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Title: Mind the Gap: Overcoming Dualities in Motor City, USA.
Creator: Houser, Tai Lynden, Blakemore, Steven, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: Contemporary thinking, bound as it is to a dualistic paradigm, inherently privileges one side of the duality over the other. Feminists - most notably in this dissertation, Val Plumwood - argue that we must overcome these privileged dualities and reconstruct a way of knowing that recognizes difference while not granting privilege to one side or the other. Dualities result from the modernist and postmodernist desire to name and control. One of the reasons that we cannot transcend this desire is...
Show moreContemporary thinking, bound as it is to a dualistic paradigm, inherently privileges one side of the duality over the other. Feminists - most notably in this dissertation, Val Plumwood - argue that we must overcome these privileged dualities and reconstruct a way of knowing that recognizes difference while not granting privilege to one side or the other. Dualities result from the modernist and postmodernist desire to name and control. One of the reasons that we cannot transcend this desire is because we have lost our connection to our environment. Examining novels and films set in Detroit, Michigan, as well as coming to terms with that city's history, will allow us to find places where clairvoyant messengers can commune with the environment and offer us an insight into ways of overcoming the radical "othering" ofduality. This project begins by examining the literary history of urban fiction in the United States and pointing to the tradition of duality and some of its surface problems. Then, the project begins to construct a history of Detroit that exposes the complex layers of duality that have informed the city's growth and ultimately led to the 1967 riots. Next, the argument suggests the importance of fiction and film in understanding modern dualities. The first fictive example, Maureen, from Joyce Carol Oates's novel them is an example of a potential clairvoyant. However, bound as she is to a postmodern existence, Maureen experiences her "other'' but fails to provide a didactic example of non-dualistic thinking. Ultimately, postmodernism and postmodern/post riot Detroit only mystify and compound the problems associated with modern dualities. Likewise, Jeffrey Eugenides transgendered hero/ine Calliope (Middlesex) experiences her natural "other" and allows us to call into question the traditional binaries we use to create our understandings of gender. Both characters retell their experience and re-present their bodies in an attempt to bridge dualities and overcome their "otherness." Finally, the dissertation finds a representation of contemporary Detroit, Eminem's 8 Mile, and argues that violence and shame are at the root of dualities and ultimately distract us from overcoming both fictional and real examples of the oppressive "othering" which results from a culture steeped in dualistic thinking.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000984
Subject Headings: Detroit (Mich)--In literature, Detroit (Mich)--History--21st century--Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Postmodernism--Psychological aspects, Philosophy of nature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The religion of William Butler Yeats.
Creator: Turso, Betty Doris., Florida Atlantic University, Peyton, Ann
Abstract/Description: William Butler Yeats created his own mythology which is a religion unto itself. He took the myths of ancient heroic Ireland and combined these with the dominant Christian beliefs in Ireland during his lifetime and created a new religion that would serve to unite Ireland that was divided along religious lines. My thesis will show that Yeats, out of a fardel of tales, created not only his own mythology but a religion as well. With the help of the theories of Joseph Campbell, I will prove that...
Show moreWilliam Butler Yeats created his own mythology which is a religion unto itself. He took the myths of ancient heroic Ireland and combined these with the dominant Christian beliefs in Ireland during his lifetime and created a new religion that would serve to unite Ireland that was divided along religious lines. My thesis will show that Yeats, out of a fardel of tales, created not only his own mythology but a religion as well. With the help of the theories of Joseph Campbell, I will prove that Yeats's writing provided a virtual medium through which he disseminated his belief system. Therefore, this exploration is essential to give a deeper understanding to the total scope of Yeats's work.
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Date Issued: 1996
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15273
Subject Headings: Yeats, W B--(William Butler),--1865-1939--Criticism and interpretation, Religious poetry--History and criticism, Religion in literature, Symbolism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: High summer.
Creator: Hasler Martinez, Michelle., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: High Summer is a manuscript-length compilation of narrative science essays that trace the relationship the narrator has with her father. These essays focus on the ongoing presence of drugs, their historical basis, and their pharmacological effects on the body.
Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3358552
Subject Headings: Fathers and daughters, Parent and child, Symbolism in literature, Psychology, Pathological, Substance abuse, Physiological aspects, Narration (Rhetoric), Creative nonfiction
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Paradise Revealed.
Creator: Ditusa, Michael, Schwartz, Jason, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: South Florida is a collective of eclectic personalities who often transplant themselves from all across the country. They are often seeking a new opportunity, or running away from the baggage of their past. This collection of fiction stories seeks to explore the lives of the people who populate the area and serve the rest of the world who descend on the area annually seeking their own personal one to two week paradise. The collection sees those often living lives of quite desperation, while...
Show moreSouth Florida is a collective of eclectic personalities who often transplant themselves from all across the country. They are often seeking a new opportunity, or running away from the baggage of their past. This collection of fiction stories seeks to explore the lives of the people who populate the area and serve the rest of the world who descend on the area annually seeking their own personal one to two week paradise. The collection sees those often living lives of quite desperation, while at the same time returning to their jobs in the service industry night after night smiling. Juxtaposing the faith-based life against the backdrop of the night life, the characters are all on a journey to discover their own paradise the area offers. Sometimes they find it in small moments they experience. Sometimes they find it on the open road leaving.
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Date Issued: 2007
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000910
Subject Headings: Florida--Social life and customs--Fiction., Symbolism in literature., Self-realization., Short stories, American.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Speak, Shade.
Creator: Gibson, Raymond, Scroggins, Mark, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: Speak, Shade is a book of lyric verse indebted to the poetics of W. S. Merwinespecially The Moving Target and The Lice- and late Paul Celan. It eschews punctuation, and uses paradox, ambiguous syntax, derangement of the senses, and surreal imagery among its tropes. Its themes include- but are not limited toblindness as a spiritual condition, the inefficacy of the imagination before time and death, the line between dream and reality, and the silence of God. Some motifs occurring in the text...
Show moreSpeak, Shade is a book of lyric verse indebted to the poetics of W. S. Merwinespecially The Moving Target and The Lice- and late Paul Celan. It eschews punctuation, and uses paradox, ambiguous syntax, derangement of the senses, and surreal imagery among its tropes. Its themes include- but are not limited toblindness as a spiritual condition, the inefficacy of the imagination before time and death, the line between dream and reality, and the silence of God. Some motifs occurring in the text are parts of the body, stars, books, light, mirrors, and shadows.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000919
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature., Poetry--Collections., Versification., Merwin, W.S.--(William Stanley),--1927---Criticism and interpretation.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The " living presence" and the "ideal character": sex, fantasy, and photographs in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.
Creator: Taylor, Margaret, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: In my thesis I will argue that the source of the major conflict in Jude the Obscure - the traumatic relationship between Sue and Jude - is Jude's viewing of his cousin's photograph early in the novel. Because of his tendency to idealize the individuals around him, Jude projects a desired image onto a photograph of Sue before meeting her in real life. This projection takes on an aspect of reality for Jude which he can not escape, despite Sue's efforts to disillusion him and introduce him to...
Show moreIn my thesis I will argue that the source of the major conflict in Jude the Obscure - the traumatic relationship between Sue and Jude - is Jude's viewing of his cousin's photograph early in the novel. Because of his tendency to idealize the individuals around him, Jude projects a desired image onto a photograph of Sue before meeting her in real life. This projection takes on an aspect of reality for Jude which he can not escape, despite Sue's efforts to disillusion him and introduce him to her actual self. Since his projection starkly contrasts to Sue's actual being, not only does Jude believe that the two are compatible when they are not, but he believes that Sue's attempts to disillusion him are in fact deceitful. Thus the initial impetus of the photograph eventually leads to their conflicted relationship and the tragedy of the novel overall.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/210004
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Imagination in literature, Despair in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Concept of Nature in American Transcendentalism: Emerson and Thoreau appropriating Kant.
Creator: Unger, Ulrike, Augustyn, Prisca, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: The objective of this study is to compare Emerson's and Thoreau's concepts of nature as they are informed by Immanuel Kant. In particular, this study examines Emerson's Nature, The Transcendentalist, The Divinity School Address, The Conservative; and Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden; or, Life in the Woods and The Maine Woods to analyze how their ideas of nature are anchored in Kant's three Critiques. Emerson and Thoreau develop Kant's ideas and both arrive at an...
Show moreThe objective of this study is to compare Emerson's and Thoreau's concepts of nature as they are informed by Immanuel Kant. In particular, this study examines Emerson's Nature, The Transcendentalist, The Divinity School Address, The Conservative; and Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden; or, Life in the Woods and The Maine Woods to analyze how their ideas of nature are anchored in Kant's three Critiques. Emerson and Thoreau develop Kant's ideas and both arrive at an unlimited nature which is not bound to objects of form. While Emerson focuses on human nature in the organism, Thoreau is concerned with organic nature in particular.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000971
Subject Headings: Emerson, Ralph Waldo,--1803-1882--Criticism and interpretation, Thoreau, Henry David,--1817-1862--Criticism and interpretation, Kant, Immanuel,--1724-1804--Criticism and interpretation, Transcendentalism in literature, Nature in literature, Symbolism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: 2 Vietnams.
Creator: Rooney, Scarlett Elizabeth., Florida Atlantic University, Schwartz, Jason
Abstract/Description: 2 Vietnams documents modern Vietnam through alternating chapters of collage fictions and images: "East-West Documentation," "Vietnam in the Twilight-Hour," "Correspondence," and "Confessional Archives." Although 2 Vietnams serves as a documentary-style account of the many Vietnams that exist and confront our American memory of Vietnam, each chapter contains social narratives that connect to each other forming larger, subtler narratives. "East-West Documentation" follows a fictional writer's...
Show more2 Vietnams documents modern Vietnam through alternating chapters of collage fictions and images: "East-West Documentation," "Vietnam in the Twilight-Hour," "Correspondence," and "Confessional Archives." Although 2 Vietnams serves as a documentary-style account of the many Vietnams that exist and confront our American memory of Vietnam, each chapter contains social narratives that connect to each other forming larger, subtler narratives. "East-West Documentation" follows a fictional writer's experience living in Vietnam, conducting interviews and reading articles. "Vietnam in the Twilight-Hour" strings narrative poetry together with titles ranging from "Neocolonialism," "Love in Notations," to "SocialPolygrams." In addition to these poetic narratives are photographs that tell snapshot stories. "Correspondence" contains fictions such as "Think and It Will Happen," "StoryOptics," and "Flame of Life." Lastly, "Confessional Archives" contains images and non-fictional stories from veterans, both Vietnamese and American.
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Date Issued: 2005
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13310
Subject Headings: Memory in art, Vietnam--History--Pictorial works, Vietnam War, 1961-1965--Pictorial works, Symbolism in literature, Indochina--History--1945---Sources
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: Framing bad art: A semiotic view of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance.
Creator: Givonetti, Scott B., Florida Atlantic University, Blakemore, Steven
Abstract/Description: Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance has been criticized contemporaneously and subsequently by such figures as F. O. Matthiessen, Mark Van Doren, and Rudolph Von Abele for its lack of romanticism or realism, depending upon the critic. This thesis uses a semiotic approach to explore Hawthorne's deconstruction of his first-person narrator, Miles Coverdale, and the resulting confusion among critics regarding authorial control in what some call his "anti-romance." Coverdale, as a detached...
Show moreNathaniel Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance has been criticized contemporaneously and subsequently by such figures as F. O. Matthiessen, Mark Van Doren, and Rudolph Von Abele for its lack of romanticism or realism, depending upon the critic. This thesis uses a semiotic approach to explore Hawthorne's deconstruction of his first-person narrator, Miles Coverdale, and the resulting confusion among critics regarding authorial control in what some call his "anti-romance." Coverdale, as a detached artist, is responsible for reality's misinterpretation and misrepresentation, somewhat lampooning Transcendentalism. The triadic relationship of object, sign, and interpretant modeled by Charles Sanders Peirce is discussed using Liszka, Sebeok, Eco, and others and is complimented by the Umwelt Theory of Jakob von Uexkull to explain Coverdale's faulty symbolism. Hawthorne's "The Custom House" is also used to indicate his concerns for artistic limitation and the loss of an individual in a static community as he later fictionalizes in Blithedale.
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Date Issued: 2006
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13323
Subject Headings: Hawthorne, Nathaniel,--1804-1864.--Blithedale romance., Symbolism in literature., Hawthorne, Nathaniel,--1804-1864--Criticism and interpretation., Semiotics and literature.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: " Hover through the fog and filthy air": weather witching in Macbeth.
Creator: Clifford, Brooke., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: This paper examines early modern climatology in order to analyze a correlation between weather, witchcraft, and their combined effects on Shakespeare's Macbeth. Contemporary climactic patterns including hailstorms, tempests, and other unusual phenomena drastically affected not only England but much of Europe. Religious and scientific texts of the period examined links between weather phenomena and witchcraft, suggesting that the weather afflictions were caused by witchcraft. Shakespeare...
Show moreThis paper examines early modern climatology in order to analyze a correlation between weather, witchcraft, and their combined effects on Shakespeare's Macbeth. Contemporary climactic patterns including hailstorms, tempests, and other unusual phenomena drastically affected not only England but much of Europe. Religious and scientific texts of the period examined links between weather phenomena and witchcraft, suggesting that the weather afflictions were caused by witchcraft. Shakespeare incorporates this suggestion into Macbeth, as well, but takes the connection even further ; the witches in the play not only use their weather magic to afflict Scotland but also control the events of the play.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3359303
Subject Headings: Criticism and literature, Symbolism in literature, Witchcraft in literature, Witchcraft, History
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Tejidos arquitectonicos: exploraciones de la dimimica entre el individuo y la ciudad en "Walking Around" de Pablo Neruda y Aura de Carlos Fuentes.
Creator: Palacio Paret, Alfredo, Erro-Peralta, Nora, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: Silas Weir Mitchell in 1872 defined as "phantom limb" the sensation and feelings of anxiety, confusion and even pain the amputee receives from an absent body part. By extending this concept and applying it to the architectural imagery within literature, it is possible to observe the dynamics between the characters and their structural environment. This thesis explores the relation between spatial structure and identity in two Latin American works: "Walking Around" (1933) by Pablo Neruda and...
Show moreSilas Weir Mitchell in 1872 defined as "phantom limb" the sensation and feelings of anxiety, confusion and even pain the amputee receives from an absent body part. By extending this concept and applying it to the architectural imagery within literature, it is possible to observe the dynamics between the characters and their structural environment. This thesis explores the relation between spatial structure and identity in two Latin American works: "Walking Around" (1933) by Pablo Neruda and Aura (1962) by Carlos Fuentes. Both authors introduce architecture as an intrinsic element in the construction of their narrative; Neruda's poetic voice wanders around a seemingly living city, while Fuentes's characters abandon the city to become part of a house. The architectural imagery of both texts leads the reader to explore the construction of its literary subjects and to see the physical space as their "phantom limbs." This reading will elucidate the importance of architecture within Latin American literature as well as reveal the maneuvering of the structural representations in the construction of the Latin America identity.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000946
Subject Headings: Fuentes, Carlos--Aura--Criticism and interpretation, Neruda, Pablo,--1904-1973--Walking around--Criticism and interpretation, Architecture--Human factors, Symbolism in literature, Postmodernism (Literature), Imagery (Psychology) in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A queer world: feminine subversions of chivalric homosocial normativity.
Creator: Pitts, Jessica., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: If queer is an applicable label for that which aims to subvert or counteract normativity, then Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Wife of Bath's tale, and her Prologue are each, in their own ways, queer texts. I examine the ways in which the feminine presences of Morgan le Fay and the Loathly Lady influence and challenge the heteronormative, homosocial space of Arthur and his knights. The two knights in each respective tale journey away from their heteronormative spaces, in which a complex...
Show moreIf queer is an applicable label for that which aims to subvert or counteract normativity, then Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Wife of Bath's tale, and her Prologue are each, in their own ways, queer texts. I examine the ways in which the feminine presences of Morgan le Fay and the Loathly Lady influence and challenge the heteronormative, homosocial space of Arthur and his knights. The two knights in each respective tale journey away from their heteronormative spaces, in which a complex system of homosociality and chivalric patriarchy dominate, to a queer space where each must go against his societal norms and rely on feminine agency and talismans in order for their quests to succeed - and to ensure their survival. It is this very convergence of heteronormative and queer spaces that enables Morgan's defiance of heteronormativity and dominance over those who enter her feminine, non-normative domain.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3318679
Subject Headings: Characters, Wife of Bath, Feminism and literature, Gawain (Legendary character), Man-woman relationships in literature, Human body in literature, Symbolism in literature, Sex in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The sui generis in Charles G. Finney’s The Circus Of Dr. Lao.
Creator: White, Adam J., Martin, Thomas L., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Charles G. Finney’s 1936 novel The Circus of Dr. Lao was published to enthusiastic reviews, but fell into relative obscurity shortly thereafter. Since its publication, it has been the subject of one peer-reviewed critical essay, a number of reviews, one non-peer-reviewed essay, and a master’s thesis. It was published in a world where the fantastic and unique found only barren desert soil, with no scholarly tradition for the fantastic, nor a widely receptive lay audience for something truly...
Show moreCharles G. Finney’s 1936 novel The Circus of Dr. Lao was published to enthusiastic reviews, but fell into relative obscurity shortly thereafter. Since its publication, it has been the subject of one peer-reviewed critical essay, a number of reviews, one non-peer-reviewed essay, and a master’s thesis. It was published in a world where the fantastic and unique found only barren desert soil, with no scholarly tradition for the fantastic, nor a widely receptive lay audience for something truly unique, or sui generis. The concept of the sui generis, meaning “of its own kind,” provides a useful lens for examining the novel, as Finney develops not only creatures, but people, which are truly of their own kind, borrowing from existing mythologies, traits of humanity, and aspects of nature, recombining them in a singular way which resists classification.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA0004073
Subject Headings: Fantasy fiction, American -- Criticism and interpretation, Finney, Charles G. -- (Charles Grandison) -- 1905-1984 -- Circus of Dr. Lao -- Criticism and interpretation, Individualism (Philosophy), Knowledge, Theory of, in literature, Meaning (Philosophy), Symbolism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The food of fools: an analysis of the Fools' gustatory imagery in King Lear.
Creator: Sparer, Sara Rafferty., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The character of the Fool in William Shakespeare's King Lear uses hitherto unexamined gustatory imagery as a linguistic device to achieve the literary fool's function of imparting wisdom that masquerades as nonsense. While previous critics have analyzed the linguistic devices of puns, riddles, and rhymes used by medieval and Renaissance literary fools, this thesis argues not only that the Fool's gustatory imagery constitutes the dominant motif in the play, but also employs food theory to...
Show moreThe character of the Fool in William Shakespeare's King Lear uses hitherto unexamined gustatory imagery as a linguistic device to achieve the literary fool's function of imparting wisdom that masquerades as nonsense. While previous critics have analyzed the linguistic devices of puns, riddles, and rhymes used by medieval and Renaissance literary fools, this thesis argues not only that the Fool's gustatory imagery constitutes the dominant motif in the play, but also employs food theory to demonstrate how these image patterns provide political commentary on the dramatic action. The Fool's pattern of gustatory imagery is employed as well by characters who can be seen as variations on the wise fool. Through these characters, Shakespeare establishes a food chain motif that classifies some characters as all-consumptive, even cannibalistic, and others as their starving prey. The pattern of food imagery offers a range of perspectives, from highly critical to idealistic, on the play's meaning and political relationships.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/227981
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Food, Symbolic aspects, Food in literature, Literature and society, Criticism and interpretion
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: "One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons!": twinship and doubling in Twelfth Night.
Creator: Puehn, Amanda M., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: This thesis considers the relationship between scientific advances, identity formation, and literature in an early modern print culture. As medical theorists made their discoveries and defended their work they did so within the literary world; turning to the printed word to cultivate their personal identity and rebut dissenting colleagues. Subsequently, playwright William Shakespeare employed common medical knowledge within his plays. Twelfth Night presents male and female twins within the...
Show moreThis thesis considers the relationship between scientific advances, identity formation, and literature in an early modern print culture. As medical theorists made their discoveries and defended their work they did so within the literary world; turning to the printed word to cultivate their personal identity and rebut dissenting colleagues. Subsequently, playwright William Shakespeare employed common medical knowledge within his plays. Twelfth Night presents male and female twins within the scope of a comedy that plays upon the issues of cross-dressing and mistaken sexual identity. During the Renaissance, it was believed that male and female seed was co-present in every person and through dominance a distinct sexual identity was developed. This thesis argues that while Shakespeare initially convoluted this by allowing one of the twins to cross-dress; he resolved the anatomical doubling by presenting both characters together on stage at the close of the play.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3335455
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Identity (Psychology) in literature, Sex role in literature, Literature and medicine, History
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: One nation under gods: interfaith symbolism and the "American" race in the works of Jean Toomer.
Creator: Fallon, Laura Gayle., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This study argues that the interfaith symbolism present in the works of American author Jean Toomer undermines dominant Christian justifications for racism in the United States. It also discusses the ways in which Toomer's interfaith symbolism promotes the establishment of a race Toomer called the "American" race, a group of interracial, interreligious people whom Toomer hoped would change the way race was viewed in the United States. The multireligious references in Toomer's works challenge...
Show moreThis study argues that the interfaith symbolism present in the works of American author Jean Toomer undermines dominant Christian justifications for racism in the United States. It also discusses the ways in which Toomer's interfaith symbolism promotes the establishment of a race Toomer called the "American" race, a group of interracial, interreligious people whom Toomer hoped would change the way race was viewed in the United States. The multireligious references in Toomer's works challenge constricted definitions of both religion and race by highlighting interchangeable religious ideals from several world religions.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/359926
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Race in popular culture, Race relations
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A good woman is hard to find: discovering the voice of the woman satirist in Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood.
Creator: Paxton, Virginia A., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: While Flannery O'Connor's characters and narrative landscape may share a history with those of other works often labeled "Southern gothic," her heavily judicious narrative voice utilizes the depravity of the South struggling to find its identity as a means to explore her vision of God's mercy and distinguishes her work as satirical criticism. This thesis analyzes her construction of a distinctive satirical narrative voice for Wise Blood, particularly as it deviates from how she initially...
Show moreWhile Flannery O'Connor's characters and narrative landscape may share a history with those of other works often labeled "Southern gothic," her heavily judicious narrative voice utilizes the depravity of the South struggling to find its identity as a means to explore her vision of God's mercy and distinguishes her work as satirical criticism. This thesis analyzes her construction of a distinctive satirical narrative voice for Wise Blood, particularly as it deviates from how she initially wrote the first chapters as presented in earlier short stories like "The Train" and "The Peeler." Here, the ways in which O'Connor revises her diction and syntax to create a satirical tone will be examined closely. For the purposes of this paper, satire is defined as a literary work aimed at utilizing irony, hyperbole, or sarcasm to reveal, critique, and correct some moral, ethical, or social phenomenon or situation that the author finds reprehensible.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/221951
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Feminism and literature, Didactic fiction, American, Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Mobile Modernity: Transportation in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
Creator: Johnston, Carrie E., Furman, Andrew, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: A central paradox in modernism is its disdain for mass culture, despite mass culture 's undeniable presence in modernist literature. American authors writing during the early twentieth century tried to establish themselves as "highbrow" by leaving the U.S. and traveling to Europe. In doing so, they created a particular aesthetic characterized by depictions of the transportation that facilitated this travel. These depictions reveal modernism's dependence on mass culture, and more importantly,...
Show moreA central paradox in modernism is its disdain for mass culture, despite mass culture 's undeniable presence in modernist literature. American authors writing during the early twentieth century tried to establish themselves as "highbrow" by leaving the U.S. and traveling to Europe. In doing so, they created a particular aesthetic characterized by depictions of the transportation that facilitated this travel. These depictions reveal modernism's dependence on mass culture, and more importantly, create a space in which modernist authors can negotiate what was once a choice between high or low culture, exile or tourist, and ultimately, modernism or mass culture. Analyzing the car and train scenes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises reveals the hybrid spaces made available to these authors through transportation.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000930
Subject Headings: Fitzgerald, F Scott--(Francis Scott),--1896-1940--Tender is the night--Criticism and interpretation, Hemingway, Ernest,--1899-1961--Sun also rises--Criticism and interpretation, Literature and society--United States, Symbolism in literature, Travel in literature, Postmodernism (Literature)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Abjection and social transformation in John Fowles's Mantissa and A Maggot.
Creator: Skolnick, Jenifer A., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: In John Fowles's last two novels, he alters his authorial project of discovering freedom for an individual from a social system to how a social system can be changed from within. Using Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection and her interpretation of the semiotic versus symbolic processes of signification, readers can determine how an imbalance in the human signifying process has become corrupted by power. Through Fowles's heroines and semiotic irruptions of the symbolic order in both Mantissa...
Show moreIn John Fowles's last two novels, he alters his authorial project of discovering freedom for an individual from a social system to how a social system can be changed from within. Using Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection and her interpretation of the semiotic versus symbolic processes of signification, readers can determine how an imbalance in the human signifying process has become corrupted by power. Through Fowles's heroines and semiotic irruptions of the symbolic order in both Mantissa and A Maggot, Fowles reveals weaknesses in the symbolic, and consequently, moments where transformation of a patriarchal, symbolic system can be recognized. These moments of strain on the symbolic are significant because they cause a disruption of the rules and borders that define a social system like patriarchy. By calling attention to these moments, the categorical imperatives that have been imposed on women and perpetuated for the purpose of maintaining power relations can thus be subverted. In Mantissa and A Maggot, Fowles accomplishes a breaking of the boundaries, both within and of the text, by providing a literary space where readers can glimpse the power of the semiotic, the corruption of social conditioning, and gain a new perspective of their own symbolic/social system in the real world.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2979382
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.), Culture, Semiotic models, Symbolic interactionism, Symbolism in literature, Postmodernism (Literature)
Format: Document (PDF)

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