Empires And Multi-Ethnic Identities,
2024
Brigham Young University
Empires And Multi-Ethnic Identities, Beatrice Forbes Manz
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
The last fifteen years have brought an upsurge of the national and ethnic unrest that many had hoped was past. The disintegration of the Soviet Union and its alliance system poses new challenges and questions, and deprives us of the easy frame of reference within which we regarded the confusion of a small and contentious world. U oder these circumstances, it is natural that the study ofidentity should find appeal, and since the late 1970s a number of illuminating studies have appeared. Most of these studies explore the phenomenon of nationalism, seen as the most modern and widespread form of …
Front Matter,
2024
Brigham Young University
Front Matter
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
No abstract provided.
Full Issue,
2024
Brigham Young University
Full Issue
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
No abstract provided.
Teenage Terror: Blackboard Jungle (1955) And The Spirit Of The Fifties,
2024
Brigham Young University
Teenage Terror: Blackboard Jungle (1955) And The Spirit Of The Fifties, Mark Cordner
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
So violent it gained reference in the United States Congress, so extreme it caused the U.S. Ambassador to Italy to force its banning from the Venice Film Festival, so explicit it brought widespread disapproval from educators, Richard Brooks' Blackboard Jungle (1955) exploded across the silver screen with an intensity and honesty that was frightening as well as controversial. Released at a peak in the U.S. Congress' investigation into the mass media's influence on juvenile delinquency, Blackboard Jungle set off a fury of protest from enraged parents and teachers. The film also marked the beginning of a new Hollywood fascination with …
The Techniques And Applications Of Hitler's Propaganda,
2024
Brigham Young University
The Techniques And Applications Of Hitler's Propaganda, Kelly Stone
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
In March of 1924, Adolf Hitler and forty of his associates were convicted of treason for attempting to overthrow the Weimar government in the failed "Beer Hall Putsch." Hitler was sentenced to five years in the Landsberg fortress, but was released in less than a year. During his eight month incarceration, Hitler wrote a remarkable book, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), in which he recounted his life, proclaimed his ideology, and described in detail his plans (upon attaining power) for Germany's future. Mein Kampf is not a literary masterpiece. Winston Churchill describes it as "turgid, verbose, [and] shapeless." Mein Kampf's importance …
Christiaan Huygens' Wave Theory Of Light: A Major Contribution To Seventeenth Century Science,
2024
Brigham Young University
Christiaan Huygens' Wave Theory Of Light: A Major Contribution To Seventeenth Century Science, Cari Petersen
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
The phenomena of light have been subject to much speculation and controversy throughout history. The ancient Hebrews believed that light was formed by God's command on the first day of creation. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun, the source of light, and called it Ra; the Persians worshipped the sun as Mithras. By the fifth century B.C. the Greek's quest to comprehend light came under natural investigation instead of a supernatural mysticism. Through logic, the ancient Greek philosopher, Empedocles, reasoned that light must have a measurable speed since it takes time for light to get from one place to another. …
"History Ceases To Exist": Gettysburg And The American Memory, 1865 To 1985,
2024
Brigham Young University
"History Ceases To Exist": Gettysburg And The American Memory, 1865 To 1985, Gary Daynes
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
John Brinkerhoff Jackson, the foremost historian of American landscapes, concluded his essay "The Necessity for Ruins" by stating that for most modern Americans "History ceases to exist." By this, Jackson did not imply that Americans have no interest in the past, for each year millions flock to historic sites. Rather, for Americans, the past is a plaything serving no purpose beyond bolstering their national self image.
From Initial Opportunities To The Awakening: A Paradoxical View Of The Rise Of Women's Literature,
2024
Brigham Young University
From Initial Opportunities To The Awakening: A Paradoxical View Of The Rise Of Women's Literature, Rebecca Christensen
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
The 1800s saw the broadening of the female press with an expanded audience and increasing numbers of women writers. These women, following the admonition of Sarah Hale, emphasized the role of women as defenders of morality. Women, they believed, functioned in a separate sphere and their writing stressed women's proper place in family and home environments. The strong literary foundation created by the success of these women, however, paradoxically lead to the emergence of Kate Chopin, whose works reject the conventional model of women as the ideal of virtue and demonstrate women's needs as an individuals.
