Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Unmasking Wagner's Grail: Homoeroticism, Androgyny, And Anxiety In Parsifal, Tyler Cole Mitchell

Masters Theses

Most readings of Wagner’s final music drama Parsifal seek to illumine a clandestine presentation of Wagner’s racist doctrine or make sense of a less-shrouded but still ambiguous panegyric to Christianity. However, little scholarly material addresses Wagner’s provocative account of sensuality and homoeroticism in this Bühnenweihfestspiel [Stage Consecration Festival Play]. This thesis explores desire and homosexuality within the drama and considers how and why Wagner masks these themes through the opaque mythos of religion, race, and community. Parsifal was partly informed by Wagner’s own complex neuroses: his sexual anxieties and scandals, amalgam of German philosophies, and confusion concerning Germanness. As filtered …

Informal Institutions And Women’S Rights In Afghanistan, Mariam Amiri

Masters Theses

In political science a lot of attention is given to institutions and their role in shaping behaviors in a polity and society. In this thesis I examine the conflict between formal and informal institutions. I believe in many societies informal institutions play a major role in shaping political behavior. In Afghanistan these informal institutions can easily undermine formal institutions. Many of the studies that are conducted about informal institutions in Afghanistan have prized them for being capable of dealing with different problems. However, it is also important to find out whether the way they deal with different problems and solve …

Looking For Mr. Right Or Mr. Right-Now: A Content Analysis Of Gay Men’S Personals, Matt Reid

Masters Theses

Personal advertisements have long been valued by researchers for evaluating norms relating to love and romance in any given societal context. Using thematic, directed content analysis on ads placed on a popular online dating website, this exploratory study seeks to uncover the various ways by which gay and straight men craft an image of the ideal self.

Results largely diverge from previous studies, most of which were conducted prior to the advent of online dating and at a time in a society where homosexuality was more taboo. The current study found that gay men, more often than straight men, employ …

Female Identity And Experience In Abc's Lost, Jennifer L. Reichart

Masters Theses

This thesis is an analysis of the female characters and their roles as mothers, daughters, and lovers in the television series LOST (ABC, 2004-2010). During its original runtime, the series presented intriguing yet complex women whose personal experiences were revealed in flashbacks. With the move from these flashbacks to flashforwards and flashsideways, the series further complicated both its form and its content by demonstrating how individual identity and experience informed each female character's decisions, motivations, and agendas. In this way, the series deconstructs various stereotypical roles women are placed in such as single mothers, pampered princesses, and imprisoned women. Oftentimes, …

Sexual And Political Affairs: Representation Of Women In American News Media, Melissa Beal

Masters Theses

Explores representations in American news media of women who have been involved sexually with male politicians and women who are politicians through a critical rhetorical lens. Through the use of poststructural feminism, the term "mistress" is problematized. Attention is given to the news media's focus on women's bodies as sites of dangerous sexual temptations as well as the media's constant attention to women's physical features, which reduces women to objects. It is shown that similar coverage regarding bodies is not given to men. Also discusses the news media's frequent interrogation of women's minds. Explores aspects of confession and apology through …