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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
To Be Everything: Sylvia Plath And The Problem That Has No Name, Alanna P. Mcauliffe
To Be Everything: Sylvia Plath And The Problem That Has No Name, Alanna P. Mcauliffe
Student Theses and Dissertations
This thesis explores, in depth, how the poetry of Sylvia Plath operates as an expression of female discontent in the decade directly preceding the sexual revolution. This analysis incorporates both sociohistorical context and theory introduced in Betty Friedan’s 1963 work The Feminine Mystique. In particular, Plath’s work is put in conversation with Friedan’s notion of the “problem that has no name,” an all-consuming sense of malaise and dissatisfaction that plagued American women in the postwar era. This notion is furthered by close-readings of poems written throughout various stages of Plath’s career (namely “Spinster,” “Two Sisters of Persephone,” “Elm,” “Ariel,” “Daddy,” …
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 …
Dolls Who Speak: Sex Robots, Cyborgs And The Image Of Woman, Victoria E. Pihl Sorensen
Dolls Who Speak: Sex Robots, Cyborgs And The Image Of Woman, Victoria E. Pihl Sorensen
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This thesis examines the emerging phenomenon of sex robots from a feminist materialist perspective. I explore the current scholarly and popular debates on sex robots, and suggest a reading of sex robots in their machinic, literary and cinematic expressions to move beyond the moral-ethical impasse that seems to dominate sex robot discussions. Employing Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Myth” on a methodological and theoretical level, I argue for an interdisciplinary approach to studying sex robots, which proceeds carefully so as to avoid contributing to sex panic, and which thinks critically about what it might mean to assess sex robots from a feminist …
Gender And Spiritual Possession In The Tale Of Genji, Molly Phelps
Gender And Spiritual Possession In The Tale Of Genji, Molly Phelps
Undergraduate Theses
This thesis looks at the relationship between gender and the supernatural in Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. The goal is to show how Lady Rokujo uses spiritual powers to rebel against the sexual hierarchy of Heian Japan while not fully defying its sexism. This is supported by historical background of the Heian period, examples of the mistreatment of women in the novel, and close analysis of instances of Lady Rokujo's supernatural actions. This analysis shows there is a complicated background to the vengeful spirit trope that still haunts the global imagination.
Narrators Of Change: A Contemporary Study Of Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Malala Yousafzai, And Emma Watson, Evan Davis
Narrators Of Change: A Contemporary Study Of Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Malala Yousafzai, And Emma Watson, Evan Davis
Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection
Though they champion different social movements—race discrimination, gender inequality, and girls’ education—Patrisse Cullors, Emma Watson, and Malala Yousafzai are each extremely effective activists. Patrisse Cullors is a self defined Artist, Organizer, and Freedom Fighter, but most importantly Cullors is a theatre artist. Cullors uses her agency as an artist to give theatrical life to issues of race discrimination, creating a virtual reality in which her audience can see and understand issues that are new to them. Malala Yousafzai shares her story because such stories of girls being denied their basic right to education are ubiquitous in third world countries and …
From Amherst To The Other Side: The Integration Of Emily Dickinson Into The Italian Consciousness, Mia Jozwick
From Amherst To The Other Side: The Integration Of Emily Dickinson Into The Italian Consciousness, Mia Jozwick
Dissertations and Theses
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Emily Dickinson’s poetry appeared in Italy in two key forms: anthologized alongside other American authors and in select translations by prominent Italian intellectuals including poet Eugenio Montale and writer Emilio Cecchi. Dickinson was both touted as one of the great American writers, but also kept as somewhat of an underground poet who spoke to a specific literary identity in Italy. The cross-hairs of history brought together increased knowledge of Dickinson’s poetry just as Mussolini and his fascist agenda threatened the influence of literature whether homegrown or international. What materialized was a dynamic in …
Why Katniss Everdeen Is Our Favorite Feminist – An Analysis Of The Heroine Of The Hunger Games Film Saga And Her Reception By Young Female Spectators, Paula Talero Álvarez
Why Katniss Everdeen Is Our Favorite Feminist – An Analysis Of The Heroine Of The Hunger Games Film Saga And Her Reception By Young Female Spectators, Paula Talero Álvarez
Theses and Dissertations
THROUGH THE FIGURE OF FICTIONAL CHARACTER KATNISS EVERDEEN, THIS DISSERTATION STUDIES HOW THE FILM INDUSTRY SIMULTANEOUSLY ENTRENCHES AND DISRUPTS GENDER, SEXUAL, AND RACIAL NORMATIVITIES. THE PROJECT USES TEXTUAL ANALYSIS AND PARTICIPANT RESEARCH TO ANALYZE HOW THE FILMS AND NOVELS OF THE HUNGER GAMES SAGA ENCAPSULATE BOTH DOMINANT AND ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS RELATED TO FEMININITY, MASCULINITY, WOMANHOOD, AND MOTHERHOOD. IT ALSO EXPLORES IF AND HOW THE FEMALE HEROINE CAN BE READ AS FEMINIST AND PRODUCES A SENSE OF EMPOWERMENT. I CONCLUDE THAT ALTHOUGH THE INDUSTRY IS PRODUCING NEW MODELS OF WOMANHOOD THAT CHALLENGE TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES, IT STILL PERPETUATES ROMANTIC IDEALS AND …
Esther Reed's Political Sentiments And Rhetoric During The Revolutionary War, Kennedy Harkins
Esther Reed's Political Sentiments And Rhetoric During The Revolutionary War, Kennedy Harkins
Honors Undergraduate Theses
In 1780, during the final leg of the American Revolutionary War, Esther Reed penned the broadside “Sentiments of an American Woman.” It circulated in Philadelphia, persuading citizens to turn over their last dollars to the cause. Reed’s broadside called to action the women of Philadelphia; they knocked on doors, campaigned with words, and stepped firmly into the “man’s world” of politics and revolution. Reed’s words were so effective that women in cities across the colonies took to raising money as well. Using New Historicist and feminist reading strategies, this study compares and contrasts Reed’s rhetoric to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense …
The Storytellers’ Trauma: A Place To Call Home In Caribbean Literature, Ilari Pass
The Storytellers’ Trauma: A Place To Call Home In Caribbean Literature, Ilari Pass
MA in English Theses
This thesis is an examination gathering of trauma, unhomeliness, and the use of non-traditional narrative structure in Caribbean literature. While literature helps the reader travel inside the skin of the character, the mystery of another human being, Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, and Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker, also help readers to explore the complicated process of identity formation in each work through the lenses of the imperialism, colonialism, racism and sexism that the protagonists experience. A non-traditional narrative structure enables this process of healing from trauma and allows for a new …
Sculpted From Clay, Shaped By Power: Feminine Narrative And Agency In Wonder Woman, Mikala Carpenter
Sculpted From Clay, Shaped By Power: Feminine Narrative And Agency In Wonder Woman, Mikala Carpenter
Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations
By applying deconstructive and feminist theories to the Wonder Woman saga, this thesis develops a potential definition of feminine narrative in contrast to the normative and exclusionary patriarchal narrative that reigns supreme in popular culture and Western ideology. Though much of comics discourse functions on the assumption that superhero narratives are homogenous reflections of this ideological hero narrative, I posit that the Amazonian princess's resilience and iconicity stem from her own narrative's uniquely deconstructive nature: Where the patriarchal story would demand dominance, destruction, and violence, the feminine narrative that Diana models advocates for equality, nurturance, and emotional and rational communication. …