Voices, Identities, and Nations in the Narratives of Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849)

This thesis argues that Edgeworth's novels are interventions in the debate of her contemporaries about the relationship between individuals and nations. The thesis situates her work in the context of the ideological transition in Europe from Enlightenment cosmopolitanism to Romantic nationalism, which rewrote that relationship. Edgeworth's texts interrogate how individuals should affiliate themselves with nations, often in terms of a particular patriotism which could legitimise individuals' national identities with cultural inclusiveness. The recent scholarship on Edgeworth has revolved around politicised readings that typically neglect stylistic issues. The thesis proposes that an application of narratology could rectify this imbalance in criticism of Edgeworth and similar problems in criticism of other Irish writings, women's writings, and the Romantic-period novels. The earlier chapters thereby shed new light on the complexity of Edgeworth's national identity, by employing Lanser's narratology. It is argued that Edgeworth's `authorial voice' and `personal voice', whether they are considered separately or together, demonstrate the predicament of her narrative authorisation as an Anglo-Irish writer and constitute her national identity as at once problematic and culturally flexible. The thematic formula of Edgeworth's ideal patriotism offers a solution to such a problem of her national identity, as the later chapters contend. The thesis demonstrates that this formula has ideological underpinnings in the discourse of both Enlightenment cosmopolitanism and Romantic nationalism. The formula, moreover, characterises ideal patriots as multilingual/multicultural in the sense that they can appreciate cultural differences without exclusive discrimination. Edgeworth's ideal patriots are thus modelled as overcoming the limitations of universalist Enlightenment cosmopolitanism and differential Romantic nationalism. The final chapter demonstrates that Edgeworth's novels may not necessarily authorise this formula coherently. It is, however, argued that in such instances, her `authorial voice' still verifies the viability of the formula, by legitimising her as an ideal patriot of the Irish, and the British nation with the multilingual/multicultural narrative voice crossing the borders between nations, social groups, and genders. The thesis concludes that Fdgeworth's novels reproduce a colonial context despite their attempt to resolve that thorny context

Accounting Historians Journal, 1981, Vol. 8, no. 2 [whole issue]

Fall issu

Craftsman and Client: the official commissions of Edward Carter Preston

Craftsman and Client: the official commissions of Edward Carter Preston. Edward Carter Preston (1884-1965) of Liverpool is known as a distinguished provincial sculptor and medallist, although his artistic talents went beyond these fields to include painting, toy making, and glassware. Whilst attempting to do justice to his life and its many artistic activities, the primary objective of this thesis is to research his official commissions. Carter Preston first achieved prominence as a medallist during the Great War of 1914-18 with his national competition-winning design for the Next-of-Kin Plaque that was to be presented to the families of those killed in action or who died on active service. This was followed by the commission for the design of the four crosses and gallantry medals for the RAF when this new service was founded in 1918. Subsequent commissions and competition wins extended his productive career as a medallist between the wars and through World War II. It finished with the design of the reverse of the Commonwealth Korea Campaign medal (1950-53). As official state awards and products of the Royal Mint, these projects generated substantial files in the National Archive, which allow us to explore in depth the complex interrelationships between artist and the commissioning authorities, as well as the contributions of others involved in the design (notably George Hill, curator of medals in the British Museum, who was employed as a consultant, and King George V who interested himself and intervened personally in the design of medals and decorations). Carter Preston's second major project was the commiSSion for the sculptural decoration 9.f Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, which dominated the middle years of his career. Because of the excellent files from the Diocesan archive and the Radcliffe Papers (now in the Liverpool Record Office) and the Giles Gilbert Scott Archive (Royal Institute Of British Architects Architectural Library) it is possible to explore the triangular relationship between the artist, the architect, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, and the chairman to the diocese, Sir Frederick Morton Radcliffe, who not only represented the client but also expressed strong views on the iconography of religious art. Although not unique, it is unusual to find a twentieth-century artistic project which is as well documented as this one, and which allows us to follow the genesis and evolution of the sculpture to this level of detail. The archival sources are supplemented by the family papers of Carter Preston, and the opportunity for personal correspondence and discussion with surviving family members including his daughter & son in law, Julia & Michael Pugh Thomas, who very kindly let me explore their collections. . Discussion of the medals and the cathedral SCUlpture forms of the core of the thesis, and is almost entirely based on primary material. The thesis places this activity within a broader framework of the artist's upbringing, training and early years in what was one of the livelier British artistic communities. Liverpool's Late-Nineteenthand Twentieth-Century artistic milieu has been the subject of numerous memoirs as well as recent published studies, which have been employed to provide a context for Edward Carter Preston's social and artistic formation

