Life Matter: Women Subjects And Women's Objects In Innovative American Poetry,
2016
University of Kentucky
Life Matter: Women Subjects And Women's Objects In Innovative American Poetry, Jenna L. Goldsmith
Theses and Dissertations--English
Gertrude Stein, Lyn Hejinian, and Juliana Spahr employ innovative poetic practices attuned to nature and environment in order to understand their personal lives and depict these understandings for readers. My dissertation investigates how these poets enact an inclusive posture toward environment that many innovative and experimental women poets of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries possess, but are rarely recognized for. To this end, my dissertation provides counterarguments to characterizations of innovative or experimental poetic practices as reclusive, language-centric, opaque, and/or disconnected from the material world. I offer readings of poems, prose pieces, film, and art, to illustrate how materially innovative …
Distinctly American: Performing Humanity In African American Literature From Proto To Post New Negro Renaissance,
2016
University of Kentucky
Distinctly American: Performing Humanity In African American Literature From Proto To Post New Negro Renaissance, Julie A. Naviaux
Theses and Dissertations--English
This project demonstrates how African American literature from the 1910s through the 1940s uses performance in order to stage debates within African American identity and American culture. Drawing on recent literary scholarship, performance studies, and early critical writing on African American art and performance, the project examines scenes of public performance in order to show how these literary scenes create space to investigate social and cultural constructions. The project investigates the ways performances within the texts also critique performances of race, gender, and class. Within these performance scenes, the literary texts also critique the audiences’ reactions to the artistic product …
The Contest Of Marriage: Domestic Authority In The Victorian Novel,
2016
University of Kentucky
The Contest Of Marriage: Domestic Authority In The Victorian Novel, Morgan Richardson
Theses and Dissertations--English
In “The Contest of Marriage: Domestic Authority in Victorian Literature”, I argue that depictions of engaged and newlywed couples in the Victorian novel consistently dismantle the concept of marriage, depicting the process of two individuals attempting to become one couple as a tenuous and even dangerous project to be undertaken during the nineteenth century. By looking at works where the decision to marry comes at the beginning of the novel rather than the conclusion, I examine the ways in which different novelists document and anatomize the consistent failures in the theoretical underpinnings of domesticity and conjugality. Given that gender, separate …
Northside,
2016
University of Kentucky
Northside, Jesse L. Houk
Theses and Dissertations--English
The Northside of Lexington, Kentucky is an area with its own culture, community and art. While living in this community I was able to learn, grow and develop alongside this newly renovated area. The people and their lives intersect in such a way that creates a tension at times. However, many social awareness advocates vie for the success of this neighborhood for many years to come. The objective of studying such an area as the Northside in Lexington is to focus on the similarites rather than the differences in culture, community and artistic endeavor. With a collection of essays and …
Come Together: Desire, Literature, And The Law Of The Sexual Revolution,
2016
University of Kentucky
Come Together: Desire, Literature, And The Law Of The Sexual Revolution, Eir-Anne E. Edgar
Theses and Dissertations--English
While some scholars have viewed the Sexual Revolution as a “war” with winners and losers, this project finds that all Americans were subject to the fantasy of liberation. This fantasy takes different forms during the era, including relaxed sexual strictures against pre-marital sex, the availability of birth control, and an increased focus on sexual pleasure. However, the seemingly liberatory quickly becomes conservative, coming into focus through the analysis of court cases and legal mandates that protected the declining structures of marriage and heteronormativity. Beginning with widespread fears about interracial mixing in the early 1950’s, escalated by the end of segregation …
Degree Of Change: The Ma In English Studies,
2016
University of Dayton
Degree Of Change: The Ma In English Studies, Margaret M. Strain, Rebecca C. Potter
English Faculty Publications
From the publisher: As the needs of those seeking an MA in English studies have evolved, so too have the degree’s mission and identity. Margaret M. Strain and Rebecca C. Potter, editors of Degree of Change: The MA in English Studies, argue that the MA is positioned in a dynamic contact zone—“a place where disciplinary knowledge, student need, and local exigencies interact and where disciplinary identity is constantly negotiated.”
