University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Dissertations 2003 Manifestoes: A Study in Genre Stevens Russell Amidon University of Rhode Island Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss Recommended Citation Amidon, Stevens Russell, "Manifestoes: A Study in Genre" (2003). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 682. https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/682 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. MANIFESTOES: A STUDY IN GENRE BY STEVENS RUSSELL AMIDON A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2003 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION OF STEVENS R. AMIDON APPROVED: Dissertation Committee: Major Professolf_J.,J:S~~~~:L:::~~~~~ ~-yab H; .,_,, ~ DEAN~- OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 2003 Abstract: This project is a book-length study of the manifesto, which attempts to trace adaptations writers have made to the genre, beginning with the Luther's "95 Theses." From there I move to political manifestoes, including the "Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants and Marx and Engels' "Manifesto of the Communist Party," and then to the aesthetic manifestoes of modernism. Later I treat manifestoes of critique, examining texts by Virginia Woolf, Frank O'Hara, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Donna Haraway, the Students for a Democratic Society and the Lesbian Avengers. While this project is a study of genre and influence, it is grounded in contemporary theories of social reproduction.