English Language and Literature Commons^™

Writing The Young Adult Novel: Analysis And Process, Lucinda Boone

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The thesis consists of two sections: research and creative. The research section includes brief analyses of five young adult novels that received the Newbery Medal, awarded annually by the American Library Association to the author of the most distinguished contribution to children's literature. The creative section is an original young adult novel that incorporates some of the characteristics uncovered in the analysis of the Newbery novels. The Newbery Medal winners analyzed for this thesis are The High King by Lloyd Alexander; Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary; Missing Maxj by Cynthia Rylant; A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; and …

Southern Post-Modernism, Anti-Romanticism And Gender Difference In Flannery O'Connor And Some Other Southern Contemporaries, Ada Skillern

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Flannery O' Connor has long been an established southern writer of the mid-twentieth century. This paper discusses briefly the tenets of both Modernism and Post-Modernism as literary movements of the twentieth-century, then looks specifically at how O'Connor's fiction makes her a key hallmark figure in the movement known as Post-Modernism, but also as one of the first female southern writers to utilize very anti-Romantic themes and style. Further, this paper attempts to examine through a discussion of various contemporary male and female southern writers the depth of O'Connor's influence on their own works. Attention is also given to the differences …

American Journey Toward Female Equality With And Through Adrienne Rich's Works, Shelby Scruggs

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

What initially triggered my writing a thesis on the feminist movement in America was the question, "Will women ever truly achieve equality?" Further, will all humanity ever achieve equality? I found through the movement toward equality for women that any movement toward equality progresses toward equality for all because if one group only wants to be equal with others, then they want others to have equality as well. This thesis surveys the feminist movement in America from the 1950's to the 1990's through the realm of the works of Adrienne Rich, American female poet. Rich's progression as a political feminist …

Ua68/6/1 Zephyrus, Western Kentucky University

Student Creative Writing

The fine arts magazine of Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green.

Ua68/6/1 Zephyrus, Western Kentucky University

Student Creative Writing

The fine arts magazine of Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green.

Carothers Mccaslin's Progeny Tracing The Theme Of Redemption Chronologically Through The Multiracial Mccaslins, Christine Reiss

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

William Faulkner' s Go Down, Moses (1942) is a novel that depicts the complicated family history of the McCaslins. There are primarily three branches of the family: the white, male-descended McCaslins, the white, female-descended Edmondses, and the multiracial, male-descended Beauchamps. The multiracial line of the family, the Beauchamps, are the progeny of the original McCaslin patriarch, old Carothers McCaslin. His act of miscegenation with one of his slaves produces a daughter, on whom he then fathers a son. This act of miscegenation and incest sets in motion a family line that struggles with the weight of its father's sin. The …

In Search Of A New Totality: Herman Hesse's Demian, Jeffrey Shannon

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

Private Voices Teaching Public Values In The Fiction Of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mary Wilkins Freeman, And Sarah Orne Jewett, Angela Gonzalez

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis re-examines the purpose and value of New England women's local color fiction, asserting that local color functions as the groundwork on which the standards and practices of literary realism are based and as the way that nineteenth-century women writers could promote their domestic ministry. Furthermore, the thesis maintains that Stowe, Freeman, and Jewett utilized literary realism to publicize alternative theologies and progressive communities.

"Anything Dead Coming Back To Life Hurts": Ghosts And Memory In Hamlet And Beloved, Rebecca Boyd

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Ghost stories are an ingrained part of most cultures because, typically, humans must be forced to confront those elements of their individual and communal past that they would prefer to ignore. Accordingly, ghosts have embodied weaknesses and hidden evils that must be assimilated and transcended, and writers have embroidered a variety of subtexts upon the traditional fabric of ghostlore. Specifically, both William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Toni Morrison's Beloved employ ghosts as symbols of man's archetypal desire to hide his past. A careful examination of the texts in these ghost stories, of the cultural folklore included, and of the ghosts' influence …

Ua68/6/1 Zephyrus, Western Kentucky University

Student Creative Writing

The fine arts magazine of Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green.

Reflection/Reflected The Construction Of Female Subjectivity In Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September And The Death Of The Heart, Laura Bartlett

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

As I read Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September and The Death of the Heart, questions arose, persisted, and remained unanswered until I undertook the project of applying poststructuralist theories to these novels. Reading The Last September, I puzzled over the female protagonist's relationship to an ancillary character, which Bowen repeatedly represents in terms of the father-daughter relationship. Reading both The Last September and The Death of the Heart, I was struck by the fact that although Bowen is typically categorized as a "classical realist," she embarks upon the quest of depicting the identity construction of two female adolescents but abandons …

Computer Technology In Writing Centers: Ways To Increase Their Effectiveness In The Instruction Of Freshman English And Intercurricular Studies, Christopher King

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Creating a space in Room 127 that is increasingly vital to English 100 is more complicated than just having students write on computers. To maximize our potentials in Room 127, we must deal with a variety of aspects — the history of the Writing Center, its functions, perceptions of it, pedagogies related to it, and its space, and our goals, for example ~ before we simply sit our freshman in front of computers and give them a writing prompt. Chapter One will provide a brief history of what Room 127's function has been. This review is necessary so that we …

Ua68/6/1 Zephyrus, Western Kentucky University

Student Creative Writing

The fine arts magazine of Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green.

Images Of Art: Katherine Mansfield's Use Of Line, Color, And Composition In Her Short Stories, Carol Barsky

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Katherine Mansfield's short stories include numerous visual images, many of which contribute significantly to the stories' moods and themes. Her visual imagery has been linked with literary devices such as symbolism and irony. This study, however, emphasizes three major principles of the visual arts apparent in her imagery—line, color, and composition—that also play important roles in imbuing a substantial number of her images with possible meaning. The prominence and skillful handling of these artistic techniques suggest that she purposely wove them into her works to produce psychological effects that induce moods or support themes. As a result, Mansfield successfully merged …

Word And Song: The Paradox Of Romanticism, Catherine Ingram

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Among the various outcomes of the Romantic period, an interest in the relationship of the arts remains a widely recognized yet rarely examined field of study. Music and literature seemed to develop a particular kinship, yet to identify the exact relationship is as difficult as defining Romanticism itself. In this study, I attempt to do both. In exploring the concept of Romanticism, its paradoxical development from Classicism is examined through the comparison of six great composers and poets of the period. By tracing the similarities and differences in style of Beethoven/Wordsworth, Schumann/Keats, and Brahms/Tennyson, hopefully a clearer understanding of the …

"In What Particular Thought To Work": Hamlet And Manic-Depression, Lewis Pickett

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

By means of contemporary diagnostic criteria, Prince Hamlet may be demonstrated to be a Bi-Polar I Manic Depressive. Because current genetic research suggests that this disease is inherited, it is logical to ask if Claudius also suffers from this disorder. It can be demonstrated that he does. We may conclude that Claudius murdered the late King of Denmark during a manic episode similar to the one in which Hamlet kills Polonius.

One Day, Some Day, Douglas Fisher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

When someone asks us how old we are, we tell them the number of years that we have lived. But those years are comprised of days: days that wrinkle our brows, burn searing holes in our souls, and those days--filled with joy, terror, humor, fear, and exasperation--are the sum totals of our age. One Day. Some Day is a collection of short fiction that deals with the events of one day in the life of the characters. The titles of the stories reflect this theme, i.e., "Thursday's Child, 11 "A Measure of Days," and "One of These Days." I have …

The Cross-Cultural Use Of Sexually Explicit Language To Express Anger And Aggression, Deanna May

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Freud postulated that the instincts of sex and aggression are fused. One possible example of the expression of this fusion is the use of sexually explicit language to convey anger and aggression. If this usage is universal, then it may be construed as evidence for Freud's theory. The present study attempted to determine the pervasiveness of the use of sexually explicit language to express anger and aggression (SEL). Thirty-one epresentatives of languages other than American English completed questionnaires detailing the use of SEL in their native cultures. Results indicated that 28 of the respondents reported use of SEL in their …

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.

• Brooks, Lynnette and Cindy Calisi. The Effect of Selenium Supplementation on the Immune Response of Mice with Experimental Chagas' Disease
• Hildreth, John. Teasing the Muse
• Jenkins, Rhonda. Steinbeck's Portraits of Prostitutes: Progression of an Author's Vision
• Kirkham, Michelle. The Prenatal Use of Crack Cocaine: How It Affects Children and How Schools Can Respond
• Gibson, Jeanette and Juli McCay. Circadian Rhythm of Brain GABA Levels in the Cockroach, Leucophaea Maderae
• Patterson, Dana. Home Schooling …

Ua68/6/1 Zephyrus, Western Kentucky University

Student Creative Writing

The fine arts magazine of Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green.

Birth And After Birth And Painting Churches: Tina Howe's Examination Of Love And Savagery In The American Family, Sarah Ennis-Chambers

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Playwright Tina Howe has been quoted as saying that "family life has been over-romanticized; the savagery has not been seen enough in the theatre and in movies . . ." (Moore 101). In two of her plays, Birth and After Birth (1973) and Painting Churches (1983), that savagery appears in the form of name-calling, jealousy, apathy, disregard, and physical and mental abuse. A juxtaposition of the similarities in Birth and After Birth and Painting Churches will explain the "savagery" Howe is examining. The earlier play is written in the surrealistic style of lonesco and Beckett, playwrights who have been a …

The Postmodern Improvisor, Paul Caraher

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis represents a revitalization of the thesis form because it has organically blossomed from an integrated consciousness. Instead of the pre-existing thesis form for a Master of Arts Degree in English bending, limiting, and shaping the content, I have shaped the form according to my own synthetic ambition, resulting in a fusion of elements from both a researched and a creative thesis. This strategy is justified since the very subject of the thesis stresses the improviser's ongoing urge to create as the spontaneous moment/impulse requires while simultaneously creating an organic frame or unique inner logic. Above all, this project …

A Palette Of Unconventional Symbolism: Color Imagery In Three Margaret Atwood Novels, Shannon Martin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this thesis, the writer examines the color imagery in three Margaret Atwood novels: Surfacing, Cat's Eye, and The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood uses color in unconventional ways by forcing colors to symbolize the opposite of their common meanings, by allowing colors to represent simultaneously two opposing ideas, and by disregarding traditional color meanings by creating her own unique associations. Atwood's color imagery supports her thematic concerns in that through her themes--as with her use of color--she challenges the reader's expectations by throwing into question many conventional ideas about progress, religion, and the sex-gender system.

Martha Gellhorn: The Hemingway Years, Tracy Freeman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Martha Gellhorn, third wife of Ernest Hemingway, experiences criticism early in her writing career--critics claiming her journalism is superior to her fiction. Gellhorn meets Hemingway in December 1936 after the publication of her critically acclaimed novel, The Trouble I've Seen. The years between 1936 and 1945, the period Gellhorn is involved with Hemingway, represent an exploration for Gellhorn--a voyage of self-discovery and growing independence as a writer--years during which Gellhorn establishes a literary identity. During the early years of her war-time writing, Gellhorn establishes a unique narrative format which will come to be called the New Journalism. While her journalism …

Female Characterization In The Novels Of Robert Penn Warren: Variations On A Cinderella Theme, Martha Brent

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The psychological construction of Robert Penn Warren's characters is an established tenet among Warren critics as is the influence of Sigmund Freud's work upon Warren's fiction. Specifically the oedipal nature of Warren's male characters has been widely discussed especially in regard to plots culminating in patricide. Based upon this criticism of Robert Penn Warren's novels to date, Warren's female characters are revealed to be developed likewise upon an oedipal paradigm. The female paradigm which corresponds to Freud's Oedipus complex in women is the Cinderella tale. These stories, some at least a thousand years old, were critically divided into three main …

Ua68/6/1 Zephyrus, Western Kentucky University

Student Creative Writing

The fine arts magazine of Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green.

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.

• Allen, Melody. Women in Control of Courtship in As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice and All's Well That Ends Well
• Amlani, Islamshah. Electron Stimulated Desorption of Alkali Halides
• Brillhart, Kelly. Women Without Men: Hemingway's Female Characters
• Burton, Lori. Financial Statements with Environmental Concerns: An Exploratory Study of the Impact on the Auditor's Role and Responsibilities
• Combs, Vicki. Dancing the Descent: Energy and Entrophy in William Carlos Williams
• Davis, Julie. Prelude to …

A Study Of The Linguistic Semantic And Sociolinguistic Components Of The English Modal System, Jeffery Hutcheson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this thesis I examine the linguistic, semantic and sociolinguistic components of the English modal system and the difficulty the system presents to both instructors and learners of English as a second language (ESL). The purpose of this study was to determine what these components are and how they affect communication. I begin by defining what modality is and how it is manifested in English. The focus is upon the one-word modals and not the phrasal modals; however, some phrasal modals are explicated when a contrast exists between the meaning of the one-word modal and its phrasal equivalent. After the …

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Female Characters An Author's Changing Perspective, Todd Dykes

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/1 Hillside, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special magazine edition of the College Heights Herald:

• Anna, Cara. Keeping the Balance – Ralph Willard, Kevin Willard, Basketball
• Armes, Anya. Giving the Gift to Others – Jim Wayne Miller