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This manuscript examines the cultural history of rural North China, as seen through the production, circulation, content and interpretation of graphic wood-block prints, known as nianhua. The spatial focus is on a fixed set of print producing villages on the North China plain. The temporal focus encompasses the late 1800s through the early 1960s. In examining how nianhua were produced and distributed in late 19th and early 20th century North China, I show that the village print industry was prescriptive in organization. This organization was a basic factor in delimiting form and iconography in print, since it imposed limits on the free appropriation of texts, and directed the way in which they were read. Having accounted for these factors, I consider how perceptions of the social, physical and ethical world were put into print, and how print in turn configured perceptions of the world. Since print is thus socially derived, print and its interpretation are considered in terms of responses to social change, and the capacity of print to effect change. The environment in which village print is structured is variously considered to be formed by the following: the physical space of the home; late-imperial narrative structures (and their residual perpetuation beyond the decline of the political regime); narrative structures produced through technological change and expanded translocal experience; and state-centred reform beginning in the Republican era, and reaching its conclusion under communism. I conclude that narratives which began as superscriptive and authoritative structures, were appropriated and re-structured by the specific conditions of the production, distribution, and display of print in the village.

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Following Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler posed the central problems of the cyclical history of civilization in the twentieth century. Subsequent world historical theorists have attempted to answer Spengler's nihilistic perspective on the destined rise and fall of all cultures by rescuing a progressive movement which transcended the downfall of civilizations. World history since Spengler has been written in pursuit of an answer to the crises of modernism: to the 'Death of God,' the problem of progress, the emergent technological order with its bureaucratic management of society, and the need sensed by the metahistorians for a new 'mythical' grounding to avert the fall of the West. The "Crisis of the West" dominates the perspectives of the world historians. Their goals for the solution of 'modernism,' through the religious transformation of society or political and cultural world unity, are central to their motivation as writers and to the formulation of their paradigms.

This research constitutes a detailed study of 5 - 6 voice-leading technique that is often found in music - theoretical literature and in the tonal repertoire. The study aims to prove that this technique is an essential theoretical and analytical concept for understanding the evolution of tonal music. / The first part of this study examines concepts and descriptions of 5 - 6 technique as they appear in the theoretical literature of the eigthteenth and nineteenth centuries and in the writings of Heinrich Schenker and the modern Schenkerian school. The descriptions of 5 - 6 technique in earlier conterpoint, figured-bass and harmony treatises led Schenker and his disciples to place the technique in a much broader context, though even they do not always grasp the full implications of their procedures. / In the light of William Caplin's recent theory of formal functions, (Caplin 1985; 1998), the second part of the thesis in a substantial selection of musical excerpts from the eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries, demonstrates that 5 - 6 technique as a contrapuntal analatycal concept, provides an effective model for understanding the development of chromaticism and the extension of the tonal language at multiple structural levels.

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This work attempts to examine the relevance of the conceptual opposition between modernity and postmodernity on the basis of a typological analysis of the modes of subjectivity and intersubjectivity which are implicated in the integration and the reproduction of a given form of society. We first show that traditional societies rest on concrete and particular modes of personal identity and of mutual recognition, which are integrated together within a common culture, whereas modern societies rest on an abstraction and universalization of forms societally legitimized of subjective identity and of intersubjective recognition. These we propose to designate by the concept of individualism. After presenting the main stages in the construction of modern individualism, we attempt to illuminate some of the implications, but also some of the aporias, that the modern conception of subjectivity and intersubjectivity presents. In the final part of this work, we seek to establish the validity of the notion of postmodernity to define contemporary society. We try to show that the universalist type of individualism, which characterizes modern society and provides its identity, gradually gives way to a "singularist" type of individualism. This latter form of individualism attests to a crisis of personal identity and is associated with the progressive dissolution of any collective identity, that is, of any a a priori intersubjectivity.

The heroines in Restoration and Augustan drama traditionally have been divided into the categories of sentimental and witty, with the former quickly dismissed as shallow and unrealistic, and the latter equally dispensed with after being classifies as clever and caustic. Both types of heroines deserve more than a cursory glance, however, because they are complicated, realistic and psychologically plausible characters.The sentimental heroines have never been closely analyzed, so their roles are examined first to establish that they are both realistic and human characters. This analysis is covered in Chapter I: Indiana in The Conscious Lovers by Sir Richard Steele: A Naïve Heroine; Chapter II: Lady Easy in The Careless Husband by Colley Cibber: A Virtuous Heroine; and Chapter III: Jane Shore in The Tragedy of Jane Shore by Nicholas Rowe: A Penitent Heroine. After a summarizing and dividing chapter, a transitional heroine is introduced in Chapter V: Millwood in The London Merchant by George Lillo. Millwood bridges the gap between sentimental and witty heroines. The witty heroines are then analyzed and contrasted in Chapter VI: Harriet in The Man of Mode by George Etherege: A Witty Heroine; and Millamant in The Way of the World by William Congreve: The Ideal Heroine, in Chapter VII. The purpose of the chapters examining the witty heroines is to demonstrate that while both sentimental and witty heroines are realistic, the witty heroines are more likeable, memorable and admirable because they exhibit more positive traits.The order of the plays was chosen for two reasons. The sentimental heroines are presented first because their roles have not heretofore been examined; therefore their explication is of foremost importance. The plays are also presented in ascending order of importance, culminating in the discussion of the ideal heroine of the Restoration and Augustan dramas—Congreve’s Millamant.

An extensive database of the tracks of tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic Ocean since 1851 is known as the North Atlantic Hurricane Database (HURDAT). While this database is valuable to public and private agencies, many of the deadliest hurricanes on record occurred prior to 1851. This study will address the research problem of the availability of historical information and the feasibility of collecting data and producing historical tropical cyclone tracks. This thesis describes a methodology for identifying tropical cyclones that existed during the one hundred year period from 1751-1850 referred to as the “pre-HURDAT era” in this study. Uncovering historical tropical cyclone tracks are important for researchers seeking long term patterns in the climate record. This study is a synthesis of all readily available historical data which can be used to identify the tracks of documented tropical cyclones that occurred during the pre-HURDAT era. To emphasize the applicability of historical hurricane tracks, a study comparing landfall patterns of landfalling east coast hurricanes was also done. These tracks were analyzed using historical chronologies, ship data, and other “regional literature”. / Department of Geography

The industrial era in East Central Indiana began largely due to the discovery of gas, which in turn brought in many of the industries that would sustain the area during the gas boom and those years following the end of gas supplies. This thesis documents several surviving industrial buildings from the gas boom, including their history, the industrial processes that occurred in these buildings, the general factory layout, and finally the current status of the factories. Studying the industrial buildings from this period in Indiana history helps to shed light on the important role that these industries play in the development of the cities and towns in the gas belt. In addition to this, the thesis gives a documentation of one of Indiana’s rapidly disappearing resources. / Department of Architecture