Appalachian Studies Commons^™

Covert Determiners In Appalachian English Narrative Declarative Sentences, William Oliver

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis, I explore the syntax and semantics of covert determiners (Ds) in matrix subject determiner phrases (DPs) with definite specific interpretations. To conduct my investigation, I used the Audio-Aligned and Parsed Corpus of Appalachian English (AAPCAppE), a million-word Penn Treebank corpus, and the software CorpusSearch, a Java program that searches Penn Treebank corpora. My research shows that Appalachian English contains a linguistic phenomenon where speakers drop the D, replacing overt Ds with covert Ds, in definite specific DPs. For example, where Standard English speakers say The doctor came by horseback, Appalachian speakers may use a covert D …

The Appalachian Nostos: Pastoralism And Returning Home In Appalachian Poetry, Henry David Thoreau Kilbourne

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

“Infantry Would Not Do:” Appalachia, The Environment, And The Evolution Of Mountain Warfare During The American Civil War, Lucas Michael Wilder

Theses and Dissertations

Union General Ambrose E. Burnside launched his invasion of East Tennessee in the summer of 1863. The corps he used consisted of half-infantry and half-mounted units to utilize their speed to overcome mountain obstacles. The successful campaign and the capture of the agriculturally rich region of East Tennessee and its vital East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad deprived the Confederacy of resources, ultimately contributing to Confederate defeat. The American Civil War saw commanders plunge into the mountains of Appalachia and encounter a terrain and a people with which many were unacquainted. This dissertation argues that their tactics and strategies for dealing …

“But For Those Of Us Who Live Here”: Performance Of Work And Community By Women Employed In Rural, Predominantly White, Small-Town Schools, Telena M. Turner

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Rural, small towns are incredibly complex cultural centers. Although rural places are consistently portrayed as unchanging, the operation of cultural and identity within these locations is consistently on the move. Using reflexive interviewing, poetic transcription, autoethnographic writing, this project (re)presents poems on community and identity from five women employed in schools in rural, mostly White, small towns in the Central Appalachian region. Analyzing the poems through concepts in performance studies and work on space and place, this project positions movement and change at the center of small towns and examines how notions of rural place and community are performed through …

Jesse Stuart Manuscript Collection, Jesse Hilton Stuart

Morehead State University Manuscripts Collections

MS077-1991

A Claiming Of Kin: A Linguistic Analysis Of Southern Appalachian English In Melissa Range's Scriptorium: Poems, Jolee White

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The research studies the Southern Appalachian dialect present in five poems in Melissa Range’s Scriptorium: Poems. The linguistic phenomena characteristic of Southern Appalachian English observed and analyzed in the poems include lexicon, grammatical features, and phonological aspects. The research seeks to bring attention to this Appalachian woman writer as well as to bring understanding of her reasoning behind incorporating the dialect in her poetry. It establishes that the five poems by Range contain the lexicon, grammatical features, and phonological aspects of the SAE dialect. It holds meaning both grammatically and pragmatically within the context of the poem and Appalachia.

Coal, Land, And Ideology: Inventions Of Appalachia In The Mind Of The American Ruling Class, Zachary Harris

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Appalachia, itself a difficult to resolutely define region, has undergone the economic forces of colonialism and industrializing capitalism which allow for an excellent case study to apply Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony. No American region’s national conception is likely to have been as varied and often misrepresented as that of Appalachia. From the Revolutionary American State’s invention of early white settlers as the virtuous yeoman of the Republic to the modern perception of Appalachia as backwards, conservative, and drug-addled, shifting national economic conditions resulted in a constant invention of Appalachia in congruence. Whenever the people residing in Appalachia, whether Black, …

Echoes Of Home, Hanna Traynham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses her Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Echoes of Home, held at the Tipton Gallery in Johnson City, Tennessee on display March 15 through April 8, 2022. The author provides insight into concepts and influences relating to the creation of the exhibition with perspective on her intimate connection with place and memory.

The exhibit features five installations addressing home, elusive memory, and the change and continuity of cultural traditions over time. The works consist of a series of large-scale wild clay vessels, gestural clay bookends, a wall installation of cups with a line drawing, suspended porcelain slabs, …

Visions Of Christ In The Dollmaker, Ray Fine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the characters’ ideas of religion as seen in The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow, a full image of who Christ is in World War II America is shown. While the text appears to critique certain images of Christ through the characters’ representations, the greater, more conclusive argument advocating religious diversity is proven. The characters, instead of having their representation of Christ based in only the Christian denomination from which they come, represent Christ through their character traits.

Exploring The Regional Traditions Of Fiddling, Anna N. Eyink

Student Theses

During the 1600s, the modern violin traveled from Italy to the British Isles and North America. The instrument became a vital piece of each region's musical culture, and distinct fiddling traditions became established in Ireland, Scotland, Cape Breton, and America. This thesis explores the history of the Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Appalachian, and bluegrass fiddling traditions. Additionally, the performance practices of each style are discussed in depth and are related back to the traditional tunes recorded as a part of this project.

