View All Items

Title: Dreams in rebellion: the battle of Seattle.
Creator: White, Daniel R.
Date Issued: 2000-03-08
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15861
Subject Headings: Postmodernism, Mass society, Philosophy, Modern 20th century, Literature and society
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: All the place you’ve got.
Creator: Suhr, Caryn, Bucak, Ayse Papatya, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: All the Place You’ve Got is a collection of short stories inspired by and set in the author’s hometown of Warner Robins; Georgia. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, occurrences, and characters are either a product of the authors imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The title is a partial quote of dialogue stated by Hazel Motes, the protagonist of Flannery O...
Show moreAll the Place You’ve Got is a collection of short stories inspired by and set in the author’s hometown of Warner Robins; Georgia. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, occurrences, and characters are either a product of the authors imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The title is a partial quote of dialogue stated by Hazel Motes, the protagonist of Flannery O’Connor’s first novel Wise Blood. The full quote reads, “In yourself right now is all the place you’ve got.” This collection of stories was built as a direct antithetical response to O’Connor’s representation of dialogic salvation and visions of the divine, a central concern, stemming from dedicated Catholic belief, of her body of work.
Show less
Date Issued: 2014
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004164, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004164
Subject Headings: Southern States--In literature., Short stories, American., Literature and society Southern States.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Tomorrow is yesterday: protoscience from the medieval manuscript to the golden age of science-fiction.
Creator: Leivers, Robert James., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Protosciences, or new sciences trying to establish their legitimacy, are ubiquitous in literature. In the old stories we hear of alchemists who can only dream of the discoveries that modern chemists take for granted, and in the new stories we hear of travelers moving faster than light as our greatest physicists attempt to make that fantasy a reality. Limiting our viewpoint to the modern scientific reductionist view of the universe not only makes little sense if we consider Michael Polanyi's...
Show moreProtosciences, or new sciences trying to establish their legitimacy, are ubiquitous in literature. In the old stories we hear of alchemists who can only dream of the discoveries that modern chemists take for granted, and in the new stories we hear of travelers moving faster than light as our greatest physicists attempt to make that fantasy a reality. Limiting our viewpoint to the modern scientific reductionist view of the universe not only makes little sense if we consider Michael Polanyi's theories of emergence and 'personal knowledge', but it robs medieval scholars for the conceptual credit they are due for theories they could not satisfactorily explain by the future's standards, and stifles the sorts of fantastic possibilities that are opened by the great science-fiction authors. Medieval authors' expositions of protoscientific thought laid the ground work for our own modern disciplines, and by reexamining how this happened we can develop a new appreciation for the power of the imagination.
Show less
Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3362480
Subject Headings: Science fiction, History and criticism, Literature and society, Science, Renaissance, Philosophy, Medieval, Influence, Science and civilization
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Signs and Wonders.
Creator: Bresciano, Cora, Bucak, Ayse Papatya, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: Bud and Scooter, two teenaged cousins, are making the trip of their young lives in the midst of the Great Depression. Their family friend in rural Florida, Jake Gilchrist, head of a poor family with three small children, has died while visiting his sick mother on Long Island. His wife cannot afford to have his body shipped back by train for burial, so Bud and Scooter volunteer for a goodwill mission and grand adventure: they take Bud's father's pickup truck, drive a thousand miles up US 1,...
Show moreBud and Scooter, two teenaged cousins, are making the trip of their young lives in the midst of the Great Depression. Their family friend in rural Florida, Jake Gilchrist, head of a poor family with three small children, has died while visiting his sick mother on Long Island. His wife cannot afford to have his body shipped back by train for burial, so Bud and Scooter volunteer for a goodwill mission and grand adventure: they take Bud's father's pickup truck, drive a thousand miles up US 1, pick up Jake's body, pack it in ice, and transport it back to Florida. Along the way they meet people (both common and extraordinary), they work out their differences (with words and with fists), they come face-to-face with beauty and goodness as well as with poverty and evil.. .and they get to see the Empire State Building.
Show less
Date Issued: 2007
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000901
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature., Depressions--1929--Fiction., Literature and society--United States--20th century--Fiction
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A CURIOUS DOCUMENTARY: JAMES AGEE'S "LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN".
Creator: RAYMOND, CATHLEEN O'CONNOR., Florida Atlantic University, Coyle, William
Abstract/Description: James Agee and Walker Evans co-authored Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which was published in 1941. Topically viewed, the work resembles a documentary, a genre popular during the 1930's, but Agee expanded this style of writing not only to explore the lives of three tenant families but also to show the exploitation of this damaged group of human beings. concurrently, Agee turns the camera lens on his audience in order that the reader may see the trapped, possessed, and fertilized nature of life...
Show moreJames Agee and Walker Evans co-authored Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, which was published in 1941. Topically viewed, the work resembles a documentary, a genre popular during the 1930's, but Agee expanded this style of writing not only to explore the lives of three tenant families but also to show the exploitation of this damaged group of human beings. concurrently, Agee turns the camera lens on his audience in order that the reader may see the trapped, possessed, and fertilized nature of life. Furthermore, Agee assists the reader in understanding the process by which a new art form is created, as he involves the critic in a struggle with words. Agee demonstrates the embodiment of the "actuality" of existence, the sorrow and the joy of the human condition.
Show less
Date Issued: 1985
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14231
Subject Headings: Agee, James,--1909-1955--Criticism and interpretation, Authors--Political and social views, Literature and society
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Naturalist tendencies in three novels by Edith Wharton.
Creator: Mullins, Marjorie L., Florida Atlantic University, McGuirk, Carol
