Browsing by Author "Nick Halpern, Committee Member"

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Copenhagen: A Brechtian Play
(2003-08-19) Crowdus, Cynthia Marie; Christopher Cobb, Committee Member; Nick Halpern, Committee Member; Patricia Lynne, Committee Chair
The purpose of this essay is to indicate the Brechtian elements of Michael Frayn's Copenhagen. Copenhagen, thus far, has been considered in relation to an emerging genre of the science play. This essay departs from other scholarship in that it shows the ways that Copenhagen works in the Brechtian mode, which is far from new. This essay offers an examination of Frayn's methodology in relation to Brecht's. Frayn's play is both episodic and non-cathartic. It also uses stage design and acting techniques to further the themes of the play. It uses the technique of integrating form and content. Furthermore, it employs the alienation technique. This essay also shows the ways in which the goals of Brechtian theatre were accomplished through Copenhagen. Frayn's play is didactic. It offers a moral and intends to create an actively engaged and critically aware audience. It teaches in the way that Brecht would have the theatre instruct. In addition, this essay offers evidence of accomplishing results. It notes the reactions from literary scholars, scientists, historians, and others.
"Is the Pacifique Sea my home?":John Donne's Hymns
(2003-08-01) Zumbach, Eric Hudson; R. V. Young, Committee Member; M. Thomas Hester, Committee Chair; Nick Halpern, Committee Member
Scholars have traditionally regarded John Donne's three Hymns as independent works of devotional or meditative verse. This study proposes that Donne's Hymns are read properly as a tripartite sequence, one which addresses the poet's desire for a spiritual union with Christ. Before that union may occur, Donne must "tune the Instrument" of his soul by submitting his fallen will to the will of Christ. The Hymns are that "tuning," that labor of submission. As they unfold, the Hymns present the drama of Donne's piety wrestling with his aggressive will, and his transformation from a self-serving rake dedicated to his "Iland" of "false mistresses" into a Christ-serving religious. Until the last line of the Hymns, Donne seems to have won spiritual security: he has prayed for release from his "Iland," he has "embrace[d]" the body and blood of Christ, and he has confessed his "sinne of feare," despair. However, the final line of the Hymns, "I have no more," seems to unravel Donne's spiritual work. His final perplexing, ambiguous line could indicate (among many other meanings) that he has fully transformed, or that he has abandoned the enterprise altogether. "I have no more," an enunciation of Donne's fallen will, proves if anything that the work of the soul is never complete.
Women in the Rabbinate and in American Fiction: A Literary and Ethnographic Study
(2006-04-27) Bogdanoff, Helene Rebecca; Deborah Hooker, Committee Member; Steven B. Katz, Committee Chair; Nick Halpern, Committee Member
The purpose of this research has been to describe the conflicts of gender and Judaism in American Fiction containing women rabbis as central characters. Jewish women for centuries have accepted their roles in Jewish life and observances. Jewish women of the twentieth century questioned why they too could not be rabbis, which led to the ordination of the first women rabbi in 1972. The fiction written on women rabbis faces the challenges to portray the spiritual and social equality of the women rabbis while keeping in tact and honoring the parts of Jewish tradition that appear to be most crucial or defining. This thesis presents Jewish laws and traditions having to do with women, showing the conflicts between Jewish tradition and female rabbis in the plots of six novels and two short stories written on the subject. The sexual nature of the fiction written on this subject presents contemporary Judaism with a number of problems. I describe the representations of innovations in Judaism surrounding these issues, and then I relate the issues in Judaism back to the novels and short stories. For this thesis, I interviewed three female rabbis from the North Carolina Triangle area. The interviews reveal certain unresolved anxieties and issues in Judaism and how American Judaism might react to the presence of women as viable members of the rabbinate in the future. Thus, this project provides a discussion of the inherent and new issues in American Judaism that are brought about by the ordination of female rabbis and portrayed in American fiction.