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- Title
- Three suites: a celebration of klezmer.
- Creator
- Weiner, Alison, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Music
- Abstract/Description
-
Three original suites, composed during 2008-2009, are presented and discussed with respect to form, style, and compositional techniques. The subjects are Suite No. 1 (clarinet and piano), Suite No. 2: For Paul, A Master of Music (clarinet, piano, double bass and drums), and Suite No. 3: L'Chaim (two clarinets, flugelhorn, French horn, bandoneon, piano, violin, and cello). Common to all three pieces is the inspiration of klezmer, a Jewish music genre that, during its reemergence over the past...
Show moreThree original suites, composed during 2008-2009, are presented and discussed with respect to form, style, and compositional techniques. The subjects are Suite No. 1 (clarinet and piano), Suite No. 2: For Paul, A Master of Music (clarinet, piano, double bass and drums), and Suite No. 3: L'Chaim (two clarinets, flugelhorn, French horn, bandoneon, piano, violin, and cello). Common to all three pieces is the inspiration of klezmer, a Jewish music genre that, during its reemergence over the past thirty-five years, has welcomed the influence of other musical styles. In keeping with the eclectic nature of klezmer, each suite builds upon the previous one with regard to instrumentation, style and technique, and embraces additional genres (jazz and tango). Brief reviews regarding the history and musical characteristics (including modes, ornamentation and improvisation, song types and instrumentation) for all the included genres are also presented for the benefit of compositional context.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2100575
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Klezmer music, History and criticism, Jews, Music, History and criticism
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Towards a feminist funny: exploring myth, power and postfeminism in the work of Chelsea Handler.
- Creator
- Walleser, Lauren., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
- Abstract/Description
-
Chelsea Handler is a comedian and host of the TV show Chelsea Lately. She has been successful in the late night comedy talk show genre to a degree that no woman has before. While she represents the most significant advancement for women in the genre, she also plays to patriarchal themes in order to maintain her foothold. In my thesis, I locate Handler within the history of women's stand-up comedy, analyzing her appeal via the figure of "The Unruly Woman" and other image types. I apply a...
Show moreChelsea Handler is a comedian and host of the TV show Chelsea Lately. She has been successful in the late night comedy talk show genre to a degree that no woman has before. While she represents the most significant advancement for women in the genre, she also plays to patriarchal themes in order to maintain her foothold. In my thesis, I locate Handler within the history of women's stand-up comedy, analyzing her appeal via the figure of "The Unruly Woman" and other image types. I apply a mythic analysis as I look for Handler's manifestation of mythic types, including archetypal Goddess representations. I analyze her treatment of violence against women, exploring how Handler approaches these themes in ways that allow her into the "old boys club." I use textual and audience analysis to assess Handler's ability to be a transformative and empowering figure for women in comedy and beyond.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3322513
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Women in popular culture, Feminist theory, Performance art, Social aspects, Mass media and women
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Prepare, process, package: the consumption of Haiti in Hispanic Caribbean literature.
- Creator
- Tucker, Walteria C., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
- Abstract/Description
-
Since Alejo Carpentier's 1944 encounter with the "real maravilloso" in the ruins of the Citadelle La Ferriáere, Haiti has been linked with the notion of Latin American identity, in particular, and American identity, in general. Interesting to me are the ways and the means by which Haiti resurfaces in Cuban and Puerto Rican narratives and what allusions to Haiti in these texts imply about its relationship to the Hispanic Caribbean. I will combine the ideas of John Beverley, Sybille Fischer,...
Show moreSince Alejo Carpentier's 1944 encounter with the "real maravilloso" in the ruins of the Citadelle La Ferriáere, Haiti has been linked with the notion of Latin American identity, in particular, and American identity, in general. Interesting to me are the ways and the means by which Haiti resurfaces in Cuban and Puerto Rican narratives and what allusions to Haiti in these texts imply about its relationship to the Hispanic Caribbean. I will combine the ideas of John Beverley, Sybille Fischer, and Mimi Sheller to discuss how representations of Haiti work to perpetuate its disavowal and render it a consumable product for the rest of the Caribbean as a whole, and for the Hispanic Caribbean specifically. I will focus on works by Cuban and Puerto Rican authors who have prepared, processed, and packaged Haiti in such a way that its culture, language, and even sexuality are able to satisfy long-held cravings for that which is local and exotic. Thus, I hope to explain how it has been and will continue to be possible for the Hispanic Caribbean to consume Haiti positively as a symbol of its marvelous reality and negatively as an Afro-Caribbean personification of racial, cultural, and political decadence in literature.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3322521
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Identity (Psychology) in literature, Latin American literature, Criticism and interpretation, Caribbean fiction (French), 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.
Show less - 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
- The " living presence" and the "ideal character": sex, fantasy, and photographs in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure.
- Creator
- Taylor, Margaret, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
- Abstract/Description
-
In my thesis I will argue that the source of the major conflict in Jude the Obscure - the traumatic relationship between Sue and Jude - is Jude's viewing of his cousin's photograph early in the novel. Because of his tendency to idealize the individuals around him, Jude projects a desired image onto a photograph of Sue before meeting her in real life. This projection takes on an aspect of reality for Jude which he can not escape, despite Sue's efforts to disillusion him and introduce him to...
Show moreIn my thesis I will argue that the source of the major conflict in Jude the Obscure - the traumatic relationship between Sue and Jude - is Jude's viewing of his cousin's photograph early in the novel. Because of his tendency to idealize the individuals around him, Jude projects a desired image onto a photograph of Sue before meeting her in real life. This projection takes on an aspect of reality for Jude which he can not escape, despite Sue's efforts to disillusion him and introduce him to her actual self. Since his projection starkly contrasts to Sue's actual being, not only does Jude believe that the two are compatible when they are not, but he believes that Sue's attempts to disillusion him are in fact deceitful. Thus the initial impetus of the photograph eventually leads to their conflicted relationship and the tragedy of the novel overall.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/210004
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Imagination in literature, Despair in literature
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Notes on a liminal state.
- Creator
- Straub, Patricia., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
Notes on a Liminal State is a collection of poetry prepared in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in writing at Florida Atlantic University. While the poems cover a variety of topics, recurring themes include a mother's decline due to Alzheimer's Disease, infertility, adoption, and the observation of rural landscapes. The poems do not adhere to any single form.
- Date Issued
- 2011
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3356785
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Poetry, Symbolism in literature
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- The compass of human will in realism and fantasy: a reading of Sister Carrie and The King of Elfand's Daugher.
- Creator
- Stone, Tracy., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
As realist and naturalist writers at the turn of the twentieth century adopted a scientific spirit of objectivity, they reflected the emphasis many contemporary scientific studies laid on the forces of the natural world in shaping the character, behavior, and ultimate destiny of man. In this literary mood of "pessimistic determinism," fantasy literature began to experience a resurgence, providing a marked contrast to naturalism's portrayal of the impotence of man to effect change in his...
Show moreAs realist and naturalist writers at the turn of the twentieth century adopted a scientific spirit of objectivity, they reflected the emphasis many contemporary scientific studies laid on the forces of the natural world in shaping the character, behavior, and ultimate destiny of man. In this literary mood of "pessimistic determinism," fantasy literature began to experience a resurgence, providing a marked contrast to naturalism's portrayal of the impotence of man to effect change in his circumstances. I examine fantasy's restoration of efficacy to the human will through a study of two representative works of the opposing genres: Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie and Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter. As I demonstrate, the former naturalistic novel emphasizes the impotence of its characters in the face of powerful natural world, while the latter contemporary fantasy novel uniquely showcases man's ability to effect change in his world and his destiny.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/221950
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Realism in literature, Naturalism in literature, Literature and science, Life change events in literature, Fantasy fiction, English, Criticism and interpretation
- 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.
