No description available.

This thesis attempts to resuscitate the use of the much-disparaged term "problem plays" to describe Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, All's Well That Ends Well, and Measure for Measure; three works which, I argue, share a strong and unifying thematic interest in the vexed relationship between individual sexual desire and social cohesion. Although each of these plays offers a unique perspective on this conflicted interaction, I attempt to demonstrate through close readings of each work that the broad trajectory traced by the problem plays is a movement from the festive comedies' idealistic faith in the possibilities of both romantic and generic "happy endings," to the bleak cynicism which characterizes the great tragedies' depictions of sexual relationships and social structures. Finally, I point to the romances, particularly The Winter's Tale, which, I argue, rework the problem plays' interest in sexuality and social order in such a way that the growing pessimism and inconclusiveness of these earlier works is transformed into aesthetically balanced narratives of romantic reconciliation and social integration.

This thesis examines the use of orality as a means to self-definition in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. The main contention of this thesis is that within the Vampire Chronicles orality defines the self through incorporation, and that the bodily incorporation of food through a sexual consumption leads the vampire to naturally evolve a sense of who he or she is at any given moment in time. It is in this manner that this article discusses how the body, sexuality, food, and the possession of financial capital define and limit the individual's notion of self.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of English, General Literature and Rhetoric, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Paul Schmidt, committee chair; Wayne Erickson, George Pullman, committee members. Electronic text (287 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed October 4, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 252-287).

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Note: