In an effort to enhance disciplinary understanding of agency especially for women, recover evidence of women exercising agency historically, and shed light on current debates concerning the interaction between word and image in rhetoric, I explore the extent to which Christine de Pizan, a medieval woman writer, invented and articulated her rhetorical agency. For Christine, the text, the image, and the medium of the manuscript are significant in the development of rhetorical agency; the focus of this thesis is on the nature of that agency, particularly how rhetorical agency is invented within the "City of Ladies" folios from her collected works in Harley Ms. 4431. I frame my study of Christine de Pizan and rhetorical agency with Karlyn Kohrs Campbell's work on agency, a particularly powerful construct for my project, because it provides space for both text and paratext and it grapples with the postmodern moment while simultaneously retaining its applicability for historical studies. I begin by examining how Christine's agency emerged through the dialogic between conventions of textual forms. In particular, I consider Campbell's definition that rhetorical agency occurs in texts, because "texts have agency" and are "effected through form" (Campbell 3). Rhetorical agency emerges as Christine complies with cultural expectations concerning the different conventions of form and then subsequently subverts those same conventions to create a space of resistance for women. I explore how Christine reveals her artistry or rhetorical skills when she manipulates the visual aspects of the manuscript page or paratexts, the incidentals and the miniatures, so that they demonstrate her agency. According to Campbell, artistry occurs when "heuristic skills" respond to contingencies" for which there are no precise or universal precepts, although skilled practitioners are alert to recurring patterns" (Campbell 12). Christine complies with the traditional patterns of the paratext, but subverts those patterns, when she repeats traditional paratext with differences. These differences gesture to the text, other elements of the page, and beyond and, in the process, layer new meaning into the manuscript. I then follow with an examination of the manuscript as a medium, where text and paratext function together to communicate meaning. Though both text and paratext have their own rhetorical agency, Christine invents her agency as the "point[s] of articulation" for the manuscript (Campbell 3). Christine executed a great deal of control over the production of her manuscript, which means her rhetorical agency occurs when she articulates her meaning through her authority and negotiation of the materiality and cultural significance of the medium. Because Christine's rhetorical agency emerges from the text, paratext, and manuscript, an examination of Christine's manuscript, Harley Ms. 4431, provides a new look at postmodern agency and the rhetorical agency of medieval manuscripts. Interestingly, Christine wrote at a significant transitional period for ideology and technology and instead of articulating a traditional historical or humanist theory of agency, she performs a complex agency, which is reminiscent of postmodern agency and raises some questions regarding the nature of agency during the medieval era. In addition, the complicated agency created within medieval manuscripts as the verbal and visual texts came together within the medium will contribute to questions of agency and media. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: March 27, 2008. / Christine de Pizan, Manuscripts, Rhetorical agency, Historical rhetoric, Medieval women writers / Includes bibliographical references. / Kristie S. Fleckenstein, Professor Directing Thesis; A.E.B Coldiron, Committee Member; Michael Neal, Committee Member.

Thesis--Leipzig. / Cover title. No more published. Includes texts in Anglo-Saxon and Middle English. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.

<p> This thesis argues that modern, post-apocalyptic science fiction functions as a projected analysis of the author&rsquo;s contemporary world. This insight is used to chart the historical trajectory of the spread of automaticity, the reduction of objects, and the loss of historical memory. The Introduction introduces readers to both the literary and critical histories of science fiction, contextualizing the worlds that George R. Stewart, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Margaret Atwood write in. Chapter One analyzes George R. Stewart&rsquo;s 1949 novel Earth Abides, using it to demonstrate how the growing trend of automaticity leads toward a reduction of physical objects, and a misunderstanding of politics. Chapter Two uses Ursula K. Le Guin&rsquo;s 1973 novel The Lathe of Heaven to reveal an acceleration of automaticity and reduction of objects though the manipulation of human desire. This, in turn, leads to a loss of historical memory via Herbert Marcuse&rsquo;s concept of repressive desublimation. Chapter Three charts the effects that the advent of the virtual has had on automaticity and the manipulation of human desire through an engagement with Margaret Atwood&rsquo;s 2003 novel Oryx and Crake.</p>

