Browsing by Author "Dr. Carmine Prioli, Committee Member"

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"The immappable world of our journey": The Re-emergent Dream Forms in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy
(2003-04-03) Bourne, Ashley Lynn; Dr. Carmine Prioli, Committee Member; Dr. Nick Halpern, Committee Member; Dr. Linda T. Holley, Committee Chair
Conventional analysis of dream devices in postmodern literature does not often take into account medieval dream-visions as a potential point of origin. Looking more closely at the highly specialized spatial constructions and social functions of this earlier genre can provide new insight into why authors like Cormac McCarthy offer less readily interpretable versions of the dream-visions in later works of fiction. While these early dream forms appeared as formalized narratives that attempted to map a spiritual landscape, McCarthy's dream-visions function to map the landscape of memory, a landscape unique to each individual. The surreal landscape that Billy Parham wanders in the second and last novels of the trilogy provides a means of linking the dream-visions, as the term can imply both the cultural context in which dream-visions are formed as well as the concrete, visual backdrop for these visions. Both abstract and concrete, landscape can be as formless as the unseen religious conventions that shape the medieval dreamers' visions or as distinctive as the eerie Mexican wilderness that McCarthy's protagonists travel through. While the medieval dreamers try to understand an immaterial, spiritual world in attempt to make their way to God, McCarthy's postmodern dreamers must find order in the real world, and make their way through that world with a much less clearly defined goal. Billy and John Grady Cole wander in a landscape where what each sees in reality is alien and unfamiliar, while what is familiar—their memories—is not present, appearing only in his mind's eye, that is, in the dream-visions. These realms cannot be reconciled; the resulting contrast makes the postmodern dream-visions less universally interpretable and increases the significance of the individual dreamer in relation to his or her own dream. By preserving the dream-vision as a potential channel for illumination and a space outside the constructs of reality, McCarthy offers a translation of conventional medieval dream-vision form into the terms of an existential, highly fragmented postmodern world.
Not Corn Pollen or Eagle Feathers: Native American Stereotypes and Identity in Sherman Alexie's Fiction
(2004-03-17) Miles, John D.; Dr. Tom Lisk, Committee Chair; Dr. Carmine Prioli, Committee Member; Dr. Lucinda Mackethan, Committee Member
Ward Churchill, Michael Dorris and others have criticized filmmakers and writers alike for their construction of a Native American identity that is, according to Dorris, "lodged safely in the past." Dorris's "Indians in Aspic" and "The Indian on the Shelf" and Churchill's Fantasies of the Master Race identify the notion of the "suspended or static Indian." Coupled with these critical writings, the practice of the use of stock footage in the Westerns of the 1920s and 30s work to create a Native American that is nothing more than a replaying of stereotypes. Sherman Alexie's fiction is aware of the stereotypes that writers and filmmakers, as well as readers, hold regarding Native Americans. In his fiction he works to subvert the stereotypes that others have held and created. His three collections of short stories The Toughest Indian in the World, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and Ten Little Indians provide examples of his repeated work to undermine the use of Native American stereotypes in film and literature.
Perceptions of Gender and Perceptions of Quality: Comparing the Receptions of Dickens's Hard Times and Gaskell's Mary Barton
(2007-07-11) Fisher, Hugh Venson; Dr. Carmine Prioli, Committee Member; Dr. Antony Harrison, Committee Chair; Dr. John Morillo, Committee Member
Religious Turmoil: The Conflict Between Buddhism and Catholicism in Jack Kerouac's Life and Writing
(2002-12-31) Simpson, Emily Patricia; Dr. Nick Halpern, Committee Chair; Dr. Carmine Prioli, Committee Member; Dr. Lucinda MacKethan, Committee Member
Although Jack Kerouac has begun to be recognized as one of the great 20th century American writers, scholars have not yet fully explored the influence that his conflicting religious beliefs had on his work. Kerouac's internal struggle to reconcile his Buddhist and Catholic thinking, and his ultimate attempt to embrace Catholicism, had a profound effect on his writing, giving it the religiously tumultuous charge that is essential to Kerouac's distinctive writing style. This study addresses Kerouac's religious life and its effect on his work by focusing primarily on three of his works: Visions of Gerard, The Dharma Bums, and Big Sur. Kerouac's complex relationship between Buddhism and Catholicism and the effect this conflict had on his work has heretofore gone largely uninvestigated. However, it is essential to a complete understanding of his work. Exploring this element of his work sheds new light on Kerouac's novels that illuminates his depth and solemnity as a writer. Kerouac's religious quest was a cornerstone of his artistic development, and the three novels I have examined illustrate how Catholicism and Buddhism together informed that quest.
Understanding Paul Laurence Dunbar: A Life and Career in Context
(2007-07-29) Gilroy, Joseph William; Dr. Anne Baker, Committee Chair; Dr. Sheila Smith-McKoy, Committee Member; Dr. Carmine Prioli, Committee Member
Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the most popular poets of his day. He was highly regarded for his black dialect poetry, which earned him the title, "poet laureate of his race." Dunbar's second book of poetry, Majors and Minors, was even reviewed by the famous critic William Dean Howells. However, despite Dunbar's popularity, he has also been widely criticized for his black dialect poetry. Many scholars and African-Americans have argued that it is an unsympathetic portrait of blackness meant to appease his paying white readership. This thesis discusses the conditions and circumstances that influenced Dunbar to write black dialect poetry. It places the poet's life and career in the social, economic, and critical context of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. My research concludes that Dunbar's intentions for his dialect poetry were misconstrued by William Dean Howells' racially-biased interpretation of Majors and Minors.