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Title: The rhetoric of unity in a pluralistic early America.
Creator: Wilson, Joel., Department of English
Abstract/Description: The push of the past half century to redefine the American canon through the incorporation of writers representative of America's heterogeneousness has given voice to a range of marginalized writers. This movement, predicated on the belief that American society was never as unified as its early leaders would have us believe, has overstated what it sought to challenge : the unitedness of early Americans. Casting the leaders of the Early Republic as in complete accord, such critical readings...
Show moreThe push of the past half century to redefine the American canon through the incorporation of writers representative of America's heterogeneousness has given voice to a range of marginalized writers. This movement, predicated on the belief that American society was never as unified as its early leaders would have us believe, has overstated what it sought to challenge : the unitedness of early Americans. Casting the leaders of the Early Republic as in complete accord, such critical readings negate the significant differences that existed and the pains necessary to present something akin to national unity and identity. It is my aim to show that this unity came about through a constructed rhetoric meant to unify the citizens in colonial America and the Early Republic. In this thesis, I will examine three modes of this rhetoric : American Exceptionalism, the American Enlightenment, and the movements supporting a mono-dialectal view of American English.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3359161
Subject Headings: National characteristics, American, History, Civilization, History, Influence, History, Politics and government, Politics and government
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Stan in Prague.
Creator: Waldron, Justin., Department of English
Abstract/Description: We all use our language as one of our main modes of communication. Stan Klipper, the progatonist of Stan in Prague, found himself in a position where language has failed him, yet with the lack of language, his other senses have also failed him. When Stan was sent to Prague on a vague business trip, he decided to hire a translator to help him close the language gap, which in his case was huge. With his translator, Ihar, and Ihar's girlfriend delha, Stan maneuvers his way through the cramped...
Show moreWe all use our language as one of our main modes of communication. Stan Klipper, the progatonist of Stan in Prague, found himself in a position where language has failed him, yet with the lack of language, his other senses have also failed him. When Stan was sent to Prague on a vague business trip, he decided to hire a translator to help him close the language gap, which in his case was huge. With his translator, Ihar, and Ihar's girlfriend delha, Stan maneuvers his way through the cramped streets of Prague, to open the lands of the Prague suburbs and into his own confusion.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3359284
Subject Headings: Conduct of life, Translating and interpreting, Social aspects, Language and culture, Intercultural communication
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Gender and the abject in the symbolic landscapes of Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm.
Creator: McAdams, Janine., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The literature of the fin de siáecle challenged established societal norms through its use of avant-garde literary forms and controversial subject matter. This study will examine the use of landscape metaphors in two major works of fin de siáecle literature, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm, in order to reveal how these texts critique and re-vision the social dualities of gender. A wide range of literary...
Show moreThe literature of the fin de siáecle challenged established societal norms through its use of avant-garde literary forms and controversial subject matter. This study will examine the use of landscape metaphors in two major works of fin de siáecle literature, Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm, in order to reveal how these texts critique and re-vision the social dualities of gender. A wide range of literary theories-including, feminist theory, semiotics, and ecocriticism-are used to interpret these authors' influential narratives. This thesis will also apply Julia Kristeva's theory of the abjects-representing the permeability of the physical and social bodies-to critically examine the literal and metaphorical landscapes of Stevenson's city and Schreiner's farm. Thus, these visionary texts embody an organic and feminist understanding of the self as a permeable social construct that exists free of borders.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2683128
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Sex role in literature, Semantics (Philosophy), Avant-garde (Aesthetics)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Existential consciousness, redemption, and Buddhist allusions in the work of Saul Bellow.
Creator: Durbeej, Jerry K., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Within the past two centuries, massive industrialization, technological and scientific advances, wars, diseases, failures in social systems, and religious, ethnic, and political conflicts have produced an existential angst that has saturated the collective consciousness of modern man. The atrocities of World Wars I and II induced European and American authors and artists to confront this state of disillusionment, anxiety, loneliness, fear, and dread; consequently, much of our modern...