<p>This thesis will examine the potential viability of a &ldquo;politics of affect&rdquo;. The analysis will begin by evaluating Spinoza&rsquo;s theory of affect and its connection to object-oriented-ontology and quasi-objects. This will include a discussion of Spinoza&rsquo;s specific brand of &ldquo;affect&rdquo; and its ability to influence politics. This paper will also address the theory of Bruno Latour, which utilizes Spinoza&rsquo;s theory of bodies and affect while examining the political implications of Spinozist ideas. The goal of this analysis is to use a discussion of affect, quasi-objects, and object-oriented-ontology to delineate what exactly a politics of affect might be and how this system might operate. I will use Latour&rsquo;s quasi-objects and object-oriented-ontology in connection with Spinoza&rsquo;s affect and Francis Hutcheson&rsquo;s passions in order to theorize this new political system. The viability of a politics of affect will also be demonstrated by a critique of the formal realist novel and an analysis of Warren Montag&rsquo;s work <i>Bodies, Masses, Power </i>. I posit that the creation of genre, and in particular of the formal realist novel, solidifies the subject-object hierarchy as well as the &ldquo;bracketing off&rdquo; of affect. Lastly, the paper will examine multiple examples of politics of affect as seen in <i>The Monk</i> and <i>Obi</i>. Through a critique of the formal realist novel, and a brief examination of the history of the novel, this thesis will critique false notions of time as linear and generic convention as homogenous. The goal of this analysis is to consider that objects have a profound capability to influence our world, and to question modernity&rsquo;s insistence in a preordained and a priori hierarchy among and separation between subject and object. </p>

<p> This thesis focuses primarily on W. H. Auden&rsquo;s last book-length poem, <i>The Age of Anxiety,</i> as well as several of Auden&rsquo;s shorter poems extending throughout the modern, anxiety-ridden age. My second chapter argues that Auden blurs the distinctions between mythology and history and asserts that history is truly more subjective than seemingly objective, while my third chapter discusses Auden&rsquo;s liminality between psychoanalysis and theology. After Auden&rsquo;s conversion to the Anglican faith in 1939, Auden transitions from a Freudian to a more Jungian discourse, since Jung&rsquo;s psychoanalyses incorporate theology, while Freud&rsquo;s theories use psychoanalysis to determine religion&rsquo;s implausibility. This thesis maintains that Auden presents readers with various antitheses throughout his canon as a way to challenge us to decipher beyond a binate understanding of larger, existential ideas and suggest, instead, that these ideas&rsquo; significance reside in liminality rather than in opposition. </p>

<p> This thesis represents the first-ever full-length study of Swift&rsquo;s dealings and working relationships with the Dublin printers who took the risk on his seditious Irish pamphlets of the 1720&rsquo;s. These printers were: Edward Waters, who endured a violent and protracted prosecution for printing Swift&rsquo;s <i>A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture </i> in May 1720; John Harding, who died as a consequence of his imprisonment for printing the fourth of Swift&rsquo;s <i>Drapier&rsquo;s Letters</i> in October 1724; and Harding&rsquo;s widow, Sarah, who came to print occasional works for Swift a few years after her husband&rsquo;s death. Written from the perspectives of the printers, the thesis discloses a substantial amount of never-before-seen evidence pertaining to the lives and careers of the printers, the form and nature of their working relationships with Swift, the legal and moral obligations Swift owed them as a pseudonymous author, as well as the circumstances of Harding&rsquo;s death. Historians have assumed that Harding died of jail fever &ndash; an assumption that wholly absolves Swift. But new evidence suggests the clear possibility that Harding, who was due to appear in the Court of King&rsquo;s Bench, where he would have been examined at length on the true identity of this &lsquo;M.B. Drapier&rsquo;, met with foul play, and that the persons behind it were Swift&rsquo;s friend, Lord Lieutenant Carteret, and Swift himself. Further never-before-seen evidence concerns Sarah&rsquo;s Harding&rsquo;s suppressed complaints and the persistent pressure that Swift&rsquo;s friends brought to bear upon the author to support her in the years following Harding&rsquo;s death.</p>

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