Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

American Studies

Institution
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 11461 - 11490 of 27375

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

The Unthinkable Botanical Gardens: Poems, Travis Oliver Green Smith Jan 2013

The Unthinkable Botanical Gardens: Poems, Travis Oliver Green Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Unthinkable Botanical Gardens is a book of poems in five sections. The first, third, and fifth sections present a speaker navigating a wondrous and often hostile world. The second and fourth sections are long poems: "Zodiac B," a sequence inspired by obsolete or forgotten constellations, and "Elbow Island," which tells the story of the beluga whales exhibited in Barnum's American Museum.

Go to article

Mouth, Dorothy Lynn Knight Jan 2013

Mouth, Dorothy Lynn Knight

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Poems written between August 2010 and April 2013.

Go to article

A New Way Of Living: Bioeconomic Models In Post-Apocalyptic Dystopias, Margaret A. Wells Jan 2013

A New Way Of Living: Bioeconomic Models In Post-Apocalyptic Dystopias, Margaret A. Wells

Theses and Dissertations--English

The objective of this thesis is to explore the relationship between moralities and bioeconomies in post-apocalyptic dystopias from the Victorian era to contemporary Young Adult Fiction. In defining the terms bioeconomy and biopolitics, this works examines the ways in which literature uses food and energy systems to explore morality and immorality in social orders and systems, including capitalism and our modern techno-industrial landscapes. This work examines science fiction portrayals of apocalypses and dystopias, including After London: Or, Wild England and The Hunger Games, as well as their medieval and contextual influences. These works are analyzed in light of genre …

Go to article

Whiteness In Africa: Americo-Liberians And The Transformative Geographies Of Race, Robert P. Murray Jan 2013

Whiteness In Africa: Americo-Liberians And The Transformative Geographies Of Race, Robert P. Murray

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation examines the constructed racial identities of African American settlers in colonial Liberia as they traversed the Atlantic between the United States and West Africa during the first half of the nineteenth century. In one of the great testaments that race is a social construction, the West African neighbors and inhabitants of Liberia, who conceived of themselves as “black,” recognized the significant cultural differences between themselves and these newly-arrived Americans and racially categorized the newcomers as “white.” This project examines the ramifications for these African American settlers of becoming simultaneously white and black through their Atlantic mobility. This is …

Go to article

Native Newspapers: The Emergence Of The American Indian Press 1960-Present, Russell M. Page Jan 2013

Native Newspapers: The Emergence Of The American Indian Press 1960-Present, Russell M. Page

CMC Senior Theses

During the 1960s and 1970s, tribes across Indian Country struggled for tribal sovereignty against “termination” policies that aimed to disintegrate the federal government’s trust responsibilities and treaty obligations to tribes and assimilate all Indians into mainstream society. Individual tribes, pan-Indian organizations, and militant Red Power activists rose up in resistance to these policies and fought for self-determination: a preservation of Indian distinctiveness and social and political autonomy. This thesis examines a crucial, but often overlooked, element of the self-determination movement. Hundreds of tribal and national-scope activist newspapers emerged during this era and became the authentic voices of American Indians and …

Go to article

Conjuring The Close From Afar A Border-Crossing Tale Of Vieques’ Activism And Obama-Empire, Víctor M. Torres-Vélez, Sarah Molinari, Katharine Lawrence Jan 2013

Conjuring The Close From Afar A Border-Crossing Tale Of Vieques’ Activism And Obama-Empire, Víctor M. Torres-Vélez, Sarah Molinari, Katharine Lawrence

Publications and Research

After more than 60 years of military occupation, 30 of these under violent military practices, a social movement forced the U.S. Navy from the island of Vieques. This victory would not have been possible without the highly effective organization of civil disobedience carried out on the island. But the sum total of the actions that eventually forced out the U.S. Navy, neither happened exclusively within the boundaries of Vieques, nor was carried out by Viequense residents alone. In this article we want to suggest that this amazing victory—a testament of people’s will in the face of globalization—is also a border- …

Go to article

Tarrying With The "Private Parts", Robert F. Reid-Pharr Jan 2013

Tarrying With The "Private Parts", Robert F. Reid-Pharr

Publications and Research

Two-thirds of the way through Object Lessons (2012), Robyn Wiegman's provocative study of the institutional and ideological development of what she names identity-based modes of inquiry in US colleges and universities, the author recounts a 2003 trip she took to Leiden to attend the inaugural meeting of the International American Studies Association. There, she was regularly met with the claim that American studies, at least as it is practiced by citizens and long-term residents of the United States, was deeply provincial and too caught up with rehearsals of the humdrum difficulties of American social and cultural life, particularly our always …

Go to article

The Limits Of Violence: People And Property In Edward Abbey's "Monkeywrenching" Novels, David Thomas Sumner Jan 2013

The Limits Of Violence: People And Property In Edward Abbey's "Monkeywrenching" Novels, David Thomas Sumner

Faculty Publications

This paper explores Edward Abbey’s fiction asking what kind of ethical imperative his monkeywrenching novels offer. While advocating the destruction of property in defense of wilderness, The Monkey Wrench Gang draws a clear ethical distinction between the destruction of property in defense of wilderness and the harming of people. Yet the sequel, Hayduke Lives!, blurs this ethical line when a security guard is killed during the novel’s final eco-sabotage scene. After exploring several possible textual explanations for this apparent change and then interviewing several of Abbey’s close friends regarding this issue, the author concludes that the shift does not …

Go to article

A Note On Zane Grey's Lewis Wetzel, Kenneth Estes Hall Jan 2013

A Note On Zane Grey's Lewis Wetzel, Kenneth Estes Hall

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Zane Grey presented to readers of his early Frontier Trilogy1 a version of the frontiersman type in Lewis Wetzel, the famed Deathwind, scourge of Delawares and Shawnees in the Ohio Country.

Go to article

Not Peace But The Sword: Violence In Contemporary American Catholic Literature, Michael O'Connell Jan 2013

Not Peace But The Sword: Violence In Contemporary American Catholic Literature, Michael O'Connell

Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that violence is a consistent theme in contemporary (post-1945) fiction written by American Catholics, and that these authors employ violence as an aesthetic strategy that is best, and perhaps only, understood when approached through the philosophical and imaginative discourses of their Catholic faith. While the violence in contemporary fictions can be viewed as a product of the power dynamics at work in the modern age, I contend that these power dynamics are not a central concern for Catholic authors. Rather, in Catholic fiction, violence functions as a catalyst that leads characters toward a moment of …

Go to article

Why Speak Of American Stories As Dreams?, Cara Erdheim Jan 2013

Why Speak Of American Stories As Dreams?, Cara Erdheim

English Faculty Publications

The term "American Dream" conjures literary images of perseverance and promise on the one hand but disillusionment and defeat on the other: Ben Franklin pulling himself up by the bootstraps, Huck Finn "lighting out" for the territories, Gatsby insisting that he can "repeat the past," Willy Loman burying his face in his hands. Whether one accepts it as a reality, punctures it as a myth, or presents it as a nightmare, the American Dream has maintained its powerful presence in scholarly conversations throughout the decades. Traditionally, scholars have referred to classic American Dream texts such as Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography (1791–1790), …

Go to article

The Cult Of Individualism: A History Of An Enduring American Myth, Introduction, Aaron Barlow Jan 2013

The Cult Of Individualism: A History Of An Enduring American Myth, Introduction, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

Why do we have the Red State/Blue State divide in the United States today? This book traces the background of contemporary political strife to immigration from Ulster Plantation and the Scottish lowlands of the 18th century.

Go to article

Louis Armstrong, Gene H. Anderson Jan 2013

Louis Armstrong, Gene H. Anderson

Music Faculty Publications

Despite his lifelong claim of 4 July 1900 as his birthday, Armstrong was actually born on 4 August 1901 as recorded on a baptismal certificate discovered after his death. Although calling himself “Louis Daniel Armstrong” in his 1954 autobiography, he denied knowledge of his middle name or its origin. Nevertheless, evidence of “Daniel” being a family name is strong: Armstrong's paternal great-great-grandfather, a third generation slave brought from Tidewater Virginia for sale in New Orleans in 1818, was named Daniel Walker, as was his son, Armstrong's great-grandfather. The latter's wife, Catherine Walker, sponsored her great-grandson's baptism at the family's home …

Go to article

Mormonism And The Family (Forum), Terryl Givens Jan 2013

Mormonism And The Family (Forum), Terryl Givens

English Faculty Publications

When we speak of the family in Mormonism, the term can mean many things. There is an idealized Mormon family, the one described in church magazines, General Conference talks, and Mormon public service commercials. There is the family of the Mormon theological tradition, stretching endlessly off into the eternities, bound together with temple ordinances, the forever family of Mormon bumper stickers. There is another family, product of a more speculative bent in Mormon theology, which comes of an eschatological reading of the Abrahamic covenant, and which imputes to a temple-sealed Mormon couple the right to an endless seed, a posterity …

Go to article

The Black Freedom Struggle And Civil Rights Labor Organizing In The Piedmont And Eastern North Carolina Tobacco Industry, Jennifer Wells Jan 2013

The Black Freedom Struggle And Civil Rights Labor Organizing In The Piedmont And Eastern North Carolina Tobacco Industry, Jennifer Wells

