Browsing by Author "Michael Grimwood, Committee Chair"

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Dispatches from the Homefront: Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding
(2007-04-25) Powell, Lisa Lanier; Barbara Bennett, Committee Member; Elaine Orr, Committee Member; Michael Grimwood, Committee Chair
During an interview, Eudora Welty described her inability to write directly about World War II: "I couldn't write about it, not at the time, it was too personal. I could write or translate things into domestic or other dimensions in my writing, with the same things in mind" (qtd. in Ruas 66). The purpose of this paper is to examine Welty's 1946 novel Delta Wedding as a translation of, or response to, the war. Welty goes out of her way to avoid any association with the war; she conspicuously places the novel in the year 1923 because it was not a "war year." She retreats from the epic violence of war into the seemingly peaceful, pastoral delta country of Mississippi. Yet, by its avoidance of war, Delta Wedding paradoxically depicts the war by providing a negative image of the war. With the mobilization of men to the front lines during the masculine event of war, the feminized homefront left behind became another negative image of war. During World War II, traditional patriarchies were transformed into practical matriarchies. Women entered the workforce to help fill the labor shortage left by men, often taking jobs traditionally thought of as "men's only." This proved to be a turning point for women in American history. In Delta Wedding, Welty's portrayal of a matriarchal family on a patriarchal plantation mirrors the 1940s society. She depicts women in various stages of life, which reflect the stages in Susan Lichtman's cycle of the female hero. They include the virgin, mother and crone stages. Through such characters, Welty celebrates the female journey toward self-actualization, helping the reader to value such a journey as heroic. In doing so, she gives an alternate view of the hero: not typical war hero of the time, but instead the hero of the everyday, not limited by gender.
Feminist Re-Visioning And Women's Writing: The Second Wave's Effects On Katherine Anne Porter's Literary Legacy
(2007-08-03) Riney, Erin Kelly; Lucinda MacKethan, Committee Member; Deborah Hooker, Committee Member; Michael Grimwood, Committee Chair
Unquestionably, second-wave feminism's influence on American literature positively changed the canon by forcing the inclusion of women's expressions. As part of their efforts to counter networks of discrimination in common culture, second-wave feminists addressed literary representation to challenge institutional and informal reproduction of sexism. However, much like many feminists of color and third-wave feminists who questioned the negative effects of the second-wave feminists' unqualified power to define female voices in literature, so too does this thesis suggest that feminists of the 1970s, revisioning women's literature, may have inadvertently but unnecessarily stifled some female authors' contributions. Using Kate Chopin's fiction as a comparative lens, I examine why second-wave feminist scholars adopted some women's literature while displacing other talented women writer's works. Specifically, this thesis explores the reasons for which Katherine Anne Porter's works have not received the feminist consideration that Kate Chopin's have. I discuss the links between criticism of Porter's works and the influence of this critical attention on Porter's perceived incompatibility with feminist ideology and goals of the 1970s. Examining the authors' depictions of their female protagonists' perceptions of their sexuality, I provide explanations for feminists' adoption of Chopin as a representative of women's contributions to literature and their lack of recognition of Porter's merits. By examining a selection of each author's short stories, the form to which both authors dedicated their greatest efforts to refine as a craft. I trace the reception and popularity of Chopin's stories to the feminist movement's need for consciousness-raising literature, focusing on Chopin's portrayal of female sexuality in two of her most anthologized works, "Desirée's Baby" and "Athénäise." I then discuss the critical literature of three of Katherine Anne Porter's most anthologized and analyzed short stories—"Theft," "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," and "The Grave," provide interpretations of the works based on depictions of female sexuality, and suggest explanations for feminists' reluctance to adopt Porter's literature for their cause. By examining the reasons many feminists neglected to apply feminist literary criticism to Porter's works, modern feminist scholarship may progress to include more of the still unheard voices that are necessary for society's progress. While feminists' promotion of Chopin's works starting in the 1970s clearly benefited the movement, this thesis asserts that Porter's short stories offer much to contemporary women readers and perhaps more to today's feminist interests than Kate Chopin's works.
Finding Her Own Voice: Cynthia Ozick's Female Protagonists And Orthodox Jewish Law
(2008-04-21) Gerson, Eric Reed; Jon Thompson, Committee Member; Sheila Smith-McKoy, Committee Member; Michael Grimwood, Committee Chair
More Than One Shape: Unity Among Fred Chappell's Varied Literary Works
(2004-01-12) Piver, Courtney Lorraine; Michael Grimwood, Committee Chair; Lucinda MacKethan, Committee Member; Sharon Setzer, Committee Member
The purpose of the research has been to develop a theory of unity between Fred Chappell's prose and poetry. His works thematically range from Southern gothic, regional Appalachian, magical realist, and science fiction. One application of this theory of unity has been explored through the idea of a common heroic character. Another application of this theory of unity has been explored through the reliance on fantasy during the hero's journey in the search for truth. But there is a danger in fictive realities — they can both hinder and help the hero reach his goal. Ultimately Chappell's more regional works predominately use fantasy to allow a protagonist to gain truth in self-knowledge while his more gothic and science fiction works tend to use fantasy in order to lead the hero away from truth.
"A Place for the Lost": Ron Rash and Contemporary Southern Identity
(2007-07-23) Vernon, Zackary Dwayne; Michael Grimwood, Committee Chair; Thomas Lisk, Committee Member; Jill McCorkle, Committee Member
In his seminal essay "The Search for Southern Identity," C. Vann Woodward asserts, "The time is coming, if indeed it has not already arrived, when the Southerner will begin to ask himself whether there is really any longer very much point in calling himself a Southerner. Or if he does, he might well wonder occasionally whether it is worthwhile insisting on the point" (3). Although Woodward first published this essay in 1958, his assertions may be even more pertinent today, given the effect that an increasingly homogeneous national culture has had on American regionalism. Over the past half century, the persistence of questions such as those Woodward raises has manifested itself in an enormous amount of writing about the idea of a distinctively Southern identity. In this essay, I will examine the literature of Ron Rash, a contemporary writer from western North Carolina, and I will explain Rash's complex relationship with Southern identity by considering, at least tangentially, his three poetry collections as well as his three novels. Ultimately, after examining the history of Southern identity, Rash's use of Southern identity and culture in his fiction and poetry, the ways in which Rash's characters exploit Southern identity, and the version of Southern identity that Rash perpetuates in his own life, I will show that Rash is justifiable in his employment and portrayal of Southern identity. Rather than consciously commodifying Southern identity and culture as a marketing tool to sell his work to a specific audience, Rash artfully records a disappearing culture to which he has strong personal ties.