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<p> I present a study of the female protagonists of <i>The Wide, Wide World; Little Women;</i> and <i>Anne of Green Gables </i> in terms of reading and play. I posit that the lives of the girls depend on what and how they read, and insight to their reading can be gained by examining when their play interacts with their books. I also employ the use of mise en abyme to understand the overall purpose of their reading (and playing) and the contribution these characters make to the lives of their own potential readers.</p>

The United States is experiencing very low levels of trust in the government and in Washington. To the average American, Washington, D.C. seems like a bubble filled with well-off, over-educated citizens who are out of touch with the daily lives of Americans elsewhere in the country. This thesis explores this trend, the severity of it, how often it has occurred thus far in American history, the causes, and potential solutions to bridging the gap between the political elite and the average American. This paper is broken up into three topics which explain a portion of the cause for the disconnect. The first chapter focuses on the history of Washington, D.C. as a city and how its development has contributed to political disconnect. The second chapter looks at the history and transitions of a congressional career. Lastly, the third chapter explores the history of public perception of government, in order to put today’s low levels of trust into better context. I ultimately find that the city of Washington used to be a small, quaint city on a hill that was open to all. Now, it is a fortress of power, but much of this was inevitable. In order to compensate for the increasing complexity of governmental tasks, the government added more people and more buildings to take on this problem solving. This inevitably led to a bubble of well-educated and well-off citizens. Similarly, a representative today has many more tasks than the representative a century ago. He also must have many more resources to even get elected. As Washington developed and become a more attractive city as it accumulated power, it drew a new type of citizen. A type that does not look, act, or think like the average American. While these developments led to the disconnect, they were in many ways inevitable. Based on the chapter on public perception of government, I find that Americans are distrustful of those in office and of the ways that these people use the government, but they still have faith in the political institutions themselves. This shows that there is potential for reform to help Americans feel better represented, and to help the government be more responsive to the average Americans’ most pressing problems. While there are many aspects of Congress that could be modified, the conclusion chapter looks specifically at reforms that are inspired by the input of Americans. This includes reform to political debate and discourse, lobbying, congressional voting, and more.

<p>The Hole in the Fence examines the design and effects of the contemporary border security</p><p>regime. Since 1994, the growth of military-style policing in the lands between the US and</p><p>Mexico has radically reshaped the path of illicit transnational migration. Newly erected</p><p>walls, surveillance technology, and the stationing of an army of federal agents in the</p><p>border territory do not serve to seal off the national boundary. Border security rather</p><p>works by pushing undocumented migration traffic away from urban areas and out into</p><p>protracted journeys on foot through the southwest wilderness, heightening the risks</p><p>associated with entering the US without papers. Those attempting the perilous</p><p>wilderness crossing now routinely find themselves without access to water, food, or</p><p>rescue; thousands of people without papers have since perished in the vast deserts and</p><p>rugged brushlands of the US southwest. In this border policing scenario, the US border</p><p>security establishment does not act alone. From corporations to cartels, aid workers,</p><p>militia men, and local residents, myriad social forces now shape the contemporary</p><p>border struggle on the ground.</p><p>The Hole in the Fence draws on the political theory of Michel Foucault and his</p><p>interlocutors to argue that the US-Mexico border zone stands as a highly contemporary</p><p>governing form that is based less on sovereign territorial defense or totalitarian capture</p><p>than on the multilateral regulation of transnational circulation. Accounting for the</p><p>conceptual contours of the border scenario thus challenges many of the assumptions that underwrite classical political theory. This dissertation offers a vision of</p><p>contemporary political power that is set to work in open and vital landscapes, and not in</p><p>fortressed prisons or deadened war zones. I articulate a mode of authorized violence</p><p>that is indirect and erratic, not juridical or genocidal. I explore a world of surveillance</p><p>technology that is scattered and dysfunctional, not smooth and all-seeing. I assess the</p><p>participation of human populations in progressive political intervention as being just as</p><p>often driven by practical self-interests as by an ethos of self-sacrifice.</p><p>This study draws on a diverse archive of on-the-ground policing tactics, policy</p><p>papers, works of mass culture, academic scholarship, and self-authored media by rural</p><p>residents to represent the contemporary border security environment. This pursuit is</p><p>necessarily interdisciplinary, moving among historical, cultural, ethnographic, and</p><p>theoretical forms of writing. Ultimately, The Hole in the Fence asserts that the southwest</p><p>border zone is a critical conceptual map for the rationality of political power in the</p><p>context of neoliberal transnationalism—a formation that constantly engenders new</p><p>modes of persecution, struggle, subversion, and possibility.</p> / Dissertation

