Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures

Abstract The current study analyzes signs and signifiers that constitute the structural composition of Pushkin's historical works Boris Godunov and The Captain's Daughter and compare them with their Soviet and post-Soviet screen adaptations. I argue that the popularity of these literary works with filmmakers is based on their inexhaustible topicality for Russian society of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, and therefore reassessment of their film adaptations guides us towards developing a better understanding of the sociopolitical complexities in modern Russia. The analysis employs methods of semiotics of film, which is a relatively young science, but has already become one of the most promising fields in the theory of cinema. The research is based on the scholarship of such eminent theorists and semioticians as Metz, Bluestone, Barthes, Lotman, Bakhtin, and others. By performing semiotic analysis of Russian intermedial transpositions and Pushkin's source texts, the study demonstrates the parallels between the historical periods and contemporary Russia.

Committee: Brian Joseph (Advisor); Alexander Burry (Advisor) Subjects: Film Studies; Foreign Language; History; Literature; Russian History; Slavic Literature; Slavic Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Spanish and Portuguese

Both Spain and Peru experienced protracted violent conflicts between insurgent groups and State forces during the second half of the twentieth century. In Spain, this involved Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a radical Basque nationalist organization which sought Basque autonomy via armed struggle in a conflict which lasted from 1959 until 2011. In Peru, the insurgent threat was represented by Sendero Luminoso, a Maoist guerrilla insurgency based in the Peruvian highlands that sought drastic sociopolitical change within Peru. Sendero Luminoso launched what they deemed a people's war in 1980, and the bloody conflict that ensued continued until 1992. The damage caused by each of these conflicts was monumental, both in terms of the loss of human life and damage to infrastructure in both countries. In this dissertation I examine the depiction of these conflicts in a selection of Peruvian and Spanish novels and films. I argue that each work promotes a certain version of the conflict it describes, and that this can be revealed through an analysis of the humanizing and dehumanizing discourses at play in the representation of the actors in both of these conflicts. From Peru, I will examine Santiago Roncagliolo's novel Abril rojo (2006) and Fabrizio Aguilar's film Paloma de papel (2003). From Spain, I will analyze the novel Ojos que no ven (2010) by J.A. Gonzalez Sainz and the film Yoyes (2000) by Helena Taberna. In this work, I argue that these discourses of humanization and dehumanization affirm or deny, respectively, the humanity of subjects involved in these violent political conflicts. I assert that dehumanization is employed to legitimate systemic violence during a state of exception, while humanization serves to refute that legitimation by providing a more comprehensive image of the actors and their motivations. Furthermore, I signal the significance of the use of these discourses, as I consider these works to be part of a larger corpus from a number of disciplines that (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar (Advisor); Ignacio Corona (Committee Member); Aurélie Vialette (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

The dissertation aims to engage a critical analysis of the cultural implications of translation practice in the context of postcolonial African literature and film in Setswana language. It argues for the integration of decolonial and culturally relevant translations in post-colonial African-language cultural productions. The dissertation shows that, through the application of decolonized methodological practices to translation, cultural meaning can be retained, and therefore, empower the relevance and global visibility of marginalized literatures. The study is cognizant of the fact that cultural translations constitute an essential aspect of growth and expansion of postcolonial literatures and films from Africa, especially for minority literary communities across the continent. Furthermore, the dissertation makes an innovative contribution to the ongoing debates on postcolonial literatures and films produced in Africa, and more importantly, to decolonizing the study of translation as culture in Setswana literature and film. The period of colonization in Africa was characterized not only with the impositions of the European literary cultures and canons on their colonies, but also with varied assumptive views on literary translation practice. For example, most literary translations only focused on the written word represented using the Latin alphabet, but overlooked the possibilities of other translation practices implemented and widely used by the culturally displaced literary cultures. Some of these translation practices entailed the translation of oral tradition and its integration into both the written forms of literature and cinematic adaptations. Furthermore, the exercise of translation also involved the translation of the postcolonial canons, and its defining aesthetic features that account for a distinct style of the cultural productions considered in this study. The study makes a critical observation that the colonial translation practice of Setswana language (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrea Frohne Dr. (Committee Chair); Erin Schlumpf Dr. (Committee Member); Ghirmai Negash Prof. (Committee Member); Vladmir Marchenkov Prof (Committee Member) Subjects: African Literature; African Studies; Comparative Literature; Sub Saharan Africa Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Germanic Languages and Literatures