Show less - 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)
- Title
- America's flawed dream: F. Scott Fitzgerald's view of the American dream in the roaring twenties and the Great Depression.
- Creator
- Stetson, Natalie C., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
- Abstract/Description
-
F. Scott Fitzgerald's work is intrinsically connected to the American dream, which is the belief that through hard work and determination one can achieve success. The lives of the male protagonists in The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night, however, reveal the many flaws of the American dream. The most significant flaw, as Fitzgerald demonstrates, is that although a certain level of success is possible, a dreamer is never satisfied. Despite the passage of nine years between the publication...
Show moreF. Scott Fitzgerald's work is intrinsically connected to the American dream, which is the belief that through hard work and determination one can achieve success. The lives of the male protagonists in The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night, however, reveal the many flaws of the American dream. The most significant flaw, as Fitzgerald demonstrates, is that although a certain level of success is possible, a dreamer is never satisfied. Despite the passage of nine years between the publication of the two novels and the changes the nation underwent between 1925 and 1934, Fitzgerald's opinion is not altered; he remains pessimistic. He concludes in both novels that [the] American dream cannot be attained.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/77695
- Subject Headings
- Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, Criticism and interpretation, Depressions, Economic conditions
- 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
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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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Abjection and social transformation in John Fowles's Mantissa and A Maggot.
- Creator
- Skolnick, Jenifer A., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
In John Fowles's last two novels, he alters his authorial project of discovering freedom for an individual from a social system to how a social system can be changed from within. Using Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection and her interpretation of the semiotic versus symbolic processes of signification, readers can determine how an imbalance in the human signifying process has become corrupted by power. Through Fowles's heroines and semiotic irruptions of the symbolic order in both Mantissa...
Show moreIn John Fowles's last two novels, he alters his authorial project of discovering freedom for an individual from a social system to how a social system can be changed from within. Using Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection and her interpretation of the semiotic versus symbolic processes of signification, readers can determine how an imbalance in the human signifying process has become corrupted by power. Through Fowles's heroines and semiotic irruptions of the symbolic order in both Mantissa and A Maggot, Fowles reveals weaknesses in the symbolic, and consequently, moments where transformation of a patriarchal, symbolic system can be recognized. These moments of strain on the symbolic are significant because they cause a disruption of the rules and borders that define a social system like patriarchy. By calling attention to these moments, the categorical imperatives that have been imposed on women and perpetuated for the purpose of maintaining power relations can thus be subverted. In Mantissa and A Maggot, Fowles accomplishes a breaking of the boundaries, both within and of the text, by providing a literary space where readers can glimpse the power of the semiotic, the corruption of social conditioning, and gain a new perspective of their own symbolic/social system in the real world.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2979382
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.), Culture, Semiotic models, Symbolic interactionism, Symbolism in literature, Postmodernism (Literature)
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- "The depths of an English heart": Wittgenstinian private language in Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier.
- Creator
- Simundich, Joel., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
- Abstract/Description
-
In Ford Madox Ford's 1915 novel The Good Soldier, John Dowell comments "I had never sounded the depths of an English heart," as he painstakingly reconstructs his "extreme intimacy" with his late wife and their two closest friends. Throughout his narrative, Dowell approaches the limits of language, struggling to connect with lost companions by bringing language into scenes of miscommunication and silence. By translating emotional impasses and wordless exchanges from memory into narrative,...
Show moreIn Ford Madox Ford's 1915 novel The Good Soldier, John Dowell comments "I had never sounded the depths of an English heart," as he painstakingly reconstructs his "extreme intimacy" with his late wife and their two closest friends. Throughout his narrative, Dowell approaches the limits of language, struggling to connect with lost companions by bringing language into scenes of miscommunication and silence. By translating emotional impasses and wordless exchanges from memory into narrative, Dowell seems to make these wordless interactions wordful. Ludwig Wittgenstein's investigation into "private language" helps elucidate Dowell's realization that he cannot fill wordlessness with words to reconstruct his memories. If Dowell can't fill wordlessness with words, his failure to "sound the depths of an English heart" isn't a failure at all, but rather an exposition on "private language" as public language, demonstrating that misunderstandings can be our best attempts at understanding each other.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/77691
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Psychology, Philosophy
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Grammars of communion.
- Creator
- Shaw, Elliot., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
-
In response to assertions championing the absence of meaning and significance in language originating from Jacques Derrida's linguistic concepts of deconstruction, George Steiner and John Sheriff provide analyses of language that assert the opposite. Through an emphasis on subjectivities and subjective experience in the world, both find meaning to be bonded to subjective volition and the connectivities between subjects and language systems. For Steiner, this emphasis comes in the form of...
Show moreIn response to assertions championing the absence of meaning and significance in language originating from Jacques Derrida's linguistic concepts of deconstruction, George Steiner and John Sheriff provide analyses of language that assert the opposite. Through an emphasis on subjectivities and subjective experience in the world, both find meaning to be bonded to subjective volition and the connectivities between subjects and language systems. For Steiner, this emphasis comes in the form of asserting the presence of others and the responsibilities we have to them, while Sheriff depicts how the semiotics of Charles Peirce make meaning-making subjective and communal. I argue, therefore, that in contrast to conceptions of language that challenge the presence of meaning in language, a structure of language as conceived through Charles Peirce's semiotics and George Steiner's vision of language asserts a dependability of language and the presence of meaning based on principles of connection and communion.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3361055
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Influence, Language and languages, Philosophy, Communication, Philosophy, Deconstruction
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Reconstruction: photography and history in E.L. Doctorow's The March.
- Creator
- Seymour, Eric., Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
- Abstract/Description
-
This thesis presents an examination of the trope of photography in E. L. Doctorow's latest novel, The March, which takes General Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas as its subject matter. The Civil War, as the first major American military conflict to be photographed, is the perfect vehicle for the novel's meditation upon the representation of significant political and cultural events. As this paper argues, photography functions in the novel as a metaphor for visual culture in...
Show moreThis thesis presents an examination of the trope of photography in E. L. Doctorow's latest novel, The March, which takes General Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas as its subject matter. The Civil War, as the first major American military conflict to be photographed, is the perfect vehicle for the novel's meditation upon the representation of significant political and cultural events. As this paper argues, photography functions in the novel as a metaphor for visual culture in general. In particular, I argue that the discrepancies which the novel posits between the photographic record and lived experience function to trouble notions of media transparency. As the novel suggests, the popular conception of photography, which constructs it is an irreproachable and infallible medium, has lent itself to political manipulation. Thus, through photography, the novel depicts history as the conventional framing of events for posterity, not as a comprehensive record of events.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2007
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/11600
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877), History, Criticism and interpretation
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Women, film, and oceans a/part: the critical humor of Tracey Moffatt, Monica Pellizzari, and Clara Law.
- Creator
- Senzani, Alessandra., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
- Abstract/Description
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The politicized use of humor in accented cinema is a tool for negotiating particular formations of identity, such as sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and class. The body of work produced by contemporary women filmmakers working in Australia, specifically Tracey Moffatt, Monica Pellizzari, and Clara Law, illustrates how these directors have employed critical humor as a response to their multiple marginalization as women, Australian, and accented filmmakers. In their works, humor functions as a...
