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Title: Drawing desires performance: dominance and submission in Will Eisner's The Spirit and Alan Moore's Watchmen.
Creator: Furlong, Michael., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis discusses the relationship between classic comic books and BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.) Will Eisner's The Spirit is used to discuss sexuality and power in comics, with special attention paid to Eisner's "The Kissing Caper." The Eisner chapter explores the relationship between sadomasochism, film noir, gender dynamics and comics. Using Judith Butler, Fredric Wertham and Theodor Reik, the gender politics of The Spirit are discussed. Women's changing roles in the...
Show moreThis thesis discusses the relationship between classic comic books and BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.) Will Eisner's The Spirit is used to discuss sexuality and power in comics, with special attention paid to Eisner's "The Kissing Caper." The Eisner chapter explores the relationship between sadomasochism, film noir, gender dynamics and comics. Using Judith Butler, Fredric Wertham and Theodor Reik, the gender politics of The Spirit are discussed. Women's changing roles in the post-World War II American workplace are linked to Eisner's BDSM themes in The Spirit from the character's origin story to the 1950s. In examining Alan Moore's Watchmen, the paper focuses on transactional power dynamics and how BDSM rituals are enacted in modern American comics. American power relationships in politics are used as a comparison and contrast to BDSM dynamics in Watchmen. Samuel R. Delany, William Moulton Marston and Pat Califia are used as theorists within the discussion of power exchanges in Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore's graphic novel. The consensual fantasy element to this power relationship is demonstrated as the underlying dynamic of the act, and not as actual punishment or nonconsensual sadism.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3332180
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Comic books, strips, etc, History and criticism, Erotic literature, History and criticism
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Edith Wharton: self-actualization through characterization in The Age of Innocence.
Creator: Feuerberg, Betty., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Edith Wharton uses characterization in the primary three characters in The Age of Innocence to explore the aspects of her life. Early adulthood is represented by May Welland Archer, who was born into New York 400, where society suppressed an individual's emotions, aspirations, and freedoms. The intermediate phase of her life is depicted in Newland Archer, who tests the confining limits of the society to which he belongs and strives to understand the role of emotions in achieving personal...
Show moreEdith Wharton uses characterization in the primary three characters in The Age of Innocence to explore the aspects of her life. Early adulthood is represented by May Welland Archer, who was born into New York 400, where society suppressed an individual's emotions, aspirations, and freedoms. The intermediate phase of her life is depicted in Newland Archer, who tests the confining limits of the society to which he belongs and strives to understand the role of emotions in achieving personal satisfaction. Wharton rejected and craved the ties of the New York 400 in the final phase of her life as portrayed in Ellen Olenska who left the 400, lived in Europe, and returned to New York. By developing these characters, Wharton attempts to retrospectively reconcile the transformations she experienced. Indeed, it will be clear that Wharton's work serves as a personal assessment of her self-actualization.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3360784
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Women and literature, History, Feminism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Fearing the youth: economic turmoil, adult anxiety and the Japanese Battle Royale controversy.
Creator: Pagel, Caren., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Abstract/Description: In December 2000, Japanese lawmakers took unprecedented steps to ban Fukasaku Kinji's Battle Royale from theaters prior to its scheduled release. The film was deemed "crude and tasteless" for its portrayal of teen violence in a state run game of kill or be-killed and attempts to ban the film were pursued through the film certification process all the way to the floor of Japanese parliament. This thesis investigates the controversy surrounding the release of Battle Royale and the socioeconomic...
Show moreIn December 2000, Japanese lawmakers took unprecedented steps to ban Fukasaku Kinji's Battle Royale from theaters prior to its scheduled release. The film was deemed "crude and tasteless" for its portrayal of teen violence in a state run game of kill or be-killed and attempts to ban the film were pursued through the film certification process all the way to the floor of Japanese parliament. This thesis investigates the controversy surrounding the release of Battle Royale and the socioeconomic and cultural factors - in particular, the Japanese recession and widening generation gap of the 1990s - that influenced both the film's message and the extraordinary political reaction in Japan. This thesis argues that the objections to the film were not based solely on the violent content as is often reported, but rather were the combination of adult economic and cultural anxiety regarding themselves and the youth, the anti-authority message of the film that encouraged the youth to reject adult systems, and a political campaign that exploited the adult fears by using Battle Royale as a scapegoat for youth problems.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3172429
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Influence, Motion pictures, Censorship, Violence in motion pictures, Sensationalism in motion pictures, Politics and government, Social life and customs
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: El final del tango Perâonista: la desintegraciâon del cuerpo social en No Habrâa Mâas Penas ni Olvido.
Creator: Fuentes, Delia Pamela., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description: This thesis analyzes the complexities of Argentinean politics during Juan Domingo Perâon's last presidency, (1973-1974), as presented in Osvaldo Soriano's novel No habrâa mâas penas ni olvido. Soriano's work, set in the fictitious town of Colonia Vela, in the state of Buenos Aires, illustrates in a small scale the different social and political components that make up the national body. Historical and fictitious elements dramatize the conflict among the left and right wings of the Peronist...
Show moreThis thesis analyzes the complexities of Argentinean politics during Juan Domingo Perâon's last presidency, (1973-1974), as presented in Osvaldo Soriano's novel No habrâa mâas penas ni olvido. Soriano's work, set in the fictitious town of Colonia Vela, in the state of Buenos Aires, illustrates in a small scale the different social and political components that make up the national body. Historical and fictitious elements dramatize the conflict among the left and right wings of the Peronist Party. These two factions divide the villagers, who hold diverse images of Perâon and what the party entails, while putting their political beliefs and physical well-being at stake. Quickly the two splinter parties trigger an open arm conflict while fighting under the same slogan: "Perâon o muerte". Supported by diverse theoretical perspectives, this thesis reveals that Soriano's novel sheds light into one of the most confusing periods of Argentinean history while rescuing the sacrifices of the people.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3175015
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Spanish American literature, Criticism and interpretation, History, Literature and the war, Politics and government, Social life and customs
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A fistful of facts: reconsidering Dziga Vertov's cinematic truth.
Creator: Salomone, Peter., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: In 1919, the Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov declared a "death sentence" on fictional films. Vertov championed his own unique method of non-fiction filmmaking, called Kino-Eye, which is based on Vertov's ideas regarding truth in cinema. Although he does not write specifically about Vertov or film, the philosopher Nelson Goodman offers a contrasting view of truth in general. By comparing the Kino-Eye method to Goodman's philosophy, we can better understand Vertov's radical ideas and see more...
Show moreIn 1919, the Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov declared a "death sentence" on fictional films. Vertov championed his own unique method of non-fiction filmmaking, called Kino-Eye, which is based on Vertov's ideas regarding truth in cinema. Although he does not write specifically about Vertov or film, the philosopher Nelson Goodman offers a contrasting view of truth in general. By comparing the Kino-Eye method to Goodman's philosophy, we can better understand Vertov's radical ideas and see more clearly how the concept of cinematic truth has changed over time.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/77687
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Documentary films, Sources, Motion pictures, Philosophy, Film criticism
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: Historical and analytical overviews on Dmitri Shostakovich's Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues.
Creator: Park, Jihong., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Music
Abstract/Description: The goal of this research is to discover Shostakovich's inspiration and motivation for writing the Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues. Through the in-depth research of the cycle, this thesis will discuss the different aspects of the unique harmonic ambiguity of both the preludes and the fugue subjects so that readers understand Shostakovich's language of musical communication. Shostakovich lived during a transitional period in the history of Russia when totalitarianism was being challenged. The...
Show moreThe goal of this research is to discover Shostakovich's inspiration and motivation for writing the Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues. Through the in-depth research of the cycle, this thesis will discuss the different aspects of the unique harmonic ambiguity of both the preludes and the fugue subjects so that readers understand Shostakovich's language of musical communication. Shostakovich lived during a transitional period in the history of Russia when totalitarianism was being challenged. The research will also explore how the political environment influenced his composition during those years.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3352279
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Music, History and criticism, Politics and government
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: Marie Corelli: Britain's most popular forgotten author.
