Theses/Dissertations - English Language and Literature
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Browsing Theses/Dissertations - English Language and Literature by Author "Barcus, James E., 1938-"
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Item Between two worlds and between the lines : a reading of the supernatural in James Hogg's fiction.(2010-10-08T16:29:02Z) Tober, Naomi.; Barcus, James E., 1938-; English.; Baylor University. Dept. of English.I examine James Hogg's portrayal of the supernatural in The Shepherd's Calendar, The Three Perils of Man, The Three Perils of Woman, and The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. To do so, I use terminology from Charles Taylor's A Secular Age to explain how Hogg negotiates between the enchanted world of Ettrick Forest and the disenchanted world of Enlightenment Edinburgh. Because Hogg is between these two worlds and presents a porous receptivity of the supernatural to a buffered, Enlightenment audience, the sub-texts and complex narrative layers are particularly revelatory of Hogg's messages. In his fiction, Hogg often undermines the attempts of implied Enlightenment readers to explain away, categorize, or moralize the presence of the supernatural. Instead, he emphasizes the importance of a permeating supernatural realm that is just as real as the material world but is finally unable to be systematized and controlled.Item A collaborative work of art in action: the 1979 American Book of Common Prayer, Rite II.(2006-11-22T19:31:23Z) Nobles, Heidi Gabrielle.; Barcus, James E., 1938-; English.; Baylor University. Dept. of English.In his book, Art in Action, Nicholas Wolterstorff argues that a work of art can only truly be understood within the context of its action. This paper presents the Eucharistic Rite II of the 1979 American Book of Common Prayer as a work of complex and aesthetically engaging literary art. Yet while Rite II offers plenty of aesthetic appeal, the text's greater significance comes from its liturgical identity as fundamentally active: Rite II refuses to stand solely as an object of aesthetic contemplation; rather, it demands that its readers respond to it in action, and it participates in its work alongside its readers. The key to Rite II's action lies in the collaboration between the text and its readers, for the two parties come together to perform work beyond themselves: they join in prayer to bring themselves and the world into communion with God through adoration, intercession and personal transformation.Item Fiction based on fact : subversions of power and propriety in Charles Reade's matter-of-fact romances.(2011-09-14) Nydegger, Amanda L.; Barcus, James E., 1938-; English.; Baylor University. Dept. of English.As Charles Reade began to write It Is Never Too Late to Mend, he developed a method of research and writing that he would use throughout the remainder of his career. In the Memoir, he declares: “The plan I propose to myself in writing stories will, I see, cost me undeniable labor. I propose never to guess where I can know” (198). This obsessive drive to discover and integrate facts into his fiction can be seen in all of his novels, but none so clearly as in the five he subtitled “a matter-of-fact romance.” Since the early 1900s, Reade has been completely excluded from the literary canon, and few critics have devoted any significant attention to his works. His two long matter-of-fact romances, Hard Cash and Never Too Late have received the bulk of critical study, but these novels are too often relegated to sensation, novel-with-a-purpose, or propagandist fiction without exploring the five matter-of-fact romances together as a whole. This dissertation provides an analysis of all five matter-of-fact romances, treating them as a new genre with its own set of criteria rather than trying to pigeonhole them into traditional genres such as realism or sensation fiction. Reade uses the matter-of-fact romance to accomplish two distinct objects. First, he creates a woven fabric of intertextuality which he uses to invite readers to engage closely with the text, and through a number of different techniques he encourages the reader to remain in direct contact with his narrative. Secondly, through the self-conscious creation of a new genre at the height of the debate between realism and idealism, Reade subverts conventional nineteenth-century concepts of genre and art. This subversion of genre extends to the content of his matter-of-fact romances where Reade further subverts Victorian concepts of power and propriety. An evaluation of subversions of power in the prison and the asylum, subversions of propriety with regard to women’s rights and roles, and psychological subversions of power form the basis of this study.Item Medicine and medical authority in three nineteenth-century novels.(2013-05-15) Smith, Rachel S. (Rachel Scotten); Barcus, James E., 1938-; English.; Baylor University. Dept. of English.Three popular novels that span the nineteenth century—Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, and Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s Hope Leslie—join then-contemporary conversations about medical reform. The novels explore the ethical ambiguities inherent in medical practice in the nineteenth century and question the nature of medical authority. In general, all three novels share a distrust of established medicine. In Hope Leslie, traditional, European medicine is denigrated and shown to be less efficacious than Native American medicine. This novel can be considered to be an argument for a national (American) medical system. In The Moonstone, the medical community’s indiscriminate use of opium is criticized. Ubiquitous opium-based preparations, like laudanum, are treated as ethically ambiguous and potentially dangerous. In Stoker’s Dracula, a “metaphysician” who treats both the body and soul is the most effective medical authority when dealing with nineteenth-century ailments that stubbornly retain moral associations.