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Title: Judge, jury, and executioner: the fate of the insane in Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer.
Creator: Rush, Kathleen., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Much of Tennessee Williams' work features mentally ill characters; his devotion to and interest in the subject has led to the composition of many plays that highlight the humanity of the insane, rather that caricaturize them with the usual stereotypes. In Suddenly Last Summer, Williams challenges the social stigmas most "normal" people attach to madness. Throughout the course of the action, the lines dividing sane and insane, normate and non-normate, gradually blur disrupting the audience's...
Show moreMuch of Tennessee Williams' work features mentally ill characters; his devotion to and interest in the subject has led to the composition of many plays that highlight the humanity of the insane, rather that caricaturize them with the usual stereotypes. In Suddenly Last Summer, Williams challenges the social stigmas most "normal" people attach to madness. Throughout the course of the action, the lines dividing sane and insane, normate and non-normate, gradually blur disrupting the audience's social equilibrium. By undermining presumed viewer prejudices toward the mentally ill, Williams creates the opportunity for redrawing the social boundaries of exclusion and inclusion.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/221952
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Mental illness in literature, Literature and mental illness
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: I’d rather be a sage than a cyborg: re-theorizing posthumanism through religious wisdom literature.
Creator: Shaw, Amy, Mason, Julia, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The topics of identity and subjectivity are well-trodden paths in posthuman thought, and the trend has been to reduce the self to its material, social, and technoscientific components. Yet the posthuman model of subjectivity—influenced by the tenets of postmodernism—tends to be disabling because it does not focus on the subject’s agency or the possibility of liberation from social tyranny. In this thesis, I use a sampling of what I call “religious wisdom literature”—specifically, the wisdom...
Show moreThe topics of identity and subjectivity are well-trodden paths in posthuman thought, and the trend has been to reduce the self to its material, social, and technoscientific components. Yet the posthuman model of subjectivity—influenced by the tenets of postmodernism—tends to be disabling because it does not focus on the subject’s agency or the possibility of liberation from social tyranny. In this thesis, I use a sampling of what I call “religious wisdom literature”—specifically, the wisdom books of the Old Testament and contemporary Buddhist writings—to challenge the assumption that the self is indistinguishable from the ideologies that produce it. I provide models from religious texts that instead, emphasize critical agency, flexibility, and resistive power. I also suggest that focusing on these qualities may ultimately be useful in the composition classroom, where we can use “self-centered” expressivist techniques (reflective assignments, emotional awareness) to meet the social-epistemic goal of ideological critique. Ultimately, posthumanism, with its emphasis on the construction of subjectivity, is better suited to question strict materialism and inquire into the inspiring possibilities of ancient wisdom.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA0004060
Subject Headings: Complexity (Philosophy), Order (Philosophy) in literature, Self in literature, Spiritual life (Buddhism), Spiritual life (Judaism), Wisdom literature -- Criticism and interpretation
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: James Joyce and Derek Walcott: colonial island voices.
Creator: Terneus, Sebastian., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: When analyzing literatures that expose the effects of colonialism one can identify similarities between the lives of the oppressed. Although colonization occurs in different times and locations the consequences upon the subjugated become comparable throughout history. One prominent pairing of mirrored colonial episodes can be identified in the literature of Irish author James Joyce and St. Lucian poet Derek Walcott. Both authors endured British colonialism and produced literatures which...
Show moreWhen analyzing literatures that expose the effects of colonialism one can identify similarities between the lives of the oppressed. Although colonization occurs in different times and locations the consequences upon the subjugated become comparable throughout history. One prominent pairing of mirrored colonial episodes can be identified in the literature of Irish author James Joyce and St. Lucian poet Derek Walcott. Both authors endured British colonialism and produced literatures which revealed similar themes and narratives. Yet simply because both authors lived through colonization does not equate their experiences as parallel. This thesis argues that Joyce and Walcott created comparable literatures because they experienced subjugation on islands. A comparison of Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Walcott's Omeros (1990) reveals the similar colonial experiences which were produced by island landscapes. Overall, this thesis will argue that the colonial turmoil which Joyce highlighted in Ulysses becomes mirrored in the postcolonial plot of Omeros.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3322514
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Imperialism in literature, English literature, Irish authors, Criticism and interpretation, Colonies in literature, Colonies
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Sharp edges and other lessons.
