Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Rhetoric Of Newspaper Rivalry In The Face Of Image Restoration And Transformation, Andrea Ludlow Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of the rhetoric of newspaper rivalry, particularly under the pressures of image restoration and transformation. I use methods of critical discourse analysis to look at newspaper articles in Utah's two dominant newspapers, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News. I compare a sample of news articles from each paper in 2002 to a sample in 2003, when the Tribune was working to restore its image after a scandal involving two of its reporters, and the News was working to transform its image as it transitioned from an afternoon newspaper to a morning newspaper. …

Saturday Nights Alone, Daniel C. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

This novel blends first-person narrative prose with conventions of screenwriting to create a voice consistent with its main character, Rick Morgan, who's trying to escape his life as a real estate agent by becoming a screenwriter. As Rick struggles to write a new screenplay he finds it difficult to divorce his creative mind from the troubles of his personal life. As a result his preoccupations with destroying his boss and taking back the girl the boss stole from him, work their way into Rick's new project. The motif of art imitating life imitating art forces Rick to question long held …

Tauser Killed Both Dogs And Other Suburban American Family Folklore, Kristina Whitley Gashler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to answer the questions "What purposes do family pets and the narratives we tell about them serve in modern American society?" and "What do these stories tell us about what Americans value and about where we locate our ‘value center’?" In Chapter 1, I discuss how Americans define loyalty in our pets now that our animals generally no longer help us work. I conclude that since the shift from agricultural to suburban settings, animals prove their loyalty individually and in human-like ways, rather than as "good" members of their own species, but at the same time because …

Fortune Personified And The Fall (And Rise) Of Women In Chaucer's Monk's Tale And The Autobiographical Writings Of Christine De Pizan, Leona C. Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will posit that a query of the medieval trope, Fortune, can be read as a query into femininity. Fortune is depicted with many quintessentially medieval feminine traits, and women in texts that discuss Fortune often have Fortune's traits. While texts that link Fortune and femininity usually do so to censure women, some writers turned the trope to their advantage for just the opposite purpose. Both Chaucer in the "Monk's Tale" and Christine de Pizan personify Fortune to subtly point out the flaws in antifeminist medieval view of women. This thesis explores the ways in which these writers cleverly …

The Wit And Wisdom In The Novels Of Diana Wynne Jones, Elizabeth A. Crowe

Theses and Dissertations

British speculative fiction writer, Diana Wynne Jones, has published over forty books for middle school to adult readers, and her work continues to receive many awards for its creativity and high quality. Jones is a prolific and talented writer who has contributed to and influenced speculative fiction. She uses magical contexts to comment on social situations in what she sees as an essentially non-magical world. Whether she is being humorous, drawing upon myths and legends, or using fantasy or science fiction, Jones reflects the contemporary unpredictable adolescent mind. Jones's unusual childhood has influenced her writing, and a brief biography of …

The Artistic And Architectural Patronage Of Countess Urraca Of Santa Marã­A De Caã±As: A Powerful Aristocrat, Abbess, And Advocate, Julia Alice Jardine Mcmullin

Theses and Dissertations

Countess Urraca Lope de Haro was the daughter of the noble Lord Diego Lope de Haro, friend and advisor to King Alfonso VIII of Castilla-León and granddaughter of Lord Lope Díaz de Haro and Lady Aldonza Ruiz de Castro, aristocratic courtiers as well as popular monastic patrons. As a young and wealthy widow, Countess Urraca took monastic vows at the Cistercian nunnery of Santa María de Cañas founded by her grandparents. Within a short time of uniting herself to this monastery, she was chosen as its fourth abbess in 1225, a position she held for thirty-seven years until her death …

Finding Where I Am: A Collection Of Creative Nonfiction - Creative Thesis, Jana Lloyd

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a collection of five pieces of creative nonfiction written over the academic years 2003—2005. Creative nonfiction is a genre that, in some form or another, has always existed, though trends in form and style are constantly in flux. Based on the experiences of the actual author, creative nonfiction seeks to present the journey of a mind at work, in a style that is candid, quirky, and insightful. It seeks to persuade its reader by establishing a likeable and trusted narrator; by relating interesting facts that teach the reader something about the subject at hand; and by appealing …

Translating Huck: Difficulties In Adapting "The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn" To Film, Bryce Moore Cundick

Theses and Dissertations

Filmmakers have had four main difficulties adapting The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to film: point of view, structure, audience and the novel's ending. By studying the different approaches of various directors to each obstacle, certain facts emerge about both the films and the novel. While literary scholars have studied Huck from practically every angle, none have sufficiently viewed the book through the lens of adaptation, despite the fact that it has been adapted to film and television over twenty times. The few critics who have studied the adaptations have done so using dated methodologies that boil down to little more …

The Byronic Myth In Brazil: Cultural Perspectives On Lord Byron's Image In Brazilian Romanticism, Matthew Lorin Squires

Theses and Dissertations

Byron's reception in one of the nineteenth century's largest and most culturally significant post-colonial outposts, Brazil, has been virtually ignored in English studies. The implications of Lord Byron's influence in Brazil are extensive since he was overwhelmingly popular among poets but also subversive to the nationalistic aims of Brazilian Romanticism. Nearly all of the well known Brazilian Romantics were not only influenced by him, but translated him. Their notion of what it meant to be "Byronic," however, differed from ideas held in Europe. The Brazilian Byronic hero was more extreme, macabre, and sentimental, lonelier, darker, and deadlier. Byron had various …

Accountability For The Implementation Of Secondary Visual Arts Standards In Utah And Queensland, John K. Derby

Theses and Dissertations

Utah and the majority of states have adopted mandatory standards for visual arts, yet no accountability measures have been established. Consequently, it is impossible to determine if standards are being addressed in the art classroom and aggregate grades are subjective. Queensland, Australia instituted a system of moderated school-based assessment (moderation) in 1971, whereby assessment is accomplished locally, then verified by peer experts. Queensland ensures that standards are addressed in curricula and assessment and that exit grades are reliable and comparable. Research has shown that Utah and Queensland share comparable visual arts standards and similar demographics. Queensland moderation has been extensively …

Negotiating Hope And Honesty: A Rhetorical Criticism Of Young Adult Dystopian Fiction, Lauren Lewis Reber

Theses and Dissertations

Young adult dystopian fictions follow the patterns established by the classic adult dystopias such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, but not completely. Young adult dystopias tend to end happily, a departure from the nightmarish ends of Winston Smith and John Savage. Young adult authors resist hopelessness, even if the fictional world demands it.

Using a rhetorical approach established by Wayne Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction and The Company We Keep, this thesis traces the reasons for the inclusion of hope and the strategies by which hope is created and maintained. Booth's rhetorical …

The Translator's (In)Visibility In Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, Amy Dawn Glauser

Theses and Dissertations

Transferring words and ideas from one language to another has always been a puzzling and difficult matter for those involved in it. For centuries, English-speakers and translators have dealt with these difficulties by enforcing, through professional codes of ethics and through publishing contracts, what Lawrence Venuti calls "the translator's invisibility," as chronicled in his book by the same name. By evaluating translation solely on the transparency and fluency of the target language translation (that is, by making a translation not seem like a translation), English translators and audiences assured that translators remained faithful to original authors' intents, or so they …

The Silent Majority: Conservative Perception, Mobilization, And Rhetoric At The Utah State International Women's Year Conference, Jenny Lynn Mcgee Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Held in 1977, the Utah State International Women's Year (IWY) Conference became a battleground. Mobilized by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and conservative groups, 14,000 women revolted against the state coordinating committee. Chaired by Jan Tyler, Utah's IWY committee tried to plan the conference to include both liberals and conservatives; however, they found themselves overwhelmed by the audience. The participants rejected all nationally formulated resolutions, voted against or reworded workshop sponsored resolutions, and elected to the National IWY Conference an overwhelmingly LDS, conservative slate of delegates. Mobilization of conservatives at Utah's meeting was complex. The LDS …

A Study Of The For The Strength Of Youth Pamphlet, Jared A. Jepson

Theses and Dissertations

This study is an examination of changes in the various editions of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet, an outline of standards and expectations for the youth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Over the course of the past forty years, eight editions of the pamphlet have been printed. The first edition was published in 1965 and the most recent publication was in 2001.

