I argue that one cannot hold a Meinongian ontology of fictional characters and have a causal theory of reference for fictional names. The main argument presented refutes Edward Zalta's claim that storytelling should be considered an extended baptism for fictional characters. This amounts to the claim that storytelling fixes the reference of fictional names in the same way that baptism fixes the reference of ordinary names, and this is just a claim about the illocutionary force of these two types of utterance. To evaluate this argument, therefore, we need both a common understanding of the Meinongian ontology and a common taxonomy of speech acts. I briefly sketch the Meinongian ontology as it is laid out by Zalta in order to meet the former condition. Then I present an interpretation of the taxonomy of illocutionary acts given by John Searle in the late 1970s and mid 1980s, within which we can evaluate Zalta's claims. With an ontology of fictional characters and a taxonomy of speech acts in place, I go on to examine the ways in which the Meinongian might argue that storytelling is an extended baptism. None of these arguments are tenable-there is no way for the act of storytelling to serve as an extended baptism. Therefore, the act of storytelling does not constitute a baptism of fictional characters; that is, storytelling fails to ground a causal chain of reference to fictional characters.

This trio of stories explores the cost of our increasingly commercialized, globalized society in a fictional future setting. They contain some dystopian science fiction elements in the tradition of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. The antagonist and central focus of all three stories is Hobbes Sylvan, an entitled white southerner whose gradual transformation into activist, criminal, and finally cyberterrorist is chronicled through the successive stories. The titular "Programmer," Hobbes Sylvan is both manipulator and product of the fictional future world she inhabits. Through the ethical dilemmas she faces the reader is asked to examine questions of morality in our own society. The stories are self-contained but connected, with different protagonists and conflicts but similar thematic material. They are told in first person, in epistolary (email) format, and in third person respectively, and set in chronological order. / Revisiting ADP -- A crime of passion -- A power like God. / Department of English

Short stories follows five different characters as they attempt to develop their earliest artistic impulses. Through the use of young protagonists, these stories demonstrate the ways in which our earliest experiences with loss and trauma often create a space for imaginative discovery; the collection reveals that it is the uniqueness of this space, this blend of premature emotional depth and naïve whimsy, that opens up new psychological possibilities for the child-artist. Meant to be read as a collection of intimate character sketches, these stories reveal the artist's intensely visual approach toward growth and maturity. Several stories concentrate specifically on what it means to sustain one's imagination into adulthood, while others use flashbacks to demonstrate the profound influence of childhood memories on adult behavior. / Taylor's stories -- You'll call her tomorrow -- Where to look -- Filling in the gaps -- Certainly not me. / Department of English

This is the first of three parts in the first of three planned novels, collectively called The Great Plains Trilogy, which takes place between 1841 and 1845. Set against such historical events as the Battle of Plum Creek and the Texas Council House Fight, Part One follows Lock (a.k.a. Aidan Plainfield) in 1841, whose wife and daughter were killed by Comanches during the Victoria raid of 1840. Since the raid, Lock has left his life behind, surviving alone in the Great Plains. One morning he discovers that Comanches have stolen his horse, and he sets off to recover it. Along the way, he meets Mr. Pendleton, an Englishman who has been injured by Comanches, and Raymond Wales, a thief who has been mysteriously left to hang in the middle of the woods. Mr. Pendleton and Raymond Wales, each of whom have their own mysterious motivations, join Lock on his journey. / Department of English

The eighth educational reform in China is experiencing a critical period. In the implementation process of this New Curriculum Reform (NCR), teachers become the target of criticism for their failure to act on the new ideas of the NCR. This research focuses on the question, “Why teachers accept the ideas of the NCR yet fail to implement these ideas in their daily teaching?” Through reflecting on my own teaching experience and interviewing a group of Chinese Language Arts teachers in a Beijing model high school, I collected qualitative data to create 8 ethnographic stories, showing teachers’ bodily, emotional and intrapersonal experiences that are rarely published in the academic world. Conclusions show that the coexistence of the new and old curriculum systems causes the discordance of school cultures, and teachers are suffering silently. Recommendations are made for researchers returning to teachers’ bodily experiences for solutions that can integrate reform ideals and reality. / Graduate / 0727 / wwang15473@gmail.com

The eighth educational reform in China is experiencing a critical period. In the implementation process of this New Curriculum Reform (NCR), teachers become the target of criticism for their failure to act on the new ideas of the NCR. This research focuses on the question, “Why teachers accept the ideas of the NCR yet fail to implement these ideas in their daily teaching?” Through reflecting on my own teaching experience and interviewing a group of Chinese Language Arts teachers in a Beijing model high school, I collected qualitative data to create 8 ethnographic stories, showing teachers’ bodily, emotional and intrapersonal experiences that are rarely published in the academic world. Conclusions show that the coexistence of the new and old curriculum systems causes the discordance of school cultures, and teachers are suffering silently. Recommendations are made for researchers returning to teachers’ bodily experiences for solutions that can integrate reform ideals and reality. / Graduate / 0727 / wwang15473@gmail.com

Comic books are one of the many popular cultural forms that attract, as part of their audience, a committed readership that engages in a participatory relationship as part of a shared interest in the text. In common with other media forms, this engagement expresses itself in a variety of ways, including interaction with other readers online and face-to-face at conventions, correspondence with producers, and the creation of textual products. Other features of the discourses and practices of this community may be more specific to the comic book readership. One of the most interesting of these is a participatory belief, widely expressed by readers, that they can influence the story content of the published comic book and that comic books are unique among other media forms in this. In this thesis, I investigate several aspects of this belief, in order to offer a more nuanced understanding of the participatory involvement that readers have in comic books, particularly the superhero comic books that dominate American comic book culture. First, I examine whether this participatory belief is supported by evidence from published comic books by undertaking a content analysis of the letter columns and story pages of comic books. Next, I explore the discourses of online comic book culture that relate to authorship and the boundaries of participation and show how the rules of textual engagement that are held by readers shape the interactions between readers and producers. Finally, I look for alternative participatory spaces that are available to comic book readers, finding these in a contested form of engagement with comic books, that of exploring the fictional universes of the text. This approach imagines the text as the representation of a non-actual world, to which the comic book is an incomplete window. Theorising this mode of engagement leads to a conceptualisation of participation that makes visible a participatory space that has been previously overlooked by academic fan studies, and that complicates the existing models of participatory culture.

Comic books are one of the many popular cultural forms that attract, as part of their audience, a committed readership that engages in a participatory relationship as part of a shared interest in the text. In common with other media forms, this engagement expresses itself in a variety of ways, including interaction with other readers online and face-to-face at conventions, correspondence with producers, and the creation of textual products. Other features of the discourses and practices of this community may be more specific to the comic book readership. One of the most interesting of these is a participatory belief, widely expressed by readers, that they can influence the story content of the published comic book and that comic books are unique among other media forms in this. In this thesis, I investigate several aspects of this belief, in order to offer a more nuanced understanding of the participatory involvement that readers have in comic books, particularly the superhero comic books that dominate American comic book culture. First, I examine whether this participatory belief is supported by evidence from published comic books by undertaking a content analysis of the letter columns and story pages of comic books. Next, I explore the discourses of online comic book culture that relate to authorship and the boundaries of participation and show how the rules of textual engagement that are held by readers shape the interactions between readers and producers. Finally, I look for alternative participatory spaces that are available to comic book readers, finding these in a contested form of engagement with comic books, that of exploring the fictional universes of the text. This approach imagines the text as the representation of a non-actual world, to which the comic book is an incomplete window. Theorising this mode of engagement leads to a conceptualisation of participation that makes visible a participatory space that has been previously overlooked by academic fan studies, and that complicates the existing models of participatory culture.

Comic books are one of the many popular cultural forms that attract, as part of their audience, a committed readership that engages in a participatory relationship as part of a shared interest in the text. In common with other media forms, this engagement expresses itself in a variety of ways, including interaction with other readers online and face-to-face at conventions, correspondence with producers, and the creation of textual products. Other features of the discourses and practices of this community may be more specific to the comic book readership. One of the most interesting of these is a participatory belief, widely expressed by readers, that they can influence the story content of the published comic book and that comic books are unique among other media forms in this. In this thesis, I investigate several aspects of this belief, in order to offer a more nuanced understanding of the participatory involvement that readers have in comic books, particularly the superhero comic books that dominate American comic book culture. First, I examine whether this participatory belief is supported by evidence from published comic books by undertaking a content analysis of the letter columns and story pages of comic books. Next, I explore the discourses of online comic book culture that relate to authorship and the boundaries of participation and show how the rules of textual engagement that are held by readers shape the interactions between readers and producers. Finally, I look for alternative participatory spaces that are available to comic book readers, finding these in a contested form of engagement with comic books, that of exploring the fictional universes of the text. This approach imagines the text as the representation of a non-actual world, to which the comic book is an incomplete window. Theorising this mode of engagement leads to a conceptualisation of participation that makes visible a participatory space that has been previously overlooked by academic fan studies, and that complicates the existing models of participatory culture.

Comic books are one of the many popular cultural forms that attract, as part of their audience, a committed readership that engages in a participatory relationship as part of a shared interest in the text. In common with other media forms, this engagement expresses itself in a variety of ways, including interaction with other readers online and face-to-face at conventions, correspondence with producers, and the creation of textual products. Other features of the discourses and practices of this community may be more specific to the comic book readership. One of the most interesting of these is a participatory belief, widely expressed by readers, that they can influence the story content of the published comic book and that comic books are unique among other media forms in this. In this thesis, I investigate several aspects of this belief, in order to offer a more nuanced understanding of the participatory involvement that readers have in comic books, particularly the superhero comic books that dominate American comic book culture. First, I examine whether this participatory belief is supported by evidence from published comic books by undertaking a content analysis of the letter columns and story pages of comic books. Next, I explore the discourses of online comic book culture that relate to authorship and the boundaries of participation and show how the rules of textual engagement that are held by readers shape the interactions between readers and producers. Finally, I look for alternative participatory spaces that are available to comic book readers, finding these in a contested form of engagement with comic books, that of exploring the fictional universes of the text. This approach imagines the text as the representation of a non-actual world, to which the comic book is an incomplete window. Theorising this mode of engagement leads to a conceptualisation of participation that makes visible a participatory space that has been previously overlooked by academic fan studies, and that complicates the existing models of participatory culture.