Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Edgar In Wonderland: Elements Of Nonsense In Lewis Carroll And Edgar Allan Poe, Martha Taussig

Masters Theses

The names of Lewis Carroll and Edgar Allan Poe would seldom appear together as literary "kindred spirits." While Carroll's imaginative tales have delighted generations of children and continue to provide vivid bedtime story memories, Poe's tales produce equally vivid nightmares. A comparison of the two writers' works, however, leads to the startling realization that despite their apparent differences, Carroll and Poe used the same tools and techniques to explore the same epistemological and existential questions. Like artists dipping into the same colors and simultaneously painting the same psychic landscape, they created eerily similar literary canvasses.

Carroll has long been recognized …

A Study Of Home Influences On Young Children's Early Literacy, Christy Buehnerkemper-Elder

Masters Theses

Recent research has shown that the degree of children's exposure to and knowledge about reading when they first enter school is highly predictive of future reading achievement. Researchers investigating home influences on literacy have concluded that certain home experiences prior to first-grade affect performance and general abilities in early elementary school. One component of the literacy-rich home environment is that of a parent reading to children. This has been considered by many as a critical component of a home environment which fosters reading skills. Being read to as a preschooler has been shown to be associated with reading achievement well …

Toward A Theory Of Gendered Reading, Larry Edward Schoenholtz

Masters Theses

Sociolinguistic studies have long acknowledged that men and women sometimes read, write, speak, and view differently. This is often recognized as a cultural phenomenon, but there are increasing reasons to suppose that biology may play a larger role in these differences than was suspected two or three decades ago. Over the last fifteen to twenty years, in particular, evidence has continued to mount in that direction from studies in neurophysiology, endocrinology, and infant behavior. In addition, sociobiological perspectives first proposed in the 1970s seem to have met with large success in being confirmed by cross-cultural studies done in the 1980s. …

Music Therapy And Rett Syndrome: A Survey Of Music Therapy Practitioners, Stacy S. Gay

Masters Theses

Music therapy practitioners residing in the United States and known to have experience with Rett Syndrome were surveyed to better understand how music therapy aids in the treatment of clients with Rett syndrome. The survey was designed to learn if there were general trends in goals/objectives addressed, session structure used, vocal response to music intervention, strategies toward encouraging independent hand usage, and preferred instruments and adaptive equipment.

Of the 73 sent out to NAMT and AAMT members, 36 questionnaires were returned. Question items that received a 50% or higher response rate by the participants included session structure involving a set …

The Concepts Of Paoying And Karma: An Example Of Syncretism, Alexander S. Levy

Masters Theses

This thesis will trace the evolution and modification of the Chinese concept of retribution, or paoying, with the Buddhist concept of karma through three periods of Chinese history: (1) the indigenous phase which comprises the time until Buddhism was introduced to China, (2) the period in which Buddhism was introduced to China and its immediate aftermath, and (3) the post-Buddhist phase in which there was a conscious effort to equate Chinese concepts with non-Chinese concepts, culminating in something that was not singularly Chinese nor wholly Buddhist To illustrate the concepts of retribution I will draw upon folk, or popular literature, …

Anti-Jewish Polemics In Carolingian Gaul: The Campaigns Of Agobard And Amulo Against The Jews Of Lyons, David Harrison Horton

Masters Theses

The Carolingian emperors were relatively tolerant towards the Jewish communities within their realm. They exempted the Jews from many feudal obligations and gave them charters that protected the role of the Jews as merchants within the empire. These charters also protected the Jewish community from undue persecutions of the Church. The privileges guaranteed within these charters drew criticism from many of the leading churchmen at the time.

The anti-Jewish campaign of Agobard, Bishop of Lyons from 814 to 840, has received a fair amount of scholarly attention, whereas the ensuing campaigns of Amulo, Bishop of Lyons from 841 to 852, …

The Commentary On Book Five Of Boethius' "Consolation Of Philosophy" By Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas And Josse Bade, Janet Suzanne Evenson

Masters Theses

A transcription, translation and discussion of Book Five of the Dual Latin Commentary of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy by the scholastic Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas and the humanist Josse Bade is the focus of this study.

