Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Anthropology, March 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-104). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The last quarter of the nineteenth century is often referred to as the “Golden Age” of railroad building. More track was laid in this period in North America than in any other period. The building of railroads was considered synonymous with nation building and economic progress. Railway workers were the single largest occupational group in the period and among the first workers to be employed by large-scale, corporately owned and bureaucratically managed organizations. While there is a rich historiography regarding the institutional and everyday lives of railway workers and the corporations that employed them, the unit of analysis has been primarily bounded by the nation. These national narratives leave out the north-south connections created by railroads that cut across geo-political boundaries and thus dramatically increasing the flows of people, goods and services between nations on the North American continent. Does the story change if viewed from a continental rather than national perspective? Railroad Crossings tells the story of the people and places along the route of the Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada between Montreal, Quebec and Portland, Maine and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (and later of the Southern Pacific) between Benson, Arizona and Guaymas, Sonora. The study first takes a comparative view of the cross-border railroad development followed by a consideration of emerging patterns and practices that suggest a broader continental continuity. The evidence demonstrates that this broader continental continuity flows from the application of a certain “railroad logic” or the impact of the essence of railroad operations that for reasons of safety and efficiency required the broad standardization of operating procedures that in many ways rendered place irrelevant.

This study examines the short fiction of Mark Twain in relation to major theories concerning the short story genre. Despite his popularity as a novelist and historical figure, Twain has not been recognized as a major figure in the development of the short story genre. This study attempts to show that the short fiction produced by Twain deserves greater regard within studies specific to the short story, and calls for a reconsideration of Twain as a dynamic figure in the development of the genre. The introductory chapter lays the groundwork for understanding how the short story genre has developed since its inception as an actual literary genre, and outlines the existing Twain scholarship concerning his short fiction. Differences between the traditional and modern forms of the short story are defined, and Twain's chronological position in the evolution of the genre is briefly explained. Chapter one examines two of Twain's short stories—"The $30,000 Bequest" and "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg"—in relation to the compositional theories of the first major short story theorist: Edgar Allan Poe. This chapter shows how these two Twain stories abide by Poe's rules concerning unity of effect. Chapter two explores Twain's "Journalism in Tennessee" and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" in relation to the modern short story, and examines these two stories through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of genre. This chapter closely examines Twain's use of various dialects to show that these two stories contain an unrealized complexity and are very closely related to the ostensibly "plotless" short fiction that developed in the twentieth century. The final chapter takes Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger" and examines it with respect to both old and new theories of the short story genre. This chapter shows how "The Mysterious Stranger" fuses both traditional and modern forms of the short story genre. The conclusion to this chapter reiterates the argument for a greater appreciation of Twain as a short story artist.

Flannery O' Connor has long been an established southern writer of the mid-twentieth century. This paper discusses briefly the tenets of both Modernism and Post-Modernism as literary movements of the twentieth-century, then looks specifically at how O'Connor's fiction makes her a key hallmark figure in the movement known as Post-Modernism, but also as one of the first female southern writers to utilize very anti-Romantic themes and style. Further, this paper attempts to examine through a discussion of various contemporary male and female southern writers the depth of O'Connor's influence on their own works. Attention is also given to the differences found in voice, theme and tone between southern contemporary male and female writers today, and explanations are offered as to why these marked differences exist.

The last quarter of the nineteenth century is often referred to as the “Golden Age” of railroad building. More track was laid in this period in North America than in any other period. The building of railroads was considered synonymous with nation building and economic progress. Railway workers were the single largest occupational group in the period and among the first workers to be employed by large-scale, corporately owned and bureaucratically managed organizations. While there is a rich historiography regarding the institutional and everyday lives of railway workers and the corporations that employed them, the unit of analysis has been primarily bounded by the nation. These national narratives leave out the north-south connections created by railroads that cut across geo-political boundaries and thus dramatically increasing the flows of people, goods and services between nations on the North American continent. Does the story change if viewed from a continental rather than national perspective? Railroad Crossings tells the story of the people and places along the route of the Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada between Montreal, Quebec and Portland, Maine and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (and later of the Southern Pacific) between Benson, Arizona and Guaymas, Sonora. The study first takes a comparative view of the cross-border railroad development followed by a consideration of emerging patterns and practices that suggest a broader continental continuity. The evidence demonstrates that this broader continental continuity flows from the application of a certain “railroad logic” or the impact of the essence of railroad operations that for reasons of safety and efficiency required the broad standardization of operating procedures that in many ways rendered place irrelevant.

This paper examines critical responses to James Camerons most recent film, <i>Avatar</i>, to suggest that the ways in which critics have ignored its content because of Camerons innovative use of 3-D technology and effects or praised its content for offering a multicultural paradise are misguided at best and misleading at worst. Instead, what follows is an investigation into <i>Avatar</i>s content, specifically its plot, hero and, ultimately, its indivisible relationships to the Western genre and what I call the New Western genreKevin Costners <i>Dances with Wolves</i> (1990) will be representative of the larger genre which has continued to emerge in more recent films like Edward Zwicks <i>The Last Samurai</i> (2003). These relationships between, and crossovers within, genres prevent cross-cultural relationships based upon democratic forms of equality, what Costner is moving toward and what Cameron makes a claim for, from coming to fruition. As biological (colonial) and social/historical (imperial) notions of racial superiority and inferiority move across and arise within genres, the brief moments of cross-cultural cooperation and mutual respect within these films are subverted. In fact, Camerons film very clearly demonstrates how politics can be mobilized, despite a filmmakers unawareness, through big-budget blockbusters to advocate concrete and damaging political projectsin this case, Americas imperial projects around the globe. This paper attempts to do two main things: show how Cameron fails to notice what is a very clear advocacy for American imperialism in his film and display the ways in which a lasting egalitarian model of cross-cultural social organization is never established as a result of this failure.

Many HIV/AIDS public service announcements (PSAs) focus on aspects of HIV/AIDSprevention efforts, including stigma and discrimination. However, due to an absence ofmedia evaluations that have properly understood the ways in which HIV/AIDS-relatedstigma PSAs are framed and constructed, little is known about the ways in which thesemessages are framed. This study attempts to bridge the gap by analyzing the ways inwhich the Pan American Health 10-year Anthology DVD, frames and constructs theirargument in PSAs targeted at HIV/AIDS-related stigma. In order to answer thequestions, this study connects the theories of stigma, media, and framing, to the theory ofsocial construction. Where stigma is a form of social construction, framing can causesocial construction and media facilitates social construction. Moreover, this study uses aqualitative content analysis, to analyze the198 PSAs in the anthology. The results of thestudy revealed that HIV/AIDS-related stigma PSAs could be categorized into eitherproactive or reactive frames. Within the proactive and reactive frames there are alsoseveral sub-categories, which includes: proactive messages that reduce self-stigma,proactive messages that encourage community support, proactive messages thatencourage institutional support, and proactive messages that focus on antidiscrimination.Within the reactive messages the sub-categories include: reactivemessages and HIV/AIDS corrective information, reactive messages that focus on howHIV/AIDS is and is not transmitted, reactive messages that focus on what stigma is. Theanalysis of this study connected the theoretical reference to the results of the study, bydetermining that the proactive and reactive frames are tools within PSAs, intended tocreate a new reality or new social attitudes about HIV/AIDS-related stigma. Futureimplications for this study could evaluate the effects of the proactive and reactive frames.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1918. / Bibliography: p. 49-55; "Index of southern war poems of the civil war": p. 58-192.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 333-343).