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open access

Act I, Scene 2 of Hamlet: a Comparison of Laurence Olivier's and Tony Richardson's Films with Shakespeare's Play

Description: In act I, scene 2 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, one of the key themes presented is the theme of order versus disorder. Gertrude's hasty marriage to Claudius and their lack of grief over the recent death of King Hamlet violate Hamlet's sense of order and are the cause of Hamlet's anger and despair in 1.2. Rather than contrast Hamlet with his uncle and mother, Olivier constructs an Oedipal relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude--unsupported by the text--that undermine's the characterization of Hamle… more
Date: December 1989
Creator: Baskin, Richard Lee
open access

The Angry Charmer

Description: This screenplay, dealing with the theme of anger, is divided into three acts: setup, confrontation and resolution, respectively. Beginning in medias res, flashbacks are employed for expositions of the two main characters, Connor Tracy, alias the Angry Charmer, and Howard Goldberg. Act I opens with Connor at the wheel of a van, driving wildly, Howard accompanying. The setup is established. Act IlI returns to the careening van and then flashbacks to the college meeting of Connor and Howard. By t… more
Date: May 1988
Creator: Wall, Jeffrey R. (Jeffrey Robert)
open access

Anne Tyler's Treatment of Managing Women

Description: Among the most important characters in contemporary writer Anne Tyler's nine novels of modern American life are her skillfully-drawn managing women who choose the family circle as the arena in which to use their skills and exert their influence. Strong, competent, independent, capable of caring for themselves, their husbands, their children, and others, too, as well as holding outside jobs, these women are the linchpins of their families. Among their most outstanding qualities are their abiliti… more
Date: August 1985
Creator: Brock, Dorothy Faye Sala
open access

The Apocalyptic Marriage: Eros and Agape in Keats's The Eve of St. Agnes

Description: This analysis of Keats's poem proffers evidence and arguments to support the contention that The Eve of St. Agnes presents allegorically the poet's speculations regarding the relationship between eros and agape, speculations which include a sharp criticism of Christianity and a model for a new, more "humanistic" system of salvation. The union of Madeline and Porphyro symbolizes the reconciliation of the two opposing types of love in an apocalyptic marriage styled on the Biblical union of Christ… more
Date: December 1986
Creator: Gilbreath, Marcia L. (Marcia Lynn)
open access

A Beholding and Jubilant Soul: Spiritual Awakening in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards and Ralph Waldo Emerson

Description: This study explores continuities in thought between Jonathan Edwards and Ralph Waldo Emerson by comparing their respective views on spiritual awakening. Their parallel ideas are discussed as results of similar perceptual dispositions which lead both to view awakening as an inner metamorphosis that leaves man less self-centered and more capable of a universal perception and appreciation of spiritual unity and beauty. Emphasized are parallels in Edwards's and Emerson's concepts of God, their view… more
Date: December 1980
Creator: Martin, Valerie Lynn
open access

Benjamin Capps and the Sacajawea Plagiarism Case

Description: The investigation concerns a 1982 suit brought by Texas novelist Benjamin Capps and his publishers against the author and publisher of an historical novel, Sacajawea, alleging that the book contained approximately 145 instances of copyright infringement. Parallel-column exhibits of passages from the novel by Anna Lee Waldo and from Capps's writings illustrate the evidence submitted in court. The publishing history of the novel, brought out by Avon Books, is related, as well as the story of read… more
Date: December 1986
Creator: Simpson, Mary (Mary Charlotte)
open access

A Categorization of Form for Stephen Crane's Poetry

Description: This thesis presents four categories of form basic to all of Stephen Crane's poetry: antiphons, apologues, emblems, and testaments. A survey of previous shortcomings in the critical acceptance of Crane as a poet leads into reasons why the categorization of form here helps to alleviate some of those problems. The body of the thesis consists of four chapters, one for each basic form. Each form is defined and explained, exemplary poems in each category are explicated, and specifics are given as to… more
Date: August 1986
Creator: Weber, Joseph John
open access

The Celtic Elements in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Description: The medieval English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight evidences much of its Celtic heritage in the plot and subplot, as well as in the characters themselves. The Ulster Cycle, an ancient Irish story group, and the Mabinogion, a medieval collection of traditional Welsh tales, both contain parallels to the English romance. In addition to these numerous analogues, other Celtic features appear in the poem. Knowingly or not, the Gawain-poet used the conventions of the Irish and Welsh traditions … more
Date: August 1980
Creator: Alewine, Elizabeth
open access

Ceridwen and Christ: An Arthurian Holy War

Description: Marion Zimmer Bradley's novel The Mists of Avalon is different from the usual episodic versions of the Arthurian legend in that it has the structural unity that the label "novel" implies. The narrative is set in fifth-century Britain, a time of religious conflict between Christianity and the native religions of Britain, especially the Mother Goddess cult. Bradley pulls elements from the Arthurian legend and fits them into this context of religious struggle for influence. She draws interesting f… more
Date: December 1986
Creator: Peters, Patricia Fulkes
open access

A Comprehensive View of Faith in "The Brothers Karamozov" Through the Collective Personality

Description: In examining Dostoevsky's treatment of faith in The Brothers Karamazov, critics often focus solely on "The Grand Inquisitor." Dostoevsky, however, refutes the Inquisitor's views through the movement of the three Karamazov brothers toward faith. The three Karamazov brothers, as a collective personality, represent the fundamental needs of man and the corresponding aspects of faith, each brother being an individual study of the necessity of integrating soul, heart and mind into faith. The crises t… more
Date: December 1987
Creator: Schimelpfenig, Sharla J. (Sharla Jan)
open access

A Concise Guide to Legal Research and Writing

Description: There is an absence of any significant written material applying standard rhetorical principles to the communication of the results of basic legal research. This study attempts to fill that void. It proceeds from a discussion on the nature of legal precedents (stare decisis) to a chapter on legal research tools and techniques which enable one to discover these precedents. It continues with an explanation of what a "legal issue" is and how one discovers it among various facts relevant to a case,… more
Date: August 1980
Creator: Duncan, M. P. (Maurice P.)
open access

Creating Eternity: The Coesistence of Time in One Hundred Years of Solitude

Description: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the coexistence of time in Gabriel Garcfa Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude as a cause of the supernatural events, the hereditary memory, and the solitude and to examine the effects of this mythical time frame on character development, plot, narrative structure, and theme. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter introduces the parchments as creators of mythical time. The second, third, and fourth chapters investigate the effect… more
Date: December 1986
Creator: Cook, Kelli Cargile
open access

The Creative Self in the Hawthornian Tradition

Description: Through narrations presenting juxtaposition of conditions and ambivalence of conclusions, writers in the Hawthornian tradition compel the reader to interpret for himself the destiny of the creative protagonist. In these works the creative self is often threatened with psychical annihilation by its internal conflicts between pragmatic needs and aesthetic goals, social responsibility and professional dedication, idealistic pursuits and materialistic desires. Works in this tradition show creativit… more
Date: December 1983
Creator: Kirsten, Gladys L. (Gladys Lucille)
open access

The Critical Response to Philosophical Ideas in Walker Percy's Novels

Description: Walker Percy differs from other American novelists in that he started writing fiction relatively late in life, after being trained as a physician and after considerable reading and writing in philosophy. Although critics have appreciated Percy's skills as a writer, they have seen Percy above all as a novelist of ideas, and, accordingly, the majority of critical articles and books about Percy has dealt with his themes, especially his philosophical themes, as well as with his philosophical source… more
Date: December 1985
Creator: Gunter, Elizabeth Ellington, 1942-
open access

The Decline of the Country-House Poem in England: A Study in the History of Ideas

