Norman Berg And The Literary Formation Of Pat Conroy,
2026
University of North Florida
Norman Berg And The Literary Formation Of Pat Conroy, Jacob Lupfer
The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature
No abstract provided.
Voice Of The Frog: Found Poetry And The Revelation Of An Eastern Aesthetic In The Creative Works Of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings,
2026
Rowan University
Voice Of The Frog: Found Poetry And The Revelation Of An Eastern Aesthetic In The Creative Works Of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Antoinette Libro
The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature
No abstract provided.
“Ora’S Deep Lament”: Inspired By Mk Rawlings And My Persevering Pioneer Great-Grandmother,
2026
University of Central Florida
“Ora’S Deep Lament”: Inspired By Mk Rawlings And My Persevering Pioneer Great-Grandmother, Kathlyne Mcdonald Walkup Sheppard
The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature
No abstract provided.
The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal Of Florida Literature, Volume Xxxiii (2026): Full Issue,
2026
University of Central Florida
The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal Of Florida Literature, Volume Xxxiii (2026): Full Issue
The Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Journal of Florida Literature
No abstract provided.
The Confidence-Man Goes To The Moving Panorama: Herman Melville’S Confidence Narrator And United States Imperialism,
2026
Missouri State University
The Confidence-Man Goes To The Moving Panorama: Herman Melville’S Confidence Narrator And United States Imperialism, Bradley J. Lee
Graduate Theses/Dissertations
This thesis argues that Herman Melville fashioned his novel The Confidence-Man; His Masquerade (1857) after the moving panorama, a popular entertainment technology contemporary with the novel. More specifically, the thesis argues that the novel recalls Banvard’s Mississippi Panorama (1846). Using Jay Leyda’s The Melville Log and John Hanners’ record of Banvard’s performances, I establish beyond reasonable doubt the possibility that Melville saw this painting, or, at the very least, was aware of it, its content, and its social position. Tracing the novel’s engagement with this panorama reveals what seems at first to be its imperialist, Manifest Destinarian undertones. The novel’s …
Models Of Emulation: Representations Of Foreign, Indigenous, And Accented Speech In Early American Literature,
2026
University at Albany, State University of New York
Models Of Emulation: Representations Of Foreign, Indigenous, And Accented Speech In Early American Literature, Elaina A. Frulla
Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)
“Models of Emulation: Representations of Foreign, Indigenous, and Accented Speech in Early American Literature” explores how American writers used depictions of “nonstandard” English and accented English language speech, traditionally described as “literary dialect,” as a way to negotiate identity, power, and political belonging in the formative years of nation building after the American Revolution. Beginning with Noah Webster’s mission to establish a standardized pronunciation of the English language that would simplify and purify spoken American-English and definitively differentiate it from what he saw as the corrupted, cosmopolitan British-English model, each of the three chapters examines literary representations of nonstandard emulated …
(Re)Making Our Own Monsters: Critical Posthumanism And Youth Activism In The Wild Ones,
2026
Old Dominion University
(Re)Making Our Own Monsters: Critical Posthumanism And Youth Activism In The Wild Ones, Judith Dunkerly-Boulanger
Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications
This study examines the graphic novel The Wild Ones through a critical posthumanist lens and multimodal content analysis (MMCA) to explore its portrayal of youth activism, cultural diversity, and interconnectedness. The story follows four children who summon monsters from their cultural folklore to resist capitalist developers’ demolition of their apartment building. The analysis identifies three key themes: wildness as a source of constructive power, the challenge to anthropocentric narratives, and intersectional youth empowerment. The book subverts traditional hierarchies by blending human and nonhuman agency and emphasizing relational networks among humans, nonhumans, and the environment. The monsters serve as symbols of …
An Investigation Into The Scottsdale Art Week: Cultural Focus, Location, And Sustainability In An Already Saturated Environment,
2026
Sotheby's Institute of Art
An Investigation Into The Scottsdale Art Week: Cultural Focus, Location, And Sustainability In An Already Saturated Environment, Sophia K. Meshel
MA Theses
This thesis examines the role of regional art fairs within the wider American art market and examines how these events contribute to the growth of local cultural artistic ecosystems. While firmly established international art fairs often dominate attention within the global market, lesser known regional fairs play an important role in connecting artists, galleries, collectors, and cultural platforms within specific communities. Through analysis of established regional fairs and consideration of factors such as artist selection, audience engagement, institutional partnerships, and economic impact, this study investigates how art fairs can move beyond temporary commercial events to become meaningful cultural platforms. Particular …
Living The American Dystopia: Parallels Between Louise Erdrich's Future Home Of The Living God, Leni Zumas's Red Clocks, And Us Abortion Legislation,
2026
University of Montana, Missoula
