The purpose of this study is to examine selected German literature dealing with issues of history and identity in light of the catastrophic reshaping of society after World War II and reunification. The research process will involve an examination of selected authors and their works that are most relevant to the topic. In order to provide a clear understanding not only of important literary themes but also of the appropriate historical context, attention will be devoted to providing biographical information in addition to critical literary analysis. Because this study is primarily historical in nature, context is important for determining a given author's possible motives in writing. The research will not only provide a better understanding of how history and identity have been addressed in modern German literature, identifying common and recurring themes in significant periods, but also demonstrate the value of using fiction in historical research.

In my dissertation, I bring together the fields of comics theory, biopolitics, and queer theory in order to read contemporary coming-of-age graphic novels that represent characters (and sometimes lives) at the margins. Coming-of-age graphic novels in this category often depict complex engagements with trauma and history, and couple those depictions with the loss of attachments: the subjects represented in these texts usually do not belong. I make a case for productive spaces inside of the unbelonging represented in my chosen texts. In Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Alison finds multiple nodes of attachment with her deceased father through the process of writing his history. Importantly, none of those attachments require that she forgive him for past violences, or that she overwrite his life in order to shift focus onto the positive. Jillian and Mariko Tamaki’s Skim features a protagonist, Skim, who is rendered an outcast because of her body, her hobbies, and eventually her process of mourning. Skim carves out a life that is survivable for her, and resists the compulsion to perform happiness while she does it. Charles Burns’s Black Hole depicts a group of teens who are excommunicated from their suburb after contracting a disfiguring, sexually transmitted disease, and who take to the woods in order to build a miniature, ad-hoc society for themselves. I concentrate on the question of precarity, and notice that safety and stability have a strong correlation with gender and sexuality: women and queers are overrepresented at the margins. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In my dissertation, I bring together the fields of comics theory, biopolitics, and queer theory in order to read contemporary coming-of-age graphic novels that represent characters (and sometimes lives) at the margins. I focus, especially, on the way that people who are marginalized come to be that way, and I come to the conclusion that marginalized people suffer losses are that tied to different kinds of trauma. Sometimes those traumas are historical: like slavery, or internment. Sometimes they are personal, like ostracization from one’s community. And, finally, sometimes trauma comes from social systems: some subjects are pushed to the margins of society by the same forces that bring others into it. In the case of all of those types of trauma, I find a possibility for community: if people are sometimes marginalized, they are often resilient. The bulk of my dissertation tries to find where exclusions end, and make-shift communities begin.

Though some scholars have maintained that Jane Austen closely adheres to the ideology of courtesy novels and conduct literature, I argue that Austen uses her knowledge of this ideology to reveal the flaws in reader assumptions about the presumed commonsensical nature of the courtesy novel and its feminine ideal. Austen is familiar with the conventions of eighteenth-century fiction, but, rather than adopting its tropes in her own work, she uses realism to parody its excesses and improbabilities; this realism then works against reader expectations and exposes paradoxes inherent in the courtesy novel and in conduct-book literature itself. In my thesis I observe how Austen uses courtesy novel tropes to expose or even mock the courtesy novel's inherently unrealistic qualities, and I do so by examining the act of "reading" in her novels: specifically, I argue that the literal reading that Austen's characters engage in does not produce the expected outcomes predicted by conduct books and courtesy novels; that the figurative reading of one character by another demonstrates the dangerousness and unsuitability of the heroine as "open book," as conduct books and courtesy novels urged her to be, as well as the irrationality and hypocrisy of acting the part of "closed book" to her intended lover; and, finally, that the act of reading an Austen novel is intended to prevent the absorption or interpretation of unrealistic ideals, through insistence on (more) realistic outcomes and through narrative intervention.

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Upper elementary and middle school students can be less than engaged due to the lack of pictures in texts. Making the reading transition from picture books to complex text literature is challenging for students. Graphic novels could be a resource to improve student engagement and comprehension and support students in that transition. Students with ASD can face additional challenges with reading comprehension and instruction during school. Currently graphic novels are not used commonly for students and the goal of the research is to investigate if these types of books can be a support for students, reading comprehension and engagement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of graphic novels and system of least prompts on reading comprehension of middle school students with autism spectrum disorder. The study implemented a single case multiple probe design with four participants, conducted in a private date school. Results will be shared along with limitations and implications for future research and practice.

This thesis considers the novels of Gregorio Lopez Y Fuentes.

A study of aspects of reform in certain novels of Charles Dickens.

Alan Moore's graphic novels mark a shift in the way graphic novels are read, written, and studied. This thesis explores what makes his novels compelling and see what examples of postmodern thought occur in Moore's construction of human sexuality and modem culture. Additionally, it examines graphic structures to see how pictures and words impact every level of the text. It investigates three of his more established novels: From Hell, Lost Girls and Watchmen. Secondary sources come from a diverse background of philosophical, literary, psychological, and artistic theory. This study implements these sources to decipher Moore's work by finding similar moments in the different texts and construct a possible model for the postmodern graphic novel and argues that Moore should be considered one of the major contributors and innovators to the medium of graphic novels.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the structure of the five major novels of Hemingway, excluding Torrents of Spring and Across the River and into the Trees. They are: The Sun also Rises; A Farewell to Arms; To Have and Have not; For Whom the Bell Tolls; and The Old Man and the Sea.