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The Anorexic Aesthetic: An Analysis of the Poetics of Glück, Dickinson, and Bidart
(Vanderbilt University, 2014-04-11)
My argument acknowledges the complex liminal space within which the artist creates—one in which art may constitute an act of self-assertion or a deliberate pattern of self-sabotage, among other non-symptomologic, aesthetic ...
Jorie Graham’s Overlord: Poetics, Ethics, and Différance
(Vanderbilt University, 2014-04-15)
*Overlord* by Jorie Graham requires a theoretical paradigm which can account for the Overlord within it; this paradigm, I will argue, is Jacques Derrida’s différance. Just as différance produces an endless chain of violent ...
Saussure and Sherlock, Derrida and the Detective: A Semiotic and Deconstructive Interpretation of the Classic Detective Fiction Genre
(Vanderbilt University, 2014-04-16)
In this thesis, I will read detective fiction, particularly from the Holmes canon, in light of two linguistic and philosophical theories: the theory of semiotics expounded by Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) ...
Becoming Jane: Subject and Narrative Formation through the Language of Suicide and Marriage in Charlotte Brontë’s *Jane Eyre*
(Vanderbilt University, 2014-04-11)
Scholars have understood Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, a quintessential female Bildungsroman or coming-of-age novel, as ultimately a conservative work, since the marriage at the end of the novel appears to subsume and ...
A Patchwork Quilt of Perspectives: Polyphony in Faulkner
(Vanderbilt University, 2014-04-16)
In these pages, I will examine the dissonant voices of Faulkner the author and the Faulkner the man alongside the voices of the characters and narrators in his fiction. My interest lies not in finding a satisfactory ...
Literary Treatments of Blindness from Sophocles to Saramago
(Vanderbilt University, 2014-04-11)
Blindness plays a prominent role in literature and is frequently turned into a metaphor associated with wisdom or divinity. There are certainly other ways to interpret blindness, but literature consistently links blindness ...
Recognizing Trauma, Expanding Treatment: Toni Morrison’s Portrayal of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in *Sula*, *Beloved*, and *Home*
(Vanderbilt University, 2014-04-16)
I argue that one of the most major focuses in Toni Morrison’s novels is the exploration of trauma, specifically the forms of trauma that have afflicted the African American community. Although Morrison’s novels predominantly ...