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Catastrophe And Identity In Post-War German Literature., Aaron Dennis Horton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine selected German literature dealing with issues of history and identity in light of the catastrophic reshaping of society after World War II and reunification. The research process will involve an examination of selected authors and their works that are most relevant to the topic. In order to provide a clear understanding not only of important literary themes but also of the appropriate historical context, attention will be devoted to providing biographical information in addition to critical literary analysis. Because this study is primarily historical in nature, context is important for determining a …

Reading Through Brown Eyes: Toward Developing A Culturally Congruent Reading Curriculum, Clara Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This inquiry examined the reading motivations of African American middle grade males and investigated why some African American males are more successful academically in reading than others. This investigative pathway traveled through the possible interconnected barriers relative to reading achievement and reading motivation using the research strategy of critical narrative inquiry and the theoretical lens of critical race theory. Simultaneously, this qualitative analysis investigated racial/ethnic identity as it relates to background, popular culture, and learning styles as motivational factors for engaging African American males in reading and the learning process. African American, middle-grade males guided this path of exploration in …

"And So He Plays His Part:" Theatrical Prejudice And Role-Playing In As You Like It And King Lear, Erin Rutter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although most critics affirm the importance of interior direction and role-playing in many of Shakespeares plays, there is a considerable disagreement concerning the result of this role playing: does it lead to positive growth or to degeneration? Moreover, this debate is often associated with the sixteenth-century controversy about the role of the theater in society. Some moralists insist that the theater can be an instrument for instilling virtue while others view the theater as sinful, debasing, and a catalyst to social breakdown. In this thesis, I will explore the antitheatrical prejudice in the early modern era and show how Shakespeare …

Neil Gaiman's American Gods: An Outsider's Critique Of American Culture, Mark Hill

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In 2001, Neil Gaiman published American Gods, a novel of American life and mythology. As a British author living in the United States, Gaiman has a powerful vantage point from which to critique American culture, landscape, and ideology. Rich with re-invented deities, legends, mythic creatures, and folk heroes cast in a decidedly American mold, American Gods examines the American character, evaluating the myths and beliefs of the culture from the vantage point of an outsider. By examining the character's allegiance to particular cultural legacies (Wednesday as the American con artist, Shadow as the cowboy), I intend to assess this outsider's …

Teachers Or "Real" Police Officers?: A Study Of Dare Officers In Northeast Tennessee., Jennifer Lynne Commons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Most studies of the Drug Awareness Resistance Education (DARE) program evaluate the program’s effectiveness; this thesis instead examines the police officers who implement the program. Based on interviews with 12 DARE officers in the Northeast region of Tennessee, the thesis explores how members of this special category of police officers identify themselves. The DARE officer interviews were compared with published literature on conventional police officers. All DARE officers interviewed defined themselves as police officers but did little to no actual police work, nor were they viewed by patrol officers as “real” police officers. Instead, DARE officers functioned primarily as educators. …

Uncivil War: Memory And Identity In The Reconstruction Of The Civil Rights Movement., Joanne Sarah Barclay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Memory is constructed to solidify a certain version of the past in the collective identity. History and memory occupy a controversial role in the New South, with battles over the legacy of the Civil War and the reassertion of Confederate symbols in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement's challenge to the status quo.

Memory of the Civil Rights Movement is entering public conscious through cultural mediums such as films and museums, as well as through politically contentious debates over the continued display of the Confederate battle flag and the creation of a federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King …

Creating Identity Within A Residential Community Using Open Space, Jason W. Harr

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Popularity of suburban developments is not new to most communities of today. Many have come to the understanding that suburbia is the only way to go, and the only place to live and raise a family. What suburbanites don't understand and choose to avoid are the demanding requirements suburbia requires of our natural resources and open space.

