Digital Commons Network^™

Memory In The Fingers: An Exploration Of Knitting Through The Lens Of Modern Knitters' Lives, Sinclair Rishel

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the history of knitting through the lens of modern knitters' lives. Information about the history of knitting was gathered from various printed and online sources. A series of interviews were conducted with knitters of different ages, experience levels, professions, and socioeconomic circles. Among these were beginning knitters, casual knitters, semi-professional knitters, professional knitters, and a knitting celebrity. The interviewees were asked about their knitting lives, including personal history, motives, preferences, and habits. Using the research and the interviews to inform each other, the researcher compiled a report on each subject which included their responses and the historical …

Italians In The Delta: The Evolution Of An Unusual Immigration, Camille Elise Mullins

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the extraordinary immigration of Italians to the Delta from when they first came in 1895 to modern day. This project updates the Delta Italians' status within the modern era and explores their rise from lowly tenant farmers to some of the largest farm owners in the Delta. In particular, it looks at the Italians through the prism of discrimination, farming and fascinating personalities who have attempted to preserve its history. By using live interviews and journalistic story telling techniques, I hope to give people a flavor of what the early settlers were like and how their culture …

An American Prophet: Wendell Berry's Community Ethic, 1965-1977, Joel Garrott

Honors Theses

This thesis provides a detailed commentary on Wendell Berry's agrarian ethic as articulated in his early literature of the 1960s and 1970s. It is part biography of Berry's early life, part history of his early thought, and part literary interpretation of his early work. It expounds on the significance of Berry's personal connection to place, and situates Berry's agrarian argument for community life in the context of the social issues addressed in his early literature. The central argument of this project is that Berry's agrarian ethic was grown out of his relationship with his native place in Kentucky, and that …

Neither Slave Nor Free... : Interracial Ecclesiastical Interaction In Presbyterian Mission Churches From South Carolina To Mississippi, 1818-1877., Otis Westbrook Pickett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the efforts of a variety of missionary agencies, organizations, Presbyteries, synods and congregations who pursued domestic missionary efforts and established mission churches among enslaved Africans and Native Americans from South Carolina to Mississippi from 1818-1877. The dissertation begins with a historiographical overview of southern religion among whites, enslaved Africans and Native Americans. It then follows the work of the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury among the Choctaw, the Rev. T.C. Stuart among the Chickasaw, the Rev. Charles Colcock Jones among enslaved Africans in Georgia and investigates the work of the Rev. John Adger and John Lafayette Girardeau among …

Y'All Eat: Foodways, Performative Regional Identity, And The South In The Twenty-First Century, Kirsten Schofield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"Y'all Eat: Foodways, Performative Regional Identity, and the South in the Twenty-first Century" examines the ways in which iconic Southerners--Jim Beam and his ilk, Colonel Harland Sanders, and Paula Deen--create and sustain the hypercontemporary South. Because of their media exposure and place in the popular imagination, these characters force a specific kind of performance in both an intergroup and intragroup context. Close readings of individual appearances and selected portions of these characters' output help to shed light on how these identities are formed, upon what they rely for structure and support, and what this means for modern consumers around the …

The Mythic Method At Work In The Travel Writing Of Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, And V.S. Naipaul, Benjamin Bryant Sloan

Honors Theses

Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, and V.S. Naipaul travel to remove what V.S. Naipaul calls their “area of darkness," by which he means those places in the world and places within themselves that are unexplored firsthand. They are much more interested in subjective impressions of the world than objective representations. In fact, these writers strive for subjectivity. But with subjectivity comes doubt and chaos, and a tool that these authors use to order their worlds and their works is the mythic method. All three of these writers are highly influenced by literary modernism and by sources across the ages, but in …

Sacrificial Acts: Martyrdom And Nationhood In Seventeenth-Century Drama, Kelley Kay Hogue

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sacrificial Acts: Martyrdom and Nationhood in Seventeenth-Century Drama posits that the importance of sixteenth-century martyrologies in defining England's national identity extends to the seventeenth century through popular representations of martyrdom on the page and stage. I argue that drama functions as a gateway between religious and secular conceptions of martyrdom; thus, this dissertation charts the transformation of martyrological narratives from early modern editions of John Foxe's Acts and Monuments to the execution of the Royal Martyr, Charles I. Specifically, I contend that seventeenth-century plays shaped the secularization of martyrdom in profound ways by staging the sacrificial suffering and deaths of …

Gravesend, William Boyle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gravesend, a novel, is set predominantly in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, though there are several scenes that take place in a fictional upstate town called Hawk's Nest. The novel centers around three characters: Conway D'Innocenzio, Alessandra Biagini, and Eugene Calabrese. These characters are tied together by Ray Boy Calabrese, who has recently been released from prison for his role in the brutal death of Duncan D'Innocenzio, Conway's brother, sixteen years before. Ray Boy returns and Conway, twenty-nine and working at Rite Aid, seeks revenge. Alessandra, a failed actress who has been in Los Angeles for a decade and has …

Midwives Of Mississippi, Lane Noel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Across the United States as late as 1910, midwives delivered half of all babies. Their practice was primarily among women of white European descent and African American women of the South. The practice of midwifery was commonplace in Mississippi. Together, black midwives and white nurses would help to implement a new public healthcare structure in Mississippi during the 1920s. Records of the Mississippi State Board of Health together with letters from midwives and public health nurses' reports put midwives at the heart of the story of public health reform. Already held in high esteem by their own communities, midwives came …

