Most approaches to Duffy’s work have been a feminist reading of poetry, focusing on the portrayal of women within the theoretical framework of feminism. However, little attention has been paid to the religious elements in Duffy’s work, something that Duffy herself has recognized. This essay will therefore focus on the centrality of religion in Duffy’s work, and will argue that her poems constitute an arena where religion is redefined and female experience and theology are reconciled. The poems under focus, “Delilah”, “Salome”, “Pilate’s wife”, “Pope Joan”, “Mrs Lazarous” and “Queen Herod” are examined in two separate sections: their portrayal of love and sexuality, and their portrayal of motherhood respectively, within the theoretical framework of feminist theology.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Virginia, 1998. / Description based on content as of June 1999; title from title screen.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1935. / Vita. The above is an abridged version of the author's dissertation. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 437-442).

This thesis explores the evolution of American Western narrative after the 1893 closing of the Western Frontier. Formerly representing a seemingly limitless fuel of symbolic growth, the frontier's closing threatened further national prosperity. Without new Western lands to conquer, narratives about the West began to be romanticized in a new way, selectively omitting non-Anglo narrative elements and presenting a more palatable West in the form of celebratory conquest. Ignoring its imperial roots, this new twentieth-century mythologization of the West became an increasingly ubiquitous narrative of America's honorable origins. Despite its ties to the perpetuation of empire, the pervasiveness of contemporary Western narratives remains largely benign in resonance, resulting in a past that is wholly severed from the present. Using a New Historicist approach, this study pairs literary works with cultural artifacts, tracking the role of Western narrative in the furtherance of empire. The first chapter examines Frederick J. Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" and Owen Wister's The Virginian (1902) as representatives of the new romanticization of the West. Chapter two looks at how Willa Cather's anti-spectacle novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927), responds to the spectacle of Empire at early twentieth-century World's Fairs. The final chapter pairs Japanese-American Internment during World War II with Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses (1992), as a commentary on the oppressive rhetoric of western space.

In 1932, Alfonso Caso, a rising professor of anthropology and employee of the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology and History made a huge archeological discovery; a centuries old tomb in the ancient citadel of Monte Alban located in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. In the months that followed the discovery the find was excavated, cleaned, cataloged and put on display. Altogether the cache consisted of hundreds of objects made of gold, precious stone, sea shells and human remains. Dubbed the Monte Alban Treasure by its discoverer, the find soon became a worldwide sensation. Public interest in a travelling exhibition exacerbated demands for the treasures public display in the United States. This dissertation traces the discovery, exhibition and consequences of the display of Monte Alban Treasures in the United States following the end of the armed phase of the Mexican Revolution. I argue that as the Revolution was in full swing, the existing new leadeship used archeology and art to dictate the cultural monikers that represented the country after the civil war. Defining the national character, establishing a cohesive cultural history and developing a visual narrative that coalesced with the governments aspirations informed the basis of the social changes fomented between 1921-1936. I argue that a series of popular art and archeological shows in Mexico and the United States in the late 1920's primed audiences for a revolutionary re-interpretation of Mexico's past that integrated indigenous populations into the history of the nation. This narrative minimized the impact and influence of European colonial powers and instead focused upon emphasizing the origins of Mexico's independent cultural identity. The display of Monte Alban Treasures in Mexico and the United States between 1922 and 1934 was part of this emergent revolutionary rhetoric. This research project explores the popular audience responses to the exhibit, but also charges alleging that the artifacts selected for display were fabricated. This twist demonstrates some of the major problems associated with using art and archeological evidence to represent broader political agendas. In this case, the Mexican government appropriated the Monte Alban Treasures, assigned them a narrative of indigenous appreciation and inclusivity and used their subsequent display to promote this abroad. This project will show how science and art were not contradicting fields of study, but fused to forge the public Revolutionary identity of Mexicans in the mid twentieth century.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-134). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

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This dissertation focuses on the interdependency between causality, context and history in selected novels by E.L. Doctorow: The Book of Daniel (1971), Ragtime (1974), Loon Lake (1980), World's Fair (1985) and The Waterworks (1995). Doctorow' s fiction is marked by an apparent paradox: while it underscores fictionalization and sometimes distorts late nineteenth and twentieth century American history, it simultaneously purports to be a valid representation of the past. The novelist's implementation of causality which is a significant component of "the power of freedom", constitutes fiction's ability to convey truth without relying on factuality or "the power of the regime". According to Doctorow, the documented fact is already an interpretation which induces the perception that all documentation is subjective. The author composes fictional contexts that disregard the pretence of reliability in non-fictional texts. Doctorow focuses on how contexts are formed: the contexts are usually defined through the experience of characters who have been exposed to an event or events that were generated by motivations, for example, emotions of fear, racism, conviction, desire and greed, i.e., the catalysts that form history. Each of the novels discussed focuses on various aspects of society and the fate of specific individuals. The Book of Daniel proposes that a human being can only survive physically and spiritually by remaining a social entity. Ragtime focuses on the persistent illusion in history that society is fragmented. The various "faces" of society encountered by the main character in Loon Lake, mirror one another and reflect spiritual poverty. Consequently, Loon Lake demonstrates that the search for personal fulfilment does not require a physical journey, but an inner or spiritual exploration. World's Fair postulates that reality is never exclusively defined by either fortune or misfortune alone. The Waterworks offers perhaps one of the most significant evaluations of history as it perceives that the world in which we live is essentially unknown to us. We have neither the practical means to obtain a total perspective of what occurs in society (especially among politicians and the financially powerful) nor do we have sufficient skills to distinguish what the motivations of individuals' actions really entail. / Thesis (M.A.) Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2000.