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Absalom, Absalom! A Study of Structure
The conclusion drawn from this study is that the arrangement of material in Absalom, Absalom! is unified and purposeful. The structure evokes that despair that is the common denominator of mankind. It reveals both the bond between men and the separation of men; and though some of the most dramatic episodes in the novel picture the union of men in brotherly love, most of the material and certainly the arrangement of the material emphasize the estrangement of men. In addition, by juxtaposing chapters, each separated from the others by its own structural and thematic qualities, Faulkner places a burden of interpretation on the reader suggestive of the burden of despair that overwhelms the protagonists of the novel.
The American Southern Demogogue and His Effect on Personal Associates
The nature of the American Southern demagogue, best exemplified by Huey Pierce Long, is examined. Four novels which are based on Long's life: Sun in Capricorn by Hamilton Basso, Number One by John Dos Passos, A Lion Is in the Streets by Adria Locke Langley and All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, are used to exemplify literary representations of Long. First the individual personalities of the four demagogue characters are described. Next, the relationships of female associates to the demagogues are examined, then the relationships of male associates to them. The first conclusion is that virtually all associates of a demagogue, whether male or female, are in some manner affected by him. A second conclusion is that All the King's Men provides the best study of a Long-like character; its hero, Willie Stark, may consequently live longer in history than the real Huey Pierce Long.
An Analysis of Angus Wilson's "No Laughing Matter"
This thesis examines Angus Wilson's novels with particular attention to No Laughing Matter, 1967. The introductory overview of Wilson's first five novels and the examination of No Laughing Matter show that all Wilson's novels are concerned with his protagonists' capacity for self-deception and the ways deception limits freedom of choice. In No Laughing Matter six protagonists try to balance self-deception and freedom both in their lives and in the art forms which interest them. The thesis traces the lives of these six as they fail both as artists and as people. Chapter III of the thesis studies the relationship of fantasy to character in the novel. In No Laughing Matter particularly, the characters reflect the loss of liberty when individuals do not exercise their freedom to choose.
An Analysis of Conflicts in Mrs. Gaskell's "North and South"
Both contemporary and modern critics recognize the industrial, regional, and personal conflicts in North and South. There are, however, other conflicts which Mrs. Gaskell treats and resolves. This study emphasizes inner struggles resulting from repressive Victorian sexual mores. An examination of conflicts at a deeper -level than has previously been attempted clarifies motivations of individual characters, reveals a conscious and unconscious pattern within the novel and gives a fuller appreciation of Mrs. Gaskell's psychological insight. Included for discussion are examples of the Victorian feminine stereotype and the use of religion as sexual sublimation. A major portion of the paper concerns the growth of the heroine, Margaret Hale, from repressed sexuality to an acceptance of womanhood in Victorian society.
An Analysis of the Major Characteristics of American Black Humor Novels
This thesis serves to classify Black Humor as a philosophy, which holds that the world is meaningless and absurd, and as a literary technique. Historical origins are discussed and the idea is related to a reflection of the middle-class syndrome of twentieth century man. Close philosophical and literary relatives are presented and a pure work isn't defined. Black Humor literary characteristics are described in terms of style, theme, plot, setting, chronology, and characteristic ending. Black Humor characters are classified as "non-heroes" divided into four categories. Prevalent use and treatment of traditional forbidden subjects of sex, defecation, money, violence, emotionlessness, religion, death, and "illogical" logic are stressed. In summary, Cat's Cradle is examined in light of the Black Humor characteristics described and found to be other than a pure Black Humor work.
An Analysis of the Origin of the Nine Tales in Pickwick Papers
The purpose of this study is to determine whether each of the nine introduced tales in Pickwick Papers was written at the same time as the main narrative of the number in which the tale appears.
Ann Radcliffe: A Study in Popular Literary Taste
The purpose of this paper is to determine why Mrs. Radcliffe's gothic novels were popular with contemporary readers. Sources include reviews from eighteenth century periodicals, essays of early nineteenth century critics such as William Hazlitt and studies of her work by twentieth century critics. The thesis is organized in four chapters each of which discusses one aspect of her work which particularly pleased her contemporary reviewers and critics: her invention, her attitude toward superstition, her use of poetic justice, and her outlook on nature. These aspects of her work alone did not secure for her the popularity she enjoyed, but, when combined with her ability to create suspense, helped her become one of the most popular writers of her era.
An Annotated Bibliography of Lee, Otway, and Rowe, 1900-1974
To provide an annotated bibliography of criticism on the writings of Nathaniel Lee, Thomas Otway and Nicholas Rowe from 1900 to 1974 for students and scholars is the purpose of this study. The bibliography contains brief evaluations of each of the works, which are divided into the following categories: articles, books and chapters in books, and dissertations. An additional chapter includes those works which deal with two or more of the authors. The appendix contains a selected list of foreign language publications that concern the three playwrights.
Anti-Christian Elements in Thomas Hardy's Novels
A commonplace among Hardy critics is that as a young man Hardy lost his Christian faith and entered a serious religious disillusionment. The mainstream of Hardy criticism has followed the general consensus that Hardy suffered keenly as a result of this experience and looked back on Christianity with poignant nostalgia. If his view is not purely nostalgic, traditional criticism has insisted, then it seems at worst only ambivalent. The purpose of this dissertation is to argue that Hardy's attitude toward Christianity as revealed in his novels is not only not ambiguous, but, as a matter of fact, is specifically anti-Christian, often to the point of vehemence; that his treatment of various components of Christianity in his novels is aggressively anti-Christian; and that the feeling is so pronounced that the novels may be read as anti-Christian propagandistic tracts. This dissertation evaluates Hardy's cynical view of and attack on Christianity by examining his treatment of its symbols, such as its architecture, and its practitioners, both clergy and laity. Furthermore, since Hardy's attitude is shown not only in specific comments and particular situations but also in general tone, attention is directed toward the pervasive irony with which Hardy regards the entire panoply of Christianity. Although a few short stories and poems considered particularly relevant receive passing attention, this study is restricted primarily to a consideration of Hardy's fourteen novels. Moreover, this study notes the lack of continuity of development or logical intensification of Hardy's attitude toward Christianity during the twenty-four years spanning the time between the publication of his first novel, Desperate Remedies, in 1871 and the publication of his last novel, Jude the Obscure, in 1895.
Anti-Criticism
This thesis is concerned first with, establishing an appropriate vacancy into which an individual critical method might fit, and second, with defending that method.
Aspects of the Byronic Hero in Heathcliff
Wuthering Heights is the story of Heathcliff, a psychological study of an elemental man whose soul is torn between love and hate. The Byronic hero is the natural contact with the great heroic tradition in literature. This examination involves the consideration of the Byronic hero's relationship to the Gothic villain, the motivation behind the Byronic fatal revenge, and the phenomenon of Byronic supernatural manifestations.
The Attitude of Mexican-Americans Toward Their Texas Spanish
"The purpose of this study is to examine the attitude of Mexican Americans toward their Texas Spanish in order to determine if present educational policies are successful in promoting high self-concepts for Mexican-American students..the conclusion of this thesis [is] that a sizable number of Mexican-Americans do not have a positive self-image as speakers of their native language. It is suggested that the rejection of Spanish dialects which are different and distinct from the school standard is a major factor in causing a low self-image on the part of the speaker of a non-standard dialect."-- leaves 1,3.
The Beneficent Characters in William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha Novels
In William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha novels, a group of characters exists who possess three common characteristics--a closeness to mankind, a realization of the tragedy in life, and a positive response to this tragedy. The term beneficent is used to describe the twenty individuals who possess these traits. The characters are divided into two broad categories. The first includes the white and black primitives who innately possess beneficent qualities. The term primitive describes the individual who exhibits three additional traits--simplicity, nonintellectualism, and closeness to nature. The second group includes characters who must learn the attributes of beneficence in the course of the novel. All the beneficent characters serve as embodiments of the optimism found in Faulkner's fiction.
Bibliotherapy in the Junior High School
Since most teachers have little time to familiarize themselves with a variety of books, this thesis, containing annotations, is designed to acquaint them with a number of books in various areas and to give them an understanding of bibliotherapy, which is one tool of teaching that has been advanced as an aid to students for the past as well as for the future.
Black Playwrights in America 1858-1970
This study is a survey of plays of Negro authorship in America from 1858 to 1970. It is intended to give a historical view of the Negro effort in the drama and show general trends during the twentieth century. The paper is arranged chronologically, beginning with the first play by a Negro author in 1858 and continuing through the 1960's. Synopses of plays are offered, but very little historical or sociological information is given and little literary criticism is added.
The Bob-Wheel and Allied Stanza Forms in Middle English and Middle Scots Poetry
The purposes of this study were to formulate a definition of the "bob-wheel" stanza in which a number of Middle English and Middle Scots poems were written, to inventory and describe these works, with special attention to the structure of individual stanzas, to identify the genres, the periods, and the dialects in which they were written, and to trace their origin and development between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. The dissertation includes a general introduction of the topic, chapters on the influence of Latin and Romance stanzaic structure, a chronological survey of the bob-wheel poems, and a conclusion in which theories concerning the origins, development, and decline of the form are discussed.
Browning's Theme: "The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit Giveth Life"
This thesis is concerned with the establishment of an underlying philosophy for Robert Browning's many themes. It asserts that a notion found in II Corinthians 3:6, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," is basic to ideas such as Browning's belief in the superiority of life over art, of the wisdom of the heart over the intellect, and of honest skepticism over unexamined belief. The sources used to establish this premise are mainly the poems themselves, grouped in categories by subject matter of art, love, and religion. Some of his correspondence is also examined to ascertain how relevant the philosophy was to his own life. The conclusion is that the concept is, indeed, pervasive throughout Browning's poetry and extremely important to the man himself.
The Bullring as Source and Symbol in the Major Works of Ernest Hemingway
This study of the bullfight in Hemingway's life and in his art demonstrates the values by which Hemingway lived and wrote. In Death in the Afternoon he pursues reality with courage and integrity, with grace under pressure. The bullring enhances the light and earth imagery and reinforces the structure and themes of Hemingway's major novels.
The Byronic Hero and the Renaissance Hero-Villain: Analogues and Prototypes
The purpose of this study is to suggest the influence of certain characters in eighteen works by English Renaissance authors upon the Byronic Hero, that composite figure which emerges from Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, the Oriental Tales, the dramas, and some of the shorter poems.
The Cherokee Language and Culture: Can Either Survive?
One of the three-fold purposes of this study is to indicate the relationship between the cultural advancements of the Cherokees and the development and implementation of a written, printable language into their culture. In fulfilling a second purposes, the study emphasizes the influence of literacy on the social values of the Cherokees. The third purpose is to consider the idea of the Cherokees themselves that bi-lingual education, first in Cherokee, then in English, and a renewed national pride and productivity in literacy could go far in solving the problems of social alienation and educational negativism that exist among un-assimilated Cherokees.
Clergymen in the Life of Samuel L. Clemens
This thesis intends to point out the religious thoughts that Clemens encountered. It will present the various religious groups with which he dealt the most and the clergymen with whom he associated both casually and intimately. It will also attempt to indicate at least one reason why he never found in religion the peace which he sought.
The Common-Man Theme in the Plays of Miller and Wilder
This study emphasizes the private and public struggles of the common man as portrayed in two representative plays by Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman and The Price, and two by Thornton Wilder, Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. These plays demonstrate man's struggle because of failures in responsibility toward self and family and because of his inability to fully appreciate life. Miller concentrates on the pathetic part of Man's nature, caused by a breakdown in human communication. Wilder, however, focuses on the resilient part which allows man to overcome natural disasters and moral transgressions. The timelessness of man's conflict explains the motivations of symbolic character types in these plays and reveals a marked applicability to all average citizens in American society.