The transformation of the Foreign Office 1900-1907

The Foreign Office underwent an important transformation at the beginning of the twentieth century. This development coincided with the new course of British foreign policy which has been called "the end of isolation." One reason for this transformation was the rapid promotion of new men with new ideas to fill the senior posts both in the Foreign Office and the Diplomatic Service. Two men in particular, Sir Francis Bertie and Sir Charles Hardinge, benefited from Royal influence to become, respectively, Ambassador at Paris and Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office. These two men, and a number of their contemporaries, began to wield more influence than their predecessors, and attempted with some success to bring about the promotion of men of whom they approved in preference to those of whom they did not approve. Their activities introduced a new body of men at the top of the Foreign Office and brought about an atmosphere of intrigue and rivalry which had not previously been present. Another reason for this transformation was the reform and consequent reorganisation of the Foreign Office. This development brought about a devolution of responsibility and encouraged the permanent officials to begin to put forward their own views and to influence the execution of British foreign policy. The men who were being promoted to the important senior posts were, therefore, provided with an administrative machinery which facilitated their desire for a more active role in the formulation of policy. -2- The other reason for the transformation was the rise of "anti-German" feeling in the Foreign Office, which came to a head at exactly the same time. Towards the close of the nineteenth century the important members of the Office began first to criticise the methods of German diplomacy, and then to see the aims of German foreign policy as inimical to British interests. This mounting criticism was dramatically affected by the collapse of Russia and the aggressive policy pursued by Germany shortly after. Some of the more influential members of the Foreign Office began to suspect that Germany was attempting to impose a hegemony over Europe. They were divided about the importance which they felt should be attached to the potential threat from Russia, but so long as that Power remained weak they began to regard Anglo-German relations as the most important factor to be taken into account when considering British foreign policy. The men at the forefront of this opinion were by and large the same men who were able to take advantage of the new organisation of the Foreign Office to exploit their new positions to the full. When a general consensus was finally reached that Germany was moving towards a bid for hegemony the transformation of the Foreign Office was complete. The Foreign Secretary was surrounded by a body of forceful senior officials, who took advantage of the new and efficient organisation to advance the same overall policy. The Foreign Secretary did not always follow the advice that he was given, but after this time that advice was something which he had to take into consideration. The transformation of the Foreign Office was the watershed between the nineteenth century office and the twentieth century bureaucrac

The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society vol. 3 No. 2

1. Notices. 2. Notes and Queries. 3. David Lloyd I. 4. George Fox's Watch-seal. 5. First Publishers of Truth IV. 6. Early Minutes of Malton Monthly Meeting. 7. Irish Quaker Records II. 8. Large Gatherings of Friends. 9. Friends in Current Literature. 10. London Yearly Meeting, 1670. 11. Editors' Notes. 12. Friends' Reference Library, Devonshire House

Pseudonymity, authorship, selfhood : the names and lives of Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot

"Why did George Eliot live and Currer Bell die?" Victorian pseudonymity is seldom treated to any critical scrutiny - the only sustained interest has been in reading masculine pseudonyms as masks for "disreputable femininity," signs of the woman writer's "anxiety of authorship." This thesis proposes that pseudonymity is not a capitulation to gender ideology, but that a nom de plume is an exaggerated version of any authorial signature - the abstraction (or Othering) of a self into text which occurs in the production of "real" authors as well as fictional characters. After an introductory chapter presenting the theoretical issues of selfhood and authorship, I go on to discuss milieu - the contexts which produced Bronte and Eliot - including a brief history of pseudonymous novelists and the Victorian publishing and reviewing culture. The third and fourth chapters deal with pseudonymity as heccéité, offering "biographies" of the authorial personas "Currer Bell" and "George Eliot" rather than the women who created them, thus demonstrating the problems of biography and the relative, multiple status of identity. The three following chapters explore the concerns of pseudonymity through a reading of the novels: I treat Jane Eyre, Villette, and even Shirley as "autobiographical" in order to address the construction of self and narrative; I examine how Eliot's realist fictions (notably Scenes of Clerical Life, Romola, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda) trouble the "reality"/"fiction" binary; and finally I read Bronte specifically for her engagement with "dress," using queer theories of performativity with Victorian theories of clothing and conduct to question "readability" itself. My final chapter is concerned with agencement (adjustment) and "mythmaking": the posthumous biographical and critical practices surrounding these two writers reveal that an author's "name," secured through literary reputation, is not static or inevitable, but the result of constant process and revision

