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Articles 1 - 30 of 293
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Salem Belles, Succubi, And The Scarlet Letter: Transatlantic Witchcraft And Gothic Erotic Affect, Sylvia Cutler
Salem Belles, Succubi, And The Scarlet Letter: Transatlantic Witchcraft And Gothic Erotic Affect, Sylvia Cutler
Theses and Dissertations
In order to reconcile the absence of sexually deviant witch figures (succubae, demonic women, etc.) within the formation of American national literature in the nineteenth century with the fantastic elements found in European variations on the gothic, my thesis aims to demonstrate transatlantic variants of erotic signifiers attached to witch figures in nineteenth-century gothic fiction and mediums across national traditions. I will begin by tracing the transatlantic and historical impact of Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger’s Malleus Maleficarum—an early modern handbook of sorts used widely in witchcraft inquisitions—on Early American witch trials, specifically where its influence deviates from a sexualized …
A Light In The Dark: A Case For Ya Literature Through The Lens Of Medical Dystopias, Thomas Jace Brown
A Light In The Dark: A Case For Ya Literature Through The Lens Of Medical Dystopias, Thomas Jace Brown
Theses and Dissertations
By examining critical studies of the dystopian genre from Gregory Claeys, Fátima Vieira, and Keith Booker as well as the studies of young adult dystopian novels from Roberta Trites, Kenneth Donnelson, and Sean Connors, I argue that young adult literature (YAL) has literary merit and is worth studying. This literariness stems from a novel's ability to explore complex themes like religion, sacrifice, and societal contracts. I introduce and analyze a subgenre of YA dystopian literature, which I classify as the medical dystopia, a genre that is uniquely positioned to explore the complex moral questions that surround advancing medical technologies and …
Transfer In The Writing Center: Tutors Facilitating Students' Understanding Of Transfer, Shannon Nicole Tuttle
Transfer In The Writing Center: Tutors Facilitating Students' Understanding Of Transfer, Shannon Nicole Tuttle
Theses and Dissertations
Transfer, a highly researched topic in composition studies, is a topic of increasing interest to those in writing center studies. Writing centers are an ideal location for the application of transfer because tutors can provide more opportunities for guided practice, application, reflection, and metacognition in a one-on-one setting; thus, students may learn more effectively, through application, the writing skills they may receive via instruction in their classrooms. Previous writing center studies have implemented transfer-focused curricula to help tutors better facilitate transfer in their tutorials. These curricula have focused on training tutors to understand and apply transfer to their tutorials, but …
Walt Before Leaves: Complicating Whitman's Authorship Through Jack Engle, Christopher Preston Burright
Walt Before Leaves: Complicating Whitman's Authorship Through Jack Engle, Christopher Preston Burright
Theses and Dissertations
The rediscovery of a number of Walt Whitman's early fictions prompts a discussion of where they belong within the larger web of Whitman scholarship. Though we have been aware of the existence of these writings for quite some time, frequently these works return to obscurity soon after being discovered due to the lack of research regarding them. This thesis presents an alternative framework whereby these novels can be integrated into a hypertextual model centered on Leaves of Grass (1855) and Whitman's overall authorial identity. I build on Ed Folsom and Kenneth Price's work creating a hypertext archive incorporating Whitman's works, …
Troll-In-Chief: Donald Trump, Antinomic Rhetoric, And The Short-Circuiting Of Civic Discourse, Joseph Wayne Fisher
Troll-In-Chief: Donald Trump, Antinomic Rhetoric, And The Short-Circuiting Of Civic Discourse, Joseph Wayne Fisher
Theses and Dissertations
On November 9, 2016, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. No aspect of the campaign was more remarkable than Trump’s rhetoric, which ranged from the candid and unexpected to the crude and incendiary. Now, two years later, his rhetoric—and the reasons for its widespread appeal—remain largely opaque, even under examination from proto-fascist or populist lenses. I seek for a partial account of Trump’s rhetoric using the concept of antinomic rhetoric coupled with the widespread popular perception of him as similar to an internet troll. In short, I believe it is his violation of the conventional standards (nomoi) …
