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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: Wool and water.
Creator: Frederick, Kira., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Wool and Water is a creative work of 36 poems. This collection examines the relationship between the silent and vocal, between the pastoral and urban. By reconfiguring and retelling the fairy tales and nursery rhymes, this collection seeks to challenge the status quo through trickster-like diction. Themes that are prevalent include: alienation, nourishment, anonymity, and the female body. From the concrete to the lyric, Wool and Water relies upon the process of questioning patriarchal guises....
Show moreWool and Water is a creative work of 36 poems. This collection examines the relationship between the silent and vocal, between the pastoral and urban. By reconfiguring and retelling the fairy tales and nursery rhymes, this collection seeks to challenge the status quo through trickster-like diction. Themes that are prevalent include: alienation, nourishment, anonymity, and the female body. From the concrete to the lyric, Wool and Water relies upon the process of questioning patriarchal guises. These poems intersect in order to rectify the past and make amends with the present. The female voices that drive these poems are multi-generational.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/187210
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Poetry, Feminist poetry, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The bones of the ox: how J.R.R. Tolkien's cosmology reflects ancient Near Eastern creation myths.
Creator: Dutton, Amanda M., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Scholars have well established the influence of the Old and Middle English, Norse, Welsh, and also Medieval Latin and Christian mythologies that influenced the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. In particular, the mythology contained in The Silmarillion, specific the cosmology, behaves as sacred texts do in the primary world and mirrors a number of extant mythologies when they are directly compared. Several scholars have note, but as yet no one has studied in depth, the relationship between the...
Show moreScholars have well established the influence of the Old and Middle English, Norse, Welsh, and also Medieval Latin and Christian mythologies that influenced the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien. In particular, the mythology contained in The Silmarillion, specific the cosmology, behaves as sacred texts do in the primary world and mirrors a number of extant mythologies when they are directly compared. Several scholars have note, but as yet no one has studied in depth, the relationship between the cosmology the The Silmarillion to that of a number of extant ancient Near Eastern mythologies. This thesis seeks to address that gap in the scholarship by specifically exploring Tolkien's mythological creation story in relation to those of the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Abrahamic of the Near East. Such a comparative study reveals a number of structural and thematic parallels that attest to the complexity of Tolkien's work that and can be used to argue that his mythology can be considered as well-developed and surprisingly authentic as any of these ancient mythological traditions.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355562
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Myths in literature, Symbolism in literature, Cosmology, Middle Eastern literature, Criticism and interpretation
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The attack of the compilator: Chaucer's challenge of auctores and antifeminism in The Legend of Good Women.
Creator: Babrove, Franklin., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Geoffrey Chaucer's narrator persona in The Legend of Good Women (LGW) goes through a transformation, starting off in the Prologue to the LGW as a naèive compilator who is subordinate to his literary sources, or auctores, and eventually becoming an auctor himself by the end of the Legends. To gain an authoritative voice, Chaucer's narrator criticizes auctoritee as it pertains to the antifeminist tradition and its misrepresentation of women as inherently wicked, in the process using certain...
Show moreGeoffrey Chaucer's narrator persona in The Legend of Good Women (LGW) goes through a transformation, starting off in the Prologue to the LGW as a naèive compilator who is subordinate to his literary sources, or auctores, and eventually becoming an auctor himself by the end of the Legends. To gain an authoritative voice, Chaucer's narrator criticizes auctoritee as it pertains to the antifeminist tradition and its misrepresentation of women as inherently wicked, in the process using certain rhetorical devices and other literary strategies to assert control over his sources for the Legends, as well as over the text as a whole. Of particular importance in this process is the narrator's line "[a]nd trusteth, as in love, no man but me" (2561) occurring near the end of "The Legend of Phyllis," the penultimate legend in the LGW. At this point in the text, the narrator persona steps completely outside of the role of compilator and presents himself as auctor who can be trusted by his female readers to tell their stories fairly and sympathetically, in ways that subtly confront antifeminist texts and perceptions.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3362330
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Literature, Medieval, Criticism and interpretation, Feminism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A certain animation.
Creator: Christakis, George A., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This is a collection of short stories that flirt with non-traditional forms. They are character-driven pieces, in which plot is of secondary importance to the relationships created and established. Ambiguity and abstraction are valued, as is the balance between mood and humor. Scientific principles fuel some of the pieces here, most of which do not attempt to take place in reality, but rather create their own arena to contain the events that follow.
Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3340698
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Short stories, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: We once lived in caves and other stories.
Creator: Mecom, Khristian., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The following manuscript is a collection of eight short stories that center on the theme of how stories and storytelling, in all their different forms, fill our lives. In one story a girl that lives in other people's houses, longs to tell her story, while in another story a girl struggles with a secret her grandmother leaves behind as she tries to reconstruct her grandmother's story. Some stories use magical and fairy tale-like elements, which work as allusions in the stories and echo the...
Show moreThe following manuscript is a collection of eight short stories that center on the theme of how stories and storytelling, in all their different forms, fill our lives. In one story a girl that lives in other people's houses, longs to tell her story, while in another story a girl struggles with a secret her grandmother leaves behind as she tries to reconstruct her grandmother's story. Some stories use magical and fairy tale-like elements, which work as allusions in the stories and echo the events happening in characters' lives. Another theme present in the collection is that of family and how familial relationships affect identity and self-discovery. In one story, a wildfire allows the stories of different generations to be told, while a widow builds a family out of the aftermath of her husband's death in a different story.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3360618
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Short stories, American, Indentity (Psychology)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Wigging Out.
Creator: Moffa, Jeanette., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Wigging Out, a memoir, chronicles my first chemotherapy treatment which began in 2008 for the autoimmune disease Lupus. The primary focus is on how identity is affected by disability. Each symptom of my disease and side effect from my medications prompted a reevaluation of my identity as I felt a change both in myself and in the way others perceived me. In order to maintain a sense of control, I tried several techniques to pass and cover my disabled status, including the use of prosthetic...
Show moreWigging Out, a memoir, chronicles my first chemotherapy treatment which began in 2008 for the autoimmune disease Lupus. The primary focus is on how identity is affected by disability. Each symptom of my disease and side effect from my medications prompted a reevaluation of my identity as I felt a change both in myself and in the way others perceived me. In order to maintain a sense of control, I tried several techniques to pass and cover my disabled status, including the use of prosthetic hair pieces. Ultimately, the use of prosthetics made accepting my situation more difficult as it encouraged holding onto a former identity rather than creating a new one. It was not until I stopped using prosthetics as a form of denial and instead adopted them as part of a new identity that I was finally able to achieve the confidence necessary to fight for my life.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355617
Subject Headings: Systemic lupus erythematosus, Treatment, Psychological aspects, Systemic lupus erythematosus, Patients, Mental health, Sociology of disability
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The idea salesman.
Creator: Kennard, Daniel., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Protagonist Curtis Dorgan was sitting on his front porch when a Sunset City mail truck delivered a letter from the Idea Salesman that would literally change his life. Suddenly thrust into an existence that never quite feels like his own, he finds himself playing the role of husband and father, and assumes a high-paying position at a downtown capping company. Disoriented and with very little knowledge of himself or the people around him he embraces his newfound life, is promoted at work, and...
Show moreProtagonist Curtis Dorgan was sitting on his front porch when a Sunset City mail truck delivered a letter from the Idea Salesman that would literally change his life. Suddenly thrust into an existence that never quite feels like his own, he finds himself playing the role of husband and father, and assumes a high-paying position at a downtown capping company. Disoriented and with very little knowledge of himself or the people around him he embraces his newfound life, is promoted at work, and finds himself quickly falling in love with his wife and children. But when an unknown villain invades Sunset City seeking the destruction of the Idea Salesman and begins wreaking havoc across town, with the help of a few hard-nosed detectives and some close friends, he slowly comes to learn the true reason behind his new life. Curtis Dorgan has been revised, and he has been called upon by the elusive Idea Salesman to live out his destiny and save the town from its newest and most dangerous threat.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3360621
Subject Headings: Detective and mystery stories, American, Suspense fiction, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The invisibility of here and there.
Creator: De Stefano, Kelly., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: These are collected short stories all dealing to varying extents with the theme of being stuck or captured in an experience or in a moment gone past, often events of hardship or trauma. Some characters explore this territory in desperation, and some seem to become stoic reminders of these pasts, unable to accept the responsibility to move on and allow the experience to mature them and help them grow. I have concentrated on this theme as an aspect of suburbia, the kind of place in which I have...
