English Language and Literature Commons^™

This Man's Heart: Masculinity In The Poetry Of E.E. Cummings, Willis John Whitesell Iii

Masters Theses

"This Man's Heart: Masculinity in the Poetry of E.E. Cummings" explores changing masculinity in the life and poetry of E.E. Cummings. The relationship between Cummings and his father, his first male role model, became strained when Cummings was a teenager finding his own male identity. As he rebelled against his father, a Unitarian minister, he began writing poetry in a modernist style under the direction of a new mentor, Ezra Pound.

Cummings' early modernist poems criticize conventional male roles and configurations of masculinity as outdated. As Cummings continued to grow as a man and writer, he confronted new realities which …

Lessing And Emerson: Conscious Evolution And Ideal Reality, Rachel Hills Newell

Masters Theses

Although Doris Lessing writes during the twentieth century in England and Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote during the nineteenth century in America, they both explore the complexity of human existence through their work. Both authors visualize the possibility of an "ideal reality," or human evolution, and believe human beings are capable of transforming ordinary, or actual, reality into ideal reality. The human potential for the creation of the ideal, however, depends on the development of that potential to its fullest extent. Lessing and Emerson believe only the individual is capable of completely developing human potential. Through a series of steps, or …

From Hierarchy To Balance: Anne Bradstreet's Union Of Renaissance And Puritan Influences, Christy Shannon

Masters Theses

Anne Bradstreet was confronted with two very different influences when she began writing her poetry. One was the Renaissance literary style that she encountered in her native England; the other was a strict Puritan upbringing that would be the controlling factor of her life in the colonies. Both of these influences put a strong emphasis on order and a hierarchical structure. Bradstreet was unable to accept either of these influences completely, but she did manage to combine them in order to create some of the most interesting and memorable poetry of her time. The conflict that she faces is evident …

The Noble Survivor And The Sublime Victim: A Study Of Two Hardy Heroines, Elizabeth-Jane And Tess, Wei Gao

Masters Theses

In his novel-writing career, Thomas Hardy created a host of female characters struggling to survive in nineteenth-century England. Whether center stage or in the background, these women embody Hardy's insights into the conditions of the female sex--their frailties, strength, miseries, dreams, and finally, their destinies. Throughout his career as a novelist, Hardy's representation of women has not been consistent. His earlier heroines--heroines in the novels preceding The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)--are generally depicted as faulty characters eventually subdued or destroyed. In contrast, the later heroines are portrayed with increasing emphasis on their intellectual or mental traits and moral superiority. This …

"I Am No Mean Player Myself": Games And Recreation In Irish Mythology, Julie Lynn Perenchio

Masters Theses

Superhuman heroics in myth certainly succeed in capturing our immediate attention, but it takes a more human touch of talent and fallibility to make heroes personally appealing to readers. In Irish mythology, immortals and humans engage in a marvelous variety of recreational activities, and show universally-felt emotions and tendencies, like competitive spirits, creativity, and tenacity. Far from being idle entertainment, play makes significant impacts on the lives of Irish heroes, individually, socially, and culturally. For example, chess games, even between complete strangers, can cause the upheaval of one's lifestyle and test not only the intellectual powers of players, but also …

Victorian Philosophies Of Useless Work Versus Work For The Mind: Carlyle, Ruskin, Morris, And Marx, Marlaina Easton

Masters Theses

In my Thesis, I will investigate the dominant perceptions of work that spanned the Victorian Period. One of the most important authors of criticism dealing with work in the early part of the Victorian Period was Thomas Carlyle (1845). John Ruskin then became a counterpoint to Carlyle throughout the middle of the century (1862). And although he agreed with much of what Carlyle said, he brings new notions of work to the Victorian Period. William Morris then offered a completely different point of view on the issue of work at the latter part of the Victorian Period (1885). I will …

Delight, Subversion And Truth In The Canterbury Tales: Chaucer's Talking Birds, Terri Benson Blair

Masters Theses

Geoffrey Chaucer mentions birds over 240 times throughout The Canterbury Tales (Tatlock and Kennedy). This frequent allusion to birds is significant, especially since three of his twenty-four tales are actually about birds. What makes these three tales particularly fascinating is that their bird protagonists have the gift of speech. This study examines Chaucer's use of bird imagery in The Canterbury Tales, in particular, his use of talking birds in "The Squire's Tale," "The Nun's Priest's Tale" and "The Manciple's Tale." My theory is that Chaucer uses bird imagery and talking birds to question the sovereign power of the fourteenth-century …

Reanimating The Creature: The Last Man As A Sequel To Frankenstein, Shannon Phillips

Masters Theses

In my thesis, I explore how Mary Shelley's The Last Man (1826) continues a critique of Romanticism that she began in her more well-known novel Frankenstein. Although Frankenstein has been read many different ways through a variety of critical methodologies, one of the central questions continually asked about the novel is whether (and to what extent) Frankenstein challenges or extends the romanticism of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and others in the Byron-Shelley circle. Another way to investigate this lingering question is through a comparative study of The Last Man. My preliminary thesis is that a comparative study reveals not …

Are They Fact Or Are They Fiction? The Sadeian Women Of Angela Carter, Catherine Gall

Masters Theses

Angela Carter is well-known for her gothic twists on fairy tales and the use of magical realism in creating alternate worlds and monstrous creatures that exist within our own. The meaningful "twists" that her tales take often have to do with gender, reversing traditional roles and transcending barriers. In her fiction, Carter creates characters and scenes that often include "traditional" roles, displaying an awareness of the sexual stereotypes that have been in place for centuries. Her female characters offer a complex commentary on the patriarchal standard that suggests that a woman's value is dependent upon her virginity.

