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Renunciation and Self-Realization in Selected Novels of Henry James

Description: This study of renunciation and self-realization examines four of Henry James's novels which have been selected for the centrality of this theme. Following James's failure as a dramatist, in the novels of the major phase, from 1897 on, the theme of renunciation becomes primary as James's work achieves psychological and stylistic maturity. In addition Henry James's letters, notebooks, and prefaces will be used to indicate his attitudes concerning renunciation.
Date: August 1969
Creator: Edwards, Susan Lee
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Repetitions in the Most Popular Works of Mark Twain

Description: This paper is a study of the repetitions in the works of Mark Twain.The author has chosen repetitions which are most nearly alike and most representative of Mark Twain. The study was limited to repetitions of his own experiences repeated in his works, to repetitions of descriptions of the beautiful and the horrible, and to repetitions which are a result of his humor and a desire to save man from himself.
Date: August 1949
Creator: Chambers, Nettie Jackson
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Representation of Father-Son Relations in the Major Novels of Samuel Clemens

Description: John Marshall Clemens was a failure, as a man, as a husband, and as a father. It is his lack of emotion, his inability to express or receive love, with which this thesis is mainly concerned, for it is his emotional vacuum that so greatly affected his fourth son, Samuel Clemens.
Date: June 1968
Creator: Coplin, Merritt Keith
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Representation of Satan in the Fiction of Samuel L. Clemens

Description: Unable to rationalize man's interpretation of God, Clemens took a different view of Satan. He wrote four minor pieces that illustrate his attitudes toward Satan. He began to act as a pen for the narrator, Satan. Clemens allowed his Satanic characters freedoms that he would not allow other characters, and opinions that he restrained from writing as his own. But an older Clemens tossed convention aside as he assumed Satan's identity and wrote imaginative and unrestrained ideas on God, Satan and … more
Date: May 1971
Creator: Rainey, Betty F.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Representation of the Social Class Structure in the Fiction of Ernest Hemingway

Description: Hemingway has given us pictures of individual members of society in the United States, in Africa and in Europe from the nineteen-twenties to the present time. In order to present Hemingway's characters as a study in social structure, the following classes will be considered: primitives, peasants, middle class, upper class, aristocrats.
Date: 1957
Creator: Cook, Mary K. McCarley
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Representations of the Mother-Son Relations in the Major Novels of Samuel Clemens

Description: This thesis examines the relationship between Samuel Clemens and his mother, Jane Lampton Clemens. It is apparent that Samuel was strongly influenced by his mother in his personality, appearance, and beliefs; but of greater importance is the influence she exerted on the literary creations of Mark Twain.
Date: June 1968
Creator: Rogers, Janie
Partner: UNT Libraries

Resurrection Attempts: Essays

Description: This dissertation is composed of a critical preface, "Reconciling Art and Account in the Creative Essay," and the essay collection Resurrection Attempts: Essays. The preface situates the following essay collection within the genre of contemporary creative nonfiction. Specifically, it argues that genre-bending or genre hybridity are inherent and unavoidable features of creative nonfiction writing and should be celebrated, rather than denied or lamented. It points to other writers who deliberatel… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Al-Qasem, Ruby
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Revisiting the Grotesque: Poems

Description: This thesis consists of a group of poems around a central concept: language as a physical dwelling place—a place much like what Raphael discovered in the grottoes of Rome and named "grotesque," or "grotto-esque." Using the word, "grotesque," as an example, the preface illustrates how poetry can play with the lost histories of words while still searching for new referents and associations.
Date: August 1997
Creator: Davidson, Chad (Chad Thomas)
Partner: UNT Libraries

Revolutionaries and Prophets: Post-Oppositionality in Kathleen Alcalá's Sonoran Desert Trilogy

Description: In this dissertation, I examine the Sonoran Desert trilogy by Kathleen Alcalá through the lens of post-oppositional theory as developed by AnaLouise Keating. Moving beyond the use of post-oppositional theory to analyze non-fiction works, I apply this theory instead to the fiction of Kathleen Alcalá—whose work appears in such anthologies as The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Alcalá, though well published, is underrepresented in contemporary literary criticism, as can be seen by the only … more
Date: August 2021
Creator: VonTress, Aurelia Ann
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Rhetoric of Androgyny: Gender and Boundaries in Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness

Description: The androgyny of the Gethenians in The Left Hand of Darkness is a vehicle for Ursula Le Guin's rhetoric concerning gender roles. Le Guin attempts to make the reader identify with an ideal form of androgyny, through which she argues that many of the problems of human existence, from rape and war to dualistic thought and sexism, are products of gender roles and would be absent in an androgynous world. The novel also links barriers of separation and Othering with masculine thought, and deconstruct… more
Date: August 1996
Creator: Gleason, Benjamin P. (Benjamin Patrick)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Rhetoric of Posthumanism in Four Twentieth-Century International Novels