The commentary of Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas possesses the scholastic preoccupation with using ancient philosophy to aid understanding of Christian doctrine. The commentary of Josse Bade embodies the humanist focus on the importance of eloquence in written expression.

The findings of this study were that Josse Bade and Pseudo-Thomas Aquinas were products of two different educational philosophies, yet they shared the same goal of wanting to educate university …

Right Of Privacy: Origin And Evolution Of A Constitutional Right, Eugene W. Smith

Masters Theses

This paper investigates the historical and legal question of how the Supreme Court developed the constitutional right of privacy from the Civil War Amendments to the Constitution. The emphasis is on tracing the Court's interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment since the Civil War.

Primary sources consulted included the Constitution, statutes, government publications, court opinions, briefs and other parts of case records. Newspapers, periodicals and books were used to trace more recent developments.

The paper traces the Court's use of the legal doctrines of substantive due process, selective incorporation and the new equal protection to first create a right of family …

Amethyst Remembrance, For Mezzo Soprano, Chamber Choir And Orchestra, Laurie A. Jarski

Masters Theses

Amethyst Remembrance for mezzo soprano, chamber choir and orchestra is comprised of two texts from two different sources. The text The Jewel: a poem written by Emily Dickinson and Mary Ann: a traditional Scottish ballad are interwoven and shared by the chamber choir and the mezzo soprano. This work explores the relationships between the folk and artistic modes of expressing similar human experiences. A love's sad farewell is the chosen subject of both texts. Specific melodic material designated for each text is introduced separately at the beginning. "Tune I", representing the Dickinson text is composed of original material, whereas …

The Effect Of Music Therapy On The Perceived Quality Of Life Of Patients With Terminal Illness In A Hospice Setting, Caroline Marie Abbott

Masters Theses

The purpose of the study was to determine if there were any significant differences in perceived mood states between patients in hospice care who received music therapy services and patients in hospice care who did not receive music therapy services.

Twenty-eight participants were surveyed using the Profile of Mood States (short form). Fourteen participants received music therapy services for a minimum of five hours, and fourteen participants did not receive music therapy services. The participants were matched in pairs by gender, location, diagnosis, and age, and were patients in one of three hospice locations in the United States which agreed …

The Effects Of Music With Cognitive-Behavioral Relaxation On The Focusing, Passivity, And Receptivity Of Clients With Paranoid Symptomatology, Pearl Abraham

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine whether music paired with cognitive-behavioral relaxation was effective in enhancing the focusing, passivity, and receptivity of clients with paranoid disorders.

Seventeen clients with a primary or secondary diagnosis of paranoid delusional symptoms consented to participate in this study spanning three conditions: (1) music paired with cognitive-behavioral relaxation, (2) cognitive-behavioral relaxation, and (3) control condition.

All clients were administered the 16 PF-Autia Scale, Form A (Cattell, 1962) at the beginning, midway, and at the end of the study. A two factor split-plot repeated measures analysis of variance was used to analyze raw scores, …

The Politics Of Arthurian Legend In The Plantagenet Empire: A Study Of Literary And Historical Sources From The Time Of Henry Ii To Edward I, Laura J. Radiker

Masters Theses

This study looks at both medieval chronicles and romances--the primary sources of Arthurian legend--to seek mutual influences between the politics of the Plantagenet Empire and Arthurian legend. The authors of the works used in this study performed within the sphere of the Plantagenet Empire, during the time period with which this study concerns itself. Secondary sources provide background information, such as the historical, literary, and cultural milieu surrounding the primary works, archaeological and linguistic evidence, and current scholarly debate.

From the evaluation of the primary sources and their historical framework, several aspects of Arthurian legend emerge which have connections with …

Rescue As Imperative For The Preservation Of Integrity: A Study Of Gentile Rescuers During The Holocaust And Their Motivations, Lynn M. Osborn

Masters Theses

When Nazi policies dictated the gradual and continual reduction in the liberties and rights of those deemed undesirable, most did nothing. Most continued to do nothing when these policies were extended to include mass sterilization and extermination. In spite of this, there were a few who acted. They gave of their own meager resources of food, money, and space, to help those who needed it. They risked their very lives as well as the lives of their loved ones to protect and save fellow human beings from the Nazi reign of terror.

