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Title: Finding their voice: Identifying signifiers of women's agency and empowerment in the work of Haitian women artists.
Creator: Kirchen, Anita Mary, Florida Atlantic University, Beoku-Betts, Josephine
Abstract/Description: Although the work of women artists has been widely discussed within feminist scholarship from a Euro-American perspective, there is currently little published discourse on the visual art produced by Third-World women within the context of postcolonial and Black feminist theories. This study explores the hypothesis that using the lens of postcolonial and Black feminist theories to examine the work of women artists situated in a Third World environment may identify signifiers of women's agency...
Show moreAlthough the work of women artists has been widely discussed within feminist scholarship from a Euro-American perspective, there is currently little published discourse on the visual art produced by Third-World women within the context of postcolonial and Black feminist theories. This study explores the hypothesis that using the lens of postcolonial and Black feminist theories to examine the work of women artists situated in a Third World environment may identify signifiers of women's agency and empowerment.
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Date Issued: 1999
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15733
Subject Headings: Art, Haitian--Women artists, Black--History and criticism, Feminist theory, Feminism and art--Haiti, Minority women artists--Developing countries
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Foundations of a Scientific Cognitive Theory for Literary Criticism.
Creator: Bronsted, John C., Augustyn, Prisca, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Lingustics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description: Based on Noam Chomsky’s argument that the faculty of language is primarily a tool of thought whose purpose is to interpret the world, this dissertation argues that reading literature provides a cognitive experience like John Gardner’s “Fictive Dream” that mimics our interpretive experience of the world. Literary experience exploits language as an epistemological faculty that makes aspects of the external world intelligible. Yet the faculty of language is also capable of evoking entirely...
Show moreBased on Noam Chomsky’s argument that the faculty of language is primarily a tool of thought whose purpose is to interpret the world, this dissertation argues that reading literature provides a cognitive experience like John Gardner’s “Fictive Dream” that mimics our interpretive experience of the world. Literary experience exploits language as an epistemological faculty that makes aspects of the external world intelligible. Yet the faculty of language is also capable of evoking entirely mental worlds that do not reflect the mindexternal world. Because the literary experience is entirely mindinternal, even the cultural knowledge we bring into play for its understanding still relies on innate features of language. Thus, during the act of reading, we hold this cultural knowledge in abeyance, allowing the text to structure how we bring it to bear on the experience as a whole. A scientific approach to literature can help uncover principles to further elucidate the literaryepistemological experience. Whereas much literary criticism assumes that a critic’s purpose is to mine a text for its deeper meaning, this dissertation argues for a Cognitive Formalist approach in which criticism serves not simply to explain the experience evoked by any particular text according to linguisticepistemological principles, but also to evaluate the moral implications of that specific textual experience. As a means of demonstrating potential implications of a scientific cognitive approach to literary criticism based on linguisticepistemological understanding, the current study offers sample passages from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. These passages allow us to offer first approximations of some explanatory principles of the literaryepistemological experience, such as the importance of fictive time and fictional event sequences, which in turn gives us greater insight into how, for example, verb tense and aspect contribute to the evocation of the action of fiction in the reader’s mind. Ultimately, the fictive vantage point constructed by the text allows the reader access to a complex moral framework in which fictive characters are understood to make choices that will in turn set the stage for the reader’s own ethical reception of the text and the experience it offers.
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Date Issued: 2017
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004845, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004845
Subject Headings: Tolkien, J. R. R.--(John Ronald Reuel)--1892-1973.--Lord of the rings--Criticism and interpretation., Gardner, John--1933-1982.--On moral fiction--Criticism and interpretation., Criticism., Discourse analysis, Literary., Philosophy of mind in literature., Language and languages--Style--Psychological aspects., Literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Moving Ever Forward: Reading the Significance of Motion and Space as a Representation of Trauma in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.
Creator: Richmond, Samantha, Furman, Andrew, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis argues that three models of trauma theory, which include traditional trauma theory, postcolonial trauma theory, and cultural trauma theory, must be joined to fully understand the trauma experienced by African Americans within the novels Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. By implementing these three theories, we can see how each novel’s main character is exploring and learning about African American trauma and better understand how an...
Show moreThis thesis argues that three models of trauma theory, which include traditional trauma theory, postcolonial trauma theory, and cultural trauma theory, must be joined to fully understand the trauma experienced by African Americans within the novels Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. By implementing these three theories, we can see how each novel’s main character is exploring and learning about African American trauma and better understand how an adjustment of space and time creates the possibility for the implementation of trauma theory. Each novel presents a journey, and it is through this movement through space that each character can serve as a witness to African American trauma. This is done in Morrison’s text by condensing the geographical space of the American north and south into one town, which serves to pluralize African American culture. In Whitehead’s text, American history is removed from its chronological place, which creates a duality that instills Freud’s theory of the uncanny within both the character and the reader.
