The European Witch-Hunts reached their peak in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Betweeen 1590 and 1661, approximately 1500 women and men were accused of, and executed for, the crime of witchcraft in Scotland. England suffered the largest witch-hunt in its history during the Civil Wars of the 1640s, which produced the majority of the 500 women and men executed in England for witchcraft. Evidence indicates, however, that only three women were executed in Ireland between 1533 and 1670. Given the presence of both English and Scottish settlers in Ireland during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the dramatic discrepancy of these statistics indicate that conditions existed in early modern Ireland that tended to suppress the mechanisms that produced witchcraft accusations and larger scale witch-hunts. In broad terms those conditions in Ireland were the persistence of Gaelic culture and the ongoing conditions of open, inter-religious conflict. In particular, two artifacts of Gaelic Irish culture had distinct impact upon Irish witchcraft beliefs. The office of the Poet, or fili (singular for filid), seems to have had a similar impact upon Gaelic culture and society as the shaman has on Siberian witchcraft beliefs. The Gaelic/Celtic Poet was believed to have magical powers, which were actually regulated by the Brehon Law codes of Ireland. The codification of the Poet’s harmful magic seems to have eliminated some of the mystique and menace of magic within Gaelic culture. Additionally, the persistent belief in fairies as the source of harmful magic remained untainted by Christianity throughout most of Ireland. Faeries were never successfully demonized in Ireland as they were in Scotland. The Gaelic Irish attributed to fairies most of the misfortunes that were otherwise blamed on witchcraft, including the sudden wasting away and death of children. Faerie faith in Ireland has, in fact, endured into the twentieth century. The ongoing ethno-religious conflict between the Gaelic, Catholic Irish and the Protestant “New English” settlers also undermined the need for witches in Ireland. The enemy, or “other” was always readily identifiable as a member of the opposing religious or ethnic group. The process of dual confessionalisation, as described by Ute Lotz-Huemann, facilitated the entrenchment of Catholic resistence to encroaching Protestantism that both perpetuated the ethno-religious conflict and prevented the penetration of Protestant ideology into Gaelic culture. This second effect is one of the reasons why fairies were never successfully associated with demons in Ireland. Witch-hunts were complex events that were produced and influenced by multiple causative factors. The same is true of those factors that suppressed witchcraft accusations. Enduring Gaelic cultural artifacts and open ethno-religious conflict were not the only factors that suppressed witchcraft accusations and witch-hunts in Ireland; they were, however, the primary factors.

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Following the work of Sara Houghton-Walker and Edward Strickland, this thesis theorizes the "mundane sublime" as encountered in romanticist John Clare's poetry. Instead of being oriented upward, as with Longinus's elevatory sublime, Clare's mundane sublime brings the subject downward to earth. While the sublime of the Burkean tradition begins with terror, I claim that the mundane sublime emerges out of love for that which is commonplace. Still revelatory, it may be further characterized by an engagement with ecosystems, eternity, divinity, and nature as a whole. Clare's style scaffolds images resulting in a profusion of detail that arrests the mind and allows it to reflect on its own position in nature. As Clare's mundane sublime takes up simple natural objects and posits an ecological interconnectedness, it implies a more environmentally responsible relationship to one's surroundings, making it increasingly relevant for green studies. / by Dana Odwazny Pell. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Since earliest times death has been an important and always actual theme in the arts. The point of departure of this thesis is to examine the portrayal of the ”discourse of and about death” in the poems of three women poets, namely Elisabeth Eybers, Olga Kirsch and Eveleen Castelyn. Various aspects of death thematics are considered and, from a formal perspective, the presence and absence of traditional forms concerning death, such as the ”obituary poem”, the ”elegy”, the ”dirge” and the ”threnody” are investigated. The research plan and the development of the study are dealt with in chapter one. The problem formulation and theoretical approaches for this study are given special attention. In chapter two the death theme in literature throughout the centuries, and specifically in poetry, is relevant. Death thematics occurring in English, Dutch, Afrikaans, Chinese, American, Russian, German, French and Spanish literatures are examined. Philosophical and Christian viewpoints concerning death are also investigated. The portrayal of death in the poetry of Elisabeth Eybers is the topic in chapter three. Her oeuvre is devided into four periods. The collections from Belydenis in die skemering up to Rymdwang are only summarily referred to, since this section has already been dealt with in my MA dissertation (Schutte, 1988). The following six volumes are discussed in detail concerning her religious views and the portrayal of death by way of various subthemes and stances. Chapter four is dedicated to the poetry of Olga Kirsch and in chapter five to that of Eveleen Castelyn. In chapter six a comparison is drawn between the three poets regarding their shared death thematics, similarities and differences in their mode of betrayal and their views on the afterlife. During her oeuvre Eybers adopts an agnostic view, Kirsch embraces the Jewish faith and Castelyn holds a Christian point of view throughout her oeuvre. At the end of the study a summary and findings are given and the conclusion, that the three poets increasingly become preoccupied with death, is reached. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / (D. Litt. et Phil. Afrikaans))

Thesis (DLitt (Afrikaans and Dutch))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The construction of the female subject in the poetry of Afrikaans women poets since 1970 is examined with reference to the oeuvres of Sheila Cussons, Ina Rousseau, Wilma Stockenström and Antjie Krog. The work of three French feminists, namely Julia Kristeva, Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray, is selected as the theoretical framework, because of, amongst other reasons, their attention to the structuring role which language plays in the construction of subjectivity. In terms of defining the scope more precisely, there is a specific focus on the role of the mother-daughter relationship, as reflected in the work of these three women. This focus examines not only biological mother-daughter relationships, but also the stance which women adopt regarding the “place of the mother”, as well as the way in which the relationship with the mother’s body emerges in the writing of women. The question is posed whether there is indeed a clearly identifiable feminine subject in the oevres of the four Afrikaans women discussed and, if so, whether this feminine subject is potentially capable of destabilising or even subverting the prevailing patriarchal order.

Part 1 of this thesis comprises a biography which, for the first time, places Marion Angus within her historical, family and social context. A version of this was published as the introduction to my edited collection The Singin Lass: Selected Work of Marion Angus (Polygon, 2006). Assumptions made about the poet's activities and attitudes derive from critical reading of archival material: her published 'diaries', letters and prose, as well as her poetry. The appraisal of her work places it within literary contexts. The development of her linguistic awareness of the Scots language is traced and the extent of her commitment to it noted. I conclude that assessment of her work has frequently been affected by erroneous judgements about her lifestyle and that the poetry, which has greater depth than it sometimes is given credit for, illuminates her struggle rather than defines her character. Her strength and resilience, as well as her contribution to Scots literature, should be respected and admired. Part II comprises three extracts from Blackthorn, a novel based on aspects of the life and work of Marion Angus. My starting point was the marked contrast between her earlier prose and her later poetry. This, I believe, reflects an actual family crisis which is central to my narrative. The extracts presented here (dated 1900, 1930 and 1945-46) present a credible alternative to inaccurate assumptions which were made about her life. I explore two actual significant relationships in her life: with a sister who becomes wholly dependent on her, and with a younger friend who looks after her in her final year. In the absence of any firm evidence of lovers, I speculate on other relationships.

abstract / Comparative Literature / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy