Digitized Theses and Dissertations (1940 - 2009)
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Browsing Digitized Theses and Dissertations (1940 - 2009) by Department "English, Department of"
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Item A comparison of Chaucer and Gower's use of six episodes from Ovid(1954) Hutmacher, William F.; Daniels, R. Balfour; Phillips, Anne R.Various quotations from the texts of Chaucer and Gower, viewed in the light of their source, Ovid, reveal clearly that Chaucer follows his source more closely than Gower does. The exception to this is Chaucer's failure to record the various metamorphoses found his source. Gower does record the metamorphoses as he finds them in Ovid. [...]Item A comparison of the courtly lady and the major female characters in Spenser's The Faerie queene(1971) Riola, Kathy Crawley; Hogan, Patrick, Jr.; Decker, Eugene M., IIICourtly Love, with its idealized lady who is disdainful of an abject and despondent lover, is important in much of the lover literature of the Middle Ages. In the troubadour songs, Andreas Capellanus' The Art of Courtly Love, Chretien de Troyes' romances, Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun's The Romance of the Rose, and Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, a basic figure of the courtly lady is present. The ways in which she is used, however, differ greatly. At certain times her favor implies social security and acceptance by the class in power, while at other times the lover's courtship of her is suggestive of man's concern with his spiritual condition. In The Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser denies Courtly Love as a valid basis for a relationship between a man and a woman ridiculing its artificiality, its unnaturalness, and its incompleteness of purpose through various episodes in the poem in which he writes specifically of Courtly Love, In other episodes in which his concern lies with other matters, Spenser reverts to the usages of the courtly lady as suggestive of social and spiritual goals and the means by which these goals may be attained. Spenser addes significantly to the relationship which existed between the courtly lady and her lover by emphasizing the spiritual dimension of romantic love and the proper exercise of that love within the framework of Christian marriage.Item A critical analysis of the women in Thackeray's later novels(1974) Phillips, Guler Paran; Dixon, Terrell; Wright, William C.Thackeray's female characters, especially in the earlier novels, have attracted considerable critical attention, but in general the critics have concentrated almost entirely on superficialities, giving little attention to the women as individual creations. Thus the women characters of Thackeray's novels have suffered at their hands both from the harshness of their moral judgments and from being considered mere stereotypes. There is no systematic study of the women characters in the later novels, and this study is an effort to fill that gap. Although the critics of Thackeray have attempted to choose either his worldly women or his domestic angels as the center of value for his fiction, he is working for a blend of the two even in his earlier work. There are personal roots as well as social roots for this concern and these are manifest in Vanity Fair, Pendennis and Henry Esmond. The Newcomes is his first serious attempt to make this blend, and The Virginians is another attempt at solving this. Philip is his final and most radical effort to reshape the nineteenth century view of women.Item A critical and historical analysis of Melville's The Encantadas(1969) Daniel, Mary B.; Ford, Thomas W.; Peavy, Charles D.The purpose of this study is to examine the historical and. critical aspects of The Encantadas, Herman Melville's series of sketches about the Galapagos Islands. This study includes relevant features of Melville's life prior to the composition of the stories, as well as the facts relative to publication, the reputation It has enjoyed, sources of materials, an analysis of its structure and content, and reflections on the Author's ideas and philosophy. Since its publication in 1854, Herman Melville's The Encantadas has received little attention from critics or analysts. However, a careful examination of the sketches in the light of Melville's personal history and some of his other work reveals some interesting parallels. The mood of these stories apparently reflects the author's disillusioned, hopeless mood at the time they were written. [...]Item A critical study of the poetry of Thomas Carew(1975) Penner, Jenny Lee Davis; Judkins, David C.; Collins, Anthony R.Since the seventeenth century Thomas Carew has been variously labelled as a court trifler, a trivial writer, and a libertine, and his poetry has generally been regarded as mere froth. However, that estimation of Carew is a patently unfair one, since he reveals a poetry of many themes and voices. In his private voices he creates numerous dramatic situations through which he is able to present a variety of attitudes toward love, and in his public voices he writes numerous occasional poems for the court society of Charles I. Contrary to his reputation, Carew is not a simplistic poet who is to be read merely as an example of Cavalier libertinism. Like many other Stuart lyricists, he presents a kaleidoscopic vision of human relationships through multiple voices and themes.Item A defense of John Lyly against his detractors(1972) Hackett, Paul Thomas; Hogan, Patrick G.; Hartley, Jesse D.; Bennett, Edward O.John Lyly’s best-known work, the two-part prose narrative Euphues, gave name to a style which, despite its