Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'English history'
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1
Sinar, Rebecca. "A history of English reflexives : from Old English into Early Modern English." Thesis, University of York, 2006. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/11018/.
2
Rooney, Lee. "Prophecy in Shakespeare's English history cycles." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2014. http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/2003748/.
Abstract:
Prophecy — that is, the action of foretelling or predicting the future, particularly a future thought to represent the will of God — is an ever-present aspect of Shakespeare’s historical dramaturgy. The purpose of this thesis is to offer a reading of the dramas of Shakespeare’s English history cycles — from 1 Henry VI to Henry V — that focuses exclusively upon the role played by prophecy in representing and reconstructing the past. It seeks to show how, through close attention to the moments when prophecy emerges in these historical dramas, we might arrive at a different understanding of them, both as dramatic narratives and as meditations on the nature of history itself. As this thesis seeks to demonstrate, moreover, Shakespeare’s treatment of prophecy in any one play can be viewed, in effect, as a key that can take us to the heart of that drama’s wider concerns. The comparatively recent conception of a body of historical plays that are individually distinct and no longer chained to the Tillyardian notion of a ‘Tudor myth’ (or any other ‘grand narrative’) has freed prophecy from effectively fulfilling the rather one-dimensional role of chorus. However, it has also raised as-yet-unanswered questions about the function of prophecy in Shakespeare’s English history cycles, which this thesis aims to consider. One of the key arguments presented here is that Shakespeare utilises prophecy not to emphasise the pervasiveness of divine truth and providential design, but to express the political, narratorial, and interpretative disorder of history itself. It is also argued that any conception of the English history plays that rejects homogeneity and even consistency must also acknowledge that prophecy, as a form of historical narrative in essence, cannot be expected to manifest itself in the same ways in each drama throughout Shakespeare’s career. In this sense, the purpose of this thesis is to show that Shakespeare not only uses ‘prophecy’ to construct ‘history’: as a dramatist, he also thinks through ‘prophecy’, in various ways and from multiple perspectives, in order to intensify and complicate our sense of the complexity and drama of history itself. This thesis treats the English chronicle plays in order of composition and performance. While the Introduction contextualizes concepts of prophecy in the early modern period, and its relationship to history in particular, chapters 1–3 address the Henry VI plays and Richard III, with chapters 4 and 5 examining Richard II and the two parts of Henry IV. Henry V is addressed in the Conclusion. The inclusion of the second cycle of histories, rarely interrogated by critics in relation to prophecy, is crucial to the approach taken by this thesis. Unlike previous studies, this thesis privileges prophecy in both the earlier and the later histories, not least because its perceived absence from the plays of the second cycle is capable of informing our understanding of Shakespeare’s historical dramaturgy more generally. What is at stake in this reading of prophecy in Shakespeare’s English histories, both locally in the plays themselves and more generally across the cycles, are questions of causality, identity (both personal and national), monarchy, and the art of theatre itself.
3
Thomas, Alun Deian. "The making and remaking of history in Shakespeare's History Plays." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2012. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/42105/.
Abstract:
History is a problem for the history plays. The weight of ‘true’ history, of fact, puts pressure on the dramatic presentation of history. Not fiction and not fact, the plays occupy the interstitial space between these opposites, the space of drama. Their position between the binary opposites of fact and fiction allows the history plays to play with history. They view history as a problem to be solved, and the different ways in which each play approaches the problem of history gives us a glimpse of how they attempt to engage and deal with the problem of creating dramatic history. Each history play rewrites the plays that preceded it; the plays present ‘history’ as fluid and shifting as competing narratives and interpretations of the past come into conflict with each other, requiring the audience to act as historians in order to construct their own narrative of events. In this way the plays dramatise the process of remaking history. This can be seen in the relationship between the two parts of Henry IV, which restage the same narrative in a different emotional key, and the way that Henry IV’s retelling of the events of Richard II from his own perspective at the conclusion of 1 Henry IV forces the audience to re-evaluate the events of the earlier play, reinterpreting the dramatic past and imaginatively rewriting the play in light of the new perspective gained on events. The history plays thus create a new, dramatic history, a history without need for historical precedent. The plays deliberately signal their departure from ‘fact’ through anachronism, deviation from chronicle history and wholesale dramatic invention. In this sense the plays deliberately frustrate audience expectations; knowledge of chronicle history does not provide foreknowledge of what will happen onstage. History in the theatre is new and unpredictable, perhaps closer in spirit to the uncertainty of the historical moment rather than the reassuring textual narrative of the chronicles.
4
DiCuirci, Lindsay Erin Marks. "History's Imprint: The Colonial Book and the Writing of American History, 1790-1855." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1280362004.
5
Bondarchuk, Julia. "Ukrainian-English literary dialogue: history, state, prospects." Thesis, Київський національний університет технологій та дизайну, 2021. https://er.knutd.edu.ua/handle/123456789/18494.
6
Sebire, M. (Mark). "The conflict between the personal and the social in Salman Rushdie’s Shame; ‘History’ vs. ‘history’." Master's thesis, University of Oulu, 2015. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201512122298.
Abstract:
At its most simplistic, the novel Shame is a tale about the birth of the nation of Pakistan. Its author, Salman Rushdie, is perhaps uniquely placed to tell this tale. He was born in Bombay, then British India, on 19th June, 1947 to a wealthy Muslim family of Kashmiri descent. Less than two months after his birth, his country was subject to major political change. British India was divided, and the nation of Pakistan was created on 14th August, 1947. The following day India gained its independence from Britain. Rushdie was therefore born at a pivotal point in his country’s history. His upbringing and education is equally pivotal as it provides an insight into his writing style and perspective, as he is a product of both the Indian and British educational systems.
The central theme of this paper is that there are two distinct versions of history which are exposed in Shame; the official ‘History’ — with a capital ‘H’ — of the state, and the unofficial, personal ‘histories’ — with a small ‘h’ — of the characters in the novel. There is also the historical perspective of the author as well, which makes objective criticism complicated. The narrative process within the novel is a complex dialectic between the personal and the social; between what the state wishes people to believe has happened, and what people have actually witnessed, with the acknowledged limitations of memory and hindsight. The truth is a tantilising mirage; the closer the reader believes they are to it, the more Rushdie’s playful style leads them away. There are many views of the past depicted in the novel, therefore, but none of them could be described as definitive; they are all flawed by the subjectivity of the human condition. What Rushdie is doing, however, is forcing the reader to make up their own mind; to create their own ‘history’ from the versions he presents.
