The Culture of Sensibility permeates both Burney’s and Austen’s novels. Burney and Austen both use anomalous bodies and minds as a vehicle to explore the performative requirements of the Culture of Sensibility. The performance of disability, including bodily manifestations of nervous disorders, melancholy, and hypochondria, allows sensibility to become visible on the body. This dissertation examines the similarities between Burney’s and Austen’s portrayals of disability in order to understand how Austen’s texts engage and reflect Burney’s influence. Despite the frequency with which disability is necessary for the production of Sensibility, the connection between disability and Sensibility remains unexplored. This dissertation investigates the connection between various performances of disability with the Culture of Sensibility and exposes the narrative reliance on the anomalous body in both Burney’s and Austen’s novels. Through a combination of disability theory and performance theory, this dissertation examines the Culture of Sensibility’s reliance on the non-normative body for the performance of sentimental behaviour. Disability theory allows for the examination of the anomalous body beyond that of a strictly medical definition. Mansfield Park’s Fanny Price illustrates the difference between the medical and social construction of disability. Using only the medical model, Fanny’s debility represents her poor health; however, the social construction of disability connects Fanny’s debility to the fetishization of the anomalous body by the Culture of Sensibility. Disability features in Burney’s and Austen’s courtship narratives, as temporary physical and mental impairment provide opportunities for physical proofs of Sensibility, somatic communication of desire, and narrative resolution. Both Burney’s and Austen’s illness narratives of characters with permanent disabilities reveal concerns of the appropriation of the ii invalid’s favourable position within the Culture of Sensibility through an affected performance of disability. Male characters with temporary or permanent physical impairment suffer effeminization and exclusion from courtship narratives, whereas instances of female invalidism contribute to successful resolution of courtship narratives. I conclude that Burney’s and Austen’s reliance on the anomalous body to prove sensibility indicates that the late-eighteenth century sentimental novel normalizes the anomalous body.

This dissertation seeks to explore the wide reaching effects of the ‘Consumer Revolution of the Augustan Period’ (1680-1750) by examining the Hudson’s Bay Company from the perspective of the London metropole. During this period, newly imported and manufactured goods began flooding English markets. For the first time, members of the middling and lower sorts were able to afford those items which had previously been deemed ‘luxuries.’ One of these luxuries was the beaver felt hat, which had previously been restricted to the wealthy aristocracy and gentry because of its great cost. However, because of the HBC’s exports of beaver fur from Rupert’s Land making beaver widely available and therefore, less expensive, those outside of the privileged upper sorts were finally able to enjoy this commodity. Thus, the focus here will be on the furs leaving North America, specifically Hudson’s Bay, between 1670 and 1730, and consider the subsequent consumption of those furs by the British and European markets. This thesis examines English fashion, social, economic, and political history to understand the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Consumer Revolution, and their effects on one another.

By the latter quarter of the eighteenth century, as the movement against the slave trade increased in Britain, Creoles, those of British ancestry born in the West Indies, were increasingly criticized for their involvement in slavery. Simon Taylor, a Jamaican-born planter of Scottish ancestry who lived most of his life in the colony, attempted to negotiate competing and often contradictory sensibilities and subject positions as both British and Creole. One of the central challenges to Taylor’s negotiation of identity was his long-term relationship with Grace Donne, a free mixed-race woman of colour. An examination of their relationship highlights the ways binary discourses and exclusionary practices devised to create and reinforce rigid racial boundaries were regularly crossed and blurred, even by an individual like Simon Taylor, a person well placed to benefit from the policing and maintenance of those boundaries.

