Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Spectrum, 2004, Northwestern College

Spectrum literary magazine

Literary journal

Good To Be Gone, Robert George Bloom

LSU Master's Theses

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The Role Of Pridamant In Tony Kushner's Adaptation Of The Illusion: A Production Thesis In Acting, Brace Easton Harris

LSU Master's Theses

The role of Pridamant in Tony Kushner’s adaptation of The Illusion was performed in the Fall of 2004 and elected as a thesis role at that time. This thesis is a written record of the actor’s interpretation of the character. The thesis includes pre-production work, Character Analysis, and Four Column Score.

The Foundation Of An Apparel Factory: Culture's Place Becomes A Practiced Space, Kim T. Chavis

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The study provides a reformulation of culture as space. Building on Michel Certeau's theory of space and place, this study incorporates Karla Holloway's theory of historicity, memory, and metaphor - specifically, how these elements are formed and behave - W.E.B. Dubois's theory of double consciousness, Homi Bhabha's theory of the beyond and interstices, John Fiske's culture of everyday life, Bourdieu's idea of the habitus, Brett Williams' theory of texturing, and Edward Said's travel theory. These critical ideas are woven together to construct an operating construct of space, which allows for that culture to be a dynamic, fluid construction, represented in …

The Still Beat, John Harlan Norris

LSU Master's Theses

The Still Beat is an exhibition that combines still-life painting with original pop music in a gallery setting. This written thesis examines the process of developing these two distinct bodies of work into a unified exhibition.

Les Implications De La Littérature Dans L'Avènevement De La Démocratie Dans Les Pays Du Golfe De Guinée Entre 1988 Et 1998, Bani Gouda Ningbinnin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is focused on the contribution of literature in the establishment of democracy in four French-speaking countries of the Golf of Guinea between 1988 and 1998. They are Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea and Togo. In 1991, a democratization movement that started in Benin occurred in many West African countries. It was propelled by an invented idea of National Conferences that were gathered by the countries elites either with the support or against the will of the ruling government. Thus, it was possible to organize a successful National Conference in some of those countries like Benin, Mali and Niger. But …

Marching Masters: Slavery, Race, And The Confederate Army, 1861-1865, Colin Edward Woodward

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Many historians have examined the Civil War soldier, but few scholars have explored the racial attitudes and policies of the Confederate army. Although Southern men did not fight for slavery alone, the defense of the peculiar institution, and the racial control they believed it assured, united rebels in their support of the Confederacy and the war effort. Amid the destruction of the Civil War, slavery became more important than ever for men battling Yankee armies. The war, nevertheless, tested Confederate soldiers’ idealized view of human bondage. Federal armies wrecked havoc on masters’ farms and plantations, seized hundreds of thousands of …

A Catalogue Of Twentieth-Century Cello Ensemble Music, Ivan M. Antonov

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This document contains over 700 entries of cello ensemble music written in the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries by 530 composers from around the world. Pieces presented in this catalogue are largely original works. A few exceptions have been allowed mostly when the composer arranged his/her own piece. For each entry, as much of the available information as possible is provided in the following general order: composer name, composer dates, title of the piece, approximate duration, and availability. Under a section named "remarks," additional information is provided such as number and titles of the movements, first performance, …

Arthur Koestler's Hope In The Unseen: Twentieth-Century Efforts To Retrieve The Spirit Of Liberalism, Kirk Michael Steen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The analysis in this dissertation connects Arthur Koestler’s nonfiction and fiction to the political circumstances that defined Europe during the early twentieth century. It draws particular attention to events in the 1930s as representing a paucity of choices that frustrated certain liberal values held by Koestler and others. It shows how after taking sides with the German Communist Party in the early 1930s, he confronted then rejected the politics of the extreme left and right, leading himself toward a dual career as social philosopher and anti-Communist. This paper will explain how Koestler’s reporting of the Spanish Civil War, combined with …

"We Are No Preacher" [Electronic Resource] : Margaret Oliphant's Textual Authority, Shannon Landry Brown

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine four of Margaret Oliphant's novels, her supernatural fiction, and her literary reviews, revealing how she relies on her knowledge of the cultural sign system, domesticity, and women's value to show how women may successfully navigate middle-class Victorian society. She accomplishes this by identifying the places where women's strengths lie: the boundaries between work and family, between the spiritual and material, amid the everyday details that she herself realizes reveal the workings of society. She sets herself up as a voice of authority within the system itself, not as a distant, all-knowing sage but as someone …

Rhetoric, Form, And Sovereignty In Schubert's "Prometheus," D. 674, Erica Brady Angert

LSU Master's Theses

Franz Schubert's "Prometheus," D. 674 (1819), sets a free-verse dramatic monologue by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in which Prometheus, the Titan who presented fire and hope to mankind, declares himself independent from Zeus. This song belongs to a small group of Schubert's Lieder that resemble scenes from operas more than tonally-closed art songs. The paper discusses some of Schubert's compositional influences in the vocal genre, including Johann Friedrich Reichardt, who composed an earlier setting of the same "Prometheus" text. This paper explores the rhetorical structure of Goethe's text, which follows Quintilian's model for an effective argument, and which Schubert punctuates …

Felt, Yvonne Pierce James

LSU Master's Theses

My work is largely autobiographical and the way I express myself is the product of memories and life experiences. I grew up as one of a family of ten children and learned early the values of sharing and helping others. We were also taught not to waste anything. We learned to recycle as part of our daily life. As you will see in my work almost all of the materials I use are found objects or recycled materials. In growing up as part of a large, rural, southern family, there was also a tradition of ‘women’s work’. Nearly all of …

The Economics Of Neutrality: Switzerland And The United States In World War Ii, Matthew Schandler

LSU Master's Theses

The following study addresses the contentious issue of Swiss economic policy during the Second World War. In particular, it concentrates on the deterioration of Swiss-American relations that resulted from Switzerland’s economic ties to Nazi Germany. It is argued that Switzerland’s survival as a neutral and democratic country depended less on the defense preparations of the Swiss Army and more on the difficult trade negotiations with both the Axis and Allies. Varied sources that include American and Swiss governmental reports, diplomatic documents, and contemporary accounts of the war, support the argument that although moral considerations played a secondary role to economic …

Failing The Race: A Historical Assessment Of New Orleans Mayor Sidney Barthelemy, 1986-1994, Lyle Kenneth Perkins

LSU Master's Theses

New Orleans’ voters elected Sidney Barthelemy as the city’s second African American mayor in 1986. Historical treatments of Barthelemy’s tenure generally do not hold him in the same high regard as New Orleans’ first African American mayor, Ernest Morial. Yet, unfavorable evaluations of Barthelemy reflect the maturation of African American politics in the Crescent City. Symbolic victories no longer resonate with an African American populous in need of substantive gains to redress longstanding social and economic inequities. With the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the struggle for African American equality entered its next phase, the transition from …

An Investigation Into A French Fifteenth-Century Book Of Hours, Mary Dawes

LSU Master's Theses

A Books of Hours refers to a personal prayer book that was used by the laity, rather than the clergy. The laity's version of these texts is often accompanied by enchanting illuminations. Although the text and subject matter of the images within each codex remain similar, no two Books of Hours are alike. In the Middle Ages the popularity of Books of Hours was such that today they form the largest extant category of illuminated manuscripts. This thesis concentrates on one particular manuscript: a yet uncatalogued Book of Hours that is currently within the collection of Louisiana State University's Hill …

Aquinas And The Knowledge Of God, Casey Edler

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis concerns the introduction of mystical knowledge into a debate about God that relies on scientific evidence. The thesis focuses in particular on the relevance of Thomas Aquinas' view of mystical experience. After first presenting Aquinas' theory of rapture as an anticipation of the beatific vision and distinguishing it from other ways of knowing God, I argue that such a theory convincingly renders mystical knowledge inadmissible into a debate about God that relies on scientific evidence, owing to one's inability to either remember or communicate such an experience. As a result, introducing mystical knowledge into the debate causes the …

Mordred: Treachery, Transference, And Border Pressure In British Arthurian Romance, George Gregory Molchan

LSU Master's Theses

This study focuses on the question of how Mordred comes to be portrayed as a traitor within the British Arthurian context. Chapter 1 introduces the question of Mordred’s treachery. Chapter 2 charts Mordred’s origins and development in Welsh and British literature. Chapter 3 focuses on the themes of unity, kinship, loyalty, adultery, and incest that emerge in connection with Mordred’s character. Chapter 4 deals with the idea that Mordred’s treacherous characteristics have been transferred upon him in the course of the British Arthurian narrative’s development. Chapter 5 discusses the possibility that Mordred’s development is in part due to Geoffrey of …

Martin Heidegger's Phenomenology And The Science Of Mind, Charles Dale Hollingsworth

LSU Master's Theses

Phenomenology and cognitive science present two very different ways of looking at mental activity. Recently, however, there have been some attempts to incorporate phenomenological insights and methods into cognitive science, drawing especially on the works of Martin Heidegger. The purpose of this thesis is to determine if a useful combination of cognitive science with Heidegger’s phenomenology is possible, and to determine the form such a combination might take. This thesis begins with a brief overview of the field of cognitive science, and of some of the problems within the field that might benefit from a phenomenological analysis. It then reviews …

The Book Of Breathings In Its Place, Kerry M. Muhlestein

Faculty Publications

Michael D. Rhodes's publication on the Hor Book of Breathings is an unusual book in many ways. It is a scholarly Egyptological work, dealing with an understudied type of text from an understudied era of Egyptian history, appearing in the midst of a series that has been dedicated to the exploration of a book considered to be scripture by the Latter-day Saints. Additionally, it deals with what many have incorrectly considered to be a text that can be used to test the revelatory ability of the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints.

Strategic Writing: Moving Beyond The Classroom Assignment, Deborah Dean

Faculty Publications

By focusing on specific strategies that they could apply to different stages of the writing process, Deborah Dean helped students acquire control over their writing in varying contexts.

I would never think of teaching a reading strategy that worked for only one text. And students do not consider predicting or summarizing to be strategies unique to a specific text, either. Why, then, do students so often look at writing strategies as practices useful for only one assignment? Why do they complete freewrites or webs after they have finished the paper? Or "mess up" a copy of a paper just to …

Skepticism About Contextualism, William Galloway Osborne Iii

LSU Master's Theses

Contextualism is the epistemological thesis that holds context to significantly affect the truth value of claims such as “S knows that p.” A shift in context can lead to a shift in the standards by which we evaluate propositional knowledge claims, and thus a shift in the truth values of these claims: a statement “S knows that p” may be true when evaluated in one context while simultaneously false when evaluated in another context. A contextualist says it is by playing on these shifting standards that the skeptic manages to destroy knowledge with her skeptical arguments. Once this is understood, …

Sufficient To Make Heaven Weep: The American Army In The Mexican War, Brian M. Mcgowan

LSU Master's Theses

The Mexican War, 1846-1848, has often been overlooked in American history. Scholars have been more interested in assigning blame for the conflict, or assessing the role played by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in the coming of the Civil War. Only recently have scholars made any attempt to understand the motivations and attitudes brought to Mexico by American soldiers. This thesis focuses on how the racial and religious attitudes of American soldiers during the war were an implementation of the nationalism inherent in Manifest Destiny. Americans used their perceived racial and religious superiority to further the goals of Manifest Destiny. Mexico …

"To The Latest Generation": Cold War And Post Cold War U.S. Civil War Novels In Their Social Contexts, Jeffrey Neal Smithpeters

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation argues that readings of the Civil War novels published in America since 1955 should be informed by a consciousness of the social forces at work in each author’s time. Part One consists of a study of the popular Civil War novel, 1955’s Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor; part two, 1974’s The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Chapters One through Three explain that Kantor was especially fitted for the ideological work going on in Andersonville, then outlines the way that novel tried to contribute to the transition between World War II and the Cold War. The book attempted to aid …

Castle To Condo, Country To Corporation: What Becomes Of Hamlet In Almereyda's Modern World, Melissa Trosclair Daigle

