Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Zora Neale Hurston: The Voice Of The Goddess, Mella Davis

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Zara Neale Purston has re-emerged as an author of promise due to the re-appraisal of her works led by Alice Walker and Robert Hemenway. In both literary and folklore academic circles, Hurston's work has been reclaimed by African-American female scholars and writers, but still a significant study has yet to be done about her ethnographic contributions to folklore and her farsightedness in fieldwork methodology. This thesis seeks to validate her work as a folklorist, thereby dismissing the charges of popularization and amateurishness by re-examining her work. Mules and Men and Jonah's Gourd Vine are Hurston's two most influential folklore texts …

The Interlanguage Of Advanced Speakers: Implications & Suggestions, Madeline Garr

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis details a study of the interlanguage of advanced speakers of English as a Second Language. The purpose of the study was to see what errors these students made when speaking the language in a communicative environment. In approaching the issue of interlanguage, the writer surveys the research in language acquisition as well as in interlanguage, error analysis and language learning theories. Based on this research and the results of this study, the writer explores the implications of both the research and the study and offers suggestions to teachers of advanced conversation classes.

Stain Upon The Silence: Samuel Beckett’S Deconstructive Inventions, Leigh Howard

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In recent years, deconstruction theory has emerged as a key method for exploring public address, organizational culture, and literary discourse. Deconstruction theory encourages tearing apart hierarchy and established order to gain insights about the artifact being studied. Furthermore, the theory questions surface or superficial messages and encourages the reader to explore signals hidden below the surface. Deconstruction discounts context and places faith in experience.

Using the early plays of Samuel Beckett, this research explores deconstruction as a method to create messages. This new perspective transports deconstruction from a set of theoretical concepts into basic assumptions that enhance communication. This study …