Front Matter,
2024
Brigham Young University
Front Matter
The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing
No abstract provided.
Queen's Pride: A Queer Reading Of Star Wars Character Padmé Amidala,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Queen's Pride: A Queer Reading Of Star Wars Character Padmé Amidala, Madeleine Loewen
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
Ever since Luke Skywalker and Han Solo first appeared onscreen together in 1977, LGBTQ+ Star Wars fans have harnessed the power of queer reading to write themselves back into a galaxy far, far away, despite Lucasfilm’s long-term disapproval of such practices. Nonetheless, there exists little scholarly literature on queerness in the franchise, and even less on the potentially sapphic characters. Queen Padmé Amidala, first introduced onscreen in Episode I: The Phantom Menace, proves a surprising—but no less salient—queer figure in Star Wars. From her intimate relationships with her handmaidens, to her experimentation with gender performativity, to her quiet yet intense …
Queering The Family In Zoraida Córdova’S Labyrinth Lost,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Queering The Family In Zoraida Córdova’S Labyrinth Lost, Rebekah Rendon
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova focuses on Alex Mortiz, a Mexican-American bruja and her journey to a fantastical otherworld to rescue her family. Alex begins to understand the love and unity that exists in her own blood family, while forging new relationships, thereby creating a found family, or queered family. The topic of this paper addresses queerness and found family dynamics in Labyrinth Lost. While many scholars have written on themes in fantasy and magical realism texts by Latino/a and Hispanic authors, these genres tend to be under-researched in literature for young adults. My argument analyzes Labyrinth Lost as emblematic …
Queer Paths Toward Home: Kinship In Speculative Fiction,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Queer Paths Toward Home: Kinship In Speculative Fiction, Audrey Heffers
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
How are we related? Queer(ed) families—typically framed through terms such as Found Family, Chosen Family, or Family of Choice—are more often formed by agency and voluntary participation than they are by legal or genetic connections. For the purposes of this paper, kin will be defined by affect, behavior, and declaration. The three fictional texts—Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden, Life of Melody by Mari Costa, and I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane—will serve as a basis to illustrate how kinship is defined, particularly in queer speculative narratives. Speculative fiction allows for particular metaphors of power. These metaphors …
Queerness In Hirohiko Araki's Jojo's Bizarre Adventure,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Queerness In Hirohiko Araki's Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Minna Nizam
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
This paper will explore Queerness in the series Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. The presentation/paper will dive deep into the queer aspects of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, examining tropes throughout the series and its LGBTQIA+ representation. We will be delving into queer protagonists, queer side characters, and LGBTQIA identities present throughout the anime/manga. We will explore the relationships each main character of the franchise has with side characters, to analyze queerness and queer subtext. Quotes and posts/comments made by the series creator, Hirohiko Araki will be used as evidence to prove that the series is in fact Queer with its LGBTQIA …
Introduction To Eleanor Arnason, Works & Reception,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Introduction To Eleanor Arnason, Works & Reception, David Lenander
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
Eleanor is a guest of honor at next summer’ s Mythcon 53, and I’ve been reading her work for many years. I think her novel, and the associated short stories of Hwarhath Stories, provide a fine set of texts for your purpose. There are also queer aspects to many of Eleanor’s other books and stories, for instance in To the Resurrection Station, and some of her shorter fiction. I would certainly review the existing critical literature, and also present some critical comments and reflections on reception of Arnason’s work, and suggestions for further study.
