Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2000. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 31, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Lucia C. Getsi (chair), William W. Morgan, Cynthia A. Huff. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-189) and abstract. Also available in print.

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The purpose has been to discover from the study of Bryant's life and poetry the extent to which his work was influenced by nature and how he interpreted it.

The purpose of this study was to understand the media's impact when reporting on high-profile athlete's legal proceedings. Through the use of text analysis, the study examined whether sports journalists gave preferential treatment to "home-town heroes" in the Kobe Bryant case. The study also attempted to find differences and similarities between sports reporters and sports columnists with regard to positive and negative treatment of the case.

In the chapters of my thesis, I explore how "soft" consciousness-raising novels of the first, second and third-waves of feminism practice underground feminism by covertly exposing women's socio-political issues outside of the confines of feminist rhetoric. In moving away from the negative connotations of political language, the authors enable the education of female audiences otherwise out of reach. Working from and extending on various theorists, I construct a theoretical model for what I term underground feminism. Running on the principal of conducting feminist activism without using feminist rhetoric, underground feminism challenges the notion that "subtle" feminism means weak feminism. In illustrating how underground feminism works in novels and in physical activism, I hope to encourage the recognition of the political utility of women's writings that do not fit the strict archetypes of feminist authorship. Analyzing the effectiveness of covert feminist conversion narratives, I discuss one soft consciousness-raising novel for each wave. The novels - Sarah Grand's The Heavenly Twins (1893), Dorothy Bryant's Ella Price's Journal (1972), and Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (1996) - accused by scholars of employing weak feminist politics, are investigated as feminist literature that disidentifies with the feminist label with the possibility of facilitating a wide spread conversion process in "would be" feminists. After analyzing how the novels place women's issues at the center of discourse by discussing female education, women's voice, and narrative control, I consider how the underground feminism implicit in the texts extends to activism outside of literature. I also end by arguing that these novels enable a more intricate conversation about women's issues in which the voices of both self-identified and non-identified feminists are recognized.

This purpose of this study is to investigate the apologetic rhetoric of professional athletes’ off-field scandals. The three case studies used were Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Phelps. A genre analysis was conducted to determine the success or failure of the speech by examining the image repair strategies used during the rhetoric. Further research revealed that the audiences’ perception plays a large role in determining if the rhetoric was successful or not. Two factors that aid the audience are the medium in which the public address was given, and the time it took to deliver the speech once the off-field scandal took place. The findings determined that Tiger Woods apologia was not successful, while Kobe Bryant’s was successful. The rhetoric of Michael Phelps’ speech lacked in delivery and strategies chosen. To have a successful apologia, one should have a clear use of strategies as well as a timely public address. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Collective memories of gay rights in the late 1970s offer a conflicted portrait of Anita Bryant, an infamous anti-gay personality who inspired, organized, or funded four anti-gay referendums between 1976 and 1978. I employ J. Jack Halberstam's concept of "metronormativity" in an analysis of campaigns that failed to preserve local gay rights laws in Miami and Eugene, the first and last of Bryant's four "target cities." I use L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz as a metaphor to compare the beginning of Bryant's role as a leader in Miami to her subsequent role as a specter of national controversy in Eugene. Gay rights leaders in Miami failed in terms of what this paper identifies as "queer localization," the ability to localize their ideas, claims, and needs to the voting majority. This failure, I argue, led to an inversion of metronormativity in which the outcome of the Eugene referendum affected gay politics in the larger city of Portland. I conclude with a comparison of Anita Bryant and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk that suggests both figures created a metronormative myth that can be understood critically in terms of leaving the Yellow Brick Road.

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