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The Role Of The Kin28 Protein Kinase In Chromatin Remodeling And Transcription Termination, Daniel Roy Labuz Dec 2016

The Role Of The Kin28 Protein Kinase In Chromatin Remodeling And Transcription Termination, Daniel Roy Labuz

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The Kin28 subunit of the general transcription factor complex, TFIIH, is a kinase that phosphorylates the heptapeptide repeats at serine position 5 (Ser5) on the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II (Pol II). Optimal Ser5 phosphorylation is important during transcription for Pol II to transition from the initiation step to the elongation step in a process called promoter escape. During transcription initiation, the nucleosome directly downstream of the promoter, called +1, must be disassembled before Pol II can engage the transcription start site. Previous work showed that the transcription machinery plays a direct role in the disassembly of the +1 …


Effects Of Lentiviral Stat3 And Stat3 Mutants On Cellular Proliferation And Tumor Formation, Alkiviadis Stavros Pierrakeas Dec 2016

Effects Of Lentiviral Stat3 And Stat3 Mutants On Cellular Proliferation And Tumor Formation, Alkiviadis Stavros Pierrakeas

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Abstract of the Thesis Effects of Lentiviral STAT3 and STAT3 Mutants on Cellular Proliferation and Tumor Formation by Alkiviadis Stavros Pierrakeas Master of Science in Biochemistry and Cell Biology Stony Brook University 2016 The mammalian Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription (STAT) family of proteins includes seven STAT transcription factors that function in cytokine signaling pathways to activate gene expression affecting cell proliferation, cell growth, cell survival, and apoptosis. Cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), and several growth factors are able to bind to cell surface receptors, activate tyrosine kinase activity and promote downstream phosphorylation of STAT proteins. Cytokines associated with …


Phic31 Integrase As A More Efficient Method Of Transgenesis In Zebrafish, Andrew Scortea Dec 2016

Phic31 Integrase As A More Efficient Method Of Transgenesis In Zebrafish, Andrew Scortea

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Zebrafish transgenesis is conventionally performed via the tol2 transposable element system as it is the most straightforward, providing quick and easy transgenesis. Despite being commonly used in the zebrafish community, tol2 mediated transgenesis has issues that cause workflow slowdowns and delays. The biggest of these issues are the random nonspecific integrations which can occur multiple times within a genome. In order to generate a stable transgenic line with a single insertion, one must perform several generations of outcrosses and subsequent screening. Thus, while tol2 transgenesis is effective at generating founder animals, a considerable amount of time and labor is required …


Transcriptional Regulation Of Mmp-9 And Mmp-14 By P53 And Its Mutant R280k, Yingjiao Xue Dec 2016

Transcriptional Regulation Of Mmp-9 And Mmp-14 By P53 And Its Mutant R280k, Yingjiao Xue

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and metastasis is the primary cause for mortality. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play important roles in cancer cell migration and invasion. Tumor suppressor gene TP53 is the most frequently mutated gene in cancer, and p53 mutation occurs in invasive breast cancer with higher frequency than in non-invasive breast cancer. However, the nature of relationship between p53 and MMPs remains inconclusive. Here we show that wild type p53 could repress transcriptional activity of MMP-9 and MMP-14, while the DNA-contact mutant p53 R280K could upregulate the transcription of MMP-9 and MMP-14. This regulation might …


Aging-Related Elevation Of Sphingoid Bases Shortens Yeast Chronological Life Span By Compromising Mitochondrial Function, Jae Kyo Yi Dec 2016

Aging-Related Elevation Of Sphingoid Bases Shortens Yeast Chronological Life Span By Compromising Mitochondrial Function, Jae Kyo Yi

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Aging is the biological process of growing older in a deleterious sense, senescence. However, what we have gained only comprises a partial and incomplete understanding of the fundamental molecular mechanisms. Increasing evidence suggests that dysregulation of the metabolism of sphingolipids including sphingoid bases (SBs, long-chain bases) might play an important role in the aging. We know neither how SBs are regulated during yeast aging nor how they, in turn, regulate it. Herein, I demonstrate that the yeast alkaline ceramidases (YPC1 and YDC1) and SB kinases (LCB4 and LCB5) cooperate in regulating SBs during the aging process and that SBs shorten …


Using Quantitative Silac Proteomics To Identify Mek1 Substrates During Yeast Meiosis, Raymond Theodore Suhandynata Dec 2016

Using Quantitative Silac Proteomics To Identify Mek1 Substrates During Yeast Meiosis, Raymond Theodore Suhandynata

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The exchange of reciprocal information between homologous chromosomes in conjunction with sister chromatid cohesion ensures proper segregation of homologous chromosomes during Meiosis I. Improper segregation of homologous chromosomes during meiosis leads to chromosomal imbalance, which in humans can lead to genetic disorders such as Down syndrome (Trisomy 21) and Turner syndrome (monosomy of the X chromosome). Meiotic recombination begins with the initiation of double-strand breaks (DSBs) and the biased repair of these breaks by the homologous chromosome. This inter-homolog (IH) bias is upheld by the meiotic recombination checkpoint kinase Mek1. Mek1 is a meiosis specific serine/threonine kinase that prevents cells …


Multiscale Particle-Based Modeling Of Mechanotransduction Process In Flow-Induced Platelet Activation Using Dissipative Particle Dynamics And Coarse Grained Molecular Dynamics, Chao Gao Dec 2016

Multiscale Particle-Based Modeling Of Mechanotransduction Process In Flow-Induced Platelet Activation Using Dissipative Particle Dynamics And Coarse Grained Molecular Dynamics, Chao Gao

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Thrombosis in cardiovascular diseases and prosthetic cardiovascular devices can be potentiated by pathological flow patterns that enhance hemostatic responses including platelet activation, aggregation, and adhesion. Platelets upon activation react to pathological shear stresses with complex biochemical and morphological changes, aggregate, and adhere to blood vessels or device surfaces to form thrombi. Computational modeling and simulation are extensively employed to study the shear-induced platelet activation. Numerical simulations of this complex process based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) treat blood as a continuum and solve the Navier-Stokes equations to resolve the process to μm scales level. Due to the limited scales range, …


Diffuse Correlation And Optical Spectroscopies For The Monitoring Of Spinal Cord Hemodynamics, Angela Sofia Kogler Dec 2016

Diffuse Correlation And Optical Spectroscopies For The Monitoring Of Spinal Cord Hemodynamics, Angela Sofia Kogler

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Spinal cord ischemia, caused by a prolonged loss of blood flow to the spinal cord, can occur as a result of direct trauma to the spinal cord or as a complication of major vascular, spine and spinal cord surgery, and surgeries for the stabilization of spinal cord trauma, often resulting in partial or complete paresis/paralysis. Current electrophysiological methods employed to detect spinal cord ischemia, namely somatosensory and motor evoked potentials, are indirect, temporally insensitive, nonspecific, and cumbersome. There is no technology currently available that can directly and immediately detect the onset of spinal cord ischemia, nor provide immediate feedback on …


Oxidized Graphene Nanoparticles As A Delivery System For The Bioactive Sphingolipid Ceramide, Cassandra Suhrland Dec 2016

Oxidized Graphene Nanoparticles As A Delivery System For The Bioactive Sphingolipid Ceramide, Cassandra Suhrland

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In recent years there has been a growing appreciation for the active functions certain lipids have in cellular metabolism. These "bioactive lipids" have been found to be an important part of many cell signaling processes. In particular, the bioactive sphingolipid ceramide has emerged as an important player in cancer biology. Dysregulation of ceramide metabolism has been shown to impart resistance to drug and radiation treatment in certain types of cancer, with low levels of specific ceramide species conferring resistance to apoptosis. It has also been shown that restoring levels of these ceramides in cancer cells through exogenous delivery also restores …


Carbon Nanotubes As Localized Microwave Hyperthermia Agents, Shawn Xie Dec 2016

Carbon Nanotubes As Localized Microwave Hyperthermia Agents, Shawn Xie

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in recent years have been cited to provide great potential for biomedical applications such as drug delivery, imaging and hyperthermia. In particular, it has been shown that they are able to interact with a broad array of electromagnetic radiation, including microwaves. The latter is of great interest for cancer imaging and therapy due to its non-ionizing nature and unique balance of spatial resolution and penetration depth, as well as ability to thermally ablate tumor tissue. Combined with microwaves, CNTs can serve as a platform with high selectivity of microwave absorption, enabling selective microwave thermal therapy, and effective …


