesbian fan membership gained empowerment and agency through their fan practices. Since the screening of the television fantasy series X: WP (1995-2001), there has been a marked increase in academic enquiry into lesbian fan culture on the Internet. This thesis contributes to the lesbian spectatorship of fandom with a specific interest in online fandom. This research suggests there are many readings of X: WP and the dedicated websites set up to discuss the series have increased during and post the series broadcast period. This study explores the contradictions, the gaps, and the differences between fan responses to the series, especially the lesbian discourse and fan fiction that developed during and after the television series ended. This investigation suggests that fan scholarship can obtain a new insight into lesbian Internet fan practices as a virtual space producing new lesbian fan online identities and discourses that challenge traditional forms of lesbian fandom. It does this by presenting three distinct, significant and interrelated layers of lesbian online textual engagement. While interrelated, these layers are separate and important as they each reveal new lesbian online fan performances of identity that challenge traditional performances of reading and writing habits of lesbian fans.

This thesis reports on a mixed-methods descriptive study concerning the students and teachers’ perceptions of the role of literature – and novels in particular – in English language teaching and learning. Literature has always been a perpetual feature of language learning, and the transition from the aesthetic study of literature to its use as a resource for linguistic development in the language classroom has marked its implementation and use. For many decades, the use of literature for language teaching was marginalised because of the advent of communicative language teaching. Nevertheless, the current trend favours a resurgence of interest in using literature for language purposes, appreciating its valuable contribution in English language teaching. However, very limited empirical research has been done to examine the use of novels in language teaching. The quantitative component of this research involved 144 students of an English-speaking private school in Cyprus and 26 English language teachers. Both groups responded to a distinct self-completed questionnaire. A follow-up qualitative investigation was carried out with five of the teachers who completed the questionnaire. Lastly, twelve unstructured, non-participant observations were organised with the students who completed the questionnaire, in their classrooms. For a statistical analysis, IBM SPSS Statistics 19 was used, while the qualitative data analysis was done with NVivo 10 and the results from the quantitative and qualitative enquiry were then integrated in order to respond to six research questions. The findings of the study present the students and teachers’ beliefs on the role of novels in ELT and elucidate the acceptance of novels as an invaluable source of motivating and stimulating activities that can contribute to the increase of students’ language awareness. Additionally, the findings resulting from an examination of the students and teachers’ beliefs substantiate and promote the catalytic role of novels in developing an intercultural awareness, where language and culture are seen as interrelated entities and novels are perceived as vivid cultural representations.