Description: This study discusses the evolution of the English country-house poem from its inception by Ben Jonson in "To Penshurst" to the present. It shows that in addition to stylistic and thematic borrowings primarily from Horace and Martial, traditional English values associated with the great hall and comitatus ideal helped define features of the English country-house poem, to which Jonson added the metonymical use of architecture. In the Jonsonian country-house poem, the country estate, exemplified b… more
Date: August 1988
Creator: Harris, Candice R. (Candice Rae)
open access

The Emperor of Ice Cream Visits Eudora Welty: The Uses of the Creative Imagination

Description: Eudora Welty and Wallace Stevens share important aesthetic beliefs, especially regarding uses of the creative imagination by artists in acts of creation and characters in acts of living. A close reading of seventeen of Welty's stories, accompanied by references to related ideas in many of Stevens' poems, reveals how the imagination functions as epistemology and eucharist, while governing the shape of individual human views of the quotidian. The more abstract patterns of thought in their later w… more
Date: December 1986
Creator: Kobler, Sheila F. (Sheila Frazier)
open access

English Methods Courses in Texas Preparation for the Essential Elements

Description: This study analyzes the congruence between the objectives of secondary-level English methods courses in Texas universities and the objectives of the state-mandated high school curriculum (the essential elements) in language arts. A questionnaire was used to obtain information from 26 English methods instructors at 22 universities in Texas. The data obtained from these questionnaires reveal that these instructors strongly emphasize preparing prospective English teachers to teach the essential el… more
Date: August 1988
Creator: Erwin, Martha L. (Martha Lea)
open access

The Existential Concepts of Time, Death and Choice in the Poetry of Philip Larkin

Description: This thesis examines time, death, and choice in Philip Larkin's poetry, arguing that his approach to these themes is not deterministic, but existential. The argument is based on the similarity between Larkin's views and those of three existential philosophers. Larkin's view of time, like Heidegger's, is that men live not in long stretches of time, but in processions of unconnected yet similar moments. A constant underlying sadness, like Kierkegaard's despair, makes each moment reminiscent of de… more
Date: December 1982
Creator: Paule, Elizabeth Emily
open access

The Function of -ji in Gugu-Yalanji

Description: This thesis examines the diverse functions of -ji in Gugu- Yalanji, a language of Northeastern Australia. A general introduction to the syntax of the language is given. The verbal affix -Ji and its effect on sentences is detailed in Chapter I. Chapter II shows that the function of -ji_ in Yidiny and Dyirbal, two neighboring languages, is to intransitivize verbs to allow sentence coordination. Sentence coordination does not appear to be the primary function of Ji in Gugu-Yalanji. Other functions… more
Date: August 1981
Creator: Ware, Janice A. (Janice Anne)
open access

The Function of the Pivot in the Fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Description: In traditional romance, the hero takes a mythical journey into the underworld where he meets and overcomes evil antagonists. Hawthorne has transferred much of that hero's role to a pivotal character whose paradoxical function is to cause the central conflict in the tale or novel while remaining almost entirely passive himself. The movement of the tale or novel depends on the pivot's humanization, that is, his return to and integration within society. Works treated are "Alice Doane's Appeal," "P… more
Date: May 1980
Creator: Ricco, Paula Traynham
open access

Garrison Keillor and American Literary Traditions

Description: Although Garrison Keillor is perhaps best known as the creator and host of Minnesota Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion (1974-1987), the focus of this study is his literary career. Keillor's literary accomplishments include a successful career as a writer for The New Yorker and two best-selling books about the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, entitled Lake Wobegon Days (1985) and Leaving Home (1987). His literary style incorporates elements from several traditions in American lit… more
Date: August 1988
Creator: Elston, Suzanne Poteet
open access

The "Glanmore Sonnets": A Reading and Analysis

Description: Seamus Heaney's 1979 volume of poems, Field Work, contains ten sonnets written while the Northern Irish author lived for four years in a nineteenth-century cottage near Dublin. These sonnets, dealing with art, language, nature, and politics, reflect Heaney's major themes and are typical of his poetic techniques. This study analyzes the content of the ten sonnets as well as their technical aspects.
Date: December 1984
Creator: Samuels, Alix J.
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