As well as being labelled as postcolonial writing, the novel has been described as postmodern fiction. Both of these assertions are examined in this paper. The “different” techniques that Rushdie applies in the telling of his story will be addressed in the first section of this paper. The second part of this paper details what I believe to be the main theme of the novel, which is the question of the nature of history, and the individual’s place within society. In telling his story, Rushdie is “creating” a history of his own. What is striking about this novel is that it illuminates the hazy uncertainty which exists between what people believe to be “fact” and what they see as “fiction”, and this is, of course, Rushdie’s point.
7
Safran, Morri. ""Unsex'd" texts : history, hypertext and romantic women writers /." Full text (PDF) from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p3026209.
8
Davall, Nicole Elizabeth. "Shakespeare and concepts of history : the English history play and Shakespeare's first tetralogy." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2014. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/65797/.
Abstract:
Divided into three large chapters, this thesis explores sixteenth-century concepts of history, considers how those concepts appear in Elizabethan history plays on English history, and finally looks at Shakespeare’s first tetralogy of history plays. The aim of the thesis is to consider in some detail the wider context of historical and dramatic traditions in Tudor England to gain a better appreciation of how they influenced possible readings of Shakespeare’s early history plays. Chapter One looks at how medieval approaches were modified in the fifteenth century. St. Augustine’s allegorical method of biblical exegesis made it possible to interpret history from inside the historical moment by allowing historically specific incidents to stand for trans-historical truths. However, the sixteenth-century chronicle tradition shows an increasing awareness of the difficulties of interpreting history. Chapter Two looks at early English history plays outside of the Shakespearean canon. History plays borrowed the conventions of comedy, tragedy and the morality play to provide frameworks for interpretation. Nevertheless, early histories such as Kynge Johan, Edmund Ironside, Famous Victories, Edward III, The True Tragedy, and The Troublesome Reign did not fit comfortably within established dramatic modes, leading to history’s gradual recognition as a separate genre. Chapter Three looks at the contribution Shakespeare’s plays made to the developing genre. The un-unified dramatic structure of the Henry VI plays denies the audience a stable framework within which to interpret events. In Richard III, a clear tragic framework appears, but is undermined by a strong thread of irony that runs through the play. History appears in the tetralogy as a repetitive cycle of violence perpetuated by characters’ attempts to memorialise the past while failing to learn from it. The crisis presented by history is the necessity of acting on partial information, while the promise of fuller understanding is projected into an unknowable future.
9
Threlfall-Sykes, Judy. "A history of English women's cricket, 1880-1939." Thesis, De Montfort University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2086/12262.
Abstract:
This thesis is a study of the history of women’s cricket from the 1880s until 1939. Although the primary focus of this thesis is the interwar years, it explores the earliest forms of women’s cricket to provide context for the motivation of individuals to promote the game as acceptable for women, and of those who denounced its suitability. By exploring societal concerns over correct masculine and feminine behaviour and ideals, this thesis provides insight into the methods that contemporaries adopted to contrast these restrictions. Through a detailed examination of local newspapers and archival sources, this thesis investigates the reactions by society to the concept of women playing what was hitherto seen as a masculine sport. In particular it examines the relationship not only between the women and men who organised cricket on a national scale, but between middle- and working- class women and how class played an equally important role as gender as a restricting influence on opportunities for working-class women to participate in leisure. As a consequence, this thesis will demonstrate the willingness of working-class women to participate in physical activities when given the opportunity, either through their male counterparts, or the workplace. Although academic work on the history of women’s sport is an expanding field, little attention has been paid to specific team games, with the exception of football. Similarly, research on women’s sport has primarily focused on women of the upper- and middle-classes, with the activities of working-class women being largely overlooked. This thesis aims to expand our knowledge of women’s cricket by not only providing a detailed examination of the national sporting organisations, but also to redress the knowledge gaps surrounding the participation in sport by working-class women.
10
Beck, David. "Thoroughly English : county natural history, c.1660-1720." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2013. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/58036/.
Abstract:
This thesis focuses upon the county natural history, a genre of writing unique to England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century which spanned subjects which we might now refer to as genealogy, heraldry, cartography, botany, geology, and mineralogy, among others, while retaining a focus on a single county. It situates the genre firmly as a successor to local antiquarianism and chorography in Tudor and early Stuart England. In focusing on a single genre which spans both historical and natural topics, methodologies of enquiry from several historiographic fields are utilized: particularly heavily drawn upon are historical geography, historical epistemology, as well as cultural histories of both history and religion. The thesis aims to make two specific historiographic contributions. Firstly, it demonstrates the value of integrating cultural histories of natural objects and the landscape with historical epistemology. As well as being an object of philosophical or “scientific” knowledge, nature and the landscape held significant cultural meaning, particularly when located in historical narratives and understood as part of God’s world. This is exposed particularly clearly in chapter four’s discussion of physicotheology’s duality: both biblical and natural study combined to emplace God in the landscape. Secondly the thesis offers a reflection on the meanings of locality, place, and the construction of the landscape utilized in historical geography and the history of science. In this period both the nation and physical landscape were envisaged as constructed from discrete “parts”, counties. This is set in the context of earlier, and better known, ‘nation’ constructions, Camden’s construction of the nation by analogy to the human body around the turn of the seventeenth century, and Defoe’s construction of the nation as a trade network centred upon London in 1724.
11
Herbert, Christopher. "English Easter sepulchres : the history of an idea." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/35696.
12
Chiang, Y. C. "Renaissance queenship in William Shakespeare's English history plays." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2012. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1344188/.
Abstract:
This thesis explores how queens in Shakespeare’s English history plays manipulate virtues, space, and memory to embody a specific demeanour in the contexts of early modern England. In the late 1990s, Jean E. Howard’s and Phyllis Rackin’s Engendering a Nation established a feminist study of Shakespeare’s English history plays, focusing on how women support or undermine patriarchal authorities. Yet analysing women’s words and actions in the light of nationalism, New Historicism, and women’s traditional roles as daughters, wives, and mothers within feminism restricts potential readings of women in early modern English literature. This thesis then studies the most powerful women, the queens, to see how they establish themselves as models or counterexamples for women. It first distinguishes between queens regnant, regent, and consort, and investigates the relationship between queenship and kingship. It then traces the three stages of the queens’ ‘career’: the pursuit, practice, and residue of queenship. The ‘pursuit’ analyses how queens-to-be implement their virtues in accepting and rejecting kings’ favours. The queenly virtues parallel and contrast to Machiavelli’s idea of ‘virtú’ and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of ‘cultural capital’. Entitled to exceptional royal status, queens transgress the boundaries of gender and space divisions, while their subversive behaviours are often endorsed by patriarchs. Finally, when queens are widowed, deposed, or divorced, they engage themselves in writing histories; they become monuments presenting alternative memories and insubordinate voices against patriarchal grand narratives. Shakespeare’s queens create iconographical paradigms, which are so recognisable and iconic that their queenship is reiteratively reproduced and appropriated in arts and real practices of later periods. Using early modern arguments and modern theories, this thesis provides a synthesised reading of queens in Shakespeare’s English histories, shedding new light on the position of women in early modern England.
13
Catron, Rhonda Karen. "Dual Credit English: Program History, Review, and Recommendations." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/27146.
Abstract:
Wytheville Community College implemented the Dual Credit English program in 1988 following the Virginia Community College Systemâ s adoption of the Virginia Plan for Dual Enrollment. Essentially, the program allows qualified high school seniors to enroll in the collegeâ s freshman-level ENG 111: College Composition I and ENG 112: College Composition II courses while simultaneously completing senior English. The guarantee of college credit for students who earn at least a â Câ average and other cost-saving and time-saving features have contributed to the increased popularity of the program in recent years. This institutional study examines multiple facets of the program and determines program strengths and weaknesses. The dissertation provides historical data on the rationale for the program and presents perspectives from various constituencies involved in the program, including community college administrators, high school administrators, community college English faculty, dual credit English faculty, program graduates, and currently enrolled dual credit English students.
The study found that both the community college and high schools are committed to providing dual credit English courses that are of comparable quality to the collegeâ s regular freshman composition courses. Generally, students and graduates reported a high rate of satisfaction with the program. Students benefit monetarily from the program because the public school systems, not individual students, pay tuition costs. Also, students save time by accumulating college credits while still enrolled in high school and, thus, are often able to complete college degrees in a shorter time frame. Articulation agreements guarantee the transferability of dual credit English courses to most state-supported colleges and universities.
The study also discusses relevant administration issues such as curriculum development, placement policies and procedures, faculty selection, and program evaluation. Administrators strongly support the program, pointing out that it helps build student confidence and encourages students to consider higher education opportunities. Faculty perception varies, with community college faculty expressing concerns about student preparation and philosophical issues related to combining senior English with freshman composition. Dual credit English faculty, on the other hand, generally expressed more positive views, noting many of the same benefits students had cited.
The final chapter summarizes program successes, identifies concerns, and makes recommendations for improvements in the dual credit English program.Ed. D.
14
Monteverde, Margaret Pyne. "The patterning of history in Old English literature." The Ohio State University, 1988. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1241188005.
15
Crone-Romanovski, Mary Jo. "A Spatial History of English Novels 1680-1770." The Ohio State University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1274451914.
16
Kinder, Rose Marie. "Grading students' writing in college English: A history." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/185202.
Abstract:
Since the classical era of education, the evaluation of written compositions has been an important responsibility of teachers, and written compositions have had some bearing on the ranking of students within both class and institution. In the late nineteenth century, composition-teaching and the ranking of students' work merged in the freshman composition courses in this country. The merger has obscured the controversies attending composition-teaching and ranking, and has contributed to a continuing emphasis on the surface details of writing. Teachers' attitudes about ranking, overlooked by most researchers, reveal a common tendency to emphasize concern for the students' attitude about writing and concern for the student-teacher relationship, above any need or desire to rank. Together their recommendations create consistent criteria that teachers may follow and suggest that ranking does not belong in the freshman composition classroom.
17
Mandricardo, Alice <1982>. "The end of history in English historiographic metafiction." Doctoral thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/1121.
Abstract:
The main task in this thesis is to define the relationship between the philosophical concept of “the end of history” and postmodernist understanding and critique of history in English “historiographic metafiction”. I consider the end of history both as an important feature of postmodern culture and a suitable topic through which contemporary fiction can be analysed. I refer to Alexandre Kojève’s reading of Hegelian dialectics and to Francis Fukuyama’s optimistic interpretation of the end of history in order to introduce the philosophical debate on the end of history and explain the context within which postmodern novelists write. The novelists I examine jettison the end of history thesis as a metanarrative and produce critical histories through postmodernist modes of representation. I dwell particularly on twelve novels and their different ways to represent history and its end.L’obiettivo principale di questa tesi è definire il rapporto tra il concetto filosofico di “fine della storia” e il modo in cui la storia e la sua fine possono essere interpretate nella “historiographic metafiction” inglese. Considero la fine della storia sia come un aspetto caratteristico della cultura postmoderna sia come un valido argomento per analizzare la narrativa contemporanea. Prendo in esame la lettura della dialettica hegeliana da parte di Alexandre Kojève e l’interpretazione ottimistica della fine della storia di Francis Fukuyama al fine di introdurre il dibattito filosofico sulla fine della storia e di spiegare il contesto in cui scrivono gli scrittori postmoderni. Gli scrittori a cui ho rivolto la mia attenzione respingono la tesi della fine della storia e producono delle riscritture critiche della storia attraverso tecniche di rappresentazione postmoderne. Mi soffermo in particolare su dodici romanzi e sul loro modo di raccontare la storia e la sua fine.
18
Wilkinson, Richard William. "A history of "Hymns ancient and modern"." Thesis, University of Hull, 1985. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:8304.
Abstract:
When the first Edition was published in 1861, Hymns Ancient and Modern Was just one of many collections of hymns. However, it rapidly established itself as the most popular of all. The subject of this thesis is the way that the Proprietors reacted to this success by bringing out enlarged and revised editions until the publication of the New Standard Edition in 1983. The background and the compilation of the First Edition is only briefly touched upon (I) although some attempt will be made to analyse its characteristics. The first major episode to be covered in detail will be the 1904 Edition, in which the Proprietors made a radical attempt to revise and reform the Victorian book which had developed from the First Edition. This attempt was, by Hymns Ancient and Modern standards, a failure. This failure will be explained and analysed, and its effect on future policies of the Proprietors will be assessed. To a remarkable degree the Proprietors swung over to a cautious conservatism by further enlarging the Victorian book, in order to produce the Standard Edition of 1922. The imperative need for change, however, could not be resisted for ever, in particular when the challenge of other books such as the English Hymnal had to be faced. The result was Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised, published in 1950. This was a new book, but far more limited in its innovations than mi9ht have been the case. No such criticism could, however, be levelled against the two supplements, A Hundred Hymns for Today and More Hymns for Today which were published in 1969 and 1980. The thinking behind these radical publications and the excision of nearly half the hymns in Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised to form the New Standard Edition will be discussed. The role of such key personalities as Baker, Frere and Nicholson will be evaluated, likewise the deliberations of the present members of the Council of Hymns Ancient and Modern as they look to the future.
19
Hall, Simon W. "The history of Orkney literature." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2009. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2365/.
Abstract:
The history of Orkney literature is the first full survey of the literature of the Orkney Islands. It examines fiction, non-fiction and poetry that is uncomplicatedly Orcadian, as well as that which has been written about Orkney by authors from outside the islands. Necessarily, the work begins with the great Icelandic chronicle Orkneyinga Saga. Literary aspects of the saga are examined, as well as its place within the wider sphere of saga writing. Most significantly, this study examines how the saga imposes itself on the work of subsequent writers. The book goes on to focua on the significance of Orkney and Orkney history in the work of a number of key nineteenth- and twentieth-century figures, including Sir Walter Scott, Edwin Muir, Eric Linklater, Robert Rendall and George Mackay Brown. The Victorian folklorist and short story writer Walter Traill Dennison is re-evaluated: The History of Orkney Literature demonstrates his central significance to the Orcadian tradition and argues for the relevance of his work to the wider Scottish canon. A fixation with Orkney history is common to all the writers considered herein. This preoccupation necessitates a detailed consideration of the core historiography of J. Storer Clouston. Other non-fiction works which are significant in the creation of this distinctly Orcadian literary identity include Samuel Laing's translation of Heimskringla; the polemical writings of David Balfour; and the historical and folklore studies of Ernest Walker Marwick. The study welcomes many writers into the fold, seeking to map and define a distinctly Orcadian tradition. This tradition can be considered a cousin of Scottish Literature. Although the writing of Orkney is a significant component of Scottish Literature at various historical stages, it nevertheless follows a divergent course. Both the eighteenth century Vernacular Revival and the twentieth century Literary Renaissance facilitate literary work in the islands which nevertheless remains distinctly independent in character. Indigenous Orcadian writers consider themselves to be Orcadians first and Scots or Britons second. Regardless of what they view as their national or political identity, their sense of insular cultural belonging is uniformly and pervasively Orcadian. What emerges is a robust, distinctive and very tight-knit minor literature.
20
Musty, Emma. "A short history of lines." Thesis, Aberystwyth University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2160/c4aa2292-b43a-4d1f-bb59-b3cea766cb02.
21
Hampson, Mary Regina Seeger. "Thomas Becon and the English Reformation: "The Sick Man's Salve" and the Protestantization of English Popular Piety." W&M ScholarWorks, 1995. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625996.
22
Orford, Peter Robert. "Rewriting history : exploring the individuality of Shakespeare's history plays." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2006. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1779/.
Abstract:
‘Rewriting History’ is a reappraisal of Shakespeare’s history cycle, exploring its origins, its popularity and its effects before challenging its dominance on critical and theatrical perceptions of the history plays. A critical history of the cycle shows how external factors such as patriotism, bardolatory, character-focused criticism and the editorial decision of the First Folio are responsible for the cycle, more so than any inherent aspects of the plays. The performance history of the cycle charts the initial innovations made in the twentieth century which have affected our perception of characters and key scenes in the texts. I then argue how the cycle has become increasingly restrictive, lacking innovation and consequently undervaluing the potential of the histories. Having accounted for the history of the cycle to date, the second part of my thesis looks at the consequent effects upon each history play, and details how each play can be performed and analysed individually. I close my thesis with the suggestion that a compromise between individual and serial perceptions is warranted, where both ideas are acknowledged equally for their effects and defects. By broadening our ideas about these plays we can appreciate the dramatic potential locked within them.
23
Gaunt, Sarah K. "English political propaganda, 1377-1485." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2018. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/34644/.
Abstract:
Previous historiography on propaganda has focused on particular themes or time periods; this thesis provides a comprehensive and inclusive analysis drawing on a multidisciplinary approach to encompass the period c.1377-1485. The main conclusion is that propaganda was more prevalent and involved a larger proportion of the polity than previously thought. A conceptual framework based upon certain criteria used in Jacques Ellul’s, Propaganda the Formation of Men’s Attitudes, has been adopted to help define and identify propaganda. One of the dominant themes is the prerequisite of communication to enable the propagandist to reach his audience and the opportunities available to do so. An examination of the various methods available, from official sources to rebel manifestoes, together with the physical communication network required demonstrates that there existed a nationwide environment where this was possible. The literary media used for propaganda include proclamations, poetry, letters, and bills. The political audience was broad in terms of understanding of literary and visual forms of communication and their ability to use the available mechanisms to convey their opinions. Whether it was a disgruntled magnate, merchant or yeoman farmer, there was a method of communication suited to their circumstances. Visual propaganda was particularly important in politically influencing an audience, particularly for a largely illiterate population. This is an area that is often overlooked in terms of political influence until the Tudor period. The use of the human body will be a particular focus along with the more traditional aspects of art, such as heraldry. The thesis considers the relationship between kings’ personality, policy and propaganda. What emerges is that the personality of the monarch was essentially more influential than the use of propaganda. Finally, incorporating the analysis of the previous chapters, the North, is examined as a regional example of the presence and impact of propaganda. The North was a subject of propaganda itself and there was a two-way flow of communication and propaganda between the North and Westminster revealing the political consciousness of the region and its role as an audience. The overall argument of the thesis is that communication within the late medieval polity was essential and extensive. Propaganda was frequently used through a variety of media that could reach the whole polity, whether literate or not and not only in times of crisis.
24
Brown, Ian. "History as theatrical metaphor : history, myth and national identities in modern Scottish drama." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/30714/.
Abstract:
The completion of History as Theatrical Metaphor, now submitted for consideration for the award of the degree of Doctor of Letters, represents an integration and culmination of a number of related strands arising from both my practice as a playwright over the last five decades and my relevant academic research. Susanne Kries has summarised a key approach underlying my writing of history plays as ‘deconstructing the ideological intent behind the very endeavour of writing history and of revealing the ways by which mythologies are formed’. Much of my related academic research shares this interest. A recurring theme of both playwriting and scholarly writing, central to the work submitted, is the significance of the interaction of drama, language – especially Scots and English – and history. The initial phase in exploring such themes was in my developing professional playwriting practice. In 1967, I wrote the first draft of Mary, eventually produced by the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company in 1977. In this first version I sought to address the theme of the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, but in a revisionary way. The play’s first acts, before Mary arrives on stage, involved an unlikely affair between Mary of Guise, Queen Regent in Mary’s absence in France, and her Secretary of State, Maitland of Lethington, conceived as a cross between a Chief Minister and a Mafia consigliere, a relationship in which Mary of Guise achieved some form of Lawrentian ‘authentic’ sexual release and self-fulfilment through her relationship with a powerful Scots leader. This motif was developed when Mary arrived and proceeded to fall under the magnetic spell of the even more Lawrentian Bothwell, a transformation of her sexuality and identity marked by the fact that about half way through her scenes she stopped speaking in French-inflected English and started to speak in Scots. The play’s tendentiousness was further marked by its being written in Scots-language free verse. The decision to write in Scots was consciously, if superficially, ideological. It sought to reflect the vibrant language amongst which I grew up on a council scheme, although in my home the dominant language was Standard Scottish English. I also sought to take a revisionary view of Scottish history, seeking to avoid what I saw as the sentimentalisation of that history in plays by an older generation like that of Robert McLellan. What I was concerned to do was later outlined explicitly by Tom McGrath in a 1984 interview, talking of his own practice: I suppose at that time we were coming up with a different ideology. We were coming up with a different approach after all that work, work that had been done [by writers like MacDiarmid and McLellan] in Scots language. We were coming up with this street level sound of existentialist man in the street, "black man in the ghetto" type of writing. It just upset the applecart. (Later I would develop a contextual interpretation of the shift McGrath refers to, and which I sought to be part of, in arguing that the use of Scots on stage was key to supporting and enhancing the cultural prestige of Scots in the 2011 chapter, ‘Drama as a Means for Uphaudin Leid Communities’. This – in a continuing conscious intention to assert the potential and status of Scots – while academic in content, was written entirely in Scots.) In short, from the beginning of my professional playwriting, a key strand was experiment in and exploration of the relationship of drama, Scots language, community identity and history, particularly the interrogation of accepted versions of ‘history’. The first draft of Mary came by the early 1970s to seem to me to be unsatisfactory in its exploration of the interaction of drama, language and history. By then, it appeared in its sensationalist version of Scottish history to have fallen into a parallel trap to the earlier one of a sentimental and romanticised view of that history. It certainly had moved away from conventional treatments of Scotland’s past, but was rather tending to a simplistic dramatic interpretation pour épater les bourgeois. Indeed, its attempts at sexual directness made it unacceptable at that time, 1968-69, to the management of the Royal Lyceum. While its Literary Manager Alan Brown spoke positively of the play, he still felt the company could not present it. Within very few years my own view came to be that, while it might substitute a certain late-adolescent Scots-language raunchiness for earlier playwrights’ Scots-language sentimentalities, it was itself somewhat naïve and sentimental. Further, the use of Scots in a free verse form, rather than adding anything to the dramatic potential of Scots language, seemed to remove it from the everyday discourse which inspired me to use it in the first place. This change of critical perspective and creative intention arose from two related developments in my dramaturgy. One was the impact of a variety of late 1960s theatrical experiments which impressed me in dealing with historical and political material in a post-Shavian and post-Brechtian way. These included the 1964 film version of Peter Brook's production of Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade, which I saw in 1968, John Spurling's MacRune's Guevara (1969) and Peter Nichols's The National Health (1969) in the programme of the National Theatre in London, New York’s Negro Ensemble Company's version of Peter Weiss's The Song of the Lusitanian Bogey, which is concerned with Portuguese colonial exploitation, presented in the 1969 London World Theatre Season, and John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy's version of Horatio Nelson’s life and reputation, The Hero Rises Up, presented by Nottingham Playhouse at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival. I was further impressed by the theatrical techniques of the New York-based LaMama troupe, by its version of Paul Foster's Tom Paine (1967) and the popularised and commercialised exploitation of those techniques in Hair (1967). I had also read Foster's Heimskringla! Or The Stoned Angels (1970), written for LaMama and derived from Norse sagas. All employed varying metatheatrical techniques to deconstruct received versions of history and politics which extended my own understanding of what was creatively possible. The second development was that, as those plays affected my understanding of theatrical possibilities in exploring historically based themes, I was researching and beginning to draft my next play on a historical theme. This explored the life, business ethics and politics of Andrew Carnegie. On top of all of this, at this time, having showed Max Stafford-Clark, Artistic Director of the Traverse Theatre, a first draft of Carnegie, begun during the autumn of 1969, I was invited by him to work, in my first professional theatre role, as a writing assistant on the first Traverse Workshop Theatre Company production, Mother Earth (1970), directed by Stafford-Clark when he ceased to be director of the Traverse itself. With his new company, he was developing the deconstructionist and improvisational rehearsal techniques that would later be more widely thought of as the creative method of his Joint Stock Theatre Company, into which the Traverse Workshop Company morphed in 1974. The dramaturgical lessons learned from the examples cited above and by working with such a creative and methodologically innovative director as Stafford-Clark were allied to my own quizzical view of Carnegie’s reputation. This was partly derived from the fact that my great-grandfather was a first cousin of Carnegie’s. There were family stories which, if they did not fully undermine his philanthropic reputation, suggested there were other sides to his career.
25
Haig, Edward. "The History of the Earliest English Newspapers, 1620-1642." 名古屋大学大学院国際言語文化研究科, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2237/8163.
26
Griffin, B. L. "Kinds of time : genre and the English history play." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.599709.
Abstract:
This dissertation investigates the genre of the 'history play' from its origins in medieval drama to the beginning of the 17th century. Chapter 1 reviews previous efforts to define the genre; criteria for inclusion are tested against a census of contemporary references. It is proposed that neither the 'Tudor purposes of History' nor source-materials can define the genre; and that the record shows history plays were on well-known English subjects. Chapter 2 reconstructs the lost plays on St Thomas of Canterbury. Drama in the early 16th century was affected by the change from Catholicism to Protestantism, specifically the change from the Mass to the ('memorialising') Lord's Supper; the greater distance of the dead meant an increased perception of the importance of memory. The saint plays are suggested as antecedents of the histories, and Bale's King Johan is interpreted as an anti-saint play. Against these dramas of sacrifice, there is the drama of the 'timeless' world of ritual and seasonal cycle. Chapter 3 discusses the Coventry folk-play The Conquest of the Danes with the aim of reading it as drama rather than festive ritual; conversely, the earliest surviving 'popular-theatre' history, The Famous Victories of Henry V, is interpreted with regard to its own orientation in a cyclical world. Chapter 4 discusses the historical knowledge against which contemporary experience of the plays can be reconstructed. The native-historical subject brings specific kinds of pressure to bear upon dramatic narrative. The uniqueness of historical drama is located in its 'immersion' within a narrative context which is known to the audience. The 1580s saw the rise of a set of conventions designed to stress the sense of 'immersion', which attenuated the senses of beginning and ending; this is traced in Gorboduc and Locrine. This was not the birth of the history play, but its recovery from the shock of Reformation iconoclasm.
27
Stubbs, Jonathan. "Inventing England: representations of English history in Hollywood cinema." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.441622.
Abstract:
This thesis examines the representations of English history in Hollywood cinema with a particular emphasis on popular films released between 1950 and 1964. Adopting a principally empirical and archival approach, I examine why Hollywood filmmakers and audiences have been so attracted to images and narratives from English culture, why these images and narratives have so frequently focused on England's past, and why the resulting English historical films became so prominent in the 1950s and early 1960s. My first chapter establishes a broad context for Hollywood's English historical cinema by tracing the history of Anglo-American relations from the eighteenthcentury. Further contextual material is provided in Chapter Two, which examines the presence of English historical material in the American film history up to 1950. Chapter Three examines the long script development of Ivanhoe (1952) and Knights of the Round Table (1953) and the ways in which they were redrafted to suit their changing political contexts. The remaining chapters focus on the period between 1950 and 1964. Chapter Four surveys the major production trends of the period, while Chapter Five examines the connections between the English historical films and British `runaway' production. Chapter Six analyses Around the World in 80 Days (1956) in the context of postwar American internationalism, while Chapter Seven examines a more ambiguous treatment of similar themes in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Finally, Chapter Eight looks at the construction of an ostensibly more modem image of England in Tom Jones (1963) and the first three James Bond films.I argue that American investments in the English past during the 1950s and early 1960s can be traced to three historical developments: first, the newfound acceptability of English culture as British economic and political power diminished; second, the growing resemblance between England's imperial past and America's internationalist present; and third, the efforts of the Hollywood studios to adapt to a business model where profits increasingly derived from international markets.
28
Longstaffe, Stephen. "The politics of the English history play 1589 - 1605." Thesis, University of York, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.333556.
29
Jones, Benjamin A. "A history of the Welsh English dialect in fiction." Thesis, Swansea University, 2018. https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa44723.
Abstract:
The systematic study of language varieties in fictional texts have primarily focused upon written material. Recently, linguists have also added audio-visual genres to the analytic framework of literary dialect studies. Studies have traditionally examined writers’ lexical, phonological, and grammatical output; contemporarily, research has begun examining metalinguistic commentaries and linguistic indexing of character stereotypes to this repertoire (Hodson, 2014).Except for minor analysis of early texts (German, 2009), there has been no large-scale investigation of any Welsh English dialect in fiction. This thesis addresses this gap, asking the fundamental question: throughout history, how has Welsh English been represented in fiction? The thesis surveys a large chronological scope covering material from the 12th century until the present day across four narrative-genres: early writings and theatrical writing, novels, films, and, new to literary dialect studies, videogames. In doing so, a historical discussion forms that covers Welsh English’s fictolinguistic output, cross-referencing its linguistic forms with recorded data, identifying forms hitherto unknown to dialectological surveys, and addressing metalinguistic and attitudinal stereotypes in fiction. Key findings include that phonology was an early representational linguistic domain in the literary dialect, whilst lexical and grammatical domains became common from 19th century literature onwards. The commonest phonological and lexical features were glottal fricative drops and tapped /r/; and the endearment terms ‘bach/fach’ and ‘mam’ respectively. Grammatically, ‘Focus Fronting’ and ‘Demonstrative There’ regularly occurred. Regarding linguistic evidence, several authors and filmmakers were prolific lay surveyors of the variety, adding to the historical dialectological record. Concerning dialectal attitudes, Elizabethan playwrights used linguistic stereotyping to create character stereotypes of Welsh people as ‘comical’. By the 19th century, fictive Welsh English representation was the dominion of native-users in literature, film, and videogames; however today, the Comic stereotype, and an emerging stereotype of Welsh English users being Fantastical, appears embedded within the dialect’s representation.
30
Cederlöf, Mikael. "The element of -stōw in the history of English /." Uppsala : [Uppsala university], 1998. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb38842776b.
31
Lumsden, John Stewart. "Syntactic features : parametric variation in the history of English." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/14702.
Abstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1987.Title as it appears in M.I.T. Graduate List, Sept. 1987: Syntactic features--parameters in the history of English.
Bibliography: v. 2, leaves 418-422.
by John Stewart Lumsden.
Ph.D.
32
Lea-O'Mahoney, Michael James. "The navy in the English Civil War." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/4078.
Abstract:
This thesis is concerned chiefly with the military role of sea power during the English Civil War. Parliament’s seizure of the Royal Navy in 1642 is examined in detail, with a discussion of the factors which led to the King’s loss of the fleet and the consequences thereafter. It is concluded that Charles I was outmanoeuvred politically, whilst Parliament’s choice to command the fleet, the Earl of Warwick, far surpassed him in popularity with the common seamen. The thesis then considers the advantages which control of the Navy provided for Parliament throughout the war, determining that the fleet’s protection of London, its ability to supply besieged outposts and its logistical support to Parliamentarian land forces was instrumental in preventing a Royalist victory. Furthermore, it is concluded that Warwick’s astute leadership went some way towards offsetting Parliament’s sporadic neglect of the Navy. The thesis demonstrates, however, that Parliament failed to establish the unchallenged command of the seas around the British Isles. This was because of the Royalists’ widespread privateering operations, aided in large part by the King’s capture of key ports in 1643, such as Dartmouth and Bristol. The Navy was able to block many, but not all, of the King’s arms shipments from abroad, thus permitting Charles to supply his armies in England. Close attention is paid to the Royalist shipping which landed reinforcements from Ireland in 1643-44. The King’s defeat in the First Civil War is then discussed, with the New Model Army, and greater resources, cited as the key factors behind Parliament’s victory, with recognition that the Navy provided essential support. Finally, the revolt of the fleet in 1648 is examined. It is concluded that the increasing radicalism of Parliament alienated a substantial section of the Navy, but that the Royalists failed to capitalise on their new-found maritime strength.
