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Some men are born to greatness, others to great tragedy. This novel is a fictional account of one of those men: the notorious Texas outlaw, Sam Bass. Set in the Old West of the 1870s, the story primarily concerns itself with events in the train robber's life from the time he owned and raced the Denton Mare to the now famous shoot-out in Round Rock, Texas. It is a story of crime and betrayal told through the eyes of Bass and one of his close confederates, Jim Murphy.

Usages and meanings associated with three key cultural metaphors, "outlaw," "family," and "community" are examined in order to determine the limits of their applicability within American sprint car racing, and to provide a clearer understanding of the cultural significance of sprint car racing in America. These three metaphors have multiple functions. They are used to structure relationships, communicate codes of conduct, express attitudes, and enculturate participants.The sprint car racing "community" is outside the mainstream of sport culture in America, and it is at once metaphoric, ideal, and real. Culture provides participants with a range of possible mechanisms for structuring, organizing, and communicating the value system(s) and symbolic system(s) involved in the construction and racing of sprint cars. Sprint car racing in America provides an outlet for a preferred way of life in which competitive behavior is a major aspect. Cooperation with those whom you are competing against functions to reinforce the values of the "community." / Department of Anthropology

This thesis is a qualitative empirical study aimed at understanding the legal consciousness of women in a poor urban community. Through the narratives of women who were interviewed for this study, articles in the media, social media, and film, it explores the predominant problems experienced by women, and their experiences of engaging systems ‘in and around the law'. I argue that localities like Lavender Hill cannot be seen as homogenous and one cannot assume that all people approach problem solving from a similar perspective. Using a feminist lens, with literature on legal consciousness, legal cynicism, and legal pluralism as a backdrop, I describe the legal consciousness of poor urban women; what Ewick and Silbey refer to as ‘tracing the law in everyday life'. I interviewed 52 women, of which eight are women who live and work with other women in the community. Using an open ended questionnaire, I captured these narratives and analysed them, describing the themes and trends which surfaced. Poor urban women in this context not only navigate the daily threat of gang violence. They live in a place that is neglected, and seek positive solutions, despite high levels of patriarchy and systems that are inaccessible and unfair in response to their problems and disputes. A key finding of relevance to legal consciousness theory is the existence of different typologies of women − despite the relatively small geographic locality − with diverse norms and values. Of value is the description of varied attitudes towards systems ‘in and around the law', and different problem solving approaches. This makes a significant contribution to legal consciousness scholarship, in that it brings into view the seminal role of norms and values in social control, and how this shapes women's expectations of the law, as well as their approaches to the law, and other systems that assist with problem solving. This finding has value for practitioners and policy makers seeking to make a contribution to social justice and improve the lives of women in poor urban neighbourhoods like Lavender Hill.

《水滸傳》的創作從南宋初年至明代中葉，這四百多年來流傳的水滸故事，經過說書人的講演鋪陳、文人的潤飾增色，逐漸成熟完整，匯聚成一部精彩絕倫的通俗小說。小說設計了一百零八位英雄，這些好漢被賦予了不同出身、獨特相貌，以及各式穿著，繪製出一幅多彩多姿的水滸圖卷。《水滸傳》在人物登場時，往往以一套贊賦介紹人物從頭到腳的衣著，為讀者在腦海中畫出一個具體而鮮明的形象。由於「服飾」是一個人的「社會肌膚」，透過「服飾」我們可得知其身分地位、審美觀念、性格投射與所處的社會風尚，甚至能反映群體文化。《水滸傳》服飾琳瑯滿目，筆者透過文本的分析，將一百零八好漢的衣著，分為首服、上衣、下裳與足服、腰佩四類，逐一考掘形制內容、演化，宋、元、明三代服制與人物的穿用取向。其次探討服飾的質料與顏色，將質料分為棉麻、絲織、毛皮、金屬四類，研究服飾表現的物質文化；服色則採紅、青、白、黑、黃五色分述，闡發《水滸傳》服飾的穿搭美學。把人物服飾對應《水滸傳》的創作背景，瞭解小說反映出來宋、元、明三代紡織工藝的發達，帶動商品經濟活絡，形成豐富多樣的衣飾時尚以及崇奢僭禮的風氣。最後將服飾與人物形象結合探討，論述小說如何運用服飾勾勒《水滸傳》臉譜，研究服飾對人物外在的身分界定，與文本內在的書寫意涵。本論文從服飾的角度審視《水滸傳》，從中歸納出服飾是人物刻劃的途徑，是小說渲染情節的方法，也是社會風俗的具體反映，更是梁山好漢犯禁思想的表現，總結出《水滸傳》是通俗小說服飾書寫的轉型階段。 / The creation of The Water Margin went through a roughly 400-year span, starting from the beginning of Southern Song to the mid-Ming Dynasty. Stories of The Water Margin, performed, polished, refined and compiled by storytellers and poets, were made into one epic popular fiction, within which 108 outlaws, endowed with distinct backgrounds, appearances, and dress, made an animated landscape of Water Margin. The Water Margin introduces most of its characters’ complete outfits through a set of words of praise on their debuts, thereby portraying solid, bright images in its readers’ mind. Dress are socialized skin from which we tell one’s social status, aesthetics, projected nature, contemporary trends, and even collective culture from those of others’. The Water Margin presents 108 outlaws in a wide array of clothing which, in my textual analyses, was categorized into caps, garments, skirts and footwear, and waist ornaments. I explore the contents of their designs and transformations over time, and how people in Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties designed and decided their dress in terms of wearing and functioning. Next, I’d discuss the textile—categorized into cotton and gunny, silk, hide and leather, and metal, in order to study the material culture embedded in dress—along with colors—red, cyan, white, black, and yellow included, so as to elaborate on the aesthetics of dressing. Comparing dress with the social context of The Water Margin’s creation gives insight to the highly-developed textile crafting in Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasty, a crafting which promoted a booming commodity economy and thereby formed a miscellaneous dressing fashion and a luxury-worshiping, etiquette-violating atmosphere. Combining dress with the characters, I reason how each figure was shaped with what he or she wore, and study how one’s dressing defined his/her extrinsic identity and the textual implications inherited in the fiction. This thesis aims at scrutinizing The Water Margin through dress, concluding that dressing is a path to characters’ depictions, a manner with which the plot was embellished, a concrete reflection on social customs, as well as a representation of the 108 outlaws’ thinking of breaking prohibitions. The Water Margin, therefore, was at the stage of dressing depiction’s transformation in popular fictions.

Aristotle stated in his Poetics that theatre’s dual purpose was to educate and entertain. Centuries later the Roman Horace and Indian Bharata echoed his same sentiments. I intend to realize all three theorist’s ideas on the theatre by creating an original educational and entertaining work and bringing it to performance. The audience will retain information without being aware of learning if it is presented in a pleasurable way. The most important geopolitical relationship of this century will be between China and America. In order to educate the American public about the culture of The Middle Kingdom, I propose to write and direct my own play, condensing all three thousand years of Chinese literature into a one hundred and ten minute performance. I will benefit from the personal nature of this thesis by experiencing every stage of a play’s production: from idea to page to performance. My thesis will be made of three major parts: conceiving and writing the play, a journal of directing the debut production, and a third section made of choices, influences, and reflection on the entire experience. In this manner, the ideas swirling in my head may be made clear to others reading this thesis. The play itself will be a comical distillation of ten selected works of Chinese literature. Four non-gender specific American actors will seem to make up the show as it performs in a tongue-in-cheek way. Taking my stated goal of entertaining and educating the audience to heart, the overarching plot of the play will center on the four actors teaching the audience about the literature and culture of China by acting out scenes and telling stories. The information in the scenes will be targeted to a normal American citizen’s educational level with liberal doses of humor added. The four actors will be playing fictionalized versions of themselves and at times iv breaking character by explaining and setting up the theatricality of the piece to the audience. Part of the fun of the show will be seeing how these actors explain a subject as obtuse as Chinese literature to Americans. Perhaps a cooking metaphor is the best way to think of the play: I will chop up raw Chinese literature, the actors will boil it onstage, the theatregoer will consume the mix, and exit the theatre full of entertaining intellectual nourishment. My experiences directing and producing the finished play will be recorded in a journal as a resource for future directors. I imagine directing the play will be the most challenging aspect of this thesis. How is the play changed when other people interact with it? How will the audience receive it? In addition, Committee Chair Mark Routhier and my thesis Committee Members, Mark Brotherton and Tan Huaixiang, will also give written responses to the play’s performances. The play will be performed October 10-13, 2013 in the University of Central Florida’s Performing Arts Complex Studio 2 classroom. In the final section I will write a reflection on the entire process. This will serve the dual purpose of giving me a place to collect my thoughts and giving others a special insight to the growth they might experience when producing this play. Foremost among my influences in writing a play with this subject matter are the style and tone of The Reduced Shakespeare Company