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- Creator:
- Molle, Kierstin E.
- Description:
- My intent with Through the Valley was, in part, to provide representation in a genre I so rarely find for myself and for others who fall into similar identities as myself in terms of gender and sexuality. Historical fiction has always been a genre I have been passionate about and it was my goal to imbue the historical setting I’ve chosen to work within with themes that can still be felt in the present day such as a search for one’s identity, the impact of war on those who fight it, the lengths people will go as a result of fervent patriotism. Having grown up in a period of conflict I find it cathartic in some ways to write what might be qualified as war literature in spite of the fact I myself have never experienced military service. I sincerely hope that my characters will read as real people with real struggles that the reader can connect and empathize with in spite of any inherent differences between themselves and the characters on the page. If I can provide a glimpse of representation for even one person who reads my thesis, I will have achieved the goal I set for myself as I crafted it.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Ganiy, Helen
- Description:
- My thesis begins by interrogating the ways in which two texts by Harriet Beecher Stowe--Uncle Tom’s Cabin and its follow-up, Dred--construct Black supernatural ability as racially innate and divinely specific. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s notion of “Black spiritual superiority” invigorated racial tensions of the time and encouraged white reader’s hyperbolic notions of Blackness. The undisputed architect of the Magical Negro trope, Stowe’s creation forces the enslaved into a position to prove themselves superhuman; that is, the trope burdens their humanity with inhumane assumptions. To contemporize my discussion of Stowe’s work, I assert that her character, Uncle Tom, was the largest and most significant influence on the production of the Magical Negro, which has become highly visible in film and literature of the past half century. Additionally, the trope positions Black individuals as divided into two categories: ordinary criminals or supernatural creatures. Both of these assumptions deny Black humanity in the same way that black exceptionalism denies the existence of a human spectrum in the Black community. This polarization of types works to story the black experience into extreme poles, forcing perceptions of Blackness to recede back into “Uncle Tom-isms”, relegated into the space of characters, stereotypes and relics. Shifting from this historical perspective into a speculative lens, I argue that Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Song of Solomon disavow the Magical Negro by engaging with Black Supernaturalism - a term that denotes a literary phenomenon which seeks to rework dominant notions of Black religious participation and traditional African Voodoo. My work excavates Black Supernaturalism through the anthropological and fictional works of Zora Neale Hurston, whose work formed the foundation upon which Morrison, and other Black authors, built their work. Further, Black Supernaturalism certifies and upholds communal traditions that certify magical storytelling, ghosts and impossible feats as palpably sourced in the scars of slavery borne by the black community.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Clark, Nicolette
- Description:
- Violence is a fundamental truth in the works of Cormac McCarthy. More than just violence for the sake of violence, McCarthy employs violence in a way that is productive within his works: Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West, No Country for Old Men, and The Road. This study examines the productive nature behind violence, which I argue, manifests through language. Beginning with Blood Meridian, McCarthy’s judge appropriates language through the manipulation of referents re-shaping truth, informing all violence throughout the novel. No Country For Old Men brings us to the language of the law and how it caters to the objectivity of the law, using it as a guiding principle, without the scope of morality. Through the characters of Chigurh and Flannery O’Connor’s The Misfit, we are asked to judge the validity of the state’s versus the vigilante’s truth, which are ultimately synonymous. Leaving us with Sheriff Bell, who relinquishes his position as sheriff because he is unwilling to be an accessory to a morally corrupt system. Then, in The Road, the ultimate violence occurs through the disintegration of language, resulting from the indifference of man. With the perspective as perceiver of violence throughout this range of McCarthy’s works, we are in the position to judge this violence and consider its productivity. Its productivity lies in the fact that great violence must occur for redemption to manifest—as in The Road, the preciousness and life of language is not discernible until it faces its own mortality.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Cassells, Breanne
- Description:
- Throughout Toni Morrison’s novels, characters struggle to reclaim their own humanity in the face of domination and trauma. While countless scholars have remarked upon the themes of oppression and language, and several others upon the symbolism of nature in her works, the symbiotic relationship between the three has remained largely unremarked upon. This project explores the similarities between white supremacy, misogyny, and the plundering of the natural world—which I refer to as types of biosubjugation—in The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved. Utilizing Simon Estok’s theory of ecophobia, this project examines how the interactions between characters and the natural world are influenced by linguistic, physical, and ecological trauma. In The Bluest Eye, internalized oppression causes female characters to judge and exclude other females for their perceived dirtiness, understood in floral and/or animalistic terms. In Sula, female sexuality is conflated with and expressed through natural landscapes. In Beloved, trauma is literalized through natural elements, such as the tree on Sethe’s back and the shrubs in which Denver hides. An exploration of Morrison’s use of language clarifies her invocations of nature, which in turn elucidates her depiction of the alienating nature of oppression. These systems of intersectional oppression cause the characters to react in ecophobic ways in order to assert their own humanity, but these exclusionary tactics amputate the communal connections which are necessary to heal from communal trauma, and thus the cycle continues.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Sonoma
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Lo, Isabella
- Description:
