This thesis traces the phenomenon of American Southern Gothic literature in relation to its most integral part: the exaggerated monstrosity. Even though the prevalent distorted images are usually associated with aesthetic decadence, their moral symbolism should not be neglected. Furthermore, since the Gothic tradition is congruent with the unconscious and irrational, the absence of any psychological interest poses a major limitation in the Southern studies. Drawing on this approach, the following thesis investigates the role of deformities in connection to the individual's mind. Thus, aside from the literary historical concerns that arise within the context of the American South, the main aim of this thesis is to determine whether there is a link between the distortion and psychological trauma of the Southern past. The selected topic is approached from an interdisciplinary point of view; apart from literary history (E.A. Poe, W. Faulkner), Freudian definition of unconsciousness will be likewise employed. I hereby hope my findings may significantly broaden and contribute to the conceptualization of deformities in regards to the context of the American South, more specifically within the historical, literary and psychological field of Southern studies. Key words: American, South, Gothic, Deformity,...

This thesis examines why the south seceded in 1860 as opposed to any other time in the 19th century and what changed the mentalité of the people in the period 1857-1860. The underlying issue in southern politics and the issue of secession was clearly slavery and slavery rested on the economics of cotton. Yet slavery and cotton do not explain why the South seceded in 1860 and not at other times in the preceding seventy years. 1807 saw the outlawing of the international slave trade and 1819 saw Congress pass the Slave Trade Act interdicting the ships involved. In 1828 and 1832 the bitter tariff disputes between northern industrial and southern agricultural interests led to the South Carolina doctrine of “Nullification” but no secession. Neither the 1846 proposed Wilmot Proviso restricting slavery in the new territories nor the immediate post Mexican War disputes over the territorial expansion of slavery caused secession and in every case the South was willing to compromise. The methodology of this work is based on the assumption that words and thoughts are intimately linked and that by measuring changes in frequency of word use, changes in thought can be detected and measured. Evidence for the changing use word frequency was provided by an etymological and article content study of selected daily editions of six newspapers in the three cities. The thesis put forward to explain the change in political attitude is that for the southern cities of Richmond, Charleston and New Orleans, political power and political issues were the most important factors. The rise of the sectional northern Republican Party and fear of its abolitionist principles weighed more heavily than any other factors in altering the psychology of the South. This raised the political dispute over slavery to an issue of secession and potential military conflict.

The house at 45 King St. in Charleston, South Carolina is more than a home. It is a story of the home. A story told through history, through a vision exhibited in architectural drawings, and through the social heritage closest to my heart. 45 King is a story for the South; the story of its grandeur, its climate, its natural beauty, its hospitality, its comfort, and its veils. It is a story that was told yesterday and one that is still told today. Like an oral history, the telling of it may change over time. The story changes as people change. The economy changes, the land develops, technology rolls ahead, and the story which was informed by a heritage of living history begins to take a modern form. 45 King is today's story of the Southern home. / Master of Architecture

Although Amanda Wingfield, Blanche DuBois, and Maggie Pollitt are examined frequently in scholarship on Tennessee Williams's plays, many critics assume that the three women's Southern femininity translates to fragility and that their nostalgia for the Confederate past constitutes delusion. Distancing our perceptions of the three women from the common connotations of Southern femininity--frailty, selflessness, and domesticity—and leaning into the more disagreeable facets of Lost Cause nostalgia reveals the classist and racist ideologies that motivate their quests for upstanding Southern aristocratic lives. Critics have been slow to read Amanda, Blanche, and Maggie as rational socioeconomic actors, but this reading emphasizes the three women's socioeconomic desires, thus de-romanticizing Southern femininity and expounding on its problematic ideological positionalities. Blanche DuBois, Amanda Wingfield, and Maggie Pollitt have been evaluated in terms of their "monstrous" femininity. However, they become less monstrous and more familiar when we recognize the clear race- and class-based motivations for clinging so fiercely to their Southern identities. When we assume that their Southernness is defined by their literal proximity from and ideological relationships to ethnic and racial Others and people from lower socioeconomic classes, their motivations lose some of their critical abstraction and gain a new level of complexity. / Master of Arts / Tennessee Williams is known for crafting complex female protagonists in his dramas. Although Amanda Wingfield of The Glass Menagerie, Blanche DuBois of A Streetcar Named Desire, and Maggie Pollitt of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are examined frequently in scholarship on Tennessee Williams's plays, many critics assume that the three women's Southern femininity stems from inherent fragility and that their nostalgia for the Confederate past constitutes mental instability. Reorienting our perceptions of these women away from the common connotations of Southern femininity--frailty, selflessness, and domesticity—and leaning into the more disagreeable facets of Lost Cause nostalgia reveals the classist and racist ideologies that motivate the three women's quests for upstanding Southern aristocratic lives. Critics have been slow to read Amanda, Blanche, and Maggie as rational socioeconomic actors, but this reading emphasizes the three women's socioeconomic desires, thus de-romanticizing Southern femininity and expounding on its problematic ideological positionalities—namely, extreme racism and classism. Although Blanche DuBois, Amanda Wingfield, and Maggie Pollitt have been evaluated previously in terms of their "monstrous" femininity, they become less monstrous and more familiar when we recognize the clear race- and class-based motivations for clinging so fiercely to their Southern identities. When we assume that their Southernness is defined by their literal proximity from and ideological relationships to ethnic and racial Others and people from lower socioeconomic classes, their motivations become more tangible, more complex—and more menacing.

