English Language and Literature Commons^™

“The Greatest Human Travail”: Faith And The Context Of Rhetoric In Zora Neale Hurston’S Dust Tracks On A Road, James Cameron Hall

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Zora Neale Hurston was a controversial in the Harlem Renaissance. Her little studied autobiography could be helpful in resolving many of the unanswered questions. However, critical responses have mostly been negative. Critics have questions her portrayal of social reality, particularly black/white relations. If the autobiography is examined in terms of the internal dynamics of the Harlem Renaissance and the political situation of blacks during the Second World War, with special attention paid to the development of Hurston’s religious faith, a different interpretation is possible.

This thesis examines Dust Tracks on a Road as Hurston’s apologia, an autobiographical defense of faith. …

Superior Instants: Religious Concerns In The Poetry Of Emily Dickinson, Elisabeth Buckner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

When I decided to write a thesis on Emily Dickinson's poetry, my intention was to show that she did, indeed, implement a concrete philosophy into her poetry. However, after several months of research, I realized that this poet's philosophy was ongoing and sometimes inconsistent. Emily Dickinson never discovered the answers to all of her religious and spiritual questions although she devoted her entire life to that pursuit. What Dickinson did discover was that orthodox religion had no place in her heart or mind and she must make her own choices where God was concerned. Immortality was an intense fascination to …

Jonathan Edwards' Sermons: Search For "Acceptable Words", Helen Petter Westra

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Ua35/11 Student Honors Research Bulletin, Wku Honors Program

WKU Administration Documents

The WKU Student Honors Research Bulletin is dedicated to scholarly involvement and student research. These papers are representative of work done by students from throughout the university.

• Whicker, Garth. Agriculture and the Development of Malaysia
• McGaha. Rape, Passion, Lechery, Usury, Incest, Murder and other Matters in The Ravenger's Tragedy
• Harrison, Robert. It was a Day of Very General Awakening . . : Reformation and Revival in Russellville, Kentucky
• King, Betty. An Affirmative Decision for James's Isabel Archer
• Sutton, Joyce. Sex Bias in Performance of Women
• Logsdon, Doug. Poe's Women
• Yoder, Nate. Emily Dickinson and Her Puritan Heritage
• Davis, Aleen. Jay …

E. Taylor's Use Of Canticles, Clella J. Camp

Masters Theses

In Sermon IV of the Christographia Edward Taylor makes the following statement.

Man, the last in the creation, is the glory of all elementary nature. The image of God in man, the last draught of God upon him, is the glory of Man. Come to artifical instinces, and here it holds; All things of less considerations are first touched on, but that which is last entered on is of the greatest concern…And so it is in the things of God!

Because those things that are constantly fixed in “the last place” are the most complete and the most valued of …

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Three Essays On Place And Meaning, Reed Evan Richards

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of three personal essays and a postface, in part experiments in genre, mode, and structure, and in large part explorations of the meanings of specific places in culture and on the self-definition of the observer-writer, the first essay being set in Florida and centered at Disneyworld; the second consisting of fragments of observations along the route from St. Augustine to Washington, D.C., and ending with a brief fiction; the third, a speculative/anti-speculative rumination over many things, including meaning, death, faith, and enshrinement, and set in Illinois, Missouri, and South Africa; and the postface a theoretical/descriptive theoretical defense …

Approaching The Scarlet Letter: Spatiality As Theme And Method, Susan L. Scott

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although my goal is ultimately to undersatnd Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the emphasis of this thesis is upon ways of approaching that goal. Only the last chapter is directly about the text of that romance. In the first chapter I consider the state of the field, religion and literature, with a view to identifying my own position in it. In the second, I look at the cultural historical contexts for reading the story, specifically, the seventeenth century Puritans and the nineteenth century American romance. The third chapter focuses on variants of the idea of spatiality, for instance, sacred space, topophilia, …

Self Awareness Of Sin As The Cause Of Death In Four Of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, Kathryn Louise Estep

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study of four of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales presents a distinct view of a character's self awareness of sin and his refusal to seek repentance as being the cause of his death. The message here is that of the Fall. "The Great Carbuncle," "The Hollow of the Three Hills," "Lady Eleanore's Mantle," and "The Ambitious Guest" demonstrate that man is sinful and in need of redemption just as the Bible demonstrates man's fallen state and need for forgiveness through Christ, the second Adam. In these tales characters act out of selfish pride and become aware of their transgressions just …

Black Elk Speaks As Epic And Ritual Attempt To Reverse History, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Modern Siouan storytellers make a distinction in speaking of the difference between bedtime and sacred stories. Moreover, Lakota masters of the sacred arts are inveterate constructors of figural or allegorical systems. They interpret, apply, and reapply the iconological resources of their culture through ritual, myth, storytelling, symbolic action, and clothing. This Sioux symbolic tradition is one context in which John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks (1932) must be understood. Conceptualizing it as an epic may assist both Western and non-Western readers to clarify the uses to which a culture's symbol system may be put in mediating conflicting values, especially those …

Daughters Of A Jesting God: The Religious Sensibility Of Margaret Laurence, Patricia Stibbards-Watt

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

No abstract provided.

The Nearness And The Delay Of The Parousia In The Writings Of Ellen G. White, Ralph E. Neall

Dissertations

The writings of Ellen G. White, pioneer leader of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, exhibit two apparently contradictory streams or thought on the time of the parousia. On one hand she wrote that the time of Christ's coming is fixed by God and will occur soon; on the other, that He has been delayed by the church's failures to preach the gospel and live holy lives. Her point of entry into eschatological thought was the prediction of William Miller that Christ would return in 1844, rooted in the time prophecies of Daniel and summarized in the three angels' messages of Rev …

Clinton Larson's "The Witness": The Quest For A Mormon Mythic Consciousness, Dennis R. Perry

Theses and Dissertations

"The Witness" can be viewed as Clinton F. Larson's poetic manifesto that points the direction for much of his subsequent work. Although his poetic "mormonism" has been questioned by several of his critics, this thesis shows that Larson definitely expresses his Mormon faith in "The Witness" as a metaphorical quest for mythic consciousness. While searching in the poem for sacred space and time, Larson seeks to become closer to the divine and powerful center of being, creating at once a metaphor for his quest to understand and assimilate Christ's atonement and a poetic voice from which he can speak for …

Ua35/11 Student Honors Bulletin, Wku Honors Program

WKU Administration Documents

Student research papers chosen by each college as best of the academic year.

• Bolte, William. Use of Government Documents in Small and Medium-Sized Libraries and Future Utilization Prospects
• Brevit, Valery. Development of the Concepts of Infinity
• Cook, Ken. KIM-1 Calculator Interface
• Irwin, Tom. Status Preservation in Three Characteristic Radical Right Groups
• Logan, Ben. Jungian Psychoanalysis of the Petrarchan Lover
• Moore, James Jr. Communication Problems and the Families of Schizophrenics
• Nash, Jeffrey. St. Luke as Historian
• Porto, Eugenia. In Defense of Camus
• Roberson, Philip. The Religious Thought of Rabindranath Tagore
• Wood, Irene. The Them of Incest in Dickens' Hard Times

Vol. 3 No. 1 (1979): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

Books Received, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Books Received for the Vol 3, No 1 Fall Edition of the Pacific Studies Journal

Vol. 3 No. 1 (1979): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol 3, No 1 Spring Edition of the Pacific Studies Journal

"Fair Terms & A Villain's Mind:" Shylock In Perspective, Montreva Calhoun

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

While The Merchant of Venice has long been one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, it has also been one of the most controversial with Shylock being the hub of the conflict. Critics have long been arguing whether this great character is a tragic hero or a larger-than-life villain. Those opting for the first often believe the playwright guilty of anti-semitism, and those following the latter consider Shylock the embodiment of evil. Very few critics have viewed this character as three dimensional, possessing human dignity as well as a capacity for evil.

The first chapter reveals the many sources for both …

Why Johnny Can't Write: The Illiteracy Crisis, Hugh Cook

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

A Survey Of Mormon Literary Criticism, Colin B. Douglas

Theses and Dissertations

Three general questions concerning literature have been addressed by the writers considered in this thesis: What constitutes a work of literary art? What ought to be valued by Latter-day Saints in a literary work? How should criticism be conducted by Latter-day Saints? To the first question, five basic answers have been proposed: significant form, uplifting thought content clothed in decorative form, typological symbol, ikon (as the word is used by C S lewis in An Experiment in Criticism), and capacity for helping the reader achieve a kind of "negative capability." These definitions also tend to be statements of value, …

Johnny, His Teachers, And Their Teachers, James C. Schaap

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Joseph H. Spurrier Review Of Alfons L. Korn, News From Molokai: Letters Between Peter Kaeo And Queen Emma, 1873–1876, Joseph H. Spurrier

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

The Influence And Effect Of The Religious Consciousness On The Anti-Hero In The Modern Southern Novel, Karen L. Foster

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Tales From The Tracting Book, Donna Christine Allen Ackerson

Theses and Dissertations

My original idea for the book was to do a picturesque-type novel, with chapters that would practically be short stories in themselves. But as I got into the writing of it, I decided to pursue one main theme--Sister Harper's conflicts regarding her missionary calling--working them out to a climax and a resolution. I still intended to give the book a picturesque flavor, however, by embellishing it with digressions, sidelines, and banalities that are always a part of missionary life.

In Memoriam: The Way Of A Mystic, Carolyn E. Wagner

Theses & Honors Papers

The purport, therefore, of this thesis will be to discover some of the general characteristics of a mystical experience as accepted by various students of mysticism and to discern whether or not these characteristics are to be found in In Memoriam. Other poems by the Poet Laureate will be used to gain insight into the development of the author's attitude toward mysticism, as well as any influential ideas of such associates as Arthur Henry Hallam, or other contemporary writers, or historical movements. Throughout, there will be an attempt to refute, compromise, or concur with any critical conjectures made regarding Tennyson's …

Ua35/11 Student Honors Bulletin, Vol. Iv, Wku Honors Program

WKU Administration Documents

The articles, all papers done for classes in the university honors program, are divided into three groups. The first group deals with science, especially the area of health care, one of the more practical applications of science in the modern age. The second group consists of three papers done for honor courses in which the major purpose was to expose the student to new areas of consciousness and have them respond orally and verbally to what they read, creative writing. The last group deals with the humanities, literature and religion, two of the more popular fields of the humanities today. …

"Did I Guess At That Paul Knew?" The Influence Of Pauline Theology On Robert Browning, Beverly H. Laine

Theses & Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Homosexuals And The Death Penalty In Colonial America, Louis Crompton

Department of English: Faculty Publications

This article traces the legislative history of statutes prescribing the death penalty for sodomy in 17th-century New England and in the other American colonies. New England and some middle colonies broke with English legal tradition by adopting explicitly biblical language. After the Revolution, Pennsylvania took the lead, in 1786, in dropping the death penalty.

As the nation prepares to celebrate the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, the question of the status of the homosexual in pre-Revolutionary America comes to mind. The Body of Liberties approved by the Colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1641 welcomed refugees seeking to escape "the …

Joseph Smith As A Jacksonian Man Of Letters: His Literary Development As Evidenced In His Newspaper Writings, Walter A. Norton

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the newspaper writings of Joseph Smith Jr., the Mormon Prophet, traces his development as an American writer as evidenced in his newspaper publications, and notes the major concepts contained therein which demonstrate that Smith may deservedly be called a "Jacksonian Man of Letters."

Emerging from his youth lacking even rudimentary writing ability, Smith began his development with the translation of ancient scriptural records. Literary experiences with other scriptures, historical records, and even grammar classes augmented his development. Smith later turned his attention to frontier newspapers and served briefly as an editor. Jail confinement provided further stimulus to …

Human Love And Divine Love: The Platonic Matrix In C.S. Lewis, Laura Case

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A comparison of the writings of Plato and C.S. Lewis reveals a common idea that human love is not sufficient for man. An examination of Plato’s Symposium and Lewis’s Till We Have Faces and The Four Loves, in particular, shows that both writers illustrate that man must ascend the ladder of love in order to meet the source of all love: Divine Love. Concerned with man’s innate needs and ethics, both Plato and Lewis argue that there is a universal principle of goodness known to all men of all cultures. Lewis argues, especially in The Abolition of Man, that man …

Ua35/11 Student Honors Research Bulletin, Vol. Ii, Wku Honors Program

WKU Administration Documents

Articles written by honors program students. They were originally research projects, class papers or essays written for academic credit, but in each case the student has done further work editing and improving his or her manuscript for this publication. The articles represent a broad range of interests and disciplines, and they indicate a healthy attempt on the part of at least some students to dig for deeper knowledge and understanding than is usually associated with undergraduate study.

• Greene, Bruce. The Traditional Fiddle Music of South-Central Kentucky
• Moody, Marlin. Some Effects of the Herbicide Glyphosate on Johnson Grass Rhizomes
• Jones, Larry. …