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The Subject As Subjective : Benjamin Franklin's Biographers, Alex Starr-Baier

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This Thesis is a case study in biographical subjectivity. We are taught in primary school to trust biographies, as they are meant to objective. However, the truth is each biographer brings with them their own bias, and thus leaves with their own perception of their subject. I chose to focus on Benjamin Franklin because a good example of this phenomenon. Franklin's fascinating and full life brings with it a treasure trove of biographical speculation. Each Biographer, in constructing their own version of Franklin, manipulates the facts of Franklin's life. I traced Franklin's biographical legacy through time, from the 1800's to …

Woman At The Top: Rhetoric, Politics, And Feminism In The Texts And Life Of Annie Smith Peck, Hannah Scialdone-Kimberly

English Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this focuses on the autobiographical rhetoric and public identity of Annie Smith Peck, a scholar, mountain climber and woman rhetor from the turn of the century. My qualitative case study of Peck examines how she worked as a woman rhetor to create a popular identity for herself in both mountain climbing and scholarship. I also focus on how Peck worked to identify herself with her audience; here, I use Burke's concept of "identification," as a way of adding to (rather than substituting for) traditional rhetoric. My project brings new findings in that I examine data on Peck …

Eldorado: The Poes In Norfolk, Myreen Moore Nicholson

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best known Americans in the world, as a great poet, literary critic and essayist, and innovator of the analytic detective story. Yet he basically remains his own best mystery. Major cities have monuments to him. This creative work's object is to show that Norfolk, Virginia, was central in his life and art. In fact, the theatre company with which his actress mother, Eliza Arnold Poe (and her friends, the Sullys), was longest affiliated, was headquartered there. Edgar's sister Rosalie was born in a house on Brewer Street. Times and the circumstances of Poe …

Eudora Welty: A Writer For The Heart And Mind, Gerrie Krudwig

Honors Theses

Eudora Welty is a writer whose works appeal to many readers. This appeal is in part based on her artistic use of themes and settings as well as her creative style of writing. These three things combined lend to her work an excellent quality which has been recognized by publishers and fellow writers.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss Welty's creative style of writing, her prominent themes, and her use of settings or the importance of place in her works. The last section of this paper discusses in detail one theme which I have chosen to fasten on …

Life And Personality Of Robert Frost, Una Mae Atkinson

Honors Theses

The most important American poet since Walt Whitman is the New Englander, Robert Frost. People who have never thought of reading poetry take to Frost. His words are simple words; the images are simple, most often country, things. The music of his poetry is the sound of everyday talk, and the ideas, on the surface, anyway, are plain and straight. Subjects of Frost's poetry are such things as nature, love and friendship, self-trust, fear, and courage.

Thus, Robert Frost occupies a unique position in modern poetry. Unlike most contemporary poets, he has managed to win a wide popular audience while …

Francis Scott Fitzgerald: Voice Of The Twenties, Rebecca Ann Barron

Honors Theses

With all the flamboyant, glitter, and riotous excitement one can muster up, the age of the Twenties brought to America an era not to be forgotten. Gansters, flappers, and two-bit saloons were all encompassed in this "Jazz-Age" which spread its influence from shore to shore. Americans became, in a sense optimists and as optimists looked toward their social and financial situation as fundamentally sound and triumphant over its predecessors. They identified themselves with their century. Its teens were their teens, its world war was their war, and its Twenties were their Twenties. Launching forward they looked about for a spokesman, …