Digital Commons Network^™

Baptism, Mark Melloan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

One of my favorite movie characters said he'd worn lots of shoes, meaning he'd been a great many places and done a great many things. Well, I've never been to war or run across America or founded a shrimp company or shook the President's hand or returned kickoffs for the University of Alabama. But I did grow up in a church, come of age, and stay there, which is perhaps as interesting. I am now a husband, worship leader, singer-songwriter, and college writing instructor, struggling to capture fragments of who I was before I was any of these things, and …

"Anything Dead Coming Back To Life Hurts": Ghosts And Memory In Hamlet And Beloved, Rebecca Boyd

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Ghost stories are an ingrained part of most cultures because, typically, humans must be forced to confront those elements of their individual and communal past that they would prefer to ignore. Accordingly, ghosts have embodied weaknesses and hidden evils that must be assimilated and transcended, and writers have embroidered a variety of subtexts upon the traditional fabric of ghostlore. Specifically, both William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Toni Morrison's Beloved employ ghosts as symbols of man's archetypal desire to hide his past. A careful examination of the texts in these ghost stories, of the cultural folklore included, and of the ghosts' influence …

Reflection/Reflected The Construction Of Female Subjectivity In Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September And The Death Of The Heart, Laura Bartlett

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

As I read Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September and The Death of the Heart, questions arose, persisted, and remained unanswered until I undertook the project of applying poststructuralist theories to these novels. Reading The Last September, I puzzled over the female protagonist's relationship to an ancillary character, which Bowen repeatedly represents in terms of the father-daughter relationship. Reading both The Last September and The Death of the Heart, I was struck by the fact that although Bowen is typically categorized as a "classical realist," she embarks upon the quest of depicting the identity construction of two female adolescents but abandons …

The U.S. Government's Investigation Of E.B. Stahlman As An Enemy Alien: A Case Study Of Nativism In Nashville, Robert O'Brien

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

As a railroad executive for the Louisville and Nashville and then publisher for the Nashville Banner, Edward Bushrod Stahlman, a German immigrant, made many enemies. Stahlman's constant feuding with Luke Lea, who owned the rival Nashville Tennessean, led to an investigation of his citizenship during World War I. Hatred of Germans was at a fever pitch and not only did the Department of Justice examine Stahlman, who actually had been naturalized as a child, but the Tennessean also accused him of being a German propagandist. This thesis serves as an example of the scrutiny German-Americans underwent during the war. Organizations …

One Day, Some Day, Douglas Fisher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

When someone asks us how old we are, we tell them the number of years that we have lived. But those years are comprised of days: days that wrinkle our brows, burn searing holes in our souls, and those days--filled with joy, terror, humor, fear, and exasperation--are the sum totals of our age. One Day. Some Day is a collection of short fiction that deals with the events of one day in the life of the characters. The titles of the stories reflect this theme, i.e., "Thursday's Child, 11 "A Measure of Days," and "One of These Days." I have …

Some Measures Of Ulysses, June Sinclair

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Contemporary literary theorists, very much aware of themselves as constituting a break in, and a refutation of, an entire classical metaphysics, are trying to prove that James Joyce, the foremost prose writer of the twentieth century, writing when that classical view was falling from grace and the modern perspective was forcing itself upon the intellectual world, is, in fact, in his work--all works considered as one work-undermining the very tradition which critics consider his foundation. Consequently, the way in which Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are read and valued will be linked to an entire theory of literature. The body of …

Eliot's Use Of Contemporary Political Events In Middlemarch, Sara Winstead

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In the consideration of most critics and scholars. Middlemarch by George Eliot is a catalog of the Victorian era, depicting with clarity the concerns of the period as they appeared in all levels of social, economic, and political life. Although the form of the book is that of the novel, dealing primarily with the development of characters and their relationships, the author includes a sufficient number of references to contemporary political events to merit in-depth study of the purpose of these references. This paper locates and explains the references to contemporary political events in Middlemarch, it discusses the ways …

