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Finding Love Among Extreme Opposition In Toni Morrison's Jazz And Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter, John David Clark
Finding Love Among Extreme Opposition In Toni Morrison's Jazz And Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter, John David Clark
English Theses
In Toni Morrison’s Jazz and Eudora Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter, extreme opposition is prevalent as the authors describe the makeup of each character, as well as the setting and plot in these novels. What are they accomplishing by portraying such opposition? By using Jacque Derrida’s deconstructive theory and Julia Kristeva’s definition of abjection as theoretical guides to navigate these novels, examples of how both authors use extreme opposition in each element of their works are cited and explored. Through this process, the realization that opposing extremes can harmoniously lie side by side and have as many similarities as differences is …
A World Of Our Own: William Blake And Abolition, Lisa Karee Parker
A World Of Our Own: William Blake And Abolition, Lisa Karee Parker
English Theses
This thesis examines the influence of the abolition debates on two of William Blake’s early writings, “The Little Black Boy” and The Visions of the Daughters of Albion. It also considers Blake’s engravings for John Gabriel Stedman’s Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam as proof of his abolitionist interest. Chapter one provides an overview of current Romantic criticism which situates Blake and other Romantic writers within a historical context. Chapter two summarizes the abolition movement in the late eighteenth century. Chapters three, four and five specifically discuss Blake’s work as abolitionist in intent.
Two Laureates And A Whore Debate Decorum And Delight: Dryden, Shadwell, And Behn In A Decade Of Comedy A-La-Mode, Patricia Ann Chapman
Two Laureates And A Whore Debate Decorum And Delight: Dryden, Shadwell, And Behn In A Decade Of Comedy A-La-Mode, Patricia Ann Chapman
English Theses
The comedies of John Dryden, Thomas Shadwell, and Aphra Behn were equally well-received by Restoration audiences, yet each dramatist professes divergent dramatic theories and poetic goals. In prefatory material to their plays, Shadwell insists a dramatist’s duty is to depict virtue rewarded and vice punished, Behn rejects the idea that comic drama might influence morals or manners, and Dryden maintains that his only goal is to please the audience, despite his dull conversation and lack of wit. A comparison between the playwrights’ dramatic theory and their most popular comedies of the 1668-77 decade indicates that none of them represent with …
Melville's Quest For Certainty: Questing And Spiritual Stability In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Damien Brian Schlarb
Melville's Quest For Certainty: Questing And Spiritual Stability In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Damien Brian Schlarb
English Theses
This paper investigates Herman Melville’s quest for spiritual stability and certainty in his novel Moby-Dick. The analysis establishes a philosophical tradition of doubt towards the Bible, outlining the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes, Benedict de Spinoza, David Hume, Thomas Paine and John Henry Newman. This historical survey of spiritual uncertainty establishes the issue of uncertainty that Melville writes about in the nineteenth century. Having assessed the issue of doubt, I then analyze Melville’s use of metaphorical charts, which his characters use to resolve this issue. Finally, I present Melville’s philosophical findings as he expresses them through the metaphor of whaling. Here, …
Aspects Of King Maclain In Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples, James Hammond Shimkus
Aspects Of King Maclain In Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples, James Hammond Shimkus
English Theses
ASPECTS OF KING MACLAIN IN EUDORA WELTY’S THE GOLDEN APPLES by James Shimkus Under the Direction of Pearl A. McHaney ABSTRACT Much of the scholarship on Eudora Welty’s The Golden Apples focuses on Welty’s use of folklore and myth, particularly as presented in several of W. B. Yeats’s poems. The character King MacLain is most often associated with Zeus, Perseus, and Aengus. A close examination of King MacLain’s development during Welty’s composition and revision of The Golden Apples reveals associations between King and other figures from myth and folklore, including Odin, Loki, Finn MacCool, Brer Rabbit, the King of the …
The Anglo-Saxon Peace Weaving Warrior, Anthea Rebecca Andrade
The Anglo-Saxon Peace Weaving Warrior, Anthea Rebecca Andrade
English Theses
Beowulf presents a literary starting point in the discussion of peace weaving, reflecting the primary focus of Anglo Saxon epic poetry on the male hero rather than the peace weaver. Scholarship on peace weaving figures in the poem tend to negatively perceive the lack of female presence, and determine the tradition as one set up for failure. Adding historical peace weavers like Queen Emma to the discourse encourages scholars to view smaller successes, like temporary peace, as building on each other to ultimately cause the peace weaver to be successful at her task. From studying the life of Queen Emma, …
Being Incommensurable/Incommensurable Beings: Ghosts In Elizabeth Bowen's Short Stories, Jeannette Ward Smith
Being Incommensurable/Incommensurable Beings: Ghosts In Elizabeth Bowen's Short Stories, Jeannette Ward Smith
English Theses
I investigate the ghosts in Elizabeth Bowen’s short stories, “Green Holly” and “The Happy Autumn Fields.” By blending psychoanalytic feminism and social feminism, I argue that these female ghosts are the incommensurable feminine—a feminine that exceeds the bounds of phallocentric logic and cannot be defined by her social or symbolic manifestations. An analysis of Bowen’s ghosts as actual ghosts is uncharted territory. Previous Bowen critics postulate that Bowen’s ghosts are imaginary figments or metaphors. These critics make Bowen’s stories “truthful” representations of the world, but, as such, Bowen’s ghosts become representations of the world’s phallocentric order. In contrast, I argue …
Walter M. Miller, Jr.'S A Canticle For Leibowitz: A Study Of Apocalyptic Cycles, Religion And Science, Religious Ethics And Secular Ethics, Sin And Redemption, And Myth And Preternatural Innocence, Cynthia M. Smith
English Theses
Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a timeless story about apocalyptic cycles, conflicts and similarities between religion and science, religious ethics and secular ethics, sin and redemption, myth and preternatural innocence. Canticle is a very religious story about a monastery dedicated to preserving scientific knowledge from the time before nuclear war which devastated the world and reduced humanity to a pre-technological civilization. The Catholic Church and this monastery are portrayed as a bastion of civilization amidst barbarians and a light of faith amidst atheism. Unfortunately, humanity destroys the Earth once again, but Miller ends with two beacons …
Aesthetic Excuses And Moral Crimes: The Convergence Of Morality And Aesthetics In Nabokov's Lolita, Jennifer Elizabeth Green
Aesthetic Excuses And Moral Crimes: The Convergence Of Morality And Aesthetics In Nabokov's Lolita, Jennifer Elizabeth Green
English Theses
This thesis examines the debate between morality and aesthetics that is outlined by Nabokov in Lolita’s afterword. Incorporating a discussion of Lolita’s critical history in order to reveal how critics have chosen a single, limited side of the debate, either the moral or aesthetic, this thesis seeks to expose the complexities of the novel where morality and aesthetics intersect. First, the general moral and aesthetic features of Lolita are discussed. Finally, I address the two together, illustrating how Lolita cannot be categorized as immoral, amoral, or didactic. Instead, it is through the juxtaposition of form and content, parody and reality, …
Jazz Babies, A Femme Fatale, And A Joad: Women And The Automobile In The American Modernist Era, Jessica Bremmer
Jazz Babies, A Femme Fatale, And A Joad: Women And The Automobile In The American Modernist Era, Jessica Bremmer
English Theses
The 1920’s and 30’s saw the advent of the automotive era in America as Henry Ford’s vision of production and technological progress was fully realized. But the pleasure of automobility was initially afforded to a select few, and so the automobile revealed a growing chasm between social classes. Additionally, the automobile contributed to a transformation of the social ideology of gender as more and more women spent time in cars as passengers and as drivers. And while some viewed this ideological shift as a welcome change, many Americans worried about the negative implications of women in cars. Representations of automobiles …
Y'All Go Out And Make Us Proud: The Commencement Address And The Southern Writer, Dana J. Nichols
Y'All Go Out And Make Us Proud: The Commencement Address And The Southern Writer, Dana J. Nichols
English Dissertations
The college commencement address is traditionally regarded as the low point of an otherwise auspicious occasion. An ephemeral form of ceremonial oratory, the commencement speech is reviled for its conventional platitudes, its easy piety, and its abstractions on the well-lived life, the sunny future, and the ethics of adulthood. The South may differ, however, in its approach to the commencement speech genre, especially in the years between World War II and the millennium, when one of the South’s most significant assets became the southern writer. Throughout this dissertation, I have tried to situate eight commencement addresses given by such prominent …
Theory In Culture: Toward A Psychoanalytic Criticism Of Advertising, Robin L. Bellinson
Theory In Culture: Toward A Psychoanalytic Criticism Of Advertising, Robin L. Bellinson
English Theses
