Thesiss

A cultural historical study of the Booth Legend, the widespread belief that John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin, was not killed following his action, but lived as a fugitive for decades afterwards. Using various sources including newspapers, popular literature, governm…

This dissertation examines legends about the transmission, destruction, and restoration of the Homeric epics and the Hebrew Bible. I document how ancient literary historians conceived of the origins of their sacred and traditional texts, and argue that the notion of the “author”…

In the 1940s José María Arguedas and Francisco Izquierdo Ríos collected oral tradition stories from three separate geographical areas of Peru. The publication of these legends, myths and Peruvian tales (Mitos, leyendas y cuentos peruanos 1947) and its function as an historical r…

Wish You Were Here: Legends of the Great Plains is an image-based project examining the reality of how the Great Plains romanticizes its history through legends, histories, and roadside attractions. This region, often referred to as flyover country, is low in population but is h…