Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2014, English

In this paper, I investigate the possibility of servants participating in early modern dramas and the implications such performances had on class relations of that time. I argue that servants did likely perform in these dramas, using the voices of various characters to create a complex social commentary on the period's strict social structure. Through a close examination of early modern literacy rates, household politics, and private dramas, I determine that it is likely servants were capable of not only reading, but also performing in private dramas. Then, with a critical reading of Elizabeth Cary's biography and play, titled The Tragedy of Mariam, I show that early modern women often used private dramas to express their opinions of social and political issues publicly, specifically regarding gender politics. These two main points then allow me to come to my final argument. I conclude that servants might have used characters' lines to voice their own opinions regarding the constraints of class politics, allowing these servants to speak freely to the upper class that had authority over them.

Committee: Elizabeth Mackay PhD (Advisor); Ari Friedlander PhD (Committee Member); Margaret Strain PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Education History; Gender; History; Literacy; Social Structure

MA, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Between 1473 and 1666, the printing industry in London was heavily regulated by the Stationers' Company, but after the 1660s, the Company became unable to effectively regulate printed texts. This thesis compares the depictions of masculinity which appeared in early modern English books between periods of heavy regulation and periods of loose regulation. Changes to the printing industry, including changes to the laws surrounding censorship and economic changes in both the market and England as a whole, contributed to changes in how social ideologies are represented in the books that the market produced. During the early period of heavy regulation, narratives of masculinity across texts were relatively consistent and cooperated with one another to create a cohesive, hegemonic version of masculinity. However, as the market grew and opened, there was no longer a reasonable expectation of regulation, and more, often differing versions of masculinity were able to compete with the traditional hegemonic narrative.

Committee: Lindsay Starkey (Advisor); Don-John Dugas (Committee Member); Elaine Frantz (Committee Member); Matthew Crawford (Advisor) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; European History; Gender; History; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, English

For much of the past seventy years, discussion of authorial intention has often been seen as taboo in historical literary analysis. Monumental scholars such Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault wrote crucial essays that helped steer critical focus away from questions of intention, encouraging interpretation of the text itself as the ideal. While these contributions to the field were both valuable and necessary, paving the way for the reader-response approach that is now predominant in literary analysis, they had the unfortunate consequence of taking the role of intention out of the realm of interpretation entirely. The difficulty this consequence has presented is that to many literary analysts, “intention” is still viewed as a bad word, or at least one tainted by the idea that considering intentions precludes other readerly or critical interpretations. The field of book history has largely steered clear of the negative imputations of intention, as understanding what an author (or other agents involved in publication) intended by choices made in a primary text is essential for how that publication can be parsed from a material standpoint. The divide between book history and literary analysis has gradually been narrowing, but the reluctance to fully embrace intention as one of many tools to explore the interpretational possibilities of historical literary texts is a problem that I seek to address. This dissertation focuses on four editions of poetry from the mid-seventeenth century to demonstrate how the intentions of authors and other agents in the production of literary works have a direct impact on how those works can be interpreted. My methodology is rooted in book history, but my key objective throughout is to apply that approach to literary analysis by using what we can both definitively know and reasonably establish about intentions to guide close-readings of the works themselves. Doing so reveals that, far from precluding interpretation, considering the orig (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Hannibal Hamlin (Committee Chair); Erin McCarthy (Committee Member); Luke Wilson (Committee Member); Karen Winstead (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Literature

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2021, History

This thesis is a study of the main work by the Dutch navigator Jan Huygen van Linschoten, titled Itinerario: His Discourse of Voyages into the East & West Indies (1596). Drawing on van Linschoten's travels to South Asia in the late sixteenth century, the work offered a wealth of information on shipping routes, forms of merchandise, and other commercial opportunities. The Itinerario would prove critically important in informing and inspiring merchants in both the early Dutch Republic and England to launch their first expeditions into Southeast Asia. Van Linschoten largely based the Itinerario upon information he had gathered during his years abroad as a secretary to the Portuguese Archbishop of Goa, Vicente de Fonseca. He then collaborated with a network of like-minded Dutchmen as he drafted the Itinerario. A similar network in England was instrumental in the publication of the English translation, appearing in 1598. These networks included founding members of each country's East India Companies, tying the book to the early process of empire-building. These endeavors not only tapped into mercantilist and proto-nationalist ideals within these countries, but also evidence transnational collaboration in knowledge production in the interest of developing global commercial ventures.