vogue in Elizabethan England, has since been severely criticized. Nineteenth-century investigations of Shakespeare’s works developed an intriguing secondary consideration—the suggestion that criticism of euphuism, particularly that focussed on Lyly himself, requires reexamination. It is a fact that Lyly enjoyed a widespread, though brief, popularity with Elizabeth’s courtiers both for his sophisticated narratives and his court comedies. Later critics were to catalogue the rhetorical schemes they employed, and characterize their author as affected, pedantic, and humorless. The Euphues was the principal target of attack, while Lyly’s plays were generally unnoticed. Critical censure, exaggerating form while neglecting content, concentrated on the structural devices of the Euphues, Reexamination of Lyly’s works in the integrity of their matter and form suggests a different evaluation. His most criticized rhetorical devices, antithesis and simile have a demonstrable supportive relationship to his narratives and dramatic dialogues• And the combined effect of style and content is often surprisingly playful and facetious. This combination may appeal to twentieth-century readers as much as it did to those in Elizabeth’s court.Item A descriptive study of readability in freshman English compositions(1983) Randolph, Charlotte Sisson; McNamara, John F.; Morgan, Jeanette P.; Heath, Robert L.This study is an attempt to determine why some students, able to answer questions about writing, cannot write minimally competent essays after working through a semester in freshman composition. The hypothesis was that such students did not write with an audience for written English in mind. Relying first on recent research by rhetoricians, linguists, and cognitive psychologists to define readability, the study then uses the readability traits to help explain passing and failing grades in a sampling drawn from 152 student exit exam papers. Both argumentative and analytical papers are included in the study, and the conclusions are similar for both: grammatical errors do not interfere with readability as much as does lack of cohesiveness. That lack of cohesiveness in the writing of such students does appear to result from inappropriate use of strategies effective in oral situations where much of the meaning is left implicit, where many nonverbal cues to meaning are available, and where another person is responsible for putting equal effort into creating meaning. On the other hand, the study did not confirm the expectation that many students who wrote failing papers drew incorrect inferences based on faulty presuppositions while reading the topics. Instead, it indicates that such students do not understand meaning in written prose unless it is explicitly stated. Not only do they seem unable to draw inferences when reading, but further, they seem not to recognize text structure. Thus they are unable to relate the various propositions in a text into a unified whole when they read. As a result, their responses to written instructions and their analytical attempts suffer. The writing which failed in readability includes vague and ambiguous relationships among parts ranging all the way from the syntactic to discourse level, at which attempts to express confidence in individual freedom, if made at all, are frustrated. The strongest papers, in contrast, demonstrate confident use of language; relationships are clear throughout, and the values expressed or implied include freedom.Item A different kind of loving : Henry James and the popular romance(1988) Johnson, Rob; Westervelt, Linda; Weldon, Roberta; Tapper, Fannie S.In a review of the works of Robert Browning, Henry James says of Browning's The Ring and the Book that "what comes out the clearest...the great constringent relation between man and woman, ...the relation most worth while in life for either party." [...]Item A festal funereal procession : Hawthorne's literary treatment of the creative process(1980) Casey, Dorothy Talbot; Weldon, Roberta F.; Goodwin, Gerald J.This study examines Hawthorne's conception of the creative process by relating imagery from "The Haunted Mind," a sketch he wrote in 1835, to some of his other work. "The Haunted Mind" constitutes in the most succinct way, Hawthorne's picture of the working of the imagination. This sketch consists of a narrator who awakens suddenly, and who links those images that occur to him in his semiconscious state to the sounds and sensations which assail him. Significantly, in this sketch Hawthorne creates two metaphors of lasting importance: a fantasy of death and a picture of frightening images that troop around the bed of the sleeper. I will attempt to relate these images, which occur again and again throughout Hawthorne's writing, from his early schoolboy jottings through his last abortive romances, to those of "The Haunted Mind." I will investigate death imagery in his early work by looking at fragments from a journal he wrote when he was sixteen, as well as his first published romance, Fanshawe. While these same images occur in many tales and sketches, I have chosen four short stories that seem especially to exemplify Hawthorne's interest in the creative process. First, in "Alice Doane's Appeal," one of the first tales he wrote, I show the liberating effects of the death metaphor on the creativity of the artist figure. In "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," there is a good example of one of Hawthorne's typical carnival scenes, and I attempt to relate it to the process pictured in "The Haunted Mind." It is important to look at "Roger Malvin's Burial" also because, in this tale, death becomes an almost euphoric