This thesis argues for the deep implication of William Wordsworth’s writings over the period 1794 to 1814 in contemporary discourses of the Gothic. My investigation pivots upon the analogy offered in the preface to The Excursion (1814) between the incomplete epic poem The Recluse and a ‘gothic Church’, and aims, through a reconstruction of its literary and historical contexts, to establish the interpretative value of this figure in reading Wordsworth. I begin with a survey of previous critical approaches to, and a new close reading of, Wordsworth’s Gothic figure for his œuvre. I then trace the history of Gothic as a term in British public discourse since the English Revolution, showing how its contested status in the Revolution controversy of the 1790s inflects such texts as the preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800), the ‘Liberty’ sonnets of Poems, in Two Volumes (1807), and the Preamble to The Prelude. I then move to a series of detailed historical readings of Wordsworth’s key Gothic texts, starting with Salisbury Plain (1794). Recovering the network of associations that made Salisbury Plain legible to Wordsworth in 1793-4 as a map of British history, I show how the poem first subverts and then restores the English Gothic narrative of ‘Celtic night’ giving way to ‘present grandeur’. I then turn to Wordsworth’s Burkean prose tract on the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, The Convention of Cintra (1809), reading it in the context of the Gothic imagery of the conflict, and then arguing on this basis that it forms a vital part of the ‘gothic Church’ of The Recluse. Building upon this reading, I then argue that The Excursion’s advocacy of Andrew Bell’s ‘Madras’ system of ‘tuition by the scholars themselves’ shows Wordsworth’s progressive Gothic politics in action. In concluding, I turn to reconsider, in the light of the preceding chapters, in what sense Wordsworth can be called a Gothic poet.

This thesis examines the internal dynamics of the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone over the course of the civil war waged from 1991-2002. It does so in two parts, looking first at the RUF’s organizational capacity—its ability to emerge and survive as a group; and second, at its material viability—the logistics and procurement of food, weapons, and other resources required to sustain war. The RUF has become a paradigmatic case for the study of war and rebel groups in Africa. Although much has been written on the group and its violence, comparatively little is known about the inner-workings of the organization and how a largely forcibly recruited group of ill-equipped thousands managed to pose a viable threat to the state for over a decade. Through a fine-grained, case-based analysis, this study applies research on the microdynamics of violence in civil war to the structural and logistical mechanics that underpin it. Doing so contextualizes debates about resource wars, collective violence, and mobilization and onset within the RUF’s own strategies for controlling these aspects of war- making. New primary material, including rebel archive documents, describes the extensive military and civilian governance structures through which order and cohesion were established and enforced. Tracking the success and failure of these mechanisms helps explain the disconnect between rebel rhetoric and behaviour. A detailed examination of the RUF’s material capacity applies this organizational analysis to the group’s strategic priorities for survival. It reorients the resource war debate toward what actually fuels fighting on the ground. Food has long been overlooked as the primary requirement for group survival, and ammunition the basic element of military viability. These ‘low politics’ of survival explain the nature of the war and underscore the importance of shifting factors, such as territorial control, in shaping rebel behaviour. Finally, the ‘high politics’ of international arms trades and global diamond markets illumine changes in the RUF’s firepower and personalization of power, returning to the organizational failings that ultimately led to the group’s dissolution.

No description available.

Questa tesi si occupa di analizzare il lavoro di Stanley Hauerwas, uno studioso di grande fama nel mondo accademico americano i cui testi sono molto letti in tutto il mondo. Tramite la lettura critica dell’intero corpus degli scritti di Hauerwas la tesi intende riflettere sul rapporto problematico tra Cristianesimo e liberalismo. A questo scopo, la tesi si concentra inizialmente sui presupposti filosofici che sono alla base delle argomentazioni di Hauerwas. In secondo luogo, riflette sulle idee ed istituzioni tipiche del liberalismo e sul loro rapporto con il Cristianesimo. Infine, descrive la proposta etica di Hauerwas e il modo con cui questa determina il tipo di politica che la chiesa e i cristiani dovrebbero avere. Seguendo l’ampiezza del lavoro di Hauerwas, la tesi si interessa di un gran numero di filosofi, teorici della politica e teologi, spaziando dagli scritti di Aristotele e Tommaso d’Aquino, alla filosofia del linguaggio di McCabe, Murdoch, e Wittgenstein, dalle riflessioni etiche di Kovesi, Anscombe, e MacIntyre, alle teorie politiche di Rawls, Stout e Coles. Grazie alla sottolineatura del ruolo delle virtù e della formazione morale, insieme all’enfasi posta sull’importanza che la tradizione della chiesa, le sue pratiche e il suo linguaggio hanno nel dare forma all’immaginazione e alle vite dei cristiani, Hauerwas descrive in maniera costruttiva e feconda una proposta politica genuinamente cristiana e ci aiuta a navigare le complessità del mondo contemporaneo. / The dissertation provides an in-depth analysis of the scholarship of Stanley Hauerwas, a very prominent figure in the American academy whose body of work is widely read in many countries. By providing a close reading of Hauerwas’ entire corpus, the dissertation aims at discussing the contested relationship between Christianity and liberalism. It does so first, by focusing on the philosophical presuppositions that shape Hauerwas’ overall argument. Second, it reflects on the main liberal commitments and institutions and their relationship with Christianity. Third, it describes Hauerwas’ ethical proposal and its bearings on the political commitments that the church and Christians ought to have. Following the breadth of Hauerwas’ work, the dissertation deals with a great number of philosophers, political theorists, and theologians, spanning from the writings of Aristotle and Aquinas, to the philosophy of language of McCabe, Murdoch, and Wittgenstein, to the ethical reflections of Kovesi, Anscombe and MacIntyre, and to the political theory of Rawls, Stout, and Coles. Through his stress on the role of virtues and moral formation, and by emphasizing the importance that the church’s tradition, language, and practices have in shaping the imagination and lives of Christians, Hauerwas gives a constructive and fruitful description of what a genuine Christian politics looks like and helps us navigate the complex world of today.