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Theses/Dissertations

Louisiana State University

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1999

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"Playboy"'S First Year: A Rhetorical Construction Of Masculine Sexuality., David John Lambkin Jan 1999

"Playboy"'S First Year: A Rhetorical Construction Of Masculine Sexuality., David John Lambkin

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The problem addressed by this study was twofold: what rhetorical strategies does a pornographic text actually employ? and what impact does that message have on its mate readers' sexual ideology? The first year's issues of Playboy comprise the specific text to be analyzed because Playboy is still the most popular men's magazine in the world and because various critics indicated that it was the prototype for current pornographic texts. Furthermore, this pornographic text has always been a public artifact as opposed to the surreptitious or illegal forms of pornography, which made it an apt choice for a rhetorical study. Three …


Performing Dracula: A Critical Examination Of A Popular Text In Three Sites Of Performance., Jonathan Matthew Gray Jan 1999

Performing Dracula: A Critical Examination Of A Popular Text In Three Sites Of Performance., Jonathan Matthew Gray

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Dracula is a significant example of a popular phenomenon with a long and ongoing history of productive circulation in Anglo-American culture. While theorists of popular culture often use the term "performance" in their explanations of the popularity and meaningful operations of such phenomena in a culture, they do not always provide concrete definitions of what they mean by performance. This study provides an analysis of the roles performance plays in a specific popular culture phenomenon. Identifying Bram Stoker's Dracula as a nexus for a broader cultural activity, this study examines articulations of Dracula in performances and texts that both precede …


A Description And Analysis Of The Scholarly Response Paper As An Academic Genre: Determining How Linguistic, Social, And Psychological Variables Affect Its Success/Failure And The Professional Credibility Of Its Author., Lynna Dunn Peneguy Jan 1999

A Description And Analysis Of The Scholarly Response Paper As An Academic Genre: Determining How Linguistic, Social, And Psychological Variables Affect Its Success/Failure And The Professional Credibility Of Its Author., Lynna Dunn Peneguy

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The study of various documents and genres within professional discourse communities can provide valuable insight into what does or does not constitute successful written communication within such groups. The primary purpose of the current study was to examine scholarly response papers published in five different "English" journals in order to (1) define and describe the scholarly response paper and (2) explore various theories/rules/studies which could be used to gauge its success: in this case, Grice's Maxims, studies of semantic (denotative and evaluative) verb force, Lakoff's Rules of Politeness, and studies of language intensity. Findings showed that the primary purpose of …


Mechanisms Of First Language Forgetting., Ludmila Isurin Jan 1999

Mechanisms Of First Language Forgetting., Ludmila Isurin

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The present research explored the processes and mechanisms of first language forgetting from linguistic and psychological perspectives. Two studies, one---a case study, another---a controlled experimental study, yielded evidence on L1 loss. The case study involved a 9 year old Russian girl who was adopted by an American family, brought to the US and completely taken out of a Russian-speaking environment. Over the course of one year, changes in L1 morphology, syntax, and vocabulary were investigated using various tasks, e.g. picture description, picture naming, story telling. Data on L1 retention, L2 acquisition, and reaction time were gathered. The results of the …