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Articles 1 - 24 of 24
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Neoliberalism In Contemporary Literature: The Nuclear Family’S Decimation In Jonathan Franzen’S The Corrections, Jillianne Larson
Neoliberalism In Contemporary Literature: The Nuclear Family’S Decimation In Jonathan Franzen’S The Corrections, Jillianne Larson
Honors Theses
Within any text, there is often evidence of the author’s own life along with cultural reflections. A specific example of this occurrence is Jonathan Franzen’s novel The Corrections (2001). Since the novel was written in the early twenty-first century, it is an immediate reflection of post-millennial society, specifically the rise of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism was introduced to America as an economic venture; however, the policy’s impact can be frequently seen in relation to the nuclear family. As the idea gained popularity during the 1980s, neoliberalism began seeping into family units by way of one’s career and one’s home. This invasion has …
The Grotesque Self: Finding Identity Through The Grotesque In The Works Of Carson Mccullers, Colton Greganti
The Grotesque Self: Finding Identity Through The Grotesque In The Works Of Carson Mccullers, Colton Greganti
Honors Theses
Historically speaking, the South has maintained rigid, male dominated constructions of gender, which have manifested themselves in almost every aspect of the southern individual’s actions, sense of self, and appearance. While much of southern culture has been centered on this rigid identity, the southern gothic literary tradition strays from this stark binary, especially in its depiction of female characters. Through the use of grotesque representations, these characters are able to form a unique identity and deviate from the phallocentric social norms, though it often comes at the cost of social alienation. However, even when tragedies strike these gothic heroines, their …
Sickness And Contamination In The Yellow Wallpaper And Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets, Abigail Callahan
Sickness And Contamination In The Yellow Wallpaper And Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets, Abigail Callahan
Honors Theses
Sickness and Contamination in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” looks at feminism through the lens of nineteenth-century medical practices and how both Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Stephen Crane used them to argue against social standards for women. Most women during this time were seen as mentally ill or sick because they were in fact women. However, sexually active women were seen as even more sickly. Gilman in particular exposes sexism within the medical practice, and Crane builds on that by exposing sexism towards sexually active women through the idea of contamination. This paper refers to …
Jane, Judith, And Gender Performance: A Butlerian Approach To Feminine Identity In Mansfield Park, Hallie Stone
Jane, Judith, And Gender Performance: A Butlerian Approach To Feminine Identity In Mansfield Park, Hallie Stone
Honors Theses
In this thesis, I take two complex works, Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble and Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, and read them together to gain a deeper understanding of both. My cutting-edge psychoanalytic approach to understanding Jane Austen provides a profound insight into the impact of socially-constructed expectations on performances of femininity. Butler’s work exposes interesting insights into the psychology and feminine identity of both Fanny Price and Mary Crawford while Austen’s work exposes limits in Butler’s theory of gender performativity. Although Butler claims that gender is a body’s constant performance, I add that there is a relationship between gender performance …
Desire In The Bildungsroman: Construction And Pursuit Of An Ideal Self Through The Ideal Other, Ethan Watson
Desire In The Bildungsroman: Construction And Pursuit Of An Ideal Self Through The Ideal Other, Ethan Watson
Honors Theses
The Bildungsroman, or “novel of education,” has remained popular since Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship. I examine this novel, as well as Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, and Walter Moers’s Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures, focusing specifically on the relationships between the three male protagonists and the women that they encounter throughout their lives. Using the theories of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, literary critic René Girard, and feminist philosopher Judith Butler, I draw parallels between and contribute to the scholarly conversation of all three works (or in the case of Moers's recent fantasy, Rumo, begin …
Madness As "The Divided Self" In The Works Of American Female Authors, Katherine Sweat
Madness As "The Divided Self" In The Works Of American Female Authors, Katherine Sweat
Honors Theses
