Master of Arts, Miami University, 2019, Theatre

This thesis expands the field of violence theory by way of adapting Dostoevsky's Notes from a Dead House. I propose a new dramaturgically driven analysis of the text by creating a system of contexts to assess the scene allowing for an adaptation that is both sensitive to the goal of the text as perceived by the adapting artist and the audience's response. This system of contexts is the best approach to adapting a given scene rather than considering the piece as a whole. Dostoevsky's text is also notorious for its abstract use of time, and the layering of fiction and reality as Dostoevsky was forced to distance himself from his narrative by the Russian state. Since violence is a major element of Dostoevsky's novel, I also propose a meaning-making system to analyze acts to determine first how the scene is socially coded. With this information, the adapting playwright can then decide how they can best be embodied and displayed on stage in a way that both holds to the original elements of the source and avoids undue stress on the audience.

Committee: Ann Armstrong Dr. (Committee Chair); Christiana Harkulich Dr. (Advisor); Stephen Norris Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Russian History; Theater; Theater Studies

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2017, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

In recent years, there has been a trend in young adult adaptations of Wuthering Heights to amend the plot so that Catherine Earnshaw chooses to have a romantic relationship with Heathcliff, when in Bronte's novel she decides against it. In the following study, I trace the factors that contribute to Catherine's rejection of Heathcliff as a romantic partner in the original text. Many critics have argued that her motives are primarily Machiavellian since she chooses a suitor with more wealth and familial connections than Heathcliff. These are indeed factors; however, by engaging with contemporary research on adolescent development, I show that the primary reason she rejects Heathcliff is because he has exhibited a propensity for violence and other abusive behaviors. I also analyze the consequences of reversing her decision in the updated young adult versions, which include the made-for-television film MTV's Wuthering Heights (2003), the Lifetime original film Wuthering High School (2012), and the novel Catherine (2013). The most significant consequence of this change is that in order to make Heathcliff a “chooseable,” twenty-first century hero, the writers of these works have to romanticize his violent tendencies through the perspectives of their female protagonists. When the young women begin to question how secure they are around their partners, they ultimately decide that fidelity to their “soulmate” relationship is more important than safety or autonomy, with the writers using Catherine Earnshaw's famous “I am Heathcliff” speech to support their protagonists' conclusions. I argue, though, that while Catherine does allude to the type of otherworldly love these young women are venerating, Bronte uses her speech to confront the limitations of that love, not to hold it up as an ideal.

Committee: Rachel Carnell (Committee Chair); Gary Dyer (Committee Member); Frederick Karem (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Behavioral Psychology; British and Irish Literature; Gender; Literature; Modern Literature; Motion Pictures; Personal Relationships

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, 2003, English

Since the 1960s, Ireland has seen an intense struggle for national self-determination waged on its own soil. This struggle is an extension of a fight to free Ireland from British rule and establish an Irish Republic comprising the entirety of the island. This project examines the literary productions of Irish Republicans and analyzes the ways in which this literature interrogates notions of history and negotiates power within continually shifting conceptions of nationalism. It is impossible to understand Ireland without understanding the Anglo-Irish conflict and how it has been examined and critiqued by Irish writers. As such, scholars cannot ignore material emanating from what have quite literally been the front lines of that conflict. The present project attempts to place Irish Republican literature within the context of Irish history as well as within the history of Irish literature, demonstrating its important place in discussions regarding the interplay between history and expression and between writing and warfare. Chapter 1 establishes the crucial role played by nationalist discourses in the formation of Irish literature and draws connections between this literature and the concerns of literary and critical theory. The chapters which follow examine specific Republican discourses. Chapter 2 argues that Republican autobiographies subvert conventions by shifting the focus of the text from the author to the community, with the text becoming a critique of national and historiographical ideologies. The third chapter focuses on the writings of Irish Republican prisoners from 1971 to 1981, and argues that the literature of the prisoners reads as a condensed history of Irish literature as a whole, with all its themes of exile, loss and perseverance. The final chapter demonstrates that Irish Republican writing often blurs the distinction between the material and the imaginary by addressing the political issues facing nationalist communities in the years following the h (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Morris Beja (Advisor) Subjects:

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2021, English

Gold is a central figure in early medieval northern European literature. In early English and Icelandic cultures, it theoretically served as a system stabilizer and maintained social bonds. In practice, however, as seen in Volsunga Saga and Beowulf, gold is clearly a volatile substance that serves only to sow discord and create violence. In its truest form of the hoard, gold operates as a site of both psychological and physical transformation. It is a threat to the very societies it is meant to protect. Ultimately, its use shows the inevitability of the decline of the societies that heavily relied upon it.

Committee: Mary Kate Hurley (Advisor) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Icelandic and Scandinavian Literature; Literature; Medieval Literature; Middle Ages

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

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2012, Philosophy

The ‘Death of the Author' and subsequent ‘Birth of the Reader' notes a turning point in post-structural literary criticism that is marked by a struggle for authorial sovereignty. This essay argues that the traditional models thus far offered are inadequate in explaining why one source is preferable to another. Through an ontological exploration of the relationships that exist in literature, this essay hopes to offer a more sound and complete explanation for the reasons surrounding this struggle and what potential solutions free us from the traditional stagnation that has occurred in literary theory.

Committee: Ammon Allred (Committee Chair); Benjamin Grazzini (Committee Member); Benjamin Pryor (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Womens Studies

Throughout the 1990s in the United States, a series of suburban school shootings perpetrated by young, white males disrupted contemporary perceptions of American youth, often a population configured in terms of ideal whiteness. In conjunction with sensationalized media coverage of school shootings, various fictional portrayals of suburban youth violence also emerged throughout this period as what Henry Giroux has called “public pedagogy” that served to further influence national perceptions of youth. In this body of film, television and literary narratives, school violence is often related to other national concerns surrounding American youth identity such as deviant sexuality and teen pregnancy. While a good deal of scholarly attention has focused on popular representations of education and youth generally, little has been written about these specific fictionalizations of school shootings and what they signify. This dissertation offers a feminist, discursive analysis of these fictional narratives of suburban school violence and argues that rampage violence narratives are intricately connected to national anxieties regarding youth, citizenship, threats to white masculinity, and American identity. In order to illustrate the complexities of themes present across popular culture mediums, my research delves into the purpose of the narratives and what they signify about contemporary American youth identity. Thus, my dissertation will explore representations of youth violence from a variety of angles that prioritize intertextual connections. Specifically, I offer a comparative analysis of portrayals of urban versus suburban school violence, explore the creation of gay male shooters as protagonists, and analyze fictional female shooter characters and teen pregnancy storylines. As well, my dissertation examines the genre phenomenon of young adult novels portraying school violence in order to place these novels in dialogue with other “adult” narratives. Throughout my dissert (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Linda Mizejewski PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Valerie Kinloch PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Rebecca Wanzo PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Education; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Literature; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, English

This project examines how black women writers, specifically by writing scenes of violence, explore the sociopolitical, racial, economic, and gender exploitation through the abuse of black women within their texts. Part of the goal of this project is to reclaim the literature of black women from the clutches of a black masculinist understanding and reject these superficial readings in an effort to make sense of the black-on-black violence documented in the works of black women authors. To be more specific, the intent of this study is to investigate the ways in which collective emotional trauma and individual physical and sexual abuses against black women exist as power performances. These violences enacted against black women in black women's writing serve as a way for socially, economically, and culturally disempowered bodies to claim power by overpowering a body even more marginalized. The extensive pattern in the work of black women writers who write about the violence experienced by black women prompts a series of questions: Why do texts written by these black women overwhelmingly contain scenes of emotional, physical and sexual abuse? What purposes do black women authors have in constructing these scenes of abuse predominantly at the hands of black men? How complicit do these authors suggest that the black community is in allowing acts of violence to occur? How effective are these texts in breaking the silence of abuse beyond any fictional realm, and what kind of power does this attainment of voice give African American women readers of these texts? Can we read these texts' exposure of violence against black women as resistance narratives? What is lost or gained through such a reading? Scenes of emotional trauma and of physical and sexual abuse proliferate in each of the primary texts chosen for this study: Sherley Anne Williams' Dessa Rose, Gayl Jones' Corregidora and Eva's Man, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Valerie Lee (Committee Chair); Debra Moddelmog (Committee Member); Adeleke Adeeko (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American Literature; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation examines the narrative works of Fernando Vallejo from Los dias azules (1985) to La rambla paralela (2002). The study of this corpus condenses some of the most acute issues currently discussed in regards to an ideological and axiological crisis which concerns national discourses and the emergence of post-national formations in Latin America. The main hypothesis claims that Vallejo's oeuvre sets forth dissident subjectivities and cultural cornerstones that contour a revision of contemporary metanarratives (local/global, national/postnational, modern/postmodern). The narrator's discourse is portrayed as a display of truth from a critical and nonconformist subjectivity. The radical idiosyncrasy of Vallejo's narrator and personae expose the systems of control of traditional ontologies, as well as the hermeneutics of cultural and historical constructions. Through a dissenting perspective, the narrator is able to deconstruct this articulation of reality as he exhibits it as a dominant fiction. This study is divided into two main chapters which examine form and content of Vallejo's works. The first one proposes a revision of the concept of autofiction as a (re)creative device for life narratives. Autofiction shapes a discourse in which both processes of autobiographical subjectivities and individualist perspectivism express the crisis of national discourses. The second one examines the main narrative topographies of Vallejo's books: affect, violence, and humor. Affect, in all of its articulations, advocates for adjacency in diachronic encounters. Violence is expressed both as a dystopic reality, and as a tool to demand justice. Humor is a discourse modality that conveys persuasion towards the narrator's perspective. The ideological climax of Vallejo's works resides in the refusal of his narrator to ascribe his dissidence to subalternity, otherness, or abjection but to a discussion that gives shape to the truth of cultural praxis in contemporary Colombia. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ignacio Corona (Advisor) Subjects: Literature, Latin American

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2011, English

This thesis explores the relationship between literary narratives and a more popular mythological American narrative that constructs the 9/11 attacks as a base for cultural regeneration, heroism, or redemption. Popular 9/11 narratives tend to offer a mythic foundation for militant belligerency masked as patriotic heroism and a deeply embedded notion of “regeneration through violence” outlined by Richard Slotkin. I contrast these popular narratives with novels by Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close), Don DeLillo (Falling Man) and Jess Walter (The Zero) that stress the complexity of trauma's aftermath. The political and ethical value of these literary representations of trauma present nuanced characterological templates for acting-out and working through, which advocate critical self-recognition of post-9/11 American ideology and an emergence from political solipsism.

Committee: Tim Melley PhD (Committee Chair); Madelyn Detloff PhD (Committee Member); Martha Schoolman PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature