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<p> William Gibson is well known for his science fiction writing within the cyberpunk literary genre, which often evoke themes of economic disparity, environmental desolation, and the breakdown of the contracts between state and populace allowing corporate power to emerge dominant. In his most recent series of novels, commonly dubbed the Blue Ant trilogy, Gibson focuses on themes of national decay compounded by the real-time emergence of post-national corporate power that degrades or usurps control over borders, identities, and infrastructures.</p><p> My intent is to examine how Gibson's writing attempts to address the issue of the rise of post-national corporate power by singling out instances of anxiety in the white Western discursive sphere, and how Gibson's Blue Ant trilogy has difficulty addressing this anxiety due to a historically constituted, culturally imposed barrier that prevents both the narrative and the characters inside it from being able to articulate them. This essay further attempts to explore this barrier, best understood as a reinforcement of white, Western cultural hegemony, can be deconstructed and understood as a subjective position as opposed to a universal, and moved beyond it.</p>

This study examines Ayn Rand's fiction in relation to twentieth century literature and culture. Despite its linguistic potential, "The Fountainhead" is not good art and does not represent romantic fiction as Rand claims. It is truly her own reactionary prose which rebels against literary movements she hated such as naturalism. Rand's philosophy of Objectivism is really a right-wing form of Existentialism and Marxism. Ayn Rand and George Orwell both endured shocking life experiences which shaped their ideas and fiction. Rand learned extreme capitalism while Orwell learned skepticism. Rand's skeptical heroes are the most interesting of her canon. Rand's "The Fountainhead" is a blend of Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy of the Superman and the typical American capitalist hero. Gail Wynand, Rand's most Nietzschean character, is her true hero and Dominique is her true villain. Rand's fiction doesn't fit easily into any specific literary genres. Therefore, popular writers, such as Mickey Spillane and Edna Ferber may have been influenced by Rand. Furthermore, similar tendencies of her work can also be seen in choice literature novels of Simone deBeauvoir, Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates. As a capitalist novel, "The Fountainhead" sits among an unappreciated group of works by the literary establishment which should be understood-- if not embraced. The 1943 work portrays capitalist heroes without their loveable 'common man' aspect. Rand's capitalists are rebels with the American idea, that, in pursuit of their excessive selfish desires-- the sky's the limit. Randian heroes—anti-heroes of productive work, have continually re-emerged in American popular culture. Rand's fiction is popular because it's entertaining trash that Americans love. Loveable common man tycoons such as Bill Gates and the late Sam Walton have turned into the anti-heroic Don King and the late Ken Lay. Anti-heroic icons such as Gordon Gekko of the film "Wall Street", in the Randian tradition, show us the ugly but true side of American capitalist culture that is important for us to expose, admit and examine. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: October 30, 2006. / British Literature, American Culture, Ayn Rand, Twentieth century literature, Twentieth century culture, American Literature, Pop Culture, Popular literature, American Pop Culture / Includes bibliographical references. / Douglas Fowler, Professor Directing Dissertation; William Cloonan, Outside Committee Member; Caroline “Kay" Picart, Committee Member; John Fenstermaker, Committee Member.

This dissertation is a creative non-fiction manuscript following in the combined literary traditions of the American Captivity Narrative (e.g., Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl), Hélène Cixous's écriture feminine, and Gloria Anzaldúa's "autobiographical consciousness" (Irene Lara "Daughter of Coatlicue" 54). The project speaks to and for the common yet controversial reality in our society of the choices – for both natural mother and natural father – surrounding pregnancy. The project also provides an account of contemporary America's response to single-parenting between the years 2002 and 2006. Although the memoir is a personal investigation of pregnancy, abandonment-grief, birth, and mothering, this work is an act of transformation and healing that extends outward into the culture in that it is a textual moment of learning and knowing. The memoir is a process of interaction Anzaldúa would refer to as conocimiento: of writing self beyond self (Lara 44-45). / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: March 29, 2006. / Abandonment-grief, Single-mother, Pregnancy / Includes bibliographical references. / Sheila Ortiz-Taylor, Professor Directing Dissertation; Sally McRorie, Outside Committee Member; John Fenstermaker, Committee Member; Dennis Moore, Committee Member.

M. L. Rosenthal's 1959 labeling of Robert Lowell's Life Studies as "Confessional," initiated a debate about the literary value of autobiographical writing. At the center of this controversy was the taboo subject matter explored by the confessional poets: madness, sexuality, alcoholism, depression, and suicide. Another form of autobiographical writing which similarly polarizes audience despite being born in 1999 is the blog. In this study, I explore various shared traits between confessional poems of the 1960s and modern-day personal blogs and aim to demonstrate how we might read them both as part of the larger conversation about the culture of confession and the age of autobiography. This dissertation looks closely at works by three confessional poets, all of whose writing have recently experienced resurgence in popular culture—John Berryman, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton—and draws a parallel between characteristic traits in their works and contemporary blogging practices. I borrow Berryman's "Henry" from Dream Songs to illuminate the similarities between a poetic persona and an online avatar and argue that Berryman's broken syntax foreshadows the fragmentation of language at work in modern-day blogs. I regard Plath's contemporary cult following as an indicator of her acute audience awareness and explore how various Plath poems function as highly performative works of art intended to elicit a desired effect from readers. I compare Sexton's writing about taboo marital and maternal subjects to the recent phenomenon of mommyblogging and explain how Sexton's subversive poems paved the way for later women to engage in open, unapologetic life writing in blog communities. Ultimately, I argue for the reading of personal blogs as cultural artifacts and for the consideration of confessional blogs as a remediated American literary genre. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: March 22, 2010. / John Berryman, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Weblog, New Media / Includes bibliographical references. / Andrew Epstein, Professor Directing Dissertation; Aline Kalbian, University Representative; Kathleen Blake Yancey, Committee Member; Paul Outka, Committee Member; Leigh Edwards, Committee Member.

A collection of original poetry which often engages the twentieth-century American poetic strands of neo-surrealism and language writing. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2003. / Date of Defense: March 17, 2003. / Original Poetry / Includes bibliographical references. / David Kirby, Professor Directing Dissertation; Juan Carlos Galeano, Outside Committee Member; Bruce Bickley, Committee Member; James Kimbrell, Committee Member.

"Evoking the Salon: Eliza Haywood's The Female Spectator & The Conversation of Protofeminist Space" reads Eliza Haywood's 18th century periodical, The Female Spectator, as a reenactment of the feminocentric French salon within the discourse of print. Such a perspective reorients our perception of the periodical as a women's miscellany, making it, instead, a unified hetero-intellectual space that participates in polyvalent, protofeminist gender construction. My reading of The Female Spectator uses the salon model of discourse to argue for Haywood's deep interrogation of Addison and Steele's seminal periodical, The Spectator, Haywood's own subversively erotic novel, Love in Excess, and the conservative feminism of Mary Astell. In retracing these conversations, "Evoking the Salon" suggests we see Haywood's periodical as evoking a new 'republic of letters' in England, a legacy necessary for the formation of English feminist consciousness thereafter. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2010. / Date of Defense: June 24, 2010. / Salonniere, Protofeminist, Feminist Rhetoric, Eighteenth-century Periodical, Salon Rhetoric, Eliza Haywood, Conversational Rhetorica, Mary Astell, The Spectator, Addison and Steele, Love in Excess, Coffeehouse Rhetoric, Eighteenth-century Coffeehouse / Includes bibliographical references. / Helen Burke, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joyce Carbonell, University Representative; Candace Ward, Committee Member; Kathleen Blake Yancey, Committee Member.

Reforming the Politics of Sensibility: George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Tim Dorsey & the Narrative of Social Inaction maintains that key narrative modes in Twentieth Century political fiction are indebted to earlier manifestations in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century modes of sensibility in British fiction, and are likewise confronted by the socio-historical politics of these modes. These novels, stretching across time and geographical space, illustrate the continued pervasiveness of these modes and their role in the narrative of socio-political reform. Each chapter addresses a changing narrative relationship with sentimental politics and the implications of this shift on the fictional project of reform. Together, Orwell, Vonnegut, and Dorsey represent a trajectory of politically-oriented authors whose texts reflect the changing conflicts between reformative aims and sentimental modes. Each author's relationship to the sentimental sets the tone for the socio-political work of his novel. Although this critical reading may seem eclectic in mingling of sensibility, melodrama, satire, and postmodernism, the use of this critical work illustrates the important relationships between them. This thesis a collection of critical discourse that attempts to address the socio-political work of popular novels, and the complicated interaction of sentimentality, satire, and narrative within them. By examining sentimental modes through this selection of novels, this thesisdemonstrates the roll they continue to play in the political quietism so dissatisfying to critics of popular fiction / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2006. / Date of Defense: October 20, 2006. / Popular Fiction, Satirical Fiction, Florida Roadkill, Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1984, Mr Rosewater, God Bless You, Fredric Jameson, Elaine Hadley, Janet Todd, Charles Dickens Oliver Twist, Cognitive Mapping, Satire / Includes bibliographical references. / Barry Faulk, Professor Directing Thesis; Helen Burke, Committee Member; Leigh Edwards, Committee Member.

Playing House: Stories is a collection of short fiction submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MFA. Each story stands on its own and features a unique protagonist, but some commonalities in theme and subject matter extend across the collection. The stories realistically depict Americans in their twenties during the early twenty-first century. All of the stories involve characters in different stages of romantic relationships, from courtship to the aftermath of the relationship, and the characters struggle to communicate effectively. As the title of the collection suggests, many of the characters are also concerned with creating or maintaining a space that feels like home, a space which often proves to be provisional and elusive. The protagonist of the title story enters into an unusual domestic arrangement, temporarily moving in with a drug-dealer after leaving the apartment he previously shared with his girlfriend. "Yes, Deer" concerns an engaged couple attending a going-away party for a friend; the friend's upcoming departure heightens questions about the couple's future. In "The Lettuce is Always Greener at Mike's Subway," a young Subway employee longs to work at the Subway four blocks down the street, but she ends up waiting tables at a pizza place instead. The protagonist in "Popping Plastic" goes to a bar with his alcoholic brother-in-law while his wife works the evening shift as a phone actress. A pizza delivery driver attempts to find her bearings after she ends a confusing relationship in "Asleep at the Wheel." Inspired by personal experience and by the works of short fiction writers such as Richard Bausch, Eudora Welty, Tobias Wolff, Flannery O'Connor, Barry Hannah, ZZ Packer, Junot Díaz, and Steve Almond, this collection strives to depict each character with love and care, in stories that are engaging, humorous, and meaningful. Composing the stories was largely a process of discovering and developing the personality of the characters. Each story has undergone a long process of revision focused on crafting a narrative that lives up to the potential of the characters, providing opportunities for those characters to take memorable, if not always prudent, actions. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2009. / Date of Defense: March 20, 2009. / Fiction / Includes bibliographical references. / Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Professor Directing Thesis; Mark Winegardner, Committee Member; Virgil Suarez, Committee Member.