When R.D. Laing wrote The Divided Self in 1960, his goal was “to make madness, and the process of going mad, comprehensible.” Laing argued that psychosis was, at its core, an existential problem, driven by a sense of disconnection from the world and in turn, a fragmentation of the self. This thesis uses Laing’s theory of “the divided self” as a framework for examining how madness is constructed in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper (1890), Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963), and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). Each of these works offers a unique …
The Bard And The Word: The Influence Of The Bible On The Writings Of William Shakespeare, Emily Gray
The Bard And The Word: The Influence Of The Bible On The Writings Of William Shakespeare, Emily Gray
Honors Theses
Widely hailed as the single greatest writer and poet of the English language, William Shakespeare is not only revered for the sheer quantity and wide-ranging genres of his writing, but also the exceptional written quality, well-executed thematic diversity, and ability to explore the timelessness of the human experience. With the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible occurring in 2011 and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death following in 2016, scholarship on Shakespeare’s use of biblical material underwent a significant resurgence. The focus of much of this scholarship has been on simply identifying the numerous references rather …
Indicted Knights: Female Agency And The Adjudication Of Rape In Arthurian Romances, Jessica Carrell
Indicted Knights: Female Agency And The Adjudication Of Rape In Arthurian Romances, Jessica Carrell
Honors Theses
Although Arthurian Romance is a genre often thought to provide a somewhat idealized portrayal of the relationship between the sexes, there are a surprising number of instances of sexual assault represented in Middle English texts. In a genre styled towards women, it is appropriate to consider what cultural or social function the representations of such episodes serve. How, then, do such imaginative representations relate to the historical record of sexual assault accusations and adjudication? As this thesis demonstrates, examining past literary representations of the adjudication of sexual misconduct in Middle English romances such as Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and Chaucer’s …
Naturalism And The New Woman: Fated Motherhood In Kate Chopin's The Awakening And Edith Wharton's The House Of Mirth, Lindsay J. Patorno
Naturalism And The New Woman: Fated Motherhood In Kate Chopin's The Awakening And Edith Wharton's The House Of Mirth, Lindsay J. Patorno
Honors Theses
Proto-feminist novels have garnered great critical attention in recent decades, largely owing to the reclamation efforts of feminist scholars from the 1960s onwards. These feminist scholars have remarked the fin-de-siècle emergence of a recurring narrative archetype: the unabashed New Woman, whose exploits in what were traditionally male-dominated spheres distinguished her from the domesticated matrons and sentimental bachelorettes of past literary paradigms. While the New Woman is now a commonplace among feminist critics, the following thesis uniquely interprets this feministic archetype in conjunction with the concurrent movement of American literary naturalism—a genre that proffers a deterministic worldview and is often regarded …
Hollywood Dreams: Postcolonial Nationalism And Gender Oppression In Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeatersp, Andrei Wayne Kyrk Defino
Hollywood Dreams: Postcolonial Nationalism And Gender Oppression In Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeatersp, Andrei Wayne Kyrk Defino
Honors Theses
This paper addresses how gender, sexuality, and resistance affect personal and national identity construction in Dogeaters. This 1990 novel traces the lives of Filipino characters during President Ferdinand Marcos's dictatorial regime--a period that reshaped the Philippines' national identity. Using gender theory and nationhood studies, I highlight how women and queer individuals who challenge masculine norms attempt subversion by creating communities outside of patriarchal constructs but ultimately fail. Specifically, I read Joey Sands's and Daisy Avila's marginality and failure to comply with societal expectations as futile pushbacks against the larger system. Furthermore, their embrace and use of violence as a means …
Crafting Fear: The Horror Film Trailer, Courtney Dreyer
Crafting Fear: The Horror Film Trailer, Courtney Dreyer
Honors Theses
My research project investigates horror film trailers in an effort to define the characteristics of this genre and discuss its ideological implications. Focusing on theatrical trailers for American wide-release horror films between 2013 and 2017, I closely viewed a sample of forty trailers to inform my investigation. Horror trailers create an intense emotional experience of both dread and fear, tending to follow a similar narrative structure and employ a common set of stylistic techniques to achieve this emotional intensity. The shared stylistic techniques include elements such as tight framing, innocent imagery, and genre misdirection. The repetition of these elements promotes …
