Arts and Humanities Commons^™

In The Flesh: Fiction As An "Incarnational Art", Marissa Thornberry

Honors Theses

My goal in this paper is to support O’Connor’s claim that fiction is “incarnational” by providing additional evidence and addressing implications that she doesn’t. I am professing that fiction-writing is indeed “incarnational,” in even more ways than O’Connor directly expresses. If this thesis holds true, then it is difficult for Christians to rightly make light of the art of story-writing. Contempt for creative writers is tempered in our time more by a trend toward tolerance than by public or personal conviction of the human need for storytellers. Even in an environment where making money and tending to physical needs and …

Significant Affinities Between James Joyce's Ulysses And Saul Bellow's The Adventures Of Augie March, Jeff Smithpeters

Honors Theses

There is a story of a monk who is, against all odds, propositioned by a comely woman who has somehow gotten into the monastery. "No," he tells her. "I have taken a vow of chastity." With that, the woman leaves. There is no argument, no weeping, no shouting. It is that simple.

The next morning, at the communal breakfast table, the monk speaks to a grizzled, elderly monk sitting beside him. "Did you know a woman offered herself to me yesterday right here in the monastery? Can you imagine that?"

The long-lived monk turns to him and says, "What did …

The Chopinian Heroine: A Role Model For The Self-Assertion Of Women, Heidi Fite

Honors Theses

During the nineteenth century in America, women endured many restraints placed on them by society. These social restraints were often justified in the name of chivalry and the Bible. Fundamentalist religion, with its patriarchal nature and its strict moral code, hampered women's struggle for rights. The religious and social condemnation of divorce forced many women, rather than incurring the chastisement of society by seeking divorce from drunken and worthless husbands, to spend their lives in martyrdom. Most women also resented the limitations the chivalric code imposed on the full development of their minds and personalities. This code of chivalry led …

Eudora Welty: A Writer For The Heart And Mind, Gerrie Krudwig

Honors Theses

Eudora Welty is a writer whose works appeal to many readers. This appeal is in part based on her artistic use of themes and settings as well as her creative style of writing. These three things combined lend to her work an excellent quality which has been recognized by publishers and fellow writers.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss Welty's creative style of writing, her prominent themes, and her use of settings or the importance of place in her works. The last section of this paper discusses in detail one theme which I have chosen to fasten on …

Hemingway And The Search For Meaning In Life, David M. Strain

Honors Theses

It is difficult to define the precise nature of this study. Strictly speaking, it is not a literary study, for the questions which it asks and the topics which it addresses go beyond the traditional boundaries of literary criticism. Likewise, it is not a philosophical study, for it transcends that discipline as well. Neither is it an eclectic combination of the two. This paper is a part of a deeply personal self-examination which I have undergone over the last three years. As I have tried to determine the ways in which Hemingway characters find meaning in life, I have also …

Folklore: A Study And Tales From The Ozarks, Sharon Hibbard

Honors Theses

From its inception, folktale research has had a two-pronged aim: it has been interested, on the one hand, in the nature and origins of oral narration not fixed in writing; and it has been interested in folk culture as expressed in the content and form of the folktale. These two points of view have resulted in two different kinds of research methods. One has sprung essentially from comparative literature and has been established as a new branch of that discipline; the other has developed from the French sociological and the British anthropological schools, which consider of folk tradition--to which the …

An Analysis Of Newbery Awards: 1922-1947, Pamela Jean Estes

Honors Theses

The intent of this project has been to focus on reading the Newbery award winners from 1922-1947 and to analyze and compare the books.

A Study Of Robert Frost, Lauren Lindsey

Honors Theses

Using a variety of resources, this is a summary of research conducted on Robert Frost and his poetry.

Life And Personality Of Robert Frost, Una Mae Atkinson

Honors Theses

The most important American poet since Walt Whitman is the New Englander, Robert Frost. People who have never thought of reading poetry take to Frost. His words are simple words; the images are simple, most often country, things. The music of his poetry is the sound of everyday talk, and the ideas, on the surface, anyway, are plain and straight. Subjects of Frost's poetry are such things as nature, love and friendship, self-trust, fear, and courage.

