The thesis paper focuses on the American suburbia, which is understood as an important social and cultural concept which plays a key role in the cultural history of America. The paper defines the basic characteristics and components of the utopian myth of the modern suburbs, such as the pastoral ideal, the notion of deliberate withdrawal from the urban areas, the role of the community or the focus on family togetherness. These concepts are traced in the American cultural history, especially in the idealized legacy of the early settlers and early Puritan communities. The development of the usage and depiction of these cultural concepts in the literary fiction of the period between the 1950s and 80s is then traced in the texts of three major American chroniclers of the suburban life - John Cheever, John Updike, and Raymond Carver. The social context and the historical development of the suburbs are also taken into consideration.

On July 8th, 1980, Raymond Carver wrote an impassioned letter to his editor, Gordon Lish, begging him to cancel the publication of what would soon become Carver’s minimalist masterpiece, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Carver argues in his letter that Lish’s heavily-edited versions of his original stories were bound to cause Carver's death. Despite his anxieties, Carver’s authorial demise didn’t come until 2009, 21 years following his physical death, when the unedited versions of the What We Talk About stories appeared in a posthumous collection called Beginners. Beginners excises Lish’s excisions, exposing a Raymond Carver at odds with his minimalist identity. The “restored” text also displaces Carver as the sole author of his work. We learn from Carver’s effacement that any cultural construction of an author is an erroneous effigy. Beginners exemplifies how textual restorations deflate cultural myths as they work with original texts to enrich our understanding

An urban community is a fusion of new and old that is constantly changing. We understand better the plight of a community through raising awareness of its unique history and visual character. Linking individual and community experiences offers an opportunity for dialogue, especially as long-time residents and their new neighbors learn about their different pasts and explore their common future. Community building happens from within, when many individuals sharing common values create positive change.

Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Literatura / La sociedad norteamericana desde los años 60 en adelante muestra claros signos de postmodernidad. Los individuos alienados en sus trabajos desgastantes buscan solucionar sus pequeñas realidades domésticas y familiares. El escapar de esta encrucijada es prácticamente imposible. Solo el consumo se presenta como una forma de escape fácil, desechable. Están solos frente a sus mínimas existencias y pesadas cargas, ya que los grandes relatos que los podrían haber sostenido han perdido credibilidad pues se han desplomado con el peso de sus propias contradicciones. Sin embargo, se presenta un elemento de salvación en estas apesadumbradas vidas, la renovadora naturaleza, a la cual se dirigen para alivianar un poco el peso de sus realidades. El escritor estadounidense Raymond Carver dejó este legado en sus cuentos cortos, los cuales presentan estas mismas señales, a través de un modo simple, directo, utilizando imágenes en movimiento tal cual es el lenguaje de sus personajes, todos miembros de la clase trabajadora. Esta investigación propuso encontrar y encontró signos de postmodernidad literaria en los cuentos de Carver, tales como la utilización de recursos característicos de este movimiento, como la rapidez de las imágenes que suceden unas tras otras en perpetuos presentes obligando al lector a la posterior reconstrucción de las historias. Por otro lado, la intertextualidad con sus propios poemas o cuentos así como el uso de registros lingüísticos típicos de la clase trabajadora. Todos estos elementos, y más aun, han sido encontrados en la presente investigación.

No description available.

MASTERS School of English Student No: 9910994F / Literary criticism on the short fiction of Raymond Carver investigates frequently the narrative omissions whereby Carver renders the plight of middle and lower class America. Neither exclusively formal nor exclusively thematic critiques of Carver’s short stories explicate adequately the purposes and effects of these narrative omissions. This study, which is framed by Wolfgang Iser’s reader-response theories of ‘negation and ‘negativity’, and Michael Fried’s notion of aesthetic ‘absorption’, provides a formal and thematic reading of eight of Carver’s stories. This study argues that the reader’s investments in these omissions generate various indices of sympathetic identification. In tandem with such an inquiry, this study also examines the apparent antagonism between the realist and postmodernist strains discernible across Carver’s narratives. This antagonism is caused by Carver’s omissions, which simultaneously create the illusion of mimetic transparency and negate this transparency. The omissions that operate across Carver’s stories make the reader conscious not only of how he or she interprets the author’s words, but also how he or she interprets the world. Carver’s neo-realism, this study proposes, therefore has a far greater potential for social realism than traditional modes of realist representation.

Thesis (M.Phil.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

Community college boards of trustees are faced with the awesome responsibility of governing complex systems and responding to conventional organizational challenges. One Texas board of trustees was faced with the inconceivable challenge of regaining the trust of its district and the community after questionable circumstances surrounding the resignation of the chancellor, indictments of two board members and the former chairman of the board, and other behavior that although not illegal, was unethical and morally corrupt. This study looks at the transformation of a community college board over a two-year period, from a state of organizational disarray to seeking community support for a $450 million bond package. The research chronicles the transition by comparing and contrasting the accounts of what transpired, with the principles of chaos theory, transformational leadership and the John Carver Policy Governance® Model. For an entity in organizational chaos, a commitment to transform is needed to ultimately reach the point where it can adopt governance principles to provide the foundation for effective leadership, such as those espoused by the Carver model. Change must occur and the success or failure of an organization or system depends on how effective the leadership is at identifying challenges and working with them to create opportunities. When an organization approaches chaos and the need for changes with trepidation, progress and success are improbable. It is the understanding that order emerges from chaos that leads to a renewed mindset; a mindset that looks beyond traditional structures and embraces flexibility, innovation and creativity. The resolve of the trustees to regain public trust and support has served as the impetus to implement the changes needed to govern the district effectively. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DXN095779.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2008. / Abstract. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-250).