Into The Woods: Freedom And The Forest In The Hunger Games, Robert B. Hackey

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

Forests are contested terrains in literature. The woods are a bucolic setting far removed from the hectic, bustling world of the city or the grueling challenges of industrial life. At the same time, however, the forest challenges us – in the woods, we must take stock of ourselves, overcome unfamiliar obstacles, and face our fears. The forested settings of the Hunger Games – both natural and manmade – force tributes to wrestle with the nature of human freedom. Drawing upon political theorists from Thomas Hobbes to Isaiah Berlin, my paper also explores how tributes face a choice between positive and …

Navigating The Public Funding Landscape: Lessons From One Small, Isolated, Rural, Arts Organization, Elise L. Kieffer

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

This study follows the experience of one arts organization in an isolated, rural, Appalachian community of Kentucky, to explore the relationship between the NEA and the state arts agencies with which they partner. Using the case study of Burkesville Academy of Fine Arts as an inspiration, this question is explored: If BAFA had received necessary technical support from the KAC, is it likely that it might have been awarded funding by the NEA? The study compares BAFA to organizations in comparable communities who received NEA funding. Following findings, suggestions for policy and practice are provided.

Triggered Emasculation In Southern Literature: Applying The Masculine Overcompensation Thesis, Delaney Holt

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Coined by Stanford University sociologists Dr. Rob Willer and Dr. Christabel L. Rogalin in 2005, the masculine overcompensation thesis asserts that a man will reciprocate challenges to his masculinity with his own intense display(s) of masculinity. This new thesis combined the preliminary research completed by Adler and Freud, offering a new perspective on masculinity. Alongside societal and psychological applications, the masculine overcompensation thesis can also be applied to fictional literary relationships, especially within the pages of three southern novels: Lewis Nordan’s Wolf Whistle, Ron Rash’s One Foot in Eden, and Lewis Nordan’s The Sharpshooter Blues. A common thread of overcompensatory …

"The Bottom Would Drop Out Of Everything": A Brief History Of The Battle For Blair Mountain, Brandon Neely

Student Publications

In the summer of 1921, thousands of Appalachian miners took up arms and marched in southwest West Virginia. Fighting back against attacks on miners' unions like the United Mine Workers of America, the conflict quickly turned violent. The Battle for Blair Mountain, as it came to be known, was one of the largest labor strikes in American history and impacted the history of the Coal Wars and the United States for decades to come. This analysis uses interviews with people who experienced the battle as well as the speeches of labor leaders Samuel Gompers and John Lewis to discuss the …

Progress In The Bluegrass: An Analysis Of Grassroots Organizing In Kentucky Post 1970, Brooklyn Lile

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

While historians and other scholars have explored grassroots organizing in Kentucky, most historiography on this topic is limited to the 1930s through 1970s and focused on coal, labor, and the Civil Rights Movement. This paper fills a gap within the historiography by extending the discussion of grassroots organizing in Kentucky past the 1970s. Through the examination of organizational documents, membership newsletters, and oral histories, this paper explores the transformation of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC) from 1981 to 2020. KFTC began as a small Eastern Kentucky organization focused predominantly on fair taxing practices in coal companies. Through efforts to diversify …

Et Cetera, Marshall University

Et Cetera

Founded in 1953, Et Cetera is an annual literary magazine that publishes the creative writing and artwork of Marshall University students and affiliates. Et Cetera is free to the Marshall University community.

Et Cetera welcomes submissions in literary and film criticism, poetry, short stories, drama, all types of creative non-fiction, photography, and art.

Holler: An Exploration Of Appalachian Performativity, David Powell

Theses and Dissertations

Holler: An Appatragedy is a play written in order to indict, examine and contemplate the toxic ideals of Appalachian culture. The play and the following in-depth character analysis are meant to portray a quartet of siblings who have been abandoned by their parents due to undisclosed issues (potentially addiction or mental health issues) and left to be cared for by their grandparents.

Throughout the events of the play, the culture is questioned as the elder siblings return from their lives outside Appalachia to attend the grandmother’s funeral, colliding with their brother and scheming to help their youngest brother escape from …

Asking Appalachia: Appalachian English In The Writing Classroom, Rachel Nicole Hampton

Online Theses and Dissertations

This thesis combines primary and secondary research in order to make an argument about the need for better educational practices for Appalachian students. A problem is first established that, because of how Appalachian people and their culture are represented in the media, negative stereotypes are spread about those from the region who are easily identified by their use of Appalachian English. Standard English is widely taught and students are encouraged to suppress their accent and dialect in order to mediate this. However, these practices allow no room for these students to use and embrace their own language. This thesis investigates …

Ambiguous Appalachianness: A Linguistic And Perceptual Investigation Into Arc-Labeled Pennsylvania Counties, Crissandra J. George

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

The Appalachian Regional Commission (2022) designates 52 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties as Appalachia, excluding only the southeast portion of the state. Matthew Ferrence, in Appalachia North, states that his "home is sometimes called Appalachia, sometimes Rust Belt, other times Midwest, even though very few who live there would accept any of those labels as correct" (xi). This ambiguous and fluid identity is due to the shaping, forming, and changing of Pennsylvania’s role within society from a founding colony to a thriving state with industry, unselfishly spoiling others, to the grounds of converging identities (Ferrence xi). This ambiguous identity makes …

"Not Just Whites In Appalachia": The Black Appalachian Commission, Regional Black Power Politics, And The War On Poverty, 1965-1975, Jillean Mccommons

Theses and Dissertations--History

During the Black Power era of the late 1960s and 1970s, Black activists in Appalachia used the opening of the War on Poverty to wage a regional war against institutional and environmental racism. Through the Black Appalachian Commission, a grassroots organization created in 1969, Black activists worked to expose racism in local and federal policy as the root cause of poverty for Black Appalachians, who they argued were the poorest in the region. Their outward self-definition as Black and Appalachian was a political strategy to garner power over resources earmarked for Appalachians. The term “Black Appalachian'' was more than a …