Browsing by Subject "Ray Bradbury"

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    The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies: A Case Study in Sustaining a Single Author Archive
    (2020-12) Aukerman, Jason Michael; Eller, Jonathan R.; Calloway, Heather K.; Goff, Philip K.; Haberski, Raymond J., Jr.
    The Center for Ray Bradbury Studies (cited also as the “Bradbury Center” or the “Center”) is a single author archive, museum, and outreach center housed in the Institute for American Thought, located in the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. This dissertation employs a case study methodology to explore the complex issue of single author archive management and sustainability as it applies to the Bradbury Center by extending the research process beyond working with primary sources and published materials. The applied research project unfolded in two phases. The first involved an intensive four-day on-site consultation in which five professional archivists and preservation experts from across the Midwest visited the Bradbury Center and examined its collections and policies. Following their visit, the consultants prepared recommendations concerning artifacts, manuscripts, correspondence, physical layout, access, operational procedures, processing priorities, and environmental/climate control for artifacts. The on-site consultation team also informed objectives, goals, and strategies for addressing the preservation needs of the Center’s vast and varied collections, aiding in systematically moving forward with curatorial initiatives, and planning for general organizational development. The second research phase involved site visits to five peer institutions to tour facilities, interview directors and archivists about best practices, and established a plan for adapting these practices to the Bradbury Center. Findings from both research phases inform the Bradbury Center’s immediate and long-term plans for center staff, fundraising, spatial expansion and renovation, and the Center’s strategy for identifying key constituencies as it endeavors to serve a broad spectrum of public and academic audiences through various outreach and programming initiatives. Upon completion of the case study field research, a formal report was prepared. That report serves as the cornerstone for this applied dissertation. Additional chapters cast a vision for the Bradbury Center and address potential opportunities to serve the Indianapolis region by tapping into tourism markets, conventions, and local cultural festivals and celebrations while also developing into an international research hub as the sole entity that preserves the material legacy of Ray Bradbury. The introductory chapter situates the Bradbury Center within the legacy of the central figure of the Center—Ray Bradbury.
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    Fragmentary Futures: Bradbury's Illustrated Man Outlines--and Beyond
    (2015) Eller, Jonathan R.; Department of English, School of Liberal Arts
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    Ray Bradbury’s independent mind: an inquiry into public intellectualism
    (2017-09) Chitty, Ethan Ryan; Haberski, Raymond
    Current models of public intellectualism rely upon arbitrary and oftentimes elitist criteria. The work of Corey Robin, when combined with that of Antonio Gramsci, provides a reproducable, and scalable, series of tests for consideration of indivduals as public intellectuals. This work takes author Ray Bradbury as an example of public intellectuals who are often missed using current schemas . Bradbury serves as a test case of public intellectualism in the early Cold War period in the United States based upon this new formulation. It examines Bradbury’s work in light of the historical situation in which Bradbury operated, his work’s comparitive arguments in relation to contemporary intellectuals, and reviews some of the influence Bradbury exerted on future generations.
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    Shadows of the Ravine: Mortality-Themed Discards from Bradbury's Illinois Novels
    (2009-09-30T18:12:30Z) Harley, Gabriel M.; Eller, Jonathan R., 1952-; Touponce, William F.; Fox, Stephen L.
    This thesis offers a focused examination of thematically-related story-chapters that Ray Bradbury originally intended for his first novel concept—Summer Morning, Summer Night, a book set in the vivid memories of his own small-town Midwest childhood. The stories at the heart of this thesis were discarded from the project (often referred to by Bradbury as the “Illinois novel”) by the time that he published a portion of the original project as Dandelion Wine in 1957. As that novelized story cycle is perhaps the best-known of all Bradbury’s “Green Town” books, I intend to use it as a springboard for identifying and examining those stories that were discarded, left unfinished, or eventually published as stand-alone tales in other outlets. Since all of these stories were eliminated before Dandelion Wine emerged as the first published portion of the larger Illinois novel, I will further explore how their hypothetical presence or actual absence may have affected Dandelion Wine as a whole, from inception and development to publication and popular reception, as well as investigate what these tales may reveal about the evolution of Bradbury as a writer.