Browsing by Author "Baugh, Scott L."
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Item Mining for Meaning: A Study of Minimalism in American Literature(2010-12) Bailey, Jeremy R.; Aycock, Wendell M.; Spurgeon, Sara L.; Baugh, Scott L.This dissertation presents a series of readings that exemplify a wide range of important minimalist techniques in American literature. The study stems from my interest in the works of Cormac McCarthy, and particularly the question of both how and why McCarthy has developed into the highly minimalist author that he is today. My initial plan was to propose a book length study on McCarthy’s latest minimalist works, but my research on other minimalist writers, particularly Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Carver and Amy Hempel soon revealed that the technique of minimalism, and particularly how minimalist characteristics can influence and heighten a reader’s understanding of a story, should also be examined in this study. I have included a chapter on works by Hemingway to trace the early roots of literary minimalism, and a chapter on Carver to outline many of the important minimalist trademarks found in works written during the highpoint of American minimalism. The chapters on Hempel and McCarthy, two contemporary writers that have published a number of noteworthy minimalist stories in the past few years, bring this study into the present day.Item Negotiating pachuquismo: drape shapes and Chicano identity in Luis Valdez's Zoot suit(Texas Tech University, 1996-05) Baugh, Scott L.Luis Valdez and other Chicano and Chicana cultural workers have posited one answer to this dilemma. Valdez argues that the Chicano and Chicana must create an independent identity and culture. Living between these two traditions, the Chicano and Chicana may selectively meld Mexican heritage with the mainstream culture in order to create a "reality" in which to survive. In his play Zoot Suit, Luis Valdez depicts one sense of reality by which Chicanes struggle to survive in 1940s American society. In order to best recognize Valdez's exposition of Pachuco-reality and its ideological construct, Pachuquismo, we must consider the historical perspective offered by the film and the independent Chicano culture and identity depicted throughout the work. In final analysis, we might best see the correlation between these elements in Valdez's play, his production, and the filming of the play on stage through his symbolic use of the zoot suit. Because Valdez set the creation and development of these elements in World War-torn America, we should initially examine the mainstream American culture in which the Pachucos of the 1940s struggled to survive.