Literature in English, North America Commons^™

To Hell For A Heavenly Cause: The Re-Emergence Of The Harrowing Of Hell Motif In Twentieth Century Literature, Margaret Shepherd

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

To define the scope of this study, therefore, Harrowing of Hell imagery will be thought of as those symbols peculiar to the pseudo-biblical story, with redemptive activity and triumph as distinguishing criteria. The hero is a Christ figure who has already achieved a degree of self-mastery. His descent into hell represents an act of redemption for others, with victory as the outcome. This delimitation, it will be seen, is not impossibly restrictive. A survey of contemporary literature indicates that Wasserman's use of the descent motif with redemptive implications is far from an isolated instance. Edward Albee in The Zoo Story …

Themes Of Decay In The Novels Of John Updike, Renae Eaden

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Although Updike has been recognized as one of the few contemporary writers worthy of serious consideration, critics and reviewers are not in accord about the acclaim that he has received. They cannot agree that Updike has anything worthwhile to say about the fundamental questions basic to contemporary fiction. Updike has been accused of dealing in sentimentalities and trivialities, while touching only slightly problems important to the human condition. Most critics agree that his style is excellent, but some feel that Updike is using this particular skill to cover up the shallowness of his thought. However, throughout Updike's novels major themes …

A Comparative Study Of Existential Attitudes In John Dos Passos’ Three Soldiers And Norman Mailer’S The Naked And The Dead, Vernon Knuckles Jr.

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis is devoted primarily to examining existential factors present in Three Soldiers and The Naked and the Dead, but it is evident that naturalism and Marxism make their presence known in both novels. Three Soldiers and The Naked and the Dead suggest through their existential overtones that indeed existentialism is a vital force which is clearly exerting itself in twentieth-century literature.

This study supports the viewpoint of a growing number of modern authors’ works which have concentrated on the individual’s struggle to find meaning and fulfillment in a complex world – a world of nuclear devices, campus unrest, …

Folk Elements In The Fiction Of James Still, Edith Walker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study attempts to complement earlier studies of Still’s literary art such as that of Dean Cadle and Katherine Craf by pointing out the integral use of folk elements in his fiction. The methodology combined field studies with investigation of the works of folklorists and historians and novelists whose writings center around the same general region as do those of Still

For the purposes of this study “folk elements” will denote the orally transmitted traditions of the common people of a particular region. In this case, the “folk” are a rural people who have remained relatively stable for several generations …

Courtly Love Elements In The Child Ballads: A Study In Origins, Fannie Lewis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The traditional ballad, the genre of the above poetry, has been a subject of much controversy and speculation, especially regarding its origin. The problem of origin is not likely to be solved unless much more evidence is found. Among the many theories are communal authorship, and individual poet; humble and oral origin, and sophisticated and literary origin. Studies of linguistics, of ballad refrain, and of carole continue the attempt to discover ballad genesis. However, a very different approach perhaps can be used to determine the origin of some ballads, particularly the romantic ballads; that approach is to use the courtly …

Edgar Allan Poe's Criticism Of The Novel, James Gage

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Edgar Allan Poe wrote forty-three critical reviews of novels during the period 1_835 to 1848 that he was associated with the various literary journals in the East. And, although his best known critical works concern themselves with the tale and with poetry, his statements regarding the novel are of sufficient quantity to merit scholarly research. Yet investigation of the major bibliographic sources reveals this to be not at all the case. Thus, this thesis snail endeavor to place some substance in the void of scholarship concerning Poe's criticism lf the novel with the hope that this substance might provide ample …

Hawthorne's Theory Of Art: A Reflection Of His Theory, Linda Thomas

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In order to attempt an analysis of the success of the symbol and the method of achievement, it is necessary to understand the major intentions of Hawthorne's art and his concept of the symbol; the second chapter explains these theories and with this knowledge, the symbols selected were evaluated.

Religious Meaning In T.S. Eliot's Plays, Paula Helm

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Critics of Eliot often deal with his religious themes, but not with sympathy. In general, it seems that they are not at ease with Eliot's religious views; so the tendency has been not to give them a careful, objective treatment. The purpose of my study of the plays is to attempt such an unbiased examination, to keep in view precisely what Eliot dues say and the religious meanings that are clearly implied. Whether Eliot's ideas as they stand may be compatible or incompatible with the current thought climate is not, after all, the most important thing. He is a serious …

Primary Concerns In The Poetry Of Robert Frost, La Verne Murphy

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study is to classify the poems' themes and to reveal frequency patterns, thereby disclosing Frost's heaviest interests. The study is limited to an analysis of the poems contained in the Complete Poems, which includes most of his poetry. The Masque of Reason and The Masque of Mercy, appearing at the end of the Complete Poems, are not included in the study because they are allegorical poem-plays of the Job and Jonah stories respectively. While the study is confined primarily to an interpretation of the poems themselves, important critical studies relating to the themes are …

Moral And Spiritual Values In A High School Anthology Of Literature, Terrence Eugene Kelsay

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

For some years now the need for the emphasis of moral and spiritual values in our public schools has been recognized by the Kentucky Department of Education. The department has given encouragement to numerous research projects and summer workshops held for the purpose of finding an answer to the problem of emphasizing moral and spiritual values in public education. The concern for this need has informally become known as the “Kentucky Movement.”

