Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Shadowland Of Shakespeare: Christianity And The Carnival, Micah E. Cozzens

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The moral complexity of Shakespeare’s work is created by balancing carnival elements such as subversion of authority, plays within plays, and ascension of thrones, with Christian elements such as repentance, the supernatural, and forgiveness. Far from being didactic or moralizing, Shakespeare’s plays—specifically King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Hamlet—frequently inhabit an ethical shadowland, in which right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right. This intricacy renders even the simplest of his plots an interesting exploration of human consciousness. But Shakespeare never exalts Christianity at the expense of the carnival nor the carnival at the expense of Christianity—rather, …

Dangerous Fictions In Shakespeare's Richard Ii, Terence D. Wride

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In Shakespeare's Richard II, Shakespeare deposes monarchy by exposing the dangerous fictions of The King’s Two Bodies, Carl Schmitt's definition of sovereignty as expounded in Political Theology, and the English tradition of the divine right of kings and royal prerogative. By examining Ernst Kantorowicz's explication of the king's body politic and body natural as found his book The King's Two Bodies, I argue that Shakespeare critiques the popular political theology of his time by exposing the negative political repercussions of an ill-defined body politic. What past scholars have overlooked and failed to do is provide a concrete definition of …

Edgar Allan Poe And Alan Parsons: All That We See Or Seem Is Nevermore, Kimball R. Gardner

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Edgar Allan Poe was one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century, and several critics and experts agree that he was well ahead of his time. As a result, he has had heavy influence on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. One group that he impacted greatly was the progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project. This group recorded an album titled Tales of Mystery and Imagination—an homage to Poe and his works.

This paper investigates two of Poe's poems: "A Dream within a Dream" and "The Raven," and how the song adaptations by the Alan Parsons Project can …

The Need For Shadows: The Death Of The Ego For Virginia Woolf In Night And Day, Jennifer A. Beck Miss

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Following Woolf’s own belief that the human character and condition changed in 1910, Woolf examines in Night and Day the human condition by destroying the identity of Katharine and following her reconstruction of self to evaluate just how far the human character has changed and where this change will lead the modern novelist. Through a Freudian melancholic reading, we identify what Katharine has lost, the ambivalence that shadows cast upon her play in one’s self-discovery, and the death of her ego, which causes her to retreat into her imaginary world. Although Katharine fails to gain a new ego at the …

God And Man, Nicole A. Ratliff

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An analysis of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath in regards to Samuel Johnson's "The Vanity of Human Wishes." The paper's argument is structured as the book progresses. In regards to Samuel Johnson's piece, both pieces of literature progress in the same way- starting off with very vain characters and ending with a change towards a more religious side. This paper tries to expand upon the religious aspects of The Grapes of Wrath, and come up with a theory that defies the socialist aspect.

Harry Potter And The Analysis Of A Hogwarts Education, Kayla M. Nelson

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A Hogwarts education is one that is coveted by many young (and old) people. The idea of a magical school is tantalizing. However, the magic only goes so far. This article exposes the flaws of a Hogwarts education.

Folklore, Stories, And Truth, Rebekah Hartshorn

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An exploration of Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story through the lens of the academic discipline of Folklore. Where is the line between reality and imagination? Stories are true because they influence lives and people interact with them. Many stories believed to be true have origins that are lost to time and their truth is questionable at best. However, when an audience interacts with a story, the story begins to exist within the timeline of the audience members’ lives. The story becomes part of the truths that they live.

Sylvie And Bruno And The Loss Of Innocence, Veronica R. Whelan

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This essay shows the correlation between innocence and guilt in the novel Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll. It looks into the major differences in perception displayed by both adult and child characters within the story, and explores the need for a balance of both an innate innocence and a gained sense of knowledge of the world. The author uses a number of sources ranging from psychological studies on innocence and knowledge to comparisons of knowledge as displayed in other fictional texts.

Animal Farm Corruption, Justin Rich

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This paper details how Animal Farm is not just a literary work comparing a farm of beast to the Soviet Union, but it has a much deeper meaning. It explains how the author, George Orwell, uses the character and the plot line to show how leadership and power corrupt a person. It also discusses how power is more easily obtained than used correctly.

Always The Feminine Fool, Shelby L. Dana

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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.

