Pynchon dissertations

[jbor at bigpond.com]

Meanwhile, it seems that a whole bunch of American PhD theses have been 
made available through various on-line Journal Databases. The ones 
listed below deal with Pynchon. Most of them seem to have both an 
abstract and a 24 page preview available. Not sure if these are pdf or 
html, but I'll investigate further today.

best

Conspiracy paranoia in the postmodern age: The study of Thomas Pynchon 
and Haruki Murakami
by Kaneko, Fumihiko, Ph.D., Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2004, 
180 pages.

Literary topology: Modern science and contemporary American fiction
by Blackwell, Brent Michael, Ph.D., Purdue University, 2004, 213 pages.

Meaningful forms: Time and knowledge in contemporary American literature
  by Huehls, Mitchum A., Ph.D., The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 
2004, 291 pages.

Novel orientations: Maps, narrative, and modernity, 1850--2000
  by Bulson, Eric J., Ph.D., Columbia University, 2004, 249 pages.
 
Politics out of time: Feminism, futurity and the end of history
  by Elliott, Jane Kathryn, Ph.D., Rutgers The State University of New 
Jersey - New Brunswick, 2004, 213 pages.  

Pynchon and history: Metahistorical rhetoric and postmodern narrative 
form in the novels of Thomas Pynchon
by Smith, Shawn, Ph.D., University of Delaware, 2004, 367 pages. 

Telluric monstrosity in the Americas: The encyclopedic taxonomies of 
Fuentes, Melville, and Pynchon
  by Barrenechea, Antonio, Ph.D., Yale University, 2004, 172 pages.

The nostalgia for novelty: Revivals of the eighteenth century novel, 
genuine and spurious
  by Sadow, Jonathan B., Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst, 
2004, 247 pages.

The re(a)d menace: Cold War fiction and the politics of reading
  by Matthews, Kristin L., Ph.D., The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 
2004, 343 pages.

The romantic hero in a postmodern world: American culture and moral 
responsibility in the fictions of Morrison, Naylor and Pynchon
  by Madison, Eunice Kudla, Ph.D., Purdue University, 2004, 216 pages.

Encyclopedic modernisms: Historical reflection and modern narrative form
  by Attell, Kevin Daniel, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 
2003, 239 pages.

Everybody's America: Thomas Pynchon, race, and the cultures of 
postmodernism
  by Witzling, David Peter, Ph.D., University of California, Los 
Angeles, 2003, 315 pages.

History, monuments, and canonicity after the Vietnam War
  by O'Hara, John Fitzgerald, Ph.D., University of Miami, 2003, 187 
pages.

Identity and the fall: Three perspectives on the shifting American 
literary imagination
  by Vrajitoru, Liana, Ph.D., State University of New York at 
Binghamton, 2003, 294 pages.

Jacob Van Maerlant's "Der Naturen Bloeme" as encyclopaedic narrative
  by Theron, Elizabeth Rabie, M.A., University of South Africa (South 
Africa), 2003.

Le paradoxe comme revelateur de desenchantement et de nostalgie: 
Analyse postmoderne du roman "L'insoutenable legerete de l'etre" de 
Milan Kundera
  by St-Germain, Caroline, M.A., Universite Laval (Canada), 2003, 131 
pages.

Luddite postmodernism: The anti-rational impulse in contemporary fiction
  by Li, Chao Bai, Ph.D., Miami University, 2003, 263 pages.

Names and naming in the novels of Thomas Pynchon: A critical dictionary
  by Hurley, Patrick John, Ph.D., Saint Louis University, 2003, 351 
pages.

None dare call it masculinity: The subject of post-Kennedy conspiracy 
theory
  by Strombeck, Andrew, Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 2003, 
227 pages.

Phylum machinica: Narratives of anorganic life in contemporary science, 
philosophy, and American fiction
  by Sander, Mark Alan, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 
2003.

Specters of America: Hauntings of a common continental literature
  by Lifshey, Adam Michael, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 
2003, 345 pages.

Strategic fictions: Crisis, invention, and discovery in the American 
narratives of nuclear defense
  by Davis, Doug, Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University, 2003, 338 pages.

"Sundered by a memory": The sixties in historical novels and films of 
the postwar United States
  by Tanenbaum, Laura Anne, Ph.D., New York University, 2003, 304 pages.

The American experiment: Innovative identity in postmodern United 
States literature
  by Spirn, Karin Susanne, Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2003, 227 
pages.

