American Studies Commons^™

The Creation And Destruction Of Surrogate Worlds In Montana Literature, Julie Lyn Mcmurray

English Theses & Dissertations

Montana writers create surrogate worlds where their characters escape the oppressiveness of the real world. The vast and varied landscape of Montana is more than a setting for many of these authors. It becomes symbolic of a national mind set that the open land will offer redemption or inner peace. Therefore, many characters become one with their natural environment. However, the writers destroy their alternative worlds by introducing emotion or real world problems into it.

Four Montana writers will be examined in detail. In Chapter II, I discuss Myron Brinig's Wide Open Town and his use of surrogate worlds. Brinig …

Annie Wood: A Portrait, Jo Ann Mervis Hofheimer

Institute for the Humanities Theses

In 1871, Anna Cogswell Wood and Irene Kirke Leache founded a school for girls in Norfolk, Virginia which had a profound influence on the community. The Leache-Wood Seminary became Norfolk's center for cultural pursuits. After the death of Irene Leache in 1900, Annie Wood established a memorial to perpetuate her friend's interest in literature, music, art, drama, and spiritual studies. Wood began a number of cultural programs which grew to shape the cultural life of the town in remarkable ways, leading directly to the Virginia Symphony, the Norfolk Little Theater, the Irene Leache Memorial, the Norfolk Society of Arts, and …

Eldorado: The Poes In Norfolk, Myreen Moore Nicholson

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best known Americans in the world, as a great poet, literary critic and essayist, and innovator of the analytic detective story. Yet he basically remains his own best mystery. Major cities have monuments to him. This creative work's object is to show that Norfolk, Virginia, was central in his life and art. In fact, the theatre company with which his actress mother, Eliza Arnold Poe (and her friends, the Sullys), was longest affiliated, was headquartered there. Edgar's sister Rosalie was born in a house on Brewer Street. Times and the circumstances of Poe …

Economic Interdependence Along A Colonial Frontier: Capitalism And The New River Valley, 1745-1789, B. Scott Crawford

History Theses & Dissertations

Historians have generally placed the beginning of capitalism in the United States in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. This assumes that the industrialization of the New England states fostered in a modern economic environment for the country as a whole. However, evidence of modern economic principles existed on the Virginia frontier as early as the mid-eighteenth century. As frontier settlers aspired to emulate eastern society, they not only sought to recreate a lifestyle similar to the one they left behind, but also set up similar governing practices, which in turn created social stratification similar to that which existed in the …

The Inner Voice, Janis Ruth Bagnall Cochrane

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The scope of this project is two-fold. The key purpose is to demonstrate the relationship between the voice of Lee Smith, a Southern writer from Appalachia and the voice of the author, another Southern writer from the Outer Banks. The foremost conclusion that has been drawn is that a writer's voice comes from deep inside the writer's unconscious. It is a product of generations of experiences that have embedded themselves in the writer's psyche. Some of the assumptions and prejudices surrounding southern women are discussed to some degree.

The second purpose is for this writer to show her work. This …

Stephen Crane And "The Subtle Brotherhood Of Men", Christian Robert Weisser

English Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the development of the works of Stephen Crane. Most critical studies define his philosophy strictly within the boundaries of Naturalism. A close examination of his novels and short stories shows a development towards a more melioristic view of mankind, one which endorses the value of brotherhood and group relations. Based on certain biographical, philosophical and cultural factors, Crane's work emerges as progressively more and more concerned with the possibility of effective human solidarity.

Willa Cather's Death Comes For The Archbishop: Narrative And Historical Inspiration, Melissa L. Hamilton

English Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to look at Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop and investigate Cather's use of history as both a foundation and inspiration for her narrative. Cather uses several "historical" documents for the structure of her book, ranging from the biography of Father Joseph P. Machebeuf to the frescoes of St. Genevieve by the Puvis de Chavannes. It has also been commonly argued that Cather's representations of some historical figures in this narrative do not accurately reflect historical record. This study will examine Cather's representation of certain historical figures against the commonly held historical images …

No Other Track: Russell Hoban And The Literary Pilgrim, Eric G. Waggoner

English Theses & Dissertations

This study will examine the novels of Russell Hoban, an American-born writer living and working in London, and their consistent engagement of the idea of pilgrimage: the spiritual and geographical travel towards a particular goal as found in early Christian writing, as well as extant writings of other religions and cultures. After briefly tracing the social and literary history of the pilgrimage, I will examine each of Hoban's novels with an eye towards their secular revision of the pilgrimage motif, a revision which nonetheless retains a measure of spirituality.

