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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 …

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 …

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 …

“All Hayll, All Hayll, Both Blithe And Glad” : Direct Address In Early English Drama, 1400-1585, Michelle M. Butler '90

Doctoral Dissertations

"Now will I praise those godly men,

our ancestors, each in his own time...

All these were glorious in their time,

each illustrious in his day.

Some of them have left behind a name

and men recount their praiseworthy deeds " (Sirach 44: I. 7-8)

Direct address is widely acknowledged as a fundamental technique in early English, particularly medieval, drama. The observation that early English drama does not have the convention of the ‘fourth wall,’ and frequently speaks directly to and interacts with the audience would not be news to scholars o f this drama; many have mentioned it. A.R. …