▼ The title comes from the final short story in this collection, formerly published in Drought: An Online Literary Magazine. I hope to conjure the idea of new spaces for women by calling attention to the places my women characters inhabit in their individual existences. They are single mothers, grandmothers, women facing ill health, and young girls on the cusp of womanhood. Although each of these short stories can stand alone, they are tied together by themes that explore how place can act as both oppressor and liberator for my characters. I have arranged them in an order that might mimic the stages and places of a woman’s life. All of these women characters are unique in that they are each negotiating their own space and location journeys. But in organizing this, I noticed that the characters form a composite age trajectory. The collection begins with the young girl narrator of “The Forbidden Object of My Desire” and ends with a middle –aged character confronting her own mortality in “Conjuring Olympus”. Advisors/Committee Members: Wyett, Jodi.

▼ In his book The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw writes about Andy Rooney, "60 Minutes" commentator on CBS who went into Paris with Ernest Hemingway and my father, Sgt. David S. Ecker, jeep driver for the Office of Strategic Services. Brokaw writes, "For Rooney, August 25, 1944, the day Paris was liberated, 'was the most dramatic I'd ever lived through.' When he returns to Paris even now, he rents a car and drives the same triumphal route.'' 1 This thesis is about my father. It is an extremely painful story of two and half years in his life which he purposely forgot so he could raise a family. He packaged the two and half years he was in the Office of Strategic Services in World War II and put it all behind him. He married my mother on January 16, 1948, and went on to raise four children and have a successful career selling mattresses for Stearns and Foster in Cincinnati, Ohio. There are four specific reasons why my father's story is an extremely painful one. These four reasons are evident in the wartime remembrances of Mr. Reuter and Mr. Hasler also, my other interviewees, and for the matter in any soldier of any army who saw combat action in World War II. The first is killing. Killing the enemy is still killing a fellow human being and while some soldiers are affected more than others, they are nonetheless still affected. The second reason is surviving. What did it actually take to survive the war, and why did one soldier survive through combat and not the other? The third reason is comrades. Once you have trained with a soldier you will look after and never forget. The fourth reason does not relate specifically to World War II, but does relate to why the recollections of my father can be so painful, and that has to do with social support. Dad never sought counseling after the war, but the mere fact that all his very close male friends went through many similar horrid experiences helped Dad cope with his memories. In each of my interviewees these four reasons will become apparent throughout their narratives. Advisors/Committee Members: Finkelstein, Norman.

▼ In the vast realm of William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, population 15,611, live two young boys who, unlike other members of their imaginary territory, never grow old. Vardaman Bundren of As I Lay Dying and Sartoris Snopes of Barn Burning may forever be minor players in Faulkner's overall work, but they are forever a part of the moral courage that make the struggle of the South an integral part of American Literature.One grows into adulthood during the 1890s, whereas the other is born about three decades later. Each is a product of what William Crowley calls "Faulkner's mythological kingdom ... on the border between the sand hills covered with scrubby pine and the black earth of the river bottoms" (34). Neither boys are members of aristocratic families, like the Compsons or Sartorises, nor are they old enough to be cognizant of the effect their families' lot in life will have upon them. They each face a life near or within Frenchman's Bend that, by virtue of their birth, allows them none of the pleasures known to the antebellum families who live in nearby mansion plantations. Unlike other Faulknerian characters who are developed over the course of many stories, Vardaman and Sartoris never re-emerge in Faulkner's work, yet the two boys creep into the lasting crevices of our minds as they live out their struggles. Advisors/Committee Members: Finkelstein, Norman.

▼ There has been an ongoing controversy as to Chaucer's intentions regarding characters and themes in the Tales dating back to the late 1300's in which they are said to have been written. Chaucer has been credited with being a warrior of women's rights for the strength and voice he gives to some of the women in his tales, while other critics have argued that Chaucer is without a doubt a misogynist who uses the Tales for his abuse of women. But one theme that stands out for Chaucer seems to be his understanding of men and women, "women and the relationships between the sexes are Chaucer's favourite subject"? And this is something we will see. The growing list of critics in support and/or disagreement of Chaucer cannot possibly be covered, but there are a number of critics whose ideas stand out. The divergence is primarily concerning Chaucer's attitude concerning women. On the negative side are those who do not support Chaucer and find him and his works to be misogynistic on the feminist issue. One must remember the time period which Chaucer wrote the expectations of men and women in medieval times were fairly standard and acceptable, yet in the 19th century Chaucer is accused of being antifeminist for creating the majority of women in his tales according to the medieval prototype. However, Chaucer did create two tales (The Wife of Bath's Prologue and The Miller's Tale) in which the women are strong and even victorious over the men. Coincidentally enough, each of these women shares the name Alisoun. Chaucer certainly was not antifeminist considering these two strong women and the awareness he displays of women's wisdom; if anything, he provided a unique understanding of the sexes in medieval times. Advisors/Committee Members: Connolly, Fr. Brian.

▼ The traditional Machiavelli of literature, one who gains political power by manipulation of others, has been a male seeking greater political power. Little critical information is available on the female Machiavel, however. Shakespeare creates an inversion of the cultural norm in his time when he combines Machiavellian techniques with motherhood in Margaret of the Henry VI and Richard III tetralogy and Tamara of Titus Andronicus. This inversion represents part of the overall understanding and progressive view that Shakespeare had of the social and political structures facing the women of his time. With Machiavellian techniques Margaret and Tamara are able to combine their womanly wiles-their sexuality-and manipulate themselves into positions of greater power. Shakespeare adds the motherhood factor to further complicate their identities and demonstrate how far these women are willing to go to revenge the wrongs done to them and/or their children. Their schemes for revenge prove to be their downfall. Shakespeare's perceptiveness of the social and political climate of his time gave his audience the opportunity to see what could happen if current social norms were not allowed to continue their natural advancement. By placing the burden of the Machiavellian nature on the women­ the mothers – he gave his audience a taste for moving away from traditional patriarchs. Advisors/Committee Members: de Sousa, Geraldo.

▼ In light of the theoretical debate surrounding Qur’anic exegesis and the question of gender egalitarianism, my contribution calls for the (re)interpretation of Rabi’ah the Mystic’s poetry in relation to Qur’anic exegesis on gender relations. I to bring to light the intertextuality of Rabi’ah’s spiritual poetry and its relationship to Qur’anic interpretation—as her language is infused (either consciously or unconsciously) with the Qur’an’s prescriptive and marginalizing teachings toward women of her time. By examining her language through a Bakhtinian lens, I investigate how Rabi’ah evokes the heteroglot voices of eighth to ninth-century Basra (or present-day Baghdad, Iraq). I explore three interrelated questions surrounding the construction of her identity: 1) the question of her language as “gendered” or feminine; 2) how scholars have related her identity based on her language and the knowledge of her life passed on through centuries; and 3) how readers may (re)interpret her identity based on the language of her poetry today. Through a textual analysis of the sacred language found within her four poems, I make the following arguments about the inherent multivocality of Rabi’ah’s language: first, Rabi’ah communicates a feminine perspective in much of her poetic language; second, Rabi’ah exhibits normative “masculine” behaviors as her language and lived experience, at times, take on a critical tone typically reserved for the men of her society; and third, Rabi’ah demonstrates an androgynous identity, at various times, through her critique of both the feminized and masculinized paths associated with the Muslim faith tradition and Sufism. Thus, Rabi’ah’s discourse and the construction of her identity through the centuries (as portrayed by scholars) produce various discursive effects—both linguistic and cultural. Rabi’ah’s language and experiences, in particular, reveal social mores in the context of eighth-century Muslim society, work to resurrect female voices (as her voice speaks to the female Muslim experience), and illustrate the subjugation of women. Advisors/Committee Members: Winkelmann, Carol.

▼ Using modem film to study Shakespeare's text is more effective when combined with performance theory criticism. Within the classroom, students should be allowed to compare the various actors’ performance interpretation of a character to the text. The viewing of the key scenes of modem film versions can assist the students in creating their own understanding of Shakespeare's Othello arid the character Iago. The Introduction presents a brief overview of performance theory arid the methods for performance criticism. The Introduction will also provide background from scholars who have found film in the classroom successful. Within Chapter One, I have concluded that two modem film versions are required for this theory. One version is a replication of the script in its textual setting arid poetic dialogue. The second version is an adaptation of the text into students' current language, setting, and attire. I argue that my chosen films of Oliver Parker's Othello (1995) and Tim Blake Nelson's 0 (2001) provide different interpretations of Iago arid grasp students' attention with recognizable characters. In Chapter Two, I conclude that the selection of the key scenes from films is not always the key scenes in the text. I have conducted this research through performance criticism of the soliloquies of Kenneth Branaugh's Iago as well as Josh Hartnett and his body language. The students' performance criticism of these two actors can lead to contrasting interpretations of Iago, other characters, and the text. The process of using a combination of performance theory criticism arid modern films can assist the students in determining their own understanding of Shakespeare's text. This argument is significant because it presents a new interpretation method to students examining Iago and the Othello text. Advisors/Committee Members: Northway, Kara.