Thus, Robert Frost occupies a unique position in modern poetry. Unlike most contemporary poets, he has managed to win a wide popular audience while …

Themes And Development In The Poetry Of Kenneth Patchen, Joe Kirby

Honors Theses

Kenneth Patchen has been, and continues to be, one of the most influential and controversial figures in contemporary American literature; very few people who read Patchen come away unchanged or uninfluenced by his poetry, and few, if any, of his readers are of mixed emotions about the value of his work: It is either sheer magic and of tremendous artistic merit or it is rough, emotional garbage, a judgement often dependent upon the courage of the reader. Patchen is not held in high esteem publicly by many poets and critics. The American poet Kenneth Rexroth was once advised by an …

Francis Scott Fitzgerald: Voice Of The Twenties, Rebecca Ann Barron

Honors Theses

With all the flamboyant, glitter, and riotous excitement one can muster up, the age of the Twenties brought to America an era not to be forgotten. Gansters, flappers, and two-bit saloons were all encompassed in this "Jazz-Age" which spread its influence from shore to shore. Americans became, in a sense optimists and as optimists looked toward their social and financial situation as fundamentally sound and triumphant over its predecessors. They identified themselves with their century. Its teens were their teens, its world war was their war, and its Twenties were their Twenties. Launching forward they looked about for a spokesman, …

Some Observations Of Modern Drama As Exemplified By Tennessee Williams In The Glass Menagerie And Suddenly Last Summer, James Edward Mcmenis

Honors Theses

The purpose of this Honors Special Studies project was to acquaint the author with a facet of literature of which he had not come into contact. This area of literature was the area of modern drama. As an example of the modern playwright's style and method, the author chose to concentrate on Tennessee Williams. Thus several Tennessee Williams works were read--and these, The Glass Menagerie and Suddenly Last Summer form the basis from which some conclusions were drawn.

The Influence Of The Mixed Media Concept On Contemporary Literature And Music, Joe Kirby

Honors Theses

Probably the most exciting development in the fields of literature, art, music, and communications in the past twenty years is the mixed-media concept. The idea of using more than one artistic form in conjunction with others to produce a desired effect is not new, but only with the development of our modern electronic technology did this concept come to tremendously influenced the contemporary literary and musical world. More important, however, the development of new and hitherto undreamt of communications and transportation media has had a profound influence upon modern culture and civilization itself.

Marshall McLuhan, author of Understanding Media, …

The Literary Sociologist: John Steinbeck, Anne Nowlin

Honors Theses

John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902, in the town of Salinas, California. He lived most of his first forty years in the Salinas Valley, and it is generally agreed that the most significant biographical link between Steinbeck and his writings is this fact of his birth and growth to maturity in the valley. Here is the source of knowledge, love of nature and many of his characters, whether paisanos or migrant workers of Tortilla Flat and Grapes of Wrath, took form.

A Study Of Modern Poetry, Kriste Mcelhanon

Honors Theses

This Honors Special Studies paper briefly explores five poets, their lives, and a few of their poems.

The Modern Novel, Rich Terry

Honors Theses

Since there is no course in the modern novel offered at Ouachita, this special study was designed in order for me to fill some of the gaps in my high school and college reading with books from this category.

I was required to read five novels and write a brief summary or analysis of each one. The five I chose to read were: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and The Other America by Michael Harrington.

The Isolato Of The American Novel, Martha Ann Rayfield

Honors Theses

There were, in pre-Revolutionary America, no native novels. Even the popular novels of Europe had little demand in the Colonies. Pamela by Richardson was printed three times i n1744 when Benjamin Franklin published it simultaneously with two other equally adventurous printers. It was not until forty years later that another of Richardson's novels appeared--in 1786, the same year Tom Jones was printed in abridge form. Robinson Crusoe had to wait fifty years for American publication. The printing of any European novel was more for competition between printers--and that was practically non-existent.

True, the lag in taste and culture of the …