This study examines the rhetorical creations of "democratic," literary readers in nineteenth-century book prefaces by Catharine Sedgwick, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass. Though diverse, these writers shared a cultural need to envision a serious, literary reader who embodied, nonetheless, the ideals of popular sanction, democratic politics and marketplace culture. Through appeals to the extrapolitical authorities of nationalism, Common Sense, self-culture, domesticity, social reform and commercial popularity, these writers used the partly fictive, partly social discourse of the preface to bridge a gap between their emergent, sense of literary professionalism and the American myth of popular authority--a cultural divide that, in the twentieth century, would be institutionalized in the separation of middlebrow and highbrow cultures. / While many of these nineteenth-century writers and books were commercial and artistic successes in their days, they ultimately failed to establish, once and for all, a viable, unitary tradition of popular, literary reading in the United States. These prefaces still demand the attention of American writers, scholars and teachers, however, for the very reason that these rhetorical tactics more comprehensively define, in their diverse failures, the ongoing cultural challenges of authorizing oneself in a democratic society than they might in some mythic, all-unifying narrative of success. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2835. / Major Professor: Jerome Stern. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

Ethical norms for American citizenship underwent a discernible transition from the ratification of the Bill of Rights, when the First Amendment affirmed the disestablishment of religion, until the beginning of the Civil War. This study traces and analyzes that transition by examining selected influential religious figures of this period. / Timothy Dwight conflated the classical concept of republican virtue, an anthropocentric concept which was transmitted by thinkers of the Enlightenment, with the Calvinist-Puritan concept of public virtue, a theocentric concept. He sought the evangelical sanctification of the republic. / Lyman Beecher worked feverishly to increase this community-oriented concept of public virtue, extending and maintaining the influence of evangelical sanctification in the rapidly-expanding nation. He sought to save it from infidelism, irreligion, and Catholicism, its perceived adversaries. / Charles Grandison Finney, with his Oberlin Perfectionism, a new version of evangelical sanctification, shifted the focus away from community-oriented public virtue toward the private Christian virtue of individuals. This change introduced a new ambivalence toward Christian involvement in social and political action. / Phoebe Worrall Palmer popularized a modified version of John Wesley's Methodist doctrine of entire sanctification similar to Finney's perfectionism. Her stronger emphasis upon individualism and her aversion to politics became the seeds of sectarianism that were part of her legacy to succeeding generations of holiness perfectionists. / When the threat of a Civil War loomed ominously and these perfectionist ideals proved inadequate to address the deepening social and political crisis of mid-century, Harriet Beecher Stowe revived the Calvinist-Puritan concern for the evangelical sanctification of the republic, with its emphasis upon Christian public virtue, uniting it with the Christian perfectionism advocated by Finney and Palmer. She applied the combined ethics of public virtue and of Christian perfection to the slavery question, contributing to the political and religious polarization of the nation before the Civil War. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-03, Section: A, page: 0982. / Major Professor: Leo Sandon. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

Premise. The black quest for freedom is a noble and heroic journey comparable to that of the classical mythological gods and heroes as portrayed in Greek Mythology. / This study is based upon a firm conviction that there is a very strong similarity between the courage of the mythological hero as he appears in classical literature and the courage and spirit of the black personality that endures throughout the struggle from slavery to freedom. Through an analytical comparison of selected literary excerpts these similarities are isolated and identified within the respective cultures in the following manner: / First, through a synthesis of the classic pattern of the heroic journey described as the rites of passage through separation, initiation and return by Joseph Campbell in The Hero With a Thousand Faces with the odyssey of the black experience as portrayed by Alex Haley in Roots, the premise is established. / Second, the classical mythological community is compared to the southern plantation community through a consideration of the two authority figures--Zeus, ruler of Mount Olympus, and the master, ruler of the Big House: with some detail to Zeusmortal and master-slave mating, unusual birth circumstances, and the impassioned reactions of Hera and the plantation mistress. / Third, parallels are drawn from a comparison of some of the major themes and heroes of the two unique cultures, such as: survival--magic (Odysseus and Frederick Douglass), resurrection--escaping bondage (Dionysus, Perseus and Henry "Box" Brown), man receives fire--slaying illiteracy (Prometheus and Mary McLeod Bethune) and mythological monsters--Jim Crow (Heracles and Martin Luther King, Jr.) / Finally, a portrait of the mythic black hero, the personification of the black quest, is created as a composite figure of the many men, women, and children who--through the generations--dared to take a stand for the betterment of the human condition. The study concludes with a consideration of the boon--Quality Life--the black hero bestowed upon the populace and the apotheosis accorded this personality in American society. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-12, Section: A, page: 3730. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

<p> The Centro Latino at Fuller Theological Seminary seeks to equip Hispanic pastors with the &ldquo;tools to draw on their faith to create a better world&rdquo;, which is a core component of holistic mission. Through comparative case studies, the first phase of this research examines the journeys of sixteen graduates of Centro Latino to explore the factors which impacted their capacity to implement holistic mission strategies in and with their ministries. As part of this process, this study reviews the roles played by culture, context and theological education in helping or hindering their efforts. The second and third phases of the research involves collaborating with the research subjects to develop and carry out a pilot program of continuing education activities through Centro Latino designed to increase their capacity to carry out holistic mission. Using a theoretical framework which integrates research on the impact of theological education on ministry practice, research on the Hispanic context and corresponding strategies for spiritual and practical formation for holistic mission, this study analyzes the results of the pilot program to arrive at recommendations for Centro Latino in particular and Hispanic theological education programs in general for equipping evangelical/Pentecostal Hispanic immigrant pastors for holistic mission. </p><p>

