Languages, Literatures, & Cultures Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2785
Browse
174 results
Search Results
Item A Comparison of Irony in W.M. Thackeray and Thomas Mann (Until 1918)(1950) Mohr, William; Foreign Study; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)In our comparison of the irony found in Mann and Thackeray we will first discuss irony in its more concrete aspects, ironic content and then ironic form. Further, and particularly in connection with Mann, we will speak about the nature and position of the artist. This topic is actually another aspect of ironic content, but it is such an important problem in Mann's early works that it deserves special consideration. And finally, we will return to Mann's metaphysical irony.Item Modeling the effects of entrenchment and memory development on second language acquisition(2019) Osthus, Peter Daniel; DeKeyser, Robert; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The observation that language learning outcomes are less consistent the older one becomes has motivated a large portion of second language acquisition research (e.g., Hartshorne, Tenenbaum, & Pinker, 2018; DeKeyser, 2012). Hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms which lead to age-related declines are traditionally tested with human subjects; however, many hypotheses cannot be fully evaluated in the natural world due to maturational and environmental constraints. In these scenarios, computational simulations provide a convenient way to test these hypotheses. In the present work, recurrent neural networks are used to study the effects of linguistic entrenchment and memory development on second language acquisition. Previous computational studies have found mixed results regarding these factors. Three computational experiments using a range of languages were conducted to understand better the role of entrenchment and memory development in learning several linguistic sub-tasks: grammatical gender assignment, grammatical gender agreement, and word boundary identification. Linguistic entrenchment consistently had a negative, but marginal, influence on second language learning outcomes in the gender assignment experiment. In the gender agreement and word boundary experiments, entrenchment rarely affected learning outcomes. Starting with fewer memory resources consistently led to poorer outcomes across learning tasks and languages. The complexity of the learning task and the regularity of the formal cues present in the linguistic input affected outcomes. In the gender assignment experiment, the first language influenced second language outcomes, especially when the second language had fewer gender classes than the first language. These results suggest that the effects of entrenchment and memory development on second language learning may be dependent upon the language pairs and the difficulty of the modeling task.Item ANTÍGONAS EXILIADAS DE LA GUERRA CIVIL DE LAS ESPAÑAS (1936-1999): CONCHA MÉNDEZ Y ERNESTINA DE CHAMPOURCIN(2019) Bort Caballero, María de la Luz; Naharro-Calderón, José María; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) left a marked influence on the culture and literature of contemporary Spain. After Franco violently toppled the Second Spanish Republic, those with progressive ideas were persecuted, executed, and more than a half a million were forced into a nearly forty-year diaspora. These displacements left diverse traces buried in private memories and certain literary and cultural practices. Despite active research in the last four decades, there are still untapped questions and silences. Particularly, works by exiled women writers and intellectuals that have been relegated to the margins. They offer unexplored spaces of memory and insights into the experiences of forced uprootings. Through poets Concha Méndez (1898-1986) and Ernestina de Champourcin (1905-1999), this thesis delves into geographies of memory, and seeks to broaden the relevance of poetry written in exile, biased by the male canon and its scholarship. It posits the recognition of fresh and close readings of repression and resistance while looking through the violet lenses of equity. These poets refused to abandon their own voices or be silenced due to their marginalized condition as women and exiles. The figure of the classical archetype, Antigone, and the dialogic theories of María Zambrano, allow for a further exchange with these authors’ poetry, oral testimonies and remembrances. The entombment of Antigone, for Zambrano, represents both a challenge and a liberation where expulsion is redeemed by the affirmation of the feminine self. Even though these women were banished to the same location, Mexico, D.F., Concha Méndez offers insights into the study of the plight of her terminal exiles. Meanwhile, Ernestina de Champourcin represents the possibility of interrogating a reconstruction of exile as she attempts a definite return to Spain. However, both voices and experiences coexist within the trauma of loss, solitude, survival, a search for refuge, and the reinvention of oneself. They call for a review and rethinking of categories such as inner exile, and propose new multidisciplinary lenses in order to read alternative discourses of exodus in a feminine mode.Item The Posthumanist Vision of Alain