American Literature Commons^™

Racism Recognized And The Reformation Of The South In Ernest Gaines‘, La Toya Session

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

According to Ernest Gaines‘ personal experiences as a Southerner, without addressing the history of slavery, the quest for human dignity becomes meaningless. The discourses and the ideologies of the characters in AGathering of Old Men represent a call for social change. A Gathering of Old Men is however, more than just a novel about whites dominating blacks; it is a novel about the fight for humanity in spite of the threat of a new social order. The social repercussions of slavery and the denial of black manhood are central issues in A Gathering of Old Men, but Gaines also exhibits …

Moral Performances: Melodrama And Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Jeffrey Taylor Pusch

Dissertations

Despite a high number of ticket sales, theater reviews, and innumerable letters and diary entries detailing trips to the theater, the stereotype that theater in nineteenth-century America was almost culturally invisible continued well into the twentieth century. Indeed, a scan of anthologies of American literature fails to yield any examples of nineteenth-century drama, even though figures like Henry James were also theater critics and playwrights. Just as it did in American life, theater exhibits a strong presence in the literature of the time. Considering theater’s pervasiveness, this dissertation seeks to restore it to its proper place in our study of …

Barking At Death: Hemingway, Africa, And The Stages Of Dying, James Plath

Scholarship

From amazon.com: Considering the time Hemingway spent not only on the safaris but also in preparing for them beforehand and writing about them afterwards, Africa was a major factor in his life and work. But surprisingly little scholarship has been devoted to this aspect of Hemingway's oeuvre. This book fills that empty niche, opening the way for a long-delayed and multi-faceted conversation on a neglected aspect of Hemingway's work. Topics treated include historical, theoretical, biographical, theological, and literary interpretations of Hemingway's African topics and motifs.

Stuart, Jesse Hilton, 1907-1984 (Sc 2486), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2486. Letter from Jesse Stuart to Riley Handy, 8 February 1975, confirming Lee and Joy Pennington as the subjects of a work which he names as "Which Tree Would You Rather Be," and its suitability as a morality tale for children.

Table Of Contents

The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard & Pulp Studies

Prefatory Remarks, by Mark E. Hall

Jeffrey Catherine Jones (1944 - 2011), rememberance by Charles Hoffman

"Ode," poem in memoriam by Charles Hoffman

Howard's Escape?, letter by Barbara Barrett

Castration Anxiety, letter by Jeffrey Shanks

Acknowledgements

Faction and Fiction in "Barack the Barbarian," by Jeffrey Kahan

Gloria, by Rusty Burke and Rob Roehm

Theosophy and the Thurian Age: Robert E. Howard and the Works of William Scott-Elliot, by Jeffrey Shanks

"Howard's Horror," review by Jason Ray Carney

"Black Wings:" Lovecraft's Widening Gyre, review by John Goodrich

"Malygris, Malnéant, and Malinbois, Nut No Malfeasance," review by Steve Tompkins

Briefly Noted, by …

A Psychoanalytical Approach To Bich Minh Nguyen's Stealing Buddha's Dinner, Wenying Xu

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

Racial minorities in the U.S. are often tormented by the tension between the corporeal and the ontological, with the former experienced as confining and the latter expansive. Such ambivalence often expresses itself in one's relationship with food. Here I propose to illustrate how Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytical theory on desire can assist us in understanding ethnicity as a bodily performance, which I venture to call an embodied ontology, applying this concept to Bich Minh Nguyen's Stealing Buddha's Dinner (2007).

Brashear, William Helm, 1855-1942 (Mss 14), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 14. Manuscripts of William Helm Brashear's poems, essays, play, and eulogy of Clarence Underwood McElroy. A few letters (6) and many clippings of his published works are included. Also scrapbooks have published poems pasted in them (3). Brashear was from Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Historicizing The Present In 9/11 Fiction, Todd Kuchta

Re-visioning Terrorism

Reconfiguring the debate on the historical efficacy of postmodern fiction, novels inspired by 9/11 seek to view the present itself as history. McEwan’s Saturday, DeLillo’s Falling Man, and Hamid’s Reluctant Fundamentalist attempt to move beyond the view of history-as-text. Rather than evoking “the presence of the past,” they present characters trying to situate themselves in a new historical reality. Žižek’s account of Lacan illuminates DeLillo’s attempt to historicize the present, while McEwan gestures toward Foucault’s view of the present as exit. Only Hamid engages the historical potential of the present.