In recent years, many have come to the understanding that our natural resources and open space are very valuable and must be preserved now and in the future. People have also noticed that implementation of basic design principles of residential communities are advantageous …

The Self-Perceived Identities Of Six English Teachers At One Islamic Language School In Cairo, Rama Ma Abdelaziz Ghazi

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1970s Egyptian society has witnessed a wave of Islamism. This tern1 refers to a surge of religious revivalism based on the precepts of Islam. This religious resurgence has been reflected and manifested in the increase in the emergence of a type of schooling knm\n as Islamic schools. Such schools aim at implementing certain goals and standards which are in-line with their ideology, in this case Islamic. The teacher is an access point between the school's administration, the Ministry of Education and the student. He or she acts as a mediator between the school (as a system, structure) and …

The Outsider Within The Victorian Community: Nicholas Bulstrode In Middlemarch And Michael Henchard In The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Marian D. Conklin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many have written about the theme of interconnection in George Eliot’s Middlemarch, where individual lives and fates are woven into the larger life of the community, but few have written about this theme in relation to The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy’s fictional and historical depiction of Dorchester and the larger area of Wessex. Hardy’s novel about “the life and death of a man of character,” is a complex and psychological characterization, but it also is representative of a particular province during a time of rapid change in community structure, just as Middlemarch is. I would like to …

Digging Through Discarded Identity: Archaeological Investigations Around The Kitchen And The Overseer's House At Whitney Plantation, Louisiana, Erika Sabine Roberts

LSU Master's Theses

During the mid-nineteenth century, the Haydel family was prominent sugar planters in southern Louisiana. Their plantation, Whitney Plantation (16SJB11), lies on the highway 18 on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Wallace, Louisiana. During the summer of 2002 archaeological investigations were conducted around the kitchen and the overseer’s house, in order to collect a sample of materials associated with these occupants. I hoped that the artifacts could yield information on how the planter and overseer family represented themselves materially. Although what I excavated was the discarded remnants of the Haydel family’s life, these remnants offer an understanding of …

Sites Of Resistance: Language, Intertextuality, And Subjectivity In The Poetry Of Diane Wakoski, Cordelia Maxwell Hanemann

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the interconnectedness of language and related cultural texts and women’s subjectivity. The poststructuralist feminist enterprise of examining and critiquing language and signifying practices for the ways in which they impose social values and of interrogating and undermining the fixity of meanings in cultural texts will serve as my primary frame. Concerned with the individual (gendered) consciousness, poststructuralist feminist theory of subject formation posits that while language, along with ideologically biased texts of the culture, construct subjects, language and the cultural texts also serve as sites of resistance for the deconstruction and reconception of individual and collective subjectivities. …

An Investigation Of Implementations Of Smaller Learning Communities In Florida High Schools, Todd James Bondurant Sparger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The issue of high school reform has received national attention during the first part of the 21st century. One idea brought forth in this restructuring effort has been the desire to create high schools with smaller student populations. However, in an era of tight budgets, where resources are not always available to build more schools, educators have explored the possibility of dividing existing large high schools into smaller units. This restructuring approach has many titles, but is frequently referred to as a Smaller Learning Community (SLC). Since 2000, the federal government has pledged $245 million to schools willing to create …

The Art Of Living - The Marketing Of Identity Through Nationality And Spirituality, Shirisha Shankar

LSU Master's Theses

Spirituality has been a term that has always been associated with the East and more specifically with India. Spirituality has been revamped and repackaged in glossy packages by various spiritual groups and organizations in India. One among these organizations is the Art of Living, a non-governmental spiritual organization that has risen in popularity since 1996. This thesis concentrates on the Art of Living as an organization and of the dissemination of the new spirituality through this institution. This research study pertains to the identity of self and of the sense of nationhood through the discourse and the practice of certain …

Determining The Impact Of Self-Directed Iep Instruction On Secondary Iep Documents, Jamie Van Dycke Doronkin

All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects

I wanted to determine if Self-Directed IEP instruction impacted three things in secondary IEP document development: (1) student ownership of the IEP; (2) complexity of postschool goal/vision statements in IEPs; and (3) infusion of the four vision components of living, learning, working, and community involvement, into other key IEP areas. I examined 94 secondary IEP documents (including 92 postschool goal/vision statements) for the presence of four vision components using a scoring rubric. Pilot study and inter-rater reliability procedures established the validity and reliability of the rubric. The IEPs had been developed during Year 2 of a federally sponsored field-initiated research …

Public Sexuality: A Contemporary History Of Gay Images And Identity, Shaun Erwin Sewell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study is an examination of the public imaging of gay men and lesbians during the latter part of the twentieth and early part of the twenty-first centuries. The study looks at public imaging as it is performed in the service of the political aims of gay people, with an eye towards the kinds of tensions and erasures that occur when one monolithic identity is promoted. Through these examinations, I create a kind of contemporary history of the gay political rights movement. In the study, I examine theoretical approaches to identity from several postmodern theorists and then use these approaches …