Living The American Dystopia: Parallels Between Louise Erdrich's Future Home Of The Living God, Leni Zumas's Red Clocks, And Us Abortion Legislation, Erin R. Walden
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
This thesis highlights the parallels between contemporary U.S. culture and legislation (particularly after the overturning of Roe v. Wade) and two pieces of feminist speculative fiction: Louise Erdrich’s novel Future Home of the Living God and Leni Zumas’s Red Clocks. Through a rhetorical analysis of political and cultural discourse, legislation, and the two novels, utilizing the frameworks of theorists such as Catharine MacKinnon, Michel Foucault, and Stacy Alaimo, I investigate the similarities in legislation, culture, rhetoric, and atmospheres of reproductive dystopian fiction and our current political environment after the U.S. Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health …
Illusions Of Fairness And Sacrifice,
2026
University of Montana, Missoula
Illusions Of Fairness And Sacrifice, Brady Schwertfeger
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
The American West is a shifting landscape. An incongruous expanse of isolation and urbanity, wilderness and extraction, wealth and welfare, clear water and fire. Fifteen years ago, I moved to my mother’s ancestral homeland of Montana, and have been here ever since. Before that, I was born and raised in Texas, both the West and the South (and often something else entirely), depending on who you ask. My experiences in this region have shaped me indelibly, and have inspired this collection of essays built around culture, politics, and justice in the West. “Pinedale, Wyoming” considers the musician as itinerant wanderer …
Cormac’S Court: Knights Without God In A Savage Land; Or, Chivalry And Existentialism In Cormac Mccarthy’S The Road,
2026
University of Montana, Missoula
Cormac’S Court: Knights Without God In A Savage Land; Or, Chivalry And Existentialism In Cormac Mccarthy’S The Road, Zoë Margaret Metelerkamp
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
Cormac McCarthy scholars have examined the influence of romantic grail quest literature and existential philosophy on McCarthy’s oeuvre, but they have treated these subjects independently of each other. This thesis offers a novel exploration of McCarthy’s use of these specific philosophical and literary precedents by focusing on the ways The Road unifies medieval literary principles in Chretien’s Perceval with the existential chivalry Søren Kierkegaard extrapolates in Fear and Trembling.
Octavia E. Butler's Healing Heroines: An Exploration Of Black Girl Magic In The Patternist Series,
2026
Antioch University
Octavia E. Butler's Healing Heroines: An Exploration Of Black Girl Magic In The Patternist Series, Monique Skinner
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
This study explores the concept of healing as Black Girl Magic in the five novels that make up Octavia E. Butler’s Patternist series. Through textual analysis backed in Afrofuturist theory the study answers the questions: How does Butler depict Black women as healers in the Patternist series? and What is her vision of Black women in the Afrofuture? On a deeper level, the study uses character analysis to examine the literary trope of the Black woman healer and how her magical power translates as literal Black Girl Magic. Through a journey of speculative literary discovery, we uncover the archetypes of …
The Phenomenon Of Church Growth Through Authenticity: How African American Gen Z Christians Are Sharing The Gospel Of Jesus Christ Without The Program Structure Of The Black Baptist Church,
2026
Antioch University
The Phenomenon Of Church Growth Through Authenticity: How African American Gen Z Christians Are Sharing The Gospel Of Jesus Christ Without The Program Structure Of The Black Baptist Church, Devin E. West
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
This dissertation examines the perspectives of Black Generation Z Christians regarding factors within the Black Baptist church that may limit their full engagement. In this study, the Black Baptist church refers to congregations with predominantly Black membership led by Black pastors. Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, is forming its religious identity within a rapidly changing cultural and institutional environment. Historically, the Black Church has served as a central institution in African American communities, functioning as a place of worship as well as a source of social support, leadership development, identity formation, and justice advocacy (Lincoln & Mamiya, 1990). …
White Fear/Black Apprehension, Volume 2: An Analysis Of The Racialized Targeting Of African Americans In The Educational System, In The Southern U.S. States, Circa 1865–1965,
2026
Antioch University
White Fear/Black Apprehension, Volume 2: An Analysis Of The Racialized Targeting Of African Americans In The Educational System, In The Southern U.S. States, Circa 1865–1965, Christopher Donell Gipson
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
For African Americans, the legacy of racial oppression extends across centuries, from the transatlantic slave trade and enslavement to the persistence of institutionalized racism, White supremacy, racial violence, and structural inequality within the United States. These racialized systems are reproduced intergenerationally through social institutions, education, media, political discourse, historical narratives, and cultural representations that repeatedly normalize negative constructions of Africans and African Americans. Such representations operate on conscious and subconscious levels, shaping social attitudes, institutional practices, and perceptions of racial difference. As argued in White Fear / Black Apprehension: An Analysis of White European American Racism and Mob Violence Through …