The Gay Bat Of Gotham: Depictions Of Common Queer Stereotypes And Tropes In The Dc Comics Character Batwoman,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
The Gay Bat Of Gotham: Depictions Of Common Queer Stereotypes And Tropes In The Dc Comics Character Batwoman, Tim Lenz
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
Expansive superhero comic book universes can be thought of as collective, accretional works of Mythopoeia, generating modern mythologies of fantastical characters while also drawing inspiration from ancient myths of the primary world. The DC Comics’ character Batwoman was initially introduced in 1956 as a love interest of Batman/Bruce Wayne, in part to combat scandalous allegations of Batman’s homosexual tendencies towards his young male sidekick Robin. In 2006, writers Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, and Mark Waid reinvented the Batwoman character for modern audiences as the alter ego of ‘Kate Kane,’ Bruce Wayne’s cousin, who was a lesbian of Jewish …
Queering The Problem: Destabilizing Normative Tropes In Jonathan Stroud’S Lockwood And Co. ,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Queering The Problem: Destabilizing Normative Tropes In Jonathan Stroud’S Lockwood And Co. , William Thompson
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
Holly Munro, the office assistant come agent in Jonathan Stroud’s young-adult series Lockwood and Co., is the sole character in the five books to hint at living in a queer relationship. Lockwood and Co. is a small agency in London, fighting against the Problem, the nightly recurrence of ghosts and specters. In The Empty Grave, the final book in the series, Holly and Lucy Carlyle are crouched in the kitchen at 35 Portland Row, waiting for an attack of a group of thugs on the house. Holly and Lucy are nervously exchanging confidences, and Holly makes the point that Antony …
Roundtable: Diversifying Our Mythopoeic Bookshelves,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Roundtable: Diversifying Our Mythopoeic Bookshelves, Grace Moone
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
2024 is a year in which we’ve all been encouraged to be intentional about reading diversely, and seeking out stories and authors whose perspective differs from our own. During this roundtable discussion, we’ll touch briefly on why diversifying our reading matters, discuss strategies for finding diverse books in mythopoeic genres, share some of our favorite book recommendations, and ask attendees to share some of theirs. This discussion will also be open during the upcoming meal break.
“Foul In Wisdom, Cruel In Strength”: Gendered Evil In Tolkien’S Legendarium,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
“Foul In Wisdom, Cruel In Strength”: Gendered Evil In Tolkien’S Legendarium, Alicia Fox-Lenz
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
In “The Feminine Principle in Tolkien,” Melanie Rawls creates a framework for reading masculine and feminine drives in the characters of Tolkien’s legendarium. Feminine characteristics are inward-facing, focused on the self and inner life, whereas masculine characteristics are outward-facing, focused on affecting the wider society. Shelob and Sauron are used as two examples of the negative expression of these gendered drives: Shelob being so inwardly focused she only devours, and Sauron being so outwardly focused he cares only for world domination. However, other than his outward focus, Sauron doesn’t neatly align with the other negative masculine traits — he is …
More To The Hobbit Than Meets The Eye: Locating The Feminine In Tolkien’S World,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
More To The Hobbit Than Meets The Eye: Locating The Feminine In Tolkien’S World, Pieter Conradie
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
Fantasy is finally learning to embrace its power to create and celebrate queerness. Works such as The Forever Sea by Joshua Philip Johnson and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon feature queer leads, revealing creative capacities to imagine worlds where queerness is at the centre. But something mighty queer is already present in 1937 at the very dawn of modern fantasy. Following emerging interpretations of The Hobbit, I argue that the hero, Bilbo Baggins, exhibits significantly queer characteristics. In this deconstructive reading, Bilbo’s gender will first be reversed, arguing that his domesticity, intense emotional responses and his …
Keynote With Taylor Driggers - Cruising Faërie: Further Notes On Queering Faith In Fantasy Literature,
2024
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Keynote With Taylor Driggers - Cruising Faërie: Further Notes On Queering Faith In Fantasy Literature, Taylor Driggers
Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)
In Queering Faith in Fantasy Literature (2022), I argue that fantasy affords sexually marginalized people the ability to re-vision Christian theology in queer ways, thanks to its fixation on strange bodies, its longing for other worlds, and the ways in which both of these may reflect back on theological narratives of incarnation and salvation. Yet this project raises further questions that remain unresolved: namely, how might the framework of Christian theology constrain, as well as illuminate, queer imaginaries? If fantasy allows us to envision livable lives for ourselves as unruly bodies, just what forms of relating may those lives entail? …