Research into rescuers and their motivations have shown …

A New Sense Of Time In Female Development: Linearity And Cyclicity In Atwood's Surfacing And Cat's Eye, Diana L. Unes

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Pynchon, Dionysus And America: In Search Of The Pig That Got Away, Andreas Gerling

Masters Theses

This work seeks to analyze Western thought as a system. As a case study representative of this system, I have chosen the United States of America, as it started as a strange experiment in purely Apollonian thought, which has largely remained a closed system and has become the primary engine of cultural change in the twentieth century. As the tools for my analysis, I have chosen the dialectic represented in the mythical opposites Dionysus and Apollo and the counter cultural reaction by a number of post World War II authors, most notably Thomas Pynchon, to the "American Dream."

America began …

Religiosity, Fears Of Personal Death, And The Acceptability Of Suicide Within Reformed, Conservative, And Orthodox Jews, Lawrence B. Stein

Masters Theses

One hundred and fifty adults completed the Gladding, Lewis, and Adkins Scale of Religiosity (GLASR), Fears of Personal Death Scale (FPDS), and the Suicide Acceptability Scale (SAS) to investigate the relationships between religiosity, fears of personal death, and suicide acceptability within the Reformed, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish denominations. Differences between the Jewish denominations were detected such that Orthodox Jews were less fearful of transpersonal death than Conservative individuals. However, no differences existed between Jewish denominations for interpersonal or intrapersonal fears of death. Results also indicate that Reformed Jews were less religious and more accepting of suicide than Orthodox individuals with …

Computer Assisted Instruction And The Basic Writer, Kathy Ford

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Genetic Model Of Duality In Latin American Magical Realism, Keith Spear

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Gratification Changes Among Country Music Radio Listeners, Larry E. Oathout

Masters Theses

Several past studies explore the gratifications received by mass media users. However, no former research focuses on radio as a single medium and investigates how gratifications change over a person's lifespan. This study utilized an altered version of Elliott and Quattlebaum's (1979) ten media gratification list and questioned a 14 to 60 year old sample group about the gratifications they receive from country music radio. The researcher selected country music because it is the most popular radio format today and because it provided the wide age parameters needed for the study. Two hundred and thirty-nine users of an Internet country …

Whale, Michael J. Brown

Masters Theses

This thesis is composed of two parts. The first is a critical introduction which explores the influences on the author. The author is interested in the idea of style as a character in such works by Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Albert French. This discussion of these authors leads into ideas of space, both physical and metaphysical, in much of twentieth century literature. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an example. The exploration of space in literature is important for the determination of identity, which is one of the important themes of literature in this century. The author connects Sherwood Anderson's …

And The Youth Shall See Visions: The Jewish Experience In Champaign-Urbana And The Founding Of Hillel, Susan J. Roth

Masters Theses

Throughout American history, America's Jews lived in a mixed environment, one that both offered them the possibility of acceptance and demanded a certain level of conformity as its price. While antisemitism in America neither reached the level of virulence nor enjoyed the official sanction that it did in other parts of the world, it nonetheless has almost always been a part of the American Jewish experience, especially during the first half of the twentieth century. Much of American antisemitism was expressed through various forms of social discrimination (that was not always strictly social), justified by the image of "Jewish undesirability," …

"Exciting The Rabble To Riots And Mobbing": Community, Public Rituals, And Popular Disturbances In Eighteenth-Century Virginia, Kristan J. Crawford

Masters Theses

Throughout the eighteenth century, Virginia's populace acted in ways which reinforced the communal will. A deep rationality underlay popular action. While eighteenth-century contemporaries did not view it this way, historians must not view the mob as unruly. This thesis delineates the social laws displayed in the communal actions of pre-revolutionary Virginia, whether labeled by the elite as orderly or disorderly.