"Man's Greatness": Steinbeck's Evaluation Of Nature And Nurture In His Epic Novel East Of Eden, Courtney Smith

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In his epic novel East of Eden, John Steinbeck explores the ideas of agency and morality. He presents the idea of timshel, or “thou mayest,” to show that every person makes their own choices. He expands on this idea by evaluating the age-old debate of nature vs. nurture throughout the novel as the characters interact with their “nurtures” or environments and respond based on their natural personalities. Steinbeck shows that our choices are our own, but they are influenced more by our natures than our nurtures. This is seen poignantly in his characters Cathy Ames and Caleb (“Cal”) Trask …

The Goose Girl: The Importance Of Understanding Self-Concept, Elizabeth R. Perkins

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This paper delves into the psychology behind a beloved Grimms Brothers story as retold by Shannon Hale. What makes the story so timeless? The development of the main character as she grows into her own skin and overcomes her thinking errors makes this book attractive for YA audiences who are going through similar issues.

The Lives And Deaths Of Flora Mac-Ivor And Rose Bradwardine: Romance And Reality In Sir Walter Scott's Waverley, Monica D. Allen

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In Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley, Scott presents the problem of romance versus reality. He does this by personifying romance and reality through Flora Mac Ivor and Rose Bradwardine. Flora, with her passion, represents romance. While Rose, a more mellow character, represents reality. Waverley finds that he must choose between them. Rose is a “kindred spirit” to him, while Flora resembles “one of his daydreams.” They embody these ideas through a physical location. Flora’s location is the romantic Scottish Highlands, and Rose’s location is simply her father’s home. Besides location, the figurative deaths of Flora and Rose embody romance and …

The Texting Smile, Richard K. Angel

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There's nothing like dating to turn us into a miserable puddle of falsehood. When we're with the person we like, we fight to play the game and find the right balance of not showing too much interest (so she'll know that you like her) and showing enough (so she doesn't think you don't). It's an art. But when we're only texting, we can behave however we'd like as long as we choose our words carefully; we don't even try to hide our emotions, and the perfect strangers surrounding us see more of our unabashed smile than the object of our …

The Happy Warrior: Wordsworthian Reception And The Georgian Tradition Of Siegfried Sassoon’S War Memoirs And Poems, Shane Peterson

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The following thesis analyzes how the poetry and aesthetic values of William Wordsworth inspired the Georgian poets who served in World War I and influenced the writings of Siegfried Sassoon.

The first section focuses on how Wordsworth became an essential part of the national literary character as a result of the war and how many Edwardian writers used his more nationalistic poems to defend England’s imperial interests and the war effort against Germany. The following section compares the Edwardians to the Georgians, who were essentially neo-romantics that adopted Wordsworth’s poetic style, particularly the Romantic lyric and the pastoral mode. Georgians …

Black Intellectuals: The Transient Space Of Cultural Translation, Marissa Compton

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Among the many similarities between Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman and Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs, the similar storylines surrounding the black intellectual figures is among the most important, because the shared narrative allows each text to engage in a larger conversation concerning the role of intellectuals in the black community. Soyinka and Hansberry initially highlight the in-betweenness of black intellectuals as a seemingly positive mediatory role that allow for cultural translation and negotiation. Despite this initially positive perspective, Soyinka and Hansberry’s exploration of the mediatory role’s advantages is ultimately used to add weight the authors’ dramatization of …

Presence In Absence In Shakespeare's King Lear, Kimberly Austin

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King Lear is imbedded with hidden Christian themes, expressed through characters like Cordelia and the Fool, to show that salvation and redemption can only be obtained in a world with Christ. The audience recognizes the absence of Christian principles in the play and through our desire for Christianity it becomes a present theme.The theory of presence in absence becomes clearer when analyzing Cordelia and the Fool. Their characteristics mimic those of Christ which reminds the audience of his absence in the play. Throughout the play King Lear repeats the theory of “nothing from nothing” and by analyzing this theme through …

Pervasive Parable: Christ And Ligeia, Todd Workman

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No abstract provided.

"Pain, Death, And Nazis: The Surprisingly Beautiful Function Death Plays As Narrator In Markus Zusak's The Book Thief,", Sarah K. Johnson

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Death, pain, illness, and war often feature heavily into the plots of Young Adult fiction, and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is no exception. However, by presenting Death as the narrator of the novel, Zusak allows an outside, impartial view of humanity's pain, its causes, its effects, and its meanings. Through a close reading of The Book Thief this paper discovers that Death as a narrator reveals that pain is both unavoidable and necessary to life. Furthermore, though most everyone fears death, life, not death, causes the true pain. Through Death's haunting narration, pain confers eventual strength, endurance, and power. …

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

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Please use abstract submitted to enter conference if possible.

You Grow This Way: An Analysis Of Mother And Daughter Selves In Anne Sexton’S Poem “Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman, Kennerley Roper

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The maternal speaker in Anne Sexton's poem “Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman” speaks to her maturing daughter about the wonders of the female body by revising the literary tradition that already exists about the female body. What the speaker ultimately conveys to her daughter is the power the body has through the use of parallel body and earth imagery. However, the daughter is distanced from this notion through a contrasting image: the string bean. The speaker uses that distance to show the mixed images of entanglement and separation of mother and daughter in order to expound wisdom to …

The Power Of Speech: Speech-Recognition Software In The Writing Process, Lauren Fine

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No abstract provided.