“Chosen Instruments”: Tolkien’S Hobbits And The Rhetoric Of The Dispossessed, Samuel Bennett Watson
“Chosen Instruments”: Tolkien’S Hobbits And The Rhetoric Of The Dispossessed, Samuel Bennett Watson
Theses and Dissertations
Tolkien’s hobbit characters are capable of a particular type of rhetorical persuasion, one which relies on their ability to leverage their status as outsiders among the other people of Middle-earth. The hobbits are uniquely suited to the task of bringing unity to Middle-earth’s people because of the simplicity of their rhetoric, which focuses on proving their own morality and presenting truths without elaboration. When compared with the text, the film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings also help highlight the importance that Tolkien placed on the simplicity of hobbit rhetoric. These abilities of the hobbits become clear through a …
"Yup, So-Jeer": Interlanguage And Ruptured Translation In Charles Dickens's The Perils Of Certain English Prisoners, Jacob Kurt Nielsen
"Yup, So-Jeer": Interlanguage And Ruptured Translation In Charles Dickens's The Perils Of Certain English Prisoners, Jacob Kurt Nielsen
Theses and Dissertations
Co-authored by Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, The Perils of Certain English Prisoners is a tale of linguistic subversion in colonial spaces. Christian George King-a native "Sambo" that betrays the English colonists on Silver Store to a marauding band of pirates-demonstrates a linguistic phenomenon that scholars call interlanguage, or a quasi-language that partially resembles both English and his native language. Because of its status as a language between languages, King's interlanguage disrupts the linguistic hierarchy of the tale by opening possibilities for miscommunication. To combat this underlying tension, the colonists must rely on translation-specifically, on the mistaken belief that all …
Navigating Palimpsest’S Sea Garden: H.D.’S Spiritual Realism, Mari Anne Murdock
Navigating Palimpsest’S Sea Garden: H.D.’S Spiritual Realism, Mari Anne Murdock
Theses and Dissertations
H.D.’s novel Palimpsest has often been analyzed using psychoanalytic theories due to her relationship with Sigmund Freud and his work. However, her own approach to the science of psychoanalysis reveals that she often complemented her scientific understanding with her syncretic religious beliefs, a perspective she referred to as “spiritual realism,” which suggests that analysis with a spiritual nuance may provide a deeper understanding of the novel’s intended purpose. Postsecular theory makes for a useful lens by which to analyze Palimpsest’s treatment of reintegrating spiritual knowledge into Freud’s secular understanding of the modern world by providing the benefits of such a …
The Effects Of Repeated Reading On The Fluency Of Intermediate-Level English-As-A-Second-Language Learners: An Eye-Tracking Study, Krista Carlene Rich
The Effects Of Repeated Reading On The Fluency Of Intermediate-Level English-As-A-Second-Language Learners: An Eye-Tracking Study, Krista Carlene Rich
Theses and Dissertations
Most would agree that reading fluency is a concern of every L2 teacher. Repeated reading (RR) positively affects fluency development, supported by much research with L1 children. However, relatively little focus has been given to L2 RR. Most research on RR in L2 settings has focused on audio-assisted RR, used insufficient data collection methods prone to human error, and taken place in an EFL setting. In our experiment, we used eye–tracking as a direct mode of measurement of the effects that RR has on early and late reading measures. In this study, 30 intermediate-level English language learners studying in an …
The Uncanny Mind: Perpetrator Trauma In Poe’S “The Black Cat”, Bethanie Allyson Sonnefeld
The Uncanny Mind: Perpetrator Trauma In Poe’S “The Black Cat”, Bethanie Allyson Sonnefeld
Theses and Dissertations
Among the psychological interpretations of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat,” trauma theory has yet to make an appearance. However, the confessional nature of the story shifts—via a trauma reading—from an attempt by the narrator to ease his guilt to his attempt to understand what happened to him. The narrator’s murder of his wife traumatized him, causing erasures in the timeline and several forms of dissociation. These erasures and dissociations cause an uncanny effect within the story, which occurs as the past, present, and future are conflated and as the narrator’s mind is both known and hidden. The narrator’s tale …
