Arts and Humanities Commons^™

"Widsith Came To Talk": Preservation Of The Scop Within Old English Poetry, India M. Johnson-Mccauley

Honors College Theses

This thesis discusses the role of the Old English scop in the context of the transition from orality to written works in Old English society. Scops, the storytellers, historians, and moral authorities within Old English society, utilized oral-formulaic composition to share the Germanic poetic tradition with the largely illiterate population. When Christian missionaries arrived in England and introduced the written language of Latin, the necessity of the scop gradually dissipated; many stories were written down in Latin and the authority on moral and historical teachings fell to the church. Orality continued in many regards, but the occupation of the scop …

"Why Do You Keep Alone?:" Isolated Women In The Plays Of Shakespeare, Alexus Litchfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The works of William Shakespeare have been well explored, but there is a lack of criticism that examines how the depiction of women is shaped by the genre of the play. Linda Bamber is one of the few critics who have explored this connection between gender and genre. However, while she focuses on the plays’ psychological dynamics, I examine the social dynamics between characters in my study of gender and genre. I suggest that, in both tragedy and comedy, isolation is a strong marker of unhappiness for Shakespeare’s female characters. Examining three tragedies, I find that Lady Macbeth, Goneril, Regan, …

The Tragedy Of Caspian: C. S. Lewis And His Trauma, Chandler Hanton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reconsiders C.S.Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia as a type of scriptotherapy that enabled Lewis to process and come to terms with a life full of serious and significant traumatic events. Trauma theory offers a vehicle for us to consider the alignments and connections between Lewis himself and his fictional creation, Caspian. In the specifics of both characterization and incident, Lewis mirrors the events and relationships that instilled and healed the trauma in his own life. In situating Caspian as his alter-ego, Lewis allowed his writing to function as a gender-specific therapeutic process for addressing the effects of his …

Maladaptive Grief: Irish And American Experiences Of Loss, Mourning, And Trauma, Abby Hey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Literature that responds to loss and expresses mourning, a genre referred to as the elegy, traditionally follows an adaptive pattern in which a mourner reaches consolation and comfort. In the modern period, however, mourning transformed into destructive experiences that were notably private. With this phenomenon of greater social and emotional isolation, writers like Sylvia Plath, Samuel Beckett, and Elizabeth Bishop expressed rumination and irresolution. In contrast, before the twentieth century, elegies were not only more consolatory, but there was a greater emphasis on shared feeling, and this communal type of mourning is more often adaptive. By grieving together in the …

Images Of Ancient Egypt And The Gender Politics Of The Faerie Queene, Genavieve Alt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis argues that Edmund Spenser uses radically different representations of Ancient Egypt to explore complex ideas about gender roles in the Faerie Queene. Book III emphasizes the negative view of Egypt perpetuated through the Book of Exodus and Greek understanding of the mythological king Busiris. Book V emphasizes the positive view of Egypt through the many benevolent myths surrounding the goddess Isis. Spenser uses images of good and evil Egypt to discuss the abolition of normative gender roles.

The introductory section will introduce the mythology surrounding Isis followed by a discussion of the literature referenced throughout. The first …

Southern Chapter Of The American Conference For Irish Studies Records, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection consists of records of the Southern Chapter of the American Conference for Irish Studies. Materials include correspondence, meeting programs and minutes, reports, and membership lists. Much of the material concerns the annual meeting and other activities of the organization from 1989 to 2014.

Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog.

"A Crack In The Ice": Attachment And Insanity In Pink Floyd's The Wall, Margaret E. Geddy

Honors College Theses

Pink Floyd’s concept album The Wall follows a musician named Pink from adolescence to adulthood as he struggles to maintain his sanity while searching for a genuine connection "on the thin ice of modern life." This paper analyzes several aspects of the album to trace the character’s break with reality and what he comes to realize, such as all of the lyrics, the track-listing and the side each song appears on, and any non-musical background noise. Through the lens of Attachment Theory, a type of developmental psychology, the inevitability of Pink’s descent into madness is shown, as is how his …

Sacred And Profane Loves: The Renaissance Influence In C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, Kevin Corr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

C.S. Lewis’ last novel, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold, has often been regarded as his greatest work, but just as often as his most enigmatic work. The purpose of this thesis is to unveil much of the novel’s mystery by considering the impact Renaissance literature had in shaping the novel, most notably Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene. Although it is well-known that Lewis was Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge, current scholarship on Lewis has overlooked the Renaissance influence in the author’s work, which particularly plays a vital role in Till We Have Faces. …

Shakespeare's "Honest And Vertuous" Ensigns: Transgressing The Military/Domestic Divide In The Henriad And Othello, Matthew R. Wentz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how the military service of the ensign disrupts and ultimately obliterates domestic life in Shakespeare’s Henriad and Othello. The rank of the ensign held expectations of honesty and honor, yet Shakespeare portrays his only two ensign characters, Ancient Pistol and Iago, as ironically failing to adhere to these standards. The received view of Pistol that results from his portrayal in 2 Henry IV as a stock braggadocio is challenged by a sympathetic reading of his character, especially in Henry V. Although Pistol occasionally behaves with honor in Henry V, his military service results in …

Contributors

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Somebody’S Saints March In, Nathalie F. Anderson

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Christy Mahon Comes To Athens, Tennessee: The Playboy Of The Western World In Appalachia, C. Austin Hill

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

'The Breath Of Hope And Tomorrow’: An Examination Of John Stephens's Farewell The Fair Country, Charlotte J. Headrick

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

North And South: Photographic Mediation In The Work Of Seamus Heaney And Natasha Trethewey, Amanda Sperry, Jill Goad

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Young Ireland And Southern Nationalism, Bryan Mcgovern

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Irish Frontier Catholicism In The Antebellum Us South, Joe Regan

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Bishop John England And Episcopal Collegiality, Brian J. Cudahy

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Editor’S Introduction: “The Irish In The South.”, David T. Gleeson

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Contents

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Jane Austen's Heroines--And Some Others, Neda H. Jeny

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

Jane Austen’s Heroines--and Some Others

Jane Austen is the earliest English novelist whose novels are still widely read today; in fact, they are becoming more popular all the time.

Of course, there are good reasons for this popularity. Apart from Austen’s creation of unforgettable characters, and her exquisite irony and sense of humor, there is one other thing I’d like to discuss today: her heroines could be called, in a sense, brilliant (and often unorthodox) adaptations of universally recognized types. For example, Elizabeth Bennet is so remarkable a character because she is, at the same time, a sort of Cinderella …

Not (Just) Donne: Alchemical Transmutation As Immortality In Shakespeare’S Sonnets, Brandi L. Moody

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shakespeare, in his sonnets, employs alchemical references in the sonnets that ultimately fail, in order to show how fruitless it is to pursue immortality. The poet urges the fair friend, who himself is like the self-consuming ouroboros, to father a child that will continue his legacy and allow the fair friend to live on via the child. Language associated with the child is alchemical, referencing distillation, vials, flasks, and the renewing power of the philosopher’s stone. The dark lady, the opposite of the fair friend in every way, can be explained as fulfilling alchemy’s union of opposites needed for a …

Functional Violence In Martin Mcdonagh's The Lieutenant Of Inishmore And The Pillowman, Lindsay Shalom

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While Martin McDonagh’s plays have engendered laughter, disgust, and fear, he might be best known as part of a long line of Irish playwrights who faced controversy due to their art. Much like Synge, Shaw, and O’Casey, McDonagh has faced criticism and even outrage due to the violence and misunderstood portrayals of the Irish in his plays. Though the violence in plays like The Pillowman and The Lieutenant of Inishmore has been labeled gratuitous, we might better understand the purpose of that violence by examining them in light of Michel Foucault’s concepts of knowledge and power. Foucault’s approaches best highlight …

The Best Laid Plans Of Librarians And Faculty: Information Literacy Instruction In A General Education Literature Course, Difficulties And Successes, Kelly Diamond, Lisa Weihman

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Members of this panel (a librarian and faculty member) began collaborating to create information literacy sessions for English 272: Modernist Literature. Assuming that students enrolled would be English majors or similar, we created sessions and assignments focused on higher-order research skills, such as working with and analyzing primary sources.

However, this section of English 272 fulfilled a General Education Curriculum (GEC) requirement. At our institution, students take 43 credit hours to fulfill GEC requirements, courses from a broad range of disciplines. Unfortunately, many students enroll in GEC courses for which they are under-prepared, have no personal interest, and are not …

Contributors, John Countryman, Rand Brandes

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

The Rain Stick Revisited, Rand Brandes

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

In A Country Churchyard, Aidan Rooney

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Goodbye, Seamus, Shannon Hipp

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Hardly "A Cold Heaven": Recalling Seamus Heaney, Brendan Corcoran

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Across A Crowded Room, Adrian Rice

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.

Wake Up, Adrian Rice

Irish Studies South

No abstract provided.