English electronic theses and dissertations (MU)
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The items in this collection are the theses and dissertations written by students of the Department of English. Some items may be viewed only by members of the University of Missouri System and/or University of Missouri-Columbia. Click on one of the browse buttons above for a complete listing of the works.
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Item Elkanah Settle's The World in the Moon : a critical edition(University of Missouri--Columbia, 1974) Reser, Loren D.; Anderson, Donald K., Jr.This dissertation investigates Restoration dramatic opera from its beginnings in the Commonwealth, considers the culmination of the form in the productions of Henry Purcell, and finally examines those works presented at the close of the century to provide a context for an understanding of Elkanah Settle’s The World in the Moon (1697). Chapter I explores the various attempts at defini tion of the English compromise in dramatic opera, a mixture of sung and spoken dialogue which, for the English, was necessary to give primacy to the word as opposed to the Italian technique of all-sung opera. The chapter further examines the criticism which surrounded this new generic form. Chapter II deals with the influence of the masque as the predecessor of the dramatic opera? its emphasis on music and dialogue, in combination with elaborate scenery and dance, provided the basic components of the later Res toration dramatic opera. The gradual usurpation of the poetry by the scenes and the triumph of Inigo Jones over Ben Jonson, provided a foreshadowing of what occurred in the dramatic opera after the death of Purcell. Chapter III offers a survey of the musical works of William Davenant, generally considered to be the founder of English opera. Davenant's position in the history of dramatic' opera is important because he provides a link between the masques of the court of Charles I and the public stage of the Restoration. His First Day's Entertainment and The Siege of Rhodes were important as the first truly operatic works of the period, despite the restrictions imposed upon him by the Puritans. His early works after the opening of the theatres in 1660, Siege, Macbeth and The Tempest, began the sporadic history of dramatic opera in the Restoration. Chapter IV examines those dramatic operas produced between 1660 and 1685, works which were without rules to govern their creation and which were tentative explorations in form. Most were artistic failures; but Shadwell's Psyche, produced in 1675, offered the most successful solution to the problem of reconciling and synthesizing the diverse elements of the operatic form. The model established by Shadwell inexplicably was not followed between 1675 and 1690, and it was not until the productions of Henry Purcell that Shadwell's prototype was successfully emulated and brought to the heights of its artistic potential. Chapter V deals mainly with the works of Henry Purcell which, beginning with Dido and Aeneas in 1689, brought the dramatic opera form to its full artistic culmina tion. The greatest dramatic opera. King Arthur (1691), in collaboration with John Dryden, achieved the synthesis of music, drama and scene which had been lacking in earlier works. His music for Dioclesian, The Fairy Queen, Bonduca, and The Indian Queen dominated the stage during the early 1690’s. His untimely death in 1695 left England without a musical successor to equal his talents; the dramatic opera slowly lapsed into a degenerate form, allowing the music and scenes to dominate over the drama, thus denying the equal roles that these elements had played in King Arthur. Those operas produced after Purcell's death, including The World in the Moon, are evidence of the gradual corruption of ths form. Chapter VI describes Settle's career and examines The World in the Moon as dramatic opera. The reasons for Settle's unusual synthesis of comedy and opera and the work's place in the context of English dramatic opera are discussed. An examination of Settle's other dramatic operas, The Virgin Prophetess (1701) and The Lady's Triumph (1718), is also included. The Virgin Prophetess was the last dramatic opera of the Restoration; with its production, the English compro mise had run its full spectrum of genesis, culmination and decay. The Lady's Triumph was produced after the domination of Italian opera in England and cannot be considered among its Restoration predecessors. Chapter VII examines the text of The World in the Moon and especially concentrates on the so-called "second edition." Collation of eight copies of the play, six of the first edition and two of the "second edition," proves that there was no second edition of the play but that those copies described as a "second edition" were simply a further im pression of the first with an altered title-page. Other textual problems are explored, the possibility of a second compositor, for example. A discussion of the musicians, Daniel Purcell and Jeremiah Clark, and their music for The World in the Moon is included. To provide the most correct text, portions of copies from the Newberry Library and the University of Chicago Library have been conflated. Textual and explanatory notes are included. The two folio editions of the music for the single songs in The World in the Moon are reproduced in an appendix.Item A world without end : queer liminality, futurity, and other-world speculative