Committee: Wietse de Boer (Advisor); Renée Baernstein (Committee Member); Lindsay Schakenbach Regele (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation examines circulating popular beliefs in early modern Spain that addressed sex difference and the possibility of sudden sex changes due to fluctuations in climate and humors. These beliefs are articulated by authors of medical treatises and other texts that deal with human anatomy, health and wellness, and natural phenomena. Understanding how early modern Spaniards conceived of sex and gender is crucial for analyzing the reception and representation of historical and literary figures with non-normative sex and gender during this time period. The central thesis of this project is that early modern Spaniards accepted the possibility that an individual might experience a sudden change of sex, and therefore understood human sex to be mutable, rather than fixed, and to some extent, spectral rather than binary, given that said sex changes were believed to leave an individual with vestigial characteristics of their original sex. Therefore, in order to understand how historical and literary figures with non-binary sex and/or gender were understood, for example, Catalina de Erauso, or the theatrical figure of the mujer varonil, we must take into account these beliefs, as they would have played a role in the reception of said figures. In order to arrive at a better understanding of how non-normative sex and gender were explained, understood and represented in early modern Spain, I consider three different perspectives. The first of these are the medical and scientific theories that informed popular beliefs about sex and gender. Many texts were published in early modern Spain in which these topics are examined at great length, suggesting the importance and relevance for the authors and their perceived audiences. The second perspective concerns the reception and perception of historical figures whose sex and gender did not adhere to a strict binary. The documents written by and about individuals such as Catalina de Erauso and Eleno/a de Cespedes shine lig (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jonathan Burgoyne Dr (Advisor) Subjects: European Studies; Romance Literature

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2015, History

This paper discusses the importance of pamphleteers during the period of the Late Stuart Dynasty in England. While individual pamphleteers are rarely discussed in broad historical texts about the seventeenth century, their writing dramatically influenced the political policy of the Crown and of Parliament. The paper discusses three major topics in the history of pamphleteering during the late seventeenth century and through these topics the contributions of individuals are discussed. First, the pamphleteers and their political relation to Charles II's mistresses, especially the comparison between the English and Protestant mistress Nell Gwyn to the French and Catholic Louise de Kerouaille. Second, how pamphleteers such as Robert Ferguson and Samuel Johnson worked with printers like Richard Baldwin to help influence the objectives of the Glorious Revolution. Lastly, the paper concludes with the discussion of how women such as Aphra Behn and Jane Curtis entered into the position of pamphleteer. The paper spans the period of the English monarchy's restoration to the Glorious Revolution and advances the scholarship of historians of England, Europe, and Early Modern Print Culture.

Committee: Michael Graham (Advisor); Michael Levin (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: European History; History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Germanic Languages and Literatures

The subject of this study is two printed books from the 1530s on metal mining and mining law, Der Ursprung gemeynner Berckrecht (“The Origin of Common Mining Laws”) and the Bergkordnung des Loblichen newen Bergkwergs/ auff dem Golmsbergk/ im Konigreich Norwegen (“Mining Regulation for the praiseworthy new mine at Gullnes in the Kingdom of Norway”). I have created scholarly editions of each German text, translations into English, and the annotations and commentary requisite for understanding the works synchronically and diachronically in their historical and linguistic contexts. The two books occupy important positions in the early German literature on mining. Ursprung, probably dating from 1535-1538, is the earliest printed compendium of legal and scientific texts on mining, containing several texts originally dating from the 13th to early 16th centuries. The collection, by known book producer Johan Haselberg, prints key early German laws on mining previously existing only in manuscripts, and it provides a new edition of the earliest printed book on mining and metallurgy, Ulrich Rulein's “Bergbuchlein” from ca. 1500. A glossary of mining and smelting terms, a listing of mines in Bohemia, and information on mining officials complete the collection. The other book, Bergkordnung Norwegen, was composed and printed in Saxony in 1540 for use in Norway. Commissioned by King Christian III of Denmark and Norway, the book constitutes the first mining regulations produced in Germany for use in another country. This work clearly and systematically summarizes prevailing contemporary German practices and served as the legal basis for Norwegian mining for several centuries. The introduction to this study begins with overviews of early German mining and mining literature. The two texts Ursprung and the Bergkordnung Norwegen are then discussed in their historical context, including earlier versions/sources and later editions of the works. Issues of textual transmission and compila (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anna Grotans (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, History

