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Angels and Demons: The Effect of Dr. John Dee's Research on Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus
Title
Angels and Demons: The Effect of Dr. John Dee's Research on Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.
Creator
Clark, Taylor N., Harrawood, Michael, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description
Dr. John Dee, 16th century advisor to Queen Elizabeth, conducted a series of mystical sessions to converse with angelic spirits in the early 1580s, asking a variety of questions ranging from hidden treasures to the organization of the cosmos. At a glance the experiments appear focused solely on the field of magic, separated from organized scientific research or religious belief. I argue that Dee’s research within this period does not separate the three from one another, but instead serves as...
Show moreDr. John Dee, 16th century advisor to Queen Elizabeth, conducted a series of mystical sessions to converse with angelic spirits in the early 1580s, asking a variety of questions ranging from hidden treasures to the organization of the cosmos. At a glance the experiments appear focused solely on the field of magic, separated from organized scientific research or religious belief. I argue that Dee’s research within this period does not separate the three from one another, but instead serves as a meeting point where magic, science, and religion overlap one another. They are not separate discourses, but instead constantly mingling as practitioners like Dee pursue knowledge. Christopher Marlowe, a playwright of the 16th century, mirrors Dee’s research in his play Doctor Faustus, ultimately condemning the pursuits of magic as fruitless and useful only for one’s damnation.
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Date Issued
2015
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00003640
Format
Document (PDF)
Disneyland: Embodying American mythology and cultural values from 1955 to the present
Title
Disneyland: Embodying American mythology and cultural values from 1955 to the present.
Creator
Fee, Erin, Harrawood, Michael, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description
Disneyland Park, which opened in Anaheim, California on July 17, 1955, has been a fixture of American culture for over sixty years. Each of its themed “lands” are constructed to embody the popular perceptions of an abstract idea, such as the frontier, tomorrow, and adventure. Even areas based on specific locations are primarily invested in representing places as they exist in the American imagination. Culture is dynamic, however, and public sensibilities evolve. The constant struggle to...
Show moreDisneyland Park, which opened in Anaheim, California on July 17, 1955, has been a fixture of American culture for over sixty years. Each of its themed “lands” are constructed to embody the popular perceptions of an abstract idea, such as the frontier, tomorrow, and adventure. Even areas based on specific locations are primarily invested in representing places as they exist in the American imagination. Culture is dynamic, however, and public sensibilities evolve. The constant struggle to maintain societal relevancy and resonance has revised nearly every facet of Disneyland’s narrative since its opening, in ways both subtle and substantial.
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Date Issued
2016
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00003671
Format
Document (PDF)
Madness and mimetic violence: laughter and language in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
Title
Madness and mimetic violence: laughter and language in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Creator
Blum , Kaitlyn Joy, Harrawood, Michael, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description
This thesis seeks to consider the malevolent humor of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, particularly in light of the philosophical position that literary critic Rene Girard posits about what he refers to as mimetic desire. Girard contends that much of the basis of human interaction is the mediation between desires to imitate, and desires to annihilate. Using Girard’s critical writings as a frame of thought, I am interested in the circulation of cruelty in which the characters of this problem play...
Show moreThis thesis seeks to consider the malevolent humor of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, particularly in light of the philosophical position that literary critic Rene Girard posits about what he refers to as mimetic desire. Girard contends that much of the basis of human interaction is the mediation between desires to imitate, and desires to annihilate. Using Girard’s critical writings as a frame of thought, I am interested in the circulation of cruelty in which the characters of this problem play interact with one another. American writer W.H. Auden claimed “Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s unpleasant plays”, and this thesis addresses the relationship of laughter and cruelty in Twelfth Night as the characters utilize comedy to negotiate between their simultaneous desires to imitate and destroy.
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Date Issued
2013
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00003506
Format
Document (PDF)
Punishment and Prophecy: Blindness in Oedipus Rex, King Lear, and Jane Eyre
Title
Punishment and Prophecy: Blindness in Oedipus Rex, King Lear, and Jane Eyre.
Creator
Jemison, Kaley, Harrawood, Michael, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description
This paper will examine the significance of blindness in Oedipus Rex, King Lear, and Jane Eyre. In each of these canonical works, the character presents a moral infringement and consequently is castigated through the loss of sight. For Oedipus and Rochester this is a sexual transgression while for Gloucester, blindness is a reflection of his ignorance of his son’s duplicity. This literary commonality implements vision loss as a punishment for immorality. Yet, from this loss of sight also...
Show moreThis paper will examine the significance of blindness in Oedipus Rex, King Lear, and Jane Eyre. In each of these canonical works, the character presents a moral infringement and consequently is castigated through the loss of sight. For Oedipus and Rochester this is a sexual transgression while for Gloucester, blindness is a reflection of his ignorance of his son’s duplicity. This literary commonality implements vision loss as a punishment for immorality. Yet, from this loss of sight also stems transcendence. Paradoxically, in losing their sight, the characters garner a greater sensory awareness and prophetic insight as Oedipus sees his future and Rochester experiences a telepathic exchange with Jane. This paper will also examine the portrayals of blind characters and how they reflect historic shifts in society’s conceptualization of the disabled community.
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Date Issued
2016
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00003677
Format
Document (PDF)
The American Nightmare: Hyperreality and Loss of Identity in American Psycho and Escape from Tomorrow
Title
The American Nightmare: Hyperreality and Loss of Identity in American Psycho and Escape from Tomorrow.
Creator
Crawford, Tyler, Harrawood, Michael, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Abstract/Description
The renowned French philosopher and cultural critic Jean Baudrillard, in his 1981 treatise Simulacra and Simulation, creates and defines the term “hyperreality” as “the generation by models of a real without origin or reality.” Utilizing this definition, this thesis analyzes the text and film versions of Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial postmodern classic, American Psycho, in conjunction with the anti-“Disneyfication” independent film, Escape from Tomorrow, as complex examples in fiction of...
Show moreThe renowned French philosopher and cultural critic Jean Baudrillard, in his 1981 treatise Simulacra and Simulation, creates and defines the term “hyperreality” as “the generation by models of a real without origin or reality.” Utilizing this definition, this thesis analyzes the text and film versions of Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial postmodern classic, American Psycho, in conjunction with the anti-“Disneyfication” independent film, Escape from Tomorrow, as complex examples in fiction of the excess and ultimate consequences of American materialism that has developed since the 1991 publication of Ellis’s novel about the over-indulgent “yuppie” culture of the 1980’s. I argue that the main consequence of the practice of blind belief in the endurance and reliability of material signifiers for the protagonists of these works, Patrick Bateman and Jim White respectively, is the sacrifice of their identity to the machine of homogenized corporate capitalism.
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Date Issued
2016
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00003666
Format
Document (PDF)