This thesis explores the textualizing of the South Atlantic island of St Helena (a British Overseas Territory) through an analysis of the relationship between colonizing practices and the changing representations of the island and its inhabitants in a range of colonial 'texts', including historiography, travel writing, government papers, creative writing, and the fine arts. Part I situates this thesis within a critical engagement with post-colonial theory and colonial discourse analysis primarily, as well as with the recent 'linguistic turn' in anthropology and history. In place of post-colonialism's rather monolithic approach to colonial experiences, I argue for a localised approach to colonisation, which takes greater account of colonial praxis and of the continuous re-negotiation and re-constitution of particular colonial situations. Part II focuses on a number of literary issues by reviewing St Helena's historiography and literature, and by investigating the range of narrative tropes employed (largely by travellers) in the textualizing of St Helena, in particular with respect to recurrent imaginings of the island in terms of an earthly Eden. Part III examines the nature of colonial 'possession' by tracing the island's gradual appropriation by the Portuguese, Dutch and English in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century and the settlement policies pursued by the English East India Company in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Part IV provides an account of the changing perceptions, by visitors and colonial officials alike, of the character of the island's inhabitants (from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century) and assesses the influence that these perceptions have had on the administration of the island and the political status of its inhabitants (in the mid- to late twentieth century). Part V, the conclusion, reviews the principal arguments of my thesis by addressing the political implications of post-colonial theory and of my own research, while also indicating avenues for further research. A localised and detailed exploration of colonial discourse over a period of nearly five hundred years, and a close analysis of a consequently wide range of colonial 'texts', has confirmed that although colonising practices and representations are far from monolithic, in the case of St Helena their continuities are of as much significance as their discontinuities.

St Helena Island in the South Atlantic Ocean has been changing for over a decade. The way the people on the Island respond to the change affects the way in which the Gospel is communicated, and this has missiological implications. This raises the question; what influence does change have on the way the Gospel is communicated? If people are resistant to social change, will they be open to change required by the Gospel? How will good intercultural skills help? To fully address the Island's response to change, one needs to look at the interplay of change, culture and communication. It also important to consider how these three elements can be monitored and managed by both the Saints and the clergy alike. This will become the basis for my proposal of focusing the intercultural communication of the Gospel on the ever-changing world of the youth. / Christian Spirit, Church History, Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

St Helena Island in the South Atlantic Ocean has been changing for over a decade. The way the people on the Island respond to the change affects the way in which the Gospel is communicated, and this has missiological implications. This raises the question; what influence does change have on the way the Gospel is communicated? If people are resistant to social change, will they be open to change required by the Gospel? How will good intercultural skills help? To fully address the Island's response to change, one needs to look at the interplay of change, culture and communication. It also important to consider how these three elements can be monitored and managed by both the Saints and the clergy alike. This will become the basis for my proposal of focusing the intercultural communication of the Gospel on the ever-changing world of the youth. / Christian Spirit, Church History, Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

Un territoire est indéniablement associé à Napoléon et à sa légende dans l'esprit des populations. Il ne s'agit pas de la Corse, lieu de naissance, mais bien de Sainte-Hélène, lieu d’exil, de mort mais aussi de construction de la légende napoléonienne. C'est sur cette île de l'Atlantique sud qu'entre 1815 et 1821 celui qui, pendant plus de vingt ans, a fait trembler l'Europe, vit les dernières années de son existence. Le captif pendant toutes les années de sa détention sur Sainte-Hélène n'est peut-être à aucun autre moment de sa vie si étroitement observé. Cependant, les Français, entre 1815 et 1821, ignorent ce qui se passe sur cette île perdue de l’Atlantique sud. Les nouvelles sur ce personnage sont rares sinon absentes et l'absence d'information véridique sur les événements de l'île est considérable. Ce constat est accentué par la situation de Sainte-Hélène. Il s'agit d'un lieu éloigné, inconnu et difficilement compréhensible pour la grandes majorités