English Language and Literature Commons^™

An Awakened Sense Of Place: Thoreauvian Patterns In Willa Cather's Fiction, Breanne Grover

Theses and Dissertations

The recent "greening" of Willa Cather Scholarship has initiated new conversations about Cather's use of and dependence on landscape in her fiction. Scholars have frequently noted Cather's reliance on landscape imagery, but this thesis suggests parallels between Cather's and Henry David Thoreau's use of awakening imagery and examines how such parallels work in Cather's environmental discussion of wilderness and environmental communities. There is little direct evidence linking the development of Cather to Thoreau, although their similar use of awakening imagery suggests they comment on similar environmental discussions through their writing, indicating that Cather deserves further attention as a nature writer. …

The Familiar Foreign Country: Reading Mexico In Cormac Mccarthy, Jack Kerouac, And Katherine Anne Porter, Rachel Mae Ligairi

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis examines the discourse of Mexico in the works of three twentieth-century American authors-Cormac McCarthy, Jack Kerouac, and Katherine Anne Porter-in order to analyze representations of Otherness in modernism and postmodernism. I seek to destabilize the dividing line between these periods as well as to show how representation in postmodernity has become more problematic due in large part to the proliferation of consumer culture. Though the Mexico that McCarthy employs in Blood Meridian and the Border Trilogy (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain) escapes many stereotypes, his Mexico is merely a staging ground that …

Intertextuality In The Fiction Of Cormac Mccarthy, Benjamin J. Burr

Theses and Dissertations

The moral and aesthetic complexity of Cormac McCarthy's fiction demands sophisticated theoretical reading paradigms. Intertextuality informed by poststructuralism is a theoretical approach that enables one to read the moral and aesthetic elements of McCarthy's work in productive ways. McCarthy's work is augmented by its connection to the works of other great artists and writers. As a result, McCarthy's work forces us to read his precedents from a different framework. An examination of the conversation between Martin Heidegger, Meyer Schapiro, Jacques Derrida, and Frederic Jameson about Van Gogh's A Pair of Boots creates an intertextual framework for examining the connection between …

Negotiation Through Identification: Elizabeth Tudor's Use Of Sprezzatura In Three Speeches, Alisa Brough

Theses and Dissertations

Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England, weaves the courtier's strategy of sprezzatura throughout her public orations in order to help her identify with her audience of courtiers, scholars, and politicians. Through her use of sprezzatura, Elizabeth woos her audience and transcends the differences of opinion that lead to conflict between the Queen and her audience members. Using Kenneth Burke's theory of rhetoric as identification, this thesis employs rhetorical analysis in order to discover how Queen Elizabeth's use of sprezzatura enables her to portray herself as a humanist scholar, a political servant, and a dedicated defender of her country and thus, identify …

Controversial Politics, Conservative Genre: Rex Stout's Archie-Wolfe Duo And Detective Fiction's Conventional Form, Ammie Cannon

Theses and Dissertations

Rex Stout maintained his popular readership despite the often controversial and radical political content expressed in his detective fiction. His political ideals often made him many enemies. Stances such as his ardent opposition to censorship, racism, Nazism, Germany, Fascism, Communism, McCarthyism, and the unfettered FBI were potentially offensive to colleagues and readers from various political backgrounds. Yet Stout attempted to present radical messages via the content of his detective fiction with subtlety. As a literary traditionalist, he resisted using his fiction as a platform for an often extreme political agenda. Where political messages are apparent in his work, Stout employs …

Cathexellanea, Pir Rothenberg

Theses and Dissertations

Cathexellanea is a portmanteau word blending "cathexis," a psychoanalytical term meaning an investment of mental or emotional energy on a person, object or idea; and "miscellanea," a collection of objects or writings. One theme running through these stories concerns characters attempt to define themselves through their desires. "Bottomless" explores the idea of emotional and physical fulfillment. "Croquembouche" revolves around self-loathing and corruptibility. In "Destripado," the protagonist discovers that one way to dispel fear is to become the thing that causes it. "Ghosts" asks whether it is a past lover the protagonist longs for, or her phantoms. "Versions" deals with the …

Digital Storytelling: The Application Of Vichian Theory, Karen Pierotti

Theses and Dissertations

Storytelling is often looked at as something archaic or something that simpler cultures engage in. However, in our sophisticated and highly technological world storytelling swirls about us though we may not always recognize it. This thesis looks at the phenomenon of digital storytelling that functions to create community on the Internet. In order to ground this phenomenon in theory, I examine the works of Giambattista Vico, the 18th-century Neapolitan philosopher/rhetorician, who lived on the cusp of the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. Furthermore, as a teacher of rhetoric to youth, Vico admonished young people to study the arts of …

