English Language and Literature Commons^™

Student Writing And Composition Instruction Using Web 2.0 : The Problems And Promise Of Collaborative Technology, Bruce Robert Henecker

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Educators have long sought the best methods for instructing students in the intricate art of effective written communication. Various technologies, from the pencil to the word processor, have been considered in this endeavor. With the emergence of newer digital technologies that allow students to publish writing directly to the World Wide Web, instructors have begun to explore how best to use this technology for writing instruction. Wikis, in particular, are tools many educators have begun to experiment with when trying to supplement their collaborative writing practices. This study attempts to answer three important questions: have computer-based technologies improved student writing; …

The Narrative “I” And Eye : Hawthorne’S Artist As Social Observer, Orah Dan Massarsky

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis considers the position of the artist in a polarized society experiencing radical extremist political tensions and which demands public allegiance and identification with the dominant ideology. Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose personal origins were grounded in the American past that formed his creative domain, was an astute social critic whose writings in the turbulent period of mid nineteenth-century America reflected an acute awareness of the fundamental crises in his time, such as slavery and the efforts towards its abolition, the perils of regional conflict that threatened national unity, the effects of increasing commercialization and urbanization of American culture and the …

Work, Alienation, And Humor : A Marxist Reading Of Samuel Beckett's "Murphy" And "Waiting For Godot", Catherine Keeran

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this thesis, I look at Beckett’s Murphy and Waiting for Godot through a Marxist lens and argue that these texts can be read as a critique of modern alienation under capitalism. Through his narrator and characters, Beckett critiques and satirizes alienation and searches for alternatives to it in comedy and creative playfulness. Also, I argue that in these works writing itself emerges as non-alienated labor through which the creator, the central characters, and the readers/spectators can resist modem alienation. The first chapter examines Murphy in the light of Marx’s theory of the alienation of labor, the writings of Erich …

Evelyn Waugh's Deceptions Of The "Decline And Fall" Of "Vile Bodies" Into "A Handful Of Dust", Allison Elaine Nazimek

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In the years in between the two World Wars, Britain witnessed many changes in the behavior and ethics of the emerging younger population. There were positive advances, especially in the education of truant students and the development of experimental schools, such as Neill’s Summerhill (Graves 209-11). There was also an emergence in public smoking, drinking, and heightened hemlines symbolizing modern times and a freer youth (Graves). These changes exhibited a shift from more rigid, Victorian ideals, yet, the real problems remained in the excess activities in which a wilder crowd indulged. Alcohol abuse became a concern, as the Practitioner stated …

Lack Of Proportion In Antic Hay : Understanding Aldous Huxley’S Early Aesthetic And Social Views, Sandy Reyes

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The polyphony of ideas expressed in Aldous Huxley’s Antic Hay (1923), and the often fast pace in which these ideas are presented at times veils what is being said, what views are being satirized, as well as which, if any, position Huxley sides with. The novel is filled with many references and allusions to art. Understanding Huxley’s aesthetic and social views in the twenties helps to make sense of the comments about art and society that are both explicitly and inexplicitly expressed in the novel. Societal changes occurring in England, such as the decline in religious belief, industrial and technological …

The Ethical Implications Of Assigning Personal Narratives, Krista Ann Schlomann

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

No abstract provided.

Artemus Ward : The Gentle Humorist, John Raymond Pascal

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

It is generally accepted that during his lifetime, Mark Twain was considered the preeminent American master storyteller and lecturer of humor. The tsunami that is Twain’s literary achievement can easily overwhelm the earlier vast movement of the American literary scene that led to its creation. The “underwater earthquake” of this movement is Charles Farrar Browne, but his more famous pseudonym is Artemus Ward.

While there were earlier as well as contemporary humorous writers, Artemus Ward was regarded by William Dean Howells as “the humorist who first gave the world a taste of the humor that characterizes the whole American people” …

Listen Carefully : A Rhetorical Analysis Of Speeches Delivered By President George W. Bush, Jennifer R. Priore

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The current war in Iraq has been defined as both a war on terror as well as a war to free the people of Iraq. It is a fight against a member of the axis of evil and likewise an attempt to bring democracy to the Middle East. Prior to the start of the war, other countries were warned that they were either with us or against us while American citizens were told that a preemptive strike in Iraq was necessary to stop a country harboring weapons of mass destruction. These phrases were used to both frighten Americans as well …

Using Creative Writing Instruction In The Urban High School English Classroom To Promote Writing Skills In Remedial Level Students, Maureen Harrison

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this research is to investigate the value of creative writing instruction for increasing the literacy of remedial students in urban High School English classes. Students who are placed in remedial level classes often have preconceived negative feelings concerning their ability to produce academic writing. As I later discuss through the research of Debra Holmes Matthews, John A. Daly and Michael D. Miller, these preconceived notions impact the motivation and educational experience of remedial level students. In my research I will examine the ability of creative writing to motivate struggling student writers and help to improve specific writing …

The Many Masks Of Louisa May Alcott’S Gothic Heroines, Lisa Poggi

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Many of the female characters in the Gothic thrillers of Louisa May Alcott wear masks or are or portrayed as “actresses” who conceal their passion with the appearance of being the typical domestic woman. This idea is most clearly presented in “Behind a Mask” and “Pauline’s Passion and Punishment.” In these thrillers, hidden passion causes problems in each heroine’s life, either because her strong will is an unacceptable female characteristic and she will therefore be shunned in some way by society or by those dear to her; or, expressing her passion will result in disaster of some kind. This representation …

Indians, Land, And Ideology : The Disruption Of Nationalism In The Works Of Lydia Maria Child And Henry David Thoreau, Lynn Marie Fedele

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis discusses presentations of American Indian culture and civilization in mid-nineteenth century American literature, especially as written by two northern Abolitionist writers, Henry David Thoreau and Lydia Maria Child. Tracing how these presentations are used to work both with and against developing American nationalism, most importantly in terms of the morality of U.S. expansionism, this paper explores the connections between Indians and land. As race is critical in nineteenth century nationalism, and land is necessary to industrial capitalism and U.S. expansionism, how these constructs are linked ideologically serves to either uphold or challenge the spread ot the U.S. westward …

Montclair State University’S Secondary English Education Program : Perceptions And Expectations Of Pre-Service And Beginning Teachers Of Writing, David B. Malter

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

No abstract provided.

In Search Of Female Space : Resistance And Creation In Tsitsi Dangarembga’S Nervous Conditions And She No Longer Weeps, Diana Mckenna

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this paper I explore how with Nervous Conditions (1988) and She No Longer Weeps (1987), Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga creates alternative literary forms in her representation of architectural, bodily and narrative spaces and their relationship to female identities. These physical spaces the women characters inhabit, resist and in which they assert their voices must be cleared of patriarchal control in order for female-centered space to be produced. Moreover, the creation of a new speech paradigm, one that affirms the female voice, is crucial to the journey towards female autonomy. Inasmuch as Dangarembga explores the ways in which physical spaces …

Replacing The Native American With The "New American" In Margaret Fuller's Summer On The Lakes, In 1843, Laura M. Reilly

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In the summer of 1843, New Englander Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) set off with friends on a westward journey that would take her through the areas of the Great Lakes, Illinois and Wisconsin. Fuller kept copious notes during her trip, and during the eight months after her return home, she revised and enhanced her text and published it as a book, entitled Summer on the Lakes, In 1843.

Fuller’s book reflects a myriad of influences, especially from those most known for their Romantic writings. Jacques Jean Rousseau’s ideas of “The Noble Savage,” Edmund Burke’s theory of the sublime, Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s …