<p> Conversations about racism and sexism have a history of volatility, and within America&rsquo;s current social and political climate it is no different. Both of these institutions are part of the social makeup of American culture and are based on the premise of one group holding a superior position over another. White individuals may not purposefully set out to behave in racist or sexist ways, but the fact is, white values, manners, and habits take precedence and priority in American culture. Evidence abounds. One example is the commercials that run in the media. The products, actors, and messages are focused on white priorities. Another is in the history of our country, which was written by Anglo-American men and therefore contains a preponderance of detail on the nation&rsquo;s incredible growth through their viewpoints. It is also seen in literature and conversation. If a male or female is referenced, it is assumed they are white; if not, the speaker will place a descriptor of color before the gendered term. Within the institutions of race and sex, the ranking of superiority begins with white men and ends with Black women. The Black male and white female change places depending on the agenda of the white male. For example, if his attention is on male issues, the Black male will rank higher than the white female; the reverse is true if race is the focus. This patriarchal culture began with predominately Anglo-Saxon men making themselves at home in a country that was new to them. For centuries, they were able to keep their position as the dominant presence by force and will. The point is not to create a hatefest on white patriarchy but rather to recognize and understand it for what it has been and how it has formed our culture. </p><p>

No description available.

<p> Togo, this small West African nation, is still relative unknown, even in today's jet set world. The Western world is only now discovering the numerous advances Togo has made in it social and economic policies, but most of all in its political conjectures. After its Independence on April 27, 1960, Togo had barely begun its journey to democracy when the dictatorship of Gnassingbe Eyadema became the yoke of the people for over thirty-one years, on April 14th, 1967. The consequences of the stranglehold exercised by Gnassingbe was to shut the nation's cultural growth and cause the people to close in onto themselves and build a protective barrier between themselves and the rest of the world.</p><p> Yet, Togo had great beginnings. It was one of the pioneers of Sub-Saharan literature, publishing in 1929 one of the first true African novels still read today. In 1929, native son Felix Couchoro, was among the first Sub-Saharan authors to write a novel which gave agency to an African protagonist in a story set in Africa, with an African-themed plot, and with a conclusion that aimed at rethinking African society. Couchoro was the first to look deeply into his culture and the social identity of his nation. He brought forth suggestions that would help in Togo's growth and insure its successful battle for Independence. </p><p> In doing so, however, Couchoro also created great controversy around a subject which continues to plague not only Togelese people, but all Africans who feel pulled in two directions: preserving their authentic traditional customs while taking an active part in the modern world, through economic improvements as well as technological advances. In this dissertation, I will first study Couchoro's flagship novel which was the starting point of this quest for a modern identity, then analyze how subsequent Togolese writers have taken up Couchoro's legacy.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation reviews the deliberate and evolutionary development of cultural nationalism through food and cuisine, specifically the methods and manners in which Americans during the early Republic conceptualized and produced a distinct national culinary culture. Through multiple forms of evidence including published cookbooks, travelogues, etchings and paintings, nutritional studies, newspaper articles, and essays, Americans and Europeans employed food as a symbolic tool to redefine their definitions of national culture. The production and consumption of certain foodstuffs was indeed an essential component in the process of interpreting the burgeoning American postcolonial national consciousness, often at the expense however of an open and inclusive society. While the current scholarship contends that Americans remained anchored to their colonial British food systems in the early national period, this research reveals a more complicated narrative of identity construction that ultimately highlights a complex ideological and cultural transformation. In short, this work analyzes how intellectual descriptions of American cuisine affected attitudes and perceptions of national character formation in the early American Republic.</p><p>

No description available.

Cormac McCarthy seeks to understand human community, the bonds of love which mark humanity, and the impact when those bonds are broken. Throughout his career, however, his work has increasingly focused on a quest for some spiritual core to existence, unfolding against a backdrop of modernity in crisis. These preoccupations can be read in the context of St Augustine’s City of Man and the search for passage into the City of God: there is the dualistic nature of man, with his ability to love and his capacity for destructiveness, driven by the promise of salvation beyond the material realm. I examine what appears to be a sustained sense of hostility in McCarthy’s fiction to modernity. I use the philosophy of Eric Voegelin to demonstrate that McCarthy’s fiction synthesises elements of what Voegelin describes as modern gnosticism, a sense that modern humanity has usurped God and seeks to establish an immanent heaven-on-earth. These preoccupations begin to dominate McCarthy’s writing and, in his continual search for passage to the City of God, he begins to lose those notions of community which informed his earlier work. McCarthy’s understanding of human community is acute and challenging. Suttree is a search for love, meaning and redemption in a hostile world. However, when his preoccupation with spiritual understanding is at its fullest, notably in Blood Meridian and the Border Trilogy, it runs the risk of overwhelming the narrative. There is, in the relentless malignancy of judge Holden or the failed prophets of the Trilogy, a tendency towards didacticism which ultimately compromises the fiction. Therefore, despite the consensus among most McCarthy scholars that Blood Meridian is his masterpiece, I argue that it is flawed. Moreover, it marks a development in his writing which means that, in subsequent fiction, he fails to reach the heights achieved in Suttree.