Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ideas Of Judaism In The Jew Of Malta And The Merchant Of Venice, Matthew Wilson

Development of Western Civilization Student Scholarship

The colloquium marks the culminating semester of the DWC experience. Over four semesters, students have achieved a grounding in major texts of the western tradition, engaged in deep reading and reflection, improved their communication skills, and are ready to make connections with their majors and careers. The colloquium allows them to utilize these skills and make the transition to their future academic work. In light of this, the Development of Western Civilization Program Committee has selected 5 DWC colloquium culminating projects that demonstrate excellence in communication and critical thinking skills. We are grateful to these students for their hard work …

Apocalypse Eternal: "The Road" And "Parable" Series As Pilgrimage, Caleb Gurule

Senior Honors Theses

Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road represent two different views on how humans create meaning in a postapocalyptic world. The authors’ writings utilize the critical dystopia genre, in which the protagonists’ surroundings are bleak but the possibility of redemption remains. As Butler’s Lauren Olamina travels from her burned-down home to a place where she can begin a new community with her religion, Earthseed, as the foundational structure, she brings together a group of diverse and useful people who aid her in her pilgrimage to a better place. The protagonist’s identity as a mentally impaired black …

“It's So Normal, And … Meaningful.” Playing With Narrative, Artifacts, And Cultural Difference In Florence, Dheepa Sundaram, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article considers how player interactions with religious and ethnic markers, create

a globalized game space in the mobile game Florence (2018). Florence is a multiaward-

winning interactive novella game with story-integrated minigames that weave

play experiences into the narrative. The game, in part, explores love, loss, and

rejuvenation as relatable experiences. Simultaneously, the game produces a unique

experience for each player, as they can refract the game narrative through their own

cultural, identitarian lens. The game assumes the shared cultural space of the player,

the player-character (PC), and the non-player-character (NPC) while blurring the

boundaries between each of these …

The Library Of Appalachian Preaching: A Digital Repository Of Sermons, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

This poster was created for the March 2021 Appalachian Studies Association virtual conference. It introduced conference participants to the Library of Appalachian Preaching, a digital humanities project hosted at Marshall University. The Library offers online access to sermons and other addresses delivered within Appalachia, or elsewhere by preachers with ties to the Appalachian region. The poster provides an overview of all of the major elements of the Library. Information presented includes the three “phases” of the project; demographic information about the preachers; examples of the digitized sermons; and examples of biographical sketches and the User Guide, a Google …

Renaissance Drama And ‘Magic Realism’: Mythology And Religion Across Time And Genres, Kellie Delaney

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Renaissance and ‘magic realism’ literature share many characteristics; among these are the prevalence of mythology and religion. It is no new observation to say that contemporary literature has strong and discernible connections to the earlier literature of the Renaissance; scholarship has long seen the parallels between eras that share the collapse of established values and beliefs. The use and treatment of mythology and religion in these respective categories of literature, however, invites a discussion yet to be made in scholarship. An examination of the form and function of mythology and religion in authors of both Renaissance and ‘magic realism’ literature …

What Does It Mean To Be Human?, Natasha Phillips

Publications and Research

This Poster will go in depths of the different elements, that will allow readers to understand from the author’s perspective on the question, what does it mean to be human? Various elements that will be discussed will include the following: wealth, social media, and religion. These three elements alone play a huge role in the lives of individuals all across the world. Furthermore, while discussing these elements, there will be critical concepts that readers will be able to think about based on additional facts being provided about each component. Lastly, the different types of resources that will be discussed in …

Jane Eyre: The Bridge Between Christianity And Folklore, Teagan Lewis

Student Publications

Charlotte Brontё’s acclaimed novel, Jane Eyre, was first marketed as an autobiography. The story, told from the point of view of a poor orphan girl, takes on a narrative similar to that of a fairytale. In this way, a reader may find difficulty in believing this novel to be a work of nonfiction. Charlotte Brontё employs aspects of both Christianity and fantasy in her novel not to discourage her readers from believing its validity but rather to emphasize how even poor orphan girls like Jane have forces of good guiding them. Jane Eyre is fictional, yet the hardships she …

Parallels Of Morality: Wilde And Nietzsche’S Challenge To Social Obligation, Amzie A. Dunekacke