This dissertation is a study of the role of the prestigious cavalry branch of the Ottoman dynasty's household troops, “the People of the Six Regiments,” or altı boluk halkı, in the political upheavals, administrative transformations, and provincial rebellions that shook the Ottoman Empire between the 1620s and 1660s. Scholars of this period have devoted little attention to the altı boluk halkı, based on the assumption that the relevance of their organization in Ottoman state and society was on the wane in comparison to their infantry counterparts, the janissaries. Using extensive archival material, the present study challenges this view, arguing that the seventeenth-century altı boluk halkı evolved into a dynamic political and socio-economic elite in Anatolia, the Balkans, and northern Syria. Their members fortified their authority in these regions by functioning as tax collectors, a privilege that reached its greatest proportions in the decade following the infamous 1622 regicide of Sultan Osman II. Their consolidation of power in turn provoked a reaction when, in 1632, Sultan Murad IV initiated a reform program intended to strengthen the central government vis-a-vis the altı boluk halkı's new elites. These developments provide the essential context for the bloody rebellions that broke out in Istanbul and Anatolia after 1648. Rather than spontaneous uprisings, these rebellions emerged from efforts of members of the altı boluk halkı to preserve their elite status and to recover the privileges that the reforms of Murad IV had eliminated. By tracing the volatile trajectory of the altı boluk halkı, this dissertation makes a new contribution to debates over the Ottoman Empire's seventeenth-century transformation and its experience of the global ‘crisis of the seventeenth century.'

Committee: Jane Hathaway (Advisor); Elizabeth Bond (Committee Member); Scott Levi (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Middle Eastern History; World History

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2023, History (Arts and Sciences)

The purpose of this study was to examine the works of William Perkins and situate his singular treatise A Discourse on the Damned Art of Witchcraft within his broader theology. This thesis argued that Perkins approached witchcraft not from a superstitious viewpoint but as a means of addressing a broader range of concerns he held about the nature of sin and piety. By analyzing his wider collection of publications as well as the Puritan movement in Elizabethan England this study demonstrated that William Perkins held a very similar view on witchcraft as other Puritans of his time. Perkins did not believe witches had any genuine power but instead were a part of illusions produced by the devil. Perkins argued that the primary issue with witchcraft is that it is a grave sin against God because it breaks the promise Christians make during their baptism. This treatise is an excellent example of Perkins using relevant fears his parishioners would have had to dismiss popular superstitions and translate Scripture into understandable and relatable lessons.

Committee: Michele Clouse (Advisor); Miriam Shadis (Committee Member); John Brobst (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; European Studies; History; Religion; Religious History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, English (Arts and Sciences)

Saracens served as stock villains in many of the romances of the Middle Ages and informed representations of Ottoman alterity on the early modern stage. As the contrarians of the East v. West binary, Saracens are often viewed as a monolithic entity. The present study does not seek to abolish the binary but instead to nuance it. Each chapter analyzes a different type of Saracen or role that Saracens played in medieval and early modern English literature. In doing so, the study is more concerned with the function of anti-Saracenic representations than with their historical or anthropological inaccuracies.

Committee: Beth Quitslund (Committee Chair); Loren Lybarger (Committee Member); Jill Ingram (Committee Member); Ghirmai Negash (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Comparative; Comparative Literature; European History; Islamic Studies; Literature; Medieval History; Medieval Literature; Middle Ages; Middle Eastern History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Philosophy

This dissertation is a collection of four papers on George Berkeley and the role of metaphysics in natural science. Each paper addresses a separate scientific concept and examines Berkeley's critique of the application of that concept in demonstrations within physics and the mathematical principles of physics. These concepts are quantity of matter (i.e. mass) in chapter one, percussive force (i.e. impact) in chapter two, true motion in chapter three, and the fluxions of the calculus in chapter four. In each case, Berkeley directs his attention to the ontology of that concept. This attention manifests itself primarily in two ways. First, in some cases Berkeley recognizes that certain metaphysical assumptions about the nature of the entity in question influence (oftentimes in negative ways) the way natural philosophers develop and interpret the claims of their scientific theories. Second, in some cases Berkeley argues that a proper understanding of the entity in question (based in his idealist metaphysics) can rectify errors in the way natural philosophers develop and interpret the claims of their scientific theories. On the whole, Berkeley is concerned to show not just that the physics of his time is compatible with his metaphysics of idealism, but further that physics is more fully and properly understood only when founded on his idealism.

