English Language and Literature Commons^™

Power Negotiations: A Fiction Collection, Kyra Kondis

English Undergraduate Distinction Projects

Though each story in this four-story collection explores a different topic, perspective, and/or narrative style, the stories are linked by the common theme of power. Material prompts readers to question the concept of power; how is power negotiated in different settings and contexts? How does gender affect power? How does psyche and ability affect power? And, perhaps most importantly, how do we reconcile – or fail to reconcile – imbalances of power?

Reading Charlotte Bronte Reading, Madhumita Gupta

Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English

This essay considers the significance of undirected childhood reading on an author’s mind and the reason some authors reference specific real books in their fiction. I argue that independent reading (as against schooling or formal education), and the direct and indirect references to certain books in Jane Eyre^[1] were deliberate, well-thought-out inclusions for specific purposes at different points in the story. When a title pointedly says Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, it is probable that a significant part of the author’s life has seeped into her creation which makes it essential to consider the relevant parts of her ...

Ms. Codex 238: The Foundling: A Tragedy, Martin Earl Smith

Transcription Collection

The Foundling: A Tragedy. Both a raw and a critical transcription (edited for performance) of a play, composed c 1803-1810 by a Scottish teenager, discussing the issues of bastard children, abortion, honor, and the Scottish nobility.

Misrepresented And Unheard: The "Latino Rebels", Blanca V. Guzman

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

In today’s political climate, immigration, undocumented immigrants, and the Latinx identity have been pushed to the forefront of the news cycle, political campaigns, and social justice movements. The social justice movement associated with the undocumented will be explored through one alternative news source, "Latino Rebels." Through close textual analysis, it will become evident how "Latino Rebels" holds these identities of Latinx, undocumented, and immigrant very close to its own voice, and often amplifies a clear message for awareness and policy change, which goes beyond the traditional scope of objectivity in reporting.

Who Died: Redefining The Elegy Through Affect And Trauma, Brittney La Noire

Master's Theses and Capstone Projects

This project introduces the claim that death literature, specifically elegies and epitaphs, do not rely on set structure or content, but rather are poetic effects of trauma and affect. Both have been defined and redefined by critical scholars, but there is still a division about their use. The beginning of the project will pull together Paul De Man, Cathy Caruth, Theresa Brennan, and Diana Fuss to apply the theoretical principle of trauma and affect transhistorically through Theocritus, John Milton, and Percy Shelley. The final portion will be an original creative collection of elegies combined with epitaphs as ending couplets about ...

Madness As "The Divided Self" In The Works Of American Female Authors, Katherine Sweat

Honors Theses

When R.D. Laing wrote The Divided Self in 1960, his goal was “to make madness, and the process of going mad, comprehensible.” Laing argued that psychosis was, at its core, an existential problem, driven by a sense of disconnection from the world and in turn, a fragmentation of the self. This thesis uses Laing’s theory of “the divided self” as a framework for examining how madness is constructed in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper (1890), Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963), and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). Each of ...

The Lost Artist: Biographical Fiction And The Identity Of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, Alexandra Fradelizio

Master's Theses and Capstone Projects

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (1900-1948) is widely regarded as the first flapper of the Roaring 20s and is often recognized for her tumultuous marriage to acclaimed American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. As a female icon whose life was filled with salacious incidences and mental struggles, the image of Zelda continues to be reinterpreted in various movies, television series, and novels. However, very few center on her artistic pursuits of writing, painting, or dancing and how her desires to contribute to the art world were overshadowed and disrupted by her successful husband. Therese Anne Fowler’s Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald ...

The Bard And The Word: The Influence Of The Bible On The Writings Of William Shakespeare, Emily Gray

Honors Theses

Widely hailed as the single greatest writer and poet of the English language, William Shakespeare is not only revered for the sheer quantity and wide-ranging genres of his writing, but also the exceptional written quality, well-executed thematic diversity, and ability to explore the timelessness of the human experience. With the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible occurring in 2011 and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death following in 2016, scholarship on Shakespeare’s use of biblical material underwent a significant resurgence. The focus of much of this scholarship has been on simply identifying the numerous ...

Modernizing Composition With An Online Photography-Themed Course, Sharolyn Richards

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue that it is important for students in a Freshman English Composition class to learn to compose with images and text. This builds on what other research and professors have done in having students turn in multimedia compositions. Since there is opportunity for students to compose with images and text in print as well as online, it is important for them to know how images and text work together. This thesis includes the research I did and lesson modules for an example semester.

“Reader, I Did Not Marry Him:” Marriage Proposals, Choice, And Female Desire In The Victorian Era, Elizabeth Rose Flood

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines marriage proposals scenes in Victorian literature from 1847 to 1874. In four major Victorian novels: Jane Eyre, North and South, Can You Forgive Her?, and Far from the Madding Crowd, scenes in which a suitor proposes present the heroine with a choice that will determine the rest of her life. These proposal scenes play out as negotiations of these heroines' desires and provide them with insight about the daily reality of marriage. In an era where women were often sheltered from knowledge of what marriage actually entailed, the proposals in these novels allow the heroines to vocalize ...

