English Language and Literature Commons^™

Weaving Accessibility And Art In Marilou Awiakta's Selu: Seeking The Corn-Mother's Wisdom., James David Basinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Selu: Seeking the Corn-MotherÆs Wisdom, Awiakta enlists the reader to participate on the path to knowing Selu, Corn-Mother to us all. In particular, the book provides a reader with a text that blends ancient Cherokee teachings of the oral tale of Selu with contemporary Western, Appalachian-American thought and experience. Awiakta adopts and adapts Selu in order to capture and express the essence of the tale within a contemporary American aesthetic.

Though Awiakta's approach is didactic, it rises above mere teaching to achieve an aesthetic characterized by accessibility, simultaneity, and liminality. She purposely combines stories, poems, teachings, histories, and cultural …

Eliza Haywood's Feigning Femmes Fatale: Desirous And Deceptive Women In "Fantomina," Love In Excess, And The History Of Miss Betsy Thoughtless., Emily Kathryn Booth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within the pages of Eliza Haywood's novels, masquerade is often used by female characters as a means by which to gain control or power. More specifically, Haywood's female characters often misrepresent themselves as a means by which to achieve sexual power and even to obtain sexual gratification.

Haywood also explores the theme of women's uses of deception and even disguise as methods by which to skirt the confines of a male dominated society and as modes devoted to escaping the boundaries they inflict upon themselves in trying to maintain their virtue.

God In The Darkness: Mysticism And Paradox In The Poetry Of George Herbert And Henry Vaughan., Elizabeth Anne Acker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While aspects of mysticism appear in the poetry of both George Herbert and Henry Vaughan, the general consensus among critics has acknowledged the mysticism of Vaughan while ignoring its roots in Herbert's writings. Among the leading authorities on the poetry of Herbert, there has been a general tendency to dismiss, ignore, or explain away mystical elements. A study of representative works by prominent critics to ascertain their positions on this issue reveals not only what can be known for certain about Herbert's theology, but also the interpretations that have been offered for his most famous poems. While these interpretations are …

Oscar Wilde: Constructing The Self, Elisabeth Erin Pankl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Oscar Wilde's construction of the self. Three major aspects of Wildean literary work serve as handles for this thesis examination. They are the Wildean interpretation of theoria, Wilde's literary technique and philosophical assertion of masks and poses and Wilde's favor of the social dandy.

In addition to these three aspects, this thesis utilizes four of Wilde's works as primary sources. These are The Pictureo f Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest, "The Decay of Lying," and "The Critic as Artist."

Like most current critiques of Wilde, this thesis relies on many of the reading strategies of …

Isaac Bashevis Singer: Speak English, Think Yiddish-- Adaptation Versus Assimilation., Susan L. Gardberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Critics use the words "vanished culture" to describe Isaac Bashevis Singer's work for Polish Jewry had been destroyed. However, Singer's characters survive the travails of anti-Semitism and resettle in America. This study explores Singer's Polish Jews to determine whether they assimilate into their new culture; or maintain their strong Jewish traditions and adapt to the freedoms of America.

Singer's life is analyzed, including the people and places that have influenced his work. Two of Singer's works are examined in this thesis. Chapters Three and Four explicate an allegorical short story, "The Little Shoemakers." Singer writes a fairytale view of a …

A Comparative Analysis Of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle And Emile Zola's Germinal., Mouhamedoul Amine Niang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to demonstrate that Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was modeled upon Emile Zola's Germinal. A comparative analysis of their novels is the method by which the latter statement is substantiated. A close reading of these works unveils their overlappings in terms of characterization, theme and narrative. Following the introduction, the second chapter focuses on both authors' character constructions with the purpose of tracing the modeling process. The third chapter is a discussion of their similar thematic issues. The penultimate chapter deals with the identical formats of the writers' plots. Authorial differences are also considered in this work, but …

"'Tis Hard To Dance With One Shoe": The Failure Of The Fathers In Walker's The Color Purple And Mccourt's Angela's Ashes., Gwendolyn Nicole Hale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In his story, “The Commitments,” Roddy Doyle identifies the Irish as "the blacks of Europe" (148). This sentiment typifies the oppression of the two cultures. The overwhelmingly oppressive society of the two aforementioned groups creates an atmosphere of failure, particularly for the fathers, who, for the most part, are supposed to be the heads of their families. Through Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, the reader discovers the effects of these failures of the fathers due to tyrannical societies that impose dominance over such groups as the African-Americans and the Irish. The main characters, Celie and …

The "Jaded Traveller": John Jasper's Failed Psychic Quest In Charles Dickens's The Mystery Of Edwin Drood., Linda Poland Pridgen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a Jungian study of John Jasper, the central character in Charles Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Jasper fails to achieve psychological wholeness because he suffers from what Carl G. Jung calls dissociation of consciousness, a malady that prevents Jasper from entering the process of individuation--a process of self-discovery. Jasper's boredom, self-alienation, hypocrisy, and secret double life impede his search for self.

Faced with projections of his anima and shadow self, Jasper has many opportunities for psychological and spiritual growth. But rather than integrate the aspects of his personality that each of the anima and shadow …

Historical Linguistic Analysis Of Traditional English Christmas Carols., Tami Lynn Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the process of historical linguistics it is possible to determine approximate dates of authorship and meaning that establish the conventions of a particular genre. To accomplish such a study, elements of phonology, morphology, and syntax are compared and the results create a field of descriptors representative of a style of writing of a period.

By using the method on eight well-known Christmas carols, four were determined to have been written prior to the dates previously speculated, possibly originating in the Middle Ages. The remaining four were written based on the conventions set by the earlier medieval carols.

An Angel's Promise, Gerald Hilaire Touchette

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Castle Deuclet, the protagonist of this work of fiction, has a dream which may or maymot set off or b2 connected to a series of events that happen afte'wards. Castle is thrust into a world of the fantastic where beings calling themselves angels want to help him; where he encounters a unicorn, named Julia, that he knew as a child; where a scarecrow woman reveals herself in his dreams and tells him that she is a dooway he must go through but that first he has to find the key. Here, Castle must face and accept the dark parts of …

(A Pause For The Alphabet) A Fantastic Excess In Twenty Six Parts, Terence Mcnulty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

(A Pause for the Alphabet) is a multi-genre text (a genre tower) with a polyphonic intent. It was written between January and May 2001 as an attempt to reconsider narrative and language on basic, although not necessarily fundamental or foundational, levels.

The Fall Of The Wilderness King, Part Ii John Sassamon, Christopher H. White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Wilderness King, Part 11, John Sassamon is a verse play set in seventeenth century New England during the period leading to the outbreak of King Philip's War (1675-81). In per capita terms that war remains the most devastating conflict in U.S. history with a ten percent casualty rate among the English adult male population alone. Moreover, the New England colonies lost the almost de facto autonomy they had enjoyed before the war; because of it they would not recover independence until a century later. Another effect of the war was the collapse of the cooperative, pluralistic society between the …

Without Flutes Or Flowers., Jason A. Vafiades

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this collection of poetry, the scope and mode of every poem is translation. All three sections, 'Wildernesses", "Silences", and 'Translations" each bear id their creation, the sense of translating one world into another. Yet, it is only in the Last section, appropriately named 'Translationsn, where the general resemblance to any method of the usual sense of translating appears. For the first two sections, all the poems found their creation in the attempt to put into poetry a vision and emotion that had yet to be contained by language: a way of interpreting the language of the natural and physiological …

Dungeons And Dreams: The Children And Nightmares Of Emily And Anne Bronte's Gondal Poetry, Michelle Patricia Beissel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It has long been acknowledged that Anne Bronte played a part in the saga of the imaginary world of Gondal, but more attention has been given to her sister Emily's role in creating the world. Each sister's Gondal poetry, however, is important: the poetry signals much about how each sister dealt with the world around her, demonstrates how adulty rather than childish Gondal became, and indicates how realistic each sister's "escapist" world actually was. Indeed, in grappling with their changing nineteenth centruy world, Anne clung to the hopeful remains of Romanticism while Emily blended and denied both Romanticism and Victorianism. …

Lobo, Bruce Pratt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

LOBO explores, The Beast, as human and animal, who appears in varying forms in the principal male characters. Of the human characters, Will Strang is the seducer, George Strang the manipulator, Dorian Hinds the paternalistic pedagogue, and Leo "Sly" Foxx Jr. is the beast in its most classic and violent form--the destroyer. Foxx is not a wholly unsympathetic character. Set in the present, the book presents three couples, one in their twenties, one in their thirties, and one in their late fifties, who are linked in various ways, and are drawn together in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine. …

"A Plea For Color:" The Construction Of A Feminine Identity In African American Women's Novels., Kirsten A. Moffler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Writers of slave narratives i n the nineteenth-century manipulated the western sentimental literary tradition to appeal t o a white, predominantly female readership during a time of national ideological division. These writers had their own agendas which often m e t (or were forced to meet ) those of white-run abolitionist movements t o achieve the ultimate goal of abolishing slavery. Northern white-run abolitionist movements were kept warm by the moral fires of mid-nineteenth-century Protestant Christianity; Christian ideals flooded their meetings and publications. Therefore, it is no wonder that the writers of slave narratives are so overt i n discussing …

Cora, Mark Dunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a novel, Cora operates in the genre of the thriller and harkens to the novels of Dean Koontz, Owl Goingback, and John Saul. It is a tightly told tale meant to make the reader read and then read some more, and the main objective is entertainment. The title character of the novel, Cora, is a beautiful sixteen-year old girl from southern California. When her family is attacked by a razor-wielding psychopath in a parking garage in Beverly Hills , she alone escapes, but something has changed for both Cora and the killer, linking the two in ways neither immediately …

By Degrees, Audrey Minutolo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By Degrees, a play in three acts that depicts a woman who slowly learns her life lessons over three time periods: the 1850s, the 1950s, and the 1610s. Although each era presents very different expectations for women, the character's journey toward independence occurs despite the limitations of the time period. The character becomes more conscious of her choices; each time she becomes slightly more aware of her power to choose, her limitations become freedoms, responsibilities become pleasure, discontent becomes fulfillment. As she progresses through the different time periods, she changes from Susannah to Suzanne to Lady Susan, and experiences different …

Counterculture, Brian Rande Daykin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Counterculture is a creative thesis written to earn the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Maine in spring of 2001. The short novel tells the story of Cannister Barnes, a young man who goes to England in the late summer for study and briefly catches a glimpse of a young woman while he’s lost in the winding streets and paths of Eton. His trip is also marred by a dreadful experience in the London Underground, in which he sees an indigent man in a wheelchair roll himself into the path of an oncoming train. Before returning to …

Semiotics, Textuality, And The Puritan Collective: "Speaking To Yourselves In Psalms", Derek Thoms Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to understand the relationship between Puritanism, iconoclasm, and texts, it is advantageous to approach Puritanism as a sign system. Thus iconoclasm can be seen as the semiotic overthrow of the old sign system of imagery in Catholicism with the new, text-based sign system of Protestantism. The privileging of text over image via the printed page also suggests various theories concerning print culture (McLuhan, Ong, Johns, etc.) which work in tandem with ideas concerning Puritan plainness (or minimalism, primitivism). The destruction of imagery in the English churches sets the stage for not only the regicide, but the destruction of …