Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Dr. James L. White -- "History Of The Confederate General Hospital Located At Farmville, Va, 1862-1865", Maeve Losen

Theses & Honors Papers

Dr. James L. White (1833-1909) was not born and raised in Farmville, Virginia, but he called the town home, nonetheless. Using White’s own accounts, with the aid of medical periodicals, newspapers, and Civil War databases, readers are able to best understand the life of one of Farmville’s former physicians. This biographical sketch, along with accompanying resources, describes not only his professional career as a surgeon and doctor, but his early life, experiences during the American Civil War, and impact on the town of Farmville in the late-nineteenth century and into the early-twentieth century.

The Monsters In Our Closets: A Cultural Look At Neo-Victorian Adaptation, Carlie M. Copal

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Oh Sinnerman, Where You Gonna Run To?, Semein Washington

Theses & Honors Papers

Semein Washington. OH SINNERMAN, WHERE YOU GONNA RUN TO? (Under the direction of Mary Carroll Hackett, MFA) Department of English and Modern Language, April 2016.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the growth of personal identity via poetry. “Oh Sinnerman,” is a run of thirty-eight poems in which the speaker learns survival through experience, and the underpinning ideas, whether traditional or modern, for which life is preserved. In theme, the poems tend to separate his experience into personal and social humanity. In poems such as “No Good Being,” “Sunday Tennis” and “How One Loves,” personal humanity shows through …

Plays And Punks; Or, Aphra Behn And The Restoration Woman, Amanda J. Thompson

Theses & Honors Papers

In many ways, the Restoration Period in England (1660-1700) is defined by its interest in sexuality. Following the Interregnum (1649-1660), sexuality became a mechanism to distinguish royalists from the “puritanical followers” of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), particularly through the emergence of the libertine (Novak 56). Libertinism “made the senses a primary source of knowledge,” which challenged “conventional morality” through ritualistic fornication, drunkenness, and adultery (Staves 20). Men, like John Wilmot, the Second Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) wrote bawdy poetry celebrating their sexual conquests. Libertines were also regularly featured in Restoration drama, with playwrights like William Wycherley (1640-1716) and George Etherege (1636-1692) …

Flawed Knighthood And Kingship In The Medieval Literary Tradition, Leta Bressin

Theses & Honors Papers

Throughout the corpus of medieval literature, especially fourteenth-century romance, chivalry plays a significant role as a social construct for gauging both successful and disastrous kingship. For kings like Henry II, Richard I, Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, and Edward IV, the literature of the time offers insights on the difficulties of chivalry and kingship in representation and practice. Production of vernacular chivalric romance literature evolved considerably in the thirteenth and fourteenth-centuries in England. Geoffrey Chaucer’s fourteenth-century Knight’s Tale, and the anonymous Stanzaic Morte Arthur and Alliterative Morte Arthure offer a stinging critique of chivalry potentially aimed at Richard II, …

Fear And Loathing In Dystopia: The Ruckwartsroman And The Narrative Of Fear, Brooke Vaughan

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Perfecting Pamela: Samuel Richardson's Final Revisions To His Earliest Novel, Jennifer S. Elliott

Theses & Honors Papers

This author details Richardson’s revision process as he edits his first novel Pamela as the last thing he does before dying. There are three chapters detailing Richardson’s motives behind revising his first novel and his actual revision process, which included three main techniques—substitution, addition, and deletion. Motives considered and argued were: moral purpose and criticism received from others—especially analyzing Shamela, a satire of Pamela—which undermines the morality that Richardson had hoped Pamela accomplished. At the end of the essay, there is an extensive chart complied by the author, spanning a total of 55 pages, of all of Richardson’s …

Scarred: A Collection Of Creative Nonfiction Essays, Jason A. Ruiz

Theses & Honors Papers

This collection of essays seeks to explore the need for redemption as a necessary element of the Human Condition, by exploring my experiences as a child, adolescent, teen, and adult. Throughout the collection of essays, I, as the central character of the work, am conditioned by my physical deformity (a massive scar on my stomach) to question my life, values, and relationships. I establish for myself a destructive pattern that nearly ends my marriage. These destructive patterns eventually become touchstones through which I finally come to terms with who I am, what I am, and the truth that my existence …

Food As Symbol: Steps Toward A New Taiwanese-To-English Translation Of Nursery Rhymes, Jason Tsai

Theses & Honors Papers

The purpose of this study is to translate a cluster of three related nursery rhymes from the Taiwanese oral tradition for the immigrant community and a greater Western audience. The study will incorporate tools in American English poetics as well as anthropology to interpret the symbols that would make this genre accessible and meaningful .

