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Full-Text Articles in American Literature
An Eastern Mind Attached To A Western Brain: The Influence Of Zen Buddhism On Jack Kerouac, Yuko Taniguchi
An Eastern Mind Attached To A Western Brain: The Influence Of Zen Buddhism On Jack Kerouac, Yuko Taniguchi
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
A great American author, Jack Kerouac, loved the Eastern philosophy, Zen Buddhism, which influenced fifteen years of his writing career. The theory of Zen Buddhism taught him what was in and out of human control as well as the true essence of nature. Kerouac reflected on and described his daily life of Zen Buddhism in his novels, and Zen Buddhism certainly became his spiritual inner home for fifteen years. However, searching for a true spirituality never settled him down emotionally; therefore his loss of faith in Zen Buddhism demolished his inner spiritual home, and his struggle began. My thesis examines …
Pains And Contradictions In The Catcher In The Rye And Franny And Zooey, B. Daniel Rösch
Pains And Contradictions In The Catcher In The Rye And Franny And Zooey, B. Daniel Rösch
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
Holden Caulfield and Franny Glass struggle with the phoniness and egotism that pervades society. They long to escape their problems and decide to run away -- he by becoming a hermit and she by retreating into spirituality through the Jesus Prayer. They soon realize the folly of their solution and through their pains and contradictions, they learn how to cope with social squalor. Holden realizes that he needs to love and accept people unconditionally, and Franny learns that she needs to shed her egotism and act altruistically. I believe J. D. Salinger outlines a spiritual coping strategy through Holden and …
Out Of Despair, Into The Wilderness: A Study Of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim At Tinker Creek And Gary Snyder's Myths & Texts, Megan Casey
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
Annie Dillard and Gary Snyder are both contemporary American writers. Though Dillard's and Snyder's styles, concerns, and preoccupations differ, the narrators in Dillard's narrative Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Snyder's long poem Myths & Texts undergo spiritual progressions that are astonishingly similar. Each narrator moves out of the dualistic world view of modern science into an experience of the world's paradoxical nature. Dillard and Snyder both create, through metaphor and mythopoeia, visions that offer an alternative world view from that of the despairing modern wasteland. I call my theoretical approach ecological criticism, and after performing close readings of Pilgrim at …
Contemporary Sports Writing In Creative Non-Fiction: A Study Of Madeleine Blais' In These Girls, Hopeis A Muscle, H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights, And Tim Keown's Skyline, Sheila Eldred
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
My thesis defines the role of contemporary sports writing in creative non-fiction. I found the three works I studied to be precendent-setting examples of the genre. In examining the historical aspects of creative non-fiction, I found a direct correlation withthe new journalism of the 1960s. My second chapter discusses these roots of creative non-fiction in-depth, involving the works of Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, and other 1960s authors. My third and fourth chapters are devoted to describing the journalistic techniques and fictional techniques that are used in creative non-fiction. The three works I studied are examined in detail. In my conclusion …
A Different Destination: The American Journey Theme In The Novels Of Toni Morrison, Jill Holbrook
A Different Destination: The American Journey Theme In The Novels Of Toni Morrison, Jill Holbrook
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
The mythic form of the American journey in American literature, which developed from the frontier experience of white male settlers, embraces separatism, escape and isolation as valid options for the exploration of personal identity. For people who are neither white nor male, this definition of journey and this exploration of identity prove an impossibly destructive dream. In her novels, Toni Morrison develops a different idea of journey, one which leads the journeyer back to his or her community and to the discovery of identity in relationship, rather than isolation. The journey back to the community is explored in Sula, Song …
The Muppets In Search Of An Audience: A Theory Of Learning How To Be Human, Stuart Harding
The Muppets In Search Of An Audience: A Theory Of Learning How To Be Human, Stuart Harding
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
This paper is an introduction to the theories of Gregory Bateson, especially from his book Steps to an Ecology of mind. Jim Henson's The Muppet Movie is used to facilitate this discussion of ideas about ideas.
The Feminine, Feminist, Female And Fitzgerald: A Critical Study Of Women Characters In F. Scott Fitzgerald's Novels And Short Stories, Patrick Hicks
The Feminine, Feminist, Female And Fitzgerald: A Critical Study Of Women Characters In F. Scott Fitzgerald's Novels And Short Stories, Patrick Hicks
Honors Theses, 1963-2015
An exploration of the changing identity of women at the beginning of the twentieth century through the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald, who lived and wrote during this period of radical social upheaval and who "recognized sooner than most that the nature of [women's] advance had changed radically with the coming of the Jazz Age." (Brian Way) and who was "a spokesman for his generation."