In the mid 1830s, the engraver Ebenezer Landells and the journalist Henry Mayhew began discussions about establishing a satirical news magazine together. Landells and Mayhew wanted to create a London version of the contemporary Paris Charivari. Their aspirations were realized with the printing and circulation of the first issue of <i>Punch</i> on July 17, 1841; <i>Punch</i> was published continually for more than a century and a half from that time on. However, by the mid 1850s, the more radical ideas that had initially dominated <i>Punch</i> were stripped away and replaced with a more respectable worldview under the direction of the editor, Mark Lemon.<p> The increased emphasis on respectability in <i>Punch</i> can be explained by the desire of the <i>Punch</i> men to be recognized as gentlemen. The status of gentleman was much sought after in Victorian Britain, with the result that the varying definitions of this status were heavily contested. Although journalists had not frequently been recognized as gentlemen before, the efforts of William Makepeace Thackeray (a <i>Punch</i> man) to change the definitional terms of the gentleman made this possible. Based on Thackerays understanding of the gentleman, the Punchites used <i>Punch</i> magazine, and their commentary on morality, social class, and fads in Victorian mens fashion within it, to further both a shift in the popular understanding of the gentleman and their recognition as such.

In the mid 1830s, the engraver Ebenezer Landells and the journalist Henry Mayhew began discussions about establishing a satirical news magazine together. Landells and Mayhew wanted to create a London version of the contemporary Paris Charivari. Their aspirations were realized with the printing and circulation of the first issue of <i>Punch</i> on July 17, 1841; <i>Punch</i> was published continually for more than a century and a half from that time on. However, by the mid 1850s, the more radical ideas that had initially dominated <i>Punch</i> were stripped away and replaced with a more respectable worldview under the direction of the editor, Mark Lemon.<p> The increased emphasis on respectability in <i>Punch</i> can be explained by the desire of the <i>Punch</i> men to be recognized as gentlemen. The status of gentleman was much sought after in Victorian Britain, with the result that the varying definitions of this status were heavily contested. Although journalists had not frequently been recognized as gentlemen before, the efforts of William Makepeace Thackeray (a <i>Punch</i> man) to change the definitional terms of the gentleman made this possible. Based on Thackerays understanding of the gentleman, the Punchites used <i>Punch</i> magazine, and their commentary on morality, social class, and fads in Victorian mens fashion within it, to further both a shift in the popular understanding of the gentleman and their recognition as such.

This thesis assesses the ways in which gentility served as a catalyst for the creation of a new masculine identity during the early American republic:  the Republican Gentleman.  In particular, I utilize taverns in Richmond, Virginia from 1780 to 1820, in which to understand the significance of gentility.  This thesis analyzes how Richmond taverns represented the growth of gentility through refined architecture and its male patrons.  It discusses how taverns, as predominantly male spaces, allowed for the expression of the Republican Gentleman's masculine identity.  The guiding research question for this thesis is how refined Richmond taverns illustrated the prominence of gentility, and thus provided a stage for the performance of the Republican Gentleman during the early national period.  Furthermore, this research is informed by the following secondary research questions:  In what ways did gentility and republicanism shape masculine identities?  How did evolving ideas of gentility and refinement shape physical tavern space and architecture?  The broader significance of this thesis is to offer an avenue in which to further develop scholars' understanding of the intersection of masculinity, class, and gentility during the early national period. / Master of Arts

The usefulness of a detailed examination of the fictional world of a novel is demonstrated in a study of Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.Analysis of the fictional world of Tristram Shandy, reveals a binary world which is created by the novel's narrative technique. Distinct outlines of the two fictional worlds of Tristram (TW) and the Shandy Brothers (SBW) can be established, and-the examination of these worlds provides new insights for explicating the structure, coherence, unity, and completeness of Sterne's novel.The duality of fictional worlds in the novel is not merely the reflection of movement between the two time frames of Tristram's present and his past. There are distinguishing differences not only of time, characters, and events, but also of place and quality of experience. As one views these worlds alternately but consistently throughout the novel, the bifocal perspective which emerges creates the depth perception necessary not only to see Tristram as he is, but also to comprehend a composite universe in which the attitudes, conflicts, and complications of the present world of Tristramn both mirror and complement those of the world of the Shandy family.Just as the juxtaposition of two fictional worlds augments the reader's perception of Tristram's character, life, and opinions, so also does it alter significantly the perception of the book he is writing. For it is by means of Tristram's narrative stance, his self-conscious role as author busily attempting to chronicle the events occurring in both worlds, and the perspective created by his dual narration of these events, that the reader comes to see and appreciate his book as an artifact watched in the process of its creation. As the artifact which Tristram is struggling to create, the book itself assumes a fictional role as an object in Tristram's world.In the process of his virtuoso performance in entertaining the reader while failing in the attempt to complete his autobiography, Tristram unwittingly succeeds in disclosing in his present world as much of his spirit and character as a reader requires in order to know him well. The ultimate success, of course, is that of Sterne, who has created a remarkably involuted, complex, and transparent structure of fiction by means of (1) Tristram's intrusive and digressive narration, in which the two fictional worlds emerge simultaneously; (2) the plot of Tristram attempting to write his Life; and (3) the unfolding character of Tristram. Taken together these elements interact and combine to produce a novel which is artful, ingenious, and a structure of paradox and irony.

