Browsing by Author "Dr. James Banker, Committee Member"

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"Dying Men's Wordes:" Treason, Heresy, and Scaffold Performances in Sixteenth-Century England
(2005-12-02) Bouldin, Elizabeth; Dr. John Wall, Committee Member; Dr. Charles Carlton, Committee Chair; Dr. Dudley Marchi, Committee Member; Dr. James Banker, Committee Member
Between 1535 and 1603, hundreds of people in Tudor England were executed as political traitors, religious traitors, or heretics. Most of these executions were public, and the state almost always gave its victims the opportunity to say a few last words. These scaffold speeches became popular during the sixteenth-century and were often printed in ?chapbook? or pamphlet form for those unable to attend the actual execution. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how scaffold performances evolved during the course of the sixteenth-century in response to legal, cultural, and religious changes. In forming their last speeches, convicted traitors and heretics projected an identity to the crowd and the scaffold authorities; they died either as repentant political traitors, Protestant martyrs, or Catholic martyrs. Those who died for crimes against the state came to give fundamentally different speeches from those who died for crimes against the state religion. Religious traitors and heretics also developed two distinct formulas for their scaffold performances depending on whether they were Catholic or Protestant. Only the crowd remained consistent in how it approached the scaffold; spectators continued to respond to individual performances rather than to ideologies.
The Saga of the Confederates: Historical Truth in an Icelandic Saga.
(2006-07-11) Mulvey, James Patrick; Dr. S. Thomas Parker, Committee Member; Dr. John Riddle, Committee Chair; Dr. James Banker, Committee Member
The Saga of the Confederates, written anonymously in the thirteenth century, tells a story that takes place in eleventh century Iceland. The saga presents an opportunity to examine Iceland's unique political and social systems during the Middle Ages, both during the time of the story and also during the author's lifetime. While elements of the story reflect society in the eleventh century, the attitudes and values of the anonymous author can also help us understand the thirteenth century. The purpose of this research is to examine the medieval Icelandic sagas as historical sources, with The Saga of the Confederates as a case study. While many characters and their situations within the Icelandic sagas may be completely fictional, the ways in which the saga authors relate their subjects to their readers provide insight into the true makeup of medieval Icelandic society at large from the Settlement to the submission to Norwegian rule in 1262 CE.