Tennyson and Hopkins scholarship is dominated by a focus on antithetical dichotomies. Tennyson's speakers are fractured selves focused on the gap between matter and spirit, faith and reason, solitude and community. Likewise, Hopkins' doubled vocation as priest and poet is presented as a contradiction to the point that the transition...
This thesis is a collection of six essays with interconnecting elements and themes. Two overriding themes which pervade the collection are the search for spiritual wholeness and the relationships between humans and their environments. The essays document my recent explorations of and experimentations with the "creative nonfiction" genre. have worked...
This thesis is a series of personal essays that explore themes of
fundamentalism, family, loss, personal growth and the question of free will.
The work reflects my study of the written word, of language, and of how
people have tried to define, or have experienced, the numinous. The essays
are...
The words we use to define our lives are often determined by the way we render any given moment. Every instance of writing is a moment of remembering, and a non-fiction essay gives the author free rein to unravel an instance, paint a portrait of what time has already come...
This project performs a style analysis of three sentences from three military manuals written across an 80 year time-period. I first discuss the history of style within academic discourse and how it has impacted the study of style within the field of writing and rhetoric. Using this background, I then...
This thesis uses a series of non-fiction vignettes to explore objects, agencies, and networks, applying theories of rhetoric and composition directly to experience and vise versa. Focusing on agency--as understood through sociology's actor-networks, post- humanism’s Object Orientated Ontology, and Ecocriticism's ecological approach--I look at events, landscapes, and partnerships that have...
Knot Theory: In Imitation of Lewis Thomas is a collection of 14, 1200-word essays written in the style of Lewis Thomas, a physician who regularly contributed to The New England Journal of Medicine. His 1200-word column, "Notes of a Biology Watcher," ran from 1971 - 1980. The resulting compilations collectively...
In a story of his life Les reflects on what he
has gained and what he has lost while seeking success in
the moving and shifting of military and academic life
through homes and schools all over the United States.
He describes himself as between races, languages, and
cultures.
This thesis is a work of literary non-fiction. It
is divided into six sections. The first, "A Sense of
Place," and the last, "Pulling a Geographical," are
collage essays which establish and then reiterate major
themes in the work: movement, work, geography,
climate, people, and education--some curricular, some
not. The...
This thesis is a collection of essays about Paxton, a
small town in western Nebraska, and an exploration of the
contradictions and complexities found there. It is also a
reflection on the layers of history and connections that
exist not only among families that have lived in these towns
for...