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open access

A Theory of Tragedy

Description: This study defines and applies a theory of tragedy which is based on the work of Friedrich Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy. In the first chapter the writer argues for the need of a widely accepted theory of tragedy and show that we do not presently have one. In the same chapter, the writer presents the theory that tragedy is a very specific art type which transcends genre and which is the product of a synthesis of the Dionysiac and Apollonian forces in Western culture. The writer argues that … more
Date: May 1981
Creator: Dodson, Diane Martha
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Emily Bronte's Word Artistry: Symbolism in Wuthering Heights

Description: Wuthering Heights is a composite of opposites. Its two houses, its two families, its two generations, its two planes of existence are held in place by Emily Bronte's careful manipulation of repetitive, yet differentiated, symbols associated with each of these pairs. Using symbols to develop her polarities and to unify them along the imaginatively rendered horizontal axis connecting Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, the vertical axis connecting the novel's several "heavens" and "hells," … more
Date: December 1981
Creator: Madewell, Viola D'Ann
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Dynamic Encounter: Shakespearean Influence on Structure and Language in Moby-Dick

Description: An understanding of the influence of Shakespeare on the structure and language of Moby-Dick is important because the plays of Shakespeare gave Melville a sudden insight into the significance of form and because his absorption of Shakespearean rhetoric enabled him to solve a serious artistic problem. In Moby-Dick Melville wished to write a work of symbolic fiction which would have both epic scope and tragic depth, but his difficulty lay in finding a structural and stylistic method which would pr… more
Date: May 1981
Creator: Smith, Marion L. (Marion Lynch), 1937-
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Word Order and Style in the Old English "Apollonius of Tyre"

Description: The Old English Apollonius of Tyre survives as only a fragment of a popular medieval romance which is recorded in numerous Latin manuscripts. Approximately half the story is missing; therefore, studies of this prose romance are usually restricted to linguistic and stylistic analyses. Hence this study focuses on the word order of phrases and clauses and on features of style apparent in the Old English version, with comparison to the Latin source where significant divergences occur.
Date: August 1983
Creator: Simpson, Dale W. (Dale Wilson)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Psychological Orientation Towards Growth in Lawrence Durrell's "The Alexandria Quartet"

Description: In this dissertation I argue that in the characters in Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet there is consistently evidenced a psychological orientation towards growth. An introductory Chapter One surveys and a concluding Chapter Six summarizes the dissertation, but the body of the text is four chapters demonstrating the growth-orientation in four characters.
Date: May 1981
Creator: Fordham, Glenn Wayne, Jr.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Strain of Melancholy in Eighteenth Century Poetry

Description: This thesis addresses the possible sources of melancholy evident in Eighteenth Century writing. Possibilities include nature, mental state, attitudes, sentimentalism, and significant works of fiction.
Date: May 1939
Creator: Savage, Manera Crass
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Drama

Description: This thesis resulted from an examination of the influence of witchcraft superstitions upon Elizabethan-era dramas.
Date: August 1940
Creator: Jaeggli, Clarence
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Imperialist Discourse: Critical Limits of Liberalism in Selected Texts of Leonard Woolf and E.M. Forster

Description: This dissertation traces imperialist ideology as it functions in the texts of two radical Liberal critics of imperialism, Leonard Woolf and E. M. Forster. In chapters two and three respectively, I read Woolf's autobiographical account Growing and his novel The Village in the Jungle to examine connections between "nonfictional" and "fictional" writing on colonialism. The autobiography's fictive texture compromises its claims to facticity and throws into relief the problematic nature of notions o… more
Date: December 1991
Creator: De Silva, Lilamani
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Narrative Art of Edgar Allan Poe

Description: This thesis is focused on the motivations and influences on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Poe's work and letters are used to support the hypothesis that his work resulted from a desire to be recognized.
Date: August 1939
Creator: Hanks, LaCola Lu
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Jonathan Swift as a Satirist

Description: This thesis presents a the satire of Jonathan Swift's writings framed within the context of the historical events and conditions as they existed during his lifetime.
Date: August 1939
Creator: Holcomb, Sallie B. (Couch)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Infinite Hallways: “Parabola Heretica” and Other Journeys

Description: This creative thesis collects five fictional stories, as well as a critical preface entitled “Fractals and the Gestalt: the Hybridization of Genre.” The critical preface discusses genre as a literary element and explores techniques for effective genre hybridization. The stories range from psychological fiction to science fiction and fantasy fiction. Each story also employs elements from other genres as well. These stories collectively explore the concept of the other and themes of connection a… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Garay, Christopher
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

User Experience of Access Points: Eye-tracking, Metadata, and Usability Testing

Description: This doctoral dissertation applies user experience and complex systems theory, combining eye-tracking data with verbal and observational data from user test instances, to study the effectiveness of metadata records that accompany digital primary source objects available on The Portal to Texas History.
Date: May 2016
Creator: Krahmer, Ana
Partner: UNT Libraries Digital Projects Unit
open access