Creator: Moss, Doris., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Marie Corelli was arguably the most popular British novelist of the early 1900s, yet few today even know her name. Though she is not the only author to lose popularity, her enormous influence during her lifetime deserves consideration. What people liked about Marie Corelli can shed light on why the rise of modernism is seen as such a break from the popular in literature. This paper examines two of her bestsellers, A Romance of Two Worlds and The Sorrows of Satan, in light of the fin de...
Show moreMarie Corelli was arguably the most popular British novelist of the early 1900s, yet few today even know her name. Though she is not the only author to lose popularity, her enormous influence during her lifetime deserves consideration. What people liked about Marie Corelli can shed light on why the rise of modernism is seen as such a break from the popular in literature. This paper examines two of her bestsellers, A Romance of Two Worlds and The Sorrows of Satan, in light of the fin de siáecle, as well as the critical response to her work from both modernist and postmodern perspectives. Corelli is of interest today because her popular female characters are women who affirm traditional femininity yet also pursue and wield great power. The question I raise is whether Corelli's work is best seen as illustrative of theories about popular literature or as contradictory to them.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3172426
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Women and literature, History, Literature and society, History, English fiction, Criticism and interpretation
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A novel on Albanian emigration to Italy: "They Were Seeking Happiness" a translation of Ata Kerkonin Lumturine by Viktor Canosinaj.
Creator: Lubonja, Edna, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3337188
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, History, Politics and government, Emigration and immigration
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The philosophy of the animal in 20th century literature.
Creator: Johnson, Jamie, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The following dissertation examines the philosophy of the animal as it appears in twentieth-century British and American literature. I argue that evolutionary theory, along with the Romantic emphasis on sympathy, creates an historical shift in our perception of humans and nonhumans. Beginning with Herman Melville's classic novel, Moby-Dick, the whale represents what I call a transitional animal figure in that the whale not only shows the traditionally symbolic literary animal but also the...
Show moreThe following dissertation examines the philosophy of the animal as it appears in twentieth-century British and American literature. I argue that evolutionary theory, along with the Romantic emphasis on sympathy, creates an historical shift in our perception of humans and nonhumans. Beginning with Herman Melville's classic novel, Moby-Dick, the whale represents what I call a transitional animal figure in that the whale not only shows the traditionally symbolic literary animal but also the beginnings of the twentieth century shift toward the literal animal-as-subject. My proposed comparative analysis consists of a return to classic existential and phenomenological philosophers with animal studies in mind. A handful of critical essays in recent years have conducted just such an analysis. My contribution extends these philosophical endeavors on the animal and applies them to major literary authors who demonstrate a notable interest in the philosophy of animals. The first chapter of the dissertation begins with D.H. Lawrence, whose writings in selected essays, St. Mawr, and "The Fox" continue considerations made by Melville concerning animal being. Because Lawrence often focuses on gender, sexuality, and intuition, I discuss how a Heideggerian reading of animals in Lawrence adds value to interpretations of his fiction which remain unavailable in analyses of human subjects. In Chapter Two, I move on to William Faulkner's classic hunting tale of "The Bear" and other significant animal sightings in his fiction and nonfiction. For Faulkner, the animal subject exists in the author's particular historical climate of American environmentalism, modernism's literary emphasis on visuality, and race theory., This combination calls for a natural progression from a Heideggerian existential phenomenology: a contemporary Sartrean reading of animal being. Finally, the last chapter examines J.M. Coetzee, an author whose texts show the accumulated existential and phenomenological progression in the philosophy of the animal with a combined interest in current political and social issues surrounding animal life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/192984
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Animals (Philosophy), Human-animal relationships in literature, Animals in literature, American prose literature, Criticism and interpretation, English prose literature, Criticism and interpretation
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The prepared piano of John Cage: a new level of hearing the Sonatas and Interludes.
