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Demigod And Delinquent: Percy Jackson And The American Teenager, Katie Weber
Demigod And Delinquent: Percy Jackson And The American Teenager, Katie Weber
Honors Theses
Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, the first novel in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, has achieved tremendous success with adolescent audiences nationwide since its original publication in 2005. Despite the widespread success of the books, the critical conversation about the novel and subsequent series remains fairly sparse. The existing critical literature on the series addresses its mythological aspects and adolescents’ reactions to the novel but does not analyze Percy’s status as an adolescent or what the novel suggests about adolescents as a whole through its portrayal of Percy. This thesis first provides an overview of the history of …
Swimming Lessons: Exploring And Embracing The Graphic Memoir, Sophia Donati
Swimming Lessons: Exploring And Embracing The Graphic Memoir, Sophia Donati
Honors Theses
My thesis is both creative and analytical, delving into the graphic memoir genre and its components. My own graphic memoir is at the heart of this piece: Swimming Lessons, which I wrote and drew over the past four years. The first and main piece of my thesis is the 122-page completed draft of Swimming Lessons which details three significant parts of my life centering on my relationship with swimming. Following my graphic memoir is the analytical reflective essay which details the graphic memoir by situating Swimming Lessons in conversation with other prevalent texts in the genre. This piece centers on …
Singular Yet Shared: Willful Heroines And Their Willful Communities In Young Adult Fantasy, Shea Delehaunty
Singular Yet Shared: Willful Heroines And Their Willful Communities In Young Adult Fantasy, Shea Delehaunty
Honors Theses
The psychological theory of narrative identity posits that we create our identities based on a narrative life-story, and that adolescence is a pivotal moment in this process. Literature is one of the most familiar examples of narrative, so what, then, does the literature adolescents read teach them about identity as they construct their own narrative identities? What kinds of characters are portrayed and what can we learn about the adolescents influenced by those characters? This thesis is interested in these questions specifically as they relate to contemporary adolescent girls, who often grow up reading young adult (YA) high fantasy novels …
B'Ars And Catamounts: A Study Of Davy Crockett Through Genre And Medium, Jack Fieweger
B'Ars And Catamounts: A Study Of Davy Crockett Through Genre And Medium, Jack Fieweger
Honors Theses
This project seeks to investigate and discuss the changes and variations that have occurred to the mythology of David Crockett over the course of time. Initially appearing as a literary character in 1833, the likeness of Crockett has appeared in a myriad of different texts including: biographies, almanacs, plays, dime novels, comics, television shows, and films. The project attempts to discern how these different iterations of medium and genre altered the mythology of David Crockett. In order to methodologically understand these changes, this project makes use of W.T. Lhamon’s concept known as the Lore Cycle. Lhamon identified that lore diffuses …
I Believe A Man Can Fly: Three Essays On The Themes Of Superheroes, Trayton N. Armstrong
I Believe A Man Can Fly: Three Essays On The Themes Of Superheroes, Trayton N. Armstrong
Honors Theses
An analysis of the three most well-known and popular superheroes, examining important themes that each revolves around. "Superman: The Hero in All of Us" examines heroism and how the Man of Steel defines and redefines what is a hero. "Batman: The Redemption of Tragedy" examines what makes the Dark Knight a compelling character and why he pursues his war on crime. "Spider-Man: Power and Responsibility" looks at how the titular themes define Spider-Man's career and why they are important.
One Creation: Examining Creation Myths Across Time And Culture, Scarlett Castleberry
One Creation: Examining Creation Myths Across Time And Culture, Scarlett Castleberry
Honors Theses
By looking at creation myths across various time, cultures, and languages, I was able to track similarities and find common threads between cultures that might not otherwise seem connected. What is remarkable is that these ancient texts often make connections before archeology or linguistics can.
