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Text, Textile, And The Body In Baudelaire's 'A Une Mendiante Rousse' And Devi's Indian Tango, Michelle C. Lee

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Text, Textile, and the Body in Baudelaire's 'A une mendiante rousse' and Devi's Indian Tango," Michelle C. Lee aims to rethink the post-romantic division between aesthetics and politics through a reconsideration of the idea of complicity in Charles Baudelaire's poem and Ananda Devi's novel. Lee argues against the claim that aesthetics needs to remain autonomous in order to be able to radically critique bourgeois society. Through a reading of the trope of clothing in each of the texts, Lee re-evaluates the formation of autonomous modernist aesthetics and attempts to show that avant-garde self-reflexivity engages in the …

Pragmatic Transfer In Japanese Requests In Emails, Takako Noda

Open Access Theses

The speech act of request is known as a face threatening act (FTA) in the sense of Brown and Levinson (1987) and is considered a speech act that may negatively affect human relationships when it is used against cultural norms and constraints. Requests have been investigated in various languages, including English and Japanese (e.g., Hill et al., 1986; Fukushima, 1996; Gagné, 2010). Studies about interlanguage pragmatics, such as Matsuda et al. (2008) and Wada et al. (2008), showed characteristics of requests made by learners of Japanese. However, these studies all focused on the oral speech act, and there are few …

When Language Lies: Truth, Silence, And Codes Of Deception, Tammy C. Cline

The Qualitative Report

What does an autoethnography look like? How do you conduct reliable qualitative research when you are both the researcher and the researched? Where do you find truth as an adult when you discover your life as a child was full of secrets? In his book "A Need to Know: The Clandestine History of a CIA Family”, author H. J. Goodall (2006), tells the story of his personal journey investigating his own life growing up with a father who was a counter-intelligence offer in the cold-war era. While this narrative is an engaging and readable account, it is also a work …

Promoting Blogging To Improve Interpersonal And Presentational Writing Skills While Increasing Cultural Competency In An English Language Learning Setting, Terese Cox

Theses and Dissertations

Instructors of English Language Learners (ELLs) often focus on writing as one of the primary skills acquired in the university second language classroom. This thesis examines the role of blogging in improving interpersonal and presentational writing while also increasing students' cultural competency. It describes how to create and use a web source to promote blogging in the classroom. A classroom web source to accompany Interchange 3 as well as sixteen lessons with accompanying materials and rubrics comprise a substantial portion of this thesis to practically show how blogging might be incorporated into an ESL classroom. Each lesson enforces and highlights …

The Value Of Literary Journalism: Searching For Truths Through An Objective/Subjective Dialectic, Omar Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Literary Journalism is a hybrid genre that combines literary devices with advanced journalistic techniques to create nonfiction narratives. The distinctive qualities of literary journalism, working in addition to so-called objective approaches of conventional journalism, provide the reader with an alternative observation of specific social phenomena. In the introduction, issues revolving around the genre will be discussed followed by the introduction of the objective/subjective dialectic thus formulating my thesis that insists combining the two approaches allows the reader to see truth beyond ideology. The three chapters that follow offer readings of three key and representative works of literary journalism. The Armies …

Prairie Bound: How Laura's Past Forged My Future, Lori J. Houston

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This work of creative non-fiction seeks to explore my past at the same time as I explore the past of a favorite childhood author, Laura Ingalls Wilder. This exploration took the form of a road trip with my father to visit the sites written about in Laura’s books. I found that Laura’s life appealed to me because it represented an insular security that I felt I needed, and that was why I chose, as a child, to immerse myself in the 1880’s. While finding out what she meant to me then, I also discovered that Laura is an even better …

Acculturation Effects On Preference For English And Spanish-Language Tv Commercials Among Hispanic Audiences Of Mexican Descent, John Burton

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The growth of the U.S. Hispanic population and its purchasing power over the past twenty years continues to be monitored closely by corporate interests anxious to gain market share and brand loyalty of the segment that now represents the largest minority group in the country. Marketers continue to look for competitive advantages in effectively communicating targeted messages to Hispanics in order to increase revenues and profits.

This study focused on the historically dominant mass-reach medium of television and explored concepts of acculturation theory to examine the effects of acculturation sub-dimensions on TV commercial language preference and attitudes among Hispanic audiences …

Heritage Language Learners Of Russian And L2 Learners In The Flagship Program: A Comparison, Olga Kagan, Anna Kudyma

Russian Language Journal

The paper will compare heritage language learners (HLL) with traditional learners of Russian as a foreign language (L2 learners). We will focus on the Intermediate-High and higher levels of proficiency in order to determine whether these two groups of students can profitably share the classroom and use a common curriculum. The findings of a new study as well as UCLA Flagship experience over several years confirm that these two groups are compatible at higher levels of oral proficiency as measured by oral proficiency tests.

A Genre-Specific Study Of English And Persian Newspaper Editorials / Alireza Bonyadi Babaee, Alireza Bonyadi Babaee

Student Works (2010-2019)

Newspaper editorials constitute a part of media discourse, which is an extremely important field of research in intercultural rhetoric analysis. The interface between the linguistic analysis of newspaper editorials and teaching of English as a foreign/second language is also a relevant issue in language teaching. Thus, drawing on the theory of inter-cultural rhetoric analysis and considering the important role of newspaper editorials in shaping public opinions, the present study aimed at conducting a genre-specific analysis of newspaper editorials culled from the editorials of the English newspaper, The New York Times, and those of Persian newspaper, Tehran Times. Addressing different discourse …

Mameluk Una Novela Corta, Ruben Baldazo

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

La presente tesis es un trabajo de creación creativa literaria. En esta novela corta se relata la historia de Anilez, una guerrera mameluk mitad demonio y mitad humano, la cual, tras el aniquilamiento de su protectora y amiga, busca y asesina a una serie de demonios denominados como shekskas en las distintas misiones que es asignada por una organización secreta conocida simplemente como la Hermandad. Los géneros en los cuales se desarrolla la trama de la historia son la aventura y el dark fantasy, teniendo como temas centrales la búsqueda, el encuentro de identidad, la venganza, el psicoanálisis y …

The New Chicana Heroine: Representations Of Anzaldua's Mestiza Consciousness In Chicana Feminist Cultural Productions, Monica E. Montelongo

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This thesis analyzes Gloria Anzaldúa‟s mestiza consciousness as a representation seen thematically in Chicana feminist cultural productions. Mestiza consciousness, defined in Anzaldúa‟s Borderlands/La Frontera, is a non-binary feminist ideology, which proposes a third space in female identity, explored in terms of gender, class, race, and sexuality identification. The representation of mestiza consciousness in Chicana feminist cultural productions is proposed as a new trope in Chicana\o cultural studies, which I term the “New Chicana Heroine.” The New Chicana Heroine is both a proposal and representation of a third space in female identity. An examination of several authors, artists, and filmmakers, spanning …

An Educational "Clip": Arab Students' Experiences Of Curriculum In A U.S. University, Daad Adel Rizk

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This is a multicultural study of culture adaptation, language challenge, identity formation, and power struggle -"CLIP"- depicting three Arab students who have attended or are currently attending a University in the rural South East Region of the United States of America (circa 2009-2010) When Arab students go to college in the United States of America, two cultural extremities (East and West) meet and attempt to form relationships; two different languages, Arabic and English, written in opposite directions search for a middle page to help them communicate. Books in the Arab World are read right to left, while pages in the …

Translations, Retranslations, And Multiple Translations: A Case For Translation Variance Studies, Alexander Burak, Timothy Sergay

Russian Language Journal

The cluster of three related articles offered here represents what the authors propose to call “translation variance studies,” or TVS, a subfield of translation studies concerned with semantic, pragmatic, and stylistic equivalence and divergence between a single source text and its multiple translations into a specified target language. Multiple translations of a single source text into a single target language have become a widespread phenomenon. Its “ontological basis,” as Anna Muza recently observed, is “variability of solution within the target language.” All parties to translation must of necessity negotiate this variability of solution, beginning with the translator in the act …

The Hegemony Of Language - Literary Writing And The Quest For Subjectivity In The Works Of Michel De Montaigne And Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, Carla Bota Vance

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Starting from the premise that one’s identity is first and foremost construed in language, this dissertation argues that language is the fundamental site of resistance for writers who define themselves through linguistic difference. Recognizing also that language and literary production frequently fall under the control of complex authorities, this thesis examines literature as a site where confrontation is played out aesthetically. Literary writing, in other words, is exposed as a point of intersection between writers whose language draws its sources from a peripheral location and the centers of authority that regulate and dictate what is accepted as artistically and culturally …

Caregiver Behaviors As Moderators Of The Relation Between Children's Joint Attention Skills And Subsequent Language In An At-Risk Sample, Dolores Farhat

Open Access Dissertations

The positive link between children's joint attention skills and subsequent language outcomes is well established. There is also abundant evidence that responsive caregiver behaviors lead to optimal language outcomes. Though directive behaviors are generally considered detrimental to children's growth, specific types of directive behaviors which extend or build upon a child's behavior are thought to promote children's learning. No study has examined how caregiver behaviors interact with children's joint attention skills to affect subsequent language. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to examine how three different caregiver behaviors (Responsiveness, Supportiveness, and Intrusiveness) measured at 18 months moderated the …

Commodifying Creativity: Class, Labor, And Authorship In Isabella Whitney's “A Sweet Nosgay”, Janette Cavazos

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Isabella Whitney, the first woman to publish secular verse under her own name, is generally considered by scholars in terms of gender. My thesis argues she should be seen, instead, through her identity as a working-class writer. Her book of poetry, A Sweet Nosgay (1573), is shaped by her efforts to make her way in the world of print publication by commodifying creativity into a product. My thesis assesses the content of her poetry on the basis of class, which was the impetus for this commodification. My focus gives full authority to her as a Renaissance writer, one who resists …

Feminism, Imperialism, Utopianism, And Science Fiction In Margaret Cavendish's “Blazing World", Terina Garza Vazquez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Margaret Lucas Cavendish (1623-1673), the Duchess of Newcastle, was a woman writer in seventeenth-century England who was the first woman in history to be allowed within the halls of the Royal Society. She was also the first woman to write what should be considered the first work of science fiction by a woman titled The Description of a New World Called, The Blazing World, or simply The Blazing World. This thesis focuses on The Blazing World which offers a proto-feminist critique of imperialism and of gender relations in seventeenth-century England and of England’s emergent imperialist culture and points to a …

Exploring The Impact Of A Cd Rom On Arabic Language Learners' Acquisition Of The Arabic Language And Culture, Abdelhak Bouhaja

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The purpose of this study and thesis was to determine the impact of using a CD including authentic Arabic material to improve Arabic language learners' reading and listening proficiency, as well as to increase their familiarity with Arabic culture. The CD contained several components including film clips, songs, and short stories reflecting various aspects of Arabic culture and history. An open-ended questionnaire and an interview were administered to elicit students' perceptions of the CD's usefulness or lack thereof in improving their Arabic proficiency. Although students reported an interest in learning the Arabic language using the CD ROM, they seemed to …

Learning Systems: An Ecological Perspective On Advanced Academic Literacy Practices Of Multilingual Writers, Steve Simpson

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent work in composition's leading journals has challenged the field's exclusive focus on native English speakers and has called for a more international perspective on writing research and pedagogy. This dissertation, which grew from requests from multilingual graduate students in my own institution for more advanced academic writing support, extends this call to explore ways writing programs can better account for the needs of international graduate students, a growing population in US institutions. The role English has assumed as the lingua franca of international academic communication has made writing in English a critical skill for these students' professional development. In …

Amazigh Legitimacy Through Language In Morocco, Sarah R. Fischer

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Contemporary Morocco rests at a geographic and developmental crossroads. Uniquely positioned on the Northwestern tip of Africa, Morocco is a short distance away from continental Europe, cradled between North African tradition and identity, and Western embrace. The landscape is varied: craggy mountains trail into desert oases; cobbled streets of the medina anchor the urban centers; mud homes dot the rural countryside. Obscured from the outside observer, behind the walls of the Imperial cities and between the footpaths of village olive groves, Morocco’s rich and diverse Arab and Amazigh cultures and languages circle one another in a contested dance. Morocco’s identity …

A Cultural Competency Program For Psychologists: Clinical And Supervisory Practices With Latino Culture And Language, Marie C. Weil

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

This study was designed to develop and evaluate an online cultural competence training program for psychologists (N = 6). Psychologists who supervise clinical psychology graduate students were recruited via their affiliations with the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM), the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology (NCSPP), the Association of Psychology Training Clinics (APTC), the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC), and the Pennsylvania Psychological Association (PPA). The purpose of the study was to address multicultural training gaps between supervisors and doctoral students in psychology and to meet the psychological needs of Latinos, the largest …

The Attic And The Wheelchair V.C. Andrews's Accident And The Dollanganger Series, Angela H. Rice

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Author V.C. Andrews became known in 1979 with her first novel Flowers in the Attic and continued the series with Petals on the Wind, If There be Thorns, and Seeds of Yesterday. Problematic themes such as sudden accidents, romantic rape, incest, and mother daughter rivalry emerge continuously in each novel. In her interview with Douglas E. Winter, Andrews explains that since her debilitating fall down the stairs at the age of fifteen she lived with and depended on her mother. Unable to fulfill the goals of her childhood, Andrews read fairy tales, and romance novels and wrote her fantasies in …

The Potential Use Of Slow-Down Technology To Improve Pronounciation Of English For International Communication, Bunny Richardson

Doctoral

The focus of this research is on oral communication between L1 (first language) and L2 (second language) English users - to determine whether an algorithm which slows down speech can increase the intelligibility of speech between interlocutors for EIC (English for International Communication). The slow-down facility is a CALL tool which slows down speech without tonal distortion. It allows English language learners more processing time to hear individual phonemes as produced in the stream of connected speech, to help them hear and produce phonemes more accurately and thus more intelligibly. The study involved five tests, all concerned with the intelligibility …

Chicana Identity: Recognizing The Hybrid Self In Demetria Martínez's “Mother Tongue”, Cathy Ann Cortina

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study argues that although borders divide and fragment identity, there can be an embracement of a hybrid identity. Mártinez's novel, Mother Tongue, uses the representation of a Mexican-American female who has recognized and endeavored to cross a border to better understand the complexities of her hybrid identity. This journey is represented through Mary, a young woman who resides on a physical border between the United States and Mexico and lives on a cultural border between New Mexico and El Salvador. Martínez presents the cultural, historical, linguistic, and psychological aspects of living on a border between the United States …

Knowing More Than They Can Tell: An Assessment Of Genre Awareness Among Students In Writing Intensive Zoology And Civil Engineering Courses, Joleen Kidwell Hanson

Doctoral Dissertations

Developing genre awareness as a means of "learning how to learn" in new writing situations is a goal of four recently proposed writing pedagogies that recognize the context-dependent nature of standards for "good writing" (Devitt, Reiff, and Bawarshi (2004); Beaufort (2007); Johns (2008); Downs and Wardle (2007)). Yet other scholars argue that useful genre knowledge cannot be taught explicitly in the classroom, but must be acquired tacitly through participation in a workplace or other discourse community (Dias et al. (1999); Freedman (1994); Smit (2004)).

This qualitative study investigates the range of variability and potential sources of genre awareness among undergraduates …

Etre Et Parler: Being And Speaking French In Abdellatif Kechiches Lesquive And Laurent Cantets Entre Les Murs, Dana Strand

French and Francophone Studies Faculty Work

French film-makers have long recognized the primordial importance to the nation’s ‘imagined community’ of the centralized public school system, which, since the early days of the Third Republic, has been viewed as a bulwark of Republican values. In this essay, I discuss the ways in which two recent films, Abdellatif Kechiche’s L’Esquive/The Dodge (2004) and Laurent Cantet’s Entre les murs/The Class (2008), interrogate the role French schools play in shaping national identity. Both films focus on language as a marker of difference as well as a point of tension, performance and potential subversion, by exploring the respective contrast between the …

Arresting Beauty, Framing Evidence: An Inquiry Into Photography And The Teaching Of Writing, Kuhio Walters

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the uses and conceptualizations of photography in college Composition. Composition has long been conflicted over the relation between form and content---and since the 1970s, between aesthetics and politics. Today, this disciplinary tension manifests in how the visual is brought into pedagogy: either it is approached aesthetically, as something to beautify a text, or politically, as a source of cultural critique. The field's uses of photography have been positioned within this aesthetics/politics binary, but to understand the medium as only one or the other is to miss its full practical and theoretical potential.

Theoretically, photography is powerful and …

Volume 15, Number 1 (Summer 2008), Peace And Conflict Studies

Peace and Conflict Studies

No abstract provided.

Interactions Between Fmri Bold-Activation During Reading Tasks And Mrs-Measured Metabolite Levels, Hassana Aisha Ibrahim

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Recent studies in the field of dyslexia have used magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to explore neurochemical manifestations of neurobiological differences in the brains of dyslexic adults compared to controls. This study examines the potential relationship between functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) BOLD (blood oxygen level demand) activation scores in response to cognitive tasks and MRS-measured levels of a metabolite and a neurotransmitter, N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) respectively, in the occipital region of brains of seven-year old children. Preliminary results from this multi-arm, longitudinal study indicate a significant positive correlation between fMRI BOLD signal elicited in response to picture-cues …

Rethinking Trümmerliteratur: The Aesthetics Of Destruction Ruins, Ruination, And Ruined Language In The Works Of Böll Grass, And Celan, Kurt R. Buhanan

Theses and Dissertations

Trümmerliteratur - literally “rubble-literature" - is a brand of literature that became important after the Second World War, led by Heinrich Böll, whom I term the apologist of German Trümmerliteratur. Typically included under this classification are the writers who began to produce in the years immediately following the war, and in whose work the rubble and ruins of the landscape figure prominently. Böll provided the programmatic framework for the movement in his “Bekenntnis zur Trümmerliteratur" but his relationship to another type of ruin writing presents a point of friction when he appears to be working in a romantic mode to …