This thesis is an investigation into the role of names within Olga Grushin’s Forty Rooms, in order to in understand the protagonist, Mrs. Caldwell, as an “everywoman” in which readers can see themselves. I use the names of the male characters to show . . .

American contemporary and multicultural literature focuses on issues surrounding race. This project analyzes race through differing spaces, places, and environments in three works of 20th and 21st century American literature. Despite their differences . . .

“Mother Outsider” is a collection of poems that explores non-conventional motherhood while also pushing against cultural assumptions of motherhood. Questioning these societal assumptions and the speaker’s own questions of herself are central to the po . . .

Reasons to Worry is a collection of short stories and flash fiction focused on the traditions of literary fabulism and speculative fiction. Their genres span across cyberpunk, gothic, folklore, science fiction, horror, magical realism, and cosmicism. . . .

Touch the Stars/Touch the Earth is a collection of four short stories that explore themes of grief, death, loss and agency through the medium of fiction, specifically using the genres of fabulist and science fiction. Each story has a central theme of . . .

The Cost of Freedom and Other Stories is a collection of interconnected fictional short stories that turn the internal conflict into a tangible obstacle the characters must overcome. By exploring themes of escapism, obsession, and toxic patterns, The . . .

“The Good Housewife’s Receipt Book” is a master’s thesis investigating the real and symbolic role of the middling-sort rural English housewife of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and the resulting gendered nature of ideas about hous . . .

ABSTRACT ALTERNATIVE SUBTERFUGE: PRANKING RHETORIC IN SHOPDROPPING AND IDENTITY CORRECTION by Hilary Beth Tellesen Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 Currently corporate rhetoric monopolizes all means of cultural . . .

ABSTRACT IN THERE SOMEWHERE: A MEMOIR by Christopher William Cullen Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 In There Somewhere is a memoir focusing on my family and relationships, and on coming of age and the male iden . . .

ABSTRACT THE NEW WORLD OF THE POST-APOCALYPTIC IMAGINATION by © Karl Becker 2010 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2010 In light of a recent explosion of post-apocalyptic narratives in popular film and literature, thi . . .

ABSTRACT A POSTMODERN VIEW OF MORALITY IN THE WORKS OF MORRISON, CAPOTE, AND O'BRIEN by Kelly Candelaria Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Summer 2010 Postmodern literature is not the first place that we think to look in ord . . .

This thesis analyzes the process of human transformation apparent in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, specifically focusing on Hugo’s representation of God’s involvement in the process. I identify three major motifs: “Mysterious and Terrible Blows”; the . . .

ABSTRACT DUST AND FRESH HOPE: BLACK MASCULINITY AND THE SPACE LEFT FOR WOMEN IN AUGUST WILSON'S DRAMA by Allia Ida Homayoun 2009 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 This project examines August Wilson's ten-play cy . . .

ABSTRACT MASKS OF PASSIVITY: HOODOO AND VOODOO IN THE WORKS OF HURSTON, TWAIN, AND CABLE by Amanda Blair Runyan Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 This thesis addresses the texts Mules and Men (1935) by Zora Neale . . .

ABSTRACT THE PERFORMANCE OF IDENTITY IN SELECTED PLAYS BY JONSON, ETHEREGE, CIBBER, AND CROWN by Connor J. Trebra Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 This study focuses on the performance of gender and social ident . . .

ABSTRACT NEGOTIATIONS OF POWER IN RAYMOND ANDREWS‟S MUSKHOGEAN COUNTY TRILOGY by Shelli Homer Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 My thesis looks at the availability of situational power in Raymond Andrews‟s Muskho . . .

ABSTRACT ABOVE THE FOG BELOW THE SNOW by © Lucretia Annelle Fligner 2009 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 The short stories in this fiction collection, “Above the Fog Below the Snow,” are psychological in nature . . .

ABSTRACT THE CRITICAL FORTUNES OF ARTHUR MILLER'S DEATH OF A SALESMAN by Angela M. Metzger Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Summer 2009 This thesis undertakes the task of exploring Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman throug . . .

ABSTRACT DRAMATIZING THE WRITTEN WORD: ALLUSIONS AND INSERTED GENRES AS HETEROGLOSSIA by Christopher Bertucci Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 This thesis examines the implications of two literary phenomena: (1) . . .

ABSTRACT THIS WOMAN’S WORK by © Sarah T. Knowlton 2009 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Fall 2009 The idea of gender specific roles is a common theme that modern society wrestles with even in today’s more enlightened times. . . .

ABSTRACT LIFE IS BUT A DREAM: THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE by Jeremy M. Gerrard Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Fall 2010 This thesis analyzes and re-defines the American Dream in twent . . .

ABSTRACT “THE RARER ACTION”: REVENGE AND PITY IN TITUS ANDRONICUS AND THE TEMPEST by © Rachel Lilia Arteaga 2009 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 In Williams Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and The Tempest, pity . . .

ABSTRACT DEMONSTRATIONS OF POWER IN THE MARRIAGE PLOTS OF DANIEL DERONDA, THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS, AND PHOEBE JUNIOR by Carol M. Lane Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Fall 2010 This thesis will explore and analyze expressions . . .

ABSTRACT PERFORMATIVE PATRIARCHY IN THREE TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY NATURALIST NOVELS by Jacob Thomas Boone Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Summer 2011 This thesis examines protagonists’ paths to “failure” (and “success”) in thr . . .