visioning(University of Missouri--Columbia, 2024) Fabian, Chelsea; Hayes, RebeccaIn A World Without End: Queer Liminality, Futurity, and Other-World Speculative Visioning, I argue that the genre of speculative fiction is an ideal sandbox from which to explore and imagine alternative presents and futures in which liminally queer identities (bisexual, pansexual, nonbinary, agender, etc.) are seen as valid, stable, and legible. In our present, the rise of homonormativity and a strict societal adherence to binary structures has left liminally queer identities in the lurch between two sides of normative binaries of gender and sexuality. Although these conceptualizations of binary genders and sexualities depend upon the existence of liminal queernesses to define themselves against, liminal identities remain largely incomprehensible because we lack the necessary social and cultural frameworks to conceive of such liminality. The result of this liminality is that these identities are viewed as temporary and it is assumed that those with these identities will eventually "choose" a normative identity (i.e., homo/heterosexual and/or woman/man). The perceived temporary nature of these identities in our present denies liminally queer folks access to future-building projects because these identities are seen as mere trends that will not exist in any stable form in the future. In order to create liminally inclusive futures, it is necessary to make meaningful changes in our present; I argue that reconceptualizations of liminality (that diverge from our present-day definition), gender-fair language models, and new models of reproduction and kinship that appear in speculative fiction are the most important qualities of the genre for imagining liminally inclusive futures. In this project, I analyze the future-building potential of three contemporary speculative fiction series: Becky Chambers' Wayfarers, Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries, and Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire. Because speculative fiction can offer non-mimetic depictions of worlds adjacent to ours, speculative texts are particularly suited to the task of allowing readers to consider their own real-world identities and positionalities from a new vantage point. From this new perspective, many readers - including those without liminally queer identities - can become more familiar with new subjectivities and modes of being that exist outside of normative dichotomies. This knowledge can then be applied to our present in order to create liminal queer inclusion and ensure liminal queer survival into the future.Item Crime and punishment in the novels of Defoe, Fielding, and Godwin(University of Missouri--Columbia, 1961) Bassein, Beth Ann (Croskey); Weatherly, Edward H."The eighteenth century is characterized by lawless activity, economic growth seemingly as productive of poverty as of wealth, and certain spasmodic efforts to establish justice and render society less corrupt. The records of the times bear out these notions; however, the century should not be viewed as one where virtually nothing in the way of reform took place. Many men sought means of bettering their society. In some areas their efforts were obscured, but, even so, they laid the foundations for later improvements. Such was the case with Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and William Godwin, who made use of the subject of crime and punishment in their novels. Writing approximately at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the century, they each have a reformative motive in using this material. The manner in which they use it provides interesting comment on their lives, works, and times. Crime as used in this study may be defined as an act forbidden by law and punishable by law upon conviction, although the definition may be broadened to Include offenses against morality. Punishment may be defined as the penalty prescribed by law for an offence. A large section of chapter one is devoted to the causes of crime. The police force, the establishments for confining the criminal, the law and its administration, economic changes, and poverty and vice all are shown to be productive of crime. In the three subsequent chapters these causes of crime again form the basis of the major portion of the discussion, for the reformative value of specific novels can be estimated by the author’s awareness of these causes. This portion of each chapter is preceded by certain details of the author’s life and work which seem to have relevance to his treatment of the subject. Because certain of Defoe’s numerous works are similar, they will be treated as a group rather than individually. Because Fielding's novels differ a great deal in treatment, each is discussed separately. A similar discussion of Caleb Williams is separated from that of Godwin’s other novels for reasons that will be made obvious."