LSU Master's Theses

This paper looks into the inner workings of Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (2000). Even though Almereyda updates the setting and cuts many of the lines, sometimes entire scenes, from the source text, he is able to convey the some of the themes through his use of technology and media. While some themes do transfer into the postmodern setting, the places of discord are most interesting. Of particular interest is his use of modern technologies to display the corruption found in Shakespeare's play. These technologies, including speakerphone, surveillance equipment, wiring devices, handheld camcorders, and still photography, create an atmosphere of both continual …

The Role Of Matamore In Tony Kushner's Adaptation Of The Illusion: A Production Thesis In Acting, Shawn Halliday

LSU Master's Theses

The role of Matamore in Tony Kushner’s adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s The Illusion was selected as a thesis project in the fall semester of 2004. This thesis is a written record of the actor’s work on the character throughout the rehearsal process and performance in the form of an Actor’s Score. It also includes an Introduction, Chapters on the Audition Process and First Reading, Character Analysis, a Production Photo and a Conclusion.

The Gurgitators, Scott Gage

LSU Master's Theses

Hardy Runyan, an obese dishwasher from Louisiana, seeks to become a champion gurgitator through the guidance of Trina Hicks, a coach of competitive eating who’s starving to reclaim her former glory. Armed with a stunted gag reflex and a stomach he can stretch to the skin, Hardy eats his way toward a showdown in which he dethrones the world champion of oyster eating.

La Fragilitat Del Paisatge, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

Dins de la galáxia teatral formada per estrelles de grans i petites dimensions que és l'escena catalana contemporània, Josep M. Benet i Jornet (Barcelona, 1940) és com un cometa; no un d'aquells estels fugaços que apareix en una de les seves obres més reeixides (Fugaç, 1992), sinó com un cometa la trajectória creativa del qual ha estat marcada per un procés constant d'evolució i renovació estètiques, un cometa que ha deixat una lluïssor indeleble, que li ha permès d'omplir el buit entre generacions. Es podria afirmar que Benet i Jornet és el dramaturg en vida més eminent i …

Els Paisatges Del Teatre Català Contemporani: De Benet I Jornet A Cunillé, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

Voldria començar amb Amèrica, i no pas amb Catalunya, amb un retrat del paisatge del desert de Jean Baudrillard, en el qual aquest intellectual francès ens ofereix una perspectiva poeticofilosòfica europea d'un vast territori pos diferenciat:

La grandeza de los desiertos consiste en ser, en su aridez, el negativo de la superficie terrestre y nuestros talantes civilizados. Son lugares donde los talantes y los fluidos se rarifican y las constelaciones descienden directamente. [...] El silencio del desierto también es visual. Lo conforma la extensión de la mirada que no encuentra sitio donde reflejarse. [...] El desierto es como una red …

Religious Experience In The Age Of Digital Reproduction, Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger Hendrix

Faculty Scholarship

A religious experience is an extraordinary event that occurs against the backdrop of ordinary life, infusing that life with a meaning it would not otherwise have. Mass culture is now replete with portrayals of such experiences. Spiritually-themed television shows, movies, books, music, and fashion are now common and even popular. This is not necessarily good news for religion and religious experience. What mass culture portrays as sacred may be merely an imitation, resembling more the ubiquitous feel-good self-affirmance of popular psychology than authentic communion with the divine.

On the other hand, the appropriation and portrayal of religious experience by mass …

El Teatre Català Contemporani, L'Esfera Pública I La Figura De L'Autor: Retalls De L'Època De La Transició, Sharon G. Feldman

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

En els darrers anys, al paisatge político-cultural que envolta Barcelona no li han faltat els seus bans moments de melodrama, d'acusacions enceses i de rampells d'histèria, que s'han pogut presenciar sobre i fora de l'escenari, tant a nivell públic com privat. Efectivament, en el món teatral català no és gens estrany que la vida real es confongui amb la de l'espectacle, oferint-nos reiteradament exemples del que el director Albert Boadella, al seu assaig El rapto de Talía, anomena el «virus exhibicionista» o «frenesí» que ha assetjat la societat contemporània. A Barcelona, com a altres llocs del món occidental, un dels …