ABSTRACT USING POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE IN THE FIELD OF COMPOSITION: A CROSS-DISCIPLINE DIALOGUE by © Erica A. Spangler 2011 Masters of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2011 This thesis analyzes, discusses, and extends the cros . . .

ABSTRACT GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ AND THE AESTHETICS OF SENSUALITY by © Mike Giuffrida 2011 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Summer 2011 My thesis consists of five sections: the introduction and overview; the aesthetics of st . . .

ABSTRACT THE POSSIBILITIES OF PUBLICS: NEW MEDIA AND GENRE IN THE FIRST-YEAR COMPOSITION COURSE By © Lauren Michele Alpert 2011 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2011 This thesis analyzes work produced by students in . . .

ABSTRACT “YOUR LITTLE HANDS WERE NEVER MADE/ TO TEAR EACH OTHER‟S EYES”: VICTORIAN ANXIETY AND THE FERAL CHILD IN FRANKENSTEIN, THE JUNGLE BOOK(S), AND PETER PAN by Katharine C. Rosen-Molina Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico . . .

ABSTRACT MULTIMODALITY IN THE TECHNICAL AGE: A HISTORICAL SURVEY OF TECHNOLOGY AND WRITING by © Christina Deann Kraker 2011 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Summer 2011 This thesis begins with an examination of the spread o . . .

ABSTRACT COMPETITION AND COOPERATION: RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN WOMEN IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, AND JANE EYRE by Brianne P. Epley Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2011 This thesis will analyze the re . . .

ABSTRACT WALKING RELINQUISHMENTS: SACRIFICE IN WILLIAM FAULKNER’S THE SOUND AND THE FURY, AS I LAY DYING, AND “THE BEAR” by Jennifer Jean Rose Warren Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 The works of William Faulkne . . .

ABSTRACT ANGLO-SAXON: THE KEY TO STEPHEN KING'S "THE DARK TOWER" by  Jennifer Dempsey Loman 2009 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Summer 2009 Stephen King engages in medieval imitation in his seven-volume series The Dark T . . .

ABSTRACT CHANGING LANDSCAPES: AMERICAN FRONTIER MYTHOLOGY AND “PLACE-MAKING” IN POPULAR WESTERN NARRATIVES by Kylee Duran-Cox Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2010 The purpose of this thesis is to explore the way tha . . .

ABSTRACT VIRTUE IN THE WORLD OF CHARLES DICKENS by Michael W. Curl Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Fall 2009 My thesis is a literary analysis looking at Dickens’s Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. Dickens’s literature a . . .

ABSTRACT IN THE CRICKET HOURS: A COLLECTION OF POEMS by Lisa K. Trombley 2010 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2010 In the Cricket Hours represents my journey as a writer. The "cricket hours" defines the time when my . . .

ABSTRACT THE RE-ENCHANTED LANDSCAPE: BRET HARTE’S AND JOHN MUIR’S SPATIAL PRODUCTIONS by William V. Lombardi Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2010 How do we discuss the role of place in literature? This thesis consid . . .

ABSTRACT TEST PATTERNS by © Jennifer A. White 2009 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Fall 2009 This collection of short stories and nonfiction essays test the patterns found within the craft of fiction and the way writers us . . .

ABSTRACT WANDERLUST: A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES by © Corey Michael Gruber 2010 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Summer 2010 Wanderlust is a collection of short stories inspired by and written with consideration for the m . . .

ABSTRACT THE WIRE: POLITICS, POSTMODERISM AND THE REBIRTH OF AMERICAN NATURALISM by Ryan Aiello Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Summer 2010 My thesis analyzes the political themes and messages in David Simon’s television s . . .

ABSTRACT RE-ENVISIONING A COMMUNITY COLLEGE READING PROGRAM: ACADEMIC READING INSTRUCTION AS AN INTEGRATED AND RECURSIVE PROCESS by © Shawn Marie Delight-Frederking 2010 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Fall 2010 This thesi . . .

ABSTRACT SABINA by Lucas Sarcona Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2011 The purpose of this creative project is to demonstrate my understanding of the craft of literary fiction. “Sabina” is intended to reflect an inte . . .

ABSTRACT LIBERTY OR LIFE: DEATH, WOMEN AND FREEDOM IN VICTORIAN SENSATION FICTION by © Kathryn E. Hudson 2011 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2011 This thesis explores and analyzes the relationship between female ch . . .

This thesis explores the different forms of losing control in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and how the characters in these texts react to los . . .

DIVING FOR ABALONE: BENEATH THE SURFACE OF GRIEF By © Sharon T. DeMeyer 2011 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Fall 2011 Diving for Abalone: Beneath the Surface of Grief is a collection of 59-word non-fiction stories that we . . .

A Fence in the Dark is a collection of poems that explores the relationship between memory and imagination. The poet blends the literary conventions of poetry, novel, and memoir and explores what it means to love with hate, love with fear, love with d . . .

This thesis examines how dystopian novels depict various forms of discipline exercised by a government over the body and mind of its subjects, and also offer liberation from that control through the act of writing. The first chapter reveals specific v . . .

Good Morning, Colossus is a circus train wreck through the freight cars of my mind. It represents my daily journey as a writer to do battle with myself, to chisel away at my anxiety until I arrive at something I can call a poem. Many of the poems in t . . .

This thesis attempts to analyze the structures that support and maintain the society of nineteenth-century England through the lens of the novel. Within the novels Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Middlemarch by George Eliot there appears a specific . . .

My thesis addresses the correlation between gender and power in The Pearl of Orr’s Island by Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett, and The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers. In discussing gender the main . . .