Arts and Humanities Commons^™

You Can't Go Home Again: James Baldwin And The South, Daryl Cumber Dance

English Faculty Publications

James Baldwin, like innumerable other Black artists, has found that in his efforts to express the plight of the Black man in America, he has been forced to deal over and over again with that inescapable dilemma of the Black American - the lack of a sense of a positive self-identity. Time after time in his writings he has shown an awareness of the fact that identity contains, as Erik Erikson so accurately indicates, "a complementarity of past and future both in the individual and in society." Baldwin wrote in "Many Thousands Gone," "We cannot escape our origins, however hard …

Contemporary Militant Black Humor, Daryl Cumber Dance

English Faculty Publications

Witnessing the continued plight of their black brothers in America, noting the continued strength of racism in this country, and discouraged by the slowness and ineffectiveness of integration, they have become frustrated and completely disillusioned with the promise of American democracy. If Paul Laurence Dunbar might be said to reflect in some of his works the accommodationist views of the leading black spokesman of his times, Booker T. Washington; and if Langston Hughes might generally be viewed as advocating the thoughtful, rational methods of Martin Luther King and the N.A.A.C.P. with their disciplined social protest and their optimistic faith in …

The Moral Of Ulysses, Charles Carlyle Cosby

Master's Theses

Many critics are confused about the total meaning of James Joyce's Ulysses. David Daiches in The Novel and the Modern World states that "critics can acclaim the style, the organisation, the complexity, the insight, the ingenuity, and many other separate aspects of the work, but what are they to say of the whole?" Daiches is obviously among those critics who pass Ulysses off as art for art 's sake. On the other hand, William M. Schutte points out that critics who have a good deal to say about Ulysses as a whole are unfortunately saying the wrong things. These critics …

Shakespeare's Treatment Of Love : The Mature Tragedies, Albert E. Clark

Master's Theses

The machinery of criticism has been extensively applied to those plays in the Shakespeare canon often referred to as the mature tragediess Othello, Macbeth, Hamlet, and Antony and Cleopatra, One seeking enlightenment in veritably any area of interest will find the means in the varied approaches which have proliferated through four hundred years of Shakespeare criticism. New and valid interpretations testify to a continuing need for insight into Shakespeare's arts nevertheless,. the word "supererogatory" must surely have occurred to even the moat resilient seeker after Shakespearean truth. A spate of learned articles and scholarly tomes inundate, and the burden is …

Reality And Illusion In Miguel De Cervantes' Don Quixote And John Barth's The Sot Weed Factor, Vicki Redmond

Honors Theses

Illusion is an integral part of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote and John Barth's The Sot Weed Factor. It plays an important part in both the characters of the protagonists, Don Quixote and Ebenezer Cooke, respectively, and in the lives and actions of several of the secondary characters. Furthermore, the reader of these works himself is influenced by the aura of illusion and fantasy which surrounds all the actions in these novels. The idea of illusion and fantasy that is so prevalent colors the way in which the reader identifies with these characters and their deeds. In both of these …

Goe, And Finde A Mistris : The Concepts Of Woman In The Poetry Of John Donne: The Elegies, The Anniversaires, The Songs And Sonets, Leanne Wade Beorn

Master's Theses

This study of the concepts of woman in the poems, combined with an analysis of the poems' internal structure and content in relation to the literary background, seems to me to be a most profitable approach to the whole of Donne's love poetry. By focusing on the concepts of woman I shall provide a common basis for comparison, since woman figures in all of the poems but one. By summarizing the characteristics of the major literary traditions about love operative in Donne's time, I shall provide information which is essential to understanding the diversity of attitudes in the poems. And …

A Comparison Of Stock Love Situations In The Works Of Petrarch, Donne, And Cervantes, John W. Metzger

Honors Theses

The works of Petrarch, Donne, and Cervantes have in common a considerable emphasis on stock love situations. These stock situations include such occurrences as the meeting of lovers, the reaction of the lover to the disdain of his lady, the burning desire of the lover to be physically present with his lady, and the parting of lovers. A certain twist in a situation, originally used by Petrarch, in the poetry of Donne or prose of Cervantes, can provide an excellent insight into the ideas concerning love of all three authors. Petrarch espoused a rather narrow love philosophy. In the great …

Reconstructing Shabazz : Images Of The Black Man In Four Black Plays, Joyce Wise

Master's Theses

It has been conjectured that, if art follows life, the black theatre is a case in point. Critic-playwright Lindsay Patterson has stated that all of black literature is more or less consciously preoccupied with precisely pinpointing and defining the specific moment when a black man discovers he is a "nigger" and begins the "long, uphill climb to bring psychological order out of chaos."

"It is an elusive, complex moment, with complex reactions, and can occur at four or forty, and its pursuit, I believe, will continue to occupy serious black writers for decades to come."

Thus, dramatizing the black experience …

The Destructive Messiah : A Study Of Henrik Ibsen's Search For Truth As Portrayed By Rebel Heroes In Brand, An Enemy Of The People, And The Wild Duck, Susan Taylor Soyars

Master's Theses

Having read Henrik Ibsen's major plays, I became interested in his treatment of truth. Brand, Doctor Stockman, and Gregers Werle all represented varied degrees of the truth, each embodying Ibsen's own ideas. It is specifically Gregers Werle' s treatment of the truth that resulted in the conclusions found in this paper.

As Ibsen explored his personal convictions about the truth, a new type of rebel hero began to emerge, a destructive savior. Through this messiah, a Christ-like figure, Ibsen allows the truth to be exploited, which brings about complete destruction to communities,families, and friends.

Biographical material has been deleted. By …

Milton's Eve : A Comparison With Eve In The Major Analogues Preceding Paradise Lost, Charlene Dellinger Wheeler

Master's Theses

Milton's character of Eve in Paradise Lost has been interpreted by critics as both the vehicle for Milton's abuse of women, and the example of Milton's favoritism towards them. The great variety of interpretations of the same character seems to be the result of not considering Milton's Eve as a combination of qualities gathered from both the Biblical and literary traditions and influenced by Milton's theological beliefs and his intentions for Paradise Lost. By comparing Milton's Eve with her major predecessors, this thesis will interpret Milton's characterization according to the literary history of the character, and show how Milton's particular …