The main study of the thesis seeks to gain insights into the reading behaviour of 27 adolescent learners of French, who were recorded while completing four reading tasks, 2 individually and 2 in small groups. The transcripts are analysed from four perspectives. Firstly (as a baseline for the other perspectives) a quantitative approach examines factors surrounding relative success in the tasks. Secondly a coding system (Pressley and Afflerbach, 1995) is used to analyse strategy use by a selection of subjects in both individual and group contexts. Thirdly, the nature and quality of the talk of four of the groups is explored using Mercer's (1995) three categories of talk and aspects of Almasi's (1995) work on sociocognitive conflict. Finally the problem-solving discourse of the transcripts is analysed in two ways- using a concordancing program and by investigating the roles in decision-making of key individuals in four different groups through discourse analysis techniques. A discussion chapter seeks to draw together the findings from these four perspectives. The processes used for the study are also discussed through chapters on relevant literature, on methodology and by a report of an earlier preparatory study.

This thesis re-examines selected works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the light of a specific engagement with Victorian spiritualism, which is characterised by an interest in the esoteric writings of the eighteenth-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. It locates Rossetti’s use of Swedenborgian imagery and ideas in his written and artistic work, contextualising it within his engagement with spiritualism, and with reference to his interest in a visionary tradition of literature. The thesis therefore furthers what has begun in embryo in both Rossetti and Victorian scholarship; drawing together two hitherto separate areas of research, to formulate new and detailed inter-disciplinary readings of Rossetti’s poetry, fine art and design. The critical approach is twofold, combining historical scholarship with textual analysis. A cultural context is re-established which uncovers a network of Swedenborgian and spiritualist circles, and through original research, Rossetti’s connections to these are revealed. The specific approach of these groups, which this thesis calls ‘Swedenborgian-spiritualism’ (thereby naming a new term), is characterised by an intellectual, literary interest in Swedenborg, coupled with a practical engagement with spiritualism, and a fascination with the mesmeric trance state. In addressing three major works, ‘The Blessed Damozel’ (1850), Beata Beatrix (c.1863-71) and The House of Life (1881), the thesis traces Rossetti’s engagement with Swedenborgian-spiritualism through three distinct phases in his career, the result of which facilitates a greater understanding of the development of his poetics and artistry. In addition, the thesis returns to earlier critical sources, which show a response to Rossetti in this light, and questions long rooted assumptions which persist in Rossetti scholarship. Thus, it adds to the body of critical literature on Rossetti by reestablishing context and readings which are needed in order to fully understand his work, and reinstating a critical engagement with Rossetti that has become sidelined, or forgotten.

In this thesis I intend to analyse a selection of novels written between circa 1945 and 1965, which take the Fascist milieu as their subject. My aim is to investigate how the national past was revisited and reconstructed from the perspective of the newborn Italian Republic. The choices adopted by the selected writers in featuring a relatively 'new' kind of character, the 'Fascist', not only reveal the position of a single author in dealing with Fascism, but are linked to a wider process of manipulation, transmission and sometimes creation of a precise stereotype. The latter, even though revisited differently by each author, shows comparable features and recurrent themes and reveals a complex combination of continuity and reaction in the writers' relationship with the national past. A comparative approach aims to show how the representation of Fascism which emerges from the novels under examination, is related to and/or distant from other readings of the regime (namely political, psychoanalytical, sociological) in the first years after its fall, and it will lead to an analysis of the relationship of the writers with ideology and commitment in general. The thesis focuses on the presence of Fascist characters associated with and described through sexuality and erotic power relations, and the relationship between mass and the individual, which constitute a recurring and not yet fully explored theme in Italian post-war fiction. The thesis is structured in four parts. Part one explores the phase of transition from the regime to the Republic and the relationship between Fascism and fiction during and after the regime. It goes on to explore the representation of the figure of the Duce in literature and some works which combine sexuality and the representation of the regime, such as some novels by Carlo Emilio Gadda and Corrado Alvaro. Part two analyses the novel, Il conformista, by Alberto Moravia and some aspects of his relationship with Fascism. It investigates his representation of Fascism through homosexuality, the negative depiction of anti-Fascism, and the use of psychoanalysis as a key to understanding Fascism. Part three analyses Vitaliano Brancati's work, with a focus on his novel Il bell'Antonio, and the ironic connection between Fascism and gallismo. The chapter investigates the relationship between eros and passivity in the framework of the will to power of Fascism. Part four explores the work of Vasco Pratolini and it is divided in two sections. The first section focuses on the character of 'La signora' in Cronache di poveri amanti, an old lesbian woman who, according to many scholars, symbolizes the Duce. The second section of this chapter examines Un eroe del nostro tempo, a novel in which the character of the 'young Fascist' is represented in the context of post-1945 Italy. It deals with the problem of transition to post-Fascism of a generation who grew up under Fascism and is unprepared to face the new social and political system. This research into the representation of Fascism aims to offer new perspectives into the socio-cultural transformation and transmission of ideas as well as to reveal new affinities and diversities between some major Italian writers. Moreover, this thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of a delicate and controversial historical period, such as that of post-'45 Italy, and to the history of the rhetorical tropes that underlie representations of the Italian national self in contemporary literature.

