Arts and Humanities Commons^™

"I Cannot Read This Story Without Rewriting It": Haraway, Cyborg Writing, And Burkean Form, Clancy Ratliff

Masters Theses

In this study, my overarching principle is that readers’ ideologies are likely to influence the way they read texts, and that texts, in turn, often influence readers’ preconceived ideologies. This thesis is an attempt to understand how to use the theories of Kenneth Burke, Donna Haraway, and rhetoric of technology scholars toward the goal of social change in favor of Haraway’s cyborg political model, which stresses the need for unity within feminism, socialism, and other politically left groups. Burke argues that form in texts is the creation and fulfillment of desires in the audience. I examine several of Burke’s texts …

Move!, David Morneau

Masters Theses

In composing MOVE! I wanted to combine the rhythmic excitement and improvisational elements of jazz music with the refined developmental techniques found in classical music. Rather than simply borrow jazz harmonies and sounds for use in a classical composition, or compose music in a classical style for a jazz ensemble, I tried to create music where both traditions are represented equally.

Each of the movements in the suite approach the combination of these ideas differently. The suite begins out by Shout, a fanfare in a jazz style. Shout takes its name from the shout chorus of many swing tunes. …

The Strange Races On The Hereford Mappa Mundi: An Investigation Of Sources, John H. Chandler

Masters Theses

The Hereford Mappa Mundi, a thirteenth-century world map, includes mention of fifty-four strange races. Many of the races can be found in three earlier sources: Pliny's Naturalis historia, Solinus's Collectanea rerum memorabilium, and Isidore's Etymologiae. By comparison to these three sources, the works used by the author of the map will be made clear.

This study provides an edition of all the inscriptions relating to these races, and compares them to excerpts relating to the races from the three above sources, as well as St. Augustine's De civitate Dei and Pomponius Mela's De chorographia. Translations …

Toward A More Complete Ethic In Technical Communication: An Examination, Evaluation, And Integration Of Some Foundational And Nonfoundational Ethical Theories, Shauna Bryant

Masters Theses

In this study, I examine several theories of ethics in technical communication. In doing so, I rely primarily on research in technical, professional, and business communication. In particular, I follow the lead of Mike Markel by separating ethical theories into two categories: foundational and nonfoundational.

I examine three popular manifestations of foundational ethical theories in technical communication: universal values (such as honesty), utilitarianism, and Kantian ethics. I show how technical communication appropriates each theory but also how these theories can be problematic if communicators rely too heavily and exclusively upon them.

Next, I explore two important nonfoundational theories in technical …

For Orchestra, Joo Won Kim

Masters Theses

For Orchestra is a work consisting of two movements. In the first movement, the rhythmic pattern is based on the Korean traditional rhythm called "Changdan". There are a lot of "Changdan"s employed in Korean music. One of the Changdan-rhythms that are frequently used in traditional percussion ensemble is transferred to Western instruments through various contemporary techniques. The rhythmic elements are developed and combined with melody and harmonic texture. Harmonic textures include interval construction of perfect 4th, 5th, major and minor 7th, 3rd, and 2nd. There are both tertial and quartal combinations. The relationship between melody and chords is made up …

“The Kingis Quair”: A Critical Edition, Michael D. Livingston

Masters Theses

Introduction

General Introduction

The Kingis Quair is a poem of clear Chaucerian descent, written in the same seven-line stanzas as Troilus and Criseyde, that marks the beginning of a Chaucerian movement in the literature of Scotland. The poem exists in only one manuscript, MS Arch. Selden B. 24 of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, where it is twice attributed to King James I of Scotland (1424-1437). Indeed, it is due to the connection with James that the particular seven-line stanza format in which the poem is written is now known as "rhyme royal."

"The Specular Moment" In Goethe's "Willkommen Und Abschied": David Wellbery's Interpretation, Stephen Franklin Poe

Masters Theses

In "The Specular Moment" David Wellbery highlights the structure of Goethe's poem "Willkommen und Abschied." His major interpretation is twofold: Firstly, the particular use of the verb "sehen" creates a referential structure that is the true focus of the poem and Wellbery points to the fissure of the subject from its organic unity that is expressed through the use of "sehen." Secondly, "Willkommen und Abschied" is a poem about art and art's ability to heal this rupture. Chapter one examines Wellbery's interpretation of "Willkommen und Abschied" in his two publications entitled "The Specular Moment." Chapter two is an account of …

Bringing Liberalism And Communitarianism Closer, Paul Frazier

Masters Theses

The question that divides liberalism and communitarianism is: should the state exist to protect individuals and individual rights or for the good of society as a whole? This thesis suggests that this is the wrong question to ask. Individuals are not isolated and different from their communities, but are products of social settings. This does not mean, however, that individual freedom and individual rights are compromised. Rather, the only way for an individual to be an autonomous agent and to make free choices is within a society. Rights for individuals, then, must come from within a social setting. Therefore, the …

Walt Whitman: The Optimism Of An Evolutionary Pantheist, Katherine R. Hults

Masters Theses

E.M. Forster may have best described Walt Whitman's prevailing optimism in the following passage:

He is the true optimist—not the professional optimist who shuts his eyes and shirks ... but one who has seen and suffered much and yet rejoices. He is not a philosopher or theologian; he cannot answer the ultimate question and tell us what life is. But he is absolutely certain that it is grand, that it is happiness, and that 'wherever life and force are manifested, beauty is manifested.' (Allen, World 52)

Whitman was aware of the social taboos and social evils of his time, witnessing …

The Voices From The Sanctuary: The Female Narrators Of J M Coetzee's In The Heart Of The Country And Doris Lessing's Memoirs Of A Survivor, James L. Forman

Masters Theses

In both In the Heart of the Country (1977) by J. M. Coetzee and The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974) by Doris Lessing, a female narrator fabricates a sanctuary—mental rather than physical—that enables each woman to challenge, deflect, or adapt to a conflict and that shelters her from a hostile, patriarchal society. For Coetzee's narrator (Magda) in In the Heart of the Country, writing, rewriting, and editing provide the necessary devices to establish her asylum in her quest for identity. For Lessing's narrator (the survivor) in The Memoirs of a Survivor, escaping behind the wall allows her to …

Journey To The Frontiers Of Perception: How Women Wrote About The Westward Movement During The Nineteenth Century In Relation To Land, Animals, And The Domestic Sphere, Brandi Dale Spelbring

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

African-American Life Writing: Harriet Jacobs And Bell Hooks, Luo Yi

Masters Theses

Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and bell hooks' Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood share a common concern with emancipation and employ complementary rhetorical strategies. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl presents Harriet Jacobs' journey of personal self-discovery through various relationships with others, and her personal narrative finally serves the larger goal of emancipation for her people. Jacobs' narrative is full of other voices, or personae. Even the narrator, Linda Brent, is pseudonymous, or "other," in this sense. Jacobs invokes these personae in her autobiography; she explores her experiences as a web of …

Symphony In One Movement: Score And Analysis, Jon Kostal

Masters Theses

This thesis consists of the composition, Symphony In One Movement, accompanied by an analytical study. The piece is composed for large orchestra and has a duration of twelve minutes. It comprises three connected but distinct sections, whose contrasts suggest individual movements. Each section is based on a traditional formal structure: sonata, passacaglia, and rondo-variations. The intention was to acknowledge the traditional symphony through these formal structures while applying more modem approaches to elements such as harmony, melody, and rhythm.

The analytical study that follows the score provides insight to the compositional methods and tools which were employed in the …

Pirsig's Phaedrus: The Journey Of The Shaman, Joseph E. Levora

Masters Theses

Robert Pirsig, in both his novels Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Lila, explores the conflict one man has with the beliefs and values of the culture he is living in. This conflict leads him to mental collapse and eventually a kind of rebirth into a new outlook and way of viewing the cultural values and beliefs of the society he is living in. In this thesis, I propose that Phaedrus, the central character of both of Pirsig's novels, can be compared to a shaman. I am not suggesting that Pirsig deliberately intended the reader to view …

Personality Correlates Between Fundamentalist And Non-Fundamentalist Individuals As Measured By The Neo Pi-R And The Religious Fundamentalism Scale, Jason Andrew Witt

Masters Theses

The relationship between religious fundamentalism and personality was examined. Over 150 students total, from two Midwestern universities were administered the NEO PI-R and the Religious Fundamentalism Scale. It was predicted that the individuals who scored highly on the RF Scale would score significantly higher on the Neuroticism scale and significantly lower on the Openness scale of the NEO PI-R than the non-fundamentalists. Results of the study confirmed the prediction that Openness would be significantly lower for fundamentalists, F (1, 103) = 11.093, p < 0.001. Results did not confirm the prediction that Neuroticism would be significantly higher for fundamentalists, but showed that Agreeableness was significantly higher for fundamentalists, F (1,103) = 11.127, p < 0.001. Possible reasons for the differences in personality scores between fundamentalists and non-fundamentalists were discussed, as well as suggestions for future research in this area.

Sorrow Into Joy: A Phenomenological Study Of Adult Women Survivors Of Child Sexual Abuse, Eldine M. Webster

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to learn how six mid-life women who had been sexually abused as children perceived the way in which that early experience had impacted their life to date. Using a phenomenological qualitative life-history approach, each participant was interviewed for a period of from one to three hours. Content analysis of the interviews and member-checking with participants who volunteered to do so resulted in eight major themes emerging from the data: memories, family, career, addictions, depression, boundaries and embodiment, counseling, and synchronicity. The last theme, synchronicity, very closely related to the concept of spirituality and a …

Relationship Between Belief In An Active Satan And Intolerance Of Minority Groups, Jennifer L. Acord

Masters Theses

For years researchers have explored the issue of intolerance of minority groups. Research has suggested that intolerance is related to general religiosity. More recently the focus of investigation has been the relationship between intolerance and specific religious beliefs, such as belief in an active Satan, religious fundamentalism, and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). In a previous study Wilson and Huff (in press) found that belief in an active Satan was related to intolerance of gay men and lesbians and ethnic minority groups. The current study re-examined the relationship between belief in an active Satan and intolerance of various minority groups. In addition, …