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines labor organizing in the U.S. South, specifically the Piedmont and eastern regions of North Carolina in the mid-twentieth century. It aims to uncover an often overlooked local history of civil rights labor organizing which challenged the southern status quo before America's 'mainstream' civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s. This study argues that through labor organizing, African American tobacco workers challenged the class, gender, and race hierarchy of North Carolina's very profitable tobacco industry during the first half of the twentieth century. In doing so, the thesis contributes to the historiography of black working class protest, …

Go to article

Unlocking The Paradox Of Christian Metal Music, Eric S. Strother Jan 2013

Unlocking The Paradox Of Christian Metal Music, Eric S. Strother

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In 1984, Stryper released its first album The Yellow and Black Attack and introduced audiences to a different kind of heavy metal. Instead of lyrics about sex, alcohol, and Satan, Stryper sang about Jesus, salvation, and God. While there were a number of fans ready for this change more were not. Members of the Church as well as members of the metal subculture were in agreement that Christianity and heavy metal were incompatible. Despite these objections, however, more bands emerged, and Christian metal became a significant genre within the Christian music industry. These bands presented Christian-oriented lyrics within the full …

Go to article

Indiana, Bert Chapman Jan 2013

Indiana, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of key Civil War developments in Indiana and how this conflict impacted Indiana.

Go to article

Lamar, Mirabeau Buonaparte, Bert Chapman Jan 2013

Lamar, Mirabeau Buonaparte, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a biographical portrait and career overview of Mirabeau Lamar (1798-1859) who served as the second President of the Republic of Texas from 1838-1841.

Go to article

Morton, Oliver Hazard Perry Throck, Bert Chapman Jan 2013

Morton, Oliver Hazard Perry Throck, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Biographical portrait and analysis of Indiana Civil War Governor Oliver Morton.

Go to article

The Traumatized/Traumatizing Subject In Anna Deavere Smith, Suzan-Lori Parks, And August Wilson, Christopher J. Giroux Jan 2013

The Traumatized/Traumatizing Subject In Anna Deavere Smith, Suzan-Lori Parks, And August Wilson, Christopher J. Giroux

Wayne State University Dissertations

The Traumatized/Traumatizing Subject in Anna Deavere Smith, Suzan-Lori Parks, and August Wilson explores how drama, as a genre, is particularly suited for capturing aspects of trauma in ways that other genres cannot; this argument reinforces that trauma must be studied within the humanities, specifically within literature programs. Recognizing that trauma in and of itself is tied to issues of narrativization, textuality, and performativity, this project notes that Smith's, Parks's, and Wilson's work collectively attempt to traumatize contemporary viewing audiences and make them aware—cognitively and emotionally—of the hardships of discrimination and racism, which themselves can be seen as examples of generational …

Go to article

The Song We Sing: Negotiating Black Nationalism And Queerness In James Baldwin's Late Novels, Elliot N. Long Jan 2013

The Song We Sing: Negotiating Black Nationalism And Queerness In James Baldwin's Late Novels, Elliot N. Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite his exclusion from the Black Arts Movement, James Baldwin includes in his later novels many elements of Black Nationalism, including a focus on black communities, black music, Pan-Africanism, and elements of separatism. In his inclusion of queer sexuality, Baldwin pushes against the typical bounds of Black Arts writings, expanding the limits of the genre. Contrary to the philosophy of Black Nationalism, which depends upon solid definitions of blackness, heterosexuality, and masculinity, is Baldwin's tearing down of identity categories through queering sexuality, gender, and race. This thesis examines James Baldwin's late novels, which remain undervalued and under-read, in terms of …

Go to article

"It's Like We Were Being Watched ... Like There Were Only 3 Walls, And Not A Fourth Wall": Manifestations Of Metafiction In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Caleb Randall Dempsey-Richardson Jan 2013

"It's Like We Were Being Watched ... Like There Were Only 3 Walls, And Not A Fourth Wall": Manifestations Of Metafiction In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Caleb Randall Dempsey-Richardson

Online Theses and Dissertations

Despite the extensive collection of works related to both Joss Whedon and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, relatively little critical attention has so far dealt with the subject of metafiction. This study aims to make use of narratological analyses as well as drawing upon relevant theorists (e.g., Patricia Waugh, Fredric Jameson) to illustrate the various different ways Whedon has consciously constructed metafiction as an integral part of his most influential television series. Additionally, the project also endeavors to show how textual self-consciousness can be housed outside of the tradition space of the diegesis in favor of a paratextual element instead. …

Go to article

The Fall Of The Yellow Wallpaper, Rachel Payne Jan 2013

The Fall Of The Yellow Wallpaper, Rachel Payne

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

Many have acknowledged the Gothic influence of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” on Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Critics often examine the opposition of genres in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” arguing it as either a feminist movement or Gothic tale. However, the Female Gothic genre centers the female role inside a Gothic tale. This genre typifies a criticism of oppressive patriarchies and support for female independence. Both “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrate women who overcome repressed voices by finding their expressions through writing.

