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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Mormon Culture Meets Popular Fiction: Susa Young Gates And The Cultural Work Of Home Literature, Lisa Olsen Tait
Mormon Culture Meets Popular Fiction: Susa Young Gates And The Cultural Work Of Home Literature, Lisa Olsen Tait
Theses and Dissertations
The few studies of Mormon home literature that have been published to date dismiss it as inferior artistry, an embarrassing if necessary step in the progression towards true Mormon literature. These studies are inadequate, however, because they divorce the texts from their context, holding them up to standards that did not exist for their original audience. Jane Tompkins' theory of texts as cultural work provides a more satisfactory way of looking at these narratives.
Home literature is thoroughly enmeshed in the cultural discourse of its day. Beneath the surface, these didactic stories about young Mormons finding love with their foreordained …
Section 76 As Literature In The Doctrine And Covenants, William H. Brugger
Section 76 As Literature In The Doctrine And Covenants, William H. Brugger
Theses and Dissertations
This project attempts to demonstrate the value of literary approaches to the Doctrine and Covenants, using a predominantly formalistic approach. To establish a foundation, the first chapter discusses the rich literary content of the Doctrine and Covenants, providing examples of the various literary genres represented in it, such as narrative, saga, parable, and poetry. The second chapter presents portions of Section 76 that contain features characteristic of Hebrew poetry, such as figures of speech and parallelism. The third chapter analyzes ways in which Section 76's poetic dimensions are illuminated by "The Vision," a 312-line poem attributed to Joseph Smith. The …
Symbolic Action And Persuasion In The Book Of Mormon, Keith H. Lane
Symbolic Action And Persuasion In The Book Of Mormon, Keith H. Lane
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis contends that the Book of Mormon can be profitably read from a rhetorical perspective. It employs Kenneth Burke's ideas concerning language, texts, and his method of dramatistic analysis, to reveal certain persuasive aspects of the Book of Mormon, and to urge action in response to the persuasion of the Book of Mormon.
Chapter one discusses common ways of reading scripture, and explains some of the inadequacies of these approaches. It gives a rationale of a rhetorical approach that concerns itself with action, and recommends this approach for the Book of Mormon. Chapter two applies a rhetorical reading to …
Lehi's Vision Of The Tree Of Life: An Anagogic Interpretation, Julie Adams Maddox
Lehi's Vision Of The Tree Of Life: An Anagogic Interpretation, Julie Adams Maddox
Theses and Dissertations
The significance of Lehi's life tree is that it gives life. Lehi's tree expresses the nonverbal, renews Lehi, effectually creates a culture, and keys the structure of a literary, viable, and contemporary scripture. My thesis chapters grow out of my reading of myth, tree mythology, and Lehi's dream. I see Lehi 1) traveling a polemic course toward the tree, 2) confronting the tree's death, and 3) by suffering, opening the symbol to his inner vision.
Lehi's first dream images, a dark and dreary wilderness vs. a man in white, suggest the birth of mythic creation. By traveling through and reconciling …
Clinton Larson's "The Witness": The Quest For A Mormon Mythic Consciousness, Dennis R. Perry
Clinton Larson's "The Witness": The Quest For A Mormon Mythic Consciousness, Dennis R. Perry
Theses and Dissertations
"The Witness" can be viewed as Clinton F. Larson's poetic manifesto that points the direction for much of his subsequent work. Although his poetic "mormonism" has been questioned by several of his critics, this thesis shows that Larson definitely expresses his Mormon faith in "The Witness" as a metaphorical quest for mythic consciousness. While searching in the poem for sacred space and time, Larson seeks to become closer to the divine and powerful center of being, creating at once a metaphor for his quest to understand and assimilate Christ's atonement and a poetic voice from which he can speak for …
A Survey Of Mormon Literary Criticism, Colin B. Douglas
A Survey Of Mormon Literary Criticism, Colin B. Douglas
Theses and Dissertations
Three general questions concerning literature have been addressed by the writers considered in this thesis: What constitutes a work of literary art? What ought to be valued by Latter-day Saints in a literary work? How should criticism be conducted by Latter-day Saints? To the first question, five basic answers have been proposed: significant form, uplifting thought content clothed in decorative form, typological symbol, ikon (as the word is used by C S lewis in An Experiment in Criticism), and capacity for helping the reader achieve a kind of "negative capability." These definitions also tend to be statements of value, …
A Study Of Some Textual Variations In The Book Of Mormon Comparing The Original And The Printer's Manuscripts And The 1830, The 1837, And The 1840 Editions, Stanley R. Larson
A Study Of Some Textual Variations In The Book Of Mormon Comparing The Original And The Printer's Manuscripts And The 1830, The 1837, And The 1840 Editions, Stanley R. Larson
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis is a study of textual variations in the two manuscripts and the first three editions of the Book of Mormon. Successive collations of each of these were made against the text of the first edition. From these collations some 427 specific textual variations were selected for inclusion in the thesis.
The research disclosed that some genuine corrections as well as editorial revisions were made by Joseph Smith in 1837 and 1840. However, it was also concluded that some alterations of the text arose from accidental causes.
The most significant contribution of this study was that both the Original …
Bayard Taylor's The Prophet: Mormonism As Literary Taboo; Calaveras County Comes Of Age; The Erosion Of Belief In The Poetry Of Clinton F. Larson, Thomas D. Schwartz
Bayard Taylor's The Prophet: Mormonism As Literary Taboo; Calaveras County Comes Of Age; The Erosion Of Belief In The Poetry Of Clinton F. Larson, Thomas D. Schwartz
Theses and Dissertations
The three papers included in this thesis reflect my development as a graduate student during the course of my master's program at Brigham Young Universtiy. I came to Brigham Young University interested in creative writing and developed a love for research and criticism. My work in nineteenth century American literature led to the first two papers. Both deal with literary history, the first narrow in scope, devoted to a study of the significance of a single play, the second broad in scope, devoted to a study of the unifying thread of anti-sentimentalism in the writings of the major American realists. …
The Song Of The Righteous: An Historical And Literary Analysis Of The Latter-Day Saint Hymnal, Ruth Alene Thomson Symons
The Song Of The Righteous: An Historical And Literary Analysis Of The Latter-Day Saint Hymnal, Ruth Alene Thomson Symons
Theses and Dissertations
The hymnal of the Latter-day Saints first proposed only shortly after the organization of the Church and published continually every few years between 1835 and 1871, is a remarkably accurate indicator of the changing fortunes and beliefs of the early Saints. The first hymnal, gathered by Emma Smith, uncompromisingly sets forth the basic Mormon belief in man's free agency, his innate perfectability, and his kinship to his Heavenly Father. Later editions reflect the missionary concerns of the church (1840), the tremendous persecution the saints are subjected to (1841), the Church difficulties after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith (1849), the call …