The poems in the following dissertation are centered on the theme of bodily transformations, from the involuntary changes of illness and aging to the voluntary ones of plastic surgery and gender reassignment. The poems in the dissertation signal the vast breadth of subject matter possible under this loose rubric, as the poems take up, sometimes tangentially and sometimes in a more straightforward manner, the transformations associated with tattooing, drug use, surgery, pregnancy, and even the quotidian acts of eating and sleeping. The poems engage both scientific discourse about the human body and religious and philosophical understandings of what the body is and how it functions, and many of the poems are concerned with the tensions and compatibilities among these ideas and seek to understand the human body as both a cultural and a natural entity. As the poems wrestle with the concept of the body as a form that is relatively static and yet constantly in flux, a form limited but liberating in its capacity for change, so too do they struggle with the constraints and freedoms of poetic form. The dissertation engages with several traditional poetic forms, particularly the sonnet, sometimes accepting the rigid definition that such forms can provide, and at other times mutating the forms to question the extent to which a form can be altered while remaining discernibly a part of a particular poetic tradition. Other poems in the dissertation take their formal cues from the human body itself, reacting to physical features and biological processes, in order to both contemplate and complicate the relationship between corporeal and poetic form. The poems in this dissertation are bound together by these thematic and formal concerns, as well as by a consideration of the language with which the human body has already been codified, not only in literary works, but also in scientific and theological discourse. While many of the poems appropriate language from these fields in their elaboration of the body, they also seek to transform much of the terminology they acquire and to interrogate the ways in which ways of naming the body and its various aspects influence both what the body is and how we perceive it. / 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 17, 2006. / Poetry, Human Anatomy, Biology, Ontology, Gender, Sexual Life, Feminism, Reproduction, Disease / Includes bibliographical references. / David Kirby, Professor Directing Dissertation; Brenda Cappuccio, Outside Committee Member; James Kimbrell, Committee Member; Barbara Hamby, Committee Member.

This thesis is composed of two parts and makes use of two literary genres: the traditional essay, and a literary form called fictocriticism developed by anthropologist Michael Taussig. Both are integrated in an exploration of the rural Black southern aesthetic—from a solely critical approach with the essay Zora Neale Hurston: Re-assessing the Black Southern Identity, to the analytical fiction advanced in Stone Mill Creek. Re-assessing the Black Southern Identity traces the origin and history of the aesthetic, arguing a case for its most celebrated advocate—novelist, anthropologist and ethnographer Zora Neale Hurston. She almost single-handedly preserved many of the southern folk idioms we treasure today; her novels and folklore collections are glowing examples of the rich, cultural legacy of the rural south. She would transcend the "cultural sanitizing" imposed by the Harlem Renaissance aristocracy by remaining true to her aesthetic inclination, but would die an "unremarked and controversial" figure in 1960. Due to a move from the "cultural correctness" of the 1920s and 30s to a sort of literary and cultural revival that defined the 60s and 70s, Hurston may have become one of the movement's largest benefactors. Both her works and clandestine-like lifestyle has become the source of intense scholarly review and has led to her newly appointed canonical status. The fictocritical work Stone Mill Creek combines four years of ethnographic study, historical accounts, local folklore traditions and cultural commentary in nonlinear narratives. The chapters trace the folk-lives of a "once upon a time" group of Black farmers who settled in the Florida panhandle around the 1820s and allows for more than a theoretical glance at the vernaculars, themes, ideals and symbols representative of those Hurston called "farthest down." The semi-fictive language in Stone Mill Creek is a living, breathing cultural artifact and however reductive, is another distinct, self-defined and documented voice of the Black southern identity. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 1, 2006. / Zora Neale Hurston, Black Southern Aesthetic / Includes bibliographical references. / Jerrilyn McGregory, Professor Directing Thesis; Christopher Shinn, Committee Member; Virgil Suaréz, Committee Member.

This study focuses on the foundational texts of Pakistan. Most theories of anticolonial nationalism have a strictly culturalist emphasis, of which the works of Partha Chatterjee and Benedict Anderson are two good examples. I suggest that politics and not culture was the main signifier of the post-1857 struggle of Indian Muslims. While the social, religious and ethno-linguistic ideologies became a part of the mobilizing discourse of the Muslim elite, the main problem was not cultural—for they had always a had a living thriving separate culture—but a question of political survival under a national structure run by non-Muslims. Unlike Europe, where nationalism succeeded as the prime signifier of a modern identity, within the realm of political Islam territorial nationalism was always a sort of arbitrary compromise and it was never able to erase completely the pan-Islamic tendencies of political Islam. The history of the Pakistan movement is a good example of this tension between the nationalist and supranational politics. For political Islam in India this movement from a supranational-pan-Islamic identity to the politics of nationalism was a fairly complicated negotiation. Starting from 1857—the formal end of the nominal Muslim rule—until 1947 these tensions between the nationalist elite and pan-Islamic movements played an important role in defining the pre-and post-independence character of the Muslim politics. The main problem was to define a viable political identity in order to create a physical public space where the Muslims could live their lives according to a political system controlled by Muslims. It is this search for a viable political identity that led to the nationalist movement of Pakistan. In the same process, however, there were two major divisions within the Muslim community: the political elite led by the secular All India Muslim League (AIML) and the popular movements spawned by the religious scholars. Texts of Nation primarily focuses on the national texts produced by the Muslims from 1857 to 1947. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2006. / May 12, 2006. / Pakistan, Novel, Postcolonial, Urdu, Nationalism / Includes bibliographical references. / Robin Goodman, Professor Directing Dissertation; Alec Hargreaves, Outside Committee Member; Hunt Hawkins, Committee Member; Christopher Shinn, Committee Member; Amit Rai, Committee Member.

This thesis argues that corporate practices of hegemony produce oppositional discourses on gender and sexuality through its appropriation and incorporation of feminist and queer fan discourses into television programming such as Xena: Warrior Princess. As a result, Xena: Warrior Princess can be read as a political site of struggle over the meaning of gender and sexuality. The destabilizing potential of these oppositional fan interpretations and practices, though, is simultaneously enabled and delimited to varying degrees by its situation within mass media institutions. In order to make this argument, my thesis is divided into three general sections, the first of which argues that the producers of Xena incorporated elements into the text from a wide variety of communities, particularly queer communities, in order to increase audience shares and profits. The second section examines how hegemonic and subaltern modes of gender and sexuality were negotiated within the text of Xena by framing the series within poststructuralist feminist debates and broadly arguing that attempts to fix the sexed and gendered identities of Xena's characters was undermined by the slippage of meaning enabled, but not totalized, by Xena's production practices. My final section concludes with a reconfiguration of the "active audience" by focusing upon the feedback loop between production and consumption practices in Xena, which positioned fans as forces that attempt to fix and ground interpretations of Xena rather than radically opening them. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2008. / March 26, 2008. / Active Audience, Fandom, Domestinormativity, Television, Gender, Feminist Media Studies, Poststructuralism, Political Economy, Gramsci, Hegemony, Television Studies, Queer Theory, Gender, Feminism, Xena, Synergy, Globalization, Fan Fiction / Includes bibliographical references. / Leigh Edwards, Professor Directing Thesis; Jennifer Proffitt, Committee Member; Caroline Joan Picart, Committee Member.

This is a collection of short stories in fulfillment of the Florida State University Ph.D. dissertation requirement. The collection contains eight stories. Its title is Catching Up: A Collection. The stories form a type of sequential narrative, in that they are ordered by the age of the protagonist. In the one story where there are three protagonists, an average of sorts is drawn. The collection, therefore, travels from childhood to old age, gaining what insights it may from each time period. In doing so, it crosses gender boundaries. All of the stories can be thought of as related to Florida in some manner, though in "Port and Starboard Liberty" the connection is somewhat tangential, and no attempt was made to treat Florida as a thematic element. Rather, the collection is heavily concerned with the problems inherent in the parent-child relationship and the consequences of lost love. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2003. / March 19, 2003. / Short Stories, Florida, Parent-Child Relationships / Includes bibliographical references. / Janet Burroway, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter Ruppert, Outside Committee Member; Mark Winegardner, Committee Member; Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Committee Member; Virgil Suarez, Committee Member.

In England in the autumn of 1678, a supposed Popish Plot to murder King Charles II and install his Catholic brother, James, the Duke of York, was uncovered. The country was immediately thrown into turmoil as fear of the Roman Catholic Church and its followers overtook England's citizens, particularly those residing in London. This fear and suspicion led to what is now known as the Exclusion Crisis of 1678-1681. As the political party known as the Whigs introduced bills in Parliament to exclude James from the throne, the rest of England's citizens were left with feelings of instability about the political future of their country. This thesis looks at the effects this time of turmoil had on London's theater and its playwrights. Using Aphra Behn's The Feign'd Curtizans; or A Night's Intrigue (1679), John Dryden's The Spanish Friar; or A Double Discovery (1680), and Thomas Shadwell's The Lancashire Witches, and Tegue O' Divelly the Irish Priest (1681) as examples, this work will argue that the political instability of the time, as well the changing nature of the audience of 1679-1681, largely affected the content of the plays written during this period, making the messages of those plays politically and religiously ambiguous / A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Fall Semester, 2003. / November 14, 2003. / Restoration Drama / Includes bibliographical references. / Helen Burke, Professor Directing Thesis; Candace Ward, Committee Member; Daniel Vitkus, Committee Member.

Gothic short fiction of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in England was immensely popular with readers of all social classes and incomes. This study examines the varying models of paternity in this short fiction, and addresses what those types of paternity (biological, adoptive, and Catholic) suggest about English social, political, and religious structures of the Romantic era. Biological paternity in these tales is a precursor to Victorian ideas of masculine degeneration, a warning to fathers who might be considering neglect of their natural duties of care and love in favor of "social monstrosity." There are no positive biological fathers in these texts, and all the fathers who behave improperly are punished by death or solitude. Fathers are encouraged to hold to the accepted, traditional English structure of masculinity and paternity that called for care of one's family through hard work and honesty. Adoptive paternity appears in a different way; because the very idea of adoption threatened the English patriarchal system of the late 1700s, adoption was stigmatized and was outside the law when these stories were written. The effects of this status in gothic short fiction are highly indicative of English national attitudes, solidifying the notion that adoption was a hazardous undertaking in almost all situations (both for the parents and children). Finally, Catholic paternity emphasizes the ideal of "England" in comparison to other European countries, specifically France, toward which the English were notably hostile and suspicious. When Catholics of all kinds appear in gothic short stories, they are objects of fear, scorn, and distrust, even if they perform a handful of good deeds. Thus, the paternal influence of Catholic priests is portrayed as a system of cruelty and greed. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 30, 2006. / Fatherhood, Adoption, Catholic, Gothic, Eighteenth Century, Romantic, Paternity, Short Story / Includes bibliographical references. / Eric Walker, Professor Directing Thesis; Barry Faulk, Committee Member; Meegan Kennedy Hanson, Committee Member.

This thesis uses existential-phenomenological theory to analyze two novels by William Faulkner: As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury. The critical texts applied are Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness and Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus. The idea of existential authenticity, absurdity, and closeness to God are the major concepts applied to Faulkner's work. The first chapter argues that the existential ideal of authenticity is displayed in the character Darl from As I Lay Dying. The second chapter argues that As I Lay Dying showcases man's endurance in an absurd, ambiguous, humiliating world; yet, man is still capable of heroism in a Sisyphean sense as the character Cash exemplifies. The third chapter argues that Benjy Compson from The Sound and the Fury phenomenologically represents Faulkner's character closest to Sartre's concept of God—a synthetic Being-In-Itself-Being-For-Itself contradiction while Quentin Compson represents the character who strives to be close to God. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Summer Semester, 2009. / May 18, 2009. / As I Lay Dying, Faulkner, Compson Bundren, Quentin, Cash, Darl, Benjy, Authenticity, Being-for-Itself, Being-in-Itself, Camus, Sartre, Existential, The Sound and the Fury, absurd, God, Sisyphus / Includes bibliographical references. / Diane Roberts, Professor Directing Thesis; Peter Dalton, Committee Member; Meegan Kennedy Hanson, Committee Member.

This study analyzes how female characters can achieve their desires, in the following texts: Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur, Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale," and Marie de France's "Lanval". Building on the theories of Michel de Certeau and Helene Cixious, this study focuses on power and gender relations. / 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 18, 2007. / Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Malory, Medieval Literature, Marie de France / Includes bibliographical references. / Nancy Warren, Professor Directing Thesis; David Johnson, Committee Member; Elaine Treharne, Committee Member.

This dissertation studies self-representation, maternity, and social critique in the work of nineteenth-century working-class Scottish women poets. I focus on books of poetry by Janet Little (1759-1792), Christian Milne (1773-1820?), Susanna Hawkins (1787-?), and Janet Hamilton (1795-1873), while also contextualizing each poet's work in relationship to the publications of other working-class British women poets of the nineteenth century. I agree with Judith Rosen's revision of Donna Landry's argument in The Muses of Resistance. Rosen asserts that she observes "strategic affirmation" in working-class women's verse where Landry observes "dissolution and defeat" in poetry of the nineteenth-century. In this dissertation, I propose that each poet's treatment of maternity, self-representation, and social critique reflects "strategic affirmation." Each volume affirms the poet's authority as a social critic, while also emphasizing her gender-appropriate perspective through maternal sympathy, or a related form of feeling for a child. Each working-class woman poet also claims a space for self-representation and creates a self-portrait which includes her life experience, creative inspiration, and personal beliefs. This strategy shapes each volume into a collection of poems which would be acceptable to nineteenth-century readers, especially important given each poet's unstable position as a working-class woman. In the first chapter in this study, "Janet Little and Working-Class Publication: Setting the Stage," I argue that the content and publication history of Janet Little's The Poetical Works of Janet Little, The Scotch Milkmaid (1792) sets the stage for the study of nineteenth-century Scottish working-class women's poetry. Little frequently represents her self in relationship to Robert Burns and negotiates her gender and class identities. Little's representation of maternal sympathy includes a poem which expresses concern and hypothetical guardianship for an aristocratic child patron. Little also critiques pressures of courtship and marriage in her insightful portrayals of upper-class young women. I propose that Little's critique of class and gender constraints affirms her authority as an observer of upper-class women's concerns in addition to her insight into working-class women's struggles, as revealed through her Burns poems. In Chapter Two, "The Artless Muse: The Poetry of Christian Milne," I argue that Milne's single published book of poetry, Simple Poems on Simple Subjects (1805), includes "strategic affirmation" in Milne's complex, often contradictory portrayals of self, maternity, and social critique. Milne's poems frequently address patrons, critics, and potential supporters in the middle- and upper classes. Milne's shifting tone reveals her complex relationships to her class superiors and her strategic approach in addressing each of them. One significant event which emphasizes the different eras of Little's and Milne's publications is Burns's death. Little addresses Burns as a living contemporary, whom she briefly met, greatly admires, and with whom she shares a patron. Milne addresses the "shade" of Burns after his death, which allows Milne freedom to critique his behavior and poetry. The preface to Milne's book of poetry also includes the strategic presentation of working-class women's verse, which affirms Milne's class and gender and seeks to reassure readers of her appropriate behavior according to both identity categories. I propose that intersections of maternity and social critique in Milne's volume are significant, including a poem in which Milne urges her daughter to read, self-educate, and pursue ambitions which result from her education. In Chapter three, "'Nature stood still': The Poetry of Susannah Hawkins," I argue that Hawkins's personifications of moral binaries and brief sketches of maternal sympathy and self-representation reflect the significance of her precarious class and gender position and the volatile cultural moment during which her volume was published in 1827. Hawkins writes poems of concern for middle- and upper-class ladies and gentlemen, and in one poem, "Lines on a Gentleman's Son," she expresses concern for an upper-class child. This likely provided her nineteenth-century readers with evidence of Hawkins's potential maternal sympathy although she was not a mother, reassuring her readers of her gender-appropriate concerns. Hawkins's poems vacillate between strategic descriptions of moral abstractions in rural scenes and her concern for various members of the royal family and several other ladies and gentlemen. Her volume also includes a brief prose introduction which forms a significant moment of self-representation. Although Hawkins's volume frequently defers to those in the middle- and upper-classes, the prose introduction creates a small yet vivid self-portrait of the working-class poet. In Chapter Four, "'Where there's a will there is ever a way!': The Poetry of Janet Hamilton," I argue that Hamilton's multiple volumes, published from the 1860's through the 1880's, include a significant range of political and personal concerns and publication histories crucial to our understanding of working-class women's poetry. Many of Hamilton's poems and essays vehemently condemn the effects of alcohol and advocate temperance. In addition to temperance, Hamilton also portrays the hardships of her physical labor as a tambourer (embroiderer) in "A Lay of the Tambour Frame," an examination of the physical realities of working-class life and their toll on the individual. Hamilton's volumes delve into the destructive effects of the rapid industrialization in her community and the struggle for working-class men's and women's rights, yet she also critiques national and international political injustices. In Chapter Five, "Between the Poet and the Public: Edwards's Anthology and Late-Century Publication Practice," I argue that the critical arrangement and content of working-class women's poetry in Edwards's anthology, published between 1880 and 1897, reflects the persistent popularity and circulation of working-class women poets' work throughout the century. Edwards's introductions often describe the poet's devotion to her domestic duties in addition to her creative impulses, and her contentment with her "simple" way of life. The working-class women's poetry included in the anthology reveals "strategic affirmation," from conventional explorations of maternity to social critique focused on poverty and workhouse conditions. Edwards's editorial mediation limits the range of expression of the working-class women poets he includes although his anthology reflects the prominence of working-class women poets in mid- to late-nineteenth century Scottish culture. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2008. / June 10, 2008. / Women Poets, Class / Includes bibliographical references. / Eric Walker, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ailine Kalbian, Outside Committee Member; Helen Burke, Committee Member; Candace Ward, Committee Member.