Labor literature is in popular and academic neglect. I argue that labor literature's neglect is unjust, and I provide a way of examining labor literature that can rescue it from neglect. I shall be concerned with labor literature's academic decline due to its apparent lack of value according to traditional standards of literary criticism. I will argue that ethical criticism - criticism of literature that considers the ethics of a work as a part of its literary value - can reveal new complexities in labor literature. An ethical critical analysis of the representation of American labor movements and workers in noncanonical texts will show the distinctive ethical value such texts hold. I will argue that labor texts possess ethical value insofar as they help readers develop awareness of complex ethical issues posed by labor and community, and that the ethical value of labor literature provides a new reason to value such works. / by Rachel McDermott. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This thesis analyzes Pamela Swynford De Beaufort and Jessica Hamby from the provocative HBO series, True Blood, in order to determine what hegemonic ideologies are reinforced through their sexual representation in the series. Through analysis based on concepts of the "vagina dentata" and "monstrous feminine," and in determining whether they fall victim to the Madonna/wore dichotomy, the question of Pam and Jessica's autonomous existence falls under scrutiny - particularly in regards to their sexuality. Feminist scholarship is vital to this research in order to examine the often fetishized and marginalized sexuality of women who dare to exhibit transgressive behaviors. This thesis concentrates on Seasons One through Four of the series, and also utilizes meta-text from the official website related to each character in order to help answer the posed research questions. / by Ashley Anderson. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

This dissertation focuses on understanding and investigating the role of the idea of the literary canon in the teaching of literature—especially at the secondary level. This role, in the form of “standard authors” of literary works, is as old as the field itself in U.S. schools (Applebee, 1974). While many who have argued for and against the literary canon have done so by slinging vituperative remarks at each other (Lauter, 1991; Guillory, 1993; Bloom, 1995; Cain, 2013), this study is not an argument against the canon or its bedfellows, nor does it advocate a “counter canon,” the teaching of any specific texts, or the teaching of a singular interpretive approach. In this study, I attempt to describe and interrogate forces of canon formation that intersect with the teaching of literature, and offer speculations as to how the role of the canon in the teaching of literature may be reconceptualized to better understand the manifold processes involved in selecting and teaching texts in an English classroom. The concept of the canon is much older than the discipline of the teaching of literature, dating as far back as to ancient Greek thinkers like Polycletus and Aristotle (Gorak, 1991). I briefly trace the history of the idea of the canon from antiquity to its more modern usage for imaginative literary works, appearing in the 1700s (Patey, 1988; Kramnick, 1997; Ross, 1998), and the subsequent notion of some texts being worthier than others in the teaching of literature. I examine how social and philosophical movements gaining ground in the 1960s and 1970s led to serious criticisms of the literary canon (Smith, 1983; Lauter, 1991; Gallagher, 1997; Franke, 2011). I then posit three broad forces of canon formation in the teaching of literature: cultural forces, processes of categorization, and changing interpretive practices. To further understand how these forces shape and change the literary canon as the teaching of literature changes at the local level of teachers who at times self-govern what counts as a teachable literary text (Aston, 2017), I develop a conceptual framework based on Michel Foucault’s ideas of power relations and Manuel DeLanda’s assemblage theory (based on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari). This is again not to eliminate or suggest a counter canon, but to describe and shine a light on operations of canon formation (encoded in teaching documents, standards, and anthologies) that may at times narrow the teaching of literature while at other times expand it, pointing to the flexible and adaptive, though often contested, nature of the canon in the teaching of literature.

Xie Qun. / "August 2004." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-256) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

The five stories in this collection are an exploration of realist fiction through a variety of narrative points of view and a diversity of characters. The stories explore issues of class, age, work and family, but in each piece, the characters struggle in their own way to discover a sense of belonging in their own lives. Central to each of these stories is a sense of place. All are set in the American west, most in rural California and the land and activities of place provide not only a specific landscape, but often a limitation, a narrative element against which the characters both resist and find their truest home.

[No Abstract]

This dissertation investigates the narrative practice of Latin American Existentialism. My project tracks the structures, themes, and interpretations of Existentialism across national borders in the belief that a common expression exists which is distinctly Latin American. I begin this philosophical cartography, with four Existential(ist) novels produced in Latin America during the 1930s. Specifically, I will examine the Existentialist quality of Enrique Labrador Ruiz's El laberinto de si­ mismo (1933), Mari­a Luisa Bombal's La ultima niebla (1934) and La amortajada (1938), and Graciliano Ramos's Angustia (1936). These narratives are analyzed in relation to the core thematic of Existential philosophy. I read these narratives as Existential(ist) because they are of, relating to and characterized by a philosophy of existence, and because they simultaneously produce an Existential discourse. My study is, at one level, comparative in that I pursue the points of emergence of Existentialism's prominent categories not only across national borders, but also across disciplines. I relate the tradition of Latin American thought in the first half of the 20th century and Existential philosophy from Europe to collectivize the thematic points of contact. These I contrast with our literary production of the 1930s. By emphasizing the particularities and continuations of Latin America's contribution to the Existential canon I, in effect, periodize an era which is foundational in the history of Latin American literature. Furthermore, by acknowledging the literary presence of Latin American Existentialism we can appreciate the explicit narrative interrogation of the Self through aesthetic, ethical, and ontological parameters.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Study of themes in the novels of Edward Abbey, Lan Cao, Toni Morrison, and Leslie Marmon Silko. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 233-238). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

I believe that the concept of the absurd, as described in philosophy and reflected in works of drama and literature, provides an unusual and helpful perspective from which to view the emerging field of digital media. In my opinion, absurd principles can help us understand the mixed feelings we may have when engaging with digital media: joy and frustration, play and despair, significance and nonsense. I intend to explore the concept of the absurd through a handful of authors and works, including the philosophy of Camus and the literature and drama of Pinter, Beckett, Roussel, and the Oulipo. I will use these works to analyze characteristics of absurdist works and then extend this analysis to characteristics and theory of digital media. I believe an absurdist analysis may bring a new vantage point to the study of digital media, from which we can see not only the advantages and liberation it offers but also the ever-present threat of nonsense it entails.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 2001. Graduate Programme in Social & Political Thought. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 297-323). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ66341.