Synthetic Approaches To A Bis-Thiol Based Arsenic Receptor And A Potential Pi-Stacking Based Polyamide Foldamer, Dana Michele Castro Dec 2016

Synthetic Approaches To A Bis-Thiol Based Arsenic Receptor And A Potential Pi-Stacking Based Polyamide Foldamer, Dana Michele Castro

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Arsenic is a known harmful chemical, causing cancer and other adverse health effects if consumed in even modest amounts. Arsenic is found in drinking water at levels higher than deemed safe in many parts of the world. Current detection methods for arsenic in water have many limitations. A low-cost, safe, and efficient alternative would make arsenic detection simpler and human lives safer. As arsenic is known to have a high affinity to sulfur, the Drueckhammer group has designed a compound with two protruding thiol groups that may provide the basis for fluorescence-based detection. In this study, preliminary steps in the …


Phd, Xiaofei Liang Dec 2016

Phd, Xiaofei Liang

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

As(III) compounds have high affinity for thiol groups and this affinity has been used in the prior development of FlAsH and related tags for cysteine peptides. We aimed to develop a series of arsenic-based receptors designed to bind to different arrangements of cysteines within native alpha-helical protein structures. Computer modeling was used to define the proper arrangement of arsenic functionality for binding to each targeted sequence. The computer program HostDesigner was then used to discover scaffold structures on which to display the arsenic functionality at the proper distance and relative orientation to bind the targeted sequence. Designed structures were then …


Green Synthesis, Characterization, And Application Of Metal-Based Nanomaterials, Crystal Lewis Dec 2016

Green Synthesis, Characterization, And Application Of Metal-Based Nanomaterials, Crystal Lewis

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Metal-based nanomaterials have attracted significant research interest due to their unique size-dependent optical, magnetic, electronic, thermal, mechanical, and chemical properties as compared with their bulk counterparts. These advantageous and tailorable properties render these materials as ideal candidates for catalysis, photovoltaics, and even biomedical applications. However, nanomaterials are typically synthesized via chemical or physical processes, which are continuing to rise in cost, complexity, and toxicity. As a result, ‘milder’ and more environmentally benign nanoscale synthetic methodologies, particularly U-tube double diffusion, molten salt, and hydrothermal techniques, have been utilized to mitigate for these drawbacks. Moreover, these efficient and facile techniques coupled with …


Understanding Structure And Response In Thermally Responsive Block Copolymer Assemblies, Zhe Sun Dec 2016

Understanding Structure And Response In Thermally Responsive Block Copolymer Assemblies, Zhe Sun

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

There has been considerable and growing interest in the field of stimulus-responsive polymers over the last two decades, as they can be exploited in many applications including biomedicine, sensing, and separations. Temperature remains the most extensively investigated physical stimulus due to its ease of application and monitoring. In this dissertation, a new class of thermally responsive ABC poly(ethylene oxide)-block-poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide)-block-poly(N,N-dibutylacrylamide) (PEO-b-PDEAm-b-PDBAm) triblock copolymers has been synthesized by reversible addition−fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization. In aqueous solution, PEO-b-PDEAm-b-PDBAm copolymers self-assemble into a wide range of different aggregated structures including spherical micelles, cylindrical micelles, vesicles and large compound micelles. The precise morphology mainly depends …


Heterolithic Branched Liquid Crystalline Materials Prepared Via The Passerini Three-Component Reaction, Shuang Song Dec 2016

Heterolithic Branched Liquid Crystalline Materials Prepared Via The Passerini Three-Component Reaction, Shuang Song

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Precisely defined and multifunctional molecular architectures that can form liquid crystalline mesophases are part of a new generation of functional supramolecular materials. Liquid crystalline compounds (mesogens) form phases of matter intermediate between crystalline solids and isotropic liquids (mesophases). The presence of molecular order in a fluid phase has led to the widespread use of conventional liquid crystal mesogens in displays and optoelectronic devices. Combining different types of mesogens or mesogens with other functional components to create heterolithic star-branched or dendritic architectures is of interest as a strategy to engineer liquid crystalline materials with new structural and functional properties. Heterolithic branched …


