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Speaking The Unspeakable: How Children Of Militants During Argentina's "Dirty War" Have Used Literature And Film To Process Trauma, Samantha J. Strong

World Languages and Cultures Theses

It is estimated that between 15,000 and 30,000 people were disappeared (kidnapped and never seen again), during the military dictatorship that gripped Argentina in the late 1970s. Many of these “desaparecidos,” as they are often called, and other militants who were killed while attempting to fight this regime, were survived by their children or “Hijos”. In this thesis, I examine five works (three novels and two films) produced by Hijos in order to demonstrate how they have used their art to express the complex and often conflicting feelings they experienced as a result of their parents’ abductions and/or deaths. I …

Who's He When He's At Home?, Bryan Perry

Art and Design Theses

Who’s He When He’s at Home? is an attempt to explore the expressive capabilities of language and design through a consideration of philosophical and theoretical notions of home. It is an attempt to see how an experience planned and created using tools, techniques and technology of the design disciplines can allow understanding of such an abstract and personal concept.

Finding Jihad: How Urban & African-Centered Literature Impacted My Life, Jihad S. Uhuru

Africana Studies Theses

By taking an introspective look into my beliefs, perceptions, and life experiences this study will use an autoethnographical approach to examine the researcher’s evolution from street life, to prison life, to academic life. This study will examine the urban life experiences of the author, tracing a forty-six year span of Black male urban life to examine the potential value of America’s Urban youth. Critical pedagogy will be used as the theoretical framework for this narrative. This research is important because it will explore how Urban and African-centered literature was pivotal in inspiring the researcher to move from a criminal mentality …

“Fifty Years Of Our Whole Voice”: An Examination Of The History And Culture Leading To The Publication Of Fire!! Devoted To Younger Artists And Aiiieeeee!: An Anthology Of Asian American Writers, Joni Louise Johnson Williams

English Dissertations

According to African American literary theorist Henry Louis Gates, “the slave wrote not primarily to demonstrate humane letters, but to demonstrate his or her own membership in the human community” (128). Two efforts at this demonstration of community membership exist in the publication of the literary journal, Fire!!, written and published by African American artists and writers in 1926 and in the anthology AIIIEEEEE!, compiled and edited by Asian American writers and published in 1974. These compilations, published not quite fifty years apart, are direct responses and reactions to the efforts of the larger society to influence and/or …

Monsters In My Bed: Accounting For The Popularity Of Young Adult Paranormal Romances, Whitney Young

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses

Using textual analysis of 49 young adult paranormal romances, I answer what it is about the cultural milieu that makes these novels popular right now? This thesis argues that the discourse which emerges from the novels reflects contemporary discourse and narrative about the girls and young women who read the genre and who place themselves within this discourse and narrative. The novels respond to this discourse by offering instances where the girls' ideologies, built on the discourse taught to them, can be temporarily restored when the narrative proves false. These novels also undermine the confining discourse which the girls find …

Teaching Speculative Fiction In College: A Pedagogy For Making English Studies Relevant, James H. Shimkus

English Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror) has steadily gained popularity both in culture and as a subject for study in college. While many helpful resources on teaching a particular genre or teaching particular texts within a genre exist, college teachers who have not previously taught science fiction, fantasy, or horror will benefit from a broader pedagogical overview of speculative fiction, and that is what this resource provides. Teachers who have previously taught speculative fiction may also benefit from the selection of alternative texts presented here. This resource includes an argument for the consideration of more speculative fiction in …

Development Of An Art-Literature Curriculum For First Grade And Fourth Grade, Allison C. Elder Mrs.

Art and Design Theses

This study investigated using literature as an alternative means to teach the art curriculum. Three widely used integrated curriculum models (Reading Improvement Through Art, Learning Through the Arts, and Champions of Change) were studied and analyzed in search of the best features for art-literature integration. A new curriculum is developed for two different grades using the Fulton County Elementary Art Education Curriculum standards as the foundation. This study used picture books as the catalyst to create an art-literature curriculum.

William Apess And Sherman Alexie: Imagining Indianness In (Non)Fiction, Gabriel M. Andrews

English Theses

This paper proposes the notion that early Native American autobiographical writings from such authors as William Apess provide rich sources for understanding syncretic authors and their engagement with dominant Anglo-Christian culture. Authors like William Apess construct an understanding of what constitutes Indianness in similar and different ways to the master narratives produced for Native peoples. By studying this nonfiction, critics can gain a broader understanding of contemporary Indian fiction like that of Sherman Alexie. The similarities and differences between the strategies of these two authors reveal entrenched stereotypes lasting centuries as well as instances of bold re-signification, a re-definition of …

Literature And The Moral Imagination: Smithean Sympathy And The Construction Of Experience Through Readership, Elizabeth M.K.A. Sund

Philosophy Theses

In this thesis I argue literary readership allows us to gain imagined experiences necessary to sympathize with people whose experiences are different from our own. I begin with a discussion of Adam Smith’s conception of sympathy and moral education. Although sympathy is a process we take part in naturally as members of a society, we can only be skilled spectators if we practice taking the position of the impartial spectator and critically reflect on our judgments. As I will argue in this thesis, literature provides a way for us to practice spectatorship without the consequences that come along with making …

The Mystery Of The Body: Embodiment In The Nancy Drew Mystery Series, Katie Still

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses

This thesis investigates the ways in which ideas about class, gender, and race are produced and articulated through the body in the Nancy Drew Mystery series in the 1930s. Physical descriptions and bodily movements, as well as material surroundings, work together to reify and contradict dominant ideas of normalcy and deviance being located on the body.

Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: Honing The Hybridity Of The Graphic Novel, Dallas Dycus

English Dissertations

The genre of comics has had a tumultuous career throughout the twentieth century: it has careened from wildly popular to being perceived as the source of society’s ills. Despite having been relegated to the lowest rung of the artistic ladder for the better part of the twentieth century, comics has been gaining in quality and respectability over the last couple of decades. My introductory chapter provides a broad, basic introduction to the genre of comics––its historical development, its different forms, and a survey of comics criticism over the last thirty years. In chapter two I clarify the nature of comics …

Satirical Inquiry, Gina Henderson Prescott

English Theses

Satire might not inspire physical action—the physical act of picking up a sign to picket the government—but it moves an audience towards a state of mental action by confronting audiences with the interdictions and iniquities it fears the most. The rhetorical qualities of satire need to be acknowledged to fully understand how satire functions. To look at an example of contemporary satire, like The Onion, and see how it functions as a tool to create knowledge, three concepts can be borrowed from the rhetorical tradition: (1) Plato’s dialectic as a rhetorical model for Donald Griffin’s “Rhetoric of inquiry and provocation” …

Andalusia, Julia Clare Peteet

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses

This is a creative thesis in the form of a screenplay titled “Andalusia” in which a woman, Katherine, searches for meaning in her life. After suffering through a childhood wrought with tragedy, disappointment, and chaos, Katherine strives to create a healthy reality in which she can thrive. After failing miserably at this once, she takes a different path and finds herself hidden away in her dead father’s house writing about the Mississippi Delta town of Andalusia.

Yes, I Should But No I Wouldn't?: Teachers? Attitudes Towards Introducing Lesbian/Gay Issues In The Literature Classroom, Randall Lawrence Fair

Middle and Secondary Education Dissertations

Many studies have demonstrated that lesbian and gay students are often more likely to suffer from high risk factors. These students often have higher rates of suicide, are more likely to drop out, use drugs and alcohol, etc. Often schools do not provide this invisible minority with appropriate support.

One natural place to address lesbian/gay issues in the high school curriculum is the literature classroom. Literature textbooks often include statistically high numbers of lesbian/gay authors. However, often literature teachers are reluctant to identify the sexuality of these authors, and rarely do these teachers introduce issues of sexuality in any other …