Critical and Cultural Studies Commons^™

Survey Attitudes Toward Stem Cell Research, Ejinkonye C. Anekwe

Theses and Dissertations

In the following research study, a self-administered questionnaire was utilized to assess opinions regarding embryonic stem cell research based on three objectives: willingness to accept stem cells, educational background, and religion. A total of 1 13 fixed-alternative questionnaires were distributed to a diverse group of respondents. Nonprobability sampling using the accidental approach was performed. Support of stem cell research was dependent on Question 9, which asked what people thought about the cloning of human embryonic stem cells. The data revealed that most respondents from all groups surveyed opposed stem cell research. Neither education nor religion was a major determinant in …

'There Shall Be No Discernible Traces Left': The Invisible Butler In Ishiguro's "The Remains Of The Day", Marc A. Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

This paper draws its title from an anecdote Stevens, the butler in The Remains of the Day (1989), recounts to illustrate the primary attribute for servants: the ability to perform duties without leaving any discernible traces. Mrs. D.C. Webster, an American married into British “old money,” expresses astonishment at the treatment of servants during an interview for the documentary, The Secret World of Fame and Fortune. Mrs. Webster “had a staff of twelve . . . They would do everything for you. If you took a sweater off, it would disappear. If they were too loud or if they were …

The Latin American Innovative Novel Of The 1920s: A Comparative Reassessment, Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her paper, "The Latin American Innovative Novel of the 1920s: A Comparative Reassessment," Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez examines four early twentieth-century novels from four different Latin American countries. Coonrod Martínez pays particular attention to their innovation and rebellious breaking with tradition in the attempt to create new narrative. The paper includes comparisons of Arqueles Vela, Roberto Arlt, Martín Adán, and Pablo Palacio, and their novels of the 1920s, with works by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, William Carlos Williams, Upton Sinclair, Ernest Hemingway, and Ezra Pound. In the paper, Coonrod Martínez also compares these early novels to celebrated novels of the …

Towards A Map Of The Current Critical Debate About Latin American Cultural Studies, Julio Ortega

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his paper, "Towards a Map of the Current Critical Debate about Latin American Cultural Studies," Julio Ortega surveys the shifting disciplinary, critical, and methodological paradigms used to study Latin American culture in both the United States and Latin America. Describing the post-theoretical period as a moment when grand analytical models are abandoned in favor of microanalyses, Ortega sees great potential in this new paradigm shift. In his paper, Ortega pays particular attention to the ways that the field of cultural studies has emerged and transformed in Latin American academic inquiry and he considers the disavowal of master critical models …

The Villain At The Center: Infrapolitical Borges, Alberto Moreiras

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In "The Villain at the Center: Infrapolitical Borges," Alberto Moreiras revisits the Argentinian ideology of "emancipation of the fatherland" on the basis of a re-reading of Jorge Luis Borges's short-story "The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero." Moreiras begins by referring to Paul de Man's comment that Borges's essays were like PMLA essays. Moreiras suggests that, concerning essays, the more deceptive the more honest and less devious they are; and, therefore, the less devious the more devious. He then considers this notion as he surveys recent work on "The Theme of the Traitor and the Hero" by Josefina Ludmer, …

Anxieties Of Impotence: Cuban Americas In New York City, Christina Marie Tourino

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her paper, "Anxieties of Impotence: Cuban Americas in New York City, " Christina Marie Tourino seeks a basis for comparison between Latin American literatures and Latino literatures of the United States. Such groups have rarely been compared in the past because they are considered part of the same literary "family." However, Tourino argues that owing to the flows of capital driven by global pressures, literatures between and among Latin Americans and Latinos hail from such culturally heterogeneous sites and are made over by so many relocations that they do call for comparative projects. Instead of comparing texts across national …

A Historical Account Of Difference: A Comparative History Of The Literary Cultures Of Latin America, Mario J. Valdés

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "A Historical Account of Difference: A Comparative History of the Literary Cultures of Latin America," Mario J. Valdés addresses the well-recognized limitations of literary history as historical research. Valdés outlines the theoretical thinking that has guided the editors of The Oxford Comparative History of Latin American Literary Cultures to plan, organize, and complete the first history of literary culture of Latin America. The project is comparative, recognizing the radical diversity of the continent while at the same time it is an open-ended history that informs but does not attempt to provide a totalizing account of more than …

Comparative Literature And Latin American Studies: From Disarticulation To Dialogue, Sophia A. Mcclennen

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her paper, "Comparative Literature and Latin American Studies: From Disarticulation to Dialogue," Sophia A. McClennen surveys the profound changes that characterize Latin American cultural studies today. McClennen reads these changes in light of recent transformations in the fields of comparative literature and cultural studies and suggests that scholars in these fields are now in a position to embark on productive dialogue and exchange. Before such interaction takes place, however, McClennen cautions, we should recall why there has historically been little intellectual exchange between comparatists and scholars of Latin American literature. Barriers to exchange between these areas have been: The …

