RALPH WALDO EMERSON AND THE EVER-EVOLVING ART OF ...

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project and I are indebted to innumerable people for their love, support, and
patience. I will always have indefatigable gratitude for my time with Eric Wilson, and for
his indelible influence on my intellectual development while at Wake Forest University
and in London. It must be rare that a graduate student is given the opportunity to study
with a mentor whom he truly admires and looks up to, and I am cognizant of how lucky
I’ve been. Similarly, it’s difficult to express the extent of my appreciation for Omaar
Hena, but it’s clear that Wake is unbelievably lucky to employ him for what is certain to
be a ground breaking and distinguished career in post-colonial studies. I also must thank
my Cal. State professors Chad Luck, Margaret Doane, Cynthia Cotter, and Julie Sophia
Paegle for preparing me for the rigors of graduate school and for their encouragement.
Whatever successes this paper will accomplish are directly influenced by my nuclear and
extended family, and especially my mother Yvonne Marie Sauban. It’s by her example
and through her monolithic support of all my endeavors that I continue to cultivate my
own personal sense of Emersonian self-reliance. This project also bears the ineffaceable
influence of my father Richard Barton—who pays Emerson a great compliment by
embodying “Man Thinking”—and my brother William of whom I am so proud. I am
also thankful for the perennial influence of my “second mother” Jill Henry, who, among
countless others things, helped me discover my passion for English in high school. And it
would be nearly impossible to form a catalogue of the friends who played an instrumental
role in my not going insane during the drafting process, but I am so thankful for Megan,
Wes, Emily, Kathleen, and Katie and my Worrellites, who were especially diligent in
talking me down from the metaphorical ledge. I love you all, and thank you!
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