Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Giving Birth To Self, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

In GIVING BIRTH TO SELF, the author, using the techniques of "thought-runs," meditates on Marquez's statement that "human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them to give birth to themselves. The focus in this essay is then on context and use, the "where" and the "how" of self. Where do representations of self, oneself and that of the other, typically occur in written texts and how does the author use self: how does it perform?

The Fascination Of The Unfinished, Abandoned And Wrecked, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

The unfinished, abandoned (e.g., ruins), and wrecked provoke a strong reaction in such diverse persons as antiquarians, artists, writers and journalists. One can say that the UAW cause the new thing to appears. They are "news." In this book are a collection of unfinished MSS. The author invites the reader to, if not finish them, at least continue the ideas of each

Shots In The Dark: The Presence Of Absence In Imaginative Literature (Iw), Gene Washington

Gene Washington

Western metaphysics and IW can be described as a search for "first" presences, not absences. With the exception of philosophers like Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Aristotle, writers like Lord Rochester (John Wilmot), Jonathan Swift and Philip Larkin, no one, to my knowledge, has taken absence as a "first" and consequently as also a "last." This essay is a modest attempt to open the door, if only a crack, for investigations into the metaphysics and meaning of absence as a means of creating, and understanding an interesting IW—from the perspective of the presence of absence as "first" and as "last."

On The Benefit Of Sleeping In: An Exercise In Epistemological Irony, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

Irony, as an Archimedean Point, is perhaps the most efficient way to reveal human delusions and downright stupidities. Three factors go into the construction of such a Point: 1) a standpoint independent of the subject; 2) a view of the whole, not the part, of the subject and 3) an inside view of its agency—who and what brought the subject into being and how did it terminate. "ON THE BENEFIT OF SLEEPING IN: AN EXERCISE IN EPISTEMOLOGICAL IRONY" exemplifies the above.

When Death Intercepts Life In Imaginative Writing, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

The representation of death in imaginative writing is a "virtual" (as opposed to) an actual death. It always occurs in the context of a "virtual" (represented) life. In this text the author examines some of the ways death "intercepts" life in such writing. The subject is a vast, perhaps inexhaustible, one. The richest source, one the author dos not mine, is Shakespeare's interceptions of life by death.

Using Tragedy, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

Describes how three groups of people use tragedy: readers, writers, critics. Some effects are criticism of institutions, emotional effects, political, historical changes.

Hemingway And Normal Fallibility, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

Representing failure is common in literature. It is one of the major ways one keeps the plot going on and increasing in complexity. Hemingway's particular type of failure can be called "normal." It is the kind of failure that can happen to anyone. Thus it becomes an important part of his depictions of reality. the 'way things are."

Undergraduates And Topic Selection: A Librarian’S Role, Kacy Lundstrom, Flora Shrode

Flora Shrode

Research shows that undergraduate students struggle with the initial stage of the research process, mainly identifying and defining a topic. Little current research addresses how undergraduates engage in this process, including how and where they seek help. The results of focus groups indicate that students have individual and varied methods for topic selection, but that many of them choose topics based on their perception of a few major characteristics, mainly perceived ease, pleasing the instructor/following the assignment, personal relatability and/or interest, and the ability to locate sufficient resources to research a topic. Many students identified their instructor as a person …

Frenchifying The Frontier: Transnational Federalism In The Early West, Keri Holt

Keri Holt

The antebellum West was a hotbed of literary activism. Western presses published more than one hundred local newspapers and literary magazines from the late 1820s through the 1850s. Cities such as Vidalia, Lexington, Marietta, New Orleans, and Cincinnati were thriving literary centers, boasting numerous bookshops, libraries, theaters, and literary societies, including the Semi-Colon and Buckeye clubs of Cincinnati, where members exhibited their western pride by discussing the work of local authors while drinking beverages from buckeye bowls.1 The “West” at this time was located much closer east and south than the West we know today. It encompassed, roughly, the states …

The Impact Of Undergraduate Research, Joyce Kinkead

Joyce Kinkead

No abstract provided.

A Happy Employee Is A Productive Employee, Erin L. Davis

Erin Davis

No abstract provided.

Mystery At Mesa Verde, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

Short story: This story takes us back to the time Mesa Verde was inhabited by the Anasazi. The mystery involves a final footprint (larger than a humans) in the snow. What does it mean? Who made it? Where did it come from? The main character is Qlp, a character in an earlier story of mine (Published in the literary journal WEBER).

Gathering Leadership Momentum Across Great Distances: Creating An Online Community Of Practice, Erin L. Davis, Danielle Theiss-White

Erin Davis

At the 2007 Mountain Plains Library Association Leadership (MPLA) Institute, held in New Mexico, USA, eight academic librarians formed an online multi-state, multigenerational community of practice. MPLA is a twelve-state library association within the United States. Using Google Groups™, the members formed an online environment called the MPLA Community of Practice for continuing development of the leadership skills presented at the Institute. These early-career librarians represent diverse educational backgrounds and work in libraries serving varied populations with differing disciplinary emphases.

The group meets monthly with each member preparing and facilitating online discussions, complete with personal assessments, topical readings, and questions. …

Apropos Doors, Janus And Tristram Shandy, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

Examines the use of doors in Laurence Sterne's famous novel, Tristram Shandy. Argues that Sterne uses doors in the Shandy household to make salient issues of class, social function and age.

Epistemological Vertigo, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

A ONE ACT PLAY. Three characters. A play of the absurd about a certain lack of knowledge about the characters location, how they got there, and how to go on from there (wherever that is).

Swift, Comedy, Evidentiality, Gene Washington

Gene Washington

Examines the relationship between the comedy of Swift's A Tale of a Tub, the role of the speaker and satire on modern literature. The point made is that speaker reliability depends directly on the sources of "evidence" h/s presents. To clarify what this entails the author uses the linguistic notion of "evidentiality."