http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/227550 Tue, 21 May 2013 17:32:02 GMT 2013-05-21T17:32:02Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/244581 Title: Remembering Ewan MacColl: The Agency of Writing and the Creation of a Participatory Popular Culture Authors: Holland, Owen Abstract: In this article Owen Holland examines Ewan MacColl's early work in agit-prop theatre and his later activity as a songwriter, performer, and collector in the second British folk revival. He argues that his experience in the theatre provides a necessary route into understanding the problems of his later work – and what unites the ‘two halves’ is MacColl's consistent sense of the function of art (specifically his preferred media of drama and song) within a wider politico-cultural praxis. There is a contradiction in MacColl's praxis, however, in that while he wanted to create a popular culture of participation, his dogmatic textual strategies and exclusivist tendencies often became coercive enough to undermine his intentions. The discussion of MacColl's writing is situated within a critique of the problems that appear in his wider praxis, and Holland concludes by asserting that MacColl's agency as a writer was achieved through the development of a performance-oriented aesthetic. Owen Holland is a PhD candidate in the English Faculty at the University of Cambridge, affiliated to St Catharine's College. His research focuses on utopian fiction in the late nineteenth century, with a particular interest in William Morris. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/244581 2012-02-01T00:00:00Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/241704 Title: Ordinary and Exceptional Evidence in the Study of Readers’ Annotations Authors: Roberts, Dunstan Abstract: This paper considers a variety of methodological questions arising from the study of readers' annotations in books. It is particularly concerned with issues concerning the categorisation and systematic study of annotations, and the importance of recognising the overlap between the collection and the interpretation of primary data/evidence. It concludes by suggestioning that an inevitable compromise must be made if the study of readers' annotations is to develop beyond localised surveys and case-studies, and that the recognition of the philossophical challenges which are inherent in such an enterprise may be more valuable than attempts at comprehensively resolving them. Description: Meeting of the History of Material Texts seminar series in the Faculty of English, entitled 'New Directions in Early Modern Book History'. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/241704 2012-02-09T00:00:00Z http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/238350 Title: Fairytale Characteristics in Medieval Romances Authors: Burton, Julie Abstract: From the viewpoint of the twenty-first century, Middle English romance can be a problematic genre. Its fantastic events, stock characters, repetitive structures and contrived endings seem to belong with the fairytale of the nursery rather than with the serious literature of the adult world. Stylistically, so many romances do little to counter this impression with formulaic words and phrases expressing simplistic emotions and commonplace sentiments. Yet Middle English romance was an enduring genre, popular over five hundred years or more. Although Chaucer was famously disparaging about the verse romances in his burlesque ‘Sir Thopas’, many survive in the collections of, or indeed were commissioned by, worldly men, important and successful in their time. Clearly this raises a question: why are the romances, once so popular, unpalatable to the reading public of today? Any response to this question would of course be complex, not least because the romance genre notoriously embraces a range of greatly differing works. In this thesis I intend to explore one aspect of the romances which must be considered in any comprehensive answer: namely their ‘language’, by which I mean their method of communication in its broadest sense, now generally regarded as lacking in sophistication and unrelated to real life. Because of the variety of works in the genre, I focus the study on a sub-group of the romances. It is the contention of this thesis that the link between fairytale and romance which I previously mentioned as disparaging to romance is in fact a strength of romance. In many ways the “language” of fairytale is the “language” of romance. In fact, the closeness of fairytale and romance is such that an understanding of fairytale can contribute significantly to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the methods and effectiveness of romance. Description: This thesis represents the state of completion the author attained before her death in March 2010. It was her final wish that it be made available to the widest possible scholarly circulation. Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk:80/handle/1810/238350 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z