The role of advertising in postmodern culture is far more than an impetus to capitalist economy; from its first full flowering in the 1920s, it has addressed its human subjects in ways that exceed considerations of monetary exchange. Advertising has come not only to sell people what they desire – it has also materially changed their desire, and thus the people themselves in the process. Certainly ‘individuals’ have become ‘consumers’ – but the problem is greater than this. Advertising, with its undeniable aspects of fantasy, often stands in complete opposition to critical thinking. This examination explores advertising’s effects on the …
The Sexual Politics Of Meat Substitutes, Gregory James Flail
The Sexual Politics Of Meat Substitutes, Gregory James Flail
English Dissertations
Food choice has intrigued generations of scholars seeking insight into the rituals that characterize the cultural and sub-cultural values of various nations and eras. Among the more recent cultural phenomena to influence theories about the body is food choice. Perhaps there is no argumentative issue more pervasive than that of food choice, because everyone must eat. The morsels that people consume are chosen as often as not for their symbolic value. A review of the literature of dietary discourse and representation reveals a gap where studies of vegetarian and vegan identity, mass media, and mass markets are concerned. This dissertation …
Unveiling Objectification: The Gaze And Its Silent Power In The Novels Of Frances Burney, Jennifer Joanne Wingfield
Unveiling Objectification: The Gaze And Its Silent Power In The Novels Of Frances Burney, Jennifer Joanne Wingfield
English Theses
This thesis seeks to portray how an objectifying intra-diegetic gaze influences and constructs the plot devices Frances Burney uses in her four novels: Evelina, Cecilia, Camilla, and The Wanderer. Burney creates a literary reality within her four novels’ narratives and breaks that reality down with the influence of the gazes and judgments of her novels’ characters upon each of her heroines. The gaze is an almost microscopic examination that objectifies and depersonalizes all of Burney’s heroines. Burney shows how the gaze shifts perspectives and manipulates that which it objectifies. Burney places her audience and her heroines into unfamiliar situations and …
Why Tell The Truth When A Lie Will Do?: Re-Creations And Resistance In The Self-Authored Life Writing Of Five American Women Fiction Writers, Piper Gian Huguley
Why Tell The Truth When A Lie Will Do?: Re-Creations And Resistance In The Self-Authored Life Writing Of Five American Women Fiction Writers, Piper Gian Huguley
English Dissertations
As women began to establish themselves in the United States workforce in the first half of the twentieth century, one especial group of career women, women writers, began to use the space of their self-authored life writing narratives to inscribe their own understanding of themselves. Roundly criticized for not adhering to conventional autobiographical standards, these women writers used purposeful political strategies of resistance to craft self-authored life writing works that varied widely from the genre of autobiography. Rather than employ the usual ways critiquing autobiographical texts, I explore a deeper understanding of what these prescient women sought to do. Through …
Reclaiming The Human Self: Redemptive Suffering And Spiritual Service In The Works Of James Baldwin, Francine Larue Allen
Reclaiming The Human Self: Redemptive Suffering And Spiritual Service In The Works Of James Baldwin, Francine Larue Allen
English Dissertations
James Arthur Baldwin argues that the issue of humanity—what it means to be human and whether or not all people bear the same measure of human worth—supersedes all issues, including socially popular ones such as race and religion. As a former child preacher, Baldwin claims, like others shaped by both the African-American faith tradition and Judeo-Christianity, that human equality stands as a divinely mandated and philosophically sound concept. As a literary artist and social commentator, Baldwin argues that truth in any narrative text, whether fictional or non-fictional, lies in its embrace or rejection of human equality. Truth-telling narrative texts uphold …
Peer Review In The Contemporary Corporation, Shannon Warren Wisdom
Peer Review In The Contemporary Corporation, Shannon Warren Wisdom
English Dissertations
My dissertation explores the history, pedagogy, and practice of peer review in academia and in the workplace, so that I could suggest strategies for improving peer review in the contemporary corporation. Several scholars have studied collaborative writing—of which peer review is just one type—but few have specifically and thoroughly treated the subject of peer review. I surveyed the technical writers in my organization as well as other local writers about their thoughts on peer review. For improving peer review in the workplace, two predominant themes emerged: improve the corporate culture and assign a manager to the process. Therefore, I explore …