As the Enlightenment took hold in Europe, all aspects of eighteenth-century society felt its effects. Musical tastes, caught in this ideological shift, began to move from the more codified complexity of counterpoint toward the more simplified aesthetic known as galant. Johann Sebastian Bach, now in the most mature phase of a musical career rooted in the contrapuntal style, came under growing public criticism from proponents of galant who were increasingly dismissive of counterpoint as an out-dated compositional method. In 1741, during this time of growing censure, Bach created the wedding cantata BWV 210, O holder Tag erwünschte Zeit, based on an earlier cantata but with significant changes that are unique within this oeuvre. Rather than the typical celebratory libretto characteristic of his other wedding cantatas, Bach mounted a strong rhetorical argument in defense of music, deftly combining irony, humour, and pointed barbs to make his point. The rationale for this has not received significant scholarly attention. This dissertation explores the idea that Bach used BWV 210 as a specific personal response to his critics who favoured the changing musical aesthetic of the era, and as a defense of a contrapuntal style cherished by him but no longer valued by many advocates of the galant. This claim is supported through an aggregation of extant research linking the cantata to the circumstances in which it was created. Particular attention is given to the ideological conflict represented in the aesthetic shift of the eighteenth century, and Bach’s reactions evident in written documents, his compositions and in his unique synthesis of compositional styles intersecting the aesthetics of his era. The circumstances under which the cantata was written provide context for the significant libretto revisions undertaken to adapt the cantata from its closest known counterpart, BWV 210a. Finally, Johann Scheibe’s published criticism against Bach is explored as an important flashpoint for Bach’s use of BWV 210 as a musical rebuttal. Not only is a better understanding of a lesser-known cantata achieved, but a glimpse into the mindset of Bach is also realized through the unusually personal response included in BWV 210.

As the Enlightenment took hold in Europe, all aspects of eighteenth-century society felt its effects. Musical tastes, caught in this ideological shift, began to move from the more codified complexity of counterpoint toward the more simplified aesthetic known as galant. Johann Sebastian Bach, now in the most mature phase of a musical career rooted in the contrapuntal style, came under growing public criticism from proponents of galant who were increasingly dismissive of counterpoint as an out-dated compositional method. In 1741, during this time of growing censure, Bach created the wedding cantata BWV 210, O holder Tag erwünschte Zeit, based on an earlier cantata but with significant changes that are unique within this oeuvre. Rather than the typical celebratory libretto characteristic of his other wedding cantatas, Bach mounted a strong rhetorical argument in defense of music, deftly combining irony, humour, and pointed barbs to make his point. The rationale for this has not received significant scholarly attention. This dissertation explores the idea that Bach used BWV 210 as a specific personal response to his critics who favoured the changing musical aesthetic of the era, and as a defense of a contrapuntal style cherished by him but no longer valued by many advocates of the galant. This claim is supported through an aggregation of extant research linking the cantata to the circumstances in which it was created. Particular attention is given to the ideological conflict represented in the aesthetic shift of the eighteenth century, and Bach’s reactions evident in written documents, his compositions and in his unique synthesis of compositional styles intersecting the aesthetics of his era. The circumstances under which the cantata was written provide context for the significant libretto revisions undertaken to adapt the cantata from its closest known counterpart, BWV 210a. Finally, Johann Scheibe’s published criticism against Bach is explored as an important flashpoint for Bach’s use of BWV 210 as a musical rebuttal. Not only is a better understanding of a lesser-known cantata achieved, but a glimpse into the mindset of Bach is also realized through the unusually personal response included in BWV 210.

This thesis examines the intellectual foundation of the London Corresponding Society’s (LCS) efforts to reform Britain's Parliamentary democracy in the 1790s. The LCS was a working population group fighting for universal male suffrage and annual parliaments in a decade that was wrought with internal social and governmental tension. Many Britons, especially the aristocracy and those in the government, feared the spread of ideas of republicanism and equality from revolutionary France and responded accordingly by oppressing the freedom of speech and association. At first glance, the LCS appears contradictory: it supported the hierarchical status quo but fought for the voice and representation of the people; and it believed that the foundation for rights was natural but also argued its demands for equal rights were drawn from Britain’s ancient unwritten constitution. This thesis contextualizes these ideas using a contemporary debate, the Burke-Paine controversy, as Edmund Burke was the epitome of eighteenth century conservative constitutionalism in Reflections on the Revolution in France while Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man represented a Lockean interpretation of natural rights and equality. Thus using Reflections and Rights of Man as a framework, this thesis demonstrates that the LCS thoroughly understood its demands for parliamentary reform and uniformly applied its interpretation of natural rights and equality to British constitutionalism and the social and governmental hierarchies.

