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A Spectre Is Haunting Samuel Clemens: A Marxist Critique Of Wealth As Resolution In Mark Twain's Novels, Jeff Carr
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
The distribution of wealth occurs frequently in Mark Twain's novels, especially at the resolution. Indeed, Twain uses wealth as resolution in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Pudd'nhead Wilson. The repeated use of this formula in the author's approach to novel writing indicates the tremendous influence that capitalism had in shaping his worldview. In his early works, Twain appears to endorse capitalism in his use of wealth as resolution. Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, and Huckleberry Finn each conclude with the distribution of capital as a reward to …
Courtship, Loe, And Marriage In Othello: Shakespeare's Mockery Of Courtly Love, Leigh Copas
Courtship, Loe, And Marriage In Othello: Shakespeare's Mockery Of Courtly Love, Leigh Copas
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Othello is the forgery of a comedic play turned tragedy, for the play begins where the ordinary comedy would end. While many critics prefer to discuss the racial and exotic aspects of William Shakespeare's tragedy, there are several critics who focus on the role of love and the marital relationships that are also important in terms of interpreting the actions of key characters. Carol Thomas Neely, Maurice Charney, and several other literary critics have focused primarily on the role of marriage and love in Othello. The topic of marriage is generally discussed in terms of the wooing scene (Act 1, …
Shakespeare's Use Of The New Testament: Biblical Intertexuality In As You Like It And Romeo And Juliet, Joseph Hurtgen
Shakespeare's Use Of The New Testament: Biblical Intertexuality In As You Like It And Romeo And Juliet, Joseph Hurtgen
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
This thesis examines structure in Shakespeare to show how his plays Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It intertextually relate to the Bible in such a way that allows them to elicit order. Shakespeare's plays contain dramatic structure, imagery, themes, and character relationships influenced by the New Testament. In order to understand how Christian elements find their way into texts, the first chapter demonstrates the function of intertextuality, how plots and words evoke others, and how Shakespeare frequently borrows from many sources. Biblical sources, as well as many others, are ubiquitous in Shakespeare. The first chapter then examines Northrop …
The Green World Of Dystopian Fiction, Martin Hensley
The Green World Of Dystopian Fiction, Martin Hensley
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Northrop Frye was the first theorist to develop the green world archetype; Frye used the term to refer to a recurring motif in Shakespearean comedy. In several of Shakespeare's comedies, the protagonists leave the civilized world and venture into the green world, or nature, to escape from the irrational law of society, which is the case in such comedies as As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Elements of the green world can also be found in Shakespearean tragedy, where the natural retreat serves as a temporary escape for the protagonists. Such a green world exists in three …
Oedipus' Wake: The (Neo-)Masculinization Of The Self In Late Twentieth-Century American Women's Memoir, Thomas Johnson
Oedipus' Wake: The (Neo-)Masculinization Of The Self In Late Twentieth-Century American Women's Memoir, Thomas Johnson
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Without pretensions to exhaustiveness, this study briefly examines the mid- to late-twentieth-century flowering of western theory and criticism built around autobiographical writing and follows the feminist branch(es) of that theory and criticism through a reading of the following four memoirs: Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy, All the Lost Girls by Patricia Foster, Lying by Lauren Slater, and Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel. Using both Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory as they relate to literature, I argue that the selves these four women write in their memoirs are not selves built around the model historically set for women by …
Influence And Its Opposite: Presence And Absence In The Work Of Harold Bloom, Joshua Henderson
Influence And Its Opposite: Presence And Absence In The Work Of Harold Bloom, Joshua Henderson
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
In the years since he formulated and expanded on it in The Anxiety of Influence (1973), A Map of Misreading (1975), and Kaballah and Criticism (1975), Harold Bloom's theory of the "anxiety of influence" has engendered more ambivalence than serious investigation into his theory and its influences. In part, the ambivalence is due to Bloom's persona, which irritates the academic "left" and "right" alike. Surprisingly, it is not Bloom's defense of canonicity against post-structural Marxism, feminism, and New Historical criticism that generates the most resistance; instead, Bloom's dissenters more often come from the ranks of conservative traditionalists who might be …
Masculinity And The Postmodern In American Psycho And Fight Club, Sean Mccray
Masculinity And The Postmodern In American Psycho And Fight Club, Sean Mccray
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Initially, this paper traces masculinity in America from the nineteenth century and up through the mid twentieth century in order to define traditional masculinity and identify some of its characteristics. Traditional masculinity, typically demonstrated though aggressive and violent behavior, is currently undergoing cultural and social revisions due to various contemporary ideas. In analyzing American Psycho and Fight Club, two controversial novels written in the past twenty years, the paper makes clear that the protagonists acutely feel the tension that exists between historical perceptions of masculinity and current ideas of what men should be. They react to that tension by exhibiting …
The Gospel Of Cosmopolitanism: Conflict Resolution In Barbara Kingsolver's Fiction, Catherine Altmaier
The Gospel Of Cosmopolitanism: Conflict Resolution In Barbara Kingsolver's Fiction, Catherine Altmaier
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
Despite Barbara Kingsolver's ability to create unique characters and storylines, two factors remain constant throughout each of her novels: strong female protagonists and conflict resolution. Though conflict exists in almost all fiction, the way that Kingsolver's characters deal with their situations often speaks louder than any other aspect of her writing. Moreover, though her characters often vary wildly from story to story, their methods of conflict resolution seem to undoubtedly connect them. Through her continuing desire to emphasize "the question of individualism and communal identity," {Reading Group Guides) Kingsolver often promotes the ideas of cosmopolitanism, which have recently been articulated …
Tempering Steel: Reapproaching The Mythos Of Superman, Corey Alderdice
Tempering Steel: Reapproaching The Mythos Of Superman, Corey Alderdice
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
This study seeks to answer a question posed in Superman #156 and frequently throughout the history of the DC Comics Universe: Must there be a Superman? In answering this question, this study seeks to seam together over sixty years of Superman to better understand the mythology associated with these narratives as well as their impact on American culture. In an analysis of Mark Waid's Superman: Birthright (2003), the basic forms of the origin narrative are addressed as well as how Waid reconstructs the mythos for the twenty-first century. The second chapter addresses deconstructive narratives and the issue of shifting the …
Self-Discovery Journals In The College Composition Classroom, Heather Mcallister
Self-Discovery Journals In The College Composition Classroom, Heather Mcallister
Masters Theses & Specialist Projects
What is it that makes writing so enjoyable to some people, and such a troublesome task to others? What, if anything, can teachers of composition do to promote an enthusiasm for writing? As I have found examination of my past experiences a key to answering these questions, I am persuaded that the key to enthusiastic writing lies in the opportunities students have to explore themselves as individuals within their writing. As Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus states above, we write well when we know the truth about that which we are writing. Providing students the occasion to write about themselves will …