This dissertation explores manifestations of the topos Heimat in East German novels and films of the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, it identifies Heimat as a cultural-anthropological concept taking shape as an individual and social human endeavor, and explores the tensions, that arise between this endeavor and a socialist Heimat as defined by the GDR state. I propose that these tensions were never fully resolved, although it was a core ideal of the socialist society to harmonize them. Analyses of novels by Hans Marchwitza, Anna Seghers, Karl Heinz Jakobs, and Werner Braunig, and feature films and documentary films by Kurt Maetzig, Konrad Wolf, and Winfried Junge reveal different approaches to the understanding of Heimat, as well as conceptions of how to resolve the tensions described above. Their conclusions range from equating Heimat with a societal form, to acknowledging and wrestling with an increasing gap between the individual's grasp of Heimat and that of the state, and to mourning this gap. By employing Heimat as a discursive medium, this dissertation adds a new dimension to the ongoing discussion about the development of real socialism and its discontents in the GDR. It ultimately proposes that their reconciliation remained an utopian promise.

Committee: Helen Fehervary (Advisor) Subjects: Germanic Literature; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2020, English

This dissertation analyzes the cinematic allusions that appear in the novels of four postwar American writers: Jack Kerouac, Walker Percy, Elmore Leonard, and Joan Didion. I argue that these novelists employ cinematic allusions to comment on the ways that audiences interact with narrative texts. My definition for “allusions” is intentionally broad, including references to particular films, stars, tropes, viewing spaces, and productions. I argue that such allusions afford reflection for the readers of these novels, giving them a chance to pause and consider the differences between reading a book and watching a movie. Many scholars have theorized the differences between novels and films, but my project takes a new approach by considering how novelists can comment on these questions directly. All of the authors in my study find the cinema to be manipulative, and their cinematic allusions suggest that they believe the novel to be a more reflective, and therefore morally responsible, medium than film. However, this can lead to uncertainty for readers when their books simultaneously denounce and rely on the cinema's affective possibilities.

Committee: William Marling (Committee Chair); Robert Spadoni (Committee Member); Christopher Flint (Committee Member); Daniel Goldmark (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2016, English/Literature

The Gothic has become a mode of transforming reality according to the writers' and the audiences' imagination through the reproduction of hellish landscapes and nightmarish characters and occurrences. It has also been used though to address concerns and criticize authoritarian and power relations between citizens and the State. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass are stories written during the second part of the 19th century and use distinct Gothic elements to comment on the political situation in England as well as the power of language from a child's perspective. Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth on the other hand uses Gothic horror and escapism to demonstrate the monstrosities of fascism and underline the importance of revolt and resistance against State oppression. This thesis will be primarily concerned with Alice and Ofelia as Gothic protagonists that become agents of revolt against their respective states of oppression through the lens of Giorgio Agamben and Hannah Arendt. I will examine how language and escapism are used as tools by the literary creators to depict resistance against the Law and societal pressure; I also aim to demonstrate how the young protagonists themselves refuse to comply with the authoritarian methods used against them by the adult representatives of Power.

Committee: Piya Pal-Lapinski (Committee Chair); Kimberly Coates (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Cinematography; Comparative Literature; Film Studies; Gender Studies; Literature; Philosophy; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Comparative Studies

This dissertation follows Jameson's “Antinomies of Utopia” as a discursive model for thinking through the conceptual displacement from utopia to speculation and what happens with their attendant theories and ideologies in cultural critique when such a displacement is followed through. As a figure of the dynamic relation between form and content, Jameson's text advances by turns practically and theoretically, at one moment treating matters separately and in the next leaping toward ever provisional systematization. The three main chapters that follow each foreground textual reception. However, where chapters three and four examine the critical reception of a novel and a film, respectively, in the way of case studies, chapter two examines the broader conceptual reception of utopia and speculation, primarily in the Marxist tradition. The second chapter of this dissertation follows Jameson's text as it attempts to set a framework for the subsequent case studies. As a series of “Theses on Utopia and Speculation,” it develops an understanding of the two concepts progressing from relative isolation to greater complexity, interference, and incoherence. Across the contexts of literary genre, etymology and rhetoric, Marxism, theory, technology, and social life as such, the chapter endeavors to show how speculation displaces utopia in the historical present. The third chapter, “Climates of Speculation,” turns to contemporary literary fiction to see this displacement in action. Jenny Offill's 2020 Weather provides its case study for the intersection of climate fiction and autofiction, two “genres” which, when combined, problematize what Juha Raipola refers to as the “utopian propensity of speculative fiction.” Through a close reading of Offill's novel as well as its critical reception, the chapter argues that the very distinction between the speculative and the so-called realistic mobilized to assert the powers of the former actually conceals what may be most utopian about it. T (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Philip Armstrong (Advisor); Kris Paulsen (Committee Member); Melissa Curley (Committee Member); David Horn (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Climate Change; Comparative; Film Studies; Literature; Social Research

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2021, English (Arts and Sciences)

“The self…” states Louise Gluck, “was the nineteenth century's discovery, an object for a time, of rich curiosity, its structure, its responses, endlessly absorbing. And as long as it was watched in this spirit of curiosity and openness, it functioned as an other; the art arising from such openness is an art of inquiry, not conclusion, dynamic rather than static.” In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, poetry's obsession with the “watched” self has only grown more acute. That it has remained “dynamic” should be attributed to the distance cultivated between the self, the speaker, and the beholder. The critical introduction to this dissertation contextualizes poetry with popular American culture, specifically in film, and the occupations of the poet and actor, focusing on tensions between the fictional and autobiographical selves. It argues that intertextuality, and approaches such as ekphrasis and persona, reinforce the notion of the self as an “other” in order to renew our absorption in contemporary American poetry in parallel to popular culture. The creative portion of the dissertation is a collection of poems that wrestles to gain knowledge of the self who is other, and therefore ineffable. It addresses Dean Young's crucial question: “Who doesn't sense an unbridgeable alienation between ourselves and the world…That our poems speak to no one, not even fully to ourselves?”

Committee: Mark Halliday (Committee Chair); Eric Lemay (Committee Member); Jill Allyn Rosser (Committee Member); Erin Shevaugn Schlumpf (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2020, American Culture Studies

This study looks at twentieth-century representations of fictional female U.S. presidents in film, television, and literature. Examining how these portrayals either reinforce or subvert existing ideas about gender may give some insight into why the U.S. has not had a female president yet, as well as how each wave of feminism may have its own corresponding backlash. This project employs a textual analysis method and uses a feminist methodology. After analyzing the primary texts under consideration, it becomes clear that the majority of twentieth-century fictional representations of female U.S. presidents reify hegemonic gender roles and do not portray the presidents as being fully capable and worthy of respect. It is only toward the middle of the 1990s and later that any real change is seen in these characters. The media framing of real-life women running for president is somewhat in line with how female presidents are portrayed in fictional texts. These women are not depicted as being fully capable to serve the office of the U.S. presidency, and it takes quite a few decades before content creators are willing to deviate from this norm. This study has broader implications, too, insofar as the U.S. presidency is symbolic of systems of power more generally, and thus the texts herein can offer insight into how women are received in many positions of political and economic leadership.

Committee: Kimberly Coates PhD (Advisor); Emily Pence Brown PhD (Other); Cynthia Baron PhD (Committee Member); Andrew Schocket PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Literature; American Studies; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Literature; Mass Media; Performing Arts; Political Science; Womens Studies

PHD, Kent State University, 2019, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to develop a deeper understanding of how 15–16-year-old students created meaning and critically evaluated canonical works through various methods, including a final multimodal project. A case study approach was used to investigate the following questions: how does teaching the students to use critical lenses help students develop their critical literacy skills; how does assigning student-made multimodal/film projects of canonical literature help students connect with canonical texts (including how they evaluate, reflect on, and understand the characters); and how does assigning student-made multimodal/film projects help students develop their critical literacy skills in general (including, perhaps, their understanding of social criticism in canonical works)? By focusing on these questions, this study hoped to uncover how students' critical interpretations of canonical works could be broadened to help them understand critical social theory in their world, too. For this study, nine 15–16-year-old participants' experiences in a Sophomore English classroom were studied. Multiple data sources were collected: journal entries, observations, film projects, film artifacts, and interviews. The results of the study revealed that students were motivated to read and evaluate canonical texts with critical lenses. Moreover, the students were motivated to take their knowledge of critical literacy to create their own self-directed films of canonical works. The implications for future research and future instructional practices make this a viable option for teachers to incorporate into their classrooms to increase motivation and engagement with canonical works.

Committee: William Kist (Committee Chair); Alexa Sandmann (Committee Member); Sara Newman (Committee Member) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Education; Literacy; Literature; Secondary Education

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, East Asian Studies

The Family Game (1983) is a Japanese film directed by Morita Yoshimitsu 森田芳光 (1950-2011). Recognized as one of important works in the history of Japanese film, it represents the alienation of Japanese family and satirizes examination-oriented education in 1980s. The film is based on the novel Kazoku gemu 家族ゲーム (lit., “The Family Game”) by Honma Yohei 本間洋平 (1948-) published in 1981. In the scholarly discussion of The Family Game, the fact that the film is an adaptation has been virtually ignored, which results in the inaccurate assessment of the film. The thesis is a comparative study of Morita's The Family Game and Honma's Kazoku gemu. It first analyzes the narrative style and character development of Kazoku gemu and identifies the novel as a boku novel with unique narrative style and character development. It then examines The Family Game as an adaptation and explores the challenges of adapting unique first-person text. The exploration of the two works shows that the adaptation of first-person narrative literature can be challenging, and a clarification of adaptation can help deepen understanding of both the source text and the film adaptation.

Committee: Shelley Quinn (Advisor); Margaret Flinn (Advisor); Richard Torrance (Committee Member); Kirk Denton (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Literature; Asian Studies; Film Studies

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

BA, Oberlin College, 2018, Comparative Literature

Across the world, capitalist and neoliberal economic policies have trapped communities in chaotic cycles of boom and bust. bell hooks writes about this chaos of connected systems of economic and social domination, “this is what the worship of death looks like.” The aim of this project is to explore points of formal association between popular horror media, or narratives of fear, and the politically unconscious beliefs, dreams, and knowledges of subaltern classes that live and tell stories under a social order that demands either complicity or silence. These narratives of fear demonstrate how certain political discourses are, and have been, culturally unspeakable as collective experiences of trauma and violence. From Argentina, to South Korea, to Japan, studying narratives of fear gives us a point of access to the cultural process of integrating and narrating the previously unspeakable. These examples foreshadow dynamics discernible in modern Western narratives of fear, and thus I propose that the deeply traumatic class violence that underlies neoliberal order is emerging from a condition of unspeakability on a massive scale. To support these claims, I focus my analysis on conventions and tropes of modern horror media, in both narrative and formal terms. Works discussed include Halloween, the Scream franchise, World War Z (the novel), Get Out, Train to Busan and more. Bringing these works, in conversation with ideas from Jameson, Ranciere, and Gramsci, into a Crenshawian intersectional framework, this project presents a hopeful vision of class consciousness by reading horror in a new way.

Committee: Claire Solomon (Advisor); Patrick O'Connor (Advisor); Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; Comparative Literature; Film Studies; Literature; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, French and Italian

This dissertation explores spatio-temporal shifts in twenty-first century French crime narratives, through a series of close readings of contemporary crime films, television, literature, and comics. The works examined rely on the formal properties of the policier genre but adapt its standard conventions, most notably with deviations in the use and function of space. In this dissertation, I demonstrate that the modern policier is one that embraces its spatio-temporal, social, and generic non-fixity. The textual/visual constructions of many hyper-contemporary crime narratives contain multiple modes of decomposition within: a decentralization of space, which moves the action away from the genre's traditionally urban location to boundless rural spaces and border zones; a de-concentration of the policier genre, through the incorporation of tropes from other literary styles and works; and a devolution of social cohesion and community identity in the narratives. Chapter 1 examines works where historic references and urban legends of the 19th century fantastique literary genre unfold in modern rural locations. The past and the present converge to problematize modern ideals, identity, and community unity in rural spaces where reason is pitted against the supernatural. In Chapter 2, the crime narrative location is again shifted, this time from urban cities to rural, self-policing communities. Highly stylized settings and geometric architectures delineate restricted zones, and the forbidden forest, a staple “scene of the crime” in classic fairy tales, takes on the sinister and foreboding properties of a primal danger zone. These rural spaces remain outside of the law and untouchable to a classic detective figure, as communities reject patriarchal penetration of marginalized zones. Chapter 3 assesses transitional spaces in French adaptations of international crime fiction works. Border spaces and boundaries become fluid in reinterpretations of other nations' famous crime fictio (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Margaret Flinn Ph.D. (Advisor); Jennifer Willging Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Patrick Bray Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Foreign Language; Literature; Mass Media; Modern Language; Modern Literature; Motion Pictures

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

Drawing on Black feminist thought, queer theory, and queer of color critique, Touching History argues that Black women in the Post-Civil Rights era have employed diverse technologies in order to produce fictionalized narratives which counter the neoliberal imperative to forget the past. Black feminist and queer theorists have described the potential for artistic imaginings to address gaps in the historical record and Touching History follows this line of theory. Touching History examines an archive of Black women's cultural productions since the 1970s which includes novels, short stories, essays, experimental video film, digital music videos and visual albums. Reading across these diverse media and genres, this project considers how Black women have made use of the affordances of specific technologies in order to tell stories which may be fictional yet reveal “a kind of truth” about the embodied and affective experiences of the past. These mediated images and narratives serve as extensions of their bodies that push against static ideas of the Black female body. Whether it's the image in a film or video, or the digital avatar presented through social media, Touching History argues these representations are intimately linked to the corporeal presence of the Black female artist. Alongside technologies of the video camera and the digital camera, this project also considers other embodied technologies of expression including sadomasochism and the book and considers how these also provide a means for Black women to touch history. Examining the novels of Thulani Davis and Marci Blackman, the short fiction of Alice Walker, the experimental films of Cheryl Dunye, and music videos created by singers Erykah Badu and Beyonce, this project examines the expression of queer desires by Black women. In this project “queer” is not synonymous with gay and lesbian or same-sex desires, although it may at times be used to describe them. Queer desires in this project also include the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Martin Joseph Ponce PhD (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; Film Studies; Literature; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2016, English/Literature

The vampire, like any sort of Gothic monster, operates as a conduit for various societal pressures. However, the vampire is seen as particularly adaptable in how it restructures itself as a figure of fear in multiple time periods. This work examines the various forms and fears the lesbian vampire embodies and why society is continually fascinated with such a figure. One of the key texts in my project is Sheridan LeFanu's novella, Carmilla, published in 1872. LeFanu's story predates Bram Stoker's Dracula, and is one of the first major explorations of the lesbian vampire trope including victimology, seduction tactics, and even popular adversaries. Although there are many adaptations which feature a lesbian vampire, my project will be limited to Scott's film The Hunger, produced in 1983, and season one of the recent Youtube series, Carmilla, produced in 2014. In these various adaptations, I have noted a cycle of violence surrounding the vampire, her adversaries, and victims. What is interesting is how this cycle seems to change with each adaptation of the lesbian vampire's story depending on the time the story is set in. What is interesting about this trend of shifting cycles and loci of violence is what happens to them when society begins to accept the lesbian vampire and no longer fears her.

Committee: Piya Lapinski Dr. (Advisor); Stephannie Gearhart Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Folklore; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Literature

BA, Oberlin College, 2015, Hispanic Studies

Este ensayo enfoca en una variedad de obras espanoles de cine y literatura contemporanea, incluidos novelas, documentales, peliculas y una novela grafica, que narran las historias de espanoles que experimentaron la epoca de la Guerra Civil Espanola, la represion nacionalista durante la dictadura de Francisco Franco y el proceso de transmitir los recuerdos de aquellas epocas a una generacion mas joven que no las vivio. Investiga los papeles que desempenan estas obras en el proyecto de narrativizar eventos centrales de la memoria historica de una epoca que sigue siendo importante en el presente.

Committee: Sebastiaan Faber (Advisor); Patrick O'Connor (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative Literature; Film Studies; Foreign Language; Hispanic American Studies; Literature; Modern Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2014, Educational Leadership

This study investigates the representation of mental illness in Hollywood film. Using an approach grounded in Foucauldian theory and media literacy, this study will examine six Hollywood films covering a span of six decades, roughly from the end of World War II through the first decade of the twenty-first century. When writers, directors and producers of films portray characters with psychological disorders/disabilities, these representations may result in negative attitudes and skewed impressions among viewers/consumers. Further, inaccurate and demonizing portrayals in filmic texts serve only to create blueprints of stigmatization that could affect real-world persons with psychological disorders. With the agenda of exploring the hegemonic infrastructures of stigma and othering, this study will employ a theoretical framework of Foucauldian theory, along with critical media literacy perspectives to unpack the discursive power carried by popular visual media, as well as to analyze dominant cultural attitudes toward the normal/abnormal binary. In an attempt to emphasize the need for increased awareness of and sensitivity toward the lived experiences of persons with psychological disorders, this study will also highlight the value of curricularizing films featuring mental health/illness issues, and of recommending ways of striving for social justice for persons with these invisible disabilities.

Committee: Dennis Carlson PhD (Committee Chair); Richard Quantz PhD (Committee Member); Thomas Poetter PhD (Committee Member); Frank Fitch PhD (Committee Member); Sheri Leafgren PhD (Other) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Education; Educational Leadership; Educational Psychology; Educational Sociology; Educational Theory; Gender Studies; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Comparative Studies

This work reimagines autonomy in the age of spatial enclosure. Rather than proposing a new version of the escapist running to the hills, "Escape" aligns the desire for disappearance, invisibility, and evasion with the contemporary politics of refusal, which poses no demands, resists representation, and refuses participation in already-existing politics. Such escape promises to break life out of a stifling perpetual present. The argument brings together culture, crisis, and conflict to outline the political potential of escape. It begins by reintroducing culture to theories of state power by highlighting complementary mixtures of authoritarian and liberal rule. The result is a typology of states that embody various aspects of conquest and contract: the Archaic State, the Priestly State, the Modern State, and the Social State. The argument then looks to the present, a time when the state exists in a permanent crisis provoked by global capitalist forces. Politics today is controlled by the incorporeal power of Empire and its lived reality, the Metropolis, which emerged as embodiments of this crisis and continue to further deepen exploitation and alienation through the dual power of Biopower and the Spectacle. Completing the argument, two examples are presented as crucial sites of political conflict. Negative affects and the urban guerrilla dramatize the conflicts over life and strategy that characterize daily existence in the Metropolis. Following a transdisciplinary concern for intensity, the work draws from a variety of historical, literary, cinematic, and philosophical examples that emphasize the cultural dimension of politics. The wide breadth of sources, which range from historical documents on the origins of the police, feminist literature on the politics of emotion, experimental punk film, and Deleuze and Guattari's nomadology, thus emulates the importance of force over appearance found in contemporary radical politics. Departing from many of the accounts (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Eugene W. Holland (Advisor); Philip Armstrong (Committee Member); Mathew Coleman (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Philosophy; Political Science

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2008, German

Essentially since 1945, Germans have struggled with issues both of national and personal responsibility for the events of the Holocaust and the Second World War. In an effort to alleviate the pain of the past, many, especially in the beginning, simply kept silent on the matter. But as writers and thinkers have begun to break this silence, a complex set of questions emerges. To what extent are the ordinary Germans who collaborated with the Nazis to be held accountable for their actions? What does it mean when we still love these perpetrators? And what shall we tell our children about their heritage and their stake in their nation's legacy? Through an analysis of works that grapple with these issues, I will attempt to understand the cultural phenomena that led to the Holocaust, as well as some of the philosophies that modern writer and theorists have submitted in response to such questions.

Committee: Timothy Bennett PhD (Advisor); David Barry PhD (Committee Member); Robert Davis PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; Literature