http://hdl.handle.net/1957/18072 2013-05-21T20:25:55Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/38187 Re-sounding Harlem Renaissance narratives : the repetition and representation of identity through sound in Nella Larsen's Passing and Toni Morrison's Jazz Aragon, Racheal The cultural and historical construction of African American identity in the United States has been closely tied to the dialectical relationship formed between sound and silence. This thesis examines the modernist and postmodernist representation of sound and silence in the African American novels Passing (1929), by Nella Larsen, and Jazz (1992), by Toni Morrison, as indicators of African American identity and racial oppression during the Harlem Renaissance. I analyze the soundscapes of both texts to expose the mobility of language, power, and space, especially as these soundscapes relate to the production of sound (both musical and non-musical) by African Americans, and the surveillance of these sounds by white audiences. Through my analysis of repetitive sound-images and embodied silence in Passing and Jazz, as well as textual representations of oral performance, I argue that there is harm in restricting African American voices to approved modes of audibility and/or limiting African American voices to one a singular narrative. This thesis introduces critics and theories from the disciplines of sound studies and African American studies, and applies the widely known theory of double consciousness, established by critic and author W.E.B. Du Bois, as the foundation for my literary and cultural analysis of sound in print. Graduation date: 2013 2013-03-20T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/37301 The social dimension of Shakespeare's art : a Midsummer Night's Dream Schaefer, Mimi The study of the social dimensions of Shakespeare's art is represented by the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, C.L. Barber, Robert Weimann, Edward Berry, and Michael Bristol. Their work analyzes the background in Elizabethan social practices and popular dramatic traditions that contribute to the form, structure, and meaning of Shakespeare's comedies. The purpose of this study is to review the work of these authors, apply their insights into three productions of A Midsummer Niqht's Dream, and suggest further implications of their work. A review of these authors' major premises provides the context for analysis of three productions of A Midsummer Niqht's Dream: those of Max Reinhardt, Peter Hall, and, Joseph Papp. This study suggests that the popular festive tradition created a dialogic mode in Shakespeare's art and accounts for important features of our aesthetic experience of the plays. Graduation date: 1994 1994-05-05T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/37142 Writing home : memoirs of a working-class student Lathrop, Arminda W. This collection of personal essays, inspired by Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory, raises questions about the separation that becomes apparent through writing, education, and transitions between class. The author uses her personal experience of writing in, and attending a private university to explore the interactions of class, literacy, and education. The memoirs portray a journeya search for a literal and writerly "home." While some of the memoirs in this collection focus on the author's personal experience as a writer in the academy, others illustrate the possible tension between family and education. Through the explication of emotion and experience, the author suggests that the comfort and familiarity of "home" and identity in writing - and in life - are internal, rather than external. Graduation date: 2006 2005-04-25T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1957/36756 Aliens and academics : how cultural representations of alien abduction support an entrenched consensus reality Bryan, Frederick Clark The alien abduction phenomenon has garnered considerable media attention in the last fifteen years, including many representations in books, film, and television. An overview of significant abduction literature is presented. Contrasts and comparisons are noted between popular written accounts and both the visual representations they engender and reports outside the mainstream, such as those compiled and statistically compared by folklorists. Also considered are comparisons between popular fictionalizations of victims of abduction and the relevant psychological literature on this population. Theories bordering on the psycho-spiritual and New Age are briefly introduced in regards to their connection to UFO phenomena and the popular belief in a changing collective consciousness. Throughout, it is argued that most forms of cultural production featuring themes of alien abduction, being subject to marketplace demand, alter or fictionalize their source content for dramatic purposes. This popularization and commodification of anomalous phenomena negatively impacts serious study by encouraging dismissive attitudes towards evidence, reports, and those individuals involved, informants, victims, and investigators. This commodification thus serves to protect the status quo, in the form of a consensus reality, from challenges by unknown or anomolous phenomena. Graduation date: 1999 1998-08-10T00:00:00Z