Robbe-Grillet(2019) Gunderson, Kristen; Brami, Joseph; French Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Alain Robbe-Grillet has long been a favorite object of investigation of literary criticism within French studies. A prolific writer, filmmaker, and theorist, he is often considered as the primary member of the group known as the New Novel, a collection of mostly French authors active in approximately the 1950s-1970s who sought to reinvent the novel through innovative narrative structures. While critical interest on Robbe-Grillet has slowed in recent years, he retains the reputation within literary criticism of being difficult to solve. Robbe-Grillet’s project, both literary and theoretical, is characterized by opposition to what he sees as the humanism of nineteenth-century literary realism. He seeks to invent narrative structures and elaborate a theoretical vision that would: (1) move away from humanism as a narrative and epistemological model, (2) invent a new conception of the human subject, and (3) more accurately reflect the state of the postwar Western world, which he views as being characterized by complexity, continual change, and technoscientific innovation. Critical posthumanist theory, which coalesced as a relatively coherent theory primarily in Anglophone humanities departments in the 1990s, addresses many of the same issues and adopts many of the same approaches as Robbe-Grillet. In my dissertation, I argue that Alain Robbe-Grillet should be considered a posthumanist author because of the a-humanist bent of his literary and theoretical project and the similarities that exist between his vision and that of posthumanist scholars. Furthermore, contemporary posthumanist scholars such as Stefan Herbrechter and Mads Thomsen have argued for the use of literature as a field for further development of the theory, as well as for use of the theory as an investigative tool for literary studies. Despite this, only a handful of full-length texts have been published on the link between narrative and posthumanist theory, and I have found no full-length studies produced on French-language texts. In this way, this dissertation provides a new understanding of Robbe-Grillet, contributes to the development of posthumanist critical theory, and demonstrates the potential utility of this theory as a tool for literary criticism in an interdisciplinary approach that combines French literary criticism with Anglophone theory.Item DER HAUPTMANN VON KOEPENICK Wirklichkeit und Dichtung am Beispiel des Schauspiels von Carl Zuckmayer(1954) Werner, Sibylle B.; Zucker, Adolph E.; Languages, Literatures, & Cultures; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Die deutsche Dramatik des 20. Jahrhunderts uebt gegenueber Gegenwartsstoffen sichtlich eine starke Zurueckhaltung aus. Zu den Urnachen, die hier ununtersucht bleiben koennen, gehoert gewiss die, dass die Dramatiker hier jene historische Distanz vermissen, die es ihnen ermoeglicht, eine Begebenheit aus dem Tagesgeschehen und aus dem nuechtemen Bereich der Wirklichkeit in einen zeitlosen Raum zu ruecken. Carl Zuckmayers Der Haupmann Koepenick ist zweifellos eines der bedeutendsten und dichterisch geschlossensten Schauspiele, das ein Ereignis unserer Zeit, naemlich des 20. Jahrhunderts, dramatisch gestaltet hat. Der Dichter gehoert der bisher letzten grossen deutschen Schriftstellergeneration an, die - im ausgehenden vorigen Jahrhundert geboren -- ein ihr Dasein bestinunendes Grunderlebnis im Trommelfeuer des Ersten Weltkrieges empfing. Er und Berthold Brecht, der sich ganz der marxistischen Ideologie verschrieben hat, sind heute die fuehrenden deutschen Dramatiker. Zuckmayer, der im Dritten Reich Deutschland verliess und vor mehr als einem Jahrzehnt amerikanischer Staatsbuerger wurde, wurde nach dem Kriege auf den deutschen Buehnen haeufiger aufgefuehrt, als irgend ein anderer lebender deutscher Autor. Wenn auch sein im Zweiten Weltkrieg spielendes Stueck Des Teufels General das deutsche Publikum der Nachkriegszeit staerlrnr erschuetterte, als seine uebrigen Dramen, so erscheint Der Hauptmann von Koepenick, den er ein deutsches Maerchen nennt, als am klarsten durchkomponiert und in der Verdichtung von Wirklichkeit und Fiktion kuenstlerisch am besten geglueckt. Die ausserordentliche Buehnenwirksamkeit dieses Werkes verhilft ihm auch nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zu staendigen Neuinszenierungen, die die unverminderte Frische dieses Schauspiels beweisen. So erscheint es nicht ohne Reiz, das alte Problem Wirklichkeit und Dichtung an diesem Stueck zu untersuchen. In den ersten grossen Abschnitt der Arbeit wird versucht werden, aus dem uns zur Verfuegung stehenden Material -- Zeitungen, die Erzaehlung Wilhelm Schaefers und die Selbstbiographie -- den Lebensweg des Schusters Wilhelm Voigt einschliesslich seiner Tat, die ihn beruehmt machte, und des Prozesses der durch die Presse gingen, darzustellen. Der zweite Abschnitt dient der Analyse von Zuclanayers Schauspiel. Hier werden wir weniger eine genaue und detaillierte Wiedergabe des Inhaltes bringen, als vielmehr an Hand der Handlung des Stueckes versuchen Dramaturgie und inneren Gehalt zu erklaeren. Weiter umfasst das Kapitel einige theatergeschichtliche Anmerkungen, die sich besonders mit der Wirkung und dem Erfolg des Stueckes und seines Helden beiseiner Urauffuehrung im Jahre 1931 beschaeftigen. Im dritten