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(1 - 8 of 8)
- Title
- A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL IDENTITY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE AMERICAN DREAM IN POLITICS AND LITERATURE.
- Creator
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Horning, Sarah-Marie, Houghton, David, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The American Dream has been the inspiration of many political speeches, political writings, and works of literature throughout American history. Most recently, it has inspired political groups like the Center for the New American Dream and academic groups like the Xavier University Center for the Study of the American Dream. As of late, the notion of the American Dream has begun to crop up more often than not in main stream political discourse, especially surrounding the topic of immigration...
Show moreThe American Dream has been the inspiration of many political speeches, political writings, and works of literature throughout American history. Most recently, it has inspired political groups like the Center for the New American Dream and academic groups like the Xavier University Center for the Study of the American Dream. As of late, the notion of the American Dream has begun to crop up more often than not in main stream political discourse, especially surrounding the topic of immigration with the aptly named Dream Act. Why has the American Dream drawn this new attention and inquiry? Why and how is it important to American Political thought? What does it mean? Why does it endure? As a complex issue of American culture, this thesis will use disparate methods of analysis to form answers to these questions. The American Dream is often referred to as our national myth. It is comprised of the many ideals and narratives which undergird American politics and culture. Through examination of literary works of fiction and of political texts, this research will examine the meaning and the history of the American Dream. Then, using secondary survey data, this research will examine the implications and state of the American Dream. Finally, to answer the question of why the American Dream endures, this research will employ elements of psychoanalytic and Marxist theory to argue that the Dream works as a cycle of American political thought.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFH0004422, ucf:45116
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004422
- Title
- FOR HOME AND COUNTRY: CONFEDERATE NATIONALISM IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA.
- Creator
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Shaw, Hunter, Sacher, John, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This study examines Confederate nationalism in Western North Carolina during the Civil War. Using secondary sources, newspapers, civilian, and soldiersÂÂÂÂ' letters, this study will show that most Appalachians demonstrated a strong loyalty to their new Confederate nation. However, while a majority Appalachian Confederates maintained a strong Confederate nationalism throughout the war; many...
Show moreThis study examines Confederate nationalism in Western North Carolina during the Civil War. Using secondary sources, newspapers, civilian, and soldiersÂÂÂÂ' letters, this study will show that most Appalachians demonstrated a strong loyalty to their new Confederate nation. However, while a majority Appalachian Confederates maintained a strong Confederate nationalism throughout the war; many Western North Carolinians were not loyal to the Confederacy. Critically analyzing Confederate nationalism in Western North Carolina will show that conceptions of loyalty and disloyalty are not absolute, in other words, Appalachia was not purely loyal or disloyal.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2010
- Identifier
- CFE0003561, ucf:48895
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003561
- Title
- WHITE OPINIONS OF UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION: TESTING RIVAL HYPOTHESES, 2004.
- Creator
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Bulkley, Celeste, Knuckey, Jonathan, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Few issues in the contemporary American political and social environments are as salient and emotionally charged as the debate over immigration. The thesis tests several competing hypotheses concerning the determinants of public opinion – among white respondents – on immigration issues. These include: the contextual considerations of southern residence and proximity to large numbers of Hispanic immigrants, as well as the individual-level factors of economic insecurity, political...
Show moreFew issues in the contemporary American political and social environments are as salient and emotionally charged as the debate over immigration. The thesis tests several competing hypotheses concerning the determinants of public opinion – among white respondents – on immigration issues. These include: the contextual considerations of southern residence and proximity to large numbers of Hispanic immigrants, as well as the individual-level factors of economic insecurity, political knowledge, national identity, group pride, and racism. Using data from the 2004 American National Election Study, the thesis provides a critical test of the competing hypotheses using multivariate analysis. Furthermore, conditional relationships are posited, facilitating a more refined analysis of the structure of attitudes on immigration issues. The results indicate that racism, group pride, symbolic patriotism, ideology, and isolationism are the most consistent and significant predictors of immigration policy preferences. The use of four distinct dependent variable questions also highlights the inconsistency in public opinion regarding immigration and the division between public perception of documented and undocumented entries. Future research should focus on the interrelationship between variables that are used by the individual to define group associations, as well as the change in national and personal identity brought about by the events of September 11th, 2001.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001407, ucf:47075
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001407
- Title
- FROM PRE-ISLAM TO MANDATE STATES: EXAMINING CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AND CULTURAL BLEED IN THE LEVANT.
- Creator
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Willman, Gabriel, Özoğlu, Hakan, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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To a large degree, historical analyses of the Levantine region tend to focus primarily upon martial interaction and state formation. However, perhaps of equitable impact is the chronology of those interactions which are cultural in nature. The long-term formative effect of cultural imperialism and cultural bleed can easily be as influential as the direct alterations imposed by martial invasion. While this study does not attempt to establish comparative causal weight or catalytic impact...
