Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-52).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 401-410). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-52). Also available in print.

The thesis, entitled The Pain, Hunger, and Birth of Epiphany in the Novels of Toni Morrison, is divided into three chapters. The introduction discusses some of the traditional uses of the word “epiphany” in literature and then proceeds to define the ways in which Morrison’s characters experience epiphanical journeys. Furthermore, Morrison’s development of the idea plays a fundamental role in the structure and unification of all of her novels. The first chapter compares the texts Love and Sula and charts the progression of pain from external, communal, and inherited to internal, individual, and isolationist. In both Love and Sula, death and the body are irrelevant, and it is only when characters learn to dispel pain and disregard the body that they can truly experience an epiphany. Chapter two discusses Paradise in detail and describes the role of food in allowing or preventing characters’ spiritual awakenings or transcendence. Food and the way it is consumed, prepared, grown, and perceived are inextricably linked to characters’ journeys to epiphany. The third chapter compares the novels Jazz and Song of Solomon and illustrates the ways in which perceptions of pain and food are translated to younger generations. It also raises questions of generational sterility and degeneration as well as conveys ideas of stunted or aborted growth and truncated epiphanies.

The school of thought articulated by critical theorists Giorgio Agamben and Joan Copjec differ from each other in methodology, approach, and language. Yet, both Agamben and Copjec each write to reject positivist notions of ethics, which each theorist identifies as rooted in the same ideological apparatuses that propagate exclusionary and violent actions. By turning away from pre-given ethics and ideology, these writers attempt to delineate why these philosophies have been the vehicle of violence and racial oppression, and reiterate the importance of turning away from such thought in order for the subject to conceptualize a new way of being and relating to others that combats dominant ideology. Agamben's theoretical concept of homo sacer that lies at the center of his philosophical project, and Copjec's Lacanian understanding of the subject as inherently ruptured, both delineate subjectivity, as well as the concepts of race and racism in novel ways. Using these theorists to read Morrison's novels illustrates the critical concepts outlined by these two thinkers. In the first chapter of this thesis, I plan to outline Agamben's notion of homo sacer, and Copjec's theorizing of the subject as inherently ruptured. I employ Morrison's piece of literary criticism, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, to demonstrate how Morrison's literary and intellectual project as a writer also aims to refigure subjectivity, illustrating and expanding upon Agamben and Copjec's work. In the second chapter, I will move on to discuss Agamben's political philosophy and concept of homo sacer, analyzing Morrison's novels, A Mercy, and Home to demonstrate how her work illustrates and expands upon Agamben's analysis of biopolitics. Lastly, in the third chapter of this thesis, I place Morrison in dialogue with Copjec, demonstrating how Morrison's characters illustrate the notion of a ruptured subject, and why it is important to read her work through this lens. I aim to demonstrate how Morrison's characters expand upon the notions of race, femininity, and subjectivity as conceived by Copjec. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to delineate why it is beneficial to place these three writers in dialogue with one another to analyze notions of racial identity, subjectivity, violence, and trauma.

Thesis advisor: Kenneth G. Galli / Thesis advisor: Noah P. Snyder / The Brushy Basin Member of the Morrison Formation records a time of increased volcanic activity in the North American Cordillera during the Late Jurassic. Sedimentological and petrographic observations in the Brushy Basin, in conjunction with findings of widespread plutonic intrusion in the source areas, point to a volcanic pulse within the Cordilleran magmatic arc. This study investigated the subjacent Salt Wash Member, for the purpose of better constraining the timing of the volcanic pulse. Petrographic and statistical analyses of the Salt Wash sandstone identified statistically significant upsection trends in volcanic rock fragment and plagioclase feldspar at one of the four study areas. The remaining three study areas showed no upsection trends in sandstone composition that would reflect a pulse in volcanism during Salt Wash Member time. It is more likely that the Salt Wash was deposited during a time of volcanic quiescence leading up to the post-Nevadan Orogeny volcanic reactivation. Sedimentology and cementation patterns of the Salt Wash Member were also studied. Cathodoluminescence indicates that the member was well-flushed with shallow formation waters, thus preventing any calcite optical zoning. Luminescence intensity suggests that the Salt Wash Member sediments were cemented at varying depths and within differing Eh-pH regimes. Field-based sedimentological observations support a model of braided stream channel deposition across a semi-arid landscape with streamflow entering the basin from both the south and west. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Geology and Geophysics.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 51-55).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 51-55). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.I.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-76). Also available on the World Wide Web.