The aim of this essay is to analyze the concept of rugged individualism in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. This paper will also examine the American Dream since rugged individualism is related to the American Dream. Marxist criticism problematizes rugged individualism and the American Dream. The title character Jay Gatsby is portrayed as an exemplary rugged individualist. Gatsby shows several traits of rugged individualism and he can be used as a representative for both rugged individualism and the American Dream.

Chapter one provides a multifaceted panorama of the Genoese community in medieval Seville that helps to link Francisco Imperial, an early 15th century poet, to a group of foreigners and naturalized Castilian subjects who, despite their marginality, contributed greatly to the kingdom's emergence as a global superpower by the end of the Middle Ages. Chapter two examines materialist and scientific dream theories from the classical, medieval and contemporary periods side by side, yielding a complementary platform from which to plumb the depths of dream vision texts. The third and fourth chapters place Imperial's most important poem, his Dezir a las siete virtudes (c. 1407) within the spiritually vital literary tradition of the dream vision, a genre with roots in classical antiquity and early Christian accounts of otherworld journeys. An examination of several representative Western European, Islamic and Castilian literary dream visions in Chapter 3 and of Imperial's Dezir in Chapter 4 is grounded in the insightful theoretical perspectives on the genre developed by Kathryn Lynch, Paul Piehler and Robert McMahon. The fourth and final chapter also offers a biographical sketch of Francisco Imperial and an overview of the Imperiale family that are based in part on original documentation, allowing a new vantage point from which to appreciate the rich life circumstances that gave birth to a uniquely resonant poetic voice.

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The American Dream is an established theme in much American literature from the beginning to the present. In dealing with this major theme, three critics, Leo Marx, Henry Nash Smith, and R. W, B. Lewis have evolved a cohesive definition of this complex and ambiguous vision. Three major components define the Dream: a pastoral dream of a new, fertile Eden, a success dream of financial prosperity, and a dream of world brotherhood to be realized in the new continent. These three components are examined individually in three novels by Bernard Malamud, A New Life, The Natural, and The Assistant. In these novels, Malamud asserts the failure of the American Dream, but envisions the rise of a new humanity and morality that could lead to the salvation of the American people and to a time where dreams could be reborn.

The following poems are meditations which deal with the experience of sleep—or, more accurately, a sort of fear of sleep, sleep disorder(s), and control, or a lack thereof.

In this poetry collection, I explore the intersections between reality, dream, myth, and memory. It begins with “The Accident,” a narrative poem recounting the event that throws the speaker into an anxiety-filled dream-world. The speaker is haunted by the image of the deer that killed her father, an image that takes several forms and personae throughout, but occurs mostly in the fallible landscape of dream. The tones of these dreams penetrate the speaker’s waking life, and she finds herself more and more incapable of separating the dreams from reality. The speaker begins to search elsewhere for answers—divination, history, art, myth—but the landscapes are always off, always de-familiarized by dream. In the conclusion of the manuscript, the speaker loses all sense of self and becomes the symbol with which she has been so obsessed, unable to wake from the final dream.

Thesis advisor: Danielle Hedegard / There are an estimated 150,000 Brazilians currently in the state of Massachusetts living, working, and living as immigrants in the “nation of immigrants” (McDonnell and de Lourenco, 2009; p. 241). The population often goes unnoticed, lost among a sea of immigrants in the landscape of Massachusetts. Occupying sub jobs, these Brazilian immigrants very often lose their status, and voices in the process of immigration to the United States. Over time, many Brazilians are able to achieve economical and occupational success in Massachusetts and decide to make the United States their home. Guided by the research questions: “How do Brazilian immigrants’ perceptions of the American Dream change with respect to reality and their lived experiences?” and “What are the lived experience of Brazilian immigrants?” I intend to understand this transition from temporary immigrant to permanent resident, and how the American Dream plays into these shifting expectations. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology.

This thesis examines the role of conventions of setting in Chaucerian dream poetry. Setting, by my definition, refers not only to the physical features of landscape in these dreams, such as bedchambers and gardens, but also the position of the genre of dream poetry itself within wider literary contexts. I argue that conventions of setting, familiar themes or locations which create expectations in the reader about the content of the dream itself, provide a valuable and largely overlooked perspective upon the genre of Chaucerian dream poetry. By paying close attention to the way that conventions of setting are combined and altered in the landscapes of Chaucerian dream poetry, we can understand more fully the lines of authorial influence that shape the genre, particularly by considering conventional settings such as the temple of glass that are used by a number of different dream poets in differing contexts. Moreover, by considering the dream in its broader setting or context, as autobiographical reflection, mnemonic device, and simultaneous lament for the ephemeral nature of literature and attempt to preserve oneself for posterity, I argue that we can better understand the nature of the genre as a whole. Throughout, I offer an understanding of the Chaucerian dream poem not only as it was written, but also as it was read and responded to, both by contemporary authors and readers, and later critics.

This PhD by practice is an attempt to understand personal archives through filmmaking, and the kind of knowledge we can extract from them as well as how we can connect them to a wider social and political context. These questions are the core of my research and are explored in their different ways through both the film/practice and dissertation. I have chosen to make a film about my absent grandfather and his lost relationship with my mother during Fascist Portugal between the 1940s and the 1960s. Family archives have been largely used in films as a way of documenting realities, in the same way as any other public archival footage. In this instance, I tried to explore family and official archives acknowledging their contradictions and omissions with a view to finding a new “way of knowing” that is more closely connected to our emotions. I believe we all own a family archive regardless of its form. I named this archive “the subjective archive” and in it, I include physical archives such as paper documents, photographs and films, as well as a more intangible archive, which includes our memories, the stories we tell and listen to (oral history) and our dreams. The progression of the film is closely related to my journey as I become immersed in the story and learn things through many layers of archive documents. As a conclusion, I argue that these invisible elements of the subjective archive contain truth independent of their indexical nature, whereas physical documents can mislead us.

Placing archetypal "underdogs" or "losers" in the roles of protagonists allows and encourages the viewer to identify with them or understand them as an idealized Other, though the audience may differ from the failure protagonist in social class, gender, or any other condition. In film, one of the most persuasive and ubiquitous media of the 20th century, underdog and weakling characters germinated in early popular comedies such as those by Charlie Chaplin and the other silent clowns. Using Chaplin's filmography to illustrate the underdog's ironic supremacy, this thesis aims to unravel the initial values and expectations inherent in Hollywood underdog comedy films, trace these components to their paradoxical political and economic roots, and draw conclusions on their social and economic consequences.