Abstract/Description: Although Edith Wharton once said she considered herself a writer of novels of manners, she exhibits naturalist tendencies in her writing. She shows the potential of both heredity and environment to ensnare and suppress the individual in his or her quest for self-determination. In The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, Wharton reflects upon the changes that caused society to enforce its rules all the more strongly in an attempt to maintain its stability. In Ethan Frome she develops one...
Show moreAlthough Edith Wharton once said she considered herself a writer of novels of manners, she exhibits naturalist tendencies in her writing. She shows the potential of both heredity and environment to ensnare and suppress the individual in his or her quest for self-determination. In The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, Wharton reflects upon the changes that caused society to enforce its rules all the more strongly in an attempt to maintain its stability. In Ethan Frome she develops one of the generally accepted themes of naturalism: the waste of human potential because of the forces of society. In these novels Wharton moves beyond the usual realism found in much of her fiction and places her characters in naturalist roles.
Show less
Date Issued: 1996
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15270
Subject Headings: Wharton, Edith,--1862-1937--Criticism and interpretation., Naturalism in literature., Literature and society--United States., American fiction--20th century--History and criticism.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The evolution of hard-boiled detective fiction in "Black Mask".
Creator: O'Connor, Linda Marie., Florida Atlantic University, Anderson, David R.
Abstract/Description: Pulp fiction played an integral part in the development of mystery fiction through its establishment of hard-boiled fiction as a genre. Although a number of pulp magazines were popular between the 1920s and the 1940s, one of the most influential and well-remembered of these magazines was the Black Mask, which was the magazine primarily responsible for establishing "hard-boiled" detective fiction as a genre through the development of the hard-boiled fiction formula, as well as cementing the...
Show morePulp fiction played an integral part in the development of mystery fiction through its establishment of hard-boiled fiction as a genre. Although a number of pulp magazines were popular between the 1920s and the 1940s, one of the most influential and well-remembered of these magazines was the Black Mask, which was the magazine primarily responsible for establishing "hard-boiled" detective fiction as a genre through the development of the hard-boiled fiction formula, as well as cementing the careers of some of the most well-known mystery writers, such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Erie Stanley Gardner. Through a close reading of these authors and other authors who appeared in the Black Mask from the 1920s to the 1940s, changes in societal values, as well as in hard-boiled fiction as a genre, may be seen.
Show less
Date Issued: 1995
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15141
Subject Headings: Detective and mystery stories, American--History and criticism, Crime in literature, American fiction--20th century, Literature and society--United States, Black mask
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.
Show less
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: The use of the bastard identity: from Victorian subverters to superheroes in the twenty-first century and beyond.
Creator: Dessler, Ryan., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This project explores the use if illegitimacy within Western discourse over the last three centuries. Illegitimacy was used in Victorian literature as a literary device to drive plot but evolved into a touchstone for Western discourse to explore the bounds of what is considered respectable society. Over time, as illegitimacy has become more mainstream, I contend illegitimate identities have been utilized to serve as a mirror for Western hegemony. In the first chapter, I explore the origins of...
Show moreThis project explores the use if illegitimacy within Western discourse over the last three centuries. Illegitimacy was used in Victorian literature as a literary device to drive plot but evolved into a touchstone for Western discourse to explore the bounds of what is considered respectable society. Over time, as illegitimacy has become more mainstream, I contend illegitimate identities have been utilized to serve as a mirror for Western hegemony. In the first chapter, I explore the origins of illegitimacy being used as a literary device in novels by Victorian authors Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. In the second chapter, I examine the role illegitimacy plays in the origin stories of canonical comic book superheroes Batman and Superman. Lastly, in the third chapter, I scrutinize the role illegitimacy plays in defining the human condition within science fiction as human culture continues to advance technologically towards a post human world.
Show less
Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355567
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Literature and society, History, Literature and society, History, Comic books, strips, etc, Criticism and interpretation, Illegitimacy in literature, Sex role in literature, Sensationalism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: La identidad fronteriza a travâes de las experiencias generacionales en Sirena Selena vestida de pena.
Creator: Magdaleno, Ariana Heydi., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Abstract/Description: Afro-Puerto Rican Mayra Santos-Febres's novel Sirena Selena vestida de pena (2000) demonstrates the intrinsic social relationship that exists between generations in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. The historical similarity between these regions permits a comparison in life stories of marginalized peoples. Puerto Rican godmothers and transvestites Martha Divine and Valentina Frenesâi prepare goddaughter, quinceänera and bolerista Sirena Selena in her performance in order to launch a career...
Show moreAfro-Puerto Rican Mayra Santos-Febres's novel Sirena Selena vestida de pena (2000) demonstrates the intrinsic social relationship that exists between generations in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. The historical similarity between these regions permits a comparison in life stories of marginalized peoples. Puerto Rican godmothers and transvestites Martha Divine and Valentina Frenesâi prepare goddaughter, quinceänera and bolerista Sirena Selena in her performance in order to launch a career and conquer the strategies of survival. Meanwhile, Dominican millionaire Hugo Graubel manages his life publicly as a heterosexual husband and privately as a gay man and strongly attempts to capture enigmatic Sirena Selena. Whereas the Dominican, pre-adolescent, poor, and mulatto Leocadio discovers the veiled world of tourism that offers alternate possibilities of economic survival. The previous generations' transgression of society's binary definitions created alternate spaces that continue to pave the way for future generations that will refuse and resist conforming to static patriarchal and heterosexual mainstream classifications.
Show less
Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/369190
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Identity in literature, Sex role in literature, Literature and society, Homosexuality and literature
Format: Document (PDF)

