This thesis aims to provide a new perspective on the British Liberal Party during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries via an analysis of pamphlet literature produced in support of the party. The period under investigation saw the fortunes of the Liberal Party move from being the principal rival of the Conservative Party to one of three competing for power, with the Labour Party emerging as a party capable of forming a government. The thesis aims to contribute to scholarly debate on the subject by showing that there was indeed a ‘decline of Liberalism’ and ‘rise of Labour’, but that these themes can be best understood in terms of the appeals both parties made to the electorate. It will show that when analysed through the literature they or their supporters produced to win over voters, the Liberal Party can be seen to have failed to adapt to a shifting electorate, and that they did not react to developing critiques of Liberalism from the Labour Party and its constituent bodies in sufficient time to prevent Labour establishing itself as a credible party of government, thus removing one of the Liberal Party’s main advantages over Labour. The thesis will use a close analysis of the text contained within a sample of Liberal Party pamphlet literature to show that the party had particular problems when addressing itself to working-class voters, who became an increasingly important section of the electorate following franchise extensions in 1867, 1884 and 1918. It will show that the Liberal Party constructed their appeals to working-class voters using a constructed figure, which will be termed the ‘Liberal Working Man’, who was possessed of particular characteristics which made him suitable to hold the vote. The ‘Liberal Working Man’ was both conceived within models of political behaviour deriving from ‘whiggish’ forms of political history and also appealed to by using narratives of political history which stressed the need for him to support the Liberal Party. The thesis will show that the Liberals did nor realise until too late that their understanding of the working-class electorate was flawed and had contributed to the emergence of the Labour critique of their party, by which time the First World War had created a series of practical problems which hampered the party’s attempts to maintain working-class support. The Liberal Party will be shown to have been put into a position whereby its pamphlet appeals could no longer rely on the old assumptions with regards working-class electoral behaviour, and proved incapable of providing an adequate replacement for the concept in their attempts to garner support through electoral literature.

This thesis shows how misogynous and stereotypical images of women, which historically have been used to transform them into witches and monsters, are now reused in the construction of the term “batikhäxa” (“tie-dye witch”). Feminist and discourse theory form the framework of this study which includes the analysis of three opinion pieces, or political pamphlets, that were published between 2010 – 2018: "Batikhäxorna och makten" by the pseudonym Julia Caesar, "Refugee 'Children" & The Women Who Sexually Exploit Them" by the pseudonym Angry Foreigner and "De ansvariga för Sveriges kaos behöver en intervention för att ställas till svars " by Katerina Janouch. I use critical discourse analysis to study how discursive strategies are applied in these political pamphlets to delegitimate women, making them the scapegoats of society by use of the concept of the tie-dye witch. My thesis argues that the use of the tie-dye witch discourse reproduces patriarchal power relations by denying women the right to have and express their opinions, decide over their own bodies and exercise power in society. The tie-dye witch can therefore also be understood as an anti-feminist counterimage to the feminist witch who was established as a female role model in the 1960s. The study also uncovers the psychological function of the tie-dye witch as a female super monster who demarks the borders of nation, culture, religion, body and gender. In the studied texts, the tie-dye witch is constructed to separate "us" from "the others", and in doing so she also acts as a unifying figure in and of anti-feminist, islamophobic, xenophobic, nationalist and apocalyptic discourses.

Société ”iconique” par excellence, les Provinces-Unies au XVIIe siècle sont un espace où la représentation graphique envahit le quotidien. Parallèlement, le mariage est une institution au cœur d’un processus de réhabilitation et de cristallisation confessionnelle de dispositions dogmatiques et disciplinaires. Il constitue en outre une expérience anthropologique fondamentale, dont chacun fait l’expérience, comme acteur ou spectateur. Dans cette perspective, les images du mariage innervent toute la culture visuelle de la société néerlandaise et sont au croisement d’enjeux sociaux, religieux et politiques, perceptibles à différentes échelles, par la symbolique qu’elles mettent en jeu et les usages sociaux qui en sont faits. Comment les différences confessionnelles s’y articulent-elles ? Comment les distinctions sociales s’y manifestent-elles ? Quels bénéfices symboliques les usages métaphoriques visuels du mariage permettent-ils d’obtenir pour les acteurs sociaux ? Enfin comment ces images fonctionnent-elles vis-à-vis du lecteur-spectateur ? A travers un corpus de sources très divers (livres ou brochures illustrés, feuilles volantes, mais aussi peintures ou médailles), la thèse répond à ces questions en examinant successivement comment les images accompagnent les discours prescriptifs sur le mariage, la façon dont elles sont mobilisées lors des noces des élites urbaines et lors de la célébration des noces princières, mais aussi comment elles permettent de donner métaphoriquement corps au lien entre le croyant et Dieu ou, paradoxalement, à celui entre le Prince d’Orange et la Patrie, dans un système politique revendiqué comme une République. / "Iconic" society par excellence, the United Provinces in the seventeenth century is a place where images play a tremendous role in daily life. Meanwhile, marriage is an institution at the heart of a rehabilitation process and of a differentiation process of confessional identities involving dogmatic and disciplinary provisions. It is also a fundamental anthropological experience, experienced by everybody in the society, be it as actor or spectator. In this perspective, the matrimonial images pervade the whole visual culture of Dutch society and are at the crossroads of social, religious and political issues, at different scales, through the symbolics they involve and the social uses they are submitted to. How are confessional differences articulated to them? How are social distinctions manifested? What symbolic benefits do social actors get out of visual metaphors of marriage? Finally, how do these images interact with the reader-viewer? Through a diverse corpus of sources (illustrated books or pamphlets, single-leaf engravings, but also paintings and medals), the thesis addresses these questions by examining successively how images accompany prescriptive discourses on marriage, how they are involved in the urban elites weddings and during wedding festivities for princes, but also how they can metaphorically embody the link between the believer and God, or, paradoxically, that between the Prince of Orange and the Fatherland, in a political system claimed to be a Republic.