Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Writing An Existential Novel: An Environmental And Philosophical Exploration, Julia Whinston

Honors College

Halfway Through the Wood is a creative project guided by the question, does nature have intrinsic ethical, philosophical, and/or spiritual value, or do we project it there? As a subsidiary question, is our relationship with nature akin to our relationship with ourselves? The novel begins with a “man versus nature” conflict, exploring human relationships to land, then moves on to a conversation about self, which ultimately leads to an incredulous/existential discourse about interconnectedness. The novel explores the implications of experiencing grief alongside natural systems, and concludes that enmeshing oneself within a natural system is vital for discovering meaning after experiencing …

A Glimpse Of Whimsy: Short Children's Stories, Emma Hutchinson

Honors College

No abstract provided.

The Backs Of Leaves, Shelby L. Colburn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a novella that explores themes of emotional abuse, grief, toxic masculinity, sexuality, and gay violence. The author deploys a frame narrative that encompasses short stories that are tied by a narrator in the novella. The narrator’s stories create a continuity between “real,” realistic, and surrealist fictions. These explorations of fiction create a conversation between the frame narrator’s “real” life and that of her stories. As the novella’s plot progresses, the frame narrator’s sanity deteriorates, which allows her to become increasingly grotesque. The grotesque situates how macabre the frame plot is, creating a connective tissue between the “real” …

Illiteracy As Immanent: The (Re)Writing Of Rhetoric's Nature, Michael Kennedy

Honors College

Literacy is often thought of as a skill-set, that is, an ability to read and write in the dominant language of one’s socio-historical milieu. Illiteracy, on the other hand, is often thought of as a lack – an absence of a necessary skill-set that influences how well one can work and communicate (via reading and writing) within their dominant language and their society. In other words, illiteracy seems to have been defined by its relationship to the definition of literacy, that is, as a “negative-literacy” or a “not-literacy” that creates a lacuna of meaning when attempting to define illiteracy as …

Spring 2017 New Writing Series, The University Of Maine College Of Liberal Arts And Sciences

Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series

Please see Program description

The New Writing Series, Fall 2015, University Of Maine Honors College

Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series

The New Writing Series brings innovative and adventurous contemporary writing to the University of Maine's flagship campus in Orono on selected thursdays at 4:30 pm.

The New Writing Series, Spring 2016, The University Of Maine Honors College

Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series

In its thirty-fourth consecutive semester of programming, the New Writing Series will host six readings featuring four poets (John Keene, Prageeta Sharma, Divya Victor, and John Yau) and two fiction writers (Emily Fridlund and Joanna Walsh).

These writers are all highly active across the full spectrum of literary activity. They are editors, publishers, and anthologists; translators and tale-tellers; art-makers and trail-blazing scholars.

The New Writing Series brings innovative and adventurous contemporary writing to the University of Maine's flagship campus in Orono on selected Thursdays at 4:30pm.

Teaching Literature In America: Demonstrating Relevance In The Early Cold War 1945-1963, Jennifer Chalmers

Honors College

This historical research focuses on how literature was taught in American high schools in the early Cold War period (1945-1963) and why it was taught that way. It aims to discover how the Cold War culture of conformity impacted secondary literature education. What were literature teachers’ concerns? What was the historical context of these concerns, and how did they affect methods in the classroom and rhetoric in academic journals? Finally, how did methodology and rhetoric change over time? Research involved gaining familiarity with Early Cold War culture, politics, and events through secondary sources; narrowing to U.S. education in the early …

Dice Hearts And Other Islands, Bailey O'Brien

Honors College

This collection of fiction, cumulatively Dice Hearts and Other Islands, explores both the isolation of islands and the connections that can be made between them. While these islands can be the physical landmasses of the sea, in this collection islands also refer to the isolated selves of the characters. Inspired by Elizabeth Strout’s narrative style in her novel Olive Kitteridge, the short stories in this collection similarly unveil the two main characters through stories bridged with connections. The latter half of this collection, a play and a monologue, are influenced by the playwright John Cariani. As are the …

Refractions, Linwood R. Lancaster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project allowed me to pursue one of nly greatest joys, expressing my feelings, emotions, and thoughts through the written word. As we march towards a world dominated by technology, there are those that think the day of the storyteller has passed. Television, movies, and electronic games have become the vehicle for amusement in the world today, supposedly leaving no room left for the lowly storyteller. However, these entities are stories told but in a different medium. The ideas that drive these devices still have to come from someone, an author. Even video games now are intertwined with the storyteller, …

The Language Of Man And The Language Of God In George Herbert's Religious Poetry, Polya Tocheva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to Burckhardt, the Reformation was an escape from discipline. The Reformation changed both the cultural and the religious reality of early modern Europe. Reformation theology and the new Renaissance understanding of self and of individuality required a radically new language in which to address God and at the same time demand a response. Medieval rhetoric of praise could no longer sustain the versatility of the Renaissance reader and could not provide the medium of searching for that response. The poetry of the metaphysical poets, Herbert in particular, bridges Christian discourse, rhetorical strategies, moral expression, radical dissention. Herbert was an …

The Little Mohea, Harvey Gurney

Maine Song and Story Sampler

"The Little Mohea," also known by many other names and spellings, is an old song that likely developed from an older English broadside song known as "The Indian Lass." Most folklorists agree that "Mohea" probably developed in its American form among sailors, and some even point to whaling ships specifically.

Evolution Of Maine Place Names, Edwin H. Churchill

Maine History

The article provides great detail about the Native American, English and French names of Maine places as well as information about the movement of the various groups and its impact on place names.

Canaday-I-O, Robert French

Maine Song and Story Sampler

The major recurring theme in these folksongs from Maine and Maritime Canada is the flow of cultural products and people within the area of New Hampshire, Maine, and eastern Canada. But while this cultural and demographic exchange helped define the region, it did not mean there was no rivalry or animosity between states, provinces, or nations.