33
Taylor, Miles Edward. "Nation, history, and theater : representing the English past on the Tudor and Stuart stage /." view abstract or download file of text, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p9986765.
Abstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-265). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
34
Kline, Wayne M. "The English Crown's foreign debt, 1544-1557." PDXScholar, 1992. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4366.
Abstract:
As background to an investigation of the crown's foreign borrowing from 1544 though 1557. this thesis examines the general fiscal situation of the mid-Tudor Commonwealth with special emphasis on the great inflation of the 16th century, the role of Antwerp in European finance. and the relationship between war and English fiscal policy It then examines in detail the creation of the debt under Henry VIII, its development into a standard feature of state finance under Edward VI, and its liquidation under Mary. Information on England and English crown finance was drawn principally from published primary sources while information on the Antwerp market and on continental affairs in general was derived mainly from secondary sources.
35
Doyle, Brian Anthony. "English and Englishness : a cultural history of English studies in British higher education, 1880-1980." Thesis, University of Greenwich, 1986. http://gala.gre.ac.uk/8539/.
Abstract:
It is argued in this thesis that, contrary to much previous work on the subject, the history of English Studies in higher education is not best understood in terms of the emergence of a mature form of academic activity which has since continued to develop through time on the basis of the unity of its object (lq`English literature') and of its mode of study (lq`literary criticism'). Instead, this history examines the conditions which allowed the initial emergence, specification and delimitation of the new academic discipline of `English Language and Literature', and the sequence of subsequent institutional and discursive modifications and transformations which brought about substantial alterations to the field of study. Through a series of case studies of the English Association, the Newbolt Report, the Review of English Studies, and of the diverse tendencies which have characterised the discipline since the nineteen-forties, it is argued that `English Studies' must be analysed as an entity not having any single or consistent fixed centre. It is further shown that within the variable discursive and institutional articulations which have characterised English Studies as a field of activity, account must be taken of a much wider range of objects and relations than can be encompassed within `literature' and `criticism'; in fact, the discipline is shown to have been just as concerned with, for example, approved modes of communication, and Englishness. The thesis examines the specific historical conditions under which such objects and issues were brought into mutual relation through the establishment of full academic disciplinary status, the installation of an integrated career structure and professional norms, and the development of a distinctive documentary field, set of professional associations, range of pedagogic activities, and mechanism for the selection of students.
36
Harris, Jacqueline. "Rereading and Rewriting Women's History." DigitalCommons@USU, 2008. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/19.
Abstract:
Rereading and Rewriting Women's History by Jacqueline Haley Harris, Master of Science Utah State University, 2008 Major Professor: Dr. Evelyn Funda Department: English In Margaret Atwood's nonfiction book Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (2002), Atwood discusses the importance of the female writer's responsibility, that to write as a woman or about women means that you take upon yourself the responsibility of writing as a form of negotiation with our female dead and with what these dead took with them'the truth about who they were. By rereading and rewriting our communal past, women writers pay tribute to our female ancestors by voicing their silent stories while also changing gender stereotypes, complicating who these women were, and acknowledging their accomplishments. In her 1999 novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier revisions the unknown object of Vermeer's famous painting of the same name. By so doing, Chevalier takes a painting created from a male point-of-view and brings the historic female in the painting to life by giving her a backstory. In Susan Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue, published in the same year, Vreeland also follows this female framework as she writes of a woman named Saskia who discovers a Vermeer painting and who invents and imagines the female perspective behind the artwork's female subject. In so doing, Saskia finds value in remembering the life of another woman and hope that someone will remember her life as well. In Willa Cather's 1931 novel Shadows on the Rock, Cather depicts female characters who challenge traditional stereotypes while also rereading women's objective historical past. 'Toinette Gaux, prostitute and descendent of King Louis XIV's filles du roi, and Jeanne Le Ber, Quebec's religious recluse, have historical credibility as the unappreciated mothers of Canada through their defiance of the use of their bodies as colonial commodities within revolutionary gender roles. And in Cather's short story 'Coming, Aphrodite!' (1920) she includes characterization and imagery recollective of French artist Fernand Léger depicting artist Eden Bowen as another female who owns her sexuality and body and will not let herself be objectified by the painter Don Hedger. Atwood, Chevalier, Vreeland, and Cather all demonstrate rereading and rewriting of women in women's history in order to add missing female perspective to our male-authored past while also giving voice to female dead who need to have their stories told. (85 pages)
37
Toyota, Junichi. "Diachronic change in the English passive /." Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. http://opac.nebis.ch/cgi-bin/showAbstract.pl?u20=9780230553453.
38
Mihailovic, Natasha. "The dead in English urban society c.1689-1840." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/14725.
Abstract:
This thesis is predicated upon a rejection of the existing characterisation of attitudes towards the dead in the eighteenth century. In current thinking this period witnessed the first signs of a reduction in the extent to which people had contact with the dead. However, this assumption is supported by very little research. In focusing on proximity and exposure to the dead body at an ‘everyday’ level this thesis tempers the century’s association with distance and change by revealing a high level of proximity and very significant continuities with both the preceding and proceeding periods. Utilising sources from London, Bristol and York it follows the dead body from the point of death through to its eventual resting place, concentrating in particular on the impact of the newly-emerged undertaking trade and burial practice in the century and a half prior to the widespread establishment of extramural cemeteries and eventual outlawing of burial in towns. The following key questions are addressed: how were spaces shared between the living and the dead; where exactly were the dead present; who had contact with them; and in what ways. The result is a picture which demonstrates that during the long eighteenth century the living shared their private and public urban spaces with the dead to a significant extent. The attitudes governing treatment of the dead body revealed in the process are shown to be at once timeless and period-specific. Foremost among these is the concept of ‘decency’. It is shown that this idea, whilst far from unique to the eighteenth century, had a particular contemporary significance shaped by social and economic factors and their effects on the class structure and urban environment. At the same time, visible in all aspects of treatment of the dead is a pragmatism born of limitations on time and, in particular, space which did not always sit easily with notions of decency, particularly once the dead were underground.
39
Chalus, Elaine Helen. "Women in English political life, 1754-1790." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.390269.
40
Wiggin, Paul David. "Moore's Almanac and eighteenth-century English astrology." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.270452.
41
Simpkin, David. "The English aristocracy at war, 1272-1314." Thesis, University of Hull, 2006. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:5655.
