Dissertations of Note

Abstract

Dissertations of Note Rachel Fordyce (bio) Ambanasom, Shadrach Ateke. "The Adolescent Protagonist in the African Novel: An Analysis of Five African Novels." Ph.D. diss. Ohio University, 1985. 288 pp. DAI 47:1320A. The novels Ambanasom analyzes are Weep Not Child, A Son of the Soil, The Dark Child, Without a Home, and Houseboy. Each work is directed toward a secondary school audience and has an inspirational protagonist with strong values and a desire for education. The novels deal with such themes as the struggle for independence and liberation, "the quality of social and economic life . . . the dignity and beauty of aspects of the African culture, the question of education, and the problems posed by broken homes." While the major attraction of the novels is their "readability," Ambanasom observes that the authors are more interested in social, political, and cultural issues than "purely adolescent concerns." Binkney, Richard Harold. "A Study of the Criteria Adolescents Use in the Selection of Novels for a Recommended Reading "Best" List versus the Criteria Adults Use in the Selection of Novels for a Recommended Reading "Best" List." Ph.D. diss. Georgia State University, College of Education, 1986. 344 pp. DAI 47:1167A. Using the answers to a questionnaire investigating preferences of adolescent and adult groups Binkney suggests that the groups "have conflicting feelings about the criteria used in the selection of novels in terms of subject matter, appearance, and the critical acclaim of works." He concludes that there is no substantial correlation between children's preferences and adult approval, and he includes recommendations that reappraise "literary standards and criteria for evaluation in terms of the extent to which they foster a meaningful experience for the reader." Cain, Melissa Augustine. "Children's Functioning in the Pictorial Symbol System as Determined by Responses to a Wordless Picture Book." Ph.D. diss. University of Toledo, 1985. 225 pp. DAI 47:450A. Cain focuses on children's presumed "ability to transmediate their understanding of the pictorial symbol system into oral language" on the assumption that the "true basics of literacy" are "non-verbal experience and oral language." Campa, Carlota Josephine. "Using Color Computers to Measure Color: Clothes of Main Characters in Caldecott Award Books." Ph.D. diss. University of Maryland, 1985. 140 pp. DAI 47:511A. The three purposes of this dissertation are to measure the color of the clothing worn by main characters in Caldecott books, to convert the results to a numerical base, and to "determine if there was a relationship between the color of clothing and gender." Campa determines that the differences are not significant, although men's clothes are more drab in hue than women's. Doering, Sandra Kay. "The Effects of Children's Literature on Self-Concept of Gifted and Nongifted Students." Ed.D. diss. Oklahoma State University, 1985. 93 pp. DAI 46:3595A. Doering concludes that self-concept appears to be affected by different types of literary programs: gifted students respond better to a "listening" program [End Page 211] than to a "structural literature program or to a control program"; nongifted students are more receptive to structure. Evans, Arthur Bruce. "Jules Verne and the Scientific Novel." 2 vols. Ph.D. diss. Columbia University, 1985. 520 pp. DAI 47:174A. Evans attempts to ameliorate Verne's reputation which, he believes, has suffered considerably at the hands of poor translators, "Hollywood cinema, university snobbism, and the familiar 'pigeon-holing' effect of literary histories." Evans notes that "as one of the five most translated authors of all time," Verne has always been a "popular" author; but within the past twenty years his reputation has improved appreciably in France and his works should not be ignored in this country. Golden, Catherine Jean. "The Victorian Illustrated Book: Authors Who Composed with Graphic Images and Words." Ph.D. diss. University of Michigan, 1986. 290 pp. DAI 47:1333A. Golden focuses on William Thackeray, Lewis Carroll, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Beatrix Potter. The first chapter deals with the illustrated letter, a form which all engaged in prior to illustrating their own works. She then discusses Thackeray's use of his illustrations in Vanity Fair and The Rose and the Ring "to develop themes essential to the text and advance his...