Knowles’ thesis
explores the role of violence in the filmography of Clint Eastwood. Moving chronologically through Eastwood’s
career, the thesis chronicles the evolution of his views on violence and how he
expressed them as both an actor and a director.
Knowles’ analysis traces the emergence of a central premise in
Eastwood’s work: that violence is fundamentally cyclical and self-perpetuating. In other words, violence continually begets
more violence. Knowles’ argues that
Eastwood gradually confronts this realization over the course of his career, as
demonstrated and manifested in changing depictions of violence in his films.
Knowles utilizes other historians’
work primarily as a means of constructing a contextual scaffolding, within
which he presents his own analysis of Eastwood’s films. Quotations from secondary sources often
bookend sections of Knowles’ own analysis.
This tends to lend credibility to his claims regarding the films
themselves while also allowing for a clear presentation of his own ideas.
I enjoyed reading this thesis. Knowles’ ability to summarize scenes from
Eastwood’s films (most of which I have not seen myself) in an engaging way made
the thesis readable and helped to make his argument intelligible even to those
unacquainted with Eastwood’s work. In a sense, by working on films, Knowles had
at his disposal a ready-made set of evidence that acted both as the object of
his analysis as well as hooks that could pique the interest of the reader.
Response to Race, Memory, and the Law
Unterreiner’s
thesis describes the experience of Chinese laborers in the West at the end of
the nineteenth century. In particular,
it focuses on the embattled Chinese population of Tacoma, Washington and outlines
the racist backlash against them. Much
of the rhetoric surrounding Chinese people during the period co-opted the
language of slavery to describe their condition as laborers. Furthermore, arguments against the presence
of Chinese labor sought to drive them out of the region and end their
competition with white unionized labor.
In
using an extensive blend of primary sources ranging from newspaper articles and
speeches to legal decisions and letters, Unterreiner relies primarily on this
portion of his source base to tell the story of Chinese in the Pacific
Northwest at the end of the nineteenth century.
He quotes other historians periodically, but spends much of the thesis
building his own narrative around the primary sources he gathered.
At
times, I found myself struggling to keep track of all of the different people,
places, and entities involved in the narrative.
Though Unterreiner crafted an exhaustive narrative account of his topic,
at times I felt lost in all that was going on.
Furthermore, the “Interlude” section in the middle of the thesis seemed
a bit disjointed from the rest of the story.
Response to The Fate of the "Negro Republic"
Dang’s thesis explores
the significance of the Santo Domingo affair as an indicator of the lack of
equality that would be achieved for African Americans in the post-Emancipation era. Grounded in the proliferation of political
and legal frameworks which allowed for white aggression and violence towards
African Americans during Reconstruction, the thesis describes the dearth of
progress made towards racial equality after Emancipation. Ultimately, the Santo Domingo affair
represented an inflection point for the United States, as it turned its focus
away from racial equality and towards projects of territorial and geopolitical
development.
In incorporating the work of other
historians, Dang often cites them while providing context and background. By summarizing and paraphrasing without
quoting explicitly, she is often able to present the relevant parts of their
work without distracting from her own narrative and analysis.
Stylistically, I felt that the
thesis was structured quite well. In
particular, Dang’s introduction provides an extensive roadmap for the rest of
the thesis. In presenting an outline of
the rest of her paper, she acquaints the reader with the issues she intends to
explore. This helps to clarify her
argument and prime the reader to understand and engage with the rest of the
thesis. This makes the thesis
understandable even while it explores complex issues.
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