American Literature Commons^™

Table Of Contents, Journal Editors

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Dedication, Journal Editors

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Benjamin Franklin Fisher Iv

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Cover Pages, Journal Editors

Studies in English, New Series

No abstract provided.

Herman Melville And Paul Tillich: An Ontological Interpretation Of Billy Budd, Michael E. Gress

Masters Theses

The traditional approaches to Herman Melville's Billy Budd focus upon the question of whether or not the story was Melville's final statement of acceptance or irony. Both arguments are sociological in nature in that the different sides argue that Melville either finally accepts or continues to reject by irony, the forms of society. The acceptance critics contend that Melville ends by seeing value in the forms because of their use for maintaining order in society; the irony critics claim that Melville was taking a final satirical poke at society's limiting forms and authority.

My thesis differs from these traditional arguments …

The Innocent Narrator In Mark Twain's Roughing It, John R. Fisher

Masters Theses

Mark Twain in his travel narrative Roughing It presents a naive, innocent narrator from the East who ventures forth into the largely uncivilized Western frontier during the exciting silver mining boom of the 1860's. In his sojourn the innocent narrator encounters many people, places, customs, values, and experiences that are unfamiliar to him, and because of his status as a tenderfoot unacquainted with the frontier, he is often made a dupe by the mischievous old-timers in the West.

The innocent narrator must go through numerous initiations before he is accepted as a member of the vernacular community. In these various …

From Selflessness To Selfishness: Various Types Of Deception In Four Of Twain's Novels, Kay L. Smith

Masters Theses

An interesting feature of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson is the use of disguise and deception. The basis of much of the novels' actions concerns people who, for varied reasons, set out to fool other people. Other individuals or groups of people are self-deceived.

Motivations for the deception vary. Some entail selfless concerns of protecting a loved one. Some illustrate desires to maintain one's own safety and well-being. Still others involve negative, base qualities such as greed, …

Following In Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks: Autobiographical Notes By The Author Of Shuckin' And Jivin', Daryl Cumber Dance

English Faculty Publications

As I began to peruse collections and studies of black folklore, I found that although considerable work had been done from which I was l earning a great deal, there were some aspects of black folklore with which I was personally familiar (from my childhood in Charles City, Virginia, my college days in Petersburg, and my adult life in Richmond) that I had observed as influence in numerous literary works, particularly on temporary works, that were not included in the material was finding, or were not presented in anything even vaguely resembling the versions I knew and saw represented in …

Black Eve Or Madonna? A Study Of The Antithetical Views Of The Mother In Black American Literature, Daryl Cumber Dance

English Faculty Publications

Within these two extreme views of woman - the mother who brings death and destruction versus the mother who brings life and salvation - where does the Black American mother stand? It seems to me that it would not be inappropriate to look at the literature, not as mere fiction, but rather as an interpretation and compilation of history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and a host of other areas. Thus the true literary artist reveals life more accurately and with more insight than any historical facts and statistical details, because he deals with the truth of the human heart, with the …

Fitzgerald's Use Of The Four Elements In The Great Gatsby, John Philip Hawkins

Masters Theses

A great deal has been written about the conscientious effort that went into the design of F. Scott Fitzgerald's popular novel, The Great Gatsby, with its various allusions and numerous symbols. A careful reading of this novel will unveil the author's preoccupation with numerous metaphysical images, particularly the four elements--air, earth, water, and fire--which are considered to be the essential components of all matter.

Fitzgerald uses the four elements in The Great Gatsby to coordinate mood and physical settings, to give dimension to the settings, and to bring characters into sharper focus. The novel employs four settings, each one …

Saul Bellow's Henderson The Rain King: A Fusion Of The Comic And The Serious, George William Russo

Masters Theses

Bellow's comic vision points to a compromise between the romantic notion that self-perfection is attainable and the pessimistic notion that man is ultimately impotent and thus destined to fail. Through Henderson, Bellow shows that although man does not--and ultimately cannot--completely free himself of somatic demands and limitations, he is nevertheless not defeated by them and thus not left a victim of emotionless observations.

Bellow draws upon four sources in Henderson's nature to create the humor in the novel and highlights Eugene Henderson as a comic hero by dramatizing that Henderson proves to be his own ironist. These sources can be …

Depiction Of Blacks In The Works Of Ernest Hemingway, Sheila Marie Foor

Masters Theses

Ernest Hemingway, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, is one of America's outstanding literary figures. Criticism of his work has been voluminous--ranging from bitterly derogative to superlative--with most of it focusing upon the famous 'Hemingway code hero,' upon his crisp, concise writing style, and upon his much-publicized personal life.

