Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Reconstructing Visual Narratives: Mary Colter, Fred Kabotie, And The Myth Of The West At Desert View Watchtower, Allison M. Foster

Theses and Dissertations

Desert View Watchtower opened in 1933 on the Grand Canyon South Rim, under the management of the Fred Harvey Company. The structure contains many self-contradictions, in terms of style and use. In this thesis, I argue that these contradictions come from the dichotomous motives of Desert View Watchtower's architect, Mary Colter, and her employers, the Fred Harvey Company and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. New western history theory of the Mythical West is used to explain Harvey/Santa Fe marketing, which created a narrative suggesting that Native American lifeways were going to disappear from the Southwest. I argue that …

"Slaves, Monsters, Or Souls": Theology And Feminism In The Spanish Enlightenment, Rachael Givens

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Ines Joyes y Blake penned this plea in 1798 in a losing battle of Enlightened theology against Enlightenment hypocrisy: "Let the men say what they will, souls are equal!" This author of one of the most notable and radical essays on feminism of the Spanish eighteenth century, entitled simply Apologia, or "Defense," had joined the growing chorus of voices that were appealing to Enlightenment thinkers to apply to the historically neglected half of the population those principles of natural rights and human equality that had reshaped the era's theology and politics. It was only natural that some would seek to …

A Feminist Icon Or A Homicidal Coward: Medea’S Revenge On Patriarchy, Beyza Ertugrul

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Medea, the alleged epitome of sophistication, does not deserve her title of the flawless feminist icon as she is praised to be. For context, Euripides’ Medea, first performed in 431 BC, portrays a young sorceress whose abusive husband abandons her for another woman and who takes revenge by murdering her own children to spite him. Throughout the tragedy, Medea speaks out on gender inequality, and by definition, such uncommon and advanced statements can be described by the modern term of feminism as the “belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” (Merriam-Webster). Especially …

The Performative History Of Tomboys In Anglophone Literature Prior To Little Women, Kimber Palmer

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the expansive history of literary tomboys in the century preceding Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868). Applying concepts from gender performativity theory, it explores earlier and previously overlooked portrayals of tomboys (or, alternatively, "hoydens" or "romps"), especially in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's A Trip to Scarborough (1777), Isaac Bickerstaffe's The Romp; A Comic Opera in Two Acts (1786), Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1817), and E.D.E.N. Southworth's The Hidden Hand (1859). Because the tomboy phenomenon emphasizes that gender roles must be learned and can be resisted, tomboy characters are …

Madwoman On The Screen: Streaming Forms Of Feminine Power, Kassandra I. Schreiber

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores how the formal aspects of streaming platforms create a female inheritance that helps foster multiple representations of femininity and womanhood which empowers women. Building off of Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's Madwoman in the Attic, the paper argues that because streaming platforms produce original content, are a space for multiplicity and interconnection, and act as a type of archive, they can build a female inheritance. The combination of these attributes offer a widespread emergence of multiple stories that valorize women and what is socially coded as feminine, creating a creative network that improves the representation of women …

Return, Leilani Bascom

Theses and Dissertations

Return is a video-based installation which includes sound, performance, and textile elements. Leilani Bascom is the lone actor navigating the water and where the water meets the land in this personal project exploring concepts of the life cycle from birth to death and rebirth. Life's paradox of struggle and release unfolds with imagery of battling through waves to swim deep underwater, fighting a river current and then surrendering to the flow, and carving a hole in the sand to climb into and be held. Viewers are immersed in the movement and sounds of water to witness the power and meaning …

To Put Her In Her Place: An Interrogation Of Death And Gender In Shakespearean Tragedy, Isabella A. Zentner

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

This analysis investigates the gendered implications of Shakespearean heroines' deaths. Using Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and Titus Andronicus as case studies, evidence is drawn from the text. This evidence is then supported by extensive historical research and reference to external critical studies of these tragedies. By identifying the gendered aspects of these heroines’ deaths, one can gain a greater understanding of Shakespeare’s view of female autonomy and power. The deaths Shakespeare inflicts often act as a punishment for the heroines' betrayal of traditional gender roles and forcibly return the heroines to the feminine sphere.

The Intersection Of Fashion And Politics: A Semiotic Analysis Of Vogue Magazine Covers Surrounding Election Seasons, Megan M. Vincent

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the political messages framed within the cover of Vogue magazines by reviewing the published issues that surround election season. By focusing on the intersection of politics and fashion through the visual representation provided by a prestigious, globally known fashion magazine, the research will observe the potential increase and growth of political involvement within influence of the fashion industry. This study will begin with the October, November, and December covers from the 2016 and 2020 presidential election. These will be accompanied by the January, February, and March covers of the following years. Guided by semiotic analysis and visual …

The Female Stigma: Menstruation Attitudes In The Women's Liberation Movement, Kayla Becknuss

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Teaching Premodern Women And Gender, Lucy C. Barnhouse

Quidditas

In her influential History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism, Judith Bennett asked “Who’s afraid of the distant past?” Fifteen years after this book’s publication, the question remains relevant. Teaching the history of women and gender in the premodern world presents linked pedagogical challenges. Most students enter college with little to no background in premodern history. Many find premodern primary sources, when taught with the same pedagogical scaffolding as modern sources, inaccessible due to real or perceived strangeness. These challenges can be compounded by the challenges of teaching women’s and/or gender history. This roundtable addresses strategies for productive …

The Female Experience With Nationalism, Feminism, And Han In Post-Choson Korea, Midori Raymond

BYU Asian Studies Journal

Women constitute roughly half of the population, yet in most patriarchal societies they are placed second to men. Throughout the course of history, there have been several attempts to improve the standing of women within the home and society to match that of their male counterparts. These attempts to achieve gender equality can be categorized as feminism. In South Korea (hereafter Korea), there have been many such attempts. Since the Japanese colonial period, many things have contributed to the rise of modern feminism in Korea; nationalism, speaking out against sexual assault, and the female experience with han can be considered …

Seeking The Feminine Divine: Mormon Women's Religious Authority, Power, And Presence In Rachel Hunt Steenblik's Mother's Milk, Kaitlin Hoelzer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Literary theorists like Hélène Cixous and other French feminists have written about l’écriture feminine, a deconstructive force which allows female writers more freedom from male-dominated areas. Because Christianity has been historically male-dominated, Christian women have long used this idea to great effect, using their writing as a space in which they are free to assert power and authority. Mormonism, which arose in the 1830s during the Second Great Awakening, has grown to reinforce a patriarchal model for both family and church leadership, making Cixous’ separate space of writing necessary for Mormon women of the twenty-first century. The Mormon poet …

Vindicating The Feminism Of Mary Wollstonecraft, Olivia Moskot

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

The Performing Female Body: The National Theatre Frankenstein As Performance Art, Hannah Mahrii Gunson

Theses and Dissertations

The National Theatre's Frankenstein is not the first time Shelley's novel has been adapted for the stage, but it is the first time a stage adaptation has returned the popular story to its source material's feminist themes. Departing from the iterations that portrayed Victor Frankenstein as a Byronic hero, Nick Dear's adaptation has re-designed Frankenstein to be misogynistic and calloused. His new nature is best observed in the scene wherein Frankenstein presents the Woman-Creature he's built for his first Creature. She is naked, silent, submissive, and viciously dismembered at the end of the scene. While such submissiveness might justifiably be …

Francis Gregg And Horror Feminism, Sarah Jensen

Modernist Short Story Project

For centuries, humankind has been fascinated with horror. From the cruel arenas where gladiators fought to the death in Ancient Rome, to todays Halloween blockbusters, there is no short history for a genre that can creep into any particular story, with just a few ingredients. I believe that horror captures attention through the storytelling mode of relatability. Horror asks of its readers and viewers “what would you do?” Horror is inherently scary because it triggers human empathy and fear for the characters. Experiencing a horror movie or listening to a true crime podcast today can be a validating experience as …

