Literature in English, North America Commons^™

Pecan Grove Review Volume 17, St. Mary's University

Pecan Grove Review

Creative writings by students, faculty, and staff of the St. Mary's University community.

Magic At The Crossroads: The Rise Of The Video Essay, Morganne Tinsley August

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the birth, rise in popularity, and evolution of the video essay, a subgenre of the essay found recently in online literary journals. Chapter one provides a brief history of the alphabetic essay as it expands to include photo essays, audio essays, and essay-films. The second chapter outlines the history of the online literary journal and John Bresland’s role in the introduction of the video essay as it appears in online journals. Chapter three contains an examination of the way image, text, and sound function in video essays and the tools and strategies essayists are using to create …

“You Can't Ever Find A Place That's Nice And Peaceful”: The Adolescent Identity In J. D. Salinger’S The Catcher In The Rye, Whitney Thacker

Masters Theses

Many consider The Catcher in the Rye the most poignant and popular story of adolescence in American literature, challenged only perhaps by Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Reading reviews, examining the public reception, and uncovering depths of research would evidence this well. However, the value of the novel rests not in its popularity—a simple sign of its inherent value—but in its ability to resonate truth. More than merely telling a story, Salinger creates a life, or at the very least a glimpse of a life, through the actions and attitude of his ornery adolescent character Holden Caulfield. This …

The Color Of Memory: Reimagining The Antebellum South In Works By James Mcbride Through The Use Of Free Indirect Discourse, Janel L. Holmes

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the use of interior narrative techniques such as free indirect discourse and internal monologue in two of James McBride’s neo-slave narratives, Song Yet Sung (2008) and The Good Lord Bird (2013). Very limited critical attention has been given to these neo-slave narratives that illustrate McBrides attention to characterization and focalized narration. In these narratives McBride builds upon the revelations he explores in his bestselling memoir, The Color of Water (1996, 2006), where he learns to disassociate race and character. What he discovers about not only his mother, but also himself, inspires his re-imagination of the people who …

Ethics Of Counter Narrative In Delillo’S Falling Man, Qingji He

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Ethics of Counter-Narrative in DeLillo's Falling Man" Qingji He analyzes Don DeLillo's counter-narrative in his post-9/11 novel Falling Man. The objective is to show how ethical dimensions function fundamentally in formulating an appropriate counter-narrative and why DeLillo's counter-narrative echoes views expressed in his "In the Ruins of the Future." He argues that DeLillo's counter-narrative entails the necessity of ethical consciousness and responsibility. It is Giorgio Morandi's still life paintings instead of media representation that become pivotal in Lianne's transformative and redemptive process after the terrorist attack. Similarly, David Janiak's performance art and Richard Drew's picture …

Glycemic Control Among Type 2 Diabetics, Abdi H. Nur

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between diabetics’ socioeconomic status, self-efficacy, education levels, gender, and ethnicity and their medication and physical activity (i.e., healthy exercise) adherence regarding to their physicians and health educators’ counsels. Also, the study investigated whether or not the respondents adhered to medication prescription and physical activity routines. The study used a non-probability convenience sampling technique to recruit 102 type 2 diabetics (female, n = 65 and male, n = 37) from Indiana and Illinois Counties surrounding Vigo County, Indiana. The respondents reported their self-care activities throughout the seven days prior to …

Tobacco And Tar Babies: The Trickster As A Cultural Hero In Winnebago And African American Myth, Catherine Squibb

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores the trickster character through the lens of his role as a cultural hero. The two characters that I chose to examine are from North American myth, specifically Winnebago Hare and Brer Rabbit. These two characters represent the duality of the trickster while simultaneously embodying the lauded abilities of the hero. Through their actions these two characters shape culture through the very action of disrupting societal norms.

Balance Of Fragile Things By Olivia Chadha, Nicole Bartley

The Goose

Nicole Bartley reviews Balance of Fragile Things by Olivia Chadha.

An Exploratory Study On The Impact Of Mobile Wireless Technologies In A Teacher Education Classroom, Anupama Ghattu

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mobile technology is revolutionizing the American higher education system. Integrating mobile technology into college classrooms is changing the teaching and learning process. Today’s millennial generation students are tech savvy and using their mobile devices to learn and explore in many possible ways. Mobile technology devices can be used as effective tools to enhance teaching and learning. The ubiquitous nature of these mobile devices with wireless capabilities makes learning possible instantly anywhere and everywhere with easy access to information for everyone. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of integrating mobile wireless technologies (MWT) on preservice teachers’ attitudes …

The Experiences Of African-Born Women Faculty And Administrators At Colleges And Universities In The United States, Oyibo H. Afoaku

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to document the experiences of African-born women faculty and administrators at colleges and universities in the United States. The study explored the factors that motivated African-born women to immigrate to and extend their stay in the United States beyond completion of their education; factors they perceive as constraint on their quest for self-empowerment and identity as foreign students, college instructors, and/or administrators, and parents; and factors that have enabled them to adapt to their host culture and achieve their educational and professional goals even though they had to contend with multiple challenges associated with …