Go to article

Animals, Maria Alicia Gomez Jan 2013

Animals, Maria Alicia Gomez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Animals tells the stories of various characters and their lives within the neighborhood of Shadow and Anima Streets. The novel is structured in fragments that cycle through multiple characters from the local bar owner, to the homeless men roaming the alleys, a horse that befriends and old blind widow, a lion that roams the streets and a woman who slowly turns to stone. The novel treats themes of friendship, isolation, and community.

Go to article

Tea Party Movement Mobilization: Examining The Role Of Emotive Cues And Strategic Appeals, Rebeca Beatriz Puentes Jan 2013

Tea Party Movement Mobilization: Examining The Role Of Emotive Cues And Strategic Appeals, Rebeca Beatriz Puentes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Campaign messages used by political parties have given scholars a rich opportunity to analyze the impact that such cues may have on voters. While voter mobilization and participation is a necessity for a democracy's survival, certain messages used by very conservative movements and conservative parties may encourage intolerance towards minorities. This study examines the racial cues and appeals used by the Tea Party movement in the United States and the influence that such emotionally-charged appeals have on citizen support for very conservative political parties, movements, and policies. As my main theoretical framework, I merge political opportunity theory and intergroup emotions …

Go to article

Constructing A Healthcare Assets Map In Rural Appalachia: An Analysis Of Healthcare Services And Perceived Health Threats, Catherine Myers Jan 2013

Constructing A Healthcare Assets Map In Rural Appalachia: An Analysis Of Healthcare Services And Perceived Health Threats, Catherine Myers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using data gathered over the course of two months through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with health providers (n=19) and community members (n=20), this research analyzes patient access to health care resources and describes community members' and health care providers' perceptions of pressing health concerns in their area. The results of this research show the types of health care resources in the county, the similarities and differences between health providers' and community members' perceptions, and how the unique characteristics of this community influence health care access and health disparity.

Go to article

Melungeon Portraits: Lived Experience And Identity, Tamara L. Stachowicz Jan 2013

Melungeon Portraits: Lived Experience And Identity, Tamara L. Stachowicz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The desire to claim an ethnicity may be in response to an institutional and systemic political movement towards multiculturalism where ethnic difference is something to be recognized and celebrated (Jimenez, 2010; Tatum, 1997). Those who were a member of a dominant or advantaged group took that element of their identity for granted (Tatum, 1997). Identity work has included reflections and congruence between how individuals see themselves and how they perceive others to see them, including Optimal Distinctiveness Theory where one determines the optimal amount of individual distinctiveness needed to feel a healthy group and personal identity (Brewer, 2012). When most …

Go to article

Some Kind Of Monstrosity: What Youth Ministry Can Learn From Heavy Metal, Jason Lief Jan 2013

Some Kind Of Monstrosity: What Youth Ministry Can Learn From Heavy Metal, Jason Lief

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This article brings Slovoj Zizek’s articulation of Pauline Christianity into conversation with Norwegian Black Metal (Gorgoroth) in order to demonstrate the subversive role of popular culture as it challenges the panoptic ideological power of the status quo. Through dialogue with elements of popular culture, like Black Metal, youth ministry is reminded of its prophetic function to challenge the powers of this age as it proclaims the monstrosity of the crucified and resurrected Christ.

Go to article

A Midwestern Culture Of Civility: Student Activism At The University Of Northern Iowa During The Maucker Years (1967-1970), Christopher J. Shackelford Jan 2013

A Midwestern Culture Of Civility: Student Activism At The University Of Northern Iowa During The Maucker Years (1967-1970), Christopher J. Shackelford

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This project examines the changing social dynamic of those affiliated with the University of Northern Iowa during the latter half of the 1960s, with special emphasis on student activism and the changing attitudes of administrators and community members. This project intends to use the medium of alternative newspapers as a central component in the analysis of the time studied and as an unfiltered voice of student dissent. By narrowing the focus of this project to an individual university and community, an intimate narrative emerges that acts as a testament of the overwhelming atmosphere of change that engulfed American colleges throughout …

Go to article

“A Sufficient Number": The Historic African American Community Of Peterborough In Warren, Maine, Kate E. Mcmahon Ma Jan 2013

“A Sufficient Number": The Historic African American Community Of Peterborough In Warren, Maine, Kate E. Mcmahon Ma

All Student Scholarship

Warren, Maine is located in the midcoast region of southeastern Maine. The small town has a long history that is intrinsically linked to the maritime activities of the region, which began in the mid-seventeenth century. Sometime around 1782, Sarah Peters was brought to Warren as a slave on a ship owned by Captain James McIntyre. After slavery was outlawed in Massachusetts in 1783/1784, Sarah successfully sued for her freedom and married a man named Amos Peters. Together, they raised a large, mixed-racial family, and settled near South Pond, a good distance away from the main village. By the 1820s, they …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last