The Virginia Gazette and other sources during the quarter century before the Stamp Act show a society actively and publicly displaying communal and hierarchical values. Fairs reinforced the hierarchy through festive social interaction. Royal celebrations allowed the elite and populace …

An Analysis Of Personal Pronouns In Middle English Literary Texts, Melissa Jill Bennett

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the evolution of personal pronouns from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries, with a particular focus upon the southern literary dialects of that era. The baseline text for this analysis is the Anglo-Saxon poem The Dream of the Rood, although Bright's paradigm of Anglo-Saxon pronouns is also employed. The Owl and the Nightingale (circa 1200), The Fox and the Wolf (circa 1275), Piers Plowman (circa 1375), and Parliament of Fowls (circa 1375) are used to illustrate the changes in the forms of the pronouns over four centuries, Chaucer's Parliament serving to represent the emerging London standard. …

Critical Study Of John Rawls’ Theory Of Justice, Jae-Wan Chung

Masters Theses

In discussing John Rawls' theory of justice , my main concern is to examine his theory, especially in difference principle, and to criticize the principle. The difference principle is that without improving the conditions of those who are worst off, the advantages of all those better off should not be permitted. The principle has some problems.

First, the principle is against our common judgment. There is no reason that we choose the principle under "original position," and the principle brings about a result to disregard others' important advantages for the least favored's profits. Secondly, according to Robert Nozick's entitlement theory, …

The Encirclement At Cherkassy-Korsun: An Assessment Of The Winners And Losers, Joseph Kent Lutes

Masters Theses

During the winter of 1944, two Russian armies encircled two German corps on the Dnieper River. The Germans managed to break out of the encirclement after an attempt to relieve them failed. The battle lasted only three weeks, but cost both sides greatly. Both sides carried out a successful airlift to keep their troops in action. The Germans carried out a brilliant campaign, while the Russians demonstrated that they still needed to perfect their encirclement doctrine and their propaganda.

Each side was hindered by its leaders. Hitler forced the Germans to hold ground, while Stalin forced his generals to fight …

A Summary Of The Contributions Of Four Key African American Female Figures Of The Civil Rights Movement, Michelle Margaret Viera

Masters Theses

This thesis will present historical data to summarize the contributions of four key African-American female figures of the civil rights era. The theme is devoted to the historical contributions of these women. Their achievements will be shown to have answered to human needs during the struggle for African American civil and human rights. These achievements were preceded by their personal perceptions as to what constituted tenable rights and needs, introspection, and their willingness to assume a leadership stance and leadership roles.

This written historical assessment will illustrate the chain of events, social and geographical particulars which triggered participation in the …

Consanguinitas Et Ius Sanguinis: Kinship Calculation And Medieval Marriage, Sandra Masters

Masters Theses

Consanguinity, or blood-relatedness, was one of the most important criteria which determined the formation of marriage in the medieval era. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive study in English which describes the development of consanguinity prohibitions and which explains fully the types of kinship calculation used as a part of the restrictions which developed. In order to fill this void, my goal in this thesis has been to offer a well-researched, comprehensive study of this topic.

I have examined the studies completed by other researchers and combined any pertinent information from those sources with my own research on medieval attitudes and …

A Comparison Of The Differences Of The Chinese Language And The English Language Using Voice Analysis, Chia-Lin Hsieh

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to see if differences exist in Taiwanese students when speaking in their native Chinese language as compared to a secondary language (English) using voice analysis. Not only was the study intended to compare pitches and octaves of 2 languages, but it also hoped to identify the possible factors that influenced the voices of 2 languages.

Fifty Chinese students were randomly selected from a population of 84 Chinese students who were from Taiwan, had established residence in the USA for at least 6 months, and were enrolled in WMU with TOEFL score of at least …

Homo Tonos For Orchestra In Three Movements, Stephen C. Talaga

Masters Theses

Homo Tonos is a work for large orchestra. The entire piece stems from a dodecaphonic system in which each family of instruments is assigned its own unique 12-tone row. The rows are constructed in such a way that when they are written out and stacked one atop the other, they create 12 unique vertical rows.

Throughout the work, the basic rules of 12-tone row manipulation were used as a foundation for organization of pitches. Each family of instruments adheres strictly to its own row except in passages where there are unisons across families. In these instances, the vertical 12-tone rows …

Rethinking Space And Time: Pueblo Oral Tradition And The Written Word In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, Lynn K. Galbreath

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.