Research in Western American Literature

R I C H A R D H. C R A C R O F T Brigham Young University Research in Western American Literature This past year there seems to have been, amidst the steady currents in the mountain stream of doctoral dissertations focusing on the American West, a vigorous eddy dealing with such important but lesser known figures as Frank Waters, Edward Abbey, B. Traven, William Stafford, Hamlin Garland, Jean Stafford, Thomas Bangs Thorpe and, of course, everyone’s favorite Henry L. Burnk (?). Still strongly in the main channel are works on such authors as Cooper, Thoreau, and Twain, as well as a strong current on the American Indian (Black Hawk continues to receive attention). It is a pleasure, at last, to see the appearance of a new current in which scholars are comparing American western works, and another in which they are comparing the “western” works of various cultures and countries. And this year we cite a dissertation on a little-known American western phenomenon — the literature of the Chinese-American. Ameri­ can western literature continues swimmingly! Kindly send notices of completed or in-progress doctoral dissertations and masters’ theses dealing with topics pertaining to the American West to: Dr. Richard H. Cracroft, Dean, College of Humanities, A-129 JKBA, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 84602. Ph.D and Ed.D DISSERTATIONS COMPLETED: Anderson, Douglas Alan The Explanation of the West: Exploration, Expectation and Uncertainty from Lewis &Clark to Frederick Law Olmsted (Ph.D) University of Virginia, 1980 302 Western American Literature Arreola, Daniel David Landscape Images of Eastern Mexico: A Historical Geography of Travel, 1822-1875 (Ph.D) University of California, Los Angeles, 1980 Aton, James Martin “Sons and Daughters of Thoreau” : The Spiritual Quest in Three Contemporary Nature Writers (Ph.D) Ohio University, 1981 (Deals with Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard.) Avila, Wanda Ellen The Ironic Fiction of Jean Stafford (Ph.D) University of Maryland, 1980 Beggs, Nancy Marie Kyker Development of the Regional American Short Story (Ed.D) East Texas State University, 1980 (Includes 5 original short stories.) Berke, Richard David The Transcendental Economics of Thoreau’s Walden (Ph.D) Columbia University, 1980 Berret, Anthony Joseph Mark Twain’s Use of Shakespeare (Ph.D) Johns Hopkins University, 1981 Bromert, Roger The Sioux and the Indian New Deal, 1933-1944 (Ph.D.) University of Toledo, 1980 Bunkers, Suzanne Lillian Katherine Anne Porter: A Re-assessment (Ph.D) University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980 Butler, Anne Katherine M. The Tarnished Frontier: Prostitution in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1865-1890 (Ph.D) University of Maryland, 1979 Chipman, Bruce Lewis America’s Dream-Dump: A Study of the American Hollywood Novel (Ph.D) Tufts University, 1981 Clark, Carol Canda Thomas Moran’sWatercolors of the American West (Ph.D) Case Western Reserve University, 1981 Cohen, Gary Bruce Doubles: Narrative Perspective in the Major Fiction of Mark Twain (Ph.D) Vanderbilt University, 1981 Research 303 Crawford, Suzanne Jones L. M. Gensman: A Study of an Early 20th-Century, Western Attorney, 1901-1923 (Ph.D) University of Oklahoma, 1980 Currey, Mary Elizabeth Creating an American Institution: The Merchandising Genius of J. C. Penney (Ph.D) American University, 1980 Caher, Michael August Play and Leisure in Thoreau (Ph.D) Wayne State University, 1980 Dardis, Thomas Anthony Some Time in the Sun: The Hollywood Years of Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Nathanael West, Aldous Huxley, and James Agee (Ph.D) Columbia University, 1980 Donnell, Janet Ann The Disintegration of the Indian Estate: Indian Land Policy, 1913-1929 (Ph.D) Marquette University, 1980 Dougherty, Frank Timothy The Gypsies in Western Literature (Ph.D) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1980 Dunlay, Thomas William Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the U.S. Army in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1860-1890 (Ph.D) University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1980 Dyrud, David Lynn Varieties of Marginality: The Treatment of the European Immigrant in the Middle Western Frontier Novel (Ph.D) Purdue University, 1979 Estes, David C. Thomas Bangs Thorpe’s Sketches of the Old Southwest: A Critical Edition (Ph.D) Duke University, 1980 Evans, Calvin Weakley Nathanael West as Satirist (Ph.D) Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1981 Fiorelli, Edward Alfred Literary Nationalism...