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Articles 601 - 630 of 769
Full-Text Articles in English Language and Literature
Women Mourners, Mourning "Nobody", Jennifer Pecora
Women Mourners, Mourning "Nobody", Jennifer Pecora
Theses and Dissertations
Historian David Bell recently suggested that scholars reconsider the impact of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) upon modern culture, naming them the first "total war" in modern history. My thesis explores the significance of the wars specifically in the British mourning culture of the period by studying the war literature of four women writers: Anna Letitia Barbauld, Amelia Opie, Jane Austen, and Felicia Hemans. This paper further asks how these authors contributed to the development of a national consciousness studied by Georg Lukács, Benedict Anderson, and others. I argue that women had a representative experience of non-combatants' struggle to …
Criticism As Redemption: Jonathan Safran Foer's Theory Of Meaning, Lauren Nicole Barlow
Criticism As Redemption: Jonathan Safran Foer's Theory Of Meaning, Lauren Nicole Barlow
Theses and Dissertations
Not long after the release of his first novel, Everything is Illuminated, critics and authors alike began showering Jonathan Safran Foer with both praise and disparagement for his postmodern style. Yet, this large body of criticism ignores the theoretical work taking place within Foer's fiction. This thesis attempts to fill this gap by highlighting specific aspects of Foer's theoretical work as it relates to the creation of meaning in a text and to explore what this work might imply for the broader literary community. Much of Foer's work toys with the capacity of language to express meaning, indulging in …
Drink Me, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Blog, James Arthur Goldberg
Drink Me, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Blog, James Arthur Goldberg
Theses and Dissertations
Language itself is a technology, and the advent of each major technology of language transmission (from the alphabet to the printing press to the Internet) has changed the range of speaker-audience dynamics which are the starting point for all creative writing. In this thesis, a writer, armed only with his blog archives and a smattering of John Tenniel illustrations, guides the curious reader through various issues raised by creative writing in the blog form. Topics discussed include self-presentation, the juxtaposed brevity and expansiveness of online texts, nonlinear reading, alternative models for revision, the literary possibilities of the hyperlink, speaker-audience-time relationships …
From Poe And Hitchcock To...Reality Tv?, Kelsey W. Phelps
From Poe And Hitchcock To...Reality Tv?, Kelsey W. Phelps
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis expands the discussion of the mass appeal and sustained success of reality TV by initiating an examination of the direct connections between reality TV and cinematic and written fiction. As reality TV has firmly established itself as a successful genre of entertainment over the last two decades, scholarship has been slow to follow. The majority of existing scholarship focuses on reality TV as a descendant of the documentary and emphasizes the role of the non-professional, the average person, as the star. Reality TV's appropriation of structural elements from general fiction is acknowledged only briefly and the use of …
For The Love Of God?! Is There A Place For Gay Christians Between Faith And Fundamentalism?, Apryl D. Prentiss
For The Love Of God?! Is There A Place For Gay Christians Between Faith And Fundamentalism?, Apryl D. Prentiss
Theses and Dissertations
Drawing from observation, autoethnography, ethnographic research and audio-taped interviews, this thesis explores the complicated and emotionally charged relationship between homosexuality and Christianity. The current culture war being waged in the media between the Religious Right and members of the LGBT community often results in the isolation and rejection of those who would define themselves as gay Christians. This thesis explores the role of the Bible as it informs and catalyzes this war and other foundational beliefs used as weapons in this rhetorical conflict. Additionally, this thesis analyzes the current battle between the church and the social movement for change in …
Movement Without Motion: The Rhetoric Of Conservative Counter-Claims To Global Warming Theory, William Edwards
Movement Without Motion: The Rhetoric Of Conservative Counter-Claims To Global Warming Theory, William Edwards
Theses and Dissertations
Many U.S. conservatives view government mandates to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases as a threat to the economy of the developed world. Conservative think tanks have adopted a common rhetoric to instill doubt about proposed mandates in the minds of elected officials, the media, and the public. Using a survey of the websites of 14 conservative think tanks, this thesis analyzes counter-claims to global warming theory to identify rhetorical artifacts that typically characterize conservative responses to issues, and to show how rhetorical theory can help anticipate the nature of such responses. The research identifies unifying speech codes – such as …
It's Always Somebody's Paris: An Examination Of Place In Nonfiction Writing, Jessica Sculthorpe
It's Always Somebody's Paris: An Examination Of Place In Nonfiction Writing, Jessica Sculthorpe
Theses and Dissertations
IT’S ALWAYS SOMEBODY’S PARIS: AN EXAMINATION OF PLACE IN NONFICTION WRITING By Jessica E. Sculthorpe This thesis examines the importance of place in nonfiction writing, using both the author’s personal experience as a student in Paris and the writings of other Americans in Paris, including members of the Lost Generation. The first two chapters examine the author’s experience as a young student in Paris. The third and fourth chapters contain the author’s reflection on the process of writing the thesis and an examination of the ways in which other writers have written about Paris in their own nonfiction writing.