This thesis summarises the important ideologies and concepts of musical organicism in the late eighteenth century and applies them to motivic analysis and performance. Much has been written about the organic nature of Beethoven’s later works, but less has been written about the organic coherence found in his earlier compositions. This study involves a motivic analysis of his Op. 2 No. 3 sonata (1795), for which little or no significant research has been carried out. This musical work is used as an illustration of ways in which musical organicism, motivic analysis, and performance can interrelate. The thesis is in three parts. Part one presents a review of late eighteenth-century ideologies of unity and their musical applications. In the search for an effective means of comparing motivic development with organicism, it is then argued that Schenker’s ‘motivic parallelism’ or ‘concealed repetition’ is considerably undervalued in his analytical framework. Drawing on the insights of Richard Cohn, I endorse a more autonomous treatment of the motivic parallelism in analysis, so that it is an independent unifying tool in its own right and not only a by-product of tonal analysis. Several approaches are applied to the motivic parallelism in order to illustrate how the parallelism can be used in ways normally only associated with the surface motif. Part two of the thesis consists of a detailed motivic analysis of Beethoven’s Op. 2 No. 3 sonata. It is argued that the motivic parallelisms contained in this sonata reflect late eighteenth-century ideals of organicism. I propose that there are several motivic cells found in the opening four bars of the sonata, which recur (or are ‘paralleled’) within all structural levels and over all four movements, unifying the sonata organically as one whole. In this way, I show that the Op. 2 No. 3 sonata can be seen to foreshadow the organic treatment of motifs by later composers, who were influenced by Goethe’s complex prototype (1802) as an organic model.(1) I also offer an ‘organic narrative’ for the sonata, using motivic parallelisms as the guiding forces in the discourse. The third and final part relates the motivic parallelisms and other analytical findings to performance. Techniques of ‘performing’ motivic parallelisms are discussed and applied to the Op. 2 No. 3 sonata. The organic perspective is proposed as one avenue through which to understand and enhance a performance of a work. (1) The sonata can also be seen to foreshadow the highly seminal treatment of motifs that was to become more widely used in Beethoven’s later works (such as the Eroica Symphony).

This thesis summarises the important ideologies and concepts of musical organicism in the late eighteenth century and applies them to motivic analysis and performance. Much has been written about the organic nature of Beethoven’s later works, but less has been written about the organic coherence found in his earlier compositions. This study involves a motivic analysis of his Op. 2 No. 3 sonata (1795), for which little or no significant research has been carried out. This musical work is used as an illustration of ways in which musical organicism, motivic analysis, and performance can interrelate. The thesis is in three parts. Part one presents a review of late eighteenth-century ideologies of unity and their musical applications. In the search for an effective means of comparing motivic development with organicism, it is then argued that Schenker’s ‘motivic parallelism’ or ‘concealed repetition’ is considerably undervalued in his analytical framework. Drawing on the insights of Richard Cohn, I endorse a more autonomous treatment of the motivic parallelism in analysis, so that it is an independent unifying tool in its own right and not only a by-product of tonal analysis. Several approaches are applied to the motivic parallelism in order to illustrate how the parallelism can be used in ways normally only associated with the surface motif. Part two of the thesis consists of a detailed motivic analysis of Beethoven’s Op. 2 No. 3 sonata. It is argued that the motivic parallelisms contained in this sonata reflect late eighteenth-century ideals of organicism. I propose that there are several motivic cells found in the opening four bars of the sonata, which recur (or are ‘paralleled’) within all structural levels and over all four movements, unifying the sonata organically as one whole. In this way, I show that the Op. 2 No. 3 sonata can be seen to foreshadow the organic treatment of motifs by later composers, who were influenced by Goethe’s complex prototype (1802) as an organic model.(1) I also offer an ‘organic narrative’ for the sonata, using motivic parallelisms as the guiding forces in the discourse. The third and final part relates the motivic parallelisms and other analytical findings to performance. Techniques of ‘performing’ motivic parallelisms are discussed and applied to the Op. 2 No. 3 sonata. The organic perspective is proposed as one avenue through which to understand and enhance a performance of a work. (1) The sonata can also be seen to foreshadow the highly seminal treatment of motifs that was to become more widely used in Beethoven’s later works (such as the Eroica Symphony).

