Explorations in the Domestic Space: How Hollywood Made a Home in Film Melodrama

This thesis utilizes the Hollywood domestic melodramas and sex comedies of the 1950s as a lens to discover the evolution of family and home from Eisenhower’s America to modern day. As a mode of expression with roots in nineteenth-century theater, melodrama serves as a primary genre for tracking historical and social shifts in twentieth-century American society. However, as the narrative form has evolved over time, what satisfies melodrama is difficult to define as its boundaries have been redrawn. Historians and film scholars examine melodrama through three overarching schools of thought: melodrama as a genre, a mode, or both. Film melodrama is best illustrated by the 1950s domestic melodramas such as Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows (1955) and Written on the Wind (1956) as well as Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Each of these films focuses on the family and gives the mise en scène, everything that is in front of the camera, tremendous weight, a characteristic indicative of film melodrama. While drama and excess is integral to these domestic melodramas, melodrama as a mode can be created from any narrative genre, including comedy. Such comedies include the Doris Day and Rock Hudson sex comedies of the late 50s and early 60s, most notably Pillow Talk (1959). Pillow Talk illustrates the centrality of the couple and utilizes the will-they-or-wont-they narrative to illustrate separate, gendered, and extravagant homes, similar to the domestic melodramas. A necessary comparison arises between the domestic melodramas and sex comedies that contain plots driven by aesthetically potent surroundings. Thus, the architecture of the home is essential, filling in the gaps left by dialog and actors and serving as the foundation for future films about the home. Lastly, the dramas and comedies of the late 50s and early 60s laid the foundation for contemporary filmmakers during the independent period to explore the home. Films such as Ryan Murphy’s Running with Scissors (2006), Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale (2005), and Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right (2010) focus on the domestic space and the pivotal role a home plays in the creation of a family. These contemporary films illustrate a challenge to heteronormative suburban dwelling that was indicative of 1950s middle-class life. Ultimately, as indicated by these contemporary films, it is clear that as the American family has evolved, so too have the spaces they occupy

“The philosophy of moving on: the benefits of therapeutic philosophy on becoming self in the face of suffering heartbreak”

This work will consider the therapeutic benefits of philosophy and practical ethics in curing the ills of the soul, and particularly in curing the heartbreak and grief over lost love. I will consider three philosophical models which I take to be medico-therapeutic and candidates for developing a philosophy of moving on: Stoicism, Spinozism, and a contemporary love ethic presented by bell hooks and Erich Fromm. These three models will point to acting in accordance with one’s nature as the remedy for suffering, what I will call “becoming oneself,” or moving on. While each model has therapeutic methods and tools to contribute to a philosophical therapy of moving on, I will find the love model offers the most ideal methodology, since moving on is encouraged at all times as being a necessary aspect of loving behaviour, or living by a love ethic. In addition, I will find that Stoic therapy, in advising the extirpation of the affections, fails to capitalize on affection’s ability to increase our knowledge of ourselves. Conversely, Spinoza and hooks will defend affection in therapeutic philosophy and prove its relevance to self-help

Rehabilitation Outcomes in Children with Acute Flaccid Myelitis from 2014 to 2019: A Multicenter Retrospective Review

Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM) is a childhood illness characterized by sudden onset weakness impairing function. The primary goal was to compare the motor recovery patterns of patients with AFM who discharged home or to inpatient rehabilitation. Secondary analyses focused on recovery of respiratory status, nutritional status, neurogenic bowel and bladder in both cohorts. Eleven tertiary care centers in the United States performed a retrospective chart review of children with AFM between January 1st, 2014 and October 1st, 2019. Data included demographics, treatments, and outcomes on admission, discharge, and follow-up visits. Medical records of 109 children met inclusion criteria. 67 children required inpatient rehabilitation while 42 children discharged directly home. The median age was 5 years (range 4 months – 17 years) and median time observed was 417 days (Interquartile range = 645 days). Distal upper extremities recovered better than the proximal upper extremities. At acute presentation, children who needed inpatient rehabilitation had significantly higher rates of respiratory support (p<0.001), nutritional support (p<0.001) and neurogenic bowel (p=0.004) and bladder (p=0.002). At follow up, those who attended inpatient rehabilitation continued to have higher rates of respiratory support (28% vs 12%, p=0.043) however nutritional status and bowel/bladder function were no longer statistically different. All children made improvements in strength whether they discharged home or to inpatient rehabilitation. Proximal muscles remained weaker than distal muscles in the upper extremities. Children who qualified for inpatient rehabilitation had ongoing respiratory needs at follow up, however, recovery of nutritional status and bowel/bladder were similar