Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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Description
What is one to do with a defeated foe after a pernicious war? The post-war policies of the Allies after World War I as illustrated in the Treaty of Versailles and after World War II as illustrated in the Potsdam Conference show two very different answers to this question. After World War I, the main victorious parties, the United States, Great Britain, and France, set out to punish the country responsible for the War—Germany. In doing so, the Allies attempted to impose a metaphor—an “individual justice” metaphor—utilizing the idea of justice and criminal responsibility to punch the responsible country. Through this view, the entire nation of Germany was conceptualized as an individual as an individual in a court of law. Furthermore, this paper takes a comparative look at the Treaty of Versailles and the Potsdam Conference, arguing that the British and Americans discarded the idea of using an individual justice metaphor on Germany after World War II, resulting in an undeniably superior economic recovery for West Germany as compared to the economic recover of East Germany.
ContributorsWalker, John Henry (Author) / Thompson, Victoria (Thesis director) / Chamberlin, Ute (Committee member) / Stewart, Pamela (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2004-05
Description
In 1671, John Milton published Samson Agonistes, a closet drama written in the tradition of Greek tragedy, having as its subject the biblical story of Samson. It opens with Samson, former hero of Israel because of his strength, now a blind prisoner of the Philistines who questions the reason for his previous calling and great gift of strength in light of his current captivity, the result of his failure to withstand temptation in the wiles of his former wife. Through the narrative of the drama, Samson engages with various characters, some sympathetic to his plight, and others, enemies, to move from an inactive despair to the hope that God might be able to use him again to a final devastating action, which is either his greatest feat, in response to "inner promptings," or a tragic act of self¬wrought vengeance.
Throughout Milton's work, we see the connection between the private, inner response to reason, worked out in a public, political setting. The difficulty with Samson, then, is the interpretation of that connection: knowing if his public action proves the moral fitness of his intellectual life, and whether his action can be instructive to an audience within the drama. To understand more clearly the way that Milton conceptualizes Samson's rational process, we will examine three texts which relate to Samson Agonistes in the way they engage questions of the ethical implications of dramatic representation. The first is Aristotle's classical treatise on the elements of tragedy, the second is a closet drama that works from a didactic and political framework contemporary to Milton's but in sharp contrast, and the third is a drama that overlaps dialogue of multiple perspectives, one which Milton draws from and adapts. Each text is a model for Milton, and we can approach a way of understanding the meaning of Samson Agonistes by thinking about Milton's relationship - what he applies, transforms, or rejects from each - to other representations of dramatic education.
Throughout Milton's work, we see the connection between the private, inner response to reason, worked out in a public, political setting. The difficulty with Samson, then, is the interpretation of that connection: knowing if his public action proves the moral fitness of his intellectual life, and whether his action can be instructive to an audience within the drama. To understand more clearly the way that Milton conceptualizes Samson's rational process, we will examine three texts which relate to Samson Agonistes in the way they engage questions of the ethical implications of dramatic representation. The first is Aristotle's classical treatise on the elements of tragedy, the second is a closet drama that works from a didactic and political framework contemporary to Milton's but in sharp contrast, and the third is a drama that overlaps dialogue of multiple perspectives, one which Milton draws from and adapts. Each text is a model for Milton, and we can approach a way of understanding the meaning of Samson Agonistes by thinking about Milton's relationship - what he applies, transforms, or rejects from each - to other representations of dramatic education.
ContributorsWilliams, Katherine Elizabeth (Author) / Perry, Curtis (Thesis director) / Fox, Cora (Committee member) / Engler, Karen (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2004-05