Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2013, Philosophy (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis addresses the role of so called nondiegetic film music, also known as background or score music, as it pertains to the overall structure of processes involved in cinematic presentation. Some of the questions that are normally asked here are: Where is this music supposed to be coming from? Who is responsible for it? What is it really doing? In addressing this common filmic feature we will clear up several foundational concepts in film, provide a rough categorization of film music, critique Jerrold Levinson's recent attempt to answer the above questions, and ultimately arrive at a consideration of nondiegetic film music as a kind of narrational extra dimension. We will ultimately reject the view that music is instrumental in building narrative facts, in favor of one that holds music to be significant to the very processes of film narration, affecting how a film is presented.

Committee: John Bender Dr (Advisor); Vladimir Marchenkov Dr (Committee Member); Arthur Zucker Dr (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Film Studies; Philosophy

M.A. (Master of Arts in English), Ohio Dominican University, 2022, English

This paper focuses on the forms of narration that do not fit the traditional definition and deserve more profound study. These types of narration have marked influences from British Imperialism that have made lasting effects on their structures. Beginning in the age of Old Imperialism and continuing throughout the present day, many groups of narrators were viewed as “less appealing” because they are not rich enough, white, or male. However, because of these power structures, atypical forms of narration become more significant as they allow these “less desirable” narrators to tell their story through the use of frames or assumed personas. Through close reading and research, connections can be made between atypical narrators and the cultural ideas of a society. These ideas result in the development of or lack of empathy when a group considers those they view as “others.”

Committee: Jeremy Glazier (Committee Chair); Martin Brick (Advisor) Subjects: Literature

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2020, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Studies of American literature and, more specifically, literature by authors of color quite often focus on aspects of “othering”, that is, the practice of separating minority culture and literature from the larger or more dominant culture. Even before the onset of the Civil Rights Era, issues of racism have informed much of the literature of the United States, and just as long as racism has played a role in American literature, scholars, critics, and readers have discussed it. The bulk of criticism discussing African American and Native American literature examines the issues of racism as perpetrated by white society. What is not as commonly examined is the role that internalized racism plays. Ralph Ellison and Sherman Alexie are two of the most extensively studied authors of African American and Native American descent respectively, but analysis of their work tends to overlook the racism that a person can experience against his own race, choosing instead to focus on the hegemonic master narrative. Both authors used a blend of narratological self-deprecation to illustrate a desire both from and for their respective races within a larger, “American” identity; however, whereas Ellison's novel is a bildungsroman that uses a single narrator's self-hatred, Alexie employs multiple narrators and points of view to stitch bricolage that ultimately serves as a cohesive narrative. Eschewing the typical line of argument about visual imagery, this paper intends to explore how each author uses elements of sound, auditory metaphors, and, especially storytelling and folklore to depict internalized racism, how it works its way under the skin, and how it can be used to expose the effects of overt racism.

Committee: Frederick Karem (Advisor); Adam Sonstegard (Committee Chair); Rachel Carnell (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Literature; Native Americans

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2019, English

African Ex-Child Soldier Memoirs to some extent have been viewed as humanitarian texts that raise sympathy or even funds from readers to enhance child rights initiatives. Such initiatives have been noble and worthy. However, my literary analysis research goes beyond the humanitarian reception, to examine how the use of the child's voice functions as a narrative critique of a distorted adult world. Exploring Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone and Senait Mehari's Heart of Fire, I examine how these authors employ a blend of aesthetic invention, remembered and experienced history inherent in the child's voice within their narratives. My interpretive work involves tracing the political, social and economic histories of authors' native spaces; examining functions and effects of child narrators; and understanding memory reconstruction paradigms and the functions of storytelling in confronting trauma. Displaced identities in children; Child's Safety within a social justice quest; and Violence and trauma on children are some of the major themes arising from my research. The child's voice indicates that adult-led national, international, socio-political and economic networks and practices are responsible for violations of the child's rights. Through the capacity of the child's perspective to cross taboo lines and the adult shame frontier, and to penetrate emotional danger zones easily, my research shows that the child's voice exposes how adults within child soldier spaces and beyond, are flawed and limited by their participation in social, cultural and ideological institutions and discourses.

Committee: Thomas Wendorf PhD (Committee Chair); Thomas Morgan PhD (Committee Member); Kara Getrost PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Literature; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, English

In the field of rhetorical narrative theory, the study of affect has been oft-acknowledged but remains undervalued. Even as affect studies has burgeoned in other fields, affect in narrative theory continues to be discussed either as a product of ethical judgments or as a purely physical response that scientific studies can measure. Affect, Embodiment, and Ethics in Narratives of Sexual Abuse expands the vocabulary for affect in narrative theory, in particular focusing on expanding our awareness of the varying potential relationships between ethical judgments and affective dynamics. Turning to narratives that represent sexual abuse and taboo violation in late-twentieth-century American literature—Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, Kathryn Harrison's memoir The Kiss, and Alexander Chee's Edinburgh—I demonstrate that affective dynamics have a variety of possible relationships with the negative ethical judgments encouraged against the abuser figures and/or taboo violators. Specifically, I argue that in order to attend to affect as it appears in narratives of sexual abuse, we must attend to “embodiment”: the character's shifting experiences of how closely tied he or she feels mind and body to be. I call this experiential embodiment and chart it by examining representation of characters' emotions, trauma, and bodily experience. In Chee's Edinburgh, Fee's paradoxically embodied desire to transcend the body, as a result of his trauma, is a central instability that must be resolved through resolving his aesthetic and sexual identities. Fee's embodied experiences encourage similar readerly feelings and ultimately revise the frameworks for ethically judging the abuser figure. That is, whereas Big Eric receives harsh, black-and-white judgments, Fee's progression leads to a revised, more nuanced and understanding approach that resists similar judgments when he, as an adult, has sex with a teenage student. In Harrison's The Kiss, I examine the representation of affectless prose to (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: James Phelan (Advisor); Robyn Warhol (Committee Co-Chair); Brian McHale (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Literature

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2015, English

Sherwood Anderson's short story “Death in the Woods” was first published in 1933 and is considered by many critics to be one of his best works. My thesis examines the role that the narrator's character plays in “Death in the Woods”. I argue that it is the empathic relationship that the narrator forms with Ma Grimes (a character in the text) is essential to a critical understanding of Anderson's story. My thesis uses original research and interpretation of “Death in the Woods” along with the ideas of critics whose perspective on the work contributes to my argument. I also use a detailed analysis of an earlier version of “Death in the Woods” that appears as Chapter Twelve in Anderson's Tar, A Midwest Childhood to point out how Anderson altered the story structure and content to better establish the narrator's relationship to Ma Grimes. The critical and textual evidence I use to discuss the narrator's role in “Death in the Woods” contributes to my assertion that the significance of this character's relationship to Grimes is ultimately what drives the work and makes it a memorable literary text.

Committee: Kitayun Marre Dr. (Advisor); James Boehnlein Dr. (Committee Member); Joseph Pici Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Literature

BA, Oberlin College, 1984, English

The first half of this paper will trace Neroni's development from the unlikely caricature of a siren to the rounded, believable narrator's accomplice whose position establishes her own credibility. Neroni serves to reinforce and augment the implications of the narrative whenever she holds court with her suitors. As "the Circe of Barchester" (Kn 37 1), she leads her lovers into revealing those traits that the narrator has already warned us to expect, thereby providing the narrator with further text to comment upon. Trollope needs to reveal certain aspects of his men, not in their inward deliberation, but in startled reactions to a shot gone home. The narrator discloses their areas of potential psychological conflict; Neroni starts the conflict into motion.My second half will examine Neroni's position as an accomplice to that side of the author that subverts the narrator's more conventional views. Neroni's subversive role is built on the foundations of the narrator's early dependence on her as a clear-seeing, analytical character. Her original position of moral ambiguity sets her up as the logical advocate for the views about which the author himself feels ambivalent. Even as Trollope cajoles the reader into belief in the reliability of Neroni's moral judgments, he is jolting us periodically with her unorthodox moral opinions. In this section, we build on a hypothetical delineation of Neroni's self-concept to show how her unorthodox perspective is both valid and necessary.

