English Language and Literature Commons^™

Evermore And Evermore: A Discussion Of Spiritual Fulfillment As Found In Stoppard And Kerouac, Duncan Soughan

English Senior Capstone

Mankind has often struggled with the question of who am I? What am I if the institutions speaking into my life cease to adequately represent me? Nietzsche tackled this question and came to the conclusion that man should turn to his desire to fulfill that lack of direction. Tom Stoppard in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead as well as Jack Kerouac in his novel, On the Road, interact with Nietzsche’s proposals in fascinating ways with Stoppard’s work essentially proving Nietzsche’s point, and Kerouac clarifying that yes, outside the self should not be the sole input for direction but it …

To Do Or Not To Do: Anne Elliot And Edith Hope’S Evolving Perceptions Of Marriage In Persuasion And Hotel Du Lac, Jillian Cook

English Senior Capstone

While Anita Brookner might deny a connection between her characters and those of Jane Austen, placing Brookner’s Hotel du Lac and Austen’s Persuasion in conversation with one another reveals how similarly their protagonists are shaped. Edith Hope and Anne Elliot are both characters who make choices based on a high opinion of love that has been cultivated through the various interactions they have with the single, married, and widowed people in their lives. This paper seeks to investigate these relationships to understand why the two women respond so differently to the marriage proposals they receive at the end of their …

“Don’T Stop Believin’”: Dante’S And Christian’S Journey To Heaven, Austin Cochrane

English Senior Capstone

Dante's "Divine Comedy" and John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress" both encounter a protagonist who is journeying with the goal of reaching heaven in mind. During this journey, they are each met with and guided by various characters. In my paper, I focus on Virgil and Beatrice in "The Divine Comedy", and Evangelist and Hopeful in "The Pilgrim's Progress." Along with these guides, the geography that Dante and Christian each encounter is symbolic of a maturation of faith, as well as many Catholic and Protestant themes that Dante and Bunyan practiced.

Reputation And Reality: Revelations Of Monstrosity In Frankenstein And Six Of Crows, Jordyn Fortuna

English Senior Capstone

The main characters in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows reveal the potential within everyone for Monstrosity. This disregard for humanity can stem from many things, but it can also be prevented through community and sympathy. Monstrosity is often misconstrued due to a false perception guided by a sighted bias. In reality, however, characters’ humanity can be shown to the reader through a greater insight into their traumas and intentions. This paper highlights the idea that reputation cannot be trusted, but instead but be further examined to reveal the Monster within.

The Light And The Nothing: Escapism In Ready Player One And Confessions Of An English Opium-Eater, Katherine Bodkin

English Senior Capstone

In their novels Ready Player One and Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Ernest Cline and Thomas De Quincey shed light on the individual and societal desire to escape pain and suffering. The drastically different time periods of these two stories show that addiction and avoidance have been plaguing humans for centuries. These characters’ unhealthy use of escapism serves as a warning to readers about the dangers of identifying oneself within a false reality. Ultimately, both characters exemplify that placing one’s agency within a false reality renders one completely powerless. When one accepts their inability to change their undesirable pasts …

"Big Medicine, Strong Magic": Sacrament And Sacrilege In Till We Have Faces And The Wind In The Willows, Kayla Kovacs

English Senior Capstone

Magic abounds as the fantastical and ordinary collide in C.S. Lewis’s final work of fiction, Till We Have Faces, and Kenneth Grahame’s children’s classic, The Wind in the Willows. As these authors weave worlds of profound, yet wonderfully simple beauty, they tell stories that point towards the deep intersectionality between seen reality and myth. This paper aims to show the permeability of the veil separating these realms through the concept of sacrament. While sacrament is seen as a kind of gate through which characters may pass to taste and see with new senses, it is contrasted throughout with …

The Holding On, Lydia Price

English Senior Capstone

“The Holding On” is a work of creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that explores the tension that lies at the heart of growing up and departing the world as you have previously known it. Through the lens of reflections on home life and family, this project seeks to honor the unique blend of celebration and mourning that we meet with during the transitions of life. Joy does not undo sorrow, but neither does sorrow undo joy, and the ultimate purpose of these stories is to transport you to that threshold moment— the moment before leaving.

Wait For Me: Finding Eurydice’S Voice In Hadestown And Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, Thomas Creekmore

Women's and Gender Studies Symposium

The traditional story of Orpheus and Eurydice, as featured in Ovid’s epic poem Metamorphoses, never allows the reader to understand Eurydice’s perspective, allowing her no agency as a character and not allowing her to be anything but an object of Orpheus’s desire. Anaïs Mitchell’s Broadway musical, Hadestown, and Céline Sciamma’s film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, are two modern interpretations of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth that rework the story in ways that allow Eurydice to achieve more agency as a character. Unlike Ovid’s version of Eurydice, Hadestown’s Eurydice and Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s …

Death And Pleasure In Wallace Stevens’ ‘The Emperor Of Ice-Cream', Thomas Dilworth

English Publications

Unconcerned with preparations for a wake or funeral, ‘The Emperor of Ice-Cream’ is a general statement about life and in particular pleasure, which the speaker enthusiastically endorses and celebrates in stanza one. A pervasive motif of contained pleasureables and the presence of a corpse in stanza two support the speaker’s implication that pleasure sometimes deviates from morality and sanity.