Description: The dissertation traces the trope of the incomplete character in four twentieth-century cosmopolitan novels that reflect European colonialism in a global context. I argue that, by creating characters sharply aware of the insufficiency of the Self and thus constantly seeking the constitutive participation of the Other, the four authors E. M. Forster, Samuel Beckett, J. M. Coetzee, and Congwen Shen all dramatize the incomplete character as an agent of postcolonial resistance to Western humanism t… more
Date: August 1998
Creator: Lin, Lidan
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Rhetorical Transformations of Trees in Medieval England: From Material Culture to Literary Representation

Description: Literary texts of medieval England feature trees as essential to the individual and communal identity as it intersects with nature, and the compelling qualities and organic processes associated with trees help vernacular writers interrogate the changing nature of this character. The early depiction of trees demonstrates an intimacy with nature that wanes after the tenth-century monastic revival, when the representation of trees as living, physical entities shifts toward their portrayal as alleg… more
Date: December 2008
Creator: Grimes, Jodi Elisabeth
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Richard Wilbur's Poetry: a Celebration of Reality

Description: The celebration of reality in Richard Wilbur's poetry has significant implications for contemporary literature and for contemporary man. In literature, his celebration of reality points to the way out of the mood of despair which has influenced much of literary thought in the twentieth century. For the individual, the celebration of reality encourages man to turn from self to an appreciation for reality which makes life worthwhile. This thesis will discuss the celebration of reality that is pre… more
Date: January 1968
Creator: Sage, Robert L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Riddle of Oedipus: Complex, Myth, and History

Description: There are two general approaches to myth, the literal and the symbolic. The literal method considers myth a record of man's responses to factors external to himself, while the symbolic approach evaluates myth as the externalization of internal conflicts. The purpose of this paper is to examine several examples of each type of scholarship and to show the efficacy of both in gaining a complete understanding of the Oedipus myths.
Date: August 1971
Creator: Stephens, Jessie L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner": Critical Commentary, 1798-1968

Description: The new elements in "The Ancient Mariner" were partly responsible for the unfavorable early reviews which vary much from the high praise the poem receives today. The purpose of this study is to record critical opinion of the poem from the contemporary reviews of 1798 to the intensive critical analysis of the 1960's.
Date: January 1969
Creator: Schlueter, Helen V.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Road Debris

Description: This dissertation comprises two parts: Part I, which discusses the growing trend in project books in contemporary poetry, and Part II, a collection of poems titled, Road Debris. There is an increasing trend in the number of project books, which are collections of poetry unified in both thematic and formal ways. the individual poems in a project book share overt connections which allow the book to work on many different levels, blending elements of fiction and non-fiction or sharing a specific … more
Date: May 2012
Creator: Dewoody, Dale W.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Robert Frost: Poet of New England

Description: I have endeavored to show that the "gray outlook" that some of the critics have complained about in Frost's poems was well offset early in his career by a sly and subtle humor that rarely failed the poet, and by the sheer beauty of the New England background.
Date: 1941
Creator: Wells, Imogene
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Robert Penn Warren's Archetypal Triptych: A Study of the Myths of the Garden, the Journey, and Rebirth in The Cave, Wilderness, and Flood

Description: Robert Penn Warren, historian, short story writer, teacher, critic, poet, and novelist, has received favorable attention from literary critics as well as the general reading public. This attention is merited, in part, by Warren's narrative skill and by his use of imagery. A study of his novels reveals that his narrative technique and his imagery are closely related to his interest in myth.
Date: December 1971
Creator: Phillips, Billie Ray Sudberry, 1937-
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Role of Dreams and Visions in the Major Novels of Hermann Hesse

Description: English-language studies of Hermann Hesse have failed to adequately explore the role of dreams and visions in his major novels. This study attempts to summarize the present state of Hesse criticism in this area and to make a systematic study of the role of dreams and visions in each of his major novels.
Date: May 1971
Creator: McCleery, Roy R.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Role of Emotion in Coleridge's Religious Thought

Description: Using these books as a springboard, and Coleridge's Aids to Reflection as the most important primary source, this thesis will explore in depth the most pertinent matters of the Christian Faith as discussed by Coleridge, with particular reference to the role of emotion in his religious thought.
Date: August 1965
Creator: Hurst, Shelley A.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Role of History in Kenneth Roberts' Novels

Description: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate Kenneth Roberts' transmutation of American history into living literature. This examination will cover the following novels: Arundel (1929), The Lively Lady (1931), Rabble in Arms (1933), Captain Caution (1934), Northwest Passage (1937), Oliver Wiswell (1940), and Lydia Bailey (1947).
Date: January 1969
Creator: Harris, F. Janet
Partner: UNT Libraries
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