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In Memoriam: Lorenzo Thomas (31 August 1944 – 4 July 2005), John Gery

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Third Wave Language In Bust And Bitch Magazine, Emily Hoeflinger

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Where does feminism fall in contemporary American culture? Has it lost its relevance as a result of waning interest in feminist politics? In today’s feminist troupe, a culture of inheritance has stepped into many of the advantages the Second Wave pushed so hard to acquire. What becomes the point of contention is the approach these inheritors now take to feminism or, more so, the perception of the Third Wave by its predecessors, as well as the persistent misrepresentation of feminism by mass culture. A great amount of speculation exists about the movement of feminism since the heyday of the Second …

Lillian Smith's Strange Fruit : An Examination Of The Alterical Dimensions, Racial Consciousness, And Silence Of The Southern Woman, Syrena Bothe

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In the 1944 publication of Strange Fruit. Lillian Smith attempts to identify the contradictions between external racial hierarchy, social class, and female whiteness by identifying them first as internal struggles that affected a southerner’s external existence. This is, instead, mis-read as a catastrophic love story between a white boy, Tracy Deen, and a black girl, Non Anderson.

However, this struggle of racial consciousness is a motif and driving force that heavily weights the intentions and choices of both white and black people in Strange Fruit. It is breath and instinct that lives in each southern inhabitant, it is the air …

Modernist Success In A Postmodern Failure: Jackson Pollock And Abstract Expressionism, The Avant-Garde And The Ascension Of Late Capitalism, Art After 1945, Russell Gullette

Honors Theses

It is hard to imagine the magnitude of the events at the end of World War II. The thought produced in the face of a myriad of deaths is almost unfeasible sixty years after the fact, but the energy was integral to the changing social landscape. Because of the country's prominence in and fortitude after the war, the U.S. was left responsible for reshaping and rejuvenating the international landscape that was destroyed by the years of brutal fighting and vile contestation. The American establishment was granted a major opportunity to establish itself amongst the global leaders. Such a grand responsibility …

The Missing Body–Yoga And Higher Education, Judith Beth Cohen

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Using her own yoga practice as a basis, this author argues for more bodily involvement in learning and offers several exercises she has used to accomplish this.

Mapping Orientalism: Representations And Pedagogies, Diane Hoeveler, Jeffrey Cass

English Faculty Research and Publications

In order to understand Orientalism it is necessary to realize, as Vincent T. Harlow has noted, that there were “two British empires.” The first empire consisted of the colonies in America and the West Indies and was established in the seventeenth century, with the explorations in the Pacific, and the trading networks that developed with Asia and Africa. The “second British empire” dates from 1783 and resulted from the loss of America, which in turn forced Britain to formulate new ideas about and approaches to its empire. The Colonial Office was set up in 1801, and, as Harlow observed, Britain …

A Reconciled Maid: A Lover's Complaint And Confessional Practices In Early Modern England, Paul Dustin Stegner

English

In A Lover's Complaint, Shakespeare registers concerns about a penitent's inability to overcome the effects of sin and emphasizes the importance of private or auricular confession. By representing what amounts to be the confession ofa 'fickle maid' (5) to a 'reverend man' (57), Shakespeare underscores the paradox of the Protestant confessional model: if a penitent can be forgiven of sins without priestly intervention, what happens when he or she does not experience consolation?' By modeling the poem on the conventional rite of penance, Shakespeare creates a poetic space in which to explore the intense effects of seduction and desire (as …

Considering Blackness In George A. Romero's Night Of The Living Dead: An Historical Exploration, Jennifer Whitney Dotson

LSU Master's Theses

When George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead was released in 1968, the independent black and white zombie film stunned American moviegoers. Having assaulted the audience with a new level of violence-laden gore, Night of the Living Dead received much attention from both popular and critical audiences, with the former rushing to theaters to see the film over and over and the latter almost universally panning the film for its poor taste and gratuitous violence. Since its release, however, Night of the Living Dead has become one of the most written about horror films in American history, with critics …

Lights And Shadows - 2006, University Of North Alabama

Lights and Shadows

Art and Literature Magazine

Allusion As Form: The Waste Land And Moulin Rouge!, Stacy Magedanz

Library Faculty Publications & Presentations

Allusion is usually considered a literary technique, but relatively little attention has been paid to the notion of allusion as a literary form. In this essay, I attempt to describe the allusive form based on two prominent examples, T. S. Eliot’s Waste Land and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! Though radically different, the two works embody distinguishing characteristics of the allusive form. These are intertextuality, or a dependence upon outside sources for sense and significance; heightened and self-conscious artificiality; a confrontational attitude toward the audience; elitism, based on the exclusivity of allusions; appropriation of multiple cultures; and pervasive anachronism. Though prone …

The Value Of Black And White In An Era Of Color: A Textual Analysis Of Black And White Illustrations In Picture Books, Theresa Forret

Graduate Research Papers

Children's picture books have aesthetic, personal, and educational value. The illustrations within picture books may capture the attention of young readers, create a positive attitude toward books and reading, enhance the story, and may assist with comprehension. A majority of the children's picture books published today are illustrated with bright, vibrant colors. Books illustrated in black and white are less common and perhaps less appealing to children. This study investigated three questions. Are there identifiable commonalities within the visual elements in black and white picture book illustrations? Are there commonalities and patterns in the mood, genre, and setting of picture …

What Happened To Dad: A Portrayal Of Teenage Fathers In Young Adult Literature, Becky R. Schafer Andrews

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to see if authors of realistic fiction accurately portray the characteristics of teenage fathers. Abundant fictional novels on the topic of teenage pregnancy are in print; however, most seemed concerned with teen mothers and neglect teen fathers. How teen fathers react to being told about the conception to accepting responsibility for their actions was evaluated through a checklist. This research demonstrated that a realistic portrayal of teen fathers is absent from much young adult fiction. In sharing this research with others it is in hopes that more authors will give teen fathers a more …

It's An Irish Lullaby: One Story Of Hyphenated American Culture, Mary-Ellen Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this project was to come to a clear understanding of Irish-American culture--and how that culture expresses itself in individuals. The text considers the role of myth, religion, language, tradition, stereotypes and to a lesser degree gender in the molding of character. Although autobiographical in nature many of the themes are those that encompass the Irish-American experience as a whole. Questions asked throughout the process include, what makes one hyphenated? How is this culture passed from generation to generation? And is it multifaceted? Is there more than one way to express being Irish-American. The text is presented is …

"To Live Outside The Law, You Must Be Honest" -- Words, Walls, And The Rhetorical Practices Of The Angolite, Scott Howard Whiddon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“To Live Outside the Law, You Must Be Honest”: Words, Walls, and the Rhetorical Practices of The Angolite examines the 50 year history of The Angolite, a news magazine published and edited by inmates at Louisiana State Penitentiary. While The Angolite and the efforts of former editor Wilbert Rideau have been discussed in the public media, especially here in Louisiana, my dissertation is the first extended scholarly account of this prison publication. Specifically, I examine how inmate writers held in one of the most historically violent penitentiaries in the United States choose to represent themselves, their multiple literacies, and their …

Painful Discourses: Borders, Regions, And Representations Of Female Circumcision From Africa To America, Tameka Latrece Cage

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This project considers issues of representation and how literature, personal testimony, popular culture, and African film script a narrative of change and/or participate in change in the female circumcision debate. Texts that currently shape the female circumcision debate are increasingly focused on viable methods of social change and couch issues of change in dynamics of discourse and representation, including Obioma Nnaemeka’s Female Circumcision and the Politics of Knowledge: African Women in Imperialist Discourses, Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf’s Female Circumcision: Multicultural Perspectives, and Oyèrónké Oyewùmi’s African Women and Feminism: Reflecting on the Politics of Sisterhood, all of which I cite in the …

Interior Revolutions: Doing Domesticity, Advocating Feminism In Contemporary American Fiction, Kalene Westmoreland

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Domesticity has endured as a facet of everyday life in the late twentieth century and beyond, despite cultural acceptance of feminist beliefs and ideals which encourage women’s movement away from the private sphere of the home. A tumultuous and remarkable cultural transformation has marked the four decades since the publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, a key text of early second-wave feminism. Equality and choice seem viable and attainable, yet many women today feel overwhelmed by responsibilities and the pressure to live up to the idealization of motherhood. Domesticity can be used as a tool of oppression, against which …

The Abc's Of Hiv: When "Just Say No" Is Not Enough-Queer Critique Of Aids Policy, Lisa Laura Ladwig

LSU Master's Theses

This paper will critique the United States' AIDS policy, both domestic and international. I demonstrate how queer theorists have used Jacques Lacan's concepts of "jouissance" and the "unconscious desire" to suggests ways in which the current policy has dangerous implications for real people, for public health, and human rights. I reveal how the problem of rising HIV infection is not due to the lack of availability of safer-sex information, but rather it is a problem of execution: the Religious Right's ideology inscribed in our public health policy. Finally, I wish to expose how people in this country and others are …

Urban Fervor: Los Angeles Literature And Alternative Religion, Christine M. Daley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using alternative religion and other dynamics within the spiritual life of Los Angeles opens up the city's literary canon; employing religion as a critical lens illuminates the conjunction of history, literature, and urban growth that characterizes Los Angeles culture. This is especially relevant in a setting where, according to a 1941 guide to the city, "the multiplicity and diversity of faiths that flourish in the aptly named City of Angels probably cannot be duplicated in any other city on earth." It is apparent, however, that the specific social phenomena of abundant sects in this urban space can provide keys to …

Critical Literacy In A Global Context: Reading Harry Potter, Jill Reading

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Millions of adolescents across the globe eagerly await and read each new Harry Potter fictional novel. As a series, the novels can be assumed to participate influentially in the production of adolescent literacies and subjectivities. Situated in politically conservative times, however, the texts may support readings in simple accord with culturally pervasive conservative views which favour conventionally masculinist, martial views of the individual and of society. Such readings potentially confirm ancient prejudices built out of differences which themselves may be associated with the socio-cultural reproduction of violent conflicts. Nevertheless, contemporary conditions such as planetary climate change and globalised political fear …

Viewing Novels, Reading Films: Stanley Kubrick And The Art Of Adaptation As Interpretation, Charles Bane

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Greg Jenkins has observed that adaptation "is a presence that is woven into the very fabric of film culture." Although this statement is true, no definitive theory of adaptation exists. Critics and scholars ponder adaptation, yet cannot seem to agree on what makes an adaptation a success or a failure. The problem of adaptation stems from many sources. What, if anything, does a film owe the novel on which it is based? How, if possible, does a film remain faithful to its source? Is a film a version of a story or its own autonomous work of art? Who is …

Review Of Macbeth, Michael Adams

Publications and Research

Review of Geoffrey Wright's Macbeth: http://www.media-party.com/discland/2007/12/macbeth-2006.html

Smoke And Mirrors: Internalizing The Magic Lantern Show In Villette, Diane Hoeveler

English Faculty Research and Publications

With considerable historical background in mind, I would like to examine a number of the stock gothic tropes, including the mysterious nun, the paintings of women, the theater scene, and the fête in Villette as examples of not simply one of last gasps of high Victorian gothicism, but also of the internalization and critique of gothic theatrical technology. As Castle observes, the "phantasmagoria should [have] become a kind of master trope in nineteenth-century romantic writing," and certainly she applies the representation in provocative ways to the symbols and imagery in Thomas Carlyle's French Revolution. In a similar fashion, I …

The Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter, Vol. 14, No. 1, The Sinclair Lewis Society

Sinclair Lewis Society Newsletter

“Society Sponsors Third Lewis Conference in Sauk Centre,” by Robert L. McLaughlin, Illinois State University

“Erumaa Gantorii,” by Rusty Allred (discussion of Japanese translation of Elmer Gantry)

“The German Translator of It Can’t Happen Here,” by Frederick Betz, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

“The Lorinda Mystique,” by Mary Krones, Illinois State University (about women in It Can’t Happen Here)

“On a First Name Basis,” by Michael Carroll Dooling (a friendship that Lewis shared with E. Robert Stevenson)

“Clearing the Smoke: Babbitt’s ‘Curious Inscription,'” by Michael Carroll Dooling

The Research Paper As An Act Of Citizenship: Possibilities And Pragmatism, Tim Taylor

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

By focusing on local problems or issues, student writers can craft research essays that exemplify civic engagement, a practice that reaffirms composition’s tacit tradition from classical rhetoric and the educational philosophy of John Dewey.

Review Of Rhetorical Democracy: Discursive Practices Of Civic Engagement, Edited By Gerard Hauser And Amy Grim, Tim Taylor

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Pages Perspective, Kristen N. Denslow

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Multiculturalisms Past, Present, And Future, Marilyn Edelstein

English

Once upon a time, most classes, in both schools and universities, focused on historical events shaped by white men, scientific discoveries made by white men, philosophies constructed by white men, and literary and artistic works created by white men. This time was not so long ago-and during some of our lifetimes. Since at least the late 1960s, this normative maleness and whiteness-which always claimed to be universal-has been challenged by the development of ethnic studies, women's and gender studies, and multiculturalism. Especially in literary studies-and nowhere more than in the field of American literature-the canon has exploded, as more works …

Eng 1001g-028-051-059: Composition And Language, Vicki Curts

Fall 2005

No abstract provided.

Eng 3405-003: Children's Literature, Jerie Weasmer

Fall 2005

No abstract provided.

Eng 1001-005-036: Composition And Language, Denise Clark

Fall 2005

No abstract provided.