Honors Theses

This thesis explores Irish author Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray in relation to a selection of texts by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. To demonstrate the similarities between Wilde and Nietzsche’s challenges to European morality, this work considers these themes, which are present in the ideologies of both Wilde and Nietzsche: the body and sensual pleasure, social construction, and the hypocrisy of altruism. Both radical thinkers castigate Platonic notions of the body as ignoble and weak, and they mock European propriety’s shyness of the body. In addition, Wilde and Nietzsche offer similar criticisms of social laws, adopting a …

Rendering That Darkness At The Heart Of Priesthood : The Strangled Impulse By William King, Eamon Maher

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Folks Of The Postapocalypse: The Road, Religion, And Folklore Studies, Megan M. Toone

Student Works

Please use abstract submitted to enter conference if possible.

Hell Of A Life, Julia Frantzen

Fall 2014, Storytelling and the Life of Faith

This paper reflects on the work completed for the Storytelling and the Life of Faith Colloquium. It reflects on the author's time in college, time abroad, life, and the course itself. It includes not only introspections on the course readings but also the larger course themes including the use of memory, and universal truths — be there any. It’s about struggle, the internal and the external, it’s an overview of a lot of realizations the author had during her college career. It’s about learning to be ok with the fluctuation called life.

Jesus Lives, But Should He Live In My Front Yard?, Christin N. Taylor

English Faculty Publications

As I drove home from church, I eyed the bright foam sign my 6-year-old daughter held. “Jesus is Alive” it read in kid scrawl. “We’re supposed to put them in our yards!” Noelle beamed, eyeing her creation proudly through pink-rimmed glasses.

I imagined our wide, open yard in Pennsylvania, the green grass stretching without fences from one neighbor to the next. Our best friends in the neighborhood, secular humanists, would easily see it. I cringed. What would they think? [excerpt]

Dostoevsky, Raskolnikov, And Freedom In Crime And Punishment, Ryan P. Fink

Spring 2014, Dostoevsky

An analysis of the character of Raskolnikov in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and his journey towards a truer understanding of freedom. This paper comments on 'freedom' as understood by St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle, and applies this view of freedom to the characters of Raskolnikov, Sonya, Svidrigailov and Porfiry. The paper shows how the Thomistic-Aristotelian view of freedom is prevalent in this work by Dostoevsky.

'Home Is Where The Heart Is' : Arrivals And Departures In John Mcgahern's Short Stories, Eamon Maher

Articles

No abstract provided.

Ruins Of The Abbey Of Fitz-Martin [Supplemental Material], Jennifer Lunde

Gothic Archive Supplemental Materials for Chapbooks

No abstract provided.

Distressed Nun, The [Supplemental Material], Sunil Macwan

Gothic Archive Supplemental Materials for Chapbooks

No abstract provided.

Mysteries Of A London Convent [Supplemental Material], Kimberly Singleton

Gothic Archive Supplemental Materials for Chapbooks

No abstract provided.

Ethelred & Lidania [Supplemental Material], Heather Noble

Gothic Archive Supplemental Materials for Chapbooks

No abstract provided.

Memoirs Of Angelique [Supplemental Material], Sarah Thompson

Gothic Archive Supplemental Materials for Chapbooks

No abstract provided.

The Religious Landscape Of Walter Macken's Fictional Universe, Eamon Maher

Articles

Eamon Maher lectures in the Department of Humanities, Technological University Dublin. He is director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies.

Linguistic Behavior And Religious Activity, Wendy Baker-Smemoe, David Bowie

Faculty Publications

Studies have found that Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah exhibit significant linguistic differences. We break this down further by investigating whether there are also differences between Mormons who actively participate in the religion and those who do not, and find significant differences with a medium or larger effect size between the groups for multiple variables. We conclude that when investigating the linguistic correlates of religious affiliation in a community, it is vital to elicit not just respondents’ religious affiliations, but also their level of participation within that religion.

Deciphering Irish Catholic Identities: Past And Present, Eamon Maher

Articles

This collection of essays, compiled and edited by Oliver Rafferty, is a significant contribution to making sense of the tangled labyrinth that is Irish Catholic identities. The plural is important here, as there are, in fact, multiple Catholic identities, something that is often forgotten in the rush to blandly link “Irish” and “Catholic”.

''They All Seem To Have Inherited The Horrible Ugliness And Sewer Filth Of Sex'' : Catholic Guilt In Selected Works By John Mcgahern (1934-2006), Eamon Maher

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Enchanter's Spell: J.R.R. Tolkien's Mythopoetic Response To Modernism, Adam D. Gorelick

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

J.R.R. Tolkien was not only an author of fantasy but also a philologist who theorized about myth. Theorists have employed various methods of analyzing myth, and this thesis integrates several analyses, including Tolkien’s. I address the roles of doctrine, ritual, cross-cultural patterns, mythic expressions in literature, the literary effect of myth, evolution of language and consciousness, and individual invention over inheritance and diffusion. Beyond Tolkien’s English and Catholic background, I argue for eclectic influence on Tolkien, including resonance with Buddhism.

Tolkien views mythopoeia, literary mythmaking, in terms of sub-creation, human invention in the image of God as creator. Key mythopoetic …

The Marriage Of Science And Religion, Saurabh Kumar '14

2013 Spring Semester

At the end of A Canticle for Leibowitz, written by Walter M. Miller, Jr., the dropping of Lucifer and the resulting repetition of past destruction displays that there is an inherent flaw in the book’s futuristic society. The technological and scientific revival of a world that once repudiated knowledge is remarkable. However, the divergence of science and religion has caused humanity to use the power that comes with knowledge as irresponsibly as it did in the Flame Deluge. Mendelsohn states that, in speculative fiction, “religion is repeatedly depicted as dangerous, diverging humans from the path of reason and …

Wisdom From A Lost Friend To A New Friend, Veronica Murphy

Common Reading Essay Contest Winners

Third Place

The Duality Of Unca's Identity: The Use Of The Idol In Colonial And Religious Subjugation, Cheryl E. Tevlin

Student Publications

The Female American follows the life of Unca Winkfield, the product of a bi-racial marriage in eighteenth-century America. Unca’s hybridity creates tension within the novel as she seems to alternate between a predominantly Christian worldview and a pagan one. Throughout the first part of the novel, Unca displays Christian values, praying after she is abandoned on an island. However, as she spends more time there, she begins to act like a pagan, using an abandoned oracle to communicate with the natives. Most scholars believe that Unca changes her beliefs in order to utilize whichever heritage is most beneficial at the …

Sway Of The Ottoman Empire On English Identity In The Long Eighteenth Century, Emily Kugler

Department of English Faculty Publications

Within popular culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the intermingling of Islamic and English Protestant identity was a recurring topic of debate and anxiety in the English cultural imagination. Examining the shifting representations from Early Modern Era to nineteenth-century concepts of race, nation and empire, Sway presents the eighteenth century as a turning point in public perceptions, the moments when English subjects began to believe British imperial power was a reality rather than an aspiration.

Between God And The Apple: Divinity, Violence And Desire In A.L. Kennedy's 'Original Bliss', Abigail Rine

Faculty Publications - Department of English

This article investigates how female sexuality and desire can be refigured beyond dynamics of fear and subjugation. By offering a close reading of A.L. Kennedy’s novel Original bliss through the theories of He´le`ne Cixous and Luce Irigaray, this work highlights the relationship between violence and Western religious notions of divinity, sexuality and the female body. Kennedy’s novel portrays, in violent detail, that the way in which the religious dimension has been conceptualised and articulated enforces negative views of female sexuality and justifies violence against the body. Rather than merely confronting the religious denigration of feminine sexuality, however, Kennedy’s novel also …

The Dissonant Bible Quotation: Political And Narrative Dissension In Gaskell's Mary Barton, Jon Singleton Ph.D.

English Faculty Research and Publications

Religious language exerted multivalent force in Victorian society, as this case study of Gaskell’s novel Mary Barton, Chartist political protest, and the weaponization of the Bible in contemporary social struggle makes clear. Scholars have established that different classes read the Bible differently; but I demonstrate how Gaskell makes the Bible read in several different ways for the same reader. Gaskell makes Bible quotations dissonant through her use of character and narration, in order to challenge the boundaries of readers’ political sympathies. This study shows how any religious utterance escapes the control and political interests of any class—and how its conflicting …