Virginia Woolf And The 'Objective' Camera: The Relationship Between Text And Image In Three Guineas And Orlando, Meilan Solly

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Though photography offers a claim to objectivity that writing and painting cannot ostensibly equal, Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas and Orlando: A Biography argue that the camera is not an unmediated form of documentation.Three Guineas’ images of a patriarchal society and Orlando’s more personal portraits reflect their photographers’ inherent subjectivity, and the photographs’ placement in and relationship with the texts further question the veracity of representation. Whereas Three Guineas derives its power from the contrast between reproduced and described photographs, Orlando uses images to present a counter-narrative contradicting the purported reliability of biographical accounts.

The Epistemology Of Observation: Performance, Power, And The Regulation Of Female Sexuality In The Duchess Of Malfi And The Changeling, Sarah Claudia Bonanno

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Stripping The Paint: Uncovering The Self-Made Man In The Rise Of Silas Lapham And The Great Gatsby, Emma Elena Johnson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Self-Made Man has become a most arresting American myth— one that still fascinates and captivates today. Engaging The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Rise of Silas Lapham by W. D. Howells, Emma Johnson explores the tensions that the self-made man faces at the intersection of class, character, and capital. From this complex crossroads, Johnson focuses on how self-made men in literature understand their identities and success in a generational context by investigating how family and socioeconomic transformation across historical periods influence this seemingly individualistic and seemingly timeless character type.

Unfound, Samuel C. Kessler

Sierpinski’s Square

"Look on past the horizon and there; rest your eyes then. But alas, this place you cannot see, but you feel it from your core, tis what you seek, surely there; indeed, yes, that is where it rests; but "it" is not, and "where" is never near nor far, for you forget in onlook as you seek, the thing that lies beneath Your feet A dwelling place Of peace unfound."

"Deceptive Intimacy": Narration And Machismo In The Works Of Junot Díaz, Ellen Elizabeth Hill

University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

They Say It Where I’M From: Using The Language Of Idioms To Compare The Characteristics Of Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Marissa Wiese

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Idioms, proverbs and other metaphorical language are a base component to how people communicate that has to be mutually understood. Slang and common sayings are a fundamental part of language. With language being such a large factor of culture, it’s natural to assume that it would mimic cultural ideals and norms. This study focuses on the cultural dimension Individualism/Collectivism and if the orientation correlates to language usage. The goal of this research is to conduct an analysis of the use of idiomatic expressions in comparison to Individualistic or Collectivistic orientation and setting.

Research of expressions and phrases has ...

"This Dreadful Web": Alienation And Miscommunication In The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Debbie Clark

Senior Theses

Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame hinges on the idea of fate and characters being caught up in situations and fantasies that seem to be out of their control. Esmeralda is the fly caught in Frollo’s web, and yet her beauty and allure attracts and ensnares him in turn. Quasimodo is ensnared by Esmeralda’s beauty but also by society’s perceptions of him. The characters in Hunchback are so caught up in the webs of fantasies and perceptions spun by themselves or society that they can no longer communicate effectively with others, resulting in alienation ...

Becoming Your Broken Cisterns: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Short-Fiction Treatment Of Religion, Richard W. Halkyard

Graduate Theses

The intention of my thesis is to reorient the popular vantage points whereby the masses view — and pigeonhole — author F. Scott Fitzgerald. Literary critics and cursory readers alike oftentimes fail to see how the writer’s foundational Catholic upbringing, and therefore, a religious inclination informed his craft. While Fitzgerald was raised Catholic, few literary critics acknowledge the pattern of religious thematics and imagery Fitzgerald implemented throughout the course of his career. Among those select critics — including Joan Allen, Alice Hall Petry, and Edward Gillin — none argue for a positive relationship between Fitzgerald and the Christian God. I assert that Fitzgerald ...

"Glimmerings, Hints, And Secret Amazements": William Blake, Walt Whitman, And The Spiritual Incantations Of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl", Elijah Levine

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This essay dissects the links between Allen Ginsberg and two of his poetic predecessors, William Blake and Walt Whitman in order to elucidate a spiritual reading of his 1956 seminal poem “Howl.” Focusing on Ginsberg’s life between 1947 and 1952, portrayed through journals, biography, manuscripts, and interviews, salient connections emerge from which Ginsberg constructs a language to express his spirituality that is grounded in Blake’s and Whitman’s works. Throughout this period, highlighted by his 1948 hallucination of William Blake, Ginsberg constructs the parameters of his spirituality synthesizing literary touchstones with lived experience. “Howl,” as a result, is ...

Introducing Godzilla To Marianne Moore's Octopus Of Ice At The Intersection Of Global Warming, Environmental Philosophy, And Poetry, David Seter

Master's Theses and Capstone Projects

This paper explores the question: how can a poet write an ecologically aware poem about global warming? Global warming impacts everything on earth, most visibly the glaciers melting away before our eyes. Adopting Aldo Leopold’s environmental philosophy of thinking like a mountain, the poet may describe the impact of global warming upon the mountain, glacier, flora and fauna, that form an interconnected web of life. A poem that thinks like a mountain already exists: Marianne Moore’s “An Octopus” (published in 1924), which takes its title from the system of glaciers (or octopus of ice) on Mt. Rainier. For ...