English Language and Literature Commons^™

Shusaku Endo’S Deep River: Trauma, Screen-Memories, And Autobiographical Confessions, Diane Hoeveler

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Need, Feasibility, And Means Of Establishing A Speech Center, Julie Carter Irvin

Theses and Dissertations

According to Tom Shachtman, "the speech of too few people achieves eloquence, and that of the vast majority does not even reach a tolerable level of articulate behavior" (5). Articulate behavior has not always been a rare characteristic; from antiquity through the mid-twentieth century, the study of rhetoric was privileged and considered necessary for a well-rounded education. If today's society is inarticulate, then how can eloquence and articulateness be reintroduced as staples of a successful person in today's society? The answer is easy - through the study of rhetoric. After examining the study of rhetoric from antiquity to the present, …

Unshap'd Monsters: Political Farce On The London Stage, 1717-1737, Melissa Ann Bloom

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation reexamines the role of John Gay's and Henry Fielding's anti-government satirical farces during the politically contentious 1720s and 1730s in London. Although their plays were and still are considered, variously, burlesques, entertainments, farces, and satires, I call them satirical farce for two reasons. First, contemporaries used the term farce as much to signify political and social stances as dramatic type or function. Those political and social stances are the central focus of this dissertation. Second, I see in this collection of plays—Gay's Three Hours After Marriage (1717) and The Beggar's Opera (1728), Fielding's The Author's Farce (1730), The …

Dangerous Memories: Lynching And The U.S. Literary Imagination, Anne P. Rice

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The terrorization of African Americans through lynching was a national cultural trauma producing a struggle over the meaning of suffering, victimization and moral responsibility. The lesson you were meant to learn from white supremacy and terror powerfully affected how you remembered lynching. My dissertation asks who remembered (and did not remember) what about lynching and how these habits of memory influenced literary and visual representations. I consider the impact of race, gender, class, and sexuality on how lynching was textualized and performed, avoided and blocked. While much recent scholarship has concentrated on the visual technologies of lynching, lynching was also …

Solitary Blessings: Solitude In The Fiction Of Hawthrone, Melville, And Kate Chopin, Virginia Massie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“Solitary Blessings: Solitude in the Fiction of Hawthorne, Melville, and Kate Chopin” examines a construction of solitude in which nature is alien and perilous, the self confronts rejection and death, the subject is subordinated to an unknown, and the revealed truth is experienced as both gift and curse. Arising out of fictional portraits of people under duress, this interpretation counters a more dominant construction in American literature, enunciated by Edwards, Emerson, and Thoreau, that shows solitude as composed and calming, subordinating nature to mind, and revealing an underlying truth in presentable form. Solitude has been equated with privation and exile …

When I Die, I Won't Stay Dead: The Poetry Of Bob Kaufman, Mona Lisa Saloy

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation begins with the premise that critical attention to the work of Bob Kaufman is long overdue, and that Bob Kaufman is a significant American poet in the African American and Beat traditions. The purpose of this dissertation begins to rectify this need with a study of Bob Kaufman’s verse. My exploration of Kaufman necessitates some pointed attention to the cultural, social, and psychological influences that gave rise to his work, specifically his upbringing in the south, his travels, and the misrepresented times of his life in current biographical entries and some present scholarship. I will also address the …

Catholic Saints: An Exploration And Inspiration In Faith, Therese Drey

Graduate Research Papers

During the researcher's career as a religion teacher and librarian she found very few books for primary age students about the lives of the saints. The purpose of this research project was to write an age-appropriate illustrated biography about the life of St. Therese of Liseuex. The format will include events from the life of Therese Martin from her birth, through her entrance into the Carmelite Convent until her death at twenty-four. This book can serve as a prototype for similar books about other saints for the same audience. The targeted audience for this project is primary students in Catholic …

Seasonal Allergies: An Intertextual Explanation, Nathaniel Abel Nieman

Honors Program Theses

A collection of short stories.

Writing A Short Science Fiction Novel For Young Adults, Cheryl Robson

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this project is to write a dystopian science fiction short novel for young adults, in tum raising awareness of the genre among young people, as well as causing them to consider today's technology issues from a different viewpoint. Background research commenced on characteristics, history, and readership of science fiction. The sub genre of dystopian science fiction was reviewed through the examination of scholarly research in this particular area. After additional reading of science fiction books, the first chapter of the researcher's science fiction novel was written. Next, students in three sections of high school language arts classes …

Writing A Historical Fiction Novel: The Marks Of The Shaman: The Diary Of Indian Captive Olive Oatman, Heather J. Uhlmeyer

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this research project was to write a historical fiction novel based on true accounts of the Indian captive Olive Oatman. Many times historical fiction novels are designed to entertain the reader, while educating them about historical facts and events. The writer hopes that this piece of literature will serve as a tool to educators in developing their Native American units to meet the needs and interests of the children. The book will help any child who reads it to understand the way of life for Native Americans and some of the ordeals that captives had to endure …

A Case Study: The Thoughts On Pleasure Reading For Children Diagnosed With Adhd, Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type; Adhd, Predominantly Inattentive Type; Or Adhd, Combined Type, Heather Whitman

Graduate Research Papers

Children diagnosed with attention difficulties may face increased reading difficulties and may choose not to read for pleasure. Research questions used to explore this issue focused on what difficulties these students face in learning to read and how these affect their attitudes on reading and school performance. A second set of questions asked whether these children enjoy reading and how watching television relates to their reading? The third set of questions asked about parents reactions to any difficulties their children had in learning to read and their thoughts involving their children and reading for p)easure? The fourth set of questions …

Mad Art And The Essential Image: Unearthing The Conversation Between Oscar Wilde’S The Picture Of Dorian Gray And Roland Barthes’S Camera Lucida, Sarah Joy Cowger

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Roland Barthes's notion of "mad art" (introduced in Camera Lucida)--that is, art which is compelling, arresting, and uncovering-serves as a useful lens through which the portrait in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray may be viewed. In doing so, Wilde's framed image, behaving as mad art, must expose Dorian's authentic self. Such an expose is, importantly, both the product of a spectator's engaged eye as it is the result of a piece which always already contains an essence. When both elements are present (that is, both the essentialness of the art and the engagement of the viewer), the "text" …

In The House Of The Mirrors: A Collection Of Short Stories, Adrián Fuentes

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

"In the House of the Mirrors" is a compilation of short stories that question the concept of reality. These stories, however, do not only question reality but also supernaturalism, myth, and legend. Is there any magic in reality or are these two terms always in opposition with each other and can never coexist? What happens when we die? If the gods die, what happens when they die? Is our fate already predetermined or do we really have free will? These stories insist that there are events in life that we ignore because they do not fall in what we have …

Strategic Writing: Moving Beyond The Classroom Assignment, Deborah Dean

Faculty Publications

By focusing on specific strategies that they could apply to different stages of the writing process, Deborah Dean helped students acquire control over their writing in varying contexts.

I would never think of teaching a reading strategy that worked for only one text. And students do not consider predicting or summarizing to be strategies unique to a specific text, either. Why, then, do students so often look at writing strategies as practices useful for only one assignment? Why do they complete freewrites or webs after they have finished the paper? Or "mess up" a copy of a paper just to …

Austin Clarke And The Consolations Of Irish Catholicism, Tyler Farrell

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Intentionalism: On The Assumption Of Authority In Literature, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Sadness Of Great Fame: The Conflict Between Individuality And Expectation In The Works Of Don Delillo And Jim Morrison, Sue Ellen Norton Francis

Masters Theses

In their work and in their lives, Don DeLillo and Jim Morrison have been fascinated by the dialectic between famous figures and those whose adoration makes them famous. Each writer has written extensively about (and lived with) the conflict between a famous figure's individuality and the expectations of his fans. DeLillo depicts tensions between famous figures and admiring crowds in several ofhis novels, especially in his most thorough analyses ofthe subject, Great Jones Street, a portrait of a suddenly reclusive rock star, and Mao II, where he depicts a legendarily reclusive novelist. Morrison also has a personal connection with the …

Observing, Navigating, Exploring: The Fourfold Path Of Nourishing Wrath And Others, Greg Holden

Masters Theses

A good poet to illustrate the distinction between modernism and postmodernism would be George Oppen (1908-1986). I believe Oppen's "objectivism" - coupled with a judicious use of deliberate ambiguity - nicely gets us past the postmodern insistence on the illusions of selfhood, reason, and order by insisting on the centrality of the perceiver/thinker amid the objective chaos of perceptions/ideas, while at the same time recognizing the multi-vocal construction of the perceiver/thinker. I believe the self may project its illusions onto reality, but not all reality (including the "self') is always thereby a false image. I have tried to fulfill Oppen's …

Politics And Gendered Spirituality In The Short Stories Of Sridaoru'ang, Rachel Ann Vaughn

Masters Theses

This project pinpoints specific rudimentary concepts of the Thai Theravadan Buddhist philosophy, as they surface in the short stories of SriDaoRu’ang. Through these short stories, many of the ritualistic practices of this particular Buddhist philosophy are exemplified, presenting a dire need for the reformation of the rituals which tend to genderize and politicize the spiritual realm. This suggestion for the reformation of such practices and beliefs attempts to persuade the Theravadan world against polarized gender-specific practices that merely accentuate the differences between members of the Buddhist world, and act as a socio-political barrier for women and the poor. However, the …

Parting Of The Ways: The End Of The Spirit Of Empire In Paul Scott's Raj Quartet, Blake Strong

Masters Theses

Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet consists of four novels dealing with the waning of British imperial control of India: The Jewel in the Crown (1966), The Day of the Scorpion (1968), The Towers of Silence (1972), and A Division of the Spoils (1976). This thesis analyzes the Quartet as historical fiction, defined according to the criteria laid out by Georg Lukacs in The Historical Novel (1937). The characters that populate Scott's Quartet live in an age of historical transition: they are shaped by reverberations from World War II as well as the more immediate struggle for Indian independence. As drawn …

The Tunnel At The End Of The Light: Victimization In The Films Of Roman Polanski, Christopher Weedman

Masters Theses

Polish-expatriate film director Roman Polanski's career has been largely overshadowed by the bizarre and tragic events of his personal life. After a horrific childhood that saw him watch helplessly as his Jewish parents were taken away by the Nazis to the concentration camps, Polanski again experienced familial tragedy when his eight-month pregnant wife Sharon Tate and four houseguests were brutally murdered in 1969 by members of the Charles Manson cult. In the aftermath of the Manson murders, the director was further victimized by the American popular press, which, according to biographer Barbara Leaming, unfairly suggested that he unwittingly "brought the …

Sites Of Resistance: Language, Intertextuality, And Subjectivity In The Poetry Of Diane Wakoski, Cordelia Maxwell Hanemann

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the interconnectedness of language and related cultural texts and women’s subjectivity. The poststructuralist feminist enterprise of examining and critiquing language and signifying practices for the ways in which they impose social values and of interrogating and undermining the fixity of meanings in cultural texts will serve as my primary frame. Concerned with the individual (gendered) consciousness, poststructuralist feminist theory of subject formation posits that while language, along with ideologically biased texts of the culture, construct subjects, language and the cultural texts also serve as sites of resistance for the deconstruction and reconception of individual and collective subjectivities. …