Paralysis And Patriarchy: Moult’S “Stucco” And The Burden Of Responsibility, Elena Arana

Modernist Short Story Project

“Stucco” is a story about paralysis. A single man, around 50 years old, lives with and provides for his aging mother and spinster-sister. He is a blue collar factory employee who works six days a week, from dawn until dusk, humoring his family’s gossip around the dinner table each night in return for his weekend escapes to the country. When he finally gets the chance to retire, he pleads with his mother and sister to leave the city and move to the little cottage that he has always dreamed of owning. They refuse. He drops the subject. The end. “Stucco” …

“A Perfect Stranger”: The Domestic Power Struggle In “Samson And Delilah”, Shelby Shipley

Modernist Short Story Project

D.H Lawrence's short story “Samson and Delilah” was first published in vol. 21 no. 100 of The English Review, a modernist magazine that ran from 1908 to 1923 before it was absorbed into The National Review. According to the Modernist Journals Project, the magazine is described as “being more "modernist" than it actually was” however it was still “a major literary journal of the transitional period” (Modernist Journals Project). The English Review’s first editor, Ford Madox Hueffer, played an instrumental role in D.H Lawrence's literary career. In 1909, Impressed with Lawrence's talent, Heuffer published some of his poems in …

Hg Wells’ Anticipations : More “Perishable” Feminism, Kacey Sorenson

Modernist Short Story Project

In researching H.G. Wells’ evolving views on eugenics, race, anti-Semitism, and women, there was a noticeable absence of scholars referring to his last chapter of Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought. Regardless of why it has been overlooked, the aim of this study is to use the last chapter of Anticipations specifically to emphasize and confirm what feminist scholars have extracted as Wells’ view of women: what he proudly owned as feminism was dismissed by his contemporaries as “very perishable” (Kirchwey 308).

“The Price Of An Inspiration” And Feminism, Hana Buhler

Modernist Short Story Project

There is the saying, “Behind every great man is a great woman.” During the Victorian period, this saying could be considered the theme as women were supporting their husbands and children from within the home. Eventually though, women no longer wanted to be behind. Instead they wanted to be more involved with society by being alongside men. The short story “The Price of an Inspiration” by Ellen A. Smith published in The Argosy May 1900 volume demonstrates this eagerness through a woman named Kathleen Hayes alongside her classmate Carl Brenner. The two come to learn throughout the story that as …

Finding Sources For The Red Vienna Sourcebook, Madeline Mcfarland, Dr. Michelle James

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In between the World Wars, German-speaking Europe was split into two major groups: The Weimar Republic, which consisted of current Germany, and the SocialDemocratically run Austria. Due to this SocialDemocratic government, the capital (and eventually time period) was referred to as “Red Vienna.” While the Weimar Republic has many firsthand accounts that have been made available to scholars, teachers and historians, relatively little has been compiled from Red Vienna. Our goal with this project was to discover more sources that dealt with Gender and Feminism in Red Vienna, as well as more female authors to gain a more complete and …

Anti-Feminism In Modernist Literature, Maddie Holbrook

Modernist Short Story Project

After the stifling conventions of the Victorian era, the modernist movement cast a new and surprising light on issues that had previously been ignored or approached only a single way. The rigidity of moral standards was fading, and many authors sought to start conversations about topics that had previously been taboo. Modernism is often credited with progressive attitudes toward issues such as feminism, independence, and homosexuality, but there may not have been as radical a change as there appears. Some modernist works carried the appearance of progressive thinking, but a closer inspection reveals attitudes more similar to their Victorian ancestors. …

Why Can't Zelda Save Herself? How The Damsel In Distress Trope Affects Video Game Players, Jared Capener Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

Research has unearthed an abundance of objectification and hypersexualization of female characters within video games. However, the recurring element of the damsel in distress trope is also harmful to the medium. This cliché of a helpless princess in need of a man to save her is a recurring element of The Legend of Zelda series. This experimental design tested the effects of a prototypical œsave the princess mission on players agreement to sexist statements on gender roles, objectification, and female dependency, and examined the factors of self-efficacy and gamer status as potential mediators. Participants played a modified version of a …