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Date Issued: 2017
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004839, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004839
Subject Headings: Psychic trauma., Psychic trauma--African Americans., American literature--African American authors--History and criticism--Theory, etc., Underground Railroad--Fiction., African American families--Fiction., Morrison, Toni.--Song of Solomon--Criticism and interpretation., Whitehead, Colson--1969---Underground railroad--Criticism and interpretation.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Dissipating hostility through feminine rhetorical style: Barbara Bush and the petitioners of Wellesley College.
Creator: Doran, Bethany Lynne., Gorbacheva, Raisa Maksimovna, Wellesley College, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Abstract/Description: This study uses Karlyn Campbell's concept of feminine rhetorical style as a theoretical framework for analyzing the rhetoric of Barbara Bush's 1990 Wellesley College commencement address. Through a systematic evaluation of Barbara Bush's speech, this study reveals that her rhetoric exemplifies feminine rhetorical style. The analysis also concludes that Barbara Bush's personal tone, specifically her use of narrative and humor, is the most useful and effective characteristic of her feminine...
Show moreThis study uses Karlyn Campbell's concept of feminine rhetorical style as a theoretical framework for analyzing the rhetoric of Barbara Bush's 1990 Wellesley College commencement address. Through a systematic evaluation of Barbara Bush's speech, this study reveals that her rhetoric exemplifies feminine rhetorical style. The analysis also concludes that Barbara Bush's personal tone, specifically her use of narrative and humor, is the most useful and effective characteristic of her feminine rhetorical style. Using feminine rhetorical style, Barbara Bush successfully dissipates some of the tension she faced prior to the graduation ceremony at Wellesley College. Therefore, this study reveals that feminine rhetorical style is an attractive alternative for speakers seeking to build identification in hostile situations when identification is, or appears to be, lacking.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2100573
Subject Headings: Influence, Criticism and interpretation, Feminist theory, Narration (Rhetoric), Psychological aspects, Persuasion (Rhetoric)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Music, rhetoric and the creation of feminist consciousness in the Marian songs of Hildegard of Bingen (1098--1179).
Creator: Lomer, Beverly R., Florida Atlantic University, Caputi, Jane, Keaton, Kenneth
Abstract/Description: This dissertation examines the sixteen songs to Mary in the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum of twelfth century nun composer, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). The analysis demonstrates that the idiosyncratic musical style of the Symphonia cycle represents an innovative application of the rhetorical procedures of the medieval ars praedicandi and the ars dictamen to music centuries in advance of an articulated concept of musical rhetoric, and that one goal of the Marian repertory was to...
Show moreThis dissertation examines the sixteen songs to Mary in the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum of twelfth century nun composer, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). The analysis demonstrates that the idiosyncratic musical style of the Symphonia cycle represents an innovative application of the rhetorical procedures of the medieval ars praedicandi and the ars dictamen to music centuries in advance of an articulated concept of musical rhetoric, and that one goal of the Marian repertory was to affect the self-consciousness of the all-female audience in a positive direction. The effect is achieved through the strategically constructed and inextricable relationship between text and melody. The study reveals that Hildegard's deployment of repeated melody, and the predominance of such factors as wide pitch ranges, high ranges, elaborate melismas, the use of key modal tones as demarcating devices, and the predominance of uncharacteristically large leaps, serve as musical-rhetorical substructures by which the import of the text is enhanced, and additional levels of meaning are created. In accordance with the feminist agenda, the optimistic images that are presented in the songs are designed to challenge the contemporary devaluation of women and to restore the feminine to its formerly sacred place in the divine plan. The attribution of aspects of divinity to Mary, which closely resonate with the precepts of the ancient goddess thealogies, and which present her as an essential partner of the Godhead in the Redemption and as an and active, independent Salvatrix, offer the female monastic audience an alternative to the solely-masculine concept of the divine.
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Date Issued: 2006
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12192
Subject Headings: Hildegard,--Saint,--1098-1179--Criticism and interpretation, Music theory--History--500-1400, Hildegard,--Saint,--1098-1179--Musical settings, Women composers--Germany, Sacred songs, Women--History--Middle Ages, 500-1500
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao: an epistemological fantasy.
Creator: Creed, Daniel B., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, published in 1936, has been widely read in the last eighty years and has influenced significant authors in the field of fantasy, yet it has been examined in just three critical studies in that time. This study examines Finney's novel as an epistemological fantasy, a heretofore undefined term that precipitates an epistemological crisis of knowing and certainty. The novel opens a way for fantasy literature to establish itself in a Modernist landscape by...
Show moreCharles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, published in 1936, has been widely read in the last eighty years and has influenced significant authors in the field of fantasy, yet it has been examined in just three critical studies in that time. This study examines Finney's novel as an epistemological fantasy, a heretofore undefined term that precipitates an epistemological crisis of knowing and certainty. The novel opens a way for fantasy literature to establish itself in a Modernist landscape by foregrounding the marvelous and extraordinary knowledge that lies just outside the realm of human experience. Finney presents Dr. Lao's circus as a surrogate model of success, and while many of the characters in the novel are unable to accept the truth offered them by the beings of fantasy, the author uses their experiences to satirize the complacencies he witnessed upon returning to America from the Far East in the 1930s.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2683122
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Knowledge, Theory of, in literature, Fantasy fiction, American, Criticism and interpretation, Postmodernism (Literature)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Hegemonic "realness"?: an intersectional analysis of RuPaul's Drag Race.
Creator: Jenkins, Sarah Tucker, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Abstract/Description: RuPaul's Drag Race is one of the few realilty television shows focusing on QLGBT (queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) identified individuals that has made it into mainstream consciousness. Drag Race provides a unique perspective on the ways that gender identity, sexuality, size, class, race, and ethnicity intersect and interact in people's lives.The television show augments many of these intersedtions and the challenges related to these identities while still reflecting the daily...
Show moreRuPaul's Drag Race is one of the few realilty television shows focusing on QLGBT (queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) identified individuals that has made it into mainstream consciousness. Drag Race provides a unique perspective on the ways that gender identity, sexuality, size, class, race, and ethnicity intersect and interact in people's lives.The television show augments many of these intersedtions and the challenges related to these identities while still reflecting the daily struggles that people experience.The show works to promote messages of self-love and acceptance ; however, it also promotes many problematic and damaging stereotypes. This thesis conducts a feminist analysis in order to answer the question: How does RuPaul's Drag Race relate to hegemonic and oppressive stereotypes and roles associated with gender identity, sexual orientation, size, class, race and ethnicity? Does it challenge or reinforce such hegemonies? In order to answer these questions, this thesis examines visual imagery, narrative, and dialogue in the show, utilizes theories from cultural and women's studies, English and communications. It concludes that although Drag Race does engage in some subversive behavior, it ultimately reinforces harmful hegemonic stereotypes.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3360799
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Reality television programs, Social aspects, Mass media and culture, Mass media and women, Feminist theory, Television program genres, Stereotypes (Social psychology)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Trojan horse: Monique Wittig's war on gender.
Creator: Olson, Catherine L., Florida Atlantic University, Shaktini, Namascar
Abstract/Description: Language, and more specifically gender within language, is the central component in French feminist writer Monique Wittig's war on gender. In her works Les Guerilleres and Le Corps lesbien, Wittig uses a deconstructionist methodology to wage war on the binary gender construct that privileges the masculine and reduces the feminine to the position of inferior and "Other." In order to accomplish her project of subverting the existing phallogocentric ideology and displacing the gender system that...
Show moreLanguage, and more specifically gender within language, is the central component in French feminist writer Monique Wittig's war on gender. In her works Les Guerilleres and Le Corps lesbien, Wittig uses a deconstructionist methodology to wage war on the binary gender construct that privileges the masculine and reduces the feminine to the position of inferior and "Other." In order to accomplish her project of subverting the existing phallogocentric ideology and displacing the gender system that denies women any claim to the universal, Wittig experiments with pronouns, expands the notion of the theory of universalism, creates neologisms, revisions myths, epics, and fairy tales, and interweaves secondary narratives within her texts. With these literary strategies, Wittig succeeds in creating a Trojan horse capable of destroying old oppressive forms and generating new revolutionary discourse which expands the semantic space for females.
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Date Issued: 1996
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15245
Subject Headings: Wittig, Monique--Criticism and interpretation, French language--Gender, French language--Sex differences, French literature--20th century--History and criticism--Theory, etc, Women and literature--France--History--20th century, Feminism and literature--France--History--20th century, Fiction--Authorship--Sex differences
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Machina ex deo: embodiments of evil in Dan Simmon's Hyperion Cantos.
