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Final Fantasy X And Video Game Narrative: Re-Imagining The Quest Story, Mark Ivan Host Jan 2009

Final Fantasy X And Video Game Narrative: Re-Imagining The Quest Story, Mark Ivan Host

ETD Archive

Traditional models used in examining narrative were built from the use of printed texts, the content of which is nothing more and nothing less than what appears on the page. Studying the narrative of video role-playing games such as Final Fantasy X with these models is problematic because of the interactive nature of the story. The element of choice in Final Fantasy X results in a narrative experience that differs with each playing. The game contains many recognizable elements of the myth as outlined by Joseph Campbell, but the model this model is inadequate for examining a narrative of this …


Reading Masculinity In Virginia Woolf's The Waves, David Michael Mraz Jan 2009

Reading Masculinity In Virginia Woolf's The Waves, David Michael Mraz

ETD Archive

The Waves subtly subverts traditional notions of gender, and creates a space for divergent expressions of masculinity, specifically, the masculinity referred to in this paper relates to norms established in England during the Edwardian and Post World War I periods. In The Waves, the three male voices, Bernard, Neville and Louis, are introduced at school to a pro-imperialist vision of masculinity which is further reinforced through their relationship with the silent Percival. However, unlike Percival, the three male voice characters are either barred from the homosocial (Nevill and Louis) or are ambivalent to its production (Bernard). By employing masculinity theory …


Chanus Return: The Reclamation Of Bengali Identity, Mamta Roy Jan 2009

Chanus Return: The Reclamation Of Bengali Identity, Mamta Roy

ETD Archive

Immigrant identity and acculturation has been a topic of significant debate in the twentieth century. Coming to the host nation, and getting integrated into the mainstream culture is a process which holds different meanings for different immigrants. On the one hand they leave the security of the homeland for an insecure future, on the other hand, the non-acceptance and discrimination of the host nation makes their integration a difficult process. Above all, they too want to live in the comfort zone of their homeland identity thus making integration impossibility. Going home syndrome and a deep rooted love for the motherland …


Seeing Through The Glass: Psychoanalysis And J.D. Salinger, Noelle Marie Madore Jan 2009

Seeing Through The Glass: Psychoanalysis And J.D. Salinger, Noelle Marie Madore

ETD Archive

This thesis examines J.D. Salinger's Glass family dynamics through the application of psychoanalysis. Salinger told stories of the Glass family through various short story installments, such as Franny & Zooey, Nine Stories, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An introduction and other installments not found in collections. Through reviewing these works as well as various criticisms, it became evident that Seymour's influence was far more profound than originally anticipated. J.D. Salinger created Seymour with the idea of an individual who possesses spiritual omnipotence. Seymour took it upon himself to educate his siblings at young ages in order to …


Genre And Gender In Charles Bukowski's Notes Of A Dirty Old Man, Kallisto J. Vimr Jan 2009

Genre And Gender In Charles Bukowski's Notes Of A Dirty Old Man, Kallisto J. Vimr

ETD Archive

Charles Bukowski's notes of a dirty old man is a genre-blurring, gender-blending "start" to the perpetual "work-in-progress" that constitutes his oeuvre. Bukowski's genre heterogeneity provides a literal shape-shifting that allows the Bukowski-character to experiment with his a fluid, indeterminate subjectivity, helping unravel the tight myth that binds him as a "dirty old man." Examining one of the vignettes in the book, the column recounting Bukowski meeting Neal Cassady, showcases Bukowski's engagement with autobiography and creative nonfiction in order to respond to constructions of verisimilitude this is inextricably linked to other organized constructions Bukowski must work in--or out from--namely the hierarchy …


Young Ghosts, Michael Aeneas Crifasi Jan 2009

Young Ghosts, Michael Aeneas Crifasi

ETD Archive

Young Ghosts is a post-apocalyptic horror novel written in the style of literary fiction. The story is broken into three acts, the first of which constitutes the following thesis. A critical introduction, describing the influences, aesthetic, and future designs of the work, precede the creative portion. This narrative plays out in the third week of a world-altering epidemic and is set in the modern day. At the center of the epidemic is a disease, unknown in origin, which kills only children. The Piper is the name given to the mysterious epidemic, noting its similarity to the minstrel/child abductor of fairy …


Rare Bird And Other Stories, Lisa J. Sharon Jan 2009

Rare Bird And Other Stories, Lisa J. Sharon

ETD Archive

This collection of short stories and one novella use voice and setting to explore individual characters dealing with internal conflict, or relationships between characters who are engaged in conflict with each other. Each story is intended to be a "portrait" with varying degrees of detail and nuance. For the most part, the "antagonists" in these stories are not another person so much as they are circumstances in which the main character finds herself and which creates a need to confront and perhaps change her situation. Characters either take decisive action, escape into delusion, or merely cope with things as they …


The Power Of Society In The Red Badge Of Courage, Hmoud Alotaibi Jan 2009

The Power Of Society In The Red Badge Of Courage, Hmoud Alotaibi

ETD Archive

Stephen Crane's work the Red badge of courage has often been cited by literary critics as an example of the author's philosophy. The main debate around this philosophy often surrounds the question of Crane's naturalism. Critics not only argue over the individual beliefs that make up Crane's supposedly naturalistic philosophy, but many also argue simply over whether or not he is a naturalist. In this thesis, we step away from the back-and-forth argument that deals only with Crane's fitment into the general label of "naturalist." Rather, we look at aspects that connect Crane to traditional understandings of naturalism - such …


The Soldier's Perspective In A Rumor Of War, Kyla Haime Jan 2009

The Soldier's Perspective In A Rumor Of War, Kyla Haime

ETD Archive

Tim O'Brien and Michael Herr, two very famous Vietnam War writers, seem to have gotten war narrative theorists to conclude that Vietnam War Literature cannot be cohesive since the war itself is fragmented. Philip Caputo's memoir, A Rumor of War, seems to have taken these components of war and has carefully sewn them together to provide his reader's with a cohesive, truthful, and compelling war narrative. In O'Brien's narrative, The Things They Carried, facts are given and then called into question, making the reader wonder if any of it is true. In his narrative, Dispatches, Herr makes the reader piece …


On The Brink Of The Waters Of Life And Truth, We Are Miserably Dying: Ralph Waldo Emerson As A Predecessor To Deconstruction And Postmodernism, Michael A. Deery Jan 2009

On The Brink Of The Waters Of Life And Truth, We Are Miserably Dying: Ralph Waldo Emerson As A Predecessor To Deconstruction And Postmodernism, Michael A. Deery

ETD Archive

Between his pivotal essays "Nature" in 1836 and "The Poet" in 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson's increasingly negative and distrustful view of language can best be described as a precursor to deconstruction and postmodernism. Contemporary critics are too quick to dismiss a deconstructionist Emerson. There is evidence within his major essays that Emerson's understanding of language not only leads him to public and private displays of pessimism, but also to feelings of internal solipsism, agnosticism, and epistemological anxiety. Emerson demanded that mankind should utilize nature and aesthetics to experience the sublime and an immediate and original relationship with God. Yet, Emerson's …