The Absurd In The Briar Patch: Ellison's Invisible Man And Existentialism, Eliot J. Wilcox
The Absurd In The Briar Patch: Ellison's Invisible Man And Existentialism, Eliot J. Wilcox
Theses and Dissertations
This article claims that Ralph Ellison's use and then revision of French existential themes is essential to understanding his overriding message of Invisible Man: Ellison's hope for a more polyglot American democracy that transcends the white democracy of mid twentieth century America. Specifically, I argue that Ellison, after demonstrating his ability to understand and engage in the traditional ideology of European existentialism, deviates from its individualistic conclusions demanding that the larger community, not just the solitary individual, must become ethically responsible if the classic existential tenet of authenticity is to be achieved. In order to establish this claim, I …
National Identity Transnational Identification: The City And The Child As Evidence Of Identification Among The Poetic Elite, Mary L. Hedengren
National Identity Transnational Identification: The City And The Child As Evidence Of Identification Among The Poetic Elite, Mary L. Hedengren
Theses and Dissertations
While poetry has historically been connected with rhetoric, few rhetoricians have studied contemporary poetry. Jeffery Walker suggests that this is because contemporary poetry, unlike classical poetry, no longer addresses all socio-economic levels of society but has become insular and self-referential (329). He criticizes that poetry no longer cuts vertically across one culture's hierarchy. I agree that poetry no longer addresses all segments of society, but I argue that this doesn't mean poetry is no longer rhetorical. Contemporary poetry now operates horizontally to unite the cultural elite of many national and ethnic groups by appealing to their identity as poetry readers. …
Public Spheres, Democracy, And New Media: Using Blogs In The Composition Classroom, Katherine Elizabeth Cowley
Public Spheres, Democracy, And New Media: Using Blogs In The Composition Classroom, Katherine Elizabeth Cowley
Theses and Dissertations
Public spheres theories provide purpose and direction to composition instruction: the teaching of writing within this context empowers our students to participate in public discourse and make a difference in communities. New media has been celebrated for its democratic nature, and composition instructors have begun to use public spheres theories as they incorporate new media in the classroom to create a protopublic space. Yet most composition instructors have ignored the wealth of evidence that shows that the Internet is not as democratic as it seems. As such, our new media teaching practices should account for both the democratic opportunities and …
The Level Of The Beasts That Perish: Animalized Text In Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna's Helen Fleetwood, Christie Anne Peterson
The Level Of The Beasts That Perish: Animalized Text In Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna's Helen Fleetwood, Christie Anne Peterson
Theses and Dissertations
Although Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna's 1839 social reform novel Helen Fleetwood has long been understood as a commentary on the dehumanizing effects of factory work, her use of animals to represent factory workers has not been considered in analyses of her depictions of dehumanization. Considering both the growing interest in the animal/human divide during the early nineteenth century and Tonna's own direct contributions to discussions about animals, in this essay I examine the role that animals play in negotiating definitions of humanity and nature in the novel. I argue that idealized, "Edenic" animals and corrupted, "industrial" animals are integral to Tonna's …
Proposing A Purpose: Rhetorical Paideia Goals For First Year Composition, Lauren Everett Johnson
Proposing A Purpose: Rhetorical Paideia Goals For First Year Composition, Lauren Everett Johnson
Theses and Dissertations
First Year Composition (FYC) instructors are often left to puzzle out the larger meaning of the most ubiquitous course in our field for themselves; consequently, goals for the course are frequently selected by the instructor, and are not always most effective for laying a groundwork of lifelong learning and education, or paideia. This lack of clear and unifying goals for the course is illustrated by a piece of 2005 scholarship that points to multiple focuses for FYC, each different in its values and aims. FYC is an important course for students, not only because it is one of only …
Number, Newtonianism, And Sublimity In James Thomson's The Seasons, Jessie Leatham Wirkus
Number, Newtonianism, And Sublimity In James Thomson's The Seasons, Jessie Leatham Wirkus
Theses and Dissertations