“Neither In Nor Out Of Blackwood's": The Marketing Of Edgar Allan Poe’S Prose Address, Jonathan Hartmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation seeks to help explain Poe's circulation of his journalism by performing close readings of both canonical works including "William Wilson" (1839) and "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846) and lesser-known articles such as "The Literary Life of Thingum Bob, Esq." (1844) and "Loss of Breath" (1832/5). Chapter One describes Poe's involvement in the transatlantic literary marketplace prior to the enforcement of literary copyright. Chapters Two and Three treat his development of a literary brand in works including "Letter to B" (1831/6) and "A Reviewer Reviewed" by playing off his critical assertions against his practice as a critic. Chapters Four …

Passing As Modernism, Pamela L. Caughie

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Passing has once again become a hot topic in contemporary popular culture and a major trope for our critical and professional activity. One thinks of Danzy Senna's Caucasia (1998); Philip Roth's The Human Stain (2000) and the 2003 film version directed by Robert Benton; and in literary and cultural criticism, Gayle Wald's Crossing the Line: Racial Passing in Twentieth-Century U.S. Literature and Culture (2000), Kathleen Pfeiffer's Race Passing and American Individualism (2003), and Brooke Kroeger's Passing: When People Can't Be Who They Are (2003), to name only a few examples. In Passing and Pedagogy I explore this concept largely in …

Jane Kenyon, Jayme Stayer

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The pastoral emphasis and New England setting of Jane Kenyon's poetry has invited comparisons to Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. The uncluttered spareness of her work and her interrelated themes of faith, guilt, empathy, and pessimism also place her among that collection of people known as New England poets. Kenyon's own love of John Keats-and his haunted experiences of pain and beauty-also informs her work.

Life Lessons In Shirley Jackson’S Late Fiction: Ethics, Cosmology, Eschatology, Diane Hoeveler

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Internet World Of Fan Fiction, Melissa Jean Herzing

Theses and Dissertations

Fan fiction, the most popular creative outlet for fans, allows the amateur writer an opportunity to be published and receive immediate feedback from peers. As educators, we can learn from the fan communities as they participate in online activities, especially fan fiction. Students are more likely to embrace entertaining and creative assignments. And since much of the world is linked to the Internet in one way or another, we can allow students an opportunity to not only improve their writing skills, but also enhance their knowledge of the Internet and its capabilities. My study included online interviews with fan fiction …

Thalhimers Department Store: Story, History, And Theory, Elizabeth Thalhimer Smartt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis looks at Thalhimers department store through the lenses of story, history, and theory. It first introduces the intertwining narratives of the author's paternal family and the store's history, then shares the author's personal story of Thalhimers. The second half outlines the master narrative of the American department store then applies "fantasy-theme analysis" and the symbolic convergence theory to stories and artifacts related to Thalhimers. A conclusion discusses the end of the department store era including a deeply personal goodbye from the author.

Language Use And The Oral Tradition In Aaya (African American Young Adult) Literature, Kaavonia Hinton-Johnson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) In elementary school my favorite teachers taught me that the language used in my home was incorrect, incoherent, and inappropriate. My second grade teacher Ms. Hull, a tall, thin, dark-skinned woman, stands out among the others. I can still see her hovering over us. “Was!” Ms. Hull shouted, “not wuz. Your tongue is lazy.” “You be what?” she’d ask in disgust with one hand on her hip. When this happened, I was sure to get yelled at and lectured. To avoid such humiliation, I quickly learned to, as we said in my neighborhood, “talk proper.” Shame nagged at …

Power, Money, And Sex(Uality): The Black Masculine Paradigm, Kendric Coleman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study develops the Black Masculine Paradigm (BMP), a construct used to trace historically specific components that inform black masculinity and explores the physical and psychological defensive strategies employed by black men in Richard Wright's Black Boy, Claude Brown's Manchild in the Promisedland, Nathan McCall's Make Me Wanna Holler, and James Earl Hardy's B-Boy Blues. Specifically, this project offers that power, money, and sex(uality) are located at the core of the BMP, and these social objectives are negotiated through politicization, prescribed masculinity, and heterosexuality. This project reads the politicization of the black male body through its presence in literature and …