Metodes Meahta In Six Old English Poems, Mary Relihan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis, then, will attempt to show that the achievement of unity was the primary concern of the Old English poets, who aimed to use the power of poetry to teach their people how their hope for immortality might be realized under Christianity. Their concern is evident from their poetic diction and themes that have an origin in common values of mankind, from their demonstration of unity within the poems by deliberately chosen connotative language and by forms which represent a progression of thought, and from their objective presentations in dramatic and imaginative settings. Therefore, the poetry is a fusion …

Asiatic Cholera In Kentucky 1832 To 1873, Nancy Baird

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Asiatic cholera has been called the scourge of the nineteenth century, for it caused the untimely death of millions throughout the world. During its four visits to the United States, unknown thousands of Kentuckians fell victims to the disease. In attempting to prevent the dreaded scourge, Kentuckians became more conscious of the need for cleaner cities, pure water and adequate sewage disposal. Modern waterworks facilities, sewage treatment and disposal facilities have provided the means by which the United States has conquered this scourge of the nineteenth century, for with these facilities cholera is the easiest of all communicable diseases to …

To Hell For A Heavenly Cause: The Re-Emergence Of The Harrowing Of Hell Motif In Twentieth Century Literature, Margaret Shepherd

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

To define the scope of this study, therefore, Harrowing of Hell imagery will be thought of as those symbols peculiar to the pseudo-biblical story, with redemptive activity and triumph as distinguishing criteria. The hero is a Christ figure who has already achieved a degree of self-mastery. His descent into hell represents an act of redemption for others, with victory as the outcome. This delimitation, it will be seen, is not impossibly restrictive. A survey of contemporary literature indicates that Wasserman's use of the descent motif with redemptive implications is far from an isolated instance. Edward Albee in The Zoo Story …

Folk Elements In The Fiction Of James Still, Edith Walker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study attempts to complement earlier studies of Still’s literary art such as that of Dean Cadle and Katherine Craf by pointing out the integral use of folk elements in his fiction. The methodology combined field studies with investigation of the works of folklorists and historians and novelists whose writings center around the same general region as do those of Still

For the purposes of this study “folk elements” will denote the orally transmitted traditions of the common people of a particular region. In this case, the “folk” are a rural people who have remained relatively stable for several generations …

The Mcguffey Readers, Louise Lively

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The textbook, an important factor in public school education, is nowhere so wonderfully developed as in the United States. It occupies a more important position in our educational system than it does in the systems of many foreign countries. In fact, most of the teaching in our schools today revolves around the textbook - the cause of much criticism by many writers. They deplore the fact that both our teachers and pupils are dependent on textbooks.

Twentieth Century Negro Poets, Sheila Higgins

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

According to Matthew Arnold an open mind is one of the chief essentials for true literary criticism. One is impressed by the truthfulness of this statement when he seeks to evaluate Negro poetry.

The term, Negro poetry, has several interpretations. In its most general sense, the one in which it is used in this paper, it means poetry written by Negroes on any subject. In a more restricted sense it refers to poetry that contains allusions, rhythms, sentiments and idioms more or less peculiar to the Negro. In its narrowest meaning it refers to poetry of racial protest and self-exhortation. …

John G. Fee And Berea College, Flora Jones

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

When a student at Berea College it occurred to the writer that if the opportunity should ever present itself, she would be interested in knowing more concerning the early struggles and untiring labor of the men who had made possible such a great and unique institution of learning.

It is the aim of this paper to treat in a brief and concise way the development of this institution and in particular the part played by John G. Fee. Also it is hoped to furnish an account of the early struggles of this institution that will be of interest to the …

Tennessee During Secession & Reconstruction, Edward Taylor

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The present work is intended as a survey of events and conditions in Tennessee during the decade from 1860 to 1870 when the entire nation was torn by sectional strife, racial antagonism, and economic and social disorder. The writer can make no pretension of having made a comprehensive or exhaustive study of the sources. That would involve a paper far beyond the scope of the present study. At best I have only scratched the surface; merely opened avenues for future study.