This thesis will begin with a concise overview of Taiwanese as a language variant of Southern Min Chinese insofar as how these linguistic traits affect a credible translation .This report will outline relevant aspects of the language's oral tradition as well as the written systems …

The Nerd Hour Is At Hand: Portrayals Of Geeks And Nerds In Young Adult Literature Ad Popular Media, Jessica M. Stanley

Theses & Honors Papers

Turn on the television, open a book, or even walk down the street and you will no doubt notice at least one geek or nerd. Most Americans today have heard these terms, and each individual probably has his own working definition of what they mean. Unpacking those definitions, however, is tricky. What is a nerd? What is a geek? How does one identify a person as belonging to these groups? To analyze how modern culture understands geeks and nerds, one must first understand the history behind these terms. While most Americans today recognize and use the words "geek" and "nerd," …

Mind The Gap: A Case Study In Instructor Intention And Feedback, Meredith R. Grady

Theses & Honors Papers

While effective instructor written feedback is critical, the process is often the least understood and is a detriment to student success when improperly applied. This case study identifies strategies that characterize successful instructor written feedback for students' written assignments in an introductory college composition course. My research examines instructor feedback within the diverse environment of the community college thus highlighting the importance of instructor knowledge of composition pedagogy and feedback methods and approaches. A review of literature on instructor feedback identifies instructor and student collaboration as a key component for success together with understanding of historical trends in the field …

Life On The Back Roads: Poems, Jessica R. Dennis

Theses & Honors Papers

Country life does not always feature the idyllic beautiful landscapes and the closeness of family as depicted in Elizabethan pastoral and Romantic nature poetry. While these elements indeed exist, much of country life is grittily realistic - a condition that derives from the hardships and "the dailiness of experience," as Virginia Woolf put it, consonant with living in "a state of nature." Drawing on my own rural experiences, first in my home state of Pennsylvania and later in North Carolina and Virginia, I will explore in my poems the complex relationship structures that form in rural America, focusing on the …

Friends In Bed, Andrew Baker

Theses & Honors Papers

A short novella, this thesis tells the story of a boy named Andrew as he deals with issues of identity, self-worth, friendship, and romantic relationships from his teenaged years up through early adulthood. Primarily facing the difficult question of what love is, he attempts to figure out its meaning for himself.

An Inquiry Into The Harshness Of German Colonialism In Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, Jessica Rohr

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis investigates German colonialism in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. It discusses the pressure and competition Germany experienced as neighboring countries also aggressively expanded and as Europe underwent massive and rapid industrial growth. It also analyzes the harshness Germany employed in colonizing foreign lands and the reasons for such measures, such as perceived racial and social superiority and economic need.

Forever Opening & Other Poems, Ashley Maser

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis is a large collection of poems on a plethora of different topics, written in varied styles from lyrical to narrative to blank verse.

Sehnsucht, Dena Ten Pas

Theses & Honors Papers

Sehnsucht is German, referring to a longing or yearning, sometimes further qualified as the longing for something unknown or something that will never be possible.

Almost A Man: A Collection Of Short Drama, Tyler Fruge'

English & Modern Languages: Theses, Dissertations & Student Publications

The purpose of this thesis is to examine through drama the concept of manhood and what our culture defines as being a man. Manhood is what my characters struggle to achieve, but they fall short of their goals due to issues of co-dependency, immaturity, and refusal to give up control; they are well-composed and obedient externally, yet struggle internally. My characters were brought up and raised in a setting with inarguable demands, explicitly on what to believe, how to behave, and what is and isn’t acceptable. They’ve never been taught/told it’s okay to say “I’m not sure if I agree …

Punishment And Praise: Grappling With Shyness In Children's And Young Adult Literature, Katherine Stein

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis examines the treatment of childhood shyness in literature for children and young adults. With over thirty examples and reviews of children’s and young adult texts, it describes how shyness is often regarded as a problem in common social models and becomes stigmatized. It reproves the often cruel and disdainful treatment of shyness in such literature and calls for a new look at the common childhood “ailment.”

Elements Of Living, Dan Steele

Theses & Honors Papers

The purpose of this thesis is the exploration of influential personal events through creative nonfiction which remains thematically centered on the four traditional elements of earth, air, fire, and water. In the four essays serving as my thesis, collectively entitled "Elements of Living," I reflect on personal experiences which have bad significant impact on my life and philosophical outlook, and assign an element to each.

The topics covered in each essay vary, and some take historical information into consideration. Although the history that is covered does serve an important metaphorical purpose in the essays, reading straight historical data can be …

The Line Of Then And Now: A Novella And Other Stories, Brittany Clark

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis is a final portfolio of several short literary fiction stories and a novella written as a final Master’s of Arts in English project.

Spilling Over: A Collection Of Short Stories, Jaleesa M. Watkins

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis, Spilling Over: A Collection of Short Stories, explores the concept of finding your place in the world. Nowhere is an individual more tested in discovering their own identity, their purpose, their place, than in direct relation to familial influence. In this collection, this idea of influence and growth into an individual, translates into a focus on the changing interactions in a family unit.