A Comparative Study of Byron and Pushkin with Special Attention to "Don Juan" and "Evgeny Onegin"
This thesis examines the major works of two outstanding European poets, Lord Byron and Alexander Pushkin, with a view to estimating the extent of their literary and personal affinity. The study begins with a survey of biographical highlights which are relevant to the interpretation of the works of the two poets. Next, the thesis demonstrates that Byron's "Oriental Tales" and Pushkin's "Southern Poems," as well as their major works, play a prominent role in the comparison of their poetic characterizations. In the examination of style, attention is limited to Byron's Don Juan and Pushkin's Evgeny Onegin, since they are regarded as the masterpieces of their respective authors. An appraisal of the continuing fame of both poets closes the study.
Concepts of Failure in Edwin Arlington Robinson's Longer Poems
Critics and biographers have recognized the importance of failure and its many aspects in the life and poetry of E. A. Robinson. For a more complete idea of how Robinson dealt with concepts of failure, it is best to study the poetry itself.
The Conflict of Eros and Agape in The Brothers Karamazov
This paper explores the dialectical concept of love in Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov through Katerina and Grushenka, the heroines, and Dmitri Karamazov. Dostoyevsky's dialectic is most accurately described by the terms Eros and Agape, as defined by Denis de Rougemont in Love in the Western World. Chapter One examines the character of Katerina and establishes that although her love is ostensibly Agape, her most frequent expression of love is Eros. Chapter Two establishes that Grushenka's most frequent expression of love is Agape although ostensibly Eros. Chapter Three demonstrates how each woman personifies a pole of Dmitri Karamazov's inner conflict, and then traces his development with regard to his relationship to each woman.
A Course of Study in the Use of the Dictionary
Teachers sometimes assume that their students are more skillful in the use of the dictionary than they actually are. Today's student needs thorough, formal training that is cumulative over his school years and that is based on the same linguistic principles that have raised the art of lexicography to its present high level. It is the purpose of this thesis to provide a plan for attaining these ends.
Criticism of "Kubla Khan"
The problem with which this study is concerned is analysis of the criticism of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Kubla Khan." This poem, one of the poet's most widely anthologized poems, has been the subject of forty-five articles. The poem has also been treated extensively in a number of books. The criticism is divided into three categories: psychological, literary, and archetypal.
The Dance of Death and The Canterbury Tales: a Comparative Study
This paper is a discussion of parallels between John Lydgate's Dance of Death and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Death in the Works of Mark Twain
An examination of the persistent death motif in Twain's literature reveals a strong fusion of his art, personal experience and philosophical conclusions. Death imagery dramatizes Twain's pessimistic view of an estranged humanity existing without purpose or direction in an incomprehensible universe. Twain shows in his works that religious and social beliefs only obscure the fact that the meaning of death is beyond man's intellectual and perceptual powers. In Twain's view the only certainty about death is that it is a release from the preordained tragedies of existence. Illusions, primordial terrors, and mystifying dreams shape man's disordered reality, Twain concludes, and therefore death is as meaningless as life.
The Death Theme in Albert Camus' Plays
The purpose of this thesis is to consider Camus's use of the death metaphor and its probable meaning for him.
The Decay of Romanticism in the Poetry of Thomas Hardy
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the concept of a godless universe governed by a consciousless and conscienceless Immanent Will in Hardy's poetry is an ineluctable outcome, given the expanded scientific knowledge of the nineteenth century, of the pantheistic views of the English Romantic poets. The purpose is accomplished by tracing characteristically Romantic attitudes through the representative poetry of the early Victorian period and in Hardy's poetry. The first chapter is a brief introduction. Chapter II surveys major Romantic themes, illustrating them in Wordsworth's poetry. Chapter III treats the decline of the Romantic vision in the poetry of Tennyson and Arnold. Hardy's views and the Victorian poets' influence are the subject of Chapter IV. Chapter V demonstrates Wordsworth's influence on Hardy in several areas.
A Definition of Brackenridge's "Modern Chivalry"
Early American writer Hugh Henry Brackenridge conceived and developed a code of modern chivalry in his writings that culminated in the long prose satire Modern Chivalry. He first introduced his code in the poem "The Modern Chevalier," in which a modern knight is shown traveling about the country in an attempt to understand and correct the political absurdities of the people. In Modern Chivalry, this code is developed in the three major themes of rationalism, morality, and moderation and the related concern that man recognize his proper place in society. Satire is Brackenridge's weapon as well as the primary aesthetic virtue of his novel. The metaphor of modern chivalry serves to tie the various elements of the rambling book into a unified whole.
The Depiction of Women and Negroes in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor
This thesis is an investigation into the nature of the characterizations of women and Negroes in the fiction of Flannery O'Connor and the extent to which the attitudes, beliefs, and ideas contained in the background of the author influenced such portrayals. The thesis identifies these influences as her native South and the Roman Catholic Church and concludes that her misogynistic treatment of women and sympathetic handling of Negroes proceeds from values placed on both groups in such influences.
The Development of a Critical Standard for the Novel in Fraser's Magazine, 1830-1850
This thesis is concerned with establishing the nature of the critical standard which Fraser's Magazine, a Victorian journal, used in evaluating the artistic merit of current English novels. Eminent critics such as William Thackeray, Thomas Carlyle, and William Maginn were associated with the magazine during its early years of publication: thus, the early numbers contain some of its most valuable criticism. Because the English novel was in a period of transition in the decade of the 1840's and the years immediately preceding and following it, this study is confined to the twenty-year period from I830 to 1850. Imitative writers of romance and novels of manners were gradually being replaced with novelists concerned with social reform and with the artistic merit of the genre itself. Thackeray's and Maginn's associations with the magazine also occurred during this period, and their literary opinions are an important indication of the magazine's critical development.
The Development of Keats's Mythic Understanding of the Function of the Poet
John Keats is a mythopoeic poet who created his own mythical substructure, often adapting traditional figures from mythology to give a special meaning to the entire canon of his major work. The early poems are hesitant, imitative, and groping, but the mature poems receive a large part of heir symbolic meaning from the substructure of Keats's myth of the poet on which they rest. In the works of John Keats, then, the reader finds a touchstone of experiences common to all humanity, shaped into Keats's central myth of the poet. He left the testament of a poet who could "see as a god sees, and take the depth/ Of things" recorded in his major poems and in some of the most sensitive letters ever written by a poet.
The Development of Myth in Post-World-War-II American Novels
Most primitive mythologies recognize that suffering can provide an opportunity for growth, but Western man has developed a mythology in which suffering is considered evil. He conceives of some power in the universe which will oppose evil and abolish it for him; God, and more recently science an, technology, were the hoped-for saviors that would rescue him. Both have been disappointing as saviors, and Western culture seems paralyzed by its confrontation with a future which seems death-filled. The primitive conception of death as that through which one passes in initiatory suffering has been unavailable because the mythologies in which it was framed are outdated. However, some post-World-War-II novels are reflecting a new mythology which recognizes the threat of death as the terrifying face the universe shows during initiation. A few of these novels tap deep psychological sources from which mythical images traditionally come and reflect the necessity of the passage through the hell of initiation without hope of a savior. One of the best of these is Wright Morris's The Field of Vision, in which the Scanlon story is a central statement of the mythological ground ahead. This gripping tale uses the pioneer journey west to tell of the mysterious passage the unconscious can make through the ccntempoorary desert to win the bride of life. It serves as an illuminator and normative guide for evaluating how other novels avoid or confront the initiatory hell. By the Scanlon standard, some contemporary mythology is escapist. Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Cat's Cradle express the youthful desire to arrive almost automatically at a new age, either with help from a new Christ or through practicing a simplistic morality. Other novels tell of the agony of modern Grail questers who sense that a viable myth is possible, but …
The Development of the Dominant Female in Selected Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
This study of thirty representative short stories from 1912-1941 demonstrates the stages of growth in Fitzgerald's writing which emerged from his own mental development, focusing upon his changing attitudes toward women as he reflects these attitudes in his depictions of the dominant female figures in the stories. The above chronology is then divided into four major blocks; in each block the dominant female illustrates Fitzgerald's concept of women at that particular stage of his life, The stories prove to be integral to the whole of Fitzgerald's writing and deserve to be judged independently of the novels. Furthermore, through an examination of Fitzgerald's short stories, the growth periods and the natural course of his changing attitudes become all the more clear and incisive.
