Author Nella Larsen and photographer James VanDerZee are two of the most canonical figures of Harlem Renaissance studies, whose respective novels and portraits have been explored extensively, if separately, by scholars. Both Larsen's 1929 novel Passing and VanDerZee's studio portraiture of the 1920s and 1930s have been read in terms...
This is a collection of eight short stories, all of which deal on some level with
alienation and the struggle to find meaning in one's life. Although most of the stories deal
with issues related to women or feature female protagonists, I did not set out to create a
political...
My mother named me after Hollywood icon Katharine Hepburn, but what made a working-class girl grow to love this posh celebrity so much? The obvious answer is that my mother aspired to be posh herself; but lack of money or sophistication were not the only things impacting her potential— there...
This thesis employs the study of gender to demonstrate how recent Hollywood
western films have constructed a hero that is reflective of contemporary beliefs
regarding masculinity. Beginning with a New Historicist approach at studying gender,
this work first considers the construction of masculinity in post World War II America
and...
Traditional interpretations of James Joyce's Dubliners have often focused on the pervasive "paralysis" of the city, covered in the stories' range of "childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life." However, these approaches have limited their focus on the women in the stories, often spotlighting the male characters--and the author--through a Freudian...
In this creative non-fiction thesis, I present a collection of personal essays that examine my significant moments of awkwardness with failed communications or frustrated relationships when I wanted to draw people closer with language, but was unsuccessful. In the twelve stories, I discuss these issues in my interpersonal communication interwoven...