Digital Commons Network^™

Imagined Spaces: Land, Identity, And Kuban' Cossack State-Building In Revolutionary Russia, 1917-1922, Grace Ehrman

Masters Theses

In 1917, the February Revolution ended the Russian Empire and the Kuban’ Cossacks’ military obligations to the tsarist estate system. Kuban' Cossack ethnic identity existed and evolved within the estate system prior to the 1917 revolutions. When the estate system collapsed, the Cossacks declared their identity as a separate ethnic minority. Backed by the Cossack villages’ democratic votes, Kuban’ Cossack elites and politicians created the Kuban’ People’s Republic, an independent anti-Bolshevik state, in the North Caucasus region. Designed to preserve local autonomy, settle disputes over land given to the corporate Cossack body in exchange for military service, and to avoid …

The Meaning Of Peace: William Faulkner, Modernism, And Perpetual Civil War, Jason Luke Folk

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Much of scholarship regarding the presence of war in literary modernism has foregrounded psychic trauma endured by veterans of World War I. The returning soldier is often figured as representative of the war’s infiltration of the homefront. The common argument claims that the erosion of the distinction between war and peace (as well as private and public) is a mirror image of the veteran’s wounded psyche. This thesis, however, argues that peace and war in the West have always been indistinct. The body politic is, in actuality, constituted by a perpetual civil war. Furthermore, the novels of William Faulkner, because …

The Medieval British Legacy Of The Founding Myth Of Britain, Timothy J. Nelson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Medieval British Legacy of the Founding Myth of Britain” examines the historiographical development of the founding myth of Britain between the 9th and 14th centuries. This study begins with an overview of the Latin, Anglo-Norman French, Middle English, and Middle Welsh texts that transmit this founding myth across medieval Britain. The stylistic features and the motivations of the authors who are adapting this myth are addressed but the main objective of this overview is to introduce the texts in question and to start establishing the intertextual relationships between these works. The textual examination of the historiographical development of the …

Gynocentric Apuleius: Female Agency In 'The Golden Ass', Kelsey Schalo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through a close reading of Apuleius’ Golden Ass, I argue that characters such as Byrrhena, Photis, and Psyche function as positive examples of female sexual authority and autonomy and effectively challenge the phallocentric theories commonly applied to Greek and Roman gender and sexuality, the Penetrative Model associated with Foucault, and structuralism, associated in classics with French historians Marcel Detienne, J-P Vernant, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet. While still penetrated, many of these women actively claim their agency in sex through pleasure and narrative. Additionally, in correlation with Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject, while Apuleius’s female witches behave in horrific and chaotic …

The Fabric Of Civil War Society: The Effect Of Uniforms, Badges, And Flags, 1861 To 1939, Shae Cox

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The story of the American Civil War is usually told though a chronological framework and the author typically selects an event or place for focus, but this dissertation uses the lens of uniforms, flags, and post-war badges to travel through chronology and highlight new negotiations of well-known stories. While uniforms might just seem to be articles of clothing to wear on the battlefield, both the Union and the Confederacy used uniforms and flags as specific representations of identity during and after the war to present their “true history.” Citizens and veterans from the former Union used the uniforms and the …

Restoring The Web: Personal And Communal Integration In N. Scott Momaday's House Made Of Dawn And Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, Deborah Aminifard

English and Creative Writing | Senior Theses

Restoring the Web asserts that N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn and Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony are novelized emergence myths, detailing the emergence of their respective protagonists' identities. Abel and Tayo's journey employ the framework of the "monomyth" of separation, initiation, and return. Explored by the essay are separation from self, family, and community. Community includes the earth and their relationship to the natural world that has left these men on the "edge of oblivion." Navajo healing ceremonies, invoking the supernatural, initiates their emergence journey, a journey of discovery, in which their identity is (re)constructed. As with all heroes …

The Romantic Cyclic Sonata As A Hidden Counterculture : Rethinking The Subdominant Through A Structural-Hermeneutic Approach, Marcelo Gabriel Rebuffi

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Wild Diamond Diaries: Healing Alongside America's Wild Horses, Megan Emily

All NMU Master's Theses

To some, America’s free-roaming Mustangs and burros symbolize liberty and beauty. To others, these equines are feral at best, invasive at worst. They have a reputation for being useless, destructive, and untrainable. Yet my childhood horse—gifted to my family when I was three—was a gentled Mustang, W.D. Through W.D., I first encountered these horses’ kind dispositions, composure, and hardiness. After my younger sister died in a riding accident with another horse, my parents rehomed W.D. The devastating loss of both my sister and horse sparked my lifelong interest in Mustangs’ lives in the wild and journey into domestication, especially via …

The Catastrophic Open Wound: The Application Of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In Linda Hogan’S Solar Storms And Eden Robinson’S Monkey Beach, Kawther I. Abbas

All NMU Master's Theses

This thesis argues that Judith Herman's theory of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can provide a lot of insight in analyzing the trauma of several characters in Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms and Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach. The analysis first employs the two authors’ Native American ideas of trauma and then adds Herman’s theory of CPTSD to help bridge the gap between the Native American and Western cultures and to create more understanding without undermining cultural differences.

I chose Herman’s theory for my analysis because it has many commonalities with the Native American trauma theories such as belief in the fact …

The Last Crusade: British Crusading Rhetoric During The Great War, Seth Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the Great War many in British society started to utilize Crusading language and rhetoric to describe their experiences during the war. Those utilizing the rhetoric ranged from soldiers, journalists, politicians, to clergymen. The use of Crusading rhetoric tended to involve British nationalism, the region of Palestine, anti-Germanism, and more. Adding to the complexity, the soldiers’ and civilians’ rhetoric differed greatly between the two groups. While the soldiers focused on their personal experiences during the war, and often compared themselves to the British crusaders of old serving under Richard the Lionheart. The civilians had a less personal approach, and a …

The Unknown War: Army Of The Republic Of Vietnam Combat Operations 1962-1963, Justin Major

Master's Theses

The American historiography of the Vietnam War has tended to focus on the actions of the United States Armed Forces, the People’s Army of Vietnam, and the Viet Cong, while the history of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) has remained largely untold. ARVN, when mentioned, is usually portrayed as incompetent, ineffective, and even cowardly. Recently, historians like Andrew Wiest and Mark Moyar have challenged this view of ARVN that was originally advanced by journalists Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam. Moyar even suggested that ARVN was winning the war until the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh …

Leadership Development: Creating A Culture Of Developing Leaders In The Church, Vincent John Charron

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Addressing the issue concerning churches needing an effective leadership development process that encompasses everyone from the new convert to the church leadership team is the focus of this thesis. The purpose of this DMIN thesis is to address the problem of the leadership development deficit by implementing a process that will engage more than 30 percent of the average attendance. For this research, the main focus is primarily engaging people who are already Christians and are on board with the vision and mission of the church to assume a leadership role and responsibility. The focus of the project is to …

The Need For Solid Teaching On Spiritual Warfare, Charles Louis Trammell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Literature verifies an abundance of information on spiritual warfare, while resources that teach its concepts and practices are limited. Many bad experiences lead one to question whether church leadership adequately addresses biblical spiritual warfare. The purpose of this project is to 1) determine the need for Bible-based teaching on spiritual warfare, 2) discuss the importance of the full armor of God, and 3) discuss the implementation of the armor to provide the opportunity for an abundant life in Jesus Christ. Academic journals, articles, and books will discuss spiritual warfare concepts, theology, history, and weaponry. Also, data and statistics will demonstrate …

Discipleship As Understood And Practiced By Worship Leaders, Pastors, And Congregations Of Selected Southern Baptist Churches, Bridgette Lashawn Yancy

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite the growing interest in Christian faith development through Bible study, prayer groups, literature, and other media, there has been little to no research completed in the area of discipleship of worship leaders. This study will be an examination of discipleship activities that are offered within the Southern Baptist churches and the average duration of engagement of these activities by worship leaders. How the discipleship of the worship leader affects the ministry of the worship leader, participation in leadership-focused activities, and the personal and professional growth of the worship leader will be examined through questionnaires for both pastors and worship …