event; it seems to relate directly to the creative process, for the artist transcends reality, and is able to create only after this death occurs. And, finally, in "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" Hawthorne structures a carnival, grotesque and horrifying, like that carnival in "The Haunted Mind." This festival is singularly productive, in that it culminates in a spirit of integration, which Hawthorne deems essential to creativity. I will try to show how these metaphors operate in The Blithedale Romance, and to develop the theme of the integration of warring elements in the artist's psyche. The carnival scene in this work presents a picture of sterility; therefore, I will attempt to explore the meaning behind the harvest carnival in The Blithedale Romance and to show how the death imagery here corresponds to the creative process. Finally, I will attempt to explain the significance of this same imagery--death and a carnival--in Hawthorne's last complete romance. The Marble Faun, and show how it defines the creativity of the artist. Hawthorne's imagery changes subtly throughout the course of his writing, and I hope to be able to show how this change is revealed through these persistent metaphors of death and the processional. This study, then, relates death and carnival imagery from "The Haunted Mind" to those same metaphors in Hawthorne's other work and tries to suggest how the literary treatment of these metaphors changes throughout the work.Item A journey to ice(1984) Stablein, Marilyn; Barthelme, Donald; Zamora, Lois P.; Moss, Simon C.Item A linguistic analysis of Ernest Hemingway's prose style in A farewell to arms(1966) Prewett, Jim; Duckworth, James E.; Nugent, M. LouiseThis thesis is based on a linguistic concept advocated by Noam Chomsky, that transformational-generative grammar is capable of revealing Intuitively felt stylistic differences between authors. Using a table of random numbers, I selected fifty sentences from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and twenty-five sentences from Bulwer-Lytton1s The Last Days of Pompeii to be analyzed with transformational rules or operations. First, contextual sentences were rewritten as source sentences. Then these source sentences were reduced to constituent-sentence parts and subjected to a comparative study. Of the twenty-two components captured by the transformational apparatus, fifteen showed a significant standard error of difference. Principal among the differences were embedded structures, relative clause structures, doublet expansions, and transformations per sentence. From these components, descriptions of style evolved. For example, an Intricate pattern of embedding and/or addition below the simple exterior of Hemingway's sentences, belying many critics' estimation of overt simplicity, was discovered as were extremely involved, stilted, and formal constructions In Bulwer-Lytton's sentences. In pointing out the choice of words, sentence patterns, and rhetorical devices of these two authors by way of transformational-generative principles, I have proved that the transformational apparatus can capture, in objective terms, the elusive qualities of a writer's style.Item A linguistic inquiry into the role of Keats's sonnets in his poetic development(1976) Berry, Steven M.; McCabe, Charles R.Most critics of John Keats do not consider his sonnets a major element of his poetic development. Yet there are aspects of his stylistic "intensity" (to use a word which the critics have borrowed from Keats himself) which seem to have been encouraged by the brevity of the sonnet form. Chief among these aspects are his use of past-participial adjectives and preference for mono- and disyllables, which tend to give his language a "condensed" quality. Thus many critics have seen the sonnet as a proto-form of his great stanzaic poetry, such as the odes of May, 1819 and The Eve of St. Agnes. By limiting himself basically to a non-Latinate vocabulary, and employing a large number of participial compounds, Keats in effect placed word-level stress prominences in the poetic line with greater frequency that he could have by using polysyllables. It is possible to define such vague Keatsian concepts as "intensity" and "melody in verse" (i.e., vocalic assonance) in terms of his placement of stress prominences in the poetic line.Item A matter of conscience : a collection of short stories(1976) Burkett, Janet; Karchmer, Sylvan N.; Weldon, Roberta F.; Meador, John M., Jr.This collection of eight short stories is based on a single, contemporary theme of religious doubt and conflict in the lives of twentieth-century Catholics. Since Vatican II, both clergy and laity have been living in a world of epistemological and theological chaos. At the center of this conflict, one finds the modern interpretation of the superiority of individual conscience to the more traditional teachings of the Church in defining a conscious, moral act as "sin." Each of the stories I have written illustrates characters engaged in interior debates of conscience-some humorous, some serious-but all in conflict with the pressures of modern society. It may of interest to the reader to know that I have been a Catholic all of my life and have taught religion to young children for the past ten years. Nevertheless, at the start of this project, I found myself in a state of moral confusion and looked forward to doing research in the areas of modern theological trends and Catholic morality, and also I sought new ideas on the formation of conscience. This research has led me to an increased awareness of a change in attitude felt by others of my own faith, but, more importantly, it