Abstract:
In the closing decades of the thirteenth century, the king of England, Edward I, embarked upon a series of wars in Wales, France and Scotland that placed unprecedented demands on the community of the realm. Although the Crown's war aims varied depending on whether the campaigns were being fought within the British Isles or on the continent, one factor remained constant: the need to recruit hundreds and sometimes thousands of soldiers on an almost annual basis from among the landholding elites. It is the aim of this thesis to assess how the gentry and nobility responded to these demands; how they discharged their military obligations; and what their service patterns and military experiences can tell us about the strengths and weaknesses of the armies that were put into the field. By using an innovative methodological approach established in recent decades by historians such as Philip Morgan, Andrew Ayton and Anne Curry, the thesis seeks to gain insights into the characteristics of the military community in its entirety. The individual soldier forms the main focus of enquiry throughout much of the discussion; and the frequency with which he gave military service, his connections to other members of the military elite, and, in the case of the king's chief commanders, the leadership duties that he performed, are each considered in detail. Nevertheless, the experiences of medieval combatants are best understood in the context of the local communities from which they were recruited and the retinues in which they served. Consequently, an attempt is also made to reassess the subject of military organisation under the first two Edwards by examining the composition and structure of these armies from the perspective of the soldiers and small units that comprised them.
42
Baker, Gary Paul. "The English way of war, 1360-1399." Thesis, University of Hull, 2011. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:9036.
Abstract:
This thesis challenges the orthodox view that the years 1360 to 1399 witnessed a period of martial decline for the English. Several reasons are advanced to support this hypothesis: the problems of hindsight and perception (as in a comparison with the periods directly before and after the one under consideration), the fact that the ‘strengths’ of England’s enemies have been overly praised, whilst the ‘weaknesses’ of the English have been overly emphasized and her achievements either ignored or belittled. There are, however, two central arguments against the hypothesis of decline. The first is that the changes that occurred in the structure and recruitment of armies in the first-half of the fourteenth-century had by the second-half of the century, and certainly after the resumption of the Anglo-French war in 1369, profoundly altered the composition of the English military-community; the men who fought within these armies. Increasing demands from the crown for military service, not to mention exogenous demands for English soldiers, coupled with increasing fiscal expense for the individual to fight, meant that the social composition of the community changed. War became increasingly the preserve of a nascent, professional, (at least by the standards of the day), fighting force whose military experience stretched over decades. That England possessed such a fighting force, compared to those of her enemies, strongly counters the notion of a military decline. The second major argument against military decline in this period is that the English ‘conduct of war’ has long been misunderstood, and overly denigrated, due to this lack of clarity. The English, far from being on the back-foot and at the mercy of their enemies, were actually pursuing an aggressive, battle-seeking strategy, to win a decisive engagement and quickly end the conflicts in which they fought. This strategy, also employed in the first-half of the fourteenth-century with great success, was both desirable, and a financial necessity, in the period under scrutiny.
43
Moisa, Maria A. "The poor in fourteenth century English society." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.302599.
44
Mascuch, Michael J. "Social mobility in English autobiography, 1600-1750." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1989. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272622.
45
Shrank, Catherine Lucy. "English humanism and national identity (1530-1570)." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1999. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272703.
46
Woudstra, Ruth. "Truth, history and representation in Margaret Atwoods' Alias Grace." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7417.
Abstract:
Bibliography: leaves 53.In the Introduction of this minor dissertation, Margaret Atwood as a post-modern writer and her interest in fictional autobiographies are considered, particularly with regard to memory, the formation of self-identity and amnesia. Parallels are drawn between Surfacing and Cat's Eye as fictional works. and Alias Grace, which is based on the life of a historical person. The novel Alias Grace alternates between first- and third-person accounts, and reflects Atwood's preoccupation with narrative techniques. The definition of post-modernism is regarded, as well as Atwood's own acknowledgements in her ""Author's Afterword"" on how she proceeds to write this fictional autobiography. Her focus on mental illnesses is given perspective in a brief discussion on different sorts of memory loss. These manifestations affect the concept of truth, which is explored in the first section of the dissertation. This section draws on the unreliability of Grace's first-person accounts and the question of whether she is fabricating the truth or has simply forgotten crucial moments of her past. The reader is also constantly made aware that Grace attempts to ensure better conditions for herself in the penitentiary, and she will therefore not disclose any information that might be damaging to her character. That which she discloses partly depends on her relationship in terms of trust with Doctor Jordan. A few episodes where Grace loses consciousness are reviewed, as well as instances where she exposes her literary background and her ability to change words or ideas in texts that she has read. It is concluded at the end of the first section that the truth eludes the reader. With this in mind, it is examined in the second section that the issue of truth is complicated, and even undermined, by the gender and class inequity of the patriarchal society in which Grace, Mary and Nancy are instrumentalised and exploited. The relationship between Grace and Mary is explored in order to demonstrate the happy memories that are relevant in Grace's present, where her past remains illusive. The reader is also drawn into these cheerful experiences, and takes Mary's presence for granted until the neuro-hypnotic seance, during which Grace's double consciousness is revealed. Her 'friend' Mary is exposed as a facet of Grace's own personality. Class oppression is explored further through the characters of Nancy and Mrs Humphrey, who are trapped in a vicious circle that Grace escapes by engaging in the creative activity of quilt-making. In this way she is able to express her solidarity with Mary and Nancy as victims of patriarchal injustice. In the Conclusion an overview of the question of truth is given and it is demonstrated how truth is inseparable from the issues of class and gender relations. The lack of traditional closure in Alias Grace is explored briefly. Grace's camaraderie and solidarity with her two friends, as well as her retelling of the Biblical account of the Garden of Eden through her tapestry work, is shown to be a transgressive agency that marks the greater significance of the novel.
47
Sturtevant, andrew Keith. "Flag Planting and Mapmaking: English Claims to North America." W&M ScholarWorks, 2005. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539626497.
48
Pruitt, John. "British drama museums : history, heritage, and nation in collections of dramatic literature, 1647-1814 /." View abstract, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3203336.
49
Wright, Donald A. "The professionalization of history in English Canada to the 1950s." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0020/NQ48121.pdf.
50
Lenker, Ursula. "Argument and rhetoric : adverbial connectors in the history of English /." Berlin [u.a.] : De Gruyter Mouton, 2010. http://deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?id=3360277&prov=M&dokv̲ar=1&doke̲xt=htm.