This report offers analysis of two contemporary zombie apocalypse novels that imagine the future for the United States. By considering how Max Brooks’ World War Z and Colson Whitehead’s Zone One participate in critical conversations regarding postmodernity, this report reveals that these authors use the zombie apocalypse narrative to express concerns about social and cultural pathologies, as well as possibilities for utopian reform in the twenty-first century. By imagining the zombie horde as the radical other, the novels engage in discussions regarding racial and class inequalities in contemporary America. Ultimately, my analysis of these two texts reveals a disturbing tendency to imagine the zombie apocalypse as the solution to America’s persistent social and political dilemmas. / text

published_or_final_version / Literary Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Literary Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Literary Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

No description available.

This thesis considers the films of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar as postmodern melodramas. The crux of my argument is that melodrama is known for its expressiveness and its attempt to restore a spiritual element to a post-sacred world, and is used by Almodóvar to make clear the problems and contradictions inherent in the destabilized world of postmodernity. This definition of melodrama draws primarily on the work of Peter Brooks, Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams; it is modified to apply to postmodernism as defined by Jean Baudrillard and Frederic Jameson. The conclusion reached is that Almodóvar is deeply ambivalent about postmodernity. Chapter 2 considers the twin issues of representation and sexuality in Almodóvar’s first six films: Pepi, Luci, Born (Pepi, Luci Born y otras chicas del montón, 1980), Labyrinth of Passions (Laberinto de pasiones, 1982), Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas, 1983), What Have I Done To Deserve This? (Qué he hecho yopor merecer esto!, 1984), Matador (1986), and Law ofDesire (Le ley del deseo, 1987); with a special eye to the representation of sexual violence, it establishes how Almodóvar develops his ambivalent melodramatic imagination. Chapter 3 considers fashion as a discourse and argues that Almodóvar’s next four films use clothing to place different versions of femininity in dialogue, and uses this as a springboard to consider Women on the Verge ofa Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, 1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (I Atame!, 1990), High Heels (Tacones lejanos, 1991), and Kika (1993) as postmodern “women’s pictures.” Chapter 4 considers the appearance of the explicitly political along with the symbolism of the image of the map in The Flower of My Secret (Laflor de rni secreto, 1995), Live Flesh (Came trémula, 1997), and All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre, 1999). Chapter 5 uses the metaphor of ghosts to consider the draw of the past in Talk To Her (Hable con ella, 2002), Bad Education (La mala educación, 2004), and Volver (2006), pointing to both the emptiness of the present and the impossibility of returning to that golden past.

The purpose of this study was to apply the Post-Modern aesthetic model proposed by Wetzl-Fairchild (1990) and a data collection method (verbal protocol) in order to establish a useful methodology for studying the aesthetic experience of a viewer in an art exhibition. I studied the interaction between a contemporary exhibition and professionals variously familiar with the artworld. I find that Fairchild's model is useful as a theoretical framework in coding the protocols and confirm that the think-aloud protocol can provide accurate data with respect to the cognitive activity of an art viewer. I suggest that the viewers' context became the pivotal issue determining the quality of their experience and propose that this context become the focus of further study in the exhibition design process. I conclude that personal context is pivotal in all aspects of art education, whether in a classroom or an art exhibition.