Dialect Preterites and Past Participles in the North Central States and Upper Midwest : A Generative Analysis
This paper will propose a generative analysis of McDavid's dialect verb forms. The concepts of Chomsky and Halle as presented in SPE form the framework for this study.
The Divine Pilgrimage of Conrad Aiken: A Study of his Poetic Quest for Personal Identity
Because his search for self is such a dominant and important theme of his work and because it grows out of a rich tradition in western thought, it is the purpose of this thesis to examine this search and to clarify Aiken's ideas concerning the self and the methods and form he used to communicate these ideas.
Dostoyevsky and the Slavophiles
Just to what degree Dostoyevsky's thoughts paralleled those of the Slavophiles will be outlined in subsequent chapters in three major areas--Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality. Uvarov's old 1828 formula provides a simple outline in which to describe and compare the more complicated core of Dostoyevskyan and Slavophile philosophy.
Edgar Allan Poe's Journey and Abyss Motifs: Order vs. Disorder
The key to an understanding of what Poe attempted to accomplish with his art lies in his depictions of order and disorder in the universe. Poe's explorations of order and disorder revolve around journey and abyss motifs exemplified in his imaginative approaches toward nature, conscience, art, intuition, and apocalypse. These imaginative approaches serve to unify Poe's- work as a whole and emphasize his importance as a questing artist who not only sought to define the shape of reality in terms of stability and chaos but also sought to formulate a final metaphysical ordering of chaos and finitude.
Edwin Shrake: An Introduction and an Interpretation
The purpose of this investigation is to provide a preliminary critical study of a contemporary Texas novelist. Edwin Shrake. No critical studies on his works have been published; therefore, the sources of data for the paper are limited to the novels and reviews of the books. One chapter is devoted to each of Shrake's major works-- But. Not for Love, Blessed McGill, and Strange Peaches. The plot, characterization, themes, regionalism, and artistic techniques of each novel are studied, and the strengths and weaknesses of each are discussed in order to determine its literary merit. The study concludes that Shrake is a regional novelist whose use of a limited setting does not limit the impact of his books. Through his universal themes, Shrake creates novels that are international in scope.
Eight Original Short Stories : "A Rotten Way of Life" and Others
This thesis is a creative one, comprised of eight short stories which deal with a variety of subjects. All of the material is concerned with personal or vicarious experience.
Eighteenth-Century Rhetorical Figures in British Romantic Poetry: A Study of the Poetry of Coleridge, Wordsworth Byron, Shelley, and Keats
Rhetoric, seen either as the art of persuasion or as the art of figurative expression, has been largely neglected as an approach to the poetry of the Romantics. The most important reason for this seems to be the rejection of rhetoric by the Romantics themselves. As a result of negative comments about rhetoric by Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats, scholars seeking clues about the Romantics' literary principles in their critical writings have agreed that eighteenth-century rhetoric was either abandoned or substantially altered by early nineteenth century poets. The eighteenth-century belief that figures possess a unique power of communicating an author's passions and emotions continued to be transmitted as a viable literary tradition in the nineteenth century. Poetry was thought to have special privilege in the employment of rhetorical devices. In practice, if not in theory, early nineteenth-century poets did not abandon the use of such devices in their creations. An analysis of the role of rhetorical figures in the works of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley, and Keats demonstrates that it is a mistake to envision the poetry of the Romantic movement as a spontaneous outgrowth of an abrupt shift in poetic taste, a shift which demanded the omission of classical poetic devices. Often the Romantic poets were more nearly in accord with the strictures of rhetoricians such as Blackwall or Ward than many of the Augustan poets had been.