Latin American And Comparative Literature, Roberto González Echevarría

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his paper, "Latin American and Comparative Literature," Roberto González Echevarría asks whether comparative literature, a literary discipline dedicated to the proposition that linguistic boundaries must be transcended, can overcome the "cultural arrogance" of the "Eurocentrism" that he believes pervades it currently. González Echevarría argues that if it is to endure, comparative literature will have to undergo "a truly pitiless redefinition," one that effectively displaces "the hegemonic powers of nineteenth-century Europe" and that Latin American literature, by the nature of its historical development on the margins of these "hegemonic" texts and traditions, could -- and should -- play a central …

Latin American Studies: Literary, Cultural, And Comparative Theory, Román De La Campa

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In "Latin American Studies: Literary, Cultural, and Comparative Theory," Román de la Campa explores the post-1989 era of Latin American literary studies, particularly the way in which theoretical production has responded to the collapse of left-wing state projects and the growing influence of market forces in academia. De la Campa suggests that in this context it becomes even more important to study the different ways in which national and regional imaginaries continue to shape Latin American literary studies in both Latin America and the United States. He asks whether we are witnessing the onset of new paradigms better able to …

Introduction To Comparative Cultural Studies And Latin America, Sophia A. Mcclennen, Earl E. Fitz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

The Canon Is El Boom, Et. Al., Or The Hispanic Difference, Gene H. Bell-Villada

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, Gene H. Bell-Villada's "The Canon is el Boom, et. al., or the Hispanic Difference," argues that the rich, globally acclaimed, foundational yet contestatory prose literature produced in Latin America allows teachers and scholars of Spanish to teach what is essentially the "canon" via work that is still fresh, yet historically provocative. Bell-Villada argues that in a time of reconsidering the importance of literature in literature programs, programs of Spanish language and culture should continue to teach this rich cultural legacy. The average U. S. student's condescension toward Spanish and Latin American culture can be transformed to respect …

First Peoples Of The Americas And Their Literature, Gordon Brotherston, Lúcia De Sá

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their paper, "First Peoples of the Americas and Their Literature," Gordon Brotherston and Lúcia de Sá turn their attention to the indigenous literature of the Americas. They point out that concerted attempts to edit, translate, and publish the main examples or "classics" of Native American literature began little more than a century ago. Since that time, more than a dozen major cosmogonies have appeared, some of them in editions, which seriously attempt to trace back to pre-Cortesian antecedents. Outlining key classics and the ways that these texts have been disseminated, Brotherston and Sá elaborate on how this rich tradition …

Spanish American And Brazilian Literature In Inter-American Perspective: The Comparative Approach, Earl E. Fitz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Bibliography Of Scholarship In Comparative Latin American Culture And Literature, Sophia A. Mcclennen

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

A Descriptive Study Of Asian Student Preferences Concerning Cross-Cultural Communication In University Settings, Maki Kawatani

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Maki Kawatani on May 28, 2002.

Monstrous Youth In Suburbia: Disruption And Recovery Of The American Dream, Kristen Hoerl

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Although the American Dream myth idealizes youth who grow up in suburbia as culture types of imminent success, the Columbine High School shootings demonstrated that all not suburban youth will grow up to succeed. The extensive news media coverage of the tragedy reflects broader anxieties about the declining status of the suburbs in American society. In the wake of the shootings, the news media created a myth of monstrous youth in suburbia that functioned to repair suburbanites’ waning faith in the myth of the American Dream.

Mechanical Angel: Carolyn Forché And The Material Projection Of Messianic History, Alan Clinton

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The work of Carolyn Forché has always retained a political edge, with works such as the exploration of her Czech background in Gathering the Tribes (1976) and her account of visits to El Salvador in The Country Between Us (1981). Forché has been one of the leading poets who, in her own words, has combatted the self-censorship operative among American poets and writers that seemed to preclude writing about...historical events when those events were still unsafe (qtd. in Stein 147). Her third book of poems The Angel of History (published 13 years later), however, represents a new turn …

On Jean Baudrillard's Impossible Exchange, Liam Mcnamara

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In many ways, Jean Baudrillard has never really attracted the critical attention that he deserves; his early brilliant books, such as For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign (1981) and The Mirror of Production (1975) remain resolutely out of print, perhaps because they do not accord with his recent high profile in the media. The hermetic obscurantism of these older texts repels a more casual reader, steeped as they are in poststructuralist theory and remote Marxist anthropology. They are also more rigorously scholarly than books such as Impossible Exchange, and therefore a less pleasurable …

A Revaluation Of Pasolini's Salò, A. Robert Lauer

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his study "A Revaluation of Pasolini's Salò" A. Robert Lauer argues that in his last film, Salò o Le centoventi giornate di Sodoma, Pasolini deals specifically with Fascism as substance and system, as well as -- structurally and intentionally -- with the Sadeanism of Les 120 Journées de Sodome. Morever, as a self-consuming artifact, in Salò Pasolini condemns simultaneously the excesses and failures of the postmodern state and advances the concept of a new peratology based on a greater sense of personal and historical responsibility. To demonstrate his points, Lauer refers to four cinematographic techniques that …

