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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
"Just A Fool's Hope": J.R.R. Tolkien's Eucatastrophe As The Paradigm Of Christian Hope, Margaret A. Bush
"Just A Fool's Hope": J.R.R. Tolkien's Eucatastrophe As The Paradigm Of Christian Hope, Margaret A. Bush
Senior Honors Theses
In his essay titled “On Fairy-Stories,” J.R.R. Tolkien uses the term “eucatastrophe” to describe the unexpected, fortunate turn of events for the protagonist in a fantasy story. Tolkien applies the word beyond its literary context to signify the Christian’s experience of joy, especially resulting from the Incarnation and Resurrection. Such an explicit link between fiction and theology seems absent from his more well-known work, The Lord of the Rings. Yet both Tolkien himself and critics of his writing have labeled the novel a modern-day classic of Christian literature. This thesis will defend the Christian label of The Lord of …
"Where Angels Fear To Tread": Tracing The Journey Of The Female Poet In Aurora Leigh, Dorcas Y. Lam
"Where Angels Fear To Tread": Tracing The Journey Of The Female Poet In Aurora Leigh, Dorcas Y. Lam
Senior Honors Theses
Through Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning explores the role of female poets as agents of social change in the Victorian society. During the Victorian period, the role of women was largely confined to the domestic setting. While women were allowed to write, female writers were limited to the realm of novels, which was perceived by the Victorian society to be the less distinguished genre. In writing Aurora Leigh, Barrett Browning challenged this gender stereotype by producing a "novel-poem" that unites the feminine voice with masculine authority and superiority. Like Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, in her fictional role as a …
Post-War Europe: The Waste Land As A Metaphor, Semy Rhee
Post-War Europe: The Waste Land As A Metaphor, Semy Rhee
Senior Honors Theses
This thesis analyzes the mindset of twentieth-century Europe through the perspective of a modern individual that T. S. Eliot creates in his poem The Waste Land. Although The Waste Land is the greatest modernist poem, it is often criticized for its esoteric nature. A thorough examination of the poem is useful in understanding and appreciating Eliot’s masterful demonstration of the modernist philosophy. This study analyzes the poem in light of the definition of modernism and the poem’s metaphorical nature. It also aims to reconcile the two most confusing elements of the poem—its allusive content and fragmented structure—to the design …
A Hierarchy Of Love: Myth In C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, Joseph Walls
A Hierarchy Of Love: Myth In C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, Joseph Walls
Masters Theses
In C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, the transposed creature is drawn up into its "kindly stede" as a sacramental symbol of Christ through that fictional planet's unbroken relationship between meaning and form. Although Perelandra's "wheels-within-wheels" hierarchy may at first seem reminiscent of Catholicism's teachings on symbol, as a Protestant, Lewis believes that human beings cannot be truly sacramental symbols until the return of Christ. Lewis's optimistic depiction of a cosmic hierarchy is one of perfect love: superiors rule their subordinates with agape, and creatures who discover their submissive roles reciprocate with eros or adoring love. Every created being in Perelandra is part …
Orientalism And Three British Dames: De-Essentialization Of The Other In The Work Of Gertrude Bell, Freya Stark, And E.S. Drower, Lynn Sawyer
Masters Theses
Although postcolonial criticism has run its course for thirty years, a fresh look at Edward Said's Orientalism offers insight into how Orientalism functions in the writings of three British dames. Gertrude Bell in The Desert and the Sown, Freya Stark in The Southern Gates of Arabia, and E.S. Drower in The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, however, challenge Said's theory. Their writing raises questions about how gender alters the discourse about the Other, and whether Said essentializes the Occident. Bell, Stark, and Drower serve as case studies in which to analyze the politically and rhetorically complex interactions between the West …
You Sir Are A Fine Young Gentleman. Thank You, My Lady: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Eighteenth Century Conversations Regarding Gentility And Gender, Kati Overbey
Masters Theses
This study rhetorically analyzed the eighteenth century work of Richard Steele and Joseph Addison's The Spectator and Eliza Haywood's The Female Spectator using Kathleen Turner's framework for rhetorical history as social criticism integrating text and context. Ten essays from The Spectator as well as ten essays from The Female Spectator were selected based on content and subject matter regarding manners and gentility. When Turner's framework for analysis was applied to the essays, defining characteristics of gentility were revealed. A presentation of the results of the textual and contextual analysis of these twenty selected essays is provided. An analysis of the …
The Significance Of Silence: The Muted Voices Of Count Fosco And Laura Fairlie In The Woman In White, Melanie Page
The Significance Of Silence: The Muted Voices Of Count Fosco And Laura Fairlie In The Woman In White, Melanie Page
Masters Theses
This thesis examines the intricacies of voice using narrative theory and reader-response theory with Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White. Since Collins first wrote this epistolary novel serially, he wrote aware of his audience as he printed segments with different narrators. This novel allowed Collins the opportunity to reveal an internal set of narrators' responses to other characters' voices--responses that sometimes conflict with and modify one another. At the same time, Collins' contemporary audience's responses to the novel reveal the role of characters' voices in shaping reactions of members of the novel's reading public. Two opposing figures--Laura Fairlie and Count …
An Examination Of Newbery Medal Books From The 1920s Through The 2000s: Biblical Perspective, Kimberly Fleming
An Examination Of Newbery Medal Books From The 1920s Through The 2000s: Biblical Perspective, Kimberly Fleming
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Content analysis was conducted to determine the frequency of the presence of positive Biblical virtues and paired opposite traits across 18 Newbery Medal books from the 1920s through the 2000s because the Newbery Award is a prestigious honor bestowed upon children's literature, and the criteria for selection among books specifically precludes the necessity of good character. The fruit of the spirit listed in Galatians 5:22 served as the rubric by which the characters' thoughts, dialogue, and actions were measured. Consensus data was recorded, and chi-square tests of independence were conducted after three readers examined the presence and frequency of each …