Mechanistic And Structural Insight Into Amyloid Formation By Islet Amyloid Polypeptide: Implications For Monitoring The Amylome, Amy Wong Dec 2016

Mechanistic And Structural Insight Into Amyloid Formation By Islet Amyloid Polypeptide: Implications For Monitoring The Amylome, Amy Wong

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Amyloid fibrils are insoluble peptide or protein aggregates that are fibrous, predominantly β-sheet, and highly ordered. Amyloid formation plays an important role in an array of human diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease. The proteins that form amyloid vary greatly in native structure and function however, the resultant amyloid plaques formed when these proteins misfold share many structural features. The work herein describes the recent research on islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP, or amylin), a neuroendocrine hormone that is co-secreted with insulin and has been observed to form amyloid plaques in the pancreas, a process that has been shown to …


In Situ Ambient Pressure Studies Of Dynamic Surface Transformations On Cu-Based Model Catalysts, Fang Xu Dec 2016

In Situ Ambient Pressure Studies Of Dynamic Surface Transformations On Cu-Based Model Catalysts, Fang Xu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Copper-based heterogeneous catalysts are widely used in many industrial applications across the fields of fuels and energy. In order to probe the catalyst structure under reaction conditions, state-of-the-art ambient pressure techniques have been implemented. This dissertation is focused on room temperature in situ ambient pressure (AP) (10 mTorr to 2 Torr) studies on Cu-based model catalysts including Cu(111), Cu2O/Cu(111), potassium modified Cu2O/Cu(111) and CeO2/Cu2O/Cu(111). It investigates their surface dynamic transformations using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), infrared reflection adsorption spectroscopy (IRRAS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Under ambient pressures, Cu(111) surface is roughened by CO, or O2. Atomic H can heal …


Synthetic, Medicinal, And Computational Studies On Novel Anticancer, Antitubercular, And Anti-Nociceptive Agents, Longfei Wei Dec 2016

Synthetic, Medicinal, And Computational Studies On Novel Anticancer, Antitubercular, And Anti-Nociceptive Agents, Longfei Wei

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Multidrug resistance is a major obstacle to effective cancer chemotherapy. New-generation taxoids SB-T-1214 and SB-T-1216 have shown two to three orders of magnitude higher potency than those of paclitaxel and docetaxel against multidrug-resistant cancer cell lines. A structure-activity relationship (SAR) study has been conducted in order to test which moiety of the new-generation taxoids account for the high potency against multidrug resistant cancer cell lines. In order to selectively deliver new-generation taxoids into tumor cells, tumor-targeted drug delivery systems with a smart methyl-branched disulfide linker have been developed in the Ojima laboratory. The metabolic stability of this disulfide linker has …


Development And Application Of An Integrated Parallel Platform On Short–Read Sequences Assembly | Development And Application Of An Integrated Parallel Platform On Short–Read Sequences Assembly, Fei He Dec 2016

Development And Application Of An Integrated Parallel Platform On Short–Read Sequences Assembly | Development And Application Of An Integrated Parallel Platform On Short–Read Sequences Assembly, Fei He

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Rapid and automated next generation sequencing (NGS) methods have emerged recently and significantly accelerated the research in biological and medical fields. The high-throughput NGS usually generates billions of shorter reads, which poses great bioinformatics challenges on extracting meaningful information from these massive data, one of which is de novo assembly. At the same time, the fast development of massive parallel processing (MPP) systems presents a substantial opportunity for processing larger datasets. Therefore, using supercomputer innovations on NGS research promises a good strategy; however, this application is not straightforward and requires new algorithms and parallel design for efficient implementations. In this …


Shifting Expectations: Medicine, Nature, And Disability In Pregnancy Texts, Laura Abbasi-Lemmon Dec 2016

Shifting Expectations: Medicine, Nature, And Disability In Pregnancy Texts, Laura Abbasi-Lemmon

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

In this thesis, I consider the complex interactions between discourses of medicine, nature, and disability which determine what pregnant women can or cannot, or should or should not do to maintain an acceptable and “healthy†pregnancy that results in a desired, nondisabled child. In this thesis, I employ two interdisciplinary methods, critical discourse analysis and qualitative interviewing and ground my project in feminist disability studies and the concept of reproductive justice. I analyze interviews I conducted with five currently pregnant women from Long Island, New York and three pregnancy manuals, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Ina May’s Guide to …


An Isoform-Free Model For Differential Expression Analysis In Rna-Seq Data, Yang Liu Dec 2016

An Isoform-Free Model For Differential Expression Analysis In Rna-Seq Data, Yang Liu

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Next generation sequencing (NGS) technology has been widely used in biomedical research, particularly on those genomics-related studies. One of the NGS applications is high-throughput mRNA sequencing (RNA-seq), which is usually applied to discover alternative splicing events, to evaluate gene expression level and to identify differentially expressed genes. Compared with the traditional microarrays, RNA-seq is more efficient and economical. Currently, many useful software tools have been developed for RNA-seq differential expression (DE) analyses, such as edgeR, DESeq and Cufflinks; however, all these methods either ignore the isoforms of mRNA transcript, or rely on the predefined isoform structures, or depend on the …


An Exploratory Study On Process Representations, Chetan Naik Dec 2016

An Exploratory Study On Process Representations, Chetan Naik

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Knowledge about processes is essential for AI systems to understand and reason about the real world events. And, the systems need some form of semantic representation to perform reasoning. At the simplest level, even knowing which class of entities play key roles can be helpful in recognizing and reasoning about events. For instance, given a description ``a puddle drying in the sun", one can recognize this as an instance of the evaporation process using simple role knowledge which asserts (among other things) that the undergoer is a kind of liquid (the puddle), and the enabler is a heat source (the …


Selection On Stability In Food Webs, Jonathan Joseph Borrelli Dec 2016

Selection On Stability In Food Webs, Jonathan Joseph Borrelli

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Whereas much of ecological research has been focused on enumerating the differences among ecological communities, it is equally important to understand their similarities. Food webs exhibit remarkably conserved patterns regardless of the type of environment in which they are found. Evolutionary and ecological processes are able to generate a variety of community configurations, but some of these will have a higher chance of being stable. Selection on these configurations based on their stability properties should lead towards an increased representation of stable structures. Moreover this selective process will operate the same across different environmental contexts. The goal of this dissertation …


Plant Community Composition, Species Coexistence, And Community Assembly In The Riparian Zones Of Small Streams In New York State, Emily Joyce Rollinson Dec 2016

Plant Community Composition, Species Coexistence, And Community Assembly In The Riparian Zones Of Small Streams In New York State, Emily Joyce Rollinson

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Many mechanisms may contribute to the diversity and composition of an ecological community. In riparian habitats, which are often described as both very diverse and very susceptible to biological invasions, flood disturbances may be a predominant structuring mechanism. In this dissertation I use several approaches to describe the mechanisms governing the diversity and composition of riparian plant communities along small streams. I performed a systematic literature review of the role of disturbances in facilitating plant invasions in general and in riparian plant communities in particular. General trends in the effects of disturbance on plant communities may be difficult to detect …


Analog Circuit Design Knowledge Mining And Circuit Causal Information Modeling, Fanshu Jiao Dec 2016

Analog Circuit Design Knowledge Mining And Circuit Causal Information Modeling, Fanshu Jiao

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This thesis proposes novel approaches for analog circuit design knowledge mining and circuit causal information modeling. In particular, knowledge mining discovers and decomposes analog circuit design knowledge into three components: (1) a conceptual hierarchy for a group of circuit topologies, (2) circuits' performance capabilities (including trade-offs and bottlenecks), and (3) circuits' design causal reasoning strategies. Causal reasoning strategies lead to the development of reasoning-based topology synthesis and design verification, thus bring new perspective to existing approaches. Extended from performance capabilities, the thesis proposes circuit causal information modeling, which models relations of parameters deciding circuit performance attributes and coupling with other …


Form And Function Of The Anthropoid Forefoot, Pedro J. Fernandez Dec 2016

Form And Function Of The Anthropoid Forefoot, Pedro J. Fernandez

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

The transition to our uniquely human gait—terrestrial bipedalism—is the hallmark of our lineage. Abundant fossil evidence confirms that it was the adoption of a terrestrial bipedal gait that first set hominins apart from other apes. Therefore, a thorough understanding of postcranial functional morphology is necessary in order to gain as much insight as possible from the current known fossil material. When compared to our closest relatives, the living apes, it is clear that a suite of morphological changes have occurred in the human postcranial skeleton broadly, including modifications at the vertebral column, shoulder, wrist, hand, pelvis, ankle and foot. The …