Creator: Gray, Michael., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Sharp Edges and Other Lessons is a collection of stories that share a loose thematic link suggested by the title. The various "lessons" encountered by the characters here represent the ways people respond to the many currents and fluctuations roiling beneath the surface of everyday life.
Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3342235
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Short stories, American, Conduct of life
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Stormland.
Creator: Ferguson, Adam, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The narrative within this thesis follows events that transpire within a working class neighborhood over the span of three decades. The time and place in which these events occur, South Florida 1979-1989, lends itself to exploring themes such as race, class, addiction, the fragmentation of community, and the effects of these issues on the families that live there. Stylistically, the story makes three significant shifts in order to foreground each decade's dissimilarity. These shifts...
Show moreThe narrative within this thesis follows events that transpire within a working class neighborhood over the span of three decades. The time and place in which these events occur, South Florida 1979-1989, lends itself to exploring themes such as race, class, addiction, the fragmentation of community, and the effects of these issues on the families that live there. Stylistically, the story makes three significant shifts in order to foreground each decade's dissimilarity. These shifts intentionally disrupt reader expectation while a coherent narrative thread unifies the work, rendering it fragmented yet complete.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3353088
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Rastafari presence in Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, Beloved, and Song of Solomon.
Creator: Carr, Nicole Racquel., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Literary scholars frequently analyze the allusions to Western Christianity apparent in Toni Morrison's novels, but these studies overlook the ways in which some of her novels are informed by a Caribbean presence. This study argues that Rastafari themes, symbols, and ideologies are recurrent in Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, Beloved, and Song of Solomon. Rastafari is a social movement primarily concerned with restoring the image of Africa to a holy place. A Rastafari analysis of these texts...
Show moreLiterary scholars frequently analyze the allusions to Western Christianity apparent in Toni Morrison's novels, but these studies overlook the ways in which some of her novels are informed by a Caribbean presence. This study argues that Rastafari themes, symbols, and ideologies are recurrent in Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, Beloved, and Song of Solomon. Rastafari is a social movement primarily concerned with restoring the image of Africa to a holy place. A Rastafari analysis of these texts broadens the literary spectrum to suggest that these novels highlight Morrison's attempt to write about the multifaceted element of the black community, which remains deeply connected to its American, African, and Caribbean roots.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2683134
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Rastafari movement, Masculinity in literature, Afro-Caribbean cults
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Polysemy in John Milton's Paradise Lost.
Creator: Harrawood, Suzanne., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This is a study of the polysemous language in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Unlike some of his seventeenth-century contemporaries, Milton did not harbor a mistrust of highly symbolic and interpretable language, and the fact that he did not has deep repercussions in Milton's great epic. I examine the porous and mutable nature of Edenic language, and how it challenges the idea of prelapsarian language as devoid of polysemous gloss. Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve's perfect acquisition of...
Show moreThis is a study of the polysemous language in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Unlike some of his seventeenth-century contemporaries, Milton did not harbor a mistrust of highly symbolic and interpretable language, and the fact that he did not has deep repercussions in Milton's great epic. I examine the porous and mutable nature of Edenic language, and how it challenges the idea of prelapsarian language as devoid of polysemous gloss. Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve's perfect acquisition of knowledge is not undermined by the symbolism of language. Nevertheless, Satan cleverly exploits the polysemy of Edenic language in order to effectuate Adam and Eve's transgression. Ultimately, Milton's Paradise Lost departs from common seventeenth-century theories about language and knowledge. Milton's view is unique in that it retains a positive view of symbolic language and suggests that postlapsarian humanity is bereft of divine guidance and left to struggle for knowledge through experience.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/332913
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Narration (Rhetoric), Polysemy, Semiotics
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Radicalism at sea: literary pirates in Emmanuel Appadocca to The Scar.
