Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Identity And Authenticity: Explorations In Native American And Irish Literature And Culture, Drucilla M. Wall

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This collection explores of some of the many ways in which Native American, Irish, and immigrant Irish-American cultures negotiate the complexities of how they are represented as "other," and how they represent themselves, through the literary and cultural practices and productions that define identity and construct meaning. The core issue that each chapter examines is one of authenticity and the means through which this often contested and vexed notion is performed. The Irish and American Indian points of view which I explore are certainly not the only ones that shed light on this issue, but these are the ones I …

Allusive Mechanics In Modern And Postmodern Fiction As Suggested By James Joyce In His Novel Dubliners, Kynan D. Connor

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

James Joyce in his novel Dubliners conducts a series of narrative experiments with allusion, and in doing so suggests a new literary criticism based upon the allusive process. This new criticism of allusive mechanics considers the text in terms of its allusive potential for character—that is, the character is treated as capable of signification. Because Joyce can mimic the process of signification, it repositions the author to the act of writing and the reader to the act of reading. Character is greatly expanded through allusive mechanics because narrative elements like allusion in a text are treated as having a character-oriented …

At The Edge Of The Circle: Willa Cather And American Arts Communities, Andrew W. Jewell

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

During the pivotal years of Willa Cather's artistic development, she regularly engaged a variety of American arts communities that encouraged, challenged, and influenced her work and professional growth. Her interactions with these communities were an effort to locate a sustainable, meaningful relationship to her fellow artists. This dissertation explores her efforts by analyzing the character of the communities, chronicling Cather’s involvement within them, and interpreting the impact on Cather’s life and work.

After the Introduction, the chapters are organized to follow Cather as she experimented with various communal forms and developed her own relationship to the literary scene. Chapter one …

At Risk In The Writing Classroom: Negotiating A Lesbian Teacher Identity, Irene G. Meaker

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

"Education is a fearful enterprise," says teacher and philosopher, Parker Palmer. Student-centered/ processoriented pedagogy asks teachers to step out from behind the relative safety of the teacher mask and to enter the risky arena of learning. For the writing teacher, a special challenge is to help students negotiate the risks inherent in the act of writing and in sharing writing with the "Other."

To prevent fears from dominating our students, teachers must model risk-taking and risk negotiation. In my own teaching, my fears around students' reactions to learning my sexual identity meant that I more often reinforced fears than dispelled …

Paintings And Drawings In Willa Cather's Prose: A Catalogue Raisonné, Polly P. Duryea

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Paintings and Drawings in Willa Cather's Prose: A Catalogue Raisonné considers the specific artists and their visual art that greatly influenced Willa Cather's textual compositions. The Catalogue draws upon the author's research of Cather-related art from both American and European libraries and art museums. This art includes painting, drawing, illustration, and tapestry. A detailed and alphabetized list of selected artists and paintings that Cather preferred is provided. The artists are cross-referenced with Cather's own statements about their work or style. Included is biographical data for each artist, the named work of art, and often the date executed, the location then …

Thoreau's Argument In "Economy", William H. Hansen

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In the second paragraph of Walden, Thoreau explains that he is going to give a sincere and an honest account of his life in Nature to satisfy the curiosity of his friends who have expressed a desire to know the details of his two-year adventure at Walden Pond. In the third paragraph, he say's that he is also going to write something about the bad condition of his neighbors in and around Concord. These first two statements of purpose are important not only because they indicate what the book is going to be about, but also because they represent …

The Fable And The Fabulous: The Use Of Traditional Forms In Children's Literature, Ned Samuel Hedges

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Because children’s literature is considered to be a development of the past two centuries, it is generally believed that there are differences between children's literature and adult literature. The majority of people who have written extensively about children's literature have been primarily concerned with those differences. I too believe that there are differences between children's literature and adult literature; but those differences seem to me to be neither as extensive nor as significant as has been commonly assumed. What are the differences? Can they be described? Are there also significant similarities between children's literature and adult literature?

I believe that …

The Alchemy Of Art: A Study In The Evolution Of The Creative Mind Of John Keats, G. Brian Sullivan

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

From the time John Keats began Endymion (March 1817) until his abandonment of the second version of Hyperion (September 1819), we have thirty vital months comprising a span of development unparalleled in English literature. This dissertation focuses upon the central feature of that development— the evolution of the creative mind of the poet. I do not purpose another factual biography of Keats, but rather an exploration of the internal autobiography of the poet in self-genesis as this evolvement is impressed upon the symbolic structures of his works. In artistic vitality, incisiveness of thought, and individual sublimity, Keats achieved a ripeness …

Nebraska Verse 1923-1924

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The verse herein printed was written by students now in residence at the University of Nebraska. The first poem in the book received the prize of fifty dollars offered by the class of 1898, and the second poem the prize of twenty-five dollars offered by the Vestals, an organization of girls in the College of Arts and Sciences. The committee chose twenty poems, which were submitted for the final award to Christopher Morley, John G. Neihardt and Percy MacKaye. The title page was designed by Gladys Lux.--LOUISE POUND, CONSTANCE SYFORD, HARTLEY B. ALEXANDER, SHERLOCK B. GASS, J. A. RICE, JR. …