Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Late Bloomer, Allyson M. Nobles

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Afterparty, Patrick M. Werle

Creative Writing Programs

Afterparty is built on the question, “Can one overcome the past?”...I think. While the work flows on a loose timeline, I do not intend the manuscript to be a story. As the poems drift in and out of time periods; childhood, adolescence, fatherhood, I hope that this is also a collection that can be opened in the middle or paged through and still be successful. Of course, as the artist, I would love for people to take the journey beginning to end. And I also believe that poetry collections should be able to have a reader jump in at any …

False Spring, Tobias Wray

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores queer kinship and masculinity in an extended poetic sequence. The speakers of these poems attempt to understand the ways that family shapes our sense of gendered identity, particularly how masculinity is constructed and perpetuated through a history of gendered violence in western culture. Investigating the shame of failed masculinity and unsanctioned identity through a range of aesthetic positions, these poems interrogate the tradition of English language poetry as a space where masculinity is both blurred and reinscribed.

In three sections, the collection considers the relationship between paternity and patriarchy, and how queer identity offers alternative aesthetic positions …

Food Transitions: How Food Symbolizes Another Chapter, Josiah Peralta

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Through critical self-analysis of my life, I intend to answer the question, “How does food help us transition from one chapter of our life to another?” My purpose is to provide a personal viewpoint about related topics associated with food, like class, origin of food, religion or lack of, culture and tradition, obesity, food choice, and love. Through this viewpoint, I will demonstrate how food associations can encapsulate our past, memories, and identity in a way that moves us from the past to the present, and, hopefully, the future.

Capstone theme: Food, Ethics, and Politics

Peppermint, Anthony Isaac Bradley

MSU Graduate Theses

This collection contains poetry introduced in a critical way via a theory-based creative nonfiction essay. The work included is a meditation on what identity means on both an intimate and a larger scale, and how the two might be affected by the choices we are faced with from a young age. Elements of pop culture are used alongside rural elements of the surrounding areas to illustrate changing or stagnant viewpoints on topics such as masculinity, gender norms, and queer expression. Peppermint is a document of my mind as it once was, and how it has been shaped up to this …

Muriel Rukeyser's "The Book Of The Dead": An Analytical Appreciation, Emily Cogan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Muriel Rukeyser’s poetry has always focused around a particular event be it something of global proportions such as the Spanish Civil War (Mediterranean) or the Japanese occupation of Korea (The Gates) or, as with The Book of the Dead, a specific disaster closer to her home, America. Her poetry, however, never exists purely in the realm of politics; she never aligned herself with any particular political party and consequently her poetry is never simply a call to arms or a manifesto in verse. Throughout the body of Rukeyser’s work there are echoes and allusions to …

This Way Girl Comes Bearing Gifts, Alexandra Webster

MSU Graduate Theses

The following collection deals with autobiographical work. My purpose for this thesis was to present poems in which spoke to a girlish attitude under various circumstances such as age, location, and expectation. While this thread of girlhood lends itself as a conceptual framework, the poems themselves vary in style. They move between elements of imagism, narrative, lyricism, meditation, and some code-switching. I found that by letting the poems happen upon recognition and shape themselves out of memorable content rather than by trying to adhere to a strict concentration on one particular style or form allowed me ample materials for building …

The Body Mends Itself, Hannah Elizabeth Dow

Dissertations

The following poems were completed by the author between September 2014 and April 2017.

"History Real Or Feigned": Tolkien, Scott, And Poetry's Place In Fashioning History, Kaleigh Jean Spooner

Theses and Dissertations

Most critics of The Lord of the Rings correlate Tolkien's work to ancient texts, like Beowulf, the Elder Edda, and medieval romances. While the connection between these traditional materials and Tolkien is valid, it neglects a key feature of Tolkien's work and one of the author's desires, which was to fashion a sort of history that felt as real as any other old story. Moreover, it glosses over the rather obvious point that Tolkien is writing a novel, or at any rate a long work of prose fiction that owes a good deal to the novel tradition. …

Collaboration Revisited: The Performative Art Of Claude Cahun And Hannah Weiner, Phillip L. Griffith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In its most common usage in the artistic context, collaboration refers to a practice of creation in which two artists work together to produce a single artwork or object. Collaboration Revisited: The Performative Art of Claude Cahun and Hannah Weiner focuses on the nexus of photography, writing, and performance in the work of six female avant-garde artists from the transatlantic twentieth century, informed by the important place of surrealism in that history, to reconsider this understanding of collaboration. Instead of the notion of collaboration as founded in the experience of two artists working together in each others’ presence, I examine …

Between The Cloud And The Page: Repetition And Textuality In Post-Conceptual Poetics, Michael Kirby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

These three chapters take as their focus the emergent movement of post-conceptual poetry. The first chapter, “What is Post-conceptual Poetry?,” attempts to delineate the varying definitions of post-conceptualism offered by four critics (Felix Bernstein, Diana Hamilton, Vanessa Place, and Robert Fitterman). Finding none of these to be satisfactory, I turn towards the delineation of my own definition of post-conceptualism in the second chapter, “Beckett contra Sade: Two Kinds of Repetition,” which asserts that post-conceptualism may derive a sort of cohesive political agenda from its rejection of both Sadean and Beckettian repetition. “Between the Cloud and the Page,” the third chapter, …

Decoding Darkmatter, Crystal J. Waterton

Theses and Dissertations

Decoding DarkMatter is a documentary film about two Asian transgender poetry performance artists: Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian. It documents their journey from Stanford University to their first large theater production; It Gets Bitter, at Joe’s Pub in New York City.