Tolkien: Uomo, Professore, Autore (2023), Ivano Sassanelli

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by Ivano Sassanelli, of Tolkien: Uomo, Professore, Autore (2023)

Fat Stories, Susan Stinson

English Language and Literature: Faculty Books

The Contemporary Reader of Gender and Fat Studies is a key reference work in contemporary scholarship situated at the intersection between Gender and Fat Studies, charting the connections and tensions between these two fields.

Comprising over 20 chapters from a range of diverse and international contributors, the Reader is structured around the following key themes: theorizing gender and fat; narrating gender and fat; historicizing gender and fat; institutions and public policy; health and medicine; popular culture and media; and resistance. It is an intersectional collection, highlighting the ways that "gender" and "fat" always exist in connection with multiple other structures, …

Tolkien And The Relation Between Sub-Creation And Reality (2023), Edited By Guiseppe Pezzini And Eden O'Brien, John Wm. Houghton

Journal of Tolkien Research

Book review, by John Wm. Houghton, of Tolkien and the Relation between Sub-Creation and Reality (2023), edited by Guiseppe Pezzini and Eden O'Brien

Sauron: Weirdly Sexy, Robert T. Tally Jr.

Journal of Tolkien Research

A popular meme depict Galadriel and Frodo admitting that Sauron is "weirdly sexy," a humorous allusion to The Rings of Power’s Halbrand. The show's controversial revelation of Halbrand as Sauron highlights the differences between Tolkien’s construction of Second and Third Age Sauron as an attractive or admirable leader compared to Peter Jackson’s portrayal of him as a monster or disembodied fiery eyeball. This, in turn, has implications for the geopolitical order of Middle-earth in which many people legitimately might wish to be on Sauron’s side. Acknowledging Sauron's "sexiness" may allow us to see Tolkien's world system in a new …

Volume 72, Issue 2: Windows, Mirrors And Sliding Glass Doors - Bridging The Divide Call For Submissions

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

I Can... Will You?, Cheryl Golden

Virginia English Journal

No abstract provided.

Take A Risk: A Review Of Expanding Literacy, Hollie M. Bergeron, Jenny M. Martin

Virginia English Journal

This is a book review of Expanding Literacy: Bringing Digital Storytelling into Your Classroom by Brett Pierce in 2022. Review collaboratively by two teacher educators and a content area literacy course, this thorough review of Pierce's book for educators includes many perspectives.

The Learning Center: Changing Your Writing Center To A Learning Center, Kyle D. Trott Ph.D.

Virginia English Journal

The purpose of this article is to reimagine the Writing Center not as an island removed from the disciplines or resource extending from the English Department, but as the heart of the secondary school. One way to do this is to recognize the need for secondary school writing centers to engage the academic community comprised of the five core disciplines—English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language—through advocacy and shared responsibility by means of creating and engaging through agency by utilizing the honor societies in the various disciplines through the local example of the Woodbridge Senior High School’s development of the …

Lessons From The Bluest Eye: The Discovery Of Self, Shanda D. Boone-Hurdle

Virginia English Journal

This article will explore the profound impact of reading, utilizing Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye as a catalyst for students to create real-life connections that resonate with their own experiences. The love of reading is a transformative force that not only enriches the intellectual landscape but also serves as a powerful tool for fostering empathy and understanding. This article will demonstrate how reading empowers students and helps them find solace and strength in the realization that their struggles, dreams, and aspirations are not isolated but are woven into the fabric of a broader narrative in which students can reflect …

Engaging Students In Writing With Nonfiction Social Justice Texts, Tracy Spurlin-Saravanan

Virginia English Journal

Getting students engaged in writing in a high school setting is usually challenging and often elicits complaints of boredom. However, the utilization of texts that focus on the experiences of marginalized people and that educates about social injustices can get students interested. When students read texts that inform them about such issues that they might otherwise never hear about and when they are invited to share their views through writing, the door to learning to become critical thinkers and global citizens is opened for them.

Write Like The Character: A New Take On Using Mentor Text To Support Writing, Tracy L. Hough

Virginia English Journal

Writing is a complex process that requires the orchestration of cognitive, social, and emotional processes. This analysis explores ways to help our students navigate the complexities of becoming a writer by expanding the use of mentor texts to include an examination of characters who write, modeling the real challenges and rewards associated with becoming a writer. The themes identified within the selected mentor texts focus on finding encouragement and inspiration to write from others, making sense of the world through personal writing, and discovering one's voice and identity as a writer. By extending our use of mentor texts, we help …