Committee: Katherine Linehan (Advisor) Subjects: Literature

Master of Music, Youngstown State University, 2009, Dana School of Music

Part One, "The Seven Days of Creation For Narrator and String Orchestra" depicts the seven days of creation as portrayed in the Bible. The narrator will first read the depiction of that particular day, followed by the referant musical movement, which will enhance the bible passage. The seven-movement piece uses a wide variety of compositional techniques including modes, whole tone scales and other artificial scales.Part Two examines Movement 4 of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. The hope in analyzing this movement is to discover if Shostakovich could be a progressive 20th. century composer while being closely scrutinized by the Communist Party. A brief discussion of some historic background is followed by a parametric analysis consisting of a study of form, harmonic and tonal outline, climaxes, rhythmic structure, timbre, and textural structure. The thesis shows that Shostakovich was able to be creative despite the very adverse conditions of Communist Party control. Through the examination of this movement, we find that Shostakovich can be a source of inspiration to musicians and non-musicians alike who are faced with adversity.

Committee: Robert Rollin PhD (Advisor); Stephen Gage PhD (Committee Member); Jee-Weon Cha PhD (Committee Member); William Slocum Prof. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2007, College-Conservatory of Music : Piano

In 1849 Robert Schumann made the surprising decision to compose a work for narrator and piano, entitled “Schon Hedwig.” He would return to this combination for two other works, “Ballade vom Haideknaben” and “Die Fluchtlinge,” op 122, nos. 1 and 2, respectively. While relatively unknown today, these three works are significant in the way in which Schumann fuses elements of two existing musical traditions: the staged melodrama and the sung ballad. Additionally, these works proved influential in the way in which they provide a model for subsequent composers working in this medium. These works display a connection to the staged melodrama in their use of the spoken text, discontinuous accompaniment, and a primitive form of leitmotif. Schumann's works for narrator and piano also show a connection with the sung ballad in their choice of poetry, unusual harmonic shifts, and descriptive accompanimental gestures. These influences are traced through Schumann's spoken works as well as similar works by composers such as Franz Liszt, Richard Kugele, and Richard Strauss.

Committee: Dr. bruce mcclung (Advisor) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, French and Italian

What does one see when he or she looks at a picture? This very broad question has no real answer, because each “he” or “she” will have a different response to the picture that is viewed. Each textual description of a photograph, therefore, will be different, reflecting each individual's interpretation or sentiment. The goal of this study is to show the result of such interplay between texts and images, how one influences the other. We will begin with an analysis of the French New Novel that emerged in the decade of the 1950s, and provoked debates on subjective versus objective literature, real versus imaginary, sight versus what is seen by the mind's eye, among other topics. These binary oppositions allow us to gain a better understanding not only of an image, but also the text that accompanies it and gives it meaning. Since we are not looking at images or texts as isolated structures, there is a necessary interplay of language and images. Thus, arbitrary distinctions in the form of binary oppositions are problematic. The chapters of this study are discussions of such problems. We will present these problems by using the New Novel and its innovation as a frame of reference for analyses of verbal-visual narrative crossovers that characterize contemporary French literature. The remaining three chapters will show the dialectical relationship that exists between texts and images. Images in the form of photographs are supposed to relate the truth. However, when these photographs become verbal representations, one must question the message they provide. While the texts we have chosen vary in genre, subject matter, and perspective, they all allow us to problematize the text/ image dichotomy. In addition, each text evokes questions of identity that plague the modern era. All of the authors we have chosen highlight the interplay of a text and an image, as well as the way in which images are used for identification. Although their messages vary, the authors we will be discuss (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karlis Racevskis (Advisor) Subjects: Literature, Romance

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2010, English (Arts and Sciences)

Summer Vacations contains five short stories about a Taiwanese boy's childhood. It starts with a piece of fate verse and a fortuneteller's prediction. Each story focuses on one particular accident happening to the boy. When the boy faces the physical accidents, he also has the chance to think over his relationship with his family and friends.

Committee: Joan Connor (Advisor); Darrell Spencer (Committee Member); Zakes Mda (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

BA, Oberlin College, 1987, Anthropology

To show that while comments by listeners do have the appreciative and encouraging role described above, this is not their only role. In her study of Hawaiian children, Watson (1975) discovered that two children would frequently tell a story in tandem, one child taking the role of lead narrator, the other interjecting comments which elaborated on, rephrased. summarized, and otherwise supported the main narrator's story. Robinson has recently called into question the applicability of this research to continental American white society (1981: 72-3), but I have found evidence of something similar, which I shall call "co-narration", among American whites. If one of the listeners is a "knowing listener", that is, was present at the events being described, he/she can interrupt the narrator with comments that not only show appreciation, but actually contribute to the narrative text of the story. Furthermore, even "non-knowing listeners" who are hearing the narrative for the first time can sometimes contribute in this way.

Committee: Ronald Casson (Advisor) Subjects: Language Arts; Sociology

Bachelor of Arts, Marietta College, 2008, English

Girded with the belief that narrative is a driving force which guides our attraction to specific works of fiction and that some narrators are constructed in such a way that results in a greater or lesser attraction on the behalf of readers, I seek to deconstruct the narrator into its principal working components. First, I provide a brief overview of relevant twentieth century narrative theory; second, I identify what I have determined to be the principal components of the narrator-ideal; third, I apply my theoretical model to selected contemporary works of fiction by Elliot Perlman and Jhumpa Lahiri to demonstrate how these components work and where they may be found.

Committee: Janet Bland PhD (Advisor); Mary Barnas PhD (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Literature

Bachelor of Science of Journalism (BSJ), Ohio University, 2013, Journalism

Journalism has always been about questions. The fundamental building blocks of standard news stories are small questions with documentary orientations: Simple whos, whats, wheres, whens, hows, and whys that flesh out a story. It is easy to make a case for how basic facts help media consumers understand the world around them through simple documentation. But criticisms of modern journalism often take issue with the image of reality that journalism portrays. Scholars have conceptualized it as incomplete, biased, and unhelpful to society. Such questioning of media products and processes is fruitful. This project questions the media's reliance on objectivity as its means of documenting truth, and the primary question is whether or not compromising conventional journalistic objectivity in favor of a hybrid perspective that incorporates subjectivity could be a legitimate way for journalists to better represent truthful worldly reality. It analyzes how the elements of literary journalism can enable blending objective documentary impulses with self-conscious commentary to yield a media product that answers more questions. It asks if this hybridity can move journalism toward bigger questions approached on personal levels, thereby taking journalism from a passive reflection to an active representation. Ultimately, it is concerned with journalists' desire to have their work be a record of human activity and a promoter of democratic freedom and the issue of whether or not journalists have the ability or feel the obligation to comment on big questions and their answers. This project is not the first to question objectivity. It includes a literature review that explores some of the historical and philosophical discourse on the subject of objectivity and its use by journalists as a means to an end of truth. Journalism holds truth as its primary tenant. Objectivity is truth's twin ethic in journalistic discourse. After defining and critiquing a synthesized concept of objectivity (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Cary Frith (Advisor); Bernhard Debatin (Committee Chair) Subjects: Journalism