Lesbian Love Sonnets: Adrienne Rich And Carol Ann Duffy, Robin Seiler-Garman

Senior Theses

Our conceptualization of sexuality is rooted in gender. Modern, western society defines sexuality as which genders one is and is not attracted to—often appearing as a binary between homosexuality and heterosexuality. Recently, however, queer theorists have begun to push against the idea of binary sexuality altogether.

The interplay between gender and sexuality additionally manifests in the history of literature. Because the two are so intimately intertwined, writing about sexuality necessitates writing about gender. Twenty-One Love Poems by Adrienne Rich and Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy are two poetry collections where, as lesbian poets, gender and sexuality play an important role. …

Lost, Nathaniel Kostar

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

N/A

Organic Morality: A Poetic Garden Rhetoric Originating In The 18th Century, Heather Robinson

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Many literary critics have researched and conjectured on the 18 th century poets’ connections to the developing landscape gardens of the time. For example, Francesca Orestano, in “Bust Story: Pope at Stowe, or the Politics and Myths of Landscape Gardening,” discusses at length the presence and creation of Pope’s development of aesthetics at the Stowe landscape gardens. However, most critics have focused solely on the idea of the aesthetic that gardens create and their relationship to the human experience of nature. Markus Poetzsch, in “From Eco­Politics to Apocalypse: The Contentious Rhetoric of Eighteenth­Century Landscape Gardening,” describes the heated political world …

Towards Telepathic Ecologies: A Presentation Of Sources For Image Production Within Information, Lewis A. Longino

Theses and Dissertations

Telepathy through information systems, Yutaka Matsuzawa,with Ilya Prigogine, Roger Caillois, Susan Howe, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Aase Berg, images and artists today form telepathic ecologies through information,Aaron Flint Jamison, Dora Budor, Sb Fuller, Andrea Crespo.

Phobophobia: A Study In Fear, Rebecca C. Josephson

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This thesis is the poetic culmination of a creative writing study in fear. Though here it only consists of the written word, the thesis was the content of an artists book of the same study.

Silenced Imbalances, Ashley G. Roth

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Awkwardness and vulnerability

through continuous public display and criticism

this and these inhibiting, defeating a person’s ability

to be able to function to the fullest extent.

Disabling.

Through literal and metaphorical ciphering I blend original poetry with my artwork in order to address misperceptions about gender, sexuality, mental illness, and ableism within American society. My undergraduate thesis work is an expression of my personal experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), major panic disorder, depression and dermatillomania.

“That Dark Parade”: Emily Dickinson And The Victorian "Cult Of Death”, Carol M. Degrasse

English Department Theses

The elegiac poems of Emily Dickinson provide what is perhaps the clearest depiction of the conflicting emotions inherent to the death-conscious nineteenth century. In one such poem, Dickinson’s oxymoronic phrase, “Dark Parade,” encapsulates the spirit of a social movement that was born of a desire to comfort the grief-stricken and to beautify the horrific. Throughout Dickinson’s corpus of elegiac poetry, the speaker echoes these sentiments and crafts an insightful portrait, juxtaposing the stark horror of death with the ethereal beauty of ceremony. As Dickinson’s elegies are traced over time, the poems develop as microcosmic representations of a grieving nation, as …

How Documentary Poetry Imagines, Seunghyun Shin

English

As we face the end of the post-modern world at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the preceding decades of postmodernity can be seen to have led to a widespread underappreciation of reading and writing poetry in general. If we want to say that poetry is necessary in the world, how should literary scholars and writers defend its value? The value of reading and writing poetry owes to its socio-political efficacy. This research will highlight how poetry can be political through exploring the works of three documentary poets: Muriel Rukeyser, C.D. Wright, and Claudia Rankine. The goal is to refute …

Humanity On The Verge Of Insanity: Maintaining Cultural Identity Against Oppressive Rule, Danica Katarina Skoric

Senior Theses

Ubuntu is a South African term in the Bantu language that translates to “human kindness.” This essay discusses the present-day impact of the South African philosophical concept of Ubuntu in light of the dehumanization, which Aboriginal Australians and Black South Africans faced, specifically during the period of 1960-1985. How has humanity been enslaved and degraded by assimilation and a cruel division of races, yet positively evolved and progressed due to the efforts of both female and male activists--in particular literary figure Oodgeroo Noonuccal and political leader Nelson Mandela? A lack of respect and tolerance as a result of colonialism has …

