Tracing
the Influence on Turgenev's Nihilist Bazarov to His Byronic Roots
(also available in HTML)
A study of Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, focusing
on the nihislist character Bazarov. The essay attempts to trace the
character's roots to European Byronism and the Byronic hero. Written
to fulfill the requirements of English 414: Special Topics in Romantic
Literature-Byron and the Byronic Hero, taught by Dr. Terryl Givens.
Milton and
the Tension of Poetic Inspiration
A study of several of Milton's early poems informed
by a close reading of Parker's biography, focusing on unresolved tension
and its effects on poetic style and content. Written to fulfill the
requirements of English 405: Milton, taught by Dr. Louis Schwartz
at University of Richmond.
Translating
Oral Performance into Written Narrative: Inter-textual Audience in
the Coyote Stories of Simon Ortiz's A Good Journey
An analysis of Simon Ortiz's poetic style in his 1977
volume of poetry, A Good Journey. The essay focuses specifically
on methods Ortiz uses to translate Acoma oral style and tradition
into narrative form. Written to fulfill the requirements of English
541: Special Topic in American Literature-Native American Literature,
taught by Dr. Robert Nelson at University of Richmond. I presented
this edited version to the ASAIL
panel at the 1997 ALA Conference.
"Richmond-in-Virginia"
in the Literary World: Correspondence Between Ellen Glasgow and Carl
Van Vechten
An attempt to identify mainstream critical opinions
of Richmond, Virginia's "literati" and literature in the
1920s and 1930s. The essay focuses on the relationship and correspondence
between New York author and critic Carl Van Vechten and Richmond author
Ellen Glasgow from 1929 to 1949. Written to fulfill the requirements
of English 541: Special Topics in American Literature-Ellen Glasgow
and Her Contemporaries taught by Dr. W. D. Taylor at University of
Richmond.
What Rough Beast
Indeed? A New Reading of "The Second Coming" Informed by
"Demon and Beast"
A unique interpretation of Yeats's "The Second
Coming" based on rereading a seldom-covered poem in the volume
Michael Robartes and the Dancer, "Demon and Beast."
The essay looks closely at the relationship between "beasts"
in these two poems. Written to fulfill the requirements of English
516: Modern Literature-Yeats and His Contemporaries, taught by Dr.
James Pethica at University of Richmond.
Music and
Rhetoric in Tristram Shandy: Challenging Eighteenth-Century
Rational Intellectualism
A study of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy
as a rejection of Lockean rational discourse as a means of communicating
to escape solipsistic tendencies. The essay focuses on classical rhetoric
and music as affective devices by which humans communicate effectively.
Written to fulfill the requirements of English 513: Special Topics
in English Literature-Comedy and Satire in Eighteenth Century Literature,
taught by Dr. Raymond Hilliard at University of Richmond.
Master's Thesis: "'A
Tolerable Straight Line': Non-Linear Narrative in Tristram Shandy"
Abstract. The non-linear narrative of Lauirence Sterne's Tristram
Shandy demands attentive readers. Written under the influence
of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, the
novel satirizes Lockean "associationalism" and illustrates
language's inability to express ideas accurately. In the novel, words
seldom convey charaters' intended meanings, yet Tristram uses language
effectively to narrate "self" to his readers. Rather than
having his mind's working conform to the linear nature of traditional
discourse, Tristram communicates associatively to intelligent, involved
readers without imposing linearity. In this study I examine scholars'
works to determine Tristram's position on Locke's ideas and use Seymour
Chatman's narrative model to study the emerging narrative self by
applying his concepts of fabula (story) and sjuzet
(discourse). I review Tristram's self-expression by focusing on techniques
of non-linear narration and conclude by examining hypermedia as an
alternative model for narrating consciousness that emphasizes the
reader, comparing hyperdia's reader to Tristram Shandy's
narrator.