Show moreThe politicized use of humor in accented cinema is a tool for negotiating particular formations of identity, such as sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and class. The body of work produced by contemporary women filmmakers working in Australia, specifically Tracey Moffatt, Monica Pellizzari, and Clara Law, illustrates how these directors have employed critical humor as a response to their multiple marginalization as women, Australian, and accented filmmakers. In their works, humor functions as a critical tool to deconstruct the contradictions in dominant discourses as they relate to (neo)colonial, racist, globalized, patriarchal, and displaced pasts and presents. Produced within Australian national cinema, but emerging from experiences of geographical displacements that defy territorial borders, their films illuminate how critical humor can inflect such accepted categories as the national constitution of a cinema, film genre, and questions of exile and diaspora. Critical humor thus consti tutes a cinematic signifying practice able, following Luigi Pirandello's description of umorismo, to decompose the filmic text, and as a tool for an ideological critique of cinema and its role in (re)producing discourses of the nation predicated on the dominant categories of whiteness and masculinity. The study offers a theoretical framework for decoding humor in a film text, focusing on the manipulation of cinematic language, and it provides a model for a criticism that wishes to heighten the counter-hegemonic potential of cinematic texts, by picking up on the humorous, contradictory openings of the text and widening them through a parallel dissociating process., Finally, critical humor in the accented cinema of women filmmakers like Moffatt, Pellizzari, and Law is shown to constitute a form of translation and negotiation performed between the national, monologic constraints of film production and cinematic language, the heteroglossia of the global imaginaries that have traveled since the beginning with film technology, and the local and diasporic accents informing a filmmaker's unique style and perspective.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2008
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/186293
- Subject Headings
- Women motion picture producers and directors, Feminism and motion pictures, Criticism and interpretation, Local color in motion pictures, Intercultural communication in motion pictures
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- The dangers behind technological progress: posthuman control in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.
- Creator
- Sedore, Monica., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
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Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash depicts a world in which the more freedom the characters believe they have, the more control is actually being exerted upon them. I argue that Snow Crash parallels the world in which we are beginning to find ourselves today. In the modern world, we have the convenience of the Internet, which gives us the belief that we have a great deal of control over our environment. However, my argument stems from the idea that the freedom the characters believe that...
Show moreNeal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash depicts a world in which the more freedom the characters believe they have, the more control is actually being exerted upon them. I argue that Snow Crash parallels the world in which we are beginning to find ourselves today. In the modern world, we have the convenience of the Internet, which gives us the belief that we have a great deal of control over our environment. However, my argument stems from the idea that the freedom the characters believe that they are afforded in such a universe is actually another level of control being exercised upon them. I argue that our world is mimicked by the world of Snow Crash in a way that shows how truly little freedom we are given in our posthuman society.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355880
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Human body in popular culture, Biotechology, Social aspects, Virtual reality, Psychological aspects, Virtual reality in literature
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Heaven's fertile soil: baseball, gender, and the natural American heartland in W.P. Kinsella's "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa".
- Creator
- Santy, Ashley., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
- Abstract/Description
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This thesis explores W.P. Kinsella's emphasis on love for land, family, and baseball in discussing relationships between characters in his short story "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa". Chapter I introduces the characters, their role in establishing this as a tale of conservation through agrarianism, and how Kinsella's choice to write a positive story creates unique potential for healing. Chapter II establishes similarities between the father's war experiences and Jackson's exile from...
Show moreThis thesis explores W.P. Kinsella's emphasis on love for land, family, and baseball in discussing relationships between characters in his short story "Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa". Chapter I introduces the characters, their role in establishing this as a tale of conservation through agrarianism, and how Kinsella's choice to write a positive story creates unique potential for healing. Chapter II establishes similarities between the father's war experiences and Jackson's exile from baseball, underscoring its mythic importance. Chapter III examines the relationship between the protagonist and his wife, and how their relationship symbolically fosters love for nature through farming, and can be used to reconcile modern agrarianism with ecocriticism. Chapter IV discusses how connection with the earth brings healing. The final chapter underscores the worthiness of this work to be a cherished part of the American literary canon.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355876
- Subject Headings
- Criticism and interpretation, Baseball, Criticism and interpretation, Environmental ethics, National characteristics, American, Farm life in literature
- Format
- Document (PDF)