Mirrored Poeticity: Chiastic Structuring In Mayan Languages, Kerry Hull

BYU Studies

The last quarter century has seen a marked shift in Maya hieroglyphic studies in recognition of the presence of poetic language in the script. Poetics in indigenous Mesoamerican tradition is based primarily upon the principle of parallelism, most often in the form of coupleted discourse. Chiasmus, a rhetorical feature fully dependent upon parallelism, was one such poetic device used by ancient Maya scribes and colonial period indigenous authors, and it is still found among modern ritual specialists in some Maya communities. In this study, I explore the use and forms of chiasmus over time among various Maya groups and languages. …

"Wand'ring This Woody Maze": Deciphering The Obscure Wilderness Of Paradise Regained, Brooke Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The setting of Milton’s great sequel is puzzling, being called a desert and a “waste wild” (IV. 523) repeatedly and at the same time including descriptions of protective oaks and woody mazes. These conflicting descriptions conjure up several questions: In which environment does the epic take place? Because Milton is so detailed in his adaptations of biblical narrative the inclusion of trees is quite perplexing. While he does tend to expand biblical narrative quite frequently – e.g. Paradise Lost – he rarely initiates a change without just cause. The crux of this particular change centers on what this just cause …

Mexican Politicians And British Investors: A Symbiotic Relationship, Daliarlene Saenz

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this work is to ascertain whether Mexico was a part of Great Britain’s informal empire, which hinges primarily on economic dependence. After independence, Mexico’s image as a resource-rich land attracted British investment, but political instability and its long-held London Debt, repelled British investors. The Porfirian administration prioritized mending its reputation abroad and promoting modernity domestically. Weary of American domination, the Porfirian administration sought British collaboration instead, most significantly of Weetman Pearson. However, post-Revolution governments did not value British business collaboration as its predecessors. Hence, they had no qualms on protecting its domestic priorities over pleasing Whitehall. Through …

Requisitioned: American War Art Of The Second World War, Spenser Carroll-Johnson

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The United States requisitioned artists to assist with military objectives and servicemen requisitioned art as a form of rhetoric. This research reexamines the role of “official artists” and thereby extends its definition to include the multitude of art they produced during the Second World War. The underpinnings of this thesis reside during the economic crises of the 1930s that brought about American emergency relief initiatives for artists under the direction of Holger Cahill and, by extension, Edward Bruce. For the first time in history, the American public engaged with state-sponsored art. Due to a symbiotic relationship that formed between the …

Silly Trip Wires, Jonathan Byrd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses the work in Silly Trip Wires, 2020 his Master of Fine Arts exhibition. The exhibition includes an installation, Silly Trips Wires, and documentation of a smaller site-specific version of the work.

The Artist discusses the process of transition from military to civilian, and the potential effects that mental trauma from combat deployments can have on this process. This is tied to an analysis of how communicating the experience of veterans to civilians, through artwork, functions to bring about understanding.

The Roadmap: Exploring T.S. Eliot’S The Waste Land With World War One Literature, Matthew Bennett

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Through careful analysis paired with poetry, war memoirs, and novels from the same period, one can break down T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land to recognize the impact of The Great War on the world's modern memory while pondering the possibility of memory as a tool to overcome trauma.

Indentured On The Western Front: The Chinese Labour Corps And The British Coolie Trade, Emily Sanders

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the recruitment, transport, and working conditions of the Chinese Labour Corps in World War I in comparison to the twentieth century British ‘coolie’ trade of Chinese indentured laborers on the basis of labor contracts, written testimonies, newspaper articles, books, photographs, and historical records. This thesis argues that the Chinese Labour Corps methods of recruiting, transport, and conditions of work were very similar to, if not the same as, the twentieth century British coolie trade. The Chinese Labour Corps can in many ways be said to be an extension of the preexisting British coolie trade, rather than an …

Vietnam: A Soldier's Story, Ryan Charles Villarreal

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Vietnam era was highly turbulent. Both in the United States and around the world. It was called the turbulent 60s for a reason. This is a story not about politics, military tactics, or the history of American involvement in Southeast Asia. This is a narrative that talks about the American soldier who went to Vietnam. It is important to understand who they were, why they went there, and what happened to them in Vietnam. It is duly important to comprehend their returns home. Therefore, this is a blend of social and cultural history that tells a story about Vietnam, …

Pioneering Feminism: How Early American Female Authors' Heroines Defy Gender Norms, Julie Short

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

As I began to make decisions about what I wanted to write on, I started to consider the novels that have impacted me. After realizing that many of my favorite novels featured female protagonists from the early twentieth century, I came to the conclusion that I could use these novels to discuss feminism, a topic I am passionate about. I selected O, Pioneers! by Willa Cather, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, and the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Each of these authors use their protagonists to represent women who …

Helms' "Prayer 101: What Every Intercessor Needs To Know" (Book Review), Nancy Warwick

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

New Jersey: Its Opinions And Reactions To The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, And Fifteenth Amendments Before And After The Civil War, Adriana Rojas

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

New Jersey was the only northern state to reject the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. The state’s implicit financial relationship with numerous southern states before the Civil War influenced political beliefs that had consequential effects on future policies. State governors worked with their political parties to pass legislation consistent with their views and popular opinion. This thesis examines both the rejection and subsequent passage of three specific amendments by reviewing the opinions of politicians in New Jersey. Governors were dictated by political beliefs and racial attitudes before and after the war with the focus on the post-Civil War years of …

Missional Readiness Amoung Christian Men : How A Study On John 13-17 Can Impact Missional Readiness, Steven C. Cosslett

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Crossroads Of U.S. Environmental History And Migration History, Colin Fisher

History: Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Multicultural Wilderness: Immigrants, African Americans, And Working Class Leisure In The Forest Preserves And Dunes Of Industrial Chicago, Colin Fisher

History: Faculty Scholarship

Wilderness parks in the United States are often described as landscapes of leisure for affluent white nature tourists. This article challenges that interpretation by exploring visitation to the Cook County Forest Preserves and the Indiana Dunes State Park, two Chicago-area wilderness parks that during the early twentieth century attracted far more visitors than all of the national parks combined. The author argues that if we turn our gaze from rarefied and far less-visited parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone to the wilderness parks created just outside of major metropolitan centers, we can clearly see that early twentieth-century wilderness landscapes attracted …

"Maa-Multh-Nii" People Who Came Floating In: Analogues Between Nuu-Chah-Nulth And Tlingit With Spanish Colonial Expeditions In The Eighteenth Century, Suzanne Rita Mcleod

Art & Art History ETDs

Spanish explorers first navigated the 2,400-kilometer stretch of the Pacific Northwest Coast in the latter part of the eighteenth-century, largely in response to rumors that Russian traders had established a presence in lands north of Alta California (then considered Spanish territory). Spain launched a series of expeditions to the region, the first in 1774 under Juan Josef Pérez Hernández, and the final, in 1792, under Alejandro Malaspina. The Spanish remained in the area until 1794 when political and territorial tensions with the incoming British forced a negotiation known historically as the Nootka Convention. By 1795, the empire abandoned its aspirations …

Remembering New Mexico's War: Service, Sacrifice, Suffering, And The Surrender Of Bataan In Wartime New Mexico, 1941-1946, Elena Marie Friot

History ETDs

New Mexicans positioned defeat, surrender, and captivity at the center of their narrative of World War II and incorporated the surrender of Bataan into New Mexico’s long history of service, sacrifice, and suffering as part of the United States. During and after the war, they created rituals, spaces, and texts that made the surrender a permanent and defining feature of the state’s social, cultural, and political landscape, which challenges the prevailing victory narrative that tends to dominate public commemorations of the war. Importantly, this dissertation shifts our gaze to investigate how defeat and surrender, and the corresponding experiences of surrendered …