Show moreWithin the past two centuries, massive industrialization, technological and scientific advances, wars, diseases, failures in social systems, and religious, ethnic, and political conflicts have produced an existential angst that has saturated the collective consciousness of modern man. The atrocities of World Wars I and II induced European and American authors and artists to confront this state of disillusionment, anxiety, loneliness, fear, and dread; consequently, much of our modern literature reflects this nihilistic darkness. In this state of grave doubts and uncertainties, the modern man finds himself alienated and disconnected from the very essences that ground him. Scholars of literature, philosophy, and the various arts and social sciences, having examined this contemporary dilemma, find just cause to question our western belief that science, technology, and materialism put the world in order. The further indictment is that these rational and materialistic forces have usurped the place of God and dismantled the ancient mythologies that once grounded our existence. This study examines the selected work of Saul Bellow and argues that his recurring themes of suffering, compassion, humanity, and renewal of the human spirit are antithetical to this collective existential angst. My argument introduces the doctrine of Existentialism and then explores the basic existentialist theory of Jean-Paul Sartre. From this platform, I later establish that Bellow takes a stand against this collective nihilism in favor of community and the celebration of life that are defined by a moral framework. Bellow's most representative novel in this vein of existential dislocation is Dangling Man., From this novel, I argue that there is an inherent flaw in the notion that man's essential existence can only be defined through his agency as an individual, and that man, not God, is ultimately responsible for his actions and destiny. This pursuit of existence based on personal freedom and intellectual synthesis is prone to failure; Bellow's point of view is that the existentialist, having disconnected himself from God and community, plunges into an abyss fraught with angst and turmoil. Bellow's theme of humanity instructs that our redemption lies not in our personal quest, but in our absorption and participation in a community framed by moral precepts and the respect for God. Finally, and from another angle and through Bellow's Herzog, I establish a connection to Buddhism. From these Buddhist allusions, I further affirm that the quest for authentic existence and redemption demands a confrontation with our angst and an acknowledgement of our suffering.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/1870695
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Existentialsim in literature, Symbolism in literature, Buddhism and literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: John Updike: the role of women in his short fiction.
Creator: Rosen, Cindy M., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: There remain two recurring criticisms of John Updike's fiction. The first comes from feminist critics who condemn his negative portrayal of women, accusing his fiction of denigrating women. The second comes from late twentieth century critics who accuse him of avoiding political and historical discussions in his fiction. However, it is my contention that Updike is willing to address both of these concerns, and I arrive at such an argument by carefully analyzing his collection of short stories...
Show moreThere remain two recurring criticisms of John Updike's fiction. The first comes from feminist critics who condemn his negative portrayal of women, accusing his fiction of denigrating women. The second comes from late twentieth century critics who accuse him of avoiding political and historical discussions in his fiction. However, it is my contention that Updike is willing to address both of these concerns, and I arrive at such an argument by carefully analyzing his collection of short stories compiled in Too Far To Go: The Maples Stories. Within these stories, Updike's female characters illustrate the shifting gender paradigms over the course of the fifties, sixties, and seventies amidst the middle-class, suburban American milieu. Updike's women act as agents of history providing testament to the shifting gender paradigms and historical, cultural, political, and social milestones of a maturing country and its growing pains.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/1927298
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Women in literature, American fiction, History and criticism
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Asunder.
Creator: Harthcock, Rebecca., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Asunder is a poetic work in various forms. As a manuscript, it includes an erasure of chapter five in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, two poetic images, and a handful of more traditional forms (including a sonnet) that focus on themes of loss and faith.
Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3360785
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Now try how and why.
Creator: Pekala, Kimberly., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Now Try How and Why is a collection of short fiction exploring the complications of motherhood, girlhood and conflicts that arise from misperceptions and opposing social views. The collection seeks the margins and the centers of real peoples' lives, as well as the thoughts and emotions that are sometimes difficult to articulate, including maternal responsibility, sexuality, upward mobility, marital relationships and other important life choices.
Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3360952
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Proof of drowning.
Creator: Long, Renee., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This is a novella that reimagines and reverses the tale of Jacob and Esau as a contemporary story of sisterhood, healing, and life as women raised on the sea. It explores the nature of finding forgiveness and relearning to breathe. Set on a tropical island after a betrayal, it deals with a gang of ship wreckers, gambling, scuba diving, the making of art from chaos, the complications of close friendship, angels ascending a lighthouse, and grace for the undeserving. This story tries to capture...
Show moreThis is a novella that reimagines and reverses the tale of Jacob and Esau as a contemporary story of sisterhood, healing, and life as women raised on the sea. It explores the nature of finding forgiveness and relearning to breathe. Set on a tropical island after a betrayal, it deals with a gang of ship wreckers, gambling, scuba diving, the making of art from chaos, the complications of close friendship, angels ascending a lighthouse, and grace for the undeserving. This story tries to capture the internal struggle for atonement and what a physical, personal exile might look like when one feels she has no further to fall.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3360962
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Telomeres.
Creator: Oquendo, Nicole., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Telomeres is a manuscript-length lyric essay in many parts that traces the relationship of the narrator and her father as they both navigate the landscape of post-traumatic stress disorder after his return from Vietnam.
Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3359283
Subject Headings: Post-traumatic stress disorder, Fathers and daughters, VIetnam War, 1961-1975, Veterans, Mental health, Veterans, Mental health
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Glass Catamount.
Creator: Slattery, Robert., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The Glass Catamount is concerned with one James Frederick Curling, a young, up-and-coming senator from Delaware. As Curling moves up through his political party, suspicion of infidelity begins to rise to the surface as a woman from his past appears and claims to know intimate details about the senator. Her intentions are unknown, but as the senator's old friend and aide, Robertson Peters, finds himself drawn in by her stories, unsure if they are truth or fabrication, the longevity of the...
Show moreThe Glass Catamount is concerned with one James Frederick Curling, a young, up-and-coming senator from Delaware. As Curling moves up through his political party, suspicion of infidelity begins to rise to the surface as a woman from his past appears and claims to know intimate details about the senator. Her intentions are unknown, but as the senator's old friend and aide, Robertson Peters, finds himself drawn in by her stories, unsure if they are truth or fabrication, the longevity of the career of the senator, and possibly even his life, come into question. Themes of truth versus reality are dealt with throughout, and the act of sexual exploration and discovery is broken down and analyzed in the context of the senator's past and what he constructs as truth, whether it was always the way he claims or not. The glass catamount of the title is a symbol of the fragility and rarity of an understood self, appearing only briefly as it passes through the trees on its climb back up the mountain.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3338857
Subject Headings: Short stories, American, Symbolism in literature, Self in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Of offal, corpses, and others: an examination of self, subjectivity, and authenticity in two works by Alexandra David-Neel.
Creator: Jones, Robert William, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines two works (My Journey to Lhasa and Magic and Mystery in Tibet) by Alexandra David-Neel. These works subvert the self/other dichotomies both necessary to and critiqued by postcolonial theory. Central to this study is an examination of a claim by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama that David-Neel creates an "authentic" picture of Tibet. In order to do this the first chapter establishes a working definition of authenticity based on both Western philosophy and Vajrayana Buddhism...
Show moreThis thesis examines two works (My Journey to Lhasa and Magic and Mystery in Tibet) by Alexandra David-Neel. These works subvert the self/other dichotomies both necessary to and critiqued by postcolonial theory. Central to this study is an examination of a claim by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama that David-Neel creates an "authentic" picture of Tibet. In order to do this the first chapter establishes a working definition of authenticity based on both Western philosophy and Vajrayana Buddhism. This project argues that the advanced meditation techniques practiced by Alexandra David-Neel allow her to access a transcendent self that is able to overcome the self/other dichotomy. It also discusses the ways in which abjection and limit experiences enhance this breakdown. Finally, this thesis examines the roles that gender and a near absence of female Tibetan voice play in complicating the problems of self, subjectivity, and authenticity within these texts.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/1927604
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Influence, Self in literature, Symbolism in literature, Spiritual life, Buddhism, Buddhism, Doctrines
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Meis Oculis: eyes in the early poetry of T.S. Eliot.
Creator: Richards, Joshua., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This study is an examination of ocular imagery in the secular poetry of T.S. Eliot. As a symbol, eyes begin as a metonym for the panoptic vision of society. In the earliest poems, Michel Foucault's conceptions of discipline illuminate the acerbic paranoia attached to ocular imagery and its source in the culture of turn-of-the-century Boston. Towards 1919, the image of eyes becomes an objective correlative for the figure of Dante's Beatrice who represents both earthly and divine love. The loss...
Show moreThis study is an examination of ocular imagery in the secular poetry of T.S. Eliot. As a symbol, eyes begin as a metonym for the panoptic vision of society. In the earliest poems, Michel Foucault's conceptions of discipline illuminate the acerbic paranoia attached to ocular imagery and its source in the culture of turn-of-the-century Boston. Towards 1919, the image of eyes becomes an objective correlative for the figure of Dante's Beatrice who represents both earthly and divine love. The loss of sight by the various speakers in both - "Gerontion" and The Waste Land is then the loss of connection to both the earthly woman and God. Finally, in The Hollow Men, the tenor and vehicle merge completely so the eyes themselves become the object of desire.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/215286
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Postmodernism (Literature), Imagery (Psychology) in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A collection of stories from the ground up.
Creator: Clark, Dustin., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The stories proposed within this thesis examine the daily lives of working class men, women, and children and the subtle dynamics of the relationships between them. The stories engage a variety of narrative perspectives, sometimes employing serious overtones and sometimes shifting toward humor. Stylistically, the stories construct a single unified voice that sifts through common themes including alcoholism, self-pity, the loss of culture, grief, distrust, absolution, and hero worship.
Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2953828
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Working class, Labor
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The war within houses.
Creator: Boles, Hillary., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This work of creative nonfiction is meant to explore the effects of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder in American war veterans and their families. As a work of blended literary journalism and memoir, the author interviewed afflicted veterans from World War II to the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars, included scholarly research, and reflected on how her father's dealings with the disorder have affected her family.
Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/187205
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Post-traumatic stress disorder, Patients, Family relationships, Reportage literature, Technique, Creative writing (Higher education), Veterans, Mental health, War, Psychological aspects
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The post-apocalyptic, the cyborg, and the passage of time: a reading of the parallels of science fiction and the works of Samuel Beckett.
Creator: Pancho, Aaron., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This study is an examination of the several themes and conventions of science fiction that seem to appear in the texts of Samuel Beckett. Expectedly, many of the texts produced by both science fiction and Beckett just before, during, and immediately after World War II share similar concerns; though perhaps less expectedly, these two relatively unlike bodies of work can be used to help better understand and illuminate one another. In Waiting for Godot, nuclear anxieties shed light on the play...
Show moreThis study is an examination of the several themes and conventions of science fiction that seem to appear in the texts of Samuel Beckett. Expectedly, many of the texts produced by both science fiction and Beckett just before, during, and immediately after World War II share similar concerns; though perhaps less expectedly, these two relatively unlike bodies of work can be used to help better understand and illuminate one another. In Waiting for Godot, nuclear anxieties shed light on the play's apparent post-apocalyptic landscape and the profound emptiness that permeates the stage. In Molloy, Hugh Kenner uses Centaur imagery to explain the title character's Cartesian relationship with his bicycle; however, contemporary sensibilities at the time of the novel's publication suggests a cyborg reading of the Molloy/bicycle hybrid can also be productive. And in Krapp's Last Tape, the tape recorder serves as a figurative time machine, which allows readers to consider the ways technology continues to allow for the capture of time and subsequent reflection.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3318674
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Cybernetics in literature, Cyborgs in literature, Literature and science
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The discourse of confession and the rhetoric of the devil: unnatural attraction and gender instability in Wuthering Heights and The Master of Ballantrae.
Creator: DeFalco, Dana., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Often overlooked in the nineteenth century Gothic novel are the complicated social issues existing within the text. In Emily Brontèe's Wuthering Heights and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae, the authors each create villains who represent the preoccupation with appropriate sexuality and conventional gender roles existing in Victorian England. Brontèe's Heathcliff and Stevenson's James Durie embody all that is immoral and non-normative in society with their depraved behavior ;...
Show moreOften overlooked in the nineteenth century Gothic novel are the complicated social issues existing within the text. In Emily Brontèe's Wuthering Heights and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Master of Ballantrae, the authors each create villains who represent the preoccupation with appropriate sexuality and conventional gender roles existing in Victorian England. Brontèe's Heathcliff and Stevenson's James Durie embody all that is immoral and non-normative in society with their depraved behavior ; however, because of the authors' craftiness with language, the authors, through their villains, manage to magnetize the other characters and subsequently emasculate those men in the text who emulate the Victorian ideal of masculinity. By focusing their novels on the plight of the Other and his disruption to the homogeneous rules regarding sexuality and gender in the nineteenth century, both authors articulate a profound understanding of the societal fears regarding these issues existing in their time.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3170602
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Homosexuality in literature, Symbolism in literature, Confession in literature, Desire in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Mother's forgotten garden.
Creator: Zimmerman, Cory Daniel., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The thesis proposed for my M.F.A. in creative writing is a collection of conceptual American short stories written in a variety of forms that properly suit their respective subjects. Like a handful of miscellaneous wild seeds scattered over a tilled garden, the goal of the project is to represent the wild asymmetry of Nature via a collection of unlikely companions. For this reason, the conceptual form of each story often takes root in scientific or symbolic representations of Nature (i.e....
Show moreThe thesis proposed for my M.F.A. in creative writing is a collection of conceptual American short stories written in a variety of forms that properly suit their respective subjects. Like a handful of miscellaneous wild seeds scattered over a tilled garden, the goal of the project is to represent the wild asymmetry of Nature via a collection of unlikely companions. For this reason, the conceptual form of each story often takes root in scientific or symbolic representations of Nature (i.e. sine and cosine curves, the yin-yang, etc.). The plot of loose soil holding these collective experiments together is their earthy thematic focus-namely, the way in which Nature has been systematically backgrounded by western ideology. On occasion, a story's conceptual focus may stray from these ecofeminist principles, but only for the purpose of leveling a more critical or satirical eye upon common American ideologies.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/186303
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Nature in literature, Short stories, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Divine alchemy in Paradise Lost.
Creator: Rutherford, Andrea J., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This study examines the themes of alchemy and transformation in Paradise Lost and seventeenth-century thought. Beginning with an overvieiw of the historical roots of alchemy, this study analyzes the ancient, underlying philosophical concepts that marital union produces the birth of the soul and that destruction is necessary for this birth. Alchemical references identified in Paradise Lost include animal lore and direct alchemical images, which demonstrate Milton's knowledge of alchemy and his...
Show moreThis study examines the themes of alchemy and transformation in Paradise Lost and seventeenth-century thought. Beginning with an overvieiw of the historical roots of alchemy, this study analyzes the ancient, underlying philosophical concepts that marital union produces the birth of the soul and that destruction is necessary for this birth. Alchemical references identified in Paradise Lost include animal lore and direct alchemical images, which demonstrate Milton's knowledge of alchemy and his deliberate use of the alchemical metaphor. These themes support the proposal that Milton, a Christian humanist, uses alchemy as a metaphor described in this study as "divine alchemy," which begins with his belief that Christians, inheriting original sin, must submit themselves to a transformative process similar to transmutation to restore right reason and, ultimately, achieve salvation.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3358963
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Influence, Knowledge, Science, Symbolism in literature, Science in literature, Literature and science, History
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The South Asian diaspora in the Caribbean: migration, nationalism, and exodus in the contemporary Indo-Guyanese literature.
Creator: Budhu, Savena., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This dissertation proposes a two-part thesis on the South Asian diaspora in the Caribbean within contemporary Indo-Guyanese literature. First, Indo-Guyanese writers such as David Dabydeen, Oonya Kempadoo, and Narmala Shewcharan are using the genre of historical fiction to posit counter narratives that undermine dominant narratives of South Asian culture and gender roles. Second, even as these writers struggle against dominant narratives, their texts reinscribe the colonial discourse and...
Show moreThis dissertation proposes a two-part thesis on the South Asian diaspora in the Caribbean within contemporary Indo-Guyanese literature. First, Indo-Guyanese writers such as David Dabydeen, Oonya Kempadoo, and Narmala Shewcharan are using the genre of historical fiction to posit counter narratives that undermine dominant narratives of South Asian culture and gender roles. Second, even as these writers struggle against dominant narratives, their texts reinscribe the colonial discourse and rearticulate racial stereotypes. As argued in this dissertation, the dismal historical realities of ethnic tensions and failed anti-colonial tactics do not sufficiently address the flexible strategies often chosen by the characters and authors to navigate through racial and political convolution. By analyzing works by Indo-Guyanese, I attempt to open a conversation about race, place, and politics, offering some external viewpoints and revealing some important insights into the problems and contradict ions in Guyana. The value of these works is the calling for a connection to history as both a positive example (texts that show gaps in which characters can negotiate social borders) and a negative model (works that amplify racial tension and dismiss the divide and conquer strategy of the colonizer). This twofold thesis develops along three crucial historical periods - the dislocation from India and the heavy burden of indentured labor in British Guiana (1838-1917), ethnic victimization during post-independence (1970), and the subsequent flight to the First World (1980-1990): migration, nationalism, and exodus., Chapter 1 reveals the challenges of indentured labor through East Indian and African characters that disrupts racial and gender borders in David Dabydeen's The Counting House. Chapter 2 exposes the racial tensions following independence as the newly formed government creates an atmosphere of distrust in Oonya Kempadoo's and Narmala Shewcharan's debut novels. Chap suggests the ramifications of exodus as Guyanese reconfigure their identity in a new location in David Dabydeen's narratives. This body of work by Indo-Guyanese plays upon the complex web of historical, political, and racial constructs that coexist simultaneously as authors acknowledge the limits and potential of their colonized history, of nationalist movements, and the rebuilding that is left in its wake.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2953200
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, South Asian diaspora in literature, Emigration and immigration in literature, Colonies in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Under construction: positive-negative space in Faulkner and beyond.
Creator: Puleo, Simone Maria., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis probes the materiality of a text by focusing on elliptical matters. In The Culture of Time and Space, Stephen Kern introduces the term "positive-negative space" to describe the primacy of empty space as a formal subject matter in sculptures of the early twentieth century. With some caveats and distinctions, the thesis argues that Kern's theory of positive-negative space is crucial for reading Faulkner's crytic and polyvalent production of space. Using a smorgasbord of approaches...
Show moreThis thesis probes the materiality of a text by focusing on elliptical matters. In The Culture of Time and Space, Stephen Kern introduces the term "positive-negative space" to describe the primacy of empty space as a formal subject matter in sculptures of the early twentieth century. With some caveats and distinctions, the thesis argues that Kern's theory of positive-negative space is crucial for reading Faulkner's crytic and polyvalent production of space. Using a smorgasbord of approaches including psychoanalytic and reader-response criticism, feminist and critical race theories, post-structuralist and formalist notions of space, theories of the "hole" in fine arts sculpture, and the New Southern studies, my thesis reinvents the conception of positive-negative space, and asserts that positive-negative space as an artistic principle" is the modus operandi of William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Sanctuary.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3358961
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Space in literature, Place (Philosophy) in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Current FAU Student Theses and Dissertations 2007 to date (215)	+ -
Legacy FAU Student Theses and Dissertations 1967-2006 (57)	+ -
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters (1)	+ -

Criticism and interpretation (73)	+ -
Symbolism in literature (57)	+ -
Literature, American (31)	+ -
Literature, English (21)	+ -
Literature, Modern (17)	+ -

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