Abstract

The focus of my study is the creation of a special topics American literature or Women's Studies course about the women writers of the Beat Generation; this course provides students with a variety of explorations of women's writing during and after Post World War II America. This period saw many changes in terms of women's roles as they challenged the mid-20th century societal constructs. My research examines the women Beat writers by centering on their distinct women's discourse and how their voices challenged the patriarchally-driven canon of Beat Generation writers. To accomplish this task, my research focuses on expanding the Beat Generation literary canon beyond the male Beats by creating a digital archive of the women writers of the Beat Generation. As a feminist digital humanities project, this Women Writers of the Beat Generation Omeka website can be used as a resource for undergraduate students to research the work of these women writers and, as a result, elevate the women's prominence in the Beat literary canon. While the women are no longer a postscript in Beat Generation scholarship, the curriculum I developed for undergraduate students expands the general notion of Beat Generation writers usually covered in literature survey courses and exposes students to the Beat women's texts. The scholarship done in the past that brought the women's work to the forefront has not always impacted undergraduate teaching, and this Women Writers of the Beat Generation website and the focused curriculum provides students have a new way to discover the women Beats' work. This dissertation discusses how the Open Educational Resource materials including the interface, digital database, metadata, and the Omeka website can assist undergraduate students studying the women writers of the Beat Generation. Using open-source software called Omeka, this project's website provides a single space to research the work of the women Beat writers, elevating the women's importance in the Beat literary canon.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2022

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Stanfill, Mel

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Degree Program

Texts and Technology

Identifier

CFE0009248; DP0026852

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0026852

Language

English

Release Date

August 2022

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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