English Language and Literature Commons^™

The Position Of A Woman: A Poetics Of Grace Paley’S Political Storytelling, Jamie Zabinsky

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While literary critics have long shown modest interest in writer-activist Grace Paley’s short fiction, no scholarship has yet focused on her extensive record of nonfiction writing. This thesis concentrates on Just As I Thought, an anthology of Paley’s essays, articles and speeches organized by Paley herself in lieu of any memoir or autobiography. Hannah Arendt’s theorizations of time, thought and standpoint serve as frameworks to establish the essay collection, arranged according to Paley’s political life along a timeline of feminist history, as a political storytelling project. Political storytelling, in the Arendtian sense and in context of ...

Nystagmic Poetics In Lorine Niedecker’S Postwar Poetry, Edward Ferrari

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this article I explore the work of Lorine Niedecker, a poet not conventionally associated with disability studies, in order to flesh out an account of the function of visual disability in midcentury poetics and praxis. To do this I read Niedecker’s formative sequence “For Paul,” the late long poem “Wintergreen Ridge,” and other poems, through deformative practices in the belief that such an engagement shows how Niedecker’s hybrid objectivist praxis can be integrated with critical models of disability studies. Such an integration is then bodied forth in what I’m calling a “nystagmic poetics.” In such a ...

Hermeneutics: A Literary Interpretive Art, David A. Reitman

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the historical traditions of hermeneutics and its potential to enhance the process of literary interpretation and understanding. The discussion draws from the historical emplotment of hermeneutics as literary theory and method presented in the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism with further elaboration from several other texts. The central aim of the thesis is to illuminate the challenges inherent in the literary interpretive arts by investigating select philosophical and linguistic approaches to the study and practice of literary theory and criticism embodied within the canonical works of the Anthology. The narrative begins in ancient Greece, traverses medieval ...

Furious: Myth, Gender, And The Origins Of Lady Macbeth, Emma King

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis attempts to understand the fabulously complex and poisonously unsettling Lady Macbeth as a product of classical reception and intertextuality in early modern England. Whence comes her “undaunted mettle” (1.7.73)? Why is she, like the regicide she helps commit, such a “bloody piece of work” (2.3.108)? How does her ability to be “bloody, bold, and resolute” (4.1.81), as Macbeth is commanded to be, reflect canonical literary ideas, early modern or otherwise, regarding women, gender, and violence? Approaching texts in the literary canon as the result of transformation and reception, this research analyzes the ...

Going Home, Glen Davis

Glen Davis

No abstract provided.

Eng 1001g-061: Composition And Language, Glen Davis

Glen Davis

No abstract provided.

Eng 1002g-059: Composition And Literature, Glen Davis

Glen Davis

No abstract provided.

The Meaning In The Music: Music And The Prose Of Chopin, Joyce, Baldwin And Egan, Colin Perry

Senior Theses

Kate Chopin, James Joyce, James Baldwin, and Jennifer Egan are collectively gifted in the art of prose, yet each author also experiments with music in their literary works. An analysis of Chopin's The Awakening, Joyce's "The Dead," Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues," and Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad reveals a trend of authors utilizing music to enrich their texts and convey major themes.

English Department Source Book, Lisa Roy Davis, Michael Schueth

Book Gallery

This guide provides both practical and theoretical resources for teaching college-level writing. The following pages include basic course descriptions, descriptions of state-mandated student learning outcomes, basic administrative logistics and procedures, grade and attendance reporting, Writing Center referrals, and other information that allows you to more fully focus on teaching successfully. Beyond these basics, this resource also provides a larger discussion of the theoretical foundations and approaches for how we teach. We have added an annotated bibliography as well as sample assignments that spotlight a variety of approaches to teaching composition, argument, research, literature, technical writing, and creative writing.

To associate ...

Increasing Faculty-Librarian Collaboration Through Critical Librarianship, Adrienne Gosselin, Mandi Goodsett

Mandi Goodsett

Through the lens of critical librarianship, librarians are becoming increasingly involved in social justice, civic engagement, and human rights issues. This paper examines the collaboration between a subject librarian and a faculty member in an assignment that engaged in Public Sphere Pedagogy (PSP), a teaching strategy with the goal of increasing students’ sense of civic agency and personal and social responsibility by connecting their classwork to public arenas; and project-based learning, wherein students develop a question to research and create projects that reflect their knowledge, which they share with a select audience.

Teaching Dystopia, Amy Wong

Amy Wong

This year, those of us who work in college classrooms kicked off our semesters with the spectacle of Trump’s inauguration: its bluffed militarism, its dark vision, its citation, in effect, of Bane, from the Batman dystopia The Dark Knight Rises. Everything about the inauguration presaged the bitter, disputatious, spectacle-driven manias that have come to mark the 45th Presidency. It was clear, on that grey January day, that dystopia was newly in vogue as he intoned: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation. We all ...