This thesis summarises the important ideologies and concepts of musical organicism in the late eighteenth century and applies them to motivic analysis and performance. Much has been written about the organic nature of Beethoven’s later works, but less has been written about the organic coherence found in his earlier compositions. This study involves a motivic analysis of his Op. 2 No. 3 sonata (1795), for which little or no significant research has been carried out. This musical work is used as an illustration of ways in which musical organicism, motivic analysis, and performance can interrelate. The thesis is in three parts. Part one presents a review of late eighteenth-century ideologies of unity and their musical applications. In the search for an effective means of comparing motivic development with organicism, it is then argued that Schenker’s ‘motivic parallelism’ or ‘concealed repetition’ is considerably undervalued in his analytical framework. Drawing on the insights of Richard Cohn, I endorse a more autonomous treatment of the motivic parallelism in analysis, so that it is an independent unifying tool in its own right and not only a by-product of tonal analysis. Several approaches are applied to the motivic parallelism in order to illustrate how the parallelism can be used in ways normally only associated with the surface motif. Part two of the thesis consists of a detailed motivic analysis of Beethoven’s Op. 2 No. 3 sonata. It is argued that the motivic parallelisms contained in this sonata reflect late eighteenth-century ideals of organicism. I propose that there are several motivic cells found in the opening four bars of the sonata, which recur (or are ‘paralleled’) within all structural levels and over all four movements, unifying the sonata organically as one whole. In this way, I show that the Op. 2 No. 3 sonata can be seen to foreshadow the organic treatment of motifs by later composers, who were influenced by Goethe’s complex prototype (1802) as an organic model.(1) I also offer an ‘organic narrative’ for the sonata, using motivic parallelisms as the guiding forces in the discourse. The third and final part relates the motivic parallelisms and other analytical findings to performance. Techniques of ‘performing’ motivic parallelisms are discussed and applied to the Op. 2 No. 3 sonata. The organic perspective is proposed as one avenue through which to understand and enhance a performance of a work. (1) The sonata can also be seen to foreshadow the highly seminal treatment of motifs that was to become more widely used in Beethoven’s later works (such as the Eroica Symphony).

This thesis summarises the important ideologies and concepts of musical organicism in the late eighteenth century and applies them to motivic analysis and performance. Much has been written about the organic nature of Beethoven’s later works, but less has been written about the organic coherence found in his earlier compositions. This study involves a motivic analysis of his Op. 2 No. 3 sonata (1795), for which little or no significant research has been carried out. This musical work is used as an illustration of ways in which musical organicism, motivic analysis, and performance can interrelate. The thesis is in three parts. Part one presents a review of late eighteenth-century ideologies of unity and their musical applications. In the search for an effective means of comparing motivic development with organicism, it is then argued that Schenker’s ‘motivic parallelism’ or ‘concealed repetition’ is considerably undervalued in his analytical framework. Drawing on the insights of Richard Cohn, I endorse a more autonomous treatment of the motivic parallelism in analysis, so that it is an independent unifying tool in its own right and not only a by-product of tonal analysis. Several approaches are applied to the motivic parallelism in order to illustrate how the parallelism can be used in ways normally only associated with the surface motif. Part two of the thesis consists of a detailed motivic analysis of Beethoven’s Op. 2 No. 3 sonata. It is argued that the motivic parallelisms contained in this sonata reflect late eighteenth-century ideals of organicism. I propose that there are several motivic cells found in the opening four bars of the sonata, which recur (or are ‘paralleled’) within all structural levels and over all four movements, unifying the sonata organically as one whole. In this way, I show that the Op. 2 No. 3 sonata can be seen to foreshadow the organic treatment of motifs by later composers, who were influenced by Goethe’s complex prototype (1802) as an organic model.(1) I also offer an ‘organic narrative’ for the sonata, using motivic parallelisms as the guiding forces in the discourse. The third and final part relates the motivic parallelisms and other analytical findings to performance. Techniques of ‘performing’ motivic parallelisms are discussed and applied to the Op. 2 No. 3 sonata. The organic perspective is proposed as one avenue through which to understand and enhance a performance of a work. (1) The sonata can also be seen to foreshadow the highly seminal treatment of motifs that was to become more widely used in Beethoven’s later works (such as the Eroica Symphony).