Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Paradigmatic Self-Deception, David Stephen Winchell

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

I present a theory of what I call "paradigmatic self-deception," the most serious and vivid cases of self-deception. While there has been much philosophical discussion of self-deception in recent decades, existing work does not explain how and why some cases of self-deception are more severe than others, when self-deception is intentional, and when an individual may justifiably be held morally responsible for being self-deceived. This dissertation answers all three of these important questions. The first chapter reviews the existing literature and motivates the need for a theory of paradigmatic cases. In the second chapter, I introduce three characteristic features of …

Fixed And Fleeting: An Exploration Of Film Poster Art From Weimar Germany, 1919-1933, Melissa Lee Olson Meeks

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

My research investigates film advertising and poster designs produced in Germany during the Weimar Republic as significant cultural artifacts revealing the intersections between consumerism and aesthetics, popular entertainment and fine art. The intent of my dissertation is two-fold. On the one hand, I reconsider the intellectual debates surrounding the artistic legitimacy of film as argued in the so-called Kinodebatte of the early twentieth century, an unsettling of the perceived boundaries between high and low art that remains significant to theorizations and explications of cinema today. On the other hand, my examination of the film poster aims to complicate the theoretical …

The Depression Modonna, K. S. Hardy

Westview

No abstract provided.

Earthquake, James Valvis

Westview

No abstract provided.

Perfection, History, And Harmonious Individuality: Herder's Ethical Thought, 1765-1791, Charles Richard Booher

Dissertations - ALL

This work is a study of the ethical thought of Johann Gottfried Herder. I examine the development of his ethics from 1765 through 1791. I contend that the earliest texts express a set of ideas that Herder modified and developed throughout the rest of his work. These are a perfectionist conception of the end of human life, a belief in the centrality of history for ethics, a form of naturalism, and a commitment to the idea that every individual ought to blend their characteristic powers into a harmonious whole. The study considers a set of texts in chronological order. I …

The Whittaker Way, Scott Woods

Westview

No abstract provided.

My Grandmother's Lilacs, Mike Emery

Westview

No abstract provided.

From The Ides Of March To Mayday 2012, Mike Emery

Westview

No abstract provided.

Alta Mesa, Lance Nizami

Westview

No abstract provided.

Disclaimer, Frank De Canio

Westview

No abstract provided.

His Finest Hour, Donovan Bradshaw

Westview

No abstract provided.

Soloist, John Grey

Westview

No abstract provided.

Privacy, Brian Glaser

Westview

No abstract provided.

The Heron, Brian Glaser

Westview

No abstract provided.

Outlook Iii, Joan Kincaid

Westview

No abstract provided.

Slouching Toward Prufrock, John Graves Morris

Westview

No abstract provided.

Walking Home To My Trailer, James Valvis

Westview

No abstract provided.

Sonoran Desert Offering, J. C. Alfier

Westview

No abstract provided.

Sea Cradles, Gwynn O'Gara

Westview

No abstract provided.

Lares And Penates, Gwynn O'Gara

Westview

No abstract provided.

Contributors, Westview Staff

Westview

No abstract provided.

Where The Reasons Come From, Aaron Wolf

Dissertations - ALL

We have a problem understanding our normative reasons. If there's a reason to do x, we can explain why that reason counts in favor of doing it with the fact that x-ing would be good in some way. But it's also explainable by non-evaluative properties that make x-ing good. Suppose the traffic gives us a reason to leave early for the airport. The deeper reason might be the non-evaluative fact that the traffic would cause us to miss our flight, or it might be the value of making the flight. Although both reasons are perfectly good at the everyday level, …

The Priceless One, Joleen Elizabeth Long

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For this thesis, I am writing a novel, titled The Priceless One, which uses the bildungsroman arc to tell the story of Jenna, a twenty-one year old woman who becomes a stripper. The novel follows her first year of stripping, as well as her familial, romantic, and sexual relationships.

I read several nonfiction books about stripping, such as Danielle Egan, Katherine Frank, and Merri Lisa Johnson’s Flesh for Fantasy and Frank’s G-Strings and Sympathy. I also read Diablo Cody’s memoir Candy Girl and Diana Atkinson’s novel Highways and Dancehalls. I viewed several films, including Michael Radford’s Dancing at the Blue …

Unlikely Heroes In Despair: Existentialist Narrators In The Novels Of Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, And Don Delillo, Courtney Mullis

Honors Theses

Existentialism is a field of philosophy concerned with questions about existence, death, God, and consciousness. It is "a doctrine that concentrates on the existence of the individual, who, being free and responsible, is held to be what he makes himself by the self-development of his essence through acts of the will" (OED Online). Writing by existentialist philosophers "often belongs more to literature than to philosophy" (Bigelow 173). Existentialist characters in literature are autonomous agents who tend to lack religious faith, constantly ask existentialist questions, and struggle with their own existence and relationship to the world around them. Additionally, existentialist characters …

The Imagined Southern Setting Of Cormac Mccarthy's The Road, John Emory Hooks

Honors Theses

The Road by Cormac McCarthy hardly seems like a work of southern literature at a first glance. The novel is post-apocalyptic. A man and his son, neither of whom are ever named, trek south as they struggle to survive in a world darkened by ash-filled skies. The setting surrounding them is not recognizable as the southern US anymore. The cities are burnt and everything is covered with ash. If we rely on the geography portrayed by a work of literature to identify that literature as southern or not, then The Road cannot be classified as southern based solely on the …

E To Em, Elizabeth M. Hogan

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A poetry thesis exploring subjects of gender identity, sexuality, socialization, writing, and craft, and including a preface that credits Emily Dickinson and Adrienne Rich as primary influences. One-third of the manuscript features epistolary prose poems in conversation with Dickinson, while the remaining portion contains poetry written in either free verse, traditional poetic form, or field composition.

A Song Of Rape And Infanticide: "Sir John Doth Play", Candace Crawford

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Middle English lyric, “Sir John Doth Play,” narrated in the female voice clearly depicts rape by a male authority figure and the narrator’s distress over her unplanned pregnancy, yet has been repeatedly interpreted and introduced by critics as a love song portraying the interaction of a seductive village priest and a gullible maiden. As such, the lyric provides a unique perspective on the patriarchal nature of the twentieth century and the value of critically re-examining literature rather than canonizing accepted interpretations of literary work.

What Ever Happened To The Man From The Cosmos?, Christian Coleman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Temptation, Sin, And The Human Condition In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Maria Cusimano

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is colored with religious overtones. His play incorporates elements of religious beliefs of Renaissance England. Aside from its historical basis, Shakespeare’s Macbeth alludes to stories from Scripture as well as Renaissance religious practices and beliefs, particularly regarding witchcraft, prophecy, and the dangers of sin. Through this myriad of sources, Shakespeare offers a vivid and grotesque depiction of a man demise due to his involvement with sin, offering a profound caution to his audience of the dangers of temptation and sin.

A Fire Stronger Than God: Myth-Making And The Novella Form In Denis Johnson's Train Dreams, Chinh Ngo

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Using concepts of cognitive evolutionary theory, the author explores how narrative storytelling manifests itself in Denis Johnson's novella Train Dreams. The novella form is also discussed, focusing on its manipulation of linear time, its naturalization of supernatural elements, and its deconstruction of dichotomous relationships. Utilizing the novella's distinct structural and thematic elements, Johnson's text shows the myth of American expansionism and industrial progress and that of Kootenai holism in collision, resulting in a narrative renegotiation that seeks to affirm coexistence and complexity.