It's A Family Affair: Choices In Kinship Configurations As Represented In Fried Green Tomatoes And Bastard Out Of Carolina, Mary Elizabeth Wright

English Theses & Dissertations

Fictional representations of familial paradigms are changing. This discussion charts the variations that occur in family makeup; such as the single-parent, the lesbian parent, and the guardian parent households. While the nuclear family situation is missing from this selection, it is not absent from these novels. What is different in both Fried Green Tomatoes and Bastard out of Carolina is choice. People make choices concerning who they want to live with. Writers, like Flagg and Allison, make choices concerning their characters' familial configurations, but they do· not require their characters or their readers to determine that one should eradicate the …

A Literary Evaluation Of Black Female Interaction In Toni Morrison's "Beloved", "Sula," "Jazz", Carol Ann Davenport

English Theses & Dissertations

This Master's thesis consists of three chapters that examine the roles, circumstances and effects of racism and sexism on the black female characters in three of Toni Morrison's novels, Beloved, Sula and Jazz. I propose that the elements of racism and sexism have left the female characters, Sethe, Denver, Ella, etc. in Beloved with few choices in life. Further, I suggest that the theme of "choice versus no choice" perpetuates hatred and self-hatred among black women and results in "metaphoric scarring." I explore in the characters, Sula, Eva, Hannah, Nel, and the black Bottom women, the damage inflicted on black …

American Christianity And Its Role In The Denigration Of The African-American Identity As Found In African-American Literature, Zelda Lockhart

English Theses & Dissertations

The positive effects of American Christianity on the African-American from slavery to present day are often analyzed in African-American literature, which depicts black characters who are grateful to God, mostly for giving them the strength to endure the many social and psychological abuses inflicted by American institutions. African-American literature, however, also depicts characters whose relationship with Christianity subordinates them in American society.

The following chapters will explore the downfalls and ironies of an African-American/Christian dichotomy, and show how the historical events of America have influenced African-American Christianity.

Chapter One gives a historical account of America's involvement in the Transatlantic slave …

Yellow Ribbons, D. Scott Drake

English Theses & Dissertations

Yellow Ribbons is a feature-film screenplay that dramatizes various aspects of the Persian Gulf War. The hero of the story, Lieutenant Jason Hart, a talented but quixotic naval fighter pilot, participates in one of the last allied offensive military actions: the bombing of the retreating Iraqi army. Jake suffers a crisis of conscience in the climactic moment of the bombing and decides that he cannot continue to serve the navy as a fighter pilot. The story then shifts from the Persian Gulf to the United States. There Jake encounters a new set of obstacles as he struggles with his experience …

The American Schoolyard: A Critical Study Of Charles Bukowski's Short Fiction, Jonathan D. Weiss

English Theses & Dissertations

Charles Bukowski is one of America's most prolific writers. He has published forty-five books of poetry and prose and is translated in over a dozen languages, Recently he wrote the screenplay for the movie Barfly. However, despite his accomplishments, Bukowski has received little critical attention from the academic world. It is thought that his works are too violent or too pornographic to be deserving of critical attention. In this thesis, I attempt to show that this is not the case. Using Marxist, feminist, and Freudian analyses of Bukowski's short fiction, I show that Bukowski's work is, without a doubt, worthy …

The Development Of A Youth Consumer Culture In The United States In The 1950s, Phillip D. Mccaskey

History Theses & Dissertations

The 1950s witnessed the development of an important cultural phenomenon in the United States, the result of the demographic increase known as the baby boom. To an unprecedented degree in American history, various facets of the American economy focused towards infants and adolescents due to their swelling numbers and subsequent economic influence. Youths themselves sought to exert their economic power resulting in the formation of a dynamic youth culture manifesting itself most prominently in the entertainment media.

This study examines the origins and scope of the American baby boom. Cultural trends directly related to the baby boom are also analyzed. …

Wising Up The Marks: The Later Works Of William S. Burroughs, Stephen L. Starck

English Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the later works of Williams. Burroughs, focusing on them as they articulate his theories of the individual. Following a brief look at each work (The Wild Boys, Exterminator!, Port of Saints, Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, The Western Lands) is a discussion of Burroughs' concerns about the individual, as expressed in his theories of government, religion, the body, and language. Burroughs instructs individuals, attempting to educate them to all the restraints imposed by society. The overall narrative structure of these six works is also discussed and then …

The Parties Quarrae, Michael E. Malone

Institute for the Humanities Theses

During Thomas Jefferson's educational days in Williamsburg, Virginia, he was fortunate to have the association with three learned men, William Small, George Wythe, and Lt. Governor Francis Fauquier. The men met often at the governor's palace during the years 1760-64. Jefferson referred to their association as the "parties quarrae."

Most historians agree that the time spent with Small, Wythe, and Fauquier had profound influence on the establishment of Jefferson's "enlightenment" philosophy. Little, however, is known about the details of the regular meetings in the palace.

The focus of this creative project is the fictional discovery of Jefferson's "lost" Autobiography, finished …

A Record Of The Present Moment: A Comparison Of The Early And Later Narrative Work Of Gertrude Stein, Elisa Stuber Cohen

English Theses & Dissertations

Gertrude Stein began and ended her literary career with the narrative, a mode of discourse which she reworked and altered to fit her vision of twentieth-century reality. In her early work with the narrative (Three Lives and The Making of Americans), she reevaluated traditional techniques of plot, theme, and character and began to emphasize the textual surface over referential meaning. But feeling restricted by the narrative, Stein left it behind in search of the value of the individual word, which she thought was lost in nineteenth-century rhetoric. For the next twenty-five years, she concentrated on poetry, plays, and …

Mothers And Daughters: A Study Of Edith Wharton, Patricia K. Waller

English Theses & Dissertations

Whether due to her own mother's coldness, or to the fact that she herself did not have children, or to some other factor or combination of factors, Edith Wharton seemed unable to envision a warm, satisfying mother-daughter relationship. The mothers in her fiction are often detached and/or absent, and the daughters suffer from the faulty or nonexistent relationships with their mothers. The "motherless" daughters--Lily Bart, Mattie Silver, and Charity Royall--never achieve adulthood in any real sense. They lack autonomy and remain dependent on others. Other daughters--Nona Manford and Judith Wheater--must take over the parental role when their mothers fail to …

Marge Piercy's Small Changes: Welcome To The Sexual Revolution, Nancy Topping Bazin

English Faculty Publications

Marge Piercy's novel Small Changes is encyclopedic in its incredibly detailed, all-encompassing feminist analysis of female and male behavior in the late 60's and early 70's. The behavior of the younger generation is compared and contrasted with that of their parents. The overall impression given by the novel is that, despite the very different life-styles of the two generations, very little change has, in fact, occurred. At the end of the novel, sexism prevails and no significant threat to male control of the power structure has developed. From examination of the title, Piercy seems to place her emphasis not upon …

Faulkner: Misogynist Or Philogynist?, Imane Nejjar

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.

"A Terror And A Dream": Domestic Imagery In The Poetry Of Anne Sexton, Frances S. Waters

English Theses & Dissertations

Women writers often experience a conflict between traditional feminine roles and the less traditional role of the female writer. And for those writers, like Anne Sexton, who choose not to choose between roles, the result is conflict. This conflict, recognized by previous critics and evident in Sexton's biography and poetry, results in a domestic imagery expressing this vacillation. In this study, submitted in partial fulfillment for the M. A. degree in English, I provide an in-depth study of Sexton's domestic imagery. I concern myself with two imagery patterns: one, in which the symbolic image's meaning changes randomly with no controlling …

Thomas Sully (1783-1872): Beginning Portraitist In Norfolk, Beth N. Rossheim

Institute for the Humanities Theses

An examination of the Register of Paintings and Journal of Activities written by Thomas Sully reveals his attempt to begin a painting career in Norfolk, Virginia, 1801-1803. A discussion of portraiture in America in the early 19th century precedes the investigation of the Sully family, their theatrical background and influence on Thomas Sully. Descriptive material on Norfolk is provided as background to a close study of Sully's earliest patrons Several early portraits are presented to demonstrate a progressive sophistication.

Poe's Humor In Theory And Practice, Celinda V. Claxton

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.

Faulkner's Concept Of Innocence: A Study Of Horace Benbow, Thomas Sutpen, And The Convict In The Wild Palms, Sandra Sayre Moll

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.

Political Concepts In The Novels Of Carson Mccullers, Ronald Flowe

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.

Hawthorne's Obsessed Characters, Peggy Diane Wagner

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.

Hemingway's Key West Women: A Study Of The Female Characterizations Of To Have And Have Not, Nancy Glover Lobaugh

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.

Hemingway's Key West Women: A Study Of The Female Characterizations Of To Have And Have Not, Nancy Glover Lobaugh

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.

The Intensification Of American Confessional Poetry In The 'Sixties: Robert Lowell And Some Leading Questions, H. C. Nash

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.

Emily Dickinson's Poetics, Edith Lodge

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract.