Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2555. Adviser: Anna Maria Escobar. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 239-265) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Language Education, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1317. Advisers: Martha Nyikos; Kimberly Geeslin. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 14, 2007)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1314. Advisers: J. Clancy Clements; Beverly Hartford. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 18, 2007)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Depts. of Germanic Studies and Linguistics, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed, June 26, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2141. Advisers: Rex A. Sprouse; Steven Franks.

This thesis explores the freedom of shared storytelling in Tolkien's seminal essay, "On Fairy-Stories," and applies these principles to his fiction. In The Lord of The Rings, authentic storytelling is developed not through domination of others, but within the context of free relationships. Ultimately, the literary freedom that the author enjoys, and extends to the audience or to characters, is grounded in the Primary Creator's gift of freedom and invitation to engage in "subcreation." While Sauron ruptures the subcreative relationship by forging the ring of power to dominate others ("magic"), the elves, hobbits and other creatures share narrative ("enchantment"), affirming being through "recovery." Recovery counteracts Sauron's determinism and enables hope for "eucatastrophe," the redemptive grace at the heart of stories. Tolkien offers a unique alternative to secular models of literary freedom: human agency may be represented in literature not only through independence from divine intervention, but also in collaboration with it.

This thesis tells the story of Shetland knitted lace. It is a history that comprises more than a series of chronological events which illustrate the development of a domestic craft industry; it is also the story of a landscape and the people who inhabited it and the story of the emergence of a distinctive textile product which achieved global recognition Focusing on the material culture of Shetland lace opens up questions about the relationships between the women who produce it, the men and women who sell it and the women who consume and wear it. In acknowledging these connected histories and by following Shetland lace over time and across, often wide, geographical spaces, Shetland knitted lace can be shown to epitomize and signify social relations. This research takes a life cycle, or biographical, approach to Shetland lace in which consideration is given not only to the circumstances surrounding its production, but also to recognising the different stages in its development and how it moved through different hands, contexts and uses. Shetland lace exists within a set of cultural relationships which are temporally, spatially and socially specific and it carries shifting historical and cultural stories about its makers, traders and wearers and the worlds that they inhabited. Recognising these relationships as an integral element in the formation of historical and cultural narratives it is possible to see the role Shetland lace played in defining self and community within Shetland while acknowledging difference in an expanding national and international market. This understanding of the production, marketing and consumption processes demonstrates the multiple relationships between Shetland lace and its market and between the producer and consumer. The focus on the highly skilled Shetland lace producers demonstrates the development of female enterprise and entrepreneurship in the Shetland lace industry in which local networks operated in an exchange of labour and goods, both as a barter and monetary economy. Identifying the economic and symbolic place of Shetland lace within Shetland society highlights the impact of external influences on the success, and perceived decline of this industry. From this perspective this research engages with many of the key questions concerning a specialised form of textile production dominated by women, its place within the female economy, and its position within the world of trade and fashion. In this it aims to make a new contribution to our knowledge of women's work, of the operation of markets, and the perception of skill and value in the past and the present and provide an understanding of an industry which was a crucial element of household economics and female autonomy in these islands. It acknowledges the community of unknown Shetland women who, over generations, introduced, produced and sustained the Shetland lace industry and where possible identifies, and gives a voice to, previously unknown individual producers.

The way in which the concept 'human trafficking' has been constructed in the UK (in the words and actions of law enforcement bodies, state-funded NGOs and courts, for example) has changed significantly since the early 2000s. Yet legal and policy definitions of trafficking have remained largely consistent. This is surprising if we expect the state, through instruments like legislation and policy statements, to authoritatively define particular concepts and categories in a way that then shapes how others think and act. This did not happen - at least not straightforwardly - in the case of trafficking. What, then, was the state's contribution to the construction of 'human trafficking' in the UK? To answer that question, this thesis explores the three most significant state interventions relating to trafficking: a 2007 policy statement, a 2009 set of administrative rules and a 2015 piece of legislation. Each had different characteristics and was used in a different way. I argue that the state used these instruments not to authoritatively define 'human trafficking' but to shape already existing or incipient ideas and assumptions about trafficking. The state collated, codified and legitimised certain configurations of ideas and assumptions through the three instruments discussed. To place the state's activities in context, the thesis also investigates how the state first came to recognise 'human trafficking' as an issue and what influence the concepts and categories shaped by the state went on to have. The former is addressed through identifying the ideas and assumptions that fed into the state's early efforts and tracing their historical development. The latter is addressed through examining the ways in which actors who are engaged in implementing the concepts and categories shaped by the state have had to adapt their ideas and practices in order to do so.

This thesis traces the 'metaplot' of Ian McEwan's progress, through his professional writing. Completely unknown in 1971, his work has attracted increasing recognition, culminating in the Booker prize in 1998. Early in his career, he gained access to elements of his unconscious through free-association, active imagination, meditation and the use of recreational drugs. These elements, which surfaced gradually and piecemeal, include strong feelings associated with the Oedipus complex, difficulties with masculine self-identification, feelings of rejection, unresolved grief, wishes to regress to the latency period of childhood, and sexuality contaminated with anal-sadistic power issues. McEwan dealt with these themes by creating characters who expressed them through sexual deviations and violence or acted them through to their logical conclusion. Thus he was able to confront previously repressed aspects of his inner life and resolve some of his emotional problems in safety, while availing himself of rich material for his fiction. His writing is not autobiographical, but it will be demonstrated that events in his life and his changing beliefs and values are reflected in his work. He achieves an illusion of authenticity by including real people and events, familiar to readers from recent history and the news, in vividly described settings. He shares with the reader his interest in advances in science and his concerns about the dangers facing mankind and the evils of authoritarian and patriarchal structures in the microcosm and macrocosm of human institutions. He synthesises these components under a strong narrative shelter of complex plots, dramatic suspense, unexpected thrills and shocks. The psychodynamic interpretations offered in this thesis depend on a detailed study of McEwan's published work. Their aim is to isolate the separate threads in the fabric of his fiction and demonstrate the maturation and increasing sophistication of his work.

Apart for a few episodes such as the battle of Cravant (1423), the defence of Paris (1429) and especially the capture of Joan of Arc at the siege of Com-piègne (1430), the military aspect of Anglo-Burgundian alliance in 1420-1435 war is little known to general audience. This stage of the Hundred Years War is presented largely as a series of English successes in the 1420s followed by the defeats and setbacks after 1429. The present study aims to uncover this large-ly ignored aspect of one of the most dramatic stages of the Hundred Years War, which at a certain point brought the English to the walls of Orléans – an undoubted peak of their centuries-long efforts to subdue the French kingdom. For the aims of research, the course of the Hundred Years War in the 1420s-early 1430s has to be considered not in the terms of the English fighting against the French but as a struggle of two alternative claims to the French throne, both of them relying on certain support among the French pop-ulation. One of these suggested that the French crown remained with the Va-lois dynasty represented by Charles VII, the other tried to introduce the Dual Monarchy of England and France under the governance of the House of Lancas-ter, as formalised by the Treaty of Troyes (21 May 1420). The role of Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, the most high-ranking French partisan of the Dual monarchy, as the pillar of the Lancastrian power in France becomes the subject of study. This raises the question of the system of obligations between the duke and the Lancastrian government, the modes of its practical exploitation and the significance of the duke’s contribution to the Lancastrian war efforts. With this in mind, this study provides a chronological reconstruction of Anglo-Burgundian military cooperation in its development by placing it in a wider military and diplomatic context. Having assembled the evidence on the practice of military assistance it proceeds to discussing the most widely em-ployed models of cooperation and interaction between the allies eventually leading to a certain reconsideration of the whole nature of the Anglo-Burgundian alliance. What the research reveals is the scale and continuity of the alliance which retained its importance from December 1419 to September 1435, the significance of the allies’ efforts in supporting each other and variety of its models and, finally, the crucial influence of the military power or weak-ness factor on the diplomacy and politics in France.