Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2023, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Topdog/Underdog by Suzan Lori Parks and Is God Is by Aleshea Harris are the two outstanding works in contemporary American theater examined in this thesis. Through their plays, Parks and Harris examine topics of trauma, identity, and mental health challenges in contemporary society. They explore the psychological and emotional effects on their characters, drawing on trauma theory and feminist theory. A critical examination of the central characters in both plays – Lincoln and Booth in Topdog/Underdog and Anaia and Racine in Is God Is examines the traumatic experiences that shape their lives. This study explains the profound influence of societal forces on their identities and actions by exploring how these characters grapple with their pasts using the trauma theory lens. The Oedipal complex emerges, highlighting sibling rivalries, power struggles and legacy issues. Women's representation and agency within male dominated worlds are explored from a feminist perspective in this dissertation.

Committee: Frederick Karem Dr. (Committee Chair); Michael Geither Dr. (Committee Member); James Marino Dr. (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, English/Literature

The Star Wars epic has been important for popular culture since its emergence in 1977; it is relevant for film and popular culture analysis (both of which I tend to in this thesis), and it is a crucial epic tale that contributes to a model of literary and psychoanalytical history. In the four decades in Star Wars' debut, fans and scholars alike have been interested in the saga's ostensible depiction of incest and the Skywalker family romance, but I maintain that incest has become a more palatable metaphor for the characters' respective narcissisms, and that these narcissistic affects in fact provide evidence of little-to-no erotic interest in one another and do not support the incestuous metaphor that is common to readings of the films. In this thesis, I engage the original Star Wars film trilogy as well as the work of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and other prominent psychoanalysts to offer my own critique of psychoanalysis's overreliance on the Oedipal complex: In order to effectively de-Oedipalize psychoanalysis, we need to first recognize and reconcile the problem and ugliness of narcissism. I apply this paradigm to examine the character of Luke Skywalker and his relationships with his father, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, and his twin sister, Princess Leia Organa, though this framework can be used to de-Oedipalize other literary and filmic texts. Part I of this thesis traces Luke's relationship with Darth Vader through Lacan's concept, the “Name-of-the-Father,” to argue that Luke's superficially Oedipal desire to become his idealized father is a disguise for his narcissistic desire to turn his father into a facsimile of himself. Similarly, Part II examines Luke's relationship with Princess Leia through Lacan's “The Agency of the Letter in the Unconscious” to argue that the twins rely so heavily on the signs and signifieds of sexual difference that they fail to recognize that they are in a narcissistically competitive dialogue.

Committee: Erin Labbie Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jeff Brown Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Literature