Show moreTo a large degree, historical analyses of the Levantine region tend to focus primarily upon martial interaction and state formation. However, perhaps of equitable impact is the chronology of those interactions which are cultural in nature. The long-term formative effect of cultural imperialism and cultural bleed can easily be as influential as the direct alterations imposed by martial invasion. While this study does not attempt to establish comparative causal weight or catalytic impact between these types of interactions, it does contend that the cultural evolution of the Levant has been significantly influenced by external interaction for a period of time extending beyond the Levantine Islamic Expansion. This study presents a chronological examination of the region from the pre-Expansion Period through the Mandate Period, focused upon relevant cultural structures. Specifically, emphasis is placed upon religious, ethnic, and nationalistic identity development, sociolinguistic shifts, and institutional changes within the societal structure. The primary conclusion of this study is that significant evidence exists to support a long-term historical narrative of externally influenced Levantine cultural evolution, inclusive of both adaptive and reactive interactions.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFH0004490, ucf:45075
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004490
- Title
- "This Stuff Is Finished": Amiri Baraka's Renunciation of the Ghosts of White Women and Homosexuals Past.
- Creator
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Stone-Lawrence, Susan, Rusnock, Joseph, Harris, Lani, Listengarten, Julia, Boyd, Belinda, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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This study examines auto/biographical, theoretical, critical, literary, and dramatic works by and about LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, primarily focusing on the eruption of (")Hate Whitey(") sentiment and rhetoric that characterized a decadelong cultural nationalist phase of the henceforth self-declaredly Black poet-playwright's career. As a black militant, LeRoi Jones left his white wife and other white associates in Greenwich Village, moved to Harlem, changed his name to Amiri Baraka, converted...
Show moreThis study examines auto/biographical, theoretical, critical, literary, and dramatic works by and about LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, primarily focusing on the eruption of (")Hate Whitey(") sentiment and rhetoric that characterized a decadelong cultural nationalist phase of the henceforth self-declaredly Black poet-playwright's career. As a black militant, LeRoi Jones left his white wife and other white associates in Greenwich Village, moved to Harlem, changed his name to Amiri Baraka, converted to Islam, and started the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School. This thesis contends that Baraka's Black Arts Movement era plays emphasize negation of the value of white women and gay men, who had formed his most intimate prior cohorts, and use extreme imagery to malign, belittle, and abjure representatives of both groups as evil, ridiculous, and disgusting archetypes in an attempt to affirm the political stance of the author and preempt doubt about his level of commitment to his chosen cause during that period. Through these plays written from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, Baraka denies his own personal history and appears to protest too much the virtues of corrective Afrocentric relationships which his works fail to affirm as much as he condemns their alternatives. However, after the purgative effect of these revolutionary works, Baraka's evolution arrived at a place where he could once again acknowledge and promote a diverse equality that included respect for the partners and peers he had abnegated. Conclusions of this research suggest connections between the personal implications of Baraka's individual journey and prominent themes stressed in the broader field of identity politics. ?
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0005062, ucf:49948
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005062
- Title
- REPRESENTATIONS OF GOTHIC CHILDREN IN CONTEMPORARY IRISH LITERATURE: A SEARCH FOR IDENTITY IN PATRICK MCCABE'S THE BUTCHER BOY, SEAMUS DEANE'S READING IN THE DARK, AND ANNA BURNS' NO BONES.
- Creator
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Ratte, Kelly, Campbell, James, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Ireland is not a country unfamiliar with trauma. It is an island widely known for its history with Vikings, famine, and as a colony of the English empire. Inevitably, then, these traumas surface in the literature from the nation. Much of the literature that was produced, especially after the decline in the Irish language after the Great Famine of the 1840s, focused on national identity. In the nineteenth century, there was a growing movement for Irish cultural identity, illustrated by authors...
