Bachelor of Arts, Ohio University, 2024, History

Do extreme religious groups develop in a vacuum due to the leaders desire for power and the followers' ignorance? Or are there larger forces at play? The United States in the 1970s saw a rise in extreme religious groups characterized by charismatic leaders and catastrophe. Much of the American public believed these groups were formed because of their leader's desire for money and power. However leaders were often motivated by other forces, and followers were typically well educated and middle class, with no obvious reason to join these communities. If this is the case, what other explanation is there for the formation of extreme religious groups? In the case of the 1970s, this was due to the larger pressures of the “Me Decade.” The me decade was characterized by poor domestic conditions in the US, resulting from inflation, stagnation, fuel shortages and government scandal. As the quality of life for average Americans deteriorated, they lost faith in their government to solve these problems, and turned to other solutions. Oftentimes these were attempts at self improvement, hoping for personal improvement if the problems of society couldn't be solved. In other cases, new religious communities were formed, providing spiritual solutions as an alternative to political ones. An example of one such religious group was the Rajneesh, a spiritual community founded in central Oregon known for their 1984 bioterrorism attack. The “Me Decade,” as well as its impact on the Rajneesh can be seen through a number of sources, including the Rajneesh's newspaper, other local newspapers, and essays by writers of the time on the phenomenon of the me decade. In this way, extreme religious groups in the 1970s were not formed by the leader's desire for money and power, but due to larger political and cultural pressures, particularly in the case of the Rajneesh.

Committee: Kevin Mattson (Advisor) Subjects: American History; History; Religious History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2020, Arts and Sciences: Romance Languages and Literatures

In recent years, the concept of “World Literature” has become an important paradigm for literary institutions. Above all, the question of a World Literature in French emerged in 2007 with the < Manifeste pour une litterature-monde en francais > (Manifesto for a World Literature in French) signed by forty-four Francophone writers, and published in the French newspaper Le Monde. Since then, arguments for or against World Literature have reexamined current literary theoretical frameworks to deconstruct the legacies of cultural imperialism and to address the constrictive “labels” of peripheral canons. In regards to these debates, my research investigates the benefits, as well as the challenges, of bringing modern literatures together to shed light on the work of less-internationally prominent writers. Through a critical examination of the presence of nation in contemporary world literature – such as markers of linguistic, narrative, and cultural particularities (in Gayatri Spivak's sense) – I seek to assess the need for as well as the limits of the current compartmentalization of World Literature (separated either by region or by language) in institutions. My analysis focuses on the representation of social ills – in parallel with the implications of globalization – in contemporary literatures in relation to our modern societies. The first four chapters of my dissertation rely on a comparative approach to the work of French, Sub-Saharan African, American, and Canadian writers. In these chapters, I examine recent realist iterations of the issues of identity, race, sexuality, despair, and alienation in novels by Michel Houellebecq (Les Particules elementaires, 1998; Plateforme, 2001), Ken Bugul (Le Baobab fou, 1982; Riwan ou le chemin de sable, 1999), Fatou Diome (Le Ventre de l'Atlantique, 2003), Alain Mabanckou (Black Bazar, 2009), Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake, 2003), and Jacques Poulin (Volkswagen Blues, 1984; Chat sauvage, 1998; L'anglais n'est pas une langue magiqu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Michele Vialet Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jeffrey Loveland Ph.D. (Committee Member); Therese Migraine-George Ph.D. (Committee Member); James Schiff Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative Literature; Romance Literature

MA, Kent State University, 2014, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

"Strange Times:" The Language of Illness and Malaise in Interwar France The interwar era was especially difficult in France given the stresses of the global depression, the rise of extreme politics, and most importantly the widespread perception of demographic crisis. Despite the clear division between radical right and left-wing political organizations, the two poles of the spectrum ultimately shared a level of discourse. Utilizing the literary criticism of Mikhail Bakhtin, which suggested that heteroglossic, or divisive rhetoric stood in contrast to unitary language, or overarching discourse, this project argues that the political left and right were united in their similar discursive employment of illness. The perception of demographic crisis lead many interwar era French to see their nation as somehow sick either metaphorically or literally. The discourse of illness and malaise is evident across the political spectrum, especially in the fields of politics, gender, and race.

Committee: Rebecca Pulju Dr. (Advisor); Stephen Harp Dr. (Committee Member); Richard Steigmann-Gall Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Demographics; European History; Gender; History; Modern History

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2010, English

Since the 1960 publication of his debut novel, The Moviegoer, Walker Percy's work has been widely read and critically evaluated by scholars. Though much has been done with Percy's work, none have examined how shifts in American Catholicism and the changes of the Second Vatican Council impacted the ways in which Percy wrote about religion and approached the problems of the modern world. In the following pages, I will detail the important movements in American Catholicism, the pertinent changes made to the practice of Catholicism through the Second Vatican Council, and the Existentialist philosophies of Kierkegaard, Buber, and Marcel in order to demonstrate the ways in which Percy's characters Binx Bolling of The Moviegoer and Thomas More of Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World, transcend the “malaise” or “everydayness” that separates them from God and community.

Committee: Albino Carrillo MFA (Advisor); R. Alan Kimbrough PhD (Committee Member); Bro. Thomas Wendorf, S.M. PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; English literature; Philosophy; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious History; Theology