The objective of this thesis is to explore the relationship between moralities and bioeconomies in post-apocalyptic dystopias from the Victorian era to contemporary Young Adult Fiction. In defining the terms bioeconomy and biopolitics, this works examines the ways in which literature uses food and energy systems to explore morality and immorality in social orders and systems, including capitalism and our modern techno-industrial landscapes. This work examines science fiction portrayals of apocalypses and dystopias, including After London: Or, Wild England and The Hunger Games, as well as their medieval and contextual influences. These works are analyzed in light of genre and contemporary influences, including the development of ecology and environmentalism. Ultimately, this thesis argues that authors are building a link between the types of behavior which are sustainable and morally acceptable and a person’s role in a bioeconomy; specifically, those who are moral in post-apocalyptic dystopias are providers of food and care, and do not seek to profit from aiding others. This work contends that the connection between morality and sustainable food and social systems are evidence of authorial belief that our current ways of life are damaging, and they must change in order to preserve our humanity and our world.

Money factors into the lives of all of Jane Austen’s heroines and, in many of her novels, the heroines struggle on the marriage market. Austen concludes every one of her novels with the marriage of the heroine and, while Austen made the choice to become a writer instead of marrying, she is consequently very mindful of what marriage means for each of her heroines and who they ultimately choose for a husband. Given that economics is the social science concerned with how individuals and institutions make optimal choices under conditions of scarcity, knowledge of some of the basic concepts in economics and an understanding of the economic theory behind how people make choices can enhance readings of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Through a survey of some of the existing economic literature on marriage, I demonstrate how one might apply economic theory to these two novels. Subsequently, I explore how there are limits on how far the economics of marriage can be extended to analyze Austen’s novels, but ultimately conclude that the theory presented nevertheless helps explain how many of the characters choose their future partner.

This essay investigates the integral linkages between Gothic spaces and Gothic masculinities in three texts: Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847). At the core of this examination is architecture, or more specifically, the physical constructions and built environments that comprise a man’s property. I explore how a man uses his property to construct, legitimize, and perform his identity. In the Female Gothic, the home is a place of anxiety for women, where patriarchal dominance and violence reign to constrain female agency. I argue that the home is also an anxiety-ridden space for men, who are similarly tyrannized by a force they have limited power to fight against: legality. The issue of legally legitimized property ownership as a means of defining masculine selfhood in these texts lead men to extreme, and arguably unnatural, resorts to cling to their coveted status as autonomous property holders and virile men. In short, I aim to define a specifically Gothic masculinity. Yet, by using Pride and Prejudice, I will argue that this Gothic masculinity is not limited to Gothic texts.

This thesis analyzes the mother-child relationship in the Harry Potter novels by using Melanie Klein’s object-relation based theory. I argue the mothers and their relationship with their offspring represent fragments of a whole complicated psyche. The characters are not analyzed as individuals, but instead as pieces, sometimes multiple pieces, of a whole psyche. When these characters and novels are taken together, a whole, multi-faceted person comes into view. Rowling depicts both good and bad mothers, and children who characterize different positions according to Klein. These positions are the paranoid-schizoid position with Harry Potter and the depressive position with Sirius Black and Rubeus Hagrid. Although the series suggests a developmental arc or a coming of age story within fantasy literature, there is no linear progression; instead, there are disruptive positions without development.

This thesis focuses on the development of the first project for FIU’s ICAVE, The Globe Experience, presented as part of the “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare” exhibit during February, 2016. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is the project itself: a virtual reality recreation of going to The Globe Theater to see a play by William Shakespeare. The second part examines the digital project and outlines how Walter Benjamin and postcolonial theorists influenced the design of The Globe Experience, resulting in, what I call, a “temporally and spatially disjointed London.” From this examination, the thesis goes on to question the role of canonical literature in the humanities. I go on to make the argument that the design decisions made in recreating The Globe reveals the ways in which canonical literature can reinforce and support hierarchical ideologies which can impede student learning.

This thesis examines different facets of feminine artistry in Virginia Woolf's novels with the purpose of defining her conception of women artists and the role sacrifice plays in it. The project follows characters in "Mrs. Dalloway," "To the Lighthouse," and "Between the Acts" as they attempt to create art despite society's restrictions; it studies the suffering these women experience under regimented institutions and arbitrary gender roles. From Woolf’s earlier texts to her last, she embraces the uncertainty of identity, even as she portrays the artist’s sacrifice in the early-to-mid twentieth century, specifically as the creative female identity fights to adapt to male-dominated spaces. Through a close-reading approach coupled with biographical and historical research, this thesis concludes that although the narratives of Woolf's novels demand the woman artist sacrifice for the sake of pursuing creation, Woolf praises the attempt and considers it a crueler fate to live with unfulfilled potential.

This study examines how dialect can reflect people's heritage, socioeconomic status, and dis/entitlement status. It also examines how dialect has the ability to create social situations through codeswitching and language borrowing. I use the novels A Lesson Before Dying, The Lunatic, and Anthills of the Savannah to best explain my study. The novels take place in the United States, Jamaica, and West Africa. The theory that dialect reflects people's heritage, class, and dis/entitlement status is revealed through people from Africa and the African Diaspora and through people from Europe and the European diaspora. A conclusion is formulated after analyzing the characters' historical background, their living conditions, their educational status, and their actions toward others and themselves. The attributes of these characters, along with their dialect reveal a pattern that exists in real life. There are situations in which the dialect a person speaks determines how his or her life plays out. Ultimately, this thesis will reveal that people who speak standard dialects deal with similar situations, and people who speak nonstandard dialects deal with similar situations.

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This thesis investigates the interrelationship between the two dominant themes, isolation and human ephemerality found in two of Virginia Woolf's books, To the lighthouse and The Waves.