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French Realism in Madame Bovary
No full textThesis (B.A. in English Literature, Minor in Communications)--John Cabot University, Fall 2017.The purpose of my thesis is to analyse Madame Bovary in full depth in orderto see it through various angles, which are historical, stylistic or literary. The end ofthis analysis will give way to a discussion on the way Flaubert accomplishes his taskof writing an impersonal novel, in a majorly detached way and with a lack of mosttemporal or historical references. Realism will be a subject in question and manyscenes will be listed as proof and of evidence of the findings. Flaubert did not like tobe called a Realist, but most critics list him as a Realist, and Madame Bovary appearsto be a primary sample novel of what Realism is. It is often listed with Middlemarchby George Eliot, and Illusions Perdues by Honoré de Balzac
Fear and Hate in Alabama and Beyond: Narratives of Immigration in the Trump Campaign
No full textIn August 2015, in one of his first appearances as President-hopeful, Donald Trump galvanized his audience in Mobile, Alabama, by criminalizing immigrants and attacking sanctuary cities. Capitalizing on fear, he referred to the tragic deaths of two white women by the hands of undocumented immigrants. Trump knew those high-profile cases would resonate with Alabamians who have been fed similar rhetoric by Fox News and its echo chamber on the web. This essay explores the use of hate speech and negative portrayals of immigrants during the presidential campaign of Donald Trump with particular attention to the progressive criminalization of foreign-born individuals and Mexicans specifically. It also points to the current discourse dominated today in conservative media by the narrative of security, a narrative that today lumps together illegal immigration, crime, and terrorism.The essay investigates how such narrative has been reproduced by politicians and media pundits: to begin with, by Kansas Secretary of State and attorney Kris Kobach, who drafted the harshest state-level, anti-immigration bill that passed in 2011 in Alabama, HB 56, which represented an experiment in the “removal by attrition” (or self-deportation) strategy; by the former U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, once a U.S. Senator from Mobile, renown for being “tough on crime” and for his restrictionist stance on immigration; and by the once-Fox News TV host, Bill O’Reilly, who spearheaded the efforts to pass a law that further criminalize immigrants by establishing mandatory minimums for illegal reentry. The essay explores the role played by self-segregation in reinforcing stereotypical ideas about “the Other;” explains why immigration is the perfect topic to spin; and illustrates the lingering influence of cable TV in “cultivating” views about immigrants. The essay concludes by pointing to the emergence of alternative narratives of immigration in Alabama and beyond and provides further directions for research on the topic
Body and Memory in Persuasion and Mrs. Dalloway
No full textThesis (B.A. in English Literature)--John Cabot University, Spring 2017.This thesis examines the use of body language in Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and the way in which these authors portray the strong bond between memory and the body. Chapter 1 discusses memory of lost love in relation to the body, investigating how both authors use hands to connect body to feeling. Chapter 2 considers the notion of embodied memory – the idea that memories have lives of their own. The chapter investigates how memories are metaphorically represented by the elements of nature, physical objects, and written works, such as books, letters, and lists. Chapter 3 talks about the strategic positioning of the body and its role in the plot of the novels. The chapter also discusses emotional and social wars the characters are involved in and how strategic placement and removal of bodies change the course of these wars
Soviet Past and its Burdens on the Democratizing Civil Society of Georgia
No full textThesis (B.A. in Political Science, Minor in History)--John Cabot University, Spring 2017.The presence of active, engaging and interactive civil society is fundamental for the sustainability and fluidity of democratic regimes. As one of the influential scholars on social capital Robert D. Putnam puts it “there is a mounting evidence that the characteristics of civil society affect the health of our democracies, our communities, and ourselves” (Putnam, 2002, pg.6). The possibility for the social interactions in public spheres enables citizen participation and engagement not only in political lives, but also triggers their aspiration towards the global causes. The purpose of this research is to highlight the discrepancies as well as achievements of Georgian civil society, while measuring its role in the process of democratization during the Rose Revolution. The thesis is divided in two main parts. First part provides a thorough theoretical insight about the peculiarities of posttotalitarianism, processes of democratization, and obstacles to transitional movements. The second part of the research applies the experience of Georgia to the theoretical propositions and measures the impact of Soviet-past on the civil society, which eventually affected certain revolutionary as well as transitional dynamics of the country
The Failed War: The Merida Initiative
No full textThesis (B.A. in Political Science, Minor in Business Administration)--John Cabot University, Spring 2017.Drug trafficking in Mexico has been an ongoing issue since the 1900s. Throughout this last century, many presidents in the United States have attempted to approach this issue in different forms. However, it was not until 2006 that Mexican President Felipe Calderón (2006 - 2012) signed a bilateral agreement between Mexico and the United States of America in order to eradicate drug trafficking called the Merida Initiative. A decade before this initiative was signed, a similar plan was created between Colombia and the United States of America. There are many similarities between both initiatives as most of the money that was financed by the United States, was assigned to the military, leaving the population with a insignificant portion of the money allocated to each plan. Throughout this thesis, while focusing mostly on the security aspect of the initiative, I will highlight the reasons why a military tactic in fighting drug trafficking was not the proper solution in either countries, as well as the differences between Mexico and Colombia which make it difficult to apply the same strategy in both countries. Furthermore, I will support my argument based on Immanuel Wallerstein’s world systems theory that highlights the relationship between Latin American countries and the United States of America
Performing the Female Artistic Self: Layers of Identity in Cecilia Beaux’s Portraits
No full textThesis (B.A. in Art History)--John Cabot University, Fall 2017.As a successful woman painter in fin-de-siècle America, Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942) representeda notable exception, an unexplored creature belonging to a shifting social and cultural scenariothat continuously redefined assumptions on personal identities and public roles. American artistsstrove to construct their public façade as well as their art in compliance with dominant modes ofthought, vision, and behavior. Working in alliance with the critics, they sought to respond topublic expectations on the nature of artistic identity as much as on their adherence to culturallyapproved notions of masculinity, femininity, and Americanness. This thesis will explore howBeaux navigated the late-nineteenth-century re-definition of artistic identity by way of aconsistent and visible performance of femininity. The critical reception of her work will be reconsideredwith respect to the gendered language used to code it as “feminine,” and to thetendency of assessing it by way of comparison with the “masculine” work of John SingerSargent (1856-1925). The critical construction of Beaux’s paintings as “feminine” will beunderstood as an intended response to the artist’s conscious enactment of a feminine-evokingpictorial mode. I will analyze how Beaux forged a prominent public façade by incorporating inher outward appearance and behavior a set of traits that latched on to shared notions ofexemplary womanhood. More specifically, I will argue that Beaux manipulated the protocols offashionable portraiture both formally and thematically. Mother and Daughter (1898) andPortrait of Mrs. Roosevelt and Daughter Ethel (1902) provide particularly interesting cases towitness Beaux’s enactment of a feminine pictorial sensitivity. In the portraits, Beaux detectedand recorded the sitters’ specific psychological and social circumstances, extrapolating fromtheir individualities larger narratives of female experiences that are embedded in, and alsoaugmented by the distinct operations of self-aggrandizement entailed in each commission