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

Title: The Constitution : addresses of Prof. Morse, Mr. Geo. Ticknor Curtis, and S.J. Tilden, at the organization.
Creator: Curtis, George Ticknor 1812-1894, Morse, Samuel Finley Breese 1791-1872
Abstract/Description: Series: Papers from the Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge ; no. 1. Alternate title: Caption title on page 2: Organization of the Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge. Notes: Cover title. "When a party in power violates the Constitution and disregards state-rights, plain men read pamphlets." "Read--discuss--diffuse." With duplicate pagination at foot, for through-numbering of the Papers. Two columns to the page. FAU Libraries' copy has "Geo. P. Hambrecht" stamp on...
Show moreSeries: Papers from the Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge ; no. 1. Alternate title: Caption title on page 2: Organization of the Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge. Notes: Cover title. "When a party in power violates the Constitution and disregards state-rights, plain men read pamphlets." "Read--discuss--diffuse." With duplicate pagination at foot, for through-numbering of the Papers. Two columns to the page. FAU Libraries' copy has "Geo. P. Hambrecht" stamp on cover. Edges have been trimmed to 22 cm.
Show less
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/fauwsb21f25
Subject Headings: Campaign literature -- 1863 -- Democratic -- New York, Campaign literature -- United States -- 19th century, Constitutional law -- United States, Lincoln, Abraham -- 1809-1865 -- Adversaries, Politics and government -- Societies, etc, Society for the Diffusion of Political Knowledge (New York, N.Y.) -- Constitution, Speeches, addresses, etc., American -- 19th century, United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Protest movements, United States -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865 -- Societies, etc
Format: E-book

Title: Unrecognized Pasts and Unforeseen Futures: Architecture and Postcolonialism in William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury.
Creator: Haugk, Danielle, Hagood, Taylor, Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This thesis examines the genesis, maintenance, and failure of rigid and exclusionary societal models present in William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. Yi- Fu Tuan's analysis of the concepts space and place serves as the foundational theoretical framework by which human spatiality may be interpreted. Combining Tuan's observations and architectural analysis with Edouard Glissant's concepts of atavistic and composite societal models allows for a much broader consideration of various political...
Show moreThis thesis examines the genesis, maintenance, and failure of rigid and exclusionary societal models present in William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. Yi- Fu Tuan's analysis of the concepts space and place serves as the foundational theoretical framework by which human spatiality may be interpreted. Combining Tuan's observations and architectural analysis with Edouard Glissant's concepts of atavistic and composite societal models allows for a much broader consideration of various political ideologies present in the South. Following this, it becomes necessary to apply a postcolonial lens to areas of Faulkner's literature to examine how these societal models are upheld and the effects they have on characters in both Reconstruction and post- Reconstruction eras. Within Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner showcases an aspect of southern history that allowed this societal model to flourish, how this model affected those trapped within it, and its ultimate failure for future generations.
Show less
Date Issued: 2017
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004905, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004905
Subject Headings: Faulkner, William,--1897-1962.--Absalom, Absalom!--Criticism and interpretation., Faulkner, William,--1897-1962.--Sound and the fury--Criticism and interpretation., Glissant, Édouard,--1928-2011--Criticism and interpretation., Tuan, Yi-fu,--1930---Criticism and interpretation., Space (Architecture)--Southern States--History--19th century., Postcolonialism--Southern States., Plantation life in literature., Imperialism in literature., Literature and society--Southern States--History--20th century., Place (Philosophy) in literature.
Format: Document (PDF)