"I Dare Not Venture A Judgement”: Spirituality And The Postsecular In Hogg’S Confessions, Conor Bruce Hilton
"I Dare Not Venture A Judgement”: Spirituality And The Postsecular In Hogg’S Confessions, Conor Bruce Hilton
Theses and Dissertations
Reading James Hogg’s 1824 novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner through a postsecular lens provides a new framework for spirituality. This framework establishes spirituality as a place of tension and uncertainty between the text’s main ideologies—Enlightenment rationality and religious, specifically Calvinist, fanaticism. The text explores this place of tension through its doubled narrative structure and by demonstrating the crisis of faith that the fictional Editor of the text undergoes. Confessions brings a compelling new paradigm to discussions of the postsecular that allows insight into the complex intersections of Enlightenment rationality and empiricism as well as religious …
Exploring Video Analytics As A Course Assessment Tool For Online Writing Instruction Stakeholders, Jason Michael Godfrey
Exploring Video Analytics As A Course Assessment Tool For Online Writing Instruction Stakeholders, Jason Michael Godfrey
Theses and Dissertations
Online Writing Instruction (OWI) programs, like online learning classes in general, are becoming more popular in post-secondary education. Yet few articles discuss how to tailor course assessment methods to an exclusively online environment. This thesis explores video analytics as a possible course assessment tool for online writing classrooms. Video analytics allow instructors, course designers, and writing program administrators to view how many students are engaging in video-based course materials. Additionally, video analytics can provide information about how active students are in their data-finding methods while they watch. By means of example, this thesis examines video analytics from one semester of …
A Case Study: Incorporating Young Adult Literature Into General Education To Improve Intellectual And Emotional Intelligence, Katherine Ann Irion
A Case Study: Incorporating Young Adult Literature Into General Education To Improve Intellectual And Emotional Intelligence, Katherine Ann Irion
Theses and Dissertations
Institutions of higher learning have required students to take general education courses since such they were conceived and implemented in the 1940s. Requirements vary widely across institutions, but there is a broad consensus that a literature course be required in order to graduate. While these courses feature many types of literature, one literary field is overwhelmingly overlooked: young adult literature. Brigham Young University has recently implemented a young adult literature course that will fulfill a general education requirement. This case study examines the question, "What might be the rationale for including a course in young adult literature as part of …
"What Do The Divils Find To Laugh About" In Melville's The Confidence-Man, Truedson J. Sandberg
"What Do The Divils Find To Laugh About" In Melville's The Confidence-Man, Truedson J. Sandberg
Theses and Dissertations
The failure of identity in The Confidence-Man has confounded readers since its publication. To some critics, Melville's titular character has seemed to leave his readers in a hopelessness without access to confidence, identity, trust, ethical relationality, and, finally, without anything to say. I argue, however, that Melville's text does not leave us without hope. My argument, consequently, is inextricably bound to a reading of Melville's text as deeply engaged with the concepts it inherits from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, an inheritance woefully under-examined by those critics who would leave Melville's text in the mire of hopelessness. In examining …
L. T. Meade's Avaricious Anomaly: Â Madame Sara, British Imperialism, And Greedy Wolves In The Sorceress Of The Strand, Laurie Langlois Denning
L. T. Meade's Avaricious Anomaly: Â Madame Sara, British Imperialism, And Greedy Wolves In The Sorceress Of The Strand, Laurie Langlois Denning
Theses and Dissertations
L. T. Meade's Avaricious Anomaly: Madame Sara, British Imperialism, and Greedy Wolves in The Sorceress of the Strand. Laurie Langlois Denning, Department of English, BYU Master of Arts. Critics interested in the prolific late Victorian author L.T. Meade have primarily focused on her work as an author of girls' stories and novels for young people, which enjoyed fantastic commercial success in her lifetime but fell into obscurity after her death. Recent scholarship on her detective fiction shows Meade's significant contributions to the genre as well as her engagement with social and political discourse. Scholars have noted ways that Meade's popular …