des Français du XIXe siècle. Cette absence d'information entraine les plus folles rumeurs. Effectivement, les fausses nouvelles parsèment l'exil de Napoléon, des Français répandent des bruits, prétendent connaître la vérité et la transmettre généralement oralement, plus rarement par l'écrit, aux autres. Si les bruits sont essentiellement émis entre 1815 et 1821 ils se poursuivent au cours des années 1820 et même au-delà par de multiples relais.Nombre de bruits et d'ouvrages offrent de multiples histoires toutes plus sensationnelles les unes par rapport aux autres sur l'exil de Napoléon. Parmi elles, Napoléon s'est évadé de Sainte‑Hélène. De véritables faits ont inspiré les nombreuses théories évasionistes qui fleurissent à partir de 1815. Ainsi, des projets d’enlèvement ont indéniablement été pensés. Néanmoins, aucun des plans n’est mis à exécution, amenant en conséquence un questionnement sur les raisons de l’absence de leur concrétisation, n'ont-ils pas simplement été de simples échanges verbaux entre Bonapartistes ?Enfin, les rumeurs perdurent après 1821 en partie grâce aux arts. En effet, l'internement de Napoléon a beaucoup été représenté par la littérature, la peinture et plus récemment par le cinéma. Par exemple, de très nombreux auteurs du XIXe siècle se sont inspirés du séjour de l'Empereur à Sainte-Hélène de façon plus ou moins évidente et ont réinvesti les éléments constitutifs de la légende.Toutes les rumeurs et les représentations artistiques de la captivité déforment les dernières années de Napoléon. Or, ces représentations altérées restent dans la mémoire collective car elles sont plus faciles à retenir, elles sont de meilleures histoires que la réalité... Et donc, la mythologie fini par altérer la réalité historique. Par exemple, l'idée d’un Napoléon humilié en permanence par les Anglais est ancrée dans la mentalité populaire comme parmi les élites. D'ailleurs cette distorsion de la réalité est une partie intégrante de la légende napoléonienne. Sans l'idée du calvaire de Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène prisonnier des puissances de la Sainte-Alliance et l’image négative de Hudson Lowe, la figure du captif auprès des libéraux et des nationalistes au XIXe siècle n’aurait pas été la même. La légende de Sainte-Hélène est donc une partie fondamentale de l’histoire napoléonienne. / A territory is undeniably associated with Napoleon and his legend in the minds of the peoples. It is not a question of Corsica, place of birth, but of Saint Helena, place of exile, of death but also of construction of the napoleonic legend. It is on this island of the South Atlantic that between 1815 and 1821 he who, during more than twenty years, made tremble Europe, saw the last years of its existence. The captive during all the years of his detention on St. Helena Napoléon is closely observed. However, the French, between 1815 and 1821, do not know what is happening on this lost island of the South Atlantic. News about this character is rare if not absent and the lack of truthful information about the events of the island is considerable. This observation is accentuated by the situation of St. Helena. It is a distant place, unknown and difficult to understand for the great majority of the French of the nineteenth century. This lack of information leads to the wildest rumors. Indeed, the false news strew the exile of Napoleon, French spread noises, claim to know the truth and to transmit it generally orally, more rarely in writing, to others. If the noises are essentially emitted between 1815 and 1821 they continue during the 1820s and even beyond by multiple relays. Many noises and books offer multiple stories all about Napoleon's exile. Among them, Napoleon escaped from Saint Helena. Real facts have inspired the many evasive theories that flourished from 1815. Thus, kidnapping projects have undeniably been thought out. Nevertheless, none of the plans are put into execution, leading consequently a questioning on the reasons of the absence of their concretization. Maybe, they were simple verbal exchanges between Bonapartists? Finally, rumors endure after 1821 partly thanks to the arts. Indeed, the internment of Napoleon was much represented by literature, painting and more recently by cinema. For example, many nineteenth-century writers drew inspiration from the Emperor's stay in Saint Helena in a more or less obvious way and re-invested the constituent elements of the legend. All the rumors and artistic representations of captivity distort the last years of Napoleon. However, these altered representations remain in the collective memory because they are easier to remember, they are better stories than reality ... And so, mythology ended up altering the historical reality. For example, the idea of ​​a Napoleon permanently humiliated by the British is rooted in the popular mentality as among the elites. Moreover this distortion of reality is an integral part of the Napoleonic legend. Without the idea of ​​Napoleon's ordeal on St. Helena prisoner of the Holy Alliance and the negative image of Hudson Lowe, the figure of the captive among liberals and nationalists in the nineteenth century would not have been the same. The legend of St. Helena is therefore a fundamental part of Napoleonic history.

Oceanic Gyres are the most conspicuous features in the Earth\'s ocean. They are ubiquitous to each basin and hemisphere. In the Atlantic Ocean, there is an uncanny symmetry between the North and South Atlantic Subtropical Gyres. Focusing on their poleward limits, we can think of them as virtually perfect analogues. However, while the North Atlantic Current has been extensively studied, the South Atlantic Current (SAC) still has been very little investigated and its knowledge presents crucial gaps on understanding it ocean\'s mesoscale variability and climate. Very little studies attempted so far to describe the SAC characteristics in terms of water mass properties and volume transports. In addition, there is the presence of recently described Saint Helen Current (StHC), which can be considered as the South Atlantic analogue of the Azores Current. The StHC has its formation tied with the Brazil Current (BC) retroflection. The SAC, on the other hand, is originated at the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence (BMC), and flows crossing zonally the Atlantic Basin. However, the presence of the northern branch of Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACCn) (without an analogue in the northern hemisphere) brought a few additional challenges to studying the SAC. The ACCn can be thought as the Malvinas Current (MC) Extension, which exits the BMC region via the southern flank of the Zapíola Rise. In this work, we revisit the descriptive oceanography of the SAC system with newly developed climatologies (WOA13 and ARMOR3D) and seek to unravel the pattern associated with the current in the Southern limb of the region. Recent literature mentions that there is an important interplay between this three zonal jets as the cross the South Atlantic. However, only kinematics arguments were used to pinpoint this interplay so far. Hence, we opted to employ a statistical correlation method involving temperature, salinity and density vertical profiles (and consequently, T-S curves as well). We also computed volume transport values for the whole zonal domain across the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre southern limb. In particular, at the longitude that it reaches the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the major portion of the SAC veers south and merge almost completely with the ACCn. Its smaller northern the StHC. Near the eastern ocean border of the South Atlantic Ocean, the SAC-ACCn as well as a portion of the StHC traverse into the Indian Ocean. The combined analysis of geostrophic streamfunction fields and the temperature-density correlation diagrams do not show sufficient evidence for the StHC being an independent current, and not a branch of the SAC. Since there is also no study regarding the dynamics of the SAC we also constructed a linear QG instability model aiming to evaluate the current system mesoscale activity. We then analyzed the mesoscale activity of the SAC, and discovered that SAC is unstable throughout the whole path domain towards Africa. This instabilities, however, are found to be not as vigorous as the ACC. We also identify a shift in mesoscale vorticity wave regime as the SAC crosses the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. We found it to be less unstable than at the western side. We, however, could not identify the type of instabilities associated with the current. Therefore, we propose as sequential future work to further pursue investigation on the mesoscale dynamics of the ACCn-SAC-StHC system. / Os Giros Oceânicos são os aspectos mais notáveis dos oceano. Eles são ubíquos em todos os hemisférios e bacias oceânicas. No Atlântico, por exemplo, existe uma clara simetria entre os giros subtropicais do Atlântico norte e sul. Nos seus limites mais polar, podemos pensar neles como análogos perfeitos. Entretanto, enquanto a Corrente do Atlântico Norte foi extensamente estudado, a Corrente do Atlântico Sul ainda tem sido muito pouco investigada deixando lacunas cruciais no conhecimento no entendimento do clima e variabilidade de mesoscala nos oceanos. Pouquíssimos estudos foram realizados até agora a fim de descrever a CAS e suas características nos tópicos relacionados às propriedades das massas de água transporte de voluma. Ademais, há a presença de um corrente recentemente descrita, cunhada de Corrente de Santa Helena (CStH) que pode considerada, tal qual a Corrente do Atlântico Sul, uma análoga da Corrente dos Açores. A CStH possui sua formação atrelada à Corrente do Brasil (CB). A CAS, por sua vez, origina-se na confluência Brasil-Malvinas e escoa atravessando zonalmente a bacia do Atlântico. Entretanto, a presença do ramo norte da Corrente Circumpolar Antártica (CCAn) (sem um análogo no hemisfério norte) trouxe desafios adicionais ao estudo da CAS. A CCAn pode ser pensada como uma extensão da Corrente das Malvinas (CM), a qual sai da região da confluência via o flanco sul da Elevação de Zapiola. Nesse trabalho, revisitamo a oceanografia descritiva do sistema CAS com novas climatologias desenvolvidas (WOA13 e ARMOR3D) e procuramos desvendar o padrão associado à corrente no membro sul da região. Estudos recentes apontam uma importante interação entre os três jatos zonais enquanto atravessam o Atlântico Sul. Somente argumentos cinemáticos, entretanto, foram utilizados para identificar essa interação. Consequentemente, optamos em empregar um método de correlação estatística envolvendo perfis verticais de temperatura, salinidade e densidade(e, logo, curvas T-S). Nós também calculamos o transporte de volume para todo o domínio zonal através do ramo sul do Giro Subtropical do Atlântico Norte. Em particular, na longitude que alcança a Cadeia Meso-Atlântica, a maior porção da CAS desvia-se para o sul e dilui-se quanse que por completo à CCAn. Próxima à borda este do Oceano Atlântico Sul, tanto a CAS-CCAn como uma parte da CStH atravessam em direção ao Oceano Índico. A análise combinada dos campos de função de corrente geostróficos e pelos diagramas de correlação de temperatura-densidade não mostra evidências suficientes para que a CStH seja considerada uma corrente independente e não um ramo da CAS. Além disso, já que não há estudos relacionados a dinâmica da CAS, nós tambémconstruímos um modelo de instabilidade QG a fim de avaliar a atividade de mesoscala do sistema de correntes. Analisamos essa atividade da CAS e descobrimos que ela é instável durante todo o seu percurso em direção à África. Essas instabilidades, entretanto, não são tão vigorosas quanto aquelas da CCA. Também identidicamos mudanças no regime de ondas das vorticidades de mesoscala no cruzamento da CAS com a cadeia meso-oceânica. Descobrimos que a corrente é menos instável ao lado leste da cadeia. Não podemos, contudo, identificar os tipos de instabilidades associada à corrente. Por conseguinte, propomos trabalhos futuros que irão auxiliar à investigação da dinâmica de mesoscala do sistema CCAn-CAS-CstH.