This creative thesis tells how, in the summer of 2005, the author'a malingering grad student who had already overstayed his welcome in a vain five-year attempt to forge a novel'drove the entire length of the United States along Interstate 10 (with brief forays off it, into St. Augustine and Roswell), with the original intention of stealing an unloved, obscure novel from every major city while "learning nothing of value." Instead, after meeting a remarkable series of friendly and often crazy people--and facing a near catastrophic financial breakdown--he realizes that he has found his place in the world, has a clearer understanding of religion and faith, and he emerges with a greater knowledge of what he wants in the future. This all comes as a sheer surprise. And much of it is purportedly funny. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2011. / March 16, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / Mark Winegardner, Professor Directing Dissertation; Neil Jumonville, University Representative; Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Committee Member; Julianna Baggott, Committee Member.

The following poems are variations on the personal narrative poem. Most clearly influenced by the post-confessional lyric poets, who continue to introduce hitherto-taboo subject matter in the manner of the confessional poets but who have also transformed the use of the personal by bringing lyric strategies to bear on autobiographical material, I, too, use the strategies which Gregory Orr articulates as an implementation of Eros, Sympathy, Symbol, and Proportionate Ego; subsequently, these poems work to display the lyric longing for transcendence and enact the dramatic premise that this world's forces upon a being create it. My father and mother continue to figure prominently in these poems, and, now married, I explore both the beauty of such intimacy as well as the interspersed relational angst. Though I write largely about or with my own experience in mind, a number of these poems are also attempts at social portraiture or persona poems that explore another's experience. My dissertation is comprised of writing that attempts to exteriorize the interior (as Marianne Moore declared of Elizabeth Bishop's writing; she exemplifies this aesthetic and, as such, is one of my models) while allowing a profound sense of the personal to be a connector to human experience at large: therefore, poems of illness and healing, both psychological and physical; poems of desperation, in response to war and other circumstances of reality, as well as the stark understanding that language fails us'or we fail it; love poems, many and many of them, of motley sorts, offer a thematic under girding to these poems of the complexity of a living that both breaks us and is broken by us. The simultaneous and often paradoxical theme also present in these poems is that recognizing beauty, delight, and joy should not, perhaps cannot, be neglected or excluded from the human experience. Given these multiple aims, my work seeks to abide in W.H. Auden's assertion that the role of poetry is not emotional transport or political transformation but the perception of truth and the affirmation of an imperfect world. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2007. / March 23, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. / David Kirby, Professor Directing Dissertation; Amy Koehlinger, Outside Committee Member; James Kimbrell, Committee Member; Barbara Hamby, Committee Member; Nancy Warren, Committee Member.

This study places the experiences of administrators and teachers of English as a Second Language and composition at five community colleges in North Florida within the three larger contexts of the field of ESL composition, the community college, and ESL students' own experiences. Six 'gaps' are identified from the research results ' sites at which ESL students are subject to fall through the cracks of the systems of instruction that are currently in place. A solution for bridging these gaps is proposed as well, with specific discussion regarding the ways in which the solution would bridge each of the six gaps while benefiting administrators, teachers, and students alike. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Fall Semester, 2007. / July 27, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. / Kathleen Yancey, Professor Directing Thesis; Michael Neal, Committee Member; Bruce Bickley, Committee Member.

My thesis 'Swamp Fire' began with the essay of the same name. After I wrote this essay, I decided to do a nonfiction thesis and began asking my family questions. I wanted to know about my parents' struggles, about how we ended up where we did. The answers often surprised me and created new questions. I learned about the lives of my parents, then grandparents, then great grandparents and as the pieces came together, I realized that my family history is much richer than what I had assumed. There is still so much to say, so much to write and perhaps my initial vision was too ambitious for a thesis. As of now, my thesis works as a beginning, a draft, a road map to what will become a much longer manuscript. 'Swamp Fire' is the thesis version of the book I want to write about my family. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts. / Summer Semester, 2008. / July 2, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. / Diane Roberts, Professor Directing Thesis; David Kirby, Committee Member; James Kimbrell, Committee Member.

This project is an attempt to reinvestigate the concept of subalternity in the context of the information age while building its foundation on the previous contentions offered by such critics as Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Spivak. Tracing from the culture of hacking, this project focuses on two types of resistive movement'hacktivism and the open source movement to raise particular problems in thinking about subalternity in the information age. Focusing on a hacktivist group called the Electronic Disturbance Theater, Chapter One sets forth the idea of a non-linear subaltern resistance. With its form of 'polyspatial resistance,' the Electronic Disturbance Theater seeks to merge 'off-' and 'on-line' sites of resistance in representing the 'off-line' subalterns. Drawing on the concept of noise in information theory, I expose the non-linear qualities and limitations of their subaltern movement. Chapter Two concentrates on the open source movement in Indonesia to locate the affective capacities on the formation of the subaltern. This chapter also raises the attention to the biopolitical concern of the subalterns by introducing the concept of subaltern habit. Taken together, the analysis of hacktivism and the open source movement has experimented to move away from the concern of representation in the studies of the subalterns and to perceive the subalterns as assemblages of affective forces of power offered most prominently by Gilles Deleuze where one perceives agency as an emergent characteristic. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Summer Semester, 2008. / June 20, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. / Amit S. Rai, Professor Directing Thesis; Christopher Shinn, Committee Member; Kathleen B. Yancey, Committee Member.

New or evolving stage technologies such as squibs, cranes, pulleys, cannons, trap doors, and other apparatuses all contributed to the rise in popularity of what I refer to as an effects-driven "theater of the senses" in early-modern England. Early modern theater and science shared a common interest in the performance of effects. The performance of these effects elevated the role of the senses in both theater and experimental culture. While demonstrating the diverse ways in which technology was employed on the early-modern stage (in the works of Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Johnson), A Theater of the Senses argues that the phenomenology of theatrical performance is a crucial context within which we can better understand the experimental culture of the seventeenth century. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / May 22, 2013. / effects, phenomenology, Renaissance, senses, technology, theater / Includes bibliographical references. / Elizabeth Spiller, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert Crew, University Representative; Bruce Boehrer, Committee Member; Gary Taylor, Committee Member.

This qualitative research study examined whether or not reflection facilitates transfer. While scholars have addressed the role that transfer may play in the composition classroom (e.g. Beaufort 2007), none has addressed the role of reflection as a deliberate, systematic practice to assist students in transferring knowledge and practice to other contexts. Using Schon's and Yancey's contention that reflection allows people to 'theorize [their] own practices' so that they can improve their work, this research uses case study methodology to analyze the experience of six participants'3 male and 3 females'that were in enrolled in a first-year composition course designed specifically to teach for transfer. The course, called teaching for transfer, incorporates three reflective components'reflective theory, reflective assignments, and reflective activities'in systematic, intentional, and explicit ways. By using a triangulation of the instructor's teaching journal, a set of four interviews and an exit survey, and the students' reflection-in-presentation, this study charted five themes that emerged from the data, including the role of prior knowledge and current attitude, a response to external benchmarks, the influence of key terms, and the influence of a student's theory of writing, and the difficulty of transfer. The findings from these themes indicate that students use reflection as a means to look backwards so they can progress forward in their writing; that reflection becomes a key term students use in their writing practices; and that systematic reflection becomes a reiterative practice encouraging the students to identify themselves as reflective writing practitioners as a way to promote transfer. Further analysis provides the ways reflection does foster the transfer of knowledge and practices from the first- year composition class to other academic writing sites, and drawing from the teaching from transfer course, recommendations for including reflection in first-year composition course design are also included. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2011. / June 8, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / Kathleen Blake Yancey, Professor Directing Dissertation; Shelbie Witte, University Representative; Kristie Fleckenstein, Committee Member; Leigh Edwards, Committee Member.

This thesis is a novel. It is the story of Frank, a pickpocket who moonlights as a children's magician. He falls in love with Nasya who is a volunteer at a hospice for children with horrible and strange diseases. The book follows their relationships as well as the people around them and the city in which they live. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts. / Fall Semester, 2009. / September 28, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Olen Butler, Professor Directing Thesis; Diane Roberts, Committee Member; S.E. Gontarski, Committee Member.

The West End, a novel set in Vancouver, Canada in the years directly preceding the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, is the story of two sisters, Claire and Hannah Stephen, whose love of art and the environment is challenged by the aggressive and sometimes destructive business ethic of the Wongs, a nouveau riche family from Hong Kong. When the Wongs tear down the Stephens' old family home and replace it with a 'monster house,' a struggle between the families ensues. Nonetheless, the possibility of romance slowly burgeons between Claire and Mark Wong. Through the clash of values, the novel dramatizes the fate of Vancouver at the end of the millennium when a booming economy, skyrocketing housing prices, and rapidly accelerating immigration conspired to change the city forever, and through the precarious relationship between Claire and Mark, the novel asks the often unasked questions that arise at the intersection of race and love. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 20, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Olen Butler, Professor Directing Dissertation; Aaron Feng Lan, Outside Committee Member; Mark Winegardner, Committee Member; Christopher Shinn, Committee Member; Barry Faulk, Committee Member.

This project presents a theoretical and practical examination of the term "videogame-infused pedagogy," as defined through its use of videogames in the composition classroom, connections to the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing, James Gee's research, and Ian Bogost's notion of procedurality. By presenting a series of pedagogical materials and approaches to using videogames without cost or stringent hardware requirements, this project presents an approach to bringing videogames into the composition classroom by focusing on sustainability and applicability across a range of contexts. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 24, 2013. / Bogost, Framework, Gee, Infused, Pedagogy, Videogame / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael Neal, Professor Directing Thesis; Kristie Fleckenstein, Committee Member; Paul Fyfe, Committee Member.