Symbolism in literature

A central paradox in modernism is its disdain for mass culture, despite mass
culture 's undeniable presence in modernist literature. American authors writing
during the early twentieth century tried to establish themselves as "highbrow" by
leaving the U.S. and traveling to Europe. In doing so, they created a particular
aesthetic characterized by depictions of the transportation that facilitated this travel.
These depictions reveal modernism's dependence on mass culture, and more
importantly, create a space in which modernist authors can negotiate what was once
a choice between high or low culture, exile or tourist, and ultimately, modernism or
mass culture. Analyzing the car and train scenes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is
the Night and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises reveals the hybrid spaces
made available to these authors through transportation.

Otway is a verse collection that explores the journey of the self in isolation. The
collection commences with the narrator's inability to make sense of involuntary isolation.
The subsequent melancholia prompts the narrator's journey of self-exploration, which
progresses outward into the natural world. This journey is signified through the
narrator's travels, which bring her into direct contact with the numinous (nature).
Consequently, both narrator and numen become integrated, leading to the transformation
of solitude as "undesirable" space into "sacred" space, one in which self-discovery can
occur.

We each experience the world through the prism of our upbringing, our traditions
and the familiar sights and sounds embedded deep within our soul. Only Sound Remains
is an installation in which I explore and share those experiences through objects, sounds
and video. Ceramic vessels inspired by the traditions of my ancestors hide and shape
sounds that narrate simple and complex experiences, which are the stories of my life.
The sounds relate to the world that I came from and that still can be heard now. The
sounds are not clear until one gets close to the vessels and lifts the lid-- a bazaar, praying,
marching, an explosion, a woman telling a story, traditional Iranian music. The
installation is a metaphor for the way in which we experience the world. The vessels
represent a selection of personal and cultural experiences through sounds that may or
may not be fully understood.

Charles G. Finney’s 1936 novel The Circus of Dr. Lao was published to
enthusiastic reviews, but fell into relative obscurity shortly thereafter. Since its
publication, it has been the subject of one peer-reviewed critical essay, a number of
reviews, one non-peer-reviewed essay, and a master’s thesis. It was published in a world
where the fantastic and unique found only barren desert soil, with no scholarly tradition
for the fantastic, nor a widely receptive lay audience for something truly unique, or sui
generis. The concept of the sui generis, meaning “of its own kind,” provides a useful lens
for examining the novel, as Finney develops not only creatures, but people, which are
truly of their own kind, borrowing from existing mythologies, traits of humanity, and
aspects of nature, recombining them in a singular way which resists classification.

William Butler Yeats created his own mythology which is a religion unto itself. He took the myths of ancient heroic Ireland and combined these with the dominant Christian beliefs in Ireland during his lifetime and created a new religion that would serve to unite Ireland that was divided along religious lines. My thesis will show that Yeats, out of a fardel of tales, created not only his own mythology but a religion as well. With the help of the theories of Joseph Campbell, I will prove that Yeats's writing provided a virtual medium through which he disseminated his belief system. Therefore, this exploration is essential to give a deeper understanding to the total scope of Yeats's work.

This creative thesis contains 19 poems exploring and examining the association of residues, primarily through that of memory and memories, through a process of defining and (re)defining those associations of memory (the residues) that attach themselves to memory and the actions of and upon memory. This thematic thread is woven throughout with narrative prose and verse, traditional and free verse, and the melding of each in an effort to exemplify the relationships between memory and its residual associations through structure, form, and language. Speakers are most often characters who represent the roles of memory and the associate value of the residues attached to it. The notion of residue is defined and redefined through the formation of memories, cultural associations, environmental and educational influences.

The story of an Irish grandfather, Brendan Doran, covers the period 1918 through 1966; the story of his granddaughter, Maisie Doyle covers the summer of her seventeenth year. Brendan's perceptions are given in the first person viewpoint; Maisie's in the third-person viewpoint. A faithful following is given of Brendan's vernacular in young manhood; then, as he grows in sophisticated use of language his first-person narration reflects this. Both stories trace the psychological development of the two, leading to questions regarding the similarities and the differences between the romantic dreams of a young man and a young woman. An omniscient narrator is the narrative voice for an overview of family history, with emphasis on the family dwelling and land, Bloomlands, and on the story of Maisie's mother and father, Essie and Eddie Doran.

four sparks fall is a complex narrative, darting among symbols, languages, puzzles, and styles. There is the story of Susanna, our narrator, and there is a diary of May, Susanna's twin sister---a story within a story. To further complicate matters, both narratives are "interrupted" by May, who manifests an uncanny ability to project her thoughts into Susanna's mind. In a sense, both characters know and do not know what is happening, and their struggle to come to terms with multiple ways of "knowing" is manifested in the structure, which experiments with visual layout and language in new, interesting ways. This project began as an experiment in "organic writing": the process of writing without a direction or end in mind. One of my weaknesses as a writer is a tendency to "over-think" my work, and four sparks fall represents my attempt to address this issue.

2 Vietnams documents modern Vietnam through alternating chapters of collage fictions and images: "East-West Documentation," "Vietnam in the Twilight-Hour," "Correspondence," and "Confessional Archives." Although 2 Vietnams serves as a documentary-style account of the many Vietnams that exist and confront our American memory of Vietnam, each chapter contains social narratives that connect to each other forming larger, subtler narratives. "East-West Documentation" follows a fictional writer's experience living in Vietnam, conducting interviews and reading articles. "Vietnam in the Twilight-Hour" strings narrative poetry together with titles ranging from "Neocolonialism," "Love in Notations," to "SocialPolygrams." In addition to these poetic narratives are photographs that tell snapshot stories. "Correspondence" contains fictions such as "Think and It Will Happen," "StoryOptics," and "Flame of Life." Lastly, "Confessional Archives" contains images and non-fictional stories from veterans, both Vietnamese and American.

Weather assists in shaping our reality. It is an unalterable condition of the world that we are born into. This short story collection aims to present the nuances of weather. It attempts to acknowledge wind, rain, snow and lightning as forces that shape the world of its characters, forces that even influence the structure of the story itself. In some cases, weather acts as metaphor; in others, the weather seeks to alter language itself. The beauty of a snowflake resides in image and language.