The influence of Wesleyan Methodism on elementary education in England in the period 1849-1902 with particular reference to the work of Dr. James Harrison Rigg

The thesis intends to look at the Wesleyan effort in elementary education in the second half of the nineteenth century and aims to assess the educational work of Dr. James Harrison Rigg, who was President of the Wesleyan Conference on two occasions and acted as Principal of the Wesleyan Westminster Training College for 35 years. The only work published on Dr. Rigg is a biography, written by his son-in-law, John Telford, in the year of his death, 1909. (John Telford: The Life of Dr James Harrison Riqq, Culley, London 1909. )The Methodist educational effort has been surveyed in a number of studies. H. F. Mathews has looked in some detail at the Methodist contribution before the 1850s in his book Methodism and the Education of the People 1791-1851, (Epworth, London, 1949) and conducted a broad survey of the period 1851 to 1954 in his unpublished PhD. thesis of 1954 'Methodism and the Education of the People (since 1851)' (London (Ext) PhD. 1954). Only a small proportion is devoted to the later 19th Century and he does not analyse the philosophical bases of Wesleyan education, largely ignoring the works of Rigg, with only two of his published works quoted in the thesis. F. C. Pritchard has written studies of Westminster College and of the Wesleyan contribution to Secondary education (MethodistSecondary Education, Epworth, London, 1949) but he also ignores elementary education. H. F. Cloke studied the wide period 1739-1902 in his unpublished M. A. thesis 'Wesleyan Methodism's Contribution to National Education, 1739-1902', London 1936. Over half this thesis looks at the work of John Wesley and early educational initiatives, and only few pages are devoted to the period 1850-1902. Although he does make several references to Rigg, Cloke does not analyse his influence on Wesleyan policies.Little research has taken place on Methodist education since the 1940s. The late Marjorie Cruikshank made mention of Methodist reactions to the educational legislation after 1870 in 'Church and State in Religious Education' (1963). D. Hempton has made valuable contributions to Wesleyan history in Methodism and Politics in British Society. 1750-1850 (Hutchinson, 1984) and in his article in the HISTORY OF EDUCATION, 1979, entitled 'Wesleyan Methodism and Educational Politics in Early 19th Century England' as well as his thesis on 'Methodism and Anti-Catholic Politics, 1800-1846' (St. Andrews, 1977). All of these studies concentrate on the early 19th Century. The Wesleyan contribution to education after 1849 is largely ignored. H. Foreman's unpublished M. A. thesis, "Nonconformity and Education in England and Wales, 1700-1902', (London M.A.(Ext.)1967) is also a very wide survey. The latter part of the thesis does deal with the period in question, but concentrates on the work of the National Education League and other dissenting bodies, and does not deal with Methodism in great detail. Nor does he assess the work of Rigg. This study hopes to fill the gap by researching the influence of J. H. Rigg on national elementary education in this period and the philosophical bases of Wesleyan elementary education after 1849. In particular it will assess the influence of anti-clericalism in formulating Wesleyan education policy. It will use previously unused reports of the Wesleyan Education Committee, the Methodist newspapers of the period and the reports of H. M. I. and the unpublished correspondence of Rigg, as well as his published work on education. It will also reassess the Methodist attitude towards government legislation in this period. 1849 is chosen as a starting point simply because it was the year in which Rigg published his first article on educational policy

Texas Siftings

Texas Siftings was a weekly humorous magazine that saw publication from the 1880s to the 1890s. Originally published in Austin, Texas, the newspaper later moved to New York and then to London, and featured many well known humorists