Mark Twain And Eliza R. Snow: The Innocents Abroad, Kathryn Marie Meeks
Mark Twain And Eliza R. Snow: The Innocents Abroad, Kathryn Marie Meeks
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis will examine the surprising and delightful similarities between Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad (1869) and Eliza R. Snow's letters to the Woman's Exponent published in a book titled Correspondence of Palestine Tourists (1875). Snow traveled abroad from 1872-1873, five years after Twain went abroad in 1867 and three years after The Innocents Abroad was published. She clearly states in her early letters that she was reading Twain and his influence is apparent in her letters. A careful look at her letters will also show that they are not merely an imitation of Twain. Snow takes on a Twainian …
New Perspectives On Paul And Marx: William Blake's <">The Chimney Sweeper<"> In <<>I>Songs Of Innocence And Experience<<>/I>, Lianna Jean Manibog
New Perspectives On Paul And Marx: William Blake's <">The Chimney Sweeper<"> In <<>I>Songs Of Innocence And Experience<<>/I>, Lianna Jean Manibog
Theses and Dissertations
New Perspectives on Paul and Marx: William Blakes œThe Chimney Sweeper in Songs of Innocence and ExperienceLianna Jean Rose ManibogDepartment of English, BYUMaster of Arts This article explores the function of religion in socio-political spheres. Karl Marx is famously against religion in all its various capacities, arguing that it is a tool used by power structures to control the masses. William Blake, the British poet, is also seen as critical of religion, and because of this his works are often read through a Marxist lens. And yet depictions of Blake as a staunchly anti-religious man dont seem to fit with …
;Blackwood's ;Responses To Hawthorne In Light Of Its Mid-Nineteenth Century Transatlantic Reputation, Holly Young Boud
;Blackwood's ;Responses To Hawthorne In Light Of Its Mid-Nineteenth Century Transatlantic Reputation, Holly Young Boud
Theses and Dissertations
Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine was arguably the most important and widely published literary magazine of the nineteenth century. Its readership extended from Britain to America, shaping literary tastes across the Anglophone literary marketplace. BEM wrote two reviews of Nathaniel Hawthornes fiction during the authors most prolific years. The first was published in 1847 and contained a lengthy reflection of the state of American literature that prefaced its review of Mosses from an Old Manse. In 1855, BEM reviewed Hawthornes novels. The language of these reviews encouraged BEMs transatlantic readership to interpret Hawthorne in a very particular light: a dark, intense, and …
Rain Of Gold'S Prison Play: Identity Making And Maneuvering, William Henry Guajardo
Rain Of Gold'S Prison Play: Identity Making And Maneuvering, William Henry Guajardo
Theses and Dissertations
Critics mostly dismiss Victor Villasenor's 1991 Rain of Gold—the supposed biography of the author's father who enters the United States during the Prohibition era. Nevertheless, upon closer examination this narrative explores and erodes corroded human categories and racial reductions present in the Southwestern penal system. According to scholars in critical prison studies and critical race theory, the prison functions as a state-sanctioned method for prosecuting criminals and persecuting minority Americans. Juxtaposing Rain of Gold with these two areas of academic research, however, reveals that penitentiaries produce faulty and fallible notions of personhood that are, in part, responsible for the …
Blackwood's To Hawthorne In Light Of Its Mid-Nineteenth Century Transatlantic Reputation, Holly Young Boud
Blackwood's To Hawthorne In Light Of Its Mid-Nineteenth Century Transatlantic Reputation, Holly Young Boud
Theses and Dissertations
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine was arguably the most important and widely published literary magazine of the nineteenth century. Its readership extended from Britain to America, shaping literary tastes across the Anglophone literary marketplace. BEM wrote two reviews of Nathaniel Hawthorne's fiction during the author's most prolific years. The first was published in 1847 and contained a lengthy reflection of the state of American literature that prefaced its review of Mosses from an Old ManseM. In 1855, BEM reviewed Hawthorne's novels. The language of these reviews encouraged BEM's transatlantic readership to interpret Hawthorne in a very particular light: a dark, intense, …