Shifting Identity/Shifting Discourse: Re‐Naming In Contemporary Literature By Zadie Smith, Jeffrey Eugenides, And Salman Rushdie, Jennifer Krengel

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Re­‐naming one’s self is an empowering act of self­‐definition; re­‐naming others is an attempt to codify, contain and censure identity. Re­‐naming emerges as a compelling theme in contemporary transnational literature, appearing in three notable texts: Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000), Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex (2002) and Salman Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton (2012). These texts depict stories of diaspora, the forced migration or dispersal away from a homeland. Communities of diaspora negotiate between two cultures: an originary culture and the culture of the new geographic location. From these negotiations emerge a third, hybridized identity that reimagines the majority culture and challenges structural …

(Re)Constructing The Hybrid: Negotiating Transcultural South Asian Women's Subjectivity, Zoya Haroon

English Honors Projects

My project explores the transcultural South Asian woman as postcolonial hybrid subject. I do so by comparing two novels by transnational South Asian feminist authors (Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee and Anita and Me by Meera Syal) and using ethnographic work to complement my literary analysis of hybridity with the lived experience of South Asian women at Macalester. I contextualize my project within postcolonial and women of color feminist theory. Ultimately, I seek to contribute to the existing literature on transcultural South Asian women’s subjectivity and to place their experience alongside that of other women of color.

Honors project in English …

Struggling Towards Salvation: Narrative Structure In James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain, Darren Spirk

Student Publications

This paper argues that John Grimes, the protagonist of James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, represents the struggle inherent in the path towards salvation and holds the potential ability to break down the binaries that create this struggle. Of particular interest is a similarity in the narrative framing of John’s story with Jesus Christ's, as told in the four Gospels. The significance of both their symbolic power is dependent on a multitude of narrative viewpoints, in John’s case the tragic pasts offered of his aunt, father and mother in the novel’s medial section. Their stories inform the …

Notes On How To Rework A Ph.D. Dissertation For Publication As A Book, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

The Novel Of Sentiment In A Short Story: Reflections On Teaching “Theresa”, Adam Kotlarczyk

Faculty Publications & Research

I introduced “Theresa” in between units on “The Age of Reason” and “American Romanticism.” Thus it was foregrounded by works like Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and Phyllis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” and followed by stories by Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe. Strictly speaking, this puts “Theresa” slightly out of sequence; its serialization in 1828 precedes by at least ten years the works of Poe, Hawthorne, and Irving that we study. Despite this, the text functioned well as a transitional piece, although I would consider moving it deeper into the Romantic unit. The exotic setting, relative to our other …

Features Of Independence: Teaching “Theresa - A Haytien Tale”, Michael P. Dean

Faculty Publications & Research

One of the core beliefs of the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) states that we believe that “diverse perspectives enrich understanding and inspire discovery and creativity,” and in keeping with that aim, I chose to participate in the Just Teach One: Early African American Print project. As a school primarily focused on STEM subjects, IMSA still offers a robust English curriculum that values and supports a diverse literary canon, and our incoming sophomores are asked to complete a two-part Literary Explorations course that features America texts from colonial era up to the 21^st century.

Expanding The Literary Enterprise: How We Experience The Texts Of The Advanced Placement English Literature And Composition Curriculum, Molly Ostrow

Honors Theses

How we read the texts of the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition curriculum.

Recontextualizing Pudd'nhead: Minstrelsy, Race, And The Performance Of Progress, Collin A. Skeen

Theses and Dissertations--English

This thesis examines how Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson does much more than simply bridge the recurring racial and cultural behaviors of the antebellum South with the reality of late-19^th century America; instead, I argue that Twain’s novella acts as a performative text, participating in a dialogue with a number of cultural forces—literature, theatre, politics, and commercialism—as a way of commenting on popular conceptualizations of late-nineteenth century social progress. Using the critical perspective of Performance Studies, it is clear that Twain’s novel is demonstrating how nineteenth century America used certain sets of symbols and signs to perform race, ultimately critiquing the …

Pecan Grove Review Volume 16, St. Mary's University

Pecan Grove Review

Creative writings by students, faculty, and staff of the St. Mary's University community.

Public Relations: Diaspora, Media, And The State(S) Of American Literature, Nathan Allen Jung

Dissertations

Like any good public relations campaign, this dissertation aims to offer a persuasive interpretation of certain key facts. The facts, as I see them, are as follows: first, a great number of contemporary novels and poems explore the personal and social consequences of diasporic migration. Second, these texts, along with their print and electronic paratexts, share a pervasive interest in media. And third, these works are rarely read in conversation with one another, despite their mutual concern for migration and media. Owing to this last point in particular, scholarship has failed to fully address the broader media theories developed in …

