"I feel I can no longer endure": Families and the limits of Commitment in Australia, 1914-1919

Civilian endurance has again become a significant issue in understanding the nature of the First World War, especially since so much emphasis has returned to questions of consent and commitment in making and sustaining the conflict. Fundamental to that enquiry is an acknowledgement of the reality and legitimacy of the sentiments that drove individuals and communities to support the war. By extension, this also implies a need to understand the limits of that commitment, and of the capacity to endure the strains of war. This chapter probes civilian endurance through an examination of Australian families’ experiences of war and separation. It argues that persistent anxiety over loved ones at the front consumed individuals’ emotional resources and, even among the most patriotic Australians, tested commitment to the war.

"Secretary in Fashion" and "Love-Letters": a study of socio-cultural and pragmatic-linguistic features in the late 17th century English language

Epistolary manuals are conspicuous historical documents for the pedagogy of letter writing; however, their actual usage as manuals by letter writers is unknown. "Secretary in Fashion" by Serre (1668), an epistolary manual, and "Love-Letters between a Nobleman and his Sister" (1684), an epistolary novel attributed to Behn, both give insights into epistolary conventions. Their inception and nature is interesting, considering their historical context. Despite the Restoration of Charles II, 17th century England was in a confused political state; as a result, texts regarding social convention or politics interested contemporary readers (the novel is inspired by a scandal of Lord Grey, an ardent Whig opposing Charles II). Past epistolary studies focus on 18th rather than 17th century manuals; the latter is typically used as supplementary information. Similarly, past epistolary fiction studies focus on 18th century texts; moreover, linguistic studies on Behn and the novel are deficient. Thus, this study addresses the research questions: 1) What are the socio-cultural and pragmaticlinguistic features represented in "Secretary in Fashion"? 2) What are the socio-cultural and pragmatic-linguistic features represented in "Love-Letters between a Nobleman and his Sister", and do any of these features correlate with the features represented in "Secretary in Fashion"? How far do the characteristic linguistic features of "Love-Letters between a Nobleman and his Sister" correlate with the practices recommended by the manual? Both texts were qualitatively analysed from an historical pragmatic perspective, which observes the potential effects of the socio-cultural and historical context. Also, as the texts concern shared discourses, comparisons were made with Gricean and Politeness Theory. The results show that the manual is a typical 17th century epistolary manual, aligning particularly with the "Academies of Complements", as it concerns the social conventions of the gentry. The novel mainly upheld instructions on form and matter; deviations occurred due to the amatory nature of some letters, and the narrative force affecting the style. Unfortunately, neither research question elucidates the actual usage of manuals. However, this study does show the epistolary practices of two writers, within specific contexts. It reveals that their 17th century English language use is affected by socialisation, in terms of social conventions concerning social rank, age, and gender; therefore, context varies language use. Also, their popularity reveals the interests of the 17th century society. Interest in epistolary-related texts, surely piques the interest of the modern reader as to why such epistolary-related texts were interesting.

The life of Samuel Johnson ... comprising a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition; with a chronological account of his studies and numerous works ...

Mode of access: Internet.

The life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. : comprehending an account of his studies and numerous works, in chronological order; a series of his epistolary correspondence; and conversations with many eminent persons ... /

Spine title: Boswell's Johnson.

The life of Samuel Johnson : comprehending an account of his studies and numerous works in chronological order : a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons : and various original pieces of his composition, never before published /

Advertisement to the 9th ed. signed by the editor, Alexander Chalmers.

The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order; a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished /

Vol.3-4 published by James Christie [etc.], printed by J.F. Dove.

The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order; a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished.

Mode of access: Internet.

Language and Letters of the Bluestocking Network : Sociolinguistic Issues in Eighteenth Century Epistolary English

This study deals with language change and variation in the correspondence of the eighteenth-century Bluestocking circle, a social network which provided learned men and women with an informal environment for the pursuit of scholarly entertainment. Elizabeth Montagu (1718 1800), a notable social hostess and a Shakespearean scholar, was one of their key figures. The study presents the reconstruction of Elizabeth Montagu s social networks from her youth to her later years with a special focus on the Bluestocking circle, and linguistic research on private correspondence between Montagu and her Bluestocking friends and family members between the years 1738 1778. The epistolary language use is investigated using the methods and frameworks of corpus linguistics, historical sociolinguistics, and social network analysis. The approach is diachronic and concerns real-time language change. The research is based on a selection of manuscript letters which I have edited and compiled into an electronic corpus (Bluestocking Corpus). I have also devised a network strength scale in order to quantify the strength of network ties and to compare the results of the linguistic research with the network analysis. The studies range from the reconstruction and analysis of Elizabeth Montagu s most prominent social networks to the analysis of changing morphosyntactic features and spelling variation in Montagu s and her network members correspondence. The linguistic studies look at the use of the progressive construction, preposition stranding and pied piping, and spelling variation in terms of preterite and past participle endings in the regular paradigm (-ed, - d, -d, - t, -t) and full / contracted spellings of auxiliary verbs. The results are analysed in terms of social network membership, sociolinguistic variables of the correspondents, and, when relevant, aspects of eighteenth-century linguistic prescriptivism. The studies showed a slight diachronic increase in the use of the progressive, a significant decrease of the stigmatised preposition stranding and increase of pied piping, and relatively informal but socially controlled epistolary spelling. Certain significant changes in Elizabeth Montagu s language use over the years could be attributed to her increasingly prominent social standing and the changes in her social networks, and the strength of ties correlated strongly with the use of the progressive in the Bluestocking Corpus. Gender, social rank, and register in terms of kinship/friendship had a significant influence in language use, and an effect of prescriptivism could also be detected. Elizabeth Montagu s network ties resulted in language variation in terms of network membership, her own position in a given network, and the social factors that controlled eighteenth-century interaction. When all the network ties are strong, linguistic variation seems to be essentially linked to the social variables of the informants.

Collaborative Scholarship on the Margins: An Epistolary Network

This article explores collaborative scholarship on the margins of intellectual life in eighteenth-century England via a close examination of George Ballard's collected correspondence from women letter-writers. Ballard was both a man of trade and an antiquary, and his modest social status inhibited his freedom to move in scholarly circles. Ballard's only published book documented the lives and works of "learned ladies" of Britain from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, and his female correspondents included the Anglo-Saxon scholar Elizabeth Elstob. His collected correspondence provides an insight into a network that operated outside of the major institutions of scholarship and far from the coffee houses of metropolitan life, but which supported its participants in their intellectual endeavours. By examining the collection materially, and by plotting the correspondents geographically, a more precise picture can be drawn of how women and lower-status men could engage in intellectual life from the peripheries of scholarly society. 

Experimental studies on comparison of microwave curing and thermal curing of epoxy resins used for alternative mould materials

In this present work attempts have been made to study the glass transition temperature of alternative mould materials by using both microwave heating and conventional oven heating. In this present work three epoxy resins, namely R2512, R2515 and R2516, which are commonly used for making injection moulds have been used in combination with two hardeners H2403 and H2409. The magnetron microwave generator used in this research is operating at a frequency of 2.45 GHz with a hollow rectangular waveguide. In order to distinguish the effects between the microwave and conventional heating, a number of experiments were performed to test their mechanical properties such as tensile and flexural strengths. Additionally, differential scanning calorimeter technique was implemented to measure the glass transition temperature on both microwave and conventional heating. This study provided necessary evidences to establish that microwave heated mould materials resulted with higher glass transition temperature than the conventional heating. Finally, attempts were also made to study the microstructure of microwave-cured materials by using a scanning electron microscope in order to analyze the morphology of cured specimens.