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The Early Modern Irish recension of the tale relating Cú Chulainn’s death, Oidheadh Con Culainn, has received comparatively little scholarly attention, especially compared with its Early Irish counterpart, Aided Con Culainn. Consequently, little is known about the textual transmission and manuscript tradition of the Early Modern Irish tale. The present thesis seeks to rectify this and give a more accurate view and preliminary analysis of the extant manuscripts, concentrating on the manuscripts that date to before the 19th century. A core element of this thesis is a draft catalogue of these pre-19th-century manuscripts. Taking advantage of the tale’s prosimetric structure, it will be argued and demonstrated that it is possible to classify the manuscripts of Oidheadh Con Culainn into distinct groups. Within the extant manuscripts preserving the tale we can identify a number of versions of it, differing most notably in the poetry that they contain. The classification of the manuscripts into groups can be established on the basis of the poetry that a version of the tale contains; the emerging groups thus established can be used to comment on the transmission of the tale. In order to corroborate the argument for the manuscript groups, we will explore a number of aspects of the text and the manuscripts, such as textual comparisons on both intra- and inter-group levels, possible relations (e.g. geographical) of the scribes, linguistic and metrical variations, the ‘rhetorics’, and different versions of the tale written by the same scribe. The thesis will further investigate the most famous poem from the text, Laoidh na gCeann (‘The Lay of the Heads’), in order to establish to what extent the evidence from the poem can be used to add to our understanding of the transmission of the overall tale.

This thesis compares the reproduction of violence in the fictional writings of two contemporary Martinican authors, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant. While existing scholarship provides significant examinations of both authors individually, this study builds on these foundations to carry out the first single extensive comparison of Chamoiseau and Confiant’s novels. Chamoiseau and Confiant’s literary and political movement of créolité has been the basis of much critical attention in recent years but the theme of the representation of violence in their novels remains relatively unexplored. This thesis explores how – and even whether – fiction can be a way of coming to terms with the brutal violence of their past. This study therefore examines – through close textual analysis – the literary strategies employed by the authors in their representation of the origins of the Antilles in order to address the painful, difficult issues arising out of these origins. In its comparative approach to the authors and in its focus on the reproduction of violence, this study makes two original contributions to the study of Antillean literature. In the Introduction, I outline the tensions surrounding the process of writing in the Antilles. Within this specific historical context the figure of the writer – real or imaginary – becomes a complex and difficult one, as it is clear that the violence of the colonial past continues to affect the authors and their writing. In the first chapter, I therefore return to those same brutal origins of the Antilles, examining how they are constructed in the author’s fiction. Chamoiseau and Confiant imply that the violence of the past acts as a mechanism of oppression. Drawing on colonial theory, the next chapter explores closely how this mechanism is represented in the author’s fictional work as a repetition of the original violence and one that continues to structure Antillena society, and from which no escape seems possible.

The production of dissimilar and contradictory literary discourses which originates in Latin America during the Conquest and Colonial periods has traced grave problems for literary criticism. Until the 1950's and 1960's, positivist historians and literary scholars tried to affix and evaluate this period of transatlantic transfer and acculturation without satisfactory results. The fundamental fact that had been slantedly presented by positivist historians and literary critics was the cultural shock produced by the invasion and colonization process. This cultural shock did not result in an ideal synthesis since the cultural foundations of indigenous societies were destroyed. The colonial regime incorporated advantageous aspects of the indigenous societies for its own growth and reorganized them in a disconcerting fashion for the colonized. One of the major changes to which the indigenous population was subjected was the implant of a new language. As one can clearly expect, the linguistic transference in itself produced a severe scission at the cultural level, not only from a literary perspective but from a political one as well. Semeiotically, one can propose that the sign of the new society is linguistic disjunction and that a consequence of this phenomenon is, in turn, social disjunction. The study, from an interdisciplinary perspective, analyzes the acculturation process through a close look at traditionally considered "social" oral poetic tradition and texts brought by the Spanish to America. The study of the "social" poetry in Spanish from the area today known as Peru demonstrates how these poetic discourses contribute to the acculturation process instead of fulfilling the denunciatory function of the socially oriented discourse. Ultimately, this study intends to divulge how through the use of oral and erudite European poetic tradition, the Spanish founded and established a dependent culture in the area we know as Peru and how this dependency permeates the poetry written in this area from the Sixteenth until the Twentieth century. In the Twentieth century, however, the study demonstrates through a close look at Antonio Cisneros' poetry how the contemporary Peruvian poet has taken conscience of dependency and "rewrites" Peruvian culture through truly social poetic discourse.

The American Romance is characterized by its use of memorial images which contribute in developing the form and content of its individual literary works. Readings of works by four authors who fall within the American Romance tradition--Hawthorne, James, Faulkner, and Toni Morrison--reveal a poetics of memory that operates in terms of tensions between word and image, with memory achieving apparent embodiment through the image, while the simple presence thus generated is revealed to be both contaminated and opposed by cultural codes. Through portraits, photographs, and other less concrete representations of the human countenance, characters seek to take personal possession of both themselves and others and thereby gain a form of self-possession which places them in a certain relationship to the culture. In creating verbal constructions of images, the authors also pursue a goal mirroring that of their characters. Individual chapters specifically address the way in which the written work of art's identity is reflected in the characteristics of the visual art forms it represents; the power of the memorialized image of woman; and the imaginary strategies by which the cultural authority of one written text can be defused by the written Romance that appropriates it. Works discussed are: The House of the Seven Gables, The Wings of the Dove, The Sound and the Fury, and Song of Solomon and Beloved.

This document examines Stravinsky's treatment and use of the bassoon in three of his chamber works: L'Histoire du Soldat, Octet, and Septet. The research contained within will, in part, assess the extent to which Stravinsky has affected the development of the bassoon's role in a chamber ensemble, and will provide a general evaluation of his varied treatment of the bassoon in terms of technique, range, articulation, and ensemble. Another aspect of this study considers the possibility that Stravinsky wrote for the French system bassoon. A comparison of the two types of bassoon systems will demonstrate why Stravinsky's works seem so ungrateful to many modern bassoonists who have been trained on the German system instrument.

There exists no autograph manuscript for the six suites for solo violoncello by J. S. Bach. Three manuscript copies of the suites by Anna Magdelena Bach, J. J. H. Westphal, and J. P. Kellner are available but vary in many aspects including pitches, slur markings, and scordatura tuning. These differences make it difficult for the cellist to determine what most accurately displays Bach' s intentions for performance. A version of Suite V for the lute survives in its original manuscript form by J. S. Bach. Although much of the version is not playable on the cello, due to the lute's many strings, significant and pertinent information can be gained from this manuscript. Chords, intervals, differing sequence patterns, and differing pitches are all evident when comparing the lute version with the manuscript copies. Many of the added notes from the lute version are playable on the cello and add to the resulting harmony. These playable notes are included in the Appendix in the author's own edition of the Prelude to Suite V based upon the lute score. While a cellist may not choose to follow the lute score, many questions stemming from the variances found in the manuscript copies can be made clearer. The Prelude to Suite V was written in the French overture form. There is much controversy as to the manner in which a French overture should be performed. Thus, the performance practice of the French overture style is discussed and presented. Proponents of the style feel it pertained to music of the Baroque period, irregardless if it was written by a French composer, while others feel that no such style existed and there was no basis to include Bach's music in the use of the French overture style. Both sides of the French overture style are presented and related to the performance, specifically, to the Prelude of Suite V for cello solo.