A Partner In Their Suffering: Gustav Klimt's Empowered Figure In Hope Ii, Hannah Elizabeth Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Although much of Gustav Klimt's work is well recognized, his painting Hope II (1907-1908) has received little attention in academic studies. Rejected by his peers on its initial exhibition, this work was found offensive by even his staunchest supporters. Second wave feminists have also been critical of his painting, finding in it an objectification of women. This is likely due in part to the central subject of the piece involving pregnancy. Klimt was unafraid to paint images that shocked and diverged from traditional aesthetic styles. During a time of rapid social change and development of the feminist movement, Klimt offered …

Always The Feminine Fool, Shelby L. Dana

Student Works

Women have often been cast as mentally unstable throughout history. It is assumed that since they are the "weaker sex," they are psychologically inept. However, many times they act irrationally because they are filling a role in which society has already placed them, not because they are insane. Author Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates this in her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, as readers can watch narrator go insane after being told time after time that she already is. Some people are born mad, some achieve madness, but women have madness thrust upon them.

The Weight Of “Glory”: Emily Dickinson, George Eliot, And Women’S Issues In Middlemarch, Megan Armknecht

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

No abstract provided.

Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings, Camille S. Williams

BYU Studies Quarterly

Joanna Brooks, Rachel Hunt Steenblik, and Hannah Wheelwright, eds. Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Dispossessing Femininity In Byatt's Possession, Jenna Miller

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

A.S. Byatt’s best-selling 1990 novel Possession follows the character of Roland Michell, an intelligent but struggling academic who has devoted his life and studies to the brilliant Victorian author, Randolph Ash. Roland joins forces with Maud bailey, an expert on a similarly talented but under-recognized Victorian author Christabel LaMotte, in order to better study the relationships between LaMotte, Ash, and Ash’s wife, Ellen. Roland’s and Maud’s literary studies develop along with their relationship, but the more the two of them learn about the relationship between Ash and Christabel, the more they discover that the truth about their Victorian counterparts is …

"We Know How To Keep House And We Know How To Keep A City": Contextualizing Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon's Feminism, Jennifer L. Duqué

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

“I can’t bear a mannish woman or a mannish man either,” Martha Hughes Cannon declared a few days after she was elected the first female state senator in the United States. “All the best men I know are ladylike and all the best women I know are gentlemanly.” Throughout her life, Cannon pulled seemingly subversive stunts framed within a milieu of social support that demystifies, or at least partially elucidates, her frequent departure from normative female behavior. However, the purpose of this paper is not to join the voices of scholars arguing that nineteenth-century Mormon culture was one of radical …

The Challenge Of Happily Ever After: How Once Upon A Time Fanfic Fairy Tales Model Strategies For Ordinary Life Challenges, Christa M. Baxter

Theses and Dissertations

Although many feminist fairy-tale scholars have theorized how the tales shape the lives of their readers, few have explicitly examined what readers themselves have to say about how fairy tales impacted their choices and expectation. This article turns to fanfiction written by fans of ABC's Once Upon a Time television series to discover how these fans challenge or reify fairy-tale expectations, particularly in terms of gender. After outlining the brief history of fairy-tale reception studies concerned with gender, the article then turns to a close reading of three OUAT fanfiction retellings of Beauty and the Beast that show the couple …

Great With Child: Pregnancy Narratives By Mormon Women, Angela Ashurst-Mcgee

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I completed an honors thesis entitled “Great with Child: Pregnancy Narratives by Mormon Women.” Richard Duerden of the English Department advised the thesis. Neal Kramer, William Wilson, and Doris Dant also gave feedback and assistance. I interviewed eight women and transcribed and edited seven interviews, which totaled more than 100 pages. As an introduction to the narratives, I wrote a 25-page theoretical study entitled, “Mormonism, Feminism, and Pregnancy.”