Recently, literary critics have increasingly drawn on methods of quantitative analysis to understand the readers and literature of the eighteenth century. Ironically, however, the eighteenth century is home to debates concerning the nature and usefulness of number, counting, and therefore, on some level, quantitative analysis. Eighteenth-century questions of number form an important part of the intellectual history of this period; these questions of number, in turn, hold important implications for language and the period's literature. I argue that the far-reaching influence of eighteenth-century questions of number can be seen especially well in the nature poetry of James Thomson. To explore …
Fealty And Free Will: Catholicism And The Master/Servant Relationship In The Lord Of The Rings, Emily Bytheway
Fealty And Free Will: Catholicism And The Master/Servant Relationship In The Lord Of The Rings, Emily Bytheway
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis asserts that one aspect of The Lord of the Rings which has been previously overlooked is the hierarchical nature of the master/servant relationship, which mirrors in many ways the hierarchical nature of the Catholic church. Through the various master/servant relationships that Tolkien portrays, he reflects not only the ideal of master and servant working together for good, but also the ways in which this intimate relationship can go horribly wrong. Aragorn represents an ideal master, one who is wise and good, and his servants are either rewarded or punished according to their loyalty to him. In the stories …
Lake Salt: A Creative Thesis, Erica Lindsay Plummer
Lake Salt: A Creative Thesis, Erica Lindsay Plummer
Theses and Dissertations
This collection of short stories explores the different ways in which women experience suffering. The narrative focuses on the daily lives of women who have undergone some type of heartbreak. While the stories occasionally include the incident which leads to despair, the collection is more concerned with the way women function after a personal tragedy. The stories show the grace of people who continue to move forward when their lives are filled with suffering. Sexuality enters the stories and exposes both the triumph and destructive nature of sexuality. A critical introduction which explains how complication and beauty amplify story proceeds …
Feathers: A Creative Thesis, M. Shayne Clarke
Feathers: A Creative Thesis, M. Shayne Clarke
Theses and Dissertations
Feathers is a young adult novel about two knucklehead boys and a summer of mischief they share. Boots and Gopher, the two principal characters in Feathers, are twelve-year old boys who are fascinated by a loft of racing pigeons kept by a peculiar man living on the edge of their small town. The fascination leads them to steal a few pairs of pigeons in hopes of generating their own loft. Their plan is to release the adult pigeons back to the man's loft while Boots and Gopher keep the babies. In stealing the pigeons, they discover the man also houses …
The Life And Origins Of Paul Bunyan: Part One, Michael Ryan Croker
The Life And Origins Of Paul Bunyan: Part One, Michael Ryan Croker
Theses and Dissertations
Master of Fine Arts This novel is a chronicle of the early days of Paul Bunyan, an important figure in American folk culture. While Paul Bunyan is a central figure in the tale, the story itself is told through the eyes of Clay Filinger, a young man from the backwoods of Kentucky who leaves his home on a journey of American exploration. Clay reaches Boston, where he hires on to work for John Patrick, a wealthy merchant headed to Maine in search of pirate treasure. John is travelling with his nephew, Randolph Bunyan. Along with them are two more hired …
The Covenant: How The Tension And Interpretation Within Puritan Covenant Doctrine Pushes Toward More Equality In English Marriage, Maren H. Miyasaki
The Covenant: How The Tension And Interpretation Within Puritan Covenant Doctrine Pushes Toward More Equality In English Marriage, Maren H. Miyasaki
Theses and Dissertations
The Puritans constituted a very vocal influential minority during the time of Shakespeare. One of their more interesting ideas was the doctrine of the covenant, which explained why a transcendent God would care for fallen human beings. God, for Puritans, voluntarily bound himself in a covenant to man. The interrelations of elements of grace and works make it difficult to interpret what a covenant should be like: more like a modern contract or more like a feudalistic promise system? Unlike a contract, God never ends the covenant even when humans disregard their commitment, but instead helps humans fulfill their obligations …
Ancient Superstitions Steeped In The Human Heart: Rumors Of The Supernatural As Resistance Narrative In The House Of The Seven Gables, Marie E. Horne
Ancient Superstitions Steeped In The Human Heart: Rumors Of The Supernatural As Resistance Narrative In The House Of The Seven Gables, Marie E. Horne
Theses and Dissertations
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables continuously plays with the idea of narrative authority to explore concepts of class and power within the novel. Since these concepts of class and power are also a central focus of Subaltern Studies, applying some of this body of scholarship to the novel brings into focus these concepts and sheds light on the motivations and types of resistance in the novel. The upper class characters, including the Pyncheons, construct and maintain a narrative based on the declarations of professionals and officials of the state and church. It discusses only the most noble …
Strangers And Intimates: A Collection Of Short Stories, Kathy Marie West
Strangers And Intimates: A Collection Of Short Stories, Kathy Marie West
Theses and Dissertations
This creative thesis includes five short stories that explore paradoxical ways in which people can feel alone, even if they are together. Although a combination of isolation and intimacy can occur in any human relationship, the stories in this collection spend much of their time with family circles in particular, considering the way that our closest, most permanent relationships can simultaneously prove the most intimate and the most isolating. The critical introduction that precedes the collection examines each story individually, discussing strategies and subject matter in terms of the collection's guiding concept. The introduction discusses the binary of intimacy and …
Revisiting The Desert Sublime: Billy's Ecotheological Journey In Cormac Mccarthy's The Crossing, Michael J. Riding
Revisiting The Desert Sublime: Billy's Ecotheological Journey In Cormac Mccarthy's The Crossing, Michael J. Riding
Theses and Dissertations
While McCarthy studies have emphasized elements of the sacred in his writing, this thesis adds a new historical perspective and synthesis to reading paradigms of Cormac McCarthy. The Crossing combines the patterns of the ancient pre-Hebraic genre of the desert sublime with the basic formula of the American Western genre to interrogate McCarthy's question of whether in the postmodern moment one can still divest oneself in the desert and find access to the sublime. In an era of an invisible or absent God where post-humanist thought erases the anthropocentric supremacy of human over animal and the earth itself, the one …
Negotiating Identity: Culturally Situated Epideictic In The Victorian Travel Narratives Of Isabella Bird, Katherine Reilly Robinson
Negotiating Identity: Culturally Situated Epideictic In The Victorian Travel Narratives Of Isabella Bird, Katherine Reilly Robinson
Theses and Dissertations
Epideictic rhetoric, one of the classical modes of persuasion described by Aristotle, has faced some criticism concerning its value in the realm of rhetoric. Though attitudes have been shifting over the last several decades, there is still a tendency to undervalue epideictic, falling back on the Aristotelian system of ceremonial oratory. However, its “praise and blame” style of persuasion employs of the type of rhetor / audience identification described by Kenneth Burke. Epideictic rhetoric is a major component of virtually any communication, as the speaker or writer seeks to create a bond with that audience so as to persuade them …
Beyond Eden: Revising Myth, Revising Allegory In Steinbeck's "Big Book", Jeremy S. Leatham
Beyond Eden: Revising Myth, Revising Allegory In Steinbeck's "Big Book", Jeremy S. Leatham
Theses and Dissertations
Steinbeck's use of allegory in East of Eden has caused much critical resistance, but recent work in allegory theory offers ways of rereading the novel that help mediate much of this criticism. The approach to allegory forwarded here, which allows for multiple bodies of referents and fluidity between text and referents, empowers readers with greater autonomy and individual authorship. In the case of East of Eden such an approach moves the novel beyond a simple retelling of the Cain-Abel narrative to establish a flexible mythic framework for use in an ever-changing world. By challenging dualistic thinking, narrow vision, and cultural …
The Tractarian Penny Post'S Early Years (1851–1852): An Upper-Class Effort "To Triumph In The Working Man's Home", Kellyanne Ure
The Tractarian Penny Post'S Early Years (1851–1852): An Upper-Class Effort "To Triumph In The Working Man's Home", Kellyanne Ure
Theses and Dissertations
The Penny Post (1851–1896), a religious working-class magazine, was published following a critical time for the Oxford Movement, a High Church movement in the Church of England. The Oxford Movement's ideas were leaving the academic atmosphere of Oxford and traveling throughout the local parishes, where the ideals of Tractarian teachings met the harsh realities of practice and the motivations and beliefs of the working-class parishioners. The upper-class paternalistic ideologies of the Oxford Movement were not reflected in the parishes, and the working-classes felt distanced from their place in religious worship. The Penny Post was published and written by Tractarian clergymen …