The Emergence of the Grotesque Hero in the Contemporary American Novel, 1919-1972
This study shows how the Grotesque Hero evolves from the grotesque victim in selected American novels from 1919 to 1972. In these novels, contradictory forces create a cultural dilemma. When a character is especially vulnerable to that dilemma, he becomes caught and twisted into a grotesque victim. The Grotesque Hero finds a solution to the dilemma, not by escaping his grotesque victimization, but by accepting it and making it work for him. The novels paired according to a particular contradictory dilemma include: Winesburg, Ohio and The Crying of Lot 49, As I Lay Dying and Wise Blood, Miss Lonelyhearts and The Dick Gibson Show, Cabot Wright Begins and Second Skin, The Day of the Locust and The Lime Twig, and Expensive People and The Sunlight Dialogues.
Emily and the Child: An Examination of the Child Image in the Work of Emily Dickinson
The primary sources for this study are Dickinson's poems and letters. The purpose is to examine child imagery in Dickinson's work, and the investigation is based on the chronological age of children in the images. Dickinson's small child exists in mystical communion with nature and deity. Inevitably the child is wrenched from this divine state by one of three estranging forces: adult society, death, or love. After the estrangement the state of childhood may be regained only after death, at which time the soul enters immortality as a small child. The study moreover contends that one aspect of Dickinson's seclusion was an endeavor to remain a child.
Empty Pockets: Poems with an Introduction
This thesis is composed of a collection of thirty-four original poems with an introduction by the author. The introduction attempts to justify the collection by discussing common influences and techniques employed in its creation. The introduction also supplies background information on each poem and, on occasion, discusses the relation of a poem to the rest of the collection.
Energy and Archetype: A Jungian Analysis of The Four Zoas by William Blake
The purpose of this study is to examine the parallels between the tenets of Carl Jung's psychology and the mythopoeic structure of Blake's poem, The Four Zoas. The investigation is divided into three chapters. The first deals with the major conceptual parallels between the intellectual systems of the two men. The second is a detailed analysis of the poem, and the third concludes the study by discussing the originality of Blake's thought. Blake anticipated much of Jung's psychology. The parallels between the two are so strong that each man seems to corroborate and validate the opinions and insights of the other. The extent to which he foreshadows Jung reveals Blake to be one of the most original thinkers of any period of time.
English Adverbials of Degree and Extent
This thesis presents detailed descriptions of the English adverbial of degree (e.g., very, quite,rather,extremely) and the adverbial of extent (e.g., much, some, at all, excessively).
English Phonology Without Underlying Glides
This dissertation demonstrates that the optimal account of English phonology denies phonemic status to oral glides. That is, it shows that all instances of phonetic [y] and [w] are predictable by rule. These occurrences include the following: formative initial glides, such as those in yet and wet; post-consonant, pre-vocalic [w] in such forms as quit, guava, and white and post-consonant, pre-vocalic [y] in such forms as cute, few, million, onion, and champion; the [y] following the tense vowels in bite, beet, bate, and boy and the [w] following the tense vowels in bout, boot, boat, cute, and few; and, finally, the post-vocalic centering glide [h] in spa, cloth, beer [bihr], and bear. The new proposals, described and justified in Chapter III, have the effect of eliminating the glides [y] and [w] from the inventory of underlying phonemes of English. From this flows what is perhaps more significant: they render the feature [Syllabic] completely redundant in the lexical representations of English formatives.
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