Looking primarily at stand-alone master’s programs, this volume examines the design, delivery, and value of a master’s degree in English in the twenty-first century and challenges the characterization that MA programs …
A Longitudinal Investigation Of A Sequential Arabic-English Bilingual Child’S Vocabulary Development,
2016
Missouri State University
A Longitudinal Investigation Of A Sequential Arabic-English Bilingual Child’S Vocabulary Development, Seba A. Al-Hindawy
Graduate Theses/Dissertations
The purpose of the study was to explore the lexical development of a sequential bilingual Arabic-English speaking child. The study contributes to the growing research literature on the language behaviors of early bilingual children and specifically to the discussion of bilingual developmental milestones. The child's vocabulary growth was assessed over the course of a year with the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI-III, English and Arabic versions), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-4), parent interviews, and the Frog Story Narrative Test. Lexical measures were analyzed over time and indicated that the child progressed in the dominant language, English, similarly to the …
The Terrible Women I'Ve Been,
2016
Missouri State University
The Terrible Women I'Ve Been, Meagan Rose Stoops
Graduate Theses/Dissertations
This thesis is a collection of eight short fictions exploring the characterization of unlikable women in fiction. Each work herein incorporates the themes of romantic relationships and denial of traditional female gender roles. The female characters within embody traits of bitterness, passion, perseverance, rage, cunning, and pursuits of self-preservation and love as motivating forces. Through these characters' actions and choices, the narratives dissolve and reject the commonly accepted portrayals of women in fiction in an attempt to grasp at a greater, more complex truth of human nature and the female psyche.
Graduate Student Peer Mentoring Programs: Benefitting Students, Faculty And Academic Programs,
2016
Santa Clara University
Graduate Student Peer Mentoring Programs: Benefitting Students, Faculty And Academic Programs, Beth Boehm, Amy J. Lueck
English
Peer mentoring—students mentoring other students—is an area of increasing interest for scholars and administrators of graduate education. The range of activities that constitute peer mentoring is vast, but includes providing insights into the departmental culture, guidance through major program milestones, psychosocial support, and friendship (Kram and Isabella 1985; Grant-Vallone and Ensher 2000). While most students are assigned a faculty advisor or mentor, the perspectives of peer mentors who may be only a year or two ahead of the mentee are valuable in different but powerful ways (Kram and Isabella 1985). While it is most common to talk about peer mentors …
Clusivity In Presidential Discourse: A Rhetorical Discourse Analysis Of State-Of-The-Nation Addresses In Ghana And The United States,
2016
Michigan Technological University
Clusivity In Presidential Discourse: A Rhetorical Discourse Analysis Of State-Of-The-Nation Addresses In Ghana And The United States, Stephen K. Dadugblor
Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports
This thesis examines the ways in which rhetors in presidential discourse simultaneously associate with and dissociate from their audiences in an attempt to consolidate power while subtly masking their actions. Drawing on comparative rhetoric and Andrus’ (2013) Rhetorical Discourse Analysis (RDA) that combines rhetoric and (critical) discourse analysis, I analyze the expressive values of selected lexical items, and the inclusive and exclusive uses of “we” in selected State of the Nation/Union Addresses in Ghana and the United States. I argue that presidents’ unique position during these speeches as both heads of nations and heads of their political parties presents a …
The Scholar Magician In English Renaissance Drama,
2016
Scripps College
The Scholar Magician In English Renaissance Drama, Ashley M. Minnis-Lemley
Scripps Senior Theses
In this paper, I will explore the rise and fall of the scholar magician or sorcerer, both as a popular dramatic subject and as an arc for individual characters, and the ways in which these figures tied into contemporary fears about the intersection of religion and developing scientific knowledge.
Resonant Texts: Sound, Noise, And Technology In Modern Literature,
2016
University of Kentucky
Resonant Texts: Sound, Noise, And Technology In Modern Literature, Leah Hutchison Toth
Theses and Dissertations--English
“Resonant Texts” draws from literary criticism, history, biography, media theory, and the history of technology to examine representations of sound and acts of listening in modern experimental fiction and drama. I argue that sound recording technology, invented in the late 19th century, equipped 20th century authors including James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Ralph Ellison, and Samuel Beckett with new resources for depicting human consciousness and experience. The works in my study feature what I call “close listening,” a technique initially made possible by the phonograph, which forced listeners to focus exclusively on what they heard without the presence of an accompanying …
Slow Emergencies,
2016
University of Kentucky
Slow Emergencies, Jordyn N. Rhorer
Theses and Dissertations--English
Like the ever-circling lines in the skin of trees, sometimes the whole of a person is peeled back, layer by layer, until only seeds remain. Names, faces, stories, and relationships are unmade and molded into new shapes. Without warning, those left at the base, at the roots, can’t recognize this maple’s form. They hold a pile of leaves, a bottle of glue, and the hope that something familiar will take sprout again. The tree becomes new, and its tangled branches reach out. These poems explore the lives of those living with and caring for those with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. …
Criterion, Volume 34, 2016,
2016
Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School
Criterion, Volume 34, 2016, Loyola Marymount University English Department
Criterion
Editor-in-Chief: Megan Brown
Somebody’S Saints March In,
2016
Swarthmore College
Somebody’S Saints March In, Nathalie Anderson
English Literature Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
Minding The White Horse,
2016
Swarthmore College
Minding The White Horse, Nathalie Anderson
English Literature Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
Agency From A Stone: Shelley’S Posthumanist Experiments In "Mont Blanc",
2016
Swarthmore College
Agency From A Stone: Shelley’S Posthumanist Experiments In "Mont Blanc", Betsy Bolton
English Literature Faculty Works
This article reads Shelley’s ‘Mont Blanc’ as an extended exploration into possible modes of relationship linking the human mind to the material world. The modes of relationship considered by Shelley anticipate many of the structures and strategies developed by posthumanist theory, including structural coupling, strategic anthropomorphism, imagistic translation, and human-nonhuman assemblages. After summarizing Kantian and post-Kantian readings of ‘Mont Blanc,’ the essay works through an extended close reading of the poem to elucidate its proto-posthumanist elements.
Jill Gladstein: A Data-Driven Researcher,
2016
Swarthmore College
Jill Gladstein: A Data-Driven Researcher, C. Rutz, Jill M. Gladstein
English Literature Faculty Works
No abstract provided.
“Animal Spirits”,
2016
Swarthmore College
“Animal Spirits”, Peter Schmidt
English Literature Faculty Works
In “Animal Spirits” looks in some depth at several of Williams’s poems about dogs or cats written over the course of his career, from “Sub Terra” (1917); “Poem (As the cat)” (from the 1930s); the dogs of Paterson; and “To a Dog Injured in the Street,” which exemplifies the elegiac poetics and representational paradoxes of Williams’s late triadic style. Cats for Williams exemplify energy in precise control, its perfection in form—and that was his lifelong quest. Dogs, on the other paw, embodied for Williams the boundary-breaking force of uncorraled creativity breaking form. Both spirits, figured as animals, were totems central …
Writing Practice: Invention And Pedagogy In Composition,
2016
University of South Carolina
Writing Practice: Invention And Pedagogy In Composition, Nathaniel Street
Theses and Dissertations
My dissertation re-engages a central question of composition and rhetoric – can writing be taught? – as a means of interrogating the relationship between form and response. In so doing, I argue that writing can be trained as a set of capacities and dispositions through repeated practice with rhetorical forms. In advancing this claim, I demonstrate that formal practices, such as modal writing, imitation, and repetition, have been unfairly dismissed as overly rote and mechanical because form has traditionally been understood as a technical means of achieving a particular end. I argue that, instead, repeated engagement with and movement between …
