HUMPHRIES, MATTHEW MCLAURIN. M.A. You Made Me This …

HUMPHRIES, MATTHEW MCLAURIN. M.A. You Made Me This Way: Systems of Oppression in Joseph Heller's Something Happened. Directed by Dr. Eve Wiederhold. pp 47.

The purpose my paper is to examine Joseph Heller's novel Something Happened in regards to issues of gender, identity, and sex. Using a psychoanalytic framework, I examine the main character, Bob Slocum, and his relationship with the exterior world and the his memory.

Among the topics Slocum maintains focus on is his own sexual history and the sexuality of those around him. Slocum interprets the world in gendered terms but in such a way where his body is sexualized and he is reduced to his sexual parts.

I argue that Slocum's interpretation contributes to the unresolved and inverted Oedipal drama that runs throughout the novel and can only be resolved in the novel's conclusion. I argue that it is from a mixture of the need to resolve the Oedipal conflict in his life, his own sexual inadequacy and his latent narcissism that leads to Slocum killing his own son.

HUMPHRIES, MATTHEW MCLAURIN. M.A. Look at What You're Doing: The Body in Political Protest. Directed by Dr. Eve Wiederhold. pp 50.

I wish to examine the connection between political protest and body images. My principle topics will be center around images taken from various artists of the past decades and images used by anti-abortion activists.

Using a number of theorists, I aim to show that protests related to the body often rely on an understanding of passive participation. I aim to show that activists wish to appeal to this sense of passive participation and force audiences to act. Artists and protesters rely on a recognition of pain by the audience and attempt to incorporate pain and trauma into their pieces via their own bodies or through symbolic bodies.

YOU MADE ME THIS WAY: SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION IN JOSEPH HELLER'S SOMETHING HAPPENED and

LOOK AT WHAT YOU'RE DOING: THE BODY IN POLITICAL PROTEST

by Matthew McLaurin Humphries

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree

Master of Arts

Greensboro 2005

Approved by

________________________ Committee Chair

To the memory Kevin Michael Allin if I only had your courage

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APPROVAL PAGE This thesis has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Committee Chair_________________________________________ Committee Members _________________________________________

_________________________________________

_____________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee

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