Show moreThese are collected short stories all dealing to varying extents with the theme of being stuck or captured in an experience or in a moment gone past, often events of hardship or trauma. Some characters explore this territory in desperation, and some seem to become stoic reminders of these pasts, unable to accept the responsibility to move on and allow the experience to mature them and help them grow. I have concentrated on this theme as an aspect of suburbia, the kind of place in which I have grown up and where my characters spend the most time. This collection has been a personal journey for me as well as an exploration in character motivation through imagery depicting the key influential moments in these characters' lives.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3340695
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Short stories, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: roofless.
Creator: Rehman, Sahar., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Here, the natural world is consumed - a physical reality and an internal one. It is walled, but roofless - a contained space. Elements are absorbed, same energies interacting within us that work around us - the natural forces of gravitation and electromagnetism, fire and water, growth, and time. Fundamental interactions in nature, forces that hold the universe together are treated as symbolic of the human experience. The sense of rooflessness is an essential theme to my thesis. There is a...
Show moreHere, the natural world is consumed - a physical reality and an internal one. It is walled, but roofless - a contained space. Elements are absorbed, same energies interacting within us that work around us - the natural forces of gravitation and electromagnetism, fire and water, growth, and time. Fundamental interactions in nature, forces that hold the universe together are treated as symbolic of the human experience. The sense of rooflessness is an essential theme to my thesis. There is a constant return to the sky. The shifting clouds, the stages of the sun and the moon mimic a traveling through time, a constant change. There is a given feeling of freedom and confinement. There is a vulnerability, a destitution, and a lack of shelter. The open sky, always out of reach, is a tease to be free. Though it also hints at a feeling of oneness, a symbolic relation between the divine and the human. The open, uninterrupted path for direct prayer. Roofless indicates a continuous linkage between the ground and the sky, between rain and dirt, between nature and humankind. .
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3172701
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Poetry, Poetry, Themes, motives, Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The myth of the criminal and animal subjecthood in J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace.
Creator: Harrington, Ashley B., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: J. M. Coetzee's brutal novel Disgrace questions popular understandings of criminality and victimhood by establishing parallels between its various characters and their actions. Through close reading of Coetzee's descriptions of protagonist David Lurie's behaviors and attitudes towards women, non-human animals, and people of color compared with descriptions of the mysterious trio of men who rape Lurie's daughter and coldly kill the dogs in her kennels, I argue that the line Disgrace draws...
Show moreJ. M. Coetzee's brutal novel Disgrace questions popular understandings of criminality and victimhood by establishing parallels between its various characters and their actions. Through close reading of Coetzee's descriptions of protagonist David Lurie's behaviors and attitudes towards women, non-human animals, and people of color compared with descriptions of the mysterious trio of men who rape Lurie's daughter and coldly kill the dogs in her kennels, I argue that the line Disgrace draws between Lurie and these men is deliberately flimsy, ultimately all but disappearing if we look closely enough at their behaviors and descriptions rather than their justifications. I also argue that the novel's perpetrators rely upon archetypical "rapist" and "criminal" constructs, resulting in an inability for them to ever accurately address their own crimes, despite Coetzee's descriptive parallels. Ultimately, I read Disgrace as suggesting that there can be no resolution for violence so long as these mythical archetypes persist.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3360783
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Rape, Psychological aspects, Animal welfare, Psychological aspects, Violent crimes, Psychological aspects, Women, Violence against
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The reality of fiction: diagnosing white culture through the lens of mother/nature in Zora Neale Hurston's Seraph on the Suwanee.
Creator: Butler, Rita C., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Zora Neale Hurston's last published novel, Seraph on the Suwanee, can be read as a sociopolitical critique of what she once referred to as the false foundation of Anglo-Saxon civilization. An overview of the history of race as a concept and the development of racial awareness in the United States provides a background/context for understanding the world Hurston was diagnosing: her analysis implies that the social construction of whiteness contains within its ideology the seeds of its own...
Show moreZora Neale Hurston's last published novel, Seraph on the Suwanee, can be read as a sociopolitical critique of what she once referred to as the false foundation of Anglo-Saxon civilization. An overview of the history of race as a concept and the development of racial awareness in the United States provides a background/context for understanding the world Hurston was diagnosing: her analysis implies that the social construction of whiteness contains within its ideology the seeds of its own destruction. Feminist notions of origin, context, and foundation highlight the narcissistic nature of patriarchal social systems that exploit not only the female body but nature as well. In a society that supposedly honors the maternal and praises the beauty of nature, Hurston's novel suggests that both motherhood and nature are exploited by a patriarchal culture focused on competition and material gain. In addition, by highlighting the narcissism of her male protagonist, who presumably represents a socially admired standard of normalcy, she undermines the narrative of superiority that privileges a white patriarchy.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/108065
Subject Headings: Political and social views, Race awareness 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 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 power of subtext and the politics of closure: an examination of self, representation, and audience in 3 narrative forms.
Creator: Berzak, Adam., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis explores the ways that certain artists-including Joseph Conrad, Alan Moore, Richard Attenborough, and Francis Ford Coppola-break from their inherited traditions in order to speak from an alternative perspective to western discourse. Conventional narrative formulas prescribe that meaning will be revealed in a definitive end, but all of the texts discussed reveal other avenues through which it is discerned. In Heart of Darkness, the tension between two divergent narratives enables...
Show moreThis thesis explores the ways that certain artists-including Joseph Conrad, Alan Moore, Richard Attenborough, and Francis Ford Coppola-break from their inherited traditions in order to speak from an alternative perspective to western discourse. Conventional narrative formulas prescribe that meaning will be revealed in a definitive end, but all of the texts discussed reveal other avenues through which it is discerned. In Heart of Darkness, the tension between two divergent narratives enables Conrad to speak beyond his social context and imperialist limitations to demonstrate that identity is socially constructed. In Watchmen, Moore breaks from comic convention to illustrate ways meaning may be ascertained despite the lack of plot ends. The third chapter explores the ways that Attenborough and Coppola subvert technical and plot conventions to resist static constitutions of identity endemic to Hollywood film. The several texts discussed subvert the Self/Other duality by suggesting alternatives to the western narrative model.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2683123
Subject Headings: Narration (Rhetoric), Closure (Rhetoric), Symbolism in literature, Postmodernism (Literature), Rhetorical criticism
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 prairie and the pampas: a comparison of settlement policy and environmental influences on epic literature in the United States and Argentina.
Creator: Budinger, David., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis will examine the governmental settlement policies in two similar topographical areas, the North American prairie and the South American pampas. Specifically, three novels by Willa Cather, will be included: My Antonia, O Pioneers!, and A Lost Lady. They will be discussed in relation to the development of Nebraska as afforded by the Homestead Act of 1862 and compared to the very different land settlement policies of Argentina as conveyed through the Argentinian national epic poem El...
Show moreThis thesis will examine the governmental settlement policies in two similar topographical areas, the North American prairie and the South American pampas. Specifically, three novels by Willa Cather, will be included: My Antonia, O Pioneers!, and A Lost Lady. They will be discussed in relation to the development of Nebraska as afforded by the Homestead Act of 1862 and compared to the very different land settlement policies of Argentina as conveyed through the Argentinian national epic poem El Gaucho Martin Fierro by Josâe Hernâandez. Particular attention will be made to the influence of the land and its creatures as a shaping influence on the characters created by the authors. There will be additional examination of the effect these works had on historical development within their respective countries, which will involve social and political analysis to place the literature within the historical perspectives of both countries.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3332177
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Epic poetry, Argentine literature, Criticism and interpretation, Environmentalism, Environmentalism
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A literary history of sugarcane discourse in the works of James Grainger and Junot Dâiaz.
Creator: Linder, Michael., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This study examines the recurrence of the image of sugarcane in Caribbean literature and traces a timeline of oppressive discourse. The image of the cane field represents a tension between silencing voice and identity independent of European nation-building ideologies. There is a history of silencing associated with sugarcane, even as Caribbean authors seek a potential to use this history to create a voice. While the authors examined employ the image of the cane field to create a voice...
Show moreThis study examines the recurrence of the image of sugarcane in Caribbean literature and traces a timeline of oppressive discourse. The image of the cane field represents a tension between silencing voice and identity independent of European nation-building ideologies. There is a history of silencing associated with sugarcane, even as Caribbean authors seek a potential to use this history to create a voice. While the authors examined employ the image of the cane field to create a voice outside of the dominant discourse, the voice of the Caribbean is nonetheless restricted. Postcolonial theory will be used to examine the history of oppression through the image of sugarcane as a negative past that authors try to get beyond, while dealing with the issue that it also helped to form their voice. My thesis investigates these issues using The Sugar-Cane: A Poem. In Four Books. With Notes, a poem by James Grainger, to set up the colonial history of sugar in the Caribbean and Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as a reaction to that colonial discourse.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3342201
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Sugar in literature, Imperialism in literature, Caribbean literature (English), Criticism and interpretation, In literature
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: 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)

FAU Theses and Dissertations (379)	+ -
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