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Sex And The Superman: Gender And The Superhero Monomyth, Christopher Maverick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1938 introduction of Superman, superheroes have been ever-present in American popular culture. Indeed, with the modern preponderance of comic book movies dominating the American cinematic box-office, superhero fantasy is arguably the most important genre of fiction being produced in the contemporary moment. Peter Coogan, Kurt Busiek and many other scholars have discussed the prominence and relevance of the superhero fantasy as a genre. Still others, including Umberto Eco and Marco Arnaudo, have asserted that the superhero is not so much a genre and as it is the evolution of mythology. In Sex and the Superman, I argue …

The Whale-Road To Road House: A Study Of The Contemporary Transmission Of Beowulf, Haley Grindstaff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores three versions of Beowulf: Gareth Hinds’s graphic novel Beowulf (2007), Maria Dahvana Headley’s translation Beowulf (2020), and Rowdy Herrington’s film Road House (1989). While Hinds and Headley fail to convey Beowulf as a cultural elegy by subtracting or misrepresenting significant scenes and characters, Road House superimposes the story of Beowulf onto 1980s America. Parallels between the plots of Beowulf and Road House and Road House’s interaction with the political underpinnings of the 80s (such as Reaganomics and the AIDS epidemic) make the film one of the best at capturing the elements of cultural elegy in the …

The Gendering Of Death Personifications In Literary Modernism: The Femme Fatale Symbol From Baudelaire To Barnes, Amanda Mcnally

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The time of modernity, defined here as 1850-1940, contributed to massive changes in the representation of the feminine in literature. Societal paradigm shifts due to industrialism, advances in science, psychology, and a newfound push for gender equality brought transformation to the Western World. As a result of this, male frustrations revived the ancient trope of the femme fatale, but the modern woman—already hungry for agency, tired of maligned representation in heinous portrayals of skeletons, sirens, and beasts—saw a symbol begging for redemption rather than the intended insult. Women of the nineteenth century infused texture to a two-dimensional accusation that argued …

The Ethos Of Conspiracy Argument : "Character" As Persuader In Conspiracy Rhetoric., Michael James Sobiech

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conspiracy theory has, as Timothy Melley states in Empire of Conspiracy (2000), “animated our political culture from the early Republican period to the present, at times powerfully swaying popular opinion” (vii). Though it has attracted attention from a wide range of disciplines, conspiracy theory has not received significant notice within rhetoric and composition. My dissertation adds to the interdisciplinary body of scholarship concerning conspiracy theory by examining it as rhetoric, focusing on how the construction of a conspiracy proponent’s ethos/character affects the persuasiveness of a conspiracy theory. I argue that ethos construction plays a much more significant role in conspiracy …

Adventures Of Kody A Children's Visual Storybook And Interactive Web Site, Matthew L. Walsh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to experience unconditional love, prejudices must be exposed and overcome. People often meet others with a disability or handicap and unknowingly treat these individuals negatively. As a middle school teacher, I have often witnessed students behaving cruelly towards those that are different. When my dog became a paraplegic I was inspired to develop a project to assist young readers in the development of conscientious actions towards individuals with disabilities. This document chronicles the development, procedures, and outcomes of the process behind that artistic endeavor. The artistic elements of this thesis project are a written children's storybook and an …

Refractions, Linwood R. Lancaster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project allowed me to pursue one of nly greatest joys, expressing my feelings, emotions, and thoughts through the written word. As we march towards a world dominated by technology, there are those that think the day of the storyteller has passed. Television, movies, and electronic games have become the vehicle for amusement in the world today, supposedly leaving no room left for the lowly storyteller. However, these entities are stories told but in a different medium. The ideas that drive these devices still have to come from someone, an author. Even video games now are intertwined with the storyteller, …

White Knowledge And The Cauldron Of Story: The Use Of Allusion In Terry Pratchett's Discworld., William Thomas Abbott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the last twenty years, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series has become very popular. Pratchett's success hinges in part on his use of allusion, in what Tolkien called the "Cauldron of Story," and what Pratchett refers to as "white knowledge." This paper explores the Discworld novels and illustrates Pratchett's use and success of storytelling through a few key directions: folk tales, fantasy literature, movies, and rock music.

Pratchett has received limited critical review, mostly of a negative nature, while producing a strong literary series, one crafted with both obvious and subtle recognition of his genre's sources. While standing on the shoulders …

Lobo, Bruce Pratt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

LOBO explores, The Beast, as human and animal, who appears in varying forms in the principal male characters. Of the human characters, Will Strang is the seducer, George Strang the manipulator, Dorian Hinds the paternalistic pedagogue, and Leo "Sly" Foxx Jr. is the beast in its most classic and violent form--the destroyer. Foxx is not a wholly unsympathetic character. Set in the present, the book presents three couples, one in their twenties, one in their thirties, and one in their late fifties, who are linked in various ways, and are drawn together in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine. …