This study was not undertaken with the thought of introducing new programs in our high schools. The teaching of moral and spiritual values should be done through the …

The Mcguffey Readers, Louise Lively

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The textbook, an important factor in public school education, is nowhere so wonderfully developed as in the United States. It occupies a more important position in our educational system than it does in the systems of many foreign countries. In fact, most of the teaching in our schools today revolves around the textbook - the cause of much criticism by many writers. They deplore the fact that both our teachers and pupils are dependent on textbooks.

Kentucky Schools In Fiction, Mariema Rowlison

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

There have been many reports made on education in Kentucky since it became a state, but these factual reports are one-dimensional. They present the known, concrete facts, but do not give the true picture any more than flat drawings of a landscape is a true representation of the beauty and feeling of the landscape itself. In this study of the reflection of the schools of Kentucky in the mirror of fiction I have tried to present the scene in perspective, to give it color and to add the fourth dimension of human character.

Stephen Collins Foster & His Folk-Songs, Mary Chisholm

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Every American knows some of Stephen Collins Foster's songs, but not everyone who sings My Old Kentucky Home and Old Folks at Home realizes that it was he who wrote those songs. Of the two hundred songs and compositions which Foster published, at least fifteen are constantly sung. Since these songs voice emotions which are fundamental to mankind, they have become more important than the composer himself. For this reason they may be called folk-songs, and because they voice so truly the spirit of America, America is proud to claim them as her own.

The title of this thesis, Stephen …

Irvin S. Cobb & The Judge Priest Stories, Katherine Logsdon

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The following study deals with that phase of the life of Irvin S. Cobb that had direct bearing on his creation of Judge Priest; with the causes that influenced him to write the Judge Priest stories; with the life of William Sutton Bishop, who was the original of the fictitious character Judge Priest; and with the stories of Judge Priest and his people.

Young Ewing Allison, Mary Shutt

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Probably no other period in American history has been more productive of romance, strife, bravery, aggressiveness, and conflicting ideas of thought than the period from 1850 to 1865.

One who was fortunate enough to be born in the early years of that period, would have been old enough by 1865 for those various experiences to have branded his future life. Young E. Allison was so fortunate. He was born in Henderson, Kentucky, on December 23, 1853 and was named after his father, who was county judge and county clerk.

Annie Fellows Johnston & The Little Colonel Books, Gladys Wilson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this thesis is to study the original background and influences of the Little Colonel Series, their wide popularity, and the criticisms made by friends and critics. In my research work it soon became evident that Mrs. Johnston's own life and observations played too great a part in her books to be omitted; so two full chapters of her life have preceded the study of the series.

Edward Eggletson: Sources And Backgrounds Of His Novels, Anne Barnes

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Since Edward Eggleston’s materials for his Hoosier novels are based upon his own experiences and observations, it is necessary to know something of him in his actual environment. To understand how the events and conditions equipped him to be the fictional historian of this part of the Middle West, a rapid survey of his biography is essential.

The Kentucky Novels Of James Lane Allen, Hessie Brister Ivey

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Kentucky, following in the footsteps of her parent state, Virginia, has given to America some of her most distinguished statesmen. She gave to the Confederacy its only president, Jefferson Davis, and to the Federal Union its war president, Abraham Lincoln. Housed in a noble pile of imperishable granite, on its exact original site, near Hodgenville, the humble log cabin in which Lincoln was born is now preserved as a national shrine. At Fairview a towering obelisk marks the birthplace of Jefferson Davis.

These two statesmen were born, one year between them, of the same pioneering stock. One moved north of …

Early Literary Magazines In Kentucky, 1800-1900, Robert M. Ferry

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study of the literary magazines published in Kentucky between 1800 and 1900 consists of material derived from the following sources: The Louisville Public Library; ti1e State and Kentucky State Historical Society libraries, Frankfort; the Lexington Public Library, Transylvania, and University of Kentucky libraries, Lexington; the public libraries of Paris, Covington, Newport, Cincinnati, and Nashville; the Western Kentucky State Teachers College library, Bowling Green; and also the newspaper files of the Nashville Banner, the Lexington Herald, the Paris Kentuckian-Citizen, and the Courier-Journal.

I wish to make it clear that this study is of literary magazines only. Other phases might have …

Alice Hegan Rice, Lena Collins Ellis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Biography of Alice Hegan Rice, author from Louisville, Kentucky.

Lucy Furman: Life & Works, Julia Neal

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Four years subsequent to the close of the great conflict between the North and the South there was born in the neutral state of Kentucky, a roman who was destined to serve with great earnestness and to immortalize with great talent the mountain people of her native state. It is through a sympathetic portrayal of the characteristics of the Southern Highlanders that she has achieved an enviable place as a local color writer in American letters.

Nancy Huston Banks: Her Life & Works, Velma Hines

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Several books have been written about the various natural resources of the state of Kentucky. A number of excellent histories of the state have been published with descriptions of the pioneer and outlaw days when the state numbered its inhabitants by the very few thousands. The industrial, economic, and social activities of the Kentucky people have been written about for several years. But Kentucky literature has had practically no recognition. The average person has known very little about Kentucky writers who probably have deserved to be placed among those in the Hall of Fame. From the pen of Kentucky writers …

Alan Seeger & Joyce Kilmer, American World War Poets, Mary Gardner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

American war poetry did swell to greater volume, but much has been written already about this poetry and much more will be written before it has passed the test of time and found its proper rank in the literature of the ages. Numerous collections and classifications have been made, but, strange to say, very little attention has been paid to the poets themselves. We have brief sketches or scattered magazine articles on the lives of some of the war poets, but it seems that the most interesting phase of work has been neglected, that of making a detailed study of …