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open access

The Law and Its Enforcers in Faulkner's Trilogy

Description: This thesis evaluates how effectively the trilogy's laws and law enforcers further the ends of the fictional laws. The study examines the trilogy's law enforcers' responses to Snopes violations and bendings of the laws to evaluate the laws and their enforcers. The enforcers' responses to Snopes wrongs make clear how well the laws are written. These responses also reveal how well the enforcers themselves are able to achieve the objectives of the laws. It is argued in the thesis that although the… more
Date: December 1989
Creator: Wright, Kenneth Patrick
open access

Chutzpah: A Screenplay

Description: CHUTZPAH is a romantic movie set in Manhattan. The events surrounding the death of a wealthy eccentric cumulate into a farcical search for the old man's fortune when it is stolen shortly after his funeral. Ellen, the protagonist, hires a detective to find out who stole her grandfather's money (a substantial sum of which was willed to her). As Mark, the detective, works on the case, a relationship between him and Ellen develops, and the search for the money becomes secondary. Ellen's charm and h… more
Date: August 1989
Creator: Connors, Melanie R. (Melanie Rose)
open access

The Bifurcated Personalities of Christina Rossetti and Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Reflected in Their "Sister Poems"

Description: Christina Rossetti and Dante Gabriel Rossetti both suffered from ambivalent feelings concerning the role female sexuality plays in the salvation of the soul. These ambivalent feelings ranged from seeing female sexuality as leading men to salvation, to seeing it as a trap for the destruction of women's souls as well as men's. The contradictory feelings of the Rossettis' typifies the Victorian people's experience and was caused by the nature of the times. Using the analysis of the period by Walte… more
Date: December 1988
Creator: Becherer, Nadine L. (Nadine Lee)
open access

The Relationship of Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe, 1588-1590: An Episode in the Development of English Prose Fiction

Description: Robert Greene began collaborating with Thomas Nashe as English prose was turning away from the style and subject matter of Lyly's Euphues (1578) and Sidney's Arcadia (1590). When Greene and Nashe came together in London, the two writers appear to have set the tone for the pamphleteers who would establish the realistic tradition that contributed to the development of the novel. Greene's Menaphon (1589) may be a satire representing his abandonment of courtly fiction. The influence of the Marprela… more
Date: December 1988
Creator: Koenig, Gregory R. (Gregory Robert)
open access

Orality, Literacy, and Character in Bleak House

Description: This work argues that the dynamics of the oral and of the literate consciousness play a vital role in the characterization of Bleak House. Through an application of Walter Ong's synthesis of orality/literacy research, Krook's residual orality is seen to play a greater role in his characterization than his more frequently discussed spontaneous combustion. Also, the role orality and literacy plays in understanding Dickens's satire of "philanthropic shams" is analyzed. This study concludes that an… more
Date: May 1988
Creator: Nelms, Jeffrey Charles
open access

"Fools for Christ": An Examination of the Ministerial Call in Three Novels by William Golding

Description: This thesis examines the ministerial call in three novels by William Golding, specifically The Spire, Darkness Visible, and Rites of Passage. The central character of each novel, a Christian minister, has a vision, or series of visions, which dominates his life. The call and vision(s) of Golding's ministers are examined in light of Jacques Ellul's The Humiliation of the Word, a work examining the differences between the word and the image. The ministerial call, in this thesis, is linked to Ellu… more
Date: December 1987
Creator: Adcox, John Roland
open access

Outer Edges of the Middle Kingdom

Description: Outer Edges of the Middle Kingdom is a narrative by the author about his two years as a teacher in the People's Republic of China. Organized chronologically, the account begins in August, 1985, and ends in June, 1987. The narrator describes meeting students at Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, designing English classes for English majors, daily episodes in the classroom, and interaction with Chinese colleagues. The narrative alternates between life on a university campus and extensive trips t… more
Date: December 1987
Creator: Lilly, Charles N.
open access

The Incest Taboo in Wuthering Heights

Description: Contemporary analysis of Wuthering Heights necessitates a re-appraisal in light of advancements in the study of incest in non-literary fields such as history, anthropology, and especially psychology. A modern reading suggests that an unconscious incest taboo impeded Heathcliff and Cathy's expectation of normal sexual union and led them to seek union after death. John Milton's Paradise Lost provides a paradigm by which to examine the consequences of incest from two perspectives: that of incest a… more
Date: August 1987
Creator: McGuire, Kathryn B. (Kathryn Bezard)
open access