My characters are individuals in the midst of acknowledging a change in their family dynamics. These changes are sometimes unavoidable, such as reactions to death, disease, pregnancy, or divorce, which cause immediate changes within a …

Mirror Image And Other Stories, Amanda Inman Mull

Theses & Honors Papers

The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the lifestyle and struggles of poor, country people. In my collection of short stories, Mirror Image and Other Stories, I write working-class characters who must learn to survive while working at low-paying jobs. Many of these stories examine how frequently poor, country people are viewed by society as under-educated or unattractive due to their dialect or wardrobe, and how much of a negative effect these miss-perceptions can have on the individual. Often, my characters decide through their actions, to negotiate their beliefs, desires, obligations and selves as a way to …

Text And Technology: Creating Open Educational Resources For Students And Teachers Of American Romanticism, Jeff Everhart

Theses & Honors Papers

American Romanticism Online (ARO) is an open educational resource that provides students and teachers with access to annotated primary texts, standards based lesson plans, and other multimedia resources. ARO leverages open source technologies on the WordPress content management platform to create interactive assessments and curricular materials that students and teachers can use, download, and repurpose to fit a variety of classroom situations. The goal of ARO is to create and curate a store of primary sources and curriculum resources based on the needs of classroom teachers in public institutions. Although electronic editions of canonical texts exist, there is no other …

Ciphers In The Text: The Problems And Promise Of Women's Biblical Fiction, Beth Lonvick Cheuk

Theses & Honors Papers

Feminists have long been troubled by the underrepresentation, the underinterpretation, and the underauthorization of women in the Bible. And yet scriptures continue to influence Western literature, arguably perpetuating limited narratives and archetypes for women. Some contemporary women writers reject the Bible as inspiration, but others are drawn to it, exposing its limitations, protesting its injustices, or reimagining its possibilities. For revisionist feminist theologians, scriptures are worth reconsidering; despite their problems, the texts hold promise. The three retellings we will consider occupy the full spectrum of revisionist feminist theology. Anita Diamant's The Red Tent resists the Bible, suspiciously surveying the male­crafted …

Exhibition And Interpretation Of Virginia History: Transforming Mulberry Hill, Alyssa R. Foley

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis is divided into two parts. The first, "Examining Virginia's Historic House Museums," is an examination of historic house museums in the United States, and Virginia in particular. This section discusses the role of historic house museums as educational tools, their history in the United States, and the crisis they currently face. The second part is focused on Mulberry Hill, which is owned by the Staunton River Battlefield State Park in Charlotte County, Virginia. The house is currently not open to the public, but there are plans for preservation and interpretation that would make this a possibility. This section …

Young Adult Literature In The High School Classroom: Explanation And Application Of Teacher/Scholar: Student/Scholar Pedagogy, Colleen Barnes Herndon

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis investigates the ways in which literature is taught in high school English classes. The author expresses frustration with current methods and advocates an increase in teaching Young Adult Literature to high school students in order to encourage the students’ enjoyment of reading. She goes on to discuss how she has taught Young Adult literature in the classroom and includes example lesson plans.

"Playing Superhero": Agency And The Role Of The Teenaged Superhero, Jessica R. Saunders

Theses & Honors Papers

The discussion of agency within Young Adult Literature is an extensive topic that includes various criteria, such as power in various types of relationships and social ideologies. In the media form of graphic novels, the concept of agency is taken to a separate level because the primary teenagers depicted in graphic novels are titled as superheroes with abilities that surpass the norm. The role of being a teenaged superhero becomes conditional, depending on whether the teenager demands agency in the form of controlling his/her abilities or are assigned the role by their adult prototypes and society. The texts that this …

A General Among Diplomats: General James Van Fleet, The Truman Doctrine, And The Greek Civil War, Oliver R. Garland

Theses & Honors Papers

The object of this study is to examine and assess the major decisions and impact of General James Van Fleet in his role as executor of the Truman Doctrine during the Greek Civil War from the period of February 1948 to the early part of 1950. Though only in charge of the military side of the Truman Doctrine, Van Fleet often bettered his political and diplomatic counterparts in their own arenas. As the economic and military objectives of the Truman Doctrine aid program became increasingly political, Van Fleet successfully assumed the new role of soldier-diplomat and bridged the political and …

Home-Place, Beth Feagan

Theses & Honors Papers

This thesis discusses the current problems with the traditional structure through which literature is taught in high schools today. It presents a modernistic approach to engaging high school students in reading and literature, and tackles the lack of relevance the old classic novels have in the lives of 21^st century students. It introduces the idea of using young adult novels to teach the literary concepts that states mandate in their curriculum, and it emphasizes the important role educators play in preparing their students for the real world.

Hot Pink Love, Katherine R. Sloan

Theses & Honors Papers

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the definition of power and control in relationships usually between men and women, but not always. The seven screenplays that make up my thesis all examine power that is uniquely feminine. In a power relationship, does the aggressor have all the power or, is he/she given power by the submissive party? The relationships between men and women, as in "Blood, Buzzed," are examined through a sub-cultural lens that explores sadomasochistic behavior. What line one has to cross in order to be a sadist and what personal sacrifices are made in order to …