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Writing Through The Lower Frequencies: Interpreting The Unnaming And Naming Process Within Richard Wright's Native Son And Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, Sarah M. Lacy
ETD Archive
The search for identity within Richard Wright’s Native Son and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man has long been analyzed, yet the fact that each protagonist’s search for self is brought to a point of crisis during an intimate interaction with a white woman has often been neglected. Here, I analyze each author’s strategic use of a nameless narrator by utilizing the work of W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon, arguing that the act of “literary unnaming” is used to critique the development of black American identity during the time of Jim Crow. The use of a nameless narrator is explored through …
Eldritch Horrors: The Modernist Liminality Of H.P. Lovecraft's Weird Fiction, Dale Allen Crowley
Eldritch Horrors: The Modernist Liminality Of H.P. Lovecraft's Weird Fiction, Dale Allen Crowley
ETD Archive
In the early part of the twentieth century, the Modernist literary movement was moving into what was arguably its peak, and authors we would now unquestioningly consider part of the Western literary canon were creating some of their greatest works. Coinciding with the more mainstream Modernist movement, there emerged a unique sub- genre of fiction on the pages of magazines with titles like Weird Tales and Astounding Stories. While modernist writers; including Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, William Faulkner, and T.S. Elliot – among others – were achieving acclaim for their works; in …
The Creation Of Space For Engaged Reading And Creative Interpretation In The Collected Works Of Wallace Stevens, Lauren Cannavino
The Creation Of Space For Engaged Reading And Creative Interpretation In The Collected Works Of Wallace Stevens, Lauren Cannavino
ETD Archive
Wallace Stevens presents a creative space in his poems, opening the role of the reader and inviting active participation. This defies ready interpretation and instead encourages creative reading and interpretive freedom. Wallace Stevens chooses to write from a removed space that allows him to invite the reader in as the original observer. Stevens directly observes and his words, through his stance, create a level of active involvement for the reader. This highlights a focus on nature, nostalgia, removal and his place in between reverie and action. This position builds the body of his poems through much more than simple imagery.
I Hate It, But I Can't Stop: The Romanticization Of Intimate Partner Abuse In Young Adult Retellings Of Wuthering Heights, Brianna R. Zgodinski
I Hate It, But I Can't Stop: The Romanticization Of Intimate Partner Abuse In Young Adult Retellings Of Wuthering Heights, Brianna R. Zgodinski
ETD Archive
In recent years, there has been a trend in young adult adaptations of Wuthering Heights to amend the plot so that Catherine Earnshaw chooses to have a romantic relationship with Heathcliff, when in Bronte’s novel she decides against it. In the following study, I trace the factors that contribute to Catherine’s rejection of Heathcliff as a romantic partner in the original text. Many critics have argued that her motives are primarily Machiavellian since she chooses a suitor with more wealth and familial connections than Heathcliff. These are indeed factors; however, by engaging with contemporary research on adolescent development, I show …
Fe/Male Mother Of Two: Gender And Motherhood In Lionel Shriver's We Need To Talk About Kevin, Amy B. Smialek
Fe/Male Mother Of Two: Gender And Motherhood In Lionel Shriver's We Need To Talk About Kevin, Amy B. Smialek
ETD Archive
There are critical reviews regarding Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin that discuss many controversial topics in the novel. Of these reviews, most critics limit their arguments to the taboo topics of American school shootings and Eva’s character as an ostensibly ambivalent mother. Unfortunately, there is little academic criticism on Shriver’s most recognized novel and, among such analyses, two of Shriver’s most crucial depictions are overlooked. Firstly, readers must acknowledge the impact that contemporary American society has on females and mothers. This novel shows how much a culture relies on societal “rules” that govern human expectations. Secondly, Shriver’s …
Secret History In Contemporary America: Re-Reading All The King's Men And Primary Colors, Megan Nicole Petraska
Secret History In Contemporary America: Re-Reading All The King's Men And Primary Colors, Megan Nicole Petraska
ETD Archive
There exists a little known connection between the seventeenth-century genre of secret history and contemporary political novels. Secret histories such as Procopius’ The Secret History of the Court of Justinian, Sebastien Bremond’s Hattige or the Amours of the King of Tamaran, and Aphra Behn’s Love Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister have in common three defining structural characteristics of the genre: active narrators, narrative layers, and unusual character names. Two contemporary texts which have long resisted categorizing, Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men and Joe Klein’s Primary Colors, also contain these characteristics. Re-reading these texts …
The Discourse Of Female Mental Illness In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Elise M. Collman
The Discourse Of Female Mental Illness In Kate Chopin's The Awakening, Elise M. Collman
ETD Archive
This study addresses the consequences that befell Edna Pontellier for seeking an identity apart and outside of the roles of wife and mother. In particular, it focuses on the correlation made by the male characters in the novel between rejecting motherhood and marriage and perceived mental illness. Edna’s onset of contradictory behavior causes Leonce and Dr. Mandelet to hypothesize the cause of her new behavior. In an attempt to understand and cure Edna, they take a diagnostic approach towards her awakening. Their misunderstanding of her awakening reveals the misinformed societal dogma that linked women’s desire for autonomy to mental instability. …
Legacy Of Shame: A Psychoanalytic History Of Trauma In The Bluest Eye, Martina Louise Hayes
Legacy Of Shame: A Psychoanalytic History Of Trauma In The Bluest Eye, Martina Louise Hayes
ETD Archive
The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison’s troubling short novel which focuses on the lives of a traumatized and disempowered African-American family and the community in which they live. The book openly discusses a variety of social taboos carried out by various members of a Black community in Lorain, Ohio. The most disturbing being the rape of a young Black girl, resulting in pregnancy by her father. Through the omniscient narration of a teenage girl, readers are thrown into the lives and thoughts of the adults and children within this community as they attempt to deal with these extraordinary situations as …
Civilization Is Going To Pieces: Crime, Morality, And Their Role In The Great Gatsby, Kathryn F. Machcinski
Civilization Is Going To Pieces: Crime, Morality, And Their Role In The Great Gatsby, Kathryn F. Machcinski
ETD Archive
Historically the 1920s contained growing tensions among the generations, classes and races. To hear that it is turbulent is not new. This becomes part of the frame for the 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby. The other part, which this thesis treats, is that of the moral and legal crime taking place within the novel itself. Beginning with the real-life Hall-Mills murder case, the thesis enumerates and details many, often overlooked, moral and legal crimes by every character within the book. Through this is it my intention to elucidate the potentiality of F. Scott Fitzgerald to portray a culture in crisis. …