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Full-Text Articles in American Studies
"The New Millennium's Passion For Standing Live Witness To Things:” The Epidemiology Of Isolation, Addiction And Redemption In David Foster Wallace’S Infinite Jest, Natalie C. Helberg
"The New Millennium's Passion For Standing Live Witness To Things:” The Epidemiology Of Isolation, Addiction And Redemption In David Foster Wallace’S Infinite Jest, Natalie C. Helberg
All Student Theses
Infinite Jest is a one-thousand, seventy-nine page novel and it weighs almost three pounds; it is heavy in a literal and a spiritual sense. The novel is David Foster Wallace’s greatest achievement. It portrays characters who are dramatically isolated from one another and who cannot cope without some form of addiction. This addiction manifests itself in the form of an extreme dependence on drugs and/or technology to escape reality. This thesis first discusses the effects of technology on a society that is lonely and isolated. Then, two major characters with substance abuse issues are analyzed in an effort to understand …
Redefining The Gothic: How The Works Of Carson Mccullers, Tennessee Williams & Flannery O'Connor Retained Gothic Roots And Shaped The Southern Gothic, Sarah N. Koehler
Redefining The Gothic: How The Works Of Carson Mccullers, Tennessee Williams & Flannery O'Connor Retained Gothic Roots And Shaped The Southern Gothic, Sarah N. Koehler
All Student Theses
My aim in this thesis is to explore the commonalities between Carson McCullers, Tennessee Williams and Flannery O’Connor, particularly in terms of three main themes: isolation, the pervasion of American normalcy and gender roles. While each of these authors clearly inserts some autobiographical information into his or her characters, the real commonalities between the fictional characters can be found in their inability to fit into a traditional society; the characters in all three authors’ works are outcasts, pushed to the fringes of their communities or their families because of who they are. Sometimes these characters’ desire to be different is …
"When Love Is Born In A Cage Not Of Lts Own Building ": The New Woman And Fiction Of Kate Chopin, Jennifer Battistoni
"When Love Is Born In A Cage Not Of Lts Own Building ": The New Woman And Fiction Of Kate Chopin, Jennifer Battistoni
All Student Theses
This project explores the New Woman as developed and defined through the literature of Kate Chopin.
"Undone By Murmurs Of Love": Traumatic Legacies And The Struggle For Personal And Communal Identity Formation In Toni Morrison's Trilogy, Fida Yasin
All Student Theses
Implications of racial oppression on personal and collective African American identity formation in Toni Morrison’s trilogy are explored in this thesis. Morrison reconstructs African American history in her trilogy, but she also enacts a cultural healing through content and form. Impossible choices are made by characters in Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise who are influenced by the racial trauma they experience and inherit. The legacies of oppression--traumatic memories, fragmentation, stereotypes and negative associations—distort the way these characters view themselves and one another. They are disoriented, isolated, and displaced. Characters recover from their past trauma— together—when they share their stories. …
“The Day Everything Became Nothing”: Finding Meaning In The Postapocalyptic, Joe Chellino
“The Day Everything Became Nothing”: Finding Meaning In The Postapocalyptic, Joe Chellino
All Student Theses
Explored in this work are three texts: Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road; Douglas Coupland’s novel, Girlfriend in a Coma; and Robert Kirkman’s ongoing serialized comic book, The Walking Dead. After a discussion of apocalyptic and postapocalyptic fictions and their ubiquity and popularity in contemporary culture, each work will be analyzed individually to explore each author’s message regarding postapocalyptic concerns. These three texts have been chosen as each represents a point along a loose continuum of high-to-low art. Primarily, this thesis will focus on how each author approaches systems of meaning-making and systems of understanding in postapocalyptic settings …
Gothic Representations: History, Literature, And Film, Daniel Gould
Gothic Representations: History, Literature, And Film, Daniel Gould
All Student Theses
Gothic storytelling has come a long way since the publication of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in 1764. This short novel created the standard motifs and tropes that will forever be associated with the genre-the destitute castle, the foreboding atmosphere, supernatural or inexplicable events, omens, prophecies, heroes, villains, and of course, a deteriorating world facilitated by the unconscious evils within hwnanity causing the complete destabilization of society.
This paper will examine the evolution of Gothic fiction and how it has been represented from its romantic heritage and Victorian upbringing to the American Gothic traditions of the nineteenth century and …