One example of negative assessment by critics is the one concerning black portraiture in Hemingway's fiction. However, no work deals exclusively with this aspect of his writing. The purpose of this thesis is, first, to present a general discussion on the nature of prejudice and examination of black …

L. Frank Baum And The Technology Of Love, Robert Bruce Goble

Masters Theses

L. Frank Baum, throughout his books of fantasy, especially the Oz series, gradually resolves the conflict of pastoralism and technology by developing a technology managed by love. Baum uses magic as a representation of both pastoralism and technology. Fairy magic, the capacity for love, represents pastoralism, and ritual magic, the capacity for good or evil depending upon who wields it, represents technology. Baum deals with the ways in which ritual magic or technology can be misused through selfishness and ignorance and points out how destruction can be avoided if technology were managed by not greed for power and money but …

Wit And Humor In The Slave Narratives, Daryl Cumber Dance

English Faculty Publications

This passage suggests something of the nature of Black humor and the function it has served, not only in the slave narratives, but in the folk tales and throughout the history of recorded literature from William Wells Brown to Amiri Baraka. The life revealed in all of these sources is shown to often be alternately degrading and courageous, tragic and absurdly comic, hopeless and yet enduring; indeed that life could hardly ever be termed merely amusing. And the Black character, though he may be seen to laugh, can hardly be deemed carefree, unbothered, satisfied, even truly happy. Indeed the paradox …

Approaching American Culture Through Art And Poetry (An Exploration Of Ten Themes), Emily M. Bufferd

MA TESOL Collection

My project consists of forty-five paintings, twenty-five postcard-size prints, twenty slides, three postcard-size photographs and thirty poems, each representing one or more of ten themes chosen as a basis for teaching about United States culture. These ten themes signify dominant concerns of Twentieth Century America and are arranged, in the following pages, with those works pertinent to the particular theme. This approach to culture is intended for use in an advanced ESL class, its purpose being to increase awareness of and promote discussions about our culture. Inscluded also are: a brief rationale for the project, a list of the criteria …

The Role Of Betrayal In Selected Drama Of Tennessee Williams, Craig E. Sanderson

Masters Theses

Much of the critical analysis of Tennessee Williams' drama concerns itself with the inherent conflict between ideals and reality in the universe as perceived by Williams. Such analysis, however, has not considered this conflict as a source of betrayal, or betrayal as a dominant theme in Williams' drama. In at least four of his plays it becomes evident how each of the individual characters in Williams' drama endures the conflict of reality and ideals, and the extent to which their respective approaches to the resolution of this struggle result in betrayal. Four plays--all regarded as among his most successful and …

From Rendezvous To Picket Fence: Tracing The Changing Frontier And Novelistic Development In A. B. Guthrie, Jr.'S Western Pentology, Raymond Charles Schmudde

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

In The Beginning: A New View Of Black American Etiological Tales, Daryl Cumber Dance

English Faculty Publications

A substantial number of Black folktales may be designated as etiological "myths" in that they tend to focus on the world as it evolved and to frequently portray the role of God in explaining why the Negro is, to quote from one tale, "so messed up," why he is black, why he has big, ugly feet and hands, why his hair is kinky, and why he must remain a poor laborer in a rich society. The causes of all of these "inferior" traits of the Negro appear to be certain alleged defects in his character-his tardiness, his ignorance, his disobedience …

Female Initiates In Faulkner, Nancy Joan White

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Howells, Marriage, And Swedenborg: The Influence Of Swedenborg's Teachings On Howells' Portrayal Of Marriage In His Novels, Nancy Danner Marlow

Masters Theses

Over one-half of Howells' novels are concerned with marriage and courtship. Like many other aspects of his thinking, Howells' ideas of marriage were influenced by the teachings of Emmanuel Swedenborg, an eighteenth century Swedish scientist and theologian. The bulk of Swedenborg's teachings regarding marriage are found in his The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugial Love, published in 1768. Howells showed the influence of Swedenborgianism on the marriages in his novels in three major areas: the actual marriages in his novels, matters relating to marriage, and marital failures.

An important element in Swedenborgianism is the belief in marriages in heaven. …

Kate Chopin In Transition From Local To Naturalism, Roselyn Cornwell Hines

Theses & Honors Papers

My thesis concentrates on Mrs.Katherine O'Flaherty Chopin, a Southerner who published between 1889 and 1899, and who, for years, was considered an obsolete Local Colorist. She is now enjoying a revival of interest which must be attributed to her importance as a writer who exhibited those precepts upon which modern literature is based - those found in the movements of Realism and Naturalism.

With literary roots in the Local Color mode,Mrs.Chopin's early works exemplify, to some extent at least, all of its principles. While she falters somewhat in the dominant literary technique, we find the Local Colorist's emphasis on geography, …

The Sound And The Fury: A Study Of Jason Compson And His Relationships With Women, Shari J. Fitzgerald

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Father And Sons In Bernard Malamud's The Natural And The Assistant, John Timothy Dailey

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Endless Journey: William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying And John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath: A Comparative Study, Sherri L. Lawrence

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Joe Christmas: A Hero In Conflict In Faulkner's Light In August, Carole Booker Winkleblack

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Predestination As A Motif In Faulkner's Light In August, Virginia A. Riegel

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

San José Studies, November 1975, San José State University Foundation

San José Studies, 1970s

Volume 1, Issue 3

Existential Elements In The Works Of Ernest Hemingway, Carl Klemaier

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Recapitulation And Alteration In Faulkner's Snopes Trilogy, Elizabeth Anne Shapland

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

George Willard's Progress Toward Maturity In Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Patrice Grassinger Spencer

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.