'Reconceptualising the Birth Process in Eighteenth-Century England' employs a broad range of historical sources to construct a richly detailed account of childbirth. By examining women's life-writings, manuscript recipe books, medical texts, court records, collections of folklore, Anglican prayerbooks and material culture this thesis moves away from an historiographical focus on the delivery of the infant to explore the embodied experience of 'giving birth' in the eighteenth-century from the perspective of the labouring woman, her family and the friends and neighbours that visited her. Birth, it is argued, was a process of four distinct phases that lasted between four and six weeks in total. These phases - confinement, labour, delivery and lying-in - were flexible, highly adaptable and indispensable components of 'giving birth'. In exploring birth as a process, this thesis challenges the dominant historiography of the rapid professionalisation of childbirth during the eighteenth century by tracing high levels of continuity in community practices of childbirth management. By broadening the focus of research to include each phase of the birth process this thesis highlights the wide range of cultural, social and emotional behaviours that constituted the embodied experience of giving birth. In reconceptualising childbirth as a process, the thesis refocuses attention on the woman giving birth and the rich networks of friends, family and neighbours that were so crucial to the management of birth in eighteenth-century England.

« Liberté et libertinage » ce sont là les deux thèmes qui déterminent mon projet. Ces termes apparaissent comme décisifs, significatifs pour aborder la littérature de la fin du XVIIème siècle et du début du XVIIIème siècle, période réputée pour son atmosphère de réflexion philosophique et aussi de relâchement des mœurs et de rupture avec les normes. Le libertinage apparaît alors comme une entreprise de libération et d’autonomie de la pensée et du comportement qui renie la soumission et sur laquelle les libertins ne cessent pas de s’interroger. C’est sur ce fond de remise en question générale que je me propose de placer l’œuvre de Robert Challe. Dès 1710-1712, période de la rédaction des Difficultés sur la religion, jusqu’en 1721, date de la parution sans doute posthume de son Journal d’un voyage fait aux Indes Orientales, en passant entre-temps par la Continuation de l’histoire de l’admirable Don Quichotte de la Manche (1713), Les Illustres Françaises (1713), les Mémoires (1716) et la Correspondance (1715-1718), Challe prend position, à travers une critique véhémente de la religion, dans le débat de son temps et la mise en question qui le caractérise. Tous ses ouvrages expriment, loin des disciplines et des assurances du classicisme, les doutes et les inquiétudes d’un homme en quête de lui-même et de sa liberté et qui a vécu avec intensité la « crise de conscience » de son temps. Dans l’œuvre de Challe, la recherche de la liberté sert de justification dans les domaines interdits, notamment dans celui de la contrainte morale et religieuse qui écrase les aspirations naturelles de l’homme. Le libertinage lui-même ne constitue-t-il pas l’une des attitudes de rivalité et d’opposition qui anime toute l’œuvre et qui se répand dans toutes les directions ? Challe remet en doute et en question l’ordre établi, et c’est ainsi, peut-être, que la question de la liberté surgit. Robert Challe se fait une doctrine sur mesure et illustre une idée majeure : nous devons nous libérer et jouir de notre liberté par une création littéraire stimulante qui conduit à passionner le lecteur pour la liberté. Tout le mouvement littéraire de son œuvre semble indiquer que le libertinage consiste notamment dans le fait de se soustraire aux autorités abusives, qu’elles soient parentales, sociales et surtout religieuses. L’individu n’est plus sous la puissance de Dieu ou sous une quelconque autorité, au contraire il est le maître de sa vie. Il connaît le bien et le mal et peut se porter à l’un ou à l’autre, selon son libre choix. Il est pernicieux de croire en la doctrine de la grâce et de la prédestination qui considèrent les actions humaines comme inutiles et favorisent ainsi les actions criminelles. Il vaut donc mieux faire confiance aux actions libres des hommes. Challe insiste également sur l’idée que l’homme est libre même devant sa passion amoureuse. L’amour de l’autre est une source d’énergie, le sentiment est jugé plus utile que dangereux. Ainsi Challe prend nettement conscience de la liberté de l’homme. Dès lors, la croyance en la liberté humaine devient une véritable passion non seulement pour Challe philosophe, voyageur ou romancier, mais également pour Challe en tant qu’individu. Il critique tous ceux qui jugent illusoire le sentiment, universellement partagé d’après lui, de la liberté et s’en prend notamment à l’Eglise. Le libertinage s’associe également à l’exaltation du plaisir physique et de l’instinct naturel. Le désir fait partie de la nature humaine et Challe n’en ignore pas l’importance. L’apogée de cette thématique est atteinte dans l’épisode de la veuve qui désacralise le mariage et s’abandonne en secret à Dupuis. / Freedom and “libertinage” are the two themes that shape my project. These terms appear as decisive and meaningful to approach the literature from the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth century, a period known for its atmosphere of philosophical thinking and also loosening of morals and breaking with the standards. “Libertinage” appears as an enterprise of liberation and independence of thought and behaviour that refuse obedience and on which the libertines do not stop questioning. It is against this background of general questioning that I intend to place the literary work of Robert Challe. From 1710-1712, the period of writing the Difficultés sur la religion until 1721, date of the probable posthumous publication of his Journal d’un voyage fait aux Indes Orientales, going, in the meantime, through the Continuation de l’histoire de l’admirable Don Quichotte de la Manche (1713), Les Illustres Françaises (1713), the Mémoires (1716) and the Correspondance (1715-1718), Challe adopts a definitive position, through a vehement criticism of religion in the debate of his time and the questioning that characterizes it. All his works reflect, away from disciplines and insurance of classicism, the doubts and anxieties of a man in search of himself and of his freedom and who lived with the current “crisis of conscience” of his time. In the literary work of Challe, the quest for freedom serves as justification in the prohibited areas, including that of religious and moral constraint that overrides the natural aspirations of mankind. Isn’t “libertinage” itself one of the rivalry and opposition attitudes that animates the whole work and spreads in all directions? Challe challenges and questions the established order, and this is, perhaps, how the question of freedom arises. Robert Challe creates and adjusted doctrine and illustrates a key idea : we must free ourselves and enjoy our freedom in a stimulating creative writing, which leads the reader toward a fascination freedom. The whole literary movement of his work suggests that such “libertinage” lies in the act of escaping the abusive authority, whether parental, social and especially religious. The individual is no longer under the power of God or under any authority : he is, on the contrary, mastering his own life. He knows good from evil and is it up to him to choose one or the other. It is pernicious to believe in the doctrine of grace and predestination which consider human actions as unnecessary and thus encourage criminal actions. It is better to trust the free actions of men. Challe also emphasizes the idea that man is free even before his amorous passion. The love of others is a source of energy, the feeling is considered more useful than dangerous. Thus Challe is clearly conscious of the freedom of man. Therefore, the belief in human freedom becomes a passion not only for Challe as a philosopher, traveller and novelist but also for Challe as an individual. He criticizes those who regard as illusory the sense of freedom that he considers as a universally shared value and attacks the Church in particular. The libertine is also associated with the exaltation of physical pleasure and natural instinct. The desire is part of human nature and Challe does not ignore its significance. The climax of this issue is reached in the episode of the widow who desecrates marriage and abandons herself secretly to Dupuis.

This thesis provides a comprehensive source study of the eighteenth-century Chapel Royal partbooks (London, British Library R.M.27.a–d). The 56 manuscript volumes in this collection, which are now catalogued into four groups (or ‘sets’), were used in the daily choral services at St James’s Palace during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The sources have a complex history since they have an ‘organic’ quality whereby the books continued to be copied into and altered whilst they were in regular use. The first part of the thesis (chapters two to six) examines the physical characteristics of the manuscripts by considering the books’ construction, the traits of the copyists, and the way material was gradually added. Paper and scribal analysis, as well as general cataloguing work, are used to identify the contents and explore the layers of copying. The second part of the thesis (chapters seven and eight) looks at the function of the books and considers the collection within its eighteenth-century context. Documentary sources are considered alongside various elements of the books to establish how the partbooks were used in performance. The Chapel’s method of partbook organisation is then compared with the organisation of similar collections at other choral foundations (including those with which the Chapel had strong connections).

L’objectif de cette thèse a été d’étudier les caractéristiques et la spécificité des discours savants, élaborés au 18e siècle par des académiciens, des naturalistes, des médecins et des accoucheurs, sur la question des malformations physiques. Que signifie de façon plus concrète appartenir à la période positive1 pour l’écriture savante sur les êtres difformes. Nous avons procédé en trois temps et enquêté sur trois cadres discursifs différents : les mémoires académiques publiés à l’Académie Royale des Sciences à Paris, les traités d’histoire naturelle, les manuels d’accouchement et deux dissertations concernant la légitimité des naissances tardives. Dans ces espaces, l’importance accordée au corps difforme varie en fonction de l’ethos des auteurs, de leur approche méthodologique et selon les objectifs du cadre discursif dans lequel ils s’expriment.Le témoignage oculaire, la dissection et l’observation sont des paramètres centraux pour les académiciens qui examinent le corps difforme per se. Les traités d’histoire naturelle ont une envergure plus générale, les auteurs doivent prendre en considération une multitude des phénomènes. Dans le cadre de ce savoir les monstres deviennent une partie de la nature. La naturalisation des êtres malformés et leur considération comme des parties inhérentes à la nature continue l’idée que les monstres sont des êtres réels. Dans les discours qui concernent les naissances, les monstres sont présentés comme des cas pathologiques qui dérangent le déroulement normal de l’accouchement.Notre étude montre qu’en dépit de cette diversité qui implique également une évolution de la pensée sur les monstres, certaines lacunes, des manques et des non- dits marquent les discours savants de la période des Lumières. Plus particulièrement, l'examen des écrits permet de mieux saisir la dimension transitoire qui semble caractériser le 18e siècle; un siècle qui constitue un pont entre la période fabuleuse et la période scientifique. / The purpose of this work has been to study the characteristics and the specificity of learned discourses on monsters in Enlightened France. We wanted to describe and define the features of a positive period1 in the history on monsters. In order to answer this question we have focused on three learned frames of the 18th century: the academic papers published in the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, the treatises of natural history, the childbirth manuals and two dissertations on the topic of the legitimacy of late childbirths. In these three frames, the importance accorded to the deformed body depends on the author’s ethos, on his methodological approach and on the goals and aims of the discipline in which he is writing.We have seen that in the three discursive frames the authors insist on the real existence of the monsters which are carefully detached from fabulous connotations and from superstitions. The dissections and the observations are important ingredients in the work of the academicians who examine the deformed body per se. The natural history treatises adopt a general perspective and the authors deal with the immensity of the nature. In these general works the monsters become a component of nature and reflect its diversity. This naturalization of monsters underlines the fact that the malformations are seen as concrete defects which occur in nature even if the authors can’t propose any new explanations and theories for the malformations. In the childbirth manuals which have a didactic goal the authors consider the monstrous child in a pathological perspective and explain how to deliver it in the best given conditions.Our study has shown that despite the evolution and progress in the approach to the abnormal bodies, some gasps, deficiencies and unsaid things remain and denote of the transitory aspect of the 18th century thought on the topic on monsters. This positive period constitutes a chain or a phase between the fabulous period and the scientific period of the teratology which begins in the 19th century.

It is the purpose of the author to outline briefly some of the intellectual ideas relating to the nature of man, his conception of religion, his social manners and customs, and to reveal, through the "Hypochondriack" essays, that James Boswell was a peculiarly eighteenth-century figure in certain aspects of his moral philosophy.

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This thesis presents a the satire of Jonathan Swift's writings framed within the context of the historical events and conditions as they existed during his lifetime.

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With the intention of analysing changes in natural history, human variation and the exercise of imperial power across the British Caribbean, this study poses the following questions: How did changes in natural history impact the understandings and applications of human variety, 1700–1750? How did natural history influence the exercise of imperial power in the British Caribbean? The study posits that there is a connection between natural history and imperial power. Through the contexts of the history of natural history and the history of fear, biopolitics acts as a theoretical framework wherethrough two themes of natural history, "spirits" and weaponry, are analysed using the travel writings of Hans Sloane, Henry Barham, Charles Leslie, Griffith Hughes and Patrick Browne. The study finds that natural history mainly manifested itself as a tool of imperial power by manufacturing two primary ways in which humans could, on demand, be excluded from the realm of humanhood. The first consists of an early eighteenth-century "moral conditional humanhood", manifesting as a symptom of natural history’s theological focus. The second is a mid-eighteenth-century "biological conditional humanhood", being a symptom of that time’s natural-historical focus on biology to determine human variation. The study finds support for a connection between natural history and the exercise of imperial power, for instance, concerning how fear is emphasised in the early eighteenth-century – to hide the violence exercised by Europeans – to then become hidden in the mid-eighteenth-century. In addition, human variation presented itself with a malleability, with the enslaved population being more malleable than the native population.

In an attempt better to understand the appeal of the Gothic novel during its initial appearance in eighteenth-century England, particularly that of the 'female Gothic'--a sub-genre recently declared by feminist critics such as Claire Kahane, Ellen Moers, and Tania Modleski--this essay considers three novels by Ann Radcliffe, possibly the best-known female writer of her time: The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), The Romance of the Forest (1791), and The Italian (1797). Beginning with an examination of Radcliffe's unique use of landscapes and her adoption of Burke's Sublime, I postulate a symbology and subtext which address the generally unacknowledged topics of female sexuality and female creativity. The representation of feminine desire, as well as the continued theme of the hidden woman artist, I argue, together comprise the 'hidden discourse' integral to the 'female Gothic' pioneered by Radcliffe. Bearing in mind the emergence in the later eighteenth-century of a large female audience for Radcliffe's novels, l analyse the different physical prospects and personalities associated with heroine and villain as politically polarized 'visions' of reality. The inevitable moral and aesthetic conflict of these visions culminates in the heroine's ultimate triumph over the villain and the patriarchal society he represents. Through this analysis of her fiction's hidden discourse, Radcliffe's contribution to the Gothic genre can be seen as politically subversive, her novels concealing a defiance of her male-dominated culture as well as containing an affirmation of identity for her female readers. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)