Committee: Chris Pincock (Committee Member); Lisa Shabel (Committee Member); Lisa Downing (Advisor) Subjects: Philosophy; Philosophy of Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This dissertation explores the career of Marshal Louis Francois Boufflers, one of the most important marshals of Louis XIV's Army. The increasing subordination of the army and its generals to the control of the regime of Louis XIV was integral to the growth of the modern state in France. This dissertation utilizes Boufflers's career to investigate the conduct of professionalization of the French army, the impact of patronage on its officer corps, examine civilian-military interactions during the Wars of Louis XIV, and finally, the art of command in Louis XIV's army. Because the French army grew massively from a quarrelsome/quasi-independent force of 70,000 in 1659 to the giant of the Grand Siecle totaling more than 400,000 soldiers by 1693, these themes of significant institutional and organizational growth parallel the rise of Boufflers from a young lieutenant to a Marshal of France and member of Louis's War Council. As a witness to an agent in such transformation, Boufflers is the critical figure through which the relationships between the military and the court are best revealed. Further Boufflers emergence as a French “military celebrity” towards the end of his career sheds light on how Louis's generals and his wars were discussed in the contemporary press. Finally, the fact that events for Boufflers is most well known the defenses of Namur (1695), Lille (1708) and commanding the army at Malplaquet (1709) all “defeats” that Boufflers in fact received rewards and commendations for challenges the notion of what success looked like in warfare of this period. Boufflers's experience as a career French officer exposes how the mechanics of patronage, professionalization worked against the backdrop of Louis XIV's wars.

Committee: Mark Grimsley (Advisor); John Lynn (Committee Member); Peter Mansoor (Committee Member); Elizabeth Bond (Advisor) Subjects: European History; European Studies; History; Military History; World History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Arts and Sciences: History

“Cities in Crisis” explores the experience of war in two Brandenburg cities during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). As a conflict of tremendous scope and violence, the Thirty Years' War presented substantial challenges for local and regional governments to navigate. For Altstadt and Neustadt Brandenburg, it brought violence, economic and demographic decline, and general instability. This project considers how the city governments and ordinary citizens within these communities navigated the complex circumstances of the war and found ways to endure. Drawing on hundreds of letters and reports to the central government, “Cities in Crisis” maps out the dynamics of cooperation and competition within and between the cities as petitioners relied on the rhetoric of equity and justice to pursue relief from the burdens of war. This study enriches the scholarship on war-time experience, agency, and political culture in Brandenburg through an analysis of the language of petitions and supplications from Altstadt and Neustadt. The mountain of correspondence from city leaders and ordinary citizens bore witness to the scale of ruin that threatened to swamp their communities. While there were often few practical options for resisting the tide of war, the endurance of the two cities—embodied in their persistent letter-writing—offers a strong demonstration of the importance of civilian agency in wartime. The language of equity and justice pervaded the cities' appeals as the cities collaborated and competed for relief. Over time, the demographic declines for both Altstadt and Neustadt encouraged autonomous action where early-war cooperation between the cities had been the norm. Within the community, individual petitioners mirrored the rhetoric of city councils as they contested the apportionment of increasing financial burdens of war and pursued financial restitution for military abuses. As a study of urban, war-time agency, this project provides necessary detail to th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sigrun Haude Ph.D. (Committee Member); Willard Sunderland Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mary Lindemann Ph.D. (Committee Member); Robert Haug Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History of Art

Above all others in Renaissance Italy, the painters of sixteenth-century Venice were renowned for their depictions of the eroticized female nude. Indeed, the sensually painted flesh of these figures, as seen in Titian's famous Venus of Urbino, still beckon the modern beholder's gaze and activate a desire to touch. Most scholars of art history have largely agreed that the Italian Renaissance nude figure served as a status symbol for elite men to collect and salaciously enjoy in private. While I concur that many of these paintings were produced for the delectation of the male gaze, my dissertation proposes that certain depictions of the nude, especially those from late Renaissance Venice, also constituted a response to women's rising influence in early modern society. Furthermore, these paintings depict not only nude women, but also nude men, in compositions and situations that speak to period anxieties over what we now refer to as gender politics. In the mid-sixteenth century, artists of the Veneto began to more frequently paint the ancient gods, goddesses, and heroes of their secular compositions performing illicit sexual acts that were, to contemporary Venetians' eyes, immoral and/or illegal. More specifically, these depictions of the nude, which were often anachronistically painted in contemporary Venetian surroundings, mirrored the city's own inhabitants acting out improper sex acts such as adultery, rape, and prostitution. In closely examining four examples of this phenomena from circa 1550–1610, my dissertation project demonstrates how these works of art would have provoked unease in the eyes of contemporary Venetian viewers, especially affluent males. In illustrating these scenes of social disorder, I argue that painters of late-sixteenth-century Venice ultimately exposed as well as prompted men's fears of losing sexual and societal control over to women.