Anita Loos’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes constantly acknowledges tensions between the intentions and actions of its protagonist, Lorelei Lee. Some literary critics and authors have speculated in depth the reasons and/or effects of Lorelei’s humorous oblivion, coming to the conclusion that Loos creates this character as a parody for the reader. This article asserts instead that readers should grant Lorelei autonomy, thus giving her more credit than she is generally given at face value. I read Blondes as a self-help book rather than a parody. Specifically, I read Lorelei as not only a creation of modernist work, but a creator of such work: her diary works as a satire on the nineteenth century social etiquette texts directed at women. By identifying some implicit lessons in Lorelei’s diary, I will demonstrate how Loos carefully constructs Lorelei’s humorous rhetoric as a disguised societal guide for the contemporary American flapper who aspires upward mobility.

Basically, a study of the structure of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy involves an analysis of the point of view of both the author and the narrator, and hence of variations on the first-person narration that are found in this novel. Tristram Shandy is related wholly in the authorial and historical present, and the reader as well as the fictional characters is included in the narrator's discourses of Tristram's own world. Hence, one must apply a considerable degree of critical objectivity when examining the narrator's role in the novel. A second problem is the importance of the fictional world that Tristram is ostensibly concerned with – that is, his birth and upbringing within the social environment of Shandy Hall, because the process of Tristram's narration proceeds to usurp most of the novel, shouldering out events at Shandy Hall, which are left half-introduced, or unfinished, or barely hinted at, and we are left with a fairly complete portrait of Tristram Shandy, but not of his life at Shandy Hall. A third problem is that of the inherent structure of the novel, which necessarily is centered around the dominant, controlling voice of the narrator. Although this structures has been dismissed as chaotic or irregular or formless, it does possess definite patterns which allow for the addition of further units. As Tristram Shandy is basically an open-ended novel allowing for infinite expansion, its chronology and subject matter are designed to cohere only in terms of Tristram's entire life; thus we find the events and characters are remembered in the authorial present. The novel moves back and forth on different levels of the historical present, and besides setting out an accumulative amount of remembered biographical detail, presents a projected picture of the mind of an individual in the process of remembering and narrating. A close study of the associational links between chapters clearly reveals the above points, for significantly, these links are all easy to follow and accumulative in effect. The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate how the structure of the novel proceeds from the dominant single point of view that Tristram represents, how the ostensible autobiographical subject matter is eventually subjugated to this personality in operation, and how the structure of the novel functions efficiently towards this end. Chapter I examines the Tristram persona and Chapter II the Yorick persona, in order to determine how they function in this first-persom narration, and to what combined effect. Chapter III on Shandy Hall examines the characters of the novel, exclusive of Tristram, with a view to motivational factors that may proceed from them and that impinge on his story. And Chapter IV examines the associational and chronological structure of the novel in terms of the actual patterns and linkages Sterne provided his segmentalized novel with, and draws a general conclusion from this study. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This thesis examines the book and archival holdings of the Cottonian Collection – a national designated eighteenth-century collection of fine art and books – between 1791 and 1816, the period of William Cotton II’s custodianship. Prior to this thesis, the Cottonian Collection has not been the subject of a full-length academic study. Whilst the art holdings have received some attention, the book and archival contents have not been examined. This thesis addresses this imbalance by conducting a thorough examination of the archival holdings and the history of the book collection. Taking the actions of the collection’s penultimate private owner, William Cotton II, as its primary focus this thesis examines the curatorial practices of acquisition, preservation and disposal through three key lenses: the presentation of the collection as a symbol of gentlemanly status, the evolution of Enlightenment cosmopolitanism thought, and the rise of Anglican Evangelicalism during this period. In doing so, this thesis considers the effects of the broader societal, political and religion changes on a national designated collection during a period defined by ideological threat and revolutionary warfare. In the process, it seeks to embed the history of the Cottonian Collection within the broader context of late-eighteenth-century book collecting practices.

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This thesis considers Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy in light of Friedrich Schlegel's concept of irony. Departing from previous criticism, which focuses on Sterne's playful narrative techniques, the discussion here elucidates other ways in which Tristram Shandy exemplifies the kind of irony Schlegel theorizes. These ways include: Sterne's "Mischgedicht" method, which amalgamates in a single work many types of style, or diverse permutations of form and content; the depiction of Parson Yorick, who epitomizes Socratic irony as Schlegel defines it in the 108th Lyceum fragment; Sterne's gentle satirizing of systematic thinkers, including his own narrator, Tristram; and Sterne's attitude toward words, knowledge, and reading. At the end of chapter 5, Sterne's irony is unraveled and reconstructed. This disentangling leads to a proposed refutation of recent interpretation of both Sterne and Schlegel. These studies see Sterne and Schlegel's irony as implying lack or flux of meaning. It is the strong contention of the following thesis that an essential aspect of Sterne and Schlegel's shared ironic world view is the continual, optimistic attempt to understand life, which necessarily presupposes a sincere and profound belief in both meaning and the reliable conveyance of it. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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