und letzten Hauptkapitel versucht die Verfasserin schliesslich Wirklichkeit und Dichtung des Stoffes auf einen gemeinsamen Nenner zu bringe. Besonderer Betonung liegt hier auf der Person Wilhelm Voigts, wie sie uns aus den historischen Quellen uebermittelt wurde, und wie Zuckmayer diese Gestalt umformte. Nach einer zusammenfassenden Schlussbetrachtung folgt dem Quellenverzeichnis ein kurzer Anhang, mit biographischen Notizen ueber den Autor Carl Zuckmayer, einer Quellenkritik sowie der Szenenfolge des Schauspiels und einer Reproduktion des Titelbildes der Selbstbiographie Voigts.Item The 1974 Bilingual Education Amendments: Revolution, Reaction or Reform(1976) Schneider, Susan Gilbert; Baird, Janet R.; Languages, Literatures, & Cultures; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Purpose: The study examined in detail the legislative history of the 1974 Bilingual Education Act, Section 105 of the Education Amendments of 1974, Public Law 93-380. The study examined the roles of Representatives, Senators, lobbyists, judicial decisions, minority groups and Administration officials in developing the 1974 Bilingual Education Act.Item COMPREHENSION OF CONVERSTATIONAL IMPLICATURE: EXAMINING EVIDENCE OF ITS SEPARABILITY AS A LISTENING SUBSKILL(2019) O'Connell, Stephen Patrick; Ross, Steven J; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Understanding the inferences that speakers rely on to communicate is a core part of listening comprehension and is, more broadly, an important aspect of communicative ability. As a result, theories of communicative language ability account for it, and language testers who try to gauge the proficiency of learners of a second language include it in their assessments. Within the field of language testing, much research has been conducted to better understand how different aspects of listening may contribute to difficulty for second-language learners. One area of investigation has been the notion of listening being separable into different subskills, such as listening for inferences as opposed to listening for specific explicit details or listening for main idea. However, there have been mixed results when attempting to determine the psychological reality of these subskills. This study attempts to clarify this question via a listening comprehension instrument that was designed specifically to assess the comprehension of conversational implicature, or pragmatic inferencing, in contrast to non-implicature, or general comprehension. This balanced instrument was administered to 255 language learners in two item formats, multiple choice and constructed response. In addition, participants were administered short-term memory and working memory measures. A variety of analyses, including item response theory (Rasch), logistic regression, and confirmatory factor analyses were used to try to attain evidence for 1) the existence of a separable listening for conversational implicature subskill and 2) the validity of assessing this subskill through a multiple-choice format. The results from the analyses generally converged to indicate that while conversational implicature contributes to difficulty, it is not a separable subskill. However, the results did show that the multiple-choice item format is a defensible method for targeting this skill. This leads to the conclusion that expending effort on assessing comprehension of conversational implicature in general language proficiency tests may not be necessary unless the test-use context places particular emphasis on this ability. Although it is an integral aspect of listening, from an assessment standpoint, performance on general listening items will likely give test users the information they need to make predictions about comprehension of conversational implicature ability.Item Change Is Sound: Resistance and Activism in Queer Latinx Punk Rock(2019) Dowman, Sarah; Long, Ryan; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Change Is Sound explores the roles punk ethos, discourses, and collectivism play in creating resistant practices within queer US Latinx punk communities since the 1970s. My research engages critically with the fields of contemporary Latinx cultural studies and hemispheric queer studies to elucidate new perspectives on the emerging critical category of Latinx, to challenge stagnant narratives of resistance and activism in queer communities of color in the US, and to provide a framework for how resistant practices are being defined and constructed in the present. Furthermore, my study decenters the “white riot” narrative of punk that excludes and erases diversity by categorizing the subculture as a straight, white, male, suburban, middle-class, youth phenomenon. My study achieves this decentering by focusing on intersectional, transnational, and transgenerational subjectivities represented by the contributions of queer Latinx punk artists. By diversifying the perspectives and experiences represented and highlighting how these artists forge connections to larger histories of resistant practices in queer communities of color in the US and transnationally, I demonstrate how underrepresented populations expand punk’s emancipatory potential. Specifically, my research shows how resistant practices such as performative and activist interventions and the creation of online collective revisionist