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Neurodiversity In Sense And Sensibility And Emma: Jane Austen’S Heroines And Their Cognitive Difference, Alexandra Sausa May 2023

Neurodiversity In Sense And Sensibility And Emma: Jane Austen’S Heroines And Their Cognitive Difference, Alexandra Sausa

Masters Theses

There is a dearth of criticism that analyzes Jane Austen’s characters through the lens of neurodivergence — that is, an umbrella term for neurological difference, or behavior and cognitive processing that differs from what is “typical”. Although Austen has male characters that have been read as neurodivergent, this thesis will principally focus on two of Austen’s neurodivergent heroines: Marianne Dashwood and Emma Woodhouse. To support neurodivergent interpretations of these heroines, I will supplement close readings of Sense and Sensibility and Emma with social science and psychological literature. Marianne exhibits numerous traits that characterize Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Emma exhibits …


The American Dream, The American Lie: An Examination Of Queerness, Disability And American Identity In Miss Lonelyhearts, Vivian Arias May 2023

The American Dream, The American Lie: An Examination Of Queerness, Disability And American Identity In Miss Lonelyhearts, Vivian Arias

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This project, informed primarily by queer theory and disability studies, examines the ways in which queerness, disability, and marginality are central to Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts, and his critique of the American Dream. Nathanael West, Jewish American novelist and screenwriter, is remembered for his work critiquing the American Dream; however, one aspect that has remained understudied is how his novels feature non-normative outsiders, past and present. The primary analysis of this project is focused on the 1933 novella Miss Lonelyhearts. Other works by West are also referenced. From West’s perspective, the American Dream was the American nightmare for …


The Secret Life Of A Black Aspie: A New Form Of Slave Narrative, Justin Rizzi Apr 2023

The Secret Life Of A Black Aspie: A New Form Of Slave Narrative, Justin Rizzi

English Honors Theses

In Anand Prahlad's 2017 memoir The Secret Life of a Black Aspie, he describes his upbringing as a Black child growing up on a plantation in Virginia. Through his claims to speak to the spirits of enslaved people and his unique perception of chronology, Prahlad creates a memoir that works as both a neo-slave narrative and a first-person memoir of slavery, and this only becomes possible through his necessary dismissal of neurotypical and Western ideals of how time, memory, and place work.


The Incurable Fanny Price: Disabled Perspective And Resistance To The Cure Narrative In Jane Austen’S Mansfield Park, Aurora C. Soriano Jan 2023

The Incurable Fanny Price: Disabled Perspective And Resistance To The Cure Narrative In Jane Austen’S Mansfield Park, Aurora C. Soriano

Dissertations and Theses

Improvement and cure are frequently on the minds of the characters in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. However, what happens when you introduce a chronically ill character like Fanny, who can’t ever be fully cured, into these curative plots? In order to better understand the ways Austen complicates curative discourse, this paper focuses on Fanny’s own perspective and embodied experience of chronic illness, in which she fatigues easily and experiences headaches and pain. Despite clear evidence in the novel of Fanny’s ill health, scholarship analyzing Fanny’s character has historically been fraught with ableist assumptions and subjective opinions. Ignoring the way …


Nothing About Us: Three Models Of Disability In Three Works Of Literary Fiction, Mary Lipiec Jan 2023

Nothing About Us: Three Models Of Disability In Three Works Of Literary Fiction, Mary Lipiec

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project explores how the three umbrella models of disability (medical, functional, and social) are shown in several disabled characters from three novels published after the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and Good Kings, Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum. Through the utilization of literary analysis from a cultural studies perspective, this project shows that the models of disability, despite the various flaws in their respective designs, prove to be useful lenses to see disability through, both in these novels and in real life, …