The study revealed that significant changes have been made in the various editions. The initial six pamphlets, which were published from 1965-1972, focused on social behavior of the youth such as dress …

Combined Alterations, Travis James Fullerton

Theses and Dissertations

The world around us is in constant flux. The photographs we make of the world, no matter how true or untrue, have a direct influence on how we perceive the environment around us. Photography serves to categorize our perceptions of the world. The value of an image is not in what it represents, but in what it recalls. Photographs are fragmented and clear, imperfect and idealized all at the same time.

Strangers To The Land: The German Presence In Nineteenth-Century Arkansas, Shirley Sticht Schuette

Theses and Dissertations

This study traces the presence of German immigrants in Arkansas from 1820 through 1900 with particular attention to examples of chain migration. It explores stories of German settlers from three points of view: the political, social and cultural situations that motivated emigration; the immigrant communities established in Arkansas, and continuing connections between the New World and the Old. It locates the immigrants in Arkansas as a frontier state and a Southern state, including their experiences during the Civil War. Using letters and diaries, in addition to census records, the study looks at how the immigrants experienced the strangeness of their …

Curriculum For Middle School Percussion, Amanda Hertel

Theses and Dissertations

Based on three thirty-six week school years (6-8th grade)

-With thirty-five lesson plans for percussion sectionals outside of daily hand curriculum

-A set of weekly objectives that are applicable to in class ensemble instruction.

-Twenty periodical examinations and testing material -Assignment and Examination grading logs

-Guidelines for projects and writing assignments

-Questions for Reading checks

The Evolution Of Sacred Soli From Oratorios: Baroque Period To The Twentieth Century, Holly M. Chesnut

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate briefly the evolution of musical styles and characteristics found in sacred soli from oratorios over the course of the Baroque Period to the Twentieth Century. The author chose eight representative arias for examination in this project, with two arias being chosen for each of four periods, the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Twentieth Century, selected because of the prominence of both the composer and the aria in the context of choral history. The thesis is divided into four basic sections, the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Twentieth Century. The author will discuss historical influences …

The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In National Periodicals, 1982-1990, Matthew E. Morrison

Theses and Dissertations

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has continued to receive exposure in national periodicals. This thesis will explore that image from 1982 to 1990. During those years, the church continued to grow in membership and expand its existing programs.

National periodicals can assist in assessing the public image of the Church because they help "mould public attitudes by presenting facts and views on issues in exactly the same way at the same time throughout the entire country." In this manner, they help to form the public opinion about the Church. They also reflect existing opinions because magazine publishers …

An Analysis Of The Newspaper Coverage Of Latter-Day Saint Temples Announced Or Built Within The United States From October 1997 Through December 2004, Kevan L. Gurr

Theses and Dissertations

President Gordon B. Hinckley, the fifteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, excited the membership of the Church by increasing the number of temples available to members. He announced that the Church would construct smaller buildings – as compared with existing temples at the time – thereby allowing for greater numbers of temples to be built. He set a goal to build 50 temples in a two and half-year period: double the number the Church had ever attempted to build in any decade. Thirty-four of these temples were built in the United States, and newspapers – …

An Undergraduate Theatre History Course Design Utilizing Problem-Based Learning, Mary Alice Blackwell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis was written to provide an alternative teaching model for an undergraduate theatre history class. The course design, utilizing the Problem-Based Learning educational model, aims to create a student-centered, experiential theatre history class. The first section explores the history and evolution of the theatre discipline in academia. These chapters examine the expansion and transformation of the theatre curriculum within the discipline and higher education. The second part examines the history and the methodologies of Problem-Based Learning. Based on the philosophy of educator John Dewey, PBL is considered to be a non-traditional method of teaching and learning that encourages the …

Experiencing Music, Michael Alan Gray

Theses and Dissertations

I am exploring the way music alters or enhances the perception of our environment. This creative project allows me to explore and visualize several issues that intrigue me: music (sound), emotion, and visual imagery (film). My goal in developing this topic is to allow others to have an experience related to sound and image, where image is altered and enhanced by the use of music.