Committee: Christian Kleinbub (Advisor); Byron Hamann (Committee Member); Andrew Shelton (Committee Member); Karl Whittington (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Gender Studies; History; Literature; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, English

This dissertation examines excremental language and plot devices within late-Elizabethan and Jacobean English drama, particularly in the plays of Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, and William Shakespeare. The project explores the overlapping tensions between the dual definitions of excrement as “outgrowth” and “waste product” to examine how late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century English drama connects the language of excrement with the language of erotic desire. English Renaissance playwrights regularly reference excrement to consider the relative worth of individuals within their social contexts, but they also use it to think through the relative worth of sexual practices and forms of sexual desire. This project extends the work of scholars such as Gail Kern Paster and Will Stockton by emphasizing the materiality of excremental products as well as their potential to challenge, and not just reinforce, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century gender hierarchies within drama. These excremental products function differently across different genres. Chapters 2 and 3 examine representations of sex and excrement in early-seventeenth-century city comedy and marriage comedy, focusing on fluid excrements in relation to subversive sex and reproduction. These chapters argue that early modern English comedy often restores hierarchical order by using excrement to discipline deviant sexual desire, but it also exposes the instability of those hierarchies. City comedies such as Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside figure the products of sexual reproduction, children, as excrements, at various points valuable outgrowths or valueless waste products. Misogynist-taming comedies such as John Fletcher's The Tamer Tamed allow women characters to weaponize their excrement against men threatening early modern ideals of companionate marriage. Chapters 4 and 5 examine tragedies that reaffirm sexual and familial hierarchies, but also upend them. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jennifer Higginbotham (Advisor); Sarah Neville (Committee Member); Luke Wilson (Committee Member); Elizabeth Kolkovich (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Gender Studies; Literature

BA, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

This thesis explores what I have termed the "myth of Bologna" a phrase that refers to an early modern city being renowned for its women citizens, but the reasons as to why remaining shrouded in mystery. Although recent scholarship on women's history in Bologna has covered a variety of topics including women as religious figures, women in the arts, and women in the silk trade, few have attempted to take a wholistic approach to connect the vast and unprecedented influence of female participation in the city. This thesis will argue that women's history in Bologna and, more importantly, as a whole requires a broader lens to be able to fill in the gaps left behind by fragmented documentation, a general lack of sources, and the unique challenges posed by studying women in history. Using traditional written sources, as well as visual and material culture, this thesis attempts to reconstruct the reality of women in Bologna beyond what the mythic perceptions of the city can provide. If we can understand "why Bologna?" through an interdisciplinary lens, we can begin to bridge the gaps between the fractured pieces of women's history and challenge our limited perceptions of women during the early modern era.

Committee: Matthew Crawford Ph.D (Advisor); Gustav Medicus Ph.D. (Advisor); Don-John Dugas Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lindsey Starkey Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kristin Stasiowski Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; European History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, History

This study examines the concepts of childhood, youth, and aging in the early modern Ottoman Empire from 1500-1730. It demonstrates that the early modern Ottoman intelligentsia had multiple conceptions of the period of childhood and youth that shaped their understanding of the self and their larger intellectual world. These findings help to disprove the erroneous belief that the Ottomans had no concept of childhood before the “modern” moment of the 19th century. Across texts, regardless of genre and purpose, and across time there is a firm, logical conception of childhood and youth that shapes the arguments made by Ottoman authors. These ideas on aging and childhood had their roots in classical antiquity and earlier Islamic thought; Ottoman intellectuals, however, transformed these ideas and developed them over the centuries. The Ottomans saw childhood and youth as some of the most significant periods of their lives, and both periods were seen as having a substantial impact upon the adult self. The Ottomans believed in an extended period of development lasting until the age of thirty. As a person matured, he or she proceeded through set developmental stages, with set signs and expectations; failure to reach expectations or certain milestones was seen as disastrous. The Ottomans devoted a great deal of effort to controlling, educating, and guiding children and youths towards the idealized adult self, and cautioning them about the various pitfalls that beset their young lives

Committee: Jane Hathaway Dr. (Advisor); Scott Levi Dr. (Committee Member); Thomas McDow Dr. (Committee Member); Ben Givens Dr. (Other) Subjects: History; Middle Eastern History