This thesis examines the shape and significance of different narrative and discursive treatments of the couple in contemporary French and Francophone Women’s Writing. It undertakes an imbricated reading of literary texts, sociological discourse and the feminist scholarship which emerged in the 1960s and 70s and has continued to develop since. This was a moment in which the institution of the heterosexual couple was challenged, in France, both by the women's and the gay and lesbian liberation movements. The aim of this thesis is to understand how literary texts written by women both question and work with the norm that is the couple, texts which draw attention to a female (or homosexual, or transsexual) perspective and texts which tell the story of couples who do not conform to the norm. The analysis which follows is divided into five chapters, which examine: (1) narrative perspective and the myth of the ‘modern’ woman (La Femme gelée (1981) by Annie Ernaux, and Insurrections ! en territoire sexuel (2009) by Wendy Delorme); (2) the lexical and narrative inscription of male violence against women (Le Noir est une couleur (1974) by Grisélidis Réal and Apocalypse bébé (2010) by Virginie Despentes); (3) écriture féminine and its contemporary reinterpretations (La Maladie de la mort (1982) by Marguerite Duras and Pornocratie (2001) by Catherine Breillat); (4) the uses of stereotype (Les Mouflettes d’Atropos (2000) by Chloé Delaume and Boys, boys, boys (2005) by Joy Sorman) and (5) the significance of grammatical issues and masculine/feminine genders in the narrative of the couple (Sphinx (1986) by Anne Garréta and Les Adolescents troglodytes (2007) by Emmanuelle Pagano).

This thesis focuses upon literary representations of a familiar yet imprecise figure: the medieval Saracen. Through close analysis of a broad corpus of texts ranging from roughly 1150 to 1350, including epic, romance and miracle tales and treating both Old French and Occitan materials, it highlights the impossibility of generalising about the Saracen and his role. It argues instead that the malleability of Saracen identity was often acknowledged and even exploited in literature. A study of the ways in which such a figure may be defined is used to bring race into dialogue with other aspects of identity such as gender, and to explore in particular the relationship between religion and race. Drawing upon theories of performativity and cross-dressing, Lacanian logical time, communitas in religious experience, and lastly of speech acts, it argues that medieval racial identity – as seen through the body, belief and speech of the Saracen – was far from universally understood and could be constructed by narrative processes and stylistic technique as well as social conventions.

The thesis sets out to examine cultural transfer from Neapolitan dialect into English, in the translations of plays by the contemporary Neapolitan playwright Eduardo De Filippo (1900-1984). It involves a comparative textual analysis of English translations of a selection of De Filippo’s plays in order to identify the translation strategies employed by each translator to represent Neapolitan cultural identity. Eduardo De Filippo can be defined as one of the most prominent contemporary Italian playwrights who employed dialect to portray characters who trespassed the boundaries of both Neapolitan and Italian society and to address social issues which were comprehensible to a vast public. In fact, his innovative contribution resided in the ability to bring vernacular theatre to national and international level. Thus the objective of the study is to bring to light the universality of De Filippo’s message albeit the limited linguistic medium and to show how his theatre is represented in the Anglo-Saxon milieu. The aim of previous critical studies on the matter has been to focus on the stage representations of De Filippo’s oeuvres, without particular emphasis on the analysis of the dialect. Drawing on a variety of theatre as well as translational frameworks (critical work on translation and in particular on theatre translation, the polysystem theory, the descriptive approach, anthropology, and sociolinguistics) I argue that dialect theatre represents an autonomous genre, separate from standard Italian theatre, which needs to be accounted for in translation, and in particular that the domestication of the language reduces the cultural impact of the original plays. The thesis is the first study to suggest that lexicological issues reflect the interpretation of the Neapolitan society in the translated texts and to provide evidence of the appropriation of Neapolitan culture by the receiving theatrical system through the linguistic choices made in translation.

This thesis examines the attitudes to wealth as depicted in two contrasting literary genres: didactic verse sermons and courtly verse romances. A preliminary chapter briefly outlines the historical background, its relationship with contemporary literature and with the prominence of wealth as a literary theme. Part One, devoted to the didactic works, begins with an appraisal of the sources of the Old French attitudes to wealth, and of their mode of expression. Consideration follows of the treatment of avarice in medieval verse sermons. Thereafter the relationship between man and wealth is studied from two standpoints. Firstly man is viewed as a moral type, usually the evil rich man. Chapters Three and Four resume the opinions of the didactic poets on wealth and on man as a social type in all his different roles. Part Two, centred upon the courtly works, examines avarice as a literary topic, and goes on to consider the more dominant theme of courtly liberality. This leads to a careful analysis of the gift theme wherein are demonstrated the complexity and significance of giving and accepting gifts in courtly romance. A critical survey of attitudes to wealth embraces also attitudes towards poverty, and a study of the ways of amassing wealth includes the approved courtly remedies for poverty. Wealth is overshadowed only by the theme of love in the romances. Accordingly the thesis ends with a study of the conflicting attitudes to wealth in relation to love found in courtly society and in its heroes. The General Conclusion assesses how far the two literary genres differ and coincide regarding attitudes to wealth, and seeks to establish why.

The eighteenth century was a period in which the whole aim of education was challenged: was it, as was generally accepted at the end of the seventeenth century, an institution to enable the individual to live more agreeably, both through the direct acquisition of scholastic knowledge, and, more important still, through the indirect acquisition of those qualities necessary to negotiate ones path through the complexities of 'le beau monde' or was its aim, on the other hand, more vast, embracing the whole of society? Was it not already tacitly accepted that men were being educated for the particular society existing in France at the time; could not more positive rules be formulated, for which perhaps the policies of ancient Crete, Greece, Rome and other states might prove an inspiration? How far was education a political matter, and to what extent did the current political situation in France impede the interaction of government and education? These were some of the important questions which little by little were asked as theorising on the aims, as opposed to the methods, of education developed and was gradually taken up by a wider circle of thinkers than simply those directly concerned in education. The present study is intended to demonstrate the evolution of educational theory from the exclusive education of the princes and ruling class - an education at once ill-suited for teaching the knowledge which could be of real service to those destined to govern and morally and scholastically ideally tailored to preserve the existing social structure - to a state organised educational system providing for the education of every citizen, as by natural right, in the recognition that such a general and public education would be for the common good of the French nation.

My parallel reading of two seventeenth-century romances by two women, one English, one French, aims to illumine the early modern mapping of womanhood from a female perspective. Part one examines the discourse of virtuous women in the patriarchal societies of Urania and Clélie. Adopting an approach based on close stylistic analysis, I explore, on the one hand, the extent to which the marriage topos endows or does not endow these women with speech and power, and on the other the extent to which the marriage topos enables the utterance of a protofeminist discourse. While the marriage topos initially allows us to visualise these women as daughters, sisters, mothers and wives, it gradually unveils women not only as the apologists of true love, but also as androgynous heroines in the male-authored domain of politics. Having discussed the discourse (mostly oral) of Uranian and Scuderian heroines in the context of a society functioning on the basis of political alliances, I move on to analyse ‘The loci of the feminine’, i.e. the configuration of female spaces in two texts. This analysis is developed in parts two and three of this thesis. The first part begins by examining the cultural milieux of Mary Wroth and Madeleine de Scudéry, and explores some of the evidence regarding the possible existence of an early modern English equivalent of French ‘salons’. This chapter measures the extent to which Urania and Clélie might be constructed as illustrations of the highly intense activities of Wroth’s and Scudéry’s literary circles. The next chapter focusses on the Uranian and Scuderian fictionalisation of a predominantly female community. Part three assesses the ways in which these texts seem to inscribe themselves within a protofeminist project of re-evaluating female legacy and authorship in the realm of letters, and proceeds to explore more specifically the representation of literary creativity in Urania’s and Clélie’s female retreats. My final part examines the subject of the thesis in its literal sense, by analysing Wroth’s and Scudéry’s representations of the female body, and relates- where appropriate- images of women in Urania and Clélie to those found in the visual arts of the early modern period, such as emblems, engravings, paintings and masques.

The following thesis is a comparative study of Ruskin and Proust. The six years which Proust spent studying the Englishman's works have prompted several full-length studies and many articles devoted to tracing the nature and extent of Ruskin's influence on the creation of A la recherche du temps perdu. In the first three chapters I suggest that the very proliferation of such studies indicates that a different emphasis is required; one which pays full attention to Ruskin's qualities as a writer and is even prepared to consider the paradox of Proust's influence on Ruskin. Where previous scholars in this field have over-emphasised the dubious notion of influence, unquestioningly adopting Proust's version of an idealist aesthetic and presenting it as a nimble adaptation of Ruskin's clumsy prototype, my study defers questions of influence and affinity and contrasts the two writers under the terms of écrivain and écrivant (chapters 2 and 3). In noting the extent to which the self-regulating theory embedded in Proust's novel has informed, and indeed controlled subsequent critical debate, I indicate how the true nature and import of Ruskin's work has been obscured, and examine incorporations of the 'marginal' discourses of art criticism and autobiography into the mainstream genre of the novel. A chapter on the evaluative connotations of 'influence' is followed by an extended comparison of Praeterita and Fors Clavigera with A la recherche au temps perdu as examples of the creation and re-creation of the self through the act of writing (chapters 5 and 6). The question of sources is only tangentially addressed, my main aim being to allow two radically different yet representative writers to confront each other, rather than to consolidate any questionable theory of succession.