- The Hmong people are a group of Southeast Asians who came to America around 45 years ago. Because they are still so new and still such a small group, their stories have only began to come to light. As a group of becoming, the Hmong are now engaging in conversation with Western perspective as to who they, the Hmong, really are. Through this thesis I hope to inform and teach a little more about the Hmong community. I want to help rhetoric and composition scholars to understand more on how to incorporate our Hmong stories and narratives into the field. With more generations being born in America, the Hmong are beginning to find agency in the midst of the dominant culture. Where there was silence before, a rhetoric from the Hmong community is starting to spill over and into the dominant culture, demanding to be heard. In this thesis I analyze many texts and artifacts in relation to and within the Hmong community in order to bring to the forefront the Hmong rhetoric that has been pushed aside due to the dominant culture’s idea of what counts as rhetoric. In Chapter 2: “Voices from the War,” I highlight personal narratives of the Hmong people and “the Secret War” through documentary evidence. In Chapter 3: “Voices of a Daughter,” I investigate Hmong weddings to highlight the cultural relevance of the wedding in The Bride Price through the use of critical rhetorical analysis. Finally, in Chapter 4: “Voices from the Cloth,” I investigate the cultural and rhetorical relevance of the Hmong stitching and quilting, as material rhetoric and cultural literacy.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fresno
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Wilson, Veronica Lauren
- Description:
- The literature and drama of the long eighteenth century is overpopulated with nuns, and they are all transgressors of patriarchal society in one way or another. These nuns are all vow-breakers, fornicators, and fallen women; whether they were ruined after taking their holy vows or took their vows as a way to escape a society who rejected them for being ruined, there is one thing that is certain: Catholic nuns of eighteenth century literature are clearly trouble. This theme is too pervasive to be a mere whim, so where does this negative view of Catholic women monastics come from? Some of the blame can certainly be placed on the anti-Catholic sentiment that saturated Protestant England’s society, but more of it can be place on the even more pervasive anti-woman sentiment in England at this time.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Abbassi, Susan
- Description:
- In the play of Othello, Shakespeare perfectly explores the issue of racial tension that existed in the Elizabethan era. Othello, a loyal soldier and the protagonist of the play, appears as an outsider in Venice because of his dark skin; he is repeatedly and often harshly judged by others based on his different ethnic background and special outward characteristics. Despite being a warrior of high status, he cannot be fully embraced by the white people around him due to his otherness.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Collins, Kim Maria
- Description:
- This paper is dedicated to improving the classroom experience of students enrolled in writing courses one level below university level composition. Everyone's goal is persistence and completion. The question this paper seeks to answer is, what do instructors of individual basic writing classrooms need to know and do to contribute their piece to the complex puzzle of student success? This paper has three emphases. The first section considers the emotional and social needs of basic writing students and proposes that a classroom environment that emphasizes mastery, trust, cooperation, and interest best meets these needs. A mastery approach aids in restoring the confidence and self esteem of battle-worn students, and is also strongly correlated with promoting other desirable classroom characteristics. According to Senko et al, mastery encourages academic honesty and collaboration. The value of academic honesty is self evident. Collaboration is beneficial to all students but is especially advantageous for students who have been physically and emotionally marginalized from mainstream learning and often feel isolated and barred access to meaningful interactions. Finally, mastery promotes interest. Many basic learners have disengaged from actual learning and have settled for rote, formulaic memorization of rules and facts. Creating interest enhances students' subjective classroom experience and sparks engagement which results in objective gains (Senko et al. 35-36).
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- English
- Creator:
- Grigorian, Masha
- Description:
- This thesis is concerned with analyzing the characters of Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort, and Professor Severus Snape from the sensational children's book series, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling through the perspective of literary and critical theory. Although I explain and expand upon the underlying connection between these three characters, who ultimately create a trinity of sorts within the books, I focus mostly on evaluating each character as an individual, as well as within the trinity, through theories of gender, identity formation and development, sexuality, hybridity, language, psychoanalysis, abjection, and others. These theories are described not only as they pertain to the specific characters, but are contextualized in the larger scope of the novels, touching upon lucid central issues as well as veiled trivial issues.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- English
40. Collectors
- Creator:
- Chukhadarian, Lucin
- Description:
- This thesis brings together three shorter plays, "Reverse Intimidation," "Collectors," and "Chandra," each of which I've been working for some time. Each play explores the courage and the fragility of women. "Reverse Intimidation" is based on personal experience with the secret service that took place on one of my travels to Cairo, Egypt. The "Collectors" is a play based on true stories told by both my grandmothers of their experiences as children during the Armenian Genocide. "Chandra" on the other hand, is about growing old, finding inner peace, and regretting nothing and everything. It wasn't difficult recognizing the similarities in all my female characters, but the notion of bringing these plays together was very overwhelming. My passion for playwriting started with The Cryptogram by David Mamet, The Dumbwaiter by Harold Pinter, Mother Courage by Bertolt Brecht, and Far Away by Caryl Churchill. I also think that age and experience have played a pivotal role in how I think and write. The courage that comes with age takes a person on an unknown journey for which one might not be ready for in the physical sense, but one is willing to fearlessly endeavor in the spiritual sense, since one is no longer worried about the aesthetic aspects of one's self. Initially, "Collectors" was going to be a play about certain women during a specific historical period; however, I decided to integrate women of different age groups and different time periods from my plays making appearances though-out the play. I believe history has a way of repeating itself. No matter where in the world, women under extreme conditions learn to adapt and survive. Women have found ways to challenge their natural abilities against the masculinity of society's expectations to conform and abide by. Women are not commodities, yet society dictates otherwise hence the title "Collectors." Virginia Wolf said, "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman." I'm hoping that women writers including myself can change that one day.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- English