Creator: Ferreira, Inara de Barros, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Music
Abstract/Description: When John Cage invented the prepared piano in 1940, he created a sound world and body of music unlike anything heard before. The innovative music he wrote for prepared piano requires a completely new approach to performance, and expands our understanding of the piano's capabilities. This study will examine the main prepared piano works by John Cage, with a detailed analysis of the Sonatas and Interludes. Cage's Table of Preparations will be examined to establish an aesthetic rationale for...
Show moreWhen John Cage invented the prepared piano in 1940, he created a sound world and body of music unlike anything heard before. The innovative music he wrote for prepared piano requires a completely new approach to performance, and expands our understanding of the piano's capabilities. This study will examine the main prepared piano works by John Cage, with a detailed analysis of the Sonatas and Interludes. Cage's Table of Preparations will be examined to establish an aesthetic rationale for this preparation. Different modes of listening will be explored through a selection of the Sonatas and Interludes recorded in three different technological systems - conventional AB 2.0, surround 5.1, and Disk Jecklin. The latter allows for a true "surround sound" experience as Cage himself might have heard his own pieces. Included is a compact disc of selections from Sonatas and Interludes recorded in each of the three technological systems.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/1927866
Subject Headings: Cage, John, Criticism and interpretation, Prepared piano music, Music, Aleatory music, History and criticism, Avant-garde (Music), History and criticism
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Un puente hecho de tierra: un estudio comparativo de la visiâon indigenista del problema de la tierra en Balâun Canâan, por Rosario Castellanos, y "El problema del indio," por Josâe Carlos Mariâategui.
Creator: Modic, Blaire., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description: This thesis uncovers a deep and recurring link between two indigenista texts of the 20th Century: Balâun Canâan, by Rosario Castellanos, and "El problema del indio," by Jose Carlos Mariâategui. Mariategui's text, an essay, takes a deductive approach to prove that the "Indian's problem" in Peru is related to the concentration of land in the hands of his oppressors. Using Marxist theory, Mariâategui shows that only through more equitable distribution of land can the indigenous Peruvian's...
Show moreThis thesis uncovers a deep and recurring link between two indigenista texts of the 20th Century: Balâun Canâan, by Rosario Castellanos, and "El problema del indio," by Jose Carlos Mariâategui. Mariategui's text, an essay, takes a deductive approach to prove that the "Indian's problem" in Peru is related to the concentration of land in the hands of his oppressors. Using Marxist theory, Mariâategui shows that only through more equitable distribution of land can the indigenous Peruvian's fortunes be improved. Castellanos chooses the years of the Cardenas presidency (1934-1940) for her novel, a work that deals with the legacy of the Mexican Revolution. Set in Chiapas, Mexico, autobiographical and fictitious elements and characters dramatize a conflict over indigenous rights to land and education on a criollo family's enormous estate. Supported by intellectual criticism from a number of fields, this thesis connects episodes from Castellanos's novel with the core premises of Mariâategui's essay.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3170604
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Indians of Mexico, Government relations, Land tenure, Social aspects, Indians of South America, History, Agriculture, Economic aspects, History, Civilization
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Reconfiguring the classic narrative of pulp fiction.
Creator: Gray, Alexandria S., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This project considers four writers that have used postmodern narrative strategies to reconfigure classic pulp science fiction tropes. The primary texts are Catherine L. Moore's "Shambleau," Eleanor Arnason's "The Warlord of Saturn's Moons", Robert Heinlein's "The Rolling Stones", and Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assassin". Each experiments with narrative voices or uses a story-within-a-story structure. These strategies enable the authors to engage and comment on the process of how...
Show moreThis project considers four writers that have used postmodern narrative strategies to reconfigure classic pulp science fiction tropes. The primary texts are Catherine L. Moore's "Shambleau," Eleanor Arnason's "The Warlord of Saturn's Moons", Robert Heinlein's "The Rolling Stones", and Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assassin". Each experiments with narrative voices or uses a story-within-a-story structure. These strategies enable the authors to engage and comment on the process of how traditional tropes and narratives are brought into a new context through appropriation and reconstruction.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3332251
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Pulp literature, Criticism and interpretation, Popular literature, Criticism and interpretation, Postmodernism (Literature), Feminism and literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Sinfonâia en rojo: el prisma de Elisabeth Mulder.
Creator: Del Olmo Lâopez, Itxaso., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description: This thesis aims to rescue the name of Elisabeth Mulder, a Spanish female poet who started to publish her first poetry books around the rise of the Generation of 1927 in Spain. The importance of this work hinges on the recognition of Mulder as a female poet whose work has been marginalized from the literary canon, like that of many other women of her era. This thesis focuses on Mulde''s third poetry collection, Sinfonâia en rojo, which was published in 1929 and stands out for its symbolic...
Show moreThis thesis aims to rescue the name of Elisabeth Mulder, a Spanish female poet who started to publish her first poetry books around the rise of the Generation of 1927 in Spain. The importance of this work hinges on the recognition of Mulder as a female poet whose work has been marginalized from the literary canon, like that of many other women of her era. This thesis focuses on Mulde''s third poetry collection, Sinfonâia en rojo, which was published in 1929 and stands out for its symbolic richness and its romantic and modernist features. Part of this research deals with the symbolism of the color red and the meanings that red acquires within the context of the poems. The main leitmotivs of Sinfonâia en rojo are the images of fire and blood, which are used to make reference to both the emotional and the physical world of the poetic voice. The research also focuses on the connections between Mulder's work and that of her contemporaries, and it suggests that she was in contact with the literary world of her era.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3362329
Subject Headings: Influence, Criticism and interpretation, Spanish poetry, Women authors, Criticism and interpretation, Spanish poetry, Criticism and interpretation, Women and literature, Generacâion 27 (Group of poets)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Studied girlhoods: consciousness, context, and negotiation of identity in the memoirs of Dorothy Allison, Mary Karr, and Barbara Robinette Moss.
Creator: Dilgen, Regina., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description: Dorothy Allison's Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club, and Barbara Robinette Moss's Change Me into Zeus's Daughter are memoirs published in the 1990s of girlhoods in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This dissertation uses and expands upon the approaches of the multi-disciplinary Girls' Studies in analyzing how these memoirists theorize their own girlhoods. Each memoirist represents her experience in a culture that attempts to marginalize, silence, and define her....
Show moreDorothy Allison's Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club, and Barbara Robinette Moss's Change Me into Zeus's Daughter are memoirs published in the 1990s of girlhoods in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This dissertation uses and expands upon the approaches of the multi-disciplinary Girls' Studies in analyzing how these memoirists theorize their own girlhoods. Each memoirist represents her experience in a culture that attempts to marginalize, silence, and define her. An application of the foundational work on girlhood in developmental psychology provides for an analysis of each memoirist's depiction of girlhood as a time of authentic insight and developing agency. Referencing feminist literary criticism allows for an interpretation of how the girls at the center of these works develop agency through growing awareness of the circumstances of their marginalization. And a semiotic literary interpretation adds to the analysis of these works as creative autobiogra phical writing in affording a close reading of how the memoirists portray younger selves learning to read the signs and texts of a culture and becoming aware of their status as girls in working-class families. Each memoirist uses a dual vocal presentation as both the adult memoirist and a younger self give shape to the narrative. Each memoirist represents a distinct southern space intersecting with specifics of the era to form a cultural moment. Social Construction Theory makes available a basis for considering how the memoirists narrate their increasing understanding of race and gender within these specific contexts as well as their resistive voicing of these insights., Through a Cultural Studies focus this dissertation examines how each memoirist represents a younger self's negotiations with cultural products of the era that work to construct girlhood. Adding to this unpacking of how the memoirists study their own girlhoods, the tools of Postco for an analysis of how the memoirists theorize their own girlhoods in ways that parallel these approaches. This dissertation adds to the evolving field of Girls' Studies in using contemporary theoretical frameworks to interpret how girlhood is constructed, represented, and negotiated with in these memoirs.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3332175
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Self in literature, Popular culture, Working class women
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Telling the truth: creative nonfiction in Capote's In Cold Blood & Mailer's The Executioner's Song.
Creator: Capp, James R., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: In the American creative nonfiction genre, the line between fact and fiction is ever-blurring. Two novels which strive for realness and are thematically related in their focus on a cause célèbre and the death penalty, Truman Capote's In cold blood and Norman Mailer's The executioner's song, offer clues that might help approach the question of what makes a specific work fall under the category of creative nonfiction. I analyze the creative techniques that the authors use in their novels, and I...
Show moreIn the American creative nonfiction genre, the line between fact and fiction is ever-blurring. Two novels which strive for realness and are thematically related in their focus on a cause célèbre and the death penalty, Truman Capote's In cold blood and Norman Mailer's The executioner's song, offer clues that might help approach the question of what makes a specific work fall under the category of creative nonfiction. I analyze the creative techniques that the authors use in their novels, and I consider details from the texts about the activeness and reliability of the narrators in the two books, as well as consequent political implications. Additionally, I ground my examination of these novels in a discussion of the progress from the early novel's drive for realism to twentieth-century literary journalism.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/77661
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, American prose literature, Reportage literature, Technique
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The use of the bastard identity: from Victorian subverters to superheroes in the twenty-first century and beyond.
Creator: Dessler, Ryan., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This project explores the use if illegitimacy within Western discourse over the last three centuries. Illegitimacy was used in Victorian literature as a literary device to drive plot but evolved into a touchstone for Western discourse to explore the bounds of what is considered respectable society. Over time, as illegitimacy has become more mainstream, I contend illegitimate identities have been utilized to serve as a mirror for Western hegemony. In the first chapter, I explore the origins of...
Show moreThis project explores the use if illegitimacy within Western discourse over the last three centuries. Illegitimacy was used in Victorian literature as a literary device to drive plot but evolved into a touchstone for Western discourse to explore the bounds of what is considered respectable society. Over time, as illegitimacy has become more mainstream, I contend illegitimate identities have been utilized to serve as a mirror for Western hegemony. In the first chapter, I explore the origins of illegitimacy being used as a literary device in novels by Victorian authors Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. In the second chapter, I examine the role illegitimacy plays in the origin stories of canonical comic book superheroes Batman and Superman. Lastly, in the third chapter, I scrutinize the role illegitimacy plays in defining the human condition within science fiction as human culture continues to advance technologically towards a post human world.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355567
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Literature and society, History, Literature and society, History, Comic books, strips, etc, Criticism and interpretation, Illegitimacy in literature, Sex role in literature, Sensationalism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Who is Paule Maurice?: her relative anonymity and its consequences.
Creator: Moore, Anthony Jon., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Music
Abstract/Description: Paule Maurice (1910-1967) is the little known composer of Tableaux de Provence: Suite for Saxophone and Orchestra, one of the most frequently recorded and studied classical saxophone compositions in history. A more in depth study of Paule Maurice reveals a talented composer and dedicated professor whose career at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and l'Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris spanned over twenty-five years until her untimely death at age fifty-seven. Maurice...
Show morePaule Maurice (1910-1967) is the little known composer of Tableaux de Provence: Suite for Saxophone and Orchestra, one of the most frequently recorded and studied classical saxophone compositions in history. A more in depth study of Paule Maurice reveals a talented composer and dedicated professor whose career at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and l'Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris spanned over twenty-five years until her untimely death at age fifty-seven. Maurice composed for theatre, ballet, French National Radio, orchestra, voice, piano, flute, clarinet, and saxophone. There is question as to the whereabouts of many of her manuscripts. This thesis attempts to bring to bear the life and accomplishments of a talented French composer not well remembered in music history.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/367763
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Composers, Music, History and criticism, Women in music, Saxophone music
Format: Document (PDF)

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