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Categorized by the few critics who know her work as a "minor" Appalachian writer, Anne Wetzell Armstrong has never enjoyed the recognition she deserves. But she produced an important body of work, including fiction, non-fiction and drama. In the 1970‘s, critic Elaine Showalter led the gynocritical effort to recover women writers and inspired the reintroduction of a number of overlooked authors. This national impulse and the positive reception of its results has driven, in turn, an interest in similar regional efforts—hence my own interest in recovering the work of Armstrong, whose work has value in both national and regional contexts. This study applies a regionalist lens to Armstrong‘s fiction, including an early short story entitled "Half-Wit Mary‘s Lover" (1912), and her two novels: The Seas of God (1915) and This Day and Time (1930). The project begins with Armstrong‘s biography, outlining the elements of her long and unusual life that influenced her writing. The three regionalist close readings point out the ways in which her fiction resisted hegemonic culture and offered a new perspective to early twentieth-century American readers. This project explores the ways in which Armstrong used her fiction to resist dominant culture‘s view of marginal populations, with a particular emphasis on the stereotyping of women and Southern mountaineers. Because Armstrong‘s considerable body of work focuses frequently on marginal women, the temptation exists to adhere strictly to a feminist lens in reading her work. Such an approach proves valid; however, the lens of literary regionalism—especially as defined by critics like Judith Fetterley and Marjorie Pryse and differentiated from local color by its counterhegemonic agenda—offers a broader consideration of Armstrong‘s work. As a site for feminist readings, Armstrong‘s work proves interesting but stands as one among many; as regionalism, her fiction offers important new opportunities both to support and to problematize current thinking about the definition of the term as it applies to literature and also to explore certain controversial topics arising in the theoretical discourse, the role of feminism being one of those topics.

This study examines the short fiction of Mark Twain in relation to major theories concerning the short story genre. Despite his popularity as a novelist and historical figure, Twain has not been recognized as a major figure in the development of the short story genre. This study attempts to show that the short fiction produced by Twain deserves greater regard within studies specific to the short story, and calls for a reconsideration of Twain as a dynamic figure in the development of the genre. The introductory chapter lays the groundwork for understanding how the short story genre has developed since its inception as an actual literary genre, and outlines the existing Twain scholarship concerning his short fiction. Differences between the traditional and modern forms of the short story are defined, and Twain's chronological position in the evolution of the genre is briefly explained. Chapter one examines two of Twain's short stories—"The $30,000 Bequest" and "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg"—in relation to the compositional theories of the first major short story theorist: Edgar Allan Poe. This chapter shows how these two Twain stories abide by Poe's rules concerning unity of effect. Chapter two explores Twain's "Journalism in Tennessee" and "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" in relation to the modern short story, and examines these two stories through the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of genre. This chapter closely examines Twain's use of various dialects to show that these two stories contain an unrealized complexity and are very closely related to the ostensibly "plotless" short fiction that developed in the twentieth century. The final chapter takes Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger" and examines it with respect to both old and new theories of the short story genre. This chapter shows how "The Mysterious Stranger" fuses both traditional and modern forms of the short story genre. The conclusion to this chapter reiterates the argument for a greater appreciation of Twain as a short story artist.

Flannery O' Connor has long been an established southern writer of the mid-twentieth century. This paper discusses briefly the tenets of both Modernism and Post-Modernism as literary movements of the twentieth-century, then looks specifically at how O'Connor's fiction makes her a key hallmark figure in the movement known as Post-Modernism, but also as one of the first female southern writers to utilize very anti-Romantic themes and style. Further, this paper attempts to examine through a discussion of various contemporary male and female southern writers the depth of O'Connor's influence on their own works. Attention is also given to the differences found in voice, theme and tone between southern contemporary male and female writers today, and explanations are offered as to why these marked differences exist.

This dissertation investigates the works of two Black female writers: Flora Nwapa(African and Nigerian) and Zora Neale Hurston (African American). Although theycome from different geographical regions, both writers use the same rchetypal patterns to create strong female protagonists. By characterizing protagonists in their novels from an African religious cultural perspective, both authors dismantle the stereotypical images of how black women are typically portrayed in fiction. Using Jung's theory of the collective unconscious and archetypal criticism the study finds that both authors create black female protagonists who are wise, resilient, decisive, courageous, independent, and risk-taking; the women who, through their self-discovery journeys, are neither defined by nor in oppositional relationships with the males in their lives. The study compares how the qualities of two archetypal goddesses, Uhamiri of the Igbo cosmology and Oya of the Yoruba cosmology, are personified through the personalities of the two female protagonists in Nwapa's Efuru and Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, respectively. Using strong mythical females as templates, this research explores the ways in which the authors have defined their female characters, thus providing an alternative strategy for defining and analyzing black female characters in fiction. The study asserts that literary interpretation of Africana women should include the cultural realities associated with the African religious framework in order to capture the full essence of their humanity. In addition, African feminist thought, unlike Western feminist theory, provides a more realistic model of discourse on Africana women's selfidentity. Examining Africana women from these perspectives, as opposed to analyzing them based on European standards, is an effective method of discrediting stereotypical images that continue to plague the portrayal of black women in fiction. When black women in fiction are explored from this vantage point, the literary work sends a message of cultural authenticity and preservation that elevates Africana women, expanding their functions and positions in society beyond traditional roles.

The distribution of wealth occurs frequently in Mark Twain's novels, especially at the resolution. Indeed, Twain uses wealth as resolution in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Pudd'nhead Wilson. The repeated use of this formula in the author's approach to novel writing indicates the tremendous influence that capitalism had in shaping his worldview. In his early works, Twain appears to endorse capitalism in his use of wealth as resolution. Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, and Huckleberry Finn each conclude with the distribution of capital as a reward to the protagonists and as an effective solution to conflicts presented throughout the texts. However, the tone of Pudd'nhead Wilson is decidedly different. This later novel ends with wealth as resolution, but the result is not the happiness granted to characters in Twain's previous works. Instead, the fates of Tom Driscoll, Chambers, and Roxy leave the reader with a sense of the inadequacy of capitalism. Twain's change in his approach reveals a rejection of bourgeois values. An examination at the resolution to all four novels reveals Twain's shifting Weltanschauung, culminating with a rejection of the dominant ideology in Pudd'nhead Wilson.

The purpose of this thesis paper is to uncover how the major writers of the Beat Generation-Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Snyder-reflect the coming of postmodern literary theory and aesthetic principles and values. The Beats, far from being the sole territory of modernist discourse, are indications of the dismantling of cultural barriers and the introduction of postmodern commercial and visual culture into literary reality. The paper considers and establishes the writing of the Beats within eight ideals that are found in postmodern literature, visual arts, and theory: the concept of culture as a commodity, the deterritorialization of culture, historicizing the past into the present, decentering American hegemony, deconstructing the “bourgeois ego”, deconstructing “otherness”, muti-imagistic qualities, and “schizophrenia”.

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This thesis analyzes Paretsky's works and how the dominant members of society use their power to exploit the weaker members, and how that exploitation impacts society. It shows how the author connects the abuse that stems from the power of patriarchy to the abuse of nature.

This is a collection of poems.