Terrorist Or Victim? Comparative Analysis Of The Characters In Jess Walter’S The Zero And Khaled Khalifa’S In Praise Of Hatred, Chloé Tazartez

Re-visioning Terrorism

The characters of Jess Walter’s novel and Khaled Khalifa’s are built as figures of terrorist or victim. According to Bertrand Gervais’ theory, a figure is first of all an object of obsession. The characters of these novels obsess us, questioning our cultural references which permit us to define who represents the terrorist and who represents the victim. Both novels play with these categories, underlining the manipulations of the images through various discourses. This questioning of usual conceptions is built through the use of lost characters, unable to communicate or simply live. These characters illustrate a crisis of the contemporary imaginary …

“The City, The Country, And The Road Between”: The 2011 Lion And The Unicorn Award For Excellence In North American Poetry, Michael Heyman, Michael Joseph, Joseph T. Thomas Jr.

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Adcock, James Pringle, 1856-1951 (Mss 11), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 11. Originals of poems entitled "Frost-bitten Epigrams" written by James Pringle Adcock of Livingston County, Kentucky during the years 1939-1946. Also correspondence, 1932-1953, related to the collection.

Dark Consciousness: Theory Of Mind And Henry James’S The Golden Bowl, Adam Maillet

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Using the psychological concepts of Theory of Mind and embodied cognition, the author explores and questions the traditional readings of Henry James's novel, The Golden Bowl, and its protagonist, Maggie Verver. Although the majority of critics view her as a positive character, James takes great effort to subvert her thoughts and mislead the reader. Despite lacking a modern technical vocabulary, James remains acutely aware of how human cognitive structures both process a text and function within a social setting.

Mormon Contributions To Young Adult Literature, Toni Pilcher

Student Works

Mormon authors are making big splashes in the world of young adult (YA) literature, a relatively young genre that is targeted at readers from age 12 to age 18. Since 1967, when the American Library Association officially recognized YA literature as separate from children's books, writers and publishers have been trying to define the genre. It is, in a sense, coming of age. Generally, to be considered YA, a book has to have a teenage protagonist in situations with which a teenage reader can identify. Like literature for adults, there are a few limitations to subject and theme, but unlike …

Davis, Anne Pence, 1901-1982 (Mss 373), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 373. Correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, publications and associated material relating to the literary career of Anne Pence Davis, a poet, reviewer, novelist, and author of juvenile fiction who grew up in Bowling Green, Kentucky and lived in Wichita Falls, Texas after her marriage.

"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 and Dissertations

This project explores the New Woman as developed and defined through the literature of Kate Chopin.

Poetry And The Multiple Drafts Model: The Functional Similarity Of Cole Swensen's Verse And Human Consciousness, Connor Ryan Kreimeyer Fisher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project compares the operational methods of three of Cole Swensen's books of poetry (Such Rich Hour, Try, and Goest) with ways in which the human mind and consciousness function. I use Daniel Dennett's Multiple Drafts Model of consciousness, as described in Consciousness Explained, alongside concepts presented in several other philosophical works (from both analytic and continental traditions), to demonstrate that significant similarities exist between the operations of poetry and consciousness in general, and that these operational similarities are especially noticeable in Swensen's work. This thesis examines several operational modes that are present within the …

Writing The Female Body In Alvarez's In The Time Of The Butterflies, Darren K. Broome

The Coastal Review

Julia Alvarez in In the Time of the Butterflies utilizes the female body and sexuality to combat male dominated rhetoric. The use of the female body retrieves women’s forgotten role as subjects instead of objects as seen in male-oriented novel. Expressing sexuality in a way that is determined by women, she discovers new means of verbal or written expression. The female body emerges as a form of expression in Butterflies which at times is connected to one of the characters’ revolutionary participation.

"Keep The Inmost Me Behind Its Veil:" Nathaniel Hawthorne's Manipulation Of Boundaries As Lessons In Craft, Molly Mary Mclaughlin

Graduate Masters Theses

In a letter written after her husband's death, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne spoke of a veil Nathaniel Hawthorne had drawn around himself during his life. This complicated metaphor is an echo from Hawthorne's work and life, where the construction of boundaries that are solid but not opaque, allow the writer to conceal and draw attention to the cart of concealment without revealing what, if anything, is hidden. That Hawthorne carefully considered what he would and would not reveal is clear in many of his works, and in pieces like "The Minister's Black Veil," where the act of concealment draws rather than …

Crabb, Alfred Leland, 1884-1979 (Mss 367), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and bibliography (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 367. Correspondence, book and article manuscripts, and research material of Alfred Leland Crabb, a native of Warren County, Kentucky and later professor at George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. The topics of the manuscripts include historical fiction related to Nashville and Bowling Green, biographies of prominent Nashvillians, and articles on all levels of education. Much of the unpublished material is fiction but draws from Crabb's Plum Springs school days and his student experiences at Western Kentucky University.

Authors Correspondence (Mss 358), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 358.  Correspondence between authors or poets and staff of the Kentucky Library & Museum, primarily regarding donations of their works and available library holdings.  Correspondents also write about their activities and work in progress.