17th Edition Of The Laureate, Jessie Fales
17th Edition Of The Laureate, Jessie Fales
Honors Theses
The Laureate is an undergraduate literary journal sponsored by the Lee Honors College at Western Michigan University. As Editor in Chief of the 17th Edition, I coordinated the journal’s publication over the course of an academic year. The editorial process follows methodical stages, which have become standard over The Laureate’s lifetime—recruiting submissions, selecting submissions, coordinating with the design center, and hosting a launch party, etc... Of course, every editor has a unique experience, but we must honor the journal’s entity as something larger than ourselves—this journal has existed long before my time, and I hope it keeps on …
Iago As Moral Other In Jonathan Munby's Production Of Othello (2016), Emma Magbanua
Iago As Moral Other In Jonathan Munby's Production Of Othello (2016), Emma Magbanua
Honors Theses
Jonathan Munby produced a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre in Spring of 2016. While continuing to utilize Shakespeare's language, Munby modernized Othello through the use of contemporary military costumes, props, accents, music, and dance. Munby did not limit his adaptation to solely visual and auditory aspects of Othello, but also took the liberty of contemporizing the principle of "otherness" in the play. This research explores the identification of Munby's character as Iago as "Moral Other," whose actions lead to the fall of his wife, Emilia, a fellow officer, Roderigo, Desdemona, and the protagonist, Othello.
In The House Of God: Divine Authority And The Collectivity Of Spiritual Experience In George Herbert's The Temple And Ralph Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs, Nicole M. Hwang
Honors Theses
George Herbert's collection of poems, The Temple (1633), portrays a reciprocal relationship between the human and divine, suggesting that humans are to house the glory of God and abide in Him. He seeks to portray the soul's internal architecture, with an allusion to the human heart as God's dwelling place. He uses his poetry to explore this relationship to a coexisting God, and through the framework of human-as-temple, the theme of habitation becomes prominent in his work. In "Love (III)" from The Temple, Herbert illustrates this, showing that just as God dwells in our hearts, we also receive sustenance and …
Book Proposal: Evangeline: A Murder On The Cajun Prairie, Jordan Lahaye
Book Proposal: Evangeline: A Murder On The Cajun Prairie, Jordan Lahaye
Honors Theses
No abstract provided.
An Inexhaustible Source Of Magic: How Fanfiction Turned One World Into A Thousand, Taylor Pernini
An Inexhaustible Source Of Magic: How Fanfiction Turned One World Into A Thousand, Taylor Pernini
Honors Theses
No abstract provided.
Twice Upon A Time: The Retellings Of Fairy Tales For Contemporary Audiences, Morgan Howard
Twice Upon A Time: The Retellings Of Fairy Tales For Contemporary Audiences, Morgan Howard
Honors Theses
If anyone had seen me binge-watching ABC's Once Upon a Time (a television adaptation of Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and more) during my freshman year of college, they undoubtedly would have said I was wasting my time. In fact, I probably would have agreed with them--there were far better things for a busy English and mass communications double major to do in her free time. I didn't realize then that I was actually in the process of developing what would become my research passion for the next four years.
For my final research essay in Composition 1, …
The Field: A Study In Illustration, Kacy Alaina Earnest Spears
The Field: A Study In Illustration, Kacy Alaina Earnest Spears
Honors Theses
Senior year of college, I enrolled in Issues of Communication, a class focused on pinpointing the issues of racism and the long-term effects of microaggressions, defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as "a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously of unintentionally expresses a prejudice attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority}" ("microaggressions"}. One of our guest speakers, Dean Bryan McKinney of the Hickingbotham School of Business, came to present "The Field," a short story written by his father, JV McKinney, about living in the 1950's segregated Arkansas Delta. Dean McKinney played a recording of …
Anthiom: A Christian Ya Novel, Krystal Parker
Anthiom: A Christian Ya Novel, Krystal Parker
Honors Theses
Kaelyn gripped tight at the silk sheets around her before her body settled into even breaths. In. Out. In. out. She could still see the shadowed faces in their dark hoods and the fires. There were always fires.
She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling above her, counting the number of tiles from the edge of her bed to the mahogany dresser. In. Out. One. In. Out. Two.
You are back in your room, she reminded herself. It was just a dream.
"Kaelyn?" her door creaked open and she jumped. "Are you okay?"
She rolled over and saw …
African-American Poetry, Music, And Politics, Tyler H. Macdonald
African-American Poetry, Music, And Politics, Tyler H. Macdonald
Honors Theses
The 2016 decision to award songwriter and musician Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature sparked a worldwide debate on the relationship between music and poetry and raised many questions about music’s place in literary canon. However, this debate is nothing new. Questions about the relationship between music and poetry have long been debated. Some scholars believe the two disciplines should be studied separately, while others prefer to consider the connections between the two.
My project begins with a question: if Bob Dylan’s songs can be considered poetry, what other forms of music might also be considered poetry? Rap implements …
Nature In A Sense: A Look At Wordsworth, Other Authors, And The Bible, Hope Wakeling
Nature In A Sense: A Look At Wordsworth, Other Authors, And The Bible, Hope Wakeling
Honors Theses
Some authors create memorable works because they develop a passion for their area of focus. For example, C.S. Lewis was able to describe friendship in terms that relate to our desire to have intimate connections with people. Jane Austen could display the development of a romance in such a way that many readers have wished a story like one of hers could be real in their own lives. Personally, seeing how nature is perceived by writers has always been special to me. Aspects of nature like weeping willows, Queen Anne's lace, the Rocky Mountains, stargazer lilies, and the Great Barrier …
An Ivory Tower On The Outskirts Of Town: The Othered Intellectual In Joyce And Ellison, Will Simonson
An Ivory Tower On The Outskirts Of Town: The Othered Intellectual In Joyce And Ellison, Will Simonson
Honors Theses
In this thesis, I examine a pairing of protagonists and texts, Stephen Dedalus of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and the unnamed protagonist-narrator of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1953), to explore the ways in which these protagonists are Othered as a result of their unconventional intellectualism, and how that Othering impacts their progress towards self-actualization. Making use of writings by Jacques Lacan, Pierre Bourdieu, Edward Said, Hélène Cixous, Louis Althusser, and Richard Rorty, among others, I engage with theories of language, intellect, intellectualism, and the role of the intellectual, especially when he/she is …
Manifest Destiny, American Domesticity, And The Role Of The Immigrant In Ruiz De Burton's Novels, Madison Rose Martinez
Manifest Destiny, American Domesticity, And The Role Of The Immigrant In Ruiz De Burton's Novels, Madison Rose Martinez
Honors Theses
Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s novels Who Would Have Thought It?And The Squatter And the Donare important works of literature due to their representation of the MexicanExperience in the redefined expanding United States of the nineteenth century. The novelsprovide two perspectives of the time period by delving into the lives of Americans and Mexicans on both sides of the country.
In The Shape Of A Woman: Behavioral Compliance To Gendered Expectations In The Early Modern Era And The Implications For Human Identity In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Sydney Shamblin
Honors Theses
The purpose of this essay is to examine the role that gender plays in the construction of the human within Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor. While gender was a vital component of the immaterial essence that distinguished humans from animals, early moderns believed that true internal gender conformity could not exist if it was not accompanied by external expressions of it. Characters in each of these plays fixate on the external proofs of their own gendered identities, and in doing so, they inadvertently reveal that those traits which distinguish humanity are only cultural constructions and learned behavior …