How Effective Superintendents Select And Develop Principals, Rob Willman

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine how effective superintendents select and develop principals. Through this qualitative study, the perceptions of four superintendents explored several areas: a) the process by which principals are selected which includes qualities desired, interviewing, education, and internal versus external candidates and b) the professional development that takes place after the principal has been selected. The superintendents in the study were located in the state of Indiana and met the study criteria outlined in Chapter 3. The topics of related literature reviewed included the characteristics of instructional leaders, succession management and studies of professional …

An Examination Of Principals In Effective High-Poverty Middle Schools With High Achievement, Rhonda J. Mull

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Ipv6 Readiness Of End-User Enterprises In The North Carolina Eastern Region, John Pickard

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On February 3rd, 2011, the Internet Addressing and Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated the last five /8 blocks of IPv4 addresses to each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). Since that event, four of the five RIRs have depleted their IPv4 allocations and began operating under final IPv4 address depletion policies. The exhaustion of the IPv4 address pools maintained by the registries means that IPv4 is now a legacy protocol and that all future Internet growth will be over IPv6. This exhaustion also means that organizations must take action to accommodate IPv6 adoption or risk compromising business agility and continuity …

A Case Study Of Information System Security Compliance Of Small Medical And Dental Practices, Debra Landry Folse

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Small medical and dental practices must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, and Title XIII Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. The case study, utilizing interviews, observations, and existing documentation of two medical and the two dental practices, not only analyzed the compliance solution choices made involving procedures and technologies, but also analyzed the emotion aspects of fear of non-compliance, perceived confidence in compliance, and the primary and secondary appraisals of the compelled compliance. Although compliance is not an easy process, …

The Influence Of Underlying Factors And The Relationship Of Hiv/Aids Among African Americans In Shreveport, Louisiana And Surrounding Areas, Frederick T. Ellis Sr.

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The significance of this study was to evaluate multiple underlying factors among African Americans in Shreveport, Louisiana and the influence of those factors on their relationship with HIV/AIDS. This is extremely important for two very reasons. First, in the past 30 years since the initial presentation of HIV/AIDS into society, a shift in the demographic of the infected individuals has resulted in African Americans becoming the new face of HIV/AIDS in the United States. Secondly, African Americans are only 12 to 13% of the United States population, but they represent more than 45% of all new HIV/AIDS cases reported annually. …

Obesity Among Young American Indian Adults In North Dakota, Abby Omahen

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Obesity among American Indian young adults is a significant health problem. There is an increase in the prevalence rate of diseases associated with obesity which tend to have high medical costs and high mortality rates. Fruit and vegetable consumption, exercise, gender and education are factors which could affect obesity among American Indians. Therefore, the primary purpose of the current study was to determine if there was an association between certain factors (fruit and vegetable consumption, exercise, gender and education level) and obesity among young American Indian adults in North Dakota. The secondary purpose was to determine if there was a …

“Aho! All My Relations:” Native Identity And Its Relationship To Psychological Well-Being, Jamie Ramsey

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is the first known study to examine the relationship between Native identity and psychological well-being, which is defined by Ryff in positive psychology as existential strengths. It is also the first known study to investigate the relationship between Native identity and blood quantum through quantitative measures. Overall, 199 Natives from two American Indian Centers, three Indiana powwows, and online from Facebook participated by completing the Ryff’s Scales of Psychological Well-being, Phinney’s Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, and demographic information. The main hypothesis was to explore whether any of the psychological well-being subscales (positive relations, autonomy, mastery of environment, self-acceptance, personal …

“Their Song Filled The Whole Night”: Not Without Laughter, Hinterlands Jazz, And Rural Modernity, Andy Oler

Publications

This essay reads the rural Midwest as a modern space in which the sounds and material apparatus of early-twentieth-century jazz music compose the cultural field of Langston Hughes’s 1930 novel Not Without Laughter. It argues that Not Without Laughter does not attempt to supplant the more conventional urban modernities of Harlem and Chicago. Rather, the novel constructs a rural alternative that forms ambivalence through accumulation, both filling and exceeding the novel’s spaces and the experiences of its characters. Approaching Hughes’s novel through the sonic ambivalences of modern rurality evidences how some authors transgressed the supposed boundaries of the Harlem …

An Exploratory Study Of Factors Affecting Retention Rates Of Freshmen In The College Of Technology At Indiana State University, Bhargavi Vemulapalli

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the factors affecting the retention rates of freshman students in the College of Technology (COT) at Indiana State University. Literature supports that factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and parental education are valid variables affecting the retention rates of freshman student populations across the United States. Also included in the list of valid retention variables are pre-college factors including high school curriculum, SAT/ACT scores, and high school GPA. Environmental factors such as living in dorms or being a commuter student, working on campus or off campus, and number of hours working per week are also …

Variables That Affect Graduation In A Community College, Cathy Jean Alsman

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined whether the use of variables—age, sex, remediation, and financial aid— could be used to predict persistence to graduation in a community college sample. The study also asked if these same variables could be used to predict number of semesters completed in this sample. Archival data were gathered from a community college with multiple campuses and a single state-wide accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Logistic regression, ordinary least squares regression, and Pearson r correlation were used to analyze data. Results suggested overall model significance in the logistic regression …