Exploring Classical And Contemporary Conception Of Ethos Applied Case-The Rhetorical Ethos Of President George W. Bush, Bobby J. Antrobus

Theses and Dissertations

By exploring classical and contemporary conceptions of rhetorical ethos, this thesis assembles theories of analysis and then applies them in the form of rhetorical analysis of the rhetorical ethos exhibited by President George W. Bush in his presidential speeches. The theoretical investigation reveals the extensive use of the ethical appeal in all manner of rhetorical situations in the contemporary world but especially focuses on how political rhetoric has come to rely predominantly on this persuasive appeal. The study examines several speeches given by President Bush and concludes that his success as president is attributed largely to the sophisticated rhetorical strategies …

The Unwantables: An Exploration Of Visual Narrative, Marius I. Valdes

Theses and Dissertations

The Unwantables is a creative project that has evolved from my lifelong interest in and relationship with visual stories. To me the most compelling aspect of visual storytelling is "imagination". The author possesses the ability to create new worlds, interesting characters, and situations that can have the potential to communicate about any topic. My project explores visual narrative as a communication tool to explain the role of imagination in my life.

If Chivalry Is Dead, Women Have Killed It, Nicole Heimbach

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in the dual meaning of pattern. Pattern is a design format used for decoration. By introducing certain images into patterns, they have the ability to give meaning or messages. The repetition of a certain image emphasizes importance to a particular idea or issue. I embroider pattern designs onto pre-manufactured clothing pattern pieces as a response to things in society that I find absurd. This body of work focuses on female iconography. The delicate nature of these materials lends themselves to feminine associations. Embroidery, which is stereotypically associated with women's work, is used to play on these clichés.Patterns …

Escape Artist, Charles F. Gustina

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reviews the background, influences, and evolution of the body of work entitled Folia, which forms the basis for the candidate's thesis exhibition. It traces the development of the candidate's artistic inclinations from drawing to photography. Directorial and Pictorialist photography are discussed as forebears in the Influences chapter. Evolution of the Body of Work details how the current work grew from both the candidate's background and influences. A Brief Anthology of Quotations references Susan Sontag's influential work, On Photography, with quotations that have either influenced the candidate's work or reflect his perceptions of art and life. The balance of …

The Etoile Du Deseret: Portrait Of The French Mission, 1851-1852, Douglas James Geilman

Theses and Dissertations

One of John Taylor's most significant achievements during his mission to France, 1849-1851, was the publication of a French-language Latter-day Saint periodical, the Etoile du Déséret. Appearing in twelve issues from May 1851 to December 1852, the Etoile served a variety of functions for the earliest missionaries and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France. A study of its historical context and of its contents allows readers a glimpse into the circumstances under which the missionaries labored and into the needs of the growing Church. Furthermore, the Etoile provides a vivid example of John …

The Need, Feasibility, And Means Of Establishing A Speech Center, Julie Carter Irvin

Theses and Dissertations

According to Tom Shachtman, "the speech of too few people achieves eloquence, and that of the vast majority does not even reach a tolerable level of articulate behavior" (5). Articulate behavior has not always been a rare characteristic; from antiquity through the mid-twentieth century, the study of rhetoric was privileged and considered necessary for a well-rounded education. If today's society is inarticulate, then how can eloquence and articulateness be reintroduced as staples of a successful person in today's society? The answer is easy - through the study of rhetoric. After examining the study of rhetoric from antiquity to the present, …

The Photographer's Wife: Emmet Gowin's Photographs Of Edith, Mikell Waters Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Exemplified in the oeuvres of photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Harry Callahan, Lee Friedlander, and Emmet Gowin, the photographer's wife is a distinctive subject in twentieth-century American fine-art photography that fuses the domains of public and private life through the conflation of art and marriage. The transgressive nature of this juncture can be located in a confluence of gazes - the artist's, the subject's, and the viewer's - that are embroiled in constructing subjectivities. The phrase "photographer's wife" underscores an assumed imbalance of power reflecting a binary of active/passive, artist/model, and husband/wife. It is this study's contention that the complexity of the …

The Civil War: A Collaboration In Direction And Choreography, Cara E. Rawlings

Theses and Dissertations

This text is a partial record of the development of the Virginia Commonwealth University production of The Civil War: A Musical that opened on April 7, 2005 for a three-week run ending April 28, 2005. The greater part of the text is devoted to the evaluation of the underlying principles of direction and choreography applied in the creation of an artistically aid financially successful production of this size. Included in the evaluation of The Civil War: A Musical are analyses of the directors' --Patti D'Beck and David Leong --individual creative processes, aesthetics, and working styles. The result of this evaluation …