The Rhetoric Of Persecution: Mormon Crisis Rhetoric From 1838-1871, Zachary L. Largey

Theses and Dissertations

This study is an attempt to (1) minimize the lack of rhetorical scholarship in Mormon studies, and (2) add to the historical study of rhetoric in nineteenth-century America. Since the Mormon Church's establishment in 1830, sermons have been a vital part of the Church's development into a worldwide institution. From the simple testimonial to the more complex doctrinal explication, early Mormon leaders used the art of preaching to spread their message of God and His glories. But rarely have historians or critics focused on the rhetoric—the persuasive techniques—of these sermons. This, perhaps, stems from early Mormonism's general aversion to the …

The Finest Entertainment: Conscious Observation On Film In Adaptations Of Henry James' The Portrait Of A Lady, The Wings Of The Dove, And Washington Square, Rachael Decker Bailey

Theses and Dissertations

The works of Henry James are renowned for their dense sub-text and the manner in which he leaves his reader to elucidate much of his meaning. In the field of adaptation theory, therefore, James presents somewhat of a problem for the film adaptor: how does one convey on screen James' delicate implications, which are formative to the text without actually existing on the printed page? This project not only works to answer that question, but it also addresses a more serious question: what does adaptation have to offer to the student of literature? In the case of Henry James, the …

Gonna Spread The News All Around: Early, African-American Popular Song As Spoken Newspaper, Randall Lawrence Stamper

Theses and Dissertations

Most research into blues music over the past thirty years has examined either how the blues contribute to or reflect African-American identity, or how blues lyrics may be used as windows into African-American culture, values, and attitudes. Scholars have generally relied on more conventional songs about male-female relationships in this research, largely ignoring the subset of topical blues songs that related information about current events. Given the widespread illiteracy among African Americans during the height of the blues' popularity, these topical songs are particularly compelling. To date, however, no one has coupled topical blues together with their consumers' educational attainment …

Rich, Attractive People In Attractive Places Doing Attractive Things, Tonya Walker

Theses and Dissertations

Rich, Attractive People in Attractive Places Doing Attractive Things is a fictional memoir of a dead Manhattan socialite from the 1950's named Sunny Marcus. The novel is Sunny's monologue from Hell and features many well-known figures from American pop culture including Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, Clark Gable, William Powell and Babe Paley. It traces the upward trajectory of Sunny's life from a modest childhood in 1920's Los Angeles to the heights of social success in the unforgiving world of Café Society to her murder.

It's An Irish Lullaby: One Story Of Hyphenated American Culture, Mary-Ellen Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this project was to come to a clear understanding of Irish-American culture--and how that culture expresses itself in individuals. The text considers the role of myth, religion, language, tradition, stereotypes and to a lesser degree gender in the molding of character. Although autobiographical in nature many of the themes are those that encompass the Irish-American experience as a whole. Questions asked throughout the process include, what makes one hyphenated? How is this culture passed from generation to generation? And is it multifaceted? Is there more than one way to express being Irish-American. The text is presented is …

Cultural Stereotypes: From Dracula's Myth To Contemporary Diasporic Productions, Ileana F. Popa

Theses and Dissertations

This study is focused on a highly topical theme, which belongs to the pluralist practice of cultural studies, and aims at investigating a remarkable phenomenon of identity-shaping and cross-cultural exchange. Starting from an analysis of Dracula as the epitomized image of the Balkans (and of Romania, more specifically) abroad, this paper provides a comprehensive historical and (con)textual analysis of the myth, enlarged to incorporate it into the fictions of exile and to draw the reader's attention to the "demonic" dimension of the Balkan area in general, and the Romanian area in particular. The first chapter provides a theoretical overview meant …

Bridging The Gap: Why Many High School Writers Are Not Successful In College Composition Classes, Amy Stutzman Park

Theses and Dissertations

It may be useful to identify this so-called gap that seems to plague first-year college writers before attempting to discover why it exists. In order to identify the gap, I want to define these writers who are leaving high school and finding difficulty in college composition classes. Patricia Bizzell defines basic writers as "those who are least well prepared for college" (Bizzell "What Happens When Basic Writers Come to College?" 294). I'd like to broaden her definition of basic writers and use the term "inexperienced writers" as the field now defines them. In order to fully understand why most college …

Victorians And The Underground, Melissa Mcdaniel

Theses and Dissertations

The Victorian Age created a revolution in technology that defined the age and has fostered its social ideologies. In every civilization, the technologies of the time reflect the social issues of the culture. For instance, the development of the printing press in the fifteenth-century revealed desires for higher literacy rates; the invention of the cotton gin incited the social injustices of American slavery; the progress of the Internet embodies this century's attachment to fast-food, fast-money, and fast-information. Likewise, in the Victorian Age, the invention of underground tunnels exposed some important social issues which developed in the period. Just as the …

Educating For Democracy: Reviving Rhetoric In The General Education Curriculum, David M. Stock

Theses and Dissertations

This study is, in part, a response to arguments that claim higher education fails to prepare students with fundamental communication skills necessary for everyday life and indicative of "educated" persons. Though the validity of such arguments is contestable, they nonetheless reflect fundamental inadequacies in current educational theories and practices that have evolved over centuries of curricular, cultural, and socioeconomic change. Current theories and practices in higher education, specifically general education, reflect a misunderstanding of both the purpose of education in a democracy and the role of the liberal arts, specifically rhetoric, in accomplishing that purpose. The consequences of rhetorically-impoverished general …

Imitation, Not Limitation: Fan Fiction In The Classroom, Molly Wright

Theses and Dissertations

There is a dizzying array of syllabi for various advanced exposition courses. Many of these syllabi address student writing development issues such as clarity, style, logic, and organization. They also address traditional focuses as description, narration, information, and argument. They can include anything from grammar texts to cable news web sites as required reading, and they usually include reassuring terms such as "improvement" to remind the student that s/he already has the basic skills necessary to compose a quality essay. Assignments might include reading a model text for guidance in writing. Some syllabi encourage imitating those models in the form …

Keeping Gardens: Poetry And Essay, Deja Anne Earley

Theses and Dissertations

This creative thesis includes two creative non-fiction essays and twenty-two poems, introduced by a critical essay that examines my work. The poems and essays share an origin in personal experience as well as an interest in language. Specifically, the poems and essays explore issues of family, relationships, spirituality, and observations of the natural world. The introductory essay discusses my interest in re-fashioning individual vision through the act of writing, relating to Helene Cixous's idea of creating a "portrait of God" through the act of art. The essay also examines the connections between the genres of creative non-fiction and poetry, in …

Sandra Cisneros As Chicana Storyteller: Fictional Family (Hi)Stories In Caramelo, Sally Marie Giles

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis discusses the ways in which Sandra Cisneros makes historical claims from a Chicana perspective by telling fictional family stories in Caramelo. Not only have Chicanas traditionally been marginalized ethnically by the Anglo mainstream, they have also suffered disenfranchisement as women in their own male-dominated cultural community. Both elements have contributed to the cultural silencing of Chicanas outside of domestic spaces, and particularly in historical discourse. Cisneros introduces storytelling as a means of empowering Chicanas through language that allows them to speak historically and still signify culturally. By telling stories from the site of the family, she ingeniously utilizes …

Perry Smith And Josef Kavalier: Historical And Literary Victimized Victimizers, Noella Jeo

Theses and Dissertations

In literary trauma theory, victimized victimizers represent an ambiguous area. In my thesis, I show how Perry Smith, a historical figure in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and Josef Kavalier, a fictional character in Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, represent these ambiguities. Both men become murderers acting out violence that was inflicted upon them as children. However, only Kavalier seems to work through the trauma.

Such A Deal Of Wonder: Structures Of Feeling And Performances Of The Winter's Tale From 1981 To 2002, Elizabeth Marie Burt

Theses and Dissertations

Structures of feeling represent the interaction between personal lived experience and fixed social values and meanings, which are found in interpretations of works of art. Studying various interpretations of any play in performance can provide a point of access into a culture because the choices made in the production can be compared to each other and to the written text and then reveal how the theatrical company views particular issues within their own time period. This study looks at productions of The Winter's Tale between 1981 and 2002 at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Using numerous versions …

The Rhetoric Of Newspaper Rivalry In The Face Of Image Restoration And Transformation, Andrea Ludlow Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of the rhetoric of newspaper rivalry, particularly under the pressures of image restoration and transformation. I use methods of critical discourse analysis to look at newspaper articles in Utah's two dominant newspapers, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News. I compare a sample of news articles from each paper in 2002 to a sample in 2003, when the Tribune was working to restore its image after a scandal involving two of its reporters, and the News was working to transform its image as it transitioned from an afternoon newspaper to a morning newspaper. …

Saturday Nights Alone, Daniel C. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

This novel blends first-person narrative prose with conventions of screenwriting to create a voice consistent with its main character, Rick Morgan, who's trying to escape his life as a real estate agent by becoming a screenwriter. As Rick struggles to write a new screenplay he finds it difficult to divorce his creative mind from the troubles of his personal life. As a result his preoccupations with destroying his boss and taking back the girl the boss stole from him, work their way into Rick's new project. The motif of art imitating life imitating art forces Rick to question long held …

Tauser Killed Both Dogs And Other Suburban American Family Folklore, Kristina Whitley Gashler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to answer the questions "What purposes do family pets and the narratives we tell about them serve in modern American society?" and "What do these stories tell us about what Americans value and about where we locate our ‘value center’?" In Chapter 1, I discuss how Americans define loyalty in our pets now that our animals generally no longer help us work. I conclude that since the shift from agricultural to suburban settings, animals prove their loyalty individually and in human-like ways, rather than as "good" members of their own species, but at the same time because …

Fortune Personified And The Fall (And Rise) Of Women In Chaucer's Monk's Tale And The Autobiographical Writings Of Christine De Pizan, Leona C. Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will posit that a query of the medieval trope, Fortune, can be read as a query into femininity. Fortune is depicted with many quintessentially medieval feminine traits, and women in texts that discuss Fortune often have Fortune's traits. While texts that link Fortune and femininity usually do so to censure women, some writers turned the trope to their advantage for just the opposite purpose. Both Chaucer in the "Monk's Tale" and Christine de Pizan personify Fortune to subtly point out the flaws in antifeminist medieval view of women. This thesis explores the ways in which these writers cleverly …

The Wit And Wisdom In The Novels Of Diana Wynne Jones, Elizabeth A. Crowe

Theses and Dissertations

British speculative fiction writer, Diana Wynne Jones, has published over forty books for middle school to adult readers, and her work continues to receive many awards for its creativity and high quality. Jones is a prolific and talented writer who has contributed to and influenced speculative fiction. She uses magical contexts to comment on social situations in what she sees as an essentially non-magical world. Whether she is being humorous, drawing upon myths and legends, or using fantasy or science fiction, Jones reflects the contemporary unpredictable adolescent mind. Jones's unusual childhood has influenced her writing, and a brief biography of …

The Byronic Myth In Brazil: Cultural Perspectives On Lord Byron's Image In Brazilian Romanticism, Matthew Lorin Squires

Theses and Dissertations

Byron's reception in one of the nineteenth century's largest and most culturally significant post-colonial outposts, Brazil, has been virtually ignored in English studies. The implications of Lord Byron's influence in Brazil are extensive since he was overwhelmingly popular among poets but also subversive to the nationalistic aims of Brazilian Romanticism. Nearly all of the well known Brazilian Romantics were not only influenced by him, but translated him. Their notion of what it meant to be "Byronic," however, differed from ideas held in Europe. The Brazilian Byronic hero was more extreme, macabre, and sentimental, lonelier, darker, and deadlier. Byron had various …

Finding Where I Am: A Collection Of Creative Nonfiction - Creative Thesis, Jana Lloyd

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a collection of five pieces of creative nonfiction written over the academic years 2003—2005. Creative nonfiction is a genre that, in some form or another, has always existed, though trends in form and style are constantly in flux. Based on the experiences of the actual author, creative nonfiction seeks to present the journey of a mind at work, in a style that is candid, quirky, and insightful. It seeks to persuade its reader by establishing a likeable and trusted narrator; by relating interesting facts that teach the reader something about the subject at hand; and by appealing …

Translating Huck: Difficulties In Adapting "The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn" To Film, Bryce Moore Cundick

Theses and Dissertations

Filmmakers have had four main difficulties adapting The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to film: point of view, structure, audience and the novel's ending. By studying the different approaches of various directors to each obstacle, certain facts emerge about both the films and the novel. While literary scholars have studied Huck from practically every angle, none have sufficiently viewed the book through the lens of adaptation, despite the fact that it has been adapted to film and television over twenty times. The few critics who have studied the adaptations have done so using dated methodologies that boil down to little more …

Negotiating Hope And Honesty: A Rhetorical Criticism Of Young Adult Dystopian Fiction, Lauren Lewis Reber

Theses and Dissertations

Young adult dystopian fictions follow the patterns established by the classic adult dystopias such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, but not completely. Young adult dystopias tend to end happily, a departure from the nightmarish ends of Winston Smith and John Savage. Young adult authors resist hopelessness, even if the fictional world demands it.

Using a rhetorical approach established by Wayne Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction and The Company We Keep, this thesis traces the reasons for the inclusion of hope and the strategies by which hope is created and maintained. Booth's rhetorical …