Show moreIreland is not a country unfamiliar with trauma. It is an island widely known for its history with Vikings, famine, and as a colony of the English empire. Inevitably, then, these traumas surface in the literature from the nation. Much of the literature that was produced, especially after the decline in the Irish language after the Great Famine of the 1840s, focused on national identity. In the nineteenth century, there was a growing movement for Irish cultural identity, illustrated by authors John Millington Synge and William Butler Yeats; this movement was identified as the Gaelic Revival. Another movement in literature began in the nineteenth century and it reflected the social and political anxieties of the Anglo-Irish middle class in Ireland. This movement is the beginning of the Gothic genre in Irish literature. Dominated by authors such as Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker, Gothic novels used aspects of the sublime and the uncanny to express the fears and apprehensions that existed in Anglo-Irish identity in the nineteenth century. My goal in writing this thesis is to examine Gothic aspects of contemporary Irish fiction in order to address the anxieties of Irish identity after the Irish War of Independence that began in 1919 and the resulting division of Ireland into two countries. I will be examining Patrick McCabe's The Butcher Boy, Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark, and Anna Burns' No Bones in order to evaluate their use of children amidst the trouble surrounding the formation of identity, both personal and national, in Northern Ireland. All three novels use gothic elements in order to produce an atmosphere of the uncanny (Freud); this effect is used to enlighten the theme of arrested development in national identity through the children protagonists, who are inescapably haunted by Ireland's repressed traumatic history. Specifically, I will be focusing on the use of ghosts, violence, and hauntings to illuminate the social anxieties felt by Northern Ireland after the Irish War of Independence.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFH0004339, ucf:45002
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004339
- Title
- Bullying Victimization, Feared Second Language Self, and Second Language Identity: Reconceptualizing The Second Language Motivational Self System.
- Creator
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Peker, Hilal, Hoffman, Bobby, Regalla, Michele, Nutta, Joyce, Witta, Eleanor, Vitanova-Haralampiev, Gergana, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Factors affecting English learners' (ELs) motivation and identity have been explored in second language (L2) learning contexts; however, research examining L2 motivation and identity under the effect of bullying victimization is rare although ELs are one of the populations that are physically and psychologically affected from bullying. Using a unique perspective by merging L2 motivation, L2 identity, and bullying concepts under social ecological framework, this dissertation study is the first...
Show moreFactors affecting English learners' (ELs) motivation and identity have been explored in second language (L2) learning contexts; however, research examining L2 motivation and identity under the effect of bullying victimization is rare although ELs are one of the populations that are physically and psychologically affected from bullying. Using a unique perspective by merging L2 motivation, L2 identity, and bullying concepts under social ecological framework, this dissertation study is the first study investigating the relationship between bullying victimization, L2 Motivational Self System, and L2 identity.The data were derived from 1022 ELs through a self-report survey that was adapted and tested for measurement model validity and reliability. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) results indicated that there was a strong relationship between bullying victimization, including traditional bullying and cyberbullying, L2 Motivational Self System, and L2 identity. Traditional bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization affect ELs' feared L2 selves. This suggests that the feared L2 self may be added as a component to D(&)#246;rnyei's L2 Motivational Self System, especially when bullying victimization becomes a factor in language learning process. In addition, cyberbullying victimization positively correlated with ELs' oriented identity, which may indicate that ELs as agents were more motivated to learn English to overcome the negative effects of bullying victimization and to orient to the target culture. Based on the results, potential implications were provided for teachers and curriculum developers to help ELs cope with bullying in class and outside the classroom environment.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006373, ucf:51537
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006373
- Title
- BRAVE NEW WORLD RELOADED: ADVOCATING FOR BASIC CONSTITUTIONAL SEARCH PROTECTIONS TO APPLY TO CELL PHONES FROM EAVESDROPPING AND TRACKING BY THE GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATE ENTITIES.
- Creator
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Berrios-Ayala, Mark, Milon, Abby, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Imagine a world where someone's personal information is constantly compromised, where federal government entities AKA Big Brother always knows what anyone is Googling, who an individual is texting, and their emoticons on Twitter. Government entities have been doing this for years; they never cared if they were breaking the law or their moral compass of human dignity. Every day the Federal government blatantly siphons data with programs from the original ECHELON to the new series like PRISM...
Show moreImagine a world where someone's personal information is constantly compromised, where federal government entities AKA Big Brother always knows what anyone is Googling, who an individual is texting, and their emoticons on Twitter. Government entities have been doing this for years; they never cared if they were breaking the law or their moral compass of human dignity. Every day the Federal government blatantly siphons data with programs from the original ECHELON to the new series like PRISM and Xkeyscore so they can keep their tabs on issues that are none of their business; namely, the personal lives of millions. Our allies are taking note; some are learning our bad habits, from Government Communications Headquarters' (GCHQ) mass shadowing sharing plan to America's Russian inspiration, SORM. Some countries are following the United States' poster child pose of a Brave New World like order of global events. Others like Germany are showing their resolve in their disdain for the rise of tyranny. Soon, these new found surveillance troubles will test the resolve of the American Constitution and its nation's strong love and tradition of liberty. Courts are currently at work to resolve how current concepts of liberty and privacy apply to the current conditions facing the privacy of society. It remains to be determined how liberty will be affected as well; liberty for the United States of America, for the European Union, the Russian Federation and for the people of the World in regards to the extent of privacy in today's blurred privacy expectations.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFH0004537, ucf:45187
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004537