The Path to Paradox: The Effects of the Falls in Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Conrad's "Lord Jim"

Description: This study arranges symptoms of polarity into a causal sequence# beginning with the origin of contrarieties and ending with the ultimate effect. The origin is considered as the fall of man, denoting both a mythic concept and a specific act of betrayal. This study argues that a sense of separateness precedes the fall or act of separation; the act of separation produces various kinds of fragmentation; and the fragments are reunited through paradox. Therefore, a causal relationship exists between … more
Date: May 1987
Creator: Mathews, Alice McWhirter
open access

Orality, Literacy, and Heroism in Huckleberry Finn

Description: This work re-assesses the heroic character of Huckleberry Finn in light of the inherent problems of discourse. Walter Ong's insights into the differences between oral and literate consciousnesses, and Stanley Fish's concept of "interpretive communities" are applied to Huck's interactions with the other characters, revealing the underlying dynamic of his character, the need for a viable discourse community. Further established, by enlisting the ideas of Ernest Becker, is that this need for commu… more
Date: August 1986
Creator: Barrow, William David, 1955-
open access

The Motif of the Fairy-Tale Princess in the Novels of Shelby Hearon

Description: Shelby Hearon's eight novels--Armadillo in the Grass, The Second Dune, Hannah's House, Now and Another Time, A Prince of a Fellow, Painted Dresses, Afternoon of a Faun, and Group Therapy- -are unified by the theme of the fairy-tale princess and her quest to assert her autonomy and gain self-fulfillment while struggling with marriage, family, and the mother-daughter relationship. This study traces the development of Hearon' s feminist convictions in each of her novels by focusing on the changing… more
Date: May 1986
Creator: Keith, Anne Slay
open access

A Study of "The Rhyming Poem": Text, Interpretation, and Christian Context

Description: The purpose of the research presented here is to discover the central concept of "The Rhyming Poem," an Old English Christian work known only from a 10th-century manuscript, and to establish the poem's natural place in the body of Old English poetry. Existing critical literature shows little agreement about the poem's origin, vocabulary, plot, or first-person narrator, and no single translation has satisfactorily captured a sense of the poem's unity or of the purposeful vision behind it. The ex… more
Date: May 1986
Creator: Turner, Kandy M. (Kandy Morrow)
open access

The Atheism of Mark Twain: The Early Years

Description: Many Twain scholars believe that his skepticism was based on personal tragedies of later years. Others find skepticism in Twain's work as early as The Innocents Abroad. This study determines that Twain's atheism is evident in his earliest writings. Chapter One examines what critics have determined Twain's religious sense to be. These contentions are discussed in light of recent publications and older, often ignored, evidence of Twain' s atheism. Chapter Two is a biographical look at Twain's lit… more
Date: April 1986
Creator: Britton, Wesley A. (Wesley Alan)
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Politeness as a Conversational Strategy in Three Hemingway Short Stories

Description: Hemingway's dialogue and the texts of politeness and literature -- Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies -- The face of honesty in "The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife -- The face of bravery in "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" -- The face of love in "Hills Like White Elephants" -- Interpretive implications of politeness theory.
Date: December 1985
Creator: Hardy, Donald E. (Donald Edward)
open access

Fairy Tale Elements in Margaret Atwood's Novels: Breaking the Magic Spell

Description: This thesis traces Margaret Atwood's uses of three major elements of fairy tales in her novels. Atwood creates a passive, fairy-tale-like heroine, but not for the purpose of showing how passivity wins the prince as in the traditional tale. Atwood also uses the binary system, which provides a moralistic structure in the fairy tale, to show the necessity of moving beyond its rigidity. In addition, Atwood's novels focus on transformation as the breaking of a spell. However, the spell to be broken … more
Date: August 1985
Creator: Peterson, Nancy J. (Nancy Jean)
open access

