Digital Commons Network^™

Towards Non-Tendentious Humor And Non-Violent Rebellion, Gayatri Devi

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an investigation into the relation between humor and authority based on the distinction first articulated theoretically by Freud between tendentious and non-tendentious cases of humor. The first chapter is a fairly detailed introduction to the historical and theoretical issues that have preoccupied studies of humor. Though my study makes occasional use of linguistic insights on humor, my critical thrust is not on a linguistic analysis of humor, but to demonstrate how humor may be used successfully or unsuccessfully as an alternate idiom to aggression. The second chapter discusses the relationship of aggression to authority fundamental to the …

Deaf Theatre And Sign Language: Tools For Theatre Education And Production, Carol Jm Frisch

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Rahq: The Evolution Of A Script Through A Rehearsal Process, Nita K. Ritzke

Theses and Dissertations

RAhq is an experiment in script creation. The intent of the work was to craft a script from research and rehearsals which would reflect the personalities of all involved. After initial research and preliminary scripting, the cast and writer/director worked together to develop scenes and characters collaboratively. The initial script was then altered to incorporate the work from rehearsals. The final script was given full production. The process was evaluated by cast, selected respondents and the writer. RAhq, when performed, is a series of rituals and images which explore the beliefs and uses of rites associated with human death. These …

Women Who Choose: The Theme Of Mothering In Selected Dramas, Becky K. Becker

Theses and Dissertations

Too often, the drama treats mothering as the expected outcome of marriage or as a biological necessity for women. Yet, dramatic texts which address the issue of mothering do exist. This paper examines the unique mothering choices made by the central characters in three dramatic texts: Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal. Ruth Wolff’s The Abdication, and Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles.

Chapter One introduces the selected theories of Ann Dally, Nancy Chodorow, and Barbara Katz Rothman, theorists whose diverse perceptions concerning mothering converge to provide an analysis of the complexity of mothering choices. Chapters Two through Four include analyses of the three …

The Role Of Compulsory Heterosexuality In The Abdication And Queen Christina, Becky Beth Benedict

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary playwrights, Ruth Wolff and Pam Gems, create portrayals of Queen Christina of Sweden in Wolff’s The Abdication and Gem’s Queen Christina, both of which can be perceived to contain the issues of culturally- encoded gender and sexual roles.

To compare and contrast the influence of these culturally-encoded gender and sexual roles within these plays, I have applied Adrienne Rich’s theory of “compulsory heterosexuality," which serves as a critical tool to clarify the similarities and differences of these issues within the selected dramatic texts. According to Rich, “compulsory heterosexuality” refers to the ideas that male-female coupling is the preferred choice …

The Female Gaze Shined On Three Selected Female Characters Found In Musical Theatre, Michelle L. Harsche

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Director/Designer Communication In Community Theatre, James Grenville Rock

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Application Of Vsevolod Meyerhold's Principles Of Biomechanics To An Original Performance Text, Joseph D. Ralston

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Perceptual Based Image Fusion With Applications To Hyperspectral Image Data, Terry A. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Development of new imaging sensors has created a need for image processing techniques that can fuse images from different sensors or multiple images produced by the same sensor. The methods presented here focus on combining image data from the Airborne Visual and Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) hyperspectral sensor into a single or smaller subset of images while maintaining the visual information necessary for human analysis. Three hierarchical multi-resolution image fusion techniques are implemented and tested using the AVIRIS image data and test images that contain various levels of correlated or uncorrelated noise. Two of the algorithms are published fusion methods …

Empiricism, Anatomy, Reality: Reading Herman Melville In The Menippean Tradition., Francis Carter Kaplan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to draw together the art of Herman Melville, Menippean satire, and the empirical tradition in English and Scottish philosophy. Historical and biographical concerns serve as a background for exploring Melville's satire of Platonism, transcendentalism, and hermeneutic apriority. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Washington Irving are discussed in this respect. The dissertation also contains related fiction pieces.The dissertation develops several intertwined conceptions of analysis, drawing together an empirical critical basis derived from Ludwig Wittgenstein and "ordinary language philosophy," the notion of satire as criticism, and the exploration of these concepts through an examination of …

A Case Study Of Secondary Students' Interactions In A Theatre Production, Adonica Nan Schultz

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Vincerò : A Play In Two Acts, Jan Delovage Blount

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Significance Of Immigration In Four Contemporary American Novels, Mary Elizabeth Bauer Morley

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Directing Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly, Dawn Dorene AugéR

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Vision From Locksley Hall : American Air Power From Kitty Hawk To Schweinfurt, Leif H. Urseth

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Florine Stettheimer: A Re-Appraisal Of The Artist In Context, Melissa (Liles) Parris

Theses and Dissertations

Florine Stettheimer was an independent painter and eminent "art hostess" among the avant-garde in New York City during the years between the World Wars. In 1916, Stettheimer rather suddenly affected a naive or unschooled style that did not fit within any academic or vanguard movement. This new style, what I have termed conscious naiveté, can be considered the genesis of Stettheimer's mature works. Contemporaneous critical appraisals after the shift in style undervalued the inventive modernity of her work and unfairly “feminized” her style.

Mere Babes In The Woods: Teaching And Learning In The Native American Classroom, Scott Lyons

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a good deal of talk about "'multicultural education" in the past few years; at the center of these discussions are issues of ethics, politics, and values. What does it mean to be "multicultural"? How does one's culture figure into pedagogical situations—as a teacher? as a student? How should these complex social and historical backgrounds be utilized at the university? Finally, what are the cultural costs of a university education for students, especially those students from historically oppressed cultural backgrounds?

This study specifically examines the situation of Native American students in the university writing classroom. Drawing upon many …

Production Activity And Performers At The Metropolitan Theatre, Grand Forks, North Dakota 1898 - 1911, Dawn D. Drake

Theses and Dissertations

This study documents and analyzes the production activity and the quality of the celebrity performers appearing at the Metropolitan Theatre in Grand Forks, North Dakota, during the years of 1898 to 1911. The production activity at the theatre is categorized into seven groups of production: legitimate drama, Shakespeare/'classics, melodramas, minstrels, opera/musicals, vaudeville/burlesque and special productions. The quality of performers is judged by their relative status in American theatre history. Both of these elements were, during this period, heavily influenced by the Theatrical Syndicate.

Research for this study includes searching newspaper advertisements and publicity for the productions found in The Grand …

A Comparative Character Analysis Of Ruth And Kate In Harold Pinter's The Homecoming And Old Times: The Issues Of Need, Possession And Power, Daniel K. Dammel

Theses and Dissertations

In comparing Ruth of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming and Kate of Pinter’s Old Times, it was necessary to analyze the women individually within the context of their respective plays. The focus of each distinct analysis is on the issues of need, possession and power, which are prevalent in both plays. Both Ruth and Kate elicit need in the other characters of their respective plays. The needs that Ruth and Kate evoke, and the process through which they elicit these needs were examined. Motivated by the needs Ruth and Kate elicit, the characters surrounding the women attempt to possess them. As …

The Motivations For Meaning: A Study Of Persuasive Appeals In Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, Lawrence Arthur Lannoo

Theses and Dissertations

In 1976, one of the most violent and controversial films of that decade was released in American movie theaters. The film, Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, was heralded by some film scholars as a masterpiece.

However, others criticized the film for its graphic presentation of urban violence. This criticism intensified when John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, apparently motivated by his love for a character in the film, played by Jodie Foster.

The director of Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese, responded to the criticisms of the violence in his film. He suggested that he was not trying …

Divining Place In The Manawaka Fiction Of Margaret Laurence: A Study Of The Five Female Protagonists, Shirley Vaughn Greves

Theses and Dissertations

The problem to be explored is to discover the reason(s) some of her readers find connections to place in the Manawaka fiction of Margaret Laurence. The problem also includes the determination of the meaning of place to Laurence, her female characters, and her readers, both casual and critical.

This exploration includes the examination of her five Manawaka works of fiction, the review of critical analyses of her work, a consideration of reader-response and feminist theories, and a visit to Neepawa, Manitoba, the physical place after which the fictional Manawaka is modeled.

Laurence defines place by geography and people. The physical …

The Hakluyt Stage: Travel, Narcissism, And The Narrative., Thomas Palakeel

Theses and Dissertations

In this quincentenary year of the Columbus landfall, as the theorists debate the limitations of Western civilization, my dissertation critiques the narratives collected by Richard Hakluyt (1552-1616) who sought to enter the geographical and ethnographic discourse of the late Renaissance by inscribing the emergent English nation as the custodian of modern civilization. The English rhetoric of civility in the New World has taken the form of a series of monologic narratives, forced inscriptions that seek to normalize the history of colonization, slavery, and imperialism.My study of the narratives in Hakluyt's Principal Navigations (1598) reveals the cultural narcissism of the English …

Childless Couples On The American Stage, Kathleen Coudle King

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Choreography And Production Of "Jacob Five: A Journey Into The Olive Vineyard", Laurie Behunin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of choreographing "Jacob Five: A Journey into the Olive Vineyard" was to artistically express a religious allegory in order to praise God as well as to bring the audience, dancers, and choreographer to a new understanding of the passage from which it was derived. The 39-minute dance was presented April 10, 1993 as a dance fireside. Following the performance, an informal discussion was held to give the audience an opportunity to respond to the dance. These comments were considered and recorded as part of the evaluation of this thesis. Both the thesis and video of "Jacob Five: A …

General Education Requirements For Elementary Preservice Teachers: A Case Study, Judith K. Mccutchan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate curricular patterns for general education requirements in elementary teacher education during the period 1970-1990 and to examine the general education of elementary education seniors at the University of North Dakota in 1987-88 within the framework of changing views of the purposes of general education in teacher education.

Students were selected randomly from a list of seniors majoring in elementary education, elementary/early childhood education and elementary/special education during spring semester of 1988. Sixty students were contacted by telephone and interviewed during the final two weeks of the spring semester. Twenty-one faculty members whose …

Eric Overmyer's On The Verge A Production Focusing On Feminine Values, Beth Stadem-Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

Eric Overmyer's play On the Verge focuses on three women who leave their world in the year 1888 and enter Terra Incognita, a fanciful world that propels then into the future until they land in the year 1955. The women in Overmyer's play are three extraordinary explorer/adventurers whom, I believe, are based upon three women explorers who actually lived in the late 1800s. The thrust of my thesis focuses on identifying the values displayed by the women in the play, and their real-life counterparts, and determining whether or not these values can be identified as "feminine" or, if indeed, there …

If We Remain Forever Here, Jeffrey Bjorn Falla

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Medora : An Original Play Based On The Life Of The Marquis De Mores, Walter E. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Saturday's Women: Female Characters As Angels And Monsters In Saturday's Warrior And Reunion, Nola Diane Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Using theories of feminist criticism as explained by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, the study concludes that both Saturday's Warrior, a "home literature" style play, and Reunion, a more artistically challenging play, reflect repressive cultural images of women. Both plays cast female characters into the roles of passive Angel, domestic Angel/Monster, and active Monster.

Improving Royal Australian Air Force Strategic Airlift Planning By Application Of A Computer Based Management Information System, Neil A. Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to propose a MIS to assist RAAF strategic operational airlift planning. The present manual approach suffers deficiencies in flexibility, consistency and timeliness. Airlift planning was first analysed and found to comprise activities of investigation, detailed static planning, implementation and dynamic planning, and review. Planning performance is measured by the effectiveness and efficiency of resulting airlift. Automation of planning functions was investigated, especially the routing and scheduling of airlift. USAF systems, including ADANS, were reviewed and applicability to the RAAF evaluated. Automation of planning functions was investigated, especially the routing and scheduling of airlift. USAF …