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2020, History

The problem of drunkenness played an important role in ruling class perceptions of the laboring classes in the early modern English Atlantic. Previous studies addressing alcohol consumption in the English Atlantic have focused on production and the social role of taverns and alehouses. Scholarship addressing the Gin Craze of the eighteenth-century has focused on the destructive consumptive habits of the laboring poor in the middle of the eighteenth century. This project addresses concerns on the consumptive habits of the laboring classes within a larger discourse on the morality and work ethic of the laboring classes during the seventeenth century and eighteenth century. This study addresses the laboring classes in England with a focus on London. It also addresses the laboring classes in the English Caribbean and in the army and the navy. Documents from the seventeenth century and eighteenth century show the English ruling class's concerns about the role of alcohol consumption in the perceived decline in the morality and work ethic of the laboring classes played a significant role in shaping the ways the ruling class perceived the laboring classes.

Committee: Charles Beatty-Medina (Committee Chair); Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch (Committee Member); Kristen Geaman (Committee Member); Joseph Slater (Committee Member) Subjects: Caribbean Studies; European History; History; Labor Relations; Military History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, English

Although the first balloon flights in 1783 created a sensation throughout Europe, human flight had long captured the imaginations of scientific and literary authors alike. Prior histories of flight begin with balloons, but earlier centuries boasted a strange and colorful aviary that shaped thinking about flight long before the first balloon ever left the ground. Taking a cultural materialist approach informed by a broad familiarity with the development of early flight machines and a deep familiarity with the literary conventions of the period, I analyze historical materials ranging from aeronautical treatises to stage pantomimes, from newspaper advertisements to philosophical poems, from mechanical diagrams to satirical cartoons. This earlier culture possessed high hopes and anxieties about human flight. I argue that early flight was lively and varied before the invention of a successful flying machine, and that these early flights were important because they established an aerial tradition astonishingly resistant to change. Rather than revolutionizing the culture, ballooning was quickly incorporated into it. Although ballooning came to be regarded as a failure by many onlookers, the aerial tradition had long become accustomed to failure and continued unabated. Human flight has always promised tremendous and yet debatable utility, a paradox that continues into the present age.

Committee: Roxann Wheeler (Advisor); David Brewer (Committee Member); Sandra Macpherson (Committee Member); Jacob Risinger (Committee Member) Subjects: Aeronomy; Aerospace Engineering; American Literature; Astronomy; British and Irish Literature; Comparative Literature; Engineering; European History; European Studies; Experiments; Folklore; Foreign Language; Germanic Literature; History; Language; Literature; Mechanical Engineering; Museums; Philosophy of Science; Physics; Science History; Technology; Theater; Theater History; World History

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2019, English

The English Renaissance was literary, ecclesiastical, and charged with references to afflictions, both physical and spiritual. Yet while it is often central to religious doxology and instruction, affliction is not an art that can be monopolized by a single religious doctrine or denomination. It was possible, in other words, for early modern English poets to turn to both Catholic and Protestant predecessors for an understanding of spiritual affliction, despite the dramatic religious, political, and social upheavals that came before. In the psalm translations of Sir Philip Sidney and Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke; the Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum of Aemilia Lanyer, the Devotions upon Emergent Occasions of John Donne, and The Temple of George Herbert, these poets attended to a nexus of suffering and artistic expression in order to lead their readers toward theological instruction. They do so through what I call an “afflictive poetics,” a rhetorical mode in which the poet offers this theological instruction through a series of poetic forms, figures, and perspectives that depend upon a demonstration of spiritual and physical or physiological suffering. These works were all written or published in roughly the period between 1580 and 1633, beginning with the writing of Sidney's Defence of Poesy and ending with the posthumous publication of Donne's Poems and Herbert's Temple. Despite all being nominally Protestant, the poets examined in this dissertation represent a broad spectrum of religious beliefs and practices. In arguing for the importance of afflictive poetics, I join the continuing “religious turn” in early modern literary studies, particularly in the branch that recognizes the ambiguity of confessional categories and attends to the experience of the individual believer. In doing so, I tend to eschew debates focused on denominational, doctrinal, and doxological disputes, which often robs us of the richness of the poetry and the relationship that develops bet (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christopher Flint Dr. (Committee Chair); Maggie Vinter Dr. (Committee Member); Erika Olbricht Dr. (Committee Member); Timothy Wutrich Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature