Acknowledgments
This book could not have come into being without the help of a great many people, ‘a multitude that I cannot speak of nor name, even if I had ten tongues, ten mouths, and unbreakable voice, and a heart of bronze’. Nevertheless, thanks should be given where it is due.
To Dr Martine Cuypers. for her unwavering patience, support, and amazingly detailed feedback on countless drafts of the doctoral thesis which formed the basis for this monograph.
To Prof Ahuvia Kahane, for his guidance on academic book-publishing, and for helping me with the proposal of this monograph.
To my fellow PhD students and friends at Trinity College Dublin: Alastair Daly, Lisa Doyle, Adrian Gramps, Sean McGrath, Charlie Kerrigan, Jeremy Lam, Mnemosyne Rice, and William Strigel, for their helpful comments on my thesis and monograph, and for patiently listening to me complain about the whole thing.
To Harley Cubberley, for supporting me through the whole process of writing this book, and for the amazing cover image.
To Kylie and Avery (and Willow) for their unwavering moral support during the writing of this book, and copious quantities of bubble tea.
Last but not least, to my family. Bez Was nie byłabym w stanie tego dokonać.
This book is based on my PhD thesis, which I began at Trinity College Dublin, and which was supported by an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship (Project ID GOIPG/2017/224). I was able to substantially revise this thesis into a book with the help of an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship (Project ID GOIPD/2022/258).