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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
An Antidote To The Necropolitical Path Of Logic: Ice Pick Lodge's Pathologic Classic Hd, Rose Branton
An Antidote To The Necropolitical Path Of Logic: Ice Pick Lodge's Pathologic Classic Hd, Rose Branton
Senior Theses
Much of the existing scholarly literature on video games analyzed with Achille Mbembe’s Necropolitics (2019) focuses on games that replicate the destructive, dehumanizing logic that Mbembe discusses. These are typically games involving the zombie genre or war and conquest that do not challenge Amanda Phillips’s idea of mechropolitics, a further development of Mbembe’s idea that implicates video games specifically. Nor do they challenge the dehumanization and warrant limitless destruction of zombies in the zombie genre of video games. This thesis focuses on Pathologic Classic HD (2015) as an example of a video game that presents a challenge to the logic …
Robert Burns’ Poetic Style Through His Poetry, Songs, And Correspondence, Abigail Druckenmiller
Robert Burns’ Poetic Style Through His Poetry, Songs, And Correspondence, Abigail Druckenmiller
Senior Theses
This thesis explores connections and contradictions within the songs, correspondence, and poems of Scotland’s bard, Robert Burns. A selection of works from each of these categories is presented to compare the ways Burns writes verse, lyrics, and letters. Through this thesis, I analyzed his work looking at subject matter, use of the Scots dialect, structure, and poetic devices in order to offer holistic commentary on Burns’ style in a way that includes his letters more heavily than most other Burns scholarship. Overall, I thought Burns remained a consistent man of conviction and societal criticism throughout my findings, as well as …
Humanity's Fate: An Analysis Of Speculative Human Evolution In Literary Fiction, Celeste T. Johnson
Humanity's Fate: An Analysis Of Speculative Human Evolution In Literary Fiction, Celeste T. Johnson
Senior Theses
Speculative human evolution is a literature subgenre of science fiction that explores the potential future of humanity and descendant species. Little academic research has been done to evaluate the scientific accuracy of works of this genre or assess the relationship between the themes presented in the works and our current world. Future human species and their evolutionary journeys were assessed for scientific possibility through comparison with current research in fields such as anthropology, evolutionary biology, and sociology. It was found that the species depicted in works of speculative human evolution were largely based in scientific accuracy and could possibly exist …
Bad Blood: Octavia E. Butler Takes A Bite Out Of Gender And Racial Stereotypes In Fledgling, Abigail Cole
Bad Blood: Octavia E. Butler Takes A Bite Out Of Gender And Racial Stereotypes In Fledgling, Abigail Cole
Senior Theses
For contemporary audiences the word “vampire” typically conjures two figures: a Damon Salvatore-esque[1] man with devil may care eyes, dark hair and an equally dark past. Dripping with sex and charm, he struggles with an internal dilemma, his animalistic urge to kill constantly at war with his human morality. On the other hand, we have the sexy, scantily clad white female vampire who uses her feminine wiles and socially “perfect” body to prey upon poor, unsuspecting men, until she is eventually corralled into domestic submission, or killed. While this description fits the broader scale of what the vampiric figure …
A New Atticus Is Afoot: The Portrayal Of Lawyers In Popular Culture, Anna Thrush
A New Atticus Is Afoot: The Portrayal Of Lawyers In Popular Culture, Anna Thrush
Senior Theses
This project analyzes the stereotypical image of lawyers in popular culture, focusing on either overly demonic or unrealistically heroic. Both stereotypes that are common portrayals of attorneys in popular culture are unrealistic and deny society a true comprehension of the profession. Popular culture has molded the image of lawyers to the characteristics that sell, rather than focusing on a realistic portrayal. Therefore, popular culture creates a falsely dramatized image of attorneys to generate revenue, putting the reputation and future of the profession as risk. These stereotypes are exemplified in this project through a close literary analysis of lawyer characters from …
George Macdonald's Phantastes As A Bildungsroman Of Spiritual Reality, Hannah O'Malley
George Macdonald's Phantastes As A Bildungsroman Of Spiritual Reality, Hannah O'Malley
Senior Theses
George MacDonald's 1858 novel Phantastes is one of the first fantasy novels written for adults, but it has received little attention in part because of its confusing structure. I argue that Phantastes is best understood as a Bildungsroman, a novel of formation. While the Bildungsroman is usually a realist novel of commercial society, Phantastes’ fantasy elements allow the protagonist to grow up into a spiritual reality that contrasts with many commercial values. MacDonald uses the fantasy genre to show his protagonist's inner development as he learns humility, gains feminine and childlike virtues, and leaves behind the old self
Babylon Is Fallen, Is Fallen: Southern Morality In Go Set A Watchman, Anna G. Dowling
Babylon Is Fallen, Is Fallen: Southern Morality In Go Set A Watchman, Anna G. Dowling
Senior Theses
A crucial theme throughout Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee is the struggle between individual morality and collective consciousness, as exemplified by black and white relations in the American South. In this thesis, I explore the biblical concept of a “watchman” as referenced in the novel’s title and what conclusions can be drawn from delving into the literary and biblical contexts of this allusion. I utilize this as a framework to explore how and why the characters of Watchman exist in such fragmented, defensive states as opposed to their Mockingbird counterparts, and what these differences imply regarding the importance …
Sacrificial Bodies And Hegemonic Femininity: The Creation Of The Heroine In The Twilight, The Hunger Games, & Divergent Series, Tiffany R. Boyles
Sacrificial Bodies And Hegemonic Femininity: The Creation Of The Heroine In The Twilight, The Hunger Games, & Divergent Series, Tiffany R. Boyles
Senior Theses
Within this thesis, I analyze The Twilight Saga, The Hunger Games Trilogy, and The Divergent Trilogy and how the portrayal and treatment of the protagonists’ bodies within these texts uphold tenets of white, hegemonic femininity. I discuss first how their bodies are feminized, in part by their whiteness and smallness, but also through the comparison to the bodies of male characters. While the men are strong and physically capable, the protagonists are weak and physically incapable. As a result, the protagonists cannot act in the way a traditional hero might, using offensive action for self-preservation. Instead, the protagonists …
Visiting Jane: Jane Austen, Fan Culture, And Literary Tourism, Brianna Surratt
Visiting Jane: Jane Austen, Fan Culture, And Literary Tourism, Brianna Surratt
Senior Theses
People have been visiting sites associated with Jane Austen for two centuries now, and there have been fans of her work for even longer. Austen inspires unique devotion among her fans for an author about whose life we know very little. Furthermore, these fans have been fighting among themselves for as long as fans have existed over who loves her the right way – the academics or the amateurs? This work explores that unique fan culture in detail through the lens of literary tourism, going into detail about two sites in particular – Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, England, and …
Children's Literature As A Catalyst For Social Change, Lyndsey Reynolds
Children's Literature As A Catalyst For Social Change, Lyndsey Reynolds
Senior Theses
This thesis is the amalgamation of a creative writing project and an exploration of the ways that children’s literature influences and draws from social justice causes. It started after reading Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls and realizing that children’s books are not as simple as I remember them being. This book inspired me to consider the power of children’s literature to push young readers to be aware of and thoughtfully engaged with political, social and cultural conversations. The first phase of my thesis was exploring the relationship between social justice and children’s books by reading scholarly materials. In these …
"This Dreadful Web": Alienation And Miscommunication In The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Debbie Clark
"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 from the very society …
Modern American Cover Art: The Great Gatsby Through Time, Jessica Harrell
Modern American Cover Art: The Great Gatsby Through Time, Jessica Harrell
Senior Theses
Book jackets and cover art are, more than anything, an advertising tool used to attract consumers, promote book sales, and establish company identity. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a staple in the canon of American literature whose cover art has drastically transformed in the ninety years since its original publication. This thesis traces these changes over time, focusing specifically on publishing history, art history, American culture, and thematic interpretations. In doing so, I found that the most substantial influences on these covers were publishing house identity, design trends, and available artistic techniques. Ultimately, The Great Gatsby’s cover …
Race, Gender, And Exile In Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises And Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, Abby E. Gould
Race, Gender, And Exile In Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises And Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, Abby E. Gould
Senior Theses
This senior thesis for the South Carolina Honors College conducts a literary analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. Across these two texts, I focus on expatriates, examining the psychological trauma that ensues when they are forced to define their “self” not in terms of where they are, but in terms of who they really are. These challenges to one’s self, I argue, illuminate the complexity of gender and sexual identity as well as the social structures that assign values to certain forms or expressions of masculinity.
Ophelia's Reflection, Kelley Kennedy
Ophelia's Reflection, Kelley Kennedy
Senior Theses
This project examines Ophelia's role in the thematic exploration of the nature of the individual self in Shakespeare's Hamlet. First, I discuss the different models of subjectivity and virtue that Ophelia embodies and by which characters around her judge her actions. Her father, Polonius, espouses a form of Renaissance humanism that Shakespeare counters throughout the play. He believes the imitation of noble qualities can affect inner goodness, and he demands Ophelia's obedience of his instructions regarding noble conduct. In contrast, Hamlet locates moral authority within the individual, and he dismisses Polonius' notions of elite selfpresentation as vulgar performances. Both men …
A Social Study Of Discworld Autonomy, Morgan Rogers
A Social Study Of Discworld Autonomy, Morgan Rogers
Senior Theses
From 1983 to 2015, Sir Terry Pratchett wrote a series of forty-one novels, several short stories, and companion works set on the Discworld. The Discworld is a flat world that rides through space on the backs of four giant elephants that stand themselves on the back of the Great A’tuin, a world turtle. The Disc is based around the Hub, or central point, and the Rim, or the circumference of the world. There is a waterfall all around the Rim of the world that falls into space itself. The Hub compares to the Earth’s poles in that it is the …
Pieces: An Inquiry In Family Stories, Southern Identity And Creative Nonfiction Writing, Morgan Elaine Lundy
Pieces: An Inquiry In Family Stories, Southern Identity And Creative Nonfiction Writing, Morgan Elaine Lundy
Senior Theses
This thesis project is, at heart, a creative nonfiction writing project—and one that evolved and changed over the course of its development. Ultimately it consists of two main parts: a 60 page oral history-based artist book, and an accompanying 14 page process paper which details my creative process as well as challenges, influences and insights. Drawing together smaller stylistic “pieces”—oral stories turned poems, pictures, documents, design elements, my own prose reflections through the repurposed mechanism of photo captions—the final text emerges as both a larger narrative and an embodiment of a culture of language greater than its smaller parts. Logistically, …