Hope For The Drowned: Baptism, Faith, And The Open Community Of Grace In Marilynne Robinson’S Housekeeping And Lila,
2026
University of Montana
Hope For The Drowned: Baptism, Faith, And The Open Community Of Grace In Marilynne Robinson’S Housekeeping And Lila, Mackenzie M. Miller
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
This thesis explores the baptismal imagery across two of Marilynne Robinson’s novels, Housekeeping and Lila. The hermeneutic used to understand baptism is based on some of the works of Rowan Williams, Mircea Eliade, and Northrop Frye. In its death and rebirth function, baptism is understood for its connection to the formation of self and identity. Baptism is also explored as a means of community initiation. Further, connecting these two baptismal functions, this thesis also looks at the role community plays in the formation of that identity. In this process, I compare Housekeeping’s Ruth and Lila’s titular character; …
Heart Of Stone: Geomorphization Through Stone-Oriented Affects,
2026
University of Montana, Missoula
Heart Of Stone: Geomorphization Through Stone-Oriented Affects, Grace F. Foster
Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers
This thesis draws from the work of geologist Marcia Bjornerud to bring a scientific (specifically geologic) understanding of humanity’s relationship to our home planet to bear in a literary context. I employ Bjornerud’s term “geomorphization” to expand from inter-species kinship to inter-substance kinship and to establish stone as an active, lively subject without relying on anthropomorphization. Geomorphization as I define it refers to recognizing similarity between ourselves and stone/Earth on the basis of our stoniness rather than stone’s human-ness. Geomorphizing ourselves entails what Bjornerud calls “timefulness,” a geologic perspective on temporality that sees the past as continually acting in the …
White Lies Of Time: Temporal Racialization In 19th-20th Century American Literature,
2026
West Virginia University
White Lies Of Time: Temporal Racialization In 19th-20th Century American Literature, Yu Uchida
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)
By examining mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century American literary texts, this dissertation project aims to theorize the ways in which whiteness relies on conceptualizations of time to hegemonize non-white subjects and prescribe their historical representations. Because whiteness is dynamic in its emergence and effects and ubiquitous in sociopolitical and cultural realms, this dissertation holistically turns to white, Black, and Indigenous writers to delineate how whiteness functions throughout the period and how racialized subjects negotiate it. Portraying the nation’s history as lived experience rather than objectified knowledge, the racialized authors I examine undermine the concept of linear progressive time that subtends structural …
The Strange Made Beautiful, The Beautiful Made Strange: Dime Museums, Freak Shows, And The Circassian Beauty In 19th-Century American Popular Culture,
2025
University of Massachusetts Boston
The Strange Made Beautiful, The Beautiful Made Strange: Dime Museums, Freak Shows, And The Circassian Beauty In 19th-Century American Popular Culture, Emma P. Lovejoy
Graduate Masters Theses
In the fall of 1864, the infamous showman P. T. Barnum premiered a new human oddity exhibit at his American Museum in New York City. Unlike most of the other freak performers there, there was nothing inherently extraordinary about the body of the woman who he introduced as “Zalumma Agra, the Star of the East.” Instead, she had intentionally teased her hair into a mane of curls unfashionable and uncommon for Caucasian women, and dressed in a costume meant to evoke Turkish or more broadly Near Eastern aesthetics. To explain and elevate her unusual appearance, Barnum (or another of the …
Guidos And Grenades: Shaming Discourses In Mtv’S Jersey Shore,
2025
Texas Tech University
Guidos And Grenades: Shaming Discourses In Mtv’S Jersey Shore, Mackenzie K. Mickavicz Ms., Aubree A. Herman
Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy
MTV’s Jersey Shore, launched in 2009, reached nearly 9 million viewers at the peak of its popularity. Inspired by the language used by the show’s male cast members to criticize a woman’s weight and appearance, such as “grenade” and “atomic bomb,” this study applies social congitive theory and reality television framework to analyze instances of shaming on Jersey Shore. Through a mixed-methods analysis, this study identifies the various forms of shaming depicted and explores how gender dynamics and character relationships affect these interactions. Findings reveal the most frequent forms of shaming, shame targets, and shame initiators as well as …
The Politics Of Style: How Black Fashion Redefined Identity In The Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1970s),
2025
Wayne State University
The Politics Of Style: How Black Fashion Redefined Identity In The Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1970s), Ava Saleh
Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research
This paper explores how fashion served as a powerful political tool during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-70s, tracing its evolution from the polished Sunday Best to the Afro and militant style of the Black Panther Party. By examining respectability politics, the rise of the Black is Beautiful movement, and the Black Panthers’ visual strategies, this research explores how clothing and style reflected shifting approaches to resistance. It argues that Black Americans used fashion to challenge Eurocentric standards, reclaim heritage, and express pride, leaving a legacy of empowerment that continues to influence social movements.