Mikhail Bakhtin's Appropriation In The West And A Needed Return To Primary Texts: A Review Of Authoritative Criticism And A Return To The Idyllic Chronotope In Jude The Obscure, Alaina Hohnarth
Theses and Dissertations
Mikhail Bakhtin's Appropriation in the West and a Needed Return to Primary Texts: A Review of Criticism and a Return to the Idyllic Chronotope in Jude the Obscure
The Culture Of Habits And Dispositions: Associationist Psychology And Unitarian Education In Gaskell's Wives And Daughters, Lori Ann Dickson
The Culture Of Habits And Dispositions: Associationist Psychology And Unitarian Education In Gaskell's Wives And Daughters, Lori Ann Dickson
Theses and Dissertations
Although Victorian psychology has been the subject of much recent scholarship, Elizabeth Gaskell's work has not been considered in relation to nineteenth-century theories of mind. In this thesis, I argue that Gaskell's final novel, Wives and Daughters, deals with associationism, an early branch of psychology that played a key role in public debates over cognition that took place throughout the century. Gaskell was exposed to associationism through her Unitarian faith, and Unitarian educators in particular articulated associationist principles in their writings about cognitive development. Gaskell was preoccupied with a similar model of learning throughout her fiction, and I read …
Adjusting The Rearview Mirror: Higher Level Reflection Strategies In First-Year Composition, Jessica Ann Green
Adjusting The Rearview Mirror: Higher Level Reflection Strategies In First-Year Composition, Jessica Ann Green
Theses and Dissertations
Part of the curriculum in many composition classrooms contains a reflection component where students are required to think back over their writing and discuss strengths and weaknesses. Yet many of the reflections that students write fall short of the purpose of reflection when students fail to analyze their writing practices or to make future goals for themselves, a problem that occurs when higher level reflection strategies are not taught and practiced in the classroom. When students are taught to use reflection as a way to critically evaluate their writing, to make connections between class assignments and course objectives, and to …
American Totalitarianism In Norman Mailer's The Naked And The Dead And The Armies Of The Night, Benjamin E. Onofrio
American Totalitarianism In Norman Mailer's The Naked And The Dead And The Armies Of The Night, Benjamin E. Onofrio
Theses and Dissertations
Norman Mailer's seminal works The Naked and the Dead and The Armies of the Night both outline Mailers distaste for oppression. The Naked and the Dead's bleak reprisal of oppressive leadership tactics offers little in the way of a solution to fight this power. However, twenty years later, The Armies of the Night names personal expression of political views as the answer to oppressive force within the American government. Mailer met the hypocrisy of fighting for freedom abroad while oppressing one's own citizens by encouraging personal expression and flaunting the "rules" of the novel. In the end, Mailer surmises …
Standing In The Center Of The World: The Ethical Intentionality Of Autoethnography, Nicole Wilkes
Standing In The Center Of The World: The Ethical Intentionality Of Autoethnography, Nicole Wilkes
Theses and Dissertations
Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy of ipseity and alterity has permeated Western thought for more than forty years. In the social sciences and the humanities, the recognition of the Other and focus on difference, alterity, has influenced the way we ethically approach peoples and arts from different cultures. Because focus on the ego, ipseity, limits our ethical obligations, focusing on the Other does, according to Levinas, bring us closer to an ethical life. Furthermore, the self maintains responsibility for the Other and must work within Levinas's ethical system to become truly responsible. Therefore, the interaction between self and Other is Levinas's …
Literary Case Histories And Medical Narratives In Nineteenth-Century Britain, Travis Wade Austin
Literary Case Histories And Medical Narratives In Nineteenth-Century Britain, Travis Wade Austin
Theses and Dissertations
Literature and medicine are not usually seen as related disciplines, but scholars have already begun producing fruitful scholarship regarding historical and aesthetic interactions between them. This thesis adds to that scholarship by examining medicine and literature in nineteenth-century Britain. More specifically, Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde both use nineteenth-century medical case conventions to tell their stories. Furthermore, because both works deal with addiction, divided selves, and the power that physical substances can have on morality and character, these two works provide an excellent comparison coming …