Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Emily Dickinson, The Tyrant, And The Daemon: A Critique Of Societal Oppression, And The Significance Of Artistic Truth, Debra Kue

Masters Theses

This thesis argues that art, for Dickinson, was an alternative system of salvation which her society could not provide her. Unwilling to surrender herself to the mold of her society, the institutional practice of Christianity and gender expectations, Dickinson chose to take ownership of her life through art, which allowed her to develop a personal language to combat the oppressive forces of the world around her. As a conscious “revolutionist of the word” Dickinson embarked on a path of self-discovery that enabled her to conduct a life in self-imposed exile as a means to emancipate herself from the constraints of …

Religion, Science, And Truth In The Human Experience: Poetry As Living Synthesis In Walt Whitman’S Leaves Of Grass, Karen E. Luidens

Masters Theses

Walt Whitman’s great masterpiece Leaves of Grass stands out in the canon of nineteenth-century American poetry for both its innovations in form and its bold ventures into controversial subjects. One such subject is the role of science as opposed to religion in shaping the modern worldview. Whitman’s poetry alternately and at times simultaneously expresses both materialistic and metaphysical cosmologies, criticizing and casting away ancient traditions as often as he calls on them for inspiration.

In this paper I explore the influence of contemporary science on Whitman’s worldview, analyze how its theories shape the cosmology presented by his poetry, and discuss …

Salvation And Community In The Works Of Charles Williams, Donald Clayton Vander Kolk Jr.

Masters Theses

The twentieth century American evangelical Church co-opted many of its values from the surrounding American culture, among them, the tremendous importance it placed on individualism and self-sufficiency. The work of British Christian writer Charles Williams, though, provides a corrective, emphasizing the role of community in the salvation of one’s soul. This thesis provides a reading of three of Charles Williams’ last works—The Region of the Summer Stars, Descent into Hell, and All Hallows’ Eve—and examines the function of community in his work. In the Arthurian poem Region of the Summer Stars, Williams imagines a small community, the …

Kenneth Koch's Postmodern Comedy Revisited, John Campbell Nichols

Masters Theses

This thesis describes and analyzes the postmodern comedy of New York School poet, Kenneth Koch and discusses the changes this comedy underwent throughout his lengthy career. The thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter I explains the aesthetic of the New York School of poets as contrasted to the dominant New Critical compositional aesthetic embodied by poets such as Robert Lowell in the mid-century United States. Chapter II develops Koch’s comedy as expressing an emergent postmodernism. Chapter III discusses the various aspects of Koch’s comedy, sampling poems from across his career. Chapter IV traces the development and maturity of Koch’s …

Mina Loy And The Electric Body, Debra Elizabeth Cardell

Masters Theses

Abstract Mina Loy, modernist poet and artist, experimented with theories of feminism and class within her own artwork. This creates a complex point of interpretation for the reader because of overlap and contradiction. The concept of ekphrasis, when manipulated for Loy’s context, opens possibilities of understanding Loy’s many contradictions. Since the body and material world play a central role in Loy’s art, ekphrasis is a lens through which we can begin to see the relationship between Loy’s art and writing along with her feminism.

Snaps Of Eden, Michael J. Hudson

Masters Theses

The following poems are and attempt at reclamation and reconciliation. The first section wades through the delicate subject of personal history and is an attempt to show truth as a means of both self and communal healing. The second is plaintive, a brief effort to interlope into and understand worlds outside (but not foreign) to my own. The third is a poetic essay detailing the journey of a young woman facing the horrors of an undeclared, and seemingly eternal war. The fourth and final sections serve as a means of exploration of the self and place; tackling issues of sex, …

Witness, Rebecca Warren

Masters Theses

The “Red Book” section of this work collects poems written with dream material. The “Couplings” poems investigate the mechanical and sexual implications of “coupling.” What is witnessed and how are the concerns of the poems in “Witness.”