"With Great Power...": Post-9/11 Politics In Superhero Comics, Tv, And Film, Caroline Ristaino
"With Great Power...": Post-9/11 Politics In Superhero Comics, Tv, And Film, Caroline Ristaino
Honors Theses
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 prompted the government to take drastic political action, such as the War on Terror, and inspired the American people to feel new cultural anxieties. Literature and popular culture also responded to 9/11 with attempts to make sense of such an unprecedented event. This thesis argues that superhero stories, both in comics and onscreen, are particularly well-suited to deconstruct and critique post-9/11 American society through their depictions of power and the question of how individuals with superpowers fit into society. Specifically, this thesis engages with Marvel Comics’ Civil War (2006-07), its film adaptation Captain …
The Significance Of Transmedia Storytelling In The World Of Jane Austen, Margaret Brennan
The Significance Of Transmedia Storytelling In The World Of Jane Austen, Margaret Brennan
Honors Theses
Transmedia storytelling is an opportunity for developing interactive stories involving various media, which “has grown out of the increased possibilities that come with the multifaceted developments of the ever evolving Internet” (Jandl 167). This means that multiple media platforms can be utilized to convey a single story –from videos to blog posts, tweets on Twitter or status updates on Facebook. The goal of transmedia is ultimately to have many moving parts that create one cohesive storyline, and the ways in which these pieces move and work together creates a unique, immersive story experience. Taking cultural icons like Austen and adapting …
Super Or Sexist? The Evolution Of Female Superheroes In Comics And Film, Jordan Gablaski
Super Or Sexist? The Evolution Of Female Superheroes In Comics And Film, Jordan Gablaski
Honors Theses
For the purposes of this study, I will be focusing on three highly popular and often controversial female superheroes: Wonder Woman, Black Widow and Captain Marvel. My argument is not that these three characters are defined by the stereotypes under which they were created (though many female heroes and villains are purely archetypal and have barely any other defining personality traits, such as Harley Quinn). Instead, Wonder Woman, Black Widow, and Captain Marvel have, in some way or another, all been treated as a villain, victim or vixen at multiple points in their comic histories, which only leads them to …
The World’S Greatest Detectives: Analyzing The Relationship And Cultural Meaning Of Sherlock Holmes And Batman, Emma F. Reeves
The World’S Greatest Detectives: Analyzing The Relationship And Cultural Meaning Of Sherlock Holmes And Batman, Emma F. Reeves
Honors Theses
The characters Sherlock Holmes and Batman represent a Gothic archetype aimed at uncovering societal fears and tensions. The thesis analyzes four Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and four Batman-centered graphic novels from DC Comics. By looking at the two in conjunction with each other, this project develops a more comprehensive understanding of the Gothic detective hero in the historical contexts of Victorian England and modern United States of America. The two characters are first explained in terms of the Gothic and as archetypal figures before being examined in terms of their similar contemporary social contexts. Finally, the …
Modern American Myth-Making In Mass Media Texts, Kassandra Andreadis
Modern American Myth-Making In Mass Media Texts, Kassandra Andreadis
Honors Theses
What is an American myth? “Myth” can have many meanings and can refer to many different types of works. For example, Edwards and Klosa refer to Frankenstein as “an important mythic text” (Edwards and Klosa 34), which provides a middle point between ancient myths (e.g. the Odyssey) and current myths, showing that myths have continued to be produced and establishing myth-making as a continuous process. This process continues into the present, all over the world, so it stands to reason that the United States of America has its own myths. The identity of those myths is less certain. While ideas …
Biracial Identity In Texts Read By Secondary Education Students, Jared Madden
Biracial Identity In Texts Read By Secondary Education Students, Jared Madden
Honors Theses
This thesis sought to examine how biracial identity is portrayed in the literature read by students in secondary education. Unfortunately, the findings indicated that biracialism is not being adequately portrayed in this literature. Students rarely encounter biracial characters, when they do these characters are usually peripheral, and sometimes the biracialism of these characters is presented as an obstacle to be overcome. Furthermore, teachers (at least in this researcher’s local area) seem to be extremely apathetic towards even discussing this issue. The impact which all of this can have on secondary students with a biracial background is discussed. However, there are …
Western Culture And The Spread Of Serial Murder, Angela Pilson
Western Culture And The Spread Of Serial Murder, Angela Pilson
Honors Theses
Serial murders may have occurred in non-Western cultures, like Japan, South Africa, and Pakistan, before the introduction of Western ideals. These murders would have gone unnoticed and unreported if the populace did not know or understand the significant differences between serial murder and other types of violence and death. The people and authorities in non-Western cultures would not know of these differences unless they were made known to them or if they started to investigate the murders more closely. People from Western cultures who move to non-Western areas or communicate with non-Western natives may introduce these differences and familiarize the …
League Of Their Own: The Competition For Jewish-American Identity In The Novels Of Philip Roth, Rebeccah Amendola
League Of Their Own: The Competition For Jewish-American Identity In The Novels Of Philip Roth, Rebeccah Amendola
Honors Theses
In his insightful and sometimes troubled contemporary writings, Philip Roth demonstrates a nuanced understanding of how the development of Jewish-American identity is a painful and often hilariously paradoxical journey of discovery as Jewish traditions intersect (and often collide) with the American ideal of vertical advancement. Since the successful fulfillment of the American Dream requires some measure of assimilation into the majority American culture known as Americanization, Roth's Jewish-American characters are continually and precariously ill-balanced between retaining and abandoning their Jewish heritage in favor of a new American identity. Thus, if Americanization necessitates Anglo-conformity and the abandonment of immigrant mores, the …
A Look At Comic Books, Mark Chapel
A Look At Comic Books, Mark Chapel
Honors Theses
This short study attempts to define and analyze the comic book thoroughly enough to enable the reader to draw his own conclusions about the unique little magazines. The writer also tries to evaluate the worth and possible place in American culture of comic books. Are comic books a menace, a "noxious mushroom growth" as a critic stated in 1943? Are they a harmless diversion as psychologist William Charles Marston upholds? Do comic books deserve a niche in libraries or should they be burned as trash?