An Annunciation For A Secular Age: The Struggle For Faith In Mary Szybist's Incarnadine, Devin Morgan Theurer
An Annunciation For A Secular Age: The Struggle For Faith In Mary Szybist's Incarnadine, Devin Morgan Theurer
Theses and Dissertations
Mary Szybist's 2013 collection, Incarnadine, uses the Annunciation as a foundational narrative through which to examine the implications of faith and having a relationship with God. Transforming this pivotal Biblical event through metaphor, intertextuality, and different points of view, Szybist showcases what Charles Taylor terms "fragilization" of faith, or the contestable and dubious position of believing among plurality of belief and nonbelief. By repeatedly shifting the framing of the Annunciation, Szybist creates several different visions of who God is. Rather than reinterpreting the Annunciation with a new dictum on exactly who God is and what it means to believe …
Where Have All The Rebels Gone? Ideology And Conformity In Young Adult Dystopian Literature, Meghan I. Rimmasch
Where Have All The Rebels Gone? Ideology And Conformity In Young Adult Dystopian Literature, Meghan I. Rimmasch
Theses and Dissertations
By employing the critical studies of adolescence from Nancy Lesko, Roberta Trites, and Maria Nikolajeva and the study of positive and negative symbols of rebellion examined by Robert Lindner through Leerom Medovoi, I will interrogate the popular notion that female protagonists in dystopian Young Adult Literature (YAL) are strong, self-aware rebels who are positive role models to YA readers. Using the didactic nature of dystopian literature, I will examine how adult authors consciously (or unconsciously) set ideological standards for their YA readers through the female protagonists and how these standards are not as empowering as they initially seem. To address …
Stagnant Supers: Amplifying The Superhero Genre Through Novelistic Maturity, Ariel Elizabeth Hubbard
Stagnant Supers: Amplifying The Superhero Genre Through Novelistic Maturity, Ariel Elizabeth Hubbard
Theses and Dissertations
Few superhero scholars, if any, are discussing physical age or definitions of maturity. It seems Hollywood and consumers are reluctant to associate "adult" content with anything other than pornography, immature language, and excessive violence—a reluctance that should be explored by scholars and critics alike. Most superhero characters only reflect the insecurities of audiences who are currently undergoing the transition between adolescence and young adulthood. There are very few older, middle-aged, or retired superheroes depicted juggling the demands of a family along with their daring rescues. It is possible that superhero films could continue to enjoy longer, lasting success if they …
Meteorological Time In Dorothy Wordsworth's Rydal Journal, Amanda Ann Smith
Meteorological Time In Dorothy Wordsworth's Rydal Journal, Amanda Ann Smith
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis deals with Dorothy Wordsworth's Rydal Journal, a journal written between 1824 and 1835, when Dorothy Wordsworth was between ages 53 and 64. The most interesting entries in the Rydal Journal include descriptions of William's political views, famous callers at Rydal Mount, church sermons Dorothy heard, books she was reading, and her relationships and correspondence with many friends and family members. In terms of structure, Dorothy's journal entries are generally quite similar over the eleven years of these volumes. Perhaps most strikingly, the vast majority begin with a record of the day's weather. Sometimes, she broadly outlines the …
How President Barack Obama Reshaped The Rhetorical Presidency By Slow Jamming The News, Preston Haycock Wittwer
How President Barack Obama Reshaped The Rhetorical Presidency By Slow Jamming The News, Preston Haycock Wittwer
Theses and Dissertations
The rhetorical presidency encompasses all the ways a president communicates and acts. These rhetorical elements of the job are not prescribed in the Constitution and as a result it is the presidents themselves who help shape the cultural understanding of presidentiality, of what it means to be president. When President Barack Obama participated in a œSlow Jam the News comedy sketch on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2012, he took the rhetorical presidency to a place it had never been before. This choice established a new genre of presidential rhetoric that President Obama would rely on throughout his time …
Testing The Test: Expanding The Dialogue On Workplace Writing Assessment, Lindsay Elizabeth Tanner
Testing The Test: Expanding The Dialogue On Workplace Writing Assessment, Lindsay Elizabeth Tanner
Theses and Dissertations
This project is a case study of writing assessment practices in a particular workplace called "High Hits," a local search engine optimization (SEO) company. The writing tests given to new hires serve a parallel purpose to academic placement exams, in that they are a high-stress, high-risk situation that aims to evaluate writer ability rather than the quality of the completed task (Haswell 242, Elbow 83, Moss 110). However, while academic assessment measures ability with the aim to improve the students' learning, workplace assessment is driven by market forces and is seen in terms of return on investment. This case study …
Idioms Or Open Choice? A Corpus Based Analysis, Kaitlyn Alayne Vanwagoner
Idioms Or Open Choice? A Corpus Based Analysis, Kaitlyn Alayne Vanwagoner
Theses and Dissertations
The ambiguous nature of idioms has been a persistent challenge for English language learners and researches alike. Problematic issues include identifying which idioms are most pertinent for study, and the question of how frequently idiom forms found in dictionaries and other canonized resources actually function as idioms in real language use. This study differentiates between idiom forms used idiomatically (idiom-principle) versus literally (open-choice principle), and provides quantitative data to assess this difference. The data was obtained through a corpus analysis of 1,000 randomly-selected idioms in 10,000 randomly-selected contexts (10 contexts per idiom), and revealed that the majority of idiom forms …
"To You I Give Myself, For I Am Yours": Editorial Giving And Taking In Shakespeare's As You Like It, Jennifer Jean Thorup
"To You I Give Myself, For I Am Yours": Editorial Giving And Taking In Shakespeare's As You Like It, Jennifer Jean Thorup
Theses and Dissertations
In As You Like It 5.4.107-08 we receive Rosalind returning as herself”a woman”no longer in the guise of Ganymede, the boy page. Her first lines upon returning are repetitive: To you I give myself, for I am yours [To Duke Senior] / To you I give myself, for I am yours [To Orlando]. However, comparing Folio versions of these lines produces a provocative variant. In the third and fourth folios, these lines are no longer a repetitious patriarchal pledging, but a tender dialogic exchange "much like vows" between Rosalind and Orlando. While none of our modern Shakespeare editions make a …
Accommodation, Decorum, And Disputatio: Matteo Ricci's The True Meaning Of The Lord Of Heaven As A Renaissance Humanist Disputation, Roberto Sebastian Leon
Accommodation, Decorum, And Disputatio: Matteo Ricci's The True Meaning Of The Lord Of Heaven As A Renaissance Humanist Disputation, Roberto Sebastian Leon
Theses and Dissertations
Matteo Ricci's True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (1603) has been studied extensively by scholars of the Jesuit China Mission, especially in terms of accommodation through means of Scholastic and Humanist arguments and translation choices. Few of these studies, however, discuss the genre of this work (disputation), nor consider this genre in relation to Renaissance rhetorical teachings and how this relationship informs Ricci's accommodative strategies. The purpose of this paper is to remedy this gap in early modern Jesuit scholarship. Through a review of the history of accommodations in disputations in the Aristotelian-Scholastic and Ciceronian-Humanist traditions, this paper claims …
Jittery Gauges: Combating The Polarizing Effect Of Political Data Visualizations Through Uncertainty, Bethany Blaire Hardy
Jittery Gauges: Combating The Polarizing Effect Of Political Data Visualizations Through Uncertainty, Bethany Blaire Hardy
Theses and Dissertations
Since the late 1800s, public data visualizations displaying election forecasts and results—such as the red and blue map of the United State—have presented an irreparably divided country. However, on November 8, 2016, the New York Times published a data visualization on their live presidential forecast page that broke over a century of visual expectations, inspiring many to tweet reactions to what popular media has dubbed the "jittery gauges." Not surprisingly, the tweets about this unique and difficult-to-interpret display were mostly negative. This paper argues, though, that the negative feedback indicates that the gauges, while imperfect, represent an important step away …