Thesis Didactic work about the stories of Jim Button from Michael Ende with focus on literary and language education investigates the feasible utilization of a literary work within teaching a foreign language. Thesis is composed of both theoretical and practical part. In the theoretical part, attention is given to the importance of texts, especially literary texts, as means for teaching foreign language. In respect to the utilization of the literature within foreign language teaching, the thesis highlights the development of target competencies, improvement of language skills and the overall growth of student's personality. Literature is shown as a sphere competent to enrich the common language teaching with a literary experience and an intercultural aspect. Further, the thesis introduces Jim Button novels written by Michael Ende and their specifics from the point of view of their usage by teaching foreign languages. Last but not least, suggestions for work with the novel about Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver are provided as an alternative teaching material for tuition of German language as a foreign language

“Perilous Pilgrimage: A Lady’s Flight into the Rocky Mountain Wilderness” is comprised of four thematically linked essays set in the Colorado Rockies. In these essays I probe my fascination with masculinity at an early age, the impact of my rape at age twenty-two, the dependency and resentment that undermined my marriage after the rape, and my quest after my divorce fifteen years later to define myself on my own terms. The link joining these strands is the tension between my drive for independence and my disassociation from my mind and body as a result of the rape. “Perilous Pilgrimage” revisits three pivotal stages of my life: childhood, young adulthood, and middle age. As a youngster vacationing with my family in Rocky Mountain National Park, I was drawn to men who rescued lost hikers and climbed mountains. Fred Bowen, the caretaker of our rented cabin in the park, and the two California school teachers who were the first to conquer the Diamond on Longs Peak, appeared to have more freedom than I did as a middle-class girl growing up in the 1950s. That conviction was reinforced after I moved to Colorado at age seventeen. Four years later I graduated from college and began dating a man who introduced me to the thrill and terror of mountaineering. After leading me up numerous mountains, he became my husband, and we made our home in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Once married, I could no longer repress the unresolved issues of my rape and identity quest, and I revolted. At age thirty-nine, I embarked on a solo quest to reclaim that sense of wonder and independence I had felt as a child exploring Rocky Mountain National Park. Included in my essays are references to historical figures with similar urges as mine, such as the 19th-century English explorer George Augustus Ruxton and English travel writer Isabella Bird. My search for refuge and redemption in the Colorado Rockies replicated a centuries-old pattern.

This dissertation is based on a qualitative research project that documents the experiences of nearly 100 elderly African Americans who lived in the total institution of Jim Crow. The collective long lasting psychological effects connected with the racial violence that occurred in the total institution are a critical aspect. In the interviews African Americans shared how on a daily basis they found themselves dealing with anxiety, fear, humiliation, shame, and stress. The narratives were analyzed utilizing the extended case method. The dissertation documents and explores symptoms of a "segregation stress syndrome" for the chronic, enduring, extremely painful experiences and responses to the total institution of Jim Crow that are indicated by numerous respondents in this research project. Preliminary findings indicate that the symptoms of "segregation stress syndrome" are similar to PTSD symptoms documented in psychiatric literature. However, "segregation stress syndrome" differs from PTSD because the traumatic experience was not a one-time occurrence; it was sustained, over time, in African American communities. In addition, the racial violence that occurred was a form of systematic chronic stress, the type that has been shown to have a detrimental impact on a person's psychological well-being. Lastly, the historical and collective trauma that ensued has contributed to an intergenerational aspect of "segregation stress syndrome." The intergenerational aspect predisposes some younger African Americans to psychological damage, stress, and trauma even though contemporary forms of racial violence are seemingly less damaging.

This essay provides some insight into how the representation of masculinity, homosocial bonds and homosexuality in two novels has changed during the last century. The essay analyzes the novels, Maurice (E.M Forster) and Dream Boy (Jim Grimsley). The main focus lies on how Maurice and Dream Boy handle certain topics; social behavior in private and public among the male protagonists and the role of the father figure. The essay points out similarities and differences between how each topic is being handled in the respective novels. The main theoretical concept focuses on masculinity, homosocial bonds and the perception of homosexuality and how it is constructed in the two novels. The representations of masculinity seem to change over time only to take the same shape as before. The same kinds of masculinities are represented in both Maurice and Dream Boy. The fact that young men have learned that their bodies can be used as instruments of power makes it difficult for them to allow intimacy within homophobic cultures which might threaten their male identities and therefore influence the way their homosocial bonds.

<p>Debate about the development of African American English (AAE) dominated sociolinguistic inquiry for the second half of the 20th century and continues to be a subject of investigation. All hypotheses about the development of AAE integrate ideas of shared linguistic features coupled with strong regional influences or founding effects. Most Southern evidence used in the development of these hypotheses, however, is from rural communities or somehow unique enclave communities. The early urban centers of African American life in the South that followed the abolition of slavery and disintegration of plantation life have seldom been investigated with respect to the development of AAE. This study examines precisely those sites looking at AAE in three Southern urban centers during the time of Jim Crow or institutionalized segregation: Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans.</p><p>This analysis is based on a series of tape-recorded oral history interviews that were conducted as part of the Behind the Veil project at Duke University. The Behind the Veil project was launched in 1990 at Duke and the majority of the interviews were conducted between 1994 and 1997. Each speaker completed a survey regarding her/his life history, education, professional history, and family background. The speakers used for this study were chosen based on age (all born before 1942) and residency status in their respective communities - all speakers are lifelong residents of Birmingham, Memphis, or New Orleans. These criteria and others shape an inclusive corpus of 100 total tape-recorded interviews with 33 from Birmingham, 35 from Memphis, and 32 from New Orleans. </p><p>Quantitative analysis of five core diagnostic structures of AAE (i.e. copula absence, plural -s, pre-vocalic consonant cluster reduction, rhoticity, and 3rd person singular verbal -s) was performed to provide a window for determining the shared and distinct patterns of early, urban AAE development. These data are used for inter-generational analyses, cross-gender analyses, analyses of socioeconomic factors and overall interpretation for each individual site and between different sites. </p><p>These data contribute to the continuing study and scholarship on the historical development of African American English, providing the first multi-community overview of core African American English linguistic variables from the early urban South. The trans-regional similarities of linguistic variables in AAE speakers are often attributed to the influence of early Southern English varieties. These data confirm the early presence of these variables in African American urban centers in the South, but also suggest how language ideologies relate to dialect development.</p> / Dissertation

This project expands the traditional definition of ethos from perceived character in written texts and the study of the ethical to ethos as connected to the habits, places, and objects of everyday life, offering contributions to the subfields of material and place rhetorics. It is argued here that our surroundings (material, natural, cultural) help construct and inform a living ethos. This project addresses how this living ethos can be paramount in processes of identification between the subject/object—whether considering the other as person, material, or environment. I forward that when an author practices a generative ethos, a threshold (Heidegger) is created that invites others into the world of the author, and the crossing of the threshold can be thought of as a type of fold (Delueze). The folding of the self and other, I argue, serves as a central metaphor for rhetorical identifications. I demonstrate how the fold is enacted discursively through stylistic means and additionally show its relevance as a visual metaphor to describe our engagements with material objects and our wanderings through places. This dissertation thus contributes to the growing field of material rhetorics because I identify, define, and synthesize six principles for material scholarship and then apply them to an analysis of writings from materialists. This project also adds to scholarship on place-based writing as I forward the idea of wandering as a rhetorical practice of dwelling, and I ask scholars to consider movement's important role in our experience of place and its contribution to character development. I also apply the idea of wandering as rhetorical practice to classroom pedagogy and examine student place-based compositions. I draw upon the works of rhetoric and composition scholar Jim W. Corder, published and unpublished, as a case study in my dissertation. Corder shows readers how a writer can understand the term "ethos" beyond a stylistic interpretation. He values bringing the personal—discussion of his sacred objects and places in West Texas—into his writing because he believes communicating identity is a part of ethos. My use of Corder clarifies and complicates important elements of rhetorical theory—material and place-based studies—rather than treating him as an historical figure in rhetoric and composition, which is how he has traditionally been discussed in scholarly work.

The Marines of Montford Point are largely absent from the World War II narrative, and relatively unknown to individuals in the military services and to the public at large. After 144 years of official policy against allowing blacks to serve their country as U.S. Marines, on June 1, 1942, the nation's first black Marines broke the color barrier, gaining entry into a military organization that today carries with it tremendous symbolic and mythic significance in America. Moreover, serving in harm's way to defend a prejudiced nation, black Marines demonstrated bravery and endurance in the face of institutionalized racism. This thesis examines the southern Jim Crow experiences of selected northern African American Marines, focusing on the ways in which these men responded to the discrimination they encountered in the South. It also explores the reasons why these men joined the most racist branch of the military and what knowledge they had of Executive Order 8802 and the Navy Department's May 20, 1942, press release, announcing the Marine Corps's plans for recruiting blacks. Furthermore, it examines the various ways in which all African American Marines coped with Jim Crow laws, and explores the realities that black and white American society created about black Marines and their wartime service. It also discusses how northern and southern black Marines engaged and interacted within a strict segregationist military organization, particularly in how the Marine Corps manipulated the Selective Service in order to protect what senior officers considered to be its elitist image. The comparison to the U.S. Army's framework of task organization and combat employment of black soldiers reveals that the Army made greater strides toward racial justice and equality by allowing blacks to serve as commissioned officers, albeit in segregated units; whereas the Marine Corps instituted no comparable reform. After the war began, the Marines could have commissioned African Americans by following the models of all-black units such as the 93rd Infantry Division and the Tuskegee Airmen. In sum, initial racial opinions shifted differently in each military service during the war; and for black Marines, it officially marked a new tradition of military service.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2004. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Bibliography: leaves 379-390.

Theses (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains iii, 54 p. Films of Neil Jordan: p. 52-53. Films of Jim Sheridan: p. 54. Works cited: P. 47. Bibliography: p. 48-51.

Thesis (M.A.)--Northern Michigan University, 2009. / Bibliography: leaves 72-78.