Emily Handy

Abstract: Though much worthy scholarship exists about English Restoration theatre, few studies examine the intersections between theatrical activity in London and its British “sister” cities of Dublin and Edinburgh and the stakes of Stuart restoration and British union for all three kingdoms expressed through theatre and performance. This dissertation is a historiographical reconfiguration of the Restoration period that analyzes how theatre and performance in Dublin, Edinburgh, and London contributed to Charles II’s reestablishment of Stuart rule and British union. My project brings together new British history and performance studies to uncover the British theatrical and cultural performances that re-defined union during Charles II’s restoration. I examine Stuart succession through three case-studies: beheadings, Shakespeare adaptations, and the actress. I analyze beheadings as performance events that map a history of Stuart succession through the triple beheadings of Charles I and his Irish and Scottish viceroys. Through their speeches on the scaffold, Charles I and his viceroys made themselves enduring symbols of Stuart monarchy. Charles II then reestablished execution as a royal power, executing and publicly displaying the corpses of the regicides. He highly regulated performances of execution in the theatre, however, especially plays that restaged royal executions from British history. I then examine the ways in which Shakespeare adaptations interrogated past and present British union through plays that betrayed the tensions between the three kingdoms. I consider adaptation a practice shared by Charles II and playwrights, both invested in restoring Britain’s cultural past. Through their adaptations, theatre artists created Shakespeare into an origin myth of the English theatre. Lastly, I argue that Charles II’s introduced the professional actress on the public stage as a surrogate of two past traditions of female performance, the boy actor and the female courtier, who served his agenda to provide his British subjects with public access to himself and his court. Charles II revived Britannia, the female personification of Britain, to capitalize on the popularity of public female performance and create public support and ownership over the reunited Britain.

Abstract: A slow but steady increase in neurodegenerative disorders has been noted in recent decades Degenerations in the nervous system are found in Alzheimer s disease, Parkinson s disease and motor neuron diseases Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common of the motor neuron diseases It is often considered a model disorder of neurodegeneration Early symptoms of ALS are limb weakness or weakness in muscles of speech and swallowing Muscle atrophy follow and a slowly progressing paralysis spreads to respiratory muscles invariably leading to death in respiratory failure Neurophysiological investigations are necessary for proper diagnosis, and it is important to rule out treatable diagnostic alternatives such as myopathies or polyneuropathies The cause of ALS is unknown Prevailing theories include genetic, viral, inflammatory, oxidative or toxic mechanisms Some indications point toward metallotoxic etiologies Clusters of ALS have been observed in regions where geological conditions cause elevated metal concentrations in water and soil Several studies show increased frequency of ALS in certain occupations ALS-like conditions are found in animals, notably in horses, where metal exposure can be suspected In addition animal metal exposure experiments show accumulations of metals in the spinal cord The aim of this thesis project is to clarify the role of metals in ALS The hypothesis tested is that neurotoxic metals contribute significantly to the pathogenesis of ALS To study this we have measured concentrations of 22 metals in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma from patients with ALS and from controls, and correlated findings to literature data to suggest a model for ALS pathogenesis Increased concentrations were found for the metals manganese, aluminum, cadmium, cobalt, copper, zinc, lead, vanadium and uranium in CSF from patients with ALS compared to controls Manganese showed the most prominent correlation Simultaneous sampling from plasma did not show these elevated concentrations, indicating metal accumulations in ALS CSF Most of the metals detected in CSF from ALS patients are neurotoxicants Studies of mercury distribution in a monkey showed mercury accumulations in the spinal cord after respiratory exposure to mercury Motor neurons of the spinal cord seem to be more vulnerable to metal toxicity then surrounding cells, as they lack protection from the metal-binding protein metallothionein Patient exposure to metals, distribution by the bloodstream, penetration of protective barriers and direct toxic effects on neurons of the spinal cord is suggested to be causative in ALS It is concluded that neurotoxic metals can reach and affect the anterior horn cells of motor neurons and thereby contribute to the pathogenesis of ALS ISBN 978-91-7549-046-5

Abstract: Since the abolition of the international slave trade in 1807, and even before, scholars and activists have focused on the conditions Africans experienced during the Middle Passage. Surprisingly, little attention has been paid to the ships that carried the captives. This study will examine the historical and archaeological evidence of the vessels involved in the slave trade. It will address their form and function; and why and how they were built? It will also address the question of design-dedicated slave ships and the issue of whether or not some slave ships were built specially for the trade. This study will look at the historical and archaeological implications of viewing slave ships as purpose-built entities that have a unique place in the archaeological record. As such, it challenges the commonly held perception that slave ships where sent haphazardly to Africa without regard for profit or the maintenance of their human cargoes. 1 Jay Coughtry, The Notorious Triangle; Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade 1700-1807 (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1981), 12. 2 Simon Hogerzeil and David Richardson, “Slavery Purchasing Strategies and Shipboard Mortality: Day-to-Day Evidence from the Dutch Africa trade, 1751-1797,” The Journal of Economic History 67:1(2007): 160-190.

Abstract: This essay investigates an important stock scene of female peril and suffering from Victorian melodrama that I am calling the penitent woman tableau. I argue that this highly iconographic staged moment, where a sexually fallen daughter, fiancee, or wife sinks to her knees in remorse at the sight of the father, lover, or husband she has betrayed, derives its emotional energy and cultural force less from its representation of feminine terror and more from its equivocal portrayal of masculine authority. The penitent woman tableau spotlights a tense moment where violence against a woman could occur but doesn’t; it is a performance of masculine power where the man’s physical force is implicitly available but never literalized. Both visual artists and writers of the Victorian period were drawn to this scene, which I believe fascinated audiences because it spotlights the difficulty of representing masculine mastery in a society increasingly skeptical of physical force as a desirable means of domestic discipline. By examining the penitent woman tableau across several Victorian media and literary genres, including painting, poetry by Alfred Tennyson, and fiction by Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Joseph Conrad, I not only attempt to enrich our understanding of the unstable nature of masculine authority within the middle-class mid-Victorian family but also to illuminate the ways in which melodramatic conventions were crucial to the exploration of this urgent social question. Melodrama, often thought of as both feminine and conservative, offers a surprisingly complex depiction of masculinity within the penitent woman tableau.

Abstract: Nineteenth-century visual representations of Shakespeare’s characters offer modern scholars a window into the nuances of the Victorian reception of his plays, and much work has been done in context...