Is Literature Above Politics? James Joyce As An Author Of “Political Enthusiasm”, Lesli A. Mortensen

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James Joyce's stories "The Dead" and "Eveline" can be considered as "literatures of enthusiasm," a term previously used only to classify political literature in the American Revolution. By showing that Joyce joins in the tradition of writing "literatures of enthusiasm," or works that inspire revolution against colonial power and influence, readers can see how this strategy served to promote a postcolonial literary tradition in Ireland. Joyce sought to inspire the creation of a national identity in the wake of generations of British imperialism, as American authors did during the Revolutionary War. Joyce works towards this goal of inspiring social change …

“Readers’ Disappointed Expectations: Religious Symbols In ‘The Jilting Of Granny Weatherall’”, Rachel I. Gessel

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The short story “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Katherine Anne Porter is the account of a devout Catholic woman on her death bed who dwells on being jilted at the altar sixty years earlier. It is commonly accepted among scholars that the “jilting” in the title also refers to a second jilting at the end of the story. Although it could be debated that the jilting referred to in the title could only refer to Granny’s jilting at the altar, over ten peer-reviewed articles about this short story suggest or acknowledge that the jilting also refers to Christ jilting …

More Than A Feeling: The Transmission Of Affect And Group Identity, Lauren Fine

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This thesis explores the implications that the transmission of affect (when one person’s emotions are transferred through pheromones and visual cues to trigger a similar affective response in someone else) could have on the study of rhetoric, specifically how we understand rhetorical situations involving large groups. According to Kenneth Burke, our identities are made up of the groups we identify ourselves with, which makes our identities largely based on emotionally connecting with other people. When groups are gathered together, particularly in emotionally charged situations, this emotional connection is often triggered by the subconscious transmission of affect. Transmission can lead a …

Feminist And Non-Feminist Views On Milton's Interpretations Of Paradise Lost And Samson Agonistes: Comparing The Female Characters, Eve And Dalila, Carmen Thorley

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After the Bible, the most popular source for the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden would have to be Milton's Paradise Lost. The popularity of this classic epic has brought forth countless interpretations of the story as it was freshly illustrated with the fictional freedom that Milton took. It is likely---and widely believed---that Milton's own views on marriage and women have found their way into his writing, not only with Paradise Lost but with the tragedy Samson Agonistes as well. This paper will point out the effect this lens had on Milton's interpretation of his two …

The Role Of Sympathy In Henry V'S Rhetoric, Kaylee Ficklin

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In Shakespeare's Henry V, Henry is often seen as a manipulative figure who uses his powerful rhetoric in order to accomplish a self-serving political agenda. Arguably, Henry's greatest power is his rhetoric, and critics often cite this as his most manipulative tool-the means though which he accomplishes his own selfish desires. Rather than praising his rhetorical abilities, critics question Henry's motives and point to his rhetoric as the proof of his manipulation. However, "The Role of Sympathy in Henry V's Rhetoric" provides a different view of Henry. I argue that because Adam Smith's concept of sympathy contributes a great deal …

Child Targeted Shakespeare Performances: Making It Worth The While, Kara E. Visconage

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An investigation of what makes a child targeted Shakespeare performance effective in teaching children.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Teacher's Solution To Disinterest And Society's Solution To Anti-Literacy, Leah Anderson

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Shakespeare has made his way from the heart of commonplace Globe attendants, through the minds of scholarly experts and into the adolescent classroom. As an icon in the history of written English literature, Shakespeare has influenced writers for centuries. Now, thousands of ninth grade students study Romeo and Juliet and other plays each year. The universal themes promoted by Shakespeare's myriad of publications as well as his stylistic prowess in make his work a popular part of high school English syllabi. However, arguments about the psychological and academic impact of these plays on today's youth present a contrary argument. This …

The Villain Iago As The Pinnacle Of Badness, Lauren Remington

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Shakespeare's Othello, one of Shakespeare's most popular tragedies, showcases the works and cunning of one well-known and even well-loved villains, Iago. Iago is a chameleon of a character easily capable of manipulating those around him to meet his ends. All the cleverness and cold calculation homaged, he lacks any definitive motive or driving purpose, merely revenge on the seemingly guiltless Othello. This determined denial of a motive and extremity of action reflects well Carl Jung, a well-celebrated personality psychologist, and his theory on personality, specifically the "shadow" archetype. The shadow is an amoral, metaphorical storage center of humankind's propensity to …