Shrouded In The Womb Of A Savage, Cradled In The Arms Of An Ape: Gothic Scenes Of Racial Recapitulation In The Making Of The American Übermensch | Shrouded In The Womb Of A Savage, Cradled In The Arms Of An Ape: Gothic Scenes Of Racial Recapitulation In The Making Of The American Übermensch, Ian Anthony Bacchus Dec 2016

Shrouded In The Womb Of A Savage, Cradled In The Arms Of An Ape: Gothic Scenes Of Racial Recapitulation In The Making Of The American Übermensch | Shrouded In The Womb Of A Savage, Cradled In The Arms Of An Ape: Gothic Scenes Of Racial Recapitulation In The Making Of The American Übermensch, Ian Anthony Bacchus

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Slavery is often put forward as the crucial horror that haunts the nation, and is touted, as Leslie Fiedler noted, as “the proper subject for American Gothic†. This thesis does not dispute a historical location for the American Gothic, but it argues for a different starting place for the self-consciously Gothic impulse in the literature of the nation. It is not the original sin of slavery that underpins the American Gothic, but the original anxiety experienced by an infant nation as it first distances itself from its ancestral country, and then asserts its independence and superiority. It is an …


Othering The Mother: Traumatic Effects Of Motherhood On The Formation Of Identity In Toni Morrison’S Beloved | Othering The Mother: Traumatic Effects Of Motherhood On The Formation Of Identity In Toni Morrison’S Beloved, Gabriella Elizabeth Greco Dec 2016

Othering The Mother: Traumatic Effects Of Motherhood On The Formation Of Identity In Toni Morrison’S Beloved | Othering The Mother: Traumatic Effects Of Motherhood On The Formation Of Identity In Toni Morrison’S Beloved, Gabriella Elizabeth Greco

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

As a text based heavily on tropes from both American Gothic literature and the slave narrative genre, Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved serves as a complex and delicate commentary on racial ambiguities and the psychologically haunting effects of African American trauma. These ambiguities simultaneously serve as reasons for and consequences of the various traumas that strain the interpersonal relationships between the female characters. Aside from the most blatant and gruesome trauma of the novel—the infanticide that Sethe commits as an act of mercy for her unnamed child—many of the recurring traumatic memories evoke the challenges of motherhood during slavery. | As …


Elaine's "Priceless" Pearls And Enid's Faded Dress: The Self And The Thing In "Lancelot And Elaine" And "The Marriage Of Geraint", Jordan Elizabeth Plavnicky Dec 2016

Elaine's "Priceless" Pearls And Enid's Faded Dress: The Self And The Thing In "Lancelot And Elaine" And "The Marriage Of Geraint", Jordan Elizabeth Plavnicky

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

This thesis takes an object-oriented approach to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King through an analysis of Elaine’s pearled sleeve in “Lancelot and Elaine†and Enid’s faded dress in “The Marriage of Geraint.†It considers the pearl as a thing; a thing that can be exchanged, a thing against which one can orient and identify the self, and finally a thing that exists already within English cultural history. It considers Enid’s dress as a material garment upon which numerous meanings can be inscribed. The thesis argues that Elaine and Enid each demonstrate the unique role women have in relation to their …


The Human To Come: Representations Of Human In Literary Modernity’S Testimonial "I" | The Human To Come: Representations Of Human In Literary Modernity’S Testimonial "I", Kerry Suzanne Spooner Dec 2016

The Human To Come: Representations Of Human In Literary Modernity’S Testimonial "I" | The Human To Come: Representations Of Human In Literary Modernity’S Testimonial "I", Kerry Suzanne Spooner

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

With the concern for human rights always present to this project, I explore in the initial chapters the precariousness of the first-person singular subjective “I†in both testimonial and fictional texts and its bearing on human rights. In practice, first-person narratives, whether as life-writing or fictional, are textual spaces in which writers’ concerns that deal with human conditions are frequently articulated. By examining the first-person narrative function in selected texts of Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, and Samuel Beckett, this dissertation shows how conceptual imaginings of the concept of the human and human embodiment are unsettled. These exemplar modernist …