Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Date

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Communication

Committee Chair

Andre Johnson

Committee Member

Craig Stewart

Committee Member

Wendy Atkins-Sayre

Committee Member

Will Duffy

Abstract

This study critically analyzes the rhetoric of four textbooks published by Abeka, Inc., a popular producer of curriculum for both American evangelical Christian K-12 school and homeschoolers through the lens of heroic rhetoric and anthropologist Ernest Becker’s hero systems, examining institutions’ and communities’ rhetorical construction of hero systems that provide or claim to provide relief to members’ mortality anxiety. Hero systems for each of the four textbooks are identified and examined for the ways that they function to build and maintain power hierarchies. Additionally three significant thematic threads of what constitutes heroism are identified in the textbook: biblicism, unidirectional influence, and the centering of the white Euro-American tradition.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest/Clarivate.

Notes

Open Access

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