This thesis argues that the first two novels of Cormac McCarthy’s The Border Trilogy mark a sharp turn from the antihumanism of his earlier ‘Southern’ novels to a more affective exploration of posthumanist subjectivity within a world dominated by social discourse and metanarratives. In my examination of All the Pretty...
:
______________________________________________________________________________
RaymondMalewitz
This thesis argues that the first two novels of Cormac McCarthy’s The Border
This thesis explores the common features that unite postcolonial and posthumanist theories, finding that the Cartesian notion of representationalism has enabled the humanist hierarchy that both fields decry. This humanist hierarchy coalesces in the figure of the author, and as such its most effective criticism takes the form of metafiction....
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of the most widely read novels written by an Oregonian. A mute Native American, a boisterous Irish white man, and numerous African Americans working behind the scenes of the narrative all converge in this struggle for autonomy. Little to no...
Discussions of ecopoetics often seek to investigate how poetics as a form can be rendered more ecological, often in contrast to nature poetry. These conversations tend to concentrate on this generic contrast and the formal qualities of an ecological poetics. Ecopoetics as a field emerged largely as a response to...
At the urging of international scientists, large industrialized nations like the United States must transition away from fossil fuel energy and toward renewable energy by 2030 in order to stay the tide of climate change. To complete this energy transition citizens must take up responsibilities to change the known paradigms...
In her 2016 article “Beyond Rights as Recognition, Black Twitter and Posthuman Coalitional Possibilities,” Pritha Prasad argues that the hashtag, one of the decade’s most omnipresent features of digital communication, functions as “a performative composing medium that not only demands relationality” and “call[s] for the recognition of both the Black...
The purpose of this paper is to engage in a mythological discussion which enriches current scholarship regarding the title character of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. While major scholars suggest that Beloved as a character is either a solid ghost or—as Zora Neale Hurston suggests based on the quote “people who die...
Hypermediation, as described by Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin in their book Remediation, is a style of writing, recording, presenting, etc. that “makes us aware of the medium or media and (in sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious ways) reminds us of our desire for immediacy” (34). This mode of production...
The rate of physician dissatisfaction is steadily rising. Between 2011 and 2012, the number of physicians that would not choose a career in medicine if given the opportunity to decide again increased by 15% (Adams). This discontentment has major repercussions in the midst of the rising need for physicians: it...
Judith Butler’s 1990 Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity shaped our current understandings of queer theory not only in the academic world, but all over America as the constitutional and social rights of the LGBT+ community are hotly debated. Butler’s theory claims that gender is performed through imitation...
Jimmy Corrigan is a work steeped in what it means to live in the United States as a capitalist nation. Within the novel, the United States presents itself as a grand world power through events such as the Chicago World Exposition. In direct contrast, individuals in the work are anything...
While metaphysical turmoil is the essential human problem in T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “Preludes,” traditional criticism of the poems relegates the physical world to a merely rhetorical role. This thesis argues that Eliot’s use of objects in his poetry suggests they...
My thesis examines how the American identity is constructed through thinking shaped by deception and domination, as James Baldwin argues in the corpus of his work. I rely on the work of Eddie Glaude Jr., Sean Kim Butorac, and Joel Schlosser to forward love in Baldwin’s political vision as being...
The question of deep time has been widely debated in the field of American Literature, with scholar Wai Chee Dimock arguing that a deep time perspective puts the chronology of different nations against one another. However, this argument has not adequately addressed the issue of how deep time theories would...
Over the past fourteen years since the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Americans of varied political persuasions have continually identified the day as a defining moment in the history of the nation, which caused a rupture in the cultural rhythm and psyche. This sensibility is...
For centuries, continental philosophy has clung to the belief that the world only meaningfully exists through human perception--that, in other words, when a tree falls in the forest, it does not make a sound. Literary theory, which has strong roots in continental philosophy, followed suit, remaining tied to humanism even...
:
_______________________________________________________________________________
Raymond J. Malewitz
For centuries, continental philosophy has clung to the belief that the
Throughout the course of this thesis, I argue that the prose of David Foster Wallace, specifically his posthumously published novel The Pale King, inhabits a middle ground between universal sincerity and the particularized authenticity of postmodern irony. I examine Lionel Trilling's definitions of sincerity and authenticity before moving toward an...
:
__________________________________________________________________
Raymond J. Malewitz
Throughout the course of this thesis, I argue that the prose of David