Browsing by Author "Anne Baker, Committee Chair"

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    The Incorporation of Identity: Alientation and the Marketplace in Melville, Salinger, and Crews
    (2006-12-11) Curran, Tyler Jennings; Jim Clark, Committee Member; Mike Grimwood, Committee Member; Anne Baker, Committee Chair
    This thesis examines how the history and development of capitalism affect the characters in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951), and Harry Crews's Car (1972). In particular, it examines the ways in which the individual copes with the alienating economic pressures of the mid-nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Relying on historical and sociological perspectives, this project reveals the degree to which these novels elucidate a marked tension between capitalism and democracy — between private interests and the public trust. The introduction contextualizes the novels and provides a historical account of corporate capitalism's development from the Civil War to the present. The subsequent chapters present analyses of the novels that are informed by history. They demonstrate that the alienation and existential dread experienced by Melville's, Salinger's, and Crews's characters are exacerbated by the dominance of capitalism over social life. Finally, this project examines the ways in which these novels scrutinize systems of social organization and it finds that these novels encourage readers to evaluate systems of social organization for points of revision, reform, or potential improvement.
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    The Quarterdeck: Leadership and Authority in Herman Melville
    (2006-04-28) Zupancic, Anthony Edward; Leila May, Committee Member; Lucinda MacKethan, Committee Member; Anne Baker, Committee Chair
    This thesis examines the theme of leadership and authority in three of Melville's works. America, in the 1840's and 1850s, was struggling through the issues of slavery and western expansion and the resolution to both resided in the countr's leadership. Melville recognized the important role the nation's leaders played in the development of the new county's role in the world. He also realized the detrimental effect that weak or ineffective leaders would have on the nation and the people. In this thesis, I examine Melville's ideas about leadership as represented in the novels White-Jacket and Moby-Dick, and in the short story 'Benito Cereno.' My analysis does not demonstrate a progressive definition of leadership but instead shows Melville's struggle with the concept of leadership and authority. Melville constantly struggled with the obligation to respect and adhere to authority and the moral responsibility of the people of a democratic country to be vigilant against tyranny and oppressive leaders. Even though Melville provides the reader with no clear model of leadership, he does, through his characters and narrative style, inspire a discussion about the relationship between the leader and the led and ensures that the people remember their role within that relationship.
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    Trauma and Gender Performance in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night and The Last Tycoon
    (2007-07-17) Blitchok, Amy Marie; Anne Baker, Committee Chair; John Charles, Committee Member; James Clark, Committee Member