The present MA thesis focuses on the development of the archetype of the Southern Belle in the selected works of American fiction, namely John Pendleton Kennedy's Swallow Barn, William Faulkner's Sanctuary and Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind. The main task is to explore how the archetype of the Southern Belle was constructed and (if) transgressed at different times in the American literary tradition from the period of antebellum South to the era of the Southern Renaissance. Since the archetype of the Southern Belle is connected with the white upper class society it will be also discussed in this respect. By comparing texts from different historical periods I want to compare the different nature of cultural and social conditions that contributed and informed the meaning and the function of the Southern Belle. Moreover, by selecting Southern woman writer and Southern male writers respectively I want to compare female and male perspective on the literary representation of the Southern Belle. The first chapter briefly addresses the development of the American South as a region with a distinct social structure and cultural values and attempts to position the figure of the Southern Belle within that socio-historical context. Chapters three, four and five introduce and analyze the archetype of the...

This dissertation examines the life and complicated career of Sir James Wright (1716-1785), in an effort to better understand the complex struggle for power in colonial Georgia. Specifically, this project will highlight the contest for autonomy between four groups: Britains and Georgians (core-periphery), lowcountry and backcountry residents, whites and Natives, and Rebels and Loyalists. An English-born grandson of Chief Justice Sir Robert Wright, James Wright was raised in Charleston, South Carolina following his father’s appointment as that colony’s chief justice. The younger Wright attended Gray’s Inn in London and served South Carolina in a variety of capacities, most notably as their attorney general and colonial agent prior to his appointment as governor of Georgia in 1761. Additionally, he had a voracious appetite for land and became colonial Georgia’s largest landowner, accumulating nearly 26,000 acres, worked by no less than 525 slaves. As governor, Wright guided Georgia through a period of intense and steady economic growth and within a decade of his arrival, no one could still claim Georgia to be a “fledgling province” as it had become intricately engaged in a transatlantic mercantilist economy resembling South Carolina and any number of Britain’s Caribbean colonies. Moreover, Governor Wright maintained royal authority in Georgia longer and more effectively than any of his counterparts. Although several factors contributed to his success in delaying the seemingly inexorable revolutionary tide, his patience and keen political mind proved the deciding factor. He was the only of Britain’s thirteen colonies to enforce the Stamp Act of 1765. He also managed to stay a step or two ahead of Georgia’s Sons of Liberty until the spring of 1776. In short, Sir James Wright lived a transatlantic life, taking advantage of every imperial opportunity which presented itself. He earned numerous important government positions and amassed an incredible fortune, totaling over £100,000 sterling. His long imperial career, which delicately balanced dual loyalties to Crown and colony, offers important insights into a number of important historiographic fields.

This dissertation examines the life and conflicted career of Sir James Wright (1716-1785), in an effort to better understand the complex struggle for power in both colonial Georgia and eighteenth-century British Empire. Specifically, this project will highlight the contest for autonomy between four groups: Britains and Georgians (core-periphery), lowcountry and backcountry residents, whites and Natives, and Rebels and Loyalists. An English-born grandson of Chief Justice Sir Robert Wright, James Wright was raised in Charleston, South Carolina following his father’s appointment as that colony’s chief justice. Young James served South Carolina in a number of capacities, public and ecclesiastical, prior to his admittance to London’s Gray’s Inn in London. Most notably, he was selected as their attorney general and colonial agent prior to his appointment as governor of Georgia in 1761. Wright collected more than public offices in his endless quest for respect and social advancement. He also possessed a voracious appetite for land and became colonial Georgia’s largest landowner, accumulating nearly 26,000 acres, worked by no less than 525 slaves. As governor, he guided Georgia through a period of intense and steady economic and territorial growth. By the time of the American Revolution, Georgia had become fully integrated into the greater transatlantic mercantilist economy, resembling South Carolina and any number of Britain’s Caribbean colonies. Moreover, Governor Wright maintained royal authority in Georgia longer and more effectively than any of his North American counterparts. Although several factors contributed to his success in delaying the seemingly inexorable revolutionary tide, his patience and keen political mind proved the deciding factor. He was the only of Britain’s thirteen colonies to enforce the Stamp Act of 1765 and managed to stay a step or two ahead of Georgia’s Sons of Liberty until the winter of 1775-1776. In short, Sir James Wright lived a transatlantic life, taking advantage of every imperial opportunity afforded him. He earned numerous important government positions and amassed an incredible fortune, totaling over £100,000 sterling. His long imperial career delicately balanced dual loyalties to Crown and colony and offers important and unique insights into a number of important historiographic fields.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed March 1, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 240-248).

In this re-evaluation of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, I identify the original causes that made the Study emerge, examine why the intent of this research shifted over time, reveal the manner in which the Study was conducted, expose the role the government played in the manipulation of the Experiment, and, finally, investigate the ways, as well as the reasons, for the selection of the participants involved in the Study. After exploring the Experiment itself, I investigate the lasting effects of it on the community in which it occurred and the ways in which it further affected the relationship between African Americans and the United States Government. I explore the reasons for the involvement of Tuskegee Institute. Also, the philosophies of its founder, Booker T. Washington, are examined to discover the rationale behind the Institution's participation in an Experiment, which eventually became harmful. Finally, I hope to reveal why Tuskegee has been historically omitted from any blame in the Study.

Between the 1930s and mid-1980s, North Carolina became one of the most industrialized states in the country, with more factory workers, as a percentage of the total workforce, than any other state. And yet, North Carolina generally retained its rural complexion, with small factories dispersed throughout the countryside, instead of concentrated in large industrial cities. This dissertation asks two essential questions: first, how did this rural-industrial geography come to be, and second, what does the creation of this geography reveal about the state of the American political economy in the post-World War II era? I argue that rural industrialization was a central goal of North Carolina’s postwar political leaders and economic development officials. These industry hunters, as I call them, wanted to raise their state’s per capita income by recruiting manufacturers to develop or relocate operations in North Carolina. At the same time, they worried about developing large industrial cities or mill villages, associating them with class conflict, congestion, and a host of other ill-effects. In the hopes of attracting industry to its countryside, the state invested heavily in its secondary roads and highways, increasing the accessibility of rural communities. In their pursuit of rural industrialization, however, North Carolina also constructed a political economy that anticipated the collapse of the New Deal state. While historians typically see New Deal liberalism as the prevailing form of statecraft in the postwar United States, North Carolina achieved economic growth through a model that state officials termed “accessible isolation.” What accessible isolation meant was that North Carolina would provide industries with enough of a state apparatus to make operating a factory in a rural area possible, while maintaining policies of low taxes, limited regulations, and anti-unionism, to make those sites desirable. Essentially, industry hunters offered industrial prospects access to a supply of cheap rural labor, but isolation from the high wages, labor unions, government regulations, and progressive tax code that defined New Deal liberalism. Accessible isolation was attractive to businesses in postwar America because it offered a “business-friendly” alternative to the New Deal, and factories began sprouting throughout rural North Carolina. But the success of accessible isolation was built on a shaky foundation. Indeed, most of the employers persuaded by its promises were those in low-wage, labor-intensive industries, making North Carolina’s rural communities especially vulnerable to transformations in the global economy by the late twentieth century. / History