<p> The written history of the United States Civil War provides limited analysis on the topic of desertion and execution for desertion in the Army of the Potomac. The specific numbers involved are well documented. With the exception of occasional narratives on the executions themselves, there is no examination of the human decisions taken; beginning with the soldier&rsquo;s choice to desert. In addition, while the military court-martial trial was rigid in its structure and process, it allowed for discretion in the sentencing phase. Human choice exerted its greatest influence in the aftermath of the trial as the sentence was reviewed up through the military chain of command. Ultimately, the case would arrive at the desk of President Abraham Lincoln; the final arbitrator of life or death. Fortunately for the convicted, they had a compassionate Commander in Chief and President Lincoln personally intervened in hundreds of their cases. </p><p> There were over 200,000 incidents of desertion from the Union Armies during the Civil War. Desertion and other crimes resulted in 75,961 court-martial trials and 1,883 soldiers were sentenced to be executed. A total of 265 men were executed and 147 of those were for desertion. This paper provides a micro history of eight soldiers from Massachusetts regiments executed for desertion. They are contrasted against seven soldiers from Massachusetts regiments pardoned for the same capital crime of desertion. Extrapolating the data elements of the accused, along with their trial testimonies, allows for the identification of three major factors that influenced whether a soldier who deserted was executed or pardoned. </p><p> A second contribution to the historical record on the Civil War is the identification of the personal data elements found in these men&rsquo;s lives. By consolidating these elements, such as place of birth, a profile of the typical deserter emerges. This deserter profile can be contrasted against a historically codified profile of a typical Union soldier. Ultimately, while these deserters were denigrated for their crime of desertion, they deserve to have their stories heard. In doing so, it is possible to identify who these men really were and what their role was in the United States Civil War.</p>

<p> This thesis presents a chronological narrative of the small, but marginally influential West Georgia College counterculture movement&mdash;which included no more than a hundred or so students and at least a few dozen faculty members&mdash;during a period of great social unrest. Framed by the ongoing moral debate about America&rsquo;s controversial involvement in the Vietnam War, as well as radical social changes occurring in the larger culture, this study contributes to the historiography of the U.S. counterculture in at least two distinct ways. First, it is one of the few in-depth studies to ever be conducted on the counterculture at a small liberal arts college in the Deep South. Most of the books and articles written thus far focus upon the counterculture movement at some of the nation&rsquo;s largest universities. Even in the South, only a few select university histories have ever dealt with the movement in any detail. Second, this thesis sheds greater light on the reasons for that marginalization of the Southern student counterculture&mdash;and more specifically at West Georgia College&mdash;by focusing on the pushback from the much larger, more conservative culture. Manifested in the form of some college administrators, a number of older faculty members, the majority of the student body, civic and business leaders in the nearby town of Carrollton, and even the larger Carrollton community, that resistance could be extreme at times. This study will also show how that resistance was rooted in deeply held Southern beliefs about patriotism and the sanctity of national military service, the Protestant work ethic, respect for authority and tradition, and religious conservatism. </p>

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-09, Section: A, page: 5058. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

William Styron's most recent novel, Sophie's Choice published in 1979, provides a unique addition to the literature of the Holocaust. The story of Sophie Zawistowska, a Polish Catholic who spent twenty months at Auschwitz, is the novel's core. Just as important, however, is the story of Stingo, the young Southern writer who is working on his first novel during the time that Sophie gradually reveals her story to him. Stingo's encounter with the historical tragedy of the twentieth century is crucial to his coming of age. / As Stingo moves from innocence to experience in the New York of 1947, he evaluates the art of the novel, describes the writing process, and surrounds Sophie's story with the names of more than 150 authors and titles as well as numerous literary allusions. Most of the authors are only named, but among the few who receive more attention are the three Southerners: Faulkner, Wolfe, and Warren. It is important that Stingo is a Southerner influenced not only by his Southern literary heritage but also by the South's historical tragedy, slavery. / Sophie's Choice contains twelve passages quoted from literature. In addition to the Psalms of David, John's Revelation, and the French writers Malraux and Rainer Maria Rilke, the authors quoted include the Americans Emily Dickinson, Hart Crane, and Thomas Wolfe as well as the Britains Sir Thomas Browne, Matthew Arnold, and William Butler Yeats. Throughout the narrative, Styron has carefully chosen words of other writers to intertwine Stingo's movement from innocence to experience with Sophie's headlong journey toward death. / The use of music in Sophie's Choice also underscores the fusion of the two stories. More than four hundred allusions to music occur in the novel. While music is used most often to develop the character of Sophie, Stingo also reveals more about himself through his response to music. Through music Stingo expresses the range and depth of emotions he experiences as he writes his first novel and confronts the evil of Auschwitz. / Four appendices contain all literary allusions; references to Faulkner, Wolfe, and Warren; references to Stingo's development as a writer; and all musical allusions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-03, Section: A, page: 0799. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This book of poems is the second collection by the Georgia poet whose first book, Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1980), won the 1979 Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets. It collects 32 new poems which originally appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, Poetry, Virginia Quarterly Review, and others. / All of the poems in this book depend heavily on narrative and sense of place. For the most part, they draw on the poet's experiences in Georgia and Florida. The poems about hunting and fishing represent a development of the poet's interest in the "reptile brain," a theme which he explored in his first book. Other narratives, such as the suburban poems, represent entirely new directions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-06, Section: A, page: 1970. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

Blix has been viewed by most critics as an anomaly in the otherwise uniform canon of Frank Norris' novels. Because its light, optimistic tone is so unlike that of Norris' better known, naturalistic works, critics have designated Blix as nothing more than a popular turn-of-the-century romance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to show that Norris himself took the novel much more seriously than most critics have, and that Blix may be most accurately described as Norris' first attempt to synthesize romance and realism in a novel, a technique which later won praise in The Octopus and The Pit. / Chapter One reveals the shaping influences upon the novel of the three literary movements--naturalism, realism, and romance--which most affected Norris throughout his career. This chapter concludes that the eclectic nature of Blix is owing to Norris' experimenting with different kinds of writing in an attempt to develop his ideal combination, what we might today term "romantic realism." Chapter Two goes on to examine the main plot of Blix as an example of this kind of writing, and to show how Norris contrasted seemingly extraneous episodes in the novel with the main plot in order to voice his own aesthetics about good versus bad art. / In keeping with his conviction that real life is romantic by nature, Norris effectively used his own experiences as the basis for much of the main plot of Blix. Therefore, Chapter Three examines the novel as Norris' autobiographical account of his apprenticeship on The Wave and his courtship of the woman he was to marry. This chapter reveals the author of Blix to be a purposeful writer who cared deeply about this novel, and Chapter Four reinforces the fact that he did so. This chapter examines the extensive revisions Norris made of the serialization of Blix before it was published as a book. Chapter Five provides a listing of the textual variants between The Puritan serialization and the first edition of Blix. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0446. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.