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Domesticity And The Modernist Aesthetic: F.T. Marinetti, Djuna Barnes, And Gertrude Stein, Allison Elise Carey

Doctoral Dissertations

Literary modernism has been presented, in scholarship and critical histories, as a masculinized movement: a literature largely by men and concerned with issues of literary form rather than with everyday life. This critical tunnel vision has inevitably prevented a full accounting of many key aspects of modernist literature. One issue of modernism that has been persistently overlooked by scholars is the central role of domesticity in many modernist texts and the importance to modernists of reclaiming the domestic as a subject of high art. As this study demonstrates, modernist texts often focused on everyday life, and these modernist treatments of …

Socio-Cultural Interactions And Esl Graduate Student Enculturation: A Cross Sectional Analysis, Ethan W. Krase

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation reports findings from a five-month qualitative study of a group of five ESL students pursuing graduate degrees in disciplines in the humanities. Focusing on disciplinary enculturation processes, the study sets out to answer two primary research questions: 1) What roles do literacy activities play in disciplinary enculturation? 2) What sorts of subject positions do ESL learners occupy as they enculturate into academic discourse communities? Answers to these questions are important because they can lend definition to the obstacles that confront ESL learners as they attempt to move towards professional participation in target discourse communities.

Anchored in the language-related …

An Assessment Of Responses In The British Press To Muslim Immigrants 1978-1989, Nashwa Mohamed Van Houts

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Other Side Of Love: Sam Shepard’S Gothic Family Plays, Eric Andrew Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

From one of his earliest plays—Rock Garden (1964)—to one of his most recent works—The Late Henry Moss (2000)—Sam Shepard has been fascinated by the American family. Shepard, this dissertation argues, presents a markedly “gothic” portrait of the American family by borrowing dramatic techniques from the “gothic” literary tradition in order to critique traditional American myths about the family—including the belief that a type of social harmony, even utopia, will result if each family member adheres strictly to his or her prescribed role within the family unit. Shepard’s critique of the American family is in many ways …

Persuasive Rhetoric In Origen’S Contra Celsum., Daniel Charles Headrick

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the philosophical and rhetorical elements of Origen of Alexandria’s Contra Celsum. Herein, one can find to their delight three major themes of ancient argumentation: the argument from antiquity, the moral effect argument, and the argument from prophecy. The bulk of this thesis is the author’s own exegesis of key passages in the Contra Celsum. The major thesis advanced here is that the strategies of rhetoric used by Christian and non-Christian in late antiquity were quite similar, in fact, exactly the same in many cases. The interpretation of key textual passages in the …

Pioneers, Patriots, And Politicians: The Tennessee Militia System, 1772-1857, Trevor Augustine Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Like all U.S. states, prior to the Civil War Tennessee maintained an active militia system. This dissertation examines the establishment, function, and decline of this organization. For more than eighty years the Tennessee militia participated in a number of military conflicts. It also played an important role in the state's social and political development.

The militia was among the first institutions established by the early Tennessee settlers. It began as an informal collection of every able-bodied male. By 1800 the militia had grown considerably, and the volunteers, who served by choice, assumed the burden of meeting the state's military needs. …

Dangerous Habits: Examining The Philosophical Baggage Of Biological Research, Massimo Pigliucci

Doctoral Dissertations

Science is about conceptualizing the natural world in a way that can be understood by human beings while at the same time reflecting as much as possible what we can empirically infer about how the world actually is. Among the crucial tools that allow scientists to formulate hypotheses and to contribute to a progressive understanding of nature are the use of imagery and metaphors on the one hand, and the ability to assume certain starting points on which to build new avenues of inquiry on the other hand. The premise of this work is that, in the words of philosopher …

The Appropriate Clinical Response To Patient Suffering, Joseph R. Stackhouse

Doctoral Dissertations

The starting point of my dissertation is a traditional goal of medicine, the relief of suffering. The central question that I dealt with is the appropriate clinical response to a patient’s suffering. An underlying assumption in the answer that I provide is that a physician’s clinical response must be guided primarily by the principles of beneficence and respect for patient autonomy. I argue that both principles require the physician to respond in a proportionate manner with medically appropriate care, which has the backing of relevant scientific and clinical data, and must be provided in a manner deemed acceptable by the …

The Harm Of Neglecting Embodiment: How Biomedical Ethics’ Neglect Of Bodies And Context Hurts Women And Minorities, Nancy L. Dumler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation argues that mainstream bioethics has failed to adequately acknowledge bodies and embodiment in practice and theory. While philosophers have generally not held “substance dualism” as such for some time, this practice of overlooking the body is probably grounded in what I label evaluative dualism, which is still ingrained in our culture. This dualism maintains a dichotomy and ranking of mind over body in addition to dichotomizing and rating other constructed pairs such as culture and nature and male and female. Such a ranking leads to, or supports discrimination against those who are most commonly associated with the body …

Down In Old Mexico: Five Stories, Lewis Moyse

Masters Theses

This is a collection of short stories unified by the themes of love or revenge, sometimes the one, sometimes the one and the other. It is preceded by a personal essay that outlines in broad strokes some of the poets, philosophers and novelists who have influenced how I write and what I write about.

Plagiarism And Voice In The Age Of Information, Brian Thomas

Masters Theses

The purpose of this work is to explore the issue of plagiarism in various contexts relevant to the teaching of English composition. Since definitions of plagiarism vary by culture and by history, an account of its expression at various points in Western history has been offered. Preliminary findings linked the use of technology for the expression of ideas to cultural and legal definitions of plagiarism. In addition, our own time further complicates any desire to arrive at definitive notions of intellectual property because of information technology facilitating cross-cultural exchange of ideas. In this “Information Age,” as it has been called, …

Colonizing Cyberspace: The Formation Of Virtual Communities, Matthew Jones

Masters Theses

The topic of this thesis is the electronic bulletin board systems that existed in Memphis, TN from the early 1980s until around 1999. Although initially a fringe hobby limited to computer enthusiasts, the declining cost of computers, and their subsequent proliferation, allowed those without technical proficiency to dial in. Over time, those who connected to the BBSes developed into a close-knit, emotionally involved community. The dynamics of the communities that arose on BBSes differed based on numerous factors, particularly age. This thesis attempts to examine those interactions, as well as challenge the notion that community is wedded to geography, an …

De La Progression De Rousseau Dans Les Confessions, Reed Martin Monson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the question of progress in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s autobiograpphy, The Confessions. Rousseau (1712-1778) is considered the father of the autobiographical genre in French and one of the most influential writers of the European 18th Century Age of Enlightenment. Along with Voltaire, he is the most studied author of this period. One of Rousseau’s goals in writing his Confesssions was to justify the manner in which he lived his life. One of Rousseau’s main paradoxes was that while considering himself a virtous man all his life, he also admitted that he at times changed …