writings present a foundation from which queer Latinx and other marginalized communities negotiate power, hegemony, and resistance within the contemporary context of precarity and oppression under neoliberalism and capitalist globalization.Item THE COMPARISON OF L1 AND L2 CASE PROCESSING: ERP EVIDENCE FROM TURKISH(2019) KARATAS, NUR BASAK; Gor, Kira; Second Language Acquisition and Application; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation investigates the morphological and morphosyntactic processing of case-marking by native and nonnative speakers of Turkish, through behavioral and electrophysiological responses. The study explores the locus of case processing costs during first (L1) and second language (L2) word recognition both in isolation and in sentences. It identifies the factors leading to persistent problems that late L2 learners face in attaining native-like processing of case assignment. To this end, the first experiment (a visual lexical decision task) examines whether different case forms generate differential processing costs, based on four main comparisons that reflect case properties and its status in the inflectional paradigm: 1) structural (genitive, accusative) vs. lexical (dative) case; 2) argument (accusative, dative) vs. non-argument (genitive); 3) higher (genitive) vs. lower type frequency (accusative, dative), and 4) citation form (nominative) vs. oblique cases (genitive, accusative, dative). The behavioral findings show significantly larger processing costs (i.e., longer reaction times and lower accuracy rates) for the genitive than the nominative case (citation form) across both subject groups, and than other oblique cases in L2 group only. ERP findings show significantly larger processing costs for the genitive than the accusative, and for the dative than the accusative only in L2 group. When the same case-inflected nouns were placed in a sentence context, larger N400 effects were found for the genitive, compared to the nominative and accusative in L1 group only. Together, these results suggest that different case forms generate differential processing costs in both subject groups, and L2 learners’ difficulty with the non-argument genitive and lexical dative oblique cases are at the level of form rather than sentence structure. The second (sentence) experiment also examined the processing of case errors (i.e., substitution of the accusative for the dative or vice versa on the object). ERP findings show a qualitative difference between L1 and L2 morphosyntactic patterns: P600 was missing while early negativities (N400 and left anterior negativity, LAN) were present in L2 group. These results suggest that advanced L2 learners evaluate the verb argument structure (LAN) and semantic fit (N400), but do not attempt to reparse the sentence (P600), unlike native speakers.Item El humor de la política o la política del humor en los productos culturales del México contemporáneo(2019) Contreras, Jose Alfredo; Long, Ryan F; Spanish Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation analyzes humorous cultural products composed in present-day Mexico. Humor has at its core transgressive and critical qualities that challenge ordinary expectations and common perceptions. In Mexico, humorous cultural products are perceived as a frivolous and superficial expression that is subordinate to the solemnity of “serious” works. This study challenges the notion of incompatibility between humor and thought by presenting the rich tradition of humor and its constant dialogue with social and political events in Mexico. In addition, it considers works by renowned Mexican authors which demonstrate and reflect upon the subversive character of humor. This project focuses on literary works, films and political cartoons as cultural products especially suited to help understand contemporary Mexico. The focus on humorous cultural products highlights representations of politics, society and the state in a way that denaturalizes predominant narratives and discourses. The works of David Toscana emphasize the creation and imposition of social and political conventions, and simultaneously show their questionable legitimacy and fragility. In addition, novels by Bernardo Fernández (Bef), Jorge Vázquez Ángeles, Juan Pablo Villalobos, and Juan Villoro draw from the tradition of the detective novel to question the official discourse surrounding the Mexican Drug War by providing a nuanced representation in which criminality and authority are problematized. Furthermore, these novels address the relationship between neoliberal economic policies that produce inequality and environmental degradation instead of the economic development they promise. Films by Alfonso Cuarón, Luis Estrada, Fernando León Rodríguez, and Emilio Portes, provide a satirical approach to the institutions of power, such as the state, television networks, and the Church. Through the representation of historical and present events, these works depart from the hesitant satire of the 20th-century to produce cinematic works that are increasingly critical and in very direct terms. Political cartoons by Rafael Barajas Durán (el Fisgón), Cintia Bolio, Bulmaro Castellanos (Magú), Antonio Helguera, and José Hernández emphasize the democratization of the country while addressing persistent issues like gender inequality and corruption.