--Introduction.Item Background and applications of the honor code in Dryden's four Spanish-oriented heroic plays(University of Missouri--Columbia, 1973) Campbell, Dowling G.; Anderson, Donald K.The treatment of honor in John Dryden’s four Spanish oriented heroic plays--The Indian Queen, The Indian Emperour, and both parts of The Conquest of Granada--follows dramatic patterns conspicuously parallel to those in earlier Spanish plays. From a basic complexity involving the dichotomy in types of honor to such specific elements as the blood rite, vengeance, conflict, reputation, the vow, the slander, and others, motifs abound in these four Dryden plays that abound also in the most popular plays of such renowned Siglo de Oro playwrights as Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Calderon. These motifs function in sufficiently explicit detail to suggest a deliberate borrowing on Dryden’s part. Such influence from Spanish drama has been largely ignored since no proof that Dryden could read the language has been previously documented. Dryden’s own acknowledgment that he can read Spanish, however, validates potential arguments hitherto discounted. While detailed analyses of possible analogues to these four heroic plays lie beyond the scope of my study, certain plays, such as Lope’s El perro del hortelano or La envidia de la nobleza, are suggested. The ethics of Dryden’s honor code expands, of course, far beyond these two plays. French tragedy, long considered by most Dryden critics as the sole supplier of outside influence for all his heroic plays, does not supply explicit character reactions to the honor code. Neo—Platonism cannot adequately explain or account for the dynamic behavior of such characters as Montezuma, Cortez, or Almanzor. Nor was Spanish influence channeled to Dryden through French playwrights. Spanish drama influenced only French comedy, and then the motifs were altered to fit Continental manners. Indeed, when Corneille early attempted to inject some authentic Spanish ethics and attitudes into Le Cid, he was soundly rebuked by Cardinal Richelieu’s Academy. No appreciably Spanish motifs appear in serious French drama thereafter. Dryden’s borrowings from Spanish literature should come as no surprise. Tudor and Stuart drama contain a rich legacy of Spanish references ranging from courtesy books and histories to novels and plays. Peninsular themes increase in popularity with the Restoration. Coupled with his ability to read the language, this popularity renders Dryden’s treatment of honor in his four heroics as all the more convincing evidence that he was strongly influenced by Spanish literature, and especially by Siglo de Oro playwrights.Item Miltonic criticism and the problem of the reader's belief(University of Missouri--Columbia., 1964) Sire, James W; Clark, Donald B.This study examines the literary criticism of Milton’s late poems from the seventeenth century to the present as that criticism deals with the problem of the reader’s belief. The general question which is investigated is this: can a reader who holds beliefs different from those embodied in a given poem assign any aesthetic value to the poem, and if so, upon what basis? This study is confined to a treatment of theological beliefs only. Aesthetic value is taken as a generic term to mean the value of the work as an art object. As each aesthetic system is dismissed, its criteria for measuring aesthetic value is noted. Limiting the study to the literary criticism of a major theological poet in the seventeenth century allows the study a broad historical scope in which changing trends can be isolated, and at the same time, it allows sufficient restriction to permit an examination of most of the published criticism of the poetry. While the problem of belief is at present much discussed by modern critics, this study is the first detailed examination of the way the problem has been treated with a poem, such as Paradise Lost, which forces the critic to take a stand on the problem. The study is organised historically, each major section being denoted to one century of Miltonic criticism, but both historical and critical conclusions are drawn. Historically, the study shows that the first century and a quarter are dominated by the Neoclassical dictum that poetry should delight and teach, and therefore whenever a poem presents a theology, that theology must be true. Milton is thus praised or condemned to the degree that each critic agrees or disagrees with what he thinks that theology is. This mode of criticism is resent in every century. By the nineteenth century, however, it becomes obvious to many critics that Hilton’s poetry contains a theology which can no longer be considered true. Thus Milton’s poetry becomes either deprecated or evaluated by other than Neoclassical standards. Victorian aestheticism, which measures aesthetic value solely on the basis of the excellence of its style, the harmony of its form, or the internal coherence of its ideas is one solution. The twentieth century produces several other methods of measuring aesthetic value: the preseme of archetypes, the ability of a specific theological view in a poem to be taken as a metaphor of a more generally human view, or the intensity of the experience evoked in the reader. The critical conclusions based on the detailed historical analysis include the isolation of five criteria which are especially important for any critical theory which is to apply to the evaluation of theological poetry. On the basis of these criteria, two positions, while mutually contradictory, are seen to offer the most potential for future criticism. The first is the traditional approach of Neoclassicism brought up to date by modern modifications. The second is a critical relativism that maintains that aesthetic value is measured only by the intensity and coherence of the reader’s experience of a poem’s view of reality whether that view of reality be believed or not believed by the reader. The characteristics of each of these views and the advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed in detail.