Digital Commons Network^™

Robert Catherine, Sarah Nelson Rupp

Theses and Dissertations

Robert Catherine is an experimental augmented reality novel engaged in the speculative realist question: What is the point to anything if everything?

A perverted and downwardly mobile Richmond millennial man quarantined because of the Coronavirus writes a series of creative non-fiction essays for his girlfriend about suicide, panic attacks, ADHD, DNA testing, capitalism, depression, and sexual repression.

"Quiddity | Leaving Home", Jonathan U. Barton

Theses and Dissertations

The poetry collection in four sections features pieces concerned with memory, particularly of the author’s childhood in Ireland. Difficult family relationships as well as early romantic failures are prominent obsessions. Landscapes and careful portraits of characters recur. Travel to Eastern Europe and within the author’s adopted United States give the opportunity to meditate on larger issues and spans of time. Domestic pleasures and the struggle to be a good parent and husband provide the ultimate trajectory of the work.

The nonfiction memoir consists of eight essays which tackle among other topics a failed first marriage, a return visit to the …

"Our Captain Is A Gentleman”: Officer Elections Among Virginia Confederates, 1861-1862, Ryan C. O'Hallahan

Theses and Dissertations

Enlisted soldiers preferred to elect company- and regimental-level officers during the first year of the American Civil War. This thesis explores how early Confederate mobilization, class conflict between elites and non-elites, and Confederate military policies affected officer elections from spring 1861 to spring 1862 among Virginia Confederates. Chapter 1 explores how the chaotic nature of mobilization and common soldiers' initial expectations regarding their military service influenced elections from April 1861 until late July 1861. Chapter 2 details the changing nature of elections as elite officers faced challenges from non-elites and Confederate policies regarding furloughs and conscription forced officers to reconcile …

Jamaican Revolts In British Press And Politics, 1760-1865, Thomas R. Day

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the changes over time in British Newspaper reports covering the Jamaican rebellions of 1760, 1832 and 1865. The uprisings: Tacky’s Rebellion, the Baptist War and the Morant Bay Rebellion respectively, represented three key moments in the history of race, slavery and the British Empire. Though all three rebellions have been studied, this work compares the three events as moments of crisis challenging the British public discourse on slavery, race and subjecthood as it related to the changing Atlantic Empire. British newspapers provided the most direct way in which popular readers and the growing literate public examined and …

Lost In Austen: An Immersive Approach To Pride & Prejudice, Erica Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an account of the Theatre VCU mainstage production of Pride & Prejudice, in which I played the roles of Mrs. Bennet and of the vocal coach. In order to address the various skill levels of the cast, I planned to coach the production in a manner inspired by immersion language learning programs, with the cast speaking in dialect throughout the rehearsal process so as to learn the necessary vocal skills and to grow together as a theatrical ensemble. When the director of Pride & Prejudice was not receptive to this plan, I had to compromise and adapt …

Ailments Of The Soul: Blood Transfusions And The Treatment Of Melancholy In Seventeenth-Century England, Emily Bowlus

Theses and Dissertations

The first animal-to-human blood transfusions performed in seventeenth-century England focused on patients suffering from mental diseases such as melancholy. Many physicians diagnosed melancholy as a disease of the body, mind, and soul in which blood played a key role. Philosophy, religion, and folklore helped formulate blood as an elusive yet powerful substance with access to immaterial mind and soul in addition to the body. English physician Richard Lower conducted these first transfusions yet recorded little about his personal theories regarding how melancholy and blood affected the body, mind, and soul. The philosophies of Lower’s colleagues, Thomas Willis and Robert Boyle, …

The Journal Of Elizabeth Maxwell Alsop Wynne, 1862-1878, Andrew Talkov

Theses and Dissertations

The experiences of Southern women during the American Civil War are often represented through the publication of their journals, diaries, and memoirs. This project consists of the transcription and annotation of the journal of Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) Maxwell Alsop Wynne, written from March 4, 1862, through March 20, 1878. During her most intense period of writing from 1862 to 1866, Lizzie Alsop recorded the effects of the American Civil War on an extensive network of friends and family in the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, and at her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Lizzie’s journal offers valuable insight into the wartime politicization …

Vaudeville: A How To Guide, Evan Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

At the turn of the twentieth century vaudeville was the most prevalent form of theatrical entertainment. With more than 1,500 houses across the country, vaudeville reached in excess of 30 million audience members each year. It directly led to the advent of film and radio. Yet barely one hundred years later vaudeville has been forgotten by the once loyal masses. This guide is meant to help counter vaudeville’s fall. By adding together a basic script consisting of comedy and dramatic sketches, original works and classic vaudeville acts with music and information on the how and whys of vaudeville, this guide …

"Freedom Wears A Cap": The Law, Liberty, And Opportunity For British Convict Servants In Virginia, 1718-1788, Daniel Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Great Britain’s passage of the Transportation Act of 1718 was intended to relieve Great Britain of an unwanted criminal element while at the same time providing much needed labor for her North American colonies. This thesis argues that the legislative body of Virginia initially responded by passing legislation intended to limit the dangers presented by the introduction of convict servants into the colony. However, the significant demand for labor in Virginia resulted in the colony receiving a substantial share of those convicts transported to North America. Contemporaries argued that the importation of convict servants led to an increase in crime. …

The Freedom Quilt, April Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The Freedom Quilt is a play that I have written and adapted from Deborah Hokinson’s book, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. This story explores the historic and dramatic implications in the idea of coded quilts as a form of communication among African American slaves; specifically as coded maps to freedom. There is an ongoing scholarly debate challenging the existence of these quilts, let alone that they could have been used in such a complex manner. The Freedom Quilt however, is one girl’s unique and individual story, and does not in any way suggest that maps, encoded in quilts were …

Collaboration Of Feminist And Postcolonial Discourses In The Plays Of Aphra Behn And Caryl Churchill, Erica Spiller

Theses and Dissertations

Subjugated groups studied by discourses of feminism and postcolonialism are commonly oppressed by white, male, imperial power systems. As different marginalized groups are exploited by the same dominant ideology the disparate discourses should collaborate in an attempt to fight the powers of oppression en masse. This thesis will explore not only how feminism and postcolonialism should collaborate, but that they have already been doing so for hundreds of years. In the seventeenth century the playwright Aphra Behn was already exploring the discourses as inseparable, and three-hundred-years later, playwright Caryl Churchill continues to do the same. By studying conventions of drama …

The Director's Presence, Paul Stephen Wurth

Theses and Dissertations

This text is partial record and narrative of the process and productions of Orphans by Lyle Kessler that opened on March 29th 2007 for a four day run ending on April 1st, The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh that opened October 28th 2007 for a three day run ending on October 30th, and Terra Nova by Ted Tally that opened on February 21st 2008 for a four day run ending on February 24th. The majority of the text follows the three shows from Spring 2007, Fall 2007, to Spring 2008, focusing on the process of direction of each production. Incorporated in …

Spark Gap, Lillian Cox-Richard

Theses and Dissertations

"Spark Gap" is an invisible electrical force made visible in spaces between things. This usually describes the space of air between two conductors; a non-conductive gap in an otherwise complete electric circuit, across which a quick luminous disruptive electrical discharge occurs. This interstitial space is the distance between two ideas, arced with a running leap. The arc can also be the difference between two things, a gap that becomes apparent only when the two are held in close proximity. In my thesis exhibition, "Spark Gap," a sea urchin shaped orb sits atop a tower of ladders. The orb is broken …

Transitions: Starting The Second, Full Circle, Mary Colleen Vreeland

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will focus on the transitional influences that have led me to start the second circle of my professional life. It is an open and honest exploration of the back-story of my life and the academic and professional influences that led me to seek a Master of Fine Arts Degree at Virginia Commonwealth University. With no parallels and therefore no excuses insinuated, I will be open and dissect more of myself as the whole focus of the thesis in hopes of offering clarity to myself and other mature and disabled students seeking to become a better teacher and artist.

It's An Irish Lullaby: One Story Of Hyphenated American Culture, Mary-Ellen Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this project was to come to a clear understanding of Irish-American culture--and how that culture expresses itself in individuals. The text considers the role of myth, religion, language, tradition, stereotypes and to a lesser degree gender in the molding of character. Although autobiographical in nature many of the themes are those that encompass the Irish-American experience as a whole. Questions asked throughout the process include, what makes one hyphenated? How is this culture passed from generation to generation? And is it multifaceted? Is there more than one way to express being Irish-American. The text is presented is …

Rich, Attractive People In Attractive Places Doing Attractive Things, Tonya Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Rich, Attractive People in Attractive Places Doing Attractive Things is a fictional memoir of a dead Manhattan socialite from the 1950's named Sunny Marcus. The novel is Sunny's monologue from Hell and features many well-known figures from American pop culture including Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, Clark Gable, William Powell and Babe Paley. It traces the upward trajectory of Sunny's life from a modest childhood in 1920's Los Angeles to the heights of social success in the unforgiving world of Café Society to her murder.

Reviving His Work: Social Isolation, Religious Fervor And Reform In The Burned Over District Of Western New York, 1790-1860, Patricia Lewis Noel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines revivalism and reform movements in rural areas of western New York. The bulk of literature on this region in the Second Great Awakening concentrates on middle class, urban people. This thesis argues that revivalism and evangelical fervor was carried to rural portions of the region by migrants from western New England. Evangelical Christianity and revivalism provided emotion succor for rural people grappling with negative social conditions, such as isolation, poverty, crop failure and alcoholism, in the New York frontier. Religious adherence became especially important for women, who were more isolated than men. Religious adherence and revivalism allowed …