Gothic Elements in Selected Fictional Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Description: Gothicism is the primary feature of Nathaniel Hawthorne's fiction, and it is his skill in elevating Gothicism to the level of high art which makes him a great artist. Gothic elements are divided into six categories: Objects, Beings, Mental States, Practices and Actions, Architecture and Places, and Nature. Some devices from these six categories are documented in three of Hawthorne's stories ("Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," and "Ethan Brown") and three of his romances (The Sc… more
Date: August 1985
Creator: Francis, Kurt T.
open access

Confession and the Via Dolorosa in Crime and Punishment

Description: This study provides a detailed analysis of the confession motif in Dostoevsky' s Crime and Punishment. It discusses Dostoevsky's use of the sacramental concept of confession, in which the estranged person is reunited with the human community through contrite confession. Throughout the novel, Raskolnikov wavers between desiring estrangement and seeking union. These two poles are shown in his encounters with Sonya and Porfiry (who represent union) and Luzhin and Svidrigaylov (who represent estran… more
Date: August 1984
Creator: Collins, Cynthia R.
open access

Crucial Instances: The Integrity of Edith Wharton's Episodic Structure

Description: Edith Wharton structured her novels using a technique that relies on what she called "crucial episodes" or "illuminating incidents" to reveal theme and develop character. In Wharton's novels this technique attains a rare perfection as subject matter, circumstance, and dialogue are repeatedly connected by succeeding episodes. In addition, Wharton's fictional method allowed her to stage a series of incidents that essentially foretell the nature of a novel's outcome, creating a dramatic sense of i… more
Date: August 1984
Creator: Lee, Joyce Glover
open access

A Functional Analysis of Connectives in English Composition: Implications for the Teaching of English as a Second Language

Description: Errors by ESL writers involving connectives show a need for changes in the current teaching approach of composition teachers, an approach which reflects a lack of attention to the discourse function of connectives on the part of linguists and rhetoricians. More recent studies in text and functional grammars reveal that factors other than syntax control conjunctive use. These include pragmatic differences between spoken and written language, the role of semantics in defining dependency, and disc… more
Date: August 1984
Creator: Leavelle, Cynthia A. (Cynthia Ann)
open access

Pope's Treatment of Theobald and Cibber in the Dunciad

Description: The purpose of this paper is to investigate Pope's treatment of Lewis Theobald and Colley Cibber in their roles as the king of dunces in the Dunciad. After an introductory chapter that treats the battles between Pope and Theobald and Pope and Cibber, the second chapter gives a short factual biography of Theobald emphasizing the events relating to his battle with Pope. The third chapter analyzes the caricature of Theobald in the Dunciad Variorum, showing its variations from fact. By comparing Th… more
Date: May 1984
Creator: Gardner, Marlene K. (Marlene Kortage)
open access

Poems

Description: Poems contains fifty-two poems and an afterword that explains some of the ideas that prompted the poems as well as some information about the poetic techniques and allusions. Their primary purpose is to communicate the experiences of a woman living in a patriarchal society, which contemporary American society certainly is. The poems expose how a young woman fits into such a society as a human being and an artist . They stress the need for women writers to play ever-increasing roles in society.
Date: May 1983
Creator: Madrigal, Sibyl
open access

Inside Out: Eye Imagery and Female Identity in Margaret Atwood's Poetry

Description: Margaret Atwood speaks about a now common and yet still predominant question of female identity. Eye images, appearing frequently, correlate with ideas of observation, perception, and reflection as the woman seeks to understand herself. Introductory material examines three female archetypes, five victim positions, and male-female worlds. Eye imagery in early poetry expresses female feelings of frustration and submission to unfair roles and expectations. Imagery in the middle poetry presents cau… more
Date: May 1982
Creator: Conner, Susan Carpenter
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Sexist Language in the Popular Lyrics of the Seventies

Description: The purpose of this study has been to analyze the language of the popular lyrics of the seventies to determine if sexism is used to communicate in various musical genres. Three manifestations of sexist language developed by the Sexism in Textbooks Committee of Women at Scott, Foresman have been used in this study. The lyrics analyzed include 100 lyrics selected from songwriter-singers noted as articulate musical artists of the seventies, 90 songs reaching the "Top Ten" charts (1970-1978), and t… more
Date: December 1980
Creator: Teague, Carolyn
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