Courting Desire And The (Al)Lure Of David E. Kelley's Ally Mcbeal, Kathleen Kelly Baum

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article"Courting Desire and the (Al)lure of David E. Kelley's Ally McBeal" Kathleen Kelly Baum compares the tropes of desire and the law in David E. Kelley's television series Ally McBeal with similar motifs extracted from Lacanian theory. In her study, Baum explores the psychological and social implications of thematic characterizations and situations from the television series' five seasons by engaging Lacan's premise that subjective identity results from an economic relation between self and other -- a relation that is continuously mediated by symbolization and governed by social mores and cultural imperatives. In addition, Baum traces ways in which …

Literary Translation In Britain And Selective Xenophobia, Eric Dickens

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Literary Translation in Britain and Selective Xenophobia," Eric Dickens discusses the fact that fewer translations of works of contemporary prose, poetry, and essays appear in Great Britain than perhaps anywhere else in Europe. Dickens attributes this shortfall to various factors, including poor language teaching and an indifference to foreign languages in general, but also to a degree of smugness with regard to literature written in English being "the best in the world." In his study Dickens covers such areas as the availability of literary translations in bookshops, the attitudes of publishers, and the effect of prizes on …

Wrestling And Popular Culture, Dalbir S. Sehmby

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Wrestling and Popular Culture" Dalbir S. Sehmby investigates a phenomenon of television culture. Wrestling has been for a long time now a main feature of television with a sizable audience. However, scholars in popular culture, audience studies, or television studies have paid little attention to this phenomenon and Dalbir argues that the study of wrestling in popular culture ought to be of interest to scholars of culture. In his discussion, Dalbir addresses notions of high art versus low art along with notions of high television versus low television. He continues with a discussion of the recent history …

Querying Komparatistik: Recent Books By Corbineau-Hoffmann, Konstantinovic, And O'Sullivan, Wendy C. Nielsen

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Comparative Literature As A Messenger Of Diversity: New Books By Cassola, Durisin And Gnisci, And Kushner And Pageaux, Nicoletta Pireddu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Contradictions Of Interaction For Wives Of Elderly Husbands With Adult Dementia, Leslie A. Baxter, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Tamara D. Golish, Loreen N. Olson

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The researchers used a dialectical framework to examine interviews with wives whose elderly husbands experienced adult dementia from Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD), centering on how wives coped communicatively with their husbands’ illness. These “married widows” experienced a primary contradiction between their husbands’ physical presence and cognitive/emotional absence. Interwoven with the presence-absence contradiction were three additional contradictions: certainty-uncertainty, openness-closedness, and past-present. Results describe the ways these wives communicatively negotiated the web of contradictions as they interacted in the present with husbands they once knew. Applications for practitioners and caregivers working with ADRD patients and their wives, including formal and …

“The Policy Exists But You Can’T Really Use It”: Communication And The Structuration Of Work-Family Policies, Erika L. Kirby, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Although work-family benefits are increasingly important organizational policies, limited research addresses the impact of communication on benefit utilization. However, communication is significant because the perceived appropriateness of work-family benefits emerges through interaction. For example, when coworkers complain about “picking up the slack” for those using family leave, their discourse may impact future decisions of other workers regarding whether they utilize the work-family benefits available to them. We apply Giddens’ (1984) Structuration Theory to examine organizational members’ discursive responses to conditions (and contradictions) present in utilizing work-family benefits in a governmental organization. We argue the daily discursive practices of individuals can …

The Rise Of Mass Culture Theory And Its Effect On Golden Age Detective Fiction, Sarah Jean Trainin

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis will explore the segregation of detective fiction from the general fiction market between 1920 and 1940.

Monstrous Youth In Suburbia: Disruption And Recovery Of The American Dream, Kristen Hoerl

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Although the American Dream myth idealizes youth who grow up in suburbia as culturetypes of imminent success, the Columbine High School shootings demonstrated that all not suburban youth will grow up to succeed. The extensive news media coverage of the tragedy reflects broader anxieties about the declining status of the suburbs in American society. In the wake of the shootings, the news media created a myth of monstrous youth in suburbia that functioned to repair suburbanites’ waning faith in the myth of the American Dream.

Performing Marriage: Marriage Renewal Rituals As Cultural Performance, Leslie A. Baxter, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This interpretive study examined how the marriage renewal ritual reflects the social construction of marriage in the United States. Two culturally prominent ideologies of marriage were interwoven in our interviews of 25 married persons who had renewed their marriage vows: (a) a dominant ideology of community and (b) a more muted ideology of individualism. The ideology of community was evidenced by a construction of marriage featuring themes of public accountability, social embeddedness, and permanence. By contrast, the ideology of individualism constructed marriage around themes of love, choice, and individual growth.