An Exploration Of Process Observation And Practical Application In Devised Theatre, Anna Elizabeth Donnell

Honors Theses

In my research, I encountered a particular methodology of creating plays known as devised or collaborative theatre. In this form, the ensemble collaboratively contributes to all aspects of the production, including the processes of writing. production, direction and performance. Therefore, working with such a method would provide the most desirable test culture for me to examine the development of a play from initial inspiration to eventual materialization. In this way, I theorized that I would gain a better understanding of the creative roots of theatrical expression as well as of the mechanisms of devised theatre as a means to that …

Charming Politics: Magic And Power In Medieval And Early Modern Texts, Grace Elaine Mcmahen

Honors Theses

In this thesis, 1 look at three works: The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyieler, an account written in 1324 by Bishop Ledrede about his time in Ireland; Dr. Faustus, a play by- Christopher Marlowe published in 1604 but first performed in 1592: and The Tempest, a play written by William Shakespeare in 1610. 1 am reading these works as literary texts, even The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyieler because of how a literary representation can reveal information about the subconscious and can speak m code about a subject, where historical texts do so to a lesser extent. 1 explore the …

Tennesse Williams' Web Of Deception In The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire And Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Holly Nicole Henning

Honors Theses

While many themes appear in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the theme of deception emerges as one of the most prominent. To determine exactly how deceit impacts the lives of the characters in each play, an analysis of deception from both a psychological and philosophical standpoint is given. Based on the findings of this analysis, Williams effectively employs three general categories of deception in his plays, including deception with self-awareness, deception of others requiring deception of the self and self-deception regardless of another’s presence. Williams also implements one of …

Gridiron Peers: An Analysis Of The Legendary Coaching Careers And Foundations Of Success Of Paul Bear Bryant And John Vaught Through Comparison And Contrast, David Luke Trewolla

Honors Theses

This thesis is a comparison and contrast of the sources of the on-the-field success of Paul Bear” Bryant, head coach at the University of Alabama and John Vaught, head coach at the University of Mississippi, in their respective coaching careers in college football. The first two chapters of the thesis simply give a brief biographical background of the two coaches. In Chapter Three, their respective coaching styles as it pertains to game planning and strategy, practice, and their adjustment to the changing style of the college game in their careers are analyzed and compared and contrasted. Chapter Four is an …

Alternative Weekly And City Magazine Under One Roof: Contemporary Media, Inc.'S “Memphis Flyer” And “Memphis” Magazine, Cory Taylor Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies the media of alternative weekly publications through a case study of the Memphis Flyer and its relationship with sister publication Memphis magazine, both under the umbrella of Contemporary Media, Inc. History of the publications, targeted demographics and business models will be taken into account to answer proposed research questions. The publications prominence in local media as well as their relationship to the traditional city paper, The Commercial Appeal, is recognized, along with the company's plans for adaptation to new trends in online journalism.

Change In The European Court Of Human Rights: Accession Of Eastern And Central European Member States, Rachel Morgan West

Honors Theses

The research idea originated as a result of interest in Russian human rights which then expanded to include all of Eastern and Central Europe. This work seeks to explore the effects of the Council of Europe’s (COE) Eastern and Central European member states on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or the “Court”). The in-depth publishings of ECHR itself provided the greatest source of information for this work. Part I provides a brief history of the ECHR up to 1989 when expansion to Eastern and Central European states first became possible. Parts II, III, and IV focus on three …

No Place For You, My Love: Negotiation Of Home And Identity In Eudora Welty's Delta Wedight, The Optimist's Daughter, And The Bride Of The Innisfallen, Mallory Nicole Blasingame

Honors Theses

This thesis inspects the tension between home and travel in Eudora Welty’s fiction and life, using Delta Wedding as an example of home and the prescriptive identity it often confers. The Optimist's Daughter as evidence of the trials of returning home to find it changed, and four stories from The Bride of the Innisfallen as examples of the freedoms of leaving home and embracing placelessness. In examining these three works, I attempt to discern what the characters’ diverse perspectives and experiences reveal about the complex and sometimes unacknowledged realities of home, whether through their reliance on it as a source …

The Truth Shall Set You Free: Journalists' Addiction To Truth In The Face Of Danger, Margaret O'Brien Middleton

Honors Theses

As maligned as they may be at times, journalists are constantly relied upon for information. Everyday, people watch television, read newspapers, and browse articles on the internet about dangerous events happening throughout the world. It is journalists’ responsibility to bring this news to their readers. However, many stories come with a very high price. In order to report on the things that are most important to society - things that are also usually the most dangerous -journalists are forced to put themselves in the line of fire to deliver the story. The question that this thesis strives to answer is …

An Attempt At Balance: Staging Guare’S The House Of Blue Leaves, Richard Albert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an account of the fully realized production of John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves, presented at the University of Mississippi, November 19, 20, 21, and 22, in the Studio Theater of Bryant Hall.

The first chapter offers a brief history on the play, including some reviews of both the original production and the revival. The second and third chapters offer an analysis of the play and a journal of the production, respectively. The forth and final chapter gives an evaluation of the work done.

Lafcadio Hearn: His Life And His Literary Thought, Ray Bass

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

[No abstract provided.]