Politics, Inclusion, And Social Practice, Ronjaunee Chatterjee, Amy Wong

Amy Wong

"In the wake of the American election, Elaine Hadley’s 'Closing Remarks' from v21’s b2o issue—that we are writing, living, and teaching in a 'critical moment, some might even say a survivalist moment' in which 'the power of positive psychology does not seem adequate to the times'—appear chilling in their urgency. Hadley cautions against a pleasure and optimism largely disengaged from feminist and class critiques, as well as from what she calls 'Politics with a big P.'"

~article excerpt~

A Journey Down The Rabbit Hole Of The Oed In Search Of The Meaning Of “Master” Elrond, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

An editorial commentary on the use of the title “Master” to describe Elrond, with heavy reliance on the Oxford English Dictionary.

Violence, Suffering, And Social Introspection: James Baldwin's Another Country, Hollis Druhet

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

This research examines and expands on the critical outlook concerning the scope and function of identity in the literature of James Baldwin. Looking at Another Country specifically, the essay expounds on the universality of oppressive conditions shown to operate across factors of race, gender, and sexuality. Critical discussion has largely focused on Baldwin’s construction of male identities and sexual experiences; this essay argues for the importance of the novel’s female psychological depictions and how these character profiles operate in relation to male profiles. A significant universal aspect considered is the visibility of trauma: how its appearance communicates repressed ...

Creating A New Standard: Living, Learning, And Teaching In Southern Appalachia, Martha Holt

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio, submitted in fulfillment of an MA in English with a teaching specialization, explores teaching and living in southern Appalachia. The papers include a defense of literary studies, a pedagogical piece on the use of code-switching, dialect, and the vernacular in today’s classrooms, a lesson plan and materials to introduce high school students to writing the academic memoir, and an example of the academic memoir which explores the personal and long-lasting effects of verbal and emotional abuse.

Culture Vulture: Navigating The Art Of Storytelling In Textual Studies, Blake Altman

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

The following portfolio contains four original essays that explore storytelling across multiple media, ranging from radio to literature to film & television. The first essay explores queer representation during the Golden Age of Radio in the United States. Following that, the next project explores the adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods from novel to TV miniseries, specifically in the development of one of its primary characters. The third essay is a discussion of two Palestinian films that share commonalities as part of a larger culture, and the fourth is an exploration of the Internet using Aldous Huxley’s Brave New ...

The Journey Of A Virtuous Procrastinator: A Master's Portfolio, Jaclyn Bowlin

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio explores several major areas of English and how they can best be taught within English classes. “Reading and Writing with Images: A Guide to Integrating Images into the ELA Classroom” is a major research essay which explores the available avenues of visual rhetoric. A teaching unit plan “Gender and Grammar: A Lesson Plan in Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening” integrates grammar instruction into a reading and writing class, while exploring gender as a literary approach. “Textspeak in the English Classroom: Beneficial in Isolated Assignments” contains the findings and analysis of a personal teacher research project conducted with the ...

Arthur Rose. Literary Cynics: Borges, Beckett, Coetzee. Bloomsbury, 2017., Peter Faziani

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Arthur Rose. Literary Cynics: Borges, Beckett, Coetzee. Bloomsbury, 2017. 190 pp.

Nailing Jell-O To A Tree, Jayson Lozier

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio contains papers addressing writing instruction, women's studies, queer theory, and literary analysis. “Mr. L 2.0 or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love English Composition” details the implementation of more effective techniques to teach writing in the secondary English classroom. “Educating Women in Afghanistan: Power, Revolution, and Rebellion” examines the feminist struggles around education and the efforts of the Afghan Institute of Learning to bring about change. “Out of the Closet and into the Classroom: Introducing Queer Reading Strategies to the Secondary English Classroom” examines the importance of queer theory and queer reading techniques in ...

Philosophy And Actions For Authentic, Meaningful, And Lifelong Learning, Anthony Klever

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio explores several major areas of education related to English teaching. A major research essay, “Incomplete Instructions: Building the Future of Technical Writing in Ohio Education”, explores the current situation and prospective future of technical writing in the state of Ohio’s education system. Also, a reflective essay, “Reflective Narrative: My Journey as a Student and My Map for Teaching”, explores the many elements of teaching philosophy with particular attention to English teaching. Another research essay, “Meaningful Revision: Revise for a Day, Teach Revision for a Lifetime”, explores the function of revision and offers suggestions for increasing the meaningfulness ...