This thesis considers late thirteenth and early fourteenth century insular history writing in the vernaculars in its multilingual, codicological, and historical contexts. It seeks to explicate the changes in insular historiography after the conquest of Wales and amidst the ongoing Scottish wars. The dominant mode of history writing during this period shifted: the texts examined in the thesis are 'derivative texts', complex assemblages of translations from numerous source texts, compiled and combined into unique, original works. Revising current notions of scribal competency, and arguing for a wider consideration of scribal authorship are fundamental aims of the thesis. By demonstrating the diverse and sophisticated textual lexicons of the authors of derivative texts, the thesis exposes vernacular historiographies as learned productions, written for learned audiences, engaged in intertextual dialogue with more 'authoritative' Latin historiography. Medieval translation is explored throughout, in an attempt to broaden an understanding of the term to include textual and ideological transposition, and overwrite 'compilation' as an acceptable description of these sophisticated and politically engaged texts. Chapter 1 examines the Anonymous Short English Metrical Chronicle as a derivative text, situating the work in its historical context of Edward I's appeals to historiography on the Scottish question at the end of the thirteenth century. Chapter 2 is a detailed study of the chronicles of Robert Mannyng and Pierre Langtoft, arguing for the sophistication of the texts, and complexifying previously monolithic ideas of ethnicity and 'Englishness' in the chronicles. Chapter 3 focuses on the Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester, providing a comprehensive introduction to the text, and offering readings of the ideological agenda of its derivative methodology. Chapter 4 investigates London, College of Arms, MS Arundel 58, a mid-fifteenth century manuscript of Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle with unique and substantive prose interpolations, considering the physical processes by which derivative texts were written.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1903.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1903.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This thesis analyses the transmission of the Deirdre legend in adaptations from the earliest written sources to the versions of the writers of the early twentieth century Irish Literary Revival. Its aim is to trace the way that the refashioning of the story is informed by the cultural and political contexts within which each writer was working, as well as the more personal and aesthetic motivations behind the various adaptations. The texts chosen for close study represent key moments in the transmission process, both for their treatment of the legend and for the specific context to which this treatment responds. After an introduction dealing with the medieval versions, the thesis is divided into six chapters which chart these key moments in chronological order, ending with J. M. Synge's play Deirdre of the Sorrows, published in 1910. Part of the conclusion is given over to tracing the legend's fate in adaptations since the advent of Irish independence. The chronological framework adopted allows a new perspective to emerge which reveals that the Deirdre legend provided a means of reflecting on the various cultural and political conflicts in which Irish identity has been implicated. The thesis demonstrates that the ancient Irish material was used to valorise the writers' contemporary Irish or Scottish culture at times when this culture was under threat, and that following independence the connection between Deirdre and Eire largely disappeared. The particular use to which the legend was put therefore depended on two factors: the specific conflicts with which each writer was engaging and the various connections which they perceived between the present and the mythical past.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, November 2008.

No description available.

Cardinal Bessarion came from his native Byzantium and settled in Rome in the mid fifteenth century. He was a Basilian monk and, at the time, a Greek Archbishop. His cultural background was in the rationalist tradition of Greek theology. As the Byzantine Empire succumbed to the invading Turks he made it his mission to preserve as much of Greek cultural heritage as possible. Part of this mission was to set out for the Italians (or Latins as he called them) the teachings of Plato of which they had only scanty knowledge. His work in Calumniatorem Platonis was intended as a defence of Plato's teachings against the criticisms of the militant Aristotelian George of Trebizond. This thesis examines Bessarion's exposition of Plato's teachings in that work on a range of philosophical questions that were litmus tests of theological orthodoxy at the time. It argues that Bessarion's exposition of Plato is heavily interpreted through a prism of later commentaries and thinkers particularly the Neo-Platonists. It shows how these interpretations and Bessarion's use of his sources is determined by his aim of showing that Plato's philosophy was closer to Christian orthodoxy than Aristotle's and, therefore, provided a firmer philosophical base than the prevailing Aristotelianism.

No description available.

This doctoral thesis examines the literary series [collection litteraire], considered at one and the same time as a form of publication defined and redefined by the publisher since the invention of the printing press and as a paratextual component that has the ability to act on the process of reading the text: An original aspect of this work is that it combines in the same analysis fields of knowledge that are rarely studied together: the history of the book and of publishing, the sociology of literature and in particular the theory of the literary institution, the theory of paratextuality and reader response theory. This thesis examines separately the two dimensions of the topic but follows a logical progression that concludes with a third section. The first section explores the hypothesis that the literary series is the outcome of a long process of definition and specialization which has accompanied the evolution of French publishing and literature. It then goes on to examine cases illustrating the "convergence" of the two, such as the "Bibliotheque Bleue", the "Bibliotheque universelle des romans", the "Bibliotheque Charpentier", the collections of livraisons illustrees published in the 1850's, the "Collection Michel Levy" and a few collections published by Flammarion and Fayard. Following a rereading of the Genettien paratexte (1987) that reviews and further refines the parameters of the concept (its boundaries, its components and their functions) in order to increase its scope of action, the second section explores in depth the essence of the encounter between the series and literature itself and proposes a theory of the series which positions it in relation to a community of readers and recognizes a different functioning, different risks and effects depending on whether it is destined for a specialized public or the general public. Finally, the third section picks up the historical thread that the first section suspended at the beginning of the 20th century