Creator: Stewart, Zachary., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Dan Simmons's far-future science fiction epic Hyperion Cantos, in which seven disparate individuals become enmeshed in a convoluted plot to enslave humanity, provides extensive support for British theologian John Hick's theory of transcendental pluralism. Using the central figures of the Shrike, a mysterious killing machine, and the Technocore, a collective of autonomous artificial intelligences, Simmons demonstrates Hick's postulation that all major Western religions actually focus on the...
Show moreDan Simmons's far-future science fiction epic Hyperion Cantos, in which seven disparate individuals become enmeshed in a convoluted plot to enslave humanity, provides extensive support for British theologian John Hick's theory of transcendental pluralism. Using the central figures of the Shrike, a mysterious killing machine, and the Technocore, a collective of autonomous artificial intelligences, Simmons demonstrates Hick's postulation that all major Western religions actually focus on the same divine being (God) by creating a negative divine being, akin to Satan, to which characters of various religions react in similar ways. Simmons's pilgrims each represent a particular spiritual outlook, from specific organized religions to less-defined positions such as secularism and agnosticism, but each pilgrim's tale contributes to the evidence of transcendental pluralism. This thesis explores each characters' experiences as they relate to the Shrike, the Technocore, and, ultimately the theory of transcendental pluralism.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3361261
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Hyperion (Imaginary place), Inquiry (Theory of knowledge), Pluralism, Metaphysics, Philosophy of mind, Good and evil, History of doctrines
Format: Document (PDF)

Feminist theory (7)	+ -
Criticism and interpretation (6)	+ -
Critical race theory (4)	+ -
Critical theory (4)	+ -
Knowledge, Theory of, in literature (3)	+ -

Discourse analysis (2)	+ -
Mass media and women (2)	+ -
Social aspects (2)	+ -
Symbolism in literature (2)	+ -
Women in popular culture (2)	+ -
African American families--Fiction. (1)	+ -
African Americans in popular culture (1)	+ -
American literature--African American authors--History and criticism--Theory, etc. (1)	+ -
Art, Haitian--Women artists, Black--History and criticism (1)	+ -
Bakhtin, MM--(Mikhail Mikhaĭlovich),--1895-1975--Criticism and interpretation (1)	+ -
Bataille, Georges,--1897-1962--Criticism and interpretation (1)	+ -
Black lives matter movement (1)	+ -
Black lives matter movement--United States (1)	+ -
Blacks -- Race identity -- United States (1)	+ -
Christian literature, Early--History and criticism (1)	+ -
Computer network architecture (1)	+ -
Content analysis (1)	+ -
Critical point theory (Mathematical analysis) (1)	+ -
Critical theory (1)	+ -
Critical thinking (1)	+ -
Criticism. (1)	+ -
Dick, Philip K--Criticism and interpretation (1)	+ -
Differentiable dynamical systems (1)	+ -
Discourse analysis, Literary. (1)	+ -
Ecofeminism in literature (1)	+ -

Circus of Dr. Lao. (1)	+ -
Drag Race (Television program). (1)	+ -
Drag Race. (1)	+ -
Hyperion cantos. (1)	+ -
True blood (Television program). (1)	+ -

Florida Atlantic University (21)	+ -
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters (13)	+ -
Department of English (5)	+ -
School of Communication and Multimedia Studies (5)	+ -
College of Education (3)	+ -

Charles E. Schmidt College of Science (2)	+ -
Department of Curriculum, Culture, and Educational Inquiry (2)	+ -
Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology (2)	+ -
Martin, Thomas L. (2)	+ -
Adams, Ronald Edward (1)	+ -
Anderson, Ashley. (1)	+ -
Augustyn, Prisca (1)	+ -
Barakat, Maysaa (1)	+ -
Bargsten, Joey (1)	+ -
Barton, Jessica Gray (1)	+ -
Baugh, Francine (1)	+ -
Beoku-Betts, Josephine (1)	+ -
Bonilla Villarreal, Isaura Nathaly (1)	+ -
Bronsted, John C. (1)	+ -
Buckton, Oliver (1)	+ -
Caputi, Jane (1)	+ -
Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies (1)	+ -
College of Engineering and Computer Science (1)	+ -
Conyers, Christopher Jacobie (1)	+ -
Creed, Daniel B. (1)	+ -
Davis, Myron J. (1)	+ -
Davis, Peter (1)	+ -
De Tollis, Marianna (1)	+ -
Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (1)	+ -
Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature (1)	+ -

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