Creator: Kelly, Elizabeth., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis explores radicalism at work in M. Maxwell Philip's Emmanuel Appadocca (1854) and China Miâeville's The Scar (2002). These novels highlight piracy as a means of rejecting systems of power and social order. Through speculative fiction, each author finds the means to resist the hegemonic power of genre, race, empire, and knowledge that pervade each author's social and historical milieu. This work examines the historical and literary context of piracy as a metaphor for radicalism, the...
Show moreThis thesis explores radicalism at work in M. Maxwell Philip's Emmanuel Appadocca (1854) and China Miâeville's The Scar (2002). These novels highlight piracy as a means of rejecting systems of power and social order. Through speculative fiction, each author finds the means to resist the hegemonic power of genre, race, empire, and knowledge that pervade each author's social and historical milieu. This work examines the historical and literary context of piracy as a metaphor for radicalism, the project of legitimization and resistance to generic categorization of both texts. Emmanuel Appadocca resists racial stereotypes, and both texts exhibit clear resistance to colonial expansion. This resistance is made possible by each author's use of the sea as the site of insurgency and challenging boundaries of knowledge. Thus both novels lend themselves to interpretation as works of postcolonial fiction.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/186337
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Pirates in literature, Radicalism in literature
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: Progress, Regress.
Creator: Maher, Michelle., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Progress, Regress examines the narrator's journey through the world of mental illness. Psychologist Lisa James has a new client, six-year-old Megan Cooper, who has been diagnosed with child-onset schizophrenia. Megan's young age and the severity of her illness rattle Lisa, and make her question not only her role as a psychologist and a mother, but also her own mental state.
Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3360951
Subject Headings: Mental illness, Mentally ill children, Family relationships, Schizophrenia in children, Patients
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Pseudoscience.
Creator: Shier, Mike., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Pseudoscience is a collection of nonfiction essays analyzing the origins and methodologies or various pseudoscientific practices against the backdrop of events from the narrator's life that mirror those practices in some way. Pseudoscience is unverifiable. Pseudoscience is unverifiable.
Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3359285
Subject Headings: Pseudoscience, Thought and thinking, Reasoning (Psychology)
Format: Document (PDF)

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

Title: Religious violence in Frank Herbert's Dune series.
Creator: Howard, Kenton Taylor., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines the first two novels of Frank Herbert's Dune series, Dune and Dune Messiah, in order to consider these two novels from the framework of postcolonial theory and analyze how religious violence becomes a source of subjugation, military power, and colonialism within the works. The three chapters of this thesis chart the creation of a colonial project through epistemic violence, physical power, and cultural control enabled by religion. This thesis argues that, in the Dune...
Show moreThis thesis examines the first two novels of Frank Herbert's Dune series, Dune and Dune Messiah, in order to consider these two novels from the framework of postcolonial theory and analyze how religious violence becomes a source of subjugation, military power, and colonialism within the works. The three chapters of this thesis chart the creation of a colonial project through epistemic violence, physical power, and cultural control enabled by religion. This thesis argues that, in the Dune novels, religious violence functions as a colonial project that closely resembles the goals of real-world colonial enterprises, and the failure to manage this colonial project by those who initiated it shows that the effects of colonial projects based on religious violence are dangerous and uncontrollable.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355558
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Science fiction, American, Criticism and interpretation, Dune (Imaginary place), Violence, Religious aspects, Violence in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Rhetoric in mirrors: the rising image of conquest.
Creator: Gregory, Courtney N., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This project examines the blending of verbal and visual discourse in three of Christopher Marlowes early works: Dido Queen of Carthage and Tamburlaine the Great, Parts I and II. Through the process of appeals, both Dido and Zenocrate become more than feminine counterparts in a heroic tale and ultimately engage in rhetorical conquest themselves. Marlowe's treatment of Dido and Zenocrate portrays them as dynamic figures whose ambitions emerge upon the stage. In each drama, the feminine agency...
Show moreThis project examines the blending of verbal and visual discourse in three of Christopher Marlowes early works: Dido Queen of Carthage and Tamburlaine the Great, Parts I and II. Through the process of appeals, both Dido and Zenocrate become more than feminine counterparts in a heroic tale and ultimately engage in rhetorical conquest themselves. Marlowe's treatment of Dido and Zenocrate portrays them as dynamic figures whose ambitions emerge upon the stage. In each drama, the feminine agency legitimizes the action of the play. Dido utilizes visual appeals to contest the fate of the gods and persuade Aeneas to become the male counterpart in her empire. Zenocrate serves as the focus of Tamburlaine's appeals because she will become the legitimating presence for his ambition. I show that these Marlovian women hold a significant place in his canon and that the force of their presence is undeniable.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3332261
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Feminism and literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Revis(it)ing Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: women, symbolism, and resistance.
Creator: Smith, Kathryn M., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is, admittedly, a text with many racist, imperialist and sexist subtexts. A feminist literary analysis, however, can extract women's empowerment and agency. This thesis takes a closer look at the Mistress (also known as the African woman) and the Intended, two women with vastly different racial and class backgrounds who, in their own ways, demonstrate resistance. This thesis analyzes Mr. Kurtz's often ignored sketch in oils, arguing that the sketch itself...
Show moreJoseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is, admittedly, a text with many racist, imperialist and sexist subtexts. A feminist literary analysis, however, can extract women's empowerment and agency. This thesis takes a closer look at the Mistress (also known as the African woman) and the Intended, two women with vastly different racial and class backgrounds who, in their own ways, demonstrate resistance. This thesis analyzes Mr. Kurtz's often ignored sketch in oils, arguing that the sketch itself demonstrates the colonial mentality of difference and the disruption of that difference. It then explores both the Mistress and the Intended in detail, positing that while the Mistress uses the colonizers' fear of the wilderness and its silence to her advantage, the Intended takes control over her own domestic circumstance. Overall, this author asserts that the Mistress and the Intended, while often dismissed, are noteworthy, important, and influential characters in Heart of Darkness.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/192989
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Feminism in literature, Racism in literature, Imperialism in literature, Literature and society, Criticism and interpretation
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Rotten oranges.
Creator: Ginfrida, Christina., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: In Rotten Oranges the characters explore the ramifications of relocation and various trapping of psychology. Each of the short stories presents pain piggybacking off of humor, in order to go spelunking in a field of study that does not deal with absolutes. The characters themselves try to illustrate the dangers of misdiagnosis and stereotypes. As a whole, the collection exhibits this sense of exaggerated realism, which focuses on spectacle and theatricality. A few of the stories access some...
Show moreIn Rotten Oranges the characters explore the ramifications of relocation and various trapping of psychology. Each of the short stories presents pain piggybacking off of humor, in order to go spelunking in a field of study that does not deal with absolutes. The characters themselves try to illustrate the dangers of misdiagnosis and stereotypes. As a whole, the collection exhibits this sense of exaggerated realism, which focuses on spectacle and theatricality. A few of the stories access some magical qualities to deal with certain aspects of trauma. All of the pieces take place in Florida and utilize this setting's natural level of diversity and tropical allure. Florida's unshakeable connection to the twilight years, flamboyant tourism, and the possibility of a new life through immigration works perfectly in conjunction with the layers of pain and humor stacked throughout the collection. These characters live to inhabit the space between tears and laughter.
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Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3338855
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Short stories, American, Identity (Psychology)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Rewriting history in Alejo Carpentier's The Kingdom of This World and Michelle Cliff's Abeng.