The magic carpet ride: The evolution of rock 'n' roll in American prose 
literature
  by Goldthwaite, Charles Anderson, Jr., Ph.D., University of Virginia, 
2003, 275 pages.

The veil of being: Perspectivism and the modern subject of 
representation
  by Gunderson, Philip Andrew, Ph.D., University of California, San 
Diego, 2003, 345 pages.

Towards conspiracy theory: Revolution, terrorism and paranoia from 
Victorian fiction to the modern novel
  by Wisnicki, Adrian Stanislaw Feliks, Ph.D., City University of New 
York, 2003, 435 pages.

Transformations of contents: Race, power, and technology in "Mason & 
Dixon", "V.", "Gravity's Rainbow", "Mumbo Jumbo", and "Cryptonomicon"
  by Lewis, Jonathan Peter, Ph.D., University of California, Riverside, 
2003, 331 pages.

"All necks are on the line": Representing history in nineteenth and 
twentieth century American literature
  by Neighbors, James Robert, Ph.D., The University of Wisconsin - 
Madison, 2002, 207 pages.

Analogies between Nazi culture and American culture in "Gravity's 
Rainbow", "The Thanatos Syndrome", and "White Noise"
  by Grabar, Mary, Ph.D., University of Georgia, 2002.

Authority and authenticity in "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Mason & Dixon"
  by Crowley, Michael James, Ph.D., University of Georgia, 2002.

Fetishism as historical practice in postmodern American fiction
  by Kocela, Christopher P., Ph.D., McGill University (Canada), 2002, 
453 pages.

Playing a terrible game of pretend: Masculine performance and gender 
humor in the World War II novels of Heller, Vonnegut, Pynchon, and 
Weaver
  by Pollard, Tomas Glover, Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 2002, 265 pages.

Reading consequences: Ethics, belief and the reader in America's 
postwar avant-garde
  by Bettridge, Joel Mark, Ph.D., State University of New York at 
Buffalo, 2002, 215 pages.

The Collection: A work of fiction
  by Bukowski, William Henry, Jr., Ph.D., Texas Tech University, 2002, 
138 pages.

The dialectics of desire and the real: Logic a la mancha
  by Le Blanc, Amana Marie, M.A., University of Houston-Clear Lake, 
2002, 54 pages.

Toward an ecocritique of Baudrillardian postmodernism and posthumanism: 
Nature, human nature, and simulacra in Thomas Pynchon, Jerzy Kosinski, 
and William Gibson
  by Kim, Yeonman, Ph.D., Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2002, 250 
pages.

Unruly narratives: The anarchist dimension in the novels of Thomas 
Pynchon
  by Benton, Graham Webster, Ph.D., Rutgers The State University of New 
Jersey - New Brunswick, 2002, 372 pages.

Absurd America in the novels of Vonnegut, Pynchon, and Boyle
  by Hardin, Miriam, Ph.D., Lehigh University, 2001, 145 pages.

American encyclopedic narratives: Thoreau, Melville, Pynchon
  by Hepler, Daniel Selle, Ph.D., University of California, Riverside, 
2001, 234 pages.

Arranging presences in the twentieth-century encyclopedic narrative
  by Palmer, Dexter Clarence, Ph.D., Princeton University, 2001, 175 
pages.

Cold War satire in Russian and American fiction, or how we learned to 
start worrying and hate the bomb again
  by Maus, Derek Craig, Ph.D., The University of North Carolina at 
Chapel Hill, 2001, 392 pages.

Communication breakdown: Reading postmodern literature
  by Karnicky, Jeffrey Joseph, Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, 
2001, 233 pages.

Metaphysical detectives and postmodern spaces, or the case of the 
missing boundaries
  by Swope, Richard A., Ph.D., West Virginia University, 2001, 241 pages.

Nihilism and organicism: An ontology of postmodern American fiction
  by Hughes, William R., Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2001, 244 pages.

Paranoid nation: Paranoia and narrative in American literature
  by Ruiz-Velasco, Christopher Lorenz, Ph.D., University of California, 
Riverside, 2001, 192 pages.

Quantum mechanics and modern fiction
  by Kinch, Samuel Sean, Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin, 2001, 
287 pages.

Specters of apostasy: The postmodern crossing of United States 
literature and religious studies in the 1960s
  by Reifenheiser, Paul Michael, Ph.D., The Florida State University, 
2001, 308 pages.