Hemingway And The Soča Front, Rebecca Johnston

English Department Theses

In 1918 Ernest M. Hemingway served along the Soča Front during the last months of the Great War. Better known as the Isonzo Front, the Soča Front was the battle lines between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy. The history of this front is connected to the First World War from the very beginning. Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms (FTA), several of his poems, and the Nick Adams’ stories are all based on the First World War. For this reason, the study of the history behind the war is important in order to better understand Hemingway’s works connected …

Sexual Assault Prevention On College Campuses, Using Community Based Participatory Research Strategies To Craft A Creative Response, Adrianne Beer

Honors Projects

Sexual assault prevention and education programs have been working to develop successful ways to decrease sexual assault for almost to decades. Research has shown that despite efforts there has yet to be a program that effects statistics regarding campus sexual assault. This essay addresses several issues that explain why prevention programs have fallen short. It includes the study of victim blaming, the college party narrative, stranger rape, and bystander intervention. Examples from first hand reports of sexual assault and the study of BGSU prevention programs are used. The essay also addresses how our culture plays a role in sexual assault, …

A Stiff, Brocaded Gown: Patterns In The Life Of Amy Lowell, Emily Jinju Cottam

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Amy Lowell's poetry serves as a reflection of the challenges and struggles that permeated her life. Her late entry into the world of published poetry at the age of 38 resulted in the presentation of already-solidified beliefs that she had developed since childhood. Although the techniques she employed and the quality of her writing varied in the last decades of her life, Lowell's focus on imagery, rhythm, and mood remained consistent in many of her works. Published in 1916, the poem "Patterns", from Men, Women, and Ghosts, contains themes that are of particular note when placed into the context of …

Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Empowerment Through Mimicry, Daniel Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

My collection is a polythetic assortment of poetry, prose poetry, monologue and drama that serves as a polyglottic exhibition of empowerment through mimicry. Like a mockingbird, whom the Aztecs call “cenzontle” in their Nahuatl tongue, my writer’s voice is polyvoiced. I include in this collection an eclectic variety of voices: personas, languages, forms, styles, and identities—often mixing them, in part to entertain and in part to challenge my boundaries as a writer, to stretch my vocal chords, so to speak, but also in part to challenge the lingering prejudice against such mestizaje—or meeting and mixing of cultures (and also voices)—and …

Life As I Know It: My Story Told Through Poetry, Leah T. Montoya

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This is a collection of poems and prose pieces, that cover love, loss, and everything in between.

Belt Of Pearls, Danielle Lee Henry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Belt of Pearls is a collection of poems concerned with the idea of home in both places and in

people. The speaker wrestles with dissatisfaction with home as a place of origin. The ties of

family, familiar landmarks, and old relationships are outgrown; the feeling of belonging becomes

associated with a lover instead. The poems attempt to locate relationships in geographical scenes

largely through the language of weather and flora. Images of light and the way it strikes a scene

are particularly important. Influences of the collection include Robert Hass, Tracy K. Smith, and

Deborah Landau.

Table Of The Sun, Christine Bettis

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My creative thesis is a 48-page collection of poems titled Table of the Sun. Each poem is an intimate interrogation of varied ecological, romantic, and/or political disasters ranging from the Dakota Access Pipeline, cruel love, and Donald Trump. Some poems are reckonings, and others work to heal trauma, heartache, clinical illness, and supernatural afflictions like those experienced by the Tarantati of Puglia. Some are combative, it's true. Water is everywhere and it is multitudinous as an agent of destruction, cleansing, and transformation, and as a life-giver. The collection was influenced by readings, lectures, and courses I've experienced at UNLV, including …

The F Word: A Compilation Of Feminist Poetry, Chelsea Adams

Honors Projects

This is an interdisciplinary project between creative writing and women’s studies that attempts to showcase different aspects of feminism from the female perspective through poetry. Throughout my poems, there are multiple different voices raising concern and awareness about a variety of subject matters within feminism, such as basic human rights, violence against women, sexuality, current (and possibly future) political moves and motives for feminism, how feminism is perceived by the public, how women are often times viewed by men and this society, and how feminism and feminists are perceived by anti-feminists. Some of these poems come from my own personal …

The Neon Gods We Made, Max Funk

Honors Projects

The Neon Gods We Made is a collection of 3 plays and 21 poems. In this collection I explore the concept of religion as an ideology, or as a body of knowledge that has some specific function in society as a whole—while I focus primarily on culture of the United States, there are broader trends in the use of ideology that are applicable to other countries/cultures as well. With this project, I am primarily interested in the links between organized religion, personal spirituality, and the influence of culture on both the more formal and informal aspects of one’s spirituality. Primarily, …