Creator: Amiel, Tricia., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Traditional Caribbean history has been directed by and focused upon the conquerors who came to the region to colonize and seek profitable resources. Native Caribbean peoples and African slaves used to work the land have been silenced by traditional history so that it has become necessary for modern Caribbean thinkers to challenge that history and recreate it. Alejo Carpentier and Michelle Cliff challenge traditional Caribbean history in their texts, The Kingdom of This World and Abeng,...
Show moreTraditional Caribbean history has been directed by and focused upon the conquerors who came to the region to colonize and seek profitable resources. Native Caribbean peoples and African slaves used to work the land have been silenced by traditional history so that it has become necessary for modern Caribbean thinkers to challenge that history and recreate it. Alejo Carpentier and Michelle Cliff challenge traditional Caribbean history in their texts, The Kingdom of This World and Abeng, respectively. Each of these texts rewrites traditional history to include the perspectives of natives and the slaves of Haiti and Jamaica. Traditional history is challenged by the inclusion of these perspectives, thus providing a rewritten, revised history.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3342034
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Slavery, Historiography, Slavery, Historiography, Slavery, Historiography, History
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Out of the ever after and other stories.
Creator: Amadori-Segree, Claudia., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Out of the Ever After and Other Stories is a collection of language-driven stories set in different parts of the world and thematically linked, comprising realist narratives and magical realism. The trope that unifies this collection is that of the journey. The characters go on journeys, whether real or metaphorical. Many are lost at the beginning, but they find themselves in the end; others remain lost, but have a better understanding of their condition in the world. Although diverse in...
Show moreOut of the Ever After and Other Stories is a collection of language-driven stories set in different parts of the world and thematically linked, comprising realist narratives and magical realism. The trope that unifies this collection is that of the journey. The characters go on journeys, whether real or metaphorical. Many are lost at the beginning, but they find themselves in the end; others remain lost, but have a better understanding of their condition in the world. Although diverse in nationality, cultural background and gender, the characters in the eight stories share the need to find a lasting identity and a home-place to return to, whether physically or psychologically. The collection alternates magical and realist plots, male and female narrators, points of view, and diverse settings to create variety and a multicultural, hybrid and hyphenated experience. Some stories experiment with language; others have a more traditional mood, akin to fairytales.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/77641
Subject Headings: Short stories, Collections, Short stories, Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Fiction, Technique
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)

FAU Theses and Dissertations (382)	+ -
FAU College Collections (8)	+ -

Criticism and interpretation (73)	+ -
Symbolism in literature (57)	+ -
Creative writing (43)	+ -
Literature, American (31)	+ -
Literature, English (21)	+ -

Fiction (17)	+ -
Literature, Modern (17)	+ -
Short stories (13)	+ -
Poetry (12)	+ -
Short stories, American (11)	+ -
Essays (8)	+ -
History (8)	+ -
Novels (8)	+ -
Postmodernism (Literature) (8)	+ -
Florida Atlantic University -- History (7)	+ -
Conduct of life (6)	+ -
Feminism in literature (6)	+ -
History and criticism (6)	+ -
Literature and society (6)	+ -
Dissertations, Academic -- Florida Atlantic University (5)	+ -
Identity (Psychology) (5)	+ -
Influence (5)	+ -
Literature and science (5)	+ -
Literature, Medieval (5)	+ -
Narration (Rhetoric) (5)	+ -
Self in literature (5)	+ -
Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.) (4)	+ -
Family relationships (4)	+ -
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Identity (Psychology) in literature (4)	+ -

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Florida (2)	+ -

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Argentina (1)	+ -
Europe (1)	+ -
Haiti (1)	+ -
Italy (1)	+ -
Jamaica (1)	+ -
Kakawangwa (Fla.) (1)	+ -
Key West (Fla.) (1)	+ -
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