Topics in the Morphology and Phonology of Mandarin Chinese

Description: This thesis examines some selective cases of morphophonemic alternation in Mandarin Chinese. It presents analyses of the function -of the retroflex suffix -r and describes several conditions for tone sandhi. The suffix -r functions not simply as a noun formative. Some of the suffixed forms have consistently different meanings from the roots on which they are based. The suffix -r also plays a role in poetry as a time-filler to make each line of a poem fulfill the requirements of the strict numbe… more
Date: August 1990
Creator: Xu, Shu Hua
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Conflict in The Brothers Karamazov: Dostoevsky's Idea of the Origin of Sin

Description: The thesis systematically explicates Dostoevsky's portrayal of the origin of human evil on earth through the novel The Brothers Karamazov. Drawing from the novel and from Augustine, Pelagius, and Luther, the explication compares and contrasts Dostoevsky's doctrine of original conflict against the three theologians' views of original sin. Following a brief summary of the three earlier theories of original sin, the thesis describes Dostoevsky's peculiar doctrine of Karamazovism and his unique acc… more
Date: August 1992
Creator: Kraeger, Linda T.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Authorial Subversion of the First-Person Narrator in Twentieth-Century American Fiction

Description: American writers of narrative fiction frequently manipulate the words of their narrators in order to convey a significance of which the author and the reader are aware but the narrator is not. By causing the narrator to reveal information unwittingly, the author develops covert themes that are antithetical to those espoused by the narrator. Particularly subject to such subversion is the first-person narrator whose "I" is not to be interpreted as the voice of the author. This study examines how … more
Date: December 1988
Creator: Russell, Noel Ray
Partner: UNT Libraries
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At Once in All its Parts: Narrative Unity in the Gospel of Mark

Description: The prevailing analyses of the structure of the Gospel of Mark represent modifications of the form-critical approach and reflect its tendency to regard the Gospel not as a unified narrative but as an anthology of sayings and acts of Jesus which were selected and more or less adapted to reflect the early Church's theological understanding of Christ. However, a narrative-critical reading of the Gospel reveals that the opening proclamation, the Transfiguration, and the concluding proclamation prov… more
Date: December 1988
Creator: Kevil, Timothy J. (Timothy Jack)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Selective Versus Wholesale Error Correction of Grammar and Usage in the Papers of Adult Intermediate Level ESL Writing Students

Description: Over 13-weeks a control group (n=7) had all errors corrected, while an experimental group (n=9) had only article and sentence construction (run-on sentences, fragments, comma splices) errors corrected. Separating the two types of errors is essential, since the latter (representing grammar) are subject to theories of acquisition and the former (representing usage) are not. One-way analyses of variance ran on pretest versus posttest found no significant difference in either groups' article errors… more
Date: August 1990
Creator: Whitus, Jerry D. (Jerry Dean)
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Decay of Romanticism in the Poetry of Thomas Hardy

Description: 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 … more
Date: December 1978
Creator: Wartes, Carolynn L.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Criticisms of Patriarchy in Women's Captivity Narratives: A Close Look at Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (1862) and Sarah Wakefield's Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees: A Narrative of Indian Captivity (1862)

Description: Undergraduate thesis exploring criticisms of patriarchy in women's captivity narratives by examining Mary Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (1862) and Sarah Wakefield's Six Weeks in the Sioux Tepees: A Narrative of Indian Captivity (1862). Both used their socially acceptable roles in order to assert their own ideas regarding the patriarchy. The author concludes that both narratives therefore assert that patriarchal societies did not necessarily produce justice for English or Amer… more
Date: May 3, 2013
Creator: Hansard, Chelsea
Partner: UNT Honors College
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From Radian Waves to Data Streams: Media Environments in DeLillo and Shteyngart

Description: Undergraduate thesis examining representations of media and technology in two contemporary American novels, "White Noise" by Don DeLillo (1985) and "Super Sad True Love Story" by Gary Shteyngart (2010), with the goal of elucidating the attributes and significance of the technological contexts in fiction as well as contributing to a broader discussion of its operations on consciousness, society, and the cultural imagination.
Date: June 13, 2014
Creator: Young, Michael
Partner: UNT Honors College
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National Identity and Anxiety in the Captivity Narratives of Mary Rowlandson and Mary Godfrey

Description: Undergraduate thesis expanding exploring the 1836 captivity narrative "An Authentic Narrative of the Seminole War; and the Miraculous Escape of Mrs. Mary Godfrey, and Her Four Female Children." Unlike Mary Rowlandson's "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God," the anonymously-authored "An Authentic Narrative" is almost certainly fabricated. There are no records of a Mrs. Mary Godfrey being captured and redeemed, or even existing at all. However, like Rowlandson's captivity narrative, it attempts t… more
Date: June 13, 2014
Creator: Smith, Caitlin
Partner: UNT Honors College
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We Were Once All Gentle Creatures: Modular Stories

Description: Undergraduate thesis that is a collection of short stories preceded by critical preface. The preface, which is divided into two sections, contextualizes the function and presence of the modular narrative. The first section explores the criticism of the form and the second section provides contextual examples of contemporary stories which more or less exhibit elements of the modular. This collection entitled "We Were Once All Gentle Creatures" employs the many conventions and elements of the mod… more
Date: 2013
Creator: Dash, Jessica
Partner: UNT Honors College
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