Her book The …

Connecting Threads: Quilts As Symbols In Adolescent Literature, Anita L. Beaman

Masters Theses

Quilting is a functional art form that has been practiced by generations of American women. In the past, quilting provided women with an outlet for personal expression. Learning to quilt acted as a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. Quilting provided women with a means of recording their personal histories as well as an opportunity for socializing: quilting bees were social occasions that allowed women to gather together and establish connections with each other as they connected their quilt pieces.

Feminist history has recognized the quilt as an important symbol for women. Quilts represent strength, resiliency and the creative …

‘Two Are Better Than One;’ Adam And Eve's Symbiotic Marriage In John Milton's Paradise Lost, Jeffrey Paul Pietruszynski

Masters Theses

Although much has been written on the roles of Adam and Eve created by John Milton in Paradise Lost, the critics, oddly enough, overlook the dependency created by the roles. This paper extends these roles further, explaining that Milton wanted to show that the roles of man and woman, husband and wife, combine to create a unit dependent on one another other for survival. As Adam himself states, when they are separated, husband and wife are vulnerable to the dangers of evil. However, together, they form a single unit, able to accomplish any task, epitomizing the symbolic relationship described in …

Beyond The Problem Novel: Robert Cormier's Vision And The World Of Adolescent Tragedy, Erik M. Walker

Masters Theses

Robert Cormier is "the premier writer for adolescents in the United States" according to The Handbook of American Popular Literature and dozens of literary critics. Although his novels have won numerous awards from the American Library Association (ALA), his novels have also generated controversy from critics who believe his novels are excessively dark and disturbing. Adolescents in Robert Cormier's world are by no means the average teenagers one may expect to find at a local high school. Instead, the adolescent world is shown to be more complex and dangerous, where evil preys on the good, where loneliness and isolation are …

The "Hope" Of Sandra Cisneros's The House On Mango Street: Affirming Community And Rejecting Machismo, Ann Marie Ladner

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Speaking Of The Raj: Kipling, Forster, And Scott On The English Language In British India, Victoria K. Tatko

Masters Theses

In my thesis I examine how language, particularly the English language, participated in the Raj, as depicted thematically in Rudyard Kipling's Kim (1901), E. M. Forster's A Passage to India (1924), and Paul Scott'sThe Raj Quartet (1966-1975): The Jewel in the Crown (1966), The Day of the Scorpion (1968), The Towers of Silence (1971), and A Division of the Spoils (1975). I show that all three authors portray language as central to British colonialism in India; the connection between the English language and the Empire grows increasingly problematic as the linguistic situation becomes a metaphor for the state of …

William Butler Yeats And The Cuchulain Cycle, Zhibo Wang

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

"That Gentil Text Kan I Wel Understonde": Textual Authority In Chaucer’S The Wife Of Bath’S Prologue, Emilie Roy

Masters Theses

It has become a critical commonplace to note that Chaucer created the character of the Wife of Bath out of an anti-feminist textual tradition that condemns just the kind of strong-voiced proto-feminist woman that she is. The anti-feminist tradition is deeply embedded in the western cultural framework. Established and perpetuated by a male clergy, it was an integral part of the institutionalized religious structure that controlled education, literacy, and thus access to texts of all kinds. The tradition assumed that woman—viewed as a collective entity—was portrayed as either a moral ideal or a wicked sinner, with little possibility for nuances …

In Transition: Five Women's Writings In The Cultures Of America, Kirsi Rintanen

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Writing Anxiety And The Adult Student: Causes, Effects, And Solutions, Leann Smith

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Growing Old And Growing Wise? Parenting And Maturation In Henry James' Selected Tales And Novels, Judit Magyar

Masters Theses

My thesis examines young people portrayed in Henry James' selected novels and tales, exploring the theme of the maturing process, with special emphasis on the influence of the adult world on the psychological development of the young. To this end, I focus on the following works: Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, “A London Life,” “The Pupil,” What Maisie Knew, “The Tum of the Screw” and The Awkward Age. James, through the experience of his young characters, explores not only the depths of moral corruption in society, but also the necessary steps to be taken …

"Time Is One": The Temporal Aspect Of The Hopi Language And Its Experimental Application In Postmodernist Novels, Peter Buru

Masters Theses

My thesis examines the relationship between the temporal aspects of the language of the Hopi Indians, based on Benjamin Lee Whorf’s linguistic analyses, and postmodernist narrative theory. Within postmodernism itself, the study focuses on the narratives' handling of time and space, as illustrated by the following novels: Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson; Time's Arrow by Martin Amis; Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.; and Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko.

The study investigates how these postmodernist novels experiment with the application of a timeless temporal scheme. This scheme originates from what I refer to as Benjamin Lee Whorf’s …

Yoknapatawpha As Camelot: The Influence Of The Arthurian Legends On The Writings Of William Faulkner, Sally Dye

Masters Theses

In my thesis I examine works of William Faulkner which show the influence of the legends of King Arthur. In the introduction to the thesis, I discuss evidence that Faulkner was not only familiar with the characters of the Arthurian legends but was also aware of many of the different versions of these stories.

The main sections of my thesis consist of character studies of various characters from Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha works in light of their similarities to their Arthurian counterparts. The King Arthur section includes the characters of John Sartoris of The Unvanquished and Thomas Sutpen of Absalom, Absalom!, …

The Ruins Of Childhood: Jim Thompson, Erskine Caldwell, And William Faulkner Expose Guilt And Consequence, Robert Thomas Newell

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I examine the novels of Jim Thompson, Erskine Caldwell, and William Faulkner and, in turn, depict their exploration of poisoned childhood. This theme is prevalent in many of these authors' works, and I not only illustrate what horrors children are put through in their novels, but I also show that uncaring and unthinking adults are the root cause. The ruining of a child's life is a rippling problem; often times, adulthood is ruined because of a person's childhood.

I explore the devastation that irresponsible adults can have on their impressionable children. Through either neglect or selfish values, …

Barring The Nursery Window: Narrator Intrusion And Separation Anxiety In Children’S Literature, Mary Alice Dwiggins

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the effects of the various degrees of narrative intrusion within the genre of children's fantasy literature addressing the theme of separation. The primary texts include the Grimm Brother's folk tale, "Hansel and Gretel," Maurice Sendak's picture books Where the Wild Things Are, Outside Over There and Dear Mili, and finally ends with J. M. Barrie's novel Peter Pan. In examining these texts there emerge three distinct levels or types of narrative. The first type of narrative is zero degree where little narrator intrusion enters the text. The author does not exist as a persona; thus readers may …

A Contextual Study Of Hair Imagery In The Poetry Of Emily Dickinson, Marlene M. Slough

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Subversive In Hyperspace: C.J. Cherryh's Feminist Transformation Of Space Opera, Susan J. Eisenhour

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Geoffrey Chaucer's House Of Fame: From Authority To Experience, Victoria Frantseva

Masters Theses

Geoffrey Chaucer's House of Fame is one of the most provocative dream-vision poems written in the fourteenth century. In many ways, it continues to present a serious problem of interpretation to students of medieval poetry. Many critics have tried to arrive at a singular cohesive theory explaining meaning and defining the genre of the House of Fame. However, these attempts have failed and the poem's enigma endures, probably for all time.

The House of Fame seems to elicit many different responses from its readers. While opinions of the poem may vary, the points of argument generally concern the following areas: …

Spiritual Illumination And Reconciliation In Thomas Hardy's Poetry, Mary F. Pottorff

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Transforming A Legend: Significance Of The Wandering Jew In Shelley's Work, Matthew D. Landrus

Masters Theses

Although Percy Bysshe Shelley has been recognized for his use of the Wandering Jew, critics have failed to produce a definitive work examining how this biblical legend figures into an understanding of the poet's changing world views. Since a comprehensive analysis was lacking, I studied Shelley's treatment of the Wandering Jew in each work that included the character to determine whether or not a relationship existed between Shelley's management of the figure and the poet's world beliefs. This thesis records the results of that study.

In his earliest works involving the Wandering Jew--those written between 1810-1812--Shelley's treatment of the Wandering …

James Welch's Winter In The Blood: Thawing The Fragments Of Misconception In Native American Fiction, Mario A. Leto Ii

Masters Theses

The conventional scholarly view of Native American literature asserts that Native authors often portray their characters as alienated and despairing individuals that are incapable of attaining the means for dispelling those negative feelings. As a result, the characters are presumably destined to forever wander the barren reservation, unable to grasp their fleeting cultural traditions or the modern Euroamerican way of life. James Welch, with his novel Winter in the Blood, challenges that stereotypical scenario by allowing his nameless protagonist to discover a previously unknown link to his traditional Blackfeet heritage. Through the knowledge of his ancestors and the unconscious …

Chaucer's Use Of The Absalom Archetype In The Knight's Tale And In The Miller's Tale, Sharon Hardin

Masters Theses

Although Chaucer did not write The Canterbury Tales until after the death of Edward III, Chaucer's youth was spent in the company (albeit on the fringes) of the war-like king and his war-like sons. Surely, as the young Chaucer performed his duties and perhaps read stories or listened to the gossip spread by servants and courtiers, such as the account of Edward's having ravished a defenseless woman, impressions formed in Chaucer's mind. Perhaps such rumors as that Edward's son Lancaster had designs on his father's throne added to and solidified those impressions into opinion, and a character type was born, …