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

Title: Lenguaje, identidad y transculturaciâon en la literatura boricua: Rosario Ferrâe y Esmeralda Santiago.
Creator: Pelletier, Michelle., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: The Jones Act of 1917 gave U.S. citizenship to all Puerto Ricans, who were then able to move easily between the island and the United States. A constant transfer of people ensued and the process of transculturation accelerated. Puerto Ricans zealously strive to maintain their identity and to culturally set themselves apart, most visibly through the use of the Spanish language. Thus, some find it scandalous that Puerto Rican authors, such as Rosario Ferrâe and Esmeralda Santiago, would dare...
Show moreThe Jones Act of 1917 gave U.S. citizenship to all Puerto Ricans, who were then able to move easily between the island and the United States. A constant transfer of people ensued and the process of transculturation accelerated. Puerto Ricans zealously strive to maintain their identity and to culturally set themselves apart, most visibly through the use of the Spanish language. Thus, some find it scandalous that Puerto Rican authors, such as Rosario Ferrâe and Esmeralda Santiago, would dare publish works in English. Both authors received university-level education in the United States, but their experiences have been very different, and their works provide a worthwhile comparison. Ferrâe had not written a novel in English until she published The House on the Lagoon in 1995, and she always translates her own prose work. Santiago writes exclusively in English and does not translate her own work. The second of her three memoirs, Almost a Woman, published in 1998, relates the story of her time in New York City until she is twenty-one years old. This thesis examines the transculturation of Puerto Ricans in U.S. society and their struggle to hold onto Spanish as a way of maintaining their identity as seen in The House on the Lagoon and Almost a Woman.
Show less
Date Issued: 2006
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/11587
Subject Headings: Spanish American fiction, Women authors, History and criticism, Group identity in literature, Social conflict in literature, Literature and society
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: "The Voice of society": Dickens' surprising lesson in diplomacy spoken by the "innocent" table in Our Mutual Friend.
Creator: Hernandez, Patricia., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: In Our Mutual Friend Dickens plays with the idea of people becoming things and things becoming people. One such person, who is initially introduced as a table, is Melvin Twemlow. This member of the aristocracy plays an almost comical, minor role within one sub-plot of the novel, but over the course of the novel progresses from a "feeble" character into a strong, morally authoritative voice. Dickens concludes his novel with a debate concerning who is, or should be, "the voice of society" and...
Show moreIn Our Mutual Friend Dickens plays with the idea of people becoming things and things becoming people. One such person, who is initially introduced as a table, is Melvin Twemlow. This member of the aristocracy plays an almost comical, minor role within one sub-plot of the novel, but over the course of the novel progresses from a "feeble" character into a strong, morally authoritative voice. Dickens concludes his novel with a debate concerning who is, or should be, "the voice of society" and the last word of the debate is given to the mysterious table-man character. Rather than allowing a central protagonist to champion his thoughts, Dickens surprises his readers by making an exemplary moral figure of a mild, minor character from among the ranks of the pompous aristocracy. Twemlow's speech makes a familiar Dickensian point about the need for social reform in a strange, politically incorrect way.
Show less
Date Issued: 2007
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/40950
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, English fiction, Criticism and interpretation, Literature and society, History, Class consciousness in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Inviting but frustrating over-simplification: (re)reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Creator: Smith, Kathryn M., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description: Many critics and readers assume that Tess of the d'Urbervilles is simply the tragedy of a ruined country maiden and that the sexually-driven scenes are the most important aspects of the novel. In my thesis, however, I argue that Thomas Hardy created a novel centered on his complex heroine, Tess, not on simplistic notions of sexual ruination and sensational plot developments. In other words, Tess is an autonomous, detailed character who cannot be relegated to the usual stereotypes of Virgin,...
Show moreMany critics and readers assume that Tess of the d'Urbervilles is simply the tragedy of a ruined country maiden and that the sexually-driven scenes are the most important aspects of the novel. In my thesis, however, I argue that Thomas Hardy created a novel centered on his complex heroine, Tess, not on simplistic notions of sexual ruination and sensational plot developments. In other words, Tess is an autonomous, detailed character who cannot be relegated to the usual stereotypes of Virgin, Whore, Mother, etc. Through my reading, we gain a greater understanding of the novel as a whole, instead of as a fractured, deterministic, and plot-driven tragedy. I begin my argument by examining Hardy's subtitle, "A Pure Woman," asserting that our focus should be on the word "Woman" and Tess's subjectivity, not reductive concepts of "purity" or chastity. In Chapter Two, I examine two significant scenes that occur in Alec's carriage, showing how many critics' readings underestimate Tess as helpless, and arguing that she fights against her oppressor in covert ways. My third chapter continues this defense of Tess by critiquing the critical debate surrounding the sexual encounter in "The Chase". I posit that the entire debate is flawed and that Tess should be defined based upon her actions and not simply her sexuality. Lastly, in my conclusion I present a broader defense of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, in which I assert that the ambiguous plot scenes in Tess are conscious attempts by Hardy to subvert traditional assumptions about what is important in a novel. My goal in this thesis is to critique popular but simplistic interpretations of Tess of the d'Urbervilles which diminish Tess's role; instead, I emphasize the way her character, in the words of critic Kathleen Blake, "invites but frustrates oversimplification."
Show less
Date Issued: 2007
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/11601
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Social change in literature, Literature and society
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: From Slaves to Subjects: Forging Freedom in the Canadian Legal System.
Creator: Halty, Nina, Engle, Stephen D., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of History
Abstract/Description: This thesis clarifies recent debates on the problems of territorialized freedom in the Atlantic world by examining several extradition cases involving runaway slaves in Canada, where southern slaveholders attempted to retrieve their lost property by relabeling fugitive slaves as fugitive criminals. In order to combat these efforts and receive the full protections of British subjecthood, self-emancipated people realized that they needed to prove themselves worthy of this status. To achieve...
Show moreThis thesis clarifies recent debates on the problems of territorialized freedom in the Atlantic world by examining several extradition cases involving runaway slaves in Canada, where southern slaveholders attempted to retrieve their lost property by relabeling fugitive slaves as fugitive criminals. In order to combat these efforts and receive the full protections of British subjecthood, self-emancipated people realized that they needed to prove themselves worthy of this status. To achieve this, black refugees formulated their own language of subjecthood predicated upon economic productivity, social respectability, and political loyalty. By actively working to incorporate themselves into the British Empire, Afro-Canadians redefined subjecthood from a status largely seen as a passively received birthright to a deliberate choice. Therefore, this thesis demonstrates that ways in which formerly enslaved people laid out their own terms for imperial inclusion and defined the contours of black social and legal belonging in a partially free Atlantic world.
Show less
Date Issued: 2017
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004923
Subject Headings: Canada--Race relations--History--19th century., African Americans--Canada--History--19th century., Freedmen--Canada--History--19th century., Fugitive slaves--Legal status, laws, etc.--Canada., Free African Americans--Canada--History--19th century., Postcolonialism--Southern States., Plantation life in literature., Imperialism in literature., Literature and society--Southern States--History--20th century., Place (Philosophy) in literature.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Power politics: gender and power in Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Wilkie Collins's No Name.
Creator: Smith, Rebecca Ann., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: While literary critics acknowledge Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Wilkie Collins's No Name as sensation novels that were considered popular literature during the 1860s, many critics often fail to recognize the social and political implications embedded within these texts. In No Name, for instance, Collins's use of a heroine that is disinherited and deemed illegitimate by the law emphasizes the overpowering force of patriarchy. In response to patriarchal law, therefore, the...
Show moreWhile literary critics acknowledge Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret and Wilkie Collins's No Name as sensation novels that were considered popular literature during the 1860s, many critics often fail to recognize the social and political implications embedded within these texts. In No Name, for instance, Collins's use of a heroine that is disinherited and deemed illegitimate by the law emphasizes the overpowering force of patriarchy. In response to patriarchal law, therefore, the heroines of Lady Audley's Secret and No Name attempt to improve their social positions in a society that is economically dependent upon men. Braddon's Lady Audley and Collins's Magdalen Vanstone are fictional representations of women who internalize the inequality of patriarchy and strive to contest male domination. By centering their novels on heroines who endeavor to defy Victorian social norms, Braddon and Collins highlight the problem of the female in a male-dominated society.
Show less
Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/210519
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, English fiction, Criticism and interpretation, Literature and society, Sex role in literature, Patriarchy in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Marie Corelli: Britain's most popular forgotten author.
Creator: Moss, Doris., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Marie Corelli was arguably the most popular British novelist of the early 1900s, yet few today even know her name. Though she is not the only author to lose popularity, her enormous influence during her lifetime deserves consideration. What people liked about Marie Corelli can shed light on why the rise of modernism is seen as such a break from the popular in literature. This paper examines two of her bestsellers, A Romance of Two Worlds and The Sorrows of Satan, in light of the fin de...
Show moreMarie Corelli was arguably the most popular British novelist of the early 1900s, yet few today even know her name. Though she is not the only author to lose popularity, her enormous influence during her lifetime deserves consideration. What people liked about Marie Corelli can shed light on why the rise of modernism is seen as such a break from the popular in literature. This paper examines two of her bestsellers, A Romance of Two Worlds and The Sorrows of Satan, in light of the fin de siáecle, as well as the critical response to her work from both modernist and postmodern perspectives. Corelli is of interest today because her popular female characters are women who affirm traditional femininity yet also pursue and wield great power. The question I raise is whether Corelli's work is best seen as illustrative of theories about popular literature or as contradictory to them.
Show less
Date Issued: 2011
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3172426
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Women and literature, History, Literature and society, History, English fiction, Criticism and interpretation
Format: Document (PDF)

FAU Theses and Dissertations (15)	+ -
Honors Student Theses (3)	+ -
FAU College Collections (1)	+ -
Speeches (1)	+ -

Literature and society (12)	+ -
Criticism and interpretation (8)	+ -
English fiction (3)	+ -
History (3)	+ -
Sex role in literature (3)	+ -

History and criticism (2)	+ -
Imperialism in literature. (2)	+ -
Literature and society--Southern States--History--20th century. (2)	+ -
Literature and society--United States (2)	+ -
Place (Philosophy) in literature. (2)	+ -
Plantation life in literature. (2)	+ -
Postcolonialism--Southern States. (2)	+ -
Symbolism in literature (2)	+ -
African Americans--Canada--History--19th century. (1)	+ -
Agee, James,--1909-1955--Criticism and interpretation (1)	+ -
American fiction--20th century (1)	+ -
American fiction--20th century--History and criticism. (1)	+ -
Authors--Political and social views (1)	+ -
Black mask (1)	+ -
Campaign literature -- 1863 -- Democratic -- New York (1)	+ -
Campaign literature -- United States -- 19th century (1)	+ -
Canada--Race relations--History--19th century. (1)	+ -
Class consciousness in literature (1)	+ -
Comic books, strips, etc (1)	+ -
Constitutional law -- United States (1)	+ -
Crime in literature (1)	+ -
Criticism and interpretion (1)	+ -
Depressions--1929--Fiction. (1)	+ -
Detective and mystery stories, American--History and criticism (1)	+ -
Faulkner, William,--1897-1962.--Absalom, Absalom!--Criticism and interpretation. (1)	+ -

England (3)	+ -
Great Britain (3)	+ -
Caribbean Area (1)	+ -
Puerto Rico (1)	+ -
United States (1)	+ -

19th century (4)	+ -
20th century (2)	+ -
16th century (1)	+ -

Search In

Sort Results By:

Narrow results by:

Collection

Topical Subject

Geographic Subject

Temporal Subject

Title as Subject

Genre

Type of Resource

Language

Creator

Format

Owner

English (18)	+ -
Spanish (1)	+ -