has greatly contributed to my own self-awareness as an individual and a Catholic. I had expected to find the Church faltering under the weight of the great debates taking place between traditional Rome and the more modern teaching of theologians the world over; instead, I have found that the fluent exchange of thought has served as a therapeutic. Contrary to popular belief, the Church is alive and well. As proof, the reader need only go to the nearest library. Never has there been so much of interest directed to the Catholic layman. [...]Item A phonological study of the speech of Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky(1975) Rodriguez, Sandra Dyson; Jaffe, Hilda; Allen, Walter P.; Johnson, Harvey L.This study has as its primary purpose that of describing the American English dialect spoken in Paducah and McCracken County, Kentucky. Emphasis is made on the phonology. The basic materials used to carry out this study were taped interviews with twelve adult speakers of that dialect. The interviews were conducted with the aid of a booklet of worksheets of selected items from A Compilation of the Worksheets of the Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada and Associated Projects. The dialect was found to be characteristically South Midland, evidenced by a general tendency to diphthongize the checked vowels, by the presence of you-all or y'all as the second person plural pronoun (with your-all's as the possessive form), by the presence of /r/ intervocalically and in word-final position, and by a tendency toward monophthongization of the diphthong /aI/. Morphological forms and lexical items occurring in the worksheets revealed more evidence of stigmatized usage than did The phonological features, although the more educated speakers preferred one form over another occasionally as sounding more correct.Item A preface to an edition of the works of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea(1978) Longknife, Anna Edelson; Wright, William C.; Judkins, David C.; Peavy, Charles D.; Orgain, Marian M.There has been no study of the complete works of Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea and no complete edition of her works. Although this dissertation does not deal with specific editorial matters, it is planned as a prefatory essay to an edition. It examines the entire corpus, including all known poems and the two plays, in a chronological order. Since Anne Finch was a very personal poet, frequently writing about herself and her friends in her verse, knowledge of her life and times enhances a reading of her work. Chapter I reviews the life records and her critical reputation from the eighteenth century to the present. Many of the poems are discussed in light of events in her life. Chapter II covers the poems from her first known work in 1683 while she was at court until 1690 when she settled at the Finch estate in Kent after the Glorious Revolution. Chapter III discusses the two plays, written during this period: The Triumphs of Love and Innocence and Aristomenes. The plays have not been examined in detail before. This chapter discusses sources for the plays and their dramatic value. [...]Item A psychoanalytic approach to Shakespeare's second tetralogy(1972) Gordon, AmnonPrince Hal, later King Henry V, never manages to outgrow the Oedipal stage...Item A revaluation of the literary reputation of Ambrose Bierce(1950) Gray, Ansel E.; Phillips, Anne R.; Daniels, R. Balfour; Rufener, Helen B.The reputation of Ambrose Bierce, journalist and short-story writer of the last half of the nineteenth century, has rested, for the most part, on the satire in his journalism. Bierce's caustic, vitriolic wit, illustrated most brilliantly in his Devil's Dictionary, has delighted many readers since Bierce first startled San Francisco with his "Town Crier" columns in 1868. His reputation as a journalist was made before he began writing short-stories; consequently, when, twenty years after the Civil War, Bierce recalled war experiences in his short-stories, the public considered the tales as only secondary to his "Prattle" and journalistic writing. In view of the good Bierce accomplished through his columns - such as defeating the Southern Pacific Railway funding bill - this subordination of his short-stories might have been justified during his time. Such writing, however, was pertinent only as long as the situation which evoked it existed. Consequently, when considering Bierce's works today, one must look for that which has the stamp of permanency. True, many of the epigrammatic barbs in his Devil's Dictionary are as applicable today as they were when they were written, but they are barbs, flashes of wit, nothing more; they are not fully developed and, consequently, do not thoroughly satisfy the reader. The purpose of this thesis, then, has been to study Bierce's shortstories - to ascertain their qualities as worthwhile literature and to determine to what extent they reflect in Bierce a different personality from that expressed in his satirical writing. This study has shown that Bierce's stories, measured by formal short-story standards, are well- written and that Bierce's highly individualistic, impressionistic style makes them excellent stories. The study has also pointed out that these tales reflect in Bierce the elements of romanticism and realism, qualities somewhat different from the cynicism and bitterness reflected in his journalism. This revaluation of Bierce's literary reputation has concluded with the assertion that Bierce's short-stories are really his most important work and that they deserve a far more prominent place than they now hold in the development of the short-story in America.Item A study of George Bernard Shaw, the reformer(1948) Clifford, Ann TharpThe purpose of this study is to present George Bernard Shaw as an artist-philosopher who used his plays and prefaces as a means of dramatizing the weaknesses of the twentieth century. An attempt is made to show that he consistently tried to prod mankind into reform by holding up to ridicule the frauds and artificialities of the present day system Shaw's penetrating attacks on the current conditions and his suggestions for reform have been grouped under related heads so that the reader might get a composite summary of his philosophy. The conclusions reached in this thesis were derived from the plays -- the lines, the action, and the stage directions — and from the prefaces to the plays. Shaw's other material — novels, essays, political discourses — have not been used except as explanatory background for the ideas found in the plays. For these conclusions, thirty plays listed in the bibliography have been used. Other commentary on Shaw is referred to as a matter of interest or as support of an established point. Shaw's plays reveal him as a dramatist who was sincere in his effort to reform the maladjusted social order of the twentieth century. His message throughout his work was consistent. Shaw showed that in a system of Capitalistic society. a just distribution of wealth was impossible. He felt that no practice of political economy in the twentieth century could give nan the possibility of his full attainment. To him the present practice of democracy was a delusion. Communism could not be achieved since the forcing of men to work precluded its failure. A dictatorship was efficient but temporary — good only for the life of the dictator. Shaw advocated a Social-Democracy and made suggestions listed in the body of this thesis, for its accomplishment. Els final conclusion was that government was necessary and that any form could be good if the proletariat took responsibility for its success, and that no system would work without that responsibility. Shaw said that the practice of Christianity Lad been defeated by the Church. He did not believe in the present system of revenge and atonement, but in responsibility for one's "irrevocable acts." The virtue of humility he found less Christian than joyousness and courage to act. His God was no Jehovah, but an impersonal one who was experimenting with man toward a higher form of life. This process he called Life Force or Creative Evolution. Shaw thought that the Institutions under which r an conducted his dally life were stupid and immoral. He said that modern education inhibited learning. He did not approve of the institution of marriage, but thought that it was necessary until his suggested reforms might improve of medicine in the twentieth century was outrageous, and conditions. To him the present interpretation of law was stupid as well as immoral. Shaw found that the practice should be improved by a program of preventive medicine. In science, the current practice of experimentation, vivisection, and destruction encouraged morbid curiosity rather than knowledge. The soldiering of the British Empire promoted moral degeneration in the participants and In the nation. Shaw felt that journalism and the stage should be instruments for public enlightenment, forums for the discussions of public problems. To Shaw, any lip-service to the orthodoxies meant the reversal of honest goodness. Conventional goodness was not morality: passion, courage, responsibility, and optimism were the moving forces of the world. Comedy was a form of expression particularly adapted to Shaw's purpose and to his personality. As a master of that form Shaw ranked with Mollers and Mark Twain. The current problems of political and social conditions have already changed somewhat (thanks in part to Shaw's effort). However, the qualities and aspirations of his characters will probably be true for many generations. Since his wit and cleverness are superb, readers will continue to find much pleasure in his works.Item A study of mysticism in the poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson(1950) Miller, Vassar; Daniels, R. Balfour; Ebaugh, Bessie M.; Dorough, C. DwightThe purpose of this thesis is to determine the presence of mysticism in the poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson, to examine the nature of this mysticism, to discover what influences led him to it, and to show how his work treats and reveals it. [...]Item A study of Shakespeare's references to the sea(1954) Barrow, Lillian; Daniels, R. Balfour; Rufener, Helen B.The purpose of this study is to establish the importance of Shakespeare's saritime references and to determine the extent of his actual knowledge of matters pertaining to, connected with, or bordering upon the sea. England is rich in sea-poetry, yet none of the great poets are known to have intimate knowledge of the sea. From its origin in The Wanderer and The Seafarer. the sea mainly echoes through English song; and Shakespeare's poetry reverberates with sea music. Caroline Spurgeon established the prevalence of recurrent imagery of the sea in Shakespeare's works and has recognised that it has at least an effective function. Heilman has studied the references to the sea in Shakespeare that are repeated and interconnected. Armstrong has made an investigation of the development of Shakespeare's imagination, which is a valuable aid in the consideration of the significance of the allusions that the poet made to the sea. The study of the history and background of the Elizabethan period is essential to the understanding of Shakespeare's references to the sea. [...]